Witchcraft is considered to be a controversial crime and as well punishable. Due to the rise in Christa1inaity, witchcraft is regarded to be a superstition and in this wise persecution of the so called witches became common in the middle ages. The malleus Maleficarum and the other document used served as reference document in order to identify and prosecute witches, it explains the rules of evidence or acceptable procedures in which those that were suspected to be witches are subjected to torture and may eventually be put to death with proven evidence from the person involved. Women and men were usually most victims and thus were killed due to the procedures contained in the book, for reasons such as incantations, charms, conjuring and other abominable superstitions and offences, crimes e.t.c. or mainly due to false accusation. The book malleus maleficarum was a notable warning concerning situations when intolerance took over a societal setting. The Malleus was used as a judicial case book used to detect, persecute people that are suspected to be possessed with witchcrafts, it specifies rules of evidence and the laws that are connected with or allowed by the Christian Church by which suspected witches were being tortured and put to death. According to the words of Innocent VIII, the bishop emphasized that it is possible for anyone accused of being …show more content…
According to book by Nider, Peter who happens to be a secular judge in the diocese of Lausannes, his method is to torture the suspected witches and burn many of those witches and in some cases sent them to exile out of the territory of Bernese. The book does not mention if they were tried by law, instead the judge tortured suspected witches until they confess and eventually will burn them. This is saying in essence that the suspected witches were not given fair trial since they were not tried by any means and no process of examination and trials
But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not?...” (Miller Act 3, p.100). Again an example of how fear and control have led this community to unjustly try and convict people they see as
The first set of witchcraft persecutions occurred during Elizabeth 1st reign, this was Around 1563. Commonly people associated witches with a woman and the beliefs were the following of that they have made a pact with the evil spirit Satan. The rush of the witch persecutions mainly happened after 1563 and by the time period of 1750 roughly 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, or hung across the whole of Western Europe. Therefore, in this essay, I will be mainly focusing and arguing which of the hysteria surrounding witchcraft and witchcraft trials had a greater impact in Britain or the American colonies in the time period of the 17th century. And I will be arguing it following different factors which could contribute to this such as the social factors geographical factors, religious factors and also control law and order.
The accused would be hanged or killed in another means if they were chosen by the girls to be the witch. The girls who chose the witch were major players in the trials. The doctor that declared it to be the cause of witches was also a major
Accused and Betrayed Throughout the late 1600’s women had been accused of being a part of witchcraft. In this time women went through many disgusting torture treatments and got charged with many different things. When a women had been accused she would be “treated” with many different types of torture until they had died or had admitted to doing witchcraft. Some of the tortures were called: “The Garotte”,” Dunking the Witch”, and “The Boots”.
The European Witch Trials mostly took place in France, Germany, Northern Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The trials took place from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century. People mostly ignored the thought of witchcraft until it was necessary to take action. Europeans were in the process of a religious reformation. The Reformation heightened the awareness of evil within the culture.
A group of young girls began to behave strangely, complaining of physical maladies, visions, and trembling, and babbling uncontrollably. They blamed their behavior on three village women who, the girls believed, practiced witchcraft upon them. (“Salem Witch Trials” Gale). Women who were accused of witch crafted were imprisoned, then hanged, drowned and stoned (Karlsen). Throughout 1692, 156 women were accused of witchcraft, and 20 of them were sentenced to death (Karlsen).
REVIEW OF LITRATURE A.) SUMMARY SOURCE A Although the whole book had information on the Salem witch trials. The introduction, chapter 1 and 2 and the conclusion had information regarding the research needed • Introduction: states what the Salem witch trials where and who they accused.
According to Fearless Wives and Frightened Shrews: The Construction of the Witch in Early Modern Germany, “alleged witches left no records other than their trial confessions, which were often extorted by means of Inquisitorial procedures ranging from leading questions to torture.” Many confessions that came from the accused witch on trial were from being worn out as torture went on and the prosecuting went on(Brauner 10). To elaborate, the torture additions to the protection of the accusers created a mass witch
In the court case of Tempel Anneke, many social and economic factor determined the outcome of her trial. Was it the misfortune of the people in her community that she was unable to help, or the fact that she was known to be a very powerful healer? Could it also have been that she was not part of the norm of society based on her characteristics of the general woman figure she portrayed in the 1600’s? Through the analysis of, The Trial of Tempel Anneke: Records of a Witchcraft Trial in Brunswick, Germany, 1663’s court transcriptions the details will show how these social and economic factors played such an important part in the trial that convicted her to death.
Over 200 people were accused by these girls and 20 people were hung on the account of witchcraft(Miller,1144). These people were not truthfully proven, but they were still taken from their families and put in jail for no reason(Miller,1132). The town became made with witchcraft hysteria, and they claimed people
The first four colonies of America were, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, following with Connecticut. John Winthrop, Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams, along with Anne Hutchinson, were few of the founders of the first colonies. Centered around religion, after escaping religious persecution, these colonies based the way they lived their lives around the Bible, Church, along with the New testament. The Puritans emphasized religious obligations and followed strict guidelines pertaining to the Bible. They broke away from the church of England and became their own religion following the teachings of the Bible as well as the Old Testament.
“The fact that overall about 20 per cent of the accused were male is less an indication that men were associated with witchcraft than it appears. Most of these men were related to women already convicted of sorcery […] Of the few that were not related, most had criminal records for other felonies, such as theft, highway robbery, murder […] For them, witchcraft was not the original charge, but was added on to make the initial accusation more heinous. Witchcraft was thus perceived primarily as a female offence.”
"In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is, ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be a witness to it? The witch and the victim.
Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.
Gender roles played a heavy role in colonial society, and the women who did not conform to these roles were easy targets for witchcraft accusations. Women who were post-menopausal, widowed, unmarried were not fulling their “duty” to society of bearing children and thus could come under fire (Lecture.) Those who were aggressive, out spoken, or did not do as another wished could also bring cries of “witch!” (Lecture.) This is highlighted in Cotton Mather’s Accounts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, one of these accused women Susana Martin stands trial with many of the testifiers being men who had been wronged by Martin in some way or another.