different realities and reactions While much of the contemporary debate and later research has focused on areas of Lutheran or Reformed spiritual dominance, cases in Catholic milieus were not unknown. For example, Anna Maria Umgeherin in 1719 was executed in Perchtoldsdorf in Austria for murdering a child, a deed she said was suggested to her by the devil, because she did not want to live, but she still had hope for the mercy of God.432 In Reichenbach in Bavaria in early eighteenth century a woman had been depressed for some time and wanted to die. However, she did not want to go to hell. Therefore, she chose to commit arson. She decided against torching an inhabited house where children could die and instead set fire to a stable. Then she put on her best dress and reported herself. Some questions were put to the faculty of law in Ingolstadt about this case. They found it wise, given the circumstances, to change her sentence from burning to decapitation.They could not countenance, however, the idea of her not being executed because of the state of her mind. For them, her insanity was not sufficient. Instead, they suggested that she should be moved to Munich for two months before her execution, probably because they thought her preparation might become problematic.433 Some eighteenth–century German cases, such as the three below, were well known among those that in the eighteenth and nineteenth century studied these murders from a psychiatric perspective. They were frequently circulated, described, and referred to and quite often described in French literature using a British book as intermediate.434 In a prison in Onolzbach in 1755 a twenty-three years old woman, Ewa Margareta K, was imprisoned and, as was the habit of the prison, whipped on her admission there. It hurt her right breast severely and she had severe pain and damages in the breast and adjunct parts of her body for weeks. Therefore, she decided that she would rather die than risk such an 432 Griesebner 2000 p 218 sqq, Griesebner 2011 p 228, the case from the same year in Rodau mentioned by Stuart 2008 p 427 is probably the same case as the two places are close to each other. 433 Verlohner 1725 p 130 sqq. 434 Brierre de Boismont 1851 p 635. The cases cited see e g in Falret 1822 p 304 sqq, Gall 1823 p 146 sqq, Georget 1825 p 85 sq, Brierre de Boismont 1851 p 633 sqq. The British source seems to have been Crichton 1798 p 205 sqq, see also Jacquelin-Dubuisson 1816 p 121. 126
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