Dick Harrison

The Era of Evil

The Development of Witch Persecutions and Trials in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth century

Fimmtudaginn 19. febrúar 2026 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) / Edda auditorium (E-103)

In the early Middle Ages, the Christian church of Europe regarded magic in much the same way that we do today. It was regarded as superstition, as a bundle of ideas that should be combatted not because they could result in real harm, but because they were stupid. Since all power emanated from God, the very notion that Satan or one of his demons could be called upon to render assistance to witches and wizards was nonsense. Hence, witches and wizards were not taken seriously, and they could be (and were) used in stories and plays as elements of entertainment.

However, in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, this attitude began to change. In the 1320s, the pope himself acknowledged that magic users should be taken seriously, for the same reason that heretics were to be feared. Since heretics—i.e., Cathars and Valdensians—did exist and, moreover, caused serious harm to Christianity, it was only logical to assume that they were inspired by Satan and the forces of evil. In all probability, these dark powers also tried to exert influence over the world by employing witches and wizards. Accordingly, practitioners of magic were to be dealt with in the same fashion as heretics: by investigations and persecutions and, as a last resort, by burning at the stake.

This was the beginning of a development that created an atmosphere of fear of magic that resulted in sporadic eruptions of witch hunts. Eventually, tens of thousands of innocent Europeans were tried and killed, with a culmination in the seventeenth century. The processes varied considerably: for example, the vast majority of the victims in continental Europe were women, while the majority of the Icelandic victims were men. In present-day Estonia and Latvia, there were few witch trials but many werewolf trials. In Spain, some of the biggest persecutions of the era were launched, but they were quenched by the Inquisition, since this well-trained ecclesiastical court demanded reliable pieces of evidence. In Sweden, on the other hand, many women were condemned to death simply because local children made up stories about their alleged visits to Blåkulla, where they were supposed to have made pacts with the Devil.

How was this possible? Why did learned intellectuals embrace popular ideas that had previously been regarded as ludicrous? And why did the witch craze stop? What made judges, priests and princes realise that the accused were innocent?

Dick Harrison is Professor of History at Lund University in Sweden. He has published more than a hundred books on various historical subjects, with a major focus on the Middle Ages. His book about the Black Death was rewarded the August Prize for best Swedish non-fiction book in 2000, and he was the editor (and a major contributor) to the eight-volume work Sveriges historia (“The History of Sweden”). Harrison appears frequently as an expert in Swedish radio and television.

Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.

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