Devil, one of the main protagonists of the witch trials. Although frequently depicted as a male of an animal figure, devil could take on either male (incubus), or female (succubus) form.

Clearly fraudulent and aberrant, the witch trials were sanctioned during a period of several centuries. The witch-hunts started to occur in Switzerland around 1450's, reaching their height around the times of the Thirty Years' War, when witch trials became ubiquitous throughout Western Europe and spread to the American colonies. The upsurge in witch burning during these years reflected the heightened tensions between Protestants and Catholics, as each side of this religious controversy was convinced that the opposing side was inspired by the devil. However, with respect to burning witches, there was no dispute between Protestants and Catholics as both sides engaged in this practice. Catholic sovereigns of Spain staged auto-da-fes. England prided herself in upholding modesty by burning women at the stake, as quartering (a penalty reserved for men accused of witchcraft) would have involved nudity. Calvin’s administration of Geneva burned people not only on charges of witchcraft, but also on charges of blasphemy and adultery. Image File history File links BaphometA.jpg Licensing This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years or less. ... Pedro Berruguete. ...

Duration of witch trials

The witch burning lasted three-and-half centuries. Switzerland, where the which hunts started around 1450's was also the last country to give up the witch burning; often given date and place of the last legal execution of a witch is Switzerland, 1782. However, August Franzen in his Kirchengeschichte (History of the Church, 2006) gives the date of the last burning of a witch as late as 1793.

European countries where over the three-and-half centuries (1450's - 1790's) most of the witch trials took place.

Image File history File links Map_of_Witch_Trials. ...

Extent of witch trials

Church archives on concremiret trials remain closed even to academic scholars and thus the estimates of the number of victims of these trials differ. However, the ongoing controversy about the number of victims of religious fanaticism has many parallels with controversy surrounding holocaust deniers who do not deny that Holocaust occurred, but try to diminish its extent. In a similar vein, theologians and religious scholars do not deny that the Christian churches mandated the witch trials and burning of live human beings, but to try to diminish the number of victims of these trials.

It is impossible to chart a Christian future that leaves behind the reality of torture and burning of human beings that took place for over more than three centuries. It is difficult, if not impossible, to envision a positive expression of Christianity with the bruloirs it helped to construct at its center. Instead, what occurs is an attempt by theologians, Christian scholars, and fundamentalist Christians to deny the extent of the human suffering and the number of deaths the collusion of ecclesiastic and secular institutions projecting power via the justice system inflicted on innocent human beings.

Severity of suffering

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s fairy tales were written from a peasant oral narration, and in the original publication, mostly in local dialects. The Grimm brothers were among the first authors to draw inspiration from folk sources. Their stories include such classics as Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Hansel and Gretel. In Grimm's original Kinder und Hausmarchen (1812, p.68) written from oral peasant narration, the burning of the witch in the oven is described as follows.

"Hu! da fing sie an zu heulen, ganz grauselich; aber Gretel lief fort, und die gottlose Hexe muste elendiglich verbrennen."

[Oh! How the (old witch) did howl, it was quite horrible to hear her; but Gretel ran away, and the irreligious witch had to burn miserably. "Irreligious" is censored in most English translations of Hansel und Gretel.]

Did the informant of brothers' Grimm have elaborated on actual events of witch burning? (cf., Krus, Nelsen, & Webb, 1998)

Bruloir. Abstract painting.

Bruloirs are large ovens that were built to expedite the burning of victims of the criminal justice proceedings resulting in death penalty by being burned alive (Mǖllendorf, 1911, p. 100; Sindelar, 1986, p.182). In these ovens were also burned children sentenced to death by fire in the course of criminal proceedings against witchcraft that frequently also involved their parents (Cavendish, 1987). In Spain, these ovens were called "quemadero" or "brassero." In a study on the agony of dying (Rhyne, et.al., 1995), according to forensic pathologists, the most excruciating way to die is by fire, followed by cutting the throat, and stabbing the abdomen. The bruloirs intensified the pain of burning by the horrors of slow death by fire in small, dark enclosures and are likely among the cruelest methods designed to intensify the agony of death. Image File history File links Bruloir. ...

