Johannes Kepler, Attorney for the Accused
Johannes Kepler was an astronomer and mathematician. He’s the dude who discovered that planets move not in circles, but in ellipses. Kepler helped convince the world that Galileo was right—the sun really is the center of the solar system. But in 1620, he had to interrupt his scientific career to keep his mother from being burned at the stake for being a witch.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europe went through occasional bouts of witch hunting. Between 1500 and the late 1600s, as many as 50,000 people were executed because their neighbors thought they were witches. These were mostly older, often poor or widowed women.
Kepler’s mom, Katharina Kepler, was a 68-year-old widow when her neighbors in the small town of Leonberg, Germany, had her arrested for being a witch. She was accused of using magic to make her neighbors ill. They also claimed she killed her neighbors’ animals and could turn herself into a cat.
It all sounds a little goofy, but it was anything but harmless. It took six years to resolve her case. Mrs. Kepler was chained to the floor of a prison cell for fourteen months of those six years. Her captors threatened her with torture. They generally did this by showing the potential victim the torture instruments they planned to use. They hoped the fear of torture would make the accused confess. Of course, if she had confessed, they would have burned her at the stake. It was a lose-lose situation.
In the midst of all this, Katharina’s son, Johannes Kepler, came back to his home town to defend his mom against the charges. Kepler was a very good choice for defense attorney in a witch trial. He was exceptionally clever at spotting inconsistencies in the stories of his mother’s accusers. However, his main virtue as a defense attorney was his scientific expertise (and a good dose of common sense). Kepler showed that what seemed like magical illnesses to the people of Leonberg had very un-magical medical causes.
Mrs. Kepler was exonerated in 1621—six years after the first accusation—but sadly the experience had been hard on her. She died only six months later. But at least, thanks to the efforts of her son, she died quietly in her bed rather than at the stake.
’til next time,
Avery
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