ACT III

Scene 1.

BEHRENDS is seated at the bench. SCHECK sits at the clerk's table. The usher stands in front of the bench.

Enter VON LINDENBERG, followed by DAME GOTHEL between four guards. Chains run from the heavy iron collar around DAME GOTHEL'S neck to the iron belt around her waist to the handcuffs on her wrists and the shackles on her ankles. Each guard holds an end of the chain. VON LINDENBERG leads DAME GOTHEL and the guards into the dock.

Enter HAGELSTAIN, followed by STROBEL, and WIRTNER, followed by WINKLER. They sit down at their respective tables.

Ballard: Under the laws of Hesse, a jury's recommendation of a death sentence carried great weight, but was not binding. The final decision lay with Judge Behrends.

Roland: Thus it was that three weeks later, Dame Gothel was brought into court to learn her fate.

Behrends: Be seated, please. This is Rex versus Dame Gothel. The matter comes on for the imposition of sentence pursuant to the jury verdict finding the defendant guilty on the indictment and the jury's special findings and recommendation that the defendant be sentenced to death. Appearing for the Crown? Mr. Hagelstain?

Hag.: With me this moning is Mr. Strobel.

Behrends: And for defendant, Dame Gothel?

Wirtner: Jürgen Wirtner is here with the defendant, your Honor; and also seated here as counsel, Mr. Winkler.

Behrends: All right. And Dame Gothel is present, of course.

Scheck: Dame Gothel, have you anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed against you?

DG: My lord, I have nothing to say for myself, but that God Almighty knows I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people.

Scheck: Usher, make proclamation for silence.

Usher: Oyez; The king's majesty's judge straitly charges and commands all manner of persons to keep silence whilst judgment is giving, upon pain of imprisonment.

Behrends: Dame Gothel, you stand here convicted upon an indictment of witchcraft, abduction of a minor, unlawful imprisonment, causing bodily harm, threatening the commission of a felony, endangering the welfare of a child, high treason, and causing grievous bodily harm by the verdict of the jury, and they have recommended that you be sentenced to death.

Altho you were indicted but for acts of witchcraft against three persons, yet you know that at your trial it was fully proved, even by an unwilling witness, that the rock recovered from your garden by the Amtmann and entered into evidence by the Crown had once been a living, breathing man, an unfortunate soul, whom you bewitched and turned to stone.

Not to mention the many acts of witchcraft you committed before; for which if your judgment by Man was never so authentic, yet you must expect to answer for them before God.

You know that the crimes you have committed are evil in themselves, and contrary to the light and law of nature, as well as the Law of God, by which you are enjoined that "non augurabimini," "you shall not use enchantment," Leviticus 19. And the Apostle St. Paul expressly affirms, that "Idolorum servitus, veneficia, inimicitiae, contentiones, aemulationes, irae, rixae, dissensiones, sectae, invidiae, homicidia, ebrietates, comesationes, et his similia. Quae praedico vobis, sicut praedixi quoniam, qui talia agunt regnum Dei non consequentur," "Idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God," Galatas 5. And it is the voice of nature, confirm'd by the Law of God, that "Maleficos non patieris vivere," "You shall not permit a witch to live," Exodus 22.

And consider that death is not the only punishment due to witches; for they are threatened to have "pars illorum erit in stagno ardenti igne et sulphure, quod est mors secunda," "their Part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone, which is the second Death," Apocalypsis 21. See Chapter 22. Words which carry that terror with them, that considering your circumstances and your guilt, surely the sound of them must make you tremble; "quis habitabit ex vobis cum ardoribus sempiternis?" "For who can dwell with everlasting Burnings?" Isaias 33.

As the testimony of your conscience must convince you of the great and many evils you have committed, by which you have highly offended God, and provoked most justly his wrath and indignation against you, so I suppose I need not tell you that the only way of obtaining pardon and remission of your sins from God, is by a true and unfeigned repentance, and faith in Christ, by whose meritorious death and Passion you can only hope for salvation.

You being a lady that have had the advantage of an education, I believe it will be needless for me to explain to you the nature of repentance and faith in Christ, they being so fully and so often mentioned in the Scriptures, that you cannot but know them. And therefore, perhaps, for that reason it might be thought by some improper for me to have said so much to you, as I have already upon this occasion; neither should I have done it, but that considering the course of your life and action, I have just reason to fear that the principles of religion that had been instilled into you by your education, have been at least corrupted, if not entirely defaced, by the seductions and teachings of the devil; and that what time you allowed for study was rather applied to the black arts, than a serious search after the Law and Will of God, as revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures: "in lege Domini voluntas eius, et in lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte," "For had your Delight been in the Law of the Lord, and that you had meditated therein Day and Night," Psalmi 1, you would then have found that God's Word was a "lucerna pedibus meis verbum tuum, et lumen semitis meis," a "Lamp unto your Feet, and a Light to your Path," Psalmi 119, and that you would account all other knowledge but loss, in comparison of "eminentem scientiam Iesu Christi," "the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus," Philippenses 3, "autem vocatis, Iudaeis atque Graecis, Christum Dei virtutem et Dei sapientiam," "who to them that are called is the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God," I Corinthios 1, "sapientiam in mysterio, quae abscondita est, quam praedestinavit Deus ante saecula," "even the hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the World," Chap. 2.

