The Trier witch trials were a series of witch trials that took place in the city of Trier, in what is now Germany, between 1581 and 1593. These trials were part of the larger witch-hunting hysteria that swept across Europe during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The trials in Trier were particularly brutal and resulted in the execution of hundreds of people, mostly women, who were accused of practicing witchcraft. The trials were initiated by the Archbishop of Trier, Johann von Schönenberg, who was a devout believer in the existence of witches and their ability to cause harm. He appointed a commission to investigate and prosecute alleged witches, led by Peter Binsfeld, a prominent theologian and author of a widely read treatise on witchcraft. During the trials, suspected witches were interrogated, often under torture, and forced to confess to practicing witchcraft.

Trier witch trials

Burr's introduction:
[Page 13] It was, however, not till a century later, in the second half of the sixteenth century, that the witch-persecutions reached their height. One of the fiercest was that which raged in the dominions of the Elector-Archbishop of Trier (Treves) in western Germany. One who had been an eye-witness, the canon Linden, in later years described it thus :

Inasmuch as it was popularly believed that the continued sterility of many years was caused by witches through the malice of the Devil, the whole country rose to exterminate the witches. This movement was promoted by many in office, who hoped wealth from the persecution. And so, from court to court throughout the towns and villages of all the diocese, scurried special accusers, inquisitors, notaries, jurors,judges, constables, dragging to trial and torture human beings of both sexes and burning them in great numbers. Scarcely any of those who were accused escaped punishment. Nor were there spared even the leading men in the city of Trier. For the Judge,[1] with two Burgomasters, several Councilors and Associate Judges, canons of sundry collegiate churches, parish priests, rural deans, were swept away in this ruin. So far, at length, did the madness of the furious populace and of the courts go in this thirst for blood and booty that there was scarcely anybody who was not smirched by some suspicion of this crime.

Meanwhile notaries, copyists, and innkeepers grew rich. The executioner rode a blooded horse, like a noble of the court, and went clad in gold and silver; his wife vied with noble dames in the richness of her array. The children of those convicted and punished were sent into exile; their goods were confiscated; plowman and vintner failed [Page 14] hence came sterility. A direr pestilence or a more ruthless invader could hardly have ravaged the territory of Trier than this inquisition and persecution without bounds: many were the reasons for doubting that all were really guilty. This persecution lasted for several years; and some of those who presided over the administration of justice gloried in the multitude of the stakes, at each of which a human being had been given to the flames. At last, though the flames were still unsated, the people grew impoverished, rules were made and enforced restricting the fees and costs of examinations and examiners, and suddenly, as when in war funds fail, the zeal of the persecutors died out.

Burr:
Linden, Gesta Trevirorum (from his manuscript in the City Library of Trier.) Latin. Printed in Hontheim's Historia Trevirensis diplomatica (iii, p. 170, note) and in Wyttenbach and Muller's ed. of the Gesta Trevirorum ; but with more care in Burr, The Fate of Dietrich Flade .

2. THE RECANTATION OF LOOS.

Burr's introduction:
It was during this persecution at Trier that Coinelius Loos, a scholar of Dutch birth who held a professorship in the university of that city, dared to protest against both the persecution itself and the superstitions out of which it grew. Failing in his appeals to the authorities, he wrote a book to set forth his views; but the manuscript was seized in the hands of the printer, and Loos himself thrown into prison. Thence he was brought out, in the spring of 1593, and, before the assembled church dignitaries of the place, pronounced a solemn recantation. This recantation has been preserved by the Jesuit Delrio in the great work which in 1599-1600 he published in support of the persecution. Thus Delrio tells the story:

And, finally, as I have made mention of Losaeus Callidius, who tried by a thousand arts to make public the book which he had written in defence of the witches (and some fear that even yet some evil demon may bring this about), I have brought for an antidote the Recantation signed by him. Its authentic and so-called original copy is in the possession of a devout and most honorable man, Joannes Baxius, J. U. Lic. (whose energy and zeal against this nefarious heresy God will some day reward), from whom I have received the following transcript, certified by a notary:

I, Cornelius Losaeus Callidius, born at the town of Gouda in Holland. but now (on account of a certain treatise On True and False Witchcraft ,[2] rashly and presumptously written without the knowledge and permission of the superiors of this place, shown by me to others, and then sent to be printed at Cologne) arrested and imprisoned in the Imperial [Page 15] Monastery of St. Maximin, near Trier, by order of the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Lord, the Papal Nuncio, Octavius, Bishop of Tricarico: whereas I am informed of a surety that in the aforesaid book and also in certain letters of mine on the same subject sent clandestinely to the clergy and town council of Trier, and to others (for the purpose of hindering the execution of justice against the witches, male and female), are contained many articles which are not only erroneous and scandalous, but also suspected of heresy and smacking of the crime of treason, as being seditious and foolhardy, against the common opinion of theological teachers and the decisions and bulls of the Supreme Pontiffs, and contrary to the practice and to the statutes and laws of the magistrates and judges, not only of this Archdiocese of Trier, but of other provinces and principalities, I do therefore revoke, condemn, reject, and repudiate the said articles, in the order in which they are here subjoined.

