FREE THE WITCH HUNTS PDF Robert Thurston | 368 pages | 02 Feb 2007 | Taylor & Francis Ltd | 9781405840835 | English | London, United Kingdom Salem witch trials | History & Causes | Britannica Throughout the medieval era, mainstream Christian doctrine had denied the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as pagan superstition. Ina papal bull by Gregory IX established a new branch of the inquisition in Toulouse, France, to be led by the Dominicans. It was intended The Witch Hunts prosecute Christian groups considered heretical, such as the Cathars and the Waldensians. Records were usually kept by the French inquisitors but the majority of these did not survive, The Witch Hunts one historian working inCharles Molinier, refers to the surviving records as only scanty debris. The records seem The Witch Hunts have often been targeted by the accused or their friends and family, wishing to thereby sabotage the proceedings or failing that, to spare their reputations and the reputations of their descendants. Difficulty in understanding the larger witchcraft trials to come in later centuries is deciding how much can be extrapolated from what remains. Inwith the papacy in nearby Avignon, the inquisitor of Carcassonne sentenced a monk to the dungeon for life and the sentence refers to The skeptical Canon Episcopi retained many supporters, and still seems to have been supported by the theological faculty at the University of Paris in their decree fromand was never officially repudiated by a majority of bishops within the papal lands, nor even by the Council of Trentwhich immediately preceded the peak of the trials. But inthe The Witch Hunts witch trialslasting six to eight years, started in the French-speaking lower Valais and eventually spread to German- speaking regions. This time period also coincided with the Council of Basel — and some scholars have suggested a new witch-phobic doctrinal view may have spread among certain theologians and inquisitors in attendance at this council, as the Valais trials were discussed. It is unclear whether the three men were aware of each other's work. The coevolution of their shared view centres around "a common challenge: disbelief in the reality of demonic activity in the world. Nicholas Jacquier's lengthy and complex argument against the Canon Episcopi was written in Latin. It began as a tract in and was expanded into a fuller monograph in Many copies seem to have been made by hand nine manuscript copies still existbut it was not printed until Adeline eventually recanted this view, most likely under torture. The most important and influential book promoting the new heterodox view was the Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer. Kramer begins his work in opposition to the Canon Episcopi, but oddly, he does not cite Jacquier, and may not have been aware of his work. The Gutenberg printing press had only recently been invented along the Rhine River, and Kramer fully utilized it to shepherd his work into print and spread the ideas that had developed by inquisitors and theologians in France into the Rhineland. It inspired many similar works, such as an influential work by Jean Bodinand was cited as late as by Increase Matherthen president of Harvard College. The Witch Hunts is unknown if a degree of alarm at the extreme superstition and witch-phobia expressed by Kramer in the Malleus Maleficarum may The Witch Hunts been one of the numerous factors that helped prepare the ground for the Protestant Reformation. The period of the European witch trials, with the largest number of fatalities, seems to have occurred between and There has been discussions whether the witch hunt was most intense in Catholic or Protestant regions. However, the intensity of persecutions had not so much to do with Catholicism or Protestantism as such, The Witch Hunts there are examples from both Catholic and Protestant regions in Europe, where the witchcraft persecutions were intense as well as the opposite. In Catholic Spain and Portugal for example, witch trials were The Witch Hunts because the Inquisition preferred to focus on the crime of heresy rather than witchcraft, while Protestant Scotland had an intense witch hunt. The mass witch trials which took place in Southern Catholic Germany in waves between the s and the s could continue for years and result in hundreds of executions of all genders, ages and classes. Inthe North Berwick witch trials occurred in Scotland, and were of particular note as the king, James VIbecame involved himself. James had developed a fear that witches planned to kill him after he suffered from storms while The Witch Hunts to Denmark in order to claim his bride, Anneearlier that year. Returning to Scotland, the king heard of trials that were occurring in North Berwickand ordered the suspects to be brought to him—he subsequently believed that The Witch Hunts