Mikhail Ikhonsky| Jul 9, 2018

Witchcraft rituals have accompanied people throughout their history. Since ancient times, inexplicable natural phenomena have been attributed to otherworldly forces, with which only sorcerers or witches could come into contact.

Before the spread of Christianity, witchcraft in Europe was generally treated calmly. The pagan rituals of the Germanic, Celtic and Slavic tribes were based on magical rituals. The Roman Empire preferred not to notice magicians and sorcerers until they caused harm to the population or state through their actions. Everything changed with the spread of Christianity in Europe.

The Cathar Heresy and the War on Witchcraft

In the early years, the Church, of course, condemned the practice of witchcraft. But the half-mad shamans hiding in the forests could do little harm to the new religion, and it ignored them.

A turn in relations with witches occurred in the 12th – 13th centuries during the first heresies. The Cathar movement that arose in the south of France lured parishioners, reducing the income of the Church, which attracted the attention of the papal throne.

Residents of the region were declared sorcerers and witches. A bloody crusade began.

Realizing that such heresies would arise constantly, the Church declared a large-scale war on witches. The Inquisition was created to counter the sorcerers.

The persecution of witches has begun

For almost a hundred years, inquisitors fought for the purity of faith in fairly humane ways. Trials and investigations were held. Sentences were passed. Sometimes even exculpatory.

Large-scale persecution of sorcerers, as well as accusations of witchcraft and connections with the devil against all undesirables, began under Pope John XXII. The clergyman immediately after ascending the throne burned the bishop from his hometown.

John was truly obsessed with the idea of ​​destroying all witches. Papal legates were sent to the south of France, Switzerland, Germany and northern Italy. The number of death sentences increases sharply during this time. An accusation of “heretical witchcraft” appears.

How people imagined witches

The enemy had to be personified. Since all accusations of witchcraft were generally false, a variety of people fell into the category of witches and sorcerers under a variety of pretexts. There were accusations of possession, damage by witchcraft, the evil eye, etc.

It was then that the classic image of a witch on a broom was formed; a witch who changes her appearance and does evil to people.

Bonfires are burning all over Europe

In the 60s of the 15th century, all of Europe was catching witches. Sorcerers were destroyed with particular zeal in Germany. Books dedicated to the fight against Evil were even published here: “The Bull on Witchcraft” and.

The accused were arrested for any reason. As soon as a neighbor looked at someone else’s estate, its owner was denounced and sent to the dungeons of the Inquisition. Denunciations spread everywhere. Women who suffered most often were women who could be caught for a sidelong glance, an incorrect movement, or even for their beauty.

At first, the trials were conducted by inquisitors. There was even a special code with a list of actions that fell under the definition of witchcraft. However, fairly quickly, witch trials began to be held in secular courts.

While the inquisitorial court often acquitted the accused, ordinary courts punished almost everyone.

Witch Trial

Particularly cynical is the search for devilish marks on the body of the accused and the ongoing witch trials.

Any mole, birthmark, or skin defect could be mistaken for a witch's mark. Everything depended on what the judge wanted: to punish or spare. In search of marks, women were subjected to severe torture and had their hair shaved off.

A common test was the "test by water." A bound woman was thrown into the river. It was believed that water, being a pure matter, would be determined by the witch in front of it or not. If a woman drowned, then she was declared innocent, since “the water accepted her.”

If the unfortunate victim surfaced, then she was declared guilty of witchcraft.

Executions carried out by inquisitors

Before sending the victim to the stake, she was tortured, extracting a confession of evil intent and witchcraft.

The execution of a witch by burning was a public spectacle attended by the entire city. Events were often held during fairs and other folk festivals.

Very rarely, beheading, drowning or hanging were used for execution. It was believed that death at the stake was “pure” due to its “bloodlessness,” and thus the clergy seemed to forgive their victim and give her a chance for eternal life.

The end of the witch hunt

The end of the witch hunt is associated with the development of science, the emergence of Protestantism and the Thirty Years' War, the cruelty of which forced Europeans to take a fresh look at their own lives and church dogmas.

The last witch in Europe died in 1782 in Switzerland. Her head was cut off.

In total, approximately 100,000 people were executed during the Inquisition, 20,000 of whom died in Germany.

Incredible facts

Various countries of modern Europe attract hundreds of millions of tourists every year. Countless people goes there from all over the world to briefly touch the history, architecture and culture of this part of the world.

However, from the 15th to the 18th centuries, Europe was far from the most pleasant and comfortable place. And for many adult women, Europe was simply a terrible place. The reason for this was religious terror due to the confrontation that existed between the Catholic and Protestant churches.

In Europe at the time, cases in which women were accused of serving the devil were commonplace. More than two hundred thousand people living in Germany, Sweden, France, Britain and other countries, found themselves involved in a terrible ordeal to discover whether they were witches.

