The Roman Catholics: a mix-up of faiths

As an example, the Roman Catholics deal with mix-up in their faith. They honor the “Powerful Ones” (Elohim, a Hebrew word in plural form often meaning “God”) along with YHWH (meaning “Lord God”) in the Old Testament of the Bible, alongside Jesus, who refers to “Abba” an Aramaic word for “father” that suggests a close, trusting bond like a child’s call.

Firstly, Jesus never used the name Yahweh as a name for God. It’s that simple. End of story. Just let that gold nugget of information sink in for a moment.

The Eden Conspiracy

Jesus however questions the actions of YHWH in Matthew:

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Matthew 7:9-11

YHWH (The Lord God) is a label used to combine many gods from the Old Testament—gods with very human characters and extremely cruel demands: genocides, animal offerings, and punishments by death, floods, or plagues when not pleased.

Even the many gods in the Bible compete with each other. In the end, Yahweh demands worship of only one and orders the others to be called idols.

Jesus Teachings

Compared to the spiritual traditions of the past, this connection with the Divine Presence is a simple and straightforward way of moving to the Light. The work of Jesus was like a signpost pointing to this new way, but even when he taught this many did not understand him. They could not grasp that because the Divine Presence is within, knowing ourselves is also knowing God. I think this idea frightened them, and they would rather think of a perfect Father in the heavens, and themselves as miserable and imperfect creatures crawling upon the surface of the Earth. Yet the ancient sages had always said that knowing oneself is the key.

The Essenes: The Children of the Light

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was “the teacher of teachers” is not denied by the Roman Catholic Church. Within Catholic tradition she is accorded the title of “apostola apostolorum”, which means “the apostle to the apostles”.

The Essenes: The Children of the Light

The European witch hunts

The European witch hunts did not begin in the medieval “Dark Ages” as popular myth often claims. They were primarily an early modern phenomenon (roughly 1450–1750), with the most intense period in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The Catholic Church (and later Protestant authorities) played a major role in providing theological justification and institutional tools, but the hunts were a complex mix of religious, social, legal, and political factors rather than a single top-down Church campaign.

Medieval Period: General Skepticism

For most of the Middle Ages (roughly 5th–15th centuries), the official Church position was cautious or outright skeptical about popular beliefs in witchcraft as a real, organized diabolical threat.

• A key text was the Canon Episcopi (c. 906 AD, later incorporated into Church law in the 12th century). It condemned as superstition the belief that women could fly at night with the goddess Diana (or similar figures), cause storms, or harm people through such magic. It stated that such ideas were illusions sent by the Devil to deceive people who lacked proper faith. Executing people based on these beliefs was discouraged.
• Popes and councils occasionally condemned magic when it was tied to paganism or heresy, but they did not promote mass hunts for “witches.”
• Individual cases of maleficium (harmful folk magic, such as curses or poisoning) were sometimes prosecuted, but they were sporadic and usually handled locally.

In short, the medieval Church generally viewed extreme witchcraft beliefs as ignorant superstition, not as evidence of a vast Satanic conspiracy.

The Turning Point: Late 15th Century

The shift toward systematic persecution occurred in the 1480s, driven by a combination of new demonological ideas and institutional action.

1. 1484 – Papal Bull Summis desiderantes affectibus Pope Innocent VIII issued this bull after receiving complaints from the Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer (also called Institoris) about witchcraft in parts of Germany (especially the Tyrol region).
   • It officially recognized witchcraft as a real and serious threat involving pacts with the Devil.
   • It authorized Kramer and another Dominican, Jacob Sprenger, to investigate and prosecute witches, heretics, and related crimes in specific areas.
   • This gave papal backing to the idea that witchcraft was not just superstition but a form of heresy and apostasy.
2. 1486/1487 – Publication of the Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”) Written primarily by Heinrich Kramer (Sprenger’s involvement is debated and possibly minimal).
   • This became the most influential handbook on witch-hunting. It argued in detail that:
     • Witchcraft was real and widespread.
     • Witches (mostly women) made explicit pacts with the Devil.
     • They flew to nocturnal sabbaths, had sex with demons, caused illness/death, and committed other crimes.
     • Women were especially susceptible because of their supposed weaker nature and lustfulness.
   • It provided detailed legal and theological instructions on how to detect, interrogate (including the use of torture), and convict witches.
   • Although the book was not officially endorsed by the Church (parts were even criticized by theologians in Cologne), it was widely reprinted (dozens of editions) and used across Europe by both Catholic and Protestant authorities. It helped spread the new ideology of “diabolical witchcraft.”

These two documents marked the moment when older folk beliefs in harmful magic were fused with elite theological ideas about Satan’s active conspiracy against Christianity.

How the Hunts Developed and Spread

• Ideology: The new view portrayed witchcraft as a heretical sect with a pact with the Devil, secret gatherings (sabbaths), and collective harm. This made it far more dangerous in the eyes of authorities than simple folk magic.
• Legal mechanisms: The medieval Inquisition (created in the 13th century mainly against heresies like Catharism) provided trained investigators, legal procedures, and the use of torture. Many trials were run by secular courts, but clergy often supplied the theological framework.
• Social triggers: Periods of crisis (wars, plagues, famines, religious wars of the Reformation/Counter-Reformation) increased fear and the search for scapegoats. Accusations often spread through chain reactions of torture-induced confessions.
• Geography: Most intense in the Holy Roman Empire (Germany, Switzerland, parts of Austria and France). Significant outbreaks also occurred in Scotland, Scandinavia, and elsewhere. England had fewer executions (mostly under secular law). Both Catholic and Protestant regions participated — intensity depended more on local conditions than denomination.
• Victims: Estimates suggest 75–80% were women, often older, poor, widowed, or socially marginal. Men, children, and even clergy were sometimes accused too.

Scale: Scholarly consensus puts the total number of executions across Europe (and European colonies) at roughly 40,000 to 60,000 over about 300 years (out of perhaps 100,000+ trials). Earlier sensational claims of “9 million” are modern myths with no basis in evidence.

Decline

By the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the hunts largely died out due to:

• Growing elite skepticism (influenced by the Scientific Revolution and early Enlightenment thinking).
• Legal reforms that made convictions harder (better standards of evidence, restrictions on torture).
• Changing religious and political priorities.

The last executions in Western Europe occurred in the early 18th century (one of the very last was in 1782 in Switzerland).

Connection to the Biblical Verse and Earlier Conversation

The King James Version’s rendering of Exodus 22:18 (“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”) was frequently cited as biblical justification during the hunts. However, as we discussed, the original Hebrew (məḵaššēp̄ā lōʾ təḥayyeh) referred to a female sorceress in an ancient Near Eastern legal context, not the later European stereotype of devil-pacting, flying witches.

Summary Timeline

• Pre-1480s: Mostly skeptical or sporadic local cases.
• 1484: Papal bull gives official recognition.
• 1486–87: Malleus Maleficarum published → ideology spreads rapidly via print.
• c. 1500–1650: Peak of the hunts (especially 1580–1630 in many regions).
• Late 1600s–1700s: Decline and end.

The witch hunts were not simply “the Church starting something in one year.” They emerged from a convergence of late medieval demonology, the printing press, religious conflict, social stress, and legal evolution — with significant theological and institutional contributions from the Church (especially Dominican inquisitors) in the crucial late-15th-century moment.