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chanoyu-to-wa · 6 years

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Rikyū Chanoyu Sho, Book 6 (Part 18): Rikyū’s Hyaku-kai Ki, (1590) Tenth Month, the Last Day of the Month; Morning.

18) The same [month], the Last Day of the Month; Morning [同晦日・朝]¹.

￮ Guests: Naizen [内膳]², Hizen [肥前]³, Tō-sa [藤左]⁴, Gorō-u [五郎右]⁵.

￮ 4.5-mat [room]⁶.

￮ Shi-hō-gama [四方釜]⁷; ◦ Seto mizusashi [瀬戸水指]⁸; ◦ chaire: Shiri-bukura [茶入・尻ぶくら]⁹; ◦ Ko-mamori chawan [木守茶碗]¹⁰; ◦ Kankyo no tsubo [閑居のつほ]¹¹; ◦ [ori-tame [をりため]¹²;] ◦ hito-fushi no tsutsu [一ふしの筒]¹³.

￮ Yaki-mono (sake) [焼物 (さけ)], kurome [くろめ], soup (daikon [大こん]), rice.

￮ Hiki (soshite) [引(而)]: sashimi (koi) [さしみ・こい].

￮ Kashi: fu-no-yaki [ふのやき], shiitake [しいたけ].

_________________________

◎ The guests at this gathering were four men who held high government and military positions, and who were probably in Juraku-tei to consult with Hideyoshi.

This chakai was probably a semi-official function, giving the men something to do while waiting for their audience with Hideyoshi.

¹Onaji misoka ・ asa [同晦日・朝].

Onaji [同じ] refers to the same month -- that is, the Tenth Month. Misoka [晦日] is the last day of the month.

²Naizen [内膳].

This refers to the daimyō and nobleman Kasuya Takeyori [糟屋武則; 1562 ~ ?]*. His court title was Naizen no kami [内膳正]† (he was the official in charge of the Naizen-shi [内膳司], the office that provided the Emperor's meals; which gave Takeyori the junior grade of the Fifth Rank), hence the form of Rikyū's entry in this kaiki.

Kasuya Takeyori was also one of Hideyoshi's closer associates -- and had been nicknamed one of the Seven Spears of Shizugatake (Shizugatake no shichi-hon yari [賤ヶ岳の七本槍])‡. __________ *The name Kasuya [糟屋] is also written Kasuya [賀須屋] -- perhaps with hentai-gana.

†The nomenclature is confusing, since a different title (Buzen [奉膳]) was originally accorded to members of the two families (the Takahashi [高橋] and Azumi [安曇] families) who traditionally held the post in olden days. Naizen-no-kami [内膳正] was subsequently used for officials who came from different families.

‡Kasuya Takeyori was the only one of these seven renowned retainers to side with Ishida Mitsunari [石田三成; 1559 ~ 1600] during the battle at Sekigahara; the other six sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu (and so betrayed Hideyoshi's confidence, since the Sei-gun [西軍], or Western Army, lead by Ishida Mitsunari, was the force defending Hideyoshi's son, Toyotomi Hideyori).

³Hizen [肥前].

This seems to refer to Kawajiri Hidenaga [河尻秀長; ? ~ 1600], daimyō and Governor of Hizen (Hizen no kami [肥前守]), on the island of Kyūshū. He was another faithful retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who died fighting for the Western Army (Sei-gun [西軍]) at the Battle of Sekigahara. __________ *In some versions of the kaiki, this individual is incorrectly referred to as Oka-hizen dono [阿肥前殿]. This is a miscopying for Kawa-hizen dono [河肥前殿], Kawa being a contraction of his surname Kawajiri [河尻]. (This device was commonly used in informal records at this time, a combination of the first kanji of their family name with an abbreviation of their title -- Furuta Oribe [古田織部], for example, is usually referred to as Furu-ori [古織], or Ko-ori.)

⁴Tō-sa [藤左].

Miyagi Tōzaemon [宮木藤左衛門; dates unknown]. Given the form of his name, he seems to have been of the samurai caste, and considering the company, he must have been a man of importance.

The commentary found in the Sadō Ko-ten Zen-shu [茶道古典全集] version of the Rikyū Hyakkai Ki, places the kanji jō [尉] (meaning "inspector," the third highest administrative rank) after his name*, but in which department he served is not mentioned in their notes.

Elsewhere, other than rare references that appear to confirm the existence of a person of this name in the late sixteenth century, other biographical information seems to be entirely lacking. ___________ *Miyagi Tōzaemon jō [宮木藤左衛尉].

