13th cent. Witchcraft made into a sect and heresy by the Church. The priest
of Inverkeithing presented before the bishop in 1282 for leading a
fertility dance at Easter round the phallic figure of a god; he was allowed
to retain his benefice.[18]

14th cent. In 1303 the Bishop of Coventry was accused before the Pope for
doing homage to the Devil.[19]

_Trial of Dame Alice Kyteler_, 1324.

Tried for both operative and ritual witchcraft, and found guilty.

_Nider's Formicarius_, 1337.

A detailed account of witches and their proceedings in Berne, which had
been infested by them for more than sixty years.

15th cent. Joan of Arc burnt as a witch, 1431. Gilles de Rais executed as a
witch, 1440.

_Bernardo di Bosco_, 1457.

Sent by Pope Calixtus III to suppress the witches in Brescia and its
neighbourhood.

_Bull of Pope Innocent VIII_, 1484.

'It has come to our ears that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to
have intercourse with demons, Incubi and Succubi; and that by their
sorceries, and by their incantations, charms, and conjurations, they
suffocate, extinguish, and cause to perish the births of women, the
increase of animals, the corn of the ground, the grapes of the
vineyard and the fruit of the trees, as well as men, women, flocks,
herds, and other various kinds of animals, vines and apple trees,
grass, corn and other fruits of the earth; making and procuring that
men and women, flocks and herds and other animals shall suffer and be
tormented both from within and without, so that men beget not, nor
women conceive; and they impede the conjugal action of men and women.'

It will be seen by the foregoing that so far from the Bull of Pope Innocent
VIII being the beginning of the 'outbreak of witchcraft', as so many modern
writers consider, it is only one of many ordinances against the practices
of an earlier cult. It takes no account of the effect of these practices on
the morals of the people who believed in them, but lays stress only on
their power over fertility; the fertility of human beings, animals, and
crops. In short it is exactly the pronouncement which one would expect from
a Christian against a heathen form of religion in which the worship of a
god of fertility was the central idea. It shows therefore that the witches
were considered to deal with fertility only.

Looked upon in the light of a fertility cult, the ritual of the witc