Category: Witchcraft

Abstract

This paper focuses on Santeria as a religion and tries to compare it with witchcraft. The research tries to find out if they are the same thing or are completely different. The method of information collection used mainly is literature review. It is important to know the differences and similarities if any so that people are in a better position to make informed decisions. Santeria has existed for hundreds of years and it is largely believed to have developed in Cuba based on native African traditions. It has also evolved over time due to environmental factors and times. One of the major changes forced by the environment was the adoption of Catholic saints to hide when it was considered evil.

Main body

Santeria is an African-based religion that is rooted on native African traditions. It is believed to have originated in Cuba and primarily combines traditional Yoruban deities and the worship of Catholic saints. It honours a number of gods referred to as orishas (Ruben, 2015). Each of the gods has their myths and command certain aspects (Ruben, 2015). There is also a supreme being called Oludumare who is above all other orishas. In the past, Santeria has been largely compared to witchcraft because they have some similarities but is Santeria witchcraft or is it entirely different? This can only be known by doing extensive research and literature review on the topic. This paper addresses the above question.

Santeria can be considered as a blend of different aspects of various faiths (Wiggington, 2015). This is despite the fact that most of these religions are contradictory. It is complex as it combines worship of divine beings and several Yoruba orishas (Wiggington, 2015). Santeria also uses spells like witchcraft (Spells, 2015). The spells are not easy to come by as spell work is a rare thing in Santeria. It is important to study Santeria in depth to understand how the religion works.

It is important to study what the religion of Santeria involves so as to be able to know the differences and similarities between these religions. In the past, some sections of people have largely compared Santeria to witchcraft and even voodoo (Lanning, 2015). This study aims to clarify this by clearly defining if it is the same as witchcraft, just similar to witchcraft in some aspects, or they are completely different (Witchcraft, 2015). It is also therefore important to study it so that people who practise it can be given their freedom to do so without being discriminated as most people judge negatively what they might not understand fully.

Santeria and witchcraft are both religions, but they are not the same (E., 2015). Although both of them may have roots in African religious traditions, Santeria evolved in Cuba. Santeria is more organised and governed as compared to witchcraft (Between.net, 2015). It is mixed, with Catholic religion and the presence of priests gives it a sense of order as they preside over functions as compared to witchcraft mostly seen as a way of harming people (Mastin, 2015).

Spells are also done in Santeria although rarely as most of their spells are hard to find let alone perform on the other hand witchcraft is seen as largely linked with many spells (Spengler, 2015). Santeria also adopted the names of many Catholic saints so as to cover for their practises that were forbidden likewise witchcraft is also viewed by many as evil, and most of their practises are seen as illegal and harmful.

Most of the research done in the past on Santeria may contain large inconsistencies due to the bias of researchers (Robinson, 2015). Santeria is completely different from witchcraft even though they may have some similarities. Similarities include use of magic and belief in several gods who command different aspects. They also both originated from native African culture. On the other hand, they have different aspects as Santeria adopted the use of Catholic saints, and there is a supreme being. In witchcraft, such aspects do not exist. Further, comprehensive research should be conducted on the topic without bias so as to get the correct information to enable people understand Santeria in depth before forming an opinion about it.

References

Between.net, D. (2015). Difference Between Santeria and Voodoo. Web.

E., R. D. (2015). What is the difference between Voodoo, Hoodoo and Santeria. Web.

Lanning, K. (2015). Santeria, witchcraft, voodoo, and most religious cults are not satanism. Web.

Mastin, L. (2015). What Is Witchcraft? Web.

Robinson, B. (2015). Santeria, A syncretistic Caribbean religion. Web.

Ruben. (2015). SANTERIA. Web.

Spells, S. (2015). Santeria Spells. Web.

Spengler, P. (2015). REAL SANTERIA SPELLS. Web.

Wiggington, P. (2015). What is Santeria? Web.

Witchcraft. (2015). Witchcraft. Web.

Introduction

Cotton Mather was born in February, 12^th in 1663 and died in February, 13^th 1728. Cotton Mather was a very influential both at social and political level. Cotton Mather was a minister of New England Puritan he was also a prolific author as well as a pamphleteer. His political influence can be attributed to the fact that he was a son of an influential minister as well. Cotton Mather is often remembered for the connection he had on Salem witch trials.

Cotton Mother borrowed his manes from his grandfathers of both sides i.e. paternal grandfather Richard Mather and maternal grandfather John Cotton. Cotton Mather attended Boston Latin School after which he joined Harvard University where he graduated in the year 1687 while at the age of sixteen. Upon completion of his post-graduate, Cotton Mather joined his father to work as the assistant pastor before later assuming the whole responsibility of being the pastor of Boston’s; original North church following the death of his father. (Mather 21).

Having authored approximately 450 books and a quite a number of pamphlets, Cotton Mather became one of influential religious leaders in America during his time.

Attracting attention with books

Cotton Mather in his book urges for acceptance of spectral evidence during the Salem witch Trials. During the Witch trails, Cotton Mather writes a letter placing much weight on spectral evidence. Cotton Mather says inn his letter that what he considered to be the best evidence is the confession by the witches. The whole idea of this particular work is to sensitize the people about the existence of witchcraft which is perceived to be as a result of some spirits. (Mather 13).

Salem witchcraft trials took place Salem mass. This was a result of a belief in witchcraft and that it is capable of affecting people in a number of ways. However, the greatest challenge was how there could be attained a solid evidence about its existence and its impact on people who it is directed to them. Before the year 1688, about four people had already been hanged for allegations of practicing witchcraft near Boston. The scenario grew worse when an outbreak of persecution took place in the year 1922 following an outbreak of a disease which resembled epilepsy and which the doctors were not in a position to cure it. Discouraged by the fact that physicians could not cure it, sermons form clergymen such as Cotton Mather facilitated the belief that evil spirits in the form of witches were actually capable the people at large. Cotton Mather acknowledges the fact that witchcraft exists mainly as a result of the envious nature of human beings which he says that it is way of defining the characteristics of humanity. Cotton Mather however does not forget to mention the fact that devil exists and he works in collaboration with the witches and uses them to achieve his goals and objectives of seeing that the world is turned to be a zone of manifestation of evil deeds.

In his book, Cotton Mather asserts that there is a book which the witches have to sign to show solidarity and commitment in the affair of bewitching other people. This he says there has been a confession of about one hundred and twenty witches who said that the book is shown to them by the devil himself. He further argues that there is a hellish design of bewitching which is geared towards ruining our precious land. His assertions that the devil uses people who are branded as witches to accomplish his mission on the earth is supported by this statement by the author “The devil has made a dreadful knot with witches in the country and by the help of the witches, he has dreadfully increased his knot” Mather 16.

Top some extend, the author of this book acknowledges the fact that Satan exists and that he has some power which cannot match that of human beings. This is that reason as to why he manages to recruit witches in his affairs.

However, Cotton Mather notes that one of the things that have interred Satan and his team of witches from suppressing the country is the belief in Christianity and the ability of the clergymen and his followers to unite in intervening for the country as a whole. The author does not fail to mention the fact that despite all those efforts by the Christians, the witches and the devil have been holing meetings to consult and strategies on how the Christian religion can be submerged.

Cotton Mather is not says that there is nothing like the extinction of witchcraft since the devil is said to be in a continuous mission of recruiting witches day in day out. He further argues that if people do not unite in the endeavor to look for ways of dealing with witches and witchcraft in general, the whole nation will be not in a position to stand at all.. (Mather 17).

Questions to Cotton Mather

The whole idea of witchcraft as narrated by Cotton Mather in this book brings about a number of questions. One of them is about how one can conclude that a particular person is a witch and go to an extend of punishing that person. Cotton Mather talks of some witches confessing of how they go about their business of bewitching other people but this is still very questionable. The idea of people who are labeled as witches being killed also brings about the question of whether the teachings pf Christianity should actually permit the taking away of the life of a human being under any standards. The author is trying to make people conceptualize the whole idea of witchcraft and take one through the various undertakings of witchcraft so that at the end on the reading, one can actually understand the reality of witchcraft. However, some of his narrations may sound a bit more factious that real. For instance, he says that the devil constantly holds meeting with the witches to set up strategies on how to do away with Christianity and its faithful. In the first place, we quite understand that the devil is a sprit and may have nobody. Most of his work therefore sounds more of imagination than being real. To prove whether or not that witchcraft exists its another thing which brings bout on this work by cotton Mather.The fact that Cotton Mather was very much convinced of witchcraft also seems to raise concern. At some point, when ex-minister George Burroughs was executed, he seems to insist that the hanging of the man to be continued as crowds of thousands and thousands of people watched while others sympathizing with the ex-minister and arguing it to be stopped. This brings about the question on how the life of human beings should be taken with much dignity even jupon allegations which are beyond the prove of human being. Cotton Mather’s adamant belief on the spectral evidence which he says results from testimonies by those who are bewitched is still not an evidence enough to make one belief that for real witches exist. The author talks how the bewitched could see visions of the people behind their tribulations and sufferings. This still seems to be holding no strong ground to make one believe that witchcraft is real. (Mather 14).

Conclusion

This work fits within the historical period it describes due the following reasons. First it was written during a period when people used to be strongly affiliated to the belief in witchcraft. At that period, much attention was given to supernatural powers including such as God and Satan. Under that period, most people exhibited the characteristics of a society which was dominated by the fear of the evil spirit. It is also written in a period where Christianity had not been deeply rooted in the society and so people used to look to different ways of explaining different phenomena in the society. Therefore, to convince people about witchcraft was quite easy and that is why Cotton Mather managed to achieve his goal in sensitizing people on witchcraft and its impact. (Mather 21).

Work cited

Mather, cotton. On Witchcraft. Kessinger publishing, 2004.

Holmes, Thomas. Cotton mather and his writings on Witchcraft. Kessinger publishing 2003.

Introduction

Arthur Miller wrote ‘The Crucible’ in order to critic a period in history. Society substituted fact and reason with fear and irrationality to solve its problems. Nineteen people lost their lives owing to the Salem witch trials. However, this appalling occurrence was in the history of the people of Salem; it was not an isolated incident.

Historical events in Salem prior to and at the time of the Salem witch trials

During the 16^th and seventeenth century, people in the New England colony were highly religious. Puritanism was the main religion among this close-knit community. Furthermore, most of the adherents believed that forces of evil and purity prevailed in like measure, in the world. They claimed that natural catastrophes, diseases and ill fortune were manifestations of supernatural forces. Therefore, this thinking caused Salem residents to believe in witches and wizards as agents of the devil.

New England had recorded witchcraft cases before. In fact, a reputable member of this community had written a book known as ‘Memorable Providence’ in 1689 (Hoffer 78). The author of the books was Cotton Mather, and he wrote about certain episodes of witchcraft that took place in the previous year. In the piece, he describes a washerwoman – Goody Glover – who was a typical witch. His accounts became a household name in Puritan New England. Even Samuel Parris; the Salem clergyman had the book in his household library.

These thoughts enforced the belief in the existence of witchcraft in New England. They also demystified the rituals that witches and wizards used in the practice. Additionally, some cases existed even in Europe. However, these beliefs had started to fade in that continent during the mid seventeenth century. Therefore, these strong belief systems inspired the Salem witch craft trails.

A few years prior to the events of the Salem witch trials, the community suffered from an attack of smallpox. Many people did not know how to interpret these misfortunes and readily accepted supernatural intervention as one of the explanations. Such tendencies set the pace for later acceptance of the same justification in the witchcraft trials.

The political landscape at the time was highly volatile. The people of New England were in the middle of a war with the Indians. The British settlers had lived in that part of the world for approximately seventy years. Furthermore, they were not doing especially well in the war. If this poor performance continued, it was likely that New Englanders would accuse their administrators of incompetence. Senior reporters needed a scapegoat that would divert attention away from their inadequacies in the war. The people who others accused of witchcraft served as an avenue for diffusing the tensions that arose out of the poor performance in the wars. This was the reason why judges were quite eager to sentence them even when little or no evidence existed.

In relation to the frontier wars at the time, Salem Village also contended with congregational strife. A certain degree of factionalism existed in Salem village as some people supported Parris and these were the Pro-Parris camp while others belonged to the anti-Parris camp. In 1688, a man known as Samuel Parris arrived in Salem Village upon invitation by John Putnam. The latter was a highly influential elder in the community.

