Witches and the Statutes of Secrecy was Re: a lot of Names, interrupted...

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 155024

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ceridwen" <ceridwennight at ...>
wrote:
>
>> 
> Ceridwen:
> Since the Salem 
> Witch Trials were near the end of the persecution, could the date have 
> been selected to convey the reason for the waning Muggle interest in 
> persecuting, rather than the other way around?  Remove the victims, and 
> there is no more need to persecute.  The WW closed in on itself 
> completely and divorced itself from the rest of human company, removing 
> the 'need' to find and kill witches.
> 
> Interesting, as I think Red Hen pointed out, that Enlightenment and 
> Industrialization followed this removal.  Someone mentioned the idea of 
> Muggles coming to the WW to solve Muggle problems.  Enlightenment seems 
> to be the complete antithisis (sp?) of this.  It is relying on Man's 
> mind rather than any extra intervention, Divine or otherwise, 
> Industrialization provides more 'magical' things (as in our technology 
> today which can be compared favorably to some of the magical things in 
> the WW).  The seperation of the WW from the Muggle world encouraged 
> Muggles to do for themselves and to create different forms of 
> government and encourage greater interest in learning.
> 
> The Statutes of Secrecy may also have been instrumental in the 
> reduction of persecutions, rather than an odd reaction to the dwindling 
> of persecution.
> 
> Ceridwen.
>

Renee:
The 17 century is definitely the period when more and more people
started questioning the witch craze and the existence of witches. But
the Statute of Secrecy is too late to have caused this. The earliest
books against the prosecution of witches date from the 16th and early
17th century (Johannes Wier, Reginald Scot, Friedrich von Spee), and
if you look at the overal picture in Europe, the number of executions
drops rather sharply after 1675. In fact, the Wizarding World made its
decision about a century too late for it to have any effect on the
persecutions. 

Also, the decline of the magical worldview prevalent in the Middle
Ages, and the rise of rationalism, are usually considered to have set
in with the spreading of Protestantism in the 16th century, also well
before the Statute of Secrecy. Maybe the decline of belief in magic
was actually one of the factors that led to it? Or, alternatively, as
has been suggested by others on this list, JKR didn't study the
history of witchcraft too closely?

Renee