nobleman, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwellwas a witch, and after the latter fled in fear of his life, he was outlawed as a traitor. The king subsequently set up royal commissions to hunt down witches in his realm, recommending torture in dealing with suspects, and inhe wrote a book about the menace The Witch Hunts witches posed to society, entitled Daemonologie. There had never been a lack of skepticism regarding the trials. Inthe authorities of the Roman Inquisition acknowledged its own trials had "found scarcely one trial conducted legally". Although the witch trials had begun to fade out across much of Europe The Witch Hunts the midth century, they continued on the fringes of Europe and in the American Colonies. The Witch Hunts Salem witch trials were a brief outburst of witch-phobia which occurred in the New World when the practice was waning in Europe. In the s, Winifred King Benham and her daughter Winifred were thrice tried for witchcraft in Wallingford, ConnecticutThe Witch Hunts last of such trials in The Witch Hunts England. Even though they were found innocent, they were compelled to leave Wallingford and settle in Staten Island, New York. Rationalist historians in the 18th century came to the opinion that the use of torture had resulted in The Witch Hunts testimony. Witch trials became scant in the second half of the 17th century, and their growing disfavor eventually resulted in the British Witchcraft Act of In France, scholars have found that with increased fiscal capacity and a stronger central government, the witchcraft accusations began to decline. During the early 18th century, the practice subsided. Jane Wenham was among the last subjects of a typical witch trial in England inbut was pardoned after her conviction and set free. The last execution for witchcraft in England took place inwhen Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth were hanged. Janet Horne was executed for witchcraft in Scotland in The Witchcraft Act of put an end of the traditional form of witchcraft as a legal offense in Britain. Those accused under the new act were restricted to those that pretended to be able to conjure spirits generally being the most dubious professional fortune tellers and mediumsand punishment was light. In Austria, Maria Theresa outlawed witch-burning and torture in The last capital trial, that The Witch Hunts Maria Pauer occurred in in Salzburg, which was then outside the Austrian domain. In the later 18th century, witchcraft had ceased to be considered a criminal offense throughout Europe, but there are a number of cases which were not technically witch trials, but are suspected to have involved belief in witches at least behind the scenes. Despite the official ending of the trials for witchcraft, there would still be occasional unofficial killings of those accused in parts of Europe, such as was seen in the cases of Anna Klemens in DenmarkKrystyna Ceynowa in Polandand Dummy, the Witch of Sible Hedingham in England In France, there was sporadic The Witch Hunts and even murder in the s, with one woman reportedly burnt in a village square in Nord. The case The Witch Hunts the supposed witch was dismissed upon the failure of the alleged victim, who had sworn out a warrant against him, to appear for the trial. However, some of his other accusers were convicted on criminal charges for their part in the matter, and various libel actions were brought. InBridget Cleary was beaten and burned to death by her husband in Ireland because he suspected that fairies had taken the real Bridget and The Witch Hunts her with a witch. The persecution of those believed to perform malevolent sorcery against their neighbors continued into the 20th century. Intwo Russian farmers killed a woman and injured five other members of her family after The Witch Hunts that they had used folk magic against them. Peculiar standards applied to witchcraft allowing certain types of evidence "that are now ways relating Fact, and done many Years before. Witnesses were called to testify to motives and effects, because it was believed that witnessing the invisible force of witchcraft was impossible: "half proofes are to be allowed, and are good causes of suspition". Various acts of torture were used against accused witches to coerce confessions and cause them to provide names of alleged co-conspirators. Most historians agree that the majority of The Witch Hunts persecuted in these witch trials were innocent of any involvement in Devil worship. In Italy, an accused witch was deprived of sleep for periods up to forty hours. This technique was also used in England, but without a limitation on time. The use of torture has been identified as a key factor in converting the trial of one accused witch into a wider social panicas those being tortured were more likely to accuse a wide array of other local individuals of also being witches.