11. You had a criminal record: Women of ill repute would often be blamed when things went wrong, and with a little coercion might confess to practicing witchcraft
Throughout history, those people living on the margins of society have often been used as convenient scapegoats when things went wrong. And this was certainly the case across Europe in the Middle Ages. According to the official history of the northern Italian region of Trentino, when harvests failed or people or animals were struck down with unexpected illnesses, ‘witches’ would be blamed. Notably, accusations of witchcraft “were largely made against marginal figures in society, old men, widows, young prostitutes, and woman who stole in order to stay alive”. In many cases, they would be arrested and then ‘confess’ to using black magic following interrogation.
This was the case in the village of Brentonico, in the region of Trentino, in 1716. When a child went missing, a woman called Maria Bertoletti Toldini was accused of abducting him. What’s more, she was also accused of throwing him into a vat of molten cheese! It was alleged that she did so because she was a witch. Just a few days after being accused of the crime, she was found guilty of witchcraft. She was beheaded in front of her fellow villagers and her body burned. More than 250 years later, the people of Brentonico moved to pardon the poor lady, acknowledging that the charges were completely unfounded, and she was simply a scapegoat whose past reputation was held against her.