By the 18th century, the madness of the persecution of witches had died down. The Enlightenment put an end to superstition. Science offered rational explanations for diseases and other mysteries. Anyone calling themselves witches, wizards or werewolves were treated as mentally ill and no longer as criminals. But in some regions, witch hunts persisted. The very last execution for witchcraft was that of Anna Göldi, who was beheaded in Switzerland in 1782.
In Belgium, "magic" continued to be considered a serious crime, especially within the church. In July 1728, three people from Lier were arrested for witchcraft. They had allegedly practiced their dark arts in Hagenbroek. Joseph Olivier and Christoffel Haver were imprisoned in Brussels. Arnoldus Vinck, the third suspect, was a priest. He would be prosecuted by the church authorities. Vinck was imprisoned at this place in the then Cellebroeders convent.
Pastor Vinck was sentenced to five years in the dungeon on 22 October. He was said to have abused crucifixes and holy water for his godless practices. For four nights he and his companions had prayed on a false altar from a forbidden book. The fact that he was also drinking mass wine and celebrating mass drunk in the morning was his undoing. Now five long years living on bread and water awaited him.
Two hundred years later, Felix Timmermans wrote "En waar de ster blijven stil staan". Pitje Vogel goes looking for 'the defrocked priest' somewhere outside Lier to sell his soul to the devil. A reference to Pastor Vinck at Hagenbroek?
Read the historical background here
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