Angéle de la Barthe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Angéle de la Barthe (born c1230 - died 1275) was a prosperous woman of Toulouse, France who was tried for witchcraft and condemned to death by the Inquisition in 1275.[1] [2] She has been popularly portrayed as the first person to be put to death for heretical sorcery during the medieval witch persecutions.[3]
She was accused by Inquisitor Hugo de Beniols of having sexual intercourse with the Devil and giving birth to a flesh eating monster with a wolf's head and a serpent's tail, whose sole food consisted of babies. She was found guilty and burned alive.[1]
Contemporary scholars have cast doubt on the truth of the Angèle de la Barthe story since there is no mention of her trial in the Toulouse records of the time. The fifteenth-century chronicle from which her story derives is considered spurious.[2]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Witchcraft in the Middle Ages By Jeffrey Burton Russell, page 164, at Google books
- History Of The Inquisition - Part 2 by Paul Carus, Retrieved October 2007
- Angéle de la Barthe at the Dinner Party database , Brooklyn Museum, Retrieved October 2007
- The witchhunts Anthony North in Beyond the Blog, July 18th, 2007.
