Massacres of the Black Death

In Zurich, Jews were burned after the accusation of poisoning the wells, which had originated in the French-speaking cities, reached them there.

The nascent Confederation had only a few cantons at the time, and the chronology of the trials there is particularly well documented. One can see a judicial institution functioning normally — arrest, interrogation under torture, confession, sentence — for a crime that never took place. It was the trial of Chillon repeated, and its repetition served as proof.