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Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 274 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.237 Application File
s p e c i fied an ingredient obtained from the cro s s ro a d s p ropitiation of Hecate, who, in addition to her more
( Ibid., 36.256–36.264). Si m i l a r l y, one spell from a frightening manifestations associated with her role as the
Greek magicalp a p y rus stipulated the burial of part i c u- goddess of magic and sorc e ry, was the goddess of transi-
lar objects at a cro s s roads (Ibid., 1: 167–168). Su c h tion—either of movement from one physical sphere to
beliefs we re also mirro red in other ancient cultures; the a n o t h e r, as evidenced by the movement through the
p reeminent text of the g r i m o i re s , the Key of So l o m o n , c ro s s roads, or in a more nonphysical or symbolic situa-
written in Greek in around the third century C . E . b u t tion of transition such as that from life to death.
based on a Jewish tradition, stated that cro s s roads, par-
MARGUERITE JOHNSON
ticularly when visited late at night, we re the pre f e r re d
location for the performance of magic (The Key of See also:FAIRIES;GHOSTS;GRIMOIRES;HECATE;KYTELER,ALICE;
Solomon the King 1989, 2.7). THEOPHILUS.
References and further reading:
In the early modern era, the continuation of antique
Betz, Hans Di e t e r, ed. 1992. The Greek Magical Pa pyri in Tra n s l a t i o n .
modes of thought concerning cro s s roads was re ve a l e d
Vol. 1. 2nd ed. Chicago: Un i versity of Chicago Pre s s .
in their general correlation with danger. This danger
Johnston, Sarah Iles. 1990. Hekate Soteira. A Study of Hekate’s Roles
was manifested in the figures of ghosts, witches, sorcer-
in the Chaldaean Oracles and Related Literature.Atlanta:
ers, demons, and the Devil, all of which were believed
Scholars Press.
to frequent such junctions. The haunting of the cross- ———. 1991. “Crossroads.” Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und
roads by ghosts is explained by the practice of burying Epigraphik88:217–224.
suicides at such locations, for they we re denied a The Key of Solomon the King. 1989. Edited and translated by
Christian interment, a practice common thro u g h o u t S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers. York Beach, ME: S. Weiser.
Latin Christendom. The fact that executions were also
performed at the meeting of roads further strengthened Cunning Folk
the connections between ghosts and cro s s roads. Su c h Cunning men (“wise men”) and cunning women (“wise
burials we re apparently based on the assumption that women”) worked beneficent magic, notably healing
the souls of suicides and criminals are restless, probably and fortunetelling. They practiced herbal, humoral,
because they were denied burial in consecrated ground. and magical medicine, helped people select future
So, by placing them at a crossroad, their spirits would spouses, locate buried treasure, identify thieves, and,
become confused in their search for a proper re s t i n g through countermagic, protect against or undo the evil
place. magic of witches.
Traditions concerning the De v i l’s presence at the Lodging a formal complaint against a supposed
crossroads have a long history as illustrated by the story witch was only one way to get rid of maleficent sorcery.
of Theophilus, a precursor to Faust. In the version of Simpler and cheaper pre ve n t i ve measures and home
the story recorded by Gonzalo de Berceo (1195–1264) remedies and, if these were ineffectual, recourse to cun-
in Mi raglos de Nu e s t ra Se ñ o ra ( Miracles of Our Lady), ning folk, we re probably used at least as fre q u e n t l y.
Theophilus, through the agency of a Jewish sorc e re r, Until now only little systematic research has been car-
made a pact with the Devil at the cro s s roads at mid- ried out regarding the numbers and practices of expert
night. Historical cases of accusations concerning such countermagicians. Ac c o rding to Reginald Scot, there
pacts also have early origins in terms of the witch perse- were English parishes that counted among their inhabi-
cutions; in 1324, the Irish witch, Dame Alice Kyteler, tants as many as seventeen or eighteen specialists who
was accused of visiting the crossroads to meet her famil- “could worke miracles supernaturallie” (Scot 1584, 4).
iar and to offer sacrifices to him in the form of cock- Although in other parts of early modern Eu rope cun-
e rels. Fairies, sprites, and other such beings we re also ning folk may have been less numerous, it seems certain
believed to dwell at crossroads; the Welsh fairy Gwrach that their help was easily available, not only in the
Y Rhibyn, a harbinger of death, was thought to begin British Isles but also on the Continent.
screaming her prediction to the traveler she was follow- Cunning folk differed considerably in social back-
ing as he or she approached a crossroad or stream. g round and status, techniques, reputation, and the
C o n t e m p o r a ry scholarship has interpreted these tradi- quality and origin of their talents. A main differe n c e
tional beliefs about the power of cro s s roads in part on the separated sedentary from traveling soothsaye r s .
basis of the concept of liminality. In this view, the cro s s- Cunning folk from the first category expected their
road and such related places as entranceways or shore- clients to come to them; some only drew visitors from
lines symbolize a liminal point or no-man’s land; a place n e a r by, while others met with little trust among their
that is literally “n ow h e re,” and which serves simultane- immediate neighbors but were frequently consulted by
ously as a transitional zone that presents one with people living farther away. Most sedentary cunning folk
options but no certainties. Doubts concerning such carefully avoided public exposure, as this could inspire
locations of limbo and decision-making we re there by the authorities to start an investigation into their
originally the objects of ritual pro c e d u res, such as the activities, whereas traveling wizards often put on a
Cunning Folk 237 |
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public show to draw potential customers. These mobile example, at a time when physics and natural science
cunning folk had no interest in building up a stable were held in high esteem, a cunning man could present
group of clients. himself as an extraordinarily gifted expert on the hid-
Some cunning folk we re quite poor, while others den laws of nature without the risk of being questioned
appear to have enjoyed a comfortable income. Ja c o b about the empirical basis of his claim. Its chameleon-
Jodoci de Rosa of Courtrai, for instance, whose convic- like character was actually one of the strongest elements
tion in 1548 in Arnhem by the Court of Ge l d e r l a n d of this unofficial set of beliefs and rites. This adaptive
Johann Weyer recorded in his De Praestigiis Daemonum quality helps to explain the enormous regional va r i e t y
(On the Tricks of Devils) (Weyer 1991, 484), was clear- in the practices of cunning folk.
ly well off. According to his file in the court’s archives, One assumption, however, was common to all cun-
de Rosa was dressed in ve l vet and satin and adorned ning practices: the conviction that there existed apart
with gilded chains and a golden purse. He was we l l - f rom the material, natural world another immaterial
educated and spoke several languages, including Latin. world, and that some humans we re able to consult or
According to legal theory and theology, the activities even deploy the powers that dwelled in that nonnatural
of cunning folk we re tantamount to witchcraft. Bu t domain. For most people it was very difficult to estab-
because practitioners of beneficial magic we re usually lish contact with these extraordinary forces; but thanks
prosecuted less ardently than suspects of malicious sor- to special qualities, cunning folk were able to cross the
c e ry, details about their practices generally cannot be line between the two domains. These qualities we re
found easily. It is therefore often difficult to assess their either innate or acquired after birth. It was often
role and analyze their activities. Another complication assumed that people who had been born under strange
is the fact that it was not really possible in the early circumstances possessed extraordinary powers. In Friuli
modern period to agree on a definition of illegal magic. in northern It a l y, for instance, the b e n a n d a n t i ( d o -
Around 1500, it was not uncommon for local courts to gooders; persons who had been born with a caul) were
ask a specialist on magic to assist them in a witchcraft expected to fight witches in nocturnal battles at certain
trial. After the Protestant Reformation, it became even seasons of the year.The outcome of these combats was
m o re difficult to define the perimeter and content of thought to be decisive for the quality of the harve s t .
cunning practices. Exo rcism had always been part of Similar beliefs were found elsewhere in Europe. In the
the duties of Catholic priests, but in the eyes of n o rthern Netherlands (Dutch Republic), several cun-
Protestants this sacramental ritual provided yet another ning folk claimed to have been born with a caul and
p roof of the superstitious character of Catholicism. they we re for that reason able to discern things that
According to Protestant Reformers, praying and fasting remained hidden from ordinary people.
were the only scriptural means to help victims of witch- People born by Caesarian we re believed to have simi-
craft or demonic possession, from which they conclud- lar powers. For instance, a cunning woman fro m
ed that there was no fundamental difference betwe e n Hamburg, Tryn Jans, who was repeatedly convicted for
Catholic exo rcism and practices of cunning folk. Bu t fraud in the Dutch Republic during the 1620s, claimed
despite this drastic restriction on their pastoral duties, that she had been cut out of her dead mother’s body. As
s e veral Protestant clerics actually practiced as magical a result she could detect hidden tre a s u res and was able to
healers. The Buckinghamshire minister Richard Napier, d r i ve away—in exchange for a handsome fee—the
whose healing activities have been analyzed in detail ghosts that stood guard over these valuables. She also
(MacDonald 1981), offers a good example of this type c o n versed with the dead and cured people of witchcraft.
of clergyman, but he was certainly not unique, not in It is in that light no coincidence that in Sh a k e s p e a re’s
England and certainly not abroad. In Ge r m a n y, for tragedy Ma c b e t h the tyrant could only be killed by
instance, numerous Lutheran ministers also practiced as Macduff who “was from his mother’s womb untimely
exorcists. Definitions of cunning folk’s practices there- r i p p e d” (V: 8, 81–82). Another example of the belief
f o re depended largely on the sociopolitical context. that a person born under strange circumstances had
These activities we re illicit and forbidden, but the ques- e x t r a o rd i n a ry qualities was the widespread idea in
tion of whether a certain healer was or was not a cunning France around 1800 that the seventh son of a seve n t h
man ultimately rested on local political circ u m s t a n c e s . son had special gifts enabling him to heal sick people.
Because of their illicit character, these activities were Some cunning folk acquired their professional skills
far more flexible than canonical beliefs and rituals. The later in life. Because of their exo rcistic abilities,
magical world view could be incoherent, but its adher- Catholic priests we re often asked to undo witchcraft,
ents only rarely perceived this as a problem. As a result, and even Protestants sometimes consulted them. Bu t
the activities of cunning folk and the way in which they other professions we re also associated with extraord i-
p resented themselves to potential clients could be n a ry powers. T h roughout Eu rope, executioners we re
adapted without much difficulty to changes in the b e l i e ved to be expert magical healers; in the Ho l y
sociocultural context. In the eighteenth century, for Roman Em p i re, skinners, gravediggers, and soldiers
238 Cunning Folk |
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had a similar reputation. In normal life, that is, in the evidence it can be concluded that the concepts structu-
domain of nature, these people were professionally con- ing the practices of cunning folk we re inextricably
nected with death, but when they we re active in the bound up with their cultural context.
domain of magic, where the rules of nature are turned
upside down, they we re associated with the pre s e rva- HANS DE WAARDT
tion of life. Just as parts of the bodies of dead people See also: BENANDANTI;BLOOD;CAUL;CLERICALMAGIC;COUNTER-
could be used for all sorts of magical purposes, so per- MAGIC;CUNNINGFOLK’SMANUALS;DIVINATION;EXECUTIONERS;
sons who were experts in killing people or in caring for HANDOFGLORY;MAGIC,POPULAR;MEDICINEANDMEDICAL
the dying we re seen as qualified magical healers. THEORY;SORCERY;SCOT,REGINALD;STOECKHLIN,CHONRAD;
Herdsmen and gypsies were also widely believed to have SUPERSTITION;WITCHANDWITCHCRAFT,DEFINITIONSOF.
access to the preternatural world. The south-Ge r m a n References and further reading:
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1998. Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad
magical healer and occasional witch finder Chonrad
Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night.Charlottesville,
Stoeckhlin, for instance, who was himself executed as a
University Press of Virginia.
witch in 1587, was a professional cow h e rd. Gy p s i e s
Davies, Owen. 2003. Cunning Folk: Popular Magic in English
we re not only thought to be able fortunetellers, but it
History.London: London and Hambledon.
was also believed that they could drive away ghosts and
Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian
heal witchcraft. In these cases it seems that this attribu- Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries.Baltimore, MD:
tion of extraordinary powers resulted from their social Johns Hopkins University Press.
marginalization in ordinary life. MacDonald, Michael. 1981. Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety
In many respects the things cunning folk did copied and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England.Cambridge:
the techniques of legal professions. Many of their ritu- Cambridge University Press.
als were clearly based on the rite of Catholic exorcism. Ramsey, Matthew. 1988. Professional and Popular Medicine in
France, 1770–1830: The Social World of Medical Practice.
With muffled voices, they read out long conjurations in
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
a language that sounded somewhat like Latin. W h i l e
Scot, Reginald. 1584. The Discoverie of Witchcraft.London:
doing so, they would repeatedly make the sign of the
William Brome.
cross and call on God and his saints to attack a witch.
Scribner, RobertW. 1993. “The Reformation, Popular Magic, and
Catholics and Protestants alike disapproved of such rit-
the ‘Disenchantment of the World.’” Journal of Interdisciplinary
uals, but they undoubtedly we re Christian insofar as History23:475–494.
their starting points were the same as those at the base Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London:
of the Christian faith. Weidenfeld and Nicolson; NewYork: Scribner’s.
Other cunning folk employed techniques that seem Waardt, Hans de. 1993. “From Cunning Man to Natural Healer.”
to rest on the same foundations as the axioms of Pp. 33–41 in Curing and Insuring. Essays on Illness in Past
humoral pathology, the classic medical theory of Galen Times: The Netherlands, Belgium, England and Italy, 16th–20th
Centuries.Edited by Hans Binneveld and Rudolf Dekker.
and Hippocrates that was generally accepted in early
Hilversum: Verloren.
modern times. In that system, bodily fluids like urine or
———. 1996. “Chasing Demons and Curing Mortals: The
blood we re assumed to provide detailed information
Medical Practice of Clerics in the Netherlands.” Pp. 171–203
about a patient’s condition and character. Cunning folk
in The Task of Healing: Medicine, Religion and Gender in
often closely inspected a sick person’s urine, or a cow’s
England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800.Edited by Hilary
milk, to find out if the illness was caused by witchcraft. Marland and Margaret Pelling. Rotterdam: Erasmus.
To that end the fluid could be cooked. If it boiled over, ———. 1997. “Breaking the Boundaries: Irregular Healers in
the sickness had natural causes; but if it stayed in the Eighteenth-Century Holland.” Pp. 141–160 in Illness and
pot, witchcraft was diagnosed. It was furt h e r m o re Healing Alternatives in Western Europe.Edited by Marijke
believed that the person of the witch could be attacked Gijswijt-Hofstra, Hilary Marland, and Hans de Waardt.
t h rough bodily fluids. By adding specific ingre d i e n t s London and NewYork: Routledge.
———. 2002. “Mann oder Frau, Tod oder Leben. Die Grenze
like sharp pins or a living black cock to the boiling sub-
zwischen Natur und Übernatur als Inversionspunkt.”
stance, the witch would feel forced to come, after which
Pp. 81–104 in Geschlecht, Magie und Hexenverfolgung.Edited
she could be compelled to undo the spell. Some cun-
by Ingrid Ahrend-Schulte, Dieter R. Bauer, Sönke Lorenz, and
ning folk inspected the blood of a client, which they
Jürgen Michael Schmidt. Bielefeld: Verlag für
a c q u i red by making small incisions in his skin. T h e
Regionalgeschichte.
blood provided information not only about the client
himself, but also about his social network and its quali- Cunning Folk’s Manuals
t y. In England witches we re sometimes battered in Popular healers and fortunetellers claimed seve r a l
order to cause a nosebleed or scratched on their faces to sources of inspiration, such as fairies or angels; but after
draw blood. Their blood was then used to heal their the rise of print culture in the sixteenth century, litera-
supposed victims. In the early seventeenth century, this ture became an increasingly influential source. In a pre-
belief was also present in the Netherlands. From such dominantly illiterate society, those who owned books
Cunning Folk’s Manuals 239 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 277 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.240 Application File
and manuscripts were popularly held to possess occult and the consultation of a manuscript presumably gen-
knowledge, and cunning folk made great show of their erated a greater sense of awe among customers.
manuals to impress their clients. Surviving examples The ways in which cunning folk used their manuals
that were definitely possessed by “cunning folk” mostly is not easy to assess. They obviously served as reposito-
date from the late seventeenth century onward, though ries of useful remedies and simple charms for practical
we have good evidence for their use since the mid-six- application, but their importance was also symbolic.
teenth century.There were numerous cases of ecclesias- From the point of view of popular perception and rep-
tical and secular authorities confiscating and destroying utation, which ultimately determined the success or
such manuals, believing them to contain demonic ritu- failure of cunning folk, the possession of a manual was
als and pacts with Satan. In fact, some manuals were as important as its actual use. Re g a rding the arc a n e
merely compilations of simple herbal remedies, astro- conjurations drawn from works of Neoplatonic magic,
logical calculations, prayers, and charms, drawn from it seems likely that only a small minority of cunning
oral tradition and popular literature such as almanacs, folk employed these according to the long-winded
chapbooks, German hausvater(housefather) books, the p reparations, consecrations, and fastings instructed in
Bible, and other religious texts. Others, howe ve r, works like the Clavicule. Nevertheless, the hasty draw-
consisted of extracts from, or entire copies of, notorious ing of circles and pentacles on the ground, and the
works of ritual magic that contained instructions on i n vocation of angels and demons, became a common
how to conjure angels, demons, and spirits to find p a rt of the ritual theater of cunning folk’s trade. T h e
treasure or stolen property, procure love, and perform w o rds of adjuration, holy names, seals, and symbols
many other useful services. copied into the manuals we re also used to constru c t
Trial re c o rds re veal that throughout western and written protective charms, the sale of which provided a
southern Eu rope the most influential sources of such good income. Cunning folk’s manuals, then, played an
magic we re the Fo u rth Book of Occult Ph i l o s o p h y a n d important role in the popularization of high magic.
the Clavicule (Ke y ) of Solomon.The former, which was
OWEN DAVIES
spuriously attributed to Cornelius Agrippa, fir s t
a p p e a red in a Latin edition during the 1560s; over the See also: AGRIPPAVONNETTESHEIM,HEINRICHCORNELIUS;
next few decades, numerous manuscript versions circ u- CUNNINGFOLK;GRIMOIRES;MAGIC,POPULAR;OCCULT;RITUAL
lated around Eu rope in Latin and vernacular transla- MAGIC;SCOT,REGINALD.
tions. The even older C l a v i c u l ewas one of several pseu- References and further reading:
Davies, Owen. 2003. Cunning Folk: Popular Magic in English
d o - Solomonic works circulating in manuscript in
History.London: London and Hambledon.
m e d i e val Eu rope, and was particularly desirable for its
Martin, Ruth. 1989. Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice,
i n s t ructions on tre a s u re conjuration. In Ge r m a n y,
1550–1650.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
f rom the mid-eighteenth century onward, the apoc-
Monter, E. William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland:
ryphal Sixth and Se venth Books of Mo s e s became the
The Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY, and
most desirable possession for cunning folk, while in London: Cornell University Press.
Scandinavia the Cy p r i a n u swas the basis for most of the Scot, Reginald. 1584. The Discoverie of Witchcraft.London:
S va rt e b ö k e r (“black books”) used by cunning folk. It is William Brome.
a great irony that in England Reginald Scot’s influ e n- Sebald, Hans. 1988. “The 6th and 7th Books of Moses: The
tial skeptical work The Discoverie of Wi t c h c ra f t ,with its Historical and Sociological Vagaries of a Grimoire.” Ethnologia
disquisition on charms and conjurations, ranked Europea28: 53–58.
Thorndike, Lynn. 1923–1958. The Hi s t o ry of Magic and Ex p e r i m e n t a l
alongside the Fo u rth Book as the most important basis
S c i e n c e .8 vols. New Yo rk: Columbia Un i versity Pre s s .
for manuals.
With the massive growth in literacy and popular
l i t e r a t u re during the eighteenth century, many texts Curses
that had once been available only in manuscript form One of the most common charges against witches was
or at great expense became available to cunning folk that they cursed people. A curse is a linguistic expres-
c h e a p l y. But as surviving manuals show, cunning folk sion of the desire that misfortune befall someone, and
copied the contents of these unprepossessing chapbook it can take the form of a simple articulation of a malign
g r i m o i re s into manuscript books. The Book of Se c re t s wish or an invocation of the wrath of some god or spir-
compiled by an Alpine peasant around 1810, for exam- it. Cursing appears to be a ubiquitous feature of human
ple, contained dozens of extracts copied from the popu- life, although the forms and presumed effects vary sig-
lar French chapbook Ad m i rables Se c rets d’ Al b e rt le nificantly. Early modern Europeans, like most premod-
Gra n d ( Admirable Se c rets of Albertus Ma g n u s ) ern peoples, believed that curses could really cause mis-
(Monter 1976, 187–188). The process of transcription fortune, and their witchcraft accusations frequently
re n d e red the charms and conjurations more potent, included the charge that a suspect had uttered a curse
240 Curses |
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against an antagonist who then suffered some harm. durable forms of cursing. The Romans made even more
Educated modern people, in contrast, use curses as a elaborate cursing tablets, and also employed a wide
way of expressing their feelings without believing that range of techniques. The tablets were used not only to
words by themselves have the power to actually cause get revenge, but also to gain advantage in love, business,
harm. Since the Enlightenment, educated opinion has lawsuits, petitions, and even sports. They were typical-
held that any effects curses might have simply reflect ly inscribed in secret and then hidden, but their exis-
people’s belief in them, and that their primary impor- tence was often suspected by rivals and enemies, and
tance to the person making them is in allowing the might be hinted at or proclaimed by the curser in order
expression and venting of hostility. However, consider- to heighten their psychological effect. Specialized prac-
ation of the role of psychosocial influences on health titioners offered many forms of cursing for pay, and
and in accidents suggests that beliefs about cursing were probably frequently involved in preparing tablets.
build on, rather than originate, the power of hostile dis- The use of cursing tablets apparently ended by the
plays, and that cursing therefore has inherent potency eighth century, presumably because of opposition from
rather than a merely derivative or palliative effect. the Christian authorities, but other forms of curses
continued. The Church used curses extensively to
Types of Curses call down Go d’s wrath on people who opposed
Curses can be spoken, written, or simply thought. A Christianity’s spread, ignored dictates, or stole its prop-
curse can be as simple as a spontaneous shout or can erty. Both clerics and the laity used curses to strengthen
entail elaborate, formalized wording embedded in a and sanction contracts; laypeople and Churc h’s many
complex ceremony involving a special location, time, individual clerics used curses for private vengeance or
props, and non verbal ritual actions. Spoken curses can gain despite theological objections. T h roughout the
be made publicly or in secret. They can range from Middle Ages, professional and semi-professional practi-
inaudible mumbles to sophisticated rhyming verses to tioners of magic included cursing among their services,
incomprehensible mystical phrases, and can be com- and as the written body of learned magic increased dur-
bined with gestures, hostile facial expressions, and ritu- ing and after the twe l f t h - c e n t u ry Renaissance, a genre
al activities. Written curses can be inscribed on metal, of elaborate ritual curses involving explicit and exten-
pottery, or other surfaces as well as paper; hidden to s i ve invocation of evil spirits developed. While these
prevent counteraction or delivered to unnerve their necromantic rituals came from a cultural stream some-
target; supplemented by drawings or symbols; and what removed from popular magic, the two influenced
intensified through mutilation or other ritual acts. each other, and the necro m a n c e r s’ practices re i n f o rc e d
Su bvo c a l i zed curses are most likely to be fle e t i n g the Christian authorities’ fear that curses and other
thoughts, because rituals generally call for words to be forms of malefic magic not only caused harm, but also
spoken out loud, but they can be accompanied by i n vo l ved an explicit alliance with evil supernatural
gestures and expressions making manifest the anger beings.
articulated only inwardly.
Curses can be thought to come directly from a deity, Curses in Early Modern
but usually invo l ve an unceremonious expression or Witchcraft
formal invocation by a person. An invocation can be a The anthropologically oriented English historians Alan
public act by a priest or other religious leader, or a Macfarlane and Keith Thomas put cursing at the center
means of private vengeance by an ord i n a ry person or of their influential interpretation of early modern
h i red specialist. Spontaneous expressions of hostility witchcraft as a dynamic of charity refused, curse
can be made with the intent to cause harm, to threaten uttered, and misfortune suffered. Although accusations
harm unless certain conditions are met, to demonstrate arose from many other situations, it is clear that cursing
the level of anger a person feels, or simply to vent. played an important role not only in accusers’ fears, but
also in some suspects’ actions. Cursing was one of the
The History of Curses most commonly reported forms of maleficium(harmful
Virtually all cultures appear to include some form of magic), and there is no doubt that it was actually prac-
cursing, and evidence of curses can be found back to ticed in some cases.
the beginnings of Western history. Ancient Early modern Eu ropeans hurled curses ro u t i n e l y,
Mesopotamians and Egyptians employed a wide variety e ven chro n i c a l l y, in interpersonal disputes, calling for
of techniques for cursing and countering curses, and the ruination or damnation of their antagonists with a
the Hebrew Bible mentioned curses in a number of viciousness that shocks modern sensibilities. In most
places. The ancient Greeks left numerous cursing cases, though, it seems clear that they did not expect
tablets, metal plates on which curses were inscribed, their words to take effect and that they employed curses
and Greek myths and writings mentioned other, less much as modern people do, to signal displeasure and
Curses 241 |
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vent anger. Some women had reputations as habitually er’s intrinsic power, while others have assumed that it
q u a r relsome scolds, leading to the theory that witch depends on some sort of spiritual intermediary, that is,
suspects were simply such people who had the bad luck that cursing is a form of supplication or invocation
that their inve c t i ves we re followed by some associated rather than direct causation. Early modern commoners
m i s f o rtune, making it seem that their curses had appear to have believed that most curses would not take
worked. effect, but that some might. Popular explanations for
While some chronic scolds undoubtedly did deve l o p this dichotomy focused on the inherent power of the
reputations for witchcraft through this process, the curser and the curse, while elite theory explained it by
German historian Rainer Walz found that witch sus- reference to the curser’s relationship to the Devil and
pects in the villages he studied we re not pro m i n e n t the Devil’s decision about how his interests might best
among the scolds and slanderers in judicial re c o rd s . be served.
Instead it seems that some people we re known as Early modern theologians held that the Devil was
yellers, or verbal abusers, while others we re suspected needed for a curse to work, but they did not accept
of more dangerous things. To some extent, these suspi- that he could actually cause supernatural effects
cions stemmed from the accusers’ paranoia or guilt, because only God could transcend natural law and
but eyewitness re p o rts, books of spells found by the w o rk true miracles. Enlightened opposition to witch-
authorities, and surviving curse tablets and parc h m e n t s craft beliefs grew out of and elaborated this naturalistic
c o n firm that some early modern people employe d orientation, beginning a skeptical tradition that
curses both openly and in secret to harm others. Su c h explains most allegations of malefic cursing as forms of
curses included both simple threats and calls for re t r i- paranoid or guilt-ridden scapegoating, most alleged
bution and elaborate rhyming spells. Some open curses effects of curses as fallacious explanations for inexplica-
we re spontaneous, while others we re delive red in pre- ble misfortune, actual effects of curses as the pro d u c t s
meditated confrontations, by themselves or in con- of belief in them, and actual attempts to curse magical-
junction with gestures like kneeling and stretching the ly as narcissistic confusion of desire with agency.
arms tow a rd heaven. Curses performed in secre t Modern social scientists embraced this tradition in the
ranged from simple expressions of a desire for nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some
vengeance to complex spells spoken or written as part historians and anthropologists emphasized how belief
of elaborate ceremonies. While not eve ry curse hurled in the power of curses could play a positive social ro l e
in the heat of an argument was malefic, or the suspi- by inducing people to practice neighborly behavior.
cion that a neighbor was secretly working malevo l e n t The anthropologist Stanley Tambiah focused attention
curses was valid, fears that some curses we re meant on the expre s s i ve value of curses. None of these
seriously and that some people cursed their neighbors attempts to see value in belief in the power of curses
p r i vately we re not unfounded. challenges the basic assumption that they cannot do
Early modern commoners worried about the harm what they claim, howe ve r. Cu r rent understanding of
that could follow from curses, but popular culture was the role of psychosocial factors in disease and accident
somewhat ambivalent about curses because it generally p roneness—that they are not mediated primarily by
held that they were most often used by the weak against symbolic psychodynamics but by persistent activa t i o n
the strong and would only work if they were justified. of the fig h t / flight mechanism leading to chro n i c
The early modern elite, in contrast, was less concerned s t ress—suggests that the power of curses is rooted in
about the harm curses might cause, but was wholly their object’s psychophysical reaction to the hostility
opposed to them for moral reasons. Clergy and magis- they manifest, with their linguistic meaning and belief
trates punished ord i n a ry cursing as blasphemy and in their power acting as intensifiers rather than origina-
prosecuted malefic cursing more seriously because they tors of this visceral effect.
understood its power to come from the De v i l .
EDWARD BEVER
Ac c o rding to Christian doctrine, demonic agency was
required for a malefic curse to take effect, so the power See also: ACCUSATIONS;BEWITCHMENT;CHARMS;DEFIXIONES;
to curse successfully was taken to be a sign of allegiance DISEASE;IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL;INVOCATIONS;MACFARLANE,
to the Devil. ALAN;MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGIC,POPULAR;MALEFICIUM;
NECROMANCY;RITUALMAGIC;SOCIALCONTROL;SORCERY;
The Power of Curses
SPELLS;THOMAS,KEITH;WORDS,POWEROF.
References and further reading:
While traditional cultures have generally believed that
Be ve r, Ed w a rd. 2000. “Witchcraft Fears and Ps ychosocial Factors
curses can cause harm, they have not necessarily held
in Disease.” The Jo u rnal of In t e rd i s c i p l i n a ry Hi s t o ry3 0 :
that every angry utterance has power, and they have had
5 7 3 – 5 9 0 .
differing ideas about what makes curses work. Some Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
cultures have ascribed a curse’s effects to its or the curs- in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
242 Curses |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 280 | 46049 Golden Chap. C av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.243 Application File
Gager, John. 1999. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the of Magic and Divination in Russia.University Park,
Ancient World.Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pennsylvania State University Press.
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1998. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Tambiah, Stanley. 1968. “The Magic Power of Words.” Man3:
Manual of the Fifteenth Century.University Park, Pennsylvania 175–208.
State University Press. Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London:
Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; NewYork: Scribner’s
A Regional and Comparative Analysis.London: Routledge and Vangelisti, Anita. 1994. “Messages That Hurt.” Pp. 58–92 in The
Kegan Paul: reissued with introduction by James Sharpe. Dark Side of Interpersonal Communications.Edited byWilliam
Routledge: London, 1999. Cupach and Brian Spitzberg. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Pócs, Eva. 2004. “Curse, Maleficium¸Divination: Witchcraft on Erlbaum.
the Borderline of Religion and Magic.” Pp. 174–190 in Walz, Rainer. 1993. Hexenglaube und Magische Kommunikation im
Witchcraft Continued: Popular Magic in Modern Europe.Edited Dorf der Frühen Neuzeit.Paderborn: Ferdinand Schönurgh.
byWillem de Blécourt and Owen Davies. Manchester, UK: Wilson, Stephen. 2000. The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual
Manchester University Press. and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe.London: Hambledon and
Ryan, W. F. 1999. The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey London.
Curses 243 |
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D
D’Anania, Giovanni Lorenzo m i s e ry: n a t u ra ( n a t u re), ministerium ( m i n i s t ry, occupa-
(ca. 1545–ca. 1608) tion), n oxa (punishment), and m a l e fic i u m ( h a r m f u l
A Southern Italian polymath (philologist, natural scien- magic). The first, n a t u ra, is attributable to the influ e n c e
tist, geographer, and theologian), D’Anania’s work s of the stars; m i n i s t e r i u m occurs when God sends his
include a dissertation on the nature of demons and their angels to execute justice; n ox a occurs when God exacts
occult operations. D’Anania lived in Naples for seve r a l punishment by giving power to evil spirits; and m a l e fic i-
years as a private teacher of the arc h b i s h o p, Ma r i o u m is sorc e ry exe rcised by wicked men with potions,
Carafa, but returned to his native Catanzaro in Calabria herbs, ashes, animal blood, the venom of serpents,
after the latter’s death in 1576. His best-known work is human nail parings, and the tongues, eyes, hair, and
p robably La universale fabbrica del Mo n d o, ov ve ro ropes of those who have been hanged; the sacrilegious
C o s m o g ra fia (The Un i versal St ru c t u re of the World, or use of sacred words and sacraments; and the like.
C o s m o g r a p h y, Naples, 1573, and Venice, 1576). In his dissertation, D’Anania gave a full account of
D ’ A n a n i a’s book about demons, entitled De natura the Sabbat and its obscene rites. According to him, the
daemonum . . . libri quatuor(Four Books on the Nature Sabbat had been practiced in all ages, but it had so
of Demons)was first printed in Venice in 1581 by Aldo i n c reased during his lifetime that, if the laws did not
Manuzio the yo u n g e r. T h e re followed repeated edi- extirpate it with fire, it would spread everywhere. These
tions—Naples, 1582, and Venice, 1589. Long after his nocturnal Sabbats he unhesitatingly pronounced as
death, it was reprinted in Rome in 1654 and in Lyons real, as he also did sexual intercourse between human
in 1669, together with another of his works, De natura beings and incubi and succubi. He stated that children
An g e l o rum ( On the Na t u re of Angels) in an edition had sprung from such unions, such as the ancient
entitled De substantiis separa t i s ( On Se p a r a t e d demigods and heroes or here s i a rchs like Luther and
Substances), dedicated to Innocent X by the author’s Mohammed. D’Anania concluded his tract with a long
nephew Marcello D’Anania, bishop of Nepi and Sutri. catalog of demonic crimes done through sorcerers: tem-
The stru c t u re of its four books is ve ry clear: The fir s t pests, floods, fires, sickness, and the like, all of which
contained a description of the origins of demons and required human agency. In turn, astrologers and necro-
their different types; the next explored their power over mancers could only undertake their deplorable activi-
human beings; the third book described the things ties with the help of demons.
demons could do to people; and the final book told D’Anania’s book was filled with examples from daily
what demons could do with human help. life; for example, he described showers of stones in the
De natura daemonum re flects well the mental condi- region of Vesuvius, and how fifty girls in an orphan asy-
tion of the period, which ascribed many afflictions to lum at Rome became demoniacs in a single night. His
supernatural causes and held that infinite numbers of s o u rces came from various epochs (He b rew, Gre e k ,
demons we re ever surrounding men, ready to work spir- Roman, and Christian) and many continents (Asia,
itual or material evils. D’Anania believed in the exis- Africa, Europe, and the New World).
tence of celestial and terrestrial demons that we re always
DRIES VANYSACKER
at work to seduce men into sin and lead them to aposta-
sy from God, tempting all through their pre va i l i n g See also: CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC;DEMONS;
weaknesses or passions and taking advantage of eve ry INCUBUSANDSUCCUBUS;SABBAT;SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC.
References and further reading:
f a vorable moment. Demons, according to him, could
Bosco, Giovanna. 1994. “Giovanni Lorenzo D’Anania (1545
assume any shape, but their shapes had no substance.
ca.–1609 ca.).” P. 159 inBibliotheca Lamiarum. Documenti e
Their pre f e r red activities we re inflicting diseases that
immagini della stregoneria dal Medioevo all’Età Moderna.
could not be cured by traditional medicine but only by
Ospedaletto: Pacini.
s a i n t s’ relics, and they could also raise tremendous tem-
De Caro, G. 1961. “Anania, Giovanni Lorenzo d’.” Pp. 19–20,
pests. Although most evils we re attributable to demons, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.Vol. 3. Edited by
D’Anania stated there we re four sources of human Enciclopedia Italiana. Rome: Società Grafica Romana.
D’Anania, Giovanni Lorenzo 245 |
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Lea, Henry Charles. 1957. Materials Toward a History of Bourges, where he obtained his doctorate. Fa l l i n g
Witchcraft.Vol. 2. Translated by Arthur C. Howland. NewYork under Calvin’s influence, he went to Geneva in 1560,
and London. abandoning law for theology. Not long after, he was
appointed a minister and sent into France to bolster the
Daneau, Lambert (ca. 1530–1595)
Reformed Church there. He quickly began to write
Lambert Daneau was a French Calvinist minister who
vo l u m i n o u s l y, producing twe n t y - s e ven import a n t
published a short work on witchcraft at Geneva in
works of varying length between 1573 and 1581 alone.
1574. Originally entitled Les sorciers, dialogue tres-utile
His treatise on witchcraft belonged to the beginning of
et necessaire pour ce temps (Witches, a Very Useful
this fertile period. The range of his subject matter was
Dialogue and One Necessary for the Present Time), it
extensive. Apart from witchcraft, he published works
was followed immediately by a Latin translation with a
about games of chance, methods of interpre t i n g
title that explained Daneau’s principal preoccupation
Scripture, commentaries on St. Augustine and Peter
rather more clearly: Workers of Poisonous Magic, Once
Lombard, and various polemical works. In 1576 came
Called “Fortunetellers” but Now Popularly Known as
his Physice Christiana (Christian Natural Philosophy),
“Witches.”In Daneau’s eyes, witches distributed poison
with its contemporary English translation, The wonder-
among their communities. They infected the air, the
full woorkemanship of the world, indicating its principal
water, the grass, and thus rendered not only animals
import; it consists of a series of lengthily developed
and humans sick, but even crops as well. Sometimes
analogies between the processes of nature, the structure
their poisons killed. Daneau thus saw witches mainly as
of the human body and its relationship with the soul,
subtle poisoners. Witches harmed people without
and the constitutions of households and common-
regard for sex, age, or rank. The cause of their magical
wealths. In 1581 Daneau left Geneva, where he had
effects was concealed, so those effects were especially
been granted citizenship, in order to become a profes-
dangerous because they did not appear to be different
sor of theology at Leiden. Almost at once, he became
from extraordinary effects produced by nature. Thus,
embroiled in a conflict with the city’s magistrates and
Daneau accepted that witches could fly to the Sabbat
left, thereafter filling a succession of appointments in
because, he said, there was no natural reason such a
Ghent, Orthez, and Castres. From 1583, when he pub-
flight could not be effected naturally. Regarding witch-
lished his most influential treatise, Isagoge de Deo (A
es’ “miracles,” Daneau pointed out that Satan could not
Preliminary Essay on God), Daneau continued to pro-
actually do anything except by natural means and caus-
duce theological works until his death, including a
es. Therefore, if one wanted to know whether a witch’s
posthumously published book on Christian politics
confession was reliable or not, one should ask whether
(1596).
she claimed to have done anything beyond the power of
nature to accomplish. Similarly, Daneau did not claim
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
that judges and advocates had any inherent, Go d - g r a n t e d See also: CALVIN,JOHN;DEVIL’SMARK;POISON;SABBAT.
power to protect them against a witch’s malevolent References and further reading:
magic, and suggested that a witch became powerless Desplat, C. 1984. “Lambert Daneau, l’Académie d’Orthez, et les
once she was put in prison. superstitions.” Revue de Pau et du Béarn12: 195–219.
On the other hand, he asserted the reality of the Fatio, Oliver. 1976. Méthode et théologie: Lambert Daneau et les
débuts de la scolastique réformée.Geneva: Droz.
De v i l’s mark, which he interpreted as a sign that the
———. 1981. “Lambert Daneau, 1530–1595.” Pp. 105–119 in
witch belonged to Satan as though she (or he) we re a
Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland and
piece of his property. He maintained that a witch’s pres-
Poland, 1560–1600.Edited by Jill Raitt. New Haven: Yale
ence at a Sabbat was no illusion (as many earlier and
University Press.
contemporary writers on witchcraft argued), but a real
experience. Nor did Daneau lay any emphasis on the Danzig (Gdan´sk)
gender of witches. He did think they should be extir-
Culturally German but part of the Polish kingdom
pated, and said that every judge should be given suffi-
since 1454, the city long known as Danzig, and since
cient authority within his local jurisdiction to put such
1945 as Gdan´sk, was an important center of interna-
people to death. For witches’ victims, Daneau had cold
tional trade, Poland’s major port, and probably its
comfort. They could resort to legitimate medicines, he
wealthiest city during the sixteenth and seventeenth
said, but otherwise they had to bend to the will of God,
centuries. Opulence, however, did not save Danzig
seeking only His help, and depending entirely on Hi s
from witchcraft trials. Between 1570 and 1660, about
providence.
two dozen people were tried as witches and at least six-
teen of them were executed.
Biography Although the law code (Ius Cu l m e n s e ; in Ge r m a n ,
Daneau was born into the provincial French nobility, Der Alte Culmische Re c h t , “ Old law for Ku l m
and from 1553 to 1559 studied law at Orléans and [Chelmno] City”)used in Danzig since 1346 stipulated
246 Daneau, Lambert |
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burning alive as the penalty for witchcraft, surv i v i n g into a pact with the Devil. In 1639, two more women
sources mention no such trials in the fourteenth centu- we re executed by burning; one of them, who pleaded
ry. After 1454, when the city obtained the right to issue guilty and expressed remorse, was beheaded prior to
its own statutes ( w i l k i e rze ) , no municipal edicts men- burning. The same mercy was shown to Gre t a
tioned witchcraft. Meanwhile, ecclesiastical court s S c h r i ewen in 1640 before she was burned. In 1647,
h e a rd a few local cases. In 1477, an unnamed three were burned and one beheaded before being exe-
t ownswoman charged with practicing magic cleare d cuted at the stake.
herself and filed a countersuit for slander. In 1483, a G d an´s k’s final witchcraft trial took place in 1659.
woman was accused of bewitching cattle, but was found The accused was an eighty-eight-year-old widow, Anna
innocent; in 1497, a Danzig clergyman, charged with K r ü g e r. In her confession, she said she had learned
letting tre a s u re hunters manipulate the Host, was witchcraft from her husband. She said that she had also
acquitted. bequeathed her soul to a devil named Klaus in re t u r n
A w i l k i e rz i n t roduced around 1500 punished those for the promise that she would re c e i ve a place in hell
who caused injury to pro p e rty by magical means. f ree of torment to indulge in pleasure. She was sen-
Although the bishop’s representative protested, Danzig tenced to be burned alive, but the executioner merciful-
juries began to hear witchcraft trials after 1501. After ly wrapped several sacks of gunpowder around her body
the city became Protestant in 1526, all ecclesiastical to reduce her agony. A significant contribution to the
protests were disregarded, despite a Polish law of 1543 ending of witchcraft trials in Danzig came from Mayor
giving ecclesiastical courts precedence in trying witches. Gabriel Krummhausen, who appended to his corre-
By 1570, all cases of this type were tried by municipal spondence with a French opponent of witchcraft prose-
courts. Later, after Danzig held its final witchcraft trial cution the 1657 instruction from the Roman Cu r i a
(1659), Poland repeatedly (1672, 1713, 1745) reserved ordering judges to exercise caution in evaluating witch-
witchcraft cases to Church courts. craft accusations and to refrain from tort u re in such
The first trials held before the municipal court took cases.
place in 1501. Two women were arrested and tortured In the general criminal statistics from Da n z i g
but refused to confess; the verdict is unknown. No fur- b e t ween the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, witch-
ther prosecutions were recorded until 1570, when two craft accounted for less than 1 percent of all offenses.
women we re sentenced to the stake and burned; one Even at its peak, in the second half of the seventeenth
had already committed suicide in prison. T h e re a f t e r, c e n t u ry, it re p resented only 1.3 percent of all crimes.
trials increased gradually. In 1571, Anna Brands was About 90 percent of all cases involved women.
flogged and banished perpetually from the city for
KRZYSZTOF SZKURL-ATOWSK
n u m e rous offenses, including a charge of practicing
witchcraft. Another woman was burned in 1573. This See also: COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;EXECUTIONSLAWSONWITCH-
time, before the execution, her body was torn by CRAFT(EARLYMODERN); POLAND;PRUSSIA;TORTURE;TRIALS.
