Abstract
The Dutch town of Oudewater is famous for its so-called Witches Weigh House. For at least two hundred years from the late sixteenth century, people accused of witchcraft could take a weighing test there. If their weight conformed with their body mass, the town council would issue a certificate. This proof of an acceptable body weight could potentially restore the reputation of the accused. Many different stories have been handed down about this intriguing test. During and after World War II, a myth of astonishing dimension was developed: it proclaimed Dutch national identity as being characterised by tolerance and sober good sense. Hundreds of German refugees, it was claimed, had been saved by the wise policies of the Oudewater authorities.
This is a revised and updated version of an earlier essay, ‘Weighing a Woman’s Worth: How Leentje Willems Challenged the Magistrate of Oudewater’, in Willem de Blécourt (ed.), Sisters of Subversion: Histories of Women, Tales of Gender (Amsterdam, 2008), 32–45. I thank Wendie Shaffer, M.Phil., for her careful editing and, for generously sharing their archival knowledge and enthusiasm about Oudewater and the Lange Linschoten, the late C. H. Wijngaarden (1941–2007) and Nettie Stoppelenburg, M. Phil., of the Utrecht City Archives. Nettie has published widely on Oudewater and is preparing her dissertation on the church history of Oudewater.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
[Spee, Friedrich von], Waer-borg om geen quaed hals-gerecht te doen. Dat is een boek vertoonende hoemen tegen de Toovenaers procedeert. Met een Voor-rede van het wegen der Toovenaers tot Oudewater (Amsterdam 1657)—Dutch translation of Cautio Criminalis (Frankfurt, 1632, second edition [first edition Rinteln 1631]) translated by Nicolaes Antoniusz. Borremans, ‘Voor-rede’, 6v–7v, 9v.
- 2.
Regionaal Historisch Centrum Rijnstreek en Lopikerwaard (henceforth RHC RL), Archief van het dorpsgerecht van Snelrewaard en de Lange Linschoten, inv.nr. 1892, fol. 20v; RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, notaris Hugo de Hoy, inv.nr. 1883; and RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, notaris Ewout Slappecoorn, inv.nr. 34-I, nr. 1886.
- 3.
Machteld Löwensteyn, ‘Oudewater’, in Willem de Blécourt, Ruben A. Koman, Jurjen van der Kooi and Theo Meder (eds.), Verhalen van Stad en Streek: Sagen en legenden in Nederland (Amsterdam, 2010), 296–300. The city of Oudewater belonged to the province of Holland from 1280 until 1840, then to Zuid-Holland, and in 1970 it was transferred to the province of Utrecht.
- 4.
Until the beginning of the twenty-first century the public at large in the Netherlands adhered to a version of the story of the Oudewater weighing test stating that people accused of witchcraft were saved when it was proved that they did not weigh next to nothing, as a witch was supposed to do. This version of the story was also advocated by the Witches Weigh House museum in Oudewater, until it was corrected in 2006 after an intervention by the author of this chapter.
- 5.
The certificate mentions Klaas Ariensz. Van den Dool and Neeltje Arienz. Kersbergen from Den Dool, a hamlet near Meerkerk.
- 6.
The nine copies, including that of the couple from Den Dool, are to be found in RHC RL, stadsgerecht Oudewater, inv.nr. 190. The municipal records of Oudewater from before 1575 were lost during the siege by the Spanish during that year. The records of the judicial council have survived for the years 1586–1594 and 1674–1743, but copies of the certificates handed out are only to be found in the latter part. It is however not at all certain the town’s notary or clerk always kept a copy for the city’s administration, so the fact that copies are lacking 1586–1594 need not lead to the conclusion that the weighing test was not executed. Two other originals should also still exist but seem to have gone lost, in respectively the Town Archives of Delft and the Town and Regional Archives Zutphen: see J. Soutendam, Register der bescheiden, die berust hebben in het “secreetvertrek” van H.H. burgemeesteren en regeerders der stad Delft (Delft, 1861), 112 and C.G. Hoogewerff, ‘Een heksenproces in de zestiende eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, land- en volkenkunde 14 (1899), 257–275, esp. 273–275. Zacharias von Uffenbach (1683–1735), a German antiquarian who wrote a journal about his travels through Niedersachsen, England and Holland, reports on his visits to the Rotterdam historian Cornelis van Alkemade (1654–1737) on 22 and 27 November 1720, where Van Alkemade told him about the weighing of people in Oudewater and showed him the transcript of a certificate in his collection: Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland, 3 vols., (Ulm and Memmingen, 1753–1754), III, 293–295, 326.
- 7.
For the transcription of the certificate of Maria Konings, see Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 8v–9v. For Hugo Dammisz. De Hoy, see N. Plomp, ‘De Woerdense afstammelingen van Lucas van Leiden’, Gens Nostra 38 (1983), pp. 134–141, esp. 136. De Hoy became a citizen of Oudewater on 22 October 1627: ‘Huijch Dammasz de Hoij, van Woerden’. RHC RL, oud archief Oudewater, inv.nr. 241, fol. 23. C.H. van Wijngaarden kindly offered me his transcription of the ‘Poorterboek’ of Oudewater.
- 8.
If the person being weighed was a man, the sheriff’s officer (gerechtsbode) would be put in charge. A man wore only his shirt when he took his seat on the scale. From 1710 women were covered with a falie, a long black cloak: see RHC RL, stadsgerecht Oudewater, inv.nr. 190.
- 9.
Hans de Waardt, ‘Vervolging of verweer. Mogelijke procedures na een beschuldiging van toverij in het gewest Holland’, in Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra & Willem Frijhoff (eds.), Nederland betoverd. Toverij en hekserij van de veertiende tot in de twintigste eeuw (Amsterdam, 1987), pp. 57–68, esp. 57–62; Willem de Blécourt, Termen van toverij. De veranderende betekenis van toverij in Noordoost-Nederland tussen de zestiende en twintigste eeuw (Nijmegen, 1990), pp. 75–80, and Robin Briggs, Witches & Neighbours (London,1996), pp. 61–95.
- 10.
Theodorus G.M. Oorschot, ‘Nicolaes Borremans. Übersetzer von Friedrich Spees Cautio Criminalis’, in Guillaume van Gemert & Hans Ester (eds.), Grenzgänge: Literatur und Kultur im Kontext (Amsterdam, 1990), 65–83. Both Spee and his translator Borremans published their treatise anonymously. It is very clear that Nicolaes Borremans was sceptical about the prosecution of witchcraft. In his introduction he recommends three books in this tradition: the Dutch translation of Reginald Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft (Reinald Scot, Ontdecking van Toverij, […] verduyscht door Thomas Basson (Leiden, 1609)); Johan van Heemskerck, Batavische Arcadia, waer in […] gehandelt werdt van […] uytperssen der waerheydt door pijnigen[…] (Amsterdam, 1647); and Daniel Jonctys, De pijn-bank wedersproken, en bematigt (Rotterdam, 1651). Borremans must have read Reginald Scot’s treatise not in the first edition of 1609 with Thomas Basson as translator and editor, but in the second or third editions of 1637 or 1638 by Thomas Basson’s son Govert, as Borremans mistakenly assumes Govert was the translator.
- 11.
In English, Introductory speech on the weighing of the witches in Oudewater.
- 12.
In English, A book on precautionary measures for prosecutors or upon witch trials.
- 13.
See Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 3–6. Borremans comments (‘Voor-rede’, 5v) that he is convinced that Friedrich Spee was not only against prosecution for witchcraft, but also did not really believe in witchcraft, and only concealed his opinion in the first chapters of his book to avoid rejection of the book. In later passages Spee clearly indicated his disbelief. Borremans’ comments in the margins of his translation of Spee’s treatise (e.g. 387 and 508) show that he and Spee are of the same opinion.
- 14.
