"After the Holy Roman Emperor forbade the confiscation of property in 1630, witchcraft persecutions declined noticeably in some places. Bamberg, Germany, which had seen an average of a hundred executions a year from 1626 to 1629, burned that year only twenty-four; none were executed the year after. The city of Cologne, which had from the outset prohibited the seizing of property, experienced the fewest executions of any region of the Empire. "
More to this than straightforward zealotry, then.
Originally shared by Assia Alexandrova
The witchcraft trial industrial complex looms large in 16th century Germany:
“Witch hunting,” wrote the historian Rossell Hope Robbins, “was self-sustaining and became a major trade, employing many people, all battening on the savings of the victims.” ... Far from the conventional image of a penniless hag, a significant proportion of accused witches, especially in Germany, were wealthy and male.
http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/gold-and-silver-coined-human-blood
Remind anyone of the "war on drugs"?
ReplyDeleteDogmatic Pyrrhonist I was actually thinking more of people in the current political area who have decided what things people should be allowed to believe and not believe and what should be done to those people who do not have the right behavior. Many people stand against others discussing who shall have the right to have children, who shall have the right to be married to some other person, who shall have the rights to say certain things and not to say others, who shall believe in an unacceptable religion which doesn't happen to agree with other people. There is No limit to the number of people who all agree that whatever they believe people who don't agree should be forced to do what is said to be true whether it is believed or not.
ReplyDeleteBill Davidsen That's bog standard intolerance and religious closed mindedness. The point of this post was pointing out the run away train that was wealth confiscation mixed with said intolerance etc.
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