Talk:Burned at the stake

Del,

I'm gonna have to disagree with the statement. While this may be true in certain geographic areas (eg England and the New World) it is not true of other areas where the witchcraft craze took place. I will be adding to this page at a later date. Jane of Stockton 10:23, Nov 13, 2003 (EST)

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Yup, go for it, but provide some real evidence that isn't post-Crowleyist.

Germany and Scotland were amongst the few places in period when people were burned at the stake for alleged(*) witchcraft. In nearly all of the rest of Europe, those burned at the stake were those accused of heresy. Even the Malleus Maleficarum only prescribes burning at the stake of witches who were convicted of heresy (i.e. those who professed to be christians but were not).

(*) alleged, only. There were almost certainly very few real witches in period, and those accused of witchcraft were mostly just cranky old ladies with a bad widows hump and a pet cat. The Malleus Maleficarum was written by a couple of badly delusional paranoid misogynists, and can't be accepted as fact.

Del 15:06, 13 Nov 2003 (EST)

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Cant remember the exact journal article - I think it was the Sixteenth Century Journal --- but it was arguing that far more of those killed in Germany during the Great Witchcraft Craze were men than has been commonly thought.

The bibliography in the article might be worth a look for the rewrite, to see what the state of the art is for historical work on the topic.

Anton