Ibid., 6v–7. The city of Oudewater belonged to the province of Holland in this period (footnote 3).
- 15.
Hans de Waardt, Toverij en samenleving: Holland 1500–1800 (The Hague, 1991), 113–126.
- 16.
Casimir K. Visser, Van de heksenwaag te Oudewater en andere te weinig bekende zaken, met een voorrede van Jan Romein (Lochem, 1941); Kurt Baschwitz, De strijd met den duivel: de heksenprocessen in het licht der massa-psychologie (Amsterdam, 1948); id., ‘Massale angst toegelicht aan een historisch voorbeeld’ in J.H. Plokker e.a. (eds.), Angst en crisis der moraal: Vier voordrachten met discussie (The Hague, 1949); Kurt Baschwitz, Hexen und Hexenprozesse: die Geschichte eines Massenwahns und seiner Bekämpfung (München, 1963); id., Heksen en heksenprocessen: de geschiedenis van een massawaan en zijn bestrijding (Amsterdam, 1964). See Vera Ebels-Dolanová, Een aanzet tot een biografie van Baschwitz. Zijn leven, werk en denken, verschenen in de reeks Mededelingen van de subfaculteit der Algemene Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, nr. 39 (Amsterdam, 1983); Dieter Anschlag, Kurt Baschwitz: Journalist und Zeitungswissenschaftler (Münster, 1990).
- 17.
Willem de Blécourt, ‘Van heksenprocessen naar toverij’, in Willem de Blécourt & Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra (eds.), Kwade Mensen. Toverij in Nederland (Amsterdam, 1986), pp. 2–30, esp. 20–23.
- 18.
De Waardt, ‘Vervolging’, esp. 62–68, an id., ‘Oudewater. Eine Hexenwaage wird gewogen–oder: Die Zerstörung einer historischen Mythe’, Westfälische Zeitschrift. Zeitschrift für Vaterländische Geschichte und Altertumskunde Westfalens 144 (1994), 249–263. De Waardt slipped up with his numbers. It should be the history of eleven women and one man. De Waardt mentioned four other cases he might be willing to accept, among those a man and a woman from Münsterland. But, if added, they do not alter his overall interpretation.
- 19.
See, for Maria Konings and Leentje Willems, Spee, Waer-borg, Voor-rede, 8v–9v. Town clerk Hugo de Hoy added a comment to the transcription he made of the certificate of Maria Konings stating that Leentje Willems had been weighed during the past year 1647. De Hoy dated his transcription 7 January 1648. De Waardt erroneously mentioned this date as the day Leentje Willems was weighed in ‘Vervolging’, 64 and ‘Oudewater’, 250 and 262, but gave the correct year in Toverij en samenleving, 237 (footnote 77), 301.
- 20.
Balthasar Bekker, De Betoverde Weereld zynde een grondig ondersoek van'’t gemeen gevoelen aangaande de geesten, derselver aart en vermogen, bewind en bedyrf: als ook t’gene de menschen door derselver kraght en gemeenschap doen: In vier boeken ondernomen (Amsterdam, 1691–1693) book I, 116. Baschwitz presumably read Bekker in a German translation.
- 21.
Bekker also speaks about three superstitious mercenaries who came from Catholic Germany, where the people still believe in the Oudewater weighing test, see Book IV, 244–249. Also Borremans states in his introduction that he is of the opinion that it is especially among people of the Catholic faith where believers in witchcraft are still to be found. See Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 3–6.
- 22.
See Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 10v.
- 23.
Willem Tromper was present as alderman when Maria Konings was weighed in 1644, see footnote 7. C.H. van Wijngaarden kindly provided me with the following information. Willem Pietersz. Tromper was the son of Pieter Willemsz. Tromper and Neeltgen Evertsdr., who was buried in Oudewater 1 September 1636. He was born in Oudewater c. 1600, served there as burgomaster in 1636, 1638, 1655, 1658 and 1676, and was buried in Oudewater 29 March 1676. For Pieter Willemsz. Tromper’s marriage to Neeltgen (Cornelia) Evertsdr., born ca. 1557/58, daughter to Evert Jansz. and Merrichgen [name unknown] in Oudewater 7 December 1597, see C.H. van Wijngaarden, ‘Tromper (Oudewater, 16e en 17e eeuw)’ in Gens Nostra 60, no. 12, December 2005, 675.
