I don't disagree and in the context of hard power your argument makes enough sense.In Spanish controlled land in North America, Catholicism influence was strong. But French claimed lands, it was pretty weak. And the British colonies were primarily Protestant.
The power I am talking about is hard power. Political power which the church had throughout the medieval world. That power is not limited to how powerful the pope is politically, but how much direct political authority it had. The Protestant reformation took that power away in Scandinavia, Britain, Switzerland, Northern Germany, and the Netherlands. Absolutism had Catholic monarchs claw some of that power away from the church. The enlightenment had people start questioning the current power structure of absolutism and the role of the church within government. In Catholic countries, the soft power of the church could be considered not to have diminished if any Protestants were forced to leave (revocation of tolerance and forced expulsion of Protestants in France, suppression of Protestantism and deportation of Protestants in Hapsburg lands).
Though I would say that catholicism did have a much stronger influence in new france than people give it credit for. Though it definitely became much more connected to the francophone societies of the new world after the british took over the now Canadian parts of new france, which does happen to be during the EU5 time frame even though we don't think about the late game that much.
I would say then that catholicism had more influence but maybe not power in the EU4 era.
Again I think this is a lot of interpretation leg work of what matters in terms of power for a religion. I put less stock int he power of a religion to crown kings and emperors or send armies off to distant lands to to control specific land or to even choose their high level priests in various lands compared to their power through sheer number of believers and influence on the cultures and beliefs of those believers.
- 1
- 1