Scorched bodies

Preserved in numerous engravings, the faces of people about being burned look at us across time. Surrounded by flames with hair already singed, as flames devour their bodies, their eyes either closed or dilated by fear. Jean Bodin (1529-1596), a well-known jurist who taught and practiced law in Toulouse and Paris was unmoved by the suffering experienced by people that were burned alive. In his book Demonomanie des Sorciers (On the Demon-mania of Witches, 1581) Bodin maintained that burning is too lenient for serious crimes because the suffering does not last more than one hour.^[1] Bodin, a staunch advocate of Huguenots at the court of Catherine de Medici looked for inspiration to Calvinist Scotland. He recommended that the Calvinist practice of placing boxes in every church into which parishioners were advised to put names of persons they suspected of witchcraft was also adapted in France. Bodin also approved of torture during criminal interrogations, including the torture of children to compel them to testify against their parents.

The frequency of the word 'fire' in both the Old and New Old Testaments is 506. Only a few other words other than proper names have a greater frequency of occurrence. The frequency of the word 'fire' and also of the words 'blood' (375), 'death' (342), and 'love' (281) are shown in the above figure. In the New Testament, the word ‘fire’ is used 79 times, in the Old Testament, the word ‘fire’ occurs 427 times.

Image File history File links Fire_2. ...

You shall not suffer a witch to live

Computer search of both the Old and New Testaments shows only two occurrences of the word ‘witch:’ Deuteronomy 18:10 and Exodus 22:18. On inspection, the context of the word ‘witch’ in Deuteronomy involves fire:

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

The context of the Exodus is ominous

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

Aside of Deuteronomy 18:10, the death penalty by fire was justified by the Biblical verse from the Gospel of John:

"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

The burning of witches is closely associated with the burning of burning heretics (from Latin haereticus, able to choose), i.e., persons who maintain opinions other than accepted by the church or reject doctrines prescribed by the church.

E pur si muove

Among the victims of the heretics' trials was Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), perhaps the best-known philosopher of the Italian Renaissance. He taught at Toulouse, Oxford, Marburg, Wittenberg, Prague, and Frankfurt. In 1592 he returned to his native Italy where, in Venice, he was imprisoned by the Inquisition and burned as a heretic in 1600. In his book De Umbris Idearum (On Shadows of Ideas), Bruno stressed that reality is constituted by the mind. Giordano’s central thesis was that both Judaism and Christianity perverted religion. He hoped that Christianity would be replaced by a new religion which would be able to effect a social change. Bruno also taught Copernicus’ heliocentric description of planetary motions. His last cry from the stake was E pur si muove! - 'And still, she is turning!' referring to the correctness of Copernicus heliocentric theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun. This exclamation is sometimes erroneously ascribed to Galileo Galilei. Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), was an Italian philosopher, astronomer/astrologer, spy and occultist burned at the stake as a heretic, regarded by some as a martyr to the cause of freedom of thought because his ideas went against the Church doctrine. ... Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei (Pisa, February 15, 1564 – Arcetri, January 8, 1642), was an Italian physicist, astronomer, and philosopher who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. ...

Modern image of devil. Emmanuelle Seigner, the devil in love, in Roman Polanski's movie The Ninth Gate.

The urban legend has it that it was Giordano Bruno and not Aristide Torchia who published in 1599 De Umbrarum Regis Novum Portis (New Doors to the Kingdom of Shadows), rumored to be copied from the apocryphal Delomelanicon, (from Gr. delo, to summon, and melas, black, dark) a book purportedly written by the devil himself and containing within its pages knowledge to raise the devil. These notions are based on the Roman Polanski's movie The Ninth Gate, the film adaptation of The Dumas Club, written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. However, Arturo Pérez-Reverte claims that, Aristide Torchia, though fictional, is created from the life of Giordano Bruno; both arrested in Venice and burnt at Campo del Fiori, Torchia in February 1666, Bruno in February 1600. Image File history File links DevilInLoveLeft. ... Image File history File links DevilInLoveLeft. ...

