I searched the PDF for "religion." It appeared 201 times. In 311, Maxentius decided to prepare an invasion to overthrow Constantine so that he could rule his half of the empire alone. It stated that: Religious tensions remained strong throughout the second half of the 16th century. One account reveals an incident where an Anabaptist was hacked to death with seven blows of a rusty sword in the presence of his wife, who died at the horror of the sight. This "Spanish Fury" was used by William to reinforce his arguments to ally all the Netherlands' Provinces with him. In response, the Lutheran princes who had set up Protestant churches in their own realms met in the town of Schmalkalden in December 1530. They stole the jewels and costly robes of the religious. However, little attention was being given to western Sudan, where years of tension and distrust were coming to a head between the government and the ethnic Darfuri people. This paper is based upon his A History of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim Perspectives on War and Peace, vol. From that point on, this gesture became virtually standard procedure for anyone who pledged themselves for the crusades, and they became known as crucesignati, or signed with the cross. Over the next 490 years, hundreds of thousands of men and even women embarked on hazardous military campaigns in the name of God and under the direction of the pope, with their shields marked with the sign of the cross (Hindley). The Huguenot army was under the command of Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Cond, and aided by forces from south-eastern France and a contingent of Protestant militias from Germanyincluding 14,000 mercenary reiters led by the Calvinist Duke of Zweibrcken. The Protestant Reformation flourished in Europe in the sixteenth century, dividing the land between Catholics and many types of Protestant faiths, including Calvinists, Lutherans, and Anglicans. [32] Huge damage was done to monasteries, churches and other religious institutions. Over the last few years I have noticed a relatively common online tactic in refuting the argument that religion is the cause of most wars or violence is to cite Charles Phillips and Alan AxelrodEncyclopedia of Wars, a monumental three volume encyclopedia of ancient, medieval, and modern wars published in 2005. Thutmose III is known as the builder of the Egyptian Empire. Farnese's attackers tunneled an extensive network of passages in order to enter the city beneath its walled defenses. Even in religious wars, religion is often a cover for ethnic, social, economic, or other power struggles, In comparison, Atheist leaders (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Lenin, etc.) The King knew that he had to take Paris if he stood any chance of ruling all of France, and this was no easy task. The prospect of taking over rich church properties and monastic lands had led nobles in many parts of Europe to support a princely Reformation. This was evident from the Cologne War (158283), a conflict initiated when the prince-archbishop of the city converted to Calvinism. Under Charles reign, the Low Countries were subjected to the papal form of the Inquisition where laws were rarely enforced. A Scottish army, assembled under the command of David Leslie, tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell defeated them at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September. Her secretary, William Maitland of Lethington, defected to the Protestant side, bringing his administrative skills. The staggering royal debt and Charles IX's desire to seek a peaceful solution[40][full citation needed] led to the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (8 August 1570), which once more allowed some concessions to the Huguenots. Further north, the city of Maastricht was besieged on 12 March 1579. Charles soon needed to raise more money to suppress this Irish Rebellion. Then the Israelite priests blew the rams horns, making a great noise, and the Israelites began to shout. they could often simultaneously be characterised as wars of succession), and financial interests. [39][full citation needed]. Henry of Anjou was crowned King Henry III of France in 1575, at Reims, but hostilitiesthe Fifth Warhad already flared up again. Following the restoration of Catholicism under Queen Mary I of England in 1553, there was a brief unsuccessful Protestant rising in the south-east of England. A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their eyes. Obviously, there would be many additional conflicts where religion is just one of several divisions. The Netherlands and Switzerland were confirmed independent. "[3], In the late 20th century, revisionist historians including William M. Lamont argued religion was a primary driver behind the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, while John Morrill (1993) claimed it "was not the first European revolution[but] the last of the