Witch Craze Research Paper

Periods of religious, social, and economic turmoil often provoke extremist movements. This is particularly true in regards to the European “Witch Craze,” an era from the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries characterized by mass hysteria towards individuals suspected of practicing “witchcraft.” However, several external factors throughout Europe served to precipitate the persecution of these individuals, a vast majority of which were female. One such factor was the Protestant Reformation, a movement led by influential religious figures such as Martin Luther in Germany and Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland, who attempted to reform the corruption and abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, thus inadvertently leading to the formation of Protestant religions within the Christian faith. This act of dissent amplified religious tensions throughout Europe, therefore intensifying religious sentiments, such as the fear of satanic worship. Additionally, during this time period, Europe was faced with immense hardships in the form of natural disasters, famine, war, and devastation of the Black Plague, which not only created an apprehensive environment in which many sought out an explanation or scapegoat for their misfortunes, but significantly damaged Europe’s economic stability, thus causing people to go to extremes in order to support themselves economically. These factors were a lethal combination, creating a general climate of terror and doubt throughout Europe. To this end,

According to differences of in opinions by three authors, socioeconomic tensions were responsible for the Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem. “ The Salem witchcraft hysteria of 1692 was prompted by economic and social tensions that occurred against the backdrop of an emergent commercial capitalism …, which divided the residents in Salem Town and Salem Village.” In addition, the witchcraft hysteria was the product of people’s responses to physical and neurological behaviors …”. Although two of the three authors agree that the hysteria was based on the socioeconomic tensions, the third author agrees to some extent; however, explains the hysteria in medical terms. Thus, giving the reader another avenue to view what may have happened in Salem. The hysteria started with three women who were dabbling in voodoo. Many lives were lost based on the paranoia caused by these women.

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

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

The people who were being accused of witchcraft were being portrayed as worshipers of the devil. The Witch- Hunting in Europe rose at its peak in between the 16th century and 17th century. There were between 600 and 650 people were arrested for witch craft in France region of Languedoc alone. I think that people who were accused of practicing witch craft have suffred the greatest injustice partially because they were innocent there wasn’t a legit evidence that proves that they practice witch craft. They were rather forced to falsely to admit that they have confessed to devil in order for them to avoid of being tortured more. These people were being exectuted for something that have not done and there was no such of evidence that proves that they have been practicing witch crafting. These people where innocent people and they were being punished and executed for something that is not actually

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.

Even though The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was one of the most well-known witchcraft trials over the world, the idea of witchcraft stretches over a long period of time and spreads throughout the world. One of the earliest known witch hunts according to (witchcraftandwitches.com) were in the mid 15th century, where Pope Innocent VII claimed that Satanists in Germany were meeting with demons, casting spells that destroyed crops and aborting infants, and he complained that the clergy were not taking the “threat” of witchcraft seriously enough. So Pope Innocent VII asked two inquisitors of a Catholic Church to publish a full report on

The witch craze rapidly spread around Europe from 1480 to 1700, especially during the time of both the Protestant and Catholic Reformation. From accusations to trials to persecution, over a million Europeans were tried due to witchcraft suspicions. The trials were often rigged in favor of the accusers, and torture was used as a method for confession in certains areas of Europe. The witch craze had many contributing factors that allowed it to last for almost three hundred years. Three major reasons for the persecution of individual witches were influence from religious superstitions promoted by the Church, lack of advanced knowledge in science and medicine and social prejudice against the lower socioeconomic class.

A "witchcraft craze" rippled through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches—mostly women—were executed. Though the Salem trials came on just as the European craze was winding down, local circumstances explain their onset.

By using your fear and acting on what you believe you are consorting with the people that have the same thoughts has you. You are demagogue that wants America good again when it doesn’t need the fixing that you says it needs. You need to look at America as a whole, and think about everybody. You show your fear a lot and use you fear to make decision as it has been seen in the GOP debates. During the debates you hysteria and it spreads all over the news. “Many factors came together to cause the witch hysteria of 1692 in Massachusetts: local religious and political tension, greed, fear and desperation, an imbalance of power , and in the case of the adolescents who started it all, possible illness, hormones, and rebelliousness that got out of

In important respects, the great witch hunts began with the invention of the stereotypical witch in texts by professional demonologists. Prior to the publication of these texts, there was already widespread belief in magic both harmless and malicious. But not until the practice of magic became a religious warfare between God and his enemy the devil did community concerns about the practice of magic evolve into the desperate, sadistic trials that occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the idea that witchcraft was a reality rather than a myth suddenly made a comeback. Trials of individual witches in early modern Europe always began with specific accusations brought against a supposed witch by one or more of her neighbours.

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

Following the Middle Ages, as the Renaissance and Reformation began across Europe, an intense fear of witches was provoked among citizens. Witches were characterized as individuals who were possessed by the Devil, and were believed to be threats to the order and wellbeing of society. Individuals accused of witchcraft endured trials that typically resulted in execution. Satanic worshipping was considered heresy, thus was these executions were considered justified. While witch-hunting occurred throughout Europe, the most prevalent areas were regions of Germany, as well as other Protestant areas such as Switzerland, England, and Denmark. Although individuals were often persecuted as witches out of a fear of the unknown that sparked mass hysteria in the Renaissance, the desire for religious conformity to Christianity throughout the Reformation and the exploitation of fear as a means of political control also lead to an increase in persecutions throughout the 15th and 16th centuries.

Most historians agree that the witch craze began in the 15th century, during the early modern period. However, many factors that contributed to the witch craze had been brewing for several centuries prior, in as early as the 12th century we see the persecution of heresy by the Medieval Inquisition, which is basically a large-scale model of religious groups suppressing and killing anyone who does not agree with them, or speaks out against them. This similar type of rational is seen happening in Colonial America: men, women, and children who were educated, and spoke out against the social norms were labeled as witches and targets of hate crimes.

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.