The Inquisition and church courts fought witches and sorcerers even more cruelly than against heretics. But if the executions of heretics can still be somehow explained by the competition between the various currents of the Christian Church, which ideologically continues to this day, then the mass executions of witches now seem to be just some kind of madness that swept the Christian world in the 15th century. XVII centuries. Everything was attributed to the machinations of witches natural disasters and failure in business. And it seems that an idea has arisen - the more witches to exterminate, the more happiness will be brought to all the remaining people. At first, witches were burned singly, then in pairs, and then in tens and hundreds.
In France, the first known burning took place in Toulouse in 1285, when a woman was accused of cohabiting with the devil, which allegedly gave birth to a cross between a wolf, a snake and a man. In the years 1320-1350, 200 women climbed the fires in Carcassonne, and more than 400 in Toulouse.
But most of the witches were in Germany. The German historian I. Scherr wrote:
“Executions committed at once on whole masses begin in Germany around 1580 and continue for almost a century. While the whole of Lorraine was smoking from the fires ... in Paderborn, in Braidenburg, in Leipzig and its environs, many executions were also carried out. In the county of Werdenfeld in Bavaria in 1582, one process 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 gate. In the small county of Genneberg, 22 witches were burned in one year in 1612, 197 in 1597-1876 ... In Lindheim, with 540 inhabitants, 30 people were burned from 1661 to 1664.
The judge of Fulda, Balthasar Foss, boasted that he alone burned 700 sorcerers of both sexes and hoped to bring the number of his victims to a thousand. In the county of Neisse (belonging to the bishopric of Breslau), about a thousand witches were burned from 1640 to 1651; we have descriptions of more than 242 executions; among the victims come across children from 1 to 6 years. At the same time, several hundred witches were murdered in the bishopric of Olmütz. In Osnabrück, 80 witches were burned in 1640. A certain Mr. Rantsov burned 18 witches in one day in 1686 in Holstein.
According to documents that have come down to the present era, in the Bishopric of Bamberg, with a population of 100 thousand people, 285 people were burned in the years 1627-1630, and in the Bishopric of Würzburg over three years (1727-1729) - more than 200.
The magistrate of the city of Neisse built a special furnace for burning witches, in which 22 women were burned in 1651 alone. In the free imperial city of Lindheim, suspects were thrown into pits called "witch towers" and tortured until they confessed.
The processes took place according to a simplified scheme: 8-10 people were interrogated at a time, and their confessions were recorded in one protocol, and for brevity they were called not by their names, but by numbers: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and also all were burned on one fire.
Bishop 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 four to fourteen. Among those executed were the most beautiful girl, the most fat 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 the record holder was his cousin - Prince-Bishop Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim, who executed in Bamberg in the period 1623-33. more than 600 people.
The last mass burning in Germany was arranged by the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1678, when 97 people immediately went to the fire.
In fairness, it should be clarified that the above mass executions were not always the fault of the Inquisition. For example, in the Bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg, it was not the Inquisition that was rampant, but the Episcopal courts. But for the victims it was not important who sends them to the stake.
In principle, any reason was enough to accuse a person of having connections with the devil.
In 1586, summer was late in the Rhine provinces and the cold lasted until June, the Bishop of Trier reasoned that it definitely could not have done without the machinations of the devil, and subjected a bunch of people to torture. 118 women and 2 men confessed that they caused the cold with spells, and they were sent to "warm up" on the fire.
In April 1663, Agnes Genshe, the wife of a weaver, was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. All her fault was that somehow at the christening she alone was not afraid of a black cat that jumped up on the table. While everyone else was sitting neither alive nor him, she calmly drank from her mug. Well, isn't she a witch?
In 1583, the Jesuits were tortured to cast out demons from a 16-year-old girl who suffered from convulsions. They cast out of her no less than 12,655 demons, and the girl continued to periodically convulse. Then the holy fathers sensibly reasoned that it was necessary to fight the cause, not the effect. And they tortured the 70-year-old grandmother of the patient - Elizaveta Plenaherin. And you have to hit the mark. The grandmother confessed that for many years she had been in touch with the devil and did not miss a single sabbat and, in general, was an experienced witch. The old woman Plenaherin was dragged to the place of execution on a rope tied to the tail of a horse and burned alive. Whether this helped to heal her granddaughter is unknown.
Nikolai Bessonov's book Trials of Witchcraft provides many examples of what nonsense women in the Middle Ages were first subjected to inhuman torture and then brutally executed:
“Once an inquisitorial investigation was initiated against a woman who, in a quarrel, shouted threats. A few days later, the man she threatened had a nightmare in her dream - that was enough to consider her a sorceress!
In the Duchy of Cleves, carriages and wagons often overturned on the roads. Finally, it turned out that Sibyl Dinscops was to blame for this, and she was burned in 1535.
And in Scotland, one owner sour beer wort. He began to sort through the events of the day in his memory and remembered that a woman had passed by the house; pausing a little, she stroked the cat sitting in open window. The "criminal" was burned.
Rotterdam fishermen once threw their nets into the water. One pulled out a lot of fish, and the other had stones in the nets (which he obviously hooked on the bottom). But simple explanations didn't look for it then. They were looking for witches. The fishermen returned to their village, seized a woman and handed her over to justice. She was forced to admit that, having flown out of the window through a crack in the loose glass, she turned into a slug in the shell lying at the bottom. From this vantage point, she replaced the fish with stones with the help of spells. The witch was burned.
Jacobetta Webe was tried for the injury that the peasant received (the victim lived with the "witch" under the same roof). Since the sorceresses seemed everywhere to the frightened people, the peasant was on his guard all the time. Finally, finding himself in the thicket of the forest, he dropped to one knee, and a sharp thorn stuck into his leg - so much so that the poor fellow was ill for three months. The superstitious peasant then swore to the judge that a demon had pierced his knee - and the same demon picked out this malicious thorn while chopping firewood. Jacobetta herself, having been interrogated, admitted that she took pity on the peasant and ordered the demon to take off his lameness.
