Sir,—With reference to Karl Bottigheimer and Ute Lotz-Heumann’s article, ‘Ireland and the European Reformation’ (HI Winter 1998), I believe that Ireland is still unique in resisting the Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe. The people of the two states of Germany quoted, although they resisted conversion from Lutheranism to Calvinism, had not previously resisted conversion to Lutheranism, therefore the similarity between these states and Ireland is more in the nature of the stubborn faith of the ordinary people. Although the authors do indeed make this point it struck me that, in the case of the German people, it may have been the option offered them, Calvinism, which, at least early on, had so much in common with Lutheranism that there was little point in changing. This may be especially so when the main difference between the two Reformers was Calvin’s belief in predestination. In which case, since the decision that one is saved or not saved is made by God from before the beginning of time, there would be little point in changing.
An interesting effect of Ireland’s resistance to the Reformation is the lack of involvement in Ireland in the persecution of so-called witches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although there was little in the way of witch-hunting before the Reformation, witchcraft became a crime in Ireland in 1586 and that act was not repealed until 1829. Thus one would have expected more cases to have been made, especially as those in authority during Penal times were Protestant. One cannot suggest that there were no witches in Ireland as even a cursory look at Irish folk tales reveals their nefarious practices. However, perhaps those folk tales that illustrate the ingenuity of the people in tracing and catching witches shows a lack of need for anymore authoritative initiatives.—Yours etc.,
ANN CAHILL
Somerset
England
