why, back in Elizabethan times, were people afraid of witches and witchcraft?

Question

during the time of when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, the people who went to see the play wouldn't say the actual name of the play, they would call it "The Scottish Play", in the fear of which at least one person would be cursed of die.

but why were the people so afraid of witches and witchcraft?

Answer 1

People couldn't explain some phenomenas. It was easy to blame the supernatural forces. It was also an easy way to get rid of your enemy. Most of the witches were considered to be women. Women who were widowed or never got married became the victims of witchcraft trials.
It was a sad period of European history. It was also a way for religious authority to condemn other religious beliefs.
Everything was ruled by Churches. I think this was the time when Churches had the final word. If they said, someone is wrong, you dare not go against it, or you would be called a witch. You would be held responsible fo r all the disaster and bad things.

Answer 2

You'll find actors up to the present day won't say the name of the play, either. In their case, it's because someone in a production did have a bad accident. So the name is "cursed".

Back in Elizabethan times, the Church had a big problem. Several groups were continuing to revere feminine divinity. If people believed that God was both male and female, the Church (obviously a boys-only club) would lose control of the people and all the people's money.

So they stirred up the "witch" thing to get rid of those who threatened their livelihood. Also, conveniently, they were able to kill off older widows and those with mental illnesses or other problems - the "undesirables" of the time. And if some of them happened to have anything of value the Church could claim, all the better. And don't even get me started on the Spanish Inquisition.

If you'd like to learn more, look up Gnostics, the Marians (a goddess group of the time), and the Templars. Yes, oddly enough, there is evidence that the Templars recognized feminine divinity, and that this led to their eradication by Church officials. Of course, the Church got the Templars' money, too.

I suggest it was never the people that feared witches and witchcraft - it was the men in power who feared for themselves.

Answer 3

Unfortunatly people such as the local healers and midwives were called witches when something went wrong such as a still birth. It was seen as the person around at the time (healer etc) cursed the person and caused the death etc.
Then there would be a "witch hunt". If memory serves i believe they "dunked" the "witches" in a lake or river, they hog tied them and chucked them in. If they floated they were witches and were hung / burned and if they sank they were innocent, pity really as by the time people realised the person had sank and someone had gone in to get them they were already dead.
They didnt have the scientific knowedge that we have today to understand why some bad things happen and so rumours and asumptions were started. They also didnt understand the practices of some people which is also why they feared them.

Answer 4

It wasn't just witchcraft, they were God fearing etc. The general populous did not have much education, mass was still spoken in a language that was not the common language and the ordinary person did not have access to a Bible.

People were not burnt in England for witchcraft but for heresy. For witchcraft you would be possibly tortured, partially drowned and then hanged.

They were afraid of any occult power at the time. There was still poor hygiene and much disease, there was little understanding of basic science. The local healer or wisewoman could often become the scape goat for unfortunate events.
They of course were others that would use this power to frighten or control others.

Answer 5

It remains so today, actors do not mention Wm. Shakespeare's "Macbeth" by name and still refer to it as "The Scottish Play". It really has little to do with witchcraft. It just so happens that in it's early days, during the lifetime of Wm.S. a lot of bad luck befell actors taking part in the Scottish Play.

Fear of witches and witchcraft is widespread, not only back in Wm.S's time but today also.

The Inquisition was still working flat out in Spain until c1800 - torturing witches and heretics. Napoleon Bonepart put and end to it and closed the thing down. He also employed Goya, the great Spanish artist and painter, to make sketches and oil paintings of what he saw of the work of the Inquisition. Men and women were turned mad by the tortures.

Witches are on the whole not bad. There are two kinds, the first is the [good fairy] the white witch who helps a girl fall in love with a boy and so forth. Second is [bad fairy] the black witch who casts evil spells on people, usually using something of theirs such as a lock of hair and a waxen effgy of the person.

Warning - black pins in the eyes of a waxen effigy of yourself mean you will go blind.....aaaaagggghh - the witches!!!!!

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Answer 6

Because they lived in a world of almost overbearing ignorance, despite having the uniquely human need to explain things. When they couldn't explain something, which back then was rather often, they conveniently ascribed to sorcery, and so forth.

The accusation of witchcraft was often a death sentence back then, and many people eliminated their enemies by denouncing them as witches to the church, etc.

Altough taking place in Puritanical New England, Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" is a good example of this, while simultaneously being an allegorical warning about....you guessed it: political witch hunts.

*Edit 1* Chrissy B B: all cultures have had the concept of a sorcerer since time immemorial, even though they may not wear a black hat and travel with black cats. The Catholic church didn't invent witches as much as exploit people's fear of them (and fear of being denounced as one).

Answer 7

it is just like aids was a while back or bird flu will be when/if that strikes

people are afraid of the unknown, or what appears on the surface to have power over them.

in times of old, witches were of the devil, and no one wanted the devil hanging out.

now with modern wisdom, we fear the microbe rather than the spirits, but some spirits kill, like when you mix a spirit and put the key in the ignition and drive 130 and hit something

different time period, same old stupidity at work

Answer 8

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Answer 9

Just ignorance promoted by the church in order to discredit the pagan religions of which Wicca is one. A true witch is a member of Wicca or Wiccan.
As to burning witches no body was every burned for witchcraft in England. The penalty for being a witch was hanging. the punishment of being burnt alive was for heresy and and Queen Mary or bloody Mary got that name for number of burnings carried out during her rein but they were all for being protestants or heretics.

Answer 10

'People' were not afraid of witches. The establishment (government and the church) were.

Most towns and villages relied upon the elderly (usually women) to provide their health care and 'counselling' services. This was freely given in return for the social support the village gave the elders in keeping them fed and housed when they were no longer physically capable of self support.

In a move aimed directly at destroying their status in society and to put women in general in their place in the developing Patriarchal God rather than Matriarchal Goddess based society the church instigated a programme of removing them to ensure people had to turn to the church, and pay, for their salvation.

Very few 'witches' were actually burned etc but the word was put around that they would be and the witches and last of the 'Pagans' were forced 'underground'