THE VICTORY OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN, NOVEMBER 8, 1620. THE CAUSE OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE S.C. OF PROPAGANDA FIDE, JANUARY 6, 1622

Abstract

The foundation of the S.c. of Propaganda Fide (1622) is intertwined between the events of the Thirty Years' War (1618- 1648); a consequence of the Catholic victory at the White Mountain (1620); its first and urgente goal: to “re-catholize” the conquered heretical territory, not by force of arms (EmpireSpain), nor with judicial uproar (C.s. inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis, Holy Office), but with the soave forza dello Spirito. Propaganda Fide manifested the strenghth of the Tridentine Ecclesia triumphans. Propaganda Fide would go first to the heretici, homemade, then to the scismatici, neighbours, and finally to the ethnici, far away, of “every language, tribe and nation”; three missionary territories very unequal and different from each other; chimerical geography, Rome being locked in the Mediterranean. The cause and the reason for the founding of Propaganda (conversion of the heretici) will tax their apostolic action and the formation of missionary canon law.