Witch trials in Latvia and Estonia were mainly conducted by the Baltic German elite of clergy, nobility and burghers against the indigenous peasantry in order to persecute Paganism by use of Christian demonology and witchcraft ideology. In this aspect, they are similar to the Witch trials in Iceland. They are badly documented, as many would have been conducted by the private estate courts of the landlords, which did not preserve any court protocols. History Background The area of present day Estonia and Latvia was occupied by the German Teutonic Order in the 13th century. The Teutonic Order Christianized the territory and introduced a new Christian law, the , based on the German Sachsenspiegel from 1225, which included death by burning at the stake for sorcery. It was followed by the Riga Synod in 1428, where all Christian priests were commanded to report anyone practicing or hiring anyone to practice Paganism or sorcery, so that they may be burned. As the documentation of the legal courts from the Middle Ages is mostly lacking, it is not known if these laws resulted in any executions. The first confirmed witchcraft execution in Livonia took place on the estate Saku outside Reval in 1527, followed by the Põlula witch trials in 1542, and five women executed in the Juuru witch trials of 1588 It is not until the 17th century, however, that enough documentary material is preserved to allow for a more systematic investigation of Baltic witch trials. A turning point was the publication of the German witchcraft handbook Neun Außerlesen und Wolgegründete Hexen Predigt by the Superintendent of the Livonian church, in Riga in 1625, which introduced the Western European Demonology and witchcraft ideology among the local elite, thus providing an ideological foundation for witchcraft persecution in Livonia. A reason for the witchcraft persecutions in the region was the fact that Christianity was weak. Christianity had been forced upon the indigenous population by the German Baltic elite, and Paganism was still widely popular and practiced in secrecy by the peasantry. This was resented by the German language clergy, nobility and merchant class, and witch trials were instrumental in the persecution of Paganism and efforts to ensure religious conformity and safeguard Christianity. In 1637, the Superintendent of the Livonian Church stated that the Consistory should persecute the widespread "Paganism, witchcraft and idolatry" still practiced by the peasantry and ordered the local vicars to report