The Persecution of Witches Throughout History

There are not many events in the history of the world that are as brutal as the witch trials. Conducted in a good number of countries for hundreds of years, thousands of innocent people were accused of witchcraft, put on trial, tortured, and then executed. Here are some of the most famous persecutions of witches throughout history.

4th Century

• 363: Prisciallan of Avila is executed for supposed witchcraft. Very little is known about his actual life.

10th Century

• 906: The Canon Eposcopi, a set of church laws that declares that witchcraft was heretical and punishable by death, was written.

15th Century

• 1427: A woman named Giovanna or Caterina is put on trial for casting love spells. She is found guilty and executed.

• 1459: The Arras Witch Trials took place, where victims are rounded up for witchcraft, and burned at the stake. These trials last until 1460.

• 1468: The Malleus Maleficarum, or The Hammer against Witches, was written by two Inquisitors from the Catholic Church. It was basically a handbook that shows people how to convict witches of witchcraft.

• 1484: Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis desiderantes affectibus. This bill was written with the intent of persecuting any and all witches in Germany, as the Pope believed them to be collaborating with Satan.

16th Century

• 1566: The Chelmsford Witch trials began. They lasted through 1645; every once in a while, suspected witches would be rounded up and hanged.

• 1581: The Trier Persecutions take place. Archbishop John VII launched witch hunts that saw many children being included as victims.

• 1589: Rebekka Lemp, a wife and mother, is arrested and tortured on suspicion of being a witch. Her letters to her husband survived to show the brutality of the hunts.

• 1591: The Bothwell and North Berwick Witch Trails take place. Gilly Duncan is arrested and tortured. Supposedly, he names several other witches.

17th Century

• 1589-1600: At some point during this period, the Pappenheimer family is imprisoned for witchcraft and cannibalism. Eventually, the entire family is tortured and killed.

• 1633: The Lancashire or Pendle Witch Trials took place. When a 10-year-old boy, Edmund Robinson, accuses women of meeting in the woods at a supposed witches' Sabbath, the women are rounded up and convicted. Later it all turned out to be fraud.

• 1661: The Bury St. Edmunds Witch Trials occurred. When local children fell ill, two women were blamed for it and accused of witchcraft.

• 1675: The Tors�ker Witch Trials occurred. 71 people were rounded up and burned at the stake and forty children were beaten with rods every Sunday for an entire year as a result.

• 1692: The Salem Witch Trials take place. Arguably the most famous of all witch trials, nineteen men and women were eventually convicted of witchcraft. Subsequently, they were hanged. Hundreds more were accused and languished in jail.

The 18th century saw the practice of witch hunts subside; the last execution in England took place in 1682. However, the stigma attatched with witchcraft remains to this day. Fortunately popular culture has embraced witches in the form of halloween costumes and film and television characters.