Another example. Somehow a few people got lost in the forest. They circled among the trees for a long time and, finally, not feeling their feet under them, went out to their homes. It remained to find out what caused them to go astray. Suspicion fell on Jacobetta Echin, who saw them enter the forest. At the trial held in October 1585, Remy announced: the witch harbored a grudge against travelers and asked her demon to lead them in circles.
As it turned out, witches apparently divorced in most European countries.
In 1527, in Spain, under the slander of two girls of 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.
Austria in late XVII century was simply overflowing with witches. In one of the protocols of that time, preserved in the archives of the city of Aisburg, it was said:
“On April 15, 1661, Anna gave herself up in 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 the child and with the same means caused damage to another. For such grave and heinous crimes, it is decreed that she be put on a wagon and taken to the place of execution for burning at the stake, and both shoulders must first be cauterized with red-hot tongs, once each shoulder. But, since she repented, it is decided to show her mercy and cut off her head with a sword and then burn her body - such is the sentence; given her poor health and advanced age, was even more softened, namely: she was freed from cauterization with red-hot tongs.
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In Vienna in 1601, two witches were convicted, one of whom committed suicide in prison, and the other died during torture. The corpse of the latter was caulked in a barrel and thrown into the Danube, "so that it would be removed from the population of Vienna."
In Hungary in 1615 was executed a large number of witches, so that they do not cause hail and destroy crops with their machinations.
In France, during the reign of Henry IV, one of the Jesuits wrote in 1594:
“Our prisons are filled with witches and sorcerers. Not a day goes by that our judges do not stain their hands in their blood, and that we, returning home, do not shudder at the sad thoughts of the terrible, disgusting things that these witches confess. But the devil is so skillful that we do not have time to send a sufficiently large number of witches to the fire, as new witches arise from their ashes.
exposed huge amount witches in many countries were facilitated by the then accepted methods of inquiry. A method called "bathing witches" has proven itself to be very effective in convicting those suspected of having links with the devil. Witch suspect tied up thumbs arms and legs between each other and pulled to the lower back, because of which it turned out to be sitting with bent legs. In this position, she was thrown into a deep pool. If she drowned, then all charges against her were dropped posthumously, if she miraculously survived, then this miracle was considered the machinations of the devil and the suspect became guilty. After that, she had two roads - either to the fire, or to the gallows.
King James spoke of "witch-bathing" in his "Demonology": "God seems to have pointed out a supernatural sign of the monstrous wickedness of witches, that the water should refuse to take into its bosom those who have shaken off sacred water baptism."
In 1435, the Bavarian Duke Ernest Wittelsbach decided to make his son Albrecht a widower. He did not like that the heir to his throne had tied the knot with some Agnes Bernauer, the daughter of a bathhouse owner. While Albert was hunting in a neighboring principality, his wife was arrested on the charge that she had bewitched him.
Judgment was swift. Agnes was sentenced to death by drowning. However, she was not only beautiful, but also dexterous. Thrown off the bridge, Agnes managed to free herself from her restraints and swim out. However, this did not save the poor woman. "Second take" of the execution, when Agnes was wrapped around her long hair around the scrap iron, came out more successful for the executioners.
In principle, it was believed that all means are good for condemning witches. That is why they did not stand on ceremony. For example, the tribunal of the small town of Lindheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, which operated in the sixties of the 17th century, thought so. Witches were judged here not by inquisitors, but by ordinary residents. The tribunal was headed by soldier Geiss, a veteran of the Thirty Years' War. The jury consisted of three peasants and a weaver. The inhabitants of Lindheim called these people from the people "sworn bloodsuckers" because they sent people to the stake for the slightest provocation.
For example, one of their victims was the wife of a wealthy miller. A year earlier, her newborn child had died. And suddenly, for no reason at all, a suspicion arose that the child had been killed, and his body was used to prepare a witch's ointment. They were not too lazy to exhume the corpse of a baby. And although after that they were convinced that the child’s body was not touched, the mechanism of the accusatory machine was already spinning. First they burned the midwife who took birth, and then they took up the mother. One of the main pieces of evidence against her was a scar on her leg, in which the judges saw the sign of the devil. In vain did the poor woman convince the tribunal that the scar had formed on her from a wound received as a result of a fall. She offered to ask the doctor from Hanau, who treated her leg. The woman was locked up in the "Witch's Tower", located near Lindheim. The mere presence in this tower was torture. The people in it were kept barefoot on the icy floor, having removed the straw from the cell in the winter cold. But at the same time, the woman was also tortured. Unable to bear them, she confessed to witchcraft and was burned.
In general, the abuse and torture that women suspected of witchcraft were subjected to were extremely sophisticated and varied.
Especially for them, the fanatics came up with a bunch of different devices for torture. For example, a “witch chair” equipped with sharp wooden spikes, on which the suspect was forced to sit for days.
The "Spanish donkey" - a three-sided log on which witches were planted - was very popular with shoulder craftsmen. A sharp wedge at the top entered the crotch of women, and in order for them to experience torment to the maximum, their legs were forcibly spread apart or weights were hung on them.
Some sorceresses wore large leather boots on their feet and poured boiling water into them. Feet in such shoes literally welded. And Brigitte von Ebikon in 1652 was tortured with boiled eggs, which were taken out of boiling water and put into her armpits. Other suspects were tortured with a "cancer" - a hoop-shaped device with hooks inside. When twisting this hoop on the woman's leg with a special screw, the hooks dug into her body and tore it. When the executioners rested, they simply put a kakrkan around the woman's neck - an iron collar with nails, which was attached to the post with a chain. After that, she could neither move away nor lie down.
Poor women, some of them in prisons were marinated in stone bags, into which one could hardly squeeze through the hole. Others were kept in cells with sharp ribbed floors. But, despite the most sophisticated torture and bullying, they showed miracles of stamina.
