Superstition

Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality. In this novel, the good people of Schongau believe in witchcraft, in the idea that one woman could have the power to call on the devil to kill multiple times and cause a fire even while she is in jail.

Superstition was common in the 1600s, the time period in which this novel is set. During this time, people were deathly afraid of witches because they believed that these witches could do things that are beyond explanation, bringing death or plague down on the people around them. It was during this time that many innocent women were put to death because of the belief that they had the power to cause illness or death.

In this novel, the village of Schongau suffered a witch hunt a generation before in which more than sixty women were put to death, some...