Witch Hunts
... were without children were seen to be an easy target amongst the society they lived in, because once again they wouldn’t have anyone to defend them in court. (Wikipedia, 20th September 2005) Usually just having a slight suspicion or a denouncement were seen to be as a sufficient grounds for arresting a woman and investigating her as a witch. Churches would at times print the name of someone who they had suspected or someone of the community that had suspected someone as being a witch in there church papers. When a woman was to be arrested she was most times certainly to be tortured and tormented. If she was to voluntarily confess on her own, it wasn’t taken into account. The church felt that the only way that she could oblige the devil was by torture. (Shahar, S 1984:275) But what things could have been taken into consideration of a woman being accused of practicing magic and being called a witch? What would lead someone to denouncing someone as a witch? The greed factor should be taken into consideration of why someone who being denounced as a witch. Witch hunters would some times prey attack on someone who was seen to be wealthy and by so, the one who is being accused would have to give up there property as it was confiscated away from them. Not believing in God or practicing the rituals of a Christian was seen to be the works of the devil. So if they didn’t believe in God then they must have been in some sort of a cult. Religion once again played a huge factor for denouncing someone. Protestants would accuse Roman Catholics members as being witches, and vise versa Roman Catholics would accuse Protestants women as being witches too. Even if they weren’t it was just on each other’s religion, where innocent people had to pay the price. (Pavlac, B. 2001) Even natural disasters and misfortune were blamed as being the works of witches. They found their scapegoats in witches. When something such as a plague, famine, war or even a storm was to happen, people would accuse someone as being a witch and for causing these unwanted distresses. And if someone was to take a turn for the worst in his or her health, once again the work of the witch was in play. Though for people turning sick or even a little hysterical could be found in a few simple explanations, but once again many people felt that it was more necessary to just blame it upon someone else as an act of witch craft. A social control method that was also used in accusing women for being witches was that early modern governments would exploit the fear of witchcraft to centralize authority increase bureaucratic jurisdiction. They would impose cultural uniformity and dominate the church. The hierarchy may have believed in witchcraft or not but it was an extremely very dangerous conspiracy that was to be provided for the premises of expanding government intervention. this theory has a lot of similarities to the one of the Church Oppression theory. What was done in this theory was that the church would fraudulently invent witches so that it could crush its opponents and grow rich. At what expense was it done? They would accuse innocent women who didn’t disserve the reaction and the treatment that was shown towards them. And for what? Just so that one organization could grow wealthy, but at the same time accuse and kill innocent people. (Pavlac,B. 2001) Women were sometimes accused by people for a psychological need to blame others for their own problems. Its been said that witch hunts were therapeutically beneficial for society. Sounds more like a psychotic scheme to let other people kill others just so that they can feel better about themselves for problems that they had in there lives. It could be said that many men would accuse other women that they knew because they were intimidated by them. Witch hunts showed an embodiedment of social hostility towards women. Since early Christian times it has been considered that woman were inferior to men. And an argument that is mentioned in the Malleus Maleficarum is that women are imperfect because she was created from the rib of a man. And because of this all woman are liars. It should be noted that men were also targeted for witchcraft, but not as much as what woman were. (Pavlac. B, 2001) Many scholars have also said that woman who were independent from what was expected in that era of time, especially the older ones living outside of the parameters of the patrician family, was that this sort of woman was most vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft. The reason for this allegation was that more woman than men tended to survivor into a dependant old age. They could have also been seen as being a burden to their neighbors. The women who were labeled a witch wanted things for herself or her household from her neighbors. But she had little to return, and most of the time they themselves weren’t as better of than she was. (Jones, A. 2002) But there also needed to be proof. This usually came in the form of the diabolical mark. The diabolical mark was that of Satan had put on towards someone who had made a pact with him. All witches and warlock were said to have this mark somewhere on there body. It was said that the mark was made in a hidden place of the individual’s body, such as the armpit, under the eye lip. Even in the genital zone, and sometimes inside the mouth. There was also another form of diabolical mark. This was a small zone one a persons body where they were not able to feel a prick. It has been discovered since that everyone has a part on their own body where they are unable to been a prick because it is insensible. So all women that were put under this test were found to be guilt of practicing witchcraft. (Wikipedia, 2004) Other things that had made a woman a witch was to have the possessions of elements that were necessarily used in the art of black magic. To have other witches in your family was also a common use to say that you were a witch. If it was in the bloodline of someone else in your family why shouldn’t it be in you either? Not to shed a tear during the torment process, because this was usually seen to be the help of the devil. There were common test that were conducted on women who had been denounced as witches. One of the most common test was to have your feet and hands tied, and sometimes the women would be placed into a bag that would fit there entire body. Once placed inside this bag, she would then be thrown into a river or a pool of water. If the woman was to float then she was most obviously a witch, because the devil had helped her float, but if she was to sink then, well she was innocent. But this was all a little to late because the woman was now dead because she was caused to die by drowning. Did these people not have any common sense back then? It seems like they didn’t. This is honestly a pathetic way of seeing if someone is a witch or not. Do a test that wouldn’t eventual ate in the cause of someone’s death. Thou...