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Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,814 | such a person, he will still drag you down. It's difficult to
resist when you feel that the person owes you. If you have been
swindled and left with no legal recourse, it's tempting to use
magick to get your money back. Trying to get even will develop a
tie with this person and probably set you up for some bad karma.
Don't worry about the money, either. You can get that from
anywhere (see "Prosperity"), In seeing this swindler as your only
source you give your Power to him. If you are brave, you can
demand justice in such a situation. This incurs no karmic debt,
but you, too, can expect justice. Not very many people genuinely
want this. Most prefer mercy because we have all done plenty of
things that we would rather not have to pay for. If you want
mercy, you must extend it to others. When you ask for justice,
all your debts present themselves. If you survive, great, but it
won't be fun. There are much safer ways of dealing with nasty
people.
Protection
Psychic attack can be a real problem because it is so
prevalent. When you make someone angry, the person is attacking
you. Simply directing angry thoughts is a psychic attack. (This
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incurs bad karma, so learn to avoid this yourself!) We all have
natural defenses, so these attacks seldom have an effect. But if
someone has ability, or if he concentrates a lot of energy, you
are likely to suffer. Psychic attack usually comes in through the
neck and manifests as a headache. As you become a better
magician, you will be more sensitive to the energies around you.
You become more vulnerable to psychic attack. You also become
better able to defend yourself as long as you remain alert. This
work will also help protect you from physical threats. Keep in
mind that, though magic may help, you must still act responsibly!
Affirmations: I am now safe and secure. All negative influences
are reflected off me into the Earth to be healed. I allow only
the positive into my life.
Visualizations: See an egg of white light around you-- because
this keeps in negative energy, also see it filled with violet
light, which will turn the negative to positive. Another good
visualization is three concentric circles around you (or whatever
you wish to protect) of white (outside), blue (middle) and pink
(inside). Also, you can imagine a mirror at the back of the neck
or encasing the whole body, reflecting outward.
Other: Religious symbols are especially good for this work.
Purification
Remember that the things you have in your life are those that
you have drawn to you. When someone upsets you, he usually has a
lesson to teach you. If you can learn this lesson, you can escape
the situation. If you escape without learning your lesson, you'll
probably be in a similar situation soon. Sometimes people often
make us angry by reflecting a part of our personality that we are
unhappy with. Also, the negative vibrations we pick up during our
everyday lives attract negative things. The purpose of the ritual
bath is to remove such influences. It is also a good idea to do
an entire spell for purification. This is not only good to do on
yourself, but also your home and wherever else you spend much
personal time. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,815 | Affirmations: The white light cleanses me of all negative
thoughts and energies. Only positive feelings remain in me. I
release all negative vibrations into the Earth to be healed.
Visualizations: See yourself being washed clean by white or
violet light from above you (your High Self). Each time you
inhale, take in pure white light. When you exhale, release all
your negativity. See this negativity go down into the earth to be
healed.
Other: Place a piece of rock salt under your tongue. Use incense
smoke or water to cleanse yourself. Again, religious symbols are
very effective.
Love
You must take love spells very seriously, for they are quite
dangerous. Never, never, never do a love spell on an individual.
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This is often a great temptation, but don't even risk the
possibility of imposing your will on another. The karmic results
are severe. Even if you succeeded, you would still lack real
love, for you would have to continually renew the spell to keep
the person. What you want, among other things, is someone to help
express your love for yourself. As you will often hear, you must
love yourself first. This isn't a problem, for you already love
yourself-- that is the main reason you are alive. The problem is
when you block that love. Eliminating these blocks is the Soul's
goal. But don't despair, you needn't actually remove them to draw
love to you. Just beginning the work can attract that special
someone who will help.
Affirmations: I am a perfect manifestation of love and I draw
love to me. I now allow love to come into my life. I feel and
express perfect love and draw other loving people into my life.
Visualizations: Picture yourself as a magnet, feeling and drawing
love. Imagine yourself bathed in green or pink or orange light,
depending on your goals. Pink is for filial love (agape) and for
that of a lover. Orange is for the sexual aspect (spleen
chakrum). Green is for both (heart chakrum). But the distinctions
are somewhat blurred, for love is a combination of all of these.
Other: Friday is the day of Venus and the waxing to full Moon is
a time of increase, so these are good times for ritual. The
ubiquitous heart symbol can be useful.
Prosperity
Money is not all there is to prosperity. What do you want the
money for? What kind of life do you want to live? What do you
want to have? Keep these goals in mind. You may get them instead
of the money.
As you work though your blocks to prosperity, you will
probably find that one of the biggest is guilt. Our society
functions under the assumption that a person can only gain at the
expense of others. Don't try to get money by taking it from
others through force or fraud, magickally or otherwise. That is
giving your Power away. In the magickal paradigm, you create.
When you understand this, there is no greed because you can have
whatever you desire and without taking from others. It is not
money that is a root of evil, but the love of money. It doesn't |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,816 | matter how much you get, but how you get it. When you do a
prosperity spell, it should be a joyful expression of the
infinite supply available to you. If you are begging or hopping
to be rescued, you have more background work to do.
Another aspect to remember is that money, like all other kinds
of energy, flows. In order to get it, you have to spend it. There
must be an outflux for there to be an influx. This is not an
excuse to be irresponsible! It is easy for the flow to be too
much in either direction (especially out!). Don't be miserly or
wasteful, remember the flow. Use each bill you pay to remind you
that you've drawn the money to pay it and that more money will
come to take its place.
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Affirmations: I allow prosperity to manifest itself in my life in
great abundance. I draw from the infinite source all the money I
need and more. In my life, I now express the infinite supply of
wealth around me.
Visualizations: Imagine yourself bathed in green light (heart
chakrum). This is a situation where visualization works
particularly well, because it's a tangible object. You can even
use a picture or model of the new home or car you want.
Other: Good times for a prosperity ritual are Thursday, the day
for increase, and during the waxing Moon. The $ (or approriate
regional symbol) has a great deal of power-- consider using it.
Health & Self Improvement
Your body is the most direct expression of your Little Self.
It is one of the most accessible, yet challenging things to
change. If you can find and address the root causes of health
problems, like heat disease, it is often relatively easy to do
something about them. But self image problems can be very
difficult because of the way our society approaches the subject.
Over weight is a good example of a self image problem. Madison
Avenue bombards us with an ideal of beauty. It is almost
impossible to escape. If you are over weight and unhappy about it
for other than health reasons, you are probably a victim of this.
It is dangerously easy to make self love or approval contingent
upon losing weight. Until you've lost it, you may feel
undeserving and thus fail. You may succeed, only to have old
habits or new crises can throw you back into old eating habits.
You have made no fundamental change, so the cycle reinforces
itself. So many different problems manifest this way.
You will certainly want to deal with eating habits and
exercise, but this is often insufficient. People have different
metabolic rates and different body types. Do not make liking
yourself contingent upon your having a different body type! If
you dislike your body, you dislike your Little Self. You must
love yourself unconditionally. This is the same transcendent
spirit expressed in wedding vows: for better or worse, richer or
poorer, in sickness and in health. Love yourself not regardless
of how you look, but because of how you look. Wanting to improve
doesn't mean that you must dislike yourself as you are. If you
were given $900, you wouldn't despise it because it wasn't $1000.
Rejoice in your Little Self's expression of being alive. Until
you do, this lesson will hang over your head. Ironically, you are
most able to change your looks when it matters to you least. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,817 | Remember to be responsible. Always get good health care. When
trying to lose weight, follow a sane plan under a doctor's care.
But in addition, work to love yourself unconditionally. Strive
constantly to fight the messages from the media and those around
you. You are a loving, loveable person and your looks reflect
this. Make yourself aware of that. When you succeed, you may
eventually look like your ideal, but even if you don't, you will
see the beauty in yourself. You will be more able to defend
yourself from those small minds unhappy enough to attack you for
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not conforming to their ideal. You will also draw those who can
see your beauty. As an extreme example, anorexics always feel
that they are too fat. They cannot lose more weight, for that
would kill them. The answer lies with truly seeing themselves.
Any time your goal is self improvement, the principle is the
same. In order to better yourself, you must first realize that
you are loveable, now and always. Never try to better yourself to
become loveable-- it doesn't work. The goal of magick is to heal
those things you do not like in yourself, not destroy them. You
better yourself by first bettering your self image. You change
your behavior by healing the hurts that cause you to do harmful
things. Recognize that all unhappy things are in response to
pain. Your Little Self can hurt you, much as a favorite pet may
bite you because it is in pain. Do not feel anger or misery but
love and healing.
Affirmations: I love myself completely as I am now. I surrender
to love. I know that I am a loving and loveable person. I heal
all hurts. I now express perfect health in my life. I bring
complete health into my life. My body is now a beautiful, healthy
expression of my Self.
Visualizations: Imagine yourself so close to the sun that you can
see nothing else. Visualize the area you want to heal bathed in
blue-green light. Listen to or imagine the note F#. Concentrate
on the heart and throat chakra (green and blue, respectively).
The root chakrum (red) is another good focus for physical well
being. When healing someone not present, put a photo next to a
candle. Put the name of the subject on the candle and use this to
focus your concentration.
Other: Rituals to increase energy and health are most effective
during the waxing moon and at high noon. Rituals for eliminating
disease or losing weight are best done during the waning moon.
The five pointed star (symbol of Man) might be a good symbol (if
you do not have any negative associations with it).
Good Luck!
At this point you are on your own. It takes forty days to make
or break a habit, so you should concentrate on daily exercise for
at least this long. Magick is not a quick, easy way of getting
what you want. It is a long, hard road. Though it's quite
possible to have instant success, visible results can take
months. Real rewards can take years. But we all must travel this
road some time. Be cautious of those promising an easier path.
Though it may appear slow, magick is one of the fastest ways of
taking your Power. The difficulty lies not in feats of physical
or mental prowess, but in steady diligence. Do not try too hard,
or you will not last long. If you are not happy with the way your |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,818 | life is going now and you desire to take your power, then commit
to the life changes which magick demands. If your commitment is
genuine, then everything will fall into place over time. Above
all, be patient.
Best of luck and stay on the path.
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________________________________________
"HOW TO USE MAGICK with a Straight Face"
(C) 1989 by Scot Rhoads, all rights reserved
MYSTIC MOON Metaphysical Books, NEW MOON RISING journal & BBS
8818 Troy St., Spring Vly, CA 91977 (619) 466-8064; BBS: 466-5403
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
3293
Nine Noble Virtues
(Written by Lewis Stead from the Raven Kindred's ritual book)
The Odinic Rite lists the 9 Noble Virtues as Courage, Truth, Honor,
Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Industriousness, Self-Reliance, and
Perseverance.
It would be hard to get much argument on any of these values from
anyone. They simply and briefly encapsulate the broad wisdom of our
Gods and ancestors.
Courage
In virtually every statement of values applied to Asatru, Courage is
listed first. As Stephen McNallen has said, courage and bravery are
perhaps the values which the Vikings are best known for. However,
despite our history, few of us face such turmoil as a literal battle
for ones life. In fact, I believe it might be easier to manifest
courage in such a situation than to do so in the many smaller day to
day occurrences in which courage is called for.
The most common of these occurrences for modern Pagans, is the courage
to acknowledge and live ones beliefs. It is also, sadly, the one that
we most often fail at. While we may often be full of the type of
courage that would lead us to face a shield wall, many of us quake at
the thought of the topic of religion coming up at the office or a
friend asking what church we attend. We won't offer easy answers, but
we ask this: if you toast the courage of your ancestors to fight and
die for what they believed in, can you trade away your religious
identity for a higher salary or social acceptance?
In an essay on values there is also the question of moral courage.
The way of Tyr is difficultto lose ones hand for ones beliefsbut,
Tyr thought the price worth paying. In a million ways modern society
challenges our values, not just as Asatruar who are estranged from
mainstream religious practice, but for religious people in an
increasingly not just secular, but anti-religious culture. Values are
also not in favor in modern society. Breaking or getting around the
rules is encouraged to get ahead. Living honorably is simply too
inconvenient. I think most people, Asatru or otherwise, find this
repugnant, but the only way to change it is to have the courage to
refuse to take part in it.
Truth
The second virtue, that of Truth, is the one that most led our kindred
to embrace the Odinic Rite's statement of values as our own. Early in
our discussions, we decided that no matter what values we chose to
hold out as our own, truth must be among them. It is a word that |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,819 | holds so much in its definition, and includes such a wide variety of
moral and philosophical beliefs that we were all drawn to it as a
simple statement of what we stood for.
At least one of the reasons we wanted to adopt it was the simple issue
of honesty. As Bill Dwinnels said at a recent sumbel while toasting
truth and honesty: if you don't want people to know about something,
don't do it. Truth, in the sense of honesty, is essential to personal
honor and also to any system or morality that is not based on rigid
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legalism. If one is to uphold an honor code, one must be brutally
honest with oneself and with others.
Truth is also the Truth that comes with a capital Tthe kind of Truth
that one talks about in terms of religion or morality. It's common to
talk of different peoples having different "truths," but it's equally
important to remember that while we acknowledge that each person or
people has their own belief as to what Truth is or where to find it,
there finally is a single Truth. This is not the Truth as we believe
it, but ultimate Truth. While we may respect other people's truths
and seek our own, we must never forget our search for The Truth. Like
the Holy Grail of Christian legend, it may never be ours to reach, but
when we cease to search we perish.
Honor
Honor is the basis for the entire Asatru moral rationale. If anything
comes out in the Eddas and Sagas it is that without honor we are
nothing. We remember two types of peoples from ancient times: those
whose honor was so clean that they shine as examples to us and those
who were so without honor that their names are cursed a thousand years
after they lived. Good Asatruar should always strive to be among the
former.
However, honor is not mere reputation. Honor is an internal force
whose outward manifestation is reputation. Internal honor is the
sacred moral compass that each Asatruar and God should hold dear. It
is the inner dwelling at peace which comes from living in accordance
with ones beliefs and with ones knowledge of the Truth of what one is
doing. It is something deeply personal and heartfelt, almost akin to
an emotion. It's a knowing that what one is doing is right and
decent and correct.
In many ways while the most important of all the virtues it is also
the most ephemeral in terms of description. It is all the other
virtues rolled together and then still more. The best way I have
found to describe honor is that if you are truly living with honor,
you will have no regrets about what you have done with your life.
Fidelity
Fidelity is a word that is far too often defined by it's narrow use in
terms of marital fidelity. By the dictionary it simply means being
faithful to someone or something. In marriage this means being true
to ones vows and partner, and this has been narrowly defined as
limiting ones sexual experience to ones spouse. While I have found
this to be great practical advice, many treat fidelity as if there
were no other ways in which one could be faithful or unfaithful.
For we Asatruar fidelity is most important in terms of our faith and
troth to the Gods. We must remain true to the Aesir and Vanir and to
our kinsmen. Like marriage, Profession (the rite in which one enters
the Asatru faith, similar to Christian confirmation or Wiccan |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,820 | initiation) is a sacred bond between two parties; in this case an
Asatruar and the Gods. In order for such a relationship to work, both
must be honest and faithful to each other.
Asatru, although currently being reborn, is at its roots a folk
3295
religion and we also uphold the value of fidelity to the ways of our
ancestors. This is why historical research is so important to the
Asatru-folk: it is the rediscovering of our ancient ways and our
readoption of them.
Discipline
In any discussion of the values of Asatru, discipline is best
described as self-discipline. It is the exercise of personal will
that upholds honor and the other virtues and translates impulse into
action. If one is to be able to reject moral legalism for a system of
internal honor, one must be willing to exercise the self-discipline
necessary to make it work. Going back to my earlier criticism of
society, if one rejects legalism, one must be willing to control ones
own actions. Without self-discipline, we have the mess we currently
see in our culture.
Looking at discipline in terms of fidelity, we see a close connection.
Many Pagans go from faith to faith, system to system, path to path.
Asatruar are much less likely to do this. The discipline of keeping
faith with our Gods and the ways of our ancestors is part of our
modern practice. In this way, we limit ourselves in some ways, but we
gain much more in others.
Hospitality
Hospitality is simply one of the strongest core values at the heart of
virtually every ancient human civilization. In a community/folk
religion such as our own, it is the virtue that upholds our social
fabric. In ancient times it was essential that when a traveler went
into the world he could find some sort of shelter and welcome for the
night. In modern times it is just as essential that a traveler find
friendship and safety.
In our modern Asatru community, we need to treat each other with
respect and act together for the good of our community as a whole.
This functions most solidly on the level of the kindred or hearth
where nonfamilial members become extremely close and look out for
each other. It can mean hospitality in the old sense of taking in
people, which we've done, but in modern times it's more likely to mean
loaning someone a car or a bit of money when they need it (that's
need, not want).
Part of hospitality is treating other people with respect and dignity.
Many of our Gods are known to wander the world and stop in at people's
houses, testing their hospitality and generosity. The virtue of
hospitality means seeing people as if they were all individuals with
self-respect and importance. Or perhaps from time to time, they are
literally the Gods in human form. This has profound implications for
social action in our religion. Our response to societal problems such
as poverty (that's poverty folks, not laziness) is in many ways our
modern reaction to this ancient virtue.
In terms of our modern community as a whole, I see hospitality in
terms of frontier "barn raisings" where a whole community would come
together and pool their resources. This doesn't mean we have to
forget differences, but we must put them aside for those who are of |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,821 | our Folk, and work for our common good.
3296
Industriousness
Modern Asatruar must be industrious in their actions. We need to work
hard if we are going to achieve our goals. There is so much for us to
do. We've set ourselves the task of restoring Asatru to it's former
place as a mainstream faith and by doing so reinvigorating our society
and culture. We can't do this by sitting on our virtues, we need to
make them an active part of our behavior. Industry also refers to
simple hard work in our daily vocations, done with care and pride.
Here's a few concrete examples. If you are reading this and don't
have a kindred, why not? Stop reading now. Go and place ads in the
appropriate local stores, get your name on the Ring of Troth, Wyrd
Network, or Asatru Alliance networking lists, and with other Pagan
groups. Put on a workshop. Ok, now you're back to reading and you
don't agree with what I'm saying here? Well, be industrious! Write
your own articles and arguments. Write a letter to the editor and
suggest this material be bannedbetter that than passivity. Get the
blood moving and go out and do it. That's how it gets done. The Gods
do not favor the lazy.
The same holds true for our non-religious lives. As Asatruar we
should offer a good example as industrious people who add to whatever
we're involved in rather than take from it. We should be the ones the
business we work in can't do without and the ones who always seem to
be able to get things done. When people think of Asatru, they should
think of people who are competent and who offer something to the
world.
This doesn't just apply to vocational work, but to the entire way we
live our lives. It is just as much a mentality. The Vikings were
vital people. They lived each day to its fullest and didn't wring
their hands in doubt or hesitation. We should put the same attitude
forward in all that we do whether it is our usual vocation, devotion
to the Gods, or leisure time.
Self Reliance
Industry brings us directly to the virtue of Self-Reliance, which is
important both in practical and traditional terms. Going back to the
general notion of this article, we are dealing with a form of morality
that is largely self-imposed and thus requires self-reliance. We rely
on ourselves to administer our own morality.
Traditionally, our folkways have always honored the ability of a man
or woman to make their own way in the world and not to lean on others
for their physical needs. This is one of the ways in which several
virtues reinforce and support each other. Hospitality cannot function
if people are not responsible enough to exercise discipline and take
care of themselves. It's for those that strive and fail or need
assistance that hospitality is intended, not for the idle who simply
won't take care of themselves.
In terms of our relationships with the Gods, self-reliance is also
very important. If we wish the Gods to offer us their blessings and
gifts, we must make ourselves worthy of themand the Gods are most
pleased with someone who stands on their own two feet. This is one of
the reasons for the Asatru rule that we do not kneel to the Gods
3297
during our ceremonies. By standing we acknowledge our relationship as |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,822 | striving and fulfilled people looking for comradeship and a
relationship, rather than acting as scraelings looking for a handout
from on high. It takes very little for a God to attract a follower,
if worship simply means getting on the gravy train. We, as Asatruar,
are people who can make our own way in the world, but who choose to
seek a relationship with the Gods.
In mundane terms being self-reliant is a simple way to allow ourselves
the ability to live as we wish to. In simple economic terms, if one
has enough money in the bank one doesn't need to worry as much about
being fired due to religious discrimination. We can look a bigot in
the face and tell him just where he can put it. It's also nice to
have something in the bank to lay down as a retainer on a good lawyer
so we can take appropriate action.
On the other side of this is self-reliance in the sense of Henry David
Thoreau, who advocated a simple lifestyle that freed one from the
temptations of materialism. Again, here we are able to live as we
wish with those things that are truly important. Religious people
from all faiths have found that adjusting ones material desires to
match one's ability to meet them leaves one open for a closer
relationship with deity and a more fulfilling life. While our
ancestors were great collectors of gold goodies, they didn't lust for
possessions in and of themselves, but for what they stood for and
could do for them. In fact, the greatest thing that could be said of
a Lord was that he was a good Ring Giver.
Being self-reliant also means taking responsibility for ones life.
It's not just about refusing a welfare check or not lobbying for a tax
exemption, but also refusing to blame ones failures on religious
intolerance, the patriarchy, or an unfair system. The system may, in
fact, be unfair, but it's our own responsibility to deal with it.
In societal terms, we have become much too dependent on other people
for our own good. As individuals we look to the government or to
others to solve our problems and as a society we borrow billions from
our descendants to pay for today's excesses. Most problems in this
world could be solved if people just paid their own way as they went.
The final virtue is Perseverance which I think most appropriate
because it is the one that we most need to keep in mind in our living
of the other values. Our religion teaches us that the world is an
imperfect place, and nothing comes easy. We need to continue to seek
after that which we desire. In this imperfect world there are no free
lunches or easy accomplishmentsespecially in the subjects we have set
before ourselves. If we truly wish to build an Asatru community that
people will hold up as an example of what committed people can do,
then we must persevere through the hardships that building our
religion is going to entail. We must be willing to continue on when
we are pushed back. If one loses a job for ones religion, the answer
is not to go back and hide, but to continue until one finds a vocation
where one can more forward and live as an Asatruar should.
Finally we must persevere when we simply fail. If one's kindred falls
apart because of internal strife, one should go back and start over.
Pick up the pieces and continue on. If nobody had done this after the
disintegration of the Asatru Free Assembly, this would probably never
3298
have been written. We must be willing to continue in the hard work of
making our religion strongnot just when it is convenient and easy to
do so, but when it gets hard, inconvenient, or just plain boring. To
accomplish without striving is to do little, but to persevere and
finally accomplish a hard fought goal brings great honor. |
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3299
DARK MOON
by Magus and Ariel
Chanting before and while entering circle. Soft background music when
ritual starts.
Priest: We are gathered here in recognition of the dark, to celebrate
the dark mother, the crone of time, grandmother of us all!
All ears hear! The circle is about to be cast, let none be present
but of their own free will! Be it known that we are in the
presence of the dark Goddess.
Priestess: circles deosil with the salt, casts the first circle.
I cast the circle thus! With salt, deep from the womb of the mother!
From oceans deep and cold! I consecrate this space! So mote it be!
Priest: circling deosil with water.
I cast the circle thus! With water, ancient and old; with the
life blood of the world! I consecrate this space! So mote it be!
Priest: circling deosil with censor.
I cast the circle thus! With fire and air, clean and hot!
I consecrate this space! So mote it be!
Priest: And ever it was thus!
All: So mote it be!
Calling of the quarters:
Priestess: Ancient one of elemental Air! I call and summon thee by
name!
Raphael of the wide ranging air! Sylph of the endless skies! We
bid you come! Stand in our presence and guard this circle cast.
So mote it be!
All: So mote it be!
Priest: Ancient one of elemental Earth! I call and summon thee by name!
Oriel of the fertile plain! Gnome of forests deep! We bid you
come! Stand in our presence and guard this circle cast!
So mote it be!
All: So mote it be!
Priestess: Ancient one of elemental Fire! I call and summon thee by
name!
Michael of flickering flame! Salamander of scorching fire! We bid you
come!
Stand in our presence and guard this circle cast! So mote it be!
All: So mote it be!
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Priest: Ancient one of elemental Water! I call and summon thee by name! |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,824 | Gabriel of oceans and streams! Undine of pools and ponds!
We bid you come! Stand in our presence and guard our circle cast!
So mote it be!
All: So mote it be!
Priest stands in the east, Priestess stands in the west.
Together with outstretched arms begin chant A U M !
All: So mote it be!
Priestess: And ever it was thus! From the beginnings of the world,
air and earth, fire and water weaved together with spirit and love!
All CHANT
We all come from the Goddess
And to her we shall return.
Like a drop of rain,
Flowing to the ocean.***
Isis, Astarte, Diana,Hecate,
Demeter, Kali, Inanna **
Priest: Dark Mother!! Crone of time!! We ask your presence and your
blessing! All things to you must go, though darkness and death
are your domain, you promise peace and rest! Thy gift is life!
Yours is the hand that turns the wheel and cuts the thread.
Be with us this magickal night! Give each of us your wisdom
and bless our rite! So mote it be!
All: So mote it be!
Priest and Priestess circle while chanting:
Hecate, Hecate of visage dower,
Dark Mother, Dark Mother come in power.
Hecate, Hecate of visage dower,
Dark Mother, Dark Mother crone of time.
While Priest and Priestess chant, everyone else can chant
also if the mood strikes.
Each person will take a sheet of parchment paper and write down
that which they have outgrown and want removed.
They will keep the paper with them until later when
this petition will be burned and tossed into cauldron.
Priest and Priestess:
And ever it was thus!
Priest: As God
Priestess: To Goddess
Together:
So woman to man
From the beginnings of the universe
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The energies joined and co-mingled
whereby we are sustained and carry on.
Priestess takes chalice: |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,825 | Dark Lady, Mother of night, we thank you for your presence and
wisdom. (pouring liquid into libation bowl) as the fruit of the
vine was plucked and pressed, it came to know the touch of death
and thereby we are sustained and carry on!
Priest takes cakes:
Likewise as the grain of the field ripened and fell beneath the
scythe it came to know the touch of death, whereby we are
sustained and carry on!
While cakes and wine are passed around all will chant:
Hine matov umanayim
Shevet akim gom yokad
(Happy are they that dwell
together as brother and sister)
Priestess: And ever it was thus!
All: Blessed be!
Priestess stand in the west with cauldron in front of her.
Priest kneels and silently draws down . While still kneeling
Priest says:
Dark Lady of the waning moon!
We thank you for your presence
and your blessing, and in silence we turn within
and willingly offer
to thy realm that which is old and outdated,
that which no longer has life and no longer grows.
We offer to thy Blade that which
we no longer need.
(Priest stands and lights cauldron)
Priestess draws invoking earth pentegram in front of Priest saying:
Of the Mother darksome and divine
Mine the scourge, and mine the kiss;
The five-point star of love and bliss -
Here I charge you, with this sign.
Priest: Here ye the words of the Dark Lady; we who of old was called
among men Hecate, Persephone, Kali, and many other names.
Priestess: Worship me as the Crone! Tender of the unbroken cycle of
death
and rebirth. I am the wheel, the shadow of the Moon.
I rule the tides of women and men and give release
and renewal to weary souls.
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Though the darkness of death is my domain,
the joy of birth is my gift.
Everyone in turn ignites their petition off the cauldron and
tosses it into the cauldron.
Priestess embraces each person as they go by.
Priestess: And ever it was thus! That which falls to the hand of the |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,826 | crone finds regeneration and new life!
All circle and CHANT:
She changes everything she touches and
everything she touches changes!
Priestess: Grandmother! Blessed thou be! Depart to thy realms .
Thank you for the lessons learned this dark night! Blessed be!
All: Blessed be!
Priestess: Ancient one of elemental Air! Thank you for your vigil here!
Leave with us a renewed mind as clear as air! Blessed be!
All: Blessed be!
Priest: Ancient one of elemental Earth! Thank you for your vigil here!
Leave with us steadiness and patience! Blessed be!
All: Blessed be!
Priestess: Ancient one of elemental Fire! Thank you for your vigil
here!
Leave with us swiftness and action, a flaming soul to always do
what is right! Blessed be!
All: Blessed be!
Priest: Ancient one of elemental Water! Thank you for your vigil here!
As you depart leave with us the fluidity of water that we may
have compassion for our fellows as well as our selves!
Blessed be!
All: Blessed be!
Priestess: Let all ears hear! The circle is open but remains
unbroken!
Brothers and sisters, we are children of the Lord and Lady!
May they always dance within our hearts.
Merry did we meet, merry do we part, merry we meet again!
All: Merry did we meet, merry do we part, merry we meet again!
Blessed be!
Prayers to Brighid
These are some prayers to Brighid that I adapted from prayers to the
Irish Saint Brigid. Comments are welcome.
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"KINDLING THE FIRE"
This morning, as I kindle the flame upon my hearth, I pray that the
flame of Brighid may burn in my soul, and the souls of all I meet today.
I pray that no envy and malice, no hatred or fear, may smother the
flame.
I pray that indifference and apathy, comtempt and pride, may not pour
like cold water on the flame.
Instead, may the spark of Brighid light the love in my soul, that it may
burn brightly through the day. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,827 | And may I warm those that are lonely, whose hearts are cold and
lifeless, so that all may know the comfort of Brighid's love.
"COVERING THE FIRE"
Brighid, preserve the fire, as You preserve us all.
Brighid, may its warmth remain in our midst, as You are always among us.
Brighid, may it rise to life in the morning, as You raise us to life.
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
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House Cleansing
By: David Piper
************************************************************************
_Banishing And Sealing Ritual For The Home_
To be performed during at the New Moon, but may be performed at any time
in need.
You will need a new white Candle (any size with holder), small bowls for
Water and Salt, and a large bowl of water as well, and the censer and an
appropriate incense. (Choose one that brings to your mind qualities you
wish to have in your home.)
Banishing Ritual:
Meditate for a few moments on the task ahead; then make a brief
invocation to the Goddess and the God, asking for Their Aid and Power in
the Work you will do.
Light the white candle in its holder, and charcoal in the censer (or an
incense stick may be used instead).
Consecrate Water and Salt in the usual way.
Consecrate the water in the bowl in the same manner, but do not add
Salt; place this bowl in the center of the room.
Take the consecrated Water, elevate it to North, and say,
"In the name of (Goddess) and (God)
I banish with Water and Earth."
Sprinkle the Water lightly widdershins around the perimeter of the room.
Bless the incense, then elevate the censer (or incense stick) to North,
and say,
"In the name of (Goddess) and (God)
I banish with Fire and Air."
Cense the perimeter of the room widdershins.
Take the Candle and cast a Banishing Earth Pentagram at North. (Draw
the Pentagram with the censer or incense stick, starting from the bottom
left point up to the top point, and so forth.) As you cast the
Pentagram say,
"With this Sign I banish ye, foul shades of the (Quarter)! |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,828 | Let this home be freed of your baneful influences!"
Then go widdershins around the perimeter of the room, casting a
Banishing Pentagram at each Quarter beginning at the West and ending
back at North, repeating the above at each Quarter. (Do not repeat it
again at North.)
Now turn and face the center of the room, where the bowl of water sits.
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With your hands, draw any negative energy or vibrations remaining, and
cast them into the water in the bowl by flicking or snapping your
fingers at it. Repeat this action until you are satisfied the room is
cleansed. Do not touch the water in the bowl, as it is being filled
with the negative forces you are eliminating.
Move the consecrated Water, the Salt, the Incense, the Candle, and
the bowl of water (being careful not to spill it) into each room in
your home and repeat this ritual.
After banishing every room in the home (including bathroom, closets,
pantry, etc.) you have finished. Empty the large bowl of water into
running water (a sink or toilet will do). Wash the bowl thoroughly
with cold water, scrubbing with some of the consecrated Salt.
Sealing Ritual:
Take all the Elemental substances used in the Banishing Ritual (Salt,
consecrated Water, wax drippings from the Candle, and ashes from the
Incense) and mix them into a paste.
Using your forefinger, use the mixture to draw an Invoking Fire
Pentagram at each opening leading outside the home (the doors and the
windows - and even the water pipes, if you should feel the need) while
concentrating on the Intention of protecting your home from outside
influences. (Draw the Pentagram from the top point to the bottom right,
and so forth. Form the Star so that it is point up, or point out, as
appropriate.) You may make two Stars at each opening if you wish - one
on the sill or threshold, and the other on the door or window itself.
Remember that Intent is the key to success in this, as in all magickal
operations; going through the motions without Will brings no results.
The Center Point (Celtic)
By: Airmid
The methods that I use involve putting oneself in the center of the
Three Realms, constructed as a triskele. The first is a movement
meditation that I call "The Center Point." It involves both movement and
a breathing pattern used to time the movement. Breathing is, ideally,
timed to the heartbeat. Three each beat is one count. Breathing pattern
is to inhale for 3, hold for 1, exhale for 3, hold for 1.
Movement is slow, rhythmic and deliberate. Each movement has its own
meaning.
Start standing erect, arms relaxed at your sides.
Close your eyes and relax. Clear your mind, concentrating on your
breathing, and listening to your heart beat. Breathe in and out in the
3-1-3-1 pattern three times as you allow yourself to relax. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,829 | As you breathe in the fourth time, raise your hands from your sides and
cover your heart with your palms, one over the other -- you are at the
center of the world.
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Exhale, moving smoothly to one knee, placing your palms on the ground in
front of you -- you stand firmly upon the Land.
Inhale as you rise to your feet. As you stand, move your hands behind
you as far back as you can comfortably reach at waist or hip height.
Your hands should be cupped as though you are holding liquid.
Breathe out, moving your hands in an arc around you until they meet in
front of you at about the level of your navel -- the Sea always
surrounds you.
Breathing in, move your hands back to your sides, holding them slightly
away from your hips with your palms flat, facing forward and your
fingers spread open.
Exhale as you raise your arms above you in a smooth curve over your head
until the tips of your thumbs and index fingers touch --the Sky spreads
itself above you.
Inhale again, lowering your hands in front of you until they are once
again cupped over your heart -- you are at the center of the Three
Realms.
CANDLE BLESSING
===============
Coven of New Gwynedd
Blessings be upon thee, O creature of light! Thrice blessed
little herb! Herb o' grease, with thy waxen stem and thy blossom
of flame! Thou art more potent against spells and terrors and the
invisible menace than fennel or dittany or rue. Hail! antidote to
the dealy nightshade! Blossoming in the darkness, thy virtues are
heartsease and quiet sleep. Sick people bless thee, and women in
travail, and people with haunted minds, and all children.
Blessed Be,
Gwydion
The Coven
By: Julia Phillips
Greetings All!
This article was written by me several years ago, but I thought it might
be of interest here, as it discusses several issues relevant to modern
Witches. Any thought or feedback most welcome! Please remember, that
although the historical stuff is pretty general, the other parts of the
article are my own ideas, and not necessarily applicable outside of my
own tradition :)
Covens and Witches
In 1662, Isobel Gowdie of Auldearne made four separate confessions of
being a Witch, and in the process, gave the word "Coven" to the world.
3307 |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,830 | Although there is no other historical evidence for this word, it has
proven to be one of the most lasting facets of Witchcraft - ask anyone
today what Witches do, and the answer will almost certainly include the
fact that they meet in groups, called "Covens".
So given that a number of modern Witches do, in fact, either run, or
belong to, a Coven - just what is its purpose in 20th (and 21st) century
Western Civilisation? Why has this word of such dubious historical
veracity survived over three hundred years? Is there a place in our
modern world for a social group which, as far as we know, occurred only
in 17th century Scotland?
The very fact of its survival for over three hundred years argues that
there is a place for such a group. In my own case, I have been a member
of, and run, Covens of Witches for a number of years, and it is a social
model which fits extremely well within modern society.
The structure of a coven varies, but generally has one or two leaders,
and a number of members of varying levels of experience. In a sense, the
modern Coven has replaced the tribal family, and its members often
fulfill familial roles, which are no longer available to them in the
family in which they were born.
Some researchers have commented that many modern Witches come from a
background which was disrupted; i.e., did not provide a safe family
environment during their formative years. As I know a great many Witches
for whom this was not the case, I think this is only a partial reason,
and only for some people.
Humanity itself seems to be inherently tribal; any common bond between
people will generally result in the creation cults or sub-cultures,
where those of a like-mind will bond together. They will evolve their
own social order (generally hierarchical), have their own common
language, and often are identifiable by their demeanour and appearance.
Witches gather together in Covens for very much the same sorts of
reasons; we are apart from general society by virtue of our beliefs and
practices. Meeting with others who think and feel similarly to ourselves
gives us the opportunity to share ideas and skills, as well as being
able to practise our Craft.
A modern Coven provides a family-style environment, where the "Elders"
can, by virtue of their experience, give encouragement, support, and
advice to those seek to learn about Witchcraft. As with all families,
Covens have very unique and individual ways of approaching this. Just as
no two families are the same, neither are any two Covens.
Some Covens are run by people with an academic bent, and as would be the
case in any family, this characterises the way in which their "children"
are brought up. Other groups are oriented towards a more simple
approach, and the oral traditions play an important role in the way in
which the Coven is structured. Some combine the these two approaches,
and the variations upon the basic themes are endless.
For any "family" to exist harmoniously, everyone within the group must
feel a part of the group, and wish to learn and grow within that group
environment. With a path such as Witchcraft, with its emphasis upon
personal growth and development, it is likely that individuals who may
3307
at one time have been happy within their family group, will change, and
wish to move away. This is a perfectly natural process, and the wise
coven leaders will send those people off with their love and blessing.
Trying to keep them would be like trying to keep your sons and daughters |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,831 | tied to your apron strings forever!
Ultimately, and despite the popularity of the word "coven", I do believe
that most Witches are solitary in nature, and will generally spend at
least part of their lives without being a member of, or running, a
coven. I think the inward exploration during these periods is vital to
self-development, just as we believe it is important to encourage
social-awareness in children. However, I also believe that at some stage
it is important to learn the practices of Witchcraft from another
person; to be an apprentice, if you will; because the act of passing
knowledge from one person to another cannot be replicated by books,
correspondence courses, or be self-taught. This may seem an almost
impossible task to some people, but as all the magical traditions teach:
when the student is ready, the teacher will appear! What's more, it's
true!
B*B Julia
Group Ethics Rules: Opening Suggestions!
By: Raven
Too often I had seen the Craft used as a personal power-trip, or with a
disregard for the effects on others. This time it happened in my home.
I introduced two guests, acquaintances of mine, to each other. One was
interested in learning about the Craft; the other offered to teach him.
The would-be teacher went on about his skills, describing the would-be
student's aura and psychic shields; leaned back in his chair, said,
"I really shouldn't do this, I really shouldn't" -- then leaned forward
and, with no warning or other preliminary, SLICED the student's shields
"open" (as he said), leaving the student feeling naked and exposed.
To prove a point, I suppose, but what point I can't guess.
I was outraged. Guests in my home are not to be abused -- by anyone.
Even to a complete materialist, it would be clear that the student had
had his personal space invaded, his emotional consolation removed, with
no informed consent involved, and with no feeling of other protection.
