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Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 174 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.137 Application File
the propaganda of Martin Luther and the reformers, the recognizable symptoms of possession in this way,
who hailed the invention as a work of God with which practicing symptoms they had read about from popular
they could spread the truth against the Devil in the printed accounts, thus accounting for some remarkable
shape of the pope, changed this image. Thus Cotton similarities in behavior in seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry
Mather wrote in his Wonders of the Invisible World England. For example, a popular pamphlet of 1593
(Mather 1693, 17) that Satan was responsible for delay- about the Throckmorton children in Huntingdonshire,
ing the invention of printing for so long. The Most Strange and Admirable Discoverie of the Three
Books we re important in the experience of witch- Witches of Wa r b oy s , a p p a rently inspired Anne Gu n t e r,
craft. Medieval necromancers had often been associated who simulated her symptoms of possession after read-
with manuscript “books of secrets,” a handful of which ing it; in several other cases, the familiar spirits had the
have been preserved. In Reformation Europe, the expe- same names as in the pamphlet. Si m u l t a n e o u s l y,
rience of witchcraft was increasingly described as begin- French-speaking nuns (and especially their exo rc i s t s )
ning with a pact in which the witch signed a book, used printed accounts to copy symptoms of possession
often in blood, committing her to Sa t a n’s service in from the Mediterranean to Belgium.
return for increased power. Many basic images concern- After 1700, with literacy rates increasing throughout
ing witchcraft involved inversions: Signing the pact in a Europe, the abundance of printed material skeptical of
book was a Protestant inversion of the traditional image witchcraft became significant in the decline of persecu-
of the names of the elect being written in God’s book, tion, although it was offset by the proliferation of cheap
to be used when eve ryone was judged at the guides for practicing magic.
Apocalypse.
Many witchcraft defendants were accused of possess-
Holy Books as Countermeasures
ing and using magical books and papers, including
against Witchcraft
those by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim.
We know that sacred books sometimes played an
Such heretical and seditious books, sometimes thought
important role in countering witchcraft. Texts from the
to have inherent demonic properties, could be burned
Quran, worn as amulets, protected Spanish Moriscos
along with their owners, as with Urbain Grandier at
against witchcraft. For Protestants, the Bible was simi-
Loudun in 1634, because everything of his was believed
larly thought to have properties that could render its
to be demonic.
user immune to the actions of Satan; an English clergy-
man told his parishioners that a Bible in the house
Books and Ideas of Witchcraft
would keep the Devil out (Thomas 1971, 590). Even
Books were important in spreading ideas about witch-
particular parts of a sacred text had protective qualities.
craft. For those with a high degree of literacy,
Some Catholic peasants wore the text of the Gospel of
demonologies provided justification for witch hunting,
John around their necks to keep the Devil at bay,
and theological treatises demonstrated the urgency
though demonologists such as Martín Del Rio found
required in fighting the Devil. The most popular book
such practices demonic (Maxwell-Stuart 2000, 141).
of all, the Bible, and the aids for reading and learning
Of course, reciting from sacred texts gave protection
its stories, showed the reality of the Devil and the
against harmful magic, or could be used to detect it.
importance of contemporary arguments about witch-
Biblically based countermeasures ranged from re c i t i n g
craft. Printed demonologies occasionally influenced tri-
particular passages like Exodus 22:18 (“Thou shalt not
als for witchcraft even across confessional lines between
suffer a witch to live”) to repeating psalms against the
Protestants and Catholics, as at St. Osyth in England in
Devil. Exo rcists used the Book of Re velation to eject
1582, where the official investigating witchcraft had
devils from the possessed. Reading the Bible among the
apparently used Jean Bodin’s treatise, De la démono-
family was among the few countermeasures re c o m-
manie des sorciers (On the Demon-Mania of Witches),
mended even by some Catholic demonologists (Bodin
first printed at Paris two years earlier. Demonologies
1995, 147). For purposes of divination, Biblical texts
also provided intellectual foundations upon which the
we re chosen randomly and then interpreted, although
edifice of the reality of witchcraft rested. Such interna-
such popular practices we re condemned by Pro t e s t a n t
tionally popular works helped account for many of the
demonologists like William Pe rkins, who wrote that
similarities in witchcraft cases.
they ”cannot be done without confederacy with Satan”
At a more popular level, cheaper printed works, such
(Perkins 1608, 107).
as single-leaf woodcuts (enormously popular in
Germany), broadsides and pamphlets such as ANDREW CAMBERS
Ge r m a n y’s “devil books” ( Te u f e l s b ü c h e r ) , s p read stories
See also: BIBLE;BIBLIOMANCY;COUNTERMAGIC;CUNNINGFOLK’S
of witches and witchcraft and the behavior associated
MANUALS;DEVILBOOKS;GRIMOIRES;GUNTHER,ANNE;PACT
with them across many parts of Christendom. WITHTHEDEVIL;PAMPHLETSANDNEWSPAPERS;PERKINS,
Supposedly possessed young people sometimes learned WILLIAM;ST.OSYTHWITCHES.
Books 137 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 175 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.138 Application File
References and further reading: witches, we rew o l ves, fairies, devils, and the like.
Bodin, Jean. 1995. On the Demon-Mania of Witches.Translated by Monsieur Oufle seems to have been an immediate suc-
Randy A. Scott. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and cess. It was reprinted several times in the eighteenth
Renaissance Studies.
century, with French editions appearing as late as 1754;
De Certeau, Michel. 1996. The Possession at Loudun.Chicago:
it was also translated into English and German as early
University of Chicago Press.
as 1711 and 1712, respectively.
Johns, Adrian. 1998. The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge
The edition published in Amsterdam in 1710, dur-
in the Making.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
ing the height of the Dutch controversy over the reality
Mather, Cotton. 1693. The Wonders of the Invisible World.Boston.
Maxwell-Stuart, P. G., ed. 2000. Martín Del Rio: Investigations into of the Devil, is most interesting because it contained an
Magic.Manchester: Manchester University Press. engraving showing Monsieur Ou fle, accompanied by
Perkins, William. 1608. A Discourse of the Damned Art of an allegorical fig u re of a Fool, attending a full-blow n
Witchcraft.Cambridge. w i t c h e s’ Sabbat. The image, showing witches making
Sabean, David Warren. 1984. Power in the Blood: Popular Culture storms, herding toads, eating infants, honoring the
and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany.Cambridge: Devil, flying around, dancing, and having an orgy, was
Cambridge University Press.
lifted directly from an earlier illustration by the Polish
Sharpe, James. 1999. The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: A Horrible
artist, Jan Ziarnko, that appeared in the 1613 edition of
and True Story of Football, Witchcraft, Murder and the King of
Pi e r re de Lancre’s Tableau de l’ Inconstance des mauva i s
England.London: Profile.
anges etdemons (Description of the Inconstancy of Evil
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London:
Angels and Demons). This book by the great Fre n c h
Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
witch hunter, Lancre, was by no means satire .
Although—or because?—Lancre was still notorious for
Bordelon, Laurent (1653–1710)
his persecution of witches in the Basque regions of
This abbé, chaplain of St. Eustache in Paris, contributed France almost a century earlier, the Amsterdam pub-
one fascinating book to the literature of witchcraft and lishers of Monsieur Oufle used Ziarnko’s image to illus-
d e m o n o l o g y. It was the first eighteenth-century book trate the ridiculous imaginings of Bordelon’s character.
that dared to deal with the theme of witchcraft in a The illustration in Monsieur Ou fle was copied exactly
h u m o rous and satirical fashion, and its use of illustra- from that of Ziarnko, with the only additions being the
tions about witchcraft was also re m a rk a b l e . fig u res of the Fool and Monsieur Ou fle. Such art i s t i c
Bordelon moved in the intellectual and noble circles t r a n s f e rences are not unusual in the history of witch-
of Louis XIV’s Paris in the aftermath of the notorious craft literature, but it is exceptional to find a print that
“Affair of the Po i s o n s” and the dawn of the was originally intended to horrify the reader with what
Enlightenment. His literary output totaled more than witches “really” did being used a century later to amuse
t h i rty books, most of which we re satires. Bord e l o n’s the reader of a raucous satire.
w o rks we re popular enough to be translated into va r i-
JANE P. DAVIDSON
ous European languages during the eighteenth century.
HisLa Langue(The Tongue, 1705) was translated into See also: AFFAIROFTHEPOISONS;BEKKER,BALTHASAR;ENLIGHTEN-
English as The Management of the To n g u e , or alterna- MENT;GRIMOIRES;LANCRE,PIERREDE;ZIARNKO,JAN.
t i ve l y, as Hints on Conve r s a t i o n , and was re p u b l i s h e d References and further reading:
Davidson, Jane P. 1987.The Witch in Northern European Art,
f requently until the nineteenth century. Some chapter
1470–1750.Freren, Germany: Luca.
headings in La Langue g i ve insight into Bord e l o n’s
La Harpe, Jacqueline E. V. de. 1942.L’abbé Laurent Bordelon et la
humor; they include, “the babble,” “the silent man,”
lutte contre la superstition en France entre 1680 et 1730.
“the dissipater,” “the opinionated man,” “the promiser,”
Berkeley: University of California Press.
“the instructor,” and “the tongue of women.”
Robbins, Russell Hope. 1959. Encyclopedia of Demonology and
B o rd e l o n’s contribution to the history of witchcraft Witchcraft.NewYork: Bonanza.
l i t e r a t u re was published in 1710 in both Paris and
A m s t e rdam. L’ h i s t o i re des imaginations extra vagantes de Borromeo, St. Carlo (1538–1584)
Monsieur Oufle: causees par la lecture des livres qui trait- One of very few saints with the responsibility for hold-
ent de la magie, du grimoire, des demoniaques, sorciers . . . ing a significant number of witchcraft trials, Carlo
(The St o ry of the Ex t r a vagant Imaginations of Borromeo (canonized November 1, 1611) was born in
Monsieur Ou fle, Occasioned by his Reading Books Arona. As the youngest of his brothers, he was destined
Treating Magic, the Demonic Arts, De m o n i a c s , to pursue an ecclesiastical career.The unexpected elec-
Witches . . .) told the adventures of Monsieur Oufle— tion of his maternal uncle Cardinal Gianangelo de’
“oufle” being an anagram for “le fou,” thus “Monsieur Medici as pope in December 1559 marked a turning
Le Fo u” (“Mr. Cr a z y,” or “Mr. Fo o l”)—who believe d point in his life. Pius IV summoned his nephew to
firmly in all aspects of the occult, including witchcraft. Rome and, despite his age, appointed him cardinal on
B o rd e l o n’s Monsieur Le Fou encountered astro l o g e r s , January 31, 1560.
138 Bordelon, Laurent |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 176 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.139 Application File
Laurent Bordelon’s early eighteenth-century satirical representation of the witches’ Sabbat that ridiculed Jan Ziarnko’s 1613 depiction of the Sabbat.
(Brian P. Levack, ed. The Wichcraft Sourcebook, 2004, p. 312)
T h rough nepotism, young Carlo soon became one of election of Pius V, Borromeo never wavered in his radi-
the richest and most prestigious members of the Sa c re d cal reform activities or in his jealous fostering of episco-
College. The decisive event of his dazzling rise was his pal jurisdiction.
appointment as administrator of the archbishopric of Milan, in Borro m e o’s view, needed to become the
Milan on Fe b ru a ry 17, 1560. By December 1563, he model for carrying out reform in the universal Church,
had been consecrated archbishop of Milan, and made a goal to which the archbishop dedicated himself com-
his solemn entrance almost two years later in Se p t e m b e r pletely until his death. He remained convinced that in
1565. Once settled in the archdiocese, which he no o rder to combat here s y, which was a ve ry thre a t e n i n g
longer left except for brief periods, Borromeo dedicated reality in his diocese, he must dedicate his efforts to
himself to the rigorous application of the Tr i d e n t i n e eradicating the scandals that served the enemies of
d e c rees. Because of his reform efforts, the pope cre a t e d Catholicism. The task required swift and radical action.
him legatus a latere (a papal nuncio, literally “a legate B o r romeo was as relentless in his determination to
f rom the side” [of the pope]) in 1565. When Borro m e o punish anything related to magic and superstition as he
lost this privilege after his uncle’s death, two subsequent was against Protestants. This was evident in the severe
popes, Pius V and Gre g o ry XIII, granted him numero u s sanctions established in his 1568 decree De Ma g i c i s
privileges that other bishops did not possess. Artibus, Ve n e ficiis Divinationibusque Prohibitis ( On
B o r romeo had an almost medieval idea of the re l a- the Magic Arts, Poisonings, and Pro h i b i t e d
tionship between lay and ecclesiastical powers, but Divinations), re n ewed eight years later under the title
above all he believed in the unlimited exercise of episco- De Superstitionibus ( On Su p e r s t i t i o n s ) . It held that
pal jurisdiction, not only over clergy, but in some mea- a n yone who practiced the magical arts was to be
s u re also over the laity, and in we l l - o r g a n i zed pastoral c o n s i d e red, tacitly or expre s s l y, an accomplice of the
a c t i v i t y. His position provoked some serious disagre e- Devil. Penalties varied from five years of imprisonment
ments with the Spanish authorities who governed the for magicians to seven years imprisonment for causing a
duchy of Milan, as well as with the inquisitor at Santa storm. He also harshly persecuted harmless popular
Maria delle Grazie, whose jurisdiction he challenged superstitions inherited from an ancient, syncre t i s t i c
not only in cases of heresy, but also in those concerning religiosity (Farinelli and Paccagnini 1989, 81).
magic, witchcraft, and superstition, which he tried to Convinced as he was that all magic was diabolical,
arrogate to the archiepiscopal tribunal. Despite hostility the archbishop saw the witch, defined as the servant of
from Spanish governors, competition with Dominican the Devil by the theological and juridical thinking
inquisitors, and weaker relations with Rome after the of the day, as a central problem, and the extirpation of
Borromeo, St. Carlo 139 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 177 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.140 Application File
witchcraft as essential to the reform of Milanese re l i- i n vo l ved with the trials on the same level as Carlo,
gion. In c reasing persecution against witches there f o re Federico believed that such death sentences were justi-
became one of the most significant aspects of his pas- fied because they we re inflicted “justly” (Farinelli and
toral activity. In Lombard y, superstitions had been Paccagnini 1989, 103). Federico was responsible for
linked to diabolical knowledge since the late fourteenth u n re a l i zed plans for establishing a place where, after
c e n t u ry. Practitioners of magic and popular medicine s e rving their spiritual and judicial penalties, witches
we re considered dangerous religious subve r s i ves. On l y would be confined to ensure that the “bad seed” would
their eradication could re s t o re divine order on eart h be eradicated completely (Bendiscioli 1957, 298).
and there by reestablish the Catholic Churc h’s primacy
PAOLO PORTONE;
throughout the world. According to Borromeo, bishops
were obliged to “exterminate the practitioners of witch- TRANSLATED BY SHANNON VENEBLE
craft” (Farinelli and Paccagnini 1989, 82); to this end,
See also:INQUISITION,ROMAN;ITALY;MILAN;ROMANCATHOLIC
he arranged for priests with knowledge of the diffusion CHURCH;SUPERSTITION.
of superstition to send suspects systematically to the References and further reading:
a rchdiocese. These inquiries served as preliminaries to Agnoletto, Attilio. 1984.“Un ‘Indice di superstizioni’ della
the true and proper persecution, which was conducted Lombardia borromaica.” Quaderni milanesi: Studi e fonti di sto-
in person by the cardinal. ria lombarda8: 77–94.
Especially famous was the case of some women from Bendiscioli, Mario. 1957. Politica, amministrazione e religione nel-
l’età dei Borromeo.Pp. 1–350 in Storia di Milano. L’Età della
Lecco, who were accused of witchcraft by the archbish-
Riforma cattolica (1559–1630). Vol. 10. Milan: Fondazione
op’s tribunal in 1569 and became the center of a sharp
Treccani degli Alfieri per la storia di Milano.
c o n t roversy between the archbishop and the pre s i d i n g
Farinelli, Giuseppe, and Ermanno Paccagnini. 1989. Processo per
c a rdinal of the Roman Inquisition. The disagre e m e n t
stregoneria a Caterina de Medici(1616–1617). Milan: Rusconi.
that arose on this occasion between Borromeo, who
Jedin, Hubert. 1971. Carlo Borromeo.Rome: Istituto della
wanted immediate punishment, supporters of the Enciclopedia Italiana.
accused witches, and Rome, which instead requested a Monter,William, and John Tedeschi. 1986. “Towards a Statistical
more prudent conduct founded essentially on investiga- Profile of the Italian Inquisitions, Sixteenth to Eighteenth
tion as to whether any substantial facts underlay the Centuries.” Pp. 130–157 in The Inquisitions in Early Modern
accusation, re p resented a watershed in inquisitorial Europe. Studies in Sources and Methods.Edited by Gustav
practices (Prosperi 1996, 373). The letters that Henningsen and John Tedeschi. De Kalb: Northern Illinois
University Press.
C a rdinal Scipione Rebiba (1504–1577) sent to
Portone, Paolo. 1996. “Un processo di stregoneria nella Milano di
Borromeo in the name of the Congregation of the Holy
Carlo Borromeo (1569).” Pp. 317–330 in Stregoneria e streghe
Office (the Roman Inquisition) represented, essentially,
nell’Europa moderna.Convegno internazionale di studi (Pisa,
the moderate line on the subject of witchcraft, subse-
24–26 March 1994). Edited by Giovanna Bosco and Patrizia
quently affirmed in Italy in the last decades of the six-
Castelli. Pisa: Pacini.
teenth century and culminating about 1620 in the Prosperi, Adriano. 1996. Tribunali della Coscienza. Turin: Einaudi.
famous In s t ructio pro formandis processibus in causis
strigum, sort i l e g i o rum et malefic i o ru m ( In s t ruction for Boucher, Jean (1548–1644)
Conducting Trial Pro c e d u res against Witches, So rc e r- One of the most violent Catholic preachers in Paris in
ers, and evildoers). the late days of the Wars of Religion, Boucher’s many
Even after this harsh conflict with Rome, Carlo con- writings attacked the Protestant heresy and connected it
tinued to persecute witches with extreme seve r i t y. In to the work of Satan as well as linked it specifically to
Rove redo, in Val Mesolcina, in 1583, he personally the growth of witchcraft.
conducted the arrest and trial of about ten men and Born into a well-connected bourgeois family in Paris,
women, including the local parish priest, all accused of Boucher rose rapidly in the Church. He was a student
diabolical witchcraft, against whom the ecclesiastical in Paris during the famous witchcraft lectures of Father
c o u rt eventually issued eleven capital sentences Juan Maldonado and the St. Ba rt h o l o m ew’s Da y
( Farinelli and Paccagnini 1989, 92–96). After Massacre (1572). He taught at Reims, where he became
Borromeo’s death, his harsh line against popular super- rector in 1575. He returned to Paris, finished his doc-
stitions continued to distinguish the Milanese archbish- torate of theology and became rector of the University
opric. Appointed bishop in 1595, Borro m e o’s cousin of Paris. He was also the curé(chief parish priest) of St.
Federico also denounced and repressed magic in all its Benoît, which became his platform for fie ry sermons
manifestations, including the simplest thaumaturgical denouncing both Protestants and those politique(mod-
practices. Fe d e r i c o’s own claim to have had personal erate) Catholics who were not supporters of the zealot
encounters with the Devil increased the climate of fear cause. He did not hesitate to attack the French monar-
that resulted in nine capital sentences against witches in c h y, re s e rving his special venom for Kings He n ry III
Milan between 1599 and 1630. Although not directly and IV.
140 Boucher, Jean |
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Boucher was a founder of the Sixteen, the extre m e Protestantism and witchcraft prosecutions became rare;
g roup that dominated Paris in the name of the Ho l y in the year he died, however, France’s worst witch hunts
League (the Catholic league, the extreme Catholic fac- erupted in Languedoc and Burgundy.
tion) in the late 1580s and early 1590s. He placed him-
JONATHAN L. PEARL
self in the first rank in the armed procession of the
League in 1590. In a city dominated by violent partisan See also:FRANCE;HERESY;MALDONADO,JUAN;PROTESTANT
p reachers, Boucher stood out as particularly blood- REFORMATION;WARSOFRELIGION(FRANCE).
References and further reading:
t h i r s t y. He was instrumental in drawing up a League
Boucher, Jean. 1624. Coronne mystique ou armes de piété contre
party program for the meeting of the Estates General at
tout sorte de impiété, hérésie, athéisme, schisme, magie et mahome-
Blois in 1588. This document included a good state-
tisme.Tournai.
ment of the French Catholic zealot argument about the
Labitte, Charles. 1841. De la démocratie chez les predicateurs de la
connection between Protestantism and witchcraft:
ligue.Paris.
“And because witches have a great affinity with heretics, Pearl, Jonathan L. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and
and that both having the same father [the Devil] they Politics in France, 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred
have wasted and infected this poor kingdom . . . ” (Pearl Laurier University Press.
1999, 88).
In 1594, when He n ry IV finally occupied Pa r i s , Bovet, Richard
Boucher left the city with the retreating Spanish troops. In a 1684 publication, Pandaemonium or the Devil’s
He withdrew with them to the Spanish Ne t h e r l a n d s , Cloyster (Bovet 1951), Richard Bovet conflated an
w h e re he spent a half-century teaching and writing. anti-Catholic Whiggish diatribe with a collection of
T h roughout his long care e r, Boucher poured out a stories from the west of England, traditionally known
s t ream of vitriolic political tracts, in which the De v i l as the West Country, about witchcraft and poltergeists.
played a central role as supporter and benefactor of the Bovet came from a Somerset clan who had become
Protestant here s y. Although not demonology strictly prominent parliamentarians during the interregnum;
speaking, Boucher’s work demonized heretics and afterwards, many of them participated in Monmouth’s
attacked kings and judges alike for their lack of zeal in rebellion in 1685. Borrowing its title from Jo h n
dealing with Protestants, witches, atheists, and magi- Mi l t o n’s Pa radise Lost, Pa n d a e m o n i u m adopted the
cians. He could only interpret their lack of zeal as com- agenda of the two most influential late-seventeenth-
ing from their alliance with the Devil. Boucher neve r century English defenders of witches and spirits, Joseph
accepted the sincerity of Henry IV’s second conversion Glanvill and Henry More, by attacking atheistic denials
to Catholicism in 1593, seeing the Bourbon king as a of spirits, using authenticated cases from the West
f o l l ower of Calvin and thus a follower of the De v i l . Country to demonstrate their reality. But its underlying
Boucher defended the Jesuits, who we re blamed for message was much more radical, in that it labeled pop-
Jean Chastel’s 1594 assassination attempt on Henry IV ery and monarchy as forms of diabolic idolatry and pre-
and expelled from Paris. He pilloried those who sented the seditious Bovets as respectable and credible
opposed the Jesuits, especially the judges of the witnesses during the Tory repression of Whig radicals.
Parlement of Paris (sovereign judicial court, with juris- Although its text showed little interest in promoting the
diction over approximately one-half of France) as toler- prosecution of witches, another branch of the Bovets
ant of heresy and punishers of good Catholics. was involved in a case of witchcraft tried at Exeter in
B o u c h e r’s most explicitly demonological work was 1696, accusing Elizabeth Ha r n e r, or Ho r n e r, of
published in 1624. It follows the well-established tradi- bewitching their daughters, one of whom had died.
tion of his former teacher Maldonado, being filled with Montague Summers identified the author of
references to the Devil and to his intimate connection Pa n d a e m o n i u m as Richard Bovet junior, born about
to Ma rtin Luther and Jean Calvin. Boucher tied the 1641 in Somerset, who matriculated at Wa d h a m
growth of heresy, infidelity, and atheism to the flourish- College, Oxford, in 1657, and the likely author of two
ing of evil beliefs of a sad century, writing that magic later anti-Jacobite congratulatory poems (both re p ro-
and witchcraft were “the horror of horrors, the crime of duced in Bovet 1951), praising the defeat of the Fre n c h
crimes, the impiety of impieties . . . the consequence of fleet in 1693 and William III’s escape from an attempted
atheism” Boucher 1624, 536). For Boucher, the source assassination in 1695. Both of these poems share d
of this evil was clearly the teachings of heretics. He dis- Pa n d a e m o n i u m’s deep-seated anti-Catholicism and its
cussed specters, goblins, witches and their Sabbats, and tendency to uncover Jacobite conspiracies animated by
judicial astrology, considering all of them as aspects of a devilish powers. But its author could be his father or
world corrupted by the growth of atheism. uncle Richard Bovet senior of Bi s h o p s’ Hull, near
T h roughout his long exile, Boucher could not have Wellington (Somerset) who, together with his bro t h e r
been pleased when he observed the French scene, since Ph i l i p, was executed in 1685 for playing leading roles in
Louis XIII’s government continued to tolerate Mo n m o u t h’s rebellion. Both had been pro m i n e n t
Bovet, Richard 141 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 179 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.142 Application File
parliamentarians in Somerset, where Richard briefly Bostridge, Ian. 1997. Witchcraft and Its Transformations,
became MP for Taunton in the 1650s: His purchases of c.1650–c.1750.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
s e q u e s t e red pro p e rty included a mansion at Cothelstone, [Bovet, Richard?]. 1683. A Narrative of the Demon of Spraiton.
London: Daniel Brown and Thomas Malthus.
outside whose gates he was hanged in 1685.
———. 1951. Pandaemonium or the Devil’s Cloyster.Edited by
After the Restoration, “Colonel Bove t” (or Bu f f e t )
Montague Summers. Aldington, UK: Hand and Flower.
was associated with numerous plots, frequently hiding
Clifton, Robin. 1984. The Last Popular Rebellion.London:
and then reappearing; Philip remained a significant local
Maurice Temple Smith.
fig u re, but was refused the title of gentleman by the her-
alds visiting Somerset in 1672. The Bovets retained ties
with such powe rful radical families as the Carys, and Brandenburg, Electorate of
possibly with the earls of Pe m b roke: The author of The prosecution of witches in Brandenburg, one of the
Pa n d a e m o n i u mlocated one case at what must be Wi l t o n four lay electorates of the Holy Roman Empire, reached
House, the seat of the earls of Pe m b roke, where Mi l t o n’s its high point before 1580, unusually early for any large
n e p h ew also worked, which may explain the extrava g a n t region in central Europe. This Protestant territory, with
praise the author gave to “the learned and profound Mr a population in 1565 that was between 300,000 to
John Mi l t o n” (Bovet 1951, 9). Pa n d a e m o n i u m a l s o 400,000, increasing to 570,000 by 1756, experienced
re p o rted the “Demon of Sp r a i t o n” in De von, the no particularly severe waves of persecution, although
account of which was also published separately in 1683 there were several cases in which people of different
by Thomas Malthus (who published one of the two ages, primarily women, were accused of practicing
1684 editions of Pa n d a e m o n i u m) and probably edited magic and were either tortured or killed.
by Bovet from a letter by one of the Cary family. Documents from local courts and written legal opin-
This story was also known to such Somerset natural ions provide the most important sources. The picture they
philosophers around the Gl a n v i l l – Mo re circle as Andrew o f f e r, howe ve r, is not only sketchy, but also highly confus-
Paschall, who lacked direct contact with the radical ing because of the many courts that claimed jurisdiction.
u p s t a rt Bovet; their version re vealed the dissenting links The courts obtained legal opinions from experts both in
of the family at Spraiton, which the Bovet versions omit- Brandenburg and beyond. Besides the Un i versity of
ted. De vo n s h i re witchcraft trials, such as those at Exe t e r Fr a n k f u rt on the Od e r, the Brandenburg S c h ö f f e n s t u h l
in 1682, we re heavily politicized, with Whigs seeking to (bench of jurists) was the most important authority with-
embarrass To ry judges, who we re skeptical about witch in the electorate to which cases we re sent for assessment.
h u n t i n g’s Puritan associations but unwilling to deny the For the period between 1548 and 1680, the S c h ö f f e n s t u h l
reality of a statutory crime. In the early 1680s, witchcraft files list some 269 requests from different areas of
o f f e red one of the few opportunities for the Bovets to Brandenburg under the heading of “m a g i c” ( Za u b e re i ) .
e x p ress their anti-Catholic views, an opportunity the Two regions of Brandenburg, Prignitz and
conspirator and perjurer Titus Oates also took in his Uc k e r m a rk, have been studied in great detail. Ac c o rd i n g
De v i l’s Pa t r i a rc h of 1683, and to attack indirectly the to the S c h ö f f e n s t u h l files and other sources, at least 268
Restoration court. Despite dedicating his book to He n ry cases dealing with magic we re tried at Prignitz, in nort h-
Mo re and frequently invoking that author’s Sa d u c i s m u s western Brandenburg, between 1509 and 1686 (En d e r s
Triumphatus as his model, Bovet was not using witchcraft 2000, 610–622). The distribution of cases within this
to vindicate Anglicanism against both radical dissent and region was far from uniform: Only 107 of Pr i g n i t z’s 250
Catholicism. Pa n d a e m o n i u m was aimed exc l u s i ve l y villages—and all but 1 of its 12 tow n s — we re affected.
against Catholicism; it made a devastating contrast Numbers for individual cities and villages also differ sig-
b e t ween the decadent and licentious Restoration re g i m e n i ficantly (Enders 2000, 613). On one Prignitz estate,
that replaced proper religion with idolatry and priestcraft Plattenburg, roughly 40 cases of black magic came
and the implicit virtues of the period before the Fa l l . b e f o re the local court between 1559 and 1686. Of these,
Pa n d a e m o n i u m f o rt i fied its hidden radical message by 10 resulted in executions, the last in 1635 (Peters 1998,
b o r rowing Mi l t o n’s title for the court of the Devil in hell, 73). Another 40 trials we re held between 1538 and
because Milton was a known opponent of the re s t o re d 1697 in the Uc k e r m a rk, another northern district of
m o n a rc h y. Brandenburg (Enders 1992, 270 ff. ) .
JONATHAN BARRY Brandenburg’s first known witchcraft trial took place
in 1509. Persecution intensified after 1530, peaking in
See also:ENGLAND;EXETERWITCHES;GLANVILL,JOSEPH;MORE,
the third quarter of the sixteenth century.The number
HENRY;SOMERSETWITCHES.
of trials fell in the seventeenth century, after the electors
References and further reading:
who ruled the area became Calvinist; there was a sharp
Barry, Jonathan. Forthcoming, 2006. “The Politics of
decline in Br a n d e n b u r g’s witchcraft cases during the
Pandaemonium.” InWitchcraft and Demonology in South-West
England.Edited by Jonathan Barry. Exeter: University of most difficult period of the T h i rty Ye a r s’ Wa r. Legal
Exeter Press. activity resumed later in the war, though with less
142 Brandenburg, Electorate of |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 180 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.143 Application File
intensity than during the sixteenth century, and finally ———. 1998. “Weise Frauen—böse Zauberinnen.
abated in the late seventeenth century. Only a few cases Hexenverfolgung in der Prignitz im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert.”
a re known in the eighteenth century. Roughly one-t h i rd Jahrbuch für brandenburgische Landesgeschichte 49: 19–37.
———. 2000. Die Prignitz. Geschichte einer kurmärkischen
of these legal opinions we re issued between 1550 and
Landschaft vom 12. bis 18. Jahrhundert.Potsdam: Verlag für
1580, with a corresponding number of recorded cases;
Berlin-Brandenburg.
this suggests that in Brandenburg, the persecution of
Möller, Katrin. 2002. “‘Es ist ein überaus gerechtes Gesetz, dass
witches culminated much earlier than in either
die Zauberinnen getötet werden.’ Hexenverfolgung im protes-
Protestant or Catholic states in southeastern or north-
tantischen Norddeutschland.” Pp. 96–107 in Hexenwahn.
western Ge r m a n y. On the other hand, Br a n d e n b u r g’s Ängste der Neuzeit.Edited by Rosemarie Beier-de Haan, Rita
authorities executed more witches than their colleagues Voltmer, and Franz Irsigler. Berlin: Deutsches Historisches
in another Protestant electorate, the Palatinate. Museum.
The second Prussian king, Frederick William I, put an Peters, Jan. 1998. “Hexerei vor Ort. Erfahrungen und Deutungen
end to persecution with his edict of December 13, 1714. in einer Kleingesellschaft der Prignitz. Saldernherrschaft
He ord e red that all witchcraft trials involving tort u re or Plattenburg-Wilsnack (1550–1700).” Jahrbuch für brandenbur-
gische Landesgeschichte 49: 19–37.
death be submitted to him for confirmation. T h e re are
two subsequent cases on re c o rd, from 1721 and 1728,
focusing on the charges of practicing magic and entering Brazil
into a pact with the Devil. The first was dismissed, the Until 1822, Brazil formed part of the Portuguese
second treated as a different offense, due to the changed empire. The Portuguese Inquisition did not establish a
legal view. In 1731, a last and unsuccessful attempt was separate court in Brazil, but instead brought all major
made to institute legal proceedings for practicing magic. Brazilian witchcraft cases before its Lisbon tribunal;
In Brandenburg, cases usually centered on sorc e ry, archives in Lisbon still hold the records from Brazilian
and most suspects we re accused of killing animals. witchcraft trials during three centuries of inquisitorial
Others we re charged with poisoning people, killing activities. There were two main periods of witchcraft
unborn babies, spoiling food, or raising storms. prosecution: the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on
Diabolism came re l a t i vely early to Br a n d e n b u r g : the one hand and the eighteenth century on the other.
Re c o rds going back to 1548 already include entering Whereas witchcraft accusations of the first period close-
into a pact with the Devil and riding to the witches’ ly resembled contemporary Portuguese cases, those of
gathering on the Brocken as additional offenses. T h e the eighteenth-century reflected to a greater degree
German term for witches,Hexen,first appeared here in Brazil’s colonial situation and the tensions of its slave-
the late sixteenth century. holding society. Although the Portuguese language (like
In the earliest known case, five women in Perleberg Spanish) distinguishes between “witchcraft” (bruxaria)
in Prignitz were found guilty of sorcery and burned at and “sorcery”(feitiçaria),the two terms were used inter-
the stake by order of the elector Joachim I. He had changeably in the trials. No quantitative data are avail-
imposed the death penalty for the practice of sorc e ry, able for the whole period of inquisitorial prosecution,
but recommended proceeding with care, as is shown by but there were apparently more witchcraft trials in
the city ordinance of Prenzlau dated 1515. The often Brazil during the eighteenth century than in either of
incomplete court documents contain no precise infor- the previous two centuries. None of the Brazilians tried
mation on the numbers of those tortured and killed. In for witchcraft were executed.
many cases, the accused parties proved their innocence: In Brazil, the Inquisition exercised control through a
in Hohenlandin in the Uc k e r m a rk, one woman’s n e t w o rk of commissioners ( c o m i s s á r i o s ) and laymen.
accuser was burned in her place in 1552. When accusations of witchcraft we re re p o rted to
In most cases, it was the population that demanded Brazilian commissioners, the defendants in the most
p rosecution of the suspected witches, in fewer cases the serious cases we re shipped off to Lisbon. During the
manorial lords or town authorities. In those places Spanish occupation of Po rtugal (1580–1640), two
w h e re the authorities believed in magic, there we re more inquisitorial visitations cove red northeastern Brazil in
n u m e rous trials and executions. Often the authorities the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
simply gave in to pre s s u re from the populace. resulting in several witchcraft trials. The third and last
inquisitorial visitation reached northern Brazil in the
HEINRICH KAAK 1760s, more than a century later, allowing comparison
of the witchcraft accusations and underlying belief sys-
See also: GERMANY,NORTHEASTERN;PALATINATE,ELECTORATEOF;
tems of the two periods. Witchcraft trials of the earlier
POPULARPERSECUTION;WARFARE.
period we re characterized by a strong incidence of
References and further reading:
Eu ropean witchcraft beliefs taken from both popular
Enders, Lieselott. 1992. Die Uckermark. Geschichte einer kur-
märkischen Landschaft vom 12. bis 18. Jahrhundert. Weimar: and demonological traditions. During the eighteenth
Nachfolger. c e n t u ry, howe ve r, elements from both native Br a z i l i a n
Brazil 143 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 181 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.144 Application File
and African cultures became prominent in the configu- ———. 2004. The Devil and the Land of the Holy Cross : Wi t c h c ra f t ,
ration of witchcraft. A further significant distinction Slavery, and Popular Religion in Colonial Brazil.Translated by
separated these two periods of witchcraft persecution: Diane Grosllaus Whitty. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Most earlier witchcraft offenses we re committed by
individuals, but eighteenth-century witchcraft accusa- Brenz, Johann (1499–1570)
tions we re directed against groups of people, often of Born in Weil der Stadt, Brenz became a prominent
African descent, who we re thought to be conspiring Lutheran theologian and Swabian reformer who made
against their colonial masters. important contributions to witchcraft theory and legal
At the core of the witchcraft trials of the sixteenth practice in southwestern Germany.While studying the-
and seventeenth centuries was the sorceress or witch, a ology at the University of Heidelberg, Brenz came into
poor woman, specialist in love magic, divination, and contact with the ideas of Martin Luther and soon
magical healing. Her practices included magic potions became a followe r, participating in the Ma r b u r g
and prayers to Catholic saints—Saint Mark of Venice, Colloquy in 1529 at Luther’s side. From 1522 to 1548
Saint John, or the Virgin—or to such cosmic forces as he was pastor in the imperial city of Schwäbisch Hall,
the Sun, the Moon, the stars, or the wind. She also ranking among the most respected reformers. In 1548,
i n voked demons in order to obtain their help and use during the Augsburg Interim, Brenz fled to become
them as familiar spirits or servants. Witches we re chief pastor of the most important church in Stuttgart,
thought to have the ability to transform themselves into the Stiftskirche, from 1553 until his death in 1570, as
such animals as ducks, cats, or butterflies. Witches con- well as the personal advisor to Duke Christoph of
fessed that they could take people to distant places and W ü rttemberg. Brenz helped organize the duchy’s
fly at night. The destination of these witches’ fli g h t s reformed church along solidly Lutheran lines.
often lay in metropolitan Portugal, where they returned At Schwäbisch Hall, a seve re hailstorm in 1539
to settle the affairs of their clients. i n s p i red Brenz to deliver a sermon on the witch ques-
Eighteenth-century magical practices centered more tion. His Homilia de grandine(Sermon on Hailstorms),
on relationships among the different cultural gro u p s first published at Frankfurt in 1557 in both Latin and
then living in Brazil. Especially among Brazilians of German versions, argued vigorously against the popular
Amerindian and African descent, the use of protective belief that witches’ magical powers had caused the
magical amulets, so-called m a n d i n g a purses, had d e s t ru c t i ve hailstorm. Brenz interpreted natural disas-
become widespread. Collective rituals of possession ters, harvest failures, and personal misfortune as the
were also performed by Amerindians and Africans. The work of almighty God, who used them to punish sins
latter, named calundus,prosecuted by the Inquisition as and test pious believers like Job.The Devil functioned
w i t c h e s’ assemblies, eventually led to the formation of only when God permitted, and he there f o re deceive d
Afro-Brazilian cults that continue to thrive. his followers, the witches, by leading them to believe
that they could cause storms or other kinds of supernat-
IRIS GAREIS
ural harm through their magic. Bre n z’s position was
See also: AFRICA(SUB-SAHARAN); INQUISITION,PORTUGUESE; close to that of Ma rtin Lu t h e r, who always pre a c h e d
PORTUGAL. against popular fears of witches. Both regarded belief in
References and further reading: a powe rful Devil and evil-doing witches as an offense
Dicionário da história da colonização portuguesa no Brasil.1994.
against the First Commandment, a superstition incom-
Coordinated by Maria Beatriz Nizza da Silva. Lisbon and São
patible with Christian belief.
Paulo: Verbo.
Brenz held that the Devil and witches were impotent
Mott, Luís. 1988. Escravidão, homosexualidade e demonologia.São
and considered harmful magic to be a fantasy, but he
Paulo: Icone.
re g a rded the crime of witchcraft as a spiritual offense
Siqueira, Sónia A. 1978. A Inquisicição portuguesa e a sociedade
colonial.São Paulo: Ática. (heresy) that should be punished. Basing his opinion on
Souza, Laura de Mello e. 1986. O diabo e a Terra de Santa Cruz. the Hebrew Bible (Exod. 22:18) and the Lex de malefi-
Feitiçaria e religiosidade popular no Brasil colonial.São Paulo: cis et mathematicis (Law Concerning Magicians and
Companhia das Letras. Astrologers) of the Justinian Code, he maintained that
———. 1991–1992. “Witchcraft and Magic Practices in Colonial the fall from God (apostasy), the pact with the De v i l ,
Brazil: 1580–1770.” Pp. 243–256 in Witch Beliefs and and the intention to cause harm warranted death.
Witch-Hunting in Central and Eastern Europe.Conference in
Similar evaluations of witch beliefs from a theologi-
Budapest, Sept. 6–9, 1988. Edited by Gábor Klaniczay and
cal and providential perspective had already been
Éva Pócs. Special Issue of Acta Ethnographica Hungarica37,
formulated in southwestern Germany around 1500 by
nos. 1–4.
the Constance jurist Ulrich Molitor in his De laniis
———. 1993. “Autour d’une ellipse: le sabbat dans le monde
et phitonicis mulieribus (Concerning Witches and
luso-brésilien de L’Ancien Régime.” Pp. 331–343 in Le sabbat
des sorciers en Europe (XVe–XVIIIe siècles).Edited by Nicole Fortunetellers, 1489), and by the Tübingen theologian
Jacques-Chaquin and Maxime Préaud. Grenoble: Million. Ma rtin Plantsch. Dubbed the Canon Ep i s c o p i s c h o o l
144 Brenz, Johann |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 182 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.145 Application File
after the tenth-century legal ruling (Mi d e l f o rt 1972), Brecht, Martin. 2000. “Johannes Brenz und das Hexenwesen auf-
these scholars held a critical attitude toward individual grund bisher weitgehend unbeachteter Quellen.” Zeitschrift der
aspects of the witch concept articulated in the Malleus Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte. Kanonistische,Abt. 117,
386–397.
Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486), doubt-
Fehle, Isabella, ed. 1999. Johannes Brenz, 1499–1570: Prediger,
ing in particular the reality of magic, but they nonethe-
Reformator, Politiker. Catalogue of the Hällisch-Fränkischen
less considered any attempt to practice magical art s —
Museum.Schwäbisch Hall: Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum.
whether for good or bad purposes—as devilish.
Haustein, Jörg. 1990. Martin Luthers Stellung zum Zauber- und
Treating the pact with the Devil as a capital offense
Hexenwesen.Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
diverged from the imperial criminal code, the Carolina Lorenz, Sönke. 2000. “Brenz’ Predigt vom Hagel und die
Code (Constitutio Criminalis Ca ro l i n a , 1532), because Hexenfrage.” Blätter für württembergische Kirchengeschichte100:
its article 109 prescribed death only for harmful magic. 327–344.
St rongly influenced by Brenz, W ü rt t e m b e r g’s Si x t h Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern
Provincial Law Code of 1567 was the first territorial Germany 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
law forbidding a pact with the Devil. Brenz fir m l y Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Schwerhoff, Gerd. “Rationalität im Wahn. Zum gelehrten Diskurs
maintained the legality of burning witches in corre-
über die Hexen in der frühen Neuzeit.” Saeculum 37: 45–82.
spondence during 1565–1566 with the radical critic
Johann Weyer, whose De praestigiis daemonum (On the
Tricks of Devils, 1563) argues that the witch offense Breu, Jörg the Elder (1480–1537)
was nonexistent, and portrays the burnings as a blood- One of Au g s b u r g’s leading artists in the early decades
bath of innocents. of the sixteenth century, Bre u’s significance for
In 1561, at the beginning of the great witch persecu- Eu ropean witchcraft rests on the fact that he pro-
tions in southwestern Germany, Brenz wrote an expert duced the most widely disseminated image of witch-
opinion on witchcraft for a preacher at Wa l d e n b u r g craft in the sixteenth century, even if he largely
(Brecht 2000), advising the preacher to save the soul of i g n o red the new iconography pioneered by such con-
a young woman who had concluded a pact with the temporaries as Hans Baldung [Gr i e n ] . Breu became a
Devil through spiritual council. Punishment of the act master and established a modest workshop in the city
would be left to secular justice. The body would not be in 1502, gradually gaining important private, munic-
spared secular sanctions, but at least the soul would be ipal, and imperial commissions over the follow i n g
saved from Satan’s clutches and eternal punishment. decades. His artistic production ranged over va r i o u s
In a sermon in 1562, the St u t t g a rt pre a c h e r s media and included much work for a number of
Matthäus Alber and Wilhelm Bidembach opposed the Augsburg printers.
aggressiveness of the people and championed the ortho- Breu’s woodcut was an illustration of healing by sor-
dox Lutheran position on weather magic, holding that c e ry, which first appeared in 1534 in a work called
God alone was responsible, in the tradition champi- Memorial der Tugend ( Me m o ry Prompts to Vi rt u e ) ,
oned by Brenz. Further, without questioning the pun- written by the Franconian diplomat, author, and sup-
ishment of witchcraft, they urged the secular authorities porter of the Reformation, Johann von Schwarzenberg.
to proceed carefully and to conduct witchcraft trials Printed in Augsburg by Heinrich St e i n e r, who often
strictly according to the p rocessus ord i n a r i u s ( o rd i n a ry used Breu as an illustrator, it contained 129 illustrations
procedure) of imperial law. by different artists. It was intended as a popular guide
Johannes Brenz cannot be considered an opponent to a moral life and provided numerous examples of
of the witch persecutions, because he unequivo c a l l y v i rtue from classical history and the Scripture s .
s u p p o rted the death penalty for witchcraft. Directed to a broad audience, it took the form of a pic-
Nevertheless, his admonition that “it is better to leave t u re book with short, often closely integrated, texts,
ten guilty people unpunished than punish one innocent drawing on the late medieval discourse of vice and
person” suggests that the Protestant position promoted virtue, a favorite theme of moralizing humanists.
a moderate conduct of trials that helped to prevent the The texts accompanying Breu’s woodcut were meant
outbreak of major panics like those that afflicted some to clarify the image and its message. The soldier in the
nearby Catholic territories in southwestern Germany. left fore g round, decked out in armor, helmet, sword ,
and stirrups, is charming a wound sustained by his
ANITA RAITH;
horse; and the words printed above him read: “My
TRANSLATED BY EDWARD BEVER word is embellished with holiness, so that your wound
will neither hurt nor give you pain” (author’s transla-
See also:CANONEPISCOPI;CAROLINACODE;EXODUS22:18 (22:17);
GERMANY,SOUTHWESTERN;LUTHER,MARTIN;MOLITOR, tion, here and below). On the right, a woman with fly-
ULRICH;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;PLANTSCH,MARTIN;WEATHER ing hair that becomes enmeshed with a demon (thereby
MAGIC;WEYER,JOHANN;WÜRTTEMBERG,DUCHYOF. suggesting that she is a witch) makes a gesture of conju-
References and further reading: ration and casts a spell to re l i e ve the pain in a man’s
Breu, Jörg, the Elder 145 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 183 | 46049 Golden Chap. B av First Pages 08/23/2005 p.146 Application File
head. “Truly believe, my word is a magic spell,” she Sinnformationen im Umbruch, 1400–1600.Edited by Bernhard
says, “so do I relieve you of the pain in your head.” And Jussen and Craig Koslofsky. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and
in order that viewers have no doubts that such magical Ruprecht.
cures were indeed the work of witches, Breu introduced
a visual cue in the background: a spewing cauldron and Brochmand,
a hailstorm. The primary aim of Breu’s woodcut was to Jesper Rasmussen (1582–1652)
communicate to the viewer that all forms of magic were Brochmand was the foremost representative of ortho-
forbidden, including white magic and Christian words dox Lutheranism in Denmark-Norway during its so-
used for healing. This was the function of the text called golden age in the early seventeenth century and a
below the woodcut. The second couplet left no doubt leading advocate of the reality of diabolical witchcraft.
that both female and male healers we re to be con- Research on Danish sorcery has emphasized the ortho-
demned, even when they used Christian words: “who- doxy of Brochmand’s demonological views. Unlike
ever believes in magic and sorcery / he will be deprived other parts of Brochmand’s dogmatics, they had limit-
of Go d’s grace; / Place no trust even in good words / ed influence; he tried to instigate a renewed witch hunt,
which are put to unchristian use.” Such magic provided but failed.
an opportunity for the De v i l’s mischief, from which Born in Ko-ge, Denmark, Brochmand studied theol-
serious sin and punishment must follow. ogy, philosophy, and Greek at the University of Leiden
This woodcut became the most widely disseminated in Holland. He became professor at the Un i versity of
re p resentation of witchcraft in the sixteenth century. Copenhagen in 1610, serving several terms as its presi-
This was especially the case in southern Ge r m a n y, dent. In 1639 he was made bishop of Sjælland, becom-
w h e re Heinrich Steiner used it over and over again. ing the foremost re p re s e n t a t i ve of the clergy in the
Breu repeated it in the 1535 and 1540 editions of Danish-dominated territory of Oldenborg. Brochmand
Me m o ry Prompts to Vi rt u e . In 1534, he also used it also served as a zealous tutor to the children of several
(minus the accompanying verses) in the first Augsburg high-ranking men, including De n m a rk’s king and
edition of Schimpf und Ernst(Humor and Seriousness), c h a n c e l l o r, exe rting considerable influence on his
the very popular collection of moral tales written by the pupils. Often described as overly pessimistic, he was an
Strasbourg Franciscan, Johann Pauli, and repeated it in a rdent supporter of Church discipline and the better-
the 1535, 1536, and 1537 editions. In 1537 and 1544 ment of the kingdom’s schools, and nourished a grow-
he reproduced it in a third work, the German transla- ing concern for the moral and religious state of
tion of PolydoreVergil’sDe rerum inventoribus (On the Denmark-Norway.
In ventors of Things). By the mid-sixteenth century Brochmand was the leading fig u re among the
Breu’s woodcut must have represented one of the most s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Da n i s h - No rwegian clergy, the
common ways in which German readers imagined champion of ort h o d ox Lutheranism in its stru g g l e s
witchcraft. In comparison to the new iconography of against the papacy and crypto-Calvinism, and he
witchcraft developed by Baldung and others in the early eagerly participated in refutations of the Je s u i t s .
sixteenth century, Bre u’s depiction of individual and Bro c h m a n d’s most important work, the Un i ve r s æ
n o n g e n d e red healing drew on an older tradition. theologiæ systemata ( Un i versal Theological Sy s t e m )
Yet by introducing a number of “m o d e r n” visual published in Copenhagen 1633, consisting of
cues, such as the flying hair, cauldron, and hailstorm, f o rt y-nine parts in two volumes, argues for a diaboli-
Breu was able to include even traditional white magic cal interpretation of magic and sorc e ry. This book
within Schwarze n b e r g’s condemnation of all magic as p roduced great acclaim for its author across much of
witchcraft. Lutheran Eu rope; it became the most import a n t
Lutheran publication in De n m a rk - No rw a y, re m a i n i n g
CHARLES ZIKA
re q u i red reading in dogmatics at Copenhagen’s insti-
See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BALDUNG[GRIEN], HANS; tute of theology until the late eighteenth century.
CAULDRON;CHARMS;CUNNINGFOLK;HAIR;MAGIC,POPULAR; His chapter on sorcery (vol. 2, chap. 19) provided an
WEATHERMAGIC. elaborate concept of demonology. In contrast to the
References and further reading: rather moderate demonological views of Ni e l s
Krämer, Gode. 1996. “Breu.” Pp. 758–761 in The Dictionary of Hemmingsen, De n m a rk’s leading witchcraft theorist,
Art.Vol. 4. Edited by Jane Turner. London and NewYork:
Brochmand re p resented a more ort h o d ox position.
Macmillan and Grove.
Ac c o rding to him, three causal factors explained the
Morrall, Andrew. 2001. Jörg Breu the Elder: Art, Culture and Belief
existence of witchcraft: God’s forbearance (divine con-
in Reformation Augsburg.Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
sent), Satanic power (or demonic power), and
Schreyl, Karl Heinz, ed. 1990. Hans Schäufelein: das druckgraphis-
m a n k i n d’s penchant to evil (human malevo l e n c e ) .
che Werk.Vol. 1, Katalog.Nördlingen: Uhl.
Zika, Charles. 1999. “‘Magie’—‘Zauberei’—‘Hexerei’. Bildmedien Brochmand offered detailed depictions of how witches
und kultureller Wandel.” Pp. 317–382 in Ku l t u relle Re f o rm a t i o n : could fly rapidly through the air to remote places where
146 Brochmand, Jesper Rasmussen |
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they indulged in debauchery. Pacts with the Devil, the a faction’s ability to use witchcraft as a political tool.
nocturnal flights of witches, and their perverted Sabbats The case also stirred up a noisy controversy over the
were all physical realities. Brochmand strongly detested authenticity and role of demonic possession.
magic of any kind and warned against visiting so-called Ma rthe Brossier arrived in Paris in the winter of
holy springs, requesting the national clergy to supervise 1599, having been diagnosed as possessed a year earlier,
closely all instances of idolatry among the common in her home village of Romorantin, near Blois. T h e
people. His great collection of books included the Capuchins of Paris embraced her plight and began to
w o rks of such re n owned Catholic demonologists as conduct public exo rcisms, to which huge crowds of
Martín Del Rio, Nicolas Rémy, and Peter Binsfeld. n ovelty-seeking Parisians flocked. At this time, Pa r i s ,
As county governor of Finnmark, the northernmost which had been a stronghold of the Catholic League
outpost of the Danish-Norwegian realm, Jo-rgen Friis, a only a few years earlier, was in an agitated state, with
son of the kingdom’s chancellor, conducted a massive political tensions running high. Early in 1598, King
witch hunt during the 1650s—shortly after the death He n ry IV had issued the Edict of Nantes, legalizing
of his childhood tutor, Jesper Brochmand. Under Friis, Protestantism in France and establishing mechanisms
Finnmark’s witch hunts were characterized by the stan- for Protestants and Catholics to live side by side. No t
d a rd demonological ideas of the Eu ropean mainland, s u r p r i s i n g l y, there was strong opposition to this edict;
also found in Bro c h m a n d’s works, including belief in the Pa rl e m e n t of Paris (sove reign judicial court, with
witches’ Sabbats and pacts with the Devil, all phenom- jurisdiction over approximately one-half of Fr a n c e ) ,
ena that Brochmand’s pupil confronted in a region with though hostile to Catholic extremism, resisted the
a long tradition of persecuting witches. e d i c t’s passage into law until Ja n u a ry 1599, when the
king appeared in person to compel its acceptance.
RUNE HAGEN;
Catholic priests, some of whom continued to reject
TRANSLATED BY MARK LEDINGHAM Henry’s claim to the throne, preached violent sermons
against the edict. When Marthe Brossier was exorcised,
See also: CHRISTIANIV;DEMONOLOGY;DENMARK;HEMMINGSEN,
NIELS;NORWAY. her demon identified himself as the same Be e l ze b u t h
References and further reading: who had possessed Nicole Obry at Laon back in 1566.
Clark, Stuart. 1993. “Protestant Demonology: Sin, Superstition, “ Be e l ze b u t h” echoed the message of these pre a c h e r s ,
and Society (c.1520–c.1630).” Pp. 45–81 in Early Modern delivering strong sermons against the Protestant heresy
European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt and the Edict of Nantes.
Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon. The bishop of Paris, concerned with threats to public
———. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in
order, asked a group of Parisian physicians to examine
Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Clarendon.
Brossier to determine if she we re actually possessed.
Hagen, Rune. 1999. “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern
One of them, Michel Marescot, wrote an account of his
Finnmark.” Acta Borealia1: 43–62.
experience that is one of the most interesting works in
Johansen, Jens Christian V. 1991. Da Djævelen var ude. Trolddom i
this field. He and his colleagues examined Bro s s i e r,
det 17. Århundredes Danmark.Odense: Odense
Universitetsforlag. questioned her, stuck her with pins, and concluded that
———. 1993. “Denmark: The Sociology of Accusations.” t h e re was nothing supernatural about her condition.
Pp. 339–365 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Ma rescot became convinced that Brossier was a fraud
Peripheries. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. and that she or her exo rcists we re taking advantage of
Oxford: Clarendon. popular credulity. His conclusion was, “Rien du diable;
Kornerup, Bjo-rn. 1934. “Brochmand, Jesper.” Pp. 113–124 in plusiers choses feintes; peu de maladie” (Nothing of the
Dansk biografisk Leksikon.IV. Edited by Paul Engelstoft.
Devil, much fakery, a bit of illness). Warning that exor-
Copenhagen: J. H. Schultz Forlag.
cists should exercise much more caution before declar-
Næss, Hans Eyvind. 1990. “Norway: The Criminological
ing people possessed by demons, Ma rescot stated,
Context.” Pp. 367–382 in Early Modern European Witchcraft:
“ Often melancholics, lunatics and bewitched people
Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav
fool the exorcist, saying they are possessed by the Devil.
Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
These always have more need of the remedies of a
Brossier, Marthe (ca. 1573–?) physician than the ministering of exorcists.” This could
Marthe Brossier was the center of a widely publicized be an echo of the sentiments of the German skeptic and
demonic possession case in Paris in 1599. Her posses- physician Johann Weyer.
sion and public exorcism became a clear attempt to Marescot’s arguments angered those who clearly had
re-create the “Miracle of Laon” of 1566, which had pro- hoped to capitalize on Bro s s i e r’s exo rcisms. A sharp
vided an important propaganda victory for zealous response, written by Pi e r re de Bérulle, later a
Catholics in the early phases of the French religious and we l l-k n own cardinal, called Ma rescot “an impert i n e n t
civil wars, which had just ended. But the Brossier case and malicious Ph y s i c i a n” who spread poisonous lies
proved to be a fiasco, and it demonstrated the limits of against the Roman Catholic Church (Pearl 1999, 50).
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B é rulle defended the authenticity of Bro s s i e r’s posses- shows beggars with mental and physical disabilities who
sion and the importance of exo rcisms as the primary a re being ignored by a rich man. Brueghel also pro-
route in curing possession. At this point, He n ry IV duced allegorical prints such as The Big Fish Eat the
ordered the exorcisms stopped. Brossier was sent home, Little Fish.
and traveled to Rome, where she enjoyed a brief celebri- Bru e g h e l’s stylistic debt to Hi e ronymus Bosch is
ty at the papal jubilee of 1600. clearly shown in his themes in those of his works con-
Quickly translated into English, Marescot’s book was taining occult subjects such as witchcraft and
soon used as evidence in English arguments over the demonology. In his series on the Seven Deadly Sins, he
handling of demoniacs and witches. In a French work imitated the painted table on this theme Bosch had cre-
published in 1621, Claude Pi t h oys mentioned the ated for Philip II of Spain. But Brueghel went much
Brossier case as an example of the prevalence of fraudu- f u rther with his engravings, showing a whole range of
lent possession and the dangers of being fooled through Bosch-like zoomorphic and anthropomorphic demons
too easy belief in their claims. assisting humankind in committing the sins. The sins
a re depicted in landscape scenes containing stru c t u re s
JONATHAN L. PEARL
and rock formations obviously derived from those of
See also:BÉRULLE,PIERREDE;FRANCE;OBRY,NICOLE;POSSESSION, Bosch. Bru e g h e l’s drawings, from which these prints
DEMONIC;WARSOFRELIGION(FRANCE); WEYER,JOHANN. were made, exist today in several collections.
References and further reading:
Bru e g h e l’s two engravings dealing specifically with
Ferber, Sarah. 1991. “The Demonic Possession of Marthe Brossier,
the theme of witchcraft are St. James and the Magician
France, 1598–1600.” Pp. 59–83 in No Gods Except Me:
He rm o g e n e s and The Fall of He rm o g e n e s . Both prints
Orthodoxy and Religious Practice in Europe, 1200–1600.Edited
were engraved after Brueghel drawings in 1565 by the
by Charles Zika. Parkville, Australia: History Department,
A n t werp printmakers, Pi e r re Van der He yden and
University of Melbourne.
———. 2004. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern Je rome Cock. St. James and the Magician He rm o g e n e s
France.London and NewYork: Routledge. contains a scene of thirteen witches—the traditional
Marescot, Michel. 1599. Discours veritable sur le faict de Marthe number of a coven, if one counts Hermogenes among
Brossier de Romorantin, prétendue démoniaque.Paris. the witches. Brueghel showed witches performing typi-
Pearl, Jonathan L. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and cal activities, such as flying on broomsticks, pre p a r i n g
Politics in France, 1560–1620. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred b rews, causing storms, using a Hand of Gl o ry (the
Laurier University Press.
pickled hand of a corpse, believed to have magical pow-
Pelletier, Marcel. 1998. Marthe Brossier, Henri IV et les Ligueurs:
ers), and working within magical circles. While the title
Exorcisme, procès et exil d’une possédée solognote.Paris: Royer.
of the engraving is taken from the apocryphal life of St.
Pithoys, Claude. 1621. La découverture des faux possedez.Chalons.
James the Apostle, the visualization is that of the world
of sixteenth-century witch beliefs. Brueghel eve n
Brueghel, included witches’ familiars in the forms of rats, toads,
Pieter the Elder (ca.1525–1569) and cats. The companion print, The Fall of Hermogenes,
A flemish painter and printmaker, Brueghel is best s h owed the magician’s demon cohorts turning against
known for his paintings and engravings representing him at the behest of St. James. Hermogenes is caught
the activities of Flemish peasants. Brueghel dealt specif- up in a virtual whirlwind of demons. Included in that
ically with the theme of witchcraft only in two of his whirlwind is a broom-riding witch. These two prints
late engravings. But in the late 1550s, Brueghel also make it quite clear that Brueghel knew well the writings
created a series of engravings depicting the Seven of the demonologists of his day, as well as the folk
Deadly Sins; these engravings do not deal specifically beliefs about witchcraft.
with witchcraft, but they offer superb representations of Bru e g h e l’s occult themes had a considerable impact
contemporary beliefs about evil and the demonic. on later Flemish and Dutch artists. Among those who
Brueghel’s favorite genre was so commonplace in his we re influenced by his work we re David Teniers the
w o rk that it even earned him the appellation “p e a s a n t Younger, Jacques de Gheyn II, and Brueghel’s two sons,
Brueghel,” and some nineteenth-century writers eve n Jan Brueghel and Pieter Brueghel the Yo u n g e r. Pi e t e r
thought he was a peasant himself. In fact, Bru e g h e l the Younger depicted so many occult motifs that he
belonged to the upper-class society of Antwerp; he was acquired the nickname of “the Hell Brueghel.” Each of
a wealthy man with powe rful friends in both the gov- these artists used motifs of witchcraft or the demonic
ernment of the Southern Netherlands and the Catholic that we re clearly derived from Pieter Brueghel the
Church. Just as Brueghel was not a peasant, his output Elder. In the case of David Teniers, for example, witch-
also contained a number of themes besides peasant gen- es, demons, and the Seven Deadly Sins became motifs
res. He is remembered for landscapes and paintings of that Teniers used throughout his oeuvre.
moral allegories, such as The Flemish Proverbs, T h e
Blind Leading the Bl i n d , and The Be g g a r s , a scene that JANE P. DAVIDSON
148 Brueghel, Pieter the Elder |
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See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;GHEYNII,JACQUESDE; described the methods Buirmann used; as assessor of the
HERMOGENES;NETHERLANDS,SOUTHERN;TENIERS, C o u rt of Rheinbach, a small town near Bonn, Löher
DAVID,THEYOUNGER. had watched him investigate accused witches in 1631
References and further reading:
and 1636. Buirmann made extensive use of tort u re to
Davidson, Jane P. 1987. The Witch in Northern European Art,
f o rce a confession from a suspect. When Christina
1470–1750.Freren, Germany: Luca.
