Howling Hour: Inside the European Werewolf Trials.
Werewolf witch trials were witch trials combined with werewolf trials. Belief in werewolves developed parallel to the belief in European witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. In folklore, a werewolf, or occasionally lycanthrope, is a human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction. For some, the presence of werewolves on earth was just as real as you and I; and while the idea of ‘monsters’ are predominantly a product of the human mind, in Europe, many lived in centennial fear that these creatures were entirely real.
One of the first known accounts of somebody being accused for lycanthropy was in France, in 1521. Michel Verdun, Philibert Montot, and Pierre Bourgot were arrested and tortured by French authorities to confess to the crime of lycanthropy, after a wolf attack had supposedly occurred in a nearby settlement. They were forced to confess to the notion that they received a type of ointment that granted them their shape-shifting abilities, in a kind of ‘deal-with-the-devil’ sort of situation. By disavowing God, they were supposedly granted protection – along with a relentless, terrible power. Consequently, all three of these men were found guilty of lycanthropy, and swiftly executed via burning at the stake by French authorities.
Gilles Garnier is another notable case, albeit much more twisted. Garnier was a French hermit, but unlike Verdun, Montot, or Bourgot, Garnier was actually a cannibalistic serial killer. After a few children had gone missing or were eventually found dead, nearby authorities were very quick to assume that this was the work of a werewolf, and encouraged people to help in finding and slaying the “beast”. Soon after, a group of workers were able to apprehend and arrest Garnier after spotting him with a child’s corpse in the middle of the night. During his trial, Garnier claimed that he was visited by a specter during one of his desperate hunts for food in the forest. The specter supposedly promised Garnier an ointment that would give him wolf-like powers, and assist him in hunting more effectively. It was during this trial when he confessed to the murders of roughly 4 children, killing and cannibalizing them. Garnier was found guilty of lycanthropy, as well as witchcraft, and was burned at the stake.
Peter Stumpp is yet another noteworthy case, if only for the sheer cruelty and brutality in which he was executed. After having confessed to acts of lycanthropy, witchcraft, murder, incest, and cannibalism, Stumpp was placed on an execution wheel – where he had his skin torn off with pincers, his limbs smashed with the blunt part of an axe, his head chopped off, and his body burned. Authorities made an example of Stumpp by placing his severed head on a pole next to the execution wheel, along with a wolf symbol – in an attempt to ward off any behavior pertaining to lycanthropy.
These are just a handful of incidents that occurred during this time. As many as 18 werewolf-related trials are reputed to have taken place between the years of 1527 and 1725, just shy of 200 years – all of which were in Europe.
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