Jessica Marovich English 300 March 11, 2011

Marovich 1

Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe was in an extreme panic over the evil and satanic practices of witchcraft and sorcery. Thousands of people were put on trial and executed for suspicion of witchcraft and many of them were innocent. In the year 1600, a trial was held for six people who were accused of witch craft in Germany. Four of the six accused were from a family named Gamperle. As a result, this pack of six witches were known as the Gamperle coven. Although it is not stated whether or not the Gamperle coven was truly guilty of witchcraft, the coven confessed to their demonic practices and evil actions in the month of July, 1600. The account of the execution of the Gamperle coven was recorded in a six page pamphlet called A Strange Report of Sixe Most Notorious Witches which was printed by Lucas Mayr in 1601 with the author being anonymous. This pamphlet gives a full detailed description of the people who were proven guilty and what their crimes were during the case in Munich, Germany. During the time of the witch hunt craze, although some men were convicted of witch craft, the main targets were women. As such, the hunts were extremely sexist. This observation carried even into the pamphlet. The author gives a detailed description of how the Gamperle coven was executed, but notes that only the woman and the master witch in the group were the only people singled out. This shows how the pamphlet runs parallel to the anti-feminist sentiments of this time period. A Strange Report of Sixe Most Notorious Witches is a religious pamphlet that explains how six people were accused of witchcraft, confessed, and then were executed. The

Marovich 2 author also explains how the country needs to pray that these evils will never occur again. The six people executed were Paul, Anne, Simon, and Jacob Gamperle, Ullrich Sehelltibaum, and George Smaltes. They were considered the Gamperle coven and were executed in Munich, Germany on July 29, 1600 after they confessed to murdering children, using witchcraft to cripple older humans, and committing other crimes such as arson and robbery. They practiced their witchcraft in a cave in order to not get caught, until one night they were unfortunately discovered by a wandering dog during a terrible storm. They were found with evidence such as devilish books of conjuration, and swines dung which was a common ingredient in early modern spells. Because they were caught with this evidence they were condemned right away. All six were brutally executed before the people of Munich. While four of the six were executed by being burnt at the stake, Paul Gamperle (the master witch), and Anne Gamperle (the only woman), had much worse deaths. First, Annes breasts were chopped off which the executioner then proceeded to beat her with them. Then she was beaten with a twisted metal whip, tied to a wheel which broke both her arms. As a final punishment, she was supposed to be roasted alive on a spiked metal chair, but she died before that could happen. Paul, on the other hand, was beaten, had both his arms broken, impaled on wooden stake while he was still alive and then burnt to death. Paul and Anne were singled out for horrific, dramatic deaths. This pamphlet, although a trial account and religious prayer, has historical significance. In Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, the paranoia of witchcraft was a huge epidemic. During this period, religious, social, and economic transformations were taking place all over Europe. Certain religious groups such as Jews and Muslims were convicted of using black

Marovich 3 magic to overthrow the Christian Kingdom. Other groups that were questioned about witchcraft were scientists and doctors (Gibbons p.1). The European people during this time could not grasp the concept of science over religion so the only explanation that they could think of was black magic. Jenny Gibbons, the author of Recent Developments in the Study of Witch Hunts, states, The height of the persecution occurred during the Reformation, when the formerly unified Christian church shattered into Catholic and Protestant sects. In countries like Italy and Spain, where the Catholic Church and its Inquisition reigned virtually unquestioned, witch hunting was uncommon. The worst panics took place where rival Christian sects fought to impose their religious views on each other (Gibbons p.1). Many of the witches that were condemned were not even guilty of any evil, and unfortunately, some confessed to witchcraft in hope that they would not be executed, but that was not the case. For nearly three centuries, twenty-six thousand people were executed in Germany because of witchcraft and the Gamperle coven fell into this unfortunate number. The author of this pamphlet is unknown, but it can be said that he takes on a religious attitude. In the ending of the pamphlet, the author states, Therefore let us all in general, fall down upon our knees and with contrite hearts, desire of his majesty, by whole sufferance all they wicked practices, that he will abate the pride and malice of Satan, now reigning among mankind, and to put in our hearts such strong faith Amen (EEBO 6). The author begins with an account of the satanic deeds that these six witches committed, but then he takes a religious turn to remind people to always have faith in God and to never fall into the evil practices of the Devil. The author has a strong opinion on the evils of witchcraft and it is clear that he believes that all

