The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays

... Why was the first Enlightenment, the enlightenment of the Renaissance, which spread outwards from Italy, cut short in its original home and transferred, for its continuation, to other countries? Why was the economic advance which, in the sixteenth century, seemed so general, and in which all Europe had its share, carried to completion only in certain area: areas which, at first, had not seemed best fitted for the purpose? This is a large question and obviously no general or easy answer can be satisfactory. In this paper I wish to consider one aspect of it: an aspect which is not, of course, easily separable, and which is admittedly controversial, but whose importance no one can deny: the relgious aspect.
For religion is deeply involved in this shift. We may state the case summarily by saying that the Renaissance was a Catholic, and the Enlightenment a Protestant phenomenon....