Comparative statistics and totals
A map showing local variation within Finland
Copyright by Timo Kervinen and Marko Nenonen. Map by Lassi Koikkalainen.
Index
This field is bedevilled with exaggerated statistics,
whether provided by demonologists or modern writers. I have here
tried to show the sort of estimates that the best modern scholarship has
produced so far. This will then provide a yardstick for you to judge
the claims made by historians. Inevitably, what I have written here
can only be provisional. If anyone comes across some solid research
that might modify the figures below, I would be glad to hear of it. Latvia
and Russia are not included here as I have no reliable figures, but the
level of prosecutions in these countries was very low, so the overall figures
are not significantly affected.
Region or Country
Prosecutions Executions
Population c.1600
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scandinavian kingdoms 5,000
c.1,800
[Finland]
[115]
350,000
[Sweden]
[350]
800,000
[Iceland]
120
[22]
50,000
[Denmark &Norway]
[1,350]
970,000
Estonia 205 65
British Isles as a whole
5,000
1,500-2,000
[Scotland + England]
[1,000 + 500]
6.5m.
Switzerland 8,800 4,000-5,000 1m.
France 10,000 4,000? 20m.
Dutch Netherlands 200 1.5m.
Belgium/Luxemburg 500 1.3m.
Liechtenstein 300 3,000
Switzerland 4,000 1m.
Holy Roman Empire
40-60,000
[Hungary]
[800]
3m.
[Germany, incl. Bavaria]
[25,000? incl. 2,000]
16m.
[Austria]
[1,000-1,500]
2m.
[Bohemia]
[1,000]
2m.
Poland/Lithuania 15,000 10,000? 3.4m.
Portugal 7 1m.
Spain 300 8.1m.
Italy
1,000?
13.1m.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS (approx.)
110,000
60,000
I hope the above figures will persuade members of this class to treat with scepticism inflated totals, which are still bandied about. Diane Purkiss, in her The Witch in History, is good on the subject of why there are still people committed to the notion that millions died.
How far do the figures above reflect differences between Protestant and Catholic Europe? The Holy Roman Empire, although it contained Protestants, was mainly Catholic.
It is often suggested that Catholics were more ferocious or less enlightened than Protestants. This impression has been inherited from the Enlightenment authors and from the late nineteenth-century historians who worked on the Inquisition, many of whom were vehemently anti-Catholic. It has been perpetrated by popular, neopagan, and radical feminist authors, who have their own axes to grind and who often rely on outdated secondary sources. Whatever the horrors of the early modern Inquisitions for other groups, they were none of them especially severe with accused witches, by comparison with secular courts. In general, like is not being compared with like. We could just as easily select Italy as our representative Catholic country and say that it was more enlightened than Scotland or Sweden. A fairer comparison is to take a region where Catholics and Protestants lived in close proximity, in a network of small confessional jurisdictions, Southwestern Germany. Here we find Protestant and Catholic states with both high and low prosecution rates.
Protestant
Catholic
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trials
Executed
Trials
Executed
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1561-1600 49
218
150
896
1601-70
114
402
167
1,437
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
totals
163
620
317
2,333
On the face of it, this suggests the Catholics were more ferocious in their persecution of alleged witches, but one should note that the population of Catholic provinces was about 3 to 4 times greater than those of Protestant provinces. In other words, although the amounts vary greatly, per capita the levels of trials and executions are almost identical.
This might suggest that, although religion was important as a factor, other crucial factors need to be considered, such as the legal and political systems involved, the character of folk beliefs, and the social and economic structure of the region concerned. Historians have tried out a great number of explanations, and none so far have been found to fit all or even most regions. Within a single country, the pattern of prosecutions can vary widely, for a wide range of reasons. Both the incidence of large panics and the frequency of individual trials appear to have more to do with local contingent factors than with such divisions as Catholic - Protestant or common law - Roman law.
If anyone tries to persuade you that they know the single most important determinant of the level of prosecutions, you should beware. They are probably selling snake oil.
