First published at the CO2 Coalition website.
https://co2coalition.org/2021/10/29/climate-change-fueled-witch-hunts-then-and-now/
Gregory Wrightstone
European witch hunts of the 15th to 17th centuries targeted witches that were thought to be responsible for epidemics and crop failures related to declining temperatures of the Little Ice Age. A belief that evil humans were negatively affecting the climate and weather patterns was the “consensus” opinion of that time. How eerily similar is that notion to the the current oft-repeated mantra that Man’s actions are controlling the climate and leading to catastrophic consequences?
The first extensive European witch hunts coincided with plunging temperatures as the continent transitioned away from the beneficial warmth of the Medieval Warm Period (850 to 1250 AD). Increasing cold that began in the 13th century ushered in nearly five centuries of advancing mountain glaciers and prolonged periods of rainy or cool weather. This time of naturally driven climate change was accompanied by crop failure, hunger, rising prices and epidemics.
Large systematic witch hunts began in the 1430s and were advanced later in the century by an Alsatian Dominican friar and papal Inquisitor named Heinrich Kramer. At Kramer’s urging, Pope Innocence VIII issued an encyclical enshrining the persecution and eradication of weather-changing witches through this papal edict. The worst of the Inquisition’s abuses and later systemic witch hunts were, in part, empowered by this decree.
This initial period of cooler temperatures and failing crops continued through the first couple of decades of the 16th century, when a slight warming was accompanied by improvements in harvests. Clearly, the pogrom against the weather-changing witches had been successful!
Unfortunately for the people of the Late Middle Ages, the forty years or so of slight warming gave ground to a more severe bout of cooling. The summer of 1560 brought a return of coldness and wetness that led to severe decline in harvest, crop failure and increases in infant mortality and epidemics. Bear in mind that this was an agrarian subsistence culture, nearly totally dependent on the yearly harvest to survive. One bad harvest could be tolerated, but back-to-back failures would cause horrific consequences, and indeed they did.
Of course, the people’s misfortunes were attributed to weather-changing witches who had triggered the death-dealing weather, most often in the form of cold, rain, frost and devastating hailstorms. Horrific atrocities were alleged of the witches, including Franconian witches who “confessed” to flying through the air to spread an ointment made of children’s fat in order to cause a killing frost. Across the continent of Europe, from the 15th to the 17th centuries there were likely many tens of thousands of supposed witches burnt at the stake, many of these old women living without husbands on the margins of society.
The worst of the witch hunts occurred during the bitter cold from 1560 to about 1680. The frenzy of killing culminated in the killing of 63 witches in the German territory of Wiesensteig in the year 1563 alone. Across Europe, though, the numbers of witches continued to increase and peaked at more than 500 per year in the mid-1600s. Most were burned at the stake; others were hung.
The end of the witch hunts and killings tie closely to the beginning of our current warming trend at the close of the 17th century. That warming trend started more than 300 years ago and continues in fits and starts to this day.
In the Late Middle Ages, a large segment of the population actually believed that evil people could negatively affect the climate. It appears that we haven’t learned the lessons of the 16th century and the dangers of stirring unfounded fears concerning changes to our climate. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future we will have the benefit of hindsight and realize that people like Al Gore and Dr. Michael Mann were the Heinrich Kramers of the early 21st century, trying to convince us all that we can control the uncontrollable — the natural cycles of the Sun and Earth that are operating today, just as they have for many millions of years.
Yes but the scientific consensus back then said the witches caused the extreme weather … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1-FxwVkQ60
Nice video!
To your point about data, one might draw parallels of today’s “fact checkers” to witch hunters.
“The top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne condemned the book as recommending unethical and illegal procedures, as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology.”
Fact checking ain’t always bad.
Wait a minute? There is always due process, due diligence, right?
She’s a witch (Monty Python) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g
That’s peer review!
The “consistent with” mode of scientific inquiry.
