Thought questions 3 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Thought questions 3 - Coursework Example The idea of portraying a witch as an old, poor and female was the idea of the Christians to portray the witches as a bad example. They even went to the extreme of portraying them as wrinkled, rugged, and bed-ridden individuals. The idea was to make people dislike the witches as they were portrayed as evil people. In actual sense, witches were of varying ages, and there were young witches who were not poor. Both males and females engaged witchcraft so the portrayal of witches as always being old, poor, and female was inaccurate. Massive outbreak in witch-hunt broke out during the 16th century. During this period, the Christians were undergoing a very important historic reformation known as the Protestant Reformation. Christians had previously hunted witches, but the Reformation seems to have contributed to the mind attribute that placed the devil in a manageable perspective. The reformation had somehow managed to create a link and a perception to relate witchcraft and the devil, which justified the execution of witches. Eighty percent of witch-hunt victims were women most of whom were single. They were also between ages 45 years and 65 years. Most of them were at the bottom in the social status, nearly 80 percent. Most of them were disliked, quarrelsome and poor. Initially, witches were tried using the accusatory justice where they were presumed guilty until proved otherwise. The Christians latter popularized another system, inquisitorial type of justice where the defendant was innocent until proved otherwise. This method required that the one convicted of witchcraft give a confession. This was latter altered, and torture was included to obtain a confession from the accused witches. Free and voluntary confession by the suspected person of the crime made, examination and subsequent accusations were a ground of conviction. Another criterion was the affirmation of two credible persons under oath that they had witnessed the accused doing