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History of Witchcraft in Europe

Witchcraft is generally -- if circularly -- defined as the exercise of supernatural powers by people who call themselves witches. This paper examines something of the history of witchcraft in Europe, looking particularly at how ideas about witchcraft were connected at different times with ideas about Christian orthodoxy and particularly about gender.

Before beginning a discussion of European witchcraft, it should be noted that witchcraft is most certainly not simply a European phenomenon but is worldwide in scope, being as common in Africa and Polynesia as it is in France. Modern scholars (particularly anthropologists and folklorists, the two groups of scholars most likely to study witchcraft) distinguish between simple sorcery, the alleged cults of diabolical witches of the Middle Ages, and the modern neo-pagan movement.

The concept of witchcraft in Europe in the Middle Ages depended on certain presuppositions. These included the beliefs that the devil and his subordinates, such as demons, imps, incubi, and succubae, were real and had power in the world; that people could have physical relations with them; and that contracts between people and demons could be enforced.

In slightly simpler terms, within the philosophical system of the diabolical witchcraft of the Middle Ages, witches were thought to be servants of the devil. In return for serving the devil according to contract, witches allegedly received certain powers, notably the ability to cause or cure illness or transfer it from one person to another; the ability to raise storms and to make or withhold rain; to produce impotence in men and sterility in women; and to cause crops to fail, animals to be barren, and milk to go sour. They were believed able to arouse love through the use of philters and potions and to destroy love by charms and spells; and to do harm or even bring about death by a glance of the evil eye or by sticking pins into a wax image of the victim...

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History of Witchcraft in Europe. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:58, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709318.html