Witchcraft+Craze


 * Witchcraft Craze ** by Saya Hayashi

// Reasons //
 * Wars and rebellions
 * Economic and social uncertainties (growing number of poor)
 * Church began to connect witches to devil
 * New economic ethic—each person should looks out for himself or herself
 * Black Death—search for scapegoats
 * Religious uncertainties; religious passions
 * Women’s moral weaknesses

// Actions //
 * Persecution of people accused of sorcery
 * Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer sent to Germany to root out witches…
 * …// Malleus Maleficarum— //standard handbook on practices of witchcraft and methods to discover and try witches
 * Increase in trials and executions
 * Spread to small towns and rural areas
 * Women of lower classes were likely to be accused: single or widowed, over 50
 * Confessions by torture

// Reasons to end //
 * Destruction of religious wars
 * Governments’ stabilization
 * Questioning of old attitudes