Witch Craze Dbq Ap Euro Essay - 1431 Words

During the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches. It was thought that these individuals practiced black magic and performed evil deeds, the deeds of the devil. This all happened during a time of great change in Europe, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments. They were persecuted for a variety of reasons, but three major ones were religious reasons, social prejudices, and the economic greed of the people. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin influenced the ideas of their followers. Religion dominated the time period and it’s easy to see how many opinions†¦show more content†¦11) Calvin’s ideas were similar to Luther’s, as they were both anti-witch and felt them to be Devil’s spawn. Even the most influential person in religion and politics at the time, Pope Innoc ent VII, stated in his â€Å"The Witch Bull,† that people should â€Å"remove all impediments†¦to exercise their office of inquisition and to proceed to the correction, imprisonment, and punishment of the aforesaid persons for their said offences and crime...† (Doc. 9) The fact that the highest ranking power in religion acknowledged the existence of witches in the world led to a whirlwind of accusation and chaos. In the end, all three religious leaders had a strong influence on the people’s beliefs. It is quite obvious that they are biased towards their cause, and therefore are not necessarily believable or reliable in their observations. They basically scared people in order to gain loyalty and so people would accept and follow their sayings. This is shown in the diary entry of a young Protestant boy in Document 12. â€Å"I suffered terribly from fear of Hell and...had, the fears that I was in.† (Doc. 12) He is basically stating his fears of the dev il and hell, as a result of the beliefs placed in his head by religion. This is a more reliable source because a diary entry usually shows true emotions and beliefs. The religious