Church Role in Witch Hunting

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Witch hunting is one of the most controversial topics of the European and the American history as it is still unclear who should take responsibility for the atrocities that took place because of witch trials. It is quite a common view to blame religious fanatics for the events. However, the real state of things is much more complicated and is unlikely to be revealed and understood comprehensively. Despite the fact that a lot of research has been done on the history of witch prosecution and the part of the Church in it, it is still debatable whether its power exceeded the influence of secular authorities in this issue. Moreover, the role of average community members who shared a lot of prejudice about women and their propensity to witchcraft, should not be underestimated either.

Therefore, the paper at hand will attempt to prove that while the role of the Church in witch hunting is unquestionable, it is still a misleading oversimplification to state that it is the only social institution to blame.

There exist a lot of contradicting theories about the factors that triggered witch hunting in Europe. Among the most popularly cited ones are: 1) the attempt of the authorities to take an ultimate social control; 2) misogyny; 3) mental diseases; 4) economic conflict. All these impetuses taken separately are not influential enough to be considered the major cause though each of them made its contribution. However, the most widely accepted theory states that such outrageous violations of justice resulted exclusively from the policy of the Church (Summers, 2014). Despite a great number of proponents, this theory lacks evidence to be accepted as the most reasonable one.

It is not a well-known fact that before the hunting began, it was not typical of the Church of the Middle Ages to believe in witchcraft – this practice was considered to be an illusion as well as people who could exercise it. A lot of manuals had to be written by theologians and inquisitors to make the Church change its attitude to the problem. Even when in 1484, Pope Innocent VIII introduced a bull that legally permitted persecution of witches, many Church authorities did not perceive witches as a real threat (Summers, 2014).

Several decades later, all the major branches of Western Christianity including Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans took part in witch hunting and the responsibility they bore was more or less equal. John Calvin, one of the major Protestant figures, expressed a strongly negative attitude to the practice of witchcrafts and enchantment claiming that they should not be tolerated as they are equal to robberies and murders in gravity (Summers, 2014). Martin Luther investigated the problem thoroughly and concluded that witches should be burnt alive or stoned to death. Nevertheless, despite the fact that neither of the high authorities of the Church protested against witch hunting, they did not take any active measures to trigger the process (Stark, 2015).

A lot of accusations of the Church are explained by the desire of different branches to undermine the reputation of one another. However, this theory lacks evidence base as it was a rare case when representatives of one branch accused people belonging to another branch – all prosecutions generally took place within one branch. It means that the Church did not pursue any hidden goals that could be achieved though witch hunting (Summers, 2014).

Despite the evident religious fanaticism typical of the epoch, it is fair to admit that church authorities were rather indulgent in trials. They were much more likely to release ‘witches’ or give them mild sentences than secular judges. Moreover, even in countries where the Inquisition was powerful indeed (such as Italy or Spain), it was a common practice to release the accused without trials (Stark, 2015). Only about 3,500 out of 100,000 people were convicted. Less than a hundred were sentenced to death. Religious courts were unwilling to resort to torture to get confessions. As a remedy, they mostly proposed preaching, praying, and building churches on places of witchcraft and Devil worship. Witches were generally deprived of their property (Summers, 2014).

The Church was frequently blamed for promoting witch hunting also on the basis of the ostensible enmity between science and religion. However, this is rather questionable as the peak of this practice was reached already during the Enlightenment when scientific progress was in the center of attention. Besides, some of the prominent scientists (e.g. Isaac Newton) practiced sorcery whereas others (e.g. Robert Boyle) supported the idea of witch prosecution. At the same time, some representative of the clergy, such as Father Friedrich von Spee, contributed a lot to moderating and ending witch hunting. Cautio Criminalis – an indictment that he wrote in 1631 – was the first document to disclaim tortured confessions (Stark, 2015).

Another accusation of the Church often concerned the repressed sexuality for which the clergy tried to compensate. It is believed by many scholars that priests were so much frustrated by their celibacy that they exhibited aggression to women whom they feared. In other versions, they tried to force women to sexual intercourse and convicted those who refused. This possibility is hard to prove or disprove, however, it is a fact that most of the charges usually came from the neighbors rather than from representatives of the Church (Stark, 2015).

Pinning all the blame on the Church, many researches forget that its attitude to witchcraft was largely supported by beliefs shared in the community. Women who had difficulties fitting in the society provoked witch accusations (especially if they were above 40 and lived longer than men in the family). This perception was aggravated by the fact that the community considered such women useless as they were already older than the childbearing age. The Puritan society believed that if a woman inherited a considerable sum of money from her deceased husband and did not want to marry again, it meant that she had secrets to conceal (Summers, 2014).

Young beautiful women were also more prosecuted by the community members than by the Church. Those who did not marry up to a certain age for different reasons felt the societal pressure and feared for their vague future. Many of them decided to simulate witchcraft and even to show signs of diabolic possession. This way they could attract attention of the community and acquire certain power. Thus, superstition made women imitate witchcraft in order to survive in the hostile environment. Furthermore, no persecution was possible without the consent of some of the secular authorities as they had to legally approve all the Church’s decisions (Stark, 2015).

Thus, the conclusion can be drawn that there were quite a number of different causes that led to witch hunting. Some of them can never be deduced. Although there is a substantial evidence consisting of theological studies of the time that proved the involvement of the clergy into the matter, it would be a rough oversimplification to attribute the whole responsibility exclusively to the Church as both secular authorities and average members of the society also played an active role in the events described.

Part B

Witchcraft is deeply rooted in European and American history. The practice was described by a number of documents including The Malleus Maleficarium, Cautio Criminalis, Tempel Anneke trial sources, etc. The injustices committed to innocent people fascinated a lot of writers to present their own interpretation of the events, which resulted in the appearance of a great number of novels, plays, and short stories. These works of fiction shaped a certain cultural image of a witch and witchcraft, which is in many cases quite far from reality.

Thus, the present research aims to investigate how literature written on the topic of witchcraft corresponded to the primary source accounts of the events in order to prove that, despite being rather accurate in certain aspects, fictional portrayals of witch hunting gave way to the appearance of a great number of myths. For this purpose, two primary sources (Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County and The Salem Witchcraft Papers will be compared to two works of fiction (The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Rachel Dyer by John Neal. General deviations from the historical reality will also be taken into account.

Both authors base their works on The Salem Witchcraft Papers and Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, though both of them distort the reality to a certain extent for the purpose of creating a more impressive and dramatic picture of the events.

The Crucible preserves the factual themes, characters, and events of the Salem trials. Arthur Miller claimed that he did not depict anyone who was not involved in the events described, which was actually true. However, the major theme concerning personal vengeance of Abigail William to the other main character, John Proctor, who did not return her affection to him, was invented by the author. The point is that the real Abigail was only 11 years old and had no connection whatsoever with Proctor who was already 60 by that time (Summers, 2014). Even if we take into account that such relationships were possible in the 17th century, they were already quite out of the common. Besides, it is questionable whether the girl was even acquainted with Proctor before the trial (Dow, 1913).

Though the play shows only girls who pretended to be ‘possessed’ by Satan, this fact is not proved by the primary accounts of the events. In fact, the real history claims that there were several adults among them including Ann Carr Putnam – a mother of one of the girls (Boyer & Nissenbaum, 1977).

One more inaccuracy is that George Jacobs was never pinned an accusation of sending his spirit to Ann Putnam the junior in order to lay on her. In fact, it was a common practice to accuse women of this as they were considered to be lusty and sinful while men were viewed as victims of their witchcraft rather than seducers (Summers, 2014).

The major event described at the very beginning of the play when the girls are dancing in the woods never occurred. The entire play is based upon the fictional idea of the girls’ fear after Rev. Parris saw them performing diabolic dances (which were a childish game to see who they were going to marry). Historical documents have no account of this event (Boyer & Nissenbaum, 1977).

Dr. William Griggs, who concluded that the girls’ fits were caused by bewitchment, really existed and made the same medical conclusion as in the play. His niece was among the possessed girls (Dow, 1913).

Another work of fiction devoted to Salem witch trials is Rachel Dyer by John Neal, which, unlike The Crucible, mostly presents fictional trials. However, despite the fact that the trials are invented, the characters – Sarah Good, Martha Corey, and George Burroughs – are real (Dow, 1913).

One of the most significant alterations of the reality in the novel concerns George Burroughs, who was historically among the accused. The former minister of the village, he acts as a lawyer in the novel. Burroughs defended Martha Corey and Sarah Good. According to the novel, he knew the law perfectly, which allowed him to fight for these women’s rights up to the moment when he himself was accused of witchcraft as he presented a threat to the court and had to be eliminated. According to the historical accounts, he was actually away from Salem when the examination took place (Boyer & Nissenbaum, 1977).

The examination of Sarah Good is given as a flashback and is mainly focused on a single episode: one of the ‘victims’ accuses Sarah’s specter of stabbing her at night. The accuser proved her evidence by showing the court a part of the blade, which she took from the accused after the attack. However, Burroughs appeared in the court with a boy who showed the other part of the blade claiming that the knife was his. Nevertheless, the case was resolved in favor of accuser, who was merely rebuked for her lie instead of being whipped. Sarah Good was put to death. The episode really took place during the proceedings but did not receive so much attention as in the novel. Neal’s purpose was to emphasize how evidence could be distorted to aggravate the accusations in order to lead the trial to death sentence (Boyer & Nissenbaum, 1977).

The second trial described by the novel involves Martha Corey and is much less accurate in relation to real historical events. The point is that witnesses against the woman in the novel gave evidence against another woman, Bridget Bishop (Boyer & Nissenbaum, 1977). The character of Martha Corey was created on the basis of two real people to be made more convincing.

Thus, it can be concluded that many works of fiction presenting witchcraft as the main topic aligned with historical event but did not follow them literally. The authors are free to introduce as many characters and events as required to make real cases of trials more detailed and spectacular. The accused are usually presented as innocent victims that had to suffer from the injustices of the court, the Church, and the community. However, it is far from being true. As it has already been mentioned, many of the accused ‘witches’ were released without any punishment or with a light one. During the Salem trials, not a single person was burned. Even those who were admitted guilty were hanged. Thus, all the inventions writers make serve the only purpose of making the events more colorful and impressive.

References

Boyer, P., & Nissenbaum, S. (Eds.). (1977). The Salem witchcraft papers. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

Dow, G. F. (Ed.). (1913). Records and files of the quarterly courts of Essex County, Massachusetts. Essex, MA: Essex Institute.

Summers, M. (2014). The history of witchcraft and demonology. London, England: Routledge.

Stark, R. (2015). For the glory of God: how monotheism led to reformations, science, witch-hunts, and the end of slavery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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Church Role in Witch Hunting

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