One of the biggest mysteries in history remains the strange insanity that swept Europe in the 15th-17th centuries, as a result of which thousands of women suspected of witchcraft went to the fires. What was it? Malicious intent or cunning calculation?
There are many theories regarding the fight against witches in medieval Europe. One of the most original is that there was no insanity. People really fought against dark forces, including witches, who had bred all over the world. This theory can be developed if desired.
As soon as they stopped fighting witchcraft, revolutions began to break out here and there in the world, and terrorism began to gain more and more scope. And in these phenomena, women played a noticeable role, as if turning into evil furies. And they also play a significant role in inciting the current "color" revolutions.
Pagan tolerance
Pagan religions generally tolerated sorcerers and witches. Everything was simple: if witchcraft was for the good of people, it was welcomed, if it was harmful, it was punished. In ancient Rome, punishment was chosen for sorcerers, depending on the harmfulness of their deed. For example, if the injured person with witchcraft could not pay compensation to the victim, he should have been injured. In some countries, witchcraft was punishable by death.
Everything changed with the advent of Christianity. Drinking, walking on the side and deceiving your neighbor became considered a sin. And sins were declared to be the machinations of the devil. In the Middle Ages, the vision of the world among ordinary people began to form the most educated people of that era - the clergy. And they imposed their own worldview on them: they say, all the troubles on earth come from the devil and his henchmen - demons and witches.
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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 are exterminated, the more happiness will be given to all the remaining people. At first, the witches were burned one by one, 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 with pains in the heart and kidneys, and after a while died. In France, the first known burning of a witch took place in Toulouse in 1285, when a woman was accused of cohabitation with the devil, which allegedly gave birth to a cross between a wolf, a snake and a man. And after a while, executions of witches in France became widespread. In 1320-1350, 200 women went to the fires in Carcassonne, and more than 400 in Toulouse. And soon the fashion for mass executions of witches spread throughout Europe.
World has gone mad
In Italy, after the publication in 1523 of the bull about the witches of Pope Adrian VI, 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, carried out at once on whole masses, begin in Germany around 1580 and continue for almost a century. While all Lorraine was smoking from the fires … in Paderborn, in Bradenburg, in Leipzig and its environs, there were also many executions.
In the county of Werdenfeld in Bavaria in 1582, one process led to the fire 48 witches … In Braunschweig between 1590-1600, so many witches were burned (10-12 people daily) that their pillars stood in a "dense forest" in front of the gate. In the small county of Genneberg, 22 witches were burned in 1612 alone, in 1597-1876 - 197 … In Lindheim, with 540 inhabitants, 30 people were burned from 1661 to 1664.
They even have their own record holders for executions. Fulda judge Balthazar Foss boasted that he alone burned 700 sorcerers of both sexes and hopes to bring the number of his victims to a thousand. The bishop of Würzburg, Philip-Adolph von Ehrenberg, distinguished himself with a particular passion in persecuting witches. In Würzburg alone, he organized 42 bonfires that burned 209 people, including 25 children between the ages of four and 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 as direct evidence of a relationship with the devil.
And his cousin, Prince-Bishop Gottfried Johann Georg II, Fuchs von Dornheim, executed more than 600 people in Bamberg in the period 1623-1633, even more atrocious. The last mass burning in Germany was organized by the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1678, when 97 people went to the fire at once.
Alas, Russia did not stay away from the witch hunt. So, when in 1411 a plague epidemic began in Pskov, 12 women were immediately burned on charges of prompting the disease. However, in comparison with Western Europe, we can say that in Russia witches were tolerated. And usually they were severely punished only if they were plotting against the sovereign. In general, they rarely burned, flogged more and more.
In Europe, they not only burned, but also tried to execute them with special sophistication. The judges sometimes insisted that her young children must be present at 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 burnt, but also her sister, mother and grandmother. And finally, the very execution at the stake was as if specially made 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 slaughter. In Russia, they were usually burned in log cabins, perhaps to avoid this very shame.
