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40 Real People Executed for Witchcraft

Tim Flight October 15, 2019 27 min

15. Johann Albrecht Adelgrief claimed to be a prophet. The authorities thought otherwise…

Königsberg Castle pictured c.1900, near to where Adelgrief was arrested for witchcraft. Wikimedia Commons

According to Johann Albrecht Adelgrief, 7 angels came to him from heaven, and told him to cleanse the world of evil. They even gave him authority to command Europe’s monarchs to repent. A learned man from Elbing, modern day Poland, Adelgrief knew several ancient languages and read widely. Most likely, the ‘angels’ were, in fact, books, but like most reformers, Adelgrief’s rabble-rousing speeches in public worried the authorities. Officials seized him at Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad, Russia), and condemned him as a witch. Adelgrief left this world in the midst of flames in 1636.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk