Witch Hunts: 15 Myths Debunked

In 1609, a royal commission in the Labourd, on the French side of the Pyrenees, sent dozens of people to the stake. Across the border, the Spanish inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías interviewed some 1,800 people, most of them confessed or named witches, and found no case that could be proved. Same language, same fears; only the institutions differed. In Würzburg, around 900 people were put to death between 1626 and 1630, all sentenced by a Catholic bishop’s secular courts rather than by the Inquisition. In the assize courts of Essex and neighboring counties, 513 people were indicted between 1563 and 1736; 112 were hanged.

Given any witch trial, the reader will know which questions decide it: what year, which country, which court, who could review the verdict.