References and further reading:
red-hot pincers at four different public places in the
Cieslak, Edmund, and Czeslaw Birrnat. 1995. History of Gdan´sk.
city. In 1575, the first man, Hanss Schrecken, went to
Gdan´sk.
the stake together with his tools of magic; in an act of Koranyi, K. 1927. “Czary i gus-la przed s´˛adami ko´scielnemi w
c l e m e n c y, he was first beheaded. In 1577 accusations
Polsce.” Lud26: 1–25.
were raised against two wayfaring barber-surgeons. The
Reich, F. 1940. Hexenprozesse in Danzig und in den westpreussis-
burgrave (king’s representative) in Danzig ordered them chen Grenzgebieten.Munich: Universität München.
tortured, but the outcome is unknown. In 1579 doctors Rosenkranz, E. 1979 “Inquisitio corporalis w praktyce gdan´skich
from Danzig accused a foreign healer of witchcraft, but s˛adów miejskich.” Rocznik Gdan´ski39: 179–188.
he was acquitted. In 1582, a woman from a village Szkur-latowski, Krzysztof. 1997. “Gda´nskie procesy czarownic w
under the jurisdiction of Danzig courts was attacked for XV–XVII w. na tle ówczesnych przemian religinych.” Pp.
witchcraft by the head of her local community.The evi- 209–228 inProtestantyzm i protestanci na Pomorzu.Gdan´sk:
Wydawnictwo Miscellanea.
dence she managed to present to the court was so over-
whelming that, although the files of the case lack their
final pages, she probably succeeded in obtaining com- Darrell, John (1562–?)
pensation. An obscure preacher, John Darrell achieved a brief
In 1586, two more witches we re burned. Ja c o b notoriety when his involvement in cases of demonic
Jordan avoided burning in 1594 only because his other possession attracted the attention of English ecclesiasti-
offenses, such as theft and escape from prison, we re cal authorities at the end of the sixteenth century. Born
considered more serious. Anna Eggert was flogged and in Mansfield around 1562, Darrell matriculated in
banished from the city in 1604 for deceiving people 1575 at Queen’s College, Cambridge, as a sizar, that is,
with magic. On one day in 1615 a double stake was a student who was effectively working his way through
e rected for two women convicted of having entere d college as a servant to the fellows and the better-off
Darrell, John 247 |
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undergraduates. He took his B.A. in 1579, and then Darrell’s arrest and discrediting, although frequently
apparently studied law for a time before abandoning i g n o red by mainstream church historians, serves to
that calling to become a preacher. (It is doubtful that he remind us that exo rcism, possession, and witchcraft
was ever ordained.) were occasionally important issues in the religious poli-
In 1586 he began a long career as what was, in effect, tics of the period. The Church of England’s attitude to
an exorcist when, back in Mansfield, he helped treat a Da r re l l’s invo l vement in the Sommers affair, and to a
s e ve n t e e n - year-old demonically possessed girl, number of other similar cases around the same time,
Katherine Wright. As so often, possession led to accusa- demonstrates how a decidedly skeptical attitude to such
tions of bewitchment, but a skeptical justice of the matters seems to have been common among senior
peace quashed the case against the woman who was c h u rchmen, who we re ve ry concerned about contro l-
named as Wright’s tormentor, and Darrell disappeared ling the treatment of those supposedly possessed.
f rom history for a decade. Then, in 1596, he was C o n ve r s e l y, the evident spread of Da r re l l’s re p u t a t i o n ,
i n vo l ved in another possession-cum-witchcraft case, and the way in which his help was so avidly sought,
involving a teenage boy named Thomas Darling. In this shows the concern of those who felt that they or their
instance, a woman named Alice Gooderidge was con- families we re possessed or bewitched in this period.
victed for causing young Darling’s troubles through her They enthusiastically greeted exorcists like Darrell, who
witchcraft. Having by now obviously gained a re p u t a- they thought could help them, not least by identifying
tion in such matters, in March 1597 Darrell was called the human agents who had presumably directed the
to Leigh in Lancashire, where seven members of the demons into the bodies of the possessed.
household of a gentleman named Nicholas St a rk e y,
JAMES SHARPE
most of them children or adolescents, were thought to
be bewitched. This case too led to the conviction and See also: BEWITCHMENT;BURTON,BOYOF(THOMASDARLING,CA.
execution of a witch, in this case a man called Edmund 1584–?); ENGLAND;EXORCISM;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;SKEPTI-
Hartley.
CISM.
References and further reading:
The next, and final, case involving Da r rell began in
Sawyer, Corrine Holt. 1962. The Case of John Darrell: Minister
November 1597, when he was called to Nottingham to
and Exorcist.Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
help a supposedly bewitched teenage boy named
William Sommers. Once again his arrival was followe d
by suspicions of witchcraft being leveled against a num- Dauphiné, Witchcraft Trials in
ber of local women, creating a real danger of the out- This Alpine province of eastern France, traditionally
b reak of a witch panic in the town. Da r re l l’s skill as an ruled by the dauphin, the heir of the French king
e xo rcist attracted considerable favorable attention fro m (hence its name), witnessed one of Europe’s earliest
No t t i n g h a m’s population, and he was appointed pre a c h- major witch hunts and produced the first brief treatise
er at one of the tow n’s churches. But the mayor of the on witchcraft composed by a layman, Claude Tholosan,
t own was worried by his activities and the prospect of a who conducted many of these trials.
local witch craze, and the archbishop of Yo rk appointed Nu m e rous arc h i val traces enable us to follow the
a commission of inquiry to investigate the affair. outlines of Da u p h i n é ’s witch hunt as it unfolded,
At this time, the Church of England was trying to primarily between 1424 and 1445, in the highest
steer a middle way between Roman Catholicism and mountain valleys along the eastern border of this
e x t reme Protestantism, and possession and exo rc i s m p rovince adjoining the duchy of Sa voy - Piedmont. T h e
had become something of a political issue. The Church c o re of information comes from a thick fiscal re g i s t e r
of England, like most Protestant churches, denied the of over 500 folios, the Quintus liber Fa c h u r i e ro ru m
efficacy of exorcism, but it had been shaken by several ( Fifth Book of So rc e rers). It includes a lengthy list of
we l l - p u b l i c i zed exo rcisms carried out in England by p ro p e rty confiscated from Da u p h i n é ’s convicted
Catholic priests in the 1580s. Now, faced by ove r - witches up to 1445, which enables us to re c o n s t ru c t
enthusiastic treatment of the possessed by a Protestant 126 of their names, as well as, usually, their home vil-
preacher, the Church acted quickly. John Whitgift, the lage and the date of their trial, from the missing pre v i-
a n t i - Puritan archbishop of Canterbury, took an inter- ous four volumes. It adds 29 sentences against other
est, and handed the case over to the like-minded bishop suspects, whose confessions add another 51 names.
of London, Richard Bancroft. Darrell and his associate Perhaps more surprisingly, this fiscal register also
George More were imprisoned; Darrell was exposed as a includes a brief treatise about witchcraft written by
fraud and imprisoned for a ye a r. The affair, howe ve r, Tholosan, a local judge who claimed to have tried
prompted a bitter pamphlet war, with Darrell and More m o re than a hundred criminal cases, some of which
defending their actions, while Samuel Ha r s n e t t , can be corroborated from other sourc e s .
Ba n c ro f t’s chaplain, handled the propaganda against Although theQuintus liberis largely confined to high
Darrell. Alpine valleys in the diocese of Embrun and part of the
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diocese of Turin belonging to Dauphiné, the preceding Reformation, but extremely few in the later sixteenth
unpaginated fiscal register adds much miscellaneous and seventeenth centuries, during the peak period of
information about witchcraft trials in other parts of fif- persecutions in most parts of western Europe.
t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Dauphiné; it includes the re g i o n’s only Perhaps most sinister is the observation, drawn from
complete witchcraft trial containing denunciations by fiscal records, that Dauphiné’s witches were often pros-
witnesses, which led to 6 deaths in 1458–1459 in the ecuted enthusiastically by their neighbors, even in the
diocese of Grenoble. Dauphiné’s local treasury records 1420s. Two women arrested in one remote valley were
provide the names of 62 additional witches condemned taken to prison on mules, escorted by four men on
between 1424 and 1446. All together, we have informa- horseback and five on foot; when they were returned to
tion about more than 350 witches in Dauphiné in the be executed, only five men we re paid to escort them,
ninety years before 1511, including 52 trials or fin a l because the villagers themselves furnished ten addition-
sentences. This fund constitutes the richest re g i o n a l al volunteers. In 1530 one official hired a posse of
a rc h i val stockpile ever found in fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry fifty-eight armed men to capture a witch in a re m o t e
Europe. spot near the Italian border (Paravy 1993, 2:805). In
The meticulous investigation of Pi e r rette Pa r a v y o rder to spare family honor, kinfolk occasionally asked
(1993, 2:771–905) enables us to reach several conclu- for—and got—the special grace of secret executions for
sions on the basis of this evidence. First, Da u p h i n é ’s their re l a t i ves, but they never protested these judgments.
witches were, as later stereotypes insist, basically female
WILLIAM MONTER
and usually old: Women comprised two-thirds of the
287 suspects during the great witch hunts betwe e n See also:BASEL,COUNCILOF;MOUNTAINSANDTHEORIGINSOF
1425 and 1460 and nearly 90 percent by the early six- WITCHCRAFT;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;SAVOY,DUCHYOF;
teenth century; only 3 of the 34 whose ages are known
THOLOSAN,CLAUDE;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS).
References and further reading:
were under the age of 40. Second, their sentences were
Paravy, Pierrette. 1993. De la Chrétienté romaine à la Réforme en
quite severe: In the diocese of Grenoble, 24 of 29 were
Dauphiné: Evêques, fidèles, et déviants (vers 1340–vers 1530).2
condemned to death, and 13 of 16 in the diocese of
vols. Rome: Ecole française de Rome.
Ga p, though only 3 of 7 in the diocese of Vi e n n e .
Russell, Jeffrey B. 1972. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages.Ithaca, NY
Third, Dauphiné’s witches included a minority of well- Cornell University Press.
off people: In this depopulated and impove r i s h e d
region, one-fourth of a sample of 140 convicted witch- Deception and Magic
es left estates of over 100 florins (the average trial lasted Most magic works through deception. Shamans use
a month or two and cost around 20 florins). Fo u rt h , tricks to make their clients believe they will get better.
despite T h o l o s a n’s xenophobic insistence that this Sorcerers frighten their enemies into thinking they are
plague had somehow come from abroad, only three of sick. Stage magicians entertain their audiences and
Dauphiné’s witches (a German furrier, an Italian charla- charlatans scam their marks by tricking them into see-
tan, and a Spanish beggar woman) were clearly foreign- ing things that do not happen, or not seeing things that
ers. Ap a rt from such quantitative information, it has do. Fortunetellers pretend to learn things through
also been noted (Russell 1972, 217) that at these magic that they have discovered through other means,
Dauphiné trials, the devils resemble the “little people” and oracles like Nostradamus speak in riddles that seem
of pre-Christian Celtic legends, and their various names prophetic whatever happens. Amulets and talismans
(Corp-diable, Gr i f f a rt, Gu l i) suggest mischief rather delude people into believing that they are protected
than terror. from harm or that they will be lucky. Believers distort
Da u p h i n é ’s Alpine valleys also sheltered groups of their own perceptions to see things that are not there,
Waldensian heretics, making them a target for inquisi- and their memories to forget things that were.
tors since the final third of the fourteenth century.The Me d i e val theologians re c o g n i zed the re l a t i o n s h i p
links between medieval heresy and early witchcraft between magic and deception by styling the Devil both
seem unusually strong here, although for tactical re a- as the magician’s master and as the ultimate deceive r.
sons Tholosan did not emphasize it explicitly in his God could work true miracles, miracula, transforming
treatise, which was partly intended to establish the right reality outside natural processes, but the Devil could
of lay judges to try witches. It seems equally significant only accomplish mira,the appearance of such transfor-
that Dauphiné’s centers of witchcraft in the 1420s bor- mations, using natural processes and the power of
dered the lands of Amadeus VIII of Savoy, a state that illusion. By extension, saints and priests could perform
emerged as the epicenter of early Eu ropean witchcraft miracles because God was working through them, but
during the Council of Basel (1431–1449), the time magicians could not because they derived their powe r
when Tholosan composed his treatise. It is also interest- from the Devil. St. Augustine, for example, denied that
ing that Dauphiné, like Savoy, experienced large num- l yc a n t h ropes could actually transform themselves into
bers of witchcraft trials before the Pro t e s t a n t w o l ves, while the tenth-century Canon Ep i s c o p i
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p ronounced that women who said they flew at night as natural explanations were advanced to explain magi-
with the goddess Diana we re victims of illusions. T h e cal processes, the boundaries between the magical and
pact, implicit if not explicit, into which magical practi- the mundane shifted steadily until magic became a
tioners entered with the Devil to gain their powers was residual category containing only impossible phenome-
itself a deception, because the Devil generally either did na, fairy tales, and delusions. Finally, skepticism about
not deliver on his part of the bargain or arranged for the magic was one area of common ground materialists
magician to come to a bad end. Even beneficent magic s h a red with the religious establishment, with which
was a diabolical deception; the Devil only made it effec- they we re otherwise generally at odds. Consequently,
tive to lure people from the path of faith. Churchmen early modern governments punished magical practi-
e m p h a s i zed the deceptiveness of magic as a way of tioners for both fraud and impiety, and educated
undermining heterodox beliefs. opinion shifted from re g a rding magic as a source of
On a more mundane level, popular practitioners occult power to considering it as simply a delusion.
ranged from cynical to credulous. Most probably fell in
EDWARD BEVER
b e t ween, aware that some magicians we re charlatans
and that many magical practices invo l ved deception, See also: AMULETANDTALISMAN;AUGUSTINE,ST.; CANONEPISCOPI;
but convinced nonetheless that real magic was possible. CUNNINGFOLK;DEVIL;DIVINATION;ENLIGHTENMENT;LYCAN-
The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss discussed an
THROPY;MIRACLES;OCCULT;ORACLES;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;
example of this mentality, a Na t i ve American shaman
SCIENCEANDMAGIC;SHAMANISM;SKEPTICISM.
References and further reading:
named Quesalid who started out convinced that
Bowyer, J. Barton. 1982. Cheating: Deception in War and Magic,
shamanism was fraudulent and ascribed his first success
Games and Sports, Sex and Religion, Business and Con Games,
to his patient’s belief in him, but became less sure of his
Politics and Espionage, Art and Science.NewYork: St. Martins.
skepticism as he gained experience and knowledge of Duerr, Hans. 1985. Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary Between
competing practices. He found that his method worked Wilderness and Civilization.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
when others had failed, and while he exposed many of Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1963. Structural Anthropology.Translated by
his rivals as impostors, he took pride in his own success- Claire Jacobson and Brooke Schoepf. NewYork: Basic Books.
es, and re g a rded one other practitioner as a genuine Siegel, Lee. 1991. Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India.
shaman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New
The basis for such ambivalence is that, as the fir s t
York: Scribner’s.
sentence of this essay states, most magic works through
deception, meaning not simply that deception makes
magic appear to work, but that deception can actually Decline of the Witch Hunts
m a k e magic work. Healers deceive their patients into During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pros-
imagining that they are getting better, and that imagin- ecutions and executions for the crime of witchcraft
ing can actually help them to get better. Witches make declined in number and eventually came to an end. The
their victims imagine they are getting sick, which decline was marked by an increasing reluctance to pros-
cannot only make them feel sick, but can also make ecute witches, the acquittal of many who were tried, the
them more susceptible to somatic ailments. Di v i n e r s reversal of convictions on appeal, and eventually the
trick their clients into re vealing things they know repeal of the laws that had authorized the prosecutions.
unconsciously but are not aware of, just as pro p h e t s By 1782, the last officially sanctioned witchcraft execu-
“hear” voices telling them what they cannot apprehend tion had taken place, and in many jurisdictions, witch-
through their ordinary cognitive processes. Oracles pro- craft, at least as it had been defined in the sixteenth and
nounce self-fulfilling prophecies; amulets give fright- s e venteenth centuries, had ceased to be a crime.
ened people the confidence to act brave l y. De c e p t i o n Individuals continued to name their neighbors as
has the power not only to make people misperc e i ve witches, and in some cases even took violent action
reality, but also to change reality, for when people create against them, but they did so illegally and at the risk of
an image of the world and then act on it, they warp being prosecuted themselves (as some were).
reality toward the image. This process is not automatic The reduction and eventual end of witch hunting
nor is its power unlimited, but it can exe rt signific a n t o c c u r red at different times in the various kingdoms and
influence on human affairs. regions of Eu rope. In some countries, such as the Du t c h
The limits of the power and reliability of magical Republic, the decline in prosecutions became evident by
processes in the face of the extravagant claims made for the end of the sixteenth century, while in others, like
them and their inherent reliance on deception, com- Poland, it did not begin until the middle of the eigh-
bined with the frequency with which these were used as teenth century. The length of time that the entire
a cover for cynical frauds, provoked much skeptical p rocess took also varied greatly from place to place. In
criticism by natural philosophers during the Scotland, for example, the initial reduction in the num-
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. Furthermore, ber of prosecutions was followed by more than fif t y
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years of trials, whereas in Franche-Comté and colonial central authorities tolerated violations of their own high
Massachusetts, witch hunts came to an abrupt end only p rocedural standards. Ul t i m a t e l y, howe ve r, the state
a few years after the courts started to discourage pro s e- authorities that made such efforts succeeded in bring-
cutions. Even the legislation declaring that witchcraft ing about a permanent reduction in the number of
was no longer a crime was passed at different stages of prosecutions and executions.
the process. In some kingdoms, such as Hu n g a ry and The second reason for the decline of pro s e c u t i o n s
Prussia, the formal decriminalization of witchcraft pre- was a rising tide of criticism of the use of torture, lead-
ceded and was largely responsible for the end of witch ing to a reduction in its frequency and ultimately to its
hunting, whereas in Great Britain and De n m a rk it did abolition. In the sixteenth century, a few writers,
not occur until long after the trials had stopped. including Anton Prätorius and Johann Weyer, objected
In most jurisdictions, the decline of witch hunting to the administration of torture, but in the seventeenth
did not begin until those persons who controlled the century the critiques became more numerous and more
judicial machinery became persuaded that many witch- passionate. T h ree of the most influential we re written
es we re being convicted and executed for crimes they by Jesuits in German-speaking lands, Friedrich Sp e e ,
had not committed. This realization usually arose in Adam Tanner, and Paul Laymann, all of whom claimed
response to excesses in witch hunting in certain locali- first-hand experience with the trials. From the
ties, such as Spain in 1611, W ü rzburg in 1627, Protestant side came works by Johann Me y f a rt, a
England in 1647, Scotland in 1662, or Sweden in Lutheran professor from Erfurt whose work betrayed a
1676. These excesses led judges and other persons heavy reliance on Spee, and Johann Gre ve, a Du t c h
involved in the hunts to criticize the ways in which the Arminian theologian who condemned the use of tor-
trials were being conducted. These critiques led in turn ture by Christians for any purpose whatsoever.
to the formulation and implementation of stricter pro- This body of work criticizing the use of torture con-
cedural rules for the conduct of witchcraft trials, tinued to grow in the late seventeenth century, and
including greater restraint in the administration of tor- three later works achieved fairly widespread circulation.
ture and the application of more demanding standards In 1682 a Burgundian judge, Augustin Nicolas, wrote a
of evidence. As a result of these judicial changes, trials closely reasoned assault on the practice. The second
of witches resulted in a larger number of acquittals, w o rk, a dissertation by Meint Johan Sassen of the
panics in which scores of witches perished no longer Un i versity of Halle, was published in 1697 and we n t
re c u r red, and courts became increasingly reluctant to into several printings, and the third, which also came
initiate prosecutions. f rom the law faculty at Halle, was a dissertation by
The most clear-cut and decisive change in the judi- Christian Thomasius. It drew heavily on the earlier
cial process was the tighter regulation of local justice by w o rks of Spee, Ta n n e r, and Me y f a rt, but T h o m a s i u s
either central or superior judicial authorities. Local also gave his treatise a distinctly Protestant fla vo r. A
o f ficials who operated with considerable—sometimes Pietist known for his anticlericalism, Thomasius argued
complete—independence from central state contro l in the manner of Gre ve that tort u re was an un-
conducted the most severe witch hunts in early modern Christian means of extorting the truth, that it was nev-
Eu rope. The areas in which witch hunting was most er mentioned in Scripture, and that the papacy had
intense over a long period of time were those jurisdic- used it to strike down its enemies under the pretext of
tions in which central state power was relatively weak. heresy and witchcraft.
This is one of the main reasons why most major witch The third judicial change that led to a decline in the
panics took place in re l a t i vely small principalities and number of trials was the adherence to new and more
prince-bishoprics within the Holy Roman Em p i re. In demanding standards of evidence. During the seve n-
those states with relatively strong central judicial estab- teenth century, judges and legal writers thro u g h o u t
lishments, the most serious witch hunts occurred in Europe showed themselves to be increasingly reluctant
communities that found ways to ignore or circumvent to accept the sort of evidence that was presented to
state supervision of witchcraft trials. them to justify the conviction and execution of witches.
The differences in judicial outlook between central This caution led to the realization that the crime of
and local authorities often resulted in deliberate efforts witchcraft was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
by judges from the central legal establishment to prove. This conclusion was of incalculable importance
enforce stricter rules of criminal procedure, to demand in bringing witchcraft trials to an end. It led directly to
that all prosecutions be warranted by central authority, the increasing number of acquittals that occurred in vir-
to insist that all death sentences in witchcraft cases be tually all jurisdictions, and it also contributed to the
re v i ewed on appeal, and to punish local officials who ultimate realization that witchcraft as a crime could no
violated established procedural norms. These effort s longer be effectively prosecuted.
we re often sustained over a long period of time, and The skeptical attitude toward evidence in witchcraft
they did not always meet with success. Occasionally the cases, just like skepticism re g a rding the possibility of
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the crime, was not completely absent in earlier periods or could have beennatural. The burden of proof was on
of witch hunting. T h e re had always been judges who the prosecution; all that was necessary to secure acquit-
demanded that proof of witchcraft be absolutely con- tal was evidence that natural causation was possible.In a
c l u s i ve before proceeding to sentence. But where a s number of trials in Scotland in the late 1620s, advo-
those early recommendations of caution were eventual- cates for the witches went to great lengths to prove that
ly ignored or contradicted, on the grounds that society maleficium might not have been the product of super-
needed to be protected, by the late seventeenth century natural intervention. In securing the acquittal of a
they found more widespread and lasting acceptance. In witch accused of murder by sorcery in 1662, Paul von
this way an erratic pattern of witchcraft prosecution, in Fuchs was content to show that the alleged supernatur-
which courts oscillated between periods of intense pros- al cause of the disease that killed his victim could not be
ecution and relative leniency, gave way to an enduring proved.
pattern of judicial caution and restraint. The question of whether afflictions had diabolical or
Skepticism re g a rding the sufficiency of evidence in natural causes arose in a particularly telling fashion in
witchcraft cases took a number of different forms. It those cases of witchcraft that involved demonic posses-
can be seen, first and foremost, in a growing reluctance sion. During the seventeenth century, witchcraft cases
among judges and legal writers to accept confessions, of this sort became increasingly frequent, especially in
traditionally re g a rded as the queen of proofs, as suffi- England and France. Demoniacs, ve ry often women
cient proof of guilt. This skepticism was not restricted and children, identified witches as the cause of their
to those confessions that we re made under tort u re ; possession, claiming that the witches had commanded
judges and lawyers seemed just as unwilling to accept at demons to occupy their bodies and to afflict them with
face value those confessions that witches had allegedly fits, contortions, and other forms of abnormal behavior.
made fre e l y. This skepticism arose mainly when the The question naturally arose how such symptoms
confessions had a high diabolical content, that is, when should be interpreted. Those who did not readily accept
the witches had confessed to either a pact with the a demonological explanation of the possession or
Devil or attendance at the Sabbat. By the late seve n- claimed that it was fraudulent argued that the demoni-
teenth century, judges we re willing to accept confes- acs suffered from a disease brought about by natural
sions to witchcraft (or any other crime) only if such causes, such as hysteria. Once this possibility was intro-
confessions were in no way extorted, if they contained duced, courts found it difficult to convict witches for
nothing that was impossible or improbable, and if the causing the possession. In 1697 the Scotsman Ja m e s
person confessing was neither melancholic nor suicidal. Johnstone observed that in France the courts had
The Danish jurist Laurits No-r re g a rd, in urging the stopped trying witches in such cases because they could
g reatest possible caution in witchcraft cases, warned not distinguish possession from a natural disease.
that the last thing an authority should do was to believe Formal declarations by various countries in Eu ro p e
the accused person’s own confession. that witchcraft was no longer a crime occurred after the
A second and even more frequent expression of judi- p rosecutions for witchcraft had slowed to a trickle or
cial caution in the interpretation of evidence was based a l ready come to an end. Be f o re the beginning of the
on the possibility that events attributed to supernatural nineteenth century, witchcraft laws we re repealed or
agency might have had natural causes. This was partic- s i g n i ficantly modified in only seven kingdoms: Fr a n c e
ularly relevant to charges of maleficium (harmful mag- in 1682, Prussia in 1714, Great Britain in 1736, the
ic), in which it was claimed that witches had infli c t e d Habsburg monarchy in 1766, Russia in 1770, Po l a n d
harm by supernatural, that is, diabolical means. T h e in 1776, and Sweden in 1779. Only the last two king-
skeptical response to such allegations, frequently adopt- doms legislated a complete ban on witchcraft trials. The
ed when lawyers defended witches against such charges, Polish statute, passed by the diet a year after a witch
was that the act had natural causes, and that in order to hunt in the village of Doruchowo had claimed the lives
convict a person of the crime, the possibility of natural of fourteen women, forbade the prosecution of witches
causation had to be ruled out. Thus, in Spain, in the by all tribunals, including the court of the small town
wake of the witch hunt of 1609–1611, inquisitors were of Gr a b owo, which had conducted the trials at
instructed to inquire whether the maleficent deeds that Doruchowo.The Swedish National Code of 1779 sim-
witches confessed to, such as having killed children or ply omitted the clause re g a rding witchcraft in the old
d e s t royed crops, might have had natural causes. Code of 1734, thus rendering prosecutions impossible.
Inquiries of this sort became more and more common The British statute of 1736 also bears most of the
in later seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry trials. In It a l y, inquisitors signs of a blanket prohibition of witchcraft pro s e c u-
from the Congregation of the Holy Office insisted that tions, since it repealed the English statute of 1604 and
in cases of infanticide by witchcraft, the physicians who its Scottish counterpart of 1563. But by making it an
had treated the children should examine the children to offense to “pretend to exercise or use any kind of witch-
discover whether they could determine if the illness was craft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration or undertake
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to tell fort u n e s” on the pain of imprisonment for one the nineteenth century. Even in those countries that
year, Parliament failed to decriminalize all those activi- passed witchcraft statutes before the end of the trials,
ties that once marched under the broad banner of the new laws had only a limited effect on the volume of
witchcraft (Levack 1999, 75). Prosecutions for conjura- prosecutions. The first of these laws, the French edict of
tion under the statute of 1736 were rare, but they did 1682, probably pre vented prosecutions in only a few
occur, and the judges who charged grand juries contin- outlying regions of the kingdom where trials were still
ued to remind them that it was a crime to pretend to be taking place. The same could be said of Fre d e r i c k
a witch. This provision of the new witchcraft law was William I’s edict of 1714, because prosecutions in
not repealed until 1951. Prussia had slackened considerably since the 1690s.
The French royal edict of 1682 achieved even less The Polish law of 1776 affected only those isolated vil-
than the British law of 1736. It is true that the edict, lages like Doruchowo where there was still pressure to
just like the later British statute, re f e r red to magic as prosecute. Only Maria Theresa’s law of 1766 seems to
“p retended,” possibly to offer protection against have led to a demonstrable curtailment in the number
imposters. But as far as witchcraft prosecutions we re of trials and executions. Even then, howe ve r, witch
concerned, it was far more qualified than the Br i t i s h hunting was taking place in only certain parts of the
statute. Designed in part to prevent a recurrence of the Habsburg monarc h y, mainly in Hu n g a ry. In Au s t r i a ,
Affair of the Poisons, it left intact the death penalty for trials had long since ended, with the last exe c u t i o n
forms of magic that we re ove rtly sacrilegious, and it occurring in 1750.
permitted some prosecutions for m a l e fic i u m that con- The more common pattern of decriminalization was
tinued in France during the following decade. T h e the de facto cessation of trials, without any accompany-
same was true of the Habsburg law of 1766. W h i l e ing edict. This was achieved at different times in differ-
eliminating prosecutions in cases arising from fraud ent places, but in most cases the very last trials occurred
and mental illness, it nonetheless ord e red the banish- long after the decline in prosecutions had begun. In
ment of those who made pacts with the Devil and even Germany, for example, the decline in prosecutions had
allowed the possibility of the death penalty in cases of begun in the 1630s, but many German territories held
maleficiumperformed with the assistance of the Devil. p rosecutions well into the eighteenth century.
The least compre h e n s i ve of these laws was the W ü rzburg had its last trial in 1749, Ba varia in 1792,
Prussian edict of 1714, issued by King Fre d e r i c k and Württemberg in 1805. In Spain, where the decline
William I less than two years after his accession to the in prosecutions began in the early years of the seve n-
t h rone. This mandate was designed entirely to re f o r m teenth century, occasional trials took place until 1820.
the criminal procedures used in witchcraft trials, so that
innocent persons would no longer be tort u red, forc e d BRIAN P. LEVACK
to confess, and executed. Its concern with legal proce- See also: ACQUITTALS;CONFESSIONS;EVIDENCE;LAYMANN,PAUL;
dure reflects the influence of Christian Thomasius, the MEYFART,JOHANNMATTHÄUS;PRÄTORIUS,ANTON;SKEPTICISM;
chancellor of the Un i versity of Halle, and indire c t l y SPEE,FRIEDRICH;TANNER,ADAM;THOMASIUS,CHRISTIAN;TOR-
that of Spee, upon whom Thomasius relied heavily in TURE;WEYER,JOHANN.
his work. The edict, which was to be proclaimed in References and further reading:
local courts, demanded that all judicial decisions either Bostridge, Ian. 1997. Witchcraft and Its Transformations,
c.1650–c.1750.Oxford: Clarendon.
to torture or execute witches be submitted to the king
Henningsen, Gustav. 1980.The Witches’ Advocate: Basque
for confirmation before being implemented. This pro-
Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609–1614).Reno:
vision, which echoes French policy and anticipates that
University of Nevada Press.
of the Habsburg monarc h y, provides further evidence
Johansen, Jens Chr.V. 1991–1992. “Witchcraft, Sin and
of the role played by central authorities in re s t r i c t i n g
Repentance: The Decline of Danish Witchcraft Trials.” Acta
witchcraft prosecutions. The law did not, however, ban Ethnographica37: 413–423.
witchcraft trials or even executions, although it did Klaits, Joseph. 1982. “Witchcraft Trials and Absolute Monarchy in
re q u i re the re m oval of all the stakes from the public Alsace.” Pp. 148–172 in Church, State and Society Under the
places where witches had been burned. In 1721 Prussia Bourbon Kings of France.Edited by Richard M. Golden.
abolished the death penalty in all witchcraft trials. Lawrence, KS: Coronado.
The formal decriminalization of witchcraft had little Levack, Brian P. 1999. “The Decline and End of Witchcraft
Prosecutions.” Pp. 1–93 in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The
bearing on the decline in prosecutions, which was
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
a l ready well underw a y. The blanket repeals that took
and Stuart Clark. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
place in Great Britain and Sweden had no effect what-
Press.
s o e ver on witchcraft prosecutions in those countries,
Lorenz, Sönke, and Dieter R. Bauer, eds. 1995. Das Ende der
because the last trial had long preceded the legislation
Hexenverfolgung.Stuttgart: F. Steiner.
effecting the change. The same could be said of the Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe
large number of states that repealed their laws only in siècle.Paris: Plon.
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Midelfort, H.C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern “Talbot.” It was from Ke l l e y’s intense but debilitating
Germany, 1562–1684. Stanford: Stanford University Press. efforts at mediumship that Dee derived the contents of
———. 1979. “Witch Hunting and the Domino Theory.” Pp. most of his angelic conversations.
277–288 in Religion and the People.Edited by James
After Dee’s death, these came to light in a number of
Obelkevich. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
manuscripts. Some, which had been buried in a fie l d ,
Monter, E. William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland:
were published by Meric Casaubon in 1659 under the
The Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY, and
title, A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for
London: Cornell University Press.
Many Years between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of
Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness.London: Hamish
Hamilton. Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reigns) and
Soman, Alfred. 1978. “The Parlement of Paris and the Great Some Spirits.Then more papers came to light in a pri-
Witch Hunt (1565–1640).” Sixteenth Ce n t u ry Jo u rnal 9: 31–44. vate house. A maid used these to line pie dishes and
———. 1989. “Decriminalizing Witchcraft: Does the French start fires until, in 1672, the papers came to the notice
Experience Furnish a European Model?” Criminal Justice of Elias Ashmole, who transcribed but did not publish
History10: 1–22. what remained.
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.New
In 1547, Dee became a founding Fe l l ow of Tr i n i t y
York: Scribner’s.
College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics, a
Várkonyi, Agnes. 1991–1992. “Connections Between the
subject often associated with magic. On one occasion,
Cessation of Witch Trials and the Transformation of the Social
he astonished the audience of a Greek play with a
Structure Related to Medicine.” ActaEthnographica
re m a rkable automaton that seemed to leap from the
37: 426–471.
stage and fly in the air. Later he traveled considerably in
Dee, John (1527–1608/1609) Eu rope, where Ge r a rd Me rcator taught him much
En g l a n d’s most famous magician, Dee was a scholar about cartography and navigation. Bringing this innov-
with an international reputation, and is now best know n ative knowledge back to England, he materially assisted
for his detailed re c o rd of the conversations he had with the search for the Northwest Passage. From a decade of
angelic or spirit beings via a number of mediums extensive traveling, he assembled one of the finest per-
b e t ween December 1581 and 1588. These sessions pro- sonal libraries in Eu rope, only to have some of his
duced a number of books that transmitted an angelic pupils and their associates loot it during his later
alphabet (later called Enochian), the language suppos- absence. He and Kelley shared an interest in alchemy.
edly spoken by angels. They also provided instru c t i o n s Emperor Rudolf II, whose court attracted a great num-
for making various pieces of magical apparatus, includ- ber of practitioners of eve ry occult science, invited
ing the elaborate table that supported De e’s crystal ball, them to Prague in 1584. There Dee and Kelley contin-
the medium wherein his mediums both saw and heard ued their work with the crystal, which now showed a
the spirits. The pro c e d u re for scrying was that Dee and series of alchemical visions. The spirits also transmitted
his medium would re t i re to a private room where the a number of doom-laden messages that left Dee both
c rystal was set up. After praying for divine pro t e c t i o n , frightened and despondent. A personal meeting with
Dee would sit in a corner with pen and paper, ready to the emperor went badly. Dee was suspected of being a
re c o rd the medium’s answers to his questions. Kneeling spy, and so had to resume his travels. For a while, Kelley
b e f o re the crystal, the medium proceeded to re p o rt conducted alchemical operations alone, until he too fell
w h a t e ver he saw and heard therein, with Dee asking f rom favo r, was imprisoned, and finally disappeare d .
s u p p l e m e n t a ry questions as necessary. These sessions After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Dee failed to
could be ve ry long, and might be re n ewed day after day attract her successor’s patronage, and died in re l a t i ve
for a protracted period. Those spirits who appeared in poverty and obscurity.
the crystal included the archangels Uriel, Michael, and
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
Raphael (“Medicine of Go d”), and an extraord i n a ry
spirit in the guise of a playful little girl called Ma d i m i , See also: ALCHEMY;ANGELS;CASAUBON,MERIC;MAGIC,LEARNED;
whose moods we re subject to terrifying change. SCRYING.
The contents of De e’s spirit re c o rd re veal a deep References and further reading:
commitment to his own personal religious deve l o p- Clulee, N.H. 1988. John Dee’s Natural Philosophy.London:
Routledge.
ment, unflagging intellectual curiosity about the hid-
French, P.J. 1972. John Dee.The World of an Elizabethan Magus.
den secrets of creation, and an obsessive desire to
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
understand them in order to use them for the better-
Harkness, D.E. 1999. John Dee’s Conversations with Angels.
ment of humanity. Because he was generally unable to
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
hear or see the spirits, Dee was obliged to depend on a
Turner, R. 1989. Elizabethan Magic.Longmead: Element Books.
series of mediums, of whom the most gifted and Woolley, B. 2001. The Queen’s Conjuror: The Science and Magic of
u n s c rupulous was Ed w a rd Ke l l e y, also known as Dr. Dee.London: Harper Collins.
254 Dee, John |
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Defixiones teers; trade curses, the Athenian curses restraining rival
Defixiones is the Latin name for ancient “binding curs- shopkeepers and prostitutes being notable here; and
es” or the “curse tablets” that contained them, the par- e rotic curses, which either restrained the powers of
allel Greek term being katadesmoi. These curses were attraction of rivals in love (“separation curses”), or con-
typically scratched on small, thin sheets of lead (lamel- strained the object of the curse-maker’s desire to surren-
lae) that were then folded or rolled up tightly, pierced der to his or (less frequently) her desire (“a t t r a c t i o n
with nails in a “sympathetic” gesture of binding or con- c u r s e s”). The language used in these curses could be
fusion, and entrusted to the dead for enactment. The sexually crude. A fifth and more distinctive variety con-
earliest known examples, ca. 500 B.C.E. come from sists of “p r a yers for justice,” which often, but not
Selinus in Si c i l y, but they eventually flo u r i s h e d always, used the explicit language of binding. T h e s e
throughout the Greco-Roman world until the end of tablets, usually addressed to deities, sought re venge or
antiquity and indeed beyond. restitution for some wrong, usually stolen pro p e rt y. A
Up to 2,000 examples have now been discove re d , large cache of such tablets has been retrieved from the
mostly written in Greek. The earlier ones, and the sacred spring of Sulis Minerva at Bath.
majority of them, consist of little more than lists of Fi g u r a t i ve equivalents of the tablets are found in
names, with or without adding such phrases as “I bind” k o l o s s o i , the ancient name for voodoo dolls, alre a d y
or “I register.” By late antiquity, some tablets contained being made in the Archaic period. Some thirt y - e i g h t
elaborate, extensive, and re p e t i t i ve texts. T h e s e groups of these have been discovered over a geographi-
i n voked, ghosts aside, a syncretistic range of gods and cal spread roughly similar to that of the curse tablets.
demons with names of Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, Ne a r The dolls express the act of binding or confusion in
Eastern, or indeterminate origin. Some also appealed to their configuration: They may be bound hand and foot;
voces magicae(words of power), not always easily distin- they may be shut in tiny coffins; their limbs may be
guishable from demon names. The inherent magical twisted; they may be mutilated, for example by decapi-
p ower of writing and letters was freely exploited: tation, or transfixed by nails.
Written lines or individual words or names could be
DANIEL OGDEN
re versed or confused in various ways, for sympathetic
effect upon the victim; tablets we re decorated with See also: AMULETANDTALISMAN;GHOSTS;GREEKMAGICALPAPYRI;
s q u a res or triangles composed of vowels, with palin- WORDS,POWEROF.
References and further reading:
dromes, or with “what are called” the “Characters,” let-
Faraone, Christopher A. 1991. “Binding and Burying the Forces
ter-like symbols. Tablets could be illustrated with
of Evil: The Defensive Use of ‘Voodoo’ Dolls in Ancient
appropriate images, such as bound corpses.
Greece.” Classical Antiquity10: 165–205.
Once manufactured, the tablets we re activa t e d
———. 1991. “The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding
through deposition, usually in a grave, and sometimes
Spells.” Pp. 3–32 in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and
they we re actually placed in the corpse’s right hand. Religion.Edited by Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink.
Ot h e rwise they could be deposited in sanctuaries of NewYork: Oxford University Press.
u n d e rworld gods, Demeter in part i c u l a r, or in springs Gager, John G. 1992. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the
that could carry the tablet down to the underw o r l d . Ancient World.NewYork: Oxford University Press.
So m e t i m e s ghosts we re asked to carry out the act of Jordan, David R. 1985. “A Survey of Greek Defixiones Not
restraint themselves, appro p r i a t e l y, since any contact Included in the Special Corpora.” Greek, Roman and Byzantine
Studies26: 151–197.
with them could be “deadening”; sometimes they were
Ogden, Daniel. 1999. “Binding Spells: Curse Tablets and Voodoo
asked to act as messengers and to convey the curse
Dolls in the Greek and Roman Worlds.” Pp. 1–90 in
request to the underworld powers; at other times the
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome.
dead were used in a sympathetic fashion, exemplifying
Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark.London: Athlone.
the condition that the curser wished to inflict upon the
Tomlin, Roger S.O. 1988. “The Curse Tablets.” Pp. 59–277 in
victim. The removal of a tablet from its place of deposi- The Finds from the Sa c red Sp r i n g .Vol. 2 of The Temple of Su l i s
tion deactivated the spell. Victims could resist spells by Mi n e rva at Ba t h .Edited by Ba r ry Cunliffe. OUCA monograph
wearing protective amulets or even place a binding spell n o. 16. Oxford: Oxford Un i versity Committee for Arc h a e o l o g y.
of their own on the troubling curse. Also published separately (but pre s e rving original pagination) as
Most of the extant curses that we can decipher may be Tabellae Sulis: Roman Inscribed Tablets of Tin and Lead from the
c l a s s i fied into five broad types. Four of them are “a g o n i s- Sa c red Spring at Ba t h .Fascicule 1 of OUCA monograph no. 16.
tic,” deriving from situations of social competition.
Defoe, Daniel (1660–1731)
The agonistic curses include litigation curses, which
typically sought to bind the tongues of legal opponents Defoe’s three book-length studies of the supernatural—
in trials; sports and choral curses, designed to re s t r a i n The Political History of the Devil, A System of Magick,
r i val competitors, notably, in the Roman era, chario- and An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions,
Defoe, Daniel 255 |
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all printed in 1726 and 1727—all contained some dis- w i t c h’s powers and was unlikely to have been Sa m u e l
cussion of witchcraft. His works reveal a mixture of himself. As he remarked in his System of Magick,the sin
skepticism and belief of the kind typical among people of witches lay in “the Sin against Reason, against com-
living in England during the Enlightenment who con- mon Sense, the Ingratitude to their Ma k e r, the open
tinued to believe in biblical teachings. During the same Insult of Heaven, the Venture of provoking that Being
years he published these books on the occult, Defoe was whose Power it insults” (240). He defined a witch in his
also writing books on social and economic problems in journal, the Review of the Affairs of France, No. 90 (20
England; but he was disturbed by the attacks upon tra- October 1711), as “One in Covenant with the De v i l ,
ditional Christian doctrine by such deists as John and uses his help to deceive or hurt others.” Yet even in
Toland and Anthony Collins. The main concern of this serious reply to a question about contemporary
Defoe’s works, then, was a defense of the spiritual and books on witchcraft, he could not avoid treating the
of the existence of a spirit world. The title of Defoe’s subject with some mockery, applying the term “witch”
book on apparitions was changed to The Secrets of the to his political enemies.
