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+--- Thread: Swiss witch trials (/thread-9863.html)
Swiss witch trials - Syne - Feb 28, 2021
Many people like to tout the Salem witch trials as an ultimate example of patriarchy, scapegoating, etc..
More than two hundred people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). One other man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
But the Swiss were the worst in history:
No one tortured witches like the Swiss
The French-speaking area of Switzerland executed some 3,500 people, more than anywhere else in Europe per head of population.
...
According to Utz-Tremp, 30,000 to 60,000 people were burnt at the stake for witchcraft in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, including 6,000 in Switzerland, of whom 300 were executed in Fribourg.
...
Women made up 70 to 80 per cent of those executed. They were mainly guilty of being poor, single and female, like the Catillon, sentenced to death by a Fribourg court in 1731, and the last woman to die at the stake.
RE: Swiss witch trials - Zinjanthropos - Feb 28, 2021
Swiss witches, Swiss watches. ...sorry about that. English language seems funny at times.
What exactly are people who accuse and execute witches afraid of?
RE: Swiss witch trials - Syne - Feb 28, 2021
Mostly superstition.
From the Middle Ages, there was always a need to find someone to blame for disasters or epidemics. The scapegoat was accused of performing witchcraft or being in league with Satan.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/no-one-tortured-witches-like-the-swiss/32908
RE: Swiss witch trials - Zinjanthropos - Mar 1, 2021
(Feb 28, 2021 08:20 PM)Syne Wrote: Mostly superstition.
From the Middle Ages, there was always a need to find someone to blame for disasters or epidemics. The scapegoat was accused of performing witchcraft or being in league with Satan.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/no-one-tortured-witches-like-the-swiss/32908
Seems odd that people who think witches have supernatural power would even remotely piss one off. Sounds like premeditated murder, a hit orchestrated by someone who owed money to the witch or looking to obtain a measure of status within the community. Political gain perhaps.
RE: Swiss witch trials - Syne - Mar 1, 2021
Except women in the Middle Ages didn't have any money, political power, or status of note, aside from that of their husbands. But I suppose some of the men who were burned or hung as witches could have been lumped in for ulterior motives.
RE: Swiss witch trials - Zinjanthropos - Mar 1, 2021
(Mar 1, 2021 02:36 AM)Syne Wrote: Except women in the Middle Ages didn't have any money, political power, or status of note, aside from that of their husbands. But I suppose some of the men who were burned or hung as witches could have been lumped in for ulterior motives.
You’d think the mere fact they didn’t blurt out some sort of witch’s incantation to get out of their predicament would be proof enough that a witch is harmless. Did any of these folks who were BBQ’d become Wiccan martyrs? Are they held up to same standard as a religion’s martyr.
RE: Swiss witch trials - Syne - Mar 1, 2021
Aside from the evil eye or seducing another woman's man, I think witches back then were thought to cast spells that required rites, rituals, summoning demons, etc.. Not something that can be whipped out on the fly, like Harry Potter. And I assume many (most?) Wiccans do deem the female victims as martyrs. Everyone always seems to forget about the male victims, but from the Middle Ages to today, some things never changed.
RE: Swiss witch trials - Zinjanthropos - Mar 2, 2021
(Mar 1, 2021 05:38 PM)Syne Wrote: Aside from the evil eye or seducing another woman's man, I think witches back then were thought to cast spells that required rites, rituals, summoning demons, etc.. Not something that can be whipped out on the fly, like Harry Potter. And I assume many (most?) Wiccans do deem the female victims as martyrs. Everyone always seems to forget about the male victims, but from the Middle Ages to today, some things never changed.
Ah, I get it. Hard to find an eye of newt, bat wings and a cauldron to boil them in while being hauled off to be roasted alive.
Lived close to a woman who as an adult was known as the White Witch. She became a local celebrity, on many radio talk shows. I think she was a good witch. So she did her best to eliminate the evil witch stereotype. Can’t say the same for The Wizard of Oz since Margaret Hamilton was so convincingly evil and definitely had the face for it.
I’ve been so brainwashed to think witches are women that I can’t fathom a man doing that job. Then again I can’t picture Satan in a dress.
RE: Swiss witch trials - Syne - Mar 2, 2021
The men are typically call warlocks...unless they're sissies.