Witch Hunts of the Early Modern Period as the Result of Religious and Social Upheaval

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

The author’s purpose in writing this article was to inform the reader of the rise and decline of witch prosecutions, along with their lasting effects on the society. The author’s central argument is that historians do not usually focus on

Many people are aware of the witch hunt that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692, however these same people may not be as familiar with the other witch hunt that also occurred in New England during the same year. Escaping Salem: the other witch hunt of 1692, written by Richard Godbeer, is a historical monograph that reconstructs the, mostly unheard-of witch hunt, that occurred in Stamford, Connecticut. The book also gives its readers insight into the minds of early American citizens. Thus, the theme of Escaping Salem, beside witchcraft, is human nature and Richard Godbeer’s thesis is that humans demonize others before recognizing their own share of human frailty. It is evident that he is biased toward the witches and sympathizes with them. This, of course, is not surprising since they were irrationally punished because of their neighbours unsubstantiated accusations. Richard Godbeer is currently a Professor of History at the University of Miami, who offers courses on a broad range of topics, including sex and gender in early America, witchcraft in colonial New England, religious culture in early America, and the American Revolution. He is also the author of 11 other historical monographs.

The large-scale witch-hunts that occurred from 1638 to 1651 gathered momentum via major happenings in the political, societal, and religious domains developing at the time. Individuals who had either political, religious or economic power in society, also known as elites, together had absolute control over the pursuit and prosecution of individuals who partook in witchcraft. The clergy played a crucial role in the witchcraft prosecutions and were slower than the state and localities to desert their beliefs in the reality of witches as the prosecution of witchcraft was, in their eyes, an effective tool to eradicate social deviance. Though local authorities and the Parliament did contribute to the witch-hunts significantly, without the kirk of Scotland declaring and encouraging this sanction on witchcraft, both other parties would not have taken the actions they ultimately did. This essay will provide a brief description of events that took place from 1638 to 1651 and then utilize evidence from a multitude of sources to argue that the religious elites were the most influential of these forces during the witchcraft prosecutions that occurred in the 1640s.

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.

The evidence of witchcraft and related works has been around for many centuries. Gradually, though, a mixture a religious, economical, and political reasons instigated different periods of fear and uncertainty among society. Witchcraft was thought of as a connection to the devil that made the victim do evil and strange deeds. (Sutter par. 1) In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth century, the hysteria over certain causes resulted in prosecution in the Salem Witch Trials, European Witchcraft Craze, and the McCarthy hearings. These three events all used uncertain and unjustly accusations to attack the accused.

As the witch-hunting period grew, the real fears and tensions which plagued all levels of society is clear by

The Original Witch-Hunt     When the modern American thinks of witches or wizards, his or her mind typically conjures up images of old, green, warted individuals with pointed hats and flying brooms. This, however, was not true in the case of New England during the 17th century. In fact, the people accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, during this time were mostly young individuals with natural skin tones, fashionable hats of their time, and brooms simply for cleaning purposes.  Instead of basing accusations on these key physical characteristics, the people of Salem Village based them on various social constructs and religious standards. Furthermore, the causes of the all the occurrences in the village have not been wholly determined.

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,

Most witch hunts were started during backdrops of social, economical, or religious change. The generalized stress branched from these backdrops, including the epidemics and natural disasters, seem to be the major cause of all hysterical outbreaks. Such as some malign conspiracy, one of the rumor-panics, was attempting to destroy the Christian religions through poison, witchcraft and demons. These hunts come and go for nearly three centuries, in variations to time. The range of death varied from the 26,000 estimated deaths in Germany to the lowest four deaths in Ireland. Also, research points out that in the more rapidly developing countries, where the Catholic churches were weak, experience the witch craze more often than not. Examples of such countries are Germany, France, and Switzerland (Jones 1 www.gendercide.org).

The Rise of Witch Hunts in Europe During the Early Modern Period Tens of thousands of people were persecuted and put to death as witches between 1570 and 1680 – known as the great age of witch-hunts. Europeans had an extensive range of magical beliefs and practices, mainly due to the Christian belief that magic exists. The elite believed in magic as fervently as the most ignorant peasant. It was believed that some members of the society sold their soul to the devil giving them power to inflict pain on others and take part in supernatural performances.

Through a historical standpoint, humanity can be seen as a cyclic development in which old inclinations are further manifested to suit new social orders. As a result, issues that caused mass hysteria in an earlier era are often repeated again and we, just as the people of the old eras, are unable to recognize the flaws in our logic until it is too late. The witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries are perfect example, in that looking back today they seem like a stain on the history of mankind, but at the time being not many people stopped to think about the horrific acts they were committing As time progressed, and people no longer felt the need to ruin entire villages in order to fulfill their own philological desires, witch hunts, like many other trends, also came to an end. As of now, this end in mass witch-hunts can often be symbolized by the story of Anna Göldi, who not only signifies the change in how people thought, but also signifies the occurrence of excessive accusations in times of fear and ignorance.

Throughout history we can see many atrocities justified because of religion. The witch hunt of the 1600’s is a good example of how people can abuse and manipulate religion. Killing of innocent woman for the believe that they may witches is absurd. In those time fear of witches was really big that it seems that anybody could be one. While religion has brought us a lot of good things at the same time it has brought many horrible things with it. The Roman perception of Christians was another atrocities and our history has so much bloodshed for those who didn't deserve to die.

Rae started scooting back against the chair trying to get away from what she feared was going to be scary. Rae was shocked to see that her grandmother looked to be in her 30’s, like the women on the couch.