I already knew the would-be teacher himself was taught by people of
no great concern for ethics. His was chiefly a fault of poor training,
added to which he had never stopped to think that "occult" dealings with
people might involve the same ethical issues as "mundane" dealings.
One of the several outcomes of that event was that I wrote the following
guidelines for those two specific people, and suggested (NOT ordered)
that they adopt these -- if they did still decide to work together.
After that, well, several other people did express an interest.
Note! This was written as a PROPOSAL; no-one has enacted it as a LAW.
The hope is for it to be used by, and among, those who like the ideas.
3308
(Really, all it does is put the concept of "Harm ye none" in practice.)
RULES OF THE CIRCLE
THE RULES OF INFORMED CONSENT:
1. Tell everyone participating what to expect, before the circle is
closed or anything else begins. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,832 | 2. Give everyone participating the chance to say NO and to withdraw,
before the circle is closed or anything else begins -- and then
respect that decision.
3. Be open, honest, and fair: spring no surprises, trip no traps;
NEVER use what you learn or do in circle to manipulate or compel
any other person, or diminish anyone's dignity and free will.
THE RULES OF PRIVACY:
4. Encourage people not to wander in and out of any session between
its beginning and ending, or cross the circle while it is closed.
5. Protect every session from interruption by (or intrusion on) any
outsiders -- by closed or locked doors, a fence, or some other
clear marking outside the circle.
6. While proceedings may not be secret, they ARE always private; keep
silent about who and what you see or hear in circle, unless you
have each other participant's specific consent.
THE RULES OF SHIELDING:
7. ALWAYS, ALWAYS close the circle and raise your wards before
beginning, or continuing after a break.
8. ALWAYS, ALWAYS dismiss your wards and open the circle after ending,
or to allow passage across the circle.
9. Conduct yourself with mutual respect and due courtesy, without
malice or ill will toward anyone, or else ask that the circle be
opened and that you be dismissed from the session.
COVENANT
THE TEACHER PROMISES THE STUDENT:
1. I will abide by the Rules of the Circle.
2. I will ask from you no more than you can give.
3. I will not expect you to read my mind.
4. I will not hide from you my limits or gaps in knowledge; if I just
don't know, I'll tell you so.
5. I will explain, to the best of my ability, not only what to do and
how, but also why.
6. I will not push you beyond your ability or willingness to proceed.
7. I realize that I may be tempted to become dominating, a "leader" --
and I will do my best to resist this temptation.
8. Because I received from others without payment, I will give to you
without payment.
9. As I can, I will learn from you in turn.
THE STUDENT PROMISES THE TEACHER:
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1. I will abide by the Rules of the Circle.
2. I will ask from you no more than you can give.
3. I will not expect you to read my mind.
4. If I have questions about what you show me, I will ask you.
5. If I fail to understand anything, I will mention it.
6. If I feel unready to proceed, I will tell you.
7. I realize that I may be tempted to become dependent, a "follower" --
and I will do my best to resist this temptation.
8. Because I receive from you without payment, I will give to others
without payment.
9. As I can, I will teach you in turn. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,833 | A CIRCLE IS NOT A LINE: IT HAS NO BEGINNING AND NO END.
A CIRCLE IS NOT A PYRAMID: IT HAS NO TOP AND NO BOTTOM.
A CIRCLE IS NOT AN ASTERISK: IT IS NOT RUN FROM JUST ONE POINT.
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
3310
Wiccan Ethics And The Wiccan Rede
By: David Piper, Sat 21 May 94 12:16
Part I: What Sayeth The Rede?
=====================
The "archaically worded" construction "An it harm none, do what ye
will," rendered into modern English is literally, "if it doesn't harm
anyone, do what you want."
Many modern Wiccans "reverse" the construction, however, taking the
first part and putting it after the second to read: "Do what ye will an
it harm none," or in modern English "Do what you want if it doesn't harm
anyone."
Many people give the word "an" or "if" a value of "so long as" - which
is acceptable substitution, because it doesn't alter the meaning of the
Rede itself. However they then proceed to read "so long as" as "only
if," and that is *completely different*, because the Rede has ceased to
be a "wise counsel" [anyone checked the meaning of "rede" in the
dictionary lately?] and become an injunction: prohibitive commandment,
rather than permissive advice.
In other words, the original archaic construction actually says "if it
is not going to hurt anyone, it is ok to do" - this is *not* the same as
"if it hurts anyone it is *not* ok to do."
What is the significance of the change? A larger one than you might
see, at first glance.
The "actual construction Rede," or AC Rede, says it is ok to do
something that won't harm anyone, but it *does not say anything* about
those things which do cause harm, except to set an ethical standard of
harmlessness as the criteria to judge by.
The "modern reconstruction Rede" or MR Rede, explicitly says that any
and all actions that cause harm are forbidden.
The two constructions do *not* mean the same thing at all. And it
should be obvious that this has implications on our thinking, and
discussions of the possibility of "obeying" the Rede.
Most of you will have heard or read, as I have, people saying the Rede
is something to strive to live by, even though mundane reality makes it
very difficult, if not impossible, to do so to the letter. *This is
only true of the MR Rede, not the AC Rede!* As examples, they cite
situations such as self-defense; *this violates the MR Rede*. Period.
But it does *not* violate the AC Rede. Period.
Earlier, I stated that the AC Rede does not rule on actions that do
cause harm - and this is true. It only rules on those actions which do
not, by saying that they are acceptable. This is relevant to "victi-
mless crimes" for example - civil "crimes" may in fact be "ethical," by
the judgment of the AC Rede.
What the AC Rede *does* do, in terms of actions that cause harm, is
state an ethical value by which an individual must judge the results of
her/his actions before acting. In other words, by stating that a |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,834 | 3311
harmless action is ethical, the AC Rede sets harmlessness as the
criteria for evaluation. Acting to prevent greater harm - but in the
process causing lesser harm - may then be ethical, if there is no
harmless, or more harmless, method of preventing that greater harm -
because *not* acting to prevent harm is to *cause* it, by an act of
*omission* rather than *commission*.
In short the difference between the AC Rede, and the MR Rede, is that
the AC Rede is a perfectly-obeyable ethical standard, but the MR Rede is
not, as so many people have pointed out. Do we take as our ethical
standard a "counsel" which *can* be obeyed, or one which *necessitates
rationalizing in some instances*? Which is truer to the Wicca, and to
the *real* Rede?
"rede: n. [Middle English rede < Old English raed < base of
raedan, to interpret] [archaic] 1. counsel; advice 2. a plan; scheme
3. a story; tale 4. an interpretation"
(from Webster's New World Dictionary)
Part II: "Do good, an it be safe..." (from the Ordains)
===========================
The MR Rede is the most common interpretation in Wicca today; so much
so, that not only do many Wiccans not realize there's a difference in
the two constructions, but they *deny* it when it is pointed out to
them, holding firmly to the MR Rede as what the original has always
meant.
At first the change of language was only an attempt to bring the
language up from archaic, to modern English; but in doing so - especial-
ly with the public relations campaign, to convince people that Wiccans
are "not black magick/not devil worship/not evil nasty curse-casters"
the "harmlessness" aspect of the Rede was stressed, over the personal
responsibility aspect. And in essence Wiccans became the victims of
their own PR campaign.
An additional result is the injunction that one may never work magick
for others, even to heal, without their knowledge and consent. Of
course, we are allowed by this injunction to ask "Can I pray for you?"
as a means of obtaining the consent. From "a love spell aimed at one
particular person is unethical because it violates their will only to
serve our lust" we've moved to an extreme: to the prohibitive injunction
against ever doing any magick for another without permission, since it
violates their free will. Does anyone *really* believe the Gods will
judge them ill, for attempting to heal someone?
What of the case of an unconscious accident victim and family unavail-
able to ask - are we forbidden to work? No, of course we're not - but
we *do* have to accept the karmic consequences of such acts. Do you
really think that a neurotic who uses an illness as a crutch wouldn't be
better healed of that neurosis as well as the illness? Of course that
may call up some karma if the person isn't strong enough to give up that
crutch yet. Once again the real criteria is *personal responsibility*
and consideration of the consequences of one's actions *before* one acts
rather than the "thou shalt not" prohibitive commandment.
There is however another reason for the "prohibitive form" of these
3312
redes - one which has some validity. The teacher bears a karmic respon-
sibility for the student. There was a group whose teaching was, "No |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,835 | magick may be done for another, even to heal, without their consent; any
exceptions may be decided only by the High Priestess and the High
Priest." The point of this is that a student is not yet experienced
enough, not yet wise enough (since wisdom is the harvest we reap of our
experience and knowledge), to have that kind of decision, and the
resulting karmic burden, left to rest fully upon her/his shoulders -
hence, some teachers and some Trads do not allow neophytes to have
responsibility for that kind of decision-making.
It is far better, however, to teach a student the essential importance
of personal responsibility, the need to look ahead for possible
consequences before they act, than to lay "thou shalt not's" upon them
despite Wicca's insistance that we have none.
I received a comment about the last sentence in part I, paragraph 3,
that said "Ack! Welcome to the One Wiccan Commandment! Any 'thou shalt
nots' lurking around?" Food for thought, my fellow Wiccans! Food for
thought!
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3313
Charge of the God 1
By: Siobhan
Tue 12 Jul 94 10:33
Here's something I picked up recently. The writer felt that there should
be a Charge of the God to go with The Charge of the Goddess.
*****
Listen the the words of the Great Father, who of old was called
Osiris, Adonis, Zeus, Thor, Pan, Cernunnos, Herne, Lugh and by may other
names:
"My Law is Harmony with all things. Mine is the secret that opens
the gates of life and mine is the dish of salt of the earth that is the
body of Cernunnos that is the eternal circle of rebirth. I give the
knowledge of life everlasting, and beyond death I give the promise of
regeneration and renewal. I am the sacrifice, the father of all things,
and my protection blankets the earth."
Hear the words of the dancing God, the music of whose laughter
stirs the winds, whose voice calls the seasons:
"I who am the Lord of the Hunt and the Power of the Light, sun among
the clouds and the secret of the flame, I call upon your bodies to arise
and come unto me. For I am the flesh of the earth and all it's beings.
Thru me all things must die and with me are reborn. Let my worship be
in the body that sings, for behold all acts of willing sacrifice are my
rituals. Let there be desire and fear, anger and weakness, joy and
peace, awe and longing within you. For these too are part of the
mysteries found within yourself, within me, all beginnings have endings,
and all endings have beginnings."
So Mote It BE!
Charge of the God 2
By: Siobhan
Tue 12 Jul 94 10:33
This is the second Charge of the God I have.
****
THE CHARGE OF THE GOD
Listen to the words of the God, who is the son, brother, lover, and
consort of the Lady:
I am the fleet deer in the forest, I am the beach which receives the
waves, I am the sun which warms the earth. I am the Lord of the |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,836 | Spiral Dance of Life, Death and Rebirth, the gentle reaper, the
Winter stag and the Spring fawn. All things are of me, for I am of
the Goddess, opposite, yet not opposing. I bring birth forth from the
womb that is a tomb, for I am the seed which fertilizes. I am
abundant Life, for I am the grain that grows and I am death, the
harvest in the Fall. And I am rebirth after darkness, for I am the
seed that springs forth anew.
I am fertility, the spreader of Life, and I am the Lord of Death,
which adds value to life.
I am the Guardian of the gate between Life and Death. I am King of
the Underworld, where no living being may venture, but I am also
the King of Rebirth, turning the tomb into a womb.
3314
I bring love and strength, peace and passion, hope and joy, for I am
the gentle lover in the night.
All that I am comes from the Great Mother, the Divine Star
Goddess, who is Mother of us all.
**********
Feel free to use this one as is, or to adapt it in whatever way feels
right to you.
Blessed Be!
-- PattiMom --
The Crazy Lady in the Wheelchair
(Pattimom and Ariadne wrote this one)
If you like it, snag it and use it. :-)
Blessed Be!
Siobhan
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3315
For a Few Myths More
by Aries
"...Aries shows us how modern images (albeit set in 19th century
America)..." Julia, Web of Wyrd No. 7.
For me, that "albeit" sounded like a gauntlet being slapped down. Can we
show the presence of myth in films other than Westerns? We don't plan to
go on in great detail, but we suspect that what we're trying to get
across is the suggestion that maybe "The Mythic" is not the stories or
rituals, but the substrate out of which our tales and trials grow.
When we talk about myths we are really referring to ancienct stories,
and not every ancient tale grew out of "The Mythic". More than enough
were for entertainment, propaganda, satire or pornography _ to see
everything that is old as also being venerable is to fall into the
Confuscian Heresy. In much the same way our modern literature/film
culture produces works serving as varying purposes as moral tales, epic
adventures, pulp and hardcore porn, but also produces work that grows
direct from "The Mythic".
In the rubric of science, "The Mythic" can be seen as being non-local; |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,837 | it stands outside of space-time, being here, there and everywhere; now,
then, and everywhen. Our tales do not grow out of the ancient tales/myt-
hs, but draw afresh from the same wells as they did (do/will?).
In the printed media a good many SF novels are based on the inner/und-
erground journey; all that Phillip K Dick and Edmund Cooper wrote seemed
based on this theme, in the same way "Metropolis" is of the "descent"
type story. One of the great advantages of film is the way it can make
the sensations of the "descent" seem "real"; possibly by a species of
autohypnosis into a state that Robert Anton Wilson refers to as virtual
reality in his book, Cosmic Trigger 2. For us other examples of the
descent theme are Orson Welles' films; Touch of Evil and The Trial
(based on Kafka's book), giving a long shot of the journey.
The classic "Casablanca" we suggest is the story of the "descent" from
a viewpoint inside the underworld itself. That Casablanca is the place
of death is always suggested by the comment that Rick makes to Elsa when
she says that Victor Lazlo will die in Casablanca; "What of it? I'm
going to die in Casablanca. It's a good place for it." Full of refugees
(lost souls). Rick exists in his own emotional limbo awaiting the
descent of his own Inanna to set him free.
"Apocalypse Now" and the Conrad novel it is based on, "Heart of
Darkness", gives a great example of the same story set at both ends of
the century; the parallel of the inner and outer journey, especially as
Conrad went through his inner journey whilst writing the book, and
Francis Ford Copolla and crew went through theirs while making the film.
I would strongly suggest that "The Mythic" emerges into our lives first
and formost; through tales we make sense of the patterns, and warn those
who follow on from us.
Another great advantage of film is its ability to show us inside the
underworld in such a way that we may lose track of where the boundaries
lay, and become uncertain of what is real and what is illusion. If the
previous films can be seen as "descent" themes, the following, we
suggest, can be called "Chapel Perilous" themes. In "The Maltese Falcon"
3316
we have the characters chasing the elusive bird, crossing and double-cr-
ossing each other, unconcerned by anything but possession of the
miraculous object, which we discover at the very end is nothing but;
"The stuff that dreams are made of".
With "The House of Games" _ Mamet's six year-old cult movie _ we enter
the image of the labyrinthe, a subterranean night world of confidence
tricksters, who lead a lady psychiatrist along until she, and us (the
viewer) have problems distinguishing between what is real and what
isn't, until it all becomes part of the game.
That is the nature of "Chapel Perilous", its existence can be denied, we
can believe we're somewhere else (watching a movie?), but all the time
we're trapped in it, unable to discern what is really going on.
Another cult movie that gives a beautiful experience of Chapel Perilous
is Orson Welles' film "F for Fake", except this time we are the targets
of the con. A documentary film about two fakers, itself really a clever
montage of existing film clips put together to give the impression of a
series of interviews. At some point the film moves into the realm of
total fantasy, and the beauty of it is that we don't notice _ that is
the Chapel Perilous experience. From here it is logical to move onto the
ascent, or what could be called the "Promethean" theme. The film
"Frankenstein" is the classic promethean film, but is full of timid,
anti-Luciferan morality; i.e. to steal the "fire" from the gods
instantly incurrs punishment; as a myth, that is no longer useful to us. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,838 | All of the above examples are tales based in the twentieth century. For
a promethean theme we feel we should be looking forward; "2001 A Space
Odyssey" is wonderfully symbolic in that it is based in the first year
of the next millenium. There are four stages in the film: the first is
"The Dawn of Man", taking place in prehistoric Earth, where "the slab"
appears _ the promeathean gift, but what is the gift? fire? tool use?
weapon use? the ability to kill? We would suggest that it is the gift of
imagination; the apre man looks at the bone and "sees" a weapon; he has
the ability to manipulate images in his mind.
In the film the image cuts instantly to a space craft on its way to the
Moon. This journey between the worlds we feel signifies that we have
entered mythic space. In the next stage of the film, "The Moon", we meet
"the slab" again, where it dispenses its next gift, the awareness of
something beyond. In Qabbalistic terms we have moved from Malkuth to
Yesod; the following stage of the film, "Journey to Jupiter", has us
ascending the sephiroth to Chesed.
On the approach to Jupiter, Dave has to disconnect the higher functions
of the computer, Hal. We would suggest this can represent a distrust of
reason; a return to child-like ways, or a stepping away from the
constraints of language. As Hal closes down, it is language that
deteriorates; i.e. it is language that constructs the world we perceive.
So to go into the infinite beyond, to take the Next Step, we have to go
beyond language, hence all the descriptions of mystical experiences end
up sounding like gibberish.
For the final stage of the film, "Jupiter and beyond to Infinity", we
have the leap across the Abyss to the Supernals; Chokmah, Binah, Kether.
Because language fails us at this point, Kubrick relies solely on the
visual image; the sequence seems baffling, but we wonder if he is trying
to explain something that is also suggested by Ken Wilber in his book,
3317
"The Atman Project"; i.e., we evolve by changing how we translate the
incoming information of our senses. We go from looking through to
looking at each developmental stage. For most of us, we construct the
world by looking through a semantic framework or grid; when we transcend
this stage, we will be able to look at our semantic structure. Likewise
in the film, Dave sees the next stage from outside and then becomes it:
the outsider, the astronaut, the urbane man, the old man on the death
bed, and finally rebirth as the Star Child. Or as Crowley puts it in
"Magick" when describing the grade of Adeptus (Exemptus); "Completes in
perfection all these matters. He then either (a) becomes a Brother of
the Left Hand Path or, (b) is stripped of all his attainments and of
himself as well, even his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes a Babe of the
Abyss, who having transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in the
womb of its mother."
So we contend that "The Mythic" is everywhere, everywhen, and despite
our cultural estrangement from myths, "The Mythic" still emerges through
our media in many guises, which includes, but is not exclusive to,
Western movies.
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3318
Handfast Ritual
This is adapted from "Magical Rites from the Crystal Well" by Ed Fitch
and is a combination of their handfast ritual and american indian
ceremonial prelude. I'll skip over the consecration as it is a standard
one and get straight to the ritual itself. We had a Priestess only, so
this was written with that in mind but could easily be adapted for a
Priest and Priestess. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,839 | At this time and in this place
Do we call upon the Spirits of the Land
As well as the Mighty Ones of the Skies.
We call upon the Gods of our own distant past
From lands far away.
We call upon the Gods of our spiritual brethren
Who once called this place
Their own.
Witness and rejoyce with us in this moment
As love is affirmed.
__Groom's name__ and __Bride's name__ step forward
Stand before the Gods and those who witness on Earth
__Groom's name__, if it is your wish to become one with this woman
Will you pledge your love through all that may come
As long as love shall last?
__Bride's name__, if it is your wish to become one with this man
Will you pledge your love through all that may come As long as love
shall last?
Does any say nay?
As the Gods and the Old Ones are witness
With those of us present now,
I now proclaim you man and wife1
Thus are thy hands fasted...
The Two are now One,
This work is done
And joy is yet begun!
There is also a portion for the rings using a wand that was left out of
ours but is normally placed immediately after the vows and is as
follows...
The rings are placed upon the wand before the ritual and the wand upon
the altar. (This is written for bot Priest and Priestess present)
The priest picks up the wand and holds one end before him in his
right hand, the priestess likewise holds the other end in her left hand.
Place your right hands
3319
Over this wand...
And your rings...
His hand over hers.
Above you are the stars
Below you are the stones
As time passes, remember...
e a star should your love burn brightly,
Like the earth should your love be firm.
Be free in giving of affection and of warmth.
Have no fear, and let not the ways or words
Of the unenlightened give you unease. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,840 | For the Gods are with you,
Now and always!
The rings are exchanged during the vows.
Handfasting (Celtic)
This is a copy of a Celtic handfasting I found in the book _Finn Mac
Cool_ by Morgan Llywelyn.
Bride and Groom repeat the following together:
You cannot possess me for I belong to myself. But while we both wish
it, I give you that which is mine to give. You cannot command me for I
am a free person. But I shall serve you in those ways you require and
the honeycomb will taste sweeter coming from my hand. I pledge to you
that yours will be the name I cry aloud in the night, and the eyes into
which I smile in the morning. I pledge to you the first bite from my
meat and the first drink from my cup. I pledge to you my living and my
dying, each equally in your care. I shall be a shield for your back,
and you for mine. I shall not slander you, nor you me. I shall honor
you above all others, and when we quarrel, we shall do so in private and
tell no strangers our grievances. This is my wedding vow to you. This
is the marriage of equals.
The Priest or Priestess says:
These promises you make by the sun and the moon, by fire and water, by
day and night, by land and sea. With these vows you swear, by the God
and Goddess, to be full partners, each to the other. If one drops the
load, the other will pick it up. If one is a discredit to the other,
his own honor will be forfeit, generation upon generation, until he
repairs that which was damaged and finds that which was lost. Should
you fail to keep the oath you pledge today, the elements themselves will
reach out and destroy you. |
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WITCHCRAFT |
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WITCHCRAFT
THE WESTERN TRADITION
Volume 1, A–D
Richard M. Golden, Editor |
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Copyright 2006 by ABC-CLIO
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress
08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit abc-clio.com for details.
ABC-CLIO, Inc.
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Production Team:
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Manufactured in the United States of America |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 6 | 46049 Golden Chap.fm mk First Pages 10/29/2005 p.v Application File
CONTENTS
Editor and Editorial Board xiii
Contributors xv
Foreword xxv
Acknowledgments xxxi
Introduction xxxiii
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WITCHCRAFT:
THE WESTERN TRADITION
Aberdeen Witches Aragon
Acculturation Thesis Ardennes
Accusations Arras
Accusatorial Procedure Art and Visual Images
Acquittals Astrology
Ady,Thomas Augsburg, Imperial Free City of
Affair of the Poisons (1679–1682) Augsburg, Prince-Bishopric of
Africa (Sub-Saharan) Augustine, St. (354–430)
Age of Accused Witches Austria
Agobard of Lyons (ca. 779–840) Austrian Western Territories
Agrarian Crises Auxonne Nuns (1658–1663)
Agrippa von Nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius Avignon
(1486–1535) Baden, Margravate of
Aitken, Margaret Baldung [Grien], Hans (1484–1545)
Aix-en-Provence Nuns Balearic Islands
Albizzi, Francesco (1593–1684) Balkans (Western and Central)
Alchemy Bamberg, Prince-Bishopric of
Alciati, Andrea (1492–1550) Baphomet
Allotriophagy Bar, Duchy of
Alsace Baranowski, Bogdan (1915–1993)
Amsterdam Basel, Council of
Amulet and Talisman Basque Country
Anabaptists Bavaria, Duchy of
Angels Bavarian War of the Witches
Anhorn, Bartholomäus (1616–1700) Baxter, Richard (1615–1691)
Animals Behringer, Wolfgang (1956– )
Animistic and Magical Thinking Bekker, Balthasar (1634–1698)
Anthropology Benandanti
Antichrist Benevento, Walnut Tree of
Apocalypse Berkeley, Witch of
Appeals Bermuda
Apuleius of Madaura (b. ca. 125; fl. ca 155–60) Bernardino of Siena (1380–1444)
Aquinas, St. Thomas (ca. 1225–1274) Bérulle, Pierre de (1575–1629)
v |
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Bewitchment Caul
Bible Cauldron
Bibliomancy Celestina, La (1499)
Bilson Boy Cervantes (Saavedra), Miguel de (1547–1616)
Binsfeld, Peter (1546–1598) Cesalpino, Andrea (1519–1603)
Black Mass Channel Islands
Blackstone, William (1723–1780) Charms
Blåkulla Chesapeake
Blood Children
Bodin, Jean (1529/1530–1596) Christian IV (1577–1648)
Body of the Witch Chronology of Witchcraft Trials
Boguet, Henri (ca. 1550–1619) Circe
Bohemia, Kingdom of Ciruelo, Pedro (1470–1548)
Bohuslän Clark, Stuart
Books Clergy
Bordelon, Laurent (1653–1710) Clerical Magic
Borromeo, St. Carlo (1538–1584) Cobham, Eleanor (ca. 1400–1452)
Boucher, Jean (1548–1644) Cologne
Bovet, Richard Communal Persecution
Brandenburg, Electorate of Confessions
Brazil Confessors
Brenz, Johann (1499–1570) Confiscations of Witches’ Property
Breu, Jörg the Elder (1480–1537) Conrad of Marburg (ca. 1180–1233)
Brochmand, Jesper Rasmussen (1582–1652) ContemporaryWitchcraft (Post 1800)
Brossier, Marthe (ca. 1573–?) Contraries, Contrariety
Brueghel, Pieter the Elder (1525–1569) Contzen, Adam, SJ (1571–1635)
Buirmann, Franz (ca. 1590–ca. 1667) Convent Cases
Bullinger, Heinrich (1504–1575) Cooper,Thomas
Burchard of Worms (ca. 965–1025) Corporeality, Angelic and Demonic
Burgundy, Duchy of Coton, Pierre (1564–1626)
Burning Times Cotta, John (ca. 1575–1650)
Burr, George Lincoln (1857–1938) Countermagic
Burton, Boy of (Thomas Darling, ca. 1584–?) Courts, Ecclesiastical
Caesanus of Arles (470-71–543) Courts, Inquisitorial
Cagnazzo, Giovanni of Taggia (or Tabia) Courts, Secular
(ca. 1450–ca. 1520) Cranach, Lucas (1472–1553)
Calvin, John (1509–1564) Crespet, Pierre (1543–1594)
Cambrai Nuns (1491) Crimen Exceptum
Campanella, Tommaso (1568–1639) Croatia
Canisius, St. Peter (1521–1597) Crossroads
Cannibalism Cunning Folk
Canon Episcopi Cunning Folk’s Manuals
Capitalism Curses
Cardano, Girolamo (1501–1576) D’Anania, Giovanni Lorenzo (ca. 1545–ca. 1608)
Caro Baroja, Julio (1914–1995) Daneau, Lambert (ca.1530–1595)
Carolina Code (Constitio Criminalis Carolina) Danzig (Gdan´sk)
Carpi, Possession in a Poor Claire’s Convent Darrell, John (1562–?)
Carpzov, Benedict (II) (1595–1666) Dauphiné, Witchcraft Trials in
Casaubon, Meric (1599–1671) Deception and Magic
Cassini (Cassinis), Samuel de (ca. 1450–post 1510) Decline of the Witch Hunts
Castañega, Martín de Dee, John (1527–1608/1609)
Cats Defixiones
vi contents |
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Defoe, Daniel (1660–1731) Experiments and Tests
Del Rio, Martín (1551–1608) Eymeric, Nicolas (ca.1320–1399)
Della Porta, Giambattista (ca. 1535–1615) Fairfax, Edward (d. 1635)
Demonology Fairies
Demons Familiars
Denmark Family
Descartes, René (1596–1650) Family of Love
Devil Faust, Johann Georg (ca. 1480–1540)
Devil Books Faversham Witches
Devil’s Mark Fear
Diabolism Female Witches
Diana (Artemis) Feminism
Dionysus (Bacchus) Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (1578–1637,
Discernment of Spirits ruled 1619–1637)
Disease Ferdinand of Cologne (Wittelsbach, 1577–1650)
Divination Ferrer, Dominga (“La Coja”)
Dodo, Vincente (late 15th–early 16th century) Fertility Cults
Dogs Féry, Jeanne (1584)
Dominican Order Feugeyron, Ponce
Douglas, Mary (1921–) Film (Cinema)
Drama, Dutch Filmer, Sir Robert (ca. 1588–1653)
Drama, Italian Finland
Drama, Spanish Fischart, Johann (1546–1590)
Drugs and Hallucinogens Flade, Dietrich (1534–1589)
Duhr, Bernhard (1852–1930) Flight of Witches
Dürer, Albrecht (1471–1528) Folklore
Duval, André (1564–1638) Fourier, St. Pierre (1564–1641)
Ecclesiastical Territories (Holy Roman Empire) France
Eichstätt, Prince-Bishopric of Franche-Comté
Ellwangen, Prince-Abbey of Francken II, Frans (1585–1624)
Endor, Witch of Fredegunde (ca. 545–597)
England Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939)
Enlightenment Freude, Michael (ca. 1620–1692)
“Enormous” Crimes Frey, Bernhard, SJ (1609/1610–1685)
Episcopal Justice Freya (Freyja)
Erasmus, Desiderius (ca.1467–1536) Frisius, Paulus (ca. 1555–?)
Erastus, Thomas (1524–1583) Fründ, Hans (ca. 1400–1469)
Ergotism Fugger Family
Errores Gazariorum Fulda, Prince-Abbey of
Essex Gappit, Perrissona
Estonia Gassendi, Pierre (1592–1655)
Ethnology Gassner, Johann Joseph (1727–1779)
Eugenius IV (1383–1447; pope, 1431–1447) Gastaldo, Giovanni Tommaso (d. 1655)
Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. (1902–1973) Gaule, John (ca. 1604–1687)
Eve Geiler von Kaysersberg, Johann (1455–1510)
Evidence Gender
Evil Eye Geneva
Executioners Geography of the Witch Hunts
Executions Germany
Exeter Witches Germany, Northeastern
Exodus 22:18 (22:17) Germany, Southeastern
Exorcism Germany, Southwestern
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Germany,West and Northwest Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679)
Gerson, Jean (1363–1429) Hogarth, William (1697–1764)
Gesualdo, Carlo (1566–1613) Hohenems, Ferdinand Karl Franz von,
Gheyn II, Jacques de (1565–1629) Count of Vaduz (1650–1686)
Ghosts Holda
Gifford, George (d. 1620) Holiness
Ginzburg, Carlo (1939– ) Holt, Sir John (1642–1710)
Girard, Jean-Baptiste (1680–1733) Holy Roman Empire
Glanvill, Joseph (1636–1680) Homer
Goat Homosexuality
Goedelmann, Johann Georg (1559–1611) Honor
Goldast, Melchior (1578–1635) Hoogstraten, Jacob van (1465–1527)
Göldi, Anna (1734–1782) Hopkins, Matthew (d. 1647)
Golser, Georg (ca. 1420–1489) Horace (65–8 B.C.E.)
Goodwin Children (1688) Hovaeus, Antonius (Anton van Hove) (d. 1568)
Goya y Lucientes, Francisco José de (1746–1828) Hungary
Graeter, Jacob (1547–1611) Hungary and Southeastern Europe, Magic
Gratian (fl. 1130–1150) Hungary and Southeastern Europe, Witchcraft
Graubünden (Grisons), Canton of Hussites
Greek Magical Papyri Hutchinson, Francis (1660–1739)
Gregory IX, Pope (1170–1241; pope, 1227–1241) Iceland
Gregory of Valencia (1549–1603) Identification of Witches
Gretser, Jacob, SJ (1562–1625) Idolatry
Grillando (Grillandus), Paolo (Paulus) (1st half Image Magic
16th century) Imagination
Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) Imperial Free Cities
Grimoires Impotence, Sexual
Guazzo, Francesco Maria Incubus and Succubus
Gui, Bernard (ca. 1261–1331) Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganiarum
Gunter, Anne (1584–16??) Infanticide
Hair Ingolstadt, University of
Hale, Sir Matthew (1609–1676) Innocent VIII, Pope (1432–1492)
Halloween Innsbruck
Hamburg and Bremen Inquisition, Medieval
Hand of Glory Inquisition, Portuguese
Hansen, Joseph (1862–1943) Inquisition, Roman
Hartlieb, Johann (ca. 1410–1468) Inquisition, Spanish
Hat Inquisition, Venetian
Hauber, Eberhard David (1695–1765) Inquisitorial Procedure
Hausmännin, Walpurga (ca. 1510/1527–1587) Invocations
Hecate Ireland
Hell Isidore of Seville, St. (ca. 560–636)
Hemlock Islamic Witchcraft and Magic
Hemmingsen, Niels (1513–1600) Isolani, Isidoro (1475–ca. 1528)
Henningsen, Gustav (1934–) Italy
Hepstein, Johann Jacquier, Nicolas (ca. 1400–1472)
Herbal Medicine Jailers
Heresy James VI and I, King of Scotland and England
Hermeticism (1566–1625)
Hermogenes Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Hesse Jesus
Historiography Jews, Witchcraft, and Magic
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Joan of Arc (ca. 1412–1431) Luther, Martin (1483–1546)
John of Salisbury (ca. 1115–1180) Luxembourg, Duchy of
John XXII, Pope (ruled 1316–1334) Lycanthropy
Jonctys, Daniel (1611–1654) Lynching
Jordanaeus, Johannes (d. 1650) Macfarlane, Alan (1941–)
Jorden, Edward (1569–1632) Machiavellianism
Joris, David (ca. 1501–1556) Mackenzie, Sir George (ca. 1636–1691)
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1741–1790; Maffei, Scipione (1675–1755)
ruled 1765–1790) Magic and Religion
Junius, Johannes (1573–1628) Magic Circle
Kabbalah Magic, Learned
Kempten, Prince-Abbey of Magic, Natural
Kepler, Johannes (1571–1630) Magic, Popular
Kiss of Shame Magnus, Olaus (1490–1557)
Kramer (Institoris), Heinrich (ca. 1430–1505) Mainz, Electorate of
Kyteler, Alice (ca. 1260/1265–after 1324) Maldonado, Juan (1534–1583)
Lambe, Dr. John (ca. 1545–1628) Male Witches
Lamia Maleficium
Lamothe-Langon, Etienne-Léon de (1786–1852) Malinowski, Bronislaw Kasper (1884–1942)
LancashireWitches Malleus Maleficarum
Lancre, Pierre de (1533–1630) Malta
Langton, Walter (d. 1321) Mandrake
Languedoc Mandrou, Robert (1921–1984)
Lapland Manichaeism
Larner, Christina (1934–1983) Marchtal, Imperial Abbey of
Latvia Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress
Lausanne, Diocese of (Fifteenth Century) (1717–1780; ruled 1740–1780)
Laws on Witchcraft (Ancient) Mary, the Virgin
Laws on Witchcraft (Early Modern) Mather, Cotton (1663–1728)
Laws on Witchcraft (Medieval) Mather, Increase (1639–1723)
Lawyers Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria (1573–1651, ruled
Layenspiegel(1509) 1597–1651)
Laymann, Paul (1574–1635) Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459–1519,
Le Franc, Martin (1410–1461) ruled 1486/1493–1519)
Lea, Henry Charles (1825–1909) Mechanical Philosophy
Lemnius, Levinus (1505–1568) Mecklenburg, Duchy of
Levack, Brian (1943–) Medea
Lilith Meder, David (1545–1616)
Lille Nuns Medicine and Medical Theory
Lippe, County of Melancholy
Literature Menghi, Girolamo (1529–1609)
Lithuania, Grand Duchy of Mennonites
Little Ice Age Mental Illness
Living Saints Mergentheim, Ecclesiastical Territory of
Löher, Herman (1595–1678) Merlin
Loos, Cornelius (1540 to 1546–1596?) Metamorphosis
Lord’s Prayer Meyfart (Meyfahrt), Johann Matthäus (1590–1642)
Lorraine, Duchy of Michelet, Jules (1798–1874)
Loudun Nuns Midelfort, H. C. Erik (1942–)
Louviers Nuns Midsummer Eve
Love Magic Midwives
Lowes, John (ca. 1565–1645) Milan
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Milk Opera
Millenarianism Oracles
Miller, Arthur (1915–2005) Ordeal
Miracles Origins of the Witch Hunts
Misconceptions about the Witch Hunts Orthodox Christianity
Möden, Johann (Jan) (ca. 1590s–1663) Osborne, John and Ruth (1751)
Modena Osnabrück, Bishopric of
Molitor, Ulrich (1442–1508) Overbury, Sir Thomas (1581–1613)
Monsters Oxford and Cambridge Universities
Montaigne, Michel de (1533–1592) Pact with the Devil
Monter,William (1936–) Paderborn, Prince-Bishopric of
Moon Palatinate, Electorate of
Mora Witches Palingh, Abraham (1588/1589–1682)
Moravia Pamphlets and Newspapers
More, Henry (1614–1687) Pan
Moses Panics
Motherhood Papacy and Papal Bulls
Mountains and the Origins of Witchcraft Pappenheimer Family (1600)
Moura, Manuel Vale de (d. 1650) Paracelsus, Theophrastus Bombastus von
Muchembled, Robert (1944–) Hohenheim (ca. 1493–1541)
Münster, Prince-Bishopric of Paris, University of
Muratori, Ludovico Antonio (1672–1750) Parlement of Paris
Murray, Margaret Alice (1863–1963) Paulus, Nikolaus (1853–1930)
Music Pedersdotter, Anna (1590)
Naples, Kingdom of Peña, Francisco (ca. 1540–1612)
Nassau-Saarbrücken, County of People of the Night (Nachtvolk)
Native Americans Perkins, William (1558–1602)
Nazi Interest in Witch Persecution Perreaud, François (1572/1577–1657)
Necromancy Personality of Witches
Netherlands, Northern Peru
Netherlands, Southern Peter of Bern (fl. ca. 1400)
New England Pfalz-Zweibrücken, Duchy of
New France Pico Della Mirandola, Gianfrancesco (ca. 1469–1533)
New Granada Piedmont
New Spain Piperno, Pietro
NewburyWitch (1643) Pittenweem Witches
Nider, Johannes (ca. 1380–1438) Plague
Night Witch, or Night Hag Plantsch, Martin (ca. 1460–1533/1535)
Nightmares Pleier (Pleyer, Bleier), Cornelius (1595–16??)
