Witch Hunt Dbq

The 16th and 17th centuries experienced a great shift of ideals with the Reformation that contributed to the rise of witch-hunts. Although the Reformation is notorious for the disagreement between the Protestants and the Catholics, what both groups agreed on was that witches were to be punished for their evil deeds. The two major religious figures during this time were John Calvin and Martin Luther. These two men believed in non-clerical celibacy, and less stress on chastity before marriage. Now, “obedience had replaced chastity as a women’s prime virtue”. This lead the image of the Virgin mary to become less important, and because there are no other positive, important female figures in the bible, Eve took Mary’s place. This had two major …show more content…
The “crisis of the patriarchy” caused women who disrupted the natural order to be exiled. Along with the “crisis of the patriarchy” the Reformation enforced women’s roles in a marriage as the subordinate, always subject to man. This compelled men and women to accuse women of witchcraft if they strayed from these values. The poor quality of life, along with crises and wars lead people to bring power back in their hands, forcing petty disputes to be settled with witchcraft accusations. All these factors lead people to question what was happening, and because they had no answer they turned to the evil witches, who could be tried and hanged with little to no evidence. What factors contributed to this rise of witch-hunts in the 16th century? The growth in witch-hunts during the 16th century is due to “the crisis of the patriarchy” reaffirming the natural order, the reformation along with its new ideals, as well as some wars and witch-paranoid rulers. The rise of witch-hunts is a perfect demonstration of what not to do when you cannot explain why things are happening, and you do not have the power to change the situation. Hopefully, it will never happen