One year later, the leaders requested Parris to move to their community and take on the responsibilities of a minister in the Village. He accepted this invitation and moved with his family. Little did he know that he would fuel a split between various camps in the community. At the time, the Village witnessed a rise in mercantile classes. Two clans wanted to control the town, and they were the Porters and the Putnams. Since Putnam invited Parris to the Village, then the Putnam clan fell in the Parris camp while the Porters fell in the anti-Parris faction.

The two groups also debated about the center of trade in their community. Some wanted the area’s economy to focus more on agriculture areas such as Salem Village; others wanted it to dwell on sea trade, away from the Village. These divisions continued up to and including the Salem witch trials. At the time, the girls were no longer relevant in the unfolding scene; they became pawns that adults used to achieve their own ends (Cooley 44). The parties read their own expectations and concerns from the trials.

They accused members of the opposite camps of witchcraft in order to resolve their personal differences. At first, non supporters of the Parris camp bore the brunt of this injustice by becoming the first defendants in the witch trials. However, it later became apparent that anti-Parris members could also use this platform to settle their political scores, and that is exactly what happened to their opponents in the witch trails.

The judicial system in New England was in its infancy. In fact, many participants did not know how to separate their religious beliefs from the actual judicial process. The court system was such that defendants had minimal rights. The system did not guarantee defendants legal counsel. Furthermore, they had no right to bring in their own witnesses. New England had no mechanisms for appeal at the time, so it was difficult to look for legal redress in case one went through an unfair trial. The only rights that defendants had was to defend their actions as well as produce their own evidence or ask accusers questions.

It was these systems that carried on into the Salem witchcraft trials. The judges felt that it was permissible to use spectral evidence in the examinations even when this was an unreliable source of proof. Spectral evidence is a testimony given by witchcraft accusers who claim to have seen a suspect’s specter. It was only after the witchcraft hysteria ceased that the judges openly admitted to having faulted in the dispensation of their duties. This was the reason why they abandoned the method at the end of the trials. When the judges only relied upon non spectral or concrete evidence, they freed all the accused persons.

The manipulations of the witnesses and the accused persons further testify to the weaknesses of the court system at the time. The authorities promised suspects life if they confessed to the crime of witchcraft. Many of them succumbed to this pressure because they wanted to save themselves. In fact, it was only Giles Corey who refused to either say no or yes to the accusations that the town made against him.

He asserted that he did not want to ruin his name and his children’s future by confessing to the crime. The judges that presided over the Salem trials were extremely sadistic as they caused people to confess to crimes that they had not committed or sentenced them to hang if they denied the accusations (DeRosa 15).

It should be noted that, during the trial process, a number of events led to the tragedy that befell the suspects. First, many people confessed to the accusations in order to save their lives; the punishment that they received was imprisonment. Prisons in Salem filled to capacity and the town’s administrators had no way of dealing with the excess capacity.

The situation warranted fast action; Governor Phips, who had just come back from Britain, made a series of changes that further weakened the judicial system. He appointed a new court called Oyer and Terminer to deal with the witchcraft cases. All five judges chosen for the court process were close acquaintances of Cotton Mather (he had written a lot about witchcraft practices). Already, this was a group that had a bias against the suspects. One of the members of this five-judge bench was William Stoughton. He was a friend to Mather, who urged him to use spectral evidence in the cases.

The judges did not have any legal training in witchcraft issues when they carried out their judgments. Furthermore, many of them asked for their Church Ministers’ guidance throughout this process. The ministers involved in the trial continued to use outrageous methods in the process such as the examination of witch marks and the touching test (Miller 16).

The latter involved an analysis of whether the accused could stop contortions in the patients. The judicial process was so wretched that it used hearsay, unsupported testimonies and gossip to pass judgment against the accused. The ineptness of the judicial process before and during the trails led to the hanging of nineteen people.

Conclusion

A number of factors contributed towards the grave injustices of the Salem trials. First, people of the Village were deeply religious and believed in the intervention of Satan and God in their daily lives. Additionally, the social and economic conditions that existed at the time caused them to apportion blame to ‘agents of the devil’, who were the accused witches. Furthermore, many of them used the trials as a platform for settling political scores. Additionally, New England’s judicial system was absolutely inept.

