Henry IV becomes a Catholic so as to secure Paris and the throne of France

The Edict of Nantes secures the civil rights of France's Protestants, the Huguenots

James I commissions the Authorized version of the Bible, which is completed by forty-seven scholars in seven years

The Gunpowder Plot, attempting murder and treason, severely damages the Catholic cause in Britain

A shipload of Puritans, among them some of the future Pilgrim Fathers, sail from Boston in Lincolnshire to seek religious freedom in Holland

The establishment of a Baptist church in London is a defining moment for the Baptist sect within Christianity

An edict is passed expelling Jesuit missionaries from Japan, and ordering their converts to revert to Buddhism

The Protestant Frederick V (elector palatine of the Rhine) is elected king by the rebellious Bohemian nobles

Rhode Island is founded by Roger Williams as a colony based on the principle of religious tolerance

Charles I and his archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, attempt to impose the full Anglican hierarchy on presbyterian Scotland

A National Covenant, first signed in an Edinburgh churchyard, commits the Covenanters to oppose Charles I's reforms of the Church of Scotland

Riots erupt in Edinburgh, in response to the attempt by Charles I and Laud to impose a hierarchy of Anglican bishops

James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh, calculates that creation began on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC

Nikon becomes patriarch of all Russia and introduces reforms which cause the Old Believers to form a breakaway sect

John Bunyan joins a Nonconformist church in Bedford and becomes one of their preachers

George Fox begins preaching in England, in a movement which develops into the Society of Friends - or Quakers

John Bunyan is convicted of unlicensed preaching and spends the next eleven years in Bedford Gaol

The Cavalier Parliament begins to pass a series of acts, known as the Clarendon Code, containing punitive measures against Presbyterians

The Act of Uniformity demands that Anglican clergy accept all the Thirty-Nine Articles, costing many their livings

The Conventicle Act restricts worship in England to Anglican churches if more than a few people are present

The Five Mile Act prevents Nonconformist ministers in England from coming closer than five miles to any town where they have ministered

The Jesuits establish a mission at Sault Sainte Marie which becomes the starting point for French exploration south of the Great Lakes

Charles II issues a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending the restrictions on Catholics and Nonconformists

Parliament in England passes a Test Act excluding Catholics and Nonconformists from public office

The Popish Plot, an invented Jesuit conspiracy to kill Charles II, results in the execution of about thirty-five Roman Catholics