Seems like a good idea, I know I’ve never heard of a noose killing a real witch.
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.”
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.
The last confirmed execution for witchcraft in England was in 1682.
The United Kingdom (UK) did not come into existence until 1707 - when the Act of Union united England and Scotland.
The last execution for witchcraft in Scotland was in 1727, which was by burning. At that time Scotland was part of the United Kingdom, so witches WERE burnt in the UK, but only in Scotland, NOT in England.
Horne and her daughter were arrested in Dornoch in Sutherland and imprisoned on the accusations of her neighbours. Horne was showing signs of senility, and her daughter had a deformity of her hands and feet. The neighbours accused Horne of having used her daughter as a pony to ride to the Devil, where she had her shod by him. The trial was conducted very quickly; the sheriff, Captain David Ross, had judged both guilty and sentenced them to be burned at the stake. The daughter managed to escape, but Janet was stripped, smeared with tar, paraded through the town on a barrel and burned alive.[2] Nine years after her death the witchcraft acts were repealed in Scotland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Horne
Apart from being burned alive that’s just a blackening! A wedding tradition still done to this day.
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
Hanged. Meat is hung. People are hanged.
Some people are hung. Usually not witches, though.
There is absolutely nothing saying you must be a woman to be a Witch. Wizard being the male equivalent is a modern usage.
Hence the “usually”. The girls still outnumber us.
Warlock i think
From what I can see warlock, like wizard, came to mean male sorcerer later. Though earlier than wizard in this case.
Godammit
Interestingly when you are hanged, you get a boner. It’s a real thing.
People would be nuts about medicine from some of the corpses, as the essence of criminals can be helpful. One such thing was to rub the sweat of the condemned on their hemmaroids. I forget what they did with redheads but they were really good for stuff.
One such thing was to rub the sweat of the condemned on their hemmaroids
Alrighty then
The Angel’s Kiss I think it was known as
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.
Speak for yourself, I’m hung as a horse.
“You can lead FiskFisk33 to water but you can’t get over the size of his genitals”
- Paraphrased from some show or other I watched a long time ago
I’m hung as a hearse.
Yay.
A pedant.
Why?
Meh. Language is descriptive, not prescriptive
We actually have a memorial near me to the women who were killed in a witch Hunt in my area.
Women. They hanged and burned women.
Men were also accused of witchcraft, just not as often. By the 1600’s it’s estimated 100k people had been sacrificed to such allegations, burning being the go to method of dealing with them and heretics.
The witch hunts primarily arose due to women owning property and gaining class consciousness against the feudal system. Yes, men were killed in the witch hunts, but that doesn’t negate their primary purpose
Most victims were of lower class and didn’t own any property though. Like the wave of witch hunts in South Eastern German regions targeting the homeless: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaubererjackl_witch_trials
There wasn’t really any primary purpose. Many were done just as a reaction to economic hardship by the general population in mass hysterias without any deeper meaning.
Events like that, which spans on different continents and different centuries absolutely don’t have a common cause or purpose. It’s easy to read in them confirmations of one’s own preconceptions…
A lot of the witch trials were for the church, and the aristocracy, to prevent anyone challenging their authority. Ie, practicing herbal medicine was a big one. Any Shamans of barbarian tribes they wanted to convert, all sorts of stuff like that.
Yes, and women put to death for witchcraft had their property given to the church
John Dee wasn’t executed.
Its funny because I thought only warlocks were hung.
Every other male magic user: That is baseless slander!
I love when someone gets something that is less than obvious that I comment. made my day.
Happy to have done so!
Scotland is part of the UK. You mean they were hanged in England.
UK didn’t exist yet.
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We probably needed the heat. It can get quite chilly up here.
That and everyone loves the smell of a barbeque.
I, for one, don’t enjoy the Holocaust smell
There are ways of telling whether she is a witch. Tell me, what do you do with witches?
were hung in the U.S. and the U.K., but burned in Scotland.
I guess some wanted to see them, while others rather wanted to smell them.
Yes, those regions have some rather big levels of autonomy. Even used their own money. Scottish pound differs from British pound even today.
regions
Countries.
big levels of autonomy
We didn’t back then.
Scottish pound differs from British pound even today
No it doesn’t. Its the exact same.
