Was polygamy widespread in Europe after the Thirty Years’ War?

by svatycyrilcesky

I had read in a few places that Nürnberg in Bavaria allowed men to take multiple wives and places restrictions on entering the religious life in an attempt to boost the population after the Thirty Years' War (example reference on the bottom of page 6 of this document and in the center of page 42 of this book). Did other regions permit polygamy as a result of the Thirty Years' War? Did the Church complain about this practice?

yodatsracist

I have not hear of polygamy in this particular time. When I think of polygamy associated with the Wars of Religion, I think of the theocratic Münster Rebellion, which attempted to "restore" Davidic Kingship (including polygamy) under John of Leiden. Your first document's relevant sentence is:

Ashkenazi Jewry followed this trend, highlighted by Gershom ben Judah’s ban of polygamy at a sy nod around 1000 CE. In western Europe, a brief spell of Anabaptist polygamy in Münster in 1535/6 (and, if true, a decree in Nürnberg in 1650 reacting to the lack of men after the Thirty Years War) was to be the final gasp of this practice, whereas Mormonism subsequently briefly revived it in the United States in 1831.

Notice mentions Münster as fact, but is skeptical about Nuremberg. Your second source talks also talks about Muenster more than Nuremberg . The book that that book cites is John Cairncross's After Polygamy Was Made a Sin : The Social History of Christian Polygamy (specifically pg. 74), which I imagine has your answer (the book is obscure enough that, unfortunately, neither Amazon nor Google offers a preview). I was able to find this review of the book which says, "Apart from the experiment at Muenster, Christian polygamy in Europe was largely an underground movement. There was little public defense except by a few extremists." If you look at the second page (not available on the free preview), the part most relevant to you is:

Some contended that the male sex drive was so strong that in many cases it could not be satisfied by one's wife and that adultery was almost inevitable. This was part of the argument by Philip of Hesse and evidently carried considerable weight with certain of the Reformers. Polygamy was also defended, if not advocated, by some in times of national crisis. Following wars when many men were killed there was an imbalance of men and women. If men did not take more than one wife, some women would not have the privilege of marriage. Closely akin was the argument that by means of polygyny the population could be increased and, after all, God had commanded the first couple to increase and multiply.

So basically, reading between the lines of the things I have in front of me, it seems that this was a rare practice in the wake of Thirty Years' War and was advocated by some but never universally accepted. The Protestant Reformation reopened debate on the subject to a degree (and the Latter Day Saints Movement reopened it again), but it seems that, except in Muenster, Navoo, and Deseret, even in these moments of reexamining of long-standing doctrines of Christianity, these voice that advocated for polygamy as practiced in the Hebrew Bible were in the minority, or at least strongly contested (your first source, pretty clearly, treats the rumors of polygamy as possibly hypothetical or even rumor, for example).

tl;dr: No. But read about the Muenster Rebellion and the rest of the Radical Reformation because that stuff is wild.