And the Narrative has it that any warming from the Little Ice Age is a bad thing.
Not that warming that burned the witches.
I might be persuaded to sacrifice a couple of virgin witches.
The parallels are indeed striking. Back then, as today, children were often used as pawns in fanning the climate/weather hysteria.
Yes, as in the Salem witch trials.
Yes, as in the Salem witch trials.
__________________________
Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” as a rebuke to McCarthyism. It very much parallels today’s witch hunt to silence opposition to the so-called “Climate Crisis” It is a very appropriate criticism of today’s “Climate Cult.
Didn’t they burn the witch’s’ parents too? Should have done!
Whenever the totalitarians fail to persuade / convince people to accept some plan or other, they resort to forcing their designs on the masses.
Look what’s happening all around the world at the moment.
Mr.,
Wait! Are you saying that witches created the Wuhan Flu?
So it wasn’t ChiCom scientists, paid by Fauxi with US tax dollars through an intermediary, working in a CPA controlled bioweapons lab?
Whew! I feel much better! Burn the witch!
The mid-16th century is not the Late Middle Ages, but the Early Modern Period. There’s no single, universally agreed upon date for the end of the Middle Ages. Many have been suggested, and can vary by country, but all are well before 1540.
One popular date is 1453, for the fall of Constantinople and after the printing press. In England, 1485 is popular, with the end of the Plantagenet dynasty and rise of the centralizing Tudors. In Spain, 1492 is a gimme, as when the last Moorish kingdom fell, and Ferdinand and Isabella dispatched Columbus.
But in Germany, if not the c. 1450 printing press, then as late as 1517, when Martin Luther posted his theses, kicking off the Reformation. For Italy, some suggest another early 16th century date, 1503, when the first battle won by gunfire was fought at Cerignola.
The transition from Middle to Modern English occurred during the Late Medieval to Early Modern periods. I can read Henry VII’s written English, but probably would have trouble understanding his speech. I could most likely understand his son Henry VIII, and almost certainly Elizabeth I. Witch-persecutor James I’s Scottish accent might present problems, however.
The Little Ice Age encompassed the Late Middle Ages, Early Modern and the first part of the Modern periods. The end of Early Modernity is also variously dated, anywhere from 1689 to 1792, with even older and younger dates suggested.
Unfortunately this period of early modernity ended around 1998 when post modern climate science became the equivalent of the un-enlightenment.
The rise of hocus pocus!
But, but, they had some “scientific” consensus methods to check if a woman was a witch: a big scale and a cucking stool.
There was male con-sensus that a woman of 49 kg or floating on water was a witch to be publicly murdered.
Henry VII spent 14 years in Brittany, so probably spoke french (Breton maybe also which is related to old Welsh from where he hailed). Anyway Henry VIII’s marriage advisor Zorzi, ¨George¨ of Venice certainly spoke Italian, spoke the expected to unleash Henry VIII’s barbarism.
Henry VII probably didn’t speak Welsh or Breton, but of course knew French and Latin. He kept his mother tongue English up through correspondence and visitors.
Not to mention living with his uncle Jasper Tudor and hundreds of other Lancastrian refugees.
Uhhh, I don’t think so. The phonetics then would be quite difficult to understand if you didn’t know what changes occurred during and after Shakespears time. You’d get lucky understanding “knife” with the k pronounced, but unless you knew “here” was pronounced “bare” you’d not stand a chance.
Scholars generally conclude that K went silent at the transition from Middle to Modern English, hence starting in the 15th century, but in a process likely extending into the 16th century and possibly even the 17th. The latter date might apply to some dialects. There’s still a vestige of it in some Scots accents.
It’s unclear as to how Shakespeare pronounced “knife” and “knight”. In both cases, “The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation” lists the slient K variant first. Its list is a mixed bag, with K in some “kn” words shown as silent and sounded in others.
I could understand “k-nife”, “k-now” or even “knicht” for “knight”. Speaking German helps.
