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Hey, life in the medieval period (and the 30 Years' War is not medieval, it was the SEVENTEENTH CENTURY) was a whole lot better. The 17th century in Europe was a low period for morality in general and religion in particular. There was a lot of upheaval. Plenty of brutality in the English Civil War too -- just about the same time.

At least in the medieval period, they knew what the rules were.

And, btw, a particular pet peeve of mine - "the hoi polloi" is redundant, like "Rio Grande River". "Hoi" is a transliteration of the Greek definite article ʿoi (the diacritical mark ought to be over the omicron, but the font won't do it)

Oh, so now we KNOW. Well, I dunno 'bout better and what not and all that. Compared to what? The sacking of Rome? When the center of the empire was held for a ransom of 3000# peppercorns by a herd of barbarians? Hah. The Romans were smart and didn't submit to such blackmail. They knew it'd be 3000# of peppercorns that day, but by the following week it'd be 3000# of cardaman, and the next after that 3000# turmeric (or even (gasp) 3000# of saffron - yikes). They flipped those barbarians the bird on all that and the rest was history (or not as it may have been for the subsequent 500 years or so).

Anyways, just so you know: you're the first person that has ever gotten onto my case 'bout the use of hoi polloi. I don't know what Cracker Jacks box you obtained your lexicon (there's a prize in every box) from, but hoi polloi refers to the "common people" not that which is colloquially connotated as being the novoue riche.

Hoi polloi is a borrowing of the Greek phrase hoi polloi, consisting of hoi, meaning "the" and used before a plural, and polloi, the plural of polus, "many." In Greek hoi polloi had a special sense, "the greater number, the people, the commonalty, the masses." This phrase has generally expressed this meaning in English since its first recorded instance, in an 1837 work by James Fenimore Cooper. "Hoi polloi" is sometimes incorrectly used to mean "the elite," [see? Ah, ha ah-HAH!] possibly because it is reminiscent of high and mighty or because it sounds like "hoity-toity". · Since the Greek phrase includes an article, some critics have argued that the phrase "the hoi polloi" is redundant. But phrases borrowed from other languages are often reanalyzed in English as single words. For example, a number of Arabic noun phrases were borrowed into English as simple nouns. The Arabic element al- means "the," and appears in English nouns such as alcohol and alchemy. Thus, since no one would consider a phrase such as "the alcohol" to be redundant, criticizing the hoi polloi on similar grounds seems pedantic. - Usage Note (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved).

Consider yourself "slammed" whilest I do the Church-lady "Superior Dance". (In your face, In your face, In Your Face. My aren't I feeling special?). You are "slammed" sir, do not try some cheap specious and transparent attempt to un-slam yourself. Everybody will see your feeble attempts as being nothing more than the tactics of a desperate slammee to un-slam themselves.

Snicker, snicker, chortle, chortle, guffaw. Just what in the $$*#@( is the difference between a chortle and a guffaw anyways?

Raygun snickers and chortles, with a mighty well pleased smirk on his face.