THE DARKEST CHAPTER IN WOMAN’S HISTORY.
The belief in witchcraft, witches, evil spirits and devils is as old as humanity. It prevailed among all primeval people as well as among all nations of the classic past and the middle ages. It still exists among many nations who call themselves civilized. Witches have been and are feared as persons, who maintain intercourse with evil spirits, demons or devils. They are believed to be able, through the assistance of these spirits, of inflicting injury on other people, who attract their dislike and hatred. In former times people were convinced, that such witches could transform themselves into animals, clouds, water, rocks, trees or anything else; that they could cause disastrous thunderstorms, hail, invasions of grasshoppers, whirlwinds and droughts; that they could steal the dew and the rain, hide the moon and the stars, and produce plagues in men and cattle.
From the Hebrews, who were firm believers in witchcraft and sorcery, this superstition was handed down to the early Christians, and with the extension of Christianity, it affected all other European nations. The earliest ecclesiastical decree against witchcraft appears to have been that of Ancyra, 315 A. D., condemning soothsayers to five years’ penance. In canon law the Decretum subjected them to excommunication as idolators and enemies of Christ. And in accordance with the command of Moses: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” all women suspected of witchcraft were killed.
Later on the Popes John XXII. and Eugene IV. issued bulls exhorting all Christians to greater diligence “against heretics as well as the human agents of the Prince of Darkness, and especially against those who have the power to produce bad weather.” To exterminate these enemies of the Holy Faith all fighting forces of the church were set in motion, among them an institution, which had been founded in Spain during the 12th Century: the Inquisition.
As its name, derived from the Latin “inquirere,” indicates, it was the office of this institution to inquire about, or spy into all sins committed against the Holy Faith and the authority of the church, and to deliver witches as well as heretics to the proper authorities for punishment.
Confirmed and sanctioned by the Popes, this Inquisition had already performed excellent work during the crusades against the Albigenses and Waldenses. But the most vigorous crusade against witchcraft began when in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII. published his bull “Summis desiderantes affectibus,” of which Andrew D. White in his “History of the Warfare of Science with Theology” has said that of all documents, ever issued, this has doubtless caused the greatest shedding of innocent blood.
By this bull several professors of theology were appointed as inquisitors for large parts of Germany, with full power to prevent the further spread of heresy and witchcraft. The clergy as well as all other authorities were warned that these inquisitors must not be hindered in any way nor by anyone. “All who try to do so, will be, whatever office they may hold, subdued by excommunication, suspension, interdict and other still more terrible punishments, without any appeal: and if necessary, they shall be turned over to the civil authorities. It shall not be permitted to anyone to act wantonly contrary to our message. Whoever may try to do so, should know that he directs upon himself the wrath of Almighty God as well as of the Apostles Peter and Paul.”
Under the authority of this bull the inquisitors opened in Germany not only a systematic crusade against witchcraft, but at the same time prepared a manual, the Malleus Maleficarum, or “the Witch-Hammer,” which became the great text-book on procedure in all witchcraft cases. Never before had a volume been published that contained an equal amount of idiotic superstition. And never before nor after has any book caused more unnecessary suffering, misery, and disaster. When J. Scherr, one of the foremost historians of Germany, said that this bungling composition was written with the venom of monks, who had become crazy with violent fanaticism, voluptuousness, avarice and the passion for cruelty, he spoke only too true.
Of the unfortunate human beings, who fell victims to this madness, the overwhelming majority were women.
In fact, the authors of the “Witch-Hammer” boldly asserted, that witchcraft is more natural to women than to men, on account of the inherent wickedness of their hearts. “What else is woman but a necessary evil, a domestic danger, an attractive temptation, and a natural mischief, painted with nice colors? According to her mind woman seems to belong to another species than man. She is more voluptuous, as is proven by many immodest and lustful acts. This fault became apparent in the creation of the first woman, who was formed out of a crooked rib.”
The inquisitors go on to explain: “Witchcraft is the most unpardonable among all acts of heresy and sins. Generally heretics are punished very severely. If they do not recant, they are burned. If they change for the better, they are imprisoned for life. But such dealing is not rigorous enough for witches. They must be annihilated, even if they regret their sins and announce their readiness to return to our Christian faith. Because the sins of the witches are far greater than the sins of the fallen angels and of the first men.”
After having made these statements, the authors of the “Witch-Hammer” explain what witches are able to do to their unsuspecting fellow-men in violation to the rules of the church.
