Editing Witch hunt (section)

==History==
{{further|Magic in the ancient world}}

===Ancient Near East===
Punishment for malevolent [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]] is addressed in the earliest [[law code]]s which were preserved, in both ancient [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] and [[Babylonia]], where it played a conspicuous part. The [[Code of Hammurabi]] (18th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC [[short chronology]]) prescribes that

{{blockquote|If a man has put a spell upon another man and it is not yet justified, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the [[holy river]]; into the holy river shall he plunge. If the holy river overcomes him and he is drowned, the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house. If the holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him.<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia: Witchcraft">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15674a.htm |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |article=Witchcraft}} <!-- |website=www.newadvent.org --></ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hamframe.htm |title=The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070916163034/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hamframe.htm |archive-date=16 September 2007}}</ref>}}

The [[Hebrew Bible]] condemns sorcery. [[Deuteronomy]]&nbsp;18:10–12 states: "No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an [[augur]], or a [[Magician (paranormal)|sorcerer]], or one that casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord"; and [[Book of Exodus|Exodus]]&nbsp;22:18 prescribes: "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".<ref>"witch" here translates the Hebrew {{lang|he|מכשפה}}, and is rendered {{lang|grc|φαρμακός}} in the [[Septuagint]].</ref> Tales like that of [[1 Samuel|1&nbsp;Samuel]] 28, reporting how [[Saul]] "hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land",<ref>"those that have familiar spirits": Hebrew {{lang|he|אוב}}, or {{lang|grc|ἐγγαστρίμυθος}} "ventriloquist, soothsayer" in the Septuagint; "wizards": Hebrew {{lang|he|ידעני}} or {{lang|grc|γνώστης}} "diviner" in the Septuagint.</ref> suggest that in practice sorcery could at least lead to exile.

In the Judaean [[Second Temple Judaism|Second Temple period]], Rabbi [[Simeon ben Shetach]] in the 1st century BC is reported to have sentenced to death eighty women who had been charged with witchcraft on a single day in [[Ascalon]]. Later the women's relatives took revenge by bringing false witnesses against Simeon's son and causing him to be executed in turn.<ref>''Yerushalmi [[Sanhedrin (Talmud)|Sanhedrin]]'', 6:6.</ref>

===Ancient Greco-Roman world===
No laws concerning magic survive from Classical Athens.<ref name="Collins">{{cite book |last=Collins |first=Derek |title=Magic in the Ancient Greek World |location=Malden |publisher=Blackwell |year=2008}}</ref>{{rp|133}} However, cases concerning the harmful effects of ''pharmaka'' – an ambiguous term that might mean "poison", "medicine", or "magical drug" – do survive, especially those where the drug caused injury or death.<ref name="Collins"/>{{rp|133–134}} [[Antiphon (orator)|Antiphon]]'s speech "[[Against the Stepmother for Poisoning]]" tells of the case of a woman accused of plotting to murder her husband with a ''pharmakon''; a slave had previously been executed for the crime, but the son of the victim claimed that the death had been arranged by his stepmother.<ref name="Collins"/>{{rp|135}} The most detailed account of a trial for witchcraft in Classical Greece is the story of [[Theoris of Lemnos]], who was executed along with her children some time before 338&nbsp;BC, supposedly for casting incantations and using harmful drugs.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Collins|first=Derek|title=Theoris of Lemnos and the Criminalization of Magic in Fourth-Century Athens|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=5|issue=1|year=2001|page=477|doi=10.1093/cq/51.2.477}}</ref>

[[File:Caius Furius Cressinus Accused of Sorcery LACMA M.82.119.jpg|thumb|''Caius Furius Cressinus Accused of Sorcery'', [[Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours]], 1792]]
During the [[Ancient Roman religion|pagan]] era of [[ancient Rome]], there were laws against harmful magic.<ref name="Dickie">{{cite book |last1=Dickie |first1=Matthew |title=Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |pages=138–142}}</ref> According to [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], the [[5th century BC]] laws of the [[Twelve Tables]] laid down penalties for uttering harmful incantations and for stealing the fruitfulness of someone else's crops by magic.<ref name="Dickie"/> The only recorded trial involving this law was that of [[Gaius Furius Cresimus]].<ref name="Dickie"/>

The [[Classical Latin]] word {{lang|la|veneficium}} meant both poisoning and causing harm by magic (such as magic potions), although ancient people would not have distinguished between the two.<ref name="Hutton Roman witches">{{Cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |title=The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present |date=2017 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |pages=59–66 |author-link=Ronald Hutton}}</ref> In 331 BC, a deadly epidemic hit Rome and at least 170 women were executed for causing it by ''veneficium''.<ref name="Livy-VIII">{{cite book |author=Livy |title=History of Rome, Book VIII, Chapter xviii |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0155%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D18 |access-date=15 January 2021}}</ref> In 184–180 BC, another epidemic hit Italy, and about 5,000 people were brought to trial and executed for ''veneficium''.<ref name="Hutton Roman witches"/> If the reports are accurate, writes [[Ronald Hutton|Hutton]], "then the [[Roman Republic|Republican Romans]] hunted witches on a scale unknown anywhere else in the ancient world".<ref name="Hutton Roman witches"/>

Under the ''[[Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis]]'' of 81 BC, killing by ''veneficium'' carried the death penalty.<ref name="Hutton Roman witches"/> This law banned the trading and possession of harmful drugs and poisons, possession of magical books and other occult paraphernalia. Emperor [[Augustus]] strengthened laws to curb these practices, for instance in 31&nbsp;BC, by burning over 2,000&nbsp;magical books in Rome, except for certain portions of the hallowed [[Sibylline Books]].<ref name=Suetonius>{{cite book |author=Suetonius |title=The Life of Augustus}}</ref><ref name=Garnsey>{{cite book |last1=Garnsey |first1=Peter |last2=Saller |first2=Richard P. |title=The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture |url=https://archive.org/details/romanempireecono00garn |url-access=registration |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|year=1987 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/romanempireecono00garn/page/168 168]–174 |isbn=978-0-520-06067-8}}</ref> While Tiberius Claudius was emperor, 85&nbsp;women and 45&nbsp;men accused of sorcery were executed.<ref name=Ogden>{{cite book |last=Ogden |first=Daniel |title=Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |pages=283 |isbn=978-0-19-513575-6}}</ref> By the 3rd century AD, the ''Lex Cornelia'' had begun to be used more broadly against other kinds of magic deemed harmful.<ref name="Hutton Roman witches"/> The magicians were to be burnt at the stake.<ref name="Dickie"/>

Persecution of witches continued in the [[Roman Empire]] until the late 4th&nbsp;century AD and abated only after the introduction of [[Early centers of Christianity#Rome|Christianity]] as the Roman state religion in the 390s.<ref name=Behringer>{{cite book |last=Behringer |first=Wolfgang |title=Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History |location=Cambridge |publisher=Polity Press |year=2004 |pages=48–50 |isbn=978-0745627175}}</ref>

