The History of Witch Trials

Everyone knows about the Salem Witch Trials, but few know about the history of witch trials in the centuries before that final massacre.

Until the time of King James, witches were tolerated by the masses because they were good midwives and could make salves and other medications that healed and eased people's pain.

But one day, a witch tried to poison King James and his wife. When King James had the Bible translated from it's original Greek and Hebrew (new and Old Testament respectively) into the old English Bible we know today as the King James Version, he changed, added, and dropped a few passages. One of those passages that King James added was "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" Exodus 22:18.

When the new version of the bible came out, of course the priests taught it to the parishioners, who believed that these passages really were the word of God. People were and still are being taught that witches are the agents of the Devil.

Since these witches were pretty much the nurses of their time, they had people die in their care. Because the people were being taught that witches were evil, the people began to believe that these women were making the sick sicker and making perfectly fine people ill.

These people were tried for heresy, an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma*, a charge that carried the penalty of being burned at the stake for most of the convicted.

Things escalated very quickly, soon there were pamphlets on how to spot a witch circulating throughout Europe. Paranoia spread very rapidly.

This paranoia was fueled by a hallucinations caused by a parasitic fungus that grows primarily on rye called ergot. Rye bread was cheaper than wheat bread and most of the lower class used it. Because of this, the lower class citizens were primarily the ones being accused and doing the accusation.

Ergot is primarily known as a hallucinogenic. In addition to hallucinations, it can cause insanity, loss of limbs, and death. It was also once used for abortions.

The first city to stop persecuting people believed to be witches was Amsterdam. This was due in part to a better economy and a very tolerant religious outlook.