Anybody have any good resources on Protestant and catholic conflict in Europe?

As someone who grew up in America it is fascinating and disheartening to learn about all the bloodshed over these two sects of Christianity fighting back in the day.

Wanted to see if anyone had any good movies, series, books, I could look into to learn more about it.

The genesis of this was a trip to Europe where I met up with a friend in Scotland. He made an offhand comment about it being hard to follow a religion that has resulted in so many deaths.

Don't think he meant too much by it but it sparked my interest in europes history with religion. I think the US is lucky to not have major bloodshed AFAIK between two major Christian denominations. Hard to imagine going to war / bloodshed over someone being catholic or Protestant

There was plenty of violence in the U.S.. From the beginning. Spanish Conquistador Pedro Menendez de Aviles brutally murdered 245 French Huguenots in 1565 in Florida for the crime of being "Lutherans." Look up the Know Nothings. The first anti-immigrant wave in American history was fear mongering about Catholic Germans and Irish. Thomas Nast, the man who gave us our modern image of Santa Claus and the elephant and donkey for the political parties was viciously anti-Catholic. So was the second KKK.

As for Europe, you can look up the depositions of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and any good history of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre to get some bloodshed on both sides. It gets politically complicated, but most wars of the 16th and 17th centuries in central and Western Europe have a religious component.

I wish it was more than just handed down stories to share.

I heard the first priest in Bryan had to be protected from the local protestants.

I think there's plenty of bad behavior on both sides to fill up many volumes of books, sadly.

Sapper Redux said:

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… and any good history of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre to get some bloodshed on both sides. It gets politically complicated, but most wars of the 16th and 17th centuries in central and Western Europe have a religious component.

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That was the reason my French Huguenot ancestors showed France their heels and took refuge in the Netherlands, then to New Jersey, then to Pennsylvania/Maryland and Virginia, merging with the Scots-Irish migration down the Appalachians into GA, AL and MS before finally settling around Tyler, TX in the early 1850s.

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Hard to imagine going to war / bloodshed over someone being catholic or Protestant

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Think about what we go to war and shed blood for today. Will people in 500 years be bewildered?

Christianity, as an empowerment of the individual, is by its very nature schismatic, predating the reformation certainly, imho.

While the filioque is perhaps the most famous 'split' along with the later Lutheran/Calvinists splitting from the RCC, in truth it 'began' much, much earlier. And Rome was in truth itself a presbyteral structure until becoming a Bishop-run organization around 150 or so.

Europe had a tribal, warring nature long before it became christian. The churches were overlayed onto that set of cultures, not as a replacement for them.

nortex97 said:

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Christianity, as an empowerment of the individual, is by its very nature schismatic, predating the reformation certainly, imho.

While the filioque is perhaps the most famous 'split' along with the later Lutheran/Calvinists splitting from the RCC, in truth it 'began' much, much earlier. And Rome was in truth itself a presbyteral structure until becoming a Bishop-run organization around 150 or so.

Europe had a tribal, warring nature long before it became christian. The churches were overlayed onto that set of cultures, not as a replacement for them.

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That's one way to look at it.

Mr. Thunderclap McGirthy said:

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I wish it was more than just handed down stories to share.

I heard the first priest in Bryan had to be protected from the local protestants.

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Glad to hear *checks username* , Ole Thunderclap McGirthy is taking religion a bit more seriously these days.