The Inquisition is associated mainly with the Catholic Church and the bloody Spaniard Torquemada. But not everyone remembers how both Orthodox and Protestants were burned for blasphemy.

They have been fighting heretics since the first centuries of Christianity, but for a long time the most terrible punishment was excommunication from the Church. From the 13th century, heretics and witches began to be burned at the stake en masse.

“The purpose of the Inquisition is the destruction of heresy. Heresy cannot be destroyed without the destruction of heretics,” writes Bernard Guy in “The Inquisitor’s Guide.” “This can be achieved in two ways: by converting them to the true Catholic faith or turning their flesh to ashes.”

Most of the tribunals were political - already due to the fact that the full power belonged to the church, and none of the sovereigns of medieval Europe could argue with the Pope. Thus, Joan of Arc was burned allegedly for intercourse with the devil, but in fact for her role in the war against England, Giordano Bruno for believing in the infinity of the universe, Jan Hus for preaching against the Roman Church. The Inquisition also dealt with Jews and Protestants.

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The first inquisitorial courts were led by Dominicans - followers of Dominic Guzman. People began to call the Dominicans "Domini Canes", which in Latin means "dogs of God", and this nickname was loved by the order itself: they imagined themselves as dogs driving away wolves from the flock of Jesus.

The persecution of witches and sorcerers was carried out by the Inquisition with exceptional cruelty.

“I saw how the executioners crushed the slender human body, loosened it in all joints, forced the eyes to pop out of their sockets, pulled out the feet from the legs, the shoulders from the shoulder blades, jerked a person into the air, crushed bones, stabbed him with needles, burned him with sulfur, poured oil on him,” - this is how contemporary Pastor Mayfarth describes torture at the beginning of the 17th century.

Formally, the church did not punish heretics. The heretic was declared deprived of the patronage of the church and was “set free” with the words “let him be punished according to his deserts.” After this, the accused was handed over to the secular authorities, whose jurisdiction included execution.

The clergy called on the authorities to show mercy, as the inquisitors themselves admitted, so that it would not seem that the Inquisition agreed to the shedding of blood. However, the church vigilantly ensured that its verdict was not misunderstood by the secular authorities, and the heretic was guaranteed to be sent to the stake. At the same time, burning alive was the preferred execution precisely because “no blood was shed.”

Succubi and Incubi

In 1486, the most famous work on witches was published, Malleus Malificarum, or "The Hammer of the Witches", written by the inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. The opus, which described the importance of realizing the vileness of witchcraft and step-by-step instructions for the trial of a witch, became a reference book for inquisitors of all times.

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“It is no miracle that wives are more defiled by witchcraft heresy than men,” says the “Hammer of Witches.”

Women were more often accused of witchcraft, since it was believed that women were more lustful and more easily susceptible to the influence of the devil.

The first witch, burned in 1275 in Toulouse, was accused of carnal relations with the devil. In the Middle Ages, people believed in incubi and succubi - lustful demons in male or female guise that come during sleep and rape their victims. The intercourse of a man with such a demon was equated to sodomy - it did not matter whether he was an incubus or a succubus, since behind each mask there was a devil hiding.

Persecution of Jews

The Inquisition was most developed in Spain, which was densely populated by Jews and Moors, which contributed to xenophobia and religious fanaticism. Jews began to be baptized initially, but even after their conversion to Christianity they were constantly suspected of secretly adhering to the Jewish faith.

Even tempting smells from the kitchen could serve as a reason for persecution. At the end of the 15th century, Spanish Sephardic Jews were identified by the fact that they observed Shabbat, the Holy Saturday, by preparing a special dish, cholent, in advance.

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The book “A Drop of Honey. Recipes and fates of secret Jews in Spain,” which culinary expert Elena Chkalova cites in her article for Kommersant, tells how Jewish Beatriz Nunez cooked a dish of lamb stomachs, eggs and chickpeas. She was taken in the spring of 1485 following a denunciation from a maid, tortured, declared a heretic and burned at the stake. The recipe for the dish came to us in the interrogation reports.

“Maria Gonzales loved to cook a casserole of eggplant, eggs, cheese and herbs on Friday for Saturday. She was arrested in 1510 following a denunciation from a neighbor who smelled a “devilish” aroma coming from the kitchen. Maria was sentenced to life imprisonment with confiscation of property,” - writes Chkalova.

Holocaust in Bamberg and Würzburg

In the 17th century, two German towns gained fame as centers of witch hunts. In 1625-30, a number of high-profile trials took place in Bamberg. The ruler of the city, Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim, received the nickname “the witch bishop.”

Over five years, about 600 people, including noble people, were burned in Bamberg. Among the witches who died in the fire were dozens of little girls as young as seven years old.

Von Dornheim created a special prison for witches, where they were tortured. The trials took place so quickly that the defendants were interrogated in groups of ten and were recorded not by name, but by number: No. 1, No. 2...

“They all confessed that there were more than 1,200 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 everything to perish within four years in the whole country. wine, so that people would eat each other out of hunger," the sources wrote. "Others confessed that they produced such strong storms that trees were uprooted and large buildings collapsed and that they wanted to cause even stronger storms to bring down the Bamberg Tower ".

Anyone who showed sympathy for the victim was arrested. Among these was the district vice-chancellor, Dr. Georg Haan, who tried to stop the witch trials, but was himself convicted; he was burned at the stake along with his wife and daughter.

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At the same time, a witch hunt unfolded in neighboring Würzburg. The number of victims reached 900 people, while about 40% of those executed for witchcraft were men, while usually the vast majority were women. Among the sorcerers there were many priests who “betrayed the holy church and entered into an agreement with the devil.”

About 300 of those burned alive were boys and girls as young as nine years old. The list of those executed includes 19-year-old Gobel Babelin, “the most beautiful girl in the city.”

Protestant fanaticism

In the 17th century, the Inquisition targeted Protestants, followers of Martin Luther. But Protestants acted not only as victims, but also as executioners.

The first victim of Protestant fanaticism is considered to be the Spanish physician and philosopher Miguel Servet, who discovered the pulmonary circulation. His enemy was John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism. Servetus's book "The Restoration of Christianity", in which he called for a return to the origins of the Bible, refuted the dogma of the Trinity and advocated baptism at a conscious age, was recognized as heretical.

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Servet fled from the Inquisition. But in Geneva he was unlucky enough to go into a church where Calvin himself was preaching at that moment. It was he who recognized the fugitive and called the guards. On a cold October morning in 1553, a fire was prepared for 42-year-old Servetus. There were few logs, the weather was chilly, and the scientist had to burn slowly and painfully.

The most notorious Protestant witch trial (Salem's Lot) took place in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. Suddenly, one pastor's nine-year-old daughter and 12-year-old niece fell ill. Their doctor decided that the cause of the illness was the influence of a witch. The maid was arrested first - a slave, a beggar and a lonely widow... The sick girls claimed that they saw these women during seizures.

Then the circle of suspects began to grow exponentially. 150 people were jailed on charges of witchcraft, the youngest of whom was a four-year-old girl. 19 people were hanged. One suspect, an 80-year-old farmer, was subjected to particularly brutal torture - heavy stones were placed on his chest to extract a confession. The old man died two days later.

The trial ended when one of the pastors admitted that the visions could not be the basis for an accusation. Thanks to this, the remaining 28 suspects were released. But the sentences against “witches” were finally declared illegal only in the middle of the twentieth century.

Bonfires of the Russian Inquisition

Witch hunts and the fires of the Inquisition are common among Orthodox arguments for the fallacy of the Catholic faith. However, cruel sentences for blasphemy were characteristic of the history of Orthodoxy in Kievan Rus and the Moscow Empire.

The 12th-century chronicle “The Tale of Evil Souls,” compiled by Metropolitan Kirill, notes the need to punish witches and sorcerers by church courts. It says that in 1024, in the Suzdal land, wise men and “dashing women” were captured and put to death by burning. They were accused of being the culprits of the crop failure, writes Efim Grekulov in the book “The Orthodox Inquisition in Russia.”

I will not reveal the secret that in the history of civilization, the Middle Ages occupies a special page in World History, many curious people began to turn to legends, literature, architecture, even the movement of “Pre-Romanticism” arose - in generally accepted literary criticism - a complex of phenomena in English, for example, literature of the second half of the 18th century, including cemetery poetry, the Gothic novel and Ossianism. Particular interest was shown in the early and medieval times of European peoples, especially northerners.

