Ä Area: Religion ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
  Msg#: 26661                                        Date: 07-21-96  18:48
  From: Lynda Bustilloz                              Read: Yes    Replied: No 
    To: Katherine Wintersnight                       Mark:                     
  Subj: [1/2] And back again.
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
 >>> Part 1 of 2...

Al and Katherine were killing time yakking about And back again.       08/:

 KW> for a total of 236,870 (unknowns listed)


 KW> Frank Donovan says: "Several modern writers claim that 9,000,000
 KW> people met their deaths during the witchcraft persecution but offer no
 KW> valid statistical records to support this estimate. On the other end of
 KW> the scale is the 'educated guess' of R.H.Robbins and others that the
 KW> total may have been about 200,000. Contemporary records are spotty and
 KW> incomplete. Many deaths were probably never recorded and other
 KW> archives have been lost thru time." 

 KW> ------------

 KW> Sleep well, Al.  I have no doubt that you will.

And to bring one case into very poignant focus:


THE JOHANNES JUNIUS LETTER

Taken from: European Witchcraft by E. William Monter 
Department of History, Northwestern University
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
page 85.

This is in many ways an unusual trial for witchcraft.  The time
and place are typical enough- the episcopal city of Bamberg in
Franconia during the Thirty Years' War.  But the victim in this
case was an extremely prominent person, the former burgomaster of
the city.  Very seldom did a witchcraft trial reach so highly
placed a person, although perhaps a dozen cases of even more
prominent victims could be cited.  Second, what makes the trial
of burgomaster Junius Johannes truly unique in the annals of witchcraft is
his secret letter to his daughter composed during his trial, and
printed here:

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.  I will tell you how it has gone with me.  When I was
the first time put to the torture, Dr. Braun, Dr. Kotzendorffer,
and two strange doctors were there.  Then Dr. Braun, asks me,
"Kinsman, how come you here?", I answer, "Through falsehood,
through misfortune."  "Hear, you," he says, "you are a witch;
will you confess it voluntarily?  If not, we'll bring in
witnesses and the executioner for you."  I said "I am no witch, I
have a pure conscience in the matter; if there are a thousand
witnesses, I am not anxious, but I'll gladly hear the witnesses." 
Now the chancellor's son was set before me ... and afterward
Hoppfen Elss.  She had seen me dance on Haupts-moor ... I
answered: "I have never renounced God, and will never do it- God
graciously keep me from it.  I'll rather bear whatever I must." 
And then came also- God in highest Heaven have mercy- the
executioner, and put the thumb-screws on me, both hands bound
together, so that the blood ran out at the nails and everywhere,
so that for four weeks I could not use my hands, as you can see
from the writing ...  Thereafter they first stripped me, bound my
hands behind me, and drew me up in the torture.  Then I thought
heaven and earth were at an end; eight times did they draw me up
and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible agony ....

And this happened on Friday, June 30, and with God's help I had
to bear the torture.   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, 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."...
 
And so I begged, since I was in a wretched plight, to be given
one day for thought and a priest.  The priest was refused me, but
the time for thought was given.  Now, my dear child, see what
hazard I stood and still stand.  I must say that I am a witch,
though I am not, - must now renounce God, though I have never
done it before.  Day and night I was deeply troubled, but a last
there came to me a new idea.  I would not be anxious, but, since
I had been given no priest with whom I could take counsel, I
would myself think of something and say it.  It were surely
better that I just say it with mouth and words, even though I had
not really done it'; and afterwards I would confess it to the
priest, and let those answer for it who compel me to do it. ...
And so I made my confession, as follows; but it was all a lie.

Now follows, dear child, what I confessed in order to escape the
great anguish and bitter torture, which it was impossible for me

 >>> Continued to next message...

-!- IM2.29+/FE1.45a+/PB2.12+
 ! Origin: Xtians are uncomplicated beings: pure and simpleton. (1:109/601)

Ä Area: Religion ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
  Msg#: 26662                                        Date: 07-21-96  18:48
  From: Lynda Bustilloz                              Read: Yes    Replied: No 
    To: Katherine Wintersnight                       Mark:                     
  Subj: [2/2] And back again.
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
 >>> Part 2 of 2...

longer to bear.

....

Then I had to tell what people I had seen [at the witch-sabbath]. 
I said that I had not recognized them.  "You old rascal, I must
set the executioner at you.  Say- was not the Chancellor there?" 
So I said yes.  "Who besides?"  I had not recognized anybody.  So
he said:  "Take one street after another; begin at the market, go
out on one street and back on the next."  I had to name several
persons there.  Then came the long street.  I knew nobody.  Had
to name eight persons there.  Then the Zinkenwert- one person
more.  Then over the upper bridge to the Georgthor, on both
sides.  Knew nobody again.  Did I know nobody in the castle-
whoever it might be, I should speak without fear.  And thus
continuously they asked me on all the streets, though I could not
and would not say more.  So they gave me to the executioner, told
him to strip me, shave me all over, and put me to the torture. 
"The rascal knows one on the market-place, is with him daily, and
yet won't know him."  By that they meant Dietmery: so I had to
name him too.

Then I had to tell what crimes I had committed.  I said nothing. 
..."Draw the rascal up!"  So I said that I was to kill my
children, but I had killed a horse instead.  It did not help.  I
had also taken a sacred wafer, and had desecrated it.  When I had
said this, they left me in peace.

 
Now dear child, here you have all my confession, for which I must
die.  And they are sheer lies and made-up things, so help me God.
For all this I was forced to say through fear of the torture
which was threatened beyond what I had already endured.  For they
never leave off with the torture till one confesses something; be
he never so good, he must be a witch.  Nobody escapes, though he
were an earl. ...
 

Dear child, keep this letter secret so that people do not find
it, else I shall be tortured most piteously and the jailers will
be beheaded.  So strictly is it forbidden. ...Dear child, pay
this man a dollar...  I have taken several days to write this: my
hands are both lame.  I am in a sad plight....

 
Good night, for your father Johannes Junius will never see you
more.  July 24, 1628.
 

[And on the margin of the letter he added:]
 

Dear child, six have confessed against me at once:  the
Chancellor, his son, Neudecker, Zaner, Hoffmaisters Ursel, and
Hoppfen Else-  all false, through compulsion, as they have all
told me, and begged my forgiveness in God's name before they were
executed.  ... They know nothing but good of me.  They were
forced to say it, just as I myself was.
 
 



 



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 ! Origin: Xtians are uncomplicated beings: pure and simpleton. (1:109/601)