People killed not in the name of God, but by hiding behind God in the name of their own selfish motives. Hiding their selfish motives—power, glory, wealth—behind God. Please see the difference.
Civil wars in France between the Catholics, who constituted the majority of the population, and the Protestant minority, who practiced Calvinism and called themselves Huguenots.
The synod of the Presbyterian church (Huguenots) was established in France in 1559 and gained many followers among all classes of the population. The royal authority attempted to restore Catholicism throughout the country, but in the first war of 1562-1563, it failed to crush the Huguenots.
Among the Huguenots were many wealthy merchants and bankers who were able to hire significant detachments of professional soldiers from among their Swiss coreligionists. The Huguenots were supported by many aristocrats, in particular, Prince Louis de Condé, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, and King Henry of Navarre. The radical Catholic party was led by the family of the Dukes of Lorraine, the Guises, who sought both to completely expel the Huguenots from France and to limit the power of the king. There was also the party of "politiques," or moderate Catholics. They advocated for the preservation of Catholicism as the dominant religion and the granting of freedom of worship to the Huguenots. In a number of cases, they sided with the Huguenots against the Guises.
In 1563, Duke François de Guise won a victory at Dreux, but was soon killed by an assassin sent by the Huguenots. The Huguenot army also won victories in the wars of 1567-1568 and 1568-1570. These wars were characterized by incredible cruelty on both sides; prisoners were generally not taken, and sometimes entire villages were slaughtered if their residents adhered to a different religion.
The fourth war began in 1572 after the Catholics organized a massacre of Huguenots on August 24, 1572, on Saint Bartholomew's Day, who had gathered in Paris for the wedding of Henry, King of Navarre, and Princess Marguerite de Valois. More than 9 thousand people were killed, including Coligny and many other Huguenot leaders. A truce was reached in 1573, but hostilities resumed in 1574, though they brought no decisive victory to either side.
In 1576, a royal edict was issued proclaiming freedom of worship throughout France, with the exception of Paris. During a new war in 1577, inspired by the Catholic League created by the Guises, the edict was confirmed, but King Henry III was unable to implement it. Another war broke out in 1580, which had no decisive consequences. But in 1585, when Henry of Navarre claimed the French throne, the bloody War of the Three Henrys began—Henry III, Henry of Navarre, and Henry, the third Duke de Guise.
Henry of Navarre emerged victorious, despite the fact that his opponents enjoyed the military support of Spain. He defeated Henry III at Coutras in 1587. Henry III was forced to confirm freedom of worship. Then the Guises raised a rebellion in Paris in 1588 and expelled the king from there. Henry made concessions to the leaders of the Catholic League and declared support for the exclusive rights of Catholics, but upon returning to Paris, he organized the murder of Henry de Guise and his brother, Cardinal Louis de Guise. Then, having secured the support of Henry of Navarre, who was declared heir to the throne, Henry III suppressed the uprisings of the League, but in 1589, he was killed by a fanatic monk, Jacques Clément.
He was succeeded by Henry of Navarre, who became Henry IV—the first king of France from the Bourbon dynasty. However, the Catholic League, which enjoyed particularly strong support among the population of Paris, refused to recognize him as king. Henry defeated the League's troops at Arques in 1589 and at Ivry in 1590, but could not capture Paris until 1594. To enter the capital of France, he had to return to the fold of the Catholic Church. In this connection, Henry is credited with the winged phrase: "Paris is well worth a mass!"
The religious wars were brought to a close in 1598 by the peace treaty of Henry IV with France at Vervins, according to which Spain renounced its support for the Catholic League. In the same year, Henry issued the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed freedom of worship and recognized the dominance of Protestantism in 200 cities, where Huguenots were given the right to build fortifications. Formally, it can be considered that the Huguenots won the religious wars, but in reality, this victory proved illusory. The vast majority of the population of France remained loyal to Catholicism and sympathized with the ideas of the League. The wealth of Huguenot merchants became an object of desire for both the royal treasury and the Catholic aristocracy. Many feudatories owed significant sums to Huguenot bankers.
In 1621, a rebellion broke out against the introduction of the Catholic religion in Béarn, which had previously been recognized as a Huguenot city. After suppressing it in 1622, the de facto ruler of France, Cardinal Richelieu, deprived the Huguenots of the right to have their own fortresses, with the exception of La Rochelle and Montauban. A new Huguenot rebellion in 1625 led to the capture of La Rochelle by royal troops in 1628 and to the treaty of 1629, which stripped the Huguenots of all political influence in the country. In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, leaving the Huguenots with a choice: either convert to Catholicism or leave their homeland. Hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen chose emigration: settling in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, England, and overseas colonies, particularly in North America and South Africa.
This is only a small fraction of the religious wars, but in some ways you are right—the church, the rampart of religion, was in those times an apparatus of violence; the church was power over people, and religion and god were a screen covering the true earthly and far from noble desires of certain groups of people. Therefore, I confirm my words once again: God and religion were invented by people as a tool of power; this does not apply to faith, for faith can be in something other than a god.