Detested Groups of Alleged Devil Worshippers

Of course anyone accused of heresy might be tarred by the orthodox with the brush of devil worship, but history tells us of a number of groups that suffered particular persecution, fairly or unfairly, because of such allegations. Among them are some interesting ones, each worth a book of its own, such as these:
Astrum Argentum	Aleister Crowley, whom even his mother called 'The Beast' founded his secret society, which was notorious for its deviant orgies at the Abbey of Theleme in Sicily. It was a fake Satanist group even though at his funeral the "Hymn to Satan" was sung over Crowley's corpse. Sex and drugs were a large part of the appeal of A.A. to its pervert followers.
Bogomils	These Bulgarians were heretics and their espousal of free love and rejection of marriage gained them a reputation for buggery, which is what English made of their name. Alexis of Byzantium tried to extirpate the sect but some escaped to France and Italy, where they also were anathema and said to be in league with The Devil (whom they saw as battling God on equal terms). Innocent III launched a crusade against them (1209).
Cathars	Also believing in a Manichean battle between good and evil in the world and heretical on many other matters (including, like the Bogomils, the Resurrection of Christ), the Cathars fought against the Roman Catholics for a long time. Theirs was the famous Albigensian Heresy. For them, The Prince of Darkness was the god of this world.
Druids	Supposed to have secret knowledge of nature, Druids (it was said) once served pagan gods and by astrological calculations foretold the future and by spells and incantations controlled the elements. Most of what is 'known' about them is pure fabrication. Stonehenge predates them in Britain; it is not of their construction. They were never devil worshippers, but all non-Christians were once so called. That's demonizing.
Illuminati	Several "enlightened" organizations had this name in the 18th century. In France there was a theosophical sect under Dom Pernety at Avignon, and in Germany a quasi-magical group under Professor Weishaupt at Ingolstadt, but neither of these were devil worshippers, despite public opinion.
Luciferians	Sexual perversions and violence went along with the heretical ideas of this and other medieval groups of Satanists. They were equated with the worshipers of Baphomet but did not resemble the Knights Templar, similarly accused. There seem to have been real Satan worshipers in Europe in the Middle Ages. They differed from witches, wizards, magi, and other occultists.
Palladinism	Alleged Satanism in some Masonic orders of the last century recalling the charges made against the Knights Templar. All secret societies are suspected by the ignorant of being up to no good. A Roman Catholic libel against the Freemasons.
Templars	One of the orders of knights serving crusades and crusaders in the Holy Land, the Knights Templars (defenders of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, whence their name) were accused of adopting perversions of the infidels and worshiping Baphomet. A synod at Paris condemned fifty-one knights to a horrible death by fire (1311), the order was dissolved by command of Clement V (1312), and the grand master was burned to death (1314). Their main crime seems to have been accumulating so much wealth as to create jealousy. None of the more recent Orders of the Temple, Templars, etc., are in any way the inheritors of the Knights Templar. Templars under torture confessed to being devil worshipers but the Grand Master Molay urged them to recant those confessions.
Waldensians	Founded in the 12th century by the Frenchman Pierre Waldo, the Waldensian heretics were soon accused of everything from cannibalism to Satanism. Eugene IV and Innocent VIII (especially) urged their annihilation. They are related to all the witches seen in art worshiping The Devil in the form of a goat, which seems to combine memories of The Horned God of the pagans with the satyr reputation of the goat still evident in our phrase "you old goat" for a "dirty old man". The charges of devil worship have never been proved.

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