"I myself decide who is a witch in my land." Vedovskie processes in the Protestant world

85
“Witch Hunt” - witch-inspired church processes that shook Europe and its colonies in the 15th – 18th centuries are undoubtedly one of the most shameful pages in stories Western European civilization. More than one hundred and fifty thousand innocent people were executed on completely absurd, not supported by any facts charges, millions of their relatives and close friends were ruined and doomed to a beggarly existence. On the Catholic "witch hunt" was told in the article The Holy Inquisition.

Recall that it all began in 1484, when the Pope recognized the reality of witchcraft, which had previously been officially considered to be a hoax, that the devil was sowing. Already in 1486, the city of Heinrich Institoris and Jacob Sprenger published the book “The Hammer of the Witches”: it was this book that was used for religious fanatics of all European countries who respectfully wrote tens of thousands of pages of additions and comments to it. It may seem strange, but the pursuit of “witches” and “Vedovsk processes” was not at all uncommon in the Protestant world, where, it would seem, the instructions of the popes should not be a guide to action. However, people, with all their strengths and weaknesses, were the same on both sides of the Great Schism. The texts of the Holy Scriptures were the same (such as “Don't leave the withers alive” - Exodus 22: 18). And Martin Luther, who so successfully “grabbed the Pope for the tiara, and the monks - for the belly,” who categorically called Christian shrines and holy relics “devilish toys,” in reality did not doubt the witches, considering them to be “evil damn whores,” and argued that he himself would gladly burn them.



"I myself decide who is a witch in my land." Vedovskie processes in the Protestant world

Lucas Cranach the Elder, a portrait of Martin Luther


True, Martin Luther and the very Pope himself very cleverly proclaimed an accomplice of Satan. It was all about the excommunication formula that emerged in the 12th century:
"Satan, with all the messengers, call upon you, may they not take rest until they bring this sinner to eternal shame, until water or a rope destroys him ... I prescribe to you, Satan, with all the messengers, so as I quench these the lamps, so you put out the light of his eyes. "


This “prescription to Satan” allowed Luther to declare the Pope of Rome the Antichrist and ally of the devil. And, from the point of view of the great reformer of the Church, it would be no less useful to burn the Pope of Rome than any old woman witch of Wittenberg or Cologne. Perhaps even much more useful - if you burn John XII, who drank to the health of Satan and turned the Lateran Basilica into a brothel or Boniface VIII, who asserted that having sex with boys is no more sinful than rubbing his palms. Moreover, these are real, knowledgeable witches in the healing herbs of the witch, (the witch-herbalists, and not those from the “Battle of the Psychics”) and then, were very rare. A small example: digitalis preparations (based on digoxin and strophanthin were created) began to be used in official medicine after the 1543 year, when this plant was introduced into the European Pharmacopoeia by German physician Fuchs, while in folk medicine since the 5th century in Rome , and from IX - in the "barbaric" Europe. And against the background of the then European doctors, who revered the bloodletting with a universal therapeutic manipulation, some witches looked very progressive. Another thing is that, as in our days, there were a lot of various scam artists among them, which caused legitimate indignation of consumers and customers (who came after the normal decoys of digitalis, and they get some kind of muck from the droppings of bats and frogs bones)

It should be said that in relation to witches and witchcraft, Catholics and Protestants, however, had significant differences. The Catholics tried to unify the approach to investigating Wedower's cases, making it standard in all the cities and countries controlled by them. The Protestants acted, as they say, who are in that much. And each margrave or bishop independently determined which of the surrounding residents was a witch, also independently choosing methods of investigation and punishment. In the Lutheran lands of Saxony, the Palatinate, Württemberg, for example, in 1567 — 1582. there were own laws against witches - no less bloody and cruel than Catholic. And Frederick I of Prussia did not approve of the “witch hunt,” and even punished one of the barons who burned a 15-year-old girl accused of witchcraft.


Frederick I of Prussia


In this respect, the Germans turned out to be great entertainers: not only did they become champions in the number of tortures applied to the accused (in some lands - 56 types), they also invented a number of innovative tools for them. For example, the “Nuremberg maiden”: an iron cabinet with sharp nails inside, a feature of which was the additional torment of an enclosed space. People who are prone to claustrophobia, in this terrible box could not stand a couple of minutes.


The Nuremberg maiden


And in the city of Neuss even built a special furnace for burning witches, in which only 1651 were burned 22 women (after all, Heinrich Himmler did not come just like that - from nowhere).
The total number of victims of Vedovsk processes is estimated by modern historians at 150 - 200 thousand people, at least one hundred thousand of them died in Germany. For a whole century, Germany (both Catholic and Protestant parts of it) was writhing in the fire of Vedovsk processes. Especially famous in the field of struggle with the clergy of the region, governed not by secular rulers, but by bishops. Moreover, the Catholic hierarchs of Germany did not turn to the inquisitors of the Vatican for help, and committed atrocities on the territory under their control independently. So, the bishop of Würzburg, Philip-Adolf von Ehrenberg, burned 209 people, including 25 children. Among those executed were the most beautiful girl in the city and a student who knew too many foreign languages. Prince-Bishop Gottfried von Dornheim (cousin of Würzburg) executed 10 people in Bamberg for 600 years (1623-1633). Among burnt in this city in 1628 year were even burgomaster Johann Junius and Vice Chancellor Georg Haan. In Fulda, Judge Balthazar Foss burned 700 “witches and sorcerers,” and only regretted that he could not bring this number to 1000. The world record of the simultaneous burning of “witches” was also set in Germany, and it was the Protestants: 1589 people were executed in the Saxon city of Quedlinburg in 133.


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


The horror that reigned in Bonn at the beginning of the seventeenth century is known from a letter sent by one of the priests to Count Werner von Salm:
“It seems that half the town is involved: professors, students, pastors, canons, vicars and monks have already been arrested and burned ... The Chancellor and his wife and the wife of his personal secretary have already been captured and executed. At Christmas, the Most Holy Mother of God executed a pupil of a prince-bishop, a nineteen-year-old girl known for her piety and piety ... Three-four-year-old children are declared to be the Devil's lovers. Students and boys of noble birth 9-14 are burned for years. In conclusion, I will say that things are in such a terrible state that no one knows with whom you can talk and cooperate. ”


The apogee of the “witch hunt” in Germany fell on the period of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). The warring parties liked to accuse their opponents of witchcraft. The Vedovsk processes began to decline after the army of the Swedish king Gustav II entered Germany, who sharply demanded both the Catholics and the Protestants to stop this near-church lawlessness. At that time, they tried not to get involved with the hot Swedish guys in military uniform, so the opinion of “Lev Sever” was heard by many. In addition, for natural reasons, they gradually died, leaving behind them the desert, the most odious, rabid and irreconcilable ideologists of the Vedov processes. All the fires did not fade away at once, and continued to light up in one or the other German city, but, slowly and painfully, Germany began to recover.

In the Netherlands, “witches” were approached more rationally - by weighing: it was believed that a broom could lift a woman weighing no more than 50 kg into the air (an unfortunate woman thus had a chance to drop at least part of the charges). “Witch scales” in the Dutch city of Audwater were considered the most accurate in Europe, local officials were distinguished by honesty, the certificates of this weight chamber were highly valued and brought considerable income to the city.


Trial of the witch by weighing


This certificate did not help everyone, as evidenced by this engraving by the Dutch artist Jan Lukane depicting the execution of the “witch” Anna Hendrix - 1571 g, Amsterdam:



But the English in Aylesbury weighed "witches" frankly cheating: they used the Bible in a cast iron binder as a counterweight - if the scales were not balanced (in any direction), the suspect was declared a witch.

