Last night my sister was doing an Essay on Witches in Shakespearean times, and she has to include lots of information on the Witch Trials or Burning times.

I never realised just how brutal it was, and have never even heard of some of the torture methods, and wish I hadn't! It was horrible!

I still connot really understand why a sudden 'fever' broke out, and how mainly through out Europe and America, the Trials and torture became so popular, and the belief that killing all those people was for the right cause!

Does anybody know why they started? And why the became so wide spread?

I've actually done some research on this like a month ago so here's what I remember

The pope created the inquisition to persecute the heretics and stuff but they started picking on smart women aswell, at first this had to be enforced to the ppl, but as time went on the ppl started wanting the "witches" to be burnt,
at this time burning witches was no more a matter of inquisition but the normal courts, it became so that the "government" only burnt witches coz they had to if rebelions were nto to start but none of the educated ppl actually believed in witches anymore, they even tried to stop the hunts,
the funny thing is that the church was the first to stop recognising the demonic wittch but rather stating that it's a desease of the mind, even possesions by the demons were soon to be thought of as a mental illness by the church

for all I know noone really knows why the whole thing blew over and stopped being popular with the ppl...

ok, I just need to add something,
the original ppl that the inquisition persecuted or rather monitored were the newly converted christians

Argh as a practising male wicca witch i would absolutly HATE to have been around in them days.
does anyone know if any part of witchcraft was acceptable for example: tarot cards

yes,
witches were wery welcome,
tehy were the ones to heal livestock and ppl, they spoke of the future,
but as soon as someone in the village got sick or died, their cow went dry or anything else sinister had happened to them, the local witch would be burnt

kinda funny don't u think?

i'll say thats funny (not in amusing funny)...but then again when people can't put a logical explaination as to why for example thier cattle died (because they didn't have the understanding as it was) it would have been easier to blame the witches.

yes...

but the funny thing is that int he erarly ages the courts needed to convince the ppl the witch made their cettle die,
but then later on the ppl tried to convince the unbelieving courts as they no longer believed in witches

Yes, anything considered unusual behavior caused people to punish the innocents. Some of whom they called witches, weren't even witches. A classic story was of the young women of Salem, acting "out of the ordinary". Next thing you know someone else, not in their clique was "named" and acused and all of the girls would go along with it, causing a mass hysteria. They were so far deep into the "blaming" that they just couldn't admit the truth. They ruined it for everyone.

ahhh yes i am very familiar with the stories of Salem and the girls who caused a lot of problems. i actually forgot about them till u mentioned them. *slaps back of hand for forgetting*

Is that the story about two girls who pretended to be crazy or something, and people began to reactly badly to it?

the two girls started to behave in a way seen as abnormal and they blamed thier behaviour on witches in the village. so basically thier lying cost the lives of many innocents who were beleived to be witches whi were burned. it was only when they turned to the wives on those on the boards that they stopped believing the girls and they eventually told the truth that they lied.

the last witch trial in my country is strangely enough well documented and it was coz a girl didn't like a guy that liekd her,
so he "implanted" some nuts and bolts and stuff in his leg then he said that the girl made the objects to be in his leg with magic and that she did other stuff,
she was the only one who ahs ever passed the water test in my country :banana00:

I believe many witch panics worldwide began with allegations made by children. Society has always needed a scapegoat, and psychological studies have shown that a society of people will ALWAYS choose someone to hate. Society has always been suspicious of the true individual, the one who wouldn't conform, the one who looked different to everybody else. If the population is in a period of general hardship this becomes even more likely. Many accused and convicted witches were people who ironically were only trying to help the population, being herbalists, midwives, and other figures of wisdom. It was probably because of these 'powers' that no-one else had that they were picked on.

Another reason: the influence of the Church, as stated above: in particular a biblical passage which supposedly gave people permission to kill witches ("Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to Live" -Exodus 22:18). This was NOT what the bible saif prior to the King James edition, however. See http://www.hollowhill.com/fun/halloween/witch-bible.htm for more details on this. However giving the general populace an encouragement 'endorsed' by the Bible obviously caused a great number of persecutions.

Also: It is in human nature to Blame. People have always sought to give Evil a face. In Biblical times people laid all their sins and blame upon a Goat and sent it out into the wilderness to die. Substitute women (and men) who were 'different' in some way for a goat and Voila.

