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The term witch trial generally refers to a legal action taken during a period in European history from around 1450 to the mid-18th century, during which it was common for accusations of malicious, harmful, and Satanic witchcraft to be taken seriously, often resulting in loss of reputation, imprisonment, torture, and execution of the accused in Europe and to a lesser extent the European colonies. Scholarly estimates of the numbers of people executed for witchcraft during this period range around 40,000, with high estimates reaching as many as 100,000, with significantly more accused, but not executed. Witch trials were more common in Germany, England, Scotland, France, and Italy; the phenomenon was far less pronounced in Scandinavia, Ireland, and Spain. The Salem witch trials of 1692 are the most famous example in colonial America, but not the only example. For more about the attempts to find accused witches, see witch hunt.

History

Early Trials

Though formal witch trials are distinct to Europe and the Americas during a specific historical period, the phenomenon of witch hunts is much more broadly known. Anthropologists who study this phenomenon note that accusations of evil magic against people living on the fringe of society predate Christianity and can be found on every inhabited continent.

Some modern popular writers associate the witch trials with the much earlier struggles between Christianity and paganism. They cite incidents such as the destruction of the sacred oak at Dodona in 391 CE as akin to witch trials. Historians are clear though that the famous witch trials were wholly unrelated to this conflict. *

One particular case that is often cited as an early witch trial is the death of Hypatia in 415 CE. Hypatia was one of the most well known philosophers in her time, as well as a pagan. Her murder in Alexandria at the hands of a Christian mob has been reported by popular writers as an early example of a witch trial.

It is not clear that Hypatia was ever accused of witchcraft, and her death was due to mob violence rather than any trial. Supporters of the idea that the mob thought of her as a witch point to the fact that the method of her death, being gouged to death with jagged potsherds is similar to the sentence the Emperor Constantine declared for workers of black magic. Constantine said such people should have their flesh torn from their bones with iron hooks.

Also, an early source for her story, John of Nikiû, portrays Hypatia as a worker of evil magic and an enemy of the Christian church:

"And in those days there appeared in Alexandria a female philosopher, a pagan named Hypatia, and she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes and instruments of music, and she beguiled many people through (her) Satanic wiles. And the governor of the city honored her exceedingly; for she had beguiled him through her magic. And he ceased attending church as had been his custom."

Despite this, there is no clear evidence that the charge of witchcraft was actually brought against Hypatia.

Middle ages

During the early Middle Ages, witch trials were not an issue. The Council of Paderborn in 785 explicitly outlawed the very belief in witches, and Charlemagne later confirmed the law. The first medieval trials against witches date to the 13th century with the institution of the Inquisition, but they were a side issue, as the Church was concentrating on the persecution of heresy, and witchcraft, alleged or real, was treated as any other sort of heresy.

Early Modern

The European witchhunts only began on a large scale during the Early Modern period, starting around 1450. Rather than a theologically sanctioned campaign of the church, the phenomenon has all traits of mass hysteria. The classical attributes of a witch, flying on brooms, intercourse with the Devil, and meeting of demons and other witches at sabbaths, became canonical from around 1400. The idea of witch sabbaths fostered a classical conspiracy theory, with fantasies of an underground witch sect plotting to overthrow Christianity. The area mainly affected by this were the Holy Roman Empire and adjacent parts, as well as Scotland. Reprints of the Malleus Maleficarum in 29 editions between 1487 and 1669 mark the peak of the European craze. This book had been condemned by the Catholic Church in 1490 but continued to be widely used by secular witch-hunting courts. Intellectuals spoke out against the trials from the late 16th century. Johannes Kepler in 1615 could only by the weight of his prestige keep his mother from being burnt as a witch. The 1692 Salem witch trials were a brief outburst of witch hysteria in the New world at a time when the practice was already waning in Europe. Winifred King was the last person tried for witchcraft in New England, Winifreds daughter, Winifred Jr and mother Mary Hale were also tried for witchcraft.

During the Early Modern Period the concern over witchcraft reached the boiling point. Although there are debates of why the witch scares took place, there is a correlation between centralized government and aquittals in Witch trials. Most witch trials that resulted in convictions took place in rural areas. In these areas there was ~90% conviction (and execution) rate. Although most citizens during the time did believe in witchcraft as real, at the same time they were not ignorant to how personal interests could be involved in accusations.# Another interesting aspect of witchcraft in the early modern period is how the highest concentration of trials took place on border areas, especially along the borders of France, Germany, and Italy, in what is modern day Switzerland. Some areas, such as Britain (with the exception of some notable trials in Scotland) and Spain saw few trials.

The period of witch trials came in waves and then subsided. There were early trials in the 15th and early 16th century, but then the witch scare went into decline, before becoming a big issue again and apexing in the 17th century. Some scholars argue that a fear of witchcraft started among intellectuals who believed in maleficium, that is bad deeds. What had previously been a belief that some people possessed supernatural abilities (which sometimes resulted in protecting the people), now became a sign of a pact between these people with supernatural abilities and the devil. Witchcraft became associated with wild Satanic ritual parties in which there was much naked dancing, orgy sex, and cannabilistic infanticide. Only after the trials had begun did the general population embrace the idea of witchcraft (as defined here).

