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The term witch trials generally refers to a period in European history from around 1450 to the mid-18th century, during which it was common for accusations of malicious, harmful, and Satanic witchcraft to be taken seriously, often resulting in loss of reputation, imprisonment, torture, and execution of the accused in Europe and to a lesser extent the European colonies. Serious estimates of the numbers of people executed for witchcraft during this period range from forty thousand to one million; some authors have suggested up to nine million executions were performed. Witch trials were especially common in Germany, England, Scotland, France, and Italy; the phenomenon was far less pronounced in Scandinavia, Ireland, and Spain. In colonial America, the Salem witch trials went on for less than a year, in 1692.
The later witch trials were not only performed by the Apostolic Roman Catholic church. After the Protestant Reformation non-Catholic ChristianChristian is: a follower of the faith of Christianity a popular first name and surname, especially in Northern Europe According to the New Testament, those who followed Jesus as his disciples were first called Christians by those who did not share their f countries continued with the witch hunting and these processes. There were few differences in the customs of Anglican, Lutheran, Puritan, Catholic and other tribunals; although Catholic countries prosecuted witchcraft as a heresyHeresy according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a "theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, whereas Protestant countries considered it a violent crime, both viewed malicious witchcraft as necessarily involving the aid of SatanAlternate meaning: Satan is also the name of a genus of catfish. See: Satan eurystomus. Satan Standard Hebrew Satan Tiberian Hebrew Sn Aramaic Sin both words mean "Adversary; accuser") is an angel, demon, or minor god in many religions. Satan plays variou or demonSatan In folklore, mythology, and in many religions, a demon is a supernatural entity, generally (but not in all traditions) an evil or malicious spirit. The Greek word daemon ω, appears in the works of Plato and many other ancient authors, withouts.
The countries that followed the Orthodox rite of the Catholic church were reluctant to accept the Inquisition. In some of these countries it was only accepted to combat the "heretic" movements that arose during the end of the Old Age and the first half of the Middle Age (i.e. the BogomilsBogomils was the name of an ancient Gnostic religious community which is thought to have originated in Bulgaria. It is difficult to ascertain whether the name was taken from the reputed founder of that sect, a certain pope Bogumil or Bogomil, or whether h). Furthermore, most of these countries soon were conquered by the Turks and became a part of the Ottoman EmpireOsmanlı İmparatorluğu Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye The Ottoman Coat of Arms Imperial motto: unknown The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul ( Constantinople) Sovereigns Sultans for centuries.