3. Ancient Witchcraft
It is possible to trace the origin of witch hunting to an incident that occurred in 1208. Two of the Pope’s Inquisitors were staying in a house in Avignonet, in the south of France. They were staying there to root out heretics. In the middle of the night, a knight of Raymond VI, who believed that the Old Testament God was a demon, was admitted to the house. He slaughtered Pierre de Castelnau. After this murder, the Pope was determined to stamp out heretics at all costs. A bloody crusade followed. Cathars were dragged from their homes and burned. In 1244, two hundred of them were burned on a gigantic bonfire at Montsegur. Those that survived were no longer accused of heresy – they were accused of a new and strange crime: conspiring with the devil or, as it came to be known, witchcraft.
Discussion about this post