Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the practice of witch hunting, which originated during the Middle Ages in Europe, but festered and spread into the colonial United States for many years. The paper follows the development of the witch hunting craze from the Middle Ages through the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Documented cases of execution and torture in the name of trying to stop witchcraft was seen in nearly every country throughout Europe, and as well as the colonies. The paper explains that this sprung from the Christian church, whose desire was to reduce the pagan practices that were taking place because the church wanted to be in serious control of the people. The paper goes on to state that it became dangerous for anyone to do virtually anything that was not exactly in line with what the church and society wanted and expected to see, and that meant that a lot more people started having difficulties with the way that they lived their lives. In conclusion, the paper states that thousands of both men and women were killed because they were assumed to be witches, often just on the hearsay and opinion of others, and this happened al throughout different times in history.

Outline:
Introduction
The Middle Ages
The 14th Century
The 15th and 16th Centuries
Conclusion - Witchcraft was Everywhere

From the Paper:

"The early Christians did try to stop the practice of hunting down and killing witches. Charlemagne even talked about it all the way back in 789 and said that anyone who was involved in the practice would be put to death. The Church back in that time did not really even oppose the practice of witchcraft, per se (Semple, 2003). Mostly, what they opposed was the backward and foolish belief in witchcraft. It was thought that anyone who believed that witchcraft had power was denying the supreme and almighty power of God (Ankarloo & Henningsen, 1990). Originally, the law that was designed for people who were guilty of witchcraft was much more lenient. Generally they only had to deal with two or three years penance. Compared to some of the tortures and executions that the Roman Empire favored and that were seen in the later Middle Ages, this type of punishment was not that much to contend with (Ankarloo & Henningsen, 1990)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ankarloo, Bengt & Henningsen, Gustav. (1990). Early modern European witchcraft: Centres and peripheries. Oxford University Press.
• Apps, Lara & Gow, Andrews. (2003). Male witches in early modern Europe. Manchester University Press.
• Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. (1994). Witchcraze: A new history of the European witch hunts. San Francisco: Pandora.
• Davies, Owen. (1999). Witchcraft, magic, and culture, 1736-1951. Manchester University Press.
• Eliade, Mircea. (1964). Shamanism, archaic techniques of ecstacy. Bollingen Series LXXVI. Pantheon Books.

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