Research source

The effects of the Witch-Bull were immediate and in every way satisfactory to its authors--a perfect frenzy of…

Date of account: Published 1908
Source: The book of witches
Reference: The book of witches · selected passage 174
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

The effects of the Witch-Bull were immediate and in every way satisfactory to its authors--a perfect frenzy of witch-finding resulting

Published source text

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Source passage

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The effects of the Witch-Bull were immediate and in every way satisfactory to its authors--a perfect frenzy of witch-finding resulting. Forty-one women were burned in one year--commencing in 1485--by the Inquisitor Cumanus. A colleague, not to be outdone, executed a hundred in Piedmont--and was perfectly willing to continue the good work, had not public enthusiasm waned in view of the inevitable monotony in this form of amusement. A little later a tempest devastated the country around Constance. The inhabitants recognising that--in face of the recent Bull--it were blasphemous to attribute such a storm to natural causes, seized two old women, obtained confessions in the usual way, and burned them. About 1515, some five hundred persons were executed in Geneva as "Protestant witches"--an instance of the alliance between heresy and witchcraft. In Lorraine the learned and enthusiastic Inquisitor Remigius put to death nine hundred persons in 15 years. Hutchinson, indeed, writing in 1718, puts the number at eighteen hundred, but even the smaller--and more correct--total shows that Remigius did his duty nobly.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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