The reason for Christian getting involved with the idea of witches, was funnily enough due to old Polytheistic thinking. Thinking that was left behind centuries prior through monotheistic mindset brought about by God with Moses and the later prophets, and finally broken with the implications behind Jesus’s resurrection. These later Christians were Re acquainting themselves with the writings of the Greek thinkers and their philosophy, as well as the Roman Law that came from that. Which lead to the thinking that instead of only relying on God for Judgement, it was themselves that had to also inact Gods wrath. And so what happened to be a perceived injustice was the fact a great spread of disease lead to massive numbers of deceased. At the time called “The Black Death” now known as the Plague.
 
This was seen as supernatural and being that it caused so much pain this wasn’t from God, it was from evil. So blame had to be placed. Witches along of course with everyones scapegoat, the Jews, and others. But again, nothing to due with Christian teaching or thinking. Rationalism and uncleanly acts of the human race were the causes.
 
In November 22 643, The Edict of Rothari was  announced by King Rothari, now known as the Lombard code of 643. The edict was to promote justice, reduce violence and oppression of the poor, limit excessive feudal power, and strengthen royal authority. Primary, among other things to amend unwritten ancestral laws so the people can “live quietly according to law and justice” and defend against enemies.
 
This Edict went AGAINST old Roman law, similar material that the people of the 1300s were reintroduced to. This Edict lay down strict penalties on those who wish to harm read lumbar , women and girls, stricter penalties than those who wished to harm men. Times prior and in those days, women were if not married still under the fathers law. Daughters were used as peace offering or bargaining chips depending on the region. This line of thinking again came from the green thinkers.\nLike, Aristotle. Whos view on women shaped his culture and the society is , which came after with his words being,  “Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.”. Which In the first century, due to him , being still under the old testament law, shaped the vines like Josephus, a historian and Jewish high priest, who made the decree saying “The testimony of women ought not to be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.”. This unfortunately was stuck into the all cultures similar to how today we find this to be barbaric, and unfathomable in any context. But due to Christianity, the idea of rights for all, and what’s now called golden rule, is ingrained in us. The idea of women being a high value commodity was ingrained in them from Ancient Greek thinkers and law makers.
 
Coming back to the Edict, It imposed the idea that women, dispite being that aforementioned commodity, defiling, harming, and murdering a woman was not to be done. Other than the threat of death, the threat of losing money (or solidi, Gold Coins) speaks to most. The fine of 900 solidi half to the king , half to relatives or legal owner of the woman or girl, for the act of rape or other Violence towards her. Killing an innocent wife by her husband, he was fined 1200 solidi.
 
These laws paved the road to the idea of the accusation of being a Witch to be frowned upon and discouraged. In 198-199 of the Edict Accusing a free woman of being a vampire (striga) or witch (masca) who “eats a living man from within” brought fines and other penalties to the accusers.
 
“Let no one presume to kill another man’s aldia or ancilla as if she were a striga (which they call masca), because it is not to be believed by Christian minds that a woman can devour a living man from within. And if anyone presumes to do this, he shall pay sixty solidi as her price, half to her lord and half to the king.”
 
“If anyone who holds the mundium (guardianship) of a free girl or woman accuses her of being a striga (which is masca [witch]), except for her father or brother, he shall lose the mundium over her… and she shall have the power to commend herself, together with her own property, either to her relatives or to the king’s court, whichever she chooses, so that he who receives her shall hold her mundium.
If the man denies that he made this accusation, he may clear himself by oath and retain the mundium as before if he succeeds in purging himself.”
 
“If anyone accuses a free girl or woman who is under another’s mundium of being a harlot (fornicariam) or a witch (histrigam / strigam), and if, when charged, he admits that he spoke in wrath/fury and not from certain knowledge, then he may clear himself with an oath supported by twelve oath-helpers that he uttered this nefarious crime only in anger and not because he knew it for a fact. For such an unfounded insulting word, which it was not proper to speak, he shall pay twenty solidi as composition, and he shall not be further molested.
But if he perseveres and says that he can prove it, then the matter shall be decided by camphio (judicial duel/combat) according to the judgment of God. If it is proved [against her], she shall be guilty and punished as provided elsewhere in this edict. But if he who brought the charge cannot prove it, he shall be compelled to pay as composition the full wergild (guidrigild) of that woman according to her birth/status.”

