Pierre de Rosteguy de Lancre was a man who lived a long time ago in France. He was born in the year 1553 and died in 1631. Pierre de Lancre is known for the things he did when he was alive. He is often talked about by people who like history and things that happened a long time ago.
Pierre de Lancre was a judge who worked for the French government. His job was to decide if people who were accused of bad things were actually guilty or not. He was known to be very harsh and strict in his judgements.
One of the things he did that people talk about is related to witches. During his time, many people believed in witches. They thought that some people had special powers that they used for bad things like making other people sick or causing bad luck. Pierre de Lancre was convinced that there were many witches in his area and he started to investigate.
He gathered a group of people and together they searched for witches. They questioned people and used torture to force them to confess if they were witches. Many innocent people were accused and punished as witches. Some people were even burned at the stake.
Despite his terrible actions, some people believed that Pierre de Lancre was doing the right thing. They thought that he was working to protect the community from evil. But today, many people think that what he did was very wrong and cruel.