EXACERBATING FACTOR - The religious issues in the Holy Roman Empire and Bamberg

The Holy Roman Empire

• a patchwork of political entities of varying size and influence

• Catholics lived alongside Lutherans

The Reformation in Germany

• As Protestant faith gradually gained support in the early 16th century, German towns became divided

• After the Catholic Emperor Charles V gained victory over a Protestant confederacy in 1548, a new principle was established; that the religion of a ruler should be the religion of a region

Prince-Bishops

• a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty; they combined religious authority with political authority

• Catholic regions ruled by prince-bishops were the most extensive witch-hunters and saw the most witch persecution in Germany

Reformation causing witch-hunting

• led to German people fearing the Devil’s work all around them

The Counter-Reformation

• Began by the pope as a reaction to the Reformation in the second half of the 16th century

• Led by zealous prince-bishops from across the Holy Roman Empire

Bamberg and the Counter-Reformation

• When von Aschhausen became prince-bishop in 1609, he prioritised the conversion of his Protestant parishes to Catholicism - supplies of wood to Protestant parishes were restricted, fines were imposed on parishes that remained Protestant, and Dissidents were sent into exile

Resistance to the Counter Reformation

• Protestant communities in Bamberg remained stubborn and in 1619, some parishioners in Marktzeuln were still refusing to convert