This wave of witch persecution, which lasted from 1480 to 1780, swept Europe for 300 years. Once a woman from a good family is falsely accused of being a "witch", she is immediately beheaded for public display, and then her body is burned. This is a dark chapter in the history of the European Middle Ages and in the history of human civilization.

The annual carnival is behind again. Every year in late winter, early spring, and the climax of the carnival, Rose Monday is a day when "idiots and witches" swagger through the market and groups of "demons" dance wildly. And when people are shouting, dancing and having fun, who would think of the tragic story of the "witches" hundreds of years ago?

Looking south from the crossroads in the center of Freiburg, the quaint Martin Gate stands 100 meters away. On the solid stone wall is a striking metal plaque with a description in German, which reads: "On March 24, 1599, Margareta M., Catarina S., and Anna. were beheaded, burned, and sacrificed in the witch persecution." They are just representatives of the many innocent people in Freiburg, and I would like to use this card to remember the souls of the wrongdoers. "A few words, but they make people think so much that they arouse a desire in my heart to uncover the long, dark and terrifying history that lies behind it, which is a bloodstained chapter in the history of the European Middle Ages and the history of human civilization.

The ghost of the castle

The story takes place more than 400 years ago.

At that time, there was a tailor named Jacques in Freiburg, who was ingenious, loyal and industrious, and was known as the president of the tailors' guild. From 1562 onwards, he also became one of the 30 members of the municipal government. Jacques had a pair of daughters under his knees, and after his wife died, Jacques soon remarried. His second wife, Margareta, bore him a son and a daughter, a boy named Philip and a girl named Susanna.

Eighteen years have passed in a flash, and the children have grown up. Her daughter, Susanna, continued to associate with other men after marriage, and such "misconduct" was contrary to the relevant laws and regulations of the time. However, as long as Jacques remained in the government, the family's reputation could be maintained to some extent. Just when he

In 1583, after feeling old and infirm, he asked to retire, and rumors about his wife Margareta and daughter Suzanne became the talk of the town again.

One day in 1587, Susanna's husband was imprisoned for several days because of his debts. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Suzanne and her lover, college student Marcus, frequently corresponded with each other, and the two behaved immorally in broad daylight, which led to Marcus being detained several times. But once he was released, the old trick was repeated, and the police had to put the two in prison together. However, Marcus was still restless in prison, and he was noisy every day. In the end, the city government had to order that Marcus be expelled from the Freiburg district and that he would not be allowed to enter the city gates.

Poor Jacques was seriously ill and could no longer intercede with his old colleagues and friends for his daughter in prison. Margareta had no choice but to go out and spend money to ransom her daughter. But the story doesn't end there, for one day, an idle butcher makes small talk about Margareta as a "witch", and although he immediately retracts it, admitting that it is nothing more than "sloppy, irresponsible, and revealing nonsense," the phrase spreads like wings through the streets of the city. You know, at that time, witches had the same name as "infidels", and those who were condemned as witches were tantamount to getting a death verdict.

Jacques tried to defend his wife at first, but he had no way to return and soon left the world. Jacques's ex-wife's two sons-in-law then fight Margareta over the inheritance, but Suzanne's husband, who she never loved, took the opportunity to grab most of the money and slip away. From then on, poor Margareta began her long and difficult days: constant infighting in the family, the situation of being a widow and being accused of being a widow, coupled with the jealousy of her family property, she was finally denounced as a "witch" by four Freiburg citizens on February 19, 1599, and was arrested and imprisoned on the same day. Also in prison are Katarina and Anna. Before them, there were six other women in detention as "witch suspects".

At first, Margareta does not admit that she is a "witch" and is guilty of rebellion against God. But under the escalating torture, Margareta was forced to confess to all the charges imposed on her. Her confession was as follows:

1. One night ten years ago, a black-faced man appeared in her garden, this man flirted with her, she fulfilled his wishes, he was a man with a cold temperament.

2. He convinces her not to trust God, and she does, but she immediately feels guilty.

3. The man said that his name was Black Eyebrow Grove and gave her a witchcraft broom, as well as some witch ointment (for witchcraft – author's note).

4. She used to fly in her garden at night for a while.

5. She used this broom to fly to Georg's house, and she also went to Katarina's house and Anna's house.

6. There were also many women whom she did not know, who had come to her house, and they ate and drank together. The court quickly handed down a verdict on this confession, which today seems absurd, and sentenced Margareta M. to death, March 1599

On the 24th, he was beheaded by a sword, and the body was burned on a pile of wood, and the judgment ended: "God forgive this poor soul." ”

Originally, according to the convention, witches were also to be burned alive like infidels. However, on February 13, when the city council voted on the execution of three other "witches", the decision to "behead first, burn later" was passed by an overwhelming majority. Therefore, she and the other two "witches" will no longer be burned alive, but after being beheaded, the corpses will still be thrown into the woodyard and burned to ensure the complete destruction of the "witch body".

Freiburg March 1599

On the 24th, on that cold early spring day, on the embankment not far from Martin's Gate, Margareta and three other accused witches were to be beheaded here. Under the embankment and across the river, there were citizens who came to watch. Seeing blood splattering from the light of the knife, they followed the cart loaded with the corpses to the crematorium located 2 kilometers south of the city. It is an important trade and transportation route, and there are already more people gathered around the pre-prepared firewood stacks to watch, and burning corpses there is the best place to make an example of a hundred people.

