A Crime of Witchcraft in Early Modern Germany

In a smuggled note from his prison in Bamburg in 1628, Johannes Junius wrote, ‘…dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent I have come to prison, innocent I have been tortured, innocent I must die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must become a witch or be tortured until he invents something out of his head and – God Pity him – bethinks him of something.’ By this time, witch trials had reached formidable levels across the German territories. It is estimated that up to 90,000 men, women and children were put on trial for witchcraft, and approximately half that number were killed. Conservative estimates put Germany’s execution number at 22,500. In 2020, Bishop Gregor Hanke from the Bavarian city of Eichstätt apologised on behalf of the Catholic diocese, describing the events as a “bleeding wound” in the church’s history. In a modern context, it is perplexing how religious and secular authorities were able to rid early scepticism surrounding the existence of such a heretical crime and the inhumane treatment of those ‘witches’ accused. To understand why this movement took off particularly well in Germany is to understand how the definition of the crime developed, what conditions helped the notion fester, and who benefitted from trials and executions.

Feeding into early modern ideas of magic and demonology were the writings from classical and medieval superstition, which had been woven into medieval Christian doctrine. Archbishop and scholar, Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) wrote about the Witch of Endor (1. Samuel 28:3–25) and necromancers, and linked incantation magic with the craft of demonology. In Exodus 22:18, the wording, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” was open to interpretation, since biblical descriptions of the practice of magic were vague. Fears grew in the medieval period with the belief that ‘white’ magic was encroaching on Christian doctrine. Bishops, Augustine of Hippo and Burchard of Worms, condemned divination and the occult in all its forms. In the twelfth century, the definition of magic began to turn unholy, and the study of science and nature was drifting further away from folk magic and medicine. By the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas had asserted that enchantment, both harmful and diabolical, was apostasy, and his ideas would become the foundation for inquisitors in Germany in the fourteenth century.

Various laws and edicts ensured that sorcery did not sway the faithful, and legal changes of the definition of witchcraft would assist in early criminalisation of the accused. Old German Law, Lex Salica (Salic Law), discussed the use of magic for nefarious purposes. This law, compiled in the fifth century by Clovis, the first Frankish king, stipulated non-violent penalties for the use of it, including fines for those who falsely accused others and could not produce evidence. Up to the eleventh century, the crime of heresy had not yet secured a position in Christian law, but a growing rigidity of faith induced a growing intolerance of magic; and in the thirteenth century, secular authorities sought greater punishments for its usage. Witchcraft, using charms, blessings and potions for love and healing, as well as fortune telling, had been a career for some with little furore, but once invoking help from the Devil it equated with heresy and became a matter for clerical and secular authorities. Pope Gregory IV issued a bull in 1233 attesting that Satan was at work in Germany, and heretics could appear as cats, toads or frogs that encouraged perversions. A re-evaluation of punishments for sorcery was reflected in German legislation. The Sachsenspiegel (Saxon Mirror) in 1225 and the Schwabenspiegel (Swabian Mirror) in 1275 included the penalties of torture and fire for the practice.

Pope John XXII’s bull of 1326 asserted that magicians “command demons through their magic art”, after which sorcery was linked to heretical depravity, adopted into inquisitorial procedures, linked with the Devil, and considered a serious threat to Christianity. Cases of witchcraft added weight to this claim, with some willingly owning up to such activities. Marion, a prostitute in Paris, having lost her lover, Haincelin, attempted to bewitch him with the help of a friend. In the trial she repeated her invocation: “Devils, help me and see it that Haincelin cannot have sex with anyone but me.” Both women were imprisoned, tortured and burned. In 1374 Pope Gregory XI declared that magic was aided by demons, and the practice of diabolism was now merged firmly with heresy. Influences also came from outside Germany, such as the inquisition manual, Directorium Inquisitorum, written by Nicholas Eymerich of Aragon in 1356.

By early in the fifteenth century, witch burnings had taken place in the South of France, Switzerland and Rome, and most famously had claimed Joan of Arc in 1431. German preacher, Johannes Nider of Isny, political adviser, Johann Harlieb of Neuburg, and chronicler, Matthias Widmann from Kemnath, sought to enlighten their respective territories about witchcraft practices outside of Germany. Up until then, those accused of sorcery–such as the case of a particular love charm magic used to bewitch a chaplain at Munich in 1427–received the penalty of banishment, but word was spreading about witch burnings, and new concepts of punishment were developing.