1. In the first place, I revoke, condemn, reject, and censure the idea (which hoth in words and writing I have often and before many persons pertinaciously asserted, and which I wished to be the head and front of this my disputation) that the things which are written about the bodily transportation or translation of witches, male and female, are altogether fanciful and must be reckoned the figments of an empty superstition; [and this I recant] both because it smacks of rank heresy and because this opinion partakes of sedition and hence savors of the crime of treason.

2. For (and this in the second place I recant), in the letters which I have clandestinely sent to sundry persons, I have pertinaciously, without solid reasons, alleged against the magistracy that the [aerial] flight of witches is false and imaginary; asserting, moreover, that the wretched creatures are compelled by the severity of the torture to confess things which they have never done, and that by cruel butchery innocent blood is shed and by a new alchemy gold and silver coined from human blood.

3. By these and by other things of the same sort, partly in private conversations among the people, partly in sundry letters addressed to both the magistracies,[3] I have accused of tyranny to their subjects the superiors and the judges.

[Page 16] 4. And consequently, inasmuch as the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Trier not only permits witches, male and female, to be subjected in his diocese to deserved punishinent, but has also ordained laws regulating the method and costs of judicial procedure against witches, I have with heedless temerity tacitly insinuated the charge of tyranny against the aforesaid Elector of Trier.

5. I revoke and condemn, moreover, the following conclusions of mine, to wit: that there are no witches who renounce God, pay worship to the Devil, bring storms by the Devil's aid, and do other like things, but that all these things are dreams.

6. Also, that magic ( magia ) ought not to be called witchcraft ( maleficium ), nor magicians ( magi ) witches ( malefici ), and that the passage of Holy Scripture, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" ( Maleficos non patieris vivere ), [4] is to be understood of those who by a natural use of natural poisons inflict death.

7. That no compact does or can exist between the Devil and a human being.

8. That devils do not assume bodies.

9. That the life of Hilarion written by St. Jerome is not authentic.

10. That there is no sexual intercourse between the Devil and human beings.

11. That neither devils nor witches can raise tempests, rain, storms, hailstorms, and the like, and that the things said about these are mere dreams.

12. That spirit and form apart from matter cannot be seen by man.

13. That it is rash to assert that whatever devils can do, witches also can do through their aid.

14. That the opinion that a superior demon can cast out an inferior is erroneous and derogatory to Christ. [5]

15. That the Popes in their bulls do not say that magicians and witches perpetrate such things (as are mentioned above).

16. That the Roman Pontiffs granted the power to proceed against witches, lest if they should refuse they might be unjustly accused of magic, just as some of their predecessors had been justly accused of it.

These assertions, all and singular, with many calumnies, false- [Page 17] hoods, and sycophancies, toward the magistracy, both secular and ecclesiastical, spitefully, immodestly, aud falsely poured forth, without cause, with which my writings on magic teem, I hereby expressly and deliberately condemn, revoke, and reject, earnestly beseeching the pardon of God and of my superiors for what I have done, and solemnly promising that in future I will neither in word nor in writing, by myself or through others, in whatsoever place it may befall me to be, teach, promulgate, defend, or assert any of these things. If I shall do to the contrary, I subject myself thenceforward, as if it were now, to all the penalties of the law against relapsed heretics, recusants, seditious offenders, traitors, backbiters, sycophants, who have been openly convicted, and also to those ordained against perjurers. I submit myself also to arbitrary correction, whether by the Archbishop of Trier or by any other magistrates under whom it may befall me to dwell, and who may be certified of my relapse and of my broken faith, that they may punish me according to my deserts, in honor and reputation, property and person.

In testimony of all which I have, with my own hand, signed this my recantation of the aforesaid articles, in presence of notary and witnesses.

CORNELIUS LOOSAEUS CALLIDIUS.

