Who belived in witchcraft in 1500's-1600's and why?

Question

Ok, i know who was accused etc but it puzzles me to who actually belived in these accusations and why! ! ! !

Answer 1

In a period of about 400 years, 65,000 people were executed for Witchcraft. The majority of these executions happened in France, Germany, and Switzerland. Some of them probably were guilty of some form of sorcery or another. The majority of them were probably innocent of being sorcerers, but just happened to get on the wrong side of the authorities for whatever reason. New examination of records from the period show that the women executed were usually poor, unattractive and anti-social. According to some authorities such as Rossel Robbins, the Roman Catholic Church began to take an interest in executing witches beginning in the 14th century A.D. because it had gotten rid of those it deemed "heretics". In essence, they needed a new source of heretics. Witches fit the bill. The executions of these people were carried out by the state, not the Church as is usually supposed. There were even some cases where Churches protected women accused of witchcraft by angry mobs! In any case, these accused people were NOT Wiccans. The execution of people accused of sorcery is a dark period in Western civilization indeed, but we should get the facts straight about it. Anyone who tries to make these poeple into survivors of an underground religion when they were not, or inflate the figures of those executed is doing nothing but exploiting the deaths of these people for their own gain. They are not better than the people who used the executions of these people to take their property.

Today all "xtian" churches get the blame for the witch burnings, even though the vast majority tried and executed by civil courts, not by any church. Switzerland, Germany and France were the countries where the bulk of these trials were held. Ireland , supposedly some kind of a hotbed of Wicca and Druidism, had only 4 witch executions. Even in these 4 trials the word "Wicca" is never mentioned in the records. Even Russia, known for it's many pogroms and serfdom, had just 10 witch executions in it’s history. The witch trials largely escaped the Orthodox Church countries. Confession, repentance, and exorcism were the usual remedies for witchcraft in these countries. The countries where witch trials took place where countries where Roman Catholic and Protestant conflicts were taking place, with much social upheaval to fuel the fire of witch hysteria. Wiccans have promoted many fraudulent claims, such as the execution of 400 women in one day in France (or Germany, Switzerland, or Italy depending on the version you read) that simply never happened! The falsehood was first written in a French book titled Langon's Histoire de l'Inquisition en France, written in 1829 by Etienne Leon de Lamothe. Scholars doing research on the subject noticed no other French historian had noted these supposed witch trials that executed so many hundreds of people at a time, such as the 400 in one day mentioned. It turns out it never happened. Hansen included large sections of Lamothe-Langon's work in his book on medieval witchcraft. Later historians cited Hansen's book, and Lamothe-Langon's fictional French trials became a part of the Wiccan "Burning Times" baloney. Hansen had previously been an author of horror stories, and apparently turned his talents for scary fiction into fraudulent history.

The period between 1400-1800 A.D. in which people were executed for witchcraft (not Wicca, but sorcery) has been called "The Burning Times". The term was coined by Gerald Gardner, Wicca's founder. The actual number of people killed was probably some 40,000 to 65,000 according to the most recent estimates. Some figures put out by the Roman Catholic church even put it as low as 3,000. This is a lot of people, but one must remember this took place over a 500 year period. The 9,000,000 figure cited by most Wiccans is derived from faulty data from the 19th century. In The Power of the Witch, Laurie Cabot claims the figure might have even been 13,000,000, but of course does not cite the source. Gerald Gardner himself coined the phrase "The Burning Times" to describe this period, and it has stuck every since. Wiccans despise Christians for these "burning times"...yes, including the Christians alive today who have never killed anybody. The reason is Wiccans feel that it was their fellow Wiccans who were killed during this era. Of course, when the history of this period is examined, this idea is ridiculous!

Answer 2

let's say that science was not strong those days. common people often couldn't write nor read. but it's a long story. in southern europe, when the roman empire was not a strong central power any more, the barbarians came violently south for land and food (5-600 AD on). people had to defend themselves. they had to leave the fertile plains and went up hills and mountains. in 800 AD catholic church took power together with the emperor but plains still weren't safe for many reasons. people gradually organized themselves in little villages on mountains and church fortified castles on high cliffs and rocks. so there was not much space for everyone. many women were banned from castles and little towns often because they didn't have a husband or someone who could provide for them. Common women could not have big jobs nor freedom those days. so she was left out of the walls. she learned to eat roots in order not to die of starvation. (follows)