Essays - Featured Excerpt
It must be noted that during the Inquisition, few, if any, real, verifiable, witches were ever discovered or tried. Often the very accusation was enough to see one branded a witch, tried by the Inquisitors' Court, and burned alive at the stake. Estimates of the death toll during the Inquisition worldwide range from the scholarly estimate of 1,450 to 1,700, to the popular estimates of 600,000 and as high as 9,000,000 (over its 250 year long course); any of these estimates is a chilling number when one realizes that nearly all of the accused were women, and consisted primarily of outcasts and other suspicious persons. Old women. Midwives. Jews. Poets. Gypsies. Anyone who did not fit within the contemporary view of pieous Christians were suspect, and easily branded “Witch”. Usually to devastating effect.
Last updated by Wicasta Lovelace - Apr 24 2008