Witch Craze in Europe free essay sample

Witch craze in Europe during: the period of the Protestant Reformation, Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments from about 1480-1700 For more than two hundred years, individuals were persecuted as witches throughout the continent of Europe, even though the witch hunt was concentrated on Southwestern Germany, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Poland, and parts of France. In a collective frenzy. witches were sought, identified, arrested, mostly tortured, and tried for a variety of reasons. The total number of witches tried exceeded 100,000 people. This essay is supposed to identify three major reasons for the witch craze in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. During the Reformation and the Revolution, many people were being accused of being witches   in parts of Europe. Thousands and thousands were persecuted because they were accused of being a witch. People all over Europe believed in the evil spirits and that they were everywhere. It was believed that evil spirits would try to find new followers of the Devil. We will write a custom essay sample on Witch Craze in Europe or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Witches would kill infants, eat kids alive, and cast spells on people. Everyone one and anyone was could be accused for being a witch, no matter how powerful they were. The ‘witches’ were either hung, drowned, or burned. The executioners, notaries, copyists, and innkeepers would become very rich because of this. If someone did something you did not like, you could always accuse them of being witches and people would believe you. Even though the people accused were innocent, they started to believe that they were truly witches and that they really had sold their soul to the Devil. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Christianity was the only true faith. They believed everything evil was the work of the Anti-Christ. In Spain, there was an option of converting into a Roman Catholic or being burned alive on a stake. Two notorious Dominican monks, the Hammer of Witches, assisted to find the evil forces. The same year, Witch Bull was also persecuted for becoming an enemy of the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther, a Protestant Reformer leader would tell of everything the Devil and his followers would do. Martin Luther was truly believed that the Devil was the lord of the world. Any good Christian would capture and get hold of the evils one and they would be persecuted. They would open the door to persecution of any number of people, for whatever reason they were accused for. Most people were biased in Europe, during the Age of Religious Wars. There were lawyers and physicians that had disappointing views. Some lawyers would assume that an aged person were impure people and they could easily be tempted by the Devils ways, and they were mostly thought to be witches. Physicians at the time also had the same point of view as the lawyer. But medical doctors had a little altered view as the lawyers and physicians. They believed that and aged persons sickness came from natural causes. He also considered that the older people had smaller brains and they say things that they do no mean or did not do. But he is also convinced that there is an Anti-Christ and his temptations are hard to resist. He does not question that aged women can become servants to the evil one. Most of the people accused had the similar characteristics. Most of the people accused were females. A majority of them were around the age of 60. Almost all of these people were old, uneducated, and did not have the ability to defend for themselves against wrong assumptions. about eighty percent of the the accused were innocent victims were hung. If they tried to defend and fight against these false assumptions, they would be tortured until they confessed. There were test, such as, being throw into the ocean and seeing if you would drown or not. If you drowned you were not a witch, if you did not you were. So, either way you would die. You would die because they would burn you alive. Others were tortured so much that they just admit that they were witches, even though they were not. They wanted the pain to end. The three main reasons for the persecutions of many innocent victims in Europe which last from about 1480-1700. Was, first, age, gender, and a persons class. Second, was the public opinion and peer pressure of people. And third, was very strong religious beliefs. The techniques of the witch hunts were the most helpless, or the ones that are blamed by somebody else ,in other words scapegoating . These techniques are the very same we used today in many political, economic, ideological conflicts. So we some what have witch hunts today.