Witch hunting in Europe took place in the Middle Ages and17th century before the demise of Western Rome. From the end of the Roman Empire to the 5th century, the West entered the so-called Middle Ages. In this dark period of thousands of years, Catholic theology was the only ideology at that time, so the devil thought prevailed, thinking that everything in the world was created by God, and whenever a disaster occurred, it was considered that evil forces were at work; People will violate social norms or religions, and are also considered to be possessed by evil spirits or wizards themselves. This thought lasted until17th century. Before17th century, thousands of people were accused of being "heretics" and "witches" and tragically died at the stake or other torture.

Among them, the most famous witch hunting movement took place from the end of15th century to17th century. During that period, the war swept across Europe, and both religious and secular judicial organs made great efforts to catch the so-called "witches", and then convicted people easily with unreasonable secret trials, evidence rules and severe punishment. In this horrible movement, women are the biggest victims, and thousands of innocent women are judged as "witches" and tied to the stake to burn.

Although the Catholic Church has been suppressing the so-called heresy since Roman times, in the European society from 15 to 17 centuries, all classes, whether secular regime or church, were crazy about the existence of witches and wizards who practiced witchcraft and took pleasure in hurting others, and then launched a large-scale "witch hunting movement", which still had historical background and certain reasons. Many people think that witch hunting is related to the collapse of social system in the late Middle Ages and the change of religious belief in the early modern times.

The first large-scale witch hunting movement

The first large-scale witch hunting took place between 1480 and 1520. At this time, the Inquisition was responsible for hunting witches. The horn of witch hunting began in 1484 when Pope pope innocent viii issued the edict "summis desiderantes affectibus", which can be regarded as a legally binding edict of witch hunting. This decree was issued because two religious magistrates discovered witchcraft when they pursued pagans in Upper Germanic region, but local officials did not cooperate with the pursuit, so the church issued this decree to suppress witchcraft and expand the authority of religious magistrates to pursue witches. In addition, in 1487, two religious magistrates, Insti Daoli and Spelungi, co-authored malleus maleficarum, which made great contributions to the persecution of witches. This book is written for inquisitors, teaching them how to detect witches' crimes and providing reasons to suppress witchcraft. The book says witches are divided into two categories, one is just divination, and the other is light to solve their sins; The other kind of people turn their backs on God and serve the devil, which not only harms mankind, but also establishes the devil's career and commits serious religious crimes. This is different from people who believe in "impure" and commit crimes in a daze. These witches don't need leniency, they can be sentenced to the stake. If they have the intention of repentance, the court can be more lenient, hang or hang the witch first, and then be burned at the stake. The book also describes witches who turn their backs on God, often in the middle of the night, applying special ointment on them and riding witches naked to a specific place to attend the witch's Sabbath. As one of the authors of malleus maleficarum, Spelungi is a prestigious scholar with authority in both intellectual and religious circles, which makes this book more influential. It was reprinted 29 times from 1487 to 1669, and it was still the basic manual for hunting witches until17th century. Supplementary note: The so-called "Witch and Devil Club" refers to the gathering of wizards with Satan and the devil. According to the confession description of devil experts and witches, the ceremony is a mass imitating Catholic teachings but in reverse order. Witches and demons dance, feast, eat children at the meeting, and finally the devil will become a demon. It's not fun to have promiscuous sex with witches while they are sleeping, but it's not fun to have sex with the devil because of their body fluids.

The biggest political persecution.

From 1580 to 1670, the suppression of witchcraft reached its climax and set off the largest witch hunting movement. At this time, the pursuit activities were gradually taken over by secular courts, the repression was more severe, and the number of persecutors was more than last wave. At that time, the southern part of the French Kingdom and the Germanic Empire was the most violent place for hunting. For example, during the period from 1575 to 1590, Remy, then president of the French Lorraine Religious Court, burned 900 witches. At the same time, judges, scholars and other elites in various countries are also scrambling to publish papers on demonization, providing "academic basis" for political persecution. For example, jean bodin, a famous contemporary political theorist and humanist, published a book "Magical Techniques of Wizards" on 1580, which brought him greater prestige, and President Remy of Lorraine Province also published this book on 1599.