Revealed, the agony of the witches of Sicily

[emad]

Revealed, the agony of the witches of Sicily
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 05/08/2005)

A Sicilian palazzo once used as a headquarters for the Spanish Inquisition has been discovered to contain dozens of pieces of graffiti by "witches" condemned to burn at the stake.

The anguished scribblings and drawings were found on the walls during renovation work on the Palazzo Steri in Palermo, reviving what had been a nightmare for the many women held there to await their fate centuries ago.

One of the damned wrote: "Hot and cold I am / as I be consumed by the fever of malaria / my guts do tremble / and mine heart and spirit grow weak."

A drawing on a wall shows a scene typical of an auto da fe (act of faith) in which a monk rings a bell to announce those doomed to die.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/05/wpalaz05.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/05/ixworld.html

[SteppingRazor]

1. Yes, but they were WITCHES!

I mean, they had to be burned. They might have cast evil spells upon the populace, and we can't have that.

[Ian David]

2. They were Magical Combatants and not subject to the usual rules of war n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

3. It makes sense in a way to burn an unbeliever or heretic to death.

If you as a believer sincerly believe that God is going to burn witches unbelievers and the unfaithful in a fiery hell for all eternity (as many fundamentalists do), what's the big deal if, to set an example for the weak of faith and the back sliders, you extend eternity by another 10 or 15 minutes for a few witches by starting their burning on earth instead of making them wait until they actually get into hell itself for the torture and burning to start.

If watching that agony of burning witches on a pyre puts the fear of God into a few of the unfaithful and causes them to renew their "faith," and it consequently saves them from an eternity burning alive in hell, it's all in a good cause.

That's what makes it so scary that some of these dominionist fundy wackos are trying to impose a theorcratic form of rule. If they ever do takeover the government, they'll have much the same mindset as the deluded ignoramuses in the middle ages who were sure they were doing God's will by setting heretics and witches on fire, and we could expect laws will be made and enforced accordingly.