Johannes Junius
A CONFESSION OF WITCHCRAFT
EXPLAINED
In 1628 Johannes Junius, lord mayor of
Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter
Veronica. Innocent have I come into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent
must I die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must become a witch or be
tortured until he invents something out of his head and—God pity him—bethinks
him of something. I will tell you how it has gone with me. When I was the first
time put to the torture, Dr. Braun, Dr. Kötzendörffer, and two strange doctors
were there. Then Dr. Braun asks me, “Kinsman, how come you here?” I answer, “Through
falsehood, through misfortune.” “Hear, you,” he says, “you are a witch; will
you confess it voluntarily? If not, we’ll bring in witnesses and the
executioner for you.” I said “I am no witch, I have a pure conscience in the
matter; if there are a thousand witnesses, I am not anxious, but I’ll gladly
hear the witnesses.” Now the chancellor’s son was set before me . . . and
afterward Hoppfen Elss. She had seen me dance on Haupts-moor. . . . I answered:
“I have never renounced God, and will never do it—God graciously keep me from
it. F 11 rather bear whatever I must.” And then came also—God in highest Heaven
have mercy—the executioner, and put the thumb- screws on me, both hands bound
together, so that the blood ran out at the nails and everywhere, so that for
four weeks I could not use my hands, as you can see from the writing.
Thereafter they first stripped me, bound my hands behind me,
and drew me up in the torture. Then I thought heaven and earth were at an end; eight
times did they draw me up and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible
agony. . . . *
When at last the executioner led me back into the prison, he
said to me: “Sir, I beg you, for God’s sake confess something, whether it be
true or not. Invent something, for you cannot endure the torture which you will
be put to; and, even if you bear it all, yet you will not escape, not even if
you were an earl (high nobleman], but one torture will follow after another
until you say you are a witch. Not before that,” he said, “will they let you go,
as you may see by all their trials, for one is just like another.”.
And so I begged, since I was in wretched plight, to be given
one day for thought and a priest. The priest was refused me, but the time for
thought was given. Now, my dear child, see in what hazard I stood and still
stand. I must say that I am a witch, though I am not,—must now renounce God, though
I have never done it before. Day and night I was deeply troubled, but at last
there came to me a new idea. I would not be anxious, but, since I had been
given no priest with whom I could take counsel, I would myself think of
something and say it. It were surely better that I just say it with mouth and
words, even though I had not really done it; and afterwards I would confess it
to the priest, and let those answer for it who compel me to do it. . . . And so
I made my confession, . . . but it was all a lie.
Now follows, dear child, what I confessed in order to escape
that great anguish and bitter torture, which it was impossible for me longer to
bear. [He then describes his confession]
Now, dear child, here you have all my confession, for which
I must die. And they are sheer lies and made-up things, so help me God. For all
this I was forced to say through fear of the torture which was threatened
beyond what I had already endured. For they never leave off with the torture
till one confesses something be he ever so good, he must be a witch. Nobody
escapes, though he were an earl.
Dear child, keep this letter secret so that people do not find it, else I shall be tortured most piteously and the jailers will be beheaded. So strictly is it forbidden. . . . Dear child, pay this man a dollar. . . . I have taken several days to write this: my hands are both lame. I am in a sad plight…..
Good night, for your father Johannes Junius will never see
you more. July 24, 1628.
[And on the margin of the letter he adds:]
Dear child, six have confessed against me at once: the
Chancellor, his son, Neudecker, Zaner, Hoffmaisters Ursel, and Hoppfen Elss—all
false, through compulsion, as they have all told me, and begged my forgiveness
in God’s name before they were executed.
They know nothing but good of me. They were forced to say it,
just as I myself was….
* This torture of the strappado, which was that in most common use by the courts, consisted of a rope, attached to the hands of the prisoner (bound behind his back) and carried over a pulley at the ceiling. By this he was drawn up and left hanging. To increase the pain, weights were attached to his feet or he was suddenly jerked up and let drop.