[1] After the harvest had failed at his village, Stedelen was accused of using black magic to destroy the crops, killing cattle[1] and also sacrificing a black rooster on the Sabbath at a crossroad and placing a lizard under the doorway of a local church.
Peter von Greyerz, the judge of Simmental between 1398–1406, was a firm believer in witchcraft, which he believed had been introduced in Simmental by a noble man called Scavius in 1375, who claimed he could transform himself to a mouse (as recorded in Johannes Nider's seminal work Formicarius).
There are no records about Hoppo, but Stedelen from Boltigen had allegedly been made an expert on magic by Hoppo, and supposedly learned to steal manure, hay and such from others' fields to his own by magic, create hail and thunderstorms, make people and animals sterile, make horses crazy when he touched their hooves, fly, and scare those who captured him.
Greyerz also accused Stedelen of having taken the milk from the cows of a married couple in order to make the wife miscarry.
Greyerz believed there existed a satanic cult, whose members swore themselves to the Devil and ate children at the churches at night.