December 5, 1484
During what is known as the Little Ice Age, the grip of freezing weather, failing of crops, rising crime, and mass starvation resulted in an increasing fear of witches. On the request of German inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, Innocent VIII issued the papal bull known as Summis desiderantes, which supported Kramer’s investigations against magicians and witches. Over the next 300 years as many as 200,000 accused witches were executed. The assets of the “witches,” mostly women deemed to be heretics, were seized by the Church.
