Seperation of Church and State?

[breathesgelatin]

Originally posted by KSig RC
How 'furtherest' back do we need to go? Hammurabi? That wasn't exactly judeo-christian as I would picture it.

This has me LOL!!!

You know what people??

I know a bit about the "furtherest" development of the laws. And indeed, much of what was European common law up until...oh... the Reformation maybe was based on

A) Roman Law (particularly Justinian's Code) (SECULAR)
B) Germanic tribal law (PAGAN!)

so yeah.

The Roman Catholic Church had its own entirely separate court system.

Then, in the Reformation you do indeed find muncipal courts trying people for religious infractions (think Northern European witch trials, Salem witch trials etc....)

But when you get back to the Enlightenment (which is what a great deal of the concepts in the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, etc.) are based on, you find that separating religion from the government was what thinkers wanted. Many of the founders of the United States weren't even Christians in the traditional sense--they were Deists really.

Look at the French Revolution, where we see the ideals of the American Revolution carried much further. What do we see? They got rid of the Church's privileges, set up a new religious system based around "The Supreme Being", etc.

This is why history is important!

I haven't even taken a course on Western Legal Development (although one is offered at W&L and I assume at most self-respecting universities) and I know this...