Quotations From The Trials
The following are citations from the chronicles of Johannes Fründ:
" In the year which was counted one thousand and four hundred and thereafter the twenty eight year after the birth of Christ, the bishopric of Wallis saw the uprising of evil, murder and heresy among witches and sorcerers, among women as well as men, known by the name sortilegi in Latin, and they were found first in two valleys in Wallis..."
" ...and an abundance of them have confessed to great evil and many murders and heretic beliefs and an abundance of evil things, which they have performed, such things which are in Latin known as sortilegia, and of which many are stated in this document; however, a lot of it is not mentioned, so that no one may be corrupted. One should consider that these people, be they male or female, which are guilty of these things and this evil which they have performed, have learned this from the evil spirit..."
"There were even those who killed their own children and fired and cooked them and took them to their company to eat them, and carried mischief and other things to church, so that everyone believed them to be children. But they had left their children at home and ate them later, when they so chose."
" There have also been many of them, guilty of such evil, so great a heresy and so many murders, that they with this evil, heresy and magic did not tell any to the priest, so that it may not be stopped. And there were many of these people, who could speak more when they had been apprehended than other uneducated people, and who called upon God and his saints more than others. This they did so that they would be considered innocent. And some of them did not confess at all; some let themselves be tormented and tortured to death, rather than confess or say anything...."
"...and still they were many testimonies against them and even more had reported them as guilty, which everyone could give proof of, and they were thought bewitched so not to be able to point out the other witches. And no matter how severely they were questioned, during more and more torture, many would no confess but let themselves be tortured. So they died from it, and were all the same judged and burned, some alive and some dead. "
" And there had been so many, that they claimed that if they had been able to rule but one year more, they could have established a court among themselves; and the evil spirit lead them to understand that they would be so strong that they need not fear no rule or court and that they would establish a court to take control over Christianity ..."
"...for they revealed they condemned over seven hundred people, of which over two hundred have been burned in one and a half years; they are still sentenced and burned every day, when you are able to arrest them."
Read more about this topic: Valais Witch Trials
Famous quotes containing the words quotations from, quotations and/or trials:
“Reading any collection of a man’s quotations is like eating the ingredients that go into a stew instead of cooking them together in the pot. You eat all the carrots, then all the potatoes, then the meat. You won’t go away hungry, but it’s not quite satisfying. Only a biography, or autobiography, gives you the hot meal.”
—Christopher Buckley, U.S. author. A review of three books of quotations from Newt Gingrich. “Newtie’s Greatest Hits,” The New York Times Book Review (March 12, 1995)
“A book that furnishes no quotations is, me judice, no book—it is a plaything.”
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866)
“All middle-class novels are about the trials of three, all upper-class novels about mass fornication, all revolutionary novels about a bad man turned good by a tractor.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)