August 7: Johannes Kepler’s Mother Arrested

On 7 August 1620, Catherine Guldenmann Kepler was arrested for witchcraft. Mrs. Kepler was the mother of astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler.

Kepler was not well liked in her small town of Leonburg, Germany. Johannes described his mother as “small, thin, swarthy, gossiping and quarrelsome, of a bad disposition.” The fact that she is made potions did not help her situation. As early as 1615, the charges that she was a witch were first leveled by Ursula Reinbold who accused Kepler of trying to poison her. Kepler then sued Reinbold for libel.

After her arrest in 1620, Kepler spent 13 months in prison before being acquitted. Part of the delay in bringing her to trail was that Johannes needed time to return to Leonburg to organize her defense.

Kepler was fortunate in that she was not tortured while in prison. However, permission was given for her to be shown the instruments of torture and to have their uses explained to her. Eventually, she was acquitted of the charges.

During the period of 1613-1629, Lutherus Einhorn brought charges of witchcraft against 15 Leonburg women; eight of whom were convicted. Kepler’s aunt had earlier been burned at the stake after being convicted of being a witch.

Prior to being arrested as a witch, Kepler tried to have a gift made for her son; a gift idea that would be part of the proof used to argue that she was a witch. She had tried to get the head of her husband exhumed so that she could have it silver plated and made into a drinking mug.

–Steven L. Berg

 

Posted on by stevenlberg
Categories: World History: Early Modern
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4 Responses

  1. bobby_c72 says:
    17 September 2012 at 11:56 am

    Reading this article really got me thinking about how someone was defended back in the earlier centuries. As i plan on getting a degree in law i often wonder how the early lawyers actually practiced law and how it differs from today. Doing a little searching i discovered until the 1600’s there wasn’t much difference in lawyers. At the turn of the century though certain lawyers were forced to decided between notaries and lawyers. It was after this division that the actual profession took off. This article is very detailed on how lawyers became what they are known as today and what kind of culture affects them. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Lawyer.aspx

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  2. Meagan Nystrom says:
    19 September 2012 at 1:00 am

    Going through a few articals, and searching what has gone on through these dates has really opened my eyes. The only witch trials I have really ever spent time paying attention to was the Salem Witch trials which took place in 1962. Through this time 19 men and women were taken to the Gallows to be hung for what they thought was witchcraft. Another man who was elderly was pressed between stones. People then were getting accused left and right of doing witchcraft, often it was out of greed from another wanting their property. The most common known trial was probably that of Bridget Bishop as she was the first one to go on trial. Most believe she was innocent, but wanted to prove a point of it. In the witch trials you would be released if you confessed to doing the act of witchcraft, however you would be looked down upon. She just wanted to remain completely innocent, which led her to her death by hanging in 1962. Another person who most people have knowledge about is Elizabeth and John Proctor, in which the three girls (Ann Putnam, Abagail Williams, Indian John) testified against them saying that a girl named Elizabeth said that ghosts came into her and said John had commited a serial murder. It ended with him being hung, but Elizabeth was spared because she was pregnant. It really is amazing to think about just how terrible and scary that time period would be, and yet how fascinating of how far we have come. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM

    – Meagan Nystrom

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  3. Kelly Gunn says:
    28 November 2012 at 1:35 pm

    After reading this article I started looking up other people who were accused of witchcraft and came across many articles but found that the dates were very recent; some being this year. I figured that witchcraft was through with nowadays but after researching I found that in Saudi Arabia there are still many people who are killed due to witchcraft. The most common people who are killed due to this reason are people who believe they are fortunetellers. That got me thinking, in America there are many people who believe to be “fortunetellers” and it amazes me that if they were in Saudi Arabia they would be killed for practicing this. Thank goodness they’re in America!

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