Spainish inquisitions or referrance to the Salem Witch trial? ( see details)?
155897
Both actually and instances before the inquisition.  The cry of witchcraft has brought on death to alot of people even when they really weren't witches.  If people were different, deformed or didn't act like people thought they should all throughout history they were accused of witchcraft.  If old women that were known to be 'healers' and knew herbal remedys for things rather than doctors who went by what they were taught in school, they were accused of witchcraft. A side note to this is Henry VIII, when trying to get rid of Anne Boleyn had a charge of witchcraft waiting in the wings if the adultry didn't work, going by a couple physical deformities she had, an extra finger and nipple.  The problem is that the word 'witchcraft' wasn't what they were really being accused of, it was satanism and worshipping the devil.  That isn't witchcraft.  What it truely was was just a persecution of those that were different than most and didn't believe as they did in a time where everyone was ruled by church law rather than secular law.\n\nIn the US and the Salem witch trials what we know now is most was probably done not to erradicate witchcraft but for power and wanting land and such.  A cry of witchcraft was a way to get that so they could seize their assests.  It is also thought now that alot of the 'visions' people had was probably brought on my a mold that was growing in their grain stores, causing symptoms that would now be known as a delusional disorder or other mental illnesses.  The funny thing is it was that the people that wouldn't confess to it, because they were truely innocent of the charges, were the ones tortured and put to death.  Those that confessed and were said to repent were let go!  Again, it wasn't truely witchcraft they were accused of but satanism and devil worship.  Witchcraft isn't that.\n\nAn anictode to all that is the Quakers in Pennsylvania were the most tolerant even though they were amongst the most religious.  One woman went to trial, accused of witchcraft and making a broom fly, confessing in court to Thomas Penn this he dismissed the charges saying that it was her right to practice whatever religion she wanted to, that it wasn't illegal.  The first voice of tolerance in an insane time.
1039329
Santeria is interesting stuff, i am not fluent in spanish, so i could only pick up a little at the local botanica.  But trance possession by the Orisha is some pretty intense stuff! It is NOT mumbojumbo... it is a real way to connect with the divinity and with the ancestors, once you are "ridden" you will understand what i am talking about....
368161
There have been several theories, some of which have already been posted, i.e., mass hysteria, repressed adolescent sexuality, fear of being hanged for witchcraft themselves.  There was also a political/economic factor.  Some of the girls fathers put them up to accusing their neighbors, so the fathers could cease the land.\n\nThe Salem witch trials is fascinating time.  It is a perfect example of how different societal forces can come together to create a mass hysteria.  It began when two girls started to have convulsions and hysterics in which they would scream blasphemies and go into trances.  The behavior spread to other girls in the village, and soon the girls were naming people who had "afflicted" them.\n\nIt was probably several factors, which came together just right in Salem, Massachusettes in 1692.  For one, the Puritans had very rigid religious and social codes.  The Devil was frighteningly real, blamed for crop failures and illnesses, and was believed to live in the woods, which in those days, was literally in a person's back yard.  God was also a literal presence.  Many things were a sin, and sins were punished immediately by a vengeful god.  So, if your kid got sick, that was punishment from god because you sinned.  Many people accused of witchcraft were those that were on the outskirts of society.  The story goes that the girls were having their fortunes told by a slave woman named Tituba.  If this were the case, the girls were probably feeling guilty about the "sin" they had committed.  They would also feel that they deserved to be punished for this, which could have translated into hysterical seizures and such.  Just living in this kind of punitive environment could have fostered hysterical seizures.  These hysterical fits would have been interpreted as the work of the devil, both by the girls and their parents.  To claim bewitchment would give the girls an easy out, because if they were bewitched, it wouldn't really be their fault.  It would relieve guilt and gain them sympathy.  So they started accusing people.\n\nAs for the economic angle, most of the accusers were poorer farmers, and most of the accused lived in the richer part of Salem.  It was likely that there were long-simmering tensions that were flamed and exploited by the hysteria.  And, if a person was accused of witchcraft and hanged, by Salem law, their property was ceased by the village and put up for auction.  So, neighbors accused neighbors in order to get their property.\n\nAnd, of course, as girl children in Salem, the girls had very little outlet for their energy and imagination, and certainly no kind of power to speak of.  The witch trials made them celebrities in their village.  Once started, why should they stop?
191358
O Christian Martyr Who for Truth could die \nWhen all about thee Owned the hideous lie! \nThe world, redeemed from superstition's sway, \nIs breathing freer for thy sake today. \n--Words written by John Greenleaf Whittier and inscribed on a monument marking the grave of Rebecca Nurse, one of the condemned "witches" of Salem \n\n\nI found a site there's to much to copy and paste so check sorces.
