[steve-b]

Because by then religion didn't have much power over the governments of most of the world. Most Christian countries had converted to democracy, a secular check against the crusades that the churches may have wanted to launch.

About the only example I can recall of a regime ruled by a Christian overlord without any real checks and balances were the out-of-sight, out-of-mind colonies.

Suffice it to say that the Belgian Congo fails to impress as an indication that religion in and of itself prevents mass murder.

[antiRepublicrat]

About the only example I can recall of a regime ruled by a Christian overlord without any real checks and balances

The recently deposed dictator of Liberia, Charles Taylor.