To what extent did witchcraft accusations reflect socio-economic tensions in early modern British communities?

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To what extent did witchcraft accusations reflect socio-economic tensions in early modern British communities?

        I has always been extraordinarily hard to look at beliefs and attitudes in the Early Modern period of British history, this quandary is due to the fact that these views are so different from modern day ideologies. When looking into how witchcraft accusations reflect socio-economic tensions in Early Modern British communities this problem also arises. Witchcraft was around before this period and is a very misinformed topic, and the reason behind its emergence as a prosecutable offence in the 16th Century is extremely debatable and a highly written about subject that has much literary depth that must be compared and critiqued thoroughly in order to fully comprehend the ideas and beliefs of the public during this period of Historical significance. Many written documents have given aid to historians when trying to enhance their knowledge on the motivation behind the accusations placed on people regarded to be witches.  This spans from the most famous pro-witch hunting treatise called the ‘Malleus Maleficarium’, which is Latin for ‘the hammer of witches’, which was written by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger and was published in Germany in 1487. There are also writers who attribute the main reason of witch hunting to be misogynous attacks by men for example modern day feminist writer Christina Larner and renowned historian Clive Holmes whose theories which will also be considered. It is always made clear that throughout the Early Modern Britain period ‘a great majority of those prosecuted came from the lower levels of society.’ 

        The main socio-economic tensions that reflect on witch accusations all stem from this principle that it was the lower end of the social hierarchy that were susceptible to witchcraft allegations. The reasoning behind the lower class of society being most vulnerable to witch accusations can be split into numerous parts for example the fact that they were the part of society that was weak and had little power in society and due to this they were used as scapegoats for any issues in the society of Early Modern Britain. Also it was always believed that they would use sorcery or magic as a way of survival and also in order to enact revenge on anyone who had shunned them both socially and financially this is described perfectly by Marianne Hester as ‘failure to carry out some hitherto recognised social obligation; a poor women would ask for charity or to borrow essential supplies, but denied eventually, if misfortune happened to the one who had denied her, would be accused of using witchcraft.’ They were also resented because the higher classes saw them as being reliant on the community in order to live. A fear of a decline in the economy left people being less tolerant of the poor, this meant that people were relieved that witchcraft allegations were slowly easing the issue of the poor from the community It is clear that most historians point to socio-economic reasons for the reasoning behind witchcraft accusations; however there are other arguments that must be considered when analysing this question.

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        Contemporary writers such as Reginald Scot offered scepticism to the idea of witch hunting in his Treatise ‘The Discoverie of witchcraft’ which was published in 1584, this literary text is extremely important when looking at this question. The book backs up the idea that witchcraft accusations were a reflection of socio-economic tensions in early modern Britain. There are two important points to be taken into account when considering Scot’s theories firstly the ideas he offers on economic or social prejudices in Early Modern Britain and secondly the suggestion he offers that people in this period were willing to accept these ...

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