Persecution of Witches made Christian Duty on this Day in 1484

[SorellaLaBefana]

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In a bull of 1484 [Pope] Innocent acknowledged belief in witchcraft, condemned it, and then dispatched inquisitors to Germany to try witches. In 1486 he persecuted one of the chief exponents of Renaissance Platonism, Pico della Mirandola, by condemning his theses and prohibiting his defense.

When his call for a crusade against the Turks failed, Innocent made an agreement in 1489 with Sultan Bayezid II to keep Prince Jem, Bayezid’s fugitive brother and pretender to the Turkish throne, confined to the Vatican in return for an annual payment and the gift of the Holy Lance, the spear thrust into Christ’s body at the crucifixion.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Innocent-VIII


We have visited the Vatican. Sadly, the Holy Lance was not on display. Fortunately though, for our visit, The Church's bizarre superstitions as well as its continued and inexorable disparagement and subjection of women was widely and proudly in evidence.


Anna Göldi was, in 1782, probably the last person executed as a witch in Europe. Although in a nod to modern times the official charge was "poisoning" and she was beheaded, rather than burned alive.

...her former employer accused her of practicing some form of witchcraft on the child. Göldi was tortured until a confession could be extracted, and on June 13, 1782, she was decapitated...

...as Imogen Foulkes reported for BBC News in 2007, it appears Göldi had been involved with her wealthy employer. After she was fired from her job, she threatened to reveal the affair, an act that would have proved damaging to the man's burgeoning political career. He put a stop to that by demanding her execution.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/last-witch-executed-europe-gets-museum-180964633/


Janet Horne was the last to be burned alive for witchery. This was in 1727 in Scotland. She was stripped naked and burned to death in a barrel of tar. I try to not think of her death when celebrating, because of Scottish heritage, the annual Burning of the Clavie.
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/story-scotlands-last-witch-burning-2472020


Witches are still being killed by governments across the world: Saudi Arabia; Tanzania; Gambia; Nepal; India; Papua New Guinea and Uganda.
https://wwrn.org/articles/41038/


Giving continuity to the Christian War Against Women, some Christian missionaries are, according to Humanists International:

...adding to the problem and complicating efforts to end witch persecution in the region.

“Incidentally, in the name of supporting victims of witchcraft allegations”, added Leo, “these groups are either converting alleged witches from one witch believing religion to another or they are performing exorcisms on alleged witches that often lead to death or health damage of these persons.

https://humanists.international/2020/04/alleged-witches-are-still-killed-today-in-2020-says-humanist-anti-witchcraft-activist-leo-igwe/


Given the rising number of demon exorcisms here in the United States, I wonder how long it will before we again replace the Light of the Enlightenment with the Light of Burning Witches?

Rise in exorcisms in the US since the beginning of pandemic ...

He [Religious Studies Professor] explained that a lot of exorcisms with children result in death.
"Especially with exorcism with children there are a lot of deaths from people trying to get holy water or oil inside the child's mouth and they end up suffocating the child," he said. "Or they are trying to induce vomiting they think if the person vomits it will somehow show the demands[sic] escaping."

https://www.audacy.com/kcbsradio/news/national/rise-in-exorcisms-in-the-us-since-the-beginning-of-pandemic

God Bless us all as the Birth of the Prince of Peace approaches.