The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century: Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change

by Hugh Trevor-Roper

The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century collects nine essays by Trevor-Roper on the themes of religion, the Reformation, and social change. In his longest essay, “The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Trevor-Roper points out that “in England the most active phase of witch-hunting coincided with times of Puritan pressure―the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the period of the civil wars―and some very fanciful theories have been built on this coincidence. But . . . the persecution of witches in England was trivial compared with the experience of the Continent and of Scotland. Therefore . . . [one must examine] the craze as a whole, throughout Europe, and [seek] to relate its rise, frequency, and decline to the general intellectual and social movements of the time.” Because Trevor-Roper believes that “the English Revolution of the seventeenth century cannot be isolated from a general crisis in Europe,” he devotes the longest of his essays to the European Witch-craze. Events in England―and the intellectual currents from which they emerged and to which they gave impetus―cannot be understood apart from events and intellectual currents on the Continent. Trevor-Roper acknowledges that the belief in witches, and the persecution of people believed to be witches, may be, to some at least, “a disgusting subject, below the dignity of history.” However, he goes on, “[I]t is also a historical fact, of European significance, and its rise precisely in the years of the Renaissance and Reformation is a problem which must be faced by anyone who is tempted to overemphasize the ‘modernity’ of that period.” Hugh Trevor-Roper, Lord Dacre (1914–2003) was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, 17th Century, Religion, Essays

465 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Philipps Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable ... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them ... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most commercially successful book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents, he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.

Reviews

[Brent Ranalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great essays about this pivotal era from a great scholar. The first essay in the book, "Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change," is one of my favorite pieces of historical writing of all time. Trevor-Roper takes Weber's thesis of a link between Protestantism and capitalism, and validates the correlation, but throws into doubt the causal link. He tests other hypotheses, and finally concludes that Weber had it more or less upside down and backward. I won't spoil the ending by restating Trevor-Roper's conclusion... But even talk of "spoiling the ending" gives some indication of what great writing it is. Other essays in the collection are similarly brilliant.

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trevor Roper is an acclaimed English historian , who wrote the last ten days of hitler. This book is published by the Liberty Fund. The four chapters are gem, whereas the final 5 chapter are very specific English history (Cromwell). He argues that renaissance state was the major hurdle to development, too big and rent seeking. This is a very modern institutional economic perspective, similar to Acemoglu. He also argues that they created a rent seeking (not his word) structure which ended up absorbing lot of the resources, again a very Kruger/Murphy-Vishney economic logic. Finally his argument about witchcraft craze is very much akin to Kuhnian paradigm shift. He argues within 16th century of knowledge paradigm, it was difficult to directly criticise witchcraft as it was a logical conclusion. Only when the entire edifice was thrown out and ancients lost their mighty position;with advent of modern empirical science did the entire craze died down along with dethroning of traditional leadership position of church/religion. Should be read for first 4 chapter alone.

[JoséMaría BlancoWhite · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Review in Spanish-

Este es un escritor grande, de los mejores historiadores que he leído. Lo genial de Trevor-Roper es que hace preguntas obvias pero que a ningún otro historiador se le ocurren. Presenta luego los temas de forma tan organizada y clara que es muy fácil seguir el argumento y comprenderlo. En esta colección de ensayos aborda temas muy interesantes que afectan a toda Europa durante el paso de renacimiento a la época de la Ilustración, y siempre sin perder de vista la vida de las personas, de famosos y de personas nada famosas cuyas relevantes vidas trae a colación de forma amena y que van llenando de “carne” el esqueleto del ensayo, completando dato a dato, personaje a personaje, el cuadro completo para entender qué es lo que provocó lo cambios en este siglo XVII, y no solo saber qué cosas cambiaron. Historia que te hace pensar, de mucha enjundia y repleto de personajes que hicieron la historia.

En el segundo ensayo, “The European Witch-craze [la locura europea por las brujas]”, por ejemplo, advierte que él no está interesado en las supersticiones en torno a la creencia en las brujas, lo que sí le intriga es “the organized witch-craze”, es decir, el movimiento y la organización que había detrás de toda esa locura social. Lo advierte por si el lector quisiera de antemano prescindir de la lectura de este capítulo. Pero el autor nunca es superficial ni baladí. Todo lo que investiga es, no solo interesante, sino -diría yo- LO fundamental de cada cuestión. Los estudios de Trevor-Roper llevan al lector a preguntarse el sentido, el origen, de que las gentes se comportaran como lo han hecho. ¿Qué los motivó? ¿Por qué decidió emigrar tanta gente valiosa, emprendedora desde Antwerp -por poner uno de los ejemplos del libro- a Amsterdan y otros lugares del norte de Europa, dejando las ciudades en las que habían echado raíces y hecho sus primeras fortunas. Al lector le vendrán sus propias explicaciones a la mente, si sabe un poco de historia, pero Trevor-Roper no se para ahí. Al contrario, lo que asumimos como explicaciones no son más que consecuencias de causas anteriores.

No tiene motivo el lector generalista para sentirse abrumado ante el aspecto y la temática del libro. Hugh-Trevor es tan buen escritor como maestro: fácil de leer ameno y sobre todo lleno de interés, y sin pedanterías ni condescendencias. La historia la hace interesante porque te hace unas preguntas que no se te habrían ocurrido y que te dejan perplejo:

“Why did Innocent VIII, patron of Mantegna and Pinturicchio, Perugino and Filippino Lippi, yield to these fanatical Dominican friars [who institutionalized the witch-hunts]?”

“For in the Dark Ages there was at least no witch-craze … [then] Why the centuries of Renaissance and Reformation were so much less “rational”, less “scientific” than the Dark and early Middle Ages?”

Y así muchas preguntas que nos apunta el autor hacen que nos percatemos de que las transiciones en la historia no son tan sencillas como una sucesión de hechos que se van provocando por pura lógica unos a otros, sino que hay vidas detrás de todo acontecimiento relevante, y que las personas que intervinieron en los hechos no eran obviamente máquinas que reaccionan mecánicamente ante los estímulos de la sociedad a su alrededor, al modo del perro de Pavlov. Hay que ahondar en esas vidas, estudiarlas con el respecto que se merecen las personas libres, y no verlas como simples agentes pasivos de los movimientos históricos impersonales, dígase el Renacimiento, la Ilustración, la Revolución industrial, los Derechos Humanos... No, la causa, la explicación, siempre está en las personas, agentes con libre albedrío, impredecibles tanto para lo malo como para lo bueno, y por tanto los responsable últimos de que la historia sea la que es. Son las personas las que hacen la historia, y éstas no son las víctimas de algún “espíritu del capitalismo”, de las fuerzas de “las luchas de clases”... Basta ya de historiadores pedantes que ocultan su ignorancia -o sectarismo/partisanship- en razones abstractas y en teorías indemostrables, y que lo hacen a costa de negar el libre albedrío de las personas, verdaderos agentes de la historia.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are we headed for a mid-21st century crisis? A Second Civil War? Re-reading Trevor-Roper's essays in 2019 has me greatly concerned about the near future for the United States. There are many eerie parallels between the situation in the early 17th century and what we have been experiencing in the early 21st.

[Paulfn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent essays, well researched, well written and very convincingly thought out.

[Justin Barger · Rating 3 out of 5]

long but worth it

I really honestly wish I could have cut this down by half its length in words. About time I was finished.

[James Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accessibly charming style. Whatever it is about Classicists and the writing of modern history. Synthesising complex structures and ideas into simple form, with all the added edge of rhythmic prose. Roper has perfected the form of a skilled essayist - and it is in light of this form that his work best flowers. In my opinion this beauty eclipses the wilting sadness of his arid and drawn thesis on Laud. My bias for a Hazlitt styled essay over any densely annotated and over qualified work of academia may speak further to a personal inability to sustain an interest in a subject which only half interests. I do not, it seems, carry the temper of a scholar. Though with this, I am okay.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the politics more than the religious history (they run together though, admittedly.) There's an immense amount of knowledge lodged in these pages. Sometimes almost too much, as the classical references, detail, and jaunty pace seem to require a specialist's background.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weak comparison of the 1620 depression to the 1930's one. He didn't entirely state when the crises started. This is a contended debate, among many. He did an excellent prose.