Witch Trials in Europe Most people today know about witches and wizards from how Hollywood has portrayed them, and how they have magical powers that can do amazing spells. Such as in Harry Potter they’re not very feared, besides for the ones who set out to do evil, but in Europe in the 1400’s it was a totally different story people were absolutely terrified by them and thought that they were sent upon them from the devil out to do evil doings, and killed thousands of indecent people.
How did it start? When people couldn’t explain something, like if last year their crops did really well, and then this year they did badly, they blamed it on a supernatural force, because they didn’t know of what else could have done it. They blamed it on people who might have had marks that they claimed to be form the devil. Europeans believed that Witches had meetings in the middle of the night called sabots, and danced around naked. They also believed that they killed babies and ate them, they could fly, …show more content…
Some of the things they did to test was they would prick a part if their skin with a blade, and if they didn’t flinch or bleed they were considered a witch. Another thing they would do was the swimming test, when they were thrown into the water, and they floated they were a witch. Some other things they did were thumbscrews, leg vices, whipping stocks with iron spikes, scalding lime baths, and the strappado method, where they hoisted them up by their arms on a pulley to pull their arms out of sockets. If they were a “witch” some things they did to them were in England hung them, and everyone else burned them at the stake. “Germany saw Europe's greatest execution rates of witches, higher than those in the rest of the continent combined. It is estimated that over the 160 years from 1500 to 1660, between 50,000 and 80,000 suspected witches were executed (about 80% of them women), including about 26,000 in Germany” Luke
How did it start? When people couldn’t explain something, like if last year their crops did really well, and then this year they did badly, they blamed it on a supernatural force, because they didn’t know of what else could have done it. They blamed it on people who might have had marks that they claimed to be form the devil. Europeans believed that Witches had meetings in the middle of the night called sabots, and danced around naked. They also believed that they killed babies and ate them, they could fly, …show more content…
Some of the things they did to test was they would prick a part if their skin with a blade, and if they didn’t flinch or bleed they were considered a witch. Another thing they would do was the swimming test, when they were thrown into the water, and they floated they were a witch. Some other things they did were thumbscrews, leg vices, whipping stocks with iron spikes, scalding lime baths, and the strappado method, where they hoisted them up by their arms on a pulley to pull their arms out of sockets. If they were a “witch” some things they did to them were in England hung them, and everyone else burned them at the stake. “Germany saw Europe's greatest execution rates of witches, higher than those in the rest of the continent combined. It is estimated that over the 160 years from 1500 to 1660, between 50,000 and 80,000 suspected witches were executed (about 80% of them women), including about 26,000 in Germany” Luke