Friedrich Spee
1591-1635 17th century
Taking the side of those whose confession was wrung out of them.
Who was Friedrich Spee?
A Rhineland Jesuit and teacher, he accompanied to the stake women condemned as witches, and in 1631 published anonymously a book that dismantled the witch trial by its own logic: under torture everyone confesses, therefore a confession proves nothing. His superiors moved him elsewhere. He also wrote poems in German, tender and pastoral, and he died at forty-four of plague caught while nursing wounded soldiers at Trier.
In their own words
It is torture that fills Germany with witches.
I have often thought that if we are not all sorcerers, it is only because we have not all been put to the torture.