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Sep 1, 1252
Pope Innocent IV
Papal inquisitors to use torture in the prosecution of heresy. This move sets the stage for the torture of witches since witchcraft would become heresy. At first, torture could not be repeated, eventually suspects were tortured until they confessed. -
Period: Sep 20, 1324 to Sep 20, 1325
Ireland
Bishop of Ossory presided. Alice Kyteler, a wealthy widow, accused of causing her husband's death by demonic means Eventually she escaped, her maid was burned at the stake. -
Sep 20, 1420
Bern
One of the very first witch hunts in Bern. The Bishop presided in secular court. -
Sep 20, 1431
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc burned at the stake for being a witch. She was burned alive, the wood pile was constructed to prolong her death agonies. -
Sep 20, 1486
The Hammar
Publication of the Malleus Maleficiarum, the Hammer of Witches. Written by two Inquisitors, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, it was widely distributed and responsible for much of the similarity in witch trials and confessions. With papal backing, the Malleus claimed that those who did not believe in witchcraft were heretics, in itself a crime punishable by death. -
Sep 20, 1524
Witch Hunting
Publication of Tractatus de Hereticus et Sortilegiis by papal witch judge, Paulus Grillandus. The book expounded on the witches sabbath, a gathering of witches, which leads to accused witches being forced under torture to name others they saw at the gatherings. -
Sep 20, 1532
Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor decrees witchcraft can be determined by judicial torture and punishable by burning to death. -
Sep 20, 1542
English Parliment
English parliament makes witchcraft a capital crime, the legal code carries over to the new world colonies. -
Sep 20, 1550
Infanticide
About mid century, infanticide began to come to the notice of the courts. Along with this development, witchcraft is increasingly seen as a secular crime rather than an ecclesiastical or spiritual mistake. -
Sep 20, 1556
French Parliment
French Parlement issues edict that every expectant mother must register her pregnancy and have witness at the birth. A stillbirth or dead infant could lead to murder charges and execution of the mother. -
Sep 20, 1560
Witchcraft and sex
Women begin to be accused of witchcraft and sexual crimes. For the first time women have legal standing as the accused. -
Sep 20, 1563
Scotland
Scottish courts declare witchcraft a secular crime. -
Sep 20, 1580
English witch hunts
The English witch hunts begin in earnest, over 1,000 are put to death. Where the sex of the dead is known, over 90 percent are women. -
Period: Sep 20, 1580 to
Redistribution
Most virulent witch persecutions coincide with redistribution of property and wealth from working peasantry to wealthy. -
Purge
Two German villages left with but one woman each after a witch purge. -
Zealotry
In Quedlinburg, 133 witches executed in one day -
Period: to
Scottish Accusations and Executions
Scottish witch hunts lead to over 3,000 accusations and about 1,300 executions. The hunt was spurred on by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church although the prosecutions and executions were civil. -
Demonolitry
Publication of Demonolatreiae, by Nicolas Remy who claimed to have executed over 800 witches. The book described the witches sabbaths in lurid and completely imaginary detail. -
Comprehensive Witch Hunting
The most comprehensive guide to the identification, capture, questioning and execution of witches is published. The Compendium Maleficiarum featured illustrations of some of the more bizarre behaviors ascribed to witches including boiling babies and kissing the devils buttocks. -
Period: to
The Craze
The German witch craze is at its height. Tens of thousands die, more than 80 percent are women. Two years of crop failures and famine leads to the condemnation and death of 40 witches in Legeuil, Franche-Compte. 1629 In one year of a 50 year witchcraze, 274 people, 257 (94 percent) of whom were women, were burnt at the stake in Eichstatt, Barvaria. -
Protestant prosecutions
Publication of Lutheran judge Benedict Carpzows book, Practica Rerum Criminalium. It was the Malleus of Protestant witch prosecutions. -
3 Waves in Bavaria
By the end of 3 waves of persecutions (1590, 1603-30, and 1637) in Bavaria hundreds had been put to death, almost all women. Every village suffered, the terror was unrelenting for 50 years. -
Anne Hutchinson
Ann Hutchinson denounced for antinomianism heresy and religious leadership, excommunicated and banished from MA Bay Colony. Her friend Mary Dyer was hanged, their mutual midwife, Jane Hawkins was banished. While not actually accused of witchcraft, it was the subtext in all three trials. -
The first
Alse Young, a widow, hanged for witchcraft in Hartford, Connecticut. Hers was the first trial and execution expressly for witchcraft in the colonies. Her daughter Alice was accused of witchcraft 30 years later, in MA. -
MA
1648 First witch execution in MA colony. Midwife Margaret Jones hanged in Boston. -
Paid service
A witch-pricker is awarded 20 shillings for every witch he finds in the English town of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Thirty women were publicly accused, stripped, and pricked. Not surprisingly, most were found guilty. -
Widow Ann Hibbens
Widow Ann Hibbens tried and convicted of witchcraft in MA colony and hanged. Hibbens was a woman of property, having inherited from her husband. Her main crime however was challenging the religious, secular, and familial structures of the colony. -
Period: to
Hartford Craze
Hartford CT, witchcraze outbreak, over a dozen accused, four were hanged three women, the fourth was the husband of one of the women, others fled. -
Period: to
Polish Craze
Polish witchcraze, although short-lived and late in comparison with the rest of Europe, accounts for an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 deaths according to some sources. -
Widow Glover
The widow Glover hanged for witchcraft in Boston, she spoke Gaelic, not English and was Roman Catholic. She was accused by children of causing the demonic possession of a prosperous family. -
Salem
Salem, MA witchcraze outbreak, which spread to surrounding communities. Since confessing witches were not executed, a large number of the accused admitted to being witches. While the possessed young girls were the central accusers, most of those bringing the accusation of witchcraft were men. Over 200 were accused, 75 percent of them women, most of the men accused were relatives of the accused women. By the time Governor Phips halted the proceedings, 14 women had been hanged, five men hanged, on -
Period: to
Hungarian peak
Hungarian witch hunts peak during and following a series of wars with Austria and Turkey. Over 800 are killed, 92 percent of them women. -
Saint Joan
Joan of Arc canonized a saint -
Remembrance in Germany
Women in the village of Gelnhausen, Germany protest making a witch prison a tourist attraction. Dressed in white, they carry placards with the names of those murdered in the village so long ago. -
Salem Remembered
Memorial park dedicated to victims of the witch hunt in Salem, MA.
