during the early middle ages, the christian churches did not conduct witch trials. the germanic council of paderborn in 785 explicitly outlawed the very belief in witches, and the holy roman emperor charlemagne later confirmed the law. among orthodox eastern christians concentrated in the byzantine empire, belief in witchcraft was widely regarded as "deisidaimonia"—superstition—and by the 9th and 10th centuries in the latin christian west, belief in witchcraft had begun to be seen as heresy.