The Black Death Caused Problems For The 17th Century
Not only did Christians blame the Jews for the cause of the Black Death, but some of the Christian faith and even of other faiths turned to sorcery and astrology. This didn’t spread a massive witch hunt, but people turned to sorcery and astrology for help and answers to why, how and if the Black Death could be stopped. Astrology is actually a major feature in witchcraft, basing spells and any magickal deeds around the stars and Zodiac signs. An astrologer from the French court Geoffery de Meaux, based his ideas of the plague from the 1345 conjunction after the outbreak of the plague. Meaux stresses the malign role of Saturn and Mars rather than Jupiter who may be a possible contributor. Meaux also states that the alignment of Saturn, Mars and the Zodiac sign of Aquarius caused the Black Death and the exact symptoms experienced by the victims. There were instances of witchcraft before the Black Death, mostly during the 13th century but this may be the first instances of a massive witch craze before the dominant witch scare of the 17th century. Jews were not the only scapegoat for the Black Death but was one of the major victims of the blame game. Heretics were also blamed for the cause of the Black Death spreading across the world. Heretics were not blamed for the Black Death as much as the Jews were. Lepers were even less blamed for the Black Death than the Heretics. The definition of a Heretic is one who rejects doctrines from the church and their faith. Most examples are a person who was baptized a certain faith and then rejects that faith. Witches can technically be considered Heretics since most Wiccans and pagans are born and baptized a different faith such as Christianity or Judaism. The children pulled out of the fires and adults could also technically be considered Heretics since they have to reject their faith to be saved, even though it is against their will. Heretics were blamed for the Black Death for the reasons of God punishing them for rejecting their original faith.
The scare of the Black Death and the pointing of fingers significantly added to the problems in the future, specifically the 17th century. When problems arise and run awry its human nature to blame the outcasts of humanity. It was not until the 1500’s that the population and fertility rate began to significantly rise in order to replace the human life lost during the Black Death. At the beginning of the 16th century, the population began to rise even more and started to be at an even level with the population growth before the Black Death began. But because the population began to rise, and the world was now open to the New World, new ideas began to rise about maritime, trade, and religious views. Now that the New World was open for settlement, new religions began to spring up and people would migrate to the Americas and Canada in order to practice their faiths in peace. The witchcraft scare of the 17th century was one of the biggest phenomena of religious appeal. England had been bouncing back and forth their religious views between Catholicism and Protestantism. In the beginning of the 16th century, England was Protestant under the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, after the destruction of her Catholic sister Queen Mary, also known as “Bloody Mary”. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died and King James I of Scotland became England’s new monarchy. After Queen Elizabeth, the English monarchy bounced from Catholic and Protestant a number of times until the rule of King William I and Queen Mary II in the late 1680’s. Because of the ever-changing religions in England, the English people needed a place to go where they could practice in peace. The first colony of Roanoke in the 1500’s was a failure, with the strange disappearance of the settlers. In 1606 the Jamestown colony was much more successful even though there was a great Starving Time during the beginning of the settlement. After this settlement was established, then Puritan settlers came from England to settle in the Massachusetts Bay Colony which is today Plymouth. The settlers spread across Massachusetts eventually to create the towns and cities of Boston, Ipswich, and Salem. The ever occurring threat of Native Americans attacking the colonists kept them on their guard and in constant fear. This is one of the theories of why the inhabitants of Salem created the catastrophe of the Witch Trials.
There were many witch hunts throughout the 17th century, mostly in Germany and the new Massachusetts colony in America. But the Salem Witch Trials didn’t happen until the late 17th century in 1692. The start of the Witch hunts in Germany began around 1609. The Holy Roman Empire was collapsing and the witch hunts were mostly in territories ruled by prince-bishops. The Thirty-Years War was already happening in some places for over ten years by this time. The war between Roman Catholics and Protestants had weakened governments, killed many people and territories were left demolished and devastated. Bad weather also during this time added to harsh crop failure, famine and the outbreak of plague once again. This could be an indirect déjà vu epidemic from the Black Death since the exact same factors are repeating themselves over three centuries later. Only now in the early 17th century, the Jews are replaced in the blame game by witches. Instead of blaming natural disasters or mistakes of politicians for the cause of this epidemic, the Germanic people blamed witches and the Devil for the pain and suffering of this period.
The Germany Witch Trials were of the same caliber as that of the Salem Trials in 1692. Neighbors would blame each other and accuse one another of being a Witch. Some as young as 12 and women were accused of witchcraft and being in league with the Devil. Once these people were improperly accused of such deeds, their heads would be cut off on a chopping block by the executioner’s ax, and then their bodies were burnt, their ashes spread across the land. The Witch Hunts began to die down and came to a near halt in 1630. Some hunts would sporadically pop up after this time, but the witch hunts finally ended in the 18th century when the laws were revoked. The last prosecuted witch to be legally executed was Anna Maria Schwägelin in 1775.