The Executions
The condemned was tied upon a ladder with a wooden crucifix in their arms and a bag of gunpowder around their neck. The ladder was then tipped into the burning stake. Some were instead decapitated before being burned. Many were tortured to death but their bodies were burned at the stake nonetheless.
The property of the executed was given to their family only if they could swear to have been unaware of the sorcery; otherwise it went to the nobility, who paid for the executions of their vassals. When Fründ wrote his document in 1430, 100 or 200 people had been executed but the persecutions were to continue until 1447. It's hard to know the exact number of victims by that time. Unlike later trials, about as many men as women are believed to have been killed.
Read more about this topic: Valais Witch Trials
Famous quotes containing the word executions:
“[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldn’t executions be public?”
—Phil Donahue (b. 1935)