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The Burning Times
One of the basic tenants of Witchcraft is to be tolerant of others' beliefs. However, no discussion of the history of Witchcraft can be complete without chronicling the dark deeds of the medieval Church and other agencies in the name of Christianity. I will attempt to not "bash" the Christian belief, but rather give an account of its rise in power and the subsequent effect on today’s religions. Christianity is an aggressive religion where their God must be the only God, and their religion must be the only religion. Christians are taught that they must convert, or "save," all the non-believers.
Christianity developed and was spread by the Roman Empire. So the religion was initially centred in towns or cities that had Roman garrisons. As it spread, Christianity ran into the nature-based religions of the rural areas, where it met stiff resistance from the population who had been practicing pagan beliefs for centuries. While Christianity promised rewards in the next life and a God you had to believe in, (despite the evidence), the old Pagan Gods and Goddesses had worked with the people in this life. In fact the word “Pagan” originally meant “country dweller”, and was a slang word like "hillbilly." When the populations of the towns and cities were mostly converted to Christianity, the term “Pagan” came to represent a non-believer.
At first, the Church attempted to absorb the Pagan religions into the new Christian faith, by claiming that the pagan Gods and Goddesses were "saints." This had limited success, and so the early Christian rulers started to demonize Pagan Gods, denouncing them as evil. The Horned God of the Hunt became the Christian personification of evil: Satan. Because sex was the original sin to Christians, the Pagan fertility festivals were also portrayed as evil and the women as temptresses, leading to sin. The Pagans were not alone in this persecution; Christians destroyed anything and everything that didn't support their belief system. Western civilization was plunged into the dark ages.
When these measures didn't work, Pope Gregory the Great ordered that all Pagan temples and places of worship be destroyed and replaced by churches. However, because many of the artisans and builders of the time were Pagan, they incorporated images of the Gods and Goddesses into the new churches. By the 15th century, the church realized that a thousand years of persecution still hadn't gotten rid of those pesky Pagans.
In 1484, with the endorsement of Pope Innocent VIII, the Roman Catholic Church began “The Inquisition”, to hunt down and destroy pagans and the pagan traditions. The Malleus Maleficarum, (“The Witches Hammer”), a book written by Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger in 1486, was adopted by the Catholic Church as a guideline for identifying and prosecuting Witches. This publication became the justification for the torture and death of anyone who continued to practice the Old Religion, or who didn't believe as the Church decreed, or those who might support non-believers. This Witch-hunt directly resulted in the deaths of untold numbers of people, many of them women. Village healers; people who were skilled with herbs and potions; midwives; anyone who was a free-thinker or outside of the norm; even those who were left-handed or had a prominent birthmark or mole, were tortured and killed. Whole villages were destroyed in the Church’s zeal to eradicate pagans and the Old Religion; millions of innocent people lost their lives, property and loved ones in this purge.
These events served to push the Pagan religions underground. Rituals and ceremonies that should be celebrated in daytime, in a natural setting, had to be hidden inside and held at night. Written records of traditions or rituals would be used to incriminate pagans, so many writings were destroyed, and the traditions were passed down by word of mouth, often to family members. Covens disbanded, as members were afraid to be seen together or to risk meeting. Traditional village celebrations were banned and the backbone of the community was broken. So strong was the people’s belief, even despite the terror of the Inquisition, that some traditions were impossible for the Church to abolish completely, and Christianity was forced to incorporate these into the new religion. Pagan traditions survived in the decorating of the tree at Yule and the burning of Yule logs; May Day (Beltane) and the dancing of the Maypole; and the decorating and giving of eggs, symbol of fertility, at Easter (“Ostara” or the Spring Equinox), to name a few.
It wasn't until the middle of the 1900's that Pagans could safely come out of the broom closet, in a few countries. The word “Witch” still carries with it the taint of the Inquisition, with unfair connotations of evil, or "devil worship", as defined by the Church. Make no mistake - the misconceptions, prejudice, intolerance and violence that started in the dark and Middle Ages, have left a deep mark and still exist today.
Christianity developed and was spread by the Roman Empire. So the religion was initially centred in towns or cities that had Roman garrisons. As it spread, Christianity ran into the nature-based religions of the rural areas, where it met stiff resistance from the population who had been practicing pagan beliefs for centuries. While Christianity promised rewards in the next life and a God you had to believe in, (despite the evidence), the old Pagan Gods and Goddesses had worked with the people in this life. In fact the word “Pagan” originally meant “country dweller”, and was a slang word like "hillbilly." When the populations of the towns and cities were mostly converted to Christianity, the term “Pagan” came to represent a non-believer.
At first, the Church attempted to absorb the Pagan religions into the new Christian faith, by claiming that the pagan Gods and Goddesses were "saints." This had limited success, and so the early Christian rulers started to demonize Pagan Gods, denouncing them as evil. The Horned God of the Hunt became the Christian personification of evil: Satan. Because sex was the original sin to Christians, the Pagan fertility festivals were also portrayed as evil and the women as temptresses, leading to sin. The Pagans were not alone in this persecution; Christians destroyed anything and everything that didn't support their belief system. Western civilization was plunged into the dark ages.
When these measures didn't work, Pope Gregory the Great ordered that all Pagan temples and places of worship be destroyed and replaced by churches. However, because many of the artisans and builders of the time were Pagan, they incorporated images of the Gods and Goddesses into the new churches. By the 15th century, the church realized that a thousand years of persecution still hadn't gotten rid of those pesky Pagans.
In 1484, with the endorsement of Pope Innocent VIII, the Roman Catholic Church began “The Inquisition”, to hunt down and destroy pagans and the pagan traditions. The Malleus Maleficarum, (“The Witches Hammer”), a book written by Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger in 1486, was adopted by the Catholic Church as a guideline for identifying and prosecuting Witches. This publication became the justification for the torture and death of anyone who continued to practice the Old Religion, or who didn't believe as the Church decreed, or those who might support non-believers. This Witch-hunt directly resulted in the deaths of untold numbers of people, many of them women. Village healers; people who were skilled with herbs and potions; midwives; anyone who was a free-thinker or outside of the norm; even those who were left-handed or had a prominent birthmark or mole, were tortured and killed. Whole villages were destroyed in the Church’s zeal to eradicate pagans and the Old Religion; millions of innocent people lost their lives, property and loved ones in this purge.
These events served to push the Pagan religions underground. Rituals and ceremonies that should be celebrated in daytime, in a natural setting, had to be hidden inside and held at night. Written records of traditions or rituals would be used to incriminate pagans, so many writings were destroyed, and the traditions were passed down by word of mouth, often to family members. Covens disbanded, as members were afraid to be seen together or to risk meeting. Traditional village celebrations were banned and the backbone of the community was broken. So strong was the people’s belief, even despite the terror of the Inquisition, that some traditions were impossible for the Church to abolish completely, and Christianity was forced to incorporate these into the new religion. Pagan traditions survived in the decorating of the tree at Yule and the burning of Yule logs; May Day (Beltane) and the dancing of the Maypole; and the decorating and giving of eggs, symbol of fertility, at Easter (“Ostara” or the Spring Equinox), to name a few.
It wasn't until the middle of the 1900's that Pagans could safely come out of the broom closet, in a few countries. The word “Witch” still carries with it the taint of the Inquisition, with unfair connotations of evil, or "devil worship", as defined by the Church. Make no mistake - the misconceptions, prejudice, intolerance and violence that started in the dark and Middle Ages, have left a deep mark and still exist today.
jamesenglutt |
Latest page update: made by jamesenglutt
, Apr 14 2009, 2:55 PM EDT
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