Město Jeseník
Město Jeseník
Masarykovo nám. 1/167, 790 01 Jeseník
tel.: +420-584 498 111
fax: +420-584 498 156
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Úřední hodiny:
Po + St 8:00 - 12:00 13:00 - 17:00
Informační centrum Jesenicka
Palackého 2/1341
790 01 Jeseník
Tato adresa je chráněna proti spamování, pro její zobrazení potřebujete mít Java scripty povoleny
tel.: +420-584 498 155
+420-584 459 514
Witch trials
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The darkest chapter in the history of the Jeseníky region are the Jeseníky witch
trials. The trials were public murders perpetrated from people's ignorance,
hatred, sadism, superstitions and tolerated by a public whose morals
deteriorated by the horrors of the Thirty Years War. The glowing embers of the victims have long since smouldered out. Only aged papers remain giving us a view of the times. When allegedly whole groups of witches flew to their meetings on the Sabbath to meet with the Devil to learn from him how to destroy the harvest, damage cattle, send people into sickness and death. When friends would testify against friends to prevent their thumbs or shins from being smashed, or back from being broken. But the final result was the same: the accused upon a stack of dry wood, the public gathering to witness the ensuing human pyrotechnics, while profiteers sat comfortably plotting their next spectacle. Why the Nisa Principality (which included the Jeseniky region) became the scene of mass persecution is due to many influences. A main impetuous was the loss of the Czech Protestant Nobility to Catholic Hapsburg forces at the battle of Bilá Hora (White Mountain) in Prague in the year 1621. The religious tide of the country shifted from Protestant to Catholic with the Catholic Hapsburgs reigning for the next three hundred years. The Protestant estates given to friends of the Hapsburg regime for re-catholisation. That is the Catholics began a campaign to rid the population of any remnant Protestants; to make everyone a Catholic. As the Vratislav Bishops owned the Jeseniky region, religion played a much greater role in governing people's lives than in secular principalities. Finally, those in power were encouraging immigration and colonization of the area by Catholics. During the reign of prince Karl the First (d. 1624), Catholic refugees from the Thirty Years War were encouraged to colonize the wild and forested Jeseniky region. After Karl's death, his nephew Karl Ferdinand, who was only twelve years old at the time was made reigning prince as well as the Vratislav Bishop. Under his reign colonization and prosecution increased, but as a result of his policies. As the prince was but twelve years old, the infamous Bishop Baltazar Liesch from Hornava began to rule the principality assisted by two of his lords. The three of them, ardent Jesuits encouraged the German Catholic colonization. The Catholic refugees must have had some experience with the witch trials, because they capitalized upon one of its basic rules: the accuser receives the property of the accused. The trials served as a means to transfer property from the resident Protestants to the incoming Catholic refugees. Unfortunately, few verdicts have been preserved. Most likely destroyed by future generations wanting to erase the wicked past of their forebearers. Correspondences, orders, and town history books, are the historical sources left to help us compose a picture of the times. Between the years 1622 and 1651there were 59 trials in the town of Jeseník alone. The first victim was Barbora Schmiedová, wife of a local shepherd who was accused by her own husband. He testified she gave him poison cheese and made his cattle die by means of her witchcraft. Torture began on the very same day she was accused and arrested. The inquisition was led by Jan Grosser, the bishop prosecutor, town judges Melichar Wilden and Kašpar Schmitz with help from the town executioner, Jiří Hildebrandt. A confession came quickly along with the names of 5 other female conspirators in the Devil's handicraft. One was the wife of the town counselor (Uršel Hegerová), and two were the wives of local businessmen (Marta Wetzelová and Eva Bässlerová). These women were brought in for "questioning". Torture or interrogation are a better words to describe the questioning process: on the 21st of August, Mart Wetzelová's neck was broken during her "questioning". The women were forced to name other conspirators with the devil and practicers of witchcraft, most of whom were city council members from Jeseník and surrounding villages. Obviously the trials were used as a means to shift the political power governing the area. Barbora Schmiedová was burned alive on the 3rd of July in Nisa, Poland. The remaining four women were burned at the end of August in Jeseník. All burnings were for public display. A gruesome spectacle to show the citizens what happens to those dabbling in witchcraft. More specifically a display of ruthless power by the ruling class. The verdicts of those whom these women implicated have been destroyed. But there is little doubt they all ended up upon the pyre and their possessions in the hands of Catholic citizens and the Church. The earliest preserved written verdict is dated May 14, 1651and signed by the Count of Hodic. It reads as follows: "Because Uršula Schnurzelová, borne in Široký Brod, outrageously sinned against the Commandments of God, against God himself and His mother she has fallen from every Saint, against them she has trespassed with her entire body and soul. She has indulged in communication with the cursed, infernal Devil, Roland, with him, according to her own confession she had bodily intercourse many times. She desecrated the reverend