At these times durning our Journey through the Wiccan Path we cannot
help but remember the wiccan who walked this path before us. How they died a tragic death back then when people knew what
was right or wrong or have the guts to follow their own mind and have some back bone.
Yes, I am speaking of the times that we all so greatly know, The Burning Times.
You have all heard this story more than once or twice durning your journey,
in a way, this story of The Burning Times is a legend to all Wiccans also a lesson, I don't know how or why, but it is.
* * *
In the very beginning of Christianity, this new religion gave
Witches little trouble. In fact, Christianity taught that Witches and Witchcraft did not exist. By the thirteenth century
however, Christianity was in trouble. The number of wars was their religion on the inhabitants. A number of things were going
wrong, from famines and disease to crop loss and poverty. The Chrch began to look for scapegoats (tattle-tales) and settled
on Witchcraft. At that time, the word "Witch" was used by the Church to describe any believer in a Pagan faith, especially
women.
There was another reason for this persecution. Since the best
healers were Witches and wise women of any area, the male doctor backed this Christian-inspired idea that Witches were evil.
After all, a good Witch healer with high success rate in her profession as healer could successfully put male doctors our
of business in her community.
Also, during the thirteenth century, Pope Gregory IX issued edicts
that marked the beginning of the infamous Witch hunts. He attacked both the Cathars (break-away Christians) and the Knights
Templar. Both of these groups had great wealth and property that was confiscated by the Church and their followers were tortured
and killed. Both Cathars and Knight Templar were Christians. The Cathars refused to acknowledge the Pope as ultimate authority
while the Templars, who fought holy wars for the Pope, had vast wealth which the Church wanted.
Seeing the possibility to gain further wealth and control
over the people's minds, the Church created an office of Inquisition, which still exists today. This action also gave the
Church greater leverage to axtend its field of domination over spiritual matters. During this period Witches still had not
been targeted.
The gates of terror swung wide when, in 1489, Pope Innocent VIII
issued an order to rid the land of all Witches and to kill all cats; cats were said by the Church to be the minions of the
devil and the companion of Witches. This was a declaration of open warfare against Witches or any Pagan followers. Pope Innocent
VIII commisioned the writing of the Malleus Maleficarium (Hammer for Witches). Two German Dominican priests, Jakob
Sprenger and Prior Heinrich Kramer, did the actual writing. this became the "bible" for all Witch hunters, describing in detail
how to torturepeople to obtain confessions. The expense for every form of tortured was billed directly to the victim, a way
for the Church to justify stealing the victim's property.
The Church immediately appointed Inquisitors (all men [obviously])
who had total authority over which accused persons to convict, torture, murder, or set free. It was a rare that a person accused
of Witchcraft ever was freed, and even those who were freed had to endure the most horrendous of tortures. All property was
confisicated immediately upon accusation and never returned, even in the rare cases when people are found innocent. After
all, the Inquisitors of each region and all his helpers were paid out of the property and belongings of anyone upon accusation
of Witchcraft. Being an Inquisitor and Witch hunter was big business and made many men very wealthy. Of course, the Church
got its cut also. After all, the Church had invented the murder/ extortion racket.
The male doctors heartily approved of all this, as it removed
their female competition. Any female healer who attended childbirth was automatically branded as a Witch, for she knew which
herbs to use to kill pain, and, worse yet, which one ones could be used as contraceptives. This attitude that women should
suffer during childbirth continued into the mid-1900s, long after anesthetics were available. If a woman miscarried for any
reason, including a beating from her husband, the Church considered her guilty of deliberated murder, which carried
a death penalty. In the clergy's mind, all women were guilty of something evil until they were dead.
Using fear as a major weapon, the Witch hunter coerced many good
churchgoers and priests to take an active part in the accusations, tortures, and murders of their fellow countrymen. However,
some people spoke up against the injustice and were murdered along with the others. In 1126, a man named Pierre de Bruys was
burned for asaying that God no longer was in teh Church, Frere Raymond Jean preached against the Church's abuses of power
and was executed. When a Francisans splinter group preached that the Pope and priest abused God's law, the entire group plus
every person in the village of Magnalata was murdered.
Children as young as three years old were totured until they gave
evidence against their mothers. The Church gave its blessing and absolution of the sin to all who helped. As a consequence,
accused women were frequently raped by their torturers and their assistants; all women were gagged on their way to the execution
to keep them from revealing this crime.
For the next three centuries, the European Christian churches
hunted and murdered so-called Witches from the Scandinavian countries in the north to Spain in the south. All the women and
girls in entire villages were wiped out. Strasbourg, Germany, burned five thousand victims in twenty years. A thousand so-called
Witches were killed at Como in 1524. Some historians estimate that as many as nine million died during the cruel Witch hunts
in Europe. Eventually, the paranoid practice spread even to the Americas. Countries outside the influence of the Christian
Church did not participate.
Because cats suffered the same fate as a Witches during this time,
there was no protection against the rats that carried the black palgue into Europe. At first, the Church did not care about
the growing population of rats, as they considered it part of the torture for packs of rats to attack prisoners. By the time
anyone paused long enough to consider the connection between the plague and the lack of cats, it was too late.
The terrible Witch hunts continued into the seventeenth century,
until King Louis XIII ordered the persecutions stopped in France. However, both the Catholic and Protestant Church officials
of England and Scotland were making far too much money and widening their control to stop. One of the most enthusiastic and
fanatical of the English hunters was Matthew Hopkins, the Witch Finder General (1644-1646), who was responsible for more executions
that anyone else, he did it all for money.
The last so-called Witch was hanged in Scotland in 1727.
The last Scottish law against Witchcraft was repealed in 1736, but the last of the Witchcraft Acts in Britain wasn't removed
from teh books until 1951.
Because of the millions of people slain, true Witches went underground,
revealing themselves and their groups to no one. Few groups had contact with other similar groups. Nothing was written down
for fear of beign discovered. The Old Ways became garbled and distorted over the centuries, until most of what survived
was though of as superstition and folklore.
* * *
There is more to this tale but as for now, you must find out the rest.
This story was written in the book called Wicca: The Complete Craft by D.J. Conway, an other who wrote numerous books about
wicca and wiccan magic also celtic.
For some of you who haven't heard the story of the Burning Times,
it might be shocking and horrorifying to find out what happened to our sister and brothers back then and what the Christian
Church use to be like. I would have to say some churches are still like this in other places, when I read The Burning Times,
let me tell you, I was about ready to go to all the churches in my district and spray paint what they have done all over the
walls for everyone could see the "sins" and greed they have caused.
But now -shrug- I don't know, they will find out eventually and live
every day with guilt and shame on their shoulders for what their ancestors have done.
I think my step father, Andy Hopkins, was Matthew Hopkins great-great-great-great
(so many greats) grandson. I'm not sure, Andy Hopkins was an abusive man also a drunk and he never regretted anything he done
when he hurt somebody, mentally or physically.
If you know someone who might have a Witch hunter as one of their
ancestors, just click on the Guestbook and share it with us.