===Middle Ages===
{{further|European witchcraft#History}}

====Christianisation in the Early Middle Ages====
The German author Wilhelm Gottlieb Soldan argued in ''History of the Witchcraft Trials'' that the philosopher and mathematician [[Hypatia]], murdered by a mob in 415 AD for threatening the influence of [[Cyril of Alexandria]], may have been, in effect, the first famous "witch" to be punished by Christian authorities.<ref>{{citation|last=Soldan|first=Wilhelm Gottlieb|title=Geschichte der Hexenprozesse: aus dem Qvellen Dargestellt|url=https://archive.org/details/geschichtederhe00soldgoog|year=1843|publisher=Cotta|page=82}}.</ref> Cyril's alleged role in her murder, however, was already controversial among contemporary sources,<ref>{{citation|last=Watts|first=Edward J.|author-link=Edward J. Watts|date=2008|orig-year=2006|title=City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKolDQAAQBAJ|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520258167|page=200}}</ref> and the surviving primary account by [[Socrates Scholasticus]] makes no mention of religious motivations.<ref>{{citation|last1=Cameron|first1=Alan|last2=Long|first2=Jacqueline|last3=Sherry|first3=Lee|author1-link=Alan Cameron (classical scholar)|date=1993|title=Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6t44B0-a98C&pg=PA59|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-06550-5|page=59}}</ref>

The 6th&nbsp;century AD ''[[Getica]]'' of [[Jordanes]] records a persecution and expulsion of witches among the [[Goths]] in a mythical account of the origin of the [[Huns]]. The ancient fabled King [[Filimer]] is said to have

{{blockquote|found among his people certain witches, whom he called in his native tongue ''Haliurunnae''. Suspecting these women, he expelled them from the midst of his race and compelled them to wander in solitary exile afar from his army. There the unclean spirits, who beheld them as they wandered through the wilderness, bestowed their embraces upon them and begat this savage race, which dwelt at first in the swamps, a stunted, foul and puny tribe, scarcely human, and having no language save one which bore but slight resemblance to human speech.<ref name="JordanesOrigins">{{cite book |last=Jordanes |author-link=Jordanes |title=The Origin and Deeds of the Goths |translator=[[Charles C. Mierow]] |at=§ 24}}</ref>}}

The Councils of [[Synod of Elvira|Elvira]] (306&nbsp;AD), [[Synod of Ancyra|Ancyra]] (314&nbsp;AD), and [[Quinisext Council|Trullo]] (692&nbsp;AD) imposed certain ecclesiastical penances for devil-worship. This mild approach represented the view of the Church for many centuries. The general desire of the [[Catholic Church]]'s clergy to check fanaticism about witchcraft and [[necromancy]] is shown in the decrees of the [[Council of Paderborn]], which, in 785&nbsp;AD, explicitly outlawed condemning people as witches and condemned to death anyone who burnt a witch. The Lombard code of 643&nbsp;AD states:

{{blockquote|Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female servant as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Hutton |title=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy |title-link=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles |page=257 |chapter=The Clash of Faiths (AD c. 300–{{circa|1000}}) |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=0-631-18946-7 |date=1993 |edition=pbk. |orig-year=1991}}</ref>}}

This conforms to the teachings of the [[Canon Episcopi]] of circa 900&nbsp;AD (alleged to date from 314&nbsp;AD), which, stated that witchcraft did not exist and that to teach that it was a reality was, itself, false and heterodox teaching. Other examples include an Irish synod in 800&nbsp;AD,<ref>{{cite book |quote=Likewise, an Irish synod at around 800&nbsp;AD condemned the belief in witches, and in particular those who slandered people for being ''lamias'' ('''que interpretatur striga'''). |last=Behringer |title=Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History |year=2004 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |pages=30–31}}</ref> and a sermon by [[Agobard|Agobard of Lyons]] (810&nbsp;AD).{{efn|A crown witness of 'Carolingian skepticism', Archbishop Agobard of Lyon (769–840&nbsp;AD), reports witch panics during the reign of Charlemagne. In his sermon on hailstorms he reports frequent lynchings of supposed weather magicians (''tempestarii''), as well as of sorcerers, who were made responsible for a terrible livestock mortality in 810&nbsp;AD. According to Agobard, the common people in their fury over crop failure had developed the extravagant idea that foreigners were secretly coming with airships to strip their fields of crops, and transmit it to Magonia. These anxieties resulted in severe aggression, and on one occasion around 816&nbsp;AD, Agobard could hardly prevent a crowd from killing three foreign men and women, perceived as Magonian people. As their supposed homeland's name suggests, the crop failure was associated with magic. The bishop emphasized that thunderstorms were caused exclusively by natural or divine agencies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Behringer |year=2004 |title=Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |pages=54–55}}</ref>}}
[[File:Torturing and execution of witches in medieval miniature.jpg|thumb|Burning witches, with others held in stocks, 14th century]]
[[Coloman, King of Hungary|King Kálmán (Coloman) of Hungary]], in Decree 57 of his First Legislative Book (published in 1100), banned witch-hunting because he said, "witches do not exist".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bibleapologetics.wordpress.com/tag/witch-hunts-2/#_ftnref17 |title=witch hunts |website=Bible Apologetics}}</ref><ref>
"A decree of King Coloman of Hungary (c. 1074–1116, r. 1095–1116) against the belief in the existence of ''strigae'' (''De strigis vero que non sunt, ne ulla questio fiat'') suggests that they were thought to be human beings with demonic affiliation: witches.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 32 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.</ref> The "Decretum" of [[Burchard, Bishop of Worms]] (about 1020), and especially its 19th book, often known separately as the "Corrector", is another work of great importance. Burchard was writing against the superstitious belief in magical [[potion]]s, for instance, that may produce impotence or abortion. These were also condemned by several Church Fathers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/abortion-contraception-and-the-church-fathers |title=Abortion, Contraception and the Church Fathers |work=National Catholic Register|date=16 February 2012 }}</ref> But he altogether rejected the possibility of many of the alleged powers with which witches were popularly credited. Such, for example, were nocturnal riding through the air, the changing of a person's disposition from love to hate, the control of thunder, rain, and sunshine, the transformation of a man into an animal, the intercourse of [[incubi]] and [[succubi]] with human beings, and other such superstitions. Not only the attempt to practice such things, but the very belief in their possibility, is treated by Burchard as false and superstitious.

