Causes of the Witch Hunts

Causes of the Witch Hunts

1. Political Causes

   • A way to control the masses
   • Snowballing affect
     • Not a direct cause but continued the craze
   • Met the demand of the populace
   • Ruler could demonstrate his power
   • Prevented pressure bubbling through the masses
   • Politically safe
     • No one from the upper classes was implicated
   • Witchcraft became an act of heresy
   • A way of politicians discrediting their opponents
   • Confused boarders meant that there were more 'outsiders' who were the typical victims in the witch trials
   • Princ-Bishops could consolidate their power
   • Fragmentation of political authority-panic got out of hand
   • Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn
     • Saw women as weak
     • Believed that female lust would undermine social&religious order
   • The officials' fear of heresy
   • No powerful members of society opposed the witch hunts
   • Politicians sought to exercise an increasing moral authority
     • Witchcraft legislation was often accompanied with measures to regulate morality

2. Social Causes

   • Revenge
     • Beggars denied charity would accuse neighbours of witchcraft
     • The Church was not longer providing for the poor
     • Suspicion led to neighbours denouncing each other
       • Suspicion about 'mysterious' event
   • Malleus Maleficarum
     • Judges more aware of the presence of evil
     • Caused people to acknowledge witchcraft
     • Allowed judges to prosecute without proof
   • Poor records of practising Christianity
   • Pressure from the populace
   • Trials usually emerged out of complex disputes within local communities
   • Lack of scapegoats; in Spain the Jews were the scapegoats therefore the witch hunts were more controlled

3. Economic Causes

   • Peaks in witch trials coincided with period of famine, and natural 'disasters' or war
   • Need for scapegoats

4. Religious Causes

   • Religious reform attracted more women BUT they were more suspicious of women
   • Role of women was more defined in the Protestant church therefore people who diverged from this role were automatically suspicious
   • Mass unrest and suspicion between Catholics and Protestants
   • Religious divide
   • Anti-Semitic movement in the 17th century led to Jews and witches being grouped together
   • Malleus Maleficarum transformed witchcraft from a diabolical conspiracy to overthrow the established church
   • Linked to the Christian obsession with the devil
   • Catholic belief in the miracle of Mass made it easier for people to belief in witchcraft
   • Protestants believed the Pope was the Antichrist
   • Catholics viewed Lutherans and Calvinists as agents of the devil
   • The regions that were hardest hit were the areas with the most disputes between Protestants and Catholics