Century-hopping
this morning, with the sad tale of Petronilla de Meath. The maid
servant of Dame Alice Kyteler, Petronilla bears the dubious honour of
being the first known case of death by fire for heresy in Ireland.
Place setting for Petronilla de Meath from Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party
© Judy Chicago. Photograph by Jook Leung Photography
When, in 1324, her mistress was accused of practicing witchcraft, Petronilla was
arrested as her accomplice. Kyteler was charged with committing
sorcery and demonism, murdering several husbands (she had just buried
her fourth) and was claimed to have illegally acquired her substantial wealth by
witchcraft.
Petronilla
confessed to denying the faith of Christ and the Church and to
sacrificing three times to devils. She admitted she had made many
ointments and powders in the skull of a beheaded criminal, with the
purpose of tormenting the bodies of those who remained faithful to
the Church. There was also the admission of rubbing an ointment onto
a beam, that then allowed the women to fly.
The trial pre-dated any formal witchcraft statute in Ireland, so the women were tried under ecclesiastical law and charged with heresy. Pope John XXII added Witchcraft to the list of heresies in 1320.
Alice
Kyteler escaped to England, taking with her Petronilla's daughter,
Basilia; no further record of their whereabouts exists.
Petronilla
was not so fortunate; she was flogged and burnt at the stake before a
crowd on 3rd
November, 1324 in Kilkenny, Ireland.
The house where Petronilla worked in Kilkenny, now a popular inn.
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