120-418: An impaler is a person who inflicts impalement . Impaler may also refer to: Impalement Impalement , as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso . It was particularly used in response to "crimes against the state" and is regarded across a number of cultures as
240-453: A 13th-century ordinance for Moravian mining city Jihlava (then and German Iglau), whereas in a 1340 Vienna statute, the husband of a woman caught in flagrante in adultery could, if he wished to, demand that his wife and her lover be impaled, or alternatively demand a monetary restitution. Occasionally, women found guilty of witchcraft have been condemned to be impaled. In 1587 Kiel , 101-year-old Sunde Bohlen was, on being condemned as
360-504: A Christian spoke or acted out against the "Law of Mahomet", or consorted with a Turkish woman, or broke into a mosque, then he might face impalement unless he converted to Islam. In contrast, de Thévenot says that in Egypt impalement was a "very ordinary punishment" against the Arabs there, whereas Turks in Egypt were strangled in prison instead of being publicly executed like the natives. Thus,
480-458: A German, and shot the soldier off his horse. The priest was later impaled. In the short-lived 1784 Horea Revolt against the Austrians and Hungarians, the rebels gained hold of two officers, whom they promptly impaled. On their side, the imperial troops got hold of Horea 's 13-year-old son, and impaled him. That seems to have merely inflamed the rebel leader's determination, although the revolt
600-536: A benevolent pagan religion that had survived the Christianization of Europe. This has been discredited by further historical research. From the 1930s, occult neopagan groups began to emerge who called their religion a kind of 'witchcraft'. They were initiatory secret societies inspired by Murray's 'witch cult' theory, ceremonial magic , Aleister Crowley 's Thelema , and historical paganism. The biggest religious movement to emerge from this
720-531: A dozen" public executions there. Jean de Thévenot, traveling in the Ottoman Empire and its territories like Egypt in the late 1650s, emphasizes the regional variations in impalement frequency. Of Constantinople and Turkey, de Thévenot writes that impalement was "not much practised" and "very rarely put in practice." An exception he highlighted was the situation of Christians in Constantinople. If
840-477: A fellow citizen is to be impaled in the Phoenician town Sidon , due to some "great sin" committed against the patron deity of Sidon. During Dynasty 19, Merneptah had Libu prisoners of war impaled ("caused to be set upon a stake") to the south of Memphis, following an attempted invasion of Egypt during his Regnal Year 5. The relevant determinative for ḫt ("stake") depicts an individual transfixed through
960-521: A few years ago", a dozen or so robbers were impaled at Adrianople. All of them, however, had been strangled prior to impalement. Writing around 1850, the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard mentions that the latest case he was acquainted with happened "about ten years ago" in Baghdad, on four rebel Arab sheikhs. Impalement of pirates , rather than highway robbers, is also occasionally recorded. In October 1767 Hassan Bey, who had preyed on Turkish ships in
1080-524: A form of hanging upon a pole, rather than focusing upon the stake's actual penetration of the body. From John Granger Cook, 2014: " Stipes is Seneca's term for the object used for impalement. This narrative and his Ep . 14.5 are the only two textually explicit references to impalement in Latin texts:" I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made differently by different [fabricators]; some individuals suspended their victims with heads inverted toward
1200-550: A minority of the accused in any area studied". Likewise, Davies says "relatively few cunning-folk were prosecuted under secular statutes for witchcraft" and were dealt with more leniently than alleged witches. The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (1532) of the Holy Roman Empire , and the Danish Witchcraft Act of 1617, stated that workers of folk magic should be dealt with differently from witches. It
1320-641: A minority of those accused. European belief in witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment . Many indigenous belief systems that include the concept of witchcraft likewise define witches as malevolent, and seek healers (such as medicine people and witch doctors ) to ward-off and undo bewitchment. Some African and Melanesian peoples believe witches are driven by an evil spirit or substance inside them. Modern witch-hunting takes place in parts of Africa and Asia. Today, followers of certain types of modern paganism identify as witches and use
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#17327694542451440-805: A multi-phase journey influenced by culture , spirituality , and societal norms. Ancient witchcraft in the Near East intertwined mysticism with nature through rituals and incantations aligned with local beliefs. In ancient Judaism , magic had a complex relationship, with some forms accepted due to mysticism while others were considered heretical . The medieval Middle East experienced shifting perceptions of witchcraft under Islamic and Christian influences, sometimes revered for healing and other times condemned as heresy . Jewish attitudes toward witchcraft were rooted in its association with idolatry and necromancy , and some rabbis even practiced certain forms of magic themselves. References to witchcraft in
1560-462: A pile of the living men and of heads over against the city gate I set up, men I impaled on stakes, the city I destroyed and devastated, I turned it into mounds and ruin heaps, the young men and the maidens in the fire I burned Paul Kern, in his (1999) Ancient Siege Warfare , provides some statistics on how different Neo-Assyrian kings from the times of Ashurnasirpal II commemorated their punishments of rebels. Although impalement of rebels and enemies
1680-465: A trough of earth upon the woman's head. It is said that a scream was heard, and the earth moved upwards for a moment, before it was all over. Joseph Pitton de Tournefort , travelling on botanical research in the Levant 1700–1702, observed both ordinary longitudinal impalement, but also a method called "gaunching", in which the condemned is hoisted up by means of a rope over a row of sharp metal hooks. He
1800-563: A variety of cultural, sexual, and religious reasons. References to impalement in Babylonia and the Neo-Assyrian Empire are found as early as the 18th century BC. Impaling an individual along the body length has been documented in several cases, and the merchant Jean de Thevenot provides an eyewitness account of this from 17th-century Egypt, in the case of a man condemned to death for the use of false weights: They lay
