persons were beheaded and their bodies were burnt, the normal form of execation for witches in Sweden. By then new inv'estigations showed that witchcraft was far more widespread than had been feared. The centre was the parish of Mora by Lake Siljan. The people of the district had sent a representative to Stockholm to ask for more energetic measures to protect the children involved. The government appointed a royal commission empowered to carry out the death sentences on its own judgement. It completed its assignment in Mora in a fortnight in August 1669. Sixty suspects were interrogated and hundreds of children came forward with charges and tales of journeys to Blåkulla. Twenty-three persons, mostly women, were sentenced to death. Of these, 15 who had confessed were executed immediately. They went ”on Bartholomew’s Day; 7 on the first pyre, 5 on the second and 3 on the third, a shocking spectacle”. Contemporary estimates of the number of victims (Horneck and Bekker) — 70 adults and 15 children — are thus highly exaggerated. A further six persons fromÄlvdalen, the first parish to be affected, also went to the block. During 1670 the craze spread through the parishes around Siljan. Reports of at least 300 suspected witches and thousands of possessed children poured in to the government and the Court of Appeal. The bishops of Strängnäs and Västerås, together with delegations from the stricken parishes, demanded that new measures be taken. The government and in particular Per Brahe were still sceptical, but were compelled in the name of justice to yield to public opinion. Mora had been granted a royal commission: the other parishes were entitled to the same treatment. A new royal court carried out its duties at New Year 1671. Considering the large number of suspected witches the death penalties were relatively few. This was due in no small measure to the basic principle adopted by the court that only those who had confessed of their own accord could be executed. These amounted to no more than some 15. Among the remainder those who had especially much evidence against them from accomplices and possessed children were picked out. They were sentenced to be led out to the place of execution and there be made to confess. This failed in every case and they were brought back again. This method of dealing with witches who denied their deeds shows the reluctance to kill persons who were unrepentant, this being to send them to eternal damnation. On the continent torture was resorted to in such instances. The disadvantage with the Swedish method was that the secret on which it depended for success became general knowledge: only those who confessed were seriously in danger of losing their lives. Confession was not a legal requirement for the death sentence to be carried out. The reluctance to kill an impenitent person was due to religious considerations for his immortal soul. During 1672, when new cases of witchcraft began to appear in neighbouring provinces, the Court of Appeal also 330
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