When did the witch trials start?

Answer 1

The Salem Witch Trials began on June 28th, 1692 and continued through October 29th 1692.

In January of 1692, the daughter and niece of a Reverend Samuel Parris began shouting obscenities and having convulsions. After examination by a physician, it was concluded that the girls were bewitched. The girls accused three women of witchcraft, and they were arrested. One of the women was a slave in the house of Rev. Parris. In the following months about seventy people were arrested for the crime of practicing witchcraft.

A court was convened June 28th at Salem, Massachusetts and twenty-six people where convicted and nineteen executed.

On October 29th Sir William Phips, Colonial Governor of Massachusetts, ordered the court at Salem dissolved, and sent all remaining cases to the state superior court. No one was convicted at the state level, and the court was adjourned in May 1693. About 150 people were tried through both courts.

Answer 2

Witch hunts started in 1563 with a widespread prosecution in Wiesensteig, Germany.

Witch trials went on throughout the history of ancient and medieval Europe. Early on, there were countries where witchcraft was considered legally a superstition, and so a person who executed a witch was guilty of murder. Attitudes changed, however, and the fear of witches grew, especially after the middle of the 14th century. The publication of Malleus Maleficarum, in 1487, made many Europeans fearful about the issue, but prosecutions for witchcraft continued to be pretty much on an individual basis.

The witch prosecution in Wiesensteig in 1563 is considered to be the first in which the a large number of people were accused. It resulted in 63 people being executed.