Witchcraft in the Osterlands

Like many European countries, the Osterlands took a firm stance on witchcraft in the 17th century. The most famous purge of witches took place in the 1620 Witch Hunt.

Early Witchcraft Laws
As early as 1389 there had been laws abolishing witchcraft and fortune telling. Many people believed that faith in God directly impacted on the success of farming methods and would ask priests to regular bless their lands. When crops failed, it was often assigned to the poor behaviour of the farmer and his family but by 1400 a more serious charge had begun to be used in courts. The first trial on a charge of witchcraft was against Frans Reyns from the village of Haudd in Dietberg. Reyns was put on trial in 1402 under the Witchcraft and Soothsaying Act 1400, charged with causing a rival farmer's crop to fail and for the "possessing of his farmhand to cause injury to hisself thus crippling his labours". Reyns was founded guilty and hanged. Whilst trials did take place regularly, most did not end in a conviction until the hysteria of 1620.

1620 Witch Hunt
On the 10 July 1620, a local magistrate in Demen, Boon brought fifteen women to court on a charge of witchcraft. The women were accused of working together in league with the devil to cause the deaths of their husbands. Whilst there was no doubt that the men had died suddenly, this was probably caused by the unsanitary conditions of the town's water supply and many female residents had died too. In what proved to be the catalyst for mass hysteria, fellow villagers came forward with wild accusations of curses. Several witnesses claimed that the women had gathered on a hill and performed a Black Mass to curse the men of the village. Whilst the younger women were released, eleven of them were put to death by 'boarding', the process of laying a heavy wooden door over the victim with rocks and stones placed on it to crush them to death. As the story spread, more and more charges were brought until by September 1620 over 10,000 cases of witchcraft had been reported. The government appointed Germann Wyngaert as Witchcraft Magistrate General, a position which gave him the power to personally oversee all court cases brought against alleged witches. Wyngaert seemingly enjoyed the fame his position brought him, not to mention the large sums of money he was paid by noble families to "purge" their lands of witchcraft. By the end of the year, over 6,700 people had been put to death for witchcraft.

Wyngaert Trial
In 1621, a prominent magistrate, Erick van Voorde, convinced ten other magistrates to bring charges against Wyngaert. They claimed that if Wyngaert knew enough about witchcraft to identify a witch from a mortal, he must have some inside knowledge or association with witchcraft himself. In reality, the magistrates were frustrated with Wyngaert's interference in court trials that did not include charges of witchcraft. He was put on trial on the 4 June 1621 at Oster County Gaol and charged with thirty nine charges of withcraft, however most of these came from families who had seen husbands, wives, sons and daughters put to death as witches. Wyngaert was found guilty of being a witch on the 10 June 1621 and shortly before his execution, he published a document "Letter to God Fearing Kin" in which he confessed that many of his trials had been conducted "with poor thought or deed". Many took this to mean that witchcraft either didn't exist or that no man could tell a witch from a mortal. Following his death, Wyngaert's body was buried in the mass grave in Sendhoven used for witches. A law was passed the following year which kept witchcraft as a criminal offence but made it more difficult to gain a conviction. No charge was brought on the 1622 law until 1906.

Bomen Case 1906
In January 1906, an elderly widow Ann Bomen was arrested by police after her son mysteriously vanished. On searching the property, they found bottles and jars filled with strange concotions such as calf brains in red wine and herbs soaking in oil. They removed cast iron pots and implements, books on spiritualism and the occult from the property and sought a conviction of Bomen as a witch. Bomen claimed that she was a spiritualist and a practicing medium (which was not a punishable offence by law) but that the jars and bottles were found in the pantry and were cooking ingredients. Furthermore, she explained that her son had not vanished at all but had been exported for murder. Ashamed of this, she told neighbours that he had disappeared and their reports to the police were unfounded. She was charged with perjury for not alerting the police to her son's whereabouts but given only a fine of fifty guilders. After the Bomen Case, witchcraft laws were abolished.

Modern Day
Neopaganism was registered as a state recognised religion in 2003 amid much controversy. The government census in 2002 revealed that 56,000 respondents identified themselves as pagan, wiccan, druid or neopagan and in an effort to expand the state protection given to faiths, Neopaganism (to include wicca) was given the status of a religion in the Osterlands. Opponents said that this encouraged the young to turn away from traditional religious influences and to explore dangerous faiths, however the government upheld that the same reasoning could be applied to the six other faiths also given state recognition in 2003. These were: Bahá'í, the Rastafari Movement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Druidry, Scientology and Zoroastrianism.

See: Religion in the Osterlands

Category: Religion