Traditionally, holy war is considered as a medieval conduct. That view is challenged by the present article. It claims instead that the restatement of the idea of crusading which took place in the puritan movement on the eve of the Civil War united two exceptionally modern elements: The ‘worldly asceticism' that refined the strengthening of individual discipline, and the ‘realized eschatology' which formed the basis of a mundane notion of the course of history.