The "burning times:" The extermination of Witches and other heretics

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  https://youtu.be/kizbFjWheW0?t=140
 

Lyrics:

""Forget not the days of old / And recall the stories told / Of the burnings and the screams / Do they ever haunt your dreams?
"There was a time when freedom died / It was an age of genocide / The Inquisition at the door / The Church of Rome in a holy war ..."
Then the turning of the tide / From the truth they could not hide / Now the darkest age has passed / The Goddess has returned at last!" 

Overview:

We are not going to win many friends in the Neopagan communities with the following two essays. However, we believe it to be accurate. It is a story that needs to be told.
The facts are that almost all of the information that is generally accepted as truth by the Neopagan community about the "burning times" is wrong. What really happened was:

	The total number of victims was probably between 50,000 and 100,000 -- not 9 million as many believe.
	Although alleged witches were burned alive or hung over a five century interval -- from the 14th to the 18th century -- the vast majority were tried from 1550 to 1650.
	Some of the victims worshiped Pagan deities, and thus could be considered to be indirectly linked to today's Neopagans. However most apparently did not.
	Some of the victims were midwives and native healers; however most were not.
	Most of the victims were tried executed by local, community courts, not by the Church.
	A substantial minority of victims -- about 25% -- were male.
	Many countries in Europe largely escaped the burning times: Ireland executed only four "Witches;" Russia only ten. The craze affected mostly Switzerland, Germany and France.
	Eastern Orthodox countries had few Witch trials. Stephen Hayes writes: "In parts of the Orthodox East, at least, witch hunts such as those experienced in other parts of Europe were unknown...."The Orthodox Church is strongly critical of sorcerers (among whom it includes palmists, fortune tellers and astrologers), but has not generally seen the remedy in accusations, trials and secular penalties, but rather in confession and repentance, and exorcism if necessary...." 2
	Most of the genocide seem to have taken place in Western Europe in the times and areas where Protestant - Roman Catholic conflict -- and thus social turmoil -- was at its maximum.