Witchcraft in Early Europe 4th Century to 12th Century

Witchcraft in Europe started in Ancient Times Examples: -Ancient Greece burned a woman convicted of necromancy -Ancient Rome introduced a punishment of “burning alive” to anyone convicted of witchcraft in the 200s -In 511 the Franks (5th Century Germans) introduced laws against witchcraft which included slavery for live or being burnt alive (paganism and idolatry were linked to witchcraft)

Christianity and Witchcraft The Pactus Legis Alamannorum in the 7th Century declared witchcraft as a crime on par with poisoning. Any freeman could accuse any free woman of being a witch. The accused could be proven innocent by having 12 people swear an other of innocence for her, or by a relative winning a trial by combat. If the accused was proven innocent the accuser would have to pay a fine

Council of Leptinnes and the “List of Superstitions” in 744 the Council of Leptinnes drew up a “List of Superstitions” witch banned sacrifice to saints and created a Baptism formula that required one to renounce the works of demons -Specifically naming Thor and Odin (why these two?)

Emperor Charlemagne In 789 Emperor Charlemagne brought Christianity to the people of Saxony (modern day Germany) he stated: “ If anyone, deceived by the Devil, shall believe, as is customary among pagans, that any man or woman is a night-witch, and eats men, and on that account burn that person to death... he shall be executed” The Lombard Code of 643 States (Christian Law) “Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female slave as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds.” Christians at this time DID NOT believe in witchcraft

Louis the Pious In 814 Louis the Pious rose to power in the Holy Roman Empire and begun to take measures against all sorcerers and necromancers. He empowered Bishops of the Catholic Church to impose any penalty in which they deemed fair. -The penalty from this time on was death

Early England in the 900s banned all pagan rituals (typically on Christmas and New Years Day) in which the members would dress up as any horned animal. At these events any person seen casting a spell would result in extreme punishment (death)

Early Scotland 800s King Kenneth united all the people of Scotland for the first time. He declared that any sorcerers or witches who “invoke spirits and use to seek upon them for help, let them burn to death.” The Witches of Forres attempt to kill King Duffus in 968 by melting a wax image of him. They were discovered and burned at the stake.

The Canon Episcopi “It is also not to be omitted that some unconstrained women, perverted by Satan, seduced by illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and openly profess that, in the dead of night, they ride upon certain beasts with the pagan goddess Diana, with a countless horde of women, and in the silence of the dead of the night to fly over vast tracts of country, and to obey her commands as their mistress, and to be summoned to her service on other nights. But it were well if they alone perished in their infidelity and did not draw so many others into the pit of their faithlessness. For an innumerable multitude, deceived by this false opinion, believe this to be true and, so believing, wander from the right faith and relapse into pagan errors when they think that there is any divinity or power except the one God”

The High Middle Ages in Europe -Europe fully Christianized -The Church focused on the prosecution of heresy in order to maintain unity of the church doctrine -Those who practiced folk magic were left alone In the 11th-12th Centuries there are only a few cases of witchcraft in England