Abstract
AbstractThis paper investigates the relationship between local religiosity and episodes of persecutions in Europe between 1100 and 1850. We introduce a novel proxy for measuring local religion: the cult of saints in early Western Christianity. Our findings show that cities with an established cult of a saint are 11% points more likely to engage in Jewish persecutions and witch trials. However, cities with more progressive gender norms, measured by the presence of a female saint cult, are less likely to persecute witches compared to male-only saint cities. Our baseline relationship persists after controlling for a range of city-level economic, geographic and institutional characteristics and after accounting for other major confounders. Suggestive evidence points towards two mechanisms behind the saints-persecution relationship: (i) changes in norms induced by longer exposure to Christianity; and (ii) proximity of religious groups due to congruence of religious festivities.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference104 articles.
1. Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson, J. (2005). The rise of Europe: Atlantic trade, institutional change, and economic growth. American Economic Review, 95(3), 546–579.
2. Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.
3. Andersen, L. H., & Bentzen, J. S. (2021). In the Name of God! Religiosity and the Transition to Modern Growth, Discussion paper, University of Copenhagen.
4. Anderson, R. W., Johnson, N. D., & Koyama, M. (2017). Jewish persecutions and weather shocks: 1100–1800. The Economic Journal, 127(602), 924–958.
5. Appleby, S. R. (1999). The ambivalence of the sacred: Religion, violence, and reconciliation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.