HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF BELIEF IN WEREWOLVES IN WESTERN EUROPEAN SOCIETY FROM THE LATE MIDDLE AGES-EARLY MODERN TIMES

Abstract

Russian historiography in recent decades, there has been increased interest in the problems of everyday life in different historical periods and epochs. Regarding the middle ages and new time, an integral part of everyday life was the belief in the struggle between God and Devil, and Man in this confrontation was one of the conflicting parties. Holy Inquisition has been fighting with the followers of dark forces, witches and apostates – heretics since the XIII century. However, special attention should be paid to the fact that in addition to the above-mentioned victims of the ecclesiastical court, become and other devil's servants are werewolves. An important point is that the belief in creatures that can change their appearance, one way or another is present in all peoples of the world, but the massive scale, amounting to hysteria, she gets in Europe. According to the results of the research, the authors note that theories and facts that shaped the consciousness of man at the crossroads of two historical epochs – the middle ages and modern times, under the influence of Church ideologues and demonic studies, as well as reasoning of the average man which has been formed through the prism of perception of that time, belief in werewolves firmly occupies its own niche in daily life for a long time.