Editing Satanism (section)

====Witch trials====

[[File:Wickiana4.jpg|thumb|The [[torture]] used against [[Witch trials in the early modern period|accused witches]], 1577. Estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe vary between 40,000 and 100,000.]]
The early modern period also saw fear of Satanists reach its "historical apogee" in the form of the [[Witch trials in the early modern period|witch trials of the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries]],{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}} when between 30,000 and 50,000 alleged witches were executed.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}} This came about as the accusations which had been leveled at medieval heretics, among them that of devil-worship, were applied to the pre-existing idea of [[European witchcraft|the witch]], or practitioner of malevolent [[magic (paranormal)|magic]].{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=133 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=37}} The idea of a conspiracy of Satanic witches was developed by educated elites, although the concept of malevolent witchcraft was a widespread part of popular belief, and [[folkloric]] ideas about the night witch, the [[wild hunt]], and the dance of the fairies were incorporated into it.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=38}} The earliest trials took place in Northern Italy and France, before spreading it out to other areas of Europe and to Britain's North American colonies, being carried out by the legal authorities in both Catholic and Protestant regions.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}}

Most historians agree that the majority of those persecuted in these witch trials were innocent of any involvement in Devil worship.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=70}} Historian Darren Eldridge writes that claims that there actually was a cult of devil-worshippers being pursued by witch hunters "have not survived the scrutiny of surviving trial records" done by historians from 1962 to 2012.<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-39>{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=39 |year=2012}}</ref>
However, in their summary of the evidence for the trials, the historians Geoffrey Scarre and John Callow thought it "without doubt" that some of those accused in the trials had been guilty of employing magic in an attempt to harm their enemies and were thus genuinely guilty of witchcraft.{{sfn|Scarre|Callow|2001|p=2}}