The Role Of Religion In The Reformation

Natalie Zemon Davis addresses several different aspects of violence that occurred in the Reformation between the Catholics and Protestants. Both the Catholics and Protestants felt that it was their duty to utilize violence for purification purposes. This would eliminate people that did not have the same beliefs.. In order to do this they would hold riots to defend truth of religion. Essentially, Catholics and Protestants wanted to prove their superiority and have a society that is united by a single faith. Between both the Catholic and Protestant crowds, there were differences in their perception of the rites of violence. The Catholics crowd believed they were “the champions in the destruction of religious property…not only to their being

The Catholics were not satisfied with burning or immersing heretical corpses, but instead “the bodies had to be weakened and humiliated further.. they were thrown to the dogs like Jezebel, they were dragged through the streets, they had their genitalia and internal organs cut away, which were then hawked through the city in a ghoulish commerce”(Davis 63). Compared to the Protestants that were relentless in the way of mutilating priests, but that paid little to no attention to the corpses. Davis states, “Calvinist crowds were using his sword as the king ought to have been using it and as some princes and city councils outside of France had already used it”(Davis 59). People thought they had the right to act the ways they believed political authorities should act. Both the Catholics and Protestants took any sense of care, compassion, and empathy out of the equation and they did what they want to. They felt it was justified to be violent to reach their goals. Predominantly, Davis meant by “rites” and religious violence is the “connection with fundamental values and self-definition of a community. The violence is explained not