Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire

Last updated November 09, 2024

In the Holy Roman Empire, witch trials composed of the areas of the present day Germany, were the most extensive in Europe and in the world, both to the extent of the witch trials as such as well as to the number of executions.

The witchcraft persecutions differed widely between the regions, and was most intense in the territories of the Catholic Prince Bishops in Southwestern Germany. The witch trials of the Catholic Prince Bishops of South West Germany were arguably the biggest in the world. Witch trials did occur in Protestant Germany as well, but were fewer and less extensive in comparison with Catholic Germany. The witch trials of Catholic Austria and Protestant Switzerland were both severe.

Legal situation

Witchcraft was formally categorized as a crime in the Holy Roman Empire in the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina in 1532. The Holy Roman Empire consisted of a number of autonomous states, both Protestant and Catholic who all had their own laws and regulations, and the witchcraft persecutions, therefore, varied considerably. Formally, however, all states within the Holy Roman Empire were under the jurisdiction of the Emperor. This made it possible for the accused and their next of kin to appeal any sentence of a local court to the Imperial court. In general, such appeals were successful in the Imperial court, but in practice, the local verdict was still put in place because the Imperial court had great difficulty in enforcing their authority over the autonomous states.

History by region

Austria

In Austria, a witch trial in Innsbruck in 1485 resulted in Heinrich Kramer writing the Malleus Maleficarum (1486). After this, however, there were no more witch trials in Austria until the second half of the 16th century, when the witchcraft persecutions spread in parallel with the Counter-Reformation.^[1] In 1583, Elisabeth Plainacher became the first person executed for sorcery in Vienna.

In the 17th century, severe witchcraft persecutions took place in Austria, one of the first being that of Bregenz in 1609, resulting in sixteen executions. In Austria, witch trials were conducted by local secular courts such as estate courts - except in those cases were clerics conducted private witch trials in the courts of their clerical estates.^[1] A common accusation was desecration of the eucharist.^[1] Women were in majority among the accused, except in the cases in which the accused were men of low status such as Romani people, vagrants and beggars.^[1] Torture were commonly used and when used to make the accused naming their accomplices, the trials could grow to be very large. In contrast to Germany, the witch trials in Austria was at its most severe during the second half of the 17th century. About 1500 people are estimated to have been executed for sorcery in Austria.

In the early 18th century, the central government enforced their authority over the local courts, which resulted in a swift decrease in witch trials. By 1730, the witchcraft persecutions in Austria had virtually ended. The execution of Maria Pauer in 1750 was to be the last in Austria. Witch trials were banned by Maria Theresa in 1768.

Germany

Present-day Germany executed more people for witchcraft than any other area in Europe. There were however great contrasts within Germany, where certain parts hardly experienced witch trials at all, while the most severe witch trials in Europe took place in others.

In general, the witchcraft persecutions were much more extensive in Catholic South Germany than Protestant North Germany.^[2] There were exceptions: the Protestant Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg executed hundreds of people for witchcraft in but a few years around 1630, and the largest Catholic state in Germany, the Electory of Bavaria, only executed about 271 people for witchcraft, since the Elector introduced a witchcraft law in 1590 which was described as uncommonly mild for its time.^[2]

Catholic South Germany

A number of extremely large mass trials against witchcraft, which took place in the autonomous Catholic Prince Bishop-states in south-western Germany between 1587 and 1639, are estimated to have amounted to a third of all executions for witchcraft in Germany, and a fourth of all executions of witchcraft in all Europe.^[2] The mass witch trials which took place in the German Prince Bishoprics could last for years on end and result on hundreds of executions.^[2] These enormous trials were infamous in all Europe, and the contemporary Herman Löher described how they affected the population within them:

"The Roman Catholic subjects, farmers, winegrowers, and artisans in the episcopal lands are the most terrified people on earth, since the false witch trials affect the German episcopal lands incomparably more than France, Spain, Italy or Protestants."^[2]

