It is interesting to read on the same page of a modern newspaper – "In the Middle Ages, when the fires of the Inquisition were blazing in Europe..."[10] and the report that "The younger generation of one of the Kenyan villages decided to follow the example of medieval Europe and organized a witch roundup"[11]. What does the "example of Europe" have to do with it? In addition to the fact that there was no "witch hunt" in medieval Europe, it is worth knowing that the belief in corruption is universal, and supporters of black magic were persecuted everywhere.

The "Laws of Hammurabi" of ancient Babylon said: "If a person has thrown an accusation of witchcraft at a person and has not proved it, then the one on whom the accusation of witchcraft has been thrown must go to the Deity of the River and immerse himself in the River; if the River captures him, his accuser can take his house. If the River cleanses this man and he remains unharmed, then the one who accused him of witchcraft must be killed, and the one who plunged into the River can take the house of his accuser." We are talking about "ordeal" - a judicial test through immersion in water. The water exposed the guilty by drowning; if the accused swam out, then this was considered proof of his innocence. The Ordeal was probably resorted to only in cases of crimes threatening the death penalty, and especially in accusations of illicit sorcery and adultery, if this accusation was not actually proved by the accuser and witnesses: according to the Babylonian views, water as a pure element would certainly expose the sorcerer and adulteress[13]. "At the same time," writes A. A. Nemirovsky, "it should be taken into account that the Laws of Hammurabi do not represent an exhaustive set of legal norms; For example, they do not contain articles relating to the simplest crimes - ordinary theft, murder, witchcraft, although there are norms related to accusations of these crimes. Obviously, the norms relating to such crimes were considered to be well-known"[14].

In Egypt, in the event of a pestilence, "in the city of Eileithyia," writes Manetho, "they burned alive people who were called Typhon, and, winnowing their ashes, scattered and destroyed them" (Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 73).

The Indian "Laws of Manu" (II century BC) prescribed: "For all kinds of spells, for incantations on roots, for sorcery of any kind — in case of failure — a fine of two hundred [pan]" (Laws of Manu, 9, 290). The punishment was comparable to the fine for robbery - about 2 kilograms of gold (Arthashastra, 3.17). However, if the result of witchcraft is death, then the death penalty for the sorcerer[15]. In addition to state punishment, Brahmins impose religious "penances" for such equal sins as "sorcery and sorcery by means of roots... not lighting sacred fires, stealing, not paying debts, studying erroneous books and practicing the craft of a dancer and singer" (Laws of Manu 11, 64 and 66).

Japanese laws stated: "If someone out of hatred makes a witchcraft image or a written spell or verbally curses someone and thus intends to destroy another person, then the guilty person is to be tried as for conspiracy to murder with a reduction of punishment by two degrees (in cases involving relatives, the punishment is not reduced). If a person dies as a result of witchcraft, then in any case to be judged as for real murder... If the sovereign's personal belongings are used for witchcraft, then the guilty person must be hanged"[16]. Another Japanese law contained the "Index of Forbidden Books": "It is forbidden to keep in private homes: astronomical instruments, works on astronomy, Chinese maps; divination cards; Chinese military writings; a book of predictions; for violation of this prohibition - 1 year of hard labor"[17].

The "Laws of the Twelve Tables" of ancient Rome, compiled in the 5th century BC, suggested that those guilty of the evil eye could be sentenced to death. The texts of this Law have come down to us in an incomplete form. In the Eighth Table there is an article (VIII, 8a) that begins with the formulation of the crime: "Whoever bewitches the crops..." [19], but there is no further break in the text and the wording of the punishment. However, this lacuna is filled by quoting this law by Pliny: "According to the Twelve Tables, the death penalty was prescribed for the secret destruction of crops... more grievous than for the murder of a man" (Natural History, 18, 3, 12, 8-9).

