Abstract

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the discovery of new world frontiers and the concomitant dissolution of Christian unity in Europe played an equal role in bringing to the forefront the question of the «state of religion» within European Christianity as well as outside it. In Europe, Johannes Sleidan wrote his great historical work "Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae", dedicated to recounting the rise and spread of Luther's Reformation. On the other hand, Edwin Sandys compared the different European strands of Christian faith in a work that he supplemented with chapters from Fra Paolo Sarpi. Catholic historiographers like Giovanni Pietro Maffei and Botero took a more global perspective in their works.