During the Middle Ages, sorcerers were deemed to be people who invoked or summoned demons.
Although we know that most witch trials which occurred during the early modern period involved poor women from the margins of society, the earliest sorcery trials typically involved the prosecution of men (often wealthy men) and were typically of a political nature. For example, we have evidence that in Ancient Egypt, such accusations were mostly levied by people in positions of power against a political opponent (and vice versa).
It was during the time of the persecution of the Cathars and Waldensians that a theological shift in the understanding of sorcery took place. This shift in thinking would eventually go on to adversely affect the lives of thousands of working-class and peasant women.
Up until this point in time, the official opinion of the Catholic Church was that magicians were assisted by demonic beings and were a type of sinner. It was only when theologians and demonologists began to question exactly how the relationship between demon and sorcerer came about that rather than being seen as a sin amongst many other sins, such as theft, adultery, and even murder, sorcery became understood as an anti-Christian heresy. The change happened because of the acceleration of an idea that we now refer to as diabolism: to accomplish magic, the practitioner must first make a pact with a demon or the Devil.
As a result of this shift in thinking, the sorcerer was now perceived as being in league with the Devil, against Christianity, and a direct threat to Christendom. Sorcerers were heretics.
We begin to see the first sorcery prosecutions of a non-political nature during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, where witchcraft (maleficium ( meaning magic carried out with the intent of causing harm)) is combined with diabolism and becomes heresy.
The trial of Dame Alice Kyteler in Kilkenny, Ireland, which took place in 1324, is one of the earliest ‘transitional’ prosecutions on record. (You can read about her trial on this blog in the witch trials category.)
Source: Charlotte Meredith, My Mother Is a Witch and This I Know to Be True: The Voices of Pendle (Staffordshire, 2023)
