Bertrand Guilladot

Bertrand Guilladot, (d.1742), was French priest and an alleged sorcerer, one of the last people to be executed for witch craft in France and in Europe.

Offically, the last witch craft execution in France took place when a man was executed as a sorcier in Bordeaux in 1718, but a donkey-driver and the nobleman des Chauffors were in fact executed in Paris a couple of years afterwards in 1724 and 1726), but in 1742-45, witch trials took place in Dijon and Lyon.

Bertrand Guilladot was a Catholic priest in Dijon in France. He was arrested and confessed to have made a pact with the Devil. In his confession he included and pointed out a number twenty nine other people, all of them male, which were to have participated in the pact with him.

Guilladot were judged guilty of sorcery and witchcraft and was executed in 1742. The witch trial started by his confession, however, were to continue for three years more, when the "accomplices" of him was put on trial. Another five men were executed for Devil's pacts with him in 1745, and twenty three men were condemned to the galleys for the same crime. In 1745, Louis Debaraz was executed after having performed a black mass to find a tresure; he was the last one to be executed for witch craft in France.

See also

* Péronne Goguillon

References

* http://www.kcwmu.rosewillow.net/whunt/france.html
* http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~Marc-Carlson/witchtrial/france.html
* Jules Michelet, "Häxan"
* European witch trials, their foundations in popular and learned culture, 1300-1500. Berkeley: University of California Press, by Richard Keickhefer.
* Robbins Encyclopedia