Louis Debaraz (died 1745), was a French Roman Catholic priest. He was executed in Lyon on the charges of witchcraft after having performed sacrilegious masses and a
pact with the Devil in order to find hidden treasures.
He was implicated in the
Lyon witch trials of
Bertrand Guilladot, who in his confession identified twenty-nine other individuals, all of them male, who reportedly had participated in the pact with him.
[Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm, ''The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences'' University of Chicago Press, 2017, p. 52]
In February 1745, five of the accused men were sentenced to death for witchcraft in connection to treasure hunting. Three of the condemned were priests, who were accused of having performed sacrilegious masses for this purpose. Debaraz, was sentenced to be executed by burning for having performed a
black mass. Twenty-three of the remaining accused were sentenced to be
galley slaves.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Debaraz, Louis
1745 deaths
18th-century executions by France
18th-century French Roman Catholic priests
Year of birth unknown
People executed by France by burning
French people executed for witchcraft