What kind of people were accused of being witches and why?
Many people were accused of being witches in the 1400’s to the 1600’s. Prior to that time, the Church denied the existence of witches, as a matter of fact, to simply believe in witches was an act of heresy! But within a few years of each other, a papal bull reversing the Church’s stance on the existence of witches, and the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, the witch hunt was on. The Malleus, or “Hammer of the Witches” described certain marks as being proof that a person was a witch. Unfortunately, most, if not all, the people accused of witchcraft were anything but. Some were simply women who owned and controlled property in a time when society believed that only men should control property. Some were midwives during a time when the male profession of medical doctor was endorsed by the church. Some were simply the old and destitute that were a drain on the Church and society as a whole. It should be noted that there were very few accused witches that were tried in a Church trial.
