"Teresa's Burning Times", About.com: Paganism/Wicca.
Modern-day witches (Wiccans and assorted pagans) who tie themselves to the "witches" largely persecuted in Europe between the 15th and 17th century cite the infamous Malleus Maleficarum as largely responsible for this carnage, an era they refer to as "The Burning Times".
Here's an extract from "An Introduction to The Burning Times", explaining the book's supposed influence during this time:
The single most influential piece of propaganda in this campaign was commissioned by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 after he declared Witchcraft to be a heresy. He instructed the Dominican monks Heinrich Kraemer and Jacob Sprenger to publish a manual for witch-hunters. Two years later the work appeared with the title Malleus Malificarum, or The Witches' Hammer. The manual was used for the next 250 years in the Church's attempt to purify the Christian faith.
But, as it also points out: "One of the most sobering things about the Burning Times is that most of the slain were not Pagans, they were devout Christians falsely accused."
The estimation of deaths caused during this time is quite high:
During the Burning Times, an estimated nine million people (some of whom were undoubtedly Witches, but the majority were innocents that composed the Midwives (whose role was being sought by the newer male dominated medical profession of the Doctors), the elderly and infirm, those that nowadays would be considered Eccentric (the old woman living alone in the woods), the victims of land greed (the accusers were usually able to gain hold of the alleged Witches property once s/he had been convicted) amongst others!) were killed by their Christian brothers, sisters, spouses and neighbours. Even today you cannot publicly announce the fact that you are a Witch without fear of severe and often brutal repercussions, depending on where you live in the world.
But just how much of an impact did the Malleus have on witch persecutions?
According to Jenny Gibbons' review of the book, not as much as you'd think:
The Malleus Maleficarum is indeed one of the most influential Witch-hunting manuals of all times. And since it's easily available in modern English translation, it's still influential, the darling of amateur historians today. But it's not a reliable guide to the Burning Times: it's a duplicitous text with a checkered past, a book you simply can't take at face value.
This leads to the very question of the intensity of the "Burning Times" itself. Patti Wigington asks "Were the Burning Times as Bad as They Sound?" a subject also covered by Religious Tolerance with "The Burning Times: The Extermination of Witches and Other Heretics".
Some articles are much more blunt, like Wicca: For the Rest of Us' "The Burning Times or the More Persecuted than Thou Syndrome":
Not only is the myth of the Burning Times false, it's disrespectful to the real victims of the witch-persecutions who were, at first, heretics and then were generally Christians unfortunate enough to be swept up in a hysteria that swept half a continent. None of the victims were Wiccan - the religion did not exist at the time. Few, if any, had any knowledge of pagan religion. Worse, Wiccans have taken up such slogans as "Never forget, never again" (originally used by Jews in reference to the Holocaust) and spout hugely exaggerated numbers in an attempt to win the Most Persecuted Group in History Award.
Jason Pitzl-Waters' "Is Ross Douthat Living in Dan Brown’s America?" also points out that in
the last twenty years, as the number was successfully reevaluated, modern Paganism has mostly dropped that meme, and those who don’t are often criticiszed within the modern Pagan community. Even Charlotte Allen, who wrote the critical piece from 2001 that Douthat links to, admits that Wiccans and Pagans have mostly moved on from "The Burning Times".
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