History of Christianity

=== Witch trials ({{circa|1450–1750}}) ===
{{See also|Christian views on magic|Witch-hunt|Witch trials in the early modern period|Salem witch trials|Little ice age}}
Until the 1300s, the official position of the Roman Catholic Church was that [[Witchcraft|witches]] did not exist.{{sfn|Kwiatkowska|2010|p=30}} While historians have been unable to pinpoint a single cause of what became known as the "witch frenzy", scholars have noted that, without changing church doctrine, a new but common stream of thought developed at every level of society that witches were both real and malevolent.{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=6}} Records show the belief in magic had remained so widespread among the rural people, it has convinced some historians that Christianization had not been as successful as previously supposed.{{sfn|Herlihy|2023}} The main pressure to prosecute witches came from the common people, and trials were mostly civil trials.{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=7}}{{sfn|Ankarloo|Clark|Monter|2002|p=xiii}} There is broad agreement that approximately 100,000 people were prosecuted, of which 80% were women, and 40,000 to 50,000 people were executed between 1561 and 1670.{{sfn|Monter|2023}}{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=6}}
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