Invisible World Disclos’d when it was reissued in 1728. De f o e’s three books on the supernatural we re ve ry
Defoe was primarily interested in witches and witch- p o p u l a r, each going into a number of editions during
craft as part of a larger system involving good and bad the eighteenth century. Two major nineteenth-century
spirits, which he defended in opposition to the com- English novelists, Charles Dickens and George El i o t ,
pletely materialistic notions of some deists. each drew upon The Political Hi s t o ry of the De v i l in a
When writing in his Enlightenment mode, De f o e variety of ways.
maintained that elderly women were often attacked as
MAXIMILLIAN E. NOVAK
witches by those trying to rid the community of them
or by those seeking personal advantage. He found such See also: ENDOR,WITCHOF;ENLIGHTENMENT;SKEPTICISM.
behavior despicable, re m a rking that merely being a References and further reading:
Backscheider, Paula 1989. Daniel Defoe: His Life.Baltimore: Johns
w i d ow over fif t y - five was to invite charges of being a
Hopkins University Press.
witch. He also exposed the hoaxes of those pretending
Baine, Rodney. 1968. Daniel Defoe and the Supernatural.Athens:
to be practicing magic and ridiculed the gullibility of
University of Georgia Press.
their customers. Defoe argued that the Devil, with
Defoe, Daniel. 1727. An Essay on the History and Reality of
whom witches supposedly dealt, was actually an invisi-
Apparitions.London: J. Roberts.
ble evil spirit, a powerful force operating in the world. ———. 1726. The Political History of the Devil.London: T.
He mocked the iconography surrounding witchcraft, Warner.
f rom broomsticks to spells, as mere nonsense, and ———. 1726 [1727]. A System of Magick.London: J. Roberts.
derided the notion that witches have any real power to ———. 1938. A Review of the Affairs of France.Edited by Arthur
f o resee the future. Instead, according to Defoe, they W. Secord. 22 vols. NewYork: Columbia University Press.
were men and women obeying corrupt and evil impuls- ———. 2003. The Political History of the Devil.Edited by Irving
N. Rothman and R. Michael Bowerman. NewYork: AMS
es within themselves to call upon the Devil. Always
Press.
willing to encourage wickedness, the Devil deluded
Novak, Maximillian. 1987. “Defoe, the Occult, and the Deist
them into believing they possessed powers that they did
Offensive During the Reign of George I.” Pp. 93–108 in
not have. Thus Defoe believed that there was a core of
Deism, Masonry, and the Enlightenment.Edited by Leo Lemay.
t ruth in the confessions of the Salem witches. At the
Newark: University of Delaware Press.
same time, he saw that the method of obtaining evi-
dence against the supposed witches was faulty and Del Rio, Martín (1551–1608)
doubted the motivations of those making such accusa- Del Rio was a Jesuit scholar who wrote one of the most
tions. Examining the various methods of detecting a i n fluential treatises on magic and witchcraft, the
witch in The Political Hi s t o ry of the De v i l , such as Disquisitiones Magicae libri sex ( Six Books on
throwing the person in a pond to see if she would sink In vestigations into Magic). It was divided into six books,
or swim or seeing if she was able to enter or depart from which we re first published in three parts between 1599
a house with a horseshoe over the door, Defoe called and 1600 and frequently reprinted there a f t e r. Book 1 dis-
such processes “mock Pageantry” and “too simple to be cussed what was meant by “superstition,” the va r i o u s
believ’d” (Defoe 2003, 240). branches of magic (including divination), and alchemy,
Nevertheless, he found irrefutable evidence of witch- which Del Rio treated with caution but did not dismiss
craft’s existence in the ancient world in biblical passages out of hand. Book 2 investigated the type of magic
warning against witchcraft, such as Leviticus 19:31 and i n volving evil spirits, and answe red such questions as how
2 Chronicles 33:6; in the story of the witch of Endor (1 far magicians we re bound by the laws of nature; whether
Sam. 28:7–25), he believed there was sufficient proof of sexual intercourse with spirits was possible, and if so,
h ow witchcraft was practiced, even if he thought that whether it could produce offspring or not; and whether
the spirit was not really conjured up for Saul by the evil spirits could actually cause the dead to appear to the
256 Del Rio, Martín |
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living. Book 3 had two parts. The first dealt with harmful Austria, he decided to enter the Society of Jesus.
magic—this was where Del Rio started to discuss witches Returning to Spain, he became a novice in the Jesuit
in part i c u l a r, along with people under the control of evil house in Valladolid on May 9, 1580. Thereafter, for the
spirits—and the second described an enormous variety of rest of his life, the society sent him to teach in various
superstitious practices. Book 4 re v i ewed prophecy and universities: Douai, Liège, Louvain (where he took his
divination, along with the various ways of discovering a final vows in 1600), Graz, and Mainz. During this
p e r s o n’s guilt or innocence in relation to a part i c u l a r time, he published extensively, mainly works of theolo-
accusation. He re Del Rio criticized the practice of swim- gy or commentaries, although he also produced two
ming suspected witches (the swimming test, or water histories, one of them a re v i ew of recent events in the
o rdeal) to determine whether they sink (innocent)or flo a t Spanish Netherlands. He died in Louvain on Oc t o b e r
( g u i l t y ) . 18, 1608, after a long and exhausting journey back
Book 5 provided detailed advice for judges presiding from Spain.
over trials for maleficent magic. Del Rio re v i ewed the
types of proof required to reach a verdict, and the strict Reasons for Writing the
rules governing the application of tort u re. He re he Investigations
s t ressed the link between heresy and magic and noted His huge work on magic and witchcraft and other
that the crimes imputed to witches must not be regard- occult sciences was not typical of his oeuvre, so it is not
ed as fantasies. Book 6 gave similarly detailed advice to easy to say why he investigated the subject and expend-
confessors, and described the ways in which suspect ed so much effort and learning upon it. One reason
witches tried to elude confessing their practices, and the probably had to do with the fact that western Europe
different remedies that may be used to counter malefi- was riven by theological disputes that both fueled and
cent magic. The book thus provided a complete review stimulated territorial wars. Both Catholic and
of the subject matter, and on its publication Del Rio Protestant witchcraft treatises played a notable role in
quickly became an acknowledged expert on witches and the attendant intellectual bellicosity, and, throughout
their treatment, called on, for example, to give his opin- his Investigations, Del Rio emphasized that magic was
ion during learned controversies in Ba varia in closely allied to heresy. So through this work, Del Rio
1601–1602 about the appropriate legal treatment of was making a major polemical contribution to the reli-
witches. After the book’s publication, Del Rio took gious controversies of the late sixteenth century. During
g reat pains to revise it and bring it up to date. the 1590s, we find him discussing the Kabbalah with
C o n s e q u e n t l y, it had increased considerably in length Jean van Helmont, and his interest in magic probably
by the time he died. received a major fillip from the notorious case of Jean
del Vaulx, a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of
Biography Stavelot, who in 1597 confessed to a relationship with
Del Rio was born in Antwerp in what was then the the Devil and a career in maleficent magic stretching
Spanish Netherlands on May 17, 1551, to a Castilian back almost the whole of his lifetime. Del Rio had
father and an Aragonese mother. His family was rich, access to the voluminous material produced by this trial
privileged, and influential. Martín received an excellent and was able to discuss both this and other cases with
education at Paris, Louvain, and Salamanca under some one of the judges, Pierre Dheure, to whom he referred
of the best teachers of the day, during the course of more than once in the Investigations.
which he mastered several languages, including Greek,
Latin, and Hebrew. His contemporary, the Belgian Del Rio’s Views of Witches and
scholar Justus Lipsius, hailed him as one of the orna- Possessed Persons
ments of their time. His first published books, com- Del Rio has often been regarded as a credulous bigot,
mentaries on such classical authors as Seneca, Solinus, but his attitude to all the occult sciences was actually
and Claudian, demonstrated his immense erudition. In quite sophisticated, although his opinions on witches
1574, he obtained his doctorate from the University of were somewhat more traditional. All magic, he said,
Salamanca; he tells us that he came into contact with depended on a pact made between a human being and
popular magic during these years in Spain, and his an evil spirit. The notion, propagated by many Catholic
Investigations contained several examples from this per- and Protestant writers, that the witches’ flight to the
sonal experience. His personal curiosity may have been Sabbat was an illusion was false; they really did anoint
stimulated even earlier by the Jesuit Juan Maldonado’s themselves beforehand and fly there. On the other
influential lectures, which Del Rio heard while he was hand, they did not really change their shapes. Any such
a student in Paris, and reinforced in Salamanca. He transformations were the results of Satan’s deceptive
then returned to the Spanish Netherlands, but after a tricks, and in consequence, phenomena such as
few years spent as councilor, then as governor-general lycanthropy had to be regarded as pure illusions. Once
and vice-chancellor of Brabant under Don Juan of the witches arrived at their Sabbat, they found Satan
Del Rio, Martín 257 |
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presiding in animal form. They worshiped him in per- Della Porta, Giambattista
verse and blasphemous fashion, often parodying the (ca. 1535–1615)
Mass, after which they banqueted (sometimes wearing A Neapolitan and skeptical physician, Della Porta, in
masks), then danced before copulating with evil spirits. 1558, dedicated his book on natural magic, Magiae
Each witch gave an account to Satan of the evil he or naturalis, sive de miraculis rerum naturalium libri IIII
she had done since the last convention. If the Devil was (On Natural Magic, or Four Books on the Miracles of
not satisfied, he beat them fearsomely.Then he distrib- Natural Things), in which he reported a famous exper-
uted powders and poisonous substances to enable them iment performed with a woman considered to be a
to carry out further harm in their communities. These witch, to the Spanish King Philip II. It was the start of
substances, however, were not the only means whereby a brilliant career: Della Porta became one of Europe’s
a witch might perform maleficent magic. Some also most influential and frequently cited natural magicians.
used herbs and ointments; and a witch’s poisonous He was a nonconformist who clearly found traditional
breath or even her words alone might be sufficient for Aristotelian theory unsatisfactory and substituted a
her malevolent purposes. dualism for its four elements. Della Porta’s notion, cen-
Del Rio asserted that witches could be arrested even in tral to the whole natural magical tradition, was that all
c h u rch because their crime was so serious. But Sa t a n natural effects proceeded from either attraction (“sym-
could help them in prison, so precautions had to be tak- pathy”) or repulsion (“antipathy”) (Clark 1997, 47).
en and the accused brought to a speedy trial, although In his Magiae natura l i s , Della Po rta tried to re s t o re
authorities had to be careful to avoid wro n gful arrest and the significance of magic. It had no demonic origin, but
imprisonment. Those found innocent of the charges had instead offered an opportunity to explain the hidden
to be acquitted. A plea of delusion, howe ve r, was no re a l causes of natural effects, knowledge underlying all
defense; judges must bear in mind that witches we re not scientific research. Natural magic thus became naturalis
often deceived about the reality of their experiences. philosophiae consummatio (the consummation of
Confessors we re forbidden to re veal any admission of natural philosophy), the highest level of human
witchcraft they had heard during confession, unless they k n owledge of natural effects. A magician connected
had the penitent’s permission to do so or had also come such knowledge with the ability to reproduce observed
by the information via another route. Physical signs of phenomena.
witchcraft, such as jars, ligatures, keys, feathers, and so Chapter 26 of Book 2 of Della Po rt a’s first edition
f o rth, ought to be destroyed in order to undo the malefi- re p o rted his notorious experiment testing the belief that
cence of the magic. Because people possessed by evil spir- witches induced flight by smearing themselves with an
its exhibited physical signs, confessors we re to learn fro m unguent. He hired a we l l - k n own witch who pro m i s e d
physicians how to re c o g n i ze them. Exo rcism would be him information about her Sabbats. She turned eve ry-
successful in expelling evil spirits from the possessed, but one out of the room, but he watched through the crack
it might take time to work. Confessors we re to advise of the door. He saw her strip herself naked and anoint
their penitents to steer clear of all forms of magic, herself thoro u g h l y, first rubbing her skin until it was re d ,
because these we re potentially ve ry dangero u s . to open the pores, and then vigorously rubbing in the
ointment. The somniferous drugs threw her into a deep
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART s l e e p, from which she could not be aroused even by
whipping. After regaining consciousness, she recited a
See also: DEMONOLOGY;DEVIL;DIVINATION;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;
long tale about crossing mountains and seas. Ac c o rd i n g
MALDONADO,JUAN;MALEFICIUM;SABBAT;SWIMMINGTEST.
to Della Po rta, her insistence on having traveled to a
References and further reading:
Sabbat proved that only dream experiences had actually
C a ro Ba roja, Ju l i o. 1968. “Ma rtín del Rio y sus Disquisiciones mág-
o c c u r re d — d reams produced entirely by the natural
icas.” Pp. 171–196 and 237–245 in El señor Inquisidor y otra s
vidas per ofic i o. Edited by Julio Caro Ba roja. Madrid: Alanza. i n g redients in her ointment, abetted by the fact that
Dell’Anna, G. 1978. “L’interpretazione della stregoneria in Vanini such women ate only vegetable food such as beets, chest-
e Del Rio.” Bollettino di storia della filosofia6: 79–118. nuts, or greens. Della Po rta provided the formulas for
Maxwell-Stuart, P.G., ed. 2000. Martín Del Rio: Investigations into her ointment: Its active ingredients, mixed with infants’
Magic. Manchester: Manchester University Press. fat, included aconite, e l e o s e l n i u m , f rondes populneae,
Nagel, Petra. 1995. Die Bedeutung der “Disquisitionum magicarum soot, p e n t a p h y l l o n ,b a t’s blood, and belladonna.
libri sex” von Martin Delrio für das Verfahren in Hexenprozessen.
Reactions to this passage, spread all over Europe by
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
sixteen editions in Latin, twenty in French, and two in
Shumaker,Wayne. 1989. Natural Magic and Modern Science: Four
Dutch, we re seve re. The skeptical German physician
Treatises, 1590–1657. Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval
Johann Weyer cited it in its entirety in his De praestigiis
and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of NewYork at
daemonum ( On the Tricks of Devils, 1563) and in his
Binghamton.
Thomas, W. 1998. “Martín Delrío and Justus Lipsius.” Bulletin de De lamiis(OnWitches, 1577). A more typical response
l’Institut historique belge de Rome68: 45–66. came from the French demonologist Jean Bodin, who
258 Della Porta, Giambattista |
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called Della Porta a venomous magician and an instiga- lifted in 1598 almost guaranteed him peace in his
tor of popular witchcraft in Chapter II of Book 2 in De remaining years. As a lay brother of the Jesuits and a
la démonomanie des sorc i e r s ( On the De m o n - Mania of member of the Roman Accademia dei Lincei, he focused
Witches, 1580). Della Porta soon removed the famous in his last years on comedies, military engineering, and
passage from his Italian editions. Nevertheless, he expe- a g r i c u l t u re, and he also perfected the camera obscura.
rienced difficulties with the Inquisition; the Neapolitan
DRIES VANYSACKER
tribunal questioned him in 1586 about his astronomi-
cal judgements. See also:BODINJEAN;DRUGSANDHALLUCINOGENS;FLIGHTOF
Della Po rta worked for more than thirty years on a WITCHES;MAGIC,NATURAL;OINTMENTS;SYMPATHY;WEYER,
revised and extended version, which finally appeared in
JOHANN.
References and further reading:
1589. His new Magiae natura l i s ( On Natural Ma g i c ) ,
Bonomo, Giuseppe. 1959. Caccia alle streghe: La credenza nelle
in twenty books, concentrated on the origin of natural
streghe dal secolo XIII al XIX con particolare riferimento all’Italia.
effects. Its goal was to bring the magic tradition to the
Palermo: G.B. Palumbo.
same level as science. Optics (Book 17) and magnetism
Bosco, Giovanna. 1994. “Giovan Battista Della Porta
(Book 7) received elaborate attention; the work consti- (1535?–1615).” Pp. 141–143 inBibliotheca Lamiarum.
tuted an encyclopedia of knowledge, including botany, Documenti e immagini della stregoneria dal Medioevo all’Età
zoology, physics, chemistry, and alchemy. Its introduc- Moderna.Ospedaletto: Pacini.
tion refuted Bodin without naming him (referring to Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
Gallus quidam,a certain Frenchman). in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
Della Porta subsequently prepared a third edition of Davis, Scott L. “Omar. Giambattista Della Porta: Natural Magick
(Magiae naturalis).” http://homepages.tscnet.com/omard1/
his book. Hoping to avoid censorship, he dedicated it
jportat4.html
to Cardinal Federico Borromeo; but after the
Della Porta, Giambattista. 1558.Magiae naturalis, sive de miraculis
Congregation of the Index reviewed it, only three of its
rerum naturalium libri IIII.Naples: Mattia Cancro.
e l e ven projected books ever appeared: Book 4, Li b e r
Eamon, William. 1994. Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of
medicus (Medical Book), containing a list of remedies,
Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture.Princeton, NJ:
mostly based on organic medicines, against all kinds of Princeton University Press.
diseases; Book 5, Cr i p t o l o g i a ( Cryptography), describ- Thorndike, Lynn. 1941. A History of Magic and Experimental
ing ceremonial magic empowered by demonic interven- Science.Vol. 6. NewYork: Columbia University Press.
tion; and Book 6, De mirabili numerorum potestate(On Zaccaria, R. 1989. “Della Porta, Giovambattista.” Pp. 170–179 in
the Wo n d rous Power of Numbers), about the quality Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.Vol. 3. Rome: Società
and magical virtues of numbers in architecture, agricul- Grafica Romana.
ture, music, optics, and astronomy.
For the rest of his life Della Porta struggled with the Demonology
Inquisition to gain approval for the publication of his Demonology is the name given today to the field of
books. In 1592, when he tried to publish an Italian edi- k n owledge dealing with the demonic aspects of witchcraft
tion of his work on human physiognomy, the and other practices forbidden by early modern
Inquisition stepped in. On orders from the Holy Office C h r i s t i a n i t y. Mo re bro a d l y, demonology concerns itself
in Rome, the Venetian Inquisition halted the work’s with all forms and expressions of demonism and is thus as
publication and forbade Della Po rta, under pain of old as the concept of Satan. Mo re broadly still, it evo k e s
excommunicaiton and a fine of 500 ducats, to publish any attempt to denigrate opposition or stigmatize
anything without the express permission of the Roman deviance by presenting these as the worst forms of evil.
High Tribunal. Della Po rta maintained that, because Demonology had an important role in early Christian
demonic forces are natural, it is legitimate to investigate and medieval theological and ecclesiastical thought, for
and even employ them, as long as one avoids the rituals example in the writings of St. Augustine and St. T h o m a s
adjoined to them. He believed that his re s e a rch pro- Aquinas. But it flourished in particular from the fif t e e n t h
gram would lead to a smashing of superstitions, not by to the eighteenth centuries, alongside the witchcraft trials.
persecution but by exploding the false beliefs surround- Classically, this field of study gave rise to “demonolo-
ing the real, natural phenomena. The most convincing gies,” works that explored and debated the complexities
way to expose the fraud of demons, thought De l l a of witchcraft and allied subjects in a systematic and the-
Po rta, was to discover the natural truth behind the o retical manner, providing guidance concerning what
superstitions of popular magic and to demonstrate and what not to believe about them. Did witches have
these by producing marvels naturally. Obviously, such a powers over the weather? Could they cause diseases and
radical position on diabolism could never gain the sexual impotence? Could they transform others or be
Church’s approval. transformed into animals? We re they physically
But Della Po rt a’s advancing age, great fame, and obv i- transported to their Sabbats, and were these real events?
ous willingness to obey the Inquisition after the ban was How did demons assume human shape and act as
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incubi or succubi? Could pro c reation take place (Treatise on Witches), written around 1510. T h e
b e t ween demons and witches? Could demons and Franciscan Samuel de Cassini and the Do m i n i c a n
witches predict the future? These were the sorts of spe- Vincente Dodo clashed over the canon’s implications in
c i fic questions that we re standard concerns in early the first decade of the sixteenth century, and another
modern demonology, alongside more general questions c ycle to the debate occurred in the 1520s invo l v i n g
about why witchcraft was so pre valent and what the Paolo Grillando, who argued that Sabbats and Sa b b a t
c h u rches and secular rulers of the period—as well as attendance were real and not the product of dreams and
private individuals—ought to do about it. illusions, and Gi ovanni Francesco (Gi a n f r a n c e s c o )
The authors of this literature are now often called Ponzinibio, who took the opposite view.
“demonologists,” but it is much more useful to think of
them as theologians and churchmen, philosophers and The Peak Period
moralists, lawyers and physicians—in other words, as From the 1560s onward, the literature of witchcraft
intellectuals representing various disciplines and profes- entered a fresh phase. In the first place, skepticism
sions. When they wrote about witchcraft, they drew on regarding the reality of the crime became even more
the usual intellectual resources of the world of learning, systematic. To the reservations based on the Canon
especially its methods of discussion, and re flected its Episcopi, the sixteenth century added various forms of
c o n t e m p o r a ry preoccupations. De m o n o g ra p h e r was a more general doubt regarding witchcraft drawn from
term known in the seventeenth century (it was used in the writings of the philosopher Pietro Pomponazzi
a hostile sense by Gabriel Naudé), but it is too restric- (notably his De naturalium effectuum causis, sive de
tive to limit demonology to specialists. Witchcraft was incantationibus [On the Causes of Natural Effects, or of
discussed in far too many diverse contexts for Incantations], 1556), the Italian lawyer Andrea Alciati,
demonology to be limited to one kind of writer or one the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus, and the
kind of writing. French skeptic Michel de Montaigne. With the publi-
cation of the first version of Johann Weyer’s De praes-
Early Writings tigiis daemonum (On the Tricks of Devils) in 1563,
The history of early modern demonology is partly one early modern skepticism about witchcraft found its first
of how texts and their contents evolved over time. major voice. And twenty years later, a member of the
Textual accounts of witchcraft as a devil-worshipping Kentish farming gentry in England, Reginald Scot,
cult began to appear from the 1430s. In them, witches took witchcraft skepticism even further by picking up
were definitively associated with ritual dedication to Pomponazzi’s arguments and giving demons no agency
Satan, the practice of infanticide and anthropophagy, whatsoever in the physical world.
the destruction of Christian society, and attendance at Second, there was the publication and republication
Sabbats. Single works on demonology multiplied from of a far greater number of texts asserting the general
this point onwards, with titles like Lamiarum sive reality of the crime and the need to eradicate it fro m
St r i a rum Op u s c u l u m (A Brief Wo rk on Lamia or Eu ropean society. Such claims we re still not always
Witches), Flagellum Maleficorum (The Lash Against made uncritically; on the contrary, most authors opted
Those Who Commit Maleficia), Quaestio de Strigis(An for a middle ground between accepting too much and
Investigation of Witches), and Malleus Maleficarum accepting too little. For example, they rejected aspects
(The Hammer of Witches)—titles that indicate the of witchcraft that contravened theological or natural
development of a genre. From the outset, witchcraft philosophical rules, aspects such as metamorphosis,
was regarded as a controversial and difficult topic, miscegenation, and the physical efficacy of curses. Even
about which many reservations and doubts might be so, this still left plenty of scope for witch hating.
expressed. Intellectuals invariably struggled to come to The best-known group of writings of this period
terms with it, and even those who came to accept its comprised the books published by magistrates or judges
reality always knew that there were serious objections in witchcraft trials, who wished to pass on their experi-
that had to be overcome. ences and re flections to their legal colleagues and the
Commonest of all were discussions of the tenth-cen- reading public. From the French-speaking lands—
tury capitulary, the Canon Episcopi, which appeared to based on trials in the duchy of Lorraine, in Burgundy,
suggest that witchcraft was based on a demonic dream. and in Labourd (the French Basque country), re s p e c-
If the canon applied to the new fifteenth-century witch- t i vely—came monographs by Nicolas Rémy, He n r i
es as much as to earlier ones, it made their crimes illu- Boguet, and Pierre de Lancre. These texts offered the by
sory; but if the latest sect was unlike the previous ones, n ow standard arguments concerning the full range of
then the text could be disregarded. Questions like these witchcraft issues—the act of apostasy, the powers
we re frequently asked in the period between Jo h a n n e s of demons and spirits, m a l e fic i u m (harmful magic),
Nider’s Formicarius (The Anthill), dating from around travel to the Sabbat and its ceremonies, banquets, and
1437, and Be r n a rdo of Como’s Tractatus de St r i g i b u s dances, sexual dealings between witches and devils, the
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possibility of metamorphosis, and so on—while con- Many of Weyer’s arguments were endorsed in Germany
stantly citing individual cases purporting to come from in the 1580s and 1590s, especially by Johann Georg
the judicial arc h i ves. Even the legally trained Je a n Goedelmann, a law professor at Rostock, whose lec-
Bodin, who had little experience with any actual trials tures on witchcraft appeared in 1591 as Tractatus de
and whose demonology was vastly more abstract and magis, veneficis et lamiis deque his recte cognoscendis et
philosophical, opened his De la démonomanie des puniendis (A Treatise on Magicians, Poisoners, and
sorciers (On the Demon-Mania of Witches, 1580) with Witches and How Properly to Identify and Punish
the case of Jeanne Harvillier, executed at Ribemont in Them). In Trier in 1593, Cornelius Loos, a Catholic
1578. The largely unoriginal demonology published by priest and theologian who sympathized with Weyer,
James VI of Scotland in 1597 falls into the same cate- was also forced to recant what seems to have been a
gory, originating in trials in Edinburgh in 1590–1591. more extreme denial of the physical existence of devils.
Protestant and Catholic clerical reformers who saw Skepticism and opposition to witchcraft trials had
witchcraft through an evangelical and spiritualizing lens come to take a variety of forms by this stage, including
provided a further group of texts. In attempting to turn doubts about whether witchcraft was a crime for which
maleficium into a case of conscience, they played down any human agent could be held responsible. Criticism
the physical damage done by witches and saw their was directed at the evidence cited in support of the real-
crime much more as an act of apostasy, a crime of ity of witchcraft, including biblical texts in translation.
which those who practiced counter-witchcraft might be Ab ove all, the whole conduct of witchcraft inve s t i g a-
equally guilty. Protestant writers in particular, men like tions and trials came under attack, notably the use of
William Pe rkins and George Gi f f o rd in En g l a n d , torture. German opponents of witchcraft trials such as
thought that secular laws that stressed the doing of Adam Ta n n e r, Paul Laymann, Friedrich Spee vo n
harm by witchcraft we re, there f o re, wide of the mark . Langenfeld, and Johann Meyfart reflected these various
This attitude meant that, while they often lamented the issues in their demonological writings. Each paid at
vengefulness of witchcraft victims and pointed to legal least lip service to the possibility of witchcraft and thus
abuses and the convicting of innocent people, they of true convictions, while virtually ruling out guilty ver-
would undoubtedly have strengthened the witchcraft dicts as unjust in the present legal circumstances. Spee’s
legislation had they been able to. Cautio Criminalis seu de Processibus Contra Sa g a s ( A
In this sense, religious reform contributed to the Warning on Criminal Justice, or a Book on Wi t c h
belief in the reality of witchcraft and the pre s s u res to Trials), published anonymously in Rinteln in 1631, and
p rosecute it that developed from the 1560s onward s . Me y f a rt’s Christliche Er i n n e ru n g (A Christian
The many Catholic intellectuals who wrote on witch- Reminder), which appeared in Schleusingen in 1636,
craft included prominent bishops, like the two suffra- rank among the most passionate and eloquent denunci-
gans Peter Binsfeld of Tr i e r, whose demonology ations of excessive religious zeal and barbaric legal pro-
a p p e a red in 1589, and Friedrich Förner of Ba m b e r g , c e d u res from this period. These authors thought that
who published thirt y - five sermons on superstition, witchcraft trials, not witches, were demonic.
magic, and witchcraft in 1625, and several pro m i n e n t Outright demonological skepticism was much less
theologians, including Ma rtín de Azpilcueta, Gre g o ry clear-cut. It was much more difficult for critics to dis-
Sayer, and Francisco de Toledo. Among the orders, the tance themselves intellectually from ort h o d ox
Dominicans had been prominent among witchcraft demonology than to attack trial procedures and inves-
theorists from the beginning, but it was the Jesuits who t i g a t i ve techniques such as tort u re. If restricted to the
contributed most in this later period, Juan Maldonado, relative powers and responsibilities of witches and dev-
for example, and, above all, Martín Del Rio. Such men ils and the role played by trickery and delusion, the
we re absolutely central to the intellectual strategy and arguments could seldom be decisive, since no believe r
d i rection of the Counter-Reformation, and they saw in witchcraft ever thought witches themselves had
the spread of witchcraft throughout Eu rope as an occult powers or denied that they could be deceived. In
inevitable accompaniment of Protestant heresy. this way, negative arguments we re already anticipated
among the positive ones. The same was true of the nat-
Growing Skepticism uralistic alternatives proffered for witchcraft phenome-
The combined impact of all these publications must na. Because devils we re acknowledged by all to be
have been to encourage witchcraft prosecutions, or at inside nature and natural causation, to give a natural
least to justify and explain them. It is striking, for exam- explanation for witchcraft effects was not as damaging
ple, how the intensification of discussions of witchcraft as it might now seem. To get rid of devils altogether, or
in print from the 1560s onwards coincided with the at least remove their physical powers from the physical
opening of the key century of witchcraft trials. But if world, would certainly have delivered a knock out blow
intellectual disbelief in witchcraft seems more muted in to the acceptance of witchcraft; but such a step was far
this period, it was certainly still an important option. too radical for most to take, because it was perceived as
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opening the door to atheism. Ac ross the Eu ro p e a n help with legal technicalities directly from professional
intellectual community, the aphorism voiced by the manuals or indirectly from the legal faculties of neigh-
Englishman He n ry Mo re in 1653 held good thro u g h- boring universities in the form of what in Germany was
out the seventeenth century: “assuredly that Saying was called a g u t a c h t e n . Many other general forms of guid-
nothing so true in Politicks, No Bi s h o p, no King; as ance and advice could be found in demonologies,
this is in Metaphysicks, No Spirit, no Go d” (Mo re should judges and magistrates choose to consult them,
1653, 164). as, for example, they were invited to do by the English
Yet even if legal criticisms were easiest to mount and preacher Thomas Cooper or by Pierre Nodé in France.
most effective overall, notable individual attempts to For such reasons, modern historians have sometimes
s weep witchcraft beliefs away by restricting or re c o n- made demonology into one of the principal causes of
ceptualizing the powers of demons multiplied in this witchcraft prosecutions, believing that its pro file as a
final period too. In England, where Scot’s arguments scholarly genre rose and fell exactly as they did in seri-
fell into abeyance for about three quarters of a century, ousness and frequency.
they we re eventually taken up again by the physician Yet discussions of witchcraft in print also had a life
Thomas Ady in the 1650s, by the one-time re l i g i o u s that was independent of the trials. They flourished in
radical John Webster in the 1670s, and by Fr a n c i s some contexts—in the Dutch Republic in the 1690s or
Hutchinson in 1718. By 1691, when Balthasar Bekker in England on the eve of the repeal of the witchcraft
began publishing his complete repudiation of witch- legislation in 1736, for example—after pro s e c u t i o n s
craft, De Be t ove rde We e re l d (The World Bewitched), it had long since ceased. They appeared in texts such as
was possible for this Dutch Calvinist pastor to combine catechisms, guides to casuistry and the Te n
all the misgivings previously felt about miscarriages of Commandments, biblical commentaries, university dis-
justice and misreadings of texts with a radical s e rtations, medical textbooks, and works of political
demonology that left no place for a devil who made a theory, whose primary purpose had little or nothing to
mockery of Providence. The same was true of the total do with either encouraging or criticizing the legal
skepticism of the Prussian jurist Christian T h o m a s i u s , p rocess. And they we re written by authors, such as
whose De Crimine Ma g i a e ( On the Crime of Ma g i c ) Joseph Glanvill and Henry More in English philosoph-
a p p e a red in 1701. In a later work of 1712, his ical circles after the Restoration, who showed little
Historische Untersuchung vom Ur s p rung und Fo rt g a n g i n t e rest in apprehending and punishing witches.
des Inquisitions Pro ze s s e s ( Historical In vestigation into T h roughout Eu ropean natural philosophy, indeed,
the Origins and Continuation of the In q u i s i t o r i a l witchcraft excited a theoretical interest completely
Trial), Thomasius even went so far as to demolish the u n related to the practice of witch hunting.
very genre that was demonology by treating every one Acknowledging these discussions—not overlooking, for
of its canonical texts as critically unsound. example, that Thomas Hobbes entitled the last book of
L e v i a t h a n “ Da e m o n o l o g i e”—means locating
Trials and Texts demonology within its various intellectual contexts in a
The relationship between texts about witchcraft and more open-ended manner.
witchcraft trials remains elusive. It is easy to assume
that the texts were preoccupied by the need to justify Intellectual Contexts of
the prosecutions, and in the past demonology has been Demonology
read almost entirely from this direction, as if this was Demonology was in fact embedded in the broadest
the only interesting thing about it. Naturally, many intellectual and cultural developments of early modern
witchcraft texts did originate either in specific episodes Europe. A work like Del Rio’s ranged over a truly vast
or in waves of prosecutions, provoked by reflection on intellectual terrain that far transcended anything as
or the desire to defend what had occurred in the court- focused as a witchcraft trial. Educated beliefs about
room. The demonologies by magistrates who acted in witchcraft were not held in isolation but were depen-
trials are obvious examples, as are the writings of dent on other intellectual commitments, as well as on a
Binsfeld and Förner, intimately related to the “super whole series of social and institutional practices. This
hunts” in Trier and Franconia that they helped to coor- dependence was not just a matter of intellectual
dinate. Many adverse reactions to witch prosecutions, processes and styles of argument and scholarship—
like those of Scot, Goedelmann, Spee, and Filmer, arose rather, it was a matter of substance. Demonology was
l i k ewise in response to individual cases or longer linked conceptually to views about the workings of the
episodes of witch hunting that struck these critics as natural world and the human body, the course of divine
grossly unjust. and human history, and the nature of religious, politi-
T h e re are also numerous examples of individual cal, and legal authority. To accept witchcraft’s reality
witchcraft texts being brought into play during the was, broadly speaking, congruent with particular ways
course of prosecutions, most often when lawyers sought of looking at such questions, and incongruent with oth-
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ers. On many occasions, too, it seems that witchcraft Luke 8:26–33). This episode provided a scriptural basis
was used as a kind of intellectual resource—a means of for both the belief in demonic possession and the pos-
thinking through problems that originated in these sibility of ritual exo rcism. The medieval and
other areas of life and thought and had little or nothing postmedieval idea that hundreds or thousands of fiends
to do with the legal prosecution of witches. What molested many demoniacs obviously is backed by this
witchcraft scholars are currently looking for in example.
demonology has much to do with these various fea- The Interpretatio christiana(Christian interpretation)
tures, making it an unusually revealing guide to early changed the pantheon of classical antiquity into a coven
modern intellectual and cultural values in general. of demons. What that meant in the Middle Ages can be
learned by the poignant example of an antique sculp-
STUART CLARK
ture of the goddess Venus, chained in the church of St.
See also: BOOKS;CANONEPISCOPI;DEMONS;INCUBUSANDSUC- Ma t t h ew at Tr i e r, which was stoned ritually as a hea-
CUBUS;SKEPTICISM. then idol. Roman religion contributed only a few
References and further reading:
details to the picture of the demons, including some
Anglo, Sydney, ed. 1977. The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature
attributes of Faunus and a belief in incubi. Neither did
of Witchcraft.London: Routledge.
the Church hesitate to transform all Celtic and
Bostridge, Ian. 1997. Witchcraft and its Transformations,
Germanic deities into devils by the same mechanism.
c.1650–c.1750.Oxford: Clarendon.
Although the surv i val of the main heathen gods in
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. demonological disguise seems to have been rare, a
———. 2002. “Demonology.” Pp. 122–146 in The Period of the charm was used against the demons of the night in
Witch Trials.Vol. 4 of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and f o u rt e e n t h - c e n t u ry Silesia, naming Odin (Wo d a n ,
Magic in Europe.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. Wotan) and his army. Us u a l l y, the “little” goddesses,
London and Philadelphia: Athlone and University of imps, goblins, trolls, and similar creatures continued to
Pennsylvania Press. The present entry is based on this essay. play roles as helpers in popular belief. Only the instru-
Levack, Brian P., ed. 1992. The Literature of Witchcraft.Vol. 4 of
ment of the Interpretatio christiana equated them with
Articles on Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology.NewYork and
the lesser pagan deities of the Latin tradition and
London: Garland.
changed them into demons. The clergy characterize d
Maggi, Armando. 2001. Satan’s Rhetoric: A Study of Renaissance
them as such, whereas for the people they re m a i n e d
Demonology.Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
friendly beings, if treated corre c t l y. A good instance
More, Henry. 1653. An Antidote Against Atheisme.London.
Pearl, Jonathan. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and t h e reof was the cre a t u re called d y a b o l u s by Bro t h e r
Politics in France, 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Rudolph in his De officio cherubim (Concerning the
Laurier University Press. Duties of Cherubim, 1235/1250). This “devil,” who
Stephens, Walter. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the inhabited a privy, possessed a horse and a goshawk and
Crisis of Belief.Chicago and London: University of Chicago foretold their future suitors to local women in exchange
Press. for gifts and bathing.
Williams, Gerhild Scholz. 1995. Defining Dominion: Discourses of
In the Early Middle Ages, fear of such beings seems
Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern France and Germany.
to have formed a component primarily of monastic
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
s p i r i t u a l i t y. This changed during the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, when the example-stories of the
Demons p reachers, pious vernacular literature, and sculpture s
In Christianity, demons are malignant beings, usually and paintings of ecclesiastical art made the laity much
invisible, who try to induce the faithful to sin and after- more aware of the fiends’ actions and appearance. The
wards punish them eternally in hell. Though in the demoniacs were considered the best proof of their exis-
Latin sources diabolus and daemon were regularly used tence, as we know from the Cistercian Caesarius of
as synonyms, this essay will deal only with minor dev- Heisterbach, author of an influential collection of
ils, and not their overlord, Beelzebub, Lucifer, or Satan. e xempla (ca. 1220). In the Catholic Church, many
forms of mental illness were explained as possession by
A History of Demons evil spirits.
Several traditions united to make these evil creatures a A l ready in the High Middle Ages, but more fre-
significant component of traditional Christianity. From quently in the early modern period, theologians con-
the He b rew Bible derive demons like Be h e m o t h , structed systems of specialized demons, each of whom
Asmodeus, and Leviathan, which remained only fulfilled a certain office. A Cistercian monk, Richalm of
names, except to the most learned demonologists. More Schöntal (early thirteenth century), described the hier-
important were some episodes in the New Testament, archy of fiends dedicated to tempting monks as an exact
such as Jesus’s exorcism of the “legion” of evil spirits but invisible copy of the monastic functionaries. There
who entered into swine (Matt. 8:28–34; Mark 5:1–15; we re a demonic abbot, prior, cantor, and so on, who
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Cases like that of Gilles de Rais, the fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry
French nobleman executed for invoking demons, prac-
ticing sodomy, and murdering children, or the pre s e r-
vation of conjuring books with prayers to demons
p rove that some people did try to make a pact with
demons, though the vast majority of extorted confes-
sions on that subject probably only mirro red the
inquisitors’ fantasies. Conversely, a few Christians, get-
ting no response from God, indeed turned to his enemy
for help.
To d a y, it is the common opinion of scholars that the
demons described by witches in their confessions show,
on the one hand, traces of popular belief, and, on the
other hand, incorporate elements of learned theology
a c q u i red from sermons and the suggestive questions of
the prosecutors. W h e reas the latter components we re
m o re or less identical throughout Catholic Eu ro p e ,
being based on the standard Latin works of Scholastics,
inquisitors, and demonologists, the former show cer-
tain regional differences. For instance, the Devil help-
ing the witch to churn is a typical Scandinavian motif,
w h e reas the animal-familiar imp seems to have been
most frequent in England. That fiends could show
t h e m s e l ves in the guise of animals, usually chthonic
ones such as vipers or toads, but also dogs or cats,
seems to have been a pan-Eu ropean conception. Of t e n
the evil spirit changes appearance: The nun Ma g d a l e n a
Crucia (d. 1560), a once famous case, used to be visit-
Demons and angels hover at a deathbed, ca. 1460. (TopFoto.co.uk)
ed by her devil Balbán in the form of an angel, as Je s u s ,
as various animals, and as a handsome young man.
e n c i rcled their targets like a thick cloud, continually This ability of the bad angels to show themselves in the
causing cough, toothache, insomnia, inebriety, and so form of good ones re q u i red the development of a theo-
on. A later monk, Ma rtin Lu t h e r, shared Richalm’s logical analysis, called discernment of spirits. It was
imagination. one of the re p roaches used against Joan of Arc that she
Despite some earlier discussion, the concepts of nat- had not asked the ministry to apply this technique to
ural spirits and natural magic only began to complicate the apparitions whose orders she obeye d .
theoretical views about demons in a more serious man- Many demons, howe ve r, appear to have been con-
ner in the age of Agrippa of Nettesheim and Paracelsus. fined to certain natural locations where they met with
In the sixteenth-century German literary genre of their human accomplices, often a wood, or an elevation
Te u f e l s b ü c h e r (devil books), semi-allegorical demons in the ground. Neither was the place for staging of the
a p p e a red to personify different vices: a Ho s e n t e u f e l Sabbat chosen randomly; it often corresponded to a
(pants devil), inventor of new luxurious trousers; a “s a c re d” place of popular religion, like the famous
Sa u f t e u f e l (drinking devil), instigator of dru n k a rds; a Brocken, or Blocksberg, in Germany, or the walnut tree
Sp i e l t e u f e l (gambling devil), who tempted people to of Benevento in Italy. According to the minutes of the
play risky games for money, and so on. During the ear- trials in Prussia, the witches apparently gathered at
ly modern epoch, scholars developed truly baroque sys- places that had had a cultic function for the Pru s s i a n
tems of the society of demons, constructing complex population before its Christianization.
h i e r a rchies and integrating classical mythology (Pl u t o
as demon of greediness, and the like). The Jesuits’ reli- The Demons’ Offices
gious theater and their sermons also brought common Demons were widely believed to be able to bring all
people into contact with these kinds of demons, before sorts of ill luck on humans. In the ninth century,
the Enlightenment ended their credibility. Agobard of Lyons condemned the belief that fiends
The question of whether the phenomenon of cause thunderstorms and hail, but the official benedic-
d e m o n o l a t ry actually existed during the Middle Ages tions against tempests, used in all churches, show that
and the confessional period (sixteenth and seventeenth his long remained a lonely voice, seconded successfully
centuries) has found no generally accepted answe r. only much later by reformers and enlightened thinkers.
264 Demons |
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In the later Middle Ages, theologians became References and further reading:
i n c reasingly convinced that religious deviance and Bizouard, Joseph. 1863–1864. Des rapports de l’homme avec le
witchcraft must have been caused through collabora- démon, essai historique et philosophique.Paris: Gaume and
Duprey.
tion between men and demons. Magic, it seems, had
Boheemen, Petra van, and Paul Dirkse Paul. 1994. Duivels en
traditionally been practiced through the natural virtues
demonen.Utrecht: Museum Het Catharijneconvent.
inherent in special plants, stones, gestures, and the like,
Busch-Bernard, W. 1995. “Zur Dämonologie Martin Luthers.”
as well as through the mental powers of specially dis-
Pp. 11–36 in L’immaginario nelle Letterature Germaniche del
posed individuals. The clergy construed magic, accord-
Medioevo.Edited by Adele Cipolla. Milan: Franconangeli.
ing to a formula deriving mostly from St. Augustine, as Cardini, Franco. 1995.Demoni e Meraviglie: Magia e stregoneria
actions intended to bring those who performed them nella società medievale.Bitonto: Rafaello.
into contact with demons and to do harm with their Dinzelbacher, Peter. 1996. Angst im Mittelalter.Teufels-, Todes- und
help.The “classical” witch, the witch as she appeared in Gotteserfahrung.Paderborn: Schöningh.
the imagery of the learned, could do nothing thro u g h ———. 2001. Heilige oder Hexen? Schicksale auffälliger Frauen in
her own energy, but had to rely on her demon’s power. Mittelalter und Frühneuzeit.4th ed. Düsseldorf: Patmos.
Grübel, Isabel. 1991. Die Hierarchie der Teufel.Munich: Tuduv.
Ap a rt from helping to perpetrate magic and other
Kelly, Henry Ansgar. 1974. The Devil, Demonology, and
crimes, the devils had an additional function, namely
Witchcraft: The Development of Christian Beliefs in Evil Spirits.
that of nonhuman sexual partners, in the form of incu-
2d ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
bi and succubi. It is clear that this function was mostly
Osborn, Max. 1893. Die Teufelsliteratur des 16. Jahrhunderts.
the projection of the inquisitors’ sexual fantasies, as the
Berlin.
majority of accused women had to confess intercourse Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1981. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and
with their own Buhlteufel (demon lover), whereas male Demonology.NewYork: Bonanza.
witches we re seldom re q u i red to avow this aberration. Russell, Jeffrey B., and MarkW.Wyndham. 1976. “Witchcraft
Descriptions of demonic intercourse varied from occa- and the Demonization of Heresy.” Mediaevalia2: 1–21.
sional enthusiastic praise of the extrahuman lover’s erot- Stephens, Wa l t e r. 2002. Demon Lovers: Wi t c h c raft, Sex, and the Cr i s i s
ic talents (ve ry outspoken, for example, in the confes- of Belief. Chicago and London: Un i versity of Chicago Pre s s .
sions of Gostanza, the witch of San Miniato, tried in
1594), to more frequent lamentations about their bru- Denmark
tality and coldness (especially in the Basque re c o rd s ) . The first European kingdom to require legal appeals for
Many theologians thought changelings we re the fru i t s all witchcraft convictions (1576), Denmark played a
of such intercourse; Luther recommended their imme- significant role in the history of European witchcraft. In
diate and unquestioned killing. 1080, writing to the Danish king, Harald, Po p e
Eventually, the most terrible task of the demons was GregoryVII warned against accusing women of causing
the punishment of sinners in hell and (as many believed changes in temperature, raising storms, or inflicting
in spite of the official teaching) in purgatory. T h e diseases on humans. During the next 400 years, sorcery
Middle Ages produced a vast literature of otherworldly was only occasionally mentioned in Danish sources,
visions where one could study in detail the torments predominantly in legal texts. It was not until the early
they pre p a red for the condemned. This genre influ- sixteenth century that cases of sorcery, defined as the
enced the abundant depictions of demonic actions in ability of certain individuals to harm without the
the underworld produced by ecclesiastical art from the agency of the Devil, or witchcraft, involving a pact with
twelfth century onward. What the demons did to their the Devil or his assistants, reached Danish courts.
p r i s o n e r s — flogging, boiling, smashing, and castrating From the mid-fifteenth century, wall paintings with
them—was a combination of sadistic fantasies with witches in many Danish churches all over the country
equally sadistic corporeal punishments factually execut- testify to the fact that Denmark had become part of the
ed in accordance with criminal law. In this respect, the Eu ropean witchcraft tradition. It must be termed a
human-like fig u res of the demons offered an ideal witchcraft tradition, because the paintings reveal a clear
s c reen for a socially accepted projection of aggre s s i ve and close connection between the witches and the
individual and collective fantasies. Devil. The insignificant part played by the Devil during
the subsequent trials thus provokes some surprise. It
PETER DINZELBACHER can be explained, however, as a consequence of the leg-
islation enacted in Denmark beginning in the 1540s.
See also: AGOBARDOFLYONS;ANGELS;BENEVENTO,WALNUT
Almost all Danish legislation before the royal decree
TREEOF;CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC;
of 1617, beginning with twe l f t h - c e n t u ry prov i n c i a l
DEMONOLOGY;DEVIL;DEVILBOOKS;DIABOLISM;
laws that mentioned sorc e ry only in connection with
DISCERNMENTOFSPIRITS;EXORCISM;HELL;INCUBUSAND
homicide, dealt exc l u s i vely with procedural questions.
SUCCUBUS;JOANOFARC;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;POSSESSION,
DEMONIC;RAIS,GILLESDE;SATANISM;SEXUALACTIVITY, The only exception was Christian II’s so-called landlov,
DIABOLIC;VISIONS. “law of the country,” from 1521; this law defined the
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crime as maleficium(harmful magic), but we find hints of the remaining century. It can be calculated that 494
of a notion of the Sabbat together with permission to trials took place between 1609 and 1687, which was
use tort u re in order to elicit a confession. The typical the year of the last known trial (Johansen 1990, 347).
accusatorial pro c e d u re used in De n m a rk was almost An extrapolation for all of Denmark does not seem fea-
replaced by an inquisitorial pro c e d u re. This law code, sible, because the distribution of trials in Ju t l a n d ,
however, was quickly repealed in 1522, when Christian although highly significant, was very uneven. Four areas
II was expelled from the country. in Jutland stand out: three with a very high number of
Two paragraphs in a nationwide law of 1547, which trials and one with very few. In part of eastern Jutland,
was repeated in 1558, had procedural consequences for h a rdly any cases can be found during these almost
the next 150 years and was of utmost importance for eighty years. The kingdom’s agrarian stru c t u re helps
the content of Danish witchcraft trials. One paragraph explain the geographical distribution of its witchcraft
stated that the testimony of convicted thieves, traitors, trials. Most Danish farms were centered in a village; but
and witches ought not to be used in court as evidence exactly in those areas most heavily plagued by trials, iso-
against other people. This meant, of course, that the lated farms were scattered across the countryside, creat-
high numbers of convictions based on chains of denun- ing a higher degree of fear. Ad d i t i o n a l l y, the soil in
ciations, known in countries using an inquisitorial pro- these areas was often of poor quality, thus thre a t e n i n g
c e d u re, we re unknown in De n m a rk. The other para- the balance between agricultural surplus and defic i t .
graph stated that torture was not allowed before a death The loss of a cow could be disastrous.
sentence had been pronounced; an accused witch could The chronological distribution also seems signifi-
thus not be convicted through a forced confession. In cant; almost 60 percent of the 494 trials took place
1576, yet another law was promulgated pre ve n t i n g b e t ween the promulgation of the 1617 decree and
mass trials. The Danish Council of the Realm had 1625. From 1625 until the early 1650s there was a slow
passed sentence on appeal in several witchcraft cases, but steady trickle of trials. After that date, the trials
finding the accused not guilty; however, at the time of almost stopped until a final flare-up in the late 1680s.
the sentencing, the women had already been executed. The rise in the number of trials during the mid-1680s
To pre vent similar occurrences, it was decreed that all was primarily due to a minor nobleman, Jo r g e n
guilty ve rdicts by the juries of local courts should be Arenfeldt, who at his manor court initiated more than
brought before a High Court for confirmation. half of the trials. The motives for his desire to prosecute
Not until October 1617 was legislation passed defin- witches are, however, unknown.
ing the material content of the crime of witchcraft. This De n m a rk’s legal system influenced this course of
d e c ree distinguished between those who cured human events, first in the low rate of witches sentenced to be
beings and their property through supernatural means burned by the High Court judges: Just under 50 per-
and those who made a pact with the Devil. The former cent suffered that fate. This rate is not surprising when
were to be banished, but the latter were to be executed c o m p a red with other Eu ropean countries where ve r-
by fire. The decree lasted until the Danske Lov, t h e dicts were appealed to appelate courts. But the discrep-
Danish Law Code of 1683, when minor changes in the ancy between the percentage found guilty in the courts
law we re carried through, at a time when witchcraft of first instance and the High Courts is amazing; nine
trials we re on the brink of disappearing from Da n i s h out of ten accused were found guilty by the local courts;
law courts. moreover, the High Court judges did not need a con-
The 1617 decree created a situation in which a com- fession to sentence the accused to be burned. The fear
prehensive witch hunt seemed the next step, but ideol- of witches was thus manifest in local communities, but
ogy and legal practice did not mesh. The ideology the High Court judges did not share the same fear.This
hinged on the pact, but ve ry few would vo l u n t a r i l y did not mean that those whose lives we re spared we re
admit to having made a pact with the Devil; and the acquitted. Almost all received an absolutio ab instantia,
legislation of 1547 would not allow the use of tort u re meaning that they we re found not guilty until prove d
b e f o re the accused had been convicted. Mo re ove r, the o t h e rwise. The social consequences of this sentence
High Court judges demanded two independent wit- must have been immense, as very few suffered a new tri-
nesses before they would pass a death sentence. As the al. The disciplinary effects probably led them to act in
Danish authorities never changed their legal system, such a way that their neighbors had no reason to waste
Denmark never experienced mass witch hunts. time and money on new trials.
The actual number of trials in Denmark is unknown. One feature of the Danish trials changed in the ye a r s
Even the High Court re c o rds after 1576 are missing immediately after the 1617 decree. As the High Court
from most of the provinces. It was not until 1609 that judges had to confirm all guilty ve rdicts from the juries
these re c o rds we re pre s e rved, and then only for the of the local courts, several trials involving cunning folk
p rovince of Jutland. It ought to be stressed, howe ve r, we re also appealed. The judges we re in no position to
that the records from Jutland are quite intact for most c o n firm ve rdicts where the accused had confessed only
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to “cunningness,” beneficent magic, and there f o re this part y, and it is equally clear that the hosts tre a t e d
returned such cases to the local courts with orders for her the way they did because she already possessed a
n ew trials. But, appare n t l y, no new trials took place, as reputation for being a witch.
the local population needed the cunning folk—and the The typical Danish witch was a woman, married but
High Court judges must have become aware of this fact. past childbearing age. The preponderance of women
As early as 1619, they began a new practice of banishing among Danish witches can largely be ascribed to the
cunning folk without requiring a new trial. In terms of fact that in quarrels, women we re apt to curse rather
sentence, banishment meant that a convicted healer had than fight, and cursing was dangerous in a time of gen-
to leave the High Court district where she or he live d eral fear of witchcraft. Their age must be attributed to
and go to another one. This attitude of the High Court the fact that it usually took a long time to build a repu-
judges was in accordance with the fie rce attacks of tation as a witch; because most women were married, so
p rominent members of the Danish clergy against cun- were most witches.
ning folk. The royal historiographer and canon Anders A development tow a rd mass trials was thus on its
So- rensen Vedel described in the 1590s how people we re way during the years after the 1617 decree; although
p re p a red to be cured by cunning folk, though they knew denunciations by convicted witches alone could not be
full well that the Devil had sent the cunning folk. used as a reason for conviction, they could always be
Most of the time, an accused person would have a used to start a trial. In areas with many trials, we can
long reputation for witchcraft, usually traceable back find chains of trials slowly creeping across Jutland on
ten or fifteen years (in a few cases, forty to fifty ye a r s ) . the basis of denunciations; for instance, one starting in
During those years more and more suspicious occur- May 1619 in southwestern Jutland and ending fif t e e n
rences accumulated, building up to a trial. One re p re- months later 60 kilometers to the east.
s e n t a t i ve woman, over the course of eleven years, was One reason why Danish trials never reached mass
accused of bewitching piglets (after her victim had proportions must be found in the lack of a widespread
refused to sell her one of his piglets); of maiming a and shared notion of the Sabbat and the all-important
hand (of a man who had shot at her dog); of the loss role of the Devil. An idea existed of an organization
of a horse (belonging to the man who shot her dog, among the witches, who met at specific places at specif-
when it had chased his cattle); of the illness of a man ic times. The sexual themes of Eu ropean mythology
(who had given the husband of the accused poor grain we re sometimes suggested but never became the deci-
as wages); and of the death of sheep (whose ow n e r sive element in these trials. The number of members in
complained that she had allowed her dog to chase his a coven varied, for instance, between eight and twelve.
grazing sheep). Our most detailed description of a Sabbat was almost
It is very interesting to note that, in many cases, it is chaste in its content. T h ree other women had taught
possible to pinpoint the occurrence that led to a reputa- Anne Friiskone what to do when the coven met at the
tion of being a witch. A witness testified in court that c h u rc h y a rd. She walked backwards around the churc h
her brother had told her six years previously how a t h ree times, denying her Christianity. Then she blew
woman had threatened him, because he had taken her t h ree times through the keyhole in the De v i l’s name,
heifer from his oat field. Shortly thereafter he died, and and the Devil appeared before her like a black dog,
the minister testified at the trial that the woman had putting his sign on her forehead. Jo-rgen Simensen was
had a reputation of being a witch ever since. the leader of the coven, Lars Krag the dru m m e r, and
Danish witchcraft accusations centered on two sub- Chresten Pedersen the piper.When they gathered for a
jects: the death or illness of other people, and the death dance at the churchyard, the witches brought beer and
and sickness of farm animals, because almost 90 per- mead. At first they met in the church, where their
cent of the Danish population lived in the countryside. “ i m p s” we re counted, they confessed what they had
In the situations leading to a bewitchment, Da n i s h done, and Jo-rgen Simensen gave a sermon; sometimes
trials resembled those cases of “denied begging” that he threw the chasuble over his head. Howe ve r, Anne
Alan Macfarlane studied in Essex, in which beggars Friiskone never told the judges what she saw when he
were turned away and supposedly retaliated by laying a did it. A few times he had intercourse with one of the
curse on those who had rejected their requests. One of women in the church, but always with the same
the few vagrants (called the “Wild Sh e e p”) accused of woman; we find no confession involving promiscuity.
witchcraft visited a farm asking for some mead at the The notion of the Devil’s mark was vivid among the
time of the party being held celebrating a childbirt h . population, but an elaborate history only evolved slow-
The whole village was present, and she was denied the l y. It began in the court cases with the story of Anne
drink. Unwisely (but understandably) she said that “Sand,” who told how she was bitten in the thigh when
their bees should produce no more mead, which turned she refused to participate in a bewitchment. Kirsten
out to be true. It is clear that the “Wild Sheep” would Ibsdatter later said that the coven met in Troms Church
have expected at least a minimum of decent behavior at (in No rway), where its leader gave a sermon in Latin
Denmark 267 |
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and German, which she could not understand. He r position to take action. The minister in Præstkær point-
i m p, called Plett, put a mark on her stomach—which ed out before the beginning of a trial that he had never
apparently was a bit too indecent, because she told the heard of the woman being accused of witchcraft.
High Court that it was on her nose. Anne Giertsdatter After Vedel, sorc e ry did not reemerge as a topic in
crafted an elaborate story, telling how twe l ve persons subsequent Danish theological writings, whereas the
had walked to the church in Ho-rby, where a beautiful spiritualization of the relationship between sin and
“lad” greeted her. They asked her to blow through the adversity was extensively covered. During the first two
keyhole and denounce her Christianity; when she decades of the seventeenth century, the spiritual nature
turned around, the beautiful lad had turned into a of the relationship between sin and adversity was given
black, bald dog. The Devil then put his mark on her only moderate attention by theologians, but from the
f o rehead, where it was still visible. This slow pro c e s s start of the 1620s it became more and more dominant,
testifies to the fact that the notion of the Devil’s mark coinciding with the growth of a pre-Pietist movement.
evolved during the trials and only took shape after the During the Thirty Years’War, when German Lutherans
publication of the 1617 decree, when the trials grew in i n c reasingly abandoned this tradition, seeing adve r s i t y
numbers. as sent by Providence, several Danish ministers retained
Both theoretically and practically, Danish clerics did it. The minister on the island of Fur had been of the
little to pursue witches. Indeed, the cessation of witch- opinion that a woman had bewitched him, but a col-
craft trials originated in the frequent adherence of league praised him for following the example of Job and
Danish ministers to early sixteenth-century prov i d e n- accepting his pain as a test from God.
tialist explanations, such as those of the Catholic The cessation of the Danish trials must be explained
Ma rtin Plantsch and the Lutheran Johannes Bre n z , in this theological context, but the seve re rebuke and
which emphasized that suffering came from God and the high fine the High Court imposed on Jo-r g e n
not through the evil deeds of witches. Although Brenz A renfeldt for bringing innocent people to trial clearly
was widely read in De n m a rk, it is likely that most taught pro s p e c t i ve witch hunters that the Da n i s h
Danish ministers we re inspired by other theologians authorities had no intention of tolerating similar behav-
who drew on Brenz, such as Anders So-rensen Vedel and ior in the future. The last official execution in Denmark
the bishop of St a va n g e r, Jo-rgen Er i c k s so-n. In his ser- took place in 1693, although the belief in witches did
mon on the Book of Jonah, Ericksso-n pointed out that not disappear. T h e re was a lynching in No rt h e r n
adversity should never be attributed to the Devil or sor- Jutland in 1722. Not until 1866 was all witchcraft leg-
cerers, because it was God’s punishment for sins. In his islation repealed.
third sermon on the ninetieth Psalm, Vedel wrote that
s o rc e rers should not be given the honor of being JENS CHR. V. JOHANSEN
thought able to cause death or disease, because man See also: ACCUSATORIALPROCEDURE;BRENZ,JOHANN;CHRISTIAN
only suffered such afflictions through Go d’s prov i- IV;DEVIL’SMARK;HEMMINGSEN,NIELS;MACFARLANE,
dence. Vedel did not deny the existence of sorcerers, but ALAN;RURALWITCHCRAFT;SABBAT.
he spiritualized the question of guilt, sin, and fate. It is References and further reading:
h a rdly coincidental that Er i c k s so-n chose the Book of Birkelund, Merete. 1983. Troldkvinden og hendes anklagere. Danske
Jonah and Vedel the ninetieth Psalm as their points of hekseprocesser i det 16. og 17. århundrede.Århus: Arusia.
Henningsen, Gustav. 1982. “Witchcraft in Denmark.” Folklore
departure. Luther had emphasized in his sermon on the
93: 131–137.
ninetieth Psalm that under no circumstances should
———. 1988. “Witch Persecution After the Era of Witch Trials:
man link his misfortune or death to a demonic power.
A Contribution to Danish Ethnohistory.” ARV: Scandinavian
Si m i l a r l y, in his commentary on the Book of Jo n a h ,
Yearbook of Folklore44: 103–153.
Luther had underlined that God visited man with all
———. 1991. Heksejægeren på Rugård. De sidste trolddomsprocesser
sorts of plagues and finally even with death. i Jylland 1685–87.Copenhagen: Skippershoved.
In practice, even though the decree of 1617 had Jensen, Karsten Sejr. 1988. Trolddom i Danmark, 1500–1588.
described witchcraft as primarily a religious crime, Copenhagen: Nordisc Music and Text.
De n m a rk’s clergy displayed an extraord i n a ry passivity Johansen, Jens Chr.V. 1984. “Indizien und Beweise. Zur
in denouncing suspected witches. In 1623, a minister Bedeutung des gerichtlichen Verfahrens der Hexenprozesse in
testified that a suspected witch had been notorious for Ripen und Tondern.” Forschungen zur Rechtsarchäologie und
rechtlichen Volkskunde6: 129–141.
witchcraft for more than twenty-one years, but he had
———. 1985. “Witchcraft in Elsinore 1625–1626.” Mentalities—
never denounced her. Only one minister found it nec-
Mentalités. An Interdisciplinary Journal—Un journal interdisci-
e s s a ry to apologize for his inaction; he was well aware
plinaire3: 1–8.
that a certain woman was notorious for witchcraft, but,
———. 1990. “Denmark: The Sociology of Accusations.”
as he pointed out, he was an old man. Ev i d e n t l y, the
Pp. 339–365 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and
behavior of such ministers indicated that they had little Peripheries. Edited byBengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen.
desire to initiate trials; in many cases, they were in no Oxford: Clarendon.
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———. 1990. “Hexen auf mittelalterlichen Wandmalereien. Zur retained a lifelong faith in astrology). Yet his indire c t
Genese der Hexenprozesse in Dänemark.” Pp. 217–240 in i n fluence was great: Soon after 1700, Christian
Ketzer, Zauberer, Hexen. Die Anfänge der europäischen Thomasius praised Descartes for disturbing “the nest of
Hexenverfolgung.Edited by Andreas Blauert. Frankfurt am
scholastic fantasies” in which the evil of witch prosecu-
Main: Suhrkamp.
tion had been hatched. De s c a rt e s’ silence was more
———. 1991. Da Djævelen var ude...Trolddom i det 17. århun-
e f f e c t i ve in diminishing belief in witchcraft than
dredes Danmark.Odense: Odense universitetsforlaget.
the laborious refutations of many other writers.
———. 1995. “Faith, Superstition and Witchcraft in Reformation
The Cartesian universe leaves room for God as its
Scandinavia.” Pp. 179–211 in The Scandinavian Reformation:
From Evangelical Movement to Institutionalisation of Reform. designer, but it admits no occult forces or properties of
Edited by Ole Peter Grell. Cambridge: Cambridge University any other kind.
Press. Although many of the details of De s c a rt e s’ physical
Nyborg, Ebbe. 1978. Fanden på væggen.Århus: Wormianum. theories we re later found to be erroneous, the mecha-
To-rnso-, Kim. 1986. Djævletro og folkemagi. Trolddomsforfo-lgelse i nistic outlook of his thought had a far-reaching and
1500- og 1600-tallets Vestjylland.Århus: Aarhus irreversible influence on the subsequent course of scien-
universitetsforlag.
tific culture. Mechanism, which stresses natural laws as
the ordering principles of re a l i t y, excluded earlier
Descartes, René (1596–1650) notions of a universe permeated by personal and
The influence of Descartes on the story of early mod- spiritual forces. Once the world had become a machine,
ern European witchcraft was indirect but crucially the phenomena of experience had to be explained in the
important, because the highly infuential worldview he quantitative language of physics rather than in terms of
developed left no room for witchcraft. Commonly symbolic relationships, the spiritus mundi, or the
called the “father of modern philosophy,” Re n é s t ruggles between good and bad angels. It was hard
Descartes was one of the most significant intellectual for the Devil to keep a foothold in such a world;
figures of the seventeenth century, a reformer and inno- such Cartesian thinkers as Nicolas Ma l e b r a n c h e
vator in natural science, mathematics, metaphysics, and (1638–1715) turned to naturalistic psychology for
methodology. Born in La Haye, France, in 1596 and explanations of such phenomena as “bewitchment” and
educated at the famous Jesuit college of La Flèche, “demonic possession,” which had formerly seemed to
Descartes soon became dissatisfied with traditional demand demonological interpretation.
Scholastic learning based on the teachings of Aristotle, Ne ve rtheless, in the first of his Meditations on Fi r s t
and resolved henceforth “to seek no knowledge other Philosophy (1641), De s c a rt e s’ philosophical master-
than that which could be found either in myself or in piece, he introduced an evil spirit “not less powe rf u l
the great book of the world” (Descartes 1972, I, 186). than deceitful” to serve in a strictly methodological
In his Discourse on the Method (1637), he recognized role (De s c a rtes 1972, I, 148). If we are to re c o n s t ru c t
only mathematics among contemporary sciences as our knowledge on firmer foundations, we first need to
capable of producing reasons that are evident and strip away our old assumptions and pre j u d i c e s .
certain; all others provided nothing but doubtful opin- T h e re f o re, De s c a rtes asked us to imagine that a m a l i n
ion. Descartes’ consequent advice to knowledge-seekers g é n i e (evil spirit) devoted his energies to making us
was to take mathematics as their model, eschewing the b e l i e ve falsehoods. It was possible, he speculated, that
traditional reliance on the teachings of authority in “the heavens, the earth, colours, fig u res, sound and all
favor of an analytical method in which conclusions other external things are nought but the illusions and
were logically drawn from carefully collected and prop- d reams of which this genius has availed himself in
erly verified premises. His own writings on science o rder to lay traps for my cre d u l i t y” (De s c a rtes 1972, I,
demonstrated this method in action: Descartes’ physics 148). It has been suggested that the inspiration for this
and cosmology abandoned the metaphysical baggage of famous thought experiment was the Grandier case at
Aristotelian science and attempted instead a compre- Loudun in the 1630s, but there is little need to look to
hensive explanation of terrestrial and celestial phenom- any specific cause célèbre for its source. Mo re than a
ena in purely mechanical terms. For Descartes, the thousand years of energetic speculation about the pow-
physical universe was a structure governed by a set of ers of the Devil stand behind the speculation of the
universal natural laws that could be characterized in the First Me d i t a t i o n . Howe ve r, as De s c a rtes was careful to
language of mathematics. explain to a correspondent, the doubt raised by the
Descartes wrote nothing about witchcraft, magic, or demon fantasy was “hyperbolical” and not meant to
demonology, apparently deeming these subjects unwor- apply in real life; the demon hypothesis was merely a
thy of notice. Unlike some other major fig u res of the device for loosening the grip of re c e i ved ideas that
s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Scientific Re volution, De s c a rt e s needed to be reassessed (De s c a rtes 1972, II, 266).
had no belief whatever in the occult sciences (here he Although De s c a rtes would probably have conceded the
contrasts, for instance, with Sir Isaac Newton, who impossibility of firmly disproving the existence of a
Descartes, René 269 |
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malin génie, t h e re is no place in the Cartesian world-
v i ew for the operations of deceitful demons that
c reated such fear in ord i n a ry people and perplexity in
the judges in witchcraft trials.
GEOFFREY SCARRE
See also:MECHANICALPHILOSOPHY;SKEPTICISM.
References and further reading:
Cottingham, J. G., ed. 1992. The Cambridge Companion to
Descartes.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Descartes, René. 1972. The Philosophical Works of Descartes.
2 vols. Translated by Elizabeth S. Haldane and
G. R. T. Ross. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
———. 1985. The Philosophical Works of Descartes.2 vols.
Edited by J. G. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, B. 1978. Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry.
Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
Devil
The Devil, traditionally defined as the personification
of evil, is one of the most important elements distin-
guishing European and American Christian ideas of
witchcraft from ideas of witchcraft in other cultures.
The real terror and dread that many Christian
Europeans and Americans, educated and uneducated
alike, felt toward witches from the fifteenth to eigh-
teenth centuries was magnified by their conviction that
witches were the willing servants of God’s greatest
enemy. The Devil, also often called Satan, had enor-
mous cosmic power; he was seeking always and every-
where to ruin the divine plan for the world and specif-
ically to wreck and undo God’s plan for the happiness
of humanity. The Devil’s power, might, and hatred of The Devil and his demons. (Topham/The Image Works)
Christ and Christians were demonstrated by divine rev-
elation: Because God had revealed it in the Bible, it
could not be dismissed without dismissing the authen- Principle of Evil
ticity of the Bible. Most societies have not had an idea of one single prin-
The belief that the reality of the Devil was an ciple or personage of evil. Some religions, such as
established fact is the master key to the whole ques- Buddhism (which does, however, have a tempter spirit
tion of alleged diabolical witchcraft. Under the named Mara) regarded evil as an illusion to be over-
De v i l’s leadership, witches strove to kill the body and come with enlightenment. Many societies, such as
d e s t roy the soul of eve ry Christian. Just as the De v i l those of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, attributed
was able to change his shape in order to entice, intim- both good and evil to their morally ambivalent gods
idate, or allay doubts, so witches could make them- and goddesses. For example, the Greek Art e m i s
s e l ves appear to be normal and innocuous neighbors. (Roman Diana), was at once virgin, fertility goddess,
Just as the Devil was the greatest of all liars, deceiving huntress, and lady of the underworld. In India, Shiva
people into doing harm, so his followers, the witches, both creates and destroys. Some societies, such as early
could deceive people and so ruin them. For Eu ro p e a n India and Iran, posited warring powers of good and
and American Christians from the fifteenth to the evil. A few societies believed that two supreme princi-
eighteenth centuries, a witch was a Satanist; witch- ples were constantly at war. Ancient Greek Orphism
craft was equivalent to Satanism, a blasphemous war (a pre - Socratic blend of religion and philosophy)
against Christ and against humanity. The deva s t a t i n g and some followers of Plato—especially the
t e r ror of witches and of their master, Satan, was deep, Neoplatonists of the third century C.E.—held that the
w i d e s p read, and genuine. two principles were spiritual (good) and material (evil).
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The Zoroastrians, whose founder, Zarathushtra, lived The power of the Devil in the NewTestament, as in
about 600 B.C.E. in Iran, introduced the idea of two Ap o c ryphal literature, was immense, though he was
opposite and totally independent spirits or principles, ultimately doomed by the power of the Me s s i a h ,
Mazda and Ahriman. Christ. The NewTestament writers had a sharp sense of
Only in monotheistic religions has the idea of a single the immediacy of evil. The conflict between good and
prince of evil been dominant. Evil is an inevitable logical evil was absolutely central to the NewTestament. God
p roblem in monotheism. If there is one god, then evil became human in Jesus Christ in order to save us. What
seems to limit either his power or his goodness. he saved us from was the power of the Devil. The Devil
Monotheist religions have devised many ways out of this was Go d’s adve r s a ry in the struggle for human souls
dilemma, one of which is to believe in the existence of a and bodies waged between Christ and Satan. The Devil
g reat power opposing good. The Devil has had many tempted Adam and Eve to original sin, and he contin-
names, the most common being Satan and Lu c i f e r. T h e ued to be effective in assaulting people by obsession
w o rd De v i l comes from Latin d i a b o l u s , d e r i ved fro m (attacks from outside), by possession (attacking their
Greek d i a b o l o s , a slanderer or accuser or adve r s a ry. souls from within), and, worst of all, by tempting them
Diabolos is a translation of the He b rew s a t a n , m e a n i n g to pervert their free will by choosing evil over good. At
someone or something obstructing the way. The names the end of time, Christ would return to break the
Belial, Mastema, and Semyaza also appear in the Jew i s h Devil’s power and to establish the Kingdom of God.
Ap o c ryphal literature (200 B . C . E .–100 C . E .), but in
the New Testament, which was written in Greek, the Classical Christian Concept
usual terms are Sa t a nand d i a b o l o s . Subsequent Christian writers emphasized the theme of
the De v i l’s power to va rying degrees, but in the fir s t
The Bible t h ree centuries of the Christian era, when persecutions
The ancient Israelites distinguished between good of Christians and Jews by pagans we re frequent, the
and evil but without a clear idea of evil’s origins. T h e theme was prominently expressed in spiritual dualism.
He b rew Bible, or Old Testament (composed over Spiritual dualism was the belief that two mighty spiritu-
the period roughly 1000–200 B . C . E .), contains only al powers struggle against one another for control of the
vague and disparate ideas of the Devil: (1) s a t a n cosmos. A spectrum of dualistic ideas perva d e d
appears as a common noun; (2) a vague concept of a Christianity at that time. On the extreme dualist end of
h e a venly court includes the bene ha elohim, “sons of the spectrum we re sectaries known as Gnostics (fro m
God,” who we re rather like minor gods more or less g n o s i s , “s e c ret know l e d g e”). The Gnostics believed that
under the Lord’s command yet able to sin against him only they knew the true meaning of Christ: namely, that
(as in Genesis 6:5–6); (3) the m a l a k i m ,messengers of he was a pure spirit sent from the invisible, spiritual,
the Lord, could be either cre a t i ve or destru c t i ve; hidden God to save humans from their bodies. So m e
and (4) a spiritual personage named Satan, whose Gnostics (like the Zo roastrians) thought that the De v i l
chief role is as the tempter and punisher, appears in was independent of the true God and almost as powe r-
the Book of Jo b. ful. Since the true God hated matter and especially the
The idea of the Devil as a powerful leader of evil spir- human body, which kept the spirit imprisoned, the
its became greatly more prominent in the Jew i s h “ Go d” of the He b rew Bible was really the De v i l .
Apocalyptic literature, written at a time when the Jews Most Christians at the time held the milder view that
we re suffering oppression by the Syrians and then the Satan was the leader of rebel angels, whom Christ had
Romans. Although this literature was not accepted by already vanquished but who still exercised the remnants
either Jews or Christians as biblical (that is, it was not of their powers by trying to pull as many humans as
considered revealed Scripture), it exerted wide influence they could down with them in their ruin. The milder
on the NewTestament and other early Christian writ- view generally prevailed, but the Devil was nevertheless
ings. For the apocalyptic writers, the Devil contro l l e d a fig u re of terrifying immediacy for the hermits and
the rulers of this world, both the demons and the monks of the third to the sixth centuries, whose
human evil-doers, but the good God would soon arrive, writings dominated much Christian thought in that
heralded by his Messiah, to destroy evil-doers and period. The hermits and monks went out into deserted
establish an eternal kingdom of justice and right. T h e places to fight against the temptations of worldly affairs
use of the word diabolos to mean “the Devil,” the chief and the Devil. Satan tempted early monks such as
of evil powers, first appeared in the translation of the St. Anthony (Egyptian ascetic and hermit) and
He b rew Bible from He b rew into Greek (the so-called St. Pachomius (Egyptian hermit) with visions of sex,
Septuagint translation, ca. 200–50 B . C . E .). The term wealth, banquets, and power—and when temptations
was then used, along with the name “Satan,” in the failed, assaulted them with whippings, shakings,
Greek of the New Testament. stench, and clashing noises.
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Christian concepts of the Devil were distilled in the the stage; making Satan a foolish object of humor was
thought of St. Augustine, whose ideas on the subject an effort to control or reduce his psychological terro r.
became the basic, classical view for later Christians. In
this view, the Devil is a great angel who was created by The Later Middle Ages and
God both good and also with free will. Using his fre e Reformation
will, he chose to serve himself rather than God, and he In the twelfth century, a current of strong dualism reap-
persuaded many other defiant angels to follow him; peared in western Europe, particularly among the
these fallen angels shared his evil will and became heretics known as Cathars, who reprised the Gnostic
k n own as demons. The Devil is the commander of idea that the devil was lord of all matter, including
these demons and of all humans who choose to flo u t human bodies, and almost as powerful as his spiritual
Go d’s will. The De v i l’s greatest success was tempting enemy, Christ. Orthodox Christians at the time, while
the human race (re p resented by Adam and Eve) to rejecting such extreme views, nevertheless moved a bit
choose their own will over that of God. Their “original in the direction of dualism, especially because the
sin” was atoned for only by the incarnation and passion twelfth through fourteenth centuries were also a period
of Christ. The Devil continues to assault us body and when zealous popes and bishops were attempting to
soul, yet he also is allowed by God to torment sinners in reform morals and education by imposing strict con-
hell, so that Satan is at one and the same time a warden trols on society and labeling their opponents as demon-
and a prisoner of the underworld. Though Christ is ic. As such views were not only drawn up and aired by
ultimately victorious, Satan will be allowed one last theologians and ecclesiastics but also preached from
chance to destroy the world: his servant, a human ruler street corners and in marketplaces, fear of the Devil had
k n own as Antichrist, will lead his forces at the end of become stronger and more widespread by the four-
the world in a doomed effort to upset the divine plan teenth century than it had been for a millennium.
and to ruin human happiness. Renewed terror of Satan was one of the many causes
Such views pre vailed in both Eastern and We s t e r n of the accusations of witchcraft that spread from the
C h r i s t i a n i t y. For most Christians, this story was taken late Middle Ages through the Renaissance and
as explicit, real, immediate, and terrible. Fear of the Reformation. The leaders of the sixteenth-century
Devil and of hell, rooted in Scripture and theology, Protestant Reformation, Ma rtin Luther and Jo h n
was commonplace and magnified by popular legend, Calvin, changed nothing important about belief in the
l i t e r a t u re, and art. The Devil was seen as continually Devil; their theology on that subject was continuous
tempting humans. His trickery was all the more with, and virtually identical to, that of the Middle Ages.
deceitful because he changed his shape at will: he By insisting upon a literal interpretation of the Bi b l e ,
often showed himself in attractive, appealing, or sym- they underscored the reality of Satan. Luther believe d
pathetic form, although he could also intimidate that he had grappled with him personally. Pro t e s t a n t s
human beings in the form of a dragon, serpent, goat, thus promoted the terror of Satan and were as quick to
or giant; he could even make himself as small as the identify the Devil in the Catholic Church as Catholics
tiniest particle. He could appear as either a man or a we re to see the De v i l’s work in the Protestants. T h u s ,
woman, and though he generally presented himself as the conflicts caused by the Reformation pro m o t e d
male, he could appear in the darkness to seduce either heightened belief in Sa t a n’s might on all sides and
sex. Associated with night, darkness, cold, and the encouraged accusations of diabolical witchcraft.
No rth, he was usually port r a yed as black, but he
might also be port r a yed as red because of his connec- Diabolical Witchcraft
tion with flame, fire, and heat. He belched fla m e s Fear of the Devil defined and delineated the character
f rom his mouth and nostrils. He was the ape of Go d , of European witchcraft in a unique way. For Christian
blasphemously mocking him (as in Dante, where Europe, unlike many other societies, such as those in
Sa t a n’s three faces parody the Trinity). He emitted foul Africa, witches did not have inherent magical powers,
odors. His horns re p resented the power of the bull nor were the means that they used to attack people
and the unrestrained lust of the goat; they we re con- inherently imbued with such powers. Every supernat-
nected with the crescent moon and there f o re with ural power to harm and every means with which to do
night and death as well as with powe r. He had a long harm were granted to witches by Satan. Thus Western
tail, again symbolizing both animal strength and the Christian society linked witches to heretics, Muslims,
penis. His wings symbolized his power over the air and (from the eleventh century) Jews as the enemies of
and his ability to move instantly from place to place. Christ. These enemies of Christ, allied with the
No one, anywhere at anytime, was safe from him. demons, were marching in a huge, dark, shadowy army
Nonetheless, this terrible being was frequently depict- against Christianity and every Christian soul. Indeed,
ed as being tricked or fooled by clever humans, at the witches were deemed the worst of all the human
times becoming a fig u re of comedy in folklore and on enemies of Christianity.
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For Western Christians, all witchcraft was diaboli- Belief in diabolical witchcraft has never diffused
cal—and diabolically deliberate. Other sinners might f rom Western Christianity into other cultures exc e p t
be unconsciously following the Devil, but witches were insofar as those cultures have become Christianize d .
guilty of the staggeringly evil crime of consciously The idea of the Devil made little sense in religious tra-
a g reeing to help in his plan for the destruction of the ditions other than the monotheistic ones. The De v i l
world. When theologians defined witchcraft, they cannot be abolished from Christianity so long as
argued that nothing could be worse than the intention- Christianity is based on the New Testament. Still, as
al choice to worship Satan in place of God. No t h i n g belief in diabolical witchcraft declined in the later
remotely resembling the widespread devil worship s e venteenth century and virtually disappeared by the
imagined by the enemies of witchcraft ever existed. In second half of the eighteenth, belief in the De v i l
other words, diabolical witchcraft as defined by theolo- diminished rapidly at the same time. The decline of
gians and lawyers simply did not exist outside of their belief in Satan was probably hastened by the discre d i t
own minds. b rought on it by the absurdity and wide civil upset
At the center of the alleged diabolical witchcraft was caused by the witchcraft trials. But it was above all the
the idea of a “pact,” a contract between the witch and s c i e n t i fic and philosophical re volutions of the seve n-
the Devil in which the witch gave herself or himself to teenth and eighteenth centuries that diminished belief
Satan in return for supernatural powers. The idea of a in both. Isaac Newton, René Descartes, David Hume,
pact derived from ancient legends popularized from the and Voltaire lived in a different world from that inhab-
ninth century about persons who signed a written con- ited by St. Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. As belief in
tract with the Devil, often in order to pro c u re ecclesias- Scripture and in Christian tradition made way for belief
tical preferment. The ultimate, classical version of the in mathematics and empiricism, the Devil was increas-
pact was the widespread Faust legend, first published in ingly marginalized.
1587 and immort a l i zed by two playwrights,
JEFFREY B. RUSSELL
Christopher Ma r l owe and Johann Wolfgang vo n
Goethe. Pacts could be of two kinds: written, explicit See also:ANGELS;ANTICHRIST;AUGUSTINE,ST.; BIBLE;CALVIN,
contracts and implicit contracts. The accusation that an JOHN;DEMONS;DEVILBOOKS;DEVIL’SMARK;FAUST,JOHANN
implicit pact had been made was a much more common GEORG;GOAT;LUTHER,MARTIN;MANICHAEISM;PACTWITHTHE
and more effective tool of prosecutors, because no writ-
DEVIL;SABBAT;SATANISM.
References and further reading:
ten or even oral evidence was needed to accuse a sus-
Bernstein, Alan E. 1993. The Formation of Hell: Death and
pected witch of this crime. In an implicit pact, the
Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds.Ithaca,
accused witch did not have to have made a formal con-
NY: Cornell University Press.
tract with the Devil: Ma l e volent supernatural acts ( m a l-
Cervantes, Fernando. 1994. The Devil in the New World: The
e fic i a )we re enough to demonstrate that the accused had Impact of Diabolism in New Spain.New Haven: Yale University
enlisted in the De v i l’s ranks and was there f o re a witch. Press.
Witches, it was believed, worshiped the Devil either Cox, John D. 2000. The Devil and the Sacred in English Drama,
singly or in groups, at meetings called Sabbats. T h e 1350–1642. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.
meetings of the alleged Satanists we re considered a mon- Elliott, Dyan. 1999. Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and
s t rous mockery or perversion of Christian liturgy and a Demonology in the Middle Ages.Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
d e fiance of civil law. The witches allegedly believed that
Fe r re i ro, Alberto, ed. 1998. The Devil, He re s y, and Wi t c h c raft in the
Satan was the Lord, instead of Christ. The witches sup-
Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Je f f rey B. Ru s s e l l .Leiden: Br i l l .
posedly sacrificed children in parody of Christ’s sacrific e
Gregg, Joan Young. 1997. Devils, Women, and Jews: Reflections of
and ate human flesh in parody of the consecrated bre a d
the Other in Medieval Sermon Stories.Albany: State University
and wine of the Mass, or Eucharist. The Devil appeare d
of NewYork Press.
at such meetings in the form of a man or an animal, usu- Isaacs, Ronald H. 1998. Ascending Jacob’s Ladder: Jewish Views of
ally a goat, which the witches worshipped. Another indi- Angels, Demons, and Evil Spirits. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
cation of the witches’ invo l vement with the Devil was Link, Luther. 1995. The Devil: A Mask Without a Face. London:
the “De v i l’s mark.” It was believed that when a witch Reaktion.
made the pact with Satan, he left a mark on his new fol- ———. 1996. The Devil: The Archfiend in Art from the Sixth to
l owe r. Sometimes these marks we re visible (as in the the Sixteenth Century.NewYork: Abrams.
