Witch hunts blazed across Europe over the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries not just killing innumerable innocent people, but stripping women of much of the power they had once held, and changing society’s perceptions of women all together. The economic hardships, religious rivalries, and troubled politics of the time made accusing your neighbors of witchcraft convenient. Where there was war and poverty, or merely bad luck, peasants would assume witchcraft and rush to blame an old, defenseless woman in trials which involved unbelievable cruelty and horrible sadism. As religion and the Catholic Church began to complement and perpetuate the increasing hysteria, European society as a whole could do nothing but watch as the face of Europe and the role of women were altered permanently.Although the belief in witches predates Christianity, and myths were prevalent throughout Europe, not until the fifteenth century, did witch hunts become endemic, and nearly epidemic. Once religion became involved, the fear of witches increased dramatically and the extreme notions of the devil’s powers merely furthered the witch hunts. With the Church authorizing the Inquisition to investigate witchcraft, the popular concept of witches as evil sorcerers expanded to include allegiances with the Devil, and a distinctly evil, as opposed to mystical, character. It has been speculated that this religiously inspired genocide beginning in the fifteenth century was motivated from the Church’s desire to attain a complete religious monopoly, and create scapegoats for spoiled crops, dead livestock, and death in general which could not be explained as part of God’s plan. If a witch were to blame, peasants had a means of fighting back and combating evil, whereas if God were to blame for their misfortunes, peasants would either have to blame themselves or the Church would have to find some answer. Throughout the witch hunts, women were the ...
