Tag Archives: Catholicism

Salem Witch Trials, Part Two: Hysteria and Persecution

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 29 January 2025

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Salem Witch Trials, Part One: Massachusetts on the Eve of the Panic

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 January 2025

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Jews and the Russian Orthodox Church

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 10 October 2024

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The Legacy of Nazi Relations in the Arab World

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 8 June 2024

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Murder, Martyrs, and Mystery: The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 31 August 2023

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Origins of Vampire Stories: When, Where, and How

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 17 August 2023

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The Decembrist Revolt: Russia’s Revolutionary Tradition Begins

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 June 2023

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General Franco’s Intentions in the Second World War

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 June 2021

Writing recently about the first meeting between Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco at Hendaye on 23 October 1940, where the Führer tried to enlist Spain into the Axis, I concluded, drawing on Franco: The Man and His Nation by George Hills, a former BBC journalist and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society:

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The Confrontation that Began the Protestant Reformation

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 28 January 2021

“Luther at the Diet at Worms”, by Anton von Werner, 1877

The Diet of Worms convened 500 years ago today.[1] Four years earlier, Martin Luther had sent his Ninety-five Theses as part of a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg. The date on which Luther sent this letter, 31 October 1517, is now celebrated as “Reformation Day”, but the Reformation in a serious sense did not begin until after Luther was summoned before the 1521 Diet of Worms. Continue reading

America, Puritanism, and Hysteria

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 28 July 2020

The Witch (2016) is set in the Plymouth Colony, what is now the U.S. state of Massachusetts, in the 1630s. The focus is on Puritanism and the witch craze, subjects that are not entirely irrelevant at the present time. Continue reading