10 Myths of Witch Hunts

#1. The Witch Hunts were an example of medievalcrueltyand barbarism.

FACT: While frequently cruel, the Witch Hunts took place after the Middle Ages and were conducted by civilized people.

#2. TheChurchwas to blame for the Witch Hunts.

FACT: While Christianity clearly created the framework for the Witch Hunts, no single "Church" was to blame, and many secular governments hunted witches for essentially non-religious reasons.

#3. The Witch Hunts specifically targetedwomen.

FACT: While many witch hunters explicitly went after women, men fell victim to the witch hunts.

#4. The Witch Hunts were an attempt at "femicide" or "gendercide," meaning the persecution of the female sex, equivalent to genocide.

FACT: While a few witch hunters abhorred all women, the necessity for women to be involved in procreation of our species and the lack of means to carry out the extermination of every woman prevented any realistic approach toward genocide.

#5. The Witch Hunts are/were allalike.

FACT: While the Witch Hunts share some essential similarities, they were enormously different depending on time and place.

#6.Millionsof people died because of the Witch Hunts.

FACT: While millions of people might have been affected, the best estimates of recent historians range from 50,000 to 200,000 dead.

#7. People condemned during the Witch Hunts wereburnedat the stake.

FACT: While indeed governments did burn many witches at the stake, most were executed by other means.

#8. During the time of the Witch Hunts, witches actually existed and workedmagic.

FACT: While some people have claimed to be able to work witchcraft, there is no scientific, empirical, reasonable proof that any actual witches existed or that the magic they claimed to perform actually did what it was supposed to do.

#9. Inmodernusage, the term "Witch Hunt" can be applied to any organized persecution of a group of people.

FACT: While the term "Witch Hunt" does involve persecution of a group, that groupmay or may not exist in an organized fashion; and the proper use of the term especially requires that the targeted group is not a real threat to society.

#10. Modern witchcraft/magick/wicca is a directdescendentof those practices done by people during the Witch Hunts of 1400-1800.

FACT: While modern witches and pagans have tried to resurrect witchcraft activities described by witch hunters, there exists only a very tenuous connection between modern witches and those before 1800.

How Accused Witches Were Punished

Witch hunters often got false confessions from people by torturing them until they were in so much pain that they would say anything to get them to stop. This was so they could document it and look good to others. If someone confessed they were punished by being burnt alive or hung. If they did not confess they were usually tortured by having legs and arms broken or twisted, being crushed, being beaten, starved, and many other horrible things. People were tortured sometimes until they were forced to name others' as witches too. Children were tortured so they would say their parents were witches. History tells us that the reason people were killed by burning at the stake was witches were thought to be magical, and burning was the only way that was thought to get rid of this evil magic.

In some countries in Europe people were tortured more than in others. Germany is thought to have been the worst, where people were tortured for days. It is also thought that the most people were executed here. In Spain and Italy they were only allowed to torture people for an hour. In England torture was illegal, but witches were still hung or burned at the stake.

When hunting for witches, people’s homes could be searched. Along with herbs, other things that were found that were thought of as tools of witch craft were brooms, certain kinds of knives, and being found naked. So how were you supposed to sweep your floors or take a bath?

THE BURNING TIMES (1300's to 1700's)

Starting during the early part of the 1300's began a period in Europe of horrible torturing, murder, and persecution known as theWitch Hunts. The reasons were greed, fear and ignorance.

How And Why Witches Were Hunted

The church (Catholic and Protestant) began its persecution for reasons of greed and power. The church leaders caused followers to be afraid of anything related to the devil and created many superstitions in their minds.

One of the main goals of the church at this time was to make all people follow their religion. People who followed the old religion, called Pagans (which worships nature) did not want to convert. So the church wanted to get rid of Pagans who did not want to convert. The church did this by telling their followers that the ways of the Pagan were acts of the Devil, so Pagans were Devil worshipers. They were called heathens and they were thought to be uncivilized. People were so scared of the Devil that they started to become very fearful of acts of the Devil around them.It seems that almost everyone at this point thought, or was convinced to think, that Witches were bad people.

The church had enough power to be able to dictate the way people lived their lives. At this time rules were created that made is mandatory for people to have education and a license in order to practice as a doctor. Only men were allowed to get this education and license. Many of the Pagan healers were women. They collected natural herbs to heal people and they were midwives (delivered babies). Anyone who practiced unlicensed healing was accused of witchcraft, which was punishable by death.

The church was not the only one who could profit from persecuting witches. Licensed doctors did not want competition because they wanted to earn money so they accused many people. Doctors were thought of as experts in figuring out if people were witches, and were often hired as witch hunters by the church. Other who could profit from getting rid of witches were neighbors who didn't like them or wanted their land. The belongings, land, and homes of accused witches became the property of the church. The church sometimes gave land to witch hunters, so there was a profit for many people.

The Witch trials were now used to get rid of anyone for any reason. Anyone could be blamed. Although the majority of the victims were women, men and children were accused too. You did not truly have to be a witch to be accused. The families of people accused of being witched were arrested and executed too so that "witch blood" could not be passed on. Anyone who spoke up and said that witch hunts were not right were accused too, even priests and nuns were accused this way.

Once people became generally afraid of, and hateful of Witches, everything was blamed on them. All the problems of the society from the bubonic plague to poverty and starvation, was blamed on Satan and 'his' Witches.

There was never any defense allowed for the people accused. There was little anyone could do to save themselves.

March 18, 2014

7 Bizarre Witch Trial Tests

ByEvan Andrews

Practicing black magic was once considered a heinous crime on par with rape and murder. The 18th century B.C. Code of Hammurabi contained provisions against sorcery, and many medieval legal systems listed specific parameters for identifying, trying and even executing suspected witches and warlocks. Since finding proof of devilry was no ordinary task, would-be witch-hunters often resorted to some particularly outlandish experiments in their quest to convict accused necromancers. From barbaric tortures and occult dessert dishes to unwinnable trials by ordeal, find out more about seven unusual tests once used as evidence of supernatural misconduct.

Getty Images

1. Swimming Test
As part of the infamous “swimming test,” accused witches were dragged to the nearest body of water, stripped to their undergarments, bound and then tossed in to to see if they would sink or float. Since witches were believed to have spurned the sacrament of baptism, it was thought that the water would reject their body and prevent them from submerging. According to this logic, an innocent person would sink like a stone, but a witch would simply bob on the surface. The victim typically had a rope tied around their waist so they could be pulled from the water if they sank, but it wasn’t unusual for accidental drowning deaths to occur.

Witch swimming derived from the “trial by water,” an ancient practice where suspected criminals and sorcerers were thrown into rushing rivers to allow a higher power to decide their fate. This custom was banned in many European counties in the Middle Ages, only to reemerge in the 17th century as a witch experiment, and it persisted in some locales well into the 18th century. For example, in 1710, the swimming test was used as evidence against a Hungarian woman named DorkoBoda, who was later beaten and burned at the stake as a witch.

2. Prayer Test
Medieval wisdom held that witches were incapable of speaking scripture aloud, so accused sorcerers were made to recite selections from the Bible—usually the Lord’s Prayer—without making mistakes or omissions. While it may have simply been a sign that the suspected witch was illiterate or nervous, any errors were viewed as proof that the speaker was in league with the devil. This twisted test of public speaking ability was commonly used as hard evidence in witch trials. In 1712, it was applied in the case Jane Wenham, an accused witch who supposedly struggled to speak the words “forgive us our trespasses” and “lead us not into temptation” during her interrogation. Still, even a successful prayer test didn’t guarantee an acquittal. During the Salem Witch Trials, the accused sorcerer George Burroughs flawlessly recited the prayer from the gallows just before his execution. The performance was dismissed as a devil’s trick, and the hanging proceeded as planned.