Boeffgens, the widow of a local merchant, died under
Marlier, Georges. 1969. Pierre Brueghel le Jeune.Brussels: R. Finck.
t o rt u re in Rheinbach, Buirmann convinced the assessors
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles. 1980. Bruegel: Une Dynastie des
that the Devil himself had broken the suspect’s neck.
Peintres.Brussels: Palais des Beaux-Arts.
Zika, Charles. 2003. Exorcising Our Demons: Magic, Witchcraft Ap a rt from Rheinbach, we have more re p o rts about vic-
and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe. Leiden and Boston: tims dying under tort u re in other places where
Brill. Buirmann “w o rked,” always mentioning a broken neck
caused by the Devil. Buirmann intimidated his col-
Buirmann, Franz leagues by threatening to accuse them of sorc e ry them-
(ca. 1590–ca. 1667) s e l ves if they refused to cooperate. Se veral times he
Commonly known as “the Witch-Seeker of Cologne,” re q u i red warrants for somebody’s arrest without telling
court assessor at Bonn in the electorate of Cologne, the assessors whom he wanted imprisoned. In this way,
Buirmann was responsible for the death of at least 300 the oldest assessor of the Court of Rheinbach, He r b e rt
people. He was known to exceed his authority in many L a p p, unknowingly sentenced himself to arrest and tor-
cases. This tendency caused him reprimands by the t u re. He was burned together with Anna Ke m m e r l i n g ,
government of the electorate; but due to his effective the wife of the assessor Go t t h a rt Pe l l e r. As Löher tells us,
methods of witch persecution, he was re p e a t e d l y Buirmann had tried in vain to seduce her beautiful sis-
commissioned to investigate witches. Buirmann’s activ- t e r. Howe ve r, the story that Buirmann had this sister put
ity as a witch-hunting specialist began in 1629; his last under arrest and raped by the hangman’s assistant is a
such efforts date from 1647, although he still worked m i s reading of a passage in Löher’s book. Ne ve rt h e l e s s ,
as assessor at the electoral High Court of Bonn for his reckless behavior and disre g a rd of imperial law eve n-
several years. tually led Buirmann into conflict with the electoral gov-
Buirmann was born around 1590 at Eu s k i rchen in ernment. He was reprimanded and restricted to his duty
the duchy of Juelich. He registered at the University of as an assessor in Bonn for about five ye a r s .
Cologne in 1608 at the age of approximately eighteen In 1636, Buirmann re a p p e a red as a witch commis-
years. Buirmann studied law, eventually obtaining doc- sioner at several places in the electorate of Cologne and
torates in both secular and ecclesiastical law. On e ven beyond. From 1636 to 1638, he was re s p o n s i b l e
January 4, 1628, Buirmann was confirmed as assessor at for the death of at least 50 people in Siegburg, about 10
the High Court of Justice of Bonn. In 1635, he married in He i m e rzheim, and another 10 in the so-called
Katharina Wa l r a vens, the daughter of a wealthy Bonn Drachenfelser Laendchen (Drachenfelser Country). He
f a m i l y. His contemporary Herman Löher, who later murdered 135 people in Rheinbach and nearby villages.
published a book attacking witchcraft persecutions in Together with the victims of Buirmann’s witch hunts in
the Rhineland, claimed that Buirmann, gaunt and ugly, the preceding years, the number of people burned as
could never have succeeded in courting a girl and there- witches or sorcerers under his authority comes to more
fore had to marry the daughter of a poor saltpetre dig- than 300.
g e r. An American author (Gibbons 1931) used
Buirmann’s alleged unattractiveness to explain his reck- THOMAS P. BECKER
less actions against women, but Löher’s allegations were
See also:COLOGNE;FERDINANDOFCOLOGNE;LÖHER,HERMAN.
based only on ru m o r. Buirmann and his wife had at
References and further reading:
least two sons, Johannes, born in 1635, and Jo h a n n Becker,Thomas. 2003. “Hermann Löher als Augenzeuge der
Adolph, born in 1636; one of them died in 1644. In Hexenverfolgung in Rheinbach.” Annalen des Historischen
1652, Buirmann fathered an illegitimate son with a ser- Vereins für den Niederrhein206: 129–157.
vant. The last evidence we have of Buirmann is that he Gibbons, Lois Oliphant. 1931. “A Seventeenth Century
sold a house in Bonn in 1667; the date of his death Humanitarian: Hermann Löher.” Pp. 335–359 in Persecution
remains unknown. and Liberty: Essays in Honor of George Lincoln Burr.NewYork:
Century.
As it is possible to trace the first witchcraft trials in
Löher, Hermann. 1676. Wemütige Klage der frommen Unschültigen.
Bonn back to 1628, it is reasonable to conclude that
Prepared byThomas P. Becker. Commentary byThomas P.
Buirmann was involved in witch cases from the begin-
Becker, Rainer Decker, and Hans de Waardt.
ning of his career as a court assessor in 1629. Between
http://www.sfn.uni-muenchen.de/loeher (accessed December 1,
1628 and 1630 these witch persecutions resulted in at
2004).
least 50 death sentences. By 1630, Buirmann was con- Schormann, Gerhard. 1991. Der Krieg gegen die Hexen.Göttingen:
s i d e red as a specialist in witch persecution. Löher Vandenhoeck and Rupprecht.
Buirmann, Franz 149 |
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Bullinger, Heinrich (1504–1575) Bullinger also approached the problem of magic in
Apart from Johann Brenz, Heinrich Bullinger was the his sermons on the First Commandment and in his
only prominent German Protestant who wrote a tract Summa Christenlicher Re l i g i o n ( Sum of the Christian
on magic and witchcraft, Wider die Schwartzen Kuenst Religion, 1556), where he mentioned m a l e fic i u m a n d
(Against the Black Arts), first published after his death the pact with the Devil. He considered such Catholic
in the Theatrum de Veneficis (Theater of Poisoners practices as the worship of saints and idolizing elements
[witches]) of 1586. As the successor to Ulrich Zwingli of creation as violations of the First Commandment,
in Zurich and a contemporary of John Calvin, paying more attention to these than to witchcraft, and
Bullinger was a leading representative of sixteenth-cen- added that any kind of superstition, including the wor-
tury Reformed Protestantism. He not only exercised ship of saints, was equal to a pact with the Devil. A pact
considerable influence on its church policy, partly with the Devil did not justify prosecution.
through his extensive correspondence (12,000 letters Bullinger's demonology and attitude tow a rd witchcraft
have been preserved), but also played an important role was strongly marked by a Calvinistic “d i s e n c h a n t m e n t” of
in shaping and communicating Reformed religious life the world. He constructed no theory of demonology, and
and thought. he did not see Christianity as endangered by a “w i t c h c r a f t
For two reasons, Bullinger’s very brief tract is remark- sect.” His statement that the Devil and witchcraft could
ably interesting. First, he discussed only m a l e fic i u m only harm unbelievers reduced the problem from a unive r-
(harmful magic) and diabolical pacts, without men- sal, apocalyptic battle between good and evil to a personal
tioning witches flying, holding Sabbats, or having inter- m a t t e r. On the other hand, his tract made it clear that eve n
course with the Devil. Bullinger clearly belonged to the theologians who devoted little thought to witchcraft and
Canon Ep i s c o p i tradition that described some magical magic could still sound quite severe in their attitude
beliefs as superstitious, because he described magic and t ow a rd the punishment of witches.
witchcraft as more illusion than reality. It is thus partic-
ularly surprising that Bullinger seemed to favor seve re JÖRG HAUSTEIN;
punishment for witches at the end of his tract.
TRANSLATED BY HELEN SIEGBURG
Howe ve r, his statements are difficult to interpret. He
merely quoted the relevant verses (e.g., Exod. 22:18) of See also:BRENZ,JOHANN;CANONEPISCOPI;DEMONOLOGY;EXODUS
the Hebrew Bible and referred to other legal authorities
22:18 (22:17); PROTESTANTREFORMATION.
References and further reading:
such as the imperial law. He let the reader decide for
Benedict, Philip. 2002. Christ's Churches Purely Reformed: A Social
himself, but it is unclear whether or not this was mere-
History of Calvinism.New Haven: Yale University Press.
ly a rhetorical device that allowed him to condone the
Blanke, Fritz, and Immanual Leuschner. 1990. Heinrich Bullinger,
execution of witches without doing so explicitly.
Vater der reformierten Kirche.Zurich: Theologischer.
Bu l l i n g e r’s catechistic writings underline how diffi- Bullinger, Heinrich. 1558. Summa Christenlicher Religion: Darinn
cult it is to interpret his statements on witchcraft and vss dem wort Gottes, one alles zancken vnd schälten, richtig vnd
magic. In all his theological statements, he endeavo re d kurtz, anzeigt wirt, was einem yetlichen Christen notwendig sye
to stay as close to Scripture as possible, while using a zu wüssen, zu glouben, zu thun, vnd zu lassen, ouch zu lyden,
b road knowledge of theological authorities to support vnd säligklich abzusterben; in X. Artickel gestelt ...Zurich:
his arguments. In the thirty-ninth sermon of his Froschauer. Microfiche edition: Munich: Saur 1991.
———. 1561. A hundred sermons upon the Apocalips of Jesus
Ha u s b u c h( House book), Bullinger addressed the pro b-
Christ.Translated by John Daws. London.
lem of demonology. He implicitly adopted the
———. 1568. Haussbuch: Darin[n] funfftzig predigten Heinrich
m e d i e val idea of demons as spirit-like beings, decided-
Bullingers dieners der kirche[n] zu Zürich; Jn welche[n] nicht
ly rejected anthropologizing Ep i c u rean notions that
allein die zehen gebot Gottes, die zwölff Artickel des Christlichen
would explain the Devil merely in terms of evil people,
glaubens ... sonder auch alle andere Artickel, lehren vnd haubt-
and repeatedly emphasized the difficulties of discussing stück vnserer ... religion, weitlauffig, einfaltig vnd ordenlich
demons and the Devil systematically on the basis of gehandlet, vnd erklärt ... werden; Welche nuh etliche mal in
Biblical evidence. In t e re s t i n g l y, his sermon ended with Lateinischer sprach jm truck aussgangen / ... in Teutsche sprach
a brief re m a rk that, according to biblical pre s e n t a t i o n s , verdolmetschet durch Johan[n] Hallern, dienern der Kirchen zu
witchcraft could be harmful only to unbelievers, while Bern.Heidelberg: Agricola. Microfiche edition: Munich: Saur,
believing Christians remained immune. In this con- 1999.
———. 1586. Wider die Schwartzen Kuenst, aberglaeubigs segnen,
text, he stressed the necessity of divine permission
unwarhafftigs Warsagen, und andere dergleichen von Gott verbot-
( p e rmissio dei) in all workings of the Devil. In sending
tne Kuenst: ein kurtzer Tractat auss Heiliger Schrifft, und
illness and adversities, he wrote, God used the Devil as
warhafften guten gruenden.InTheatrum de Veneficis.Frankfurt
a teaching aid, not as an independent force. T h u s ,
am Main: Microfiche edition; Zug: Inter Documentation
Bullinger concluded that Christians need have no fear
Comp., 1980.
of the Devil. Such a clear position was unusual in the Paulus, Nikolaus. 1910. Hexenwahn und Hexenprozess vornehmlich
sixteenth century. im 16. Jahrhundert.Freiburg im Breisg au: Herder.
150 Bullinger, Heinrich |
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Burchard of Worms (ca. 965–1025) ghostly visitors at night, the mutilation of the corpses of
Cleric of Mainz and later bishop of Wo r m s u n b a p t i zed children, and pre venting the wakening of
(1000–1025), Burchard is best known as the author of the unquiet dead. Many of the strictures listed by
the Decretorum libri XX, or Decretum (The Twenty Bu rc h a rd derived from much older sources, and it is
Books of Decisions), a systematic (rather than chrono- not clear whether or not they reflected practices of his
logical) collection of 1,700 canons compiled from ear- own day or were included simply for the sake of com-
lier collections and the writings of the Church Fathers, pleteness. Others, however, did not occur in earlier col-
which he completed in 1015. It provided one of the lections and have been thought to reflect actual beliefs
most successful and influential collections of canon law and practices of the early eleventh century.
during the eleventh century and became a major source C o m p re h e n s i ve l y, all the re l e vant canons offered an
for later ideas about sorcery and magic. e x h a u s t i ve panorama of the concerns of a highly placed,
An active and energetic churchman, Bu rc h a rd re o r- pastorally minded, and extremely learned churchman in
g a n i zed the administration of the city of Wo r m s . the early eleventh century. Ivo of Chart res adapted
Widely experienced in ecclesiastical and imperial politi- Bu rc h a rd’s collection a century later, and Gratian (later
cal life, he was appointed to his see by Emperor Otto III c o n s i d e red the founder of the science of canon law) used
and knew the later emperors He n ry II and Conrad II it extensively in the mid-t welfth century in his great col-
well. Bu rc h a rd participated actively in contemporary lection of canon law, also popularly called the De c re t u m .
ecclesiastical councils. He was dedicated to Ch u rc h
EDWARD PETERS
reform, especially in matters of the nature of the episco-
pal office, simony (the purchase of ecclesiastical office), See also: CANONEPISCOPI;DIANA;DIVINATION;INDICULUSSUPER-
and the relations between spiritual and temporal STITIONUMANDPAGANIARUM;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT
authorities. His canonical collection re flects both his
(MEDIEVAL); LOVEMAGIC.
References and further reading:
experience and his ideals. Although Bu rc h a rd’s collec-
Brundage, James A. 1995. Medieval Canon Law.London and
tion of canon law was authoritative only in his own dio-
NewYork: Longman, 32–34.
cese of Worms, it circulated widely elsewhere.
Burchard of Worms. 1990. Book XIX, the Corrector.1938
Book XIX of Bu rc h a rd’s De c re t u m is called the
Pp. 321–345 in “Selections from the CorrectorandPhysicianof
C o r re c t o r, or the Ph y s i c i a n . It was a penitential, both a Burchard of Worms.” InMedieval Handbooks of Penance.
guide to confessors for assessing the sins of penitents and Edited and translated by John McNeill and Helena M. Gamer.
for imposing penance, as well as a list of tariff-b a s e d Reprint, NewYork: Columbia University Press.
penitential practices. Penitentials had been ve ry widely ———. 2001. Selections. Pp. 63–67 inWitchcraft in Europe,
used throughout western Eu rope from the late sixth to 400–1700: A Documentary History.Edited by Alan Charles
the late eleventh century, before the emergence of more Kors and Edward Peters. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
sophisticated penitential handbooks during the late
Flint, Valerie I. J. 1991. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval
t welfth century. Bu rc h a rd’s was the last, and one of the
Europe.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
g reatest of these, drawing on earlier Celtic and Anglo-
Milis, Ludo. 1998. “Purity, Sex, and Sin.” Pp. 129–149 in The
Sa xon penitentials as well as more recent collections,
Pagan Middle Ages.Edited by Ludo Milis. Woodbridge,
especially those of Halitgar of Cambrai (fl. 830, author
Suffolk, and Rochester, NY: Boydell.
of an important Carolingian penitential collection) and Russell, Jeffrey Burton. 1972. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages.Ithaca
Regino of Prüm (fl. 906, author of an important collec- and London: Cornell University Press.
tion of texts pertaining to ecclesiastical discipline). Fro m The manuscript tradition of the Decretumis extremely complex;
Regino, Bu rc h a rd took both the long and the short ve r- see Hoffmann, Hartmut, and Rudolf Pokorny. 1991. Das
sions of the Canon Ep i s c o p i (a text that had fir s t Dekret des Bischofs Burchard von Worms. Textstufen—Frühe
a p p e a red in Re g i n o’s collection), which subsequently Verbreitung—Vorlagen.Munich: Monumenta Germaniae
Historica. Hilfsmittel 12.
became one of the two or three key texts re g a rding mag-
Vogel, Cyrille. 1994. “Pratiques superstitieuses au début du Xe
ic and witchcraft in canon law. Written in the form of
siècle d’après le Corrector sive medicusde Burchard, évêque de
questions posed by the confessor to the penitent, it often
Worms (965–1025).” Chapter X in Vogel, Cyrille, ed. En
c i rculated separately from the rest of the De c re t u m .
rémission des péchés: Recherches sur les systèmes pénitentiels dans
Book XIX, chapter 5, numbers 59–70, 90–104, and
l’Église latine, Faivre, Alexandre. Aldershot and Brookfield:
149–181 dealt with magic and superstition. Nu m b e r s Variorum.
70 and 90 was the short and long versions of the Canon
Burgundy, Duchy of
Episcopi in the Corrector(both versions also appeared in
the Decretum, the short in I:94 and the longer in X:1). Apart from an isolated instance around 1470, when
The confessor’s questions included the subjects of the Burgundian ecclesiastical and secular authorities coop-
practice of divination, therapeutic magic, weather mag- erated to burn three people for attending Sabbats, we
ic, erotic magic, riding with other women at night with have no evidence of fully developed witchcraft trials in
the goddess Diana, shape-shifting, preparing food for this region until 1571 (Mandrou 1968, 155–156),
Burgundy, Duchy of 151 |
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soon after this crime had reappeared in other French the galleys. Although this p a rl e m e n t upheld the first 2
provinces from Languedoc to Normandy. All our evi- death sentences for witchcraft appealed to it in 1644,
dence about the subsequent repression of witchcraft in a f t e rw a rds it approved only 1 of 13 other death sentences
Burgundy comes from the records of the Parlement of for witchcraft among over 100 imprisoned witches whom
Dijon, the appellate court created in 1537 to cover the it judged between 1644 and 1646.
duchy of Burgundy.The picture of witch hunting that The court’s monopoly of jurisdiction combined with
emerges from its records fits chronologically with gen- its leniency tow a rd accused witches caused considerable
eral patterns in western Europe, but the severity—or popular discontent. Burgundian villagers we re accus-
rather lack of severity—shown by this relatively small tomed to dunking accused witches to see if they flo a t e d .
French appellate court seems quite atypical. Eve n The Dijon p a rl e m e n t began investigating such illegal
though it began systematically searching suspects for water tests in 1640, but could not pre vent them fro m
the Devil’s mark in the early 1580s, it seems to have multiplying dramatically during the panic of June 1644.
been even more lenient toward accused witches than its Worse still, the p a rl e m e n t u n c ove red at least nine
great neighbor, the Parlement of Paris, whose district instances during the mid-1640s where Burgundian vigi-
surrounded it on three sides. lantes had lynched suspected witches, sometimes seve r a l
Apart from a gap between 1593 and 1611, we pos- at a time, usually with the complicity of village offic i a l s .
sess the Dijon parlement’s rulings in criminal cases after Nearly all the ringleaders escaped. When the worst
1581. Witchcraft generally occupied a ve ry modest episode, at the village of Hu l l y, was judged two ye a r s
place, usually around 2 or 3 defendants per ye a r, a f t e rw a rds, only two defendants had actually been
although witchcraft trials occurred almost eve ry ye a r a r rested: The p a rl e m e n tc l e a red a farmer accused of par-
until the mid-seventeenth century. Seigneurial judges ticipating in the lynching of his wife, but sentenced
had begun imposing death sentences for witchcraft by another man to the galleys for life for his share in a col-
1580, but the Burgundian parlementupheld only a few l e c t i ve lynching of no fewer than 13 people. Twenty oth-
of them, starting in 1583. Throughout the entire peri- er defendants, including the village prosecutor and his
od it was involved in judging witches, only once did the son, escaped the p a rl e m e n t’s clutches; half of them we re
appellate court at Dijon pronounce more than 2 death sentenced in absentia to be hanged or broken on the
sentences for this crime in a year. Overall, during fifty- wheel. Such episodes re veal both the depths of popular
one re c o rded years between 1582 and 1650, it sen- exasperation over the enlightened and skeptical attitudes
tenced only 6 men and 11 women to death for witch- of Bu r g u n d y’s appellate judges and the looseness of their
craft, although it judged well over 200 who had been c o n t rol over this province during a major witch panic.
indicted for this crime (prorating the missing seventeen A final defining episode in the Burgundian p a r-
years gives an estimate of about two dozen legal execu- lement’s treatment of witchcraft came in the early 1660s
tions approved by this court). In 1633, it examined 24 with the well-known events at Auxonne. Outbreaks of
prisoners from Nantua, in the French Alps; all had been demonic possession, apparently an outgrowth of the
sentenced to death by a local judge, but the parlement last major witch hunts after 1658 in neighboring
upheld only 3 executions, including 1 carried out in Franche-Comté, afflicted the Ursuline nuns at Auxonne
e f figy after a prisoner escaped. Two years later it took for many years (Ma n d rou 1968, 406–422). By 1660,
automatic control over every Burgundian witchcraft tri- e xo rcisms had produced the usual crop of denuncia-
al. The very next year, 1636, throngs of accused witches tions against the witches who had caused their posses-
c rowded the jail; although an old woman died in sion. The parlementat Dijon promptly reduced 4 death
prison, none of these 36 prisoners were executed. sentences based on evidence from exorcisms, banishing
It is against this background that we must see this p a r- 2 women and freeing 2 others—although the 2 women
l e m e n t’s reaction when the last major witch panic in whom it released were apparently lynched. A man, pre-
France struck Burgundy and the Ardennes in 1644 before viously sentenced to death for witchcraft in 1645, was
petering out. It had been provoked by a seve re hailstorm arrested next, but the parlementeventually released him
and late frost that ruined both the wine and grain har- in 1662. The possessed Ursulines and their exo rc i s t s
vests. This episode has been seen as a re l a t i vely early meanwhile concentrated their accusations against one
instance where a “junior” p a rl e m e n timitated the example of the sisters, Barbe Buvée. Her arrest and trial became
of Paris (Ma n d rou 1968, 385–390). It is, howe ve r, better a cause célèbre, expanding into an elaborate powe r
understood in the context of the great Languedoc panic game that eventually pitted the intendant (royal agent)
of 1643–1645; like Languedoc (and Essex in Pu r i t a n of Burgundy against the Dijon p a rl e m e n t , with both
England at exactly this moment) Burgundy was affli c t e d sides appealing to patrons at court. Buvée’s case escalat-
by a local witch finder who spread this panic by identify- ed up to the royal council, who finally handed it to the
ing numerous suspects by looking carefully into the Parlementof Paris in 1664 —which quietly buried it.
pupils of their eyes. When the Burgundian p a rl e m e n t
finally got its hands on him later in 1644, it sent him to WILLIAM MONTER
152 Burgundy, Duchy of |
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See also: ARDENNES;AUXONNENUNS;DEVIL’SMARK;FRANCE; practiced herbal medicine more than other women in
HOPKINS,MATTHEW;LYNCHING;PANICS;PARLEMENTOFPARIS; Eu rope; midwives we re more often on the side of
POSSESSION,DEMONIC;SWIMMINGTEST;WITCHFINDERS. the interrogators than their victims, and the Inquisition
References and further reading:
and clergy we re, as a rule, milder than the secular
Archives Departementales de la Côte d’Or, Dijon, B II 46 nos.
authorities when handling witchcraft pro s e c u t i o n .
1–13 [source for all statistics].
T h e re is no evidence that early modern witches prac-
Garnot, Benoît. 1995. La diable au couvent: Les Possédées
ticed a religion anything like that of contemporary
d’Auxonne (1658–1663).Paris: Imago.
witches; those arraigned as witches were Christians, not
Ligeron, Louis. 1975–1976. “La jurisprudence du parlement de
Dijon en matière de sorcellerie au début du XVIIe siècle.” Neo-Pagans.
Mémoires de la Société pour l’histoire du droit et des institutions The use of the term Burning Times has had the odi-
des anciens pays bourgignons, comtois et romands33: 281–289. ous effect of encouraging comparisons between the
Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe witchcraft prosecutions and the Holocaust (since holo-
siècle.Paris: Plon. c a u s t means burnt offering), thus devaluing the latter.
Vignier, Françoise. 1961. “Procès de sorcellerie en 1644.” Annales Such comparisons are without merit, but have been
de BourgogneJanuary–March, 27–32.
made with depressing frequency by some feminist his-
torians, notably Ma ry Da l y. These comparisons are
Burning Times misleading, primarily because there was never any
The Neo-Pagan community employs the term Burning attempt to murder all early modern women as there was
Times to refer to the period in which those accused of by the Nazis to murder all Jews; indeed, except in rare
witchcraft were executed. The term implies that all instances, women were not singled out for prosecution
witches were executed by burning, but in the British during the period of the witch hunts. Mo re ove r, the
Isles witchcraft to which it is supposed to refer, this was e vents we re ve ry different both in nature and in size .
not true; only in Scotland were the bodies of witches Historians now estimate that approximately 35,000 to
burned, and then only after strangulation, and in 50,000 men and women died in the witchcraft prosecu-
England and Wales all witches punished with death tions (there was no massive persecution), while upwards
were hanged. This fact alone exposes the falsity of the of 6 million people died in the Shoah. Attempts to
term’s claims to historical accuracy. compare or, worse, conflate the two events deny to each
The term Bu rning Ti m e s was first coined by the its true power to move and its right to our mourning
British pagan and founder of Wicca, Gerald Ga rd n e r, and re g ret, as do fictionalizations that falsify the re a l
who claimed that it was a secret term for the witchcraft and dreadful historical experiences of those who suf-
persecutions used in the British Isles by traditional f e red. These fictions should not be shrugged off or
pagans (i.e., witches) themselves. Gardner, who found- excused.
ed the first Ne o - Pagan witchcraft coven in Britain in
DIANE PURKISS
1947, claimed the term came from a text he called The
Book of Shadows,intended to serve as a ritual handbook See also:CONTEMPORARYWITCHCRAFT(POST1800); EXECUTIONS;
for witches in his group, a volume that drew heavily on
HISTORIOGRAPHY;MIDWIVES;MURRAY,MARGARETALICE;NUM-
Ma r g a ret Mu r r a y’s account of the witchcraft trials in
BEROFWITCHES.
References and further reading:
early modern Eu rope. Ga rdner may or may not have
Hutton, Ronald. 1999. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of
claimed the book was ancient, but he bound it in
Modern Pagan Witchcraft.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
antique leather and seems to have deliberately soiled the
Orion, Loretta. 1995. Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism
pages to give an appearance of age. The term Burning Revived. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Times was part of a preface Gardner added, purporting Purkiss, Diane. 1996. The Witch in History: Early Modern and
to be written by a witch in the time of persecution and Twentieth Century Representations.London: Routledge.
painting a colorful and entirely fictional picture of her
Burr, George Lincoln (1857–1938)
fear and concern for others of her religion. Some of
Ga rd n e r’s followers, howe ve r, mistook The Book of Burr was one of the greatest early American historians
Sh a d ow s for an authentic document, and it has been of the Eu ropean witchcraft prosecutions. Born in
used widely in the writings of contemporary witches Oramel, New York, locally educated, and trained as a
such as Starhawk. A fantasy narrative grew up aro u n d printer, Burr entered the new Cornell University in
the notion of the Burning Times that described witches 1877 and graduated in 1881. He soon became both the
as gentle Ne o - Pagan herbalists and midwives, hunted private secretary and librarian of Cornell’s president,
relentlessly by a power-mad and usually Ro m a n Andrew Dickson White, and an instructor and examin-
Catholic clergy.This is still the commonest narrative of er in modern history at the university.
witchcraft in childre n’s books and historical fic t i o n ; White sent Burr to study in Europe, at Leipzig, Paris,
h u n d reds of examples could be cited. But there is no and Zurich, from 1884 to 1886, as well to acquire
evidence that cunning women or accused witches books for White’s library, which Burr later cataloged in
Burr, George Lincoln 153 |
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t h ree volumes in 1889, 1894, and 1897. During his witchcraft, and part from the extraordinarily high social
s t a y, Burr acquired the manuscript of the trial of status of Fl a d e .
Dietrich Flade for White’s library; in 1886 he added the Burr became a correspondent and friend of the other
manuscript of Cornelius Loos’s recantation. Burr spent g reat nineteenth-century American historian of witch-
another year in Eu rope in 1887–1888. Although he craft, He n ry Charles Lea. He also re v i ewed Lea’s Hi s t o ry
n e ver took a doctorate (his re s e a rch materials we re of the Inquisition of Spain (1906–1908). From Lea’s death
stolen while in transit in Europe), Burr became a pro- in 1909 until 1928, Burr worked at editing Lea’s re a d i n g
fessor and held the chair in history at Cornell fro m notes, turning the project over to Arthur C. Howland in
1892 to 1922. He was a popular teacher at Cornell 1928; he wrote the introduction to How l a n d’s edition of
until his re t i rement. His scholarly work was widely L e a’s posthumously published Materials Tow a rd a
a c k n owledged, and Burr was elected president of the Hi s t o ry of Wi t c h c ra f t(1939), which appeared a year after
American Historical Association in 1916. He also Bu r r’s death. Bu r r’s long teaching and scholarly career at
s e rved as W h i t e’s assistant on the Ve n ez u e l a – Gu y a n a Cornell inspired his students and associates to publish a
Boundary Commission in 1897. He wrote the chapter volume of essays in his honor in 1931.
on the Carolingian re volution and Frankish interve n-
EDWARD PETERS
tion in eighth-century Italy for the Cambridge Medieval
History,volume two (1913). See also:BINSFELD,PETER;DELRIO,MARTÍN;FLADE,DIETRICH;
Burr engaged in an important scholarly controversy HISTORIOGRAPH;LEA,HENRYCHARLES;LOOS,CORNELIUS;TRIER,
with George Lyman Kittridge of Harvard about the his-
ELECTORATEOF.
References and further reading:
torical nature of witchcraft and magic, illustrated in
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria:
Burr’s essays “The Literature of Witchcraft” (1889) and
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early
“ New En g l a n d’s Place in the Hi s t o ry of Wi t c h c r a f t”
Modern Europe. Translated by J. C. Grayson and David
(1911). The former provided the most compre h e n s i ve
Lederer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
study in English of the sources for the history of witch- Burr, George Lincoln. 1891. The Fate of Dietrich Flade.NewYork:
craft in Eu rope and No rth America. Burr also edited Putnam’s. Reprinted in George Lincoln Burr: His Life, by Roland
Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648–1706,in 1914. H. Bainton: Selections from His Writings.Edited by Lois
Burr’s most important scholarship was devoted to the Oliphant Gibbons. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1943.
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century witchcraft prosecu- ———. 1907. The Witch Persecutions,Translations and Reprints
tions, chiefly those of Dietrich Flade and Cornelius from the Original Sources of European History, vol. 3.
Philadelphia: Department of History, University of
Loos. Flade was the highest-ranking secular official ever
Pennsylvania.
executed for witchcraft; a few years later, Loos wrote a
———. 1914. Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648–1706.New
skeptical treatise De ve ra et falsa magia ( On True and
York: Scribner’s. Reprinted, NewYork: Barnes and Noble,
False Magic) and suffered terribly for his defense of
1946, 1968, 1972.
Flade and his criticism of Flade’s persecutors.
Gibbons, Lois Oliphant, ed. 1943. George Lincoln Burr: His Life,
Besides his vast acquisitions and cataloging enter- by Roland H. Bainton: Selections from His Writings.Ithaca:
prise of the White Library, Burr’s scholarship took the Cornell University Press.
form of essays. His “On the Loos Manuscript” (1886) Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. “The
told the story of his discovery of the manuscript. One Persecutions at Trier (1581–93).” Pp. 308–318 in Witchcraft in
of Bu r r’s greatest skills was his ability to track dow n Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History.2d ed. Philadelphia:
manuscripts and rare books in both European libraries University of Pennsylvania Press.
Persecution and Liberty: Essays in Honor of George Lincoln Burr.
and bookstores; he offered some accounts of his suc-
1931. NewYork: Century.
cesses in an essay on “A Wi t c h - Hunter in the
Powicke, Frederick Maurice. 1964. “An American Scholar: George
B o o k s h o p s” (1902). Burr knew the scribal hands of
Lincoln Burr.” InWays of Medieval Life and Thought: Essays
n o rthern Eu rope in the sixteenth century better than
and Addresses.London: Oldhams Press, 1950. Reprint, New
a n yone else in No rth America and better than most
York: Biblo and Tannen.
scholars in Europe.
Bu r r’s most important and longest essay was a re v i-
sion of his unwritten doctoral dissertation, “The Fa t e Burton, Boy of
of Dietrich Fl a d e” (1891), a vivid, scholarly, and (Thomas Darling, ca. 1584–?)
e n t i rely engaging account of the best-known witch- The bewitchment in 1596 of Thomas Darling, from
craft trial of the sixteenth century. The trial elicited Burton-in-Trent (Derbyshire), a notable instance of
c o n t e m p o r a ry opinions from Ma rtín Del Rio and demonic possession among British Protestants, was
Peter Binsfeld about Flade, a jurist and high official in described in what is now an extremely rare contempo-
the government of the city of Trier and former rector of rary pamphlet.
its university. Part of the case’s importance derived from In February of that year, the “Boy of Burton,” aged
the judges’ use of the testimony of persons convicted of thirteen, was taken to hunt hares in Winsell Wood by
154 Burton, Boy oF |
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his uncle, Ro b e rt Toone. They became separated, and craft. As was becoming usual in such cases, a large
after Thomas was found again and had returned home, c rowd of observers, among whom ministers we re
he became ill, vomiting, showing signs of suffering p rominent, including a Mr. Hildersham from nearby
from ague, and hallucinating, in particular seeing green A s h by - d e - l a - Zouch, witnessed the victim’s torments.
angels and a green cat. The symptoms then developed The pamphlet made it clear that they we re hostile to
into the type of fits and contortions that were so often the popish concept of exorcism, but nevertheless came
attributed to witchcraft or demonic possession at that to pray around him. John Da r rell, the great Pu r i t a n
time; one of those observing his sufferings noticed that e x p e rt on bewitchment and possession, also came to
the boy gained relief when he stopped praying or read- o b s e rve Darling. The “Boy of Bu rt o n” had obv i o u s l y
ing the Bible. He suggested that witchcraft might be the i n t e r n a l i zed a fair measure of religious teaching, and
p roblem, upon which the boy told how, when lost in could interpret his sufferings in terms of bewitchment
Winsell Wood, he had met an old woman, whom he and of the work of the Devil. The incident demon-
had offended by breaking wind in her presence and strates another peculiarity of English witchcraft in this
who had therefore cursed him. period, namely the conflation of bewitchment and
Suspicion focused rapidly on Alice Gooderidge, aged demonic possession. Darling told those around him
about sixty. When she was called into the room where when he was being attacked by the Devil, had dialogues
Thomas Darling lay, he went into violent fits, and tried with him, and, at one point, gave an account of being
to gain relief by scratching her, an activity with which taken to see hell. Among at least some circles in
she complied. A local justice of the peace was informed England, witchcraft was clearly being seen as a more
about the suspicions of witchcraft against both complex matter than meremaleficium(harmful magic).
Gooderidge and her mother, Elizabeth Wright. Si r Another interesting feature of this case was that about
Edmund Anderson, one of the few English assize judges a year and a half elapsed between Da r l i n g’s first becom-
to declare himself in favor of the active prosecution of ing ill, with its consequent suspicions that he was
witches, eventually tried Gooderidge for witchcraft in b ewitched, and the actual trial of his supposed tormen-
the summer of 1597. Gooderidge was convicted, but t o r. Over that long period, Alice Gooderidge, taken into
p robably sentenced to the lesser penalty of a ye a r’s custody on various occasions, was brought to confro n t
imprisonment and four appearances on the pillory.We the boy, who usually went into seve re fits on seeing her.
know that she died in jail. She was subjected to harsh psychological pre s s u re, and
Although re l a t i vely little known, the T h o m a s on one occasion to something ve ry like tort u re when she
Darling case is of considerable interest in demonstrat- was forced to wear shoes that had been heated over a fire .
ing how one of the standard models of English witch-
JAMES SHARPE
craft was developing. It seems ve ry probable that
Da r l i n g’s family moved in advanced Protestant circ l e s .
See also: BEWITCHMENT;DARRELL,JOHN;ENGLAND;EXORCISM;
The pamphlet describing the case was couched in terms
POSSESSION,DEMONIC.
References and further reading:
of a battle between God and the Devil, with yo u n g
Denison, J. 1597. The most wonderfull and true Storie of a certaine
Da r l i n g’s body serving as a battleground between the
Witch named Alse Gooderige of Stapenhill, who was arraigned
f o rces of good and evil. Young Da r l i n g’s sufferings fit
and convicted at Darbie at the Assises there. London.
within the context of several cases in which an adoles- Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early
cent or young adult was supposedly the victim of witch- Modern England.London: Hamish Hamilton.
Burton, Boy oF 155 |
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Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 194 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.157 Application File
C
Caesarius of Arles (470/71–543) did not work on that day, because they did not want to
Saint, bishop, administrator, preacher, and theologian, disturb its solemnity.The bishop considered this honor
Caesarius contributed substantially to disseminating paid to Jupiter by ignorant and superstitious people to
the views of such major Christian Church Fathers as be blasphemous, because they did not respect the day of
Augustine and Ambrose on superstition and magic. the Lord. Only severe penitence could bring them back
Born at Châlons in Burgundy (France) around 1470, to the Christian community.
Caesarius served as bishop of Arles from 503 to 542. C a e s a r i u s’s sermons against magic and surv i v i n g
He earned a reputation as a popular pre a c h e r, whose pagan practices circulated widely, either because of their
b r i e f, clear, and simple sermons abounded in images false attribution to St. Augustine, or because they were
and allusions drawn from daily life in sixth-century quoted in the work of later writers, including those of
southern Gaul. In his sermons, Caesarius discussed the popular genre of saints’ lives. Caesarius was a master
issues that included the principles of Christian morali- in depicting the vigorous Roman life of Southern Gaul,
t y, divine sanctions, hell and purgatory, classes of sin- w h e re Greek was still spoken in Arles and Asian mer-
ners, and the principal vices of his day (adultery, concu- chants still frequented the delta of the Rhone. Thus his
binage, drunkenness, neglect of Mass, love of landed sermons offer a valuable source for the study of ethnol-
wealth). Caesarius insistently and repeatedly deplore d ogy as well as the history of canon law, dogma, Church
the survival of pagan and superstitious elements in the discipline, and liturgy.
religious practices of his flock. His struggle against the
survival of numerous forms of paganism that had only DRIES VANYSACKER
recently been overcome was difficult because, Caesarius
See also: AUGUSTINE,ST.
a s s e rted, the Devil, a fallen archangel, inspired the References and further reading:
ignorance of the people. Harmening, Di e t e r. 1979. Pp. 49–64 in Su p e r s t i t i o. Überl i e f e ru n g s u n d
Manifestations of the survival of pagan and supersti- theorie-geschichtliche Untersuchungen zur kirchlich-theologischen
tious cults included sacrifices made regularly at sacre d Aberglaubensliteratur des Mittelalters.Berlin: E. Schmidt.
t rees and wells (possibly without believing in any re a l Klingshirn, William E. 1994. Caesarius of Arles: The Making of a
presence of a god or goddess at such locations); consul- Christian Community in Late Antique Gaul.Cambridge:
Cambridge University.
tations with sorc e rers and fortunetellers; singing and
Manselli, Raoul. 1976. Pp. 50–52 in Magia e stregoneria nel Medio
dancing in front of churches; making the sign of the
Evo.Turin: G. Giappichelli.
cross before stealing or committing adultery; and belief
Markus, R. A. 1992. “From Caesarius to Boniface: Christianity
in the powers of witches (maleficii).
and Paganism in Gaul.” Pp. 154–172 in The Seventh Century:
In one of his sermons (number XIII), Caesarius
Change and Continuity.Edited by Jacques Fontaine and J. N.
condemned a popular belief connected with the moon, Hillgarth. Studies of the Warburg Institute 42. London:
whose magical character was already familiar in ancient University of London.
c u l t u res. The bishop complained that many of his Martínez Maza, Clelia. 2002. “El demon Diana y Cesario de
so-called Christians wished to prevent the eclipse of the Arlés.” Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa38/3: 509–517.
moon, which they considered a possible source of Nie, Giselle de. 1995. “Caesarius of Arles and Gregory of Tours:
m a l e ficium (harmful magic), by crying and shouting. Two Sixth-Century Gallic Bishops and ‘Christian Magic.’”
Pp. 170–196 in Cultural Identity and Cultural Integration:
Caesarius claimed that any such effort to change the
Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Edited by Doris
course of nature decreed by God amounted to
Edel. Dublin, Ireland; Portland, OR: Four Courts.
blasphemy.
Peters, Edward. 2002. “The Medieval Church and State on
Another element of pagan and superstitious belief
Superstition, Magic and Witchcraft: From Augustine to the
was to be found in the special respect shown to the day
Sixteenth Century.” Pp. 173–245 in Witchcraft and Magic in
dedicated to the sky god Jupiter (Thursday). In s p i re d Europe: The Middle Ages.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart
by the Devil, says Caesarius, several men and women Clark. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Caesarius of Arles 157 |
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Cagnazzo, Giovanni of Taggia e l s ew h e re had nothing to do with the ancient cult of
(or Tabia) (ca. 1450-ca. 1520) Diana, to which the Canon Episcopi re f e r red. Relying on
A Dominican theologian, Cagnazzo was active as the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m , which he cited explicitly,
inquisitor in northern Italy in the late fifteenth and early C a g n a z zo asserted that the sect of witches was a re c e n t
sixteenth centuries, notable for his zealous pro s e c u t i o n phenomenon and that inquisitors often heard testimonies
of witches. His widely read theological work, the of its existence and terrible crimes. He repeated Kramer’s
Summa summarum quae Tabiena dicitur(The Summa of accounts of the bodily transportation of witches to places
Summas, Known as the Summa of [Gi ovanni of] Ta b i a , far re m oved from their homes in order to attend noctur-
1517) dealt, among other issues, with the modern sect nal meetings at which they worshipped the Devil, per-
of witches and its horrendous crimes, and contributed formed obscene, blasphemous rituals, and cause sickness
to the escalating anxiety over diabolic witchcraft in or death in other humans through m a l e ficium ( h a r m f u l
n o rthern Italy in the first three decades of the sixteenth magic). Ac c o rding to Cagnazzo, the seve re danger that
c e n t u ry. His preoccupation with witches and their witches posed to Christian society justified inquisitors’
misdeeds, and his concurrent fascination with the super- attempts to prosecute and punish them harshly.
natural experiences of living saints, we re shared by other C a g n a z zo’s Su m m a , largely ignored by modern schol-
k n own members of the Dominican Congregation of ars, was among the first works published in nort h e r n
L o m b a rd y, to which he belonged. Italy that relied on the Ma l l e u sMa l e fic a ru mto justify the
Many biographical details about Cagnazzo’s life persecution of witches. His discussion of the diabolic sect
remain unknown. Probably born around the mid- was, howe ve r, no mere repetition of the German tract.
fifteenth century, he professed as a Dominican friar in W h e reas Kramer argued that witchcraft was essentially a
Albegna in 1470 and arrived in Bologna around 1477. female crime, Cagnazzo described the modern witches’
Having completed his theological studies, Cagnazzo sect as including both men and women. This characteri-
taught in the Dominican St u d i u m Ge n e rale (house of zation might re flect the high percentage of men among
studies) in Bologna and was appointed dean of the those accused in the witchcraft trials conducted in
Faculty of Theology of the Un i versity of Bologna in L o m b a rdy and Emilia in the first decades of the sixteenth
1495, 1497, and 1508. He was inquisitor of Bologna for c e n t u ry. Cagnazzo also recounted testimonies given in
over twenty years (1494–1513) and also served as confes- those trials concerning the witches’ assemblies, which he
sor to Duke Ercole I of Ferrara. At some point after 1513 called their l u d u s(game), a term found in the writings of
he was summoned to Rome, where he may have serve d c o n t e m p o r a ry nort h e r n - Italian demonologists such as
as inquisitor. He died in Bologna in the early 1520s. Be r n a rdo Rategno of Como, Ba rtolomeo della Sp i n a ,
In 1498, Cagnazzo was invo l ved in the witchcraft and Gianfrancesco Pico della Mi r a n d o l a .
trial of Gentile Cimitri (alias Cimera), who was eventu-
TAMAR HERZIG
ally convicted and burned at the stake. Bolognese
chroniclers and Cagnazzo’s fellow inquisitor and demo- See also: CANONEPISCOPI;DIANA(ARTEMIS); ITALY;KRAMER
nologist Si l ve s t ro Prierias (Si l ve s t ro Ma z zolini of (INSTITORIS), HEINRICH;LIVINGSAINTS;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;
Prierio) noted Cagnazzo’s role in this trial. Cagnazzo
PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,GIANFRANCESCO;PRIERIAS,SILVESTRO;
RATEGNO,BERNARDOOFCOMO;SPINA,BARTOLOMEODELLA.
was also present at Ferrara in 1500, and signed the cer-
References and further reading:
t i fication attesting to the authenticity of the stigmata
Cagnazzo, Giovanni of Taggia (or Tabia). 1517. Summa sum-
exhibited by Lucia Brocadelli of Narni. He i n r i c h
marum quae Tabiena dicitur.Bologna: B. Faelli.
K r a m e r, the Dominican inquisitor and author of the
D’Amato, Alfonso. 1988. I Domenicani a Bologna.2 vols.
notorious Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Bologna: Edizioni Studio Domenicano.
Witches, 1486), requested this cert i fication. Cagnazzo Lea, Henry Charles. 1957. Materials Towards a History of
may have become acquainted with Kramer, who visited Witchcraft.3 vols. Edited by Arthur C. Howland. NewYork
Italy around 1500 and was in touch with Ercole d’Este and London: Thomas Yoseloff.
regarding Lucia’s mystical experiences. Mazzolini, Silvestro of Prierio. 1521. De strigimagarum demon-
C a g n a z zo’s only surviving work, the Summa sum- umque mirandis libri tres.Rome: Antonius Bladius.
Tavuzzi, Michael. 1997. “Giovanni Rafanelli da Ferrara OP
m a ru m ,was published at least four times from 1517 until
(1515), Inquisitor of Ferrara and Master of the Sacred Palace.”
1602. Some of its alphabetically ord e red entries dealt with
Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum67: 113–149.
witchcraft. The entries “D i a n a” and “S o r s” (casting lots)
———. 1997. Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro Mazzolini
e x p ressed Cagnazzo’s conviction that witches belonged to
da Prierio, 1456–1527.Durham and London: Duke University
an organized heretical sect led by the Devil. In both
Press.
entries Cagnazzo dismissed the contentions, based on the
Calvin, John (1509–1564)
Canon Ep i s c o p i ,that the witches’ confessions of their fear-
ful activities we re only illusions, though he admitted that The famous Genevan reformer remains one of the most
some might be illusory. He argued that the modern influential figures of Reformed Protestantism, both in
witches prosecuted by inquisitors in Lombardy and western Europe (France, the Netherlands, Scotland,
158 Cagnazzo, Giovanni of Taggia |
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Switzerland) and in North America. Part of the second e xecuted. T h e re is evidence that Calvin was invo l ve d .
generation of reformers after Luther and Zwingli, this But it is difficult in retrospect to prove that these death
trained lawyer consolidated Reformed theology into a sentences were pronounced primarily on the grounds of
m o re compre h e n s i ve and systematic form in his supposed sorc e ry. The fact that Calvin supported the
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559). In addition, death penalty fits with his general severity in issues of
Calvin compiled almost complete expositions of nearly c h u rch discipline rather than any particularly intense
every book of Scripture. i n t e rest in persecuting witches, who we re executed in
C a l v i n’s prominence in Reformed dogmatics and Geneva well before, during, and long after his ministry
biblical exegesis conveys a sense of the significance of ( Monter 1971). As with other influential theologians,
witchcraft and its prosecution, but the results are Calvin’s position on legal punishments for superstition
notably meager. Neither his Institutionor Calvin’s cate- and idolatry must be distinguished from his theological
chisms contained anything closely related to the issue of position on witchcraft—which must, from a historical
witchcraft. His biblical exegesis painted a different pic- viewpoint, be classified as progressive and modern.
t u re, by relating such texts as Exod. 22:18 and De u t .
J¨ORG HAUSTEIN;
18:10 ff. to contemporary forms of magic. Calvin
a s s e rted that witches did exist and, commenting on TRANSLATED BY HELEN SIEGBURG
Deut. 18, that men also practiced sorcery. He did not,
See also: BIBLE;BULLINGER,HEINRICH;EXODUS22:18 (22:17);
h owe ve r, use these texts to develop any extensive doc- GENEVA;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;PURITANISM.
trine of witchcraft. Although he believed that witches References and further reading:
can in fact perform harmful magic, he concentrated his Bouwsma, William J. 1988. John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century
attention on forms of false worship related to magical Portrait.NewYork: Oxford University Press.
practices. He attempted to classify all the practices list- Calvin, Jean. 1990. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edited by
ed in Deut. 18 as divination, that is, harmless magic, John T. McNeill. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles.
Philadelphia: Westminster Press.
thereby reducing witchcraft to a mere illusion that the
Monter,William. 1971. “Witchcraft in Geneva, 1537–1662.”
Devil employed to mislead and punish unbelieve r s .
Journal of Modern History43: 179–204.
Calvin’s approach to witchcraft diverged from his gen-
Pfister, Oskar. 1947. Calvins Eingreifen in die Hexer-und
erally Augustinian views by rejecting any notion of
Hexenprozesse von Peney von 1545 nach seiner Bedeutung
demons as physically superior to humans. Along with
für Geschichte und Gegenwart.Zurich: Artemis.
some other Reformed theologians like He i n r i c h Pfisterer, Ernst. 1957. Calvins Wirken in Genf. Neugeprüft und in
Bu l l i n g e r, Calvin marked a way to “u n b ew i t c h” the Einzelbildern dargestellt.Neukirchen: Verlag der Buchhandlung
world through a radical understanding of the permissio des Erziehungsvereins.
dei (permission of God): the Devil had no power of his Teall, John. 1962. “Witchcraft and Calvinism in Elizabethan
own, but operated under the will and sove reignty of England: Divine Power and Human Agency.” Journal of the
God. Calvin completely ignored such elements of the History of Ideas23: 21–36.
c o n t e m p o r a ry doctrine of witchcraft as the diabolical
pact, sexual intercourse with devils, flying, and Sabbats. Cambrai Nuns (1491)
For the Calvinist tradition, it is important that, in This early case of mass possession in a convent offers
a c c o rdance with his strong theocratic claims on the many features that emerged later in the more famous
l i ves of believers and his desire to create a “Go d l y scandals of the early modern era.
republic,” the Ge n e va reformer considered the death Two chroniclers, Jehan Molinet and Christiaan
penalty to be appropriate for practitioners of magic, Massaeus, recorded a case of possession in 1491, which
powerless though it may be. He supported this convic- lasted four years according to Massaeus and seve n
tion with citations of biblical verses rather than legal a c c o rding to Molinet. Se veral nuns of the large
traditions. Within the framew o rk of sixteenth-century reformed Augustinian convent at Qu e s n oy - l e - C o n t e
thought, Calvin’s position on witchcraft and magic (Le Quesnoy) near Cambrai displayed many symptoms
concentrated on the aspect of apostasy and its punish- typical of possession: they ran about like dogs, flew like
ment, including physical punishment. Calvin’s birds, clambered up trees like cats, made grotesque faces
demonology suggested a way to reject a supranaturalis- and movements, uttered strange sounds, revealed other
tic view of the world, which became a main argument p e o p l e’s secrets, and made prophecies. The nuns said
of early Calvinists opposed to witchcraft trials. their devils we re of the order of seraphim and had a
A twe n t i e t h - c e n t u ry psychoanalyst called Calvin an hierarchy of princes, vassals, and servants.
avid “w i t c h - h u n t e r” (Pfister 1947), sparking a re f u t a- Two local clerics, the dean of Cambrai and the
tion from a Reformed clergyman (Pfisterer 1957) con- Dominican prior of Valenciennes, came to the convent
cerning Calvin’s personal participation in witchcraft tri- to exo rcise the women; besides attempting to delive r
als in and around Geneva in 1545, when about a dozen the nuns from possession, they used the “devils” to sat-
“plague spreaders” accused of sorcery were tortured and isfy their professional curiosity about the ways of their
Cambrai Nuns 159 |
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deity. One asked the demons “if they had seen God in Magic, 1599/1600) as an example of false pro p h e c y
his essence” and was told that he had, “but not perfect- (Book IV, ch. i, sec. ii), explicitly mentioning the mirac-
ly,” but enough to make him crave the sight evermore. ulous power of the host and priestly fingers (Book VI,
Highlighting the ambiguous moral status of the pos- ch. ii, sec. iii, q. iii). Citing Del Rio, Pierre de Lancre, in
sessed, a major theme of the early modern era, the L’incrédulité et mescréance du sortilege ( In c redulity and
priests also asked these devils, “Why do you not perse- Misbelief of Enchantment, 1622), used it to support
cute men of war and others who live dissolutely, with- his arguments against purely natural explanations for
out troubling these poor nuns here?” The devils replied the symptoms of possession.
that they would not waste their time on people who
SARAH FERBER
were already theirs (Molinet 1889–1906, 484).
The clerics, joined by another Dominican and by the See also: AIX-EN-PROVENCENUNS;AUXONNENUNS;CARPI,POSSES-
bishop of Cambrai, Henri de Berghes, met with only SIONINAPOORCLAIRE’SCONVENT;CONVENTCASES;DELRIO,
mixed success in their attempts to expel the demons. At
MARTÍN;EXORCISM;LANCRE,PIERREDE;LILLENUNS;LOUDUN
one point the names of the women we re sent to Po p e
NUNS;LOUVIERSNUNS;OBRY,NICOLE;PADERBORN,PRINCE-
BISHOPRICOF;POSSESSION,DEMONIC.
Alexander VI, who read them out during Mass while
References and further reading:
promulgating the bull In Coena Domini (At the Lord’s
Backus, Irena. 1994. Le Miracle de Laon: le déraisonnable, le
Supper). Molinet re p o rted that this technique prove d
raisonnable, l’apocalyptique et le politique dans les récits du
unsuccessful—a rare admission of an apparently com- miracle de Laon, (1566–1578).Paris: Vrin.
pletely failed (although long-distance) exo rcism, and Del Rio, Martín. 1599–1600. Disquisitionum magicarum.
more remarkably a failure by the pope himself. Louvain: Gérard Riviére.
In comparison to more famous later cases, it seems Ferber, Sarah. 2004. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early
n o t ew o rthy that the Cambrai possession, long before Modern France.London: Routledge.
the doctrinal challenges of the Protestant Reformation, Lancre, Pierre de. 1622. L’incrédulité et mescréance du sortilége
plainement convaincue.Paris: Nicolas Buon.
included a small-scale diabolical derision of the host, a
Massaeus, Christiaan. Chronicorum (1540), (1889–1906). P. 486
mode later made famous by Nicole Obry in 1566 dur-
in Corpus documentorum inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis
ing the French religious wars. Using the host to exorcise
Neerlandicae, vol 1. Edited by Paul Frédéricq. Ghent:
had been standard pro c e d u re since early Christianity,
J. Vuylsteke.
but the Cambrai devils mocked the doctrine of the
Maxwell-Stuart, P. G., ed. 2000. Martín Del Rio, Investigations into
“ Real Pre s e n c e” by chiming in unison, “A re you we l l Magic. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
armed? Have you taken the bread?,” but they nonethe- Molinet, Jehan. 1889–1906. “La tresdure et doloreuse oppression
less yielded to the spiritual force of the host and eve n que firent aulcuns mauvais espritz aux religieuses du Quesnoy
p reached that Christians ought to hold it in higher le Conte.” Pp. 483–486 in Corpus documentorum inquisitionis
esteem. As in later cases, years of apparent failure to haereticae pravitatis Neerlandicae.Edited by Paul Frédéricq.
eliminate the devils allowed nuns to display their “obe- Ghent.
Sluhovsky, Moshe. 2002. “The Devil in the Convent.” American
dience,” for example, by responding to the touch of a
Historical Review 107, no. 5: 1378–1411.
p r i e s t’s holy fore fingers to a nun’s silent and clamped
mouth. However, this case had no polemical function;
no crowds appear to have been invo l ved, and local Campanella, Tommaso (1568–1639)
chroniclers merely reported it as notable. A Dominican monk, late Renaissance magus, passion-
Like other later stories, this one also had its tragedy. ate astrologer, and utopian theorist, Campanella sought
The conve n t’s afflictions we re imputed to the sin of a to reconcile Renaissance natural philosophy with a gen-
forty-five-year-old nun, Jeanne Potiére. She had volun- eral reform of both the sciences and society.
tarily coupled with a demon that took the form of the Born at Stilo in Calabria, Campanella joined the
c o n ve n t’s former confessor, with whom (we are told) Dominican order at the age of fourteen. He soon
Po t i é re had been in love. This accusation exposed s h owed a deep distaste for the philosophy of Aristotle
Po t i é re as a kind of witch. Though not explicitly and his followers, preferring the new natural philoso-
accused of active m a l e fic i u m (harmful magic) against phy of Bernardino Telesio. His choice provoked outrage
her sisters, she was imprisoned, apparently to delive r among Dominican defenders of Aristotelian and
the nuns from their demons. Molinet mentioned that scholastic orthodoxy. In 1599, convinced by prophecies
Potiére “died Catholically” shortly after she was impris- and astrological predictions that a period of pro f o u n d
oned. Nonetheless, the sisters remained possessed for social, political, and religious change was imminent,
another four years. Campanella organized an anti-Spanish uprising in
This case was subsequently cited during the era of Calabria. An army sent by the Spanish gove r n m e n t
major possessions and intense demonological specula- nipped the re volt in the bud. Accused of treason and
tion. Ma rtín Del Rio used it in his D i s q u i s i t i o n u m h e re s y, Campanella narrowly avoided execution by
m a g i c a rum libri sex ( Six Books on In vestigations into feigning madness, but spent the next twe n t y - s e ve n
160 Campanella, Tommaso |
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years in prison in Naples. Finally released in 1626, he and purifying the air by sprinkling perfumes and by
moved to Rome and then, in 1634, to Paris, where he burning aromatic woods and herbs. In this closed and
died five years later. s e q u e s t e red space, seven torches must be lit, standing
Campanella wrote his most important works while for the two heavenly luminaries (sun and moon) and
in prison: first, his Cittá del Sole (City of the Sun), in the five planets, symbolically reproducing the heavens.
which he outlined an ideal city based on communal These pages described the astral magic recently per-
ownership of both goods and women; second, the formed by Campanella and Urban VIII when the pope
Apologia pro Galileo ( Apology for Galileo), written in believed that his life was in danger because of an eclipse
1616, in defense of the right to abandon Aristotelian in 1628 (Walker 2000).
philosophy to read directly from the book of nature. In
GERMANA ERNST;
De sensu re rum et magia ( On the Sense of Things and
Magic), published at Fr a n k f u rt in 1620, Campanella TRANSLATED BY MARTIN DAVIES
expounded a vision of the natural world as a living
See also: ASTROLOGY;DOMINICANORDER;MAGIC,NATURAL;
organism, the individual parts of which have their own URBANVIII,POPE.
lives and sentience. Every natural entity, from rocks and References and further reading:
plants to animals and the heavens, strives for its preser- Campanella, Tommaso. 1981. La Cittá del Sole: City of the Sun.
vation and is endowed in va rying degrees with Translated by Daniel J. Donno. Berkeley: University of
“sense,”—the capacity to distinguish whatever helps California Press.
maintain its life from anything harmful or destructive. Ernst, Germana. 2002. Tommaso Campanella.Bari-Roma: Laterza.
Headley, John M. 1997. Tommaso Capanella and the
In animal organisms, s p i r i t u s (spirit) is of primary
Transformation of the World.Princeton, NJ: Princeton
i m p o rtance: a vital warm breath, ve ry rare fied and
University Press.
mobile, which gives rise to all passions and sensations.
Walker, Daniel P. 2000. Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino
Campanella based his conception of natural magic
to Campanella.Introduced by Brian P. Copenhaver. 2d ed.
on these doctrines of s e n s u s and s p i r i t u s . The magus
University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press.
knows the specific quality of the “sense” that inheres in
all objects and can bring about changes and sensations Canisius, St. Peter (1521–1597)
in the “spirit.” He knows how to awaken the potential- A principal supporter of exorcism and witch hunting,
ities of life by suggesting food and drink, climates, Canisius presumably infected a whole generation of
sounds, and herbal or animal remedies that will increase young Jesuits with these ideas, to the considerable dis-
the vital energies. He knows the secrets of generation pleasure of his superiors in Rome.
and of ailments; he can explain strange phenomena Born as Pieter Kanijs in Nijmegen in the
such as premonitions in dreams. Thanks to the doctrine Netherlands, Canisius became one of the leading pro-
of spiritus,it is possible to understand the metamorpho- tagonists of the Counter-Reformation in the Ho l y
sis undergone by those bitten by a rabid dog or by peas- Roman Em p i re. In the nineteenth century, Pope Leo
ants bitten by tarantulas: the changes derive from the XIII called him “the second apostle of Germany after
fact that their vital regime has been modified by the Boniface.” Canisius was beatified in 1864 and canon-
s p read in their organism of the s p i r i t u s of the animal ized in 1925.
that has attacked them. “Sense” remains in entities even After studying theology at Cologne, Canisius joined
after death, and their sensations, remaining latent in a the Jesuit order in 1543, shortly after its creation, and he
sort of stupor, can be revived in certain circumstances. soon participated in the first session of the Council of
For this reason, the body of someone who has met a Trent. After Canisius re c e i ved his doctorate in theology at
violent death bleeds in the presence of his murd e re r, Bologna in 1549, the founder of the Jesuit ord e r, Ig n a t i u s
and a sheepskin drum will break into pieces when a L oyola, sent him to the Holy Roman Em p i re. He serve d
d rum made of wolfskin is sounded. The “we a p o n subsequently as a preacher and teacher in several places:
s a l ve,” believed to have the power to heal a wound Ingolstadt (1549–1552), Vienna (1552–1554), Pr a g u e
when applied to the weapon that had caused it, owed its (1555–1556), Augsburg (1559–1566), and In n s b ru c k
e f f e c t i veness to the fact that the air, which unites per- and Munich (1571–1577). From 1556 to 1569 Canisius
sons and actions even at great distances, communicates headed the fast-growing German province of the Je s u i t s .
the healing from the weapon to the wound. Under his enormously successful leadership, the Je s u i t
Campanella also wrote a treatise on astro l o g y, pub- colleges at Munich, Landsberg, Ingolstadt, In n s b ru c k ,
lished in Lyons in 1629 together with his small tract, Augsburg, and Dillingen became the central training
De siderali fato vitando ( Means to Avoid the Astral g rounds for new cadres of an emerging Catholic elite.
