When it comes to Johannes Kepler, the first thing that comes to mind is that he is a famous astronomer, who is known as the "legislator of the universe" by historians of science for establishing the three laws of planetary motion and developing Copernicus's heliocentric theory, and in order to commemorate his great contribution to the development of astronomy, the famous Kepler space telescope is named after him.

But what many people don't know is that Kepler's mother was once imprisoned in 1615 on suspicion of being a witch, and the book "The Witch Case of the Astronomer" tells the thrilling story of Kepler's defense of his mother's travels.

The author of this book is Yulinka Roblake, as a professor at Cambridge University, Roblake tells the story while also revealing the hopes and fears of that society in vivid strokesIn December 1615, Kepler received a letter from his sister, which said:

Our mother, Katarina Kepler, was falsely accused of being a witch, and although she immediately took them to court for defamation, there were so many accusers of her that the prefect of Leonberg, Duchy of Württemberg, was involved, and the situation was very serious.

Kepler, who received the letter, was in a hurry.

At that time, Kepler was the royal mathematician of the Roman Emperor Rudolf II, and his reputation was skyrocketing, and when he returned to his hometown, he was disconnected from his mother's "witch case", which was bound to affect his reputation, but for the sake of his mother's safety, Kepler could no longer care about this, and he immediately wrote a petition to the prefect of Leonberg:

"My mother is already very old, so she usually speaks a little freely, and so-called sins such as curiosity and resentment of others are commonplace in Lanenberg, but it is extremely unfair to wronged and persecuted her in such a cruel way on the basis of these points alone."

In addition to this, Kepler expressed in his letter the desire for his mother to live with him in Linz, and his request for him to defend her in person. After the letter was sent, Kepler returned to his hometown of Leonberg as quickly as possible.

There is a reason why Kepler is so anxious.

Kepler

In Europe in the 15th-17th centuries, two large-scale witch hunts broke out.

The first witch hunts took place in the 15th-16th centuries, mainly in France and Italy. The second witch hunt took place in the 16th and 17th centuries, with Germany, France, Switzerland and Scotland being the hardest hit by the campaign.

Kepler's time coincided with the culmination of the second "witch hunt".

"Around the years 1590, 1610, 1630 and '50s, much of Germany was overwhelmed by a witch-hunting trend that killed countless people."

In the "witch hunt", people accused of being witches have several characteristics.

One is that the number of witches is much higher than the number of male witches, among them, widows over the age of 50 account for more than 50% of the total number of witches, and the absence of a husband means that there is no one to defend them in court, and the trial will go relatively smoothly.

The second characteristic is women with bad tempers, because people with bad tempers are easily resented, so whenever a disaster occurs, people will recall these women with a bad temper and take them to court as witches.

Kepler's mother was very much in tune with both of these characteristics.

Kepler's father died on the battlefield, Kepler and several of his siblings were raised by their mother alone, and they had to work hard all year round, have to raise several children, and sometimes have to be involved in a series of quarrels, so their temper will naturally not be good.

Thinking of this, Kepler and his younger brother Christopher wrote in another petition:

"My mother is in her 70s and is almost the oldest woman in Leonberg. Until then, she had always had a good reputation. ”

Kepler's skilful petition won the hearts of the chiefs, allowing Kepler to put forward the concept of "the group as the unconscious" in his magnum opus of social psychology, Le Pen, by the famous psychologist Le Pen, in his masterpiece of social psychology:

"The tendency of individual thoughts and feelings, by suggestion and mutual contagion, to a common direction, and the tendency to at once transform suggestive ideas into action, is no longer himself, he becomes a doll no longer governed by his own will."

The "witch hunt" is not a group unconscious behavior.

Ursula's brother was a public official, so Ursula was influential in Leonberg, and she used her network to pressure Einhorn while hyping up Catarina as a witch to the general public, and casting a curse to make her lame.

At a time when science was not widely available, there were even fewer highly educated people, and the deep-rooted influence of wizarding beliefs made it easy to believe Ursula's words, such as a saddle dealer saying that a cat in the warehouse was Catarina's change, and a butcher with a leg pain saying that Catarina was under a spell.

1. When a lie is affirmed, there will always be someone who agrees with it.

An elementary school teacher said that ten years ago, Katarina invited him to his home to read a letter, and in the process of reading the letter, he drank a glass of wine handed by Katarina, and the next day he felt unbearable pain in his thigh.

A woman named Krebull said that the tailor hired by her family saw Katarina suddenly get up from her bed at midnight and told her that she was a wizard.

A brick-making craftsman listened to Ursula's words and claimed that the other day, Katarina patted her daughter's arm as she passed by her door, and the next day, her daughter lost sensation in her arm.

When lies are spread to a great extent, more and more people will become liars, and this is the truth that is falsely spread.

So when Katarina was accused of being a witch, more than 20 witnesses poured out at once, all claiming to be able to prove that Katarina was a witch, in other words, in the incident of denunciating Catarina, people have taken it as their obligation and a matter full of "justice" to prove that Catarina is a witch.

A defense of cross-epochal significance

As a scientist, Kepler was extremely thoughtful, and was especially adept at predicting the opponent's point of view in advance and refuting it in his own arguments.