⁵Gorō-u [五郎右].

This seems to refer to Funakoshi Kagenao [船越景直; 1540 ~ 1611], a general, daimyō, and personal retainer (kashin [家臣]) of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was commonly known as Gorōemon [五郎右衛門]. He had participated in Hideyoshi's siege of Odawara the previous summer.

In chanoyu, he was closely associated with Furuta Oribe (who was his teacher) and Kobori Enshū (perhaps Kagenao’s fellow-student).

The meibutsu-gire known as Funakoshi kantō [舟越カントウ] (a piece of the original, approximately life-size*, is shown above) was originally owned by Funakoshi Kagenao. ___________ *The vast majority of meibutsu-gire reproductions have the patterns miniaturized (so that they look better when used to make shifuku for chaire) -- and usually they are woven in brighter colors as well (to appeal, it is said, to young girls). In reality, most are much larger and bolder -- since they were made for clothing people. Most of the cloths known generically as kantō [カントウ = 韓渡] were made in Korea.

⁶Yojō-han [四疊半].

⁷Shi-hō-gama [四方釜].

⁸Seto mizusashi [瀬戸水指].

⁹Chaire: Shiri-bukura [茶入・尻ぶくら].

¹⁰Ko-mamori chawan [木守茶碗].

¹¹Kankyo no tsubo [閑居のつほ].

This cha-tsubo was destroyed in a fire during the time of Sen no Sōtan.

¹²Ori-tame [をりため].

As always, this would have been a chashaku that Rikyū made to be used together with the Shiri-bukura chaire on its red karamono shi-hō-bon.

The chashaku is not mentioned in the kaiki as it was published in the Rikyū Chaonyu Sho. Since it is included in the other versions of this entry, however, I have added it here.

Furthermore, neither the koboshi nor the futaoki are described in any of the surviving manuscript sources. It is likely, then, that these were very ordinary things -- probably a take-wa and a mentsū.

¹³Hito-fushi no tsutsu [一ふしの筒].

Probably this take-zutsu was used as an oki-zutsu [置き筒] -- that is, placed on an usu-ita on the floor of the toko.

Seasonal flowers available at this time of year that were suitable for arranging in an oki-zutsu* would include the suisen [水仙]† and the kan-giku [寒菊]‡ -- though the smaller varieties of the camellia (tsubaki [椿]) might also be arranged in a hanaire that is resting on the floor of the toko. ___________ *The first of Rikyū’s seven principals (Rikyū shichi soku [利休七則]) is hana ha no no hana no yō ni [花ハ野ノ花ノヤウニ] -- “with respect to the flowers, [they should be arranged] like the flowers in the wilds” -- which, according to the scholar Nishibori Ichizō [西堀一三; 1903 ~ 1970] (who was considered the top expert regarding the floral arrangements of Rikyū and his period), means that flowers that bloom on trees (i.e., the flowers are encountered above eye-level in nature) should be arranged in a hanging hanaire, while those that bloom below eye-level should be arranged in an oki-hanaire.

Flowers suitable for being arranged in an oki-tsutsu, then, would be those that naturally bloom near to the ground. Suisen and kan-giku are low herbaceous plants, while the shrubby camellias also bloom below eye-level. However varieties of camellia that grow into large trees would be better arranged in a kake-hanaire suspended on the back wall, or at the side, of the tokonoma.

†Suisen [水仙] (above), Narcissus tazetta, was originally a Mediterranean native narcissus that was introduced in antiquity to China (via the Silk Road), and thence to Korea and on to Japan, becoming more or less naturalized in each of these countries.

‡Kan-giku [寒菊](above) is a single to semi-double nearly wild form of Chrysanthemum morifolium with rather small white flowers that blush pink starting in early winter. The late-blooming varieties, which open around the time of the winter solstice, were especially prized in Rikyū’s day, both for their flowers and for their leaves, which also tend to color late in the year.

¹⁴Yaki-mono ・ sake, kurome, shiru ・ daikon, meshi [焼物・さけ、くろめ、汁・大こん、めし].

The food served on the zen:

- charcoal-grilled salmon (as the yaki-mono);

- kurome [黒布] is a kind of edible seaweed, which is served raw (after reconstituting it by soaking in water in places far from the sea), dressed with a thin sauce made of rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, salt, and ginger juice;

- daikon-shiru [大根汁] is a homely sort of miso-shiru with sliced daikon and daikon leaves* cooked in the soup;

- and steamed rice. ___________ *While young leaves could be used fresh, older leaves were usually dried and then added to the boiling broth. To dry the leaves, the upper end of the daikon room is cut off 5-bu or so below the crown, and the leaves are suspended from this piece upside down in a cool shady place to dry. This is still done in Korea, but not so much in Japan nowadays.

