The trial of tempel anneke pdf

T h e T r i a l o f T e m p e l A n n e k e

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The Trial of Tempel Anneke

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The Trial of Tempel Anneke

broadview press

Records of a Witchcraft Trial in Brunswick, Germany, 1663

Edited by Peter Morton

Translated by Barbara Dähms

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Figure 1 (previous page) Cityscape of Brunswick from the east 1652 by Conrat Buno after Merian. This engraving shows the city as it appeared at the time of the trial. The cathedral, the Dom of St. Blasius, is directly below the crest in the centre of the picture. The municipality of Hagen, where the trial took place, is on the right side of the cityscape.

©2006 Peter Morton and Barbara Dähms

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying, a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), One Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, on m5e 1e5—is an infringement of the copyright law.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

The trial of Tempel Anneke : records of a witchcraft trial in Brunswick, Germany, 1663 /edited by Peter A. Morton ; translated by Barbara Dähms.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-55111-706-1 1. Roleffes, Anna, ca. 1600-1663 – Trials, litigation, etc. 2. Trials (Witchcraft) – Germany – Braunschweig. I. Morton, Peter Alan II. Dähms, Barbara, 1954-

KK270.7.R65T75 2005 345.43’59760288 C2005-905905-2

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For Paul

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Table of Contents

Preface • ix Acknowledgements • xi List of Illustrations • xii

List of Maps • xii

Introduction • xiii I. Historical Background • xiii

II. Understanding the Text • xxxiii Further Reading • xliv

The Trial of Tempel Anneke (1663) • 1 Document A • 3 Document B • 4 Document C • 6

Folio 1 • 7 Folio 2 • 9 Folio 3 • 14 Folio 4 • 24 Folio 5 • 25 Folio 6 • 27 Folio 7 • 32 Folio 8 • 36 Folio 9 • 39 Folio 10 • 41 Folio 11 • 46 Folio 12 • 48 Folio 13 • 49 Folio 14a • 50 Folio 14b • 53 Folio 15 • 55 Folio 16 • 56 Folio 18 • 57 Folio 19 • 62 Folio 20 • 63 Folio 21 • 66

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Folio 22 • 71 Folio 23 • 80 Folio 24 • 82 Folio 25 • 83 Folio 26 • 84 Folio 27 • 95 Folio 28 • 98 Folio 29 • 106 Folio 30 • 112 Folio 31 • 113 Folio 32 • 117 Folio 33 • 119 Folio 34 • 124 Folio 35 • 127 Folio 36 • 128 Folio 37 • 130 Folio 38 • 131 Folio 39 • 133 Folio 40 • 136 Folio 41 • 138 Folio 42 • 140 Folio 43 • 142 Folio 44 • 148 Folio 45 • 150

Supplementary Civic Records • 152

Appendices • 157 A. Glossary of Latin Terms • 158

B. Index of Herbs and Medicinal Ingredients • 163

References • 166 Sources • 170 Index • 171

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Preface

This book is a translation of the records of a witchcraft trial that took place in Brunswick, Germany, in 1663. Our intent has been to make the complete contents of the original documents available in English, as they exist in the archive, and occasionally as they can be reconstructed from other sources. Our decision to translate the records arose from our joint belief that they offer an unusually close picture of the people involved, especially of Tempel Anneke herself. Of the trial records in the Brunswick area that we have read, including some as detailed as the Tempel Anneke case, this one stands out in its vividness.

The book is organized into three basic parts. In the Introduction, we give some historical background and describe the legal context of the trial. The trial records and supplementary archival documents make up the bulk of the book. In the last section, we have included appendices to assist with the Latin terms used in the records, and with the identification of the herbs and medicinal ingredients mentioned in the trial testimony.

The introduction provides background to the trial’s social and historical context. The first section outlines the situation in Brunswick at the time of the trial, and presents some key historical background: we detail here the early modern “composite” nature of witchcraft as consisting of both malefi- cium and diabolism, and also the role of the Carolina (the criminal code of the Holy Roman Empire) in the actual structure of the legal proceedings. The second section of the Introduction describes the archival documents: of what they consist, who wrote them, and the positions and responsibilities of the court officials named. This second section also considers some aspects of the translation, such as the choice of specific words as well as certain conventions we have adopted in reproducing the text.

