[wideawake]

Perhaps you have forgotten the St. Batholomew's Day Massacre, a highlight of the Counter-Reformation offensive against Protestants.

The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre was a political act by the Medici family to assassinate rivals to their personal power schemes.

The Medicis tried to mask their crime under the color of acting to defend the Church, but the fact that they baldfacedly lied to the Pope himself about the circumstances shows that the massacre had nothing to do with the Church at all.

[Wallace T.]

The Papacy struck a medal in honor of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Most of the murders and tortures committed during the Reformation/Counter-Reformation era on both sides were performed by governments and not church courts. However, church leaders on both sides countenanced and even praised the brutality of the civil governments on their particular side.

It is no wonder that Germany, which saw one-third of its population die as a result of the religious wars of the 17th Century, became a hotbed of skepticism and atheism in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

[markomalley]

As with most Protestant vs Catholic threads, this one has sunk to the usual depths.

Let us remember the real enemy.