Chapter 6 Research Paper

At the end of the Middle Ages, European societies underwent economic, political, social and religious changes. The apocalypse of witch hunts coincided with a wave of Christian messianism against social and economic injustice. The witches were needed to focus the anger of people, at the same time, protecting the patriots (Harris 2007: 198-204). The process of witchcraft allowed the explanation of social inequality to occur through supernatural phenomena. The condemnation of the deaths of the lower classes, especially women stands for social, not religious, basis of the process of witchcraft (Harris 2007:

For thousands of years, Christian societies throughout Europe deemed witchcraft as a critical threat and imagined it as summoning evil powers. Witches were seen by the Christian community as “a conspiracy organized under the leadership of the devil.” There are quite a few references to witchcraft and sorcery in the Bible, the two most famous being Exodus 22:18 and Deuteronomy 18:9-14. These two verses have been used over the past centuries to solidify Christian belief that witchcraft is

All this has added to the growing popularity of the Harry Potter brand that is everywhere today. Young readers can relate to Harry’s issues and the books create another world the readers can subconsciously ‘escape’ too.

The religious theory surrounding witchcraft is centred on Reformation, which brought a challenge to Catholicism from Luther. By the 1550’s there were religious wars in Germany. Calvin went on further to attack Catholics and Calvinism spread throughout Europe as a result. At the end of the sixteenth century, Europe had been divided between Catholics and Protestants where England, Germany and the Netherlands were mostly protestant. Whereas, Spain, Italy and most of France were Catholic. Initially the

Witchcraft in the 1400s going on to the 1700s gained massive popularity due to several factors. Some of these factors included hallucinogens contained in the “oyl” women used to anoint themselves, manipulating the hysteria and using it as a form of social control to make people conform to the norms of the society and lastly, using it to explain misfortunes that afflicted the people of the community and the neighboring ones.

The dark ages was a very dark and deadly place hints the name dark ages. The most deadly thing dark ages was the weaponry. It ranged from Bladed weapons to blunt weapons. The most know weapons are the sword and spear.

In the introduction of the book Magic in the Middle Ages chapter, one emphasizes the definition of magic. During the medieval era, Europeans believed that there were two types of magic, which were called natural and demonic. As natural magic was considered to have a correlation with science as the Wolfsthurn handbook illustrated the usage of a combination of herbs and magic in conjunction. For example, using herbs to treat an illness with the addition of reciting specific words was deemed as natural magic. On the other hand, demonic magic was not thought to be a form of science but was a perverted depiction of religion. That demonic magic’s power source was from demons and that words that could not be interpreted were thought to be demon names. In addition, treatments that involved animal skin from the Wolfsthurn book would be considered demonic magic as it was suggested that it was a ceremonial sacrifice to demons.

Even though the dark ages were known to be a time were many things didn't survive there was also a lot of good things to come out of this period. There were so many important and interesting things invented in the dark ages. Things such as the heavy plough, water mills, the hour glass, eye glasses, and even liquor. These inventions are still used today and some are used a lot and have come a long way from how they originally were.

A letter rebuking Otto Synboden of Ameneburg, a priest in the diocese of Mainz, perfectly explains how magic came to be viewed in the fifteenth century. The letter consists of Boniface IX, scolding a priest who used magic to determine the identity of a thief. Once Otto was out of sight, the individual who had been robbed confronted the accused and killed him.8 Although Otto’s intentions were not in contrast with the church, he was still held accountable for invoking a demon for knowledge and for not foreseeing the devil prompting the men to murder. It was the power behind the action that made the act heretical. The result proved that regardless of his intent the source was demonic and nothing holy, exemplifying that all magic regardless of

Life in a medieval castle would have been ordered and organized, full of ceremony, and cold and smelly. Castles were first built in 1066, in England. Essentially, castles were the heart of the society in Medieval times. They sorted out a new social system of feudalism in place. Each new castle secured the power of a local lord over his vassals, “who was a holder of land by a feudal tenure on conditions of homage and allegiance to the land.” (Google Dictionary). Medieval castles did not have electricity back then so people would only use candles or open fires for heat and to see in the dark. Medieval castles had their own traditions such as Heraldry, jousting, and hunting and hawking.