Decency forbids the translation and reprinting of those passages which deal with the character of the obscene acts, charged to witches. We must confine ourselves to the remark that they were accused of sexual intercourse with innumerable devils, and that, in describing the various forms of such intercourse, the authors of the “Witch-Hammer” revealed their own infernal depravity.
To point out only a few of the countless crimes ascribed to witches: it was asserted that witches, disguised as midwives, killed unborn children and tormented the unfortunate mothers by sharp thorns, bones and pieces of wood, produced in their wombs. Other witches, by looking at mothers and cows, made them dry; they also prevented milk from being churned into butter. By dipping brooms into water and swinging them in the air, numerous witches were accused of having caused terrible thunderstorms. Witches also stopped springs, wells and rivers from flowing; others caused an invasion of earthworms, mice, locusts, and other vermin.
To remain undetected in the performance of such hellish tricks, the witches transformed themselves into dogs, cats, owls, bats and other animals.
But the most horrible crime imputed to witches, was, that during certain nights they would go up chimneys and ride on broomsticks, goats, or pigs through the air to some bald hill, to take part in the celebration of the Witch-Sabbath. Here they would meet their master, Satan, whose upper half is that of a hairy man with a pale face and round fiery eyes. On his forehead he has three horns, the middle one serving as a lantern and radiating light similar to that of the full moon. The lower half of Satan’s body is that of a buck, but the tail and the left foot are those of a cow, while the right foot has the hoof of a horse. Assisted by innumerable devils of lower degrees Satan would preside over the Sabbath, during which the most sacred ceremonies of the church were ridiculed. Having read the Mass, he would administer the Devil’s Sacraments and the Devil’s Supper, after which the whole assemblage would indulge in the most obscene orgies.
Even more nauseating volumes on witchcraft were published in Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands. Their authors had wrenched the most insane confessions from tortured women about their carnal intercourse with the Prince of Hell and with hosts of other evil spirits. Notwithstanding the absurdity of such confessions they were believed by the superstitious priests as well as by the people, because the Popes and all other dignitaries of the church approved of such books and summoned every true Christian to join in the universal warfare upon witchcraft.
As superstition, like hysteria and other mental diseases, is contagious, it cannot surprise us that the belief in witches also affected the countries in which the Reformation had taken root. We must consider that in these times education was still confined to a few. It was a privilege of the wealthy and of a small number of distinguished thinkers. Even these stood entirely under the influence of the Bible, and they believed, as the example of Luther proves, in the corporal existence of the devil and evil spirits. Among the common people, who grew up in blind credulity, enlightenment made very slow progress.
Thus, all Christianity became polluted with superstition and the belief in witchcraft. Furthermore, from the European countries it spread to every Spanish, French, Dutch and English colony founded in different parts of the world.
But there is also another explanation for the passionate zeal developed by the inquisitors. By the trials for witchcraft the church as well as the inquisitors and other officials grew enormously rich, as all property of the witches and their families was confiscated under the pretense that the taint of witchcraft hung to everything that had belonged to the condemned. If such property should remain, in the hands of their relatives it might cause them all kinds of misfortune and deliver them also into the hands of Satan.
Where thus suspicion, ignorance and avarice were lying in wait, no woman was sure of her life for one hour. No matter what her social position might be, the slightest grounds of suspicion, or the slandering denunciation by some enemy was sufficient to deliver her into the power of the inquisitors.
Generally the proceedings began with searching the body of the suspected witch for the mark of Satan, as it was asserted that all who consorted with devils had some secret mark about them, in some hidden place on their bodies, as, for instance, on the inside of the lips, between the hair of the eyebrows, in the hollows of the arm, inside of the thigh, or in still more private parts, from whence Satan drew nourishment. To find these marks, was the task of the “Witch-Prickers,” who, after divesting the supposed witch of all clothing, minutely examined all parts of her body. If they found a mole or another peculiar blemish, they pricked it with a needle. If the place proved insensitive and did not bleed, this was an undeniable proof that the person had sold herself to the devil, and that she must be turned over to the inquisitors.
Then these human tigers began to ask questions, suggesting satisfactory answers, and if these answers were not equal to a confession of guilt, the prisoner was subjected to tortures which sooner or later surely brought out such answers and in such language as was suggested to her by the inquisitors. And these answers were given though the poor creature knew that they would send her to the stake or scaffold.
