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Flashcards in End of Witch Hunting Deck (4)
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1
Q

Reasons for the Decline in Witch-Hunting: Legal Changes

A

New Legal Procedures:

  • Brian Levack: Main cause for decline was new rules for conducting Witchcraft trials
  • Declined in most places when judicial authorities took measures to control the local courts e.g. Paris Parlement intervening and reversal of many death sentences
  • In 17th and 18th centuries the use of torture came under attack, argued that evidence obtained under torture was unreliable, thought Witchcraft trials should conform to more exacting legal requirements
  • Torture abolished in many areas: France (1788), Sweden (1782)

New Standards of Evidence:

  • Growing reluctance to accept confessions as sufficient proof of guilt
  • Greater caution in handling cases after realising that most of those who had been ‘possessed’ had faked it.
  • Judges increasingly unwilling to accept the testimony of children
2
Q

Change in Religious Climate
and
Social and Economic Changes

A

Religious Change:

  • Growing tendency to stress the sovereignty of God, if God was supreme then Witchcraft could only occur with their permission
  • New religious tolerance between Protestant and Catholic communities
  • Reformation led to closer study of the bible and found that there were few references to Witchcraft

Social and Economic Change:

  • Some improvements in wages and Inflation levelled off
  • Effects of Warfare on civilian populations were greatly reduced
3
Q

Change in Intellectual Climate

A

Change in Intellectual Climate:

  • Number of changes in Intellectual world created disbelief in Witchcraft
  • Scientific revolution undermining belief that Devil could intervene with natural world’s operation
  • Nicolas Copernicus: Polish mathematician, theory that Sun was at centre of universe and Earth revolved around it
  • René Descartes: Argued that the world was a pure mechanism, governed by its own physical laws and without the further intervention of God or any spirits

Spread of Scientific Thinking:

  • Scientific Academies began appearing in Italy and France in 16th century
  • England played an important role in the spreading of scientific knowledge in the 17th century
  • Gresham College: London college and members included many great thinkers
  • The Royal Society: Royal Society of London for Improvement of Natural Science granted a Royal Charter by Charles II in 1662, many members- some linked to Gresham College, conducted meetings where scientific experiments conducted, details of experiments published and reached a wide audience

English Influence:

  • Number of English Intellectuals influenced both British and European thought
  • Isaac Newton: Theories on mathematical laws of the universe

Impact of New Ideas on Witchcraft:

  • No place for demons, spells and covens in a universe governed by laws and mathematical proofs
  • Period of enlightenment and rationalism eventually spread ideas to wider public
4
Q

End of Witch-Hunting in England

A

English Writing on Witchcraft:

  • Thomas Ady: Attacked the delusion of Witchcraft using Bible as the base of his argument
  • John Webster: Book drew on medical and scientific knowledge and said it was better to wait for a natural explanation than to blame things on demons

1736 Witchcraft Act:

  • Repealed 1563 and 1604 statutes against Witchcraft and Scottish statute of 1563
  • Made it impossible to prosecute Witches in an English or Scottish court and made it an offence to pretend to use sorcery
  • Cunning Folk could still be prosecuted , but as frauds rather than as agents of the Devil

Withdrawal of Elite:

  • Most educated people now understood world more, declining sense of the miraculous and less fear of Satan
  • Witchcraft no longer fashionable among the elite, greater force in persuading people to reject Witchcraft beliefs
  • However, elite did not completely reject belief in Witches