Fate), giving advice on remedies for avoiding negative Canisius was in close contact with almost all the Catholic
astral influences. For anyone in a perilous situation, princes of his period, particularly in Austria, where
Campanella suggested shutting oneself up in a room to Em p e ror Fe rdinand I sought his advice, and in the
avoid all contact with “seeds” infected by the air outside prince-bishopric of Augsburg, and in the duchy of
Canisius, St. Peter 161 |
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Ba varia, where he served as an advisor to two dukes, Duhr, Bernhard. 1900. Die Stellung der Jesuiten in den deutschen
A l b recht V and Wilhelm V. Canisius was present at eve ry Hexenprozessen.Cologne: Kommissions-Verlag J. P. Bachem.
i m p o rtant imperial diet and religious colloquy. His lasting
legacy was his Ca t e c h i s m ( first printed at Ingolstadt in Cannibalism
1556), the Catholic response to Lu t h e r’s catechism. Cannibalism has become one of the fundamental
Canisius supported or re i n t roduced pilgrimages, the characteristics of the witch in the popular culture of
veneration of saints and especially Ma ry, with Ma r i a n Eu ropean societies. It marks the witch as “o t h e r” and
C o n g regations as a new form of organized ve n e r a t i o n . s i g n i fies her relationship to all that is terrifying and
Although he had been influenced by the d e vo t i o t a b o o. It draws on widespread beliefs in many cul-
m o d e rn a (modern devotion) in his youth, Canisius t u res that the practitioners of cannibalism acquire
n e ver became a practitioner of the spirituality of the special powe r. While cannibalism was commonplace
Spanish founders of the Jesuit order. Rather, his burn- in demonologies from the fifteenth to seve n t e e n t h
ing zeal for the Catholic cause led to explosive action, at centuries, it occurred infrequently in visual re p re s e n-
least partly inspired by millenarian expectations. When t a t i o n .
working on restoring Catholicism in the tiny Protestant The witch as cannibal occurred in several early
l o rdship of Wiesensteig, Canisius became acquainted accounts of witchcraft produced in western Alpine
with the first massive witch hunts in the German south- Eu rope during the late 1430s, such as Johannes Ni d e r’s
west in 1562. In his position as cathedral preacher in Fo rm i c a r i u s(The Anthill), Claude T h o l o s a n’s Ut mago-
the imperial free city of Augsburg, he promoted his rum et malefic i o rum erro re s ( So That the Er rors of
ideas re g a rding the growing power of the Devil fro m Magicians and So rc e rers), and an anonymous tre a t i s e
the pulpit during the following months. To the annoy- called Er ro res Ga z a r i o rum ( Er rors of the Cathars),
ance of the magistrates, he managed to excite the rabble which claimed that witches strangled childre n ,
and to infect members of the urban elite as we l l . re m oved their corpses from their graves after burial,
Canisius developed an intimate relationship with and then cooked and ate them at their synagogues or
Au g s b u r g’s leading banking dynasty of the period, the Sabbats. Mi xed with poisonous animals or even with
Fugger family, whose daughters and maidserva n t s liquids distilled from the corpses of those who had
seemed to be favorite targets of diabolical attacks. been poisoned, the fat or innards of children we re
Canisius developed public exo rcisms into a major made into ointments and powders used to bring illness
i n s t rument of Catholic propaganda. News sheets or death to other human beings, or rubbed on staffs to
re p o rted the victories of the Jesuit champion, who help transport witches to their assemblies. A more
managed to drive out tens of thousands of demons in detailed description occurred in Book 5, chapter 3, of
one afternoon. Howe ver exciting these perf o r m a n c e s Ni d e r’s Fo rm i c a r i u s : u n b a p t i zed infants we re ritually
we re to the general public in Ge r m a n y, at Rome his killed in their beds, as though from natural causes. T h e
Jesuit superiors were not at all impressed. They regard- babies would then be re m oved from their grave s ,
ed Canisius’s activities increasingly as an embarrass- cooked until the flesh fell from the bones, and the
ment. Because he was unwilling to comply with their liquid reduced to strengthen it. An ointment would be
repeated admonitions, they eventually decided to made from the solids, while the liquid was put aside to
relieve this stubborn zealot of his position in the Holy be drunk by those destined to be leaders of the sect.
Roman Em p i re, viewing him as a liability to the Ni d e r’s text also suggested that the ritual eating of chil-
Catholic cause in one of the most sensitive areas of d ren would help make the Devil appear.
political struggle. The Jesuit General Diego Laynez Ni d e r’s account was incorporated verbatim into
transferred Canisius to one of the most remote corners the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Wi t c h e s ,
of Sw i t zerland, the Catholic canton of Fr i b o u r g Pa rt II, Q. 1, chap. 2), thus achieving widespre a d
(Freiburg), where he could cause no further embarrass- dissemination. Un s u r p r i s i n g l y, later Catholic tre a t i s e s
ment. The “second apostle of Ge r m a n y” lived in this by Jean Bodin, Fr a n c e s c o - Maria Gu a z zo, and Ma rt í n
quiet backwater for almost twenty years until his death. Del Rio accepted cannibalism as one of the crimes of
witches. Another belief, also found in the Ma l l e u sa n d
WOLFGANG BEHRINGER
common in early Italian sources, claimed that witches
See also: AUGSBURG,IMPERIALFREECITY;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;
drank the blood of the children they murd e re d .
EXORCISM;FUGGERFAMILY;GERMANY,SOUTHWESTERN;HOLY
Found in Gianfrancesco Pico della Mi r a n d o l a’s 1523
ROMANEMPIRE;JESUITS(SOCIETYOFJESUS); MILLENARIANISM;
dialogue Strix (The Witch), this tradition of va m-
PROTESTANTREFORMATION;NETHERLANDS,SOUTHERN;
pirism was probably related to notions of witches as
SWITZERLAND;WIESENSTEIG,COUNTYOF.
l a m i a e , the night-flying and cannibalistic harpies of
References and further reading:
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria. classical literature .
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Although Jacques de Gheyn produced a drawing of a
Modern Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. vampire-witch biting into a child’s neck around 1600,
162 Cannibalism |
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Witches roasting and boiling infants, from Francesco Maria Guazzo’s Compendium Maleficarum(A Summary of Witches), 1608. (Stapleton
Collection/Corbis)
a rtists of the previous century generally showed little Basque Sabbat by the Polish artist Jan Ziarnko, dared to
i n t e rest in cannibalism. Models for cannibalism we re s h ow a cooked child ready to be devo u red by witches
widely known, such as the child-devouring fig u res of and devils at the Sabbat banquet.
Saturn, Jews, fools, and ogres, or the devouring hels-
mouth of Satan; but artists seemed content to hint at CHARLES ZIKA
the cruelty of witchcraft through suggestions of canni-
See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BALDUNG[GRIEN], HANS;
balism and dismemberment by scattering bones and
BODIN,JEAN;CAULDRON;CHILDREN;DELRIO,MARTÍN;ERRORES
skulls around witches’ cauldrons. Only from the later GAZARIORUM;FRANCKENII,FRANS;GHEYNII,JACQUESDE;
sixteenth century, as witches become routinely depicted GUAZZO,FRANCESCOMARIA;INFANTICIDE;LAMIA;MALLEUS
as older women, were children represented as innocent MALEFICARUM;NIDER,JOHANNES;OINTMENTS;PETEROFBERN;
victims of these aggressive anti-mothers. This was espe- PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,GIANFRANCESCO;POTIONS;SABBAT;
cially evident in many of the images of Jacques de SATURN;STICKS;TENIERS,DAVIDTHEYOUNGER;THOLOSAN,
Gheyn, and in works by Frans Francken the Yo u n g e r, CLAUDE;VAMPIRE;ZIARNKO,JAN.
References and further reading:
Michael Herr, and Christoph Murer. Cannibalism was
Bailey, Michael. 1996. “The Medieval Concept of the Witches’
not depicted as anthro p o p h a g y, the actual physical
Sabbath.” Exemplaria8:419–439.
consumption of a victim; but, as with many sixteenth-
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1998. “Avenging the Blood of Children:
c e n t u ry images of Amerindian cannibals, this activity
Anxiety over Child Victims and the Origins of the European
was suggested indirectly by depicting mutilated bodies
Witch Trials.” Pp. 91–109 in The Devil, Heresy and Witchcraft
and scattered limbs, or body parts pre p a red to be in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey Burton Russell.
boiled. Only a few instances, like the 1613 etching of a Edited by Alberto Ferreiro. Leiden: Brill.
Cannibalism 163 |
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Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Pp. 155–166 in commands. Not only we re they themselves deceive d ,
Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History.2nd but they had also led others into this belief, thus risking
ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. the salvation of more souls than their own. Pre a c h e r s
Kramer (Institoris), Heinrich. 1971. Malleus Maleficarum.Part I,
should teach that such beliefs were the result of demon-
ch. 11; Part II, Q. 1, ch. 2. Edited by Montague Summers.
ic temptation and the demonic illusion that things that
NewYork: Dover.
happened only in the imagination occurred in re a l i t y.
Guazzo, Francesco Maria. 1974. Compendium Maleficarum.Edited
Re g i n o’s text contrasted these illusions with the tru e
by Montague Summers. Secaucus, NJ: Ashwin, pp. 84–90.
spiritual experiences of the prophet Ezekiel and the
Zika, Charles. 2003.Pp. 391–410, 415–417, 427–479 in
Exorcising Our Demons. Magic, Witchcraft and Visual Culture in apostle Paul (2 Cor. 12:2–5). Regino’s central point was
Early Modern Europe.Leiden: Brill. that there was no power except that of God, and that
any belief that attributed the power of creation or of
Canon Episcopi moral or physical transformation to any power than
A ruling (canon), beginning with the word Episcopi that of God was mistaken and heterodox.
(bishops), was first attested in the Two Books of Synodal Re g i n o’s work applied only to the archdiocese of
Causes written by Regino of Prüm (ca. 840–915) in 906 Tr i e r, but some of its material, including the Ca n o n
and very likely created by Regino himself.The Canon Ep i s c o p i , was excerpted a century later in the similar
was later erroneously attributed to the Council of w o rk of Bu rc h a rd of Worms, then a century after
Ancyra (Ankara, in modern Turkey), an ecclesiastical Bu rc h a rd by Ivo of Chart res, and later in the twe l f t h
assembly held in 314, because Regino’s collection fol- c e n t u ry by Gratian, whose collection of canon law
l owed an authentic canon from Ancyra and was became the standard textbook for many centuries.
assumed to have come from the same source. Instead, Although sorcery played a small role in these works, the
the Canonappears to have come from two different ear- Canon Ep i s c o p i became the starting point for all later
lier ninth-century texts that Regino combined. Regino’s discussions of both diabolical sorc e ry and the witches’
work was a manual of canon law to be used in episco- Sabbat.
pal visitations of ecclesiastical establishments. It was Canon Episcopi became especially problematic during
requested by Regino’s archbishop, Radbod of Trier, and the period of the formation of the classical image of the
was dedicated to Archbishop Hatto of Mainz for use by witch and the nature of witchcraft during the debates of
him and his subordinate officials. It contains authorita- the early fifteenth century.Then, its apparently categor-
tive statements excerpted from earlier Church councils ical denial of physical transvection posed difficulties for
and works of the Church Fathers and bishops of Rome, those demonologists who firmly believed that witches
applied to the practical questions that episcopal officials did indeed fly at night on beasts, staves, or brooms (a
were expected to ask clergy and laity in their inquiries 1450 manuscript of Martin Le Franc’sLe Champion des
into ecclesiastical discipline. The Canon Ep i s c o p i d a m e s [The Defender of Ladies] contained the fir s t
became the most important statement in later Latin k n own illustration of witches flying on bro o m s t i c k s ) .
Christian canon law concerning sorcery and witchcraft, The second version of the Errores Gazariorum (Errors of
and occupies a central place in all discussions of the the Gazars or Gazarii-Cathars), written in 1438 or
so-called witches’ Sabbat. slightly later, insistently affirmed that such fli g h t
Book II of Regino’s collection dealt with the ecclesi- occurred in reality. Le Franc’sDefenderdenied transvec-
astical discipline of the laity. Chapter 5: 42–45 dealt tion, howe ve r, by citing the Canon Ep i s c o p i , and Le
generally with “enchanters and sorc e rers,” part i c u l a r l y Franc’s denial was supported by Johannes Nider’s agree-
in matters of illicit sacrifices, charms, or love magic. ment in the Formicarius(The Anthill, 1437–1438).
Chapter 5: 45 gave the “s h o rt ve r s i o n” of the Ca n o n In the Flagellum haere t i c o rum fascinarioru m (T h e
Ep i s c o p i , stating only that any woman who believe d Scourge of Heretical Witches, 1458), Nicholas Jacquier,
that she rode at night with demons was to be expelled taking up an observation of Pope Alexander V in 1409,
f rom both parish and diocese. In Book II, chapters argues that contemporary witches were a new sect and
354–375, Regino further elaborated on these, giving that the Canon Ep i s c o p i t h e re f o re did not apply to
the “long version” of the Canon Episcopi at II, chapter them. Still, other demonologists, equally convinced of
371. Although the Canon Episcopi was a single text, it the reality and danger of witchcraft, adhered to the
appears to be a composite of two different ninth- Canon Episcopion the single point of transvection. The
c e n t u ry texts. The first part warned bishops that they Spanish canonist Juan de To rquemada agreed with
were obliged to eradicate sortilegium(sorcery) and mal- Ca n o n Episcopi, but the biblical exegete Alfonso
e ficium (harmful magic), which we re invented by the Tostado, citing the passage in Ma t t h ew (4:1–11) in
Devil, and to expel the practitioners of these from their which the demon transported Jesus through the air,
dioceses. The second partwarned that there are women stated that the gospel testified to such demonic power,
who believed that they ride at night across gre a t that the Canon Ep i s c o p i re f e r red only to a part i c u l a r
distances with the goddess Diana and obeyed her case, and that the illusion condemned by the canon was
164 Canon Episcopi |
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only the women’s belief that they flew with Di a n a . the level of the peasants, and expected the state to
Ul t i m a t e l y, the text in Ma t t h ew served as a counter- relieve the prosperous of responsibility for the poor. So
weight to the Canon Episcopiin the matter of transvec- the neighbor sent the old woman away empty-handed;
tion, but not in the unanimous opinion of all demo- she left muttering unintelligibly, or even cursing openly.
nologists. When the prosperous neighbor later suffered a misfor-
Proving the reality of the Sabbat in later centuries tune, she remembered the denial of charity (for which
required addressing the problem of the Canon Episcopi, the neighbor felt guilty) and assumed that the old
and in this way the text took on new life in the fifteenth woman had bewitched her neighbor in re venge. T h i s
century and was debated until the late seventeenth. model was adopted and incorporated into a bro a d e r
f r a m ew o rk of changing English values by Ke i t h
EDWARD PETERS
Thomas, who had supervised Macfarlane’s PhD thesis.
See also: BURCHARDOFWORMS;DIANA(ARTEMIS); ERRORESGAZAR- The model in which a witchcraft accusation is pro-
IORUM;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;GRATIAN;HERESY;HOLDA; voked by a denial of charity followed by misfortune is
JACQUIER,NICOLAS;JOHNOFSALISBURY;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT
sometimes called the “Thomas–Macfarlane model.”
(MEDIEVAL); NIDER,JOHANNES;SABBAT;SORCERY;TOSTADO,
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum crafted a second
ALFONSO.
model involving capitalism in their study of Sa l e m
References and further reading:
Village in 1974. They showed that witchcraft accusations
Brundage, James A.1995. Medieval Canon Law.London and New
f o l l owed the pattern of the factions into which the village
York: Routledge.
Flint, Valerie I. J. 1991. Pp. 122–126 in The Rise of Magic in Early was divided. Some villagers, who supported the minister
Medieval Europe.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University. Samuel Parris, we re attempting to maintain their tradi-
Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters. 2001. Witchcraft in tional Puritan values against what they saw as more mate-
Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History.2nd ed. rialistic neighbors, linked to the burgeoning commerc i a l
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. world of nearby Salem. From within this pro - Parris fac-
McNeill, John T., and Helena M. Gamer, eds. and trans. 1938, tion, witchcraft accusations we re directed against actual
rprt. 1990. Medieval Handbooks of Penance.NewYork:
and symbolic members of the anti-Parris faction.
Columbia University Press.
These two celebrated models thus present a contrast.
Russell, Jeffrey Burton. 1972. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages.Ithaca,
In the English version, witchcraft accusations tended to
NY and London: Cornell University Press.
come from supporters of emerging capitalism; in the
Somerville, Robert, and Bruce C Brasington. 1998. Prefaces to
New England version, they tended to come from its
Canon Law Books in Latin Christianity.New Haven: Yale
University Press. opponents. These we re of course simply tendencies, and
Steinruck, Josef. 1995. “Zauberei, Hexen- und Dämonenglaube other more significant causal factors—not least a perva-
im Sendhandbuch des Regino von Prüm.” Pp. 3–18 in s i ve belief in maleficent witchcraft—we re present in
Hexenglaube und Hexenprozesse im Raum Mosel-Saar.Edited by both cases. But witch hunting is best explained thro u g h
Gunther Franz and Franz Irsigler.Trier: Spee. complex models involving numerous factors; in these
Stephens, Wa l t e r. 2002. Demon Lovers: Wi t c h c raft, Sex, and the Cr i s i s regions, capitalism can be re c o g n i zed as one factor.
of Be l i e f .Chicago and London: Un i versity of Chicago Pre s s .
What of continental Eu rope? Scholars working on
witch hunts there have been alert to the possibility of
Capitalism similar patterns of accusation, but they have not found
Social stresses resulting from capitalism sometimes led them on any significant scale. T h e re we re cert a i n l y
to witchcraft accusations. Capitalism is an economic occasional cases of witchcraft accusations following a
system in which production is organized by entrepre- denial of charity, but most village quarrels that led to
neurs employing wage labor, and wealth accrues to the accusations we re between social equals. Po l i t i c a l
entrepreneurs through profit. Capitalism grew signifi- factionalism was usually about other issues.
cantly in parts of early modern Europe. It replaced The most likely explanation for this at present might
feudalism in which production is organized by subsis- simply be that capitalism advanced at an uneven pace.
tence-farming peasants and self-employed artisans, and Pa rts of England and New England advanced tow a rd
wealth accrues to landlords collecting rents. capitalism re l a t i vely early, but we do not know why
Alan Macfarlane first made the link between capital- such patterns of accusation did not seem to apply to
ism and witchcraft accusations in 1970 in a detailed a reas on the Continent, especially the Low Countries,
study of Essex, England. He identified a distinctive n o rthern It a l y, and parts of Lowland Scotland, where
model of witchcraft accusations. A poor villager, typi- capitalism developed soonest during the period of
cally an old woman, would come begging at the door of witch hunting. As a force for socioeconomic transfor-
a prosperous neighbor.Traditional peasants felt solidar- mation, capitalism was insignificant in much of Europe
ity toward the poor: one day that poor villager could be until after the period of witch hunting had ended.
you. But the pro s p e rous neighbor, with more modern Venice, a decidedly capitalist place, saw little by way of
capitalistic values, aspired to lift himself or herself above witchcraft accusations, while the capitalistically
Capitalism 165 |
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a d vanced and urbanized southern Low Countries to a strict Aristotelian orthodoxy and from ecclesiastical
(unlike the Dutch Republic) saw many. Thus the con- critics.
nections between capitalism and witch hunting are These two works we re full-fledged encyclopedias in
uncertain, although further research may uncover indi- which the author described all possible aspects of reality
rect links between witch hunting and the tensions of with an insatiable curiosity and admiration, paying par-
socioeconomic transformation. Augsburg, the largest ticular attention to the most rare and unusual phenom-
capitalist location in the German heartland of witch ena. Cardano believed that rarities must be investigated
hunting, offers an interesting case: witchcraft exe c u- with subtlety in order to grasp the links, analogies, and
tions began there only after capitalist industry declined sympathies among the various parts of the world, which
during the Thirty Years’War. Capitalism and feudalism a re interconnected like the parts of the human body.
are complex and controversial concepts that attempt to Cardano was very interested in the divinatory arts, such
identify the key dynamic elements in society, while rec- as geomancy, chiro m a n c y, physiognomy, and meto-
ognizing that society will always contain elements of p o s c o p y, and in rare and strange natural facts, such as
d i f f e rent systems. Macfarlane went on to develop his p rodigious re c overies, enchantments, oracles, dre a m s ,
ideas on capitalism—which he increasingly regarded as and apparitions of “monsters.” He considered unusual
synonymous with “individualism”—in directions not events signs andostenta (portents). Comets, floods, and
always compatible with his witchcraft work. Simplistic b i rths of monstrous animals symbolized and
socioeconomic explanations should be avoided, but announced specific events of man’s world such as wars,
sophisticated ones involving multiple and indire c t plagues, or the death of princes.
causation should be encouraged. Astrology played a central role in Cardano’s thought.
He wanted to purge this discipline from the supersti-
JULIAN GOODARE
tions of Arab authors and present it as part of natural
See also: AUGSBERG,IMPERIALFREECITY;ESSEX;MACFARLANE, p h i l o s o p h y. Pt o l e m y’s Te t ra b i b l o s ( Ma t h e m a t i c a l
ALAN;NETHERLANDS,NORTHERN;NETHERLANDS,SOUTHERN; Treatise in Four Books) was his preferred text, on which
NEWENGLAND;PURITANISM;SALEM;THOMAS,KEITH.
he wrote an ample commentary. Cardano acknow l-
References and further reading:
edged that astrology is not a science with absolute cer-
Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum. 1974. Salem Possessed:
tainty and exactitude like mathematics and astronomy,
The Social Origins of Witchcraft.Cambridge: Harvard
but nevertheless it is not a superstition. Instead, astrolo-
University Press.
gy is a conjectural discipline dealing with a changeable
Duplessis, Robert S. 1997. Transitions to Capitalism in Early
Modern Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. human and natural world, which advances pro b a b l e
Holton, R. J. 1985. The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism. judgments about future events in much the same way as
London: Macmillan. medicine, the art of navigation, or agriculture .
Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A Astrology is based on the physical principle of the celes-
Regional and Comparative Study.London: Routledge. 2nd ed., tial influences: while they are apparent only in the sun
1999, with an introduction by James Sharpe. and the moon, by analogy they can be attributed to all
Sharpe, James. 2002. “Witch Hunting and Witch Historiography:
other celestial bodies. Cardano complemented his theo-
Some Anglo-Scottish Comparisons.” Pp. 182–197 in The
retical speculations on astrology with a large body of
Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context.Edited by Julian Goodare.
experimental findings by publishing a great variety of
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
h o roscopes; some re f e r red to unknown people, others
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London:
to such famous people as popes, princes, or men of let-
Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
ters. He was sufficiently audacious to write Jesus’s horo-
scope. Even though earlier authors like Albumazar
Cardano, Girolamo (1501–1576) ( Ab u - Mashar), Albertus Magnus, or Cardinal Pi e r re
A Renaissance philosopher and physician, Girolamo d’Ailly had already dealt with this topic, Card a n o’s
C a rdano (Pavia, September 24, 1501–Rome, Se p t e m b e r h o roscope of Jesus created a major scandal and gave rise
2 0 , 1576) devoted many works to various fields of to charges of impiety. In the majority of cases, Card a n o
knowledge, from mathematics to astronomy and astrol- tended to attribute the prodigious events to natural
ogy, from medicine to natural philosophy. He narrated causes, but he did not rule out completely the interve n-
his life in a famous autobiography, including the death tion of demons, although he admitted that he had no
sentence of his firstborn son who was convicted of uxo- d i rect experience of them, unlike his father who said
ricide. Cardano’s De subtilitate rerum (On the Subtlety that he had seen and spoken with supernatural cre a t u re s .
of Things, 1550) and De rerum varietate (On the C a rdano tackled the problem of witchcraft in a
Variety of Things,1557) were his most famous works of lucid and acute manner both in De Su b t i l i t a t e ( c h a p.
natural philosophy. Published in the mid-sixteenth cen- 18) and De Va r i e t a t e (bk. 15, chap. 80). He identifie d
tury, they became very popular but also aroused lively the various natural, medical, and social factors that
controversy both from philosophers who were faithful contributed to an understanding of the phenomenon
166 Cardano, Girolamo |
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without re s o rting to any demonic intervention. T h e tions during the Spanish Civil Wa r, he completed a
so-called witches we re mostly old and poor women m a s t e r’s degree in ancient history at the Un i versity of
who lived in solitary places eating grass and roots. As a Madrid in 1940 and two years later obtained his doc-
consequence, their nutritional deficiencies made them torate in Spanish folklore. In 1943 Ba roja became
mentally weak and stubborn in maintaining the re a l i- d i rector of the ethnological Museo del Pueblo Es p a ñ o l
ty of impossible things. They became an easy prey to (Madrid). He conducted anthropological studies in the
e xcesses of black bile and melancholic humors. T h i s United States and Oxford in the early 1950s before
pathology fostered their deliria of omnipotence and doing fie l d w o rk among the nomads of the Sp a n i s h
their hallucinations, in which they imagined they took Sahara. In 1957 Ba roja resigned his directorship and
p a rt in dances, feasts, and night flights. Cardano did during the next two decades he taught abroad, at
not deny that the so-called witches we re often impious Coimbra, Wisconsin, and Paris, and at Spain’s national
and superstitious old women, and that sometimes re s e a rch council (Consejo Superior de In ve s t i g a v i o n e s
they we re even dangerous because they really could Científicas). In 1975 a chair of philosophical anthropol-
p e rform horrible crimes. He did deny, howe ve r, that ogy was created for him at the Un i versidad del Pa í s
they we re able to undertake the exploits they purport- Vasco.Despite extensive university contacts, Baroja was
ed to do by virtue of the demonic powers of which a true individualist who followed no methodological
they fla t t e red themselves. Cardano linked the origin of school and trained no students; but he maintained an
the Sabbat to the surv i val of ancient pagan rituals that extensive international network of professional contacts
became marginal and clandestine because of persecu- and was extremely helpful in advising other scholars. By
tions and pro h i b i t i o n s . the end of his life, Ba roja re c e i ved many honors and
p r i zes, and despite his shy nature, he became one of
GERMANA ERNST;
Spain’s most celebrated personalities.
TRANSLATED BY GUIDO GIGLIONI His extensive written work—entirely handwritten, as
he ignored the technological advances of his time—
See also:ASTROLOGY;DIVINATION;MONSTERS;PRODIGIES.
References and further reading: comprised almost 600 titles. Ba ro j a’s work on witch-
Baldi, Marialuisa, and Canziani, Guido, eds. 1999. Girolamo craft, especially Basque witchcraft, held an import a n t
Cardano. Le opere, le fonti, la vita.Milan: F. Angeli. place in this corpus. It was the theme of one of his ear-
Fierz, Markus. 1983. Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576): Physician, liest articles, “Four re p o rts on Basque witchcraft,” the
Natural Philosopher, Mathematician, Astrologer, and Interpreter most important being a manuscript at the Bi b l i o t e c a
of Dreams. Translated by Helga Niman. Boston: Nacional (MS 2031) by the inquisitor Alonso de
Birkhäuser.
Salazar Frías, summarizing his re p o rts on the Ba s q u e
Grafton, Anthony. 1999.Cardano’s Cosmos: The Worlds and
witch craze that he had submitted to the Sp a n i s h
Works of a Renaissance Astrologer.Cambridge: Harvard
inquisitor-general in 1612–1613 (Caro Ba roja 1933,
University.
131–145). The skeptical mind of this inquisitor fasci-
Kessler, Eckard, ed. 1994. Girolamo Cardano. Philosoph,
nated Ba roja throughout his life. Howe ve r, when he
Naturforscher, Arzt.Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Newman, William R., and Anthony Grafton, eds. 2001.Secrets of w rote his pioneering The Wo rld of the Wi t c h e s ( 1 9 6 1 ) ,
Nature. Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe. with part two almost entirely dedicated to Ba s q u e
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. witchcraft, he had still not located Sa l a z a r’s original
Schütze, Ingo. 2000. Die Naturphilosophie in Girolamo Cardanos re p o rts that had vanished after the American He n ry
De subtilitate. Munich: W. Fink. Charles Lea found them at the beginning of the centu-
Shumaker,Wayne. 1982. “Girolamo Cardano’s Horoscope of ry in the State Arc h i ves of Simancas. Ba ro j a’s famous
Christ.” Pp. 51–90 in Renaissance Curiosa:John Dee’s
book, subsequently translated into several languages,
Conversations with Angels, Girolamo Cardano’s Horoscope of
demonstrated his extraord i n a ry learning, which
Christ, Johannes Trithemius and Cryptography, George Dalgarno’s
embraced eve rything from ancient history thro u g h
Universal Language.Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and
medieval legend to Renaissance philosophy and incor-
Renaissance Studies.
porated a wide spectrum of disciplines: theology,
Siraisi, Nancy. 1997.The Clock and the Mirror. Girolamo Cardano
and Renaissance Medicine.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University anthropology, psychiatry, art history, and literary histo-
Press. ry. Eight years later Baroja published a fresh contribu-
tion to the history of Basque witchcraft, almost simul-
taneously with my article in English announcing my
Caro Baroja, Julio (1914–1995) re d i s c ove ry of Sa l a z a r’s papers in Ma d r i d’s Arc h i vo
Julio Caro Baroja, a Spanish ethnologist, cultural his- Historico Nacional (Henningsen 1969, 266).
torian, and painter, ranks among the unsung pioneers His other relevant works on witchcraft included the
of recent advances in witchcraft scholarship. A nephew t w o - volume Magical Li ves and In q u i s i t i o n , with essays
of the author and Nobel Pr i ze winner Pio Ba roja, he on cunning folk and learned magicians mentioned in
grew up in a highly intellectual circle. Despite interrup- the arc h i ves of the Toledo Inquisition (Caro Ba ro j a
Caro Baroja, Julio 167 |
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1967), and a subsequent collection on The Lord Henningsen, Gustav. 1969. “The Papers of Alonso de Salazar
Inquisitor and Other Bu re a u c ratic Li ve s with suggestive Frías. A Spanish Witchcraft Polemic 1610–14.” Temenos.
essays on typical inquisitors and on the atypical Martín Studies in Comparative Religion5: 85–106. Reprinted in Brian
P. Levack, ed. 1992. Articles on Witchcraft, Magic and
del Rio. In that volume, published just as the interna-
Demonology,vol. 5. NewYork and London: Garland.
tional renaissance in Inquisition studies was start i n g ,
Pérez Ollo, Fernando. 1995. “El ruido del aplauso.” Homenaje a
Ba roja unfortunately re m a rks that “we know all we
Julio Caro Baroja,in Principe de Viana56:563–568.
wish to know about [the Inquisition’s] origin, organiza-
tion, procedures, real and supposed errors against those
under its jurisdiction, its victims and its end” (Caro Carolina Code (Constitio
Baroja 1968b, 17). Criminalis Carolina)
Baroja was probably the first scholar to combine the The Carolina Code was the criminal law code for the
a n t h ropological theory of African witchcraft with the Holy Roman Em p i re, issued in 1532 during the reign of
study of European witchcraft. In his analysis of the field the Habsburg emperor Charles V, from whom it got its
notes from interv i ews at the beginning of the 1940s name. The Constitio Criminalis Ca ro l i n a remained the
with an old Basque peasant living close to his uncle’s basic code of the empire, including official pro c e d u re s
house in Vera de Bidasoa, Ba roja introduced Eva n s - for conducting witchcraft trials, for centuries. In its main
Pr i t c h a rd’s famous distinction between w i t c h c ra f t a n d p a rts, the Carolina Code contained rules of court pro c e-
s o rc e ry, but re versed the terms in his translation: d u res, into which we re inserted definitions of crimes,
“Hechiceríais what in English is called ‘witchcraft,’ that mitigating circumstances like self-defense, accountability
is, an evil art, essentially antisocial, which one gets to of defendants, and so on. In addition to the old accusato-
learn by appre n t i c e s h i p. Bru j e r í a is equivalent to ‘s o r- ry trial, the Carolina Code dealt with inquisitorial trial
cery,’ an ability to produce evil, which certain persons p ro c e d u res without determining the priority of the one
are born with” (Caro Baroja 1957, 8). Baroja has been over the other. The future belonged to the latter. To rt u re
criticized for his mistakes and superficiality, which was was sanctioned to extort confession, and the inquisitori-
in fact closely related to the rapidity of his work i n g al trial replaced the now-obsolete trial by ordeal, witness
method and his impressionistic way of writing; but his of reputation, and oath of purific a t i o n .
e x t e n s i ve authorship is so rich in thought, ideas, and The earliest efforts at reforming criminal law in the
original observations that one never finishes with it. Holy Roman Em p i re date from the end of thefif t e e n t h
GUSTAV HENNINGSEN; c e n t u ry, when two imperial Diets or Re i c h s t a g e ,one held
in 1496 at Lindau and a more important one two ye a r s
TRANSLATED BY JAMES MANLEY later at Freiburg, elaborated a first draft. The ultimate
See also: BASQUECOUNTRY;EVANS-PRITCHARD,EDWARDE.; HEN- version was modeled after the penal law of Bamberg of
NINGSEN,GUSTAV;HISTORIOGRAPHY;LEA,HENRYCHARLES; 1507 (Ba m b e r g e n s i s), which is there f o re called mater car-
SALAZARFRÍAS,ALONSODE;WITCHHUNTS. o l i n a e .Both codes are typical of so-called reception laws,
References and further reading: because the modern ius commune(common law), that is,
Careira, Antonio, Jesús Antonio Cid, Manuel Gutiérrez Esteve, Roman canon law, was adopted in order to reform many
and Rogelio Rubio, eds. 1978. Homenaje a Julio Caro Baroja. traditional criminal law customs. As Winfried Trusen has
Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicos.
convincingly determined, the authors of the
Caro Baroja, Julio. 1933. “Cuatro relaciones sobre la hechicería
Ba m b e r g e n s i s must have been jurists such as Leonhard
vasca.” Anuario de Eusco-Folklore13:85–145.
von Egloffstein and Sebastian von Rotenhan; the former
———. 1957. Razas, pueblos y linajes.Madrid: Revista del
p re vailing opinion, which ascribed it mainly to Ba ro n
Occidente.
Johann von Schwarzenberg, must be modified. It took
———. 1961. Las brujas y su mundo.Madrid; English version:
The World of the Witches.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. until 1532 for the last draft of the code to be accepted,
1964. when the resistance of three major conserva t i ve states was
———. 1967. Vidas mágicas e Inquisición.2 vols. Madrid: Taurus. finally ove rcome by inserting the so-called clausula salva-
———. 1968a. “De nuevo sobre la historia de brujería t o r i a , which sanctioned retaining old customs insofar as
(1609–1619).” Príncipe de Viana30:265–328; reprinted in they we re just.
Inquisición, brujería y criptojudaismo.Barcelona 1970. Concerning witchcraft and sorc e ry, Article 109 of
Pp. 183–315.
the Carolina Code followed Roman law with its dis-
———. 1968b.El Señor Inquisidor y otras vidas por oficio.Madrid:
tinction between harmful “black” magic and helpful
Alianza.
“w h i t e” magic. Only those convicted of the former
———. 1989. “Witchcraft and Catholic Theology.” Pp. 19–44 in
re c e i ved the death penalty at the stake for here s y,
Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.
w h e reas the second should be punished, if at all, less
Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford:
Clarendon. s e ve rely according to a juridical opinion. This art i c l e
Grande, Felix et al., eds. 1994. “Homenaje a Julio Caro Ba ro j a . ” contained no evidence for the reception of demonolog-
Cu a d e rnos Hi s p a n o a m e r i c a n o s( Nove m b e r – December) 533–534. ical knowledge, disseminated by elaborations such as
168 Carolina Code |
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Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer The Pio family ruled the small PoValley principality
of Witches, 1486) or similar theoretical literature . of Carpi for centuries. The family’s political situation
Indeed, its procedural rules gives a quite differe n t contributed in different ways to occasional conflicts in
i m p ression. For example, Kramer’s main types of cir- the small but lively city.The sensational cases of posses-
cumstantial evidence reappeared in Article 44. Heading sion in the observant Franciscan convent of Corpus
the list was how to proceed when harmful effects fol- Domini of Carpi between 1636 and 1638 (only a few
lowed after having been threatened. Curses and swear- years after the we l l - k n own French events at the
ing, ve ry common when neighborhood squabbles Ursuline convent of Loudun), emerged from a back-
degenerated into vendettas, carried the risk of being ground of uneasiness created in the monastery follow-
persecuted for witchcraft. The second type of evidence ing the acceptance (1608) and profession of vow s
was close relationships with notorious and pre v i o u s l y (1611) of Eleonora d’Este, the daughter of Duke Cesare
condemned sorcerers or witches, which could become a of Ferrara and sister of his successor, Duke Alfonso III.
fateful assumption. A third type of evidence was the use The presence in the convent of this princess (and lat-
of suspicious words, gestures, or objects. At the ve ry er her two nieces, Alfonso’s daughters) greatly changed
least, a suspect of witchcraft had to be of ill repute in his a convent that had prided itself on its devotional prac-
or her community for being a sorcerer. tices and its special cultivation of liturgical music, feast-
In practice, imperial jurisprudence and judicial deci- days, and celebrations. It became a convent consumed
sions soon surpassed the re s t r i c t i ve wording of Art i c l e by politics, divided between those loyal to the noble-
109 and extended it to a more spiritualized concept, women of the Pio family and those who were not. The
with the denial of God as the core element. The consti- Este princess, now sister Angela Caterina, held the posi-
tutions of electoral Sa xo n y, issued in 1572, used the tion of abbess from 1622 to 1629 and was again elected
clausula salvatoria to broaden the scope of positive law for the three years from 1633 to 1636. In this period,
into a much wider range of criminal persecution. Such the cases of possession began. The first occurrence was
examples show that the influence of the Carolina Code in 1636 when Paolina Forni, the princess’ companion,
on the prosecution of German witches has often been became so ill that medicine could not help her. She was
overestimated; so, in a different way, has been Friedrich therefore considered to be possessed. Alfonso III (who,
Spee’s famous criticisms of 1632. after his wife died, had renounced his position as duke,
became a Capuchin monk, and entrusted his daughters
GÜNTER JEROUSCHEK
to his sister’s convent for their education) invited exor-
See also: ACCUSATORIALPROCEDURE;EVIDENCE;HOLYROMAN cists to the convent to remove the evil spirits from the
EMPIRE;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT possessed. Such secular intervention in ecclesiastical
(EARLYMODERN); ROMANLAW;SPEE,FRIEDRICH.
matters provoked a reaction from Rome because the
References and further reading:
papacy had recently prohibited mixed jurisdictions.
Langbein, John H. 1974. Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance:
The Roman Inquisition subsequently investigated all
England, Germany, France.Cambridge: Harvard
phases of this episode of possession through correspon-
University.
dence with the inquisitor of Modena. Jurisdiction over
Rüping, Hinrich, and Günter Jerouschek. 2002. Grundri der
Strafrechtsgeschichte.4th ed. Munich: Beck. the convent belonged to the Franciscan order, but then
Schroeder, Friedrich-Christian, ed. 2000. Die Peinliche passed (under Pope Urban VIII) to the archpriest of the
Gerichtsordnung Kaiser Karls V. und des Heiligen Römischen Collegiata di Carpi. Duke Francisco I, the successor to
Reichs von 1532. (Carolina). Stuttgart: Reclam. Alfonso III (the Capuchin) and the nephew of the con-
Trusen, Winfried. 1984. Strafprozeund Rezeption.Pp. 29 ff. in vent’s governess (Angela Caterina), would not surrender
Strafrecht, Strafproze und Rezeption.Edited by Peter Landau his aunt for examination by the Inquisition. During the
and Friedrich-Christian Schroeder. Frankfurt am Main:
f o l l owing years, the Ob s e rvant Minorite friar, theolo-
Klostermann.
gian, and preacher Angelo Bellacappa of Parma, who
had been named confessor to the convent from 1633 to
Carpi, Possession in a 1636 by Angela Caterina d’Este, played a signific a n t
Poor Claire’s Convent role in an episode of possession.
In the mid-seventeenth century, a case of diabolical The inquisition trial that shook the convent, and
possession among several nuns in the convent of re vealed the episodes of misbehavior and possession in
Corpus Domini at Carpi changed the way the Roman 1636 and 1637, began with a denunciation to the
Inquisition treated such cases in female communities. inquisitorial vicar of Carpi made on April 24, 1638,
This case was significant because the people involved, by Fra Gi ovanni Battista Bi g n a rdi, the conve n t’s cur-
in and out of the convent, were eventually implicated in rent confessor. He told the vicar about participating in
power struggles between ecclesiastical and state institu- an exo rcism of possessed nuns, during which he heard
tions, and finally, it affected the procedures of the the devils address sister Dealta Ma rtinelli as a witch,
Roman Inquisition’s local tribunals. and also related that one of the possessed had accused
Carpi, Possession in a Poor Claire’s Convent 169 |
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the confessor Bellacappa of solicitation during confes- (ca. 1620) to guide inquisitors investigating cases of
sion. After this declaration, Orazio Giudici, Carpi’s possession in convents and monasteries.
inquisitorial vicar (a layman), interrogated the monks
GABRIELLA ZARRI;
about the solicitation and also spoke with the nuns
who we re not possessed to confirm the accusation. TRANSLATED BY JESSICA BOTHWELL
Giudici questioned the other exo rcists, who we re con-
See also: CONVENTCASES;EXORCISM;INQUISITION,ROMAN;
vinced that there we re evil spirits in the convent that LOUDUNNUNS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC.
had identified both Angelo Bellacappa and sister References and further reading:
Dealta Marinelli, and that their wickedness was a d Biondi, Albano. 1991: “L’inordinata devozione nella prattica del
a m o rem (for love ) . cardinale Scaglia.” Pp. 306–325 inFinzione e santitá tra medio-
Informed in detail of these facts and about the local evo ed etá moderna.Edited by Gabrielle Zarri. Turin: Rosenberg
trials, Rome remained skeptical about the diagnosis of and Sellier.
Biondi, Grazia. 2002. “Principesse, demoni ed esorcisti in conven-
possession. In May 1638, the Holy Office ordered the
to. Il monastero di Santa Chiara di Carpi (1636–1639).”
inquisitor of Modena to conduct the investigation per-
Pp. 273–283 in Il principato di Carpi in epoca estense.
sonally and to suspend all exorcisms. They also isolated
Istituzioni, economia, societá e cultura.Edited by Gilberto
sister Dealta Ma rtinelli in a cell where no one could
Zacché. Rome: Bulzoni.
speak to her. The drawn out investigation continued
Canosa, Romano. 1986–1990.Storia dell’inquisizione in Italia
with the arrest and interrogation of Brother Angelo dalla metá del cinquecento alla fine del settecento.5 vols.Modena,
Bellacappa. To Rome, the case became increasingly sus- I: 68–86. Rome: Sapere 2000.
picious, as evidenced by the organization of the exo r- Lavenia, Vincenzo. 1998.“I diavoli di Carpi e il Sant’Uffizio
cisms, manipulated from inside by the head of the con- (1636–1639).” Pp. 77–139in Eretici esuli e indemoniati nell’etá
vent, supported on the outside by her brother and by moderna.Edited by Mario Rosa. Florence: Leo Olschki.
their nephew, the duke. It is also noteworthy that all of Modena, Archivo di Stato, Fondo Inquisizione,busta [volume/box]
107–108 (1636–1639);busta 254 (1629–1638), vol. 2; busta
the nonpossessed nuns we re faithful servants of the
255 (1639–1669), fas. [folder] 1.
princess; only Sister Ma rtinelli openly disre g a rded the
Tedeschi, John A. 1991. The Prosecution of Heresy. Collected Studies
high status of Angela Caterina.
on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy.Binghamton, NY:
At ye a r’s end, the Roman Holy Of fice decided to
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.
suspend the investigation being performed by the
inquisitor of Modena, and instead brought a new
administrator to the cloister, someone with a different Carpzov, Benedict (II) (1595–1666)
background and from a different region, the bishop of One of the greatest and most influential German
Adria, Germano Mantica. He immediately ord e red a jurists, Carpzov has an unfair reputation as a cruel per-
serious reform of the cloister, segregating the supposed- secutor of witches. Carpzov was born into a famous
ly possessed nuns and prohibiting anyone fro m dynasty of Saxon jurists at Wittenberg; his father,
discussing the incidents. Mantica, acting as a special Benedict (I), was professor at the university and chan-
c o r respondent for the Holy Of fice, together with the cellor of electoral Saxony. On a formative grand tour
inquisitor of Reggio, also had responsibility for resum- t h rough It a l y, France, and England, the yo u n g e r
ing the investigation. At the end of Ja n u a ry 1639, Carpzov became acquainted with new tendencies in
Rome closed the case, declaring it a case of “false pos- jurisprudence, especially in sixteenth-century Italian lit-
s e s s i o n” originating from “the strong experience of erature. At Jena in 1616–1617, he heard lectures from
wickedness, and not [from] demons.” Recognizing that a professor of law named Theodoricus, whom he often
the whole affair had been driven by “reason of state” quoted in his later works.
and that it was necessary to close the investigation with- C a r p zov became a member of the famous Leipzig
out branding the nuns as lunatics, the Holy Office told Schöppenstuhl (in upper German, Schöffenstuhl), a kind
the inquisitor of Modena that “vehement suspicion of of court of appeal to which the court of first instance
w i c k e d n e s s” was sometimes more convincing than was obliged to submit a case and, subsequently, to
actual possession; many times, Rome added, clerics had accept its decision. For a time he was simultaneously
believed firmly that someone could be evil without rec- p rofessor of law at Leipzig Un i versity and judge at a
ognizing their own power to harass or vex the inner Dresden appellate court. Until his death, he remained a
spirit. The Vatican dealt with the false possession by S c höp p e (in upper German, S c höf f e—judge) in Leipzig
re m oving the Franciscans from jurisdiction over the nearly without interruption. His main achievement lay
convent and by transferring sister Dealta Martinelli and in penal jurisprudence, about which he published his
her real sister, Ippolita Ma rtinelli, to another conve n t . famous Practica nova imperialis Sa xonica ve rum crimi-
In the case of the possessed nuns of Carpi, the Roman n a l i a m ( New Rules in Criminal Cases for Im p e r i a l
C h u rch applied the legal standards recommended in Sa xony) in 1635, which became influential eve n
C a rdinal Desiderio Scaglia’s Practica manuscript b e yond the borders of the Holy Roman Em p i re .
170 Carpzov, Benedict (II) |
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Although today one stresses his fore runners, such as Casaubon, Meric (1599–1671)
Matthias Berlich, Carpzov has been styled the founder Son of the famous classical scholar Isaac Casaubon,
of German criminal jurisprudence, and he was certain- Meric Casaubon contributed to the revival of witch-
ly the first German criminal jurist with a Eu ro p e a n craft theory during the Restoration period in England.
reputation. Born in Geneva, Casaubon emigrated to England at the
C a r p zov has falsely been blamed for sentencing age of twelve, where his father had already settled. He
20,000 persons to death for witchcraft. This persis- received his BA, MA, and DD (Doctor of Divinity)
tent legend can be traced to an envious note from a degrees from Oxford University and was ordained a
c e rtain Philip A. Oldenburger in 1675, and it is still minister in the Church of England.
sometimes repeated. Although most of the sourc e s C a s a u b o n’s ideas re g a rding witchcraft deve l o p e d
h a ve been lost, surviving documents give no indica- gradually during the 1650s and 1660s. In A Tre a t i s e
tion that Carpzov ever sentenced a n yo n eto death in a C o n c e rning En t h u s i a s m (1656), Casaubon, a roy a l i s t
witchcraft case. Even if it we re possible that Carpzov during the Civil Wa r, attacked the religious radicals
cooperated in imposing 20,000 criminal sentences who flourished during the revolutionary period because
during his extremely long career as a judge, one must they attributed natural phenomena, especially medical
consider first, that those sentences we re imposed col- disorders, to either divine inspiration or demonic pos-
l e c t i vely by Sa xon judges. Mo re ove r, they included session. In this work, Casaubon did not deal dire c t l y
not only death sentences—or other final sentences with witchcraft, and he took a moderately skeptical
imposing lesser punishments like banishment—but position re g a rding the possibility of the De v i l’s inter-
also numerous acquittals, minor corporal punish- vention in the world. Three years later, however, in his
ments and fines, as well as great numbers of so-called edition of the papers of the Elizabethan magician John
“ i n t e r l o c u t o ry” sentences concerning the admissibili- Dee, who claimed to have had commerce with spirits,
ty of evidence to permit tort u re or to initiate a formal Casaubon declared that the Puritan saints and religious
t r i a l . radicals of his day were in league with the Devil.
In his Practica, Carpzov argued for using severe pro- These allegations of witchcraft set the tone for
cedures and punishments against witches in accordance Casaubon’s affirmation of the reality of witchcraft dur-
with the electoral Sa xon law of 1572. His examples ing the early years of the Restoration, most notably in
included such Catholic authorities as Heinrich Kramer, his Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things Natural, Civil
Jean Bodin, Peter Binsfeld, Nicolas Rémy, and Martín and Divine (1668), which was reprinted in 1672 under
Del Rio. With respect to admissible evidence, Carpzov the title A Treatise Proving Spirits, Witches and
advocated the use of such circumstantial evidence as the Su p e rn a t u ral Op e rations by Pregnant Instances and
incapacity to shed tears, which had by then become Evidences. C a s a u b o n’s intention in writing this book
obsolete in many other parts of the Holy Ro m a n was not to promote the prosecution of witches, which
Em p i re, especially in the south.Yet there is some was in decline in England during these years, but to
evidence that Carpzov interpreted his own explanations counter the claims of atheists and those who denied the
concerning depositions and the law of tort u re in a existence of spirits. He also used witchcraft theory to
restrictive manner. Although he probably imposed few d e fine the boundaries of the ideal Christian society.
if any death sentences for witchcraft, there occurred a Demonologists had long claimed that witches abjure d
serious witch hunt in Saxony between 1655 and 1665, their Christian faith, and Casaubon used these tradi-
during Carpzov’s tenure on the bench (Wilde 2003). tional accusations against witches to condemn the
schismatics and religious fanatics of his day. In this way
GÜNTER JEROUSCHEK he defended the political and ecclesiastical order of
Restoration England, in which religion and politics, the
See also: LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); SAXONY,ELEC-
TORATEOF. sacred and the secular, reinforced each other.
References and further reading: Casaubon grounded his belief in the reality of witch-
Carpzov, Benedict. 1635. Practica nova imperialis Saxonica verum craft in a common-sense empiricism and the widely
criminaliam.Wittenberg. held assumption that the Devil worked through nature.
Jerouschek, Günter. 1994.“Die Fürstlich-Magdeburgischen His work found support in the writings of Jo s e p h
Schöppen zu Halle und der Hexenprozess.” Pp. 273–283 in Glanvill, another Anglican clergyman, who in
Vom mittelalterlichen Recht zur neuzeitlichen Rechtswissenschaft.
Philosophical Considerations Touching Witches and
Festschrift für Winfried Trusen.Edited by Norbert Brieskorn
Wi t c h c ra f t (1666) and Saducismus Triumphatus ( 1 6 8 1 )
et al. Paderborn: Schöningh.
collected accounts of preternatural phenomena, includ-
Jerouschek, Günter,Wolfgang Schild, and Walter Gropp, eds.
ing prodigies, poltergeists, and bewitchments, to
2000. Benedict Carpzov. Neue Perspektiven zu einem umstritte-
counter the claims of contemporary Sadducees, who
nen sächsischen Juristen.Tübingen: Kimmerle.
Wilde, Manfred. 2003. Die Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse in denied the existence of spirits. Unlike Gl a n v i l l ,
Kursachsen.Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau. Casaubon, who was hostile to the claims of the new
Casaubon, Meric 171 |
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science, did not invoke the authority of the Roy a l Franciscans and Dominicans. Mo re ove r, some scholars
Society to support his argument. Casaubon’s belief in consider his Sp e e c ha pamphlet in support of Lu d ovico il
witchcraft was challenged directly by John Wa g s t a f f e , Mo ro’s desire to attack Fl o rence. Cassini was there f o re
who in The Question of Wi t c h c raft De b a t e d ( 1 6 6 9 ) c r i t i c i zed by Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola with a
claimed that witchcraft was a deception imposed on the De f e n s i o . . . adversus Samuellem Cassinensem ( Di s c o u r s e
people by politicians and men like Casaubon. His other and Defense Against Samuel Cassini) , to which the
famous opponent was the physician and religious dis- Franciscan replied with a work in 1498. In the same
senter John We b s t e r, whose treatise, The Displaying of ye a r, Cassini also published a Quaestio de immort a l i t a t e
Supposed Witchcraft(1677), accused Casaubon of using animi ( In q u i ry on the Im m o rtality of the Soul), dedicat-
the arguments of Roman Catholics and divine-right ed to Lu d ovico il Mo ro.
royalists to defend their views. The debate between the For our purposes, Cassini’s most important work was
Sadducees and their opponents, which dominated later his Quaestio lamiarum (Treatise on Witches),published
s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry demonology in En g l a n d , in 1505, in which he analyzed some beliefs to destroy
Scotland, and New England, attested to the stre n g t h superstitious elements that corrupted the real essence of
and endurance of the anti-Sadducean position art i c u- t rue religion. The ove rwhelming number of witches
lated by Casaubon. and trials impelled him to dispute such superstitious
and widely held beliefs. Although Cassini never doubt-
BRIAN LEVACK
ed the existence of demons, he directly opposed the
See also:DEE,JOHN;DEMONOLOGY;ENGLAND;GLANVILL,JOSEPH; opinions Heinrich Kramer (like Sa vo n a rola, a
SKEPTICISM;WAGSTAFFE,JOHN;WEBSTER,JOHN. Dominican) expressed in the Malleus Maleficarum (The
References and further reading:
Hammer of Witches).Cassini believed witches perform
Bostridge, Ian. 1997.Witchcraft and Its Transformations
their evil deeds with the assistance of Satan, but he
c.1650–c.1750.Oxford: Clarendon.
denied the pact as worthless. His argument was based
Casaubon, Meric. 1668. Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things
on the concept of divine omnipotence that no one can
Natural, Civil and Divine.London: T. Garthwaite.
contradict. The Examenwas the first book to attack the
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. i d e n t i fication of witchcraft as here s y, as defined in the
Elmer, Peter, ed. 2002. English Witchcraft, 1560–1736.Vol. 4. The papal bull Vox in Rama (A Voice in Rama, 1233). It is
Post Restoration Synthesis and Its Opponents.London: Pickering worth noting how strongly he affirmed the impossibili-
and Chatto. ty of a miraculous event to induce sins like witchcraft,
Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in because of his tendency to emphasize Go d’s powe r.
England 1550–1750.London: Hamish Hamilton. Cassini followed the Canon Episcopiin condemning the
belief that women really fly at night; demons can
Cassini (Cassinis), Samuel de d e c e i ve people, because their powers depend on the
(ca. 1450–post 1510) divine will. Hence, God cannot produce miracles
A Franciscan theologian, born near Mo n t f e r r a t against good men in order to satisfy evil men. T h e n
( Monferrato) in the mid-fifteenth century, Cassini Cassini pointed his finger at inquisitors, who, according
wrote several works but is most famous for his criti- to him, committed sin and even lapsed into here s y
cisms of Girolamo Savonarola and for his work on when they prosecuted charges against witches for deeds
witch hunting, where he attacked inquisitors as heretics that Cassini held we re fables. Because the Ca n o n
and tried to stop them from murdering innocent peo- Ep i s c o p i condemned eve ryone who believed in those
ple on the pretext of rooting out witchcraft. Samuel de fables, such inquisitors themselves became heretics.
Cassini entered the Order of Friars Minor in the By adopting what he took to be correct scholastic
Province of Genoa, studied theology at Paris, and then t h e o ry, Cassini upheld the canonicity of the Ca n o n
taught in the schools of his Order. Ep i s c o p i a g a i n s t all those who, like Nicolas Jacquier in
In his attack on Sa vo n a rola, In ve c t i va in pro p h e t i a m 1458, had denied its value. After briefly summarizing
f ratris Hi e ro n y m i ( Speech Against the Prophecy of his opinions, Cassini concluded that witches clearly did
Sa vo n a rola, 1497), Cassini tried to show that Satan had not exist and those who believed and prosecuted them
seduced the Dominican, although the bulk of Cassini’s were heretics. In fact, he suggested natural explanations
essay was a polemic against the concept of pro p h e c y. for some events that demons could not perform. Then
Cassini denied the ability of prophesying and fore c a s t- he devoted himself to defending papal authority against
ing, and outlined the threats Sa vo n a rola posed for naive the conciliarists even in matters of witchcraft. The dis-
people. He condemned the re f o r m e r’s claim not in its pute between the Dominican and Franciscan ord e r s
essence, but in the form Sa vo n a rola desired, arguing that s p read to the demonological field. In 1506, Vi n c e n t e
nobody can enact reforms without express papal agre e- Dodo (another Dominican) refuted Cassini in his
ment. Cassini’s criticisms we re not original and can be Apologia contra li difensori delle strie, et principaliter con-
understood within the long history of polemics betwe e n t ra Quaestiones lamiarum fratris Samuelis de Ca s s i n i s
172 Cassini (Cassinis), Samuel de |
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( Apology Against the Defenders of the Witches, and inquisitorial guidelines of 1525 about witchcraft,
Most of all Against the Treatise on Witchcraft Written C a s t a ñ e g a’s skeptical attitudes offered a sharp contrast
by Samuel Cassini),to which the Franciscan replied the with the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of
next year with his Contra fratres Vincentius or praedica- Witches, 1486).
t o rum qui inepte et falso impugnare nititur libellus de Castañega dedicated his work to the bishop of
lamiis ( Statement Against the Dominican Vi n c e n t e Calahorra, don Alonso de Castilla, who in turn
Dodo, Who Wrongly and Falsely Confuted the Book required his parish priests to own a copy of the Tratado.
on Witches). In 1510, Cassini published a work against Fray Ma rt í n’s task was to distinguish, in clear and
the Waldensians, Victoria triumphale contra li errori de didactic form, what was licit from what was supersti-
va l d e s i (Triumphal Vi c t o ry Against the Er rors of the tious. Howe ve r, despite its indubitable merits,
Waldenses) and an Expositio triplex librorum octo phisi- Castañega’s tract was overshadowed by the appearance,
c o rum Aristotelis (T h reefold Explanation of the Books in the following year, of a longer work treating the same
on Physics of Aristotle).Afterward, his name and biog- theme, written by one of Sp a i n’s most famous theolo-
raphy faded into obscurity. gians, Pe d ro Ciru e l o. Although Ciru e l o’s work was
t h e reafter republished at least seven times, Castañega’s
MICHAELA VALENTE
tract, which was in some respects more rational and
See also:CANONEPISCOPI;DEMONOLOGY;DODO,VINCENTE; skeptical, was not republished until 1946.
DOMINICANORDER;JACQUIER,NICOLAS;KRAMER(INSTITORIS), Castañega drew his doctrinal inspiration from many
HEINRICH;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,
s o u rces, including the Bible, Pl i n y, St. Augustine, Is i d o re
GIANFRANCESCO;PRIERIAS,SILVESTRO;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS).
of Seville, Thomas Aquinas, Bede, and above all the
References and further reading:
famous chancellor of the Un i versity of Paris, Je a n
Hansen, Joseph. 1901. Quellen und untersuchungen zur geschichte
Gerson, whose De erroribus circa artem magicam
des hexenwahns und der hexenverfolgung im mittelalter.Bonn:
(Concerning Misconceptions About Magical Arts) pro-
C. Georgi.
Lea, Henry Charles. 1957. Materials Toward a History of vided a reliable guide to such delicate matters as the ques-
Witchcraft.Edited by Arthur C. Howland. Vol 1. NewYork tion of superstition. Castañega used these authorities
and London: Thomas Yoseloff. principally in the first part of his tract (chaps. I–XI), con-
Ristori, R. 1972. “Cassini, Samuele.” Pp. 487–489 in Dizionario cerning the Devil and his powers. It was there that
Biografico degli italiani.Vol. XV. Rome: Istituto della Castañega seemed to admit the reality of the demonic
Enciclopedia italiana. pact and the possibility that witches flew to their gather-
ings, or even the existence of demonic exc rements (a par-
Casta˜Nega, Martín de ody of the Churc h’s sacraments). Notwithstanding all
A Spanish Franciscan friar and preacher in the province this, Castañega’s more relativist and skeptical second part
of Burgos, Martín de Castañega is known primarily as was dominated by his insistence on the De v i l’s multiple
the author of the first tract on witchcraft and supersti- traps and the many apparently real phenomena that we re
tion printed in Castilian, titled Tratado muy sotil y bien actually only illusions to ensnare men.
fundado de las supersticiones y hechizerias y vanos conjuros The last thirteen chapters (XII–XXIV), dedicated to
y abussiones, y otras cosas al caso tocantes, y de la possibil- the practices and practitioners of sorc e ry rather than
idad y remedio dellas (A Very Exact and Well Founded philosophical ideas concerning possibility or impossi-
Tract on Superstitions, So rc e ry, Vain In c a n t a t i o n s , b i l i t y, demonstrated a modern mentality which, with-
Witchcraft, and Other Things Touching upon Such out denying the possibility of demonic worship or
Matters, and on the Possibility and Remedies of the possession, tried to seek a natural explanation for every
Same, Logroño, 1529). Although this was his only apparently extraordinary or demonic phenomenon.
known work, and we know little about Castañega (he
MARÍA TAUSIET;
held office at a Basque convent as late as 1555), he
TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SIZGORICH
remains an important figure in the history of witchcraft
and superstition. He was the first to publish a tract on See also: CIRUELO,PEDRO;DELRIO,MARTÍN;GERSON,JEAN;
witchcraft in a vernacular language and displayed a pru- INQUISITION,SPANISH;MAGIC,POPULAR;SPAIN;SUPERSTITION.
dent and tolerant attitude in a climate of increasing ani- References and further reading:
mosity toward everything associated with witchcraft Darst, David H. 1979. “Witchcraft in Spain: The Testimony of
Martín de Castañega’sTreatise on Superstition and Witchcraft
and related forms of superstition.
(1529).” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society123,
It is probable that Fray Ma rtín—who was called a
no. 5: 244–268.
“preacher of the Holy Office” although the Inquisition
Homza, Lu Anne. 2000. Religious Authority in the Spanish
had once arrested him (Muro Abad 1994)—witnessed
Renaissance.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
the 1525 witchcraft prosecutions by the Inquisition in
Muro Abad, Juan Robert, ed. 1994. Fray Martin de Castañega,
Navarre; he claimed to have seen an old man reconciled Tratado de las supersticiones y hechicerías. Logroño: Instituto de
for this crime at an auto de fe. In accord with the new estudios riojanos.
Castañega, Martín de 173 |
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Tausiet, María. 1993. “Le sabbat dans les trait`es espagnols sur la
superstition et la sorcellerie aux XVIeet XVIIIesie`cles.” Pp.
259–279 in Le sabbat des sorciers en Europe (XVe- XVIIIesiécles):
Colloque international E.N.S. Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, 4–7
novembre 1992.Edited by Nicole Jacques-Chaquin and
Maxime Préaud. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon.
________. 1994. “Religión, ciencia y superstición en Pedro
Ciruelo y Martín de Castañega.” Revista de Historia Jerónimo
Zurita, no. 65–66:139–144.
