Medieval Witch Hunts

you might be burnt at the stake you might be thrown in a river with you right thumb tied to your left toe and your left thumb tied to your right toe, if you floated, you were a witch, if you sunk you were innocent, but usually dead there are many punishments if you were a witch (try researching in wikipedia)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

seventeenth century, 1661. when i was a kid i used to love sitting on my bed listening to these witch story's as i live in forfar, & hear's the story. in the old,en days if you had any of these things you would be classed as a witch.: if you went by a nickname instead of the name you where baptised with; there was a mark on your body (some people call it a third nipple. or if you practiced 'malefice', which was the use of supernatural means to do evil: well if you used or done any of these things you would be classed as a witch. it was the scene of a terrible witch hunt, which resulted in the torture and execution of several local women. According to the town council's records, the witch hunt appears to have been triggered in 1661 by an argument between Isobel Shyrie, a poor woman who was unable to pay her taxes, and Baillie George Wood, a tax collector. During the quarrel, Isobel cursed Baillie Wood so, when the unfortunate man dropped dead suddenly, all fingers pointed at Isobel. In those days, there were three ways to spot a witch - she went by a nickname instead of the name she was baptised with; there was a mark on her body that was impervious to pain; or she practiced 'malefice', which was the use of supernatural means to do evil. Isobel was widely believed to be guilty of malefice which was proof enough for her to be sent to the dungeon below the Tolbooth, which was situated on the road next to the Town House in Forfar town centre. Stirred up by the burgh's new minister, James Robertsone, the hunt was soon underway for the other witches in Isobel's coven. Helen Guthrie, Isobel's best friend and well-known for her knowledge of the healing powers of herbs, was next to be taken to the Tollbooth for 'questioning', along with her 13-year-old daughter Janet Howatt, who was judged to be a witch simply because her mother was a witch. Helen knew the terrible fate that lay in wait for her now she had been named as a witch but she was determined to save her daughter. So she named names and gradually confessed to the terrible things the coven had carried out, confident the Town Council would not execute her or her daughter as long as she was providing them with information. Drinking in the graveyard at midnight, dancing on gravestones, digging up an unbaptised baby to concoct magic potions, performing rites of black magic on the beach at Barry, cavorting with the devil on the island in the centre of Forfar Loch. The witches had indeed been up to no good and Helen, Janet and Isobel were soon joined in the dark, cold dungeon by more women, who were all tortured mercilessly until they also confessed to being witches. The first witch to die was Girsel Simpsone. However, it appears that this was more a case of a mob lynching than an execution as the Town Council records include a bill for a rope for the 'down-letting' of Simpsone from the top floor window of the tollbooth. Janet Bertie and Helen Alexander were banished from the town - which was basically a sentence to a long, slow death from cold and starvation - while Christen Person had to promise to return to prison if anyone ever again accused her of witchcraft. At least six suspected witches were executed on the Playfield, which is now Victoria Street, in full view of the inhabitants of Forfar, who treated each execution as a day out. The women were strangled first and then their bodies burnt in a barrel of tar, with the heavy smoke blowing across the cheering spectators and right over the town. Helen Guthrie was one of the witches executed on the Playfield but, for some reason, her orphaned daughter, Janet, was left behind in the dungeon. In 1666, James Guthrie, a lawyer from Dundee, pleaded with the Town Council for Helen Guthrie's daughter to be set free. The council responded by setting the date for another trial and, as there is no note of a further execution, it can only be assumed that, at the age of 18 year, Janet was finally released from her dark and lonely prison. The Forfar witch hunt was finally over. And, although most of those accused of being witches met a very nasty end, a few survived and it may well be that there are descendants of the women accused of being the Forfar witches living in the town today.

Yes, due to the farmers dying because of the plague, marketers were forced to raise their prices, and the poor could not afford these high prices. Therefore, they had to steal food to survive and that's how crime rates got higher.

The last person burnt to death as a witch was in about 1783 (in Switzerland), around about the time of the French Revolution and American independance.