Works Cited

Cooley, Nicole. The Afflicted Girls. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. Print.

DeRosa, Robin. History and the Whore: Arthur Miller’s Crucible. NY: Longman, 2009. Print.

Hoffer, Peter. The Devil’s disciples: masters of the Salem witchcraft trials. Baltimore: John Hopkins, 1996. Print.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Internet Broadway Database, 1957.

The document is about the interrogation of Johannes Junius who was accused of witchcraft during the craze of 1628. Junius first was involved in local politics in 1608 and served as a burgomaster starting from 1614. Due to his wife’s execution for witchcraft, Junius had been suspected of being a witch (Apps & Gow, 2018). Georg Neudecker, another burgomaster who had been charged with witchcraft and imprisoned in April 1628, identified Junius as an accomplice, which resulted in Junius’s capture in June 1628 (Zika, 2017). Additionally, Junius was mentioned in the confessions of other alleged witches.

The court document describes how Junius at first denied all charges. He then requested to confront his witnesses and continued to deny his involvement in witchcraft after over a week of torture, which included the use of thumbscrews, leg vises (Beinschrauben), and strappado. On July 5, 1628, he finally confessed, saying that he had traded God for the Devil and that he had seen 27 of his coworkers on a sabbat (Apps & Gow, 2018). One month later, Junius was publicly burned to death.

According to Junius’ confession, he was seduced by a woman in 1624 who later turned out to be a succubus and threatened to murder him if he did not give up his faith in God. At the time, he was in a precarious financial situation (Levack, 2003). Although Junius first resisted, more demons soon appeared and continued to torment him, eventually persuading him to choose the Devil as his god. When he adopted the witch’s name Krix and received the familiar Füchsin (also known as “Vixen”), numerous locals came forward to admit that they were also in league with Satan and offered their congratulations (Levack, 2003). After that, he frequently went to witches’ sabbats and rode a huge, flying black dog. He went to a Black Mass at one of these Sabbats where Beelzebub made an appearance.

The document presents the period of Bamberg witch trials that were between 1627-1632. One of the largest mass trials and executions ever witnessed in Europe, as well as one of the largest witch trials in history, it took place in the autonomous Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg in the Holy Roman Empire in modern-day Germany (Leeson & Russ, 2018). In Bamberg, around 900 persons were put to death after being suspected of witchcraft over a lengthy period (1626–1632). People of all ages, sexes, and social groups were all burned at the stake, occasionally after being beheaded and occasionally while still alive.

The witch trials were performed by a Catholic Prince Bishop who wanted to bring the Counter-Reformation to his country during the continuing Thirty Years War between Protestants and Catholics. They took place in a region on the religious boundary between Catholic and Protestant lands (Jütte, 2020). The region was near the Catholic-Protestant theological boundary, and the new Prince Bishop wanted to establish a kingdom in line with the Counter-Reformational principles and convert the populace to Catholicism.

Due to inadequate documentation, the precise reason behind the witch trials of 1626–1631 is not known. Frost ruined the entire region’s harvest in May 1626 (Jütte, 2020). After receiving petitions from citizens asking why witches and wizards were to blame for the frost, Prince Bishop launched an inquiry (Jütte, 2020). After being detained, a woman admitted to using witchcraft to bring on the frost. With the responsibility of handling all cases of witchcraft, a special Witch Commission was established. This commission employed professional prosecutors, including the renowned doctor Schwarzkonz of Eichstätt. The use of whipping and expulsion was forbidden for any criticism of the trials after the ban was enforced.

Reference List

Apps, L., & Gow, A. (2018) Appendix Johannes Junius: Bamberg’s famous male witch. In Male witches in early modern Europe. Manchester University Press.

Jütte, D. (2020) “Survivors of Witch Trials and the Quest for Justice in Early Modern Germany.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 50(2), pp. 349-375.

Leeson, P. T., & Russ, J. W. (2018) Witch trials. The Economic Journal, 128(613), pp. 2066-2105.

Levack, B. P. (2003) The witchcraft sourcebook. Routledge.

