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With the decline of rational and scientific thought, supernatural and superstitious interpretations to abnormal behavior flourished. Good and evil struggled for mortal souls. By 1252, the intense fear of demonic possession set the wheels of the inquisition in motion. The Witchcraft manual, Malleus Maleficarum (Pope Innocent VIII, 1484), described the signs of demonic possessions. One such sign was a sudden loss of reason. Inquisitors did not distinguish among heretics, eccentrics, and the mentally disturbed. Burning, torture, and exorcism were common methods of ejecting the devil from the possessed victim.