As brutal and savage and unrelenting a war as ever there was, this devastated northern and central Europe.

Besides the religious ferocity, bands of brigands scoured the countryside intent on rapine and slaughter and claiming allegiance to whatever faith best suited them.

An evil time, which from the sounds of it some Christians would welcome back.

Over the course of the war, the population of the German states was reduced by 30 percent; in the territory of Brandenburg, the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two-thirds of the population died. Germany’s male population was reduced by almost half. The population of the Czech lands declined by a third. The Swedish armies alone destroyed 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, one-third of all German towns.

One of the saddest periods in European history. Over one-third of the population of Germany, by some estimates, was wiped out during these thirty years: entire villages were left inhabited only by the skeletons of heretics.