Witches are back in the news, at least as representations of evil in some of the
current movies. So let’s look at a classic example of false facts about history. I am
talking about witches and witch hunts.

Rodney Stark in his new book, The Triumph of Christianity, says: “no historical
statistics have been so outrageously inflated as the numbers of those executed as witches
during the craze that took place in Europe from about 1450 to 1700.” He points out that
some writers have placed the final death toll at nine million, drawing comparisons with
the Holocaust in the 20th century. Others have claimed that the witch-hunts only ended
when the so-called “Dark Ages” of religious extremism were replaced by the
Enlightenment.

The cover picture of Rodney Stark’s earlier book, For the Glory of God, is a
painting of a woman being burned to death for practicing witchcraft. This has been an
iconic image and potent symbol of Christian intolerance and medieval irrationality.

What are the true facts? First the number of killed was probably closer to 60,000,
which is less than one percent of the oft-cited figure. And we should add that perhaps a
third of those executed were men, not women.

Second, the accusers weren’t religious fanatics trying to suppress heresy or rid the
world of people they believed were witches. Rodney Stark explains that often it was
church officials who intervened in witchcraft trials in order to protect the innocent.

Third, the period of “frantic” witch-hunting actually took place during the late
Renaissance and the Enlightenment. In his celebrated book, Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
writes that: “as for witches . . . they are justly punished.” Another leading figure of the
Enlightenment, Jean Bodin, “served as a judge at several witchcraft trials and advocated
burning witches in the slowest possible fires.”

This is but one more example of where the historical record has been distorted in
order to smear Christianity.