This is an interesting topic where I would like to add an extra subtopic.
First of all we need to limit the witch hunt to the "claissic one" (Europe 1500-1750). It was a period of turmoil for political andreligious wars and coincided with the "small glaciation" where crops failed, there was hunger and the trust among members of the society deteriorated. It was sufficient that a baby diedin bed (very common by the way) that people started to make alligations on neighbours etc, moreover also the use of contaminated rye (Claviceps purpurea) induced allucinations and people who behaved erratically in public were accused of witchcraft.
There is anyway a twist in the plot, the differences between catholics & protestants. Since catholic used a well organized structure and at the top they did not believe in witchcraft (ironic, they think bread can become meat and remain bread at the same time mumbling some maginc words...) and on top of that they believed in exorcism (that was not believed by protestants) this ultimately lead to way more witches burned at the stake in protestant countries.
This article partially point to the differences among catholics and protestants but still misses the point of the "doctrinal" differences where the catholic admit the exorcsm and the protestant not
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018...rket-share
First of all we need to limit the witch hunt to the "claissic one" (Europe 1500-1750). It was a period of turmoil for political andreligious wars and coincided with the "small glaciation" where crops failed, there was hunger and the trust among members of the society deteriorated. It was sufficient that a baby diedin bed (very common by the way) that people started to make alligations on neighbours etc, moreover also the use of contaminated rye (Claviceps purpurea) induced allucinations and people who behaved erratically in public were accused of witchcraft.
There is anyway a twist in the plot, the differences between catholics & protestants. Since catholic used a well organized structure and at the top they did not believe in witchcraft (ironic, they think bread can become meat and remain bread at the same time mumbling some maginc words...) and on top of that they believed in exorcism (that was not believed by protestants) this ultimately lead to way more witches burned at the stake in protestant countries.
This article partially point to the differences among catholics and protestants but still misses the point of the "doctrinal" differences where the catholic admit the exorcsm and the protestant not
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018...rket-share
