I live about 25 minutes away from Idstein, Germany. There are three things which the town is known for. The first....I'll skip for another day. The second, the witch trials between February 1676 and March 1677 (where 43 folks were executed for demon stuff), and finally....the traffic circles (roughly 35 of them). Two of the topics...I'll blog another day.
The witch business? By the end, they had executed 35 women and 8 guys.
What triggered the witch business?
Most folks agree that religious zeal with fear of heresy started it. There were ongoing tension between the Catholics and Protestants....each needing angle to get public support, and paranoia/demonic influences help to get things going.
I should add...witchcraft was seen as as a direct threat to Christian order. Folks had started to engineer sermons and religious texts....talking up the agents of Satan (the witches).
Crop failures, famines, and the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648)? Over the years....they added up. The area? I won't say it was poverty-stricken....but poor harvests came up occasionally.
Legal and Judicial woes? The Carolina Code of 1532 (a legal code) was a instrument used by the Holy Roman Empire, an it permitted legal cases for witchcraft. You could make the case that it was 'due-process' at the time.
Mass Hysteria? Well....after you got torture to lead onto confessions...it was a self-perpetuating cycle.
Why it just stopped? Mostly judicial exhaustion, locals getting anti-demonic, and oddly enough....the local count’s satisfaction that the “demon-threat” had been eradicated.
Why a ratio of 4 women for each guy....executed? I've always speculated that the guys accused...probably had a better alibi to tell, thus lessening the potential to be found guilty. Course, it could be that more women are demonic in nature....than guys.
The odd thing that it's the only community around....that has a history like that? Yeah, it's a odd note.
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