Women have been suspected of the ability to cast magic since ancient times. For example, the death penalty for witchcraft existed in Babylon 2000 BC. People were suspicious of supposed witches even in ancient times. But never has the fight against witches been as widespread and cruel as in medieval Europe.
In almost the entire territory of Western Europe in the 15th-17th centuries, the fires of the Inquisition blazed, where tens of thousands of women, men and children accused of witchcraft were burned. So what caused this mass hysteria?
Historians attribute this to the fact that it was during this historical period that the economic model of most Western European countries ceased to be effective, the population was rapidly becoming poorer, and social tension was growing. A wave of epidemics and crop failures only worsened the situation. It is no secret that people often tend to explain their plight by the intervention of otherworldly forces, the evil eye and damage. This is exactly what happened during those difficult times. The clergy declared witches to be accomplices of the devil, and witchcraft was equated with a mortal sin. Witches were now blamed for all disasters and personal misfortunes. It began to be believed that the more witches were destroyed, the happier humanity would live.
And if in the 12th-13th centuries the execution of witches was still a rather rare event, then starting from the 14th century, massacres became widespread. There are known cases when more than 400 witches were burned simultaneously in squares. The situation worsened after the publication of the witch bull of Pope Innocent VIII in 1484. Witches were burned everywhere - in France, Belgium, Italy, but Germany especially distinguished itself.
Some judges even competed in the number of victims. Anyone who was at least somewhat different from the rest of the inhabitants could go to the fire. The most beautiful, the fattest, the blind and crippled from birth were burning. All differences were considered evidence of a conspiracy with the devil. To fall into the clutches of the Inquisition, all it took was a small denunciation from a neighbor, who thought that his pig had died from the unkind gaze of a woman living nearby.
But it was not only the Inquisition that was rampant. Ordinary residents also sent witches to execution. Thus, in the Duchy of Hesse, one of the tribunals was headed by an ordinary soldier. And together with his jurors (ordinary peasants), he doomed people to be burned at the slightest provocation. Often, with the help of accusations of witchcraft and denunciations, people found a way to get rid of their competitors: doctors eliminated their rivals - more successful village healers, girls denounced their more beautiful cohabitants, etc. Both Catholics and Protestants took part in the witch hunts. The ideological leaders of the latter - Calvin and Martin Luther - often personally took part in executions and even came up with new ways to prolong the agony of burning witches. For example, Calvin suggested making bonfires from wet wood, which made the execution longer.
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Even more terrible were the instruments of torture that the inquisitors came up with to force witches to confess to their evil intentions. A “witch’s chair” with sharp spikes, a rack, boiling water in boots - everything was used to achieve recognition. Another most obvious evidence of guilt was the discovery of “marks of the devil” on the witch’s body. This gave rise to the current saying that, under the pretext of a witch hunt, the Inquisition fought leprosy.
However, some medievalists are inclined to believe that the Inquisition thus tried to destroy nascent feminism. And in this regard, how can one not recall the most famous execution on May 30, 1431 in Rouen, when Joan of Arc, accused of witchcraft, was burned.
It was not until the mid-18th century that witch trials ceased. Why did this happen? The level of education gradually increased and human living conditions improved. In certain social circles, belief in witchcraft began to be considered bad form. Knowledge in the field of medicine increased, which means that now many of the oddities of the human body were explained scientifically, and not thrown into the fire for them. Gradually, witch trials were prohibited by law. But individual lynchings and lynchings continued for more than a hundred years. The last known witch was burned in Mexico in 1860. Historians have estimated that since the Middle Ages, about 80 thousand people were executed for witchcraft.
Illustration: depositphotos | FrolovaElena
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"Witch hunt" is now just a simple term associated with bandits or criminals who are no longer found these days. It's all about false accusations and exaggerations. This (obviously) comes from actual witch hunts that were practiced previously. Of course, it is now easy to discredit those past actions, and these witch hunts seem to be a thing of the past, but there are still parallels that can be compared to our problems today. We need to remember this, otherwise we risk repeating similar acts of unjust sentencing.