In 1627, in Cologne, the executioners got tired of torturing the daughter of the imperial postmaster, Katerina von Henot, accused of witchcraft. The young woman was tortured to such a state that “the sun shone through her,” but she did not confess to anything. And, nevertheless, steadfastness did not save her from execution at the stake. The judges were relentless.
Somehow the attention of the tribunal from Lindheim was attracted by a woman who rushed to her heels at the sight of the jailer. The judges decided that a bad conscience was forcing her to hide, and they ordered her arrest. But when the unfortunate woman was tortured, she showed amazing endurance. She withstood all the savage tortures of her body and, no matter how hard they tried, the judges could not get her to confess to witchcraft. Then they did it easier. One of the jurors stated that the accused nodded when asked if she had made a pact with the devil. This was enough to condemn the poor woman and send her to the stake.
One can only marvel at the severity of medieval justice in relation to unfortunate women. Men for the most brutal murders were hanged or executed on the chopping block. And their death was much faster and less painful than the suffering from the flames gradually covering the living flesh.
Often mental suffering was added to physical suffering. The judges sometimes insisted that her young children be present during the execution of the witch. And sometimes, together with the witch, they sent her relatives to the fire. In 1688, an entire family, including children and servants, was burned to death for witchcraft. In 1746, not only the accused was burned, but also her sister, mother and grandmother. 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 tongues of flame and 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, from among the henchmen of the executioner. Seeing how strange everything was, the bail thought about it and ordered the poor child to be thrown back into the fire.
And, finally, the execution itself at the stake was as if specially made in order to further disgrace the woman. First of all, her clothes were burned, and for some time she remained naked in full view of the large crowd that had gathered to watch her being killed.
In the 18th century, even harsh judges finally began to understand that they were "going too far" in brutal executions witches. Sorceresses increasingly began to have leniency, which consisted in the fact that they were killed before burning. One of the varieties of such “mercy” was tying a bag of gunpowder to the neck of the condemned, which exploded during the execution at the stake and reduced the suffering of the unfortunate for a few seconds.
So, even when the court showed condescension to those convicted of witchcraft, they usually still had a hard time. In 1487, in Zurich, a woman confessed to witchcraft on the condition that she not be betrayed. death penalty. The repentant witch was indeed not immediately sent to the stake. According to the verdict of the court, her body was to be burned only after death. But, in order not to delay this hour too much, the woman was walled up alive and only once a day food was passed to her through a narrow hole in the masonry.
Another example of the leniency of the court is a scene from Charles de Coster's The Legend of Thiel Ulenspiegil:
“... Kathleen was taken to prison. Three days later, the court of elders sentenced her to punishment by fire.
The executioner and his henchmen brought her to the Great Market and raised her to the platform. The profos, herald, and judges were already in their places. The herald's trumpet blew three times, after which he turned to face the people and said:
The court of the city of Damme took pity on the woman Katlina and did not judge her to the fullest extent of the law, however, to prove that she was a witch, her hair would be burned; in addition, she will pay twenty gold fines to the carol and immediately leave Damme for a period of three years; if she violates the court's decision, she will be sentenced to amputation of her hand.
The people applauded this cruel indulgence.
The executioner tied Kathleen to a post and, placing a bundle of tow on her shaved head, set fire to it. The tow burned for a long time, and Kathleen wept and screamed.
Finally, she was untied and taken out of Damme in a cart, because her legs were burned ... "
After this punishment Kathleen went mad.
The fight against witchcraft was successfully exported from Europe and to other continents. On February 8, 1692, the Salem Witch Trials took place in Massachusetts. It all started with the fact that two young girls in the city of Salem began to convulse every now and then, and when someone wanted to help them, they would hide in corners, scratch and bite. The local priest had no doubt that they were possessed by Satan. He was unable to expel him from them, and meanwhile other teenagers began to show similar symptoms. There is a version that the cause of the children's strange behavior was the fascination with Voodoo magic, which was practiced by the girls' nannies - slaves brought from the island of Barbados. However, the Protestant pastors believed that the children were being bewitched by witches, the teenagers were summoned to court and demanded to name the witches. They named so many that in a year 141 people were accused of witchcraft in prisons, and 19 women were hanged.
Surprisingly, it was not the persecutors of witches who looked crazy in those days, but their intercessors. When in early XVII century, the demonologist Friedrich von Spee, who sent many women to the fire, suddenly revised his views and turned from a persecutor into an intercessor, many thought that he had lost his mind. One incident helped Friedrich radically change his worldview. He was present at the torture of a woman accused of witchcraft. And suddenly the “witch” not only confessed to witchcraft, but also pointed to von Spee as the most shameless worshiper of Satan. According to her, he allegedly turned into a wolf and a goat, copulated with witches and was the father of babies born with frog heads and spider limbs.
It must be assumed at that moment that von Spee realized that if he were not such a famous fighter against the intrigues of the Devil, he would soon hang on the rack and jerk his legs over the flames. Putting himself in the place of the condemned, Friedrich repented that he treated them so cruelly, even turned gray with remorse. And in 1631 he published an essay "A Warning to the Accusers", in which he exposed the methods of the inquisitors. True, he did not dare to put his name under this essay, and it became anonymous.
And the most famous execution of a witch in the centuries was the burning of Joan of Arc on May 30, 1431 in the city of Rouen.
Against the Virgin of Orleans, who was captured by the Burgundians in May 1430, who sold her to the British, the Inquisition opened a process on charges of witchcraft, disobedience to the church and wearing menswear. The judicial and ecclesiastical investigation dragged on for more than a year. But the French heroine was doomed.
Bishop Cochon tritely deceived the poor girl. He showed her a stacked fire on which she would die if she did not admit her guilt and promised to transfer her from an English prison to a church prison, where she would be provided with good care if she signed a paper on obedience to the Church and renunciation of heresies. The heroine who saved France did not know how to write and put a cross on paper instead of a signature. Meanwhile, she was taken away women's clothing, and she, for lack of another, dressed a man's. This meant that she had fallen into heresy a second time, for which forgiveness could no longer be. The tribunal sentenced her to death at the stake.
