The Lore and Myths of Witches Chapter 3: Parchments, Pilgrims, and the Birth of the Witch

Step inside medieval Europe, where church canons, scholars, and peasants debated charms, Sabbaths, and pacts with the devil. Learn how folk festivals and early manuals like the Malleus Maleficarum paved the way for centuries of witch trials.

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This episode of The Strange History Podcast was lovingly crafted with the help of ElevenLabs.io — the magical technology that gives Amy her time to sleep, eat, work and spend time with her dog Jack. While some might say she sounds too good to be true, we assure you, Amy is absolutely a real person… who just happens to have access to studio-grade AI vocal cords and an unnatural ability to pronounce “necromancy” without flinching. Any resemblance to an AI is purely coincidental — and mildly flattering. Dan the announcers name is really Bill and Patrick, the fake ad guy who thinks he is funny? well he is questionable at best. So yes, AI was used but the people are real and the shinanigans are.... well.... shinanigans.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back, brave listeners. We've flown from sagas and spinning
huts into a Europe of abbeys, market places and shadowy lanes.
Here ideas about witchcraft were written in ink and carved
in church doors long before they flared into mass hunts.
Pull up a bench by the monastery fire, and maybe

(00:20):
keep an eye on that monk. Copying charms in the margins.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Churchmen, charms and early manuals ninth to thirteenth centuries.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
For centuries after Rome's fall, Christian scholars treated magic as
mostly delusion. The Canon Episcopy, a tenth century church text,
warned priests about women claiming to ride out at night
with the goddess Diana or Herodius, not because it was true,
but because the devil could trick their imaginations. The message

(00:51):
teach repentance, not punishment. Still, villages loved their charms. A
priest might bless fields in spring or mutter, or a
Latin prayer over a patient while slipping in an old
pagan formula pastoral care with a hint of hedge wizardry.
Parishioners scratched crosses above doorways, war relics, or buried animal

(01:14):
hearts to repel malaficium. The line between devotion and spellcraft
was porous.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Need to keep your liturgy and your hexes neatly separated.
Tri parchment divider tabs for priests who moonlight as folk healers.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Universities, lawyers, and the devil's packed thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
By the twelve hundreds, Europe's universities were booming, and scholars
loved categorizing everything, including sin, theology, and law, began fusing
village fears with scholastic precision. Papal bulls like super ilious
Specula one three hundred and twenty six condemned necromancy. Secular

(02:00):
courts punished malefactors using poisons or spells. Meanwhile, Europe was
racked by the Black Death, famines and wars. People craved explanations.
Was the neighbour's cow dying because of damp weather or
because she muttered Latin backwards? Enter Inquisitors who collected rumors

(02:22):
of night gatherings, ointments, and packs signed theatrically in blood
printing presses spread these notions fast. By fourteen eighty seven,
two Dominican friars released the infamous Malleus Maleficarum Hammer of Witches,
insisting witches formed a vast conspiracy against Christendom, fueled by

(02:44):
female frailty and the devil's coaching. It wasn't official doctrine everywhere,
but it gave magistrates a ready made villain.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
This grim milestone is sponsored by Hammer Light, the only
witch hunting manual that doubles as a handy paperwork.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Festivals, fertility and folk memory.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Parallel to clerical worry. Village life kept its own seasonal pageant,
may day polls, Midsummer bonfires, and harvest dances all carried
traces of older rites. Some involved masking or fertility charms.
Others offered playful license. Before Lent's austerity, when clerics looked
on nervously, these traditions could be branded sabbaths or pagan survivals.

(03:29):
In the Basque valleys, rustic parties called akolaes goat fields
featured music, food, and stories about spirits blessing flocks. Centuries later,
inquisitors would reinterpret them as secret devil meetings. In Italy
for July, peasants testified about the benandanti dream walkers who

(03:50):
claimed to fight witches to protect crops armed only with
fennel stocks. They weren't villains but folk guardians, proof that
witch could still mean champion.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Protecting your weed from phantom pests. Fennel fighters has your
back battle tested since the fifteen.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Hundreds, setting the stage for the hunts.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
By fifteen hundred, Europe's cauldron of theology, law, folk memory,
and political tension was simmering. Witches were no longer just
herbalists or mischievous moon chasers. They were being cast as
agents in a grand sinister plot. All that remained was
a spark and a few hard winters to turn theory

(04:32):
into bonfire. That spark is where we're headed next. Get
your cloaks and keep your fingers crossed. Chapter four takes
us into the roaring heart of the witch Hunts, where
fear and fire swept across continents. Hi'm amy, and this
has been the Strange History Podcast. If this episode tickled

(04:54):
your pineal gland, stirred your cauldron, or at least made
you laugh awkwardly in public, sure to subscribe, rate, and share.
It helps keep our podcast from fading into the void
like so many unswept chalk circles. Until next time, Stay
Strange stay magical, and don't forget to ground yourself after

(05:14):
flying off on your broomstick of curiosity.