Witch hunters used absolutely wild methods to test women for their adherence to evil spirits. Some of these methods were as cruel as they were stupid, as they left no chance for the suspects to survive. We invite you to familiarize yourself with some of these methods.

Witch-hunt

Don't let the witch sleep

The Italians were the first to use this cruel method of identifying witches, which later became very popular in Scotland. We know it as sleep deprivation.

At first glance, it does not look so scary - many of us have experienced what it is like when work required it. This is what parents face when their young children keep them awake.

However, this does not even compare with what those accused of witchcraft experienced, for whom sleep deprivation was not only a cruel ordeal, but real torture.

Potential witches had a metal hoop with four sharp metal pins inserted into their mouths. Then this hoop was attached to the wall behind the unfortunate people at such a height that they could not even try to lie down, as it caused the sufferers extreme pain.

It also happened that those who guarded the witches were ordered to prevent women from sleeping by any means, whatever the jailers could think of. Usually, after three days of forced wakefulness, the victims began to experience severe hallucinations.

When women in such a state began to be interrogated, many of them told fantastic stories about their own flights, about turning into animals. And few people had the strength to deny their participation in satanic rituals.

Witch hunters claimed that this test could "awaken" the witch in women. And this is precisely what, in their opinion, was the main evidence of the guilt of the accused. After this in Scotland, for example, the victims were strangled and then burned.

Touch test

In 1662, two elderly women in England were subjected to a notorious test called the "touch test." These women's names were Rose Kallenberg and Emmy Denny.

The women were accused of bewitching two young girls who subsequently began to have seizures. The witch hunters believed that he who is under the influence of witchcraft, must demonstrate an unusual reaction upon physical contact with the one who bewitched him.

The suspect was taken into a room and then forced to place her hands on the victim, who was suffering from seizures. If the seizures stopped, this fact became evidence of the guilt of the accused.

In the Kallenberg and Denny case, prosecutors reported that young girls (allegedly their victims) during seizures they clenched their fists with such force that even the strongest men in the village were unable to unclench their fingers.

However, as soon as the elderly women accused of witchcraft put their hands on the girls, their fists unclenched, opening their palms. After this, the judge decided to check the girls themselves: they were blindfolded and began to bring dummies into the room, who also touched the victims of witchcraft.

As it turned out, the girls reacted in a similar way to the touch of any person. Thus, the judge recognized that they were fraudsters. However, this fact did not prevent the judges from convicting Kallenberg and Denny, after which they were executed by hanging.

Rack

The country that punished the largest number of witches is usually considered to be Germany. It is estimated that more than nine hundred people were killed during the five-year period of the so-called Würzburg Witch Trials in the 1620s.

Not a single suspect managed to elude Prince-Bishop Philipp Adolf of Ehrenberg, involved in mass trials. Even his own niece, 19 Catholic priests and several boys were harmed.

Seven of them were charged with having sex with demons. After this, some were beheaded and others were burned at the burning stake. The unfortunates were found guilty after their own confessions, which were obtained as a result of torture.

Torture was not unusual or illegal in Central Europe during this period. The Germans had many of their own cruel methods of extracting forced confessions from their victims. One of the most popular methods was the rack.

The rack was usually a metal frame with a wooden rotating shaft at one end (or both ends). The hands of the unfortunates were tied to one shaft, and their legs (by the ankles) to another. During their interrogations, executioners used shafts to increase pressure on joints and bones, stretching them.

If the victim was strong and stubborn, then the torture could continue until the moving bones of the skeleton came out of their joints. The unfortunate people felt terrible pain, accompanied by terrible sounds made by their own bones. After such a thing, how could anyone not admit that he was consorting with the devil himself?

Medieval witch torture

Witch Piercings

Piercing suspects with needles was considered one of the most accurate ways to reveal their connection with the devilish world. Suspects were stripped almost naked in front of judges and then shaved from head to toe.

Then a witch piercer (a very respected profession, by the way, at that time) looked for the so-called devil's mark on the victim's body by piercing the human body with a thick needle.

In those days, it was believed that if it was possible to find a point, the piercing of which did not lead to bleeding or cause acute pain, then this was the most irrefutable evidence of the suspect’s contacts with the devil.

This torture was akin to what is now considered one of the most outrageous forms of sexual perversion and violence. In a society in which modesty was elevated to the rank of the highest virtue, many women were ready to admit anything to stop this humiliation.

In Scotland, a witch piercer could expect a reward of six pounds for identifying one witch. Given the fact that in those harsh times the average daily wage could not exceed one shilling, there is no doubt that the piercers did their best.

Like most other jobs, piercers were usually only male. However, this did not stop one woman from becoming, probably, one of the most famous witch piercers throughout the history of the existence of this method of identifying witches. Her name was Christine Caddle.

But she called herself John Dixon. Christine participated in the trials, dressed in men's attire. She is known to have sent dozens of witches to their deaths. As a result, her forgery was discovered, for which she was sent to the plantations in Barbados, where the fever was raging.

Considering the fact that many convicts did not even survive the journey to the island, and Christine got there, we can conclude that this woman had remarkable strength. Or she was just very lucky. Nothing is known about Christine's further fate.

Witch seers

The Swedes turned out to be the most inventive in their persecution of witches. They relied heavily on the children's testimony. Moreover, sometimes these were the children of the accused themselves. At the same time, children were tortured until they began to tell the necessary fantastic stories about the activities of witches.

During interrogations, children were mainly required to talk about their experience of visiting Blokula - rocks in the middle of the sea where witches supposedly gathered for their Sabbath. It was believed that at the top of the rock there was a hole through which hell could be seen.

Under torture, some young witnesses told such “creative” fantastic stories that their unfortunate parents immediately lost their lives. The Swedes believed that some boys had the ability to detect the so-called devil's mark on the faces of witches.

It was quite common practice for such boys to go around the parishioners after a church service, pointing out some of the women who were then accused of having connections with the devil. The boys were paid for each witch they discovered, and the unfortunate ones were usually executed within just a few days.

It is not surprising that among those who allegedly saw witches, most often there were homeless orphans and beggars - for them this was the easiest way to earn money. However, this work also came with very real risks. There were many cases when such “clairvoyants” were beaten to death by relatives of “witches”.

Shameful chair

The type of test known as the "chair of shame" was the most common, as it was considered the most reliable way to identify a witch. It was often used as punishment or even execution.

The victim was tied to a chair, sometimes also having his ankles and wrists tied together. The chair itself was then attached to a long beam, part of a simple mechanism resembling a well crane, after which the suspect was lowered into cold water.

The logic of this test was simple. The judges assumed that if the woman was guilty, she must have come to the surface somehow. After this, the suspect would be executed like a real witch.

If the suspect began to sink to the bottom, then she was considered innocent. The witch hunters had several reasons to believe that this type of trial was plausible.

Some believed that witches automatically floated to the surface of the water because they rejected the fact of their baptism as an act of rejection of God. Others believed that witches could use their magical powers in order to stop diving and float to the surface.

Finally, the women were convinced of their innocence by the fact that they sank to the bottom and drowned. This meant that they were not guilty of anything, and, therefore, the Lord God was ready to accept them into His Kingdom of Heaven.

According to the witch hunters, this was a much more enviable fate than the one that awaited the “guilty” - torture, punishment, execution and hell. Sometimes such immersion in water was used as a form of torture: the unfortunates were immersed several times until they confessed to what was demanded of them.

It is noteworthy that the shameful chair was created specifically for women. It was also used to execute prostitutes and so-called shrews. Vixens were considered women who brought trouble, causing confusion and discord between, for example, household members and neighbors, spreading false rumors, scolding and quarreling with them.

A special punishment was invented especially for such cases: the shameful chair was attached in such a way to the cart that it was located on a raised platform. The victim was taken through the entire city to the place of immersion in water. Humiliation was added to the other suffering of the unfortunates.

Witches of the Middle Ages

Weighing the Witch

In Holland, in the town of Oudewater, there was a very famous weighing chamber. Women came here from all over Europe, including Germany and Hungary, to prove their innocence of witchcraft.

The meaning of this idea was very simple. It was believed that the human soul is quite a heavy burden. And since a witch does not have a soul, it means that she will weigh significantly less than women innocent of witchcraft.

The weighing room contained several scales of various sizes. The woman stood on one pan of the scale, and cast iron counterweights were installed on the other. If the person weighed turned out to be the “correct” weight, then she received a certificate that confirmed her innocence.

The Dutch were not unique in their idea that weighing a woman could determine whether she was associated with evil spirits. In the English town of Aylesbury was quite normal practice, when women were stripped naked and then weighed on scales, using a heavy cast-iron Bible as a counterweight.

And if the scales turned out to be unbalanced, then the suspect being weighed was declared a witch. In other places in England, witches were weighed using several Bibles as a counterweight. If no direct evidence of guilt was found, a few more copies of Scripture could always be added to the balance...

Confrontation of the witch with the murdered man

If someone was accused of committing murder through witchcraft, in many European courts of the era guilt was proven using a very curious method, which could be called a confrontation with a corpse.

In medieval Europe, people believed that the soul of a person killed (or who died a natural death) remained in his body for some time. And that is why the body can react in some unusual way to the presence of a killer next to it.

The accused person was forced to say out loud the name of the murdered person, then walk around his body, and then touch his wounds. If blood appears on the body, if somehow the body could twitch, or if foam appeared on the lips of the dead man, then the suspect was accused of being guilty.

In the vast majority of cases, women were sent to the stake on charges of witchcraft, although men and even children could fall under the hot hand

According to various estimates, during the witch hunt, from the 15th to the 17th centuries, from 50 to 200 thousand people were executed in Europe. What could lead others to believe that a person was collaborating with the devil?

Appearance

There is an opinion that the shortage of beautiful women in Western Europe is a consequence of the witch hunt. There is some truth in this statement. First of all, attractive girls who attracted the attention of the opposite sex were accused of witchcraft. The beauties clearly bewitched men through the mediation of the devil. This means that if a husband is looking at his neighbor, he can simply tell the Inquisition about it, and the issue will be resolved. Red-haired people and those with bright moles had no chance of acquittal.

There were also life-threatening defects in appearance: scars, bumps, warts. Old age could also serve as an indicator of a connection with the devil: gray hair, wrinkles, a hunched back. Well, why not a witch? The oldest “witch” burned at the stake was a 70-year-old woman.

Excess weight was mortally dangerous in the Middle Ages, although excessive thinness could indicate a connection with the devil.

The most famous victim of the fight against witchcraft was Joan of Arc. One of the charges brought against her was wearing men's clothing.

Intelligence

Trouble threatened not only the beauties, but also the smart ones. Women who knew too much frightened their contemporaries. Knowing foreign languages ​​that were incomprehensible to neighbors gave rise to bad thoughts. Although not only ladies could pay for their intelligence. Thus, in Bonn, at the beginning of the 17th century, dozens of students, university professors and even members of the clergy were executed on charges of witchcraft.

Money

The homeless and beggars who went from house to house and begged for alms were often sent to the fire. But this does not mean that wealthy citizens were safe. Financially independent women were especially frightened by medieval people. Only witches could survive without the support of men.

Girlfriends

Medieval bachelorette party lovers risked their lives. A group of women gathering without men made one wonder if they were witches organizing secret rituals or covens.

Extramarital affairs

A woman who gave birth to a child out of wedlock was considered a witch. The devil was recognized as the father of the newborn, since none of the people admitted it. The child in this case also had little chance of life.

Pets

The owners of black cats, owls, mice and other animals were most likely considered witches. In one of the principalities of Germany, a woman was burned at the stake because during a christening she was not afraid of a black cat that ran into the room.

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Accident

All troubles and damage to individuals, cities and countries were attributed to the machinations of witches. If a woman walked past her neighbors’ house and their beer went sour that day or their dough didn’t rise, the lady would be in big trouble.

The presence of spoiled food in the cellar could indicate that the hostess was keeping it for preparing witchcraft potions.

Witches were also to blame for the widespread epidemics of syphilis, cholera and plague in those years. Witches were found among healthy residents of plague-ridden cities and burned to improve the epidemiological situation.

And in 1586, in the Rhine provinces, 118 women and 2 men were executed because of the cold that lasted until June. Residents of Hungary burned dozens of witches in 1615 so that they would stop causing hail.

From the book by N. Bessonov “Trials of Witchcraft.”

Germany of the 17th century. There are pillars dug into the ground in a vacant lot. There are stacks of logs around them. Chains and bundles of brushwood were prepared ahead of time. A lot of people gathered for the execution, but crowds are not expected. During the early trials, six to eight thousand spectators gathered from all surrounding areas.

The owners of taverns and inns greatly replenished their wallets. Now the sharp spectacle has become boring. Burnt bald spots at the burning sites became a common part of the landscape - so ordinary that it was a wonder only for a foreigner.

In 1631, Cardinal Albizzi wrote on the way to Cologne: “A terrible sight appeared before our eyes. Outside the walls of many cities and villages we saw numerous pillars to which poor unfortunate women were tied and burned as witches.”

As von Spee figuratively put it, “all over Germany the smoke of fires rises from everywhere, obscuring the light...”. The famous historian Johann Scherr made the same generalizations: “...Every city, every town, every prelacy, every noble estate in Germany lit bonfires...”

Here is the small village of Reichertshofen, snatched at random. Here, in the mid-17th century, witch hunts claimed fifty lives. Sparsely populated Weisenstein sent sixty-three women to the stake in 1562 alone. And in the vicinity of Strasbourg, from 1615 to 1635, five thousand women and girls were burned.

Most often, the list of executed people was replenished gradually. Usually two or three victims were burned at a time. Such was the rhythm of “quiet” times. But during outbursts of hysteria, auto-da-fés were held, striking in their size even the Germans who were accustomed to everything.

The Chronicle of the city of Brunswick for 1590 contains a very striking comparison. “The place of execution looked like a small forest due to the number of pillars,” the chronicle says. The power of German terror can be assessed especially clearly if we simultaneously, as if from a bird's eye view, take a look at different places.

Let us mentally transport ourselves to October 1582.

