Witches
and
Witchcraft

Religion is any system of thought, feeling, and action shared by a group that gives members an object of devotion.

Druids: Priests of ancient Celtic Britain, Ireland, and Gaul. They constituted a priestly upper class in command of a highly ritualistic religion centering on the worship of a pantheon of nature deities. Contrary to popular belief, the Druids did not believe in human sacrifices, nor did they believe in violence. They were the glue that held the people of Ireland together when the Romans invaded.

Neo-Paganism: Polytheistic(many gods) religious movement, practiced by small groups by partisans of pre-Christian religious traditions, such as: Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Celtic,etc...Neo-pagans are either nature oriented or magical, and often incorporate elaborate, arcane rituals into their pratices.

GOD: Divinity of the three largest monotheistic, one god, religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as many other world religions. The general concept of God is that of an infinite being who is supremely good, who created the world, who knows all and can do all, who is transcendent over and immanent in the world, and who loves human beings. God's existence must be accepted on faith.

Gnosticism: Dualistic religious and philosophical movement. The term designates a variety of sects, all promising salvation through an occult knowledge.

THE INQUISITION

The Christian Church began a determined campaign to eradicate heretics in the 13th century. By the middle of the 15th century, they had turned on witches. For nearly 250 years, witches were hunted down and executed as heretics, accused of worshipping the devil. The actual number of victims of the Inquistion is unknown, but estimates range from 30,000 to nine million. Modern historians estimate that 150,000 to 200,000 victims were executed during the Inquisition and approximately 100,000 of them came from Germany. The Christian church persecuted witches from the 14th to the 18th century, and under the Spanish Inquisition, up to 100 alleged witches were burned in a day. In 1692, 20 people were executed as witches in Salem, Massechussetts.

Prior to the Middle Ages, witchcraft and sorcery were considered essentially the same. Sorcery was a civil crime, and witches and sorcerers were punished under civil law, which usually called for fines, imprisonment, and banishment. Heresay, though, was punishable by death under civil law as early as 430 ad. Under Roman law, distinctions were made between white witchcraft and black witchcraft.

In 1184, Pope Lucius III directed bishops to investigate all deviations from Church teachings. The Papal Inquisition was established between 1227 and 1233. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued a bull that decreed that inquisitors would be Dominicans and would be answerable only to the pope. Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th century, endorsed the beliefs that witches copulated with demons, flew through the air, shape-shifted, etc... Aquinas believed that heretics should be burned. Martin Luther, in 1522, called sorcerers and witches "the Devil's whores" and criticized lawyers for wanting too much proof to convict them.

Thomas Aquinas(1225-1274), Italian philosopher and theologian, Doctor of the Church; known as the Angelic Doctor. One of the principle saints of the Roman Catholic Church and the founder of the official Catholic philosophy. Aquinas held that faith and reason constitute two harmonious realms; theology and science cannot contradict each other. Likewise, there can be no conflict between philosophy and theology. In his universe, everything is arranged in ascending order to God, the only necessary, self-sufficient being. Aquinas believed that heresay, even if the product of ignorance, was a sin because, ignorance is the product of criminal negligence. He also stated that magic was not virtuous and was practiced by "men of evil life." A heretic, according to Aquinas, just by virtue of being a heretic, could be assumed to have somehow given himself or herself over to the Devil, whether or not the thought had even crossed his or her mind. Furthermore, Aquinas declared that witchcraft is permanent in the world, not to be remedied by more witchcraft, but only by the cessation of sin and sometimes by exorcisims performed by the Church.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR:

Also known as Poor Knights of Christ, Knights of the Temple of Solomon, and the Order of the Temple. They were a military religious order that arose during the crusades. They started out as nine knights united to protect pilgrims, and grew to a large order. Although the knights themselves took a vow of poverty, the Order sought out donations and became rich. Their wealth made them the backers of Europe and led to persecution by King Philip IV of France in 1309-1314.

Joan of Arc(Jeanne D'Arc)-Burned at the stake in Rouen on May 30, 1431. In 1920, she was declared a saint by the same Church that executed her.