Knights have also been a big part of the medieval times, and it may be one of the things you think of when you think of medieval period. A knight’s armor, weapons, training, and code of chivalry all contribute to the knight’s famous image. Armor has always been a crucial part of being a knight, or for anyone in war, Knights armor was so protective, that you could easily spot a knight in battle because of this, but this protection came at a price, that only the wealthy could afford. The first armor worn by knights was the tens of thousands of interlocking rings called chainmail, this would block a sword and most things with spikes, but it was heavy and didn't stop things with blunt edges breaking from bones and causing damage. Under this chainmail

Religion has become a cornerstone of the human experience incorporating itself into almost every aspect of modern life. It has brought understanding and security to billions in a world where both are usually sparse. But, religious conflict has been the source of countless wars, genocides, and overall repression. With thousands of different variations of religions around the world, these times of religious conflict caused each to withstand periods of difficulties allowing them to become what they are today. For example, the Catholic Church faced some of its most prominent changes in early modern Europe with the Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment. These periods of struggle sparked doubt towards the Church and led to one of the most perplexing times in the modern era: the witch craze. Upon the initial presentation of witchcraft, religious leaders began turning to their faith to distinguish between what was right and wrong in the eyes of God. It was quickly presumed to be from the hands of the devil, and that something had to be done with those afflicted by his charms. Spanning from the early fifteenth century to the late eighteenth century, tens of thousands of people across Europe and North America were prosecuted for witchcraft, many of whom were killed. Religious leaders amongst Catholicism and some of its religious denominations such as Protestantism and Puritanism feared the unknown that came with witchcraft and used their religious ideology to justify the

This zeal caused long draw out wars that wore out the populace (Levack, 2016). In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia granted the king/state the right to choose the religious affiliation it would follow and provide stability for a centralized power to form. The Bible is also used to explain why Satan has no power due to God’s transcendent powers and interventionist attitude. While this was mostly a Calvinistic view, it did provide people of faith a way of embracing the idea of rational self though and allowed for the questioning of things to figure out the natural relationship between what happened and why (Levack, 2016). As rational and skeptical though regarding witchcraft and Satan power developed it created a cumulative body of written work that began to propagate across Europe. It spread the idea of why people of intelligence shouldn’t believe in witchcraft and fostered a culture where such things were for the poor and ignorant to believe. Levack’s assumption is that with the judges and courts employing skepticism regarding magic and convents it becomes less likely that a successful prosecution of witches can occur. The new laws along with the education provided to the masses regarding the stupidity of believing in unseen evil things drove a change in how people dealt with misfortune.

The Psychology of Harry Potter by Neil Mulholland Ph.D, consists of a collection of essays written by numerous psychologists regarding their interpretation of the “wizarding world of Harry Potter.” These essays analyze aspects of the imaginary magical world of Harry Potter and compare them to reality. Major psychology concepts are brought to life in this book through the understanding of one of the world’s most famous collection of novels, the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling. The main theme of the book is to understand wizards and the social constructs of their world, and compare it to that of the “Muggle” (non magical person) world. Main themes presented in the novel include: creativity and scientific inquiry at Hogwarts, careers in the Muggle and wizarding worlds, mental illness and self-harm.

The generation of people being raised right now is obsessed with pop culture. Music, television, celebrities, fashion, movies, and books all have a significant impact on this generation. This generation’s morals and personalities are being shaped by the pop culture that surrounds us. Years from now, people will still be a product of two very popular book and movie series that have greatly effected our pop culture: Harry Potter and Twilight. Both have brought new fashion and trends to the world and it is not uncommon for you to hear references to the books on a day-to-day basis, but more importantly, both series have brought extremely different examples of love to this generation. Even though the Harry