Update Twenty Two

III: Religious Warfare

i: Introduction

Following the lack of compromise at Trent tensions increased. The horrors of the earlier war between Rome and Protestants had caused a lull in the fighting lasting almost fifty years. The Peace of Augsburg had stopped fighting all over the continent for a time. But still the religious differences caused issues, and in France bloody wars of religions continued to be fought shortly after the Peace . By the dawn of the seventeenth century the peace of Augsburg was unraveling amidst all this tension as neither side would comply with the Peace. Violence would finally break out in 1606 when Lutherans stopping a Catholic procession in Germany started a riot. This was but a prelude for a war lasting thirty years, encompassing all of Europe, and costing the lives of more than ten million people. The religious wars had begun.

ii: The Thirty Year War

Starting in the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, the Thirty Year War was initiated by warring factions trying to reassert control in the war torn region. The touching off point after the many breakings of the Peace of Augsburg was the conversion of Cologne’s Prince-Archbishop to Calvinism, turning the tide of the electors to favor the Protestants. Spain went to war with Cologne to keep it Catholic and to keep the Hapsburgs on the throne. During this time Lutheranism was being broken up by the influx of Calvinism, an unrecognized religion in the eyes of the Peace of Augsburg and one which might give Catholics the right to invade. The final move that ignited war was the death of Emperor and King Mathias with no heir. He left all his holdings to the Hapsburg Ferdinand II, soon to be Emperor Ferdinand. Thanks to the Spanish Cologne War Ferdinand rose to the throne as Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia. Educated by the Jesuits, Ferdinand was a staunch supporter of Rome and sought to reclaim its place of authority over all Christians. To solidify Bohemia and to establish Roman rule there Ferdinand sent his emissaries there to the people of Bohemia. Due to the general dislike of Ferdinand, and the people’s fear of losing their right to practice Protestantism, the people tossed his two emissaries out of a second story window into a pile of manure, starting the Thirty Year War. Due to intricate alliances, unions, and family connections, the war in Bohemia quickly spread throughout all of Germany. With the help of Spanish armies the Emperor was able to achieve victory in Bohemia by 1620, defeating Prince Fredrick and ending the two hundred year old religious freedom of the Hussites. This part of the war ended with the Emperor and the Prince of Transylvania signing a treaty in which the Prince gained some lands in the east to stop his fighting. Prince Fredrick, living in exile, attempted to come back but the Protestants were crushed utterly in 1625. The hopes of the Protestants were ended until the following year when The Danes intervened, spreading the war out of Germany and into other states. Switzerland would soon join the fray, followed by the French. At this time every nation on the continent was involved in the war. By the ending phases, many Catholics had turned on one another for political reasons and the wars degenerated as the purpose was lost. Roving armies of mercenaries were devastating the land, burning everything down, destroying thousands of cities, and massacring hundreds of thousands of peasants. Thirty years this raged on, reducing the population by some fifteen to twenty percent. In some nations the population was reduced a full third, some having loss more than half of their men. The Spanish and the Imperial Armies were allied against the Danish, the German, the French, and the Swedish Armies. Finally the Swedes were able to break the back of the imperial forces while in 1643 the French finally defeated the Spanish Armies, bringing about the Peace of Westphalia. Yet mores wars were sparked from this and peace would not be known again until the early eighteenth century, just in time for Napoleon.

iii: England’s Revolution

In England, separated from the issues of the Continent, wars still would come and go. In all more than a hundred thousand people would lose their lives, nothing compared to the Thirty Year War. Tensions began in the mid-1500s as the protestant Church was born in England only to be quickly pushed back by the Queen Mary. When Elizabeth ascended to the Throne she brought back Protestantism but left if broken in two. Within the Church of England there were two camps, the high church and the low church camps. The high church camp wanted to hold closer to Rome and Roman forms, some even seeking reunion with Rome. The low church was thoroughly protestant and Calvinist, seeking a complete break from Rome even in forms and symbols. Such separation would boil for nearly a hundred years before political causes gave it an out. This came in the form of King Charles. Supported by the high church advocates, Charles married a Catholic princess and wanted to become involved in the Thirty Years War for the side of the Catholics. His final push was when he moved for a remake of the Book of Prayer in high church fashion. In response to this, in 1637, the Scottish, strongly low church Calvinist, rebelled from Charles. Further, Charles refused to call a parliament, angering low church people who wished to limit royal rule. Civil war broke out and over the course of three wars, by 1649, Charles was executed and Oliver Cromwell came to lead the now parliamentary government. The wars, spawned by religious conflict cost nearly two hundred thousand lives, even reducing the population of Ireland by 41%. All these gains would be turned over in the Restoration ten years later. Finally, nearing the middle of the eighteenth century, religious wars among Christians had settled down. But let us not forget that the remnants of these battles exist to this day, most notable in Ireland where religious war is hardly ended.