, 1876-01-29

writers should have treated this topic most
exclusively, for though no country can claim
to have been exempt from the delusion, it is in
Germany that belief in witchcraft has been
most rampant and most enduring. As late as
1888 there occurred the execution of a Wretcbed
victim on the charge of witchcraft, which is
authenticated beyond challenge by the
existence of official records, and there is grave
ground for believing that this was not the last
sacrifice of life to this horrible superstition. A
most interesting page has been added to this
dark chapter in the publication before Us. We
have here disinterred out of the mustv regions
OF ancient muniment-rooms, the very depositions
and. whole procedure of investigation which
attended the trials of persons arraigned on this
charge at various times in the episcopal
principally of Munster. In perusing this small
volume, we read the a~psissinsa oerba of the
denunoiations which suficed to render human
beings liable to this dread imputation-the
testimony which was deemed adequate for their
conviction by doctors learned in the law-and
what is still more extraordinary, the amazing
self-acCuSations which. these victims often saw
fit to make, even when not subjected to torture,
in the vain hope of propitiatiug their
prosecutors. 1t is this faithful presentment of
the features of the cases as they actually
occurred, exhibited in their own colours, and
without the Intervention of any later gloss,
which constitutes the singular value efProfessor
Niehue'S contribution to our literature on this
sad topic, For it is o special merit of bis
volume that it does not deal with isolated
episodes, but brings before US q series of
infinitely detailed cases ofdifetent dates, where
in are perfectly exsmplifed the whole
course and progress both of this misera-
BILE belief, and of the varying methods in
which it was dealt with at divers epochs by
those who in this part of Germany administered
public justice. The interest attaching to the
narrative is increased by the circumstance that
al the cases occurred within the Jurisdiction of
an ecclesiastical Sovereign, and 10 a territory
which was distinguished for the thoroughness
with which Catholic reaction hunted down in
it the remnants of all unorthodOx symptoms.
1t Is noteworthy that this Minister region in
earlier times contrasts favOurably with others
in the judicial treatment of persons charged
with sorcery. There are Sovereign r~escripts
e%DjQining on the authorities caution against
lightly entertaining the accusation. But in
the latter part Of the sixteenth century, the
See passed into the hands of scions of the
Electoral House of Bavaria, who held it from
l5Sb-165Q. These were men imbued with the
fierce temper of those unhappy times, narrow
minded zeal IS of q bigoted type, who breath
ed the spirit of the InQuisition, and recklessly
applied the machinery of torture. From the
moment of their advent, prosecutions for
sorcery multiplied f~earfully, and were conduo-
ted with a monstrous disregard for humanity.
The fimsiest denunciation involved judicial
inquiry, and this brought with it a graduated
and refined application of torture with a view
to extort admission. It is singular to observe
the elaborateness and even pedantry of pro-
cedure. The forms to be attended to are pre-
scribed with tedious precision. Five we're the
successive degrees Of torture to which the
wretched victim was liable. Professor Niehues
has discovered only three instances of their
having been manfully resisted to the end
without an extorted admission, but in two of
these the sufferers succumbed. 1t is appalling
to attempt a calculation of the innocent lives
subjected to this Internal violence. An ade-
quate register cannot be made, but a few we'll
established figures are forthcoming. In the
small locality Of COesfeld, the public execution
er claimed fees for nine executions and TWEEN
t~y-seyen applications of torture during the
last six months in 1851, in regard to cases of
witchcraft. In Budingen, also q locality of
very moderate size, 81 persons were burnt in
1888 and so in the year following. In 1851,
az. women were consumed at Neisse, in a
furnace specially constructed for the purpose
by the magistracy while in two rural districts
in the Prince. Bishoprick Of Bamberg, accord
ing to official record, no less than 2s5 persons
were executed in the years 1624-30. It is
perfectly sickening to peruse these lists of