sacrament, to many people she has inflicted problems with witchcraft, she cut out meat from cattle to bake, she taught others the Devil's art, committed many other dreadful deeds during her 20 years of witchcraft. Therefore for practicing witchcraft and engaging in shameful deeds, according to this sentence of beneficial justice, she will be burned alive at an opportune place for others to be warned. By the 7th of June, the remaining 5 women whom she implicated were executed, burned alive on the stake in a public display. The town executioner, Jiří Waller, had his hands full of work until the end of 1652. During these first trials appears the name of future Velké Losiny and Šumperk Inquisitor, Jindřich František Boblig, partially educated in law and philosophy. Boblig's role during these trials was only as an assistant judge, a not very important position on the Judges Tribunal. Unfortunately he gain much experience under the guidance of the acting Inquisitor Ferdinand Zacher from Nisa, Poland. Around the end of 1651 numbers begin to appear next to the names of the alleged and convicted "witches". At first scholars believed the number to be the age of the people convicted. However the numbers are small, 8 months, 1.5 years, 5 years, 7 years. Could it be they were burning children upon the pyre? Upon closer analysis, it was deducted the time did not represent the age of the prosecuted, but the amount of time they allegedly practiced witchcraft. This conclusion was reached based upon Bishop Ferdinand's public warnings against over-zealous prosecution of alleged witches. To fend off accusations of hasty prosecutions or as a requirement by the Bishop, the Inquisitors began the practice of including the amount of time the alleged practiced witchcraft. The few people with long amounts of time were alleged "witch master" who taught a larger number of "students" (those with small amounts of time) the art of witchcraft. The witch trials continued until the year 1652. From this year and for the next thirty years there is no evidence of any trials taking place. Inquisitor Boblig disappeared from the Jeseniky scene as well. Probably a result of his evil and lucrative means of income drying up. He moved to Wroclaw, Poland where he endeavoured to begin a new series of witch trials but failed. He relocated to Olomouc where as an underhanded lawyer he offered his services to the Bishops of Liechtenstein and Castelcorn. In a few cases he represented these noblemen, but his income from them was negligible. Through some strange scheming he received a roadside inn, appropriately called "At the Wild Man", in an area called "The Middle Gate" close to Olomouc. Here we passed his time until the year 1678 when he returned to his favourite profession: Inquisitor. From 1678 to 1695 he unleashed a campaign of fear, terror, and death in the Šumperk and Velké Losiny regions. It is improbable the trials fully stopped during the thirty year break. Most likely all documentation was thoroughly destroyed. There is no evidence of any extra-ordinary stir among the people when the trails resumed as one would expect if there was a pause and then a renewal. In a preserved verdict from November 14th, 1683 against Kašpar Gottwald from Domašov and signed by Max from Hodic (son of the dead count Jiří) there is nothing to suggest any public outcry or controversy. The last two preserved verdicts from the 9th and 18th of February, 1684 do not contain clues to suggest any public unrest. In these verdicts Rozine Stenzelova from Domašov was burned at the stake with her own mother. It could be that all those who might have opposed the trail had already moved or "went up in smoke". The opposition had been extinguished. Though hundreds roasted in Jeseníky, it was not the only part of the Nisa principality where pyres burned. The total documented number of people killed can hardly reflect the reality of the times. In the last century a large part of the historical records were destroyed according to "an order from above". In preserved documentation we know that in Jeseník 165 people burned, in Zlaté Hory 85, in Nisa 49 and in Glucholazy 22. Finally, there is reference to 22 people from Mikulovice having viewed their last moments through the smoke and heat waves of their own combustion. Jeseník was infamously pre-eminent in the numbers and duration of the witch trials. It is not surprising future generations of the region's inhabitants sought to destroy documentation of the inhumane, wicked and evil persecution of the accused. It is only by coincidence that some documentation is preserved from this dark time in history: a time were superstition ruled, the social atmosphere was heavy with fear, individuals and whole families underwent brutal torture to force confessions and give testimony implicating others, those surviving the torture glimpsed life from upon a pile of dry wood whose flames would consume them in a public spectacle "to warn others". Such times might be difficult for us to imagine, yet every period in history has its own "witch hunts" and "witch trials", even today, only the names and reasons for persecution change. There will always be some "social weed" growing in the community garden which the governing powers will want to eradicate. But occasionally there are exceptionally strong individuals whose pureness of soul and strength of will remain resistant to the evil lust of power and greed. One such person during the witch trials was Deacon Kryštof Alois Lautner who remains legendary for standing against the injustice of the witch trials only to be acussed as a witch and endured years of torture before dying without ever giving a confession. |
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