�Witch Hunt�
Another �holy task� of the Inquisition was the so-called �witch hunt�. The Catholic Inquisition burnt tens of thousands of women alive. Sometimes men were also persecuted with this type of charge.
To be accused of sorcery even a petty cause would suffice, for example, when a woman was seen standing in her courtyard during a thunderstorm or collecting horse manure (perhaps for fertilizing the kitchen-garden?). If a person got under suspicion, death in the fire was inescapable.
The executioner would shave all hair on the victim�s body first: it was believed that �devilish force� abides in hair. And after that, the already-known things started: daily dislocations of joints, tortures with fire, water in the lungs�
The executioners demanded confession along the following two points: 1) admission of guilt, and 2) reporting the accomplices.
Tortures would bring the victims in such a terrible state, that their only wish was to die in the fire as soon as possible!
On the first point everyone would tell �standard� stories about their �flying on brooms� to �witches� Sabbaths� and �initiations� received from Satan�
When answering the second question, some were giving out the names of all their acquaintances. But others � true Christians � persisted until the end, resolved not to calumniate other people.
N.Speranskiy [74] describes a case when a woman-victim pleaded with her torturers to burn her as �innocent�, since she knew of neither her own guilt nor that of others�
The same author provides a testimony of a torturer, who was describing how beautiful young female bodies were gradually, day by day, turning into burnt and swollen sacks of bones, which lost the human appearance�
� Discontinuing of daily torments just before execution was called �relaxation�, while the commitment to the flames � �reconciliation with the Church�� [53].
� There is no doubt that a certain number of people always practiced black magic � in any country at any time. (Although, it is clear that none of them were actually flying on brooms or taking part in �Sabbaths� with Satan: it is nothing but fantasies).
But the issue is: who was darker (in that sense) � actual black magicians or this horrible sect, which was torturing and burning both them and tens of thousands of innocent people?
