Intercommunal Violence in Europe

Abstract

It is hard to dispute that the religious movement (or process of religious change) known as the European Reformation caused division and displacement on an unprecedented scale. Yet, it is all too easy to overstate the frequency and ubiquity of the violence that it produced. A more nuanced approach is required to interpret and explain the variability and complexity of this response. Certainly, communal violence in early modern Europe was profoundly shaped by the Reformation. Itself a violent rupture in the unity of Christendom, it stimulated a range of confessional tensions which provoked and justified inter-communal strife. This violence ranged from the trading of verbal insults to the destruction of sacred images and even to full-blown massacre. However, while the threat of violence hung over social relations in many communities, it only occasionally erupted into assaults on objects, property and people, which were often highly ritualized. The story of communal violence in early modern Europe, then, follows a familiar pattern, with the differences largely of scale rather than substance. Yet national historiographies have tended to highlight the differences rather than the similarities. Although there is substantial variation in their extent and brutality, according to the various political, social and cultural configurations of the communities involved, there are many common aspects to the violent acts perpetrated in the name of religion. Official direction and popular initiative may vie for our attention in understanding these aspects, but it is not always possible, or straightforward, to identify or separate their role.