On May 30, at 9 o'clock in the morning, Joan of Arc with a paper miter on her head, on which was the inscription: "Heretic, apostate, idolater," was taken out of prison and taken in a cart under escort of 80 English soldiers to the Old Market Square in Rouen. Here everything was already ready for the exemplary execution: wooden platforms for judges and a scaffold for Joan of Arc were knocked together. It had a plaster base, around which firewood rose in stacks. And in the middle of the scaffold there was a pillar with a board, where it was written: "Joan, who calls herself the Virgin, an apostate, a witch, an accursed blasphemer, a bloodsucker, a servant of Satan, a schismatic and a heretic." Considering Joan's great popularity in France and rumors that her associates were ready to fight her off, serious precautions were taken. Around the scaffold in the cordon stood 800 English soldiers who did not let the townspeople close to the condemned woman. Even the wooden shutters of the windows overlooking the square were ordered to be closed.
Bishop Cauchon announced the verdict of the church court: “... We declare you, Jeanne, a harmful member of the church and, as such, we excommunicate you from it: we give you into the hands of secular authorities, asking her, however, to commute your sentence and save you from self-mutilation and death... Jeanne was indeed delivered from self-mutilation, but not from the fire. The executioner tied the girl to a post on the scaffold and, going down, brought fire to the firewood. "Bishop, I'm dying because of you. I call you to God's judgment!" - Zhanna shouted from the height of the fire and asked to give her a cross. The executioner handed her two crossed twigs. Soon the fire engulfed the clothes of the convict. Jeanne was young and well built. Eyewitnesses of the execution said that for some time everyone was looking at "the secrets that a woman can only have." But many cried.
The executioner was instructed, after the convict died, to fill the fire so that the townspeople could inspect the remains and make sure that they belonged to the Virgin of Orleans. When he had done this, he kindled the fire again. The ashes left from the national heroine of France were scattered over the Seine.
On May 16, 1920, the Virgin of Orleans Jeanne d "Arc was canonized by the Catholic Church.
The church fathers themselves inflated the possibilities of witches and sorcerers, and then, as if courageously fought against a strong opponent. For example, in 1500, Pope Alexander VI in his bull first mentioned the reality of witches and sorcerers moving through the air and admitted the reality of the "sabbat". Lawsuits immediately rolled with accusations of reincarnation in animals, flights to the Sabbath, sexual intercourse with the devil. Catholic theologians joined in injecting horror into people and began to talk about the reality of "incubi", "succubi", wolves, covens, levitation, etc. In the face of such a threat, bonfires blazed all over Europe really looked like deliverance.
Yes, thanks to the fathers christian church horror stories about witches and cleavers for many years have become the main horror stories for people and an explanation of all the events that occur against their will.
Witches continued to be executed in Europe for quite some time. In the Austrian city of Salzburg in 1678, 97 sorcerers and witches were executed on charges of damaging livestock. The last witch execution in British history took place in 1684, when Alice Molland was hanged by a court in Exeter. And the last convicted witch was Jane Wenham, but the court, held in 1712 in the city of Hertford, found it possible to save her life.
In 1775, 9 women were hanged in Poland for entering into an alliance with the devil. The Guinness Book of Records says that last time on June 18, 1782, the servant Anna Geldi was executed by a court verdict for witchcraft in the Swiss city of Glarus. The investigation against her lasted 17 weeks and 4 days. And most this time she spent shackled in chains and fetters. True, Geldi was saved from being burned alive. She had her head cut off.
However, even when "old Europe" changed her mind, the superstitions generated by her continued to exist on the other side of the Atlantic. It must be assumed that the settlers from Europe who brought their ideas about witches and sorcery to America did not know that in their homeland torturing and burning poor women had already gone out of fashion, and therefore continued to do so. In Catholic Mexico in 1877, five women convicted of witchcraft were burned at the same stake.
And the last witch in the history of mankind was burned in the Mexican city of Camargo in 1860.
Experts have calculated that during the witch hunt in the XVI and XVII centuries. was executed by at least, 200 thousand women.
One of the most big mysteries in history there remains a strange insanity that engulfed Europe in XV-XVII centuries, as a result of which thousands of women suspected of witchcraft went to the fires. What was it? Malicious intent or cunning calculation?
Regarding the fight against witches in medieval Europe there are many theories. One of the most original is that there was no insanity. People really struggled with dark forces, including witches that bred all over the world. If desired, this theory can be developed.
As soon as the fight against witchcraft was stopped, revolutions began to break out here and there in the world, and terrorism began to acquire ever greater scope. And in these phenomena, women played a significant role, as if turning into vicious furies. And in inciting the current "color" revolutions, they also play a significant role.
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. AT Ancient Rome they chose punishment for sorcerers depending on the harmfulness of their deeds. For example, if the one who harmed by witchcraft could not pay compensation to the victim, he should have been mutilated. In some countries witchcraft was punishable by death.
Everything changed with the advent of Christianity. Drinking, walking on the side and deceiving your neighbor began to be considered a sin. And sins were declared the machinations of the devil. In the Middle Ages, the vision of the world ordinary people began to form the most educated people of that era - the clergy. And they imposed their worldview on them: they say that all the troubles on earth come from the devil and his henchmen - demons and witches.
All natural disasters and failures in business were attributed to the machinations of witches. And it seems that an idea has arisen - the more witches to exterminate, the more happiness will be brought to all the remaining people. At first, witches were burned singly, then in pairs, and then in tens 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 from pain in his heart and kidneys, and after a while he died. In France, the first known burning of a witch took place in Toulouse in 1285, when a woman was accused of cohabiting with the devil, causing her to allegedly give birth to a cross between a wolf, a snake and a man. And after some time, the executions of witches in France became massive. In the years 1320-1350, 200 women climbed the fires in Carcassonne, 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 bull on witches by Pope Adrian VI in 1523, more than 100 witches were burned annually in the Como region alone. But most of the witches were in Germany. The German historian Johann Scherr wrote: “Executions committed at once on whole masses begin in Germany around 1580 and continue 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 process 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 gate. In the small county of Genneberg, 22 witches were burned in one year in 1612, 197 in 1597-1876 ... In Lindheim, with 540 inhabitants, 30 people were burned from 1661 to 1664.
