How_Far_Can_The_Rise_In_Witch_Trials_In_The_Seventeenth_Cent

How Far Can The Rise In Witch Trials In The Seventeenth Century Be Explained By Economic Factors How far can the rise in witch trials in the late sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century be explained by economic factors' There are many explanations for the rise of witch trials in the first half of the seventeenth century one of which can be explained by economic factors. However there were other contributing elements. The witch trials took place throughout most of Europe. Briggs had identified the heartland of the witch craze to be a hundred miles or so either side of the Rhine, from Luxembourg and north west Germany down to Savoy and the Swiss Confederation. Although these places were hit quite hard by the craze some countries avoided them almost entirely. There have been many attempts to estimate the number of deaths due to the witch trials and it is clear that some estimates have been grossly exaggerated. Recent estimates have suggested that the total number of prosecutions for witchcraft during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was in the region of 111,000, about half of which took place within the Holy Roman Empire. The historian Brian Levack had suggested that the number of executions was in the region of witch, hunting, been, trials, poor, craze, witchcraft, sixteenth, seventeenth, rise, number, factors, explanation, economic, century, witches, roman, played, persecutions, persecution, local, late, however, holy, example, empire, concept, briggs, whole, time, robin, rich, prosecution, place, people