These gigantic trials started with the great Trier witch trials (1587–1593), which resulted in between 500 and 1000 executions.^[2] The witch hunt migrated in waves through the villages through village inquisitors toward other cities and Prince Bishoprics and resulted in recurring waves of persecutions with high points in 1593–1598, 1601–1605, 1611–1618 and 1627–1631.^[2] Among them were the infamous Fulda witch trials (1603–1606) with 250 deaths, the Alzenau witch trials (1605–1605) witch 139 deaths, the Ellwangen witch trials (1611–18) with 430 deaths, the Mainz witch trials (1626–1631), and the Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631) with 1000 deaths, before this massive persecutions finally ended with the Cologne witch trial in 1639.^[2] These mass trials resulted in the executions of all genders and ages, and while the majority were female, the male minority was by no means small and men were referred to as "witches" as well, which was used as a gender-neutral expression. These mass trials could also show a great number of wealthy, clerical and aristocratic number of people among the condemned, when the rest of Europe had a majority of poor people among their executed.

The mass witch trials of the Catholic Prince Bishoprics in South Germany were exceptional and without contest the largest in Germany, but witch trials existed in all Germany, although in smaller scale in comparison.

Protestant North Germany

While witch trials were fewer and less extensive in the Protestant parts of Germany in comparison with the big mass persecutions of the Catholic South, they did occur in Protestant North Germany as well.

In the Northern Protestant Electorate of Brandeburg (later Prussia), only about 200 people were executed for witchcraft between 1505 and Dorothee Elisabeth Tretschlaff in 1698, with the most extensive persecution being that of 20 executions in 1606.^[3] In 1721, the King of Prussia stated that no death sentences for witchcraft would longer be confirmed by him.^[3]

The end

The persecutions became fewer in the second half of the 17th century, but a few isolated cases are known to have occurred in the 18th century.

Traditionally,the last executions for witchcraft in Germany have been said to be those of Helene Curtens and Agnes Olmanns in 1738. Since then other executions have been found by later research, such as that of Maria Renata Saenger von Mossau in Bavaria in 1749 and Anna Schnidenwind in Endingen am Kaiserstuhl in 1751.

Maria Anna Schwegelin was likely the last person to be sentenced to death of witchcraft in 1775, but the sentence was never carried out, and she died in prison in 1781.

Switzerland

Switzerland bordered to North Eastern France and Southern Germany, where the witchcraft persecutions were more intense than anywhere else in Europe, and belong to the areas where the witch trials were most fervent. A hypothetic number of 10,000 executions has been suggested: the number of executions are unknown, but are estimated to have been very high.^[4]

As early as circa the year 1400, the high profile Stedelen case documents a witch trial in the region. Switzerland, or at least a part of it, was the location of the first European mass witch trial: the Valais witch trials, which lasted between 1428 and 1459, long before the publication of Malleus Maleficarum (1486). This unleashed the first wave of witchcraft persecutions during and was followed by numerous witch trials in Wallis 1430, Fribourg and Neuchâtel (1440), Vevey (1448), Lausanne (1460), Lake Geneva (1480) and Domartin (1498 and 1524–28). During the 15th century, a third of those executed for witchcraft were women and two-thirds were men, but in the 16th century, the figure was reversed.

A reason for the severe persecutions in Switzerland was the weak central power, where the Imperial court had little to no real influence, something which had a bad effect on the rights of those accused. This is illustrated by the fact that the persecutions were the worst in areas were the central power was weakest: between 1580 and 1655, about 1700 witch trials took place in Vaud, but only about 80 in Zürich.

The majority of the witch trials in Switzerland were conducted by local secular courts. Most of the cases were directed against members of the public by other private citizens, and the accusations were normally destruction of property by use of magic and participation in a witches sabbath. The witch trials often took place during times of crisis and were directed toward people who were different in some way, by people with whom they had previously been in conflict. Torture was commonly used and the chance of being acquitted was slim. The method of execution in Switzerland was commonly burning at the stake.

The witchcraft persecutions in Switzerland became less common in the second half of the 17th century. In 1652, Michée Chauderon became the last execution for witchcraft in the city of Geneva in the Republic of Geneva. In the 18th century, the Swiss authorities and courts were less and less willing to accept charges of witchcraft or, if they did, to declare a death penalty in such cases. Catherine Repond, who was executed for witchcraft in Fribourg in 1731, was the perhaps last clear execution for witchcraft; Anna Göldi is often referred to as the last person executed for sorcery in Switzerland in 1782, though the case was a dubious one.

