The Great Persecution

Abstract

The contribution sheds light on a mass witch trial that began in 1661 at the court in Hrastovec. It is related to proceedings initiated a decade later and taking place simultaneously in at least five courts. Those convicted were forced to list the names of many witchcraft meeting participants, which were described with all sorts of demonic imagery. The trials were thus interconnected and kept dragging on because of the confrontations between the accused. Despite the many mass trials, the number of the indicted even exceeded those that were actually put to trial. The proceedings were caused by weather storms, and many people were only tried when a new round of trials followed a storm. The trials were affected by the people’s understanding of the causes of the disasters, conspiracy theories, and various actors such as the rural population affected by the disasters, neighbourly disputes, superstitions, belief in magic, cruel, bloodthirsty judges and their personal motives, and the Inner Austrian government in charge of the criminal justice apparatus.