Inspired by learning more about the Salem Witch Trials, I decided to take a look at other locations and times in history where witch hunts took place. There were very early witch hunts in ancient times, but I do not know of anyone who has been able to trace his or her ancestry back to, say, Rome in 170 B.C.. In the Late Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Inquisition sponsored a few witch hunts, but things really began to heat up around 1484, when two Inquisitors published Malleus Maleficarum, an infamous treatise on witches.
The publication of Malleus Maleficarum kicked off a two-century-long period of witch hunts in early modern Europe. This is a time frame and a location that some people are able to trace their ancestry back to. During those two centuries, the witch hunts happened in a cyclical fashion, where an unusual behavioral happening or event would send a community into a panic, witches would be hunted for and tried, and eventually the hysteria would die down until the next alarming event. Common features of witch trials in Europe included special courts that had been appointed for the sole purpose of trying accused witches and cruel punishments such as death by burning for those who were convicted. Witch hunts in early modern Europe took place in England, Germany, France, Denmark, and Scotland. It is estimated that around twelve thousand people were executed as a result of those witch trials.
Many people believe that witch hunts are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, in some societies that believe in magic, witch hunts are still a regular occurrence. If you have relatives living in Papua New Guinea, parts of rural Northern India, or Sub-Saharan Africa, you may occasionally hear reports of modern witch hunts. Unfortunately, just as it was in the past, many of the people that are accused of being witches are either experiencing severe physical or mental illnesses.
Photo by jagberg on morguefile.com.