Perspectives on the Witch Trials

A popular meme amongst witches on social media reads ‘we are the grand-daughters of the witches you didn’t burn.’ This meme summarizes the popular contemporary view of the witch-trials of medieval Europe. But, is it accurate? A comprehensive understanding of what has been called the ‘burning times’ is challenging because the records of this pogrom were written by the very people who initiated it. Were the women and men tried and executed witches in the way we understand the craft today? Were they practitioners of what we now call ‘the old ways’, or were they people who for one reason or another just attracted the ire of their neighbours? Were the witch burnings in fact burning witches?