The Trial: Religious Elites The major authority figures were essential parts of the witch hunts and trials of the 1640s to 1670s considering that they were in charge of putting religion into the minds of the “witches” as well as trying to get the people who were convicted to repent their “sins”. The roles of the religious elites were compelled to do with the major movement towards getting Thomas to understand that he can repent his sins and get the “devil out of him”. The Bishop and Dean within Edinburgh went to Thomas Weir in jail to pray within or at pray, against the approval and compliance with him so that he could repent and have God and saints on his side. During the time of Major Weirs’ trial, he did not really believe that there was …show more content…
“They coming from a man of so high a repute of Religion and Piety. He endth* with this remarkable expression, Before GOD (sayes* he) I have not told you the hundred part of that I can say more, and am guilty of.” Religion within the Weir trial specifically with Thomas Weir has been indecisive throughout the primary and secondary sources. There are some tentative and hesitant thoughts that of two minds when it comes to if Thomas truly believes in a higher power such as God. “During the revolutionary decade of the 1640s, witch hunting in England as well as in Scotland had a common religious justification: to establish the godly society that English puritans and Scottish Covenanters considered to be the goal of the Protestant reformation.” Religion was a way of inspiration for the portrayal of witch hunting within Scotland in the interest that it allowed for the society to gain perspective on the advantages and disadvantages of people in the trials such as Thomas and Jane Weir. For the Weirs’, religion allowed them to get prosecuted to a further extent because they were going against the religion by committing adultery, …show more content…
Women were usually domestic workers within the household and society, doing jobs such as child-rearing, weaving, and roles of mother, sister, daughter, wife and caretaker in the community. Men were either seen as the husbands of the female witchcraft users or someone of an intense authority figure. “Sir Andrew Ramsay, Lord Abbotshall then Provost of Edinburgh” were all men with high statuses within the community in Edinburgh in which Thomas lived. Women during the time of witchcraft in Scotland came to be connected with the Devil by possession while most men do not have carnal knowledge of the work of the Devil himself but rather with a female witch who has the connection to the Devil.Since women were seen as the prominent members of the witchcraft community, there can possibly be multiple differences between the testimony and charges laid against Jane and Thomas Weir. Thomas was charged with incest, adultery, fornications and bestiality because he laid with his sister and multiple people within the community in which he lives. While his sister Jane was connected in the incest with her brother, she was also thoroughly prosecuted for sorcery which has an equal if not worse punishment as Thomas’ crimes. “She is also indyted* of Sorcreys* committed by her when she lived and keeped* a school at Dalkeith. That she took employment from a Woman to speak on her behalf to the Queen of
The people of this time, believe in witchcraft, and if you are apart of it, you must confess and redeem yourself or be hanged for your crimes. The girls use the ‘confession’ as a way out of casting charms in the forest, and then shout random names to shift the blame off of them. This becomes a good advantage for the girls. During the play, we notice that anyone who opposes the court and testifies against it, is soon labeled as the enemy of God and must be a servant of the Devil. Giles Corey and John Proctor happened to be two of the many associated with designation. The authorities felt the need to ‘purify’ the village, and therefor hang anyone connected to such crimes. Religion was such a major role in this time frame, and because of various viewpoints, several have died.
Associations were made between witchcraft and mental weakness, a person had to be mentally weak to become to the devil or willing to let him in. Both of these ideas were more closely enforced with women, continuously seen throughout the Malleus Maleficaium, which was hinged on the idea of female mental frailty, they were presented as a more popular contender for an allegiance with the devil as their weakness made them easier to approach. As an immensely influential text during the early modern period Malleus Maleficaium can be seen to provide a general idea of society’s view on witches. Malleus Maleficaium provides three reasons as to why women are more susceptible to the devil; their female traits make them ‘naturally more impressionable’ and convert other women in the neighbourhood. The description of women as the ‘fragile female sex’ shows the link between women and vulnerability, whilst both men and women could be seen to be weak, it was primarily a female fault. The idea of women’s susceptibility to sin and her need for guidance was reinforced by society. Tales of women’s wrongs were passed down, beginning with Eve’s original sin, women inherited a unstable nature that could easily fall prey. Pierre de Lancre, a French magistrate during the witch hunts, explained the larger number of female witches by referring to the primarily female names for witches which had been used throughout history, such as fate and nimphe. Similarly the Bible contains many negative examples of female witches such as the Witch of Endor, enforcing the idea of women’s need for guidance to remain on the right path, the idea of the deceptive women was established throughout history and society’s ideas on women made them more likely candidates for witchcraft. The mythology surrounding witchcraft could be
Godbeer, Richard. The Salem Witch Hunt A Brief History with Documents. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins 2011
Some may believe that the Salem Witch Trials were completely honest and fair, but most come to realize all of the unfairness behind it. The Salem Witch Trials occured in 1692, and now most look back on it as a foolish mistake that lead to the death of many innocent people. The reliability of the accusers, the evidence allowed in determining guilt or innocence, and methods of punishment were just three things that were completely unfair.
