Witch Hunt Mania - 1450 to 1750

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Witch Hunt Mania - 1450 to 1750

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 beginning of sin / And thanks to her, we all must die.'(Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 25:13-26.)' (2). Vicious comments like this caused even women themselves to fear what other women may do. This fear only lead to the distrust of woman. A book written by two German men, titled Malleus Maleficarum, 'The Hammer of Witches', only furthered peoples fear of women?s evil. It states that women are more likely to become witches: ??Because the female sex is more concerned with things of the flesh then men; because being formed from a man?s rib, they are only ?imperfect animals? and ?crooked? where as man belongs to a privileged sex from whose midst Christ emerged.?(Malleus Maleficarum, 1486)?(2).

The men that wrote Malleus Maleficarum refer to the bible for reasons to why they consider women evil, so if the Church had never incorporated such things into the bible such things may have never been thought. Many ancient myths portrayed goddess?s as evil. Consequently those images of evil were kept and later attached to witches who kept goddess worship alive centuries later (4). Even devotion to the Virgin Mary (who is the biological mother of Jesus) was considered an indication of evil (2). One women, named Aldonca de Vargas, was even reported just for smiling at the mention of the Virgin Mary (Henry Kamen, Inquisition and Society in Spain) (2). Once a women was accused of witchcraft she would first have to confess in order to be executed. The torturing of accused women was so unbelievably horrid and sadistic that you would think a man of low standing would be the one to carry it out, but sadly it was the men of educated positions suc...

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...ld become prime suspects of witchcraft.? (Helen Ellerbe, The Dark Side of Christian History)(2). In one complete sentence Helen was able to sum up women?s early medical knowledge and their ability to care for one another. What the Church did to women, witches or not, sickens me as it should sicken every conscious living soul. They used their power and also their fear of losing that power to execute millions of innocent women. Not only did they execute them but they tortured them in unthinkable ways. The Church and men alike should be forever sorry for their part in the witch hunting craze.

Bibliography

Australi, Stella. ?Witchcraft Craze?, -http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2962/witchcraze/intellectual.html 2,

Ellerbe, Helen. ?The Witch Hunts: The End of Magic and Miracles?, -http://www.warcove.com/cove/morningstar/chapter8.html 3,

Hoyt, Olga. Witches. U.S.A., Fourth Impression, 1973. 4,

Kallen, Stuart. Witches, Magic & Spells. Minnesota, Abdo & Daughters, 1991. 5, ?Salem? -http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/salem 6,

Shafer, Mike. ?The Salem Witch Trials?, -http://www.gprep.org/~mike/salem 7,

Woodhurst Earl, Social Studies Teacher and expert footnoter

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