Between the years of 1470 and 1700, thousands of women were killed, burned at the stake, in an effort to end witchcraft. After about 1700, fewer women were killed off when society began to get too chaotic. .
During the 15th century many problems arose in the common person's life, sickness, death, poverty, high infant immortality. To try to explain these reoccurrences people began to blame women of practicing witchcraft. It was also used as a religious weapon; if some one didn't believe in God or go to church, it was theorized that the devil had taken over their soul. According to a midwife of Dillingen, Germany, she had witnessed the devil taking over the body of Walpurga Hausmannin by making her kill and eat small infants. During this time, it was also the age of men. Most men hated women, and thought the world would be a more civilized place with out them, so it was easy to blame their problems on the opposite sex. Women were believed to have a birth defect; it was believed that they were born with an extra rib; therefore women were perceived as inferior. Men also received all the property of anyone who was convicted. If you put some one on trial for being a witch and they were convicted all of the land and the assets of that person would be granted to you. Women would be tortured until they confessed their witchery, whether it was true or not.
After the late 1600's the witchcraft trials slowly began to decline. Science was able to explain a little of why women acted the way they did. Newton and Bacon began to publicize their theories. Johan Wier, a Belgian physician, also produced a book explaining the dement ions of the brain. HE explained how women's brains were smaller, thus causing women to be more depressed. The growing power of government also led to the decline. The realization that a civilized country could not live like that led the government to crack down on witch slayings. When the upper class began to be attacked, more of the public realized that people were just out for personal gain; the public decided that was against their morals.
