Northern Moravia Witch Trials - Background

Background

The Norther Moravian witch trials are considered to be part of the Catholic counter-reformation. The Bohemians were unwilling to abandon their Protestant religion after Bohemia had been taken by Austria during the Thirty Years' War. There was also great opposition to the social oppression of farmers under the landlords. This caused rebellions, such as the one of 1659-1662 led by Kryštof Winter, Mikuláš Patzold and Jan Jaschke.

Jesuit priest Arnold Engel was the first person who had pointed out to the alleged witch practices in North Moravia. In order to draw attention of Emperor Leopold I, he wrote a special memorandum describing alleged public mocking of Catholics by Protestants. In his pamphlet, Engel refers also to the "flourishing of the art of witchcraft and evil". He notes, that "... so many dead men, who didn't die in good faith, but had connections with the devil, are getting up from their graves, and cause heavy damages to both the residents and their livestock."

Witch trials were otherwise uncommon in Bohemia and Moravia. The first witch trials occurred in Jeseník in 1622, when 4 women were executed. In 1636, the first great hunt erupted and lasted until 1648; the number executed has been lost, but is considered to have been great. In 1651, 86 people were executed for witchcraft. 250 people are estimated to have been executed for this charge in the first period of 1622–1651. In 1667, another 16 were burned in Ratibor. They occurred mainly in present day Silesia and the Principality of Nisa.