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For a time there had existed a distinction between "white" witchcraft - practiced by
village healers, the "cunning" men and women, and "black" magic, used to kill and
destroy. By the 13th century this distinction was confused, and all such Craft was
outlawed as heresy.
By this time the Church had declared all Gods except their One True God to be evil -
renaming them as demons led by the Horned One. The very image of the old pagan
Horned God (e.g. Pan in Greek mythology, Herne in Briton etc.) became the Devil, and
hence all those who followed the old ways were heretics and evil Devil-Worshippers.
Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the church in Europe instigated the Inquisition
(1233 under Pope Gregory IX) to rid Christendom of heretics, beginning with the
Albegenses and Wildness.
As time progressed the old ways became confused. Certainly many did retain the true old
beliefs but there were many who retaliated against the Church by believing its Demonic
propaganda, and perverting Christian rituals into ways of cursing others. As the
Inquisition spread across Europe, works such as the Malleus Malleficarum (the Hammer
of Witches, published 1486) served two purposes. It created paranoia amongst the
educated and ignorant alike, declaring that witches were a real and dangerous threat.
Secondly it provided a blue-print for those who found the idea of invoking the devil for
their own selfish ends - by believing the Malleus Malleficarum, they merely reinforced it.
Any retaliation against repression by the Church by ignorant peoples merely exacerbated
the problem. Inquisitors used threats of death and torture to gain personal power - anyone
who questioned was suspect.
Fear and superstition escalated during the Black Death. It changed the perspective of the
Church and people, creating a much more gloomy and death-orientated culture. People
were horrified during the 15th century that the Church was paralyzed. Clergy refused to
visit the houses of the sick, friars refused to give succor to the dying, and even to perform
burial ceremonies. Witch persecutions were at their peak while people desperately sought
some reason for the terrible catastrophe that killed a third of the population of Europe.
http://www.pathwalkers.net/interactive/modules....ame=News&file=index&catid=1&topic=&allstories=1 (224 of 236) [12/25/2005 12:17:44 AM]