The witch trials in Poland started later than in most of Europe, not beginning in earnest until the second half of the 17th century, but they also lasted longer than they did elsewhere.
The first known witchcraft case in Poland is the one included in a heresy trial against Damian of Borków by Bishop Jakub von Płock (r. 1396–1425), but the exact date is unknown.
[2] This law was issued after a local court in Kłodawa had burned a group of women following severe torture and a trial of dubious legality.
[2] The peasantry seldom included accusations about a pact with Satan or participation in a Witches' Sabbath, but accusations could be reinterpreted by the authorities of the Catholic church and local courts in order to make the case fit the descriptions in Christian demonology witchcraft handbooks.
[2] The likely last witch trial in independent Poland prior to the final partition was conducted in an unspecified village outside Poznań in 1793 against two women who were accused of having caused illness in livestock through the use of witchcraft.
[5] The last person known to have died in Poland after accusations of sorcery was Krystyna Ceynowa, also in the German partition, who was lynched by locals in 1836.
[2][1][4] Unlike elsewhere in Europe, due to the privileges of Polish nobility, there are no recorded instances of a process and execution of a noble (outside of the legend of Walenty Potocki, which historians describe as a fictional story).