What kind of people were accused of being witches and why?

Question

I need to know stuff like they were accused if they had big noses etc. I am also talking about the 14,15 and 1600s. Thank you :D

Answer 1

Many people were accused of being witches in the 1400's to the 1600's. Prior to that time, the Church denied the existence of witches, as a matter of fact, to simply believe in witches was an act of heresy!

But within a few years of each other, a papal bull reversing the Church's stance on the existence of witches, and the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, the witch hunt was on. The Malleus, or "Hammer of the Witches" described certain marks as being proof that a person was a witch.

Unfortunately, most, if not all, the people accused of witchcraft were anything but. Some were simply women who owned and controlled property in a time when society believed that only men should control property. Some were midwives during a time when the male profession of medical doctor was endorsed by the church. Some were simply the old and destitute that were a drain on the Church and society as a whole.

It should be noted that there were very few accused witches that were tried in a Church trial. Most were tried by a secular court.

A very good book that discusses the Witch Hunts of Europe is called Witches and Neighbors by Robert Briggs.

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure about actual witch accusations. But I've read The Crucible, a book the author tried to relate with the Red Scare of Communism, and it's based off of a true story. In the book, at first it was the outsiders of the town...the weird, widows, the stupid, etc. Then eventually everyone in town was being accused by their rivals. Grudges, family hatred, land wars, etc. all turned in to withcraft accusations just in an attempt to get even.

Answer 3

Any one was accused of being a witch if they thought differently to the rest of the community.Witches was normal peoplewhohad special knowledge of herblore If you had a cleft lip you had been kissed by satan, if you swore you was a servant of the devil,If your racial background didnt fit,if you had epiliepsy,fits,seizures of anykind,if you were a little laid back with sexual favours, a squint a nervous tick,basically you were a witch if you had to beg for alms if you walked down the road and someones kid of livestock took a fit or died you were the cause
In all truth if you look close enough and deep enough into the trial transcripts then you could find anything was enough to call you a witch if someone didnt like you and labelled you a witch then you were
The link is a very interesting site

Answer 4

When Universities first came into being only men were allowed and began learning about medicine which up to that point was considered women's work, once it became the domain of the educated and a science, women who knew the healing herbs were considered witches as they took money/payment away from the "real" doctors. As well, women who owned property inherited from either their parents or husbands, were many times "purposed" to and if they said no they were accused and had their property seized and the accuser may get it. It seems to me that many accusations were all about money.

Answer 5

Everyone... The only common bases on being accused of witch craft is that spiteful people would accuse anyone that made them angry.

Owning a cat, living alone, having moles or freckles (Devil's Marks), being deformed or disfigured, having epilepsy, any sign that one is different than someone else is a basis for being labeled a witch.

Most of the Witches that we killed during the Witch Trials were normal, innocent people, that others used a scapegoats during a very sick and twisted time.

Answer 6

I read a book on the Salem Witch Trials, and in the book it indicated that jealously was reason behind some of the accusations. If you had a grudge against a neighbor, you could just accuse that neighbor of witchcraft and most likely they would be hauled off to jail.

Answer 7

A common witch-test goes as follows:
A woman was thrown into a body of water.
If the woman floated and/or swam then the woman was a witch and she was usually executed.
If the woman sank and drowned, then she wasn't a witch, but she died anyway.

Most people who were accused of being witches did nothing wrong. People accused them out of spite or because of family feuds. Many times wealthy or well-to-do people were accused so that their property could be "legally" confiscated by the people.

Answer 8

Widows spinsters and women human beings from matriarchal households or households with reliable female function fashions for the most section. data signifies that Witch Hunts interior the former days were precisely like the witch hunts which characterised the 1890s or this century and women human beings were very very in many circumstances targets.

Answer 9

NO. Not big-nose people. Often rich noblemen were tried as witches so the local priest and ranking nobleman could split his wealth. When Rome decided that the wealth could not be confiscated, accusations of witching dropped off dramatically.

Now , if you refer to Jews. They were allowed to convert to Christianity, but if they still practiced Judaism, and were caught, they burned, too.

Answer 10

Free-thinking women, those who could read and write, and many mid wives... because men fear women who are smarter than them, and doctors of the time knew they were losing good business. I'd wiki if I were you, too, see what's there. But looking for facts in a library will show many midwives were hung or burned (both?) for witchcraft.

Sometimes, it was nothing more than the wishes of other women in town, wanting the beautiful, attractive women to hang, and would hence accuse them of being a witch.

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