The first book in the trilogy “Order of Darkness”, Changeling, a novel by Philippa Gregory, illustrates the process of 17 year old Luca Vero’s quest to record the end of times across Europe in Christendom. The book tells the story in Lucretili, Italy during the span of the middle of the 15th century in 1453. After Luca Vero is recruited to record the strange stories of Christendom in Italy, he travels to an abbey where Isolde, a lady abbess, is trapped. The rest of the book covers Luca and Isolde traveling together to places in Italy such as Pescara, Vittorito, Lucretili and Rome in order to help solve and document crimes and discover the unknowns during the end of Christendom. The main characters include Luca Vero, the seventeen year old aspiring
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This leads to another successful and accurate portrayal of nuns in the 15th century. During the period of time that Isolde is lady abbess, unusual things occur. Consequently, Luca strives to work and find the root of the alleged “madness” that the nuns begin suffering with. Later, when Luca arrives he finds the Lady Almoner, who distrusts Isolde and suspects Ishraq, Isoldes childhood best friend and a Moor, to be a witch working together to bring about the ruin of the abbey. This is not a fictional addition to the storyline, as the original document named Malleus maleficarum written from 1455 to 1460 by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger strongly suggests that this belief and suspicion was common during the 1450’s. These two men, who were inquisitors from Europe, created a manual for witch hunters. The manual illustrates the methods used by witches, the way that witches use their powers to destroy men and join the Devil as well as sets down the formal rules for a process of justice such as giving the methods that should be used, how inquisitors should protect themselves from the witch’s evil, and how victims should be “searched” to find any hidden magical devices (Online Medieval). This is an extremely influential piece for the steady development of the early witchcraft trials and heresy that presents the medieval 15th century view of evil and magic. It is important to acknowledge that almost only women were accused of being witches at this time, and never males who were accused of being warlocks. In the end of the book it was revealed that the witchcraft idea was a setup for Luca, and Isolde and Ishraq ended up innocent, yet it is no surprise that Luca Vero fell for this lie as these suspicions were common to the times for a nun that is religious, quiet and mysterious. The suspicion that Ishraq felt to the others
This leads to another successful and accurate portrayal of nuns in the 15th century. During the period of time that Isolde is lady abbess, unusual things occur. Consequently, Luca strives to work and find the root of the alleged “madness” that the nuns begin suffering with. Later, when Luca arrives he finds the Lady Almoner, who distrusts Isolde and suspects Ishraq, Isoldes childhood best friend and a Moor, to be a witch working together to bring about the ruin of the abbey. This is not a fictional addition to the storyline, as the original document named Malleus maleficarum written from 1455 to 1460 by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger strongly suggests that this belief and suspicion was common during the 1450’s. These two men, who were inquisitors from Europe, created a manual for witch hunters. The manual illustrates the methods used by witches, the way that witches use their powers to destroy men and join the Devil as well as sets down the formal rules for a process of justice such as giving the methods that should be used, how inquisitors should protect themselves from the witch’s evil, and how victims should be “searched” to find any hidden magical devices (Online Medieval). This is an extremely influential piece for the steady development of the early witchcraft trials and heresy that presents the medieval 15th century view of evil and magic. It is important to acknowledge that almost only women were accused of being witches at this time, and never males who were accused of being warlocks. In the end of the book it was revealed that the witchcraft idea was a setup for Luca, and Isolde and Ishraq ended up innocent, yet it is no surprise that Luca Vero fell for this lie as these suspicions were common to the times for a nun that is religious, quiet and mysterious. The suspicion that Ishraq felt to the others