Marx, C. William. 1995. The Devil’s Rights and the Redemption in
shape of a mole); more often, they we re invisible and
the Literature of Medieval England.Cambridge: Brewer.
d i s c ove red only by pricking the victim: Any insensitive
Messadié, Gérard. 1996. A History of the Devil.Trans. Marc
point on the skin was considered a De v i l’s mark. T h e
Romano. NewYork: Kodansha International.
Devil aided his accomplices by helping them deceive
Oldridge, Darren. 2000. The Devil in Early Modern England.
i n vestigators into believing them innocent. It was for
Stroud, UK: Sutton.
this reason that the accused we re frequently tort u re d Page, Sydney H. T. 1995. Powers of Evil: A Biblical Study of Satan
into self-incrimination. and Demons.Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
Devil 273 |
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Pagels, Elaine H. 1996. The Origin of Satan.NewYork: Random the most popular devil books, such as Vom Ho s e n
House. Teuffel (The Pants Devil), satirizing male passion for
Russell, Jeffrey B. 1977. The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from d ressing in increasingly elaborate trousers; Wider den
Antiquity to Primitive Christianity.Ithaca, NY: Cornell
Fluchteuffel (Against the Devil of Cursing), re fle c t i n g
University Press.
Protestant emphasis on controlling and disciplining
———. 1981. Satan: The Early Christian Tradition.Ithaca, NY:
social interactions; and Wider den Eheteuffel ( A g a i n s t
Cornell University Press.
the Marriage Devil), a tract about how men and
———. 1984. Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY:
women should conduct themselves to achieve a happy
Cornell University Press.
———. 1986. Mephistopheles: The Devil in the ModernWorld. marriage. This last tract was especially successful
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. because of its mocking description of a marriage where
———. 1988. The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power the woman “wears the pants” and the man, satirized as
of Good in History.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. D r. Siemann ( Sh e - m a n ) , becomes a woman. Jo h a n
Stanford, Peter. 1996. The Devil: A Biography.NewYork: Holt. Einhorn, who was also responsible for several accom-
plished and attractive title-page woodcuts, originally
Devil Books published Musculus’s tracts in Frankfurt an der Oder.
Short, didactic, and often amusing tracts attractively Between 1551 and 1604, the success of the genre led
printed and presented, devil books appeared as a popu- to the printing of at least 38 first editions by 31 authors,
lar new print product in Germany during the second followed by 105 further editions. Individual print runs
half of the sixteenth century, as Protestant reforming are estimated at 600 for first editions and 1,000 for sec-
m ovements encouraged a heightened awareness of ond editions; individual devil books may have been
human weakness in the face of the overwhelming power printed in as many as 2,000 exemplars, thus reaching a
of sin and its instigator, the Devil. This growing con- significant number (one-fourth of all German-speaking
sciousness of human turpitude and sinfulness made the families) of early modern readers and listeners. Because
Devil a metaphor for all evil as well as a means of of the small format of the individual devil tracts, a high
chastising specific personal behaviors deemed unaccept- loss rate over the centuries must be assumed.
able in the early modern community, with witchcraft, These individual devil books became a lucrative
of course, as a prime target. business for print shops in many Ge r m a n - s p e a k i n g
In these books, the Devil appeared as the demon t owns, particularly Fr a n k f u rt an der Od e r, Leipzig,
responsible for appealing to and tempting human vani- Eisleben, and Frankfurt am Main (which took the lead
ties, passions, and anxieties. These we re port r a yed as in devil book production during the last quarter of the
individual devils assigned to specific sinful behaviors, sixteenth century). Most authors and printers of devil
such as drinking, hunting, clothes craziness, money books lived in ove rwhelmingly Protestant are a s .
grabbing, gambling, witchcraft, conjuring, and destruc- Encouraged by the rapid sales of individual devil books,
t i ve mental states like melancholy. In all, thirt y - e i g h t in 1569 the Fr a n k f u rt am Main printer Si g m u n d
books have been identified as belonging to this special Fe yerabend collected twenty of them into a folio vo l-
g e n re of early modern didactic writings. Devil books ume, the T h e a t rum Diaboloru m (Theater of De v i l s ) .
can be divided into three thematic groups: Some were Following his first folio edition, Feyerabend produced a
tracts on moral sins and evil habits (“d e v i l s” of drink- second and third edition of his Theatrum in 1575 and
ing, fashion, cursing, gambling, hunting, stinginess, 1587/1588, respectively.The latter had sold out by the
sloth, arrogance, dancing, flattery, lying, swearing, and 1590s. Fe ye r a b e n d’s decision to gather devil books in
melancholy); others concerned matrimony and family one big luxuriously produced volume was based on his
( “d e v i l s” of marriage, women, domesticity, worry, ser- own positive sales experience. He had sold 1,220 single
vants); still others addressed demonology and churc h devil tracts, among them 232 on marriage, 203 on
life (about heaven and hell, conjuring, necro m a n t i c gambling, 180 on cursing, and 151 on hunting. In spite
devils, clever or learned devils, sacramental, plague, and of their rather steep price of three Ta l e r, the folio edi-
perjury devils). Individual devil books were short tracts tions of the Theatrum Diabolorum soon drove individ-
a t t r a c t i vely printed in easily readable letters. T h e ual devil books out of the market. Feyerabend targeted
German word for “devil,” Te u f e l , usually appeared in such educated readers as scholars, pastors, and churc h
their title, printed in black or sometimes in black and o f ficials. The title T h e a t ru m was, at the time, quite
red. Some title pages of early modern devil books also modern and appealed to an increasing trend tow a rd
boasted attractively produced woodcuts, most often gathering large amounts of information into one ency-
p resenting an appropriately fiendish-looking devil in clopedic volume.
the company of the people he is leading astray. The first edition of the T h e a t ru m began with
The Protestant theologian Andreas Musculus, who Jodocus Ho c k e r’s Der Teuffel selbs ( About the De v i l
worked in Frankfurt an der Oder after 1541, wrote the Himself). Hocker was pastor in Lemgo; after his death
first devil books. The prolific Musculus wrote several of f rom the plague, his colleague Hermann Ha m e l m a n n
274 Devil Books |
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completed this work. Der Teuffel selbs offered a system- Muchembled, Robert. 2003. A History of the Devil: From the
atic review of all the “horrible habits and sins caused by Middle Ages to the Present.Translated by Jean Birrell.
the devil in these bad times, when the world is about to Cambridge, UK: Polity. Originally published in French, 2000.
Osborn, Max. 1893. Theatrum Diabolorum.Berlin: Mayer and
come to its end.” The tract reviewed what was known
Mueller.
about the Devil and all his minions’ nature from Holy
Roos, Keith Leroy. 1972. The Devil in Sixteenth Century German
Scriptures, past and present authors, and from human
Literature: The Teufelbücher.Frankfurt: Lang.
experience. Even though the title directed the re a d e r’s
Stambaugh, Ria, ed. 1970–1980. Teufelbücher in Auswahl.5 vols.
attention to one devil, Satan, the text ve ry quickly
Berlin and NewYork: de Gruyter.
talked about many, “Von den Te u f f e l n . . . Ob Te u f f e l
seyn” (Of Devils . . . whether there are devils). Hocker Devil’s Mark
went on to discuss the devils’ names, their nature, their Although fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft theorists did
purpose, how they got their evil inclinations, and how not consider it a significant indicator of an accused
they fell from grace. His readers learned where devils w i t c h’s guilt, the custom of searching suspects for an
l i ved, how hell was organized, what it looked like, anesthetic scar or mark, reputedly made when the
where it was located, and what kind of wonders devils Devil sealed his pact with the witch, became a major
could perform. Readers also found out about his min- f e a t u re of seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft trials in
ions, the witches, and what they were able to do; about many parts of the Continent and in Scotland. Mu c h
the efficacy of their pact with the Devil; about witch- confusion attaches to the term in England, where
craft trials, including a discussion of the effective n e s s “ De v i l’s mark s” we re unknown (except for Ma t t h ew
and legal and moral ramifications of torture; about the Hopkins in 1645); instead, the British pre f e r re d
perennial question of how and why the Devil tempted “w i t c h’s mark,” referring to an extra teat, or nipple, on
Christians so cruelly and relentlessly, and why God gave a woman’s body that was reputedly used to suckle her
him permission to do so. Hocker’s devil tract continued diabolical familiars.
to be popular into the seventeenth century, when many Few of the fifteenth-century writers about witchcraft,
demonologies quoted it. including Heinrich Kramer in his Malleus Maleficarum
The devil tracts following Ho c k e r’s intro d u c t o ry (The Hammer of Witches, 1486), had anything to say
essay were directed against personal sins and bad habits. about a Devil’s mark. Although theorists who did men-
Quite popular among them was Ludovicus Milichius’s tion the mark mostly refuted it, local judges in various
Der Zauber Teuffel (The Devil of Magic, 1563). A small p a rts of western Eu rope from Belgium to Italy had
section from it appeared in the anonymous Hi s t o ry of a l ready begun shaving all body hair from suspected
Dr. Faustus in 1587. The title woodcut of a 1566 edi- witches in order to discover hidden diabolical charms
tion shows a Faust-like figure standing in a magic circle long before 1500. It was a relatively short step to have
holding alchemical paraphernalia, while a demon pre- professional surgeons shave and search suspected witch-
sents a mirror to the necromancer showing the devil’s es in order to discover the place where the Devil had
backside. marked them at the time they had made their pact. This
Heinrich Grimm (1960) did the most important and step seems to have been taken first in the original home
still unsurpassed re s e a rch on the devil books genre, signif- of witchcraft theory, the lands formerly belonging to
icantly broadening previous studies by Karl Go e d e k e the duchy of Savoy.
(1886) and Max Osborn (1893). Be t ween 1973 and We find successful searches for the mark by inquisi-
1983, five volumes of selected devil books we re re p u b- tors in the vicinity of Geneva in 1534, and by Geneva’s
lished, with a general intro d u c t o ry volume yet to be done. newly Protestant authorities in 1537 and 1539 (Monter
1976, 157–158). In both Geneva and the neighboring
GERHILD SCHOLZ WILLIAMS
Swiss canton of Vaud, a place that had mixed witchcraft
See also: DEMONS;DEVIL;FAUST,JOHANNGEORG;GERMANY;HELL; with heresy for a century, suspected witches were being
PACTWITHTHEDEVIL. systematically searched for the mark by 1550, although
References and further reading: the practice did not spread to other nearby re g i o n s ,
Brückner,Wolfgang, and Rainer Alsheimer. 1974. “Das Wirken whether Protestant Neuchâtel or Catholic Fr i b o u r g ,
des Teufels: Theologie und Sage im 16. Jahrhundert.” Pp. until a generation later. The Catholic demonologist
393–525 in Volkserzählung und Reformation: Ein Handbuch zur
Henri Boguet even chided the Ge n e vans in 1602 for
Tradierung und Funktion von Erzählstoffen und Erzählliteratur
their exc e s s i ve confidence in locating the De v i l’s mark
im Protestantismus. Edited byWolfgang Brückner. Berlin:
before convicting a witch; Devil’s marks, he said, were
Schmidt.
very difficult to find, being very inconspicuous, and the
Goedeke, Karl. 1886. Das Reformationszeitalter.Vol. 2 of Grundriss
Devil usually erased them as soon as the witch was
zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung.Dresden: Ehlermann.
Grimm, Heinrich. 1960. “Die deutschen ‘Teufelbücher’ des 16. a r rested (oddly enough, the great Protestant skeptic
Jahrhunderts: Ihre Rolle im Buchwesen und ihre Bedeutung.” Johann We yer expressed similar opinions about the
Pp. 513–570 in Archiv für die Geschichte des Buchwesens.Vol. 2. t r a n s i t o ry and even re versible nature of the witch’s
Devil’s Mark 275 |
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m a rk in the 1560s; it is equally notew o rthy in this and then only after making a second test and in such an
deeply confessional age, where the divide betwe e n ambiguous manner that Geneva’s magistrates called in a
Roman Catholocism and Protestantism was so deep, to surgeon from Vaud, who quickly verified it.
find Boguet’s Protestant neighbors in Neuchâtel saying In the seventeenth century, Calvinist Scotland re l i e d
similar things about the mark in their 1602 procedural almost as much as Calvinist Ge n e va on finding the
code for judging witches). De v i l’s mark. As late as 1699, the Gl a s g ow synod debat-
Despite such hesitations, the practice of shaving and ed the value of having experts with “skill to try the
s e a rching suspected witches for the De v i l’s mark was insensible Ma rk” in Scotland’s court of justiciary (Larner
s p reading rapidly across both Protestant and Catholic 1981, 112). Although several suspected Scottish witches
p a rts of western Eu rope, including Boguet’s ow n voluntarily re s o rted to this ordeal in order to prove their
province of Franche-Comté, by the late sixteenth cen- innocence, the “p r i c k i n g” was generally done locally, by
t u ry. In France, local judges we re frequently shaving persons far less humane and less medically astute than
suspected witches or checking their marks in Berry and Ge n e va’s surgeons; few escaped unscathed. T h ro u g h o u t
Normandy by the early 1580s; Boguet’s re g i o n a l French Sw i t zerland, except Ge n e va, De v i l’s marks con-
Catholic pre d e c e s s o r, Nicolas Rémy, had no qualms tinued to be found in the 1660s and 1670s on the last
about asserting that the Devil ordinarily marked witch- witches sentenced to death.
es in Lorraine and cited several local instances from the Nu m e rous scandals dogged seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry
1580s when discussing the matter in his Daemonolatria experts who searched for Devil’s marks. The hangman
(Demonolatry) of 1595 (Book 1, chap. 5). In Scotland, of Rocroi, in the Ardennes, had positively identified no
Agnes Sampson was searched for the Devil’s mark dur- f ewer than 274 marked suspects, all but 8 of them in
ing King James VI’s first witch hunt in 1590–1591. In the Spanish Netherlands, when French authorities
the great regional witch hunt afflicting southeastern arrested him in 1603, convicted him of fraud (he col-
Germany at the same moment, hangmen ro u t i n e l y lected a fee for each positive finding), and sent him to
p robed suspected witches for the mark with needles, the galleys. Although three villages in Fr a n c h e - C o m t é
looking for places where the needles would cause no paid heavy fines in 1618 for hiring a surgeon who
pain. claimed he had a commission from the provincial par-
Although the great Mediterranean Inquisitions paid lementto prick and summarily banish suspected witch-
no attention whatsoever to the De v i l’s mark, Catholic es, the practice continued here until inquisitor Symard’s
laymen north of the Alps sought and found it. In witch hunt in the late 1650s; the local physician who
Franche-Comté, they searched fewer than 20 percent of translated Friedrich Spee claimed in 1660 that the
witchcraft prisoners for the mark, but they found it 144 proof of “the so-called supernatural Marks” would soon
times in 146 searches (Rochelandet 1997, 31). T h e be abolished “if one takes care to recognize the truth,”
greatest secular court in Europe, however, seems to have and his prediction soon came true (Monter 1976, 164).
paid re l a t i vely little attention to verifying the De v i l’s The Spanish Inquisition, like its Roman counterpart ,
m a rk. It had been found on fewer than one-fourth of paid no attention to the De v i l’s mark; the tribunal of
the hundred witches the Pa rl e m e n t of Paris (sove re i g n Barcelona arrested a professional witch finder and sent
judicial court, with jurisdiction over approx i m a t e l y him to the galleys in 1621. In France, the parlement of
one-half of France) sentenced to death, and only three Languedoc similarly arrested a few surgeons for abu-
of them, including two brothers in 1583, had their s i vely pricking suspected witches for the mark during
m a rks confirmed by the p a rl e m e n t’s own surgeons the great panic of 1643–1644. Something similar
(Soman 1993, 95–96). In fact, this court asked its sur- o c c u r red after Scotland’s final major witch hunt, in
geons to test suspected witches for the mark in fewe r 1662, when the kingdom’s most famous witch pricker,
than 3 percent of all witchcraft cases appealed to it and John Kincaid, was exposed as a fraud, along with two
apparently paid little attention to the results. minor prickers, “Mr. Pa t e r s o n” and “John Di c k s o n , ”
Matters we re entirely different in Calvinist Ge n e va . both of whom turned out to be women in disguise
If the great Parisian judges did their best to ignore the (Larner 1981, 111).
Devil’s mark, the Calvinist Rome became obsessed with W h e reas the ord i n a ry Eu ropean De v i l’s mark could
it; Ge n e van judges relied on professional surgeons to be found on men as well as women, this was impossible
verify the De v i l’s mark in eve ry major witchcraft trial in England, where it took the form of an extra nipple to
after 1600 and made this a precondition for pronounc- suckle familiars. Despite this peculiarity, the history of
ing death sentences (Monter 1976, 54–55). At first, the s e a rching for the mark followed much the same
surgeons found the mark seven times in nine cases; then chronology in England as on the Continent, becoming
they encountered an extremely difficult case in 1622, in m o re frequent during the later sixteenth century and
which they admitted a mark was “s u s p i c i o u s” but a p p a rently reaching a statistical peak during the
refused to make a positive identification. Afterw a rd s , Matthew Hopkins witch hunt of 1645, in which 78 of
they found a Devil’s mark only once in eleven searches, the 110 surviving testimonies mentioned familiars and
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t h e re by included many details about the re s u l t i n g belief in Devil worship from Jews onto heretics. T h e i r
witch’s marks (Sharpe 1996, 137). Like so many other goal was to counteract the potential appeal and anticler-
aspects of English witch lore, this form of the witch’s icalism of heretical groups by demonizing them.
m a rk crossed the Atlantic to New England, where Catharism proved to be a particularly useful target, since
teams of matrons conducted searches for it (De m o s its proponents believed in a powe rful god of evil, and
1982, 179–181). But once again, the chronology fit inquisitors needed merely to twist that belief into a
European patterns, since both types of searches for the frightening portrayal of Cathars as worshippers of Sa t a n .
mark had virtually disappeared by 1700. A thirt e e n t h - c e n t u ry German inquisitor, Conrad of
Marburg, fixed the image of heretics as demon-
WILLIAM MONTER
worshippers in many inquisitors’ minds. Conrad saw
See also:FAMILIARS;GENEVA;PRICKINGOFSUSPECTEDWITCHES; heresy as a great diabolical conspiracy in which heretics,
RÉMY,NICOLAS;SCOTLAND;WITCH’SMARK. appearances of piety notwithstanding, had made a pact
References and further reading:
with and secretly venerated Satan, symbolized by the
Demos, John. 1982. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture
noxious obscene kiss (the kiss of shame). After Conrad’s
of Early New England. NewYork and Oxford: Oxford
assassination in 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued his bull
University Press.
Vox in Rama (A Voice in Rama) asserting the reality of
Larner, Christina. 1981. Enemies of God: the Witch-Hunt in
the Luciferans. In short time, Waldensians were similar-
Scotland. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Monter,William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The ly accused of worshiping the Devil, and the idea that all
Borderlands during the Reformation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell heretics were secret devil worshippers became an estab-
University Press. lished tenet of inquisitorial literature.
Rochelandet, Brigitte. 1997.Sorcières,diables et bûchers en States as well as churchmen adopted such notions: In
Franche-Comté aux XVIe etXVIIe siècles. Besançon: Cêtre. 1307, a fiscally desperate Philip IV of France had the
Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Knights Templar accused of venerating the bust of the
Modern England.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
demon Beelzebub, renouncing the Christian faith, des-
Press.
ecrating Christian objects, and performing the obscene
Soman, Alfred. 1993. “Le sabbat des sorciers: preuve juridique.”
kiss on the anus of the ord e r’s grand master at their
Pp. 85–99 in Le sabbat des sorciers, XVe-XVIIIe siècles.Edited by
s e c ret meetings. Mo re often, Jews became scapegoats
N. Jacques-Chaquin and M. Préaud. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon.
for such conspiratorial fears. In the early 1320s, Philip
Diabolism V of France accused the Jews of hiring lepers to poison
Diabolism, the belief that some humans worship and Christian wells, part of a conspiracy ultimately master-
serve the Devil, became the central reason behind mass minded by Satan.
witch hunting in the sixteenth century. The develop-
ment of diabolism from the twelfth to the sixteenth Diabolism and the Suppression of Magic
century, although convoluted, can be loosely sketched Despite such charges of demonic service and worship,
as a process in which learned inquisitors and theolo- most educated people refused to believe that Satan
gians transferred notions about diabolical conspiracies could actually empower simple women to fly or per-
from Jews to heretics to witches. form magic. Instead, they supposed that the Devil had
deluded simple-minded people into believing they had
Judaism, the Devil, and Heresy done these things—a position set out in a forged tenth-
Early Christians condemned the Jews, who refused to century decretal called the Canon Episcopi. However,
recognize Jesus as their messiah, as children of the those who believed they exercised such magical powers
Devil, leading to suspicions that Jews worshiped the were still regarded as dangerous blasphemers who in
Devil and were perhaps even demons in human guise. some fashion worshipped the Devil rather than God.
Medieval artists frequently depicted Jews with horns. In The thirteenth-century Scholastic St. Thomas Aquinas,
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Christian preach- for example, argued that all popular magic was effectu-
ers told stories about the ritual murder of Christian al only through diabolical agency, and so inquisitors
boys and the desecration of consecrated Hosts by Jews, and judges began suspecting practitioners of illicit
suggesting that Jews required Christian blood to fulfill magic of diabolism.
their diabolical rituals and prepare their magical ingre- Ne ve rtheless, in 1258 Pope Alexander IV sought to
dients. Denying that Jewish worship was directed to the restrict inquisitors from investigating magical offenses
same god they worshipped, many Christians postulated that did not invo l ve consultation or worship of
a mirror-image worship service directed to Sa t a n demons. Papal policy finally succumbed to the pressure
instead, usually in the shape of a toad or cat. to attack magicians as secret demon worshippers in
As thirt e e n t h - c e n t u ry Church leaders fought against 1320, after Pope John XXII became convinced that
the rising tide of dissident religious groups, especially t h e re had been a magical attempt to poison him. In
Waldensians and Cathars, they readily transposed this 1326, the papal court listed many heretical magical
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acts, which now included invoking or sacrificing to m e rely a diabolical illusion, affirmed that witches
demons, making a pact with the Devil, and abusing the should still be treated harshly because of their devil-
sacraments. Inquisitorial courts focused their effort s worship and apostasy.
primarily on clerical transgressors, especially necro-
mancers, and political enemies. The Reformation and Diabolism
The first known trial for sectarian diabolical witch- With the start of the sixteenth-century Reformation
craft occurred in 1324–1325 against Dame Alice conflicts, witch hunting declined considerably as courts
Kyteler and several confederates in Kilkenny, Ire l a n d . concentrated on controlling more dangerous lay move-
Concentrating on charges of m a l e fic i a (harmful mag- ments. Even though Martin Luther considered the spir-
ic), apostasy, and demon worship, their trial, like that itual bewitchment of heretics more dangerous than
of the Templars, was politically motivated and did not witchcraft, he believed that witches deserved harsh
begin a general hunt for other demon-worshippers. punishment for their apostasy. Reformers of all stripes
Other trials of alleged Luciferans rarely included pushed for the suppression of religious deviants, and
charges of sorc e ry, which remained restricted to polit- the frightening image of demon-worshipping apostates
ical enemies or clergy. In no surviving trials before proved long-lived. Such fears were reinforced by reports
1500 do we find the complete stereotype of a fully that many of the New World’s native converts were
d i a b o l i zed, night-flying, Sabbat-attending, cannibalis- secretly worshiping demons. The polemical conflicts of
tic witch. the Reformation era, moreover, escalated fears of dia-
bolical conspiracies and divine punishment, as well as
TheVauderie expectations of the apostasy and devil-worship expect-
These two types of accusations, sectarian diabolism and ed to precede the Second Coming. Protestant and
illicit magics, became fused around the turn of the fif- Catholic polemicists blamed each other for the sudden,
teenth century. Several infamous cases of necromancy apocalyptic rise in diabolical activities. Protestants asso-
at noble courts, along with the continuing papal ciated belief in magic with Roman Catholicism, while
schism, wars, famines, and plagues that clearly indicat- Roman Catholics depicted Protestants as agents of the
ed divine displeasure, led the University of Paris in Devil, spreading doubt, heresy, and atheism, preparing
1398 to declare demon-assisted sorcery heretical, since the ground for diabolical witchcraft.
it required a pact with the Devil. Mendicant preachers Mainstream propagandists saw Anabaptists and spir-
widely blamed demon-worshipping Jews, heretics, and itualists as inspired, wittingly or not, by the De v i l .
other deviants for incurring divine displeasure, and tri- Anabaptist refusal to baptize infants was fre q u e n t l y
als of heretics increasingly incorporated sorcery and equated with sacrificing children to the Devil, and
demon worship among the charges. many Lutherans and Catholics feared that refusal to
The Dominican Johannes Ni d e r’s treatise on sin, exorcise infants prior to baptism (Calvinists) or to bap-
Formicarius (The Anthill), composed in 1437 and 1438 tize them at all (Anabaptists) would lead unerringly to
at the Council of Basel, mentioned some Swiss trials an increase in diabolical activity.
from the first decade of the fifteenth century of a sect of
devil-worshipping sorc e rers who devo u red infants and The Great Witch Hunts and Diabolism
p e rformed m a l e fic i a . Si m u l t a n e o u s l y, deep in the For both those who believed the diabolism of witches’
French and Swiss Alps, both inquisitors and secular confessions to be real and those who argued they we re
courts began systematically overlaying popular notions m e re diabolical illusions, diabolical witchcraft
of magical, nocturnal assemblies onto their conception remained a most serious crime. The presence in
of the heretical witch synagogue. Eu rope of even a small number of blasphemous devil-
Ni d e r’s efforts helped convince many judges and worshippers was widely believed to provoke the wrath
bishops of the existence of a massive diabolical conspir- of God, evident especially after 1560 in an appare n t l y
acy combining m a l e fic i a and Devil worship. Tr i a l s i n c reasing number of catastrophes, plagues, famines,
against alleged demonic witch sects gradually escalated and destru c t i ve storms. It became more necessary than
after 1420, spreading through Swiss, French, and e ver to discover and re m ove the horrible blasphemers
German territories. In 1486 a German Do m i n i c a n who we re responsible. By now, most Anabaptists had
inquisitor, Heinrich Kramer (Institoris), composed the been wiped out or driven underground. Ot h e r
most infamous witch-hunter’s manual, the Ma l l e u s scapegoats had to be found, so there was a huge re v i va l
Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches). It irrevocably of the fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry stereotype of witchcraft as a
linked maleficia to a diabolical sect and explained why demonic sect.
women so often served the Devil. Even the moderately Ordinary people took responsibility for ridding their
skeptical Ulrich Molitor, author of De laniiset phitoni- communities of troublesome and dangerous witches.
cis mulieribus(Concerning Witches and Fortunetellers) Fear of m a l e fic i a was old and widespread, and natural
of 1489, who argued that the maleficia of witches was disasters fueled fears of witchcraft, leading to increased
278 Diabolism |
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popular pre s s u re for judges and rulers to act against as the sixth century B.C.E., Diana was identified with
alleged witches. Once in the court room or tort u re the Greek goddess Artemis, the daughter of Zeus and
c h a m b e r, howe ve r, interrogators quickly turned the Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. Known as a virgin
subject of questioning from harmful magic to dia- who could be cruel and vindictive, she was associated
bolism. By the thousands, prisoners were compelled to with hunting and the moon. The second-century
confess to having made pacts with the Devil and join- B.C.E. Roman scholar Varro said that in ancient times
ing a diabolical sect in which they flew to the witches’ country folk would seek out solitary beasts and remote
Sabbat, had sexual intercourse with demons, wor- forests “under the leadership of Diana, so to speak,”
shipped Satan (often symbolized by the kiss of shame), (Varro 1619, 163) and the seventh-century encyclope-
and plotted evil. Everywhere in Europe that witchcraft dist, Isidore of Seville, in his Etymologiae (Etymologies,
trials escalated into large-scale hunts, these diabolical 8.11.56), proposed deriving her name from duana
elements became central in trials and in learned justifi- (from duo, “two”), because the moon appears during
cations. Every major witchcraft trial was a judicial effort the day as well as the night. Diana’s two earliest shrines
to eradicate diabolism. Once belief in these diabolical were at Capua and Aricia, near Rome. At Ephesus,
elements declined among the learned, gove r n m e n t where St. Paul encountered her cult, she was wor-
leaders, and judiciary, the rationale behind mass trials shipped as a goddess of fertility.
disappeared, although concern about maleficia lingered Diana was also associated and sometimes identifie d
for centuries. with the Greek and Roman goddess Hecate or the
German goddess Holde, both of whom people
GARY K. WAITE
i d e n t i fied with night and moonlight, the dead, and
See also: ANABAPTISTS;APOCALYPSE;AQUINAS,THOMAS;CALVIN, n e c ro m a n c y. A number of ecclesiastical texts also
JOHN;CANONEPISCOPI;CHRONOLOGYOFWITCHCRAFTTRIALS; associated Diana with a shadowy fig u re, He ro d i a s ,
CONFESSIONS;CONRADOFMARBURG;DEMONOLOGY;DEMONS;
whose identity is disputed, and with others, such as
DEVIL;GREGORYIX,POPE;HERESY;IDOLATRY;INQUISITION,
Bensozia or Pe rchta, whose provenance is equally
MEDIEVAL;JEWS,WITCHCRAFT,ANDMAGIC;JOHNXXII,POPE;
o b s c u re .
KISSOFSHAME;KYTELER,ALICE;LUTHER,MARTIN;MALLEUS
From at least the tenth century C . E ., churc h m e n
MALEFICARUM;MOLITOR,ULRICH;NEWSPAIN;NIDER,JOHANNES;
e xe rcised themselves over a widespread belief that
ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;PARIS,
UNIVERSITYOF;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;RITUALMURDER; t h e re we re certain women who we re seduced by Sa t a n
SABBAT;SATANISM;SUPERSTITION;TEMPLARS;VAUDOIS and his demons into believing that on particular spec-
(WALDENSIANS); WARSOFRELIGION(FRANCE). i fied nights they would ride upon beasts, cove r i n g
References and further reading: g reat distances, in the train of Diana or He rodias, and
Behringer,Wolfgang. 2004.Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global that they did so because they had been specific a l l y
History.Cambridge, UK: Polity. called to act as her servants. T h e re was also another
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
b e l i e f, equally widespread, that a ghostly throng of the
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
dead, especially those who had died before their
Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons.London: Sussex
appointed time, could sometimes be seen or heard
University Press.
rampaging through the air—an association more
Lambert, Malcolm. 1998. The Cathars.Oxford: Oxford University
a p p ropriate, strictly speaking, for Hecate than for
Press.
Langmuir, Gavin. 1990. Toward a Definition of Antisemitism. Di a n a .
Berkeley: University of California Press. This spectral hunt and Di a n a’s band we re not
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. always kept apart in popular (or indeed learned)
2d ed. London: Longman. imagination. We find that the tradition of some
Pearl, Jonathan. 1998. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and such group headed by Diana, denounced in the text
Politics in France, 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid k n own as the Canon Ep i s c o p i (ca. 906), appeare d
Laurier University Press.
over and over again in discussions and glosses
Stephens, Walter. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the
b e t ween the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. A
Crisis of Belief.Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Ve ronese priest, for example, re c o rded in 1313 that
Press.
many among the laity believed in the existence of a
Thurston, RobertW. 2001. Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: The Rise
nocturnal society whose leader was Diana or
and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America.
Harlow, UK: Pearson. He rodias. The tradition lived on in later sixteenth-
Waite, Gary K. 2003. Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft in Early and seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry texts, as early modern
Modern Europe.Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. demonologists quoted it in support of their argu-
ments about whether witches really flew through the
Diana (Artemis) air on their way to a Sa b b a t .
The Roman goddess Diana has a long history of associ- Skepticism, howe ve r, was not confined to the later
ations with the nocturnal practices of witches. As early period. The twe l f t h - c e n t u ry English bishop, John of
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John of Sa l i s b u ry mentioned), the penance was
increased to seven years.
Later on, howe ve r, as these legends about a divine
queen and her hunting band started to blend with the
fantasy of witches’ transvection to a Sabbat, the pro b-
lem for the Church increased considerably. If the flights
were diabolical delusions, the sufferers must be warned
(which was, by and large, what the Inquisition tended
to do). If, however, the flights were real, mere penance
would not be enough. Diana’s “game,” as it was some-
times called, therefore became a factor in the develop-
ment of the later witch prosecutions in Europe.
During the nineteenth century, Diana was incorpo-
rated into a new myth directly related to the emergence
of Wi c c a , or modern witchcraft. In Ara d i a ( 1 8 9 9 ) ,
Charles Leland, an American journalist, suggested that
Diana had sent her daughter Aradia to earth to teach
witchcraft to outlaws from feudal oppression, thus
making her the goddess of what Wiccans call “the old
religion,” a fantasy the Egyptologist Ma r g a ret Mu r r a y
strongly reinforced in the 1920s and 1930s.
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
See also:BURCHARDOFWORMS;CANONEPISCOPI;CONTEMPORARY
WITCHCRAFT(POST1800); FLIGHTOFWITCHES;HECATE;
ISIDOREOFSEVILLE,ST.; JOHNOFSALISBURY;MOON;MURRAY,
MARGARETALICE.
References and further reading:
Flint, Valerie I.J. 1991. The Rise of Magic in Early Mediaeval
Europe.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ginzburg, Carlo. 1991. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath.
Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. NewYork: Random House.
Hutton, Ronald. 1999. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of
Modern Pagan Witchcraft.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
John of Salisbury. 2001. “Policraticus.”Pp. 77–78 in Witchcraft in
Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History.2d ed. Edited by
The goddess Diana linked to night, moonlight, and the dead; thought Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters. Philadelphia: University
to lead a furious horde of witches on a nocturnal ride. (Tooke’s of Pennsylvania Press.
Pantheon of the Heathan Gods,1659) Varro, Marcus Terentius. 1619. Opera Omnia.Dordrecht.
Dionysus (Bacchus)
Salisbury, noted in his Policraticus (The Statesman) that
people were deceived by evil spirits into imagining that Dionysus was the god of wine and intoxication in
“Noctiluca” or “Herodias” summoned them at night to Greek mythology, honored by the Romans as Bacchus.
orgiastic feasts where rew a rds and punishments we re His cult, which spread from the East and continued for
meted out, and infants were sacrificed and eaten before half a millennium, originally showed him as the god of
being vomited up and returned unharmed to their cra- fertility and vegetation. Some scholars have mistakenly
dles. “Indeed, it is obvious from this,” said John, “that it believed that a religion of witchcraft existed in late
is only poor old women and the simpleminded kinds of medieval and early modern Europe and that it was a
men who enter into these beliefs” (John of Sa l i s b u ry successor to the Dionysian cult. After reaching adult-
2001, 78). hood, he was said to have roamed the world, accompa-
The penalties imposed by the Latin Church upon nied by his tutor Silenus, satyrs, and bacchantes (female
those who persisted in believing that these things were followers), spreading his invention, wine. A dying and
real rather than illusory were not particularly severe at reviving god with some sun-god attributes, he possessed
first. Burchard of Worms prescribed one year’s penance the gift of prophecy; in Thrace, places of divination
on bread and water for those who flew with Holde, and were associated with his name.
two years for those who flew with Diana. But should Euripides described the main features of his cult in
anyone believe he or she could resuscitate the dead (as his Ba c c h a e ( fifth century B . C . E .): bacchanalia, rituals
280 Dionysus (Bacchus) |
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accompanied by mad dancing, Dionysian, or Ba c c h i c , masks of masked plays, and use sticks as phallic sym-
mysteries in which one can detect Orphic and bols. These rites, in midwinter and at Carnival time,
Py t h a g o rean influences promising a happy world after approximately correspond to the dates of the minor vil-
death. At the ecstatic nightly orgies of early Dionysian lage and the major urban Roman Dionysia and
bacchantes in Thrace, groups of women led by men Saturnalia. Probably through conscious use of ancient
usually participated as escorts to Dionysus (his thiasos, l i t e r a ry sources, impersonations of Dionysus or
“band of re ve l e r s”), assimilating themselves to a deity Bacchus reappeared in Central European Carnival and
that assumed an animal shape (tiger, leopard, snake, grape harvest festivals, where clerical authorities banned
donkey, goat) and possessed them. In other cases, they invocations of Bacchus.
impersonated the maenads and satyrs escort i n g In the Balkans, Thracian Dionysia also surv i ved in
Dionysus. These orgies we re characterized by wild the Rosalia Feast, the most popular death feast of impe-
dances and pro m i s c u i t y. Certain interpretations claim rial Rome. Rosalia coincided with Anthesteria, a
that the bacchantes also performed a ritual killing of the Dionysian festival of the dead. This was the time when
child Dionysus, tearing to pieces their human sacrifices the dead came to be among the living. InThrace, con-
embodying the deity and eating them raw (omophagia). nections between the cult of Dionysus and the cult of
This practice is related to the myth that, as a baby, the dead remained strong. A period of the Rosalia week
Dionysus was torn to pieces, boiled, and subsequently is still devoted to visiting the family dead and offering
revived by Rhea. them treats in the Pr a voslavic part of the modern
From the second century B.C.E. onwards, the most Balkans. Russian, Romanian, and Southern Sl a v i c
widely known sequence of festivities within the Gre e k fairies bearing this name (rusali, rusalki) have a strong
Dionysia came from Attica and had three cru c i a l death-related character.
points, in De c e m b e r, De c e m b e r – Ja n u a ry, and C e rtain features of Di o n y s u s’s Thracian death-re l a t-
Fe b ru a ry – Ma rch. The essence of these festive rites ed cult may surv i ve in the fairy mythology of the
(which played an important part in the emergence of Balkans and in the possession rites practiced in
the dithyramb and Greek drama) was a march carrying Ort h o d ox areas (ca˘lusarii, ru s a l i a), w h e re ecstasy
phallic symbols and chanting ecstatic choral songs, with t h rough music and dance played an important ro l e
a sacrifice performed as part of magical-religious meta- t h rough the mainesthai state, a possessed state of mind
morphosis-plays commemorating Dionysus’s death and identifying with the deity. The same might be said of
resurrection. the possessed, ecstatic healing practice of fairy magi-
In the Hellenistic age, this cult became public. It s cians who we re snatched to the otherworldly sphere of
f o l l owers organized themselves in groups called s p e i ra , fairies and who communicate with the fairy world. By
or s p i ra , which included military officials, kitchen the Hellenistic age, an essential component of
heads, and wine masters. They organized banquets in Dionysian mysticism was being “joyously lost” in a
caves—the cultic places of nymphs. Traces of these fes- h e a ven fla vo red with the pleasures of Ap h ro d i t e
tive drinking binges survived as late as the ninth centu- ( Nilsson 1957). This heaven shares many features with
ry C.E.; memories of these tamed orgies of Hellenistic the heaven of modern Balkan fairies.
Dionysia may have surv i ved in Balkan narratives of
ÉVA PÓCS;
feasts by “winter demons” or the movable feasts of
witches marching from house to house and wine cellar TRANSLATED BY ORSOLYA FRANK
to wine cellar. Se veral surviving sources from T h r a c e
See also: FAIRIES.
and Dacia describe organized marches and banquets of
References and further reading:
the s p e i ra s , which share many features with Bu l g a r i a n
Dawkins, Richard M. 1906. “The Modern Carnival in Thrace and
and Romanian groups of fairies: the “horse,” the
the Cult of Dionysus.” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 26:
“mute” who impersonates a policeman, and other typi- 190–206.
cal characters return in dramatic plays for NewYear and Küppers, Gustav A. 1954. “Rosalienfest und Trancetänze in
Carnival. Duboka. Pfingstbräuche im ostserbischen Bergland.” Zeitschrift
Some scholars (Nilsson 1911; Lawson 1910) saw für Ethnologie 79: 212–224.
modern Balkan surv i vals of ancient Dionysia in the Lawson, John C. 1910. Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek
masked rites of Greek, Bulgarian, and Serbian are a s Religion. A Study of Survivals.Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
b e t ween New Year and Carnival, which include
Nilsson, Martin P. 1911. “Der Ursprung der Tragödie. III.
d e a t h - a n d - re v i val plays performed in the course of
Dionysoskultus und Tragödie.” Neue Jahrbücher 10: 673–680.
kukeri, turca, koledari, the battles of the dark and light
———. 1957. The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and
(Turkish and Christian) groups, the fights between win-
Roman Age. Lund: Gleerup.
ter and spring, and the battles between two villages over
Portefaix, Lilian. 1982. “Concepts of Ecstasy in Euridipes’
fertility.Their rites enact the death and revival of vege- Bacchanals.” Pp. 201–210 in Religious Ecstasy.Edited by Niles
tation; they employ the horse, goat, bull, and deer G. Hohn. Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell International.
Dionysus (Bacchus) 281 |
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Discernment of Spirits m e d i e val luminaries as Thomas Aquinas, Be r n a rd of
The term discernment of spirits refers to the various C l a i rvaux, and Richard of St. Vi c t o r, to Pi e r re d’ A i l l y,
ways true manifestations can be distinguished from Ignatius Loyola, Domenico Gravina (d. 1643), and
false, and has been especially important in assessing Giovanni Bona (d. 1674). Broadly, they concurred that
whether someone was believed to be possessed by the discernment should be undertaken both for the purpos-
Devil or filled with God. Discretio spirituum was, in es of self-examination and the examination of others,
Catholicism, a personal gift, an institutional impera- especially by spiritual directors and inquisitors. T h e
tive, and a manner of assessing the authenticity of principal guides were believed to be the inquirer’s own
worldly manifestations of divine favor in individuals. gift of discernment (acquired through inner knowledge
Catholicism is a sacramental religion, that is, it or through holding a Church office), aligned with “art
a l l ows for direct and unexpected manifestations of and science,” gained through experience and the study
divine power in the material world. Because such signs of theology. Judgment re q u i red knowledge of the cir-
as the gift of pro p h e c y, visions, or ecstasies, offer cumstances in which the phenomenon arose (including
re n own—for example, in the cult of saints living or ill health); of the credibility of the visionary, including
dead—the Church requires those in authority to distin- his or her attitude to the phenomena being experi-
guish truly God-given signs from the work of devils, or enced; and of the nature of the manifestations, includ-
human frauds. ing whether such prophecies or re velations concurre d
Paul identified the capacity to discern one manifesta- with Church teaching. Because discernment worked to
tion from another as a divinely bestowed grace (1 Cor. expose and eliminate personal pride, willingness to sub-
12:10), and John wrote, “test the spirits to see whether mit oneself to scrutiny became an indispensable mark
they are of God” (1 John 4:1); but the Devil’s capacity of possible holiness.
to disguise himself as an “angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14) St. Ignatius (d. 1556) focused on discernment with-
has historically rendered this task of discernment diffi- in oneself. He described, for example, how experienc-
cult for Catholics. In the late Middle Ages, a time of ing an emotion, from its source in thought to its
s t rong mystical tendencies, the discernment of spirits e x p ression in feeling, helped one “little by little [ . . . ]
became an especially pressing issue when inspirational to know the difference in the spirits that we re at work ,
figures—frequently women, such as Bridget of Sweden, one of the devil and the other of Go d” (Christian
Catherine of Genoa, or Joan of Arc, but also men, as, 1982,103). The demonically possessed nun Je a n n e
for example, Meister Eckhart and Savonarola—came to F é ry claimed that Ma ry Magdalene had visited her and
be venerated and emulated. In the case of women, the explained how to discern the actions of good and evil
emergence of such fig u res aroused fears of female sus- spirits: “Good spirits when they arrive bring fear to the
ceptibility to devils, linked with a deepening anxiety person, but when they leave, leave them full of joy and
about the power of the Devil in the world. The central consolation. In contrast, evil spirits cause some appar-
question was whose will was at work in any given case: ent re c reation when they arrive, and when they leave ,
God’s, the Devil’s, or a human being’s. the person is confused, perplexed, bew i l d e red and ill at
The most influential late medieval commentator, him- e a s e” (Bu i s s e ret 1586, fol. 19r). This example, of
self a notable mystic, was the French theologian Je a n course, begs the question of the authenticity of the
Gerson, the chancellor of the Un i versity of Paris. Ge r s o n vision. Jeanne des Anges, the superior of the Loudun
w rote two guides to this problem, De Distinctione Ursulines, had a guardian angel that re s o l ved the
Ve ra rum Visionum a Falsis ( On Distinguishing Tru e p roblem by telling her not to obey what it said unless it
Visions from False) in 1401, and De Pro b a t i o n e a c c o rded with what her human spiritual dire c t o r
Spirituum ( On Testing Spirits) in 1415, instru c t i n g told her.
