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Question

The Trial of Agnes Sampson

 Section II. Essay: Case Study Using the Primary Source-

"The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591." (100 points)

Instructions

Carefully analyze the primary source below and prepare to write a well-organized short essay in which you address the following questions for the primary source below. Your essay must demonstrate a synthesis of knowledge gained to date from the course textbook, assigned readings lectures, class discussions, class exercises, document analysis presentations, etc. Avoid writing a mere summary of loosely related details or an essay of unsubstantiated opinion. And please remember that this examination is a closed-book/closed-notes examination. Your essay will be written in the bluebook provided."The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591."On January 27, 1591, the following court pronouncement was made:"For which cause the said Agnes was ordained by the justice pronounced by the mouth of James Shiel, dempster, to be taken the castle of Edinburgh and there bound to a stake and worried [i.e., strangled] while she was dead, and thereafter her body to be burned in ashes and all her moveable goods to be escheat and in brought to our sovereign lord's use.

1.Analyze the primary source entitled "The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591" and answer the following questions:

A) Using the primary source "The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591" as a whole: How and why was Agnes Sampson convicted of witchcraft? What crimes related to witchcraft did the authorities accuse her of committing? How were such "crimes" then "proven?"

B) Using the "profile of the witch" from Levack's textbook and discussed in class, analyze the case of Agnes Sampson. Specifically, your answer should consider the following common characteristics of the "profile of the witch:" "Sex" (Gender), Age, Marital Status, and Social and Economic Status as they apply (and perhaps in some respects do not apply) to the case of Agnes Sampson.

2 The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591," in The Witchcraft Sourcebook, 2nd ed., ed. Brian Levack (London: Routledge, 2015), 253.

Expert Solution

Agnes Sampson became convicted of witchcraft primarily based on the prevailing ideals and fears surrounding accusations of sorcery in the sixteenth century. The primary supply indicates that she was accused of accomplishing activities associated with witchcraft, although the specific charges are not specified. Witchcraft accusations during this era frequently concerned allegations of malevolent acts, which included causing damage to others through spells or invoking supernatural forces (Levack, 2015). Authorities, driven with the aid of an aggregate of nonsecular fervor and societal fears, sought to remove perceived threats to the community via the persecution of people like Agnes Sampson.

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