The Basque witch hunt took place in Spain during the Inquisition (in the 17th century), it was recognized as the largest and most extensive in human history. It has been proven that more than 7,000 people were burned. It is unclear why the witch hunt began, as there were no reports of witchcraft in the area before the trials began. Many believe that this all came from the church as it tried to suppress old customs and bring Catholicism to the world.
The numbers are amazing
There were several stages, for example, during the first of them, 12 convicted witches were burned. The hunt did not end there, it continued, about 2,000 more people were caught. Many of them admitted that they were witches and said that there were about 5,000 more people who were engaged in the same profession. Almost all of the people who later confessed said that their testimony was the result of excruciating torture.
Witches of Berwick
The North Berwick witch trials began in the late 1500s and continued for over two years, resulting in 70 people being accused of making a "deal with the devil". It began when King James VI was caught in a severe storm on his way home from Denmark. An officer on the ship blamed the bad weather, which was allegedly the result of witchcraft. After this, a witch hunt was declared in Denmark, but the involvement of women from Scotland was subsequently proven, where executions continued. It was there that the biggest witch hunts took place. First one person was tortured. No matter how hard he tried to justify himself, he eventually admitted that he was involved in witchcraft, and then called all the other “conspirators.” Many were accused and burned at the stake just because King James VI had a troubled trip to Denmark.
Matthew Hopkins
This is one of the most experienced witch hunters in all of history. Hopkins and his team are believed to have been involved in more than 60% of the witch executions in England (1644 to 1646). It is known that Hopkins began his campaign after overhearing women discussing their encounters with the devil. He did not use conventional torture to extract confessions from the women he accused. Torture was illegal in England, so he developed his own ways of identifying witches. He deprived the accused of sleep and pricked the accused with a dull knife to extract confessions. If the wounds did not bleed, then the woman was recognized as a witch.
He also used the swimming technique, which was as follows: if the accused could safely swim out of the water, then he was guilty. But for this test, the accused was tied to a chair and thrown into a lake. Another distinctive feature was the so-called devil's mark. Usually this is a mole or birthmark, but if the suspect did not have one on his body, Hopkins believed that he could still have some kind of “invisible” marks. Hopkins died in 1647, most likely from tuberculosis. But many believe that Hopkins was subjected to his own swimming test and then executed, just like the witches, but there is not enough evidence to support this claim.
Pendle Hill Witch Hunt
In 1612, a witch hunt was declared in the quiet town of Pendle Hill, which then continued throughout England. It began when Alison Worth asked a simple merchant named John Lowe about a pin she saw on his clothes. John refused to admit why he needed the pin, and soon after that he was paralyzed. He explained that it was witchcraft and it was all Alison's doing. She eventually admitted that she had made a deal with the devil. Alison then accused many more women of being powerful witches too. Accusations continued to come from everywhere, and 19 people were eventually arrested for witchcraft. Of these, 10 people were executed for witchcraft, and this became the beginning of a large witch hunt throughout England. Pendle Hill is considered the most mystical place in England, as there are many things that have been associated with witches in the area.
Salem Witches
The Salem Burnings are probably the most famous of all the witch hunts on this list and remain a reminder of what can happen when hysteria emanates from a society. The story involved 11-year-old Abigail Williams and 9-year-old Betty Paris, who experienced seizures considered too extreme for normal epileptic seizures. The doctor did not find any physical ailments and noticed similar strange behavior in other girls around them. A group of poor girls accused three women - Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba - of tormenting them. The three women were considered social outcasts and were considered "usual suspects" under the bill. From then on, the situation began to get out of control, and by the end of May 1693, 20 people were executed. These burnings remain a reminder of what can happen when religious extremism and false accusations spread through society.
The manic witch hunts that spread across northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries were the result of a mixture of natural superstitions and religious zeal with political motives and fears. Peasants, as well as nobles, looked for supernatural causes of storms and diseases, but at the same time they considered the court a way to cling to position or wealth, destroying their rivals. Convicted witches and warlocks were accused of horrific crimes such as copulation with the devil and murder of infants. The nervous atmosphere prevailing in Europe at that time led to the fact that the accused were convicted more often than they were acquitted.