Cats
Cats remain a common re p resentation of a witch’s famil-
iar and a widespread disguise of the Devil. Although
ancient Greece and Rome, like Egypt, venerated cats as
s a c red, medieval Christianity distrusted them as unru l y
and lascivious animals. In the eighteenth century, shades
of diabolization still burdened the reputation of this
feline, neve rtheless essential to the ecological balance of
Old Régime Eu ro p e’s agrarian economy. To rt u re of cats
p rovided widespread popular entertainment thro u g h o u t
early modern Eu rope, but it is exaggerated to claim that
ancien régime Eu rope witnessed any actual, long-lasting
m a s s a c re of cats (Engels 1999). In t e re s t i n g l y, the phe-
nomenon of trials against animals (locusts, rats) that by
“v i rtue of Sa t a n’s obligation” we re damaging victuals as
grapes and grain shows a “f requency curve . . . similar to
that of the witch trials, showing a maximum in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, . . . a l b e i t . . . less
f re q u e n t” (Di n zelbacher 2002, 410). But cats we re not
put on trial.
Me d i e val phobias about cats found an early expre s-
sion in Guillaume d’ Au ve r g n e’s depiction of Lu c i f e r,
who “may appear to his adepts and worshippers in the
shape of a black cat or a toad, and is then kissed by
t h e m . . . under the cat’s tail, . . . or on the toad’s
t h ro a t” (Bobis 2000, 198). The diabolization of Both witches’ familiars and the Devil took the form of a cat. Here a
felines seems closely linked with the fight against witch, with her cat familiar at her feet, urinates on her broomstick
h e re s y. Pope Gre g o ry IX’s bull Vox in Rama (A Vo i c e while holding a book of charms. (Cornell University Library)
in Rama, 1233), attacking the “sect of the damned,”
depicted the horrible apparition to its novices and
their masters “of a black cat about the size of an ave r-
age dog, [that] descends backwards with his tail ere c t” In such other important fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry texts as
( Kors and Peters 2001, 115–116), which eve ry b o d y Er ro res Ga z a r i o ru m ( Er rors of the Gazars or Ga z a r i i —
kissed on its hindquarters and adored. Two genera- Cathars was a common term for heretics and later
tions later, the crusading Order of the Templars was witches) or Ma rtin LeFr a n c’s Le Champion des Da m e s
accused of doing this. In early fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry (The Defender of Ladies), which helped to re vo l u t i o n-
Rome, a cat was re p o rted to have killed several babies i ze witchcraft in the 1430s, cats began to assume
until he was caught and blessed. He escaped but, additional roles, appearing when witches perf o r m e d
because he was bleeding, left traces and was followe d . their m a l e fic i a (harmful magic) and providing trans-
He turned out to be an old woman, transforming p o rtation to Sabbats. The witch’s feline associates we re
herself into a feline and prolonging her life by sucking also widely re p o rted to accompany m a l e fic i a w i t h
i n f a n t s’ blood. satanic noises: Jean Bodin mentions their devilish
The Dominicans played a pivotal role in consolidat- h owling in a 1565 Moravian witchcraft case (Bobis
ing the myth of the satanic cat as opposed to the 2000, 216).
faithful dog barking at heretics, an image found in the Howe ve r, no general Eu ropean common pattern
Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Wi t c h e s , 1 4 8 6 ) . g overns the witch’s feline companions. Lorraine
174 Cats |
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witches, for instance, we re never transported by cats, shoulders and head. In medieval and early modern
but Alsatian witches were. In Lorraine, among approxi- Europe, cauls were associated foremost with protection;
mately 375 individuals tried as witches between 1580 wearing a caul as an amulet offered its owner the same
and 1630, “wolves appear in thirty-six cases, . . . cats in protection that the caul had provided the developing
t h i rt y - f o u r, and dogs in sixteen” (Briggs 2002, 13). fetus. It could therefore ward off the evil eye, prevent
Most villagers believed in shape shifting, but because of death by drowning, and protect one in battle. A caul
St. Augustine’s vigorous and authoritative opposition to might also confer preternatural eloquence, guarantee-
the idea, the matter proved embarrassing for demo- ing lawyers success in the courtroom and even render-
nologists. Nevertheless, Pierre de Lancre reported how ing a possessor’s declaration of love irresistible to
witches changed into cats in order to kidnap babies whomever heard it.
from their beds. In countries from Iceland to Russia, infants born
Despite such baroque sketches as Jean de La “with a veil” (France), “with a shirt” (Italy), or “helmet-
Fo n t a i n e’s Puss in Boots, the status of cats was slow to ed” (Germany) were furthermore believed to have been
rise. In the Sienese countryside, in 1705, after a witch marked out for an auspicious fate. The caul destined its
attacked a baby in bed, “the ve ry morning when he wearer for fame and fortune, as the seventeenth-century
passed away, it looked as if all the cats in the world were French proverb “happy the man who is born with the
roaring around the house” (Di Simplicio 2003, 88). In caul” suggests. In some countries, however, such bless-
the late 1730s, Paris saw a mock trial “complete with ings depended on the color of the caul at birth. While a
guard, a confessor, and a public executioner” staged by white or red caul usually indicated good fortune, an
w o rkers of a printing shop; half-dead cats dumped in English child born with black caul faced a lifetime of
sacks we re pronounced guilty and strung up for accidents and misfortunes—unless the caul was torn up
bewitching their boss’s house (Darnton 1984, 81). Still, and administered to the child in a drink.
general attitudes we re slowly changing; in 1727, In some European countries, the good fortune con-
Fr a n ç o i s - Augustin Paradis de Mo n c r i e f’s Hi s t o i re des ferred by a caul could be inherited or even purchased.
c h a t s ( Hi s t o ry of Cats) attempted to re verse medieva l One seventeenth-century English knight willed his caul
p rejudices. But black cats have remained part of a (set in a jeweled case, no less) to his daughter, and then
witch’s entourage in popular folklore. s p e c i fied that it be passed along to her male descen-
dants. In ancient Rome, as well as early modern
OSCAR DI SIMPLICIO
De n m a rk, Iceland, France, and England, the magical
See also: ANIMALS;DEVIL;DOGS;FAMILIARS;LYCANTHROPY; qualities of the caul could be purchased. As Europeans
METAMORPHOSIS;SABBAT. believed that cauls protected and brought luck to those
References and further reading:
born wearing theirs, it seemed logical to conclude that a
Bobis, Laurence. 2000. Le chat. Histoire et légende.Paris: Fayard.
caul would offer such advantages to anyone who pos-
Briggs, Robin. 2002. “Shapeshifting, Apparitions, and Fantasy in
sessed one, whether or not it had been theirs at birt h .
Lorraine Witchcraft Trials.” Pp. 1–21 inWerewolves, Witches,
C o n s e q u e n t l y, Roman lawyers pro c u red cauls fro m
and Wandering Spirits: Traditional Beliefs and Folklore in Early
m i d w i ves for enhanced eloquence; in France, Louis
Modern Europe.Edited by Kathryn A. Edwards. Kirksville,
MO: Truman State University. X I V’s subjects bought cauls to serve as gambling
Darnton, Robert. 1984. The Great Cat Massacre and Other charms; and as late as World War I, English sailors
Episodes in French Cultural History.NewYork: Basic Books. bought and sold cauls through adve rtisements in the
Dinzelbacher, Peter. 2002. “Animal Trials: A Multidisciplinary L o n d o n Ti m e s , believing that they pre vented death by
Approach.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History32/3: 405–421. drowning.
Di Simplicio, Oscar. 2003. “Witchcraft and Infanticide.” Acta Cauls might also confer supernatural powers on their
Istriae11: 48–88.
owners. In Yugoslavia, a black caul indicated that the
Engels, Donald. 1999.Classical Cats.London: Routledge.
child would become a sorcerer or witch, unless the mid-
Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Witchcraft in Europe
wife took the precaution of either climbing up to the
400–1700. A Documentary History.Philadelphia: University of
rooftop to announce the child’s birth or bringing the
Pennsylvania.
child to the door of the house and declaring three times
Simon, Maryse. 2002. “Les animaux du diable. Animalité et
sorcellerie a` travers les affaires du Val de Liépvre that no sorc e re r, but a baby, had been born within.
(1570–1630).”Histoire et Sociétés Rurales17/1: 63–89. Areas as distant as Iceland and New Guinea shared the
belief that clairvoyants were born in the caul. The peas-
Caul ants of the Friuli region in northern Italy, made famous
Since the classical era, a host of supernatural properties by Carlo Ginzburg, believed that infants delive re d
have been attributed to the caul, or amnion, one of the wearing a caul we re destined to become b e n a n d a n t i
two membranes that form the amniotic sac in which a (do-gooders), setting forth in their dreams to do ritual
fetus develops in the womb. On rare occasions, an battle against witches and wizards who sought to
infant is born with this thin membrane covering the destroy the harvest. It was common for a benandanteto
Caul 175 |
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h a ve as many as thirty Masses said over his caul to boiled or mixed in cauldrons for purposes of re g e n e r a-
heighten its pro t e c t i ve powers, for its magical powe r s tion, divination, or the gaining of wisdom. Brass caul-
could be strengthened if an ordained priest consecrated d rons appeared in the early sixth-century Salic laws,
it. This belief was widely held across Re n a i s s a n c e which mentioned men who carried those used by witch-
Eu rope, where it was common practice to baptize es. Cauldrons used for boiling witches’ brews re a p p e a re d
infants with their cauls. in Johannes Ni d e r’s early account of the witches’ Sa b b a t
During the early modern period, cauls could also in Book 5, chap. 3 of his Fo rm i c a r i u s (The Anthill),
serve as powerful ingredients of love charms. A distinct written in the late 1430s. Ni d e r’s inclusion of Peter of
branch of magic drew its coercive power from material Be r n’s evidence of witches boiling the bodies of childre n
p roduced during the re p ro d u c t i ve process, including in order to make magical ointments and powders was
not only cauls but also menstrual blood, sperm, and then copied into the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (T h e
e ven afterbirths. A woman in Renaissance Italy who Hammer of Witches, Pa rt II, Q. 1, chap. 2) of 1486.
added either powd e red caul or menstrual blood to a From there, the skeptical Johann We yer cited it in full in
would-be love r’s food, for example, would find him his De praestigiis daemonum( On the Tricks of Devils) of
inflamed with passion, just as a German man carrying 1563 (Book III, chap. 1), there by entering the main-
his caul would never find his affections unre q u i t e d . s t ream of witchcraft literature .
Hippomane, also considered a potent love charm, was While literary accounts of witchcraft emphasized the
similarly generated during the re p ro d u c t i ve pro c e s s , p owders and ointments created in this cauldron, visual
although not the human re p ro d u c t i ve process. T h e accounts often highlighted the cauldron itself. This visu-
e q u i valent of an equine caul, hippomane was a small, al emphasis on the cauldron originated with the wood-
black, round, fleshy mass, found on the forehead of a cuts used in the more than twenty editions of Ul r i c h
newborn foal. It had been sought after as a love charm Mo l i t o r’s De laniis et phitonicis mulieribus ( C o n c e r n i n g
since classical times, and its powers were testified to as Witches and Fo rt u n e t e l l e r s ) published between 1490
late as the eighteenth century. and 1510. The image of two witches dropping a cock
and a snake into a belching cauldron, and there by cook-
LYNN WOOD MOLLENAUER
ing up a storm in the sky above, featured as the title page
See also:AMULETANDTALISMAN;BENANDANTI;LOVEMAGIC; woodcut in seven of these editions.
MAGIC,POPULAR. In his famous chiaroscuro woodcut image of witch-
References and further reading:
craft from 1510, Hans Baldung [Grien] made the caul-
Forbes, Thomas R. 1953. “The Social History of the Caul.” Yale
d ron the central element around which his trio of
Journal of Biology and Medicine25: 495–508.
naked women gather. His cauldron rests on the ground
Ginzburg, Carlo. 1992. The Night Battles: Wi t c h c raft and Ag ra r i a n
as a closed vessel, from which billowing vapors escape
Cults in the Sixteenth and Se venteenth Ce n t u r i e s .Translated by Jo h n
when the lid is lifted. In other images, a witch holds the
and Anne Tedeschi. Ba l t i m o re: Johns Hopkins Un i versity Pre s s .
Ruggerio, Guido. 1993.Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage c a u l d ron aloft, like the flaming vessels held by Ve n u s .
and Power at the End of the Renaissance.NewYork: Oxford This is how it appears in several of Baldung’s drawings
University Press. from 1514, as well as in the influential woodcut, possi-
bly from Ba l d u n g’s work s h o p, which first appeared in
Cauldron the collection of Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg’s ser-
A cauldron is the pot or receptacle in which witches mons published in 1516 and 1517 as Die Em e i s (T h e
cooked their brews. Witches used these concoctions, Ants). That cauldron motif influenced many later illus-
either in liquid or powder form, to carry out harmful trations of witchcraft, adorning works by Pa u l u s
sorcery and to create the ointment that they rubbed on Frisius, Abraham Saur, and Johann Weyer, among oth-
sticks or their bodies to be transported to distant places. ers. By the first two decades of the seventeenth century,
Cauldrons were usually displayed over a fire, although when the Dutch artist Jacques de Gheyn the Yo u n g e r
they sometimes appeared as vessels on the ground or and the Polish artist Jan Ziarnko incorporated caul-
were held up high, spewing out powerful vapors. d rons into their graphic images of witchcraft, they
Smaller pots were also depicted in the fork of cooking ranked among the most common and easily identifiable
sticks or hung from those sticks by their handles, as visual codes for witchcraft.
witches transported them through the air. In various scenes of witchcraft, the cauldron serves to
The association of the cauldron with witchcraft in identify witchcraft as a female activity by linking it to
Eu ropean culture is ancient, going back to the cauldro n’s the female task of food preparation, and through the
traditional role in magic and sorc e ry in ancient Gre e k link between food and sex, to female sexuality. T h e
m y t h o l o g y. Medea re j u venated Jason by boiling his c a u l d ron also offers a visual alternative to the vase or
body parts and boiled drugs in a cauldron to re s t o re the vessel, which was commonly used in sixteenth-century
youth of Ja s o n’s father, Aison. In Teutonic and Celtic illustration as a symbol of the vagina or female sexuali-
m y t h o l o g y, magical potions including blood we re also t y. The small cauldrons held aloft by young witches
176 Cauldron |
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allude to the flaming vessels and torches that are attrib- consequences, especially if one trusted intermediaries to
utes of Venus. The cauldron represented a complex and approach the object of one’s desire. In this sense, magic
m u l t i valent symbol of the sexual power of witches’ played a central role in revealing the moral implications
bodies, their destru c t i ve sorc e ry, their invo l vement in of the events in the story—especially with re g a rd to a
the horrors of infanticide and cannibalism, and their particular form of love magic practiced by enchantress-
capacity to create unnatural and wondrous effects. es since antiquity. A dozen years earlier, the Ma l l e u s
Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Witches, 1486) also
CHARLES ZIKA
spent several pages describing this form of magic and its
See also: ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BALDUNG[GRIEN], HANS; supposed capacity to solicit such violent passion
CANNIBALISM;FRISIUS,PAULUS;GEILERVONKAYSERSBERG, between enchanted people that they were powerless to
JOHANN;GENDER;GHEYNII,JACQUESDE;INFANTICIDE;
exercise their own will. In this way, young Melibea, who
MALEFICIUM;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;MOLITOR,ULRICH;NIDER,
at first rejected Calisto’s amorous advances, fell madly
JOHANNES;OINTMENTS;PETEROFBERN;POTIONS;SABBAT;
in love with him after being seduced by Celestina, using
STICKS;WEATHERMAGIC;WEYER,JOHANN;ZIARNKO,JAN.
a spell purchased by her suitor.
References and further reading:
Celestina was described as an expert in her vo c a t i o n ,
Drew, Katherine Fischer. 1991. The Laws of the Salian Franks.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. that of enchantment and procuring, with whom the
Jones, J.J. 1923. “The Cauldron in Ritual and Myth.” law had previously dealt on more than one occasion.
Aberystwyth Studies5:75–82. This fact has simply enhanced her prestige as a con-
Kramer (Institoris), Heinrich. 1971. Malleus Maleficarum.Edited noisseur of the secrets of love magic. She possessed a
by Montague Summers. NewYork: Dover. l a b o r a t o ry complete with the most varied ingre d i e n t s
Ostorero, Martine, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Kathrin Utz with which to conjure her spells, equipped with a
Tremp, and Catherine Che`ne, eds. 1999. L’imaginaire du sab-
h a n g m a n’s noose, a dragon wing, a bat’s blood, and
bat. Edition critique des textes les plus anciens (1430 c.–1440 c.).
water from the first rains of spring (agua de Ma yo) .
Lausanne: University of Lausanne (Cahiers lausannois d’histoire
Howe ve r, the most important ingredient for the spell
médiévale, 26): 154–155, 236–241.
to be cast upon Melibea was called “snake oil,” a con-
Weyer, Johann. 1991. Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the
coction of vipers cooked alive in a blend of wine and
Renaissance. Johann Weyer,De praestigiis daemonum. Edited by
George Mora. Binghamton, NY: Centre for Medieval and Early oil to re fine the snakes’ venom. The symbol of the ser-
Renaissance Studies, State University of NewYork at pent as re p re s e n t a t i ve of the Devil is clear, and the ro l e
Binghamton. of this animal also suggested itself in the entwined
Zika, Charles. 2003. Exorcising Our Demons: Magic, Witchcraft form of the oil-anointed yarn that Celestina managed
and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe.Leiden and Boston: to sell to Melibea. It was by means of this enchanted
Brill, 274–281. yarn that Melibea was subjected to a terrible passion
that she later described as a sensation of “serpents eat-
Celestina, La(1499) ing my heart from inside my body. ”
Comedia o Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (Comedy The power of Celestina proceeded from her con-
or Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea), better known nivance with the Devil, as was demonstrated explicitly
as La Celestina, tells the story of a procuress and in her long incantation directed to the “master of the
enchantress. Its author was the Toledo native Fernando infernal depths” in which the enchantress urged the evil
de Rojas, and the work was first published in 1499. one to obey and grant her wishes. On this occasion she
Critics often consider La Celestina, written in dialogue asked that Melibea buy the snake-oil-anointed yarn
form in imitation of humanist Renaissance comedies, as “and in such a manner . . . however much she sees him,
the first Spanish novel, and probably the first European so much more will her heart yield” and make her suffer
novel as well. It related the story of the ill-starred love “from a raw and powerful love of Calisto.” Once during
of a noble couple, alongside the parallel tale of the the spell Melibea met with Calisto and both were con-
intrigues and love affairs carried on by young Calisto’s sumed by their desire, much to their mutual satisfac-
two servants with local low-caste women (mozas). tion. Nevertheless, their happiness immediately turned
Celestina, an aged prostitute and specialist in every art to ashes after the deaths of both of Calisto’s serva n t s ,
and artifice of love, shared the underworld in which old Celestina, and, finally, the protagonists themselves,
these servants move. all of them victims of their own passions.
As was suggested in the subtitle appended to later
MARÍA TAUSIET;
editions (“containing, in addition to its agreeable and
s weet style, many philosophical dicta and ve ry neces- TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SIZGORICH
s a ry advice for young men, demonstrating the decep-
See also: LOVEMAGIC;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;SORCERY.
tions to be found among servants and enchantresses”),
References and further reading:
the work came to be seen as a denunciation of the Lawrence, Jeremy N. H. 1993. “The Tragicomedia de Calisto y
dangers of amorous passion taken to its ultimate Melibeaand Its ‘Moralitie,’ Celestina,17, ii: 85–110.
Celestina, La 177 |
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Martí-Ibáñez, Félix. 1956. “The Medico-Pharmaceutical Arts of ularly in the Novela y coloquio que pasó entre Cipión y
La Celestina:A Study of a Fifteenth-Century Spanish Sorceress Berganza, perros del hospital de la Resurrección, que está
and Dealer in Love.” International Record of Medicine and en la ciudad de Valladolid, fuera de la puerta del Campo,
General Practice Clinics CLXIX: 233–249.
a quien comúnmente llaman los perros de Mahudes (Tale
McGrady, Donald. 1994–1995. “Two Studies on the Text of the
and Colloquy That Took Place Be t ween Cipión and
Celestina.”’Romance Philology48:1–21.
Berganza, Dogs of the Hospital of the Re s u r re c t i o n ,
Rusell, Peter E. ed. 2001. Fernando de Rojas. La Celestina.
Which Is in the City of Valladolid, Outside of the
Comedia o Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea.Madrid:
Pu e rta del Campo, Commonly Called “The Dogs of
Clásicos Castalia.
Severin, Dorothy Sherman. 1995. Witchcraft in ‘Celestina.’In Mahudes”), a work with a title that was often abbreviat-
Papers of the Medieval Hispanic Research Seminar, I. London: ed as The Colloquy of the Do g s . It offered a pro f o u n d
Queen Mary-Westfield College, Dept. of Hispanic Studies. study of the relationship between life and fiction, pre-
sented in a small but masterly dialogue between the two
canine protagonists. Its theme was the autobiographical
Cervantes (Saavedra), remembrances of Berganza, which we re interru p t e d
Miguel De (1547–1616) n ow and again by bits of philosophical commentary
Cervantes was a world-famous Castilian writer (born f rom Cipión. The dog Berganza, like the pro t a g o n i s t s
and died near Madrid), known principally for his in picaresque novels, went through many masters, but
immortal novel El ingenioso hildago don Quijote de la the central episode of his life and the one that he
Mancha (The Ingenuous Gentleman don Quijote de la described at greatest length was that which he spent
Mancha, Madrid, 1605–1615). It described the adven- with an old witch named Cañizares.
tures and misadventures of an elderly Castilian noble- He re, speaking through the character of a dog,
man who, inflamed by books full of tales of chivalry, C e rvantes expressed his own opinions concerning the
decided to live out his fantasies in the midst of the sev- reality of the flights and metamorphoses attributed to
enteenth century, much to the surprise, admiration, witches, as well as those concerning their attendance
and ridicule of those who witnessed his exploits. at the Sabbat and their pursuit of demonic powe r s —
One of the principal features of chivalrous novels was that is to say, concerning the re a l i t y – i m a g i n a t i o n
the belief that the world was bewitched, abounding debate that, during the same period, a good number
with enchanted persons suffering varied torments or of theologians we re working to clarify. Cervantes has
metamorphoses from which they we re unable to fre e the old witch say, “Some are of the opinion that we
t h e m s e l ves unless aided by a hero. Don Qu i xote, as a d o n’t go to these gatherings except in our imagina-
faithful follower of the knightly tradition, believe d t i o n s . . . others say, rather, that we actually go in
himself to be constantly surrounded by enchanters and body and soul; and both opinions I hold, for my part ,
enchantments. These were, of course, presented only as to be true. For eve rything which happens to us in fan-
figments of his imagination; the celebrated episode of tasy happens so intensely that there is no differe n c e
the “sham enchantment” that closed the first part of the when we really and truly go.” Cerva n t e s’s own clear
book was nothing but a trick to make the protagonist vision concerning so controversial a theme was left for
return home. Gi ven the constant tension in this work the end of the novel, when the wise and discre e t
b e t ween that which was imagined and that which is Cipión, referring to the witch Cañizares, said, “He r
real, it was not surprising that re f e rences to magic, w o rds have to be taken in a sense that I have heard is
enchantment, and the powers of the Devil appeare d called ‘a l l e g o r i c a l’; their literal sense I would not care
throughout, offering an interesting panorama of beliefs to speak.”
with regard to such matters in Spain during its Golden T h roughout his works, Cervantes repeatedly made
Age (Siglo de Oro). clear his attitude about the power of magic: from the
C e rva n t e s’s profound skepticism re g a rding eve ry- v i ewpoint of a faithful Christian believe r, nothing can
thing related to the world of magic and, more concrete- compete with the liberty of the individual. For him,
ly, to witchcraft, manifested itself still more directly in enchanters and witches we re nothing more than simple
some of his other works, as the Novelas Ej e m p l a re s poisoners lacking any type of supernatural powe r. In El
( Exe m p l a ry Tales, Madrid, 1616), Los trabajos de Licenciado Vi d r i e ra (The Glass Graduate), for example,a
Persiles y Si g i s m u n d a (The Tr a vails of Persiles and student was the target of love spells from a woman who
Sigismunda), and the two surviving dramatic pieces of n e ve rtheless did not manage to win him. (“She gave
the twenty to thirty that Cervantes is believed to have Tomás one of those things they call a charm, believing
written between 1583 and 1587, La destrucción de that the thing she gave would force him to desire her; as
Numancia (The De s t ruction of Nu m a n c i a ) and L o s if there we re in the world herbs, incantations or word s
tratos de Argel (The Works of Argel). s u f ficient to force free will.”) In La inglesa española (T h e
C e rvantes treated magic and witchcraft at gre a t e s t English Sp a n i a rd ) , his skepticism with re g a rd to spells
length and most densely in the ExemplaryTales, partic- caused him to affirm roundly that “they are nothing but
178 Cervantes (Saavedra), Miguel De |
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tricks and frauds.” In The Labors of Persiles and Aristotle never opposed the reality of angels and
Si g i s m u n d a , witchcraft was presented as a device with demons, but considered them outside the natural
the capacity to make one ill, but without the power to realm, as Christians do. Aristotle neither ignored nor
constrain free will; an evil permitted by God, its effects contested theological speculations of previous philoso-
we re only temporary, as love and honesty would always phers and theologians, from the Egyptians to Pl a t o.
p re vail. In The De s t ruction of Nu m a n c i a , C e rva n t e s’s Christians can learn about demons most reliably from
character Ma rquino re p resented the necromancers typi- biblical revelation.
cal of his era, just as in The Wo rks of Argel, he intro d u c e d Like Aquinas, Cesalpino did not accept demons on
a Muslim spell-caster named Fatima who specialized in faith: he interpreted m a l e fic i u m (harmful magic) and
l ove magic; but his message remained the same: re g a rd- demonic possession as empirical evidence of demonic
less of its paraphernalia, deceitful magic can do nothing re a l i t y. The Pisan nuns exhibited symptoms that
when faced with virt u e . implied the presence of demons: speaking languages of
which they we re ignorant, fleeing sacraments, and
MARÍA TAUSIET;
rebelling against holy rituals. The nuns and others like
TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SIZGORICH them ardently desired to partake of sacraments and rit-
ual, but felt a foreign presence inside them re s i s t i n g
See also:BEWITCHMENT;DEMONS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;SABBAT;
SKEPTICISM;SPAIN. anything holy (Cesalpino 1580, sig. F3r).
References and further reading: Ma l e fic i u m f o rcefully demonstrated the reality of a
Buezo, Catalina. 1994. “La magia al servicio de la burla entreme- supernatural causation, which, because it was evil, must
sil: el estudiante de La cueva deSalamanca.”Anthropos be demonic. Without acknowledging his sourc e ,
154/155:115–118. Cesalpino copied much of the final eleven of his fifteen
Canavaggio, Jean. 1986. Cervantès.Paris: Mazarine. chapters from the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer
Hasbrouck, M. D. 1992. “Posesión demoníaca, locura y exorcismo
of Witches, 1486), including its most grotesque anec-
en el Quijote.” Cervantes,12 (2): 117–126.
dotes. He claimed that witches, generally either men of
Lavastida, Sara M. 1995. “Elementos sobrenaturales en las diez
the lower classes or women, could teach scholars many
comedias de Cervantes.” PhD thesis, Louisiana State
things about demonic reality.
University.
Cesalpino’s competitor in interpreting the Pisan pos-
Riley, E. C. 1994. “‘Cipión’Writes to ‘Berganza’ in the Freudian
Academia Española.” Cervantes 14.1: 3–18. sessions, as in much else, was the Pisan Pl a t o n i c
philosopher Francesco de’Vieri, whose Discorso intorno
Cesalpino, Andrea (1519–1603) a’ dimonii vo l g a rmente chiamati spiriti (Treatise on the
Cesalpino was demonologist and the author of Demons Popularly Known as Spirits) reached similar
Daemonum investigatio peripatetica (Aristotelian conclusions about demonic re a l i t y. Vieri asserted that
In vestigation of Demons), a re p o rt to the archbishop of “Our faith is greatly augmented by witnessing possessed
Pisa, who had consulted him about apparent mass posses- people and their liberation at the hands of the exorcist”
sions of nuns in a Pisan convent in 1574–1575. Cesalpino (Vieri 1576, 73).
was also an Italian botanist, Aristotelian philosopher, pro- Both the physician Cesalpino and Vieri the philoso-
fessor of medicine at Pisa and Rome, and physician to pher stood in a tradition of writers reaching back to
Pope Clement VIII after 1592. Historians of science praise Aquinas. Disturbed by the idea that Aristotle opposed
Cesalpino for classifying plants according to re p ro d u c t i ve supernatural causation, they defended demonic reality by
organs and for his theory of pulmonary blood circ u l a t i o n . vindicating possession and witchcraft. Later exponents
Historians of philosophy appreciate his Aristotelian include Gi ovanni Lore n zo D’Anania (Anania), who, not-
account of the relation between God and the soul. ing the skepticism of Ep i c u reans and Peripatetics, assert e d
Cesalpino disputed the idea, which he traced to that “Philosophers and other experts among the ancients
Galen, that natural explanations adequately explain all fought persistently over the question whether demons
ailments: “[Galen] fell into these absurdities because he exist as something that God made in Na t u re, or rather as
did not believe there was anything divine or immortal something that the human mind and inve n t i veness imag-
in this lower world” (Cesalpino 1580, sig. B1r). ined for itself: nor was there ever any agreement among
Cesalpino demonstrated on Aristotelian grounds that t h e m” (Anania 1654a, 3; cf. Anania 1654b, 9). As a
natural causes, including astrological influence and the natural philosopher and physician celebrated for his ve ry
f o rce of the imagination, cannot sufficiently explain real and significant scientific discoveries, Cesalpino
disease. Rather, demons truly existed and could cause becomes a particularly ambiguous and interesting fig u re
physical and mental ailments. Cesalpino’s defense of among early modern demonologists.
supernatural causation required that he refute the idea,
worrisome to theologians since Thomas Aquinas, that WALTER STEPHENS
Aristotle did not support the reality of angels and See also:ANGELS;AQUINAS,THOMAS;CONVENTCASES;CORPORE-
demons. This notion is erroneous, Cesalpino said: ALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC;DEMONS;EXPERIMENTSAND
Cesalpino, Andrea 179 |
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TESTS;GASTALDO,GIOVANNITOMMASO;IMAGINATION;POSSES- The witches’ Sabbat, apparently unknown in
SION,DEMONIC;SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC;SINISTRARI, England until the seventeenth century, appeared in the
LUDOVICOMARIA;TASSO,TORQUATO. ve ry first re c o rded trials from the Channel Is l a n d s .
References and further reading:
Gu e r n s e y’s witches re p o rtedly gathered at a high ro c k
Anania, Giovanni Lorenzo. 1654a. De substantiis separatis opuscu-
on the island’s southwestern coast, overlooking a small
lum primum de natura daemonum et occultis eorum opera-
Benedictine priory and chapel on the tiny islet of
tionibus.Rome: Giacomo Dragonelli.
Lihou, and defiantly challenged the Holy Virgin with
———. 1654b.De substantiis separatis opusculum secundum de
untranslatable chants of “Que hou hou, Ma r i e Li h o u”
natura angelorum et occultis eorum operationibus.Rome:
Giacomo Dragonelli. (Uttley 1966, 18). The early acculturation of the witch-
Cesalpino, Andrea. 1580. Daemonum investigatio peripatetica, in es’ Sabbat directly contributed to occasional clusters of
qua explicatur locus Hippocratis in Progn. “Si quid divinum in e xecutions in the Channel Islands—for example, the
morbis habetur.” Florence: Giunti. five witches burned on Jersey in 1585 and the eight
Schmitt, Charles B., and Quentin Skinner, eds. 1988. The witches burned on Guernsey in 1617. However, no true
Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy.Cambridge: witch-hunting panic involving ten or more suspects
Cambridge University Press.
ever erupted anywhere in these islands at any time; even
Stephens, Wa l t e r. 2002. Demon Lovers: Wi t c h c raft, Sex, and the Cr i s i s
when one notorious witch (Collette Du m o n t ,
of Be l i e f .Chicago and London: Un i versity of Chicago Pre s s .
Gu e r n s e y, 1617) confessed to attending a Sabbat with
Thorndike, Lynn. 1923–1958. A Hi s t o ry of Magic and Ex p e r i m e n t a l
sixteen other men and women along with their famil-
S c i e n c e .Vol. 6. New Yo rk: Columbia Un i versity Pre s s .
iars (thus proving that the Channel Islands borrowe d
Vieri, Francesco De’. 1576. Discorso intorno a’ dimonij volgarmente
chiamati spiriti.Florence: Bartolomeo Sermartelli. witchcraft concepts from England as well as
Normandy), but she could identify only two of them.
Sexual intercourse with the Devil, another key feature
Channel Islands of continental witchcraft (including Normandy by
Politically English but culturally French until the twe n- 1600) also seems absent from confessions by Channel
tieth century, the self-governing Channel Islands off the Islands witches, who, in sharp contrast to No r m a n d y,
coast of Normandy comprised the most intensive witch- were overwhelmingly female.
hunting zone anywhere in Atlantic Eu rope. Re c o rd e d The single most important explanation for the
e xecutions for witchcraft began by order of the roy a l e xceptional severity of witch hunting in the Channel
c o u rt of Jersey in 1562 and by order of the b a i l l i ( c h i e f Islands is that they we re simultaneously part of conti-
o f ficer of a local royal court) of Guernsey in 1563, nental western Eu rope and completely self-gove r n i n g .
although indirect evidence suggests that a man had been Channel Islanders earned their living from farming and
e xecuted there for witchcraft as early as 1550. De s p i t e livestock as well as fishing, making them vulnerable to
some gaps in their re c o rds, we know that its two princi- the same forms of agricultural Maleficia (evil acts) that
pal islands, Jersey and Gu e r n s e y, which together con- afflicted neighboring Normandy.The two main islands
tained less than two dozen parishes and fewer than fif- have always emphasized their differences, as the names
teen thousand adults, put at least 167 people on trial for of two major breeds of cattle still attest. During the age
witchcraft between 1562 and 1661 and executed at least of witch hunting, their legal systems also differed great-
90 of them (43 on Je r s e y, 47 on Gu e r n s e y ) . l y. Jersey used an elaborate, multilaye red system of
Economically and culturally, the Channel Is l a n d s criminal juries, while Guernsey pre f e r red a more
should be seen as an offshore extension of Normandy. c e n t r a l i zed system of trial by nine j u rats ( m u n i c i p a l
Although they have been under English suze r a i n t y councilors) under supervision from its b a i l l i . Un l i k e
since the Norman Conquest, the islands continued for England, both systems allowed the use of tort u re .
many centuries to use the customary laws of Jersey, with a slightly larger population than Guernsey,
No r m a n d y, supplemented by local privileges. Un t i l apparently brought fewer accused witches to trial than
Elizabeth I’s reign, their parishes belonged to the its neighbor, but convicted and executed about
Norman diocese of Coutances. Norman witch beliefs two-thirds of such defendants. Guernsey, with a simpler
can be traced as far back as the execution of Joan of Arc. criminal court system, brought many more accused
One finds women born in Normandy who we re ban- witches to trial (102) but executed fewer than half of
ished as witches from both Guernsey (in 1619 and them. Un s u p e rvised by trained jurists in appellate
1622) and from Jersey (in 1626 and 1649). They were c o u rts, the farmers and fishermen of the Channel
more fortunate than a notorious fortuneteller from the Islands put more witches to death than even the most
tiny island of Alderney who moved to the mainland witch-ridden English county, Essex, with more than
and was burned for witchcraft at Rouen in 1617; a 100,000 people, and they executed as many witches as
pamphlet about her, La devineresse d’ Au r i g n y (T h e Normandy, with nearly a million adults.
Fortuneteller of Aurigny) was mentioned ten years later
(Monter 1997, 579). WILLIAM MONTER
180 Channel Islands |
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See also: ESSEX;FAMILIARS;NORMANDY. Mo re widespread we re charms that recounted some
References and further reading: pseudobiblical event, for example, Jesus miraculously
Balleine, G. R. 1939. “Witch-Trials in Jersey.” Société jersiaise: stopping the flow of the river Jo rdan. A St. Peter charm
Bulletin annuel13:339–398.
was said to work against toothache and a St. Ge o r g e
Curtis, S. Crey. 1937. “Trials for Witchcraft in Guernsey.” La
charm to ward off nightmares. All such cases assumed
Société guernesaise:Reports and Transactions13:109–143.
that the saint’s power to resist or ove rcome some part i c-
Monter,William. 1997. “Toads and Eucharists: The Male Witches
ular evil was available to heal the user. The formula con-
of Normandy, 1564–1660.” French Historical Studies20:
tained words of command supposedly uttered at the
563–595.
Pitts, John Linwood, ed. 1886. Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the original event, enhancing the healer’s authority. Another
Channel Islands.Guernsey: Thomas M. Richard. charm to staunch blood was widely used in En g l a n d ,
Uttley, John. 1966.A Short History of the Channel Islands.New France, and Ge r m a n y. A fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry English ve r-
York: Frederick Praeger. sion illustrated the typical literary form of the charm,
combining a re f e rence to a biblical precedent for curing
Charms the sickness or injury with a petition that the sufferer will
Charms are magical words, artifacts, chants, or incanta- similarly re c ove r :
tions used to protect against or cure disease, or to
counter witchcraft. Charms have been employed since When our Lord Jesus was done on the cross, Longinus
ancient times. The etymology of the word, from Latin came with his spear and pierced him in the side.
carmen or song, shows that in the Middle Ages it Blood and water came out . . . through the holy virtue
implied verbal formulas; in modern languages, it is that God showed there. I conjure thee, blood, that
more widely applied. There are spoken charms and thou come not out of this Christian man. (Robbins
those written on parchment, stone, wood, cloth, and so 1959, 85–86)
on, and sometimes worn on the body. There is a dis-
tinction between “charms” as traditional spoken formu- In the Early Middle Ages, a man named Ad e l b e rt
las intended to bring good luck or good health and claimed that the Archangel Michael had given him a
explicit prayers, which are “blessings.” Items worn, car- letter from Jesus that had fallen from heaven. This was
ried, or displayed to bring good luck and success, or to one of the earliest mentions of the so-called Letters from
avert misfortune and evil powers, are called lucky Heaven, a tradition of charms quite popular during the
charms, or mascots. Certain objects used as healing Middle Ages, lasting until the beginning of the twenti-
charms are treated with special care and loaned out to eth century.
those in need: for example, eaglestones were alleged to A charm known in many countries is among the few
help women in labor, beads treated sore eyes, Irish with pagan origins: It tells how to heal a horse’s
stones and sticks helped against snakebites. sprained leg with the words: Bone to bone sinew to sinew
Another type of charm combines words with feats. vein to ve i n . In an early medieval German version, it
The function of charms is very complex, because they was Ba l d e r’s horse that was hurt and the god Od i n
are used to serve desires and purposes within every soci- (Wodan, Wotan) who healed it. He re, and in many
ety: they can incite or ward off love; preserve virginity, other cases, the crucial formula was made memorable
but also enforce potency; and gain victory in war, mak- by rhythmic phrasing, repetition in rhyme, or allitera-
ing warriors invulnerable to defeat by enemies. In rural tion. A number of elaborate Anglo-Saxon and German
communities, charms can protect crops and farm ani- verse charms have been pre s e rved; a recent work
mals, preserve food, and ward off parasites. Presumably, (Schulz 2000) offered a scholarly edition of a corpus of
most charms function to preserve or restore health. German charms, the Dieterich Collection, made at the
beginning of the twentieth century.
Form and Function
Generally speaking, in charms we can find elements of T h e ologians and De monolo g i s t s
Christianity mixed with surviving elements of paganism, Medieval Christianity encouraged the use of certain
miracles, and magic: The Catholic liturgy joins folklore holy objects as charms. The most popular among them
in a holistic view of the world where interd e p e n d e n t was (and still is) the Agnus Dei,a small wax seal bearing
physical and spiritual realities intertwine. The distinction images of the lamb and the Roman empero r
b e t ween a charm and a prayer was subtle; Christian Constantine’s flag. When blessed by the pope, it pro-
charms often incorporated holy names or used phrases tected its wearer against many evils, including thunder,
that we re similar to those of the liturgy. A few charms lightning, fire, drowning, or death in childbirt h .
came straight from the Bible, like one from Ezekiel 16:6, St. Thomas Aquinas tolerated the use of amulets con-
used to staunch bleeding: “And when I passed by you, and taining biblical texts, although he suggested refraining
saw you weltering in your own blood, I said unto you in from it. The Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of
your blood, ‘Li ve and grow up like a plant in the fie l d .’ ” Witches, 1486) offered seven rules to distinguish good
Charms 181 |
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from wicked charms. A charm was approved if it con- such sophisticated contemporary circles as the New Age
tained no suggestion of any pact with the Devil; no movement.
unknown names; nothing that was untrue; no rituals
CHRISTA TUCZAY
except making the sign of the cross; no credence in the
manner of writing, reciting, wearing, or using the See also: AMULETANDTALISMAN;ANIMISTICANDMAGICALTHINK-
charm; only phrases from the Bible in the original con- ING;CUNNINGFOLK;FOLKLORE;LANCASHIREWITCHES;SPELLS.
References and further reading:
text; and assurances that the charm’s efficacy depended
Bozóky, Edina. 1992. “Mythic Mediation in Healing
entirely on God’s will (Robbins 1959, 86).
Incantations.” Pp. 84–92 in Health Disease and Healing in
Howe ve r, some prayers used in exo rcisms, or prac-
Medieval Culture.Edited by Sheila Campbell, Bert Hall, and
tices like the blessing of salt for animals, seem very close
David Klausner. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:
to pagan charms—especially to Protestant theologians,
Macmillan.
who re g a rded all charms as superstitious. Ty p i c a l l y, Davies, Owen. 1971. “Verbal Charms in British Folk Me d i c i n e . ”
William Perkins, in his Discourse of the Damned Art of Proceedings of the American Philological Society 1 1 5 / 4 : 2 9 3 – 3 1 6.
Witchcraft (1608), defined the charm as a spell or verse ———. 1998. “Charmers and Charming in England and Wa l e s
used as a signal to make the Devil work wonders. f rom the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century.” Fo l k l o re
1 0 9 : 4 1 – 5 2 .
Charmers and Cunning ———. 1999. Witchcraft, Magic, and Culture 1736–1951.
Men, Leeches Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Forbes, Thomas R. 1966. The Midwife and the Witch.New Haven
Me d i e val charmers possessed a large re p e rt o i re. Cert a i n
and London: Yale University Press.
men and women we re thought to have the gift of healing
Godbeer, Richard. 1992. The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and
a specific disease or injury in humans or farm animals.
Religion in Early New England.Cambridge and NewYork:
For some the gift was inborn, but more often it depend-
Cambridge University Press.
ed on a secret verbal charm or ritual learned from an Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. 1989. The Encyclopedia of Witches and
older healer, usually a re l a t i ve who was near death. Each Witchcraft.NewYork and Oxford: Facts on File.
charm cured only one trouble, and most charmers knew Hunt, Tony. 1990. Popular Medicine in Thirteenth-Century
only one or two. Another group owned a material object England.London: Brewer.
such as a snakestone, to be loaned when needed. Jolly, Karen Louise. 1996. Popular Religion in Late Saxon England.
Me d i e val literature provided numerous examples of Elf Charms in Context.Chapel Hill and London: University of
North Carolina Press.
charms and devices for magical healing. The famous
Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1959. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and
Hildegard of Bingen provided healing charms together
Demonology.NewYork: Crown.
with proper remedies. Various methods we re used.
Schulz, Monika. 2000. Magie oder die Wiederherstellung der
Many charmers stroked the injured area after we t t i n g
Ordnung.Frankfurt am Main/Berlin and Peter Lang.
their hand with their own spittle; others blew on it; for
Storms, Godfrid. 1948. Anglo-Saxon Magic.The Hague: Nijhoff.
w a rts, simply looking at them or counting might suf-
fice. All these actions might be accompanied by prayer
or by verbal charms. Chesapeake
Cunning men used magic to combat the effects of Belief in witches emigrated with the colonists fro m
witchcraft. The Church approved their use of Christian England to the No rth American colonies, but the
p r a yers and Bible verses as cures or protection against accused witches of the Chesapeake differed from their
evil, but disapproved of the closely related practices of Puritan New England counterparts. W h e reas high num-
many folk healers. “W h i t e” witches used traditional bers of accusations and executions occurred in the nort h-
charms to help heal evil spells, reinforcing the proper- ern colonies, in the southern colonies, cases numbere d
ties of their herbs or amulets; consequently, charms f ewer than forty (twenty-eight women, seven men, and
sometimes appeared as evidence in trials for sorcery and two children) and invo l ved few executions. Although
illicit magic. In this context, the Roman, Spanish, and belief in witches and legislation against witchcraft existed
Portuguese Inquisitions acted almost as ethnographers, in the south, issues of surv i val and pro fit outweighed the
re c o rding with minute accuracy the spells and charms need to identify, accuse, and try supposed witches, and
used by hundreds of practitioners of what the Ho l y acquittal was the usual outcome in these cases.
Office condemned as “superstitious” magic. Protestant The first re c o rded witchcraft accusation in an
authorities, of course, were equally severe toward such English colony in North America occurred in 1626 in
untrained healers; for example, a charm recited to cure Jamestown. Joan Wright was accused of complicating a
a bewitched person became prosecution evidence in a childbirth, prophesying, ruining crops, and bewitching
Lancashire witchcraft trial. animals. In this extremely rare case where the accused
The professional charmer, though barely surviving in was a midwife, Joan’s services were refused because she
e x t remely remote rural communities or animistic cul- was left-handed, a supposed evil omen. Both the child
t u res, has re s u rfaced and gained fresh momentum in and his parents fell ill soon after birth, and when the
182 Chesapeake |
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infant died, suspicion fell on Joan, who was acquitted people or animals to prophesying. Only a handful of
of the charges. suspects, including the only documented case of witch-
The first death associated with charges of witchcraft craft in No rth Carolina, we re accused of using witch-
in the Chesapeake occurred at sea aboard a ship bound craft to murder another person.
for Maryland in 1654. Panicked passengers threw Mary Accusations of witchcraft in the Chesapeake contin-
Lee, an elderly woman, ove r b o a rd when bad we a t h e r ued after 1700, with charges brought against a Virginia
threatened the journey. The storms did not abate with woman named Grace Sherwood for a variety of offens-
her death, and the crew and passengers we re furt h e r es, and against two Ma ryland women, but none of
plagued with sickness until the ship reached its destina- these women suffered severe punishment.
tion. Two other women and a young boy suffered simi-
DIANA LAULAINEN-SCHEIN
lar fates: Elizabeth Richardson (1658), Katherine
Grady (1659), and Ro b e rt Charles (1662). When the See also: COUNTERMAGIC;ENGLAND;FOLKLORE;HERESY;
ship on which Grady was traveling was plagued by vio- MALEFICIUM;MIDWIVES;NEWENGLAND;PURITANISM;SHER-
lent storms, she was not thrown ove r b o a rd but was
WOOD,GRACE;SLANDER;WORDS,POWEROF.
References and further reading:
hanged at sea. The re p o rt of her execution caused the
Bruce, Philip Alexander. 1910. Institutional History of Virginia in
captain of the ship to be called before the court in
the Seventeenth Century; an Inquiry into the Religious, Moral,
Ja m e s t own to explain his actions. Chesapeake court s
Educational, Legal, Military, and Political Condition of the
might convict and condemn a witch to death, as
People Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.New
Ma ryland did with Rebecca Fowler in 1685, but they York: Putnam.
took a dim view of a ship captain acting as judge and Davis, Richard Beale. 1957. “The Devil in Virginia in the 17th
jury. Century.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography65:
These shipboard executions highlight in extre m e l y 131–134.
c o n c rete fashion that immigrants brought witchcraft Drake, Frederick. 1968. “Witchcraft in the American Colonies,
beliefs across the Atlantic with them. Patterns in colo- 1647–1662.” American Quarterly20: 694–725.
Hall, Clayton Colman, ed. 1910. Narratives of Early Maryland:
nial America thus might be expected to match those
1663–1684.NewYork: Charles Scribner.
that were occurring in England in the seventeenth cen-
Parke, Francis Neale. 1936. “Witchcraft in Maryland.” Maryland
t u ry, with a high incidence of accusations against
Historical Magazine31: 271–298.
women and a focus on m a l e fic i u m (harmful magic).
Accusations in colonial America generally mirro re d
these trends, but varied re g i o n a l l y. As in England, the Children
Devil was absent from most witchcraft cases in the From newborns to adolescents, children played signifi-
Chesapeake and concern centered not on here t i c a l cant roles in witchcraft trials, but these roles changed
behavior but on harm to people, crops, and animals. over time, from victims to accusers. At first, very young
On the other hand, the Jonah-like notion of pitching babies were favorite targets of witches and were even
passengers ove r b o a rd to calm the seas was unique to eaten at some early witches’ Sabbats. The role of very
ships sailing to the Chesapeake. Mo re ove r, seve r a l young children as major victims of witches continued
charges of “riding a person” are found in this area. This throughout the phase of intensive witch hunting, but
charge has Eu ropean roots—cases can be found in older children began taking on an important role as
England and in Scandinavian folklore—but was less accusers and witch finders during the sixteenth century.
common elsew h e re. In addition to the riding charges, By the beginning of the seventeenth century, children
Virginia saw many suits in which plaintiffs sued to below the age of majority were being imprisoned and
re s t o re their good names after being called witches, punished for witchcraft in parts of Europe, principally
f o l l owing an act passed in 1655 by the Ge n e r a l for attending Sabbats. In the final stage of witch hunt-
Assembly of Virginia that defined accusations of witch- ing, some adolescent accusers were punished for perjury
craft as scandalous and slanderous. Un s u b s t a n t i a t e d rather than witchcraft.
accusations could be punished with a fine of 1,000 The earliest descriptions of witches’ gatherings in the
pounds of tobacco. fifteenth century re vealed three different ways that witch-
Speech figured prominently in accusations as well as es allegedly attacked ve ry young children. An It a l i a n
in slander suits. In one well-documented case, Eleanor method, popularized in the sermons of St. Be r n a rdino of
Neale was accused of cursing her neighbor thro u g h Siena and found primarily in Umbria, featured elements
fighting words and an ill tongue. Her case also illustrated of vampirism, with witches in the form of large insects
a folk remedy, one of many in the Chesapeake, for deal- sucking babies’ blood. Almost contemporaneously, early
ing with witches: the victim found relief by nailing a Swiss Sabbats (which conflated stereotypes about witches
horseshoe over his door and contriving to have Ne a l e with those about medieval heretics, including horrifying
pass under it. The rest of the charges against Vi r g i n i a p a rodies of the Eucharist) included descriptions of canni-
witches we re potpourri of allegations from harming balism, with witches not only killing but also eating the
Children 183 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 221 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.184 Application File
flesh of ve ry young children at their diabolical assemblies. b roached the issues of the credibility and punishment
Other early witches we re accused of simply killing chil- of underage witches who accused adults of taking them
d ren through malevolent spells, without re s o rting to to Sabbats in his 1589 demonological tre a t i s e
either vampirism or cannibalism. (Behringer 1989, 33–34). The boy’s example was soon
Both the central Italian vampirism tradition and the imitated elsew h e re; for example, a boy of fourt e e n
Swiss cannibalism tradition continued deep into the began a chain of accusations in the prince-bishopric of
sixteenth century, particularly in more remote rural dis- Augsburg that led to the deaths of twenty-seven women
tricts, but they tended to disappear from accusations in 1589, and other juveniles subsequently provoked a
and trial re c o rds after 1600. Meanwhile, the role of major hunt at Ellwangen in 1611. Binsfeld’s preoccupa-
babies and young children as principal victims of witch- tions with juvenile witches we re soon shared by other
es’ evil spells or Maleficia(harmful magic) continued to demonologists, who surpassed the bishop’s recommen-
hold a central place in accusations in several parts of dation of whipping them; in 1595 his Lorraine col-
Europe throughout the 1500s, and continued long after league, Nicolas Rémy, raised the question of re d u c i n g
1600. In a world where child mortality was extre m e l y the legal minimum age for imposing the death penalty
high by today’s standards, it was obviously impossible on witches (Monter 1993). Meanwhile, in eastern
to attribute most infant deaths to witchcraft; but cor- France, where diabolical possession played a more
roborative evidence, especially threats by older women, i m p o rtant role in witch hunting, Henri Boguet began
made many accusations seem viable. his 1602 demonology with the case of a bew i t c h e d
Meanwhile, a sinister new development invo l ve d e i g h t - year-old girl who uncove red many witches and
older children in the business of finding witches. It is whom the judge found “as believable as if she were thir-
first traceable among sixteenth-century Ba s q u e s . ty or fort y.” But, he also felt impelled to defend his
During the great Na va r rese witch hunt of 1525, the leniency in punishing a girl of fourteen who admitted
traveling judge took along “two girl witches who identi- attending a witches’ Sabbat with banishment rather
fy other witches”; with their help—he lined suspects than death.
u p, and the two girls simply looked directly in their The earliest known case where a preadolescent witch
eyes—he eventually hanged about forty witches (Idoate actually re c e i ved capital punishment occurred in
1978, 268). Afterw a rd, such witch finders re a p p e a r R é m y’s Lorraine. In 1603, a twe l ve - year-old boy was
with depressing regularity in Basque witch hunts; “the condemned to death for witchcraft and the sentence
presence of young girls, always as accusers with identifi- was carried out. Once this threshold had been crossed,
able targets, was almost inevitable,” notes a leading his- judges in the same district sentenced a nine-ye a r - o l d
torian (Idoate 1978, 64, 128–130, 134). Two girls, boy to death in 1606, but the duke postponed his exe-
aged nine and ten, testified against their parents and cution, and he was sent home two years later.
neighbors in 1539. Even younger children of seven and Something similar occurred on a far larger scale in the
eight appear to have begun another major witch hunt Southern Netherlands, where the seigneurial court of
in 1569–1570, but this time the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n Bouchain sentenced thirty-two minors to death for
finally persuaded them to retract their accusations; the witchcraft between 1611 and 1615, together with
same thing happened again in 1575, when a ten- almost 100 adults. Thirteen minors were executed, the
year-old girl denounced her grandmother for taking her five youngest being hanged secretly, until the archdukes
to a witches’ Sabbat. Seventy years after the great hunt forbade further executions of underaged witches.
of 1525, yet another Navarrese girl, aged twelve or thir- Howe ve r, three other child-witches we re subsequently
teen, became a professional witch finder. Little wonder, put to death after reaching the age of majority
then, that a Basque parish priest had little difficulty in (Muchembled 1987, 210–211).
keeping forty child-witches between the ages of six and The single worst episode occurred during a major
t we l ve in his home in 1609, or that the famous German witch hunt. Be t ween 1627 and 1629, the 29
Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar y Frias listened to confes- g roups of witches executed at W ü rzburg included 41
sions from 1,384 child and adolescent witches during minors and 119 adults. Tw o - t h i rds of the juve n i l e
his visitation of Navarre two years afterward. witches executed for attending Sabbats we re boy s ,
As major witch hunts swept across parts of we s t e r n many of them students, including a nephew of
Europe after 1580, children played a significant role in Würzburg’s prince-bishop.The victims also included “a
helping to convict witches, because they could sponta- young girl of nine or ten, and a smaller one, her
neously and without tort u re identify people who younger sister.” Soon afterward a “NewTreatise on the
attended witches’ Sabbats, without themselves suffering Seduced Child-Wi t c h e s” appeared in Electoral Ma i n z .
the full legal consequences. In Germany, an eight-year- After the great hunts ended, one still finds children and
old boy became an important accuser when the fir s t juveniles at the origins of smaller German witch panics,
great outbreak of witch hunting began at Trier in 1585. although the habit of putting young witches to death
Peter Binsfeld, the suffragan bishop of Tr i e r, fir s t dropped sharply after 1630.
184 Children |
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The main role played by children in En g l i s h , the legal age of adulthood. While verbal abuse of inferi-
Scottish, and New England witch hunts was as demon- ors (whether workers, women, or children) was
ically possessed accusers of other witches. Child demo- undoubtedly common in Western civilization, we have
niacs in England identified numerous witches as the no direct evidence that the minors who identified adult
cause of their afflictions in the late sixteenth and early witches (whether or not they we re demonically
seventeenth centuries. The most famous of these demo- possessed) we re physically or sexually abused; and
niacs were the five daughters of RobertThrockmorton, psychological theorizing cannot suffice to demonstrate
whose accusations led to the execution of three witches the presence of such abuse. Instead, when seen in a
in 1593. In 1692 a group of teenage girls in Sa l e m long-term perspective, the history of witchcraft accusa-
Village in Massachusetts initiated a major witch hunt tions and trials involved considerable abuse of vulnera-
when they identified a number of witches as the cause ble adults by manipulative adolescents and childre n ,
of their bodily fits and convulsions. Similar charges of who because of their age escaped the legal consequences
witchcraft brought by an eleve n - year-old Scottish of their accusations.
demoniac, Christian Shaw, resulted in the execution of
WILLIAM MONTER
seven witches at Paisley in 1697.
A final twist to the question of what credit, if any, See also:BASQUECOUNTRY;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;BINSFELD,PETER;
should be given to testimony by underage witches BOGUET,HENRI;CANNIBALISM;INFANTICIDE;LORRAINE,DUCHY
o c c u r red during the great Swedish witch panic that
OF;MORAWITCHES;NETHERLANDS,SOUTHERN;POSSESSION,
began in 1668. Hundreds of children testified that their
DEMONIC;RÉMY,NICOLAS;SALEM;SALZBURG,PRINCE-ARCHBISH-
OPRICOF;WITCHFINDERS;WÜRTTEMBERG,DUCHYOF;
parents or neighbors had taken them off to large-scale
WÜRZBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF.
Sabbats at Blåkulla. Howe ve r, Swedish law disallowe d
References and further reading:
testimony by anyone under age fifteen, and two wit-
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1989. “Kinderhexenprozesse; Zur Rolle von
nesses we re re q u i red to prove a defendant’s guilt. On Kindern in der Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung,” Zeitschrift
this occasion, Swedish judges arrived at an original way für Historische Forschung16:31–47.
a round this difficulty by weighing a child’s testimony ———. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria.Cambridge:
proportionately to his or her age, a boy of fourteen, for Cambridge University Press.
example, being worth half an adult, but a child of six or Idoate, Florencio. 1978. La Brujería en Navarra y sus documentos.
s e ven being worth a re l a t i vely small fraction; the frac- Pamplona: Diputacíon Foral de Navarra.
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1998. “Avenging the Blood of Children:
tions we re then added until the sum reached two,
Anxiety over Child Victims and the Origins of European
w h e reupon the guilty person could be arrested. T h e
Witch-Hunts.” Pp. 91–109 in The Devil, Heresy, and Witchcraft
panic lasted seven years and took close to 200 live s .
intheMiddle Ages: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey B. Russell.Edited
Before it ran its course, it had generated 10,000 pages
by Albert Ferreiro. Leiden: Brill.
of testimony, much of it from juveniles. When it finally
Monter,William. 1993. “Les enfants au Sabbat: bilan provisoire.”
ended, the Swedish royal court judges sentenced a lad Pp. 383–388 in LeSabbat des sorciers.Edited by Nicole
of thirteen, whose testimony had been instrumental in Jacques-Chaquin and Maxime Préaud. Grenoble: Jacques
many arrests and convictions, to be hanged for per- Millon.
j u ry—a unique instance in the annals of Eu ro p e a n Muchembled, Robert. 1987. Sorcières, justice, et société aux XVIe et
witchcraft. XVIIe siècles.Paris: Imago.
Un f o rt u n a t e l y, the sad story of the child-witch does Roper, Lyndal. 2000. “‘Evil Imaginings and Fantasies’: Child
Witches and the End of the Witch Craze.” Past and Present
not end there, or at Salem. For example, children we re
167:107–139.
i n vo l ved in a steadily increasing share of seve n t e e n t h -
Sebald, Hans. 1995. Witch-Children: From Salem Witch-Hunts to
c e n t u ry witchcraft trials in the Duchy of W ü rt t e m b e r g
Modern Courtrooms.Amherst, NY: Prometheus.
(Weber 1996, 103–104). Wolfgang Behringer has argued
Walinski-Kiehl, Robert S. 1996. “The Devil’s Children: Child
(1989, 39) that “in the late seventeenth and early
Witch Trials in Early Modern Germany.” Continuity and
eighteenth centuries a large share of those executed as Change11:171–189.
witches we re children,” pointing not only to the notori- Weber, Hartwig. 1996. “Von der verführten Kinder Zauberei:
ous Za u b e rer-jackl ( So rc e re r - Ja c k ) trials at Salzburg, but Hexenprozesse gegen Kinder imalten Württemberg.”Sigmaringen:
also to cases at Freising and Augsburg as late as 1720; the Jan Thorbecke.
last witches to be executed in Ba varia, in 1754 and 1756,
we re girls of fourteen (Behringer 1997, 350–352). Christian IV (1577–1648)
The disquieting story of children and diabolical King of Denmark-Norway from 1588 to 1648 (includ-
witchcraft did not end in Vo l t a i re’s day, as contempo- ing the regency of chancellor Niels Kaas during the
r a ry Satanic ritual child abuse trials have shown. T h e king’s minority until 1596), Christian IV was a firm
sad events of recent decades have influenced some believer in witchcraft, but time and time again he
scholars to allege that participation in the phenomena appeared to be restrained by earlier Danish rules con-
of diabolical witchcraft involved abuse of people below cerning witchcraft trials and by his own sense of
Christian IV 185 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 223 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.186 Application File
upholding the rule of law.The sixty years of Christian During the next year, while waging war in Germany
IV’s rule coincided chronologically with Europe’s most during the T h i rty Ye a r s’ Wa r, the king re m a rked in a
extensive witchcraft persecutions. Denmark was no letter about a number of cases in El s i n o re that there
exception to this trend. were too many witches, and the best thing would be to
De n m a rk’s most famous incident of witchcraft get rid of them once and for all—but he did nothing
o c c u r red during his minority, following the arrival in more about it. Memories of the Køge witches fourteen
1589–1590 of the Scottish King James VI in the years earlier remained sufficiently vivid in people’s
Danish capital of Copenhagen to bring his bride, minds that the woman who had been tranferred to the
Princess Anne, the sister of the king, back to Scotland. castle of Copenhagen was mentioned during the
A heavy storm forced the Danish fleet to seek shelter Elsinore cases.
under the Norwegian coast. Suspicion arose that witch- In 1642, in the most notorious Danish witchcraft
es had masterminded this incident, and trials followed trial, Christian IV inexplicably had the wife of an
in East Lothian and Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as in i n n k e e p e r, Ma ren Splids, brought to Copenhagen fro m
Copenhagen. The trials showed that witches in the two the town of Ribe in Jutland to interrogate her—
countries had worked together; the No rth Be rw i c k p robably using tort u re, which was against Danish law—
witches had thrown a black cat in the sea, and witches although she had been aquitted of the charges in her
in Copenhagen had put eggshells into the water to raise h o m e t own. Howe ve r, cases where Christian IV inter-
the storm. T h i rteen witches we re executed in f e red personally in witchcraft cases we re exc e p t i o n a l .