1613 became a black year in the history of the Netherlands when, after an epidemic that ended with the death of hundreds of children, 63 "witches" were burned right away.

In Calvinist Geneva, the eradication of “opposing witchcraft to the Lord” was declared a task of state importance. Calvin bluntly said:
“The Bible teaches us that witches exist and that they must be destroyed. God directly orders that all witches and sorceresses be killed, and the law of God is a universal law. ”


So that the death of a witch or a heretic would not be too quick and easy, Calvin ordered them to be burned with raw wood.


Jean Calvin, portrait of an unknown artist of the 17 century


In all the cantons of Switzerland, only in one 1542 were about 500 “witches” burned.

In Protestant Sweden, located on the other side of Europe (and Finland's vassal against it), torture of suspected witchcraft was prohibited, and there was no particular fanaticism in the persecution of witches for a long time. The only woman burned alive on the territory of this country (a common thing in Germany, Holland or Austria) was Malin Matsdotter, who did not plead guilty and didn’t even scream at the stake, which, by the way, scared the “spectators” very much. But in the middle of the seventeenth century, the paroxysm of pan-European madness suddenly shook this country as well. The main event and apogee of the witch hunt there was the 1669 process of the year. Then 86 women and 15 children were sentenced to death for witchcraft. 56 children were sentenced to death with sticks at the same trial: 36 was driven through a soldier's line with rods, and then they beat their hands once a week for a year. 20 others beat the rods on his hands on the next three Sundays. In the Swedish churches, then for a long time about this, thankful prayers were raised about saving the country from the Devil. After this, the persecution of the "witches" sharply declined. But it was only in 1779 that the Swedish king Gustav III withdrew judicial regulations on witchcraft from the country's law book.

In Denmark and Norway, the situation was more complicated. Firstly, proximity and closer contacts with Germany's witch trials burning in bonfires had their meaning. Secondly, they were allowed to use torture on suspects in witchcraft. The king of Denmark and Norway, Christian IV, who is considered to be a completely “positive” and progressive king of Denmark and Norway, was particularly noted in the field of fighting “witches”. Suffice it to say that during his reign, in the Norwegian city of Vardø, with a population of about 2000 people, a woman was burned 91. Currently in this city you can see a monument to the victims of "witch hunters".


Christian IV, King of Denmark and Norway, during which more than 90 women were burned in the Norwegian city of Vardø



The burning chair in the memorial to the burned witches in Varde, Norway


In Britain, King Jacob I (he is King of Scotland, Jacob VI Stewart) was not too lazy to write a treatise on demonology (1597). This monarch considered the fight against demons and witches to be his personal business, and even imagined that the Devil was persecuting him for his zeal in serving the Church. In 1603, they passed a law recognizing witchcraft as a criminal offense. Interestingly, the storm, which once hit the ship of this king (the groom of the Danish princess), was officially recognized as an act of witches hostile to him - in Denmark were received "confessions". The customer recognized the distant relative of the king - Francis Stewart, the fifth Earl of Boswell. This "investigation" significantly strengthened Jacob in his hatred of the "devil", which, according to some sources, could result in a total of about 4000 women in Scotland.


King Jacob I



Monument of Alice Nutter, one of the women burned under Jacob I in England


Jacob I was not alone in his zeal. At the end of the seventeenth century, the theologian Richard Baxter (who was called “the greatest of the Puritans”) in the book Proof of the Existence of the World of Spirits called for a crusade against the “sect of Satan.” This work was published in 1691 year - a year before the tragic events in the American Salem.

Since the burning in Britain served as the standard punishment for high treason, witches and sorcerers in this country were executed by hanging. And the most common torture was sleep deprivation.

The pursuit of sorcerers and witches in Britain continued in the Republic period. These prejudices and superstitions, the English colonists, unfortunately, were transferred to the territory of the New World. In the US state of Massachusetts, 28 people were executed on charges of witchcraft. The first in Boston in 1688 on charges of witchcraft was arrested, convicted and hanged washerwoman Goody Glover. Her sad fate had no effect on the condition of the children allegedly bewitched by her. However, using materials from this process, a certain Cotton Mater published a book about witches and witchcraft. But the worst and shameful Witches process in the USA took place in 1692-1693. in the small town of Salem, founded by the Puritans in 1626. Under completely absurd charges, about 200 people were arrested at that time. Of these, 19 was hanged, 1 was crushed with stones, four died in prison, seven were convicted, but received a postponement of the sentence, one woman who was held in prison for a long time without trial, was eventually sold for slavery into debt, . Like witches' minions were killed and two dogs. In principle, nothing special happened beyond Salem in those days: the Old Europe-Europe could hardly have been surprised or, moreover, frightened by such a modest enough Vedovsky process. In Germany or Austria, the execution of witches occurred and much more massive, and no less brutal. In good old England, lawyer Matthew Hopkins in just one year (1645-1646) achieved the execution of 68 "witches".


Matthew Hopkins. Discovery of Witches


However, the color of time has already changed irreversibly, and at the end of the 17th century, American Puritans who considered themselves quite decent, cultured and educated, looked in the mirror and were suddenly horrified when they saw a brutal grin on their faces. And so today the descendants of witch hunters live in the city, renamed them Danvers - it happened in 1752 year. But there is another Salem Town, the city in which the witches trial was held.


The witch house in Salem, where 1692-1693 trials took place.


This city is not at all shy of its doubtful glory: everywhere black ravens and cats, fake spiders, bats, owls. In advertising brochures for tourists, Salem is called the "city where Halloween lasts all year round." It is proud to say that of the 40 thousands of people living in the city, one third are pagans, and about 2,5 thousands more consider themselves to be sorcerers and witches. The “Salem witches” museum and the “underground dungeon of the Salem witches” are opened for tourists (the building of the former church, the ground part of which was used as a court meeting room, and the underground part as a prison). And many now, looking in the mirror of this Salem, indeed, see in it not the faces of innocent victims distorted by pain, but funny masks for Halloween.


Witch Museum in Salem



In the Salem Witch Museum


This is also greatly facilitated by the rehabilitation of “witch hunters” by modern cinema: from the American film “Focus Pokus” (about the funny adventures of witches burned in 1693 in the modern American city - with good vocals I put a spell on you and Come little children) before discrediting the honor of the great writer of mediocre Russian handicrafts "about Gogol."


More than a transparent hint at the Salem witches in the movie "Focus Pokus" - the action takes place in 1693.



The same witches in 1993 entertain the American public at a nightclub: I put a spell on you, I said! In the role of Anatoly Kashpirovsky - Bette Middler, Katie Najimi and Sarah Jessica Parker


Due to wide publicity and huge resonance, the Vedovsk process in Salem was of great importance, discrediting the “witch hunters” not only in the United States, but throughout the world. After the disgrace of Salem, which is obvious to all the more or less adequate people, it was already somehow non-comfortably to organize their own “witch hunt”: not fashionable, not modern, and not prestigious. Separate excesses still occurred, but, as a rule, they were condemned and did not meet with general approval in society. Therefore, we consider the events in the US state of Massachusetts in more detail.

Researchers are still wondering why the people of Salem who are sober-minded in everyday life are not “turned” on theosophy of mysticism, not religious fanatics, and not Bedlam's patients, so amicably and all at once believed the strange and ridiculous stories of some children? Why did these unsubstantiated charges make such an impression on the seemingly quite rational and respectable society of American puritans? Why did they destroy so many of their neighbors, friends and relatives on the basis of these stipulations?

