The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries
E850525
The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries is a historical study by Hugh Trevor-Roper that analyzes the social, religious, and political factors behind the major witch hunts in early modern Europe.
All labels observed (3)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10223585 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries Context triple: [Hugh Trevor-Roper, notableWork, The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries]
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A.
European witch hunts
European witch hunts were a series of widespread persecutions, trials, and executions of people accused of witchcraft across Europe from roughly the 15th to 18th centuries, driven by religious, social, and political tensions.
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B.
Witchcraft Today
Witchcraft Today is a 1954 book by Gerald Gardner that popularized modern Wicca by presenting it as a surviving pre-Christian pagan religion.
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C.
Fulda witch trials
The Fulda witch trials were a series of severe early 17th-century witch persecutions in the Prince-Bishopric of Fulda, Germany, that resulted in numerous executions and are remembered as one of the major witch hunts of the period.
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D.
Pendle witch trials
The Pendle witch trials were a series of notorious early 17th-century English witchcraft prosecutions in Lancashire that led to multiple executions and became some of the most famous witch trials in British history.
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E.
The Meaning of Witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft is a seminal 1959 book by Gerald Gardner that outlines the beliefs, practices, and history of modern Wicca and helped popularize contemporary witchcraft.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries Target entity description: The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries is a historical study by Hugh Trevor-Roper that analyzes the social, religious, and political factors behind the major witch hunts in early modern Europe.
-
A.
European witch hunts
European witch hunts were a series of widespread persecutions, trials, and executions of people accused of witchcraft across Europe from roughly the 15th to 18th centuries, driven by religious, social, and political tensions.
-
B.
Witchcraft Today
Witchcraft Today is a 1954 book by Gerald Gardner that popularized modern Wicca by presenting it as a surviving pre-Christian pagan religion.
-
C.
Fulda witch trials
The Fulda witch trials were a series of severe early 17th-century witch persecutions in the Prince-Bishopric of Fulda, Germany, that resulted in numerous executions and are remembered as one of the major witch hunts of the period.
-
D.
Pendle witch trials
The Pendle witch trials were a series of notorious early 17th-century English witchcraft prosecutions in Lancashire that led to multiple executions and became some of the most famous witch trials in British history.
-
E.
The Meaning of Witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft is a seminal 1959 book by Gerald Gardner that outlines the beliefs, practices, and history of modern Wicca and helped popularize contemporary witchcraft.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
historical study ⓘ |
| academicDiscipline |
history of religion
ⓘ
political history ⓘ social history ⓘ |
| analyzes |
political factors behind witch hunts
ⓘ
religious factors behind witch hunts ⓘ social factors behind witch hunts ⓘ |
| argues |
witch craze was linked to religious and political tensions of early modern Europe
ⓘ
witch hunts declined with changes in intellectual and religious climate ⓘ |
| author | Hugh Trevor-Roper ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| examines |
intellectual context of witch beliefs
ⓘ
relationship between Counter-Reformation and witch hunts ⓘ relationship between Reformation and witch hunts ⓘ role of judicial institutions in witch trials ⓘ role of religious conflict in witch persecutions ⓘ role of state-building in witch persecutions ⓘ |
| field |
European history
ⓘ
historiography of witchcraft ⓘ |
| focusesOn | early modern Europe ⓘ |
| genre |
early modern European history
ⓘ
history ⓘ |
| hasPerspectiveOn |
Catholic-Protestant conflicts
ⓘ
decline of witch trials ⓘ state centralization in early modern Europe ⓘ |
| includedIn | collections of essays by Hugh Trevor-Roper ⓘ |
| influenced | later scholarship on European witch hunts ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
political history
ⓘ
religious conflict ⓘ social history ⓘ witch hunts ⓘ witchcraft ⓘ |
| notableFor |
emphasis on political and institutional context of witch trials
ⓘ
linking witch persecutions to confessional conflict ⓘ |
| perspective | revisionist interpretation of witch hunts ⓘ |
| spatialCoverage | Europe ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
historians
ⓘ
readers interested in witchcraft history ⓘ students of early modern Europe ⓘ |
| temporalCoverage |
16th century
ⓘ
17th century ⓘ |
| workOf | Hugh Trevor-Roper ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries Description of subject: The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries is a historical study by Hugh Trevor-Roper that analyzes the social, religious, and political factors behind the major witch hunts in early modern Europe.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century
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hasPart
→
The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
ⓘ
linked to: The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries
The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century
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relatedWork
→
The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
ⓘ
linked to: The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries