Source:
Sprengler, Jakob and Kramer, Heinrich. The Hammer of Witches, and Junius,
Johannes. A Confession of Witchcraft Explained, from Sources of the Western
Tradition. Vol 1, 4th ed, 1999.
4 The Witch Craze
In both ancient and medieval times, it was widely believed that certain persons,
called sorcerers or witches, had supernatural powers over both nature and human
beings and that these powers enabled witches to harm people through
magical practices. Those suspected of sorcery were greatly feared and were
subject to execution. In the late Middle Ages, Europeans began to view suspected
witches as having entered into a pact with the devil. The church began
to treat them as devil worshippers, heretics, rebels against the church, and
threats to society.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, both Roman Catholics and
Protestants intensified the struggle to destroy alleged witches; thousands were
questioned under torture, and if convicted of witchcraft, were put to death, a
sentence justified by both the Old Testament and Roman law. Belief in witches
was not limited to superstitious peasants and fanatics. Prominent intellectuals,
theologians, philosophers, and scientists either supported the prosecution of
witches or remained silent. Few doubted the existence of witches, and forced
confessions were accepted as proof of sorcery; the idea of witchcraft offered
credible explanations for otherwise inexplicable human experiences. Although
the number of females accused of witchcraft outnumbered the males, during
the times persons of all ages, social classes, education, and occupations could
find themselves facing the charge of witchcraft. The regular use of torture during
interrogation of suspects probably accounted for most confessions, and the
alleged bizarre and sometimes lurid practices of suspects seem to have been the
products of mental disorders and popular beliefs in occult powers.
Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer
THE HAMMER OF WITCHES
Written in 1486 by Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, both Dominican in-
quisitors in Germany, The Hammer of Witches became a standard reference
work for the beliefs and practices of witches. The work, excerpted below, tells
us much about the mindset of early modern Europeans committed to a belief in
witches who served the devil.
And this class [of witches] is made up of those who, against every instinct of human or animal nature, are in the habit of eating and devouring the children of their own species. And this is the most powerful class of witches, who practise innumerable other harms also. For they raise hailstorms and hurtful tempests and lightnings; cause sterility in men and animals; offer to devils, or otherwise kill, the children whom they do not devour. But these are only the children who have not been re-born by baptism at the font, for they cannot devour those who have been baptized, nor any without God's permission. They can also, before the eyes of their parents, and when no one is sight, throw into the water children walking by the water side; they make horses go mad under their riders; they can transport themselves from place to place through the either in body or in imagination; they can affect Judges and Magistrates so that they cannot hurt them; they can cause themselves and others to keep silence under torture; they can bring about a great trembling in the hands and horror in the minds of those who would arrest them. . . . [T]hey can at times strike whom they will with lightning, and even kill some men and animals; they can make of no effect the generative desires, and even the power of copulation, cause abortion, kill infants in mere look, without touching them, and cause death; they dedicate their own children to devils; and in short, as has been said, they can cause all the plagues. . . . [I]t is common to all of them to practise carnal copulation with devils
[T]here are now [such witches], some in the country of Lombardy [in northern Italy], in the domains of the Duke of Austria, where the Inquisitor of Como, as we told in the former Part, caused forty-one witches to be burned in one year; and he was fifty-five years old, and still continues to labour in the Inquisition.
Now the method of profession is twofold. One is a solemn ceremony, like a solemn vow. The other is private, and can be made to the devil at any hour alone. The first method is when witches meet together in conclave on a set day, and the devil appears to them in the assumed body of a man, and urges them to keep faith with him, promising them worldly prosperity and length of life; and they recommend a novice to his acceptance. And the devil asks whether she will abjure the Faith, and forsake the holy Christian religion and the worship of the Anomalous Woman (for so they call the Most Blessed Virgin Mary), and never venerate the Sacraments; and if he finds the novice or disciple willing, then the devil stretches out his hand and so does the novice, and she swears with upraised hand to keep that covenant. And when this is done, the devil at once adds that this is not enough; and when the disciple asks what more must be done, the devil demands the following oath of homage to himself: that she give herself to him, body and soul, for ever, and do her utmost to bring others of both sexes into his power. He adds, finally, that she is to make certain unguents [ointments] from the bones and limbs of children, especially those who have been baptized; by all which means she will be able to fulfill all her wishes with his help.
We Inquisitors had credible experience of this method in the town of Breisach in the diocese of Basel [in Switzerland] receiving full information from a young girl who had been burned in the diocese of Strasburg [in Germany]. And she added that she had become a witch by the method in which her aunt had first tried to seduce her. . . .
She said also that the greatest injuries were inflicted by midwives, because they were under an obligation to kill or offer to devils as many children as possible; and that she had been severely beaten by her aunt because she had opened a secret pot and found the heads of a great many children. And much more she told us, having first, as was proper, taken an oath to speak the truth.
And her account of the method of professing the devil’s faith undoubtedly agrees with what has been written by that most eminentDoctor, John Nider, who even in our times has written very illuminatingly; and it may be especially remarked that he tells us the following, which he had from an Inquisitor of the diocese of Edua, who held many inquisitions on witches in that diocese, and caused many to be burned.
