[GeorgefromGeorgia]

The key difference with Christian history is that Christendom has had three hundred years since a religious war. The Age of Reason prevailed and religious toleration prevails. Muslims have still not gone through this phase.

[RobbyS]

Another thing to be remembered is that the religious wars came about as a result of a close alliance between territorial lords and the various faiths The Protestant princes defended Luther’s reforms as a way of preventing the Emperor Charles V from consolidating power in Germany as Charles, as Carlos I, was consolidating royal power in Spain. The French kings, as part of a continuing strategy, aligned themselves with the enemies of Charles, since they shared military frontiers with Charles in the Netherlands. and the South, and were adversaries of Charles In Italy. For more than ten years Francis I of France tolerated Protestant doctrines in his realm. Then in 1533, radical Protestants, broke the civil peace by posting placards with violent attacks on the Catholic Church. This is where young John Calvin enters public life. His teachings are, if anything, more uncompromising than Luther’s, and lead to a split in the Protestant camp. From his refuge in Geneva, Calvin directs with the force of his writings the Reformation in Rhine Valley and France. The new surge provokes a response from the Catholics assembled at Trent and the establishment of the militant order of the Jesuits, and the ideology battle is now well joined. The aim to to capture the king, for Christendom is split, and whichever side the political ruler chooses, that religion is now the religion of the land. Political ambition and fanaticism are now joined, and war will divide Latin Europe into two new civilizations, the one permanently Catholic and the other permanently Protestant. Once Germany have been savaged in a bloody stalemate, the relgious boundaries are fixed almost beyond changing, and purely dynastic motives will dominate war. Balance of power becomes the norm.