In any country in Europe, there were two branches of power: the church and the monarchy, and so the first, in pursuit of ABSOLUTE power, used rather cruel measures of intimidation and obedience of the flock, which the most formidable monarch could not even dream of

Jan Luyken. Preparations for execution in 1544. 17th century engraving

Here is a fairly well-known fact of those times that has become a household word - “Witch Hunt” (not for the faint of heart)

Medieval witch trials - the witch trials - continue to confuse the minds of scientists and those interested in history today. Hundreds of thousands accused of witchcraft or connections with the devil were then sent to the stake. What are the reasons for such an insane outbreak of fear of evil spirits and witchcraft that swept Western Europe in the 15th-17th centuries? They are still unclear. Science almost always views the medieval witch hunt as something secondary, completely dependent on external circumstances - the state of society, the church. In this publication, I will make an attempt to explain the phenomenon of witch hunts, based on particular facts that at first glance are insignificant and have not received the attention of researchers. Much in the published article may seem unexpected. I hasten to assure you: by publishing my conclusions, I am not seeking sensationalism, but I am firmly convinced that the facts presented and their analysis deserve attention and further study.

Burning of witches at Reinstein Castle (near Blankenburg). 1555

Throughout Europe, starting from the 15th century, the fires of the Holy Inquisition burned.

For most historians (domestic and foreign), witch hunts are a horrifying phenomenon, but they fully correspond to the general structure of the superstitious, dark Middle Ages. This point of view is still very popular today. Meanwhile, it is easy to refute with the help of chronology. Most of the witches were burned at the stake of the Inquisition not in the initial period of the Middle Ages. The persecution of witches gained momentum in Europe in parallel with the development of humanism and the scientific worldview, that is, during the Renaissance.

Our historiography has always considered the witch hunt as one of the manifestations of the feudal-Catholic reaction that unfolded in the 16th-17th centuries. True, she did not take into account the fact that the devil’s servants were also burned with might and main in Protestant countries: anyone could become a victim, regardless of social status and religious views. The most popular social theory today has not escaped this view: witch hunts are only a very clear indicator of the degree of aggravation of intra-societal relations, the desire to find “scapegoats” who can be held responsible for all the problems and difficulties of existence.

Of course, the witch hunt, like any other historical phenomenon, cannot be studied abstractly, in isolation from the general historical outline. There is no arguing with this. However, when such an approach becomes prevalent, one has the right to ask the question: isn’t the phenomenon itself with its inherent features lost behind general conclusions? Facts and evidence from sources often only illustrate the picture drawn by the researcher. Although it is the study of facts and their details that is primary in any historical research.

None of the authors talking about witch hunts ignored all stages of the witchcraft process: the arrest of a witch, the investigation of crimes, sentencing and execution. Perhaps the greatest attention is paid to various tortures, which brought almost one hundred percent confession to all the most vile and monstrous accusations.

However, let us pay attention to a much less well-known procedure that preceded torture and essentially served as the main evidence of guilt. We are talking about searching for the so-called “seal of the devil” on the body of a witch or sorcerer. They searched for her, first simply examining the suspect’s body, and then injecting her with a special needle. The judge and executioners tried to find places on the accused that differed from the rest of the skin surface: whitish spots, ulcers, small swellings, which, as a rule, had such reduced pain sensitivity that they did not feel the prick of a needle.

Devil's Seals

This is what the Russian pre-revolutionary historian S. Tukholka says on this matter in his work "Witchcraft trials in Western Europe in the 15th-17th centuries": “Even before the torture, the sorceress was subjected to an operation to find the stigmata of the devil. To do this, the patient was blindfolded and long needles were pierced into the body.” Y. Kantorovich also writes about this in his work “Medieval Witchcraft Processes,” published in 1889: “If someone had ulcers or any traces on their body, the origin of which was unknown, then they were attributed to the devil. Therefore, first of all, "They resorted to testing with a needle. Often such a place devoid of sensitivity was actually found on the body." The fact that the presence of a “witches’ seal” was considered an absolute sign of guilt was also reported by the Soviet researcher I. Grigulevich. True, such facts were cited only to show the superstition and obscurantism inherent in both the medieval world in general and the clergy in particular.

Beating out confessions. Engraving

However, the attitude of the direct participants in the events, especially demonologists, towards witchcraft signs on the body was extremely serious. One of the first who speaks in his writings about devilish marks is theologian Lambert Dano: “There is not a single witch on whom the devil would not put some mark or sign of his power.” This opinion was shared by almost all theologians and demonologists. For example, Peter Osterman, in a treatise published in 1629, argued: “There has never yet been a person brought to trial who, having a mark, would lead an impeccable lifestyle, and not a single one of those convicted of witchcraft was convicted without a mark.” The same point of view was shared by the crowned demonologist, James I Stuart. This tireless fighter against witches in the treatise "Demonology" declared: "No one serves Satan or is called to worship before him without being marked by his mark. The mark is the highest proof, much more certain than accusations or even confessions."

There is nothing strange and wonderful in the very existence of some spots or marks on the human body. But if we admit that the stories about witch marks have a real basis, then the question should be asked: what were these marks? There are two main types of mysterious marks - the devil's mark and the witch's mark. The latter was a kind of tubercle or growth on the human body and, according to demonologists, was used by witches to feed various spirits with their own blood. The mark of the devil can rather be compared to a birthmark.

Instruments of torture

Researcher N. Przybyshevsky at work "Synagogue of Satan" gives a fairly detailed description of these signs: “The surface of the body of the possessed is marked on the outside with special signs. These are small, no larger than a pea, areas of the skin that are insensitive, bloodless and lifeless. They sometimes form red or black spots, but rarely. Just as rarely, they are marked by deepening of the skin "For the most part they are invisible from the outside and are found on the genitals. Often they are on the eyelids, on the back, on the chest, and sometimes, but rarely, they change place."

instruments of torture

Italian demonologist M. Sinistrari notes: “This mark is not always the same shape or contour, sometimes it looks like a hare, sometimes like a toad’s foot, a spider, a puppy, a dormouse. It is placed... in men under the eyelids or under the armpits ", or on the lips, or on the shoulders, in the anus, or somewhere else. In women, usually on the chest or in intimate places."

Instruments of torture

And yet the main sign by which the devil’s spot was distinguished in the Middle Ages was his insensitivity to pain. Therefore, when examining a potential witch, suspicious spots were necessarily pierced with a needle. And if there was no reaction to the injection, the accusation was considered proven. (Another significant feature of the “devil’s signs”: when pricked, these places not only did not feel pain, but also did not bleed.)

Devil's Spot

Let's abandon fantastic details, such as a fiery devil who brands his followers with his own hand (or other limb), and recognize the presence of any specific marks on the human body. But the description of “witch marks” is very reminiscent of some kind of skin disease. Indeed, why not assume that the overwhelming majority of people accused of witchcraft had a common disease? And only one disease fits all the above symptoms. This is leprosy, or leprosy, and today it is one of the most terrible illnesses, and in the Middle Ages it was a real scourge of God.

Here is what the medical encyclopedia, published in 1979, says about this disease: “It usually begins imperceptibly, sometimes with general malaise and fever. Then whitish or red spots appear on the skin, in these areas the skin becomes insensitive to heat and cold, does not feel touch and pain." Isn't it true that the picture of the disease is very reminiscent of demonological treatises?

In information gleaned from medical literature, one can find an explanation for such a phenomenon as the witch's nipple. With the further development of the disease, the skin begins to gradually thicken, ulcers and nodes form, which can actually resemble a nipple in their shape. Let's give one more quote: “Sometimes, on unchanged skin, limited lepromatous infiltrates appear in the dermis (tubercles) or in the hypodermis (nodes), which can merge into more or less powerful conglomerates. The skin underneath is oily, may be peeling, sensitivity is initially normal, later becomes upset and declines to varying degrees." Even the location of the “devilish signs” and lepromatous spots on the human body coincides.

And, finally, one more argument that allows us to identify leprosy and “devilish marks”: according to modern medical data, “impaired sensitivity in skin lesions is observed only in leprosy and in no other skin disease.”

So, with a high degree of confidence we can say that almost all sorcerers and witches condemned to death were at one stage or another affected by leprosy. The following conclusion naturally suggests itself: the persecution of witches was based on the desire of medieval society to protect itself from a terrible disease, the spread of which reached its apogee in the 15th-17th centuries. By exterminating lepers (an undoubtedly cruel measure), Europe, by the end of the 17th century, had to some extent coped with the leprosy epidemic.

And yet, seeing in the hunt for witches and sorcerers only a quarantine measure, and in judges and executioners - fighters against a dangerous disease, we are unnecessarily modernizing a phenomenon that was more than five centuries old. Leprosy at that time could be, and probably was, viewed as a sign of demonic possession, and that is why a merciless war of extermination was declared against the carriers of this disease. This aspect of the matter deserves careful study. Did the judges themselves believe that it was the devil’s spawn, and not sick and outcast people, who were being sent to the stake?

There is no absolutely certain answer to this question yet. However, it is likely that in the Middle Ages people knew the symptoms of leprosy quite well, and at least the privileged, educated layer of government and church leaders realized that they were fighting not the servants of Satan, but a contagious disease. It is no coincidence that doctors played a huge role in conducting witchcraft processes. As one modern researcher notes, doctors “took quite an active professional part in witch trials. Their duties included diagnosing diseases that arose as a result of witchcraft” and providing medical treatment for torture. Often, their conclusion decided the fate of the unfortunate witch.”

And yet there are sufficient grounds to assert that the witch hunt was objectively a fight against lepers. But first, let us turn to the procedure for identifying witches that existed among the people. It is known that the fear of the evil eye and damage, inherent in humanity since ancient times, is still alive today. What can we say about the time of the early Middle Ages? An angry crowd often carried out lynching of a person in whom they saw a sorcerer. But in order to punish a witch or sorcerer, they must first be identified. What means, born in the depths of the superstitious consciousness, were not used here!

The witch was recognized by the flight of a knife with an image of a cross thrown across her. And to identify all the witches in your parish, you had to take an Easter egg to church. True, the curious person took a risk: if the witch managed to snatch and crush the egg, his heart would have to break. Children's shoes, smeared with lard, brought to the church threatened to immobilize the witch. But perhaps the most common was the water test. Having tied the witch's right hand to her left leg and her left hand to her right leg, the witch was thrown into the nearest body of water. If she began to drown, then she was innocent, but if the water did not accept the sinner, then there was no doubt: she definitely served Satan. There was a widespread belief that the witch was lighter than other people: it was not for nothing that she flew through the air. Therefore, those accused of witchcraft were often tested by weighing.

Each of these methods could be used in one place in Europe and remain unknown in the rest. However, since the end of the 15th century, spontaneous popular reprisals against witches have been replaced by a clear system of combating them, in which the church and state take an active part. To identify a witch, only one procedure is used - pricking with a needle. A previously unknown trial is spreading across Europe, from Sweden to Spain. Moreover, the procedure is carried out the same everywhere. Doesn't this fact itself raise suspicions?

Indirect evidence of my version is the nature of witchcraft processes (after all, it is not for nothing that in the literature devoted to them they are called epidemics). It cannot be said that witches were persecuted regularly and evenly throughout Western Europe. Rather, we can talk about local and time-limited outbreaks of witch hunts. In one town, fires are blazing with might and main, while in others, no one seems to have heard of witches - perhaps because the intense struggle against witches unfolded in the places most affected by leprosy, and ended when an alarming number of lepers were destroyed.

If we assume that the medieval exterminators of witches and sorcerers knew what they were really fighting against, then we consider it logical that they would strive to isolate those accused of witchcraft from society as thoroughly as possible. Many authors (for example, J. Kantorovich and N. Speransky) mention that witches were kept in special, separate prisons. Demonologists, in their instructions, warn about the danger of close contact with witches, and recommend that judges avoid touching witches during interrogations. Although theologians believed that those who fight witches have the blessing of the church and are therefore not subject to their spells, practice often suggests the opposite. There are cases in the literature when the executioner and the judge conducting the trials were accused of witchcraft. This is not surprising: they had enough opportunities to become infected.

Place of execution in Sweden

The execution of children accused of witchcraft has always caused the greatest horror and was seen as wild fanaticism. In the 15th-17th centuries, even two-year-olds were put on fire. Perhaps the most shocking example comes from the city of Bamberg, where 22 girls between 9 and 13 years old were simultaneously set on fire. As already mentioned, belief in witchcraft is characteristic of all humanity, but the mass accusation of witchcraft against children distinguishes only Western Europe of the 15th-17th centuries. A fact in favor of the stated hypothesis: leprosy does not discriminate against age, and every infected person, adult or child, poses a danger.

Der Hexenhammer.the witches' hammer.Title page. Witches Hammer. Lyon 1519.

Another piece of evidence supporting the hypothesis is the stereotypical image of a witch created by the popular consciousness. People went to the fire without distinction of gender, age, social status; anyone could be accused of witchcraft. But the descriptions of a typical witch turned out to be the most stable. English historian R. Hart in the work "History of Witchcraft" provides evidence from contemporaries about what, in their opinion, a typical witch looks like. Here is one of them: " They are crooked and hunchbacked, their faces constantly bear the stamp of melancholy, plunging everyone around into horror. Their skin is covered with some kind of spots. An old hag, battered by life, she walks bent over, with sunken eyes, toothless, with a face furrowed with pits and wrinkles. Her limbs are constantly shaking."

In the medical literature, this is how a leprosy patient is described in the last stages of the disease. In addition, the medical encyclopedia reports, “in advanced cases, eyebrows fall out, earlobes enlarge, facial expression changes greatly, vision weakens to the point of complete blindness, and the voice becomes hoarse.” A typical witch from a fairy tale speaks in a hoarse voice and has a long nose that protrudes sharply from her face. This is also no coincidence. With leprosy, “the nasal mucosa is very often affected, which leads to its perforation and deformation. Chronic pharyngitis often develops, and damage to the larynx leads to hoarseness.”

Front page. Rare Books: Psychiatry

Of course, it is easy to blame me for the fact that the hypothesis does not find direct confirmation in historical sources. Indeed, there is no and it is unlikely that documents will ever appear that would directly speak of the witch hunt as a fight against lepers. And yet indirect evidence of this can be found. Let us turn, for example, to the most famous demonological treatise - “The Witches’ Hammer”.

Matthew Hopkins, The Witch.1650

The pious inquisitors Sprenger and Institoris ask in it the question: can witches send various diseases to people, including leprosy. Arguing first that “there is a certain difficulty whether or not to consider it possible that witches could cause leprosy and epilepsy. After all, these diseases usually arise due to insufficiency of internal organs,” the authors of “Hammer” nevertheless report: “We found that these Diseases are sometimes caused by sorcery." And the final conclusion is this: “There is no disease that witches could not send to a person with God’s permission. They can even send leprosy and epilepsy, which is confirmed by scientists.”

There are examples when demonologists themselves speak of witchcraft as a contagious disease. The Italian theologian Guazzo in his essay “Compendium malefikarum” notes that “the witch infection can often be transmitted to children by their sinful parents. Every day we meet examples of children being corrupted by this infection.”

(Witch), statue by Christopher Marzaroli - Salsomaggiore (Italy)

Of great interest in the study of witchcraft processes are the works of anti-demonologists, people who, during a period of general fear of witches, dared to say a word in their defense. One of these rare personalities was the doctor Johann Weyer, who expressed his views on the problem of witchcraft in the essay "About the tricks of demons". In it, he polemicizes with famous demonologists and tries to prove the inconsistency of their views. What were the latter? Oddly enough, one of them, Karptsov, believed that “it would benefit the witches and lamias themselves if they were put to death as soon as possible.” Weyer believes that “Karptsov’s argument is an excellent argument that could justify murder: what if one of us took the life of an insignificant person, born only to eat fruits, affected by the Gallic disease, and explained his act by what was best for him would it be quicker to die?

Monument in Anda, Norway. In memory of the witch hunts and burning of women in these parts

A very interesting remark, especially considering that the same leprosy was called the Gallic disease. This allows us to see in Karptsov’s words a desire to justify himself to himself and society, to assure everyone that the extermination of leper witches was a mission of mercy.

1484, after the admonitions of Heinrich Institoris Cramer, author of the “Hammer of the Witches,” Pope Innocent VIII issued the bull “Summis desiderantes affectibus” (“With all the strength of the soul”), directed against witches, which became the cause of many Inquisition processes in the countries of Christian Europe.

Witch monument in Arbrück in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Great Witch Hunt began in the mid-16th century and lasted approximately 200 years. During this period there are about 100 thousand processes and 50 thousand victims. Most of the victims were in the states of Germany, Switzerland, France and Scotland; to a lesser extent, the witch hunt affected England, Italy and Spain. There were only a few witch trials in America, the most famous example being the Salem events of 1692-1693.

Stone statue of a witch in Herschlitz (North Saxony), a memorial to the victims of the witch hunts between 1560-1640.

Witch trials were especially widespread in areas affected by the Reformation. Lutheran and Calvinist states had their own laws on witchcraft, even more severe than Catholic ones (for example, the review of judicial cases was abolished). Thus, in the Saxon city of Quedlinburg with a population of 12 thousand people, 133 “witches” were burned in just one day in 1589. In Silesia, one of the executioners constructed a furnace in which he burned 42 people, including two-year-old children, in 1651. But in the Catholic states of Germany, the witch hunt was no less brutal at this time, especially in Trier, Bamberg, Mainz and Würzburg.

Monument to the victims of the witch hunt in the Maria Hall fountain in Nerdling, Germany

In Cologne in 1627-1639 about a thousand people were executed. A priest from Alfter, in a letter to Count Werner von Salm, described the situation in Bonn at the beginning of the 17th century: “It seems that half the city is involved: professors, students, pastors, canons, vicars and monks have already been arrested and burned... The chancellor with his wife and the wife of his personal secretary have already captured and executed. On the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, a pupil of the prince-bishop, a nineteen-year-old girl known for her piety and piety, was executed... Three-four-year-old children were declared lovers of the Devil. Students and boys of noble birth aged 9-14 were burned. In conclusion, I will say that things are in such a terrible state that no one knows who to talk to and cooperate with.” The persecution of witches in Germany reached its climax during the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648, when the warring parties accused each other of witchcraft.

Signpost in the states (Hesse, Germany) to the memorial to the 270 victims of the witch hunt.

According to historians, the number of witch trials increased sharply at the end of the 16th century due to economic crisis, famine and rising social tensions, which were caused by an increase in population and long-term deterioration of the climate during that century, along with a price revolution. Crop failures, wars, epidemics of plague and syphilis gave rise to despair and panic and increased the tendency of people to look for the secret cause of these misfortunes.

Memorial stone to the witches burned in 1563 in Eckartsberg

The reason that witch trials became widespread was also the transfer of witchcraft cases from church to secular courts, which made them dependent on the mood of local rulers. The epicenter of mass witchcraft processes was either in remote provinces of large states, or where the central government was weak. In centralized states with a developed administrative structure, such as France, witch hunts were carried out less intensively than in weak and fragmented states

Witches Memorial in Bernau (part of the list of names).

Eastern Europe I experienced almost no witch hunts. American researcher Valerie Kivelson believes that witchcraft hysteria did not affect the Orthodox Russian kingdom, since Orthodox theologians were less absorbed in the idea of ​​​​the sinfulness of the flesh than Catholic and Protestant ones, and, accordingly, a woman as a bodily being worried and frightened Orthodox Christians less. Orthodox priests were careful in their sermons on the topic of witchcraft and corruption and sought to prevent people's lynching of sorcerers and witches. Orthodoxy did not experience the deep crisis that resulted in the Reformation in the West and led to a long era of religious wars. Nevertheless, in the Russian kingdom, Kivelson discovered information about 258 witch trials, during 106 of which torture was used on the accused (more cruel than in other cases, except those related to treason)..

The first country to abolish criminal penalties for witchcraft was Great Britain. This happened in 1735 (Witchcraft Act (1735)).

