In 371 C.E., the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the official state religion. Roman soldiers spread the official state religion and their interpretation of it wherever they went. Often this meant killing the priests of the local religion, this slaughter included the Druids.
POPE GREGORY
(540-604)
Pope Gregory is credited as being one of the major forces in consolidating the power of the church and Christianizing Europe.
He had 10 000 people baptised in England alone, he also had churches build on the sites of pagan temples. He reasoned that the people would continue to gather at those spots, but instead of worshiping their old deities, they would be led in prayer by one of his priests. In many areas, people developed a hybrid religion - in outward appearance they were Christians, but deep down they still believed in the old faith.
After Gregory's death, the pope and the Catholic church continued to gain power. But a series of different popes woried about the various types of Christianity that were sprouting up.
To keep changes in the church doctrine in check, they employed inquisitors, men who hunted down and imprisoned heretics, Christians whose beliefs or practices varied from what the church prescribed. Some heretics were even put to death. Because of the inquisitions, more and more people became Christians - or said that they were.
PAPAL BULL
In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII wrote a bull, or letter about witches that was reproduced and spread far and wide. He complained that no one was taking the threat posed by witches serious enough. He insisted that everyone help his inquisitors find witches, and threatened anyone who stood in the way.
Some of the people convicted under Pope Innocent's bull may have been practicing witches - wise men and women who have preserved some of the knowledge of the Druids, old pagan practices, and folk beliefs - and some of them probably were not.
A few of the suspected witches were accused merely because they kept cats. Cats were thought to be demons that the devil gave to witches to act as advisers and messengers.
MALLEUS MALLEFICARUM
Pope Innocent's bull paved the way for Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger to publish the Malleus Malleficarum, (Witches's Hammer) a witch-hunters manual. Kramer and Sprenger, monks who held jobs as inquisitors under Pope Innocent VIII, used the papal bull as the introduction to their book.
The book, which is divided into three parts, came out in 1486 and is credited with starting the mass hysteria of witch prosecutions across Europe.
The first part of the Malleus Malleficarum explains how dangerous witches are and that not believing in witches is against church teachings. In the second part of the book, the monks list the types of witches and how their evildoings, which include sexual relations with the devil and the ability to fly, can be counteracted. Finally, the monks demonstrate how to legally try and convict people of witchcraft. The even suggest how to best torture a witch to make suspected witches confess.
Pope Innocent's bull and the Malleus Malleficarum led to the deaths of many people across Europe. Witches today refer to that horrible period in time as the Burning Times. Some scolars estimate that 50 000 people were killed in Europe during the Burning Times, others place the number as high as nine million.
No one knows for sure how many people were hung, burned at the stake, or died as a result of the tests they endured.
Despite persecution, witches and their beliefs survived the severe trial of the Inquisition and the Middle Ages, although the trouble was far from over. Repression continued into the seventeenth century, but it was less widespread.