[[Pope Gregory VII]], in 1080, wrote to King [[Harald III of Denmark]] forbidding witches to be put to death upon being suspected of having caused storms or failure of crops or pestilence. There were many such efforts to prevent unjust treatment of innocent people.{{efn|See, for example, the ''Weihenstephan'' case discussed by Weiland in the ''Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte'', IX, 592.
"In 1080 Harold of Denmark (r. 1076–80) was admonished not to hold old women and Christian priests responsible for storms and diseases, or to slaughter them in the cruelest manner. Like Agobard before him, Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–85) declared in his letter to the Danish king that these catastrophes were caused by God alone, that they were God's punishment for human sins, and that the killing of the innocent would only increase His fury."<ref>Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 55 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.</ref>}} On many occasions, ecclesiastics who spoke with authority did their best to disabuse the people of their superstitious belief in witchcraft.<ref>This, for instance, is the general purport of the book {{cite book |title=Contra insulsam vulgi opinionem de grandine et tonitruis |trans-title=Against the foolish belief of the common sort concerning hail and thunder |author=Agobard |author-link=Agobard |date=c. 800s <!--before 841--> |publisher=[[Archbishop of Lyons]] |place=Lyons, FR}}</ref><ref>[[Jacques-Paul Migne|Migne]], ''[[Patrologia Latina]]'', CIV, 147</ref> A comparable situation in [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|Russia]] is suggested in a sermon by [[Serapion of Vladimir]] (written in 1274~1275), where the popular superstition of witches causing crop failures is denounced.{{efn|"Witches were executed at Novgorod in 1227, and after a severe famine in the years 1271–1274 Bishop Serapion of Vladimir asked in a sermon: 'you believe in witchcraft and burn innocent people and bring down murder upon earth and the city ... Out of what books or writings do you learn that famine in earth is brought about by witchcraft?'" <ref>{{cite book |author=Behringer |title=Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History |year=2004 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |page=56}}</ref>}}

Condemnations of witchcraft are nevertheless found in the writings of [[Augustine of Hippo]] and early theologians, who made little distinction between witchcraft and the practices of pagan religions.<ref name=":3" /> Many believed witchcraft did not exist in a philosophical sense: Witchcraft was based on illusions and powers of evil, which Augustine likened to darkness, a non-entity representing the absence of light.<ref name=":3" /> Augustine and his adherents like [[Thomas Aquinas|Saint Thomas Aquinas]] nevertheless promulgated elaborate demonologies, including the belief that humans could enter pacts with demons, which became the basis of future witch hunts.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford illustrated history of witchcraft and magic |others=Davies, Owen |isbn=9780199608447 |edition=1st |location=Oxford |oclc=972537073|year = 2017}}</ref> Ironically, many clerics of the Middle Ages openly or covertly practiced [[goetia]], believing that as Christ granted his disciples power to command demons, to summon and control demons was not, therefore, a sin.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Magic in the Middle Ages |last=Kieckhefer, Richard |date= 2014 |isbn=9781139923484 |edition=2nd |location=Cambridge |oclc=889521066}}</ref>

Whatever the position of individual clerics, witch-hunting seems to have persisted as a cultural phenomenon. Throughout the early medieval period, notable rulers prohibited both witchcraft and pagan religions, often on pain of death. Under Charlemagne, for example, Christians who practiced witchcraft were enslaved by the Church, while those who worshiped the Devil (Germanic gods) were killed outright.<ref name=":3" /> Witch-hunting also appears in period literature. According to [[Snorri Sturluson]], King [[Olaf Tryggvason|Olaf Trygvasson]] furthered the Christian conversion of Norway by luring pagan magicians to his hall under false pretenses, barring the doors and burning them alive. Some who escaped were later captured and drowned.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/heim/07olaftr.htm |title=Heimskringla: King Olaf Trygvason's Saga |website=Sacred Texts}}</ref>

Early secular laws against witchcraft include those promulgated by King [[Athelstan]] (924–939):

{{blockquote|And we have ordained respecting witch-crafts, and ''lybacs'' ''[read ''lyblac'' "sorcery"]'', and ''morthdaeds ["murder, mortal sin"]'': if any one should be thereby killed, and he could not deny it, that he be liable in his life. But if he will deny it, and at [[Trial by ordeal|threefold ordeal]] shall be guilty; that he be 120&nbsp;days in prison: and after that let kindred take him out, and give to the king 120&nbsp;shillings, and pay the [[weregild|wer]] to his kindred, and enter into [[Frankpledge|borh]] for him, that he evermore desist from the like.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/560-975dooms.html |title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project |website=www.fordham.edu}}</ref>}}

In some prosecutions for witchcraft, torture (permitted by the [[Roman civil law]]) apparently took place. However, [[Pope Nicholas I]] (866&nbsp;AD), prohibited the use of torture altogether, and a similar decree may be found in the [[Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals]].<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia: Witchcraft"/>

====Later Middle Ages====
[[File:Willisau 1447.JPG|thumb|200px|The burning of a woman in [[Willisau]], [[Switzerland]], 1447]]
The manuals of the Roman Catholic [[Inquisition]] remained highly skeptical of witch accusations, although there was sometimes an overlap between accusations of heresy and of witchcraft, particularly when, in the 13th century, the newly formed [[Inquisition]] was commissioned to deal with the [[Cathars]] of Southern France, whose teachings were charged with including witchcraft and magic. Although it has been proposed that the witch-hunt developed in Europe from the early 14th&nbsp;century, after the Cathars and the [[Knights Templar]] were suppressed, this hypothesis has been rejected independently by virtually all academic historians (Cohn 1975; Kieckhefer 1976).

In 1258, [[Pope Alexander IV]] declared that Inquisition would not deal with cases of witchcraft unless they were related to heresy.{{efn|"There would be no witch persecutions of the sort he envisaged. The Gregorian Inquisition had been established to deal with the religious matter of heresy, not the secular issue of witchcraft. Pope Alexander&nbsp;IV spelled this out clearly in a 1258 canon which forbade inquisitions into sorcery unless there was also manifest heresy. And this view was even confirmed and acknowledged by the infamous inquisitor Bernard Gui (immortalised by Umberto Eco in ''The Name of the Rose''), who wrote in his influential inquisitors' manual that, by itself, sorcery did not come within the Inquisition's jurisdiction. In sum, the Church did not want the Inquisition sucked into witch trials, which were for the secular courts."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/dominicselwood/100269271/how-protestantism-fuelled-europes-deadly-witch-craze/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528233841/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/dominicselwood/100269271/how-protestantism-fuelled-europes-deadly-witch-craze/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-05-28 |title=How Protestantism fuelled Europe's deadly witch craze |first=Dominic |last=Selwood |author-link=Dominic Selwood |newspaper=[[The Telegraph (website)|The Telegraph]] |date=2016-03-16 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |last=Cross |first=Livingstone |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192802903 |page=1769}}</ref> Although [[Pope John XXII]] had later authorized the Inquisition to prosecute sorcerers in 1320,<ref>[[Jeffrey Burton Russell]], ''A History of Medieval Christianity'' (173).</ref> inquisitorial courts rarely dealt with witchcraft save incidentally when investigating heterodoxy.

In the case of the [[Madonna Oriente]], the Inquisition of [[Milan]] was not sure what to do with two women who, in 1384, confessed to have participated in the society around Signora Oriente or [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]]. Through their confessions, both of them conveyed the traditional folk beliefs of white magic. The women were accused again in 1390, and condemned by the inquisitor. They were eventually executed by the secular arm.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohn |first=Norman |year=2000 |orig-year=1993 |title=Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom |edition=Revised |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/europesinnerdemo00cohn_0/page/173 173]–174 |title-link=Europe's Inner Demons}}</ref>

In a notorious case in 1425, [[Hermann II, Count of Celje]] accused his daughter-in-law [[Veronika of Desenice]] of witchcraft – and, though she was acquitted by the court, he had her murdered by drowning. The accusations of witchcraft are, in this case, considered to have been a pretext for Hermann to get rid of an "unsuitable match," Veronika being born into the lower nobility and thus "unworthy" of his son.