The maid of Orleans

Among the victims of the concremiret trials, perhaps the best known is Joan of Arc. The story of Jeanne d'Arc (1412-1431) unfolds against the background of the Hundred Years’ War between the British and French. Jeanne d’Arc was a French peasant girl who led the French against the army of England after hearing voices of Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret, and Saint Michael telling her destiny was to liberate France from English domination. After being tested by a group of theologians, Jeanne was given the command of the French army and lifted the English siege of Orleans. Captured by the English and turned over to a church court in Rouen, she was tried on charges of heresy and witchcraft and burned alive. She was nineteen years old.

Witch trials in American colonies

European immigrants to America brought with them their beliefs in witches and immigrants from England also the memories of the British law, with hanging meted to both sexes and children older than seven years for about 200 offences, including shoplifting. These memories likely included the remembrance of hanging, in 1708, of Michael Hammond, 7 years old and his sister, Ann, 11 years old for theft. Religious zealots also attempted to implant the witch trials in America, starting a series of witch trials between the years 1647 - 1692 in Connecticut, Boston, and Salem, Massachusetts, where two girls in the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris were accused of witchcraft. The prominent colonial Mather family pressed for the trial. Cotton Mather, an influential Puritan pastor and author of over religious 450 books is perhaps the best known member of that family. The governor, Sir William Phips, established a special seven-member court to try the case. The jurors were drawn from church membership lists. Eventually more people got accused of which two died in prison, 19 were hung, and one person was pressed to death. Reverend Samuel Parris (1653-1720) Samuel Parris (1653, London, England – February 27, 1720, Sudbury, Massachusetts) was the Puritan minister in the town of Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) during the Salem witch trials, as well as the father and uncle of two of the afflicted girls. ... Cotton Mather (1663–1728) circa 1700 Cotton Mather (February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728). ... Sir William Phips (or Phipps) (February 2, 1651 or 1650 – February 18, 1694 or 1695), colonial governor of Massachusetts, was born at Woolwich, Maine, near the mouth of the Kennebec River. ...

John Wyclif vs. Parliament

In 1395, representatives of the ecclesiastical reform movement that originated at Oxford and was led by John Wyclif presented to the Parliament a petition with demands summarized on the left-hand side of the table below. The Parliament retorted by passing, in 1401, the statue De haeretico comburendo [On burning of heretics], legislating death by burning on the charges summarized on the right-hand side of the table. The right-left sides of the following table roughly correspond to the right-left wings of the political thought. Wycliffe may also refer to Wycliffe Bible Translators John Wyclif (also Wycliffe or Wycliff) (c. ...

These controversies preceded the Hussite Wars (1419 - 1436), Luther (1483-1546) Reforms, and the Thirty Years' War (1618 -1648). Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the catholic or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... Magic (also called magick to distinguish it from stage magic) is a supposed way of influencing the world through supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means. ... Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers. ... For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ... Look up blasphemy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In psychology and sexology, paraphilia (in Greek para παρά = besides and -philia φιλία = love) is a term that describes sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations which may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity. ...

Malleus maleficarum.

Image File history File links Malleus. ...

Malleus maleficarum

In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued an edict, Summis desiderantes affectibus, where he alleged that many men and women were in collusion with the Devil. All Christians were to extend their help to two Dominican monks the Pope placed in charge of fighting people who, in association with Satan, caused diseases, pestilence, harmed harvest and cattle, and perpetrated other heinous crimes. The names of these two Dominican monks were Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, also known as Institoris. Sprenger and Kramer wrote Malleus Maleficarum in 1486. Malleus Maleficarum codified the charges, interrogation procedures and the means of judicial resolutions for the witchcraft trials. Kramer and Sprenger maintained that women were weaker than men and more likely to succumb to devil's temptations and, accordingly, about 80% of the victims of witch trials were women. Summis desiderantes affectibus is a papal bull issued on December 5, 1484 by Pope Innocent VIII. It condemned an alleged outbreak of witchcraft and heresy in the region of the Rhine River valley, and deputized Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, authors of the Malleus maleficarum, as inquisitors to root out... Cover of the seventh Cologne edition of the Malleus Maleficarum, 1520 (from the University of Sydney Library). ...

