These clerical/political leaders of territories like Eichstätt, Bamberg, Würzburg, Mainz, or Cologne harshly hunted witches, often by violating civil rights of the accused.
These clerical/political leaders of territories like Eichstätt, Bamberg, Würzburg, Mainz, or Cologne harshly hunted witches, often by violating civil rights of the accused. Torture could be carried out on hearsay evidence from as few as two witnesses, and contrary evidence by equally valid eyewitnesses could be ignored. Although imperial legal codes were supposed to prohibit repeated torture, professors and lawyers argued that further bouts of torture were a mere continuation of the first application. Tortured victims produced fantastic stories and accusations that fed the frenzy of the hunts.
By about 1630 this wave of persecutions petered out. Many critics had raised voices against the entire practice of hunting witches. Friends of the persecuted had appealed to the emperor and institutions of imperial government like the Imperial court in Speyer or the Diet which in turn called for a halt. And many of the biggest foes of witches simply died. Witch hunts throughout the empire would continue to sporadically break out until the witch laws were revoked in the eighteenth century. Authorities legally executed the last witch in the empire, Anna Maria Schwägelin, in 1775.
