Anti-Semitism And Militarism

I agree with Kieckhefer that the anti-Semitism and misogyny mindset of the Christian’s churches was one of the primary reasons why the frequency of witch-trial increased. We have already learned, that during the medieval era, there is very little to almost no religious freedom. Any religion that was not Christianity was considered to be paganism and the churches would attempt to get rid of them through accusations of practicing witchcraft and black magic or having involvement with the devil and demons. The Jewish is an example of a large group of people who were accused of having interactions with demons by the church simply because of having different religious beliefs. Furthermore, we can see that women was being accused of using black magic
more frequently than men. In the lecture, many paintings depicting black magic often contains witches or women within them.
What I found to be intriguing from this week lecture is the events of the black plague that ravages Europe. The black plague lasted for about four years and even after that, there was small outbreaks that keep reoccurring for decades. From the lecture, there are artworks that displayed the symptoms and illness that was brought upon by the plague. Artworks such as the Danse Macabre on slide 3, show us that death happened so frequently that it became a common reoccurrence. However, despite the horrific symptoms and tremendously high death tolls, people still manage to accuse each other of using witchcraft and black magic. I’m surprised that the death toll was not higher than what it is because of the combination of deaths from the plague and from prosecution. It’s no wonder that this period was called “The Persecuting Society”.