GERMAN WITCH TRIALS (cont.)

1. ROLE OF TORTURE IN GERMAN WITCH TRIALS

Justified by 1) horrendous nature of alleged crimes of
                           heresy, apostasy, devil worship
                    2) difficulty of proving "sprirtual crimes"
                    3) CONFESSION as only "certain proof"

Witchcraft as CRIMEN EXCEPTUM: exceptional crime
                  normal legal procedures not adequate
Torture as form of ordeal: resisting torture as proof of innocence
      but pact with devil may have given the witch power to resist
      SORTILEGIO TACITURNITATIS: sorcery of taciturnity
                               diabolical ability not to speak under torture

1532 Carolina: criminal code of Holy Roman Empire:
          important for limits on use of torture, but over time in
         some jurisdictions these limits are ignored

Reading: case of Johannes Junius, major of Bamberg (K&P)
                                Frederick von Spee, Jesuit confessor to witches (K&P)

2. UNDERLYING FACTORS in WITCH TRIAL OUTBREAKS       

Chronology of witch trials:
                           most occur between 1560 -1630

           First peak: 1570-1590
           Second peak:  1615-1630

Economic & social crisis of 16-17th centuries

Climactic Change: Little Ice Age
                1560 to 1700’s climactic cooling, crop failures

Epidemics 1560’s, 1590’s
              preceded by harvest failure, malnutrition
              1559-63: 5,000 people die in city of Augsburg alone

       Plague: massive outbreak in 1620’2-1630’s

Inflation   1560-1575: catastrophic inflation
                                purchasing power declines through 1650

** All these factors  cause aggravation of social & economic
         conditions in which witchcraft accusations occur at
         village & local level

Source: Wolfgang Behringer,
Withcraft Persecutions in Bavaria (English translation1997)