A Catholic figure who preached against witchcraft was popular Franciscan preacher [[Bernardino of Siena]] (1380–1444). Bernardino's sermons reveal both a phenomenon of superstitious practices and an over-reaction against them by the common people.<ref>See Franco Mormando, ''The Preacher's Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999, Chapter 2.</ref> However, it is clear that Bernardino had in mind not merely the use of spells and enchantments and such like fooleries but much more serious crimes, chiefly murder and infanticide. This is clear from his much-quoted sermon of 1427, in which he says:
<blockquote>One of them told and confessed, without any pressure, that she had killed thirty children by bleeding them ... [and] she confessed more, saying she had killed her own son ... Answer me: does it really seem to you that someone who has killed twenty or thirty little children in such a way has done so well that when finally they are accused before the Signoria you should go to their aid and beg mercy for them?</blockquote>
Perhaps the most notorious witch trial in history was the [[trial of Joan of Arc]]. Although the trial was politically motivated, and the verdict later overturned, the position of Joan as a woman and an accused witch became significant factors in her execution.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Joan of Arc : a life transfigured |last=Harrison, Kathryn |year=2014 |isbn=9780385531207 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=876833154}}</ref> Joan's punishment of being burned alive (victims were usually strangled before burning) was reserved solely for witches and heretics, the implication being that a burned body could not be resurrected on [[Last Judgment|Judgment Day]].<ref name=":2" />

====Transition to the early modern witch-hunts====
[[File:12.Garden-Brutal Myths.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'' (the 'Hammer of Witches'), published in 1487, accused women of destroying men by planting bitter herbs throughout the field.]]
[[File:Wickiana5.jpg|thumb|[[Death by burning|Burning]] of three witches in [[Baden, Switzerland|Baden]], Switzerland (1585), by [[Johann Jakob Wick]]]]
The resurgence of witch-hunts at the end of the medieval period, taking place with at least partial support or at least tolerance on the part of the Church, was accompanied with a number of developments in Christian doctrine, for example, the recognition of the existence of witchcraft as a form of Satanic influence and its classification as a heresy. As [[Renaissance magic|Renaissance occultism]] gained traction among the educated classes, the belief in witchcraft, which in the medieval period had been part of the [[folk religion]] of the uneducated rural population at best, was incorporated into an increasingly comprehensive theology of Satan as the ultimate source of all ''maleficium''.{{efn|Early Christian theologians attributed to the Devil responsibility for persecution, heresy, witchcraft, sin, natural disasters, human calamities, and whatever else went wrong. One tragic consequence of this was a tendency to demonize people accused of wrongs. At the instance of ecclesiastical leaders, the state burned heretics and witches, burning symbolizing the fate deserved by the demonic. Popular fears, stirred to fever pitch in the 14th and 15th&nbsp;centuries, sustained frenzied efforts to wipe out heretics, witches, and unbelievers, especially Jews.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hinson |title=Historical and Theological Perspectives on Satan |magazine=[[Review & Expositor]] |volume=89 |issue=4 |page=475 |date=Fall 1992}}</ref>}}{{efn|Trevor-Roper has said that it was necessary for belief in the Kingdom of Satan to die before the witch theory could be discredited.<ref>{{cite book |last=Larner |article=Crime of witchcraft in early modern Europe |editor=Oldridge |title=The Witchcraft Reader |page=211 |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge}}</ref>}} These doctrinal shifts were completed in the mid-15th century, specifically in the wake of the [[Council of Basel]] and centered on the [[Duchy of Savoy]] in the western Alps,{{efn|We are reasonably confident today that the 'classical' doctrine of witchcraft crystallized during the middle third of the 15th century, shortly after the Council of Basel, primarily within a western Alpine zone centred around the duchy of Savoy (Ostorero et al. 1999).<ref name="Behringer 2004 18–19">{{cite book |last=Behringer |title=Witches and Witch-hunts: A global history |year=2004 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |pages=18–19}}</ref>}} leading to an early series of witch trials by both secular and ecclesiastical courts in the second half of the 15th century.{{efn|By the end of the 15th century, scattered trials for witchcraft by both secular and ecclesiastical courts occurred in many places from the Pyrenees, where the Spanish Inquisition had become involved, to the North Sea.<ref name="Behringer 2004 18–19"/>}}

In 1484, [[Pope Innocent VIII]] issued ''[[Summis desiderantes affectibus]]'', a [[Papal bull]] authorizing the "correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising" of devil-worshippers who have "slain infants", among other crimes. He did so at the request of inquisitor [[Heinrich Kramer]], who had been refused permission by the local bishops in Germany to investigate.<ref>Levack, ''The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe'', (49)</ref> However, historians such as [[Ludwig von Pastor]] insist that the bull neither allowed anything new, nor was necessarily binding on Catholic consciences.{{efn|"The Bull contains no dogmatic decision of any sort on witchcraft. It assumes the possibility of demoniacal influences on human beings which the Church has always maintained, but claims no dogmatic authority for its pronouncement on the particular cases with which it was dealing at the moment. The form of the document, which refers only to certain occurrences which had been brought to the knowledge of the Pope, sh[o]ws that it was not intended to bind any one to believe in the things mentioned in it. The question whether the Pope himself believed in them has nothing to do with the subject. His judgment on this point has no greater importance than attaches to a Papal decree in any other undogmatic question, e.g., on a dispute about a benefice. The Bull introduced no new element into the current beliefs about witchcraft. It is absurd to accuse it of being the cause of the cruel treatment of witches, when we see in the ''Sachsenspiegel'' that burning alive was already the legal punishment for a witch. All that Innocent VIII. did was to confirm the jurisdiction of the inquisitors over these cases. The Bull simply empowered them to try all matters concerning witchcraft, without exception, before their own tribunals, by Canon-law; a process which was totally different from that of the later trials. Possibly the Bull, in so far as it admonished the inquisitors to be on the alert in regard to witchcraft may have given an impetus to the prosecution of such cases; but it affords no justification for the accusation that it introduced a new crime, or was in any way responsible for the iniquitous horrors of the witch-harrying of later times."<ref>{{cite book |first=Ludwig |last=von Pastor |author-link=Ludwig von Pastor |title=The History of the Popes, from the Close of the Middle Ages |volume=5 |pages=349–350}}</ref>}} Three years later in 1487, Kramer published the notorious ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'' (lit., 'Hammer against the Evildoers') which, because of the newly invented printing presses, enjoyed a wide readership. It was reprinted in 14 editions by 1520 and became unduly influential in the secular courts.<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Jolly |editor2=Raudvere |editor3=Peters |title=Witchcraft and magic in Europe: the Middle Ages |page=241 |year=2002}}</ref>

