Learn About The Horribly Brutal Practices Of These 10 Historical Witch Hunters

Hopkins was an Englishmen who worked as lawyer before becoming a witch hunter for extra money. He was known for torturing suspected witches through sleep deprivation.  

Witchcraft accusations were common in provincial France in the early 1600s. de Lancre was named Judge of the Bordeaux by the king and was tasked with handling accusations of witchcraft. During a four-month period, he executed about 80 people who were accused of witchcraft. 

Johann von Schonenberg was the archbishop who worked during the largest witch trial in British history. The trials lasted more than ten years and 368 executions have been recorded. 

Binsfeld was a 16th-century German theologian who was thought of as an expert on witchcraft. He even wrote books on the subject. He believed that all it took was one accusation in order to start questioning and torturing proposed witches. He also thought nothing of torturing accused children. 

Alonso De Salazar Frias was called the "witches advocate," because he was against witchcraft but didn't think it needed to be an offense that was punishable by death. He also didn't consider an accusation to be viable evidence of witchcraft. During this time on the inquisition tribunal, 7,000 people were accused, but only 31 were convicted and 11 were executed. 

Balthasar Von Dernbach was a Benedictine monk during the 16th century. He began by working against Protestantism and forcing converts to return to the Catholic faith. He later focused on witches and forced confessions out over over 200 women. 

Remy has a reputation for being the most prolific witch hunter in recorded history. He was a 16th-century French magistrate who claimed to have been involved in the accusations and executions of over 900 witches. He worked as a lawyer and then a historian, but his fascination with witchcraft came after his son died. He believed he had been cursed by a beggar. 

Roger Nowell was a local English magistrate who worked during a time when accusations of witchcraft were running rampant. He knew that the king at the time hated witches and began to seek them out and convict them in order to get close to the king.

Michaelis was grand inquisitor who sentenced 18 witches to their deaths in the 1600s. 

The only case of witch burning in Vienna, Austria took place in 1593. Elizabeth Plainacher was a 70-year-old woman who was raising her granddaughter Anna. When Anna left her grandmother's she began experiencing seizures. A Catholic orator named Georg Scherer, accused Elizabeth of hexing Anna. Elizabeth was tortured, confessed to being a witch and was sentenced to death.