Copenhagen, but no perva s i ve witch hunt was During Christian IV’s reign, the Danish High Court
launched in De n m a rk, whereas James VI had eve n judges aquitted approximately half of all accused witch-
m o re witches executed in Scotland and wrote his es. The king must have been aware of this high acquittal
famous Daemonologie(Demonology) in 1597 after this rate, as he took an active part in the King’s Be n c h
episode. ( De n m a rk’s Su p reme Court), where the judges consisted
Although it was a well-known fact that the Sami of of the Council of the Realm and the king. Christian IV
Finnmark in the northernmost part of Norway dabbled was primus inter pares ( first among equals) and took a
in witchcraft, it was not until 1609 that the king g reat interest in all cases. When an ord i n a ry case of
o rd e red all Sami invo l ved in witchcraft punished by witchcraft came to the King’s Bench in 1630, Christian
death. However, the letter to his governmental officers IV was not present, and the Council had to try to re a c h
must be seen in connection with the thwarting of a decision. T h ree of the eight members of the Council
Russian and Swedish plans to expand their influ e n c e p roposed to ask the king how to handle this case, which
into Fi n n m a rk. At the same time, the Danish king must be considered a re m a rkable suggestion, as the
struck at the external as well as the internal enemies of Witchcraft Statute had been passed only thirteen ye a r s
the Danish-Norwegian kingdom. p re v i o u s l y. Fi n a l l y, the Council reached an agreement to
Throughout his entire reign, Christian IV was preoc- let the case rest, until the king could be asked. In 1631,
cupied with Denmark’s strained relations with Sweden. in the king’s presence, the woman was finally acquitted.
In 1611 he wrote from his military camp during the This case epitomizes the enigma of Danish witch-
Calmar War that the Danes had found a large number craft trials. Although Christian IV was a firm believer in
of wax images buried in the ground. The Danes sup- witchcraft, and a strong advocate of persecuting the
posed that the Swedes had re s o rted to witchcraft to perperators, he apparently never contemplated chang-
destroy the Danish army. ing the basic Danish legal rules toward an inquisitorial
The king was well aware when the small town of Køge p ro c e d u re, which would no doubt have lowe red the
was shaken by the execution of eleven witches in high acquittal rate.
1612–1613. After the final sentence, he ord e red one of
JENS CHRISTIAN V JOHANSEN
them tranferred to the castle of Copenhagen to be tor-
t u red. The Køg eHuskors (The Nuisance of Køg e) became See also:DENMARK;HAIR;JAMESVIANDI,KINGOFSCOTLANDAND
one of the most important preludes to the pro m u l g a t i o n ENGLAND;NORWAY;WEATHERMAGIC.
of the Witchcraft Statute of October 12, 1617. References and further reading:
In 1625 a woman was accused of obtaining a hair Henningsen, Gustav. 1982. “Witchcraft in Denmark.” Folklore93:
131–137.
from the king as well as from his son in order to kill the
Johansen, Jens Christian V. 1989. “Denmark: The Sociology of
king and lead his heir into a sexual relationship with a
Accusations.” Pp. 339–366 inEarly Modern European
n o b l ewoman the king disliked. After a High Court
Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
judge acquitted her, the king dismissed him and contin-
and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
ued to call the woman a witch. However, he could not
Riis, Thomas. 1988. Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot...
compel the Council of the Realm to pursue the case Scottish-Danish Relations c. 1450–1707.I–II (Chapter 11).
further. Odense, Denmark: Odense University.
186 Christian IV |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 224 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.187 Application File
Chronology of procedure in local courts, reflected the gradual assimi-
Witchcraft Trials lation of charges of diabolism to those of maleficium
European courts prosecuted witches from the early fif- (Kieckhefer 1976, 10–26).
teenth century until the late eighteenth century, but the Beginning soon after 1420, the history of Eu ro p e a n
great majority of trials took place in the closing decades witchcraft prosecutions entered a new and radically
of the sixteenth century and the first thirty years of the d i f f e rent phase. Not only did trials for sorc e ry incre a s e
seventeenth century.The number of trials in the various in number, but also charges of diabolism we re more
courts that tried witches followed different chronologi- f requently grafted onto them, and witch hunting
cal trajectories; a period of intense prosecution in one began to assume the characteristics it maintained
jurisdiction sometimes coincided with a period of rela- t h roughout the period of prosecution. During the
tive inactivity in another.The reason for such different 1420s, and 1430s, the full stereotype of the witch,
chronological patterns is that witch hunts often arose in complete with descriptions of the witches’ Sa b b a t ,
response to social, economic, or political conditions emerged, most notably in trials in the western Alps.
that were peculiar to a particular area. Another variable For all intents and purposes, these fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry
was the degree of determination by local officials to trials mark the beginning of the Eu ropean witch hunt.
prosecute witches. Zealous witch hunters were natural- It was during this period, more ove r, that the fir s t
ly more likely to burn more witches during their tenure witchcraft treatises—most notably Johannes Ni d e r’s
than those who had doubts regarding the guilt of witch- Fo rm i c a r i u s (The Anthill, written 1437/1438, pub-
es or the possibility of their crime. lished 1475), Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m
Despite these variations, it is possible to chart the rise (The Hammer of Witches, 1486), and Ul r i c h
and fall of witchcraft prosecutions throughout Eu ro p e Mo l i t o r’s De laniis et phitonicis mulieribus
and colonial America in ve ry general terms. Except in (Concerning Witches and Fo rtunetellers, 1489)—
some areas of eastern Europe, where trials did not reach a p p e a red. The publication of these works, which
their peak until the eighteenth century, a few broad pat- e m p h a s i zed the diabolical as well as the magical
terns emerge. Witchcraft trials gradually increased as dimensions of the witch’s crime, corresponded to an
the crime of witchcraft became more clearly defined in i n c rease in the number of pro s e c u t i o n s .
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, leveled off or
declined during the first half of the sixteenth century, The Period of Limited Prosecutions
reached epidemic proportions in the late sixteenth and and Small Hunts, 1520–1560
early seventeenth centuries, and declined in the late sev- At this point, the history of European witch hunting
enteenth and eighteenth centuries. followed a somewhat surprising course. Instead of slow-
ly accelerating and leading into the large panics of the
Early Witchcraft Trials, 1300–1520 late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the num-
Prior to the 1420s, the concept of witchcraft as a crime ber of trials leveled off during the early sixteenth centu-
involving both maleficium (harmful magic) and devil ry, and in certain areas actually declined (Hansen 1901,
worship was in the process of formation; therefore, it is 68–262; Foucault 1907, 297–306; Midelfort 1972,
problematic to speak of the prosecutions that took 201–202). This decline did not escape the notice of
place during those years as witchcraft trials. Most such contemporaries. In 1516, Martin Luther claimed that
trials before the 1420s were prosecutions either for sim- although there had been many witches and sorcerers in
ple maleficium or for ritual magic. The trials that took his youth, they were “not so commonly heard of any-
place during these early, formative years can be divided more” (Levack 1995, 186). As one might expect, there
into three shorter periods. From 1300 to 1330, most of were some areas where Luther might have heard much
the “witches” were ritual magicians who attempted to more about witches during these years. There were a
harm political rivals or to advance their careers. In the number of trials in the Basque country between 1507
second period, from 1330 to 1375, the trial of politi- and 1539; in Catalonia in 1549; in the diocese of
cally related cases virtually ceased, but there were a sub- Como and in other parts of northern Italy in the 1510s
stantial number of sorcery trials. Whether these trials and 1520s; in northern parts of Languedoc between
were for simple maleficium or for ritual magic is diffi- 1519 and 1530; and in Luxembourg, Namur, Douai,
cult to determine, but in either case, the most note- and other parts of the Low Countries throughout the
worthy feature of the prosecutions is the absence of first half of the sixteenth century.There also were occa-
charges of diabolism. During the third period, from sional prosecutions in places like Nu re m b e r g
1375 to the 1420s, not only did the number of prose- (Kunstmann 1970, 39–73), but it is difficult to avoid
cutions increase, but charges of diabolism also became the conclusion that the early sixteenth century was a
more common, mainly in Italy. This development, period of relative tranquility as far as witchcraft was
which was facilitated by the adoption of inquisitorial concerned.
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This leveling-off or reduction in the intensity of alized” Protestant and Catholic Reformations did much
witch hunting during the first half of the sixteenth to encourage witchcraft prosecutions in the late six-
c e n t u ry was re flected in, and to some extent possibly teenth and seventeenth centuries. Moreover, during the
caused by, an interruption in the publication of witch- earlier years of the Reformation movement, the dis-
craft treatises and manuals. The Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m , putes between Protestants and Catholics (who consid-
for example, while enormously popular between 1486 e red each other heretics, but not the same type of
and 1520 and again between 1580 and 1650, was not h e retics as witches) served to distract Eu ropean elites
reprinted between 1521 and 1576. Si m i l a r l y, none of f rom witch hunting. Mo re specific a l l y, the Pro t e s t a n t
the other fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft treatises found a rejection of Roman Catholicism naturally led to a
m a rket during these years. And after the publication desire on the part of reformers to formulate their own
of Paulo (Paulus) Gr i l l a n d o’s (Grillandus), Tra c t a t u s theories of witchcraft rather than rely on the work of
de He reticis et Sort i l e g i i s (Treatise on He retics and fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Catholic demonologists and inquisi-
So rc e rers) in 1524, ve ry little was written in support tors. This rejection of Catholic witchcraft theory thus
of witch hunting until the 1570s. In other words, if contributed to a decline in the demand for the older,
the production of witchcraft literature serves as a fifteenth-century treatises. Finally and most important,
gauge of concern with hunting witches, there was def- the Protestant rejection of the Inquisition, its drastic
initely an early sixteenth-century gap, lagging a little overhaul of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and its transfer
behind the actual reduction in the number of trials. of much ecclesiastical jurisdiction to secular court s
Instead of one continuous Eu ropean witch hunt, there involved extensive alterations in the judicial machinery
we re really two separate campaigns: an early, geo- that was used to prosecute witches.
graphically limited hunt in the late fifteenth century
and a much more intense and widespread series of The Period of Intense Prosecutions
p rosecutions in the late sixteenth and early seve n- and Large Hunts, 1560–1630
teenth centuries. During the 1560s and 1570s there we re many signs
The lull in witch hunting during the early sixteenth that Eu rope was poised on the threshold of a new out-
c e n t u ry can be attributed both to the development of b reak of witch hunting, one that was much more
skepticism among the learned elite and to the preoccu- intense and widespread than the initial assault of the
pation of both ecclesiastical and secular authorities with late fifteenth century. In the southwestern Ge r m a n
the confessional disputes and prosecutions during the t own of Wiesensteig, some 63 witches we re executed in
Protestant Reformation. This period witnessed the 1562, and during the winter of 1562–1563, the
s p read of Renaissance humanism throughout Eu ro p e , p a rl e m e n t ( s ove reign judicial court) of Toulouse heard
and although the humanists failed to undermine the on appeal about three dozen cases of witchcraft fro m
cumulative concept of witchcraft, they did attack parts the diocese of Couserans. A series of trials in the Low
of it as well as the scholastic mentality that prove d Countries offered further evidence that witchcraft was
receptive to it. For a brief period, the critiques of witch once again on the rise, as did the passage of witchcraft
beliefs and prosecutions that one finds in the writings statutes in both England and Scotland in 1563. A
of men like Desiderius Erasmus, Andrea Alciati, Pietro number of small panics occurred during the 1570s in
Pomponazzi, and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa vo n the wake of a serious agrarian crisis. The resumption of
Nettesheim, may have shaken the re s o l ve of va r i o u s the printing of the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m , the appear-
authorities to pursue witches. Their insistence that ance of Lambert Da n e a u’s Les sorciers, dialogue tre s -
magic could be performed naturally, without the aid of utile et necessaire pour ce temps (Witches, a Ve ry Us e f u l
demons, and that witches we re harmless cre a t u res vic- Dialogue and One Ne c e s s a ry for the Present Time) in
t i m i zed by delusion had at least the effect of raising 1574, and the refutations of We ye r’s skeptical argu-
doubts about the practice of the crime. At the same ments by Thomas Erastus (1572) and Jean Bodin
time, Protestant Germany, especially through the work (1580) also signaled a re n ewal and an intensification of
of preacher Martin Plantsch in Tübingen, developed a witch-hunting ze a l .
belief that God was directly responsible for many of the Most European territories experienced the full force
natural disasters like hailstorms that we re mistakenly of the Eu ropean witch hunt between 1580 and 1630.
attributed to witchcraft. This early sixteenth-century Large-scale prosecutions involving hundreds of victims
skepticism found its most articulate and forc e f u l o c c u r red in scattered parts of western and central
expression in the work of the tolerant humanist physi- Europe, most notably in the diocese of Trier in the late
cian Johann Weyer during the 1560s. 1580s and early 1590s, Scotland in 1590 and 1597,
The role that the Protestant Reformation played in Lorraine in the late 1580s and early 1590s, the Pays de
the early sixteenth-century reduction of witchcraft Vaud peaking in 1599, Ellwangen in the 1610s, and
prosecutions was complex and problematic. There is lit- W ü rzburg and Bamberg during the 1620s. Wi t h o u t
tle doubt that the combined efforts of the “confession- complete statistics, it is difficult to determine which
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decade between 1580 and 1630 was the time of the The Period of Decline, 1630–1770
most intense witch hunting. The 1580s seem especially The prosecution and execution of witches did not end
bad in Sw i t zerland and the Low Countries; the 1590s in 1630, but entered a new phase marked by a general
in the Low Countries, Scotland, and in many German decline in the number of trials. There were notable
territories; the 1600s in many other German states; the exceptions to this pattern. In the Dutch Republic, the
1610s in Spain; while the late 1620s in Germany may prosecutions came to almost a complete end shortly
well have been the worst of all. after 1600, while in Spain the Inquisition stopped exe-
This period of intense witch hunting between 1580 cuting witches in the wake of the great Basque witch
and 1630 was related, as both cause and effect, to the hunt of 1609–1614. In France, the procedural mea-
p roliferation of witchcraft treatises. The we l l - k n ow n sures introduced by the Parlement of Paris (sovereign
works by Peter Binsfeld (1591), Nicolas Rémy (1595), judicial court, with jurisdiction over approximately
King James VI of Scotland (1597), Ma rtín Del Rio one-half of France) resulted in a dramatic reduction in
(1599–1600), Henri Boguet (1602), Francesco Ma r i a the number of executions by the 1620s, although
Gu a z zo (1608), and Pi e r re de Lancre (1612) we re all France’s greatest witch panics occurred in Languedoc
written during these years, and a rapidly grow i n g between 1643 and 1645 and in Burgundy between
printing industry made them available to an increasing- 1644 and 1646. In England, prosecutions tapered off
ly large Eu ropean reading public, which of course significantly after 1607, although the largest single
included virtually eve ry man holding a judicial posi- witch hunt in English history occurred in 1645–1647,
tion. These treatises used evidence from ve ry re c e n t thus interrupting this period of decline. Scotland also
witchcraft trials to confirm the reality of witchcraft, experienced its last and largest witch hunt in
deepen elite fears of the crime, and provide guidance 1661–1662, following a significant reduction in the
for its effective prosecution. number of prosecutions during the 1650s. These late
The unprecedented intensification of witch hunting witch panics in England and Scotland, as well as simi-
in the late sixteenth century reflected not only the reso- lar episodes in Sweden and Finland in the 1660s and
lution of learned doubt, but also the impact of both the early 1670s, make it more difficult to establish univer-
Protestant and Catholic reformations. By this time, the sal patterns of decline. Mo re ove r, a few are a s —
Bible, with its literal death sentences for witches Hungary (including Slovakia), Slovenia, Transylvania,
( Exodus 22:18), circulated widely in vernacular lan- Poland, Croatia, and New England—did not bear the
guages; preachers had heightened people’s awareness of full brunt of witchcraft prosecutions until the late sev-
the immediacy of Satan; reformers had declared war on enteenth or early eighteenth century.
magic in all its forms; and the process of Ne ve rtheless, in most of Eu rope, especially the core
Christianization had helped to cultivate the feelings of witchcraft area that included the Germanic territories,
both moral superiority and guilt that played such an the Swiss cantons, and the predominantly Fre n c h -
i m p o rtant part in witch hunting. To make matters speaking lands on the eastern borders of the Fre n c h
worse, the conflict between Protestantism and kingdom, the period from 1675 to 1750 was a time of
Catholicism on the one hand and between va r i o u s contraction in the prosecution of witches. Those trials
forms of Protestantism on the other reached its peak, a that did take place, more ove r, usually invo l ved only
d e velopment that re i n f o rced a fear of the Devil and one or two defendants. It took some time, howe ve r,
hostility toward witchcraft. b e f o re all witchcraft prosecutions came to an end.
A final and perhaps decisive factor in the intensifica- Many courts discouraged prosecutions in the late sev-
tion of witch hunting in the late sixteenth century was enteenth and early eighteenth centuries, but only sev-
the onset of one of the most economically volatile and en Eu ropean countries (France in 1682, Prussia in
politically unstable periods in Eu ropean history. 1714, Great Britain in 1736, the Habsburg Em p i re in
Between 1580 and 1630, Europe experienced unprece- 1766, Russia in 1770, Poland in 1776, and Sweden in
dented inflation, a series of harsh climatic changes, 1779) took legislative action either declaring that
periodic famines (the worst coming in the 1590s), com- witchcraft was no longer a crime or seriously re s t r i c t-
m e rcial depressions (especially in the 1620s), and a ing the scope of earlier witchcraft laws. The limited
m o re general crisis of production. (Behringer 1995; number and late dates of those legislative acts, cou-
Hobsbawm 1967). Real wages declined sharply, while pled with the determination of individuals to accuse
the condition of the poor and unemployed reached crit- their neighbors of witchcraft, explains why witchcraft
ical pro p o rtions. These developments aggravated per- trials, and even some executions, continued to take
sonal conflicts that often found expression in witchcraft place well into the eighteenth century. In England, for
accusations, and they also heightened the fears of many example, the ability of grand juries to indict criminals
members of the ruling elite that witches were engaged and petty juries to convict them explains why the last
in a diabolical campaign to cause dearth and famine to e xecution took place in 1685 and the last conviction
European communities. in 1712. In Scotland, where juries had less influ e n c e
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on the outcome of the trials but where authorities t u re. She is found first in books ten to twe l ve of
we re more inclined to allow charges to be bro u g h t Ho m e r’s Od y s s e y, which achieved the form we know
against witches, such trials continued until 1722. In in the seventh century B . C . E ., but had been shaped
France, the royal edict of Louis XIV ended almost all by centuries of oral tradition before that. She was
witchcraft prosecutions, but failure of the edict to end g i ven the epithet p o l y p h a rm a k o s , “of many dru g s” or
acts of sacrilege and blasphemy allowed isolated trials “many spells,” and the exceptional nature of her
until 1745. Within the German territories, a number p owers was conve yed in the ambivalent description of
of late executions took place, most notably in her as “goddess or woman.” Ab ove all, the syndro m e
W ü rzburg and in W ü rttemberg in 1749. The last exe- of the abilities attributed to her re q u i res that she be
cution in Eu rope occurred in the Swiss canton of c o n s i d e red a witch, whether from an ancient Greek or
Gl a rus (which was also the last territory to ban tor- modern Western perspective. Most striking we re her
t u re) in 1782. An execution in Poland, which animal transformations. She turned Od y s s e u s’s
o c c u r red during a period of great political upheaval in companions into pigs by feeding them a stew into
1793, was probably illegal. which she has inserted her drugs, striking them with
her wand, and issuing an instruction. The tame
BRIAN P. LEVACK
w o l ves and lions that surrounded her island palace
See also:DECLINEOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;GEOGRAPHYOFTHE may also have once been human victims; more
WITCHHUNTS. p o i g n a n t l y, so may be the magnificent stag that
References and further reading:
Odysseus killed and ate.
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1995. “Weather, Hunger and Fear.The
Odysseus himself was pre s e rved from porcine trans-
Origins of the European Witch Persecution in Climate, Society
formation by the herb m o l y, g i ven to him by the god
and Mentality.” German History13:1–27.
Hermes, which he either ingested as an antidote or
Evans, R. J. W. 1979. The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy,
carries as a pro t e c t i ve amulet. These practices may be
1500–1700.Oxford: Clarendon.
Foucault, Maurice. 1907. Les Procés de sorcellerie dans l’ancienne c o n s i d e red the first attestation of the notion of coun-
France devant les jurisdictiones séculiéres.Paris: Faculté de droit tering magic with magic. In due course Circe turned
de l’Université de Paris. Od y s s e u s’s companions back into men by the differe n t
Hansen, Joseph, ed. 1901. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur technique of smearing them with a lotion, and she also
Geschichte des hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im re j u venated them in the process (cf. Me d e a’s re j u ve n a-
Mittelalter. Bonn: Carl Georgi. tion of Aeson in the seventh book of Ovid’s
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1967. “The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century.”
Me t a m o r p h o s e s). A number of her other powers we re
Pp. 5–62 in Crisis in Europe, 1560–1660.Edited byT. Aston.
i n d i rectly implied. She could mysteriously “u n m a n”
NewYork: Doubleday.
men by taking them to bed; this is most easily read as
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their
an ability to perform enslaving erotic magic. Such an
Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500.
ability was more clearly seen in Circ e’s doublet in the
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Kunstmann, H. H. 1970. Zauberwahn und Hexenprozess in der Od y s s e y, the nymph Calypso, who contrived to keep
Reichsstadt Nürnberg. Nuremberg: Stadtarchiv. Odysseus sleeping with her, although his true love was
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. for his wife Penelope. Circe was also adept at necro-
2nd ed. London: Longman. m a n c y, furnishing Odysseus with instructions and sup-
———. 1999. “The Decline and End of Witchcraft Pro s e c u t i o n s . ” plies for his journey to the underworld and his consul-
P p. 1–93 in Wi t c h c raft and Magic in Eu rope: The Eighteenth and tation of the shades of the dead. In passing by
Nineteenth Ce n t u r i e s .Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and St u a rt
Odysseus unseen, she demonstrated the ability either
C l a rk. Philadelphia: Un i versity of Pe n n s y l vania
to teleport herself or to render herself invisible. Fi n a l l y,
Pre s s .
she could control the elements by sending a favo r a b l e
Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern
wind for Od y s s e u s’s voyage. Circe was port r a yed as a
Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
beautiful woman, but her personality is inscrutable, as
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Monter,William. 1990. Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition she switched instantaneously from pre d a t o ry deceit to
from the Basque Lands to Sicily.Cambridge: Cambridge open friendship.
University Press. In later Gre c o - Roman literature, Circe was closely
———. 2002. “Witch Trials in Continental Europe 1560–1660,” associated with Greek mythology’s other great witch,
Pp. 1–52 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Period of the Medea, usually said to be her sister, and with the witch-
Witch Trials.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. goddess Hecate, usually said to be their mother. In the
London: Athlone.
fourth book of Apollonius of Rhodes’s epic Argonautica
(ca. 270–245 B . C . E .), we are told how Medea visited
Circe her sister, together with her lover Jason, for purification
A Greek mythological fig u re, Circe is the subject of after killing her brother Apsyrtus. Here her island was
the earliest extant witch portrayal in Western litera- described as populated by misshapen semitransformed
190 Circe |
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Circe, the witch in Homer’s Odyssey,pours poison into a vase while waiting for Ulysses to arrive. Circe became the quintessential witch, a seducer
of men who practiced love magic and metamorphosis. (The Bridgeman Art Library)
creatures, a description perhaps inspired by attempts to References and further reading:
p o rtray the process of transformation in ancient art Brilliant, Richard. 1995. “Kirke’s Men: Swine and Sweethearts.”
(LIMCCirce nos. 5–26). Of particular note for the lat- Pp. 165–174 in The Distaff Side. Representing the Female in
Homer’sOdyssey. Edited by Beth Cohen. NewYork: Oxford
er Western tradition was Circe’s appearances in Ovid’s
University Press.
Me t a m o r p h o s e s , published ca. 8 C . E . The fourt e e n t h
Karsai, György. 2000. “La magie dans l’Odyssée:Circé.” Pp.
book of this poem told how she transformed Scylla into
185–198 in La magie.Edited by Alain Moreau and Jean
a monster with multiple dog heads by poisoning the
Turpin. 4 vols. Montpellier: Université Montpellier III. ii.
pool in which she bathed, and an elaborate sequence
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae[LIMC] 1983-. s.v.
related her encounter with Picus. He re Circe fell Circe/Kirke. Zurich: Artemis.
instantly in love with a young man whom she encoun- Marinatos, Nanno. 1995. “Circe and Liminality: Ritual
tered while engaged in the characteristic witches’ activi- Background and Narrative Structure.” Pp. 133–140 in Homer’s
ty of gathering herbs. She separated him from his hunt- World: Fiction, Tradition and Reality.Edited by Øivind
ing companions by manufacturing a phantom boar and Andersen and Matthew Dickie. Athens: Norwegian Institute at
by controlling the elements to bring on darkness. Bu t Athens.
Paetz, Bernhard. 1970. Kirke und Odysseus.Berlin: De Gruyter.
Picus rejected her, so she transformed him into a wood-
Page, Denys L. 1973. Folktales in Homer’s Odyssey.Cambridge:
pecker with her wand and a thrice-repeated incanta-
Harvard University Press.
tion. She changed Pi c u s’s companions by a differe n t
technique: Circe used her herbal powers to create the
Ciruelo, Pedro (1470–1548)
d a rk woodland suitable for the performance of necro-
mantic rites, and then summoned up ghosts to enact A distinguished Aragonese theologian and mathemati-
the men’s transformations into varied animal forms. cian of converso origin, born in Daroca (Saragossa),
Ciruelo wrote the most influential and widely known
DANIEL OGDEN
Castilian-language tract about witchcraft and supersti-
See also: COUNTERMAGIC;HECATE;HOMER;LOVEMAGIC;MEDEA. tion: the Reprobación de las supersticiones y hechizerias
Ciruelo, Pedro 191 |
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( Rebuke of Superstitions and So rc e ry, Sa l a m a n c a , (including many priests) who tried to fool people with
1530). It went through eight editions between 1538 their sophistry. Nonetheless, Castañega’s work was
and 1628 (Homza 2000, 183). quickly forgotten, while Ciru e l o’s book became the
After completing his early studies in the humanities in dominant discourse in the matter of witchcraft and
Saragossa (Zaragoza), Ciruelo moved to Sa l a m a n c a superstition in sixteenth-century Spain, replaced in the
a round 1482 to study the liberal arts at its unive r s i t y, seventeenth century by Martín Del Rio’s Disquisitiones
attracted by the fame of its professors of astrology and Magicae libri sex ( Six Books on In vestigations into
mathematics. In 1492 he journeyed to Paris, where he Magic, 1599–1600).
studied theology and taught mathematics for more than C i ru e l o’s Re p ro b a c i ó n was basically divided into two
ten years. Returning to Spain, Ciruelo was named lectur- p a rts. The first is dedicated to the arts of divination, with
er in Thomist philosophy at the university recently cre a t- the objective, according to Ciruelo, was to know what
ed in Alcalá de He r n a res by Cardinal Cisneros. Be s i d e s only God could and should know. The second part con-
his work on superstition, Ciruelo also wrote an extre m e- cerned itself with sorc e ry, with the objective was to seek
ly popular vernacular handbook for parish clergy, the in a brief time, and with demonic aid, certain benefit s
Arte de bien confesar(The Art of Confessing Well, 1514), that only God could give. Among the arts of divination,
which saw twenty-two editions by 1560, far outstripping the author especially condemned necromancy (which,
its competitors in this genre (Homza 2000, 163). although often performed by priests, included witch-
C i ru e l o’s didactic analysis of witchcraft and superstition craft), pre d i c t i ve astro l o g y, recourse to ordeals or augury,
thus constituted only one part of an extensive literary in addition to numerous other forms of fort u n e t e l l i n g
corpus, primarily in Latin; his ten works on various theo- k n own from antiquity, including palmistry and dre a m
logical, philosophical, and scientific problems included i n t e r p retation. Among the various forms of sorc e ry, he
the first book on mathematics printed in Spain. Ha v i n g condemned using spoken or written curses, charms,
m a s t e red He b rew, he also made fresh Latin translations superstitious prayers, and the evil eye; above all, he
of several biblical texts between 1526 and 1537. In 1527, denounced the activities of healers and exo rcists lacking
he participated in the great Valladolid conference about episcopal license, who, in Ciru e l o’s opinion, only sought
the ort h o d oxy of Desiderius Erasmus, where (unlike the to ensnare the innocent by pretending to do such things
majority) he endorsed Er a s m u s’s opinions as often as he as conjure away storms or excommunicate insects.
c e n s u red them (Homza 2000, 75).
MARÍA TAUSIET;
Because Ciru e l o’s Re p ro b a c i ó n a p p e a red only a ye a r
after the first Castilian-language treatment of the same TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SIZGORICH
theme by the Franciscan friar Ma rtín de Castañega,
See also:CASTAÑEGA,MARTÍNDE;DELRIO,MARTÍN;ERASMUS,
Tratado muy sotil y bien fundado de las supersticiones y DESIDERIUS;INQUISITION,SPANISH;MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGIC,
hechizerias y vanos conjuros y abussiones, y otras cosas al POPULAR;NECROMANCY;SPAIN.
caso tocantes, y de la possibilidad y remedio dellas (A Very References and further reading:
Exact and Well Founded Tract on Su p e r s t i t i o n s , Cirilo Flórez, Miguel. 1990. Pedro S. Ciruelo: una enciclopedia
So rc e ry, Vain Incantations, Witchcraft, and Ot h e r humanista del saber.Salamanca: Caja de Ahorros y Monte de
Things Touching upon Such Matters, and on the Piedad.
Homza, Lu Anne. 2000. Religious Authority in the Spanish
Possibility and Remedies of theSame, Logroño, 1529),
Renaissance.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
comparison of these two tracts, printed almost simulta-
Maio, Eugene A., and Pearson, D’Or s a y, eds. 1977. Pe d ro Ci ru e l o’s .
neously in the same ve r n a c u l a r, is inevitable. Both
A Treatise Re p roving All Superstitions and Fo rms of Wi t c h c ra f t .
authors expressed an identical objective, that of distin-
Ru t h e rf o rd, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Un i versity Pre s s .
guishing in a didactic manner that which was licit and
RodríguezVidal, Rafael. 2000. Pedro Ciruelo, darocense (un intelec-
that which was illicit in a matter so confused as magic tual ejemplar).Saragossa: Institución Fernando el Católico.
and superstition. Furthermore, their sources were prac- Tausiet, María. 1993. “Le sabbat dans les traités espagnols sur la
tically identical, including the Bible, St. Au g u s t i n e , superstition et la sorcellerie aux XVIeet XVIIIesiècles.” Pp.
Isidore of Seville, Thomas Aquinas, and, above all, Jean 259–279 in Le sabbat des sorciers en Europe (XVe–XVIIIesiècles):
Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris and author Colloque international E.N.S. Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, 4–7
of another famous work against superstitions, De novembre 1992.Edited by Nicole Jacques-Chaquin and
Maxime Préaud. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon.
e r roribus circa artem magicam ( C o n c e r n i n g
———. 1994. “Religión, ciencia y superstición en Pedro Ciruel y
Misconceptions About Magical Arts). Both work s
Martín de Castañega.” Revista de Historia Jerónimo Zurita, no.
a voided casuistry, and both emphasized that such
65–66:139–144.
a p p a rently extraord i n a ry phenomena as the flight or
metamorphoses of witches might be attributed to tricks
or demonic illusions, nothing but mere delusions of the Clark, Stuart
senses. Both also censured the activities of the many Professor of history at the University of Swansea, Clark
healers or workers of charms and enchantments has written authoritatively on European witch beliefs
192 Clark, Stuart |
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during the early modern period. An intellectual and to political thought informs his discussion of a range of
cultural historian, Clark has devoted most of his career issues, including the immunity of magistrates to witch-
to the study of early modern demonologists. In a series es’ power, the sacred duty of judicial authorities to pros-
of articles and essays, and most notably in his magiste- ecute the crime, and the relationship between roy a l
rial volume, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of healing and the cures performed by witches. In writing
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Oxford, 1997), about the French judge and political theorist Je a n
Clark has argued that demonology, rather than being Bodin, Clark argued for the compatibility of the politi-
an esoteric theological specialty, was part of the main- cal theory of absolutism expressed in Bodin’s
stream of early modern thought, intersecting with more R é p u b l i q u e (1576) with the witchcraft theory of the
general intellectual concerns about the scientific study same author’s De la démonomanie des sorciers ( On the
of nature, the course of history, the maintenance of reli- Demon-Mania of Witches, 1580) by exposing the reli-
gious purity, and the nature of political authority. gious dimensions to the former work and the political
Clark’s most important methodological contribution dimensions of the latter. Both works re flect the same
to the field of witchcraft studies has been his analysis of view of absolute magistracy based on divine authority.
the language of witchcraft, which he studies on its own In addition to his major work on demonology, Clark
terms rather than as perceptions of some external reali- has edited a collection of essays on the language of
t y. In fluenced by the work of linguistic philosophers witchcraft and coedited with Bengt Ankarloo a compre-
like Ferdinand de Saussure, who view language as a sys- h e n s i ve six-volume history of witchcraft and magic in
tem of signs, Clark rejects functionalist interpretations Europe. He is preparing a book on visual paradox and
of witch beliefs because one need not seek external visual reality that will include, among other things, a
explanations for people’s belief in things that alre a d y discussion of witchcraft, demonology, and apparitions.
made sense to them. Clark’s decision to study witch-
BRIAN P. LEVACK
craft theory as a“closed belief system with its own inter-
nal meanings explains why his work remains almost See also: BODIN,JEAN;DEMONOLOGY;HISTORIOGRAPHY;
entirely within the realm of early modern thought and MECHANICALPHILOSOPHY;SCIENCEANDMAGIC.
References and further reading:
is unconcerned with relating the ideas of demonologists
Clark, Stuart, 1977. “King James’sDaemonologie:Witchcraft and
to patterns of witch hunting.
Kingship.” Pp. 156–181 in The Damned Art: Essays in the
Among the many challenges that Clark’s work offers
Literature of Witchcraft.Edited by Sydney Anglo. London:
to conventional wisdom is his treatment of the relation-
Routledge.
ship between science and witchcraft. In contrast to the
———. 1980. “Inversion, Misrule and the Meaning of
traditional interpretation that the Scientific Revolution, Witchcraft.” Past and Present87:98–127.
and in particular the argument that seventeenth-centu- ———. 1987. “The Scientific Status of Demonology.”
ry mechanical philosophy undermined witch beliefs, Pp. 168–194 in Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the
C l a rk has argued that demonology had the status of a Renaissance.Edited by Brian Vickers. Cambridge: Cambridge
science in its own right, and that the belief in a De v i l University Press.
who exe rcised power in the natural world was consis- ———. 1990. “Protestant Demonology: Sin, Superstition and
Society, c. 1520–c.1630.” Pp. 45–81 in Early Modern European
tent with early modern scientific thought. For Clark ,
Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
demonology was just one of many attempts made dur-
and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
ing the early modern period to explain the natural
———. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in
world. It invo l ved the same type of empiricism that
Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
characterized the work of members of the Royal Society
———. 2000. “Johannes Althusius and the Politics of Wi t c h c r a f t . ”
in England, where belief in witchcraft flourished in the P p. 272–290 in Rätten: En Festskrift till Bengt An k a rl o o. Ed i t e d
late seventeenth century. by Lars M. Anderson et al. Lund: No rdic Ac a d e m i c .
Unlike most other historians of demonological ———.2002. “Witchcraft and Magic in Early Modern Culture.”
thought, Clark is not particularly concerned with either Pp. 97–169 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Period of
the origins or the decline of witch beliefs; his work lacks the Witch Trials.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark.
a strong diachronic dimension. This deficiency is more Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
than compensated for by his analytical insights regard-
ing a large body of writings covering the entire early Clergy
modern period. His analysis of the intersection of A collective term for all ecclesiastics who have acquire d
witchcraft theory and politics illustrates the value of the license to act as Catholic priests (both secular and
this approach. By emphasizing the sacerdotal, mystical, monastic) or Protestant pastors. This entry first discusses
and charismatic aspects of early modern political the participation of members of the clergy in the theo-
authority over a long period of time, he shows how retical preparation of the trials by promoting the belief in
rulers and witches were thought of as being, in a sense, witches and drawing juridical consequences there u p o n ;
competitors for the same type of power.This approach then their practical invo l vement in witchcraft trials, both
Clergy 193 |
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as persecutors, helpers, and victims; fin a l l y, it addre s s e s to investigate those persons who had been delivered to
the problem of their historical re s p o n s i b i l i t y. Gi ven the him under the same accusations as the “heretics” of the
absence of any general ove rv i ew of this topic, the main Vauderie (Waldensianism, but used to label witchcraft)
conclusions are illustrated by only a few examples, each of Arras. In 1486, Bishop George Gosler of Br i xe n
of which re p resents a vast amount of similar ones. stopped Heinrich Kramer from hunting witches in
Ty rol, despite his papal license. And Gu i l l a u m e
Middle Ages Adeline, a prior and professor of the University of Paris,
Before the twelfth century, deviance from the Catholic paid for his disbelief in the Sabbat voyages with
faith rarely disturbed learned clergymen in the Latin life-long imprisonment.
West, and neither did the crime of magic. Famous
penitentials like the Corrector of Bishop Burchard of Early Modern Period: Clergymen
Worms contained ecclesiastical penances for sorcery; Writing on Witchcraft
but they punished it rather mildly, and neither the The general belief in, and fear of, witches in the six-
ecclesiastical nor the secular authorities were interested teenth and seventeenth centuries that led to huge num-
in investigating such crimes. When the inquisitorial bers of trials was accompanied by a flood of pamphlets,
process began to be applied against the crimen magiae tracts, studies, and other written materials, many of
(crime of magic) in the central Middle Ages, a theoret- them by clerical authors, both Catholic and Protestant.
ical discussion began among theologians and canonists, Suffice it to point to such witchcraft theorists as Martín
especially after Pope Alexander IV ordered the inquisi- Del Rio, Joseph Glanvil, Meric Casaubon, and
tors to occupy themselves actively not only with heresy Sylvestro Prierias among so many others. Within the
but also with those kinds of divination and sorcery Catholic Church, the majority of clergymen expressing
that—an elastic clause—might include heretical ele- themselves in favor of the witch hunts were still
ments (1258–1260). This discussion, however, occu- Dominicans, now supplemented by Jesuits. However, a
pied only chapters within larger theological works, such Franciscan provincial, Benedikt Bonelli (d. 1783),
as Thomas Aq u i n a s’s Summa contra gentiles III became one of the last defenders of Del Rio.The main
(Summary Against the Gentiles). Until the fourteenth Reformers, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John
century, nearly all authors still shared the view of the Calvin, though publishing no specialized treatises on
Canon Episcopi, explaining the nocturnal rides as mere the subject, clearly approved of the witch hunts.
illusions. Significantly fewer clergymen, notably the Jesuits Paul
This situation changed in the first half of the Laymann and Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld, the
fifteenth century, when the full witchcraft stere o t y p e Theatine Fe rdinand St e rz i n g e r, the parish priest
was developed; now many clergymen published on that Cornelius Loos, or the Reformed pastor Balthasar
subject, and Pope Innocent VIII sanctioned persecu- Bekker, raised their voices in defense of suspected
tion. Most of the clerical theoreticians we re witches. However, the Roman and Spanish Inquisitions
Dominicans and had often been inquisitors: Ni c o l a s both showed a rather distanced and skeptical attitude to
Eymeric, Johannes Ni d e r, Juan To rquemada the El d e r this question.
and the Younger, Lope Barrientos, Jean Vinet, Nicolas How did the clergy succeed in spreading their ideas
Jacquier, Girolamo Visconti, Jordanes de Bergamo, and about diabolical witchcraft among their parishioners?
Rategno, Bernardo of Como. It seems that, during the Though learned theological discussions we re usually still
Council of Basel, the Dominican convent functioned as published in Latin, numerous writings appeared simul-
a center for spreading the new witchcraft concept (as taneously in vernacular translations, influencing popular
opposed to simpler conceptions of heresy and magic). A i m a g e ry. To take a few examples: the Catholic suffragan
f ew Franciscan priests, like Bishop Alfonso de Sp i n a , Peter Binsfeld had his Latin Tra c t a t u s de confessionibus
also discussed witchcraft; the secular clergy pro d u c e d m a l e fic o rum et sagarum (Treatise on Confessions of
ve ry few authors in this field, although T h o m a s So rc e rers and Witches), printed in 1589, translated into
Eb e n d o rf e r, a professor of theology and parish priest German two years later. The Calvinist theologian
near Vienna, may be mentioned. The few clerical L a m b e rt Daneau published his disputation on witches
defenders of women against witchcraft included the in 1573 in both Latin and French, followed by Ge r m a n
canon Martin Le Franc, secretary of antipope Felix V. and English editions. Niels Hemmingsen published his
Members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy led the earli- t reatise in 1575–1576, in both Latin and Danish, and
est processes that qualify as witchcraft trials, namely ten years later in German. The same is true also of pub-
those against Dame Alice Kyteler and Joan of Arc, even lications by clerical authors inclined to disbelief in
if based on political machinations. Soon, however, sec- witchcraft and the necessity of its persecution. T h e
ular authorities took over this task. Occasionally, eccle- A m s t e rdam pastor Balthasar Bekker already used his
siastics actively pre vented a persecution. In 1459, the n a t i ve Dutch to present De Be t ove rde We re l d (T h e
bishop of Amiens refused to follow the inquisitor’s wish World Bew i t c h e d , 1691–1693), soon translated into
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German and many other tongues. Howe ve r, in contrast It is more difficult to find instances of clergymen tak-
to the Middle Ages, clerical authors increasingly felt ing practical actions against the persecution of witches.
competition from laymen, especially jurists and doctors, Alonso de Salazar Frías, an inquisitor visiting Narvarre
who published on the same subjects. in 1611–1612, did much to stop the wave of persecu-
But the clergy had another and perhaps more effec- tion raging there at that time. The Roman Inquisition
tive way to spread their opinions, namely by preaching. issued some instructions prescribing its officials to pro-
Generally, many preachers intensified, or even kindled, ceed only in a juridically correct manner against per-
their audience’s interest in punishing heretics and sons accused of witchcraft. Cardinal Fe d e r i c o
witches. At executions, sermons were often given about B o r romeo even planned to found a hospice
the crimes that had been committed. A Catholic exam- for conve rted witches, which he never re a l i zed. Later,
ple would be the lectures by the Jesuit Georg Ga a r those prince-bishops who integrated parts of the
b e f o re the stake of the burned Maria Renata Si n g e r i n Enlightenment into their worldview had their officials
(1749) that continued in the local cathedral; Da v i d stop further inquisitions, as did the secular princes.
Meder (1605) may be mentioned as a fanatic Protestant Though secular authorities carried out the majority
who preached against the “De v i l’s murd e r - c h i l d re n” of the trials, priests participated in them both as exor-
and “milk-thieves.” cists and as confessors, sometimes even as associated
judges. It is not clear how often the inquisitional proce-
Early Modern Period: d u re began with exo rcists carrying out their rites in
Clergymen and the Trials o rder to pre vent the Devil from interfering on the
An inexhaustible number of sources show the activities delinquent’s behalf. Confessors, however, seem to have
of both Catholic priests and Protestant pastors who been employed at nearly all trials. In the processes of
engaged in the practice of witch hunting. The former, the Holy Inquisition, the inquisitors, always being
of course, dominated imperial ecclesiastical territories, priests, could, and did hear the confessions of the
w h e re bishops and abbots possessed not only spiritual accused. Official prohibitions notwithstanding, it is not
but also secular powers. In the bishopric of Ba m b e r g , true that clergymen left the office of torturer entirely to
one of the centers of the persecutions, the suffragan laymen; in 1256, Pope Alexander IV permitted inquisi-
bishop Friedrich Förner had a special witch prison, the tors to absolve each other from canonical irregularities
He xe n h a u s , built for the imprisonment and tort u re of to give these priests the possibility to administer torture
the accused witches; within 34 years, 600 witches we re themselves or via their servants. In any case, priests were
burned according to official fig u res sanctioned by the p resent in the tort u re chamber and directed the mea-
a rc h b i s h o p. In 1657, Bishop Dietrich Adolph of sures. Friedrich Spee told of confessors eagerly instruct-
Paderborn ord e red a general inquisition in his territo- ing tort u rers how to proceed with the best success
ry to find persons guilty of sorc e ry. One could multi- (Cautio Cr i m i n a l i s [A Warning on Criminal Ju s t i c e ,
ply such examples from nearly all ecclesiastical territo- 1631] 19, 26). But there we re cases also outside the
ries, both large and small. Among Protestant ecclesias- Inquisition: when accused of witchcraft, the senile sub-
tical functionaries, the famous preacher and playwright p r i o ress of the nunnery of Un t e rzell near W ü rz b u r g ,
Thomas Naogeorgious offers an example. He kindled Maria Renata, was hit cruelly by the fathers to make her
the fire in Esslingen by preaching against the witches confess. A monk kindled the stake of Urbain Grandier,
whom he blamed for raising a devastating hailstorm in and Cardinal Richelieu, an ordained priest and a bish-
1562, moving the population to such a degree that a o p, engineered the parish priest’s execution. Even if
reluctant city council was forced to start a wave of tri- such events seem to have been somewhat exceptional, it
als. In Scandinavia, the Danish bishop Peder Pa l l a d i u s must be underlined that inflicting physical pain, espe-
(1503–1560) persecuted witches not only in pre a c h i n g cially flogging, was a common means of exorcism pro-
but also practically. He qualified eve rybody still using cedure, just as it was a common ecclesiastical penance,
Catholic prayers as a witch not different from those both being administered by the respective priest.
who used magic. The notorious Swedish pro s e c u t i o n It is an open question of how many among the con-
of children-witches in 1669 was only possible because fessors performed nothing but their spiritual offic e .
it was demanded eagerly by ministers who insisted that Secular authorities often used them to break prisoners
c h i l d ren could not invent stories of the Sabbat. In down by asking the confessors to depict the eternal tor-
1692, two Puritan ministers of high reputation, the ments the accused faced in hell to make them avow
Mathers, father and son, stood at the center of eve n t s their crimes out of this fear (cf. Spee,Cautio Criminalis
in Salem. When conflicts arose between the secular 51). Nevertheless, some confessors tried to help those of
and the ecclesiastic hierarchy about the question of the accused whose innocence seemed obvious. During
persecuting or not, it was usually the latter who insist- the notorious Salzburg Za u b e rer jackl (So rc e re r - Ja c k )
ed on further trials (for example, Ro s t o c k , trials, which ended with the death of 124 “sorcerers” of
1 6 6 0 – 1 6 7 0 ) . all ages, a Capuchin father, Gerardus Pasendorf, tried to
Clergy 195 |
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save a girl of eleven and a boy of thirteen; but the judge done concerning the question of responsibility for the
appealed to the arc h b i s h o p, who pre vented furt h e r witch persecutions; and one can hardly find any
interventions of that kind. academic publication whose author does not betray,
Professors of theology were also members of the cler- explicitly or implicitly, a personal judgment on that
gy. Often the authorities did not consult only specialists phenomenon.
in criminal law, but also demanded theological and It is probably not accidental that there seems to be no
canonical expert opinion. This happened as early as the ove rv i ew publication on the topic “clergy and witchcraft.”
investigation in the series of witchcraft trials known as In so-called “s e r i o u s ,” that is,tendentiously-neutral histo-
the Va u d e r i e (Waldensianism, but used to label witch- r i o g r a p h y, the subject is not treated apart, because the
craft) of Arras (1459–1460), when theologians fro m i n vo l vement of the clergy with magic and witch hunting
Cambrai had to study the acts. A much later example, is taken as self-evident, basic knowledge. In the older writ-
among many, is the theological expertise that the ings by church historians from particular confessions, this
University of Würzburg contributed to the condemna- theme was treated for a long time in an openly apologetic
tion of Maria Renata in 1749. w a y. Especially during the time of the strife betwe e n
Did clergymen also become victims of witch hunts? c h u rch and state in nineteenth-century Ge r m a n y, confes-
T h e re are indeed examples, but on the whole, they are sionally biased historians functionalized the theme for
atypical. Ord i n a r i l y, their social and juridical position d i rectly political purposes. Howe ve r, in our more
e xempted them from being accused, and especially ecumenical and far more secular age, most recent publica-
f rom being tort u red. The exceptions from this ru l e tions tend to minimize or simply to conceal the role of the
include cases where personal intrigues by members of clergy in witch hunting. At the same time, anticlerical
the ecclesiastical hierarchy or the secular aristocracy authors as well as some feminists generally depict the male
p l a yed a part, as in the French trials against Louis clergy as malicious wrongdoers guided by only the
Gaufridy of Aix-en-Provence, burned in 1611, or meanest moral principles including voyeurism, sadism,
Urbain Grandier of Loudun, burned in 1634. and gre e d .
Mo re ove r, when a wave of persecution reached its Evidence for the historical guilt of both individual
peak, not even priests remained untouchable. T h e clergy and the hierarchies of all confessions generally in
witch hunts at Cologne in the second half of the six- both establishing and maintaining a theological system
teenth century included victims from the priesthood, that worked as the theoretical (ideological) basis for the
canons, vicars, and monks; on one day, 70 alumni persecutions is absolutely ove rwhelming and there f o re
(that is, f u t u re priests) we re incarcerated by the b e yond any doubt. The fact that, in the early modern
p r i n c e - a rc h b i s h o p. Be t ween 1588 and 1593, at least period, it was usually secular courts that dealt with
eight priests we re put to death in the dioceses of Tr i e r witchcraft does not excuse the Churches, except the
during the first great German witch hunt. In Anabaptists and perhaps the Greek Orthodox Church,
M ü n s t e reifel, two priests we re accused by tort u re d because both the religious reasons for hunting dow n
witches, put to the tort u re themselves, and sentenced these women and men and the method, the inquisitori-
to capital punishment (1629–1630). That accused al process, had been shaped by clergymen and we re
clergymen re c e i ved incomparably more attention than continually approved by them. Those few priests who
civil victims is shown by the case of a parish priest of bravely fought against the persecution of witches must
the diocese of Olmütz, Aloys Lauter, whom the be contrasted with the much greater number of those
prince-bishop would not have had executed until the who opposed all movements intending to end that
pope himself had approved of the sentence (1680). t r a g e d y. It is also beyond doubt that there we re a few
Perhaps even more infrequent was the execution of a clerics seeking material gain and sadistic lust by partici-
Reformed pastor; when George Bu r roughs, the pating in witchcraft trials (the first is most evident, for
ex-minister of Salem, was hanged, the consequence example, for the Cardinal Pr i n c e - Bishop Em a n u e l e
was a near re vo l t . Madruzzo of Trent [d. 1658], the latter testified by Spee
Cautio Cr i m i n a l i s 51). But this does not mean that
The Question of Responsibility most priests did not honestly believe in the necessity of
Over and over again it has been said that the historian’s saving souls by destroying those whom they thought
task was to write sine ira et studio (without anger and induced innocent people to commit mortal sins that
without bias). This indeed must be practiced when col- would lead them into eternal damnation. It is also clear
lecting and evaluating facts and figures, taking into that there existed clergymen whose involvement in the
consideration all kinds of pro and contra evidence. trials did cause them earnest inner conflicts; Spee’s testi-
Nevertheless, where central moral issues are involved, mony about that is evidence enough.
taking a standpoint becomes inescapable. No one can Gi ven the wide palette of theoretical attitudes and
write the history of slavery, torture, or mass destruction practical behaviors throughout the Christian confes-
sine ira, with complete disinterest. Neither can that be sions, and even among individual monastic orders in
196 Clergy |
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Catholicism, we can only speak of one collectiverespon- single group of men accused of practicing magic),
sibility of the clergy, that is, in establishing and main- Catholic, and participated in learned forms of magic.
taining a demonological worldview, which formed the Ordained clerics made powe rful magicians, many
o f ficial background, making it possible to solve social Eu ropeans believed, because they could dive rt the sac-
c o n flicts and destroy enemies through the instru m e n t e rdotal power that allowed them to perform the mira-
of the witchcraft accusation. There is no doubt that the cle of the Mass to magical ends. While the judicial
persecutions perpetrated by secular authorities during re c o rds of the period indicate that clerics we re most
the early modern era we re a late consequence of their f requently invo l ved in necromancy or other cere-
obligation to execute punishments that medieval eccle- monies of ritual magic, they we re also often found
siastical law had prescribed against unre p e n t a n t practicing forms of popular magic such as healing, love
h e retics. “Who goads the authorities to the witchcraft magic, and fort u n e t e l l i n g .
trials?” asked the Jesuit Spee, and answered: “First and Ordained Roman Catholic clergy possessed sacerd o t a l
f o remost the clerics and pre l a t e s . . .” (Ca u t i o p owers that allowed them to function as mediators
Cr i m i n a l i s 15). Like him or Be k k e r, a few individuals b e t ween the supernatural and the natural worlds. It was
within the clergy would rebel against them, but none of this access to the divine that enabled a priest to effect the
the Churches as hieratic organizations played any ro l e miracle of transubstantiation, where by he transformed
in ending the trials. the Communion wafer and wine into the body and
blood of Jesus. The logic of popular magical tradition
PETER DINZELBACHER
dictated that a priest might also direct this unique powe r
See also:CONFESSORS;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;COURTS,INQUISI- at will; by celebrating Mass over a magical charm, he was
TORIAL;DELRIO,MARTÍN;DOMINICANORDER;ECCLESIASTICAL b e l i e ved able to infuse the spell with sacerdotal powe r
TERRITORIES(HOLYROMANEMPIRE); EPISCOPALJUSTICE;
and thus activate it as he activated the miracle of the
INQUISITONMEDIEVAL,JESUITS(SOCIETYOFJESUS); ORTHODOX Mass. So rc e resses and magicians there f o re commissioned
CHRISTIANITY;PAPACYANDPAPALBULLS;PROTESTANTREFORMA-
c o r ruptible priests to consecrate and thus strengthen a
TION;PURITANISM;ROMANCATHOLICCHURCH;SPEE,
dizzying variety of charms. One French priest, for exam-
FRIEDRICH;WITCH-BISHOPS,HOLYROMANEMPIRE.
ple, confessed that he had been hired to say Masses over a
References and further reading:
Blauert, Andreas. 1989. Frühe Hexenverfolgungen.Hamburg: charm for winning at dice, over the dice themselves, ove r
Junius. the rope with which a man had been hanged, and over a
Dinzelbacher, Peter. 2001.Heilige oder Hexen? Schicksale auffäl- scrap of paper that, when ground to powder and scat-
liger Frauen in Mittelalter und Frühneuzeit.4th ed. Düsseldorf: t e red over someone, would cause him to fall passionately
Patmos. in love. A sixteenth-century Venetian priest admitted
Duhr, Bernhard. 1900. Die Stellung der Jesuiten zu den deutschen that he had written hoc est enim corpus meum (for this is
Hexenprozessen.Cologne: Bachem.
my body—the Latin phrase that consecrates the
Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate:Basque
Communion host) on leaves of sage, as well as on a
Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition.Reno: University of
Communion wafer, for a courtesan wishing to incre a s e
Nevada Press.
her love r’s passion for her. She planned to add the love
Hoensbroech, Graf von. 1900. Das Papsttum in seiner sozial-
charms to his soup. Si m i l a r l y, clerics’ cooperation in
kulturellen Wirksamkeit,I. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel.
Romeo, Giovanni. 1990. Inquisitori, esorcisti e streghe nell’Italia magical rituals supposedly heightened the cere m o n i e s’
della Controriforma.Florence: Sansoni. e f fic a c y. The ve ry functioning of the business of early
Russell, Jeffrey B. 1977. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages.Ithaca, modern magic, in effect, had a sacral dimension that
NY: Cornell University Press. re q u i red priests’ participation in it.
Schwillus, Harald. 1992. Kleriker im Hexenprozess. Geistliche als Lay belief in clerics’ supernatural abilities may have
Opfer der Hexenprozesse des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in been strengthened during the sixteenth and seventeenth
Deutschland.Würzburg: Echter.
centuries by the tenets of the Catholic Re f o r m a t i o n .
Soldan, W. G., Henriette Heppe, and Max Bauer. 1999. Geschichte
The Council of Trent, which met sporadically to define
der Hexenprozesse.[Reprint] Colonia: Parkland.
Catholic doctrine between 1545 and 1563, not only
Zarri, Gabriella, ed. 1991. Finzione e santitá tra medioevo ed etá
reaffirmed the claims of the Catholic Church to exclu-
moderna.Turin: Rosenberg and Sellier.
sive control over the sacred, but it also required regular
attendance at Mass. This development brought an
Clerical Magic
i n c reasing number of Catholics to witness the we e k l y
The phrase “clerical magic” does not denote a distinct miracle performed by the priest. In seventeenth-century
branch of magic, but rather any spell, charm, or magi- France, consequently, priests came to be re g a rded as
cal ritual performed by a member of the regular or sec- capable of activating even personal prayers; if a priest
ular clergy. Most clerics who we re accused of dabbling read Mass or part of the liturgy over the head of a sup-
in magic during the medieval and early modern peri- plicant, it was believed that the supplicant’s petition to
ods we re male (clerics probably comprised the largest heaven would be granted.
Clerical Magic 197 |
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As ordained priests made powe rful magicians, early of his first marriage, the wife of Humphrey, Duke of
modern Europeans held, so too did they make the most Gloucester (1391–1447), a man who combined a talent
capable of necromancers. The unique ritual powers that for power politics with a love of books and learning and
allowed priests to heighten the efficacy of magic charms a taste for debauchery. By 1440, however, Gloucester’s
or personal prayers also helped them to maintain fortunes had waned, and his attempts to charge the
c o n t rol over the demons they summoned. Only if a archbishop of York and Cardinal Beaufort with malfea-
necromancer triumphed in a contest of wills with these sance during King Henry VI’s minority provoked a
p owe rful and malign spirits could he compel them to counterattack from his enemies, in which allegations of
carry out his desires, whether it be to win the love of a witchcraft against his wife we re a central plank.
woman, cause bodily harm to an enemy, or re veal the Gloucester was disliked for his power, and, among
w h e reabouts of hidden tre a s u re. Some sixteenth- and conservative churchmen, for his patronage of new
seventeenth-century manuals of necromancy even spec- scholarship, while his wife was disapproved of because
i fied that a priest’s participation was necessary to the of her previous status as his mistress.
success of any demonic conjuration described within. Eleanor Cobham was charged with using sorcery to
Priests, monks, and friars shared several experiences kill HenryVI, and to advance her husband’s ambitions
that may have made them likely candidates to develop a for the crown. Those accused with her included
taste for demonic magic. Like all clerics, they had Margery Jourdemayne, known as “the Witch of Eye” (a
re c e i ved some education and thus possessed at least a settlement near Westminster), Roger Bolingbro k e ,
basic knowledge of Latin and a degree of familiarity whose confession probably first implicated the duchess
with the rites of exo rcism. While knowledge of Latin in the affair, and Thomas So u t h well. A canon of
was certainly not limited to the clergy in early modern St . St e p h e n’s Chapel in We s t m i n s t e r, So u t h well was a
Europe, priests did possess both a facility of ritual forms man of considerable learning, an astrologer and
and a command of ritual language that may have alchemist who had enjoyed Gl o u c e s t e r’s patro n a g e .
p rovided them with a sense of ownership over that With assistance from Southwell, Bolingbroke allegedly
vo c a b u l a ry and there f o re an affinity for ritual magic. attempted to compass the king’s death by necromancy,
Their education may also have introduced them to while, quite apart from the other charges, Cobham was
astrological images or other forms of magic. When cou- accused of capturing the duke’s affections by the use of
pled with access to the books of demonic magic that l ove potions supplied by Jo u rdemayne. Bolingbro k e
c i rculated throughout the period, such an education seems to have been a genuine sorc e rer; his magician’s
p rovided all the tools necessary to experiment with paraphernalia, including wax dolls suitable for employ-
necromancy. ment in image magic, we re displayed at his trial.
Jourdemayne was burned, either for heresy or treason;
LYNN WOOD MOLLENAUER
Bolingbroke was hanged and drawn-and-quartered for
See also: BLACKMASS;GRIMOIRES;MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGICAND t reason; So u t h well died in prison; and Cobham was
RELIGION;NECROMANCY;RITUALMAGIC. made to do penance and then subjected to permanent
References and further reading:
imprisonment, later on the Isle of Man, where she was
Butler, E. M. 1998. Ritual Magic.University Park, Pennsylvania
living at the time of her husband’s death in 1447.
State University Press.
The Cobham affair was typical of a number of such
Delumeau, Jean. 1977. Catholicism Be t ween Luther and Vo l t a i re: A
cases involving political elites that punctuated
New View of the Counter-Re f o rm a t i o n .London: Burns and Oa t e s .
European political history in the high and late Middle
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge:
Cambridge University. Ages. These cases occurred in royal, princely, or papal
———. 1998. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the c o u rts that we re locked into a long-term transition
Fifteenth Century.University Park, Pennsylvania State f rom being households to becoming formal seats of
University Press. g overnment. State officials, favorites, royal wives and
Ruggerio, Guido. 1993. Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage, lovers, courtiers, and servants all competed at court for
and Power at the End of the Renaissance.Oxford: Oxford p owe r, wealth, advancement, and security. It is, per-
University Press.
haps, natural that accusations of sorcery should flourish
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.New
in an environment where competition was fie rce and
York: Scribner’s.
the rules uncertain. That such cases could afflict the
very top of the English political elite is further illustrat-
Cobham, Eleanor (ca. 1400–1452) ed by the allegations of sorcery made by another duke
This duchess of Gloucester became a central figure in of Gloucester, in this case the future Richard III, against
the most spectacular of the treason-cum-sorcery trials Elizabeth Woodville, wife of the recently deceased king
among the English upper classes in the later Middle Edward IV, in 1483. At that time, Richard was trying,
Ages. The daughter of Lord Cobham of Sterborough, with the objective of their future elimination, to ensure
Eleanor became the mistress, and after the dissolution the incarceration of El i z a b e t h’s two sons, the rightful
198 Cobham, Eleanor |
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heirs to the throne; to discredit the queen and her fam- Cologne and only a few arrests. The judges of Cologne’s
ily generally; and to break the rapprochement between municipal high court remained skeptical about accusa-
the Woodvilles and a faction led by Lord Wi l l i a m tions of witchcraft. Even the first wave of persecutions
Hastings. As part of his campaign, Richard, according in the surrounding territories in the 1590s did not
to tradition, accused the queen dowager of withering change their cautious attitude.
his arm through sorc e ry. Another woman, Jane Sh o re , In the seventeenth century, a new generation of High
wife of a London goldsmith, was also invo l ved. Sh o re Court judges affected the treatment of witchcraft accu-
had been mistress to Ed w a rd IV, and after his death sations. In 1617, the city’s first death sentences for
achieved the same status with Thomas Grey, Marquis of witchcraft we re carried out against three women. T h i s
Dorset (Elizabeth Wo o d v i l l e’s son by her first marriage), n ew mentality became the precondition for the city’s
and then with Hastings. Po l i t i c a l l y, she had give n major witch prosecution, which began on Ja n u a ry 9,
offense to Richard by acting as go-between in negotia- 1627, with the imprisonment of a patrician woman,
tions between the Woodville and Hastings factions. Katharina Henot. In 1626, two nuns from the convent
R i c h a rd’s accusations against Elizabeth Woodville did of St. Clara in Cologne had been suspected of being
not stick, but he had Jane Shore convicted of “harlotry” witches and were brought to Lechenich near Cologne.
b e f o re the bishop of London’s court, and confis c a t e d One of them, Anna Sophia of Langenfeld, confessed
her considerable fortune. She died in poverty in 1527. under tort u re that Katharina Henot was also a witch.
