In the German town of Nördlingen in 1593, an innkeeper named Maria Holl found herself accused of witchcraft.
She was arrested for questioning, and denied the charges.
She continued to insist she wasn't a witch through 62 rounds of torture before her accusers finally released her.
Rebelcon Lamp, accused a few years earlier in the same town faced worse fate.
She wrote to her husband from jail worrying that she would confess under torture, even though she was innocent.
After giving a false confession, she was burned at the stake in front of her family.
Holl and Lemp were both victims of the witch hunts that occurred in Europe and the American colonies from the late 15th century until the early 18th century.
These witch hunts were not a unified initiative by a single authority, but rather a phenomenon that occurred sporadically and followed a similar pattern each time.
The term "witch has taken on many meanings, but in these hunts, a witch was someone who allegedly gained magical powers by obeying Satan rather than God.
This definition of witchcraft spread through churches in Western Europe starting at the end of the 15th century.
