Witch-hunt

A witch-hunt is a search for people believed to be witches, individuals allegedly possessing supernatural powers that can damage others. Although belief in witchcraft and witch-hunts occur all over the world, in Europe the history of witch-hunting is usually limited to the early modern period, the "classical period of witch-hunting", when thousands of people where accused of witchcraft and executed as a result of fear, panic and organised persecution. The North-American witch-trials of Salem at the end of the 17th century were on a lesser scale but the trials were triggered by the same mechanics of fear and mass hysteria. In another modern sense, the term witch-hunt is used to describe the persecution of individuals or groups who after creating a climate of panic are discredited and accused of crimes against society. The best known example is probably the McCarthyist search for communists during the Cold War. Other contemporary witch-hunts occur in many African societies where the fear of witches causes periodic witch-hunts during which specialist witch-finders identify suspects, after which they often are put to death by a mob.

Witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe: 1500-1800

In early modern Europe there were two different concepts of witchcraft: the popular belief in witches and the intellectual concept of witchcraft that involved Satan and nocturnal meetings called Sabbaths.

Popular belief in witches

The illiterate part of the population believed in witchcraft and belief in witches was part of their life. They were convinced that witches could harm others with their evil powers and blamed all kinds of human mischiefs on 'witches'. When an animal died or a neighbour got sick, when crops had withered of there was a dry season and a shortage of water, they went searching for the 'cause' of these misfortunes. Usually they blamed a lonely eccentric or someone they considered an outsider. Women who had no family were by definition outsiders. Those among them who by nature, physical disability or a peculiar lifestyle lived in isolation from the rest of the community, ran an even greater risk to be suspected of possession of 'dark powers'.

The stereotype of the witch, as seen by the witch hunters

In the 15th century this straightforward popular concept of witchcraft was radically changed by an intellectual elite. Witches became a pagan sect of devil worshipers, a threat for the christian church. The new stereotype of the witch was totally made up, it was a fantasy, based on nothing but irrational fear and, according to some scholars, fueled by the will of the church to destroy the last roots of paganism. The book Malleus Maleficarum or Hammer of the Witches (1485-1486) written by two Dominican inquisitors Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer was a kind of handbook for the witch hunters and explained how witches could be identified and tortured to make them confess. From this and other numerous documents and descriptions of witch hunts of that period the following picture of the witch emerges: