Question

From our vantage point in the twenty-first century we can identify many different social, economic, theological and cultural elements that motivated widespread witch persecutions in Europe. Choose two of those elements and track their direct involvement in the witch craze. Explain how those foundations dictated the outcomes of the witch persecutions and describe the legacy of those outcomes.

Answer 1

Answer:

From a religious point of view, witch hunting was justified by the belief that witches served the devil and everything associated with the devil should be stopped.

This was directly linked to the culture of the population of that region, since people agreed that witches, for running away from Christian standards, should be punished.

Explanation:

There was, in Europe, the belief that witches were women who received demonic spirits, did jobs for the devil on earth, besides promoting all kinds of atrocities in the world.

European society was extremely religious and this religion was directly associated with the cultural aspects of that society, which had Christian concepts with absolute laws, which allowed those who disobeyed those concepts to be punished harshly. This supported witch hunting and allowed anyone (especially women) who was tried for witchcraft to be harshly punished, often with torture and death.