As can be seen, the need to torment inherent in human nature itself. We are all hunters and game, cruel tormentors and innocent victims. Fortunately for mankind, these hidden in the depths of the soul, repressed needs rarely break free, rarely made contagious, rarely turn into mass insanity, a national disaster, a demographic catastrophe last.

Actually the mass persecution of witches began only in the XIII century. Before this Holy Church had something to do - at first still fresh were the wounds of the suffering of the early Christians, persecuted in the Roman Empire, then a struggle for power, then it's time the Christian sects, which have been destroyed almost completely, and only after all of this all-seeing eyes Church leaders turned to sedition coiling nest almost near by the Catholic church - witchcraft and sorcery in all its manifestations. In 1275, in Toulouse, there was the first witch burnings, and to the middle of the XIV century, has spun the chopper swing. In 1320-1350 gg. in Carcassonne burned about 200 women and Toulouse - about 400. From now on, no one could feel safe: women, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, clever and stupid - all were one narrow trail that eventually led them to the fire .

From time immemorial

The phenomenon of witchcraft has a long history and is rooted in the distant past. The belief that some people are able to communicate with the spirits of nature and thereby acquire supernatural powers entered the collective unconscious in the times of the primitive society, when the success of the tribe to communicate directly with the art of the shaman, done together with humanity the way to several thousand years and remains even a modern enlightened society.

From time immemorial, have lived on the earth wizards and witches, wizards and witches, sorcerers, shamans and healers who have skills that go beyond the usual - and to persuade others of their existence .  However, as it was the ancient magicians and separation by gender .  If male sorcerers were mostly kind of researchers and engage in intercourse with supernatural beings in order to increase their knowledge and strength to surpass the power of other beings male and catch up over time with the gods, the women used magic for practical purposes as good (for example, for the treatment of humans and animals), and the wicked (damage, the evil eye and causing various damage to health and property) .  Male magic was science, women's - unknown .  These two forces could co-exist in ancient society, and might conflict with each other .  However, the pagan religion did not know the Christian separation of good and evil, why witchcraft was considered light if brought good and evil - if harm .  Only after the birth of Christ the world was divided into two parts - everything came from God recognized good, everything else was punished, and witches were persecuted not only for crimes committed as of itself belongs to the camp of respectable Christians common enemy - the devil .

However, oddly enough, in the darkest, cruel and ignorant Century Middle Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire, for witches were treated well tolerated, in any case, punishment which comprehend malicious magicians did not go to any comparison with the torture and executions that uchinyali over each other more enlightened age people Humanism .  In the Middle Ages the church fathers condemned the people's faith in the clipped and lamiai who according to legend were flying on brooms, and sucking human entrails, and the most enlightened of the church hierarchy and do denied any magic other than the miracles of Lord God .  Despite all the common people, of course, firmly believed not only in the clipped and lamiai, but also in all the other mysterious characters, the legacy of Western Europe from pagan times, but as hard ignorant peasants believed in the invincible superiority of the new Christian faith - and thus and the devil and all his followers were expelled easily cross, splashes of holy water, but a simple prayer .  Of course, some people continued to practice magic rites and rituals associated with the ancient, even pre-Christian beliefs .

Church tends to sole domination over the minds and souls of his parishioners, did not approve of these actions, but the secular power for so long did not recognize the magical acts a criminal offense if, by itself, has not been proven that these actions were the cause of death, serious bodily injury or damage to property. For example, in 580 witches were executed which caused the death of three royal sons. This crime was suspected bishop who confessed under torture that he had received from some witches ointment and drinks with a view to keep the mercy of the King and Queen. However, the bishop for this crime was only banished, while the woman pleaded witches were subjected to the wheel and burned. While such cases are still rare, but over time they become more and more, and in the eleventh century witch already being drowned, thrown from the castle walls and the wheels.

For example, in 1090 women suspected of witchcraft, several times publicly put to the test by whipping, and since they persistently denied his guilt, eventually burned alive on the banks of the Isar .  A similar case occurred in 1128 in Flanders, where suspected witches burned a woman whose crime was that she splashed water on one graph, which the Count after that case was ill heart and kidney and died soon .  In Zoeste around the same time, the young priest was burned, accused of witchcraft, a beautiful woman, he, after many failed attempts, captured using a supposedly magical means .  In those days, really widely practiced witchcraft and the church itself .  In particular, many Pope recognized not only witches (as Leo III and Benedict VIII), but even the authors were considered magical books (such as Honorius III) .  As for the rulers of the Catholic Church as Pope Sylvester II and Boniface VI, it was common knowledge that each of them in order to get the papacy sold his soul to the devil .  However, the time allotted to sorcerers and witches were running out .  By the fourteenth century, the Catholic Church successfully deal with all foreign enemies and rival heresies .  To finally assert its dominance over the hearts and minds of church members had only one thing: to find the enemy within .