00:00One story from Scotland illustrates how these beliefs were taken seriously.
00:05In the year 968, a group of witches from the town of Forz were accused of trying to kill King
00:11Duffus.
00:12Their method was an old magical practice. They created a wax image representing the king.
00:17Then slowly and deliberately, they began melting the wax figure over a fire,
00:21believing that as the image melted, the king himself would grow weaker and eventually die.
00:26When this plot was discovered, the accused witches were punished according to the law.
00:31They were burned at the stake.
00:39While these events were unfolding in Britain, another struggle was happening across Germany.
00:46The spread of Christianity in that region had been slow and difficult.
00:51Even by the 8th century, large parts of the population were still returning to older pagan beliefs.
00:59This was despite the efforts of many missionaries, including St. Columbinus, St. Fridolin, St. Gall, St. Rupert, St. Willebrod, and
01:08the famous missionary St. Boniface.
01:12These men worked tirelessly to convert the people, yet many communities repeatedly slipped back into what church writers described as
01:20primitive pagan practices.
01:23In some regions, this struggle continued for centuries.
01:28For example, the Prussian tribes were not considered firmly converted until the early 13th century,
01:36when Bishop Albrecht launched a crusade that finally brought them under Christian rule.
01:43During the 11th and 12th centuries, records across Europe repeatedly mentioned individuals being executed for practicing witchcraft.
01:53Even powerful rulers became involved in shaping these laws.
01:58One of them was Emperor Frederick II.
02:02Frederick II had a controversial reputation.
02:05He often argued with the papacy and showed little interest in religious obligations.
02:11Some writers even claimed that he was a Christian ruler only in name,
02:15and that in his personal thinking he was closer to a Muslim philosopher or free-thinking skeptic.
02:22He would surround himself with Arabian scholars, ministers, and courtiers,
02:26and many people suspected that he held agnostic beliefs.
02:31Yet even Frederick saw witchcraft and heresy as serious dangers to the stability of society.
02:38Because of this, he declared that a law he had created for the region of Lombardy would apply throughout his
02:44entire empire.
02:46According to historian Vakendord, this decision removed all uncertainty.
02:53From that point forward, heresy in the empire was punishable by death at the stake.
02:59At the time, heresy and witchcraft were often treated as closely connected crimes.
03:05Frederick may not have cared whether they offended the church,
03:09but he believed they could threaten the stability of the state and the foundations of civilization itself.
03:17All these examples show something important.
03:20The punishment of witchcraft did not begin in the 14th or 15th centuries, as many people later believed.
03:28And it was not originally created by the Inquisition.
03:32In fact, a famous Inquisitor named Bernard Guy, who served in Toulouse, wrote in his handbook for Inquisitors,
03:40called The Practice of the Inquisition,
03:44that sorcery itself was not normally handled by the Inquisition.
03:49Instead, when people accused of witchcraft came before him,
03:53he usually sent their cases to the local bishop's court unless other crimes were involved.
04:00To understand this better,
04:02it helps to look at the complex history of the Inquisition itself.
04:07The Inquisition did not suddenly appear overnight because of a single decree from the Pope.
04:13It developed slowly over many years.
04:17And contrary to popular belief, St. Dominic was not the founder of the Inquisition.
04:24During a crusade in southern France known as the Crusade in Languedoc,
04:29Dominic did take part in religious work.
04:32But his role was mainly preaching and bringing people back to the Church.
04:38Much like the Apostles had done centuries earlier,
04:42he also founded a religious order,
04:46the Dominican Order.
04:49This order received official approval from Pope Emerius III
04:52in a document issued on December 22, 1216.
04:57St. Dominic died on August 6, 1221.
05:02The first Dominican who clearly held the title of Inquisitor appeared later.
05:07In November 1232, a man named Alberic traveled through Lombardy
05:12with the official title Inquisitor of Heretical Depravity.
05:16At that time,
05:18church courts were complex systems.
05:21Local bishops had their own courts.
05:23And traveling Inquisitors sometimes worked alongside them.
05:28Often the Inquisitor simply sat with the bishop as an advisor
05:31helping interpret certain technical aspects of the law.
05:35Both could participate in giving the final judgment.
05:57Have aif in this world.
06:01Write in thanksgiving.
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