In Europe, the witch-hunt craze was negligible in Spain, Poland, and Eastern Europe; conversely, it was intense in Germany, Switzerland, and France.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=[[Nachman Ben-Yehuda]] |title=The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A Sociologist's Perspective' |journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]] |date=July 1980 |volume=86 |issue=1 |pages=6–7 |url=http://www.jstor.com/stable/2778849 |access-date=8 April 2023 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |language=en |issn=0002-9602 |quote=he witch-hunts were conducted in their most intense form in those regions where the Catholic church was weakest (Lea 1957; Rose 1962) (Germany, Switzerland, France). In areas with a strong church (Spain, Poland, and eastern Europe) the witch craze was negligible.}}</ref>

===Early Modern Europe and Colonial America===
{{Main|Witch trials in the early modern period}}The witch trials in [[Early Modern Europe]] came in waves and then subsided. There were trials in the 15th and early 16th&nbsp;centuries, but then the witch scare went into decline, before becoming a major issue again and peaking in the 17th&nbsp;century; particularly during the [[Thirty Years' War]]. What had previously been a belief that some people possessed supernatural abilities (which were sometimes used to protect the people), now became a sign of a pact between the people with supernatural abilities and the devil. To justify the killings, some [[Christians]] of the time and their proxy secular institutions deemed witchcraft as being associated to wild [[Satanism|Satanic]] ritual parties in which there was naked dancing and [[Blood libel|cannibalistic infanticide]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ellerbe |first=Helen |title=The Dark Side of Christian History |publisher=Morningstar & Lark |year=1995}}</ref> It was also seen as [[heresy]] for going against the first of the [[Ten Commandments]] ("You shall have no other gods before me") or as [[Lèse majesté|violating majesty]], in this case referring to the divine majesty, not the worldly.<ref>{{cite book |last=Meewis |first=Wim |year=1992 |title=De Vierschaar |publisher=Uitgevering Pelckmans |page=115}}</ref> Further scripture was also frequently cited, especially the Exodus decree that "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus&nbsp;22:18), which many supported.

[[File:Examination of a Witch - Tompkins Matteson.jpg|thumb|[[The Examination of a Witch (painting)|Examination of a Witch in the 17th century]] (1853), by [[T. H. Matteson]]]]
Witch-hunts were seen across early modern Europe, but the most significant area of witch-hunting in modern Europe is often considered to be central and southern Germany.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=12341&amid=12341 |title=The History Today Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071112102609/http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=12341&amid=12341 |archive-date=12 November 2007}}</ref> Germany was a late starter in terms of the numbers of trials, compared to other regions of Europe. Witch-hunts first appeared in large numbers in southern France and Switzerland during the 14th and 15th centuries. The peak years of witch-hunts in southwest Germany were from 1561 to 1670.<ref>{{cite book |first=H.C. Erik |last=Midelfort |title=Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany 1562–1684 |url=https://archive.org/details/witchhuntinginso0000unse |url-access=registration |year=1972 |page=[https://archive.org/details/witchhuntinginso0000unse/page/71 71]|publisher=Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804708050 }}</ref> The [[Wiesensteig witch trial|first major persecution]] in Europe, when witches were caught, tried, convicted, and burned in the imperial lordship of Wiesensteig in southwestern Germany, is recorded in 1563 in a pamphlet called "True and Horrifying Deeds of 63&nbsp;Witches".<ref>Behringer (2004), p. 83.</ref> Witchcraft persecution spread to all areas of Europe. Learned European ideas about witchcraft and demonological ideas, strongly influenced the hunt for witches in the North.<ref>{{cite book |title=Witches of the North |last=Willumsen |first=Liv Helene |publisher=Brill |year=2013 |isbn=9789004252912 |location=Leiden |pages=1–13}}</ref> These witch-hunts were at least partly driven by economic factors since a significant relationship between economic pressure and witch hunting activity can be found for regions such as Bavaria and Scotland.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Baten|first1=Joerg|last2=Woitek|first2=Ulrich|title=Economic determinants of witch-hunting|journal=University of Tübingen Research Paper}}</ref>

In Denmark, the burning of witches increased following the [[Protestant Reformation|reformation]] of 1536. [[Christian IV of Denmark]], in particular, encouraged this practice, and hundreds of people were convicted of [[witchcraft]] and burnt. In the district of Finnmark, northern Norway, severe witchcraft trials took place during the period 1600–1692.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark, northern Norway |last=Willumsen |first=Liv Helene |publisher=Skald |year=2010 |isbn=978-82-7959-152-8 |location=Bergen |page=13}}</ref> A memorial of international format, ''Steilneset Memorial'', has been built to commemorate the victims of the Finnmark witchcraft trials.<ref>{{cite book |chapter='Introduction' |title=Steilneset Memorial. Art Architecture History |last1=Andreassen |last2=Willumsen |publisher=Orkana |year=2014 |isbn=978-82-8104-245-2 |location=Stamsund |pages=1–10}}</ref> In England, the [[Witchcraft Act 1541]] regulated the penalties for witchcraft. In the [[North Berwick witch trials]] in Scotland, over 70&nbsp;people were accused of witchcraft on account of bad weather when [[James I of England|James&nbsp;VI of Scotland]], who shared the Danish king's interest in witch trials, sailed to Denmark in 1590 to meet his betrothed [[Anne of Denmark]]. According to a widely circulated pamphlet, "Newes from Scotland," James&nbsp;VI personally presided over the torture and execution of Doctor Fian.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/kjd/index.htm |title=Daemonlologie by King James the First and Newes from Scotland |website=Sacred Texts}}</ref> Indeed, James published a witch-hunting manual, [[Daemonologie]], which contains the famous dictum: "Experience daily proves how loath they are to confess without torture." Later, the [[Pendle witch trials]] of 1612 joined the ranks of the most famous witch trials in English history.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/hi/things_to_do/newsid_8316000/8316766.stm|title=Follow the Pendle Witches trail|date=21 October 2009|via=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref>