I can understand Shakespeare in original pronunciation.
Talk like a pirate!
“The Oxford Dictionary of Shakepearean Original Pronunciation” lists the silent K variant of “knife” before the “kn” variant. Same with “knight”, but some other “kn” words do list the older form first. So it was an ongoing process in the 16th century, but began in the 15th.
The Bard might have used both versions, depending upon whether on the stage in London or at homw in Warwickshire.
A vestige of the initial K sound still lingers in some Scots accents. But I could understand “k-nife” and “k-night”, even with the “gh” sound. Speaking German helps.
This letter by a 20 year-old future Queen Elizabeth I is legible, although knowing 16th century orthography helps:
https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/large102725.html
Granted, Shakespeare was a generation younger than his queen, but she had no trouble understanding his plays and his own speeches while acting in them.
Sorry for the duplication. The first didn’t appear for a while.
Strange no mention of the 30 years war which was in fact 100 years of war all that Little Ice Age. 50% of the central European population was decimated. Some say the Swedish King marched his army over a frozen Baltic.
Imagine a farmer trying to work and in the same week platoons pass by demanding opposite religious allegiance.
Luther’s carry-on produced 2 corrupt churches in place of one.
Venice succeeded in destroying the modern nation-state until the Westphalia Treaty of 1648, whose principles are engraved in the UN.
Now Blair says we are in a post-Westphalia epoch – it is obvious what that means : endless war and mass starvation, no power. There he went calling for a return to Afghanistan…
Please tell me more about the Venice thing.
(i have an idea which FIAT families may have lived there during that period of time,yet i don’t know the historical context )
It appears from the witches killed graph that their strategy worked.
Correlation isn’t causation must have come later.
Of course it worked.
During epidemics it was not uncommon(no matter culture and locations) to blame some minorities and punish.
And it worked as the epidemics ended after the punishment.
Would work today by getting rid of the deniers and other heretics.(was practiced by Stalin,Mao etc in a very effective way).
Afterwards they can claim that they didn’t kill the peoole.
They just set up the(co2 neutral) Pyre,global warming did the rest.
You denierz are all the same. It was all the CO2 from the wood pires for burning tens of thousands of witches that triggered that initial upturn.
They burnt so much wood they did not have enough left to build ships with.
It’s more than a witch hunt, opposing views are being censored.
Follow this link to see the original comment and what it looks like
now: You Tube. Open the 9 hidden replies to the bottom post.
We’re all being herded to a safe space.
Will we travel in railroad cars?
I posted a comment on the Guardian linking to Mauna Loa CO2 and pointing out that the 2020 lockdown (flights stopped) had no impact on atmospheric CO2 so we need to lockdown harder than that – year after year – to make any meaningful mitigation.
The Guardian deleted the comment for breaking their rules. It didn’t break their rules.
I complained and got this reply:
In other words, linking to the observations of the real world is considered to be trolling by the Guardian. Reality “provokes others”.
If that’s not post-truth religious extremism I don’t know what is.
Have appealed against being called a troll as it’s offensive and the Guardian really needs to retrain “Phil”, But have had no reply so far.
Suspect they have lots of appeals to work through with that standard of moderation.
Compare that with the way that “trolls” are tolerated (trollerated?) on this site and you see the difference between open discussion and the suppression of ideas. In Australia, the periodical The Conversation simply refuses to publish anyone who disputes the global warming narrative in any way. In fact they boast about it!
This is OT to the witch autumnal activity.
I just heard an interview with A.B. saying that the probability of one to billion is for the incident that happened on his film set.
Not so, all kinds of accidents happen all the time during film and tv recordings. Even more surprising is of an American where people are very familiar with guns. I assume it could have been a colt type gun, of which I have some experience.
There are two way a person may be critically wounded at some distance with such a weapon loaded with blanks:
a) negligently accidental: The weapon was used for practice shoot by inexperienced or unauthorized person and there are always few of those hanging about the film set, apparently number left before the incident.
