witchcraft trials
Sorcery prosecution events
Witchcraft trials were legal proceedings, most notorious in early modern Europe and colonial America, in which people—predominantly women—were accused of practicing harmful magic or consorting with the devil.
The Salem witch trials of 1692 remain the most famous American example.
The term now appears in discussions of moral panics and persecution of marginalized groups: The hearings became a modern witchcraft trial.
- TitubaSalem trials' first accused
- InquisitionChurch tribunal against heretics
- hexesMalevolent magical spells
- pact with the devilSoul-selling agreement for gain
- spectral evidenceTestimony from supernatural visions
Puritanism · burning at the stake · New England colonies · Scotland · court records · curses · Malleus Maleficarum · dark magic · Germany · denunciation · hanging · swimming test · familiars · torture methods · Catholic Church · demonology · imprisonment · Calvinism
- 1700sMozart, Voltaire, colonial period, French Revolution, William III
- Inquisitioninquisition, heretic, inquisitors, heretics, auto-da-fe
- legal historylegal history, medieval law, Roman law, Roman jurisprudence, common law
- historical justicetruth commissions, reparations, redress, tribunals, inquisition
- Tudor EraHenry VIII, Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour
- medievalknights, castles, cathedral, kings, queens
witchcraft trialsdue process
Guaranteed judicial fairness
fair trial · forensic investigation · rule of law · presumption of innocence · habeas corpus
witchcraft trialsexoneration
Official clearing of blame
civil liberties · religious tolerance · amnesty · separation of church and state · innocence project
witchcraft trialsAge of Reason
Eighteenth-century intellectual awakening
scientific revolution · secular humanism · rationalism · empiricism · skepticism
witch, craft, trial, witches, witchcraft, crafts, crafted, crafting, craftsman