To indicate the horrible sufferings, that hundreds of thousands of delicate and aged women had to go through, a few of the many implements of torture may be described. Robert G. Ingersoll in his great lecture “The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child” has said about them:
“I used to read in books how our fathers persecuted mankind. But I never appreciated it. I read it, but it did not burn itself into my soul. I did not really appreciate the infamies that have been committed in the name of religion, until I saw the iron arguments that Christians used. I saw the Thumb-screw—two little pieces of iron, armed on the inner surface with protuberances, to prevent their slipping; through each end a screw uniting the two pieces. And when some person denied the efficacy of baptism or her guilt of witchcraft, then they put his thumb between these pieces of iron and in the name of love and forgiveness, began to screw these pieces together. When this was done most men said “I will confess!” Probably I should have done the same and I would have said: “Stop! I will admit that there is one god or a million, one hell or a billion; suit yourselves; but stop!”—
“But there was now and then a person who would not swerve the breadth of a hair. Heroism did not excite the respect of our fathers. The person who would not confess or recant was not forgiven. They screwed the thumb-screws down to the last pang, and then threw their victim into some dungeon, where, in the throbbing silence and darkness, he might suffer the agonies of the fabled damned. This was done in the name of love—in the name of mercy—in the name of the compassionate Christ!
“I saw, too, what they called the Collar of Torture. Imagine a circle of iron, and on the inside a hundred points almost as sharp as needles. This argument was fastened about the throat of the sufferer. Then he could not walk, nor sit down, nor stir without the neck being punctured by these points. In a little while the throat would begin to swell, and suffocation would end the agonies.
“I saw another instrument, called the Scavenger’s Daughter. Think of a pair of shears with handles, not only where they now are, but at the points as well, and just above the pivot that unites the blades, a circle of iron. In the upper handles the hands would be placed; in the lower the feet; and through the iron ring, at the center, the head of the victim would be forced. In this condition, he would be thrown prone upon the earth, and the strain on the muscles produced such agony that insanity would in pity end his pain.”
“I saw the Rack. This was a box like the bed of a wagon, with a windlass at each end, with levers, and ratchets to prevent slipping; over each windlass went chains; some were fastened to the ankles of the sufferer; others to his wrists. And then priests, clergymen, divines, saints, began turning these windlasses, and kept turning until the ankles, the knees, the hips, the shoulders, the elbows, the wrists of the victim were all dislocated, and the sufferer was wet with the sweat of agony. And they had standing by a physician to feel his pulse. What for? To save his life? Yes. In mercy? No; simply that they might rack him once again.
“This was done, remember, in the name of civilization; in the name of law and order; in the name of mercy; in the name of religion; in the name of the most merciful Christ.”
Christian people in England had invented a machine called the “Witches’ Bridle.” It was so constructed that by means of a loop which passed over the victim’s head, a piece of iron having four points or prongs was forcibly thrust into the mouth. Two of these prongs pressed against the tongue and palate, the other outward to the cheeks. This infernal instrument was secured by a padlock. At the back of the collar was fixed a ring, by which to attach the witch to a staple in the wall of her cell. Thus “bridled,” and day and night watched over by some person appointed by her inquisitors, the unhappy creature, after a few days of such torture, maddened by misery and pain, would be brought to the point of confessing anything in order to be rid of her wretched life.
But thumb-screws, the collar, the scavenger’s daughter, the rack and the bridle were not the only means of inflicting pain devised by the ingenuity of cruelty. There was also the “Spider,” a diabolic implement with curved claws, for tearing out a woman’s breast. There were the iron Spanish Boots, the inner sides of which were set with points. After these machines had been placed around the lower legs of the victim they were screwed so tightly that often the shin-bones were crushed. To increase the horrible pain the torturer from time to time knocked with a hammer on the screws, so that sharp shocks like strokes of lightning shot through the victim’s body.
Another implement was an iron band which was fastened around the head and screwed tight and tighter until the eyes of the maltreated person protruded and she went almost crazy.
If the rack had not brought confession, the inquisitors ordered the “Elevation.”
After the writhing sufferer’s hands had been tied to the back, a rope, running over a pulley on the ceiling, was fastened to the hands. Then, by pulling the rope, the body of the victim was slowly lifted until the contorted and dislocated arms stood over the head, while the feet were high above the floor. To render such torment more severe, heavy stones were fastened to the feet, and now and then the body was allowed to drop suddenly, only to be lifted again after a while. In this dangling position the heretic or witch was often left for hours, while the tormentors sat in some nearby saloon over their ale and wine.