The last bullet fired was jammed in the barrel and user did not realize it (unlikely) or did not report it for the fear of repercussion.
Subsequently gun may be loaded with proper blank without a quick look down the barrel, an experienced handler would always do that before loading weapon with either live or blanks ammunition.
In such situation when fired the weapon would be lethal to somewhat shorter distance than normal, depending on position of a jammed projectile in the barrel.
b) criminally intentional: A live ammo cartridge is opened, about 80% of gunpowder is emptied, bullet reinstated in the cartridge and the weapon fired. Result in most of the cases is that bullet would be left jammed in the barrel. Loading and firing with a blank would be same as in the above.
I would assume that a) was the case in the A.B’s accident.
Yes, OT, but if witches had guns back in the Middle Ages, so many might not have been blamed.
Anyway, I think Baldwin said, “one in a trillion.” He might be a little prone to exaggeration.
“I think Baldwin said, “one in a trillion.” He might be a little prone to exaggeration.”
He was. In fact, The Spectator last week gave about five examples of very similar cases.
The simple rule is:- When you pick up a gun, of any type, you prove it clear by inspection. Then, if you pass it someone else, you show it to be clear. The person receiving then knows it is clear.
The actual proof depends on the type of weapon. In the case of an automatic, it involves taking the magazine out and pulling back the slide and looking to see that the chamber is empty.
In the case of a revolver, as in the recent tragic case, swing the cylinder out and look in all the chambers, then look to see that the actual barrel is clear.
This procedure will guarantee that no accidental firing can occur.
I was taught at a very early age:
Accidental discharges do happen, but not to people who follow these rules.
G’Day Vuk,
The following from “Actors’ Equity” deals with firearms on film sets.
https://www.actorsequity.org/resources/Producers/safe-and-sanitary/safety-tips-for-use-of-firearms/
(I’ve been on a couple of film sets – westerns – and the prime rule, “No live ammunition” – for anyone – at any time.)
Hi, Gabby
Likewise but on tv shoots. For rehearsals always a replica weapon is used, however if for authenticity (documentary or ‘drama’) a real weapon is required it was held locked in the metal box, taken out for the ‘take’ by the ‘security’ person, the only one with the key, inspected on the spot. then handed to the ‘actor’ who was shown how, and required to do a personal inspection him/herself. However, that is in the UK were very few people are familiar with lethal weapons.
In A.B. case it should be necessary to know what other people present have to say before blame is apportioned, but it appears that there was chain of unforgivable errors leading to the tragic outcome.
I think it is clear at this point that is was a standard live round. Police have recovered about 500 rounds, mostly live, including some in a fanny pack. NONE of this should have been anywhere near the film set.
There is lots of talk in the media about this being a “prop gun”. That means a fake gun which is not capable of firing anything. This was NOT a prop gun.
Much has been said of this being called out as “cold gun”. That means a weapon which NO explosive charge, not a gun loaded with blanks. If that is accurate, it was NOT a “misfire” as Baldwin has repeatedly claimed.
This did not happen during filming or final rehearsal of a scene. No scene involves pointing a weapon at the “cinematographer”. Clearly the weapon was been pointed directly at someone for no good reason.
This was not a modern automatic weapon. It takes quite some force to fire “western” style revolver …. unless it was also cocked, in which case this gets rapidly worse.
My impression ( and this is gut feeling , speculation at this point ) is that he was clowning around, pointing a gun at someone for a “joke”, not realising it was loaded. The kind of stupidity you’d expect from a child who has not been told NEVER to do that.
Yes this is “very,very rare”, or “one in a trillion” because you need to be extremely stupid and negligent to accumulate so many obviously negligent breaches of basic security for this kind of thing to happen.
There should be more than one charge of criminal negligence and at least one charge accidental homicide coming out of this IMO.
It was an Italian replica Colt Model 1873 single-action revolver.