The incidents in Salem pretty much followed the pattern of witch hysteria in other parts of the world. Sometimes people forget that the darker side of business has to be taken into account here as well .

In England a failed lawyer named Matthew Hopkins saw a way to make a quick buck and appointed himself 'Witchfinder general', travelling from place to place rooting out 'witches' for a fee causing the death of many many women (blackadder fans: yes the episode 'witchsmeller pursuivant' was based on this). So many people stood to make money from these events, and make no mistake - it was an event. Swimming, burning or hanging a witch was a family fun day in medieval times, an occasion when people could vent their spleen about whatever was wrong in their lives .

Pick up a book of local folklore and legends from ANY county in Great Britain and you will find records of local witches and witch hunts. Our local witch was a lady called Granny Britain who by most accounts was well-liked, a local midwife (many alleged witches were actually wise-women and midwives - who gave them these life -giving and life- saving skills? Must be Satan of course...). Nothing nasty happened to Granny Britain because she came along in Victorian times when the old ways of thinking were being discarded in favour of an exciting new century. But people were suspicious of her and used her wrath as a means of scaring their children.

That's quite the info nightvision. And it's true. Anything to make a buck. Some people will do anything!

As for midwives being Satan's helpers...I had a mid-wife during the labor of my son. It was such a pleasant delivery, I wouldn't change anything if I could go back. It's not every day you hear that! I say thank God, not Satan!

But back to the History of the witch trials. If I was alive back then, I'd probably be hung!

It's amazing that a word of a child could spawn such disaster. After all children are supposed to be "innocent", right?

Many times the interrogating was much worse than the actual punishment. For example the Romans would use a torture device that streched the accusee's back to the point of breaking and some times even killing them, but the punishment after confessing was often less painfull than the before mentioned torture.
either way the person would die. in Salem they would drop the accused into the river, those who could swim were concidered witches and those who couldn't would drown.

The specifics for this have been given and are available everywhere. But the same underlying reasons are still present, it is just that they manifest in different forms and ways. (a lot of what nightvision said here) "Scapegoats" (a few cases already on different levels in the 21st century as well as the last) and fear. It seems seeing people as different - emphasizing differences over simularities seems to be the first step. (dividing)


People (the already powerful often) then manipulate these things (fear, hate, difference) for political and economic gain/control. (turning people against each other in directed ways, the next step) Do you sometimes notice how fear is capitalized on politically even today ?

In the last hundred years there have been many such occurances that have parallels to this. And there will almost certainly be many more. It seems different today and so it is easy to congratulate ourselves about it because of how it seems on the surface. But not so. The same underlying causes (the reason why such things spread so rapidly at times - they appeal to a basic human nature which needs to be countered) exist yet. Very little learned overall as a group. Who knows if we ever will truly, it is not like it is very easy at all....


This topic is depressing.

Depressing, yes. Important and historical, yes. It's good to know times are better now. Freedom of speech and religion are a good thing.

The freedom of speech and religion, I agree wholeheartedly with. The times being better, it appears so in many ways. Yet I still feel that these things are only as good as the people themselves. I think there is much room for this (this sort of thing in general) happening because of the lack of respect that there often is for people of differing views/beliefs. There may not be executions and murders as such, but yet, there is still the same hate or fear which lies underneath waiting to turn into more at any time.

times are better, but not that better,
I've heard that in eastern europe there are still more then 10 "witches" hanged every year,
but this ofcourse is not legal, it's murder, but still...

Thanks for all the help! It's better than what I had written down before! I agree, it is depressing. So many people dying because of superstition (***** bout crap sp!)

The most famous historical witch near me would be Mother Shipton. She was famous across all of Britain around the time she was born. I have still to go and see her well and Cave! Must go there tomorrow if I can pester mum tonight!

I remember reading about her: nobody dared to upest her so she lived to a ripe old age (if she existed at all, because some people say she didn't) Link here for you if you don't already have it:

http://www.mothershipton.co.uk/

I quote myself....from an earlier reply against a believer...

Science showed that during the Salem Witchtrials simple Ergot poisoning from crops was most likely responcible for a couple of hallucinations...leading to a domino effect of fear and alienation...

Freedom of speach actualy lead to the spreading of hysteria just as it does now with terrorism...It is not the freedom that is so wrong but the status we give the things being said....words are not proof.