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Between the devil and the inquisitor: Anabaptists, diabolical conspiracies and magical beliefs in the sixteenth-century Netherlands
DOI link for Between the devil and the inquisitor: Anabaptists, diabolical conspiracies and magical beliefs in the sixteenth-century Netherlands
Between the devil and the inquisitor: Anabaptists, diabolical conspiracies and magical beliefs in the sixteenth-century Netherlands book
Between the devil and the inquisitor: Anabaptists, diabolical conspiracies and magical beliefs in the sixteenth-century Netherlands
DOI link for Between the devil and the inquisitor: Anabaptists, diabolical conspiracies and magical beliefs in the sixteenth-century Netherlands
Between the devil and the inquisitor: Anabaptists, diabolical conspiracies and magical beliefs in the sixteenth-century Netherlands book
ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the intersections between the heresy of Anabaptism and the supposedly even greater apostasy of demonic witchcraft. Anabaptism challenged the institutional church(es) because of its rejection of the official social structure and hierarchical understanding of the cosmos. The ability of many Anabaptists to hide their unbaptized infants from the authorities, however, may have led to increased suspicion regarding midwives, who, perhaps not surprisingly, figured largely in witchcraft beliefs. One would therefore expect the interrogators to carry over techniques and ideas from one interrogation to another, although in most cases the Dutch authorities were able to distinguish clearly between those accused of Anabaptist heresy and those charged with diabolical witchcraft. Anabaptists were apparently accused of being under the lordship of the devil, even to the degree of possession. The Anabaptist belief that Catholic practices were witchcraft seems to have been widespread.