ABSTRACT
In the late middle ages Europeans became exceptionally afraid of the devil. While there were exceptions to this trend among some Nominalise 1 mystics and humameas, a great number of European intellectuals became caught up in the widespread conspiracy theories that depicted heretics, lepers, Jews or witches as being in league with the devil and plotting the overthrow of Christendom, necessitating their prosecution. At the pinnacle of these prosecutions was the stereotype of a witch, depicted most grotesquely in the Malleus Maleficarum, the notorious inquisitor's manual of 1487. In this and similar treatises, witches were believed to make a deliberate pact with the devil, cast malicious spells on people, animals and crops, and fly to their sabbath meetings where they engaged in acts of desecration and plotted insurrection against the Christian religion. At the heart of the conspiracy lay the malicious designs of a very real and powerful devil. 2
