The Trial Of Tempel Anneke Case Analysis

On June of 1663, Anna Roleffes, otherwise known as Tempel Anneke, was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft in her village of Harxbuttel that sits near the city, Brunswick in the Holy Roman Empire (Intro. xiii). Peter A. Morton’s, The Trial of Tempel Anneke contains the transcript of her trial, in which she was found guilty and ultimately ended in her execution. Her case acts as an example, depicting one of the immense amount of witch trials that occurred in early modern Europe that led to over forty-thousand executed between the 15th and 19th centuries (O’Neill, Lecture, 10/31/17). Throughout this period, the attitudes involving witches were complex in nature due to the circumstances of society. Anneke’s trial exemplifies this by showing how the common people held attitudes of begrudging toleration towards witchcraft out of necessity, but were quick to alter their stance in regard to maleficium, while the secular authority exhibited complete bigotry towards sorcery shown by the …show more content…
The regular, working class citizens tolerated witchcraft out of necessity but changed their viewpoints when they believed they had fallen victim to maleficium, because their acceptance was frail due to the abuse of religion needed for magic. In contrast, the secular authorities demonstrated attitudes of strict disapproval towards witchcraft for the same religious reasons, shown by the heavy emphasis against abusing the Holy Host in the laws of the Higher Court. Overall, Anneke’s trials act as a microcosm for the early modern European world during the era of the witch hunts and through the complex viewpoints of witchcraft, the case depicts how religion was central to people’s lives in the seventeenth century, which can be seen through the attitudes of these two groups on