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

[James Sharman]

No: HPFGUIDX 155030

Maybe the majority of the magical folk started to withdraw along time before
the statute for the all the reasons discussed. The wizzarding world seeing
the way that normal people  were starting to disbelieve and they way this
made their life easier enshrined the statute of secrecy in law to formalize
what most of them had been doing for a century. After all we know there were
hold outs (such as Marvolo and co.) who were never going to restrain
themselves unless there was legal force behind the secrecy.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com [mailto:HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Renee
Sent: 07 July 2006 13:22
To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Witches and the Statutes of Secrecy was Re: a lot
of Names, interrupted...


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

 



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