Roman Catholic Reformation: Witchcraft During The Middle Ages

In response to The Hammer of Witches and the papal bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII, major witch hunts broke out in Europe. Moreover, these were aided by new technology, the printing press, which helped to spread the mania, even across the Atlantic to America. It is not surprising that the witch hunt started around the13-15th century. During this time, Europe was overpopulated and in a poor condition with dirty streets, crime and diseases everywhere. There had to be a scapegoat for all of the mess which the church decided was witchcraft. A complex social matrix was created once an accusation was made: the accusers would try to prove the source of what had been troubling them, and ideally to gain control over that source by forcing her to back away and remove the

Long Ago in the 1500's there used to be a mobilization of witches. They were formed together to protect the people of Restaria. Furthermore it was over 20 witches within the radicalized group, all of them ran from Restaria. All except Seven they stayed as a united front to protect their town from the demons who rose through the night in the air. Nevertheless after the bloody war the witches bodies were never found. Also their nemesis were left on the ground to see. The whole town saw what happened but no one could believe it. Years, Centuries later as time grew and decades past. The witches tale became a folklore they started becoming bed time stories, pictographs, ideas for movie directors. Along the older generations it brought back nostalgia

The Protestant Reformation, followed by the Catholic Reformation, was an attempt to cleanse the Catholic Church of all corruption and blind teaching. As presented in the documents provided, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations represented great change in the life of Europeans. Whether positively or negatively, almost every European citizen felt the impact of the Reformations on their lives. This was due largely to the fact that the Catholic Church struggled to defend ideas, affecting the clergy, peasants, and nobles all in different ways.

During the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches. It was thought that these individuals practiced black magic and performed evil deeds, the deeds of the devil. This all happened during a time of great change in Europe, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments. They were persecuted for a variety of reasons, but three major ones were religious reasons, social prejudices, and the economic greed of the people. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin influenced the ideas of their followers. Religion dominated the time period and it’s easy to see how many opinions

Furthermore, another cause for the witchcraft frenzy was religious uncertainty (Spielvogel 439). There were numerous witchcraft trials in the region where “Protestant-Catholic” arguments still fumed (Spielvogel 439). According to Spielvogel, “[a]s religious passions became inflamed, accusations of being in league with the devil became common on both sides” (Spielvogel 439). Additionally, another contributing factor to the widespread witchcraft hysteria was the escalating amount of trials and executions of alleged witches (Spielvogel 437).

Those who claimed to know the future and weren’t prophets were convicted of blasphemy and witchcraft and were punished. It was considered witchcraft because fortune-telling required a direct relationship between a human or witch and unholy spiritual powers. During the Middle Ages, witchcraft in ecclesiastic or church courts was presided over by church-appointed officials. This may have caused biased opinions and also links to religion being a cause of the harsh punishment. In medieval judicial proceedings, torture was sometimes used as a means of extracting information concerning witchcraft, and confessions were not uncommon. Historical evidence states that many confessed out of fear of being tortured and not because they were truly guilty.

During the 1600’s there were many opinions and lifestyle changes because of witches, this time period is slightly before and during the Salem Witch Trials. In any group of people with large numbers, there are always going to be outcast, whether it’s just a birthmark or a personality tweak. That’s just life. Well in the 1600’s if you were born with red hair and freckles and both ur parents were brunette and brown eyes, then you were considered and outcast and possibly even referred to as a witch. If you were socially awkward in any way or any kind of a social outcast then you would fall into the category of a witchcraft person. If accused of being a with many things were possible to happen, killed banished. Neither are very good alternatives but it is a choice. Most people think of a witch as an older women with a huge wart, tall black hat, and riding on a broom. However this is not

The Reformation was a religious movement when many people broke away from the Catholic Church and joined Protestant churches changing Europe. In between the 1500s and 1600s, many new Protestant churches were established. The weakening of the Catholic Church, call to reform and Martin Luther’s actions led to the many changes in Europe.

The reformation is a name referring to a time of change in religious practices across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The reformation came after the rise in humanism. As well as coming after the social change that began in the European Renaissance of the 14th century. After the drastic shifts initiated in European society by the Black Death, the Church and the papacy became more corrupt. It's officials more secular, political, and focused on wealth.

Including the fact that religious change produced, conflict and even war especially in Germany and France which were also centres of witchcraft, suggesting the appearance of a link. Second, the period tends to coincide with the peak of witch-hunt when the bible was widely circulated in the vernacular. Protestant priests preached things such as “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live”. They were keen to root out magic in all its forms because they associated it with catholic practices and superstition. There was confessional conflict as Hugh Roper sees witchcraft as being motivated by catholic and protestant desire to show godliness in a time of religious schism. The witch-hunt cultivated feelings of moral superiority plus helped to remove or reduce feelings of guilt because of religious changes. This again can be a form of psychological projection, which is a type of defence mechanism. This involves individuals attributing their own unacceptable thoughts and motives to another person. Therefore, people scapegoated others if they had done something wrong to get rid of their own guilty conscience by making themselves believe the accused individual was in the

“For us it is not lawful to introduce any doctrine of our own choosing, neither may we choose some doctrine which someone else has introduced by his own choice.” (Peters, 1980, p. 30). As early as the second century CE, Christian writers, such as Tertullian (ca. 160 – ca. 200 CE), began defining what it was to be a heretic and what heresy could lead to (Peters, 1980, p. 29). Medieval churchmen believed there was much to fear from heresy, but the practice of witchcraft was especially troubling, as their greatest fears of heresy could be summoned by means of magic.

The Reformation was a religious movement that divided the church between the Catholics and Protestants. The Counter-Reformation was a reaction movement that followed this originally crusade, and was lead by the Catholics as a response to the wide spread of Protestantism. The purpose of the Counter-Reformation was to spawn internal reforms. This movement was focused on the renewal of the church in the form of the use of images, focus on the church as the house of God, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary and Saints. The Counter-Reformation was responsible for the start of major change in the Catholic Church and with regard to the role of art; the importance of art was heightened and the movement sought out to restore Catholicism and make is more attractive, thus emerged the Baroque style.

Witch hunting was the persecution and possible execution of individuals considered to be ‘witches’ loyal to the devil. It was an all too common occurrence from 1603-1712 all over Europe. However in order to understand why this happened the context must be taken into account. It was a time of change, the Renaissance - the rebirth of culture, ideas and attitudes to living. The Reformation had also only been implemented in England in the last 80 years back from 1603, when it had previously been catholic for centuries. The English civil war from 1642 to 1651 is argued to have played a part in the intensification of the witch hunts in England due to the peak in executions whilst it was on going. Some historians have taken the view that in time of crisis certain groups can be victimised like in wars, famine, disease outbreaks and changes in society structure.

Witchcraft in the 17th Century Witchcraft in Europe during the 17th century was common. It mainly took place in Germany, but also took place in England. Witches were associated with evil; it was believed witches inherited magical powers from Satan in exchange for the witch’s soul. Some of these magical powers included outrageous claims such as flying, being able to transform and cursing bad luck on others. It was extremely dangerous to be accused of being a witch as the most common punishment was death, often by beheading or even being burnt at the stake.

"I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!" The Wicked Witch of the West...