10. Agnes Sampson
On All Hallows' Eve in 1590, Agnes Sampson, a midwife living in the Scottish county of East Lothian, was accused of attending a gathering of witches hosted by Satan himself. It took place in the gloomy little church of Old Kirk Green in North Berwick, Scotland. The evil plan behind these gatherings was to cause a supernatural storm that would sink the caravel on which King James IV's young Danish bride, the newly anointed Queen Anne, was en route to Scotland from Copenhagen. And indeed, during Anna’s journey, a storm occurred, forcing her and her escort to stop in Norway.
Hearing this news, the king himself went to her aid, and when they tried to cross the North Sea again, another terrible storm overtook them, but this time they successfully arrived in Scotland. Shortly after his return, the king personally questioned Agnes and others at Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh. This marked the beginning of the North Berwick witch trials, which led to 70 executions. To extract a confession from Agnes, the executioners put on her an iron device called a “witch’s bridle,” invented in Scotland. After Agnes confessed, she was taken to Castlehill and strangled with a garrote before being burned at a stake. It was rumored that her ghost had been seen floating through the austere halls of Holyroodhouse Palace.
9. Anna Coldings
Anne Coldings, known to her contemporaries as the "Devil's Mother", was a Danish witch who was also accused of causing the storm to destroy Queen Anne's ship, described above. She met with the others at Weaver Karen's house, where they cast spells against the queen. Witch hunts became popular in Denmark in the early 16th century after the country converted to Protestantism. While some were motivated by their sincere religious beliefs, high-ranking officials used the witch hunts to further their political interests.
The Danish finance minister, who was suspected of not adequately supplying the royal ships for King James VI and Queen Anne's voyage across the North Sea, voiced his suspicions about Karen to deflect blame. During the investigation, Karen pointed out several people, including Anna Coldings. After Anna was arrested and tortured, she finally confessed and gave five more names, one of which was the name of the mayor's wife. Along with twelve other women, Anna was burned at a stake in Kronborg, the beautiful green-roofed castle where Shakespeare's Hamlet was set.
8. Bridget Bishop
Bridget Bishop was the first woman executed as a result of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Bishop was a successful woman who was much talked about. She owned several taverns and was known for wearing provocative red dresses. The townspeople of Salem made many different accusations against her that would lead to her death. She allegedly bewitched five girls, poisoned a pig, and attacked sleeping men (the latter probably due to natural causes, sleep paralysis).
Bridget was also accused of using dolls for witchcraft purposes. A local man named Samuel Shattuck testified that she asked him to dye lace for her that he believed she was going to use for a doll. This doll, like Voodoo dolls, served to ensure that any harm done to the doll would be transferred to the person it represented. Salem residents John and William Bly later discovered such dolls in Bishop's house. During the trial, she behaved provocatively, which ultimately led to her execution, followed by the execution of 71 other witches.
7. Merga Bean
Merga Bean, a wealthy German heiress, confessed to killing her second husband and his children through witchcraft, and to attending the Witches' Sabbat. The witch hunter Balthasar von Dernbach, prince and abbot of the city of Fulda, conducted a series of witch trials after his return from exile in 1602.
Merga Bean was one of the first women he arrested and imprisoned. Although she was pregnant, Merga was not released from execution, as the law dictated, because she was forced to confess that the father of her unborn child was the devil. In the fall she was executed by burning. Fulda witch trials. As a result, the execution of 250 people continued, and ended only after the death of Dernbach in 1605.
6. Katarina Henot
The first German female postmaster was tried for witchcraft in Cologne in 1627. In the middle of one of the cold Cologne winters, a nun from a local monastery accused Katharina of causing illness and death among the nuns, and the archbishop arrested Henot based on the nun's suspicions. During her imprisonment, Henot was tortured, but did not confess to anything.
Despite her brother's attempts to prove her innocence, she was sentenced to be burned alive in May. She was rehabilitated only this year. On June 28, 2012, the Cologne municipal council cleared Henot, as well as other victims of the Cologne witch trials, because they believed that the executions were the result of political conspiracies.
