Satanism

Satanism is a hoax in one of two forms perpetrated by individuals attempting to discredit individuals or groups, like the Knights Templars in 1307 and others throughout the Middle Ages. Accusations of satanism are frequently used against women charged with witchcraft. Since torture was frequently used to obtain confessions of witches evidence was often readily obtained. Evidence of the other form consists entirely of the writings of a group of men in Paris in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In 1897 the man at the centre of the controversy admitted that it was all a fraud.