But then again, if I were god watching the religious wars that occupied europe for several years, I may be dismayed and I might consider the fact, the no church is representing me. During the religious wars, the protestants and catholics were killing each other. That sounds like an apostacy to me.
But that is only my opinion of course.
Between 1560 and 1715, Europe witnessed only thirty years of international peace. The greatest “international” conflict of the period was the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), a war that had its origins in the complicated religious and political environment of the period. In 1555, the Peace of Augsburg brought an end to religious wars in Central Europe by dividing the numerous German states between Catholic and Lutheran authority. Although each prince had the right to determine the religion of his subjects, it happened that Lutheranism continued to spread into catholic-held lands. The spread of Calvinism, not recognized at Augsburg, also increased tensions. By 1609, the Holy Roman Empire had fragmented into two hostile alliances – the Protestant Union and the Catholic League.
The Thirty Years’ War began in Bohemia, an area in which Germans and Czechs, and Lutherans, Calvinists and Catholics lived in relative peace. The peace was shattered when Ferdinand II (1578-1637) became the king of Bohemia in 1617. Ferdinand was a zealous Catholic and the Bohemian Protestants feared he would recatholicize Bohemia. In May 1618, the imperial governors were thrown from the windows of Prague Castle. Ferdinand was deposed and the crown was offered to Frederick V (1596-1632, also known as the Winter King) of the Palatinate. This act extended the war from Bohemia to the Holy Roman Empire itself. The Protestant Union under Frederick now faced the Catholic League behind Ferdinand, who was now emperor. The Bohemian phase of the Thirty Years’ War ended at the battle of the White Mountain in November 1620. With Bohemia in ruins, Ferdinand used the Jesuits to recatholicize the territory. The Czech nobility lost everything, the economy lay in ruins and half the population had been killed by war or plague.
The Battle of the White Mountain and the ultimate collapse of Bohemian Protestantism was a clear victory for Catholicism. With the Spanish Hapsburgs intervening in the Protestant states of north Germany and numerous Catholic League victories, Protestantism faced a grave challenge. The king of Demark joined the Protestants in 1625 but he was more interested in territory and within a year his forces had been repelled by the military brilliance of Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583-1634), and his army of over 100,000 mercenaries. Although Wallenstein tried to build a military power capable of wiping out Protestantism, it soon became clear that his goals were of a more personal nature. Religion seemed to take a back seat as the Thirty Years’ War became a war between warring states. In 1629, Denmark withdrew from the war leaving Wallenstein and his army in charge. Ferdinand issued the Edict of Restitution that restored to Catholics all land confiscated by the Protestants since 1552.
In 1630, the “Lion of the North,” Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) entered the war in order to protect Sweden’s interests in the Baltic which Wallenstein had threatened. His greater aim was a federation of German Protestant states under his authority. Although Wallenstein’s armies sacked the city of Magdeburg (May 1631), Gustavus won a crucial victory several months later at Breitenfeld in Saxony and marched to the Rhine. Meanwhile, Wallenstein was recalled by Ferdinand at the request of the Catholic League. Gustavus defeated Wallenstein at Lützen but was killed in the battle. Without the leadership of Gustavus, Sweden could no longer maintain its presence in Germany.
It was at this time that France entered the war. Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) had been following the events of the Thirty Years’ War for some time. Aiming to crush the Austrian and Spanish Hapsburgs, Richelieu accepted any allies regardless of their religion. In 1635, he declared war on Spain and formed an alliance with Sweden and Germany. The war was waged for another thirteen years but it was not until 1643 at the battle of Rocroi in the Netherlands that the Spanish Hapsburgs were finally defeated by France and its allies.
Now this is just an excerpt from the site below. But if I were god, I would not be happy.
historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture6c.html
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