Witchcraft Persecution

1022

Jan 1, 1022

A group of pious and ascetic mystics who denied key tenets of Christianity were burned as witches in Orleans. Contemporary Christian writers branded them as Devil worshippers who indulged in sex orgies and the murder of children - standard accusations for all dissident groups at the time.

1141

Jan 1, 1141

Hugh of St. Victor wrote Didascalicon, which included a strong denunciation of using or studying magic:
Magic was not accepted as part of philosophy, but stands with a false claim outside it; the mistress of every form of iniquity and malice, lying about the truth and truly infecting men's minds, it seduces them from divine religion, prompts them from the cult of demons, fosters corruption of morals, and impels the minds of its devotees to every wicked and criminal indulgence. ... Sorcerers were

1231

Jan 1, 1231

Conrad of Marburg was appointed as the first Inquisitor of Germany, setting a pattern of persecution. In his reign of terror, he claimed to have uncovered many nests of "Devil worshippers" and adopted the motto of:
We would gladly burn a hundred if just one of them was guilty.

1233

Jan 1, 1233

Pope Gregory IX proclaimed Conrad of Marburg a champion of Christendom and promoted his findings in the Papal Bull Vox in Rama.

1258

Jan 1, 1258

Pope Alexander IV declared that Inquisitors should not concern themselves with divination, but only those which "manifestly savored of heresy."

1280

Jan 1, 1280

First appearance of images of a witch riding a broom.

1320

Jan 1, 1320

Pope John XXII authorized the Inquisition to began persecuting sorcery and witchcraft.

1324-1325

Jan 1, 1325

Lady Alice Kyteler, her son and associates in Kilkenny, Ireland, were tried for witchcraft. For the first time, stories of mating with demons were linked with stories of pacts with Satan. Lady Alice escaped to England, but others were burned.

1398

Jan 1, 1398

The theology faculty at the University of Paris declared that all forms of magic or divination involved some sort of pact with the devil and were thus heresy, justifying the persecution of every possible sort of witchcraft.

1428

Jan 1, 1428

Witch trials of Brianqon took place in the Dauphine. About 167 local people were burned as witches between 1428 and 1450.

1431

Jan 1, 1431

Trial of Joan of Arc took place and included allegations of witchcraft.

1440

Jan 1, 1440

Notorious trial of Gilles de Rais, who was accused of witchcraft and debaucheries.

1484

Jan 1, 1484

Papal Bull Summis desiderantes was issued by Pope Innocent VIII, authorizing Jakob Sprenger, Dean of Cologne University, and Prior Heinrich Kramer, both Dominican monks, to systematize and categorize the persecution of witches.

1486

Jan 1, 1486

Publication of Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) by Sprenger and Kramer. Based upon their experiences in Germany, this manual for witch hunters ran to 40 editions. In their opinion, witchcraft was based upon sexual lust:
All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which was in women insatiable.
In an interesting twist, it was now declared that not believing in witches was heresy:
A belief that there were such things as witches was so essential a part of Catholic faith that obstinately to main

1488

Jan 1, 1488

Papal Bull was issued, calling upon European nations to rescue the church because it was "imperiled by the arts of Satan."

1490

Jan 1, 1490

King Charles VIII issued an edict against fortunetellers, enchanters, necromancers and others engaging in any sort of witchcraft.

1508

Jan 1, 1508

Mass witch trials in Biarn occurred.

1529

Jan 1, 1529

Inquisitorial witchcraft trials took place at Luxeuil.

1532

Jan 1, 1532

Declaration of the Carolina Code in Germany which imposed the penalties of torture and death for witchcraft. This code was technically adopted by the 300-odd small independent states which comprise the Holy Roman Empire.

1542

Jan 1, 1542

Henry VIII issued a statute against witchcraft.

1547

Jan 1, 1547

Repeal of statute of 1542 during the reign of Edward VI.

1557

Jan 1, 1557

Toulouse witch trials took place, during which forty witches were condemned and burned.

1563

Jan 1, 1563

Queen Elizabeth issued a statute against witchcraft. Johan Weyer wrote De Praestigiis Daemonum. This book described his belief that witches were just mentally disturbed old women and that it was the belief in witches which was caused by Satan. He was forced to leave the Netherlands and his book was denounced by Jean Bodin

1563

Jan 1, 1563

Council of Trent resolved to win back Germany from Protestantism to the Catholic Church; intensification of religious struggles and persecutions results.

1566

Jan 1, 1566

The first Chelmsford witch trials. This trial was the first to appear in a secular court in England and resulted in the first woman being hanged for witchcraft, Agnes Waterhouse. This trial also produced the first chapbook, or tabloid newspaper, relating to witchcraft.