Done in the Imperial Monastery of St. Maximin, outside the walls of Trier, in the abbot's chamber, in presence of the Reverend, Venerable, and Eminent Sirs, Peter Binsfeld, [6] Bishop of Azotus, vicar-general in matters Spiritual of the Most Reverend Archbishop of Trier, our most clement lord, and Reinerus, abbot of the said monastery, Bartholomaeus van Bodeghem, of Delft, J.U.L., Official of the Ecclesiastical Court of Trier, Georgius von Helffenstein, Doctor of Theology, Dean of the Collegiate Church of St. Simeon in the city of Trier, and Joannes Colmann, J.U.D., Canon of the said church and Seal-Bearer of the Court of Trier, [7] etc., in the year of Our Lord 1592 more Trev. ,[8] on Mon- [Page 18] day, March 15th, in the presence of me the notary undersigned and of the worthy Nicolaus Dolent and Daniel Maier, secretary and copyist respectively of the Reverend Lord Abbot, as witnesses specially called and summoned to this end.

(Signed) ADAMUS HEC Tectonius, Notary.

Compared with its original and found to agree, by me the undersigned Secretary of the town of Antwerp,

Here you have the Recantation in full. And yet afterwards again at Brussels, while serving as curate in the church of Notre Dame de la Chapelle, he was accused of relapse, and was released only after a long imprisonment, and being again brought into suspicion (whence you may understand the pertinacity of his madness) escaped a third indictment through a premature death; but (much the pity !) left behind not a few partisans, men so imperfectly versed in medicine and sound theology as to share this stupid error. Would that they might he wise, and seriously realize at last how rash and noxious it is to prefer the ravings of a single heretic, Weyer,[9] to the judgment of the Church!

Burr:
Delrio, Disquisitiones Magicae , lib. v, appendix 1. Latin.

[1] Dr. Dietrich Flade, judge of the secular court at Trier and deputy governor of the city, was perhaps the most eminent victim of the witch-persecution in Germany. It is probable that he owed his fate in part or wholly to his attempt to check the persecution. Tortured into confession, he was burned in 1589.

[2] This book, confiscated by the ecclesiastical authorities, has been partly recovered in our own day.

[3] i.e. both lay and spiritual.

[5] A marginal note here cites Luke, xi.

[6] Binsfeld, suffragan bishop and real head of ecclesiastical affairs in the diocese, was doubtless the prime mover in the punishment of Loos. He had himself written a book, De confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum (Trier, 1589), to prove that the confessions of witches were worthy of all faith.

[7] i.e., the ecclesiastical court, of which Bodeghem was the head (the Official).

[8] 1593, according to our calendar; according to the mos Trevirense the year began on March 25th.

[9] Johann Weyer was a German physician [Burr is mistaken here. Weyer was Dutch; his original surname was Wier. --FL], who in 1563 put forth a book attacking the witch-persecution. Loos had been influenced by this and was looked on as Weyer's disciple.

Trier: The World’s Worst Witch Hunts?

One of the most characterising events of the Early Modern period in Europe were the hunts against people perceived to be witches. It is estimated that anywhere up to 100,000 witch trials may have taken place during this time, with further estimates that between half and two-thirds of these people were executed for their supposed crimes. The nature of these trials and hunts varied from country to country and century to century, but those that occurred in Trier, Germany, during the 1580s and 1590s are usually considered to be the largest of all.

Belief in magic and witchcraft occurs in many world cultures at many different periods of time, but in Europe this belief was low during the earlier medieval period. It was only towards the end of this time – around the 14th century onwards – that belief in people capable of wielding evil magic started to rise. There were various high-profile cases of suspected witches across European courts which caused this growing belief in these evil people. In a world where Christianity and the Church held such sway, those who partook in witchcraft were seen to be heretics acting against God and in league with the devil. As the Early Modern period arrived, this belief really took a hold on the general population. Witch-hunting manuals such as the Malleus Maleficarum began to be published which narrowed down for the first time the exact characteristics of a witch, which made it easier to find these witches now that people knew what they were looking for.

Trier in modern-day Germany is a city near the country’s border with Luxembourg with a long history. Founded in the late 4 th century BC, it became an important Roman settlement, eventually becoming one of the Roman Empire’s four capitals. During the medieval period, Trier was considered not just a city but a wider region controlled by an archbishop-elector under the Holy Roman Empire. This made it a particularly important region. As with many other European territories, interest in witchcraft in Germany spread towards the late medieval period. It is thought that at least 1/3 rd of all those prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe came from the Holy Roman Empire, and Trier was to become one of these heartlands.