There were even their record holders for executions. The judge of Fulda, Balthasar Foss, boasted that he alone 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 four to fourteen. 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 even more brutal was his cousin, Prince-Bishop Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim, who executed more than 600 people in Bamberg in the period 1623-1633. The last mass burning in Germany was arranged by the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1678, when 97 people immediately went to the fire.
Alas, Russia did not remain aloof from the witch hunt. So, when a plague epidemic broke out in Pskov in 1411, 12 women were burned at once on charges of spreading the disease. However, in comparison with Western Europe, we can say that in Russia witches were tolerated. And they were usually severely punished only if they plotted against the sovereign. In general, they rarely burned, more and more flogged.
In Europe, they not only burned, but also tried to execute with particular sophistication. The judges sometimes insisted that her young children be present during the execution of the witch. And sometimes, together with the witch, they sent her relatives to the fire. In 1688, an entire family, including children and servants, was burned to death for witchcraft.
In 1746, not only the accused was burned, but also her sister, mother and grandmother. And finally, the execution itself at the stake was as if specially made in order to further disgrace the woman. First of all, her clothes were burned, and for some time she remained naked in full view of the large crowd that had gathered to watch her being killed. In Russia, they were usually burned in log cabins, perhaps to avoid this very shame.
Not only the Inquisition
It is generally accepted that the Inquisition arranged a witch hunt. It's hard to deny, but it should be noted that not only she. For example, in the Bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg, it was not the Inquisition that raged, but the Episcopal courts. In the town of Lindheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, ordinary people tried witches. The tribunal was headed by soldier Geiss, a veteran of the Thirty Years' War. The jury consisted of three peasants and a weaver. The inhabitants of Lindheim nicknamed these people from the people "juries-bloodsuckers" because they sent people to the stake for the slightest provocation.
But perhaps the most evil were the Protestant leaders of the Reformation, Calvin and Luther, whom we used to represent as heroes of light who challenged dark Catholics. Calvin introduced new way burning heretics and witches. To make the execution longer and more painful, the condemned were burned on damp wood. Martin Luther hated witches with all his heart and volunteered to execute them himself.
In 1522, he wrote: “Sorcerers and witches are the essence of evil devilish offspring, they steal milk, bring bad weather, send damage to people, take away strength in their legs, torture children in the cradle, force people to love and copulate, and there are no number of intrigues of the devil ". And under the influence of his sermons, Protestants in Germany sent women to the stake on the slightest suspicion.
It must be said that the Inquisition, although it conducted the bulk of the witch trials, strictly followed the procedural rules in its work * For example, it was required that the witch confessed. True, for this, the inquisitors came up with a bunch of different devices for torture. For example, a “witch chair” equipped with sharp wooden spikes, on which the suspect was forced to sit for days.
Some witches wore leather boots on their feet. big size and pour boiling water into them. Feet in such shoes literally welded. And Brigitte von Ebikon in 1652 was tortured with boiled eggs, which were taken out of boiling water and put under her armpits.
In addition to confession, another proof of the connection of women with the devil could be a test with water. It is curious that the Christians adopted it from the pagans. Even the laws of Hammurabi at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC recommended that the accused of witchcraft go to the Deity of the River and plunge into the River; if the River seizes 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 on her body of the "mark of the devil." There were two varieties of them - the "witch's sign" and the "brand of the devil." The "witch's sign" was supposed to resemble the third nipple on the woman's body, it was believed that through it she fed the demons with her own blood.
And the "brand of the devil" was called an unusual growth on the skin of a person, insensitive to pain. Now there is a theory that the "witch's mark" and the "brand of the devil" are characteristic of only one disease. It's leprosy, or leprosy.
As leprosy develops, the skin begins to thicken and form ulcers and nodules that may indeed resemble a nipple and are insensitive to pain. And given that the apogee of the spread of leprosy in Europe fell on the Middle Ages, it turns out that the inquisitors, under the guise of a witch hunt, fought against an epidemic of leprosy.
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 by hunting for witches. 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 restrain women by force, they threatened to send all sorts of misfortunes on them. The dominance of women was a danger to church foundations, since it was believed that the daughters of Eve, the perpetrators of the fall, could bring great harm Give them freedom and power.
It is no coincidence that with the help of accusations of witchcraft, women who have achieved great influence and high position were often dealt with. 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. A proof of connection with evil spirit became the sixth finger on one hand of Anna.
And the most famous execution of a witch in centuries was the burning of Joan of Arc on May 30, 1431 in the city of Rouen. The Inquisition initiated a process to accuse the Virgin of Orleans of witchcraft, disobedience to the church and wearing men's clothing. During her execution in the middle of the scaffold there was a pillar with a board , where it was written: "Joan, who calls herself the Virgin, an apostate, a witch, a cursed blasphemer, a bloodsucker, a servant of Satan, a schismatic and a heretic."
The Guinness Book of Records says that the last time, according to a court verdict, for witchcraft, the maid Anna Geldi was executed in the Swiss city of Glarus in June 1782. The investigation against her lasted 17 weeks and 4 days. And most of this time she spent in chains and shackles. True, Geldi was saved from being burned alive. She had her head cut off.
And the last witch in the history of mankind was burned in the Mexican city of Camargo in 1860. Experts estimate that at least 200,000 women were executed during the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Oleg LOGINOV
Why were witches burned and not executed in some other way? History itself provides the answer to this question. In the article we will try to figure out who was considered a witch, and why exactly burning was the most radical way to get rid of witchcraft spells.
Who is this witch
Witches have been burned and persecuted since Roman times. The fight against witchcraft reached its apogee in the XV-XVII centuries.
