Given what had been happening with the relationship between faith and politics in centuries leading up to them, the Wars of Religion between...

On the
whole, I would agree with this statement for a number of reasons. First and foremost, one has to
remember that, in those days, religion wasn't just a private matter; it formed the entire basis
of public life in Europe.

In such an environment, where politics and religion
were so inextricably linked, the choice of one's religion could have serious consequences.
Depending on which religion they followed, people could find themselves being sent to prison or
even put to death if they didn't follow the faith endorsed by their secular rulers. Such
intolerance against rival religions created a toxic environment in which religious
persecutionmuch of it attended by violencewas considered perfectly right and proper.

Given the prevailingit's not surprising that wars of religion between Catholics and
Protestants eventually broke out, bringing widespread death and devastation to vast swathes of
the European continent. The religious dimension of these conflicts ensured that what would
otherwise have been territorial disputes were turned into epic struggles between good and evil,
with each side in the conflict believing that they were good and that their opponents were
evil.

Isolated voices on both sides urged caution and restraint, but the vast
majority of Catholics and Protestants alike passionately believed that they had God on their
side and that their opponents were carrying out the work of the Devil. Given the almost
universal nature of such rigidly Manicheanthat is to say, black and whiteworldviews, it's almost
inevitable that, sooner or later, Catholics and Protestants would try to settle their
unbridgeable differences on the battlefield.