This study of medieval witchcraft will define the early use of Christian “folk magic” in the 14th centuries and the devolution of these practice in favor of heretical condemnation of witches by the Roman Catholic Church in 15th century Europe. In the early Middle Ages, the use of “folk magic” defined a tolerance of “witchcraft”, which involved magical spells as a form of herbal medicinal healing by clerics in the Roman Catholic Church: Chronicled extensively by Catholic historians under the heading of “popular magic”, these practices seem to have little to do with demonic witchcraft” (Levack 133). In this perspective, the Roman Catholic Church often relied on “magical practices” as a form of healing, which had not defined any type of “evil”…show more content… This late 15th century publication defines the apogee of Catholic policies to locate, detain, and execute witches that were deemed a threat to local European Christian communities. Kramer and Sprenger (1486) provided an instruction manual for prosecuting witches for priests, monks, and other members of the clergy: “They began with a short manual on technical matters: a series of instructions, advisories, and model documents for judges presiding over witchcraft prosecutions” (Broedel 18). This institutional development helped to establish a more complex system of religious inquiry into witchcraft as a legal matter, which initially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church,. However, only three after the Malleus Maleficarum was published, the Roman Catholic Church sanctioned the book as being too radical under canon law. These are the latter stages of the “witch-hunt” culture of the 15th century, which set the stage for the developments of protestant approaches to condemnation of witches in the 16th century. These are the primary aspects of devolution of “folk magic” by the Roman Catholic Church, and the development of magical rites through devil worship that became associated with witchcraft from