C h u rch officials in how to authenticate or inva l i d a t e In this system, those most liable to be scru t i n i ze d
claims to divine inspiration. De Pro b a t i o n ewas written at we re also potentially ideal people to discern: T h u s ,
the Council of Constance to address and implicitly to Madame Barbe Acarie, a French Carmelite mystic, dis-
condemn the re velations of St. Bridget of Swe d e n . cerned fraud in an ecstatic named Nicole Ta ve r n i e r,
Gerson (who at the end of his life supported Joan of Arc ) but, following the example of St. Te resa, she had her
h e re drew attention to the supposed moral and mental own ecstasies scru t i n i zed by churchmen. The pro b l e m
weakness of women, said to make them more vulnerable of who could judge such gifted judges was particularly
to delusion and to the sin of pride. Clearly, though, the acute for women, especially those like Jeanne des Anges
behavior of female aspirants re flected their marginal posi- who we re also exo rcised for demonic possession. In
tion in relation to the Church hierarc h y, and the dire c t 1599, Martín Del Rio interpreted false claims of divine
receipt of divine favors was often their only way of active- favors as the product of witchcraft.
ly participating in spiritual life. The discernment of spirits provides a basis for judg-
Many other theologians set down guidelines for spir- ing ecstasies, visions, and re velations and implies a
itual discernment, from St. Augustine through such h i e r a rchy of holiness. Without it, validation of divine
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inspiration by the institutional Church becomes impos- the power of witches to inflict harm inherently involved
sible. Thus, discernment arguably remains crucial to the mediation of demons, so they must have concluded
the survival of Catholicism. a pact with the Devil. During the early modern period,
Eu ropeans frequently suspected that their maladies
—SARAH FERBER
resulted from others’ malice. Changes in medical theo-
See also: DELRIO,MARTÍN;DEMONS;JOANOFARC;DEVIL; ry, more rigorous legal standards concerning proof of
EXORCISM;FÉRY,JEANNE;GERSON,JEAN;JOANOFARC;LIVING causation, and growing skepticism about confessions
SAINTS;LOUDUNNUNS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;SKEPTICISM.
obtained through torture ultimately led doctors, jurists,
References and further reading:
and magistrates to prefer natural explanations for dis-
Boland, Paschal. 1959. The Concept of Discretio Spirituum in John
eases over spiritual ones. The decline in witchcraft per-
Gerson’s“De Probatione Spirituum”and “De Distinctione
secutions was thus intimately connected with the rise of
Verarum Visionum A Falsis.”Washington, DC: Catholic
modern medical materialism, which caused psychologi-
University of America Press.
[Buisseret, F.] 1586. Histoire admirable et veritable des choses cal influences on health and disease to be de-empha-
advenves a l’endroict d’vne Religieuse professe du conuent des sized, not only in medical theory but in historical and
Soeurs noires, de la ville de Mons en Hainaut.Paris: Claude de a n t h ropological understanding of witchcraft as we l l .
Monstre-Oeil. Only recently have medical theory and social science
Caciola, Nancy. 2003. Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic begun to appreciate the full extent to which emotions
Possession in the Middle Ages.Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell and social relationships can influence health and dis-
University Press.
ease.
Christian, William, Jr. 1982. “Provoked Religious Weeping in
Early Modern Spain.” Pp. 97–114 in Religious Organization
Witch-Related Diseases
and Religious Experience.Edited by J. Davis. Association of
and Cures
Social Anthropologists Monograph 21. London and NewYork:
O ver 70 percent of the accusations against witches in
Academic.
Renoux, Christian. 1999. “Discerner la sainteté des mystiques: Essex county, England, invo l ved illness and death of peo-
Quelques exemples italiens de l’âge baroque.” Rives nord- ple, and almost all the rest concerned injury to animals
méditerranéennes3: 19–28. (Thomas 1971, 539). The pro p o rtion was not this high
Sallmann, Jean-Michel. 1992. “Théorie et pratiques du discerne- e ve ry w h e re, for witches could also be blamed for bad
ment des esprits.” Pp. 91–116 in Visions indiennes, visions baro- weather and a variety of other problems; but disease—
ques: Les métissages de l’inconscient.Paris: PUF. bodily maladies and death—neve rtheless accounted for
Schutte, Anne Jacobson. 2001. Aspiring Saints: Pretense of Holiness,
most suspicions and accusations elsew h e re .
Inquisition, and Gender in the Republic of Venice, 1618–1750.
In early modern Europe, as in many premodern soci-
Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
eties, many, although not all, diseases might be ascribed
Viller, Marcel 1937–1995. “Discernement des esprits.”
to witchcraft. Witches we re only occasionally blamed
Dictionnaire de spiritualité, ascétique et mystique: doctrine et his-
for epidemic diseases, and diseases with clear and well-
toire.Paris: Beauchesne.
Weber, Alison 1993. “Between Ecstasy and Exorcism: Religious k n own symptoms we re less likely to be blamed on
Negotiation in Sixteenth-Century Spain.” Journal of Medieval witchcraft than diseases with etiologies that we re
and Renaissance Studies23: 221–234. unclear. Witchcraft could be blamed, however, for any
———.2000. “Spiritual Administration: Gender and disease that seemed somehow unusual, if it came on
Discernment in the Carmelite Reform.” Sixteenth Century unusually swiftly, lingered unusually long, or presented
Journal31: 123–146. other unusual symptoms, for it was the sense of strange-
ness that most strongly characterized accounts of dis-
Disease ease attributed to witchcraft.
Disease was by far the most common harm ascribed to This sense of abnormality was strongly reinforced if,
witchcraft. In theory, witches can inflict many types of in addition to presenting unusual symptoms, the onset
damage, but most suspicions in early modern Europe of the disease came at a time of some interpersonal dif-
involved bodily dysfunction or death. The kinds of ficulties, and especially if its symptoms seemed symbol-
maladies blamed on witchcraft varied greatly, but in ically linked to the conflict. Witchcraft was not associ-
general they were maladies that seemed unusual and ated with any specific diseases, because it was concerned
somehow linked to interpersonal conflict. with another dimension of health and illness, social
Explanations of how witches inflict bodily ailments relations. Although practically any disease could be
vary from culture to culture. They include the idea that attributed to witchcraft in theory, in practice only a
witches’ spirits fly out at night and devour the spirits of small fraction of all illnesses we re blamed on it. T h e
their victims, that their words or gestures or touch or explanation is that a disease was seen as caused by
b reath have an innate power to harm, and that they witchcraft only if its symptoms meshed with the
conjure spirits or use poisons against their enemies. In patient’s social relationships in certain ways. Two condi-
late medieval Eu rope, demonologists concluded that tions were necessary: Witchcraft was blamed if a disease
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could not be fully accounted for by natural agents and Although neither the populace nor most gove r n-
if the patient had had an altercation or encounter that ments evinced much alarm about beneficent healers,
suggested a malign interpersonal influence. demonology apparently heightened popular concern
Because of the primacy of social relations in diseases about the baleful influence of witches. This new ideol-
caused by witchcraft, cures similarly focused on social ogy not only made people more likely to look for
relationships. One approach was to try to get the sus- witchcraft as the cause of illness, but also incre a s e d
pected witch to remove the disease, either by reconcil- their vulnerability to psychosomatic disord e r s
ing with her (or him) or by threatening retribution. A p rovoked by fear of witchcraft. Ap p a re n t l y, it eve n
second approach was to shift the disease to another per- affected the nature of people’s symptoms, as they
son, or even transpose the illness back onto the person adjusted their reactions to disease to fit their cultural
causing it. A third was to punish the witch, either p re c o n c e p t i o n s .
through informal violence or by denouncing her to the
authorities. Sometimes the afflicted person attempted The Enlightened Understanding of
these remedies, but more typically, popular healers, Witchcraft and Disease
“witch doctors,” or even specialized “u n w i t c h e r s” per- Symptomatology may have changed during the early
formed this service. Most societies have such specialists, modern period, not only when people in previously iso-
and they were common in early modern Europe. lated regions began shaping their ailments to fit new,
standardized models disseminated by witch hunters,
How Witches Cause Disease but also when, later, they felt compelled to manifest
Explanations of how witches are supposed to cause dis- increasingly extreme symptoms of bewitchment to jus-
ease vary from culture to culture, but basic to them all tify accusations as the elite gradually disengaged from
is the assumption that witches exert some sort of occult prosecuting witches. A growing skepticism in the elite
or magical power over the victim. The Dobu Islanders about tort u red confessions of m a l e fic i u m ( h a r m f u l
in the Western Pacific say that a witch’s spirit leaves her magic) as well as about diabolism, together with new
body while she sleeps and steals the spirit of her victim. currents in medical thinking, combined to downplay
Similarly, the Nupi and Gwari in Africa say that a the potential for magical influences. One crucial step,
witch’s soul roams about at night and eats the soul of taken in Louis XIV’s France in 1682, was the legal rede-
her victim, causing the person to die of a wasting dis- finition of poisoning as a purely material process,
ease. The Pueblo of North America hold that witches stripped of its traditional magical associations; another
send an insect, sharp object, or piece of flesh or shroud was the increasing propensity to regard psychogenic ail-
from a corpse into a person to cause disease; staring, the ments as something other than genuine disord e r s
evil eye, is commonly thought to cause disease in South imposed by external assaults. These currents of thought
Asia. Early modern European popular culture believed reinforced each other and blended with larger cultural
witches possessed a variety of occult means for causing trends in the eighteenth century to shape both medical
disease: dispatch of familiar spirits; pressure by the theory and the retrospective understanding of witch-
witch’s own spirit on a sleeping victim; the evil eye; craft trials and witch beliefs. Although medicine never
touch; uttered threats or curses; performance of ritual completely lost sight of the role of nonmaterial factors
magic; and poisons. in disease, it dropped the idea that illness could be
Popular ideas about how witches caused illness we re imposed by someone else’s ill will, and the role of the
seldom ve ry specific about the underlying mechanisms patient’s emotions in disease was long supported by lit-
that made them work, but natural magicians, philoso- tle more than the pragmatic observations of country
phers, and theologians constructed elaborate theories that doctors.
connected magical actions to theories about health and Subsequently, the rise of psychosomatic theory made
disease. Galenic medicine, dominant since antiquity, physicians and social scientists more aware of the extent
e m p h a s i zed physical bodily processes; but its notion that and power of psychogenic diseases, and so hysteria and
health depended on a balance of humors combining the power of suggestion became acknowledged as
physical and emotional aspects, subject to enviro n m e n t a l s e c o n d a ry aspects of witch beliefs, whose powe r
as well as internal processes, left some possibilities for spir- depended on general cultural expectations and individ-
itual and astrological influences. Renaissance Ne o p l a t o n i c ual psychological vulnerability. In recent decades,
philosophy posited a living universe suffused with spirits however, psychosomatic theory has undergone a funda-
that could affect the physical world, and its principle of mental revision, replacing the old Freud-based psycho-
sympathetic action supported popular notions of sympa- dynamic model with an interpretation centered on the
thetic cures. Si m u l t a n e o u s l y, late medieval theologians physiological effects of stress. Although it is still
c l a s s i fied all agents of magic as demons, and concluded b e l i e ved that intrapsychic tensions are sometimes
that anyone exe rting an occult influence on health or dis- s o m a t i c i zed, as postulated in classical psyc h o s o m a t i c
ease must be in league with the De v i l . theory, the new consensus is that physiological changes
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that are adaptive in the short term but damaging when industrial civilization. The kinds of knowledge sought
they become chronic are responsible for far more health can pertain to almost any human problem, from the
p roblems. Such changes may cause discrete ailments, identity of a petty thief or future spouse to the pro s p e c t s
and they may also be contributing factors in maladies of an empire embarking on war.
with additional causes. Internal psychological factors T h e re are hundreds, probably thousands, of divina-
play a significant role in these processes, but enviro n- t o ry techniques, ranging from general-purpose oracles
mental forces, including interpersonal conflicts, can to specialized methods focused on a single type of con-
have a far greater and more direct influence than earlier cern. Divinatory techniques include the deliberate seek-
medical theories appreciated. Psychological factors, like ing of omens, observation of spontaneously occurring
witchcraft, affect a wide range of health problems, and natural phenomena considered as portents of future
include powe rful environmental influences. T h e s e e vents, and consciously induced prophecies, internally
parallels do not reduce witchcraft beliefs to psychophys- generated prognostications; but divination generally
ical theory, but they do suggest that witchcraft fears entails ove rt rituals with results that are interpreted to
have a firmer basis than traditional enlightened under- provide the desired information. Although anyone can
standing held. u n d e rtake divination, many cultures have specialists
who provide this service. Though modern social scien-
EDWARD BEVER
tists reject the supernatural transmission of information
See also:BEWITCHMENT;COUNTERMAGIC;CUNNINGFOLK;EVIL assumed by people who believe in divination, they rec-
EYE;IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL;MALEFICIUM;MEDICINEANDMEDICAL o g n i ze that it serves numerous socially and personally
THEORY;PLAGUE;POISON.
useful purposes, facilitating choices and va l i d a t i n g
References and further reading:
judgments, particularly when available information is
Bever, Edward. 2000. “Witchcraft Fears and Psychosocial Factors
insufficient for a rational decision. They tend, however,
in Disease.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History30:
to emphasize the ways in which divination can be used
573–590.
to manipulate the credulous or blithely validate people’s
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and
Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. 2d ed. Oxford and p reconceptions, and by so doing they miss the more
Malden, MA: Blackwell. important point that when conducted properly, divina-
Hafen, Brent Q., et al. 1996. Mind, Body, Health: The Effects of tion serves an important function by bringing into
Attitudes, Emotions, and Relationships.Boston: Allyn and Bacon. a w a reness knowledge normally kept unconscious by
Hand, Wayland D. 1980. Magical Medicine: The Folkloric sociocultural or personal-psychological inhibitions.
Component of Medicine in the Folk Belief, Custom and Ritual of
the Peoples of Europe and America.Berkley: University of Purposes
California Press.
Divination can be used to gain information about or
Lindeman, Mary. 1999. Medicine and Society in Early Modern
insight into almost any human situation. In modern
Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
usage it is most commonly associated with prediction of
Macfarlane, Alan. 1999. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A
an individual’s generalized future, “telling someone’s
Regional and Comparative Study.2d rev. ed. London:
Routledge. fortune,” which indeed has been a common use for it,
Marwick, Max, ed. 1982. Witchcraft and Sorcery: Selected Readings. through time and across cultures. Specific predictions
Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. about certain common topics, such as a person’s
Robischeaux, Thomas. 2001. “Witchcraft and Forensic Medicine prospects for love and marriage, career success, and
in Seventeenth-Century Germany.” Pp. 197–215 in Languages longevity are usually included within such generalized
of Witchcraft: Narrative, Ideology, and Meaning in Early Modern fortunes, and often are the objects of more focused div-
Culture. Edited by Stuart Clark. London: Macmillan.
inatory inquiries. Furthermore, divination can be used
Sanders, Andrew. 1995. A Deed Without a Name: The Witch in
to answer more detailed questions, such as which of
Society and History.Oxford: Berg.
two or more courses of action to take, whether or not a
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New
specific endeavor will succeed, or when the auspicious
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
time to start a project might be.
Divination Though modern Westerners associate divination
Many cultures that believe in witches employ divination with personal fortunes, it has also played a more public,
to determine whether or not some particular misfort u n e social role in other times and places. In tribal culture s
was caused by a witch, and, if so, to re veal his or her iden- and ancient civilizations, divination was often used in
t i t y. Divination is a broad category of magic that func- making communal decisions. In early agricultural soci-
tions to learn otherwise inaccessible knowledge about the eties, predictions about the weather and the harve s t
past, present, or future. It is practiced in most, if not all, were a major focus of divinatory activity. Public use of
human cultures, from simple hunting-and-gathering divination continued in the West into Roman times,
societies through all levels of agricultural society, includ- but the conversion to Christianity ended offic i a l
ing medieval and early modern Eu rope, to modern employment of divination, since wanting to know the
Divination 285 |
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f u t u re was contrary to Christian faith in Go d’s prov i- tion of omens, spontaneously occurring natural phe-
dence, claiming to know the future implied a constraint nomena ranging from weather events to animal behav-
on God’s omnipotence, and some practices used in div- iors to the features of a person’s palm print to the day
ination we re suspected of involving demons. on which something occurs. Strictly speaking, paying
Nevertheless, kings and other public personages, along attention to these phenomena is not a form of divina-
with ord i n a ry people, commonly prayed to God for tion if they are observed and reacted to spontaneously,
c e rtainty about the best course of action, and they but it is if they are deliberately studied and systemati-
understood omens and prophecies to be legitimate cally interpreted. Astrology, the prediction of the future
indications of God’s intentions. from the positions of the planets and stars, is the best-
On a more local level, divination continued to be known form of divination of this sort. Another type of
e m p l oyed informally for public purposes thro u g h o u t divination invo l ves certain forms of pro p h e c y. In con-
m e d i e val and early modern Eu rope. In part i c u l a r, divina- trast to externally produced omens, prophecy depends
tion was frequently used to determine the guilt or inno- solely on internal meditation. Like omens, pro p h e c y
cence of suspected criminals, although by the early mod- can be considered a form of divination when it is nur-
ern period it was seldom part of official trial pro c e d u re s . t u red deliberately through ritual preparation and con-
In the Middle Ages, judicial ordeals we re commonly scious cultivation.
used, in which a suspect’s ability to pre vail in combat or Most characteristic forms of divination invo l ve the
e n d u re some torment was taken to signify innocence, employment of rituals intended to generate results that
and which may be considered a form of divination, since will reveal the desired hidden information. These rituals
the outcome had no intrinsic connection to the question. fall generally into two major categories. The fir s t
In both the Middle Ages and the early modern period, includes rituals that create physical patterns or out-
m o re traditional forms of divination we re often comes that the diviner then interprets; the second
e m p l oyed informally to identify thieves. Another form of involves rituals in which the diviner gazes into a reflec-
judicial divination widely used in the early modern peri- tive surface and “sees” an image relevant to the issue at
od invo l ved “s w i m m i n g” (that is, throwing a suspected hand. In the early modern period there were innumer-
witch in the water to see whether she [or he] would sink able rituals of the first type; examples include ord e a l s ,
or float) to identify witches, although it was nearly always the casting of dice or other lots, opening a book like the
used outside official pro c e e d i n g s . Bible and reading the first passage noticed, putting a
Other uses for divination we re not focused on dis- d rop of liquid from a pregnant woman’s breast into
cerning guilt. Closely related to identifying thieves was water to learn by whether it sank or floated the sex of
locating stolen or lost property, and equally popular was her unborn child, and interpreting the pattern of ashes,
divination to locate buried treasure or missing persons. smoke, and, in the eighteenth century, coffee gro u n d s
Still other uses of divination included learning about to answer a specific question or discern a general fate.
the well-being of a distant loved one or the disposition Other examples of physical rituals, employed part i c u-
of a competitor or potential ally, and obtaining infor- l a r l y, although not exc l u s i ve l y, to identify thieve s ,
mation about some past event with current re l e va n c e . included the “sieve and sheers” and “book and key,” in
In short, though divination was most commonly used which objects held by people who had been ro b b e d
to address a fairly limited number of concerns about the moved when the name of the thief was spoken, and the
future, it could be used to guide almost any vital deci- practice of putting slips of paper with names on them
sion a person had to make. in balls of clay and dropping them in water to see which
unraveled first.
Techniques A method used to identify witches involved holding
The techniques by which divination is conducted are ceremonies designed to draw the guilty party, and then
legion. Over 100 of them have been formally classifie d , noting the first person to enter the house. The more
including scapulomancy (inspecting animals’ shoul- limited range of “g a z i n g” rituals usually utilized cry s-
ders), dactyliomancy (using a finger ring), oneiro s c o p y tals, mirrors, sword blades, water, or polished thumb-
( i n t e r p retation of dreams), chiromancy (palm re a d i n g ) , nails. Some rituals straddled the two categories, for
and necromancy (contacting the spirits of the dead). instance, geomancy, in which the diviner gazed at a
Supplementing these are a host of local and even per- random pattern of dots to generate not an image but an
sonal techniques, some early modern examples of which answer. A few worked in other ways entirely, like necro-
include forecasting the weather by interpreting rave n s’ m a n c y, in which a spirit summoned by the conjure r
cries, foretelling the future by the croaking of frogs, and simply divulged the desired information.
p redicting the price of corn by watching what happened
to grains placed on a hot heart h . Personnel
Howe ve r, these innumerable techniques generally Divination does not inherently re q u i re any specialize d
fall into a few broad categories. One is the interpre t a- q u a l i fications, although forms involving books obv i o u s l y
286 Divination |
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re q u i re literacy, and complex methods like necro m a n c y tilate deep concerns, that it is often manipulated to val-
might re q u i re training. A wide variety of techniques are idate preexisting knowledge or decisions, that it serves
a vailable to anyone and are often used by ord i n a ry peo- to bolster confidence in necessarily arbitrary decisions,
ple. Ne ve rtheless, many societies, including Eu ro p e , that it justifies deviations from traditions or social
since prehistoric times, have had specialized practition- norms, that it creates apparently disinterested re s o l u-
ers. In medieval, early modern, and modern Eu rope, these tions of otherwise irre s o l vable disagreements, and that
h a ve included both local “cunning folk” and itinerant for- it provides authoritative support for otherwise mun-
tunetellers. The former might or might not charge for dane advice.
their services; the latter certainly did. Either might spe- Granting the vulnerability of divination to manipula-
c i a l i ze in a certain form of divination or offer a variety of tion and the truth of the points made by social scientists,
types, and might combine divinatory with other magical it is nonetheless important to re c o g n i ze that re c e n t
s e rvices as well. Many claimed to be able to detect witch- a d vances in neurological science tend to confirm that
craft and identify witches; some specialized in this, and the human nervous system contains a great deal of
most who did either also offered ways to re m ove their k n owledge not directly accessible by consciousness, and
spells or retaliate against them through similar magic. which cannot be rationally justified even when bro u g h t
to consciousness; there f o re, techniques that bring this
Bases k n owledge into awareness in a legitimizing context have
In some forms of divination, the meaning of the out- real value for people operating in a world of imperf e c t
come is self-evident, as when someone opens a Bible at information and beset by both conscious and uncon-
random, or the “sieve and sheers” move when a partic- scious distortions of rational thought and discourse.
ular suspect’s name is mentioned. In others, the mean-
EDWARD BEVER
ing is prescribed by a written source, as when dice are
cast and a book listing possible fates is consulted, or by See also: ASTROLOGY;BIBLIOMANCY;COUNTERMAGIC;CUNNING
tradition, as in the ritual to determine the sex of an FOLK;CUNNINGFOLK’SMANUALS;MAGIC,POPULAR;NECROMAN-
unborn baby.The methods involving gazing clearly uti-
CY;ORACLES;ORDEAL;PRODIGIES;RITUALMAGIC;SCRYING;
lize the mind’s ability to construct a meaningful image
SWIMMINGTEST;WITCHFINDERS.
References and further reading:
by combining incoherent perceptions with subcon-
Damasio, Antonio. 2003. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the
scious expectations. Si m i l a r l y, rituals involving the
Feeling Brain.Orlando, FL: Harcourt.
spontaneous interpretation of patterns appear to be
Kieckhefer, Richard. 2000. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge:
techniques to bring unconscious knowledge into con- Cambridge University Press.
sciousness, and the use of devices like the “sieve and Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
sheers” serve to trigger unconscious reactions. The aus- 2d ed. London: Longman.
terities and ritual preparations that often precede div- Macfarlane, A. D. J. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England.
inatory activity would appear to serve a similar purpose, NewYork: Harper and Row.
helping to induce an altered state of consciousness in Martin, Ruth. 1989. Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice,
1550–1650.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
which otherwise inaccessible knowledge can be brought
Ryan, William F. 1999. The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical
into awareness. For those who do divination on their
Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia.University Park:
own account, the manifestation of knowledge in con-
Pennsylvania State University Press.
sciousness occurs directly; when specialists do it for
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New
someone else, the process involves a more complex
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
process, in which diviners combine manifestation of Wilson, Stephen. 2000. The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and
their own knowledge and a subtle reading of the uncon- Magic in Pre-Modern Europe.London and NewYork:
scious reactions of the client. Hambledon and London.
Of course, rituals relying on unconscious pro c e s s e s
a re subject to conscious manipulation, while rituals Dodo, Vincente
relating objective results to standard interpre t a t i o n s (late 15th–early 16th century)
assume an occult connection between objectively inde- An ardent believer in the reality of diabolical witchcraft
pendent events or processes. Fu rt h e r m o re, interpre t a- and in the flight of witches (Lea 1957, I, 367), Dodo
tions are often couched in ambiguous terms, so that achieved significance from his debate with Samuel de
whatever happens, they appear to have been correct (or Cassini (Cassinis), a skeptic of the ability of witches to
any mistake was in how they we re understood), and fly, who attempted to stop witch hunting. Little is
memories of successes tend to ove r s h a d ow those of known about the life of this Dominican theologian,
f a i l u res. All of these considerations have led social who lived in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth cen-
scientists to explain divination’s pervasiveness and per- turies and became abbot of the monastery of Saint
s u a s i veness in terms other than its va l i d i t y. T h e y Thomas in Pavia. The dispute between Dodo and
emphasize that divination allows the questioner to ven- Cassini represents a fundamental clash of beliefs about
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this topic in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Dodo even asserted that Cassini lacked common sense.
Because Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum (The Moreover, he supported the inquisitors (who were near-
Hammer of Witches, 1486) was not yet important, ly always Dominicans) against Cassini’s attacks: T h e
especially in Italy, Dodo’s statements certainly reflect his emergence and increase of witchcraft justified their
personal views rather than external influences. Dodo power.
wrote his Apologia contra li defensori delle strie, et prin- Their polemics continued. Cassini answered Dodo’s
cipaliter contra Quaestiones lamiarum fratris Samuelis de confutation, to which the Dominican abbot re p l i e d
Cassinis ( Apology Against the Defenders of the with an Apologia.Dodo also composed another treatise,
Witches, and Most of All Against the Treatise on C o n t ra inve c t i vam dicti Samuelis in doctrinam Sa n c t i
Witchcraft Written by Samuel de Cassinis), in order to Thomae Aquinatis (A Refutation of Cassini’s Cr i t i c a l
refute some arguments about witchcraft that he claimed Statements on Saint T h o m a s’s Doctrine), defending
that Cassini had abused. Dodo followed the traditional Saint Thomas against Cassini’s attacks, using both logi-
scholastic method of explaining his opponent’s argu- cal arguments and the authority of respectable theolo-
ments before refuting them, but he clearly exaggerated gians; he concluded by accusing his enemy of heresy.
in asserting that Cassini supported the sect of witches.
MICHAELA VALENTE
According to Dodo, Cassini held that no miraculous
event can produce or induce sins, and so Dodo over- See also: AQUINIS,THOMAS;CANONEPISCOPI;CASSINI(CASSINIS),
threw this theory. Also he felt fully justified in claiming, SAMUELDE;DOMINICANORDER;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;JACQUIER,
in rebuttal of Cassini’s explanation, that the authority
NICOLAS;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,
of the Canon Episcopi (the tenth-century ruling that
GIANFRANCESCO.
References and further reading:
maintained that supposed witches only imagined they
Dodo, Vicente. 1506.Apologia contra li defensori delle strie. Et
could fly) applied only to a bygone situation, not the
principaliter contra quaestiones lamiarum fratris Samuelis d.
one in which they were living: The truth about witch-
Cassinis... pro doctrina S. Thomae Aquinatus.Impressum
craft and its reality rested on factual evidence. Pavia: Bernardinum de Garaldis.
Neither Cassini and his allies nor Dodo and his allies ———. 1507. Elogium in materia maleficarum.Pavia: de Garaldis.
wanted to encourage credulity and a lack of critical Johnson, A. F., Victor Scholderer, and D. A. Clarke, eds. 1958.
analysis of experience. They shared the view that no Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in Italy and of Italian
claim should be blindly accepted, since blind accep- Books Printed in Other Countries from 1465 to 1600, now in
tance only encouraged religious charlatans. In s t e a d , The British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum.
Lea, Henry Charles. 1957. Materials Toward a History of
both authors tried to encourage a reformed and pure
Witchcraft. Edited by Arthur C. Howland. 3 vols. NewYork
religion. Dodo, however, worried far more than Cassini
and London: Yoseloff.
about the increase in demonic actions, which he viewed
Max, Frédéric. 1993. “Les premières controverses sur la réalité du
as a threat to the whole natural and divine order of the
sabbat dans l’Italie du XVI siècle.” Pp. 55–62 in Le sabbat des
world; he also castigated various forms of witchcraft as
sorciers en Europe, XVe-XVIIe siécle: Colloque international E. N.
heresies. S. Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, 4–7 novembre 1992. Edited by Nicole
When dealing with demonology, Dodo accepted the Jacques-Chaquin and Maxime Préaud. Grenoble: J. Millon.
major versions, Platonic and Aristotelian, both of
which accepted the reality of demons, concluding that Dogs
demons can do anything. Beginning with brief The dog has a long and diverse tradition as a symbol of
accounts of the origins and the development of each witchcraft, the demonic, and the dead. The dog or jack-
belief, Dodo explored such topics as the demonic pow- al appears in ancient Egyptian art as the deity Anubis, a
er to transport and to deceive men. He remarked that, god of the underworld. Cerberus, the three-headed
in such circumstances, it was impossible to determine hound, guarded the gates of the realms of Hades. Dogs
the correct reason for such supernatural deeds, and were traditional companions of Hecate, the Greek god-
asserted that God allowed demonic powers in order to dess of witchcraft. It is not surprising that medieval
test humanity’s faith and powers of endurance. Do d o Christian demonologists used dogs, especially black
situated the need to understand witchcraft within a far dogs, as symbols for the Devil and witches. Witches’
b roader context, in which Go d’s will was seen as familiars could assume the form of dogs. Witches were
remaining mysterious and obscure to men. Such state- also associated with wolves, and at times these two
ments constituted a textual application of T h o m i s t i c canines became confused in the popular imagination.
theory to demonology. For instance, there is a trial account from 1450 of a
T h roughout his controversy with Cassini, Do d o Swiss witch, Else von Miersburg, who was accused of
s t rongly defended the authority of the Do m i n i c a n riding on an enchanted wolf. But she was also known
o rder; in fact, their quarrel exe m p l i fied the fie rc e for riding on an enchanted dog. Ulrich Molitor’s 1489
polemic between Franciscans and Dominicans, and his De lamiis et phitonicis mulieribus (Concerning Witches
treatise served to emphasize the superiority of the latter. and Fortunetellers), the first illustrated printed book on
288 Dogs |
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witchcraft, contained stories of a witch who rode on a Although the notion of the dog as demon is not
wolf’s back and a discussion of whether witches could quite the same concept as that of the we rew o l f, it is
transmute themselves into animals such as wolves or clear that there was a blending of wolves with dogs in
dogs. It contains an illustration of a canine-witch riding demonological literature and beliefs when it came to
on a pitchfork as well as of a witch riding a wolf. the supernatural nature of these animals. Witches could
The Devil could appear in the form of a black dog. transmute into dogs or wolves. Witches might have
Johann We ye r, the famous German sixteenth-century familiars who we re dogs or wolves. And we rew o l ve s
physician, wrote of this belief in his 1563 De pra e s t i g i i s might at times also be witches.
daemonum ( On the Tricks of De v i l s ) . This book dealt
JANE P. DAVIDSON
with beliefs in witchcraft, magic, divination, and the
like. It was also an early text on mental illnesses. We ye r See also: AGRIPPAVONNETTESHEIM,HEINRICHCORNELIUS;ANI-
is famous for his sympathetic comments concerning MALS;FAMILIARS;MANDRAKE;SAFTLEVEN,CORNELUS;TENIERS,
witches, who, he felt, we re more likely just deranged
DAVIDTHEYOUNGER;WEYER,JOHNANN.
References and further reading:
elderly people and should be treated accord i n g l y.
Davidson, Jane P. 1990. “Wolves, Witches and Werewolves.”
We yer studied with Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa vo n
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts2: 47–68.
Nettesheim, a man himself accused of sorc e ry. Agrippa
Kohl, Benjamin G., and H. C. Erik Midelfort, eds. 1998.On
kept a black dog, called Mo n s i e u r, which some believe d
Witchcraft: An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer’s De
was actually the Devil. The dog was supposedly Praestigiis daemonum.Asheville, NC: Pegasus.
A g r i p p a’s assistant and also his succubus. We yer noted Mora, George, and Benjamin G. Kohl, eds. 1991. Witches, Devils,
that this was merely a dog, and not the Devil, and that and Doctors in the Renaissance: Johann Weyer, De Praestigiis dae-
such ideas as those concerning its diabolic nature “n e v- monum.Binghamton, NY: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and
er cease to amaze me.” He stated that the dog “w o u l d Studies.
always lie between us on the table that Agrippa and I Weyer, Johan. 1991. Witches, Doctors, and Devils in the
Renaissance: Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum.Edited by
s h a red in our studies.” He wrote, “He was truly a nor-
George Mora. Translated by John Shea. Binghamton, NY:
mal male dog” (Mora 113). Agrippa so loved his pet
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. Originally pub-
that it slept in his bed. We yer wrote further about oth-
lished 1563.
er dogs, not so benign as Agrippa’s, that we re thought
to be incubi who tormented nuns. So, even if We ye r
did not really believe in such tales, he was not above Dominican Order
re c o rding them. His text makes clear the sorts of beliefs The contribution of members of the Dominican order
that we re popular in the sixteenth century. to the history of witchcraft is huge and lies mainly in
If a witch’s dog were not a demon, it still might serve two fields: their activity as inquisitors and their role in
as an assistant in harvesting mandrake roots. Sp e c i a l defining the nature of witchcraft.
dogs, one could say the drug-sniffing dogs of their time, The very beginning of the Dominicans as a religious
were believed to be able to locate and dig the root with- o rder is linked to the growth of heresy in we s t e r n
out coming to harm. The dogs we re thought to be Eu rope. Its founder, Dominic Guzman (1170–1221),
impervious to the poison of the plant and to its lethal was a Castilian priest who took part in the missions to
screaming as it came from the ground. In another tradi- convert the Cathars of Languedoc around 1206–1207.
tion, the one who drew up the mandragora root was During this experience, he had found the Catholic cler-
actually killed. Dogs were therefore used as substitutes gy insufficiently prepared to confront the Cathar perfec-
and were killed during the operation. ti (the “perfect” ones, who served as leaders and priests).
The dog also appears in renaissance and seve n- Soon after the crusade that battered the Albigensians (as
teenth- century art depicting witchcraft and the the Cathars of southern France we re called) in
demonic. Pieter Brueghel the El d e r’s engraving of T h e 1208–1209, Dominic gathered numerous disciples
Sin of Lechery s h ows copulating dog-devils. This print a round him; they became the first nucleus of a new
is one of a set of seven prints made under Bru e g h e l’s order, known as the Order of Preachers. Pope Honorius
d i rection and from his original drawings of the theme III officially approved it on December 22, 1217; in
of the Se ven Deadly Sins. The print was engraved by 1216 the former pope, Innocent III, had authorize d
Je rome Cock of Antwe r p, but is considered Bru e g h e l’s Dominic and his companions to choose a rule. T h e y
w o rk, as Cock was merely a technician working for adopted the rule of St. Augustine, adding a few articles
Brueghel. Other demonic dogs appear in many work s in 1228 that mandated renunciation of private owner-
by Hi e ronymus Bosch. In the seventeenth century, the ship of property and regulated their activity as preach-
dog as a demonic cre a t u re was commonly seen in ers. Between 1239 and 1241 the canonist Raymond of
paintings by such followers of Pieter Brueghel the Pe ( a f o rte, master general of the ord e r, rearranged the
Elder as David Teniers the Younger and Cornelis text, giving it a shape that has remained almost
Sa f t l e ve n . untouched until the present.
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From their earliest days, the Dominicans had women among whom the most prominent we re the Catalan
f o l l owers; the Dominican Sisters re c e i ved their Nicolas Eymeric and two Germans, Johannes Ni d e r
Constitutions in 1259 from Ma s t e r - General Hu m b e rt and Heinrich Kramer, whose writings played major
of Romans. Similarly, the many laymen who had gath- roles in shaping the concept of diabolical witchcraft in
ered around Dominic and his disciples were confirmed the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
as a fraternity of Tertiaries (Third Order) in 1286. The
MARINA MONTESANO
first Dominican apostolic mission had been the con-
vent of Prouille, in the diocese of Toulouse, where See also:EYMERIC,NICOLAS;GUI,BERNARD;INQUISITION,
Dominic sent the women he had conve rted fro m MEDIEVAL;KRAMER,HEINRICH;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;NIDER,
Catharism. Soon after winning papal approval, the
JOHANNES.
References and further reading:
Dominicans spread their sermons beyond southern
Bailey, Michael D. 2003. Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and
France; after Toulouse, Paris, Madrid, Rome, and
Reform in the Late Middle Ages.University Park: Pennsylvania
Bologna became their principal centers. W h e n
State University Press.
Dominic died, his order was present almost everywhere
Bedouelle, Guy, and Alain Quilici. 1997. Les frères prêcheurs,
in western Eu rope. Dominicans we re divided into autrement dits, dominicains.Paris: Le Sarment/Fayard.
p rovinces guided by a master general, who deferre d Caldwell, Christine. 2002. “Doctors of Souls: Inquisition and the
only to the pope. This direct relationship with the pope Dominican Order, 1231–1331.” PhD diss., University of
explains why, when Gre g o ry IX decided in 1231 to Notre Dame.
institute an Inquisition in every diocese not subject to Tourault, Philippe. 1999. Saint Dominique face aux Cathars.Paris:
the local bishop, Dominicans seemed an obvious choice Perrin.
Tugwell, Simon. 1979. The Way of the Preacher.London:Darton,
for these positions.
Longman and Todd.
Although the Dominican Inquisition did not elimi-
Vicaire, Marie Henri. 1964. Saint Dominic and His Times.
nate episcopal inquisitions, its role in the persecution of
London:Darton, Longman and Todd.
heresy was enormously important and was meant as an
addition to the Do m i n i c a n s’ activities as pre a c h e r s ,
i n s t ructing laymen in order to pre s e rve them fro m Douglas, Mary (1921–)
heresy.Through the bull Ille humani generisof February Douglas is an important member of the functionalist
8, 1232, the pope assigned the negotium fidei (matter of school of British social anthropology, in which Edward
religious orthodoxy) to the Dominicans, stating that all E. Evans-Pritchard has played a leading role, and which
bishops must aid them unre s e rve d l y. On August 21, has contributed so much to the academic study of
1235, Gregory IX appointed a Dominican, Robert “the witchcraft. After studying with Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd ,
Bu l g a r” (so-called because he had once been a Cathar Douglas did her fieldwork in the 1950s among the
h i m s e l f, and the Cathars we re also called Bulgars), as matrilineal Lele in Congo. Later she taught at the
general inquisitor for the entire kingdom of France. University of London. Her work on social anthropolo-
The Dominicans re c e i ved careful training in theol- gy is based on Emile Durkheim’s sociology, as Anglo-
ogy; many of them held positions in unive r s i t i e s ; Saxon ethnology generally is, and the functionalist
their knowledge was useful both for preaching and approach is central to her work, including her studies of
for leading inquisitorial activities. Also, after 1220, witchcraft. This approach means that she sees a correla-
each convent of the order was re q u i red to include a tion between the structure of a society and its central
doctor (later often called re c t o r), in order to guarantee ideas. In contrast to Max Weber, functionalists explain
a suitable cultural level. Convent schools could be the individual from the society, not vice versa, since
attended both by internal friars and by clerics who they believe that the mind of the individual mirrors the
l i ved inside the convent. Larger convent schools, able society. Her most detailed statement on functional
to give more complete education, we re called s t u d i a analysis is in How Institutions Think.
solemnia (serious studies). Ab ove the convent schools Douglas applied functionalist explanations to witch-
we re the studia genera l i a (houses of studies). The fir s t craft. Ac c o rding to her theory, outlined in Na t u ra l
studium genera l e—and the main one, for a long Symbols,cosmology and social structure are closely con-
time—was that of St. Jacques in Paris, which housed nected. Belief in witchcraft as an explanation of evil
both Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aq u i n a s . depends on specific factors. In order to show this,
Their activity as preachers and inquisitors led many Douglas framed a grid of classifications, in which the
Dominicans to confront magical beliefs and practices. ve rtical axis distinguishes between a shared and a pri-
This is made clear in one of the first manuals for vate system of classifications, and the horizontal axis
inquisitors, written by the Dominican friar Be r n a rd separates groups in which ego is controlled by other
Gui in the early fourteenth century, in which a chapter p e o p l e’s pre s s u re from groups in which ego contro l s
is devoted to those who worship the Devil. Si m i l a r other people. Societies in which the shared classific a-
i n t e rests we re shared by several other Do m i n i c a n s , tions are highly developed, positions clearly defin e d ,
290 Douglas, Mary |
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and interpersonal rivalry less pronounced, generate no ———. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of
accusations of witchcraft. Evil (illness, accidents) is Pollution and Taboo.London. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
attributed to the sufferer: transgressions of taboos and ———. 1970a, ed. Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations.London
and NewYork: Tavistock.
sins explain the sufferer’s fate. On the other hand, belief
———. 1970b.Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology.
in witchcraft and accusations of witchcraft thrive in
London: Barrie and Jenkins.
societies in which the shared classifications are we a k
———. 1987. How Institutions Think.London: Routledge and L.
and the pre s s u re on the individual is high. Such soci-
Kegan Paul.
eties have strong competition for status; villages are
———. 1991. “Witchcraft and Leprosy: Two Strategies of
densely populated, and one cannot evade the pressures Exclusion.” Man 26: 723–736.
of society. The witch re p resents the opposite of usual ———. 1999. Leviticus as Literature.London: Oxford University
life, negating the conditions and rules of the society in Press.
which s/he lives. Witchcraft accusations re flect that Fardon, Richard. 1999. Mary Douglas: An Intellectual Biography.
people depend on their fellow humans more than their London and NewYork: Routledge.
individual nature. Douglas found support for this theo- Heap, Shaun Hargreaves, and Angus Ross, eds. 1992.
