Common Perceptions Toward Witches In The Late Sixteenth Century

The books thesis is based on why a person was accused of being a witch and the relative circumstances thereof. Marital status, sex, community standing, wealth, and relationships with others all play an important part of a person chances of being accused of being a witch.

Furthermore her story stayed the same throughout each interrogation and lined up with each of the four girls’ stories. Her confession was believable because she used many of the witch stereotypes and much of what was thought to be witch jargon for that time period. Tituba’s mentioning that there were nine other witches in Salem set off panic. A witch-hunt began to track down the nine who remained unknown. Eventually Sarah Good was convicted and executed by hanging and Sarah Osburn died in jail before being executed. Tituba faced the court last. On May 9th the grand jury decided not to indict her because of lack of evidence. (Baker, E. W. p. 18-20, 31)

For more than two hundred years, individuals were persecuted as witches throughout the continent of Europe, even though the witch hunt was concentrated on Southwestern Germany, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Poland, and parts of France. In a collective frenzy. witches were sought, identified, arrested, mostly tortured, and tried for a variety of reasons. The total number of witches tried exceeded 100,000 people. This essay is supposed to identify three major reasons for the witch craze in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe.

There are countless different assumptions about witches. The majority of individuals in the sixteenth and seventeenth century presumed that God and Satan were real (Lambert 1). They also assumed that “witches” were in allegiance with Satan and made a vow to bow down and serve him (Lambert 1). Furthermore, another common belief was

Were the witch-hunts in pre-modern Europe misogynistic? Anne Llewellyn Barstow seems to think so in her article, “On Studying Witchcraft as Women’s History: A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions”. On the contrary, Robin Briggs disagrees that witch-hunts were not solely based on hatred for women as stated in his article, “Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community”. The witch craze that once rapidly swept through Europe may have been because of misconstrued circumstances. The evaluation of European witch-hunts serves as an opportunity to delve deeper into the issue of misogyny.

Before exploring the reasons that the number of executions of witches was so low in England, we should first explore the English conceptualization of a witch. During the witch craze of the 16th to 17th

The notion of witchcraft has been around long before the witch trials in Early Modern Europe. Different cultures have different images and stereotypes on what a witch is and what “magical” abilities he or she may possess. Many people however, did not look at these “magical” men and women as bad until the Holy Roman Empire began to look negatively on those people who were different, and opposed the norm set by the elites. Driven by fear, those living under the control of the Holy Roman Empire would began to blame other people for diabolical actions, or malicious activities. Women and some men, were tortured and tested in cruel ways in attempt of finding evidence or gaining a confession that the accused was a witch. Laws about how which were persecuted

One of the most interesting aspects of the European witch trials between 1450 and 1750 is the frequency with which accused witches confessed to the crime of witchcraft throughout the legal proceedings. While some confessions were offered voluntarily, most were not, and extreme measures were often employed by prosecutors to force confessions from the accused. Among the questions this raises, a prominent one is why obtaining confessions to witchcraft was so crucial. This paper argues that confessions were so important in continental Europe because of the critical developments they facilitated: namely, confessions allowed prosecutors to secure convictions of witchcraft within a judicial system that required high standards of proof; they produced information that was invaluable to the creation and spread of the concept of witchcraft; and they validated the guilt of the accused, the reality of

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.

The idea of witchcraft was a frightening thought for many villagers that believed sorcery existed. A person who possessed magic and power was branded a witch and was considered evil. The evil they used had caused fear and lead to the belief that they were bonded with the Devil. Their magic could control the mind and body of the innocence, objects, and could even be used to inflict death. Since witches disguised in human form, it was very hard to depict who was and was not a witch. Therefore, when an unforeseen phenomenon occurred, such as sickness in animals or the devastation of crops, many concluded that there was a witch walking amongst them. The willpower to capture and punish witches lead to the formation of witch-hunters (Mastin,

When people think of witches today, there is an image of the characteristics of an old, haggard woman. The connotation of women and witches is significant throughout history especially in early modern Europe. The early modern period was the beginnings of the witch- hunt panics and rooted the characterization and oppression of witches. The moral righteousness through the patriarchal system in place led a clear disportionate between females persecuted as witches. The patriarchal system in place was misogynistic which led to characterizing and stigmatizing of women through the values of the church.

In modern times, whenever someone refers to an individual who has a specific target in mind, and that individual will not listen to explanation or alter their course for any reason, it is said that they are “on a witch hunt”. This saying was derived from the witch hunts throughout Europe and North America ranging from the Middle Ages into the 1800s, when witches were actively targeted, searched, and hunted for by the Christian church, ultimately resulting in the deaths of numerous people, many of whom were innocent of the charges that they were accused of. Based on “Witchcraft Documents [15th Century])", it was impossible for an individual to receive a fair trial whenever accused of witchcraft, for a variety of reasons. A few of these reasons include the fact that the hunting of witches was completely supported by the Pope, Christians generally believed that their tactics were well founded, and the barbaric tactics used by the Inquisitors.

Throughout the witch hunts, women were the primary target; most victims being midwives, native healers, single women who lived alone, people against whom neighbors had a grudge or practitioners of ancient pagan rituals. Although not all were women, 75 to 90% of accused witches were in fact women (Levack,. p. 124), forcing one to question the affects of the harsh portrayal of women being placed on women.

“Nooo!” I screamed as I watched helplessly as she killed my kitten. And then, at that very moment I felt myself snap. Three hundred-year-old witch or not, this bitch was getting too big for her britches, and when you mess with my family, friends, or my pets, you’re fixing to catch and ass whooping.

A broom is yet another symbol associated with witches. It was the preferred means of transport for them, because it enabled them “to travel at tremendous speed,” and even travel invisibly, if they wished. In addition to speed, the reason for using brooms might be because witches were afraid of horses. Interestingly, any broom, pitchfork or pole could be used for flying, because witches used a magical ointment; when they needed to fly, they applied the ointment on the stick or on themselves (Guiley 1989: 38). It must be remembered, though, that the English witch originally did not travel by broomstick (Russell 1972: 33-36). Similarly, according to Guiley (1989: 38):