410877
Check out this site on Salem Witches
133436
I heard once that Spanish people don't like being called 'Spaniards' at all. Don't know if it's a great insult, or an annoyance (like when Scottish people like me get called 'Scotch')
737129
no witches were "burned at the stake" in the US! Those accused were hung, and one guy was pressed to death with stones.  Not to mention that all of the accused in Salem were puritanical christians at the mercy of some hysterical teenage girls, and a town most likely affected by ergotism or "St Anthony's fire" (by eating ergot tainted grain)  About the only witches were the yoruban slaves, and none of them were accused.\n\nthere is no help for you child! you are about as thick as they come!
354431
The Burning Times is the title Pagans have given to the time when hundreds of thousands of people — mostly women — were killed as Witches. The time period began roughly in the thirteenth century, reached its height in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and still occurs in many ways today.\nThis was not one country but started in Europe and also occurred in the US. Not all were burned.  Swimming the witch was one method.  In Salem MA one was pressed to death the rest were hung.\nWitch finder became a profession and went from town to town to finds the witches. No branch of religion was totally responsible but it covered many branches of Christians.\nThese people were victims of greed or fear.  Many were healers, widows, mad a neighbor, had a physical or personality difference from the accuser, or had something someone else wanted.\nFor Christians now to deny that their religion did not do this because it was not my denomination is false.  All Christian faiths have roots in what was before them.
1061911
If they did apoligize, it whouldnt mean anything. they whould apoligize but do similar things to the witchtrials again at a later date, with no regrets at what they are doing at the moment. thats the sad truth of the matter.
1005260
I go to a church where they cast out demons. It's called a "deliverance ministry". Just last week, there was a woman there, who had about 12 different demons expelled from her.  I think maybe people have been desensitized to the reality of demonic spirits by all the horror movies they've seen over the years.  They've come to believe that they're just a part of sensationalized fiction, rather then reality.  But in fact, there are probably thousands of people in America right now, that are possessed by evil spirits, and they don't even know it.  They've opened the doorway to darkness by getting involved in occult practices, such as witchcraft and satanism.  T.V. Shows like "Charmed", have made witchcraft look like harmless fun, when in fact, it is a very dangerous practice.  It's all a part of Satan's plan to destroy the minds of our youth, and send them to hell.  That's because the Devil is already doomed to spend an eternity there, and he wants to take as many young people along with him as he possibly can.
955502
Modern historians have long known that the popular view of the Inquisition is a myth. The Inquisition was actually an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions. \n\nHeresy was a capital offense against the state. Rulers of the state, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw heretics as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath. \nWhen someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig. It was not to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. The lord needed some basic theological training, very few did. The sad result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent judge of the crime. \n\nThe Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, an attempt to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges. \n\nFrom the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.\n\nMost people tried for heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or had their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed.\n\nIf, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.\n\nWhere did this myth come from? After 1530, the Inquisition began to turn its attention to the new heresy of Lutheranism. It was the Protestant Reformation and the rivalries it spawned that would give birth to the myth. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from the printing presses of Protestant countries at war with Spain accusing the Spanish Inquisition of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World. \n\nWith love in Christ.
984043
i'm not that familiar with the story, except that it is about witch hunting in a town. this quote, whoever says it, is someone begging Thomas not to get involved in witch craft. is it his wife? that would make sense, that she's begging her husband not to get in it because the town (who was full of people paranoid about witch craft) would charge them with the crime.
1067441
It goes back to the Salem witch trials in the late 1600's. People were charged, convicted and executed on the flimsiness of evidence or no evidence at all. Sometimes all that was need was for someone to accused them.
478743
There were young girls that made the claim that a woman was a witch and it got out of control from there. The gilrs started claiming that they even saw more women involved and the lies got so large that they couldn't retract their stories. The town people panicked and started burning the women that were accused and stoning people also. They even claimed the Mayor's wife was a witch. Check it out in the local library, I think you will find it most interesting.
616160
Funny.\n\nBefore the Enlightentment you got burned on the stake, imprisoned, tortured and mutilated for questioning the Christian faith. Ever heard about the Inquisition? That's right, you ignorant fools have no fucking clue what it was like, you have no idea how precious freedom from religion and freedom of speech is.
769537
I do have books on the subject, but they are England and American versions. I implore you to use ultimate caution if you become able to conjur the spirits, you may open a portal that you cannot control and the consequences be devastating.
590075
Early Modern Europe is a big window.  Please Elaborate.  Are you referencing the period after 1500, or before?\n\nIn terms of numbers and percentages, there actually were few cases of witchcraft and few people accused.  The majority of people accused were heretics, and also midwives.  Logically speaking, there are several possibilities.\n\n1.  They were witches.\n2.  They were political enemies of their accusers, or the handlers of their accusers.\n3.  They had wealth, and their death allowed its capture.\n4.  They were ideological opposed to the belief structure, and suffered the fate of all iconoclasts.