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A 1555 German print showing the burning of witches. Current scholarly estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe vary between 40,000 and 100,000. [a] The number of witch trials in Europe known to have ended in executions is around 12,000. [70]
The 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 Witches". [58] Witchcraft persecution spread to all areas of Europe.
Artistic depiction of the execution by burning of three alleged witches in Baden, Switzerland in 1585. This is a list of people executed for witchcraft, many of whom were executed during organized witch-hunts, particularly during the 15th–18th centuries. Large numbers of people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe between 1560 and 1630. [1]
Many faced capital punishment for witchcraft, either by burning at the stake, hanging, or beheading. [70] Similarly, in New England, people convicted of witchcraft were hanged. [71] Meanwhile, in the Middle Ages, heresy became a heinous crime, warranting severe punishment, so when one was accused of being a witch they were thus labeled as a ...
While witch trials were generally uncommon in Europe during the Middle Ages, at least fifteen executions by burning for witchcraft are documented between 1360 and 1437, most of whom in present-day Croatia. [1] The witch hunt in Hungary became more intense in the late 16th -century, but was in its most intense phase between 1690 and 1750.
[8] [15] Medieval Europe also saw the term maleficium applied to forms of magic that were conducted with the intention of causing harm. [9] The later Middle Ages saw words for these practitioners of harmful magical acts appear in various European languages: sorcière in French, Hexe in German, strega in Italian, and bruja in Spanish. [16]
Fründ speaks of a conspiracy of "700" witches of which "more than 200" had been burned two years into the trials (c. 1430). [11] Contrary to the later phase of the European witch-trials, when the majority of those accused were women, the victims in the Valais witch trials are estimated to have been two-thirds male and one-third female. [4]
Burning of three witches in Baden, Switzerland (1585), by Johann Jakob Wick. The Wiesensteig witch trial took place in Wiesensteig in Germany in 1562–1563. It led to the execution of 67 women for sorcery. This has been described as the first of the great witch trials of Germany and the starting point of the continuing European witch hunt.