1. Puritan Background: The Devil and Witches

2. Puritans
In the 1600s, there were a group of English Protestants who were unhappy with the Church of England
To escape persecution, they left for America
Their hope was to purify the church and their lives
They stressed conformity to the Bible and purity in the smallest details of living
They were arrogant in their faith and completely intolerant of different viewpoints

3. Their doctrines stressed:
Total Depravity - through Adam's fall, every human is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.
Predestination - God "saves" those he wishes; only a few are selected for salvation –not based on individual effort
The Bible – as supreme authority

4. Regulations
Only those recognized as true believers could join the church
Only church members could vote
Church and state intertwined
The duties of the judge were to uphold Puritan religion (theocracy)
Private citizens were encouraged to report anyone who strayed

5. Restrictions
They disapproved of Christmas celebrations - celebration in general was outlawed
They banned many entertainments, such as games of chance and drama, on moral grounds.
Puritans publicly punished drunkenness and sexual relations outside marriage

6. Morality Morality was a huge concern
Seeking to do good, they feared anything that might work against goodness.
As such, belief in witches was widespread both in America and Europe.

7. Accusations of witchcraft flew rampantly
Thousands of people were executed
Few people ever questioned whether witches actually existed.

8. Part of this results from Puritans’ complete acceptance of the contents of the Bible.

9. They accepted every word of the Bible as totally accurate and would allow no debate on this matter
Moses’ pronouncement in Exodus 22:18, “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live,” became a phrase known to almost everyone in the Puritan community.

10. The Devil Witches were a problem because the Devil was a problem.
The Puritans accepted the story that the Devil was once one of God’s angels who had fallen from grace.

11. After being thrown from heaven for betraying God, the Devil set up a continual campaign to destroy the designs of God.
It was believed that the Devil’s deception takes on many forms, and if
the Devil were able to deceive God, then it would be easy for him to deceive man.

12. The Puritans accepted completely the doctrine of original sin and many sermons emphasized that man was born corrupt and sinful.

13. Man was depicted as existing on the verge of eternal damnation and was seen as a potential colleague of the Devil.
Ministers delighted in telling the members of the congregation that they were worms, insects, dogs,
and filthy beasts

14. Given the view that man is on the verge of damnation and is born evil and corrupt, it was then easy for the Puritan to see a devil hiding behind every tree ready to trap and ensnare man.

15. WITCHES
For the Puritan,
the Devil did not work alone. He employed many legions of helpers which were generally referred to as witches.

16. The only problem to the 17th century mind was how to identify a witch.

17. What a witch actually is and how to discover one was never solved by the Puritans. The devil used witches to help him gain his goal and a person became a witch by entering into some type of binding contract with the devil.

18. Once a person entered into this contract with the Devil, that person would attack other innocent people

19. The identification becomes more complex when we realize that a witch could be invisible and could enter a person’s body without that person knowing it.

20. By an equally strange quirk of logic, once a person confessed to being a witch, then the person was free.
This goes along with the Puritan view that salvation begins by making an open confession of one’s sins.

21. One faction thought that if a witch confessed, then her soul could be saved; whereas another faction believed that to confess to being a witch would eternally damn a person.

22. In conclusion, there was much confusion and disagreement about how to detect a witch and just what a witch actually was.

23. As a result, in their attempt to rid society of witches, Puritans made mistakes and many innocent persons lost their lives.

24. Persons Typically Accused of Witchcraft
The poor
The elderly
The mentally ill
The rude or quarrelsome
Anyone who looked or acted “different”

25. As long as it was the outcasts being accused, everyone went along with the accusations
Once wealthy, upstanding members of the community began to be accused, people started to question the accusations

26. - raise ghosts of the dead - put temptation in the path of the godly
Powers of Witches
Witches Could:
- read minds
- foretell future
- raise ghosts of the dead
- put temptation in the path of the godly

27. Her specter (or spirit) could leave her body and torture her victims while the witch herself stayed home (she could not prove her innocence)
Image magic – witch would make an image of the targeted victim ( a doll or poppet) if the witch tortured the poppet, then the victim would suffer (stick a pin in doll’s head and victim would get a sudden headache)