What about the medieval witch incident?

In medieval Europe, most people thought that "witches" were born the incarnation of the devil, and there was a period of crazy and tragic witch hunting. At that time, the dominant Catholic church believed that "witches" were Satan's "lovers" and they used evil spells to hurt people. Those who were identified as "witches" were either burned alive, cooked or beheaded. At that time, Calvinists in Germany, Switzerland and Britain persecuted "witches" the most. According to incomplete statistics, the number of "witches" executed in Europe may be as high as 50 thousand.

In the Middle Ages, there was a large-scale witch hunting in Europe. Not only witches, but everything related to magic was within the scope of witch hunting. Modern scholars believe that the reason why people were so enthusiastic about this stupid hunting behavior at that time was related to the fear of the Black Death and the turmoil caused by the Hundred Years' War. Witches are regarded as servants of the devil, who serve Satan exclusively and give their souls to Satan for enjoyment; For theologians, the devil is the embodiment of evil, Satan and the king of hell. Some people say that Satan is actually an arrogant and jealous fallen angels Lucifer who was sent to hell. The fifth section of psalm 96 in the Latin version of the Bible says that external gods are monsters; Chapter 12 of the New Testament Revelation also mentions:

12:3 Another sign appeared in the sky. There is a big red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its head.

12:4 His tail dragged a third of the stars in the sky and fell to the ground. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, waiting for her to give birth and swallow the child.

12:5 The woman gave birth to a boy, who will rule all nations with an iron rod. His children were brought before the throne of God.

12:6 The woman fled into the wilderness, where God prepared a place for her so that she could be fed for 1,260 days.

There was a war in heaven. Michael fights with his angel and dragon, and the dragon fights with his angel.

12:8 There is no victory, and there is no place for them in the sky.

12:9 The dragon is an ancient snake, named devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world. He was thrown to the ground, and so were his angels.

People think that what the Bible describes here is exactly the process of Lucifer leading a great army to crusade against God, and it is also the most famous passage of Miao writing spiritual warfare in the Bible. Augustine described the devil as an "ape god" and was God's main rival. They can incarnate as adults, have many special abilities, and also enable people who sell their souls to gain all kinds of supernatural powers, all kinds of secular happiness, and even all kinds of abilities to destroy everything. The devil can not only read minds, but also make people move anywhere in an instant.

Church scholars say that if God has three faces, then the devil has countless faces and is the embodiment of countless evils. -heinrich kramer and James Sprenger, the most famous leaders and the most authoritative and influential demon scholars in the witch hunting movement, pointed out in "malleus maleficarum" that those who make a contract with the devil and sell their souls to the devil are the descendants of the devil, that is, wizards and witches who can hurt people and make them evil. They believe that such people who make deals with the devil can not only cause misfortune, but also use spells to buy people's hearts; They can make love invincible and treat infertility; It can also make people rich overnight and gain amazing fame and fortune.

Published in/kloc-the late 5th century, Malleus maleficarum is a treasure house of witchcraft and magic. Moreover, this book also records the crimes of witches in great detail and lists the standards for eliminating witches. Medieval priests not only used holy water, holy cakes and crosses to exorcise those bewitched by the devil, but also recited a long list of spells to drive away the devil possessed in the human body. Therefore, in order to save those who were tempted by the devil, medieval priests decided to hunt witches and wizards on a large scale. Although the Paris trade union passed the law against witchcraft in 829 AD, after that, the Inquisition mostly spent time and experience dealing with pagans, so there was no extra power to pay attention to witches and wizards, so there was no large-scale witchcraft persecution during the14th century. 1324, the Franciscan religion is Richard? Rhett convicted 12 people of witchcraft in Ireland, including 7 women and 5 men. They were condemned for abandoning Christ, insulting the holy land, and offering sacrifices to the devil, who sometimes appeared as a moor and sometimes as a black dog and a male cat. The defendant also admitted to using unwashed baby brains, special plants and other unspeakable filth in the decapitated criminals' skulls to practice intoxicating drugs. In a.d. 1335, Peter, the inquisitor of Toulouse? Guy tried several witches, forced them to admit that they had made a contract with Satan by strict behavior, and attended the carnival party that worshipped Lucifer, the king of hell. Although the defendant later retracted his confession, he could not escape the fate of being burned to death.

At that time, it was believed that witches and wizards would cause natural disasters, plagues and other unfortunate accidents, but these magicians who were miraculously executed reached 500,000 to/kloc-0,000 in a short time. Some people think that the real data should be twice or three times this figure; 1485, 4 1 witches were burned to death in the Austrian Grand Duke. 1609, 600 wizards were found guilty within the jurisdiction of bordeaux courts, and most of them were burned at the stake. During 15 years, more than 900 witches in Lorraine were sentenced, and even a priest was burned alive as a wizard in161year. The main reason why witchcraft persecution was so widely implicated was that the inquisition at that time encouraged informers, and many people sacrificed other innocent people through informers in order to avoid being hunted down.

At that time, the methods used by the inquisition to try witches were often unreasonable. For example, throwing a witch into a river is guilty if it floats up, but innocent if it sinks down. In a word, as long as you are tried by the Inquisition, almost no one will be spared, because according to the standards at that time, everyone is a wizard. Witch hunting in Europe lasted for more than 200 years, killing more than100000 innocent people, most of whom were women, thus becoming an indelible mark in history.