Witchcraft Trials Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Witchcraft Trials - Essay Example It is based on the â€Å"said offences† that the inquisitor could punish any one (1484). Similarly the Dominican scholar Johannes Nider (1476) has pointed out that even confession or true repentance could not rescue a person accused as a witch from torture and death. For the society, church and individuals who carried out the witch hunt referred to here, the witches were not humans worthy of mercy. For example, the Papal Bull used the generalizing term, evils to describe the so-called witches, when it said it was duty-bound â€Å"to prevent the taint of heretical pravity and of other like evils from spreading their infection to the ruin of others† (Innocent VIII, 1484). By giving a blanket authority to the inquisitors to carry out â€Å"correcting, imprisoning, punishing, and chastising† against people accused as witches â€Å"for their said offences and crimes† (Innocent VIII, 1484). It is notable that in the above instruction, the inquisitors are given total power while the accused are defined very vaguely. Hence it becomes clear that theoreticall y, any person can become an accused under the slightest of doubt. From what Nider (1476) has written, it is evident that the â€Å"methods of primeval infection† to become a witch were nothing but certain oath taking and renouncing the church. This is a practice of cult formation that has existed always in the history of humanity. Yet this is viewed as an offense punishable by death, that too the most torturous kind, by the witch hunters. When this kind of a mindset exists in a society, and in the minds of its rulers, no person accused as a witch can hope for getting a fair trial. Though Christianity has been known for its focus on repentance and forgiving, Nider (1476) narrated that a man who truly repented and disclosed the methods by which he and his wife were initiated into witch craft, was not spared of death. It was even officially

Assignment4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Assignment4 - Assignment Example German composers and their pieces were also numerous; they were represented by Ruhe, meine seele, Ach weh mir ungluckhaftem man and Heimliche Aufforderung by Richard Strauss. Several pieces by Tosti added Italian passion to the concert; they were represented by A Vucchella, Non T’amo Piu, Ideale, L’alba Separa Dalla Luce L’ombra and Marechiare. One piece in Spanish by Pablo Sarozabal added some temper to the performance. Rare Maori and Samoa languages were represented by a couple of folk songs followed by the nice guitar accompaniment. C. I was an attentive listener during the concert. First of all, I know that I had to write the concert report after it, so I concentrated on singing to provide more comprehensive analysis of the performance. Second of all, the concert was engaging because Pati turned to be a very pleasant and funny young singer who could easily attract attention of people and make them laugh. All pieces listed in the program were new for me. I was familiar with other compositions by Liszt and Strauss, but they were instrumental. D. The whole concert was aimed at revealing the power and beauty of Pati’s voice. His tenor was outstanding as well as his singing techniques. It was easy to indentify that the voice belonged to a young man due to the fact that it was very pure. The piano performed the main accompaniment. A couple of folk songs were followed by the guitar. In fact, they would never sound better with any other instrument. E. Generally, I liked all the pieces included in the concert. However, I recollected some of them after the concert considering the best ones. For instance, Ruhe, meine seele by Strauss was very sad and tender piece. It had some Gothic elements in both lyrics and music. Enigmatic sound combined with the tenor of the singer resulted in high quality performance which was difficult to dislike. The