The European Witch Trials: The Beginning and End

Throughout four centuries, one hundred thousand people were accused of witchcraft, and
millions more were killed due to extreme torture practices for extracting confessions (Hannam).
Although witchcraft has been practiced for many years prior to the witch trials, the European
witch trials began in the fourteenth century because of religious beliefs, psychological and
biological illnesses, and social and political struggles, and declined in the eighteenth century due
to rationalism and new laws partnered with new judicial regulations.
The Beginning of the Trials
The first notable cause of the witch trials is religion. During the late fourteenth century,
religion was a major part of the culture and daily lifestyle of citizens. According to Edward
Peters, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, it was common belief that God gave
power to the Clergy to perform miracles. Those who performed "magic" or witchcraft outside of
the Clergy were thought to have been given their powers after creating a pact with the Devil or
demons, and would them carry out sins such as idolatry, cannibalism, sacrifice of infants, and
various sexual acts with one another. People believed that these witches could be identified by a
mark on their body given to them by the devil, and that they would fly on broomsticks to meet on
the synagogue where they would worship the Devil (Peters). This demonstrates the Christians'
evident fear of the Devil. Christians hold a great fear for what would be considered "evil" and in
result, the mass fear of powers outside of God and the church were taken very seriously. As the
result, people began to believe in people who used evil power to perform sins, commit crimes,
and cause disasters among the common citizens. Furthermore, Catholics and Protestants were
engaged in conflicts during this time. Each of the two wished to prove themselves the more
superior Christian group. According to Melissa Travis, the assistant professor of Christian


Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, after the Protestant Reformation, the the Catholic and
Protestant church began to act out against one another. They did not accuse members of the
opposite branch to be witches, but rather they would prove themselves through the ways in
which they hunted and tried execution against witches. It is also thought that the Catholic church
officials and priests were experiencing some sexual repression and their celibacy created an
"aggression-inducing fear of women" so that they would try to persuade women to have sex with
them, with accusation of witchcraft being the punishment for noncompliance. Although this is
not proven true, priests almost never accused their female neighbors of witchcraft (Travis). This
suggests that although the Protestant and Catholic church were both branches of Christianity,
there may have been some tensions between the two as both thought themselves to be the
superior western branch of Christianity. This also shows that the Catholic priests may have
contributed to the witch trials through their own sexual frustrations and implies the fear of the
women of this time of being accused of witchcraft.
The second notable cause of the witch trials are the illnesses of the people at this time.
Some possible psychological illnesses are contributors to the European witch trials. According
to Helen Christian, a researcher at American University, the Black Plague, which occurred in the
mid fourteenth century, caused a sort of mass hysteria in the people of early Europe. The Black
Death not only killed thousands of people, but also hurt the economy of Europe and resulted in
political power shifts. People began to see others as threats who may spread the disease
(Christian). As a result, great fear spread through Europe and people were paranoid. People also
blamed supernatural forces for disasters, such as disease, storms, and other misfortunes.
According to Eric Snitchler and Kevin Harris, two psychology researchers at Northern Illinois
University, people during this are blamed psychological illness and abnormal behavior as


supernatural powers as a result of having an agreement with the Devil. These people were
referred to as "lunatics" before being accused as witches (Snitchler & Harris). This suggests that
the people in this time period did not understand mental illnesses and many were scared of these
people who would later come to be known as witches. They attempted to treat those who
behaved differently from the general population and when they found that those people could not
be treated, people attempted to have them persecuted. People became clinically neurotic and
began hunting witches. In addition, biological illnesses proved to be a driving factor for the
witch trials. According to Brian Pavlac, a history professor at Kings College and author, it is
possible that people ate herbs or mushrooms or came in contact with bufotenine on the skin of
toads and became mentally unstable. It is also possible that diseases such as syphilis caused
mental instability (Pavlac). This suggests that something simple such as a rotten food or
chemical imbalance could have caused a widespread illness resulting in the witch trials.
However, the possibility of so many people in such a large area becoming ill must be taken into
consideration.
The last notable case of the European witch trials are social and political struggle.
According to Margaret King, an Italian Renaissance expert and author, and William Monter, a
history professor at Northwestern University, in most areas of Europe, the majority of accused
and executed witches were women. The majority of these women were poor and uneducated
women who spent much of their time alone, often times a widowed or elderly
1
citizen. Women
would also accuse other women of being a witch, especially after the two engaged in conflict.
People would accuse their female neighbors of suspicious activity. Men feared the sexual power
women had over them (King & Monter). This suggests that women were feared in the

1
Elderly: A person near fifty years of age was considered elderly.


community. Women played a social key role in the witch trials, as the majority of the witches
accused and executed were composed of women. Men came to turn against women for holding a
higher sexual power. This made women a target for citizens to prey on when misfortune occurs.
According to Tanya Sibai, who wrote "Witch Trials in Germany: Politics or Hysteric?" published
by the Concord Review in 2001, people were insecure and vulnerable in early Europe. During
this time, there were many sifts in political power, mainly between the secular courts, religious
communities, social communities, and the law-making bodies of Europe. This resulted in a
decentralized government and fragmented religion. The upper classes desired to maintain control
over the lower classes, which led to the accusation of people as witches. Political leaders wished
to keep their strength over the general public, which resulted in laws being passed that would
legalize the execution of witches (Sibai). This suggests that the leaders of the common people in
a sense preyed on the lower classes in order to maintain power over the masses, which grew
stronger as a decentralized government would prove it more difficult to keep such a strong hold
over a large population of people.
The Decline of the Trials
The main cause of the decline of the witch trials was rationalism. According to Megan
Shore, a Scientific Revolution researcher, during the seventeenth century, people began to focus
on developing the sciences and finding logic. People began to question the existence of witches,
and the churches found no evidence in witchcraft (Shore). This suggests that people began
searching for answers about the world around them and found the possible existence of witches
to be lacking and rather proves their innocence. They started to think about what made a witch a
witch and why they thought there were witches, and relied more heavily on the facts they found
and new inventions created during this revolution then on their own personal or religious fears


and their social struggles. People began to realize that those mentally ill accused witches did not
make a pact with the Devil, but instead do not have the full mentality of a normal person. A new
and growing tolerance for people began to arise. People began to accept others and spent less of
their time focusing on the faults of others and those who were considered strange.
Furthermore, new laws were set in place that changed how people were tried as witches
and court procedures were altered. According to James Hannam, a pre-modern and early modern
history of science and religion expert and author, a new law stated that material evidence was
required for a capital conviction and torture became illegal (Hannam). This means that it became
much more difficult to gather evidence against and accused witch and to convict them. Because
torture was primarily used to extract confessions, confessions were more difficult to find.
Because it became more difficult to convict accused witches, many more people did not have to
live in fear of being accused of witchcraft.
It is clear that the beginning of early Europe's witch trials are not the result of one sole
factor, but the result of religious beliefs, psychological and biological illnesses, and social and
political struggles. What brought the trials to a close was not the extinction of witches, but a
newfound sense of rationalism and new laws partnered with new judicial regulations.


Works Cited

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Jones, Adam. "Case Study: The European Witch-Hunts, c. 1450-1750 and Witch-Hunts Today."
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King, Margeret L., and William Monter. Witchhunts in the Reformation Era. Daughters of
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Pavlac, Brian A. Ten General Historical Theories About the Origins and Causes of the Witch
Hunts. kings.edu. 30 Sept. 2011, Date of access 19 March 2014.

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Shore, Megan. To What Extent Was the Scientific Revolution the Cause of the Decline of
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Travis, Melissa Cain. European Witch Hunts and the Christian Church: The Conclusion.
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