How Did The Protestant Reformation Change

During the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation challenged the beliefs and trusts of the Catholic Church. Between the years of 1517 to 1648, the Protestant Reformation began a time of testing the ideologies of the Church; this resulted in extreme political, religious and social shifts in the Church of England. Protestant reformers began to object the language that the Bible was written in and therefore translated it into various other languages, most notably in English. These religious shifts in Europe initiated changes to the ideology and beliefs of Popes, Bishops, and Priests. This was further fuelled by the influence of the Kings, and the power they held over his people especially King Henry. It essentially also changed the meaning and definition of a number of phrases and words within the bible; one being the word ‘witch’. When this word was translated from Latin, not only did it change the meaning, but also influenced behaviour towards certain groups in society. There are

The change in the meaning of the word “witch”- in notably German and English protestant translations,became more related to the sex of a person rather than being a gender-neutral word. Women were often the ones targeted regarding this issue;“their attackers could use could use the label of witch to help suppress them”. ‘Be this as it may, the gender has before and afterwards has coloured the witch-hunt accounts’. The author Marianne Hester argues that witchcraft was not only sex related but also sex specific. ‘In England more than 90 per cent of those formally accused of witchcraft were women, and the few men who were also formally accused tended to be married to an accused witch’. Ever since the Protestant Reformation, there have been a number of studies attempting to explain the witch hunt; most of them having a common