ABSTRACT
Although the Bamherg boy's description of the sabbat corresponded with those made by other children. his confession also contained original, distinctive features. Most children provided details about illicit sexual activities. For example. live-year-old Andreas Forster from Bamberg. who was also examined in 1629, admitted that he had engaged in sexual acts with a young girl who had entered his bedroom. 3[, However. there are no similar sexual references in the unnamed Bamberg boy's confession. While the boy displayed a lack of interest in sexual matters, throughout his confession blasphemy was constantly stressed. The boy's blasphemous acts were excessive ancl went well beyond the more cursory, monosyllabic repudiations of Christianity that most suspect children had until then admitted. At the conclusion of a lengthy examination, held on 4 April 1629, the youth cried out resolutely: J do not w3ntlo helong any lonj!cr 10 God; and in the dcvil"s name I spat three times in His face. My soul [' my star'l should hurn in hellfirc and I want to belong to the devil for ever and always. I have renounced God in Heaven, the blessed Virgin Mary and the fOllr angels St. Andrew. St. Michael, SI. George and St. Jawh,'"
THE DEVIL'S CHILDREN: CHILD WITCH-TRIALS
Ill. PARENTS, CHILDREN AND MORAL REFORM
and without any adult prompting. It is diIHcult to determine what motivated children in specific instances to denounce friends and relatives as witches. Did children sincerely believe in the guilt of those they denounced? Or was it simply the result of the kind of thoughtless malice described by the historian Rossell Hope Robbins as • the wanton mischief of undisciplined youngsters '.4r. Unfortunately these questions cannot be answered conclusively, for the source materials are too fragmentary and no historical methodology is available to determine the veracity of such early modern statements. We can, of course, speculate on the possible motives that prompted children to make denunciations.46 By denouncing adults, particularly parents, children gained power over them and could revenge themselves if they had been subjected to parental ill-treatment. Such confessions could have been cathartic and emotionally beneficial to children, because they allowed them to dramatize familial tensions symbolically. Similarly, denunciations provided an ideal opportunity for deprived children to draw attention to themselves and become for a brief moment the centre of adult interest. However, children's testimony could also be manipulated by adults, so that they denounced individuals of whom their elders disapproved:" We should not over-estimate the ability of children to exploit witch-trials for their own ends.
