"Wars of ideology, whether religious or political, are often the cruellest of all because the kingdom of heaven or some form of earthly paradise justifies all that is done in its name, including removing human obstacles. Those who hold the wrong ideas or beliefs deserve to die much as diseases ought to be stamped out, or they are simply the necessary sacrifices on the way to achieving a dream which will benefit all of humanity. As Martin Luther, whose influence on Protestant thinking was enormous, once said, ‘The hand that wields the sword and kills with it is not man’s hand but God’s.’ Such attitudes fuelled the internecine religious wars of his own century and contributed to the Thirty Years War in the following, as, in the twentieth century, did wars for revolutionary socialism, which saw itself as doing history’s work rather than God’s. Today of course we have religious wars again and the targets are again without limit until the final goal is achieved. Sadly even wars which are meant to be about ending war itself take on that limitless character. If the purpose is to remove for ever the scourge of war, then whatever atrocities and cruelties are committed in its name will be justified because the sacrifice is surely worth it. In the lead-up to the Thirty Years War radical Calvinists, espousing an extreme form of Protestantism, came to believe that the Habsburg monarchy was the force of darkness which must be eradicated before the righteous could be saved. When the radicals in the French Revolution prepared to wage war on Europe it was for earthly salvation. As one revolutionary said in 1791, ‘It is because I want peace that I am asking for war.’ The enemy, as in religious wars, becomes the enemy of humanity itself and must be utterly destroyed not merely defeated."