1579

Jan 1, 1579

The Windsor witch trials; also the second Chelmsford trials.

1580

Jan 1, 1580

Jean Bodin, a French judge, published Daemonomanie des Sorciers condemning witches. According to Bodin, those denying the existence of witches were actually witches themselves.

1582

Jan 1, 1582

St. Osyth Witches of Essex (case tried at Chelmsford).

1584

Jan 1, 1584

Publication of Discovery of Witchcraft by the skeptic Reginald Scot who argued that witches might not exist after all.

1589

Jan 1, 1589

Third Chelmsford witch trials.

1589

Jan 1, 1589

Fourteen convicted witches at Tours appealed to King Henry III, who was in turn accused of protecting witches.

1590

Jan 1, 1590

William V began a witch hunt in Bavaria. The North Berwick witch trials began when an alleged coven of witches was exposed in 1590-91, resulting in Scotland's most celebrated witch trials and executions. King James VI (who became James I of England), a devout believer in witches, even took part in the proceedings. The torture applied to the victims was among the most brutal in Scotland's entire history of witchcraft prosecution.

1592

Jan 1, 1592

Father Cornelius Loos wrote of those arrested and accused of witchcraft:
Wretched creatures were compelled by the severity of the torture to confess things they have never done... and so by the cruel butchery innocent lives were taken; and, by a new alchemy, gold and silver are coined from human blood.

1593

Jan 1, 1593

Warboys witches of Huntingdon were put on trial.

1597

Jan 1, 1597

Publication of Demonology by James VI of Scotland (later James I of England).

1597

Jan 1, 1597

Case of the Burton Boy (Thomas Darling) in Staffordshire.

1604

Jan 1, 1604

James I released his statute against witchcraft, in which he wrote that they were "loathe to confess without torture."

1604

Jan 1, 1604

Case of the Northwich Boy.

1605

Jan 1, 1605

Abingdon witches and Anne Gunter

1612

Jan 1, 1612

Lancashire witch trials.

1616

Jan 1, 1616

Case of the Leicester Boy (John Smith).

1618

Jan 1, 1618

Start of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) during which the witch hunt throughout Germany was at its height.

1620

Jan 1, 1620

Case of the Bilson Boy (William Perry).

1625

Jan 1, 1625

Start of general decline of witch trials in France.

1628

Jan 1, 1628

Trial of Johannes Junius, mayor of Bamberg, for witchcraft.

1631

Jan 1, 1631

Publication of Cautio Criminalis by Friedrich von Spee, opposing the witch hunt.

1632

Jan 1, 1632

Death of the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg marked the end of the persecutions in this principality (1609-1632).

1645

Jan 1, 1645

Case of the Faversham witches, Kent Witchfinder-general Matthew Hopkins and the Chelmsford (or Manningtree) witch trials.

1656

Jan 1, 1646

Death of Matthew Hopkins from tuberculosis.

1682

Jan 1, 1682

XIV's star chamber investigated poison plots and heared evidence of widespread corruption and witchcraft. More than 300 people were arrested and 36 executed. The affair ended with a royal edict which denied the reality of witchcraft and sorcery.

1736

Jan 1, 1736

Repeal of Statute of James 1 (1604).

1745

Jan 1, 1745

Last execution for witchcraft in France (of Father Louis Debaraz at Lyons).

1722

Jan 1, 1772

Last execution for witchcraft in Scotland.

1775

Jan 1, 1775

Last official execution for witchcraft in Germany (of Anna Maria Schwiigel at Kempten in Bavaria).

1787

Jan 1, 1787

All witchcraft laws in Austria were repealed.

1928

Jan 1, 1928

A family of Hungarian peasants were acquitted of beating an old woman to death whom they thought was a witch. The court used as an excuse the argument that the family acted out of "irresistible compulsion."

1976

Jan 1, 1976

A poor woman in Germany was suspect of keeping dogs as familiars (devil's agents). Neighbors ostracized her, threw rocks at her, threatened to beat her to death, and finally burned down her house, badly burning her and killing all the animals.

1977

Jan 1, 1977

In France, a mob killed an old man suspected of sorcery.

1981

Jan 1, 1981

A mob in Mexico stoned to death a woman suspected of witchcraft.

383

Mar 2, 2022

Priscillian of Avila was executed. He was accused of Manichaeism, but the official reason for burning him was witchcraft.

906

Mar 2, 2022

Canon Eposcopi, a collection of church laws, appeared. It declared that belief in witchcraft was heretical.

Witchcraft Timespan

Period: Mar 2, 2022 to Jan 1, 1981