Power and Belief, 1300-1750
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Witches in Europe:
Power and Belief, 1300-1750 |
| 1. During the great European witch persecutions, many people were executed for withcraft. How many? | Correct Answer: c) Fewer than 100,000.
Ultimately, there is no way to establish exactly how many people were accused, tried, and/or executed on charges of witchcraft. As near as historians can determine, there were slightly more than 100,000 people tried for witchcraft during the main phase of witch prosecution. But far fewer than that number were found guilty, let alone executed for the crime (the average execution rate Europe-wide was about 47%). The best guess is 50,000-51,000. But to that we must add an unknown number of unauthorized trials, trials that have left no historical record, and summary executions. A total of 60,000 is plausible to most historians of witchcraft prosecution in early modern Europe. |
| 2. There was an unusually large proportion of midwives among the victims of witch persecution. Is that true? | Correct Answer: c) No. Although midwives were sometimes accused
of witchcraft, more often they were called upon to search women accused
of witchcraft for magical devices or to ascertain whether they were pregnant.
To be sure, there are several well-known cases of midwives who were accused of witchcraft, usually in connection with local increases in infant mortality. But in the large scheme of things, midwives were no more or less exposed to accusations of witchcraft than the members of other, characteristically female occupational groups, such as lying-in maids. The main point is that witchcraft was a gender-related crime, not specific to any set of occupations. |
| 3. Although people were executed for witchcraft in many parts of Europe, there were countries in which the persecution of witches was forbidden. Is that true? | Correct Answer: a) Yes. In Spain, for example, the Inquisition forbade
the persecution of witches.
To be precise, the supreme council, which had authority over the Spanish Inquisition, imposed procedural restrictions on the prosecution of witchcraft that were so strict as to terminate the practice. More generally, the Spanish and Italian Inquisitions exhibited a reluctance to use torture. This tended to produce low conviction and execution rates. |
| 4. Judges were able to recognize witches by their external appearance. Is that true? | Correct Answer: c) No. Because anyone could become a witch, nobody
knew for sure what a witch should look like.
Women were accused more often than men, and older women more often than younger women, but the overarching fact remained that anyone could, in theory, become a witch and suffer prosecution for it. |
| 5. Only adult women were executed for witchcraft. Is that true? | Correct Answer: c) No. Although the overwhelming majority of victims
were women, a large minority--about 20%--were adult men and children.
The predominance of women among the accused was most pronounced in central and western Europe, where the stereotype of diabolical witchcraft was most fully developed. On the peripheries of this region -- in Scandinavia, eastern Europe, and in Iceland -- men were as likely as women to suffer prosecution for witchcraft. Even in the heartland of Europe, men outnumbered women when prosecutions occured in conjunction with charges of heresy. The main point is that witchcraft was a gender-related crime, but not gender-specific. |
| 6. Witch persecution was an attempt by men to eliminate special knowledge passed down among women from pre-Christian times. Is that true? | Correct Answer: b) No. The goal was to exterminate a supposed sect
of witches, who were held responsible for thunderstorms, hailstorms, epidemic
diseases, and other natural disasters.
There is scattered evidence to suggest that witchcraft prosecutions were based on participation fertility cult practices with pre-Christian origins. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, no such connection has been found. On the contrary: it often happened that the practitioners of white magic assisted the authorities in identifying practitioners of black magic. In any event, most Europeans do not appear to have experienced any contradiction between Christianity and the belief in magic. |
| 7. The Catholic church was particularly eager to persecute witches. Is that true? | Correct Answer: c) No. With only slight variations, Protestants
were as likely to prosecute for witchcraft as Catholics.
To be sure, there were parts of Europe in which Catholic authorities proved more eager than Protestants to prosecuted witchcraft. In southwestern Germany, for example, Catholic magistrates conducted nearly twice as many trials as their Protestant counterparts. On the other hand, witchcraft prosecutions were far fewer in number and deadliness in the overwhelmingly Catholic principalities of southern Europe than in the Protestant north. |
| 8. People are still executed for witchcraft today. Is that true? | Correct Answer: b) Yes. As recently as 2000, for example, hundreds of people were killed for witchcraft in Africa. |