A witch in the European community was regarded as someone who had the power to harm both humans and the animals. In the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, there were many cases of witch hunts. The primary factor that contributed to the large witch hunt was a puzzle to the majority. Many factors contributed to witch hunt, including economic downturns, and the growth of religion among other factors. In the nineteenth century, many historians ignored the issue of the witch hunt, as they believed that it was not an important subject and instead saw it as a beginning of a new Era. Despite the great fight between the Protestants and the Catholics, they later both suppressed what other people saw as the popular culture of the rural people. The growing need for the church in the society made Catholics and the Protestants to eliminate witches because they believed that they (witches) had negative impacts on the society.
Politics is also said to have played some role in the large scale of witch hunt. In the fight between the northern monarchs and the Western Europe over power, the main idea was to prove their commitment to religious matters by fighting witches within their borders. The presence of witches in ones’ territory showed hostility to the God, rulers and the people in the society. There was a great fear among the rulers of the territories because they did not want their regions to experience problems such as famine, which they believed was as a result of the witches. As a result, some legal measures were passed to allow massive witch trials and their persecution if found guilty. The other aim of the witch hunt was to ensure that the witches did not infect the innocent people or interfere with Christianity.
Economic crises played a role in the increase of witch hunt although the economic factor was not as big as the religious factor. As most witches were believed to have come from the poor families, the issue of commercialization of the agriculture and some people being employed to work in the city could have increased the gap between the poor and the rich. The widening gap led to some poor people involving themselves in witchcraft matters. The economic factor did not outline Cleary why the hunting of the witches increased.
Many of the witches were women as they were considered to have some of the features that enhanced their ability to perform witchcraft. They were said to be impressionable, and carnal than men and thus making them favorable to be witches. The aim of witchcraft was to overthrow the hierarchy that Christians had created to give assistance to God. According to Halsall, “Witchcraft was thus spiritualized, and witches became the ultimate heretics- enemies of God.” Many of the anti-Christians acts such as having a sexual relationship with demons and spitting on the Communion host made an increased rate of hunting the witches as it was a sign that they did not respect the practices of the Christians.
The campaign against the witches was made strong after Protestants and Catholics had fought for reforms. The campaign was aimed at changing the negative culture of the rural people. Christians believed that the practice of witchcraft was demonic and against the will of God. The campaign aroused many opinions from different scholars, as some saw this as an attempt by the rural people to abandon their cultures so that they could fit in the middle-class urban values. Both the Christians and the rulers of that era wanted their territory to have few cases of witchcraft so that the church would grow.
In the primary sources, there are some factors that contributed to the continued fear of witchcraft. The impacts of witchcraft activities, as listed, increased the fear that people had in witchcraft. The primary source clearly indicates that the witches could prevent a woman from conceiving and make one deny his or her faith. The acts of those witches rendered them as enemies of mankind. In the “Papal Bull of 1484,” it is evident that the witches were able to infect innocent people, and that was a threat to those who had a religion, and thus it was necessary to ensure that the roots of witches were uprooted.
The act of burning the witches also contributed to growing fear of witchcraft. It is reported that one citizen from Bern used to burn witches and chase some outside the borders. The issue of burning the witches was common and thus made some to fear involving themselves with witchcraft matters. The procedure of torturing as described in the extract from “The Hammer of Witches” also is another factor that led to the increased fear of witchcraft activities. A suspect could undergo a series of torture so that he or she could tell the truth, and those that did not speak the truth could end up being killed.
In conclusion, the growth of the church was the primary factor that contributed to the large scale witch hunt. Although some factors also contributed to the great rise of witch-hunt campaigns, the religious one was a key factor. Different activities were used by the society to illustrate the hardships that befell those found guilty, which created fear among its members so that they would not indulge themselves in witchcraft activities.
Bibliography
Halsall, Paul. 1996. "Medieval Sourcebook: Witchcraft Documents [15Th Century]".
Fordham University.
Wiesner, Merry E. 2000. Women and gender in early modern Europe. Cambridge [u.a.]:
Cambridge Univ. Press.
