From the Mouths of Babes: Children as Witches

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

From the Mouths of Babes: Children as Witches

Children are much more famous for their accusations of witchcraft than as the object of accusations. Although the great majority of accused witches were old or middle-aged, children were not excepted. Occasionally, adolescents and children were tried and executed for witchcraft. In some hunts, large numbers of children were persecuted, especially when accusations got out of control.

There were two ways in which a child could be involved with witchcraft:

1. The child may appear to be enchanted and undergo examination to determine the source of the bewitchment;
2. The child might be a witch, or at least accompany witches to the Sabbat.

An increasingly major pattern involving child-witches in seventeenth-century witch hunting began to emerge. The rapid increase in childhood witchcraft was sermonized against in a "New Treatise on the Seduced Child-Witches." According to the author, the first reason children became witches was because of sinful parents. Witch-children were considered a fitting punishment.

However, the children also became witches because of their own sins. Children fell into mortal sin, as was evidenced by their immoral words, games, cursing, and coveting. Age alone was not proof of innocence.

The only reason children in general were presumed innocent was their imperfect reason. When they came to full reason "and know the difference in value between gold and an apple," then they might be treated as adults. In addition, hardened malice could "supply their years" and bring them into real mortal sin. In this way the writer found it not surprising that children should fall into criminal witchcraft. And when one added the curses that parents often bestowed on their offspring, the actual seduction of children by their own parents into witchcraft, the improper use or total neglect of baptism, the parents who actually dedicated their babes to the service of Satan, and the evil company kept by children--then it was even likely that children would fall into witchcraft often (Midelfort 140).

The growing emphasis on children as witches involved a dangerous shift in stereotypes. Adults were unlikely to volunteer demonic information about themselves. People who did such a thing often ended up dead. Children, however, occupied a strange middle ground. According to the "New Treatise on the Seduced Child-Witches written at the residence of the Archbishop of Mainz, children could become full-fledged witches. Nevertheless, "an equally strong tradition held that they might indeed go along to the witches' dance, put (sic) that they were not themselves guilty of witchcraft. In this intermediate position, they could make denunciations and recount the dramatic dances they had witnessed with impunity" (Midelfort 139). For many children, this was an ideal means of getting adult attention.

Sometimes, however, the rulings against children were monstrosities of judgement. "A case is on record of a little girl of eight years who was solemnly tried for witchcraft because playmates said that she could make mice. The poor child had made 'mice' by folding and knotting her handkerchief into some fancied resemblance to mice" (McCabe - Religious Controversy).

Witch-Children in France, Sweden, Bavaria, and England

"In the famous witch-hunt in the Basque country in 1610-14, when witches were given freedom to confess with impunity, more than 1300 of the some 1800 individuals who confessed were minors" (Levack 141). And in 1669 Mora, Sweden, over 300 children were deemed witches (Midelfort 139).

The Mora hunt began when a fifteen-year-old boy accused several children of stealing children for the Devil. In the following trials, "a number of children were condemned to death, while many others were given non-capital punishments on the basis of testimony by confessing witches that the children had allegedly accompanied them to the sabbath" (Levack 141).

In a particularly gruesome trial in 1600 Bavaria, ten-year-old Hänsel Pappenheimer was tortured and burned to death for witchcraft (see The Pappenheimer Trial) (Kunze 414).

Sometimes the accusations of children indirectly ended a witch hunt. In the Pendle Swindle of 1633 at Hoarstones, England, young Edmund Robinson claimed a woman had taken him to a witches' Sabbat. There, along with about sixty participants, they had produced meat, milk, and butter by pulling on ropes attached to the top of a barn. With his father's suggestion, Edmund named a number of these witches. Seventeen of them were convicted.

However, doubts surfaced about the guilty verdicts, and the Justices of the Peace requested an official investigation by the Privy council. During an interrogation conducted by the Bishop of Chester, Edmund admitted the story was a lie, and that his father had suggested the names "for envy, revenge and hope of gain" (Levack 163, 164). Upon hearing this admission, the convicted witches were acquitted, and disaster was averted.

Lowenstein-Wertheim: The Klein Boys

Southwestern Germany experienced several witch hunts involving children. In the county of Lowenstein-Wertheim on Christmas Eve of 1628, thirteen citizens presented a petition urging an attack on witchcraft. These citizens believed that a particularly evil plague of maleficum was plaguing their county. Their most recent crisis involved "our dear children [who] even without this poison prefer evil over good" (Midelfort 139).

