Having a religion change, many times, takes a toll on those who follow. This would include the hardships of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reformation. Religious tensions were spreading throughout Europe, starting from the Protestant Reformation. Some of those who followed the Catholic church began to question how much was true and how many lies they were told to believe in. Many important Leaders of the Reformation stated their opinions about that Catholic church. These opinions would then be evaluated in the Catholic Reformation, The Council of Trent. Beliefs would be revised and practices would be evaluated. The core beliefs would still be Catholic, thus still different from a protestant beliefs. This led to officials of states …show more content…
During the late fifteenth century is when the Protestant Reformation started. The church from the Middle ages and throughout the Renaissance had become corrupt. Leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin, are a perfect example to show what life was like. As they would ‘rebel’, state the truth, they slowly grew a following. They went through council by council, telling what they, themselves believe is right and what they, the people, believe in is inaccurate. With the support of the people, the leaders eventually did make progress. Luther speaks out against individuals that are witches after he has posted the 95 Theses. He talked about how “witches are the Devil’s whores.” Luther by saying “whores” could be referring to women. He begins to list off the negative side of a women. How when in times of stress or doubt, she will turn to the Devil for advice and guidance.( Walters: The Protestant Reformation: 31) Luther then goes on to talk about how the Devil, with the help of it’s human puppets, does all the bad deeds. If they were to get rid of these individuals as witches, hypothetically speaking, there would be no ”bad”. [Doc.3] It could very well be that Luther supported the persecutions of individuals as witches because he was a monk, and as a monk he could not accept this behavior. He was a monk for Christian beliefs, and in the Bible it say not to have witches. It would not go with …show more content…
After the Catholic Reformation, again, religion was now somewhat at a constant. There was a stability regarding religion. Seeing as capturing and prosecuting individuals as witches was a popular activity, for it was done frequently. Those who wished to run in office were big supporter of the persecutions, for they “hoped for wealth.” Inquisitors were attending to “trail” individuals as witches for witchcraft. There was no “trial”, all would be burned. Slowly crowds started to form in large number for each persecution. The more people that would attend the more wealthy those in office would become. Those in charge of the persecutions were drunk with the money they received, no one was “spared.” The leading men of the city of Trier were also persecuted in hopes of gaining wealth. Several councillors and judges were also killed. On the other hand, “notaries, copyists and innkeepers grew rich.” Perhaps this occurs because of their occupation. Anyone would do anything to get money. When the innkeepers and copyists saw their chance to gain wealth, they went straight for
Because of the Catholic churches attempts in the medieval times to make more pagan worshipers join, they have made the pagan’s religion into something that was evil and sinister. Anybody who was practicing a religion that was different from their point of views, especially any religion practiced by people they were trying to convert, was evil and they needed to bring to the light of Christ. This was a normal way of thinking for the people from the medieval time period who were oppressed by the Church and had very little education. A very common view was that all “witches” worshiped Satan, did unspeakable acts, stole and killed babies for their potions, and caused mayhem for the common people. For example, if a farmer’s crop failed to harvest much, the most disliked person in town that had no influence, could be the scapegoat of farmer’s anger and frustration. The person who is bein...
THE WITCH-HUNT IN MODERN EUROPE By: Brian Levack The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between 1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task, but judicial authorities performed most. The cause of most of these hunts is the multi-causal approach, which sees the emergence of new ideas about the witches and changes in the criminal law statutes. Both point to major religious changes and a lot of social tension among society. The intellectual foundations of the hunts were attributed to the witch’s face-to-face pact with the devil and the periodic meetings of witches to engage in practices considered to be barbaric and heinous. The cumulative concept of witchcraft pointed immediately to the devil, the source of the magic and the one most witches adored. There was strong belief then that witches made pacts with the devil. Some would barter their soul to the devil in exchange for a gift or a taste of well being.
Communities during the 16th and 17th century were very religious and believed wholeheartedly in the scripture. According to John Calvin, "Scripture makes known that there are not one, not two, nor a few foes, but great armies, which wage war against us." This means that the communities were aware that there were enemies among them which made citizens paranoid. They blamed these foes for all of the bad things that were happening in the community. Martin Luther explains that "Scorers and witches are the Devil's whores who steal milk, raise storms, ride on goats or broomsticks, lame or maim people, torture babies in their cradles, change beings into different shapes so that a human being seems to be a cow or an ox, and force people into love and immortality." Martin Luther was extremely influential during this time so when he stated this, it made his believers have faith that witches and sorcerers were responsible for all of the mishaps that plagued the community. Everything from stealing, to sickness, to natural disasters were being blamed on witchcraft and this made citizens accuse more people of witchcraft. Their reasoning may have been as simple as this, if the witches were causing all of these disasters and circumstances, then killing them would return their lives and communities
A Sociologist’s Perspective,” share various opinions while developing their own theories. The comparison of these observations will focus upon why the witch trials occurred when they did, why did they stop when they did, why did the witch trials occur when they did, and who was persecuted and who was responsible for the identification and punishment of witches. Concerning why the witch hunts occurred when they did the agreed upon opinion by all three author’s is the social unrest and uncertainty felt due to the Protestant Reformation and the schism it created amongst the populace, the effects of recovering from plague and war, and the enforced patriarchal structure of a society that was changing. It was during the Reformation that Christians,’ Protestant and Catholic alike, endeavored to convict all individuals guilty of heresy, with witches acting as the scapegoat.... ...