Marovich 4 people who kill, rob, or commit any crimes should be punished for their wrongdoings. With this pamphlet, the author tries to warn the people of Germany that there will be consequences for demonic actions, and he uses these six witches as examples by making their death sound torturous. By doing this, the author tries to scare the people of Germany which in turn will make them turn to God and put all their faith into the church. Because of this approach, it can be assumed that the author of this pamphlet may have been a priest or part of the secular church. A question that could be raised, though, is whether or not the author had moral intentions or if he was just trying to make money by selling his pamphlet. The period of paranoia in which the witch hunts took place coincides with the availability of print. For this reason, the author might have been trying to fan the flames with this pamphlet so that people would buy it. Something that is interesting about this certain report is that five of the six people executed were men and only one was a woman. Although the witch hunts looked for both men and women sorcerers, most of the people condemned were women yet this report condemns mostly men. During the witch craze, which is what the hysteria of this time was called, the population mostly looked for women because they were thought to be evil. Many thought women were guilty of seduction and men saw them as a domestic danger. Therefore any woman who acted out of the social norms and wanted to leave the domestic world was executed on suspicion of witchcraft because the men saw them as a threat to society. Helen Ellerbe, the author of The Dark Side of Christian History, backs up all of these terrible claims about women. For instance, she paraphrases St. Clement of Alexandria and how he said that every woman should be ashamed of the thought that she is a woman (Ellerbe p.1). She also paraphrases other

Marovich 5 people in past centuries and how they believed that women might not have souls, or how God made a mistake in creating women. To these philosophers women were evil temptresses who were inferior to men (Ellerbe p.1) Helen Ellerbe states at the end of her article, Witch-hunting secured the conversion of Europe to orthodox Christianity. Through the terror of the witch hunts, reformational Christians convinced common people to believe that a singular male God reigned from above, that he was separate from the earth, that magic was evil, that there was a powerful devil, and that women were most likely to be his agents (Ellerbe p.1). After reading Helens article, the singling out of Anna during the execution made more sense. Anna Gamperle was executed separately from the men as if to torture her even more for her un-virtuous decision of worshipping Satan. This was an unnecessary sexist action because there was no need to treat Anna any different from the other members who committed the exact same sins. The only person who should have been singled out was Paul Gamperle because he was the master witch and leader of the coven. By singling out Anna, the author tried to send a message to the women of Europe to behave or else Annas terrible demise will become theirs. Although A Strange Report of Sixe Most Notorious Witches does not necessarily have anti-feminist sentiments, the historical context of the witch hunts in Europe definitely has sexist attitudes. The singling out and execution of women during this time could be said to relate to the same way female characters were dealt with in Shakespeares plays during this era. In Shakespeare plays, any woman who seemed to be acting out of the social norms was either killed or shunned by society. For instance, in Titus Andronicus, Lavinia tried to deny her marriage to Saturninus and run away. Later in the play she was raped and was thereafter considered useless

Marovich 6 so her father killed her. This is just one example of the sexist attitude of how women do not matter and how men can do so much more than women that existed during this time period. If a man went against social norms, no one gave it a second thought. If a woman did the same thing, she was considered crazy, evil, or worthless. It is still uncertain whether Shakespeare had an anti-feminist viewpoint, but it is true that the female characters in his plays were thought of as significantly under men and were left in the shadows. The witch hunts that occurred during early European history created a major scare and hysteria throughout Europe. Many innocent people were executed without any thought or fair trial. A Strange Report of Sixe Most Notorious Witches is an interesting pamphlet not only because the six witches confessed to their evil sins but also because only one of the participants was a woman. The witch hunts had anti-feminist sentiments, and with the death of Anna, these sentiments were shown. The crimes that the Gamperle coven were accused of were common crimes that any ordinary person could commit, therefore magic may or may not have been involved. The question of whether or not the Gamperle coven were truly witches will remain unknown.

Marovich 7

Works Cited
Ellerbe, Helen. "The Witch Hunts: The End of Magic and Miracles." Positive Atheism (since 1995) Join the Struggle Against Anti-Atheist Bigotry! Web. 15 Mar. 2011. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/ellerbe1.htm

Gibbons, Jenny. "Recent Developments in the Study of The Great European Witch Hunt." Free Background Graphics and Borders, Pagan Information and More. 1998. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. http://draeconin.com/database/witchhunt.htm