Council of Paderborn

It resolved to make punishable by law all sorts of idolatry, the belief in the existence of witchcraft, causing the deaths of others through witch-hunting, and more.

After achieving peace in Saxony in 780, Charlemagne returned in 782 and enforced a new code of law, the opposition to which began the middle phase of the Saxon Wars.

[1]: 368  Widukind's capitulation and conversion, Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, and the Council of Paderborn, all in 785, created a short peace between the Saxons and Franks until the start of the final phase in the early 790s.

[3]: 37  The law is particularly noted for the way it also condemned to death "anyone who, blinded by the Devil, heathenwise should believe a person to be a witch and maneater, and should on that account have burned him or eaten his flesh, or given it to others to eat.

A source stated that the Council of Paderborn was aimed at the Saxons and those people living in territories that he recently conquered, particularly those who resisted conversion to Christianity.