Editing Werewolf (section)

=== Early modern history ===
{{Further|Werewolf witch trials|Wolfssegen}}
There were numerous reports of werewolf attacks – and consequent court trials – in 16th-century France. In some of the cases, there was clear evidence against the accused of murder and [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]], but no association with wolves. In other cases, people have been terrified by such creatures, such as that of [[Gilles Garnier]] in [[Dole, Jura|Dole]] in 1573, who was convicted of being a werewolf.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rowlands |first1=Alison |title=Witchcraft and Masculinities in Early Modern Europe |pages=191–213 }}</ref>

[[File:Werewolf in Geneva (1580).png|thumb|In Geneva a man killed 16 children when he had changed himself into a wolf. He was executed on 15 October 1580. Coloured pen drawing, [[Johann Jakob Wick]], ''Sammlung von Nachrichten zur Zeitgeschichte aus den Jahren''. 1560–1587]]

Lycanthropy received peak attention in the late 16th to early 17th century as part of the [[Witch trials in the early modern period|European witch-hunts]].
A number of treatises on werewolves were written in France during 1595 and 1615. In 1598, werewolves were sighted in [[Duchy of Anjou|Anjou]]. In 1602, [[Henry Boguet]] wrote a lengthy chapter about werewolves. In 1603, a teenage werewolf was sentenced to life imprisonment in [[Bordeaux]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Demonologie |chapter=iii}}</ref>

In the Swiss Vaud region, werewolves were convicted in 1602 and 1624. A treatise by a Vaud pastor in 1653, however, argued that lycanthropy was purely an illusion. After this, the only further record from the Vaud dates to 1670. A boy claimed he and his mother could change into wolves, which was not taken seriously. At the beginning of the 17th century, [[witchcraft]] was prosecuted by [[James I of England]], who regarded "warwoolfes" as victims of delusion induced by "a natural superabundance of melancholic".<ref>{{cite book |title=Demonologie |chapter=iii}}</ref>

After 1650, belief in lycanthropy had mostly disappeared from French-speaking Europe, as evidenced in [[Diderot's Encyclopedia]], which attributed reports of lycanthropy to a "disorder of the brain".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hoyt|first1=Nelly S. |translator=Cassierer, Thomas |title=The Encyclopedia: Selections: Diderot, d'Alembert and a Society of Men of Letters|date=1965|publisher=Bobbs-Merrill|location=Indianapolis}}</ref> Although there were continuing reports of extraordinary wolflike beasts, they were not considered to be werewolves. One such report concerned the [[Beast of Gévaudan]], which terrorized the general area of the [[Provinces of France|former province]] of [[Gévaudan]], now called [[Lozère]], in south-central France. From 1764 to 1767, it killed upwards of 80 men, women, and children.{{sfn|Otten|1986|pp=161–167}}

The part of Europe which showed more vigorous interest in werewolves after 1650 was the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. At least nine works on lycanthropy were printed in Germany between 1649 and 1679. In the Austrian and Bavarian Alps, belief in werewolves persisted well into the 18th century.{{sfn|Otten|1986|pp=161–167}} As late as in 1853, in [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], northwestern Spain, [[Manuel Blanco Romasanta]] was judged and condemned as the author of a number of murders, but he claimed to be not guilty because of his condition of ''lobishome'' (werewolf).

Until the 20th century, [[wolf attack]]s were an occasional, but still widespread, feature of life in Europe.<ref name="NO">{{cite web |url=http://www.lcie.org/Docs/Regions/Baltic/Linnell%20AZL%20Wolf%20attacks%20in%20Fennoscandia.pdf |title=Is the fear of wolves justified? A Fennoscandian perspective |publisher=Acta Zoologica Lituanica, 2003, Volumen 13, Numerus 1 |access-date=9 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307025815/http://www.lcie.org/Docs/Regions/Baltic/Linnell%20AZL%20Wolf%20attacks%20in%20Fennoscandia.pdf |archive-date=7 March 2008 }}</ref>
Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shapeshifters. This is said to be corroborated by the fact that areas devoid of wolves typically use different kinds of predator to fill the niche; ''[[werehyena]]s'' in Africa, ''[[weretiger]]s'' in India,<ref name="Woodward" /> as well as ''werepumas'' ("{{illm|Runa uturuncu|es|lt=''runa uturuncu''}}")<ref>[http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/p243/12479418822381506109435/p0000001.htm Facundo Quiroga, "The Tiger of the Argentine Prairies" and the Legend of the "''runa uturuncu''".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816010101/http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/p243/12479418822381506109435/p0000001.htm |date=16 August 2017 }} {{in lang|es}}</ref><ref>[http://quipucultural.galeon.com/uturuncu.htm The Legend of the ''runa uturuncu'' in the Mythology of the Latin-American Guerilla.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711063421/http://quipucultural.galeon.com/uturuncu.htm |date=11 July 2011 }} {{in lang|es}}</ref> and ''werejaguars'' ("{{illm|Yaguareté-abá|pt|lt=''yaguaraté-abá''}}" or "''tigre-capiango''")<ref>[http://www.temakel.com/leyendayaguarete.htm The Guaraní Myth about the Origin of Human Language and the Tiger-men.] {{in lang|es}}</ref><ref>J.B. Ambrosetti (1976). Fantasmas de la selva misionera ("''Ghosts of the Misiones Jungle''"). Editorial Convergencia: Buenos Aires.</ref> in southern South America.

An idea explored in [[Sabine Baring-Gould]]'s work ''The Book of Werewolves'' is that werewolf legends may have been used to explain [[serial killer|serial killings]]. Perhaps the most infamous example is the case of [[Peter Stumpp]], executed in 1589, the German farmer and alleged serial killer and [[Human cannibalism|cannibal]], also known as the Werewolf of Bedburg.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P1cs7mq_kxgC&q=The%20Werewolf%20Book%3A%20The%20Encyclopedia%20of%20Shape-Shifting%20Beings%202nd%20Edition&pg=PP1|title=The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings|last=Steiger|first=Brad|publisher=Visible Ink Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1578593675|pages=267}}</ref>