In 1489 the Catholic Church felt, and was, hemmed into a corner of the world. The view from Rome was of Africa and Asia long lost to heretical churches or to Islam, and Europe divided between Catholicism and Orthodoxy (itself seen as heretical), while Ottoman power advanced relentlessly up the Balkans. By 1689 the shattering impact of the Reformation had left much of Northern Europe committed to new versions of Christianity…