AN UNKNOWN TRIAL FOR WITCHCRAFT AND THEFT OF THE EUCHARIST IN LUBLIN, 1644

• Authors: Ostling M.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Mirosława Zakrzewska-Dubasowa's publication of all the witch trials found in the Lublin town records (1947) remains one of the best and most complete sources for the study of witchcraft in Poland. However, a 17th century court book returned to the Lublin archives as late as the 1960s, and thus unavailable to Zakrzewska-Dubasowa includes one trial for witchcraft and theft of the Eucharist. In this article the author publishes the full text of that trial record, together with a brief survey of the uses of the Eucharist in Polish popular rituals as known to us from witch trial records. Polish writers on witchcraft such as Benedykt Chmielowski, following patterns set in western Europe, declared that witches stole the Eucharist - the literal embodiment of Jesus Christ - in order to torture it before the devil in a parody of Christ's Passion. Although accused witches do confess to such acts in some Polish trials, in other trials this motif is entirely absent. Instead we find the Host used to increase the productivity of honeybees, to heal cattle or protect their milk from being stolen by witches, and in love magic. Regina Zaleska's trial in 1644 is unusual in that her young son is present during her interrogation. He is also the chief witness against her, claiming that she ordered him, at his First Communion, to steal the Eucharist. Every time Regina denies this, her son interrupts, insisting that 'you did so tell to bring it, and I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't ordered me to'. These confrontations between mother and son continue throughout the interrogation, during which Regina undergoes five of the six sessions of torture allowed under Magdeburg law: she is pulled on the rack three times and has fire or red hot metal applied twice to her sides. From her testimony it appears that she was an amateur cunning woman who dabbled in the removal of enchantments from milk and butter. Presumably Regina intended to use the Host in these rituals; in another trial in Lublin some 20 years later Maryna Bialkowa confessed to filtering her cows' milk through a stolen Host while reciting 'the witches won't take this milk'. However, Regina resolutely denies having ever stolen the Host or asked her son to do so, although she does declare willingness to 'accept the guilt for my son who denounces me unjustly'. Regina's fortitude under torture appears to have saved her life. After her final declaration of innocence the Lublin court dismissed her from prison. The records do not say what happened to her son.

Keywords

EN

WITH TRIAL IN LUBLIN (1644)

Discipline

• ETHNOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
• Journal: Lud
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 89
• Pages: 191-203
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Ostling M.

• M. Ostling, Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Canada

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA03036214