Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire

The witchcraft persecutions differed widely between the regions, and was most intense in the territories of the Catholic Prince Bishops in Southwestern Germany.

The witch trials of the Catholic Prince Bishops of South West Germany were arguably the biggest in the world.

The Holy Roman Empire consisted of a number of autonomous states, both Protestant and Catholic who all had their own laws and regulations, and the witchcraft persecutions, therefore, varied considerably.

In the early 18th century, the central government enforced their authority over the local courts, which resulted in a swift decrease in witch trials.

[2] The mass witch trials which took place in the German Prince Bishoprics could last for years on end and result on hundreds of executions.

[2] These mass trials resulted in the executions of all genders and ages, and while the majority were female, the male minority was by no means small and men were referred to as "witches" as well, which was used as a gender-neutral expression.

Since then other executions have been found by later research, such as that of Maria Renata Saenger von Mossau in Bavaria in 1749 and Anna Schnidenwind in Endingen am Kaiserstuhl in 1751.

Switzerland bordered to North Eastern France and Southern Germany, where the witchcraft persecutions were more intense than anywhere else in Europe, and belong to the areas where the witch trials were most fervent.

This unleashed the first wave of witchcraft persecutions during and was followed by numerous witch trials in Wallis 1430, Fribourg and Neuchâtel (1440), Vevey (1448), Lausanne (1460), Lake Geneva (1480) and Domartin (1498 and 1524–28).

A reason for the severe persecutions in Switzerland was the weak central power, where the Imperial court had little to no real influence, something which had a bad effect on the rights of those accused.

This is illustrated by the fact that the persecutions were the worst in areas were the central power was weakest: between 1580 and 1655, about 1700 witch trials took place in Vaud, but only about 80 in Zürich.

Most of the cases were directed against members of the public by other private citizens, and the accusations were normally destruction of property by use of magic and participation in a witches sabbath.