This is an astonishing story. Over 700 years ago, a group of women preached that humanity could only be saved by a female takeover of the Roman Catholic church with a woman installed as Pope. They believed that their dead founder – a noblewoman, Guglielma, who had died in 1281 – would soon come back…
For centuries, the inquisition struck terror into the hearts of those deemed to be heretics by the church. Intertwined with charges of heresy and sorcery were often complex issues around sexuality that were reduced in the pre-modern mind to sinfulness and a disordering of divine creation. Pity the nun questioning her own identity or a…
We all know the story of the plucky French heroine Joan of Arc who led the French armies against England only to be betrayed. Her claim to be guided by divine voices led to a charge of heresy and Joan’s execution by burning at the stake. Her life is almost mirrored in that of a…
Forget the Salem witch trials, this is the story of a witch trial that was ten times bigger. The Basque Witch Trials – that occurred decades before Salem – was by far the biggest witch trial in history. Thousands of people were investigated by the inquisition. Tales of demonic worship, black sabbaths, and possession scandalised…
Nuns possessed by the devil! In the 17th century, several convents were the scene of a major Satanic panic. The nuns enclosed within their walls convinced they had been ravaged by Satan – usually conjured by a good-looking local priest. In each case, the inquisition and the local authorities got involved and the outcome was…