Trier was known for its association with witchcraft as early as 1484, when Pope Innocent VIII published his Bull “Summis desiderantes” which listed territories particularly troubled by witches. This was picked up by the German author of the Malleus Maleficarum, who reprinted this list alongside his editions. Throughout the sixteenth century, then, Germanic lands had plenty of time to read and hear about witches, and by the late 1500s this belief had taken a deep hold on society. Accusations of witchcraft in the Early Modern period always held greatest currency during difficult times, and it became an easy explanation for the hardships experienced by those living at that time who did not wish to blame God, nature, or themselves for these struggles. This was the situation Trier found itself at the start of the 1580s.

In 1581, a man named Johann von Schönenberg was appointed archbishop of the diocese of Trier. As a powerful Catholic ruler in charge of an important region in the Holy Roman Empire, Schönenberg decided he needed to improve the morals and calibre of his people. There had been religious wars across Europe for much of the century after the creation of dissenting Christian groups – namely Protestants – and as a man in charge of the souls of his people, Schönenberg wanted to make sure his territory was filled with good Catholics. This meant removing the three biggest groups of dissenters in society at the time: Protestants, Jews, and witches.

Schönenberg’s work was greatly helped by the timing of a series of terrible harvests in the region. Across the 18 years that he was Archbishop-Elector, a local chronicler noted that only two years had good harvests. Inexplicable crop failures and the resulting starvation, poverty and social unrest that goes alongside it was always a ripe field for doubts of witchcraft to be sown, and Schönenberg’s desire to purge unwanted people in society easily took a hold. And so he appointed one of his Auxiliary bishops, a man called Peter Binsfeld, to lead the charge.

Binsfeld was a strong proponent of witchcraft. Though many in Europe at this time believed fully in the power of witches and the evil demons they collaborated with, there were others in learned circles who questioned what was becoming mainstream thought. Many had objections based on the Bible or the accepted powers of God that meant witches could not be capable of what many were claiming them to be. Binsfeld, however, accepted most aspects of witchcraft as was prevalent at that time, including the idea that witches could fly, had sex with demons, and had made pacts with the devil. Binsfeld also strongly believed that torture was necessary to extract confessions from witches because of how heinous the crime was. This belief likely contributed greatly to the numbers of persecutions which he would oversee.

Witches and a demon on broomsticks, from “The history of witches and wizards” published in 1720. Wellcome Collection.

Within a few years of Schönenberg becoming Archbishop-Elect, the diocese of Trier was deep in witchcraft hunting fever. Parents and children were encouraged to testify against each other, and torture was used relentlessly and mercilessly. In many areas, discontent peasants dealing with the worst of the crop failure took matters into their own hands against local officials and nobles, and a high status was not enough to protect oneself against accusations. Six years in particular, those between 1587 and 1593, were the harshest in the hunt for witches, and at least 360 people were burned alive for the crime of witchcraft. A third of these were members of the nobility and people in local government. The horror of the extent of the persecution was recorded by the tutor of the sons of the Duke of Bavaria after a visit to the region, who wrote that “everywhere around here we see almost more stakes from burned witches than green trees”.

The zealousness of Trier’s witch hunters spilled into neighbouring regions. Parts of Luxembourg that came under the diocese of Trier found far higher rates of execution of witches than their Francophone counterparts at this same time. Neighbouring territories who wanted to start trials of their own often cited the prevalence of witches in Trier as a reason to begin their own hunts.

A pamphlet showing the ‘Hexentanzplatz’ or witch’s dance place in Trier, published in 1594. WikiCommons.

Despite all this, there was some resistance to the hunts spearheaded by Binsfeld. The chief judge of the electoral court, and the rector of Trier University, was a man named Dietrich Flade. Due to his position, Flade had been called upon to preside over some of the witch trials for the region. Flade was not as vehement in his belief of witchcraft as some of his colleagues, and he did not approve of the use of torture against the alleged witches. The cases he was involved in were noted for his more lenient treatment of the accused, and this brought suspicion upon him by the witch hunters. In 1587, several accused witches began to implicate Flade in their confessions, alleging that they had seen him attend sabbats (gatherings of witches often with demons or the devil). These confessions may well have been encouraged by their torturers, keen to gain any ammunition against him. Whilst Flade petitioned to clear his name, more and more accusations came in, including ones accusing him of destroying local crops and engaging in cannibalism. Flade was finally arrested in 1589, his trial taking place a few months later. He attempted to defend himself, but succumbed to torture and confessed to his supposed crimes. He suffered the same fate as so many in the region, and was executed for his witchcraft, one of the most prominent executions of the trials.