No matter how trite, the most reliable version still should recognize the hysteria of adults and the conspiracy of children. Of course, there were attempts to get another explanation. So, in 1976, the journal Science conducted its own investigation, during which it was suggested that the "visions" of children were hallucinations caused by poisoning with rye bread, affected by the ergot fungus. According to the third version, the cause of inadequate behavior of children could be the so-called "lethargic encephalitis", the symptoms of which are similar to those described in the Salem case. Finally, there are advocates of the fourth version, who believe that the rare disease called Huntington's disease is to blame. But the fact remains that the children were “sick” as long as the adults allowed them to “get sick” and immediately “recovered” as soon as the authorities began a serious investigation into their activities.

But back to the winter Salem 1692 of the year, when girls gathered in the kitchen at the parish house listened to the stories of Tituba, a black slave, born in Barbados, had nothing to do. Children are always and everywhere the same, all kinds of "horror stories" are always very popular among them, and stories about voodoo, witches, black magic, as they say, "went with a bang." But these “fairy tales told at night” did not bring any benefit to anyone. The first victims of seemingly innocent "horror stories" were 9-year-old Elizabeth Paris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams (one was the daughter, the other - the niece of Pastor Samuel Paris), whose behavior has changed dramatically. At first, everyone noticed frequent drops in their moods, then sudden falls to the floor and convulsions began. Then the same symptoms appeared in 12-year-old Anna Putnam and other girls. The doctors were perplexed and could not say anything definite, and then, to their misfortune, Tituba again took the initiative, who decided to "knock out a wedge with a wedge": she baked a witch pie from rye flour and urine and fed it to the dog. According to another version, she poured a piece of meat with urine from the girls, burned it and gave it to the dog. As a result, suddenly turned blue, Elizabeth began to wheeze loudly: "Tituba." The rest of the girls also fell into a trance, but chose other women as victims: Sarah Good and Sapa Osborne. The last two did not have the slightest idea of ​​the exotic Voodoo cult or any local witchcraft practices, but this did not prevent the local judges from issuing a decision on their arrest. Frightened 4-year-old daughter of Sarah Hood, Dorothy, not to be separated from her mother, was also called a witch - and the judges willingly believed her: the girl was put in jail in which she spent whole 8 months. As a result, Sarah was sentenced to be hanged, called to repent before execution, she replied to the steward: "I am no more a witch than you are a clown, and if you take my life, God will make you drink your own blood." As it sometimes happens, the words spoken by chance turned out to be prophetic: in 1717, the executioner died from internal hemorrhage - literally choking on his own blood.


The Witches Trial, Salem


Then everything went on increasing. Enjoying unexpected glory, juvenile slanderers brought in more and more new charges. The names of other "witches" escaped from women arrested because of their slander by torture.


The Salem Witch trial, drawing 1876 g


Formally, the judges of Salem did not engage in amateur activities at all - they acted on the basis of the old British "Witchcraft Act", adopted in 1542 year. For the so-called “witch marks,” the judges were ready to accept anything: a relatively large nipple, wart, or mole.


Hermann Knopf, The Witch's Mark


If there were no special marks on the body of the accused, the absence of such “signs” served as evidence of their conspiracy with the devil - Satan, because it may well take the investigators away. “Excessive beauty” was also very suspicious (“Because you cannot be beautiful in the world like this” - we have already heard this). For proof, he could have a dream in which the accused was one of the “victims” while he was in another place: the devil is strong enough to send the ghost of his servant to embarrass the spirit of a “pure” person. For example, Anna Putnam, already mentioned, accused the priest George Burroughs of appearing as a ghost to her, scaring and strangling her. Then he was already accused of organizing a witch’s coven and pointing damage at the soldiers. Trying to escape, already standing at the gallows, Burroughs read the “Our Father” prayer without hesitation, which, according to traditional ideas, could never have been done by a person who sold his soul to the devil. This did not help him, but one of the slanderers (Margaret Jacobs, the granddaughter of a priest!), In an impulse of belated repentance after the execution, recanted her testimony.


Interrogation of the Witch, Salem


It was impossible to help unhappy women: any person - father, son, husband, trying to obstruct the investigation, or simply doubting the competence of the court, was himself declared a sorcerer and almost the head of the witch community of Salem. The first of these men was the husband of Elizabeth Proctor. A similar fate awaited the earlier arrest of John Willard, and then the local judge Saltonstall, as well as the former city priest Barrafs. There were real heroes among the defendants. So, 82-hletnyy Gilles Corey, in order to save the farm for his family, endured 5 months in prison and torture. His death was terrible: September 19 1692, the so-called peine forte ex dure procedure was applied to him - heavy stones were laid on the chest, covered with a board. Thus, the guilty plea was literally “squeezed out” of the accused. Without confessing anything, he died after two days of continuous torment. And juvenile slanderers stated on this occasion that Corey had signed a “devil’s book” in exchange for a promise that he would never go to the gallows. And, therefore, the devil kept his word. Corey did not find out that his wife, Martha, declared guilty of a smallpox epidemic that happened shortly before all these events, would be hanged the next day after his death. Along with her, 7 people will be executed.



Meanwhile, became famous girls from Salem, began to invite "on tour" in the surrounding cities and villages: if at the gates of a house one of the cliques began to fight in a fit, it was considered proven that a witch lives in the family. As a result, the vedovo trials went beyond Salem and also took place in the city of Andover. And in Boston, the captain John Alden, a participant in the wars with the Indians, practically a national hero, and even the character of the poem “Matchmaking by Miles Steindish” was declared a sorcerer. Olden managed to escape from prison after 5 weeks in prison.

By the way, the famous American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury in one of the interviews told about the legend in his family about the great-grandmother who was allegedly burned during the witch-hunt in Salem. Appeal to the documents confirmed: among the dead, indeed, there is a certain Mary Bradbury.


Ray Bradbury


Over time, more and more people began to realize that the situation with the "witches" in Massachusetts is becoming absurd and is clearly getting out of control. However, the fear of being accused of aiding the Devil was still stronger than the voice of common sense. It is difficult to say how long this disgraceful action would continue, and how many victims it would have been worth if the presumptuous girls did not accuse the governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, of witchcraft.


William Phips, Governor of Massachusetts


The “head of the administration”, who was seriously angry, finally remembered his duties to protect the rights of the population of the state entrusted to him. Daring to support the prosecution, the judges were immediately dismissed, and the Supreme Court of Massachusetts (which is still in force) was established in return. New judicial officials acted decisively and without sentiment: the girls subjected to serious interrogations quickly confessed that they had negotiated people "for fun" (!). In 1702, all decisions of the previous composition of the court were declared illegal. Slanderers were universally condemned and ostracized, but remained unpunished. Only in 1706, one of the main accusers, Anna Putnam, tried to justify herself before her victims and their relatives, saying that she herself was deceived by the devil, who forced her to testify against innocent people. In 1711, the state decided to pay compensation to the relatives of the victims. And in 1752, the residents of Salem changed the name of their city to Danvers. In 1992, there it was decided to erect a monument to the victims of the witch hunt. Since the exact burial place of those executed was unknown, the “Salem witches” memorial was made similar to gravestones.


