by Francis Porretto
Men have known periods of both moral advancement and moral regression. When the context is politics and government, the least appreciated of the former is usually known as the Peace of Westphalia: a period in 1648 over which several highly significant treaties were agreed among the crowned heads of Europe, which could then still be non-sarcastically called Christendom.
The Westphalia treaties set down several principles most persons of our time take utterly for granted – indeed, to the point of shock upon being informed that rulers haven’t always conceded them. One of those glossed over more often than not was the proscription of private armies, a corollary of the reservation of the warmaking power to the sovereigns of nation-states. Private armies had long been deemed pernicious for several reasons, not the least of which was their habit of sweeping up any able-bodied man they found in their path and impressing him into their forces. In consequence, the wars in which those armies fought often reaped as many noncombatant as combatant lives, it being well nigh impossible to distinguish one from the other.
The sovereigns agreed, at long last, that allowing the carnage of war to embrace noncombatants was “bad for business;” that is, it impeded the economies of the belligerent nations. That could put a premature end to the fighting. Horrors! From that grudging recognition, added to the sovereigns’ desire to have the privilege of warmaking reserved to themselves, arose the formal distinction between soldier and civilian, the latter being protected from impressment or deliberate slaughter by general agreement among those who retained the privilege of making war.
Just some observations…
The use of private armies continued after the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia. The British East India Company gained possession of India through the incremental wars it created in adjacent regions within India.
And more importantly, The doctrine of Original Sin is a false doctrine. All sin not because there is a genetic corruption, but because all give into the temptations posited by the devil. And those who continue to reject God will be given over to the lusts of their own flesh which Satan has corrupted through temptation. Evil is growing because everywhere you look, the people are rejecting God. The people are in open rebellion, and thus we will also reap the curse of this rebellion.