Each town distinguished itself with a large number of executions, counting dozens of victims - and all this with an interval of several days. The French judge Henri Boguet was truly right when he described his impressions around 1600: “Germany is almost completely covered with bonfires built for witches. Switzerland was also forced to raze many of its villages. In Lorraine the traveler can see thousands and thousands of pillars to which witches are tied.” Henri Boguet himself operated in the County of Burgundy, where he was the supreme judge. Through his efforts, 600 witches were burned.

It was difficult for other countries to keep up with the German principalities. However, mass executions were also observed in France. In Briancon in 1428, 110 women and 57 men were burned alive. In Toulouse in 1557, 40 witches were burned. The scale of the very first trials in the south of France was terrible. They are comparable in number of victims to the terror in the German bishoprics.

In Bamberg and Würzburg - two German cities - the witch hunt began in the 17th century almost simultaneously and in a short time claimed one and a half thousand lives. In Bamberg, 600 witches and sorcerers were burned, in Würzburg 900. The terror was led by cousins ​​who had the title of “prince-bishop”: Philip Adolf von Ehrenberg and Gottfried Johann Georg.

The ideological inspirers were the Jesuits. First of all, those who stood out among the townspeople for their beauty, wealth, position or good education were executed. At the same time, many children died who had not yet had time to prove themselves in anything.

On February 16, 1629, a list was drawn up in Würzburg, including 157 people. Of course, it is not complete, since the executions continued. To the general surprise of the researchers, there were many men among the victims.

The Thirty Years' War was going on, and the cities were filled with refugees. It is worth paying special attention to how many “foreigners” were destroyed.

“First burning: four. Lieber's wife; Anker's old widow; Goodbort's wife; Hecker's fat wife.

Second burning: four. Beutler's old wife; two visiting women; old woman Schenker.

Third burning: five. Musician; Cooler's wife; wife of prosecutor Stier; brushmaker's wife; jeweler's wife.

Fourth burning: five. Wife of Sigmund Glaser, burgomaster; Brickmann's wife; midwife; old woman Rum; newcomer.

Seventh burning: seven. A visiting girl of twelve years old; visitor; arriving; a village chief from a foreign place; three visiting women. In addition, a guard from whom several witches had escaped was executed in the market square.

Ninth burning: five. Wagner Wundt; visitor; daughter Bentois; Bentz's wife; Ayering's wife.

Tenth burning: three. Steinaner, one of the richest citizens; visiting man and woman.

Eleventh burning: four. Schwerdt, vicar of the cathedral; wife of the manager of Rensaker; Sticher's wife; musician Silberanu.

Twelfth burning: two. Two visiting women.

Thirteenth burning: four. Old Hof-Schmidt; old woman; a little girl of nine or ten years old; her younger sister.

Fourteenth burning: two. Mother of the two previously mentioned girls; Liebler's daughter is 24 years old.

Sixteenth burning: six. Page Boy from Ratzenstein; boy of ten years old; two daughters of the expelled head of the council and his maid; Seiler's fat wife.

Eighteenth burning: six. Furrier Butch; boy of twelve years old; another boy of twelve years old; Jungen's daughter, a girl of fifteen years old; arriving.

Twentieth burning: six. Babelin Gobel, the most beautiful girl in Würzburg; a fifth-year student who knows many languages, who is also a musician, outstanding for his singing and playing musical instruments; two boys of twelve years of age from Munster; Stepper's daughter; Geeter's wife."

The latest executions date back to 1631. The population of Würzburg and Bamberg was saved from further persecution by the war. When the Protestant army approached, the Catholic prelates fled to Cologne with their treasures. After 1631, the following gathered in Cologne: the Archbishop of Mainz, the bishops of Bamberg, Wurzburg, Worms, Speer, as well as the Abbot of Fulda. In the new place, fanatics organized another witch hunt.

A few years later, even the Pope began to worry about the burnings in hitherto tolerant Cologne, and he sent two cardinals to the unfortunate city to ease the mania. Feeling the support of Rome, sensible people perked up and managed to curb the presumptuous guests.

Historians find few justifications for the ferocious bishops. Only two facts speak in their favor. First, the bishop of Würzburg acted under the influence of fanaticism, and not just greed. He personally ordered the execution of his young nephew, although in the future he greatly mourned the loss.

The German historian I. Scherr writes: “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 Brandenburg, 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 Brunswick between 1590-1600. They burned so many witches (10-12 people every day) that their pillory stood as a “dense forest” in front of the gates.

In the small county of Henneberg, 22 witches were burned in 1612 alone; in 1597-1876. - only 197...

In Lindheim, which had 540 inhabitants, from 1661 to 1664. 30 people were burned. The Fulda magistrate Balthasar Voss boasted that he alone had burned 700 people of both sexes and hoped to bring the number of his victims to 1000.

In the county of Neisse (belonging to the bishopric of Breslau) from 1640 to 1651. about 1000 witches were burned; we have descriptions of more than 242 executions; Among the victims there are children from 1 to 6 years old. At the same time, several hundred witches were killed in the Bishopric of Olmütz.

