The Witch-Hunt In Modern Europe Chapter Summary

THE WITCH-HUNT IN MODERN EUROPE By: Brian Levack The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between 1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task,
The main reason was the defining of witchcraft as a secular crime. All of these factors led to a large-scale witch-hunts in Scotland but in some countries the retention of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the crime led to a decline in the number of prosecutions. Local court decisions during this time also played a role in the conviction of witches. They had the ability to perform with a certain amount of independence from higher political and judicial control. There are two main reasons why local courts proved to be less lenient than central courts in the prosecutions of witchcraft (pg. 93). The first is that local authorities that presided over witch trials were far more likely than their central superiors to develop an intense and immediate fear of witchcraft (pg. 93). The second is that central judges were generally more committed to the proper operation of the judicial system and more willing therefore to afford accused witches whatever procedural safeguards the law might allow them (pg.