WITCH-BAITING CASE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10304, 13 January 1927, Page 5

WITCH-BAITING CASE

PEASANT BRIDE TORTURED TO

DEATH

ACCUSED OF CAUSING CATTLE PLAGUE.

(Received Jan. 12,

5.5 p.m.)

BERLIN, -Jan. 11

A strange witch-baiting case resulted in a peasant bride of three weeks being tortured to death at Haltern in Westphalia. The young girl was married at Christmas and brought to hospital suffering grievous injuries. When dying she said her husband and his fainly caused them, as a forbioc teller pointed her out as a witch who had caused the cattle plague. The father-in-law’s farm was therefore locked up, and she was beaten, starved and slowly tortured to death. The fortune teller and the husband’s familv have been arrested. —A. and N.Z.C.A.

WITCHES IN ENGLAND

A “HUGE PACK” DISCOVERED

Everyone interested in medical science knows that it was a certain Dr. William Harvey who first discovered the circulation of the blood, but don’t know that this same learned man was also employed in the role of smeller out of witches. The story of his association with witches is told in the “Britih Aledical Journal ’ by Dr. H. A. Clowes.

It seems that “a huge pack” of witches was discovered in Northern England in 1634. They were hunted and seven of them caught, and thrown into prison, accused, among other things, of having caused a storm “wherein His Majesty was in so great danger at sea in Scotland. ’ Three of the unfortunates died in prison, and it- was decided to send remaining four to London, there to undergo a medical examination in order to decide whether they really were witches. Spiritually, they had been found guilty, the Bishop of Chester, who examined them, recording that there was no doubt whatsoever that intimate relations existed between them and the Devil. With bis knowledge, his science, was Harvey able to escape from the beliefs of the early part of the seventeenth century, in which he lived? He could not at any rate, escape serving as a medical examiner for witclmraft. To “The Shippe Taverrie, - where tne witenes a waited them, went six learned doctors, among them, “Air. Dr. Harvey. After due investigation the doctors found the witches innocent, and, in spite of the Bishop of Chester's evidence, the Council of State refused to prosecute them and they were given their liberty. So one is left to wonder what partWilliam Harvey played in their acquittal. Did the man vlicm history records as being so unemotional that while the battle of Edgehill raged he retired under a hedge, took a boos, out of his pocket and read,, really believe in tlie evil influences of witches over the destinies of mankind:-' There is a chance that he did not. He din not. according to Dr. Clowes, actually sign the medical report declaring the women innocent of witchcraft. There is nothing to show that the great doctor shared in the views of Ins nge.