18th century

During early 18th century, the practice subsided. The last execution for witchcraft in England took place in 1716, when Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth were hanged. Jane Wenham was among the last subjects of a witch trial in England in 1712, but was pardoned after her conviction and set free. Helena Curtens and Agnes Olmanns were the last women to be executed as witches in Germany, in 1738. In Austria, Maria Theresa outlawed witch-burning and torture in the late 18th century; the last capital trial took place in Salzburg in 1750. The last execution in Switzerland was that of Anna Göldi in 1782, at the time it was widely denounced as state-sponsored murder throughout Switzerland and Germany, and not technically a witch trial since explicit allegations of witchcraft were avoided in the official trial.

Number of executions

As mentioned earlier, estimates of the number of men, women, and children executed for participating in witchcraft vary wildly depending on the method used to generate the estimate. The total number of witch trials in Europe which are known to have ended in executions is around 12,000.

Brian Levack, author of The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe, took the number of known European witch trials and multiplied it by the average rate of conviction and execution. This provided him with a figure of around 60,000 deaths.

Anne Lewellyn Barstow, author of Witchcraze, arrived at a number of approximately 100,000 deaths by attempting to adjust Levack's estimate to account for what she believed were unaccounted lost records, although historians have pointed out that Levack's estimate had already been adjusted for these.

Ronald Hutton, author of Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles and Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, in his unpublished essay "Counting the Witch Hunt", counted local estimates, and in areas where estimates were unavailable attempted to extrapolate from nearby regions with similar demographics and attitudes towards witch hunting. He reached an estimate of 40,000 total executions, which appears to be emerging as the most widely accepted figure among academics.

Proceedings

Authorities

Both civil and ecclesiastical authorities participated in witch trials. Trials occurred in Roman Catholic and Protestant countries. Catholic countries prosecuted witchcraft as a heresy, whereas Protestant countries considered it a violent crime; both viewed malicious witchcraft as necessarily involving the aid of Satan or demons.

Theology

The church construed witchcraft broadly, including in it divination, Paganism, Witch Medicine practiced by people who were not physicians, Alchemy, Satanism, Demonolatry, Atheism, blasphemy (against Christian beliefs), Protestantism (in Catholic countries), Catholicism (in Protestant countries), homosexuality and all type of sexual liberalism (allegedly induced by demons).

The Arrest

Often a mere suspicion or denouncement was sufficient grounds for arresting a person and investigating him or her as a witch. Ecclesiastical authorities encouraged denouncements, and there were special places in some churches to put a paper with the name of a person suspected of practising witchcraft. Many midwives were accused, at a time when infant mortality was high, of having killed children to offer them to the Devil. Single mothers were often accused of having been impregnated by demons (incubi). The fact of having a relative or friend accused was cause of suspicion and arrest.

The Process

After the arrest the person was submitted to torture. A voluntary confession was not accepted as valid, because it was believed by the church that the only form to oblige the Devil (supposedly governing the heretic or witch) to say the truth was by means of torture; if torment was not used, then there was not valid cause to pass sentence. There were extreme methods used to torture accused witches.

Besides torture, there were some "proofs" taken as valid to establish that a person practiced witchcraft. Peter Binsfeld contributed to the establishment of many of these proofs, described in his book Commentarius de Maleficius (Comments on Witchcraft).

  • The diabolical mark. Usually, this was a mole or a birthmark. If no such mark was visible, the examiner would claim to have found an invisible mark.
  • Diabolical pact. This was an alleged pact with Satan to perform evil acts in return for rewards.
  • Denouncement by another witch. This was common, since the accused could often avoid execution by naming accomplices.
  • Relationship with other convicted witch/witches
  • Blasphemy
  • Participation in Sabbaths
  • To cause harm that could only be done by means of sorcery
  • Possession of elements necessary for the practice of black magic
  • To have one or more witches in the family
  • To be afraid during the interrogatories
  • Not to cry under torment (supposedly by means of the Devil's aid)
  • To have had sexual relationships with a demon

There were also some tests performed on the accused persons.

One of the common tests was to tie the hands and feet of the person (and sometimes enclose the person in a bag) and throw him or her into a river or pool. It was held that if the person managed to float, this was due to the Devil's help. Such a person was thus found guilty of witchcraft. If the person could not float then he or she was considered innocent, but this acquittal came too late because the accused had by then drowned. In England the person that could float was often considered innocent.

Another test consisted in putting a blessed ring into a pot with boiling water, where the accused had to introduce the hand to extract it. The hand was bandaged and in three days the bandage opened. If no sign of burning was found, the person was considered innocent.

