The Witch Killing Frenzies

By Kate Blain

On the American scene, the word "witchcraft" inevitably evokes Salem, the Massachusetts town made famous by a spate of trials of accused witches in 1692. But fear of witchcraft dominated Europe as well for centuries before.

The Old Testament itself refers to Mosaic Law condemning the practice of witchcraft; the book of Leviticus notes that a man or woman possessing "a familiar spirit" should be stoned to death (20:27). The 6th century B.C. author of Exodus penned the adage, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (22:17).

For several centuries, witchcraft and divination were regarded as superstition and punished with church penalties. Belief in a demonic kind of witchcraft was considered a superstition. That would eventually change. By the 12th century fear of witches manifested itself in Russia, when all the women in one village were executed for supposedly practicing witchcraft.

In the 13th century, the scholastic philosophers and theologians, including St. Thomas Aquinas, theorized in great detail about the demonic forces rampant in the world. Witchcraft was eventually decreed a crime punishable by secular law, and trials for offenders became more and more common, particularly in France, Italy and Germany. As was the practice of the time, torture was regularly used in the investigation of crimes to get evidence. Defendants would admit to dallying with Satan, casting spells or having the ability to turn themselves into animals.

In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII stepped into the fray, declaring that witches in Germany were performing heinous acts. He ordered an Inquisition to investigate the practice of witchcraft. Two Dominican friars used this declaration in support of their book, the "Malleus Maleficarum" or "Hammer of Witches" in 1487, which detailed the supposed practices of witches, including sex with demons and the murder of infants.

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