How did the 30 Years War start?
As in our own day it seems that fundamentalism encourages more violence than peace. The Thirty Years’ War began with the Defenestration of Prague on May 23, 1618, when members of a protestant revolt in Bohemia stormed the royal palace in Prague and threw two of King Ferdinand II’s royal ministers out a window. That begs the question why they were so mad? It goes back to the Peace of Augsburg signed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V on Sept. 25, 1555. The Peace of Augsburg was signed to end the horrid bloodletting of the Reformation and to prevent the chaotic dissolution of the Empire. Unfortunately the treaty was only a temporary salve for a divisive issue, not unlike the Missouri Compromise of US history. Although the fighting stopped, underlying tensions remained. Local princes in the Empire could keep the lands seized from the Catholic church and mandate the religion of their domain. Also, although Lutheranism was recognized, the Anabaptists and Calvinists were still considered hereti