Not just the Inquisition
It is generally accepted that the witch hunt was organized by the Inquisition. It's hard to deny, but it should be noted that she is not alone. For example, in the Würzburg and Bamberg bishoprics, it was not the Inquisition that raged, but the episcopal courts. In the town of Lindheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, ordinary residents tried witches. The tribunal was headed by the soldier Geiss, a veteran of the Thirty Years' War. The jury consisted of three peasants and a weaver. The people of Lindheim called these people of the people "jury-bloodsuckers" because they sent people to the stake at the slightest provocation.
But, perhaps, the most evil were the Protestant leaders of the Reformation, Calvin and Luther, whom we used to represent as bright heroes who challenged dark Catholics. Calvin introduced a new way of 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 the strength in the legs, torture children in the cradle, compel people to love and intercourse, and there are innumerable intrigues of the devil . And under the influence of his preaching, Protestants in Germany sent women to the stake at the slightest suspicion.
I must say 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 confess. True, for this the inquisitors came up with a bunch of different torture devices. For example, a "witch's chair", equipped with sharp wooden spikes, on which the suspect was forced to sit for days.
Some witches put on oversized leather boots on their feet and poured boiling water into them. Legs in such shoes were literally welded. And Brigitte von Ebicon was tortured in 1652 with boiled eggs, which were taken from boiling water and put under her arms.
In addition to recognition, another proof of the connection between women and the devil could be the test of water. It is curious that the Christians adopted it from the pagans. Even the laws of Hammurabi at the beginning of the II millennium BC recommended that the accused of witchcraft go to the Deity of the River and plunge into the River; if River grabs him, his accuser can take his house. If the River cleans this person, then he can take the house from the accuser.
An even more significant proof of the witch's guilt than her confession was the presence of the "mark of the devil" on her body. There were two types of them - "witch's sign" and "devil's mark". The "witch sign" was supposed to resemble the third nipple on a woman's body, it was believed that through it she fed the demons with her own blood.
And the "mark of the devil" was called an unusual growth on human skin, insensitive to pain. Now there is a theory that the "witch sign" and "the mark of the devil" are characteristic of only one disease. This is leprosy, or leprosy.
As leprosy develops, the skin begins to thicken and forms ulcers and nodules that can actually resemble a nipple and are insensitive to pain. And if we take into account 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 the epidemic of leprosy.
Bonfires against feminism
There is another interesting theory. As if the Inquisition - a tool of male monastic orders - was trying to put women in their place with a witch hunt. Crusades and civil strife thoroughly wiped out the ranks of men in Europe, and therefore, especially in rural communities, the female majority dictated their will to the male minority.
And when men tried to restrain women by force, they threatened to send them all kinds of misfortunes. The dominance of women posed a danger to church foundations, since it was believed that the daughters of Eve, the culprit of the fall, could do great harm, give them will and power.
It is no coincidence that, with the help of accusations of witchcraft, they often dealt with women who had achieved great influence and high position. In this regard, we can recall the execution of the wife of Henry VIII - Anne Boleyn. One of the charges brought against her in 1536 was witchcraft. And the proof of the connection with evil spirits was the sixth finger on one hand of Anna.
And the most famous execution of a witch in centuries remained the burning of Joan of Arc on May 30, 1431 in the city of Rouen. The Inquisition opened a trial on charges 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: "Jeanne, who calls herself a Virgin, apostate, witch, accursed blasphemer, bloodsucker, servant of Satan, schismatic and heretic."
In the Guinness Book of Records, it is said that the last time the servant Anna Geldi was executed for witchcraft in the Swiss city of Glarus was 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. Her head was cut off.
And the last witch in the history of mankind was burned in the Mexican city of Camargo in 1860. Experts estimate that during the witch hunt in the 16th and 17th centuries, at least 200,000 women were executed.
Oleg LOGINOV