Among the witch hunters, Fuchs Von Dornheim deserves special mention. The Prince-Bishop of Bamberg since 1623, he persecuted witches with particular relish. In fact, the persecutions got so intensive that Fuchs set up a special Witch Commission and had a Witch-House built in the middle of Bamberg to act as a combined gaol and torture facility. Fuchs was assisted in this by his junior bishop Forner and a team of investigators. Fuchs was particularly interested in terrorizing the region's Protestants, but the persecutions soon took on a life of their own, targeting Catholics and Protestants equally. Unlike his colleagues in Würzburg, Fuchs wasn't keen on burning children but he was unusually bold in targeting wealthy and influential families. He arrested his own chancellor, Doktor Haan, when he thought the judge was too lenient, and his most famous victim was the burgomeister Joannes Junius. Junius left a letter for his daughter Veronica which survived because a friendly guard smuggled it out to her. The letter describes Junius' tortures and makes his innocence, and the innocence of all the co-accused, quite clear. It's a poignant read, partly because of Junius' sufferings and the love for his daughter which endures, but also because Junius at no point questions his tormentors or the witch trials themselves. The victims all forgive one another the night before their execution and die as blameless Christians.
Fuchs' ambitions overreached in the end. He targeted a wealthy woman called Dorothea Flockhlin who had family members at the Imperial court in Nuremberg. They appealed to the Emperor and the Pope and letters were sent insisting Fuchs desisted from further persecutions. He ignored them, sent Bishop Forner to stall for time and had Dorothea Flockhlin executed in flagrant defiance of Imperial and Papal commands. The writing was on the wall by this point. With the Swedish army advancing on Bamberg, Fuchs fled to a safe retirement in Austria. He died two years later in 1633, but in Tinderspark I rectify history's shortcomings by having Quality execute the monstrous Prince-Bishop on the eve of his departure.
As ever with these monstrous people, it's hard to reach inside the mind of Fuchs Von Dornheim. In Tinderspark, I suggest he was a purely venal creature, using the witch hunts as a smokescreen to amass wealth and power and destroy his enemies. He certainly showed no particular loyalty to Pope or Emperor and was happy to arrest judges when they didn't turn up the verdicts he wanted. Yet he clearly saw himself as an ardent defender of Catholicism against her enemies. Perhaps he started out with one set of motivations and became corrupted or perhaps both motives, the spiritual and the egotistical, can coexist comfortably. A better writer than I is needed to do justice to that part of the human paradox.
Fuchs' ambitions overreached in the end. He targeted a wealthy woman called Dorothea Flockhlin who had family members at the Imperial court in Nuremberg. They appealed to the Emperor and the Pope and letters were sent insisting Fuchs desisted from further persecutions. He ignored them, sent Bishop Forner to stall for time and had Dorothea Flockhlin executed in flagrant defiance of Imperial and Papal commands. The writing was on the wall by this point. With the Swedish army advancing on Bamberg, Fuchs fled to a safe retirement in Austria. He died two years later in 1633, but in Tinderspark I rectify history's shortcomings by having Quality execute the monstrous Prince-Bishop on the eve of his departure.
As ever with these monstrous people, it's hard to reach inside the mind of Fuchs Von Dornheim. In Tinderspark, I suggest he was a purely venal creature, using the witch hunts as a smokescreen to amass wealth and power and destroy his enemies. He certainly showed no particular loyalty to Pope or Emperor and was happy to arrest judges when they didn't turn up the verdicts he wanted. Yet he clearly saw himself as an ardent defender of Catholicism against her enemies. Perhaps he started out with one set of motivations and became corrupted or perhaps both motives, the spiritual and the egotistical, can coexist comfortably. A better writer than I is needed to do justice to that part of the human paradox.