- 24.
See Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 8v.
- 25.
C.H. van Wijngaarden kindly informed me that the mother of Willem Tromper appears on the list of the survivors of the Siege of Oudewater in 1575 as ‘Cornelia Evartsdr.’. See footnote 23, and also Nettie Stoppelenburg, De Oudewaterse moord (Oudewater, 2005). Nettie Stoppelenburg informs me that Merrichgen, widow of Evert Jansz., appears as weigh mistress in the city’s financial records of 1578: see RHC RL, oud-archief Oudewater, toegang O001, inv.nr. 1, resoluties vroedschap 177–180, fol. 47–48.
- 26.
Oorschot, ‘Nicolaes Borremans’.
- 27.
Prof. Dr Gudrun Gersmann kindly offered me this example from a chapter on the weighing test in Münsterland in her Habilitationsschrift, ‘Hexenverfolgungen als adlige Hexenpolitik. Wasserproben und Hexenprozess im frühneuzeitlichen Fürstbistum Münster’ (unpubl. MS, Munich, 2000). She also mentioned the case of Bernd Franzes, a servant of the house of Nordkirchen, who showed the judge in Davensberg a certificate drawn up by a priest in Bocholt in March 1627, which states that he had been weighed in the town weigh house and that the result was given as 150 pounds. This speaks for the reputation of the weighing test. My thanks to Hans De Waardt, who referred me to Gudrun Gersmann.
- 28.
Documents in Het Utrechts Archief (toegang 34–4 van het notarieel archief, inv.nr. U009a006) prove that a weighing test was also offered by the weigh house of the city of Utrecht in the following cases. 11 November 1618 Claes ten Groottenhousen and Caspar van Lipstadt, living in Haaksbergen in the land of Twente, have been commissioned to have Trijn Twenhousen weighed on a free location. Trijn weighed 150 pounds on the Utrecht scales. Her escorts were supplied with a certificate. 14 January 1619 Jan Wolterz, thirty years of age, living in Vriezenveen in the seignory of Almelo, has been commissioned to have weighed on a free location Femme Berendsdr, wife of Hendrik Hendriksz., carpenter (113 pounds), Mette Aelbertsdr., wife of Gerrit Hendriksz., living in Vriezenveen (139 pounds), and Hendrik Aelbertsz. (169 pounds): Jan Wolterz. received certificates. 26 June 1620 Claes Jansz from Dortmund living in Ooij near Zevender in the house that is the property of Mrs Van Huickenhort in the Duchy of Cleves, for reasons of affection, weighed his wife Ijeffken Jansdr., born in the parish of Merbeeck near Borcken in the Duchy of Cleves in her shirt on the scales (109 pounds); he received a certificate. inv.nr. U009a010 saying that 16 April 1625 Joost ter Beeck and Geertruid Wolpharts from Ludickhausen [sic] in the prince-bishopric of Münster have been weighed and supplied with certificates. My thanks to Bob Kemp for informing me about these cases.
- 29.
Tromper recalls in his letter that Hugo de Hoy once told him a story about a man who came from northern Germany to be weighed but was so afraid that he fled and only took the test upon his second visit. Borremans commented that he heard from someone about a young man from Paderborn who had been extremely frightened. These cases seem quite convincing. See Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voorrede’, 12–12v and 13v.
- 30.
Gerhard Schormann, Hexenprozess in Nordwestdeutschland (Hildesheim, 1977).
- 31.
Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 9v.
- 32.
Plomp, ‘De Woerdense afstammelingen’, 136.
- 33.
RHC RL, stadsgerecht Oudewater, inv.nr. 190; Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 8v–9v.
