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[1] Canon 3 of the ecumenical Fourth Council of the Lateran, 1215 required secular authorities to "exterminate in the territories subject to their jurisdiction all heretics" pointed out by the Catholic Church, [2] resulting in the inquisitor executing certain people accused of heresy. Some laws allowed the civil government to employ punishment.
On 25 August 1538 there was much discussion about witches and sorceresses who poisoned chicken eggs in the nests, or poisoned milk and butter. Doctor Luther said: "One should show no mercy to these [women]; I would burn them myself, for we read in the Law that the priests were the ones to begin the stoning of criminals." [13]
Margery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye Next Westminster" (before 1415 – 27 October 1441) was an English woman who was accused of "false belief and witchcraft". She was probably sentenced by a church court; no record survives confirming the charges. Edward Coke later claimed he had seen a document that she was burned De heretico comburendo.
Witch-hunts against children were reported by the BBC in 1999 in the Congo [153] and in Tanzania, where the government responded to attacks on women accused of being witches for having red eyes. [154] A lawsuit was launched in 2001 in Ghana, where witch-hunts are also common, by a woman accused of being a witch. [154]
1533 account of the execution of a witch charged with burning the German town of Schiltach in 1531 Present-day Germany executed more people for witchcraft than any other area in Europe. There were however great contrasts within Germany, where certain parts hardly experienced witch trials at all, while the most severe witch trials in Europe took ...
The myth of the witch had a strong cultural presence in 17th century New England and, as in Europe, witchcraft was strongly associated with devil-worship. [3] About eighty people were accused of practicing witchcraft in a witch-hunt that lasted throughout New England from 1647 to 1663. Thirteen women and two men were executed. [4]
In medieval and early modern Europe, witches were usually believed to be women who used black magic against their community, and often to have communed with demons or the Devil. Witches were commonly believed to cast curses; a spell or set of magical words and gestures intended to inflict supernatural harm. [10]
Following her death, they duly did so, but on the first two nights, as priests were chanting psalms around the body, devils broke into the church and snapped two of the chains on the coffin lid. On the third night, another devil, more powerful and terrifying that the others, burst into the church and snapped the chain, dragging the witch from ...