Witch hunts increased dramatically after the Middle Ages ended, and a large part of the increase was in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The places where they took place most commonly were Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, England, and Scotland.
Witches were prosecuted when they were accused in some places in the Middle Ages. They were not prosecuted everywhere, as some of the more important medieval legal codes made it clear that belief in witchcraft was superstition.
With the passing of time, more and more actions were taken against accused witches. Inquisitions were started during the 14th century after the Black Death, though still on the basis of individual accusations and prosecution. The first text to systematize the prosecution of witches, Malleus Maleficarum,appeared in 1487.
The first major persecution of people for witchcraft took place in Wiesensteig, Germany, in 1562, and 67 people were executed as a result. The person behind this was a local lord, Ulrich von Helfenstein, who had been raised as a Catholic, converted to Lutheranism, was Lutheran at the time of the witch trials, and converted back to Catholicism later.
The witch hunts happened in both in Catholic and Protestant parts of Europe. They were probably worse in Protestant areas, but that may be due to the fact that two important Protestant kings, James I of England and Christian IV of Denmark, were personally involved in witch hunts.
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Witches were regarded as supernatural agents of evil.
Old Salem, Massachussetts.
The Salem witch hunts happened in the English colony of Massachusetts, in what is now the USA.
Suspected Communists
Ignorance and bigotry
There are witch hunts in part of Sub-Saharan Africa. India is another place that still practices witch hunts. In 2010, India had an 150 and 200 women killed during witch hunts.
This happened during the 1690's
it showed the dangers of witch hunts?
Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, during the Communist witch hunts of the 1950's.
Witches were regarded as supernatural agents of evil.
There are actual witch hunts going on today in some parts of the world, though the people of the rest of the world know better than to hunt for actual witches. There are things metaphorically called witch hunts going on today in parts of the world where people know better than to hunt for actual witches. Sometimes the things metaphorically called witch hunts are worse. There is a link to an article on witch hunts below.
In Plilibelpia!
a person employed to carry out witch-hunts and identify witches.
Witch hunt actually originates from with hunts in past centuries. From 1480 to 1750 is considered the classical period of witch hunts. The last executions happened in the 18th century.
Do you mean 1692?
He was living in Europe by then. He was hounded out of the U.S. in the late 1950's during the communist witch hunts.
Women. In the middle ages, they were generally considered to be far more vulnerable to evil and corruption than men, which led to the vast majority of the people killed during the witch hunts to be female. Theoritically though, nobody was safe from being accused of witchcraft.