Wars of Religion. The Battle of Ivry, fought on 14 March 1590, was another victory for the king, and Henry's forces went on to lay siege to Paris, but the siege was broken by Spanish support. I hope it was a lot! In 1559, Philip appointed Margaret of Parma as governess. The rejection of Ferdinand as Crown Prince by the mostly Hussite Bohemia triggered the Thirty Years' War in 1618, when his representatives were defenestrated in Prague. Christianity and violence - Wikipedia Christianity and violence A battle scene from the First Crusade. This is a list of events that have caused a measurable drop in the total human population. On his deathbed, Henry III called for Henry of Navarre and begged him, in the name of Statecraft, to become a Catholic, citing the brutal warfare that would ensue if he refused. A group called the "Beggars" grew in strength and proceeded to raise a sizable army. Despite the fact that he was outnumbered, Constantines forces overwhelmed Maxentius army at the only escape route, the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber River. The leadership of the Catholic League had devolved to the Duke de Mayenne, who was appointed Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. The capital city of Beirut was to be the shining jewel in that crown. This article is of a series on Criticism of religion By religion By religious figure By text Religious violence Bibliographies On the morning of September 11, 2011, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, perhaps the worlds most famous skyscrapers and a symbol of American prestige and world dominance, were attacked by Muslim terrorists of the al-Qaeda network, who hijacked four jetliners and successfully crashed two of them into the towers. At the Battle of Milvian Bridge in A.D. 312, the said bridge was so crowded with his retreating soldiers that Maxentius tried swimming away in he river and drowned, making Constantine, who would be the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, the sole ruler of the Roman EmpireConstantine had a number of Christians in his army and he apparently told his biographer Eusebius of Caesarea that if he won, he himself would convert to Christianity. Because of their revolutionary political ideas, radical reformers like Thomas Mntzer were compelled to leave the Lutheran cities of North Germany in the early 1520s. However various Protestant elements rejected the Interim, and the Second Schmalkaldic War broke out in 1552, which would last until 1555.[19]. [3] The wars were largely ended by the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which established a new political order that is now known as Westphalian sovereignty. On 30 June, the Protestants occupied Edinburgh, though they were only able to hold it for a month. Germany lost population and territory, and was henceforth further divided into hundreds of largely impotent semi-independent states. One Protestant historian wrote: On more than one occasion men were seen hanging their own brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy rank. His father, Alva, threatened to disown him if he stopped the siege, so the barbarities intensified. In 1625, as part of the Thirty Years' War, Christian IV, who was also the Duke of Holstein, agreed to help the Lutheran rulers of neighbouring Lower Saxony against the forces of the Holy Roman Empire by intervening militarily. With Protestant reinforcements arriving from neighbouring counties, the queen regent retreated to Dunbar. Initially a religious war between Catholics and Protestants, it became a general European political war. [32] Another 400,000 Germans, British, and other nationalities died in Swedish service.[32]. Judah defeated these troops at Mizpah so decisively that Jerusalem fell into his hands without resistance. At this point in history the Low Countries were a loosely associated cluster of provinces. The SPLA (Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army) were scoring major victories and could no longer be ignored by the United Nations or United States, which initiated Operation Lifeline Sudan, bringing much needed food, supplies, and emergency relief to the areas affected by the war (Hackett). In response to the threat, Cromwell left some of his lieutenants in Ireland to continue the suppression of the Irish Royalists and returned to England. The Guises then proposed a settlement with a cipher as heir and demanded a meeting of the Estates-General, which was to be held in Blois. Save for the pledge made to the prostitute Rahab and her family, who had protected Joshua and his spies, the Israelites utterly destroyed all that with within the city by the edge of the sword (ibid). The Peace of Westphalia ended the old, religious order of the Holy Roman Empire and gave birth to the modern international order based on sovereign states. The Toggenburg War in 1712 was a conflict between Catholic and Protestant cantons. This made Sudan a Muslim