Assignment 2: History

Ernest Crofts' A Scene from the Thirty Years' War 

 

I find the time period during which the Thirty Years War took place to be both sad and intriguing. I understand that the Catholic Church at that time was extremely corrupt and abused its influence over its followers, but the level of violence that resulted from disagreements over how the church should be run is just ridiculous in my mind. It’s tragic that such a large number of people died over a split in a religion that is supposed to teach love and peace. It’s more understandable on the Catholic side because the average person didn’t have access to the bible and had to believe in the authorities of the church, most of which had political connections of some sort. While Protestants had reasons to angry with the tyrannical Catholic Church, you would think that with the translation of the Bible, its followers would have a better understanding of their own religion. Then again, being an American at this time and age, religious freedom and tolerance is the norm for me. Back then religion played a bigger role in people’s lives and it was used as a tool by leaders to control their people. But the conflict between the people at that time has left lingering friction that still affects people in Germany today. 

Luther's translated bible allowed non scholars to read the religious texts themselves.

 

        If you take a step back, the Thirty Years War looks like a needlessly bloody fight for power under the name of religion by tyrannical leaders who controlled the ignorant masses. Living in the time and place that we do, such a thing seems like a ridiculous thing of the past. Yet even in the American land of religious freedom, we see such hostility towards Muslim Americans today. We are supposed to have separation of church and state, and yet politicians should obvious prejudices against religions that aren’t that different from their own.  The European people of the middle ages at least had the excuse that most people weren’t educated and reliable information could be hard to come by. While the conflict today isn’t as bad as the Thirty Years War, it is still sad that there is so much ignorance in our modern world of easily accessible information. 

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