Demons of Urban Reform: Early European Witch Trials and Criminal Justice, 1430-1530 (Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic)

This book illuminates the origins of the great European witch hunts by placing early witch trials in the comparative light of other criminal proceedings in Basel, Lucerne and Nuremberg. The study reveals that the increasingly harsh treatment was paralleled by mounting judicial severity in general, as well as by a keen interest in social control.