The European Witch Hunts Were a Holocaust Against Women

The Church (in all its variations) has been the source of may death, pain and suffering, but I don't think that presenting things as if the Pope at the time these events happened to a present day Pope is an honest thing to do, it would be the same as saying that Barack Obama is the same as George Washington.

For those really interested in this topic, and although it's only in Portuguese, the archives of the Lisbon Inquisition are digitised and on-line, available to anyone, here (it includes the accounting books with the expenses and the value of the confiscated goods).

I'm sure other countries have similar archives on-line, we just have to look for them.

PS: living in a country that had a dictatorship until 1974, I have had direct knowledge of how easy it is to send someone to jail (or at least make him/her look bad in the eyes of the law) when people are not really free to do what they want, under the rule of a law thought for everyone and not just to protect some people, it happened to my father, who had "forbidden" books.

Edited to add that the documents from the Lisbon Inquisition are from 1538 to 1821.

Originally posted by ArMaP

Originally posted by blocula
...how can he botch the fire yet still burn her this makes no sense

People were not really burned, that would be too fast for what they wanted, the fire was kept at some distance around the person, so it would last for several hours, with the person suffering from the extreme heat and dehydration for all those hours before dying.

Paying to the executioner to put the fire to close to burn the person was a common way of making it less of a torture and more of an execution.

edit on 7/8/2011 by ArMaP because: (no reason given)

thanx for your comment...some were directly burned alive,some with "green wood" that would take longer to burn and kill you and some were hanged first then burned >>>"after the sodomy, rape, torture and naming of accomplices were finished,the demons with human faces,IN THE NAME OF GOD!!! wanted to ensure a steady flow of $$$,property,rape-able women and torture fodder and death...this is unbelievable and cannot be forgotten...imagine having to bribe someone to murder you in a kinder fashion...popes and religions are demented psychopathic sheeple herders...are "witch killings" and "war" a way of scrificing souls to satan!?! and dont forget that all this sinister activity was cloaked with the thin veneer of doing gods work!!!

Originally posted by blocula
thanx for your comment...some were directly burned alive,some with "green wood" that would take longer to burn and kill you and some were hanged first then burned >>>

The punishments were harsh at the time, the penalty for high treason was to be "hanged, drawn and quartered".

popes and religions are demented psychopathic sheeple herders...are "witch killings" and "war" a way of scrificing souls to satan!?!?

The problem is not "popes and religions", the problem is people that are always looking for a way of feeling better and more powerful than the others, religion is just one of the ways of trying to achieve that, but we also have politics, sports, etc.

Any thing that shows some people as being better/stronger/more powerful/more beautiful/etc than others can be used to make pressure upon the other people.

The witch hunt has one more factor to consider.
The religious had they big part but the crowed also had a great part to play.
I read this book few years a go about popular delusion.
The book title Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and Confusión de Confusiones.
The author depict many great delusion generated by many different party, that where very quickly takin by crowds to a ridiculous size.

Originally posted by kacou
The witch hunt has one more factor to consider.
The religious had they big part but the crowed also had a great part to play.
I read this book few years a go about popular delusion.
The book title Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and Confusión de Confusiones.
The author depict many great delusion generated by many different party, that where very quickly takin by crowds to a ridiculous size.

thanx for you comment...when there was a supposed witch or witches hung or burned,there was always crowds gathered there at the place of execution, fiilled with cheering,shouting,angry mobs,how could these poeple be so supportive knowing all the while that anyone of them could "be next"?...in mora sweden in 1669, there were 15 children! and 60 men and women burned in a day or two! "on direct orders from the pope! organized religion is responsible for most of the genocide,suffering,torture and death in this world for the last 1,000 years or so...

I'm a modern neopagan and I know a lot of others and no one I know thinks that these times were about wicca or neopaganism.

That said, we don't really have to look back in time to find women and children still burned and murdered for charges of witchcraft. We only have to look to Nigeria or India.

The burning times are not over..

Personally though, I do feel a soul kindred with those who are singled out and persecuted, even killed, for having different beliefs, looking different, or those that are the scapegoats of the majority. It has nothing to do with what their particular religion WAS or was not, or how old mine is or is not.