Zika, C. (2017) The Witch of Endor Before the Witch Trials. In Contesting Orthodoxy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Underwood, A. (2019). Witchcraft in the American colonies beyond the limits of Salem.Fairmont Folio: Journal of History, 19, 1-13. Web.

The article by Amanda Underwood published in Fairmont Folio: Journal of History centers around the history of witchcraft in American colonies. The author notes that the conversation surrounding the tragic persecution of thousands of men and women accused of connections to Satan seems to be fixated entirely on Salem (Underwood, 2019). The very words “witchcraft” and “Salem” have become synonymous, which creates the wrong impression that the trials happened only in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thus, the purpose of the article was to examine the historical origins of witch trials on the American land, particularly focusing on the first and last documented cases, all of which happened in the Virginia Colony. The main idea Underwood (2019) tried to convey was that witch trials beyond the Massachusetts Bay area, particularly in the Virginia Colony, did not imply mass hysteria, mania, and hundreds of executions.

While some people were certainly accused, almost none were hanged or stoned. The main reason for that was that the Virginia Colony was a rural area, which meant that hearings occurred on the county level. As for the tragedies in Salem, the trials were held on the town level, which meant fewer respectable gentlemen and more clergy on the jury. Underwood (2019) supports her claims by logical reasoning and a combination of primary sources and scholarly research. The main sources used include the book The devil in Virginia in the seventeenth century by R.B. Davis as well as the article Witchcraft in the American colonies, 1647-62 by F.C. Drake. The author concludes that the trials in the Virginia Colony were distinct from other regions in terms of accusations and persecution (Underwood, 2019). The courts in Virginia were determined to keep the people calm and safe.

The facts presented in the article are mostly accurate. The only mistake found was the author mentioning that hundreds of accused witches were burned. The historical truth of the matter is that the majority of women and men were hanged. Schiff (2016) claims that “the American South reinforced the burning-at-the-stake fiction in the 19th century” (para. 2). There seem to be no methodology issues since Underwood (2019) uses credible sources, including a wide range of books and peer-reviewed articles, to support her claims. The author delves deep into the history of witchcraft accusations going as far as the 15^th century. In addition, she provides examples by analyzing specific cases of witchcraft accusations in the Virginia Colony, including Joan Wright, Katherine Grady, Grace Sherwood, and others (Underwood, 2019). Due to such extensive research and the usage of many sources, the author’s argument and conclusion are convincing.

The article is rather influential in its successful attempt to shift the focus of the conversation about witchcraft to regions other than Salem and the Massachusetts Bay area. It provides new insights in regards to the absence of mass hysteria in the Virginia Colony. The author manages to refute highly-publicized myths about the witchcraft accusations. Moreover, in comparison to a number of scholarly works focusing entirely on Salem, the article features a fresh and historically accurate perspective on the notions of witchcraft on the American land as a whole. The fact that none of those accused faced execution in the Virginia Colony is a truly surprising fact. The reasons for such differences between Salem and other regions are startling as well.

References

Schiff, S. (2016). Five myths about the Salem witch trials.The Washington Post. Web.

Introduction

The sources that have been provided here prove that people in earlier times believed in witches and black magic and were so blinded by their beliefs that they did not hesitate to take the lives of thousands of innocent women. They believed that women practiced witchcraft in order to hurt men and women and even the children by using their magical and supernatural powers. For this reason witch hunts and witch trials were carried out which were completely unfair since the women were never given the chance to prove themselves and the court almost always found them guilty due to which they were either burnt alive or hanged, as the pictures suggest. Sometimes even children who were females were not spared and were killed since their own family members suspected them, along with their mothers, to be witches and somehow in the courtrooms proved them guilty as charged. But the writings given here surely prove that there may have been certain unexplainable activities although they do not completely prove that witches were for real.

History

People during the early ages believed in witches and witchcraft more then they do now. And thus, based on this the events portrayed in these sources could be dated back from the 15^th to 17^th century, which has been unofficially called the classical era of witch hunts. The first source depicts a traditional witch trial which was official in those times and even legally sanctioned by the authorities. The officials blinded by the fear of the supernatural world seldom heard what the women had to say and were often found guilty of witchcraft. Women were more targeted than the men and even their family members did not listen to what they had to say. The second source is the excerpt written by a man examining a person suspected of witchcraft. He was also told that his family had died due to the actins of some external powers. He gives us a detailed description of the afflicted people before him. From the excerpt, it seems like they had been subjected to witchcraft or black magic since the suspected people had pins through their arms and lips. Also, sometimes the suspects threw fits of anger and became ill wresting their legs and arms and turning their heads to a great extent.

