Transubstantiation

The development of the doctrine of transubstantiation at the turn of the second millenium was critical in the development of the persecution of witches in late medieval and early modern Europe. Since Jesus was held to be truly present in the communion wafer or host, and this presence did not cease after the Eucharistic service was over, but persisted indefinitely, any leftover communion wafers were effectively the Second Person of God trapped and vulnerable to mere mortal profanation.

Since witches were held to be spiritual traitors worshiping Satan, the next logical development was to suspect them of wishing to do harm to Jesus trapped in the communion wafers. One of the central features of witch hunts was the lurid description of the Black Mass, a supposed vile parody of the Catholic Mass in which stolen communion wafers were profaned or violated in various ways.

In fact, followers of the Old Religion do not even believe in Satan, who entered the Abrahamic religions from Zoroastrianism, a religion once practiced in what is now Iran, as a result of the Jews' captivity first in Mesopotamia and subsequently in the Persian empire. The Old Religion does often include in its rituals the sharing of cakes and ale, but far from being a parody of Christian Communion rituals, it is simply a parallel development of the symbolic use of food and beverage to represent the fulfillment of our spiritual hungers and thirsts.