Early Modern Religion Peace Agreements: Their Effects on the Ideological Development of Europe

A comparison is made between the Europe of 1400 and the Europe of today. How do we explain the way from then to now? Some interpreters argue that it has been a transformation from a Christian to a secular/secularized Europe. The argument presented here is that this is a premodern theory. Ideological developments in Europe in the last 500 years have not created a secularized continent, but a colorful one. And precisely this colorization (you can call it also pluralization) has its roots in the early modern Peace Agreements.