What had to be done so that a person was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake? It turns out that during the Middle Ages, in order to get accused of practicing witchcraft, it was enough just to be a beautiful girl. Any woman could be accused, and on completely legal grounds.
Witches were considered those who had a special mark on their body in the form of a wart, a huge mole, or just a bruise. If a cat, an owl or a mouse lived with a woman, she was also considered a witch.
A sign of involvement in the witching world was both the beauty of the girl and the presence of any bodily deformity.
The most important reason to end up in the dungeons of the Holy Inquisition could be the usual denunciation of blasphemy, bad words about power, or behavior that arouses suspicion.
The representatives arranged interrogations so skillfully that people confessed to everything that was demanded of them.
Witch burning: the geography of executions
When and where did the executions take place? In what century were witches burned? The avalanche of atrocities falls on the Middle Ages, and the countries in which there was a Catholic faith were mainly involved. For about 300 years, witches have been actively exterminated and persecuted. Historians claim that about 50,000 people were convicted of witchcraft.
Inquisitorial bonfires burned throughout Europe. Spain, Germany, France and England - these are the countries where witches were burned en masse, by the thousands.
Even little girls under the age of 10 were classified as witches. Children died with curses on their lips: they cursed their own mothers, who supposedly taught them the skill of witchcraft.
The legal proceedings themselves were carried out very quickly. Those accused of witchcraft were interrogated quickly, but with the use of sophisticated torture. Sometimes people were condemned in batches and mass witches were burned at the stake.
Torture prior to execution
The torture applied to women who were accused of witchcraft was very cruel. There are cases in history when suspects were forced to sit for days on a chair studded with sharp spikes. Sometimes the witch was put on large shoes - boiling water was poured into it.
In history, the test of a witch with water is also known. The suspect was simply drowned, it was believed that it was impossible to drown a witch. If a woman, after being tortured with water, turned out to be dead, she was justified, but who was it easier for?
Why was burning preferred?
Execution by burning was considered a "Christian type of execution", because it took place without the shedding of blood. Witches were considered criminals worthy of death, but since they repented, the judges asked to be “merciful” to them, that is, to kill without bloodshed.
In the Middle Ages, witches were also burned because the Holy Inquisition was afraid of the resurrection of a condemned woman. And if the body is burned, then what is the resurrection without the body?
The very first case of burning a witch was recorded in 1128. The event took place in Flanders. The woman, who was considered an ally of the devil, was accused that, after she poured water on one of the rich men, he soon fell ill and died.
At first, cases of executions were rare, but gradually acquired a massive character.
Execution procedure
It should be noted that the victims were also acquitted. There are statistics indicating that the number of acquittals of the accused corresponded to half litigation. A tortured woman could even receive redress for her suffering.
The condemned woman was to be executed. It should be noted that the execution has always been a public spectacle, the purpose of which is to frighten and intimidate the public. The townspeople hurried to the execution in festive clothes. This event attracted even those who lived far away.
Mandatory during the procedure was the presence of priests and government officials.
When everyone was assembled, a cart appeared with the executioner and future victims. The public had no sympathy for the witch, they laughed at her and made fun of her.
The unfortunate were chained to a pole, covered with dry branches. After the preparatory procedures, a sermon was obligatory, where the priest warned the public against communication with the devil and engaging in witchcraft. The role of the executioner was to light the fire. Servants watched the fire until there was no trace of the victim.
Sometimes the bishops even competed among themselves, which of them will be able to produce more of which are accused of witchcraft. This type of execution according to the torment experienced by the victim is equated with crucifixion. The last burnt witch was recorded in history in 1860. The execution took place in Mexico.
Burn everyone. God knows his.
Arno Amaury
Twenty-three years old, unmarried, healer, granddaughter of a heretic. It is amazing that she came to us only now. Obviously not without someone's patronage. I measure the girl stretched on the rack with an appraising look.
Now even the intercession of the king will not help her.
I involuntarily catch myself thinking that the girl is only three years younger than me. And she is beautiful. For some reason, beautiful people have always been harder for me to interrogate. I see almost the same age in this room for the first time. I shake my head sharply, banishing the delusion. Not! You can’t allow yourself such thoughts, these are all witches’ machinations.
As if sensing my presence, she opens her eyes. Green. Just a witch.
- Are you sorry for me? the girl asks, smiling slightly. Or maybe she just grimaced in pain.
“I pity all the lost souls,” I answer with dignity.
The witch chuckles and closes her eyes again. I move closer to check the tension level. Fourth. No wonder she is so calm.
Rope, water, fire. The Holy Inquisition allows only three types of torture. I wonder after what witch confesses her sins?
“Guilty,” she says quietly, as if reading my mind.
- What? — I can't believe my ears.
“We both know how this will end, so why suffer? she says a little louder, opening her eyes and fixing her long, hard gaze on me.
Why didn't you confess before the torture began? I ask incredulously, sensing a trick.
- Night on the rack pushes for certain reflections.
Silence. I do not know what to do. The witch seems to think she has said enough.
"You do understand that you're still being executed, don't you?" This is the only way to cleanse your soul.
She chuckles.
“You can torture me, just spare me your shameless lies.
I look at her in bewilderment. The witch scrutinizes me just as intently, until finally her lips stretch into a bitter smile.
“You really believe it.
Not a question - a statement.
Of course I believe! Therefore, those who repent are burned at the stake, and not ...
"Stupid," she says softly.
That's it, it's time to get out of here before this witch has bewitched me. I turn around and walk towards the door, but I stop at the very threshold.
What am I doing?
- What is your name? I ask quietly, but she can still hear me.
- Who cares? the witch responds indifferently in a tired voice and closes her eyes again.
I get angry at myself for showing weakness and abruptly close the door, leaving the girl alone. She confessed that she would be executed tomorrow. My job is to record the testimony and send it to court, so why does the thought of her piercing green eyes bother me?
