the inquisition within the roman catholic church had conducted trials against supposed witches in the 13th century, but these trials were to punish heresy, of which belief in witchcraft was merely one variety. inquisitorial courts only became systematically involved in the witch-hunt during the 15th century: in the case of the madonna oriente, the inquisition of milan was not sure what to do with two women who in 1384 and in 1390 confessed to have participated in a type of white magic.