Witch Trials Audrey Hilger

The witch trials in Europe were influenced by the Wars of Religion. The Catholic Church initially rejected the idea of witches, but as faith in the Church declined, new religions like Protestantism emerged. The Church then began to teach that witchcraft was real and a threat to society. The printing press helped spread ideas about witchcraft. Witch hunting gained traction during the wars of religion, with both the Catholic and Protestant Churches targeting suspected witches. The decline of witch trials occurred after the Peace of Westphalia and the Thirty Years' War. The stereotype of witches riding broomsticks originated from the use of a hallucinogenic fungus. Women were the main targets of witch trials due to prejudice and the lack of power they had compared to men. Some notable witch trials occurred in Germany, such as the Würzburg and Bamberg Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials in America resulted in the deaths of 19 people. Witch Trials in Europe and How They Were Affected by the Wars of Religion by Audrey Hilger During the Middle Ages, myths and folktales about witches were common, but they were renounced by the Catholic Church. In the Middle Ages, scholasticism was popular, so most people's beliefs followed the beliefs of the Church. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah Partly because of this, witch trials were uncommon during the 13th and 14th centuries. But as the Renaissance started to take hold, Europe became increasingly secular. Ch-ch-ch-changes, don't want to be a richer man, ch-ch-ch-ch-changes People began to lose faith in the Church after numerous scandals, and instead turned to new religions such as Protestantism. Although Renaissance thought was increasingly focused on truths instead of speculation, life hadn't really changed much in the countryside, where folktales and myths about mythological creatures and witches abounded. Here, there, and everywhere The idea that witches lived among the population gradually became more popular. Cause this is dinner, dinner night However, witch trials were still fairly uncommon during the 15th century, with the exception of events such as the Valais witch trials, which took place in France. But during this time, the Roman Catholic Church actually started to teach that witchcraft was real and a threat to society, a total 180. They believed that women were often in league with the devil. Go straight to hell, boys Go straight to hell, boys And although they weren't nearly as popular as they were during the 16th century, the invention of the printing press helped to spread ideas about witchcraft through pamphlets. The most notable of these was in the Malaeus Maleficarum, which was published in Germany and became one of the most famous writings about witches during the Renaissance. It was written by a clergyman who said that women were the cause of his sins, specifically having sexual desires, and said that these quote-unquote witches should be tried for heresy, which at that time meant being burned at the stake. Witch hunting really began to gain traction during the wars of religion. Mass hysteria during the Thirty Years' War left people feeling betrayed. They didn't know who to trust, I'm a girl who loves these people and this left many outcasts and women in trouble. Additionally, as more and more people renounced Catholicism and the Church altogether, the Church tried to maintain its power by becoming even more controlling. Soon, anyone who committed heresy was in trouble. The Roman Inquisition was in full swing. Not only did the Inquisition attack people such as Copernicus and Galileo, but it targeted women who were believed to be witches. Thousands were convicted and many were given the death penalty. During about a 200-year period, 80,000 were convicted and around half were killed. Just to stay far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far better run, run, run, run, run, run, run away. Usually, local Church officials led the convictions after tip-offs from locals themselves. Neighbors of the accused would throw women under the bus if they were disliked or estranged in any way. If it had been a bad year harvest-wise, And I'm hungry like a wolf. witches would be accused and the number of trials would often increase. But it wasn't only the Catholic Church that hunted for witches. The Protestant Church also contributed its fair share of trials. When the Reformation occurred, both the Catholic and Protestant Churches were looking for followers. One way that both churches gained followers was by saying that their church could protect you from witchcraft and influence of the devil. By using popular fear of witches as leverage, both the Protestant and Catholic Churches tried to gain members. Since witches were carrying out Satan's orders, trying and often killing witches was considered to be a surefire way to attack Satan himself. As I've mentioned before, the Catholic Church actually was against the idea that witches were among the population until the very early Renaissance. In 1258, the Pope said that hunting witches was actually not allowed. You say so. When I say go, go, go. In an article for the Economic Journal, Peter Leeson and Jacob Ross actually argued that it was because of the decline of Catholic popularity and the threat of the Reformation that caused the Church to change its mind and hunt witches themselves. Witch hunts really only became popular after and during the Reformation, which mainly happened in 1517. In the same article, they argue that most witch hunts took place in battleground areas, places where Catholics and Protestants fought the most. For example, in Germany, where Protestantism first gained traction, 40% of witchcraft persecutions occurred. But when the Peace of Westphalia happened and the Thirty Years' War ended, witch trials started to decline until there were practically