The trials

Accusations of witchcraft were obtained by soliciting the congregation to name suspected sorcerers or witches. The identity of the accusers was kept secret from the accused. The goal of the investigation was to obtain a confession of witchcraft. The confessions were forced by use of torture. Among the religious orders, a major role in the trials of both witches and heretics was played by the Dominican and Franciscan orders of friars. The Order of Friars Minor and other Franciscan movements are disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. ...

Inquisitors who distinguished themselves by a large number of their victims were Bernard Gui, Conrad of Marburg, Pedro Arbues, Boblig of Edelstadt, Robert le Bougre, Nicolas Eymeric, and Tomas de Torquemada, who traveled with 50 cavalrymen and 200 foot soldiers as his bodyguards, well aware that his large-scale burnings have created him many enemies. The mass murderer Conrad "the butcher" of Marburg was killed in 1233 by a group of noblemen whose relatives he burned at stake. Inquisitor Pedro Arbues was killed in 1485 in Saragossa, Andalusia. Bernard Gui was an inquisitor of the Dominican Order in the Late Middle Ages during the Medieval Inquisition. ... Konrad von Marburg (sometimes Anglicised as Conrad of Marburg) was a 13th century German inquisitor. ... Nicolas Eymeric (alternate spellings include:, Nicolau or Nicolai and Emeric, Eimeric, Eymerici, Eymericus, or Eymerich; b. ... Grand Inquisitor Torquemada Tomás de Torquemada (1420 - September 16, 1498) was a fifteenth century Spanish Dominican, and an Inquisitor General. ... For alternative meanings, see Zaragoza (disambiguation). ...

The wheel

Breaking a bone is painful and breaking bones is an old method of torture. This was frequently done by hitting the extremities or the rib cage with a wagon wheel. As the dislocated joint is more painful than a broken bone, the torture by wheel can be upgraded by torture on the rack

The rack.

Image File history File links TortureRack. ...

The rack

The rack was designed to stretch the body to dislocate its joints. The dislocations of joints can be heard as popping sounds, often mixed with the shrieks of agony.

The pain of stretching was sometimes further increased by gouging eyes, branding body with hot irons or tearing off tongue, nipples, ears, nose or male genitals with red hot pincers. The female genitals were torn from inside by spiked, pear shaped vaginal stretchers.

The intestinal crank

Among the instruments of torture, used during the criminal justice investigations to obtain information, was also the intestinal crank. This method of torture involved abdominal incision, separation of the duodenum from the pylorus, and attachment of the upper part of the thin intestine to the intestinal crank.

Intestinal crank.

The crank then could be rotated to extract information (and intestines) from the gastrointestinal cavity of a conscious person (Monestier, 1994).]] Image File history File links IntestinalCrankA.jpg Licensing This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years or less. ...

Witch hunters

Witch hunter was a term used to describe people who worked to locate and bring witches to justice. The most prominent of the witch hunters was Balthazar Ross. Between 1602 and 1606, Ross collected information that was used to arrest and prosecute more than 700 people.

Another professional witch hunter was the Puritan lawyer Matthew Hopkins, who often described himself as the leading expert on the problem of witch crimes. Hopkins is best known for orchestrating the mass execution of witches in Chelmsford, Essex, in 1645. [[Image:Matthewhopkins. ...

Nicholas Remy, a jurist in Lorraine, was responsible for the death of more than nine hundred persons in witch trials between 1581 and 1591. According to Remy, Nicholas Remy (aka Rémy and Remigius) (1534 - 1600) was a French Catholic priest. ...

Devil appears in the shape of a black man or animal seeking sexual relationships with women and, in case they did not agree, rapes them.

Remy described his methods for discovering witches and bringing them to justice in his book (1595) Demonolatria Libri Tres, which replaced Kramer and Sprenger’s Malleus as the updated manuals for the criminal justice proceedings concerning witchcraft.

Torture Chamber.

Image File history File links TortureChamber. ...

