THE ROMAN CATHOLIC WITCH HUNTS

WITCH HUNTS IN MODERN TERMINOLOGY.

Witch hunts still occurs today in societies.  It is the act of seeking and persecuting any perceived enemy, particularly when the search is conducted with little regard to actual guilt or innocence.  It is used whether or not it is sanctioned by the government, or merely occurs within the “court of public opinion”  Those who undergo witch hunts- the court of public opinion have “mentally ill” and sometimes attempt to commit suicide.  It is social crises.

HOW DID THIS PARANOIA BEGIN ?

In the Early Modern period, European people were in a state of panic.  Spring didn’t come and the cold lasted till June. The Black Death was swept the entire Europe.  A severe economic crisis, wars , and agrarian revolts happened .  Plus, the Protestant Reformation against the papacy took place (in the 16th century)- Although the Dark Age had gone, the office of the papacy was still deeply involved in the political life and spiritual force of western Europe. Abuses such as the sale of indulgences-.  It  was most likely necessary for the Church to undermine the Reformation to convert apostates and prevent others from falling away.

“The devil is all over the place…”

On Dec.5, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull (a document) that condemned witch craft.

” Arrest witches in demon possession and burn them alive!”

WITCH HUNTS STARTED….

Since then people thought witches were all of the causes of the trouble.  When something had happened or continued, such as plagues to destroy the seed and fruits of the earth, if hail struck a crop, if a cow failed to give milk, if a man was impotent or a woman barren, people blamed witches for all manner of evils.   Over 70% of the accused were women, especially who often had no one to defend them, such as widows and singles , who didn’t get married until in their forties or fifties. Victims included the poor, the elderly,  lowly.

HAMMER OF THE WITCHES

is a treatise on the prosecution of witches written in 1486 by Heinrich kramer, a German Catholic Clergy man.  Under his guideline , tens of thousands in Europe died. And millions of others arrest, guilt, torture and suffered.  They identified and eliminated witches with a confession by the accused . Torture was common.  Many people judged to be witches to the stake to be burned alive.

PROTESTANT IN MADNESS

Ironically the crises was accepted Protestants too. Although there had been significant earlier attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church and they insisted that the Pope had no authority over the purgatory or humanism and that the Catholic doctrine had no foundation in the gospel.  The Protestant position, however, would come to accept the Hammer of Witches to authorize their regions and in some regions Protestant rulers were more severe than their Catholic.  Witch hunts is brutal atrocities committed by both Catholic and Protestants.