[[File:Bamberger Malefizhaus 1627 Staatsbiblithek Bamberg.jpg|thumb|left|The ''Malefizhaus'' of [[Bamberg, Germany]], where suspected witches were held and interrogated. 1627 engraving.]]In England, witch-hunting would reach its apex in 1644 to 1647 due to the efforts of Puritan [[Matthew Hopkins]]. Although operating without an official Parliament commission, Hopkins (calling himself Witchfinder General) and his accomplices charged hefty fees to towns during the [[English Civil War]]. Hopkins' witch-hunting spree was brief but significant: 300&nbsp;convictions and deaths are attributed to his work.<ref name="sharpe">{{cite book |last=Sharpe |first=James |year=2002 |article=The Lancaster witches in historical context |editor=Poole, Robert |title=The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6204-9 |pages=1–18}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=July 2017}} Hopkins wrote a book on his methods, describing his fortuitous beginnings as a witch-hunter, the methods used to extract confessions, and the tests he employed to test the accused: stripping them naked to find the [[Witches' mark]], [[Cucking stool|the "swimming" test]], and [[Pricking|pricking the skin]]. The swimming test, which included throwing a witch, who was strapped to a chair, into a bucket of water to see if she floated, was discontinued in 1645 due to a legal challenge. The 1647 book, ''The Discovery of Witches'', soon became an influential legal text. The book was used in the [[Thirteen Colonies|American colonies]] as early as May 1647, when [[Margaret Jones (Puritan midwife)|Margaret Jones]] was executed for witchcraft in [[Massachusetts]],<ref name="Jewett">{{cite book |author=Jewett, Clarence F. |title=The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630–1880 |url=https://archive.org/details/memorialhistory04wins |publisher=Ticknor and Company |year=1881 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/memorialhistory04wins/page/133 133]–137}}</ref> the first of 17&nbsp;people executed for witchcraft in the Colonies from 1647 to 1663.<ref name="Fraden" />
[[File:Salem witch2.jpg|thumb|[[Lithography|lithograph]] depicting Salem witch trials, 1892]]
Witch-hunts began to occur in North America while Hopkins was hunting witches in England. In 1645, forty-six years before the notorious [[Salem witch trials]], [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] experienced America's first accusations of [[witchcraft]] when husband and wife Hugh and Mary Parsons accused each other of witchcraft. In America's first witch trial, Hugh was found innocent, while Mary was acquitted of witchcraft but she was still sentenced to be hanged as punishment for the death of her child. She died in prison.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.masslive.com/history/index.ssf/2011/05/springfields_375th_from_puritans_to_presidents.html |title=Springfield's 375th: From Puritans to presidents |work=masslive.com |date=10 May 2011}}</ref> About eighty people throughout England's [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts Bay Colony]] were accused of practicing witchcraft; thirteen women and two men were executed in a witch-hunt that occurred throughout [[New England Colonies|New England]] and lasted from 1645 to 1663.<ref name="Fraden">{{cite book |last1=Fraden |first1=Judith Bloom |first2=Dennis Brindell |last2=Fraden |title=The Salem Witch Trials |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |year=2008 |page=15}}</ref> The [[Salem witch trials]] followed in 1692–1693.

Once a case was brought to trial, the prosecutors hunted for accomplices. The use of magic was considered wrong, not because it failed, but because it worked effectively for the wrong reasons. Witchcraft was a normal part of everyday life. Witches were often called for, along with religious ministers, to help the ill or deliver a baby. They held positions of spiritual power in their communities. When something went wrong, no one questioned either the ministers or the power of the witchcraft. Instead, they questioned whether the witch intended to inflict harm or not.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wallace |first=Peter G. |title=The Long European Reformation |url=https://archive.org/details/longeuropeanrefo00pete |url-access=limited |year=2004 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-333-64451-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/longeuropeanrefo00pete/page/n222 210]–215}}</ref>

Current scholarly estimates of the number of people who were executed for witchcraft vary from about 35,000 to 60,000.{{efn|name=victim_stats}} The total number of witch trials in Europe which are known to have ended in executions is around 12,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Estimates of executions |url=http://www.summerlands.com/crossroads/remembrance/current.htm}} Based on [[Ronald Hutton]]'s essay ''Counting the Witch Hunt''.</ref> Prominent contemporaneous critics of witch-hunts included Gianfrancesco Ponzinibio (fl. 1520), [[Johannes Wier]] (1515–1588), [[Reginald Scot]] (1538–1599), [[Cornelius Loos]] (1546–1595), [[Anton Praetorius]] (1560–1613), [[Alonso Salazar y Frías]] (1564–1636), [[Friedrich Spee]] (1591–1635), and [[Balthasar Bekker]] (1634–1698).<ref>Charles Alva Hoyt, ''Witchcraft'', Southern Illinois University Press, 2nd ed., 1989, pp. 66–70, {{ISBN|0-8093-1544-0}}.</ref> Among the largest and most notable of these trials were the [[Trier witch trials]] (1581–1593), the [[Fulda witch trials]] (1603–1606), the [[Würzburg witch trial]] (1626–1631) and the [[Bamberg witch trials]] (1626–1631).{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

In addition to known witch trials, witch hunts were often conducted by vigilantes, who may or may not have executed their victims. In Scotland, for example, cattle murrains were blamed on witches, usually peasant women, who were duly punished. A popular method called "scoring above the breath" meant slashing across a woman's forehead in order to remove the power of her magic. This was seen as a kind of emergency procedure which could be performed in absence of judicial authorities.<ref>{{cite book |title=The lore of Scotland: A guide to Scottish legends |author=Westwood, Jennifer |year=2011 |publisher=Arrow |others=Kingshill, Sophia |isbn=9780099547167 |location=London |oclc=712624576}}</ref>

[[File:Hexenprozess gegen Katharina Kepler, 14. Juli 1621.jpg|thumb|Witness testimony from the witch trial against Katharina Kepler, 14 July 1621]]
Another important element of the persecution of witches were [[denunciation]]s. "In England, most of the accusers and those making written complaints against witches were women."<ref>{{cite web |title=Witchcraft: Eight Myths and Misconceptions |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/eight-witchcraft-myths/ |website=English Heritage |access-date=8 August 2024}}</ref> Informers did not have to be revealed to the accused, which was important for the success of the witch trials. In practice, appeals were made to other witnesses to the crimes, so that the first informer was followed by others. In the event of a conviction, the informer sometimes received a third of the accused's assets, but at least 2 [[guilder]]s. A well-known and well-documented example is the case of [[Katharina Kepler]], the mother of the astronomer [[Johannes Kepler]], for being in a pact with the devil and using witchcraft. In 1615, she was called a witch by a female neighbor in the [[duchy of Württemberg]] following a dispute with her of having given her a bitter drink that had made her ill. She was held captive for over a year and threatened with torture, but was finally acquitted thanks to her son's efforts.<ref name="solitude">Akademie Schloss Solitude: [https://www.akademie-solitude.de/de/online-publications/on-the-occult-and-the-supernatural/keplers-witch-trial/ Kepler’s Witch Trial], retrieved: 21 April 2024</ref>

====Execution statistics====
[[File:Witches Being Hanged.jpg|thumb|An image of suspected witches being hanged in England, published in 1655]][[File:William Powell Frith The Witch Trial.jpg|thumb|''The Witch Trial'' by [[William Powell Frith]] (1848)]]

