17th Century Witch Hunter Matthew Hopkins The year was 1500. In Copenhagen, a young woman named Merona was tied to a stake. The accusers called her a witch, and her punishment was fire. This tragic event was not an isolated act of medieval brutality; it was the kindling for a fever that would sweep across Europe. It was the beginning of a contagion of fear, a paranoid hunt for the "other" that would stain the centuries to come. My book Labyrinth of Shadows: The Witch's Rebirt