Valais witch trials
Encyclopedia
The Valais witch trials consisted of a witch-hunt
including a series of witch trials which took place in the Duchy of Savoy
in today's southeastern France
and Switzerland
between 1428 and 1447. It can be considered as the first series of witch trials in Europe, fifty years before the starting point of European witch trials. The victims were also accused of being werewolves
. The persecutions started in French-speaking Valais
and spread to German-speaking Valais (Wallis
) and nearby valleys in both the French and German-speaking Alps
. The number of the victims of the prosecutions is unknown; there were at least 367 people killed of both genders.
had been tormented by a civil war
from 1415–1419, between clans of the nobility, where people had been severed between the sides for and against the Raron family, which other noble clans had rebelled against, and society was in a state of great tension.
On 7 August 1428, delegates from seven districts in Valais demanded that the authorities initiate an investigation against alleged, unknown witches and sorcerers. Anyone denounced as a sorcerer by more than three people was to be arrested. If they confessed, they were to be burned at the stake as heretics, and if they did not confess, they would be tortured until they did so. Also, those pointed out by more than two of the judged sorcerers were to be arrested.
The events began in Val d'Anniviers
and Val d'Hérens
in southern French-speaking Valais
and spread north to the German-speaking Valais (Wallis
). Within one and a half years, between one and two hundred people had been burned to death. The hysteria had by then spread to the French
and Swiss Alps
, from Sankt Bernhard, Thuringia
in Savoy to Briançon
in Dauphiné
. From these territories, it then spread over the valleys in Drance, Argentière
, Freissinières
and Valpute, resulting in one hundred and ten women and fifty seven men being tortured or burned to death, until the persecutions stopped in 1447.
The witch trials of Valais are poorly documented; the best source is the contemporary chronicle made by the clerk of the court, Johannes Fründ, (1400–1469), an eyewitness to the events. His document, however, was written in the middle of the trials (circa 1430, seventeen years before their termination), and therefore lacks a complete coverage.
With the exception of the trials in Dauphiné, where most accused were female, there were about as many male as female among the accused. They are not considered to have been old, as they managed to withstand torture long before they died. People were arrested daily.
The Devil was to have come to sinners and promised to teach them magic
if they renounced Christianity and stopped going to church and confession; they paid him taxes and he did not demand any worshipping.
in their arms and a bag of gunpowder around their neck. The ladder was then tipped into the burning stake. Some were instead decapitated before being burned. Many were tortured to death but their bodies were burned at the stake nonetheless.
The property of the executed was given to their family only if they could swear to have been unaware of the sorcery; otherwise it went to the nobility, who paid for the executions of their vassal
s. When Fründ wrote his document in 1430, 100 or 200 people had been executed but the persecutions were to continue until 1447. It's hard to know the exact number of victims by that time. Unlike later trials, about as many men as women are believed to have been killed.
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
including a series of witch trials which took place in the Duchy of Savoy
Duchy of Savoy
From 1416 to 1847, the House of Savoy ruled the eponymous Duchy of Savoy . The Duchy was a state in the northern part of the Italian Peninsula, with some territories that are now in France. It was a continuation of the County of Savoy...
in today's southeastern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
between 1428 and 1447. It can be considered as the first series of witch trials in Europe, fifty years before the starting point of European witch trials. The victims were also accused of being werewolves
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
. The persecutions started in French-speaking Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
and spread to German-speaking Valais (Wallis
Wallis
- Places :* Valais, a Swiss canton with the German name "Wallis"* Walliswil bei Niederbipp* Walliswil bei Wangen* Wallis Islands- Others :* Wallis , a British clothing retailer* Wallis Theatres, an Australian cinema franchise- See also :...
) and nearby valleys in both the French and German-speaking Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
. The number of the victims of the prosecutions is unknown; there were at least 367 people killed of both genders.
Background
In 1428, the duchy of SavoyDuchy of Savoy
From 1416 to 1847, the House of Savoy ruled the eponymous Duchy of Savoy . The Duchy was a state in the northern part of the Italian Peninsula, with some territories that are now in France. It was a continuation of the County of Savoy...
had been tormented by a civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
from 1415–1419, between clans of the nobility, where people had been severed between the sides for and against the Raron family, which other noble clans had rebelled against, and society was in a state of great tension.
On 7 August 1428, delegates from seven districts in Valais demanded that the authorities initiate an investigation against alleged, unknown witches and sorcerers. Anyone denounced as a sorcerer by more than three people was to be arrested. If they confessed, they were to be burned at the stake as heretics, and if they did not confess, they would be tortured until they did so. Also, those pointed out by more than two of the judged sorcerers were to be arrested.
The events began in Val d'Anniviers
Val d'Anniviers
The val d'Anniviers is a Swiss alpine valley, situated in the district of Sierre in Valais, which extends south of the Rhône Valley. The valley was home to six municipalities: Ayer, Chandolin, Grimentz, Saint-Jean, Saint-Luc, Vissoie, Vercorin and Zinal. The citizens of those municipalities agreed...
and Val d'Hérens
Val d'Hérens
Val d'Hérens is an alpine valley in the Valais canton of Switzerland. It was formed by the Hérens glacier, which retreated at the end of the last ice age....
in southern French-speaking Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
and spread north to the German-speaking Valais (Wallis
Wallis
- Places :* Valais, a Swiss canton with the German name "Wallis"* Walliswil bei Niederbipp* Walliswil bei Wangen* Wallis Islands- Others :* Wallis , a British clothing retailer* Wallis Theatres, an Australian cinema franchise- See also :...