1920-527: A very harsh form of capital punishment and recorded in myth and art . Impalement was also used during times of war to suppress rebellions , punish traitors or collaborators, and punish breaches of military discipline . Offences where impalement was occasionally employed included contempt for the state's responsibility for safe roads and trade routes by committing highway robbery or grave robbery , violating state policies or monopolies, or subverting standards for trade. Offenders have also been impaled for
2040-613: A wax or clay image (a poppet ) of a person to affect them magically; or using herbs , animal parts and other substances to make potions or poisons. Witchcraft has been blamed for many kinds of misfortune. In Europe, by far the most common kind of harm attributed to witchcraft was illness or death suffered by adults, their children, or their animals. "Certain ailments, like impotence in men, infertility in women, and lack of milk in cows, were particularly associated with witchcraft". Illnesses that were poorly understood were more likely to be blamed on witchcraft. Edward Bever writes: "Witchcraft
2160-406: A wide range of practices, with belief in black magic and the evil eye coexisting alongside strict prohibitions against its practice. The Quran acknowledges the existence of magic and seeks protection from its harm. Islam's stance is against the practice of magic, considering it forbidden, and emphasizes divine miracles rather than magic or witchcraft. The historical continuity of witchcraft in
2280-499: A witch (m. kaššāpu , f. kaššāptu , from kašāpu ['to bewitch'] ) was "usually regarded as an anti-social and illegitimate practitioner of destructive magic ... whose activities were motivated by malice and evil intent and who was opposed by the ašipu , an exorcist or incantation-priest". These ašipu were predominantly male representatives of the state religion, whose main role was to work magic against harmful supernatural forces such as demons . The stereotypical witch mentioned in
2400-439: A witch, buried alive, and afterwards had a stake driven through her heart. Rapists of virgins and children are also attested to have been buried alive, with a stake driven through them. In one such judicial tradition, the rapist was to be placed in an open grave, and the rape victim was ordered to make the three first strokes on the stake herself; the executioners then finishing the impalement procedure. Serving as an example of
2520-600: A witch, what makes a woman more likely than a man to be a witch, how to put a witch on trial, and how to punish a witch. The book defines a witch as evil and typically female. It became the handbook for secular courts throughout Europe, but was not used by the Inquisition, which even cautioned against relying on it. It was the most sold book in Europe for over 100 years, after the Bible. Islamic perspectives on magic encompass
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#17327694542452640-436: A woman who was to be executed for infanticide involved an executioner and two assistants. First, a grave some one-and-a-half ell deep was dug. The woman was then placed within it, her hands and feet were secured by driving nails through them. The executioner placed a small thorn bush upon her face. He then placed, and held vertically, a wooden stave on her heart in order to mark its location, while his assistants piled earth on
2760-462: Is a crime punishable by death and the country has executed people for this crime as recently as 2014. Witchcraft-related violence is often discussed as a serious issue in the broader context of violence against women . In Tanzania, an estimated 500 older women are murdered each year following accusations of witchcraft or accusations of being a witch, according to a 2014 World Health Organization report. Children who live in some regions of
2880-402: Is attested as an early execution method for people found guilty of adultery . The 1348 statutes of Zwickau allowed punishment of an adulterous couple in the following way: They were to be placed on top of each other in a grave, with a layer of thorns between them. Then, a single stake was to be hammered through them. A similar punishment by impalement for a proven male adulterer is mentioned in
3000-549: Is particularly used for women. A male practitioner of magic or witchcraft is more commonly called a ' wizard ', or sometimes, 'warlock'. When the word witch is used to refer to a member of a neo-pagan tradition or religion (such as Wicca ), it can refer to a person of any gender. Witches are commonly believed to cast curses ; a spell or set of magical words and gestures intended to inflict supernatural harm. Cursing could also involve inscribing runes or sigils on an object to give that object magical powers; burning or binding
3120-437: Is particularly well-attested from Neo-Assyrian times, the 14th-century BC Mitanni king Shattiwaza charges his predecessor, the usurper Shuttarna III for having delivered unto the (Middle) Assyrians several nobles, who had them promptly impaled. Some scholars have said, though, that it is only with King Ashur-bel-kala (r. 1074–1056) that there is solid evidence that punishments like flaying and impaling came into use. From
3240-742: Is somewhat unclear if this relates specifically to the city of Algiers, or elsewhere in the Barbary States): "Their ganshing is after this manner: he sitteth upon a wall, being five fathoms [30 feet, or about 9m] high, within two fathoms [12 feet or about 3.6m] of the top of the wall; right under the place where he sits, is a strong iron hook fastened, being very sharp; then he is thrust off the wall upon this hook, with some part of his body, and there he hangeth, sometimes two or three days, before he dieth." Davies adds that "these deaths are very seldom", but that he had personally witnessed it. A slightly variant way of executing people by means of impalement
3360-599: Is that of Pavel Vašanský (Paul Waschansky in German transcript), who was executed on 1 March 1570 in Ivančice in present-day Czech Republic, on account of 124 confessed murders (he was a roaming highwayman). He underwent a particularly gruelling execution procedure: first, his limbs were cut off and his nipples were ripped off with glowing pincers; he was then flayed, impaled and finally roasted alive. A pamphlet that purports to give Wasansky's verbatim confession, does not record how he
3480-654: Is that witches cause harm by introducing cursed magical objects into their victim's body; such as small bones or ashes. James George Frazer described this kind of magic as imitative . In some cultures, witches are believed to use human body parts in magic, and they are commonly believed to murder children for this purpose. In Europe, "cases in which women did undoubtedly kill their children, because of what today would be called postpartum psychosis , were often interpreted as yielding to diabolical temptation". Witches are believed to work in secret, sometimes alone and sometimes with other witches. Hutton writes: "Across most of