The economic scene at the time of the witch craze was very apparent during the period between 1480-1700. During this period Europe was in a state of instability, therefore money, and exploration was important to many. An eyewitness to persecutions, canon Linden of Trier, Germany states that people used the trials for economic enhancement. Linden wrote that the executioner made the most money and describes it “like a noble of the court”(Document A2). This is evidence that high ranked people or people in office were into the witch trials for their economic greed and desire for goods. Mayor of Bamberg, Germ...
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
This caused a lot of deaths during the Reformation period because the Catholic church decided to prosecute people for following and listening to what Luther had taught them about the real Catholic Teachings. The Council of Trent was a way to stop the teachings of Catholic traditions and state clearly the renewal of the Catholic life. The work of the council was concerned with the organisation of the Church. A seminary was going to be set up for the education of priests in each diocese. During the reformation a Catechism which is a clear summary of Catholic beliefs was set out to help reform the order of Mass throughout the Catholic world which priests then helped educate and teach this understanding to Catholics. Indulgence selling was abolished which means that it was no longer a way for the Church to scavenge money and the infamous Inquisition was
By the end of the seventeenth century, the fanatical witch hunts of Western Europe led by the Church had begun to die away.4 Although "witches" were still tried by the clergy and clergy-controlled governments, the massive witch hunts of the Middle Ages had been abandoned in search of more reasonable and plausible explanations of the unknown. The Roman Catholic Church, however, held on to their beliefs of the supernatural. Since the Church disallowed magic, only a saint with his or her rituals could still reach some level of "magic...
The protestant reformation of 16th century had both: immediate and long term effects. Thus, we can see that it was a revolution of understanding the essence of religion, and of what God is. The protestant reformation is said to a religious movement. However, it also influenced the economical, political and social life of people. The most global, short term effect of the reformation was the reevaluation of beliefs, and, as a result, the loss of authority of the Holy Roman Empire. The long term effects were: the emergence of new heretical movements, the declining of papacy, thus the reevaluation of people’s view on the church and life values.
For many centuries to the present day, Christians have lived in fear of witches. They were known as to be the devils child who only practiced black magic and thought of as the Christians “persecution”. Witches have been known to mankind since the 1200’s. Throughout the 1400’s, the examination of witches was more focus and moved from the Jews. In the church’s law, it was stated that the belief of existence and practices of witchcraft was “heresy”. Because of what the Christians believed, churches would then torture and hunt down anyone who they thought were witches and killed the many women and only a few of the men. They even made them make the confession of flying through the midnight sky, being in love with the devil himself, practicing black magic and even turning into animals.
In the early sixteenth century, witchcraft was a social occurrence that involved the powerful impact of the Church, based on the writings from a witch hunting book called Malleus Maleficarum. The authors, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, aimed to eliminate witchcraft by illustrating the witches’ disgraceful behaviors against religion. According to this book, witchcraft was committed whereby “a man uses dreams for knowing the future”, and it was considered as an act that was “to the greater offence of the Creator”. Witchcraft was associated with performing magic and worshipping evil forces, so it was seen as a disgraceful act. There was a push to eliminate this social function because it conflicted and disrespected the religious beliefs of the Church. Furthermore, expression of religion intervened when the Church attempted to rectify this act because when “the more care is taken in [by the Church], the more witches become known”. This suggests that when power lied in the hands of the Church, more witches could be captured. The Church had served as an important expression of religion that pushed for the eradication of witchcraft. Thus, this occurrence of the Confessional Division highlighted the need to uphold the power of religion through altering social
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
The journey to the Council was a long and winding one. It began with the Protestant reformation, the precipice to the split of Catholicism. Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin argued
Witchcraft persecution peaked in intensity between 1560 and 1630 however the large scale witch hysteria began in the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages and were most intense during the Renaissance and continued until the 18th century, an era often referred to as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason. Representation of witches, nay, representation in general is a political issue. Without the power ot define the female voice and participate in decisions that affect women -similar to other marginalised groups in society- will be subject to the definitions and decisions of those in power. In this context, the power base lay with men. It can be said that the oppression of women may not have been deliberate, it is merely a common sense approach to the natural order of things: women have babies, women are weak, women are dispensable. However the natural order of things, the social constructs reflect the enduring success of patriarchal ideology. As such, ideology is a powerful source of inequality as well as a rationalisation of it. This essay will examine the nature of witchcraft and why it was threatening to Christianity.
Catholic leaders were mainly attempting to keep all the catholic members they had . Paul III and Paul IV played major roles in the Catholic Reformation and also a man by the name of Ignatius . Ignatius founded new religious orders , and he wrote a book about meditation , prayer , and study . He gained many followers and in 1540 , the pope created a group called the Society of Jesus . Anyone who was in this group was called a Jesuit , and they had three missions . They founded schools in Europe because the Jesuits were very intelligent when it came the classics and theology . Their next mission was spreading of the Catholic religion . Lastly their biggest goal was to stop the spreading of Protestantism. Paul III took four steps to reform the Catholic church . He first had someone to investigate the selling of indulgences and other problems in the church . Then he agreed with the order of Jesuits . After that he used the Inquisition to seek heretics. His final step was calling a meeting in Trent , that was later named the Council of Trent . The Council of Trent lasted from 1545 to 1563 , within those years they agreed on several different things. They agreed that the Church’s interpretation of the bible was final and anyone who disagreed was a heretic . They also agreed that Christians needed to have faith in order to have salvation but they also believed that you should have good works . They agreed that selling indulgences should be banned but indulgences were expressions of faith . Paul IV had officials gather all information that was believed to be dangerous to the Catholic religion and burn them . That day over 10 , 000 books were burned . These were some of the events that occurred during the Catholic