Such cases remind us that witchcraft was not restrict- The second nun, Franziska Henot, a re l a t i ve of
ed to the peasantry, but that it was also a force in the Katharina, was arrested in Lechenich on Ja n u a ry 22,
elite politics of this period. Taking Europe as a whole, 1627. The trials against the nuns of St. Clara seem to
such cases served to spread ideas about witchcraft, and h a ve begun the rumors against Katharina Henot. Sh e
in particular to help elaborate learned theories of witch- tried in vain to fight against spreading defamations by
craft in the later Middle Ages. appealing to the vicar-general and to the archbishop of
Cologne, but the Church refused to interve n e .
JAMES SHARPE
Katharina Henot was executed on May 19, 1627. By
See also:ENGLAND;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS. 1630, thirt y - t h ree other men and women had been
References and further reading: a r rested at Cologne under suspicion of witchcraft;
Griffiths, R. A. 1969. “The Trial of Eleanour Cobham: An
twenty-three women and one man were executed.
Episode in the Downfall of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester.”
The turning point of the persecution was the trial of
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library51:381–399.
Christina Plum. She openly accused members of the
Kelly, H. A. 1977. “English Kings and the Fear of Sorcery.”
city council and other respectable notables of Cologne,
Medieval Studies39: 206–238.
until she was arrested herself. Under tort u re she con-
Vickers, K. H. 1907. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester: A Biography.
London: Archibald Constable. fessed to being a witch and to have invented her accusa-
tions against prominent people. After Christina Plum’s
Cologne death, the uncertainty about the reliability of witchcraft
Cologne refers both to a large imperial free city and to accusations brought the outbreak to an end. Be t we e n
its surrounding territory, the so-called electorate of 1647 and 1655, five more people were executed in the
Cologne. While relatively few executions occurred in city of Cologne, including two children, but after these
the city of Cologne, the electorate of Cologne became a trials witchcraft prosecution ended in Cologne. T h e
center of the European witch hunts. total number of known executions amounted to
t h i rt y - t h ree between 1617 and 1655. The Je s u i t
Imperial City of Cologne Friedrich Spee, who had been in Cologne during its
With about 40,000 inhabitants, Cologne was one of g reat persecution, was deeply upset by the witchcraft
the largest cities in Germany in the late Middle Ages. trials he witnessed there; however, his courageous book
We know today that Jakob Sprenger, the prior of opposing the witch hunts, the Cautio Cr i m i n a l i s ( A
Cologne’s Dominican monastery, was not one of the Warning on Criminal Justice) of 1631, had no visible
authors of the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of influence on Cologne’s city council.
Witches, 1486), although his name was connected with
this handbook of witch hunting for centuries. Electorate of Cologne
Nevertheless, the new theory of witches as Devil-wor- The electorate was divided into three different parts:
shippers found its way to Cologne only two decades the Erzstift(secular part of the archbishopric, where the
after the Malleus first appeared: in 1507, a certain ruler—prince-bishop—was both the spiritual leader
Tringin von Breisig confessed all elements of this new and the territorial lord) on the left bank of the river
doctrine under interrogation. She was not executed but Rhine, the duchy of Westphalia, and the Vest of
expelled from the city.Throughout the sixteenth centu- Recklinghausen. Around the year 1600, the electorate
ry, there were no death sentences for witchcraft in contained approximately 220,000 people—about
Cologne 199 |
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130,000 in the Erzstift,73,000 in Westphalia, and only on the southern part of the electorate. No rth of the city of
18,000 in the Vest. Cologne, in the so-called Un t e r s t i f t( l ower arc h b i s h o p r i c ) ,
The first trials using the new witchcraft doctrines ve ry few trials we re held. One reason for this surprising
occurred in the Erzstift at the end of the fifteenth cen- phenomenon might lie in the different housing patterns
tury. During the sixteenth century, many further trials n o rth and south of the Rhineland. No rth of Cologne, the
were held in the Rhineland. Most of the witchcraft tri- form of settlement changed from huddled village houses
als took place in the united duchies of Jülich, Cleve s to widely scattered farmhouses. Fu rther re s e a rch will
(Kleve), and Berg, which surrounded the Erzstift part of s h ow whether this had an influence on the attitude
the electorate. This situation changed in the fin a l t ow a rd witchcraft in each re g i o n .
decade of the sixteenth century, when the persecution The second major part of the electorate was the duchy
of witches concentrated on the territory of the elector of Westphalia, also called Sa u e rl a n d .Although We s t p h a l i a
and archbishop of Cologne. The first persecution began had some degree of legal autonomy, the development of
in 1592, probably stimulated by the extensive trials and its witchcraft persecutions seems similar to that in the
lynchings in the archiepiscopal electorate of Tr i e r. In southern Rhineland parts of the electorate. Ava i l a b l e
1607, to preserve the territory of Cologne’s archbishop s o u rces re veal 915 witchcraft trials in Westphalia; consid-
from mob justice, the Court Council of the electorate ering the gaps in documentation, the total number of exe-
p roclaimed an edict regulating criminal pro c e d u re in cutions here must have exceeded a thousand. The fir s t
witchcraft trials. Henceforth, the assessor’s courts in his Westphalian witchcraft case took place at Werl in 1508,
small towns and villages were required to use the help of later than in Rhineland areas. Howe ve r, while the pro s e-
an impartial lawyer whenever a witchcraft case exceeded cution in the Rhineland stopped by the mid-seve n t e e n t h
their juridical knowledge. These lawyers, who normally c e n t u ry, witchcraft trials continued in Westphalia until
came from the High Courts of Cologne or from the 1732. The peak of the witch hunt here occurred betwe e n
archbishop’s court at Bonn, were called witch commis- 1626 and 1632. As in the Rhineland part of the electorate
sioners. The concept of decentralization, pre s u m a b l y of Cologne, special witch commissioners we re deploye d .
c reated in order to guarantee fair trials for accused One of them, Kaspar Re i n h a rd, is considered to be
witches, became instead a terrible instrument of inten- responsible for the execution of almost 500 people. Hi s
sified prosecution. In many places, an alliance of witch colleague, Heinrich von Schultheiss, even wrote a hand-
commissioners, local landlords, and unscrupulous vil- book for witch hunters.
lage officials led to an increased number of trials and a The history of the witch hunt in the third and small-
more extensive use of torture. est part of the Electorate, the so-called Ve s t o f
The promulgation of Cologne’s new witchcraft Recklinghausen, differed from the other two re g i o n s .
criminal pro c e d u re did not cause an immediate Witchcraft trials began here in 1514 with the burning
i n c rease of witchcraft trials. The first mass exe c u t i o n s of eleven weather witches charged with raising storms.
only occurred in 1616, in an isolated part of the terri- Greater persecutions followed beginning in 1580: at
t o ry in the Eifel. The great mass persecution in the least twenty-three women and six men were executed in
prince-bishopric of Cologne started, just like in the this ye a r, and another eighteen people in 1581.
city of Cologne, in 1626. The first chains of trials took Between 1588 and 1590, a second wave led to forty-five
place in villages bordering the Eifel hills, but within arrests, of whom twenty-one were executed, two died in
two years people we re being executed for witchcraft jail, and one committed suicide. In the Vest and other
t h roughout the Ob e r s t i f t , the southern part of parts of western Westphalia, the water test (swimming
C o l o g n e’s Rhineland territories. In 1628, El e c t o r test) played a decisive part in demonstrating guilt or
Fe rdinand of Wittelsbach re n ewed the witchcraft crim- innocence. However, in Recklinghausen intensive pros-
inal pro c e d u re of 1607, and added confiscation pro c e- ecution ended in 1590. In the district of, Horst, near
d u res designed to pre s e rve husbands and children fro m the river Emscher, a last wave of trials can be found in
the loss of their pro p e rt y. 1609, but little Vest Recklinghausen, apparently avoid-
The number of trials decreased after Spee published his ed the terrible fate of most other parts of this region—
famous Cautio Cr i m i n a l i s ; in some parts of the elector’s the Westphalian Sa u e rl a n d , the southern Rhineland
t e r r i t o ry, the witch hunt even stopped entire l y. Bu t Erzstift, or the city of Cologne—during the late 1620s
b e t ween 1636 and 1638 a new wave of witch persecution and early 1630s.
b roke out in several places. Elector Max Heinrich, who
f o l l owed Fe rdinand in 1650, decreed a new witchcraft THOMAS P. BECKER
edict, but apart from some distant isolated areas, no new
See also:BUIRMANN,FRANZ;ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORIES
persecutions we re initiated. All in all, we can assume that
(HOLYROMANEMPIRE); EVIDENCE;FERDINANDOFCOLOGNE;
in the Erz s t i f t , the Rhineland part of the electorate of
GERMANY,WESTANDNORTHWEST;IMPERIALFREECITIES;
Cologne, at least 600 men and women lost their lives dur- LÖHER,HERMAN;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;SCHULTHEISS,
ing these witch hunts. The persecution was concentrated HEINRICHVON;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;SWIMMINGTEST.
200 Cologne |
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References and further reading: his study on the communal basis of the Re f o r m a t i o n ,
Bruns, Alfred, ed. 1992. Hexen-Gerichtsbarkeit im kurkölnischen Peter Blickle (1992) mentioned such communal com-
Sauerland.Holthausen: Schieferbergbau-Museum mittees engaged on behalf of the new ideas.
Schmallenberg-Holthausen.
Hence, communal traditions of organized self-help
Franken, Irnene, and Hoerner, Ina. 2000. Hexen. Verfolgung in
for urgent purposes probably fostered the idea that such
Köln.Cologne: Hermann-Josef Emons.
deputations could also be created to defend village
Gersmann, Gudrun. 1993–1994. “‘Toverie halber... ’. Zur
communities against the danger of witchcraft. Be s i d e s
Geschichte der Hexenverfolgungen im Vest Recklinghausen.”
general communal tradition in the Rhineland, specific
Vestische Zeitschrift92/93: 7–43.
Lennartz, Stephan, and Martin Thomé, eds. 1996. regional heritages may have pre p a red a more dire c t
Hexenverfolgung im Rheinland. Ergebnisse neuerer Lokal- und ground. Throughout the villages around Trier, the idea
Regionalstudien.Bergisch Gladbach: Thomas Morus Akademie. of legitimate self-help had long since been established
Schormann, Gerhard. 1991. Der Krieg gegen die Hexen. Das by the institution of herschaw(clamor forensis), that is, a
Ausrottungsprogramm des Kurfürsten von Köln.Göttingen: state of alarm leading to immediate collective action by
Vandenhoek and Ruprecht. communities belonging to Herschaw-districts. In 1588,
these districts set up their own special committees to
Communal Persecution persecute witches. The earliest evidence fro m
Communal persecution examines not simply the fact of Lu xemburg (1520, 1523, 1535, 1546) concerns suits
witch hunting invillages, but byvillages, that is,relying b rought forw a rd by alliances between private persons
on communal structures, traditions, and organizations. and regular functionaries of village communities; the
It clearly indicates an extensive degree of popular par- first trace of a general oath creating a formal committee
ticipation with far-reaching consequences, raising fur- in 1564 also comes from Luxemburg.
ther questions about its relationship to territorial and
administrative politics, or about the significance of Regional Roots and Dispersion
communal traditions in the context of witch hunts. The close affinity between witchcraft committees and
Recent German re s e a rch has produced much evi- communalism (as defined by Blickle) suggests that such
dence about the important role of popular demand for actions could have taken place in many regions of the
persecutions in wide regions of the Holy Ro m a n Holy Roman Empire (there is scattered evidence from
Em p i re. A chronicle written in Trier around 1620 Brandenburg, the duchy of Münster, the county of
e ven labeled the persecutions ravaging the re g i o n We rtheim, the St i f t [ m o n a s t e ry] of Od e n h e i m
some 30 years before as insurrections: “Because it was [Kraichgau], and the Austrian Alps). Political condi-
commonly believed that the witches we re re s p o n s i b l e tions, however, were not always favorable to Ausschüsse,
for the sterility of the time, the whole country rose up even when they were favorable to witchcraft persecu-
in order to exterminate them” (tota patriai n s u r rexit in tions. Territories with strongly centralized and bureau-
extinctionem malefic a ru m). An ordinance issued by cratic features displayed hostility to such communal
Tr i e r’s archbishop in 1591 described this popular activities on principle, especially in judicial matters. In
m ovement as a virtual social upheaval threatening his general, the western parts of the Holy Roman Empire
g overnmental pre ro g a t i ves: “Un f o rt u n a t e l y, the vice of with their numerous territories of medium and small
witchcraft could not be eradicated by ord i n a ry means. size were a stronghold of committees, notably the
Instead, agitators we re inciting whole communities, mountain regions of Eifel, Hunsrück, and Westerwald
which then assemble conspiratorially in order to pass together with the valleys of the Rhine and its major
resolutions (Ve r b ü n d n i s s e) close to sedition. As a tributaries (Saar, Mosel, Lahn, Sieg). In territorial
result, great numbers of communal committees we re terms, they included the electorates of Trier and
set up, whose members run impatiently back and Cologne, German parts of the duchy of Luxembourg,
f o rth, there by not only violating justice but also caus- the counties of Na s s a u - Saarbrücken, Sp o n h e i m ,
ing immense financial damage” (Scott 1832, cited in Arenberg, Wied, Nassau-Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg,
Rummel 1991, 26). and Sayn, not to mention numerous mini- and micro-
Since the Middle Ages, committees, either perma- lordships. Confessional allegiance had no influence on
nent or ad hoc deputations, we re commonly used by this phenomenon.
village communities for negotiating with the authori- In general, committees represented either single vil-
ties. In addition, rural deputations or L a n d e s a u s s c h u s s lages, several villages together, or even entire districts.
o r g a n i zed paramilitary units, mobilizing the male In the city of Tr i e r, single committees installed by the
adults of a territory in urgent need of defense. In 1732, individual guilds as well as a sort of super-committee
Zedler’s Universal-Lexikonoffered a variety of meanings pressured the electoral government into taking further
for the term but still emphasized its communal forms: actions against witches (Voltmer 2001). In villages, we
“generally and especially, it refers to a certain number of find ord i n a ry neighbors, sometimes officials, and eve n
people chosen to act in the name of the community.” In priests as members.
Communal Persecution 201 |
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Inauguration and Functioning ly any effect. Clearly the aim of the Luxembourg ordi-
The basic reason to set up a committee to hunt and nance was to weaken the persecution by limiting suits
accuse witches was to avoid the risks connected with to individuals at full risk of their action. In turn, village
p r i vate suits. The principle of trial by accusation made monopolies simply cove red their activities behind
plaintiffs personally responsible for their actions by front-men who appeared at court as formal accusers,
putting themselves (or a guarantor) into prison. If the swearing not to act on behalf of a committee. The Trier
action failed, plaintiffs or their guarantors would have ordinance of December 1591, aiming more at regula-
to pay all costs. Communal action setting up an tion than at suppression, suffered from inhere n t
accusatorial committee implied that the entire com- ambivalence: though declaring irregular committees
munity would take over this responsibility; village illegal, it allowed communities to choose deputies as
members had to swear accord i n g l y, after the assembly formal suitors in witchcraft accusations. Committees
had voted to set up a committee. Thus, a formal therefore continued to exist openly.
p a c t u m (pact) or Ve r b ü n d n i s was established. This cer- The biggest loophole was the committees’ coopera-
emony drew heavily on archaic symbolism: villagers tion with notaries and lawyers and with local officials or
underlined their loyalty to the p a c t u mby touching the l o rds eager to defend their reputations and rights
c o u rt’s mace (Ge r i c h t s s t a b) or by promising solidarity against central governments. The combination of such
to the mayo r’s hand. The oath might be sworn at a s e c o n d a ry interests with the communities’ desire for
c h u rch altar; it could also be confirmed by eve ry b o d y e f f e c t i ve action integrated persecutions into a local
stepping forth and grasping the handle of a knife stuck milieu almost totally impervious to external interve n-
into a table. tion or inspection. Although central governments saw
The whole situation was highly charged emotionally. these lawyers and notaries as guaranteeing equity and
Tensions were already high because of an agrarian crisis. justice in local procedures, they either let themselves be
Ongoing persecutions in the vicinity often intensifie d d e c e i ved by written evidence or, as Friedrich Sp e e
the desire for similar action, especially if members of c o r rectly observed, ignored hints and even explicit
their own village community had been identified as complaints from victims about abuses. All attempts to
accomplices by confessing witches. Such incidents discipline committees and their local support e r s
i n flamed these scenes, as happened in the village of revealed continuous abuses, scandals, and failures. And
Zilshausen (Hunsrück) in 1595, when Jacob Da u m , by formally prohibiting membership in such commit-
jolted out of bed by a nightmare, ran totally naked into tees to the jurors of village courts, governmental regula-
the street yelling that his house was full of witches. The tions made the former into potential opponents of the
alarmed villagers assembled and proclaimed a commit- l a t t e r, creating scenarios best suited to provide new
tee that ve ry night. Witnesses testified that such weapons for the hitherto unprivileged parties in village
assemblies were tumultuous, filled with much agitation disputes over power, property, and honor.
for persecution and even naming potential targets.
A n yone who dared to dissent ran the risk of being Communalism?
accused of witchcraft. Though externally cooperative in Summarizing recent studies dealing with persecution
terms of pro c e d u re and stru c t u re, the inauguration of by committees, Behringer (1989) concluded that such
witch-accusing committees was as tyrannical as what “democratic organization” of persecutions undermined
followed. older interpretations focusing on governmental input.
These committees indeed offer reasons to revise some
Attitudes of Central Governments notions about how early modern states functioned. But
Even princes and councils who favored witch persecu- communal persecution was in no way democratic. At
tions were generally hostile to such acts of communal best, it was cooperative in a contemporary sense, but
self-help. Official terminology used by as well as in even that only insofar as we do not confuse structure
addresses to the provincial council of the duchy of with content. Communalism, however, required both
Luxemburg called such committees monopoles(monop- cooperative structure in action and a corresponding
olies) and conspirations (conspiracies). In an ordinance justification that defended the common man’s rights
of April 1591, the council prohibited any communal against the other estates, especially against lord s ,
action leading to their formation, notably the establish- bureaucrats, and sovereigns. In contrast to Dillinger
ment of financial statutes. Notaries and lawyers were (1999), who also sees communalism at the basis of vil-
forbidden to accept commissions by these monopolies. lage witchcraft persecutions, I would argue that what
Half a year later, the archbishop-elector of Trier issued we see here is only formal external cooperation. In
a similar ordinance banning these irregular committees terms of content or justification, no argument has yet
because of their seditious actions and similar abuses. been found that draws directly on the discourse of com-
But except in the duchy of Lorraine, these and similar munalism to defend the committees’ activities. Finally,
attempts by various Rhineland governments had hard- though witchcraft represented an external threat that
202 Communal Persecution |
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helped to legitimate community action, prosecuting in Hexenprozesse und Gerichtspraxis. Edited by Herbert Eiden
witches was not a defense of the community as such and Rita Voltmer.Trier: Paulinus.
against external social powers, but only of its individual Zedler, Johann Heinrich. 1732. Grosses vollständiges Universal
Lexikon aller Wissenschaften und Künste. Halle and Leipzig.
members against individual enemies from within.
Therefore, communal persecution necessarily took on
the character of civil war, and the particular trials Confessions
followed the tracks of preexisting village feuds. Se veral thousand confessions by accused witches in
trials have been pre s e rved, primarily in arc h i ves but
WALTER RUMMEL also in numerous printed texts (demonologies, pam-
See also:GERMANY;HOLYROMANEMPIRE;POPULARPERSECUTION; phlets, and so on), after the cumulative concept of
RURALWITCHCRAFT. Eu ropean witchcraft belief had been assembled by the
References and further reading: early fifteenth century. T h e re we re so many because
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1989. “Erträge und Perspektiven der confessions we re extremely important in Roman law.
Hexenforschung.” HistorischeZeitschrift249, no. 3: C o n s i d e red the “queen of proofs,” a confession
619–640. almost inevitably formed the basis for a judicial con-
Blickle, Peter. 1991. “Kommunalismus. Begriffsbildung in heuris-
viction in continental Eu rope, particularly for an
tischer Absicht.” Pp. 1–38 in Landgemeinde und Stadtgemeinde
“o c c u l t” or hidden crime like witchcraft. In t e r p re t i n g
in Mitteleuropa. Ein struktureller Vergleich. Edited by Peter
confessions constitutes a major headache for any his-
Blickle. Munich: Oldenbourg.
torian of the subject. They are too numerous to
———. 1992. Communal Reformation: The Quest for Salvation in
i g n o re, but obviously impossible to accept at face
Sixteenth-Century Germany.Translated byThomas Dunlap.
Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities. value for one simple reason: confessions contained
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours. The Social and Cu l t u ra l manifest physical impossibilities, such as flight to the
Context of Eu ropean Wi t c h c ra f t .2nd ed. Oxford: Bl a c k we l l . w i t c h e s’ Sabbat or sexual intercourse with the De v i l
Dillinger, Johannes. 1999. “Böse Leute.” Hexenverfolgungen in or demons. Some types of m a l e fic i a (harmful acts)
Schwäbisch-Österreich und Kurtrier im Vergleich.Trier: Spee. found in confessions—for example, sticking pins in
He u s e r, Peter Arnold. 1999. “He xe n ve rfolgung und Vo l k s k a t e c h e s e . dolls to cause injury or death, or tying knots in a
Beobachtungen am Beispiel der gefürsteten Ei f e l g r a f s c h a f t
string to cause impotence—probably re p resent re a l
A renberg 1590–1593.” R h e i n i s c h - We s t f ä l i s c h eZeitschrift für
deeds (indeed, sometimes we can be quite confid e n t
Vo l k s k u n d e44:95–142 (esp. 102–130 and 129–130).
of this), while others—for example, sending demons
Koppenhöfer, Johanna. 1995. Die mitleidlose Gesellschaft. Studien
to possess people’s bodies or raising hailstorms—
zu Verdachtsgenese, Ausgrenzungsverhalten und Prozessproblematik
o bviously do not.
im frühneuzeitlichen Hexenprozess in der alten Grafschaft Nassau
unter Johann VI. und der späteren Te i l g rafschaft Na s s a u - D i l l e n b u r g One cannot raise a hailstorm by beating ru n n i n g
( 1 5 5 9 – 1 6 8 7 ) .Fr a n k f u rt am Main and New Yo rk: Lang. water with a stick, but many women confessed to doing
Labouvie, Eva. 1991. Zauberei und Hexenwerk. Ländlicher this. Nicolas Rémy (a notorious exaggerator) claimed to
Hexenglaube in der frühen Neuzeit.Frankfurt am Main: Fischer h a ve seen 200 confessions of this particular crime;
Taschenbuch. instances do appear in several early confessions fro m
Rummel, Walter. 1990. “Soziale Dynamik und herrschaftliche various parts of French Sw i t zerland (Monter 1976,
Problematik der kurtrierischen Hexenverfolgungen. Das
151–155). It is easy to imagine villagers actually per-
Beispiel der Stadt Cochem (1593–1595).” Geschichte und
forming this gesture—a traditional way of doing laun-
Gesellschaft16:26–55.
dry in many parts of the world. This detail suggests that
———. 1991. Bauern, Herren und Hexen. Studien zur
many evil deeds reported in witches’ confessions reflect-
Sozialgeschichte sponheimischer und kurtrierischer
ed real intentions, whether or not one accepts the
Hexenverfolgungen.Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
Schormann, Gerhard.1981. Hexenprozesse in Deutschland. witches’ etiology.
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Rupprecht. Nevertheless, “stories with manifestly impossible fea-
Scotti, J. J. 1832. Sammlung der Gesetze und Verordnungen, welche tures are not to be trusted in any particular, as evidence
in dem vormaligen Churfürstentum Trier über Gegenstände der of what physically happened” (Cohn 1975, 115). Both
Landeshoheit, Verwaltung und Rechtspflege ergangen sind, vom the willingness of late medieval and early modern pris-
Jahre 1310 bis zur Reich-Deputations-Schluss-mässigen Auflösung oners to make confessions replete with elements that
des Churstaates am Ende des Jahres 1802.Ester Theil, vom Jahre
were both empirically unverifiable and contrary to the
1310 bis zum Jahre 1700. Dusseldorf.
laws of nature, and the propensity of judges to accept
Voltmer, Rita. 2001. “Zwischen Herrschaftskrise,
them uncritically derived from their general absence of
Wirtschaftsdepression und Jesuitenpropaganda:
any strong sense of skepticism about the workings of
Hexenverfolgungen in der Stadt Trier (15–17 Jahrhundert).”
the cosmos. Such mythopoeic attitudes, which slow l y
Jahrbuchfür westdeutsche Landesgeschichte27:37–107.
———. 2002. “Monopole, Ausschüsse, changed (principally among the judges) as a result of
Formalparteien.–Vorbereitung, Finanzierung und Manipulation the Scientific Re volution and the En l i g h t e n m e n t ,
von Hexenprozessen durch private Klagekonsortien.” Pp. 5–67 accepted the daily intrusion of the supernatural into the
Confessions 203 |
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p ro c e d u re. In doing so they also turned the confession
into a useful tool of witch persecution, as witch suspects
we re forced to name alleged accomplices.
Most witch suspects were either accused by their self-
confessed victims or named by other witch suspects
under duress. In continental Europe, where inquisitori-
al pro c e d u re was dominant, this meant that most of
those arrested for witchcraft had to convince an inter-
rogator that they were not witches. In Spain and Italy,
where state-run inquisitions prosecuted most witchcraft
cases, it was not generally re g a rded as an exc e p t i o n a l
crime. Consequently, state-run inquisitions allowe d
defense lawyers (although their actions were heavily cir-
cumscribed) and rarely used tort u re to extract confes-
sions. Suspected witches there f o re stood a re a s o n a b l e
chance of being released with little or no punishment.
In other parts of Eu rope, such as Ge r m a n y, secular
c o u rts tended to prosecute witchcraft. They denied
access to defense lawyers and freely used tort u re. In
n u m e rous witchcraft cases tried by inquisitorial-style
courts, the template for interrogation was an interroga-
tory list of questions to be put to the defendant about
his or her crime. We have known for over a century that
uniform confessions will result if a uniform series of
questions is asked to all prisoners under tort u re. T h i s
p ro c e d u re was used during the trial of the Fre n c h
Templars at the outset of the fourteenth century, long
before witchcraft trials proliferated.
In some parts of early modern Ge r m a n y, such as
An accused witch is tortured by forcing water in his mouth. In some
Eichstätt and Kelheim, the witchcraft interro g a t o ry
areas of Europe, especially in the Holy Roman Empire, courts legally
employed torture to extract confessions. (C.Walker/Topham/The Image became standardized and was followed in all known six-
Works) teenth- and seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry trials. The lists often
began with questions about the suspect’s biography, but
ve ry quickly turned to questions about the suspect’s
natural; miracles, wonders, demons, and angels made c h a r a c t e r. The Eichstätt list included questions about
the impossible possible. the legitimacy of the defendant’s marriage, whether he
Because witchcraft was a secret crime, witches did or she had fornicated with his or her spouse before their
not adopt outward signs of their beliefs, went about marriage, and whether superstitious objects we re used
their nefarious activities unobserved, and left little trace at their wedding. All questionnaires also asked why
of their actions except the results: murd e red corpses, the suspect thought he or she had been brought before
i n j u red bodies, damaged crops, or sick live s t o c k . the interrogators and how long the suspect had been in
Essential in identifying alleged witches, witnesses could the vice of witchcraft. The tone of such questions clear-
p rovide information about the circumstances of such ly showed the suspect that the interrogators alre a d y
inexplicable harm, testify to the malicious word s b e l i e ved him or her to be guilty because of testimony
spoken by a reputed witch, and re p o rt rumors about f rom him or supposed victims or accusations of com-
specific individuals. plicity from other witch suspects. A suspect’s only
The secret nature of the crime, howe ve r, more often defense was to deny the accusation strenuously, but the
re q u i red authorities to concentrate on forcing the witch interrogators had a series of threats and tortures at their
to confess his or her deeds. This was because in early disposal with which to break the suspect’s re s i s t a n c e .
modern jurisprudence, confession was re g a rded as the They could threaten torture, bring the torturer and his
most certain proof of a crime, other than being caught instruments into the room, prepare the suspect for tor-
perpetrating it, and much more reliable than witness tes- t u re, and finally use it, moving from thumbscrews to
t i m o n y. To produce a confession effective l y, Eu ro p e a n the rack. Oc c a s i o n a l l y, the suspect would also be con-
authorities, from the fifteenth century onward, fre- fronted with the testimony of others or even with his or
quently made witchcraft a crimen exceptum (the exc e p t- her accusers in person, especially if they were also witch
ed crime), exempting it from normal rules of judicial suspects. Priests, jailers, and others might also visit the
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suspect in custody to induce him or her to confess or we re rarely made in an orderly or coherent fashion: it
spy on others. could take months of imprisonment and multiple inter-
To rt u re proved the most effective means to make a rogations to extract a legally satisfactory version. As the
suspect admit to being a witch and then construct a famous example of the Pappenheimers at Munich in
confession that would condemn the suspect and impli- 1600 shows, even a carefully drawn confession text,
cate others. In its complete form, a confession covered officially approved by high-ranking and highly trained
who had seduced the suspect into witchcraft and when; judicial authorities, could still bristle with self-contra-
what he or she had to do to become a witch (promise dictions in addition to its manifest impossibilities
him or herself to the Devil, have sex with him, (Kunze 1987).
renounce God and the saints, and promise to abuse the Perhaps the fullest exploration of the intricate and
host and harm Christians); the names of the suspect occasionally unexpected connections between tort u re
paramours at the witches’ Sabbats, of those whom and witches’ confessions during the sixteenth- and sev-
seduced into the witch sect, and of other accomplices; e n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry apogee of western Eu ropean witch-
and details of his or her activities as a witch (killing and craft trials was made half a century ago by a Lorraine
injuring people, especially infants, harming their prop- a rchivist who had read hundreds of them (De l c a m b re
e rt y, causing extremely bad we a t h e r, causing marital 1953–1954, partly translated in Monter 1969,
strife, and so on). 88–109). Avoiding the simple reduction of witches’
T h e re are intimate connections between witches’ con- confessions to products of leading questions put to
fessions and the use of tort u re. In England and other accused witches under torture—there were no standard
regions that did not base their judicial systems on Ro m a n interrogation forms here—he stressed such things as the
l a w, no legal confession could be obtained through tor- genuine religiosity of many uneducated village judges,
t u re because tort u re was forbidden (except in cases of who fully shared the widespread assumption among
t reason). Howe ve r, these places also re m oved the need to witchcraft suspects that tort u re was an ordeal that
obtain confessions, because juries could and often did would re veal their innocence—thus, when they we re
convict prisoners on the basis of evidence of m a l e fic i u m compelled to confess, the defendants’ expressions of
(harmful magic) provided by witness testimony. Bu t guilt were more sincere, and more devout, than histori-
most accused witches we re tried under some form of ans had usually assumed. In addition, De l c a m b re’s
Roman law, where, confession was a de facto (if not de argument that confessions frequently contained a con-
j u re) pre requisite for conviction. A careful survey of sur- siderable degree of sincerity explained many anomalies
viving confessions from the formative, fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry that cannot be reduced to simple effects of torture: for
period of cumulative witchcraft underlines that many example, the sizable number of confessions made spon-
suspected witches confessed diabolism only after under- taneously before tort u re. Another large number con-
going tort u re and insists that “the extent of the confes- fessed only part of their maleficia while denying others
sions appears to have been directly pro p o rtional to the under torture. Interestingly, and counterintuitively, the
length of the tort u re”; but it also points out that many most common pattern was to admit the more serious
accused witches confessed without undergoing any form charge of casting spells against humans while stubborn-
of tort u re, that prolonged imprisonment often suffic e d ly denying having done so against animals; one woman
to elicit confessions, and misleading promises by confessed that she “had no wish to put any animal to
j u d g e s — recommended, for instance, by the Ma l l e u s death, but only people.” Even more surprisingly, other
Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486)—pro b a- prisoners confessed only afterwithstanding torture suc-
bly elicited even more (Kieckhefer 1976, 88–90). cessfully; one woman claimed she did so then “by a
If it is common knowledge that most witchcraft con- divine inspiration.”
fessions we re made under tort u re, it is much less we l l In England, where accusatorial pro c e d u re continued
k n own that, under Roman law, a confession made to dominate justice, confessions made during the inve s t i-
under tort u re had no legal va l i d i t y. T h e re f o re, eve ry gations conducted by the magistrates prior to trial seem
confession had to be confirmed before the judges freely, to have been freely given. The main exception to this
that is, in a separate room and without the presence of would be the persecutions conducted by Ma t t h ew
t o rt u re implements. Few witch suspects took this Hopkins, and one cannot discount the probability of
o p p o rtunity to retract their confessions, because the p re s s u re in other cases. Howe ve r, it was not necessary to
usual consequence would be further torture until their obtain a confession to prosecute a suspected witch suc-
confession was reasserted freely. In the context of early cessfully in England: the petty jury at the assize court s
modern jurisprudence, the interrogators were frequent- determined the ve rdict, based on the presentation of the
ly able to produce watertight confessions including the examinations and investigations made by the magis-
names of other members of the witch sect. A neatly trates. At any stage, the suspect might also avail him or
written version (the one pre s e rved in arc h i ves) was herself of legal help. The English process led to a differe n t
assembled for the official sentence. But confessions type of confession, which tended to be short e r, omitting
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descriptions of Sabbats and the events supposed to hap- e s’ a q u e l a r re s ( Sabbats) proved more pro b l e m a t i c ,
pen at them. Mo re ove r, these confessions rarely implicat- although Salazar conducted it with exquisite care. Nine
ed others in the crime and concentrated on one or two groups from different towns in northern Navarre, each
s p e c i fic acts of harmful witchcraft, to which there we re including four adult witches (who, Salazar stipulated,
f requently witnesses. Most notably, perhaps, the De v i l “must be chosen from among the most intelligent” )
and his demons became conflated in some small domes- who had confessed attending the same a q u e l a r rea n d
ticated familiar, such as a cat or a toad, that did the deeds named the other three as accomplices, we re care f u l l y
requested of it by its mistre s s . isolated before being taken one by one, under supervi-
Perhaps the most famous investigation into the sion, on different days at different times, to their sup-
(un)reliability of witchcraft confessions was undertaken posed meeting place. There a notary asked them eight
in the Spain of Don Quixote by Alonso de Salazar Frías, e x t remely precise questions about these Sabbats: did
a maverick and skeptical judge and inquisitor, who not they travel separately or together, where the Devil sat,
only considered witchcraft impossible, but who also how they got home, and so forth. In seven groups, mul-
attempted to disprove confessions made voluntarily. In tiple contradictions emerged from previously homoge-
an episode unique in the history of witchcraft trials, he nous confessions by comparing notes. Some witches
persuaded his superiors in 1611 to conduct a series of n ow flatly re voked their confessions, claiming they
“c o n t rolled ve r i fication experiments” on such confes- resulted from intimidation verging on tort u re .
sions in the Basque country. In an exercise that diamet- Howe ve r, the groups from two towns, Ciga and Ve r a ,
rically re versed the witchcraft questionnaires in places remained in substantial agreement. But as Sa l a z a r’s
such as Eichstätt, Salazar Frías pre p a red a fourt e e n - apologist noted, “none of the original documents per-
point questionnaire and put it to 108 confessed witches taining to this investigation are pre s e rved,” and when
a b ove the age of majority, attempting to d i s p rove t h e the answers did fundamentally concur, “Salazar did not
guilt of people who had already admitted it attach any great importance to them” (He n n i n g s e n
(Henningsen 1980, 295–301). 1980, 297).
Like Nicolas Rémy, Salazar Frías had heard and read Sa l a z a r’s whitewash could not quite erase these vo l-
several hundred confessions. Unlike Rémy, the majority u n t a ry confessions. Witchcraft confessions cannot be
of Sa l a z a r’s confessions came from people well below read with the pseudoneutrality of treating them as sim-
the minimum age for capital punishment and, more ple examples of discourse: all too often, as at Eichstätt,
i m p o rtant, none of them came from people who had they re p resent answers to standard i zed questionnaire s
been tortured. Most important of all, Salazar Frías had g i ven under tort u re. At the same time, they must also
become heavily prejudiced against the sincerity of every be read without undue condescension toward the peo-
confession he heard before he began this series of exper- ple who made them, or even tow a rd the scribes who
iments. And the results were interesting. He conducted tried to re c o rd them conscientiously. The issue of tor-
three sets of experiments: one on the witches’ meeting ture is ultimately a red herring. Most confessed witches
places, one on the material corro b o r a t i ve evidence for (including those at Eichstätt, Sa l a z a r’s Basques, and
witchcraft (which the Spanish Inquisition called a c t o s R é m y’s Lorraine villagers) we re post-Tr i d e n t i n e
p o s i t i vo s) , and the last on outside witnesses to the Catholics who understood the sacramental concept of
witches’ exploits. confession ve ry well. For present-day investigators of
When it came to actos positivo s , t wenty-two jars of Satanic ritual abuse of children, be they trial lawye r s ,
magic ointments containing witches’ salves, Sa l a z a r’s prosecutors, judges, or juries, any attempt to filter out
skepticism scored a ringing triumph. No confiscated jar the authentic elements of a confession dictated to
contained anything with preternatural pro p e rt i e s . someone else becomes extraordinarily difficult in the
Apothecaries and physicians fed the contents to dogs absence of corro b o r a t i ve evidence. When historians
and found them completely harmless; one woman, a c o n f ront confessions by sincere Catholics who we re
reputed witch, swallowed some of the contents in the themselves confronting possible eternal damnation cen-
presence of many witnesses with no ill effects. At least turies ago, identifying the authentic parts becomes even
three witches now claimed they had concocted the stuff more problematic.
hastily to satisfy some priests who had threatened to
JONATHAN DURRANT AND WILLIAM MONTER
have them burned unless they produced it; two of them
g a ve their re c i p e s — p o rk fat, water, wild plums, chim-
See also:ACCUSATIONS;BASQUECOUNTRY;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;
ney soot, and scraps of kitchen waste.
EICHSTÄTT,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;ENGLAND;EVIDENCE;EXPERI-
MENTSANDTESTS;HOPKINS,MATTHEW;LORRAINE,DUCHYOF;
Sa l a z a r’s third investigation checked out twe n t y -
MIRACLES;PAPPENHEIMERFAMILY;RÉMY,NICOLAS;ROMANLAW;
seven episodes involving specific acts of magic attested
SALAZARFRÍAS,ALONSODE;SATANISM;TORTURE;WITNESSES.
by people who were not themselves witches, and simi-
References and further reading:
larly found no corroborative evidence for any of them. Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons.London:
But his second test on the meeting places for the witch- Heinemann.
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Delcambre, Etienne. 1953. “Les procés de sorcellerie en Lorraine: which they had to expect otherwise. Friedrich Spee, a
psychologie des juges,” in Revue d’histoire du droit21: Jesuit whose own experience as a confessor made him
389–419. write his famous book against the witch hunts in 1631,
———. 1954. “La psychologie des inculpés lorrains de
did not conceal the pains these expectations caused for
sorcellerie.” Revuehistorique de droit français et étranger,no. 4:
the accused. Though confessors’ participation is not
385–403, 508–526.
documented for all witchcraft trials in Catholic territo-
Henningsen, Gustav. 1980.The Witches’ Advocate:Basque
ries, their presence must have been usual at least during
Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition.Reno: University of
executions, as in other criminal cases. Sometimes, con-
Nevada Press.
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their fessors are mentioned as sharing the banquets that the
Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500. members of the court held at the expense of the
London: Routledge. accused. A special situation characterized the tribunals
Kunze, Michael. 1987. Highroad to the Stake: A Tale of Witchcraft. of the Holy Inquisition, as their members were simulta-
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. neously “inquisitors of heretical depravity,” judges, and
Medway, Gareth J. 2001. Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural confessors. Admittedly, the anticlerical stereotype of the
History of Satanism. NewYork: NewYork University Press.
confessor abusing his power must not be generalize d ,
Monter,William, ed. 1969. European Witchcraft.NewYork: John
but ample evidence exists from within the clergy that
Wiley.
sexual and financial malpractices were frequent.
———. 1976. NY Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The
The confessor’s opinion was extremely important for
Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY and London:
the small number of Christians who experienced para-
Cornell University Press.
Robisheaux, Thomas. 2004. “'The Queen of Evidence’: The normal phenomena, as confessors were the first persons
Witchcraft Confession in the Age of Confessionalism.” to decide whether the visions, apparitions, auditions,
Pp. 175–205 in Confessionalism in Europe, 1555–1700: Essays stigmata, and so forth, of their penitents should be con-
in Honor and Memory of Bodo Nischan. Burlington, VT, and s i d e red authentic mystic manifestations or diabolical
Aldershot, UK Ashgate. frauds. T h e re f o re, Catholic theologians developed a
special method of testing these persons, called discern-
Confessors ment of (good and bad) spirits. Quite often, opinions
In the Catholic Church, confessors are all priests pos- concerning these women (and occasionally men) we re
sessing the license to hear confession, to absolve from divided, one party believing in their holiness, and
sins, and to impose a suitable penance. another declaring them to be witches. Some confessors
When the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) obliged all saved their penitents’ lives by their positive statements,
faithful to confess at least once a ye a r, if they did not as did, for example, those of Do rthea of Mo n t a u
want to be excommunicated ipso facto, the social posi- (d.1394) or Eustochia of Padua (d.1469), even prepar-
tion of the confessor was markedly heightened. By this ing their veneration as saints. Others convinced women
decree, Pope Innocent III probably wished not only to with mystical experiences that these were only demonic
intensify pastoral care in general, but also to install a temptations; in 1755, after years of saintly life, the nun
means of exercising deeper control over minds in a peri- Gesualda Forni was convinced by her confessor of the
od of dangerous religious deviance (Cathars and c o n t r a ry and there f o re declared herself a hypocrite
Waldensians). This forced people to scru t i n i ze their before the inquisition of Udine. How this discernment
consciences before speaking to their priest, a custom of spirits worked in practice, we know from the exam-
that deeply influenced the general mental attitudes of ple of Ursula Benincasa (d.1618), who, during eight
Europeans. In the political sector, royal confessors often months, had to make daily confessions and submit her-
wielded much power in kingdoms like France, Spain, or self to exquisite humiliations imposed by Saint Filippo
the Holy Roman Empire. Neri. After the Council of Trent, ve ry often a female
Of course, some confessors encountered among their mystic could avoid being prosecuted for demonolatry
penitents both people who told them about their magi- only by responding to such tests with the most demon-
cal practices, and bewitched people who informed strative pious humility.
them about the De v i l’s attacks against them. A few
PETER DINZELBACHER
priests (for example, Thomas of Cantimpré, Liber api-
u m [Book of Be e s ] 2, 56), wrote about these subjects, See also:CONFESSIONS;DISCERNMENTOFSPIRITS;SPEE,FRIEDRICH.
References and further reading:
using anonymous confessions as source material. In
Caciola, Nancy. 2003. Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic
witchcraft trials, other priests, mostly members of a reli-
Possession in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell
gious order, especially Franciscans and Jesuits, had the
University Press.
task of hearing the final confessions of the accused and
Delumeau, Jean. 1990a. Sin and Fear.The Emergence of a Western
condemned. They often collaborated with the court by
Guilt Culture.NewYork: St. Martin’s.
t rying to induce the prisoners to tell their secre t s , ———. 1990b.L’aveu et le pardon. Les difficultés de la confession,
t h reatening them with the eternal tort u res of hell, XIIIe-XVIIIe siécle.Paris: Fayard.
Confessors 207 |
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Dinzelbacher, Peter.2001a. “Das erzwungene Ich. n u m e rous complaints that it deliberately targeted the
Sündenbewusstsein und Pflichtbeichte.” Pp. 41–60 in richest converted Jews (often dead people) to confiscate
Entdeckung des Ich: Die Geschichte der Individualisierung vom their assets from their heirs. Howe ve r, the Sp a n i s h
Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart.Edited by Richard van Dülmen.
Inquisition ordinarily exempted convicted witches
Cologne: Böhlau.
f rom this provision. On one significant occasion, at
Dinzelbacher, Peter. 2001b.Heilige oder Hexen? Schicksale auffäl-
Logroño in the Basque region (1609–1611), a tribunal
liger Frauen inMittelalter und Frühneuzeit,4th ed. Düsseldorf:
petitioned successfully for the right to confiscate prop-
Patmos.
erty from convicted witches. Four years later, Logroño’s
Lea, Henry C. 1968. A History of Auricular Confession and
Indulgence in the Latin Church.[Reprint] 3 vols. NewYork: records revealed that the cost of the operation had been
Greenwood. almost three times greater than the receipts; only three
Van Laarhoven, J. 1967. “Een Geschiednis van de biechtvader.” of seventy-seven convicted witches had enough person-
Tijdschrift voor theologie7:375–422. al pro p e rty for confiscation to exceed trial costs, and
over half of them left absolutely nothing that could be
Confiscations of confiscated (Henningsen 1980, 381). It seems that con-
Witches’ Property fiscations proved unprofitable for witch hunters in sys-
Skeptics have long believed—or rather, assumed—that tems using inquisitorial rather than accusatory pro c e-
“by the beginning of the seventeenth century, witch- d u res, which provided the vast majority of Eu ro p e’s
craft had developed into a vested interest and an indus- witchcraft trials.
try” (Robbins 1959, 15). In other words, confiscating
WILLIAM MONTER
the property of people condemned for witchcraft made
witch hunting profitable for many European govern- See also: BASQUECOUNTRY;GERMANY,SOUTHWESTERN;HISTORI-
ments and thus provided an economic explanation for OGRAPHY;INQUISITION,SPANISH;ROBBINS,ROSSELLHOPE;
witch hunting. However, such skeptics never bothered
WITCHHUNTS.
References and further reading:
to demonstrate this theory from the abundant financial
Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque
evidence about witch hunts. The question was first
Witchcraft and the SpanishInquisition. Reno: University of
investigated a generation ago for the largest witch hunts
Nevada Press.
of southwestern Germany (Midelfort 1972, 164–178),
Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern
with unexpected results. Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
In the laws of the Holy Roman Em p i re, where the Stanford: Stanford University Press.
vast majority of witchcraft executions occurred, confis- Robbins, Rossell Hope 1959. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and
cation was always problematic and almost neve r Demonology.NewYork: Crown.
implied that the entire estate of someone executed for
witchcraft went to the state. Of the twe l ve districts in Conrad of Marburg (ca. 1180–1233)
southwestern Germany that executed the most witches, A merciless inquisitor operating in the Rhineland in the
t h ree never practiced confiscation. The two largest early thirteenth century, Conrad of Marburg’s reports
witch hunts, howe ve r, occurred in places that did: describing widespread Luciferan (that is, devil worship-
Ellwangen and Mergentheim. Large samples show ping) heresy were accepted by Pope Gregory IX (ruled
clearly that both governments actually confiscated only 1227–1241), becoming the basis for the pope’s decretal
a small share of the witch’s estate; at Mergentheim, the letter Vox in Rama(A Voice in Rama), which described
a verage was only one-seventh (14 percent), and ove r a heretical cult worshiping the Devil. This document
half of all confiscations cost the dead person’s heirs less was an important source for later ecclesiastical authori-
than 10 percent of the estate. Similar inve s t i g a t i o n s ties seeking to link heresy with diabolism and devil
h a ve been rare, but about a thousand scattere d worship, and can be seen as a precursor of later descrip-
instances of confiscation in the rich fiscal records of the tions of witches’ Sabbats.
duchy of Lorraine essentially confirm these fin d i n g s : In many respects, Conrad was a shadowy figure. He
the government’s major goal was to recover the costs of was certainly a priest, and he may have had some asso-
a witch’s trial and execution, if possible, without impov- ciation with a religious order, possibly the Dominicans
erishing the heirs. In a half-dozen instances where or Franciscans, although the strongest evidence now
e xceptionally wealthy people we re burned as witches, suggests a slight association with the Pre m o n s t r a t e n s i a n s.
thus guaranteeing a profit for the government, the duke He, however, was most likely a member of the secular
of Lorraine simply awarded the windfall spoils of their c l e r g y. He had some level of university education.
confiscations to minor courtiers. While certain scholars maintain that he was a papal
Outside the Holy Roman Em p i re, the Sp a n i s h inquisitor, indeed the first papally appointed inquisitor
Inquisition routinely practiced confiscations of person- in German lands, the evidence is open to possible
al property for anyone convicted of heresy. Especially in q u a l i fication. Many scholars argue that he was an
its early years under Ferdinand and Isabella, there were episcopally appointed inquisitor who, after 1231,
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received papal sanction and approbation for his actions Mainz in August of 1233 to judge this case, and the
against heretics, but not any formal appointment as a charges were dismissed. A few days later, while return-
papally designated inquisitor. ing to Marburg, Conrad was murd e red, possibly by
C o n r a d’s invo l vement with heresy may go back to s u p p o rters of the count of Sayn or others opposed to
1224. Certainly by 1227 he seems to have been dire c t- his inquisitorial activities.
ing his own investigations into heresy; that ye a r, a let- MICHAEL BAILEY
ter from Gre g o ry IX encouraged Conrad in such pur-
suits. In 1231, Gre g o ry became determined to initiate
See also: GREGORYIX,POPE;HERESY;INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;
PAPACYANDPAPALBULLS;SABBAT;WITCHHUNTS.
m o re systematic inquisitions into heresy in It a l y,
References and further reading:
France, and German lands. He issued a letter to
Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired
Conrad giving him official papal support to pro c e e d
by the Great Witch Hunt.London: Chatto.
as an inquisitor in German lands, mainly in the Kieckhefer, Richard. 1979. Repression of Heresy in Medieval
Rhineland and in parts of Thuringia. As an inquisitor, Germany.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
C o n r a d’s methods we re re m a rkably extreme. He was Kors, Alan, and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Witchcraft in Europe,
inclined to accept any testimony, howe ver fanciful, 400–1700: A Documentary History.2nd ed. Philadelphia:
and he appears to have been willing to sentence to University of Pennsylvania Press.
death any suspect who did not offer at least some Lambert, Malcolm. 2002. Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements
from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation.3rd ed. Oxford:
admission of guilt. Ne ver active against witches or sor-
Blackwell.
c e rers of any kind, Conrad focused instead on the
Russell, Jeffrey Burton. 1972. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages.Ithaca,
Cathar and mainly Waldensian heresies that actually
NY: Cornell University Press.
existed in German lands at this time. He coerc e d
e x t r a vagant confessions of devil worship from suspects
and became fully convinced of the reality of numero u s Contemporary
Luciferan heretics in the Rhineland. Many authorities Witchcraft (Post 1800)
re c o g n i zed Conrad’s fanaticism for what it was, and Most histories of European witchcraft end with the last
his activities aroused much opposition. The arc h b i s h- public witchcraft trials in the late eighteenth century.
op of Mainz refused to accept Conrad’s accounts of By 1800 the spread of new intellectual ideas and leg-
Luciferan cults, for example, and urged him to moder- islative developments led to the decriminalization of
ate his activity, but to no ava i l . witchcraft across Europe, one of the odd exceptions
Gre g o ry IX, howe ve r, was convinced by Conrad’s being the belated repeal of the laws against witchcraft in
re p o rts of heretical activity. His decretal letter Vox in Ireland in 1821. Yet despite the easing of educated
Ra m a of 1233, addressed to the archbishop of Ma i n z concern over the continued existence and threat of
and bishop of Hildesheim, presented a detailed descrip- witchcraft, the mass of the population continued to fear
tion of a heretical sect gathering in secret to worship witches and considered them a serious threat to their
demons who appeared in various forms, first as a giant lives and livelihoods.
toad, then as a gaunt, pallid man with an icy touch, and The history of witchcraft after its decriminaliza-
finally as a large black cat. Novices in the sect we re tion is, there f o re, ve ry much concerned with popular
re q u i red to kiss each of these, either on the lips or attempts to employ unofficial and often illegal forms
hindquarters, to renounce their faith and swear loyalty of trial and punishment. Newspaper re p o rts and legal
to the sect and its demonic master. The pope also re c o rds attest to the fact that across Eu rope people
described the abominable sexual orgies in which these continued to try witches in a variety of ways, such as
heretics supposedly engaged. Certainly this was not the the water (swimming) test, which was employed quite
first time a connection had been drawn between such widely in the Netherlands, Ukraine, and En g l a n d
diabolism and here s y. For example, one sourc e during the first half of the nineteenth century. Se ve re
described a group of heretics burned at Orléans in 1022 physical abuse was also meted out to accused witches
as participating in similar orgiastic and diabolic rituals, as a means of forcing them to re m ove the harmful
and there we re other accounts of Luciferan heresy in spells they had cast. In Belgium and France the court s
German and Italian lands in the thirteenth century. dealt with a number of cases of “g r i l l i n g” or “burn-
Nevertheless, Vox in Ramamarked an important step in i n g” accused witches in or over a hearth to make
the progressive demonization of heresy in the high and them confess and “u n w i t c h” their victims. One such
late Middle Ages that culminated in the notion of dia- e vent took place in Flanders in 1815 when a farmer
bolical witchcraft. and his wife, believing their daughter and cattle had
Meanwhile, Conrad continued to operate without been bewitched, seized a female neighbor they sus-
any apparent restraint, and in the face of much opposi- pected, bound her, and shoved her into a fire to make
tion. Eventually he went so far as to accuse a nobleman, her talk. Likewise in nineteenth- and early twe n t i e t h -
Count Heinrich of Sayn, of heresy. A synod was held at c e n t u ry England, the courts dealt with many cases
Contemporary Witchcraft 209 |
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An early nineteenth-century visit to a fortuneteller. Belief in and the practice of witchcraft persisted after the witch hunts and continues in the
twenty-first century. (TopFoto.co.uk/HIP/Ann Ronan Picture Library)
i n volving scratching suspected witches to draw blood. magic, such as piercing crude dolls or images made
The vigorous employment of such coerc i ve violence to re p resent the witch; burning or boiling the heart s
sometimes led to the death of the victims. In the of bewitched animals, which would consequently
Flanders case, the suspected witch died a week later cause the witch seve re heart pains; cooking toads
f rom seve re burns, and in England an old woman that we re closely associated with witches; boiling
named Ann Tennant died in 1875 after being badly black chickens alive, as was practiced in the
wounded with a pitchfork by a villager who wanted Netherlands; and creating of witch-bottles. In
to draw her blood. In some instances the death of sus- England, examples of the latter dating from the
pected witches was intentional, and was seen by the nineteenth century are not uncommon. In 1848 a
killers and their sympathizers as a just sentence in the b ewitched couple from the county of Somerset put
e yes of the community and God, if not the offic i a l some of their urine in an eart h e n w a re bottle along
authorities. In Russia in 1879 some 200 locals gath- with some hobnails, and buried it under their
e red to witness a suspected witch being deliberately h e a rthstone. The bottle symbolized the bladder of
burned alive in her house. Similar terrible cases can the suspected witch, who would suffer terrible pains
be found from across Eu rope during the nineteenth as the bottle heated up and agitated the sharp objects
c e n t u ry. w i t h i n .
Di rectly confronting suspected witches was by no In many instances such practices we re employed on
means the only way of countering witchcraft in the the advice of cunning folk. The widespread popularity
absence of laws against it. The work of nineteenth- of these magical practitioners, and others who
c e n t u ry folklorists and prosecution re c o rds provide a engaged in witch-doctoring during the nineteenth
wealth of re l e vant information in this re s p e c t . c e n t u ry, provides further confirmation of the popular
Written charms and amulets we re commonly worn fear and concern re g a rding the power and pre va l e n c e
or placed in houses and outbuildings to ward off of witches in Eu rope in the years following the
witchcraft. A wide and diverse range of private coun- decriminalization of witchcraft. In Catholic countries,
termagic, spells, and rituals we re employed to tor- w h e re the clergy, under certain conditions, still
ment witches at a distance, or to compel them to conducted exo rcisms and used the healing powers
appear at the homes of the bewitched to re m ove their of blessed objects such as holy water, the Church and
spells. These we re commonly based on sympathetic its re p re s e n t a t i ves continued to play an instru m e n t a l
210 Contemporary Witchcraft |
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role in the struggle against witchcraft, albeit often re vealed a continued widespread popular concern
u n o f fic i a l l y. The sensational French cases of witchcraft re g a rding witchcraft. Fu rt h e r m o re, in parts of Fr a n c e ,
and possession in Cideville, No r m a n d y, in 1850, and Germany, Greece, and Spain, researchers have recorded
in the Alpine village of Mo rzine (Ha u t e - Sa voie), a few a vibrant traditional discourse regarding witchcraft dur-
years later, highlight the various ways in which ing the last few decades of the twentieth century
Catholic clergy we re bound up with popular concerns (Blécourt 1999; Favret-Saada 1980; Sebald 1978).
over witches. The drama in Cideville, for example, Because the popular witchcraft discourse had
began after the local priest criticized a parishioner for become largely redundant in England and America by
consulting a cunning man. When the latter was later the early twentieth century, anthropologists and ethno-
a r rested, it was thought in the village that the priest graphers turned to African, Pa c i fic, and So u t h
had re p o rted him to the police. Not long after, two American societies to study the dynamics of witchcraft,
b oys in the care of the priest began to exhibit the and so from the 1920s, academic interest in contempo-
symptoms of witchcraft. r a ry witchcraft shifted away from Eu rope for seve r a l
Yet, there is no doubt that from the early twentieth decades. From the 1970s onward, however, there was a
century onward the fear of witches became less intense g rowing recognition by anthropologists that there was
and less perva s i ve. Ac ross Eu rope, as the nineteenth still plenty of scope for studying witchcraft in Europe.
c e n t u ry pro g ressed, inexorable urbanization, mecha- In particular, the research by Favret-Saada on the witch-
nization, developments in transportation, the opening craft discourse in the Bocage (hedged farming land-
of global markets, and other broad economic factors scape) of western Normandy, France, provided a timely
slowly but surely changed the social and cultural experi- c o r re c t i ve to all those—historians and anthro p o l o g i s t s
ences of millions of people. One aspect of this process included—who had consigned European witchcraft to
of change was the reduced need to explain misfortune the past. Favret-Saada became immersed in a world of
in terms of witchcraft. Better state we l f a re prov i s i o n accusations and insinuations involving bewitched pigs
and the development of personal banking and insur- and humans, witch doctors, fortunetellers, local poli-
ance, particularly in the farming sector, lessened the tics, and religious devotion.
financial impact of livestock losses and ill health. The history of witchcraft in the modern era is, how-
Improvements in sanitation and medicine reduced the ever, not just about the decline or continuation of tradi-
s p read and impact of a wide range of once pre va l e n t tional belief in witches; it is also concerned with the ori-
contagious diseases. The decline of domestic pro d u c- gins and growth of contemporary Ne o - Pa g a n
tion of cheese, butter, bread, and beer in the face of witchcraft. While the popular belief in witchcraft
industrial-scale manufacturing further reduced the waned during the second half of the nineteenth centu-
scope for suspicions of witchcraft to arise. Because of ry, a significant renewal of interest in ritual magic began
such changes, and other interlinked developments, few- among western Eu ro p e’s middle classes, born of a
er and fewer witches were created through the accretion fusion of mystical fre e m a s o n ry, early-modern occult
of suspicion and gossip, and so witches became increas- p h i l o s o p h y, interest in recently deciphered Greek and
ingly redundant as communal scapegoats. Egyptian magical papyri, Eastern mysticism, and
But the pattern of witchcraft’s declining social re l e- Western spiritualism. In France the influential work s
vance across Europe has yet to be fully explored and is on ritual magic and tarot reading by Eliphas Levi
little understood. What is certain is that it was highly (Alphonse Louis Constant [1810–1875]), and the pub-
variable. In England, by the 1930s, witchcraft ceased to lications of the spiritualist Allen Kardec (Hi p p o l y t e
be a significant concern, even for a minority of the rural R i vail [1804–1869]) and Papus (Gérard En c a u s s e
population. In many other regions of Europe, however, [1865–1916]), we re at the fore f ront of what can be
the fear of witches continued well beyond that time described as the occult revival. It was in England, how-
among a large minority of the population. To underline e ve r, that this new melting pot of esoteric magic and
the seriousness with which some people continued to interest in the arcane took root most vigorously. It was
fear the threat of witchcraft since World War II, in England in 1865–1866 that the Societas Rosicruciana
one need only consider a series of witch-related was formed by a small group of erudite Masons with a
shootings in France. In 1948, for example, a farmer of keen interest in ceremonial magic. The society was the
Sa i n t - Ma u r i c e - d u - D é s e rt, near Do m f ront, shot his seed from which grew the more famous He r m e t i c
neighbor dead and seriously injured another who he Order of the Golden Dawn, and later, the En g l i s h
believed had cast a spell on his animals by making the branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis,headed by the infa-
sign of the cross the wrong way whenever he passed his mous Aleister Crow l e y. Membership of these va r i o u s
p ro p e rt y. Around the same time, across the border in groups was tiny, but some members published transla-
Ge r m a n y, the work of Johann Kruse, an ard e n t tions of rare magical texts and created rituals and initia-
campaigner against the belief in witchcraft whose tions that would have a strong influence on the devel-
schoolteacher mother had been persecuted as a witch, opment of Wicca and modern witchcraft. English and
Contemporary Witchcraft 211 |
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German enthusiasm for the mystical writings of grandmother, who had passed on to him her own Book
Madame Blavatsky (1831–1891) and her Theosophical of Shadows. Sanders did not leave any significant body
Society also did much to encourage a more interve n- of work like Gardner, but two of his adherents, Stewart
tionist and imaginative engagement with supernatural and Janet Farrar, went on to write a series of successful
forces, which fed into the general reawakening of intel- books beginning with What Witches Do (1971), that
lectual occultism. laid open the workings of Alexandrian Wicca in an
These occult societies of the late nineteenth and early accessible way. Around the same time Doreen Valiente,
t wentieth centuries provided the textual re s o u rces and one of the founding members of Ga rdnerian Wi c c a ,
organizational inspiration for the Neo-Pagan witchcraft also produced a number of equally successful guide-
m ovements that emerged after World War II. Yet the books such as Wi t c h c raft for To m o r row (1978). T h e s e
linking of the Ne o - Pagan witches of the present with publications were key to the impressive spread of Neo-
those labeled witches in the historical re c o rd, which Pagan witchcraft in the United States, Australia, and
underpins the postwar concept of modern witchcraft, p a rts of Eu rope from the 1970s onward. As Ro n a l d
was very much influenced by the work of someone who Hutton observed, “Wicca, is in fact the only re l i g i o n
was not a practicing occultist: the Egyptologist and which the English can claim to have given to the world”
folklorist Ma r g a ret Mu r r a y. In two books, The (Hutton 1999b, 1).
