Chapter Two - From Wise Woman to Enemy of God

CHAPTER TWO

From Wise Woman to Enemy of God

SO WHO, EXACTLY, was a witch?

Ask ten people in the 1400s, and you’d get ten different answers. To some, a witch was a healer with too much knowledge. To others, a widow who lived alone. Or a midwife. Or a woman who didn’t quite “know her place.” The idea of a “witch” was slippery — shaped by fear, gossip, and whatever the community didn’t understand.

But slowly, that idea began to harden.
And at the center of it? The Devil.

In the early centuries of Christianity, church leaders weren’t very concerned with witches. In fact, around 900 CE, one church text mocked the idea. It said witches weren’t real — just foolish superstition. People who believed in flying through the night with spirits, it claimed, were deluded, not evil.

But things changed. By the 1200s, the Church had started focusing more on heresy — any belief or practice outside official doctrine. And in that search for heretics, old fears about magic began to stir.

By the 1400s, a new theory emerged: witches weren’t just misguided villagers. They were servants of Satan. According to this view, witches made pacts with the Devil, received dark powers, and used them to harm others — sometimes out of malice, sometimes for profit.

This was a massive shift.
Before, “magic” was suspicious.
Now, it was evil.

And this rebranding of witches didn’t stop there. New stories claimed they held secret gatherings — “Sabbaths” — where they worshipped the Devil, cast spells, and plotted against the Church. Allegedly, they flew through the night, consorted with demons, and cursed crops, animals, and children.

Most of these ideas weren’t based on facts — they came from fear, rumor, and the writings of men who had never met a “witch.” But as the printing press spread these ideas far and wide, belief in witches became not just common — it became official.

Laws began to reflect it. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull — a formal church decree — declaring witchcraft real and dangerous. He called for action.

What made someone a witch?
Owning strange herbs.
Having a birthmark.
Being too poor, or too independent, or simply disliked.

There was no clear definition — only suspicion.
And in an age of fear, suspicion was enough.