Deaths from the European Witch Craze I include this because wildly exagerated claims about the number of women killed in the witch crazes are often mixed in with other complaints 'against patriarchy'. -DRT From: rparson@spot.Colorado.EDU ( Robert Parson) Subject: The Witch Craze Date: 2 Oct 1995 23:30:43 GMT Deaths from the European Witch Craze In repsonse to the claim: Nevertheless, the number of people executed in Mediaeval Europe for "witchcraft" was very large ...the estimate is 9 million died. Actually, the Witch Craze was a phenomenon of the Renaissance - the Malleus Maleficarum was written in the late 15th century. There were relatively few executions for witchcraft (as opposed to heresy) during Medieval times - Barstow, ref. below, estimates ~500 for all of western Europe before 1500. 9 million sounds like a huge exagerration. I don't have a bibliography, but I do have some data from one recent book: Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts, Anne Llewellyn Barstow, Pandora 1995. A good read, though pretty gruesome in places. (16th century executions were nasty affairs.) Adapted from Appendix B: See the book for a much more complete breakdown, together with references to primary sources. The period considered is roughly 1500-1650 (the Witch Craze hit different parts of Europe at different times during this interval). There were few (~500) executions for witchcraft before 1500 - it was a phenomenon of the Renaissance rather than of the Middle Ages. Accused Executed Holy Roman Empire ~100,000+ ~50,000+ Poland ? ~15,000+ France 10,000+ 5,000+ British Isles England 2,000 ~1,000 Scotland 3,069 1,337+ Ireland 0 0 New England 334 35 Scandinavia ~5,000 1,500-1,800 Hungary ~1,600 472 Spain 3,687 100+ Italy ~2,200+ 0? The Holy Roman Empire figure includes the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and parts of modern France, as well as Germany and Austria. Remember that Poland was a huge country back then as well. Both Catholic and Protestant states persecuted witches - this was one issue on which they were in agreement. The low number of executions in Italy and Spain is interesting - the Spanish Inquisition was more interested in heretics and in relapsed converts from Judaism, Islam, etc. than in accusations of witchcraft. In most areas most of the victims (roughly 3/4) were female. Notable exceptions include Finland, Estonia and Russia, but the total numbers from these countries are not large. Obviously the quality of the primary data varies considerably; in some areas detailed court records survive, in others very little. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have another (unconfirmed) claim: "Gerald Gardner, the founder of Modern Witchcraft, estimated nine million victims of the witch hunts off the top of his head when planning his Witchcraft museum. He justified this by saying that if it were done today, there would be about nine million victims of a witch craze." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------