The counts took the advice of the concerned citizens, and an investigation was ordered. Two boys, aged five and ten, were arrested. These boys was the sons of a chimney sweep named Barthol Klein. The children claimed they were witches, reluctantly supplying the names of other witches they had seen at the Sabbat. By the middle of February, fifteen people were known as accomplices. When the boys' grandmother was examined, she quickly confessed and thirty-three more people were denounced as witches. When she was questioned a second time, twenty-two more suspects were produced. By the end of February, there were at least eighty-six different people had been accused of witchcraft.

The panic was intensified in March when more children claimed to have attended the Sabbat. In the village of Bettingen, nine children underwent examinations. "With so many suspects, it is surprising that only nine women and one man were executed during 1629. . . . The suspicions awakened in that year, however, poisoned Wertheim for 15 years; trials of persons first named in 1629 continued until 1644" (Midelfort 139, 140).

In 1634, sixteen women were accused of witchcraft and executed in trials that involved schoolboys. Four boys were so very inficirt (infected) they were kept under lock and key in the hospital. There they were watches carefully by the schoolmaster, who denied the boys' claims they flew off to dances at night. However, examination of the boys led to more denunciations, including the accusations of ten more children. When the son of the rector of the Latin school was denounced, the upset father begged the magistrates "to rather do justice to the boy so that his soul may be healed, and so that I can be more certain of his eternal salvation" (Midelfort 142).

Mergentheim/Würzburg: Johan Berhard

Witchcraft trials in Würzburg sparked off trials in Mergentheim. "Bernhard Reichardt, a magistrate and wealthy man of Markelsheim, had tried to give his young son, Johan Bernhard, a decent education by sending him to school at Neuen Münster in Würzburg. In December of 1627, however, the father became convinced that his son had been seduced into witchcraft there, and tranferred Johan Bernhard to the Jesuit school at Dettelbach" (Midelfort 144. By the middle of March 1628, Würzburg authorities knew that this nine-year-old boy was involved in maleficum. They wrote a polite letter to the Teutonic Order in Mergentheim asking for assistance in the boy's extradition.

The Administrator of the Teutonic Order, Johann Caspar, replied at once. Johan Bernhard was to be formally delivered to authorities at the border. By the end of March, Johan Bernhard was in custody of the Würzburg authorities. However, the authorities did more than simply question him. On April 8, the court had Johan Bernhardt sign a confession that a classmate had seduced him into witchcraft.

Among other horror, he had denied God, Mary, and all the saints and angels. With his own blood he had written "Ich, Johannes Bernhardus Reichard, hab mich tem Teüfel vergeben." He had flown to numerous dances and, although only nine years old, had had intercourse with the devil on numberous occasions. Like adults, Johan Bernhard always found the devil "hard as horn" and "of a cold nature." Implicating his complices, the boy noted that he had seen three other persons known to him at the dances (Midelfort 144).

On May 9, 1628, Würzburg authorities burned Johan Bernhard along with four others. Only hearing of the execution after the fact, Johann Caspar agreed with its necessity.

Würzburg was the site of the executions of many children. From 1623 until his death in 1631, Prince-Bishop Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg had "tortured, beheaded and burned 900 persons, including at least 300 children three to four years of age" (Guiley 1989 21).

Mergentheim: The Beckh Boys

About a month later, Velltin Bechkh, a tailor in Mergentheim, complained that his sons had been suspended from school without sufficient reason. Beckh asked Johann Caspar to look into the matter. An Inquisitio was set up on July 6 and 7, 1628 into the three sons of the tailor. Eleven children, ranging in age from eight to fifteen, gave testimony. According to the evidence, the two older sons had, at the very least, pretended to have had dealings with Satan. They allegedly attended witches' dances, and the oldest (aged fifteen), claimed to have learned "whole handfuls" from the devil. All three sons agreed that they were called Schlotthetzen (literally, "chimney drivers" or witches).

It is also reasonably certain that the eldest son, Gerog, had publicly sung indecent songs about the Holy Ghost and had seduced a maid. When questioned concerning these charges, the boys admitted their reputation but claimed that they were joking when they spoke of learning from the devil and of flying to sabbaths, Georg was especially adamant that he had spoken "nicht im ernst sonder Narrenthey." He admitted his dealings with the maid but insisted that "God knows I am free from witchcraft." His younger brother, Gottfried, was not so firm. Under questioning, the boy denied that his mother flew to dances, but soon confessed that he himself had flown by use of a black salve smeared on his pitchfork. Under pressure he even denounced two women and one man, a tailor (Midelfort 145).

The Witch-Children of Vaihingen and Würtemberg

In 1662, a ten-year-old boy from Vaihingen confessed to witchcraft. This confession set of a wave of similar confessions. Each of the children was taken into custody and carefully examined. Over their long confinement, they had plenty of opportunity to condemn others as witches. They were, however, deemed too young to be severely punished. Of those denounced was a 16-year-old boy who denounced an additional seventeen people from Vaihingen and Würtemberg. "He was executed, as were all of the persons he denounced whose fate we know" (Midelfort 155).

The Witch-Children of Reutlingen

In 1665, a 12-year-old Reutlingen boy was thought to be possessed by the devil. He denounced a number of people as witches and was believed.

The boy was soon joined in the tower by two more children who both had their own ideas of who was responsible for recent witchcraft. Later they were joined by a fourth child. A day of general prayer was set aside for the four, but to no avail. In a consultation from Strasbourg the court learned that for their sexual relations with the devil the children deserved death but that their age argued against execution. If they reached their majority without visible improvement, they were to die. In the meantime their denunciations had other effects. Within a year and a half, 22 persons had been formally accused of witchcraft, and 14 had been executed (Midelfort 156, 157).

The Witch-Children of Calw

In Calw, Württemberg's most important industrial city, trouble began in 1673. A woman was supected of poisoning some of her neighbours. However, she was released on the advice of the legal faculty from the University of Tübingen. Most of the evidence against her had come from untrustworthy children, and the remainder from jealous folk.

In 1677, ten-year-old Bartholomaeus Sieben, illegitimate son of the widow Agnew Hafnerin, was brought up on similar charges. There was insufficient evidence to prove Bartholomaeus had murdered Johann Crispen, the schoolmaster's son, with a poisoned cookie. Bartholomaeus' family was destitute--until he was sixteen, he had to sleep in the same bed with his mother and grandmother. When he was questioned, he explained that his elderly step-grandmother, Anna Hafnerin, had encouraged him to harm his classmates with poisoned powders. But because Bartholomaeus was so young, and because his step-grandmother was so old and weak, neither were tortured. Bartholomaeus was given a public beating instead.

In 1683 their neighbors openly suspected them of heresy. That year an 11-year-old neighbor boy, later described as having "a melancholy complexion," began to speak strangely of witches and dances. On close questioning he asserted that Anna Hafnerin, now 80 years old, had seduced him into witchcraft, that he had renounced God in words written with his own blood, and had traveled to many witches' dances where he met many of his classmates. This boy confessed that he had flown off to dances even when observers testified that he had spend the night in bed. Instead of concluding from such statements that he was dreaming, parents became worried that the devil was carrying off only the souls and not the bodies of their children. To prevent such occurrances, they began forcing their children to stay awake and interrogated them thoroughly after they had slept about what had happened and what they ahd seen. In such a charged situation it was natural that the children of Calw began to tell the wildest stories, often with promptings and suggestion from their parents. On September 7, 1683, 19 of these children were examined by the spiritual and secular magistrates. One was only six years old. In general their statements focused on Anna Hafnerin and on her stepdaughter's son, Bartholomaeus (Midelfort 158, 159).

Upon further examination, Bartholomaeus and Anna admitted they were witches. Bartholomaeus also confessed to having poisoned the schoolmaster's son six years prior, and that he had devoted himself to the devil ever since. Anna confessed the devil had seduced her long ago, promising her money which she had never received. She also admitted to having corrupted some children into practicing witchcraft. "Both suspects pleaded mitigating factors, however, such as extreme age of youth, ignorance and lack of an express pact with the devil" (Midelfort 159). Nevertheless, the two hapless witches were executed in December (Midelfort 160).

The witchcraft trials might have ended there if the town had not been so thoroughly aroused. Accusations and rumors continued to spread. The excited children began to tell of other adults whom they saw at the sabbaths. In a temperate consultation the Tübingen legal faculty on December 20, 1683, considered the 31 children now involved, ranging from three to 17, and argued that most of them were either dreaming or simpleminded. Those who confessed real crimes like blasphemy were to receive canings before their classmates. A day of lectures was to be set aside for the clergy and magistrates to tell the schoolchildren how horrible the devil's service was. Referring to the stupendous witch panic in Sweden, the faculty urged strict prohibition of rumor and the reporting of all infractions. Despite this good advice, the faculty had to admit that several adults had serious indicia against them, and that they could be examined under torture (Midelfort 160).

(Midelfort 160)

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From the Mouths of Babes: Children As Witches is copyrighted 1998 to Shantell Powell.