I must tell the guards to untie her and send her back to the dungeon. Yes. Now calm down and do some paperwork.
Agnes Mercier. Her name is Agnes Mercier. At least, that's how it was written in the verdict, which had just been read from a wooden pedestal.
Yesterday I did an unforgivable stupidity. I wonder if the deception will be revealed? If they find out what I've done... No, it's better not to even think about it. Especially now, when such thoughts betray me as a narcissistic boy. After all, it's not me who is now being tied to a pole, under which logs have already been laid out.
Agnes doesn't try to break free, she doesn't scream, she doesn't beg for mercy - she just stares up somewhere with her green witch eyes.
The executioner brings a lit torch to the logs. To his surprise, the fire flares up more slowly than usual, and a shiver runs through my body. They guess. At least the witch seems to have figured it out.
The serene expression on her face is replaced by surprise, then incomprehension, after which she begins to look for someone in the crowd with her eyes. Meeting my gaze, she smiles slightly and whispers with her lips: “Thank you.”
I look away in embarrassment.
Help the witch. Satisfied? It could cost you your dignity, if not your freedom. And all for what? Alleviate witch suffering?
But she didn't deserve...
Why do you say that? I saw a young girl and felt sorry like the last fool. Why on earth do you think that everyone else deserved a painful death more than she?
Now it's too late. It is done.
The bonfire flares up.
But the witch does not feel pain for long. Less than a minute passes, and she passes out, although the flames barely reached her ankles. The executioner looks at her incredulously, but nothing can be done. The crowd lets out a disappointed sigh - they were hoping for a spectacle, for screams, swearing and cursing.
From the book of N. Bessonov "Courts on witchcraft."
Germany of the 17th century. Pillars are dug into the ground in a wasteland. Around them are stacks of logs. Chains and bundles of brushwood are prepared ahead of time. A lot of people gathered for the execution, but pandemonium is not expected. It was during the early trials that six to eight thousand spectators gathered from all the neighborhoods.
The owners of taverns and inns fairly replenished their wallets. Now the sharp spectacle has become boring. The scorched bald patches at the burning sites became a common part of the landscape - so ordinary that it was a curiosity only for a foreigner.
In 1631, Cardinal Albizzi wrote on the road 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, “smoke from bonfires rises from everywhere throughout Germany, which obscures the light ...”. The famous historian Johann Scherr made the same generalizations: "... Every city, every town, every prelacy, every noble estate in Germany lit fires ..."
Here is a small village of Reichertshofen snatched at random. Here, in mid-seventeenth centuries witch-hunts claimed fifty lives. The sparsely populated Weizenstein 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 those executed was replenished gradually. Two or three victims were usually burned at a time. Such was the rhythm of "quiet" times. But during bursts of hysteria, auto-da-fe were arranged, striking in their size even Germans accustomed to everything.
The chronicle of the city of Braunschweig for 1590 contains a very vivid comparison. “The place of execution looked like a small forest because of the number of pillars,” the chronicle says. The strength of the German terror can be especially visibly appreciated if we simultaneously, as if from a bird's eye view, take a look at different places.
Let us mentally fast forward to October 1582.
Each town distinguished itself by a crowded execution, counting the victims by dozens - and all this with an interval of several days. Indeed, the French judge Henri Bauget was right when he described his impressions around 1600: “Germany is almost completely covered with bonfires built for witches. Switzerland was also forced to wipe out many of its villages. In Lorraine, a traveler can see thousands and thousands of pillars to which witches are tied. Henri Boge 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 have also been reported in France. In Briancon in 1428, 110 women and 57 men were burned alive. In Toulouse in 1557, 40 witches were burned. The scope of the very first trials in the south of France was terrible. They are comparable in terms of the number of victims of terror in the German bishoprics.
In Bamberg and Würzburg - two German cities - witch-hunts began in the 17th century almost simultaneously and in a short time claimed fifteen hundred lives. In Bamberg, 600 witches and sorcerers were burned, in Würzburg 900. They led the terror cousins who had the title of "prince-bishop": Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg and Gottfried Johann Georg.
The ideological inspirers were the Jesuits. First of all, those who stood out among the townspeople for beauty, wealth, position or good education. At the same time, many children died who had not yet had time to prove themselves.
On February 16, 1629, a list was drawn up in Würzburg, including 157 people. Of course, it is not complete, since the executions continued further. To the general surprise of the investigators, there were many men among the victims.
The Thirty Years' War was on, and the cities were filled with refugees. Worth paying Special attention how many "foreigners" were destroyed.
“First burning: four. Liber's wife; old widow Anker; Goodbort's wife; Hecker's fat wife.
Second burning: four. old wife Boytler; two visiting women; old woman Schenker.
Third burning: five. Musician; Kuler's wife; the wife of the prosecutor Stir; brushmaker's wife; jeweler's wife.
Fourth burning: five. Wife of Sigmund Glaser, burgomaster; Brickmann's wife; midwife; old woman Rum; visitor.
Seventh burning: seven. A coming girl of twelve; visitor; arriving; village headman from foreign places; three visiting women. In addition, a guard was executed in the market square, from whom several witches escaped.
Ninth burning: five. Wagner Wundt; visitor; daughter of Bentois; wife of Bentz; Airing's wife.
Tenth burning: three. Steinaner, one of the richest citizens; visiting man and woman.
Eleventh burning: four. Schwerdt, vicar of the cathedral; the wife of a manager from Rensaker; Stitcher'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; 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; a boy of ten; two daughters of the exiled from the head of the council and his maid; Seiler's fat wife.
Eighteenth burning: six. Furrier Butch; a boy of twelve; another boy of twelve; Jungen's daughter, a girl of fifteen; coming.
Twentieth burning: six. Babelin Gobel, the most beautiful girl in Würzburg; a fifth-year student who knows many languages, he is also a musician, outstanding for his singing and playing the musical instruments; two boys of twelve from Münster; Shteper'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. At the approach of the Protestant army, the Catholic prelates with their treasures fled to Cologne. After 1631, the archbishop of Mainz, the bishops of Bamberg, Würzburg, Worms, Speer, and the abbot of Fulda gathered in Cologne. At the new location, fanatics organized another witch hunt.