For he says that this Inquisitor told him that in the Duchy of Lausanne [in Switzerland] certain witches had cooked and eaten their own children, and that the following was the method in which they became initiated into such practices. The witches met together and, by their art, summoned a devil in the form of a man, to whom the novice was compelled to swear to deny the Christian religion, never to adore the Eucharist, and to tread the Cross underfoot whenever she could do so secretly.
Here is another example from the same source. There was lately a general report, and brought to the notice of Peter the Judge in Boltingen, that thirteen infants had been devoured in the State of Berne [in Switzerland]; and public justice exacted full vengeance on the murderers. And when Peter asked one of the captive witches in what manner they ate children, she replied: "This is the manner of it. We set our snares chiefly for unbaptized children, and even for those that have been baptized, especially when they have not been protected by the sign of the cross and prayers” (reader, notice that, at thedevil’s command they take the unbaptized chiefly, in order that they may not be baptized), "and with our spells we kill them in their cradles or even when they are sleeping by their parents' side, in such a way that they afterwards are thought to have been overlain or to have died some other natural death. Then we secretly take them from their graves, and cook them in a cauldron, until the whole flesh comes away from the bones to make a soup which may easily be drunk. Of the more solid matter we make an unguent which is of virtue to help us in our arts and pleasures and our transportations; and with the liquid we fill a flask or skin, whoever drinks from which, with the addition of a few other ceremonies, immediately acquires much knowledge and becomes a leader in our sect."
Johannes Junius
A CONFESSION OF WITCHCRAFT
EXPLAINED
In 1628 Johannes Junius, lord mayor of Bamberg, a city in Bavaria, Germany,
was accused of practicing witchcraft. Junius denied the charge and he was
tortured. He then confessed to having become a witch and was burned at the
stake. The reasons for his confession are revealed in a letter he secretly sent to
his daughter.
Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent have I come into prison, innocent have I beentortured, innocent must I die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must become a witch or be tortured until he invents something out of his head and—God pity him—bethinks him of something. I will tell you how it has gone with me. When I was the first time put to the torture, Dr. Braun, Dr. Koczendorffer, and two strange doctors were there. Then Dr. Braun asks me, "Kinsman, how come you here?" I answer, "Through falsehood, through misfortune." "Hear, you," he says, "you are a witch; will you confess it voluntarily? If not, we'll bring in witnesses and the executioner for you." I said "I am no witch, I have a pure conscience in the matter; if there are a thousand witnesses, I am not anxious, but I'll gladly hear the witnesses." Now the chancellor's son was set before me . . and afterward Hoppfen Elss. She had seen me dance on Haupts-moor. ... I answered: "I have never renounced God, and will never do it—God graciously keep me from it. I'll rather bear whatever I must." And then came also—God in highest Heaven have mercy—the executioner, and put the thumb-screws on me, both hands bound together, so that the blood ran out at the nails and everywhere, so that for four weeks I could not use my hands, as you can see from the writing. . . .Thereafter they first stripped me, bound my hands behind me, and drew me up in the torture. Then I thought heaven and earth were at an end; eight times did they draw me up and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible agony. . . .*
*This torture of the strappado, which was that in most common use by
the courts, consisted of a rope, attached to the hands of the prisoner
(bound behind his back) and carried over a pulley at the ceiling. By this
he was drawn up and left hanging. To increase the pain, weights were attached
to his feet or he was suddenly jerked up and let drop.
When at last the executioner led me back into the prison, he said to me: "Sir, I beg you, for God's sake confess something, whether it be true or not. Invent something, for you cannot endure the torture which you will be put to; and, even if you bear it all, yet you will not escape, not even if you were an earl {high nobleman], but one torture will follow after another until you say you are a witch. Not before that," he said, "will they let you go, as you may see by all their trials, for one is just like another.
And so l begged, since I was in wretched plight, to be given one day for thought, and a priest. The priest was refused me, but the time for thought was given. Now, my dear child see in what hazard I stood and still stand. I must say that I am a witch, though I am not,must now renounce God, though I have never done it before. Day and night I was deeply troubled but at last there came to me a new idea. I would not be anxious, but, since I had been given no priest with whom I could take counsel, I would myself think of something and say it. It were surely better that I just say it with mouth and words, even though I had not really done it, and afterwards, I would confess it to a priest, and let those answer for it who compel me to do it. And so I made my confession ---- but it was all a lie.
Now follows, dear child, what I confessed in order to escape that great anguish
and bitter torture, which it was impossible for me longer to bear
{He then describes his confession]
Now, dear child, here you have all my confession, for which I must die. And they are sheer lies and made-up things, so help meGod. For all this I was forced to say through fear of torture which was threatened beyond that I had already endured. For they never leaveoff with the torture till one confesses something be he ever so good, he must be a witch. Nobody escapes, though he were an earl.
Dear-child, keep this letter secret so that people do not find it, else I shall be tortured most piteously and the jailers will be beheaded. So strictly is it forbidden ---- Dear child, pay this man a dollar ----- I have taken several days to write this: my hands are bothlame. I am in a sad plight.
Good night, for your father Johannes Junius will never see you more. July 24, 1628.
[And on the margin of the letter he adds:]
Dear child, six have confessed against me at once: the Chancellor, his son, Neudecker, Zaner, Hoffmaisters Ursel, and Hoppfen Elss -----all false, through compulsion, as they have all told me, and begged my forgiveness in God’s name before they wereexecuted ------ They know nothing but good of me. They were forced to say it, just as I myself was.
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