3600-414: Is the usual name, some are also known as 'blessers' or 'wizards', but might also be known as 'white', 'good', or 'unbinding witches'. Historian Owen Davies says the term "white witch" was rarely used before the 20th century. Ronald Hutton uses the general term "service magicians". Often these people were involved in identifying alleged witches. Such helpful magic-workers "were normally contrasted with
3720-416: Is then released, and depending on how the hooks enter his body, he may survive in impaled condition for a few days. Forty years earlier than de Tournefort, de Thévenot described much the same process, adding that it was seldom used because it was regarded as too cruel. Some 80 years prior to de Thevenot, in 1579, Hans Jacob Breuning von Buchenbach witnessed a variant of the gaunching ritual. A large iron hook
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3840-411: Is to use protective magic or counter-magic , often with the help of magical healers such as cunning folk or witch-doctors . This includes performing rituals , reciting charms , or the use of talismans , amulets , anti- witch marks , witch bottles , witch balls , and burying objects such as horse skulls inside the walls of buildings. Another believed cure for bewitchment is to persuade or force
3960-446: Is tolerated or accepted by the population, even if the orthodox establishment opposes it. In these societies, practitioners of helpful magic provide (or provided) services such as breaking the effects of witchcraft, healing , divination , finding lost or stolen goods, and love magic . In Britain, and some other parts of Europe, they were commonly known as ' cunning folk ' or 'wise people'. Alan McFarlane wrote that while cunning folk
4080-495: The Age of Colonialism , many cultures were exposed to the Western world via colonialism , usually accompanied by intensive Christian missionary activity (see Christianization ). In these cultures, beliefs about witchcraft were partly influenced by the prevailing Western concepts of the time. In Christianity , sorcery came to be associated with heresy and apostasy and to be viewed as evil. Among Catholics, Protestants, and
4200-587: The Bible may allude to the practice of impalement, such as II Samuel 21:9 concerning the fate of the sons of Saul , where some English translations use the verb "impale", but others use "hang". Although we lack conclusive evidence either way for whether Hebrew law allowed for impalement, or for hanging (whether as a mode of execution or for display of the corpse), the Neo-Assyrian method of impalement as seen in carvings could, perhaps, equally easily be seen as
4320-461: The Danube River . Woodblock prints from the era portray his victims impaled from either the frontal or the dorsal or the rectal impalement method which consisted of a wood or metal pole being inserted through the body either front to back, or vertically, through the rectum or vagina . The exit wound could be near the victim's neck, shoulders or mouth. The impalement was practiced on
4440-569: The Euxine Sea for a number of years, was captured and impaled, even though he had offered 500,000 ducats for his pardon. Witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of alleged supernatural powers of magic . A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic or supernatural powers to inflict harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to Encyclopedia Britannica , "Witchcraft thus defined exists more in
4560-463: The Holy Roman Empire , in article 131 of the 1532 Constitutio Criminalis Carolina , the following punishment was stated for women found guilty of infanticide . Generally, they should be drowned, but the law code allowed for, in particularly severe cases, that the old punishment could be implemented. That is, the woman would be buried alive , and then a stake would be driven through her heart. Similarly, burial alive, combined with transversal impalement
4680-468: The Indo-European root from which it may have derived. Another Old English word for 'witch' was hægtes or hægtesse , which became the modern English word " hag " and is linked to the word " hex ". In most other Germanic languages, their word for 'witch' comes from the same root as these; for example German Hexe and Dutch heks . In colloquial modern English , the word witch
4800-708: The Swedes , a Swedish corporal was likewise impaled for trying to defect to the Germans. The Swedes continued this practise during the Scanian War (1675-1679), especially in the case of deserters and those perceived as traitors. In 1654, under the Ottoman siege of the Venetian garrison at Crete , several peasants were impaled for supplying provisions to the besieged. Likewise in 1685, some Christians were impaled by
4920-574: The Tanakh , or Hebrew Bible, highlighted strong condemnations rooted in the "abomination" of magical belief. Christianity similarly condemned witchcraft, considering it an abomination and even citing specific verses to justify witch-hunting during the early modern period. Historically, the Christian concept of witchcraft derives from Old Testament laws against it. In medieval and early modern Europe, many Christians believed in magic. As opposed to
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5040-460: The accuser's estate was handed over instead. The Maqlû ("burning") is an ancient Akkadian text, written early in the first millennium BCE , which sets out a Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft ritual. This lengthy ritual includes invoking various gods , burning an effigy of the witch, then dousing and disposing of the remains. Witchcraft's historical evolution in the Middle East reveals
5160-456: The devil ; and he comes to them in the likeness of the man that is buried there, as if he arises from death." Most societies that have believed in harmful or black magic have also believed in helpful magic. Some have called it white magic , at least in more recent times. Where belief in harmful magic is common, it is typically forbidden by law as well as hated and feared by the general populace, while helpful or apotropaic (protective) magic
5280-548: The last siege of Constantinople in 1453. During the buildup phase to the great siege the year before, in 1452, the sultan declared that all ships sailing up or down through the Bosphorus had to anchor at his fortress there, for inspection. One Venetian captain, Antonio Rizzo, sought to defy the ban, but his ship was hit by a cannonball. He and his crew were picked up from the waters, the crew members to be beheaded (or sawn asunder according to Niccolò Barbaro ), whereas Rizzo
5400-524: The malefactor upon his belly, with his hands tied behind his back, then they slit up his fundament with a razor, and throw into it a handful of paste that they have in readiness, which immediately stops the blood. After that, they thrust up into his body a very long stake as big as a mans arm, sharp at the point and tapered, which they grease a little before; when they have driven it in with a mallet, till it come out at his breast, or at his head or shoulders, they lift him up, and plant this stake very straight in
5520-434: The secular leadership of late medieval/early modern Europe, fears about witchcraft rose to fever pitch and sometimes led to large-scale witch-hunts . The fifteenth century saw a dramatic rise in awareness and terror of witchcraft. Tens of thousands of people were executed, and others were imprisoned, tortured, banished, and had lands and possessions confiscated. The majority of those accused were women, though in some regions
5640-550: The 15th century, Vlad III ("Dracula"), Prince of Wallachia , is credited as the first notable figure to prefer this method of execution during the late medieval period, and became so notorious for its liberal employment that among his several nicknames he was known as "Vlad the Impaler". After being orphaned, betrayed, forced into exile and pursued by his enemies, he retook control of Wallachia in 1456. He dealt harshly with his enemies, especially those who had betrayed his family in
5760-612: The British Isles. Historian Ronald Hutton outlined five key characteristics ascribed to witches and witchcraft by most cultures that believe in this concept: the use of magic to cause harm or misfortune to others; it was used by the witch against their own community; powers of witchcraft were believed to have been acquired through inheritance or initiation; it was seen as immoral and often thought to involve communion with evil beings; and witchcraft could be thwarted by defensive magic, persuasion, intimidation or physical punishment of
5880-682: The Commonwealth in Pan Wołodyjowski. The method of execution in Mr. Wołodyjowski was different from the description of Jędrzej Kitowicz ; the convict was strung on his back, not on his stomach (as in Jędrzej Kitowicz). Longitudinal impalement is an execution method often attested within the Ottoman Empire, for a variety of offenses, it was done mostly as a warning to others or to terrify. The Ottoman Empire used impalement during, and before,
6000-565: The Cossack bandurist Taras Weresaj, the hero of Jacek Komuda 's novel Bohun . One of the most famous Polish films where the execution of this punishment can be seen is the film Pan Wołodyjowski (and the TV series Przygody pana Michała, Mr Michael's adventures ), whose script was based on the Trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz . Azja Tuhaj-bejowicz was subjected to this punishment for betraying
6120-670: The Devil , though anthropologist Jean La Fontaine notes that such accusations were mainly made against perceived "enemies of the Church". It was thought witchcraft could be thwarted by white magic , provided by ' cunning folk ' or 'wise people'. Suspected witches were often prosecuted and punished, if found guilty or simply believed to be guilty. European witch-hunts and witch trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions. While magical healers and midwives were sometimes accused of witchcraft themselves, they made up
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#17327694542456240-782: The Hungarians for having provided supplies to the Turks. In 1677, a particularly brutal German General Kops leading the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I who wanted to keep Hungary dominated by the Germans, rather than allow it to become dominated by the Turks, began impaling and quartering his Hungarian subjects/opponents. An opposing general on the Hungarian side, Wesselényi [ hu ] , responded in kind, by flaying alive Imperial troops, and fixing sharp iron hooks in fortress walls, upon which he threw captured Germans to be impaled. Finally, Emperor Leopold I had enough of
6360-537: The King says: Thereafter this Phraortes with a few horsemen fled, a district named Raga, in Media along there he went off, Thereafter I sent an army in pursuit Phraortes, seized, was led to me. I cut off his nose and ears and tongue, and put out one eye he was kept bound at my palace entrance, all the people saw him. Afterward I impaled him at Ecbatana and the men who were his foremost followers , those at Ecbatana within
6480-495: The Middle Assyrian period, there is evidence about impalement as a form of punishment relative to other types of perceived crimes as well. The law code discovered and deciphered by Otto Schroeder contains in its paragraph 51 the following injunction against abortion: If a woman with her consent brings on a miscarriage, they seize her, and determine her guilt. On a stake they impale her, and do not bury her; and if through
6600-468: The Middle East underlines the complex interaction between spiritual beliefs and societal norms across different cultures and epochs . During the 20th century, interest in witchcraft rose in English-speaking and European countries. From the 1920s, Margaret Murray popularized the ' witch-cult hypothesis ': the idea that those persecuted as 'witches' in early modern Europe were followers of
6720-468: The Neo-Assyrians, mass executions seem to have been not only designed to instill terror and to enforce obedience, but also, it can seem, as proofs of their might that they took pride in. Neo-Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC) was evidently proud enough of his bloody work that he committed it to monument and eternal memory as follows: I cut off their hands, I burned them with fire,
6840-415: The Ottoman Empire. Aubry de La Motraye lived in the realm for 14 years from 1699 to 1713 and claimed that he had not heard of twenty thieves in Constantinople during that time. As for highway robbers, who surely had been impaled, Aubry heard of only 6 such cases during his residence there. Staying at Aleppo from 1740 to 1754, Alexander Russell notes that in the 20 years gone by, there were no more than "half
6960-620: The Polish lords who had carved out large estates for themselves.The most important uprising was that of Bohdan Chmielnicki-Khmelnitsky. The hatred of the Poles and the Jews was at the origin of the pogroms perpetrated during crossings of Cossack armies. The echoes of this disaster reached, through Jewish traders, Western Europe and are still present in Hasidic songs. We know the story of the small army of
7080-555: The abdomen. Other Egyptian kings employing impalements include Sobekhotep II , Akhenaten , Seti , and Ramesses IX . Evidence by carvings and statues is found as well from the Neo-Assyrian empire (c. 934–609 BC). The image of the impaled Judeans is a detail from the public commemoration of the Assyrian victory in 701 BC after the siege of Lachish , under King Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BC), who proceeded similarly against
7200-413: The actual frequency of impalement within the Ottoman Empire varied greatly, not only from time to time, but also from place to place, and between different population groups in the empire. Highway robbers were still impaled into the 1830s, but one source says the practice was rare by then. Travelling to Smyrna and Constantinople in 1843, Stephen Massett was told by a man who witnessed the event that "just
7320-401: The alleged witch to lift their spell. Often, people have attempted to thwart the witchcraft by physically punishing the alleged witch, such as by banishing, wounding, torturing or killing them. "In most societies, however, a formal and legal remedy was preferred to this sort of private action", whereby the alleged witch would be prosecuted and then formally punished if found guilty. Throughout
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#17327694542457440-457: The alleged witch. It is commonly believed that witches use objects, words, and gestures to cause supernatural harm, or that they simply have an innate power to do so. Hutton notes that both kinds of practitioners are often believed to exist in the same culture and that the two often overlap, in that someone with an inborn power could wield that power through material objects. One of the most influential works on witchcraft and concepts of magic
7560-462: The ancient Near East. The Code of Hammurabi , promulgated about 1772 BC by the Babylonian king Hammurabi specifies impaling for a woman who killed her husband for the sake of another man. In the late Isin/Larsa period , from about the same time, it seems that, in some city states, mere adultery on the wife's part (without murder of her husband mentioned) could be punished by impalement. From
7680-443: The battlements of the city walls, or else they are thrown upon the chingan or hooks that are fixed all over the walls below, where sometimes they break from one hook to another, and hang in the most exquisite torments, thirty or forty hours. According to one source, these hooks in the wall as an execution method were introduced with the construction of the new city gate in 1573. Before that time, gaunching as described by de Tournefort
7800-427: The body are believed to grant supernatural powers, the substance may be good, bad, or morally neutral. Hutton draws a distinction between those who unwittingly cast the evil eye and those who deliberately do so, describing only the latter as witches. The universal or cross-cultural validity of the terms "witch" and "witchcraft" are debated. Hutton states: [Malevolent magic] is, however, only one current usage of
7920-520: The city of Algiers , hooks were embedded in the city walls, and on occasion, people were thrown upon them from the battlements. Thomas Shaw , who was chaplain for the Levant Company stationed at Algiers during the 1720s, describes the various forms of executions practised as follows: ... but the Moors and Arabs are either impaled for the same crime, or else they are hung up by the neck, over
8040-574: The concept of "witchcraft" as one of the ways humans have tried to explain strange misfortune. Some cultures have feared witchcraft much less than others, because they tend to have other explanations for strange misfortune. For example, the Gaels of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands historically held a strong belief in fairy folk , who could cause supernatural harm, and witch-hunting was very rare in these regions compared to other regions of
8160-663: The context of war or as a punishment for robbery , the latter being attested to as the practice in Central and Eastern Europe . During the Defenestration of Prague in 1419, the Hussites impaled councilors to the king on pikes. Individuals accused of collaborating with the enemy have, on occasion, been impaled. In 1632 during the Thirty Years' War , the German officer Fuchs was impaled on suspicion of defecting to
8280-712: The employment (or presumed employment) of some occult means of doing harm to other people in a way which was generally disapproved of. In this sense the belief in witchcraft can be defined as the attribution of misfortune to occult human agency". Emma Wilby says folk magicians in Europe were viewed ambivalently by communities, and were considered as capable of harming as of healing, which could lead to their being accused as malevolent witches. She suggests some English "witches" convicted of consorting with demons may have been cunning folk whose supposed fairy familiars had been demonised . Hutton says that magical healers "were sometimes denounced as witches, but seem to have made up
8400-566: The fate of a child molester, in August 1465 in Zürich , Switzerland, Ulrich Moser was condemned to be impaled, for having sexually violated six girls between the ages four and nine. His clothes were taken off, and he was placed on his back. His arms and legs were stretched out, each secured to a pole. Then a stake was driven through his navel down into the ground. Thereafter, people left him to die. Cases of longitudinal impalement typically occur in
8520-468: The fortress I (flayed and) hung out (their hides, stuffed with straw). A Bible passage in the Book of Esther concerning the fate of the 5th-century BC Persian minister Haman and his ten sons has been treated differently by different translators, leading to an ambiguity as to whether they were impaled or hanged. The passage explains that Haman conspired to have all the Jews in the empire killed but his plan
8640-466: The fourth added by Christina Larner : Witch-hunts, scapegoating, and the shunning or murder of suspected witches still occurs. Many cultures worldwide continue to have a belief in the concept of "witchcraft" or malevolent magic. Apart from extrajudicial violence , state-sanctioned execution also occurs in some jurisdictions. For instance, in Saudi Arabia practicing witchcraft and sorcery
8760-435: The general public in at least four ways. Neopagan writer Isaac Bonewits proposed dividing witches into even more distinct types including, but not limited to: Neopagan, Feminist, Neogothic, Neoclassical, Classical, Family Traditions, Immigrant Traditions, and Ethnic. The word is over a thousand years old: Old English formed the compound wiccecræft from wicce ('witch') and cræft ('craft'). The masculine form
8880-427: The great lord of Volhynia, "kniaz" (Prince) Jeremi Wiśniowiecki who, penetrating from the north, momentarily repelled the armies of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and enabled the numerous Jews to be saved. The prince, a poor strategist, as Paweł Jasienica writes, following the opinion of his contemporaries, made himself known for his cruelty towards the rebellious peasants, taken prisoner (beheadings, hangings and impalements in
9000-480: The ground, upon which they leave him so exposed for a day. One day I saw a man upon the pale, who was sentenced to continue so for three hours alive and that he might not die too soon, the stake was not thrust up far enough to come out at any part of his body, and they also put a stay or rest upon the pale, to hinder the weight of his body from making him sink down upon it, or the point of it from piercing him through, which would have presently killed him: In this manner he
9120-424: The ground; some drove a stake ( stipes ) through their excretory organs/genitals; others stretched out their [victims'] arms on a patibulum [cross bar]; I see racks, I see lashes ... Video istic cruces ne unius quidem generis sed aliter ab aliis fabricatas; capite quidam conuersos in terram suspendere, alii per obscena stipitem egerunt, alii brachia patibulo explicuerunt; video fidiculas, video uerbera ... Within
9240-517: The heart ) to back or vice versa . In the Holy Roman Empire (and elsewhere in Central / Eastern Europe ), women who killed their newborn babies were placed in open graves, and stakes were hammered into their hearts, particularly if their cases contained any implications of witchcraft . A detailed description of an execution that was carried out in this manner comes from 17th-century Košice (then in Hungary , now in eastern Slovakia ). The case of
9360-592: The helpful magic of the cunning folk , witchcraft was seen as evil and associated with Satan and Devil worship . This often resulted in deaths, torture and scapegoating (casting blame for misfortune), and many years of large scale witch-trials and witch hunts , especially in Protestant Europe, before largely ending during the Age of Enlightenment . Christian views in the modern day are diverse, ranging from intense belief and opposition (especially by Christian fundamentalists ) to non-belief. During
9480-404: The imagination", but it "has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world". The belief in witchcraft has been found throughout history in a great number of societies worldwide. Most of these societies have used protective magic or counter-magic against witchcraft, and have shunned, banished, imprisoned, physically punished or killed alleged witches. Anthropologists use
9600-405: The inhabitants of Ekron during the same campaign. From Sennacherib's father Sargon II 's time (r. 722–705 BC), a relief from his palace at Khorsabad shows the impalement of 14 enemies during an attack on the city of Pazashi. A peculiarity about the "Neo-Assyrian" way of impaling was that the stake was "driven into the body immediately under the ribs", rather than along the full body length. For
9720-541: The law codes also prescribed the death penalty for those found guilty of witchcraft. According to Tzvi Abusch, ancient Mesopotamian ideas about witches and witchcraft shifted over time, and the early stages were "comparable to the archaic shamanistic stage of European witchcraft". In this early stage, witches were not necessarily considered evil, but took 'white' and 'black' forms, could help others using magic and medical knowledge, generally lived in rural areas and sometimes exhibited ecstatic behavior. In ancient Mesopotamia,
9840-444: The majority were men. In Scots , the word warlock came to be used as the male equivalent of witch (which can be male or female, but is used predominantly for females). The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for 'Hammer of The Witches') was a witch-hunting manual written in 1486 by two German monks, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. It was used by both Catholics and Protestants for several hundred years, outlining how to identify
9960-561: The masses did not accept this and continued to make use of their services. The English MP and skeptic Reginald Scot sought to disprove magic and witchcraft altogether, writing in The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), "At this day, it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, 'she is a witch' or 'she is a wise woman'". Historian Keith Thomas adds "Nevertheless, it is possible to isolate that kind of 'witchcraft' which involved
10080-641: The miscarriage she dies, they likewise impale her and do not bury her. The Greek historian Herodotus recounts that, when Darius I , king of Persia , conquered Babylon , he impaled 3000 Babylonians. In the Behistun Inscription , Darius himself boasts of having impaled his enemies. Darius speaks proudly of the ruthlessness with which these revolts were put down. In Babylon Nidintu-Bel was impaled along with 49 of his companions: Behistun Inscription Then in Babylon I impaled that Nidintu-Bel and
10200-580: The multiple campaigns against the invading Ottoman Turks , Vlad would never show mercy to his prisoners of war . After The Night Attack of Vlad Țepeș in mid-June 1462 failed to assassinate the Ottoman sultan, the road to Târgoviște , the capital of Vlad's principality of Wallachia, eventually became inundated in a "forest" of 20,000 impaled and decaying corpses, and it is reported that Mehmet II 's invading army of Turks turned back to Constantinople in 1462 after encountering thousands of impaled corpses along
10320-554: The mutual bloodshed, and banished Kops in order to establish a needed cessation of hostilities. After the Treaty of The Hague (1720) , Sicily fell under Habsburg rule, but the locals deeply resented the German overlords. One parish priest (who exhorted his parishioners to kill the Germans) is said to have broken into joy when a German soldier arrived at his village, exclaiming that a whole eight days had gone by since he had last killed
10440-573: The nobles who were with him, I executed forty-nine, this is what I did in Babylon In 522 BC Phraortes proclaimed that he was a descendant of the Median king Cyaxares and took the throne, he seized Ecbatana , the capital of Media and rebelled against the Achamenied yoke, this revolt was suppressed by Darius king of Persia and Phraortes was captured and impaled: Behistun Inscription Darius
10560-555: The particular societies with which they are concerned". While most cultures believe witchcraft to be something willful, some Indigenous peoples in Africa and Melanesia believe witches have a substance or an evil spirit in their bodies that drives them to do harm. Such substances may be believed to act on their own while the witch is sleeping or unaware. The Dobu people believe women work harmful magic in their sleep while men work it while awake. Further, in cultures where substances within
10680-432: The past, or had profited from the misfortunes of Wallachia. Though a variety of methods were employed, he has been most associated with his use of impalement. The liberal use of capital punishment was eventually extended to Saxon settlers, members of a rival clan, and criminals in his domain, whether they were members of the boyar nobility or peasants, and eventually to any among his subjects that displeased him. Following
10800-531: The present. According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions there is "difficulty of defining 'witches' and 'witchcraft' across cultures—terms that, quite apart from their connotations in popular culture, may include an array of traditional or faith healing practices". Anthropologist Fiona Bowie notes that the terms "witchcraft" and "witch" are used differently by scholars and
10920-578: The royal archives of the city of Mari , most of it also roughly contemporary to Hammurabi, it is known that soldiers taken captive in war were on occasion impaled. Roughly contemporary with Babylonia under Hammurabi, king Siwe-Palar-huhpak of Elam made official edicts in which he threatened the allies of his enemies with impalement, among other terrible fates. For acts of perceived great sacrilege, some individuals, in diverse cultures, have been impaled for their effrontery. For example, roughly 1200 BC, merchants of Ugarit express deep concern to each other that
11040-415: The sources tended to be those of low status who were weak or otherwise marginalized, including women, foreigners, actors, and peddlers. The Law Code of Hammurabi ( 18th century BCE ) allowed someone accused of witchcraft (harmful magic) to undergo trial by ordeal , by jumping into a holy river. If they drowned, they were deemed guilty and the accuser inherited the guilty person's estate. If they survived,
11160-474: The south-eastern borders of the Republic of Poland. The punishment was applied to peasants who rebelled against their lords, but also to the nobility. Ukraine was the scene of many Cossack uprisings (for example that of Severyn Nalyvaiko ) crushed by the Poles. They most often expressed discontent of a social nature (cf. social revolt of the " Haïdamaks ") such as the subjugation of the free Ukrainian peasants to
11280-528: The squares of towns and villages) but it was only the answer to the exactions committed on the noble prisoners by the Cossack chief Maksym Kryvonis (Nez Crooked). Aleksander Kostka-Napierski , the leader of the peasant uprising in Podhale , was impaled on a stake in 1651. Colonel and ataman Sukharuka, a Cossack envoy in the novel and film With Fire and Sword , and Donets, a Cossack colonel, Horpyna's brother, were sentenced to this penalty. This also happened to
11400-457: The stake was inserted: If it went into the "interior" parts, vital organs could easily be damaged, leading to a swift death. However, by letting the stake follow the spine, the impalement procedure would not damage the vital organs, and the person could survive for several days. Alternatively, the impalement could be transversely performed, as in the frontal-to- dorsal direction, that is, from front (through abdomen , chest or directly through
11520-664: The term "witchcraft" for similar beliefs about harmful occult practices in different cultures, and these societies often use the term when speaking in English. Belief in witchcraft as malevolent magic is attested from ancient Mesopotamia , and in Europe , belief in witches traces back to classical antiquity . In medieval and early modern Europe , accused witches were usually women who were believed to have secretly used black magic ( maleficium ) against their own community. Usually, accusations of witchcraft were made by their neighbors and followed from social tensions. Witches were sometimes said to have communed with demons or with
11640-459: The term "witchcraft" for the actions of those who inflict harm by their inborn power and used "sorcery" for those who needed tools to do so. Historians found these definitions difficult to apply to European witchcraft, where witches were believed to use physical techniques, as well as some who were believed to cause harm by thought alone. The distinction "has now largely been abandoned, although some anthropologists still sometimes find it relevant to
11760-684: The term "witchcraft" or " pagan witchcraft " for their beliefs and practices. Other neo-pagans avoid the term due to its negative connotations. The most common meaning of "witchcraft" worldwide is the use of harmful magic. Belief in malevolent magic and the concept of witchcraft has lasted throughout recorded history and has been found in cultures worldwide, regardless of development. Most societies have feared an ability by some individuals to cause supernatural harm and misfortune to others. This may come from mankind's tendency "to want to assign occurrences of remarkable good or bad luck to agency, either human or superhuman". Historians and anthropologists see
11880-511: The term to servant spirit-animals which are described as a part of the witch's own soul. Necromancy is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy , although the term has also been applied to raising the dead for other purposes. The biblical Witch of Endor performed it (1 Samuel 28th chapter), and it is among the witchcraft practices condemned by Ælfric of Eynsham : "Witches still go to cross-roads and to heathen burials with their delusive magic and call to
12000-482: The witch archetype. In some parts of the world, it is believed witches can shapeshift into animals, or that the witch's spirit travels apart from their body and takes an animal form, an activity often associated with shamanism . Another widespread belief is that witches have an animal helper. In English these are often called " familiars ", and meant an evil spirit or demon that had taken an animal form. As researchers examined traditions in other regions, they widened
12120-464: The witch who practiced maleficium —that is, magic used for harmful ends". In the early years of the European witch hunts "the cunning folk were widely tolerated by church, state and general populace". Some of the more hostile churchmen and secular authorities tried to smear folk-healers and magic-workers by falsely branding them 'witches' and associating them with harmful 'witchcraft', but generally
12240-407: The woman, keeping her head free of earth at the behest of the clerics, because to do otherwise would have quickened the death process. Once the earth had been piled upon her, the executioner used a pair of tongs to grab a rod made of iron, which had been made red hot. He positioned the glowing iron rod beside the wooden stave, and as one of his assistants hammered the rod in, the other assistant emptied
12360-404: The word. In fact, Anglo-American senses of it now take at least four different forms, although the one discussed above seems still to be the most widespread and frequent. The others define the witch figure as any person who uses magic ... or as the practitioner of nature-based Pagan religion; or as a symbol of independent female authority and resistance to male domination. All have validity in
12480-497: The world, accusations of witchcraft are often linked to social and economic tensions. Females are most often accused, but in some cultures it is mostly males. In many societies, accusations are directed mainly against the elderly, but in others age is not a factor, and in some cultures it is mainly adolescents who are accused. Éva Pócs writes that reasons for accusations of witchcraft fall into four general categories. The first three of which were proposed by Richard Kieckhefer , and
12600-555: The world, such as parts of Africa, are also vulnerable to violence stemming from witchcraft accusations. Such incidents have also occurred in immigrant communities in Britain, including the much publicized case of the murder of Victoria Climbié . Magic was an important part of ancient Mesopotamian religion and society, which distinguished between 'good' (helpful) and 'bad' (harmful) rites. In ancient Mesopotamia , they mainly used counter-magic against witchcraft ( kišpū ), but
