The+Witchcraft+Craze

Sabrina Aspiras
 * The Witchcraft Craze**


 * trials in England, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, some parts of France and the Low Countries, and New England in America
 * medieval church connected witches to the devil which made witchcraft a heresy
 * witches = scapegoats of society (Black Plague, storms, bad crops)
 * more than 100,000 people were prosecuted throughout Europe
 * women of lower classes were usually accused of witchcraft (peasants, milkmaids, and servant girls)
 * women that were single, widowed, and over 50 were also usually accused
 * accused witches usually confessed to their practices because of intense torture
 * "witches" said they swore allegiance to the devil and attended nocturnal gatherings where they feasted, danced and had sexual orgies with the devil
 * women were thought to be mentally and morally inferior to men which made them more open to the devil's temptations
 * larger cities were affected and then smaller towns and rural areas caught on to the witchcraft craze
 * the witchcraft craze was so out of hand that even city officeholders could be tried as witches
 * "witches" said that they used evil incantations and special substances to attack neighbors
 * witchcraft trials happened in areas where Protestantism recently developed such as southwestern Germany
 * most theologians, philosophers, and lawyers believed that women were naturally inferior to men and would be more susceptible to witchcraft
 * 80% of persecutions were women
 * people questioned their old attitudes regarding witches
 * persecutions for witchcraft reached highpoint in the 16th and 17th centuries
 * witches were tortured to the point where they lied and said they were a witch so that they could avoid torture and just die
 * 25% of the villages in the English county of Essex had at least on witchcraft trial in the 16th and 17th centuries


 * Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer-** went to Germany to investigate witches, wrote //Malleus Maleficarum// which was a standard handbook on the practices of witchcraft and the methods that could be used to discover and try witches, argued there was a direct link between witchcraft and women