The Western European witch-hunt in the 16th and 17th centuries

Abstract

The European witch-trials became numerous in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A large number of witches were imprisoned and many of them were executed at the stake. The ubiquitous social strain brought on the witch-hunt, and the witch became the scapegoat. Study on the witch-hunt provides a special perspective on the transition of Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.