Dorothea Flock

Meanwhile, Magdalena won over Würzburg´s guardian of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin to petition to the prince-bishop pleading for mercy for Dorothea Flock.

Then the tide seemed to turn: On 18 March 1630, Georg Heinrich obtained for his wife a mandate by which Dorothea should be granted easing of detention until childbirth and the assistance of an advocate; and the prince-bishop was called for mediation "so that there is no cause for complaint".

Only when on 17 April Duke of Fürstenberg, president of the Aulic Council, himself stepped into the case and Georg Heinrich even threatened to appeal to the pope, the prince-bishop replied to the first mandate of 18 March.

He extensively took a stand against the allegation, appeased the situation and mentioned that Dorothea in the meantime had given birth to a healthy daughter.

Under torture Dorothea Flock had already confessed the crime of witchcraft and was sentenced to death by the court of lay assessors on 14 May.

The remnants of her corpse were to be burnt to powder and ashes because of her alleged misdeeds by witchcraft, her reneging God Almighty and the Holy Trinity.

They used the meeting of the electoral princes in Regensburg from July to September 1630 to make public to the participants the numerous infringements of laws in Bamberg.