Why does history choose which atrocities to remember and which to forget?
In short: While the horrors of Europe's religious wars are well-documented, many victims have slipped through the cracks of our collective memory. From the overlooked execution of witches to the neglected Anabaptist radicals, historian Alec Ryrie explores how each era selectively rewrites the past.
The history of religious violence is not a static record of events, but a curated narrative. In his Gresham College lecture, historian Alec Ryrie observes that while certain atrocities from Europe's religious wars became instantly notorious, others—such as the execution of tens of thousands of men and women for witchcraft—passed largely unremarked for centuries. It was only in modern times that this specific history was revived and, according to Ryrie, often wildly exaggerated.
This selective remembering suggests a pattern of historical curation. Ryrie posits that every age finds it useful to select, reinvent, or even suppress specific parts of the history of religious atrocity. This process of choosing which victims to honor and which to ignore shapes our understanding of the past. For instance, while some groups are central to the historical narrative, others, such as the Anabaptist radicals, remain significantly neglected even in the present day.
Ryrie, a Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University and a Fellow of the British Academy, uses this lens to examine the emergence of Protestant and radical identities. By analyzing how certain spiritualities and beliefs were either elevated or erased, we can better understand the mechanisms of historical memory. His research into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England and Scotland highlights how the 'Age of Atrocity' is as much about the politics of the present as the realities of the past.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Forgotten Victims from the Age of Atrocity - Alec Ryrie
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