The Bull of 1484 stepped up the intensity of the witch trials by granting Inquisitors full authority and demanded that they receive whatever support was necessary from local officials. Pope Innocent VIII(1432-1492)was the one who issued the bull. He became the pope in 1484 and the bull was his first major act. His personal vices included keeping a mistress by whom he sired two children, and causing the death of three boys whose blood was used for transfusions to improve his health.
In the 16th century things became even bloodier as the witch hunts reached their peak. Pope Paul IV, in 1559, charged the congregation to draw up a list of books which he felt offended faith or morals. That resulted in the first Index of Banned Books. The primary victims of the inquisition were elderly and female. In fact, women made up approximately 85% of those executed; that includes old women, young girls, and children.
Jean Bodin, in 1580, claimed that those who denied the existence of witches were themselves witches.
Late 16th century in Sweden when the people began to protest the large number of executions, the officials replied,

"The honor of God and the liberation and purging of the country from such a grave sin must be our prime concern. One cannot relax a rule in the face of mere quantity."

It was only after more than a hundred people had been executed, based solely on the testimony of children, that officials in Sweden investigated. After eight years off accusations, trials, and executions, the witch-hunts were over once the children confessed their stories were made up.
In Toulouse, four hundred alleged witches were put to death in one day. In the Bishopric of Trier, in 1585, two villages were left with only one female inhabitant each after the witch hunts.

BAMBERG AND WURZBURG, GERMANY:
From 1609 to 1623, 400 people were executed in Bamberg as witches. Bamberg was a state ruled by Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dorheim, also known as the Hexenbischof or Witch Bishop. He ruled from 1623 to 1633. Von Dorheim established an operation of lawyers, full-time torturers, and executioners. A witch prison, or Drudenhaus, was built with the capacity of 30 to 40 prisoners. A network of informers was encouraged and accusations were not made public and the accused were denied legal counsel. Torture was the rule, and was applied to all suspects. The torture did not stop even after condemnation. As prisoners were led to the stake, their flesh would be ripped by red hot pincers or their hands cut off. Anyone who showed sympathy for the victims or expressed doubt about their guilt became a victim as well. Von Dorheim's cousin, Prince-Bishop Philipp Adolf con Ehrenberg, ruled over Wurzberg, another small state, and subjected his citizens to the same kind of terror. Between 1623 and 1631, when he died, 900 people were tortured, beheaded, and burned, including at least 300 children ages three to four.

1628, France. Judge Nicholas Remy delcared that the children of witches were so infected with evil by Satan that they had to be stripped and beaten with rods around the place where their parents were being burned alive.

Galileo (1564-1642), Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist. In 1609, he constructed the first astronomical telescope, which he used to discover the four largest satellites of Jupiter and the stellar composition of the Milky Way. In 1632, he published his 'Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems', which held that the solar system did not revolve around the Earth. It marked a turning point in scientific and philosophical thought. Galileo was brought before the Inquisition in 1633, he was made to renounce his beliefs and writings supporting the Copernican theory.


The Witchcraft Act of 1735, in England, said that no person could be prosecuted fro the practice of witchcraft. That Act put an end to witch hunts in England and heralded a new way of thinking.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION

The Spanish Inquisition, independent of the Papal Inquisition, was established in 1478 by Pope Sixtus IV and the spanish monarch to punish converted Jews and Muslims who were insincere. It was notoriously harsher then the medieval Inquisition and much freer with the death penalty. It was finally abolished in 1834.

1611-The Basque Trials: Inquisitor Antonio Salazar de Frias stepped in and after deliberation and methodical research, decided that the men and women charged were under a form of mass hysteria and were not harmful, merely delusional and needed help, not condemnation.

SALEM WITCH TRIALS

It began in Salem Village, Massachusetts in February 1692. By the end of the summer, hundreds had been accused, twenty-seven put on trial, and nineteen executed. In October 1692, further trials were forbade by the governor and in January of 1693, he formed a new court which aquitted forty-nine out of fifty-two prisoners, the rest were discharged by spring and accusations of witchcraft decreased dramatically thereafter throughout New England. The accused were primarily middle-aged women, some men, and a four year old child. A dog was also executed.

Historical Overview of the Inquistion
The Inquistion-Methodology
Time line of Witch Trial History


Shamanism has been practiced for 20,000 to 30,000 years, and it can be found all over the world. The shaman is an individual who enters an ecstatic altered state of consciousness, which enables him to communicate with guardian and helping spirits and draw upon sources of enormous power.