The Witch trials in France are poorly documented, mainly because a lot of the documents of former witch trials have not been preserved, and no number can therefore be given for the executions of witch trials in France or the true extent of them. While there is much secondary information about witch trials in France, the poor state of documentation often makes them hard to confirm. As no national Witchcraft Act was enacted in France, they fell under the jurisdiction of local courts and the witch hunt differed between regions. The witch trials of Northern France fell under the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris, which was normally not liberal in enforcing the death penalty. However, the local courts did not always defer to Paris, which is another contributing factor to the difficulty in estimating the witch hunt in France. Present day North Eastern France is known to have experienced a severe witch hunt, close to the border of the territories of the Catholic Prince Bishops as it was, but at that point this, part of France belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. History The first witch trial believed to be held at Le Châtelet in Paris, in 1390, ended with the execution of Jeanne de Brigue. During the first half of the 16th century, a few cases of witch trials are noted to have taken place in France. In 1539 a witch trial resulted in four executions in Beaujolais; in 1553 a "Faustian magician" was executed in Poitiers; and in 1558 and 1562 witch trials were conducted in Nevers and Toulouse respectively both of which resulted in three executions. In France, no national witchcraft law was introduced, and the procedure of such a trial was therefore up to the local court and judge to decide. The book Demonomanie by Jean Bodin, which was published in 1578, was to have a great impact upon the witch trials in France. Northern France Northern France was under the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris, and all sentences of local witchcraft trials therefore fell under its jurisdiction. This proved to have an inhibiting effect on witch trials in Northern France. Between 1568 and 1625, the Parliament of Paris only confirmed one hundred death sentences for witchcraft and thus confirmed less than five percent of the cases from local courts which were put before it. The Parliament of Paris refused to follow the example