An important fact to remember concerning many "wars of religion"

Commenter on Mark Shea's blog:

It’s a good thing Christianity never had any schisms or disunity, or spilled enough blood over such theological divisions to float Cromwell’s navy…


Mike Flynn responds:

Cromwell — English. Irish — Irish. No further hypothesis is needed. As the old joke ran, “If the king of England woke up Hindu, the Irish would be facing Mecca by nightfall.” No one ever went over the top from the trenches crying “Transubstantiation and the Triune God!” Although they did do so crying “Hapsburg” or “Bourbon” or “Down with the King!”

Fact is, once the State had reduced religion to lapdog “established churches” the whole matter simply became a surrogate for political loyalty.