Dominican, Heinrich Kramer, helped determine witchcraft as both a spiritual and physical harm to the faithful, and his doggedness after his initial unsuccessful attempts in Tyrol led to success elsewhere. The unfettered severity of punishments was endorsed in his book, the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) which he co-wrote and with Jacob Sprenger and first published in 1486/7. Kramer wrote, “But, if the prisoner will not confess the truth satisfactorily, other sorts of tortures must be placed before him, with the statement that unless he will confess the truth, he must endure these also”, and “evils which are performed by witches exceed all other sin which God has ever permitted to be done…”. The crime of witchcraft came with the label of heretics and apostates, and witches with their pact with the devil were worse than any other felon. Though dismissed by some, the treatise circulated throughout the German territories of the Holy Roman Empire and beyond. Adding more significance to the book, with Kramer’s feminised Latin title to aim mostly at women, Pope Innocent VIII’s bull Summis desiderantes affectibus against witchcraft was included, though it is unlikely Kramer received official approval to use it. The early concept of witchcraft, once vague, was clearly defined to include apostasy; a sexual relationship with the Devil; aerial flight; the witches’ sabbath; and maleficent magic. With these guidelines, Kramer had found a willing market for denunciations; however, it would still be another eighty years before witch-hunting would spread voraciously across Germany, and those in authority would take his words more seriously.  

At the turn of the sixteenth century, there was still debate about the power of witches, and the idea of it was kept alive by both Lutheran and Catholic preachers. Catholic theologian, Martin Plantsch of Tübingen preached that God was directly responsible for natural disasters like hailstorms, which were often attributed to witchcraft. Though he warned against fear and superstition, he also sowed the notion that it was the Devil who assisted witches to perform anti-Christian activities. Lutheran, Johann Brenz followed a similar model in 1526, suggesting that famine and storms were caused by God, and Satan was behind a witch’s incantation. Lutheran pastor, Johann Spreter of Württemberg, in his publication Hexen Büchlein, explained that witches were responsible for catastrophes. Though later attempting to walk this back, the nature of witchcraft to explain natural disasters was firmly planted in the minds of the masses during sermons, and printed text and images distributed. Frightening depictions of diabolical activities helped create not only an environment of fear but validation also. A comet and lightning bolt convinced Jacob Heerbrand, a theologian from Württemberg, to suggest that God allows nothing to happen at random, and the destruction of crops was another cause for fear and repentance. Many were eager to apply a cause to natural phenomena such as frosts, storms, and harsh winters. 
  
Various treatises on the subject of witchcraft continued to be published and distributed by theologians, counsellors and lawyers. Fear of diabolism was growing steadily stronger. In his later years, Martin Luther wrote several sermons against witchcraft and endorsed the execution of at least four witches at Wittenburg during 1541. There were over three hundred autonomous territories in Germany that recognised the criminal law, Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, which allowed ‘witches’ to be tortured; nevertheless, it was up to individual states to decide the methods used for interrogation and execution. The distinction between the natural and the supernatural, and the criteria for inquisitions, were up to the ruling elite.

The high number of territories in Germany meant that rules and types of punishment were inconsistent across the region. Though what was consistent was the severity of punishments and the use of torture generally. Physician, Johann Weyer believed that the Devil could deceive but was sceptical about some of the condemned. In his De Praestigiis (On Magic) published in 1563, he wrote about the innocent victims, “constantly dragged out to suffer awful torture until they would gladly exchange the most bitter existence for death.” He succeeded briefly in convincing the Duke of Juliers-Berg not to kill witches but was eventually fired for being too lenient. The Rostock jurist Gøodelmann in 1584 declared that inappropriate methods were resulting in miscarriages of justice. Nobleman, Heinrich von Haslang, after witnessing trials at Wagnereckh in 1591, wrote, “…the denunciations, and much else, are extorted from them (the alleged witches; WB) by irregular torture, and in many other ways the procedure is quite wrong.” Though much of the criticism fell on deaf ears or was held in secret. The fear of sorcery was followed closely by the fear of authority. Those who objected to the tortures and trials risked being denounced themselves at some point, exiled, or loss of employment. Opponents were largely ignored, and the word ‘complicity’ was used to help silence them.