Gallery

Elisabeth Plainacher
Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, witch-hunter
Drudenhaus

Related Research Articles

A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. In medieval Europe, witch-hunts often arose in connection to charges of heresy from Christianity. An intensive period of witch-hunts occurring in Early Modern Europe and to a smaller extent Colonial America, took place from about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, and official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon today.

The Würzburg witch trials of 1625–1631, which took place in the self-governing Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg in the Holy Roman Empire in present-day Germany, formed one of the biggest mass trials and mass executions ever seen in Europe, and one of the largest witch trials in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werewolf witch trials</span> Historical witch trials combined with werewolf trials

Werewolf witch trials were witch trials combined with werewolf trials. Belief in werewolves developed parallel to the belief in European witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland during the Valais witch trials in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, accusations of lycanthropy involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials.

In the early modern period, from about 1400 to 1775, about 100,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and British America. Between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed, almost all in Europe. The witch-hunts were particularly severe in parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Prosecutions for witchcraft reached a high point from 1560 to 1630, during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion. Among the lower classes, accusations of witchcraft were usually made by neighbors, and women made formal accusations as much as men did. Magical healers or 'cunning folk' were sometimes prosecuted for witchcraft, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused. Roughly 80% of those convicted were women, most of them over the age of 40. In some regions, convicted witches were burnt at the stake, the traditional punishment for religious heresy.

The Bamberg witch trials of 1627–1632, which took place in the self-governing Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg in the Holy Roman Empire in present-day Germany, is one of the biggest mass trials and mass executions ever seen in Europe, and one of the biggest witch trials in history.

The Channel Islands Witch Trials were a series of witch trials in the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey between 1562 and 1661.

Sweden was a country with few witch trials compared to other countries in Europe. In Sweden, about four hundred people were executed for witchcraft prior to the last case in 1704. Most of these cases occurred during a short but intense period; the eight years between 1668 and 1676, when the witch hysteria called Det stora oväsendet took place, causing a large number of witch trials in the country. It is this infamous period of intensive witch hunt that is most well known and explored.

The Witch trials in France are poorly documented, mainly because a lot of the documents of former witch trials have not been preserved, and no number can therefore be given for the executions of witch trials in France or the true extent of them. While there is much secondary information about witch trials in France, the poor state of documentation often makes them hard to confirm.

The Witch trials in Spain were few in comparison with most of Europe. The Spanish Inquisition preferred to focus on the crime of heresy and, consequently, did not consider the persecution of witchcraft a priority and in fact discouraged it rather than have it conducted by the secular courts. This was similar to the Witch trials in Portugal and, with a few exceptions, mainly successful. However, while the Inquisition discouraged witch trials in Spain proper, it did encourage the particularly severe Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands.

The Witch trials in Portugal were perhaps the fewest in all of Europe. Similar to the Spanish Inquisition in neighboring Spain, the Portuguese Inquisition preferred to focus on the persecution of heresy and did not consider witchcraft to be a priority. In contrast to the Spanish Inquisition, however, the Portuguese Inquisition was much more efficient in preventing secular courts from conducting witch trials, and therefore almost managed to keep Portugal free from witch trials. Only seven people are known to have been executed for sorcery in Portugal.

The Witch trials in Denmark are poorly documented, with the exception of the region of Jylland in the 1609–1687 period. The most intense period in the Danish witchcraft persecutions was the great witch hunt of 1617–1625, when most executions took place, which was affected by a new witchcraft act introduced in 1617.

The Witch trials in Iceland were conducted by the Danish authorities, who introduced the belief in witchcraft as well as the Danish Witchcraft Act in the 17th century, and then stopped the persecutions. Similar to the case of Witch trials in Latvia and Estonia, the witch trials were introduced by a foreign elite power in an area with weak Christianity, in order to ensure religious conformity. Iceland was uncommon for Europe in that magic as such was viewed favorably on the island, and the majority of those executed were men, which it had in common with only the witch trials in Finland.

The Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands were among the more intense witch-hunts, along with those of the Holy Roman Empire and France. In an area recently affected by a religious war, the Spanish Inquisition encouraged witch trials as a method to ensure religious conformity. In this, it was similar to the Witch trials in Latvia and Estonia.

