Over the years there have been various lawsuits concerning society norms. Some traditional cultures allow and use the services of witches and wizards to solve society ills. However, there is a limit to which they cannot extend such services. Although some services are individual contracts between the witch and the contractor, they may never mean well for the larger community. Tempel Anneke was a victim of accusations of being a witch.
In the 17th century, there existed a woman whose name was Anna Roleffes. She was a widow with only one son. She lived just outside of Brunswick, in Germany. Her husband died in the thirty years war that involved Germany and other nations (Christian & Williams, 2011). Anna Roleffes did not have a substantial income. It led her to depend on her son, her family and the community for her upkeep. Her mother had trained her to become an herbalist. She used native plants to treat people and animals.
However, the community knew her as a witch. She was known as Tempel Anneke, the witch. She used her magical powers to threaten those that she did not agree with and to heal those that believed in her strength. Others feared that she was the cause of the catastrophe that befell their community whenever there were issues like drought. As a result, some people approached her for help and hired her for the services. She possessed the power of her healing skills and could apply them either for good or for evil. She made many enemies because of her work and some friends because of helping them. On one occasion a roofer approached her to regain her stolen goods through sorcery. The attempt to use her magical powers to punish the offender and recover the goods led to her arrest for practicing witchcraft.
The Testimonies
The roofer had lost his tin ware and sausages and wanted the powerful woman to help him retrieve the goods. He testified that she read his hand to determine the thief. She then shrunk the thief and plugged him into a tiny hole. She then summoned the devil as the thief would scream like a mouse in a small hole. The thief managed to bring the goods and give back to the sorcerer. It was this testimony that led to the beginning of the trial and culminating into charging Anneke.
Other testimonies came from the city’s dwellers. They only came to support what the roofer had said. Some had been the clients who had hired her for healing, cursing their enemies, and protecting their families. There were those who had been angry when her magic did not work (Schram, 2010).
Tempel Anneke had first insisted that she was not a witch. She was only an herbalist. However, the Roman law at that time allowed for torture of the victims to confess their ills. During the torture, she accepted the accusations leveled against her except the one that involved damaging the crops. Fruits were known as the symbols of fertility. She confessed how she had caused a horse to die. She also caused the pain and death of other people. Her testimony and confession carried the most weight. It is because if she had not changed her story, there was still no proof of her being guilty as a witch (Christian & Williams, 2011). She even narrated how she gave a pear to a sick child who had called her a whore. The child’s condition deteriorated and suffered in the groins. During that time, witches were known to poison fruits and give those that they wanted to hurt so that they suffer or die. She also confessed that she learned witchcraft from her mother and her grandmother.
She continued to say how she had met the black man who was known to revenge for the witches whenever they summoned him to help them. She had made an agreement with the man to protect her village. She used to have intercourse with him. Tempel Anneke said that she and other witches attended the dances of the witches Sabbath. It was the Walpurgis Night with the Devil. It was an event that used to happen every year where she rode to the event riding a goat. All these confessions confirmed her before the jury as a witch.
Tempel Anneke’s Character
Anneke was a brave old woman. She astonished the court with her courage to express her opinion. She was complex and controversial. Many residents knew that when presented before the judge, one was supposed to be humble and listen to the accusations while responding in a polite way. She astonished them, and the jury, and the residents had more reason to believe that she was a witch. She prided herself on having the medical and pharmaceutical knowledge. She was sharp, assertive, and witty in her responses. She even had books in her house. She used to read them (Samper, 2015). She understood the jury and answered all the questions without falling into the trap of the leading questions. If the questions were leading her to admit guilt, she was wise to either respond in the negative or divert the attention of the jury. She flouted the patriarchal structure of the witch hunts. She also spoke her mind freely. All this confounded the judges and the listeners that they had to change the method of extracting information from her.
Tempel Anneke appears not to have been an evil person. She wanted to help the people solve societal challenges. She says that she had agreed with the black man to protect the community. However, she used black magic. She also danced with the devil. All these conflict the desire to help others. If at all she wanted to help people, she should have led the wrong doers to the police for arrest and charge by the court of law. However, the testimonies reveal how she caused pain and exerted terror in people. She causes the suffering of a child for merely calling her a whore. With all her powers, she could have seen the powerlessness and innocence of the child.
Her Role and Relationship in the Village
The village depended on her to solve the social ills. The people were helpless and needed any help they could get to save their lives and the lives of their loved ones. It seems that the police and the security organs were not available to solve crimes (Samper, 2015). She was available for people to consult her to solve such problems. She provided herbal medicine to heal them of sicknesses, and their animals. It could be that people could not afford hospital support.
Her gender played a key role in the jury. There was a belief that women were possessors of witchcraft lore. She does not escape the fate of the jury. Torture broke her strength, and she found herself charged with being a witch. The execution happened in December 1663.
Anneke’s record is just one of the many historical events about witches. There were witch hunters in her time. Sometimes they killed witches on the spot. They presented some for arrest and charging.
References
Christian, C. & Williams, W. (2011). Witches (1st ed.). Long Island City, NY: Star Bright Books.
Samper, E. (2015). Variations on witches: a proposal for catalogation. Fabula, 56(1-2).
Schram, R. (2010). Witches’ wealth: witchcraft, confession, and Christianity in Auhelawa, Papua New Guinea. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16(4), 726-742.