Editing Christian views on magic (section)

==Medieval views==
{{See also|Witch trials in the early modern period}}
During the [[Early Middle Ages]], the Christian Churches did not conduct witch trials.<ref name=InnerDemons>Cohn, Norman: "Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom." London: Sussex University Press, 1975</ref> The Germanic [[Council of Paderborn]] in 785 explicitly outlawed the very belief in witches, and the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charlemagne]] later confirmed the law. Among [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christians]] concentrated in the [[Byzantine Empire]], belief in witchcraft was widely regarded as ''deisidaimonia''—[[superstition]]—and by the 9th and 10th centuries in the [[Western Christianity|Latin Christian West]], belief in witchcraft had begun to be seen as [[heresy]].

Towards the end of the [[Late Middle Ages|Middle Ages]] and the beginning of the [[early modern period]] (post-[[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]), belief in witchcraft became more popular and witches were seen as directly in league with the [[Devil in Christianity|Devil]]. This marked the beginning of a period of [[witch hunt]]s among early [[Protestantism|Protestants]] which lasted about 200 years, and in some countries, particularly in North-Western Europe, tens of thousands of people were accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Brian P. Levack|last=Levack|first=Brian|title=The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe|date=2015|edition=4th |publisher=Routledge|page=21|quote=...European courts executed about 45,000 witches during the early modern period.}}</ref>

The [[Inquisition]] within the [[Roman Catholic Church]] had conducted trials against supposed witches in the 13th century, but these trials were to punish [[heresy]], of which belief in witchcraft was merely one variety.<ref name="InnerDemons"/> Inquisitorial courts only became systematically involved in the witch-hunt during the 15th century: in the case of the [[Madonna Oriente]], the Inquisition of [[Milan]] was not sure what to do with two women who in 1384 and in 1390 confessed to have participated in a type of [[white magic]].

Not all Inquisitorial courts acknowledged witchcraft. For example, in 1610 as the result of [[basque witch trials|a witch-hunting craze]] the Suprema (the ruling council of the [[Spanish Inquisition]]) gave everybody an Edict of Grace (during which confessing witches were ''not'' to be punished) and put the only dissenting inquisitor, [[Alonso de Salazar Frías]], in charge of the subsequent investigation. The results of Salazar's investigation was that the Spanish Inquisition did not bother witches ever again though they still went after heretics and [[Crypto-Judaism|Crypto-Jews]].<ref>1978 "A witch with three toes too many"; Out of this World Encyclopedia 23:9-12</ref>

===Martin Luther===
[[Martin Luther]] shared some of the views about witchcraft that were common in his time.<ref>{{cite book
 | first1 = Susan C. | last1 = Karant-Nunn
 | first2 = Merry E. | last2=  Wiesner-Hanks
 | title = Luther on Women: A Sourcebook | url = https://archive.org/details/lutheronwomensou00kara_298 | url-access = limited | location = Cambridge | publisher =  Cambridge U. Press | year = 2003 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/lutheronwomensou00kara_298/page/n237 228]
}}</ref> When interpreting Exodus 22:18,<ref>[[s:Bible, King James, Exodus#Chapter 22|Exodus 22:18]]</ref> he stated that, with the help of the devil, witches could steal milk merely by thinking of a cow.<ref>''Sermon on Exodus, 1526'', ''WA'' 16, 551 f.</ref> In his [[Luther's Small Catechism|Small Catechism]], he taught that witchcraft was a sin against the second commandment<ref>Martin Luther, [http://www.ProjectWittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/little.book/web/book-1.html#b <cite>Luther's Little Instruction Book</cite>], Trans. Robert E. Smith, (Fort Wayne: Project Wittenberg, 2004), <cite>Small Catechism</cite> 1.2.</ref> and prescribed the Biblical penalty for it in a "table talk":

<blockquote>On 25 August 1538 there was much discussion about witches and sorceresses who poisoned chicken eggs in the nests, or poisoned milk and butter. Doctor Luther said: "One should show no mercy to these [women]; I would burn them myself, for we read in the Law that the priests were the ones to begin the stoning of criminals."<ref>''WA Tr'' 4:51–52, no. 3979 quoted and translated in Karant-Nunn, 236. The original Latin and German text is: "25, Augusti multa dicebant de veneficis et incantatricibus, quae ova ex gallinis et lac et butyrum furarentur. Respondit Lutherus: Cum illis nulla habenda est misericordia. Ich wolte sie selber verprennen, more legis, ubi sacerdotes reos lapidare incipiebant.</ref></blockquote>

Luther's view of practitioners of magic as quasi-demons was at odds with the Catholic view that emphasized choice and repentance. He also argued that one of the most serious perversions wrought by magic was the threatened degeneration of traditional female roles in the family.<ref>Sigrid Brauner "Martin Luther on Witchcraft: A True Reformer?", in: Brian T. Levack [ed.] "Demonology, Religion and Witchcraft: New Perspectives on Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology" (vol.1) pp. 217-230</ref>