Witchcraft In The Middle Ages

This article is about witchcraft and its different varieties of practices in different cultures. This article explains how witchcraft exists and plays an essential part in structural and functional aspects of a society. It also sheds the light on the journey of witchcraft from being profane and wicked to acceptable part of a culture.

It is important to understand the meaning of witchcraft to be able to identify what caused the massive witch-hunt in Europe. During the medieval to the early modern period witchcraft was identified as the practice of harmful, black or maleficent magic caused by a witch (Levack, 1987, p. 4). They also describe them as evildoers that associate with the Devil, kidnap children, and murder others. These accusations were untrue rumors made by the Catholic Church to promote Christianity and punish those who did not follow the church beliefs. (Levack, 1987, p. 7)

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).

Before the 1500s, prosecution of witches was rare. Trials were conducted against those who were seen as suspects of “practicing harmful magic and occasional mass trials" (Bever, 2009, p. 263). These accusations were often made by children and that of their imagination. The decline; however, occurred not through the prosecutions but through its “suppressing roles” and the overall “decline in witch beliefs” (Bever, 2009, p. 285). The title of the article is “Witchcraft Prosecutions and the Decline of Magic” and it is written by Edward Bever. Bever is the Associate Professor of History, SUNY College at Old Westbury.

Witchcraft is the use of magical powers. Witchcraft is often regarded as “black” magic. The article called “The Salem Witch Trials: 1692-1693” states that “[s]ince the early fifteenth century, so-called witch panics had periodically swept across Europe, causing witch hunts, accusations, trials and executions” (“Salem” 1). Although some children and males were accused, the greater part of the arraigned individuals were female (“Salem” 1). A debatable amount of around forty thousand individuals were implicated and executed as witches between fourteen hundred and seventeen hundred and fifty (“Salem” 1). Although the causes of the witchcraft hysteria are debatable, there are three widespread and favored explanations for the hysteria within

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")

Those who claimed to know the future and weren’t prophets were convicted of blasphemy and witchcraft and were punished. It was considered witchcraft because fortune-telling required a direct relationship between a human or witch and unholy spiritual powers. During the Middle Ages, witchcraft in ecclesiastic or church courts was presided over by church-appointed officials. This may have caused biased opinions and also links to religion being a cause of the harsh punishment. In medieval judicial proceedings, torture was sometimes used as a means of extracting information concerning witchcraft, and confessions were not uncommon. Historical evidence states that many confessed out of fear of being tortured and not because they were truly guilty.

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.

During the fifteenth century throughout the seventeenth century, the belief in god was common. The bible states of demons able to control people making them do bad things with evil magic. “As for the question, why a greater number of witches if found in the fragile feminine sex than among most men… the first is, that they are more credulous this.... The second reason is, that

Before Christianity spread throughout Europe, village societies had “cunning folk” (McLean). These men and women were believed to have practiced magic and act as healers for the members of society (McLean). When Christianity collided with folk culture, many townspeople viewed the Christian clergy as similar to the cunning folk (“The European Witch Hunts”). Eventually, the clergymen claimed that their powers came directly from God, and any other magic was the work of the Devil (McLean). They called the people who practiced this magic, the people formerly known as “cunning folk,” witches (“The European Witch Hunts”). Witches and witchcraft were observed with fear and condemnation but very little violence. Around 1000 CE, as the “concept of Satan, the Biblical Devil, began to develop into a more threatening form,” the idea of witchcraft began to be seen as a dangerous and terrifying to Christianity and God (McLean). While there were witch hunts between the 11th and 14th centuries, the prevalence of the Black Plague caused a staggering increase in the amount of accusations (Lewis). In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull condemning witchcraft, and later that decade, in 1486, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger published Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, which detailed how to discover and try witches (Lewis). These two actions sparked a long period of constant witch hunts (McLean). With the invention of the printing press, the mania was

Once a person was accused of witchcraft, he or she had to be put to the

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.

Before examining the individual source material and how what is shown and described represent witchcraft in Europe, it

Witchcraft in the 17th Century Witchcraft in Europe during the 17th century was common. It mainly took place in Germany, but also took place in England. Witches were associated with evil; it was believed witches inherited magical powers from Satan in exchange for the witch’s soul. Some of these magical powers included outrageous claims such as flying, being able to transform and cursing bad luck on others. It was extremely dangerous to be accused of being a witch as the most common punishment was death, often by beheading or even being burnt at the stake.

The use of witchcraft and magic became a taboo in early modern Europe. Most individuals living in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries believed that these witches could connect with a different realm to influence the world they found themselves in, the natural world. There was no way of pointing out a witch and so these arbitrary guidelines made by looking at stereotypes that outcasts had, led them early modern Europe into the witch hunts, where unfair trials meant the lives of innocent individuals were lost. Through the documents found in The Trial of Tempel Anneke, the use of witchcraft and other forms of sorcery were sought after to aid in time of need, but the actual practice of witchcraft and use magic were frowned upon by Christians who linked this practice to Satan and would culminate with the witch’s death after an unfair trial.