Torture played a critical role in the development of witchcraft from the thirteenth century and the centuries to follow. The use of torture had been very limited and was almost always illegal in the early Middle Ages, but attitudes on torture to get confessions from witches began to change by the beginning of the fourteenth century. Torture was universally condemned by early canonists such as St. Augustine and by Popes such as Gregory the Great and Nicholas I. However the use of torture was becoming increasingly popular among the secular courts. The reason the Church began to use torture as a way to get confessions from heretics is unclear. Many believe that they were following the secular courts example. There was also the idea that God would
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By stating that Inquisitors could use torture to get confessions, it made it easier for people to be tried as witches. Most people did not like being tortured and people would confess to stop the torture. Torture did not create witchcraft but did increase the witch crisis. Witch literature and manuals pertaining to the removal of witches began to increase around 1230. The manuals were to tell Inquisitors how to question those that they thought were witches. The manuals would tell them to ask whether the accused had done anything that pertained to demon or devil worship, whether he/she had invoked a demon to help them see the future, or whether he/she had ever offered a sacrifice to a demon. These writings could also be read by the laypeople that were …show more content…
The Inquisition could not have gained this much power without the papacy. In the fifteenth century popes began to put the crime of witchcraft in canon law. This removed it from the world of the superstitious and placed it in the category of heresy. Pope Innocent VIII in the Summis Desiderantes Affectibus on December 5th, 1484 established that the Inquisition against witches had full papal approval. This statement opened the doors for the witch trails that happened in the following centuries. The greatest numbers of witch trails occurred in areas that the Inquisition was the most active such as in France, Germany, and Lombardy. Inquisitors took their jurisdiction over magic very seriously. This seriousness helped lead how witchcraft would be classified as a heresy and handled during later
By stating that Inquisitors could use torture to get confessions, it made it easier for people to be tried as witches. Most people did not like being tortured and people would confess to stop the torture. Torture did not create witchcraft but did increase the witch crisis. Witch literature and manuals pertaining to the removal of witches began to increase around 1230. The manuals were to tell Inquisitors how to question those that they thought were witches. The manuals would tell them to ask whether the accused had done anything that pertained to demon or devil worship, whether he/she had invoked a demon to help them see the future, or whether he/she had ever offered a sacrifice to a demon. These writings could also be read by the laypeople that were …show more content…
The Inquisition could not have gained this much power without the papacy. In the fifteenth century popes began to put the crime of witchcraft in canon law. This removed it from the world of the superstitious and placed it in the category of heresy. Pope Innocent VIII in the Summis Desiderantes Affectibus on December 5th, 1484 established that the Inquisition against witches had full papal approval. This statement opened the doors for the witch trails that happened in the following centuries. The greatest numbers of witch trails occurred in areas that the Inquisition was the most active such as in France, Germany, and Lombardy. Inquisitors took their jurisdiction over magic very seriously. This seriousness helped lead how witchcraft would be classified as a heresy and handled during later