How Did Christianity View Witchcraft in Both Europe’s Early Modern Period and How Did It Change During 21st Century Society?

...

The History of Witchcraft

The root word of Witch has come from different languages around Europe. The old English word “wicce” means witch once is it translated into modern English (Etymonline.com). It was originally used to describe a woman who does magic or a sorcerer. Later used to describe a woman who has dealings with the devil or evil spirits. “Wicca” describes a man who practices witchcraft or a wizard. The word witch is often associated with the word Paganism. Paganism relates to the worship of nature or the earth (Dictionary.com). Most witches do practice paganism and they do not relate themselves to the devil.

The practice of witchcraft, and the persecution of witches as supported by Christianity itself, can be found throughout the ages. Europe’s Christian authorities during the early modern period looked to writings in the Bible for what they though was guidance in how to deal with witches. In the book of Exodus 22:18 it states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (Exodus). This means that a witch should not be left to live. Also in the book of Leviticus 20:27 “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.” (BibleHub.com) A famous story about witches in the Bible is a king named Saul went to a consult a medium and went against God by not obeying and trusting him (Zavada). From the beginning of Christianity, witches were never accepted in Christian teachings, which laid the platform for the executions.

Witchcraft in Europe during the Early Modern Period

Christianity was the major religion in Europe during the early modern period. The church had a very big influence on the people due to its power. In 906, Regino of Prum, a churchman wrote a document called Canon Episcopi, where he described how women would talk about their hallucinations and how they would worship the Pagan goddess Diana and her husband, the Devil (Arbel). The church believed that witchcraft was a hoax since they can’t consider that the power of women is stronger than the God. They believed that witches were powerless and incomparable to the power of God. The church didn’t accept witchcraft, stating that paganism is a sin. In the earlier centuries, Christians and Pagans used to live in harmony. Christians wanted to relate themselves to the pagans to be able to bring people to the new religion. They promised that the old gods would become the new saints. They would use pagan feasts days as their own and one major example is Christmas. The Bible has never states the date on the birth of Jesus, so they placed it over a pagan holiday. There are many Pagan symbols that are used in Christianity like the dove, the lamb, the Resurrection, the Baptism, etc. Instead of keeping to their promise, they represented the pagan gods as demons (Arbel).

Christian leaders wanted women to join the church though women were determined still stick to their old ways. Women had the urge to continue Paganism because of the hatred they receive from the Church. Women were seen as stupid, weak, and useless. According to the Bible, women were the one who caused the Original Sin because of Eve eating the forbidden fruit. Women had no rights, no protection and most of the time were treated as slaves (Arbel). The women in higher positions in the old religion like witches, priestess were seen as a threat to the church as they would spread the word of Diana’s cult. The church soon decided to include Diana in the church by making her a saint but it became impossible when the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada declared her as the Devil (Arbel). This religion then appealed to many women since it gave some authority, which increased the number of converts. Women felt that they had the right to belong and were given hope. The religion became a secret society and was hidden from the public.

In 380, Emperor Theodosius proclaimed that everyone had to convert into Christianity and anyone else who follows another religion is considered a heretic (Arbel). Heretics were killed and their families were also seized. Christians to burned temples causing most of Pagan literature to be destroyed. Afterwards the Church declared war on the Pagans. As part of the war, they spread out rumors saying that witches would fly on broomsticks, kill Christian children and another immoral activities (Arbel). This caused panic around Europe since magic was believed to be a creation of the devil. Magic had gotten a lot of attention and women, teens and also children were soon burned at the stake. In 1318 and in 1320, the Pope placed witchcraft under the Inquisition meaning witches are to be eliminated (Arbel). Witch-hunting spread and women were forced to confess by torture. Most women that were accused were hated in their town and were usually blamed for the slightest things like talking to cat. Some of the accused women were innocent but were pressured to confess because of brutal torture. Women would prefer death to weeks of torture. They would admit to cannibalism especially newborn babies, interactions with the devil by bearing his child, etc. There were other procedures they used to see whether the person was a witch. “Trial by Water”, is a method when the accused person would be brought to the nearest body of water, is tied by their thumbs to the opposite big toes and is thrown to see if they would float or sink. If the accused sinks it means that the person is innocent but if they person floats then the person is a witch (Andrews). Another test is when a suspect is stripped and is examined if there are any “Devil’s Mark” which are mostly any imperfections like blemishes, moles, scars, tattoos, etc (Andrews). Through series of trials, once proven guilty the witch is either burned to the stake or hanged.

The decline of witchcraft is due to political, social, philosophical, and institutional reasons. During the 16th and 17th century, many religious conflicts were occurring like the Protestant Reformation (Lee). Violence spread and the church lost control. Due to the civil unrest the amount of witch-hunting increased. Large witch-hunts were happening in Germany since there was no one in power and the country was not politically stable. As soon as there was an authority leading the church, the witch-hunting greatly decreased.

Women were the main targets and women who were single were the most common. They had no protection from men, no financial aid or any power in society. The mass killing of these women contributed to the declined of the female population causing the hunting to lessen. Another social reason is that the idea of tolerance began to spread around Europe and it was soon getting followers.