The final solution

Apart from Malleus Maleficarum, there were many books justifying the witch trials. Johann Geiler von Kayserberg maintained in his Die Emeis (1517) that the devil anesthetizes witches right before burning so they would not feel any pain. Bartolomeo Spina’s Questio de Strigibus (1523) is polemics against people who did not believe in witch trials. The French Calvinist Lambert Daneau, in his book Les Sorciers (1564), published in Geneva, proposed the ‘final solution’ of the witch problem. He held that witches represent a major danger for humanity and must be exterminated. Bishop Peter Biensfield in his Tractatus de Confessionibus Maleficorum (1589) maintained that since the sinfulness of the world increased, God also allowed increasing the stringency of punishments. Henri Boquet in his Discours des Sorciers (1602) believed that witches multiply as worms in the garden do and wished to burn them all in one great fire.

Opposition to witch trials

To oppose witch trials was dangerous. The proponents of witch trials maintained that whoever opposes the trials is probably also a witch or a sorcerer. This opinion persists and a person who opposes a law or its severity is often suspected of ulterior motives and

has something to hide or something to be afraid of.

Walter Bromberg in his (1975) book From Shaman to Psychotherapist describes arrest and torture of Bernard Delicieux, who was burned alive for expressing the opinion that St. Peter and St. Paul, if tried by the Inquisition's methods, would certainly be convicted of heresy. These practices discouraged many people from opposing injustice;

tace pro pace

be silent and live in peace. However, the old Romans also used to say

qui tacet, consentire videtur

who remains silent, consents.

Father of Psychiatry, Johannes Weyer, Doctoris Universae Medicinae (1516 - 1588). Author of De Praestigiis Daemonum.

The physician Johannes Weyer was among the early opponents of witch trials. Weyer in his book De Praestigiis Daemonum, (On the Activities of Demons, 1563) Dr. Weyer writes: Image File history File links Weyer. ... Johann Weyer, aka Wier, Wierus, Piscinarius, first name also Johannes (born between February 24, 1515 and February 24, 1516 — died February 24, 1588) was a Dutch physician, occultist and demonologist, disciple and follower of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. ...

"The uninformed and the unskilled physicians relegate all the incurable diseases, or all the diseases the remedy for which they overlook, to witchcraft. When they do this, they are talking about disease like a blind man does about color."

Called the Father of Psychiatry, he investigated the 1564 devil possession of the nuns of Cologne and found out that a group of teenage boys climbed the convent wall and made love to the nuns who, subsequently, covered up this amorous events by claiming possession by the devil.

Father Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld, S.J. (1591-1635), author of Cautio Criminalis.

The most courageous opponents of the witch trials was the Friedrich Spee von Langefeld who in his Cautio Criminalis (1631) told of confessions of hundreds of persons just before their executions. The condemned witches and sorcerers all confessed that their signed confessions were forced by torture and that they were innocent. He wrote: Image File history File links FatherSpee. ...

Why do you search so diligently for sorcerers? I will show you at once where they are. Take the Capuchins, the Jesuits, all the religious orders, and torture them - they will confess. Should a few still be obstinate, keep on torturing - they will give in. If you want more, take the Canons, the Doctors, the Bishops of the Church - they will confess.

Artist's image of Dershowitz's Insertion of Sterilized® Needle under Fingernails method of torture.

Image File history File links NeedleUnderFingernails. ...

Reinstatement of torture

Torture was abolished throughout the Roman Empire around the 240 CE, was reinstated during the times of the Crusades, was abolished in the wake of the American and French revolutions separating the church and the state, and reappeared during the present decade. Among the prominent proponents of torture is Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University, recommending insertion of (sterilized) needles under fingernails in the course of criminal investigations. Alan Dershowitz Alan Morton Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and jurist. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Napalm the witches

Some fundamentalists Christians call for deportations of atheists and non-Christians from the United States, which they define as a Christian nation and clamor for reinstitution of the burn them alive executions. Some also regard other world religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism as forms of Satanism. Exhortations such as witches should be napalmed have been heard in the southern United States and signs as Witchcraft is an Abomination and Burn the Witches have appeared along Texas highways. (Shlachter, 1999).

Belief (in percents) that Satan is a real being.

Image File history File links DevilExists. ...