Witch-Cult in Western Europe(1921) and The God of the At the beginning of the third millennium, our
Wi t c h e s (1931), Murray (mis)used early-modern trial understanding of what is meant by witchcraft in con-
records to construct the theory that those persecuted as t e m p o r a ry society is to a considerable extent deter-
witches in the past were adherents of a secret pagan fer- mined by where we live, how we live, and personal
tility religion centered on the worship of a horned god. belief systems. For some people in mainland Eu ro p e ,
While the basis of Mu r r a y’s theory was easily under- witchcraft consists of a similar set of traditional beliefs
mined by experts on the history of witchcraft who and fears to those found in the records of the witchcraft
highlighted her crude and misleading use of historical trials of the early modern period. This conception of
sources, her “findings” were nevertheless taken seriously witchcraft is ve ry much intertwined with Christianity.
by some scholars, who gave her work an enduring For others, witchcraft is a vibrant and growing alterna-
veneer of respectability that facilitated the establish- tive to the churches. It is a religionin itself, providing a
ment of Wicca as a religion. new means of expressing religious devotion and spiritu-
Wiccans we re the first firmly identifiable group of ality. Whether it really has any direct connection with
Neo-Pagan worshippers describing themselves as witch- the witchcraft tradition of the past has become less
es. Gerald Brosseau Ga rdner (1884–1964), a former i m p o rtant, with many Ne o - Pagan witches now re c o g-
customs official in Malaya who returned to England in nizing that Ga rd n e r’s and Sa n d e r s’s claims of ancient
1936, founded the movement. From his active interest continuity are either bogus or unproven.
in folklore, spiritualism, Eastern mysticism, and
OWEN DAVIES
f re e m a s o n ry, and his enthusiasm for the theories of
Margaret Murray and the activities of the Ordo Templi See also: ANTHROPOLOGY;BURNINGTINCUNNINGFOLK;DECLINE
Or i e n t i s , he molded the history and stru c t u re of an OFTHEWITCHHUNTS;HISTORIOGRAPHY;LYNCHING;MURRAY,
ancient organized witchcraft religion. His ideas and MARGARET;SWIMMINGTEST;TOADS.
References and further reading:
claims we re re vealed in several publications beginning
Blécourt, Willem de. 1996. “On the Continuation of Witchcraft.”
with the influential book, Wi t c h c raft To d a y, p u b l i s h e d
Pp. 335–352 in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in
in 1954. Ga rdner alleged that in 1939 he had discov-
Culture and Belief.Edited by Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester,
e red and been initiated into a coven of secret pagan
and Gareth Roberts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
worshippers in the New Forest, Hampshire. The coven
———. 1999. “The Witch, Her Victim, the Unwitcher, and the
represented the last survivors of an indigenous fertility Researcher: The Continued Existence of Traditional
religion whose adherents we re described as witches. Witchcraft.” Pp. 141–219 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe:
Their secret knowledge had been passed on from one The Twentieth Century.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart
generation to the next orally, though key cere m o n i e s Clark. London: Athlone.
were written down in a manuscript known as the Book Davies, Owen. 1999a. Witchcraft, Magic and Culture 1736–1951.
of Shadows. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
———. 1999b.A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in
In subsequent decades, offshoots, schisms, and new
Nineteenth-Century Somerset.Bruton.
formulations of pagan witchcraft emerged. The most
———. 2003. “Witchcraft Accusations in France 1850–1990.”
influential group was that formed by Alex Sanders, who
Popular Magic in Mo d e rn Eu ro p e. Edited by Willem de Bl é c o u rt
practiced “A l e x a n d r i a n” Wicca. During the 1960s he
and Owen Davies. Manchester: Manchester Un i versity Pre s s .
broke away from Gardnerian Wicca, publicly declaring
Devlin, Judith. 1987. The Superstitious Mind: French Peasants and
it to be bogus, and instead claimed for himself a tru e the Supernatural in the Nineteenth Century.New Haven and
link with the ancient religion of the past through his London: Yale University Press.
212 Contemporary Witchcraft |
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Favret-Saada, Jeanne. 1980. Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage. An evil like witchcraft was easily assimilated to forms
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. of thinking, speaking, and writing based on contrariety.
Gijswijt-Hofstra, Marijke. 1999. “Witchcraft after the Witch The Devil and God we re obvious contraries; so too
Trials.” Pp. 95–189 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The
were their servants. All the actions of witches and espe-
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
cially those associated with the Sabbat could be inter-
and Stuart Clark. London: Athlone.
preted as contrary behavior, in the sense of being con-
Henningsen, Gustav. 1988. “Witch Persecution After the Era of
t ra ry to normal actions. In addition, since most
the Witch Trials: A Contribution to Danish Ethnohistory.”
contraries were related asymmetrically (good was better
ARV: Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore44:103–153.
Hutton, Ronald. 1999a. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of than its contrary evil), a form of behavior that suggest-
Modern Pagan Witchcraft.Oxford: Oxford University Press. ed the opposite was also an inversion of normal actions.
____________. 1999b. “Modern Pagan Witchcraft.” Pp. 1–79 in Contrariety became the governing principle, therefore,
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Twentieth Century.Edited of both how witchcraft was conceived and how it was
by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London: Athlone. described.
King, Francis. 1970. Ritual Magic in England 1887 to the Present There were three consequences for witchcraft belief.
Day.London: Spearman.
First, it drew considerable strength and credibility from
Luhrmann, T. M. 1989. Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft.Oxford:
the fact that witchcraft could be absorbed by a principle
Blackwell.
that was already thought to be of paramount impor-
Porter, Roy. 1999. “Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment,
tance in philosophy, religion, and social and political
Romantic and Liberal Thought.” Pp. 191–274 in Witchcraft
theory. Contrariety enabled writers intelligibly to con-
and Magic in Europe: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London: Athlone. struct and depict what was thought to be the most evil
Schiffmann, Aldona Christina. 1987. “The Witch and Crime: of all crimes by means of the concepts and the language
The Persecution of Witches in Twentieth-Century Poland.” of maximum difference. As a result, witchcraft contin-
ARV: Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore43:147–165. ued to be thinkable for as long as the logic and rhetoric
Sebald, Hans. 1978. Witchcraft: The Heritage of a Heresy.New of contrariety continued to be rational communication
York and Oxford: Elsevier. strategies. Second, contrariety enabled witchcraft
Worobec, Christine D. 2001. Possessed: Women, Witches, and
b e l i e vers to argue that witchcraft m u s t exist in the
Demons in Imperial Russia.DeKalb: Northern Illinois
world, since without such an extreme form of evil,
University.
extreme forms of good would go undefined and there-
fore unacknowledged. The paradox of contraries is that,
Contraries, Contrariety since they require each other, the negative contrary is as
Expressing the relationship of maximum opposition in important as the positive. In this sense, witchcraft had a
Aristotelian logic, dichotomies were most often chosen necessary role in human affairs and a purpose that was
by authors to establish and describe the difference ultimately beneficial; it was re q u i red to complete the
between witchcraft and the normal world. In ancient moral system. This was God’s reason for allowing it to
philosophy and religion, and in early, medieval, and happen. As James VI and I, king of Scotland and
Renaissance Christianity, the cosmos, nature, and England, wrote of knowing witchcraft: “there can be no
human relations were often said to be “composed of better way to know God, then by the contrarie”
contraries,” for example, those between the elements, (Daemonologie,Edinburgh, 1597, 55) .
the virtues and vices, Christ and Antichrist, men and T h i rd, the same paradox could have damaging
women, and the contrasting social and political condi- implications in the context of skepticism about witch-
tions of individuals. craft. Those who we re inclined to doubt witchcraft’s
Contrariety became especially prominent in o b j e c t i ve reality we re able to argue that it was, instead,
Renaissance communication theory and there f o re in all a made reality—a product of the logic of contrariety,
forms and levels of education. In both logic and rhetoric instead of merely its subject. Johann We yer was to
it was recommended as an especially effective strategy argue, for example, that in Catholic cultures witches
for persuasion. This gave rise to widespread forms of dis- we re accused simply of doing anti-Catholic things—
course based on antithesis and on the principle that con- things c o n t ra ry to Catholicism. For Protestants, such
traries we re best re vealed when placed next to each other accusations clearly made no sense and could be
in a phrase, a sentence, or an entire argument. Mo r a l ridiculed as ideological constructions. Eve n t u a l l y, in
values benefited most from this form of mental and lin- 1718, another skeptic, Francis Hutchinson, was able to
guistic patterning, good being best appreciated when set turn the logic of contrariety completely against accep-
off against evil and vice versa. But there was little to tance of witchcraft as an objective crime. Such a logic,
which the principle could not be applied, and early he wrote, had created the absurd situation in which
modern authors in all fields took considerable adva n t a g e e ve ry society and culture saw witchcraft as simply the
of this in exploring copious numbers of contraries and i n version of its own values. Witchcraft was no longer a
forms of contrariety in their writings. n e c e s s a ry part of the objective world order; it had been
Contraries, Contrariety 213 |
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debunked as nothing more than a re q u i rement of ecclesiastical administration and an educational system
thinking in a certain way. to create a pious and disciplined populace. Mo re ove r,
Contzen was a pioneer in mercantilist theory, stressing
STUART CLARK
the necessity of economic development as the way to
See also:HUTCHINSON,FRANCIS;SKEPTICISM;WEYER,JOHANN. state powe r. Like most theorists of the we l l - o rd e re d
References and further reading: police state, he emphasized the urgent need of taxation
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
to fill the state treasury, essential for the creation of an
in Early Modern Europe.Part 1. Oxford: Clarendon.
o f f e n s i ve army consisting ideally of career soldiers,
echoing the doctrines of Justus Lipsius. As a maxim of
Contzen, Adam, SJ (1571–1635) politics, he argued that the prince should always think
A major political thinker of Catholic Germany during in terms of the augmentation and consolidation of state
the Thirty Years’War, Contzen’s long acquaintance with power and do everything to increase it.
religious and political conflict, plus fir s t - h a n d C o n t ze n’s program was ve ry agreeable to Du k e
knowledge of witch hunts, heavily influenced his con- Maximilian I of Ba varia and the publication of the
sistently “zealot” opinions and actions. Politicsprobably led to Contzen becoming confessor to
Born in Monschau (a village in the duchy of Jülich the Ba varian duke in 1623. In this position, Contze n
near Aachen), he was acquainted at an early age with the gained intimate influence as Maximilian’s chief political
religious wars raging across the border in the advisor and formed a zealous court faction of militant
Netherlands, the struggles between Calvinists and Catholics at Munich. He viewed the Thirty Years’War
Catholics in Aachen in 1582, and the effects of the as a holy crusade, conducted for the honor of God, and
Cologne War in 1583. Contzen attended the Je s u i t played a major role in convincing Maximilian I to sup-
College at Cologne in 1588, and then moved to Tr i e r port the policy of Catholic restitution.
while a major witch persecution was taking place. He Like other Ba varian “zealots,” Contzen took a hard
e n t e red the Society of Jesus in 1591 and studied theolo- line on witchcraft, thus provoking resentment from the
gy at the Jesuit academy in Mainz in 1599, where he moderate party at court. Thanks to Contze n’s political
witnessed more witch persecutions. In 1603 he was r i vals, who conve rted the Jesuit Adam Tanner to their
o rdained a priest, followed by appointments in Cologne v i ew, no extensive witch persecution occurred in Ba va r i a
and in 1606 as professor of philosophy at the Un i ve r s i t y e ven during the general peak between 1626 and 1630.
of W ü rzburg. In 1609 he assumed the chair for biblical C o n t zen lamented the lack of zeal for persecuting witch-
studies in Mainz formerly held by his teacher Ni k o l a u s es among Ba varian moderates, whom he derided as
Serarius; from 1612, he also lectured on controve r s i a l p o l i t i c i , which would ultimately lead to divine re t r i b u-
t h e o l o g y, succeeding another mentor, Ma rtin Be c a n u s . tion. Contzen was in close contact with Fr i e d r i c h
During his ten years at Mainz, Contzen published F ö r n e r, the chief architect of Ba m b e r g’s witchcraft trials,
controversial theological tracts, gaining a reputation as and he congratulated Ba m b e r g’s bishop, Go t t f r i e d
one of the leading controversial theologians of his day. Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim, for burning 600
He directed his polemics mainly against Calvinists and people for sorc e ry: God will surely have merc y, Contze n
the Reformed Church, which he blamed for obstru c t- w rote, for a prince working so ardently for his honor.
ing religious reconciliation and peace in Germany. His For Contzen, howe ve r, persecutions we re not the only
anti-Calvinism formed the centerpiece of his most means to extirpate witchcraft. When he published a
enduring work, Politicorum Libri Decem (Ten Books on political novel in 1628, employing a legendary
Politics, 1620), which became re q u i red reading at Ethiopian king to demonstrate his principles of gove r n-
Catholic universities and for Catholic rulers; it ment, he made it clear that the origins of sorc e ry lay in
remained one of the most influential statements of ignorance and a lack of proper education. Besides exe c u-
Catholic statecraft in central Eu rope until the early tions and public prayers, Contze n’s idealized Et h i o p i a n
eighteenth century. king also founded public elementary schools. T h ro u g h
C o n t zen set out a moral program to combat literacy and public praye r, Ethiopian youth achieve d
Ge r m a n y’s political crisis and to develop a Catholic t rue inner piety and thus helped root out sorc e ry.
state. He sought to integrate politics with Christianity, When Contzen died in 1635, Ma x i m i l i a n’s policies
denying Machiavelli’s claim that a ruler could not be a immediately shifted to moderation; Ba varian witch
good Christian. Contzen’s anti-Machiavellian attack on persecutions ended abruptly and the elector’s imperial
the “pseudo-politicians,” also condemned Calvin’s policy now sought conciliation with the Pro t e s t a n t s .
“pseudo-theology,” which he claimed had caused chaos Maximilian’s new confessor, Johann Vervaux, was also a
in Germany.The only solution was through strong gov- Jesuit, but his policies were far more moderate and he
ernment, with an all-powerful ruler, who should firmly mediated actively in peace negotiations.
p re s e rve Catholicism and re i n t roduce it into new l y
c o n ve rted territories through a balanced worldly and ERICO. MADER
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See also:BAMBERGPRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF; resented temptation by the Devil and the consequent
GERMANY;JESUITS(SOCIETYOFJESUS); MACHIAVELLIANISM;MAX- punishment for surrendering to him; no human cause
IMILIANI,DUKEOFBAVARIA;TANNER,ADAM. was thought to be responsible for the possession, with
References and further reading:
the partial exception of the possessed himself.
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1995. “‘Politiker’ und ‘Zelanten’. Zur
The first epidemics of demonic possession in nun-
Typologie innenpolitischer Konflikte in der Frühen Neuzeit.”
neries, followed by accusations and trials for witchcraft,
Zeitschrift für historische Forschungno. 22: 455–494.
go back to the mid-sixteenth century and occurred in
———. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria. Popular Magic,
p o s t - Reformation Catholic Eu rope. Johann We ye r, a
Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe.
Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. Cambridge: German physician writing in 1563, re p o rted at least
Cambridge University Press. four episodes of this kind; they occurred in the Cloister
Bireley, Robert. 1975. Maximilian von Bayern, Adam Contzens S J. of St. Bridget, near Xanten (1550–1556); in the con-
und die Gegenreformation in Deutschland. Göttingen: vent of Uve rtet in the County of Hoorn (1551); at
Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. Ke n t o r p, near Strasbourg (1552); and at the Na z a re t h
———. 1990. The Counter-Reformation Prince: Antimachiavellism c o n vent of Cologne (1560–1564), re s p e c t i ve l y. We ye r
or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe.Chapel Hill:
used these cases (at least two of which ended with the
University of North Carolina Press.
death of the suspected witch) to show that all such
Breuer, Dieter. 1979. “Adam Contzens Staatsroman. Zur Funktion
m a l e fices we re the De v i l’s deceits, designed to confuse
der Poesie im absolutistischen Staat.” Pp. 77–126 in Literatur
faithful Christians and to cause the death of the inno-
und Gesellschaft im deutschen Barock. Aufsätze. Edited by
cent presumed witches. Believing that disease might
Conrad Wiedemann. Heidelberg: Winter.
Brischar, Karl P. 1879. Adam Contzen SJ., ein Ireniker und explain such cases, the Protestant We yer pro t e s t e d
National-Ökonom des 17. Jahrhunderts. Eine culturhistorische strongly against Catholic remedies for possession (that
Studie.Würzburg: Woerl. is, exo rcism), which he considered superstitious. T h i s
Duhr, Bernhard. 1900. Die Stellung der Jesuiten in den deutschen offers a first clue to the cases of witchcraft in convents:
Hexenprozessen.Cologne: Bachern. along with other highly publicized early episodes of
Seils, Ernst Adalbert. 1968. Die Staatslehre des Jesuiten Adam demonic possession (for example, Fr a n c e’s famous
Contzen, Beichtvater Kurfürst Maximilians I. von Bayern.
“Miracle of Laon,” 1566), they were used as propagan-
Lübeck and Hamburg: Matthiesen.
da by Catholics to emphasize the efficaciousness of t h e i r
sacraments and rites. This interpretation obv i o u s l y
Convent Cases applies to Eu ropean areas, such as sixteenth-century
In early modern Europe, some famous witchcraft cases Ge r m a n y, the Netherlands, or France, where the confli c t
originated in nunneries. They seem to follow a fixed among different Christian confessions was ve ry harsh.
sequence: First, one or more nuns began to experience Howe ve r, the same cannot be said of some cases in
a kind of “p s yc h o s o m a t i c” malaise (sometimes it Italy (Bologna, 1562–1563; Reggio Emilia, 1625;
became a true “epidemic” spreading throughout the Piacenza, 1625; Carpi, 1636–1639) or Sp a i n
convent); second, the disease was perceived as a demon- ( m o n a s t e ry of St. Placido, Madrid, 1628). Our expla-
ic possession, which immediately involved an exorcist; nations here begin with the application of ru l e s
t h i rd, during their exo rcisms, the possessed nuns a p p roved by the Council of Trent, which imposed on
accused of witchcraft the persons whom they believed the nunneries a much stricter reclusion than before .
responsible for their possession; and, fourth using this When we also take into consideration the fact that in
evidence, both lay and ecclesiastical courts sometimes both Italy and Spain (as elsewhere in Catholic Europe),
arrested and tried the presumed criminals. Convictions girls of good family who had no chance of getting
for witchcraft and maleficium (harmful magic) fre- married we re obliged to take shelter in the nunneries,
quently resulted, until at the end of the seventeenth we can easily understand why there we re so many
century an increasingly skeptical view of convent pos- strains and conflicts inside them. In It a l y, howe ve r, at
sessions persuaded the judges to view them as matters least since the first decades of the seventeenth century,
of mendacity or illness. the Roman Congregation of the Holy Office assumed a
We do not know exactly how many cases of this kind mild, cautious approach to the cases of demonic posses-
o c c u r red; the impression that they we re numero u s sion and witchcraft in the nunneries. Though neve r
might be due to the echo and to the public debates denying the existence of genuine possession in theory,
which such episodes caused, especially in seve n t e e n t h - Roman and Spanish authorities re c o g n i zed the stro n g
c e n t u ry France. Nor is it clear exactly when these pathological and imitative components that such cases
episodes started to multiply. Among others, Gre g o ry the e m p h a s i zed. Both Inquisitions, there f o re, interru p t e d
Great (ca. 600), Hincmar of Reims (early ninth centu- any legal proceedings based on exo rcism and strictly
ry), and Caesarius of Heisterbach (thirteenth century ) forbade the exo rcists to continue their work. In s t e a d ,
mentioned possessed friars and nuns. Howe ve r, these they ord e red that convents where such cases had
i n vo l ved single individuals, in whom the possession re p- o c c u r red be provided with better confessors and
Convent Cases 215 |
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spiritual directors, and occasionally dispersed the pos- witchcraft had disappeared and only the problem of
sessed nuns among unaffected convents. possession remained.
In seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry France, to the contrary, the
nuns who accused their sisters or other ecclesiastics of GUIDO DALL’OLIO;
witchcraft found influential persons willing to listen to TRANSLATED BY CARLO DALL’OLIO
them. T h ree famous cases are re c o rded: the Ur s u l i n e s
of Aix-en-Provence (1609–1611), the notorious case of
See also: AIX-EN-PROVENCENUNS;CAMBRAINUNS;CARPI,POSSES-
SIONINAPOORCLAIRE’SCONVENT;EXORCISM;FRANCE;FREUD,
the Ursulines of Loudun (1632–1638), and the hospi-
SIGMUND;GENDER;LOUDUNNUNS;LOUVIERSNUNS;PARLEMENT
tal nuns of Louviers (1642–1647). At Aix, one sister
OFPARIS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;WEYER,JOHANN.
who was possessed by the Devil accused Louis
References and further reading:
Ga u f r i d y, her confessor, of sorc e ry; the Pa rl e m e n t( s ov- Dall’Olio, Guido. 2001. “Alle origini della nuova esorcistica. I
e reign judicial court) of Provence sentenced him to maestri bolognesi di Girolamo Menghi.” Pp. 81–129 in
death. At Loudun the same fate befell Ur b a i n Inquisizioni: percorsi di ricerca.Edited by Giovanna Paolin.
Gr a n d i e r, a handsome and highly esteemed priest, but Trieste: Edizioni Universitá di Trieste.
also much criticized in his town. Fi n a l l y, the Pa rl e m e n t Ferber, Sarah. 2004. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early
of Normandy sentenced to death the spiritual dire c t o r Modern France. London and NewYork: Routledge.
Huxley, Aldous Leonard. 1952. The Devils of Loudun.London:
of the nunnery at Louviers (since he was already dead,
Chatto and Windus.
his corpse was burned); the same doom befell his vicar,
Kohl, Benjamin G., and H. C. Erik Midelfort, eds. 1998.On
while another nun hardly escaped the stake. Ma n y
Witchcraft: An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer’s De
overlapping explanations have been offered for these
Praestigiis daemonum.Ashville, NC: Pegasus.
d i s c o n c e rting events. First, constraint and sexual
Lavenia, Vincenzo. 1998. “I diavoli di Carpi e il Sant’Uffizio
d e p r i vation (as mentioned above): according to a (1636–1639).” Pp. 77–139 in Eretici, esuli e indemoniati
p s ychoanalytical interpretation, the accusations of nell’età moderna.Edited by Mario Rosa. Florence: Olschki.
witchcraft re p resented the denial and projection of Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe
o n e’s own sexual desires. Ad d i t i o n a l l y, we should con- siècle: Une analyse de psychologie historique.Paris: Plon.
sider that the lengthy discourses by the possessed nuns Österreich, Traugott Konstantin. 1930. Possession, Demoniacal and
during public exo rcisms re p resented the closest Other, Among Primitive Races in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and
ModernTimes.Translated by Dora Ibberson. NewYork:
a p p roximations to female preaching permitted by the
Richard R. Smith.
Catholic Church; generally speaking, the peculiar con-
Puyol Buil, Carlos. 1993. Inquisición y política en el reinado de
dition of a possessed person justified behavior that in a
Felipe IV: Los procesos de Jerónimo de Villanueva y las monjas de
d i f f e rent situation would have been seve rely sup-
San Plácido, 1628–1660.Madrid: Consejo Superior de
p ressed. Mo re ove r, the accusations against confessors
Investigaciones Científicas.
and spiritual directors emphasized the importance that Romeo, Giovanni. 1998. Esorcisti, confessori e sessualità femminile
these clerics had assumed in the post-Tr i d e n t i n e nell’Italia della Controriforma: A proposito di due casi modenesi
Catholic world and the dangers of nearness betwe e n del primo Seicento.Florence: Le Lettere.
nuns and confessors. Sluhovsky, Moshe. 2002. “The Devil in the Convent.” American
Ne ve rtheless, high-ranking French courts con- Historical Review107, no. 5 (December): 1379–1411.
demned to death some prominent clergymen on the Walker, Daniel Pickering. 1981. Unclean Spirits: Possession and
Exorcism in France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early
grounds of accusations drawn from exorcisms and oth-
Seventeenth Centuries.London: Scolar.
er related evidence. A change of mentality among
judges finally stopped such trials in France during the
s e venteenth century. After the Loudun and Louviers Cooper, Thomas
cases, the enormous publicity given to such events start- Cooper was a demonologist, one of a number of
ed a lively intellectual debate that eventually led to the s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry English clerics who identifie d
disappearance of the crime of witchcraft by royal edict the pact with the Devil as the essence of witchcraft.
in 1682. A thorough judicial evaluation of the problem, Like most demonologists, Cooper re g a rded witch-
t h e re f o re, was provoked through the outcry stemming craft as one aspect of a much broader range of re l i-
from events in French nunneries. gious issues. We know re l a t i vely little about him, not
Since comparative research in this field remains rudi- e ven the dates of his birth and death. Cooper was
mentary, we do not know what happened in other parts born in London, educated at Westminster School and
of Catholic Eu rope. During the eighteenth and nine- Christ Church College in Oxford, where he took his
teenth centuries, lay culture was increasingly inclined to BA in 1590, subsequently adding an MA and an MD.
consider possession as a real illness, until Fre u d’s He held a couple of clerical livings in Lancashire and
famous re s e a rch labeled the demonically possessed of C h e s h i re, and another subsequently in Cove n t ry.
the previous centuries as hysterics. By that time, howev- Cooper moved to London in 1610, apparently sup-
e r, any connection between demonic possession and p o rting himself as an author.
216 Cooper, Thomas |
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Cooper’s importance in the history of witchcraft lies examples of witchcraft, apart from those few instances
in his book on The Mystery of Witch-Craft: Discovering a l ready mentioned. (Howe ve r, Cooper made extensive
the Truth, Nature, Occasions, Growth and Power thereof: and unacknowledged borrowings from Wi l l i a m
Together with the Detection and Punishment of the Same. Pe rk i n s’s A Discourse of the damned Art of Wi t c h c ra f t .)
Published in 1617, it was dedicated to the mayor and The book struck a responsive chord: a second printing
corporation of the city of Chester and the justices of the appeared in 1622, under the title of Sathan transformed
peace of Cheshire. A major work of demonology, some into an Angell of Light . . . Emplified [sic] specially in the
368 pages in length, it made an important contribution Doctrine of Witchcraft.
to a corpus of distinctively English demonological Cooper’s views on witchcraft need to be placed in the
w o rks, a series that had begun in 1590 with He n ry context of his other writings. He wrote about a dozen
Ho l l a n d’s A Treatise against Wi t c h c ra f t and ended with tracts on religious and related matters. His we i g h t i e s t
R i c h a rd Be r n a rd’s A Guide to Grand Iu ry Men with work appears to have been his devotional treatise, The
respect to Witches of 1627. Christians Daily Sacrifice,which had reached 532 pages
C o o p e r’s The My s t e ry of Wi t c h - Cra f t , while demon- by its third edition in 1615. Other titles by Cooper
strating some peculiarities, lay firmly within this evolv- included a piece of patriotic propaganda, The Churches
ing English Protestant tradition of demonological De l i ve ra n c e . . . in re m e m b rance of the wonderf u l l
w o rks. He claimed to have been prompted to write it De l i ve rance from Gu n p o u l d e r - Tre a s o n ( 1 6 0 9) . C o o p e r’s
both by the general issue of witchcraft and by his final tract, published in 1620, discussed murder, focus-
knowledge of some recent cases. Indeed, he claimed to ing on a recent homicide in Suffolk.
have been involved in a case of demonic possession by JAMES SHARPE
witchcraft at No rthwich in Cheshire (almost cert a i n l y
the possession of Thomas Harrison of 1601–1602),
See also:DEMONOLOGY;ENGLAND;LANCASHIREWITCHES;PACT
WITHTHEDEVIL;POSSESSION,DEMONIC.
and also to have comforted the widower of a “Lady
References and further reading:
Hales” after she had been killed by witchcraft. Cooper
Cooper,Thomas. 1617. The Mystery of Witch-Craft: Discovering
was well aware of the Lancashire trials of 1612, and also
the Truth, Nature, Occasions, Growth and Power thereof: Together
mentioned suspicions of witchcraft at Coventry (where, with the Detection and Punishment of the Same.London.
according to one confessing witch, there was a “confed-
eracie” of some sixty witches). Corporeality, Angelic
He couched his ideas about witchcraft in a conven- and Demonic
tional theological context. He saw witchcraft as being, The concept of witchcraft that evolved in western
among other things, a product of the superstition of the European Christianity between about 1400 and 1700
period; noting that the Lancashire witches had arisen in differed in two ways from definitions in other cultural
a backward part of the country, where right religion had contexts. First, the power to perform magical harm
not yet been sufficiently planted. Cooper saw the cre- (maleficium) did not always originate with the witch. In
ation of an effective preaching ministry as the most learned witchcraft, but not necessarily in the popular
e f f e c t i ve way to pre vent people from falling into the tradition, it came from a demon that assaulted the vic-
De v i l’s snares. Tow a rd the end of his book, Cooper tim according to a formal agreement or pact with the
d e voted sections to excoriating “the atheisme of these witch. Second, the notion of pact presumed face-
times,” the widespread contempt of Go d’s word, the to-face encounters between the demon and the witch,
“idolatorie and false worship of this present age,” and usually at the beginning of their relation (the moment
other problems caused by the imperfect state of re l i- of temptation), and at intervals thereafter. Thus, the
gious observance in England. question of how angels and demons appeared to
Cooper’s treatment of witchcraft was essentially sim- humans, and whether they needed bodies to do so, was
ilar to that advanced by other English writers of the a major concern of writers on witchcraft in this period.
period. He defined witchcraft as “a wicked art serv i n g Demons habitually perpetrated m a l e fic i a (evil acts)
for the working of wonders by the assistance of the dev- invisibly, and in theory needed no bodily presence to do
ill, so farre forth as God in justice shall permit” (Cooper so. But because they appeared to witches, and interact-
1617, 47). Cooper saw the satanic pact as central to ed with them corpore a l l y, witches we re imagined as
witchcraft; like other writers, he interpreted the pact as having privileged sensory information (especially visual
an inversion of God’s covenant with his people. Again, and tactile, but also auditory and olfactory) about
like other British Protestant authors, he expressed hos- demons. Moreover, by 1500, witches and demons were
tility to cunning folk and countermagic and disap- usually accused of congregating at mass meetings,
p roved of divination, including fortunetelling and w h e re they engaged in various activities that pre s u p-
astrological predictions. He based his interpretation of posed the bodily presence of demons: feasting, dancing,
witchcraft entirely on Scripture, making little or no ref- and various rituals, including the presentation of initi-
erence to other demonological writers or to any recent ates to the Devil “in person.” Because such interactions
Corporeality, Angelic and Demonic 217 |
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we re described according to norms of purely human Demonic corporeality did not seriously pre o c c u p y
social interaction, Western Christian witchcraft dis- Western Christian thinkers until Peter Lombard (d.
p l a yed an obsessive attention to the corporeality of 1160), whose Four Books of Se n t e n c e s e x p l o re d
demons. “Whether angels have bodies, as has seemed to some
writers, with whom Augustine seems to agree” (book 2,
Kinds of Evidence distinction 8). Lombard and his commentators gradu-
Human–demon interaction was analyzed in juridical ally revealed demonic corporeality as a thorny ontolog-
terms, as a question of human guilt, provable by the ical problem.
witches’ “confessions,” and conserved in writing. Trial Thomas Aquinas supplied the defin i t i ve solution to
procedures and penalties for witchcraft began from the the problem in his Summa theologiae and elsew h e re .
assumption that interpersonal contact with demons was Angels and demons, said Aquinas, are spiritual cre a-
real and possible: evidence of corporeal interaction was t u res, pure form without matter, and thus have no
therefore evidence of guilt. (Some defendants were Go d - g i ven bodily dimension or presence. Howe ve r,
executed merely for attending Sabbats, not for harming they can create virtual bodies by compressing air and
their neighbors.) However, even the earliest writers on vapors. When “animated,” these aerial statues can simu-
witchcraft sought to corroborate trial evidence with late any human corporeal activity so realistically that
m o re philosophical proofs. Provability of the art i fice is undetectable. Good angels make such
human–demon interaction had implications that were apparitions altru i s t i c a l l y, to edify humans. Evil angels
epistemological (how do we know what we think we appear for spiteful ends, to tempt and ruin us with sin.
know?); ontological (are angels and demons “real” in Demons can copulate with human beings, and can
the same way that humans are?); cosmological (what is probably create human children by artificial insemina-
the world really like?); and theological (if angels and tion. Bonave n t u re disagreed with Aq u i n a s’s theory,
demons are not demonstrably real, can we assume the a s s e rting that angels and devils had bodies naturally
reality of the immortal human soul? If demons are not composed of a superfine “spiritual matter.” Howe ve r,
real, what is the origin of evil?). like Aquinas’s angels and devils, Bonaventure’s were by
n a t u re imperceptible to humans, and would still have
Prehistory of Demonic to assume a fictive body to signal their presence. Thus,
Corporeality Aq u i n a s’s explanation pre vailed among witchcraft
The problem of demonic corporeality reflected appar- writers (Keck 1998, 28–33; Stephens 2002, 58–86).
ent contradictions in the Bible. Certain passages
implied an opposition between spirit and flesh, causing Witchcraft Treatises
many theologians to define demons as beings with no Corporeal interaction between humans and demons
bodily dimension. The influential writings of pseudo- had implications that fascinated and tantalized certain
Dionysius the Areopagite (sixth centuryC.E.) supplied clerics into imagining a new heresy: witchcraft. By the
extra-biblical, philosophical support to the incorporeal 1450s, their treatises argued that heretics’ sworn con-
definition. Other Bible passages portrayed interactions fessions had removed any doubt concerning the reality
that required the corporeality of angels and demons, of demons. From Nicolas Jacquier (1458) to the seven-
their existence in a physical dimension, external to the teenth century, witchcraft theorists exhaustively dis-
human mind. cussed human–demon corporeal interactions, especially
Pagan philosophers from Plato through Ap u l e i u s sexual relations, as proof of demonic reality. Even the
and Po r p h y ry had defined d a i m o n i a o n t o l o g i c a l l y, as a Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486),
species of beings midway between humans and gods. infamous to modern scholars for its cruel misogyny,
Pl a t o’s Sy m p o s i u ma ve r red that humans and gods neve r declared that its primary goal was to demonstrate that
interacted dire c t l y, but only through the mediation of demons were not imaginary.
daemonic a g g e l o i or “messengers.” In the City of Go d Writing in the vernacular languages, authors fro m
(8.14–10.32), St. Augustine re d e fined daemons moral- about 1580 to 1700 invoked witchcraft and ghosts to
ly as irredeemably evil “demons,” and identified them rebut “Sa d d u c e e i s m” (the disbelief in angels, demons,
with the fallen angels mentioned in Jewish and the immortal human soul, and the resurrection), and its
Christian Scripture. Despite radically re d e fining the heinous consequence, atheism. Yet the earliest Latin
character of daemonic beings, Augustine did not con- witchcraft theorists had long before declared that cor-
test the Neoplatonic notion that they had by nature an p o real interaction with humans proved that demons
i m m o rtal body. Augustine declared that humans we re real, and thus that Sadduceeism was untenable
should not envy the demons’ “better” bodies; rather, (Stephens 2002, 1–57).
we should understand that true excellence was moral Anxiety about the reality of spirits is traceable eve n
and re c o g n i ze our potential superiority thro u g h e a r l i e r, in Thomas Aquinas. In several works Aq u i n a s
re d e m p t i o n . noted that some Aristotelians had no use for angels and
218 Corporeality, Angelic and Demonic |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 256 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.219 Application File
demons, and once he even admitted that Aristotle Keck, David. 1998. Angels and Angelology in the Middle Ages.New
himself shared this prejudice. Aquinas re t o rted that York: Oxford University Press.
Aristotelian principles could not account for phenome- Plato. 1989. Symposium.Translated by Alexander Nehamas and
Paul Woodruff. Indianapolis: Hacket.
na such as demonic possession and necromancy: hence,
Psellus, Michael. 1497. De operatione daemonum.Translated as
demonic reality was vindicated. Witchcraft theorists
Psellus de daemonibusby Marsilio Ficino, Sigs. N1r–N6v in
would endlessly repeat this claim (Stephens 2002,
Iamblichus de mysteriis.Venice: Aldo Manuzio. (Reprinted as
323–331).
Iamblichus, De mysteriis Aegyptiorum. Sammelband neuplatonis-
Nonetheless, in isolated re m a rks outside his systemat-
cher Schriftenübersehen und herausgegeben von Marsilius Ficinus.
ic angelological and demonological treatises, Aq u i n a s Venedig 1503 [sic].Frankfurt: Minerva, 1972.)
conceded that some thinkers (presumably those same Roberts, Gareth. 2000. “The Bodies of Demons.” Pp. 131–141 in
Aristotelians) claimed that demons existed only in the The Body in Late Medieval and Early Modern Culture.Edited by
imagination of vulgar, unphilosophical people. And, Darryl Grantley and Nina Taunton. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Aquinas added, s i n c e these thinkers disbelieved in Stephens, Wa l t e r. 2002. Demon Lovers: Wi t c h c raft, Sex, and the Cr i s i s
demons, they declared that m a l e fic i u mwas an imaginary of Be l i e f .Chicago and London: Un i versity of Chicago Pre s s .
c a t e g o ry, born from ignorance of natural causation and
the power of human imagination. To these objections Coton, Pierre (1564–1626)
Aquinas could only reply that demons we re an article of A Jesuit polemicist and mystic, court preacher, and con-
faith (Stephens 2002, 318–321). fessor to kings Henry IV and Louis XIII, Coton was
Owing to the enormous prestige of Aristotelian phi- involved in several major French episodes of exorcism
losophy after Aquinas’s time, Aquinas’s few mentions of and possession. He belonged to a core group of influ-
Aristotelian skepticism about demons had a vast social ential early modern French Catholics—including
i n fluence, greater in pro p o rtion to their bulk than his André Duval, Benet of Canfield, Pierre de Bérulle, and
c o n fident, systematic essays on angelic and demonic Sébastien Michaelis—who promoted a cult of posses-
being. By the 1450s, precursors of the Ma l l e u s sion and exorcism. For Coton, demonic possession was
Maleficarumwere repeating, expanding, and striving to a sign of holiness that existed on a continuum with
improve Aquinas’s refutations of Aristotelian skepticism other ecstatic religious phenomena. He was involved in
by discovering the human accomplices of demons. the spiritual direction of numerous female mystics and
Be t ween 1516 and 1520, the ove rw o rked re f u t a t i o n s demoniacs, and in the establishment of new female reli-
p rovoked Pi e t ro Pomponazzi to publish demonstra- gious houses.
tions that Scholastic theories of demonic reality, witch- In his twenties, while studying jurisprudence in
craft, and the immortality of the human soul were con- Milan, Coton was taken to visit a famous female mys-
t r a ry to the plain sense of Aristotle’s arguments. Tw o tic, Isabella Bellinzaga. This encounter appears to have
e x t remely hard-line theorists of witchcraft, Si l ve s t ro led to his lifelong fascination with female devo t e e s .
Prierias and Ba rtolomeo della Spina, sava g e d Such women we re a common preoccupation among
Pomponazzi’s work (Stephens 2002, 77–79, 358–363). p o s t - Tridentine churchmen. The example of Sa i n t
Physical interactions between demons and humans Te resa, who had re c e i ved support from many Sp a n i s h
fascinated many thinkers who were not witchcraft theo- clerics, was a powerful force in France’s so-called “cen-
rists. Michael Psellus, an eleve n t h - c e n t u ry By z a n t i n e , tury of saints.” At Paris, Coton belonged to a group of
included a few pages about demonic corporeality in his religious enthusiasts including Du val, Bérulle, and
On the Op e rations of Da e m o n s . Thanks to Ma r s i l i o Madame Barbe Acarie, a founder of St. Te re s a’s
Fi c i n o’s Latin translation (Psellus 1497), the passage Discalced Carmelites in France. Coton was reputed to
s p read throughout humanist culture. Fi c i n o’s milder be a formidable orator: as pre a c h e r - o rd i n a ry to King
Neoplatonic daemonology did not pre vent his Ps e l l u s He n ry IV, he impressed visitors to court by giving
translation from becoming an authoritative pro o f - t e x t impromptu sermons on royal command.
of witchcraft theory in the following two centuries for At the time of the controversial Ma rthe Bro s s i e r
authors like To rquato Tasso or Lu d ovico Ma r i a episode in 1599, Coton had been absent from Pa r i s ,
Sinistrari. because the Parlementof Paris (sovereign judicial court)
WALTER STEPHENS had excluded Jesuits from the area of its jurisdiction
from 1594–1603. Later, he helped restore exorcism in
See also:ANGELS;AQUINAS,THOMAS;AUGUSTINE,ST.; BIBLE;
the capital, both as part of the Catholic revival and for
DEMONS;IMAGINATION;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;POMPONAZZI,
c o u rtly entertainment. In 1604, the queen, Marie de
PIETRO;PRIERIAS,SILVESTRO;SABBAT;SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOL-
Medici, sought a replacement exorcist to treat a young
IC;SINISTRARI,LUDOVICOMARIA;SPINA,BARTOLOMEODELLA;
possessed woman from Amiens, Adrienne Du Fre s n e ;
TASSO,TORQUATO.
References and further reading: she had been exo rcised at court by an It a l i a n
Augustine. 1950. The City of God.Translated by Marcus Dods, Ambrosian, who had returned to Italy.When the queen
George Wilson, and J. J. Smith. NewYork: Modern Library. re p o rtedly noticed that the woman’s “d e m o n” showe d
Coton, Pierre 219 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 257 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.220 Application File
signs of resistance in Coton’s presence, she chose Coton Cotta, John (ca. 1575–1650)
to carry on this work. Skeptics in Paris and at court A Cambridge-educated physician who practiced medi-
tried to embarrass Coton publicly in 1605 by publish- cine in the English town of Northampton, Cotta is best
ing more than forty interrogations he reputedly held remembered for his treatise The Triall of Witch-craft,
with Du Fre s n e’s percipient “Devil,” about matters of published in 1616. A second edition, amended and
theology and prognostication, including queries about enlarged but containing no new important arguments,
whether or not King James I of England would convert appeared in 1625 under the title The Infallible True and
to Catholicism. A minor diplomatic incident ensued, Assured Witch.
leading Henry IV to defend Coton to James, claiming Little is known of Cotta’s family background or early
that the published texts had been falsified by the ene- life. He was born in Wa rw i c k s h i re, entered Tr i n i t y
mies of Catholicism, and of the Jesuits in part i c u l a r. College, Cambridge, in 1590, and obtained his medical
Du f resne later returned to Amiens, howe ver Coton’s d e g ree in 1603. Soon after, he established a thriving
biographer claimed that her exo rcisms had conve rt e d practice in No rthampton under the patronage and
m o re than 500 Huguenots and induced over 10,000 influence of Sir William Tate. He first aired his views on
general confessions. witchcraft in a chapter of his Sh o rt Discoverie of the
Coton was a friend of the Dominican re f o r m e r, unobserved dangers of severall sorts of ignorant and uncon-
Sébastien Michaelis, the senior exo rcist in the posses- s i d e rate Practisers of Ph y s i c k e , published in 1612, four
sion scandal at the Ursuline convent in Aix- years before The Triall of Wi t c h - c ra f t . He published
e n - Provence in 1609–1611. Mi c h a e l i s’s exo rcisms there nothing after 1625.
led to the execution for witchcraft of Father Louis Cotta’s major treatise appeared at a time when witch-
Gaufridy in 1611. Coton, who had spent some time in craft prosecutions were declining, but when the clergy
Provence in the 1590s, was said—possibly re t ro s p e c- still made vigorous calls for a systematic campaign to
t i vely—to have known and disliked Ga u f r i d y, seeing root out witchcraft in all its forms. A succession of
him as falsely pious. books written by such clergymen as William Pe rk i n s ,
L a t e r, Coton actively supported the demonically Alexander Ro b e rts, Thomas Cooper, and Richard
possessed widow Elisabeth de Ranfaing in her attempt Bernard, all warned of a serious threat to Christianity.
to set up a religious order in Na n c y, while simultane- Cotta broadly shared their viewpoint, calling witchcraft
ously cautioning her not to become too attached to her “this high treason against Go d” (quoted by Sh a r p e
possessing demons. His major devotional book, the 1996, 83), and referred to Perkins’s posthumous publi-
Occupation In t é r i e u re( Inner Pursuit) of 1608, exe r- cation A Discourse of the Damned Art of Wi t c h c ra f t
cised considerable influence on the Norman mystic- (Cambridge, 1608). Yet his complete acceptance of the
demoniac, Marie des Vallées. The book describes reality of witchcraft was mitigated by his cautious coun-
something like the controversial “e xchange of will” cil regarding the identification of witches and evidence
with God that Vallées undertook in order to bring required to prove guilt. Cotta found it “a hard and dif-
herself closer to the divinity and pre vent herself fro m ficult matter to detect Witch-craft,” and likewise diffi-
sinning. When Vallées asked Coton about the va l i d i t y cult for wrongly accused persons to prove their “inno-
of her contact with demons, which spurred her devo- cency” (Cotta 1616, 20). The trial of witchcraft had to
tions, he replied that if she we re fooled, it was nonethe- be subject to the same standards of evidence “common
less “good foolery.” The history of Coton’s activities unto all other detections of truth,” with judgments
and networks lends weight to the argument that “drawne and derived either from Sense or Reason, or
historical trends can be shaped by the passions of a few likely probabilitie raised from both” (Cotta 1616, 23).
individuals, as much as by a ze i t g e i s t . He was consequently dismissive of many popular
beliefs and practices concerning witchcraft, eve n
SARAH FERBER
e x p ressing skepticism about some methods of pro o f
See also: AIX-EN-PROVENCENUNS;BÉRULLE,PIERREDE;BROSSIER, that his monarch, James I, had endorsed. Trial by water,
MARTHE;DUVAL,ANDRÉ;EXORCISM;FRANCE;POSSESSION, for instance, although never formally re c o g n i zed, was
DEMONIC;RANFAING,ELISABETHDE;VALLÉES,MARIEDES. accepted by some judges as a valid proof of guilt. The
References and further reading: result of witch swimming, Cotta argued, was “n o t
Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe a l w a yes the same; if not alwayes the same, then is it
siècle: une analyse de psychologie historique.Paris: Seuil.
sometimes fayling; if sometimes fayling, then is it not
Orleans, Joseph d’. 1688.La Vie du Pere Pierre Coton.Paris:
infallible; if not infallible, then in no true judgement or
Estienne.
justice to bee trusted or cre d i t e d” (Cotta 1616, 107).
Prat, J. M. 1876. Recherches historiques et critiques sur la
Cotta subscribed to the view current in educated
Compagnie de Jésus en France du temps du Pére Coton.Lyons:
Protestant circles that nothing done by the Devil, either
Briday.
Viller, M., et al. 1937–1995. Dictionnaire de spiritualité, ascétique alone or through witches, was supernatural. Only God
et mystique: doctrine et histoire.Paris: Beauchesne. the creator had the power to work beyond natural laws.
220 Cotta, John |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 258 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.221 Application File
T h e re f o re, any means of detecting and curing C o n s e q u e n t l y, a huge body of magical lore offere d
witchcraft that did not operate according to natural ways to counter these dangers. One basic approach was
principles were at best ineffective and at worst, satanic p ro t e c t i ve magic: spells, rituals, and objects thought
deceptions. capable of warding off malign influences before they
Like many of his medical contemporaries, Cotta could take effect. The other basic approach invo l ve d
considered cunning folk to be as pernicious a threat as various means of countering baleful magical influ e n c e s
witches. After all, they represented serious competition after they had started to work. The first appro a c h
in the medical marketplace of early seventeenth-centu- included both passive defenses, like using magically
ry England, as well as a social and moral danger. Such potent objects as charms or amulets, and active pre c a u-
people we re “swarming in this kingdom,” he com- tions like spells, rituals, observance of taboos, and
plained. No one could fail “to observe the uncontrouled p r a yers. The second almost always invo l ved active
liberty & license of open & ordinary resort in all places m e a s u res. A great deal of countermagic was conducted
unto wise-men, & wise-women, so vulgarly termed for by ord i n a ry people, either as pre c a u t i o n a ry measure s
their reputed knowledge concerning such diseased per- within their daily routine or when they thought them-
sons as are supposed to be bew i t c h e d” (Cotta 1616, s e l ves under attack, but there we re also in virt u a l l y
60). He urged that those truly bewitched should seek e ve ry community specialist practitioners whom people
the spiritual comfort of God and the medical advice of consulted when they thought themselves victims of
trained physicians. m a l e volent magic beyond their own power to counter-
act. A great deal of religious ritual, from Catholic pro-
OWEN DAVIES
cessions to Protestant prayers and fasting, worked as a
See also: COOPER,THOMAS;CUNNINGFOLK;ENGLAND;EVIDENCE; form of countermagic, defending against malign influ-
JAMESVIANDI,KINGOFSCOTLANDANDENGLAND;MEDICINE ences and supplicating God to effect cures. Clergy
ANDMEDICALTHEORY;PERKINS,WILLIAM;SWIMMINGTEST.
t h e re f o re constituted one type of countermagical spe-
References and further reading:
cialist. This was particularly true in Catholicism, but
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
e ven the stoicism Protestantism advocated was expect-
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
ed to help people ward off rather than simply endure
Cotta, John. 1612. A Short Discoverie of the unobserved dangers of
evil. In addition, there we re innumerable popular prac-
severall sorts of ignorant and unconsiderate Practisers of Physicke
in England.London: William Jones and Richard Boyle. titioners, “cunning folk,” who offered services like
———. 1616. The Triall of Witch-craft, Shewing the true and right healing and finding lost objects, and “u n w i t c h i n g” was
Methode of the Discovery: with a Confutation of erroneous wayes. one of the most important. Pre ve n t i ve and curative
London: George Purslowe for Samuel Rand. magic played a central role in daily life; they we re an
———. 1625. The Infallible True and Assured Witch: or, the integral part of popular culture, and offered an effec-
Second edition of the Tryal of Wi t c h - c ra f t .London: I. L. for R. H. t i ve response to at least some of the problems against
Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early
which they we re employe d .
Modern England.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Harmful Magic and Countermagic
Stephen, Leslie, ed. 1887. Dictionary of National Biography.Vol.
Countermagic existed to counteract magical thre a t s .
12. London: Smith, Elder and Co.
These might include malign natural sources, like unfa-
vorable conjunctions of the planets and unlucky days on
Countermagic the calendar, against which charms could be employe d
Most Europeans before the twentieth century, like most to alleviate their negative influence. Mo re fre q u e n t l y, the
other people, lived in a world they assumed was perme- danger to be countered came from purposive spiritual
ated by magical forces that connected peoples’ psyches f o rces in the environment, like fairies thought to attack
to other peoples’ psyches, to material reality, and con- babies or women in childbirth, and against which elab-
nected both psyches and material reality to a variety of orate precautions we re generally taken. By far the most
disembodied occult forces and entities ranging from common magical danger, howe ve r, came from other
local spirits through angels and the planets to God human beings. Some people we re known to employ
Almighty.This state of affairs could represent an oppor- magical rituals to advance their own interests and harm
tunity, a chance to accomplish some purpose by manip- others, and many more we re suspected of doing so.
ulating these magical forces, and many people made Other people we re thought to exe rcise a baleful influ-
such attempts occasionally, while some did so routine- ence spontaneously, through harsh words, the evil eye ,
ly. However, the same processes could work in reverse, or just the negative force of their personality. The most
making people vulnerable to malign influences from common type of misfortune attributed to these sourc e s
independent occult entities and other peoples’ magic, was human illness and death; but impotence, untow a rd
in particular the maleficium (harmful magic) associated sexual attraction, accidents, harm to animals, the failure
with witchcraft. of domestic processes like churning butter, bad
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we a t h e r, crop failures, and bad luck might also be l owed a hostile or unusual encounter and either came
blamed on evil magic. on suddenly, lingered, or presented symbolically signif-
Against these varied threats, people deployed a whole icant symptoms, like paralysis in a limb that had been
range of countermeasures. Some were not even magical, touched.
like appeasing a reputed witch with gifts or threatening Very often, the first type of magical countermeasure
one with physical violence to get her to remove a spell. was some form of divination to determine if magic was
Most ways of dealing with magic, though, invo l ve d to blame for the misfortune, and, if so, who or what
other kinds of magic, and the first line of defense was was responsible. While local traditions included differ-
p ro t e c t i ve magic, which included both passive and ent sources of malevolent magic like fairies in Wa l e s
a c t i ve measures. Pa s s i ve measures included painting and “house women” in Sicily, in early modern Europe
p ro t e c t i ve symbols on homes, barns, and other build- the most common source was witchcraft. Once the
ings, and hiding magically potent objects like “w i t c h n a t u re of the misfortune and, where indicated, the
b o t t l e s” in or around them. Pa s s i ve measures also identity of the agent responsible was established, there
included wearing amulets or charms containing magi- were several steps that could be taken. One was appeal
cally potent objects or inscribed with magically potent or appeasement to get the agent responsible to remove
w o rds. Ac t i ve measures offered a wide array of rites, the spell voluntarily. Another was to perform some ritu-
including processions, rituals, observance of taboos, al to suppress or break it. A third possibility was to shift
p r a yers, incantations, and spells. Catholics used re l i- it to someone or something else, which, in the case of
gious objects and religious rites as pro t e c t i ve measure s witchcraft, could include turning it back on the witch
within an explicitly religious context. In n u m e r a b l e herself.The possibility of turning the spell back on the
local traditions and popular practices among both witch was employed as a threat to get the witch to
Protestants and Catholics integrated rituals and beliefs re m ove the spell, and this was accomplished on occa-
based on Christian rites, symbols, and doctrines with sion through the threat or infliction of physical vio-
customs rooted in their pagan past. lence. A final alternative in the case of witchcraft, par-
These various forms of protective magic were a ubiq- ticularly after the mid-sixteenth century, was to take the
uitous feature of early modern life. A full catalog accusation to the authorities. While this was not a par-
would invo l ve thousands or even tens of thousands of ticularly magical approach, it is worth noting that trials
items, but a few examples convey the range and variety often contained an element of countermagic in the
of pro t e c t i ve items and rituals. In Scotland, iron was form of ordeals. Some popular tests like “s w i m m i n g”
thought to give protection from fairies, while in mod- we re explicitly magical; the witch’s buoyancy was sup-
ern Greece it is supposed to ward off the bad luck see- posedly determined by her guilt or innocence. Eve n
ing a priest brings. In the Basque Country, priests torture, which was used routinely in continental witch-
blessed cattle bells to protect the animals from the evil craft trials, contained an element of magic, for while
eye. In the Fruili region of Italy, people born with the jurists justified it in rational terms, it was also related to
caul dreamed on specific nights that they went out and medieval ideas about ordeals, in which it was assumed
battled witches to determine the fate of the harvest. In that God would give the innocent the fortitude to
other parts of Italy, herbs of St. John carried at Corpus endure torment and not be falsely convicted.
Christi we re burned to ward off the demons held
responsible for storms. Such examples could be multi- Clergymen and Cunning Folk
plied endlessly because, as Hessian church visitors not- While there we re innumerable ways that people who
ed, “No man or woman begins, undertakes, does, or b e l i e ved they we re the targets of a magical attack could
refrains from doing, desires, or hopes for anything counter it on their own, virtually eve ry community in
without using some special charm, spell, [or] incanta- early modern Eu rope had specialist practitioners to
tion.” (Clark 2002, 107). whom the populace turned when self-help seemed insuf-
Despite the widespread use of pro t e c t i ve magic, ficient. Clergymen we re one such re s o u rce. One of
malevolent influences were widely perceived in the per- C h r i s t i a n i t y’s original appeals had been the ability of its
va s i ve incidence of disease, accidents, droughts, and agents to defeat the magic of its pagan rivals, and the
other misfortunes that plagued early modern life. To be Catholic Church had traditionally provided a variety of
s u re, not eve ry unfortunate incident was ascribed to countermagical services like blessing the fields before
malign magic. Like most peoples who believed in mag- planting, or exo rcizing demons from possessed people.
ic, early modern Europeans were aware that most phys- Howe ve r, Protestantism rejected these practices as super-
ical effects have physical causes, and suspected magic stitious, offering prayer and faith in God in their place.
only when certain specific criteria were met, and when Because of Christian ethics, even Catholicism could
some circumstances or features of a misfortune indicat- only offer a limited range of services compared to pop-
ed that a supernatural force was at work. For example, ular practitioners. These we re variously re f e r red to in
for illness to be ascribed to witchcraft, it generally fol- English as wizards, cunning men, wise women, healers,
222 Countermagic |
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and unwitchers, but the term most commonly used by Functions and Efficacy
historians is “cunning folk.” As a gro u p, cunning folk Preventive countermagic enabled people to act more
could be of either gender and offered services such as confidently in the face of the myriad dimly perceived
locating lost or stolen goods and missing persons and threats life presented than they would otherwise. This
healing people and animals as well as countering malef- confidence enhanced their probability of success both
ic magic. Some undoubtedly performed m a l e fic i u m because action is more likely to lead to success than
(harmful magic) as well, for clients or on their ow n inaction, and because one person’s confidence influ-
account. Any particular cunning person might special- enced other peoples’ expectations, perceptions, and
ize in one or several of these arts, or might offer a full reactions. Furthermore, to the considerable extent that
range of services. Most practiced on a casual or part - magic worked through psychological manipulation,
time basis, but for some it was their main occupation. preventive magic directly enhanced peoples’ resistance
Some charged nothing for their services, some charged to negative influences. Similarly, curative countermagic
only if they we re successful, and others took payment had the ability to mobilize peoples’ psyc h o l o g i c a l
on a regular basis. The majority probably kept a low resources to counteract the effects of psychologically
profile and operated on a very local level, but more than rooted problems. Like other magical cures, counter-
a few had widespread reputations that brought clients magic enhanced peoples’ ability to recover from illness,
from many miles away. Most of their clients were ordi- which is the misfortune most commonly attributed to
nary villagers and townspeople, but it was no secret that malevolent magic. Recent medical studies have shown
members of the elite would patro n i ze them at times. that the psychological posture most highly correlated
Most Eu ropean states had laws against their practices, with recovery is “a fighting spirit,” as opposed to
which we re seen as impious and disobedient, with “denial” or “stoic acceptance” (Hafen et al. 1996, 527).
penalties ranging from fines to incarceration and eve n Thus, while some of the assumptions behind counter-
banishment, but support for the penalties was weak and magic may be invalid, and the specific forms of belief
enforcement was sporadic. may be explicable in terms of their sociocultural con-
Cunning folk might offer charms and other protec- text, countermagic could act as a useful palliative, help
tive mechanisms to ward off evil, but their main role in avoid or overcome psychogenic problems, and foster
the area of countermagic was intervention once a magi- the most effective psychological response to illnesses of
cal attack was suspected. Typically the supposed victim all sorts—a power of particular importance in societies
or his or her family called in cunning folk to determine in which psychology is the most effective, if not the
if magic was at work, who or what was behind it if it only, form of intervention available.
was, and implement the appropriate countermeasure s .
EDWARD BEVER
The means they employed generally came from local or
regional magical lore, but they might have books as See also: AMULETANDTALISMAN;CHARMS;CLERICALMAGIC;
well, and they also had a certain latitude to innova t e . CUNNINGFOLK;DISCERNMENTOFSPIRITS;DISEASE;DIVINATION;
“Cunning” today generally carries the negative conno- EVILEYE;EXORCISM;FAIRIES;FEAR;FOLKLORE;MAGICAND
tations of an intuitive intelligence put to questionable RELIGION;MAGIC,POPULAR;OCCULT;ORDEAL;SPELLS;
ends, but as used for these practitioners it had the posi- SWIMMINGTEST.
References and further reading:
tive connotations of an intuitive intelligence supported
Blécourt, Willem de. 1994. “Witch Doctors, Soothsayers and
by practical knowledge and seasoned by experience.
Priests: On Cunning Folk in European Historiography and
To satisfy their clients, they needed to know the signs
Tradition.” Social History19:285–303.
that distinguished a malady that was amenable to cure by
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and
countermagic, be able to help the client identify a likely
Cultural Context of European Witchcraft.2nd ed. Oxford: Basil
suspect, and conduct a persuasive ritual or prescribe an Blackwell.
e f f e c t i ve re m e d y. Fu rt h e r m o re, since they generally live d Clark, Stuart. 2002. “Witchcraft and Magic in Early Modern
and worked at a fixed location, it was not enough to suc- Culture.” Pp. 97–169 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The
ceed with a single case; they continued to practice Period of the Witch Trials.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart
because they we re able to gain and maintain a re p u t a t i o n Clark. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
for success over time within an established community. Devlin, Judith. 1987. The Superstitious Mind: French Peasants and
the Supernatural in the Nineteenth Century.New Haven: Yale
While some undoubtedly employed cynical shams, in
University Press.
general, the countermagic of a successful practitioner
Favret-Saada, Jeanne. 1980. Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage.
m i xed mundane re s o u rces like knowledge of local social
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
relations and medicinal herbs with the manipulation of
Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian
cultural forms and expectations to tap psyc h o l o g i c a l
Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.Baltimore:
p rocesses that brought peoples’ unconscious know l e d g e Johns Hopkins University Press.
about their situation into awareness and mobilized psy- Hafen, Brent Q. et al. 1996. Mind, Body, Health: The Effects of
chophysical processes to promote health. Attitudes, Emotions, and Relationships.Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Countermagic 223 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 261 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.224 Application File
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. conducted these witchcraft trials through their secular
2nd ed. London: Longman. jurisdictions. Although these bishops’ Catholic zeal cer-
MacFarlane, A. D. J. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart tainly encouraged their prosecution of witches, the
England.NewYork: Harper and Row.
absence of trials in many Catholic territories and the
Martin, Ruth. 1989. Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice
p resence of trials in many Protestant lands usually led
1550–1650.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
scholars to question the general significance of confes-
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New
sional identity to witch hunting.
York: Schribner’s.
Wilson, Stephen. 2000. The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual
Medieval and Early Modern
and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe.London: Hambledon and
London. Developments
Although canon law is rarely followed in modern secu-
Courts, Ecclesiastical lar societies, throughout the Middle Ages and well into
Church courts—either inquisitorial or ecclesiastical— the early modern period ecclesiastical courts claimed
played a relatively small role in trying and executing jurisdiction not only over the clergy and church prop-
presumed witches during the early modern period. erty, but also over the laity in many criminal and civil
C h u rch courts exe rcised jurisdiction over va r i o u s matters related to sinful behavior. They also claimed
organizational and disciplinary matters. Although jurisdiction over many things connected to the sacra-
ecclesiastical courts cannot decide doctrinal or liturgical ment of marriage, including contractual obligations,
issues, they seek to uphold the teachings and rites of the legal procedure, and inheritance. A variety of ecclesias-
C h u rch through the application of canon law—a sys- tical courts emerged to judge such cases. In earlier
tem of regulatory norms requiring obedience in matters times, provincial councils acted as courts, especially
of religious hierarc h y, discipline, and morality. T h e when deciding important issues. Normally, however,
term “ecclesiastical court s” is usually re s e rved for tri- the court of the archdeacon (an assistant to a bishop)
bunals associated with the Roman Catholic Church or and other inferior judges (deriving their jurisdiction
the Eastern Orthodox Church and, since the sixteenth from custom or specified privilege) supplemented the
c e n t u ry, the Church of England, but other Pro t e s t a n t courts headed by the bishop’s Official (chief judge).
C h u rches developed roughly equivalent institutions. Their decisions could always be appealed up as far as
Within the Catholic tradition, ecclesiastical court s Rome (for example, He n ry V I I I ’s divo rce fro m
formed a hierarchy from episcopal (subject to the Catherine of Aragon). Beginning in the twelfth and
authority of a bishop), to metropolitan (subject to the thirteenth centuries, the courts of vicars-general began
authority of an archbishop), to papal (subject to the to replace these earlier courts and brought their juris-
authority of the Roman pontiff). Notably absent from dictions under episcopal, metropolitan, or ultimately
this list are tribunals associated with various inquisi- papal control. In 1561, the papacy established the Rota
tions. Although such courts may be understood as Romana, a papal appellate court functioning as a colle-
ecclesiastical in a generic sense and all employed canon giate body that replaced less formal means of hearing
l a w, in fact they functioned quite differently: the cases brought before the pope.
