At the end of the Middle Ages, disasters followed on the European continent, such as the Great Famine, the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and so on. As a result of unprecedented upheaval in the social order, people began all kinds of attempts in pursuit of salvation. This also includes finding a scapegoat to carry the pot for all this turmoil. At that time, there were many wizards who used various witchcraft to eliminate disasters and solve problems for people, because this group of people did not believe in Catholicism. Naturally, he was regarded as the best candidate by the Catholic Church, the largest religion in Europe at that time.
With the publication of the Witch Edict of Catholic Pope Innocent VIII in 1484, witch hunts began. With the publication and dissemination of the infamous witch hunting guide "The Witch's Hammer" two years later, witch hunting began to focus on the women of the time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" how to identify witches >? </h1>
1. Fire identification: Fire identification is to let the defendant run a specified distance with a red-hot iron in his hand, or walk barefoot through the red plough with blindfolded eyes, check the hands and feet after three days, if the hands and feet are injured, it means that the defendant is guilty, if there is no injury, the defendant can be released.
2. Flood identification: The defendant's hands and feet are tied, tied with a rope, and then the witch is thrown into a pond or river. If the defendant is floating on the water, it is undoubtedly a witch
3. Weight identification: Legend has it that witches can fly around at night on long poles and broomsticks, so people at the time believed that witches weighed very lightly and would not exceed 5 kilograms. If a woman of normal height is accused of less than 5 kilograms when she crosses the scale, the defendant is undoubtedly a witch, and if it exceeds 5 kilograms, it does not necessarily mean that the defendant is not a witch.
4. Tear Identification: At that time, it was thought that witches would not shed tears. If there are no tears, the defendant is a witch, and if the witch weeps, it is the devil who is at work, and unless it is judged that it is true crying, the defendant is still guilty.
5. Acupuncture identification: Whether the woman is a witch depends on whether the defendant bleeds when she is stabbed. At that time, people believed that the witch was allied with the devil, and there would be marks left by the devil on her body, and the needle pierced these marks, and the witch would not feel pain or bleed.
In addition, women who use Western astrology or occultism to divinate, pray, and cast spells on people are sometimes regarded as witches, and may be the messengers of the devil's temptation of the soul.
From this, we can see that basically once you are identified as a witch, you basically die.
Moreover, the property of witches sentenced to death was also confiscated, making the political and judicial circles at that time more active in hunting witches.
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At first, witches sentenced to death were hanged or beheaded, but then there were rumors that the bodies left behind would turn into vampires and be burned at the stake.
At the height of the prey movement, many women who did not understand witchcraft were also falsely accused of sin and burned alive. From 1450 to 1750, about 35,000 to 1750,000 people were executed under the name of "witch hunt".