Contradictory Nature in Accounts of Witches, Demons, and Devils Between 1450 and 1800

The account of witches or magic during the early modern Europe and America, the period between 1450 and 1800 was the most inconsistent and contradictory simply its aspects were least understood. Surprisingly, most of the accusations and prosecution were directed to women in both Europe and America (New World at the time). The accounts of this witches were also contradictory based on the period in which they were being performed. It was the age when the intellectuals were rising with many innovations and discoveries done by scientists such as Isaac Newton, John Locke, writers, philosophers among others . On the other hand, people believed in the powers of witches and demons even in this wake of intellectual capacity.

Why Witches/Demons/ Devil were so Contradictory

During this era, witches, demons and devils were so contradictory. Firstly, the society believed that individuals who practiced these vices had superpower. Although in some instances, they managed to inflict revenge or harm to their target, their powers were questionable because when they subjected to punishment, they were unable to save themselves. Their contradiction was also reflected in people’s interpretation of magic, religion and innovations that were taking place . During this era, there was an emergence of new ideas to eradicate witches in which the witches were dealt with resulting into changes in the law statues dealing with criminal activities. There also emerged the aspect of witch hunting in the name of rooting out the vice that was considered barbaric as well as heinous. This created tension within the society as witches were being hunted.

On one hand, people had developed a strong believe in witches to a point that they willing to sacrifice everything....

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...r problem something that the government nor the church was unable. This saw them continue becoming powerful .

Conclusion

As analyzed above, it is evident that witches or demons were very contradictory due to inconsistent in what they did as well as the belief that people had over them. Although most people did not understand most aspects of witchcraft but relied on mere suspicion, it beyond reasonable doubt that magic and witchcraft was highly practiced during this era. On the same, neither the authorities nor the church was able to clearly define witchcraft. Moreover, there was no clear distinction between sorcery, witchcraft or magic. Most termed them all as demonic and subjected them to punishment. Ideally, witch-hunting mechanism put in place by various governments in Europe only focused on killing the witches rather than rotting the vice within the society.