Editing Witch hunt (section)

====Christianisation in the Early Middle Ages====
The German author Wilhelm Gottlieb Soldan argued in ''History of the Witchcraft Trials'' that the philosopher and mathematician [[Hypatia]], murdered by a mob in 415 AD for threatening the influence of [[Cyril of Alexandria]], may have been, in effect, the first famous "witch" to be punished by Christian authorities.<ref>{{citation|last=Soldan|first=Wilhelm Gottlieb|title=Geschichte der Hexenprozesse: aus dem Qvellen Dargestellt|url=https://archive.org/details/geschichtederhe00soldgoog|year=1843|publisher=Cotta|page=82}}.</ref> Cyril's alleged role in her murder, however, was already controversial among contemporary sources,<ref>{{citation|last=Watts|first=Edward J.|author-link=Edward J. Watts|date=2008|orig-year=2006|title=City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKolDQAAQBAJ|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520258167|page=200}}</ref> and the surviving primary account by [[Socrates Scholasticus]] makes no mention of religious motivations.<ref>{{citation|last1=Cameron|first1=Alan|last2=Long|first2=Jacqueline|last3=Sherry|first3=Lee|author1-link=Alan Cameron (classical scholar)|date=1993|title=Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6t44B0-a98C&pg=PA59|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-06550-5|page=59}}</ref>

The 6th&nbsp;century AD ''[[Getica]]'' of [[Jordanes]] records a persecution and expulsion of witches among the [[Goths]] in a mythical account of the origin of the [[Huns]]. The ancient fabled King [[Filimer]] is said to have

{{blockquote|found among his people certain witches, whom he called in his native tongue ''Haliurunnae''. Suspecting these women, he expelled them from the midst of his race and compelled them to wander in solitary exile afar from his army. There the unclean spirits, who beheld them as they wandered through the wilderness, bestowed their embraces upon them and begat this savage race, which dwelt at first in the swamps, a stunted, foul and puny tribe, scarcely human, and having no language save one which bore but slight resemblance to human speech.<ref name="JordanesOrigins">{{cite book |last=Jordanes |author-link=Jordanes |title=The Origin and Deeds of the Goths |translator=[[Charles C. Mierow]] |at=§ 24}}</ref>}}

The Councils of [[Synod of Elvira|Elvira]] (306&nbsp;AD), [[Synod of Ancyra|Ancyra]] (314&nbsp;AD), and [[Quinisext Council|Trullo]] (692&nbsp;AD) imposed certain ecclesiastical penances for devil-worship. This mild approach represented the view of the Church for many centuries. The general desire of the [[Catholic Church]]'s clergy to check fanaticism about witchcraft and [[necromancy]] is shown in the decrees of the [[Council of Paderborn]], which, in 785&nbsp;AD, explicitly outlawed condemning people as witches and condemned to death anyone who burnt a witch. The Lombard code of 643&nbsp;AD states:

{{blockquote|Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female servant as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Hutton |title=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy |title-link=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles |page=257 |chapter=The Clash of Faiths (AD c. 300–{{circa|1000}}) |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=0-631-18946-7 |date=1993 |edition=pbk. |orig-year=1991}}</ref>}}

This conforms to the teachings of the [[Canon Episcopi]] of circa 900&nbsp;AD (alleged to date from 314&nbsp;AD), which, stated that witchcraft did not exist and that to teach that it was a reality was, itself, false and heterodox teaching. Other examples include an Irish synod in 800&nbsp;AD,<ref>{{cite book |quote=Likewise, an Irish synod at around 800&nbsp;AD condemned the belief in witches, and in particular those who slandered people for being ''lamias'' ('''que interpretatur striga'''). |last=Behringer |title=Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History |year=2004 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |pages=30–31}}</ref> and a sermon by [[Agobard|Agobard of Lyons]] (810&nbsp;AD).{{efn|A crown witness of 'Carolingian skepticism', Archbishop Agobard of Lyon (769–840&nbsp;AD), reports witch panics during the reign of Charlemagne. In his sermon on hailstorms he reports frequent lynchings of supposed weather magicians (''tempestarii''), as well as of sorcerers, who were made responsible for a terrible livestock mortality in 810&nbsp;AD. According to Agobard, the common people in their fury over crop failure had developed the extravagant idea that foreigners were secretly coming with airships to strip their fields of crops, and transmit it to Magonia. These anxieties resulted in severe aggression, and on one occasion around 816&nbsp;AD, Agobard could hardly prevent a crowd from killing three foreign men and women, perceived as Magonian people. As their supposed homeland's name suggests, the crop failure was associated with magic. The bishop emphasized that thunderstorms were caused exclusively by natural or divine agencies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Behringer |year=2004 |title=Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |pages=54–55}}</ref>}}
[[File:Torturing and execution of witches in medieval miniature.jpg|thumb|Burning witches, with others held in stocks, 14th century]]
[[Coloman, King of Hungary|King Kálmán (Coloman) of Hungary]], in Decree 57 of his First Legislative Book (published in 1100), banned witch-hunting because he said, "witches do not exist".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bibleapologetics.wordpress.com/tag/witch-hunts-2/#_ftnref17 |title=witch hunts |website=Bible Apologetics}}</ref><ref>
"A decree of King Coloman of Hungary (c. 1074–1116, r. 1095–1116) against the belief in the existence of ''strigae'' (''De strigis vero que non sunt, ne ulla questio fiat'') suggests that they were thought to be human beings with demonic affiliation: witches.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 32 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.</ref> The "Decretum" of [[Burchard, Bishop of Worms]] (about 1020), and especially its 19th book, often known separately as the "Corrector", is another work of great importance. Burchard was writing against the superstitious belief in magical [[potion]]s, for instance, that may produce impotence or abortion. These were also condemned by several Church Fathers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/abortion-contraception-and-the-church-fathers |title=Abortion, Contraception and the Church Fathers |work=National Catholic Register|date=16 February 2012 }}</ref> But he altogether rejected the possibility of many of the alleged powers with which witches were popularly credited. Such, for example, were nocturnal riding through the air, the changing of a person's disposition from love to hate, the control of thunder, rain, and sunshine, the transformation of a man into an animal, the intercourse of [[incubi]] and [[succubi]] with human beings, and other such superstitions. Not only the attempt to practice such things, but the very belief in their possibility, is treated by Burchard as false and superstitious.

