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Jan 2, 1273
Thomas Aquinas argues that demons exist and try to lead people into temptation.
Aquinas argued that the world was full of evil and dangerous demons. Among other things, Aquinas argued, these demons had the habit of reaping the sperm of men and spreading it among women. In Aquinas's mind, sex and witchcraft were related; something that would become a long association. Then, demons were seen as not merely seeking their own pleasure, but also intending on leading men into temptation. -
Jan 2, 1400
Witchcraft trials erupt in Europe
People began having a fascination with death, and the supernatural. Witches were used as scapegoats for problems that people couldn't control-like the Black Death. -
Jan 2, 1484
Pope Innocent VIII and Malleus Maleficarum
Pope Innocent announced that satanists in Germany were meeting with demons, casting spells that destroyed crops, and aborting infants. The pope asked two monks, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, to publish a full report on the suspected witchcraft. Two years later, the monks published Malleus maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches"). The Malleus told frightening tales of women who would have sex with any demon, and kill babies.The Malleus became an important source for the defining withcraft. -
Jan 2, 1500
The Reformation sends kill rates up
With beliefs changing, people became confused and insecure about their beliefs, and started blaming scapegoats. Also, many heretics were accused to be witches as well. Early-mid 1500s -
King James authorizes the torture of suspected witches in Scotland
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Shakespeare's Macbeth is performed
As an indication of the attention witch-hunting had begun to attract in England during the executions in the era of King James, Shakespeare wrote a play, Macbeth, in which strange, bearded, witches play prominent roles. -
Witch-hunting, after a major outbreak in France, begins to decrease.
In 1643-1645, the largest witch-hunt in French history occurred. During those two years there were at least 650 arrests in Languedoc alone. The same time was one of intense witch-hunting in England, as the English civil war created an atmosphere of unrest that fueled the hunting. The number of trials began to drop sharply, however, in the late 1640s. Holland, for example, was by 1648 a tolerant society that had done away with punishments for witchcraft. -
England executes its last witch
In 1682, Temperance Lloyd, a woman from Bideford, became the last witch ever executed in England. Lord Chief Justice Sir Francis North, a critic of witchcraft trials, investigated the Lloyd case and denounced the prosecution as deeply flawed.
The Enlightenment, beginning in the late 1680s, contributed to the end of witch-hunts throughout Europe.