¹⁵Hiki soshite ・ sashimi koi [引而・さしみ・こい].

Koi sashimi was described in detail in the previous post. The season for koi sashimi was early to mid-winter, when the fish are most fatty.

¹⁶Kashi ・ fu-no-yaki, shiitake [菓子・ふのやき、しいたけ].

Both of these kinds of kashi -- fu-no-yaki [麩の焼] (red-bean-paste filled crêpes) and charcoal-grilled shiitake -- have been described before.

It is unclear how Rikyū may have prepared the shiitake for service as kashi, but grilling them with a sweet miso-based sauce painted on the upward-facing underside of the caps (this way of cooking is called dengaku [田樂]) was a recent (and increasingly popular) addition to the genteel cooking methods of his day*, and so perhaps he prepared them in this way as well. The method is discussed in the previous post. ___________ *Dengaku is said to be based on a style of cooking that originated in the deep countryside.

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cardiffhistory · 7 years

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Spotlight: Danescourt Estate

In the northwest corner of Cardiff, sandwiched between Llandaff and Radyr, sits Danescourt. This 1970s development of c.1,200 houses has at its heart a thirteenth century church, a fifteenth century manor house and, for some inexplicable reason, a postbox dating back to King George V. Anachronistic postboxes aside, there is a surprising amount of history for an estate which is just 40 years old...

Origin of the name

As previously covered ‘Danescourt’ is an amalgamation of the names of two properties which predate the estate. “Danes” refers to Danesbrook House, a private dwelling built during the Edwardian period and later extended and converted into a private nursing home, while “Court” refers to Radyr Court House (after which the nearby Radyr Court Road is named).

Radyr Court

In the 12th Century to the west of St John’s Church (on what is now Heol Aradur) stood a house called Radyr Isha (Lower Radyr), it had passed into the Mathew family in the 1450s through the marriage of Thomas Mathew (3rd son of Sir David Mathew, Standard Bearer of England under King Edward IV during the Wars of the Roses) to Catherine Ferch Morgan (daughter of Welsh nobleman Morgan Ap Llewellyn and heiress of Radyr). The marriage elevated the Mathew family so significantly that they felt it necessary to replace their grand Radyr Isha property with a larger and far grander manor house.

The new home (known as Cwrt Radur, or Radyr Court) was constructed at about 1469 to the east of St John’s Church alongside an existing track which led to a ford at the River Taff. The property was said to be a grand manor house, similar in size and style to that of the ‘Van House’ in Caerphilly built several years earlier. Radyr Isha had been left to ruin, as noted by Rhys Meurig in the 16th century:

“ye manor house by the west of ye church, sometime ye house of Morgan Llew ap Jeban, now decay'd"

In subsequent years the derelict house would be removed in its entirety (foundations and all) by David’s grandson Sir George Mathew to make way for a large deer park. Deer were seen a status symbol in Tudor times, but this unnecessary extravagance would signal the beginning of the end for the Mathew dynasty.

Creation of the deer park required the eviction of several tenant farmers in the manor, this loss of potential income coupled with the high cost of looking after a herd of deer led to significant financial problems. George’s eldest son William attempted to revive his family’s fortune by investing in the Pentyrch Iron Works. By 1625, with crippling debts and very little income, Captain George Mathew was forced to sell what remained of the estate to the Lewis family of Caerphilly ending nearly 200 years of the Mathew family’s reign in Radyr.

By 1830 a large portion of Radyr Court had to be demolished after being ravaged by fire. The remaining wings of the house were renovated and converted into a farmhouse. It remained as a working farm until the 1970s (top picture) when council planners purchased the surrounding lands and set about creating a new estate to satisfy the needs of the expanding city. By 1979 the farmhouse had been extensively renovated and reopened as a pub known as The Radyr Court.

The pub has changed hands a number of times in 40 years and undergone several transformations, including a stint between 2003 and 2013 where the upstairs became an Indian restaurant. The current incarnation is viewed as more of a restaurant than a pub and is owned by three local men who saved it from closure in 2013. It officially reopened in 2015 after an extensive (and no doubt expensive) refurbishment, with a new logo featuring a deer and the year ‘1469′ in reference to the history of the building.

