Wicca, as it is practiced today, is a reconstruction
of an ancient pagan religion practiced
in Europe. These ancient peoples performed
rituals to ensure fertility and success in the hunt.
This practice grew into a religion with various
gods and goddesses ascribed to aspects of nature,
such as the sun, moon, rain, wind, etc...
The main deities were the Horned God
of the Hunt and the Goddess of Fertility.
With the coming of Christianity, the Old
Religion remained much the same. The Christian
Church could not tolerate such competition and in
order to gain a religious monopoly, declared
the practice of paganism to be evil. Its followers
were labelled witches and branded devil worshippers.
In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued
his Bull against Witches. In 1486, Kramer
and Sprenger (monks)published the
Malleus Malificarum (Witches Hammer)
which was basically a how-to manual on the detection,
persecution and torture of witches.
Most of those accused were women, because
it was believed that women were over-sexed and
therefore more vulnerable to the powers of the devil.
There are many reasons why people were accused,
but none have anything to do with whether
or not they really practiced the Old Religion.
Personal revenge was a major factor, as well as
land disputes,professional competition
(male doctors would accuse healers
and midwives in order to eliminate
rivals), and political power (those
who helped convict witches were admired
and often gained status in the community).
For those who really believed in harmful magic,
anything from an illness or death in the community
to the failure of the crops ,
could be blamed on witches.
It is not known for sure how many people
were exterminated during this horrifying
period of human history. Estimates run
from as low as 3,000 (which is unrealistic, considering
the fact that 2,000 alone were killed
in Neisse, Silesia) to 10 million. In many
villages, only one or two females
were left alive.
Some of the methods used to torture and
execute accused witches are listed below.
