Where do superstitions come from?

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

By 'the Catholics' I mean the church establishment of said sect.

Oh, okay! And when were they kicked out exactly?

Here's a bit on majorities in 1610:

http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/germany_1610.htm

Pete

Pretty much confirms that, about a century after Luther broke with Rome, the Lutherans were a small component of the total picture in 1610 too, mostly in Saxony and dominant only there and in Wurtemberg.

John

[Boreas]

Oh, and superstitions? The tooth fairy leaves them under your pillow.

John

[piece-itpete]

At the time the Catholic church did not tolerate dissent. Anywhere they were not in the majority, or the only legal church, they had basically lost.

Luther was also agast at the desecration of churches that followed the Catholics getting das boot. He really wanted a kinda reformed Catholicism from what I can see. Which as a 'raised in the Lutheran church' person I can attest to, when I attended a Catholic mass I knew most of it already. It was remarkable.

Can I have a quarter now?

Pete

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

At the time the Catholic church did not tolerate dissent. Anywhere they were not in the majority, or the only legal church, they had basically lost.

Luther was also agast at the desecration of churches that followed the Catholics getting das boot. He really wanted a kinda reformed Catholicism from what I can see. Which as a 'raised in the Lutheran church' person I can attest to, when I attended a Catholic mass I knew most of it already. It was remarkable.

Can I have a quarter now?

Pete

Religious dissenters flourished where they were permitted to do so by the monarchs who ruled them. In Luther's time and for centuries before and after, there was no such thing as a German state or a "King of Germany". There was a King of Bavaria, a King of Saxony, a King of Brandedburg, etc. That's why you see some of these petty states that are solidly one thing or the other as far as religion goes. The ruling monarch said "Only Catholicism will be permitted." or "Only Lutheranism will be permitted."

People moved around to find a place that was hospitable to their beliefs. It's why the Puritans, the Quakers, the Amish, the Huguenots came to North America, after all.

John