Petronilla de Meath

Petronilla de Meath (1300 c.e. - 1324 c.e.) was the maidservant of Dame Alice Kyteler, a 14th century noblewoman. After the death of Kyteler's fourth husband, Kyteler was accused of practicing witchcraft and Petronilla was charged with being one of her accomplices. Petronilla was tortured and forced to proclaim that she and Kyteler were guilty of witchcraft. Petronilla was then flogged and eventually burned at the stake on November 3, 1324 c.e. in Kilkenny, Ireland. Hers was the first known case in Ireland or Great Britain of death by fire for the crime of heresy. Seven charges were brought against Alice Kyteler and her associates, including Petronilla, by the Bishop of Ossory, Richard Ledrede. Those charges were:

Denying Christ and the Church. Cutting up living animals and scattering the pieces at crossroads as offerings to a demon called the Son of Art, in return for his help. That they stole the keys to the church and held meetings there at night. That in the skull of a robber they placed the intestines and internal organs of cocks, worms, nails cut from dead bodies, hairs from the buttocks and clothes of boys who died before being baptized. That from this brew they made potions to incite people to love, hate, kill, and afflict Christians. That Alice herself had a certain demon as incubus by whom she permitted herself to be known carnally, and that he appeared to her either as a cat, a shaggy black dog or as a black man "Aethiopos" from whom she received her wealth. That Alice had used her sorcery to murder some of her husbands and to infatuate others with the result being that they gave all of their possessions to her and her son. The charges ranged from committing sorcery and demonism to murder and she was also accused of having illegally acquired her wealth through witchcraft. These accusations came principally from the children of her late husbands by their previous marriages. The trial predated any formal witchcraft statute in Ireland, thus relying on ecclesiastical law where witchcraft was treated as heresy instead of English common law, where it was generally viewed as a petty criminal offense. While Kyteler fled to Flanders or England to escape the trial, the others accused were not as fortunate, particularly Petronilla. Ledrede ordered the torture of Petronilla and the other less wealthy associates imprisoned in Kilkenny, who were examined using the inquisitional procedure allowed by the papal decree "Super illius specula." They confessed to the charges made against them. According to a contemporary narrative of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery in 1324 c.e. written by Ledrede. Petronilla confessed to all manner of things. Among them were:

She, with her mistress, often made a sentence of excommunication against her own husband with wax candles lighted and repeated expectoration, as their rules required. And though she was indeed herself an adept in the accursed art of theirs, she said she was nothing in comparison with her mistress, from whom she had learned all these things and many more, and indeed in all the realm of the King of England there was none more skilled or equal to her in this art... Petronilla claimed that Kyteler allowed a demon to know her carnally. That she consulted devils and made potions, and that Kyteler denied the faith of Christ and the Church. Petronilla also claimed that she and her mistress applied a magickal ointment to a wooden beam, which enabled both women to fly. Petronilla was then forced to proclaim, publicly, that Kyteler and her followers were guilty of witchcraft. Petronilla was whipped six times (according to Ledrede "flogged through six parishes") as in accordance to Ledrede's orders and condemned to be burnt at the stake as a heretic. John Clyn, the Kilkenny Franciscan Chronicler recorded her death. "Petronilla de Midia...was condemned for sorcery, lot taking and offering sacrifices to demons. Consigned to the flames and burned. Moreover before her even in olden days it was neither seen nor heard of that anyone suffered the death penalty for heresy in Ireland. Interestingly, she was perhaps the mother of another accused accomplice named Basil, who managed to escape." In Sir James Ware's "History of the Bishops of the Kingdom of Ireland and of such matters ecclesiastical and civil," he makes reference to Basil being an accused associate who managed to escape with Kyteler, when he wrote, "The Lady and Basil fled."

In 1484 c.e. Pope Innocent VIII issued an edict titled "Summis desiderantes affectibus" that alleged that many men and women were in collusion with the Devil and practicing witchcraft. All Christians were required to assist two Dominican monks, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, that were placed in charge of handling this witchcraft problem. Over the next two years these two monks wrote a book which was published in 1486 c.e. titled "The Malleus Maleficarum" or "The Witches Hammer" and it was second in popularity only to the Christian Bible. This was a book of intolerance that codified charges, interrogation procedures, and judicial resolutions for witchcraft trials. It was a witch hunting handbook used by many witch hunters. On August 25, 1538 c.e. Martin Luther, a German monk and Catholic priest, calls for the murder of all witches. In 1541 c.e. witchcraft was made illegal in England, and from 1563 c.e. - 1840 c.e. an estimated 30,000 to 300, 000 witches were tortured and murdered through out England, Germany, France, Scotland, and Great Britain. However during this same time period, in the year 1644 c.e. New England colonies in the New World assigned the death penalty for suspicion of witchcraft. The following posts in Chapter Two of this blog discuss, in depth, some of the documents and folks involved, and the places hardest hit during one of the worst times in human history known today simply as "The Burning Times."