Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

A lot of people (mostly, it seems, on the Right) seem to be likening this wave of sexual harassment to witch hunts.

Let's talk about *actual* witch hunts... <Thread>

One myth I'd like to address - many people describe witch hunts as a medieval development.

For *most* of the Middle Ages, while witches were thought to exist, they were not the most common targets of persecution.

The Church's biggest target were 'heretics'. Cathars, Waldensians, Bogomiles - anyone challenging church authority was in the firing line.

As for those practicing 'magic', they really couldn't care less, as long as there were some signs of repentance & adherence to dogma.

Beliefs about witches changed. One key development' was the 1487 publication of a book called 'Malleus Malificarum' (The Hammer of Witches) by a German monk named Heinrich Kramer.

It was one of the first popular texts to explicitly link witches with the Devil.

One thing you need to know about Heinrich Kramer is that he was obsessed with the sex lives of some of those who he attempted to persecute. He had to flee Innsbruck because of it, and took his anti-witch show on the road across the Holy Roman Empire.

Two things worked in Kramer's favour getting his ideas out - one was the Papal Bull, 'Summis desiderantes affectibus', issued by Innocent VIII at Kramer's request, giving him witch-hunting powers.

The others was the growing use of Gutenberg's movable type printing press.

Soon, authorities & learned persons across the Empire were presented with a text that (in a rather authoritative way by the standards of the time) presented witches as quasi-terrorist cells, spreading disease, famine & curses through women recruited by other 'witches'.

This book also appeared at a time when religious hegemonies crumbled. The Protestant Reformation & the conflicts it gave rise to meant that people found it hard to cling to faith in difficult times.

Witches & witchcraft became a suitable explanation for the chaos erupting.

Witch hunts - proper, burning-at-the-stake witch hunts - appeared in Europe in great numbers in the 16th century.

This coincides with a distinct cooling of temperatures across Europe called the 'Spörer Minimum' - a reduction of solar energy hitting the earth - maybe sunspots?

So wars were erupting, the weather was freezing, leading to low crop yields - like I said, scapegoats were sought.

The 'Malleus Malificarum' provided an out-of-the-box framework for understanding what was happening.

It wasn't the only explanation for ill-fortune - don't get me wrong - but in various corners of what is now Germany the compulsion to blame witches came easy.

In the four major German witch hunts of the 16th & 17th centuries - Bamberg, Fulda, Trier & Würzburg - much of the impetus for persecution came from above, through regional Prince-Bishops or similar, 'cleaning house' after religious conflict.

A lot of those persecuted were outsiders, vagrants or those with unorthodox or unfamiliar beliefs. Those seen as a drain on communities.

Quite a few of the victims were opportunistic - wives of city officials (and the city officials themselves) accused to settle scores.

I'd liken what happened to the poor individuals in these Early Modern witch hunts *somewhat* to the ideological purges of the 20th century - politically motivated with many using the opportunity to eliminate rivals.

Those imprisoned during the big witch trials were, as Roman Civil Law dictated, first shown the instruments of torture, then tortured until a confession was produced. This was necessary for conviction & sentence.

Depending where you were in the HRE, sentence was carried out by burning (sometimes after being beheaded), or by hanging - most of the big four witch hunts employed the stake.

Most of the large witch hunts usually lasted for months to a couple of years with the hysteria whipped up waning over time as the number of those executed grew.

In Würzburg & surrounds, for example, 1000+ died between 1626 and 1631.