The Conclusion.

“Between the end of the Roman Empire and the late-twelfth century torture had fallen into disuse in Europe. Harris might be surprised to learn that Christendom owed its reintroduction not to bloodthirsty clerics, but to scientific jurists concerned to free justice from the reliance on God’s intervention and to champion human judicial competence. In both medieval Europe and modern-day America, then, societies that had abandoned torture contemplated its reintroduction as a rational necessity, but the medieval story—the one for which we know the ending—recounts the failure of rationalism to control its own offspring. ” Atheist himself Nathan Johnstone in his book The New Atheism, Myth, and History. The Black Myth of contemporary anti-religion.
All this to say that it was not base Christian thinking, But a thinking akin to what we have today, with “rationalism”, as well as other cultural ties to old thinking that led to christian involvement with the witch trials. A timeline would be, first the greeks started this sort of rationalism, then Christianity smashes these old ways, but still bits remain in the minds of the populous. Then as the Christian golden rule begins to affect close minds as time progressed, (with the fact that all created in the image of God deserve certain inalienable rights and do unto others…), certain portions of the population become reintroduced to the old thinking of the greeks, in that believers should be the arbiters of justice alongside God. Then once an unthinkable event, such as the plague or the Black Death occurs, they enact this justice , which leads to what we now know as the witch trials. So not only was this minority of Christians around Europe, still affected by the shattered pieces of Greek philosophy and that Christianity smashed. But also again due to the shattered pieces of Ancient Greek Philosophy and Law affecting the people both non Christian and Christian.

This not to say that the Christian involvement is not to be looked at critique, but to look at it with the understanding that there are contextual bits of information that is left out of that critique, either intentionally or unintentionally.

The core contexts I bring is that first, after Jesus’s death and resurrection we as Christians are under a new covenant (New Testament), with Him being are center of our faith and pillar of conduct when interacting with others in the world. No where is it said or thought to be understood that to murder another for a sin or perceived sin, or even perceived pact with the devil. In fact in Luke, and Marks account of Jesus (Luke 8:1-3, Mark 16:9, it shows Jesus helping Mary Magdalene who was completely possessed by demons. Casting them out of her, with her then telling the villages of her new cured state, becoming a disciple. As well as another woman in Matthew’s account and Marks account (Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30). So that must mean we as Christians must murder women who have demons, because that’s what witches would be called. And we are followers of Jesus. Isn’t that what Jesus did? Don’t be foolish.

The second main point of this context is that, this what’s believed to be true in atheistic and secular circles like it for decades , dating back even centuries. Believe to be true by people who whether they or not had grudge against Christianity, for one reason or another. I was then spread to children and those children became ingrained with that same idea and taught it to their children and to the children’s children, to more modern times. But it was based on a lie, the faulty math of Voltaire. Yet we Christians are the irrational ones. These Christian witch trails (along with many other misconceptions or flat out lies), allow generations of people to disregard Christianity and the impact of its theology and philosophy.

What’s crazy is that like other inconvenient truths to modern narratives, this will be yet another that will be discarded and forgotten with irrelevant appeals to authority. Decades of finger pointing I’ve personally witnessed but also red and seen all throughout the world at Christianity, and at some point this has to stop. Christians once again have to be strong in their convictions.

Even I fall short of this due to my shyness when it comes to verbal altercations about Christian beliefs. But it needs to change. There are even other Christians chastising other Christians for pushing back against rhetoric that is meant to slander the Christ’s words. Other Christians even, twisting Christ’s words, and the writings and the Old and New testaments to condemn other Christians who are too harsh in their push back. The truth hurts far more than any stone I can hurl. I want to shatter their glass world of inaccuracies and misconceptions.

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