I remember learning back in high school (public school, for what it's worth) about witch hunts back in the old days, especially around the time of the Protestant Revolt and ensuing religious wars. Did the Church recognize (or at least once recognize) that the devil can act in this world in the form of magic wrought by witches and sorcerers who had sold their souls to the Satan, the Prince of Darkness? I don't necessarily expect to get a credible answer in other places, but does anyone here know if there have been actual docuмented or recognized examples of witchcraft and magic? If this is a stupid question, please play nice. :wink:

If you read the Catholic Encyclopedia, they take a tack that is almost tending towards modernism, on the subject, saying that almost all witch accusations are delusions.

However, it's certain that theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas believed in it, and that the Bible testifies to witchery, like that of the Witch of Endor.

We may have the problem of ignoring the witchcraft that goes on among us, which might account for a lot of problems today.

"Magic" both exists and does not exist.

It "exists" in the sense that it is actually the Devil's work itself, and not the work of any other preternatural "spirits" that people might believe in. The Devil is angelic in his origin, so it follows that the Devil would have a great deal of power to manipulate reality as people allow him to do so by granting him access into their souls.

It does not exist in the sense that there really is no such thing as magic as it is understood in modern times. As has been said, it is simply the work of devils and nothing more.

"Witches" and "Sorcerers" and those who consider themselves to be such are nothing more than doomed souls (at least until they free themselves from such evil practices, which may never happen) who dabble in powers that are far too great for their understanding. They think that they can control the power of devils when it is devils who allow them to think so so that they can control them. That is why when people who are possessed try to free themselves from demonic influence they find themselves being both spiritually and often times even physically assaulted by the devil and his minions.

The Church never organized witch hunts because she has always understood that witches and the like have always been fallen away souls. In the inquisitional period, "witches" and "sorcerers" (read: heretics) were sent off to be judged by inquisitional courts who would decide their fate: this often included whether or not to send them off into the hands of the government or to hand over a less harsh punishment.

Some of the accounts of exorcism recorded in the history of the church do give details of behavior, not of this earth, that is certainly controlled by the Dark One.  They also detail how people can make connections to the other side by opening portals to evil, thus coming under the influence...this is why Ouija and seance are forbidden. So to have a person fall under the spell of the Dark one could make them fit the title witch, in another context.