"Explain the varying incidence of witch hunts in time and place across Europebetween 1500 and 1700".

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Dean Miller

History

2nd MA

Semester 1

3. "Explain the varying incidence of witch hunts in time and place across Europe between 1500 and 1700".

Matriculation Number: 02 203015 5

Tutor: Martine van Ittersum

"Explain the varying incidence of witch hunts in time and place across Europe between 1500 and 1700".

It has been estimated that during the period of 1500 to 1700 around nine million 'witches' were burnt at the stake throughout the European continent. The aim of this essay is to compare and contrast different time periods and specific areas of Europe between 1500 and 1700, and critically asses how the so-called witch-craze unravelled.

From the period of 1500 to 1700 witches came to symbolize superstitious aspects of popular religion. Catholic and Protestant churchmen identified and persecuted witches as part of the campaign to acculturate the masses with 'acceptable' beliefs. Witch hunts peaked during the first half of the Seventeenth Century. In the south-western states of the Holy Roman Empire alone, it is estimated that more than 300 separate witch trials resulted in the execution of 2,500 people between 1570 and 1630, almost all women - in itself not