So what happened to those accused of witchcraft So what happened to those accused of witchcraft? Homework: Read through the information and complete the table on slide 11

1. SWIMMING / DUCKING The accused witch had her hands and feet tied, and then she was put into deep water. If the accused witch floated, the water (God’s creature) had rejected her and she was deemed guilty; if she sank (and drowned), she was said to be innocent.

2. PRICKING The accused witch could also be pricked all over with a sharp instrument (known as “pricking”) in the search for insensitive spots where the Devil had (visibly or invisibly) marked them. Alternatively the 'witch mark' might be pricked with a knife, to see if it bled. If the mark did not bleed, the accused was guilty of being in league with the devil.

3. THE WHEEL AND THE RACK The rack was designed to stretch the body to dislocate its joints. The dislocations of joints was heard as popping sounds, often mixed with the shrieks of agony. The pain of stretching was sometimes further increased by gouging eyes, branding body with hot irons or tearing off tongue, nipples, ears, noses with red hot pincers.

4. THE INTESTINAL CRANK This method of torture involved cutting the stomach open and taking out part of the intestines. These were attached to an intestinal crank. The crank could be wound tighter to get information, as the crank was wound more of the intestines would be stretch out. The accused witch would still be conscious .

5. BURNING AT THE STAKE Execution by burning is quite a common punishment, it was believed the only way of removing the witches power was to bleed her (remove her blood) and burning her alive did this. It’s usually called ‘burning at the stake’ because the guilty witch is tied to a stake surrounding by burning wood. This form of burning would lead to an agonising death as witches were sometimes burnt alive (some were stangled 1st). If still alive the flames could reach head level before the witch had died. If a witch was especially unco-operative green wood would be used as this took longer to burn.

6. HANGING The most frequent used method of killing a witch in England was hanging (burning was more common in other countries). Hanging would draw a big crowd, who found it entertaining. The Witch would be hung from a tree or gallows. Death could be quite slow depending on how well the noose had been made and whether her neck was broken immediately.

7. TORTURE Tortures were also used to get confessions. These including thumbscrews, leg vices, whipping stocks with iron spikes, scalding lime baths, prayer stools furnished with sharp pegs, racks, and the strappado (hoisting on a pulley to pull the arms from the sockets).

8. EXPOSURE Mostly in early Medieval Times, heretics and witches were condemned to be fixed to the ground with iron nails. Spreading arms and legs while being naked under the sun resulted in having very strong sunburns all around a person's body. If this wasn't enough, wild animals used to eat the victim alive; the pain of having an animal eating burnt flesh is comparable to the wheel and other more recent torture devices. The victim was lucky if the closest animal was a bear; for there were smaller animals, such as mice; who would eat him slowly.

9. STONING This is one of the most humiliating tortures designed. When a women was accused of being unfaithful to her husband or a witch, she was tied to a horse and dragged everywhere the rider wanted. When the person was hated by the people, stones (hence the name) and other sharp or hot materials were placed on the floor to increase the victim's suffering while being taken all over town for everyone to see. When on death penalty, the victim would take a long time to die; normally more than an hour. Villagers would scream things and yell insults to the unfortunate person. If they were bored, they would grab stones and throw them at their victim; thus increasing dying speed--and pain.

What’s the punishment – Info sheet From the information: Record the punishments on the table below. Info Numbe Punishment Picture 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Can you do more? What do these punishments suggest about attitudes to witchcraft? Explain your answer