The squib load mishap you describe is how Brandon Lee was killed.
In Hutchin’s death, the lethal bullet was from a live round. Cartridges with primer, propellant and real bullets should never be on a movie set, but the sheriff’s deputies found several floating around.
It’s possible that the armorer accidentally loaded a loose live round, by not checking for the tiny hole in the case od dummy cartridges. As shown by the Lee case, even those can be dangerous, as the primer alone can lodge a bullet in the barrel. Blanks are also hazardous, as in the Hexum case. They can also start fires and burn people.
The prop mistress and first assistant director also failed to check the pistol before handing it to Baldwin, declaring it “cold”. On a safety-conscious set, the actor would conduct a final check.
Clearly, safety was last on the low budget set.
It seems still many have not learned the lesson : guess who said this :
¨It is time to break with the folly of these megalomaniacs, in particular these Christians, who speak of dominating the Earth; all of that must be brought back into perspective. There is nothing particular about man. He is but a part of this world. In the face of a good storm, he can do nothing. He cannot even predict it.… Man must relearn how to see the world with worshipful respect. Only then will he be able to perceive things as they are: only then will he see to what extent we are caught up in a system [greater than ourselves].¨
Hint : 1942 – COP1 anyone?
There one sees that view of mankind popping up again today.
Notice the ¨logic¨ – since we cannot control or predict weather (yet) we should be helpless?
Meanwhile we have the industrial revolution, and stand just before fusion. This began with Kepler right in the middle of that witch-hunting dark age.
My guess would be someone who eats sour kraut.
Kepler’s mom was accused of witchcraft.
The notion that humans can affect the weather and climate has been around longer than the middle ages….Ever since humans began farming there have been cultures and societies that have practiced human sacrifice in order to appease various deities. If the crops failed due to bad weather, then whatever god(s) that supposedly controlled weather and harvests was deemed to be angry. And then attempts were made to appease these gods consisting of rituals which often included animal and human sacrifice.
But in those days people had no way of truly understanding weather and climate and cyclical changes like El Nino and La Nina. That’s what makes what is going on today especially absurd – supposedly we are in the age of enlightenment, where weather and climate are scientifically understood. Or so one would think….And yet here we are again, back to the witch hunts and the Aztecs cutting out hearts to try and assure a “perfect” climate.
IMO science is not complete without an understanding of history, which is sorely lacking these days in both climate scientists and the general population. Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it!
We still have very little understanding of the root cause of El Nina / La Nina or the short or longer term development of these “cycles”. We have very little understanding of weather beyond the immediate future of current conditions.
We pretend to have some understanding of long term “climate change” without being able to reproduce the early 20th c. warming from 1905 to 1935, which proves we have none.
This IS witchcraft.
For some of us there;s nothing ‘curious’ about it at all
During the witch historic hunts, as described, many folks were reduced/forced into eating food low in essential micronutrients – easy-to-grow grains such as barley for example.
They’d also be eating a load of fibrous rubbish, itself low in nutrition, but its high fibre content with fibre being very hydrophilic, would carry away what little water soluble nutrition there was in that food.
As Indigenous North Americans were seemingly want to say: It was “A time of full stomachs” – typically when ENSO saw the salmon disappear for a season to two
Full Stomachs not satisfyingly full of goodness, full and bloated with nutrient free mush.
Does anyone recall the Biafran Children, as seen on TV of 40 ish years ago?
As seen here standing in a cold and nutrient free place
Look around you now. What do you see if not legions of ‘full stomachs’?
And so, just as insane as:
Desert place = Cold Place
Warming atmosphere = Cooling earth
so its is that
Obesity = Starvation
We were warned…………
(…and how many times have I explained the mechanism – since I first ever wrote anything into here)
Call me a witch if you like, I’ll take it as a compliment.
OK, Peta, you’re a witch. (but I still like you!)