Radyr Chain

In Tudor times the responsibility for maintaining the local road network was that of the Parish. Each parishioner was duty-bound to do one week (6 days) unpaid work on the roads (although records from the time suggest payment in the form of free ale may have been given). As traffic on the roads increased, and parishioners were less willing to give up their free time, it was necessary for the parish to use paid labour. By the 1770s it became apparent that the present system was unsustainable and before the end of the century major roads in the county became turnpikes (an early name for a toll road). The concept worked in much the same way that modern toll roads do where an appointed trust takes control of a section of road and charges road users for using that particular section; the fees collected would then be used for repairs and maintenance.

The main road from Llandaff to Capel Llanilltern (modern day Llantrisant Road) became a turnpike and was operated for profit by the Cardiff Turnpike Trust. A toll booth was built at the junction of modern day Waterhall Road, but road users soon realised they could bypass this toll by instead travelling via Llandaff Bridge and using nearby Radyr Court Road. In a bid to combat this, the Trust installed a chain across the road which was only lowered on receipt of payment. This led to the area being referred to as "Radyr Chain".

One known operator at the Radyr Chain toll booth was an elderly woman by the name of Rachel, also known as "Rachel of the Chain". Little is known of Rachel, though she is mentioned in this 1895 account by the Reverend William David, Rector Of St Fagans:

“Rachel, of the Chain, who lived alone in a comical little cabin about nine or ten feet square which stood at the corner of the adjacent crossroads, where she kept charge of a chain stretched across the road and lowered only on payment of toll by any traveller.”

The turnpikes were never popular, particularly with vendors living north of Radyr wishing to sell their wares in Cardiff. The hostility eventually turned to rioting in the 1840s, and by 1851 the turnpike trusts throughout South Wales were disbanded. Responsibility for the roads initially passed to a Llandaff Highways Board before eventually coming under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Glamorgan County Council in 1888.

With the former turnpikes now in the hands of the local Government, money for road maintenance was collected through taxes instead of individual tolls. This rendered the toll houses surplus to requirements and across the county they were demolished or sold off. Although Radyr Chain had been suggested for demolition in 1864 (and again in 1865) to facilitate the widening of the turnpike road, it is known to still be in place in 1879 as a local government report commented on the poor sanitary conditions and lack of running water at the building. The toll house had certainly been demolished by the early 1890s, and within 10 years the site had been redeveloped and the modern day “Radyr Chain” house (pictured) and lodge house were built.

The tree around which the chain was connected is believed to have been removed when construction of Danescourt began in the 1970s, the stump now sits in the foyer of the the Church Hall in Danescourt.

Surprising street names

Modern housing estates are usually littered with bland street names typically named after arbitrary items such as trees or plants (Pontprennau's Blackberry Way, Greenacre Drive and Acorn Grove immediately spring to mind!). When choosing the names of Danescourt's streets the planners appear to have consulted the history books for some rather more interesting and relevant names.

Radyr Court Road remains in situ (although the section leading north from the Taff through to Llantrisant Road is almost entirely pedestrianised) and off it you can find Mathew Walk (a reference to the Mathew family), Rachel Close (widely believed to be a reference to Rachel of the Chain) and Cadoc Place (an Anglicisation of the Saint Catwg).

Further afield at least 17 of the streets are named after former Deans, Archdeacons and Bishops of Llandaff, the first of which was a cleric by the name of Urban (a Latinised version of his birth name "Gwrgan") who is said to have established the Diocese of Llandaff and served as it's first Bishop in 1107 until his death in 1134. His name lives on as Heol Urban ("Heol" means "Road"). Heol Urban leads to three cul-de-sacs which are also named after former clergymen; Lynch Blosse Close (after Henry Lynch Blosse who served as Archdeacon from 1859 - 1877 and Dean until 1879) Bruce Knight Close (after William Bruce Knight who was Dean between 1843 and 1845 before becoming Chancellor) and Marshall Close (believed to be after John Marshall, Bishop between 1478 and 1496). Elsewhere in the estate the surnames of former Bishops William da Braose (1266-1287), Robert Holgate (1537-1545), Francis Godwin, (1601-1617), Charles Sumner (1826-1827) and Alfred Ollivant (1849-1882) are used as prefixes for the word "Close", as is that of James Rice Buckley the Archdeacon from 1913 - 1924 who has his own statue on the Cathedral Green in Llandaff (pictured).

