Scourge same period we meet with the private use of the "discipline" by such saintly persons as King Louis IX of France and Elisabeth of Hungary. Semi-literal usages such as "the scourge of God" for Attila the Hun (i.e. "God's whip with which to punish the nations") led to metaphoric uses to mean a severe affliction, e.g. "the scourge of drug abuse". The scourge is described as one of the tools used in Wicca, primarily in the Gardnerian Tradition. The purpose of using the scourge is not to cause pain or to torture, but for purification purposes, particularly for Initiates. The
Gypsy Scourge Gypsy Scourge Gypsies have historically been criticized and persecuted in Western countries. This article describes a particular instance of this phenomenon in early twentieth century Austria and its historical significance in Nazi Germany. In June 1908 the pan-German press in Vienna publicized the "dangers" of the "Gypsy scourge," largely as the result of a motion introduced into the Cisleithanian parliament (the "Reichsrat" in Vienna) by the Pan-German deputy Karl Iro on 5 June 1908. Iro claimed that Gypsies were one of the worst scourges for farmers and that "Gypsy broads" who were under indictment in Hungary had confessed that "they