Witches, Demons and Torturers
by Charles C. Hall, Ed.D.

"Ignorance is a sin, but there should be a law aganst it."

-Ben Franklin

(Note to the reader: I planned this piece for Halloween. However, the content frightened me to such an extent that I had to set it aside. You see, I had a dental appointment scheduled that week which I was not looking forward to. To calm myself, I wrote about my dogs and the Little Prince.)

For two and a half centuries (or more) in Europe, England and other countries of the world, "... people held the unshakeable belief that witches and demons and evil spirits walked the earth to meddle in the affairs of men. Also, that man had the power to summon these evils in their service to work upon their fellow humans, " Charles Mackay writes.* Those were the days of "little knowledge."

Power was held by scribes (who were Monks) and the priesthood limiting the ability of common folk to learn basic truths. There existed a tight bond between the state and the church. Their entities did not want people to learn to read or write. The feudal system held a stranglehold over the serfs who were not permitted to mingle with serfs of other fiefdoms. Therefore, superstition and superstitious beliefs were the common fare of those days. All manner of events were somehow (in serfs' minds) based on erroneous beliefs.

Fears of the unknown have been in the minds of man for eons. Superstitions, hexes, charms, crystals "bug" us to this day when we hope to avoid calamity, or seek good fortune. All these suppositions are fueled by the notion that there is something within us that will never die.

Such unfounded and uninformed thinking has, and does, lead to tragic error. Epidemic terror cascaded across Europe, etc., etc., to such an extent that it is estimated that some five hundred thousand persons were horribly tortured, mutilated, hanged, burned at the stake, pulled limb from limb on the rack, thumbs crushed, and so on by machines of the day engineered to inflict maximum pain and damage to the entire body. All forms of "punishment" were meant to extract confessions from the unfortunate soul for being a witch, warlock or demon. Anyone could accuse anyone of being in those categories. Even though one may have confessed (to stop the pain), they were unable to escape the torture since the church edict was, "... no witch should be permitted to walk among the pure and God-fearing."

When one was singled out as a shout of "Witch!", it was "hello rack" for that person. Ugly old women had a particularly bad day of it. One did not want to be ugly, epileptic, deformed, mentally bereft, or thought to be stupid. Each was a prime target for torture.

Torture and accusations of witchcraft have been around for many thousands of years. One's blood enemies were very likely to find themselves brutally sacrificed. Examples abound. The Inca and Aztecs of the old world practiced several forms on enemies and pure virgins in the belief that some god would be pleased; Nazis of Europe in order "to purify" the human race, Native Americans and European Americans against each other over land and resources. The recent expose's of torture in the "war on terror" ... whatever that is, elicit little worthwhile information just as it has always been practiced. Who wouldn't give a fake story to stop pain?

"Witchery was on the tongue of everyone from around the twelfth to the sixteenth century." With the unknown surrounding his very being day in and day out, each day was frought with fear and terror, he had no way of verifying much of anything," Mackay writes. It was a struggle simply to survive.

Ferdinand and Isabella ushered in the Spanish Inquisition, again "to purify" the masses. (Why do so many want "to purify " so many others?) The state/church sponsored Inquisition raged across the land like a hundred-mile wide tornado, sucking up untold thousands in its wake.

One of the "beasties" of torture was the Iron Maiden, engineered in Germany in 1895. It was iron built in the posture of a woman, thus its name. Knives were built inside this contraption which, when the door was closed, punctured every vital organ of the body in addition to arms and legs. Isabella would have loved that one!

I have heard that the belief in demons and witches exists to this day. Apparently we've not learned much from the past. I don't know what to make of it. Seems weird. Oops!! Watch that ladder!!!

So it goes . . . .

*Mackay, Charles, Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, 1841.