Salem witch memorial



Monument to the victims of the witch case in Salem


In 2001, Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift reaffirmed the innocence of the defendants. But there were exceptions to the rule: at the official review of the case, held in 1957, not all victims of this process were rehabilitated, and 5 of executed women are still legally considered to be witches. Their descendants require (so far unsuccessfully) to re-examine the case and fully rehabilitate their ancestors.
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  1. 3vs
    +5
    17 December 2018 06: 23
    Only the winged expression of Comrade Lavrov suggests itself ... ((C) S. Lavrov)
    1. +3
      17 December 2018 07: 56
      Quote: 3vs

      Only the winged expression of Comrade Lavrov suggests itself ... ((C) S. Lavrov)

      Yes, all the same, Europe was a psycho-SUCH to create. And the consequences are visible today ...
      I read that in Holland alone, about 200 witches and sorcerers were destroyed

      In Russia, this was not the case ....
      1. +4
        17 December 2018 18: 18
        Quote: Olgovich
        In Russia, this was not the case ....

        ---------------------------
        Burning for religious crimes was also practiced in Russia, the scale was smaller, but we also had this fad. Burned "Jews", Old Believers, and others, who seemed suspicious.
        1. -3
          18 December 2018 09: 55
          Quote: Altona
          Burning for religious crimes was also practiced in Russia, the scale was smaller, but we also had this fad. Burned "Jews", Old Believers, and others, who seemed suspicious.

          SUCH was not in sight.
      2. +4
        18 December 2018 00: 28
        Quote: Olgovich
        In Russia, there wasn’t such a thing ..

        oh you never have to joke with that.
        With its color it was in every country.
        “The devil’s sorceries happen most of all through wives, because from time immemorial a woman demon seduced, she’s a man, that is why women in our days are many sorcerers by witchcraft, poison, and other devilish machinations” (1071). The church charter of Vladimir Svyatoslavovich (the final version took shape at the beginning of the 12th century) names among the crimes subject to the church court: not only “hereticism”, but also “witchcraft” and “nodes [conspiracy nodes for repelling diseases, slander]”. The charter was valid until the 17th century, inclusive - in the formal reply of the Archbishop of Tobolsk Cyprian to the tsar’s governors (1623), with reference to the decrees of the tsar and the patriarch, “wisdom ... that is all, gentlemen, is our spiritual affairs” (History of Siberia. Primary sources. IV issue - Novosibirsk , 1994 .-- S. 255-256).
        In 1411, twelve sorceresses were burned in Pskov on suspicion of sending plague to the city (PSRL. T. 5. Issue 2. - P. 36). In 1444, the Mozhaisk prince ordered the noblewoman Marya Mamonova to be burned "for magic" (PSRL. T. 6. Issue 2. - P. 103, 306). In 1575, Grozny burned 15 sorceresses in Novgorod (Synodik of Ivan the Terrible // Skrynnikov R., Great Sovereign Ivan the Terrible: T. 2. - Smolensk: Rusich, 1996. - C. 428). Several sorcerers were burned by decree of his son Fyodor Ioannovich (PSRL. T. 14. - P. 39). Temporarily resumed "witch hunt" under Alexei Mikhailovich - from 1647 to 1690. there is information about the burning of 16 people convicted of witchcraft (Novomberg N. "About the Magi was first mentioned" // Russian conspiracies. - M .: Press, 1993. - S. 299-303; A. Afanasyev. Poetic views of the Slavs on nature. T . 3. - M., 1869. - S. 652). Under Peter, they also burned it.
        The last known burning occurred in the 70s. 18 century in Kamchatka, where a wooden sorceress was burned in a wooden log house. Shmalev, the captain of the Tengin fortress, led the execution and, unfortunately, “this worthy of barbaric times act, committed in the reign of the wise and philanthropic empress [Catherine II], got away with the gift of Shmalev”
        Do not forget the massacres of "witches" in Ingushetia .... burned in houses.
        they might argue on a scale, but in Russia one could lose one’s life for much less misconduct and did not have to blame women for that. And in Europe it was insanity, although the Small Ice Age and worsening conditions with diseases, spoilage of grain and a small forage base - people were forced to genocide each other by different methods ... Wars / massacres and legal witch hunts ... etc
  2. +7
    17 December 2018 06: 52
    Thank you, Valery! I would like to add that universities have made a significant contribution to the witch hunt. The bachelors of medicine they graduated, who practiced bloodletting as the main method of therapy, could not compete with healers. However, the "administrative resource" was connected successfully.
    1. +2
      17 December 2018 19: 45
      Anton, you are right: the then "healers" were guaranteed to kill anyone. "Favorite medicine" bloodletting, and given the then unsanitary conditions. Bro Glory to the Almighty that this is in the past.
      It is good if such a "doctor" is good-natured, but if the critic is envious? Remember the Polish film "The Witch Doctor"?
      1. -1
        17 December 2018 21: 25
        Good evening, Svyatoslav. I don’t remember the film, probably I didn’t. However, with a great deal of certainty, I can say that the rumors about the general insanitary conditions of the Middle Ages are greatly exaggerated. At the turn of the 13-14 centuries. only in Paris there were several dozen public baths. There was a separate guild of bathhouse attendants, in which, by the way, women who were the mistresses of the establishments had equal rights with men. The ecological and humanitarian catastrophe of the first half of the 14th century crossed out everything. European civilization, staggering from hunger and dying of the plague, entered the era of obscurantism - the Renaissance.
        1. +3
          18 December 2018 00: 32
          Quote: 3x3zsave
          rumors about the widespread unsanitary conditions of the Middle Ages are greatly exaggerated.

          antisantarism was only because they forgot what Roman Cloac Maximus looks like. As soon as they began to build something similar, it immediately became easier.
          And so in Russia that in Europe the level of unsanitary conditions was equal. Then Europe began to overtake RI.
          Quote: 3x3zsave
          14th century. European civilization, staggering from hunger and dying of the plague, entered the era of obscurantism - the Renaissance.

          The plague / and other diseases as usual came from the east (China is an importer of all these joys) through Arabs and merchants (by the way through the Crimea to Europe and Russia)
          The plague simply reduced the population at times. But syphilis forced to review all norms of behavior ..... and strengthened the influence of Christian morality on Europe and the world ...
  3. -2
    17 December 2018 07: 27
    Here are the origins of rear-wheel drive.
  4. +2
    17 December 2018 08: 06
    Grigory Klimov, author of the book "My name is legion" and a wrestler with witches and witchers, with great respect for Pope Innocent VIII, who in 1484 proclaimed the destruction of heresies and witchcraft with his bull.
    1. -1
      17 December 2018 12: 59
      Solzhenitsyn called for the destruction of the USSR. Nuclear strike.
  5. +3
    17 December 2018 08: 26
    A few excerpts from the Bible for thought:

    - "Do not leave the sorcerers alive" (Exodus 22:18).
    - "... and the prophet of this or that dreamer must be put to death because he persuaded you to depart from the Lord your God ..." (Deuteronomy 13: 5).
    - "If your relatives urge you to worship other gods ... then kill them ... stone them to death" (Deuteronomy 13: 6-10)
    - "If there is among you ... a man or a woman who ... will go and serve other gods, and worship them, or the sun, or the moon, or all the heavenly host ... then stone them to death" (Deuteronomy 17: 2-5) ...
    - "He who sacrifices to the gods, except for one lord, let him be destroyed" (Exodus 22:20).
    - "... do not be afraid of the people of this land; for they will go to us to be devoured" (Numbers 14: 9).

    What about us? And we have a song in the subject, so to speak, feel the difference.

