Volume 53, Number 20 · December 21, 2006
Killed by the Panic
By John Demos
Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany
by Lyndal Roper
Yale University Press, 362 pp., $35.00; $20.00 (paper)
On a September evening in the year 1623, in the small south German village of Marchtal, a group of farmers and their families celebrated the end of the harvest by dancing and singing. Just then an elderly woman approached—one Ursula Götz, suspected locally of being a practitioner of witchcraft. A girl shouted at her, 'Be gone!' Another screamed, 'You shitty witch!' Within months Ursula Götz was accused of many acts of maleficia (harms caused by witches) including poisoning food and causing children and cattle to be ill or lame. Threatened with torture and a criminal trial, she was pressured into giving an elaborate confession. She had, she said, long consorted with a personal devil—had made a 'pact' of fealty with him, taken him as a sexual partner, and obtained from him supernatural powers. These, she said, had enabled her to attack some eighty-eight animals in the village herd, and to murder at least two of her own relatives. She also confessed to sucking out the blood of her victims for use in preparing magical potions and ointments. Because she admitted her guilt she was spared the usual execution method for convicted witches, being burned alive. Instead she was beheaded; only then was her body burned. Two other local witches were executed alongside her.
Review, 3504 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |