Evidently, with these changes to churches and church practises, came the change in what people concerned actually believed in. Without doubt, everyone’s religious ideas were being influenced and changed by what was going on around them. Concerning these changes, the Reformation caused a distinct change in the beliefs of the devil amongst the Protestant formers. Roman Catholics believed in the devil but had always believed they could defeat him, and had certain ways of protecting themselves from Satan’s wickedness. In the Catholic faith, it was common to deploy ‘supernatural weapons’ against the devil, such as candles and holy water. The ‘weapons’ were thought to offer protection against evil spirits, and as Darren Oldridge comments in his book; ‘The Devil and the Reformation’, even the ringing of church bells was accepted as protection against flying demons. Catholics believed that their traditional rituals such as these protected them from the evils of the devil and therefore they weren’t as scared of him as they could have been, these ‘magical’ rituals that helped them face him. Consequently, with the Reformation, the reformers’ decision to reject the practises of the Roman Catholic faith resulted in them losing these ‘magical’ rituals that had ‘protected’ people from, and ‘defeated’, the devil for so many years. Protestants believed that a person could not do anything to earn the love of God and therefore lived in devote prayer, and worked extremely hard to try and acquire God’s affection. Also, the threat of the devil was taken much more seriously by Protestants than Catholics, and they believed that he was absolutely everywhere. This increased people’s awareness of the devil’s presence in the world and therefore increased their fear of him. With the Protestants’ distinct lack of rituals to ward off the devil and the prominence of his evil in their faith, they had to invent ways to defeat him themselves. The medieval perspectives were that the devil could assume a physical form, occupy real space, and be located inside a human victim. With this in mind, people started to accuse others of being in league with the devil when terrible, evil things went wrong in their lives. Therefore, with more and more people being persecuted as witches, witch hunts were encouraged to start and become common practise. It seems that witch hunts were a kind of deterrent used by Protestants to protect them from and rid themselves of evil spirits. Thus, it is respectable to say that the witch craze was triggered by lose of Catholic rituals, and that the Reformation, and the religious upheaval it caused was a catalyst to it.
Another significant event that took place in the Early Modern Period that caused religious (as well as social) upheaval was the Counter Reformation or Catholic Reformation. The object of this movement was to eliminate corruption within the Roman Catholic Church, to educate clergy, to inspire and strengthen the faith of the laity and to reclaim allegiance of reformers to Protestantism. Catholic countries waged war against Protestants in a number of internal and international conflicts, especially during the civil wars in France in the late 16th century and the Thirty Years’ War in the early 17th century. As Brian Levack writes in his book; ‘The witch-hunt in early modern Europe’ the Reformation and Counter Reformation served to intensify the process of witch-hunting and helped it to spread from place to place.
The Early Modern Period was fraught with events that caused social upheaval within communities. As I have said, the Reformation and Counter Reformation caused not only religious upheaval but considerable social upheaval as well. The movements caused the change of people’s beliefs on religion, which therefore changed their whole outlook on life because religion meant everything to people in Early Modern society. People had a reliance on superstitions and religious explanations that the Reformation and Counter Reformation either argued or changed completely. People weren’t sure what or who to believe, and who to trust, so would often conform to whatever religion was prominent at the time, and take on its religious values. In the case of Protestantism, an increased fear of the devil supposedly increased the chance of accusing someone of being a witch.
Increased population throughout the Early Modern Period meant increased poverty, which caused considerable turmoil. Areas of Europe were becoming overcrowded and fewer crops were to be had by all due to crop failures caused by land pressure. This encouraged people to find scapegoats for the failures of crops etc due to natural causes; which evidently helped to start and fuel the witch craze. This increase in poverty also enlarged the amount of jealousy within communities and the level of blame, thus, increasing the number of witch accusations.
Another social change which mainly helped to spread the practise of witch-hunting from place to place was the increase in market networks/ relationships. This meant that rumours and gossip of such things as witch-trials and suspicion of witches were being spread from place to place. As market folk travelled, so did the rumours and gossip. Evidently this form of social upheaval increased people’s awareness of the practise of witch hunting and therefore encouraged them to take up the practise themselves.
With the increase of the population, and therefore the augmentation of poverty within communities, disease became more widespread and people were more susceptible to becoming ill. Concerning this, and the fact that people of the age had a distinct lack of scientific knowledge, yet again, ‘suspicious’ people were being accused of being witches because there was nothing or no one else to blame for the increased amount of death and turmoil.
Overall, in conclusion to the question, religious and social upheavals were incredibly significant factors to why witch hunts resulted in the Early Modern Period. In my opinion, the word upheaval reflects the changes in which people of the age had to endure and face. Evidently, with these changes came the changes in people’s psychological outlooks on life, and therefore changes in their behaviours. This resulted in events such as the accusations of, more than likely, normal people as witches.
