The Catholic church established a judicial procedure to combat heresy and Jewish religion known as the Inquisition. Any belief and/or practices that were not Catholic were considered heresy therefore were “inquired into”. These Commisions and similar structures in the 13th Century were known as The Inquisition in the early modern Europe.
As early as 11th Century the judiciary inquiries were implemented but it was not widely adopted due to lack of power over jurisdictions or simply not implemented by some bishops. As the papacy gained control and authority in the regions through the bishops, the inquisitions practices carried on but there was no central authority to coordinate their activities.
In the 14th Century, the focus shifted from
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It was “released” in 1486 and it was the standard witchcraft handbook until well into the 18th century, sustaining more than 2 centuries of witch hunt obsession in Europe.
This document was created by Johann Sprenger (dean of the University of Cologne in Germany) and Heinrich Kraemer (professor of Theology at the University of Salzburg). In 1848 Pope Innocent VIII officially authorized Sprenger and Kraemer to extirpate witchcraft in Germany.
This document was divided in 3 parts. The first part was dedicated to emphasize the depravity of the witches and estipulate that the non belief of demons was condemned as heresy. Any witness was deemed qualified to testify against an accused. Part 2 is a compilation of stories about the practices of witches (pacts with the devil, flying at night, sexual relations with evil entities, etc) which was nothing more than fiction and inventions from the church authorities in order to impart fear and justify the persecution and Part 3 is related to the legal procedures to adhere to in the trials. Torture was accepted as the mean to secure a