The European Witch-Hunt

In medieval Europe, being a magician was considered a major crime and if a person was suspected of possessing magical powers the only penalty waiting for him/her was burning to death. The mass panic against magicians was so widespread among Europeans and even in their colonies in North and South America that from 15th century to 17th century at least one million people were burnt to death for being “wizards”. Hundreds and thousand others were hanged tortured and amputated for practicing “black magic”. This persecution was initiated and administered by the churches as the Bible strongly condemned wizards and magicians. However, this mass extermination of alleged magicians is also often termed as gendericide as the most common victims of the priests' drive against wizards were women. Influential and scholarly women like Hypatia, Joan of Arc, Veronika of Desenice were murdered by the Christian mob often agitated by the political rivals after being suspected of practicing witchcraft. Many scholars were also persecuted and even killed for being “wizards” as the medieval priests misunderstood their extraordinary knowledge and research as 'magic' and 'witchcraft'. One of them was famous astronomer Giordano Bruno who was burnt to death by the Christian zealots in 1600. Thanks to the reformist movements in early modern Europe, trend of burning people to death decreased gradually. Janet Horne (died 1727) is considered as the last person to be executed for witchcraft in the British Isles. It is assumed that execution for witchcraft was decreased but continued in different European societies throughout 18th century.