    1. 0
      17 December 2018 08: 47
      Quote: Boris55
      A few excerpts from the Bible for thought:

      Dear Boris, the holy fathers do not recommend the laity to read the Old Testament, the reason is simple - this is not a book of our mind.
      1. +6
        17 December 2018 08: 57
        Quote: bober1982
        this is not our mind book.

        Who and what measure did my mind measure? laughing If the Old Testament is still printed in the Bible for use by the masses, then it is quite relevant.

        Quote: bober1982
        holy fathers do not recommend the laity to read the Old Testament

        I hope you didn’t speak now against the 10 commandments, which in the Old Testament are in the Pentateuch of Moses.

        1 commandment: “I am the Lord your God ... May you have no other gods before My face” (Exodus 20: 2-3).
        2 commandment: “Do not make yourself an idol or any image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth. Do not worship them and do not serve them ”(Exodus 20: 4-6)
        3 commandment: “Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who pronounces His name in vain ”(Exodus 20: 7).
        4 commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days, and do all your work; and the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God: do not do anything on this day neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter ... For in six days the Lord created heaven and earth, the sea and everything that is in them; and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it ”(Exodus 20: 8-11) ..
        5 commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged on the land which the Lord your God gives you” (Exodus 20: 12).
        6 commandment: “Do Not Kill” (Exodus 20: 13).
        7 commandment: “Do not commit adultery” (Exodus 20: 14).
        8 commandment:Do Not Steal (Exodus 20: 15)
        9 commandment:“Do not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exodus 20: 16).
        10 commandment:“Do not desire your neighbor's house; do not desire your neighbor's wife ... nothing that your neighbor has ”(Exodus 20: 17).

        I wonder how these commandments relate to the excerpts that I quoted above. It seems one and the other in the same books, but what a different approach ...
        1. -3
          17 December 2018 09: 12
          Quote: Boris55
          I wonder how these commandments relate to the excerpts that I quoted above. It seems one and the other in the same books, but what a different approach ...

          It’s said that it’s not our mind, it’s easier to be. To begin with, read, for example, the teachings of the priest in the fight against his passions (fornication, anger, despondency, etc.), and you immediately bull by the horns - Exodus 22:20
          1. +5
            17 December 2018 09: 29
            Quote: bober1982
            It is said that not our mind

            Nah. Will not work. This applies to me, my family and friends, as well as the inhabitants of my country. I do not care who will surround me: God's servants or grandchildren of God.

            1. 0
              17 December 2018 10: 37
              Quote: Boris55
              I do not care who will surround me: God's servants or grandchildren of God.

              I can’t say anything about the grandchildren of God, and I haven’t met the interpretations of the Holy Fathers on this score, I will not say anything.
              A servant of God - you have to earn such a name and work hard, it’s something like an honorary title, speaking your language.
              1. +4
                17 December 2018 11: 34
                Quote: bober1982
                A servant of God - you have to earn it

                "We are not slaves, slaves are not us"

                "... Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven; Give our daily bread ... "

                Christianity has been driving the earth for more than 2 thousand years. Does it really promote His will in a pattern like in heaven or does it only look, but in fact has completely different goals? Is it possible, if there are slaves, to build Paradise on earth or in heaven, Hell, judging by what they have already built?

                In general, this is not the topic. And as regards the topic, the Old Testament is an instruction for the seizure of the World.

                “... your god (the Jewish people) will bring you to that land that He swore ... to give you with big and good cities that you did not build, and with houses filled with all good that you did not fill, and with wells carved from stone that you did not carve, with vineyards and olives that you did not plant, and you will eat and be saturated ”(Deuteronomy 6: 10-11).
                “You (Jews) will take possession of nations that are larger and stronger than you; every place on which your foot sets foot will be yours; no one shall stand against you ”(Deuteronomy 11: 23-25).
                “... and you will lend to many nations, but you yourself will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you ”(Deuteronomy 15: 6).

                So with regards to the Inquisition, it is nothing but the destruction of the local elite and the seizure of power. The New Testament is an instruction for breaking the will of enslaved peoples.
                1. 0
                  17 December 2018 11: 41
                  Quote: Boris55
                  Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven

                  Why distort? it immediately catches the eye.
                  Quote: Boris55
                  In general, this is not the topic

                  I agree, it is necessary to turn off, good luck.
                2. +7
                  17 December 2018 16: 08
                  Quote: Boris55
                  Quote: bober1982
                  A servant of God - you have to earn it

                  "We are not slaves, slaves are not us"


                  "We are not slaves, slaves - not we"
                  1. +3
                    17 December 2018 21: 28
                    Bravo!!!! At least someone knows.
        2. +6
          17 December 2018 16: 15
          Quote: Boris55
          Who and what measure did my mind measure?

          There, and besides the 10 commandments, a lot of things can be found ... As Chesterton has:
          "St. Clair was an old Anglo-Indian soldier protestant warehouse. Think about what that might mean, and for God's sake, drop the hypocrisy! This may mean that he was a licentious man, lived under the tropical sun among the dregs of eastern society and, spiritually unmanaged by anyone, indiscriminately absorbed the teachings of the Eastern book. No doubt he read the Old Testament more readily than the New. Without a doubt, he found in the Old Testament all that he wanted to find, lust, violence, betrayal. I dare say that he was honest in the conventional sense of the word. But what is the use if a person is honest in his worship of dishonesty? "
          It’s noteworthy that the character who says this is catholic priest !
      2. +3
        17 December 2018 18: 20
        Quote: bober1982
        the holy fathers do not recommend the laity to read the Old Testament, the reason is simple - this is not a book of our mind.

        ----------------------------
        Why not? For general development should be read.
      3. +1
        18 December 2018 09: 51
        Quote: bober1982
        Dear Boris, the holy fathers do not recommend the laity to read the Old Testament, the reason is simple - this is not a book of our mind.

        You are somehow too categorical. You can and should read, the main thing is to approach this process from scratch and correctly interpret everything.
        The book is good and necessary.
        1. -1
          18 December 2018 11: 44
          Quote: Reichsmarschall
          You can and should read

          I agree, it is not forbidden to read it, but it is not recommended, it cannot be a reference book, I personally read it as I read Pinocchio’s books - what is in the end, in the beginning and in the middle. But, here according to his strength.
  6. +1
    17 December 2018 09: 18
    The most curious thing is that the height of the witch hunt falls on the Enlightenment!
    1. 0
      17 December 2018 09: 26
      You are not quite accurate, the Age of Enlightenment began around the end of the 17th century, it was the Protestants who set the stage for the advent of this era of a kind of obscurantism, it sounds like a pun, but it is.
      The last nail was hammered into the western Christian church.
  7. +14
    17 December 2018 09: 18
    A curious incident happened in the 1524 year in Riga. There, too, processes were conducted over the witches, not so large-scale, but still. The main way to determine guilty was to check with water. That is, the suspect was thrown into the Daugava, and if she did not sink, then this was fifty-seven percent proof of guilt, after which the survivor went straight to the fire. And then one day, during some church holiday, a statue of the Virgin Mary was taken out of the Dome Cathedral and began to walk around the neighborhood with her hands. As a sin, one of those who brought the shrine hesitated (whether he was sober - history is silent) and the Virgin flew into the river. To the indescribable horror of those gathered, the statue did not even think to sink ... In general, since the evidence was there, the statue of the Virgin Mary was condemned and burned.
    But the fact that it was entirely wooden and did not drown precisely for this reason did not occur to the townspeople. request
    All this would be funny if sad. Bacchanalia lasted almost until the end of the 16th century and cost the lives of many already real women.
  8. +5
    17 December 2018 09: 19
    For tourists, there is a museum of "Salem witches" and "underground dungeon of Salem witches" (the building of a former church, the ground part of which was used as a courtroom, and the underground part was used as a prison). And many now, looking in the mirror of this Salem, and in fact, see in him not the faces of innocent victims distorted by pain, but funny masks for Halloween.

