This is not the first time that a French King and a Pope chose to persecute a group.
King Philip “the Fair” and Pope Clement V did something similar in France beginning on Friday October 13, 1307. There are those who still remember those outrages.
How long would it have taken and what would the outcome have been to colonize the U.S. had it not been for religious persecution in Europe?
Are those stains the reason our founders cautioned against any involvement (tangling alliances) with Europe?
Is that still good advice?
King Philip “the Fair” and Pope Clement V did something similar in France beginning on Friday October 13, 1307. There are those who still remember those outrages.
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HUH ???????
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209–1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French and promptly took on a political flavour, resulting in not only a significant reduction in the number of practicing Cathars but also a realignment of Occitania, bringing it into the sphere of the French crown and diminishing the distinct regional culture and high level of Aragonese influence. When Innocent III's diplomatic attempts to roll back Catharism[1] met with little success and after the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau was murdered (allegedly by an agent serving the Cathar count of Toulouse), Innocent III declared a crusade against Languedoc, offering the lands of the schismatics to any French nobleman willing to take up arms. The violence led to France's acquisition of lands with closer cultural and linguistic ties to Catalonia (see Occitan). An estimated 200,000 to 1,000,000 people were massacred during the crusade.[2][3]
Source: Ouiquipedie , L’encyclopédie libre
No wonder France is such a perennial mess. They killed or drove out all the independent-minded people.
The pope did not persecute the Templars. The papacy eventually exhonerated the knights when the truth came out. Unfortunately by that time the order was disbanded and a number of knights had been executed. Read Frale’s book. She’s the one who uncovered the evidence.
It doesn’t matter how long it would have taken to colonize the Americas. It was happening no matter who came here, and we would know the difference because we couldn’t compare it to an “other” version.
Also, if the Protestant Revolution had never happened, Washington would never have had to warn anyone about entanglements with Europe. And Washington would have probably been an unknown English guy. Read Turtledove and make it up on your own.