Henricus Eolenius

Who is Henricus Eolenius?

Henricus Eolenius, was an alleged Finnish sorcerer.

Henricus Eolenious was a student at the university of Turku in Finland. At the university, the professor of Greek, Hebrew and theology, Martin Stodius, had been accused of making a student crazy by teaching him sorcery in 1644; he was freed by the consistorium of the university, but fired, and Eolenius was suspected of being his apprentice.

Eolenius had learned Arabic very quickly, which according to the vice chancellor of the university, Johannes Terserus, who was also the bishop of Turku, was a sign of a pact with the Devil. He was judged guilty of witch craft and Devil's pact and sentenced to death, but the Swedish governor Per Brahe demanded that the sentence be appealed to a higher court, the Court of Appeal of Turku, which it was, and where Eolenius were acquitted. He was, however, forced to leave the university as not to embarrass the management.

The theological university of Turku, which educated many priests, was a place for many discussions of the nature of witch craft, and such accusations were common in the city in the 17th century, driven by the consistorium of the university, though they seldom led to execution; in 1665, the consistorium accused Elisabeth Nilsdotter, widow of a professor, to have poisoned the wife of a member of the consistorium, the bishop Johannes Gezelius, with magic, but she was acquitted and received money for slander, and in 1670, another student, Isac Gunnerus, was accused to have been one of the apprentices of Stodius; he was freed but expelled by the consistorium.