The thoroughness is one of its key strengths, allowing for people of varying knowledge about Salem to gain an understanding of the events and background of the witch trials. The author includes multiple sources to show the exceptionally varying ideals and their effects on Salem. “the peace that came under Joseph Green's conciliatory leaders... the important role religious strife played in the events of 1692”(Latner, 2006, 118). Joseph Green completely paralleled his predecessors, he was responsible for restoring order to Salem. This is significant because it shows the impact that ministers had, they had the power to change the town completely, Green was one of the first to not cause strife. Compared to Christine Leigh Heyrman’s “Witchcraft in Salem Village: Intersections of Religion and Society” Latner’s article correlates with the central idea that religious leaders and religion itself started the witch
The magistrates, in the common practice of the time, asked the same questions of each suspect over and over: Were they witches? Had they seen Satan? How, if they were not witches, did they explain the contortions seemingly caused by their presence? The style and form of the questions indicates that the magistrates thought the women guilty
Concerning why the witch hunts occurred when they did the agreed upon opinion by all three author’s is the social unrest and uncertainty felt due to the Protestant Reformation and the schism it created amongst the populace, the effects of recovering from plague and war, and the enforced patriarchal structure of a society that was changing. It was during the Reformation that Christian...
Although witch trials were not uncommon in Puritanical New England, none had reached such epidemic proportions as Salem. In 1691 the mass hysteria began when several young girls dabbled in witchcraft and began acting strange. When villagers took notice the girls were seriously questioned and so they began naming people, mainly woman, who had supposedly bewitched them (Boyer, p66). Several other who had been accused were woman displayed ‘unfeminine’ behavior and those who
The Crucible was a rather strong book, it had battles both internal and external, there were also betrayals and vendettas… but a few stuck strong to their morals of what was wrong, and what was right. After the girl’s acts were, undoubtedly, in the eyes of the law, seen as entirely real, people who would not otherwise have been accused of witchcraft were now eligible to be under Satan’s spell. One John Proctor, saw himself above the nonsense, that witches could not exist in Salem, his wife, his children nor him; But, when Mary Warren said to the court that he used his spirit to drag her into court to testify against the girls, the judges deemed her word more truthful than his. After actively and repeatedly denying the claims, he was sentenced to death, for only a witch could lie in the face of god.
(Ray p.32). However, as more fragments of textual evidence occur, historians are making new evaluations of how the witch trials were exaggerated by recent literature. Some historians like Richard Godbeer,
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
There were many people that were women, older, widowed, and on the brink of poverty. But not all these women were put on trial for witchcraft. The problem with the stereotype is that it breaks down once the actual trial starts. If a person who doesn’t fit the stereotype confesses to witchcraft and more importantly for elites, to dealing with the devil than the person is going to be convicted as a witch. Unfortunately for Françette Camont she did fit many of the stereotypes for being a witch and therefore when it was time for her trial it made it that much easier to convict
All participants in the witch-hunt were influenced by the society that existed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Salem operated as a theocracy, a government ruled by and subject to religious authority. In a theocracy, people's sins are not forgiven, so that when they commit an indiscretion, they are left feeling guilty. "The witch-hunt was....a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims." (p. 7) Characters such as Abigail Williams and Mrs. Putnam used the witch-hunts in the way cited above, as a method of confessing their sins without being accountable for them. Others used the chaos created by it for their own benefit. Thomas Putnam made his daughter Ruth accuse both George Jacobs and Rebecca Nurse so he could buy the resulting unclaimed land after they were hung. Any character that accused, confessed, or in any way joined the witch-hunt failed his or her test.
“The execution of economically marginal women on witchcraft charges consti- tutes a major example of public scapegoating in England. René Girard has argued that, for scapegoating to function, the projection of criminal guilt onto the innocent is essential;6 this misdirection of blame appears in maleficium cases, as it is not the yeomen farmers who refuse charity to the impoverished, and thus transgress traditional community standards, who are punished, but the women who request charity” (34)
Witchcraft persecution peaked in intensity between 1560 and 1630 however the large scale witch hysteria began in the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages and were most intense during the Renaissance and continued until the 18th century, an era often referred to as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason. Representation of witches, nay, representation in general is a political issue. Without the power ot define the female voice and participate in decisions that affect women -similar to other marginalised groups in society- will be subject to the definitions and decisions of those in power. In this context, the power base lay with men. It can be said that the oppression of women may not have been deliberate, it is merely a common sense approach to the natural order of things: women have babies, women are weak, women are dispensable. However the natural order of things, the social constructs reflect the enduring success of patriarchal ideology. As such, ideology is a powerful source of inequality as well as a rationalisation of it. This essay will examine the nature of witchcraft and why it was threatening to Christianity.