In his Small Catechism, he taught that witchcraft was a sin against the second commandment and prescribed the Biblical penalty for it in a "table talk": When interpreting Exodus 22:18, he stated that, with the help of the devil, witches could steal milk merely by thinking of a cow. Martin Luther shared some of the views about witchcraft that were common in his time.
The results of Salazar's investigation was that the Spanish Inquisition did not bother witches ever again though they still went after heretics and Crypto-Jews. For example, in 1610 as the result of a witch-hunting craze the Suprema (the ruling council of the Spanish Inquisition) gave everybody an Edict of Grace (during which confessing witches were not to be punished) and put the only dissenting inquisitor, Alonso de Salazar Frías, in charge of the subsequent investigation. Not all Inquisitorial courts acknowledged witchcraft. Inquisitorial courts only became systematically involved in the witch-hunt during the 15th century: in the case of the Madonna Oriente, the Inquisition of Milan was not sure what to do with two women who in 1384 and in 1390 confessed to have participated in a type of white magic. The Inquisition within the Roman Catholic Church had conducted trials against supposed witches in the 13th century, but these trials were to punish heresy, of which belief in witchcraft was merely one variety. This marked the beginning of a period of witch hunts among early Protestants which lasted about 200 years, and in some countries, particularly in North-Western Europe, tens of thousands of people were accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death. Towards the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern period (post- Reformation), belief in witchcraft became more popular and witches were seen as directly in league with the Devil. Dante also condemned then-current forms of alchemy and divination, whilst Aquinas had a more nuanced and sympathetic view. Among Eastern Orthodox Christians concentrated in the Byzantine Empire, belief in witchcraft was widely regarded as deisidaimonia- superstition-and by the 9th and 10th centuries in the Latin Christian West, belief in witchcraft had begun to be seen as heresy.Ĭhristian perspectives began to change with the influential writings of the mystic poet Dante Alighieri and scholastic philosopher Thomas Aquinas, both of whom believed in astrology, whilst condemning sorcery as moral perversion. The Germanic Council of Paderborn in 785 explicitly outlawed the very belief in witches, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne later confirmed the law. See also: Witch trials in the early modern periodĭuring the Early Middle Ages, the Christian Churches did not conduct witch trials. The Contemporary English Version translates Deuteronomy 18:11 as referring to "any kind of magic".Īt the very least, older biblical prohibitions included those against ' sorcery' to obtain something unnaturally ' necromancy' as the practice of magic or divination through demons or the dead, and any forms of malevolent ' bewitchery'. Strong, therefore, concludes that the word means "to whisper a spell, i.e. These scholars say that the Hebrew word kashaph (כשפ), used in Exodus 22:18 and 5 other places in the Tanakh comes from a root meaning "to whisper". However, some lexicographers, including James Strong and Spiros Zodhiates, disagree. The Bible sometimes is translated as referring to "necromancer" and " necromancy" ( Deuteronomy 18:11). Some adherents of near-east religions acted as mediums, channeling messages from the dead or from a familiar spirit. This may suggest that the prohibition related specifically to sorcery or the casting of spells to unnaturally possess something. Others point to a primitive idealist belief in a relation between bewitching and coveting, reflected in the occasional translation of the Tenth Commandment as 'Thou shalt not covet'. It has also been suggested that the word "witch" (Heb. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you", and Exodus 22:18 states "Do not allow a sorceress to live" (or in the King James Bible "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"). For example, Deuteronomy 18:11-12 condemns anyone who "casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. There are several references to witchcraft in the Bible that strongly condemn such practices. Main article: Witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible
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