A person accused of witch-hunting would typically defend themselves by presenting evidence that disproves the accusations against them. They may also argue that the allegations are baseless, politically motivated, or driven by personal vendettas. They might seek witnesses, testimonials, or any other form of evidence that supports their innocence and undermines the credibility of the accusations.

The last woman believed to be executed for witchcraft in Europe was Anna Göldi in Switzerland, 1782. If you are wondering about the Salem witch-trials then that started and ended in 1692.

There are still witch-hunts that are reported to have occurred until the very recent past in some less developed areas of the world, however I am unsure of how true the accounts are. The modern witch-hunts are said to be committed by angry mobs and not in the form of any kind of trial.

to be sure there are no such thing that has been proved there are which but most people thought that if any girl was slightly different they were considered a witch and were drowned by the townsfolk.

The Harrying of the North happened around the 1066 time (but people mostly died in the winter of 1069-1070, because of what William did to their crops, i.e. burn them!), when William the Conqueror beat Harold in the battle of Hastings. This meant that William would become King of England, but no-body in England liked this, and there was alot of rebelions, which, of course, William did not like, as no King/Queen to like people to resist their orders.

So, William being the person he was, decided to burn villages up to ashes. No village was inhabited between York and Durham, that is how severe it became. William punished the innocent will the guilty, and crime that no-one can forgive him for, as this is just brutal slaughter. Someone who often thought well of William said the following:

"The King stopped at nothing to hunt his enemies. He cut down many people and destroyed homes and land. Nowhere else had he shown such cruelty. To his shame he made no effort to control his fury and punished the innocent with the guilty. He ordered that crops and herds, tools and food should be burned to ashes. More than 100,000 people perished of hunger. I have often praised William in this book, but I can nothing good about this brutal slaughter. God will punish him". This was writen by Orderic Vitalis, someone who often praised William.

The classical period of witch-hunts in Europe falls into the Early Modern period or about 1450 to 1700, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in tens of thousands of executions. But things were different in different parts of Europe, Spain ran the Inquisition primarily to convert or expel Jews but witches got their fair share of torment under the Inquisitors as well, Germany and France held public burnings, Scandinavia refused to participate for the most part.

But in England (I noticed you placed the question in English History) attitudes and accusations were very different than in Europe. You may be interested in the Related Link. On that page, the section titled Laws & Declarations, especially the Acts relating to England, may be of interest and there are also two articles further down entitled The Pope Blesses Torture and Witches: Religious Martyrs? respectively that are interesting reads regarding the accusations and feat attributed to witches.

Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. 19 people were hung, four died in jail, and one tortured to death. A very unfortunate situation. If you'd like to read the whole story, check out

"http://www.unmuseum.org/salemwitch1.htm"

Iliahna with

www.cronescabinet.com

Puritans believed in witches because witches were mentioned in the Bible. They believed these creatures were in league with the Devil, and could masquerade as normal around people. People were very superstitious and gullible. They blamed witches for all the bad things that happened in life. As a result of these beliefs, the Salem Witch Trials occurred.

Nothing related to biblical text or our Fathers prophecy is related to those dates

Historically speaking however, you will find Galileo Galilei was tried for his teaching that the Earth circled the sun, and it was not until October of 1992 that the Roman Catholic church would finally admit they were incorrect in their trial of Galileo.

Mostly it's because as we learn more about our world we learn real explanations for the events of our lives. If we don't know why something happens, it would be easy to cling to superstitions. In the case of one example of the Salem Witch trials, a particularly wet winter resulted in a fungus growing on part of the grain crop. Many people who ate the affected grain started demonstrating symptoms of what local residents thought was a spell. Since they had did not understand microbiology and had no other explanation, when one of the local residents accused some of the local girls of being witches, everyone went along because they needed to find a cause so that they would be protected from having the same thing happen again. But we haven't removed all superstitions from our lives. Many people will still not walk under a ladder. Some still need to wear their lucky shirt when they go bowling. Still others need to "touch wood" when they speak of some good fortune that has come their way, or blow on the dice when they're playing Craps in Vegas. Those are all examples of superstition and in reality statistics would be a better explanation for events.