Witches: the history of a persecution by Nigel Cawthorne

Author:Nigel Cawthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781838579500
Publisher: Arcturus Digital Limited
Published: 2019-08-06T13:58:42+00:00

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In April 1631, when the persecution in Bamberg was dying down, the witch prison still held twenty-two inmates, including the Bishop’s treasurer. Their combined property, which had already been confiscated, amounted to 222,000 florins. This money had gone to line the pockets of Prince-Bishop Gottfried, who had already collected 500,000 florins from witches he had executed. According to the episcopal records, those who contributed included:

George Neudecker – 100,000 florins

Barbara Schleuch – 2,000 florins

Christina Miltenberger – 9,000 or 10,000 florins

Caspar Cörner, Bailiff of Münchsberg – 9,000 or 10,000 florins

Wolfgang Hoffmeister, Treasurer of Bamberg – 50,000 florins

By this time many of the prominent citizens of Bamberg had fled to Bohemia, Rome or the Holy Roman Emperor’s court at Regensburg. Prince-Bishop Gottfried had little time for the Emperor and his court, and disregarded it when he intervened on behalf of Dorothea Block, the wife of a wealthy citizen. There are no records of the charges against her, but she was not allowed a lawyer and was burnt like all the rest in May 1630. Her father fled. But Bamberg was not the only place suffering from the witch-craze at the time. In Strasbourg, it is estimated that five thousand witches were burnt between 1615 and 1635.

Witches were usually speedily dispatched, as in the case of Anna Hansen. On 17 June 1629, she was imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft. The following day, having refused to confess, she was scourged. On 20 June, she was tortured with the thumbscrews and confessed. On the 28th, her confession was read to her. Two days later she voluntarily confirmed her confession and was sentenced. On 4 July she was told of the date of her execution and on 7 July she was beheaded and burned.

Along with the thumbscrews, leg vices, strappado and squassation, the authorities also employed scourging on or off the strappado to extract a confession. Suspects were also put in stocks armed with long iron spikes for up to six hours. A rope was pulled around their neck until it cut down to the bone. They were force fed salted herring and denied water, or made to kneel on prayer stools that had sharp wooden pegs sticking out of them. Burning feathers, often dipped in sulphur, were held under the arms and groin. They were dunked in baths of freezing or scalding water to which lime had been added – six people were killed in nearby Zeil in 1630 while being tortured in this fashion.

After sentencing and on the way to being burned, extra punishments could be exacted, such as cutting off the right hand or tearing a woman’s breasts with red-hot pincers. But such barbarity began to bring criticism.

‘Some people began to feel great sympathy for the unfortunate victims,’ wrote Heinrick Türck of Paderborn, a Jesuit. ‘And grave doubts were raised as to whether the numerous persons who perished in the flames were really guilty and deserved so horrible a death. In fact, many people thought that this treatment of human beings, who had been bought with the precious blood of Christ, was cruel and more than barbaric.

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