I’ve always believed that one of the reasons for politicians and activists desperation to get policies enacted, isn’t to stop climate change. They know that when the warming begins to slow down and reverse, they can’t take credit for saving the world. If they’re “Green New Deals” or what ever else they’ve got planned aren’t implemented.
Today’s cancel culture are the modern equivalence or witch trials.
Well the witch hunts seem to have worked a treat, they clearly reversed severe cooling of LIA into the current warming streak. Why does it get such a bad press?
The 18th century enlightenment, which put an end to such nonsense, is now officially over.
The New Age, which has given us Climate Science, Critical Race Theory, Rewriting of history, Trans activism and the end of free speech in academia, is now well under way.
Future historians will probably find a name for this new era.
The Twilight Fringe (i.e. conflation of logical domains, “penumbras and emanations”, wicked solutions).
Forward!.
Of course we,the herd,seek out a scapegoat to blame and destroy.
It is our nature.
Especially when we have no clue what is happening and want a solution that does not involve lots of hard work and self sacrifice.
So the Witches done it ..
A real easy sell to people who are natural herd beasts and rather gullible by nature..
Virgins into the volcano works as well..
And today we have this Dread Covid Theatre,where the “Unvaccinated” play the role of the witch.
The official line seems to be;”The magic vaccines would have saved us all,normality would be yours ..but for those evil witches hexing the miracle”
“Ban the unvaccinated”.
Same old play.
It is our nature. And our heritage.
We used to teach our children,cautionary tales ..
Of Gullible Fools and where following them would take you.
History is rife with examples..
Now we do not permit history to be taught in our schools and we laud the con artists and Chicken Littles.
We will revert to burning women of independent status,plus any other loners and critics..
Cause the Fools and Bandits see a path to power by doing so.
We seem unable to stop,repeating these cycles of madness.
Stampede.
Nobody expects the Mannian inquisition
His chief weapon is a lone bristlecone pine … a lone bristlecone pine and a hockey stick… a hockey stick and a lone bristlecone pine…. His two weapons are a hockey stick and a lone bristlecone pine… and ruthlessness…. His *three* weapons are a hockey stick and a lone bristlecone pine… and ruthlessness…. and a fanatical devotion to the cause….
Watch how the “climate deniers” get blamed for the terrible weather in Glasgow.
For the locals this is simply winter weather.
Who to believe, the locals or the elitist COP26 delegates arriving in private jets?
Then, and now, the witch hunts, warlock trials, and baby rites (i.e. virgin sacrifices), were held for personal and minority secular benefits.
I think you’ll find the witch hunts were all about religion, and nothing to do with secularism.
I’d rather go to a Halloween party with those two “witches” than with Gore or Mann…
In this case brooms trump over hockey sticks.
Witches today put a green spell on the planet!
Death by GREENING!
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/
I just wanta know the “numbahs”….the proper correct “numbahs” according to critical climate theory….the correct temp….and the correct CO2….apparently the current ones are incorrect. Does Greta know ?….an refuses to reveal?
CO2 is the god molecule that sits atop our atmosphere forcing the secular religions of time of old and modern, of places exotic and domestic. A social justification of redistributive change, the twilight fringe, progressive confusion and dysfunction, and all manner of modern mischief. Abort this “burden”, cannibalize her profitable parts, and sequester her pollutants. Let us bray.
n.n,
With all due respect, when are you going to write a comment that actually means anything? Every single comment I’ve read of yours makes no sense whatsoever.
“there were likely many tens of thousands of supposed witches burnt at the stake, many of these old women living without husbands on the margins of society.”
Just like in some of our wonderful Socialist countries today with assisted suicide and talk of rationing health care to the elderly. From an evolutionary point of view it does make sense to eliminate the non-productive members of a subsistence-based society when there is famine. Although, I thought that kind of practice was something that civilization was supposed to eliminate.
It is obvious if there were witches had such power the inquisitions would have attempted to buy them off and made offerings to garner their favor out of fear. The only danger was to the ones being persecuted.
