Witchcraft in Europe

The witchcraft craze that occurred in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was not just caused by misogyny but a result of multiple contributing factors. One of these factors being religion and the medieval church. During this time period the church began connecting practices of witches to the devil and problems in villages and cities. Due to a bible quote “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” thousands of women were put to death in the name of religion. Those accused of witchcraft were tortured until they confessed, or put through ridiculous trials that would prove you’re a witch or kill you anyways. People during this time were very superstitious and if they had a bad farm year due to natural disasters they believed a witch must be the cause of it, causing a crazed witch hunt involving numerous innocent women.

Another heavy contributing factor to the witch hunts was greed. Some people view the hunts as a way to easily target the lower class as it was very common for widows, old men, old women, and the poor to be accused. They could target the elderly to rid the society of those that are considered useless, or just use them as easy scapegoats if the need arises since they won’t contribute much to society anymore. If someone’s horse had just died they could easily blame it on the widow next door. The widow would be put to death after being forced to confess and then you could just take the dead widows horse, house, or any other belonging you so desired.

Religion and greed were not the only cause of the witchcraft craze; misogyny also played a large role as society as a whole was under a patriarchal rule. Men in high positions of power predominantly had sexist views, as one judge would say it wasn’t a surprise that women would have sexual experiences with Satan: “The Devil uses them so, because he knows that women love carnal pleasures, and he means to bind them to his allegiance by such agreeable provocations.” (Spielvogel 449). This judge...