The case of DOROTHEA FLOCK - 1608 - 1630 - Citizen of Nuremberg

December 16th, 1629 arrest - (she is in the 6 th month of pregnancy) In the first weeks of March, 22 year old Dorothea gives birth to a healthy daughter in the dungeon of the "Alte Hofhaltung" in Bamberg.

The child is taken away from the mother 5 weeks after birth and placed in the custody of the councilor Pancraz Lorenz. Sunday, 4/28/1630: Since the elimination of the reasons for the lenient custody, the mother is brought back to the "Malefiz House".

Her husband, the Bamberg councilman Georg Heinrich Flock has to flee from Bamberg - he travels to Vienna and tries to get help from the imperial Reichshofrat (RHR), which is the highest court of the roman catholic empire: he tries to receive an imperial mandate of protection for mother and child. The request for support was fulfilled on 23/04/1630: Dorothea Flock is at this moment, under the protection of Emperor Ferdinand II, but the Bamberg Prince-Bishop Fox of Dornheim ignores the letter of protection: the female prisoner remains in custody On 20/04/1630, Bamberg replies on the imperial mandate of 18/03/1630. The letter is sent by courier to the Vienna High Court (RHR).

After receiving this reply, the RHR sends out a second, tougher mandate in favor of the detainees. In the mean time Dorothea Flock has confessed her seduction into witchcraft in the torture-chamber. She confesses, that she was seduced several years ago by a student, who had stayed at her father's house. The student at a later stage, tells her, that he is the devil, which she had to accept as her master. She admits to have desecrated hosts, which means at least a sure reason for death sentence. She also denounces other citizens under the tough torture. On May 14th of 1630 Dorothea Flock is sentenced to death. Before getting burned at the stake, she shall be attacked once with glowing irons. Already on April, 20 th 1630, Pope Urban VIII created a papal decree in favor of Dorothea Flock. This letter was sent by courier on the 16th May 1630 from Nuremberg to Bamberg. The courier reached Bamberg on May, 17th at 6.15 o clock in the morning.

The official protocol states: the members of the council met at 5.45 clock on Friday the 17th of May 1630 in the "Malefiz House" and read the sentence again to the defendant. In haste, a so called: "Bamberg Mercy Sheet" is produced: by bishop´s grace - the defendant will first beheaded and then burned. Then the officers proceed the execution. The Nuremberg messenger who has arrived in the meantime, issued the letter to the "the Episcopal satellites," at 6:45 of clock. At this time, Dorothea Flock is already dead - against all other exercise she was beheaded at dawn in the backyard of the "Malefiz House" and burned to powder and ashes "in the near Schönleinsplatz - probably on the same day.