- 34.
RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, notaris Hugo de Hoy, inv.nr. 1883; notaris Pons Pieters Jongsten, inv.nr. 1878.
- 35.
Leentje Willems’s signature read: ‘Leentgeen Willems’: see RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, notaris Ewout Slappecoorn, inv.nr. 1886.
- 36.
RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, notaris Pons Pieters Jongsten, inv.nr. 1878. Her marriage with Jan Aertsz. does not appear in the marriage register of the Protestant church, which is an indication she was of the Catholic persuasion. Another indication is that her grandchild was baptised in the Catholic church: see Doopboek Oudkatholiek Oudewater: 28 juli 1674 ‘vetribus Aqs baptizaty Wilhelmus Wilhelmi, cuius pr Wilhelmus Joannis in Linschoten mater Petronilla Wilhelmi matrina Cornelia Joannis’. See also Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 7v.
- 37.
RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, notaris Pons Pieters Jongsten, inv.nr. 1878, 18 December 1637; notaris Ewout Slappecoorn, inv.nr. 1885, 3 December 1661: the surname of the children of Jan Aertsz. is De Lange.
- 38.
RHC RL, archief van het dorpsgerecht van Snelrewaard en de Lange Linschoten, inv.nr. 1892, fol. 20v, inv.nr. 1875: Jan Aertsz. is mentioned several times as alderman between 1627 and 1647.
- 39.
RHC RL, archief van het dorpsgerecht van Snelreweerd en de Lange Linschoten, inv.nr. 1892, fol. 20v and fol. 36–37: his first wife died between 2 July 1644 and 27 June 1636, and his sons became of age in 1650.
- 40.
RHC RL, archief van het dorpsgerecht van Snelreweerd en de Lange Linschoten, inv.nr. 1892, fol. 20v.
- 41.
RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, notaris Ewout Slappecoorn, inv.nr. 1885, 3 December 1661.
- 42.
RHC RL, Archives of the Dutch Reformed Church of Oudewater, inv.nr. 321, financial records of burials, fol. 28.
- 43.
RHC RL, Archives of the Dutch Reformed Church of Oudewater, inv.nr. 322, financial records of burials, ‘Den 9 november (1672) Leentje Willems in ‘t suydepand’’. Leentje Willems died in the so-called ‘Rampjaar’, the disastrous year. See Nettie Stoppelenburg ‘Een stad in de vuurlinie’, Jaarboek Oud-Utrecht 2015.
- 44.
De Waardt’, ‘Vervolging’, esp. 57–62.
- 45.
RHC RL, archief van het dorpsgerecht van Snelreweerd en de Lange Linschoten, inv.nr. 1870. See also notarial archives of Oudewater, notaris Pons Pieters Jongsten, inv.nr. 1878, 24 September 1647: Sijmon Comelisz. and Annighgen Comelisdr. drew up a contract with this notary to be their representative in the trial. Jan Aertsz. and Leentje Willemsdr. were represented by one notary Bredius.
- 46.
Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 7.
- 47.
Spee, Waer-borg, ‘Voor-rede’, 6v.
- 48.
RHC RL, notarieel archief Oudewater, inv.nr. 190; seven of the ten people mentioned in these certificates came from nearby Oudewater, two from Guelders.
- 49.
Gaspar Rudolph van Kinschot, Beschryving der stad Oudewater: waarin aangetoont word der zelver herkomst uit het Uitrechtsche bisdom, overgang tot de Graaflykheid van Holland …: als mede de handvesten, … aan die stad … verleend/byëen verzamelt … door den thans in dienst zynde bailjuw, dykgraaf en schout der zelfde stad (Delft, 1747), 146–147, 151.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Löwensteyn, M. (2018). Unravelling the Myth and Histories of the Weighing Test at Oudewater: The Case of Leentje Willems. In: Barry, J., Davies, O., Usborne, C. (eds) Cultures of Witchcraft in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present . Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63784-6_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63784-6_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63783-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63784-6
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)