Witchcraft

Being a witch in medieval time was not such a tough thing, you could get accused for witch crafting at any time, by any mean. Women were not safe, especially if they were to live alone and also if some disasters happened, or if just nothing happened also was a big problem. So, dear ladies, if you think that woman rights are not so good today, let’s have a look what happened not so long time ago. Than we can relax and say Thanks God the things are changing.

Long before the age of cars, online casino sites and television, people lived in fear of witchcraft. The big chase after witches started in 1450, for all of us known as the inquisition. Not such a happy time for all the people. Since, everybody could get possessed by devil and everyone could be in Satan’s service, there were preformed lots of cruel tests so they could affirm if someone is a witch or not. The classical attributes of a witch—flying on brooms, intercourse with the Devil, and meeting of demons and other witches at Sabbaths—became canonical from around 1400, although similar accusations had been issued against heretics since the 11th century. The 1692 Salem witch trials were a brief outburst of witch hysteria in the New World at a time when the practice was already waning in Europe. Winifred King was the last person tried for witchcraft in New England. Most witch trials that resulted in convictions took place in rural areas. In these areas there was about a 90% conviction (and execution) rate. Although most citizens of the time did believe that witchcraft was real, equally they were not ignorant of how personal interests could be involved in accusations.

The people being believed to be possessed by Satan were put on trial. Brutal techniques were routinely used to extract the required admission of guilt. They included hot pincers, the thumbscrew, and the ’swimming’ of suspects (an old superstition whereby innocence was established by immersing the accused in water for a sufficiently long period of time).

Investigators were consequently able to establish many fantastic crimes that could never have occurred, even in theory. There were particularly important differences between the English and continental witch-hunting traditions. Besides torture, at trial certain “proofs” were taken as valid to establish that a person practiced witchcraft:
• The diabolical mark. Usually, this was a mole or a birthmark. If no such mark was visible, the examiner would claim to have found an invisible mark.
• Diabolical pact. This was an alleged pact with Satan to perform evil acts in return for rewards.
• Denouncement by another witch. This was common, since the accused could often avoid execution by naming accomplices.
• Relationship with other convicted witch/witches
• Blasphemy
• Participation in Sabbaths
• To cause harm that could only be done by means of sorcery
• Possession of elements necessary for the practice of black magic
• To have one or more witches in the family
• To be afraid during the interrogatories
• Not to cry under torment (supposedly by means of the Devil’s aid)
• To have had sexual relationships with a demon

Estimates of the numbers of women, men and children executed for participating in witchcraft vary wildly depending on the method used to generate the estimate. The total number of witch trials in Europe which are known for certain to have ended in executions is around 12,000.

The last execution for witchcraft in England took place in 1716, when Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth were hanged. The trials in new world lasted longer and the best known trial case is in Salem. From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended.

As we all know there are many witch legends, and witches have always draw to attention lots of public, a that’s why even now we have stories and movies about witches. I’ll mention here some of witch stories which were popular in those days.

In Hiddestorf, not too long ago, there lived a widow who every Sunday was miraculously able to cook the most delicious meals. By the time that the servant girls had gone to church in the morning, she had not yet made a fire, had not cleaned the vegetables, and had not even fetched any meat. But by the time church was finished, the best meal was on the table.
Because that was not possible with ordinary powers, one Sunday a servant hid himself behind a large barrel in the kitchen in order to spy on the woman.
Just about the time the sermon was beginning there was a commotion in the chimney, and the devil came down and began to caress the woman. Afterward he started to fill the pots for her, but he suddenly stood still and said, “Woman, there are two eyes too many in here!” She denied it. “There are two eyes too many in here!” he said again, but when the woman began to make fun of him, he filled the pots and disappeared up the chimney.
At noon when everyone was seated at the table, the servant said, “I don’t want to eat, because I know that it came from the devil!”
He had scarcely spoken when the Black One came in through the window, grabbed the woman by her braid, wrung her neck, and flew out the window with her.

Or something like this was popular in that time:

Once on a time, long ago, there lived at Treva, a hamlet in Zennor, a wonderful old lady deeply skilled in necromancy. Her charms, spells, and dark incantations made her the terror of the neighborhood. However, this old lady did not fail to impress her husband with any belief in her supernatural powers, nor did he fail to proclaim his unbelief aloud.
One day this skeptic came home to dinner, and found, being exceedingly hungry, to his bitter disappointment, that not only was there no dinner to eat, but that there was no meat in the house. His rage was great, but all he could get from his wife was, “I couldn’t get meat out of the stones, could I?” It was in vain to give the reins to passion, the old woman told him, and he must know “that hard words buttered no parsnips.”
Well, at length he resolved to put his wife’s powers to the proof, and he quietly but determinedly told her that he would be the death of her if she did not get him some dinner; but if in half an hour she gave him some good cooked meat, he would believe all she had boasted of her power, and be submissive to her forever.
St. Ives, the nearest market town, was five miles off; but nothing doubting, the witch put on her bonnet and cloak, and started. Her husband watched her from their cottage door, down the hill; and at the bottom of the hill, he saw his wife quietly place herself on the ground and disappear. In her place a fine hare ran on at its full speed.
He was not a little startled, but he waited, and within the half hour in walked his wife with “good flesh and tatties all ready for aiting.” There was no longer any doubt, and the poor husband lived in fear of the witch of Treva to the day of her death.
This event took place after a few years, and it is said the room was full of evil spirits, and that the old woman’s shrieks were awful to hear. Howbeit, peace in the shape of pale-faced death came to her at last, and then a black cloud rested over the house when all the heavens were clear and blue.
She was borne to the grave by six aged men, carried, as is the custom, underhand. When they were about half way between the house and the church, a hare started from the roadside and leaped over the coffin. The terrified bearers let the corpse fall to the ground, and ran away. Another lot of men took up the coffin and proceeded.
They had not gone far when puss was suddenly seen seated on the coffin, and again the coffin was abandoned. After long consultation, and being persuaded by the parson to carry the old woman very quickly into the churchyard, while he walked before, six others made the attempt, and as the parson never ceased to repeat the Lord’s Prayer, all went on quietly.
Arrived at the church stile, they rested the corpse, the parson paused to commence the ordinary burial service, and there stood the hare, which, as soon as the clergyman began “I am the resurrection and the life,” uttered a diabolical howl, changed into a black, unshaped creature, and disappeared.