In the German states, legislative restrictions on witch trials consistently occurred in Prussia, where in 1706 the powers of prosecutors were limited by royal decree. This was largely influenced by the lectures of the rector of the University of Halle, lawyer and philosopher Christian Thomasius, who argued that the doctrine of witchcraft was not based on ancient traditions, as the witch hunters claimed, but on the superstitious decrees of the popes starting with the bull “Summis desiderantes affectibus”. In 1714, Frederick William I issued an edict according to which all sentences in witchcraft cases were to be submitted to his personal approval. This significantly limited the rights of witch hunters within Prussia. Frederick II abolished torture upon his accession to the throne (1740). At the same time, in Austria, Empress Maria Theresa established control over witchcraft affairs, which was also promoted to a certain extent by the “vampire panic” of the 1720s and 1730s in Serbia.

Idstein, Germany, memorial plaque to the victims of the witch hunt in 1676

The last person executed in Germany specifically for witchcraft was the maid Anna Maria Schwegel, who was beheaded on March 30, 1775 in Kempten (Bavaria).

The last person executed in Europe for witchcraft is Anna Geldi, executed in Switzerland in 1782 (under torture she confessed to witchcraft, but she was officially sentenced to death for poisoning). However, sporadic accusations of witchcraft were encountered in the judicial practice of the German states and Great Britain until the end the first quarter of the 19th century, although witchcraft as such no longer served as a basis for criminal liability. In 1809, fortune teller Mary Bateman was hanged for poisoning, whose victims accused her of bewitching them.

Memorial plaque in front of the Church of St. Lawrence in Sobotin, Czech Republic, commemorating the victims of the witch hunt in 1678

In 1811, Barbara Zdunk was convicted in Rössel and officially executed for arson (Rössel was devastated by fire in 1806). However, Zdunk's case does not fit into the usual practice of witchcraft cases, since she was executed by burning for witchcraft in a country in which witchcraft was no longer a criminal offense and this type of execution was also no longer used (there are suggestions that Zdunk was hanged and then publicly cremated ). Uncertainty about the true reason for Zdunk's conviction is also made by the fact that her sentence was upheld by the appellate authorities right up to the king himself. Historians are inclined to believe that the execution of Zdunk was a measure to relieve social tension, a concession to public opinion that demanded revenge on the Polish soldiers, who, according to historians, are the most likely arsonists.

In 1836, in Sopot, the widow of a fisherman, Kristina Sejnova, accused of witchcraft, was drowned during a water trial. Her case illustrates the fact that belief in witchcraft continued to persist among the public long after the courts stopped accepting such accusations, and how, in exceptional cases, the public took the law into their own hands when witchcraft was suspected.

Woodcut: "Witch's Kitchen": Two witches prepare a decoction to produce hail.

The last punishments for witchcraft in Spain (200 lashes with rods and 6-year exile) were imposed in 1820. Modern researchers estimate the total number of those executed for witchcraft during the 300-year period of active witch hunts at 40-50 thousand people. In some countries, such as Germany , mostly women were accused of witchcraft, in others (Iceland, Estonia, Russia) also men...

Well, who wants to go to the Middle Ages?

Literature

Sprenger J., Institoris G. Witches' Hammer. - M., 1991.

Demonology of the Renaissance. - M., 1995.

Robbins R.H. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. - M., 1996.

Tukholka S. Trials of witchcraft in Western Europe in the XV-XVII centuries. - St. Petersburg, 1909.

Kantorovich Ya. Medieval witchcraft processes. - M., 1899.

Grigorenko A. Yu. Magic as a social institution // Bulletin of the Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy. - St. Petersburg: RKhGA, 2013. - T. 14, No. 4. - P. 13-21.

Gurevich A. Ya. The medieval world: the culture of the silent majority. - M., 1990.
Gurevich A. Ya. Witch in the village and before the court // Languages ​​of culture and problems of translatability. - M., 1987.
Ginzburg K. The image of the witches’ Sabbath and its origins // Odyssey. Man in history. - M., 1990. - P. 132-146
Demonology of the Renaissance. - M., 1996.
Kantorovich Ya. A. Medieval witch trials. - M.: Book, 1990. - 221 p. — (Reprint of the 1899 edition)
Orlov M.A. The history of relations between man and the devil. Amphitheaters A. The Devil in everyday life, legend and literature of the Middle Ages. - M.: Eksmo, 2003. - 800 p. — Series “Great Initiates.”

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.

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.

Why were witches burned at the stake and not executed in another way?