Further Reading For Witch Hunts
Damned: An Illustrated History of the Devil by Robert Muchembled
Malleus Maleficarum – The Witch Hammer by Jacob Sprenger, Heinrich Kramer
The History of Witchcraft and Demonology by Montague Summers
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Back in the day, before electricity and common wisdom, women that lived on the fringes of society, or, well, any woman that somehow ran afoul of society at large whether by her own doing or not could very well find themselves on the business end of a witch hunt. A witch hunt back then meant a literal hunt for witches. As in, women that consorted with the devil to gain magical powers in defiance of church law. It was basically a bunch of bullshit cooked up by delusional men and continues to this day under the cover of stupid bullshit like “ethics in game journalism” and all that.
The vast bulk of witch hunts and their resulting summary executions took place somewhere in the neighborhood of 1450 and 1750, spanning the brutal period of Reformation Europe and The Thirty Year’s War. During this time, an impressive 200,000 so-called witches were accused, tortured, and executed. Popularly thought to have been subjected to burnings at the stake, most witches were hung. Burnings were briefly popular in France and Spain but cost valuable fuel for burning and so more cost-effective means of executions, such as trusty old hangings were re-introduced.
The last of the world’s “witches” were executed in Europe as recently as the 19th century. See also: Witches, a history and demonstration of their power.
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