    Americans always remain Americans - business, business, and again business ...
  9. +4
    17 December 2018 09: 32
    Article + Author throughout, without exception, Europe went through. Unless only Hungary and Poland remained unreached, maybe that's why they kept their gene pool
    1. +2
      17 December 2018 16: 17
      Quote: Stirbjorn
      Unless only Hungary and Poland are left unreached

      How to say ... There is a version that the trial of the "bloody countess" Erzbeta Bathory is also a complete falsification (the countess was a Protestant, the judges were Catholics)
    2. +1
      18 December 2018 00: 40
      Quote: Stirbjorn
      Unless only Hungary and Poland remained unreached, maybe that's why they kept their gene pool

      oh there is also a discrepancy
      I think not many people know that the last victim of the witch hunt, so beloved during the Holy Inquisition, was burned just over 200 years ago in the town of Reszel, which is located on the lands of the former East Prussia, now owned by Poland.
      The story of the burning of the last witch in Europe, on the one hand, is full of details, but on the other hand is full of inconsistencies. A certain Polish Barbara Zdunk, 38 years old, was accused of arson of several houses in Reshel. It was known that she worked as a maid, and also that she had an affair with a young man of 22 years of age. It was assumed that the lady committed arson out of jealousy. The investigation lasted three years, during which the accused was in a local prison, which was located in a Reshel castle. Further in this case, complete confusion begins. Allegedly, the wine in the arson was never proven, so the defendant was accused of practicing black magic. The proof was a love affair with a young man. In the end, Barbara was strangled and her body burned
      Witch Highlands in Wielkopolcie
      during the process "Brides of Satan" were caught from the water and imprisoned oak barrels, which were in custody in the city granary. The question of the culprits of the wife's troubles, the measure seems to have been resolved. But it was not there. At night, they brought 7 more suspects who passed As a result, 14 women from Dorukhov, accused of witchcraft, were brought before a judge who came from Grabovo.3 The remaining 11 were executed from torture.
      Prilepov village near Zelon Gora
      Within two years, 20 women were burned, 7 of whom were residents of Prilepov
      From 1622 to 1684, more than 250 people were executed in Nisa, accused of a deal with the devil. Mostly they were women, but there were men, and even children from 9 to 12 years old. But one litigation became especially significant. When the sorceress in court was asked who her patron was, she did not hesitate to point to the bishop. Unfortunately, the clergyman himself has become a victim of his companions.
      The history of the kingdom of Polish witches remains one of the most tragic pages of the Commonwealth. The Catholic Church pleaded guilty to the Inquisition and asked for forgiveness from all believers.
      Interestingly, the Orthodox pleaded guilty to this?
  10. +1
    17 December 2018 09: 39
    Competition, settling accounts, maintaining power by terror, possessing property, and just envy. All this is multiplied by spiritual darkness. Everything is logical, people who have not become people.
  11. +2
    17 December 2018 10: 01
    Five hundred million witches? somehow familiar ....
  12. +3
    17 December 2018 10: 59
    Do religions justify murder? Do I need a god, whose name is destroying people? Not only that, people have reasons to deprive each other of their lives on a massive scale, that religious motives also need to be dragged here? In any case, atheists are not killed by so many people as religious fanatics.
    But I was personally interested in another question. This bloody bacchanalia, religious obscurantism (something lately I have to use this word often), about which the author wrote, must undoubtedly have some political and (or) economic reasons. True reasons. It doesn't look like a class struggle. The idea of ​​genocide as an ideological basis for the destruction of part of the population is also not supported by facts. Even religious wars have a purely economic motive. Is there any rational, I stress, explanation for the "witch hunt"? How can you explain that the majority of her victims are women, for example, and not men? Is there an oversupply of them in Europe? I do not believe. An overabundance of women is possible only for other women, and not for men.
    Has anyone read anything clever about this?
    1. 0
      17 December 2018 11: 22
      Quote: Trilobite Master
      religious fanatics

      By the way, this seemingly forgotten phrase was again heard, for good reason.
      Fanaticism, this is primarily spiritual pride, this is when they consider their opinion exceptional, and on the site there are many.
      1. +3
        17 December 2018 15: 05
        Quote: bober1982
        Fanaticism, this is primarily spiritual pride,

        Rather, pride.
        Fanaticism (Greek Φανατισμός, Lat. Fanatismus from fanaticus, ecstatic [1] from fanum “sacred place”, “temple” [2]) - blindly unconditionally following convictions with the obligatory imposition of their point of view on others, especially in religious national and political areas; Radical adherence to any ideas, beliefs or beliefs, usually combined with intolerance to other people's views and beliefs. Lack of critical perception of their beliefs.
        - quote from wiki.
        At all times, these were enough, with any rulers, with any social system, and the level of wealth, our time is no exception. And on the site they really have enough, in this thread, including, noted, but still, their number is not critical, at least for now.
        I am now interested in something else.
        A witch hunt would not have been possible without the active approval of the majority of the population. Many of those who were burned yesterday yesterday, themselves shouted "To the fire of her!" although it is understandable that most of the spectators and active participants in the massacres were not fanatics, but were simply carried away by the general course of events, which the fanatics were directing. A fanatic can captivate many, an outstanding fanatic - very many, but at the level of communications of the XNUMXth - XNUMXth centuries. the number of people who could be personally attracted by one person was limited, respectively, in order to captivate the masses, the number of fanatics acting in a unified manner had to increase dramatically.
        In this regard, the main issues. There are two of them.
        What allowed a handful of fanatics to grow in such a way as to carry along the whole of Western Europe?
        What measures need to be taken so that something similar does not happen again in our time?
        (I don’t consider the physical destruction of people infected with fanaticism, because this is also immoral, stupid and useless - other, more embittered, and therefore more violent, immediately take the place of those killed).
        1. -1
          17 December 2018 15: 17
          Quote: Trilobite Master
          What allowed a handful of fanatics to grow so big

          The crowd is the crowd, now it carries it in its arms, and time passes - it can tear it to shreds, there are many examples. In any person, somewhere inside there is a "snake"; if it breaks out, it cannot be stopped.
          1. 0
            17 December 2018 15: 39
            Quote: bober1982
            Crowd and there is a crowd

            Nothing in the world is happening with the wrong reason - any phenomenon has objective reasons. The fact that both Catholics and Protestants agreed in large numbers burned not even each other, but their own women, it seems to me absolutely unnatural, if you will, impossible, but, nevertheless, it was, although logically, there should not have been could not. Only global causes could initiate such a global process.
            1. 0
              17 December 2018 21: 43
              "only global reasons." And they were.
        2. +3
          18 December 2018 00: 44
          Quote: Trilobite Master
          What allowed a handful of fanatics to grow in such a way as to carry along the whole of Western Europe?
          What measures need to be taken so that something similar does not happen again in our time?

          deterioration of climatic conditions. Regular competition within the system for food. Mass psychosis on the background of the hungry years.
          Quote: Trilobite Master
          What measures need to be taken so that something similar does not happen again in our time?

