The Bible reports in Exodus (Ex 7,11) of the magicians
in the ancient Egypt and warns in the book Levi (Lev 19,26) to imitate
this. Also the apostle Paulus considered it necessary to warn of sorcery
in his epistle to the Galatians (Gal 5,10). That's no wonder, because the
Romans living at that time had already
six different expressions for witches. Their meanings covered the whole
area between the extremes saga = wise woman and malefica = damage magician.
But why not until the Middle Ages the organized
witch-hunt came up?
Let's imagine going back into a time, when the night
wasn't made to day by electricity yet. A smoking pinewood spill, a flickering
oil lamp or a crackling campfire illuminates meager the very next surroundings.
Several meters remotely twilight begins. The flame throws flickering shadows,
breathes
a mysteriously twitching life into dead objects. Behind this the pitch-black
darkness lies with all its dangers and frights.
Then it happens: A child dies completely
unexpectedly, the calf urgently necessary for surviving the family is born
deformed and dies, hailstorms destroy the harvest.
People don't simply submit to their destiny,
they want explanations. Good events could be explained as the beneficial
work of God, bad incidents may be a rightful punishment. But why did it
happen also to righteous, good people again and again? The devil had to
have a finger in the pie here!
Because God as a Spirit is that exceedingly
grand and that little cognizable, people chose a woman, St Mary, to their
mediator. And because the devil as a profoundly bad Spirit also isn't cognizable,
people chose a woman as a mediator again: The witch.
At first the church opposed the belief in witches
vehemently. St Bonifatius called the belief in witches and demons "unchristian".
By the holy synod of Paderborn in the year 785 it was still prescribed,
that people who claim in their pagan belief there would be witches, should
be punished with the penalty of death and be burned at the stake. Within
not quite 500 years it came, however, to a radical about-turn: In 1264
the first witch became officially sentenced.
Where did this swing of opinion come from? By the
year 1000 heretical sects arose in all European countries. So the church
felt forced to change their point of view on the belief in witches bit
by bit. When in 1090 in Freisingen 3 so-called Wettermacherinnen (weatherwomen)
were burned, the church still opposed this. But only 60 years later burning
at the stake got the usual punishment for heresy.
Another 30 years later, on the Lateran council the
church called upon the worldly powers for fighting the heresy. This call
fell on a fertile soil: The belief in the supernatural was the breeding
ground and inexplicable bad experiences were the fertilizers that the seed
of the Inquisition needed for germinating. That time had plenty of both.
In 1227 Pope Gregor IX set up Inquisition courts.
In 1251 the Inquisition had expanded to all of Italy already. In 1251 torture
as a method for finding the truth was appreciated and thus, as already
mentioned, in 1264 the first witch could be sentenced officially.
In 1346 when the plague raged in all of Europe, people
needed an explanation once more. Besides the Jews also the witches were
to blame again and thus Inquisition spread like the plague before. In 1431
the Virgin of Orleans, Jeanne d' Arc, ended on the stake. Gutenberg invented
the letterpress with mobile characters in 1456. Now writings against heretics
and witches could be produced cheaply and got a far spreading. The famous
"Hexenhammer" (witch hammer, Malleus Maleficarum) was published 1487. This
book regards the woman as the main enemy of the church. It contains detailed
instructions for the court procedure and became a standard reference of
the witch judges. Now obsessive belief in witches also had reached Germany
to its full extent. Single voices against this, like the one of doctor
Johannes Weyer, who 1563 denounced the blackmailing of confessions by torture
as terrible faults in his book "Über Wunder der Dämonen, Beschwörungen
und Vergiftung" (about wonders of the demons, conjurations and poisoning),
faded away unheard. Instead sad records occurred increasingly: The archbishop
of Trier let 1585 burn so many woman as witches, that in two villages only
two woman each were left. The bishop of Gent let die the death of the stake
more than 600 persons within only six weeks. In Würzburg the bishop
in 1630 had 1,200 men and women burned; his colleague in Bamberg had 600
in the same year.
The method was simple, but effective. The verdict
was always certain before the beginning of the process already. For accusation
the evidence of one arbitrary person was sufficient, without any attention
to their reliability or past. Popular motives for informing were hating
competitors, envy, jealousy, avarice but also religious fanaticism. A physical
or intellectual abnormality as a charge's reason often already sufficed.
The real trial took place in a worldly court. Before
the "painful questioning", that means torture, the women were undressed
and completely shaved. Then followed questions about devil appearances,
sex with the devil, damage magic, child sacrifice etc., until the defendant
gave up because of the physical and mental pain and became "confessing".
As a "reward" for her confession she was then beheaded or strangled before
the stake was put into flames.
If a woman was exceptionally equal to all tortures,
one still could find the truth by "witches' ordeals". With the water test
the witch was tied up and thrown into the water. Witches are very light,
you see, so they can ride on their broom through the air. So if the woman
stayed on the surface of the water she was a witch and gets burned. If
she sank and drowned, her innocence was proved. Unfortunately she could
not enjoy this. In 1435 the inhabitant of Augsburg Agnes Bernauer lost
life that way. Also other tests, like the tear test or the needle test
were always designed in a way, that, no matter how the result turned out,
there wasn't any escape.
If, by way of exception, a woman was released, she
was a cripple by torture and emotional stress for the rest of her life.
The renaissance fortunately started spreading from
Italy at the end of the 16th century. Slowly but surely it reached all
of Europe. A critical rationalism regained importance. So the time got
ripe for a man, whose book "Cautio Criminalis" rang in the end of the burning
of witches.
Can you imagine that somebody had written a book
against persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich? Friedrich von Spee
at that time has done something very similar to that. He was a priest in
the Jesuit Order and it was his duty to look after witches as their father
confessor in prison and to accompany them on their last way to the stake.
Although absolutely believing in witches, this gruesome service let him
realize: These women were innocent all! So he published anonymously his
book, in which among other things he writes "I bet, that every bishop and
even the pope will confess to be a sorcerer, if only tortured correctly".
You are mistaken, if you think to have never heard something from Spee
yet! Impressed by the suffering of this woman he wrote the Advent song
"O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf" (O Savior tear up the heavens),
a desperate request to God to bring this horrible bustle to an end. The
first verse says "reiß ab, wo Schloß und Riegel für" (tear
up where lock and bolt are at) and the last verse starts "Hier leiden wir
die größte Not, vor Augen steht der ewig Tod" (we suffer the
greatest misery here, the eternally death in front of eyes).
Obviously his wish was fulfilled. It wasn't granted
to himself, to become a witness of the end of the witch trials, because
he died in 1635. But shortly before his death he wrote the Christmas carol
"Zu Bethlehem geboren" (born in Bethlehem). Perhaps this is a sign that
he already had found hope again and foresaw the end of the stakes?
1684 at all events the burnings of witches in England
ended, 1745 in France, 1777 in Germany, 1782 in Switzerland and 1792 in
Poland.
A sad chapter in the history of Europe ends - and
my report ends too.
Marianne S. Köhler (translated
by Franz Köhler)
