Witchcraft and the Supernatural

  Facts and Figures 

• 1450 -1700: Around 90,000 trials occurred in early modern Europe alone. 50 per cent of tese were in the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire - possibly a reflection on the level of religious superstition in Germany or the results of the Protestant Reformation? 
• 10,000 of these witch trials were in Switzerland, 4,500 in France and 3,000 in England. 
• There was a general uneven geographical distribution and an uneven chronological distribution of trials. There was a large increase in the 15th century whereas in the early 16th century, there was a slight reduction. 
• The height of the European witch trials was between 1560 and 1630, with large witch hunts beginning in 1609. During this period, the biggest witch trials were held in Europe, notably, the Trier witch trials (1609-1611), the Würzberg witch trial (1626-1631) and the Bamberg witch trials (1626-1631). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_modern_period#Peak_of_the_trials:_1580–1630 
• In 1590, the North Berwick witch trials occurred in Scotland, and were of particular note as the king at the time, James VI, became involved himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_modern_period#Peak_of_the_trials:_1580–1630
• In 1635, the Roman Inquisition acknowledged that it had ''found scarcely one trial conducted legally''. Witch trials became scant in the second half of the 17th century, and their growing disfavour eventually resulted in the British Witchcraft Act of 1735. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_modern_period#Peak_of_the_trials:_1580–1630

The Case of Ursula Götz, 1623

• Proclaimed as a witch in public in front of the whole of her community. She confessed readily once she was threated with torture. (Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany - Lyndal Roper). 
• She told of how she had first met her personal devil called Federlin (''Little Feather'') thirty years before her accusation and how she had consented to sexual intercourse with him. Accused of numerous murders, Ursula went on to confess them all. (Lyndal Roper)
• She was beheaded for her crimes in 1627. (Lyndal Roper)
• Often, as in the case of Ursula Götz, those accused of witchraft were old. They were women who had raised or had spent long years caring for others. Their very solicitude was interpreted as proof that they…