Witch Hunters

[Blackbeard]

In 983, the Pope is blessing a mass of people when an epileptic man starts having convulsions. He is taken to a church and exorcised by the Pope himself. By chance, a plague of rabies starts in Europe, breaking out in many countries. People think it's devilcraft. The word weich, a precursor of witch, starts being said, it means those who help demons possess people.

In 984 the Pope gives a speech starting a new organization of knights. This is the speech translated to English.

" We have all seen the great horrors which have tormented our people, and we also know that there are those of us who are helping the Daemons of Hell to possess and torture the people. Therefore, I decree that a brotherhood of the strongest, bravest, and most importantly God-fearing men to hunt down and kill the men and women who have aligned themselves with Satan and his Daemons. These men are to be knighted in the Catholic church by myself, and will be called Weich Hunters."

So, what effects do the Witch Hunters have on history?

[NapoleonXIV]

They have a short history during which they become very corrupt and are eventually disbanded in less than 100 years. Europe had much bigger problems than witchcraft in the late 900's and a very big pagan influence. The subsuming of pagan practices was still a big part of the conversion process in Catholicism at this time and an overemphasis on orthodoxy would have hampered this.

The Inquistion came later and really started out as the final consolidation of the Church's power in southern France around 1250. It didn't really take off until the witchcraft mania of the 1400's. Contrary to popular opinion, it probably actually obviated the worst effects of the witch mania in those nations where it had the most influence. It is known that only some thousands were executed as witches in Spain, wheras up to 2 million possibly lost their lives in Germany, where the Inquisition either did not exist or had little influence.