We've probably all heard of the Salem witch trials, but prior to the afflicted hurling accusations at local townsfolk, there was a much larger witch hunt. The “Great Hunt” was a larger, more prolonged European phenomenon between 1560 and 1630 that led to 80,000 accusations and 40,000 deaths. Reasons for accusing a person of witchcraft varied, but more likely than not, few actual witches were tried and killed.
SOURCES
The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A Sociologist's Perspective; By Nachman Ben-Yehuda; American Journal of Sociology; Vol. 86, No. 1 (Jul. 1980), pp. 1-31 (31 pages); Published By: The University of Chicago Press
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/the-robbins-collection/exhibitions/witch-trials-in-early-modern-europe-and-new-england/
https://qz.com/1183992/why-europe-was-overrun-by-witch-hunts-in-early-modern-history/
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