One explanation for the trial and execution of witches in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe holds that the accused witches were the objects of externalized rage. Most accused witches were in fact alms-seekers; their accusers had refused to give them alms, against the mandates of Christian charity, and projected their feelings of guilt onto the alms-seekers. Rather than confront their own moral failings, the argument goes, the well-to-do charged alms-seekers with diabolical motives and malefic magic. Once the accusation had been uttered it was difficult in the extreme for alms-seekers accused of witchcraft to recover their good reputation.