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