The Ethical Reasons That Lirt Love Magic As Sorcery

Witchcraft was defined for the masses by the publication of the Malleus Maleficarium also known simply as the Handbook. Written by two Dominican friars in 1486 it’s purpose was to be used as a handbook to identify, capture, torture, and execute suspected witches. Opinions stated as facts and written in the Malleus Maleficarium, “handbook”, were based their faith, church doctrine, and the Bible. No doubt a religious masterpiece in it’s time this handbook is a neatly woven together a group of beliefs, experiences, wisdom of ancient writers, religious ideas, and God inspired writings that justify it’s purpose. Written by and used by Catholics this handbook proved useful for Protestants as well. Based on biblical interpretation and ideas the handbook provided Protestant Church leaders biblical authority to prosecute witchcraft as well. Translated into today’s vernacular phrases such as, “everybody knows that women are feeble minded” or “everybody knows that women are more superstitious than men” and “all women have slippery tongues” are included in the handbook and presented to the reader as foregone conclusions. Specific

Witch hunts blazed across Europe over the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries not just killing innumerable innocent people, but stripping women of much of the power they had once held, and changing society's perceptions of women all together. The economic hardships, religious rivalries, and troubled politics of the time made accusing your neighbors of witchcraft convenient. Where there was war and poverty, or merely bad luck, peasants would assume witchcraft and rush to blame an old, defenseless woman in trials which involved unbelievable cruelty and horrible sadism. As religion and the Catholic Church began to complement and perpetuate the increasing hysteria, European society as a whole could do nothing but

From the 1400’s to the 1800’s, around forty thousand individuals were executed for witchcraft, most of which occurred throughout central Europe. Constant religious and political upheaval caused elites to attempt to harness control over populations, which led to multiple laws being passed in regards to witchcraft. Torture was allowed and women and children were called to testify in the court room. Individuals who were seen to be outcasts on the outer edge of society were immediately targeted and easily suspected of sorcery. The Trial of Tempel Anneke: Records of Witchcraft Trial in Brunswick, Germany, 1663 gives its readers an inside perspective of the many different attitudes that existed towards witchcraft at the time. Because 17th century Brunswick townspeople were driven by deep Christian beliefs, they greatly feared all forms of magic, thinking them to come from the devil. Yet despite these fears, they did not completely reject witchcraft as they often sought out purported “witches” for magical solutions.

Women were viewed as being spiritually weaker than men, and more susceptible to demonic influence, and this meant that women tended to be suspected of being witches much more often than men. However, this was not a consistent pattern found throughout Europe. In some regions, there were more men convicted of witchcraft than women, in the Lorraine region of France for example, and in Iceland, where the overwhelming majority of convictions were of men. Overall though, about 75% of those executed for witchcraft were women. So ultimately what this suggests about women in the 16th and 17th centuries is that women were not nearly as important as men in society during this time.

It is also theorized by many historians, that the witches were first to be called out by the Doctors in the region, as the use of their healing remedies, were considered competition, and what better way to eliminate the competition, than to exploit the religious fanatics that want to trial anyone accused?

Witchcraft in early modern Europe was understood to be the combination of maleficium and diabolism. The term maleficium refers to the actual act of witchcraft, which was believed to be harmful magic or sorcery. Allegations of maleficium were simply the foundation for the crime of witchcraft. Diabolism is what made witchcraft a crime because it involved trading oneself for magical abilities from the Devil (xxv).

The punishments for witchcraft could be exceedingly severe if you were to be found guilty of murder. Minor offenses resulted in being pilloried. Pillorying is being publicly humiliated and ridiculed while in a wooden framework that held your head and your hands. If you were convicted of murdering someone by witchcraft in England, you were publicly hanged in the town square. In France or Spain if you were found guilty of murdering someone by witchcraft, you were burned at the stake. Religion was never associated with the persecution of witchcraft in England due to the law passed by Queen Elizabeth I that stated that sorcery could not be defined as heresy. (1

The strictness was one of the main problems that brought them to their own demise, and inevitable their terrible, harsh, and inhumane trial and regretful mistake. The second problem was believing in witchcraft in the first place. It is not real. All their “evidence” from books was based on stories and opinions, and them believing that it was a part of the devil.

Witch persecutions began in Europe where countless numbers of women were put to death due to religious and moral beliefs of witch hunters. Of the few hundred thousand of people that were executed for witchcraft, 85% were women. When this is examined closely, both Europe and colonial New England shared a common agenda, the suppression of the female sex. Most were women who were considered ‘outside the norm’ due to their religion, attitudes, and those who did not consider themselves less than a man. Furthermore, the sexuality of women was probably the most significant issue involved during the witch persecutions. During those times, in an era when sex was viewed as sinful.

Witchcraft wasn't new to the world, it had been occurring in Europe for hundreds of years. From the 14th-16th century, 40,000- 50,000 individuals in Europe were executed for the suspicion of witchcraft. Religion was very pertinent to the people of this era. Anything that was written in the bible or created by the church was law, it says in Exodus 22:18, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." By the year of 1231, Pope Gregory IX declared that it was legal to expose and punish any belief different from Roman Catholic doctrine. Pope Innocent the VIII deemed witchcraft a heresy, with the punishment being death. Everyone followed this decree as witchcraft was wrongful in the eyes of the church. ("Search")

It has been more than three hundred years from the time when fourteen women, and five men were executed for the crime of witchcraft on Gallows Hill in Salem, Massachusetts. Another man was pressed to death with stones for refusing to enter a plea. This was a time when panic and chaos were already prevalent due to the French and Indian war and that the devil was looming not so far away. Women happen to be targeted more than men for the practice of witchcraft, at a ratio of about three to one.

One of the many old belief systems is witchcraft and sorcery. It is often believed that

Overview The Boston Beer Company has had amazing success in its transition from a small scale microbrewer to a large scale national brewery. Almost all of the company’s success is due to the Samuel Adams Lager product line, which has hardly changed from the founding of the company in 1984, to the IPO in 1995, to the present day. In fact, much of the appeal of Samuel Adams comes from its microbrew image and the founder, Jim Koch’s, commitment to the brewing process and a premium beer. In recent years, however, the company has implemented a new strategy for growth which has included introducing a light beer that

I interview Lena Cirillo the administrative manager of Island Arbitration & Mediation, Located 236 Mineola Boulevard, Mineola, NY 11501. I got this interview through a friend of mine that knew Lena Cirillo. She gave me her phone number and I called her up the next day. She said that it was okay to interview her, so I made an appointment with her on Friday the17 of December. When I got there they didn 't have their own parking lot. It was hard to find parking, and it took me about 15 minutes to find a space close to the company. I also found out that the company is not in a building at all. It 's inside a white house. I went in and spoke with the receptionist. I waited a few minutes and I finally met Lena Cirillo. She brought me

One of the widely known main principles of magic is its inability to create real, true love. Which is why fictional characters have been known to dabble with one of the darker aspects of love in novels: love potions. They do exactly what is expected, which is to make the victim become obsessed and completely infatuated with the intended target for a certain amount of time. All while being completely unaware of such actions. The idea of being able to control someone that you can’t have with love is an alluring concept for many. It’s clear that the wizarding world’s love potions are the equivalent to date-rape drugs, where