Similarities Between The Dark Ages And Elizabethan England

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The Dark Ages and Elizabeth England: Witchcraft The Dark Ages, or the Middle Ages, took place from 500 to 1500 A.D, and The Elizabethan Era took place from 1558 to 1603. During these prime years in history, witchcraft was an extremely common belief. “Almost everyone believed in the existence of witches” (Stewart 83). Witches were reported to have flown around on broomsticks around Europe, until they became better behaved after the sixteenth century. Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg, his invention of the printing press c. 1440 allowed for the spread of belief and knowledge of witchcraft. As a result of this, witches were considered a threat to society, and a renowned lawyer defined a witch as “a person who hath conference with the Devil, to consult with him or to do some act” (Stewart 84). Witches had many superstitions created about them, were set to trail often, and were typically divided into two categories of good and bad. People during these time periods were very superstitious, and blamed unfortunate occurrences on witchcraft because it was easier and more convenient to explain. A few examples were poor crops, death of a child, and failing businesses. Additionally, people blamed cases of the bubonic plague on witches, because there was not a cure and nobody could …show more content…

The majority of people believed in the existence of witches, and pursued witch hunts and trials. Women had little to no rights, which is why the majority of accused witches were female. Towards the end of the Elizabethan Era, the belief of witchcraft had reached its peak. Accordingly, science was not developed, and people found it easier to blame witches for issues rather than finding the actual cause. Witches had been accused of many unfortunate events and had casualties linked to them, were punished for their crimes when in most cases they were innocent, and were separated by good and bad until the Renaissance

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