Nightshade Poison
Nodé, Pierre Poland
Nördlingen, Imperial Free City Poltergeist
Normandy Pomponazzi, Pietro (1462–1525)
North Berwick Witches Ponzinibio, Giovanni Francesco/Gianfrancesco
Norway (first half of the sixteenth century)
Number of Witches Popular Beliefs in Witches
Nuremberg, Imperial Free City Popular Persecution
Nuss, Balthasar (1545–1618) Portugal
Obry, Nicole (ca. 1550–?) Possession, Demonic
Occult Potions
Offenburg, Imperial Free City Poznan´
Ointments Prätorius, Anton (1560–1613)
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Prätorius, Johannes (1630–1680) Scott, Sir Walter (1771–1832)
Pricking of Suspected Witches Scribonius, Wilhelm Adolf (ca. 1550–1600)
Prierias, Silvestro (ca. 1456/1457–ca. 1527) Scrying
Prodigies Sexual Activity, Diabolic
Proof, Problem of Shakespeare, William (1564–1616)
Protestant Reformation Shamanism
Prussia Sherwood, Grace (ca. 1651–1740)
Psychoanalysis Sicily
Puritanism Sienese New State
Quakers Sight, Powers of (Second Sight)
Rabanus Maurus (ca. 780–856) Silesia
Raemond, Florimond de (1540–1601) Simon, Jordan (1719–1776)
Rais, Gilles de (1404–1440) Simon Magus
Ranfaing, Elisabeth de (1592–1649) Sˇ indelár, Bedrˇich (1917–1996)
Rategno, Bernardo of Como (d.–1510) Sinistrar, Ludovico Maria (1632–1701)
Rebels Skepticism
Reichshofrat (Imperial Aulic Court) Slander
Reichskammergericht(Imperial Chamber Court) Slovakia
Rémy, Nicolas (ca. 1530–1612) Slovenia
Renaissance Drama, England Social and Economic Status of Witches
Revenants Social Control
Riezler, Sigmund (1843–1927) Soldan, Wilhelm Gottlieb (1803–1869)
Rings, Magical Somerset Witches
Ritual Magic Sorcery
Ritual Murder Sources for Witchcraft Trials
Robbins, Rossell Hope (1912–1990) Spain
Roman Catholic Church Spanish America
Roman Law Spectral Evidence
Rosa, Salvator (1615–1673) Spee, Friedrich (1591–1635)
Royal Healing Spells
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (1552–1612) Spiders
Rural Witchcraft Spina, Alphonso (Alphonsus, Alfonso) de
Russia (d. ca. 1491)
Saar Region Spina, Bartolomeo della (1475/1479–1546)
Sabbat St. Maximin, Prince-Abbey of
Sacraments and Sacramentals St. Osyth Witches (1582)
Saftleven, Cornelis (1607–1681) Stearne, John (d. 1671)
Salazar Frías, Alonso de (1564–1636) Sterzinger, Ferdinand (1721–1786)
Salem Sticks
Salzburg, Prince-Archbishopric of Stoeckhlin, Chonrad (1549–1587)
Sancta Clara, Abraham a (1644–1709) Strasbourg, Diocese of
Satanism Strix, Striga, Stria
Sattler, Gottfried (ca. 1569–1613) Suicide
Saturn Summers, Montague (1880–1948)
Savoy, Duchy of Superstition
Saxony, Electorate of Sweden
Scapegoats Swieten, Gerard van (1700–1772)
Schleswig-Holstein, Duchies of Swimming Test
Schultheiss, Heinrich von (ca. 1580–ca. 1646) Switzerland
Science and Magic Sympathy
Scot, Reginald (1538?–1599) Táltos
Scotland Tanner, Adam (1572–1632)
contents xi |
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Tartarotti, Girolamo (1706–1761) Vintler, Hans (d. 1419)
Tasso, Torquato (1544–1595) Visconti, Girolamo (Hieronymus Vicecomes)
Tears (d. ca. 1478)
Templars Visions
Teniers, David the Younger (1610–1690) Voltaire (1694–1778)
Theophilus Vorarlberg
Tholosan, Claude (d. ca. 1450) Wagstaffe, John (1633–1677)
Thomas, Keith (1933–) Walpurgis (Walpurigs) Night
Thomasius, Christian (1655–1728) Wann, Paulus (ca. 1420–1489)
Thorndike, Lynn (1882–1965) Warboys, Witches of (1593)
Thoth Warfare
Thumm, Theodor (1586–1630) Wars of Religion (France)
Thuringia Watching and Walking
Thyraeus (Thrace), Petrus (1546–1601) Water, Holy
Tinctor, Johann (ca. 1405/1410–1469) Weather Magic
Toads Webster, John (1610–1682)
Todi, Witch of (1428) Wenham, Jane
Torrenté, Ulric de (d. 1444/1445) Wesley, John (1703–1791)
Torture Westerstetten, Johann Christoph von
Tostado, Alonso (d. 1455) (1563–1637)
Trevor-Roper, Hugh (Lord Dacre of Weyer, Johann (1515–1588)
Glanton, 1914–2003) Wiesensteig
Trials Wilhelm V “the Pious,” Duke of Bavaria
Trier, Electorate of (1548–1626, ruled 1579–1597)
Trithemius, Johannes (1463–1516) William V, Duke of Cleves (1539–1592)
Tyrol, County of Wind Knots
Ukraine, Witchcraft Winter, Anton (d. 1633-1634)
Ukraine, Witchcraft Trials Witch and Witchcraft, Definitions of
Universities Witch Craze
Urban VIII, Pope (1568–1644) Witch Finders
Urban Witchcraft Witch Hunts
Vaduz, County of Witch Hunts, Modern Political Usage
Valais Witch-Bishops (Holy Roman Empire)
Valencia, Pedro de (1555–1620) Witch’s Mark
Vallées, Marie des (1590–1656) Witekind, Hermann (1521/1522–1603)
Vampire Witnesses
Vaud, Pays de Words, Power of
Vaudois (Waldensians) Württemberg, Duchy of
Veronika of Desenice (d. 1425/1428) Würzburg, Prince-Bishopric of
Vervain Yates, Frances Amelia (1899–1981)
Vicente, Joan Ziarnko, Jan (ca. 1575–ca. 1628)
Vienna Zugurramurdi, Witches of
Vinet, Jean (Vineti, Johannes)(d. ca. 1470) Index I–1
xii contents |
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EDITOR AND
EDITORIAL BOARD
Editor
Dr. Richard M. Golden William Monter
Professor of History Professor
Director, Jewish Studies Program Department of History
University of North Texas Northwestern University
Denton, Texas Evanston, IL
Wolfgang Behringer James Sharpe
Professor and Chair in Early Modern History Professor
Historisches Institut Department of History
Universität des Saarlandes University of York
Saarbrücken York
Germany United Kingdom
Gustav Henningsen MaryWiesner-Hanks
Research Director Professor
Danish Folklore Archives Department of History
Copenhagen University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
Denmark Milwaukee, WI
Brian Levack
John E. Green Regents Professor in History
Department of History
University of Texas
Austin, TX
EDITORIAL BOARD xiii |
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Ray G. Abrahams Stephen Bowd
Churchill College Lecturer in European History
University of Cambridge University of Edinburgh
Cambridge Edinburgh
United Kingdom United Kingdom
Michael D. Bailey John Bradley
Assistant Professor Senior Lecturer
Department of History Department of Modern History
Iowa State University National University of Ireland
Ames, IA Maynooth, Co. Kildare
Ireland
Jonathan Barry
Senior Lecturer in History Robin Briggs
University of Exeter Senior Research Fellow
Exeter All Souls College
United Kingdom University of Oxford
Oxford
Thomas Becker United Kingdom
Director, Archives
University of Bonn Ivan Bunn
Bonn Lowestoft
Germany United Kingdom
Wolfgang Behringer John Callow
Professor and Chair in Early Modern History Research Fellow
Historisches Institut Lancaster University
Universität des Saarlandes Lancaster
Saarbrücken United Kingdom
Germany
Andrew Cambers
Edward Bever Lecturer
Associate Professor Department of History
State University of NewYork, College at Old Oxford Brookes University
Westbury Oxford
Old Westbury, NY United Kingdom
xv |
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Nicholas Campion Guido Dall'Olio
Principal Lecturer Professore Associato
Department of History Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo"
Bath Spa University Urbino
Bath Italy
United Kingdom
Jane P. Davidson
Hilary M. Carey Professor of History of Art
Keith Cameron Professor of Australian History University of Nevada, Reno
University College Dublin Reno, NV
Dublin
Ireland Owen Davies
Reader in Social History
Carmel Cassar University of Hertfordshire
Senior Lecturer in History Hatfield, Hertfordshire
University of Malta United Kingdom
Msida
Malta Rainer Decker
Studiendirektor
J. H. Chajes Studienseminar Paderborn II
Lecturer in Jewish History Paderborn
University of Haifa Germany
Haifa
Israel Andrea Del Col
Professor
Stuart Clark Università degli Studi di Trieste
Professor of Early Modern Cultural and Intellectual Trieste
History Italy
University of Wales
Swansea Oscar Di Simplicio
United Kingdom Professor
University of Florence
Annibale Cogliano Florence
Prof. Storia e filosofia Italy
Direttore Centro studi e documentazione Carlo
Gesualdo Johannes Dillinger
Gesualdo FB III Neuere Geschichte
Italy Universität Trier
Trier
Lesley Coote Germany
Lecturer in Medieval and Renaissance
Studies Peter Dinzelbacher
Department of English Honararprofessor am Institut für Wirtschafts - und
University of Hull Sozialgeschichte
Hull Universität Wien
United Kingdom Vienna
Austria
Allison P. Coudert
Paul and Marie Castelranco Chair in Religious Frances E. Dolan
Studies Professor of English
University of California, Davis University of California, Davis
Davis, CA Davis, CA
xvi list of contributors |
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Matteo Duni Nils Freytag
Professor of History Assistant Professor
Syracuse University in Florence Department of History
Florence Universität München
Italy Munich
Germany
Jonathan Durrant
Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History
Ralf-Peter Fuchs
School of History, Law, & Social Sciences
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
University of Glamorgan
Munich
Pontypridd, Wales
Germany
United Kingdom
Ronald Füssel
Kateryna Dysa
Marburg
Lecturer
Germany
History Department
National University of "Kiev-Mohyla Academy"
Kiev Iris Gareis
Ukraine Institut für Historische Ethnologie
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
Kathryn A. Edwards Frankfurt am Main
Associate Professor Germany
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC
Benoît Garnot
Professeur d'histoire moderne
Peter Elmer Université de Bourgogne
Senior Lecturer Dijon
The Open University France
Milton Keynes
United Kingdom
Malcolm Gaskill
Fellow and Director of Studies in
Germana Ernst
History
Professor
Churchill College
Dipartimento di Filosofia
Cambridge
Università di Roma Tre
United Kingdom
Rome
Italy
Gilbert Geis
Sarah Ferber Professor Emeritus
School of History, Philosophy, Religion & Classics University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA
University of Queensland
Brisbane
Australia Gudrun Gersmann
Universität zu Köln
Andrew Fix Cologne
Charles A. Dana Professor of History Germany
Lafayette College
Easton, PA
Marion Gibson
University of Exeter
Gunther Franz
Exeter
Stadtbibliothek
United Kingdom
Trier
Germany
list of contributors xvii |
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Raymond Gillespie Jörg Haustein (deceased)
Associate Professor Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität
Department of Modern History Bonn
National University of Ireland, Maynooth Germany
Maynooth
Ireland Gustav Henningsen
Research Director
Richard Godbeer Danish Folklore Archives
Professor of History Copenhagen
University of Miami Denmark
Coral Gables, FL
Tamar Herzig
Richard M. Golden
The Hebrew University
Professor of History
Jerusalem
Director, Jewish Studies Program
Israel
University of North Texas
Denton, TX
Robert Irwin
London University
Julian Goodare
London
University of Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Edinburgh
Scotland
Michael J. Jarvis
United Kingdom
Assistant Professor
University of Rochester
Klaus Graf
Rochester, NY
Freiburg im Breisgau/Aachen
Germany
Günter Jerouschek
Jeremy A. Greene Chair of Penal Law, Criminal Procedure, and
History of Law
Fellow, Department of Social Medicine
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität
Harvard Medical School
Jena
Boston, MA
Germany
Daniela Hacke
Historisches Seminar Jens Chr.V. Johansen
Universität Zürich Københavns universitet, Saxo-instituttet, Afd.
Zürich for historie
Switzerland Copenhagen
Denmark
Rune Blix Hagen
Academic Librarian Marguerite Johnson
University of Tromsø School of Humanities
Tromsø University of Newcastle
Norway Newcastle, New South Wales
Australia
Zakiya Hanafi
University of Ca' Foscari Heinrich Kaak
Venice Berlin
Italy Germany
xviii list of contributors |
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Louise Nyholm Kallestrup Thomas Lange
Aalborg University Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt
Aalborg Darmstadt
Denmark Germany
Henry Kamen Diana Laulainen-Schein
Higher Council for Scientific Research Faculty Associate
Barcelona Arizona State University
Spain Tempe, AZ
Edmund M. Kern Vincenzo Lavenia
Associate Professor Assegnista
Department of History Scuola Normale Superiore
Lawrence University Pisa
Appleton, WI Italy
Valerie A. Kivelson David Lederer
Professor Lecturer
University of Michigan National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Ann Arbor, MI Maynooth
Ireland
Elisabeth Korrodi-Aebli
Lic.Phil.Psychologin FSP Christopher I. Lehrich
Schulpsychologischer Dienst Boston University
Schaffhausen Boston, MA
Switzerland
Brian P. Levack
Matevzˇ Kosir John E. Green Regents Professor in
Arhiv Republike Slovenije History
Ljubljana Department of History
Slovenia University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
Petr Kreuz
Prague City Archives Nicole K. Longen
Prague Universität Trier
Czech Republic Trier
Germany
Ildikó Sz. Kristóf
Senior Research Fellow Sönke Lorenz
Institute of Ethnology Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde und
Hungarian Academy of Sciences Historische Hilfswissenschaften der
Budapest Eberhard-Karls-Universität-Tübingen
Hungary Tübingen
Germany
Richard Landes
Professor Machteld Löwensteyn
Department of History Free University
Boston University Amsterdam
Boston, MA Netherlands
list of contributors xix |
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T.M. Luhrmann Marina Montesano
Max Palevsky Professor Università di Genova
University of Chicago Genoa
Chicago, IL Italy
Franco Mormando
Eric-Oliver Mader
Associate Professor, Italian Studies
Universität des Saarlandes
Saarbrücken Boston College
Germany Chestnut Hill, MA
Robert Muchembled
Armando Maggi
Professor
Associate Professor
Université de Paris XIII (Paris-Nord)
University of Chicago
Paris
Chicago, IL
France
Wolfgang Mährle
Gerald Mülleder
Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart
Vienna
Stuttgart
Austria
Germany
Hans Eyvind Naess
Victor H. Matthews Professor of HistorySenior Advisor, National Archives
Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Dean of Norway
Missouri State University Oslo
Springfield, MO Norway
Peter G. Maxwell-Stuart William G. Naphy
Department of Modern History Senior Lecturer
University of St. Andrews University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen
St. Andrews
Scotland
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Georg Modestin
Franco Nardon
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Arta Terme, UD
Munich
Italy
Germany
Marko Nenonen
Katrin Moeller
Assistant Professor
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Department of History
Halle
University of Tampere
Germany
Tampere
Finland
Lynn Wood Mollenauer
Assistant Professor
Lawrence Normand
University of North Carolina–Wilmington
Principal Lecturer in English Literary Studies
Wilmington, NC
Middlesex University
London
William Monter
United Kingdom
Professor
Department of History Maximillian E. Novak
Northwestern University Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus
Evanston, IL University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
xx list of contributors |
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Jutta Nowosadtko Ludolf Pelizaeus
Universität GH Essen Assistant Professor
Essen Department of General and Modern History
Germany Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Mainz
Caroline Oates Germany
Information Officer/Librarian
The Folklore Society Edward Peters
London Henry Charles Lea Professor of History
United Kingdom University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Peter Oestmann
Director, Institut für Parsla Petersone
Rechtsgeschichte Riga
Münster Latvia
Germany
Giovanni Pizza
Daniel Ogden Senior Researcher, Lecturer in Medical Anthropology
Reader in Ancient History Università di Perugia, Dipartimento
University of Exeter Uomo & Territorio
Exeter Perugia
United Kingdom Italy
Éva Pócs
Mary R. O'Neil
Professor
Associate Professor
Department of History Department of Ethnology and Cultural
University of Washington Anthropology
Seattle, WA University of Pécs
Pécs
Hungary
Martine Ostorero
Université de Lausanne
Paolo Portone
Lausanne
Società Storica Comense
Switzerland
Como
Italy
José Pedro Paiva
Professor
Diane Purkiss
University of Coimbra
Senior English Fellow
Coimbra
Keble College
Portugal
University of Oxford
Oxford
Gian Maria Panizza
United Kingdom
Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali:
Archivio di Stato di Alessandria Anita Raith
Alessandria Head, Documentary Film Centre Archive
Italy Stuttgart
Germany
Jonathan L. Pearl
Associate Professor Robert Rapley
University of Toronto Independent Scholar
Toronto, Ontario Ottawa, Ontario
Canada Canada
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Francesc Riera James Sharpe
Majorca Professor
Spain Department of History
University of York
York
Alison Rowlands
United Kingdom
Senior Lecturer in European History
University of Essex
Colchester David J. Silverman
United Kingdom Assistant Professor
Department of History
George Washington
Walter Rummel
University
Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz
Washington, DC
Koblenz
Germany
Maryse Simon
History Faculty
Jeffrey Burton Russell
University of Oxford
Professor of History, Emeritus
Oxford
University of California, Santa Barbara
United Kingdom
Santa Barbara, CA
Jacqueline Simpson
W. F. Ryan
The Folklore Society
Warburg Institute, School of Advanced
London
Study
United Kingdom
University of London
London
Gordon Andreas Singer
United Kingdom
Greenbelt, MD
Geoffrey Scarre
Natalia Uladzimirauna Slizh
Department of Philosophy
Associate Professor
University of Durham
Intitute of Modern Knowledge
Durham
Grodna
United Kingdom
Belarus
Jürgen Michael Schmidt
Per Sörlin
Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde
Department of Humanities
und Historische Mid Sweden University
Universität Tübingen Härnösand
Tübingen Sweden
Germany
Walter Stephens
Corinna Schneider Charles S. Singleton Professor of Italian
Historikerin Studies
Tübingen Johns Hopkins University
Germany Baltimore, MD
Rolf Schulte Constanze Störk-Biber
Chrisitan-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Universität Tübingen
Kiel Tübingen
Germany Germany
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Krzysztof Szkurlatowski Dries Vanysacker
Collegium Gedanense Professor
Gdån´sk Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Poland Louvain
Belgium
María Tausiet
IES "Prado de Santo Domingo"
Trpimir Vedriˇs
Madrid History Department
Spain University of Zagreb
Zagreb
Olina Thorvardardottir
Croatia
Principal
Junior College of Isafjordur
Rita Voltmer
Isafjordur
Lecturer
Iceland
Department of History
Universität Trier
RobertW.Thurston
Trier
Phillip R. Shriver Professor of History
Germany
Miami University
Oxford, OH
Hans de Waardt
Daniel Tollet Vrije Universiteit
Ingénieur de recherche et Directeur de recherches Amsterdam
Secrétaire général, Institut de recherches pour Netherlands
l'étude des religions
Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne Gary K. Waite
Paris Professor of Medieval and Early Modern
France History
University of New Brunswick
E.R. Truitt Fredericton, New Brunswick
Harvard University Canada
Cambridge, MA
RobertWalinski-Kiehl
Manfred Tschaikner
Senior Lecturer, School of Social, Historical
Vorarlberger Landesarchiv
and Literary Studies
Bregenz
University of Portsmouth
Austria
Portsmouth
United Kingdom
Christa Agnes Tuczay
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Rainer Walz
Universität Wien
Professor
Vienna
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Austria
Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft
Kathrin Utz Tremp Lehrstuhl Neuere Geschichte I
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland Bochum
Stoatsarchiv Freiburg, Germany
Switzerland
RichardWeisman
Michaela Valente Associate Professor
Università "La Sapienza" York University
Rome Toronto, Ontario
Italy Canada
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MerryWiesner-Hanks
Professor David Wootton
Department of History Anniversary Professor of History
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee University of York
Milwaukee, WI York
United Kingdom
Manfred Wilde
Head of Museum, Castle of Delitzsch Thomas Worcester
Delitzsch Associate Professor
Germany College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, MA
Gerhild Scholz Williams
Thomas Professor in the Humanities
Wanda Wyporska
Washington University
Hertford College
St. Louis, MO
Oxford
United Kingdom
Melvyn Willin
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Avihu Zakai
Great Leighs
Professor of Early Modern History and Early
United Kingdom
American History
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Karin Wohlschlegel
Jerusalem
Bretzfeld
Israel
Germany
Gabriella Zarri
Elliot R. Wolfson
Professor of Modern History
Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew
Università di Firenze
and Judaic Studies
Florence
NewYork University
Italy
NewYork, NY
Juliette Wood Charles Zika
Cardiff University Professor
University of Melbourne
Cardiff
Melbourne
Wales
Australia
United Kingdom
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FOREWORD
The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The WesternTradition is executions, as Voltaire claimed, but barely one-third as
an indispensable resource at the dawn of the third mil- many. Most of them occurred within the boundaries of
lennium. Above all, it provides reliable answers to satis- present-day Germany, and most witches died in west-
fy the sharp curiosity of our contemporaries, who are ern Europe between 1560 and 1630.
surrounded by an atmosphere that is softly but strong- Witchcraft and magic are universal human phe-
ly tinted with magic—the magic of dreams, of success- nomena; they can be found on any continent at any
ful books such as Harry Potter, and of innumerable time. However, only the West has ever burned great
films and television series featuring witches, werewolves numbers of witches, after legally constituted trials that
(lycanthropy), and vampires. This new work will be were approved by political authorities and fully accept-
both necessary and extremely useful in bringing order ed by established churches. Women generally constitut-
to an often incomprehensible flood of information and ed around 80 percent—at times more—of those
misinformation and providing meaning for a vast river accused and condemned, although there were excep-
of symbols, emotions, and ideas that carry some truths tions to this rule in places such as Finlandor the French
but also a great many errors. It will also help readers province of Normandy. This astounding imbalance
locate the elements of truth within the vast literature between the genders makes the mystery even more
devoted to diabolical sensationalism by distinguishing impenetrable, because at that time, witchcraft (along
between hysterical fantasy and historical truth, enabling with infanticide) became the female capital crime par
them to understand better the ways in which magic and excellence; generally, women accounted for only a very
witchcraft have left a profound cultural imprint on small minority of all defendants in courtroom trials,
today’sWestern world. rarely exceeding 20 percent.
Moreover, this encyclopedia appears at an appro- *****
priate moment to fill a huge void. In its breadth of sub- The past is not dead. It weighs on those living
ject matter, its international and collective character, today—and not just in vivid sensations that remain
and its completeness, it has no equivalent. A few dic- deeply embedded in our memories or in museum col-
tionaries of diabolism and magic exist in various lan- lections such as those at Salem. It endures more subtly
guages; in 1959, for example, Rossell Hope Robbins through the impact of strong images, which I prefer to
published the 570-page Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and call cultural matrices, that carry their symbolic baggage
Demonology. But until now, no multivolume survey, from century to century. One of the most powerful of
bringing together contributions from 172 specialists these images, the great European enigma of the witch at
re p resenting twenty-eight countries, has ever been the stake, drives this encyclopedia. No one person can
attempted. Like Denis Diderot’s famous eighteenth- resolve this enigma in such a short space. I simply want
century Encylopédie, this work offers mature collective to direct readers’ attention to some paths of research
wisdom about the topics it surveys. The time has final- and give them a desire to sample this work in the same
ly come to consider carefully and seriously the greatest way that Vo l t a i re tried to guide readers of his
enigma of Western civilization between the 1420s and Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary,
1750: the executions of witches, whose flamboyant 1764): Here also, one article refers to another, and read-
traces still haunt our imaginations in both Europe and ers can best absorb their ultimate meanings by linking
America. We know today that there were not 100,000 together multiple entries.
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The problem at the heart of these volumes is enor- Macfarlane and Keith Thomas built an anthropologi-
mously complicated, and no single answer or approach cal model, in which witches were often accused of cast-
can resolve it. But like any great question, it can be sim- ing spells on people who had previously refused them
plified by seeking its most basic core: The witch hunts charity. For these British scholars, neighborhood and a
were so terrible and so intense that simply retelling their sense of guilt seemed more important than the Devil,
history reveals something fundamental about the men- whose presence was never elicited through torture, as it
tality of the western Europeans who conducted them. was on the Continent. A response followed quickly
And without any general consensus among historians from H. C. Erik Midelfort, who used massive statisti-
for explaining the persecution of witches, I hope to cal information from an epicenter of persecution in
enrich its significance by placing it among the forma- southwestern Germany to build a highly useful model
tive myths that slowly but profoundly shaped the cul- describing the variations in witchcraft persecution
tural and social foundations of early modern Europe. within a region where confessional rivalry appeared to
***** multiply witch burnings. With youthful enthusiasm, I
Attempts to explain the persecution of witches have devised a two-sided acculturation model, using witch-
multiplied since the end of the witchcraft trials. craft trials from the Sp a n i s h - ruled s o u t h e rn
Obviously, the judges and most other people believed Netherlands. One part merged the British/anthropo-
purely and simply that witchcraft demonstrated the logical explanation with a then-fashionable type of
unleashed power of the Devil, a kind of prelude to the Marxism, stressing that the richer inhabitants of villages
Apocalypse; in their eyes, the witches constituted a encouraged their overlords to persecute poorer residents
s e c ret society of deviant devil-worshippers, paying by offering to pay the costs of witchcraft trials. The
homage to Satan and fornicating with him at their other part described how confessional churches and
Sabbats. Those who dared to express doubts on this emerging absolutist states targeted witches as prime and
topic, as Johann Weyer did, were few.The eighteenth- particularly dangerous transmitters of an outdated oral
centuryphilosophes tried to eradicate such superstitions culture, heavily charged with what these authorities
by talking about madness or, more cleverly, about dia- called superstitions. My model proved too schematic to
bolical suggestion; skeptics such as Daniel De f o e apply successfully throughout Europe, but it contained
argued that the Devil had no physical power but simply some still-valid elements, including an explanation for
insinuated his venom into human minds. Nevertheless, the predominance of women among witches.
a residue of demonology has survived at various intel- While the effervescent intellectual climate of the
lectual levels; it ranges from today’s abundant overtly 1970s led to some intellectual collisions, other
satanic literature to historical accounts and theological researchers working in the Jura region, Scotland, the
discussions, with each genre serving the specific needs Spanish Basque Country, and New England patiently
and cultural conventions of its special audience. Until collected information that enabled us to gain a better
1960 (and sometimes later), the dominant explanation overall grasp of the dimensions of the witch hunt in
in the Anglo-Saxon world came from the works of the some widely scattered places. However, too much
Egyptologist Margaret Murray, who saw the witches’ archival work of the 1970s was carried out in parts of
Sabbat as a very real but secret ceremony demonstrating western Europe other than Germany—the “mother of
the clandestine survival of a cult of a pre-Christian so many witches,” in FriedrichSpee’s evocative phrase.
horned god. Without going that far, Carlo Ginzburg A major revival of interest in witchcraft trials occurred
followed a parallel path when investigating the benan - in West Germany only after 1980, when the amazing
danti of Friuli and suggested, unconvincingly, that collection made by the Nazi Hexenkommando finally
shamanismprofoundly influenced the witches’ Sabbat. came to scholars’ attention. Subsequently, this material
A major turning point occurred in the 1970s. has been used to shape some fresh and persuasive inter-
Influenced by events such as opposition to the Vietnam pretations of the phenomenon in its heartland, most
War or the French student uprising of 1968, some p rominently Wo l f g a n g Be h ri n g e r’s corre l a t i o n s
researchers followed smoke signals from the Devil’s between climatic disasters, famine, and major witch-
grass (cannabis or peyote) and explained the experi- craft persecutions.
ences of witches as hallucinogenically induced dreams. The years since 1990 have marked a new stage in
Others took more novel paths. In France, Robert the journey down this long road. Se veral general
Mandrou explained the end of witchcraft persecutions accounts of the witch hunt have been published, usual-
long before the Enlightenment through increasing ly without privileging any single interpretation. Even
skepticism among the ruling classes. In England, Alan the outstanding Lorraine-based investigation empha-
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sizing quarrels within villages (Briggs 2001) offers very worst witchcraft panics tended to cluster between
“many reasons why” when trying to explain witchcraft 1585 and 1630 in Germany’s Catholic ecclesiastical
persecutions throughout Europe. But if a historian’s t e r ri t o ri e s (principalities), especially those, such as
most fundamental task is to establish some hierarchy Cologne, ruled by electoral prince-arc h b i s h o p s .
for the information he or she provides, then a multi- Meanwhile, the most intensive (per capita) and regular
plicity of explanations, each of roughly equal weight, (per annum) witchcraft trials in western Europe afflict-
ultimately remains unsatisfactory. Mo re ove r, some ed the Protestant Pays de Vaud. The best general rule
recent developments have significantly clarified our one can discover is a negative correlation: The lay
knowledge of this topic, including works highlighting judges who burned most of Europe’s witches were usu-
the idea that witchcraft persecution had a center with ally the furthest removed from the centers of political
several peripheries, the specificity of demonic posses- power in major monarchies such as France or Spain.
sion in convents such as Loudun and its hidden con- The theme of witchcraft probably requires the sort
nections to witchcraft prosecutions, and especially the of multilaye red approach pioneered by Fe r n a n d
fundamental importance of genderfor comprehending Braudel (Braudel 1980). At the short-term or “con-
this theme. junctural” level, we must identify the local circum-
The geography of witch hunting now seems clear: stances: Sometimes, the most serious outbreaks of
The phenomenon was centered in the German-speak- witch hunting were prompted by climate changes and
ing Holy Roman Empire(plus Switzerland). This core harvest failures, and at other times, they were triggered
region also produced the Protestant Reformation, pio- by the actions of unusually zealous judges, among them
neered the system of confessionalism, and endured Pierre de Lancre or Henri Boguet. At a multigenera-
Europe’s bloodiest religious war until 1648. But there tional intermediate level, they developed against a back-
were also various types of “witchcraft peripheries,”three ground of prolonged confessional rivalry and strife,
of which should be noted in particular. Most of which seems to have been most intense in the Holy
Protestant northern Europe, apart from Scotland and Roman Empire. The lion’s share of the prosecutions
northern Sweden after 1668, seems to have been rela- occurred in regions ruled by Catholics, who, in one
tively immune to extensive witch hunting; one excep- sense, had a head start because the papacy had appar-
tionally prosperous region, the United Provinces of the ently endorsed the Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (T h e
Netherlands, abandoned witch hunting much sooner Hammer of Witches, 1486) a century before the worst
than any other area. Another little-affected region com- outbreaks began; after the Council of Trent, Jesuits
prised the solidly Catholic lands of southern Europe including Juan Maldonado rediscovered and empha-
(Spain, Italy, and Portugal), where Inquisitions avoid- sized the profound links between heresy and diabolical
ed putting witches to death, and France, whose witchcraft. The purely Catholic phenomenon of
appellate courts permitted relatively few executions for demonic possession in nunneries led to some spectacu-
this crime. Finally, eastern Europe constituted a very lar dramas: For example, at least two nuns from the
d i f f e rent sort of periphery. T h e re, trials and exe c u- convent of the Verger in Artois were burned as witches
tions of witches occurred much later than in western around 1614 (Muchembled 2003a, 250–263), after
Europe, but they were confined to Latin Christianity; which Catholic authorities made a much stronger sep-
Ort h o d ox Christendom remained almost entire l y aration between witches and “possessed” women.
impervious to this phenomenon, and Islamic regions At the deepest, long-term level of explanations for
were completely so. witchcraft, the subject of gender relations in Europe
It is abundantly clear that witch hunts were very between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries—and
unevenly distributed throughout Europe. The heart- beyond—deserves very close attention, not just because
lands of witchcraft persecutions lay mostly in parts of books on the subject seem to multiply, giving one the
west-central Eu rope, which we re sharply disputed impression of a passing fashion, but also because if the
between Protestants and Catholics between 1560 and ove rwhelming majority of convicted witches we re
1630, and there were later prolongations in eastern women, it is impossible not to ask why. Back in the
Europe during the post-1650 Catholic reconquest and 1970s, a few male scholars, myself included, made
in a few overseas colonies such as New England. Major timid allusions to this problem, without attracting
outbreaks of witchcraft trials were distributed widely much attention. Only recently has feminist scholarship
among both Protestants and Catholics during the emphasized the strongly feminine character of the
apogee of confessionalization, but few obvious subpat- crime of lèse-majesté divineor treason against god—and
terns emerged along confessional fault lines. Europe’s some current defenders of this approach have not
foreword xxvii |
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improved its credibility by talking about “gynocide” or lent terrain for attempting a total history, at every level
grossly exaggerating the numbers of women killed for from local to global. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraftthus
this crime at a time when religious massacres, not to comes at the right time to shine a spotlight on many
mention famines and p l a g u e, truly decimated things, especially two notions that have been too often
European populations. neglected recently: first, the essential role of
My own reading of European cultural and social Christianity in encouraging the persecution of witches,
history in the early modern period suggests a slow and and second, the reinforced legal subordination and sur-
subtle modification, at the very deepest level, in the veillance of women in early modern European society.
relationship between the sexes. The onset of witchcraft The evidence for both phenomena is so overwhelming
persecution at the end of the Middle Ages, which has that they have all too often remained hidden in plain
been analyzed less thoroughly than its peak, coincided view, obscured by multicausal approaches and thus
with what feminists describe as the development of a minimized by even the best specialists. The deepest rea-
“paternalist-misogynist” model. One might just as easi- son for this neglect probably lies in the ways in which
ly call it a reinforcement of masculine privilege, an great cultural myths usually work: They touch essential
attempt to confine women more strictly than before matters but without drawing attention to them because
within the bounds of “propriety,” meaning, first and a myth that is too easily understood has little effect on
foremost, the control of their sexual impulses. Except any given society.
for a handful of princesses and fashionable courtisans, I believe that Western witchcraft from the 1420s to
women of that period were subjected to a more inten- around 1750 carried the cultural baggage of one of our
sive and intrusive surveillance of their sexual behavior, greatest myths: male supremacy, powerfully reinforced
which was insistently defined as naturally malevolent at that time by a religious ethic that placed increasing
and sinful. Any woman found guilty of disposing freely emphasis on a man’s duty to supervise his female com-
of her own sexuality suffered extreme consequences. panions, whose cold and damp natures were inclined
Extramarital sexual activity enhanced a man’s reputa- toward evil and were dangerous for the collective salva-
tion, but it invariably had tragic consequences for any tion of humanity. A witchcraft trial involved a woman,
woman unlucky enough to be caught concealing her frequently widowed or otherwise unsupervised by male
pregnancy; for example, in France, following a royal kin, who was accused of giving herself—in both body
edict of Henry II in 1557, women were fifteen times and soul—to the Devil. This fact cannot be understood
likelier to be executed for this crime than burned as a without setting it in the religious context of that age, as
witch in the vast district of the Parlement of Paris. different confessional churches rivaled each other in
Moreover, only during the sixteenth and seven- increasing supervision over the female imagination
teenth centuries did the consensus of Eu ro p e a n (including a stronger indoctrination of c h i l d re n) .
thinkers agree that a pact with the Devil could not be Burning a witch in public concealed a veritable forest of
broken. Instead of the famous medieval miracle of symbols, the most essential being the relationship
Theophilus, who outwitted the Devil, the dominant between genders. The idea of the evil woman was one
motif became the pact of Dr. Faustus (Johann Georg of the most fundamental Western myths until the eigh-
Fa u s t ) , who was eternally damned (Mu c h e m b l e d teenth century—and beyond. Myths die hard .
2003b). Although both Theophilus and Faustus were Im a g i n a t i ve cinematographers such as Alfre d
men, the consequences of the change weighed over- Hitchcock or David Lynch re-created an image of the
whelmingly on women. The ultimate metaphor became dangerously perverse blonde, capable of the very worst
the one-sided and unbreakable pact between an old sexual transgressions, closely resembling the figure of
woman and the Devil, confirmed not in writing but by the witch punished by early modern European males.
an act of sexual intercourse, which male authors and Have we reached a crossroads? In this millennium,
judges invariably described as painful. the social and cultural importance of Christianity is
***** declining at an accelerated rate in Europe, although
Of course, no single explanation can cover a phe- much more slowly in the United States, while in both
nomenon so important, so spectacular, and so terrifying places, women are increasingly demanding their place
as witchcraft persecution, which has left indelible traces in the sun. After more than five centuries, the myth of
on Western civilization. But we must not shrug our the witch as the sexual slave of Satan, eating babies and
shoulders in defeat or retreat behind a confusing multi- raising hailstorms, seems to be disintegrating. Radical
plicity of causes. In fact, European witchcraft between and profound mutations in gender relations, including
the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries offers an excel- marital relations and familyvalues, have surely played a
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major role in this disintegration. When civilizations References and further reading:
shift at their deepest levels, fundamental myths shift Braudel, Fernand. 1980. On History. Translated by Sarah
with them. In both Europe and the United States, now Matthews. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
safely insulated from infant mortality and food short- Briggs, Robin. 2001. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and
ages, the old myth of a happier life after death is Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
increasingly challenged by the contemporary myth of Muchembled, Robert. 2003a.Passions des femmes au temps de
la Reine Margot, 1553–1615.Paris: Seuil.
immediate and total individual gratification: I want it
———. 2003b.A History of the Devil: From the Middle Ages to
here, I want it now, I want it all . . .
the Present.Translated by Jean Birrell. Cambridge: Polity.
For anyone seeking reliable information about this
Note: Words marked in bold refer to the encyclope-
basic Western myth, the Encyclopediaof Witchcraft pro-
dia’s entries.
vides exactly that: We have it here, we have it now, and
we have it all.
—Robert Muchembled
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
October 2003
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This encyclopedia entailed more work than I could and for the multiplicity of Germans who wro t e
have imagined and required more help than I had entries. In addition, he authored more entries than
expected. So many people have assisted me over these a n yone else. My fellow Texan Brian Levack also serve d
past six years that I fear I will omit someone here; if I as a sounding board, contributed entries when I
do, I hope that person will forgive me. Those I must d e s p a i red of locating authors, and settled many witch-
thank comprise three groups: scholars, ABC-CLIO craft matters in long telephone conversations. Hi s
staff, and family. e x p e rtise in legal history proved invaluable. He, along
I have been fortunate indeed to have had a superb with Bill Mo n t e r, even helped by reading some of the
editorial board consisting of excellent scholars: page proofs.
Wolfgang Be h r i n g e r, Gustav Henningsen, Brian P. In my career, I have found that historians of
Levack, William Monter, James Sharpe, and Merry Europe have been friendlier and kinder than most other
Wiesner-Hanks. The members of the board helped me groups of people I have encountered. My work on this
develop the initial lists of entries by correspondence encyclopedia confirmed that view.The contributors to
and in two meetings at the University of York in April the encyclopedia have been affable and cooperative.
