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Intellectual Elite Witchcraft

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The social hierarchy during the early modern period was convoluted, with social standing being not only defined by class but also education, gender, birth and linage among other things. For the purposes on this essay, however, this can be divided between the educated elite (Nobility and Gentry) and the popular beliefs and the lower classes. The belief in magic and witchcraft can broadly be divided into elite who had a more theoretical fear of witchcraft and the beliefs of the lower classes which were more practical and immediate, however, differences between the two was not always absolute. The term elite can also be defined in terms of who it leaves out. The main exclusion is ordinary working people, who had little or no formal education. …show more content…

The witches of folklore were often told as stories by villagers were based on old traditions and sometimes pagan beliefs. These witches lived in remote regions and (like other beliefs in witches) were female; but not necessary human as fairies or some other fantastical creature were often involved. They shared some common features with other witches but also committed more imaginative maleficent deeds such as the kidnapping and eating of children, shape-shifting and magical travel. Bentley goes on to suggest that among the intellectual elite witchcraft became an ‘absurdity’ due to the achievements of the royal society and the new philosophy …show more content…

The first table concerned crimes against god such as heresy, while the second table consisted of crime against one’s neighbour such as theft, murder and adultery. Goodare believes the elite were more interested in the first table while peasants often concerned themselves with the second. The intellectuals concern for the crimes against god were more symbolic and less practical than the peasant’s concern for society . The peasant fear of witches maleficum was often tied to hardships such as the death of sickly children and women by childbirth as well as crop failure and famine, it is almost inevitable those scared and uneducated would blame some outside interference to express their grief. In contrast, while the elites believed that witches were eating unbaptised children, these children did not actually exist showing their views were not born from the personal grievances which influenced popular beliefs. The horrific sabbath of the ‘demonic witches’ were a symbolic attack on positive virtues, an opposite to the morals of the bible. The reason for this disparity is because the popular belief of witchcraft reflected the conflict between the “neighbourly conduct required by the ethical code of the peasant communities, and the individualistic forms of behaviour that formed during the economic changes of the early modern period”, which was not

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