WITCH HUNTS ARE A FUNCTION OF WITCHES:

The procedures for a witch hunt, and its relative brutality, varied quite a bit from place to place. In the 17th-century Lutheran kingdom of Denmark, for example, witches would be tried according to the more old-fashioned "accusatorial" system of justice. That meant an injured party--the alleged victim of some witchcraft--would choose to bring the case to local court. The accuser then would touch the suspect's head and say, "I hereby accuse you of being a true witch." Witnesses would testify, and if the suspect were found guilty, the case would be taken up again at the county level. Torture would be carried out only after the defendant had been found guilty, and just before her execution. She'd be tied to a ladder in preparation for burning at the stake. Then she'd be tortured via stretching, as a means of procuring her confession before God--along with the names of any fellow witches she might know.

Witch hunts happened very differently in other parts of Europe. In Catholic Italy (as in many other places), witches were tried in an "inquisitorial" system. A designated official--the inquisitor--would do the investigation for himself and decide which claims of witchcraft might be legitimate and thus deserving of the full legal process. Torture would be applied during the trial, not afterward, as a means of gathering evidence. But inquisitors had to follow rules specifying the sorts of torture they could use and the maximum duration. Suspects were not supposed to suffer any permanent harm from the process. In the end, the most extreme sentences applied to witches would not be execution but rather public flogging and exile from the community.

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