In Osnabrück, 80 witches were burned in 1640. A certain Mr. Rantsov burned 18 witches in Holstein on one day in 1686. According to surviving documents, in the bishopric of Bamberg, with a population of 100,000 people, it was burned in 1627-1630. 285 people, and in the bishopric of Würzburg for three years (1727-1729) - more than 200; Among them there are people of all ages, ranks and genders...

The last burning on a large scale was carried out by the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1678; At the same time, 97 people fell victim to holy rage. To all these executions known to us from documents, we must add at least the same number of executions, the acts of which are lost to history. Then it will turn out that every city, every town, every prelacy, every noble estate in Germany lit bonfires on which thousands of people accused of witchcraft died. We are not exaggerating if we put the number of victims at 100,000.”

In England, the Inquisition killed “only” about a thousand people. Under Henry VIII, it was primarily Lutherans who were burned; Catholics were “lucky” - they were hanged. However, sometimes, for a change, a Lutheran and a Catholic were tied to each other with their backs and in this form they were taken to the stake.

In France, the first known burning took place in Toulouse in 1285, when a woman was accused of cohabiting with the devil, which is why she allegedly gave birth to a cross between a wolf, a snake and a man. In 1320-1350 200 women went to the bonfires in Carcassonne, and more than 400 in Toulouse.

In Toulouse, on February 9, 1619, the famous Italian pantheist philosopher Giulio Vanini was burned. The execution procedure was regulated in the sentence as follows: “The executioner will have to drag him in just his shirt on a mat, with a slingshot around his neck and a board on his shoulders, on which the following words should be written: “Atheist and blasphemer.”

The executioner must take him to the main gates of the city cathedral of Saint-Etienne and there put him on his knees, barefoot, with his head bare. He must hold a lit wax candle in his hands and will have to beg for the forgiveness of God, the king and the court.

Then the executioner will take him to the Place des Salins, tie him to a pillar erected there, tear out his tongue and strangle him. After this, his body will be burned on a fire prepared for this purpose and the ashes will be scattered to the wind.”

The historian of the Inquisition testifies to the madness that gripped the Christian world in the 15th-17th centuries: “Witches were no longer burned singly or in pairs, but in dozens and hundreds. They say that one Genevan bishop burned five hundred witches in three months; Bishop of Bamberg - six hundred, Bishop of Würzburg - nine hundred; eight hundred were condemned, in all likelihood, at one time by the Savoy Senate... In 1586, summer was late in the Rhineland provinces and the cold lasted until June; this could only be the work of witchcraft, and the Bishop of Trier burned one hundred and eighteen women and two men, from whom the consciousness was removed that this continuation of the cold was the work of their spells.”

Special mention should be made about the Würzburg bishop Philipp-Adolph Ehrenberg (1623-1631). In Würzburg alone, he organized 42 bonfires, on which 209 people were burned, including 25 children aged 4 to 14 years.

Among those executed were the most beautiful girl, the plumpest woman and the fattest man - deviation from the norm seemed to the bishop to be direct evidence of connections with the devil.

In general, in executing witches, fanatics showed amazing ingenuity. Engravings and sketches of the time show a variety of techniques. There, a woman is tied to a ladder and thrown face first into a raging flame.

Here the executioners place a wooden door in the middle of the fire, on which three witches lie side by side. These martyrs are tied in such a way that the fire takes a long time to char their bare feet and reaches the body only after the thick boards below have burned through.

Most often, the artist depicts the classic burning at the stake. But there are options here too. Women and girls are screwed to the pole standing or sitting, several at a time or one by one.

Written sources allow us to make a few more additions. In Mainz in 1587, a witch was hoisted onto a woodpile, stabbed alive in a barrel. In Rheinbach, convicts were tied to a post and covered with straw from top to bottom, so that they were completely hidden from view.

It is known that in other cities they burned in the so-called straw hut. But in Neisse a cremation oven was created. In 1651 alone, forty-two women and young girls were roasted alive in this oven. The Silesian executioners did not rest on their achievements. Over nine years, about a thousand witches suffered a painful death, including even two-year-olds!

Scotland developed its own method of burning. Here, from the trials, there were many bills left to pay for firewood, poles, straw - in short, everything that was needed for the execution. The tar barrel is mentioned very often. The sorceress was forced to climb into a barrel half her height, then she was tied to a post and straw was stuffed around her. Sometimes the supplies also included coal and a tarred shirt for the suicide bomber.

The engraving depicting the execution of a pregnant woman especially stands out for its terrible naturalism. The ancient author undertook, to the best of his ability, to show how the heat of the fire bursts the stomach, and the child falls into the flames in front of the crowd. The executioner continues to stir the coals with a long pole.