The result of these crimes against the elderly was to make the faithful feel they are being protected. And to put in their minds to not step out of line or else.
These heretics of the Christian faith never burned or hanged anyone with influence. And never include themselves.
In a way we, the people, now are told we must sacrifice our way of life for good weather as stated in the article. While those telling us that, sacrifice nothing with grants and prizes.
Having an English translation of the “Malleus Mallefacarum” I find another great parrallel to today’s climate hysteria. It makes clear that in the 16th century the people were well aware of the possiblilty that claims of witchcraft could be lies, imagination, or even mental disorder.
The problem was that the Bible was the peak of authority at the time and since witches are spoken of in the Bible, it therefore would be a blasphemy to claim that witches did not exist. With no way around that argument, everything else had to conform to that view and whatever the ruling authority said in trying to reconcile real world events with a core false belief.
The contents of the bible have been responsible for a lot of death, destruction, and sorrow. So many, many wars were all about religion.
And the Koran!
Witches, bitches – there’s always a goat to turn into a scapegoat, isn’t there?
How very medieval Hoomans are becoming….
Strange that TPTB haven’t yet spotted Wee Krankie for what she is: Greta should be counted into that grouping also!
Of course, one can (with difficulty) take humans out of the medieval, but taking the medieval out of humans is an altogether much harder task.
The only parallel with Climate Change is the academic merit of this.
It was heretical to believe in witches, canon law for over 1000 years. Protestism brought back a belief in witches. It was rife in the pre-Christian Roman Empire, or Roman Warm Period. It was frowned upon before the start of the MWP. Women were harassed as heretics if they claimed to be witches. The recommended punishment was a good talking to.
“One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact” could better apply to history than science. Kramer was a kook whose book had some influence among secular leaders but was condemned by the Catholic authorities. It had influence because of drug use rather than weather, possibly related to westher according to the ergot theory of the Salem witch trials. Evidence for this? The test for someone being bewitched was mixing the victims urine with water given to a dog to drink and see if it becomes bewitched. There are other examples from the small number of documented trials and persecution that points to a problem with drugs (Kepler’s mum).
I was relief teacher in a class where a teacher taught that the Catholic Church tried to convince Columbus that was world flat. Complete fiction made up by a fairytale writer in 1828. I’ve come across twice the question in quizzes on which country’s entire population was condemned to death by the Spanish Inquisition, including The Chase UK. The answer is none. It’s a silly hoax like the flat Earth myth. The witch hunt tales are not complete fiction but exaggerations, such as finding a single book by someone who was ostracized by the Catholic Church with the book condemned and pretending that it was mainstream.
True or not? Reports are that written records were made of all German witch trials (by whatever the peoples whose decendents are today’s main Germans were called back then), those records still exist, and that those records record about 50,000 executions).
References? It’ll be a book written in 1972. Strangely, not much written about it before hand. The Salem witch trials were written about in 1692, the year of the trials.
I heard it in a video about the relationship between European witch persecutions and the climate of that period. I don’t recall whether or not a source was provided except that it was said the numbers came from an examination of city/town/village/ court records by historians.
Witches were condemned before the Reformation.
In 1441, Eleanor Cobham, second wife of Duke Humphrey (of Oxford library fame), youngest brother of King Henry V, was convicted of witchcraft against his nephew King Henry VI. She was condemned to public penance, followed by exile and life imprisonment.
It was for treason. Her accomplices got worse punishment. Her’s were “The sources give no tangible indication of the eventual decision of punishment of life in prison. However, there is a letter of warrant from the king dated January 19, 1442 and subsequent records of her imprisonment. She was remanded to the custody of Sir Thomas Stanley, who held the title of King of Mann and constable of Chester Castle. An allowance was given of one hundred marks per annum to live on and she could have a few servants. Her imprisonment began in Chester Castle where she remained for a year and a half. Orders were given for her to be taken to Kenilworth and later she was moved to the Isle of Mann. In March 1449, Eleanor was incarcerated in Beaumaris Castle, where she died on July 7, 1452. Presumably she was buried in the parish church there.”