Spanish and Po rtuguese Inquisitions had their ow n De veloping along a separate trajectory, inquisitorial
Su p reme Councils appointed by their re s p e c t i ve mon- c o u rts emerged out of the eleventh- and twe l f t h - c e n-
a rchs, while medieval and Roman Inquisitions we re t u ry interest in the imperial law of ancient Rome as a
directly answerable to the Holy See. p a rticularly effective means to combat here s y.
Be f o re the fifteenth century, episcopal courts tried Adapting canon law, itself largely derived from the
the majority of the relatively few witchcraft cases. After re v i ved Roman law, popes and bishops used inquisito-
the development of the witches’ Sabbat and a signifi- rial pro c e d u re—the placement of significant inve s t i g a-
cant increase in the number of trials, inquisitorial t i ve, prosecutorial, and judicial powers in the hands of
courts took a much larger role. By the fifteenth century, one judge or tribunal. Pope Gre g o ry IX (1227–1241)
secular courts already began to hear most witchcraft first appointed such inquisitors, and numerous bish-
cases. This trend accelerated during the period of the ops did as well. The Middle Ages created both papal
major witch hunts between 1580 and 1640, by which and episcopal inquisitors, operating outside the tradi-
time the courts associated with the institutional inquisi- tional system of ecclesiastical courts, and unlike them,
tions had largely lost interest in prosecuting witchcraft capable of ordering secular authorities to carry out a
as a demonic crime. However, most of the largest witch death sentence. Subsequent popes expanded inquisi-
panics during this period occurred in the lands of sever- t o r s’ pre ro g a t i ves of and slowly extended their juris-
al German prince-bishops, who were not only religious diction to include sorc e ry or witchcraft as either
authorities but also secular princes. Almost no ecclesias- implicit or explicit forms of here s y. Royally appointed
tical courts (in the strict sense) we re invo l ved in these national inquisitions emerged in Spain and Po rt u g a l
panics; re p re s e n t a t i ves of these prince-bishops b e f o re the Holy See created a Roman Inquisition in
224 Courts, Ecclesiastical |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 262 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.225 Application File
1542 and made it an official Congregation of the tinued to try individuals for “white magic” well into the
C h u rch in 1588, creating an administrative depart- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but they treated it
ment of the Holy See outside the system of ecclesiasti- essentially as superstition and meted out light sentences.
cal courts and claiming jurisdiction over the entire
EDMUND M. KERN
C h u rch. Despite the fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry In q u i s i t i o n’s
role in prosecuting witchcraft harshly, by the mid-six- See also: COURTS,INQUISITORIAL;COURTS,SECULAR;CRIMEN
teenth century the Spanish, Po rtuguese, and Ro m a n EXCEPTUM;EPISCOPALJUSTICE;INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;INQUISI-
Inquisitions showed little inclination to pursue TION,PORTUGUESE;INQUISITION,ROMAN;INQUISITION,SPAN-
accused witches and put them to death.
ISH;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;TRIALS.
References and further reading:
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria:
Medieval Witchcraft Trials
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early
Both ecclesiastical and inquisitorial courts pursued
Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
accused witches and magicians sporadically during the
Kern, Edmund. 1994. “Confessional Identity and Magic in the
f o u rteenth and fifteenth centuries, particularly in Late Sixteenth Century: Jakob Bithner and Witchcraft in
France, northern Italy, and Switzerland. For example, Styria.” Sixteenth Century Journal25, no. 2: 323–340.
an inquisitor tried a woman for magic at Le Mas Kieckhefer, Richard. 1979. Repression of Heresy in Medieval
Saintes-Puelles in 1245, but she convinced him she was Germany.Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press.
guilty of no heresy. Later, an ecclesiastical court at ———. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge: Cambridge
Château-Landon tried a group of clerics and laymen for University Press.
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
necromancy in 1323; an inquisitor in Florence con-
2nd ed. NewYork: Longman.
demned a man to death for magic in 1384; and two
Monter,William. 2002. “Witch Trials in Continental Europe,
others were burned at Milan soon afterward. By the
1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe.Vol.
fifteenth century, the number of cases heard by inquisi-
4. The Period of the Witch Trials.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and
tors far outstripped the number tried by episcopal juris-
Stuart Clark. London: Athlone.
dictions, but both lagged behind secular courts, which Mulholland, Maureen, Brian Pullan, and Anne Pullan, eds. 2003.
initiated mass round ups with suspects being brought Judicial Tribunals in England and Europe.Manchester:
in for questioning, sometimes by the hundreds—even Manchester University Press.
though the diabolical aspects of witchcraft, the pact
with the Devil, or attendance at a witches’ Sabbat, Courts, Inquisitorial
became more prominent. Construed broadly, the inquisitorial courts included
Si g n i fic a n t l y, continental secular courts incre a s i n g l y any legal forum employing inquisitorial procedure, in
imitated inquisitorial and ecclesiastical courts by adopt- which investigative, prosecutorial, and judicial powers
ing inquisitorial methods to deal with such “s e c re t” are vested in a single judge or tribunal. Ordinarily, such
crimes as sorc e ry or witchcraft. But they did so without courts are distinguished from those following accusato-
incorporating some of the safeguards of canon law, thus ryprocedure, in which an aggrieved party brings formal
permitting dramatic increases in numbers of trials and charges against a suspect and takes legal responsibility
e xecutions. Although the adoption of inquisitorial pro c e- for proving guilt, facing punishment for failure to do
d u re re p resented a rationalization of medieval legal prac- so. They are also contrasted to systems of justice
tices in many respects by providing stricter rules of evi- employing jury trials, in which a defendant’s peers play
dence and standards of pro o f, it added a number of at least some role in determining guilt or innocence.
dangers as well: judges we re empowe red to arrest suspects More narrowly, inquisitorial courts have been associat-
without a formal accusation and to interrogate both sus- ed with several Roman Catholic practices or institu-
pects and witnesses secre t l y, using tort u re without super- tions known to posterity as the medieval (or papal),
vision to force suspects to confess and name accomplices. Spanish, Roman, and Portuguese Inquisitions. All of
In a sense, this process was a “n e c e s s a ry pre c o n d i t i o n” of them followed canon law and inquisitorial procedure in
the early modern hunts (Levack 1995, 69). the prosecution of violators of the canon law and espe-
The transformation of witchcraft from an ecclesiasti- cially heretics, and they should not be confused with
cal into a secular crime was facilitated because sorc e ry either secular or episcopal courts, which also used
had traditionally been understood as a “m i xe d” crime, inquisitorial methods. Scholars have long recognized
both spiritual and temporal in nature. Any crime that that, although church courts frequently pioneered the
re p resented a threat to the religious order also re p re s e n t- use of inquisitorial procedures during the Middle Ages
ed a threat to social ord e r. Despite the important ro l e s when prosecuting heresy and sorcery, the institutional
p l a yed by ecclesiastical and inquisitorial courts in early inquisitions convicted relatively few accused witches
witch hunts, their significance within the larger phe- and executed a ve ry small percentage of them.
nomenon collapsed during the early modern period. Nonetheless, inquisitorial procedure became extremely
Both Protestant and Catholic ecclesiastical courts con- significant within trials for witchcraft, because numer-
Courts, Inquisitorial 225 |
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ous European secular courts employed it in their crim- suspects and witnesses, confronting them when they
inal prosecutions of accused witches throughout the age contradicted each other and torturing suspects (and
of witch hunting. Thus, the vast majority of persons occasionally witnesses) who seemed to be lying. T h u s ,
accused of witchcraft between the early 1400s and 1750 the court established the facts of a case to its satisfaction
were convicted not by inquisitorial courts but by secu- before passing sentence. Most early modern Europeans
lar courts that followed inquisitorial procedure derived regarded inquisitorial procedure as the best way to pros-
from Roman law and taught in every continental uni- ecute crimes, including concealed or hidden crimes for
versity since the eleventh century, together with the which no direct physical evidence or eyewitness testi-
n ewer discipline of canon law, also derived fro m mony was available. Witchcraft was precisely the kind
Roman procedures. of secretive and spiritual crime for which legal authori-
ties had designed such “exceptional” inquisitorial meth-
Inquisitorial Procedure ods. Rumors of guilt and interrogation under tort u re
One characteristic of early modern courts using inquisi- replaced ord i n a ry methods of gathering evidence; sus-
torial procedure was that sweeping authority was often pects confessed their own crimes and often named
vested in one individual or one tribunal. Court s accomplices.
following inquisitorial procedure exercised what we
understand as distinct police, prosecutorial, and judi- Institutional Inquisitions
cial powers that since Montesquieu have usually been As secular courts throughout Europe began reviving the
divided among separate and independent public basic tenets of Roman law in the eleventh and twelfth
officials. Judges or magistrates employing inquisitorial centuries (with the notable exception of England and,
procedure were responsible for initiating prosecutions to some degree, Scotland and the Scandinavian king-
(either on their own or in response to a complaint), doms, where juries continued to play important roles in
i n vestigating suspicious activities or circ u m s t a n c e s , determining guilt), ecclesiastical courts were among the
i n t e r rogating both suspects and witnesses (often earliest to adapt its methods. By the early thirteenth
through the use of torture), rendering verdicts on those century, Pope Gregory IX began appointing inquisitors
whom they investigated, and sentencing offenders. In to identify and eradicate heresy, thus establishing a new
modern British and American eyes, this system has kind of inquisitorial court. These roving judges supple-
appeared especially vulnerable to abuse and excessive mented episcopal courts, which also adopted inquisito-
zeal. Many modern legal systems outside the common- rial procedures. By 1252, Innocent IV authorized papal
law tradition of accusatory procedure still employ inquisitors to use torture during their investigations, a
aspects of inquisitorial procedure to this day, while practice consistent with Roman law and recently rein-
trying to establish safeguards against its potential for troduced by some secular Italian jurisdictions to help
misuse. convict notorious criminals suspected of perpetrating
In practice, inquisitorial procedure replaced forms of concealed crimes. Papal inquisitors used torture while
medieval justice that were not only accusatory but also investigating heretics, and, after some initial reluctance,
often nonrational. Borrowing the prestige of Ro m a n began to use it against suspected witches as well. From
l a w, the inquisitorial system provided a more rational a religious perspective, heresy and witchcraft constitut-
form of justice, independent of the status or abilities of ed concealed crimes without peer.
the litigants or the judgment of God, revealed through Throughout the Middle Ages, papal appointment of
o rdeals, both unrelated to the evidence in the case. In inquisitors lacked any official institutional stru c t u re :
t h e o ry, inquisitorial pro c e d u re introduced more re a- t h e re we re inquisitors appointed directly by the pope,
soned approaches to evidence and established strict but no Inquisition. Mo re ove r, the papal system had
standards of proof, which could nonetheless be ignored begun to unravel well before Europe experienced a sig-
or misapplied by judges. One of the pro c e d u re’s key n i ficant rise in the number of witchcraft trials, and it
f e a t u res was that plaintiffs no longer risked harsh collapsed with the bre a k d own of a unitary We s t e r n
penalties if they could not prove their case, a practice Christianity during the sixteenth-century Reformation.
that had tended to keep frivolous complaints to a Soon, better-organized successors took its place in
minimum. southern Eu rope and Spanish America. The new
While this feature re vo l u t i o n i zed the way criminal Spanish Inquisition emerged under the authority of
cases were initiated, more significant was the officializa- Spain’s most famous monarchs in the late fifteenth cen-
tion of the judicial process resulting from secular or t u ry. It soon extended its operations throughout the
ecclesiastical courts assuming all responsibilities, partic- Iberian kingdoms, including parts of Italy under
ularly the investigation of pertinent facts and the appli- Spanish rule, and in its overseas American colonies. A
cation of clear rules of evidence and proof when render- Po rtuguese Inquisition likewise emerged and main-
ing ve rdicts. Most investigations entailed the tained several autonomous tribunals. Fi n a l l y, a new
i n t e r rogation under oath of all parties invo l ved, both Roman Inquisition, under papal control and with a
226 Courts, Inquisitorial |
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we l l - o r g a n i zed infrastru c t u re, was created in 1542 to inquisitorial justice against its potential to rationalize,
combat the consolidating Protestant threat in It a l y. In and to render more fair, legal proceedings against crim-
point of fact, however, its influence remained confined inal suspects. Inquisitorial procedure most certainly
only to central and northern Italy, because slightly dif- contributed to the trial and execution of many, but as
ferent versions operated in the lands of the Republic of historians are discovering, it just as easily led to the
Venice and in the Kingdom of Naples. release of still others. And the faults of the accusatory
All three institutional inquisitions tried and executed system emerge clearly from a comparative map of per
e xceptionally few accused witches. Although it would capita witchcraft executions across Eu rope, with
be a mistake to consider them benign (at times they act- Scandinavian averages exceeding those fro m
ed harshly toward those they caught), it is important to Mediterranean Eu rope, and common-law southern
note that by the mid-sixteenth century, their centralized England re l a t i vely less humane than Roman-law
a u t h o r i t y, standard i zed judicial practices, and strict north-central France.
rules of evidence and proof were coupled with a gener-
EDMUND M. KERN
ally skeptical attitude toward magic. They came to view
witchcraft as sinful superstition to be corrected, rather See also:ACCUSTATORIALPROCEDURE;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;
than a real demonic threat to be eradicated. With a few COURTS,SECULAR;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;EVIDENCE;GEOGRAPHY
e xceptions, they tried to reconcile practitioners of
OFTHEWITCHHUNTS;INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;INQUISITION,
magic with the Church, rather than order the secular
PORTUGUESE;INQUISITION,ROMAN;INQUISITION,SPANISH;
INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;ORDEAL;PAPACYANDPAPALBULLS;
authorities to execute them.
ROMANLAW;TORTURE;TRIALS.
Although papal inquisitors ord e red hundreds of sus-
References and further reading:
pected witches executed in the fifteenth century, in a
Ankarloo, Bengt, and Gustav Henningsen, eds. 1993. Early
sense there by paving the way for the far more numero u s Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries. Oxford:
trials to follow, most recent scholarship on the early Clarendon.
modern inquisitions suggests something else entire l y. Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and
Be f o re 1610, the Spanish Inquisition ord e red about fif t y Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. 2nd ed.London:
persons executed for witchcraft. T h e reafter it battled Blackwell.
secular courts for jurisdiction (while expressing its skep- Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
ticism) as Sp a i n’s secular courts executed perhaps 200
Henningsen, Gu s t a v, John A. Tedeschi, and Charles Amiel, eds.
m o re between 1610 and 1625. Po rt u g a l’s In q u i s i t i o n
1986. The Inquisition in Ea rly Mo d e rn Eu rope: Studies on Sourc e s
e xecuted only seven accused witches. And although exe-
and Methods. De K a l b, IL: No rthern Illinois Un i versity Pre s s .
cutions occurred sporadically in alpine regions of nort h-
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge:
ern It a l y, apparently the Roman Inquisition ord e re d
Cambridge University Press.
none after 1580 (Monter 2002, 13–14). Monter,William. 2002. “Witch Trials in Continental Europe,
1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe.
Inquisitorial Procedure and Vol. 4. The Period of the Witch Trials.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
Trials for Witchcraft and Stuart Clark. London: Athlone.
While these centralized inquisitions may have been well Peters, Edward. 1988. Inquisition.NewYork: The Free Press.
regulated and skeptical, plenty of secular and ecclesias- Tedeschi, John A. 1991. The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies
on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy.Binghamton, NY:
tical courts using inquisitorial procedure were not. In
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.
fact, many historians now believe, on the basis of more
———. 1993. “Inquistorial Law and the Witch.” Pp. 83–118 in
c o r roborating data, that we l l - o r g a n i zed, re l a t i ve l y
Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.
centralized secular states (like these state inquisitions)
Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford:
conducted far fewer trials for witchcraft than loosely
Clarendon.
governed states, in which the absence of administrative
oversight allowed some judicial officials to engage in
zealous prosecution and execution of suspected witch- Courts, Secular
es. There can be no doubt that the prosecution of The secular courts are any judicial forums convened by
witchcraft in some areas was made far more severe by political authorities to adjudicate civil or criminal cases.
treating witchcraft as crimen exceptum (the excepted In the Middle Ages and early modern period, secular
crime, where ordinary rules of evidence and proof were courts were constituted by principalities (including
suspended), by granting extensive authority to judges, kingdoms, duchies, counties, and so on) or municipal-
by limiting the liability of accusers, by failing to apply ities (from villages and market towns to cities). Some
carefully the rules of evidence and proof, and by using exercised jurisdiction on behalf of higher political
t o rt u re in interrogations—in short, by adopting authorities; others claimed it in their own right. In
inquisitorial methods. But for this very reason, it is nec- addition, legal systems could operate under very differ-
essary to balance any account of the inherent dangers of ent procedures from one principality or municipality to
Courts, Secular 227 |
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the next. In other words, secular courts exhibited enor- personal well-being. Medieval trials also illustrated rel-
mous variety, which reflected not only dissimilar types atively mild attitudes toward punishment and restitu-
of secular states, but also numerous idiosyncrasies tion. Usually they lacked any mention of the witches’
among polities of an essentially similar nature. Their Sabbat, although some contained elements suggesting
wide variety makes generalization about secular courts diabolical intervention in maleficium (harmful magic).
difficult. Some of our best evidence for a broad understanding
As sites for witchcraft trials, secular courts alre a d y of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft as threats to societal or
rivaled religious courts in the fifteenth century. During personal well-being comes from late medieval or early
the Middle Ages, most of them adopted inquisitorial modern custumals. The products of manor, municipal,
p ro c e d u re (placing police, prosecutorial, and judicial or even provincial assemblies meeting for judicial and
powers in the hands of a single judge) also employed by political purposes, they catalogued traditional local
Church courts, deriving from a renewed admiration for legal “customs” of people under the administrative and
the judicial methods and techniques of the ancient judicial authority of a particular lord s h i p. Although
Romans. Well into the early modern period and custumals were collected and formulated by men with
beyond, most secular courts on the European continent legal and administrative training, peasants and burghers
f o l l owed the precepts of Roman law. (Scandinavian, attested to the authenticity of the customs they
Scottish, and especially English courts followed a some- contained. They were probably the negotiated results of
what different trajectory, one influenced by Roman law both seigneurial and peasant understandings of law.
but still dominated by customary legal practices.) After Custumals clearly delineated threats to order, and they
1550, secular courts became even more prominent in made identifying and eradicating them the responsibil-
p rosecuting witches, when they increasingly claimed ity of everyone, from individual peasants to appointed
jurisdiction over such matters in most states. (Sp a i n , judicial authorities.
Po rtugal, and Italy remained exceptions to some Most custumals treated magic as one threat amonged
extent.) These trends constitute part of an even larger m a n y, and, more important, rarely defined what it
political phenomenon that some historians call a judi- entailed. Brief references seem to suggest that beliefs in
cial revolution. sorcery were widespread, encompassing a whole gamut
In all of Eu rope, recent estimates suggest, ro u g h l y of loosely related activities identifiable as harmful mag-
75,000 trials led to the execution of some 35,000 to ic, although sorcery was usually separated from diaboli-
50,000 accused witches. The vast majority of these tri- cal crimes. Communities openly acknowledged their
als took place in secular courts exe rcising inquisitorial fears of maleficia and could take steps to punish perpe-
p ro c e d u res. Some recent scholarship suggests that the trators. Custumals usually associated magic only slight-
worst trials took place only in territories where judges ly with diabolical intervention, and never with the
operated with little or no institutional oversight, where witches’ Sabbat.
judicial centralization remained incomplete. Ot h e r
recent scholarship argues that judicial reforms were less The Judicial Revolution
important than local animosities and desires among the and Witchcraft
general populace in fomenting trials for witchcraft. In By the late fifteenth century, judicial organization and
some places (for example, the electoral Palatinate), sec- practice witnessed the gradual replacement of relatively
ular authorities actively discouraged the prosecution of d e c e n t r a l i zed, communal legal orders with more
witchcraft even while their legal codes listed it as a b u reaucratic and better-supervised arrangements
crime. Regardless, early modern trialsfor witchcraft, as derived from the precepts of Roman law. Professional
distinct from contemporary b e l i e f s in witchcraft, we re judges and lawyers sought to implement more abstract
i n h e rently political events, usually conducted by offi- forms of justice in well-defined court systems, following
cials representing a secular state. clearly formulated territorial law codes. These changes
directly affected the prosecution of witchcraft.
Medieval Custumals In the late Middle Ages, ecclesiastical courts we re
At first glance, medieval trials for sorcery and witchcraft concerned mostly with the diabolical or here t i c a l
conducted by secular courts share few common fea- aspects of magic, rather than maleficia,while the oppo-
tures, but they do reveal widespread belief in the reality site was often true in secular courts. But from the late
of supernatural power among the populace. Although Middle Ages on, the threats to Christianity posed by
these cases involved a variety of magical practices (div- heresy, apostasy, and witchcraft were also interpreted as
ination, charms, poisoning, image magic), causing dif- d i rect threats to the political ord e r. Various magical
ferent levels of damage (storms, injury, murder), with practices with both religious and secular elements fell
different levels of punishment (fines, exile, death), they under mixed jurisdiction; the prosecution of witchcraft
demonstrated that magic was associated primarily with (including its most diabolical forms) incre a s i n g l y
maleficia (evil acts), which threatened social order or became a matter for state officials rather than Churc h
228 Courts, Secular |
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c o u rts. Likewise, secular authorities supported elabo- t h rough an ordeal, oath, or compurgation in the
rate police and administrative efforts devoted to its absence of certain proof or a confession. Ju d g e s
eradication. Although recent scholarship has challenged p resided impartially (at least in theory) between two
the priority of legal and administrative changes in equal parties, the accusation being prosecuted by one
understanding the course of witchcraft trials, emphasiz- and defended by the other. Judges could not investigate
ing instead the local or popular roots of prosecution for the legitimacy of accusations or seek to pro s e c u t e
witchcraft-related crimes, the notion of a judicial revo- named suspects. The threat of punishment we i g h e d
lution cannot be entirely abandoned. equally on both parties, according to the Roman legal
Changes in legal theory and practice during the early concept of lex talionis(law of the claw), which held that
modern period created the necessary conditions for false accusers should be punished with the same penalty
w i d e s p read witchcraft trials, if not outright witch facing the accused if convicted.
hunts. During the early modern period, judicial sys- In contrast, inquisitorial pro c e d u re granted a far
tems throughout Eu rope depended predominantly on g reater role to inve s t i g a t i ve pro c e d u res and, ultimately,
the centralizing state’s de jure claims to, and de facto to human judgment, rather than divine interve n t i o n .
e xe rcise of, abstract justice, rather than community- This pro c e d u re did not preclude individual accusations,
based, interpersonal notions of justice. As this transfor- and in fact most trials conducted relied on them in an
mation took place, the state established itself as the final informal way. Presiding magistrates could also begin an
arbiter of disputes between its subjects. Rulers and i n vestigation on the basis of reputation or public ru m o r,
officials sanctioned and staffed courts that adjudicated and there by accusers could re p o rt on others, rather than
disputes between parties. Now centralized, and ratio- accuse them in a strictly legal sense. No longer did the
n a l i zed, these courts simultaneously pre vented local accuser act as pro s e c u t o r, for the inquisitor acted simul-
forms of retribution and encouraged making accusa- taneously as inve s t i g a t o r, pro s e c u t o r, and judge. T h i s
tions to officials empowered to dispense justice accord- dramatic change did not technically re m ove the thre a t
ing to new standards. These changes can be seen best of lex talionisfor false accusations, but it had the effect of
t h rough the numerous law codes promulgated by placing trained legal specialists on the accusers’ side.
Eu ropean territories in the sixteenth and seve n t e e n t h The most important innovation of the new criminal
centuries. Each replaced relatively vague medieval refer- procedures was the means adopted to arrive at verdicts.
ences to sorc e ry with clearer statements about the Each phase of the case became an official act of the
n a t u re of the crime; they likewise established clear court: active investigation of the circumstances, formal
guidelines for its prosecution. interrogations of witnesses and suspects, the application
After this transformation from interpersonal to more of torture in the course of interrogations, the gathering
abstract conceptions of justice, fears of harmful magic of material evidence, the determination of the facts, the
began to generate more accusations to officials and more recording of all proceedings, and finally careful evalua-
responses from the increasingly elaborate official legal tion of all pertinent factors before reaching a decision
m a c h i n e ry. Magistrates adjudicated witchcraft accusa- and rendering a verdict. Inquisitorial methods could be
tions through their power to investigate, interro g a t e , abused, but the delegation of so much authority and
intimidate, and tort u re suspects brought before them, discretion in the hands of a single judge was tempered
while aggrieved parties no longer needed to pursue oth- by demanding standards for evidence and testimony, as
er responses to fears of the supernatural. Countermagic well as clearly defined pro c e d u res for all phases of the
to undo the effects of spells, re t a l i a t o ry magic against investigation, including especially torture. But whereas
p e rc e i ved enemies, and physical violence to achieve the nonrational nature of accusatorial procedures (and
vengeance certainly persisted, but such activities could especially the lex talionis) may have reduced frivo l o u s
also draw unsympathetic attention from state offic i a l s . accusations, inquisitorial pro c e d u res we re ve ry we l l
In fact, state officials dealt ve ry harshly with perpetrators adapted for prosecution of such an ill-understood, anx-
of unofficial punishments of presumed witches. i e t y - p roducing, supernatural, and above all, secre t i ve
Criminal pro c e d u res during the late medieval and crime as witchcraft. Public ill repute or rumor sufficed
early modern periods began to re flect changing atti- for beginning an official investigation, and the use of
tudes tow a rd justice. The most striking feature of the o f ficially sanctioned judicial tort u re to obtain confes-
m ove tow a rd rationalization and abstraction was the sions frequently led not only to guilty ve rdicts, but to
i n c reasing abandonment of accusatorial pro c e d u res in additional accusations against others as well.
criminal cases by both ecclesiastical and secular author- T h roughout most of the Middle Ages, the existence
ities after the twelfth century. The inherently nonra- of real fears of supernatural harm and the existence of
tional mechanisms of accusatorial procedures held both real desires to eradicate those deemed responsible did
the accuser and the accused to the same standard of not translate into witch hunting. Especially with the l e x
p ro o f, understood essentially as the immanence—or t a l i o n i s , a judicial system based on interpersonal, re t-
better still, the divine intervention—of God, re ve a l e d r i b u t i ve notions of justice and accusatorial pro c e d u re s
Courts, Secular 229 |
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p re vented widespread accusations for witchcraft in most i n i t i a t i ve in the absence of centralized ove r s i g h t .
a reas of Eu rope. Although Eu rope experienced a signifi- Operating in the name of the village commune, these
cant number of trials for both m a l e fic i a and diabolical committees solicited accusations, conducted inve s t i g a-
witchcraft before 1500, and there f o re before many sub- tions, and generally contributed to an atmosphere of
stantial changes in legal pro c e d u res or much political rumor and manipulation. They also placed signific a n t
centralization occurred, it is extremely important to p re s s u re on judicial authorities empowe red to re n d e r
note that during the Eu ropean high point for witchcraft verdicts.
trials between 1580 and 1640, most of those changes For these reasons, although it is tempting to propose
we re well underw a y. The judicial re volution enabled a clear link between the judicial re volution, as well as
witch hunting of various kinds, shapes, and sizes in dis- the state-building of which it was part, and trials for
parate regions of Eu rope. It did not cause any of them. witchcraft, the documentary re c o rd seems to suggest
that the connection was partial at best. Where judicial
Judicial Centralization and reforms we re most successful, careful oversight appar-
Local Dynamics ently mitigated the worst excesses of witch hunting,
Although developments associated with the judicial without eliminating them entire l y. In contrast, where
re volution clearly facilitated trying large numbers of officials could pursue uncontrolled agendas, trials could
accused witches, scholars have recently suggested that become exceptionally numerous and large. Changes in
s t rong administrative oversight usually led to fewe r legal practice and theory undoubtedly had a dire c t
witchcraft trials than those in loosely governed territo- impact on the prosecution of reputed witches. After all,
ries. Evidence for this claim can be found in the in the absence of secular prohibitions against magic and
w i d e s p read differences among territories in which without a magistracy willing to prosecute practitioners,
witchcraft was criminalized. Some experienced a gre a t trials could not take place. Secular authorities viewe d
number of trials, while others had ve ry few. In many witchcraft as a threat to the political and social ord e r,
jurisdictions, no trials for witchcraft occurre d . and even promulgated law codes and established judi-
Su rviving re c o rds also show significant chro n o l o g i c a l cial forums to eradicate it, but in the last analysis, their
fluctuation in the numbers of those tried and exe c u t e d attitudes and actions offer only some of the re a s o n s
within particular jurisdictions. Decentralization and witchcraft trials took place.
its resulting extension of individual pre ro g a t i ve to pre-
siding magistrates seem to account best for these dif- EDMUND M. KERN
f e rences and flu c t u a t i o n s .
See also:ACCUSATIONS;ACCUSATORIALPROCEDURE;COMMUNAL
In the extremely fragmented lands of the Ho l y
PERSECUTION;CONFESSIONS;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;COURTS,
Roman Em p i re of the German nation, which (in its
INQUISITORIAL;GEOGRAPHYOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;HOLY
broadest definition) accounted for well over half of the ROMANEMPIRE;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;LAWSONWITCH-
total number of trials and executions in all of Europe, CRAFT(EARLYMODERN); LYNCHING;ORDEAL;POPULARPERSECU-
decentralization seems to account for the worst of the TION;ROMANLAW;TORTURE;TRIALS.
p rosecutions. Within the German-speaking lands, for References and further reading:
example, some trials took place in re l a t i vely we l l - g ov- Ankarloo, Bengt. 2002. “Witch Trials in Northern Europe
erned states such as Bavaria or Austria, but the numbers 1450–1700.” Pp. 53–95 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe:
The Period of the Witch Trials. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and
of those tried and executed are slim compared to some
Stuart Clark. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
of the worst witch hunts that took place in loosely gov-
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria:
erned territories elsew h e re in the empire. The same
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early
o b s e rvations may be made about re l a t i vely centralize d
Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
m o n a rchies such as England and France, where the
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and
worst trials usually took place in the absence of ove r- Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. 2nd ed. Oxford:
sight, or about Italy or Spain, where we l l - o r g a n i ze d Blackwell.
inquisitions kept the prosecution of presumed witches Kern, Edmund M. 1999. “An End to Witch Trials in Austria:
to a minimum. Reconsidering the Enlightened State.” Austrian History
Most of the initiative behind trying accused witches Yearbook30:159–185.
came from various localities—in the form of popular Labouvie, Eva. 1993. Zauberei und Hexenwerk: Ländlicher
Hexenglaube in der frühen Neuzeit. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.
pressure or from especially zealous magistrates—rather
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
than from central governments, which we re usually
2nd ed.NewYork: Longman.
keenly aware of the destabilizing effects that accompa-
———. 1996. “State-Building and Witch Hunting in Early
nied witchcraft trials. The so-called “village witch-com-
Modern Europe.” Pp. 96–115 in Witchcraft in Early Modern
m i t t e e s” (d ö rfliche He xe n a u s s c h ü s s e) of the Ge r m a n
Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief. Edited by Jonathan Barry,
Saarland (similar institutions can be found elsew h e re ) Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts. Cambridge: Cambridge
seem to provide the best evidence of this kind of local University Press.
230 Courts, Secular |
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Monter,William. 2002. “Witch Trials in Continental Europe them as naked females, both young and old, riding a
1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The range of different animals: goats, stags, boars, horses,
Period of the Witch Trials. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart c ows, a ram, a large cat, a dragon, a hound, and an ow l .
Clark. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Other animals, including a cock, serpents, and toads,
Mulholland, Maureen, Brian Pullan, and Anne Pullan, eds. 2003.
a re also prominent. Cr a n a c h’s witches drew on tradi-
Judicial Tribunals in England and Europe.Manchester:
tional folklore associated with nocturnal cavalcades or
Manchester University Press.
p rocessions, sometimes re f e r red to as the “Fu r i o u s
Soman, Alfred. 1978. “The Parlement of Paris and the Great
Ho rde.” They are easily identifiable as witches because
Witch Hunt (1565–1640).” Sixteenth Century Journal9, no. 2:
31–44. of their naked bodies and flying hair, their fork e d
cooking sticks, distaff, and spindle (only in his third
Cranach, Lucas (1472–1553) painting), and by the animal skulls hoisted on long
A painter, engrave r, and designer of woodcuts, sticks. Already in 1515, in an illustration created as
Cranach’s contribution to the visual representation of p a rt of his contribution to a lavish Book of Ho u r s
witchcraft rests on four Melancholia paintings done designed for the Holy Roman Em p e ror Ma x i m i l i a n ,
between 1528 and 1533 (in Colmar, Copenhagen, and Cranach had port r a yed a fla m b oyantly garbed witch
in two private collections). riding a wild, snorting ram with the same animal skull
Cranach (named after the small town of his birt h ) hoisted on a stick. An older woman with exposed,
spent the early years of his career in Vienna, then lived sagging breasts, holding a similar stick or banner
from 1505 until his death in Wittenberg, the capital of accompanied this extravagantly dressed witch, pro b a-
electoral Sa xo n y. In 1507 he set up a large work s h o p, bly meant to suggest a pro s t i t u t e .
which achieved a prolific artistic output in panel paint- Cranach created quite different scenarios for his wild
ing, mural designs, and woodcuts. His work cove re d c a valcades, howe ve r, based on contemporary notions
many subjects, including devotional and re l i g i o u s and traditions of disorder and alluding to the evil spirits
themes, individual portraits, scenes from the life of the that melancholy was believed to release within the imag-
n o b i l i t y, mythological and moralizing subjects, and ination. The 1528 painting emphasized the violence and
images promoting the Protestant Re f o r m a t i o n . d e s t ruction associated with the folklore of the wild hunt.
Appointed court artist by Elector Frederick the Wi s e , The 1532 paintings provided coded images of the sexu-
Cranach ranked among Wi t t e n b e r g’s wealthiest citi- al disorder and emasculation of witchcraft based on
zens, owning several houses and an apothecary, becom- popular stories of the Ve n u s b e r g , that sinful mountain
ing a member of the city council from 1519 until 1545, paradise given over to carnal lust and the black arts, the
and acting three times as mayor of the city. site of female seduction and male delusion, also identi-
The Me l a n c h o l i a paintings we re completed in 1528 fied in some sources as the site of witches’ assemblies.
( p r i vate collection), 1532 (Musée d’ Un t e r l i n d e n , The 1528 and 1532 paintings also included visual re f e r-
Colmar), 1532 (Statens Museum for Ku n s t , ences to the military destruction associated with folk-
Copenhagen), and 1533 (private collection). T h e re is loric traditions of the Furious Ho rde, but now likely to
also a later sixteenth-century copy of the 1528 painting be understood in moral terms. The 1533 painting, with
in the Museum of Fine Arts of Toledo, Ohio. All feature its inclusion of a sexually dissolute clergy, linked the dis-
Melancholy as a winged female fig u re, sharpening or o rder of witchcraft to Reformation critique of a disor-
peeling a stick, and surrounded by items traditionally d e red and sinful Roman Church. In all these ways,
associated with melancholia. Cranach’s paintings allude Cranach expanded the visual language of witchcraft and
to the famous 1514 engraving of Melencolia Iby his fel- e n d e a vo red to make it topical and re l e va n t .
low German artist, Albrecht Dürer. Unlike Dürer’s very
CHARLES ZIKA
p o s i t i ve, Neoplatonic emphasis on the role of melan-
choly in human creativity, Cranach expressed an older See also:ANIMALS;ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BALDUNG[GRIEN],
medieval tradition identifying melancholy with the vice HANS;DÜRER,ALBRECHT;FOLKLORE;HOLDA;IMAGINATION;
of sloth. Cranach was heavily influenced by Ma rt i n LUTHER,MARTIN;MELANCHOLY;NIGHTWITCHORNIGHTHAG;
Luther, who had described melancholy as “a bath pre- PEOPLEOFTHENIGHT.
References and further reading:
pared by the devil” (Koepplin and Falk 1974, 292). In
Heck, Christian. 1986. “Entre humanisme et réforme, la
Cr a n a c h’s Me l a n c h o l i a paintings, diabolical spirits
Mélancholiede Lucas Cranach l’Ancien.” La revue du Louvre et
i n vade the melancholic imagination through a wild
des Musées de France36:257–264.
c a valcade of witches, located in a bubble cloud above
Klibansky, Raymond, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl. 1964.
the figure of Melancholy.
Saturn and Melancholy. Studies in the History of Natural
Witches are port r a yed in similar ways through the Philosophy, Religion and Art.London: Thomas Nelson.
series. Drawing on the iconography developed by ———. 1990. Saturn und Melancholie: Studien zur Geschichte der
D ü re r, Albrecht Altdorf e r, Urs Gr a f, and especially Naturphilosophie und Medizin, der Religion und Kunst.Rev. ed.
Hans Baldung [Grien], Cranach depicted almost all of Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Cranach, Lucas 231 |
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Koepplin, Dieter, and Tilman Falk. 1974. Lukas Cranach: bewitched by Satan cannot or do not want to discover
Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik.Vol. 1. Basel and such a corrupt and impious doctrine and mock those
Stuttgart: Birkhäuser. Pp. 292–293, fig. 133, pl. 13. who show them the tru t h . . . either they are blind or
Talbot, Charles. 1996. “Cranach.” Pp. 111–121 in The Dictionary
they are themselves of the league and confederation of
of Art.Vol. 8. Edited by Jane Turner. London and NewYork:
Satan, helping to strengthen his power.” The results of
Macmillan and Grove.
this official laxity were grave. Crespet argued, “Heresies
Zika, Charles. 2003. “The Wild Cavalcade in Lucas Cranach’s
tolerated with impunity have opened the door to the
MelancholiaPaintings: Witchcraft and Sexual Disorder in
Devil to bring disorder to Christendom” (Cre s p e t
Sixteenth-Century Germany.” Pp. 333–374 in Exorcising Our
Demons:Magic, Witchcraft and Visual Culture in Early Modern 1590,115r, 233r).The sense of betrayal by French roy-
Europe.Edited by Charles Zika. Leiden: Brill. alist judges and officials was common among ze a l o t
preachers and writers.
Crespet, Pierre (1543—1594) Through such themes as the identification of heresy
Preacher and writer, Crespet addressed many re l i g i o u s with the Devil, the equation of Protestantism with
themes and published Deux Li v res de la Hayne de Sa t h a n ancient heresies and witchcraft, and the accusations of
et Malins Esprits Contre L’ Homme (Two Books on the judicial complicity in aiding the Devil’s work, Crespet
Ha t red of Satan and Evil Spirits Against Mankind) in p rovides an excellent example of the way influ e n t i a l
1590. His text provides an excellent example of the way French Catholic writers sought to mobilize their readers
that Holy League zealots used demonology to support to fight the spread of the new religion. Crespet died in
their political position in the French Wars of Re l i g i o n . 1594, as the Catholic League was crumbling, and its
Born in Sens, Crespet spent his career in the former stalwarts rushed to recognize Henry IV as king
Celestine ord e r. He became the prior of the Celestine of France.
abbey in Paris and in that position was well known as JONATHAN L. PEARL
an active preacher and devoted supporter of the Ho l y
League during the religious wars. Like almost all his See also: BOUCHER,JEAN;FRANCE;HERESY;VAUDOIS(WALDEN-
colleagues, Crespet used the pulpit as a platform for the
SIANS); WARSOFRELIGION(FRANCE).
References and further reading:
condemnation of the spread of Protestantism, which he
Crespet, Pierre. 1590. Deux livres de la Hayne de Sathan et Malins
considered a Satanic heresy.
esprits contre l’homme.Paris.
St a rting from the cliché of this age that heresy was
Labitte, Charles. 1841. De la démocratie chez les predicateurs da la
the work of the Devil, Cre s p e t’s approach in his book
ligue. Paris.
was essentially historical. “Lu c i f e r,” he stated, was “t h e Pearl, Jonathan L. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and
first chief of the He retics and Ap o s t a t e s . . . Ne ver has Politics in France, 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred
the Devil left the Church of God in peace.” Fo r Laurier University Press.
Crespet, the heretics of his day—Hu g u e n o t s —
Crimen Exceptum
we re the direct heirs of the heretics of the early and
m e d i e val Church, such as Arians, Va u d o i s, and Crimen exc e p t u m (the excepted crime) is a term of
Waldensians. He stated, for example, “T h e Roman law, later adapted to medieval and early modern
Albigensians committed the same insolences and cru- Eu ropean learned law, that designated a category of crim-
elties as the Huguenots have perpetrated in Fr a n c e ; inal offenses that we re so serious and often so difficult to
blasphemed the Virgin Ma ry, massacred priests, pissed p rove that they justify both irregular legal pro c e d u re —
on the holy vessels, left their exc rement on the sacre d often summary—and also deserve neither Christian
altars, renounced the Roman Church, condemned all charity nor imperial c l e m e n t i a (clemency) in the matter
the sacraments and broken images; in short we have of sentencing. Roman law is also emphatic that they are
seen all these cruelties re v i ved in France, so that we among the offenses that should never be pard o n e d .
k n ow that this is the same demon who has agitated The earliest and most serious of these crimes was
these (heretics) today as well as those in the past.” treason, against the Roman people during the Republic
The rise of heresy was the work of the Devil. Ge r m a n and against the emperor during the Empire. In various
soldiers in Coligny’s Protestant army, “to show that late-imperial laws the number of these crimes va r i e d
they are of Sa t a n’s religion, use diabolical charac- f rom five to twe l ve, usually including homicide, adul-
t e r s . . . a round their necks as if these could pre s e rve t e ry, treason, rape, and counterfeiting, but sometimes
them from danger” (Crespet 1590, 47v, 66r, 179v). extending to the violation of tombs, incest, and poison-
Crespet was obviously agitated that the high court s ing. These offenses were perceived especially to threaten
of France did not take witchcraft ve ry seriously as a the very fabric of society. Later Christian legal thought,
criminal here s y. It was essential, he wrote, that the derived as well from Hebrew Scripture, also considered
criminal courts deal seve rely with this horrible crime. those offenses that threatened to call down God’s wrath
“Judges are so blind that they deny that there have ever on those peoples who did not prosecute the offenses
been witches . . . These judges fascinated and vigorously.
232 Crespet, Pierre |
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Christian influence was also evident in imperial legis- c i e r s ( On the De m o n - Mania of Witches) by the jurist
lation re g a rding the testimony of otherwise inadmissi- Jean Bodin in 1580. Against the excepted crime, Bodin
ble witnesses—women, those declared infamous, sol- argued, the judge may use secret accusations, the testi-
diers, and slaves—in cases of excepted crimes, when the mony of close re l a t i ves and accomplices, pre t e n d e d
testimony of convicted heretics was allowed against kindness tow a rd suspects, tort u re, and even lies about
other heretics (the basis in later learned law of the evidence. Bodin’s definition of witchcraft as a c r i m e n
admissibility of the testimony of witches about other e xc e p t u m was challenged first by Johann Ge o r g
witches). Christian influence also began the process of Goedelmann in 1592, by the earl of Dunfermline in
aligning new offenses with older ones, as occurre d Scotland in 1614, and by Ernst Cothmann and other
when the offense of simony (the purchase of ecclesiasti- German jurists in the 1620s. The refusal to consider
cal office) was aligned with treason. Although early witchcraft a crimen exceptumcontributed to the decline
Christian discipline generally did not extend furt h e r of witchcraft prosecutions in the seventeenth century.
than exclusion from the community, the spread of
Christianity and the problems of organizing large eccle- EDWARD PETERS
siastical communities led to reconsideration of criminal See also:AUGUSTINE,ST.; BODIN,JEAN;DECLINEOFTHEWITCH
offenses within the community. As harsh as some of HUNTS;GOEDELMANN,JOHANNGEORG;HERESY;ROMANLAW.
these were, St. Augustine argued that they were intend- References and further reading:
ed to be therapeutic, not vengeful nor retributive. Larner, Christina. 1984. “Crimen Exceptum? The Crime of
From the fifth to the tenth century, the laws of Witchcraft in Europe.” Pp. 35–67 in Witchcraft and Religion:
European peoples generally considered injury or offens- The Politics of Popular Belief.Edited by Christina Larner.
Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
es against personal honor in terms of dispute settlement
Peters, Edward. 2001. “Crimen Exceptum:The History of an
rather than crime. But in the late eleventh and twelfth
Idea.” Pp. 137–194 in Proceedings of the Tenth International
centuries, partly through the influence of the re v i ve d
Congress of Medieval Canon Law.Edited by Kenneth
Roman law, both ecclesiastical and secular criminal law
Pennington, Stanley Chodorow, and Keith H. Kendall. Cittá
t h e o ry began to be articulated, although both con-
del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
tained strict procedural rules. Some thinkers identified
sin with crime, and great sins with great crimes, while at Croatia
the same time developing the doctrines of seriousness Modern Croatia, which borders central Eu rope, the
and notoriety, initially in clerical crimes, and later in all Mediterranean, and the Balkans, was divided politically
crimes. He resy and idolatry in particular we re aligned after 1500 among the Republic of Venice, the Ha b s b u r g
to theft, then to treason in the handbooks of criminal Em p i res, and the Ottoman Em p i re. It experienced ve ry
p ro c e d u re that began to appear in the late thirt e e n t h d i f f e rent histories of witchcraft trials in each part .
century.The category of the enormous crime permitted No rt h west Croatia (also re f e r red to as Habsburg or con-
the execution of summary justice. Early modern conti- tinental Croatia) experienced an outburst of witch hunt-
nental thinkers also included blasphemy, prevarication, ing from the early 1600s until the 1750s, much like
apostasy, and simony as excepted crimes. Hu n g a ry (to which it had been joined since 1102) or
A series of political trials in France around 1300 most Habsburg possessions in east-central Eu ro p e .
raised the question of crimes so great that they threat- Meanwhile, the coastal parts and islands under Ve n e t i a n
ened the stability of the kingdom itself—including the rule remained almost untouched by this phenomenon.
crime of sorc e ry. When canon lawyers and inquisitors We know nothing about court trials from Cro a t i a n
of heretical depravity questioned whether sorcery could regions under Ottoman rule, although some witch
be prosecuted as heresy, they decided that it could if it lynchings apparently occurred here even after 1850.
involved apostasy from the Christian faith and idolatry, The first indications of witchcraft occured in seve r a l
the worship of a false god—in this instance, the coastal Dalmatian statutes dating between 1214 and
demon.When the crime of witchcraft was formally 1640. Most statutes we re slightly older than their
defined in the first half of the fifteenth century, then, it p re s e rved versions and re p resented codifications of
clearly belonged to the category of excepted crimes, older traditions and customs. Although written in dif-
because it was considered part of a vast conspiracy f e rent time periods, they all shared similar perc e p t i o n s
against humanity directed by the Devil and therefore an of witchcraft, essentially treating it as a crime without
enormous crime that threatened to bring down the diabolical implications. The Latin terms used—pri-
wrath of God on those who refused to prosecute it, and marily m a l e ficium (harmful magic), but also h e r b a r i a
because it was difficult to detect, requiring exceptional (herbal lore) or ars magicalis— we re obviously bor-
legal procedural rules. This was the standard argument rowed from older Italian statutes, and clearly stated
in the handbooks of witchcraft prosecution, from the that the crime of witchcraft was mainly attributed to
Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Witches) in women, although there we re also trials against male
1486, through the treatise De la démonomanie des sor- s o rc e rers. The most common punishment was burning
Croatia 233 |
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called in for assistance. Two other trials held in seve n-
t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Du b rovnik also showed that local
judges did not know how to act in such cases, which
suggests that they we re indeed extremely rare. T h e
witch craze never spread in these parts, perhaps
because of local perceptions of some pre - C h r i s t i a n
beliefs and practices. Women soothsayers and healers,
called v i l e n i c e (plural, derived from v i l a = fairy )
e n j oyed great confidence among common people, and
c o n t e m p o r a ry popular beliefs made a great impact on
high culture of the period. In the works of Cro a t i a n
poets of the Renaissance, we can trace a kind of syn-
c retism between classical motifs and elements of pop-
ular culture: ord i n a ry people we re often idealized, and
contacts between shepherds and fairy-like cre a t u re s
we re frequent and usually benevo l e n t .
On the contrary, clusters of trials involving the com-
plete panoply of diabolical witchcraft (pacts with the
Witchcraft trials in Croatia, 1400–1758. (Courtesy Trpimir Vedriˇs) Devil, witches’ Sabbats, sexual intercourse with
demons, and so forth) occurred in northwest Croatia in
the early seventeenth century and reached a higher level
of intensity there between 1698–1699 and the mid-
at the stake, inflicted on second offenders; other re c- eighteenth century. Howe ve r, many of these elements
ommended punishments included flogging, fines, and had no background in traditional Croatian beliefs; and
c o n fiscation of pro p e rt y. Be f o re 1500, only one witch- although some elements of “popular superstition” could
craft trial is known, at Sˇibenik in 1443. mesh with imported theological and juridical terms,
On the other hand, the continental part of Cro a t i a recent ethnological research suggested that more archa-
lacked any law codes, but held trials, beginning at ic perceptions of witchcraft, completely alien to diabol-
Zagreb in the 1360s. These cases, and some later ones, ical witchcraft, were preserved in regions weakly influ-
s h owed elements of old Slavic accusatory court pro c e- enced by western ideas.
dures being used in Croatia until the early seventeenth So u rces from regions under Ottoman rule (includ-
century.This means that the accused had an opportuni- ing Bosnia and He rze g ovina) also mentioned some
ty to clear herself by bringing to court a number of wit- witchcraft trials, which, howe ve r, seem quite differe n t
nesses ready to swear to her innocence. The last record- f rom those in nort h west Croatia. Some Bosnian trials
ed acquittal following justification of the accused dated from the second half of the nineteenth century
occurred near Zagreb in 1622. and showed elements typical of traditional perc e p-
During the sixteenth century, new ideas from we s t- tions of witches. Trials conducted by nineteenth-cen-
ern Eu rope changed attitudes tow a rd the crime of t u ry Bosnian Muslims, howe ve r, did not differ gre a t l y
witchcraft in northwest Croatia, gradually replacing the f rom those of their Christian neighbors, whether
older “irrational” system of providing evidence and jus- Catholic or Ort h o d ox. Eve ry w h e re “w i t c h e s” we re
t i fication by compurgation. These new attitudes eve n- tried according to the “old custom,” that is, by the
tually resulted in an increased number of trials, more cold-water ordeal (swimming test); the usual punish-
s e ve re punishments, more executions, and the use of ments we re flogging, stoning, drowning, or burning.
torture in such trials. However, traditional methods of Written re c o rds also suggested that accused witches
providing justification and the slow inflow of new theo- could still clear themselves by swearing to their
logical and juridical opinions made the persecutions i n n o c e n c e .
f rom this period less frequent, less systematic, and
seemingly less severe. Structure of Trials in
Northwest Croatia
The Period of Persecutions The accusation against the witch followed the inquisito-
(ca. 1600–1758) rial pro c e d u res of Roman law. It would be brought by a
Data about witchcraft trials along the Dalmatian lit- fiˇs k a l (Lat. fis c a l i s), or public pro s e c u t o r. An inve s t i g a-
toral are extremely rare between the sixteenth and tion (i n q u i s i t i o) followed, conducted by local officials or
eighteenth centuries. When a young woman was the responsible nobleman, who listened to testimony
accused of witchcraft at Ragusa (Du b rovnik) in 1556, f rom witnesses under oath about the crime. Fo l l ow i n g
the famous Jewish physician Amatus Lusitanus was this investigation, the fiˇs k a l made a formal accusation
234 Croatia |
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and the authorities summoned the accused to appear at reprint of Ma rtín Del Rio’s D i s q u i s i t i o n u m ( Six Books
c o u rt. This was usually followed by arresting the accused on In vestigations into Magic, 1746). The Hu n g a r i a n
witch and searching her house for magical or dangero u s Jesuit Ma rton Sze n t y vanyi exe rcised a significant
objects. In court, the prisoner was first interro g a t e d i n fluence on Croatian persecutions and court trials
alone and then confronted with the witnesses. If the t h rough his translation, Praxis Cr i m i n a l i s ( Cr i m i n a l
p rosecutor concluded that the evidence proved the Practice, 1687), of the Holy Roman empero r
p robable guilt of the accused witch, she would be tor- Fe rdinand III’s law code.
t u red, despite her denials of the accusation. Nu m e rous legal regulations, for example, the deci-
To rt u re was known in fourt e e n t h - c e n t u ry Cro a t i a , sions of the synod in Trnava in 1611 or the provisions
but rarely used in witchcraft trials before the seve n- passed by the Croatian Parliament between 1609 and
teenth century and used regularly only after 1700. The 1635, requiring all inhabitants of Croatia to participate
i n t e r rogation pro c e d u res and instruments of tort u re , in hunting witches, sorc e rers, and poisoners (s t r i g a s ,
divided into categories from mildest to most seve re , sagas, et ve n e fic a s), provided strong incentives for the
resembled those used in other parts of the Ha b s b u r g diffusion of persecutions. In 1656, Emperor Ferdinand
Empire. The most common included the thumbscrews III decreed a code of criminal pro c e d u re for Lowe r
(compressio pollicum), the strappado, the “Spanish boot” Austria, used also in Hu n g a ry and Croatia because of
(o c re hispanica), the “horse” (e q u u l u s), and others. If a the lack of a general criminal code.
“witch” withdrew a confession given under torture, she The Catholic Church did not participate in witch-
was tort u red again. Acquittals we re ve ry rare in this craft trials, except for some of its officials, who did so as
period (in 245 cases, only eleven of the accused we re feudal landlords. Howe ve r, the Venetian In q u i s i t i o n
ˇ
acquitted), and many accused women died during tor- was invo l ved in trials in 1443 in Sibenik that ended
t u re or soon afterw a rd. Capital punishment was the with the escape of the two accused women and in a
most frequent sentence for witchcraft; “w i t c h e s” we re d o zen trials held in Venetia against Croats fro m
usually decapitated or strangled and then burned at the Dalmatia and Istria. Most of these cases ended with
stake. acquittals.
T h e re are several reasons witchcraft trials multiplied As in Hu n g a ry, most witch hunting in nort h we s t
f rom the end of the seventeenth century. By then, Croatia coincided with years of peace and with lulls in
Croatian authorities believed that witches we re a re a l times of war. As in Germany, there was also a relation-
t h reat to society and part of an international conspiracy ship between mass accusations and periods of crop fail-
against humankind. The second ve ry important re a s o n ure and famine; this was even more the case with lynch-
was that confessions obtained under tort u re raised new ings at the local level.
accusations, starting a chain reaction. In nort h we s t It is difficult to speculate about the total number of
Croatia, trial re c o rds give precise information about accused and executed witches for many reasons: many
245 accused witches. Howe ve r, there was, in addition, of the trial re c o rds are lost, not all of the towns kept
mention (but not sufficient information) of a furt h e r p recise documentation, and scholars have not
517 witches arrested owing to denunciations made re s e a rched all the re c o rds that do exist. Ne ve rt h e l e s s ,
under tort u re; from 1600 to 1650 there we re seve n the existing data allow us to make some observa t i o n s .
such arrests; from 1650 to 1700, 198 arrests; and, fin a l- We know of approximately 245 accusations for witch-
l y, from 1700 to 1750, 311 witches we re arrested on craft in northwest Croatia from 1360 to 1758; 230 of
the basis of denunciations given under tort u re. It seems the accused we re women (94 percent). Of the 245
p a r a d oxical that increasing witchcraft trials in nort h- a r rested, 145 we re executed (59 percent). Of the 145
west Croatia accompanied a vigorous expansion of executed, 138 (95 percent) were women. Three women
cultural life and an improved school system: a Je s u i t died in prison, 2 escaped, and 11 of the accused (7
school was established in Za g reb in 1607 and in 1669 women and 4 men) we re acquitted. We do not know
Za g reb Un i versity was founded. Such institutions edu- the fate of 84 of the accused, although it is very proba-
cated an increasing number of noblemen and com- ble that most of them we re executed. The age of the
moners, providing them with a better understanding of witches ranged from a 5-year-old girl to an 85-year-old
the theological and juridical notions of witchcraft. woman, but most of the accused we re middle-aged or
Se ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Croatian prosecutors we re famil- older women. Most we re peasant women, the unem-
iar with foreign demonological literature; the Na t i o n a l ployed, and the small town artisans, but there are also
Un i versity Library in Za g reb pre s e rves many such some noblewomen and one monastery prioress.
w o rks, including the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (T h e If the re c o rds from nort h west Croatia are quite
Hammer of Witches, printed in 1497), Nicolas Rémy’s scarce, they are more so for other parts of Croatia. The
De m o n o l o g i a ( De m o n o l a t ry, 1596), an Italian transla- Venetian Inquisition conducted some witchcraft trials
tion of Jean Bodin’s De la démonomanie des sorciers in Istria. The last legal persecution took place in St .
( On the De m o n - Mania of Witches, 1592), and a Vincent in 1632. In the community of Kastav, we know
Croatia 235 |
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two witches were burned, one in 1625 and the other in References and further reading:
-
1626. In 1716, a mass trial resulted in fourteen execu- Bayer,Vladimir. 1953. Ugovor s davlom: Procesi protiv ˇcarobnjaka
tions. Further to the south there are almost no records u Europi a napose u Hrvatskoj. [Contract with the Devil.] 2d
ˇ ed. 1969, 3d ed. 1982. Zagreb: Zora.
of witchcraft trials except for the one in Sibenik in 1443
Bosˇkovicˇ-Stulli, Maja. 1991. “Predaje o vjeˇsticama i njihovi progo-
( w h e re two accused women escaped), a trial in
ni u Hrvatskoj.” [Legends About Witches and Their
Du b rovnik in 1556 (which ended in acquittal), and
Persecution in Croatia.] Pjesme, priˇce, fantastika:124–159.
two other trials in Du b rovnik in 1660 and 1689 that ˇ
Cicˇa, Zoran. 2002. Vilenica i vilenjak: Sudbina jednog pretkrˇs´can-
resulted in the executions of two women. Pre s u m a b l y,
skog kulta u doba progona vjeˇstica.[The Destiny of a Pre-
t h e re we re more trials and executions, but sources are Christian Cult in the Period of Witch Persecutions.] Zagreb:
not extant. Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku. English summary.
It would be useful to measure the intensity of witch Cˇorali´c, Lovorka. 2001. Hrvati u procesima mletaˇcke inkvizicije,
hunting in Croatia, but both the number of accusations [Croats in the Trials of Venetian Inquisition.] Zagreb: Institut
and executions as well as the population of Croatia are za povijest.
quite uncertain. Long periods of exhaustion and D- ord- evic´, Tihomir. 1989. Veˇstica i vila u naˇsem narodnom
verovanju i predanju.[The Witch and Fairy in Our Popular
d e s t ruction (since the fifteenth century), followed by
Belief and Tradition.] Belgrade: Narodna biblioteka Srbije—
great refugee crises, along with epidemics and constant
Decˇje novine.
w a rf a re, slowed population growth until the 1880s.
Karbic´, Damir. 1991. “Marginalne grupe u hrvatskim srednjov-
The first serious censuses were taken in the late seven-
jekovnim druˇstvima od druge polovice XIII.do poˇcetka XVI.
teenth century for Dalmatia, and not before the middle
stoljec´a.” Historijski zbornik44/1: 44–76.
of the eighteenth century for Croatia. By 1780, Croatia Kucˇini´c, Viktor. 1940. “Czoprniczki Czeh.” [The Witches’
had approximately 1.5 million inhabitants. Wi t c h Guild.]. Revija Zagreb 8:3–12.
hunting and massive witchcraft trials occurred only in Pócs, Éva. 1989. “Fairies and Witches at the Boundary of South-
northwest (Habsburg) Croatia, in the only area more or Eastern and Central Europe.” FF Communications243.
less untouched by the seventeenth- and eighteenth-cen- Helsinki: Soumalainen Tiedeakatemia.
t u ry wars, whether the T h i rty Ye a r s’ Wa r, the warf a re Strugar, Helena. 2002. “Superstition and Popular Religion in
Zagreb and Its Surrounding Areas in the 17th and 18th
b e t ween Venice and the Ottoman Em p i re, and
Centuries.” Master’s thesis.Budapest: Central European
Ottoman raids (which decreased significantly after the
University History Department.
Ottoman defeat at Sisak in 1593 and the subsequent
Tkalcˇic´, Ivan Krstitelj. 1891. “Parnice proti vjeˇsticam u
movement of the border eastward).
Hrvatskoj.” Rad Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti
103:83–116.
End of Trials
Crossroads
Em p ress Maria T h e resa, who enforced some pre c a u-
The intersection of roads has a long history as a loca-
t i o n a ry measures in 1756 and 1758, is erro n e o u s l y
tion imbued with magical, spiritual, and religious pow-
c o n s i d e red to have abolished witchcraft persecutions in
ers. In antiquity, cro s s roads we re the dwelling place of
Croatia. In fact, the empress personally intervened in
the goddess Hecate, whose alternate names En o d i a
only one trial, which ended by acquitting the accused
(The One at the Cro s s roads) and Tr i o d i t i s (The On e
woman, but Maria never formally abolished persecu-
Worshipped at the Cro s s roads) indicate the connec-
tions. Howe ve r, afterw a rd no Croatian court could
tion. Si m i l a r l y, in Rome, Hecate was called Tr i v i a
conduct a witchcraft trial without the empre s s’s per-
(Lady of the Cro s s roads). It is re c o rded that people
mission—which she never gave. Her C o m m o n
placed “s u p p e r s” at the cro s s roads to supplicate He c a t e ,
Criminal Code of 1768 confirmed belief in the exis-
whose three-formed image was often found there. In
tence of sorc e rers and witches; it even allowed tort u re .
a n t i q u i t y, cro s s roads also became an area associated
Howe ve r, her code strongly emphasized the need to
with ghosts, often the companions of Hecate. T h i s
take great precautions during trials to avoid sentencing
d e velopment was likely the partial result of the custom
innocent people. Together with the change of the intel-
of burying criminals “at a particular place where thre e
lectual climate in the second half of the eighteenth
roads merge outside the community” (Plato, L a w s
c e n t u ry, such measures produced the paradox that
9.873). In ancient Greece, unwanted babies we re
witchcraft trials ceased in Croatia without ever being
sometimes placed at cro s s roads, although this custom
formally abolished.
has a closer association with the consistent presence of
TRPIMIR VEDRIˇS p a s s e r s - by rather than the connotations of death linked
to such sites.
See also: BALKANS(WESTERNANDCENTRAL); DECLINEOFTHE
In Greek and Roman magic, cro s s roads became the
WITCHHUNTS;FAIRIES;HUNGARY;HUNGARYANDSOUTHEAST-
site for certain practices. Pliny the El d e r, for example,
ERNEUROPE,WITCHCRAFT;INQUISITION,VENETIAN;MALEFICI-
UM;MARIATHERESA,HOLYROMANEMPRESS;POPULARPERSECU- re c o rded that boiling frogs at a cro s s roads could cure
TION;SWIMMINGTEST;WARFARE. f e ver (Na t u ral Hi s t o ry 32.113) while another spell
236 Crossroads |
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