Originally posted by hadriana
I'm a modern neopagan and I know a lot of others and no one I know thinks that these times were about wicca or neopaganism.

That said, we don't really have to look back in time to find women and children still burned and murdered for charges of witchcraft. We only have to look to Nigeria or India.

The burning times are not over..

Personally though, I do feel a soul kindred with those who are singled out and persecuted, even killed, for having different beliefs, looking different, or those that are the scapegoats of the majority. It has nothing to do with what their particular religion WAS or was not, or how old mine is or is not.

thanx for your comment...the majority of these helpless victims were not killed for their religious beliefs [although a lot were] they were killed by organized religions who sent their judges,torturers and witch finders out across the continent in a protracted orgy of rape,torture,imaginary accomplice naming, and death...then stole their property afterwards

I really don't see how you could possibly come to the conclusion that the witch hunts were some sort of gender hatred conspiracy that targeted women. Modern estimates suggest that 40% of executions were men. I think it's rather obvious that the 20% difference was because fictional witches are primarily and almost exclusively female and it is easier to point the finger at a a less-than-attractive, kooky old lady and call her a witch than a man of the same qualities.

I mean, feminist rally over witch hunts now? It seems like you're just giving Aeon another free ticket to make up a false life story on the spot to push a standpoint on a gender specific dilemma that never existed in the first place.

Originally posted by blocula
www.gendercide.org... to 75% of people accused and killed as witches were women...many thousands upon thousands of women young and old were singled out,hunted and tracked down,harrased,terrorized and raped and to shut them up the perpetrators accused them of being witches! tens of thousands of women including little kids were raped tortured and burned at the stake and the families of the victims were actually made to pay for the amount of wood that was used! and if they couldnt pay it was off to the torture dungeons and burning stakes for the entire family! this is horrible in the extreme and it was all started by a papal bull issued in the 1400s by the psychotic pope innocent the VIII !!! and carried out by the church hired demented witch finders and evil judges and enforced by holy roman troops...in one town in france in the middle ages over 2,000 people,mostle women,were burned alive simultaneously!

a large percentage were women that were accused and killed ...this link ^^^ is fairly interesting to read..[the popes were like the kings of europe,until napoleon put an end to their supreme power]

Oh it's lovely, superstition intertwined with religion.

And of course: when people believe religion is moral, and that the theory within each is true...They will believe what the ministers, bishops and preists say......even if it's to do with killing women, or members of other religions.

That's what happen when people put faith in religion and believe that certain members of our race are the messengers of God.

as usual...absolute power corrupts absolutely and those that weild it in their iron grasp single out a particular group. then they are demonized,dehumanized,hunted,tracked down,captured,humiliated and raped. then tortured to extract false confessions and imaginary accomplices named as more fuel for the fire. then hanged or burned alive and their property confiscated...all this was done to hundreds of thousands of men,women and children for hundreds of years across the blood soaked european continent in a protracted orgy of fear,horror,murder and death...orchestrated by popes and other organized religions in the name of god ! ! !

reply to post by Shelbee


You are quite true, I have actually been arrested for practising Witchcraft in ENgland in 2000. No charges were filed against me, but i was arrested. The reason: I was seen by two policeMEN practicing my Craft ( I was gathering herbs for an elixir to aleviate a friend's headache, was approached by the policeMEN who asked why i was gathering these herbs ( i wasn't aware of the law against the Craft ), I answered them truthfully and they arrested me and confiscated the herbs as evidence. Acquired a search warrant for my house and confiscated every item in the house, including my book of elixirs, prayers and meditation exercises. I was in prison for 2 weeks before the prosecutor ( a woman ) set me free due to lack of evidence for acts of "evil".) I was allowed to have all of my property back, however i was banned from gathering herbs, if i gathered herbs again i would be charged with breaking that particular law! I went to the government there and asked why it was illegal for me practice my religion, seeing as CHristianity and other religions was not illegal. They answered that my religion was "unholy", at which point i produced evidence of the laws of my religion ( These are the same as Wiccan rules ) and they dismissed them as......false rules ( they literally said those who worship satan are always liars! When i told them that i do not worship satan, let alone believe he exists, they laughed in my face and told me "just go to church and repent my sins" . Thank you POPE and Christian religions!
I now live in Holland and they let me practice my religion in peace ( the police and government, not my neighbours(unfortunately)).

