Witch Hunting or Torture by Ignorance?
By: Hayk Papoyan After researching and analyzing the events and the superstitions during the Middle Ages I came to the conclusion that these superstitions lead to torture and misguided policies, not spiritual awareness and social improvement. Many women, men and children lost their lives to false accusations formed by these superstitions and, kings, such as Henry VIII, created policies which were misguided by these superstitions, which lead to more innocent people being tortured and killed. During the Middle Ages people believed in the existence of witches. Mobs of people would invade a suspected witch's home and try to find evidence of witchcraft. Usually mobs would be the ones to try to find and punish witches instead of the authorities. Sometimes these mobs did not follow the laws while hunting for witches but they were not punished since they were doing it for the greater good of their community. They developed many techniques and strategies they believed would prove if someone was or was not a witch. These techniques, being developed during the Middle Ages, were not very logical. One of these techniques was to tie up the suspected witch and throw them into a river or lake. If the suspected witch floated then she, most of the time the suspects were female, was accused of being a witch and either burned or hung. Witch hunters would also shave the suspects in order to find witch marks such as a wort and or moles, if any of these birthmarks or any other strange markings or unusual features were found then the person was accused of being a witch. Most of those accused were poor villagers, some wealthy people were accused, but during their stay at prison they could buy whatever they wanted to make their stay more comfortable. Wealthy suspects could also sue their accuser for slander and sometimes this would result in a large financial profit. Kings and other rulers passed laws against witches, which stated that all suspected witches would be interrogated and that if there was any techniques or strategies that could prove the existence of witches then it could be carried out even if it would result in death. Many people took these laws very seriously and they would try to do anything to prove that someone was a witch, so that they could kill them and feel as if they were improving their community. There was also a witch hunting bible which many people read and believed the absurd statements and used some of the recommended punishments and interrogation techniques for witches, this bible was called the " Malleus Maleficarum " as shown in Picture 5. One of these inhuman interrogation techniques was to crush the suspect. First a board would be placed on the suspect's body, large heavy rocks were added onto the board crushing the suspect, once the suspect confessed then the rocks would be added on and on until the suspect died because their lungs would collapse, causing a long painful death as shown in Picture 1 ("Torture and Death for Accused Witches"). There are many more brutal interrogation techniques some legal and some not legal, sometimes illegal techniques would be used but not very often, most of the time only legal techniques would be used. One of these techniques was very common for interrogating witches, this technique was called dunking, the suspect would be lowered in the river tied up on a chair until they were on the verge of drowning or losing consciousness, then the suspect would be lifted out of the water and then they would repeat this over and over as shown in Picture 2. Another common technique was being stretched out on a machine called the rack, your limbs would be tied up and stretched until u confessed or got torn apart limb by limb as shown in Picture 3 ("Middle Ages Torture: Devices & Techniques"). During these interrogations the suspects would be forced to confess, the witch hunters promised relief from pain if but the witch hunters never kept their promises, the suspect would confess and tell the witch hunters the names of other witches even though they were not witches. One of the most absurd techniques for trying to find out if someone is a witch was to try to get the witch to summon her imp, people believed all witches had imps which could be any animal, the suspected witch would be put in an empty room tied up sitting on a stool on watch at all times, if an animal approached the suspect then it was the witches imp which had come to aid its witch. I have always wondered why all of the sudden people believed in the superstition of the existence of witches. Or the better question might be who started all of the superstitions and why? I have a theory that the rulers, kings or emperors used this superstition as a distraction for the people, or some way to keep everyone busy so that they would not think about revolting against the king. Maybe this superstition was used to degrade women even more to make sure that women would never have the chance of being a ruler since there is a chance that they might be a witch. If that theory is not very plausible then I have another theory, since witches were supposedly devil worshipers, maybe the religious people during the Middle Ages, most people were very religious during these times, wanted to get rid of these devil worshipers for their own safety and their community's safety. Maybe the pope or other religious figures tired to get people to kill these supposed witches because they were not religious or they worshiped other gods or had different religions. Maybe the Black Death caused these superstitions to form. There were some women and men during these times that tried to find a cure for the Black Death as shown in Picture 4. When their medicine did not work and the person died after drinking the medicine or cure they would be suspected of purposely killed the patient with a magical concoction. You can see now how scientific ignorance really caused a lot of people their lives or the lives of their loved ones. If these people would not just follow orders from kings or emperors then they could be more free willed or open minded and stop believing everything they are told they could advance scientifically and see how all of these superstitions are just silly. Someone could have been trying to prove that witches were not real but they might have been to afraid to speak up and prove his or her theory because they though if they did then the mobs would go after them and torture him because he was trying to protect the witches. Another question I have is why were 80% of witches convicted women. Well some people believed that women were weaker than man and that was why the devil would control them rather than men ("WITCHCRAFT IN THE MIDDLE AGES"). Which also explains why some children or young men and women were accused. Unfortunately most people accused of witchcraft would have a very low chance of proving their innocence if they were poor and maybe sometimes the rich as well, surviving all of the interrogations and torture would have simply been impossible. Sometimes people would die not from physical harm from the torture but from the mental and psychological part of the torture, people would just lose hope and give up. Works Cited "Middle Ages Torture: Devices & Techniques." The Finer Times: War, Crime and History Resource. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. "Torture and Death for Accused Witches." A History of Violence: Torture and Death for Accused Witches. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. "WITCHCRAFT IN THE MIDDLE AGES." Witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. |
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