In the prologue to 1994’s Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts, author Anne Llewellyn Barstow observes, “The longer I have worked on these sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ...

This content was published on Aug 21, 2017 Europe’s last witch, Anna Göldi, continues to fascinate more than 200 years after her execution in Switzerland. Read more: ‘Anna Göldi ...

The witch hunts in Central Europe took off in the late 15th century and lasted for almost 300 years, resulting in the prosecution of roughly 90,000 people, with nearly 45,000 executions.

Like other studies — Robin Briggs’ “Witches and Neighbors” and Brian Levack’s “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe” are two of the best known — it is crammed with little stories ...

The European witch hunts were most intense from approximately 1450 to 1750, a period marked by religious upheaval and social instability. Key factors contributing to these trials included: ...

As fear of witches reached a fever pitch in Europe, witch hunters turned to the “Malleus Maleficarum,” or “Hammer of Witches,” for guidance.

One change that led to witch trials across Europe was a change in how the Catholic Church viewed witchcraft. In the 10th century, the Catholic Church released an official document called the Canon ...