Requirement for Consent

4.1.4. Lustful

1 4.2. The physical evidence required to prove that a person was a “witch” was very subjective and it was very difficult 2 to prove with physical evidence that a person was a witch. Witch trials were more a matter of personal opinion 3 and religious belief than a scientifically provable matter. Evidence that a person was a witch was often fabricated 4 or imagined, and not real. 5 4.3. When witches were arrested: 6 4.3.1. They were stripped and searched. 7 4.3.2. They were prodded with needles to find the mark of the devil. 8 4.3.3. Any suspicious wart, mole, or birth mark could be enough to condemn someone to death. 9 4.3.4. Any questionable character reference from a political opponent could doom a person to death. 10 4.4. Prerequisite for confession. Civil law required that a “witch” could not be prosecuted without first making a 11 “voluntary” confession. Because few people would voluntarily confess to being “witches”, the government 12 sanctioned and condoned an elaborate system of painful physical torture against the accused “witches” to compel 13 them to give a “voluntary” confession. This was the very same type of persecution and torture that was instituted 14 against heretics during the inquisitions in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. The following hideous instruments of 15 torture were used to extract the “confession”: 16 4.4.1. Thumb screws 17 4.4.2. Leg screws 18 4.4.3. Head clamps 19 4.4.4. Iron maiden 20 4.5. During the torture: 21 4.5.1. The Malleus Maleficarum warned the torturer never to look a witch in the eye. This was a devious way to 22 ensure that empathy or sympathy or compassion would not be employed towards those accused of 23 witchcraft. This made the witch trials and those who could be accused of witchcraft very terrified and 24 prejudiced the rights of those accused. The torture used to extract the coerced confessions was also used to 25 implicate other innocent people, and this lead to the uncontrollable spread of witch trials throughout France 26 and Germany. 27 4.5.2. Many people confessed to the crime of witchcraft who in fact were not witches, simply to avoid further 28 suffering and torture. When the pain of torture is severe enough, people will confess to almost anything. 29 4.6. The English devised a very prejudicial method for determining if someone was a witch called “swimming the 30 witch” . A person accused of witchcraft was thrown in deep water. If she swam and survived then she was 31 proven to be a witch. If she sank and drowned, then she was innocent. Either way, the suspect was doomed and 32 had no chance of survival. 33 4.7. Witnesses and political opponents were allowed to show up at the trials and act out being “possessed” by Satan in 34 front of everyone in the courtroom. 35 4.8. Once a person confessed to being a “witch”, then they were usually burned at the stake in a very public way in 36 order to terrorize the rest of the population into “compliance” with the wishes of whoever made the accusation of 37 witchcraft to begin with. The reason for burning, was that it was believed that the witches evil spirit could only 38 be destroyed if she was burned into ashes. 39 5. Political motivation for witch trials explains why they spread: 40 5.1. The government abused the laws against witchcraft, especially in Europe, as follows: 41 5.1.1. Church clergy in Christian churches were accused because they were political opponents of the government. 42 5.1.2. Witch hunters received a bounty for each witch they found and prosecuted. 43 5.1.3. The property and lands of executed witches were confiscated by the government and used to enrich public 44 servants. This is a big reason that explains the promotion and spread of the witch hunts and witch trials by 45 the government. 46 5.2. The largest witch trial ever occurred in the town of Wurzburg in Germany, in which an overzealous magistrate 47 tried nearly the whole town on witchcraft charges! 600 people were condemned to death. 19 were priests and 41 48 were children. In some towns in Germany, there were no women left after the inquisitors came through. Some 49 scholars estimate that between 60,000 and 300,000 people were executed as witches during the “Burning Years” 50 in Europe. 51 5.3. The largest witch trial in America occurred in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, in which 200 people were burned at 52 the stake. Salem was a Puritan town torn by Indian and land wars and political controversy. The Salem witch 53 trial investigations began in the home of a Puritan minister, Rev. Samuel Paris. His daughters became allegedly 54 possessed after playing a household game with the family slave and they went into a frenzy, which spread 55 throughout the town. The Puritan minister then launched an investigation to find out who had instigated the 56 possession, leading to three women being tried on witchcraft based on the accusations of the possessed girls. All 57

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Copyright Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry, http://sedm.org Form 05.003, Rev. 7-23-2013

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