Essay about Witchcraft

A few centuries ago in Europe, the fear of witchcraft led to witch hunts and executions. These occurred mostly in France, Germany, northern Italy, and Switzerland. “Tens of thousands of people in Europe and European colonies died,” and “millions of others suffered from torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear,”. It is estimated that the early modern witch trials claimed the lives of nine million Europeans, 80% of whom were women which led early feminists such as Margaret Murray, Mary Daly and Barbara Ehrenreich, among others, to wonder: “Was the witch-hunt an intentional woman-hunt”. Back then, women were accused of being witches since Accusations of witchcraft required no evidence of guilt. The trials were “intended only to produce

Thesis statement: Witchcraft was most prominent in the British Isles during the 15th- 16th centuries. Paragraph explanation: Witchcraft can be found all over Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, so I decided to narrow the scope and focus on the British Isles as I believe it was most prominent in that location (this obviously being my thesis as many people could argue it was much more prominent in other European countries.) Evidence for this can be found in how many documented executions there were (many in the Isles during these specific time- periods) and the fact that laws were even put into place surrounding witchcraft proving that it was a big ‘problem’/ thing in society (even having a list of ‘witch characteristics’ for people to

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).

The persecution of witches started in the fourteen hundreds and carried on into the seventeen hundreds. This persecution happened only in the Catholic and Protestant Countries. They were not just endorsed by the churches, but the entire craze was caused by the churches; which gave its full support behind the cause. While the persecution of witches effected every type of person the most effected people where older women, poor, and usually considered outsiders by their society.

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.

While many people accepted the change that was brought during the Renaissance, many Catholic conservatists, mostly male rebelled against the changes. Many of the ideas to persecute supposed witches were made by people in the nobility and the papal society. The beginning of the witch-hunts become apparent during the first half of the 15th century in south-eastern France and western Switzerland, in communities of the Western Alps, in what was at the time Burgundy and Savoy. (Jones Gendercide Watch: European Witch Hunts). Soon the persecution of witches spread throughout most of Europe and extended into some parts of North America. Although in total there were the estimated executions of40,000, with only 12,454 recorded deaths. The witch hunts reached their peak after the biggest witch trials were held in Europe, notably the Trier witch trials (1581–1593), the Fulda witch trials (1603–1606), the Würzburg witch trial (1626–1631) and the Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631). (Hutton Counting the Witch Hunt).

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).

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

Throughout the period ranging from the late 16th to early 18th century, the witchcraft mania and trials dominated the religious, secular, and popular spheres of life. Within the mainstream popular beliefs in magic and the prosecution of such acts, there existed the few, but strong voices of skepticism. These skeptical works did stir up these popular beliefs; however, these opposing views did not generate much change. Where these views are able to clear a path towards to the decline and eradication of witchcraft trials is ultimately within the application of these views. While the authors and speakers from the skeptical texts written in the late 16th to early 18th century were interested in combating and reformulating the popular beliefs in witchcraft and its many faces, the major manifestation of their skepticism results in a critique of the process of witchcraft trials, their legal methodology, and their validity in a moral and reasonable society.

The beginning of the witch craze began in Europe in the start of the mid 1300’s. Over a hundred thousand people were executed after being accused of witchcraft. Most of these people were women and it was most common for witch trials to happen in Central Europe, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Executing witches only became practiced around the 18th century during this time. This is when accused witches would be burned at the stake. It was common for people to be alive while being burned but they were usually beheaded or strangled before their bodies were burned. The estimated amount of people burned during this time were about 20,000 people. The hunt for witches soon declined when people started to realize that they were going to far with the executions and they became fearful that innocent people were dying. The demand for more evidence when someone was accused became bigger and the executions decreased. But Salem, Massachusetts became victim to the trials soon after.

The question that I will be focusing on for my assessment is; what, on the basis of the evidence you have examined, explains the gendered nature of witchcraft belief and prosecution? Rather than exploring the widely approached female side of witchcraft beliefs and prosecution, I would like to infancies the role of the male sex in witchcraft. Although, relatively rough my working thesis on is as follows: Despite popular belief of a female dominated witchcraft culture in the early modern Europe the appearances of the male sex in witchcraft belief and persecution explains the fears of a changing religious environment. I will support this this argument with three major points. The first, the persecution of male witches illustrates the Protestants belief that the world consist of right and wrong, those who sin are under the influences of the devil. The second, will explore the way in which men do tied the beliefs about witches. Thus explaining why man targeted women when writing their beliefs and prosecuting them. Final. My argument will explore the effects on class and how different classes of men were tried as witches in a different ways.

According to Oxford Dictionary the definition of witchcraft is “the practice of magic, especially black magic; the use of spells and the invocation of spirits,” but this doesn’t even begin to explain the witchcraft religion. Witchcraft is often associated with nature and its elements; this is because witches believe that magic is in the present and part of the real world, not the supernatural. The witchcraft religion is one that dates back thousands of years; it is constantly changing which is why people have so many different views on it. From rituals to symbols to Wicca, in this essay I will be discussing the basics of Witchcraft.

Witchcraft is a fascinating subject that comes out of many regions of the world. There have been time periods in which witchcraft was a prominent feature in society, and there has been times when it has died down. One of the most interesting things about witchcraft is how it has physically changed, how the concept of witchcraft has changed, and how people perceive and view it has changed over centuries.What many people do not know is that witchcraft is actually still practiced today in the US and all over the world. After a Religious Identification Survey by the City University of New York in 2001, it was found that Wicca, which is what current day witches call themselves, was the country's fastest-growing religion, with 134,000 people,

Many innocent women happily welcomed death by confessing to witchcraft in order to end their excruciating torture during the witch hunt craze between 1450 and 1750. Since many records were lost, destroyed or never kept, the best estimation of the total deaths is several million (4). The main cause of the witch hunts was the Church inflicting fear upon the common and educated man by lying to them about what witches do and who they are. The Church also directly and indirectly increased the pain that accused women would go through during their torture. The Church made it clear, to all those who would listen, that all women were evil and capable of witchcraft. 'The Bible's Apocrypha states, 'Of woman came the