Plato dreamed of a society in which "the law of poisoning and divination would be expressed as follows: . . . If it turns out that a person has become like someone who harms another because of magic knots, spells or spells, let him die if he is a diviner or fortune-teller. If, however, he is a stranger to the art of divination, and is nevertheless caught in divination, let him suffer the same fate as the poisoner among the common people; let the court decide what punishment he should be subjected to" (Laws 933d). Demosthenes "brought the priestess Theoris to trial and obtained this execution" (Plutarch, Demosthenes, 14); Theorida was accused of sorcery and was executed with her entire family.

So Augustine's question is quite appropriate: "Perhaps Christians have established these laws punishing the magical arts? Was Apuleius accused of magic before Christian judges?" (On the City of God 8:19).

So people's hostility to sorcerers is completely independent of Christianity...

Here is the Frankish "Salic Truth" of the VI century. It is difficult to call it a monument of Christian law and Christian culture. This is the very "traditional law" (although already softened by the influence of Roman legal culture and church preaching). And a quite traditional, "universal" attitude to witchcraft is behind its paragraphs: "If someone causes damage to another and the one to whom it is inflicted escapes danger, the perpetrator of the crime, in respect of whom it is proven that he committed it, is sentenced to pay 63 solidi. If anyone casts a curse on another or puts an imposition on any part of the body, he is sentenced to pay 62.5 shillings. If any woman spoils another so that she cannot have children, she is sentenced to pay 62.5 solidi[22]" (Salic Pravda, 19). German law introduced into the European judicial practice the practice of "trial by water" (Leges Visitgothorum 6, 1, 3), already familiar to us from Babylonian sources[23].

As V. Melioransky said, "Pagan concepts of the relationship between religion and the state turned out to be many times more tenacious than paganism itself" [24].

It took fifteen hundred years for pagan fears to permeate church ethics. "The first case of witch persecution occurred in 1498." "We do not encounter witchcraft before the fifteenth century at all"[26]. "Witchcraft and witchcraft are not very old phenomena. As a matter of fact, it was as if witches had not been heard of at all until the fifteenth century."[27] "Witchcraft was not widespread in the Middle Ages, and by the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries it had not become very popular. The church council in Valencia, held in 1248, did not classify sorcerers as heretics and decided that only bishops should deal with them. In case of unwillingness to repent and with stubbornness, they were sentenced to imprisonment for a term determined by the bishop. Vernard Gun said that the Holy Chamber should deal with heretics, and therefore in almost all cases when sorcerers were brought before his tribunal, he simply handed their cases over to the episcopal courts... Almost until the end of the fourteenth century, witchcraft was considered the exclusive business of the Church. The secular authorities did not try to eradicate or tolerate it, and the cases of sorcerers were transferred to secular courts only in rare cases. But by 1390, despite some attempts by the popes to keep the affairs of witches within the limits of ordinary ecclesiastical affairs, we see, as documents show, that secular courts were increasingly recognizing heresy as a crime, and that bishops and inquisitors were ceasing to try witches.

The mass "witch hunt" was by no means a medieval phenomenon, but a Renaissance and even a new European one. The infamous book "The Hammer of the Witches" appeared only in 1485, and the height of the "witch hunt" was in the middle of the XVI-early XVII centuries. The Roman Inquisition was founded only in 1542, and the Congregation for the Index of Forbidden Books began its work in 1571.

And here is a scene from Byzantine life: "In 581, in Antioch, a certain Anatolius the charioteer and his companions were caught secretly performing pagan rites. The Christian police barely rescued the accused "servants of the devil", "insulters of Christ" and "sorcerers" from the hands of the angry mob. Patriarch Gregory himself was barely acquitted of suspicions of complicity; the people fell silent, waiting for the exemplary execution of Anatoly. But as soon as it became known that the accused had been sentenced only to exile, popular passions flared up with renewed vigor. When the exiles began to be put on the schoon, the crowd knocked down the police squads, took possession of the schoon and burned it together with the condemned; Anatoly himself was still on the shore and was taken back to prison. To satisfy the people, he was condemned to death by animal claws in the amphitheater"[29].