5. Karin Svensdotter
The maid Karin Svensdotter, who lived in a small town located in a wooded and swampy part of Sweden, stated that the father of her seven children was the Fairy King. This led to her being tried in 1656 due to her own voluntary confession. In 17th century Sweden, communicating with fairies was a real crime, which was usually punished in the same way as sodomy and bestiality.
In previous cases, such as meetings between men and nymphs, the matter sometimes ended in execution. However, the Svensdotter case became an early example of compassion for the insane. Church officials told the judge handling her case that Satan had deprived her of her mind. Instead of punishment, the judge ordered the church to pray for her. She later confirmed that she did not see any more fairies.
One of the biggest mysteries in history remains the strange madness that swept Europe in the 15th-17th centuries, as a result of which thousands of women suspected of witchcraft were sent to the stake. What was it? Malicious intent or cunning calculation?
There are many theories regarding the fight against witches in medieval Europe. One of the most original is that there was no insanity. People really fought against dark forces, including witches, who proliferated all over the world. If desired, this theory can be developed further.
As soon as they stopped fighting against witchcraft, revolutions began to break out here and there around the world and terrorism began to acquire ever greater proportions. And in these phenomena, women played a significant role, as if turning into evil furies. And they also play a significant role in fueling the current “color” revolutions.
Pagan tolerance
Pagan religions were generally tolerant of sorcerers and witches. Everything was simple: if witchcraft was for the benefit of people, it was welcomed, if it was harmful, it was punished. In Ancient Rome, punishment was chosen for sorcerers depending on the harmfulness of what they did. For example, if the person who caused harm through witchcraft could not pay compensation to the victim, he had to be injured. In some countries, witchcraft was punishable by death.
Everything changed with the advent of Christianity. Drinking, having sex on the side and deceiving one's neighbor began to be considered a sin. And the sins were declared the machinations of the devil. In the Middle Ages, the vision of the world among ordinary people began to be shaped by the most educated people of that era - the clergy. And they imposed their worldview on them: they say that all troubles on earth come from the devil and his henchmen - demons and witches.
All natural disasters and business failures were attributed to the machinations of witches. And it seems that an idea has arisen - the more witches are destroyed, the more happiness will come to all the remaining people. At first, the witches were burned individually, then in pairs, and then in dozens and hundreds.
One of the first known cases was the execution of a witch in 1128 in Flanders. A certain woman splashed water on one nobleman, and he soon fell ill with pain in his heart and kidneys and died after a while. In France, the first known witch burning took place in Toulouse in 1285, when a woman was accused of cohabiting with the devil and allegedly gave birth to a cross between a wolf, a snake and a human. And after some time, the executions of witches in France became widespread. In the years 1320-1350, 200 women went to the bonfires in Carcassonne, and more than 400 in Toulouse. And soon the fashion for massacres of witches spread throughout Europe.
World has gone mad
In Italy, after the publication of the witch bull of Pope Adrian VI in 1523, more than 100 witches began to be burned annually in the Como region alone. But most of the witches were in Germany. The German historian Johann Scherr wrote: “Executions carried out on entire masses at once began in Germany around 1580 and continued for almost a century. While the whole of Lorraine was smoking from the fires... in Paderborn, in Bradenburg, in Leipzig and its environs, many executions were also carried out.
In the county of Werdenfeld in Bavaria in 1582, one trial brought 48 witches to the stake... In Braunschweig, between 1590-1600, so many witches were burned (10-12 people daily) that their pillory stood in a “dense forest” in front of the gates. In the small county of Henneberg, 22 witches were burned in 1612 alone, 197 in 1597-1876... In Lindheim, which had 540 inhabitants, 30 people were burned from 1661 to 1664.”
Even their own record holders for executions appeared. The Fulda judge Balthasar Voss boasted that he alone had burned 700 sorcerers of both sexes and hoped to bring the number of his victims to a thousand. The Bishop of Würzburg, Philipp-Adolf von Ehrenberg, distinguished himself with particular passion in the persecution of witches. In Würzburg alone, he organized 42 bonfires, on which 209 people were burned, including 25 children aged from four to fourteen years. Among those executed were the most beautiful girl, the fattest woman and the fattest man, a blind girl and a student who spoke many languages. Any difference between a person and others seemed to the bishop to be direct evidence of connections with the devil.