Namasté

Originally posted by KhaliWitch
reply to post by Shelbee

 

You are quite true, I have actually been arrested for practising Witchcraft in ENgland in 2000. No charges were filed against me, but i was arrested. The reason: I was seen by two policeMEN practicing my Craft ( I was gathering herbs for an elixir to aleviate a friend's headache, was approached by the policeMEN who asked why i was gathering these herbs ( i wasn't aware of the law against the Craft ), I answered them truthfully and they arrested me and confiscated the herbs as evidence. Acquired a search warrant for my house and confiscated every item in the house, including my book of elixirs, prayers and meditation exercises. I was in prison for 2 weeks before the prosecutor ( a woman ) set me free due to lack of evidence for acts of "evil".) I was allowed to have all of my property back, however i was banned from gathering herbs, if i gathered herbs again i would be charged with breaking that particular law! I went to the government there and asked why it was illegal for me practice my religion, seeing as CHristianity and other religions was not illegal. They answered that my religion was "unholy", at which point i produced evidence of the laws of my religion ( These are the same as Wiccan rules ) and they dismissed them as......false rules ( they literally said those who worship satan are always liars! When i told them that i do not worship satan, let alone believe he exists, they laughed in my face and told me "just go to church and repent my sins"

.

Thank you POPE and Christian religions!
I now live in Holland and they let me practice my religion in peace ( the police and government, not my neighbours(unfortunately)).

Namasté

edit on 19/8/2011 by KhaliWitch because: (no reason given)

thanx for your comment..this happened in england? i would have went to the news papers and the media and tried to have this incident become more well known...can you put a spell on me so i can hit the mass. lottery? i'll split it with you and i'm not joking...

Originally posted by KhaliWitch
Thank you POPE and Christian religions!

I don't think the Pope has much to say about the English laws...

en.wikipedia.org... en.wikipedia.org... the horror story is here for all to read in these two links and world leaders are evil and was'nt it just swell of the damn bastard pope to issue a new law allowing the torture of men women and children and stealing their money and property...what a nice guy!

Originally posted by blocula
the horror story is here for all to read in these two links and world leaders are evil and was'nt it just swell of the damn bastard pope to issue a new law allowing the torture of men women and children and stealing their money and property...

Which Pope was that and what was that law?

reply to post by ArMaP

I don't think the Pope has much to say about the English laws...

Not directly, but when the Church of England broke with the Papacy in 1534, only laws deemed sufficiently different were changed.

Pendle witches
The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft.
. . .
Of the eleven individuals who went to trial—nine women and two men—ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty.

Wow! this is interesting. And as you know, the monarch is the head of the church of England.

On Elizabeth's death in 1603 she was succeeded by James I. ...James was intensely interested in Protestant theology, focusing much of his curiosity on the theology of witchcraft. ... After a visit to Denmark, he had attended the trial in 1590 of the North Berwick Witches, who were convicted of using witchcraft to send a storm against the ship that carried James and his wife Anne back to Scotland. In 1597, he wrote a book, Daemonologie, instructing his followers that they must denounce and prosecute any supporters or practitioners of witchcraft. One year after James acceded to the English throne, a law was enacted imposing the death penalty in cases where it was proven that harm had been caused through the use of magic, or corpses had been exhumed for magical purposes.[5] James was, however, sceptical of the evidence presented in witch trials, even to the extent of personally exposing discrepancies in the testimonies presented against some accused witches.[6]

The king himself exposed discrepancies in testimony and yet still 10 out of 11 got hung anyway? Incredible!

Originally posted by ArMaP

Originally posted by blocula
the horror story is here for all to read in these two links and world leaders are evil and was'nt it just swell of the damn bastard pope to issue a new law allowing the torture of men women and children and stealing their money and property...

Which Pope was that and what was that law?

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

malefiz-house.blogspot.com...