Rick Fischer
Jul 28, 2017 · 1 min read

This thread and comments are moving into the realm of good scholarship. Your notes on the influence of the Reformation in witch hunts is an important dimension. Luther did not tack up his Ninety-Five Theses to bring about a schism, but to precipitate badly needed reforms in the Church. It coincidently happened that many principalities and monarchies were trying to throw off the yoke of Papal domination of their secular governments, and Luther unwittingly gave them the tool they needed.

Over-simplified, of course, but the secular leaders used the social power of a reversion to fundamentalism to oppose and replace the laxity into which the Church laity had lapsed, and in the process, end Papal influence. Priest hunts were common alongside witch hunts. Fundamentalism is the breeding ground of pogroms. Consequence — religious wars and slaughter.

Secularists argue that all that carnage was the fault of religion itself and inherent in religious conviction. Rather, it was the result of exploiting the power of religious conviction to achieve political power.

Rick Fischer

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