Burning a rogue wizard is really stupid unless that’s his elemental weakness.  He could just command the flames as his weapon.  A simple decap is a more viable fantasy move.

"The First Witch of Boston" is a great fictionalisation of Margaret Jones (the first woman, suspected of witchcraft, hung in Boston). It's a great example of what this whole video is about.

As a note on the Spanish Inquisition - they weren't even looking for witches; their primary purpose was to persecute "enemies of Spain", predominantly with a religious flavor.

Not saying they were good people, just that witch hunting was not central to their operation. Much like how you don't call on pest control to put out a fire in your living room.

Early modern historian here. Accused witches were rarely poor women. Most were property holders; a few were people of wealth. Money and the desire to get their hands on property was the usual motivation. One in six victims were men.

This video came just in time to add a whole new layer to my current WIP novel, Duality-The Wizard in Spite of Herself. So thank you very much for that, Sasha!

as an interesting note- corporate witchhunts work pretty much the same way. Have  a disaster happen in the office and watch all the petty office grudges surface as everyone points fingers,  until the least liked person gets fired.

a web of who benefits and who loses if the witch is burned on its own sounds like an engaging mystery. I never actually thought of it that way, but it makes sense especially with the way people used to be non atomized, and everyone knew everyone else. It could scale as small or as large as needed.

The free Fantasy Writing Remedies to fix the problems in your draft: https://thetaletinkerer.com/the-remedies?v=hFJIe0vCANQ&p=pinned

when you said Trier it instantly brough back memories of a few school trips lol.

Warhammer fantasy and 40K answers these questions very well.
Using Magic recklessly leaves you open to demonic possession, can cause horrific mutations amongst other things

In my world demons (goblin hybrids) are some of the only ones actively hunted and neutralized. They are the product of the demon kings "breeding" program.

Even after the war they are reviled by all races. As they are a persistent reminder of the wars numerous atrocities.

Honestly having an inquisitor show up and be the only sane guy is interesting and refreshing.
"Umm no theres no way you saw your neighbor appear as a wraith there is a cemetery between your houses the hallowed ground would have trapped them."

"Good Omens" comes to mind...

Jordan had the other ways too: an city square sized detector, and bindings for sorcerers. But this was factional/depending on the location

Sometimes stories about witches being burnt aren't stories about witches. They are stories about every other group that ever faced mob violence and prejudice.

This applies where magic can be concealed, but what if it always left a trace, like a smell*, to the individual caster.  People familiar with you can tell when you have used magic, and people who are familiar with the traces of your magic can identify you.  Magical devices and spells can track traces that are older and less distinct for environmental reasons.  A common use of magic is to enhance a maker's mark or official seal, making it very easy to determine if the appropriate person actually made the stamp.  Official forces tend to have magical weapons so that the fact that people were harmed by agents of the government is noted.  A corrupt city guardsman might however have a secret second weapon for unofficial punishments.  Magic is rarely used in crime because it is so traceable.  

Part of the reason magic is so traceable is that everyone swears an oath to "Let all know when I have practiced the arts" which both increases magical power and vastly increases magical traces. Someone who did not swear the oath is much harder to detect.  If they also practice to concearl their magic they can become a true Dark Wizard.  While some of these have struck blows against tyrannical lords and kings and stayed concealed, others have used unaccountable power for their own wealth and glory.  But don't worry the last of the Dark Wizards was killed decades ago.  Then again, how could you know if someone was one?

* But not a smell.

Almost no one writes about why burning witches is a GOOD thing, and why we need more of it

I live in a small village near Trier (pronounced “TREE-er”), where 27 “witches” were burned at the stake about 400 years ago. Some 400 more people were denounced, implicating most of the village, although I think they were acquitted.

I guess that must be why the current villagers get upset when someone burns their steak…

One additional factor to consider: Institutional Drift. What happens after your Holy Order of Witch-Hunters actually wins? Perhaps the threat was completely real and the Sorcerer Lords were a genuine threat to the world…100 years ago. But those guys were annihilated in the Great Backstory War, effective preventative measures against new black magic users are in place, and now the order only actually needs a fraction of of its personnel and budget to police against current, mundane threats like rejected suitors trying to concoct love potions or foolish teenage girls toying with dubious grimmoires. You have a wealthy, powerful, prestigious institution that very wants to stay that way but is in need of a reason to be so. And nobody wants to get the “Knights Templar Treatment”  from a king who needs to balance the ledger and now has a politically cheap treasury to loot.

Does the order try to find a new threat to the rest of the world to deal with (real or imagined)? Does it go out of its way to publicize the handful of legitimately dangerous individuals it takes down? Does it stake its claim to a related line of work, such as regulating the trade in magical materials? And does it lose its original competency along the way—maybe a new Sorcerer Lord is rising, but the Witch-Hunters are now largely bureaucrats, courtiers, and lawyers with few skilled hunters left.

You mention how there might just be a poor “witch pricker” trying to keep fed by finding a quota of witches—but there might also be a great lord trying to keep the machinery operating to stave off purge or keep his permanent seat on the Royal Council as Chief Witch-Hunter.

Very informative!
I think a lot of the tropes about witch hunts (especially the "accusation for financial gain" part) comes from the witch hunt in Salem. Most Americans are pretty ignorant of the witch trials in Europe. A little history goes a long way.