Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Cologne
- Responses of Authority
- Duchy of Westphalia, subject to
Prince-Elector Ferdinand,
Archbishop of Cologne (reigned
1612-50)
- Around 2000 people were
burned for witchcraft
between 1626-1634
- Ferdinand had been educated
in Trier during the witch-hunt
of the 1590s
- First 15 years of his rule there
were few witchcraft
prosecutions
- Only after the persecution of witches had
gathered momentum at local level did Ferdinand
intervene, appointing witch-commissioners to
establish control over the situation
- Commissioners soon got out
of control, implementing
their own policies and
terrorising whole regions
- Social and Economic
- Series of devastating crop failures
led to the Cologne witch-hunts