Historical Origin of the Concept
The concept of "Secularism" is perceived to be a lofty ideal in most democratic nations. However, the evolution of the term has a long history of violence and bloodshed, particularly in Europe where it was conceived.
The etymological origin of the "Secular" or "Secularism" can be traced to the birth of Christianity. After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, Christianity was spread through his disciples. Despite persecution during the early days, Christianity survived in pockets across Europe. Eventually in the 3rd Century AD, Emperor Constantine I adopted it as the religion of the Roman Empire.
Main Tenet of Christianity
A fundamental dogma of Christianity is that humans are born in sin, which dates back to the days of mythical Adam and Eve, the couple guilty of committing the “original sin”. The merciful God Almighty sent his only son, Jesus Christ to earth to save humanity. So Lord Jesus redeemed humans by dying for their sins on the cross; he then rose from the dead and joined his Father up in heaven. However, Christianity professes that only baptized Christians can benefit from Jesus’ sacrifice; and, non-Christians will be consigned to eternal hell on Judgment Day.
While Christianity recognizes an afterlife in heaven, the abode and Kingdom of God, it does not believe in rebirth. That Christian tenet inherently implies the existence of two worlds - a physical, temporal world and an incorporeal, spiritual world. This belief was accepted during the Middle Age prior to the Italian Renaissance in the 14th Century, since the Church and state were intertwined. Heresy was punished under harsh laws of brutal and barbaric torture and death.
The Middle Age
For centuries, many monarchs believed they had a divinely ordained right to rule their kingdoms. At times, they even exercised control over the churches within the boundaries of their respective kingdoms. On the flip side was the Catholic doctrine that the Pope, as the Vicar of Christ on earth, should have the ultimate authority over the Church, and indirectly over kings and their kingdoms. Besides, throughout the Middle Age, the Pope claimed and exercised the right to depose Catholic kings of Western Europe, sometimes successfully, other times not.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, many popes challenged the authority of European monarchies to name or invest bishops of cities and abbots of monasteries. The conflict ended when Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II signed the Concordat of Worms in 1122, which demarcated royal and spiritual powers. The outcome, vesting monarchs with limited authority in ecclesiastical matters, was a victory for Roman pontiff and his claim that he was God's chief representative in the world.
Later, in early 14th century, Pope Boniface VIII attempted to bring both temporal and spiritual powers under the pope’s jurisdiction. In his Bull of 1302, Unam Sanctum, he stated that since the Church is necessary for salvation, it is absolutely necessary for even rulers to subject themselves to the papacy.
Many European rulers resented the autocratic papal attempt to infringe on “temporal” affairs of the state. So they denounced the move and declared Boniface VIII a heretic. The Pope retaliated by excommunicating the King of France. This infuriated king joined hands with other European rulers and the coalition army launched an attack on Boniface VIII and demanded his resignation. Despite release from captivity after three days, Boniface VIII reportedly committed suicide by bashing his skull against a wall. He was found to have "gnawed through his own arm".
The Protestant Reformation
In the early 16th Century, some priests like Martin Luther challenged the authority of the Pope. Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses was the fountainhead of the Protestant Reformation. He was an exponent of the Two-Kingdoms Doctrine― to be precise though, he termed it Two-Governments. This doctrine enunciated that the church should not exercise worldly government, and princes should not rule the church or have anything to do with the salvation of souls. Thus, the modern conception of separation of church and state was born.
The attempt of Luther and other priests was to rid the Roman Catholic Church of certain false doctrines, systemic corruption and ecclesiastic malpractices. Protests against papal corruption began in Germany and soon spread to other parts of Europe, eventually culminating in a series of religious wars in Continental Europe between Roman Catholic House of Habsburg and Protestant princes. The Thirty Years’ War ended when the Peace of Westphalia treaties were signed.
The main tenets of the peace treaties were that: (a) each prince would have the right to determine the religious denomination of his own state, the options being Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism; and, (b) Christians, living in principalities where their ecclesiastical denomination was not the established, were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at will.
The treaties effectively ended the papacy’s pan-European political power. European sovereigns, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored Pope Innocent X’s protests and diktat against the Peace of Westphalia. Thus, the first step towards segregation of religion and state was taken in the continent.
The English Reformation began in the late 1520s, when Pope Clement VII’s refused to annul the marriage between King Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon. Infuriated by the Catholic Church’s decision, the King declared himself as the ruler of the new Church of England. The monarchs of England and Great Britain have retained ecclesiastical authority in the Church of England since.
After King Henry VIII usurped ecclesiastical power, strict penal laws were enacted in England against Catholics and other dissenters who did not owe allegiance to the Church of England. To escape the persecution, many dissenters sailed voluntarily to the American Colonies in the hope of religious freedom. Later the Constitution of United States was specifically amended to make it secular by banning the establishment of religion by Congress.
The Age of Enlightenment
The idea that reason, and not blind belief in a ‘revealed truth’, should guide society, began to take root in the 17th Century. The concept of secularism is often credited to the writings of English philosopher John Locke, who argued that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience, as this was something rational people could not cede to the government for it or others to control.
Enlightenment writers, including Voltaire, often stressed anti-clericalism and attacked the Catholic Church. The idea gained support from the anti-church violence during the French Revolution. This led to the process of separation of Church from state. Such separation is called secularism. The George Jacob Holyoake was the first to coin the term “secularism” in 1851.
Concluding Remarks
As can be seen, a lot of violence and bloodshed has preceded the birth of the concept of "Secularism" in Europe. The 'invention' of the tenet was necessary because of conflicting claims in Europe over the right to rule the subjects of the state.
Today, most western democracies are ‘secular’, that is, the Church cannot push its agenda through state power. The long and short of it is that secularism implies the exclusion of religion in the running of government.
Yet ironically, many western democracies still grant Christianity preferential treatment. For example, the German Constitution guarantees that the Christian philosophy is taught in government schools.
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