We wish to emphasize what this volume does not undertake to do. It is intended as a primary source document, with as much background informa- tion as is needed to make sense of the text. In this light, the introductory chapter is not in any way intended as a general introduction to the history of the witch trials of early modern Europe. The general history of the trials is a large and complex subject, embracing a number of controversial issues, and we have not attempted a synopsis of it here. For those readers with an interest in the wider history of the witch trials, we have included footnotes with references, and a brief section of further readings. Here again, because

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the literature is so vast, we have included in this section only those materials that offer an introduction to the topic, rather than attempting any kind of general bibliography.

We have not included our own interpretation of the records or provided a synopsis of their contents. While we certainly have our own theories about the trial, we do not want these to come between the reader and the text. We adopted the same approach in the translation. In the interests of providing as direct an experience with the records as possible, this is a fairly literal transla- tion which preserves the style and character of the original, while leaving the result easily readable in English.

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[ the tr ial of tempel anneke: acknowled gement s ]

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Acknowledgements

First of all we thank Katharina Dähms and Hans-Dietrich Dähms for their support and hospitality during research visits to Brunswick. We thank the Department of Humanities of Mount Royal College for continuous support and encouragement. For much advice and direction with sources and histori- cal material, we thank Peter’s departmental colleagues: Tom Brown, David Clemis, Steven Engler, Debra Jensen, and Scott Murray. Manuel Mertin, Dean of Arts of Mount Royal College, has also been supportive of the project from the outset.

The project received financial support, as well as encouragement, from the Scholarly Pursuits Committee of Mount Royal College. Professor J.J. MacIntosh of the University of Calgary was enthusiastically helpful in obtain- ing financial assistance.

The staff of the Stadtarchiv Braunschweig, especially Herr Krone and Herr Nickel, have been continuously helpful, both during our initial collecting of documents and with the selection and reproduction of illustrations. We also thank the Landesmuseum Braunschweig, and specifically Herr Otte, for help with illustrations.

Janet Sisson of Mount Royal College was most helpful with the Latin translations. We received much good advice and some useful references from three anonymous reviewers.

Finally, we thank Mical Moser of Broadview Press for her encouragement and patience, as well as her constant good humour.

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[ the tr ial of tempel anneke: i llustrat ions & maps ]

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List of Illustrations

Figure 1 Cityscape of Brunswick from the east 1652 by Conrat Buno after Merian • ii-iii

Figure 2 The Brunswick Opera House (formerly the Municipal Hall of Hagen) Copper Plate by Beck 1747 • xv

Figure 3 Cityscape of Brunswick from the east 1652 by Conrat Buno after Merian (detail) • xvi-xvii

Figure 4 First page of Folio 11: The testimony of Hille Voge • 45 Figure 5 First page of Folio 23: The medical judgment of Laurentius

Gieseler • 79 Figure 6 First page of Folio 44: The final judgment • 146 Figure 7 Second page of Folio 44: The final judgment • 147 Figure 8 Christmas Rose (helleborus niger) • 162

List of Maps

Map 1 Plan of the City of Brunswick 1671 • vxiii-xix Map 2 Plan of the City of Brunswick 1671 (detail) • xx-xxi Map 3 District of the Duchy of Brunswick 1715 (detail) • xxii-xxiii

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1 The name of the village has a form common to the region: the term “büttel” is from the ancient Saxon word for house or farm, to which is added the name of the original family. In this case the family name was originally “Harckes.” So the name indicates the farm of the Harckes family.

Introduction

I. Historical Background

Sometime in June of 1663 Anna Roleffes, known locally as Tempel Anneke, of the village of Harxbüttel¹ near the city of Brunswick, was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft and was imprisoned in the municipality of Hagen in Brunswick. The earliest written allegations against her appeared in the summer of 1662, and from these records it seems that there were already at that time official enquiries into her activities. Her ultimate arrest stemmed from the charge that she used sorcery to obtain the return of goods stolen from a roofer, Hans Tiehmann. Following her arrest the court investigated a number of other allegations against Tempel Anneke, some from many years earlier, and numerous witnesses were questioned about their knowledge of her affairs. The trial lasted from 25 June to 30 December. Under torture she confessed to witchcraft, and on the latter date she was beheaded and her body was burned.

