Author(s): Nigel Cawthorne

History

Between 1450 and 1750, more than 100,000 people - mainly women - in Europe and colonial America were prosecuted for practising harmful magic and worshipping the devil. Tens of thousands were executed, often after being subjected to bestial tortures. Witches examines this persecution and the religious hysteria which inspired it, tracing its roots back to the savage suppression of the heretical Waldensian sect by the Catholic Church. With the creation of the Inquisition, and the publication of the book Malleus Maleficarum, the "Witchfinders' Bible", the craze soon spread across Europe and reached as far as the United States where, despite the infamy of the Salem Witch Trials, it was soon dismissed by a more rational population. Although witch trials continued in Scotland until 1727, Norway until 1760 and Hungary until 1777, the growth of scientific reason gradually gained ground from the witch hunters. Book jacket.