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Persecution of Heresy
The powerlessness of the church in the face of death indirectly led to a new spirit of
questioning.
People could not understand how God, and God's church, could allow such a terrible
affliction to wipe out whole villages. They sought someone to blame - and many blamed
the corruption of the Church. The Church told them it was punishment for their sins, but
many saw that the priests suffered as heavily as the common-folk, and declared it to be a
plague on the Church for its terrible corruption, in Indulgences and so on.
The Church lashed out by blaming the influence of the Devil. He was acting through
witches, who had made a pact with Him for their protection if they would do his evil
work.
The Inquisition escalated to unprecedented heights, using accusations of sexual
perversion and witchcraft to root out 'heretics' - those who challenged or criticized the
church. Forced confessions - torture, or the threat of it (in horrible detail) created
fantasies which could not be doubted without fear of accusation of collusion or heresy.
Under torture, victims would say anything to stop the pain. They would be driven so mad
that they would invoke the Devil, the only power they could have over their tormentors.
In a grim irony, under Martin Luther's new Protestantism - itself a heresy - witchcraft
hysteria in fact escalated. In 1522 Luther criticized lawyers for actually needing evidence
against suspected witches.
In Europe the witch-trials finally burned themselves out in ludicrous excesses, such as
the case of the Devils of London, famously told in Aldous Huxley's play and film, where
the possessed nuns would 'perform' several times a day for the entertainment of visiting
pilgrims.
In Britain witchcraft executions never reached the heights of the continent - witches
found guilty before 1563 were fined or banished under Ecclesiastical law. After the
Witchcraft Act (only repealed in 1951), witches could be hanged for treason. Burnings
were not sanctioned by law, and torture was technically illegal. However, hysteria did
arise during the Civil War, stirred up by Matthew Hopkins the self-appointed
"Witch-finder General". It was this Puritan hysteria that was carried to the American
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