THE BURNING TIMES
"Witch Hunt" --- Making false accusations
against a large number
of people.
The probable number of people executed during the Burning Times was between 200,000 and 500,000. In the late1940's and early 1950's, several British Witches and occultists started talking about 9,000,000 "witches" killed. This number appears to have derived not from any research, but rather from an attempt to "one-up" the number of Jews exterminated by the Nazis in WW II. In order to support this contention, the definition of the Burning Times was changed. First, the period of the major witch hunts was extended from its peak, 1550 - 1675, backwards to the founding of the Inquisition (early 13th century). Second, the figures for judicial executions of heretics, notably the Cathari and the Waldensians, were included in the total. Finally, all judicial executions which took place during the Catholic "civil war" (the Avignon Papacy) were included. In effect, the definition of "witch" was changed to include "heretic".
This definitional change is most interesting, since it parallels the definitional change that took place in the Catholic churches construction of demonic witchcraft (see, for example, Ginzburg's "Ecstacies"). The "facts" of the situation where "changed" when the definition of the term "witch" was changed. "Witch" was defined as "not-orthodox" and, as such, included all heretics and non-Christians. To me, the interesting point is that this definition was created not by the Catholic church, but by Gerald Gardner in an attempt to prove that "witches" had suffered more than Jews.
Although the list below contains dates even earlier than the 13th century, all victims were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death from Witchcraft persecution, most from the Catholic church. I compiled this list for research and memorial purposes, and the hatchet is buried, BUT, Witchcraft persecution carries on to this very day. With that said:
NEVER FORGET!
THE INQUISITION
The Inquisition was the Catholic tribunal's way of exposing and punishing religious unorthodoxy. When Christianity became the state religion & church of the Roman Empire, the new religion extended the intolerance to heretics and those deemed contrary to the Catholic faith as the Roman's did to Christianity prior to its acceptance. By 430 A.D., the civil code was ordering the death sentence for heretics, although such laws were not rigorously enforced until many centuries later. The procedure of the Inquisition's investigation of heresy was repeated in later trials for witchcraft, which came under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition when sorcery was deemed heresy.
The Inquisitorial method, which developed slowly, is summarized here:
1. The accused was presumed guilty until he proved his innocence. This was adopted by the Inquisition from Roman Imperial Law.
2. Suspicion, denunciation or gossip was a sufficient indication of guilt to hail a person before the Inquisition.
3. To justify the activities of the Inquisition, the offense, whatever it might have been, was correlated with heresy. For example, one who committed murder would be tried as a heretic and the crime would be heresy.
4. The defendant could not confront the witness, and the accusations were often times not known by the defendant.
5. Witnesses disallowed in other offenses were encouraged to testify in trials of heresy. Such individuals were: convicted perjurers, persons without civil rights, very young children and excommunicates (including condemned heretics). If a hostile witness retracted his testimony, he was charged with perjury but the testimony would still stand. However, if the retraction was less favorable to the accused, the judge could accept the hostile
witnesses' second testimony.
6. No witness was allowed to testify on behalf of the accused; nor was his previous good reputation as a citizen or Christian taken into account.
7. The accused was permitted no council, since the lawyer would thereby be guilty of defending heresy.
8. The judges were inquisitors.
9. The judges were encouraged to manipulate the accused into confessing. Mind games, tricks and traps were all employed for this purpose.
10. Although technically allowed only as a last resort, in practice tortured was regularly used and could be inflicted upon any witness.
11. Legally, torture could not be repeated, but it could be, and was legally continued until the accused confessed whatever was demanded of him. Three sessions of torture were usual. The Instructio pro Formandis Processibus in Causis Strigum (1623) was widely circulated by the inquisition and revealed that over the preceding two centuries, its judges had employed torture, even prescribing death, without careful scrutiny of the
evidence.
12. Having confessed under torture, the accused, in sight of the torture chamber, had to repeat his confession "freely and spontaneously without the pressure of force or fear". Thus, he was considered, and the court records so stated, to have admitted his guilt without torture.