Margareta, Catarina and Anna were martyred by the evil forces of religion during the frenzied period of the "witch persecution" in the late Middle Ages in Europe (1590~1630). This wave of persecution, which lasted from around 1480 to 1780, swept Europe for almost 300 years, and it is difficult to count the number of innocent women like Margareta who died in the flames. Expert estimates of the number of victims vary widely, ranging from 100,000 to several million. The reason for the lack of data is partly due to the age of the court records and, in many cases, it is difficult to determine whether the victims were convicted on the basis of witchcraft or heretical beliefs. However, in Germany, there are two more credible figures that show the rampant persecution at that time. One is in the small Bavarian city of Bamberg, when 6,000 people were convicted of witches and burned in five years: in Würzburg (population of about 6,000) at the same time, nearly 900 people were unjustly killed, which is equivalent to a "witch" being executed every two days.

The source of evil

To clarify the origin of the word "witch", it is impossible not to trace it back to the early history of human civilization. In fact, there has been a long history of imagination in human society about the existence of supernatural powers, witchcraft, and demons. In ancient times, when the productive forces were very low and life was mostly determined by natural factors, when the existential dilemmas such as famine, poverty, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters appeared, and people needed to explain them, it was easy to blame everything on the action of an unnatural or supernatural force—demons, wizards, and gods. Even in today's highly advanced technology, there are still remnants of belief in witchcraft and magic in less civilized societies.

In the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, which had a great influence on early European culture, one can find many descriptions of witchcraft and demons. The ancient Greek Hekate (Hekate) was a powerful woman who wanted people to sacrifice her with dogs. When night falls, she will come to earth accompanied by the dogs of hell to ward off witches such as Medea. They should be counted among the oldest witches.

In ancient Rome in 450 B.C., there was also a legend that witches could destroy the harvest. In the Latin text of the time, the image of a witch could be described as strange. Some of them can turn into owls at night, some can suck human blood, some can abduct children, some can make poisons, and some can call the wind and rain and stir up waves.

The rudiments of witches written by ancient Roman writers around 100 A.D. are women abandoned by the gods and goddesses, who bow down to the gods and whisper to them, and whose tombs are their dwellings, who know all the secrets of hell and make witch ointment from dead bodies and dung. They are all human-turned-demons, they are cruel and fierce, they are ruthless and crazy, and they can also divinate the future.

In ancient Europe, where constant wars, plagues, and famines often caused population declines, the precariousness of life exacerbated the uneasy fear that people had to find some scapegoat to vent their anger and hatred. Jews, for example, bore the brunt of the disease, accused of poisoning wells and anointing doorknobs and walls.

In addition, the Bible's description of Satan's demonic kingdom is also the source of people's "concoction" of the lich. Satan, the enemy of God, is the devil and the king of hell, God's chief competitor and slanderer. Satan is also said to be a brutal fighter who was relegated to earth by God because of his vile character of jealousy and arrogance.

Still, until the mid-Middle Ages, although there were claims that wizards should be put to death, the idea of the existence of witchcraft was not in the mood. During the Carolingian dynasty in Germany (751~987), those who believed in ghost witchcraft were instead charged. A bishopric textbook published at the time (900 A.D.) described many imaginaries of wizards and demons, but they were all classified as superstitious doctrines, and the propagators were punished.

However, at the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century, the Catholic Church in Western Europe underwent a major turning point, and during the reign of Pope Innocent III (1198~1216), the power of the pope reached its peak. Innocent established a strict church hierarchy, in which the Pope is the supreme head of the Catholic Church, and there are archbishops, bishops, etc. Each bishop has his own jurisdiction and administers the affairs of the Church in his diocese. The Pope is a powerful man, and the bishops of all countries are fully subordinate to the Pope. Innocent famously said, "The pope is the sun, and the emperor is the moon, just as the moon gets its brilliance from the sun, and the emperor gets power from the pope." At that time, the kings of the feudal monarchies of England, Sweden, Denmark and other countries were all subservient to the pope, and the German emperor was no exception.

One of the important results of the absolute concentration of papal power was the monopoly of faith and cultural education. They established a theoretical outline against heresy and brutally persecuted and suppressed those they believed were doubtful or opposed to Catholic teachings. Their bloody crackdown on opposition in the Albi region of southern France saw thousands of French people looted, killed, and plundered.

From 2 years onwards, the Roman Church authorized Dominican missionaries to preside over crusades, trials, and persecution of the "vile deeds" of the pagans. Anyone who was deemed to have disrespected the authority of the Catholic Pope and openly avoided the teachings of the Church was condemned as a heretic and tried and persecuted by the notorious "Inquisition" (also known as the Inquisition, established in 1 year). Dominigo (1170~1221) was a Spaniard and the founder of the Dominican Missionary Monks' Society in 1216. Most of the top magistrates in the Inquisition were members of the Dominican Mission. Their methods of dealing with "cults" were secret interrogations, severe torture, and burning at the stake. In 1252, the pope also publicly endorsed the use of torture

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