Spying After the Bible 1 - AD 70 to ~ AD 1800

Post-Biblical Church Spying History (1)

From c. AD 115 to c. 117 the Jews revolted again in Mesopotamia, Cyprus, Egypt, and Greece in what is known as the Kitos War. The third Jewish revolt was between c. 132 and c. 135 and is known as the Bar Kokhba revolt.

In AD 313 Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan, instituting religious freedom for Christians. He then called for the Council of Niceae in 325 to help define what Christianity is, and was baptized later. Roughly five years later, the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empires split. On February 27, 380, Theodosius I made Christianity the Roman Empire’s state religion. The Western Roman Empire would then fall about 150 years later. The Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches was in 1054.

Egypt and the Promised Land remained a part of the Byzantine Empire until c. 636, when the Muslim Arabs invaded and took control of Palestine and Egypt. They ruled Palestine solely until c. 1099, when the crusades started, which lasted through the thirteenth century, but kept firm control of Egypt during that time. The Egyptian Mamluk Sultans then conquered Palestine and ruled until 1517, at which time the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt, including Palestine.  In AD 1805, Muhammad Ali Pasha took control of Egypt away from the Ottoman Empire.
Just previous to that, In AD 1513, the Italian, Machiavelli, wrote his famous book, “The Prince” detailing the skills and tools necessary to rule, including espionage tactics. Just four years later, the same year Palestine was conquered, Martin Luther published his 95 thesis and began the reformation.

Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church in 1532 to divorce Queen Catherine. He then became the head of the Church of England in 1535. Elizabeth became queen in 1559. There was also Counterreformation, that was a push-back to all this. In 1551, Cardinal Miguel Ghislieri became the Commissary General of the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, starting what would become the Roman Inquisition. They began building a spy network to look for heretics. In 1566, Pope Pius V founded the Vatican’s intelligence agency, named the “Holy Alliance” with the goal of fighting Protestantism as represented by Elizabeth I of England. Named it the holy alliance because a main goal was to provide service to queen Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots) Arranged the formation of the “Holy League” in 1571, which was an alliance of Catholic states and shared intelligence to break the Ottoman Turk’s control of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, of which they were successful. It was disbanded shortly after his death.

Around 1800 Napoleon was in power and was known for his use of espionage and deception. The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801 in Paris. Both governments and spy networks supported each other.