Modern scholarly estimates place the total number of executions for witchcraft in the 300-year period of European witch-hunts in the five digits, mostly at roughly between 35,000 and 60,000 (see table below for details),{{efn|name=victim_stats|The ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' sets a limit of "no more than 40,000 to 60,000."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia	|last1=Russell |first1=Jeffrey Burton |last2=Lewis |first2=Ioan M. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |title=Witchcraft |year=2000 |access-date=2021-08-27 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/witchcraft}}</ref> The high end of that range originates with [[Brian P. Levack]]'s first edition of ''The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe'', which he revised down to 45,000 in the third edition.<ref>{{cite book |first=Brian P. |last=Levack |author-link=Brian P. Levack |title=The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe |year=1987 |url=https://archive.org/details/witchhuntinearly0000leva |url-access=registration |page=21}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Brian P. |last=Levack |author-link=Brian P. Levack |title=The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe |year=2006 |edition=3rd |url=https://archive.org/details/witchhuntinearly0000leva_l1l1 |url-access=registration |page=23|publisher=Pearson Longman |isbn=9780582419018 }}</ref> William Monter estimates 35,000 deaths; [[Malcolm Gaskill]] and Richard Golden both estimate 40,000–50,000.<ref>{{cite book |first=William |last=Monter |chapter=Witch Trials in Continental Europe |title=Witchcraft and Magic in Europe |editor1=Ankarloo, Bengst |editor2=Clark, Stuart |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |place=Philadelphia|year=2002 |pages=12 ff |isbn=0-8122-1787-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gaskill |first=Malcolm |authorlink= Malcolm Gaskill|title=Witchcraft, a very short introduction |url=https://archive.org/details/witchcraftverysh00gask_191 |url-access=limited |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |page=[https://archive.org/details/witchcraftverysh00gask_191/page/n92 76]|isbn=978-0-19-923695-4 }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> [[Anne Lewellyn Barstow]] adjusted Levack's first estimate to account for lost records, estimating 100,000 deaths.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anne Lewellyn |last=Barstow |author-link=Anne Lewellyn Barstow |title=Witchcraze|year=1994 |url=https://archive.org/details/witchcrazenewhis0000bars |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[Ronald Hutton]] argues that Levack's estimate had already been adjusted for these, and revises the figure to approximately 40,000.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ronald |last=Hutton |title=Triumph of the Moon |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-820744-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/triumphofmoonhis00hutt |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[James Sharpe (historian)|James Sharpe]] concurs: "The current consensus is that 40,000 people were executed as witches in the period of the witch persecutions, between about 1450 and 1750."<ref>{{cite book |last=Sharpe |first=James |year=2001 |title=Witchcraft in Early Modern England |place=Harlow, UK |publisher=Pearson |page=6}}</ref>}} The majority of those accused were from the lower economic classes in European society, although in rarer cases high-ranking individuals were accused as well. On the basis of this evidence, Scarre and Callow asserted that the "typical witch was the wife or widow of an agricultural labourer or small tenant farmer, and she was well known for a quarrelsome and aggressive nature."

According to Julian Goodare, in Europe, the overall proportion of women who were persecuted as witches was 80%, although there were countries and regions like Estonia, Normandy and Iceland, that targeted men more.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodare |first1=Julian |title=The European Witch-Hunt |date= 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-19831-4 |pages=267, 268 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eM4mDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA268 |access-date=21 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref> In Iceland 92% of the accused were men, in Estonia 60%, and in Moscow two-thirds of those accused were male. {{citation needed|date=August 2021}} In Finland, a total of more than 100 death row inmates were roughly equal in both men and women, but all [[Åland]]ers sentenced to witchcraft were only women.<ref>[https://www15.uta.fi/yky/arkisto/historia/noitanetti/kuolemantuomiot.html Noituus – Kuolemantuomiot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301000229/https://www15.uta.fi/yky/arkisto/historia/noitanetti/kuolemantuomiot.html |date=1 March 2021 }} (in Finnish)</ref>

At one point during the Würzburg trials of 1629, children made up 60% of those accused, although this had declined to 17% by the end of the year.<ref>Scarre, Geoffrey; Callow, John (2001). Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe (second ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 29–33.</ref> Rapley (1998) claims that "75 to 80 percent" of a total of "40,000 to 50,000" victims were women.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rapley |first=Robert |title=A Case of Witchcraft: The Trial of Urbain Grandier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FMpRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA99 |year=1998 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-5528-7 |pages=99}} {{unreliable source? |date=April 2015}} <!--the figure is attributed to "endnote 27" which cannot be recovered from google books (p. 245).--></ref> The claim that "millions of witches" (often: "[[nine million witches]]") were killed in Europe is spurious, even though it is occasionally found in popular literature, and it is ultimately due to a 1791 pamphlet by [[Gottfried Christian Voigt]].<ref name="Gaskill.p.65">Gaskill, Malcolm ''Witchcraft, a very short introduction'', Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 65</ref>
{| class="wikitable"  style="width:70%; text-align:right;"
|+ Prosecution of witchcraft in regions of Europe 1450–1750<ref name=Monter>William Monter: ''Witch trials in Continental Europe'', (in:) ''Witchcraft and magic in Europe'', ed. Bengst Ankarloo & Stuart Clark, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2002, pp 12 ff. {{ISBN|0-8122-1787-X}}; and Levack, Brian P. The witch hunt in early modern Europe, 3rd ed., London and New York: Longman, 2006.</ref>

! Region|| Trials (approx)||  Executions (approx)
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| '''British Isles''' || 5,000 || 1,500–2,000
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| '''Holy Roman Empire''' (Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Lorraine, Austria, Czechia)|| 50,000 || 25,000–30,000
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| '''France'''|| 3,000 || 1,000
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| '''Scandinavia'''|| 5,000 || 1,700–2,000
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| '''Central & Eastern Europe''' (Poland-Lithuania, Hungary, Russia) || 7,000|| 2,000
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| '''Southern Europe''' (Spain, Portugal, Italy) || 10,000|| 1,000
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| '''Total''' ||80,000  || 35,000
|}

===End of European witch-hunts in the 18th century===
[[File:T. Colley, The remarkable confession... Wellcome M0013388.jpg|thumb|200px|The drowning of an alleged witch, with [[Thomas Colley]] as the incitor.]]

In England and Scotland between 1542 and 1735, a series of [[Witchcraft Acts]] enshrined into law the punishment (often with death, sometimes with [[incarceration]]) of individuals practising or claiming to practice witchcraft and magic.<ref name="Gibson">{{cite book |first=M |last=Gibson |contribution=Witchcraft in the Courts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fyI9xo1GvGAC&pg=PA1 |pages=1–18 |editor-first=Marion |editor-last=Gibson |title=Witchcraft And Society in England And America, 1550–1750 |year=2006 |publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-8264-8300-3}}</ref> The last executions for witchcraft in England had taken place in 1682, when Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards were executed at Exeter. In 1711, [[Joseph Addison]] published an article in the highly respected ''The Spectator'' journal (No. 117) criticizing the irrationality and social injustice in treating elderly and feeble women (dubbed "Moll White") as witches.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Addison |first1=Joseph |title=Their own imaginations they deceive |journal=The Spectator |date=1711 |volume=2 |issue=117 |pages=208–212 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucm.5326180518;view=1up;seq=220}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-0-7661-4536-8 |last=Summers |first=Montague |title=Geography of Witchcraft |doi =10.4324/9781315822334 |pages=153–160 |year=2003 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing }}</ref> [[Jane Wenham (alleged witch)|Jane Wenham]] was among the last subjects of a typical witch trial in England in 1712, but was pardoned after her conviction and set free. [[Janet Horne]] was executed for witchcraft in Scotland in 1727. The final act, the [[Witchcraft Act 1735]], led to prosecution for fraud rather than witchcraft since it was no longer believed that the individuals had actual supernatural powers or traffic with [[Satan]]. The 1735 act continued to be used until the 1940s to prosecute individuals such as [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualists]] and [[Names of the Romani people#Gypsy and gipsy|gypsies]]. The act was finally repealed in 1951.<ref name="Gibson" />