Scenes like these actually happened during those cruel times. On the island of Guernsey, located between France and England, bonfires burned for almost two centuries in a row, until 1747; An area at the Bordage intersection was set aside for executions.

According to historians, there were three times more women than men among those convicted of witchcraft. Under Mary Tudor, on July 18, 1556, a mother and two daughters were burned alive. “One of the daughters, whose name was Perotina Massi, was pregnant, and her husband, a pastor, fled the island in order to avoid reprisals. From the flames and the strain caused by hellish pain, her womb burst, and the baby, a wonderful boy, fell into the fire, but he was pulled out alive by a certain Gus, one of the executioner’s henchmen. Seeing how strange everything was turning out, the bailiff thought about it and ordered to throw the poor child back into the fire.”

There is no doubt that the same thing happened during the reprisals against witches. For example, in Bamberg in 1630, the pregnant wife of Councilor Dumler was brutally tortured and burned.

Mothers experienced severe mental anguish, along with whom their children were condemned to death. In Austria in 1679, Emerenzina Pichler was burned, followed a couple of days later by her children, twelve and fourteen years old.

Often several generations of relatives were executed simultaneously. 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.

WITCH-HUNT

The 16th and 17th centuries were a time of persecution of witches. In Germany, their trials began relatively later than in other countries, but in terms of the number of executed witches, it surpassed everyone else.

In almost every region of Germany, especially in those where Catholic influence predominated, the persecutors of witches literally went on a rampage.

In Elbing in 1590, 65 trials took place over eight months. In Brunswick during 1590-1600 there were days when 10-12 witches were burned per day.

The magistrate of the city of Neisse built a special furnace for burning witches, in which 22 women were burned in 1651; In the entire principality of Neisse, more than a thousand witches were burned over the course of nine years, including children aged from two to four years.

The free imperial city of Lindheim in 1631-1633, 1650-1653 and 1661 was notable for particularly brutal persecution of witches. Suspects were thrown into pits, “witch towers,” and, with no defense allowed, were tortured until they confessed.

Burning witches at the stake. Medieval miniature

In the Bishopric of Trier from 1587 to 1593, during the bishopric of John, 368 people were burned in 22 villages adjacent to Trier. In 1585, after one big trial in two villages, only two people survived.

The city of Legamo has acquired the name “nest of witches” due to the abundance of trials against witches.

In the Bishopric of Bamberg, from 1625 to 1630, more than 900 people were burned.

One work, published in 1659, says the following about the spread of witchcraft in the country: “Among the condemned were Chancellor Doctor Horn, his son, wife and daughters, also many noble gentlemen and some members of the Council, and even many persons who sat with the bishop for one meal. They all confessed that there were more than 1200 of them, connected among themselves by serving the devil, and that if their witchcraft and devilish art had not been discovered, they would have caused all the grain and all the wine to perish in the whole country within four years, so that people would eat each other out of hunger. Others confessed that they produced such violent storms that trees were uprooted and large buildings collapsed, and that they wanted to create even stronger storms to bring down the Bamberg Tower, etc. Among the witches were girls seven, eight, nine and ten years old; 22 girls were convicted and executed, cursing their mothers who taught them the devil's art. Witchcraft developed to such an extent that children on the street and in schools taught each other to cast magic.”

The processes took place surprisingly quickly, the legal proceedings were simplified as much as possible. The defendants were interrogated in groups of 8-10 people together, and their confessions were recorded in one protocol, and for the sake of brevity they were called not by name, but by numbers: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 - and 8-10 people were burned at the same fire.

In the Bishopric of Würzburg many persons were subjected to the same persecution. From 1627 to 1629, more than 200 people of different ages were burned on charges of witchcraft. Among those executed were: the chancellor with his wife and daughters, a member of the City Council, the fattest citizen of Würzburg, two pages, the most beautiful girl in Würzburg, a student who spoke many languages ​​and, moreover, was an excellent musician, a hospital director, two sons and a daughter, as well as his wife city ​​councilor, three church regents, 14 clergy, one doctor of theology, one fat noblewoman, one blind girl, a girl of nine years old, her younger sister, their mother, etc.

In the Archbishopric of Cologne, from the second half of the 16th century, the persecution of witches penetrated all levels of society.

Especially many people were burned in Bonn. In one private letter we read: “We (in Bonn) have a strong burning sensation. There is no doubt that half the city will fall victim. Professors, candidates of law, pastors, canons, vicars and other clergy have already been burned here. The chancellor and his wife and the wife of the secret secretary were executed; on September 7, they burned a 19-year-old girl, the bishop’s favorite, who was considered the most beautiful, the most well-behaved in the whole city. Girls between three and four years old are already in contact with the devil. Many boys as young as nine years old were burned here.”

In April 1663, Agnes, the wife of Hans Gensche, a weaver, was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft and taken to Eslijgen. Once she was somewhere at a christening, a black cat suddenly jumped up on the table, and the woman, one of all the guests, was not afraid and even drank from her glass, into which the cat stuck her paw.

Under torture, Frau Gensche confessed that she had something to do with the elements of witchcraft attributed to her, thus hoping to see her husband and children as soon as possible. Then she renounced her words, endured all the highest levels of torture and was released on the condition that she would leave the country forever.

In Alsace, the fires of the Inquisition began to smoke in 1570. During the years 1572-1620, 136 witches were burned, but this was only the beginning of the mass persecution that followed after 1620.

During the years 1620-1635, 5,000 people died in the Strasbourg district alone.

Austria at the end of the 17th century was overflowing with witches.

In the archives of the city of Aisburg, protocols on cases of witchcraft have been preserved. Here is one of them: “On April 15, 1661, Anna surrendered body and soul to the devil, who appeared to her in the form of a man; on his orders, she denied the Holy Trinity, blasphemed and desecrated the Holy Sacrament; With the help of witchcraft, she killed a child and with the same means caused damage to another. For such grave and heinous crimes, it is decreed that she should be placed on a cart and taken to the place of execution to be burned at the stake, both shoulders first being cauterized with red-hot tongs, once each shoulder. But since she repented, it was decided to show her mercy and cut off her head with a sword and then burn her body - this is the sentence; given her poor health and advanced age, was even more mitigated, namely: she was freed from cauterization with red-hot forceps.”

In Salzburg in 1678, 97 people were burned.

In 1583, a 16-year-old girl suffering from convulsions was found to be possessed by a demon and handed over to the Jesuits for exorcism. The Holy Fathers energetically set to work, but the fight against the devil turned out to be very difficult. Finally, they overcame the tricks of the devil, and they managed to expel 12,655 little devils from the girl’s body. After this, her old, 70-year-old grandmother Elizaveta Plenakherin was tortured, who confessed that she had been in touch with the devil for many years and had been going to the Sabbath. She was convicted and dragged to the place of execution, tied with ropes to the tail of a horse, and burned alive.

In Vienna in 1601, two witches were convicted, one of whom committed suicide in prison, and the other died during torture. The latter's corpse was caulked in a barrel and thrown into the Danube, "so that she would be removed from the population of Vienna."

In Hungary in 1615, a huge number of witches died due to the assumption that they intended to cause strong hail and destroy crops with diabolical art. The chronicles tell the following about this incident: “One 12-year-old girl, walking with her father and listening to his complaints about the drought, told him that if he wanted, she could make it rain and hail. When he asked her who taught her this, she pointed to her mother.

At this time, a terrible thunderstorm with hail actually broke out. The father reported this, after which the mother and daughter were arrested and tortured. They confessed to their crime and incriminated many others who were also brought into the investigation.”

In France, during the reign of Henry IV, witches were mainly accused of werewolves.

One of the Jesuits of that time wrote in 1594: “Our prisons are overcrowded with witches and sorcerers. Not a day passes that our judges do not stain their hands with their blood, and that we, returning home, do not shudder with sad thoughts of the terrible, disgusting things that these witches confess to. But the devil is so skillful that we do not have time to send a sufficiently large number of witches to the stake before new witches arise from their ashes.”

In 1609, a commission was appointed to prosecute witches in the Basque country. In a short time, 600 people were burned there.

In Toulouse there were days when 400 witches a day were burned at the stake. The Inquisition raged throughout the south of France. De Lancre came up with the idea that the spread of witchcraft around Bordeaux was connected with the large number of orchards, since “it is very well known that the devil has a special power over apples.”

In Spain, the persecution of witches lasted longer than in all other European countries. In 1527, based on the slander of two girls, nine and eleven years old, a huge number of witches were convicted, who were convicted of witchcraft thanks to a special sign seen by the inquisitors in their left eye. Back in 1810, on November 7 and 8, 11 people were burned.

In Sweden, a terrible process is known that took place in a small village in 1669, as a result of which a lot of children died. The process began due to the fact that many children in that area experienced strange convulsions, accompanied by fainting. During these attacks, the children said that they often fly with witches to the Sabbath and there Satan beats them, which is why this disease happened to them.

At the request of residents, the government appointed a special commission to investigate the matter. The commission interrogated about 300 children, who told monstrous details about the flights to the Sabbaths and the orgies that took place there. According to the children, Satan often beat the children at the Sabbaths, but sometimes, on the contrary, he was very kind to them, played the harp, loved the witches to look after him in every possible way during his illness and let him bleed. And once he even died for a short time.

The commission arrested many women who, under torture, confessed to all crimes. Of these, 84 women were sentenced to death, and along with them 15 children, the remaining children were subjected to various punishments, 56 of them received lashes.

The verdict was announced publicly, and the members of the commission, after executing the accused, returned home, showered with gratitude from the population. For a long time after this, prayers were offered up in the church for the protection of the country from the devil in the future.

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