Other streets named after former Bishops include Richard Lewis Close (1883-1905), Timothy Rees Close (1931-1939), Blethin Close (Anglicised version of William Blethyn, 1575-1590), Herbert March Close (a mis-spelling of Herbert Marsh, 1816-1819) and Hugh's Close (a fairly common name, but believed to be in reference to Hugh Jones, Bishop from 1567-1574). John Morgan Close (1939-1957) and Glyn Simon Close (1957-1971) are particularly significant as they both served as Bishop of Llandaff before becoming Archbishop of Wales.

In addition to the wider Diocese of Llandaff, a number of the streets are named after people who have made a contribution to Llandaff Cathedral. John Prichard and John Pollard Seddon, the Victorian Architects charged with restoring the Cathedral in the late 19th Century, are immortalised by the street names Heol Seddon and Pritchard Close (another spelling mistake). Jasper Close is named after Jasper Tudor who designed and helped fund the northwest tower of the Cathedral in the 14th Century, while Pace Close is named in reference to George Pace who helped restore the Cathedral in the 1950s following significant damage during World War II.

Other streets are named after artists and sculptors who have created significant pieces of artwork for the Cathedral, including:

Burne Jones Close: after Edward Burne-Jones, artist (Six Days of Creation, c.1893)

Edward Clarke Close: after Edward Clarke, stonemason (Trinity Corbel, 19th C.)

Epstein Close: after Sir Jacob Epstein, artist (Christ in Majesty, 1954)

Piper Close: after John Piper, artist (stained glass window "The Supper at Emmaus" 1959)

Roper Close: after Frank Roper, sculptor (Flowers of the Virgin Mary, 1964)

Rossetti Close: after Dante Gabriel Rossetti, artist (The Seed of David, 1864)

Wyon Close: after Allan G. Wyon, engraver (life size Brass of Timothy Rees)

The artists Thomas Woolner (Moses Before the Glory of God, 1860) and Alan Durst (Scenes From the Bible and the Life of St Teilo, 1952) have also been honoured with street names, but like many in the area they have both been spelt incorrectly as Woolmer Close and Allan Durst Close.

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itshistoryyall · 4 years

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Part 4: Burn Them All

photo credits: here

A little foreword before we begin:

I had to start over for this part because, I’m gonna be honest, it’s a mess. For some reason historians have this aversion to keeping history in a tidy chronological order, and I’m not sure why, but I basically had to sift through other people’s research for multiple days and then come up with a game plan for how all of this was going to be laid out. To put into perspective just how large this part of the research was, I made this photo of the links that I found on Wikipedia.

The rest of this will include only the trials that I wanted to research or thought were interesting or had some sort of historical importance, so if you feel like there’s one I didn’t mention and you would like researched, please email me or PM me and I will do my best to do a separate post about it. I have to admit, it was just too much for me to do without spending a few weeks researching. Now, back to the good stuff.

In the mid-1500’s we begin to see a wide-spread persecution of alleged witches and a mass hysteria driven by religious persecution and fear of accusation. This time period between 1560-1630 is considered by most historians to be the bulk of the trials, and that idea is backed up by sheer numbers. The death toll from these trials is somewhere in the 40,000-50,000 range, though, historians of the past have wildly unpredictable and outrageous estimates numbering in the millions. Taking into account a “normal” level of fatalities for crimes outside of witchcraft, plague fatalities, and normal death rates, it’s a bit safer to assume somewhere in the thousands 40-50,000 even seems a bit steep to me, but no one can ever know for certain. The important thing to takeaway from this was that it was a lot. In this section we’ll be focusing on the trials that have enough historical information to be granted a name and some basic description located somewhere other than Wikipedia, or (more likely) the ones that piqued my interest most. Those are as follows: The Witch Trials of Wiesenteig, Trier, Berwick, Bamburg, Nogaredo, the Pappenheimer Family, Pendle Witches, and the Affair of Poisons. The Salem Witch Trials are a unique set of events that I feel require special attention and will therefore write on that subject separately. size

As we learned from Part Three, these trials began in a region of southern Switzerland and spread from a French-speaking side to a German-speaking side, so from that we can deduce why the first major trial took place in Germany. The Wiesenteig Witch Trials began in 1562 amassing a death toll of around sixty and earning its reputation for the first mass execution of this magnitude[1]. To understand why we saw such extreme numbers here, we need a little background. The city of Wiesensteig, like many other cities in Europe,[2] was facing a difficult few years. Some might call these things simply unfortunate, but not Wiesensteig. They were clearly cursed by witches because no other city in the world could possibly have inclement weather, the Bubonic Plague—among other epidemics, and (I think at this point it goes without saying, but alas) religious turmoil! So obviously, the first course of action after a particularly brutal hailstorm in 1562 was to arrest a few ladies for witchcraft. Of the accused, six were made to confess through torture and were executed, but before facing their punishment they claimed to have seen several other women at their Dark Sabbath[3]. The women that were named from neighboring Esslingen were soon arrested, and then shortly released leaving authorities in Wiesensteig outraged by the lack of sentencing. In reaction, Weisenstein saw forty-one more executions. In December of 1563, the execution of twenty more women was approved leading ultimately to the production of a widely used pamphlet, True and Horrifying Deeds of 63 Witches. Further executions in the area occurred in 1583, 1605, and 1611 leaving an estimated total of ninety-seven women who perished.