And his cousin, Prince-Bishop Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim, committed even more atrocities, executing more than 600 people in Bamberg in the period 1623-1633. The last mass burning in Germany was carried out by the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1678, when 97 people went to the stake at once.
Alas, Russia did not remain aloof from the witch hunt. So, when a plague epidemic began in Pskov in 1411, 12 women were burned at once on charges of causing the disease. However, in comparison with Western Europe, we can say that in Russia witches were treated tolerantly. And usually they were severely punished only if they plotted against the sovereign. In general, they rarely burned, they flogged more and more.
In Europe, they not only burned, but also tried to execute with particular sophistication. Judges sometimes insisted that her young children must be present during the execution of a witch. And sometimes her relatives were sent to the fire along with the witch. In 1688, an entire family, including children and servants, was burned for witchcraft.
In 1746, not only the accused was burned, but also her sister, mother and grandmother. And finally, the execution at the stake itself seemed to be specially done to further disgrace the woman. Her clothes were burned first, and she remained naked for some time in full view of the large crowd that had gathered to watch her death. In Russia, they usually burned them in log houses, perhaps to avoid this very shame.
Not only the Inquisition
It is generally accepted that the witch hunts were carried out by the Inquisition. It's hard to deny, but it should be noted that she's not the only one. For example, in the bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg, it was not the Inquisition that was on the rampage, but the episcopal courts. In the town of Lindheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, ordinary residents tried witches. The tribunal was headed by soldier Geiss, a veteran of the Thirty Years' War. The jury included three peasants and a weaver. Residents of Lindheim nicknamed these people from the people “bloodsucking jurors” because they sent people to the stake at the slightest provocation.
But perhaps the most evil were the Protestant leaders of the Reformation, Calvin and Luther, whom we previously presented as bright heroes who challenged the dark Catholics. Calvin introduced a new method of burning heretics and witches. To make the execution longer and more painful, the condemned were burned on raw wood. Martin Luther hated witches with all his heart and volunteered to execute them himself.
In 1522, he wrote: “Wizards and witches are the evil spawn of the devil, they steal milk, bring bad weather, send damage to people, take away strength in the legs, torture children in the cradle, force people to love and intercourse, and there is no number of machinations of the devil " And under the influence of his sermons, Protestants in Germany sent women to the stake at the slightest suspicion.
It must be said that the Inquisition, although it conducted the bulk of witch trials, strictly followed procedural rules in its work* For example, it was required that the witch confess. True, for this the inquisitors came up with a bunch of different torture devices. For example, a “witch chair” equipped with sharp wooden spikes, on which the suspect was forced to sit for days.
Some witches had large leather boots put on their feet and boiling water poured into them. Feet in such shoes were literally welded. And in 1652, Brigitte von Ebikon was tortured with boiled eggs, which were taken from boiling water and placed under her armpits.
In addition to confession, another proof of the connection between women and the devil could be a water test. It is curious that Christians adopted it from the pagans. Even the laws of Hammurabi at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC recommended that someone accused of witchcraft go to the River Deity and immerse himself in the River; if River captures him, his accuser can take his house. If the River cleanses this person, then he can take the house from the accuser.
Even more significant proof of the witch’s guilt than her confession was the presence of a “mark of the devil” on her body. There were two varieties of them - the “witch’s mark” and the “devil’s mark”. The “Witch Mark” was supposed to resemble the third nipple on a woman’s body, it was believed that through it she fed demons with her own blood.
And the “mark of the devil” was an unusual growth on human skin that was insensitive to pain. Nowadays a theory has emerged that the “witch’s mark” and the “devil’s mark” are characteristic of only one disease. This is leprosy, or leprosy.
As leprosy develops, the skin begins to thicken and form ulcers and nodules that can actually resemble a nipple and are insensitive to pain. And if we take into account that the apogee of the spread of leprosy in Europe occurred in the Middle Ages, it turns out that the inquisitors, under the guise of a witch hunt, fought the leprosy epidemic.
