I have discovered that in days gone by the part of Germany in which I live was an unhealthy place for women who were in any way eccentric. There was a danger they might find themselves accused of witchcraft.
At first glance, one might be inclined to blame the local hierarchy, who played a leading role in such activities. During the 16th and 17th centuries, tribunals were established at frequent intervals before which those observed behaving oddly could be tried as witches. Between 1587 and 1593, for example, the Archbishop of Trier had 368 women burned for witchcraft, including 138 executed in a single day in 1589. His fellow prelate, the Prince Abbot Balthasarvon Dernbach of Fulda, disposed of 205 in three years in the early 1600s, and in the 1630s Bishop Philippe Adolf von Ehrenberg cleansed his See of Wurzburg of about 900. The list is not endless - but it's long.
Meanwhile, albeit not to the same extent, witches were found in other parts as well. The story of the 27 women accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 is well known, and in case we think it could never happen here, let us recall that Florence Newton was executed in Cork in 1661 for witchcraft, and nine people from Islandmagee in Co Antrim were imprisoned in 1711 for the same offence. Long before that, around 1325, Alice Kyteler had to flee Kilkenny for her life when the Bishop of Ossory, Richard Ledrede, decided that she, too, showed all the characteristic witchy symptoms.
But it is in these symptoms that we may find the real reason for the witch-hunts, and a close connection with the weather.
Claviceps purpurea causes the ergot blight that sometimes blackens the kernels of a crop of rye in a damp harvest; it thrives during prolonged periods of moist, wet conditions, and even a tiny proportion of the poisoned grains of rye baked in a loaf of bread can cause a condition known as ergotism, or St Anthony's fire.
Ergotism manifests itself in convulsions, hallucinations, gangrene with consequent rotting of the limbs, and ultimately death. Claviceps, in fact, is the natural source of LSD, the drug so famous during the 1960s.
Now could it be Claviceps-induced visions that brought on the odd behaviour that caused women to be hauled before the courts as witches?
In any event, recent research has established that many of the periodic witch-hunts, including that at Salem, occurred in places where rye was widely cultivated and after a spell of weather that was ideal for the proliferation of Claviceps purpurea.
So perhaps we ought to blame the weather, not the bishops.