Religious Sects In The 15th Century

By the 15th century, Europe had transitioned to a period marked by religious conflict and political turmoil. The Catholic Church--which had previously enjoyed exercising absolute authority in all aspects of life in Christendom--was beginning to wane from a series of scandals, especially the practice of priests laying with concubines. Clergy members attempted to point this factor of corruption towards women--who were still accused in the 1400s as being more carnal, and prone to misbehavior--capable of manipulating men with their evil graces. In 1517 the Protestant Reformation erupted, Protestant sects such as Calvinism began to gain massive popularity by the 1530s--preaching hard work and the self sacrifice as the keys to salvation. Europe would
In 1486, two dominican monks named Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger wrote Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches)--written during a period when many Church officials broke their vows of celibacy. The book claims the reason more women are persecuted as witches than men is because scripture explains how women are of a more imperfect and more carnal nature than men. Overall, it makes sense that these authors would state this claim because they were one of the few religious sects that took their vows of celibacy seriously during this period; therefore, they observed with great bewilderment and loathing at the amount of priests and other clerical figures who succumbed to sexual temptations. However, By the 1530s, after the Protestant reformation, the idea of deriving authority from scriptures alone proved to create multiple religious sects such as Calvinism, founded by John Calvin--who would use scripture to write Institutes of The Christian Religion, in 1536. This text argued that there is an infinite number of evil spirits which can possess human beings, and people must be willing to constantly resist and fight them off. Overall, this argument was made at the same time when Calvin was trying to reform the Protestant City of Geneva, but was forced to flee to Strasbourg; therefore, Calvin’s desires to form a sinless society only
For example, in 1587--before being burned at the stake, a licensed midwife in Dillingen, Germany, was tried as a witch victimized by Satan. Her testimony claims Satan convinced her to kill the children of noble families in positions of power; however, upon careful observance of the text, it appears more likely that she was paid by a man to commit acts of murder. Although she was a paid assassin--she was tried as a witch, and was tortured until she testified her supposed witchcraft. Not by coincidence, the man who most-likely paid her was not considered a suspect. Therefore, It’s not surprising that the woman confessed this kind of treason because she was put under considerable pressure by an inquisition--which in itself could be corrupt, and was not unknown to occasionally displace people from power after strange circumstances for an exchange of coin. For instance, in 1628, when the prominent mayor of Bamberg Germany was tried as a witch. In a letter to his daughter, he makes clear his innocence, and the chilling remarks of his captors who even beg him to come up with any story that might convince the public he was involved in Witchcraft; since, despite his innocence, he was going to be found guilty one way or the other. Therefore, it’s not surprising that he would seem to admit such a bizarre