THE BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT.*
THERE are many painful chapters in the Annals of Mankind, but none is more so than the chapter which deals with belief in witchcraft, and the trials of those unfortunate individuals who have been prosecuted for practice of this imaginary art. The- subject has furnished matter for many a harrowing narrative, while Soldan's critical history of such trials constitutes a momen- tous record of deplorable horrors. It is but appropriate that. German writers should have treated this topic most exhaustively, for though no country can claim to have been exempt from the delusion, it is in Germany that belief in witchcraft has been most ram- pant and most enduring. As late as 1783 there occurred the execution of a wretched victim on the charge of witchcraft, which is authenticated beyond challenge by the existence of official records, and there is grave ground for believing that this was not the last sacrifice of life to this horrible superstition. A most- interesting page has been added to this dark chapter in the pub- lication before us. We have here disinterred out of the musty regions of ancient muniment-rooms, the very depositions and whole procedure of investigation which attended the trials of persons arraigned on this charge at various times in the episcopal princi- pality of Munster. In perusing this small volume, we read the ipsissima verbs of the denunciations which sufficed to render human beings liable to this dread imputation—the testimony which was- deemed adequate for their conviction by doctors learned in the law—and what is still more extraordinary, the amazing self-accu- sations which these victims often saw fit to make, even when not subjected to torture, in the vain hope of propitiating their persecutors. It is this faithful presentment of the features of the cases as they actually occurred, exhibited in their own colours, and without the intervention of any later gloss, which constitutes the singular value of Professor Niehues's contribution, to our literature on this sad topic. For it is a special merit of his volume that it does not deal with isolated episodes, but brings before us a series of minutely detailed cases of different dates, wherein are perfectly exemplified the whole course and progress both of this miserable belief, and of the varying methods in which it was dealt with at divers epochs by those who in this part of Germany administered public justice. The interest attaching to the narrative is increased by the circumstance that all the cases occurred within the jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical. Sovereign, and in a territory which was distinguished for the thoroughness with which Catholic reaction hunted down in it the remnants of all unorthodox symptoms.
It is noteworthy that this Munster region in earlier times con- trasts favourably with others in the judicial treatment of persona
• Zur Geschichte des Ilesenglaubens and der Hesenprocesse rornehndich 4m ehentaligene Ftirstbiathum Milaster Von Dr. B. Niehnes, Professor, hiiinster. 1875. charged with sorcery. There are Sovereign rescripta enjoining on the authorities caution against lightly entertaining the accusation. But in the latter part of the sixteenth century, the See passed into the hands of scions of the Electoral House of Bavaria, who held it from 1585-1650. These were men imbued with the fierce tem- per of those unhappy times,—narrow-minded zealots of a bigoted type, who breathed the spirit of the Inquisition, and recklessly applied the machinery of torture. From the moment of their ad- vent, prosecutions for sorcery multiplied fearfully, and were con- ducted with a monstrous disregard for humanity. The flimsiest denunciation involved judicial inquiry, and this brought with it a graduated and refined application of torture with a view to extort admission. It is singular to observe the elaborateness and even pedantry of procedure. The forms to be attended to are pre- scribed with tedious precision. Five were the successive degrees of torture to which the wretched victim was liable. Professor Niehues has discovered only three instances of their having been manfully resisted to the end without an extorted admission, but in two of these the sufferers succumbed. It is appalling to attempt a calculation of the innocent lives subjected to this infernal vio- lence. An adequate register cannot be made, but a few well - established figures are forthcoming. In the small locality of Coesfeld, the public executioner claimed fees for nine executions and twenty- seven applications of torture during the last six months in 1631, in regard to cases of witchcraft. In Biidingen, also a locality of very moderate size, 64 persons were burnt in 1633 and 50 in the year following. In 1651, 42 women were consumed at Neisse, in a furnace specially constructed for the purpose by the magistracy ; while in two rural districts in the Prince-Bishoprick of Bamberg, according to official record, no less than 285 persons were executed in the years 1624-30. It is per- fectly sickening to peruse these lists of sanctioned atrocities, more particularly if the reader has ever visited the unique col- lection of instruments of torture at the Munich National Museum.
The earliest trial in this collection is of 1565, the latest of 1682. The first is a case in which several old women were charged by the local authorities with witchcraft, on the sole statement of a boy of twelve years that they habitually performed dances and rubbed themselves with ointment. Accordingly, they were put to "the question," when one of the women, doubtless in the hope of relief, made a detailed confession of a series of practices and intercourse with the Fiend, all which was reported in full to the Bishop, who, being less ignorant than his officials, enjoined mere confinement for the woman, and recommended that " as such things mainly proceed from superstition, a preacher should be sent to them, so as to urge them with Holy Writ to abstain from such devilish fancy." But in the interval, the woman accused of having played the chief part succumbed to the effects of her treatment, and the local authorities reported that consequently they had caused her corpse to be burnt, as unworthy of burial, a proceeding of which the Bishop showed his disapproval by ordering the liberation of the other prisoners. But soon came a time when Bishops ruled the land under whom justice was administered in a different temper, as will be seen from the following case :—In 1615, one Peter Kleiklamp came to be accused of witchcraft under these circumstances. He was a fellow of drunken and generally irregular habits, who some time before had absconded under suspicion of theft. On return to his native place, Kleiklamp was accused of sundry evil practices by a com- rade of former days, himself under a cloud, and who had good reason for trying to ingratiate himself with the authorities. Ac- cordingly on the sole deposition of this one notoriously question- able witness, an indictment of sorcery on thirty-six counts was brought against the unfortunate Kleiklamp, who was forthwith put to "the question." Nothing, however, could be got out of the poor wretch at first ; he was then looked up for a whole night, under the so-called protection of watchers to keep off the evil one. In the morning, Kleiklamp expressed himself ready to make confession, and what he did confess must have been listened to at the time with no less astonishment than it will be read at the present day. Not only did Kleiklamp admit to have been a sorcerer, but he described in detail what he had done as such, each statement being more absurd than the other. This, however, was by no means all. He confessed not merely to his own practices, but to those of a number of accomplices, all of whom he mentioned by name ; they comprised the most respected members of the com- munity, and amongst them prominently the wife of the public prosecutor. There is no little humour of a savage kind in this grim sally by a poor wretch baited to death. The grave and sedate wiseacres of the locality stood aghast at hearing their wives and their mothers charged with having periodically disported themselves as black ravens in fiendish gambols at night, and amongst the acts of the trial is a solemn protest against the charge. But this did not suggest that there might be grounds for letting the prosecution drop, and the unfortunate Kleiklamp expiated his supposed sorceries at the stake. A more elaborate murder never was perpetrated. One single individual of bad repute chose to throw out an insinuation, and this sufficed for condemnation. In this case is represented completely all that is horrible and out- rageous in these trials for witchcraft. The reader who will peruse Professor Niehues's pages will find many repetitions of similar proceedings; and amidst the mass of sickening matter, nothing is, to our mind, more painful than the so-called confessions, made in vain by persons with the hope of escaping the pain of death.
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