          Globalism partially removes this problem with the deterioration of the climate in the local area. But with global aggravation, mass psychosis intensifies.
          Reserves (as for the new Maunder minimum) that are there - more than 7 years. And trade. And technology.
      2. 0
        17 December 2018 16: 10
        Quote: bober1982
        Quote: Trilobite Master
        religious fanatics

        By the way, this seemingly forgotten phrase was again heard, for good reason.
        Fanaticism, this is primarily spiritual pride, this is when they consider their opinion exceptional, and on the site there are many.

        Do not confuse pride with pride.
        1. 0
          17 December 2018 19: 01
          Pride is pride.
          1. +4
            17 December 2018 21: 56
            Damn it with two! These are the sides of two different medals. The reverse of one reads "Courage", the reverse of the other says "Stupidity"!
    2. +3
      17 December 2018 16: 19
      Quote: Trilobite Master
      Is there any rational, I stress, explanation for the "witch hunt"?

      "Evil cramps", they are "Antonov fire" (ergotism), caused by LSD. If not in the know, LSD naturally produces an ergot fungus that infects grain. In those days, they did not know how to fight it. Ergot struck rye, mainly in damp and cold years - therefore, the peak of the "Witch Hunt" fell on the so-called. "Little Ice Age"
      1. +2
        17 December 2018 18: 06
        Quote: Dirty Harry
        "Evil cramps", they are "Antonov fire"

        Just glitches caused by food poisoning? smile
        Will not go.
        Russia and some other countries of Eastern Europe have not been affected by this wind. And this is despite the fact that the climate in Russia both now and then was cooler than in Western and Central Europe. That is, we should have started to burn the witches earlier and finish later, which we obviously do not observe.
        1. 0
          22 December 2018 14: 44
          Quote: Trilobite Master
          Russia and some other countries of Eastern Europe were not affected by this weathering.

          affected, but population density is lower.
          Quote: Trilobite Master
          That is, we had to start burning witches earlier and finish later, which we obviously do not observe.

          so we started. It's just that they are often silent about it, but not so often (just the population density is lower and cases are less common)
          1. 0
            22 December 2018 14: 59
            Quote: Antares
            affected, but population density is lower.

            Where is the population density? Do we really consider the number of executions not square kilometer?
            In terms of population, Russia in the XNUMXth - XNUMXth centuries. was quite comparable with the same France and Germany (let's call this formation so), so in absolute terms the number of executions of "witches" should have been approximately the same if our ancestors were infected with the same disputes.
            Or do you think that not the emergence, but the spread of this epidemic is due to the "population density"? That is, the speed of transferring an idea from head to head depends on the distance between these heads?
            I'm really wondering how you relate the "witch hunt" to population density. Tell us if it's not difficult.
      2. 0
        17 December 2018 23: 54
        Sorry, even mass poisoning with dimethylamitlysergic acid is of a private nature. "They get the flu together, they go crazy one by one."
    3. 0
      17 December 2018 18: 22
      Quote: Trilobite Master
      Is there any rational, I stress, explanation for the "witch hunt"?

      -------------------------------
      Envy, competition, irrational fear of traditional "methods" of treatment.
    4. +1
      17 December 2018 22: 53
      Mikhail, read the work of T. Ryabova "Woman in the history of the Western European Middle Ages."
      1. +1
        17 December 2018 23: 23
        I add to the list. smile
        There are so many interesting and clever books, life is not enough to read everything, unfortunately. The list is growing, but less and less time ... But you need not only to read and understand, but to tell others. Anyway, thanks. smile
        1. +1
          17 December 2018 23: 39
          This is not a book, work. A couple of evenings are enough to read and comprehend, but in the future it helps a lot in understanding the processes that have taken place.
        2. -1
          18 December 2018 10: 08
          Quote: Trilobite Master
          But you need to not only read and understand, but tell others.

          No - no need to tell others. You do not really succeed - problems with interpretation. smile
    5. 0
      21 December 2018 12: 22
      Quote: Trilobite Master
      In any case, atheists did not kill as many people as religious fanatics.

      Mikhail, you are absolutely wrong, let's count - there were repressions for religious reasons in the USSR, in communist China, Cambodia, Vietnam, many African countries, etc. We are talking about tens of millions of victims - much more than "religious fanatics of Christianity."
  13. BAI
    +8
    17 December 2018 11: 48
    Well, in Russia it was, albeit not on such a scale:
    In ancient Russia, the Vedic processes arose already in the 1024th century, shortly after the adoption of Christianity. Church authorities were investigating these matters. In the oldest legal monument, “The Charter of Prince Vladimir on Church Courts,” witchcraft, sorcery, and sorcery are among the cases that the Orthodox Church examined and judged. In the monument of the XII century. The “Word of Evil Sushes,” compiled by Metropolitan Cyril, also speaks of the need to punish witches and sorcerers by a church court. The chronicle notes that in 1071 in the Suzdal land the wise men and "dashing women" were captured and put to death by burning. They were accused of the fact that they were the culprits of the crop failure that came to Suzdal. In 1091, the Magi were executed in Novgorod for publicly censuring the Christian faith. The Rostovites did the same in 1227. In Novgorod, after interrogation and torture, they burned four “wizards” in XNUMX. According to the annals, the execution took place in the bishop’s court at the insistence of the Novgorod archbishop Anthony. The clergy supported the belief among the people that sorcerers and witches were capable of acts hostile to Christianity, and demanded a brutal reprisal against them. In the teachings of the unknown author, "How to live to Christians," civil authorities were urged to track down sorcerers and sorcerers and betray them to "endless torment", i.e. death, in fear of a church curse. “You cannot spare those who did evil before God,” the author of the teaching urged, proving that those who saw the execution “were afraid of God.” Metropolitan John of Kiev also endorsed the mass terror against sorcerers and witches and defended the right of episcopal courts to sentence sorcerers and witches to heavy punishments and death. Metropolitan John believed that cruelty would frighten others not to perform “magical” actions and would turn people away from sorcerers and sorcerers.
    An ardent supporter of the bloody persecution of sorcerers and witches was a well-known preacher who lived in the 1275th century, Vladimir Bishop Serapion, a contemporary of the first processes against witches in the West (the first process arose in Toulouse in XNUMX when they burned Angela Labaret on charges of carnal relations with the devil). “And when you want to cleanse the city of lawless people,” Serapion wrote in his sermon, addressing the prince, “I rejoice at this. Cleanse yourself, following the example of the prophet and king David in Jerusalem, who uprooted all people who commit lawlessness, such as murder, others imprisonment, and others imprisonment. ”

    But, at the same time, in Russia the Church turned out to be smarter than Westerners - bishops searched for sorcerers and witches, they were delivered to the bishop’s court for investigation, and then they were transferred to the secular authorities for punishment by death. Those. executed worldly authorities. The church has nothing to do with it.

    By the way, I did not notice anything in the article about the process of 1275.


    The witch is thrown into the hole

    “A Tale of Bygone Years”: “Most of all demons have magical incidents through wives, because from time immemorial a woman has deceived a demon, she is a man, therefore women today are also magical about witchcraft, poison, and other devilish machinations.” 1071 year!
    1. 0
      17 December 2018 12: 29
      Quote: BAI
      The witch is thrown into the hole

      The artist has a highly developed imagination and fantasies, a woman (the one that is unknown, apparently) sits with an icon- ???? At that time in Russia there was no icon veneration yet.
      1. BAI
        0
        17 December 2018 13: 04
        The graphic refers to the text that is above the graphic.
        1. 0
          17 December 2018 13: 07
          Now it is clear.
      2. 0
        17 December 2018 13: 56
        this witch by touching the icon was probably checked.
        1. 0
          17 December 2018 14: 00
          or, let the garlic chew, these do not tolerate
          1. 0
            17 December 2018 14: 06
            silver checked, drowned again for verification, read "Konotop Witch", or drove a stake, like Senkevich's in Fire and Sword.
            This issue was then treated as technology.
          2. 0
            17 December 2018 22: 22
            Transferred as nefig do.
    2. +5
      17 December 2018 18: 24
      Quote: BAI
      Those. executed mundane authorities. The church has nothing to do with it.

