Sectarian violence among Christians

Sectarian violence among Christians is a recurring phenomenon, in which Christians engage in a form of communal violence known as sectarian violence. This form of violence can frequently be attributed to differences of religious beliefs between sects of Christianity (sectarianism). Sectarian violence among Christians was common, especially during late antiquity, and the years surrounding the protestant reformation, in which a German monk who was named Martin Luther disputed some of the Catholic Church's practices; particularly the doctrine of Indulgences, and it was crucial in the formation of a new sect of Christianity known as Protestantism.^[1] During the latter half of the Renaissance was when sectarianism related violence was most common among Christians. Conflicts like the European wars of religion or Dutch Revolt ravaged Western Europe. In France there were the French Wars of Religion and in the United Kingdom anti-Catholic hate was heightened by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. And while sectarian violence may seem like an archaic footnote today, sectarian violence among Christians still persists in the modern world with groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (which prominently uses the Bible along with the official KKK handbook, the Kloran, to espouse its teachings)^[2] perpetuating violence among Catholics.^[3]

The earliest period when widespread sectarian violence occurred among Christians was the period of late antiquity (3rd century CE to 8th century CE). Events like the wars which followed the Council of Chalcedon and Constantine's persecution of the Arians caused late antiquity to be considered one of the worst periods of time for a person to be a Christian in. Other conflicts such as the Albigensian Crusade, led to wars with over 1,000,000 casualties.^[4]

Sectarian violence among Christians also became prominent during the Renaissance (from the 14th century to the 17th century CE) especially in Western Europe. In France, there were incidents of violence against a religious sect which was known as the Huguenots, whose members followed the teachings of the religious reformer John Calvin. These events included (but were not limited to) the Massacre of Vassy (which subsequently started the French Wars of Religion) and the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. In Ireland some of the events that occurred during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland were so heinous, that they can be classified as war crimes.^[5]

In the 19th-century US, anti-Catholic hate was salient due to the influx of Catholic immigrants who came to the US from Europe. At that time, the US was still in its infancy as a nation and it was dominated by white English speaking protestants, who traced their ancestry back to Northern Europe. So the disparity between the non-english speaking multiracial Catholics who came from various parts of Europe and the white nativist Protestant majority led to discrimination against the former by the latter.^[3]