At the time of her trial Tempel Anneke was a widow, living on the farm of her son, in Harxbüttel, a small village some seven kilometers northwest of Brunswick. Her husband, Hans Kage, had been killed in 1641. In her first testimony before the court Tempel Anneke says that she was born in Harxbüttel, and that she was five years old when Duke Heinrich besieged the city in 1605. The name, Tempel Anneke, derived from the fact that a church property, called the Tempel Hof, of the Order of St. Blasius in Brunswick, had been established in the village. A public house was part of the property, and the publican at the time of the trial, Hans Harves, was called “Tempel Hans.” We do not know how Anna Roleffes obtained the same name. “Anneke” is a diminutive of “Anna.”

The trial testimony indicates that Tempel Anneke practiced as a healer and diviner (a person who can obtain hidden information such as the location of lost goods). She had business in Hagen, and the testimony of her activities originates from several towns and villages in the area northwest of the city. Many of the common social characteristics of those accused of witchcraft at the time apply to Tempel Anneke. She was female, elderly, widowed, and

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1 For the history of Brunswick in the seventeenth century, we have drawn on Jarck and Schildt (2000), Monderhack (1997), and especially Spiess (1966).

dependent upon her family. She may have portrayed her practice as involv- ing magic, although she denies this in her earliest statements to the court. She was literate and owned a few books and herbals, which was unusual for a farm woman of the time. In her testimony she claims to have gained her first medical knowledge from her mother, who had been a maid to a barber in her youth. (In the seventeenth century barbers provided basic medical services in addition to cutting hair.) She claims to have obtained additional knowledge from her books, and from the practices of shepherds and other local people.

A. The city of Brunswick in the seventeenth century¹

Brunswick lies in the eastern region of Lower Saxony in northern Germany, between Hannover and Berlin. In the twelfth century the Guelph duke, Henry the Lion, selected Brunswick as his principal residence, and he built there a castle and a large cathedral, the Dom of St. Blasius. Over the cen- turies Brunswick became an important commercial centre, strategically located on principal trade routes between northern European cities. In the seventeenth century it was a fortified city of some 15,000 inhabitants. Until 1671 Brunswick belonged to the Hanseatic League of cities, whose members were independent in commerce and local governance from their surround- ing jurisdictions.

At the time Brunswick had an unusual civic structure, and to an extent this affected the trial’s legal structure and proceedings. From its earliest days as a settlement on the banks of the Oker River, the city was formed of distinct and largely independent municipalities or boroughs. By the seventeenth cen- tury there were five such municipalities: Altstadt, Hagen, Neustadt, Sack, and Altewieck. Each had its own town hall, mayors and town council, court, and (except Sack) its own district church. There were in addition two independent ecclesiastical districts: the cathedral chapter of St. Blasius in the city centre, and the church and monastery of St. Aegidien in the south. For important matters of common concern the city maintained a General Council, the Gemeine Rat, comprised of representatives of the individual municipal councils.

The seventeenth century was a harsh time for much of central Europe, and the trial took place during a particularly difficult period in Brunswick’s

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history. An important line of the Guelph dukes, the house of Brunswick- Lüneburg, had its seat in the town of Wolfenbüttel, just 15 kilometres south of Brunswick, and for a long time the dukes had claimed their right over the city. They besieged the city several times, and blocked its trade routes for long periods: not surprisingly, this had a serious impact on the local economy. The dukes gained full control of the city in 1671, and it became part of the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. A much larger military engage- ment, the Thirty Years War, raged around Brunswick between 1618 and 1648. The war had a devastating effect on the civilian population. Tempel Anneke’s husband was killed by soldiers outside of Wolfenbüttel in 1641. Through the skillful diplomacy of its officials, Brunswick managed to avoid besiegement, unlike many cities in the region. Its success in avoiding the conflict, however, brought with it a different cost. As an island of relative peace, the city was swamped with refugees, both noble and poor, especially from nearby Magdeburg (which was burned to the ground in 1631). The resultant overcrowding brought disease, and exacerbated outbreaks of the plague. To add to these difficulties, the region suffered a series of unusually cold winters. Ironically, the frigid winter of 1657/58 brought to an end the worst plague of the century, in which more than 5,000 people in the city died.