They made a prediction “The men she consulted were Thomas Southwell, her personal physician and a canon of St. Stephen’s, Westminster and Roger Bolingbroke, principal of St. Andrew’s Hall, Oxford. Both of them had excellent reputations. These experts predicted King Henry VI would suffer a serious illness, endangering his life in the summer of 1441. Rumors of this patently unwise prediction began to spread in London, eventually reaching the court.”
You can see that it was assumed that there was an intention to poison the king.
“Witchcraft was not necessarily considered a crime under temporal law at the time. As long as no one was harmed, the courts would look the other way. However, harmful forms of witchcraft would be investigated by the Church, as it was considered heresy. “
It seems that she had procured a potion “in an effort to help her conceive and bear Gloucester an heir.” and denied that she intended to poison the king.
Do you see the parallels with climate science?
She was convicted of sorcery against the king, but got off easily. Her accomplices were convicted of treasonous necromancy. One died in the Tower, another was hanged, drawn and quartered, while the third was burned at the stake.
These were witchcraft convictions and punishment, as well as treason.
She was convicted of treason. If it wasn’t assumed that she was part of a conspiracy to kill him (or harm) him, it was not a crime.
The Late Medieval Roman Catholic Church definitely condemned witchcraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum
The author of the 1487 “Hammer of Witches” was a German Dominican Inquisitor.
The papal bull Summis desiderantes, published by Innocent VIII in 1484, acknowledges the existence of witches, and explicitly empowers the Inquisition to prosecute witches and sorcerers. The bull aimed to reaffirm the jurisdiction of Kramer, who was denied authority as an Inquisitor in Germany.
Luther, born in 1483, didn’t post his theses until 1517.
read the ‘controversies’ section.
Read the Bull. Its not persecuting someone for “Oculus reparo”. Its for what could be achieved by drugs or disease vectors. If you read about tempestarii, you might see why people would spread disease among cattle. Real issues that Kramer was forbidden to deal with because of his zealousness.
On the other hand, you have
“Pope Gregory XV (1621) declared that persons who had made a pact with the devil or practiced black magic which caused the death of another should be arrested and condemned to death by the secular court. However, one must remember that the Church also strived to prevent witch-hysteria or crazed witch-hunts, like those in colonial Salem: For example, Pope Nicholas I (866) prohibited the use of torture in obtaining confessions, although it was permitted by civil law and common judicial practice. Pope Gregory VII (1080) forbade accused witches to be put to death for supposedly causing storms or crop failures. Pope Alexander IV (1258) restricted the Inquisition to investigating only those cases of witchcraft which were clearly linked with charges of heresy. ”
You were never harassed for turning someone into a newt.
Which proves my point that witchcraft was recognized before the Reformation.
It is high time to bring in Screamin’ Jay Hawkins doing his utterly delightful song “I Put A Spell On You”.
Happy Hallowe’en and don’t eat the green goo!!!!
So how many people considered themselves to be real witches back in this time period?
Were there a lot of practicing witches during this time, or was it just convenient for those doing the k!lling to claim anyone they k!lled was a witch?
I’m not a historian but my impression for a long time has been that Wicca is a nature religion long predating Christianity. As competition to the Catholic church it was banned and persecuted. It, of course, had nothing to do with the beliefs or practices projected on it by the church, especially in relation to doing people harm or causing bad weather.
The label witch was mostly likely applied by the catholic church as a convenient way to refer to people who practiced that religion, but that is just my guess. “Witch” is in the English translation of the bible but may well not be a reasonable translation of whatever word(s) were in the original languages.
When visiting my brother who lived in Dunning, Perthshire my chilrean knew when we were almost there when passing this monument
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Wall
Which was part of this dark period of history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_early_modern_Scotland