[[Pope Gregory VII]], in 1080, wrote to King [[Harald III of Denmark]] forbidding witches to be put to death upon being suspected of having caused storms or failure of crops or pestilence. There were many such efforts to prevent unjust treatment of innocent people.{{efn|See, for example, the ''Weihenstephan'' case discussed by Weiland in the ''Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte'', IX, 592.
"In 1080 Harold of Denmark (r. 1076–80) was admonished not to hold old women and Christian priests responsible for storms and diseases, or to slaughter them in the cruelest manner. Like Agobard before him, Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–85) declared in his letter to the Danish king that these catastrophes were caused by God alone, that they were God's punishment for human sins, and that the killing of the innocent would only increase His fury."<ref>Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 55 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.</ref>}} On many occasions, ecclesiastics who spoke with authority did their best to disabuse the people of their superstitious belief in witchcraft.<ref>This, for instance, is the general purport of the book {{cite book |title=Contra insulsam vulgi opinionem de grandine et tonitruis |trans-title=Against the foolish belief of the common sort concerning hail and thunder |author=Agobard |author-link=Agobard |date=c. 800s <!--before 841--> |publisher=[[Archbishop of Lyons]] |place=Lyons, FR}}</ref><ref>[[Jacques-Paul Migne|Migne]], ''[[Patrologia Latina]]'', CIV, 147</ref> A comparable situation in [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|Russia]] is suggested in a sermon by [[Serapion of Vladimir]] (written in 1274~1275), where the popular superstition of witches causing crop failures is denounced.{{efn|"Witches were executed at Novgorod in 1227, and after a severe famine in the years 1271–1274 Bishop Serapion of Vladimir asked in a sermon: 'you believe in witchcraft and burn innocent people and bring down murder upon earth and the city ... Out of what books or writings do you learn that famine in earth is brought about by witchcraft?'" <ref>{{cite book |author=Behringer |title=Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History |year=2004 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |page=56}}</ref>}}

Condemnations of witchcraft are nevertheless found in the writings of [[Augustine of Hippo]] and early theologians, who made little distinction between witchcraft and the practices of pagan religions.<ref name=":3" /> Many believed witchcraft did not exist in a philosophical sense: Witchcraft was based on illusions and powers of evil, which Augustine likened to darkness, a non-entity representing the absence of light.<ref name=":3" /> Augustine and his adherents like [[Thomas Aquinas|Saint Thomas Aquinas]] nevertheless promulgated elaborate demonologies, including the belief that humans could enter pacts with demons, which became the basis of future witch hunts.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford illustrated history of witchcraft and magic |others=Davies, Owen |isbn=9780199608447 |edition=1st |location=Oxford |oclc=972537073|year = 2017}}</ref> Ironically, many clerics of the Middle Ages openly or covertly practiced [[goetia]], believing that as Christ granted his disciples power to command demons, to summon and control demons was not, therefore, a sin.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Magic in the Middle Ages |last=Kieckhefer, Richard |date= 2014 |isbn=9781139923484 |edition=2nd |location=Cambridge |oclc=889521066}}</ref>

Whatever the position of individual clerics, witch-hunting seems to have persisted as a cultural phenomenon. Throughout the early medieval period, notable rulers prohibited both witchcraft and pagan religions, often on pain of death. Under Charlemagne, for example, Christians who practiced witchcraft were enslaved by the Church, while those who worshiped the Devil (Germanic gods) were killed outright.<ref name=":3" /> Witch-hunting also appears in period literature. According to [[Snorri Sturluson]], King [[Olaf Tryggvason|Olaf Trygvasson]] furthered the Christian conversion of Norway by luring pagan magicians to his hall under false pretenses, barring the doors and burning them alive. Some who escaped were later captured and drowned.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/heim/07olaftr.htm |title=Heimskringla: King Olaf Trygvason's Saga |website=Sacred Texts}}</ref>

Early secular laws against witchcraft include those promulgated by King [[Athelstan]] (924–939):

{{blockquote|And we have ordained respecting witch-crafts, and ''lybacs'' ''[read ''lyblac'' "sorcery"]'', and ''morthdaeds ["murder, mortal sin"]'': if any one should be thereby killed, and he could not deny it, that he be liable in his life. But if he will deny it, and at [[Trial by ordeal|threefold ordeal]] shall be guilty; that he be 120&nbsp;days in prison: and after that let kindred take him out, and give to the king 120&nbsp;shillings, and pay the [[weregild|wer]] to his kindred, and enter into [[Frankpledge|borh]] for him, that he evermore desist from the like.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/560-975dooms.html |title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project |website=www.fordham.edu}}</ref>}}

In some prosecutions for witchcraft, torture (permitted by the [[Roman civil law]]) apparently took place. However, [[Pope Nicholas I]] (866&nbsp;AD), prohibited the use of torture altogether, and a similar decree may be found in the [[Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals]].<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia: Witchcraft"/>