The Procès des sorciers de Lyon ('The trial of the Wizards of Lyon') was a witch trial which took place in Lyon in France between 1742 and 1745. It was the last big witch trial in France and likely the last to result in death sentences. 14 people, mainly men, were charged with having made a pact with Satan and of using witchcraft to find hidden treasures. The trial resulted in three death sentences and three men being condemned to the galleys.

## History[edit]

On 21 July 1742, two male travellers from Maréchaussée and a man by the name Benoit Michalet were arrested in Caluire. Benoit Michalet was arrested in possession of grimoires, and clerical objects such as candles from the church. He was interrogated on 23 July and confessed to be a member of a secret society to which he was introduced by Claude François Charbonnier. The goal of the society was to use the figures of Solomon and the Theurgy and call upon the angel Uriel in order to find hidden treasures. Witch trials were no longer common in France, but witchcraft was still forbidden as a religious crime, and the men were charged with witchcraft.

On 14 February 1743 Benoit Michalet was subjected to torture. He was transferred to Dijon as the process progressed. Bertrand Guilladot identified twenty-nine other individuals, all of them male, who reportedly had participated in a Satan's pact with him.[1]

14 people were put on trial for witchcraft, five of them in absentia.[2] Guillaume Janin and Jean Ferroussat were hanged on place du Morimont, after which their bodies were publicly burned. The priest Louis Debaraz was the only one to be burned alive at the stake. Carat and Lambert were executed in absentia. Michalet, Tissot and Charbonnier were condemned to be galley slaves. The women involved, Isabeau Gay, Jeanne Chanat and Jeanne Chabert, were banished from France. Romi(y)eux were sentenced to do public penance. These were the last witchcraft sentences in France.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm, The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences University of Chicago Press, 2017, p. 52
2. ^ Didier Mathias Dupas, « Un procès de magiciens au XVIIIe siècle », Histoire, économie et société, vol. 20, no 2, 2001, p. 219–229 (ISSN 0752-5702, DOI 10.3406/hes.2001.2223

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Witch trials

In the British Isles|

* Witchcraft in early modern Britain
* Channel Islands Witch Trials
* Witch trials in England
* Witchcraft in Orkney
* Witch trials in early modern Scotland
* Witchcraft in early modern Wales
* Windsor Witches (1579)
* St Osyth Witches (1582)
* Witches of Warboys (1589–1593)
* North Berwick witch trials (1590)
* Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597
* Pendle witches (1612)
* Northamptonshire witch trials (1612)
* Samlesbury witches (1612)
* Witches of Belvoir (1619)
* Bury St Edmunds witch trials (1645, 1662, 1655, 1694)
* Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50
* Alloa witch trials (1658)
* Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62
* Bute witches (1662)
* Bideford witch trial (1682)
* Paisley witches (1696)
* Pittenweem witches (1704)
* Islandmagee witch trial (1711)

In Eastern Europe|

* Witch trials in Hungary
* Witch trials in Poland
* Kasina Wielka witch trial (1634)
* Northern Moravia witch trials (1678)
* Szeged witch trials (1728–29)
* Doruchowo witch trial (1783)

In France|

* Witch trials in France
* Labourd witch-hunt of 1609
* Aix-en-Provence possessions (1611)
* Loudun possessions (1633–34)
* Louviers possessions (1647)
* Normandy witch trials (1669–70)
* Affair of the Poisons (1679–1682)
* Trial of the Wizards of Lyon (1742–1745)

In Germany|

* Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire
* Rottweil Witch Trials
* Derenburg witch trials (1555)
* Wiesensteig witch trial (1562–1563)
* Rottenburg witch trials (1578–1613)
* Trier witch trials (1581–1593)
* Pappenheimer family witch trial (1600)
* Fulda witch trials (1603–1606)
* Ellwangen witch trial (1611–1618)
* Eichstätt witch trials (1617–1630)
* Würzburg witch trials (1626–1631)
* Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631)
* Baden-Baden witch trials (1627–1631)
* Mergentheim witch trials (1628–1631)
* Esslingen witch trials (1662–1666)
* Witch trial of Fuersteneck (1703)

In Northern Europe|

* Witch trials in Denmark
* Witch trials in Estonia and Latvia
* Witch trials in Finland
* Witch trials in Iceland
* Witch trials in Norway
* Witch trials in Sweden
* Põlula witch trials (1542)
* Copenhagen witch trials (1590)
* Gyldenstierne-sagen (1596)
* Køge Huskors (1608–1615)
* Finspång witch trial (1617)
* Vardø witch trials (1621)
* Akershus witch trials (1624)
* Ramsele witch trial (1634)
* Rosborg witch trials (1639–42)
* Vardø witch trials (1651–1653)
* Kirkjuból witch trial (1656)
* Vardø witch trials (1662–63)
* Kastelholm witch trials (1665–1668)
* Mora witch trial (1669)
* Torsåker witch trials (1675)
* Katarina witch trials (1676)
* Rugård witch trials (1685–86)
* Thisted witch trial (1696–1698)

In Southern Europe|

* Witch trials in Italy
* Witch trials in Catalonia
* Witch trials in Portugal
* Witch trials in Sicily
* Witch trials in Spain
* Val Camonica witch trials (1505, 1518)
* Mirandola witch trials (1522–1525)
* Navarre witch trials (1525–26)
* Lisbon witch trial (1559–60)
* Benandanti (1575–1650)
* Witches of Laspaúles (1593)
* Basque witch trials (1609)
* Terrassa witch trials (1615–1619)
* Witch trial of Nogaredo (1646–47)

Elsewhere
in Europe|

* Witch trials in the Netherlands
* Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands
* Stedelen witch trial (1397–1407)
* Valais witch trials (1428–1447)
* Geneva witch trials (1571)
* Amersfoort and Utrecht witch trials (1591–1595)
* Bredevoort witch trials (1610)
* Roermond witch trial (1613)
* Spa witch trial (1616)
* Salzburg witch trials (1675–1681)
* Liechtenstein witch trials (1679–1682)

Outside of Europe|

* Witch trials in Virginia (1626-1730)
* Connecticut Witch Trials (1647–1663)
* Maryland Witch Trials (1654–1712)
* Witch trials in New York (1642-1790)
* Lukh witch trials (1656–1660)
* Salem witch trials (1692–1693)

Texts|

* Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament (8th–2nd centuries BC)
* Directorium Inquisitorum (1376)
* De maleficis mulieribus (1440)
* Formicarius (1475)
* Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484)
* Malleus Maleficarum (1487)
* De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus (1489)
* Laienspiegel (1509)
* De praestigiis daemonum (1563)
* The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584)
* Newes from Scotland (1591)
* A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593)
* Daemonolatreiae libri tres (1595)
* Daemonologie (1597)
* Magical Investigations (1599)
* Compendium Maleficarum (1608)
* A Guide to Grand-Jury Men (1627)
* The Discovery of Witches (1647)
* Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants (1751)

Related|

* Witch-hunt
* accusations against children
* Drudenhaus
* Werewolf witch trials
* Witchcraft Acts
* Witchcraft Act 1735 (Great Britain)

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