Witch trials in Latvia and Estonia were mainly conducted by the Baltic German elite of clergy, nobility and burghers against the indigenous peasantry in order to persecute Paganism by use of Christian demonology and witchcraft ideology. In this aspect, they are similar to the Witch trials in Iceland. They are badly documented, as many would have been conducted by the private estate courts of the landlords, which did not preserve any court protocols.

The witch trials in the Netherlands were among the smallest in Europe. The Netherlands are known for having discontinued their witchcraft executions earlier than any other European country. The provinces began to phase out capital punishment for witchcraft beginning in 1593. The last trial in the Northern Netherlands took place in 1610.

The witch trials in Poland started later than in most of Europe, not beginning in earnest until the second half of the 17th century, but they also lasted longer than they did elsewhere. Despite being formally banned in 1776, the law was not evenly enforced for the next half century, even after the witch trials had ended or become a rarity in the rest of Europe. It is estimated that between 3,000 and 4,000 people were executed for sorcery in Poland.

The Witch trials in Finland were conducted in connection to Sweden and were relatively few with the exception of the 1660s and 1670s, when a big witch hunt affected both Finland and Sweden. Finland differed from most of Europe in that an uncommonly large part of the accused were men, which it had in common with the witch trials in Iceland. Most of the people accused in Finland were men, so called "wise men" hired to perform magic by people. From 1674 to 1678, a real witch hysteria broke out in Ostrobothnia, during which twenty women and two men were executed.

The Witch trials in Hungary were conducted over a longer period of time than in most countries in Europe, as documented witch trials are noted as early as the Middle Ages and lasted until the late 18th-century. During the 16th and 17th centuries Hungary was divided into three parts: Habsburg Hungary, Ottoman Hungary and Transylvania, with some differences between them in regard to the witch hunt. The most intense period of witch hunt in Hungary took place in the 18th-century, at a time when they were rare in the rest of Europe except Poland. The trials finally stopped in 1768 by abolition of the death penalty for witchcraft by Austria, which controlled Hungary at the time. An illegal witch trial and execution took place in 1777.

The witch trials in Orthodox Russia were different in character than the witch trials in Roman Catholic and Protestant Europe due to the differing cultural and religious background. It is often treated as an exception to modern theories of witch-hunts, due to the perceived difference in scale, the gender distribution of those accused, and the lack of focus on the demonology of a witch who made a pact with Satan and attended a Witches' Sabbath, but only on the practice of magic as such.

Witch trials took place in the Principality of Catalonia in Spain between the 14th-century and 1767. Witch trials were comparably uncommon in Spain, and most of them took place in Catalonia and Navarre. While witch trials were uncommon in the rest of Spain, the witch trials in Catalonia had similarities with the witch trials in the rest of Western Europe, and are therefore a separate chapter in the context of witch trials in Spain. Around 400 women were prosecuted for witchcraft in Catalonia.

References

1 2 3 4 William E. Burns, Witch Hunts in Europe and America: An Encyclopedia
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ankarloo, Bengt, Witchcraft and magic in Europe. Vol. 4, The period of the witch trials, Athlone, London, 2002
1 2 Silke Kamp, Hexenverfolgungen in der Mark Brandenburg Arkiverad 22 april 2016 hämtat från the Wayback Machine., 2009
↑ Ulrich Pfister und Kathrin Utz Tremp, Hexenverfolgung - Schweiz Archived 2017-02-11 at the Wayback Machine

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[ref_6-1] 1 2 3 4 William E. Burns, Witch Hunts in Europe and America: An Encyclopedia

[ref_3-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ankarloo, Bengt, Witchcraft and magic in Europe. Vol. 4, The period of the witch trials, Athlone, London, 2002

[auto-3] 1 2 Silke Kamp, Hexenverfolgungen in der Mark Brandenburg Arkiverad 22 april 2016 hämtat från the Wayback Machine., 2009

[4] Ulrich Pfister und Kathrin Utz Tremp, Hexenverfolgung - Schweiz Archived 2017-02-11 at the Wayback Machine

