Witch Trial Phenomena

In important respects, the great witch hunts began with the invention of the stereotypical witch in texts by professional demonologists. Prior to the publication of these texts, there was already widespread belief in magic both harmless and malicious. But not until the practice of magic became a religious warfare between God and his enemy the devil did community concerns about the practice of magic evolve into the desperate, sadistic trials that occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the idea that witchcraft was a reality rather than a myth suddenly made a comeback. Trials of individual witches in early modern Europe always began with specific accusations brought against a supposed witch by one or more of her neighbours.

When the printing press was invented, writings could be distributed around Europe. The first and most significannot

written ideas of witchcraft available to a majority of people was the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) written by Sprenger and Kramer in 1486. The document made an important contribution to the widespread witch hunt. Sprenger and Kraemer proclaimed that not believing in the reality of witches was heresy. Sprenger and Kramer informed secular authorities to fight witches by any means necessary.

It was followed by other texts that described, often in great detail, the alleged practices of witches, or that outlined the procedures for conducting a trial of a witch. These texts created some of main aspects of wild beliefs of witches that permeated Europe for two centuries: that witches had deviant sex with one another and with the devil, that they interfered in natural reproduction, that they caused death and disease and other natural occurrences such as storms and that they turned away from their Christian faith. In short that they threatened every form of religious and secular order.

Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, the seven deadly sins had came into place which had taken the place of the ten commandments.3 This made it sins against God rather than sins against fellow neighbours and the community. "witchcraft had been previously been the crime of harming neighbours by occult means ; now clerical intellectuals tied it firmly to devil-worship." creating a new vision of witches of being extreme heretics therefore leading the way to large persecutions to eradicate this evil and cause of disorder from society.

Women were usually the most common target to be accused as witches. In most regions, about 80 percent of the alleged witches killed were female.4

It was believed that women were inferior and weak because Eve succumbed to Satan's evil. As a result, in the 16th and 17th century

Europe, with the Church pounding beliefs home, it was a common understanding that women were more likely to indulge in sinful activities such as witchcraft. It cannot

be fully proven but it is believed that most accusations formed from women accusing other women , this then would account for the suspects not being taken to court so eagerly and why they were reluctant to do so. Women did not have any say in the court which was controlled by men and this would have made it difficult for the suspicions of one to accumulate to anything more than gossip. Also the fact that women had a lower social status than men made them easier to accuse. 5

Local factors, not religious loyalties, determined the severity of witch persecutions. Roman law on the continent was harsher than English common law. Prosecuting harmful magic alone, as England and Scandinavia did, had a lot less victims than prosecuting diabolism, in Scotland and Germany or white magic in Lorraine and France.

The worst examples of this were in Germany, where unlimited use of torture produced an ever-expanding wave of confessions while in England where torture was illegal only 19 per cent of the accused were executed.6 After the forced confession, the trial took place . The aim of the trial was to exterminate the witches as conspirators with the devil. When the accused was declared guilty, they were usually executed

Johann Julius, burgomaster of Bamberg in Franconia, was in a town dungeon, sentenced to death for attending a witches Sabbath, but he managed to smuggle out an account of what was happening to his daughter.

'My dearest child...it is all falsehood and invention....so help me God...They never cease to torture until one says something...' 7

Professional witch finders had a dreadful impact on witch persecutions. One of the best known of these accusers would be Mathew Hopkins who operated in England and who had 200 people executed between the times of 1645 to 1647. But special inquisitors or investigative committees were also terribly effective.8

Socially elite persecutors, demonologists, and judges relentlessly hunted witches with the aim of gaining a kind of Ð''political utopia'. In their view no cost was too great, because witch-hunting served the greater good of Christendom. " They believed that witchcraft inverted society's key values, disturbed godly order, challenged the divine right of kings-the ancient doctrine that rulers derive their right to rule from God-and diminished the majesty of God. It was thought that witch-hunting saved souls and averted the wrath of God by purging society of evil as the End Times loomed" Witchcraft trials was also a very profitable business for judges, executioners, lay judges, messengers and torturers. Up to 1532, the convicted peoples possessions were usually confiscated, regardless of whether they had heirs or not. Even after confiscation was banned in 1532, in practice nothing changed. There were many judges who, although they did not illegally confiscate goods, received the belongings of the accused to cover court costs.

Commoners, by contrast, simply wanted relief from the evildoers of folklore who, they believed, were harming them, their children, their cattle, and their crops. If authorities were too slow to act, peasants often too matters into their own hands against suspected neighbours."People really believed that pain, death and crippling economic losses resulted from the malovence of their neighbours." 9

One method used was whether or not the accused drowned when submerged in a pond on the 'ducking stool', if she did she was obviously innocent. If she floated she was guilty. 10

One reason for tighter law enforcement was anxiety