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Alex Burns
Professor Pence
EXP201
23 March 2022
How The Churches Spread the Witch Trials
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Clear they say
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Be narrow in argument
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Plant naysayer against my argument
The Witch Trials that occurred during early modern Europe were claimed to be so big
due to how religion played a prominent role in society at the time. The Witch trials of early
modern Europe had started during the mid-1400s and had lasted until the 18th century where tens
of thousands of people were tried and countless of them died all across Europe. During the time,
the Catholic and Protestant churches seemed to be involved in the witch trials and how they were
trying to get people to join the churches. These churches were using the trials as a means to grow
their followers by convincing the people they could protect them from evil witchcraft. There is
no denying that the churches had used the witch trials to gain popularity during early modern
Europe, but the churches also seemed to be responsible for expanding the witch trials in the
process.
As witch trials began to arise due to accusations of witchcraft occurring in Europe, the
Christian ran government began to take advantage of these reports. The government had denied
ideas of witchcraft and didn’t act on any of the accusations brought to them until one day they
had started acknowledging the accusations. This was explained as, “Christian authorities had
refused to acknowledge that witches existed, let alone try someone for the crime of being one.
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This was despite the fact that belief in witches was common in medieval Europe…But by 1550
Christian authorities had reversed their position,” (Doward). Even though it was explained that
the idea of witches had persisted for many years prior to the change in opinion, The authorities
had chosen to change its position after so many years which led to witch hunts and trials
beginning. During the time that witch hunts and witch trials began to become popularized, the
Christian churches also had an ongoing feud of popularity that was able to use the witch trials to
gain followers. The churches split into two factions, Catholic and Protestant which both were
competing for followers during a time where Christianity was what controlled much of Europe.
It can be deducted that the Protestant church was responsible for a lot of the trials spreading such
as in a place like, “Germany, where Protestantism began, accounted for 40 percent of these
persecutions. Switzerland, France, England, and the Netherlands—all countries where
Protestantism spread—accounted for 35 percent,” (Little). Since Protestantism was newer
compared to the Catholic church, they seemed to use the spread of the witch trials as a way to
also spread their practices. This spread had lasted quite some time and eventually the witch trials
had started to come to an end. This end was in part due to the decline in religion during the time
and how the people of Europe began to lose their devout beliefs in Christianity, and this was
explained to be connected to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. The treaty that came from this
event changed how nations were able to rule and also as a result led to nations being able to have
control over the religions they adopted. This can also be explained by how, “After that time
international conflict had much more to do with national self-interest and dynastic
aggrandizement than with religious ideology. At the national level the same tendency can be
observed in the sources of domestic unrest: after 1650 there were few religious wars in Europe,”
(Levack, 270). The fact that nations were more concerned with growing their respective nation
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rather than the religion had led to the churches losing followers and having many of their
followers become less involved with the church since there were other religions that nations
prioritized. The changes played a major role in the decline of the witch trials and ultimately led
to the catholic and especially the protestant church slowing their spread across Europe.
I believe that by focusing on how the Catholic and Protestant churches used the witch
trials to gain followers, it was also overlooked that the churches were responsible for spreading
the witch trials a much greater amount across Europe. As mentioned previously, the idea of
witches and witchcraft had persisted long before the authorities decided to change it rules
regarding witch trials, but once the authorities had finally acknowledged witches, the churches
had started to gain a lot more attention. This outcome was obviously due to the general
population relying on religion to save them from the evil witchcraft and prevent them from being
accused, so in order to avoid these things, turning to the churches for safety was the only option.
For an idea such as cursing a neighbor or a person chanting in a devilish language, there
wouldn’t be any physical thing that can save someone from the evil witchcraft. So, the one thing
that could possibly save someone from the witchery would be to follow in a morally good faith
that can fight against the evil which would’ve been Christianity. And when it came to the
churches the best thing, they could’ve asked for at the time was for their religion to grow and for
more people to join the churches since this would allow for more power to the churches. When it
came to the churches there was the Catholic church which had been around for quite some time
but there was also the Protestant church which was newer and most likely yearning for their
following to be on a greater scale. This leads to the fact that the churches must have been
responsible for spreading many of the trials and creating many accusations in order to grow their
following. It was stated that the protestant churches were found to be responsible for 40 percent
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of the persecutions in Germany alone, which seems like enough evidence to explain how the
trials got on such a grand scale. But it was also stated that Protestantism was also responsible for
35 percent of the persecutions in four other countries during the time of the witch trials. For the
protestant church alone to be responsible for so many of the persecutions, it can only be inferred
that they had a motive behind these actions. The most likely motive was to grow their church by
using the fear of witches as a means to gain attention, and the easiest way to instill the fear of
witches in as many people as possible was to accuse as many people as possible as being
witches. This act would not only make the people hearing about the witchcraft want to go to
church to be protected but it would also make those accused want to go to church to try and
prevent their possible execution. It also didn’t seem like the churches were trying to stop or put
an end to all of the madness since they weren’t exactly responsible for the downfall of the witch
trials. The trials seemed to ultimately come to an end due to multiple factors such as laws
regarding the use of torture and how there needed to be sufficient evidence to accuse someone of
witchcraft. But it was also due to what the churches were trying to avoid and do the opposite of
during the witch trials which was making more people believe in the church’s faith. This
eventually became unobtainable due to the Peace of Westphalia as mentioned before which made
it a lot harder for Christianity to stay consistent across Europe. The fact that nations could choose
whether they wanted to keep Christianity as their national religion resulted in much of the
European population to change faiths and also become less faithful towards their religion in
general. Ultimately, there is no denying that the witch trials helped to give the churches a greater
following due to the protection a religion had promised, but it can also be concluded that the
churches were responsible for the witch trials becoming so impactful on the European nations
because of the potential power that could come a greater following.
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Works Cited
Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. “The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A
Sociologist’s Perspective.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 86, no. 1, University of
Chicago Press, 1980, pp. 1–31, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2778849. Accessed 23 Mar.
2022.
Brown, Katie. “Salvation and Scapegoating: What Caused the Early Modern Witch Hunts?”
TheCollector, 7 Oct. 2021, https://www.thecollector.com/early-modern-witch-hunts/.
Accessed 23 Mar. 2022.
Doward, Jamie. “Why Europe's Wars of Religion Put 40,000 'Witches' to a Terrible Death.” The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 Jan. 2018,
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/witchcraft-economics-reformationcatholic-protestant-market-share. Accessed 23 Mar. 2022.
Levack, Brian P. "The decline and end of witch-hunting." The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern
Europe, 3rd ed., Pearson Longman, 2006, pp. 253-288. Accessed 23 Mar. 2022.
Little, Becky. “How Medieval Churches Used Witch Hunts to Gain More Followers.”
History.com, A&E Television Networks, 10 Jan. 2018,
https://www.history.com/news/how-medieval-churches-used-witch-hunts-to-gain-morefollowers. Accessed 23 Mar. 2022.