The 1648 Peace of Westphalia was, David Hart argues, not so much the conclusion of the wars of religion as the cause; that is, it was the victory of nationalism over imperialism and Christendom. Henri Daniel-Rops says, “The Treaties of Westphalia finally sealed the relinquishment by statesmen of a noble and ancient concept . . . which deominated the Middle Ages: that there existed among the baptized people of Europe a bond stronger than all their motives for wrangling - a spiritual bond, the concept of Christendom. Since the fourteenth century, and especially during the fifteenth, this concept had been steadily disintegrating . . . . The Thirty Years’ War proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the last states to defend the ideal of a united Christian Europe were invoking the principle while in fact they aimed at maintaining or imposing their own supremacy.”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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