An ancestor{s) beheaded and burned for witchcraft / sorcery/ magic

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Permalink Reply by J Orendorff on June 20, 2011 at 5:12pm

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/bamberg.html

The Witch Persecution at Bamberg

George L. Burr, ed., The Witch Persecutions

 

A look into the "trial" of one Johannes Junius, Burgomaster at Bamberg ...what a nightmare.

 

"So ended the trial of Junius, and he was accordingly burned at the stake."

 

Read his secret letter to his daughter...

 

"Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent have I come into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must become a witch or be tortured until he invents something out of his head and--God pity him--bethinks him of something....."

 

"When at last the executioner led me back into the prison, he said to me: "Sir, I beg you, for God's sake confess something, whether it be true or not. Invent something, for you cannot endure the torture which you will be put to; and, even if you bear it all, yet you will not escape, not even if you were an earl, but one torture will follow after another until you say you are a witch. Not before that," he said, "will they let you go, as you may see by all their trials, for one is just like another." . . .