The last execution of a witch in the Dutch Republic was probably in 1613.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://archeonet.nl/index.php?itemid=5967 |title=Laatste executie van heks in Borculo |date=11 October 2003 |access-date=22 September 2010 |publisher=Archeonnet.nl |language=nl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928100254/http://archeonet.nl/index.php?itemid=5967 |archive-date=28 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In Denmark, this took place in 1693 with the execution of [[Anna Palles]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2010/04/04/1693-anne-palles-last-witch-executed-in-denmark/ |title=Last witch executed in Denmark |date=4 April 2010 |access-date=22 September 2010 |publisher=executedtoday.com}}</ref> and in Norway the last witch execution was of [[Johanne Nilsdatter]] in 1695,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://snl.no/Johanne_Nielsdatter|title=Johanne Nielsdatter|first=Rune Blix|last=Hagen|date=28 May 2018|access-date=8 January 2019|website=Snl.no}}</ref> and in Sweden [[Anna Eriksdotter]] in 1704. In other parts of Europe, the practice died down later. In France the last person to be executed for witchcraft was [[Louis Debaraz]] in 1745.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/reading-room/reading-guides/the-last-witchfinder|title=Timeline The Last Witchfinder|access-date=22 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120093046/http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/reading-room/reading-guides/the-last-witchfinder|archive-date=20 November 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> 

In Croatia the last person condemned for witchcraft to the death penalty was [[Magda Logomer]] in 1758. She was acquitted by Maria Theresa in 1758, putting an end to the witch trials in Croatia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kern |first=Edmund M. |date=January 1999 |title=An End to Witch Trials in Austria: Reconsidering the Enlightened State |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/austrian-history-yearbook/article/abs/an-end-to-witch-trials-in-austria-reconsidering-the-enlightened-state/92DA384B3EE7A60D470EB2706A05529C |journal=Austrian History Yearbook |language=en |volume=30 |pages=159–185 |doi=10.1017/S006723780001599X |pmid=21180204 |issn=1558-5255}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balog |first=Zdenko |date=2017-02-01 |title=Magda Logomer Herucina |url=https://www.academia.edu/31623821 |journal=Cris XVIII}}</ref>

In Germany the last death sentence was that of [[Anna Maria Schwegelin|Anna Schwegelin]] in [[Imperial Ducal Abbey of Kempten|Kempten]] in 1775 (although not carried out).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historicum.net/themen/hexenforschung/lexikon/personen/art/Schwaegelin_Ann/html/artikel/5602/ca/e96896a58d/ | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080531052930/http://www.historicum.net/themen/hexenforschung/lexikon/personen/art/Schwaegelin_Ann/html/artikel/5602/ca/e96896a58d/ |work=Historicum.net | archive-date= 31 May 2008 | url-status= dead | title=Anna Maria Schwägelin (Schwägele) | author1=Wolfgang Petz 
| date= 11 December 2007 | language= de}}</ref> 

The last known official witch-trial was the [[Doruchów witch trial]] in Poland in 1783. The result of the trial is questioned by Prof. Janusz Tazbir in his book.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tazbir|first=Janusz|title=Opowieści prawdziwe i zmyślone |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVVpAAAAMAAJ| year=1994| publisher=Twój Styl| isbn=9788385083368}}</ref> No reliable sources had been found confirming any executions after the trial. In 1793, two unnamed women were executed in proceedings of dubious legitimacy in [[Poznań]], Poland.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWqoKVtZId4C&pg=PA88 |title=Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 5|isbn=9780485890051|last1=Gijswijt-Hofstra|first1=Marijke|date=1999|publisher=A&C Black | page= 88}}</ref>

[[Anna Göldi]] was executed in [[Glarus]], Switzerland in 1782<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Last_witch_in_Europe_cleared.html?cid=662078 |title=Last witch in Europe cleared |date=27 August 2008 |access-date=22 September 2010 |publisher=Swissinfo.ch }}</ref> and [[Barbara Zdunk]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Klimczak |first=Natalia |title=Barbara Zdunk – The Last Executed Slavic Witch By Authorities In Prussia |url=https://www.slavorum.org/barbara-zdunk-the-last-executed-slavic-witch-by-the-inquisition-in-poland/ |access-date=27 October 2017 |archive-date=27 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027183407/https://www.slavorum.org/barbara-zdunk-the-last-executed-slavic-witch-by-the-inquisition-in-poland/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> in Prussia in 1811. Both women have been identified as the last women executed for witchcraft in Europe, but in both cases, the official verdict did not mention witchcraft, as this had ceased to be recognized as a criminal offense.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

===India===
There is no documented evidence of [[witch-hunting in India]] before 1792.
The earliest evidence of witch-hunts in India can be found in the Santhal Witch Trials in 1792.<ref>{{cite book |last= Archer |first= W G |date=1979 |title=The Santals: Readings in Tribal Life |location= New Delhi |publisher= Concept Publishing Company }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Crooke|first=W |date= 1969|title= The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India|location=Delhi |publisher= Munshiram Manoharlal }}</ref> In the [[Singhbhum|Singhbhum District]] of the [[Chota Nagpur Division]] in [[Company rule in India|Company-ruled India]], not only were those accused of being witches murdered, but also those related to the accused to ensure that they would not avenge the deaths (Roy Choudhary 1958: 88). The Chhotanagpur region was majorly populated by an [[adivasi]] population called the [[Santhals]]. The existence of witches was a belief central to the Santhals. Witches were feared and were supposed to be engaged in anti-social activities. They were also supposed to have the power to kill people by feeding on their entrails, and causing fevers in cattle among other evils. Therefore, according to the adivasi population the cure to their disease and sickness was the elimination of these witches who were seen as the cause.<ref name="Sinha 1672–1676">{{cite journal |last=Sinha |first= Shashank|title= Witch hunts, Adivasis, and the Uprising in Chhotanagpur |jstor= 4419566 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=42 |issue= 19|pages= 1672–1676|year= 2007}}</ref>

The practice of witch-hunt among Santhals was more brutal than that in Europe. Unlike Europe, where witches were strangulated before being burnt, the santhals forced them "..to eat human excreta and drink blood before throwing them into the flames."<ref>{{cite journal |last= Varma|first=Daya |title= Witch-Hunt among Santhals |jstor= 4419670 |journal=Economic & Political Weekly |volume=42 |issue=23 |pages= 2130|year=2007 }}</ref>

The [[East India Company]] (EIC) banned the persecution of witches in [[History of Gujarat|Gujarat]], [[Rajputana Agency|Rajputana]] and [[Chota Nagpur Division]] in the 1840s–1850s. Despite the ban, very few cases were reported as witch-hunting was not seen as a crime. The Santhals believed that the ban in fact allowed the activities of witches to flourish. Thus, the effect of the ban was contrary to what the EIC had intended. During 1857–58, there was a surge in witch-hunting; coinciding during the period of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], which has led some scholars to see the resurgence of the activity as a form of resistance to Company rule.<ref name="Sinha 1672–1676"/>