Satan is a real being

The Talmud states that there is 7,405,926 demons in existence which number lead some believe that the number of the beast is not 666, but 6666, as 7,405,926 / 6666 equals 1111. In 1972, Pope Paul VI proclaimed that

"Sin affords a dark, aggressive evildoer, the Devil, an opportunity to act in us and in our world. Anyone who disputes the existence of this reality places himself outside biblical and Church teachings."

The 38% of contemporary Americans believe that Satan is a real being, and 48% of Born-Again Christian endorse the same belief; in June 1998, exorcist Baron Deacon attempted to exorcise the demons residing in the U.S. Congress. Some better known demons are

Different view of concremiret trials

Eternal Word Television Network based in Irondale, Alabama, is the largest religious media network in the world, transmitting programming 24 hours a day to over 100,000,000 homes in 126 countries, building the Civilization of Love around the world. Its web site provides Different Perspective on Burning at the Stake, as follows:

"To those watching someone being burned alive, as well as to the person being executed, it is clear that such a death was a vivid depicture of people's beliefs regarding hell, as hell is the eternal fire. Heretics were burned alive, with their mental faculties intact, to give them one last chance to repent before being sent into the eternal fire. Burning an individual at the stake was seen as a merciful death, as a means of giving that person one last chance to save his or her soul before final damnation. The unchanging teaching of the Church is that hell is the "the unquenchable fire" and that it is eternal."

Secular humanism

The developments alluded to in the preceding paragraphs are viewed with extreme anxiety by both the secular and religious humanists. Thus the leading proponent of secular humanism, Paul Kurtz, observes that it is in contemporary America Paul Kurtz (born February 12, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), but is best known for prominent role in the American skeptical community. ...

where it has become impossible to express nonreligious viewpoints and where irrationality dominates. What is urgent is to keep church and state separate, to maintain our appeal to evidence and reason, and to reject the Bible, the Qur'an, and the Book of Mormon as ancient, out-of-date views of human existence.

Bombers ready to deliver, with presidential approval, a preemptive nuclear strike on any country or a terrorist group that may posses weapons of mass destruction (Village Voice, September 20, 2005).

Image File history File links B-2_Bomber. ...

Qui bono?

The cardinal question remains who ultimately benefited from the concremiret trials. The reason usually given is that concremiret trials were sustained by material benefits obtained by confiscation of property of the condemned individuals. However, the elites with real power and real money could ultimately hardly benefit from depopulated villages and crippled economy. The reason elites tolerated the trials was that the widespread horror generated by mass burnings turned out to be one of the most effective tools for maintaining power. Over the centuries, hysteria of witch hunts intensified during the times of internal unrest or prior to initiation of wars of aggression, as notions that to counteract the supreme evil embodied by the devil justified even the most ruthless and cruel methods of inflicting violence on others.

After cessation of nuclear balance in the wake of fall of the Soviet Union, the remaining superpower decided to use this time-tested method, substituting psychological for the physical terror of the burning times.

Hermit of St-Benoît-du-Lac

Primus inter pares of exponents of the religious humanism is Joe Palmer, hermit at the monastery of St-Benoît-du-Lac who writes (Palmer, 2003) that

Refectory of the St.-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey.

People have forgotten that it is impossible to derive humane ethical principles from theological premises because reasoning and evidence are necessary to determine what is right or wrong, and religious dogma does not yield physical evidence or logical thinking.

and continues Image File history File links Lac. ...

If we do not test moral values with evidence and reason, we find ourselves falling back on ex cathedra and superstitious pronouncements, folkways, and fables instead of modifying our values in the light of consequences in a scientific manner. When we judge people using old tribal values, as in the Salem Witch Trials, we perpetuate the degradation of all individuals, taking away their freedom and dignity.

Notes

1. ^ In a letter (December 20, 1579) to the president of the Parliament of Paris, Bodin explains that he wrote the book:
   - to describe the fury of sorcerers while they “chase after the devil.”
   - to use it as a warning to all who will see the devil
   - to alert readers that there is no crime that could be more atrocious or deserve more serious punishment
   - to speak out against those who “try by all means to rescue the sorcerers through printed books, as “Satan has men in his grasp who write, publish, and speak claiming that nothing that is said about sorcerers is true.”
   - to provide the tools to magistrates and judges, who were confronted by the accused sorcerers, in order to face this formidable problem.
   