2001. They wrote entries themselves, provided advice, C e rtain contributors warmed my heart with their
and answered questions. I and at least one member of eagerness to help and their supreme kindness. These
the editorial board read each entry in the encyclopedia. Menscheninclude Michael Bailey, Robin Briggs, Carmel
While I did the final editing, the comments of the C a s s a r, Yossi Chajes, Jane P. Davidson, Oscar Di
board members proved invaluable, and they will see Simplicio, Johannes Di l l i n g e r, Sarah Fe r b e r, Ju l i a n
much of their handiwork when they read the published Goodare, Rune Hagen, Tamar Herzig, Valerie Kivelson,
encyclopedia. David Lederer, Victor Matthews, Georg Modestin,
T h ree historians provided me with exc e p t i o n a l C a roline Oates, Ma rtine Os t o re ro, Ed w a rd Pe t e r s ,
help and saved me from innumerable missteps. Bi l l Alison Rowlands, Will Ryan, Jürgen-Michael Schmidt,
Monter read eve ry entry, and he did so quickly, we e k Walter Stephens, Michaela Valente, Dries Vanysacker,
to week, month to month, and year to ye a r. He was, Rita Voltmer, and Charles Zika. Edward Bever gave me
as he likes to say, my éminence grise. He is a master of extraordinary help throughout but especially by writing
c o m p a r a t i ve history, and he frequently improve d some difficult entries on short notice during the final
entries by calling my attention to issues that contrib- stages of production.
utors might well include in their articles. Bill more Numerous were those who did not write entries
than once vo l u n t e e red to write entries when contrib- but who patiently answered my questions, suggested
utors reneged or when I could not locate suitable contributors, and helped me in other ways: Guy Chet,
authors. Fi n a l l y, after declining to be editor himself, Harvey Chisick, Geoffrey Dennis, Chad Gunnoe, Tom
he had the wisdom or folly to recommend me to Kuehn, Dan Magilow, Alfred Mierzejewski, David
ABC-CLIO. Wolfgang Behringer put his enormous Nicholas, Carles Salazar, Jonathan Schick, Laura Stern,
k n owledge of witchcraft at my disposal; whenever I John Tedeschi,Carmen Terry, andMartin Yaffe.
had a question, often arcane, he responded immedi- Many at ABC-CLIO have participated in this
ately and corre c t l y. He is, in large part, responsible for extensive project. Todd Hallman, acquisitions editor,
the blanket coverage of Germany in our encyc l o p e d i a approached me about editing the encyclopedia after
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speaking to Bill Monter. I have worked closely with I am grateful to the University of North Texas for
Allison Miller, assistant developmental editor, and then giving me a semester’s Faculty Development Leave to
Patience Melnik, developmental editor. Both have been work on this encyclopedia.
utterly professional, smart, and efficient. Martha Whitt Fi n a l l y, I owe—I really do—gargantuan amounts
and Anna Kaltenbach, production editors, have been of gratitude to my family. My wife, Hilda, allowe d
on top of their jobs. Cisca Schreefel, associate produc- me to withdraw to my upstairs office days, nights,
tion editor, gave great help, as did production editor and weekends to work on the encyclopedia. T h e
Martha Gray. The copy editors caught some mistakes house deteriorated somewhat during my seemingly
and often rightly asked for more information: Silvine ceaseless and grinding work, but she rarely called
Farnell, Anne Friedman, Beth Partin, Kathy Delfosse, upstairs for me to do a chore or to come up (dow n )
and Joan Sherman. Ellen Rasmussen, media editor, for air. She demonstrated great marital wisdom by
facilitated my selecting the encyclopedia’s illustrations. n e ver asking me when I would finish or when we
Elaine Vanater in marketing did her job extremely well. could go on a decent vacation. Love is never having
Terry Buss and then Wendy Roseth handled contribu- to badger. My children, Davina, Irene, and Je re m y,
tor relations after Patience Melnik. Art Stickney and also never complained (about the encyclopedia, any-
Don Schmidt, editorial directors, watched over this way), and while they did not stop making demands
project. Ron Boehm, chief executive officer of ABC- on my time, they did show greater forbearance. I owe
CLIO, has been gracious and supportive in my conver- all of my family much time, which I shall duly re p a y
sations with him. with intere s t .
xxxii acknowledgments |
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INTRODUCTION
Witchcraft is a topic of enduring interest for a variety of fast-paced changes in re s e a rch, knowledge, and
reasons. Many and probably most human societies, approach. Indeed, in editing the 757 entries, I found
from primitive bands through civilizations, have prac- that articles often had to be reworked because contrib-
ticed and still practice forms of witchcraft (and its close utors did not and frequently could not know results of
relations magic and religion) and/or believe in the con- new research that has appeared in a wide variety of lan-
cept of a witch, defined as someone who uses supernat- guages and that subsequently has been incorporated
ural means to cause harm or misfortune. When benefi- into different entries.
cent as well as malevolent power is subsumed in the Scholars, to be sure, have studied witchcraft across
definition of witchcraft, then the concept of witchcraft the planet and from prehistory to the present. However,
is universal, historically and geographically.1 For soci- since the eighteenth century, arguably more research on
eties or segments of societies that mistakenly believe witchcraft (and related subjects) has been done in the
only “the Other” employs witchcraft, the topic may West than elsewhere. Such research and writing has
have interest as an entrée into the minds and behaviors taken place in Western societies, spread now over the
of the backward, the superstitious, or the ignorant. world, because the West is where the more than two
Witchcraft, a part of the occult, fascinates, perplexes, dozen democracies exist and thus where relative free-
and offers vicarious experience with the dark, deadly, dom of expression and research is possible. The twenty-
and dangerous. Thus, in Western civilization, some eight nations represented by the 172 contributors to
skeptical Romans, medieval and early modern peoples, this encyclopedia are all in the West—and not only
and the transoceanic societies that comprise the con- because the volumes deal with the Western tradition.
temporaryWest have expressed their feelings of superi- An encyclopedia of witchcraft that covers the globe
ority as well as their fascination and fear of witchcraft, would doubtless have Westerners as the overwhelming
perceived to be joined to its Siamese twin, evil. The per- majority of contributors.
ception of witchcraft can function to mark cultural and *****
religious boundaries, to label or cleanse a society of the Witchcraft interests the academic world partly
socially and/or the religiously indigestible, and to dis- because it is extraordinarily interd i s c i p l i n a ry :
tinguish the good from the bad, offering a partial A n t h ropologists, ethnologists, folklorists, historians,
theodicy to cope with humankind’s Hobbesian lives. linguists, philosophers, political scientists, sociologists,
All topics are on the scholars’ table, although they and scholars of literature, medicine, religion, and theol-
do not always realize the seemingly endless varieties of ogy have contributed to this encyclopedia. The central
approaches and subjects—hence, historiography and focus of the encyclopedia is the European witch hunts
spectacular alterations in scholarship that can often that occurred between the early fifteenth century and
bewilder those more comfortable with static knowledge the late eighteenth century. These centuries encom-
and with understanding through faith in authority. Our passed those developments that make the Western
comprehension of perceptions of witchcraft—histori- witchcraft experience unique: the emergence of the so-
cally and culturally—and witchcraft itself changes tem- called cumulative concept of witchcraft and the prose-
porally and geographically. The En c yclopedia of cution of upwards of 100,000 people for witchcraft,
Witchcraft: The Western Tradition, approximately six most of them for diabolical witchcraft—meeting with
years from conception to publication, reflects these the Devil (sometimes at Sabbats, which witches usually
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traveled to by flight), signing a pact with the Evil One, homosexual—common enough states and sometimes
and subsequently working maleficium (harmful magic) chosen voluntarily—no one can meet or mate with a
in a revolt that aimed to topple Christian civilization. concept such as the Devil. Thus, scholars have sought
Many scholars have come to the period of the to understand the exotic, neurotic, and erotic mind-sets
witch hunts to investigate persecution and religious of Europeans, so seemingly different from those among
intolerance, linking the pursuit of witches in the “per- our contemporaries influenced by the Enlightenment.2
secuting society” that was late medieval and early mod- Along with trying to comprehend the mental structures
ern Europe to the maltreatment of Jews, lepers, homo- of Europeans in the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries,
sexuals, and those Christians labeled as heretics by historians and others have researched legal, political,
other Christians. In fact, there was little persecution of social, and cultural systems in order to explain the play-
diabolic witches, for those prosecuted as serving the ing out and representations of early modern belief sys-
Devil did not (and could not) do so.There is absolute- tems.
ly no evidence of a devil-worshipping sect in late *****
medieval and early modern Europe, but empirical evi- The Encyclopedia of Witchraft’s entries investigate
dence, of course, is irrelevant to faith (or prejudice). Yet the origins of the beliefs and practices of the early mod-
diabolic witches, like the Islamic Ottoman Empire ern witch hunts; thus, many entries, certainly impor-
entrenched in southeastern Europe and often expand- tant in their own right, cover antiquity (the Hebrew
ing into central Europe, instilled great fear in Latin Bible, Greece, and Rome); primitive Christianity; and
Christendom as threats that could literally destroy the Early, central (High), and late Middle Ages. Some
Christian society. Somewhere between 35,000 and articles provide comparative perspectives (for example,
50,000 accused witches were executed or lynched; we “Africa, Su b - Saharan,” “Na t i ve Americans,” and
will never know the exact number. Anyone, even a “Islam”), but this is definitively not an encyclopedia of
pope, could be accused as a witch, though in this, as in worldwide witchcraft, which would have re q u i re d
all of life, probability counted: People were more plau- many more entries and would have taken several more
sibly denounced as witches if they were women, related years to finish. I dismissed the idea of such an encyclo-
to another accused witch, old, single, and possessed of pedia because it would have turned the focus away from
a quarrelsome reputation. But there was no certain safe- Europe’s witch hunts, leaving several peripheries in
ty; many entries in the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft detail search of a core. This encyclopedia excludes modern
exceptions to the familiar image of the witch and note witchcraft, except for entries necessary to understand
the urban and high social status of some of those exe- the period of the witch hunts (such as “Nazi Interest in
cuted. Gi ven these fears, superimposed on the Witch Persecution,” “Halloween,” and “Contemporary
omnipresent structural threats of hunger and cold, Witchcraft [Post-1800]”) and for coverage at the end of
scholars have lately wondered why many more witches some entries of the modern West.
were not killed. After all, the numbers of individuals There are diverse types of entries: biographies, ele-
who were institutionally or extralegally killed as witch- ments of folklore, religion and theology, art, music,
es pale in comparison to the millions of victims of film, literature, theater, gender and sexuality, law, poli-
twentieth-century genocides. tics, institutions, and geography (cities, regions, states).
The issue of the persecution of women as witches The geographic entries usually include the dates of the
has attracted feminist scholars (not to mention Neo- first and last witchcraft trials and executions, the total
Pagans) to the topic, and they have signific a n t l y number of accused witches executed, the gender of the
increased our knowledge of gender relations and sexu- accused or executed, and the population (in order to
ality, even though women were not prosecuted simply measure the intensity of prosecutions). However, the
for being women, unlike Jews victimized for being sources necessary to provide these types of information
Jews, lepers for having leprosy, or homosexuals for may not be extant, and the sources available do not
behaving as homosexuals. Nevertheless, the prosecution always answer the questions scholars pose; thus, many
of thousands for concluding a pact with the Devil, kiss- entries could not incorporate all these data. There were
ing his anus, flying to his Sabbat, and having frigid and inevitable limitations to the list of entries: Some sub-
painful intercourse with him explains much of the jects or areas have not been researched; for other topics,
attraction of the subject of witch hunts because the I could not locate contributors. To give one example,
prosecutions and the lynchings were of people judged there are several entries on drama (England, Spain,
guilty of an impossible crime. While Jews, heretics, and and so forth), but other regions did not find their
homosexuals were guilty of being Jewish, heretical, and contributors.
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The starting point for this encyclopedia was Rossell While the bulk of entries covers the late Middle
Hope Robbins’s 1959 Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Ages and early modern Europe, the idol of origins will
Demonology. This magnificent, single-authored work be appeased by the 25 entries on antiquity and 17 on
re flects the scholarship current in the 1950s, is the Early and High Middle Ages. These numbers sig-
Anglocentric, and, as we know currently, is often incor- nificantly underplay the scope of the coverage of the
rect. Research on the age of the witch hunts has ren- periods prior to the witch hunts because numerous the-
dered Robbins’s encyclopedia obsolete, but it remains matic and geographic entries discuss the ancient and
useful as a source of some factual information and as a medieval background.
good read. Subsequent encyclopedias in English have Be yond exploring the subject matter contained in
been less ambitious than Robbins’s. The Encyclopedia of the entries, readers of the En c yclopedia of Wi t c h c ra f t :
Witchcraft: The Western Tradition, however, contains The We s t e rn Tra d i t i o n should appreciate the type of
both broader coverage geographically and historically questions scholars now ask about the field of witch-
on the witch hunts and more entries than any previous craft studies, see what areas recent scholarship has
encyclopedia or dictionary of witchcraft. For instance, examined, and hopefully perc e i ve what topics and
it more than triples the number of entries in Robbins’s a reas still need to be re s e a rched. This encyclopedia is
En c yclopedia of Wi t c h c raft and De m o n o l o gy, w h i c h , ve ry much a product of the first years of the twe n t y -
moreover, omits most of Europe behind the Iron first century; many cities and regions in the West need
Cu rtain. Ro s e m a ry Eileen Gu i l e y’s En c yclopedia of to be explored, new sources consulted, and coverage of
Witches and Witchcraft (1989) has 416 entries, but it wide-ranging topics expanded beyond the scope of a
offers as much if not more on modern witchcraft as on single scholar’s expertise. The encyclopedia re flects the
the era of the witch hunts. Two fine recent works are a reas of expertise of its contributors, who (without
also limited by size and by being single-authored: false academic modesty) re p resent most of the leading
Michael Ba i l e y’s Historical Dictionary of Wi t c h c ra f t e x p e rts in the Western world professing this special-
(2003) has brief entries on fewer than 200 pages, while ization. Of course, solid experts on a subject in one
William E. Burns’sWitch Hunts in Europe and America geographic area, say France, England, or Ge r m a n y,
(2003) is less than one-fifth the size of our Encyclopedia we re often reluctant to ve n t u re beyond those bound-
of Witchcraft: The WesternTradition, and does not have aries to make entries truly Continent-wide. T h e i r
its range of entries. reluctance is understandable, given the explosion of
Ro b b i n s’s 227 entries provided the starting point for c o n t e m p o r a ry scholarship, the difficulty in keeping
the six members of our editorial board and for me as edi- a b reast of re s e a rch in any topic, and the rightful and
t o r. We then went to indexes in major books on witch- we l l - c o n s i d e red hesitation of academics to discuss
craft and compiled a list of possible entries, from which a reas in which they lack significant know l e d g e
we selected those we thought appropriate. We added g rounded in their personal re s e a rch. One can contrast
other topics. Fi n a l l y, many contributors suggested entries. this humble realization of limitations with the eager-
In actuality, the selection of entries continued while time ness of talking heads, movie stars, politicians, “t h e
permitted. Like early modern political absolutism, the person on the street,” letter writers to newspapers and
e n c yclopedia seemed always to be in the making. magazines, and random citizens to offer opinions on
Germany, known famously as the heartland of the just about any subject, re g a rdless of their know l e d g e .
witch hunts, is the subject of the most entries (both A truly ignorant person is one who does not know his
geographical and biographical)—127. There are 70 or her own ignorance.
entries covering England and Scotland; 62 on France; This encyclopedia has great value not only in show-
50 on Italy; 24 on the Iberian Peninsula; 20 on eastern casing witchcraft scholarship at one point in time but
and southeastern Europe (Poland, Russia, Hungary, the also in allowing anyone to compare rather quickly the
Balkans, Slovenia, Croatia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, skills, approaches, methodologies, and contributions of
and Lithuania); 20 on Austria, pre s e n t - d a y most of the best witchcraft scholars in the West. Such
Liechtenstein, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia; 18 on comparison was previously possible only through great
today’s Low Countries; 17 on Switzerland; 17 on and time-consuming efforts, if at all. It is my hope that
Scandinavia (including Iceland); 15 on the Americas; 2 the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The WesternTraditionwill
on Ireland; and 1 on Malta. There would have been bridge the gap between scholars and the general public
additional entries on eastern Europe and some other of by making the vast scholarship on witchcraft readily
Europe’s islands had I been able to locate scholars to accessible. This encyclopedia offers a means for enjoy-
make those contributions. ment, a singularly instructive (if mostly pessimistic)
Introduction xxxv |
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exploration of the human condition, and a milepost for tion; and can be opposed by others. Hutton did not
our successors to see where they can now advance the consider “g o o d” witchcraft, which is discussed in
field of witchcraft and witch-hunt studies. numerous entries in the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft. See
—Richard M. Golden his “Anthropological and Historical Approaches to
Witchcraft: Potential for a New Collaboration?”
Notes Historical Journal4, no. 2 (2004): 413–434.
1. Ronald Hutton, reviewing recent anthropologi- 2. While witchcraft scholars do not discuss the
cal and historical studies on witchcraft, has constructed possibility of the Devil’s existence in history (at least in
a model of a witch that has the following characteris- this encyclopedia), polls in 2004 indicated that 70 per-
tics: a person who employs nonphysical means to bring cent of Americans believed in the Devil and that 78
misfortune or injury; harms neighbors or kin, not percent believed in angels. See Dallas Morning News,
strangers; reaps social disapproval; works within a tradi- July 3, 2004, G1.
xxxvi introduction |
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A
Aberdeen Witches with charming by a session held under the auspices of
One of the fullest collections of sixteenth-century the Kirk, as the national church of Scotland is called,
Scottish source material relating to witchcraft, the b e f o re she came to a criminal trial. Charges there
Aberdeen shire records, cover a period from 1596/1597 alleged magical cures, love charms, and inflicting death
to 1598 and contain a commission (authority to hold a upon humans and animals. Isobel Cockie killed horses
trial), documents from pretrial investigations, formal by touching them. Marjorie Mutche destroyed cattle
indictments (dittays) listing the charges against various and made people sick. Both we re also accused, with
individuals, and the confession of one accused male. An others, of dancing with the Devil. Andrew Ma n ,
entry in the Aberdeen burgh accounts tells us that exe- h owe ve r, was different from the rest. He claimed that
cuting two of the women cost £7. 14s. 0d., roughly he had a sexual relationship with the fairy queen and
speaking the equivalent of nine days’ wages for a mason had several children by her. In return, she gave him the
and his boy at the same period. Despite what is often gift of foreknowledge and the ability to cure almost any
said, the incident was almost certainly not set off by the kind of illness. Andrew also had highly unort h o d ox
publication of James V I ’s witchcraft tre a t i s e , religious views and spoke often of his attendant spirit
Daemonologie (Demonology, 1597), which was proba- Christsonday—not a familiar in the English sense, but
bly published after the prosecutions started. an angelic companion. (This spirit was also claimed by
The charges against those concerned, who included another of the accused, Marion Grant.) Like many of
men as well as women, were varied. The Wishart fami- the others, Andrew was convicted of some of the items
l y, living in Ab e rdeen, consisted of Janet, married to on his dittay and acquitted of others. He too was
John Leis, one son (Thomas), and three daughters executed.
( Elspeth, Violet, and Janet). T h e re we re thirt y - o n e Twenty-three women and two men were executed for
charges listed in Janet Wishart’s dittay. These included witchcraft during this episode. Six others, five women
hens dropping dead, cows falling sick, humans con- and one man, were acquitted altogether, and in the case
tracting illness, unexplained and frightening noises in a of three of these, the principal witness against them was
house, and prolonged attacks by a dog that entere d a r rested and charged with malicious prosecution. T h e
s o m e o n e’s bedroom. Janet Leis was further accused of use of torture is recorded in only one case, and its use in
raising storms, inflicting diseases that ended fatally, and that case may have been illegal. Over thirty others were
being able to foretell the future. The period covered by formally named as witches, but we do not know what
the accusations was twenty years and more. T h o m a s happened to them subsequently. It is difficult to know
Leis, described as a common witch and sorc e re r, was why this series of prosecutions broke out when it did.
imprisoned with his mother. The Devil came to the T h e re was a constant undert ow of magical dealing in
window of their cell and told them to deny everything society as a whole during the medieval and early mod-
in court. Meanwhile, he and his sister Violet collaborat- ern periods. Local tensions and fears might easily reach
ed in a magical operation to banish an evil spirit from a the breaking point at any time and burst into a flurry of
house. For this, Violet had to go to the city gallows at witchcraft charges, with each suspect being encouraged
midnight, cut down the corpse hanging there, remove to name her or his accomplices. Individuals within the
parts of the body, and burn the rest. Janet Wishart was c h u rch or state might also feel called upon to initiate
convicted of eighteen of the thirty-one charges against witchcraft proceedings for personal, religious, or politi-
her and executed. Execution of witches in Scotland cal reasons. It may be no coincidence that betwe e n
took place by strangulation, after which the dead body 1596 and1597 violent confrontation was seen between
was burned, and the person’s movable goods were con- James VI and the Kirk over who should govern whom.
fiscated. Thomas, too, was executed. The rest of the It is fruitless, however, to seek a single explanation for
family was banished. any outbreak of witchcraft prosecution; what is clear is
Most of the accused came from elsew h e re in that the role of tort u re in witchcraft trials in Scotland
Ab e rd e e n s h i re. Helen Fraser had twice been charged has often been overplayed.
Aberdeen Witches 1 |
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Witches were also brought to trial in Aberdeenshire, l’homme moderne(The Invention of Modern Man) and
as elsewhere in Scotland, during the seventeenth centu- Le Temps des supplices(The Time of Tortures), he mod-
ry, under different religious, social, and political cir- ified his original position substantially. It is regrettable
cumstances. Modern scholarship strongly suggests that that these more sophisticated and plausible versions of
each episode of witchcraft, wherever it happened, needs the modernization thesis have remained little know n
to be studied as a discrete, local event before attempts outside France, in comparison with a first statement
are made to relate it to outbreaks elsewhere. with which the author has made his own dissatisfaction
plain. In terms of the Catholic Reform movement more
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
generally, the extensive writings of Jean Delumeau rep-
See also: FAIRIES;JAMESVIANDI,KINGOFSCOTLANDAND resent a similar interpretation, with pastoral techniques
ENGLAND;SCOTLAND;SORCERY. built on fear allegedly instilling powe rful feelings of
References and further reading:
guilt among ordinary believers.
Goodare, Julian. 2001. “The AberdeenshireWitchcraft Panic of
W h e re witchcraft persecution is concerned,
1597.” Northern Scotland21:17–37.
Muchembled has always insisted that so widespread a
Levack, Brian P. 2002. “The Decline and End of Scottish Witch-
phenomenon re q u i res a large-scale Eu ropean explana-
Hunting.” Pp. 166–181 in The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context.
tion, that it cannot be adequately dealt with through a
Edited by Julian Goodare. Manchester: Manchester University
Press. series of piecemeal local analyses. Alongside Christina
Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. 1998. “Witchcraft and the Kirk in L a r n e r, he has proposed a crucial link to processes of
Aberdeenshire, 1596–97.” Northern Scotland18:1–14. state formation, themselves a prime example of mod-
———. 2001. Satan’sConspiracy: Magic and Witchcraft in ernization, and has naturally embraced He i n z
Sixteenth-Century Scotland.East Lothian, UK: Tuckwell. S c h i l l i n g’s thesis of confessionalization (the alliance of
religion and state to reform morals and impose social
Acculturation Thesis discipline) as an additional support for his view. T h e
The concept of acculturation has been employed to tie most formal expressions of his arguments about witch-
in witchcraft persecutions with allegedly fundamental craft can be found in Le roi et la sorcière(The King and
changes in European culture. The term acculturation the Witch) and in his contributions to the collective
began its life when anthropologists coined it to describe volume he edited, Magie et sorcellerie en Eu rope du
the effect of Western culture on the American Indians; Moyen Age à nos jours(Magic and Witchcraft in Europe
later it was applied to other cultural relationships f rom the Middle Ages to the Present, 1994), where
between so-called “advanced” and “primitive” peoples. there was some discordance with his own coauthors.
It implies a model of cultural change in which a domi- In practice, the acculturation model re q u i res exten-
nant culture appears in an aggressive role, operating s i ve qualifications and exceptions in order to achieve a
through a mixture of direct force and seduction to plausible match with the historical re c o rd. It has to be
induce major changes in a subordinate culture. The re c o g n i zed that the most powe rful centralizing monar-
scheme has naturally been influential among historians chies in early modern Eu rope, in France, Spain, and
seeking to understand witchcraft persecution, because England, saw re l a t i vely low rates of persecution, with
one possible explanation for this phenomenon is as an the higher authorities tending tow a rd skepticism and
attack on vital aspects of popular culture. In practice, looking to control judicial irregularities. Mu c h e m b l e d
attempts to apply the idea directly have not proved very argued that persecution was highest in regions agitated
convincing, but it has generated some valuable insights by religious divisions, or where less effective rulers faced
into the broader context in which both beliefs and per- determined local resistance when they sought to incre a s e
secution might flourish. their powe r. He drew attention to several import a n t
In the 1970s the model was applied to early modern writers around the end of the sixteenth century and the
Eu rope, most notably by the French historian Ro b e rt beginning of the seventeenth, such as Jean Bodin,
Muchembled, to describe an allegedly all-perva s i ve Ma rtín Del Rio, Henri Boguet, and Pi e r re de Lancre, to
form of modernization. He linked the development of establish a theoretical link between concepts of sove r-
the state, religious reform, and socioeconomic tre n d s , eignty and the campaign against witches as the ultimate
then sought to describe a cultural revolution in which enemies of both divine and royal powe r. Many of these
older forms of popular culture were repressed and frag- points are well taken, but so many exceptions and coun-
mented. Lawyers and clerics appeared as the main t e rexamples remain that the specific force of the argu-
agents of this change at the local level, with the village ment is greatly weakened. It is only through the use of
elites cowed or shamed into a rather half-hearted com- some impre s s i ve rhetorical tricks and elisions that a mul-
pliance. Muchembled laid out the theory in a distinctly ticausal model incorporating many local variables can be
schematic fashion in a 1978 book, later translated into p resented as if it we re a powe rful unified interpre t a t i o n .
English as Popular Culture and Elite Culture in France, Ul t i m a t e l y, the acculturation model has been ve ry
1 4 0 0 – 1 7 5 0 . In later works, such as L’ In vention de heavily modified, as historians have found more and
2 Acculturation Thesis |
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m o re examples in their detailed studies of the pro c e s s Accusations
that the French historian Roger Chartier called appro- Although many thousands of people were convicted
priation. This was the tendency for different sub- and often executed as witches across Europe, most peo-
groups to adapt orthodoxies to their own purposes, fre- ple who were suspected of practicing witchcraft were
quently subve rting them in the process. The effect of never brought to trial. Most available historical sources
this work has been to change our picture of accultura- greatly underreport people in this category, simply
tion, so that it now looks like the history of a hero i c because no trial ever ensued. It is quite unusual for
f a i l u re rather than the history of a brutal success in scholars to possess large amounts of evidence about the
imposing elite views on the masses. In addition the total number of people who were formally accused of
clear division between elite and popular has increasing- witchcraft in any particular region. In this respect, the
ly come to appear as a misdescription of a much more best available evidence comes from places as widely
complex reality.The process of change in early modern scattered as the archbishopric of Trier, the Canary
Eu rope did include a trend for educated minorities to Islands, and Massachusetts, and from legal systems as
define themselves against the popular, but this is better different as those involving German district officials,
seen as the progressive internal division of a shared cul- the Mediterranean Inquisitions, and English colonial
t u re, rather than as the clash of two distinct culture s . authorities. But each of these extremely diverse systems
The effort to impose new standards of belief and tells a similar statistical story. In each instance, any-
behavior on the people at large can then be seen as a where from one-third to one-seventh of the people for-
s e c o n d a ry effect of changes that we re primarily dire c t- mally accused of witchcraft were eventually arrested
ed tow a rd the internal concerns of the elites. Ab ove all, and put on trial (in the Salem panic of 1692, the ratio
they we re striving to distinguish themselves from their was less than one in three). Many additional scraps of
inferiors by asserting their own superiority, a point we l l evidence about “a c c o m p l i c e s” seen at the witches’
made by Muchembled. What can also be said is that Sabbats lie buried in the preserved confessions of
for many sophisticated observers at the time, as well as numerous continental witches. But most law codes and
for later historians, witchcraft persecution looked demonologists required at least three such denuncia-
alarmingly like a surrender to popular belief rather tions before an arrest could be made without other cor-
than an attack on it; it is the protection rather than the roborative evidence, and these rules seem to have been
persecution of suspected witches that alerts us to a re a l generally observed.
clash of cultures, when some lawyers and clerics A huge list of “a c c o m p l i c e s” named by confessing
attacked the whole way of thinking that sustained witches was compiled in the archbishopric of Tr i e r
belief in witchcraft. a round 1590, during the first true mass panic in the
Holy Roman Em p i re. It was the first of many similar
ROBIN BRIGGS
lists drawn up during nearly eve ry major witch hunt in
See also:LARNER,CHRISTINA;MUCHEMBLED,ROBERT;PARLEMENT Ge r m a n y, and several minor ones, until the 1630s.
OFPARIS. K n own as the “Musiel Re g i s t e r,” it is now available in a
References and further reading: critical edition (Voltmer and Weisenstein 1996). It
Briggs, Robin. 1989. Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social includes most—but certainly not all—names of accom-
Tensions in Early Modern France.NewYork: Oxford University p l i c e s i d e n t i fied by 306 people executed as witches
Press. b e t ween 1586 and 1594, primarily from the district of
Delumeau, Jean. 1990. Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western
St. Maximin, where Claudius Musiel was a high
Guilt Culture in the 13th–18th Centuries.Translated by Eric
o f ficial ( S c h u l t h e i s s ) , a c t i ve in witch hunting from the
Nicholson. NewYork: St. Martin’s.
mid-1580s until he became governor ( Am t m a n n ) i n
Kaplan, Steven L., ed. 1984. Understanding Popular Culture:
1594. On average, each witch offered about 20 names
Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century.Berlin:
of accomplices; one man named 150 of them. Overall,
Mouton.
Larner, Christina. 1984. Witchcraft and Religion: The Politics of the “Musiel Register” included, about 6,300 denuncia-
Popular Belief.Oxford: Basil Blackwell. tions against almost 1,400 people living in almost a
Muchembled, Robert. 1985. Popular Culture and Elite Culture in hundred different villages.
France, 1400–1750.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Some accusations we re obviously taken far more
Press. seriously than others. The “Musiel Re g i s t e r” put cro s s-
———. L’Invention de l’homme moderne: Culture et sensibilitès en es in front of some names, but not others. Parallel lists
France du XVe au XVIIIe siècle.Paris: Arthème Fayard.
identify more accomplices named by some of the con-
———. 1992.Le Temps des supplices: De l’obèissance sous les rois
fessing witches, but these names we re omitted from the
absolus. XVe-XVIIIe siècle.Paris: Armand Colin.
re g i s t e r, for reasons we will probably never know.
———. 1993.Le roi et la sorcière: L’Europe des bûchers,
Howe ve r, the vast majority of these 1,400 suspected
XVe–XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Desclèe.
witches, even most of those with crosses in front of
Muchembled, Robert, ed. 1994.Magie et sorcellerie en Europe du
Moyen Age à nos jours. Paris: Armand Colin. their names, we re never arrested for witchcraft by
Accusations 3 |
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Musiel or his successors. One name, cited eight differ- full-scale trials for hechicería (witchcraft) and no execu-
ent times as an accomplice seen at Sabbats, often with tions, although one woman was lynched in 1691 after
copious details about what went on there, was cert a i n- performing her public abjuration (Ibid., 470–472). In
ly never put on trial—it was Musiel himself, who did the second half of the seventeenth century, when about
not personally compile this register (Voltmer and 80,000 people lived in these islands, over 4 percent of
Weisenstein 1996, 70, n. 228). the entire adult population we re sufficiently upset
T h roughout the worst German witch hunts, when about being bewitched that they formally denounced
over 90 percent of all witchcraft trials ended in exe c u- someone to the Inquisition for witchcraft. However, the
tions, the pattern observable at Trier continued to ratio of 7 persons accused of practicing witchcraft to
hold: Most people named as accomplices by confessed each person tried for practicing witchcraft was eve n
witches we re never brought to trial—although the lower in the Canaries than in Trier’s “Musiel Register.”
ratios we re seldom as low as the one in five suggested Evidence from the Portuguese Inquisition confirms this
by the “Musiel Re g i s t e r.” Two long lists of people i m p ression: In the 1740s, the tribunal of Coimbra
denounced as witches in December 1628 from the re c o rded 1,420 denunciations for illicit magic, but
small territory of Mergentheim in southwe s t e r n a r rested only 87 people on such charges (Pa i va 1997,
Germany re veal that barely one-fourth of them (77 of 208–209). Information from branches of the Ro m a n
301) we re ever put on trial (Mi d e l f o rt 1972, Inquisition in Friuli or Siena, for example, suggests a
147–148). Even among the 17 people named on a sep- similar situation, with hundreds of accusations of mal-
arate list as being most often denounced as witches, 4 eficium(harmful magic) resulting in extremely few full-
we re apparently never tried. scale trials (Di Simplicio 2000).
At the opposite extreme from the major Ge r m a n In common-law regions employing accusatory pro-
hunts stood a few very small places where most accusa- c e d u re, including England and America, most people
tions resulted in witchcraft trials and executions. In the suspected of practicing “white,” or harmless, witchcraft
ve ry worst scenarios, about half of those accused of we re never brought to trial. Because prosecution was
witchcraft we re tried and executed. A recent study of e x p e n s i ve for accusers in common-law courts (unlike
nine Alsatian hamlets in the Vosges Mountains counted German courts or the Inquisitions, where the state paid
174 people accused during the 1620s, with at least 83 all prosecution expenses), and convictions (which could
e xecuted (Thurston 2001, 111). The worst know n enable an accuser to recoup the cost of a trial) were far
example comes from Gollion, a tiny Swiss village of 50 f rom certain, even people vehemently suspected of
households that was terrorized by its unusually zealous practicing harmful witchcraft often escaped pro s e c u-
and sadistic overlord. Between 1615 and 1631, almost tion. Some of the best evidence on this score comes
40 adults were accused of witchcraft in this village; over from the well-documented Salem Village witch hunt of
two dozen of them we re burned, while only one was 1692, in which 185 people we re publicly accused as
released after trial (Taric Zumsteg 2000, 153). witches, but fewer than 60 of them were actually put on
Incomplete trial records identify another 12 villagers in trial (Thurston 2001, 117).
Gollion who we re accused as accomplices but neve r Lack of evidence usually makes it impossible to mea-
a r rested; the only person fortunate enough to be sure how often people were suspected of witchcraft but
released after being tried was accused again within a not put on trial in most parts of Eu rope. Our closest
ye a r, but she was not tried a second time. Such situa- a p p roximation probably comes from suits for defama-
tions, fortunately, were extremely rare. tion, which existed throughout Eu rope, but seem to
With re g a rd to the ratios between accusations of h a ve been re l a t i vely more frequent in places like
witchcraft and arrests for witchcraft, the major England or Sweden. Un f o rt u n a t e l y, little comparative
Mediterranean Inquisitions offer re m a rkable materials work has yet been done on this problem.
for comparison with the major German witch hunts.
WILLIAM MONTER
Mo re than 20,000 witches we re burned in Ge r m a n y
and fewer than 50 by the Mediterranean In q u i s i t i o n s . See also: EVIDENCE;EXECUTIONS;ST.MAXIMIN;TRIALS.
The proceedings in the Mediterranean regions re s e m- References and further reading:
bled those that resulted from the German panics to the Di Simplicio, Oscar. 2000. Inquisizione stregoneria medicina. Siena
extent that few of the people denounced to the e il suo stato (1580–1721).Siena: Il Leccio.
Inquisitions as witches we re ever brought to trial. An Fa j a rdo Spinola, Fr a n c i s c o. 1992. Hechicería y brujería en Canarias en
la edad moderna. Las Palmas: Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria.
e x t r a o rdinarily well-documented example comes fro m
Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch-Hunting in Southwestern
the Holy Of fice tribunal for Sp a i n’s Canary Is l a n d s ,
Germany, 1562–1684.Stanford: Stanford University Press.
w h e re illicit magic was by far the most fre q u e n t l y
Paiva, José Pedro. 1997. Bruxaria e superstiçíão num país sem ‘Caça
denounced type of heresy (Fajardo Spinola 1992). Here
às Bruxas,’ 1600–1774. Lisbon: Notícias.
a total of 2,808 denunciations against 1,245 people,
Voltmer, Rita, and Karl Weisenstein, eds. 1996. Das Hexenregister
s c a t t e red across three centuries, resulted in only 200 des Claudius Musiel. Trier: Spee.
4 Accusations |
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Taric Zumsteg, Fabienne. 2000. Les sorciers à l’assaut du village tion, and in many jurisdictions the liability of the
Gollion (1615–1631). Lausanne: Zèbre accuser was entirely eliminated. Even more important,
Thurston, RobertW. 2001. Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: The Rise the state superintended the entire process of accusation
and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and in North America.
and assumed responsibility for the prosecution if the
London: Pearson.
accuser dropped the charges or reached a settlement
with the person accused.
Accusatorial Procedure In those jurisdictions that did not introduce inquisi-
Accusatorial procedure is the system of criminal prose- torial pro c e d u re, the accusatorial system underwent a
cution in which persons acting in a private capacity or significant transformation. The determination to prose-
as representatives of the community formally initiate a cute crime more effectively and the abandonment of
criminal action and undertake its pro s e c u t i o n . the ordeal after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 led
Jurisdictions that employed accusatorial procedure gen- these countries to introduce new methods for deter-
erally did not experience the same intensity of witch mining guilt, all of which relied more on human judg-
hunting as those that used inquisitorial procedure. ment than had the ordeals. These methods also reflect-
During the Early Middle Ages, accusatorial pro c e- ed a Eu ropean-wide recognition that crime was a
dure was the dominant form of prosecuting crime, both concern to the entire community, not simply a dispute
in the secular and ecclesiastical courts. At that time it between parties. The main change was the assumption
possessed four main features. First, criminal cases were of the accusatorial role by re p re s e n t a t i ves of the com-
initiated by a private accuser, that is, by the victim of munity. In England this reliance upon local elites to ini-
the crime or his kin, acting in a private rather than an tiate a criminal action developed into the jury of pre-
o f ficial capacity. Second, this private person actually sentment, later known as the grand jury. Likewise, the
p rosecuted the crime by engaging in a contest against determination of the guilt or innocence of the accused
the accused part y. The contest often took the form of was entrusted to another group of neighbors, who
an ordeal, in which the accused was subjected to a test became the trial jury. Other Eu ropean countries, such
that would indicate guilt, such as holding a hot iron for as Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary, also con-
a period to see whether the flesh was burned. tinued to use a modified form of accusatorial pro c e-
A l t e r n a t i vely the two parties could engage in a duel, d u re. In all these countries the prosecution of crime
known in England as trial by battle, in which the victo- retained the adversarial character it had acquired earlier
rious party was vindicated. Yet another alternative , in the Middle Ages. In these countries the proceedings
which likewise did not invo l ve a systematic examina- continued to be held in public, and judges continued to
tion of the evidence, was compurgation, in which the exercise only limited control over the prosecution of the
accuser and the accused solicited neighbors who would crime. At least in theory the accuser still acted as prose-
s wear to their honesty. T h i rd, the entire pro c e d u re , c u t o r. Those jurisdictions that continued to employ
f rom the original accusation to the conclusion of the accusatorial procedure introduced some of the features
trial, was conducted publicly. Fo u rth, the person who of inquisitorial procedure, such as the taking of written
b rought the charge was liable to prosecution if the depositions before the trial (in England), and the debat-
innocence of the accused was proved. According to the ing of the re l e vancy of the charges to the libel (in
law of the t a l i o n , which had been used in ancient Scotland), but these newly acquired features did not
Rome, the accuser’s punishment in those circumstances alter the fundamental accusatorial character of the
would be the same as the accused would have received if process.
found guilty. Accusatorial procedure generally made it more diffi-
Be t ween the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries, cult for courts to prosecute and convict witches than
many continental Eu ropean countries abandoned did inquisitorial pro c e d u re. As long as the principle
accusatorial procedure and adopted inquisitorial proce- of the liable accuser was in effect, potential accusers
dure in its place. According to inquisitorial procedure, we re reluctant to bring charges against their neigh-
criminal actions we re initiated and prosecuted by bors. Even more important, courts using accusatorial
judges or officers of the court on the basis of rumor or p ro c e d u re lacked the power to initiate criminal pro-
reputation, rather than by a private accuser. Cr i m i n a l ceedings against suspected witches, to interro g a t e
p roceedings became secret, and the judge assumed a them, or to declare them guilty. Conve r s e l y, inquisi-
much greater role in the process, interrogating witness- torial pro c e d u re, which allowed the court to bring
es and determining guilt on the basis of a systematic, charges on the basis of rumor or ill fame and which
rational evaluation of the evidence. A person could still a l l owed judges to interrogate witches dire c t l y, was
initiate a criminal action by making a private accusa- especially designed to prosecute crimes like here s y
tion against a person suspected of a crime, but the lia- and witchcraft. The most intense witchcraft pro s e c u-
bility of the accuser was reduced to a fine, the amount tions took place in those countries where courts utilized
of which was offered as a surety at the time of accusa- inquisitorial pro c e d u re .
