Proper Or Improper Methods? Or Witches Or Victims?
Proper or Improper Methods? OR Witches or Victims?
From the early 14th century to the 17th century there was an intense witch craze occurring in central Europe. The craze was fueled by the people’s lack of knowledge. They didn’t know how to account for illnesses, unsuccessful harvests, or a variety of other misfortunes so they placed the blame on the devil or his servants, witches. There were many methods, however unreasonable, that church authorities used for finding, convicting, and getting confessions in order to eliminate this supposed threat. Once people began unexplainably dying from the black plague these methods were more heavily put into use. No one was safe from such accusations although they tended to be widowed or unmarried women (Geary, Kishlansky, & O'Brian pg. 467). In total, continental Europeans are said to have executed around 60,000 witches (Chaundy). The last person executed was Anna Goeldi in 1782 (Schmidt). Locating suspected witches was the first step to removing them from society. They were sought out after being accused. As mentioned earlier there was often no truth …show more content…
This method began by stripping the accused of their clothing. This was performed to rid them of any witchcraft that might be sewn into their clothing. An appointed judge would then attempt to convince the accused of admitting to their guiltiness freely. If this didn’t work they would torture the accused under the pretense that they would be spared upon admitting to their evil-doing (Geary, Kishlansky, & O'Brian pg. 463). There were several implements of torture although strappados were most commonly used used. Strappados operated by tying a person’s hands behind their back with rope. This same rope was attached to a brace and pulley in the ceiling. The person would then be raised until they were hanging from their hands. This sometimes caused a person’s shoulders to pull out of their sockets
From the early 14th century to the 17th century there was an intense witch craze occurring in central Europe. The craze was fueled by the people’s lack of knowledge. They didn’t know how to account for illnesses, unsuccessful harvests, or a variety of other misfortunes so they placed the blame on the devil or his servants, witches. There were many methods, however unreasonable, that church authorities used for finding, convicting, and getting confessions in order to eliminate this supposed threat. Once people began unexplainably dying from the black plague these methods were more heavily put into use. No one was safe from such accusations although they tended to be widowed or unmarried women (Geary, Kishlansky, & O'Brian pg. 467). In total, continental Europeans are said to have executed around 60,000 witches (Chaundy). The last person executed was Anna Goeldi in 1782 (Schmidt). Locating suspected witches was the first step to removing them from society. They were sought out after being accused. As mentioned earlier there was often no truth …show more content…
This method began by stripping the accused of their clothing. This was performed to rid them of any witchcraft that might be sewn into their clothing. An appointed judge would then attempt to convince the accused of admitting to their guiltiness freely. If this didn’t work they would torture the accused under the pretense that they would be spared upon admitting to their evil-doing (Geary, Kishlansky, & O'Brian pg. 463). There were several implements of torture although strappados were most commonly used used. Strappados operated by tying a person’s hands behind their back with rope. This same rope was attached to a brace and pulley in the ceiling. The person would then be raised until they were hanging from their hands. This sometimes caused a person’s shoulders to pull out of their sockets