A few years later, burnings in hitherto tolerant Cologne began to bother even the Pope, and he sent two cardinals to the unfortunate city to ease the mania. Feeling the support of Rome, sane people perked up and managed to curb the presumptuous guests.
Historians find few excuses for ferocious bishops. Only two facts speak in their favor. First, the Bishop of Würzburg acted under the influence of fanaticism, not just greed. He personally ordered the execution of the young nephew, although in the future he grieved very much for the loss.
The German historian I. Scherr writes: “Executions, carried out at once on whole masses, begin in Germany around 1580 and continue for almost a century. While the whole of Lorraine was smoking from the fires ... in Padeborn, in Brandenburg, in Leipzig and its environs, many executions were also carried out.
In the county of Werdenfeld in Bavaria in 1582, one trial led 48 witches to the stake ... In Braunschweig between 1590-1600. burned so many witches (10-12 people daily) that their pillory stood in a "dense forest" in front of the gates.
In the small county of Genneberg, 22 witches were burned in one year in 1612, in 1597-1876. - only 197...
In Lindheim, with 540 inhabitants, from 1661 to 1664. 30 people were burned. Fulda's judge of sorcerers, Balthazar Voss, boasted that he alone burned 700 people of both sexes and hoped to bring the number of his victims to 1,000.
In the county of Neisse (belonging to the bishopric of Breslau) from 1640 to 1651. burned about 1000 witches; we have descriptions of more than 242 executions; among the victims come across children from 1 to 6 years. At the same time, several hundred witches were murdered in the bishopric of Olmütz.
In Osnabrück, 80 witches were burned in 1640. A certain Mr. Rantsov burned on one day in 1686 in Holstein 18 witches. 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 sex ...
The last burning on a huge scale was arranged by the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1678; at the same time, 97 people fell victim to holy fury. 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 perished. We won't exaggerate if we put the number of victims at 100,000."
In England, the Inquisition destroyed "only" about a thousand people. Under Henry VIII, Lutherans were the first to be 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 erected on a fire.
In France, the first known burning took place at Toulouse in 1285, when a woman was accused of cohabiting with the devil, from which she allegedly gave birth to a cross between a wolf, a snake and a man. In 1320-1350. 200 women climbed the fires 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 verdict as follows: “The executioner will have to drag him in one shirt on a mat, with a slingshot around his neck and a board on his shoulders, on which should be written following words: "Atheist and blasphemer."
The executioner must deliver him to the main gate of the city's cathedral of Saint-Étienne and there put him on his knees, barefoot, with his head bare. In his hands he must hold a lit wax candle and will have to beg for the forgiveness of God, the king and the court.
Then the executioner will take him to the Place de Salene, tie him to a stake erected there, rip out his tongue and strangle him. After that, his body will be burned on a fire prepared for this, and the ashes will be scattered to the wind.
The historian of the Inquisition testifies to the madness that swept the Christian world in the 15th-17th centuries: “The witches were no longer burned singly or in pairs, but in tens and hundreds. It is said that one Bishop of Geneva 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 Senate of Savoy ... In 1586, summer was late in the Rhine provinces and the cold lasted until June; this could only be the work of sorcery, and the Bishop of Trier burned one hundred and eighteen women and two men, from whom the consciousness was torn out that this continuation of the cold was the work of their spells.
Special mention should be made of the Bishop of Würzburg, Philipp-Adolf 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 fattest woman and the fattest man - the deviation from the norm seemed to the bishop direct evidence of connections with the devil.
In general, in the executions of witches, fanatics showed amazing ingenuity. Engravings and sketches of that time show a variety of techniques. There, a woman, screwed to a ladder, is knocked face down into the raging flames.
Here the executioners lay 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 chars for a long time. bare feet and got to the body only after the thick boards burned from below.
Most often, the artist depicts the classic burning at the stake. But here, too, there are options. Women and girls are bolted to the pole standing or sitting, several at once or one by one.
Written sources allow for a few more additions. In Mainz in 1587, the witch was hoisted onto a woodpile, stabbed alive in a barrel. In Rheinbach, the convicts were tied to a pole and lined with straw from top to bottom - so that they were completely hidden from view.
It is known that in other cities they were burned in the so-called straw hut. But in Neiss, 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 what they had achieved. For nine years, about a thousand witches took a painful death, among which even two-year-olds came across!
They developed their own method of burning in Scotland. Here, there are many bills left from the processes to pay for firewood, poles, straw - in short, everything that is needed for the execution. A tar barrel is often mentioned. The sorceress was forced to climb into a barrel half her height, then tied to a pole and stuffed straw around. Sometimes the package also included coal and a tarred shirt for a suicide bomber.
The engraving with the execution of a pregnant woman stands out for its terrible naturalism. The ancient author undertook, to the best of his ability, to show how the stomach bursts from the heat of the fire, and the child falls into the flames in front of the eyes of the crowd. The executioner at the same time continues to stir the coals with a long pole.
Scenes like these really happened in 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 crossroads of Bordage was set aside for executions.
According to historians, there were three times more women among those convicted of witchcraft than men. 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 tongues of flame and 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, from among the henchmen of the executioner. Seeing how strange everything was, the baly thought about it and ordered the poor child to be thrown back into the fire.
There is no doubt that the same thing happened during the massacres of sorceresses. For example, in Bamberg in 1630, the pregnant wife of Councilor Dumler was severely tortured and burned.
Mothers experienced severe mental anguish, along with whom they condemned their children to death. In Austria, in 1679, Emerenzina Pichler was burned, and a couple of days later, after her children, twelve and fourteen years old.
Often several generations of relatives were executed at the same time. In 1688, an entire family, including children and servants, was burned to death for witchcraft. In 1746, not only the accused was burned, but also her sister, mother and grandmother.