3. Touch Test
The touch test worked on the idea that victims of sorcery would have a special reaction to physical contact with their evildoer. In cases where a possessed person fell into spells or fits, the suspected witch would be brought into the room and asked to a lay a hand on them. A non-reaction signaled innocence, but if the victim came out of their fit, it was seen as proof that the suspect had placed them under a spell.

Touch tests played a famous part in the 1662 trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Denny, two elderly English women charged with bewitching a pair of young girls. The children had been suffering from fits that left their fists clenched so tightly that even a strong man could not pry their fingers apart, but early tests showed they easily opened whenever Cullender or Denny touched them. To ensure the reaction was genuine, judges had the children blindfolded and touched by other members of the court. The girls unclenched their fists anyway, which suggested they were faking, but even this was not enough to prove the women’s innocence. Cullender and Denny were both later hanged as witches.

4. Witch Cakes
A bizarre form of counter-magic, the witch cake was a supernatural dessert used to identify suspected evildoers. In cases of mysterious illness or possession, witch-hunters would take a sample of the victim’s urine, mix it with rye-meal and ashes and bake it into a cake. This stomach-turning concoction was then fed to a dog—the “familiars,” or animal helpers, of witches—in the hope that the beast would fall under its spell and reveal the name of the guilty sorcerer. During the hysteria that preceded the Salem Witch Trials, the slave Tituba famously helped prepare a witch cake to identify the person responsible for bewitching young Betty Parris and others. The brew failed to work, and Tituba’s supposed knowledge of spells and folk remedies was later used as evidence against her when she was accused of being a witch.

5. Witch’s Marks
Witch-hunters often had their suspects stripped and publically examined for signs of an unsightly blemish that witches were said to receive upon making their pact with Satan. This “Devil’s Mark” could supposedly change shape and color, and was believed to be numb and insensitive to pain. Prosecutors might also search for the “witches’ teat,” an extra nipple allegedly used to suckle the witch’s helper animals. In both cases, it was easy for even the most minor physical imperfections to be labeled as the work of the devil himself. Moles, scars, birthmarks, sores, supernumerary nipples and tattoos could all qualify, so examiners rarely came up empty-handed. In the midst of witch hunts, desperate villagers would sometimes even burn or cut off any offending marks on their bodies, only to have their wounds labeled as proof of a covenant with

6. Pricking and Scratching Tests
If witch-hunters struggled to find obvious evidence of “witch’s marks” on a suspect’s body, they might resort to the ghastly practice of “pricking” as a means of sussing it out. Witch-hunting books and instructional pamphlets noted that the marks were insensitive to pain and couldn’t bleed, so examiners used specially designed needles to repeatedly stab and prick at the accused person’s flesh until they discovered a spot that produced the desired results. In England and Scotland, the torture was eventually performed by well-paid professional “prickers,” many of whom were actually con men who used dulled needlepoints to identify fake witch’s marks.

Along with pricking, the unfortunate suspect might also be subjected to “scratching” by their supposed victims. This test was based on the notion that possessed people found relief by scratching the person responsible with their fingernails until they drew blood. If their symptoms improved after clawing at the accused’s skin, it was seen as partial evidence of guilt.

7. Incantations
Also known as “charging,” this test involved forcing the accused witch to verbally order the devil to let the possessed victim come out of their fit or trance. Other people would also utter the words to act as a “control,” and judges would then gauge whether the statements had any effect on the victim’s condition. Charges were famously used in the 16th century witch trial of Alice Samuel and her husband and daughter, who were accused of bewitching five girls from the wealthy Throckmorton family. During the proceedings, judges forced the Samuels to demand that the devil release the girls from their spell by stating, “As I am a witch…so I charge the devil to let Mistress Throckmorton come out of her fit at this present.” When the possessed girls immediately recovered, the Samuels were found guilty and hanged as witches.