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Trier witch trials

The witch trials that took place at Trier in western Germany in the years from 1581 to 1593 was one of the largest in Europe. The persecutions started in the rural diocese of Trier in 1581 and reached the city itself in 1587, where it was to lead to the death of about 368 people. The number of deaths in the diocese as a whole is unknown.

In 1581, Johann von Sch�neburg, a great admirer of the Jesuits, was appointed Archbishop of the independent diocese of Trier. To demonstrate his convictions, he ordered the purging of three groups of nonconformists in his diocese: the Protestants, the Jews and then the witches. Special accusers, inquisitors, notaries, jurors, judges and constables dragged to trial and torture great numbers of both sexes, all ages and all classes. Few of the accused escaped punishment by burning, and the victims included some of the leading men of the city of Trier (judges, burgermeisters, councillors, canons, parish-priests and rural deans of various collegiate churches, etc).

Between 1587 and 1593, 368 people were burned alive for sorcery in twenty-two villages (two villages were left with only one female inhabitant in each), of which almost a third were from the nobility, or holding positions in the government and administration. Dietrich Flade, the rector of the University and chief judge of the electoral court, expressed opposition to the persecutions and particularly to the use of torture, and consequently he himself was arrested, tortured, strangled and then burned.

Another eminent scholar and professor at the University, Cornelius Loos, was imprisoned and forced under torture to publicly recant the views he had expressed in a book criticizing the persecution. His work, one of the first by a Catholic official to publicly oppose the witch trials then raging throughout Europe, was confiscated and suppressed by Church officials, and the manuscript was lost for almost 300 years.

Two Sensational Trials

Two high profile witchcraft trials involved influential men and their powerful adversaries. The first involved Dietrich Flade, perhaps the highest-ranking victim of any witch hunt in European history. A prominent and wealthy citizen of Trier, Flade headed the secular courts in the 1580s when the number of witchcraft trials escalated, stimulated by failed harvests and economic difficulties. His restraining influence over these trials angered anti-witch zealots, including the Suffragan Bishop Peter Binsfeld, who joined with the Governor in accusing Flade of witchcraft. Under torture, Flade confessed to his presence at sabbats, sex with the devil, and acts of maleficia, including the destruction of crops, and finally he named his accomplices. On September 18, 1589, Flade was burned at the stake after being “mercifully and Christianly strangled.”

The most famous witchcraft trial in Europe involved Father Urbain Grandier, an opponent of clerical celibacy, a known philanderer, and most important, a critic of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, the Chief Minister of France. Grandier gained the enmity of the Mother Superior at a local convent in Loudun. She and a group of nuns claimed to be under demonic possession and accused Grandier of bewitching them. Although he was acquitted in the first trial, Richelieu ordered a new one, conducted by his special envoy Jean de Laubardemont, a relative of the Mother Superior. Even under extreme torture, Grandier refused to confess to any charges of witchcraft, although he did repent for abusing women and girls. Nonetheless, he was found guilty and burned alive at the stake in 1634.

During the trials, suspected witches were interrogated, often under torture, and forced to confess to practicing witchcraft. The accused were accused of various crimes, including causing illness and death, inflicting harm on livestock, and making pacts with the devil. Many of the accusations were based on rumors and hearsay, and the evidence presented was often flimsy at best.

The trials in Trier were characterized by a high conviction rate and a willingness to use extreme measures to extract confessions. The accused were subjected to various forms of torture, including the strappado, where the victim's hands were tied behind their back and they were hoisted in the air, causing excruciating pain. The accused were also subjected to sleep deprivation, water torture, and other forms of physical and psychological abuse. The trials finally came to an end in 1593, when the Bishop of Trier, Johann von der Leyen, intervened and put an end to the persecutions. He recognized that the trials were based on superstition and hysteria and had caused immense suffering and loss of life. The Trier witch trials were among the most devastating and prolonged witch-hunting episodes in history, resulting in the deaths of over 368 people. Today, the Trier witch trials serve as a grim reminder of the dangers of mass hysteria and the consequences of unchecked belief in the supernatural. The trials also highlight the vulnerability of marginalized groups, particularly women, during times of social and political turmoil. The Trier witch trials remain a haunting reminder of the dark and often brutal aspects of human history..

Reviews for "Did Witch Trials in Trier Result in Innocent Women's Deaths?"

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Witchcraft Beliefs and Superstition in 16th Century Trier