While we look into the history of the cultures (even after the advent of Christianity) we understand that beliefs in witchcraft never disappeared from the minds of human beings. Witchcraft was also not always severely persecuted. For example, Synod of Reisbach (in 799) formally ordered penance as the punishment for females who are convicted of witchcraft practices. He however prohibited any sort of capital punishment for witchcraft cases. For a certain period, the official authority (rhetoric) of the Church even attempted to reduce the beliefs on witchcraft by labeling it as a delusion or false superstition.
Christianity belief says that God is in heaven, far away from human society. The Church encouraged believers understand this and live a contented life enduring miseries, struggles and problems. Poverty, sickness, troubles and pain were considered as gifts of God. These gifts were considered as helping people to live a holy life, focusing their eyes on heaven and loosening their interest on earthly life. They were asked to shun physical pleasures and comforts. Life was expected to be endured, not enjoyed. Common people werent easily convinced to meekly adopt this philosophy many hung on tenaciously to a belief in magic (Godbeer, 1992). They thus started believing that witchcraft can help them to deal with the harsh realities and struggles of their lives. The belief in magic, instead of subsiding, started growing. Certain heretical groups and few churchmen believed that witchcraft was much more than the illusions of the Devil. Many got convinced that witchcraft has got great power, triggered by the denizens of hell.
Witches were reported to carry people along the air and having meetings where they performed lust-filled orgies with evil powers or demons. Mention is given to these activities in the The Bishops Canon, which appeared first in the 10th century and was later incorporated by Franciscus Gratianus, a lawyer from Bologna, in his collection of canon law in 1150 (Karlsen, 1987). Women even confessed that they flew through the air. Though many like considered it as mere illusions, Chartres John of Salisbury (English author, diplomat and bishop) considered this as the illusions performed by Devil. Englishman Walter Map believed that wild orgies were real with Devil behind all the actions. Philip Schaff said that the daughter of a count traveled through air every night.
In the year 1275, a lady of Toulouse, who was under torture, said that she had participated in sexual intercourse with an evil power (demon) for many years and had even begotten a part serpent, a wolf, a monster. Pope Gregory IX even issued a bull in the year 1231 recommending the use of laws of civil punishment to punish witchcraft. Dominican theologians spread the belief that incubi and succubi were mating with peoplea belief that was rooted in Augustines City of God, xv23., as well as in the Genesis account of angels mating with humans (Aronson, 2003). Gregory IX, in the year 1233 said that Devil was appearing in different forms, in the shapes of a ghost, a black cat, a pallid etc. His papal bull, the Vox Rama, shockingly and graphically detailed what was taking place during witchs satanic, sexual orgies, and with the stroke of his pen launched an official, large-scale persecution of witches (Aronson, 2003). Thomas Aquinas, in the year 1274, admitted that human beings do live with demons. According to him old ladies can induce a devil spirit in young people with a mere glance. According to the leading theologian, Gerson, witchcraft does have powers and it is impious to doubt the work of the demons. Eugenius IV is of the opinion that there are human beings who have made pacts with evil powers and made sacrifices unto them. All this made witchcraft to be considered as a heretical cult. It was also heretical to trust not in the powers of the Devil. A proper knowledge about witchcraft encouraged clear cut laws and punishment for witchcraft practices. The punishments and laws against witchcraft were thus clear laid out. The methods for trying, detecting and delivering witches were also defined. The powers that work behind witchcraft were thus considered as tricks of Satan, who is all set to attack and destroy Christianity.
