It was
a Jesuit priest, the noble Frederick von Spee, who, when asked by the
Elector of Mainz why his hair had turned white at the early age of
forty, replied: "Sire, it is because I have accompanied to the stake so
many women accused of witchcraft not one of whom was guilty."

The persecution of so-called witches grew to fearful proportions in the
seventeenth century. No ugly old woman who had village enemies was safe
from arrest and execution on a charge of witchcraft. The following
statistics from the small district of Drachenfels are typical, as in
every other town of the empire similar conditions prevailed.

Between July, 1630, and December, 1631, and between November, 1643, and
May, 1645, ninety-two out of the eight hundred inhabitants of the
district were executed for witchcraft. Every second house furnished at
least one victim. Sometimes four or five out of a single family were
accused. The youngest woman burned was twenty-nine years of age. The
others were between fifty-five and eighty. Confessions were secured by
the use of the rack and other horrible tortures. The confessions were
always similar, a mere echo of the stories told around every village
hearth on winter evenings. The alleged witch had sickened cattle. She
had sought at midnight the woodland dancing place of evil spirits or had
ridden through the air on a broomstick. She had made a compact with the
devil, etc., etc.

But confession was not considered evidence enough. Accomplices must be
declared. Just here, sometimes, splendid heroism came in, as in the case
of Frau Merl of Drachenfels. Neither the rack, the thumbscrew, nor
ice-cold water poured over her could induce her to name as co-witch any
but dead women. Through three courts they dragged her case. There was
even a chance of saving her own life if she would implicate certain
other suspected persons. Instead, however, she went alone to the stake.
One wishes that Von Spee might have walked beside her, whispering words
of consolation.

A minor cause of woman's degradation in this unhappy age of her history
was the prevalence of drunkenness. An official map was once issued that
showed drinking districts, places being marked as "ever drunk," "mostly
drunk," "half drunk," etc. "No drunk" did not exist even as an imaginary
geographical line.

From the lowest strata of society to the highest women were made
miserable by this evil of intemperance. The intoxicated peasant knocked
his wife down and