In England, witch-pricking was common. It was believed that the diabolical mark would neither bleed, hurt nor show a wound when stabbed by a needle. Since witch-finders were paid by commission, this became a lucrative scam. By a sleight-of-hand trick, an accomplished con artist could appear to drive the needle deep into the skin without penetrating the flesh. This is similar to the tricks used by modern practitioners of psychic surgery.

There were other tests, all of which, like those mentioned above, made it nearly impossible for the accused to demonstrate his or her innocence, except perhaps by being killed.

In most cases the tribunals did not accord the accused a right to legal representation, and if someone offered his services as such he was often accused too, "because only a warlock could defend a witch or another warlock".

Interrogations were an important part of the process. In England, the burden of proof rested upon the accuser, though the "evidence" presented often made it impossible for the accused to defend themselves. In Scotland the accused person had the right to a defender.

The Interrogations

Interrogations were considered essential for learning how witchcraft was practised and how the demons acted, but the questions were predetermined. These are some of the questions:

  • Why did you become a witch, since when, and how?
  • What have you done as a witch?
  • What was the name of your master demon?
  • What type of oath did you make to him and how?
  • Who was your incubus (succubus in case of men)?
  • How is the phallus of your incubus (or the vagina of your succubus)?
  • How is the Devil's phallus?
  • How is the sperm of the demons?
  • What type of sexual practices did you have with demons?
  • Who else was present at the Sabbaths you attended?
  • What did you eat there?
  • How was the dance during the Sabbath?
  • How were the ceremonies celebrated there?
  • What harms have you caused to people and/or animals?
  • Which herbs have you used to do that? What other elements?
  • Do you change your shape into that of an animal?
  • Why does the Devil knock at your door by night?
  • What do you do to fly?
  • Who are your accomplices?

And so on. These questions are based not on skepticism but on the presumed guilt of the accused.

The authors of the Malleus Maleficarum seemed to have been particularly interested on the demons' genitalia and the type of sexual relationships they could have with humans.

The Sentence

Sometimes, if the accused could tolerate all torments without confessing, that person was considered innocent. Other tribunals considered that a person could accomplish this only with the aid of the Devil, so the accused was considered guilty anyway. In any case, there were very few people who could resist the severe torments used by the tribunals.

The confessions (true or invented to avoid more tortures) and the proofs above-mentioned were taken as valid to pass sentence. Often, only the confession or one of the proofs was sufficient.

The sentence generally was death (as states "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"); one case resulted in a life imprisonment sentence. There were other sentences, the most common to be chained for years to the oars of a ship, and excommunication.

The sentence to life in prison consisted of a public humiliation accepting all accusations, the mockery of the public, a procession exposing the person across the town, and then imprisonment in the most inhuman conditions, with insufficient food and water, no possibility of any type of cleanliness (cleanliness of the body was thought to please demons), and generally little or no light.

The most common death sentence was to be burnt at the stake while still alive. In England it was common to hang the person first and then burn the corpse, a practice adopted sometimes in other countries (in many cases the hanging was replaced by strangling). Drowning was sometimes used as a means of execution. England was also the only country in which the accused had the right to appeal the sentence.

In some areas, if the condemned was pregnant her belly was opened with a knife, the foetus extracted and trod under foot (because "it was the offspring of a demon with the woman, or consecrated to the Devil by the witch"), and then she was killed. In others, the woman was allowed to give birth before being killed.

Other sentence consisted of opening the belly of the person, extracting his/her intestines, and letting him die (this was often practiced on men).

Gender issues

Women were the most socially active member in most households. They were responsible for the sale of excess household production, the care of the health of the family, and for the purchasing of provisions from the village. The nature of this arrangement required that women be shrewd and businesslike. This forced women into an already dangerous position, as it required them to risk offending or injuring the pride of fellow villagers on a regular basis through the course of business. Even if they were accused or suspected of witchcraft, this did not always mean that a trial would be made. It would require that the woman become very focused and dedicated to build up serious defences in case she was called to trial.

Some Related Quotes

  • "Witchcraft is an art serving for the working of wonders, by the assistance of the devil, so far as God shall permit." —Sir Robert Filmer, 1653

  • "A belief that there are such things as witches is so essential a part of the Catholic faith that obstinately to maintain the opposite opinion savours of heresy." —Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, Malleus Maleficarum, c. 1486

  • "I suffered terrible agony ... I said to Dr. Braun, 'God forgive you for thus misusing an innocent and honorable man.' ... When at last the executioner led me back to the cell, he said to me, 'Sir, I beg you, for God's sake, confess something, whether it be true or not.'" —Johannes Junius, letter from prison, 1628

  • "One can but exclaim, O Christian religion, how long shalt thou be vexed with this direst of superstitions? and cry aloud, O Christian commonwealth, how long in thee shall the life of the innocent be imperilled?" —Anonymous Catholic confessor, 1592

Protest against witch trials

There have been contemporary protesters against witch trials and against use of torture.

See also

Sources

  1. 'Many reasons why': witchcraft and the problem of multiple explanation, Robin Briggs, from Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Culture and Belief, ed. Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  2. The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, Random House 1996.

External links

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Witch trial".

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