Witch Hunts During the Protestant Reformation
DBQ 2: Witch Hunts during the Protestant Reformation
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The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century did something revolutionary
to religion; it brought people back to the scriptures, teaching them to read the Bible for themselves instead of simply accepting the Church’s interpretation. Martin Luther, John
Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli and other Protestant Reformers denounced certain Church doctrines and practices because they were not found in scripture; the selling of indulgences, certain sacraments, and even the existence of the Pope were called into question. This return to scripture had an unintended consequence, however: people began to pick out certain passages in the Bible and interpret them literally, at times applying them to everyday life in violent ways. One vivid example of this phenomena is the explosion of witch hunting in the late fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. The inflamed religious population created by the Reformation and the discovery of evidence in Scripture to support the existence of witches fueled a hysteria surrounding witch hunting that couldn’t be stopped.
!
During the Reformation, Luther and other reformers stripped religion of its rituals
and brought passion into it, making it a personal journey and relationship rather than a cycle of mass, traditions and ceremonies. Every person had the ability to be in touch with God, and to feel God, and to understand God, which brought religion into people’s lives in a whole new way. In the fashion of the Age of Faith, people began to use superstitions and religious ideas to explain natural events, such as disease, death and illness. They cited scripture; the Devil was in everything evil, they would reason, and death is evil, so the Devil must be involved. An example of such behavior is the case of
Walpurga Hausmannin, a widow who worked for a man in the community named Hans
Schlumperger after the death of her husband. She was accused of young infant’s
!
The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century did something revolutionary
to religion; it brought people back to the scriptures, teaching them to read the Bible for themselves instead of simply accepting the Church’s interpretation. Martin Luther, John
Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli and other Protestant Reformers denounced certain Church doctrines and practices because they were not found in scripture; the selling of indulgences, certain sacraments, and even the existence of the Pope were called into question. This return to scripture had an unintended consequence, however: people began to pick out certain passages in the Bible and interpret them literally, at times applying them to everyday life in violent ways. One vivid example of this phenomena is the explosion of witch hunting in the late fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. The inflamed religious population created by the Reformation and the discovery of evidence in Scripture to support the existence of witches fueled a hysteria surrounding witch hunting that couldn’t be stopped.
!
During the Reformation, Luther and other reformers stripped religion of its rituals
and brought passion into it, making it a personal journey and relationship rather than a cycle of mass, traditions and ceremonies. Every person had the ability to be in touch with God, and to feel God, and to understand God, which brought religion into people’s lives in a whole new way. In the fashion of the Age of Faith, people began to use superstitions and religious ideas to explain natural events, such as disease, death and illness. They cited scripture; the Devil was in everything evil, they would reason, and death is evil, so the Devil must be involved. An example of such behavior is the case of
Walpurga Hausmannin, a widow who worked for a man in the community named Hans
Schlumperger after the death of her husband. She was accused of young infant’s