). Within one and a half years, between one and two hundred people had been burned to death. The hysteria had by then spread to the French
French Alps
The French Alps are those portions of the Alps mountain range which stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions....
and Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
, from Sankt Bernhard, Thuringia
Sankt Bernhard, Thuringia
Sankt Bernhard is a municipality in the district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany....
in Savoy to Briançon
Briançon
Briançon a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....
in Dauphiné
Dauphiné
The Dauphiné or Dauphiné Viennois is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of :Isère, :Drôme, and :Hautes-Alpes....
. From these territories, it then spread over the valleys in Drance, Argentière
Argentière
Argentière is a picturesque skiing, alpine walking and mountaineering village in the French Alps, part of the commune of Chamonix Mont Blanc. Altitude: 1252m .-Geography:...
, Freissinières
Freissinières
Freissinières is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France.-Geography:Freissinières lies in a valley which is the watershed of the Biaisse, which flows into the Durance between La Roche-de-Rame and Saint-Crépin....
and Valpute, resulting in one hundred and ten women and fifty seven men being tortured or burned to death, until the persecutions stopped in 1447.
The witch trials of Valais are poorly documented; the best source is the contemporary chronicle made by the clerk of the court, Johannes Fründ, (1400–1469), an eyewitness to the events. His document, however, was written in the middle of the trials (circa 1430, seventeen years before their termination), and therefore lacks a complete coverage.
Quotations from the trials
The following are citations from the chronicles of Johannes Fründ:
" In the year which was counted one thousand and four hundred and thereafter the twenty eight year after the birth of Christ, the bishopric of Wallis saw the uprising of evil, murder and heresy among witches and sorcerers, among women as well as men, known by the name sortilegi in Latin, and they were found first in two valleys in Wallis..."
" ...and an abundance of them have confessed to great evil and many murders and heretic beliefs and an abundance of evil things, which they have performed, such things which are in Latin known as sortilegia, and of which many are stated in this document; however, a lot of it is not mentioned, so that no one may be corrupted. One should consider that these people, be they male or female, which are guilty of these things and this evil which they have performed, have learned this from the evil spirit..."
"There were even those who killed their own children and fired and cooked them and took them to their company to eat them, and carried mischief and other things to church, so that everyone believed them to be children. But they had left their children at home and ate them later, when they so chose."
" There have also been many of them, guilty of such evil, so great a heresy and so many murders, that they with this evil, heresy and magic did not tell any to the priest, so that it may not be stopped. And there were many of these people, who could speak more when they had been apprehended than other uneducated people, and who called upon God and his saints more than others. This they did so that they would be considered innocent. And some of them did not confess at all; some let themselves be tormented and tortured to death, rather than confess or say anything...."
"...and still they were many testimonies against them and even more had reported them as guilty, which everyone could give proof of, and they were thought bewitched so not to be able to point out the other witches. And no matter how severely they were questioned, during more and more torture, many would no confess but let themselves be tortured. So they died from it, and were all the same judged and burned, some alive and some dead. "
" And there had been so many, that they claimed that if they had been able to rule but one year more, they could have established a court among themselves; and the evil spirit lead them to understand that they would be so strong that they need not fear no rule or court and that they would establish a court to take control over Christianity ..."
"...for they revealed they condemned over seven hundred people, of which over two hundred have been burned in one and a half years; they are still sentenced and burned every day, when you are able to arrest them."
The procedure
People with a good reputation pointed out by a condemned were not arrested directly but first investigated discreetly. However, those pointed out by several condemned were arrested immediately. Some confessed directly; others refused and were described as very verbal in their defense. Only very few of their names are known, but they were all peasants, though some of them were described as well educated and learned.With the exception of the trials in Dauphiné, where most accused were female, there were about as many male as female among the accused. They are not considered to have been old, as they managed to withstand torture long before they died. People were arrested daily.
Accusations
- Flying: to have smeared in chairs, flying through the air and plundering wine cellars.
- LycanthropyLycanthropyLycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...
: to have killed cattle in the shapes of werewolvesWerewolfA werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
. - InvisibilityInvisibilityInvisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be invisible . The term is usually used as a fantasy/science fiction term, where objects are literally made unseeable by magical or technological means; however, its effects can also be seen in the real...
: to have made themselves invisible with herbs. - To have cured sickness and paralysis caused by sorcery by giving it to someone else.
- CannibalismCannibalismCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
: to have abducted and eaten children. - CurseCurseA curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...
s. - To have met and learned magic from SatanSatanSatan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
. - Conspiracy: to have planned depriving ChristianityChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
of its power over humanity.
The Devil was to have come to sinners and promised to teach them magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
if they renounced Christianity and stopped going to church and confession; they paid him taxes and he did not demand any worshipping.
The executions
The condemned was tied upon a ladder with a wooden crucifixCrucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
in their arms and a bag of gunpowder around their neck. The ladder was then tipped into the burning stake. Some were instead decapitated before being burned. Many were tortured to death but their bodies were burned at the stake nonetheless.
The property of the executed was given to their family only if they could swear to have been unaware of the sorcery; otherwise it went to the nobility, who paid for the executions of their vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
s. When Fründ wrote his document in 1430, 100 or 200 people had been executed but the persecutions were to continue until 1447. It's hard to know the exact number of victims by that time. Unlike later trials, about as many men as women are believed to have been killed.