There were many other methods of torment, each more cruel than the others, among them the gradual pouring of water drop by drop on a particular part of the head or body, or the pouring of water onto a piece of gauze in the back of the throat, thus gradually forcing the gauze into the stomach. Boiling hot oil, burning sulphur and pitch, or molten lead were poured on the naked body, or the poor creatures were incessantly pricked and prodded in their dungeons so that they could not rest a second for weeks at a time, until they were finally driven to despair and madness.
No periods in human history are more terrible, revolting and depressing to contemplate than these times of the Inquisition and of persecution for witchcraft. The student, who has courage enough, to go through the blood-stained documents of these dreadful times, must feel as Ingersoll felt when he said:
A SUPPOSED WITCH BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF THE INQUISITION.
After a painting by H. Steinheil.
“Sometimes, when I read and think about these frightful things, it seems to me that I have suffered all these horrors myself. It seems sometimes, as though I had stood upon the shore of exile and gazed with tearful eyes toward home and native land; as though my nails had been torn from my hands, and into the bleeding quick needles had been thrust; as though my feet had been crushed in iron boots; as though I had been chained in the cell of the Inquisition and listened with dying ears for the coming footsteps of release; as though I had stood upon the scaffold and had seen the glittering axe fall upon me; as though I had been upon the rack and had seen, bending above me, the white faces of hypocrite priests; as though I had been taken from my fireside, from my wife and children, taken to the public square, chained, as though fagots had been piled about me; as though the flames had climbed around my limbs and scorched my eyes to blindness, and as though my ashes had been scattered to the four winds, by all the countless hands of hate.”
From the records of trials for witchcraft still preserved in the archives of many European cities, it appears that the majority of victims were aged women; very frequently they had reared families and spent their youth and beauty in this self-denying work. But there are also many cases of the torturing of mere children; in several such cases little girls of seven and nine years gave affirmative answers to questions, as to whether they had held sexual intercourse with the devil. They even admitted to have given birth to children in consequence of such intercourse. A record covering the years 1627, 1628 and January, 1629, states that during this period in Wurzburg, Bavaria, one hundred and sixty-three persons were tortured, and burnt at the stake. Among them were seventy-two women, and twenty-six children under fourteen years. Among the latter were little girls of nine years or less, and one was a little blind girl.
On March 7, 1679, in Heimfels, Tyrol, a poor woman, Emerencia Pichler, was brought before the inquisitors. In spite of her solemn pledges by God and the Virgin that she knew nothing about witchcraft she was submitted to torture. On the third day of her sufferings the inquisitors wrung from the unfortunate creature a confession, that Satan had visited her one day, wearing a blue jacket, a white vest and red socks. In his company she made a flight to a high mountain, both riding on the same oven-shovel. Here they took part in the witches-sabbath, during which several infants were killed and eaten. The remains were used in concocting all kinds of ointments and powders, to be used in the producing of thunderstorms and plagues. The most horrible part of these confessions was that the woman, when questioned about accomplices, in her agonies named twenty-four persons, among them her own four children. Of course the poor woman withdrew her confessions, when the tortures were interrupted. Nevertheless she was found guilty. On her way to the place of execution she was twitched with red-hot pincers and afterwards burnt at the stake.
Her two oldest children, a boy of fourteen and a girl of twelve, were beheaded and their bodies burnt to ashes on July 29, 1679. Their little brother Sebastian, nine years old, and his sister Maria, six years old, were terribly flogged and forced to attend the execution of their mother and playmates.
Of all the other “accomplices,” named by the woman, not one escaped the clutches of the inquisitors and death at the stake.
There are on record thousands and thousands of similar cases, many of them horrible beyond belief and defying description. No country in Europe escaped the visitation of such inquisitors, many of whom journeyed from place to place in search of victims. In numerous cities the arrival of these fiends was regarded with greater fear than famine or pestilence, especially by women, against whom their malice was chiefly directed. That there was cause for such fear, is proven by the fact that in Treves seven thousand women lost their lives. In Geneva five thousand were executed in a single month. And in Toulouse, France, four hundred witches were burnt in one day, dying the horrible death by fire for a crime which never existed save in the imagination of their benighted persecutors.—
Among the countless women burnt as witches was also Jeanette d’Arc, who to-day is glorified by the French nation as Jeanne d’Arc, the Maid of Orleans, and who has been lately canonized. Born about 1411 at Dom-Remy, a small village in the Champagne, she witnessed the conquest of Northern France by the English. While brooding over this mishap, it became fixed in her mind that she was destined to deliver France from these invaders. This impression was strengthened by a number of visions, in which she believed to see St. Michael, the archangel of judgments and of battles, who commanded her to take up arms and hurry to the assistance of the king. In February, 1429, she set out on her perilous journey to the court of the Dauphin at Chinon. Here she succeeded in convincing the king of the divinity of her mission, so that she was permitted to start with an army of 5000 men for the relief of Orleans. Clothed like a man in a coat of mail, and carrying a white standard of her own design, embroidered with lilies and the image of God, she inspired her followers with a religious enthusiasm. Favored by good luck she entered the besieged city on the 29th of April, 1429, and by incessant attacks so discouraged the enemy that they withdrew on the 8th of May. However, in several other enterprises her luck failed, and on the 24th of May, after an unsuccessful sortie, she was taken prisoner through treachery, because, being pursued by the enemy, some Frenchmen shut the gates of the fortress into which she should have escaped.