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v t e Witch trials
In the British Isles	Witchcraft in early modern Britain Channel Islands Witch Trials Witch trials in England Witchcraft in Orkney Witch trials in early modern Scotland Witchcraft in early modern Wales Windsor Witches (1579) St Osyth Witches (1582) Witches of Warboys (1589–1593) North Berwick witch trials (1590) Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597 Pendle witches (1612) Northamptonshire witch trials (1612) Samlesbury witches (1612) Witches of Belvoir (1619) Bury St Edmunds witch trials (1645, 1662, 1655, 1694) Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50 Alloa witch trials (1658) Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62 Bute witches (1662) Bideford witch trial (1682) Paisley witches (1696) Pittenweem witches (1704) Islandmagee witch trial (1711)
In Eastern Europe	Witch trials in Hungary Witch trials in Poland Kasina Wielka witch trial (1634) Northern Moravia witch trials (1678) Szeged witch trials (1728–29) Doruchowo witch trial (1783)
In France	Witch trials in France Labourd witch-hunt of 1609 Aix-en-Provence possessions (1611) Loudun possessions (1633–34) Louviers possessions (1647) Normandy witch trials (1669–70) Affair of the Poisons (1679–1682) Trial of the Wizards of Lyon (1742–1745)
In Germany	Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire Rottweil Witch Trials Derenburg witch trials (1555) Wiesensteig witch trial (1562–1563) Rottenburg witch trials (1578–1613) Trier witch trials (1581–1593) Pappenheimer family witch trial (1600) Fulda witch trials (1603–1606) Ellwangen witch trial (1611–1618) Eichstätt witch trials (1617–1630) Würzburg witch trials (1626–1631) Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631) Baden-Baden witch trials (1627–1631) Mergentheim witch trials (1628–1631) Esslingen witch trials (1662–1666) Witch trial of Fuersteneck (1703)
In Northern Europe	Witch trials in Denmark Witch trials in Estonia and Latvia Witch trials in Finland Witch trials in Iceland Witch trials in Norway Witch trials in Sweden Põlula witch trials (1542) Copenhagen witch trials (1590) Gyldenstierne-sagen (1596) Køge Huskors (1608–1615) Finspång witch trial (1617) Vardø witch trials (1621) Akershus witch trials (1624) Ramsele witch trial (1634) Rosborg witch trials (1639–1642) Vardø witch trials (1651–1653) Kirkjuból witch trial (1656) Vardø witch trials (1662–63) Kastelholm witch trials (1665–1668) Mora witch trial (1669) Torsåker witch trials (1675) Katarina witch trials (1676) Rugård witch trials (1685–86) Thisted witch trial (1696–1698)
In Southern Europe	Witch trials in Italy Witch trials in Catalonia Witch trials in Portugal Witch trials in Sicily Witch trials in Spain Val Camonica witch trials (1505, 1518) Mirandola witch trials (1522–1525) Navarre witch trials (1525–26) Lisbon witch trial (1559–60) Benandanti (1575–1650) Witches of Laspaúles (1593) Basque witch trials (1609) Terrassa witch trials (1615–1619) Witch trial of Nogaredo (1646–47)
Elsewhere in Europe	Witch trials in the Netherlands Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands Stedelen witch trial (1397–1407) Valais witch trials (1428–1447) Geneva witch trials (1571) Amersfoort and Utrecht witch trials (1591–1595) Bredevoort witch trials (1610) Roermond witch trial (1613) Spa witch trial (1616) Lukh witch trials (1656–1660) Salzburg witch trials (1675–1681) Liechtenstein witch trials (1679–1682)
Outside of Europe	Witch trials in Virginia (1626–1730) Connecticut Witch Trials (1647–1663) Maryland Witch Trials (1654–1712) Witch trials in New York (1642–1790) Salem witch trials (1692–1693)
Texts	Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament (8th–2nd centuries BC) Directorium Inquisitorum (1376) De maleficis mulieribus (1440) Formicarius (1475) Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484) Malleus Maleficarum (1487) De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus (1489) Laienspiegel (1509) De praestigiis daemonum (1563) The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) Newes from Scotland (1591) A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593) Daemonolatreiae libri tres (1595) Daemonologie (1597) Magical Investigations (1599) Compendium Maleficarum (1608) A Guide to Grand-Jury Men (1627) The Discovery of Witches (1647) Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants (1751)
Related	Witch hunt accusations against children Drudenhaus Werewolf witch trials Witchcraft Acts Witchcraft Act 1735 (Great Britain)