Witch trials in the early modern period

In the early modern period, from about 1400 to 1775, about 100,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and British America.^[1] Between 40,000 and 60,000^[2]^[3] were executed. The witch-hunts were particularly severe in parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Prosecutions for witchcraft reached a high point from 1560 to 1630,^[4]^[5] during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion. Among the lower classes, accusations of witchcraft were usually made by neighbors,^[6] and women made formal accusations as much as men did.^[7] Magical healers or 'cunning folk' were sometimes prosecuted for witchcraft, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused.^[8]^[9] Roughly 80% of those convicted were women,^[10] most of them over the age of 40.^[11]^[12]^[13] In some regions, convicted witches were burnt at the stake.

^ Levack, Brian (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford University Press. pp. 5–6.
^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Why did Germany burn so many witches? The brutal force of economic competition". Quartz. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
^ Thurston 2001. p. 01.
^ Levack, Brian P. (2006). "Chapter 7". The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe. Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-41901-8.
^ Levack, Brian (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–8.
^ Willis, Deborah (2018). Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England. Cornell University Press. pp. 35–36.
^ Hutton, Ronald (2017). The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present. Yale University Press. pp. 24–25.
^ Davies, Owen (2007). Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History. A&C Black. p. 164.
^ Cite error: The named reference ScarreCallow80 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Menopausal and post-menopausal women were disproportionally represented amongst the victims of the witch craze--and their over-representation is the more striking when we recall how rare women over fifty must have been in the population as a whole." Lyndal Roper Witch Craze (2004)p. 160
^ Jones, Adam. "Case Study: The European Witch-Hunts, c. 1450–1750 and Witch-Hunts Today". Gendercide Watch. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
^ mostly in the Holy Roman Empire, the British Isles and France, and to some extent, in the European colonies in North America; largely excluding the Iberian Peninsula and Italy; "Inquisition Spain and Portugal, obsessed with heresy, ignored the witch craze. In Italy, witch trials were comparatively rare and did not involve torture and executions." Anne L. Barstow, Witchcraze: a New History of the European Witch Hunts, HarperCollins, 1995.

[1] Levack, Brian (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford University Press. pp. 5–6.

[:0-2] Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[:2-3] "Why did Germany burn so many witches? The brutal force of economic competition". Quartz. Retrieved 24 August 2018.

[4] Thurston 2001. p. 01.

[:3-5] Levack, Brian P. (2006). "Chapter 7". The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe. Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-41901-8.

[6] Levack, Brian (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–8.

[7] Willis, Deborah (2018). Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England. Cornell University Press. pp. 35–36.

[8] Hutton, Ronald (2017). The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present. Yale University Press. pp. 24–25.

[9] Davies, Owen (2007). Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History. A&C Black. p. 164.

[ScarreCallow80-10] Cite error: The named reference ScarreCallow80 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[11] "Menopausal and post-menopausal women were disproportionally represented amongst the victims of the witch craze--and their over-representation is the more striking when we recall how rare women over fifty must have been in the population as a whole." Lyndal Roper Witch Craze (2004)p. 160

[:7-12] Jones, Adam. "Case Study: The European Witch-Hunts, c. 1450–1750 and Witch-Hunts Today". Gendercide Watch. Retrieved 19 October 2018.

[13] stly in the Holy Roman Empire, the British Isles and France, and to some extent, in the European colonies in North America; largely excluding the Iberian Peninsula and Italy; "Inquisition Spain and Portugal, obsessed with heresy, ignored the witch craze. In Italy, witch trials were comparatively rare and did not involve torture and executions." Anne L. Barstow, Witchcraze: a New History of the European Witch Hunts, HarperCollins, 1995.

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