Witchcraft in the Spanish Inquisition
In 1692 in the city of Salem, the famous witch hunt took place. In Salem there were few executions and imprisonments of witches compared to the persecution of witches in Europe. These events in Salem occur when Europe’s persecutions are ending and that is why they are remembered. (Golubov, 2009)
What happened in Salem is due to two factors:
- The dissemination of the events that occurred in Salem
- Witch hunt was made when in the Europe of the S. XVIII This figure was in decline.
Salem witch hunt considered a huge witch hunt, which is characterized by deep fear.
Establishing essential elements we will understand the concept of witchcraft:
- The representation of the diabolical pact: gives the legal principle of the crime of witchcraft and creates a link between the use of dangerous magic and demon worship
- The intellectual foundations of witch hunting: these were shared by Catholics and Lutherans. Lutheranians were attracted to demonology.
- The night flight: more purely popular concept and one of the oldest. In Salem this belief is reflected in some testifications
- Metamorphosis: in Salem’s trials, the mention of different animals in which witches, sorcerers or the demon were very common and thus presented themselves to their servants
In these judgments the spectral testimony is the most prominent test to know how to identify the witches. (Morales, 2017)
In different parts of Europe during the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, power has generated a prohibition against the "faithful" of the devil, many of them dying or being convicted at the stake.
In some of the studies on this matter we can see that among the mid -of these centuries there have been between 40.000 and 60.000 death sentences. Not being correctly registered those who died from the treatment they had during the arrest or those that were executed outside the formal processes
In modern Europe, witchcraft was one of the most tragic phenomena with very cruel consequences, especially there were great waves of huge women who were accused of a great complicity with the devil
From the thirteenth century, belief in witchcraft becomes an obsession and that is when persecutions planned by the Church begin. The Church of Rome was the one who put the Inquisition, which would be responsible for monitoring those who did practices with magic.
Pedro de Valencia A Spanish humanist, said that the case of the witches of Zugarramurdi, were men and women who guides by the spirits try to put children in the game because they are easier to hunt. Valencia said that the statements of the defendants had to be believed.
According to Friedrich von Spee, a German Jesuit said he had seen many witchcraft processes, in a book that publishes in 1631 a book complains that the defendant was considered guilty before there was evidence.
Criticism against faith in the witches became constant in the 18th century,
For Montesquieu and Voltaire the witch hunt had been a fraud that was provided through ignorance and unconsciousness that only the illustration could overcome.
One morning in Salem some young people gather in the forest along with a slave named. Abigail, one of the young women kills a chicken and drinks his blood, doing with this a "spell" to kill John Proctor’s wife, of which she was in love. These young women are interrupted by Reverend Samuel. Two girls who were in the forest fall unconscious, Betty and Ann
Ann’s family, the Putmans, and Reverend Samuel suspect that both Betty and Ruth are possessed by the devil. Then they call Reverend John Hale de Beverly to examine Betty. Abigail, to save and save her friends from punishment, accuses the hesitation of being working with the devil. He hesitated her after being given of sticks confesses to be a witch and saves. The other girls following this begin to tell other women who were supposedly seen with the devil, including Elizabeth Proctor, wife of John Proctor.
The young Maria Warren, who worked at the Casa de los Proctor, returns to the house gives Elizabeth a doll she was doing in court. Maria after a discussion with Proctor says to see her wife’s life saved because she had accused her of witchcraft.
After a while the Reverend Hale arrives looking for guilt tests, and I ask if there was any doll at home, because on that day Abigail said that the puncture with a needle and accuses Elizabeth to have appeared and have done that.
The Reverend discovers the doll that Maria had given him and this has a puncture punctured in the center. Men arrest Elizabeth
Juan Proctor and other men enter the Court to stop the trial. Maria also enters them to affirm that the young women have been simulating things and that they have not seen the devil. But those deny what Maria says and blame for witchcraft. After this, Proctor acknowledges having had relations with Abigail, but he denies it. They call the woman’s woman for the truth.
It is ordered that both Abigail and Proctor turn so that Elisabeth cannot see them. Isabel not wanting to punish her husband, lies. Therefore, Danforth says that adultery did not happen.
Abigail to change the subject declares that Maria is threatening her with her witchcraft. After all, Maria ends up getting back on the girls side by holding that Proctor made her be on the side of the devil. Everything ends with the arrest to proctor.
Hale and Parris try to convince Proctor to confess to be saved. Abigail escaped and took Parris’s money
Isabel is called by the judges to speak and try to convince her husband to confess. After talking to him, he gets confess, but proctor by not wanting. The Court does not accept this and sentence its death.
Conclusions
In the town there is great violence, because the inhabitants know that they are confronted. There is a brutal economic war in this film because the power of life was going down and with this issue of witchcraft they will try to have power again.
Many people after "confessing" who executed witchcraft restored their life, all this happened after he got imprisoned, but still the city remained chaos: orphans, cows walking on all sides and people fighting to know whoIt remains with the goods of who.
Witches and demon are a metaphor. Poverty is beginning to criminalize. The women who read were dangerous and could only read religion books and the occasional novel.
The key in these judgments in the end is that people stop believing girls and then begin to doubt what they say about witchcraft. It is also seen that the witchcraft was not investigated, they believed the first to say it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- (n.d.). From https: // repository.lion.uia.MX/XMLUI/HANDLE/10391/311?show = full
- (n.d.). From https: // www.National Geographic.com.es/history/large-repair/la-caza-de-brrujas-in-Europe_7761/6
- (n.d.). From https: // repository.UAM.es/Bitstream/Handle/10486/680550/Morales_estevez_oberto.PDF?sequence = 1 & isalowed = y
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