Why did the witch-craze happen in Early Modern Europe?

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Why did the witch-craze happen in Early Modern Europe?

For three centuries between 1450 and 1750, diverse societies were consumed by a panic over alleged witches in their communities. Witch-hunts, especially in Central Europe, resulted in the trial, torture, and execution of tens of thousands of victims. Historians have carried out a huge amount of research into the reasons for this ‘craze’ and found that predominantly the witch hunts took place against a backdrop of rapid social, economic and religious transformation that inspired feelings of disunity, fear and uncertainty.    

These three factors interlink continuously within the explanation for the witch-craze, the factor that appears to dominate is that of social transformation lying especially within its intellectual foundations. By the end of the 16th Century, most educated Europeans believed that witches, in addition to practicing harmful magic engaged in a variety of diabolical activities 1. At the outset, the ideas surrounding the witch-craze were mainly the property of the literate and ruling classes and not of the common people, formulation of those ideas had been the work of theologians, philosophers and lawyers, and the men who subscribed to them were judges, clerics, magistrates and landlords 2. This information was communicated to the illiterate peasants through the public readings of the charges made against witches at the time of their execution, however they could not fully understand the sophisticated theories, nor were they likely to become as frightened as monks and theologians. These fears penetrated the underclasses through the preaching of priests and through the public executions of witches. An important point to note is that the great European witch-hunt could not have happened until the members of the ruling elites of European countries, especially those who controlled the judicial aspects, subscribed to the various beliefs regarding the activities of witches 3. The mere belief in witchcraft was not sufficient; it was the belief that they could harm others and reject their Christian faith that was the cause for concern. However, the question of how these ideas came into play still remains.

At the centre of most learned witch-beliefs was the Devil, it was the source of the witches’ magic. The image of the Devil had changed dramatically during the middle ages. This is shown in the New Testament, in which Satan became much more prominent. Christianity began to consign the rival

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religions, Jewish and Pagan, to the Kingdom of Satan, this is shown through the illustration of Satan, a


new creation as there was no standard image of the Devil in medieval art. Many of the features newly

assigned to the Devil were originally those of pagan Gods, for example; the goatee, the cloven feet, the horns, and the wrinkled skin 4.

This connection between the perceived increase in Satan’s power and the first witchcraft trials in the 15th Century indicates the influence of religion on the witch-craze in Early Modern Europe. The Devil was represented as the ...

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