According to Early Modern European tradition, evil forces or demons are stereotypically (though not fully) been women. European pagan belief considered witchcraft as the work of goddess Diana. This has however been considered as a fantasy by Christian authors. The familiar witch of witchcraft stories, o Superstition superstitions and folklores is a combination of several influences. The characterization of the demons as an evil magic power developed in the latter years. Early Christians (Catholics) looked to Christian clergy and other major churchmen to perform magic more effectively than the traditional methods of witchcraft followed by Roman Paganism. They also defined a special methodology for this, including saints and relics. This is similar to the gods and powers of the pagan beliefs. The Protestant Christian justification for witchcraft (like that specified in the confessions of the Witches Pendle Witches) generally includes a Diabolical pact diabolical pact or some petition to the intervention of the powers of the evil. The witches, evil powers or demons who participated in such practices were alleged to reject Jesus, his teachings and sacrament. Those who reject this sacraments were found to be following witch Sabbath, doing infernal rites and rituals that parodied the major sacraments of the Church. They gave divine honor to o Satan the evil power (Prince of Darkness) and obtained Preternatural preternatural powers in return. There existed a folkloric belief that a Devils symbol (resembling a brand on cattle) was made on the body of the witch by the devil to identify the pact with which the witch is involved. Witches were considered as females. They were doubted to collapse societal institutions like marriage.
Witch hunt was widely practiced in those days. A witch hunt is a search for Witch witches or evidence of Witchcraft witchcraft, often involving Moral panic moral panic, Mass hysteria mass hysteria and Lynching lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials (Roach, 2002). The periods when witchcraft was popular include the Early Modern period Early Modern period (or the period 1480 to 1700). Witch-hunt refers to the terror-induced attempts for tracing the culprits other than the witches. The most popular example of witch hunt is the McCarthyist McCarthyist search for tracing communists during the Cold War period. Salem witch trials are yet another major incidents to be mentioned there. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court Trial (law) trials to prosecute people accused of Witchcraft witchcraft in County, Massachusetts Suffolk, and o Middlesex County, Massachusetts Middlesex counties of o Province of Massachusetts Bay colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693 (Roach, 2002). Many literary works portray the witchcraft practices prevailed in early New England. Entertaining Satan Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England present before the readers a broad view of witchcraft and examine its influence in the world, from primitive days to the modern days. This celebrated work of John Putnam Demos provides a new outlook of American witchcraft. Through examining the existing historical documents of more than a hundred real witchcraft cases, Demos restructured the world of New England in the period of the witchcraft trials. This account of John Putnam Demos is a detailed depiction of the psychological history of the people who are portrayed. In the book we read a cultural history in which the author explains, interprets and analyzes the community (which he mentioned) as a power or force that is able to create or frame its historical destiny. In the book the cultural history is analyzed in the realm of witchcraft practices that prevailed in early New England. The author analyses the culture of the period in the sociological, psychological and cultural phenomenon. Demos say that the witch trials that prevailed in Salem were not the only type of witch trials that existed in America in those days. He further explains the psychodynamic structures of the 17th century society. He also provides a list of psychoanalytic tools, in particular projection, while trying to explain what triggered the fear of witchcraft. By psychology in the background of his understand about the history of witchcraft that prevailed in New England in the 17th century, the author gave a wonderful presentation of the cultural scenario that existed during that time. The author is studying about a society considering their characteristics. He is thus able to explain what resulted in the practice of witchcraft. In part four the author says that the Salem witch trials were not isolated events. Witch trials were very much prevalent during those days. The author studies the witchcraft process along the towns like Hampton. He also examines the records that are related to its inhabitants. In the closing chapters of the book the author emphasizes how a good part of them (the inhabitants who were accused of witchcraft) were Puritan. By studying about Hampton as well as the town of Wethersfield, the author presents a good history about the communities in New England (Demos, 1983). He further explains what afflictions, agonies and miseries they encountered that witchcraft became a common practice for them. The last part of the book brings several well-argued biographical images and the sociological and psychological sketches of the community that existed during those days. The detailed explanation given by the author also provided the general history of the communities and the real consequences of witchcraft in their lives. Learning the history of these communities will make us understand why they became easily liable to witchcraft. The cultural background of the communities prepared the way for the birth and growth of witchcraft.
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