es of divination or sorcery unless heretics were also involved. Needless to say, inquisitors soon found ways to introduce charges of heresy into sorcery trials (Russell, 1980, p. 71). In 1265 Pope Clement IV reaffirmed the use of torture. In 1326 The Church authorized the Inquisition to investigate Witchcraft. Its main effort was to develop "demonology" theory.By this point in history, the popular concept of Witches as evil sorcerers had expanded to include belief that they swore allegiance to Satan, had sexual relations with the Devil, and kidnapped and ate children.During the black plague of the 14th century the European population searched for a reason for the plague. They began forming theories about Lepers, Jews, Muslims and Witches poisoning wells and spreading disease.The end of the 15th century brought with it the first of the major witch-hunts throughout Europe. It has been speculated that this religiously inspired genocide was motivated from a desire by the Church to attain a complete religious monopoly, and create scapegoats for spoiled crops, dead livestock or the death of babies and children. The people needed someone to blame and blaming a Witch was better than blaming God. At least one can fight back if a witch is to blame (Russell, 1980, p. 109)The advent of the movable type printing press ushered in an even darker era for the potential victims of the Burning Times. Gutenberg's revolutionary invention made mass printing possible, thus the distribution of mass anti-witch propaganda. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued an official Papal bill condemning Witches Shortly thereafter Thomas of Brabant wrote Formicarius, a predecessor to the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer), describing the prosecution of a man for Witchcraft. In1486 Heinrich Kraemer and Jacob Sprenger published the Malleus Maleficarum describing the activities of Witches, and methods of extracting confessions. It was abandoned by the Church, but became...