Bonfires against feminism
There is another interesting theory. As if the Inquisition - an instrument of male monastic orders - was trying to put women in their place through a witch hunt. Crusades and civil strife thoroughly decimated the ranks of men in Europe, and therefore, especially in rural communities, the female majority dictated its will to the male minority.
And when men tried to rein in women by force, they threatened to send all sorts of misfortunes upon them. The dominance of women posed a danger to the foundations of the church, since it was believed that the daughters of Eve, the culprits of the Fall, could bring great harm if given them will and power.
It is no coincidence that accusations of witchcraft were often used to deal with women who had achieved great influence and high position. In this regard, we can recall the execution of Henry VIII's wife, Anne Boleyn. One of the charges brought against her in 1536 was witchcraft. And proof of the connection with evil spirits was the sixth finger on one hand of Anna.
And the most famous execution of a witch in centuries remained the burning of Joan of Arc on May 30, 1431 in the city of Rouen. The Inquisition initiated a trial accusing the Maid of Orleans of witchcraft, disobedience to the church and wearing men's clothing. During her execution, there was a pillar with a board in the middle of the scaffold , where it was written: “Jeanne, who calls herself the Virgin, is an apostate, a witch, a damned blasphemer, a bloodsucker, a servant of Satan, a schismatic and a heretic.”
The Guinness Book of Records says that the last time the maid Anna Geldi was executed by court for witchcraft was in the Swiss city of Glarus in June 1782. The investigation against her lasted 17 weeks and 4 days. And she spent most of this time chained and shackled. True, Geldi was spared from being burned alive. Her head was cut off.
And the last witch in human history was burned in the Mexican city of Camargo in 1860. Experts estimate that at least 200 thousand women were executed during the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Oleg LOGINOV
Witch hunts reached a particular scale in Western Europe at the end of the 15th - mid-17th centuries. Bonfires where people accused of having connections with the Devil were burned broke out in France, England, Scandinavia, and most of them were in Germany.
The largest mass burning of “witches” in Europe occurred in 1589 in the Saxon city of Quedlinburg, located on the northern edge of the Harz mountain range, about 60 km southwest of Magdeburg. By order of the Quedlinburg diocesan court, 133 people were burned alive during one execution. All of them were accused of witchcraft. Moreover, there could have been more victims: at the last moment, 4 girls were pardoned.
2 Fulda
In Germany, Balthasar von Dernbach, abbot of the city of Fulda, was especially famous for his brutal reprisals against witches. One of the abbot's first victims was Merga Bean. Despite the fact that Merga was a fairly wealthy woman, she could not avoid a sad fate. Under torture, she was forced to confess to the murder of her second husband and his children; in addition, Merga admitted to participating in witches’ Sabbaths and to the fact that the father of the child with whom she was pregnant at that time was the Devil himself. Merga Bean was burned.
After this, Dernbach got the hang of it and spent the next three years chasing witches throughout Hesse, resulting in the execution of more than 250 more people. The witch trials only ended with the death of the abbot himself in 1605.
In 2008, a memorial plaque dedicated to the approximately 270 victims of the witch hunt was erected in the old Fulda cemetery. The inscription on it reads: “Your story is also our story.”
3 Bamberg
The persecution of witches in Germany was especially brutal in those territories whose rulers, both temporal and spiritual, were bishops - Trier, Strasbourg, Breslau, as well as Wurzburg and Bamberg. The last two principalities were ruled by two cousins, especially famous for their atrocities: Bishop Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg (1623−1631), who burned 900 witches, and the “witch bishop” Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim (1623−1633), who burned 600 person according to the most conservative estimates.
The witch hunt began in Bamberg later than in other German states. It was started by Bishop Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen (1609−1622), who burned 300 people on charges of witchcraft. The year 1617 was especially difficult - 102 people were executed. But the “witch bishop” Johann Georg II, with the help of his chief vicar, suffragan bishop Friedrich Ferner, and with the support of a secular council of doctors of law, achieved better results. They renewed the persecution in 1624 and 1627. and even built a special house for night spirits (Drudenhaus), designed for 30-40 prisoners at a time, as well as similar prisons in the small towns of the diocese: Zeil, Hallstadt and Kronach. From 1626 to 1630, the processes were characterized by particular cruelty and complete disregard for all laws.
