13. Contrary to popular belief the burning of witches was not a common activity during the Middle Ages, with the notorious witch hunts occurring much later during the Early Modern Period.
In contrast to frequent popular depictions of the subject, the Middle Ages did not see the widespread burning of women at the stake for the alleged crime of witchcraft. In fact, during the Middle Ages the Catholic Church actively opposed the very notion of witchcraft. The Lombard legal code of 643 explicitly stated “let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female servant as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds”, whilst the Council of Paderborn (785) went so far as to outlaw the condemnation and execution of those accused of witchcraft.
When crops failed in Denmark, Pope Gregory VII wrote to King Harald II in 1080 commanding him not to allow women to be put to death in the nonsense belief they were responsible for the weather. It was not until the Early Modern Period, particularly during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), that a belief in witchcraft consumed Europe, whereupon the witch hunts of popular imagination begun in earnest. Moreover, in the rare event of a witch trial during the Middle Ages, these persons were not burned at the stake for their supposed crimes. Burning as a method of execution was reserved for heresy – hence the use of such against Joan of Arc in 1431 – whilst witchcraft merely warranted hanging.