These were certainly not the largest trials to have occurred in Germany, however the Trier Trials taking place in the diocese of Trier near the borders of France, Belgium, and Switzerland[4] certainly left their mark on the world. We can’t know for sure the number of casualties because existing records of the trials only include those that occurred within the city-limits, and they do not include statistics for the entire diocese or those that may have perished via torture or while imprisoned. The number that most sources reference is 400; however, it’s likely that the number closer to the thousand mark rather than the low hundreds, and as such it can be an assumed low estimate of the actual number of deaths. This incident is considered the largest mass execution of peoples during an extended period of peace in Europe’s history.

The appointed archbishop of Trier in 1581, Johann von Schönenberg, was quick to order a purge of three groups that he didn’t like very much. That included Jews, Protestants, and lastly, witches. Due to Johann’s support for these trials, we see a large upturn in the popularity and commendation of these executions among increasingly more church officials. The largest number of executions took place between 1587 and 1593 when 368 people were burned at the stake in twenty-two villages. The number of those executed was so heavily comprised of women, that a couple of villages were left with only a single female resident amongst the living, but that is not to say that it was only women who were executed for sorcery. A large number were members of nobility, held positions in the government, or were people of influence, and of the victims, 108 were men. One notable male victim was rector of a university and a chief judge in the electoral court who didn’t approve of the trials; Dietrich Flade, the rector/judge, doubted the effectiveness of torture practices and opposed the violent treatment of the accused, and as such, was arrested and subjected to the same abuse as those he was attempting to protect. His execution was a turning point, and it effectively ended any opposition to the trials in Trier and making way for hundreds more burnings.

I would like to issue a trigger-warning for the sensitive material that is to follow. It is graphic, detailed, and gruesome, so please do not read further if you feel sensitive to these subjects.

One other case worth mentioning in Germany is the Pappenheimer Family Trials. Though it was a small number of fatalities, it was unusually well documented for the time and that gives us a great deal of written detail to refer to when describing the torture practices in these trials. The family comprised of a mother, father, and three sons—Simon (22), Jacob (21), and Hoel (10). The mother, Anna, was born the daughter of a grave-digger and began life on the fringes of society, and her husband, Paul, did not fare much better in life as an illegitimate child and day laborer. Throughout their lives they lived apart from most of society and were likely not even treated kindly by other poor laborers. In fact, the surname suggests that the family was in the business of privy maintenance and cleaning, and it was not their original surname. The real family name was Gämperle, and they were in for a fate much worse than name-calling after Paul was accused of murdering pregnant women in order to gain magical benefits from their unborn fetuses. The whole family, aside from their youngest son, was subjected to cruel and relentless torture until they had confessed to hundreds of unsolved crimes over the past few decades including murder of the elderly and children, spoiling cattle, thievery, and burning people alive in their beds.

On July 29, 1600,the following took place: the eldest sons and their parents were brought before the town along with two others accused of witchcraft, Anne was placed between her two sons, the executioner cut off her breasts, and then he proceeded to beat her and her sons in the face with them three times each. Next, Anne was whipped five times with a “twisted wire,” then both of her arms were broken on the wheel, and her body was immediately burnt. Next the men’s arms were also broken, they all received five lashes with the twisted wire whip, and all of them except Paul were tied to the stake and burned. Paul was then spitted alive and roasted to death, and then once he was dead his body was also burnt.[5] This was all displayed for the entire town to see and was then used as a punishment for ten-year-old Hoel, who was made to watch the entire ordeal. Later that year he was also tortured, strangled, and then burned at the stake after having confessed to eight murders on his own. The importance of pointing out these torture proceedings is to make a reference point for how tortures took place during these executions, and to give you an idea of what this could look like at each and every execution described hereafter.

