Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Würzburg
- Religion
- Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld, a Jesuit
- Convinced that none of the
witches he'd led to the stake
were guilty
- Couldn't utter his thoughts as he feared suffering the
same fate
- Wrote the book, Cautio Criminalis,
condemning the activities in Würzburg
- Printed anonymously in the
Protestant city of Hamchin in
1631
- Considerable effect in halting witchcraft
persecution in many parts of Germany
- Social and Economic
- Victims came from all sections of
society, regardless of age, profession
and gender
- Levack - 'At Würzburg in 1629 the chain of
accusations led to the naming of numerous
children, law students, clerics and eventually the
bishop's chancellor and the bishop himself.'
- Of the 160 witches executed in Würzburg
between 1627 and 1629 around a quarter were
children
- At one point, children accounted
for around 60 per cent of the
victims
- The children were all charged and punished towards the end
of the Würzburg witch-hunt
- Pressure for the persecution of
witches from below was likely
to be considerable in times of
dearth
- The bishopric froze over, as did the grain fields. Everything froze over,
causing great inflation.
- The pressure from below questioned why the
authority delayed punishing witches for
spoiling crops
- Responses of Authority
- Prince-Bishop Philipp
Adolf von Ehrenberg
(reigned 1623-31)
- 1626-1631,
around 900
were executed
- 1631, Philipp
Adolf died
- Würzburg was taken by King
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in
1631
- Witch trials came to and end
- The bishop was
instrumental in bringing
the hunt to an end
- Political
- Those burnt included nobels and
mayors, Ehrenburg's own nephew, 19
Catholic priests and children of seven
who were said to have intercourse
with demons