The Pros And Cons Of The Great Witch Trials

Boiled in oil and pierced with thin needles. Cut with silver daggers and burned in crucibles. Peeled off the skin, inch by inch. This was how executioners and judges handled pagans and witches in 16th century France. From 1560 to 1630, over 60,000 accused European witches died in the largest witch hunt in recorded history: the Great Witch Craze. Women especially were accused for a myriad of illogical reasons: being angry with a neighbor whose livestock fell ill or speaking out against the actions of the Church. Many scholars such as Nachman Ben-Yehuda believe that the European Craze was worst in France and Germany, though American scholars often claim the infamous Salem trials were the worst. The Salem Witch Trials are perhaps the most well …show more content…
How does one define a witch? Witches often define themselves as spellcasters, and people who respect nature and believe in a circle of birth, life, and death. Wicca is a religion that is commonly mistaken as being the same thing as witchcraft, though the two are not mutually exclusive. Wiccans worship multiple gods and goddesses, though there are two main deities, the horned god who is sometimes called Pan and a Goddess who is represented by two sliver moons on either side of a full moon. Wiccans are reverent of nature and see it as their duty to protect the Earth, whereas witchcraft is the practiced art of spellcasting, and can also be referred to as simply, the Craft. A spell is generally defined as a manipulation of one’s environment or situation through the use of chants, dances, tinctures (also referred to as potions), and other types of rituals. Spells are cast at certain times for effectiveness, often at night and outdoors. Men especially felt threatened by the use of spells, and felt that the more independent women were, the less they had to depend on the Church and therefore the men themselves (Ehrenreich, English 5). Men, more specifically priests often thought that witches gained their power through sodomy and intercourse with the Devil. Factors such as this made it dangerous to practice the Craft in the 16th …show more content…
The town’s four most important men tried accused witches such as Bridget Bishop and Martha Carrier and had twenty of all the seventy-two accused executed. The most frequent type of execution was hanging, a death that lasted usually less than thirty seconds up to eight minutes. The only other method utilized was burning, a death that many hastened by intentionally breathing in smoke. Lady Passion, an American witch and high priestess of a traditional coven, said in an interview that the American witch hunts were not the worst during the craze. “It became an issue...[because] it came straight from England...they heard about the craze in Europe...” In the same interview, she said, “To single out Salem, I’ll tell you this: people have...decided wrongly that the majority of people burned were not witches.” One of the most famous witch persecutors was John Hathorne, who was chosen to run the trials by Governor William Phips. Hathorne and judges like him ran trials with the presumption of guilt, and it was a rare thing for a witch to ruled as innocent (Ray). American witches that survived what they refer to as the “burning times” still thrive even in the new age of technology. They still wear traditional cloaks that were adopted by their 16th century ancestors to hide from persecutors. After the deaths of twenty people, American witches still take