>witch-hunts actually happened why? is it because the

I don't understand it either. It's not like worshipping satan or practising magic automatically damns one to hell.
Surely the better option would be to imprison the witches and preach the gospels to them?

People knew a lot less back then, and whenever something bad happened they didn't know what the fuck to do and why it happened, so they resorted to this kind of shit out of sheer panic

>>1793755
Before the 15th century, witchcraft was mostly seen as a form of natural magic, and though evil could be done through it the outcome was generally seen as the direct fault of the witch itself. One could punish an evil witch, but it was like wanting to antagonize a bully with a penchant for violence - you'd find yourself alone and most people didn't care enough to band together in a mob for what was otherwise a nuisance like any other.

It's during the 15th century that this changed, and witchcraft was gradually attributed to a more diabolic form of magic where a witch engaged in sexual debauchery and blasphemy to form a pact with a demon, or the Devil himself. While the everyday practice of popular magic didn't really change, some theologians at the time charged that since witches and demons were only allowed to do what they did by God's permission, He allowed them to cause diabolic mischief in a community because the witch offended him, and thus unleashed demons on the land to ruin crops, kill babies, cause impotence, and create storms.

Suddenly, in this view of witchcraft, a single person's occultism causes God to punish everyone, and so the logic goes witchcraft has to be cleansed from the land as an apology to God.

>>1793755
>i don't like my neighbor
>i should accuse his wife of witchcraft

>women doesn't want to have sex with me
>better accuse her of witchcraft

>tfw my father believes in witches and claims the witch hunts were justified
kill me

Men such as Aquinas wrote about this, it was not much of a peasantry thing. Why you didn't believed they happened?

>>1793755
How else do you suggest we deal with the threat of witchcraft mr. genius?

>>1793799
There were witch trials in Roman France, and some of the largest witch hunts in occurred in 12th century Germany.
The increase in numbers during the 15th and 16th century were the result of more documentation and fact that with Protestantism the crown prosecuted "witches", while previously the Catholic Church had a monopoly on their torture.

I agree with everything else you said, and the reason for killing "witches" was communal catharsis.

Have you read Europe's Inner Demons? It's a history of the Catholic Inquisition's witch-hunts written by one of the great experts on Medieval and early modern culture. Frankly it's one of the most sickening books I've read.

>>1793770
By that logic prisons all throughout history should have been nice rehabilitation centers where we teach people to be good.
In the middle ages and the reformation people got executed constantly for religious crimes. And if you were Calvinist then you DEFINITELY thought they were damned to hell no matter what.

>>1794137
This. It was people being petty and life having a lower relative value.

>>1793755
Because witches were threatening people and their well being. Honestly how the fuck can you evade the answer if it's this obvious

ergot is a hell of a drug

rather, the witches were bored

being a woman at the time was grueling.
tending to your home and children 24/7 until the day you die.

they probably needed an outlet from the drudgery, so when society and church wasn't looking, they did some mischief like dancing around in the woods and praying to some pagan deities. completely harmless stuff but few folks knew any better at that time, especially at the potential risk of hellfire for eternity.

>>1793755

burning people was a age-old way of dealing with percieved supernatural threats, and people were realy realy superstitious, so dealing with supernatural threats was a mayor thing

the church asimilated this custom as it did most others, but tried to sanction and regulate it, and adapt it to political uses, like burning heretics

then the reformation came around, shit hit the fan all over central europe, and people got realy realy paranoid

without the centralised authority of the catholic church to regulate the burnings, it all came down to local 'councels' of whichever citisenry and protestant clergy were around to get shit done, while in catholic places the local priest would find himself cut off and faced with all sorts of 'internal enemyes' that his congregation demanded get destroyed, and all this did little to curb mass histeria on both sides

so instead of the inquisition sending a unit to settle some local unrest, conduct a mass process and trial, in the end burning some people and deporting a dosen more, youd get a months long fuckfest of mutual accusations and implications and paranoid preemptive attacks of neighbour against neighbour, all in a situation of near or allout religious war, ending in multiple dosens of people being burned or othervise executed for shit as diverse as witchcraft, intentionaly spreading infectious diseases, having sex with animals, pissing in wells, taking stuff up the ass, dancing in graveyards, not swalowing the communion, dressing inapropriately, or simply supporting the enemy as spies and so on

in some cases whole towns would spontaneously decimate themselves, and often the numbers of people being executed for all sorts of weird shit was way higher than the number of burned women accused of witchcraft, basicaly the historic moment was such that the populations purged themselves, perhaps based on some political or social logic, perhaps in a context of religious conflict, or just histericaly at random

fun times

>>1796012

and another important thing, usualy overlooked,was the spread of the printing press

suddenly all sorts of bullshit spread as fast as frog pics on the internets, conspiracy theory stuff, 'guides' on dealing with witches, true facts about magic/jews/vatican, the tipical shit

to be frank magic texts and textbooks also spread as fast as hellfire, but thats alchemy and generaly hermetism and usualy went above peoples heads

>>1794137
So, like what happens today with made up rape accusions?

>>1793755
groups of people do not actually act in a sane way

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2MB, 600x332px

>>1793755
It got to be rampant about the time women inheriting their husband's lands and estates became sufficiently cemented and enforced by law.

So, most of the time, it was land grab. Some old lady no one likes letting a bunch of land go to foul - MUST BE A WITCH!

Granted, not always the case - sometimes it was just people fear mongering going a bit too far, but a disproportionate number of these ritual executions were of widows with land.

>>1796012
>people were paranoid for no reason
>witches didn't exist

Cool story bro

>>1795991
*tips cross*