12720-401: The world, witches have been thought to gather at night, when normal humans are inactive, and also at their most vulnerable in sleep". In most cultures, witches at these gatherings are thought to transgress social norms by engaging in cannibalism, incest and open nudity. Witches around the world commonly have associations with animals. Rodney Needham identified this as a defining feature of
12840-680: Was wicca ('male sorcerer'). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , wicce and wicca were probably derived from the Old English verb wiccian , meaning 'to practice witchcraft'. Wiccian has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century). The further etymology of this word is problematic. It has no clear cognates in other Germanic languages outside of English and Low German, and there are numerous possibilities for
12960-533: Was E. E. Evans-Pritchard 's Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande , a study of Azande witchcraft beliefs published in 1937. This provided definitions for witchcraft which became a convention in anthropology. However, some researchers argue that the general adoption of Evans-Pritchard's definitions constrained discussion of witchcraft beliefs, and even broader discussion of magic and religion , in ways that his work does not support. Evans-Pritchard reserved
13080-674: Was apprehended, nor what means of torture was used to extract his confessions. Other such accounts of "heinous murderers" in which impalement is a prominent element include cases in 1504 and 1519, the murderer nicknamed Puschpeter executed in 1575 for killing thirty people, including six pregnant women whose unborn children he ate in the hope of thereby acquiring invisibility, the head of the Pappenheimer family in 1600, and an unnamed murderer executed in Breslau in 1615, who under torture had confessed to 96 acts of murder by arson. During
13200-420: Was fixed on the horizontal cross-bar of the gallows and the individual was forced upon this hook, piercing him from the abdomen through his back, so that he hung from it, hands, feet and head downward. On top of the cross bar, the executioner situated himself and performed various torture on the impaled man below him. While gaunching as de Tournefort describes involves the erection of a scaffold, it seems that in
13320-543: Was impaled. In the early days of the siege in May 1453, contingents of the Ottoman army made mop-up operations at minor fortifications like Therapia and Studium. The surrendered soldiers, some 40 individuals from each place, were impaled. Within the Ottoman Empire, some civil crimes (rather than rebel activity/treasonous behavior), such as highway robbery, might be punished by impalement. For some periods at least, executions for civil crimes were claimed to have been rather rare in
13440-484: Was in use. As for the actual frequency of throwing persons on hooks in Algiers, Capt. Henry Boyde notes that in his own 20 years of captivity there, he knew of only one case where a Christian slave who had murdered his master had met that fate, and "not above" two or three Moors besides. Taken captive in 1596, the barber-surgeon William Davies relates something of the heights involved when thrown upon hooks (although it
13560-463: Was left for some hours, (during which time he spoke) and turning from one side to another, prayed those that passed by to kill him, making a thousand wry mouths and faces, because of the pain he suffered when he stirred himself, but after dinner, the Basha sent one to dispatch him; which was easily done, by making the point of the stake come out at his breast, and then he was left till next morning, when he
13680-549: Was particularly likely to be suspected when a disease came on unusually swiftly, lingered unusually long, could not be diagnosed clearly, or presented some other unusual symptoms". A common belief in cultures worldwide is that witches tend to use something from their target's body to work magic against them; for example hair, nail clippings, clothing, or bodily waste. Such beliefs are found in Europe, Africa, South Asia, Polynesia, Melanesia, and North America. Another widespread belief among Indigenous peoples in Africa and North America
13800-602: Was quashed shortly afterwards. After the revolt was crushed by early 1785, some 150 rebels are said to have been impaled. From 1748 onwards, German regiments organized manhunts on "robbers" in Hungary/Croatia, impaling those who were caught. Occasionally, individual murderers were perceived to have been so heinous that standard punishments like beheading or being broken on the wheel were regarded as incommensurate with their crimes, and extended rituals of execution that might include impalement were devised. An example
13920-672: Was suggested by Richard Horsley that 'diviner-healers' ( devins-guerisseurs ) made up a significant proportion of those tried for witchcraft in France and Switzerland, but more recent surveys conclude that they made up less than 2% of the accused. However, Éva Pócs says that half the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers, and Kathleen Stokker says the "vast majority" of Norway's accused witches were folk healers. Societies that believe (or believed) in witchcraft also believe that it can be thwarted in various ways. One common way
14040-409: Was supposedly tied securely in place above a young bamboo shoot. Over several days, the sharp, fast growing shoot would first puncture, then completely penetrate the victim's body, eventually emerging through the other side. However, no conclusive evidence exists that this form of impalement ever actually happened. The earliest known use of impalement as a form of execution occurred in civilizations of
14160-531: Was taken down, because he stunk horridly. The length of time which one managed to survive upon the stake is reported as quite varied, from a few seconds or minutes to a few hours or even a few days. The Dutch overlords at Batavia seem to have been particularly proficient in prolonging the lifetime of the impaled, one witnessing a man surviving six days on the stake, another hearing from local surgeons that some could survive eight days or more. A critical determinant for survival length seems to be precisely how
14280-501: Was thwarted, and he was given the punishment he had thought to mete out to Mordecai . The English Standard Version of Esther 5:14 describes this as hanging , whereas The New International Reader's version opts for impalement . The Assyriologist Paul Haupt opts for impalement in his 1908 essay "Critical notes on Esther", while Benjamin Shaw has an extended discussion of the topic on the website ligonier.org from 2012. Other passages in
14400-458: Was to force an iron meat hook beneath a person's ribs and hang him up to die slowly. This technique was in 18th-century Ottoman-controlled Bosnia called the cengela , but the practice is also attested in 1770s Dutch Suriname as a punishment meted out to rebellious slaves. A recurring horror story on many websites and popular media outlets is that Japanese soldiers during World War II inflicted bamboo torture upon prisoners of war. The victim
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