What burned witches? Bashny.Net

One of the biggest mysteries in the history is a strange madness that gripped Europe in the XV-XVII centuries, as a result of which the fires off thousands of women suspected of witchcraft. What was it? Malice or cunning calculation?
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With regard to the fight against witches in medieval Europe, there are many theories. One of the most original is that there was no insanity. People are really struggling with the dark forces, and including witches, brood over the wide world. If desired, this theory can be developed.

Hardly a witchcraft ceased to fight, how in the world is here and there began to break out of the revolution and the increasing scope began to take on terrorism. And these phenomena prominent role played by women, as if turns into the evil furies. And fueling the current "color" revolutions, they also play a significant role.



Pagan tolerance

Pagan religion in general tolerant of witches. Everything was simple: if the magic going for the good of the people, it is welcomed if harm - is punished. In ancient Rome, witches chose the punishment depending on the severity of the offense they have. For example, if who inflicted the harm to witchcraft could not pay compensation to the victim, he should have been mutilated. In some countries, witchcraft was punishable by death.

Everything changed with the advent of Christianity. Drink, walk on the side and deceive neighbor was considered a sin. And sins announced the machinations of the devil. In medieval vision of the world of the common people began to form the most educated people of that era - the clergy. And they impose on them their worldview: they say, all the ills of the earth descended from the devil and his henchmen - demons and witches.

The machinations of witches wrote off all the natural disasters and failures in business. And it seems that the idea - the more witches to destroy, the more happiness halts all remaining people. First witches burned singly, then in pairs, then tens and hundreds.

One of the first known cases was the execution of a witch in 1128 in Flanders. One woman splashed water on a nobleman, and he soon fell ill from pains in the heart and kidneys, and some time later he died. In France, the first known witch burning was held in Toulouse in 1285, when a woman accused of cohabiting with the devil, why she allegedly gave birth to a cross between a wolf, snakes and humans. And after a while the execution of witches in France became massive. In the years 1320-1350 at the stake in Carcassonne climbed 200 women in Toulouse - more than 400. And soon the fashion for massacres of witches spread throughout Europe.



The world has gone mad

In Italy, after the publication in 1523 of witches bull of Pope Adrian VI, only in the area of ​​Como began to burn annually more than 100 witches. But most of all the witches appeared in Germany. German historian Johannes Scherr wrote: "Executions committed spend masses of time, starting in Germany around 1580 and continued for almost a century. While the entire Lorraine smoked from the fires ... in Paderborn, in Brandenburg, Leipzig and the surrounding area was done, too, a lot of executions.

In the county Verdenfelde in Bavaria in 1582 a process has led to the fire witch ... In 48 Brunswick between 1590-1600 years, burned as witches (daily for 10-12 people), which pillories them were "thick forest" in front of the gate. In a small county in one Genneberg 1612 burned 22 witches in the years 1597-1876 - 197 ... In Lindgeyme, numbering 540 people, 1661 of 1664 burned 30 people ».

There were even champions of its executions. Fulda judge Balthasar Voss boasted that he alone burned 700 witches of both sexes, and hopes to increase the number of its victims up to a thousand. Special passion in persecution of witches stir Wurzburg Bishop Philip Adolf von Ehrenberg. In one only 42 Würzburg, he organized the fire, which burned 209 people, including 25 children aged between four and fourteen. Among those executed were the most beautiful girl, the most complete woman and fattest man, a blind girl and a student who speaks many languages. Any difference between man and the other seemed to Bishop direct evidence links with the devil.

And even more committed atrocities his cousin - the Prince-Bishop Johann Gottfried von Georg II Fuchs Doornheim, executions in Bamberg during the 1623-1633 years, more than 600 people. The last mass burning in Germany, Archbishop of Salzburg was arranged in 1678, when the fire has gone just 97 people.

Unfortunately, I did not stay away from the witch-hunt and Russia. So, when in 1411 in Pskov, the plague, on the charge of self-inflicted disease once burned 12 women. However, in comparison with Western Europe, we can say that in Russia the witches tolerated. And usually severely punished only if they rise against the emperor. In general, rarely burning, more flogged.

In Europe, not only burned, but also tried to execute with extreme sophistication. Judges sometimes insisted that the execution witch certainly present her young children. And sometimes with a witch sent to the fire and her relatives. In 1688 the whole family, including children and servants, was burned for witchcraft.

In 1746 burned not only the accused, but her sister, mother and grandmother. And finally, the execution at the stake was as if specially made to further embarrass the woman. Primarily I burned her clothes and she for some time remained naked in full view of a large crowd gathered to look at her mortification. In Russia, however, it is usually burned in the wooden house, possibly to avoid this very shame.

Not only the Inquisition

It is believed that a witch hunt arranged Inquisition. It is difficult to deny, but it should be noted that not only it. For example, in the dioceses of Würzburg and Bamberg raged not the Inquisition, and the episcopal courts. In the town Lindgeym in the Grand Duchy of Hesse tried witch ordinary people. He headed the tribunal of soldiers Geiss, a veteran of the Thirty Years War. The jury consisted of three farmer and weaver. Residents Lindgeyma called these people from the people, "the jury-bloodsuckers" because they send people to the fire at the slightest provocation.

But perhaps the most evil leaders of the Protestant Reformation proved to Calvin and Luther, whom we previously were bright heroes, challenging dark Catholics. Calvin coined a new way of burning of heretics and witches. To make the penalty more prolonged and painful sentenced burnt on raw wood. Martin Luther hated the witch with all his heart and summoned to execute them personally.

In 1522 he wrote: "wizards and witches - the essence of evil in the devil's spawn, they steal the milk, bring on bad weather sends people spoilage, strength in his legs taken away, tortured children in the cradle, urge people to love and copulation, and innumerable intrigues of the devil ". And under the influence of his sermons Protestants in Germany sent women to the fire at the slightest suspicion.

I must say that the Inquisition, although the bulk of the witch-led processes in their work strictly followed the rules of procedure * For example, required that a witch confessed. However, for this the inquisitors came up with a bunch of different devices for torture. For example, the "Race to Witch chair", equipped with sharp wooden spikes, which the suspect was forced to sit for days.

Some witches put on their legs leather boots large size and poured boiling water into them. Feet in a shoe literally welded. And Brigitte von Ebikon in 1652 was tortured boiled eggs, which are fetched from boiling water and put it under his arm.

In addition to recognition, other evidence linking women with the devil could be a test of the water. It is interesting that the Christians adopted it to the Gentiles. Even the laws of Hammurabi, at the beginning of the II millennium BC, recommended that accusations of witchcraft to the Divine River and dive into the River; If the river caught him, his accuser would take him home. If the river to cleanse this man, he can take home from the prosecutor.

Even more substantial proof of guilt of the witch than her confession was considered the presence of her body "mark of the devil." There are two varieties - "a sign of the witch" and "the stigma of the devil." "Witch sign" had to resemble a third nipple on the body of a woman, believed that through him she was feeding the demons in his own blood.

A "branded devil" called an unusual growth on the skin of the person, insensitive to pain. Now there was a theory that the "witch's mark" and "the stigma of the devil" are specific to a single disease. This leprosy or leprosy.

With the development of leprosy skin begins to thicken and form ulcers, and sites that can really resemble the nipple and insensitive to pain. And given that the apogee of the spread of leprosy in Europe took place in the Middle Ages, it turns out that under the guise of the Inquisition witch hunt struggled with an epidemic of leprosy.



Bonfires against feminism

There is another interesting theory. As if the Inquisition - a tool of male religious orders - a witch hunt trying to put women down. The Crusades and strife thoroughly decimated the ranks of men in Europe, and therefore, especially in rural communities, the majority of female dictate their will to the male minority.

And when the men tried to rein in the power of women, they threatened to send upon them all sorts of adversity. The dominance of women is a danger to the foundations of the church, since it was believed that the daughters of Eve, the culprits of the fall, could bring great harm, give them the will and power.

Not casually using accusations of witchcraft are often dealt with women of great influence and high position. In this regard, we can recall the penalty wife of Henry VIII - Anne Boleyn. One of the charges against her in 1536 was the witchcraft accusations. A proof of an evil spirit became the sixth finger on one hand, Anna.

And the most famous penalty witches for centuries remained the burning of Joan of Arc May 30, 1431 in the town of En-ane. The Inquisition opened a process of Maid of Orleans on charges of witchcraft, disobedience of church and wearing men's clothes. During its execution scaffold stood in the middle column of the board where it was written: "Jeanne, calling itself the Virgin, verootstupnitsa, witch cursed bogohulnitsa, bloodsucker, maid Satan raskolnitsa and heretic».

The Guinness Book of Records says that the last time upon conviction for witchcraft were executed maid Anna Gel'd in the Swiss town of Glarus, in June 1782. The investigation concerning it lasted 17 weeks and 4 days. And most of that time she spent in chains and shackles. However, Gel'd saved from burning alive. She was beheaded.

And the last witch in the history of mankind has been burned in the Mexican city of Camargo in 1860. Experts estimate that during the witch-hunt in the XVI and XVII centuries were executed, at least 200,000 women.

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