Accusatorial Procedure 5 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 43 | 46049 Golden Chap. A av First Pages 08/24/2005 p.6 Application File
Inquisitorial pro c e d u re facilitated the pro s e c u t i o n Edited by J.S. Cockburn. Princeton: Princeton University
and conviction of witches, but accusatorial pro c e d u re Press.
could achieve the same results. Judicial authorities Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired
by the Great Witch-Hunt.London: Chatto.
might have been hampered in their ability to prosecute
Langbein, John. 1974. Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance:
witches on their own initiative, but when the commu-
England, Germany, France.Cambridge: Harvard University
nity wished to take action against witches, they had the
Press.
necessary tools to bring formal charges and secure con-
L e vack, Brian P. 1999. “The Decline and End of Wi t c h c r a f t
victions. In England up to 500 witches were convicted
Prosecutions.” Pp. 1–93 in Wi t c h c raft and Magic in Eu rope: T h e
and executed, on the basis of indictments issued by Eighteenth and Nineteenth Ce n t u r i e s .Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
juries of presentment, and convicted by trial juries and St u a rt Clark. Philadelphia: Un i versity of Pe n n s y l vania Pre s s .
composed of lay judges. In Scotland, where the Levy, LeonardW. 1967. “Accusatorial and Inquisitorial Systems of
accusatorial system of criminal procedure resembled its Criminal Procedure: The Beginnings.” Pp. 16–54 in Freedom
inquisitorial counterpart in a few more respects, the and Reform.Edited by Harold Hyman and Leonard Levy. New
results were far more devastating. Somewhere between York: Harper and Row.
Van Caenegem, R.C. 1988. The Birth of the Common Law.2d ed.
1,000 and 1,500 Scottish witches we re convicted and
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
e xecuted between 1550 and 1727. In Swe d e n ,
Denmark, Norway, and Hungary, all of which resisted
the adoption of inquisitorial procedure, the percentage Acquittals
of witchcraft cases ending in executions corre s p o n d e d Scholars writing about witchcraft trials have often been
roughly with that for Scotland. Moreover, as witchcraft i m p recise when describing the fate of many thousands
p rosecutions declined, those countries that employe d of accused witches who we re tried but not convicted.
accusatorial procedure found it more difficult to bring Some such instances occurred eve ry w h e re thro u g h o u t
an end to prosecutions. When the men who controlled the age of witch hunting. The legal systems under which
the judicial machinery of the state decided that witches people we re tried for witchcraft varied widely acro s s
could no longer be proved guilty at law, the communi- Eu rope, and the term a c q u i t t a l applies properly only to
ties did not always agree with those officials and contin- systems such as that of the common law in England in
ued to bring charges against their neighbors. Po p u l a r which juries either acquitted or convicted defendants.
witch beliefs and accusations continued well into the But the ove rwhelming majority of Eu ropean witchcraft
eighteenth century, and accusatorial procedure facilitat- trials—and almost all of those taking place outside
ed popular pressure to bring witches to trial. England, Scotland, and Scandinavia—occurred in
As witchcraft prosecutions we re coming to an end, Roman law courts, which did not use juries and ignore d
and as the courts began to view witchcraft accusations the term a c q u i t t e d .
with suspicion, judges contemplated the re i n t ro d u c t i o n In order to bring a clearer focus to this problem, it is
of the principle of the liable accuser, which had been one necessary to establish the different levels of punishment
of the main features of accusatorial pro c e d u re during the to which persons accused of witchcraft could be sub-
Middle Ages. In 1716 Hermann Meinders, a Pru s s i a n jected, and also to recognize the difference between an
judge, recommended to King Frederick William I that acquittal at common law and releasing a prisoner in a
individuals no longer be allowed to use the accusation Roman law court. Continental judges often re l e a s e d
p rocess against witches unless they would first agree to prisoners accused of witchcraft without physical pun-
be subject to the law of the talion. Meinders complained ishment but without employing any legal terms that
that most witchcraft trials we re the product of personal can be correctly translated as “acquittal.” The schema
h a t red, envy, and re venge. In Me i n d e r s’s view, the mis- proposed here, nevertheless, for purposes of simplifica-
carriages of justice that had become common in witch- tion, assumes a functional equivalence between acquit-
craft cases could be attributed to the malice of priva t e tal under common law and release under Roman law. It
accusers, not the procedural abuses of judges who inve s- is based on the increasing degree of physical discomfort
tigated the crime and interrogated the accused. His re c- and deprivation of freedom endured by the large num-
ommendation provided further evidence that the bers of people accused of witchcraft but not sentenced
m e d i e val form of accusatorial pro c e d u re made it diffi- to capital punishment.
cult to prosecute witches.
A.Persons formally accused of witchcraft but never
BRIAN P. LEVACK arrested.
B.Persons tried for witchcraft and released without
See also: ACCUSATIONS;ENGLAND;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;
further punishment at the local level.
LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); ORDEAL.
C.Persons tried and convicted at a local level, but
References and further reading:
Baker, J.H. 1977. “Criminal Courts and Procedure at Common eventually released without physical punishment by
Law 1550–1800.” Pp. 15–48 in Crime in England, 1500–1800. an appellate court.
6 Acquittals |
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D.Persons forced to undergo some form of torture evidence surv i ves to offer some useful glimpses into
(almost always in Roman law courts) on charges of some widely va rying situations in both common law
witchcraft, but who endured it successfully and and Roman law Europe.
therefore “purged” themselves of the accusation Rare indeed were regions where most witchcraft tri-
without further punishment. als ended without punishing the accused, but scattered
E.Persons neither fully convicted nor discharged, but examples can be found. In the small Calvinist principal-
given intermediate forms of punishment, most ity of Sedan in eastern France, quite unlike neighboring
commonly temporary or permanent banishment. a reas, 15 of the 18 witchcraft trials held before 1607
ended by liberating the accused without punishment
Accused but Not Tried It is likely that most peo- (Dupont-Bouchat 1978, 127, 132). In the great imper-
ple formally accused of witchcraft were never arrested, ial free city of Augsburg, at this time possibly
e ven during the worst major German witch panics Germany’s largest city, almost two-thirds (64 of 101) of
w h e re official “acquittal rates” among those who we re all witchcraft trials between 1581 and 1653 ended by
tried rarely reached 10 percent. For instance, in the releasing the accused, and only three prisoners we re
small German territory of Mergentheim, only 10 of the burned (Behringer 1997, 43). In Os t robothnia, a
136 people arrested as witches between October 1628 Swedish-speaking district in western Finland, local
and Fe b ru a ry 1631 we re eventually released. In some courts acquitted 57 percent of the 152 people tried for
localities, the situation could be even worse; the 4 per- witchcraft; howe ve r, these trials we re held re l a t i ve l y
cent “acquittal rate” (1 of 26) in the tiny Swiss village of late, between 1665 and 1685 (Heikkinen and Kervinen
Gollion from 1615 to 1631 was lower than that at 1990, 335). If about one-fourth of the 932 witchcraft
Mergentheim (Taric Zumsteg 2000, 70–71). However, trials in the Kingdom of Hungary ended without pun-
the most important difference between these situations ishment of prisoners (Klaniczay 1990, 222), we must
is that barely one-fourth of everyone accused of witch- again re a l i ze that most of them also occurred after
craft were put on trial during the Mergentheim panic, 1660. Mo re common we re situations like Calvin’s
w h e reas two-thirds we re arrested during a cycle of six Ge n e va, where only 15 percent of the 321 witchcraft
small-scale persecutions at Gollion. trials between 1536 and 1660 ended by liberating the
At Gollion, five men fled before they could be accused. Howe ve r, re c o rds of acquittals and re l e a s e s
a r rested. Frightening an accused witch into leaving her seem to have been even less common in many other
or his community was an easy victory for the local ene- places. Or they might happen quite late. For example,
mies of the accused. It frequently saved them the time Scotland’s Court of Justiciary, an agency of the central
and expense of a formal trial, which might not eve n g overnment but not an appellate court for witches,
lead to a conviction. In many cases, flight was tempo- approved the executions of a dozen witches as recently
r a ry, and the accused person returned as soon as re l a- as 1678, but then reversed its record by acquitting 19 of
t i ves or friends assured them they we re safe from arre s t . the 20 witches the court examined over the next six
If such people did not return after several months or a years (Larner, Lee, and McLachlan 1977, 42–46).
ye a r, local authorities sometimes prosecuted them. Local courts throughout Eu rope avoided putting
Howe ve r, they tended to prosecute in absentia only people on trial for witchcraft unless they we re re a s o n-
those suspects who left behind sufficient assets to make ably certain of obtaining a conviction. This explains
c o n fiscation pro fitable. In the agricultural villages of why one frequently encounters “acquittal rates” far
western and central Eu rope where most witch hunts below 10 percent in many different locations in western
o c c u r red, such cases we re uncommon; flight entailed and central Europe. If no conviction resulted, whoever
destitution and vagabondage, especially difficult for prosecuted them—either an individual or local officials,
older people. often both—had wasted a great deal of time and money
during a perc e i ved emergency. In the duchy of
Tried at Lo cal Level but Not Con v ict e d Lorraine, which has some of the most extensive local
Across Europe, historical evidence is usually less abun- financial records in western Europe, local officials men-
dant at this level than at upper-level, appellate court s . tioned witchcraft trials that ended with releases only
Ne ve rtheless, randomly pre s e rved documents about when they expected (often in vain) to have their legal
two dozen prisoners from the ve ry first major witch expenses reimbursed, as they almost invariably we re
panic, in the Swiss Alpine district of Va l a i s w h e n e ver witches we re convicted. Outside times of
(1428–1436), suggest that suspected witches we re i n t e n s i ve witch hunting, there we re usually stro n g
almost as likely to be released as to be burned; a thick c o u n t e r i n c e n t i ves against beginning a possibly unsuc-
dossier explains how a widow surv i ved two trials for cessful prosecution for witchcraft at the local level. Even
witchcraft, including one bout of torture, without any when they did occur, trials ending with liberation of the
o f ficial punishment (Os t o re ro, Baglioni, and Tre m p accused we re seldom re c o rded; we often learn about
1999, 74–75; St robino 1996). El s ew h e re, enough such prosecutions only because the accused witch was
Acquittals 7 |
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subsequently re a r rested and convicted, with some prisoners or the dismissal of charges (Schormann
mention of a previous arrest included in the fin a l 1977, 47–50). In a nine-year sample (1608–1616), the
summation. Hofrat, the highest tribunal of the Roman Catholic
duchy of Ba varia, similarly released almost half of its
C on v icted at Lo cal Level but Acquitted or 200 arrested witches (Behringer 1997, 53–54). Fa rt h e r
R e l e ased on Appellate Lev e l In both common law west, the p a rl e m e n t (appellate court) of Sp a n i s h - ru l e d
and Roman law Eu rope, the largest share of known cases Franche-Comté freed 26 percent of its 700 prisoners
w h e re accused witches we re released without physical accused of witchcraft between 1590 and 1666
punishment occurred in these situations. The explana- ( Rochelandet 1997, 63).
tion for this phenomenon is twofold. First, these court s The most important case is, of course, the Parlement
we re physically and psychologically far re m oved fro m of Paris, the chief judicial body of France, whose appel-
local village environments where most witchcraft trials late district covered about half of Europe’s largest king-
originated; appellate courts existed in order to corre c t dom and encompassed approximately 10 million peo-
the shortcomings of undereducated local magistrates ple in about 1600. Here the painstaking work of Alfred
whose sentences they we re re v i ewing. Second, appellate Soman shows that almost 30 percent of the 1,123 peo-
c o u rts, staffed with high-ranking and re l a t i vely we l l - ple in appealing convictions for witchcraft betwe e n
paid state functionaries, we re far more likely to pre s e rve 1564 and 1640, including 15 percent of those appeal-
at least some of their re c o rds than we re most local court ing a death sentence, were released without any physical
s y s t e m s . punishment. After 1610, the percentage of prisoners
With respect to the Anglo-Scandinavian regions, one charged with witchcraft who we re released rose to
may truly speak of “acquittals,” and the historical almost half, 47 percent (Soman 1978, 34–36). Europe’s
re c o rd is encouraging. Almost eve ry w h e re, during the most prestigious secular court compiled an early and
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, acquittals for re m a rkable re c o rd in this respect, even before it
witchcraft at such midlevel courts outnumbered execu- enforced a system of automatic appeals in all witchcraft
tions. Much northern Eu ropean evidence comes fro m cases around 1624.
such judicial bodies as the English Assizes, or appellate During the kingdom’s final major witchcraft panic
courts at the county level in Denmark, or the regional in 1643–1645, other French appellate courts surpassed
and national level in Scotland. Each sample includes the Parisian re c o rd of releasing prisoners. By then, the
h u n d reds of witchcraft cases scattered over seve r a l Pa rlement of Toulouse, Fr a n c e’s second-largest appel-
decades. At the Danish County Court of Ju t l a n d , late court, also re q u i red automatic appeals of all witch-
almost half of all seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft trials c r a f t trials, and the results we re extraord i n a ry. Almost
ended in acquittals (Johansen 1990, 350). Even in two-thirds of the 641 prisoners convicted of witchcraft
Scotland, infamous for several brutal witch hunts whom it judged on appeal during this panic were either
b e t ween the 1590s and 1660s, the kingdom’s upper-leve l dismissed or released provisionally because of inade-
c o u rts acquitted many seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft quate evidence; most of the remainder we re ord e re d
defendants. Assize courts on En g l a n d’s Home Circ u i t banished, usually for five years or less (Vidal 1987, 518,
we re considerably more lenient than the Danes or 520, 522).
Scots, acquitting 56 percent of the 474 people whom
they tried for witchcraft between 1563 and 1700 “ P u rged” Charges by Surv i v i ng Tort u r e
( Sharpe 1997, 111). Eve ry appellate court system in Un d e r s t a n d a b l y, this category often includes only a small
n o rthern Eu rope ended up releasing large numbers of p o rtion of people tried for witchcraft in Roman law
suspected witches, although each of them also con- regions. Eve ry government in the Holy Roman Em p i re
firmed many death sentences for witchcraft. that burned large numbers of witches employed tort u re
How different we re things on the Roman law so unscrupulously that extremely few imprisoned witch-
Continent, with an inquisitorial rather than accusatory es ever surv i ved it. In present-day Saarland, for instance,
system and authority to employ tort u re? Not surpris- only 11 of 331 imprisoned witches earned their fre e d o m
i n g l y, in a system where defendants we re pre s u m e d this way (Labouvie 1997, 44–45). An “acquittal rate” of
g u i l t y, instances of outright release at the appellate lev- less than 10 percent invariably means that official imper-
el of prisoners charged with witchcraft we re generally ial rules and limits on tort u re prescribed in the Caro l i n a
far less common than in northern Eu rope. Ne ve r - Code (Constitutio Criminalis Ca ro l i n a ) , the famous
theless, some continental appellate courts released a imperial law code of 1532 (which was not obligatory or
sizable share of prisoners charged with witchcraft. Fo r binding on the thousand autonomous governments in
example, in the Lutheran duchy of Bru n s w i c k - the empire) we re being ignored or circ u m vented thro u g h
Wolffenbütel, ruled by a reputedly ferocious prince, various legal ru s e s .
almost half of the 104 witchcraft trials re c o rd e d Howe ve r, places in the empire that observed these
b e t ween 1590 and 1620 ended with the liberation of limits scrupulously ended up releasing a signific a n t
8 Acquittals |
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s h a re of their arrested witches. In the Austrian Alpine of Besançon showed comparable instincts, banishing
p rovince of Vorarlberg, ruled by the Habsburgs and most of those tried for witchcraft who were not execut-
thus quite careful about following the rules of the ed (Monter 1976, 79), in the surrounding province of
C a rolina Code, about one-third (47 of 142) endure d Franche-Comté, liberations outnumbered banishments
t o rt u re without confessing and we re there f o re re l e a s e d for witchcraft by 182 to 105 (Rochelandet 1997, 63).
(Tschaikner 1992, 212). In the Swiss canton of
Fribourg, prison registers enable us to observe the WILLIAM MONTER
results of tort u re applied in full but precise legal mea-
See also: ACCUSATIONS;APPEALS;CAROLINACODE;COURTS,
sure to suspected witches. Here, most prisoners did not
INQUISITORIAL;COURTS,SECULAR;PARLEMENTOFPARIS;ROMAN
confess under torture: If 21 men confessed and 24 suc-
LAW;TRIALS.
cessfully purged the accusations by withstanding tor- References and further reading:
ture, women did even better, with 28 confessing under Archives Departementales (AD), Meurthe-et-Moselle, Nancy,
identical methods of tort u re and 51 successfully sur- France.
mounting it (Monter 1976, 106–107). Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria.
The chances of a prisoner to “purge” charges through Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
withstanding torture therefore varied considerably, not Dupont-Bouchat, Marie-Sylvie, Willem Frijhoff, and Robert
Muchembled. 1978. Prophètes et sorciers dans les Pays-Bas
only from one district to the next, but even within a
XVIe-XVIIIe siècle.Paris: Hachette.
p a rticular district, depending on whether or not a
Heikkinen, Antero, and Timo Kervinen. 1990. “Finland: The
major witch hunt was occurring. For example, ove r
Male Domination.” Pp. 319–338 inEarly Modern European
o n e - f o u rth (35 of 124) of the prisoners accused of
Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
witchcraft in the most heavily afflicted district of the
and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
duchy of Lorraine managed to regain their freedom in Johansen, Jens. Christian V. 1990. “Denmark: The Sociology of
this manner (AD Nancy, B 8652–8742). Accusations.” Pp. 339–366 inEarly Modern European
To the north, in two contiguous districts (Mirecourt Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
and Do m p a i re), only 8 of 50 prisoners tort u red on and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
charges of witchcraft during a 1629–1630 witch panic Klaniczay, Gabor. 1990. “Hungary: The Accusations and the
withstood it, whereas during the previous thirty years, Universe of Popular Magic.” Pp. 219–256 inEarly Modern
European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt
two-thirds of all prisoners tortured on charges of witch-
Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
craft in these same districts (28 of 42) had purged the
Labouvie, Eva. 1997. “Rekonstruktion einer Verfolgung.
accusations by successfully enduring tort u re (AD
Hexenprozesse und ihr Verlauf im Saar-Pfalz-Raum und der
Na n c y, B 7065–7145 [Mi re c o u rt]; B 5497–5573
Bailliage d’Allemagne (1520–1690).” Pp. 43–58 in
[Dompaire]).
Hexenprozesse und deren Gegner im trierisch-lothringischen Raum.
Edited by Gunter Franz, Günter Gehl, and Franz Irsigler.
Pa rtial Con v ict ions and Ba n i s h m e n t s In Weimar: Dadder.
many Eu ropean regions there we re only two normal Larner, Christina, Christopher Lee, and Hugh McLachlan, eds.
outcomes of a witchcraft trial, conviction or re l e a s e ; 1977. A Source Book of Scottish Witchcraft.Glasgow:
intermediate solutions we re re l a t i vely uncommon. Department of Sociology, University of Glasgow.
Nonetheless, almost eve ry court system in we s t e r n Monter, E. William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland:
The Borderlands During the Reformation. Ithaca, NY, and
Eu rope made occasional use of such punishments as
London: Cornell University Press.
exile or banishment, when suspected witches had not
Ostorero, Martine, Agostino Paravicini Baglioni, and Kathrin Utz
been fully convicted, but the evidence against them
Tremp, eds. 1999. L’imaginaire du sabbat: Edition critique des
seemed too great to allow them to return home unpun-
textes les plus anciens.Lausanne: Université de Lausanne.
ished. A few cities employed banishment extensive l y
Rochelandet, Brigitte. 1997. Sorcières, diables et bûchers en
against accused witches. For example, in Au g s b u r g , Franche-Comté aux XVIe etXVIIe siècles.Besançon: Cètre.
Ge r m a n y’s largest city, one-fourth of the 101 people Schormann, Gerhard. 1977. Hexenprozesse in Nodwestdeutschland.
tried for witchcraft between 1581 and 1653 were ban- Hildesheim: August Lax.
ished (Behringer 1997, 43). Calvin’s Republic of Sharpe, James. 1997. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early
Geneva clearly preferred this intermediate punishment; Modern England.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
here, only seven of almost a hundred suspected witches Press.
Soman, Alfred. 1978. “The Parlement of Paris and the Great
who endured tort u re without confessing we re fre e d ,
Witch Hunt (1565–1640).” Sixteenth Century Journal
while nearly all the remainder were banished. Although
9:31–44.
re l a t i vely few rural regions seem to have followed this
Strobino, Sandrine. 1996. Françoise sauvée des flammes? Une
practice, suspected witches we re more often banished
valaisanne accusée desorcellerie au XVe siècle.Lausanne:
than liberated in two Walloon provinces of the Low
Université de Lausanne.
Countries, Namur and Artois. Usually, it was the other Taric Zumsteg, Fabienne. 2000. Les sorciers à l’assaut du village
way around. If, north of Geneva, the Catholic free city Gollion (1615–1631).Lausanne: Editions du Zèbre.
Acquittals 9 |
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Tschaikner, Manfred. 1992. “Damit das Böse ausgerottet werde: the rendition of scriptural terms as “witch” in English is
Hexenverfolgungen in Vorarlberg im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert.” a mistranslation, and hence the “witches” of the Bible,
Bregenz: Vorarlbereger Autorengesellschaft. and the scriptural passages dealing with them, have no
Vidal, Jacques. 1987. “Le Parlement de Toulouse et la répression
relevance for witches as they were understood in seven-
de la sorcellerie au milieu du XVIIe siècle.” Pp. 511–527 in
teenth-century England.
Hommages à Gérard Boulvert.Nice: Université de Nice.
Ady agreed with Reginald Scot (whom he fre q u e n t l y
cited with evident approval) that the witches in the Bi b l e
Ady, Thomas we re simply cheats. Later in the work he lambasted
Thomas Ady’s A Candle in the Dark: or, a Treatise con- Roman Catholic writers, whom he called “popish blood-
cerning the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft: being s u c k e r s” (139), and also criticized English demonological
Advice to Judges, Sheriffes, Justices of the Peace, and writers. For example, he dismissed Thomas Cooper,
Grand Jury Men, what to do, before they passe Sentence on author of a witchcraft tract published in 1617, for having
such as are arraigned for their Lives, as Witches,was pub- fallen into “p o p i s h” errors, as well as John Gaule and
lished in London in 1656 and reissued in 1661 as A George Gi f f o rd, even though he gave them rather more
Perfect Discovery of Witches. Shewing the divine Cause of polite treatment. In t e re s t i n g l y, William Pe rk i n s’s
the Distractions of this Kingdome, and also of the demonological tract caused Ady considerable pro b l e m s .
Christian World.The book, usually cited under its orig- He apparently found it hard to believe that such a gre a t
inal title, is regarded among English witchcraft histori- Protestant theologian could advocate witch hunting, and
ans as a major work of skepticism. made a number of rather fanciful suggestions about the
Ady is an obscure figure, who is not known to have origins of the work, supposing variously that it was a
published any other work. He was almost certainly the copy of some Catholic tract that Pe rkins had among his
Thomas Ady who matriculated at Emmanuel College, papers with the intention of refuting it, or that it had
Cambridge, in 1624, earning his MA in 1631. Hi s been planted in Pe rk i n s’s study after his death as part of a
Candle in the Da rk was a we l l - c o n s t ructed and flu e n t Catholic plan to discredit him.
book, showing an unrelentingly skeptical line against Ad y’s work is important in reminding the modern
witchcraft. In his preface, Ady made it clear that he reader that it was possible to hold a thoroughly skepti-
anticipated considerable hostility to his arguments, cal line about witchcraft after 1650 without recourse to
comparing his struggle against entrenched belief to that modern rationalism. Ady was clearly a convinced
of David against Goliath. Yet he claimed (perhaps ficti- Protestant, who regarded the witch beliefs of his period
tiously) that he had talked his ideas through with as a massive mistake that depended upon a faulty
acquaintances, and that he was generally able to con- understanding of scriptural texts and that perpetuated
vince them of the problems with scriptural references to much because of the massive ignorance of the Ro m a n
witchcraft. In t e re s t i n g l y, Ady at this point suggested Catholic Church. His book was dedicated to “t h e
that if convinced of the bankruptcy of supposed scrip- Prince of the Kings of Earth,” Jesus Christ, in the hope
tural references, believers would then either fall back on that enlightenment about witchcraft would spre a d
Jean Bodin “or some such popish vain writer,” or cite t h rough his influence; Ady added a second dedication
such cases as the Lancashire trials of 1612, or else claim to “the more judicious and wise, and discreet part of the
that they had heard witchcraft narratives “c re d i b l y clergie of England.”
re p o rted from men of worth and quality.” Ady dis-
JAMES SHARPE
missed all these tactics as “m o n s t rous impossibilities”
and stressed the centrality of scripture (Ady 1656, 5). See also: COOPER,THOMAS;ENGLAND;GAULE,JOHN;GIFFORD,
At the beginning of the work, Ady asked where scrip- GEORGE;PERKINS,WILLIAM;SCOT,REGINALD;SKEPTICISM.
References and further reading:
tural justification could be found for many of the exist-
Ady,Thomas. 1656. A Candle in the Dark: or, a Treatise concerning
ing notions about witches and witchcraft. Thus, Ad y
the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft: being Advice to Judges,
asked, among other queries, where scripture said that
Sheriffes, Justices of the Peace, and Grand Jury Men, what to do,
witches we re able to kill or cause disease or injury,
before they passe Sentence on such as are arraigned for their Lives,
where it was written that witches had imps that sucked
as Witches.London.
at their teats, where scripture justified the swimming Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
test, and, perhaps the most crucial question, which in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
caused problems for all demonological writers, where
the scriptural re f e rences we re for the satanic pact. He Affair of the Poisons (1679–1682)
then addressed the problem of translation, going back The greatest court scandal of the reign of Louis XIV of
to the original Hebrew texts and also reviewing what he France erupted in the fall of 1678 after Nicolas de la
regarded as the best Latin translations, notably those of Reynie, lieutenant general of the Paris police, received
Junius and Tremellius. He used a technique alre a d y word of a plot to poison Louis XIV. La Reynie’s
familiar among skeptical writers, demonstrating that subsequent investigation uncovered a criminal magical
10 Ady, Thomas |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 48 | 46049 Golden Chap. A av First Pages 08/24/2005 p.11 Application File
underworld with clientele who extended from the bot- While bringing the Affair of the Poisons to a close,
tom to the very top of the social scale. The inquiry fur- Louis XIV issued a royal edict, the first of its kind in
ther suggested that a score of Louis XIV’s female Eu rope, that restricted the sale of poisons. The edict
courtiers, including his official mistress Madame de f u rther declared all magical practices to be fraudulent
Montespan, had purchased poisons to rid themselves of and ordered anyone who claimed to perform “so-called
their rivals and commissioned ceremonies of love magic acts of magic” to be banished from his kingdom. Louis
in their attempts to win the affections of the king. XIV, in effect, forbade his subjects to believe in magic at
While La Reynie’s investigation eventually exonerated the same time that he inaugurated state regulations on
Madame de Montespan from the crime of poisoning, “controlled substances.”
he concluded that she had probably participated in a The members of the criminal magical underw o r l d
series of demonic conjurations, or amatory masses, that Louis XIV sought to eradicate peddled spells for
intended to maintain her hold over the king. almost eve ry conceivable desire. While charms that
Louis XIV’s initial response to the growing scandal promised success at the gaming table or balms that pro-
was swift. He immediately appointed a special judicial tected one in battle proved popular, Parisians sought
commission to try all suspects implicated in the affair, out love magic beyond all else. The city’s sorc e re s s e s
regardless of rank. By 1682, when the king finally dis- therefore offered their clients an extensive range of love
s o l ved the Chambre de l’Arsenal (named after the charms that can be grouped into three general cate-
building in which the commission met), its judges had gories. The first included potions composed of such
i n vestigated over 400 of his subjects, sending 36 to substances as menstrual blood, cauls, and Spanish fly,
their deaths, 4 more to the galleys, and 34 others into which were believed to possess supernatural properties
exile. Ne ve rtheless, approximately 60 suspects we re as aphrodisiacs.
never tried at all; Louis XIV considered their testimony Rituals of love magic, held over a potion to increase
regarding his mistress’s patronage of the notorious sor- its strength, fall into the second category. In vo k i n g
ceress La Voisin too inflammatory to be heard even by h e a venly aid to fulfill the client’s desires, these cere-
his handpicked judges. These suspects we re instead monies drew upon the common magical tradition of
placed in solitary confinement, usually in re m o t e the Middle Ages and coopted the practices, imagery,
fortresses, for the rest of their lives. and sacraments of the Catholic Church. Clients of La
Depiction of an amatory Mass held over the nude body of Madame de Montespan, a mistress of King Louis XIV of France. Montespan and others
at court had been accused of poisoning and love magic. (TopFoto.co.uk)
Affair of the Poisons 11 |
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Voisin, for example, commissioned rituals in which the has influenced important scholars working on witch-
s o rc e ress lit candles that had been burned during a craft in the West. Beliefs in witchcraft and the regular
mass, intoned prayers to the Trinity in Latin, and then use of measures to diagnose and control its influence
inscribed the names of the would-be lovers in wax h a ve formed a persistent element in sub-Sa h a r a n
before throwing them into an open flame to be literally African cultures and societies. Missionary and govern-
and figuratively melted together. mental efforts to suppress them have proved largely
The final and most potent category of love magic ineffectual, and recent social changes, including
a vailable invo l ved elaborate demonic cere m o n i e s , increased urbanization, sometimes appear to have been
drawn from the medieval tradition of learned magic, accompanied by more popular anxiety about witches
celebrated with the assistance of a renegade priest. An rather than less.
ordained priest could, it had long been held, divert the A n t h ropologists have studied African witchcraft inten-
sacerdotal power that allowed him to perform the mira- s i vely since the 1930s, when Ed w a rd Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rdp u b-
cle of the Mass for magical ends. The priests arre s t e d lished his classic study on the Azande of the Sudan. Su c h
during the Affair of the Poisons, howe ve r, confessed w o rk not only threw much light on witchcraft within
that they had developed a uniquely sacrilegious ceremo- Africa, but it also exe rcised considerable influence on
ny of love magic. Their amatory masses, celebrated over p e rceptions of the subject in early modern Eu rope, espe-
the naked stomach of a living woman, allegedly lure d cially through the works of Keith Thomas (1970) and
forth demons with the sacrifice of an infant for the pur- Alan Macfarlane (1970). Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd firmly estab-
pose of establishing control over another’s thoughts, lished what Max Gluckman (1960) called the “logic”
emotions, and actions. of African witchcraft beliefs, superceding earlier
La Re y n i e’s investigation into the Affair of the notions that they re p resented a prerational mentality,
Poisons re vealed not only the sacrilegious activities of and later work illustrated how such beliefs and accusa-
the members of the criminal magical underworld, but tions arising from them could be understood only in
their murd e rous ones as well. Would-be lovers seeking the context of the system of social relations in which
to rid themselves of rivals or spouses, he discove re d , they we re embedded. It was also clear that witchcraft
could hire Parisian magical practitioners to perf o r m beliefs and accusations we re a regular feature of eve ry-
spells or rituals that promised to bring death to those day life in African societies, in addition to their height-
who stood in the way of their passions. If murder by ened levels during more turbulent episodes of orga-
magical means failed, clients of Pa r i s’s sorc e resses could n i zed witch hunting, such as those in Zambia and
readily purchase a variety of poisons, including Tanzania in the 1930s and in several areas since then
hemlock, vitriol, and arsenic. Howe ve r, the s e c ret du ( Abrahams 1985; Richards 1972; Willis 1970).
c ra p a u d ( s e c ret of the toad, a solution allegedly The term witchcrafthas come under close scrutiny in
composed of salt, arsenic, and toad venom) was Africa. In an extension of early modern European con-
reputed to be the most toxic and undetectable poison. nections between witchcraft and the Devil, Christian
missionaries and others have sometimes mistakenly
LYNN WOOD MOLLENAUER
used the word to refer to indigenous religious beliefs
See also: BLACKMASS;CLERICALMAGIC; FRANCE;LOVEMAGIC; and practices in general, apparently on the assumption
MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGIC,POPULAR;POISON;POTIONS;TOADS. that the worship of any but the true god must involve
References and further reading:
the Devil to some degree. A narrower and more suitable
Bluche, François. 1990. Louis XIV.Translated by Mark Greengrass.
a p p roach stresses the believed mysterious power of
NewYork: Franklin Watts.
human beings to cause life-threatening harm to each
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge:
other by evil thoughts or the use of magical rites and
Cambridge University Press.
substances. However, the fact that most European com-
Lebigre, Arlette. 1989. L’affaire des poisons.Paris: Complexe.
Mongrédien, Georges. 1953. Madame de Montespan et l’affaire des mentators do not believe in witchcraft, whereas it is a
poisons.Paris: Hachette. “f a c t” of eve ryday experience for many Africans, has
Oliver, Reggie. 2001. “The Poisons Affair.” HistoryToday,March, caused some concerns, particularly with re g a rd to the
28–34. official legal systems of most colonial and postcolonial
Somerset, Anne. 2003. The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, African states. Because legislation has been largely
Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV.London: aimed at suppressing accusations rather than at witch-
Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
craft, many citizens of such countries consider their
Wolf, John. 1968. Louis XIV.NewYork: Norton.
government to be the “witches’ friend.” In some places,
such as the Maka area of Cameroon, a more positive
Africa (Sub-Saharan) legal approach to indigenous beliefs and practices has
Witchcraft in sub-Saharan Africa forms an interesting been adopted to deal with this problem, though there is
contrast to witchcraft in the West, and some of the evidence that relatively rich and influential individuals
scholarly work that has been done on African witchcraft h a ve sometimes turned this new approach to their
12 Africa (Sub-Saharan) |
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a d vantage by bringing successful accusations against neighbors with a strong ethical emphasis upon good
less pro s p e rous and allegedly envious villagers (Fi s i y neighborliness, including sharing food. Among the
and Geschiere 1990, 2001). Pondo, in contrast, villages consist largely of groups of
It has also become clear that the single term w i t c h- close or distant kinfolk among whom sexual re l a t i o n s
c ra f t may not do justice to the diversity of beliefs in so a re considered incestuous. Also, at the time of the
many different cultures or even to the complexity of s t u d y, they lived in a racially divided society in which
the concepts of a particular African society. For exam- interracial sexual relations we re strictly forbidden.
ple, Azande distinguish between harm caused by psy- Again, unlike the Nyakyusa, they have a keen interest,
chic processes (m a n g u —glossed by Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd as in part through the possibilities of inheritance, in the
“w i t c h c r a f t”) and harm caused through the use of maintenance of the well-being of each other’s herd s .
materia medica (which Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd calls “s o r- Wilson related the Pondo emphasis on sex to the for-
c e ry”). Zande mangu is typically inherited, and it is a bidden sexual attraction between neighboring kinfolk
p u rely psychic, not always conscious act, though and suggested that the light-skinned familiar symbol-
nonetheless lethal unless counteracted. In contrast, i zed the prohibition on sex between different racial
“s o rc e ry” is learned, conscious, and invo l ves physical groups.
manipulation of materials. Comparable ideas are Witchcraft beliefs in Africa commonly provide an
found elsew h e re, for instance, an “e v i l - e ye” power to explanation of misfortune, though not simply a
harm by simply looking at a victim or harming vic- mechanical one. While many Africans might claim that
tims by using their hair or nail cuttings. Howe ve r, not a person who was crushed beneath a falling granary was
all societies divide such different powers conceptually a victim of witchcraft, they are also clearly aware that
with the same sharpness as the Azande. In some cul- the structure may well have collapsed as a result of ter-
t u res, individuals are believed to possess a general mite damage to its supports. The question remains for
p ower to harm others—sometimes thought of as a them, howe ve r, why the granary collapsed at the time
“s n a k e” in their belly—which may be manifested in when the victim was sitting there, and witchcraft is
d i f f e rent ways. This power is not always thought of as commonly cited as the reason for this. The evil power
necessarily evil in itself. Sometimes it can be used for of other persons is thus brought into account, though it
the public good, by respected elders against persistent is additionally re c o g n i zed that a victim may have
w rongdoers, for example, but it is often seen as being b e h a ved in such a way as to antagonize the witch in
used for evil, as a result of ambition, greed, or envy. In question. In the modern West, such occurrences are
some cases, there is a gender division, with male usually seen as impersonal coincidences or “acts of
witchcraft generally seen as positive, while that of God,” despite an increasing tendency to hold owners or
women is considered re p rehensible and evil. builders legally responsible for negligence in such cases.
