In 'East Anglian Witches, Ghosts and Strange Tales', the first chapter opens with how one widow, Agnes Fenn, 94, was harassed and punished in attempt to get her to confess to witchery.
She was forced into a chamber with a diseased man and offered money to confess she bewitched him, to which she refused. By her own accounts she was further punished physically; pricked, pinched and prodded with daggers, stabbed in the face. She recalls how the witch hunters "cast gunpowder and flashed it in my face". She was also charged of bewitching a child to death. After a lot of time, she was cleared and allowed to go home, but she claimed people still tried to overthrow her for being a witch.
94 may seem like a silly age to try and prosecute a woman of witchcraft, but really any woman who acted oddly or had something 'wrong' with her body she could be prosecuted. Of course, whether the judge would actually accuse the 'witch' is a different story. However, as Agnes Fenn said, the community the woman in would still be weary of her and judge her, in case the judge and jury were wrong.
In 'East Anglian Witches, Ghosts and Strange Tales' it says that "once a witch was up for trial she would rarely see her home again"
It was believed that the Devil gave these witches 'imps' - cats, moles, insects and other animals that does her mischief for her, and sucks her blood to stay alive.
Because of this, a way of prosecuting and proving that these women were witches is known as 'trial by stool'
This includes women being places in the middle of a room on a stool or table and put in an uncomfortable and uneasy position, and if she didn't submit then it was thought that she was bound by cords.
She would be starved of food and sleep for 24 hours, and there would be guards to watch out for her imps coming to drink her blood, which they would allow by having a hole in the door or wall for them to go through.
Often, women would confess because they couldn't handle or deal with the amount of harassment
anymore.
Another technique to get women to confess would be to prick them with pins all over as they believed there was a spot on witches that they couldn't feel - when the woman got numb with pain that they couldn't feel a prick, the witch hunter declared he had found the spot.
When the witches were put in cells, they were often walked up and down without rest or food until her spirit was broken and she no longer wished to fight. She'd say something to satisfy the prosecutors and she'd face her death.
Perhaps the most well known method of proving witches is the 'swimming witches' method.
This is when the witches were bound together and let down into a running stream or the village pond. In 'East Anglian Witches, Ghosts and Strange Tales' it describes the trials; "If a witch swam her guilt was proved, for as she had rejected the sacramental laver of baptism so now the water refused to receive her into its bosom"
If the woman drowned she was innocent. Sometimes they were fully drowned to death, and others they were 'half drowned' where they began to die but did not, although this is more rare.
She was forced into a chamber with a diseased man and offered money to confess she bewitched him, to which she refused. By her own accounts she was further punished physically; pricked, pinched and prodded with daggers, stabbed in the face. She recalls how the witch hunters "cast gunpowder and flashed it in my face". She was also charged of bewitching a child to death. After a lot of time, she was cleared and allowed to go home, but she claimed people still tried to overthrow her for being a witch.
94 may seem like a silly age to try and prosecute a woman of witchcraft, but really any woman who acted oddly or had something 'wrong' with her body she could be prosecuted. Of course, whether the judge would actually accuse the 'witch' is a different story. However, as Agnes Fenn said, the community the woman in would still be weary of her and judge her, in case the judge and jury were wrong.
In 'East Anglian Witches, Ghosts and Strange Tales' it says that "once a witch was up for trial she would rarely see her home again"
It was believed that the Devil gave these witches 'imps' - cats, moles, insects and other animals that does her mischief for her, and sucks her blood to stay alive.
Because of this, a way of prosecuting and proving that these women were witches is known as 'trial by stool'
This includes women being places in the middle of a room on a stool or table and put in an uncomfortable and uneasy position, and if she didn't submit then it was thought that she was bound by cords.
She would be starved of food and sleep for 24 hours, and there would be guards to watch out for her imps coming to drink her blood, which they would allow by having a hole in the door or wall for them to go through.
Often, women would confess because they couldn't handle or deal with the amount of harassment
anymore.
Another technique to get women to confess would be to prick them with pins all over as they believed there was a spot on witches that they couldn't feel - when the woman got numb with pain that they couldn't feel a prick, the witch hunter declared he had found the spot.
When the witches were put in cells, they were often walked up and down without rest or food until her spirit was broken and she no longer wished to fight. She'd say something to satisfy the prosecutors and she'd face her death.
Perhaps the most well known method of proving witches is the 'swimming witches' method.
This is when the witches were bound together and let down into a running stream or the village pond. In 'East Anglian Witches, Ghosts and Strange Tales' it describes the trials; "If a witch swam her guilt was proved, for as she had rejected the sacramental laver of baptism so now the water refused to receive her into its bosom"
If the woman drowned she was innocent. Sometimes they were fully drowned to death, and others they were 'half drowned' where they began to die but did not, although this is more rare.
Comments
Post a Comment