Will in KC:D burning of witches happen/proceed?

Hello,

I know the most burnings of witches took place after medieval times nevertheless they were present.

It would be realistic to let a few burnings of witches take place.

What do you think?

“He said the same thing he had been saying for hours… Burn them all”

                                                          Jaime Lannister - Game of Thrones - Season 1
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not to forget the monty python witch test minigame

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Supplement:
Will in KC tortures of witches (without death) take place? That could be a method to show how brutal medieval times were.

I visited a very detailed museum exhibition in JesenĂ­k this summer, which was covering the Northern Moravia witch trials. I was horrified to find out that the Jesuits were burning alive also infants. I am not sure if I remember correctly, but I think that the youngest recorded person burned in the area for witchcraft was 3/4 year old (it was definitely less than 2 years old).

Absolutely horrifying.

Well, there wasn’t a big persecution of witchcraft at that time. Most witch trials in central Europe happened between 1450 and 1750 with its peak between 1550 and 1650. Before 1402 the term “witch” wasn’t even documented in Europe.

But the burning of heretics was more common during the early 15th century. One of the biggest differences between the trials against heretics and witches was that the former ones were initiated and led by the church while the latter ones were often based on public panic and denunciations and less on clear violations against the clerical doctrine. A heretic was usually somebody who stood to his believe and often openly preached it. By doing so he could become a thread to the church and the clergy. The prosecution of witches was something very different. Often it was based on mistrust against women fond of herbalism but even more often it was just based on unproven accusations. These women often were not killed because they violated against clerical laws but because the respective communities demanded their dead and the officials just burnt them to restore peace and order.

Often the official clerical inquisition and the prosecution of witches are mixed up although they have actually quite different social roots and influences. It’s right that the inquisition often led trials against witches as well but just because people accused them of acting against God’s laws. The actual goal of the inquisition was to hunt down real heretics though.

Short: burning witches in KCD would proably be a violation of the realistic vision. A trial against a heretic instead could be quite possible at that time. :wink:

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Not in the Czech lands where it was led by the Catholic church, foremost the Jesuit order.

Most early witch trials were led by the clergy, not only in Bohemia. My point was that the background of witch trials and heretic trials wasn’t the same and that witch trials didn’t become popular before 1430-1450 and even then they were quite rare until about 1550.

True, were more frequent lawsuits against heretics, propagated in the phase of pre-Reformation. Early witch hunt, there were only isolated in Austria, southern Germany and later France and Spain, where the Inquisition all drove to the tip (witches hammer, etc.)

It was, but often based on a denunciation and the denunciation was often motivated by personal profit. (Similar to the 50’s.)

Extremely interesting study on this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasies_(Ginzburg_book)

Actually I was surprised to find out that the informers did not receive anything for their deeds, at least in JesenĂ­k region. I know that in some other countries the people were encouraged by financial gains to inform on others.

Well, I didn’t mean direct profit actually. I meant indirect profit of removing your competitor or foe or attaining revenge etc. That’s deeply rooted in human nature as it seems considering similar deeds well documented in every totality - e.g. occupation during WW2, aftermath of WW2, 40’s-50’s in Soviet Block etc. and even (false) democracy (Hollywood during McCarthyism).

Just a small comment: We were told, that burning the witch would take place OUTSIDE of the village, not inside :smile: We have to take it into consideration…

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From what I’ve heard (history professors and whatnot) burning witches wasn’t the most popular way of executing them. It was mainly hanging or crushing them with large rocks (a medieval stoning, if you will). I’ll dig through my old notes and maybe come back with some sources but just remember, people love to romanticize history, even the executions.

Slightly unrelated (and yeah, I’ll dig up the sources) but Salem didn’t have nearly as much witching/hunting as we have been led to believe. Also I think it had something to do with sex but it’s been a few years since Medieval History 101.

(I hope you don’t want to spoil The Crucible?) Drowning was also quite popular I believe.

We are looking forward. :slight_smile:

Witch hunting came to Bohemia quite late in history. There was no major witch prosecution in this region before the late 17th century during the last years of the 30th years war.

And before late 15th century most trials against people “who use magic” didn’t lead to executions. The common punishment for such actions in medieval times was just a fine or - in rare cases - dischurching. That was a quite hard sentence but it wasn’t an instant death sentence.

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You will be allowed to burn your favorite witch from KC on a CD, so as to import her into the Microsoft Flight Simulator

Bohemia ain’t Moravia & Silesia. (Not that the sentence would be false for the latter two).