The third source is the examination of a woman named Sarah Good who has been accused of hurting children. She denies to having done so, but her examiner was not convinced. She even said that it could have been another person with the same name but this too did not convince her examiner. Even her husband thought that she was a witch as she used to mutter the commandments all the time. Sarah Good kept on repeating that she had not tormented any of the children but since she was unable to prove herself, the examiner did not believe her. The forth source shows the picture of two officials tying the noose around the neck of a poor woman who may have been found guilty of witchcraft or black magic. Although some of the other women are desperately trying to save her, the officials are pushing them away. Some of the men are actually cheering for the officials since they want the woman to be hanged. This whole story could be that of a single woman found guilty of being a witch during the 15^th or 16^th century when women had very little power and say of their own.

Women

As stated earlier these sources could be telling us the story of a poor woman found guilty of being a witch or practicing witchcraft. The first source portrays a witch trial where we can see a woman lying on the ground being beaten by some men, although they are in the court room in front of public officials. The apparent outcome of these sources is that people blinded by their belief that witchcraft existed would go to any lengths to punish the women they thought were guilty of being a witch. If required the women were even beaten up and made to accept that they were witches and that they inflicted pain upon others. Since they did not have the support of their family members, they were taken away from their children and either burned to death or hanged in front of the public who instead of opposing to such a gruesome crime actually wanted the sentence to be carried out. The women were almost always found guilty and as they had very little say in those days they were easily proved guilty and sometimes even framed in place of another person, as is evident from the third source. It is also apparent from these sources that the authorities in those times were completely ignorant and blinded by their fear of the unknown to such an extent that they did not hesitate to hang and burn innocent women simple because the authorities believed them to be witches.

The only meaning that can be drawn from all of these sources is that the people between the 15^th century and 17^th century completely believed in the existence of witches, the supernatural and black magic so much so that if required they would even force people to falsely testify against women accused of practicing witchcraft. These sources continue to tell us the story of a woman who was accused of being a witch and even sent to trial. She was examined and when found guilty was brutally murdered in front of an ignorant crowd who cheered instead of revolting against such a crime. The women, completely helpless could do nothing to save herself since no one believed her, not even her husband and the examiners were able to find numerous evidences proving her to be a witch. Finally, she was hanged while people laughed and cheered at her.

Conclusion

At those times when people believed in witched people blindly followed their religion and cultural aspects to the point that some of them were even dimmed by it. The two visual sources tell us about the position of women in those times which was very low. Since they were weaker, they were subjected to all kinds of brutality, in this case being wrongly accused and proved of practicing witchcraft and black magic. The visual sources prove the point that the woman pictured here may not have been a witch at all. In the first visual source she is being beaten by an official and in the second one the officials are getting ready to hang her. Although she desperately tries to prove herself to the examiners, she fails to do so and thus, finally the authorities prove her wrong and decide to hang her. Had the women been a witch then some kind of supernatural activities would have also been depicted in these visual sources, but that is not the case. This strongly proves that these women were wrongly accused of being witches and actually killed in front of the masses.

From these visual sources we can also deduce women almost had no power of their own in those times. They could not even stop the authorities from falsely accusing them of being witches and were thus, often dragged to their own death. The visual sources also tell us about the ignorance of the common people and the officials who were responsible for the law and order of society. Instead of falsely accusing the women out of their blind fear of the unknown, the officials should have tried to find the truth. But as they lacked the knowledge of science they were unable to do so. The women were brutally hanged as people and children watched the gruesome scene and celebrated. These visual sources also prove that law and order were not the same for both the sexes in those times, since the pictures do not depict any men being accused of practicing witchcraft and thus, being tried in the court. This shows that the men were spared of this brutality may by because they were considered to be more powerful than the women in the society of the 15^th or 17^th century. But the women being the weaker gender were unable to defend themselves and often found a noose around their neck.