6.10 Religious Extremes—the Witch Hunts

While religious extremes are part and parcel of the history of humanity, Early Modern Europe enjoys the dubious distinction of being the era of witch hunts where women (and men) were hunted, tried and convicted of witchcraft and then summarily burned at the stake or drowned in water. Look for the roots of this extremism in the character of the times. By the time you finish the readings and videos from this lecture, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• What were the religious beliefs of the common Early Modern person?
• How did those beliefs help to pave the way for the witch craze?

Strangely parallel with the discoveries of the Scientific Revolution and the growing tolerance of religious diversity in Europe was the rise of the witch craze. A belief in witchcraft was not new. Witches are identified in the Bible, but the Church Father, St. Augustine, argued that supernatural powers didn’t exist. This became the stance of the Church for centuries. Then in the 13th century, Thomas Acquinas argued that demons existed trying to tempt humans into sin and allegiance with Satan. People, including theologians, began to look for evidence of this demonic supernatural temptation and thus the search for witches was born. In the 15th century, witchhunts began in Europe. There were various reasons for these hunts – some altruistic, some not – and much debate about witchcraft and why or even if witches really existed. By the late 15th century, Pope Innocent VIII had commissioned the creation of the Malleus Malleficarum (Witch’s Hammer) – a treatise with instructions for how to test for witches. In conjunction with the Reformation, a true witch craze began that would last for almost two hundred years in Europe.