With her capture the halo of supernatural power that had surrounded her, vanished. Accused of being a heretic and a witch, she was turned over to the Inquisition for trial. Her examination lasted six days. Among other insidious and indelicate questions on the subject of her visions she was asked whether, when St. Michael appeared to her, he was naked, and if she had entertained sexual intercourse with the devil. But no point seemed graver to the judges than the sin of having assumed male attire. The judges told her that according to the canons, those who thus change the habit of their sex, are abominable in the sight of God.
The decision to which the inquisitors finally came, was that the girl was wholly the devil’s; was impious in regard to her parents; had thirsted for Christian blood, adhered to a king who was a heretic and schismatic, and was herself a heretic, apostate and idolator. For all these crimes she was sentenced to death, and burnt alive on the market place of Rouen, May 30th, 1431.—
As has been stated already persecutions for witchcraft were not confined to European countries, but were also carried on by Christian priests and judges in all colonies established by Europeans on other continents. In the British colonies of North America the most sensational trial for witchcraft was that in Salem, Massachusetts, about which J. M. Buckley in an article written for the Century Magazine (Vol. XLIII, pp. 408–422) speaks as follows:
“The first settlers of New England brought across the Atlantic the sentiments which had been formed in their minds in Great Britain and on the Continent, as well as the tendencies which were the common heritage of such an ancestry. They were a very religious, and also a credulous people; having few books, no papers, little news, and virtually no science; removed by thousands of miles and months of time from Old-World civilization; living in the midst of an untamed wilderness, surrounded by Indians whom they believed to be under the control of the devil, and whose medicine-men they accounted wizards. Such a mental and moral soil was adapted to the growth of witchcraft, and to create an invincible determination to inflict the punishments pronounced against it in the Old Testament; but the co-operation of various exciting causes was necessary to a general agitation and a real epidemic.
WOMEN, CONDEMNED FOR WITCHCRAFT, BURNT AT THE STAKE.
“Salem witchcraft thus arose: The Reverend Mr. Parris, minister of the church in Salem village, had formerly lived in the West Indies, and brought some negro slaves back with him. These slaves talked with the children of the neighborhood, some of whom could not read, while the others had but little to read. In the winter of 1691–92 they formed a kind of circle which met at Mr. Parris’ house, probably unknown to him, to practice palmistry and fortune-telling, and learn what they could of magic and necromancy.
“Before the winter was over some of them fully believed that they were under the influence of spirits. Epidemic hysteria arose; physicians could not explain their state; the cry was raised that they were bewitched; and some began to make charges against those whom they disliked of having bewitched them. In the end those of a stronger mind among them became managers and plotters directing the rest at their will. By the time public attention was attracted Mr. Parris had come to the conclusion that they were bewitched and, having a theory to maintain, encouraged and flattered them, and by his questions made even those who had not believed themselves bewitched think that they were.
“From March, 1692, to May, 1693, about two hundred persons were imprisoned. Of these some escaped by the help of friends, some by bribing their jailors; a number died in prison, and one hundred and fifty were set free at the close of the excitement by the proclamation of the Governor. Nineteen were executed, among them George Burroughs, a minister of the Gospel.
“When it is remembered that a number of these persons were among the most pious and amiable of the people of Salem; that they were related by blood, marriage, friendship, and Christian fellowship to many who cried out against them, both as accusers and supporters of the prosecutions, the transaction must be classed among the darkest in human history.”
Several historians have made attempts to ascertain the number of men, women and children, who lost their lives through this abominable superstition. O. Waechter, who published a book about this subject, calculates that the number of victims must have been at least three millions! Imagine, what a terrible amount of sighs, tears, and physical and mental agonies this number represents!