Witch hunting in early modern Europe was a phenomenon that manifested in many different forms, motivated by many different factors. As is evident throughout history, these differences were often regional. In early modern historiography, religion often plays an integral role in the differences we can observe; this is certainly the case in the study of early modern European witch-hunting. However, religious factors cannot be cited as the best explanation of the regional nature of the witch-hunting phenomenon since the maelstrom of sociocultural, legal and economic factors which also contributed to the craze can better explain these regional differences. Early modern Europe had not yet reached the state of cultural homogeneity that we can observe in the modern day; each region had its own unique sociocultural, legal and economic composition. In contrast, by this time in history, Europe had become entirely Christianised under the rule of Christendom’s foremost institution: the Roman Catholic church. Though Luther’s Protestant Reformation had disrupted the stranglehold of the Catholic church, this alone is not sufficient to explain the regional variance in the nature and proclivity of the witch-hunting phenomena, thus religious factors cannot best explain these regional divergences.
However, religious factors are certainly noteworthy in examining the development and course of early modern European witch hunting. The phenomena took place on a backdrop of religious turmoil; the European Wars of Religion ravaged the Holy Roman Empire. By 1617 it was clear that Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, would die without an heir; his lands would pass to his nearest male relative, his cousin Ferdinand of Styria. Ferdinand, having been educated by the Jesuits, was a staunch Catholic. The rejection of Ferdinand as Crown Prince by predominantly Hussite Bohemia triggered the Thirty Years' War in 1618. In this climate of religiously motivated conflict, the mood amongst the populace of Germany was hostile; for decades after the outbreak of the conflicts that came to comprise the European Wars of Religion, mercenary groups roamed the countryside preying on innocent bystanders – one group even styled themselves the ‘Werewolves’. In the course of the conflict, huge damage was done to monasteries, churches and other religious landmarks. The war had proved disastrous for the German-speaking parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Germany lost population and territory and was further divided into hundreds of largely impotent semi-independent states; the Imperial power retreated to Austria and the Habsburg lands and the Netherlands and Switzerland were confirmed independent. The eventual peace succeeding the Wars of Religion institutionalized the Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist religious divide in Germany, with populations either converting, or moving to areas controlled by rulers of their own faith. Certainly after this divide was solidified, Catholic governments in their respective regions took more active steps against protestant subjects to ensure religious conformity; confiscating their property, chasing them with hounds to mass, exiling entire districts, and ignominiously executing their leaders. This crescendo of religious tensions almost certainly contributed to the witch hunting craze in Germany, given the intrinsically theological nature of the witchcraft of the period. The prevalence of the theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin in Germany also contributed to the development of its witch-hunting phenomena. Both Luther and Calvin’s theological approaches stressed the omnipresence of the Devil, Luther, in his fervor against the Catholic church, even branded the Pope as the incarnation of Satan and his pontificate the kingdom of the Devil. The hardline nature of this doctrine influenced the severity of witch-hunting behavior in early modern Germany; since witchcraft and the demonology of the time were intrinsically intertwined. The Bamberg witch trial is among the largest witch trials in the Early Modern period: it was one of the four largest witch trials in Germany alongside the Trier witch trials, the Fulda witch trials, and the Würzburg witch trials and demonstrates the role of religion well – particularly the case of Johannes Junius. The Prince-Bishop presiding over his trial, Johann Georg, was devoted to spreading the Catholic counter reformation; Junius was implicated in the accusations of witchcraft made against an associate who reputed to have Protestant sympathies. As a result of the presiding Prince-Bishop’s religious bent, a confession was attained from Junius under duress and he was burnt to death. This case study exemplifies the pervasive influence of religious tension on the nature and course of witch hunting in early modern Germany.
