It is hard to dispute that the religious movement (or process of religious change) known as the European Reformation caused division and displacement on an unprecedented scale.[799]
Yet, it is all too easy to overstate the frequency and ubiquity of the violence that it produced. A more nuanced approach is required to interpret and explain the variability and complexity of this response.
Certainly, communal violence in early modern Europe was profoundly shaped by the Reformation. Itself a violent rupture in the unity of Christendom, it stimulated a range of confessional tensions which provoked and justified intercommunal strife. This violence ranged from the trading of verbal insults to the destruction of sacred images and even to full-blown massacre. However, while the threat of violence hung over social relations in many communities, it only occasionally erupted into assaults on objects, property and people, actions which were often highly ritualised. The story of communal violence in early modern Europe, then, follows a familiar pattern, with the differences largely of scale rather than substance. Yet national historiographies have tended to highlight the differences rather than the similarities. Although there is substantial variation in their extent and brutality, according to the various political, social and cultural configurations of the communities involved, there are many common aspects to the violent acts perpetrated in the name of religion. Official direction and popular initiative may vie for our attention in understanding these aspects, but it is not always possible, or straightforward, to identify or separate their role.When we survey the landscape of intercommunal violence in early modern Europe, wherever we look, confessional tensions loom large. The Protestant Reformation resulted in a rapid proliferation of minority groups which, in the sixteenth century in particular, caused clashes with the majority confession and the authorities seeking to curb civil strife. Much of the violence which characterised the Reformation was localised and personal.
It affected existing and long-standing solidarities as neighbours and families were divided by the confessional tensions that arose. Its impact, within previously harmonious and stable communities, provides a clear demonstration of Anton Blok's claim that the ‘fiercest struggles' often take place ‘between individuals, groups and communities that differ very little'.[800] This violence was often confined and small scale, caused by disputes over processions, the use of churches and bells, sites of worship and burial, iconoclasm and other devotional slights. Yet it could also be significant and widespread, as in the case of the German Peasants' War, the Dutch Revolt and the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France. The outbreak of civil war added a new dimension to the context and extent of violence. It could intersect with and exacerbate other grievances, from the political to the socio-economic. Additionally, a challenge to the mainstream faith could be seen as a threat to the position of a ruler and questioned the minority's obedience to the forces of law and order in general as disturbers of the public peace. Having failed to eliminate the growth of Protestantism, which the Catholic Church viewed as a heresy, the authorities realised that some form of accommodation needed to be reached. Protestant rulers, too, had to navigate a path of toleration with those of their subjects who continued to uphold Catholicism in return for pledges of loyalty. As a result of these considerations, prosecution and punishment for treason became favoured over that for religious dissent.[801] Offenders were to be treated as rebels against the polity rather than martyrs for their faith.As regimes sought to incorporate the new reality of confessional coexistence, so resentment towards and tensions with the majority faith grew, often resulting in episodes of unrest. Whatever their own stance, rulers and their officials were concerned to restrict and control spontaneous outbursts of popular violence whichever faith was involved.
Indeed, the authorities could attract animosity even from their co-religionists if the often fiercely contested concessions made to the minority faith were believed to have gone too far. Thus, a simple dichotomy between more tolerant and morerepressive regimes fails to capture the latent potential for violence amid officially sanctioned coexistence. Claim and counter-claim dominated accusations of which side was responsible for episodic violence. The faiths condemned each other's actions while seeking to justify their own. Violent acts by opponents could justify more repressive measures against them. Descriptions of ritualised violence, in particular, were used to dehumanise and vilify the perpetrators, but historians have interpreted such rituals as crucial for our understanding and explanation of these actions. Even when the veracity of such reports is suspect, the cultural repertoire they reflect tells us much about the social mores which informed and exacerbated animosities that were not always or solely religious. These themes will be explored by focusing on the various forms of violence which were already present or developed within local communities and on the more large-scale confessional conflict which developed into civil war in significant parts of Europe.
More on the topic It is hard to dispute that the religious movement (or process of religious change) known as the European Reformation caused division and displacement on an unprecedented scale.[799]:
- Violence against Religious Minorities
- Printmaking and Reformation
- Religious Valorisation
- Organised Religious Violence
- Massacre and Atrocity
- Conclusion: Managing Religious Diversity