Another reason for the increased rise of witchcraft could be the punishment that one received if they were found guilty. This explains why many individuals falsely testified against those that were being tortured and maimed so they would not be accused of being witches. “Only a few were able to withstand severe and prolonged torture without admitting to what they thought their interrogators wanted to hear.” Those who believed that real witches existed, and were an insult to God, trusted that the legal process of punishing would be assisted with divine power which would protect the innocent from accusation or prevent them from giving way under torture and making false confessions of guilt. King James put it in his Daemonologie that, “God will not permit that any innocent persons shalbe slandered with that vile defection: for then the divell would find waies anew, to calumniate the best.” With the state and both religion stating that even through torture innocent people could not be proven guilty no-one challenged it and everyone accepted it. Therefore the tortured would admit the guilt and increase the numbers of witches in the modern period.
Some historians argue that the staging of witch trials and persecution was a large instrument of social control. A method used by the powerful to be in command of the weak and poor. Most witch-hunting occurred in countries where the population was divided into many different faiths, each Church wanted dominance above the other and suppression of sorcery was one form of keeping people under the fold of religion through imperceptible control and fear. People were led to believe that harvest failure leading to famine, epidemic disease, fire and flood were all aspects that witches could control, although these were supernatural powers individuals fell into the trap of ‘blaming’ others for their misfortunes. Witches became such scapegoats in early modern Europe, especially those individuals that had foes within the society and were easily victimised.
It was far more common for women to be accused of witch craft than men, King James thought this was because the female sex was frailer than the male, and therefore, ‘easier to be intrapped in these gross snares of the divell.’ It has been argued that many women especially elderly ones living outside the parameters of the patriarchal family and norms were the most vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft. “The limited data we have today shows a solid majority of witches were older than 50, which in the early modern period was considered to be a much more advanced age than today.” .) As more women than men tended to survive into a dependent old age, they could also be seen disproportionately as a burden by neighbours: "The woman who was labelled a witch wanted things for herself or her household from her neighbours, but she had little to offer in return to those who were not much better off than she. Increasingly resented as an economic burden, she was also perceived by her neighbours to be the locus of a dangerous envy and verbal violence." Spinsters and widowers were also at risk as just like the elderly women they appeared to offer a threat to the typical patriarchal family.
Poverty was another common ground on which witches were found. The vast majority of people accused of witchcraft descended from the lower socially economic backgrounds. Majority of people believed that those without ample wealth were more likely to be lured into the satanic temptation to witchcraft; which would give them the prospect of becoming rich and obtaining power over other individuals.
Thieves, fornicators and homosexuals were also targets more commonly accused of witchcraft. The general consensus behind this view was that if the person was capable of one moral crime they were also capable of the worst one of all, and have made a pact with the Devil. Although it was a rare occurrence in comparison to women, men were also accused of witchcraft. Patriarchal power, however, was ubiquitous at all stages of witchcraft proceedings and most men were exclusively the prosecutors, judges, jailers, and executioners -- of women and men alike -- in Europe's emerging modern legal system rather than the victims.
The rise of witch hunts in early modern Europe was sparked by diverse and complex causes within religion and punishment strategies. Another reason that may have supplemented the accusations was a lack of scientific advancement and incompetence to differentiate between a witch, and a normal person; only religion was used to accuse not scientific knowledge. Furthermore, it was too easy for a person to be accused of witchcraft, tried and prosecuted without any genuine form of evidence, it was based on word of mouth, which led to the huge increase of witch-hunt during this period.
Europe 1600-1789, Anthony F. Upton, p15-17.
Witchcraft in Europe, Alan C. Kors & Edward Peters, 72.
Witchcraft and Magic in 16th and 17th Century Europe, Geoffrey Scarre, p14.
Witchcraft in Europe 1100-1700, Alan C. Kors & Edward Peters, p193.
Witchcraft and Magic in 16th and 17th Century Europe, Geoffrey Scarre, p59.
Witchcraft and Magic in 16th and 17th Century Europe, Geoffrey Scarre, p24.
The Witch- Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Brian P. Levack, p129.
Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England, Deborah Willis, p65.