country and made all Sudanese subject to Sharia law. He sent soldiers and overseers into every Judean village to make sure Greek law was being followed and forced the Jews to worship the Greek gods. Groningen, Breda, Campen, Antwerp, and Brussels, among others, were put to siege. The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. The return of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Scotland in 1560, led to further tension between her and the Protestant Lords of the Congregation. The aim was to capture the sacred places in the Holy Land from the Muslims who lived there, so it was . The religious element was a decisive factor in the development of hostilities despite the fact that the Dutch people at the time were overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. As a result, I worried I was miscounting and wanted to be as precise as possible, but my efforts still resulted in only 121 entries listed under religious wars. Wondering about the discrepancy, I traced the 123 figure back to the science fiction author and social commentator Theodore Beale, more commonly known as Vox Day, who seems to have been the first to make this argument based on his analysis of the Encyclopedia of Wars (see page 105 of his 2008 book The Irrational Atheist). The political temperature of the surrounding lands was rising, as religious unrest grew in the Netherlands. Black Hawk War (1865-1872) Queen Elizabeth of England began to aid the Northern provinces and actually sent troops there in 1585. In: Bartlett, Thomas, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, Reformation in DenmarkNorway and Holstein, Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms Montrose's defeat and death, Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms Third Civil War, "De geschiedenis der Waldenzen. Hosted by Natalie Kitroeff. At the Battle of Jarnac (16 March 1569), the Prince de Cond was killed, forcing Admiral de Coligny to take command of the Protestant forces. From there, orders were given for a complete massacre of the Huguenots in the provinces. See: "Encyclopedia of Wars," by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod. Claiming to be the successor of David, John of Leiden was installed as king. The remaining provinces became the Spanish Netherlands and in the 19th century became Belgium. [2][4] The Peace of Westphalia broadly resolved the conflicts by recognising three separate Christian traditions in the Holy Roman Empire: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. The attackers then turned to Slavatas secretary Philipp Fabricius and also threw him out the window. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. Fabricius and Martinitz were able to make their way back to tell Emperor Ferdinand of what had happened (Wilson). Mattathias son Judah and his band stood against the Greeks in the mountains. At the end of the 13th century, the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt, led by a young general named Saladin, united the Arabs, defeated the Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin, retook Jerusalem, and toppled the coastal town of Acre. By A.L. 8.2 Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The war in Afghanistan became, for a time, the most obvious manifestation of the U.S.-led "war on terrorism.". In Denmark, this increased royal revenues by 300%. The war marked a continuation of the France-Habsburg rivalry for pre-eminence in Europe, which led later to direct war between France and Spain. The war had proved disastrous for the German-speaking parts of the Holy Roman Empire. The New Model Army advanced towards Perth, which allowed Charles, at the head of the Scottish army, to move south into England. The situation on the ground in 1589 was that King Henry IV of France, as Navarre had become, held the south and west, and the Catholic League the north and east. The Sonderbund War of 1847 was also based on religion: the liberal-Protestant anti-clerical cantons led by Zrich and Bern sought to reduce the influence of Catholic monasteries, against which the conservative ultramontanist Catholic cantons of Central Switzerland formed the Sonderbund.[30]. It was also important in that it signified a Christian, general, and permanent peace. From then on, a modern international order would be based on sovereign states interacting as equals within a common, secular, legal framework. He legalized polygamy and took sixteen wives, one of whom he personally beheaded in the marketplace. The Committee of Sixteen took complete control of the government and welcomed the Duke of Guise to Paris. The Imperial power retreated to Austria and the Habsburg lands. This played a major part in the rejection of his teachings by many German peasants, particularly in the south. Mary escaped from Loch Leven the following year, and once again managed to raise a small army. After several unsuccessful attempts, William was assassinated in 1584 and died