You would then have esteemed the Scriptures as the Royal Charter of Heaven, and which delivered to us not only the most perfect laws and rules of life, but also discovered to us those acts of pardon from God, wherein we have offended those righteous laws: For in them only is to be found the great mystery of fallen Man's redemption, "in quae desiderant angeli prospicere," "which the Angels desire to look into," I Petri 1.

And they would have taught you that sin is the debasing of human nature, as being a deviation from that purity, rectitude, and holiness, in which God created us; and that virtue and religion, and walking by the Laws of God, were altogether preferable to the ways of sin and Satan; for that the ways of virtue are "viae pulchrae, et omnes semitae illius pacificae," "Ways of Pleasantness, and all her Paths are Peace," Proverbia 3.

But what you could not learn from God's Word, by reason of your carelessly, or but superficially considering the same, I hope the course of his Providence, and the present afflictions that he hath laid upon you, hath now convinced you of the same: For however in your seeming prosperity you might make a "inludet peccatum," "Mock at your Sins," Proverbia 14, yet now that you see that God's Hand hath reached you, and brought you to public Justice, I hope your present unhappy circumstances hath made you seriously reflect upon your past actions and course of life; and that you are now sensible of the greatness of your sins, and that you find the burden of them is intolerable.

And that therefore being thus "laboratis et onerati estis," "laboring, and heavy laden with sin," Matthaeum 11, you will esteem that as the most valuable knowledge, that can show you how you can be reconciled to that Supreme God, that you have so highly offended; and that can reveal to you Him who is not only the powerful "advocatum habemus apud Patrem," "Advocate with the Father for you," I Ioannis 2, but also who hath paid that debt that is due for your sins by his own death upon the cross for you, and thereby made full satisfaction to the Justice of God. And this is to be found no where but in God's Word, which discovers to us that "agnus Dei, qui tollit peccatum mundi," "Lamb of God which taketh away the Sins of the World," Ioannem 1, which is Christ the Son of God: For this know, and be assured, that "nec enim nomen aliud est sub caelo datum hominibus, in quo oportet nos salvos fieri," "there is none other Name under Heaven given among Men, whereby we must be saved," Actus 4, but only by the Name of the Lord Jesus.

But then consider how he invites all sinners to come unto him, and, "ego reficiam vos," "that he will give them rest," Matthaeum 11, for he assures us "quaerere et salvum facere quod perierat," "that he came to seek and to save that which was lost," Lucam 19, Matthaeum 18, and hath promised "et eum qui venit ad me, non eiciam foras," "that he that cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out," Ioannem 6.

So that if now you will sincerely turn to him, tho late, even at the "undecimam horam," "eleventh hour," Matthaeum 20, he will receive you.

But surely I need not tell you that the terms of his mercy is faith and repentance.

And do not mistake the nature of repentance to be only a bare sorrow for your sins, arising from the consideration of the evil and punishment they have now brought upon you; but your sorrow must arise from the consideration of your having offended a gracious and merciful God.

But I shall not pretend to give you any particular directions as to the nature of repentance: I consider that I speak to a person, whose offenses have proceeded not so much from her not knowing, as he slighting, neglecting and abandoning her duty: Neither is it proper for me to give advice out of the way of my own profession.

You may have that better delivered to you by those who have made divinity their particular study; and who by their knowledge, as well as their office, as being the "pro Christo ergo legationem," "Ambassadors of Christ," II Corinthios 5, are best qualified to give you instructions therein.

I only heartily wish that what, in compassion to your soul, I have said to you upon this sad and solemn occasion, by exhorting you in general to faith and repentance, may have that due effect upon you, that thereby you may become a true penitent.

And therefore having now discharged my duty to you as a Christian, by giving you the best counsel I can with respect to the salvation of your soul, I must now do my office as a judge.

The sentence that the law hath appointed to pass upon you for your offenses, which the jury hath recommended, and which this Court doth therefore award, is,

That you, the said Gothel, shall go from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, where you shall be burnt with fire until you are dead.

And the Lord have mercy upon thy soul. Mr. Amtmann, remove the prisoner. [bangs his gavel] Court is in recess.