13. Every accused individual had to supply names or invent names of accomplices or those whom he suspected of heresy. In many cases, while the accused was under torture, the judges would "suggest" the names of "heretics" to the accused, and the accused would agree that the named were heretics, hoping that the torture would stop.
14. Generally, no appeal was allowed.
15. The property of the accused was confiscated by the Inquisition. All popes praised this practice as one of the strongest weapons against in the fight against heresy.
As a result of the above methods, and as all surviving records show, once accused, the chances of escaping death were nil.
The position of the Inquisition in the history of Europe is summarized by the nineteenth-century Roman Catholic historian, Lord Acton:
"The principle of the Inquisition is murderous...liberalism swept away that appalling edifice of intolerance, tyranny, cruelty, which believers in Christ built up to perpetuate their belief. There is much to deduct from the praise of the Church in protecting marriage, abolishing slavery and human sacrifice, preventing war and helping the poor. No deduction can be made from her evil-doing toward unbelievers, heretics, savages, and witches. Here her responsibility is more undivided: her initiative and achievement complete."
SALEM WITCH TRIALS OF 1692
OVERVIEW
In January of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village became ill. William Griggs, the village doctor, was called in when they failed to improve. His diagnosis of bewitchment put into motion the forces that would ultimately result in the hanging deaths of nineteen men and women. In addition, one man was crushed to death; several others died in prison, and the lives of many were irrevocably changed. To understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to examine the times in which accusations of witchcraft occurred. There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village ' families and rivalry with nearby Salem Town combined with a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. Soon, prisons were filled with more than 150 men and women from towns surrounding Salem; their names had been "cried out" by tormented young girls as the cause of their pain. All would await trial for a crime punishable by death in 17th-century New England - the practice of witchcraft.
In June of 1692, the special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) sat in Salem to hear the cases of witchcraft. Presided over by Chief Justice William Stoughton, the court was made up of magistrates and jurors. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem who was found guilty and was hanged on June 10. Thirteen women and five men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows on three successive hanging days before the court was disbanded by Governor William Phipps in October of that year. The Superior Court of Judicature, formed to replace the "witchcraft" court, did not allow spectral evidence. This belief in the power of the accused to use their invisible shapes or spectres to torture their victims had sealed the fates of those tried by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. The new court released those awaiting trial and pardoned those awaiting execution. In effect, the Salem witch trials were over.
As years passed, apologies were offered and restitution was made to the victims' families. Historians and sociologists have examined this most complex episode in our history so that we may understand the issues of that era and view subsequent events with heightened awareness. The parallels between the Salem witch trials and more modern examples of "witch hunting" like the McCarthy hearings of the 1950's, are remarkable.
THE TRIALS
The Salem witch hysteria of 1692 was one of the most tragic events in American history. To study this event, we must consider the social, religious and political influences of that time. The Puritans from England settled in Massachusetts to escape religious persecution in their home land. The Puritans had a strict moral code and their way of living was fashioned around their religious beliefs.
There was a political division between the first Minister appointed to Salem Village in 1679, James Bayley and Samuel Parris, elected as minister in 1689. When the first accusations of witchcraft were voiced by the adolescent girls and throughout the entire event, the ministers exploited the bizarre behavior of the girls to bolster their waning leadership.
The accusations of witchcraft and the subsequent executions were an extreme expression of deeply felt moral divisions. The negative references to witchcraft in the Bible and the belief that witchcraft was Satan's work created a paralyzing fear of witchcraft which made it a natural vehicle for the hostility of the community.
Personal enemies and "socially undesirable" individuals were transformed into enemies of the community and an enemy of the community was therefore a servant of Satan. Between the years of 1690-92, several events occurred which were the immediate causes of the hysteria. Samuel Parris had a West Indian slave named Tituba who was steeped in magical lore.
Several adolescent girls became fascinated by Tituba's stories of natural magic and island culture. Two of the girls were related to Samuel Parris while others were children of his supporters. When the girls became "afflicted" and subsequently named the "witches", the supporters of James Bayley took the outrageous accusations of the hysterical girls as confirmation of what they already suspected, that their opponents were in league with Satan.
That was the beginning of the Salem witch trials hysteria of 1692.
What are your feelings and thoughts on what happened?