penniless. Religion has been the cause of 7% of all wars, accounting for 2% of the deaths caused by war. The duke approached the barn with two of his men, intending on telling them they were in violation of the law, but the Huguenots inside fired shots at him, pelted him with stones, and drew blood. Sam Harris, Charles Kimball, etc). Mary's marriage to a leading Catholic precipitated Mary's half-brother, the Earl of Moray, to join with other Protestant Lords in open rebellion. They trampled consecrated hosts, butchered men and violated women. During the ensuing lull, Protestants brought their worship into the open. One band of marauders even styled themselves as "Werewolves". What Were The Wars Of Religion? The reformation continued to be imposed on an often unwilling population with the aid of stern laws that made it treason, punishable by death, to oppose the King's actions with respect to religion. Their captives were often given a choice between Calvinism and death. The conflict took place mostly in southern, western and central areas of modern Germany but also affected areas in neighboring modern Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands (for example, the 1535 Anabaptist riot in Amsterdam[20]). Mary of Guise gathered those nobles loyal to her and a small French army. It seemed like in 2005 there would be a real breakthrough toward lasting peace in Sudan. Keeping that definition in mind, here is some of the interesting history behind 10 of these holy wars, from ancient times to our current day. Not to be taken lightly was the imposition of taxes on the businesses and people of the Low Countries. To the fundamentalist al-Qaeda network and its religious leader, Osama bin Laden, America was the great Satan, whose modern culture, materialism, and secular morality were creating terrible consequences for traditional Islamic society and religion (ibid). After numerous minor incidents and provocations from both sides, a Catholic priest was executed in the Thurgau in May 1528, and the Protestant pastor J. Keyser was burned at the stake in Schwyz in 1529. Even the Catholics now joined with Protestants as Philip stated that he would rather sacrifice a hundred thousand lives than change his policy. Henry was faced with the task of rebuilding a shattered and impoverished Kingdom and reuniting France under a single authority. The term became synonymous with the Roman Catholic Churchs efforts to free Jerusalem from Muslim control, at first, but then expanded throughout Central and Eastern Europe and ended with the fall of the Spanish Armada against Protestant forces led by Queen Elizabeth I in 1588 (Hindley). Conflicts immediately connected with the Reformation: Conflicts after the death of Martin Luther: German princes could choose the religion (Lutheranism or Catholicism) of their realms according to their conscience. For all intents, Hattin was the end. Despite international intervention, the situation in Sudan is far from stable today. In the territory of Brandenburg, the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two thirds of the population died. Some events may belong in more than one category. It was U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle, who was one of three U.S. military observers in Darfur who witnessed the atrocities, who handed over the only photographic evidence of the genocide being committed there to New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof, who published the stories and photos in his column in the paper (ibid). He lost every battle and the Eighty Years' War was underway (15681648).[33]. The southern troops rebelled, though, launching attacks along the north/south border and dragging the entire region back into bloody war. The joint Royalist and Confederate forces under the Duke of Ormonde attempted to eliminate the Parliamentary army holding Dublin, but their opponents routed them at the Battle of Rathmines (2 August 1649). They didnt understand why this group would single out their country for such an attack. The latter formed the League of Evangelical Union in 1608. [1][8][9][10] In 1517, Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses took only two months to spread throughout Europe with the help of the printing press, overwhelming the abilities of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the papacy to contain it. The noise grew in intensity as stones and bricks began to dislodge from the walls upper portions. The period of the French Wars of Religion effectively removed France's influence as a major European power, allowing the Catholic forces in the Holy Roman Empire to regroup and recover. Thousands or even millions of people will give their lives in wars based around ideology. Spain was building an empire, and the low Countries paid dearly. It could be said the religious wars have even spread to the United States. As the period of sieges subsided, the War of Liberation continued. international rather