Michael Ostling
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199587902
- eISBN:
- 9780191731228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587902.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Social History
What factors exacerbated witch-trials in Poland, and what factors tended to limit the number of trials? This chapter shows that the weak, decentralized Polish courts resulted in relatively few trials ...
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What factors exacerbated witch-trials in Poland, and what factors tended to limit the number of trials? This chapter shows that the weak, decentralized Polish courts resulted in relatively few trials but in a high rate of execution. Court procedure remained largely accusatory, and the expenses of a trial were considerable. By the same token, once an accuser, usually a nobleman, agreed to fund a trial, he expected and usually got a guilty verdict and a capital sentence. Many town courts sent magistrates to a village to try witches in situ (a practice called deputation): such trials had an especially high execution rate. But jurisdictional conflicts kept the feudal subjects of other noblemen safe from trial, and prevented chain-reaction trials.Less
What factors exacerbated witch-trials in Poland, and what factors tended to limit the number of trials? This chapter shows that the weak, decentralized Polish courts resulted in relatively few trials but in a high rate of execution. Court procedure remained largely accusatory, and the expenses of a trial were considerable. By the same token, once an accuser, usually a nobleman, agreed to fund a trial, he expected and usually got a guilty verdict and a capital sentence. Many town courts sent magistrates to a village to try witches in situ (a practice called deputation): such trials had an especially high execution rate. But jurisdictional conflicts kept the feudal subjects of other noblemen safe from trial, and prevented chain-reaction trials.
