Doruchów witch trial

The Doruchów witch trial, was a witch trial which took place in the village of Doruchów in Poland in the 18th-century.^[1] It was the last mass trial of sorcery and witch craft in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The trial allegedly resulted in the execution of 14 women in 1775, and led to the ban on witch burning in Poland.^[1][2] A reassessment of the original documentation places the trial in 1783, with 6 victims, and having no effect on any of the laws concerning witch burning.^[3]

History

According to the older historians who believed the first version of the event, in 1775, the inhabitants in the village of Doruchów asked for the authorities in the nearby city of Grabów nad Prosną to halt the investigation of sorcery, which had been instigated in the village. The Polish sejm (parliament) had banned local magistrates from handling witcraft cases in 1768, the trial was conducted by the court of Grabów, which judged 14 people as guilty of witch craft and sentenced them to death. This trial led to the Polish government to ban torture and witch trials in 1776.^[2]

The trial was caused by an outbreak of sickness on a local nobleman's wife. Women from the village were accused of having caused the sickness of the noblewoman by use of magic. Fourteen women were arrested; three died of the torture, while eleven were burned at the stake.^{[citation needed]}

Modern Polish historians - such as Janusz Tazbir - have however questioned whether the Doruchów witch trial really took place in 1775, if it happened as described, and if it had the claimed effect on the law. Tazbir points out that the most detailed account of this event was given by the early 19th century writer, Konstanty Majeranowski, who has been found by later historians to have authored several historical hoaxes. Tazbir notes that the existing primary sources can prove that only six - not fourteen - women, were condemned to death and it is not even clear whether they were actually executed. Further, the documents examined by Tazbir indicate that the trial took place not in 1775 but later, in 1783 or little before, in any case after 1776 because it has been recorded that the judges who had conducted this trial were punished for pronouncing the sentence contrary to the law abolishing witch trials issued in that year. Therefore, the trial couldn't have influenced any way the Sejm legislation in 1776 that led to the ban on torture and witch trials because it occurred when this law was already in force. There is no trace of such trial in the rich collection of documents of Polish Sejm of 1776 or in the contemporary press.^[3][4]

In 1793, however, another - certainly the last - witch trial took place in independent Poland. During the second partition of Poland that year, a local judge in the city of Poznań cited the partitions and transition from Polish to Prussian authority as a basis for the voiding of Polish laws banning trial and executions of witches. He accepted an accusation about two women with inflamed eyes, who were said to have enchanted their neighbor's cattle. They were judged guilty of witch craft and burned.^[2] In 1811 Barbara Zdunk was executed, but the trial was dubious.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Iwona Rosińska (2005). Suknia wydaje ludzkie obyczaje: wielkopolskie stroje ludowe. http://books.google.com/books?id=WV8YAQAAMAAJ&q. "A dramatic fact in the history of this region was the burning of 14 women for alleged witchcraft in Doruchów in 1775" 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstr (1999). Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0485890054. http://books.google.com/books?id=tWqoKVtZId4C&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=1775+Doruchowo+&source=web&ots=hMKq40abT-&sig=j7ZpEN1kiqJPomLYfoaiEzZpXxo&hl=sv#PPA88,M1. "... executed 14 witches at Doruchow in 1775 ..." 
3. ^ ^{a b} Janusz Tazbir (1994). Opowieści prawdziwe i zmyślone. p. 13. 
4. ^ S. Waltoś, Czarownice z Doruchowa, [in:] Owoce zatrutego drzewa, Kraków 1978, p. 95—100; Małgorzata Pilaszek: Procesy czarownic w Polsce w XVI - XVIII w. Nowe aspekty. Uwagi na marginesie pracy B. Baranowskiego, p. 12 [retrieved on 9 March 2011]

Further reading

• (Polish) Piotr Byczkowski, Chapter 7 of Przestępstwo czarów w Polsce przedrozbiorowej, Master Thesis, 2006, University of Poznań
• (Polish) Stanisław Waltoś, Czarownice z Doruchowa, [in:] Owoce zatrutego drzewa, Kraków 1978, p. 95—100

• (Polish) Janusz Tazbir. Wawrzeniecki i Żagiell jako twórcy falsyfikatów. „Nauka”. 3/2006, s. 47. Polska Akademia Nauk. [retrieved on 9 March 2011]
• (Polish) Małgorzata Pilaszek: Procesy o czary w Polsce w XV - XVIII wieku. Universitatis 2008, ISBN: 9788324209217
• (Polish) Małgorzata Pilaszek: Procesy czarownic w Polsce w XVI - XVIII w. Nowe aspekty. Uwagi na marginesie pracy B. Baranowskiego, p. 12 [retrieved on 9 March 2011]

Coordinates: 51°25′N 18°05′E / 51.417°N 18.083°E / 51.417; 18.083