I can’t imagine standing at one of these executions and it not occurring to me that, if these women had command of magical powers… why wouldn’t they use them to escape?
Not a historian but if recall correctly the swimming test followed the logic that water is sacred (baptism) and would reject a witch
If you float your a witch, sink and you are innocent. Too bad some drowned this way.
This was not an recognised science, but common folklore, the people demanded such test after there where already rumours.
The majority of witch trials happend within a real court but they usually made sure (torture) that there was a confession.
For a commoner, who may not have experienced the means to get confession first hand they had no reason to doubt their word.
There where also some ready answers for your exact questioning, one is that witches have no power of their own but get it from Satan, who is “the father of lies” some confessions included a supposed promise by Satan to protect them, which didn’t happen and gets turned into a warning that Satan will deceive even those that are loyal.
Best not to think about such things.
Hanged. Meat is hung. People are hanged.
I hate this stupid rule. No matter what word you use, the outcome is exactly the same. Something or someone is suspended off of the ground.
I prefer my witches hung
And my pork pulled
But people are meat
In this case you are right.
Both are fine for people. Hanged is actually more outdated and is used as the past tense for hanging (as in the execution).
Pretty sure at least one is really bad for people. I’m not a doctor though.
Unless you’re well hung.
Why?
Yay.
A pedant.
Meh. Language is descriptive, not prescriptive
In a pretty famous case, Giles Corey refused to plea to the accusation of witchcraft against him. He was pressed to death. Each time he was asked to plea over the course of three days he replied, “more weight.”
Seems like a good idea, I know I’ve never heard of a noose killing a real witch.
Central Europe went nuts over witches. The general thought is that the driving force behind the witch hunts was the Reformation and Counter Reformation that drove Christians and leadership to more extreme positions to position themselves as the “defenders of the true faith” and to attract adherents. They centered around battleground states where protestant and catholic states bordered. In areas where one faith had a monopoly they were rare. The Spanish Inquisition actually suppressed witch hunts. Witch hunts peaked with the wars of religion period around 1560 to 1630.
Socio-economic turmoil and changes in the law fed the craze with groups that could not defend themselves made into convinient scapegoats.
“In the Middle Ages, if you accused a neighbor of witchcraft and could not prove it, you faced the legal penalty they would have received. This kept accusations low.”
“In the early modern era, local states took over prosecution. Authorities could arrest people based on mere rumors, try them in secret, and legally use judicial torture to extract confessions. Tortured victims routinely named friends and neighbors to make the pain stop, creating a self-perpetuating loop of mass arrests.”
“The craze finally disintegrated after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. The treaty established fixed territorial borders for religions, eliminating the open competition for souls and causing witchcraft prosecutions to plummet.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Moravia_witch_trials
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Yes, those regions have some rather big levels of autonomy. Even used their own money. Scottish pound differs from British pound even today.
Scotland is part of the UK. You mean they were hanged in England.
UK didn’t exist yet.