The Vice-Chancellor of Bamberg, Dr. Georg Haan, achieved relative success in temporarily curbing the witchcraft processes. But his intervention ultimately led to him being accused of being a witch sympathizer. The doctor, along with his wife and daughter, were burned in 1628 - and this despite the emperor’s order to restore their freedom, since “their arrest was a violation of the laws of the empire, which cannot be tolerated.”
The terror ceased by the summer of 1631, partly due to the death of the suffragan Bishop Ferner, partly due to the threats of the Swedish king Gustav, who had occupied Leipzig in September and now threatened war, and only partly due to the protests of the emperor. In 1630, another 24 people were executed, but in 1631 there were no more executions. The Bishop of Bamberg died in 1632.
4 Wurzburg
The diocese of Würzburg competed in the cruelty of the persecution of witchcraft with the diocese of Bamberg. Bishop Philipp-Adolf von Ehrenberg of Würzburg distinguished himself with a particular passion for witch hunting. In Würzburg alone, he organized 42 bonfires, on which 209 people were burned, including 25 children aged from four to fourteen years.
A list of 29 mass executions in Würzburg, dated February 16, 1629, with a total of 157 victims, has been preserved. There were almost as many men on the list as women, many of them were rich and high-ranking people, and children were also present.
Around the same time, a young relative of the Bishop of Würzburg was beheaded on charges of witchcraft. The young man was the only heir of his powerful relative; if he had survived, he would have inherited a significant fortune. Ernest von Ehrenberg was an exemplary student with brilliant prospects, but, as they said about him, he suddenly abandoned his studies and became involved with an older woman. The Jesuits questioned him and came to the conclusion that he was familiar with all vices, including visiting the Sabbath. Ernest was charged, then tried and found guilty. Soon the young man was executed.
After this execution, some changes occurred with the bishop, because he established a memorial service for all victims of the witch trials, and the hysteria subsided.
5 Bury St Edmunds
In England, one of the most famous witch hunters was Matthew Hopkins. In 1645, Hopkins and his companion, the stern Puritan John Sterne, scoured the countryside, looking for “witches” and generously paying for the help of informers. According to surviving records, they accused about 124 Suffolk residents of witchcraft, and they were tried at Bury St Edmuwds in August 1645. Most of the convicts admitted to being possessed by demons, making deals with the devil, as well as having a carnal relationship with the devil, which caused particular indignation among the Puritan judges. In addition, some witches were charged with killing people and domestic animals.
The victims were carefully examined for the devil's mark, which was especially humiliating for women, since these marks were usually looked for on the genitals. Stern had a special predilection for searching for devilish marks.
6 Pestilence
In Sweden, the most famous trial for witchcraft took place in 1669. The outbreak of witch persecution in Mora (Dalecarlia) is one of the most astonishing incidents in the history of witchcraft, ending with the burning of 85 people. They were accused of persuading three hundred children to fly to Blokula.
It all started on July 5, 1668, when a pastor from Elfsdale, in Dalecarlia, reported that Erik Eriksen, 15 years old, accused Gertrude Swensen, 18 years old, of stealing several children and taking them to the devil. Similar accusations rained down one after another.
By May 1669, King Charles XI appointed a commission to bring the accused to repentance through prayer, without imprisonment or torture. But the prayers only served to fuel mass hysteria, and when the royal commission met for the first time on August 13, 1669, 3,000 people turned out to listen to the sermon and help the investigators. The next day, after listening to the children's stories, the commission members identified 70 witches. Twenty-three confessed without coercion. In addition, 15 children were caught on the fire. Another 36 children between the ages of 9 and 15 were determined to be less seriously guilty, and as a punishment they only had to run the gauntlet.
On August 25, a mass execution of convicts took place. Before going to the stake, all witches had to admit the truth of the accusations brought against them by children.