Religion during the sixteenth century was divided between Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists after the Reformation. There was little interest in witches at the start of the Catholic and Protestant Reformations; however, the counterreformation coincided with the persecutions from 1570, when towns were changing between Protestant and Catholic or Catholic to Protestant. Using the Reformation propaganda technique of pamphlets, reformer, Martin Luther’s attempted overhaul of dogma did not diminish ideas about witchcraft, which were not only perpetuated during sermons, but reached a wider audience in the peasantry. By the middle of the sixteenth century there was increased unemployment, vagrancy, and harvest failure, and negative attitudes towards the poor. Witches, the congregations were told, were responsible for the economy and climate change such as the “little ice age”. While religious confusion bears some responsibility, and certainly inspired more zealousness against opposing factions, it forms only part of the history.

A rise of agrarian crises such as damaged crops and diseases in people and livestock corresponded with a rise in accusations to explain them. The ruling elite, perhaps to divert the attention, blamed the decline in living standards on God’s wrath and sought someone to take the blame. In the case of urban versus rural, historians differ as to why witch trials flourished in certain areas. Bernd Roeck suggests that there was more Christianisation in towns than in rural areas, that this in turn removed the emphasis on denunciation and better care of the sick and more spiritual guidance than in the countryside, and the harshness of rural areas were more open to pointing fingers to explain the unexplainable conditions and deaths. Brian Levack, on the other hand, suggests that towns were fertile grounds for witch-hunts and that the impersonal neighbourhoods meant that suspicions festered about neighbours they didn’t know, and uses the territories of Bamberg, Würzbug and Eichstaff to make his point. Either way, it seems the reasons for much of the trials came down to those in authority, living conditions, and petty grievances.

The ‘hag’ became a stereotypical view of witches with greying hair, wrinkling skin, toothless, and stooped with sagging breasts. Popular fictional depictions of witches have been portrayed this way since the early modern period, such as Shakespeare’s three witches in Macbeth, and its various contemporary adaptations. Infertility and strange behaviour, which is likely to have been senility, menopause, or mental impairment, contributed to evidence of witchcraft, and in a handful of witch trial cases, the behaviour of the accusers suggested mental illness also. In 1709, Maria Appolonia Schumacher was described as not in her ‘right mind’ and said to have hit her head against the wall to gain relief from thoughts of witchcraft. Recorded in several trials in the seventeenth century, it was noted that the behaviour of the accusers indicated they were mentally disturbed. Approximately eighty percent of executions in Germany included women, although there were variations across the territories. Witch crimes committed by men included treason, heresy, and murder, and for women it was public disorder, sexual impropriety, or property disputes, and, in rare cases also, infanticide. But it seems no one was exempt from denunciation. Accusations against priests and canons began in 1589 with the execution of two parish priests. In his writings of 1591, bishop and theologian, Peter Binsfeld suggested that clergy and learned men were not exempt from the Devil. His publication, Tractatus de confessionibus Maleficorum et sagarum (Treatise on the Confessions of Witches and Wise-Women) greatly influenced the legal system in Bavaria.

The beneficiaries of witchcraft trials and executions were judges, clerks, builders, executioners, clergy, notaries, and even innkeepers for the crowds of people who attended an execution. Public executioner Jörg Abriel in Schöngau charged two florins to search for the devil’s mark regardless of outcome. Keeping the population in fear meant greater Christian conformity. To pour salt on the wounds of the accused and their families, they had to foot the bill for maintenance and various fees while imprisoned. By the seventeenth century, many careers were built on the back of witchcraft, and deceased estates distributed between clerical and secular authorities. Even the Canon of Treves Cathedral, though a firm believer in the existence of witches, commented that people were getting rich.

It is safe to assume that Johannes Junius was innocent, and like many before and after him, he was tortured and burned at the stake. The intensity of accusations grew with the gradual changing of the definition of magic, and a zealous campaign to rid the territories of evil developed further into a thriving witch-hunting industry. An absence of trial data and inconsistencies in socioeconomic factors make it difficult to pinpoint exactly what triggered the rise in certain areas and not in others. However, across the board, fear of God and authority inspired the denunciations, laws and dogma fuelled the rise, and an opportunity to capitalise on the crime of witchcraft became the objective for many.

Gemma Liviero
17 December 2021

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