Religious Persecution In Civil War

The Protestant Reformation of the Catholic Church devastated the religious unity of Christian Europe, resulting in a great deal of antagonism, which in turn led to the persecutions, denial of civil rights, expulsion, and ultimately the torture and death of many men, women and children. The ongoing conflict was not consigned to one distinct European nation, but was experienced in every European nation that the Catholic Church ruled and reigned. There was no worldview in Europe at that time that allowed for the religious differences of men to coexist peaceably.

In the seventeenth century, religious persecution ran rampant throughout Europe. In attempt to escape the oppression, many fled to less critical countries and territories. One of the popular refuges was colonial America. Settling in the north, these religious refugees made up a majority in the New England population, endeavoring to use it to form their Ideal society. They could use the new land to implement a new civilization reflective of their beliefs.

One thing that may be fueling this violence is religion. Religion is a huge part to countries and conflict. In Syria, the background essay states that, “People’s ethnic and religious identity began to play an increasingly important in determining on which side of the conflict they stood.” For instance, most Sunnis do not agree with the Assad regime. Also,

This period of fighting saw massacres of Huguenots (French Protestants) by the Catholic monarchs of France, most prominently during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 (where almost 30,000 French Protestants were killed across France in targeted assassinations and mob beatings). Eventually the wars would culminate with the Edict of Nantes in 1598, a treaty issued and signed by King Henry IV of France, who had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism and called for general tolerance.

The wars of religion, which were disputes between Catholics and Protestants about the religion of a territory, took place in Germany, France, and England from 1500-1628. These arguments consisted of several disagreements between the leaders of a particular country and its people. In all three countries a law or settlement was passed that was intended to serve as beneficial to religious minorities, mostly of which were Protestant. However, after these laws were passed to help the Protestants there were residual issues. These issues were either due to the fact that the Catholics, or the majority, were upset because they lost too much religious power or that the Protestants, the minorities, were still unhappy about “sharing” religious territory with the Catholics.

In 1789, the French Revolution struck the citizens of France. The economy started to struggle after King Louis XVI was drowning in debt from the expensive wars and the prices of bread started to grow. This caused chaos among the people of France, as fear for survival increased. King Louis then called the estates general to help fix the financial crisis. They came up with the Declaration of Man and Citizen which promised “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.”

was a fight between Catholics and Protestants and is known as one of the longest

Many of the ancient and historical conflicts are believed to be connected to religion in a various ways and proven that religion can be used as an excuse for violence. For instance, The Crusade Wars ended in the brutality of both Christians and Muslims during the mass dispute (Burton 1984). The Jews have perpetrated massacres through nations for the solitary reason to attain their belief. During the reformation of Christians thousands of people were killed because of their religion. In Yugoslavia, the war in 1991 pitted Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Catholics against each other in a brutal combat (Avalos 2005). Also, thousands of monks were being persecuted in Burma

Honestly, modern society can learn a lot from The Crusades. We learned that war isn’t always the best solution. Here we are thousands of years later and there is still this war about religion

The Church, as an effort to eliminate all heresies, decided to get rid of all the the heretics, or people who believed in the reforms. The Church took over 1500 people and executed them. At the time the Church believed it had the right to kill all of those people, because they believed they knew God’s will. Unfortunately today, there are still radical extremist committing horrible acts of violence because they believe they know the will of God. The most well known group at this point in time is an Islam group by the name of ISIS. It is important to note that the Protestant Reformation and ISIS do not parallel exactly, due to modernization and the advancement of the world since the 1500s, but the attitudes driving both event are almost the exact

During the 16th and 17th centuries a series of religious wars raged throughout Europe. In the fight to gain religious tolerance it created a split between the Catholics and the Protestants. The Dutch Revolt in the Spanish Netherlands was part of the series of religious wars in Europe. For ten years, a civil war raged in the Netherlands between the Catholics and the Protestants. Religion and politics were at the center of this revolt. Calvinism was spreading rapidly and became popular among the lower classes, lesser nobles, and town leaders. However, the strong Catholic King, Philip II desired to eliminate Calvinism within his territories. Philip II believed if he tackled Calvinism, then it would enhance his power in his monarchy. Therefore, politics were at the heart of this revolt since Philip II desired to impose Catholicism in an attempt to centralize his power in the Spanish Netherlands. Furthermore, politics and religion were also at the center of the French Wars of Religion. The religious differences between the two religious sects, the Huguenots and Roman Catholics, reveal that religion was also responsible for these series of wars in France. Therefore, politics and religion were both at the heart of the French Wars of Religion because it created fractional rivalries between the major families in France, members of the Royal Family made several attempts to sustain their power within the estate, and caused several religious battles between the Huguenots and the Roman

Religion has its shares of promoting violence. Many will argue that a cause of religion wars is for economic and political reasons, but others argue that those who start wars are, by definition, not religious. In reality, separating religion out of economic and political motives can be involved in such a way finding religious motives innocent of much. Excuses for Christianity responsibilities cannot be accepted whether the person has misappropriated the message of Christ. The primarily set of doctrines is not Christianity, but by living through past background it personified the visible actions of Christians. In other words, Christianity, Islam or any other religion has no intention of excusing from survey. Given certain conditions,

Another source of conflict as reported by Sørli et. al stems from the religious differences. As a whole, the Middle East is comprised of followers of Islam. But within the Islamic religion are the Sunni (which account for the majority), and the Shia. Tension lies between the two sects, especially given the fact that the Shia often hold the positions of power (Sørli, 147). Another major

During the 1500’s, the conflict and tension between Catholics and Protestants brought about new levels of violence in Paris and surrounding areas. Despite the authorities of Paris’ attempts at maintaining peace and order, Catholics were determined to rid the streets of unwanted Protestants. On August 24th, 1572, a day known to Catholics as “St. Bartholomew’s Day”, thousands of Protestants were murdered by Catholics. From then on, this day was known as “The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.” Authors Barbra Diefendorf, and Philip Benedict both wrote about this devastating time in history with contrasting approaches to the issue. Though sharing in some similarities, the approaches in which Diefendorf and Benedict take on the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre are significantly contrastive. The authors provide different theories to why the massacre occurred, as well as disclose information about important events that occurred during different times.

“When you think yours is the only true path you forever chain yourself to judging others and narrow the vision of God. The road to righteousness and arrogance is a parallel road that can intersect each other several times throughout a person's life. It’s often hard to recognize one road from another. What makes them different is the road to righteousness is paved with the love of humanity. The road to arrogance is paved with the love of self.”(Shannon L. Alder). This means many people are acquitted but some people still are tormenting them without any resistant. Crime, hate, torture, and violence all lead to religious persecution. Every person in the world has its own personality and belief. These beliefs cause opponents between people and to seek revenge these people persecute one of their enemy groups with a different belief.