A Brief History
On October 29, 1390, Paris, France got its first taste of professional witch hunting when the first of two witchcraft trials began in the French capital. Religious persecution of witches was nothing new, with records of arraignments by ecclesiastical authorities going back to 1275, but now the secular authorities, i.e. the state authorities, were involved. History and Headlines Note: Exactly 302 years later, on October 29, 1692, the Court of Oyer and Terminer in Salem, Massachusetts was dissolved after having presided over the infamous Salem Witch Trials.
Digging Deeper
This particular case involved two women who had conspired with the devil to create a magic potion to lure back a man who had left one of them for another woman. Unusual for witchcraft persecutions, both women received a relatively “fair” trial but were nonetheless tortured and burned at the stake. The second trial a year later involved two more women who were accused of plotting with the devil to kill the husband of one them.
In the 14th and 15th centuries in France, the inquisition into the practice of witchcraft resulted in hundreds or even thousands of people being paraded as heretics and burned at the stake. Many of those executed had been told they would be released with a warning if they confessed and expressed remorse, but the unlucky victims were executed anyway.
Common accusations included mysteriously healing an injured or sick person, causing a rival’s bad fortune, causing another to become ill or die, or, one of the most common, causing bad weather. If that sounds weird, just think about how perturbed people get at the television weather man when the weather sucks!
As ridiculous as it may seem today, back then a person was in grave danger if he or she had been accused of witchcraft, sorcery or devil worship. Although many folks nowadays confuse devil worship with witchcraft, and although a devil worshipper might engage in witchcraft or a witch might also be a devil worshipper, the two things are separate and most witches are not devil worshippers. On the other hand, who really knows? After all, you cannot expect a witch to tell the truth!
As we have touched on before in History and Headlines, witch hunts and witch trials have been around since the beginning of society and continue today in one form or another. In Africa, witch hunters still take their job quite seriously. Just like it used to be the case in Europe, people accused of witchcraft are persecuted and exiled from their local communities and sometimes their property is confiscated. (Kind of makes you question the motives of the persecutors.)
People have apparently not learned much over the years, because today we still play the “Blame Game.” Every time something goes wrong, mass numbers of people are just not satisfied until someone “hangs” for it. It was Saudis who took down the World Trade Center, but since they are America’s (rich) friends, the U.S. invaded Iraq instead and killed a couple hundred thousand Iraqis. Illegal Latino immigrants are blamed for unemployment and various other economic woes when study after study shows that they have a positive impact on the American economy. Famous preacher Pat Robertson blamed the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina as God’s retribution for the “immoral” lifestyle there. The same stuff was propagated when an earthquake devastated Haiti. Instead of taking a deep look at their own corruption, the U.S. Congress continuously comes up with investigations of frivolous things that amount to “witch hunts.”
Question for students (and subscribers): Will people ever learn, or are we going to be doing this for eternity? Tell us what you think in the comments section below this article.
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Please also read the related History and Headlines articles: “Would You Like Your Witches Fried or Boiled?” and “Another Bad Day to Be a Witch.”
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Alexander, Brooks and Jeffrey B. Russell. A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, & Pagans. Thames & Hudson, 2007.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="6103 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=6103">44 Comments
I’m neither shocked or amazed at how many people were killed throughout history with silly claims such as witchcraft. It is interesting to learn that we still need to place blame on someone to this day to feel better about ourselves. It seems that history does truly repeat.
The statement that people wont be happy until someone is hanged is so true. I think people just search for reasons to kill people, and it be justified one way or another. So what if the witches are being witches– that seems so silly to kill someone over. I am not a very superstitious person, but I imagine if you leave them alone they leave you alone.
I agree i’m not surprised at all. I mean the things they did to each other was horrible and beyond normal but this shows what humans can do to each other when they might have a grudge against them
agreeing with the previous comments, I’m not shocked by their actions. killing people for power and get what they want is history. thats all that history was back then to get an accomplishment out of anything
Why is it in history that we always kill people for power? This does not help anything. So what if people are different… its what makes us great.
I agree with the comment below, I never understood why we always killed for power.
