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The Earth Chronicle 1692 A.D., before the founding of the United States, the town of Salem, Massachusetts Colony
In 330 years ago, in the thirty-first year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, Gardan united with the Horqin Mongol leader Shajin to oppose the Qing
It was supposed to be a normal day in the town, but suddenly a priest's niece began to convulse and scream, and then his daughter fell into the same state: twisting, trembling, rolling, foaming. The doctor rushed to hear the news, helpless, as if this was not an ordinary disease at all. The priest began to consult the information with a vague suspicion in his heart, and a sense of panic and rumors began to spread throughout the town, and the bizarre state of the sick, all the rumors and the views of the Church, pointed to an ancient and dark crime: witchcraft.
Suddenly, the atmosphere of terror spread throughout the Massachusetts colony, and everyone was involved in this huge witch hunt, everyone was eager to clear up the relationship with witchcraft, and at the same time began to accuse others in order to prove their innocence, and everyone in the colony was at risk. Neighbors accuse each other, friends expose each other, relatives betray each other, and everyone begins to frame each other for self-preservation. Priests, rich people, high-ranking officials, noble ladies, and peasants are all doomed. The witch hunt lasted nine months, culminating in the brutal execution of more than twenty people for witchcraft and nearly two hundred accused of witchcraft.
And this jaw-dropping mass violence that had a profound impact on the United States is just a small aftermath of Europe's three-hundred-year witch hunt to the New World.
"Darkness at the Dawn of Civilization"
When many people hear the words "witch", "witchcraft", "witch hunt", they may think of the image of an evil old woman with a pointed hat and an eagle hook nose riding a broom full of brooms, and the strange image of The Dark Myth of Europe composed of Dracula, Van Helsing, vampires, dark forests, villages eroded by demons and majestic holy sees. And all of this points to a historical term that many of us are familiar with: "Dark Middle Ages." However, unlike most people's first instincts, this three-hundred-year witch hunt was actually on the eve of the dawn of modern human civilization in Renaissance Europe. At this time, Europe had emerged from the shadow of the Black Death, the dawn of science and civilization brought by the Renaissance had begun to shine on European society, and in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries before the modern era, Europe, as the pioneer of human civilization, was experiencing a darkest hour before the dawn.
"Scientific witch hunting, correct witch hunting, witch hunting standardization and theorization under the witch hunting guide"
In 1486, two notorious papacy monks, Heinrich Cramo and Jekob Sprange, jointly published a book: "The Hammer of the Witch", which responded to the "supreme instructions" of Pope Inathan VIII on witch hunting two years ago, summarized the various knowledge about the devil, witchcraft, and magic that was popular at that time, and also provided various detailed methods on how to identify witches and how to prosecute witches, from theoretical height to practical implementation, forming a standardized "witch identification system" and the "Guide to Witch Hunt Action", and was recognized by the Holy See, becoming the "witch hunt bible" for witch hunts in Europe. In the two hundred years that followed, millions of innocent women were burned at the stake or beheaded for this "witch hunt bible", becoming a dark and tragic group violence phenomenon in human history.
Judge the witch
"Who the hell is a witch?"
First of all, the conclusion, anyone can be a witch. Under an infinitely expanding movement, everyone is in danger, everyone can be "witched" driven by group psychology, everyone takes the initiative to expose witches in order to show that they and witches are not in common, and everyone may be accused of being a witch because others want to express their hatred for witches, which is a vicious circle manifested by the evil of human nature. But women with certain characteristics are more likely to be suspected and framed as witches:
Widows are easily identified as witches;
Older single women who have not been married are easily identified as witches;
Particularly beautiful women are easily identified as witches;
Elderly women living alone are easily identified as witches;
Wandering gypsy women without a home are easily identified as witches;
Did everyone see it? Is this hunting witches? This is just a carnival of group violence against the vulnerable in the name of witch hunting. The bullying nature of human beings remains naked and disgusting in this mass carnival launched in the name of justice.
Widows and older single women do not have the protection of their husbands, their parents should be old, the number of beautiful women is small and it is easy to cause the envy of most women, the elderly women who live alone are ugly and have no husband and children protection, the wandering gypsy women are not of my ethnicity or belong to the minority, if a group of people have to find a few witches to show the innocence of the majority of the people in the group, then these types of people do not happen to be "treated as witches" excellent candidates? There is nothing new under the sun, and the evil of mankind has never changed.
The typical image of a witch, riding a broomstick, with a black cat
"How do you identify a witch?"
In line with the principle of "not wronging a good person and not sparing a bad person", it does not mean that if a person is a witch, she will be identified as a witch, but a "rigorous" identification work should be carried out so that the real witch can be punished. According to the theoretical guidance of the Witch Hunt Guide, the Witch's Hammer, there are several ways to identify witches:
Look for the devil's mark: It is believed that the devil will leave a mark on the witch' body, this devil mark has been touched by the devil, so it will not hurt or bleed, so remove the suspect's full body hair, check the body for such marks: such as birthmarks, scars, spots, moles, etc., if found, then poke with a needle or knife to see if there will be pain and bleeding. (Comments: This is a person who will hurt and bleed ah, you guys are weak)
Weighing the witch: It is believed that because the witch can fly and communicate with the devil, the body must be very light, as to how light this light is, it is up to the judge's subjective judgment, the judge feels that she is light, and the witch is convicted. (Comments: The judge of the Holy See is really good, and the judgment depends on a scale in his heart)
Water experiment: The theoretical basis of this experiment is consistent with the previous one, the witch is light in weight, so it will float on the surface of the water and not sink, so the person on trial is tied to a stone and thrown into the river, and the devil who floats up is the devil, who is caught and burned, and who sinks and drowns is innocent, and God forgives you. (Comment: You are really fair, do not wrongfully accuse a good person! ）
Heat test: Tie the subject to a red-hot iron pillar, and if she writhes wildly, she is performing the devil's dance and is convicted! If she doesn't move, she's got the mana given by the devil to fight the heat and is convicted! (Comments: Say that it is established, and it is not established! ）
These methods are just a few of the more representative of the various witch identification methods, in short, when a person has been identified as a witch, and wanting to live to prove that he is not a witch, at that time it is almost impossible. As long as they are convicted, what awaits them is usually burning or beheading.
Collective execution of witches
"Collective Hysteria and Prejudice against the Weak"
The prejudice against women and the weak forms this collective hysteria that lasts for three hundred years, a hysteria in which everyone participates in the whole people, and everyone is afraid to prove his loyalty to God, his spit on the devil, so that he swings the scythe of trepidation at others, and others think the same way, and finally forms a deformed harvesting machine that everyone wants to stop, but everyone is pushing forward together. Every attempt to avoid being harvested promotes the faster harvesting of oneself by this machine. Closed society becomes a testing ground for human nature, and under the intertwining of prejudice and contradiction, extreme correctness eventually degenerates into extreme error.
According to the most conservative statistics, at least more than 100,000 people were executed in Europe during the entire witch hunt, and historians have said that this figure ranges from 100,000 to 9 million, and the vast majority of them are witches.
Later, king Frederick William I of Prussia, issued an edict prohibiting the persecution of "witches", and the witch hunting movement gradually woke up under the increasingly enlightened society and the will of the upper classes, as well as in the three hundred years of frenzy of the grass-roots people who had suffered from witch hunting.
The last persecuted "witch" in Germany died in 1775.
Anna Gordy: The last persecuted "witch" in Europe, died in Switzerland in 1782.
Humanity entered the flourishing nineteenth century, and one of the darkest times passed temporarily.