   However, many people wondered if Bodin, such an expert so convinced of the devil's existence and so curious about this topic may not himself have been involved with witchcraft. On June 3, 1587, the general prosecutor ordered the lieutenant of the baillage to proceed with a search of Bodin's home on suspicion of witchcraft. Unfortunately, this search was brought to a halt by intervention Bodin's supporters. One may only wander how Bodin would feel while experiencing what he legislated for others.

References

• Binsfeld, P. (1596) Tractatus de confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum. Trier, Germany: Heinrich Bock.

• Bodin, J. (1581) De la démonomanie des sorciers, Paris, Jacques Du Puys; De magorum daemonomania, Libri VI, Hildesheim. Olms, 2003.

• Boquet, H. (1602) Discours execrable des Sorciers . Lyon: Phenix Editions. ISBN 2745808427.

• Bromberg, W. (1975) From shaman to psychotherapist. Chicago: H. Regnery.

• Bruno, G. (1532) De umbris idearum. Joseph H. Peterson (Digital edition, 1997).

• Cavendish, R. (1987) A history of magic. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

• Cazotte, J. (1772) The devil in love. Sawtry, England: Daedalus Ltd., 1991. ISBN 0-946626-73-1.

• Daneau, L. (1564) Les Sorciers, dialogue très utile et très necessaire pour ce temps. In Levack, B. (1992) The literature of witchcraft: articles on witchcraft, magic, and demonology. Garland. ISBN 0815310269.

• Franzen, A. (2006) Kleine Kirchengeschichte. Freiburg, Germany: Herder. ISBN 3451268965.

• Geiler, J. (1508) Die Emeis. Strassburg: Johann Grüninger.

• Grimm, J., & Grimm, W. (1812) Kinder und Hausmãrchen. Berlin, Germany: Realschulbuchhandlung.

• Kramer, H. & Sprenger, J. (1486) The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer). Unabriged online publication.

• Krus, D.J, Nelsen, E.A. & Webb, J.M. (1998) Issues in oral history: elaboration of traumatic events: Perceptual and Motor Skills, 86, 928-930 (Request reprint).

• Monestier, M. (1994) Peines de mort. Paris, France: Le Cherche Midi Éditeur.

• Mǖllendorf, P. (1911) Geschichte der Spanischen Inquisition. Leipzig, Germany.

• Palmer, J. (2003) Viva Papa!; or, humanism betrayed. Nthposition, October 03.

• Remy, N. (1595) Daemonolatreiae libri tres. Lyon, France. English translation in Summers, ed. (1929) Demonolatry, reprinted by Kessinger Publishing (2003), ISBN 0766136302.

• Rhyne, C. E., Templer, D. I., Brown, L. G., & Peters, N. B. (1995) Dimensions of suicide: perceptions of lethality, time, and agony. Suicide & Life Threatening Behavior, 25(3), 373-380.

• Shlachter, B. (1999) Bothered and bewildered; Wiccans at Hood shrug off media hubbub. Fort Worth Star Telegram, 1999-AUG-7.

• Sindelar, B. (1986) Hon na carodejnice v zapadni a stredni Evrope v 16.-17.stoleti. Prague: Nakladatelstvi Svoboda.

• Spee, F. (1631) Cautio Criminalis oder Rechtliches Bedenken wegen der Hexenprozesse. Dtv (2000). ISBN 342330782X.

• Spina, B. (1523) Questio de strigibus: apologia de lamiis contra Ponzinibium. Rome, Italy: In aedibus populi Romani.

• Weyer, J. (1563) De Praestigiis Daemonum. English translation in Kohl, B. (1998) On Witchcraft: An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer's De Praestigiis Daemonum. Pegasus Press. ISBN 188981802X.

See also

• Witch trial

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. ...

Original version

• Witch trials as originally written

External links

• National Geographic Salem Interactive Witchcraft Hysteria