1. WITCHES IN THE 17TH CENTURY

2. WARNING
Some of the images are very graphic, but I am sure you are mature enough to handle them.
If you feel that you are not, please do not look.

3. Who was a Witch in the 17th Century?
A practitioner of magic
Heretics: people who spoke against the church
Practitioner of the Occult
Alchemists
Drug-deluded
Mentally ill
Brain injured
Physically ill –lepers, boils, missing limbs….
Mostly Women: they were especially susceptible to the Devil’s persuasions (75% to 80% killed were women)
Elderly women—most 50 or older
Men could be witches as well. Shamans, Warlocks..

6. The Good Witch
The Emperor Charlemagne decreed that the burning of supposed witches was a pagan custom that would be punished by the death penalty.
The Witch Doctor

7. Powers of European Witches
turning food poisonous or inedible,
flying on broomsticks or pitchforks,
casting spells,
cursing people,
making livestock ill
making crops fail, and
creating fear and local chaos

8. The Change of Attitude
Traditional attitudes changed at the end of the 14th Century
First mass trials started in the 15th Century.
Why? Plague, social and religious turmoil—Catholics vs. Protestants.

10. “The Burning Times”
“the crazes, panics, and mass hysteria -- largely occurred in one century, from
Germany, France, Switzerland, and England faced the most witch hysteria.
Why? They were going through the reformation.
Least: Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Portugal
High: 260, 000 deaths in Germany to Ireland: with 4 deaths

11. PROOFS of Witchcraft
The diabolical mark. This was usually a mole or birthmark. If not found the examiner would say it was invisible.
Witch-pricking: Prick the mark and if it did not bleed or hurt it would be seen as a witches’ mark.
Denouncement by another witch
Relationship with other convicted witch/witches
Blasphemy
Participation in Sabbaths
Possession of elements necessary for the practice of black magic
To have one or more witches in the family
To be afraid during the interrogations
Not to cry under torment (supposedly by means of the Devil's aid)
To have had sexual relationships with a demon—illegitimate children
If she floats she is a witch

12. The Examination

14. Witch Pricking instrument

16. Picture of condemned Witch, Mary Dyer, going to her execution in Boston 1660

17. TRIALS Animals targeted—Animal Trials
Most prosecutions started off with denunciations.
Methods to extract an admission of guilt: Hot pincers and thumbscrews

18. scold’s bridle as it is also known, a device for depressing the tongue and keeping suspects quiet.
Sleep deprivation
Light deprivation: If they had access to a naked flame the witch hunters believed that they would use their magical powers to summon the devil to set them free.

20. Interrogation Chair

25. Punishments for Witchcraft
Excommunicated
Chained for years to the oars of a ship
Burnt at the stake while alive
In England: hang the person and then burn the corpse
Drowning
Strangling
Pressed to death

27. WATER TORTURE

28. DUCKING

34. Number of Executions
Historians believe it is between 12,000 to 100,000
Some say as high as 10 million

36. A Trial You are Accused

37. My name is of no importance. We have gone back in time to the 1630's
My name is of no importance. We have gone back in time to the 1630's. We are in the Holy German Reich: in Rheinbach near Bonn in the dukedom of Cologne. You have an enormous problem. It is my duty to accompany you with my hints and advice on a tragic path even if, ultimately, I can not help you. You are unlucky today. After years of quarrelling, the venomous female neighbour of yours has accused you, in public, of being a magician. The roof of her house is leaking again. Well may you laugh now, but that will soon change. Already you are a corpse on holidays, you just don't know it yet. You now have only two possibilities: you remain quiet to those accusations or you fight against them.
If you remain quiet, your guilt is almost proved. By a traditional dictum of justice we learn: "qui tacet, concentiret", who keeps silence, agrees.
If you fight against the accusations your guilt is likewise almost proved. The more actively you fight against them, the more suspicion you arouse. People will think: if that person is so eager to refute the charge, that must have a good reason.

38. MODERN DAY WITCH HUNTS WHO ARE WE AFTER NOW?