than domestic). Wars of Religion, (1562-98) conflicts in France between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The revolt was short-lived but would inspire the bloody German Peasants' War of 15241526. Under pressure from the Duke of Guise, Henry III reluctantly issued an edict suppressing Protestantism and annulling Henry of Navarre's right to the throne. The Thirty Years War began in 1617 when the heir to the Bohemian throne, Ferdinand II, tried to curtail the religious liberties of his Protestant subjects, resulting in a series of conflicts that would involve most of Europe and bring an end to Europes old religious order. Online, one will find memes like the one below, that shows only a relatively small number of the 1,763 wars cataloged by Phillips and Axelrod, 123 to be precise, were considered "religious wars." In the morning, it is said the staircases, halls, and ante-chambers of the Louvre palace were stained with blood. Hardly a day passed without an execution. Meanwhile, English Puritans and Scottish Calvinists intensely opposed the king's main religious policy of unifying the Church of England and the Church of Scotland under a form of High Church Anglicanism. At this time there were only a limited number of Protestants among the general population, and these were mostly living in the towns of the South and the East of England. Islam is peace. The conflict between the United States and radicalized Islamic terrorists, which is ongoing into the second decade of the 21st century, has become known as the War on Terror. (ibid). Through a network of spies and informers, hardly a family in Flanders did not mourn some member arrested or killed. In 1532, King Francis I intervened politically and militarily in support of Protestant German princes against the Habsburgs, as did King Henry II in 1551; both kings firmly repressed attempts to spread Lutheran ideas within France. His children were still young and his wife, Queen Catherine de Medici, was to rule as an untested Queen Regent. Following the death of King Frederick I in 1533, war broke out between Catholic followers of Count Christoph of Oldenburg and the firmly Lutheran Count Christian of Holstein. He proceeded to Dundee where a large number of Protestant sympathisers and noblemen had gathered. People began looking for a symbolic gesture to demonstrate their commitment to the popes cause, and they cut crosses from the coarse cloth of preachers cloaks. [28] They spread their revolutionary religious and political doctrines into the countryside of Bohemia, Southern Germany, and Switzerland. Americans were stunned and mystified. These major wars (1948, 1967 & 1973) and on and off again uprisings feature the Jews on one side and the Muslim Arabs on the other. The Bourbons, with English support and led by Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Cond, and Admiral Coligny, began to seize and garrison strategic towns along the Loire. The last straw was the installation of a Catholic vogt at Baden, and Zrich declared war on 8 June (First War of Kappel), occupied the Thurgau and the territories of the Abbey of St. Gall, and marched to Kappel at the border to Zug. Clment was executed on the spot, taking with him the information of who, if anyone, had hired him. Open war was avoided by means of a peace agreement (Erster Landfriede) that was not exactly favourable to the Catholic side, which had to dissolve its alliance with the Austrian Habsburgs. [37][full citation needed]. If you remove the 66 wars waged in the name of Islam, it cuts the number down to a little more than 3%. In March 1560, the "Amboise conspiracy", or "Tumult of Amboise", was an attempt on the part of a group of disaffected nobles to abduct the young king Francis II and eliminate the Catholic House of Guise. The first pitched battle of the war, fought at Edgehill on 23 October 1642, proved inconclusive, and both the Royalists and Parliamentarians claimed it as a victory. Lebanese society was in fact a great mash-up of Armenians, Syrians, Kurds, and Palestinian Arabs, plus the native Lebaneseand none of them was committed to the good of Lebanon. Alva's judgment was that of a soldier trained in Spanish discipline and piety. Sudan is a country split between a predominantly Muslim north and a majority Christian and traditional African religious belief in the south. Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people. Archduke Albert and Isabel of Austria were given sovereign rights in the Netherlands forming a truce in 1609 that gave the Dutch a brief respite from war. However, all of these major wars are not necessarily consideredbellum sacrum, or holy wars (Tyerman 2004). The Huguenots tried to gain French government support for intervention against the Spanish forces arriving in the Netherlands. The Beggars of the Sea took to pirating under commission from William of Orange. [3] The Encyclopdia Britannica maintains that "[the] wars of religion of this period [were] fought mainly for confessional security and political gain. The civil war which tore the nation on the Mediterranean Sea apart from 19751990 was superficially viewed as a war between Christians and Muslims, and when fighting began in 1975, it was the Maronite Christian militias against a loose coalition of Fedayeen, Greek Orthodox Christians, Druze, and Shia and Sunni Muslims (Norton). What followed was a series of mutual confiscation of property as England and Spain played international cat-and-mouse. In 1532 the Emperor, pressed by external troubles, stepped back from confrontation, offering the "Peace of Nuremberg", which suspended all action against the Protestant states pending a General Council of the Church. How Religion Caused Global Conflicts . Unlike his father, he had no basic understanding of the people placed under his direction. Individual conflicts that may be distinguished within this topic include: The Holy Roman Empire, encompassing present-day Germany and surrounding territory, was the area most devastated by the wars of religion. This provoked the First War. Well,I wonder how many Christians were slain? However, lacking a fleet, he was unable to take the Danish capital on the island of Zealand. As hostilities broke out, the Edict was revoked. and destroy it, The War between the Maccabees and the Greeks may have begun in 167 B.C. The fragile compromise came to an end in 1584, when the King's youngest brother and heir presumptive, Franois, Duke of Anjou, died. Further hostilitiesthe Seventh War (15791580)ended in the stalemate of the Treaty of Fleix. The Treaty of Mnster was signed on 30 January 1648, ending the War of Liberation. [14], It can be argued that religious motives were often concealed by legalistic arguments, for example emphasising the need to defend the Church of England as the national church: "Seen in this light, the defenses of Parliament's war, with their apparent legal-constitutional thrust, are not at all ways of saying that the struggle was not religious. Alva installed himself as Governor General and appointed a Council of Troubles which the terrified Protestants renamed "The Council of Blood". Earlier (medieval) wars also frequently cited as "religious wars" include the Muslim conquests (7th to 19th centuries) and the Christian . Coligny and his troops retreated to the south-west and regrouped with Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, and in spring of 1570 they pillaged Toulouse, cut a path through the south of France and went up the Rhone valley to La Charit-sur-Loire. Cromwell followed Charles into England, leaving George Monck to finish the campaign in Scotland. The preaching of Martin Luther and his many followers raised tensions across Europe. The Battle of Dreux and the battle of Orlans were the first major engagements of the conflict. This, its opponents believed, was far too catholic in form, and based on the authority of bishops. In August 1572, Henri of Navarre arrived in Paris to marry Catherine de Medicis daughter, Marguerite. Church property was seized, and Catholic worship was forbidden in most territories that adopted the Lutheran Reformation. Later that same month Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen, Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht and Zeeland formed the United Provinces which became the Dutch Netherlands of today. In keeping with Salic Law, he named Henry as his heir. Knox negotiated by letter with William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Elizabeth's chief advisor, for English support. Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh, and by the end of the year his army had occupied much of southern Scotland. [7] These included the SavoyardWaldensian wars (16551690),[2][7] the Nine Years' War (16881697, including the Glorious Revolution and the Williamite War in Ireland),[2] and the War of the Spanish Succession (17011714). ( See also war; law of war; military technology; collective violence .) This seems to have caught at least one academic blogger unaware, as they falsely claim in a Fact Check that There is no section of the book where Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod explicitly categorize wars as religious or non-religious. In this case, the Fact Checker is wrong, as one only needs to check the index for the category. The SPLA was optimistic that they would able to split from the north of Sudan to establish their own nation. The European wars of religion of the 16th and 17th centuries are the classical example, often referred to simply as "the wars of religion". His predecessor Moses had led the people out of slavery in Egypt but did not enter Canaan himself. The Jews would share the same culture and worship the same gods. William of Orange decided to strike back at Spain, having organized three armies. In December 1560, Francis II died, and Catherine de' Medici became regent for her young son Charles IX.