For our next trial, we turn to Scotland’s famous witch trials where, purportedly Shakespeare gained the inspiration for one of his most famous tragedies, Macbeth, and where we begin to see an association with witches and the natural forces of weather. The Berwick Witch Trials took place for a year beginning in 1591, and it was all due to the inclement weather that beset King James VI after he had sailed to Copenhagen to marry Queen Anne. While the royal couple were sheltering in Norway and waiting on the storms to subside one Danish Admiral, Peder Munk, made mention that high ranking official of Copenhagen’s wife was to blame for their misfortunes. After the suggestion, several nobles of the Scottish court were also accused and confessed to plaguing the voyage of Queen Anne with raging storms and for sending devils to climb up the sides of the ship. More than a hundred of the accused were executed marking this as one of Scotland’s largest witch hunts on record. These events prompted King James to publish his dissertation Daemonologie in 1597, marking the beginning of a secular persecution of witches and conversely inspiring a well-known playwright.

Shortly after the publication of Daemonologie, and the execution of the Pappenheimer’s, the famous English witch trials known as the Pendle Witches[6] (part of a larger series of trials known to history as The Lancashire Trials) took place in 1612. These trials are some of the best kept records of the executions taking place in the 17th century. We know that these trials led to the execution of around 10 people (two were sons of the accused), and although these numbers seem inconsequential when compared to the thousands who perished in Germany, it actually made up a significant portion of executions that took place in England where it’s estimated that the combined executions during this era were fewer than 500. Inspiration for the witch hunt that accused 11 people, included an instance where an unfortunate series of events involving Elizabeth Southerns and her granddaughter Alizon Device. Elizabeth also went by the alias Elizabeth Demdike which was a title derived from “demon woman,” and she was commonly believed to have been a witch by her neighbors for around fifty years prior to the Pendle trials. Her granddaughter, Alizon, one day had the misfortune of running across a beggar selling pins that had an ill-timed stroke after refusing to sell her his products. Pins were often handmade and expensive, and although considered a fairly common item, could also be used for magical purposes including divination, healing, and love magic. The beggar, John Law, was left lame and stiff with a permanent distortion of his face, and subsequently almost the entire Device family, including Elizabeth Southerns now in her mid-eighties, was put on trial for witchcraft.

Next we have a rather large historical event that took place, known as the Thirty Years’ War, and I don’t want to spend a lot time on that subject, so I’ll hit the highlights. It took place mostly in Central Europe from 1618-1648, and it is known as one of the most destructive wars in human history. During this time, we see somewhere around eight million casualties due to human violence, war, plague, and famine and a twenty percent loss of Germany’s total population on par with the casualties that it faced in WWII. We can also see witch-hunting efforts exaggerated by the raging war between most of Europe, and consequently some of our largest casualties from the following executions. Two of the four largest executions of witches in the Early Modern Period (1500-1800) took place during these thirty years of chaos and they resulted in fatalities numbering in the thousands.

[1] Though, we do see an execution a few years earlier in a region of Italy that mirrors the scope of the trials in Weisensteig, it is not as well documented and I thought, for brevity’s sake it would be best if I left it out.

[2] You’re not special, Wiesensteig.

[3] Not the band, that’s a different kind of sabbath.

[4] Remember Switzerland where those other crazy trials started? Me too.

[5] (Unknown, 1600, pp. 1-10)

[6] The Lancashire Trials consisted of the Pendle witches and the Salemsbury witches among other hunts in the area.

#witches #witch trials #european witch trials #early modern period #history #itshistoryyall #plague #thirty years war #covid-19 #coronavirus #social distancing #blog #blog post #history blog

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Trying to Reach the North Pole? Check Your Wi-Fi

When Alan Kerr’s daughters confessed that they no longer believed in Santa Claus, he shared a confession of his own.

“I told them the truth,” he said. “I work for Santa.”

Mr. Kerr, an economist by training who has worked for the Canadian government, is the man behind emailSanta.com, a website featuring giggling elves and a sparkly cursor that offers games, quizzes and the option to send a message to the North Pole.

Each year, more than a million messages reach Mr. Kerr’s home office in Calgary, he said, mostly asking for puppies, bikes and, more recently, iPhones. In some of the messages, however, children reveal hardships like being bullied at school or struggling with an illness.

And within a few moments — thanks to a software program that identifies keywords in the message, including location, age and level of “goodness” — the sender receives a personalized message from Santa, noting the puppy request or address change, and offering words of encouragement or ways to get help.

Since Mr. Kerr started the website during a nationwide postal strike in 1997, however, his customers have gotten savvier, he said, and demand more proof that Santa knows who is on the other end of the connection.

Now his software is powered by thousands of lines of code that better anticipate the kinds of questions, thoughts and feelings that may come in. He also offers video messages, a live Santa tracker on Christmas Eve and, for pets, responses from Rudolph.

“Kids back then were astute to spot a phony,” Mr. Kerr, 57, said of websites that spat back form letters. “Nowadays, they’re really good.”

Yes, Virginia, children still handwrite wishes to the North Pole and whisper them into Santa’s ear at the mall. But today’s insta-culture demands responses faster than Santa’s sleigh.

While some attempts at digitizing Santa have failed spectacularly (a Microsoft chat bot was shut down in 2007 after it started talking dirty), a growing number of companies are making renewed attempts to connect children with Santa via text message, email and video chat.

In the old days, only parents were listening in on these conversations, and Santa Claus was not in the business of collecting data. Now there are new rules of engagement around privacy and security for parents, children and even Santa himself.

Mispronunciations, and Other Risks

Portable North Pole, one of the most popular Santa sites and mobile apps, lets parents personalize videos for their child by choosing from a number of scenarios at Santa’s workshop, aboard his sleigh or inside the traffic control center.

“We’re adapting the tradition of the letter,” Alexandre Bérard, who created the site in 2008, said. “Kids are very visual.”

But in order to keep the magic alive, he said, parents are asking for more elaborate features to make the experience believable, such as Santa calling the child while he or she is watching the video.

According to Mr. Bérard, the trickiest part is saying the child’s name correctly. Drawing on its enormous database of given name pronunciations, the company has a 98 percent success rate, he said.

Last year, the company created 23 million personalized messages worldwide, some of which were filmed with a Santa Claus from a village near the North Pole.

So far this holiday season, the company has produced about 1.5 million messages for customers in the United States alone, and 8.5 million more internationally Mr. Bérard said.

Each year, he said, the site is audited by the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, a federal privacy law that protects personally identifiable data concerning children under 14.

Protecting children’s privacy is “very delicate,” he said, “and we have to be cautious about that.”

Mr. Bérard said the site doesn’t sell any data to third parties.

“We keep it for ourselves for the next season,” he said.

Hello? It’s Me, Santa

Several competitors want to elevate the connection. On TalktoSanta.com, parents can also arrange a 10-minute video encounter with a headset-wearing Santa sitting in front of a fireplace backdrop. (Additional fees apply to conference in a grandparent or relative overseas, or to get Santa on the line on Christmas Eve or Day.)

“When you write a letter, you’re not necessarily going to get a letter back,” said John LoPorto, who co-founded the site five years ago. “Now, they’ll get some feedback.”

In all, about 300 men from a professional Santa school will be hired this year for the video calls. All the company’s Santas have passed a full background check, Mr. LoPorto said, and have taken additional training to smooth their moves for the camera.

Before signing on, parents fill out a lengthy questionnaire about their child’s favorite song, recent spelling bee wins, whether she is actually picking up after a pet, and other good or bad behaviors that Santa would be watching out for.

“The more that Mom fills out, the more fun Santa can have with the child,” Mr. LoPorto said.

The site’s privacy policy is lengthy. The site also uses a secured Amazon web server, Mr. LoPorto said, and makes the videos available for download for the people on the call, in compliance with children’s online privacy rules.

Watching Out for Bad Santas

The Better Business Bureau has not recently received complaints about sham companies offering letters from Santa, according to Katherine R. Hutt, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t out there, she added.

“One of the concerns about shady letter companies is that they may not be ripping off parents today but rather stealing children’s identity, which parents may not notice for years (if ever),” Ms. Hutt said in an email.

The bureau suggests being cautious of any site or service that requires personally identifiable information that could be used for identity theft, adding that parents should never share a child’s birth date.

“The real problem is that it’s very difficult, particularly in the United States, to effectively track the collection and use of data about your kids,” said Marc Rotenberg, who is the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit research group.

“The profiles that companies generate from kids talking about Christmas presents in 2019 will follow those children for many, many years into the future,” he said.

Back in Canada

Mr. Kerr, the Santa in Calgary, said he operated emailSanta.com based on the golden rule of how he would want his daughters to be treated by a website.

He discourages children from including their surnames, and does not collect or sell personal information, he said, pointing to the site’s privacy policy. There is only one instance in which he will share information: if he senses a child is in danger.

Each year, he said, he refers about half a dozen cases of possible child abuse or neglect to law enforcement agencies.

“Kids say things to Santa they don’t tell anyone else,” he said.

Jack Begg contributed research.

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