      -----------------------------
      Westerners were also executed by the secular authorities, the church only determined the "degree of guilt", and execution is a secular matter. And the article also says.
  14. +3
    17 December 2018 12: 06
    There was enough filth. Human sacrifice, necromancy, "vampirism", swindling. Necromancy has long also been part of mainstream medicine. How many stipulated were executed per one guilty person, that is the question. Protestants executed witches more often and longer than Catholics. In the United States, executions took place in the 19th century.
    Quote: Olgovich
    In Russia, there wasn’t such a thing ...

    Necromancy however was common.
  15. +1
    17 December 2018 12: 32
    Thanks for the interesting stuff.
  16. +4
    17 December 2018 14: 03
    in Russia, this was also enough.
    and burned, and drowned, and not only witches and magicians, but also heretics and Old Believers and others.
    People sincerely believed that witches really exist. And burned at the stake, and burned in a log house, and executed differently, until the 18th century, it certainly was.
    and not only women, but also men. Wings invented, on a barrel with his powder, let him fly! laughing
    was, of course, and his national flavor-
    for witchcraft and apostasy in the 18th century they burned the monk Dionysius with a charge of witchcraft
    ... According to the letters of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, he denied and wore a cross under his heel and called for help to Satan and demons, and the letters were given for drinking by the chol and he gave the girls to drink for the harlot’s drink. ” All this outrage of Dionysius the Greek was taught by Dionysius the Mare. To be convinced of the effectiveness of witchcraft, they went to the seed Semyon Cherny with the intention of inducing two of his daughters to fornication, having given them a drink of wine. The girls and the elders "didn’t want to do the work of the prostitute." An annoyed Dionysius the Greek even “cursed the swearing” of Dionysius Kobyl, “that according to those letters he blasphemes the name of God and calls on the Devil, but by that call he does nothing.” And Dionysius Kobyl made excuses and gave examples when the plot worked and the girls agreed to fornication ....
  17. +3
    17 December 2018 14: 18
    ... Among those executed, he turned out to be the most beautiful girl in the city ... they executed a pupil of the prince-bishop, a nineteen-year-old girl ... "Excessive beauty" was also very suspicious ("Because you can’t be so beautiful in the world"

    Well, and why are we surprised that they have so much peasants love each other, oh, I'm sorry democratizing! Without women, then, and especially in the spring, it’s generally bad !!! Again, if they also have such spiritual shepherds like Boniface VIII, who claimed that having sex with boys is no more sinful than rubbing his hands. , then why wonder at the current flourishing of "democracy" in enlightened Europe ...
    1. 0
      17 December 2018 14: 25
      then it was believed that a real peasant could not be seduced by a woman, if she could not do without witchcraft.
      Read the Ballad of the Aivengo Knight, there they judged just for that.
      1. +2
        17 December 2018 14: 49
        Quote: Avior
        Read the Ballad of the Aivengo Knight, there they judged just for that.

        Is that Deprived? About which Walter Scott wrote? I like the film more with BALLADES of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. And so they had everything in Europe simple, they liked the girl, did not let them declare her a witch, so that others would know how to prevent the village from giving the best sucker ... laughing
        1. 0
          17 December 2018 23: 05
          this is in the film, if not mistaken.
          there a Jewish woman was tried for it
      2. +1
        21 December 2018 13: 16
        Quote: Avior
        Read the Ballad of the Aivengo Knight, there they just tried for it

        For an objective acquaintance with such a serious topic, one should not read books for schoolchildren written in the 19th century, but authentic protocols of inquisition processes, many of which have now been digitized (the "Gutenberg" project is working). This is a real tin ...
  18. IGU
    0
    17 December 2018 14: 39
    Yes, living among people is no less dangerous as in hermitage among animals ...
  19. +6
    17 December 2018 16: 06
    I decide who the witch is in my land

    An explicit reference to "I myself decide who is a Jew in my Luftwaffe!" laughing But Goering decided this in order to preserve the "necessary Jews", and not in order to declare the "true Aryans" vreys!

    Boniface VIII, claiming that having sex with boys is no more sinful than rubbing your palms

    Given that infa from materials posthumous process carried out political opponents Boniface - trust them accordingly! Dante fiercely hated Boniface and portrayed him in hell - but not for sodomy, but for simony (sale of church posts)

    In the Netherlands, the identification of “witches” was approached more rationally - by weighing: it was believed that a broom could lift a woman weighing no more than 50 kg into the air

    Despite the fact that the "terrible" Spanish Inquisition knew perfectly well that "flying on a broomstick" - glitches caused by "witch's ointment", which included a number of hallucinogens - and punished for these "flights" only with a thorough flogging!
  20. +4
    17 December 2018 20: 01
    Geneva was one of the darkest cities of Protestant Europe. Once in the Travelers Club they said that even a smile was forbidden there!
    Actually, witches are off topic on the site, but interesting.
    I just remembered the old TV show: "The Prince and the Pauper", when two "witches" were put in front of the false prince, they cause a storm. He wanted to check and of course there is no storm. If in reality the "court" wanted to check at least 98 and 8% of the cases fell apart.
  21. 0
    17 December 2018 23: 26
    Well, what can I say about them? They were savages and they remained
    1. 0
      18 December 2018 00: 03
      Undoubtedly! And we are all smart and highly spiritual! And pregnant women were not drunk for suspicion of treason.
      1. -3
        18 December 2018 00: 14
        And haven't you been jailed yet? And many of you like that? I even guess how to call your country - you have martial law there now
        1. +3
          18 December 2018 00: 26
          I, sinfully, love Ukraine, but not so much as to be its citizen.
          But I can not stand hohlofobov !!!
          1. +2
            18 December 2018 00: 37
            Quote: 3x3zsave
            But I can not stand hohlofobov !!!

            Plus from me, Anton. Zhy-syrny as possible. smile
            1. -1
              18 December 2018 00: 53
              Dumb for scho! Communicating Russofascists freeze me out until the moral and ethical blockages are completely removed. Like folk historians. The reaction is the same. "Basement, rack, fire".
  22. +1
    18 December 2018 09: 59
    The article is good and informative, but too lengthy in my opinion. And this repeating cliché about "shameful pages" is annoying.
    There is nothing shameful in the described - the global normal practice of those years. If the author does not understand and does not accept the processes and concepts of those years, then this is the author’s problem.
  23. -2
    21 December 2018 12: 24
    Of course I apologize, but there is a clear atheistic orientation of the author, who, moreover, clearly thinks that all witchcraft is "pranks" and "stupidity". In fact, to the great regret of believers and to the surprise of most ordinary people, magic works, but ... it takes people very far from God, into the depths of darkness, from where few can return ... This is an extremely serious question and clog its cliche with atheistic propaganda of the Soviet period is probably not worth it ...
  24. +1
    4 February 2021 18: 10
    patiently enduring troubled people is the lot of a good Christian.

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