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To: WesternCulture

Yes, there were several great military leaders in the Thirty Years War, both Protestant and Catholic, and he was certainly one of them.

On the other hand, it turned out to be one of the most destructive and useless wars in history. First one side got the advantage, then the other, and in the end nobody won. The horrors of the war have been frequently portrayed, perhaps most notably in a contemporary work of fiction, "Simplicissimus."

The upshot of the whole war was to settle on the rule, "Cuius regius, eius religio," or, let the king decide the country's religion. So, they all stayed whatever they were before the whole thing started. Nothing was accomplished on either side. The only practical effect of the war was to give religion a bad name, as intolerant and destructive, and therefore to bring on the French Revolution and the triumph of secularism in Europe. It still resonates today in secularist charges that Christians are intolerant.


32 posted on 11/03/2006 6:33:56 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero

"Nothing was accomplished on either side"

What was accomplished was the survival of protestant Christianity. Would Northern Europe have been protestant if they had done nothing?


35 posted on 11/03/2006 6:43:29 PM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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