ARRAS WITCH TRIALS

The Arras Witch Trials took place in Arras in France in 1459 - 1460. The victims of the Arras trials were tortured and then burned at the stake. The witchcraft trials were one of the earliest conducted in the area.

The Arras affair began at Langres in 1459, when a hermit was arrested. Under torture, he admitted attending a sabbat, and named a prostitute and an elderly poet of Arras as his companions. The hermit was burned at the stake. The inquisitors arrested and tortured his accused accomplices.

A widening pool of accusations, arrests, tortures and confessions spread like wildfire through Arras. People of all ages and classes were arrested. The inquisitor was spurred on by two fanatical dominican monks. The dominicans believed that one third of the population of Europe was witches, and if they had there way almost the entire population of Europe would have been murdered. Anyone against burning witches was in their opinion also a witch.

The victims were placed on a rack and tortured. The soles of their feet were put in to flames, and they were made to drink oil and vinegar. They confessed to whatever the inquisitors wanted. They also named other innocent people in Arras in accordance with the inquisitors leading questions and torture. The inquisitors lied to the victims, promising them their freedom in return for a confeesion. But the victims were sent to the stake where they were denounced in public and burned alive.

Eventually the witchhunt took a toll on business in the city. Arras was a manufacturing and trade centre and many people stopped doing business there. By the end of 1460 the Duke of Burgundy intervened and the arrests stopped. In 1461 the Parlement of Paris demandedthe release of those imprisoned. In 1491 the Parlament condemed the cruelty and tortures of the catholic inquisition