The Attitude of the Church Toward Popular Magic iin Renaissance Italy

As the Renaissance arrived in Italy, the Catholic Church was ascending at light speed to become more than just a religion, but a world power. They had defeated the "heresies" of other religions, and had established a new set of disciplines for Christian belief at the Council of Trent. So, when the Church, usually in the form of the Venetian Holy Office, began its mission of indoctrinating this new discipline throughout Italy, they were stunned …

…used magic, while at other times, they were more understanding and used teaching as a device to remove popular magic from society. Whatever the case, one thing was clear: after fighting the "heresies" of competing churches for centuries, the Church was not about to let witches, sorcerers, or any other practitioners of magic institute a popular theology that in any way strayed from the disciplines that had just been established at the Council of Trent.