The Black Plague of the 14th century brought about a questioning of traditional Roman Catholic ideologies. Many wanted to understand and know the reasons why God would unleash such horrors upon the earth. In looking for the answers, people began to accuse their neighbors and relatives of using witchcraft and poisons to cause the death and famine around them. Anyone could be accused. If your neighbor thought you caused their crops to die, you could be tried and executed.
Accusations of witches began to increase in Europe during the mid 15th century up until the 17th century. Wide spread panic of witches led to many of those accused of witchcraft being burned at the steak, hunted down like animals, and mass trials. In the panic, even the Roman Catholic Church published Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) in 1485-86. Of the many being accused of witchcraft, about 75 to 80 percent of those convicted were female. Between the years of 1450 and 1750, 100,000 trials were held, and of those trials, about 60,000 executions took place. 48% of those executions occurred in Germany.
During the trails other women would testify against other women. Most of the time the women or man on trail would have little or no say in defending himself or herself. Other times a village would murder the accused even without a trial. In Italy witches were tried by various courts, including an ecclesiastical court for diabolism, municipal court for sorcery, and a secular court for magic. These trials were unfair and ridiculous because the accused had no chance to prove that they were innocent, and the methods the courts used to prove innocence either killed them or convicted them as witches.
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