History 2403E Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Deal With The Devil, European Witchcraft, Andrea Dworkin
26 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Beliefs about witches throughout all of society over vast periods of time (broadly common) Early modern witchcraft is unique as witches exist and they are in fact dangerous and need to be dealt with. The court and stake are a way for europeans to deal with witches. Beliefs about the existence of witches have been around for centuries. Around 1400, in court records from switzerland we find evidence of crystallization of beliefs in the minds of early europeans that witches were evil and believed the diabolical pact . Diabolical pact: witches pact with the devil. This pact represents a change as before the 1400"s europeans did not see these people ( wise people/ cunning folk ) as evil but rather society tolerated and make use of them. About 1400 scholastics begin to ask a question of where these. The answer they decided upon is that witches power comes from the devil.
