THE BURNING TIMES

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From the late 14th century to the early 18th, the Christian church has turned its fanatical temper against anyone was suspected of being a witch. The House of God was, in effect, replaced with the torture chamber.

Almost anyone could be accused of being a witch during this reign of terror, often referred to as The Burning Times. In that time of extreme suspicion, women, especially older women who had little influence in the community, were the most vulnerable subjects.

The Church convinced the people to believe that the devil seduce women to join him. This explained why most of the accused witches were female.

Accused witches were burned to death, hanged, drowned or crushed to death under heavy stones. Many would die under torture during the inquisitor's attempt to extract a confession of witchcraft. Other equally imbecilic tests were done to prove a witch.

The inquisitors carried out many absurd tests in order to try that a person was a witch..in the name of God, of course! Women bound were thrown into pools of  water; if they sank, they were innocent. If they floated, they were guilty of witchcraft and murdered. Incredibly, it was believed that as a witch was opposed to baptism, the waters would reject the witch.

One of the most important means of the inquisitors against the witches, was the book Malleus Maleficarum, which means "The Hammer Against Witches".

The Malleus Maleficarum basically claimed that women's sexual desires led them to consort with Satan and that burning a witch was a good thing -- that it was very cleansing. The inquisitors have condemned the sexuality of the witches, but during those centuries they have satisfied their needs sexual undressing the accused women and searching for a witch's mark, a spot on the body that indicates the witchcraft. This could be a mole or other, that in the ridicule theory of the witch hunter's would not feel pain it if point with pointed object. It has also been reported that accused witches confined in prisons were sometimes the victims of rape, as well as other tortures, by the authorities.

How many people were murdered altogether in the Burning Times? "from the hundreds of thousands to the millions."

The Burning Times was one of the foulest periods in the history of Western Civilization.