A similar pattern of religious influence over the nature of regional witch-hunting can be seen in Sweden. Sweden had been undergoing a similar period of religious transition, beginning under Eric XIV, who came to the throne in 1560 and at first imposed recognition of his authority over the Church. He also admitted substantial numbers of Huguenot Calvinists to his kingdom. Adding to the turmoil, the Swedish church refused doctrinal Calvinism in the Synod of Stockholm in 1565. The Personal Union with Catholic Poland under the Catholic Sigismund III Wasa in 1592–1598 resulted in a final clash between Catholicism and Protestantism in Sweden. The tensions resulted in the Uppsala Synod of 1593, where Protestantism in accordance with the Augsburg Confession was adopted as the state religion. Catholicism was to be abandoned, the Swedish church was to return to the doctrines of the Swedish Church Ordinance 1571, and the Nova Ordinantia of 1575 and the Röda boken ('Red Book') of 1576 (Catholic-inclined doctrinal additions made to the Ordinance) were to be removed from it’s canon. The tumultuous nature of the Swedish reformation is best typified by the concluding events of 1598; protestants, united under the king's Protestant uncle Duke Charles against the Catholic King of Sweden and Poland Sigismund and thereby the Polish-Swedish union and Catholicism, rose up in the War against Sigismund. The war ended with the defeat of Sigismund and thereby Catholicism in Sweden, and the execution of his followers in the Linköping Bloodbath of 1600. This brutal climax of the struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism in Sweden is testament to the prevalence of religion in Sweden’s civil disruption of the period. This theological struggle certainly manifested in the witch-hunting activity of the time, as shown by the Torsåker witch trails of 1675. Due to the lack of separation between church and state, Sweden’s Lutheran priests, under the directive of the King, were obliged to report the crimes of supposed ‘witches’ to their congregations. In this case of Torsåker, the priest appointed to investigate reports of witches was Laurentius Christophori Hornæus. Hornæus was especially zealous in his disdain of witches (inherent in his adherence to Lutheran doctrine) and caused a widespread hysteria in his diocese. By the time the trial reached its conclusion, 71 people had been beheaded and burned. This case study demonstrates the clear influence of the climate of religious unrest on the civil population, indicating that religion contributed to regional differences in the occurrence of witch hunting in early modern Europe.
Furthermore, England is also a prime example of religious conditions influencing the nature of witch hunts of the period. The English Civil war was, in part, the exhibition of the Europe wide conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism which became the zeitgeist of the period. At the beginning of his reign in 1625, King Charles I had married the Roman Catholic Henrietta Maria of France; included in her marriage treaty were provisions that she be allowed to practice her religion freely at Court. Although Charles told his Parliament that he would not relax religious restrictions on Catholics in England, he promised to do exactly this in a secret supplementary marriage treaty with his brother-in-law Louis XIII of France. A further provision was also made in the treaty that King Charles I was to set about lifting restrictions for recusants (Catholics who refused to attend Anglican Church services).
As a result, the marriage was to be admired on a popular level; Roman Catholics were widely distrusted and feared by the England’s populous – the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I just 72 years previously had seen rampant persecution of Protestants. This established a backdrop of religious suspicion and distrust in Charles’ England. Further fueling this religious tension, Charles had strong proclivity toward piety; he preferred a High Anglican form of worship and regarded the hierarchy of priests and bishops to be of vital important to church functioning. This alarmed protestants, since it appeared to expose Charles’ Catholic sympathies. His appointing of Archbishop Laud in 1633 furthered this suspicion; Laud’s curacy saw the reintroduction of vestments for clergy and decorative features in churches, something Laud regarded as the ‘beauty of holiness’. Unfortunately, Protestants saw this as a shift to quasi-Catholicism. The breakdown of state religious control after the Long Parliament resolved to reform church government catalyzed the emergence of new and often radical religious sects in England. These radical sects, which included Ranters, Baptists, Diggers, Levellers, and Quakers, played a prominent role in the religious components of the Civil War. In this climate of a fractured landscape for England’s faithful, it is logical to conclude that this went some way to motivating the ensuing spate of witch-hunting incidences. No character exemplifies the integral role that puritan zeal, spurred by the spirit of revolt against a quasi-Catholic king, played better than self-styled ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins. Hopkins received a staunch puritan upbringing; the son of a puritan clergyman, his fervent pursuit of witches was motivated by a strong motivation to destroy the "works of the devil” instilled by his father. Indeed, in the climate of revolution in which he operated, where the philosophical backbone of civil resistance was Puritan in nature, it is clear to see that religion influenced the conduct of Hopkins witch finding; thus regional differences in European witch hunting can be partially explained by religious factors.
As demonstrated, regional differences can indeed be traced back, at least in part, to the influence of religion on witch hunting conduct. In Germany, the turmoil brought about by the European Wars of Religion and the devastation it wrought on the populous can easily be counted as a factor in the communal distrust that was so integral to its witch hysteria. Similarly, Sweden’s tumultuous transition from Catholicism to Protestantism, along with the close integration of church and state which was unique to the region, can clearly been seen to have been a motivating factor in the elevated brutality of Sweden’s own witch hysteria. Further, England’s civil conflict – quickly transitioning from political to religious in nature – surely contributed to the theological and folkloric idiosyncrasies which comprised English witch hysteria. However, religious factors cannot solely derive these unique features in each regions’ witch phenomena; the reach of theological nuances is not wide-ranging enough to sufficiently explain why these features manifested amongst each society’s lowest castes, there is certainly other factors which could have measurable influence on early modern Europe’s peasant population – and thus influence their conduct in witch hunting.