Understanding the Enterprise Culture: Themes in the Work of
ry by comparing the African cosmologies and witch-
Mary Douglas.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
craft beliefs of the Nuer and Dinka with the Anuak.
Accusations of witchcraft, she pointed out, serve as
Drama, Dutch
weapons of attack against certain individuals. On the
whole, witchcraft belief and accusations cry s t a l l i ze The role played by devils and witches in early mod-
around the critical points of a social structure. ern Dutch drama re flects the re l a t i vely skeptical per-
In The Lele of the Kasai(1963), based on her fie l d w o rk , s p e c t i ve of the audience for which it was written.
Douglas applied the functionalist approach. She showe d Until the development of professional theaters in the
that sorc e ry in this polygynist society is above all ascribed s e venteenth century, the major performers of drama
to old men and especially to diviners. Because the privi- in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Ne t h e r l a n d s )
leged status of old men enables them to marry young girls we re the Chambers of Rhetoric, literary societies of
and force young men to remain bachelors, witchcraft a rtisans, merchants, and professionals whose pro d u c-
beliefs here express the hostility between generations. tions appealed primarily to the urban middle and
In Do u g l a s’s most famous book, Purity and Da n g e r upper citize n ry.
(1966), she connected the theory of witchcraft with a C o m p a red to drama elsew h e re, rhetorician plays
theory of the scapegoat. The impure, perceived as dirt, became increasingly allegorical in nature, depending
represents disorder.This state is ascribed to beings that upon the vices and virtues for many leading roles. For
do not fit into normal categories, the impure animals in example, in fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry scripts, the Devil was a
Exodus, for example, or young people during their rites frequent character, and he embodied all the vices. In the
of passage, twins, and menstruating women. The archa- sixteenth century, the Devil faded from view as particu-
ic code of the taboo (distinguishing pure from impure) lar vices replaced him on stage. Many rhetoricians thus
is connected with witchcraft. Witches and Jews are, like p romoted an internalized, or spiritualized, conception
twins, people who are not temporarily but always in a of the diabolical.
state of impurity. They are “interstitial persons,” and
their threat to society does not depend on their person- The Devil in Pre-Reformation Drama
al characteristics, but on this status. So the scapegoat is Early rhetorician plays re i n f o rced lay devotion to
explained by the code pure – i m p u re. The horrible Christianity while criticizing clerical abuses. Such mys-
nature of the witch can be explained by the fact that a tery, miracle, and saint plays as The FiveWise and Five
combination of blood, sex, and food is mostly used for Foolish Maidens (De V vroede ende van de V dwaeze
the discrimination of persons and groups. This archaic Maegden) or The First Joy of Mary (Die Eerste Bliscap
code of the taboo (pure – i m p u re) again allows for the van Maria) depicted Lucifer as the instigator of efforts
comparison between leprosy and witchcraft (Do u g l a s to hinder the godly work of the protagonists. The dia-
1991) and is connected with the way various peoples logue between Lucifer and his minions provided both
understand witchcraft. satirical humor and moralistic warnings. Rhetoricians
Do u g l a s’s most recent major work (1999) applied also performed comedies, such as The Entertainment of
her theory of purity to the interpretation of Leviticus. the Apple Tree (Het Esbatement van den Appelboom),
which tells of a farmer who possesses an Eden-like mag-
RAINER WALZ ical apple tree that captures all who climb into its
branches in search of fruit. Among those caught are
See also:AFRICA(SUB-SAHARAN); ANTHROPOLOGY.
Death and the Devil, who are forced by the farmer and
References and further reading:
Douglas, Mary. 1963. The Lele of Kasai.London: Oxford his wife to promise them another forty years of life
University Press. devoid of evil temptations.
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One of the most famous miracle plays is Ma ry of character of the “old serpent,” while all the others make
Nijmegen (Mariken van Nieumeghen), a saint’s tale first do with vices. In fact, among eighty surviving religious
d r a m a t i zed around 1500. The protagonist, Ma ry, a scripts from the era of Charles V (1515–1556), only
young woman from Gelderland, is sent by her uncle, a one play, the antiwar Play to Pe rf o rm in Times of Wa r
priest and a sorc e re r, to Nijmegen to buy supplies. (Een speel te speelen in tijden van oorl o g h e), contains a
Finding herself without lodgings at night, the fright- traditional dancing devil. Toward the end of this piece,
ened girl begs for help from either God or the De v i l ; a large globe is brought onstage, from which a gleeful
the latter appears first as an attractive but horned man. devil speaks and dances. Even then, he remains invisible
He persuades Mary to sign a pact with him in exchange in the everyday world—which he rules during times of
for knowledge of the seven liberal arts, although reject- tumult.
ing her request to learn necromancy as well (her uncle Mo re typical is Clodius Pre s b i t e r’s Human Sp i r i t
practitioner had likewise refused). The demon then De c e i ved by the Fl e s h (s Menschen Gheest van tVleesch
demands that she change her name to Emma and Ve rl e y t), a spiritualist play promoting inward - l o o k i n g
p romise never to make the sign of the cross. She and p i e t y. This play too concludes with an image of the
her demon lover tour the Netherlands, astonishing peo- e a rth, this time showing the Devil and Flesh peering
ple with her knowledge. After seven years, the pair out from within as the risen Jesus rescues a soul, an alle-
returns to Nijmegen, where they see the Play of g o ry of the spiritual rescue of the human soul fro m
Masscheroen,which portrays the eschatological defeat of flesh and evil. In many plays, the Er a s m i a n - m i n d e d
Lucifer.When Emma seeks to break the demonic pact, playwright Cornelis Everaert of Bruges criticized popu-
the spurned demon raises her and then drops her from lar belief that demons caused humans to sin and instead
a considerable height. She soon recovers, and with her blamed the individual’s inner evil inclinations. Even in
uncle embarks on a penitential pilgrimage to the pope, two pre-1568 Haarlem plays in which the dialogue
who grants a life penance of wearing massive iron rings. b e t ween Lucifer and his diabolical minions looms
She becomes an extremely ascetic nun, and an angel l a r g e —The Play of the Bre we r’s Guild (Het Spel va n t
ultimately releases her from her bonds. Brouwersgilde) and The Play of the Great Hell (Het Spel
In this popular play, Ma ry is a female Faustus, but vande Grote hel)—the demons have become little more
not a witch. She makes a diabolical pact, re n o u n c e s than rhetorical devices to satirize the peccadilloes of
Christianity, takes on a demon lover, and amazes people contemporary clergy and laypeople. In fact, unlike their
with her knowledge; but there is no harmful witchcraft colleagues in The Play of Saint Tru d o, these demons
or Sabbats, and she is ultimately forgiven. This, the p rove useful for the Church by pointing out that
only Dutch pre - Reformation play to deal explicitly humans are entirely responsible for their own choices.
with diabolism, deviates considerably from the contem- No known plays from this period had sorc e rers or
porary stereotype of witchcraft expressed in the Malleus witches as characters, and only two refer in any way to
Maleficarum(The Hammer of Witches, 1486). illicit magic. In an anonymous dinner play called T h e
Mu l t i f o rmity of the Deceit of the Wo rld (D i e
Drama and the Devil during Menichfuldicheit des Be d ro c h s), the vice Origin of Si n s
the Early Reformation (to 1566) claims to have wares that he has found on “Lady Venus’
The distinguishing specialty of Dutch rhetorician mountain,” a mythical place thought to imbue visitors
drama was the spele van zinnen, “play of the senses,” in with magical powers. Howe ve r, when Origin of Si n s
which allegorical virtues and vices (sinnekens) played describes these wares, they become fig u res for va r i o u s
leading roles. These became vehicles for sixteenth-cen- sins, stripped of magical attributes, acting instead as
tury rhetoricians to condemn social ills or satirize cleri- rhetorical tools to condemn a worldly clergy. Such sen-
cal hypocrisy. While many rhetoricians pro m o t e d timents critical of the clergy and popular magical beliefs
reform, Christiaen Fastraets, a Dominican of Louvain, we re commonplace in upper artisan and merc h a n t
sought to counteract reform propaganda by dramatiz- Netherlandish culture. The other re f e rence to magic
ing the life of Saint Trudo. A stylistic throwback to fif- a p p e a red in the Catholic Reynier vanden Pu t t e’s T h e
teenth-century saint plays, this work shows the efforts In c a rnation of Christ (De Me n s c h we rdinge Christi) of
of Lucifer and his demons, Baalberith, and Leviathan, 1534, in which he had an Anabaptist peddler say that
to tempt the saint constantly foiled through the power he intends to inflict greater harm on the world than
of the priest and sacraments, thus proving Catholic witches and sorcerers, an extremely inflammatory com-
clerical claims to supernatural power. ment in this century of persecution.
The much more popular approach to the Devil and
magic in sixteenth-century Dutch drama was to allego- Drama and the Devil during
r i ze them. Of the nineteen plays performed at the the Revolt (1568–1648)
rhetorician competition at Ghent in 1539, only one— After the revolt against Spain began in 1568, cultural
that of Brussels—contains anything like a devil in the and economic preeminence moved from the southern
292 Drama, Dutch |
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to the northern provinces. In the south, the Spanish conjure an evil spirit, which responds to the query with
rulers closely censored literature and drama, approving the words “He has thought well / what he has under-
only whatever accorded with Catholic doctrine and dis- t a k e n” (1976, 99). This the squire considers happy
couraging the use of Dutch, which they identified with n ews, until he re a l i zes that the term for “t h o u g h t , ”
rebellion. For their part, northern magistrates contin- versint,could also be interpreted as “to be mistaken.” In
ued to sponsor vernacular drama, and many plays other words, the spirit’s statement, produced with such
memorialized Dutch victories and promoted Calvinist magical fanfare, is ambiguous.
Protestantism. Dutch playwrights readily identified the The most famous Dutch drama involving the Devil
devil with their Catholic opponents. The Spanish is undoubtedly Joost van den Vondel’sLucifer(1654), a
authorities did, however, tolerate traditional saint sto- widely known work that seems to have influ e n c e d
ries, such as Mary of Nijmegen, which continued to be Milton’sParadise Lost.Vondel, a liberal Mennonite who
printed into the seventeenth century. It remained pop- converted to Catholicism in the late 1630s to promote
ular in the north also, although references to the Virgin his ideal of a universal Christianity, composed this work
Mary and the Catholic Mass were expunged. Most as a political allegory instructing Christian rulers to
interesting for the purposes of this entry are the north- stop playing ambitious Lucifers and unite against the
ern plays that featured the Devil or witches. Turks. For Vondel, Lucifer is no longer the epitome of
Not surprisingly, given the rising notoriety of the evil, but a tragic fig u re who rebelled against his lord
witch hunts, witches or sorc e rers began to appear in a only because he listened to the advice of an evil aide,
handful of plays from the end of the sixteenth and the Beelzebub.
early seventeenth centuries, including King Ba l t h a s a r Dutch dramatists, then, expressed a great deal of
(Coninck Ba l t h a s a r), written for a Hasselt chamber in skepticism about the reality of magical endeavors and
1591; Pieter C. Ho o f t’s Ge e ra e rdt van Ve l s e n ( 1 6 1 3 ) ; diabolical activity. From Mary of Nijmegento Timon the
Guilliaum van Ni e u we l a n d t’s Sa u l (1617); Ja c o b Sorcerer, the magicians in Dutch plays are neither terri-
St ru y s’s St y rus and Ar i a m e (1629); Jan van Sw o l’s fying necromancers nor members of a diabolical female
C o n s t a n t i n u s (1630); and Johan Be e t s’s Daphne or sect of witches. Instead, playwrights used demons as
Boschvryagie (1630). All are based on biblical stories or metaphors for human vices or as rhetorical devices for
ancient histories, and, as with Sh a k e s p e a re’s Ma c b e t h , satirical purposes, and they stressed human responsibil-
their witch scenes revolve around the desire of a ruler to ity for evil. This parallels, to a re m a rkable degree, the
d i s c over his future by magical means. We will use the skepticism of many among the Ne t h e r l a n d s’ intelli-
first two as examples. gentsia and magistracy tow a rd both popular belief in
King Ba l t h a s a r recounts the story found in the fif t h magic and learned belief in a diabolical conspiracy that
chapter of the Book of Daniel of the Babylonian king gripped their peers elsewhere in Europe.
Be l s h a z z a r, who saw an apparition of a ghostly fin g e r
GARY K. WAITE
writing on a wall and who, after his sorcerers failed to
i n t e r p ret the writing, turned to the He b rew pro p h e t See also:DEVIL;NETHERLANDS,NORTHERN;NETHERLANDS,
Daniel. In this dramatic version, two of the king’s sor- SOUTHERN;RENAISSANCEDRAMA,ENGLAND;SKEPTICISM.
c e rers re s o rt to necro m a n c y, conjuring up first Be l i a l , References and further reading:
who springs onto the stage amid thunder and lightning, Decker,Terese, and Martin W.Walsh, eds. 1994. Mariken van
Nieumeghen: A Bilingual Edition.Columbia, SC: Camden.
but who is so terrified by the words on the wall that he
Dijk, Hans van. 1984. “Mariken van Nieumeghen.” Dutch
p refers to die rather than read them. The second
Crossing22 (April): 27–41.
demon, Belsebub, also flees the stage, claiming that he
Ficheroux, Marcel. 1999. “Van helse intrigant tot toneelfiguur: De
has sat too long in hell and has lost his ability to read.
duivel op het toneel in de late Middeleeuwen (1400–1600).”
Ho o f t’s Ge e ra e rdt van Ve l s e n d r a m a t i zes the murd e r
Trajecta8: 3–30.
of Count Floris V in 1296 in the castle of Gerard van Forster, Leonard. 1984. “Literary Relations Between the Low
Ve l zen, who is its rather dark hero. In the play’s third Countries, England and Germany, 1400–1624.” Dutch
act, van Ve l zen sends his squire to consult Timon the Crossing24 (December): 16–31.
Sorcerer to see if his plan to murder the count—whom Hooft, Pieter C. 1976. Geeraerdt van Velsen.Edited by A. J. J. De
he has imprisoned for having seduced his wife—will Witte. 2d ed. Zutphen: W. J. Thieme.
succeed. On the way, the squire tells what he has heard Hummelen, Willem M. H. 1968. Repertorium van het
Rederykersdrama, 1500–ca.1620.Assen: Van Gorcum.
about spirits and sorc e ry and re s o l ves that, despite his
———. 1984. “The Dramatic Structure of the Dutch Morality.”
fear of dabbling in evil spirits, he will obey his lord’s
Dutch Crossing22 (April): 17–26.
command. Timon introduces himself as one who “rules
Knight, Alan E., ed. 1997. The Stage as Mirror: Civic Theatre in
over spirits, ghosts and demons,” who can raise the
Late Medieval Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
dead, find hidden tre a s u re, and discern the future
Meijer, Reinder P. 1978. Literature of the Low Countries: A Short
(1976, 95–96). When the squire puts Gerard’s question History of Dutch Literature in the Netherlands and Belgium.
to him, Timon uses various necromantic props to Cheltenham, UK: Stanley Thornes.
Drama, Dutch 293 |
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Parente, Jr., James A. 1987. Religious Drama and the Humanist Domenico Ma z zocchi, libretto by Ottavio Tro n s a re l l i
Tradition.Leiden, Brill. (but taken from Giambattista Ma r i n o’s L’ Ad o n e) ,
Simon, Eckehard, ed. 1991. The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New Armida in Erminia sul Giordano(Erminia at the Jordan,
Research in Early Drama.Cambridge: Cambridge University
1632) by Giulio Rospigliosi from To rquato Ta s s o’s
Press.
Ge rusalemme liberata (Je rusalem Liberated, 1581;
Strietman, Elsa. 1986. “Teach Yourself Art: The Literary Guilds in
books 6–7), and Alcina in L’ Isola d’ Alcina (The Is l a n d
the Low Countries.” Dutch Crossing29 (August): 75–94.
of Alcina, 1728) anonymous libretto, by Riccard o
Waite, Gary K. 2000. Reformers on Stage: Popular Drama and
Broschi, based on Lu d ovico Ariosto’s Orlando Fu r i o s o
Religious Propaganda in the Low Countries of Charles V,
1515–1556.Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ( Orlando Gone Mad, 1532). Demons and magical
practices are also present in The An d romeda by
Drama, Italian Benedetto Fe r r a r i and Francesco Manelli (alias Fa s o l o ,
Magic, especially in the form of witchcraft, through its 1637), in Fe r r a r i’s La Maga Fulminata (The Wi t c h
enchantments, wonders, and spells, provided a source Struck by Lightning, 1638) and Pastor Regio(1640), in
of inspiration for numerous Italian comic playwrights l i b rettist Gi ovanni Fa u s t i n i’s and the composer
during the Renaissance and baroque periods. Outside Francesco Cavalli’s Virtù de’ Strali d’Amore (The Power
the inquisitorial tribunals, the ve t e rum sapientia of Love’s Arrows, 1642) and Ormindo (1644), in Ulisse
(ancient science), often reduced to trickery, served as Errante(Ulysses Wandering, 1644) by Giacomo Torelli,
the background for the complex intrigues of romantic and in Nicolò Fo n t e i’s (Fonte, Fonteio) Sidonio e
comedies. Dorisbe (Sidonio and Dorisbe, 1642).
Beginning with Niccolò Ma c h i a ve l l i’s Ma n d ra g o l a Da rker descriptions of magical rites are found in
(The Mandrake, 1518), in which a re f e rence to the such late-seventeenth-century works as Carlo Re d’Italia
mandrake root (act 2, scene 6) is used by the protago- (Carlo, King of It a l y, 1682), by Matteo Noris, which
nist Callimaco to signal his desire to lie with the beauti- opens with a scene where “magical operations are per-
ful Lucrezia, magic became a central element in numer- formed on a corpse” (Fabbri 1996, 212), and the third
ous works. InIl Negromante(The Necromancer, 1520), act of Rodoaldo Re d’ Italia ( Rodoaldo King of It a l y,
by the we l l - k n own playwright Lu d ovico Ariosto, the 1 6 8 5 ) , by Tommaso Stanzani, which contains a scene
protagonist Massimo brings a necromancer, Lachelino, that portrays necromancy in greater detail (Fa b b r i
really a master rogue, to cure his adopted son Cintio of 1996, 212).
impotence. An illness presumed to be the work of the A re c u r rent character in several Renaissance work s
Devil sets into motion the events narrated in Girolamo is the vetula, a term that could refer to a prostitute, a
Ba r g a g l i’s La Pellegrina (The [Female] Pilgrim, 1564), p a n d e re r, or a sorc e ress whose services we re sought by
in which the protagonist Lepida pretends to be pos- a protagonist who knew that such women had the
sessed by demons to avoid marriage. The protagonist of ability to arouse human vices. The prototypical char-
Gi o rdano Bru n o’s Il Candelaio (The Candle-Be a re r, acter in this category is found in the Tra g i c o m e d i a d e
1582) is Master Bonifacio, a married man who is in Ca l l i s t o y Me l i b e a , or La Celestina (1499), attributed
l ove with Signora Vittoria. The gullible Manfurio, an to Spanish author Fernando de Rojas. In this comedy,
amateur alchemist named Ba rtolomeo, and Ma s t e r a n a l y zed by Spanish ethnologist and historian Ju l i o
Bonifacio are swindled by a group of tricksters of vari- C a ro Ba roja, the protagonist Celestina is described as
ous calibers. Bonifacio entrusts the magician Scaramurè an old townswoman witch, astute and experienced in
with casting a spell on Vittoria that will make her fall in e ve ry type of evil. Her practices derive from the re a l m
love with him. Interestingly, Bruno’s play contains a ref- of erotic magic and are based on the use of medicinal
e rence to witches’ ability to fly, a belief that the play- and poisonous herbs, but also diabolical ingre d i e n t s
wright attributes to Bonifacio, who thinks “co l’ a rt e such as the bones of the dead. In part i c u l a r, she is
magica, facesse uscire Satanasso da catene, venir le depicted as a fig u re who re p resents the dangero u s
donne per l’aria volando llà dove piacesse a lui” (“by aspects of instinctual forces, challenging social norms
magical art made Satan escape from his chains, and and disturbing traditional male domination of the
made women come to him wherever he wished by fly- social and religious ord e r. In this sense, the ve t u l a
ing through the air”) (Candelaio,act 5, scene 20). There s h a res with the witch the same license for diabolical
were also comedies dedicated to astrological influences, a c t i v i t y, through both her unrestrained sexual activity
such as Giambattista Della Po rt a’s L’ As t ro l o g o (T h e and her knowledge of magic.
Astrologer, 1606). Celestina re flects a specific sixteenth-century social
The theme of witchcraft also became a feature of ear- type that was not only Spanish but also Italian, as
ly modern Italian musical theater, particularly during shown by the witchcraft trials conducted in Venice, in
the seventeenth century, where there are characters with which the majority of the accused we re prostitutes or
magical powers, such as the magician Fa l s i rena in e x - p rostitutes (Milani 1996, 307), and the trials in
Catena d’ Ad o n e (The Chain of Adonis, 1626), by Naples in 1588, at which one of the principal defen-
294 Drama, Italian |
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dants accused of witchcraft engaged in prostitution and internazionale di studi (Pisa, 24–26 marzo 1994).Edited by
pandering on the Sabbath (Romeo 1990, 6). This social Giovanna Bosco and Patrizia Castelli. Pisa: Pacini.
type inspired Ludovico Ariosto’sLa Lena(1528), one of Mamone, Sara. 1992. Medioevo e Rinascimento/per Ludovico Zorzi.
Spoleto: Centro Italiano di studi.
his most successful comedies. Its action centers on the
Milani, Marisa. 1996. “Cortigiane e streghe a Venezia nel secondo
character of Lena, a middle-aged pro c u ress whose
‘500.” Pp. 307–316 in Stregoneria e streghe nell’Europa moderna.
intrigues are tolerated by her husband Pa c i fic o. Lena
Convegno internazionale di studi (Pisa, 24–26 marzo 1994).
seems to view events with veiled rancor and resentment
Edited by Giovanna Bosco and Patrizia Castelli. Pisa: Pacini.
out of bitterness about the crudely materialistic charac-
Romeo, Giovanni. 1990. Inquisitori, esorcisti e streghe nell’Italia
ter of relationships based only on convenience and per- della Controriforma.Florence: Sansoni.
sonal interest, and she maliciously hopes that eve ry Tomlinson, Gary. 1993. Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a
business initiative of various characters will fail. Historiography of Others.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
In La Cortigiana (The Obsequious One, 1525),
Pi e t ro Aretino also includes a vetula in his character Drama, Spanish
Aloisia, whom we find mourning the death of her mis- In Spain, two major dramatic traditions evolved during
t ress, Monna Maggiorina. Aloisia exclaims dejectedly the sixteenth century: the auto sacramental, a one-act
that people are burned in Rome for “not having done allegorical religious drama, performed especially at
anything” (Act 2, Sceme 6). Of particular interest is the Corpus Christi; and the comedia, a three-act theater
list of items in Ma g g i o r i n a’s will, which included play conceived for the secular stage. In both kinds of
detailed descriptions of many of the vetula’s profession- drama, magic could be involved in the action, and char-
al tools, such as “equipment for distilling, waters for acters associated with magic, such as the Devil, witch-
removing freckles and spots, and a clamp for pendulous es, and sorcerers, appeared on stage. A significant dif-
b re a s t s” (Act 2, Scene 6). Borrowing from Lu c a n , ference between the Spanish auto sacramental and the
A retino also describes Aloisia wandering in cemeteries comediaconsists in the characters. As representations of
“to remove fingernails from corpses,” of her transforma- abstract ideas, the auto’s characters were personifica-
tions into animals such as “cats, mice, and dogs,” tions of concepts like human nature, sin, or innocence.
adding her nocturnal flights “over water and thro u g h On the other hand, the comedia dramatized actions of
the winds to the noce di Be n e ve n t o (walnut tree of individual people, and generally employed magic in
Benevento).” love intrigues. At the end of the seventeenth century,
Echoes of the Sabbat under the noce di Benevento, a Enlightenment secular drama ridiculed belief in the
legendary meeting place for Italian witches, also occur power of sorcerers and witches as superstitions of back-
in the intermission of La Ge l o s i a (Je a l o u s y, 1550) by ward people. Subsequently, magic on stage was under-
Anton Francesco Grazzini (alias il Lasca), in which the stood as a kind of science, requiring special knowledge,
witches sing, “Running swiftly like the wind we go to but no pacts with devils. This new comedia de magia
the noce di Be n e ve n t o.” Much later, this legendary tre e was at its height during the eighteenth and part of the
e ven became the focus of an opera, La Noce Maga di nineteenth centuries.
BeneventoEstirpata da San Barbato(The Walnut Witch Spanish Golden Age drama of the sixteenth and sev-
of Benevento Taken from St. Barbato, 1665), first per- enteenth centuries did not question the reality of witch-
formed in Rome in 1666. Its author, Nicolò Pi p e r n o , craft and sorcery, but magic played an ambivalent part
was the son of a medical examiner and historian who on stage. In the same drama, witches and sorc e re r s
w rote De Nuce Maga Be n e ve n t a n a ( On the Ma g i c a l could seem to possess great magical powers, but then
Walnut Tree of Be n e vento, 1634). This myth contin- might suddenly be presented as impostors with little or
ued to inspire theater through the nineteenth century, no capacity for magic. Sorcery, magical flights, and the
particularly the successful ballet by SalvatoreViganò, Il Devil’s pact could have different meanings according to
Noce di Be n e ve n t o, with music by Franz Xave r the general theme of the drama. Religious drama of the
Sussmayr, first performed at La Scala in Milan in 1812. comediagenre, such as Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s sev-
e n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry theological plays, classified magic as
PAOLO PORTONE; evil, re p resenting diabolical temptation of the human
soul. In the more popular tradition, for example in
TRANSLATED BY SHANNON VENEBLE
Lope de Ve g a’s c o m e d i a s , magicians we re often famous
See also: BENEVENTO,WALNUTTREEOF;CAROBAROJA,JULIO;
figures from ancient mythology, and sometimes magic
CELESTINA,LA;DRAMA,SPAIN;ITALY;MANDRAKE;MILAN;NAPLES,
was related to the life of saints.
KINGDOMOF;NECROMANCY.
Dramas that presented sorc e ry and witchcraft in
References and further reading:
mythological times—great magicians from antiquity or
Cruciani, Fabrizio, and Daniele Seragnoli. 1987.Il teatro italiano
saints who had been magicians before becoming
nel Rinascimento.Bologna: Il Mulino.
Fabbri, Paolo. 1996. “Musica e stregoneria.” Pp. 211–214 in saints—thus presented a different context than that of
Stregoneria e streghe nell’Europa moderna.Convegno the author’s or audience’s, which was that of witchcraft
Drama, Spanish 295 |
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cases in early modern Spain. Ne ve rtheless, some authors Drugs and Hallucinogens
also took their inspiration from current beliefs and noto- Hallucinogenic drugs appear to have contributed to
rious contemporary cases of witchcraft or sorc e ry. In European witchcraft beliefs when the ecstatic experi-
n u m e rous comedias, magic had a burlesque character, ences of a small but significant minority of people who
especially in dramas that continued the tradition of used them were understood by late medieval demo-
Fernando de Ro j a s’s tragicomedy La Ce l e s t i n a ( 1 4 9 9 ) . nologists and early modern magistrates to be evidence
Like their famous ancestress (and like numerous defen- that witches flew to diabolic Sabbats, where they
dants in inquisitorial trials), the pro t a g o n i s t s — s u p p o s e d participated in a variety of fantastic and perverted
re l a t i ves of the great sorc e ress created by Ro j a s — activities.
engaged especially in love magic. In a similar vein, the Hallucinogenic drugs include several types of psy-
devil of the c o m e d i a was usually conjured in order to c h o a c t i ve chemicals that induce altered states of con-
p ro c u re the love of a certain person or to unveil hidden sciousness, generally involving distortions of normal
t re a s u res. A further c o m e d i a tradition, sometimes inter- cognitive processes, visual and auditory hallucinations,
twined with these other types, discussed quite seriously and vivid and frenzied dreams. Almost all natural hallu-
the relationship between diabolical and natural magic. cinogens are found in plants, and people in a wide vari-
In Enlightenment drama of the later seve n t e e n t h ety of cultures have long used them as one method of
century, magic became a ridiculous delusion, featuring inducing ecstatic trances in which they experience
a supposed “sorceress” with no real magical powers who interactions with the spirit world. Eu rope contains a
skillfully exploits the superstitious belief in witchcraft number of natural hallucinogens that some people in
for her own benefit. This kind of drama created a new late medieval and early modern Europe apparently uti-
type, named comedia de magia(drama of magic), which lized to induce such altered states of consciousness. The
flourished from the beginning of the eighteenth centu- biochemical effects of the active ingredients in one class
ry through most of the nineteenth century. Its protago- of these drugs were probably a principal source for the
nists we re magicians—male or female—mainly inter- idea that witches flew to Sabbats. Hallucinogenic drugs
ested in pursuing their material or social benefit. Magic may also have contributed to the witchcraft persecu-
was now considered a sort of science; religious or theo- tions in two more limited ways: accidental ergot poi-
logical problems we re no longer a concern. The a u t o s soning may have, in a few cases, caused delusions and
sacramentales coexisted with the secular drama through hallucinations attributed to demonic possession or
the whole period until 1765, when they we re ord e re d bewitchment, and there is evidence that hallucinogens
banned because of their fantastic elements and the may have been used occasionally during interrogations
i m p robability of their stories. Although these dramas to induce stubborn suspects to confess.
remained extremely popular, more educated Sp a n i a rd s
found much of their plots, with the prominent role of Hallucinogens and Shamanism
the Devil, completely anachronistic. In fact, autossacra- Ethnographic studies show that a wide variety of peo-
m e n t a l e s (unlike c o m e d i a s) we re still performed in the ple around the world have consumed locally available
Age of Enlightenment just as they had been in previous hallucinogenic plants in order to experience their psy-
centuries, even though the world in which the De v i l choactive properties. Furthermore, the purposes of
and witchcraft had seemed such a frightening re a l i t y their use are generally similar, and the experiences,
was long gone, at least among the educated. while reflecting the diverse cultures of the people using
them, share some fundamental commonalities. They
IRIS GAREIS are used to induce a trance state in which the user expe-
riences direct participation in a dreamlike alternate
See also: CELESTINA,LA;ENLIGHTENMENT;LOVEMAGIC;SPAIN.
“spirit” world where hidden or occult knowledge of the
References and further reading:
Blasco, F. Javier, Ermanno Caldera, Joaquín Alvarez Barrientos, ordinary world is revealed, and human and natural
Ricardo de la Fuente, eds. 1992. La Comedia de Magia y de processes can be influenced. The features experienced
Santos.Madrid: Júcar. in this world are described in various ways, but they
Caro Baroja, Julio. 1992. Vidas mágicas e Inquisición.2 vols. generally include a variety of nonhuman, nonmaterial,
Colección Fundamentos, 121–122. Madrid: Istmo. but conscious entities, which often appear in human,
Huerta Calvo, Javier, Harm den Boer, and Fermín Sierra Martínez, partially human, or animal form. They also commonly
eds. 1989. El teatro español a fines del siglo XVII. Historia, cul-
include a sensation of flight, and often convey insights
tura y teatro en la España de Carlos II.3 vols. Diálogos hispáni-
into the nature and source of communal problems such
cos de Amsterdam vol. 8/I–III. Amsterdam and Atlanta:
as disease, conflicts, or natural disasters.
Rodopi.
In some societies, use of hallucinogens is widespread,
McKendrick, Melveena. 1989. Theater in Spain, 1490–1700.
but in many societies, shamans specialize in entering
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parker, A. A. 1958. The Theology of the Devil in the Drama of the trance state and communicating with the spirit
Calderón.London: Blackfriars. world. Not all shamans use hallucinogens, but many
296 Drugs and Hallucinogens |
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do, and use of the hallucinogenic mushroom a m a n i t a descriptions of experiments were merely literary exercis-
m u s c a r i a was central to the Siberian shamanism that es modeled on classical accounts. It is true that in some
s e rved as the archetype for ethnographers. T h e s e cases the suspects listed only benign ingredients in their
shamans’ initiatory rite involves ingestion of the hallu- testimony, but in most cases, reports that the unguents
cinogenic mushrooms, the experience of death and we re inert mean little because they do not specify the
d e c a y, ascent to the spirit world, and interaction with means by which the potency of the salves was ascer-
spirits to acquire occult knowledge and powe r. T h e re tained. Modern LSD research indicates that one type of
a re interesting if merely suggestive structural parallels test that is known to have been used for poisons, exper-
with the experience witches were believed to have: They iments on animals, would have been useless for hallu-
applied hallucinogenic ointments, flew to a witches’ cinogenic salves because of differences in body we i g h t
dance, worshipped the Devil, and there by acquire d and metabolism and the fact that the drugs affect
malefic powers. h i g h e r - o rder mental functions. Fu rt h e r m o re, some
archival sources contain reports of drug-induced experi-
European Hallucinogens and ences that diverge significantly from the Sabbat stereo-
Witchcraft Beliefs type, and some suspects were observed in trance states
Priests in some ancient Near Eastern and classical they later ascribed to drugs (Be ver 1983, 261–262,
Mediterranean religions appear to have used hallucino- 294–295).
gens, and some early medieval Germanic peoples are Si m i l a r l y, the objections to the human experiments
known to have used amanita muscaria.However, while described in the witch literature are also weak, since
these mushrooms are found throughout Europe, they t h ree different situations we re described, one by the
were not featured in hallucinogenic recipes contained demonologist Johannes Nider and two by skeptical
in witchcraft literature, and there is little trace of them physicians, Andrés de Laguna and Giambattista De l l a
in trial records. Instead, various plants belonging to the Po rta. Each differs substantially from the others and
Solanaceae family—nightshade or belladonna (Atropa f rom classical accounts. For example, Nider and De l l a
belladonna); henbane (Hyoscyamus niger); datura, or Po rta said their witches agreed to anoint themselve s ,
thorn apple ( Da t u ra stra m o n i u m ) , and mandrake while de Laguna said he got the unguent from a pair of
( Ma n d ra g o ra offic i n a ru m )— fig u red prominently in suspects and used it on a volunteer. Della Porta’s witch
these recipes, and ointments presumably derived from and Laguna’s volunteer fell into such deep sleeps that
them frequently figured in trial documents. These they could not be woken up even when beaten; Nider’s
plants contain the anticholinergic alkaloids atropine, witch woke up when she fell off the bench she was seat-
hyoscyamine, and scopolamine, which interfere with ed on. Di f f e rences in ingredients and pro p o rt i o n s
the normal functioning of the nervous system by block- would account for these differences; literary imitation
ing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The chemical would not. De Laguna described how his vo l u n t e e r’s
bufotenin, which is found in the skin secretions of the eyes dilated dramatically before she fell asleep, a detail
common European toad, is related, and toads are also consistent with the dru g s’ known effects (the name
mentioned in some recipes. These chemicals are Belladonna, in Italian “beautiful lady,” comes from the
extremely toxic, which is presumably why recipes called fact that women used small amounts to dilate their
for them to be made into ointments to spread on the pupils to make themselves more attractive) that was not
skin or mucus membranes. Even when such ointments mentioned in the other re p o rts. Della Po rta mentions
are used, users experience powerful hallucinations and looking through a chink in the door as his “witch” dis-
generally fall into a deep trance with vivid dreams. robed and anointed herself, which is reminiscent of
These hallucinations and dreams are generally expe- Apuleius of Ma d a u r a’s account of watching through a
rienced as real in a way more profound than those pro- chink in the door as a woman used an ointment to
duced by drugs like LSD; upon waking, users re m a i n transform herself into an owl, but the classical author
convinced of their re a l i t y. These effects we re noted in claimed he saw the woman physically transform and fly
several early modern accounts of experiments in which away, whereas Della Porta’s point was that no physical
confessed witches we re observed to anoint themselve s , event occurred. On balance, it seems that the accounts
fall into a deep sleep, and awake convinced that they in the witch literature re p o rted real events, and that
had flown to distant lands and experienced all sorts of some, although far from all, allegations and confessions
a d ve n t u res. Modern re s e a rchers who have cre a t e d involving hallucinogenic drugs in the trial records simi-
recipes contained in early modern texts and anointed larly reflected reality.
themselves have sometimes experienced similar effects. Use of hallucinogenic ointments does not mean that
Some historians downplay or even deny these drugs d rug experiences explain the widespread belief that
any role in the history of witchcraft, pointing to the fre- large numbers of people flew to a diabolic Sabbat, but it
quency with which unguents brought forward in trials does suggest that some of its elements stemmed at least
were found to be inert, and suggesting that the learned partly from reports of what people actually experienced
Drugs and Hallucinogens 297 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 335 | 46049 Golden Chap. D av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.298 Application File
in these dreams. Sp e c i fic a l l y, the fact that the active them, or why people in the far greater number of cases
alkaloids block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in u n related to ergotism thought the Devil had possessed
the peripheral as well as central nervous system would them or witches had caused them harm.
account for the feelings of dissociation and flight they
EDWARD BEVER
induce, making the experience of flight more likely a
p roduct of biochemistry than of cultural suggestion. See also:APULEIUSOFMADAURA;DELLAPORTA,GIAMBATTISTA;DIS-
Similarly, the specific form of paraesthesia produced by EASE;ERGOTISM;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;MANDRAKE;NIDER,
scopolamine may be responsible for the sensation of
JOHANNES;NIGHTSHADE;OINTMENTS;SABBAT;SHAMANISM;
g rowing hair or feathers, suggesting the commonly
TOADS.
References and further reading:
re p o rted experience of turning into an animal. Ot h e r
Bever, Edward. 1983. “Witchcraft in Early Modern
aspects of the hallucinations and dreams pro b a b l y
Wuerttemberg.” PhD diss., Princeton University.
reflected the users’ cultural milieu as well as their indi-
Duerr, Hans Peter. 1985. Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary
vidual psychological dispositions. It seems likely, how- Between Wilderness and Civilization.Translated by Felicitas D.
e ve r, that such elements as copulation with strangers, Goodman. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
feasting and revelry, and encounters with spirit figures Harner, Michael J., ed. 1973. Hallucinogens and Shamanism.
p redated and there f o re contributed to late medieva l London: Oxford University Press.
demonology, although the diffusion of the demonology Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque
would have caused these particular dreams to be experi- Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition.Reno: University of
Nevada Press.
enced more widely and in forms that conformed eve r
Matossian, Mary K. 1989. Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics,
more closely to the stereotype.
and History.New Haven: Yale University Press.
Since scopolamine and hyoscyamine are often expe-
Müller-Ebeling, Claudia, Christian Rätsch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl.
rienced as unpleasant, and they also make the user
2003. Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices,
susceptible to suggestion, they were probably the basis
and Forbidden Plants. Translated by Annabel Lee. Rochester,
for drugs that were occasionally administered to recalci- VT: Inner Traditions.
trant suspects (Sidkey 1997, 208). Such practices, Quaife, G. R. 1987. Godly Zeal and Furious Rage: The Witch in
though documented, were rare, and account for only a Early Modern Europe. NewYork: St. Martin’s.
small fraction of recorded confessions. Schultes, Richard Evans, and Albert Hoffmann. 1980. The Botany
Another drug effect that has been suggested as and Chemistry of Hallucinogens.Springfield, IL: Charles C.
accounting for at least some witchcraft beliefs is ergot Thomas.
Sidkey, H. 1997. Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs, and Disease: An
poisoning. But it is at most an explanation for part i c u l a r
Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Hunts.NewYork:
instances to which general ideas about witchcraft arising
Peter Lang.
e l s ew h e re we re applied. Ergot (Claviceps pupure a ) is a
fungus that grows on grains, particularly in cold, we t
we a t h e r. It contains the alkaloids ergine, e r g o n ov i n e , Duhr, Bernhard (1852–1930)
lysergic acid hyd rox yethylamide, and, sometimes, This German Jesuit is one of several Catholic Church
dlysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). When consumed in historians who sought to reevaluate the persecution of
b read, it can cause either gangrenous ergotism, know n witches and its origins, arguing against Germany’s
as St. Anthony’s Fi re, or convulsive ergotism, both of dominant liberal Protestant historiography during the
which cause delirium and hallucinations. The former nineteenth-century Kulturkampf (culture war). Duhr
causes a sensation of burning inside, dry gangrene, and joined the Society of Jesus in 1872, living in various
the loss of fingers, toes, and even limbs, while the latter European countries before settling in Munich in 1903.
culminates in convulsions. Some symptoms of ergotism, In 1900, Duhr entered the long-standing debate on
p a rticularly analgesia, f o rm i c a t i o n (the sensation of which denomination bore the greatest guilt in the issue
something creeping over or under one’s skin), and of witchcraft trials. This was the same year his major
spasms, correspond closely with characteristics of w o rk, Die Stellung der Jesuiten in den deutschen
b ewitchment or demonic possession, and there is occa- He xe n p ro ze s s e n (The Jesuit Position in Ge r m a n
sional geographical and temporal correlation betwe e n Witchcraft Trials) was published by the Görres Society,
some outbreaks of ergotism and re p o rts of mass then at the center of German Catholic cultural life.
b ewitchment in Eu rope. The witch panic at Salem has Duhr’s views had been preceded by those of two oth-
also been blamed on ergotism; but numerous objections er Germans, Johannes Janssen and Johann Diefenbach,
h a ve been raised to this theory, and even in the case of both of whom had attempted to lay the main blame for
the much better founded Eu ropean instances, the essen- the excesses of the witch persecutions on the Protestant
tial point is that ergotism may explain why some people Reformation and its theological and social impact.
in certain specific cases experienced symptoms they Duhr justified his investigation by asserting that previ-
attributed to witchcraft or diabolic possession, but it ous Jesuit studies had been overly biased in one or
does not explain why they attributed the symptoms to another direction. Duhr presented a huge amount of
298 Duhr, Bernhard |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 336 | 46049 Golden Chap. D av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.299 Application File
information and sources extremely concisely, thus pro- Duhr, Bernhard. 1900. Die Stellung der Jesuiten in den deutschen
viding a solid foundation for any further examination Hexenprozessen.Cologne: Bachem.
of the attitude of the Jesuits and of the Catholic Church Kratz, Wilhelm. 1931. “Bernhard Duhr.” Historisches Jahrbuch51:
215–218.
as a whole to the issue of witchcraft.