none past the 17th century. Witches have a well-known brand. They have cats, pointy hats, they ride on brooms and all that. And this quote-unquote brand was actually created during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, when witch hunting began to slowly grow in popularity. For example, witches have always had cats because of the rampant superstition during the era. Since cats were nocturnal and such, they were feared and paired with witches. And this is going to be pretty weird, but there's a reason why witches always are shown wearing broomsticks. There's a fungus that can grow on rye bread called ergo. Ergo has lots of alkaloids, which are compounds that affect our nervous system and give the effect of a high, including hallucinations. Coming to Strawberry Field Nothing is real During this period of time, lots of people liked to use this stuff. And according to a very interesting article by The Atlantic, people used to use broomsticks to apply it under their armpits, as the sweat glands were an easy way to put the stuff into their bodies. I wish I was making this up, but I'm not. This image of people handling broomsticks and sometimes going into psychosis was actually the start of the witches ride broomstick stereotype. But if both men and women did this, why do we focus on women when we think about witches? And why were women 80% of the accused? It's because of prejudice. Since women were thought of as weaker than men. They were considered to be more susceptible to the temptations of Satan. It's also important to consider that men had most of the power during this time in history. They were the church officials, they led the town meetings, and they wrote the pamphlets. Women didn't really have an input. Alright, so now let's talk about some of the biggest witch trials that occurred. So, in Germany, there were four main witch trials. I'm going to focus on two of them. First, we have the Würzburg Witch Trials. These took place in Germany between 1625 and 1631. Right in the middle of the Thirty Years' War. 157 people were executed in the central city, but hundreds more were executed in Greater Würzburg. Like many witch trials, it occurred on a border between Catholic and Protestant territory. It was led by a bishop working on the Counter-Reformation. Another official, Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg, burned 900 people, including his own nephew. Most executions, as with the rest of Europe, happened through burning or hanging. I fell into a burning ring of fire. I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher. And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire. So, the Bamberg Witch Trials were one of the largest mass executions ever seen in Europe. Over a thousand people were executed in Bamberg, including children. Executions started in the early 1600s, often after crops failed. People believed that this was usually the effect of witches, when it was really a product of the Little Ice Age that ended in the 19th century. People believed that the high point of the trials began when all of the fruit trees froze over, and everyone was like, oh my god, it's the witch's fault. The trials were led by the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, Johann Georg Fuchs von Dorheim, who wanted to create a Catholic state during the Counter-Reformation. He wanted to make the population entirely pure and Catholic. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Him and his assistant believed that Bamberg wasn't religiously pure, and relied on folktales over the Bible. They thought that Bamberg needed to be purified, and they were going to use any means to get their way. I can't get no, I can't get no, If I turn my TV, and a man comes on and tells me, How white my church should be. Bamberg's system of processing witches was very similar to other systems across Europe. They created a witch commission, which was in charge of putting witches to trial. I can't get no, I can't get no, They also hunted men and children, but women were the main target of this abuse and murder. They suspected a woman of witchery if she flew, had sex with demons, or participated in a witch's sabbath, which is a witch's dance, apparently. In short, they had no real basis of which women were witches, but they used torture to make women admit that they were witches. They also used torture to force the women to name witch accomplices. This resulted in the trial and execution of people who were pretty high up in society, and the eventual end of the trials when these influential people complained to the Pope. And of course, arguably the most famous witch trial ever, which didn't actually occur in Europe, but in America, the Salem Witch Trials. They were relatively tame when thought of in comparison to witch trials that had happened in Germany a few decades earlier. They happened a bit after the witch hysteria in Europe, and occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. This case of mass hysteria resulted in the deaths of 19 people, and the accused numbered over 200. Among the accused were many teenage girls and a four-year-old named Dorothy Good. Salem followed the same torture system that Bamberg did, which resulted in Gilles Corrie dying under torture. All in all, the witch trials accused about 80,000 people and killed about half of that, around 40,000. They were very related to the wars of religion, not only because of the chaos and fear that led to mass hysteria among populations, but because of the Catholic and Protestant churches competing for power. The witch trials are only a footnote in our curriculum, but may have killed more people than Americans died in the American Revolution, and showed the truly disgusting and sexist beliefs that people held at the time, as exhibited by such things as torture methods that were used, and the murders of hundreds of children. Thanks for watching!