Sometimes “o rd i n a ry” day-witchcraft is distinguished The explanation of the event through witchcraft consti-
f rom night-witchcraft, which is considered especially tutes a part of African theodicy (the attempt to under-
evil and deadly. stand the presence and significance of suffering and evil
Su b - Saharan African witches are often said to have in the world). However, there are usually limits to the
familiars—cats and hyenas are commonly cited, and customary use of such explanation. A potter whose pots
owls are not infrequently associated with witches—but regularly crack is more likely to be judged a poor
t h e re is considerable variation on this and in beliefs craftsman than a victim of witchcraft. Si m i l a r l y, pleas
about other details of witches’ activities. In an art i c l e that criminal or other bad behavior is due to the
originally published in 1951, Monica Wilson (1972) bewitchment of the perpetrator are unlikely to be treat-
showed how such variation may also be connected with ed sympathetically.
local social stru c t u res. Among the Pondo of So u t h The incidence of witchcraft accusations is rarely ran-
Africa, for instance, witches are said to work through a dom. Cultural stereotypes of witches exist in most
familiar—often a hairy creature known as tikoloshewith African cultures—people may assert that a witch is typ-
exaggerated sexual characteristics, but sometimes a ically a woman or an old cripple (or both), or that
baboon or cat or other animal. The familiar can trans- witches typically have red eyes. Howe ve r, with the
form itself into a sexually attractive person with light exception of some victims of more general witch hunts,
skin color and is always of the opposite sex to the witch, those accused may well not fit such stereotypes. In such
with whom it has sexual relations. Among the cases, it becomes necessary to inquire into the relation-
Nyakyusa of Tanzania, howe ve r, the main emphasis is ship between victim or accuser and accused, because
upon witches’ lust for milk and meat, and they are the accuser may be different from the victim; for exam-
thought to suck the udders of cows until they die and ple, a parent may bring an accusation on behalf of a
also to love human flesh. Wilson related these differ- b ewitched child. Especially within the field of kinship
ences to the structure of local communities. Among the and family ties, some relationships may be particularly
Nyakyusa, villages are made up of largely unre l a t e d subject to strain and more likely to be marked by
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accusations of witchcraft. Competition for a husband’s A diagnosis of witchcraft is usually conducted by
favor and for resources for their own children is a com- consultation of oracles or expert diviners. The familiar
mon feature of relations between the wives of a polygy- image of the all-powerful and evil African “witch doc-
nist, and the jealousy of a childless co-wife may be par- tor” is, however, largely a fiction of Western writers and
ticularly feared. Accusations of witchcraft are especially filmmakers. Often the diviner, or witch doctor, is mere-
common in such cases, though not always as fre q u e n t ly a member of a village community who has special
as some men assert. Accusations are also common skills. He (or she) may have been called into divining
between certain cousins or between uncle and nephew after a misfortune. This misfortune may be diagnosed
in family systems where such persons are inevitably as being sent by an ancestor who was a diviner, who
brought into competition and conflict by the nature of thus indicates a wish for the descendant to follow the
the ties between them. Max Ma rwick (1970) has sug- same path, and the future diviner would then be
gested in this context that witchcraft accusations can a p p renticed to a practicing expert and eventually take on
serve for the observer as a gauge of social strains in cer- the role him- or herself. Much of the necessary skill may
tain structurally defined relationships. be learned less through formal instruction than through
Witchcraft is more likely to be a major concern in observation or claimed revelation in dreams. The divin-
some kinds of social system than in others. Wi t c h er generally lives largely like other villagers, as a family
beliefs are not subject to strictly logical proof or dis- man or woman engaged in the annual cycle of produc-
proof—even a fraudulent witch finder may still believe tion. Only people living in fairly close proximity con-
that there are others who are genuine—and We s t e r n sult most diviners, but some gain special re p u t a t i o n s
notions of coincidence and accident do not offer a and may re c e i ve visits from clients who live at a dis-
demonstrably more convincing explanation of misfor- tance. In some special cases, a well-known diviner and
tune. Such beliefs about the powers of human beings ritual expert may be summoned from a great distance
are held or abandoned not because they are demonstra- to provide help in the investigation of misfortune, or
bly right or wrong, but because they make good or poor the protection of a new house from misfortune. Some
sense in the context of the believer’s experience of social even have international reputations. In some places, any
life. In a society where communities are tied to the land death is usually followed by a diagnostic séance held by
t h rough agriculture, where many hands make light a group of local diviners.
w o rk, and where villagers are bound to each other by Di v i n a t o ry techniques va ry widely from place to place.
strong links of kinship or mutual dependence between Poison may be administered to a chicken, and its re a c-
neighbors, the idea that people may have power ove r tion indicates the invo l vement of a witch and the witch’s
each other’s well-being makes much sense. Conversely, i d e n t i t y. Ob s e rvations of the way in which bones or eve n
Paul Baxter (1972) has argued that in pastoral nomadic sandals fall, or how objects move in stirred water, are
societies, where people are freer to move away fro m common. So too is the examination of the entrails of a
each other and from the tensions involved in their rela- s l a u g h t e red animal or the configuration of the feathers
tionships, witchcraft fears and accusations are of re l a- on a bird killed for the occasion. Some diviners specialize
tively slight importance. In the same vein, evidence sug- in “s m e l l i n g” out the information they re q u i re from a
gests that witchcraft fears and accusations tend to twig or other object obtained from the sick or deceased
i n c rease when scattered populations have been forc e d person or the person’s re p re s e n t a t i ve. Ordeals invo l v i n g
to live in more compact settlements, whether for pro- e x p o s u re to boiling water or hot metal have also been his-
tection against raiding or by governmental decree. torically re p o rted from some are a s .
Despite the immense pain and disruption that they Despite important local and historical va r i a t i o n ,
can clearly cause, African witch beliefs and accusations social and political change has always been a signific a n t
may also serve some useful functions. In societies where element in African life. New ideas about witchcraft
people are afraid to antagonize each other, high stan- and new techniques for diagnosing it and dealing with
dards of interpersonal behavior and generosity may be it have entered different areas at different times, and
maintained in an attempt to avoid being either accused labor migration and urbanization, coupled with deve l-
as a witch or a victim of a witchcraft attack. Also, in sit- oping transport facilities, have facilitated their spre a d .
uations where fission within kinship groups is fraught Nonetheless, significant regional variations still occur.
with tension but is structurally inevitable, accusations In Tanzania, for example (Green 1994), some southern
of witchcraft, with their implications of behavior which a reas have developed we l l - o r g a n i zed techniques and
is beyond the pale and the opposite of that expected complex social institutions for identifying witches and
between kinfolk, may serve as a justifying catalyst in the for peacefully cleansing them of their witchcraft. At
p rocess. Mo re generally, the ascription of problems to the same time, village vigilante groups, known as
the evil activities of witches can dive rt attention away Sungusungu, have emerged in other areas of the
from the structural problems of the social system onto c o u n t ry (Abrahams 1998, chap. 2; Bu k u rura 1994).
the alleged evil of individuals. These groups have devoted themselves to maintaining
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o rder in the presence of perc e i ved state inefficiency in fears that others may have both the motive and the
this re g a rd. Their main targets have been cattle theft witchcraft power to harm. Those who are successful
and brigandage, on the one hand, and witchcraft on sometimes fear the jealousy of others in an incre a s i n g l y
the other, and they have sometimes been re s p o n s i b l e c o m p e t i t i ve world, and sometimes the successful
for maltreating and occasionally killing suspected t h e m s e l ves are believed to have enhanced their pro s-
witches. In the same region, a large number of more perity through witchcraft, for example, thro u g h
p r i vate murders, allegedly instigated in some cases by b ewitching others and using them as members of a
the re l a t i ves of suspects, have also been re p o rted. T h e s e c ret zombie labor force. Some modern institutions
suspected witches are often older women, and many may be feared as locations of witchcraft activity, as
h a ve fled to urban areas for protection. Slightly ove r o c c u r red in Uganda in the 1950s when there we re
3,000 such witchcraft-related killings, mainly of re p o rts that the Fi re Se rvice was invo l ved in a mysteri-
women, are said to have occurred in the Shinyanga and ous and sinister trade in human blood. It appears at
Mwanza regions of the country (population ca. 3.5 least initially that such persistence is at odds with argu-
million) between 1970 and 1988 (Mesaki 1994). ments that tie belief in witchcraft to traditional social
Mu rders of suspected witches have also begun to re a c h systems. The adaptability of such beliefs and the fact
high levels in South Africa, where they appear to be that most urban dwellers still have close structural and
connected with political and economic tensions cultural links to rural communities are no doubt
( Niehaus 2001). i m p o rtant factors here. It has also been suggested
In much of Africa, as elsewhere, witchcraft is said to ( Sanders 2001) that increasing invo l vement in an
be particularly associated with women. Such stereotypi- expanding commercial world, where eve rything imag-
cal perceptions of female witchcraft among the Nupe of inable appears to be for sale, tends to enhance the fear
Nigeria have been interpreted as expressions of that those who seek the power to harm others can re a d-
male–female conflict in a society with a poor fit ily obtain it.
b e t ween women’s “ideally” subordinate position and
RAY ABRAHAMS
the realities of their economic power; deep-seated psy-
chosexual antagonisms may also be invo l ved (Na d e l See also:ANTHROPOLOGY;EVANS-PRITCHARD,EDWARD;FAMILIARS;
1954). On the basis of her research among the Gonja of MACFARLANE,ALAN;THOMAS,KEITH.
References and further reading:
Ghana, Esther Goody (1970) suggested a more general
Abrahams, Ray. 1985. “A Modern Witchhunt Among the Lango
theory. Unlike men, Gonja women have no legitimate
of Uganda.” CambridgeAnthropology10, no. 1: 32–45.
channels to express aggression, and attributing evil
———. 1998. Vigilant Citizens:Vigilantism and the State.Oxford:
mystical power to them seems a corollary of this. Both
Polity.
arguments make sense in other areas of Africa, includ-
Abrahams, Ray, ed. 1994. Witchcraft in ContemporaryTanzania.
ing Tanzania. Among the Nyamwezi, where witches are Cambridge: African Studies Centre.
s t e reotypically women, female violence and aggre s s i o n Baxter, Paul. 1972. “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder:
are strongly disapproved of. At the same time, men are Some Suggestions Why Witchcraft Accusations Are Rare
u n c o m f o rtably conscious of the power that women Among African Pastoralists.” Pp. 163–191 in The Allocation of
wield in several contexts, including, signific a n t l y, the Responsibility.Edited by MaxGluckman. Manchester:
c o n t rol of food, despite their jurally subordinate posi- Manchester University Press.
Bukurura, Sufian. 1994. “Sungusungu and the Banishment of
tion in the household and society. Polygyny is also a
Suspected Witches in Kahama.” Pp. 61–69 in Witchcraft in
source of anxiety for Nyamwezi men, both as a source
ContemporaryTanzania.Edited by Ray Abrahams. Cambridge:
of conflict between wives and as evidence, for some,
African Studies Centre.
that women must outnumber them. It may also be sig-
Evans-Pritchard, Edward. 1937. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic
n i ficant, both there and among other groups, that a
Among the Azande of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.Oxford:
common story of the origins of death ascribes it to con- Clarendon.
flict between co-wives (Abrahams 1994). Fisiy, Cyprian, and Peter Geschiere. 1990. “Judges and Witches, or
The persistence of African witchcraft beliefs, despite How is the State to Deal with Witchcraft?” Cahiers d’Etudes
a wide variety of social, economic, and political Africaines118: 135–156.
changes, shows that such ideas are both deeply ro o t e d ———. 2001. “Development and Paranoia in Cameroon.”
and adaptable. New situations bring new uncert a i n t i e s , Pp. 226–246 in Magical Interpretation, Material Realities:
Modernity,Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa.
anxieties, and problems in their train, and witchcraft
Edited by Henrietta Moore and Todd Sanders. London:
beliefs continue, sometimes with a shift of emphasis or
Routledge.
with new elaborations, to provide some explanation.
Gluckman, Max. 1960. “The Logic in Witchcraft.” InCustom and
Economic development with the inequalities that
Conflict in Africa.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
commonly accompany it, and even the greater imper-
Goody, Esther. 1970. “Legitimate and Illegitimate Aggression in a
sonality of urban life and modern, bureaucratic institu- West African State.” Pp. 207–244 in Witchcraft Confessions and
tions still provide favorable environments for powe rf u l Accusations.Edited by Mary Douglas. London: Tavistock.
Africa (Sub-Saharan) 15 |
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Green, Maia. 1994. “Shaving Witchcraft in Ulanga.” Pp. 23–45 in time of trial primarily as a reflection of the fact that a
Witchcraft in ContemporaryTanzania.Edited by Ray Abrahams. woman often lived for many years in her community as
Cambridge: African Studies Centre. a reputed witch before her neighbors accused her for-
Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stewart England.
mally of witchcraft.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
The idea that older women we re somewhat more
Marwick, Max. 1972. “Witchcraft as a Social Strain-Gauge.” Pp.
vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft than other age
280–295 in Witchcraft and Sorcery.Edited by Max Marwick.
or gender groups tells us only part of the complex story
Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
of the reasons for and the targets of witchcraft accusa-
Mesaki, Simeon. 1994. “Witch-Killing in Sukumaland.” Pp.
47–60 in Witchcraft in ContemporaryTanzania.Edited by Ray tion in the early modern period, however. A closer look
Abrahams. Cambridge: African Studies Centre. at the data available on the age and gender of those
Moore, Henrietta, and Todd Sanders, eds. 2001. Magical tried for witchcraft shows that contemporaries we re
Interpretation, Material Realities: Modernity,Witchcraft and the capable of imagining people of both genders and all
Occult in Postcolonial Africa.London: Routledge. ages as witches. The belief was that witchcraft was an
Nadel, Siegfried. 1954. Nupe Religion.London: Routledge and evil art that could be learned by anyone, and witchcraft
Kegan Paul.
accusations could emerge from a wide variety of situa-
Niehaus, Isak. 2001. “Witchcraft in the New South Africa.” Pp.
tions of social conflict between individuals or house-
184–205 in Magical Interpretation, Material Realities:
holds. The age of an alleged witch was thus just one of a
Modernity,Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa.
combination of factors, including gender, as well as
Edited by Henrietta Moore and Todd Sanders.London:
social, economic, or marital status, that one must take
Routledge.
Richards, Audrey. 1972. “A Modern Movement of Witchfinders.” into account when seeking to explain the vulnerability
Pp. 64–77 in Witchcraft and Sorcery.Edited by Max Marwick. of specific individuals to witchcraft accusations. T h e
Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. First published in Africa8, no. ove remphasis on the “witch as old woman” stere o t y p e
4 (1935): 448–461. in witchcraft historiography has been shaped to a large
Sanders, Todd. 2001. “Save our Skins: Structural Adjustment, extent by the work of such skeptical early modern
Morality and the Occult in Tanzania.” Pp. 160–183 in Magical demonologists as Johann We yer and Johann Ge o r g
Interpretation, Material Realities: Modernity,Witchcraft and the
Goedelmann, who emphasized this stereotype as a
Occult in Postcolonial Africa.Edited by Henrietta Moore and
means of criticizing the persecutory zeal of the witch
Todd Sanders.London: Routledge.
hunters.
Thomas, Keith. 1970. “The Relevance of Anthropology to the
Study of English Witchcraft.” Pp. 47–79 in Witchcraft
Confessions and Accusations.Edited by Mary Douglas. London:
Gathering and Presenting Data
Tavistock.
on the Ages of Accused Witches
Willis, Roy. 1970. “Instant Millennium: The Sociology of African
Gathering data on the ages of accused witches is a dif-
Witch Cleansing Cults.” Pp. 129–139 in Witchcraft Confessions
ficult undertaking. Judicial authorities who tried
and Accusations.Edited by Mary Douglas. London. Tavistock.
Wilson, Monica. 1972. “Witch Beliefs and Social Structure.” Pp. alleged witches rarely re c o rded their ages; even during
252–263 in Witchcraft and Sorcery.Edited by Max Marwick. the seventeenth century, when re c o rding ages became
Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. First published inAmerican m o re common, it was not standard pro c e d u re. We can
Journal of Sociology56 (1951): 307–313. sometimes estimate a suspect’s age from indirect clues
o f f e red in trial testimony, from re f e rences to the num-
ber of times they had been married, for example, or the
Age of Accused Witches
number and marital status of their children, or the
Ask people to describe the typical victim of an early length of their reputation as a witch. This is ve ry
modern witchcraft trial, and most will probably reply painstaking work, howe ve r, which helps explain why
that she was an old woman. Although relatively little re l a t i vely little systematic re s e a rch has been done on
research has in fact been done by historians on the ages the correlation between age and vulnerability to witch-
of accused witches, the limited data gathered thus far craft accusation. Fi g u res published on this theme are
suggests that there is an element of truth in the “witch usually based on suspects for whom age is known with
as old woman” stereotype: In many areas, and particu- the highest degree of certainty from trial re c o rd s .
larly in the sixteenth century, women aged fifty and This approach can be problematic for two re a s o n s .
above were overrepresented among accused witches in First, it probably skews the picture in favor of the
relation to their proportion of the overall population in youngest and oldest alleged witches, as their extre m e s
early modern Europe. Their greater vulnerability to of age we re most likely to have been re g a rded as note-
accusations of witchcraft has been explained in differ- w o rthy by court scribes. Second, suspects of explicitly
ent ways. Some scholars link it to the effects of or roughly known age usually constituted only a tiny
menopause; some link it to older women’s economic fraction of the total number of people tried for witch-
and marital status; still others see advanced age at the craft in any particular area. For example, of the 314
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Witches Dancing at the Sabbat,from Francesco Maria Guazzo’s Compendium Maleficarum (A Summary of Witches),1608. The elaborate
clothing indicates that these witches were from a wealthy social group. (Art Archive/Dagli Orti)
people tried as witches at the Assize and Qu a rt e r aged fifty and above we re particularly vulnerable to
Session Courts in Essex, England, between 1560 and witchcraft accusations. Howe ve r, when known ages of
1680, Alan Macfarlane was able to establish the ages of accused witches are sorted by gender and presented in
only 15 tried in 1645 (all of whom we re female): Tw o n a r rower age-ranges (see Table II), we can see that,
we re aged forty to forty-nine, and the rest we re fif t y while middle-aged and older women we re ove r re p re-
and above (Macfarlane 1999, 161). This small sample sented amongst witchcraft suspects, female and males
has been used to suggest that 87 percent of Essex of all ages were vulnerable to witchcraft accusations.
witches we re aged fifty and above (Be ver 1982, 181).
Under 20 6 18 24
We cannot, howe ve r, be sure that the other 299
21–30 3 7 10
suspects (95 percent) tried in Essex had the same age
31–40 3 8 11
p ro file as those 15 women, making such conclusions
41–50 6 18 24
t e n t a t i ve at best. For the Jura region, the ages of witch-
51–60 5 23 28
craft suspects we re re c o rded reasonably frequently only
61–70 4 8 12
in Ge n e va, yet William Monter concluded that the
Over 70 3 6 9
median age of sixty for accused witches in Ge n e va
Total 30 88 118
seemed typical of the rural Jura regions as well (Mo n t e r
1976, 122–123). Table A-1: Ages and genders of 165 people accused as
Although he did not categorise by gender, Be ve r witches during the Salem witchcraft outbreak for whom
(1982) used the figures in Table 1 to argue that women minimal information is available (Demos 1970, 1315).
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Older Women’s Vulnerability not their behavior but their bodies that re n d e re d
to Witchcraft Accusations: postmenopausal women vulnerable to being perc e i ve d
Explanatory Models in this way, because their shriveled breasts and barre n
Historians have offered various explanations for the wombs were regarded with particular fear and loathing
overrepresentation of women aged fifty and above in early modern culture, which held fertility in extreme-
among accused witches in early modern Europe and ly high esteem. The body of the postmenopausal
America. Some have suggested that it was the lowly eco- woman was conceptualized by early modern medical
nomic and social status of older women that rendered theory as literally poisonous, because it no longer regu-
them more vulnerable to witchcraft accusations. In the larly expelled its supposedly poisonous menstru a l
early 1970s, for example, Alan Macfarlane and Keith blood. However, too little research has been done on its
Thomas argued that English witches were more likely cultural perception and representation in early modern
to be older women because such women were more Europe to permit any firm conclusions.
likely than other age–gender groups to be poor and
thus reliant on their neighbors for material assistance. Older Women’s Vulnerability
They were thus more likely to become involved in ten- to Witchcraft Accusations:
sion-ridden verbal exchanges over requests for assis- Length of Reputation
tance with wealthier neighbors, who were increasingly The explanations for older women’s vulnerability to
unwilling to give it because of increasing population witchcraft accusation discussed above may indeed apply
pressure on resources during the early modern period. in certain cases, but they can also be criticized on vari-
According to Thomas and Macfarlane, wealthier vil- ous grounds. The T h o m a s – Macfarlane explanatory
lagers might then use an accusation of witchcraft model, for instance, implies both that the targets of
against a poor, old woman in order to legitimate their witchcraft accusation were almost invariably old, poor
own lack of charity toward her and as a means of loos- women and that witchcraft accusations almost invari-
ening the bonds of neighborly obligation that had tra- ably arose from situations of social conflict in which a
ditionally existed within their community. wealthier neighbor had refused a poorer one material
For Thomas, the poverty of older women was often assistance. More recent research done on witchcraft tri-
linked to widowhood: Old, poor widows we re most als, however, has shown that accusations of witchcraft
likely to be reliant on neighborly assistance and thus emerged from a wide variety of different conflicts with-
were at greatest risk of being accused of witchcraft. Erik in communities, and that the range of suspected witch-
Mi d e l f o rt also emphasized the significance of marital es was there f o re much larger than the “poor old
status in explaining a woman’s vulnerability to witch- woman” stereotype suggests. In certain English, Swiss,
craft accusation. He suggested that widows (and single and German communities, for example, accusations of
women) ran a higher risk of being accused of witchcraft witchcraft were not made by the wealthy against poor-
because they lacked the social and legal protection a er neighbors, but rather by those of lower social and
husband afforded; women who lived beyond the reach economic status against their wealthier neighbors. Such
of patriarchal control we re automatically re g a rded as accusations expressed the envy felt by the less well off
suspect. Wi d ows we re also ove r re p resented among the and offered a means to redistribute power within a
women accused of witchcraft in the duchy of Lorraine, community: In such cases, relatively wealthy, socially
around half of the total (Briggs 2002, 228), and in the integrated, married women (and men) could become
n e a r by Saarland region of Germany at 64 perc e n t targets. Although poverty might,therefore, increase the
(Labouvie 1991, 173). likelihood of an individual’s involvement in situations
Other historians (e.g., Be ver 1982; Roper 1994, of social tension from which suspicions of witchcraft
199–225) have argued that the life-cycle event of might arise, so might wealth, as well as a variety of
menopause, rather than (or in addition to) a woman’s other factors that had little to do with the individual’s
economic, social, or marital status, provided the crucial economic status.
catalyst in rendering certain women more susceptible to Obviously, a very unpleasant strain of misogyny was
accusations of witchcraft. Be ve r, for example, assert e d directed against old women in the early modern period,
that women aged fifty and above, because of the mental but it is not clear if this resulted simply from a particu-
and physical changes experienced as a result of larly negative perception of their bodies. It is also not
menopause, we re more likely than other age–gender clear how this misogyny became a direct “c a u s e” of
groups to display the hostility and aggression that their witchcraft accusations against specific older women.
neighbors re g a rded as characteristic of witches. Mo re ove r, it is by no means the case that suspected
In c reased irascibility of this sort was exacerbated in witches necessarily behaved in a hostile and aggre s s i ve
poor women, who suffered most from the socioeco- manner, as Bever implied. Trial records show that many
nomic problems caused by demographic pre s s u re on tried to conduct relations with their neighbors in as
re s o u rces. Lyndal Ro p e r, howe ve r, argued that it was amicable a fashion as possible, although these amicable
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s o c i a l e xchanges could be given a sinister meaning by accused of witchcraft at a particular point, but also
neighbors who already feared the suspect as a witch. On when, and how, that person first acquired a reputation
the question of widowhood, the lack of a husband’s for performing witchcraft. Id e a l l y, historians should
p rotection did render a woman more vulnerable to a also try to establish the ages of the accusers and witness-
formal accusation of witchcraft by her neighbors. es who testified against alleged witches, in order to
However, widowhoodby itself was not enough to cause establish how often intergenerational conflict in
such an accusation, which would only be deemed plau- families and communities played a role in witchcraft
sible if the accused woman had already been involved in accusations.
conflict-ridden social relationships with another house-
hold, or was already reputed a witch in her community. A Wide Range of Suspects: Child
Many women who were formally accused of witchcraft Witches and Male Witches
once widowed had probably first gained their re p u t a- Too great a focus on women aged fifty and above as
tions as witches while married. stereotypical witches overlooks the fact that women and
A growing body of evidence suggests that many peo- men of all ages were prosecuted and convicted as witch-
ple tried for witchcraft in early modern Eu rope and es during the early modern period. The wide range of
America had acquired reputations as witches many potential witchcraft suspects can be seen both in
years before being formally accused. In Lorraine, the Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Rowlands 2002) and in the
Saarland, Scotland, and the German city of adolescent-driven Salem witchcraft trials (see table A-I).
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, for example, over half of the This wide range of suspects should not surprise us:
women tried for witchcraft had preexisting reputations Witchcraft accusations could emerge from a variety of
as witches (Rowlands 2002, 178), and in the county of situations of social tensions between neighbors, while
Lippe, such women constituted a majority of those almost anyone could fall victim to an accusation of
accused of witchcraft (Walz 1993, 300–302). So m e witchcraft forced from a suspected witch during inter-
reputations for witchcraft apparently stretched back as rogation under torture. Moreover, the belief that witch-
far as forty or forty-five years; in Rothenburg, the aver- craft was an evil art that could be taught by experienced
age length of reputation as a suspected witch was witches to the as yet uninitiated was so flexible that it
around eighteen years (Rowlands 2002, 178). Women could be applied to a person of any age, gender, or
and men could acquire such reputations from a surpris- social status, either in the role of teacher or pupil. This
ingly young age through association with older reputed was why it was fairly easy for an individual to gain a
witches. Aside from being born into a family of reputed reputation as a witch by association with a household
witches, someone might become the stepchild of a containing others who were already reputed witches:
reputed witch, or a servant in a household of re p u t e d The assumption was that the evil art of witchcraft
witches, or marry into such a household, which would would be passed on among the household’s members. It
render such individuals potentially vulnerable to was partly for this reason that the idea of child witches
witchcraft accusations for most of their live s . was taken so seriously by contemporaries: it made per-
C o m p a r a t i vely young women and men, especially fect, if terrifying, sense to imagine that children had
biological children of reputed witches, could plausibly been corrupted by adult witches.
be accused of witchcraft. Anxiety around the fig u re of the child witch
As long as communities did not suffer large-scale increased dramatically during the early modern period
witch panics, reputed witches could be tolerated within as a result of the significant number of often voluntary
their communities for long periods of time. T h e i r confessions made by children and teenagers re g a rd i n g
neighbors had a variety of nonlegal methods for coping either their bewitchment or seduction into witchcraft
with witchcraft and tended to see formal accusation as a by older witches. The pro p o rtion of children invo l ve d
last resort against a reputed witch—and reputed witch- in witchcraft trials increased significantly in the course
es were rarely defenseless against their neighbors’ suspi- of the seventeenth century in Ge r m a n y, for example.
cions. Mo re ove r, a witch’s power was believed to Of the 133 suspects executed in the course of the
increase with age, perhaps peaking between the ages of Za u b e re r - Ja c k l( So rc e re r - Jack) trials in Salzburg betwe e n
40 and 60, and may possibly have been linked to the 1675 and 1681 (which constituted the last of the large-
cessation of childbearing for women. Women arre s t e d scale south German witch persecutions), two-third s
for witchcraft were therefore often middle-aged by our were under age twenty-one and over one-third were fif-
s t a n d a rds or old by their standards, simply because teen years of age or younger (Schindler 2002, 238). The
their neighbors had waited years, or even decades, fact that most of these youngsters we re boys also
before deciding to take legal action against them. When reminds us that males as well as females were vulnerable
the sources permit, historians investigating the connec- to witchcraft accusations in early modern Europe. The
tions between age and vulnerability to witchcraft accu- proportion of men accused of witchcraft varied greatly
sation need to ask not only why someone was formally t h roughout Eu rope, ranging from a meager 5 perc e n t
Age of Accused Witches 19 |
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in the bishopric of Basel to 92 percent in Ic e l a n d ; ———. 2002. “Stereotypes and Statistics: Old Women and
according to Rolf Schulte’s figures, the average percent- Accusations of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe.”
age of men tried for witchcraft in early modern Europe Pp. 167–186 in Power and Poverty. Old Age in the Pre-Industrial
Past.Edited by Susannah R. Ottaway, L. A. Botelho, and
was around 30 percent (Schulte 2000, 86). In Germany
Katharine Kittredge. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
it was 24 percent, with the proportion of men tried for
S c h i n d l e r, No r b e rt. 2002. Rebellion, Community and Custom in
witchcraft increasing in the seventeenth century, partic-
Ea rly Mo d e rn Ge rm a n y.Cambridge: Cambridge Un i versity Pre s s .
ularly in Catholic areas (Schulte 2000, 81, 88–89).
Schulte, Rolf. 2000. Hexenmeister. Die Verfolgung von Männern im
Although little re s e a rch has been done on the
Rahmen der Hexenverfolgung von 1530–1730 im Alten Reich.
c o r relation between age and vulnerability to Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
accusations of witchcraft among men, the ava i l a b l e Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.
samples (Demos 1970; Labouvie 1991; Row l a n d s Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
2002) suggest similarities between the genders: If men Walz, Rainer. 1993. Hexenglaube und magische Kommunikation im
of all ages could plausibly be accused of witchcraft, Dorf der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Verfolgungen in der Grafschaft
those aged fifty or above seem ove r re p resented in Lippe.Paderborn: Schöningh.
p ro p o rtion to the overall male population. As was the
Agobard of Lyons (ca. 779–840)
case with older women, older men could become
vulnerable to witchcraft accusations for a variety of Au x i l i a ry bishop, then archbishop of Lyons (816–835,
reasons: because they were poor and had to beg, or on 837–840), Agobard was a politically active cleric and the-
the contrary because their wealth excited envy; because ologian during the reign of Louis the Pious (814–840),
they we re antisocial, particularly quarrelsome, or and his treatise against the belief that hail and thunder
verbally aggre s s i ve; because they we re married or could be made by skilled humans is a frequently cited
otherwise related to suspected witches; or because they example of Carolingian clerical skepticism in the face of
had subverted communal norms in any number of ways popular belief and practice related to witchcraft.
and contexts. Like accused female witches, they too In 815 or 816, Agobard encountered a group of peo-
often had long-standing reputations within their ple near Lyons who we re planning to execute three men
communities for practicing witchcraft. and a woman who, their captors claimed, had fallen out
of a ship in the clouds. The ship and its crew, they said,
ALISON ROWLANDS came from a land called Magonia, spreading hailstorms
that destroyed the local crops and then, after negotiations
See also: AC C U S AT I O N S; B O DYO FT H EW I TC H; C H I L D R E N; F E M A L E
with intermediaries paid by the local farmers whose cro p s
W I TC H E S; G E N D E R; G O E D E L M A N N, J O H A N NG E O RG; M AC FA R LA N E,
had been damaged, taking the crops and sailing away.
A LA N; M A L EW I TC H E S; M E LA N C H O LY; M OT H E R H O O D; PE R S O N A L I-
A g o b a rd described the episode in his treatise Against the
TYO FW I TC H E S, S A L E M; S A L Z BU RG, P R I N C E-A RC H H I S H O P R I CO F;
S K E P T I C I S M; S O C I A LA N DE C O N O M I CS TAT U SO FW I TC H E S; Ab s u rd Belief of the People concerning Hail and T h u n d e r.
T H O M A S, K E I T H; W EY E R, J O H A N N. In an appendix to the treatise, Agobard criticized another
References and further reading: belief that enemies of Charlemagne had spread a magical
Bever, Edward. 1982. “Old Age and Witchcraft in Early Modern dust across the fields, killing cattle. Agobard was con-
Europe.” Pp. 150–190 in Old Age in Pre-Industrial Society. cerned about the widespread pre valence of the general
Edited by Peter N. Stearns. NewYork: Holmes and Meier. belief that natural disasters could be caused or re p a i re d
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and Cu l t u ra l
by human agency rather than by God alone. But his per-
Context of Eu ropean Wi t c h c ra f t .2d ed. Oxford: Bl a c k we l l .
s p e c t i ve is that of the critical outsider; now h e re does he
Demos, John. 1970. “Underlying Themes in the Witchcraft of
describe the entire belief system, traces of which he dis-
Seventeenth-Century New England.” American Historical
c ove red in the case of the weather makers from Ma g o n i a .
Review75: 1311–1326.
A g o b a rd was also addressing a topic of common con-
Labouvie, Eva. 1991. Za u b e rei und He xe n we rk. Ländliche He xe n g l a u b e
in der frühen Ne u ze i t .Fr a n k f u rt am Main: Fischer Ta s c h e n b u c h . cern in Carolingian Eu rope, in which cereal agriculture
Macfarlane, Alan. 1999. Wi t c h c raft in Tudor and St u a rt England: A and pastoralism lay at the base of the economy and the
Regional and Compara t i ve St u d y.2d re v. ed. London: Ro u t l e d g e . f a i l u re of one or both had widespread consequences.
Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern People also believed that natural phenomena we re caused
Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. by human agency. T h e re is a considerable legal and peni-
Stanford: Stanford University Press. tential literature from the period prohibiting not the
Monter, E. William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland.
belief in but the practice of various kinds of we a t h e r
The Borderlands during the Reformation. Ithaca and London:
magic, either causing natural disasters or taking action to
Cornell University Press.
p re vent them when others caused them. T h e re is earlier
Roper, Lyndal. 1994. “Witchcraft and Fantasy in Early Modern
evidence of such beliefs and prohibitions in Roman liter-
Germany.” InOedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and
a t u re as well as in sixth- and seve n t h - c e n t u ry Vi s i g o t h i c
Religion in Early Modern Europe.London: Routledge.
Rowlands, Alison. 2001. “Witchcraft and Old Women in Early legal collections. A major theme in the work of Agobard
Modern Germany.” Past andPresent173: 50–89. and his contemporaries was the discrediting of cert a i n
20 Agobard of Lyons |
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kinds of power that people believed to exist and that for witch hunting. Agrarian societies are extremely
some people professed to possess. Reforming clerics dis- re s p o n s i ve to agrarian fluctuations, the differe n c e
missed as superstition those kinds of power that they between annual harvests depending on the climatic
wished to discredit. Although Agobard used rational conditions. During the medieval and early modern
arguments against belief in the weather makers and grain periods, European society was largely agrarian. Around
t h i e ves of Magonia, he used these only instru m e n t a l l y, in 1600, only capitals like Istanbul, Naples, Ve n i c e ,
an attempt to impose a new religious ort h o d oxy that Milan, Paris, and London counted more than 100,000
re s e rved certain kinds of power for God alone and re g u- inhabitants; even major commercial centers like
lated access to that power through the Christian clergy by Amsterdam or Lyons were smaller. In the Holy Roman
means of special prayers and liturgical rituals. God, too, Em p i re, the largest imperial free cities, such as
might exact his vengeance by sending storms or pesti- Augsburg, Nu remberg, and Cologne, had mere l y
lence, and the prayers and rituals of clergy might also 40,000 inhabitants. Most English towns had less than
mitigate divine vengeance. From the ninth century to the 4,000 inhabitants, and the same was true for France,
p resent, Christian liturgy has contained part i c u l a r Ge r m a n y, and Spain. Except for parts of the
p r a yers and ceremonies for aid against natural disasters. Netherlands, the Rhineland, and northern Italy, less
A g o b a rd also complained that the money paid to than 10 percent of the population was living in towns;
people who defend crops and animals against we a t h e r rural life dominated throughout Europe, and the larger
makers was taken from tithes that should have gone to towns depended on food supply. At the same time,
the Church. Se veral scholars have suggested that the yield ratios on grain sown were low; shortfalls in pro-
belief and practices condemned by Agobard were being duction were sometimes caused by war, but more fre-
used to avoid the often heavy exactions of grain fro m quently by problems in the agrarian sector. A decline in
peasants by clerical and lay lords, by concealing harvest- agrarian production posed the greatest danger to this
ed grain and claiming that it had been destroyed or tak- kind of subsistence economy.
en by the alien weather makers. In 1935, Wilhelm Abel first defined agrarian crisesas
Read care f u l l y, the unusual and dramatic episode periods characterized by a sharp drop in agrarian out-
re c o rded by Agobard throws light on contemporary put and consequently in feudal rents, by desertion of
aspects of the Carolingian rural economy, peasant individual farms or even entire villages, and by a steep
beliefs and practices in the face of an increasingly nor- decline in prices for farmland. His definition was mod-
mative kind of Christianity, and the mind of a reform- eled on the major crisis of the fourteenth century, when
ing cleric during a period of acute sensitivity toward the Eu ropean population numbers collapsed under the
need for reform and energetic attempts to enforce it. impact of the Black Death, the return of the bubonic
plague after more than 700 years. Ab e l’s defin i t i o n ,
EDWARD PETERS
however, conflates two entirely different phenomena: a
See also: AGRARIANCRISES;INDICULUS crisis in production and a crisis in consumption. It is
SUPERSTITIONUMETETPAGANIARUM;WEATHERMAGIC. true that an enormous crisis affects both consumers and
References and further reading:
producers, both townsfolk and villagers, both landlords
Agobard of Lyons. 1981. De grandine et tonitruis.Pp. 3–15 in
and peasants, in a vast dow n w a rd spiral. But in short - t e r m
Agobardi Lugdunensis Opera Omnia.Edited by L. van Acker.
crises, known to economic historians as crises de l’ancien
Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis52. Turnhout:
type(crises of the old kind) (Labrousse 1933)—just the
Brepols. Partial English translation, pp. 189–192 in
opposite is the case. Crop failure causes an increase in
Carolingian Civilization: A Reader.Edited by Paul Edward
Dutton. Orchard Park, NY, and Peterborough, Ontario: prices, but only those who have to buy food (day labor-
Broadview, 1993. ers and urban craftsmen, e.g.) suffer, whereas producers
Cabaniss, J. Allen. 1953. Agobard of Lyons: Churchman and Critic. and sellers of agrarian products (lords, peasants, and
Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. merchants) benefit from the situation.
Dutton, Paul Edward. 1995. “Thunder and Hail Over the Sh o rt-term crises there f o re increase social tensions
Carolingian Countryside.” Pp. 111–137 in Agriculture in the within the society by creating pove rt y, malnutrition,
Middle Ages: Technology, Practice, andRepresentation.Edited by
and diseases among consumers and abundant we a l t h
Sweeney Del. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
for producers and distributors. Because malnutrition
Flint, Valerie I.J. 1991.The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval
makes people more vulnerable to certain kinds of dis-
Europe.Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press.
eases (for instance, typhus, tuberculosis, influenza, and
Meens, Rob. 1998. “Magic and the Early Medieval World View.”
possibly smallpox), the longer the food shortage lasts,
Pp. 285–295 in The Community, the Family and the Saint.
