They put him to the rack in the Town of Bedburg; fearing torture, however, he confessed everything, all his villainies over the space of twenty-five years, and the sorcery he performed to receive his girdle from the Devil.
He told the magistrates he had cast the girdle off in a certain valley. When they went there to look, there was nothing to be seen; the Devil had retrieved his property, and abandoned Stubbe Peeter to the suffering he deserved.
He had been imprisoned some time before the magistrates learned his daughter and the gossip Katherine Trompin had been accessories to many of his murders, and were arraigned for this, and for their lewd way of life. The three of them were condemned, judgement pronounced on 28th October 1589: Stubbe Peeter was named principle malefactor, and was sentenced to be laid upon the Wheel, and his flesh torn in ten places from the bone with red-hot pincers, his arms and legs broken with a wooden cudgel or hatchet, his head struck from his body, his carcass burned to ash.
His daughter and the gossip Trompin were sentenced to be quickly burned to ash at the same time.
So, on the 31st of that month, they suffered and died in the Town of Bedburg, in the presence of many peers and princes from across Germany.
Gentle Reader, I have set down the true story of this wicked man, Stubbe Peeter, which I hope will serve warning to all sorcerers and witches who lawlessly follow their own devilish imaginations, to the utter ruin and destruction of their eternal souls. I bessech God keep all good men from their wicked, damnable way of life, from the cruelty of their wicked hearts.
Amen.
Addendum.
After the executions, the magistrates of the Town of Bedburg had a tall pole raised and strongly braced, upon which was set the wheel Stubbe Peeter was broken upon, and the wooden effigy of a wolf. Where the pole passed through his wheel, Stubbe Peeter's head was impaled, and from the wheel were hung sixteen pieces of wood for the sixteen lives he was known certainly to have taken.
It is ordained to stand, forever a monument to his murders and the justice which was done, as this picture so well shows.
Witnesses to the truth of this.
Tyse Artyne.
William Brewar.
Adolf Staedt.
George Bores.
With many others who bear witness to the same.
Notes.
'he had cast the girdle off in a certain valley'. This develops the picture we formed in the previous installment, of Peter Stump being chased through the woods and brought to bay somewhere he couldn't escape. Hunters knew the ground they worked over, and natural features like valleys or streambeds were used as traps, their exits sealed by nets or lines of beaters and hounds.
The Illustration.
Reading from top left:
Peter Stump making his transformation into a wolf, and then comitting one of his murders. It's interesting how the modern conception of the Werewolf is either one or the other of these; notable exceptions are 'An American Werewolf in London' and 'The Company of Wolves', which are very faithful to this Early Modern visualisation.
His flesh is torn with heated pincers, while blindfolded; this was not to spare him anything, but to worsen the experience by making it difficult for him to prepare himself for the next wound, and so suffer more when it is inflicted, and he is then allowed to see what they have done.
The things on and before the brazier are probably his fingers and genitals. The genitals and viscera was also burned in this fashion during English executions by hanging, drawing and quartering.
I suspect the gallows tree is a mistake on the part of the engraver, taking his cue from English practice.
Bottom centre, Peter is broken on the wheel. Practice varied, but at the least the bones of the four limbs would be methodically broken into a mass of compound fractures; in one variation - French, if I recall - the limbs would then be woven between the spokes of the wheel.
Bottom right, he is decapitated. Note the sword; this was the norm on the Continent, whereas in the British Isles an axe was generally used.
Upper right, and notice how the engraver has represented his smashed limbs as his headless body is dragged to the pyre where his daughter and neighbour have been waiting. Together they are burned to ash.
In the centre, we see the monumental 'tree' described in the text. The sixteen bone-like pieces of wood hang loose, like wind chimes. His wheel would turn in the wind.
Comments
Post a Comment