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The punishment for witchcraft typically included burning at the stake or the "ordeal of cold water," a method used both in Western Europe and Russia. [ 111 ] While Western Europe often employed harsh torture methods, Russia implemented a more civil system of fines for witchcraft during the seventeenth century.
During the 16th century, witchcraft prosecutions stabilized and even declined in some areas. [2] Witch-hunts increased again in the 17th century. The witch trials in Early Modern Europe included the Basque witch trials in Spain, the Fulda witch trials in Germany, the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland, and the Torsåker witch trials in Sweden.
Throughout the medieval era, mainstream Christian doctrine had denied the belief in the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as a pagan superstition. [14] Some have argued that the work of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century helped lay the groundwork for a shift in Christian doctrine, by which certain Christian theologians eventually began to accept the possibility ...
A number of extremely large mass trials against witchcraft, which took place in the autonomous Catholic Prince Bishop-states in south-western Germany between 1587 and 1639, are estimated to have amounted to a third of all executions for witchcraft in Germany, and a fourth of all executions of witchcraft in all Europe. [2] The mass witch trials ...
The penalty for causing death by witchcraft was as a felony without benefit of clergy (that is, capital punishment), which was also the penalty for a second offence of causing injury or material loss by witchcraft; for a first such offence, the penalty was one year's imprisonment including six hours in the pillory once per quarter.
Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt is a historical study of the beliefs regarding European witchcraft in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, with particular reference to the development of the witches' sabbat and its influence on the witch trials in the Early Modern period.
Charlemagne especially repressed the Saxons, and the Council of Paderborn was no different. It punished all sorts of idolatry, denied the existence of witchcraft and the efficacy of magic, ordered the death penalty for self-appointed witch-hunters who had caused the death of persons accused of witchcraft, condemned sorcerers to be servants to the church, [2]: 93 commanded Saxons to have ...
At the same time, a variety of scholars across Europe and North America – such as Alan Macfarlane, Erik Midelfort, William Monter, Robert Muchembled, Gerhard Schormann, Bente Alver and Bengt Ankarloo – began to publish in-depth studies of the archival records from the witch trials, leaving no doubt that those tried for witchcraft were not ...