The Four Witches

We learn in class that 80,000 people were accused of being witches, but about 40,000 of them were actually executed. These executions normally were punished by burning at the stake. Such as the image above, in the image it is four witches who were burned at the stake at Wittenberg in 1540 (CP). The four were accused of commerce with the devil and of directing magic against their neighbors (CP). Whether or not “magic” really happens, there were many super situations that easily led someone of being accused of witch craft. Or if you had series of bad luck such as the example Dr.Wolbrink had in class, when the woman’s husband died 3 months after their marriage in a fire, or even after the fact when she remarried, her second husband ended up abandoning her with his first wife. Let’s say you were just weird, you could’ve have been a witch who associated with the devil. Once you were accused, for an example at the age of 20, you wouldn’t actually go to trial until your 40s or 50s. Therefore clearing your name actually took a long time. That probably explains the numbers of people who were accused compared to the lower numbers of people who were actually executed.

 

Source: Course Packet