Medieval Information

Sorcery was very common during the Dark Ages. It was so common that many measurements had to be taken as a failed attempt to completely eradicate satanic practices or sorcery (which were considered to be almost the same).

This, itself, led medieval people to discomfort as they felt to have had their freedom taken away by a superior force. This of course was not liked and it was a cause of many internal battles. Nevertheless; most people who were involved in such battles were often sent to medieval torture which increased the fear inspired and made sorcerers or witches think twice before attempting to do any such practices.

The most common form of punishment for witches was to be burned at the stake. Afterwards, it was more common for them to be hanged (specially during the inquisition). Nevertheless, this varied greatly from town to town as bigger cities had bigger torture equipment which led to more suffering whilst a smaller town was usually unavailable to use such devices and simply resorted to fire.

The origins of medieval sorcery are unknown to this day. Nevertheless, it is believed that these traditions come from as early as the Romans and from the East (which seems most logical because of its resemblance).

Scrolls were widely used for witchcraft and some of them even survive to this day. Witches were very prone to using certain herbs and animal parts in order to make potions which, they thought, could heal the wounded or extend life as well as other spells.

Medieval people were especially scared of this because of natural disasters and phenomena including eclipses, earthquakes, etc. most times they would blame this happenings on witches or sorcerers because it was believed that through their rituals, witches triggered them.

Witchcraft and religion were both totally against each other. Ultimately, religion commanded much more power than the witches per se and thus they could easily exterminate that minority. To set an example for the rest, most medieval priests would themselves send a witch to the stake to be seen by all the locals.

Everyone was happy when witches were killed, but nevertheless; this also led to injustice as many peasants would blame each other of inducing witchcraft in hopes of staying with their victims properties and goods. Of course, such cases were investigated, but investigations could be easily misled and even sometimes the trial could be simply forgotten and the victim hanged without any prior investigation.

Satanism is also greatly linked to this same topic as many satanists would invoke the Devil in hopes of achieving greater power. They were very often allied with the witches and sorcerers in order to command more power within the dark sect of the Medieval Times.

Ultimately, this led to much fear and anguish because there were so many witches that it was in a way impossible to get rid of them. This was also a major cause of battles between the church and the state as so much fear almost invariantly ended up in war - hence the death of thousands of witches.

To this day, it is evident how witches are looked at as evil - and some people even fear them. This has been orally transmitted from generation to generation up to us which shows us what the true belief of witches was. We frequently portray them as ugly and old, but the reality was that they were very common and frequently pretty - which is a contradiction of what we believe. This is probably because of a desire for medieval authorities to make witches less-liked.

All of these traditions were transmitted to America as early as in the XVIII century when, in the Northern United States, practices against witches were common. This was a link of what was believed during the Dark Ages and it was mainly ignorance and intolerance against that minor part of society.

This, of course, can still be seen today; but not as strongly since we know much about natural disasters and what causes them. Additionally, a few third world countries still feature trials against witchcraft and sorcery as they are equally feared today as they were 500 years ago for them.

Tools:

Witches used many tools to aid them in their practices. Such included, but were not limited to:

Cauldron:
It was used to brew herbs, animals and substances in order to combine it properly. They were frequently made of wood, but other materials; such as stone were employed as well.

Broom:
It has been widely discussed why our stereotype of witches is them flying on a broom at night. The most common answer dates back to the Dark Ages when peasants would use brooms to fertilize the crops. They would then ride on top of them as horses; and since most of them were women, the image stayed and was transmitted by images, cartoons, etc.

A witch per se would supposedly use a broom in order to 'fly' - but the most common reason why she would use it is to employ it within her spells somehow. This is still unknown as there is a lack of scrolls to support this.

Dolls:
Of course dolls were a very important part of a witch's arsenal as they could use them for many dark purposes. They were employed with the victim's hair or other human part in order for the doll to work effectively. The witch could then torture the doll and what happened to the doll would happen to the victim. This was a very common practice, but of course, there is no evidence to support this - other than the casual coincidence.

Witch Ball:
Of course witch balls are very famous today - but why were they made? They were made for witches to predict the future and reveal hidden answers for a person's life. Their use was mostly in good faith - but sometimes they were employed for evil practices.

Witch balls were usually seven inches in diameter and very heavy because of the material they were made of. Before they could be used, they had to be touched by the full moon's light for one night - or it wouldn't work. When not in use, a witch ball had to be kept in a dark box because if the sun light touched it somehow, it would be rendered useless.

More Information

I have previously discussed how witches are believed to have been totally bad and evil. Even though this stereotype of them is exactly how they were portrayed back in the Medieval Times, it is still worth mentioning that witches almost never proclaimed themselves to perform witchery because of fear.

Nevertheless, there were groups and complete guild of magicians, witches, sorcerers, satanists, etc. who would together look for new spells and make scrolls. When such a guild was found, the church would instantly be in a conflict against them which could last very long and could result in the demise of hundreds.

Witchery was not a major issue until the XV and XVI century when more conflicts began to arise. This hatred towards witchery can be seen in the numerous books which were written at the time - showing plenty of hate expressed directly by the respective authors.

It shall be noted that we can't simply state that witches existed or not - in order to believe what was believed back then, we should have an open mind to understand how they were treated - what they believed in and for which reasons they were killed.