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 person and he remains unharmed, then the one who accused him of witchcraft must be killed, and the one who immersed himself in the River can take the house of his accuser."16 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.17 "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."18

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 incantations, for incantations on roots, for sorcery of any kind - in case of failure - a fine of two hundred [pans]" (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 sorcery is death, then the death penalty is imposed on the sorcerer.19 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 kill with a reduction of punishment by two levels (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."20 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."21

The "Laws of the Twelve Tables" of ancient Rome, compiled in the fifth century BC, suggested that those guilty of the evil eye could be sentenced to death.22 The texts of this Law have come down to us in an incomplete form. In the Eighth Table there is an article (VIII, 8a) beginning with the wording of the crime - "Whoever bewitches the crops..." 23, 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 serious than for the murder of a person" (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); Theoris was accused of sorcery and was executed with her entire family.24

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).

The Russian "Tale of Bygone Years" under the year 1071 tells how pagan magi in the upper Volga region killed women, accusing them of witchcraft. "Two wise men from Yaroslavl appeared, saying that "we know who keeps the harvest." And they went along the Volga and wherever they went, they immediately called noble women, saying that she kept the grain, and that one honey, and that one fish, and that one furs. And they brought their sisters, mothers, and their wives to them. The Magi cut behind their shoulders and took out from there either livestock, or fish, or squirrel, and killed many women...." During interrogation, they explained that the women they killed "hold back the harvest, and if we exterminate, kill them, there will be abundance." Since it was a region with Finno-Ugric traditions, it seems possible to compare this story with the rituals of the Mordovians that existed in the 19th century. "When the time came for public sacrifices to the pagan gods of the Mordovians, special collectors went around the courtyards and collected all kinds of food, but they always took it from women. Naked to the waist, women, throwing bags and food over their shoulders, stood with their backs to the door waiting for the collectors. The latter cut off the bags, pricking the woman five times in the shoulder."26

The Arab traveler Abu Hamid al-Garnati, who visited Eastern Europe in the middle of the 12th century, also visited the Upper Volga region. About one of the tribes living there, he told the following: "Every 10 years they have a lot of witchcraft, and women from the old witches harm them. Then they seize the old women, tie their hands and feet and throw them into the river: the old woman who drowns is left behind, and they know that she is a sorceress, and the one who remains above the water is burned in the fire."27 Such "ordeals" (trials by fire or water) were in use among both the Slavs and the Germans.

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 most traditional "barbarian 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 solidi28 (Salic Pravda, 19). German law introduced into European judicial practice the practice of "trial by water" (Leges Visitgothorum 6, 1, 3), already familiar to us from Babylonian sources.

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

Now let's step over the centuries and look at the modern world.

Here are just three of the considerable number of by no means archival publications on this topic: "In Mozhaisk, a criminal shot two women at once - 64-year-old Larisa Starchenkova and her 39-year-old daughter Nadezhda Samokhina For what? When the murderer was caught, he calmly explained, "They bewitched me." Here is what Nadezhda Samokhina's husband Evgeny told the correspondent of "Trud": - In the morning, at about nine o'clock, Larisa Tikhonovna began to prepare breakfast. And Nadya and I were still asleep. And then the phone rang. I woke up and heard my neighbor shouting outside the window: "Stop doing this." "What's the matter?" asked Larisa Tikhonovna. "You bewitched your neighbor to death, and now you're getting to us..." Then there were several pops that sounded like gunshots. Later it turned out that their neighbor, 51-year-old professional photographer Alexander Rodionov, shot the woman in the head four times. Rodionov admitted to the investigator that, after the "sorceresses" moved here, people began to die in the area. And all his relatives allegedly fell ill with an unknown ailment. And then he turned to the healer, who said that a neighbor had brought a curse on them. The most surprising thing is that all this nonsense was repeated by the seemingly healthy wife of the criminal. And Eugene kept repeating: "If I had not killed these sorceresses, they would have killed me." Alas, similar tragedies of the "witch hunt" occur in other regions of Russia. Until now, none of the residents of the village of Znamenki, Nizhny Novgorod region, can understand why the 87-year-old woman did not please the watchmen of the rural poultry house. Two guys twice tried to burn her alive, thinking that she was a witch. The woman miraculously escaped death, and her house burned to the ground. The savage crime was committed in the village of Drabovka, Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi district (Cherkasy region). A fire broke out in a private house owned by a 37-year-old local resident Mikhail V. Firefighters who arrived at the scene found the charred corpse of a woman on the veranda. Later, her roommate admitted that he burned the woman because she was a "witch." Moreover, he also burned the woman's black cat, which he also suspected of having ties with evil spirits."30

"In the Congo, in June 2002, a "month dedicated to getting rid of witches" was observed. Alas, this is not a joke, these are the words of the tribal leader Owu Sudar. This highly respected man with undisguised pride declared that he had personally instructed his subjects to engage in the massacre of their fellow tribesmen. Sorcerers and witches, according to local beliefs, are old people living on the outskirts of the village, as a rule, women with red watery eyes. They were dragged out into the street, beaten to death with sticks, chopped with machetes, and stoned. They demanded to confess and name the names of the "apprentices" and "accomplices". According to rough estimates, more than a thousand people died in this way, hundreds fled, fleeing from reprisals. The small town of Aru, 30 kilometers from Sudan on the border with Uganda, became the center of the witch hunt, after which a wave of aggression swept the entire northeastern part of the country. "Peasants say that some people cast a spell on others, causing them to get sick," said the commander-in-chief of the Congolese army, Henry Tumukunde. He said this to the fact that the inhabitants of the country mainly accuse "sorcerers" and "witches" of generating diseases characteristic of this region. In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, 200 villagers were burned alive on suspicion of witchcraft, which allegedly killed two people, five of their fellow villagers - four women and a man. They were simply taken, dragged to the central square of the village, without being allowed to open their mouths, tied to a tree, doused with kerosene and set on fire. In the state of Bihar (also India), local residents, suspecting witchcraft, executed two women aged 90 and 60."31