In 1619, the trial officially began. At trial, Kepler demonstrated his ability to accurately find the opponent's loopholes and preemptively refute them, and not only that, but he also added legal explanations to each defense to make it more rigorous and reliable, a defense method that had never been used before Kepler.

1. Kepler considered that most of these witnesses were young and unassertive, so he first questioned the reliability of the testimony.

"Pastor Booker reacted so violently, like an experienced judge." Pastor Booker refused to offer Katarina communion and instead made a special trip to bring communion to Ursula's home. This kind of testimony, full of jealousy, is not credible. ”

Kepler then took aim at Ursula.

Kepler said that Ursula accused Catarina of being a witch, so she cursed her to contract the disease, but in fact, the real reason for her illness was that she took the wrong medicine, and Ursula's disease needed mercury to treat, and the overuse of mercury can seriously damage the brain, and Ursula's infertility was caused by miscarriage and had nothing to do with witches.

In the face of the facts, Ursula not only reversed black and white, but also used his powerful social connections to spread rumors of "witches" and bewitch other ignorant civilians, and such morally degraded people are not qualified to go to court at all.

And the brick-making craftsman usually spends extravagantly, starts stealing after ruining the family's property, and later secretly hooks up with Ursula, so whether there is a problem with his daughter's arm is still up for debate.

What can all of this be if it's not witchcraft? In those days, because people believed in witches, it was not enough to argue in court and just lay out the facts. In order to make his words more authoritative, Kepler introduced a great deal of medical knowledge, stating the difference between natural and man-made diseases.

…… As they age, they find themselves unable to have children (as Ursula did), and the excessive loss of blood and bile can damage the liver, which can lead to serious mental illness. In many cases, it can also lead to incomplete uterine development, which is why Ursula will be infertile...... Similarly, it can lead to chronic illness and headaches. Every day, many men and women die from lung diseases, and many more children die from other diseases. You will find many hunched and limping people around. People who often lift heavy objects or jump tend to have their spine misaligned. ……

In this defense, Kepler must also state the accusations against his mother against his younger brother Heinrich Jr.

Heinrich suffered from epilepsy when he was a child, and people in those days were naturally rejected by people who had this disease, so it was difficult for Heinrich Jr. to find any serious work.

Suffice it to say, Heinrich's only two serious jobs were also introduced by Kepler, and instead of being grateful, Heinrich blamed his mother for making him hungry, because he had a disagreement with his mother, so Heinrich's testimony was not reliable.

Kepler's epochal defense acquitted her mother, but unfortunately, Katarina died before she could leave her cell. What the hell is the "witch hunt" all about

This seems to be the end of the story, but what makes people wonder what the so-called "witch hunt" is all about? Why are so many ordinary women considered witches?

This starts with Christianity.

Primitive Christianity was a dualistic religion, that is, the belief that there is good and evil in the universe, so the devil is an indispensable part of the Christian faith.

The Witch Society is the most important part of the devil's faith. Found in an incomplete decree of the 9th century:

"Many wicked women, who belong to Satan, who are seduced by demonic hallucinations, believe and claim that they follow their goddess Diana in the night on some kind of livestock to meet with countless women in a distant way despite the journey......"

This decree not only paints us a picture of the witch society, but also provides the basis for the suppression of witches in the future. Encyclopedia of Theology

However, with the establishment of Christian monism, demonic beliefs were regarded as heretics, and the Church usually brutally suppressed heretics. Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, clearly defines the relationship between the devil and God:

"The devil is also God's subject, and God's rule means that God can use the devil as He pleases. However, man did not gain jurisdiction over the devil, so man had to declare war on him. According to Aquinas, all beliefs related to magic are condemned to the teachings of Christ.

Although, the Christian Church had long struggled with heresy, before the 15th century, much of the Church's energy was mainly on punishment, but because the fight against heretics was repeatedly blocked, in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued an edict:

“…… Recently, it has been reported that witches and demons are prevalent in Germany and other places, and many witches and witches have betrayed and trampled on the Christian faith, played evil witchcraft, and used everything they could, resulting in population decline, livestock death, agricultural harvest failure, and policy couples unable to have children. This is a manifestation of Satan the Devil. So it must be eradicated. ...... "Witch's Hammer."

This admonition was printed on the pamphlet "Hammer of the Witches" and sparked a three-century-long "witch hunt".

The authors of the book "The Hammer of the Witches" are two professors from the Dominican seminary, Clemo and Jacob. In their view, "Satan has created an evil heresy, the witch heresy, which was not common before, to multiply in the land of the Lord because the devil has determined his dominance over women." ”

In the Bible, women are described as "evil symbols" who cannot resist temptation, so Christianity has always believed that women are more likely to believe in witchcraft, which has led to the majority of the victims of the "witch hunt" being women.

So in a sense, the "witch hunt" can also be seen as a manifestation of the declining status of women. As Caroline points out in The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution:

"Nature, which had become very important in the early stages of the modern era, is now an image of chaos and disorder that is considered to be in need of control...... The image of nature and women is two-sided...... Women were both virgins and witches, and the elegant lovers of the Renaissance worshipped women as gods, while the Inquisitors burned them at the stake. The disordered woman, like chaotic nature, needs to be controlled.