Just shows how cruel people can be to each other. Wow
Accusing someone of using witchcraft to cause bad weather is ridiculous.i can see people using that excuse just to get rid of someone they don’t want around.
I could not agree with this article more. Everyone is guilty of playing the blame game. Some more than others. Nonetheless, it is something that seems we have inherited.
It seems silly to kill someone for being different and exhibiting abnormal behaviors. If that was the case now we would all be dead.
People were so mean to each other. i wonder how many people were really witches compared to the number of people that were killed?
People are so cruel… especially when they do not agree with or understand others! — DAVID WARDLE
I just do not understand why the ancient people thought killing others was the right way to deal of things when they wrong. Especially over bad weather!
It would be interesting to see how many women were burned at the stake for being accused of being a witch. I also find it interesting that I had only ever learned about this happening in America before reading this article.
Its almost unfathomable to be in a situation where you were accused of being a witch, and promised to be let go with a warning as long as you confess. If people who were witches were being burned at the stake, why would they be let go for admitting they were witches?
Good Article, I think its very interesting that witch hunts still go on today.
Well illegal immigrants do play a role in unemployment issues (factual) but yes, there is a blame game or reasoning associated with all events. Simply human nature it would seem like.
Don’t know how people still think witches are real
I think people are innately flawed and the idea of any change in that is unrealistic. While we may be able to stand back and think reasonably, power and money can corrupt and make people not see clearly. Unfortunately, I do not think this will ever change.
This is funny to me because the women who created a “secret potion” to bring a man back who had left them were probably just playing a stupid game as a joke and this joke was taken way too seriously.
I don’t think that things will ever change. People are always going to blame other people for silly things and will even punish innocent people for things that didn’t happen.
The weatherman would be in great danger.
It seems to be human nature to constantly feel the need to blame someone or something when something occurs badly. Or even if they want something, they’ll conjure up some tale of what the other person did and if it’s even slightly viable then people will believe the tale and the consequences could be quite harsh.
I believe people will always blame others for their issues and it will inevitable. We still haven’t learned from our history and hopefully one day we will!
What would a “fair” trial look like for someone charged with witchcraft? If the charge is muddled in unreason, then how could a trial ever be logical? It seems as though the first fair thing to do would be to dismiss the charges regardless of “evidence.”
People look for the simplest explanation for that which they do not understand. Science, at that time, was not advanced enough to explain “witchcraft” like healing the sick miraculously; today, we call that modern medicine.
Wow the idea of witch trials is extremely old! I did not think they were that old also it is funny that the potion was first to lure back a cheating man
I like the fact the article pointed out the fact that we still play the blame game today. It is shocking that we can’t learn from these horrific actions.
It is always sad to read about how people react to anything they cannot explain by either worshiping it or killing it.
It’s always awful to hear about these things in the past let’s Blame someone since we can’t figure it out.
I honestly would have probably grouped witchcraft and devil worship together too, if I hadn’t learned the difference in our history course this semester. But I literally cannot believe that someone could try and say that hurricane Katrina happened because of the “provocative” behavior that happens in New Orleans.
People will always blame others even though they know they are innocent.
Before this class, I didn’t know how far witch hunting spread. Good knowledge.
Despite the infamy of Salem, it’s amazing how many more people were killed in the European persecutions.
I feel like the whole witch trial thing is just not justified. Saying if you do not survive this torture you were not a witch, is that even fair?
This is completely absurd! Who really thought like this? How does this even make sense to say that we are going to burn you and if you do not survive you really were not a witch? Unbelievable.
I know people who practice witchcraft still today, freaky stuff!
Not that I think witches should be burned at the stake in any event, there were and are some people that practice witchcraft and in this time period it would be extremely hard to prove whether someone was truly practicing witchcraft and if they were using it to cause harm.
Really stupid how all it took was basically someone saying “I think they’re a witch” and now you’re probably going to die.
I dont believe in witch magic, i think these people are delusional and its their free will , i see no issue with it and i dont see how you can properly prove it.
I find it interesting that there are still witch hunters in Africa!
It’s amazing how many people were accused during this time! And based off of little to no evidence at all!
the world baffles me!!
i feel like sometimes these women were not given real trials. they claimed to people they were but they already knew they were going to execute them.