Atrocity!

This is coolbert:

 "All of Christendom suffered . . . for the next 30 years"

Indeed!

Images of atrocity from that era of the Thirty Years War. Click on all images for a larger view.

Execution of prisoners by hanging. Choking to death rather than having the neck broken. A cruel and slow death. Persons then left hanging for a while as a warning to others.

A close-up of the previous image. the executed stripped first, maximum humiliation the goal. That is a priest or monk offering a final salvation to the condemned as he is hoisted up.

More unfortunates hanging from trees. These persons do not seem to have been stripped. I wonder if those branches would have been able to hold that weight without breaking?

Murder, rape, pillage, arson. 

Murder, rape, pillage, arson.

Again a close-up of the previous image. At the extreme right a man strung up by his heels and being roasted probably while still alive. All this of course in the aftermath of battle.

A prisoner [a senior enemy commander?] apparently just prior to being burned at the stake. Lots of arson in the background.

This might be a group of farmers defending themselves against marauding soldiers. That person on the ground in the center is being flailed to death with an implement normally used to thresh grain during the harvest process?

Lots of rape occurring during the Thirty Years War. Husband is dead, wife about to be killed, older daughter being led off prior to outrage, youngest daughter witnessing the events. This seems to have been standard procedure during that period.

Christians not behaving in a Christian manner much to their discredit. Wars the primary cause is religion result in an emotional response for which reason becomes an afterthought.

coolbert.