Edited by Joyce Hill and Mary Swan. Turnhout: Brepols. the more vulnerable consumers become. Some age
groups, primarily small children or old people, are more
Agrarian Crises likely to be affected by high mortality than others. It
Agrarian crises reveal the interdependence of meteoro- makes sense to replace the term “agrarian crisis” by
logical disaster, subsistence crises, and popular demand “subsistence crisis,” because those who benefited fro m
Agrarian Crises 21 |
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the hardship of others we re obviously not part of any commonly used heading “Crisis of the seve n t e e n t h
crisis, except insofar as highly infectious diseases like century.”
bubonic plague also endangered even the well-fed, or The mechanisms detected in the background of
the bitterness soared until the lower classes turned witch persecutions—the search for mystical causation
rebellious or even revolutionary. of unusual hardship in an agrarian society—can be
In agrarian societies like Old-Régime Europe, as we applied not only to all massive witchcraft persecutions
h a ve seen, subsistence crises we re ordinarily triggere d in traditional Eu rope, but also to large-scale persecu-
by harvest failure, which in turn was most often caused tions in Africa, Asia, or America. Eu ropean society,
by climatic anomalies: central Eu rope, for example, h owe ve r, found an escape from the misery of agrarian
experienced an increasing number of years, during the crises. By the sixteenth century, its economic life was
period of the Little Ice Age of prolonged winters, late already molded by the mechanisms of early capitalism,
frosts, cold and wet summers and autumns, early snow- and its trading links had already created what
fall, and severe winters. In these years, the wine harvest Immanuel Wallerstein called a Eu ropean “world sys-
was endangered, and so was the harvest of cereals. Wine tem.” The increasing frequency of agrarian crises creat-
turned sour, and the amount of grain available to eat ed a rising demand in food supply in urban centers, and
fell far below normal levels. The proverbial “d a i l y the merchant class managed to develop trade links with
b re a d” was in danger; the specter of hunger and epi- m o re remote agrarian zones like the Baltic, or eve n
demic diseases frightened the average household. North America. Improvements in shipping and storage
Because weather determined the harvest, climatic enabled these capitalists to supply grain from these
anomalies triggered questions about causation—“w h o remote areas, as soon as price increases made it pro f-
did it”—in a society lacking the concept of contin- itable. T h e re f o re, the upper echelons of the Eu ro p e a n
gency. This was particularly the case in the 1480s, the society usually profited directly from subsistence crises,
1560s, the 1580s, and the 1620s (Behringer 2004). while entire regions like the Netherlands, where the
The resumption of witch hunting in the 1560s was international grain trade from the Baltic was based,
accompanied by debates about weather making, became virtually independent from traditional agrarian
because this was often the single most important charge crises. The agricultural re volution of the late seve n-
against suspected witches, especially in central Europe. teenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the invention
Trial re c o rds show that while individual “u n n a t u r a l” of insurance companies, made these urbanized centers
accidents resulted in individual accusations of witch- of nort h western Eu rope less vulnerable. Yield ratios
craft, in cases of “u n n a t u r a l” weather and collective we re increasing slowly from the seventeenth century,
damage, entire peasant communities demanded perse- primarily in parts of It a l y, England, and the
cution. Unlike individual accusations, which usually Netherlands, which became virtually independent from
t r i g g e red trials against only individual suspects, such agrarian fluctuations. It does not seem coincidental that
collective demands for persecution—when accepted by these we re the same areas where the witchcraft para-
the authorities—often resulted in large-scale witch digm first lost its grip on the minds of the people, and
hunts. The links among meteorological disaster, subsis- where witchcraft trials were terminated first.
tence crisis, and popular demand for witch hunts were
WOLFGANG BEHRINGER
apparent in the largest witch hunts of sixteenth-century
Eu rope, affecting regions as widely separated as See also: ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORIES;ENGLAND;HOLYROMAN
Sw i t zerland, Scotland, electoral Trier (Ku rtrier), and EMPIRE;ITALY;LITTLEICEAGE;NETHERLANDS;PLAGUE;
Lorraine in the later 1580s, or even more clearly with
SCOTLAND;SWITZERLAND.
References and further reading:
the largest wave of witch hunting of the seve n t e e n t h
Abel, Wilhelm. 1980. Agricultural Fluctuations in Europe.1935.
c e n t u ry, which occurred between 1626 and 1630,
Reprint, London: Methuen.
mainly in ecclesiastical territories of the Holy Ro m a n
Behringer,Wolfgang. 2004. Witches and Witch Hunts. A Global
Em p i re, and was the climax of Eu ropean witchcraft
History.Cambridge: Polity Press.
persecutions. Sh o rt-term subsistence crises re i n f o rc e d Labrousse, Ernest. 1933. Esquisse du mouvement des prix et des
and exacerbated some long-term developments, such as revenues en France auXVIIIe siècle,Paris: Dalloz.
the rising tension between an increasing population
and decreasing yield ratios during the “long sixteenth Agrippa von Nettesheim,
century.” At times and places when the witchcraft per- Heinrich Cornelius (1486–1535)
secution climaxed, social tensions may have been simi- A dominant magical thinker of the Re n a i s s a n c e ,
lar to those in the fourteenth century, when famine and Agrippa was constantly cited (positively and negatively)
epidemics ravaged European societies, with social inse- along with Paracelsus for the next two centuries as a
curity accompanied by spiritual uncertainties and all founder of magical philosophy. Erasmus thought him
kinds of anxieties. In this sense, witch hunting can be learned, and Juan Luis Vives called him “the wonder of
interpreted as part of the scenario discussed under the letters and literary men” (Nauert 1965, 323). François
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Rabelais lampooned him as “Herr Trippa” in his Tiers Then, suddenly, Agrippa vanished from the histori-
Livre. Christopher Marlowe’s demonic Faust also cites cal re c o rd—no correspondence is extant, and his last
Agrippa, and even in the nineteenth century, the black years remain almost unknown. Ac c o rding to his stu-
dog in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust derives dent Johann Weyer, Agrippa took a third wife, repudi-
from a legend about him. Although modern scholarly ated her in 1535, traveled to Lyons, where he was
opinion of Agrippa’s work has been predominantly neg- briefly imprisoned by French King Francis I, and died
ative, Agrippa’s skeptical and magical thought had a that same year in Grenoble.
major influence on later Renaissance philosophy, from After his death, stories of Agrippa’s traffic with
John Dee and Gi o rdano Bruno to Michel de demons began circulating, leading to his reputation for
Montaigne and René Descartes. black magic. In one story, an anonymous board e r
e n t e red Agrippa’s study, read aloud from a mysterious
Life book, and was killed by a demon. Agrippa returned and
Born in Cologne in 1486 to a family of the minor commanded the demon to enter the corpse, making the
nobility or upper bourgeoisie, Agrippa received the unfortunate man appear alive; the possessed body then
magister artium at the University of Cologne in 1502, a a p p e a red in public, dive rting suspicion. Stories about
university he later criticized. Between 1507 and 1509 A g r i p p a’s dog, a demon in disguise, re s u rfaced in the
he traveled in France and Spain, and also formed or Faust stories as a form taken by Mephistopheles; Weyer
joined a secret society of students of the occult. re m a rked that the dog was a pet, named Mo n s i e u r,
Late in 1509, Agrippa visited Johannes Tr i t h e m i u s ; which Weyer himself often walked.
s h o rtly there a f t e r, Agrippa sent him the juvenile draft of
De occulta philosophia( On Occult Philosophy), of which Works
Trithemius largely approved. Agrippa also lectured on Agrippa was a pro l i fic writer of orations, treatises, and
Johannes Re u c h l i n’s Kabbalistic De verbo mirific o ( On letters. Most important among his many minor work s
the Wo n d e r -Wo rking Wo rd) at Dôle, but was we re Declamatio de nobilitate & praecellentia foeminei
denounced as a “judaizing here t i c” (Op e ra 2.509). In s e x u s ( Declamation on the Nobility and Pre e m i n e n c e
1510, Agrippa was in London, where he studied the of the Female Sex, 1529), which argued the theologi-
writings of the apostle Paul with John Colet and began a cal purity and superiority of women; and De triplici
c o m m e n t a ry on the Epistle to the Romans, now lost. ratione cognoscendi deum ( On the T h reefold Way of
Agrippa spent most of 1511 to 1518 in northern It a l y K n owing God, 1529), based on Agrippa’s 1509 lec-
s e rving Em p e ror Maximilian, but also teaching Pl a t o’s t u res on Johann Reuchlin, which argued for a
Sy m p o s i u m and the Hermetic Pi m a n d e r ( Sh e p h e rd of Christian synthesis of pagan philosophy, Kabbalah,
Men) at Pa v i a . and Christian theology.
In 1518, Agrippa became legal advisor to the city of A g r i p p a’s two greatest works we re undoubtedly his
Metz. He re he became embroiled in a witchcraft trial, De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et artium (T h e
his extraordinary legal efforts leading to the acquittal of Un c e rtainty and Vanity of the Sciences and Art s ,
an accused woman. After living next in Cologne, k n own as De va n i t a t e , 1530), a scathing satire on
Ge n e va, and Fribourg, Agrippa moved to Lyons in knowledge and its professors, from theologians to magi-
1524 as physician to Louise of Sa voy. Un f o rt u n a t e l y, cians to whores; and his De occulta philosophia libri tres
they disagreed intensely, Agrippa being offended by (T h ree Books on Occult Ph i l o s o p h y, 1531–1533), a
L o u i s e’s demands for astrological pro g n o s t i c a t i o n s . monumental attempt to synthesize all magical know l-
When Louise left in 1525, the royal treasurers stopped edge into a coherent whole.
A g r i p p a’s salary, and in 1528 he took a position in
Antwerp with Margaret of Austria. De inc e rt i t u dine et va n i tate scientiarum et
In September 1530, Agrippa published De va n i t a t e a rt i um A g r i p p a’s best-known work was a major
( On the Vanity of the Arts and Sciences). Concerned statement of Pyrrhonist skepticism, at times gracefully
about the work’s ort h o d ox y, Ma r g a ret had it sent for written, at others heavy-handed and inelegant. T h e
s e c ret re v i ew to the Faculty of Theology at Louva i n , book was extremely influential for later thinkers,
who denounced it in Ma rch 1531. In early 1531, notably Montaigne, De s c a rtes, and even the yo u n g
Agrippa published Book 1 of De occulta philosophia, Goethe.It has been compared to Nicholas of Cusa’sOn
dedicated to Hermann von Wied, archbishop-elector of L e a rned Ig n o ra n c e , to praises of the ass such as in
Cologne, where Agrippa moved the next year. Here he Apuleius’sGolden Ass,and especially to Erasmus’sPraise
began the process of publishing the complete work , of Folly(1509). Erasmus himself commented positively
which the inquisitor of Cologne soon denounced as on De va n i t a t e , although he considered it too vicious
h e retical. When the final version of De occulta and disapproved of Agrippa’s war upon monks.
p h i l o s o p h i a a p p e a red in 1533, Agrippa had moved to After a satirical letter to the reader listing eve ryo n e
the archbishop’s capital at Bonn. c r i t i c i zed and what they will think of the author,
Agrippa von Nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius 23 |
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Agrippa moved on to 102 chapters, each of which gave Agrippa was a philosopher and magician of consider-
a brief account of a particular art and then attacked its able originality and importance. De occulta philosophia
professors. The work ended with a lengthy discussion of remains a landmark work in the history of magical
the word of God as the sole certain truth and an thought, while De va n i t a t e’s influence on later genera-
encomium of the ass. tions of skeptics can hardly be dismissed. Despite the
De va n i t a t e’s argument was not simply that all know l- unpleasant legends and general aura of charlatanry
edge was worthless, as has sometimes been maintained, which still adhere to his name, Agrippa must be re c o g-
but rather that no knowledge can have value unless guid- n i zed as one of the key fig u res in the occult Re n a i s s a n c e .
ed by faith. De va n i t a t e belonged to the skeptical and
satirical reformist literature of the period; Agrippa’s main CHRISTOPHER I. LEHRICH
contribution to this literature was his early use of See also: AMULETANDTALISMAN;DEMONOLOGY;FAUST,JOHANN
Pyrrhonist skepticism and his compre h e n s i ve survey of all GEORG;GRIMOIRES;KABBALAH;MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGIC,
human knowledge. Because of its antiecclesiastical bent, NATURAL;OCCULT; RITUALMAGIC;SKEPTICISM;TRITHEMIUS,
De va n i t a t ehas sometimes been interpreted as Pro t e s t a n t , JOHANNES;WEYER,JOHANN.
but there is no evidence for such sympathies in Agrippa. References and further reading:
Agrippa von Nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius. 1970. Opera(...).
2 vols. n.d. [1620?]. Reprint, Lugduni Facsimile, Hildesheim:
De occulta philo s ophia libri tres As its
Georg Olms, 1970.
title indicated, Agrippa’s masterpiece was divided into
———. 1529. De triplici ratione cognoscendi deum.Antwerp; in
three books: Natural Magic, Mathematical Magic, and
Opera,2.454–481.
Religious or Ceremonial Magic. Natural magic here
———. 1529. Declamatio de nobilitate & praecellentia foeminei
included magnetism, signatures, and other odd natural
sexus.Antwerp; also in Opera,2.504–535. English translation:
properties of objects, as well as those objects’ astrologi- Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex.
cal ascriptions; mathematical magic comprised geome- Translated by Albert Rabil Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago
t ry, pro p o rtion, harmony, numero l o g y, g e m a t r i a Press, 1996.
(numerology of Hebrew letters), sigils, and the like; cer- ———. 1530. De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et art i u m .
emonial magic included everything from meditation to A n t werp; also in Op e ra ,2.1–314. English translation: Of the
ecstasy to prophecy to ritual demonology. Vanitie and V n c e rtaintie of Artes and Sciences.Translated by Ja m e s
Sa n f o rd. London, 1569. Reprint, edited by Catherine M. Du n n .
Its nearly 200 chapters predominantly contained dis-
No rthridge: California State Un i versity Foundation, 1974.
c u r s i ve lists of data, with occasional more theore t i c a l
———. 1533. De occulta philosophia libri tres. Cologne; also in
discussions, usually buried within longer chapters. This
Opera,1.1–499. Critical edition: edited byVittoria Perrone
structure made the work as a whole seem incoherent; in
Compagni. Leiden: Brill, 1992. English translation: Three
fact, however, De occulta philosophia was a subtle, eru-
Books on Occult Philosophy.Translated by J. F. London, 1651.
dite, and complex presentation of a magical philosophy Reprint: edited by Donald Tyson. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1993.
that if practiced led the magician to a kind of intellec- Lehrich, Christopher I. 2003. The Language of Demons and Angels:
tual mystical union with God. Cornelius Agrippa’sOccult Philosophy. Leiden: Brill.
It was in De occulta philosophia that Agrippa most Nauert, Charles G., Jr. 1965. Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance
clearly demonstrated his iconoclasm. Not only did he Thought.Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
cast aside the traditional division between natural and Poel, Marc van der. 1997. Cornelius Agrippa, the Humanist
Theologian and his Declamations.Leiden: Brill.
demonic magic, but he even suggested that ritual invo-
Prost, Auguste. 1965. Les sciences et les arts occultes au XVIe siècle.
cation of demonic forces might be necessary to legiti-
Corneille Agrippa. Sa vie et ses oeuvres.2 vols. Paris, 1881–1882.
mate natural magic. His opinion of alchemy was equal-
Reprint, Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf.
ly confusing: De occulta philosophia i g n o red the issue,
apart from occasional general remarks in a mostly posi-
tive vein, although his De vanitatepresented an extend- Aitken, Margaret
ed and devastating assault on the art, which nonetheless The “great witch of Balwearie (in Fife),” as Margaret
hinted at the possibility of a legitimate and eve n Aitken was known, became the single most important
supremely valuable alchemy. figure in the great Scottish witchcraft panic of 1597.
This apparent disagreement pointed to a constant Accused of witchcraft, she tried to save herself by claim-
difficulty in scholarship on Agrippa, an inability to find ing an ability to detect other witches by looking in their
coherence between De occulta philosophiaand De vani- eyes; she may have been responsible for hundreds of
tate.In a way, the solution was simple: where De vani- deaths.
tateargued that knowledge was worthless in the absence A contemporary chro n i c l e r, Patrick Anderson,
of faith in Jesus, De occulta philosophia attempted to described the 1597 panic:
link all philosophical knowledge to Christian re ve l a-
tion, there by transmuting the search for know l e d g e Much about this tyme there was a great number of
into a magical exploration of divinity. witches tryed [found] to be in Scotland, as the lyke
24 Aitken, Margaret |
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was never heard tell of in this realme; speciallie in was exposed as a fraud and executed, the trials ended
Atholl both of men and women ther was in May a b ru p t l y. The proclamation of August 12 cancelled
att one convention upon a hill in Atholl to the many trial commissions and announced that new com-
number of 2300 and the Devill amongst them; a missions would be issued only to three or more com-
great witch of Balwearie told all this and said she missioners jointly, in order to pre vent abuses. T h e
knew them all weill eneugh And what marks the issuance of the proclamation did not stop the panic—
Devill hade given severallie to everie one of them. p rosecutions continued into Oc t o b e r, with the king’s
Ther was many of them tryed by sweiming in the s u p p o rt—but it marked an important stage in its
water by binding of ther two thumbs and ther great decline.
toaes together for being thus casten in the water An act of parliament in December created a commis-
they fleeted ay above. (Anderson n.d., 2: fol. 266v). sion to make recommendations about acceptable evi-
dence in witchcraft trials. T h e re was disagreement on
A second source of information, Archbishop Jo h n the subject between the king, who hoped to legitimize
Spottiswoode, wrote an ecclesiastical history in the A i t k e n’s testimony, and the general assembly of the
1620s. In 1597 he was a parish minister in Midlothian, C h u rch, containing leading ministers who in Au g u s t
but already involved in national affairs. had protested against the use of one witch’s testimony
to convict others. The commission never re p o rt e d .
She [i.e., Aitken] was so readily believed, that for Meanwhile, there we re public recriminations in
the space of three or four months she was carried Gl a s g ow. The pre s by t e ry made John Morrison do
from town to town to make discoveries in that penance for circulating a written libel containing
kind. Many were brought in question by her dela- Aitken’s depositions, which had slandered the ministers
tions, especially at Glasgow, where divers innocent as responsible for the executions. The pre s by t e ry did
women, through the credulity of the minister, Mr not claim that the executions had been justified, but
John Cowper, were condemned and put to death. that they were the ministers’ fault. Witch hunting had
In end she was found to be a mere deceiver (for the backfired, and nobody wanted to take responsibility.
same persons that the one day she had declared
JULIAN GOODARE
guilty, the next day being presented in another
habit she cleansed), and sent back to Fife, where See also:DEVIL’SMARK;EXPERIMENTSANDTESTS;JAMESVIANDI,
first she was apprehended. At her trial she affirmed KINGOFSCOTLANDANDENGLAND;PRICKINGOFSUSPECTED
all to be false that she had confessed, either of her-
WITCHES;SCOTLAND;SWIMMINGTEST.
References and further reading:
self or others, and persisted in this to her death;
Anderson, Patrick. “Chronicles of Scotland,” 2 vols. Edinburgh
which made many forthink their too great forward-
University Library, Laing MSS III.203, vol. II, fol. 266v.
ness that way. (Spottiswoode 1847–1851, 3:66–67)
Goodare, Julian. 2002. “The Scottish Witchcraft Panic of 1597.”
Pp. 51–72 in The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context.Edited by
The collapse of Aitken’s career was linked to a procla- Julian Goodare. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
mation of August 12. The chronology thus suggests Spottiswoode, John. 1847–1851. History of the Church of Scotland,
that Aitken was exposed about August 1. Since “for the 3 vols. Edited by Mark Napier and M. Russell. Edinburgh:
space of three or four months she was carried fro m Spottiswoode Society.
t own to town,” this must have begun some time in
April. Aitken’s initial success inspired local imitators: Aix-en-Provence Nuns
one Agnes Ewing was active in detecting witches in her The case of Madeleine Demandols de la Palud, which
native Kirkcaldy and elsewhere in Fife. opened late in 1609 and concluded with the execution
The Aitken affair was notable for the subjection of of Father Louis Gaufridy in April 1611, was one of a
witchcraft suspects to the water ordeal. No reference to number of widely reported and discussed cases of
the swimming of Scottish witches has yet been found demonic possession in France in the late sixteenth and
for any other period, but the evidence for 1597 is clear. early seventeenth century. The earlier cases of Nicole
A n d e r s o n’s account was corroborated by King Ja m e s Obry and Marthe Brossier, which reflected the tensions
V I ’s Da e m o n o l o g i e , published later in 1597, which of the French religious wars, as well as group posses-
mentioned the water ordeal along with pricking for the sions in Germany and Italy, had already made this
Devil’s mark as tests for witchcraft. aspect of the Devil’s work well known to the French
These distinctive proceedings suggest that a special public. However, this case introduced an important
commission, using special pro c e d u res, was established new element into the possession–exorcism scenario
to carry Aitken around the country. James evidently with important implications for future cases.
took an interest in the commission and approved of its Madeleine, a young woman from a noble Ma r s e i l l e s
activities. He may even have pressed later for its special f a m i l y, was a nun in the Ursuline convent in
p ro c e d u res to be adopted by statute. But once Aitken A i x - e n - Prove n c e . She had a history of depression and
Aix-en-Provence Nuns 25 |
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emotional problems, and was diagnosed as possessed ear- Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe
ly in 1610. Other nuns became possessed as we l l . siècle: Une analyse de psychologie historique.Paris: Plon.
Madeleine and one of her colleagues, Louise Capeau, Michaelis, Sebastien. 1614. Histoire admirable de la possession et
conversion d’une pénitente, séduite par un magicien.Paris.
soon accused Louis Ga u f r i d y, a parish priest in Ma r s e i l l e s
Pearl, Jonathan L. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and
and friend of the Demandols family, of being a witch and
Politics in France, 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred
causing their possession. Madeleine also accused
Laurier University Press.
Gaufridy of taking sexual liberties with her.
Because attempts to exo rcise her in Aix did not go
well, she was transferred to papally controlled Avignon, Albizzi, Francesco (1593–1684)
w h e re she was put into the hands of the local Gr a n d Originally as an assistant judge and after 1654 as a car-
In q u i s i t o r, Sebastien Michaelis. He was a re c o g n i ze d dinal, Albizzi was a major fig u re in the Ro m a n
e x p e rt on witchcraft, having published an account of Inquisition whose published views on witchcraft
his experiences in a large-scale prosecution of witches in expressed those of the papacy. After the early death of
the Avignon area in 1582. He brought her to St . his wife (with whom he had several children), Albizzi,
Maximin in Provence to the grotto where, local legend who had legal training, joined the clergy; he entered the
had it, Ma ry Magdalene had lived. Large crowd s Roman curia’s diplomatic service in 1628 at Naples,
attended the public exorcisms held there. and was soon entrusted with supervising the Catholic
In Fe b ru a ry 1611, the Pa rl e m e n t ( s ove reign appel- Church’s business dealings. His first encounter with
late court) of Provence arrested Ga u f r i d y. All this witch hunting, which Albizzi still remembered decades
time, Madeleine continued to accuse him. He was later, occurred during a journey through Germany in
subjected to degrading treatment and eventually con- 1636 and 1637 while serving in the diplomatic mission
fessed to gross sexual misconduct, blasphemy, and in Cologne: “innumerable stakes had been erected out-
w i t c h c r a f t . side the walls of several villages and towns, attached to
Jacques Fontaine, Professor of Medicine at the which, poor and exceedingly pitiful women had, as
Un i versity of Aix, examined Gaufridy for the De v i l’s witches, been devoured by the flames” (Albitius 1683,
m a rk during his interrogation. Fontaine found seve r a l 355 § 179).
of these incriminating marks on Ga u f r i d y, prov i d i n g After returning to Rome, Albizzi made his reputation
i m p o rtant evidence against him. Fontaine then pub- as one of the Roman curia’s hardline opponents of
lished a short treatise arguing that the Devil’s mark was Jansenism, considerably influencing its rejection under
one of the best ways to detect witches. Although not popes Innocent X (1644–1655) and Alexander V I I
much had been published on the Devil’s marks, accord- (1655–1667). A strong advocate of papal sove re i g n t y
ing to Fontaine, he asserted that they we re widely and supre m a c y, Albizzi refuted Venetian attempts to
b e l i e ved in by the general public and that these view s i n t e rf e re in the Churc h’s jurisdiction and Sp a n i s h
were undoubtedly of divine inspiration. He stated that demands for a veto at papal elections. In 1654, he
any good physician could easily distinguish betwe e n became a cardinal. Su b s e q u e n t l y, Albizzi played an
ordinary scars and the Devil’s mark and that only a will- important part in the Vatican’s decision to rescue fifteen
ing and knowing witch could be marked. children facing execution in a witch hunt in the Swiss
These claims, as well, of course, as Gaufridy’s confes- canton of Graubünden and bring them to Milan. This
sion, led to his execution in Aix-en-Provence on Ap r i l experience, among others, led to the churc h’s decision
11, 1611. The exorcist Michaelis soon published a mas- in 1657 to publish its instructions for witchcraft trials
s i ve Ad m i rable Hi s t o ry (1614) of his triumph over the ( h i t h e rto available only in thick manuscript hand-
magician who had caused Madeleine’s possession, mak- books) as a bro c h u re, which was then distributed to
ing the case widely known and mentioned in many Catholic authorities, particularly those outside Italy in
w o rks and correspondence. It provided a clear model Switzerland or Germany.
for the even more famous 1634 case in Loudun involv- C a rdinal Albizzi’s views on witchcraft appeared in
ing the priest Urbain Grandier. the first volume (De inconstantia in iure admittenda vel
JONATHAN L. PEARL n o n; When is Inconsistency Permissible in the Law,
When Not?) of an extensive canonical work, published
See also: AVIGNON;BROSSIER,MARTHE;DEVIL’SMARK;EXORCISM; in 1683 under a fictitious place and publisher. His com-
FRANCE;OBRY,NICOLE;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;WARSOF
ments about witches in this “unofficial” book reflected
RELIGION(FRANCE).
contemporaryVatican positions, sometimes illustrating
References and further reading:
them with examples based on his own experiences.
Fontaine, Jacques. 1611. Discours des marques des sorciers et de la
From a dogmatic viewpoint, Albizzi (like his Je s u i t
réelle possession que le Diable prend sur les corps des hommes.
p redecessors Adam Tanner and Friedrich Spee) was
Paris.
Klaits, Joseph. 1985. Servants of Satan.Bloomington: Indiana c o n s e rva t i ve: To claim that harmful spells are unre a l
University Press. was heretical. Wi t c h e s’ ability to fly and the witches’
26 Albizzi, Francesco |
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Sabbat we re also possible, but extremely rare. He also released as innocent and the inquisitor was dismissed”
b e l i e ved in the reality of witches’ stigma (the De v i l’s (Albitius 1683, 355 § 179).
m a rk), but admitted that serious opinions to the con-
RAINER DECKER;
trary existed within the Inquisition.
TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY
Like the Roman Inquisition, generally, Albizzi was
ve ry cautious about evaluating evidence surro u n d i n g See also: DEVIL’SMARK;EVIDENCE;FRANCHE-COMTÉ;
the offense of witchcraft. Be f o re assuming a harmful GRAUBÜNDEN(GRISONS), CANTONOF;INQUISITION,ROMAN;
spell as a person’s cause of death, physicians first had to
ROMANCATHOLICCHURCH;SKEPTICISM;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;
be able to exclude natural causes. As an assistant judge,
TANNER,ADAM.
References and further reading:
he had seen many cases of alleged spells, which the con-
Albert, Marcel. 1988. Nuntius Fabio Chigi und die Anfänge des
sulted doctors almost always attributed to physical ill-
Jansenismus, 1639–1651.Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.
nesses.
Albitius, Franciscus. 1683. De Inconstantia in jure admittenda vel
Albizzi claimed that local clerics we re considerably non. Amsterdam: Huguetan.
likelier to believe in witchcraft than Roman authorities: Ceyssens, Lucien. 1975. “Albizzi. Son autobiographie et son testa-
“ Since the evidence of Corpus delicti, which must be ment.” Bulletin de l’Institut historique belge de Rome45:
fully proven, especially in cases of infanticide and harm- 343–376.
ful spells with alleged fatal results,has been violated by ———. 1977. Le Cardinal François Albizzi (1593–1684): Un cas
[local officials] responsible for witchcraft trials, the important dans l’histoire du jansénisme.Rome: Pontificium
Athenaeum Antonianum.
Suprema [the Holy Office in Rome] has had [its] direc-
Decker, Rainer. 1999. “Spee und Tanner aus der Sicht eines römis-
tions printed for the instruction of the judges and has
chen Kardinal-Inquisitors.” Spee Jahrbuch 6: 45–52.
supplied these to them in circular letters” (Albitius
1683, 350).
Albizzi also sharply criticized the practice of building Alchemy
chain trials from statements of alleged participants in Alchemy is the art of manipulating the hidden powers
Sabbats: “The Su p rema has established several times, of nature in order to achieve a number of different
especially in 1594 and 1595 [ . . .] that the witches physical effects. These effects may be simple, such as
who swear they have seen specific persons at the witch- gilding or staining or producing chemical changes in
es’ Sabbat, should not be believed to their detriment, as certain materials; complex, such as producing the red-
it is regarded as illusion. Hence, the practice of the sec- dish powder known as the philosophers’ stone, which
ular and clerical courts in Germany has always been will transmute a metal considered to be low-ranking in
rejected, according to which a witch hunt can be start- nature’s hierarchy into one thought to be of higher
ed simply because a single witch claims she has seen rank, the most notorious example being the attempt to
others at the Sabbat, and that she can be found guilty if change lead into gold; or medicinal, such as the endeav-
two witches claim the same; Father Tanner objects to or to produce a liquid called “the elixir of life” (from
this practice in a commentary devoted to this matter, Arabic al = “the,” and iksir, from the late Greek xerion,
and an unknown author, a Roman theologian, in the “powder to be rubbed into wounds”), which will cure
book Cautio Criminalis [ . . .] [A Warning on Criminal all ills and prolong human life. In later times there was
Justice] printed in Rinteln in the year 1631” (Albitius added to these another possible operation, the spiritual
1683, 355 § 177–178). transformation of the alchemist together with (or even
C a rdinal-inquisitor Albizzi was indeed acquainted instead of) the transformation of the materials experi-
with the Rinteln first edition of Friedrich Spee’sCautio mented on.
Cr i m i n a l i s , although its author remained unknown to Almost from the start, alchemical writings were full
him. He had also discussed Germany’s witch hunts with of technical terms and shrouded in complex metaphors
Christina, ex-queen of Sweden, who had resided in and symbols that re n d e red their practical meaning
Rome since 1655. She told him that her 1649 edict had impenetrable to all men who had no master to guide
largely stopped witchcraft trials in Bremen and Verden them. (T h e re we re female alchemists, but not ve ry
in northern Germany. She and the cardinal agreed “that many.) The reason for this secretiveness was that alche-
what the witches confess comes as a result of their uter- my was believed to be both a privileged and a danger-
ine state [ex effectibus uterinis] or diabolical pre t e n c e s” ous art, which must not fall into the hands of the
(Albitius 1683, 355 § 180). unlearned or unworthy.The Jesuit Martín Del Rio said
Albizzi also mentioned Ro m e’s opposition to bluntly that alchemy was an occupation for the rich,
Inquisitor Pi e r re Sy m a rd’s witch hunt in Fr a n c h e - not the poor. Charlatans—and there were many—took
Comté in 1659: “The Inquisitor of Besançon had . . . full advantage of this knowledge to dazzle and fool their
s u r re n d e red several men and women into the arms of clients. But serious alchemists—and there we re, and
worldly justice, whose trials would later be considere d still are, many—practiced the art with an almost re l i-
invalid and unjust by the Suprema; therefore, they were gious intensity. Alchemy, moreover, is not exclusively a
Alchemy 27 |
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attributed to the eighth-century Su fi scholar and
alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyun, known in the West as
Ge b e r, and the eleve n t h - c e n t u ry Arab physician and
scholar Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna. These scholars
claimed that in addition to material elements, there
were philosophic elements, namely “sulphur” and “mer-
cury,” neither being the substance usually indicated by
its name. To these was later added a third basic princi-
ple, “s a l t” (again, not the physical substance of that
name). From about the thirteenth century onward s ,
these became what Paracelsus (T h e o p h r a s t u s
Bombastus von Hohenheim) called the three fir s t
things in any alchemical process.
The typical alchemical process took the follow i n g
general form, although there are wide differences in the
various accounts over the centuries. First the alchemist
took his basic matter (prima materia)—and what this
was (dew, horse dung, etc.) varied considerably accord-
ing to alchemical treatises—and purified it. This stage
was called “blackening,” as the matter broke down and
degenerated. Next, the resulting material was separated
into its constituent parts and joined together again in
a l t e red form. This stage, in fact, consisted of seve r a l
steps, as the material was subjected to a series of opera-
tions including purifying, heating, distilling, and fix i n g ,
Two alchemists working, from an early sixteenth-century woodcut.
each sequence repeated as many times as necessary.
(Fortean Picture Library)
Changes in the color of the matter indicated whether or
not the operation was proceeding successfully. Fro m
Western art. Both India and China have their own long black to white to red we re agreed by eve ryone. Ot h e r s
alchemical traditions, and both Islamic and Jew i s h added intermediate stages, green and ye l l ow and blue,
scholars also explored and developed the art in impor- including a brilliantly colored stage known as “the pea-
tant ways. c o c k’s tail.” Because these pro c e d u res invo l ved such con-
cepts as “e x a l t i n g” and “e n n o b l i n g” the material, it is
Theory easy to see how the notion arose that the alchemists
Like any other manipulators of nature, alchemists work e d t h e m s e l ves might undergo spiritual changes while
with the four elements from which eve rything was con- engaged on what they called the Great Wo rk .
s t ructed: earth, air, fire, and water. The aim was to change
the pro p o rtions and combinations according to which Apparatus
these we re naturally composed, in order to effect funda- Alchemical pro c e d u res needed special apparatus. T h e
mental changes in the composition of the material with a t h a n o r was a furnace shaped like a towe r, heated by
which the alchemist was working. Each element had cer- c h a rcoal, and intended to maintain a constant heat. It s
tain characteristics that make it easier or more difficult to heating action was often re f e r red to as “incubation,” and
change, according to their mutual affinities or lack of rap- so the apparatus was sometimes called “the house of the
p o rt. Thus, earth is cold and dry; air is hot and moist; fire chick.” The balneum was supposedly invented by an
is hot and dry; water is cold and moist. Fi re and air are early Jewish alchemist, Maria the Prophetess, and con-
t h e re f o re in tune with each other because they share the sisted of a basin surrounded by heated water—hence the
same quality of “hotness,” whereas earth and water are b a i n - m a r i e (the French term for a double boiler) of
both “cold.” Eve rything is undergoing a slow process of modern cookery. The alembic was either a kind of still or
change through natural “cooking,” or concoction by dif- ( m o re properly) the head of a still that conve yed va p o r s
f e rent degrees of heat. The alchemist can speed this to a re c e i ve r. The shape of other vessels mainly connect-
p rocess by subjecting his material to physical operations ed with distillation reminded people of animals or bird s ;
that will reduce it to its essentials, change one element hence, there was a “pelican,” a “s t o rk,” and a “bear. ”
into another where necessary, and re c reate this altere d
matter as the new form he desire s . History
Basically, alchemical theories depended on Aristotle. Alchemists claimed an ancient heritage stretching back to
Howe ve r, they included a crucial idea from work s Adam himself, and fathered their art (as well as many of
28 Alchemy |
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their writings) on such fig u res as Moses, King So l o m o n , alchemical symbols and preternatural dramas, and the
A l b e rtus Magnus (ca. 1200–1280) and Ramon Lull (ca. dream world of his patients.
1235–1316). In fact, Western alchemy seems to have
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
emerged from Hellenistic Egypt—hence its name, a l -
k e m i a , “the Black Land,” referring to the dark soil of See also: D E E, J O H ND E LR I O, M A RT Í N; M AG I C, L E A R N E D; O C C U LT;
Eg y p t — f rom which came collections of chemical re c i p e s PA R AC E L S U S, T H E O PH R A S T U SB O M B A S T U SVO NH O H E N H E I M.
References and further reading:
such as the Leiden and Stockholm papyri. During the
Burland, C.A. 1967. The Arts of the Alchemist.London:
Early Middle Ages, alchemy evo l ved into a genre of med-
Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
ical, culinary, technical, and magical anthologies know n
Coudert, Allison. 1980. Alchemy, the Philosopher’s Stone.London:
as Books of Se c rets. Many alchemical texts reached the
Wildwood House.
m e d i e val West via Arabic scholars. The contribution of
Dobbs, Betty JoT. 1975. The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy.
Geber and Avicenna has already been noted, and to these Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
names should be added the ninth-century Al-Razi Eliade, Mircea. 1978. The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and
( R h a zes) whose works illustrate the immense range of lab- Structures of Alchemy.2d ed. Translated by Stephen Corrin.
o r a t o ry equipment available to the alchemist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
T h e re a f t e r, a huge alchemical literature was generated Lindsay, Jack. 1970. The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman
in both verse and prose, much of it exquisitely illustrat- Egypt.NewYork: Barnes and Noble.
Marshall, Peter. 2001. The Philosopher’s Stone: A Quest for the
ed but concealed in language that was purposely diffi-
Secrets of Alchemy.London: Macmillan.
cult to comprehend. Se veral stages of the process, for
McLean, Adam. The Alchemy Web Site,http://www.levity.com./
example, we re described as the marriage, copulation,
alchemy/home.html/ (accessed October 11, 2004).
and death of a king and queen. The art remained popu-
Patai, Raphael. 1994. The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source
lar throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern
Book.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
period, with rulers great and small keen to hire the ser- Roberts, Gareth. 1994. The Mirror of Alchemy: Alchemical Ideas
vices of alchemists, in the hope of adding substantially and Images in Manuscripts and Books from Antiquity to the
to their own riches. Inevitably such materialistic expec- Seventeenth Century.London: British Library.
tations encouraged charlatans who provided matter for Szydlo, Zbigniew. 1994. Water Which Does Not Wet Hands: The
l i t e r a ry exposure in, for example, the Canon’s Ye o m a n’s Alchemy of Michael Sendivogius.Warsaw: Polish Academy of
Tale from Chaucer’s Ca n t e r b u ry Ta l e s , or Ben Jo n s o n’s Sciences.
p l a y, The Al c h e m i s t .
