Misskhaosland

During the great age of witch trials, 80,000 people were tried for witchcraft, half of them were executed, often burned alive.

Few people know, however, is that the trials reflected “non-price competition between the Catholic and Protestant churches for religious market share”.

As competing Catholic and Protestant churches vied to win over or retain their followers, they needed to make an impact – and witch trials were the battleground they chose.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/witchcraft-economics-reformation-catholic-protestant-market-share​

Oct 31, 2023 at 5:39pmWeb
Show threadMisskhaoslandOct 31, 2023
"Leveraging popular belief in witchcraft, witch-prosecutors advertised their confessional brands’ commitment and power to protect citizens from worldly manifestations of Satan’s evil.”
Show threadBensGreenGamingAcOct 31, 2023

@Misskhaosland Looks like the URL is slightly borked but it looks like a good article!

Fixed url:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/witchcraft-economics-reformation-catholic-protestant-market-share

Why Europe’s wars of religion put 40,000 ‘witches’ to a terrible death

The persecution of witches came down to a battle for the ‘market share’ of post-Reformation Christians, according to a paper by two economists

The Guardian
Show threadMisskhaoslandOct 31, 2023
@green_bens True, thank you for noticing and fixing it.
🌳