An important secret society, the Ro s i c rucians, grew Alciati, Andrea (1492–1550)
out of the notion of spiritual as opposed to practical Although the Italian jurist Alciati, one of the foremost
a l c h e m y, announcing itself in 1614 by a manifesto, legal authorities in the sixteenth century, discussed
Fama Fra t e rnitatis ( Account of the Bro t h e r h o o d ) . witchcraft only marginally, his undisputed prestige
They claimed that their brotherhood had been founded made his selectively skeptical opinion a significant ele-
by a f o u rt e e n t h - c e n t u ry German monk, Christian ment in the debate on the reality of the crime. While
Rosenkreutz, the discovery of whose tomb had released convinced of the existence of evil sorcery, he argued
all kinds of secrets that might now benefit humankind. that the Sabbat was a delusion created by the tricks of
A second manifesto, The Chemical Wedding of Christian the Devil and by the imagination of those who believed
Ro s e n k re u t z (1617), announced its alchemical basis they participated in it. Alciati was among the very first
even more openly.Whether the secret society ever real- to call for the medical treatment of the supposed witch-
ly existed remains open to scholarly debate. es, predating Johann Weyer’s views by several decades.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, alchemy Born in Milan (or maybe in Alzate, near Como) in
become a popular diversion in many European courts, 1492, Gi ovanni Andrea Alciati (or Alciato) studied law
as alchemists we re invited to demonstrate their art in b e t ween 1507 and 1514 at the universities of Pavia and
front of noble spectators who tried to catch them out in Bologna, earning his doctorate in civil and canon law in
fraud. Specimens of transmuted gold from some of 1516 at the Un i versity of Ferrara. He enjoyed a brilliant
these demonstrations exist in various Eu ro p e a n c a reer as professor in the universities of Avignon, Bourges,
museums. Finally, in the twentieth century, there was a Pavia, Bologna, and Ferrara, soon becoming the most
continuation of practical interest in alchemy. T h e p restigious jurist in Eu rope. Fa vo red by kings (Francis I of
Frenchman Jean Dubuis, the Czech V l a d i s l a v France, Philip II of Spain), praised by Desiderius Er a s m u s ,
Zadrobílek, and the Englishman Archibald Cockren are he re n ewed legal studies in the light of humanistic princi-
only three of the best-known examples. Many other ples, and also composed the most successful book of
c o n t e m p o r a ry practitioners exist in both Eu rope and emblems (Em b l e m a t a ,1531). He died at Pavia in 1550.
No rth America. The spiritual side of alchemy was A l c i a t i’s first encounter with witchcraft dates fro m
explored in several books by the Swiss psychologist Karl 1516 or 1517, when he was asked for advice on the
Jung, who saw a parallel between the world of actions of an inquisitor who had re p o rtedly burned
Alciati, Andrea 29 |
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more than a hundred witches “in the subalpine valleys.” ideas closely resembled those of Gi ovanni Fr a n c e s c o
Many of them, wrote Alciato in book 8 of the Parergon ( Gianfrancesco) Ponzinibio, a contemporary fellow
iuris (On the Accessory of Jurisprudence; first edition, jurist who also stressed the illusory nature of such
which includes book 8, dated 1544), “seemed to need demonic gatherings, and claimed the superiority of
c u res based on hellebore rather than on fire” (“helle- canon and civil law against the pretensions of theology
boro potius quam igne purgandae”: Alciati 1557–1558, with respect to this issue.
2:406). He conceded that some witches really had
MATTEO DUNI
renounced God and killed infants by means of spells:
The judge should sentence these women to death See also:CANONEPISCOPI;DELRIO,MARTÍN;MEDICALTHEORY;
because their crimes had been committed “not in MEDICINE,MONTAIGNE,MICHELDE;PONZINIBIO,GIOVANNI
dreams.” But there were also women accused simply of
FRANCESCO;SABBAT;SKEPTICISM;WEYER,JOHANN;WITNESSES.
References and further reading:
having danced under a tree in the Valtelline (Valtellina,
Abbiati, Sergio. 1984. Andrea Alciato.Pp. 248–253, 365–366 in
a valley in northern Lombardy) and having attended a
La stregoneria. Diavoli, streghe, inquisitori dal Trecento al
Sabbat (“ludum”). Firmly skeptical on this point,
Settecento.Edited by S. Abbiati, A. Agnoletto, and M. R.
Alciati rejected the opinion of the “most recent theolo-
Lazzati. Milan: Mondadori.
gians” (from Thomas Aquinas to Silvestro Prierias and Alciati, Andrea. 1538. Commentaria in titulum iuris canonici de
Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola), who thought that officio ordinarii,In cap. Perniciosam argumenta104, 105, 106.
the Devil really transported witches to the Sa b b a t , Lyons. InOpera Omnia, vol. 4, col. 369. Basileae (Basel):
while demons in their shape remained in bed with their Isingrin.
husbands. Explicitly following the tenth-century ———. 1544.Parergon iuris libri,book 8, chap. 22; in Opera
Canon Ep i s c o p i and the “m a i n s t ream opinion of the Omnia,,vol. 2, cols. 406–408. Lyons.
Callahan, Virginia W. 1985. “Alciati, Andrea.” Pp. 23–26 in
jurists,” Alciati believed the Sabbat to be simply an illu-
Contemporaries of Erasmus. A Biographical Register of the
sion created by the witches’ deranged minds. These per-
Renaissance and Reformation. Vol. 1. Edited by P. Bietenholz
sons should be treated with peony (likely its seed), a
and T. Deutscher.Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
remedy Pliny the Elder suggested for the mentally dis-
Lea, Henry Charles. 1957. Pp. 374–376 in Materials Toward a
turbed; but because they are all poor ordinary women
History of Witchcraft.Vol. 1. NewYork and London: Thomas
( “p a u p e res et foemellae omnes sunt”; Alciati Yoseloff.
1557–1558, 2:407), they lacked the means to be cured. Montaigne, Michel de.1958. The Complete Works ofMontaigne.
The author’s universal fame made this passage a Translated by Donald Frame. Stanford: Stanford University
s t rong argument for skeptics. Johann We ye r, in fact, Press.
quoted a long excerpt of it in his De praestigiis daemon- Weyer, Johann. 1991. Witches, Doctors, and Devils in the
um ( On the Tricks of Devils, 1563) in support of more Renaissance: Johann Weyer,De praestigiis daemonum. Edited by
George Mora. Translated by John Shea. Binghamton, NY:
lenient treatment for women accused of witchcraft. An
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. Originally
echo of Alciati can also be found in Michel de
published 1563.
Mo n t a i g n e’s Es s a i s (1580), where the author re c a l l e d
meeting a group of detained witches, to whom he would
h a ve “p rescribed rather hellebore than hemlock” Allotriophagy
( Montaigne 1958, 792). Meanwhile, the advocates of The termallotriophagyrefers to the practice, particular-
persecution of witches sought to undermine the va l i d i t y ly common to girls and young women who claimed to
of Alciati’s statement. Jean Bodin, in his De la démono- be bewitched, of regurgitating a variety of objects, such
manie des sorc i e r s ( On the De m o n - Mania of Wi t c h e s , as pins, nails, and feathers. Onlookers often were led to
1580), suggests that the Italian jurist’s skepticism on the believe that witches with the connivance of the Devil
reality of the Sabbat had been dictated by his displeasure had inserted these things into their bodies.
with the exc e s s i ve severity of an inquisitor in Pi e d m o n t . Allotriophagy (oddly omitted from the Oxford English
Ma rtín Del Rio, in his Disquisitiones Magicae librisex Dictionary) derives from Greek words meaning “to eat”
( Six Books on In vestigations into Magic, 1599), blames and “strange.” Medical dictionaries define it as “a
A l c i a t i’s “w ro n g” ideas on the uncertainties still sur- depraved appetite.”
rounding the issue of the Sabbat at the beginning of the The practice, which could strike awe into by s t a n d e r s ,
c e n t u ry, and claims that not only the opinion of theolo- illustrates the tendency of persons claiming to be
gians, but also that of other learned men and the confes- b ewitched to duplicate behavior that they had learned was
sion of the witches had since proved its re a l i t y. associated with such a condition. Skeptics on occasion
Alciati also mentions witchcraft briefly in his we re able to expose frauds, but such exposures, of course,
Commentaria on papal decretals (1538), arguing that fell short of demonstrating conclusively that others dis-
accusations of participation in the Sabbat should not playing similar behavior we re not authentically bew i t c h e d .
suffice to condemn a witch, because the whole matter is The first English exposure of trickery took place in
the product of demonic illusions. On this point, his 1574 when Agnes Briggs and Rachel Pinder, eleven and
30 Allotriophagy |
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t we l ve years old, we re discove red inserting pins into enth was found hanged in jail, supposedly by the Devil.
their mouths and then claiming, when they spat the To d a y, allotriophagy is often re f e r red to as p i c a , a
pins out, that they had been bewitched. They had to term derived from the Latin word for magpie, a bird
stand before the preacher at St. Pa u l’s in London and k n own for its voracious and indiscriminate appetite.
acknowledge their deceit. The primary emphasis is on the eating of strange sub-
T h i rty years later, in 1604, Anne Gunter sneeze d , stances, not their regurgitation. The syndrome is most
vomited, and voided pins, and pins we re said to have commonly diagnosed in women, though both genders
exuded from her breasts and fingers. She was dis- and all groups provide some cases. The cause of pica,
patched to the home of He n ry Cotton, bishop of medical texts note, is poorly understood, though the
Sa l i s b u ry. He marked the pins in his house, and later most common explanation links it to a deficiency of
i d e n t i fied them as the ones that Anne vomited. Sh e iron in the body. Zinc deficiencies, mental retardation,
confessed the fraud. Ed w a rd Jo rden, a physician who d e velopmental delays, and genetic factors also have
conveyed details of the ruse to King James I and there- been blamed for pica.
by reinforced the king’s emerging doubts about claims
GILBERT GEIS
of bewitchment, had suspected her duplicity.
A variety of ingenious explanations we re offered to See also: BEWITCHMENT;BINSFELD,PETER;CHILDREN;DECEPTION
explain allotriophagy. The sixteenth-century Ge r m a n ANDMAGIC;DISEASE;GUNTER,ANNE;JORDEN,EDWARD;POSSES-
physician Johann We yer found no traces of hard or angu-
SION,DEMONIC;SCOTLAND;WEYER,JOHANN.
References and further reading:
lar substances in the stomachs of those saying they we re
Federman, Daniel G., Robert S. Kirsner, and Grace S. Liang
b ewitched before they vomited such materials, nor any
Federman. 1997. “Pica: AreYou Hungry for the Facts?”
trace of food on what they regurgitated even if they had
Connecticut Medicine61: 207–209.
eaten re c e n t l y. We yer concluded that the Devil, with
Larner, Christina. 1981. Enemies of God: The Witch-hunt in
astonishing quickness so that the human eye could not Scotland.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
f o l l ow his motions, placed the objects in the mouth of the Millar, John. 1877. A History of the Witches of Renfrewshire.Paisley,
b ewitched person, who never actually swallowed them. Scotland.
The highly credulous Peter Binsfeld, the suffragan McDonald, S.W. 1996. “The Bargarran Witch Trial: A Psychiatric
bishop of Tr i e r, declared in 1591 that the Devil put Assessment.” Scottish Medical Journal41: 152–159.
people to sleep, inserted objects through a hole he made McLachlan, Hugh V., and J.K. Swales. 2002. “The Bewitchment
of Christian Shaw: A Re-assessment of the Famous Paisley
in their body, and then closed the hole. Ignatius Lupo
Witch Case of 1697.” Pp. 54–83 in Twisted Sisters: Women,
Da Bergamo, an Italian inquisitor writing in 1648,
Crime and Deviance in Scotland Since 1400.Edited byYvonne
asserted that the Devil introduced such materials into a
Browne and Rona Ferguson. East Linton, UK: Tuckwell.
body as powder and then recomposed them as they
were discharged.
In more recent times, the swallowing of an astound- Alsace
ing variety of articles has been re p o rted in cases of Generally neglected by twe n t i e t h - c e n t u ry scholars, the
s e ve re mental illness. A pathological swallower was f o u n d h i s t o ry of witchcraft in Alsace remains ve ry much a
to have ingested 258 items, including a thre e - p o u n d w o rk in pro g ress. Still 70 percent Ge r m a n - s p e a k i n g ,
piece of metal, 26 keys, 3 sets of rosary beads, 16 reli- e ven though it has belonged to France for most of the
gious medals, 9 nail files, and 88 assorted coins. time since the late seventeenth century, this re g i o n
Inmates in women’s prisons also have been reported to included many different governments during the age of
engage in orgies of swallowing safety pins and pieces of major witch hunting in the Holy Roman Em p i re. Mu c h
glass as well as batteries and bedsprings. of southern or Upper Alsace belonged to the Au s t r i a n
Most episodes of allotriophagy said to be pro d u c e d Habsburgs, as did the large northern L a n d vo g t e i ( d i s-
by witchcraft we re probably bogus. Persons palmed or t r i c t )of Hagenau in Lower Alsace. The prince-bishop of
o t h e rwise secreted the materials in their mouths and Strasbourg, who usually resided at Sa verne, was a major
then regurgitated them. The act nonetheless had a landholder in the center. Alsace included many small
p owe rful impact. In a famous 1696 Scottish case, autonomous fiefs, both noble and ecclesiastical, some of
e l e ve n - year-old Christian Shaw displayed the wide which conducted a hundred or more witchcraft trials. It
array of behaviors associated with bewitching: rigidity, also contained ten self-governing imperial free cities.
fits, delirium, pantomimes of fighting off invisible ene- Some of these cities, like Strasbourg, owned several ru r a l
mies, and a stomach that expanded and contracted like villages, and all ten conducted some witchcraft trials;
a pair of bellows. She spat out balls of hair of va r i o u s Strasbourg conducted trials in at least nine differe n t
colors which she said had been thrust down her throat years between 1630 and 1644.
by devilish assailants and vomited straw, cinders, coal, In all pro b a b i l i t y, in Alsace there we re many fewe r
and hay. Based on Sh a w’s actions and testimony, six witch burnings than in the German state of Ba d e n -
persons were burned to death for witchcraft while a sev- W ü rttemberg, which lay directly across the Rhine;
Alsace 31 |
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nevertheless, witch hunting here had a long and grue- Alsace came under French control, witchcraft trials
some history. Heinrich Kramer, the Alsatian-born resumed in some places. A valuable survey of witch
author of the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of hunting in Alsace after 1640 counts almost 100 people
Witches, 1486), re p o rted witch burnings here in the accused and 64 executed as witches, overwhelmingly in
1470s and 1480s, and there were scattered trials in the areas not under French control (Klaits 1982, 154–155).
earlier sixteenth century. During the peak of witch The two final large persecutions, in 1659 and
hunting in western Eu rope, almost a thousand people 1671–1673, occurred in Protestant villages; the
we re executed for witchcraft in Alsace between 1570, Protestant metropolis of Strasbourg sentenced a witch
when burnings we re re c o rded at Séléstat (Be h r i n g e r to death as late as 1660. Although Louis XIV, who then
1995, 154), and the campaigns of the T h i rty Ye a r s’ g overned all of Alsace, had reputedly decriminalize d
War, which devastated much of Alsace in the 1630s. All witchcraft in 1682, his regional appellate court—creat-
major Alsatian governments recorded numerous witch- ed in 1658 and normally unconcerned with witch-
craft trials. The Austrian capital at Ensisheim, which craft—upheld and implemented a death sentence for
supervised the large southern Sundgau region, recorded witchcraft, while also reducing a second death sentence
about 90 witch burnings in the half-century before and releasing three other prisoners (Klaits 1982,
1622, while the northern Habsburg center at Hagenau 161–163).
saw almost as many (Reuss 1898, 106). The smaller
WILLIAM MONTER
southern vogtei (administrative jurisdictions) of Thann
re c o rded 152 of them during the same period See also: BADEN,MARGRAVATEOF;LORRAINE,DUCHYOF;STRAS-
(Behringer 1995, 154). BOURG,DIOCESEOF.
References and further reading:
S c a t t e red evidence suggests that Upper Alsace and the
Archives Departementales (AD), Meurthe-et-Moselle, Nancy,
thinly populated western mountains held more witch-
France, B 8087 (Pfalzburg); B 8917–8918 (St. Hippolyte).
craft trials than its northern parts; the eastern edge of the
Behringer,Wolfgang, ed. 1995. Hexen und Hexenprozesse.3d ed.
Vosges, from Sa verne south to Thann, seems to have
Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch.
been badly afflicted, with some exceptionally heavy con-
Klaits, Joseph. 1982. “Witchcraft Trials and Absolute Monarchy in
centrations in the wine-growing regions betwe e n Alsace.” Pp. 148–172 in Church, State, and Society Under the
Obernai and Colmar. As in Ba d e n - W ü rt t e m b e r g , Bourbon Kings of France.Edited by Richard M. Golden.
several of the worst Alsatian episodes seem to have hap- Lawrence, KS: Coronado.
pened between 1615 and 1630. Governments of va r i- Reuss, Rodolphe. 1871. La sorcellerie au seizième et dix-septième
ous sizes we re affected. At Sa verne, capital of the siècles, particulièrement en Alsace.Paris: Fischbacher.
prince-bishop of Strasbourg, 15 witches died in ———. 1898. L’Alsace au dix-septième siècle.Vol. 2. Paris:
Bouillon.
1614–1615 and 19 more after 1628 (Reuss 1898, 107).
Schaefli, L. 1993. “La sorcellerie à Molsheim (1589–1697).”
In the nine villages of the Steinthal in the Vosges, ruled
Annuaire de la Sociétéd’histoire et d’archéologie de Molsheim et
by the princely house of Veldenz, more than 80 witches
environs.
were burned in the 1620s (Thurston 2001, 104–116).
Simon, Maryse. 2003. “Brûler sa voisine: les affaires de sorcellerie
Farther south, the prince-abbot of Murbach burned 54
au Val de Lièpvre au XVIe et XVIIe siècles.” 2 vols. Ph.D. the-
of his subjects in 1615, and another 17 witches died at sis, Université de Strasbourg.
n e a r by Gu e bwiller between then and 1623 (Re u s s Thurston, Robert. 2001. Witch, Wicca, Mother Goose.London:
1898, 106). Pearson.
Individual villages in Upper Alsace burned sizable
numbers of witches. At St. Hippolyte, a wine-growing Amsterdam
village owned by the dukes of Lorraine, eighteen witch- Ve ry few people we re ever executed for witchcraft in
es died between 1617 and 1622 (AD Na n c y, B A m s t e rdam, and such trials had already ended here in
8917–8918); the even smaller village of Ge r s t h e i m , the 1560s. All of them occurred when the municipal
near the Rhine, burned 19 of them in two months in g overnment was controlled by the so-called “s i n c e re
1630 (Reuss 1898, 106–107). Larger towns pro d u c e d Catholic faction,” which came to power after a gro u p
even larger numbers of witches, particularly during the of Anabaptists had attacked Amsterd a m’s city hall in
1620s; Hagenau, for example, burned 21 witches in May 1535, hoping to turn the town into an annex of
three months in 1627. Two centers of Jesuit presence in the New Je rusalem their coreligionists had founded a
Alsace, Séléstat, and Molsheim, compiled the province’s year earlier in the German town of Münster. Prior to
worst re c o rds after 1620 (Klaits 1982, 156): the fir s t this attack, some members of the governing oligarc h y
convicted at least 90 witches between summer 1629 had shown sympathy for the Anabaptists. But because
and February 1642; the second recorded more than 100 these oligarchs had failed to keep the Anabaptists
witchcraft trials in its “Bl o o d - B o o k” ( Bl u t e b u c h ) under control, the central government in Bru s s e l s
between 1620 and 1625 (Schaefli 1993). f o rced this group to leave office. The new magistrates
After the T h i rty Ye a r s’ War ended and much of we re chosen because they claimed to be true Catholics.
32 Amsterdam |
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In 1578, a Protestant faction replaced them when had procured the magical utensils found in her house in
A m s t e rdam joined the re volt against King Philip II of order to ward off attacks from one of the witches who
Sp a i n . had been executed in 1555. The trials resumed in 1564,
In December 1541, a woman named Engel Di rc xd r when international political problems blocked trade
was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. The aldermen with the Baltic and England. Only one trial took place
dispatched two members, Joost Bu yck and his in Amsterdam, but at least three and probably five or
b rother-in-law Sybrant Occo, to The Hague to ask m o re women we re executed in a region directly nort h
advice of the court of Holland and Zeeland. Occo was that was economically dependent upon Amsterdam. In
well acquainted with modern demonology. As a law the city, a delirious woman was arrested who had raved
student, he had visited Ingolstadt in 1529, when sever- about the Devil during an attack of fever in the tow n
al trials took place there and in nearby places. In hospital. She was arrested and confessed under torture
A m s t e rdam, his father was the re p re s e n t a t i ve of the that she had caused several shipw recks and other
famous trading house of the Fuggers, who provided a calamities. One of the ships she reputedly destroye d
steady stream of information about events throughout belonged to her own bro t h e r. To do so she had flow n
Eu rope. In 1526, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, an with the devil to a large meeting of demons and other
artist living next door to the Occo family and employed women that had taken place high in the air above a
repeatedly by them, made a painting depicting Sa u l’s strait through which all ships to or from Amsterd a m
visit to the witch of Endor, a work clearly influenced by had to pass. Together they had raised a huge storm. Her
the south-German artists Albrecht Dürer and Ha n s execution was the last in Amsterdam; afterwards, all tri-
Baldung Grien. als there ended in acquittals.
The court in The Hague referred the two aldermen Six executions among a population numbering about
to the town magistrates of Utrecht, which sent two spe- 30,000 in the 1560s are not ve ry many. Amsterd a m’s
cialists to Amsterdam who successfully broke the defen- magistrates we re anything but ove rzealous witch
d a n t’s will. On Ja n u a ry 10, 1542, Engel Di rc xdr was hunters. They did not show great zeal in suppre s s i n g
burned on Amsterd a m’s main square. A year later heresy either; in this respect, even the “sincere Catholic
A m s t e rdam again employed one of these specialists to f a c t i o n” often neglected instructions from the central
help interrogate a woman. In her case, the judges con- g overnment in Brussels. The city magistrates found it
cluded that she was not a witch, but was guilty of coun- difficult to prosecute religious dissenters from their own
terwitchcraft, for which crime she was banished. They communities as long as these fellow citizens caused no
put the cunning man (a practitioner of beneficent mag- public trouble. In matters of witchcraft, the Catholic
ic) who had accused her in the pillory, had his tongue faction had its own reasons for caution: Twice, their
pierced, and banished him also. political opponents had used witchcraft accusations to
A first cluster of trials occurred in 1555 when four weaken their position. In 1547, Marie Holleslooten was
women we re executed. In Fe b ru a ry, a maidserva n t , accused by a cunning man named Jacob de Rosa, who
Meyns Cornelisdr of Pu r m e rend, was arrested. He r acted at the instigation of a man belonging to the fac-
dossier is almost completely pre s e rved. She told her tion that had been driven from power ten years earlier.
i n t e r rogators that about twenty years earlier two cats Marie’s two sons and her son-in-law Sybrant Occo were
had appeared to her and had danced round her paw in prominent members of the ruling Catholic faction. Of
paw. Since then she had been harassed by specters and course, she was never indicted and even managed to get
demons who threw her off the stairs and stole her sav- De Rosa convicted despite his flight. In 1548 he was
ings. At one point the Devil had appeared to her in the caught in the province of Gelderland, and at the request
form of a handsome young man wearing a ve l ve t of Marie Holleslooten, the provincial court sentenced
Spanish hat and a silver sword, asking her to become his him to be flogged and banished.
l over and offering her money. When she refused, he Almost two decades later, Ma r i e’s daughter Ja c o b a
attacked her and tore her clothing into pieces. He dis- Bam was accused. Members of the city council sympa-
appeared but returned after seven years, when he forced thizing with the rapidly spreading Calvinist movement
Meyns to accept him by cutting the sign of her confir- o rchestrated the charges. In 1566 a large number of
mation out of her forehead. After the aldermen decided c h i l d ren from the Amsterdam orphanage we re pos-
to torture her in order to discover whether she was not sessed by demons. The orphans repeatedly divulged
only the De v i l’s mistress but also a witch, she fin a l l y s e c ret decisions of the city council. Presumably they
confessed witchcraft. She was sentenced to the stake re c e i ved their information from members of the city
and executed a few days later.That same year, a mother council who wanted to undermine the ruling oligarchy.
and her two daughters were also burned. The orphans also did all sorts of things that we re
In the next nine years, only one trial took place. In thought to be impossible for normal human beings.
1560, a woman was banished; she had been accused of Finally they climbed up the bell tower of the city’s main
witchcraft, but had convinced the aldermen that she church and shouted that they would come down only
Amsterdam 33 |
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after Jacoba Bam had been burned at the stake. Of consecrated object). In most European languages, both
course the magistrates did not comply with their terms have commonly been used interchangeably both
demand and declared that Jacoba was innocent. T h e y in popular and scholarly literature. Attempts to estab-
did arrest another woman, who was released when she lish a distinction (e.g., an amulet is a pro t e c t i ve talis-
refused to confess despite undergoing tort u re. T h e man worn somewhere on the body; or an amulet is an
orphans we re then separated from each other and object with inherent magical powers, whereas a talis-
lodged with private families, after which the tumult man is an object that has been endowed with magic
ended. Both incidents taught Amsterd a m’s “s i n c e re power by some magical or demonic process or ritual; or
Catholic” magistrates that witchcraft accusations could a talisman is an amulet bearing a magical inscription)
be turned against them. h a ve not met with general agreement. In common
After 1578, Amsterdam officially became a usage, the word c h a rm ( f rom Latin c a rm e n , “ i n c a n t a-
Calvinist city, but its magistrates soon allowed fre e- t i o n”), which originally meant “incantation,” may be
dom of worship not only to other Protestant denomi- used in the sense of “amulet.”
nations but also to Jews and Catholics, who we re only The lack of a precise definition is old. A contempo-
expected to be discreet. Priests who exo rc i s e d r a ry French translation of Andrea Alciati’s Latin
b ewitched or possessed people in private re m a i n e d emblem book (Em b l e m a t a , 1531) gave “c o n t re - p o i s o n
u n t roubled. The fear of witchcraft did not disappear de Ve n u s” (i.e., “counterpoison,” or antidote), for
among the population, but only rarely did it lead to “amuletum Veneris” in the original. Some writers, such
public incidents like the lynching that occurred in as the German Jesuit and scholar Athanasius Kircher in
1624, when a group of young men used a tax riot to
drag a reputed witch out of her home and throw her
into one of Amsterd a m’s many canals, then pre ve n t e d
attempts to rescue her and kept her under water until
she drowned. Cunning folk could, howe ve r, still be
p rosecuted, and occasionally one of them was put in
the pillory and banished. In this re g a rd there was little
d i f f e rence between the Calvinist magistrates and their
p re - Reformation pre d e c e s s o r s .
HANS DE WAARDT
See also: ANABAPTISTS;CUNNINGFOLK;NETHERLANDS,NORTHERN;
NETHERLANDS,SOUTHERN;PROTESTANTREFORMATION.
References and further reading:
Gijswijt-Hofstra, Marijke, and Willem Frijhoff, eds. 1991.
Witchcraft in the Netherlands from the Fourteenth to the
Twentieth Century.Rotterdam: Universitaire Pers Rotterdam.
Waardt, Hans de. 1991. Toverij en samenleving. Holland
1500–1800. The Hague: Stichting Hollandse Historische
Reeks.
Amulet and Talisman
The terms amulet and talisman are roughly synony-
mous, and the basic definition can be simply stated: an
object, or group of objects, natural or manufactured,
with magical powers, usually protective. Amulets and
talismans are related to witchcraft in that they may be
created, activated, or sold by witches, or used by witch-
es in rituals. Possession of amulets could therefore be
incriminating in witchcraft trials.
The English word amulet derives from Latin amule-
t u m , which denoted a variety of pro t e c t i ve magical
objects(see, for example, Pliny’s Natural History, 29.26
and 30.24, re s p e c t i ve l y, for apotropaic bat and dog’s
gall as antidotes to poison). The word t a l i s m a n w a s
u n k n own in classical literature but is thought to have Amulets and talismans are objects with magical powers, and they
been used first in Spanish (the usual etymology is provide protection against harmful magic, witchcraft, disease, the evil
Arabic .t i l s a m , f rom late Greek t e l e s m a , an initiation, a eye, demons, and fairies. (TopFoto.co.uk)
34 Amulet and Talisman |
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the seventeenth century, have used the word amuletum without inscriptions or figures), and mirrors. This cate-
for an artifact such as a ring, seal, or gem that bears an gory includes items of religious practice: crosses, relics,
inscribed or engraved sigil (a magical inscription or medallions, icons, incense, church candle wax, blessed
character, such as a pentagram or astrological figure), or water, pendants such as the Hamsa or “hand of Fatima”
an inscription or figure inscribed in a manuscript (e.g., (daughter of the Prophet Mohammed)—an amulet
in g r i m o i re s— m a g i c i a n s’ manuals for invo k i n g with an incised shape of a hand, with an eye in the mid-
demons—and other books of learned magic). T h e s e dle, widely used in the Middle East and North Africa as
a re, howe ve r, more commonly called talismans, espe- p rotection from the evil eye, now much promoted in
cially if employed for a malefic purpose. the West by jewelers and traders in “magical” goods—
The belief that objects can have magical powers of blue beads, and miniature figures of all kinds attached
attraction, repulsion, protection (especially from dis- to neck pendants or charm bracelets.
eases, malefic magic, demons, fairies, witches, or the evil Amulets may also be texts: prayers, apocryphal works
e ye), healing, and conferring great strength, wisdom, such as the Sunday Letter—also known as the L e t t e r
wealth, invisibility, or success and general good luck, is f rom He a ven or the Je rusalem Scroll ( Ryan 1999,
p robably common to all cultures, and ranges from folk- 300–301), quotations from the Bible or Koran, dimin-
loric to high magic, as the object invo l ved ranges from a ishing spells such as ABRACADABRA, the SATO R /
simple root to an elaborate and costly engraved gem. AREPO magic square, charms, or medical formulas,
Such objects may be worn or placed near the person or which may be worn, or eaten if written on paper or on
location for which protection is desired (houses, fie l d s , foodstuffs such as bread or apples.
cradles), or they may form part of a magic ritual. The commercial production of amulets and trading in
Amulets, which are natural objects, draw their powe r them, widespread in the early twe n t y - first century, has a
either from the special conditions under which they are h i s t o ry going back to classical antiquity at least; for exam-
collected (e.g., at midnight, midsummer, in a cemetery ) ple, Egyptian scarabs have been found in medieval grave
or from rituals (e.g., in Christian communities, by goods in Scandinavia and northern and eastern Ru s s i a .
s e c reting them on a church altar). Commonly, amulets In the West, the wearing or other use of amulets has
a re thought to derive their power from a blessing by a been regularly condemned as a harmful superstition fro m
cleric, or a spell by a witch, or by demonic assistance. In ancient Roman law to Christian canon law (both Catholic
many cases the imagined effect of the amulet depends and Ort h o d ox). It is also forbidden in Islam and Ju d a i s m ,
on the association of ideas (magnets attract, locks hold but is just as pre valent in communities practicing those
fast, keys open, knots cause impotence, teeth pro t e c t religions as it is in the Christian or pagan worlds. In the
f rom toothache, cowrie shells and stones with holes period of the Eu ropean witchcraft trials, this condemna-
resemble genitalia and are re c o rded both as fert i l i t y tion was important. Because the possession of items that
charms and as protection against the evil eye and witch- we re, or could be, seen as amulets was probably almost
es). Amulets are often worn around the neck, sometimes u n i versal, anyone making an accusation of witchcraft did
m o re than one together, possibly sealed in a small bag; not have to look far to find some supporting evidence.
some may be worn on the head or arm.
WILLIAM RYAN
The objects to which amuletic or talismanic powe r s
may be attributed cover a wide range; the most com- See also: CHARMS;EVILEYE;GRIMOIRES;INVOCATIONS;MAGIC,
mon objects fall into certain basic categories. Wi d e l y
NATURAL;MAGIC,POPULAR.
References and further reading:
used are minerals, such as gemstones (for which there
Budge, E.A. Wallis. 1930. Amulets and Superstitions: The Original
is a ve ry long history of supposed amuletic virt u e s ) ,
Texts with Translations and Descriptions of a Long Series of
c rystals, stones with natural holes and curiously
Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Hebrew, Christian, Gnostic, and
shaped stones, coal, magnetite, meteorite, quicksilve r,
Muslim Amulets and Talismans and Magical Figures, with
fossils, and grave y a rd dust. Animal amulets may be Chapters on the Evil Eye, the Origin of the Amulet, the Pentagon,
whole animals (e.g., toads, bats, snakes), eagle talons the Swastika, the Cross (Pagan and Christian), the Properties of
and bear’s claws, cowrie shells, pearls, coral, fis h , Stones, Rings, Divination, Numbers, the Kabbâlâh, Ancient
w o l ve s’ teeth, narwhal (“u n i c o r n”) horns, bones, cauls, Astrology, etc.London: Oxford University Press. Reprint,
and parts of human bodies taken from grave y a rd s . London: Kegan Paul, 2001.
The most common vegetable amulets are va r i o u s Hansmann, Liselotte, and Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck. 1966. Amulett
und Talisman. Erscheinungsform und Geschichte.Munich:
plants and roots with supposed magical pro p e rt i e s ,
Callwey.
such as the nine or twe l ve herbs gathered on St. Jo h n’s
Marquès-Rivière, J. 1950. Amulettes, talismans et pantacles dans les
Da y, and amber.
traditions orientales et occidentals.Paris: Payot, 1938. Reprint,
A rtifact amulets include knots, nets, red thre a d s ,
Paris: Payot.
belts and girdles (especially for pregnant women), keys,
Ryan, W.F. 1999. The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey
locks, knives, spoons, bells, coins, iron nails, horse- of Magic and Divination in Russia.University Park:
shoes, scarabs, engraved gems, rings and seals (with or Pennsylvania State University Press.
Amulet and Talisman 35 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 73 | 46049 Golden Chap. A av First Pages 08/24/2005 p.36 Application File
Seligmann, Siegfried. 1999. Die magischen Heil- und Schutzmittel with the Dutch Republic immediately ended here s y
aus der unbelebten Natur, mit besonderer Berüchsichtigung der persecution, although the southern provinces, which
Mittel gegen den Bösen Blick. Eine Geschichte des Amulettwesens. remained largely in Spanish hands, continued to exe-
Stuttgart: Strecker and Schroeder, 1927. Reprint, Berlin:
cute Anabaptists, along with other religious dissidents,
Reimer.
into the 1590s, when witch hunting became fashion-
able. Other regions ceased serious persecution of
Anabaptists
Anabaptists around the time that they began hunting
Anabaptists, members of the most radical of the six-
w i t c h e s .
teenth-century reformation movements, rejected fully
Meanwhile, re v i ved concerns about secre t i ve, noc-
the Catholic sacramental system, and were mercilessly
turnal gatherings of Anabaptists in the 1550s and
persecuted until the revival of major witch hunting
1560s may have contributed to fears of conspiratorial
around 1560. Arising in 1525–1526 out of the move-
witch Sabbats. In the County of Wiesensteig, the fir s t
ments of social protest and religious reform of the early
major Reformation era witch hunt in 1562 was imme-
Reformation that also sparked the German Peasants’
diately preceded by the discovery of a large, nocturnal
War of 1524–1525, Anabaptists initially hoped to
f o rest meeting of Anabaptists in neighboring
reform society in complete conformity to the gospels,
Württemberg. In this respect, Anabaptists and witches
insisting especially on baptizing adults instead of
shared a common fate, acting as scapegoats for the pun-
infants. Many described pedobaptism as a baptism in
ishment that God seemed to be meting out to
the Devil’s name. In 1529, the imperial Diet of Speyer
Europeans for their sins. In the Anabaptists, the author-
declared rebaptism a capital crime, making conviction
ities found heretics who openly rejected their original
of suspected Anabaptists much easier.
baptism, who met at night in fields or woods, and who
The Anabaptist move m e n t’s presumed association
seemed to allow women considerable religious authori-
with rebellion seemed confirmed by the Anabaptist
t y. T h e re was some projection of beliefs about
Kingdom of Münster,Westphalia (1533–1535), which
Anabaptists onto witches, particularly with respect to
not only defended itself by force of arms, but also
the connections between heresy and sedition, nocturnal
adopted community of goods and eventually polygamy.
meetings of heretics, and the rejection of “Christian”
After Münster’s fall in June 1535, almost all
baptism. After the growth of Anabaptism, diabolical
Anabaptists, including Mennonites, Swiss Bre t h re n ,
rebaptism became a much more prominent element of
and Hutterites, openly rejected any form of political
witch confessions, and the concept of the witches’
activity and violence. Even so, the supposed connection
Sabbat generally became more believable. Many writ-
b e t ween here s y, sedition, and sexual license led many
ers, in fact, viewed the rise of Anabaptism and other
authorities, including Emperor Charles V, to secularize
reform heresies as precursors of diabolical witchcraft,
h e resy trials and hunt Anabaptists down as threats to
which was seen as the Devil’s final, apocalyptic assault
public ord e r, there by setting important precedents for
on Christendom.
subsequent witch hunts.
Anabaptist Attitudes toward
Persecution of Anabaptists as a Witchcraft
Precursor to the Witch Hunts Prior to the crushing of the Anabaptist Kingdom of
It is estimated that over 2,000 Anabaptists we re exe- Münster in 1535, many Anabaptists cultivated an
cuted across Eu rope between 1525 and the 1560s, intense apocalypticism and paid attention to visions
many of them burned at the stake. Catholic princes and wondrous signs, while simultaneously condemning
p roved the harshest persecutors; most Pro t e s t a n t Catholic devotion to saints and sacramentals (such as
princes and magistrates pre f e r red exile to exe c u t i o n s holy water) as superstitions, describing the consecrated
for recalcitrant Anabaptists, although Zwinglian Be r n Host as mere baker’s bread and pedobaptism as a Devil’s
and Lutheran Sa xony proved exceptions in this re g a rd . bath. After the deeply disillusioning destruction of their
These waves of persecution nearly eliminated New Jerusalem, however, most Anabaptists renounced
Anabaptism in several regions, although some gro u p s the visionary aspects of their past and became intensely
s u rv i ved by going underground or finding refuge in wary of ecstatic forms of religious experience, preferring
m o re tolerant regions such as Moravia. The worst per- instead a strict biblicism.
secution in the Holy Roman Em p i re and Sw i t ze r l a n d Having suffered horribly at the hands of the authori-
o c c u r red in the 1520s and 1530s, while the Ha b s b u r g ties as supposed agents of the Devil, Anabaptists
g overnment of the Netherlands continued its pro g r a m became understandably skeptical of efforts to re v i ve
of bloody suppression much longer, executing hun- fears of diabolical conspiracies and witchcraft. In
d reds of Anabaptists well after mid-century. With the keeping with their intense anticlericalism, Anabaptists
s t a rt of the war of independence against Spanish dom- c h a r a c t e r i zed Catholic priests and Lutheran pastors as
inance (ca. 1566), those provinces and cities siding the true sorcerers, and they understandably viewed the
36 Anabaptists |
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