Obv i o u s l y, the two opposed major re p re s e n t a t i ve s
of the Jesuit ord e r, Ma rtín Del Rio and Friedrich Sp e e , Dürer, Albrecht
who had taken opposed stands on witchcraft trials, (1471–1528)
assumed primary importance in Du h r’s discussion. In Dürer was a painter, printmaker, draftsman, and writer,
his evaluation of these two, Duhr re vealed both his whose engraving Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat
g reatness and his limitations: Without attempting to (ca. 1500) exercised a strong influence on sixteenth-
acquit the Jesuit order of all responsibility for pro m o t- century witchcraft iconography through the work of
ing witchcraft trials, he imitated other late-nine- Hans Baldung [Grien]. Dürer is generally considered
t e e n t h - c e n t u ry apologists in matters of guilt and the greatest of all German artists and an extraordinary
re s p o n s i b i l i t y. He also argued from an apologetic i n n ovator in the fields of printmaking (especially
point of view in marginalizing Del Rio and Gre g o ry of engraving), port r a i t u re, and self-port r a i t u re. Ap a rt
Valencia, both famous Jesuits, while attempting to from his journeyman years in the upper Rhine region,
c a t e g o r i ze Spee, along with his predecessors Ad a m two trips to Italy in 1495 and 1505–1507 (which
Tanner and Paul Laymann, as true, traditional Je s u i t s shaped his approach to color, human proportions, and
in their uncompromising opposition to witchcraft tri- p e r s p e c t i ve), and travel to the Netherlands in
als. On the other hand, he correctly accused his oppo- 1520–1521, Dürer spent most of his life in his native
nents of hastily labeling Spee a humanist outsider, city of Nuremberg. His high standing as an artist is
while portraying Del Rio and other advocates of the demonstrated by the large number of commissions he
trials as “t y p i c a l” Jesuits. Du h r’s main achieve m e n t received from the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I
was to bring re l a t i ve impartiality to the historiography after 1512; and by a life pension to oversee imperial
of the witchcraft trials at a moment of extre m e artistic commissions, granted by Maximilian in 1515
polemics. Rather than painting a black-and-white and renewed by Charles V in 1520.
denominational picture, he suggested a contextual T h roughout his entire care e r, Dürer completed
understanding of the theory of witchcraft. Even Du h r, only two images of witches, both of them engravings:
h owe ve r, could not finally re s o l ve the tension betwe e n Four Naked Wo m e n or The Four Wi t c h e s (1497), and
Spee and his ord e r. Wi t c hRiding Ba c k w a rds on a Go a t .The central subject
Du h r’s achievement can only be fully appre c i a t e d of the latter, a woman riding a goat and holding a
within the context of the situation of the Jesuits in the spindle, soon became one of the stock re p re s e n t a t i o n s
German Empire at the time he was writing, when they for witchcraft in the sixteenth century. Wild fly i n g
were in fact prohibited. Duhr’s entire work can be seen hair and the hailstorm (in the left top corner) quickly
as an apologetics for the Jesuit order, beginning with his d e veloped into two common visual cues for witch-
Jesuit Fables, which saw its fourth edition in 1904. All craft. Another critical iconographical contribution of
his publications reflected his endeavors to convince the D ü rer was the association of witchcraft with inve r-
German public that the Jesuits deserved a place in the sion: His witch is shown riding backwards, her hair
cultural and academic life of Wilhelmine Ge r m a n y. flies out in a direction contrary to all expectations,
Most of his liberal and anti-ultramontane critics argued and even Düre r’s monogram is re versed. The back-
that Duhr placed the Jesuit order and the attitude of the w a rd ride alludes to a medieval trope and cultural
Roman Catholic Church toward controversial issues in practice used as a form of punishment or mockery in
an overly favorable light. cases of cuckolding or husband beating, cases in
JÖRG HAUSTEIN; which the traditional sexual honor and order of the
community was considered to have been ove rt u r n e d .
TRANSLATED BY HELEN SIEGBURG
Mo re ove r, the goat was strongly associated with lust in
See also:DELRIO,MARTÍN;GREGORYOFVALENCIA;HANSEN, the late Middle Ages, particularly in depictions of the
JOSEPH;HISTORIOGRAPHY;LAYMANN,PAUL;RIEZLER,SIGMUND; s e ven vices. This association helps underline the sexu-
SPEE,FRIEDRICH;TANNER,ADAM. al associations of Düre r’s fig u re, as does her grasp of
References and further reading:
the goat’s horn, once again a re f e rence to cuckoldry
Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm. 1990. “Bernhard Duhr.” Biographisch-
and the ove rturning of sexual ord e r. The nakedness of
bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon.Edited by Friedrich Wilhelm
the witch may well re flect the influence of classical
Bautz. Hamm: Traugott Bautz.
m o d e l s .
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria:
The four putti below the riding figure are more mys-
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early
Modern Europe.Translated by J.C. Grayson and David Lederer. terious and have eluded clear explanation. One carries a
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. topiary tree and stick; another balances a round vessel,
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associated in the late Middle Ages with the planet-god,
Saturn, who included magicians and witches among his
“c h i l d ren.” In t e rest in this engraving is demonstrated
by six surviving copies, three prints and three paintings
(one by Adam Elsheimer).
The presence of evil is clearly the subject of Fo u r
Naked Wo m e n .A monstrous devil, surrounded by fla m e s
and smoke, stands in a doorw a y, looking in at four
naked women. Two are shown from the back and two
face the viewe r, while the skull and bone at the women’s
feet clearly suggest the presence of evil. The identity and
activity of the group remains a mystery, accentuated by
the sphere hanging overhead displaying the letters O. G.
H . , which, like the fig u res themselves, have been deci-
p h e red in numerous ways. Although reminiscent of the
Graces, the female fig u res have also been identified as
the seasons, the temperaments, the elements, and as four
witches. This engraving also aroused considerable con-
t e m p o r a ry interest: four copies we re made over the next
f ew years, and such later artists as Sebald and Ba rt h e l
Beham rew o rked the scene.
CHARLES ZIKA
See also: ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BALDUNG[GRIEN], HANS;
DIONYSUS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;GENDER;GOAT;IMPOTENCE,
SEXUAL;MAXIMILIANI,HOLYROMANEMPEROR;SATURN.
References and further reading:
Dwyer, Eugene J. 1971. “The Subject of Dürer’sFour Witches.”
Art Quarterly34 (winter): 456–473.
Mesenzeva, Charmian A. 1983. “Zum Problem: Dürer und die
Antike. Albrecht Dürers Kupferstich Die Hexe.”Zeitschrift für
Kunstgeschichte46: 187–202.
Schoch, Rainer, Matthias Mende, and Anna Scherbaum.
Kupferstiche, Eisenradierungen und Kaltnadelblätter.Vol. 1 of
Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat,
Albrecht Dürer: Das Druckgraphische Werk.Munich. London
ca.1500, had an enormous influence on witch iconography, including
and NewYork: Prestel.
such elements as the goat, the spindle the witch holds, the flying hair,
Sullivan, Margaret A. 2000. “The Witches of Dürer and Hans
the hailstorm, flying backwards, and the association of witchcraft with
Baldung Grien.” Renaissance Quarterly53: 332–401.
lust and sexuality. (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource)
Zika, Charles. 1998. “Dürer’sWitch. Riding Women and Moral
Order.” Pp. 118–140 in Dürer and His Culture.Edited by
Dagmar Eichberger and Charles Zika. Cambridge: University
possibly a wine jar; a third performs a somersault; a of Cambridge Press.
fourth endeavors to take a stick from his fellow. These
figures have been understood as personifications of the Duval, André (1564–1638)
four elements or four seasons; or as attendants of a god- Leading theologian of the Paris Faculty of Theology
dess of lust, similar to the winged putti associated with (Sorbonne), friend of such luminaries as Pierre Coton,
fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Italian re p resentations of the Pr i a p u s Pierre de Bérulle, and St. Vincent de Paul, spiritual
and Dionysus cults. The latter explanation would fit companion and biographer of Barbe Acarie (Marie de
with Charmian Mesenzeva’s understanding of the witch l’ Incarnation), who founded the French Di s c a l c e d
as modeled on the ancient fig u re of Ap h ro d i t e Carmelites, Duval was also involved in assessments of
Pandemos, the earthly Venus and goddess of lust and demonic possession, witchcraft, and charismatic spiri-
night, of which a number of examples we re extant in t u a l i t y. Appointed to a chair in theology at the
the late fifteenth century.Whatever the precise explana- University of Paris in 1597, Duval was a formative fig-
tions, the putti underline the associations of witchcraft ure in the French “century of saints.” Church and state
with sexual disorder and inversion. Likewise, the officials regularly called on him to evaluate such phe-
curious depiction of a goat with the tail of a fish or ser- nomena as demonic possession or ecstasies, or to judge
pent may be an allusion to Capricorn, a fig u re closely the orthodoxy of new books on these subjects.
300 Duval, André |
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Du val rarely avoided controve r s y. In the Wars of p e rformances suspect because they lasted too long,
Religion, he had been a supporter of the militant Holy “without syncope or interruption”(Avis de Messievrs Du
Catholic League, and he remained an ultramontane, Val, fol. 172r), arousing suspicion that the possessed
who tended to side with pope over king in jurisdiction- woman was controlling the proceedings; their re p o rt
al matters. Soon after joining the Sorbonne, Duval was also criticized some of the more flamboyant practices of
among those who used Ma rthe Bro s s i e r’s “d e m o n i c” the Lorraine exorcists as superstitious. In 1623, Duval
anti-Huguenot exorcisms as evidence that God did not appears to have been behind Sorbonne moves to con-
a p p rove of the 1598 Edict of Nantes, Henri IV’s new demn a book by the layman Jean le Normant about the
peace accord with the Huguenots. Those who support- possessed nuns of Lille, although two of his colleagues
ed the edict feared that Brossier and other exo rc i s t s approved its publication. In 1625 Duval signed a joint
might encourage fresh religious violence. Royal doctors response to a request from a court in Orléans for guid-
e n g i n e e red an unfavorable medical judgment that ance about the realities of witchcraft and limits on the
Brossier was a fraud, and the Pa rl e m e n t of Paris (the De v i l’s powe r. The authors of the response accepted
sovereign judicial court, with jurisdiction over approxi- s e veral controversial forms of witchcraft, but urged
mately one-half of France) imprisoned her. judiciousness regarding claims made in this case by self
For Duval and his colleagues, such actions represent- confessed witches. Du va l’s responses allow for many
ed an unacceptable degree of royal power over the supernatural activities and signs, but also reflect a desire
C h u rch. To pre vent exo rcisms, they preached, was to to qualify or limit his approval, sometimes for political
deny miracles, and they claimed that Huguenot influ- reasons or to re a s s e rt the authority of the Faculty of
ence lay behind the Parlement’s decision to suppress the Theology.
e xo rcisms. Du va l’s criticism was sufficiently shrill for In his commitment to spiritual and mystical aspects
Du val and another priest to be charged by the of Catholicism, combined with a rigorous authoritari-
Pa rl e m e n t with offending both court and king. Du va l anism, Duval’s attitudes resemble those of Jean Gerson,
(“an otherwise learned man,” the parlementaireJacques chancellor of the same faculty two centuries before ,
Auguste de Thou noted; Congnard 1652, 10) got off who addressed similarly vexing themes. Du val drew
with a reprimand. d i rectly on Ge r s o n’s work, and like Gerson, he sought
Duval’s next public statements on exorcism, in 1615 theologically rigorous arguments. But Du va l’s view s ,
and 1618, concerned the controversial practice of inter- like Gerson’s, were inevitably constrained by the politi-
rogating the demons of the possessed in order to extract cal and polemical exigencies of his day. His career shows
witchcraft accusations. He re he was more cautious. that good theological practice, like good case law, some-
Consulted by officials in Valognes (Normandy) about times focuses as much on mustering authoritative l y
the legitimacy of demonic testimony as legal evidence, coherent views from within a canon as on arriving at a
Duval and two Sorbonne colleagues summarily rejected single constant version of the truth.
the practice: although the Devil can tell the truth, they
SARAH FERBER
held, he can never be trusted to do so. This re s p o n s e
was published in a 1618 work by an Au g u s t i n i a n , See also:BÉRULLE,PIERREDE;BROSSIER,MARTHE;COTON,PIERRE;
Sanson Birette, Refutation of the Vulgar Error Regarding DISCERNMENTOFSPIRITS;EXORCISM;FRANCE;GERSON,JEAN;
Exorcised Devils,with a letter of support from Duval. In
LILLENUNS;LOUDUNNUNS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;RANFAING,
his defense against witchcraft accusations made by the
ELISABETHDE;WARSOFRELIGION(FRANCE).
References and further reading:
possessed nuns at Loudun, the priest Urbain Grandier
Advis de Messievrs Dv Val, Gamache & Ysambert Docteurs de
later cited Bi re t t e’s book. Iro n i c a l l y, in 1633, Du va l
Sorbonne, donné en l’année 1620 sur un faict avenu en Lorraine.
signed a report giving qualified, but crucial, support for
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Manuscripts, fonds Dupuy 641,
the authenticity of the possessions at Loudun. One of fols. 171r–172r.
the principal exo rcists there later invoked the Arnauld, Agnès. 1633. Le Chapelet secret du tres-sainct Sacrement,
Sorbonne’s validation of the authenticity of the posses- published with Censvre des Docteurs de Sorbonne.N.p.
sions in print. Du va l’s equivocation on the Loudun Birette, Sanson. 1618. Refutation de l’erreur du Vulgaire, touchant
possessions was probably related to Cardinal Richelieu’s les responses des diables exorcizez.Rouen: Besongne.
i n fluence over both the exo rcisms and the So r b o n n e Congnard.1652. Histoire de Marthe Brossier pretendue possedee
tiree du Latin de Messire Jacques Auguste de Thou, President au
theologians (Mandrou 1968, 318–322).
Parlement de Paris. Avec quelques remarques et considerations gen-
Duval’s other statements about possession and witch-
erales sur cette Matiere, tirées pour la plus part aussi du Latin de
craft emphasize both diligence and the need for author-
Bartholomaeus Perdulcis celebre Medecin de la Faculté de
ity and discernment. In the 1620 case of Elisabeth de
Paris. Le tout pour servir d’appendice & de plus ample éclarcisse-
Ranfaing in the independent duchy of Lorraine, Duval
ment au sujet d’un livre intitulé “La Pieté affligée ou Discours his-
and two colleagues rejected the use of diabolic testimo- torique & théologique de la possession des Religieuses dictes de
ny in the absence of other evidence, judging Ranfaing’s Sainte Elizabeth de Louviers” &c.Rouen: Herault.
Duval, André 301 |
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Cruickshank, John. 1994. “The Acarie Circle.” Seventeenth- Le Normant, Jean. 1623. Histoire veritable et memorable de ce qvi
Century French Studies,16: 48–58. c’est passé sovs l’exorcisme de trois filles possedées és païs de Flandre;
Dagens, Jean. 1952. Bérulle et les origines de la restauration [and] De la vocation des magiciens et magiciennes par le ministre
catholique (1575–1611).Bruges: Brouwer. des demons.2 vols. Paris: Buon. Reel 52: 471 in Witchcraft in
Du val, André. 1621. La Vie admirable de soevr Marie de Europe and America Microfilm.Woodbridge, CT: Research
l’ In c a rnation re l i g i e vse converse en l’ o rd re de nostre Dame du mont Publications, 1983.
Ca rmel, appellée au monde la Damoiselle Ac a r i e .Do u a y : Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe
Be l l é re . siècle: Une analyse de psychologie historique.Paris: Seuil.
Ferber, Sarah. 2004. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Viller, Marcel, et. al 1937–1995. Dictionnaire de spiritualité, ascé-
Modern France.London: Routledge. tique et mystique: Doctrine et histoire.Paris: Beauchesne.
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E
Ecclesiastical Territories The electoral archbishopric of Mainz may serve as an
(Holy Roman Empire) example for ecclesiastical territories more generally,
During the early modern period, some of the numerous because many seve re witch hunts we re conducted by
Holy Roman Empire’s ecclesiastical territories experi- ecclesiastical prince-electors, prince-bishops, and
enced particularly severe witch hunts. At the beginning prince-abbots (and even one prince-abbess, at
of the seventeenth century, witch burnings became so Quedlinburg). Perhaps the primary reason so many
frequent in central Europe that we cannot localize the witches we re executed in central Eu rope was the fact
exact starting points of individual waves of persecution. that these ecclesiastical territories lay at the core of the
Surprisingly, the most prominent ecclesiastical princes Holy Roman Empire.To put it another way, there were
of the Holy Roman Empire, the three archbishop-elec- few ecclesiastical territories outside central Europe (one
tors, ranked among the most active witch hunters. apparent exception, the state of the Teutonic Knights in
However, their witch hunts were never related to their Prussia, was secularized by the Hohenzollern dynasty in
quality as spiritual lords of their dioceses or archdioce- 1525 during the Reformation, long before serious
ses, but were carried out in their capacity as secular witch hunting started). The prince-bishopric of Breslau
rulers. in Silesia (now in Poland) saw a considerable number of
As a result of political developments of the late witch hunts as well. In It a l y, the Papal States largely
Middle Ages, these archbishops ruled over sizable secu- escaped such persecutions, although a witch panic
lar territories, usually located within their dioceses but apparently occurred in the papal territory of Avignon in
c overing only a small share of each. For example, the southern France.
archdiocese of Mainz stretched almost from the North Some infamous prince-bishops, the so-called
Sea to It a l y, but the prince-electorate of Ma i n z w i t c h - b i s h o p s , conducted the most terrible witch
(Ku rfürstentum Ma i n z , or Ku rm a i n z), consisted of hunts within the Holy Roman Em p i re. In the 1580s,
patches of land scattered across the middle of the Holy the archbishop and elector of Trier began the series of
Roman Em p i re: a large portion in the Rhineland; m a s s i ve witch hunts in the Holy Roman Em p i re with
another portion stretching east of Frankfurt into upper a paradigmatic persecution. For the first time, witch-
Franconia; a third patch in Thuringia around the town es did not come only from the lower levels of society,
of Erf u rt, where Luther re c e i ved his university educa- and the execution of wealthy citizens, noblemen, and
tion; and further tiny particles of land elsew h e re . clerics as witches became a hallmark of persecutions
Altogether Ku rm a i n z was about 8,300 square kilome- in ecclesiastical territories. The prince-electorates of
ters with nearly 400,000 inhabitants, and generated Mainz, Cologne, and Trier; the prince-bishoprics of
a round one million gulden of income annually. Bamberg, W ü rzburg, Eichstätt, Minden, Os n a b r ü c k ,
Pr i n c e-bishops usually came from the lower re g i o n a l Augsburg, Strasbourg, and Breslau; the prince-abbeys
nobility and were elected by cathedral chapters. of Fulda, St a velot, and Ellwangen; the imperial abbey
The witch craze in Mainz started with about 650 of St. Maximin (close to Trier); the lands of the
burnings during the short reign (1601–1604) of Teutonic Order at Mergentheim all we re ecclesiastical
Johann Adam von Bicken, a man of fragile health. principalities that proved particularly susceptible to
Under his successor Johann Schweikhard von Cronberg major witchcraft persecutions.
(ruled 1604–1626), a powerful imperial politician, the Ni n e t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Protestant scholars attributed
persecution slowed, but another 361 people we re exe- these persecutions to Counter-Reformation zeal, and
cuted as witches. Witch hunting reached its climax Catholicism generally. Recent re s e a rch, howe ve r, has
under Archbishop Georg Friedrich von Gre i f f e n k l a u demonstrated that attributing responsibility for these
( ruled 1626–1629), when 768 witches we re killed in witch hunts is more complicated. The electorate of
just four years. All in all, about 1,800 people were legal- Mainz, to return to our example, was one of many
ly killed as witches under the rule of these three arc h- fragmented Imperial territories where state-f o r m a t i o n
bishops. f a i l e d . T h e re are obvious reasons for such stru c t u r a l
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be put into practice. Until the end of the sixteenth
c e n t u ry, even members of the cathedral chapters
remained Protestant. Some bishops had to accept
Protestant councillors, because they found no able
Catholics among their subjects and would not risk
e m p l oying foreigners. As late as 1582, one of the
e m p i re’s most prominent ecclesiastical princes,
Ge b h a rd II Truchsess von Waldburg, archbishop of
Cologne, converted to Protestantism, a traumatic expe-
rience for the Catholic party.The nobility was split into
a lower branch, subject to the princes, and a higher
branch, subject only to the emperor, virtually indepen-
dent, and organized in cantons. Both branches we re
closely interlinked by marriage and represented a pow-
e rful social stratum, particularly in Franconia, Sw a b i a ,
and the Rhineland. Many Imperial Knights and many
of the lower nobility we re Protestants, so when the
bishops tried to embark on the business of Counter-
Reformation, they faced considerable resistance.
It was symbolic of the bishops' weakness that
Balthasar von Dernbach (ruled 1570–1576 and
1602–1606), the prince-abbot of Fulda, an ecclesiasti-
cal territory almost as large as the neighboring
Ecclesiastical territories in Central Europe (Holy Roman Empire), the prince-bishoprics of Bamberg and Würzburg, failed to
center of witch hunting. (Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation,
reform his territory.To the great displeasure of his sub-
Oxford, 1996)
jects, including members of the nobility who constitut-
ed his chapter, von Dernbach was among the first gen-
weakness: First, there was no continuity in office since eration of ecclesiastical princes who tried to intro d u c e
ecclesiastical lands we re not here d i t a ry. Second, the the rules of the Council of Trent. Like other reforming
bishops had considerable difficulties intro d u c i n g princes, he tried to use the reforms to discipline his sub-
reforms, one of their prime tasks as proponents of the jects, and to strengthen his state. According to the Peace
C o u n t e r - Reformation. Mo re ove r, the cathedral chap- of Augsburg, dissenting burghers, clerics, and nobles
ters that had elected them we re irre m ovable and fre- could be driven into exile, and local society could be
quently pursued their own politics—they we re domi- reshaped by discipline and education, with the Je s u i t s
nated by interests of the regional nobility rather than serving as intellectual cadres supporting absolutist rule.
the universal Church. T h i rd, in Mainz, as in the elec- The struggle against concubinage usually served as a
torates of Cologne and Trier, the regional nobility, the means of disciplining the clergy, and particularly the
t owns, and even the peasants retained considerable cathedral chapter.The public whipping of concubines,
rights to self-government, and none lacked self-confi- one of the zealous abbot’s reforms, was considered an
dence. Taxation was difficult, and legal administration insult by his noble canons, as well as by the citizens of
was decentralized and fragmented among competing Fulda, who had accepted these unofficial “marriages” of
jurisdictions. their daughters, which conveniently united the strata of
These territories also experienced a most embarrass- local society. The opposition to Abbot von De r n b a c h
ing conflict between the desire for religious reform and was considerable, and came not merely fro m
political re a l i t y. Because prince-bishops we re temporal Protestants, but also from some leading Catholic fami-
as well as spiritual lords, in theory, the process of con- lies, who were slow to accept his new religious program.
fessionalization (the efforts of the different churches in Su p p o rted by the prince-bishops of W ü rzburg, this
sixteenth- and seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Eu rope to align opposition forced the abbot to resign. Howe ve r, vo n
with the state to control all aspects of daily life) should Dernbach managed to regain his territory through a
h a ve been particularly easy. In fact, some prince-bish- decision of the Reichshofrat (imperial aulic court). Back
oprics we re Catholic only in name, while most of the in office, he launched one of the fiercest witch hunts in
n o b i l i t y, and a number of towns, like Erf u rt, or por- the Holy Roman Em p i re. T h e re we re 276 victims in
tions of the citizenry, remained Protestant. One of the three years in a territory with fewer than 90,000 inhab-
most famous laws of the empire, cuius regio eius religio itants. Only after the abbot’s death did the persecution
(subjects must follow the creed of their ruler), intro- s t o p. Under the new abbot, the infamous judge
duced by the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, could neve r Balthasar Nuss was imprisoned and, after years of a
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behind-the-scenes power struggle, executed for his that he dedicated to the prince-bishop of Ei c h s t ä t t ,
atrocities. Johann Christoph von Westerstetten. The prince-bish-
It is rewarding to explore the microstructures of these op was a man who represented the fundamentalist type
ecclesiastical territories. For example, the persecution at of Counter-Reforming ecclesiastical prince and was
Fulda had links to three other large-scale persecutions: well known for his persistent witch hunting. He initiat-
that in the lands of the Teutonic Knights at ed a permanent state of persecution in his prince-abbey
Mergentheim (1602–1606), and those in the of Ellwangen from 1603 to 1612, leading to no fewer
p r i n c e-bishopric of Bamberg (1616–1619 and than 75 days of executions during which groups of
1626–1630). Among those who triumphed with the 4–12 we re burned. He then added another 60 gro u p
resignation of Prince-Abbot Dernbach in 1576 was an burnings in his prince-bishopric of Eichstätt betwe e n
influential citizen, Hans Haan. After the zealous abbot’s 1612 and 1636. Even if Westerstetten’s reign resulted in
return, Ha a n’s wife Anna was among the first to be only 240 executions at Eichstätt (Durrant 2002), he
accused of witchcraft. The family’s losing appeal to the was still responsible for at least 550 burnings, including
Reichskammergericht (imperial chamber court) was one the Ellwangen persecutions—and in both cases, the
reason judge Nuss was put on trial and eventually exe- witch hunts lasted exactly as long as Westerstetten was
cuted for his severe abuses. Not even during the confes- in powe r. Guided by Förner, the most prominent vic-
sional age were witchcraft prosecutions meant to serve tim of Bamberg’s final witch hunt was the leading local
as instruments of political or religious power struggles, politician, the veteran chancellor Dr. Haan, who had
or of revenge. A contemporary report labeled the Fulda served the bishops of Bamberg and the Catholic League
persecution as “unlawful, cruel and tyrannical” for many years. Eventually the whole Haan family was
(Oestmann 1997, 438–446). But this does not end the burned at the stake.
s t o ry. Recent re s e a rch suggests that the Chancellor of In comparison to earlier large-scale witch hunts, a
Bamberg, Dr. Georg Haan (1568–1628), was Anna n ew rationale guided these persecutions. Gr a s s ro o t s
Ha a n’s son. Originally a councillor in the interim witch hunts in places like Lorraine might last for
administration of Fulda before 1602, Haan later rose to decades, and there f o re accumulated large numbers of
become vice-chancellor of Bamberg under Jo h a n n victims. This new type of witch hunt, howe ve r, was
Philipp von Gebsattel (ruled 1599–1609), a bishop s t a rted deliberately, gained momentum within we e k s ,
who indulged in the Renaissance joys of loving music and led to the burning of hundreds of witches within a
and women (he had at least six children). But in 1610 f ew months. Even when these persecutions we re not
the Catholic League installed an ardent reform-minded initiated from above, the authorities used them to gain
b i s h o p, Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen, who was popular support for centralizing their legal administra-
already bishop of Würzburg. His new suffragan bishop, tions. These persecutions we re coordinated by a new
Friedrich Förner (1568–1630), who resembled the type of judge, a direct representative of the prince, later
Trier demonologist Peter Binsfeld, began to form new called a He xe n k o m m i s s a r (Witch Commissioner) ,
alliances and immediately attacked witches. A witch whose prototype was the Fulda judge Balthasar Nu s s .
hunt started in 1612, making Haan uneasy for more As at Trier in the 1580s, the Mainz persecutions of
than one reason: he was probably the son of a suspected 1602 we re driven by village committees, whereas the
witch who was arrested about the same time that his p r i n c e - a b b o t’s friend in Fulda was responsible for the
wife’s mother had been burned as a witch in the territo- whole territory and could bypass the Zentgerichte (dis-
ry of the Teutonic Knights at Mergentheim. trict courts) or even the central government, like a
Factionalism entered politics as proponents of the Spanish inquisitor. Pr i n c e - Abbot Westerstetten, who
C o u n t e r - Reformation established their powe r. Förner appointed two lawyers as commissioners for Ellwangen
found support from the former chancellor’s son, coun- when he saw the chance to launch a witchcraft persecu-
cillor Dr. Ernst Vasoldt, now eager to serve as a Witch tion in May 1611, adopted this effective model. Su c h
Commissioner. Their conflict climaxed in 1618. Haan commissioners developed a standard procedure to min-
had already indicated his distaste for such persecutions. i m i ze outside interf e rence and combine tort u re with
When the T h i rty Ye a r s’ War began to cause fin a n c i a l denunciations. Superseding slow and traditional cir-
problems, he sharply reduced the budget of the perse- cumstantial evidence, they created the proverbial witch
cutors, thus ending the persecutions. The hard - l i n e r s h u n t , using minimal evidence to steer the trials and
had lost a battle. The situation changed again after the guarantee a maximum number of convictions. Fro m
election of Bishop Johann Georg II Fuchs vo n Ellwangen, Westerstetten brought this type of witch
Dornheim (ruled 1622–1633), another Catholic hunt to Eichstätt in 1613, from which other
League candidate, whose election had been engineered Franconian bishoprics (Bamberg, W ü rzburg) adopted
by Förner. Haan remained in office, but his enemies it in 1616. Many territories experienced political strug-
began to undermine him. In 1625 Förner delive red a gles in the 1620s over whether or not to appoint Witch
series of thirt y - five sermons on magic and witchcraft Commissioners. Both sides, “ze a l o t s” and moderate
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“politicians,” clearly understood the implications. If witches or heretics (Forster 1992). They experienced
Bavarian politicians managed to avoid large-scale perse- spiritual uncertainty, but only minor ideological stress.
cutions, a Ba varian prince, the archbishop-elector of Fu rt h e r m o re, several prince-abbots, sometimes as a
Cologne, deployed Witch Commissioners to pro d u c e strategy for survival in areas where threats of rebellion,
the largest number of victims anywhere in Ge r m a n - Protestantism, and secularization were imminent since
speaking lands. the 1520s, developed particular kinds of social pacts,
Ecclesiastical principalities proved particularly sus- helping them alleviate social crises and providing their
ceptible to witch persecutions, but many ecclesiastical subjects, when necessary, with capital for inve s t m e n t s .
territories were only slightly afflicted, and some not at Monastic welfare systems became proverbial among the
all. It seems worth emphasizing that most of the imper- peasantry in southern Germany during the early mod-
ial abbacies avoided persecutions. None of the extensive ern period: unter dem Kummstab ist gut leben (life is
monastic lands most closely associated with baro q u e good under an abbot’s staff). Third (although for vari-
c u l t u re, including some large prince-abbeys ous reasons not yet well explored), at least some
(Berchtesgaden, Buchau, Corvey, Ettal, Irsee, Kempten, prince-abbots apparently had their own interpretations
Ko r n e l i m ü n s t e r, Ma l m e d y, Ma rchtal, Oc h s e n h a u s e n , of the regulations of the Council of Trent. All prince-
Ot t o b e u ren, Prüm, Salem, Schussenried, St. Bl a s i e n , abbots of Kempten, for example, had concubines and
Ursberg, Weingarten, Weissenburg, or Zwiefalten), can c h i l d ren, as chroniclers in the neighboring Pro t e s t a n t
be connected with any witch hunt, and some of them Imperial City of Kempten meticulously and malicious-
n e ver had any witchcraft trials at all. Our perc e p t i o n ly re c o rded. The abbots of wealthier territories we re
has been distorted by a few sensational cases, like Fulda usually not zealots, and their attitude tow a rd sin, like
and Ellwangen, St. Maximin, or Stavelot. Many prince- their attitude tow a rd women, seems decidedly more
bishoprics engaged in witch hunting, although we can re l a xed than those of some Counter-Re f o r m a t i o n
also find a good number of examples to the contrary. bishops.
Only a few trials occurred in the small prince-
WOLFGANG BEHRINGER
bishoprics of Sp e ye r, Worms, Pa s s a u - Re g e n s b u r g ,
Brixen and Trent, and a few took place in Münster, the See also: BAMBERG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;
largest ecclesiastical territory in the Holy Ro m a n COLOGNE;EICHSTÄTT,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;ELLWANGEN,
Empire, which moreover bordered on the archbishopric
PRINCE-ABBEYOF;FULDA,PRINCE-ABBEYOF;GERMANY;HOLY
of Cologne and was even ruled by the same prince-
ROMANEMPIRE;KEMPTEN,PRINCE-ABBEYOF;MAINZ,ELEC-
TORATEOF;MARCHTAL,IMPERIALABBEYOF;MERGENTHEIM,
bishops, Ernst and Fe rdinand of Ba varia. Even where
ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORYOF;NUSS,BALTHASAR;ST.MAXIMIN,
s e ve re witch hunts took place, they we re usually con-
PRINCE-ABBEYOF;TRIER,ELECTORATEOF;WESTERSTETTEN,
fined to only a few of the years between 1580 and
JOHANNCHRISTOPHVON;WITCH-BISHOPS(HOLYROMAN
1640. We have already mentioned some factors that EMPIRE); WÜRZBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF.
contributed to the potential susceptibility of ecclesiasti- References and further reading:
cal territories: structural weakness, the failure of state Behringer,Wolfgang. 1995. “Das ‘Reichskhündig Exempel’ von
formation, the demand for persecutions from below, as Trier. Zur paradigmatischen Rolle einer Hexenverfolgung in
well as the hardships caused by extreme climatic deteri- Deutschland.” Pp. 427–439 in Hexenglaube und
oration. We can add as causes the lack of medical care, Hexenverfolgung im Raum Rhein-Mosel-Saar.Edited by Franz
Irsigler and Gunter Franz. Trier: Spee.
social insecurity, and spiritual uncertainty from the
Durrant, Jonathan. 2002. “Witchcraft, Gender and Society in the
competing confessions and tensions between offic i a l
Early Modern Prince-Bishopric of Eichstätt,” Unpublished
and popular religion. Of course, deficient infrastru c-
Ph.D. diss., University of London.
tures contributed to economic misery and underdevel-
Eiden, Herbert, and Voltmer, Rita, eds. 2002. Hexenprozesse und
oped institutions. Most of these factors operated in all
Gerichtspraxis. (Trierer Hexenprozesse—Quellen und
monastic territories as well, and even in many secular Darstellungen 6). Trier: Paulinus.
lordships. So what made the difference? Forster, Marc. 1992. The Counter-Reformation in the Villages.
One reason may have been that the political aspira- Religion and Reform in the Bishopric of Speyer, 1560–1720.
tions of prince-abbots we re usually smaller than those Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
of prince-bishops. Only a few, like Fulda or Ellwangen, Gebhard, Horst. 1991. Hexenprozesse im Kurfürstentum Mainz des
e m b a rked on state formation or confessionalization, 17. Jahrhunderts.Aschaffenburg: Geschichts- und Kunstvereins
Aschaffenburg.
t h e re by risking a power struggle with their estates or
Gehm, Britta. 2000. Die Hexenverfolgungen des Hochstifts Bamberg
their subjects by forcing them violently into uniform
und das Eingreifen des Reichshofrates zu ihrer Beendigung.
b e l i e f. Some smaller prince-bishoprics, like Sp e yer or
Hildesheim: Georg Olms.
Constance, resembled monasteries in their leniency,
Hillerbrand, Hans J., ed. 1996. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the
and never aspired to state formation or forced their sub-
Reformation.4 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
jects into confessionalized Catholicism. Nor did these Irsigler, Franz, and Gunter Franz, eds. 1995. Hexenglaube und
smaller prince-bishoprics systematically persecute Hexenverfolgung im Raum Rhein-Mosel-Saar.Trier: Spee.
306 Ecclesiastical Territories |
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Köbler, Gerhard. 1995. Historisches Handbuch der deutschen the capital by the territories of other rulers. The initial
Länder.Munich: Beck. trials of this episode of persecution were cited as exam-
Lamberg, M. G. 1835. Criminalverfahren vorzüglich bei ples along with the case of Dillingen in the bishopric of
Hexenprocessen im ehemaligen Bistum Bamberg während der
Augsburg, in a 1590 opinion about the suppression of
Jahre 1624–1630.Nuremberg.
witches from the Un i versity of Ingolstadt sought by
Oestmann, Peter. 1997.Hexenprozesse am Reichskammergericht.
Wilhelm V of Ba varia. Afterw a rd, between 1593 and
Vienna: Böhlau.
1602, cases against nine individuals accused of witch-
Pohl, Herbert. 1998. Zauberglaube und Hexenangst im
craft or consulting with a wise woman were all resolved
Kurfürstentum Mainz: ein Beitrag zur Hexenfrage im 16. und
beginnenden 17. Jahrhundert.2nd ed. Stuttgart: Steiner. peacefully or dismissed entirely.Three dubious cases of
Schormann, Gerhard. 1991. Der Krieg gegen die Hexen. Das witchcraft may have resulted in executions.
Ausrottungs-programm des Kurfürsten von Köln.Göttingen: In another outbreak in 1603, twenty women, all of
Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht. whom were residents of the town of Eichstätt and relat-
ed to its secular political elite, were executed for witch-
Eichstätt, Prince-Bishopric of craft. (Their cases were not connected with those from
The Ho c h s t i f t , or prince-bishopric, of Eichstätt in 1590–1592.) Although members of the Ho f ra t ( c o u rt
southern Germany comprised the part of the diocese council) conducted this episode of persecution, the
ruled by the bishops of Eichstätt. Between 1590 and outbreak may have been connected to a dispute within
1631, three successive prince-bishops—Caspar vo n the cathedral chapter about introducing the Society of
Se c k e n d o rf (1590–1595), Johann Conrad vo n Jesus into the Ho c h s t i f t . After his plans to invite the
Gemmingen (1595–1612), and Johann Christoph von Jesuits to take over the local seminary we re re j e c t e d ,
Westerstetten (1612–1637)—presided over thre e Westerstetten left the Ho c h s t i f t in 1603 to become
episodes of witch persecution: in 1590–1592 in the prince-provost of Ellwangen. There he began persecut-
outlying districts of Abenberg and Spalt; and in 1603 ing witches on a great scale a few years later. Of the ten
and 1617–1631 in the capital, also called Eichstätt. or fewer cases of accused witchcraft between 1604 and
In these years, between 240 and 279 alleged witches 1616, including two slander suits brought before the
were arrested, most (between 181 and 210) during the Reichskammergericht (imperial chamber court) in
final episode of persecution. Almost all we re exe c u t e d Speyer, only three ended in execution.
or died in custody. About 88 percent of the victims Using fresh denunciations (no use was made of those
were women. The Eichstätt persecutions were part of a f rom 1603), Ei c h s t ä t t’s witch persecution resumed in
wider regional program of Catholic reform and 1617 and lasted until 1631. It was conducted by an
re-Catholicization. They took place in a time of agrari- ecclesiastical witch commission, established by
an crisis and increasing confessional and political ten- Westerstetten after his election as prince-bishop in
sion that culminated in the T h i rty Ye a r s’ Wa r 1612. The eradication of the heresy of witchcraft was
(1618–1648). Episodes of group persecution in the p a rt of We s t e r s t e t t e n’s agenda to introduce Tr i d e n t i n e
Hochstiftwere interspersed with isolated trials that con- reform and re - C a t h o l i c i ze local Protestant territories.
tinued an older local pattern of sporadic pro s e c u t i o n s The persecution quickly moved from the countryside to
for witchcraft, begun in the late fifteenth century. the town of Eichstätt. The persecution focused not on
Before the first major episode broke out, there had been accusations made by alleged victims of harmful magic,
six executions for witchcraft between 1494 and 1562. but on denunciations of accomplices made by suspected
An alleged witch was exorcised in 1582. witches who we re under interrogation. Because these
The origins of the persecution of 1590–1592 are suspects named friends and close neighbors as fellow
u n k n own, but it coincided with conflict in the cathe- w i t c h - h e retics, the accusations escalated among mem-
dral chapter over the election of a successor to Bishop bers of patrician households. In this process, more men
Ma rtin von Schaumberg, whose thirty years of ru l e we re denounced than we re arrested.That such a high
(1560–1590) had been characterized by confessional p ro p o rtion of women we re among those arrested (about
tolerance and political stability.Two factions, one resis- 85 percent) re flected the stereotyping by the Wi t c h
tant to the changes decreed by the Council of Tre n t Commissioners. Opposition to the prosecutions prove d
(1545–1563) and a younger reformist group led by i n e f f e c t i ve, and the end of the persecution coincided
Westerstetten, finally compromised over the election of with We s t e r s t e t t e n’s prolonged stay in the Ba varian uni-
Seckendorf, who was too ill to undertake his episcopal versity town of Ingolstadt from 1630 to 1637.
duties. The appointment of Gemmingen, a humanist Witchcraft trials also occurred at Eichstätt in 1723
unconcerned with reform, as Seckendorf’s coadjutor in and took place even as late as 1891–1892.
1593 may have pre vented further persecution. T h e
accused witches of 1590–1592 we re all female and JONATHAN DURRANT
came mainly from the local secular elite of Ab e n b e r g See also: BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORIES(HOLY
and Spalt, both of which were enclaves separated from ROMANEMPIRE); ELLWANGEN,PRINCEABBEYOF;GERMANY,
Eichstätt, Prince-Bishopric of 307 |
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SOUTHWESTERN;INGOLSTADT,UNIVERSITYOF;WESTERSTETTEN, I von Westerstetten (governed 1603–1613) and his suc-
JOHANNCHRISTOPHVON. cessor Johann Christoph II von Freyberg und Eisenberg
References and further reading: (1613–1620), both zealous re p re s e n t a t i ves of the
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria:
Catholic Counter-Reformation. Shortly after the witch
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early
persecutions began in April 1611, Provost vo n
Modern Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Westerstetten changed the juridical pro c e d u res of the
Buchta, Wolfgang. 1998. “Die Urgichten im Urfehdebuch des
trials. A special deputation dominated by two court
Stadtgerichts Eichstätt. Zur Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung
councillors now supervised witch hunting, and people
im südlichen Franken.” Jahrbuch für fränkische Landesforschung
58: 219–250. were tortured on the basis of a single denunciation by
Merzbacher, Friedrich. 1956. “Das alte Halsgerichtsbuch” des another prisoner. The prisoners—who now included
Hochstifts Eichstätt. Eine archivalische Quelle zur Geschichte men and women of almost eve ry age and social status—
des Strafvollzuges im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert und zur we re usually forced to confess that they had made a pact
rechtlichen Volkskunde.” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für with the Devil, flown through the air, had sexual inter-
Rechtsgeschichte. Germanische Abteilung73:375–396. course with the Devil, participated in witches’ Sa b b a t s ,
and perpetrated several m a l e ficia (evil acts). El l w a n g e n’s
Ellwangen, Prince-Abbey of juridical pro c e d u res became a model for the witch hunts
The witchcraft trials in the princely pre b e n d in Bamberg, W ü rzburg, and Eichstätt in the 1620s.
(Fürstpropstei) of Ellwangen, a small Catholic ecclesias- In 1618 the trials stopped for three reasons. Fi r s t ,
tical territory in eastern Swabia, rank among the most witch persecutions had caused tremendous social and
significant in southern Germany during the early mod- economic damage; merchants avoided doing business
ern period. Both the number of victims (ca. 450) and in the region for fear of the “w i t c h e s” in El l w a n g e n .
the intensity of the juridical proceedings were excep- Second, the trials did not achieve their intended goal of
tional. Only a few other ecclesiastical territories—the eliminating natural catastrophes or disease, among oth-
Hochstifte(prince-bishoprics) Würzburg, Bamberg, and er things, in this fight against the De v i l’s assistants.
Eichstätt, and the electorate of Mainz—experienced T h i rd, the legitimacy of the whole process was called
similar patterns of witch hunting. Ellwangen’s witch- into question by the fact that many more people were
craft trials took place almost exclusively in the years denounced than could ever be brought to trial—the
1588 and 1611–1618. In the first instance, between 17 “s u p p l y” of witches far outran the capacity for their
and 20 people were executed, while over the second condemnation.
period, around 430 people were put to death. Almost After the great Ellwangen witch hunt ended in 1618,
300 of them died in 1611 and 1612. only a few witchcraft trials took place in this princely
The main factor contributing to the advent of the prebend. Between 1618 and 1694, some fifteen people
1588 trials in Ellwangen was the influence of witch per- were brought to trial on charges of witchcraft, but only
secutions in other territories and imperial cities in two of them were executed.
southern Ge r m a n y, especially those occurring in the
WOLFGANG MÄHRLE
HochstiftAugsburg. As in many witch hunts in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, people alre a d y See also: AUGSBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;BAMBERG,
imprisoned for witchcraft accused someone else of shar- PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;CONFESSIONS;EICHSTÄTT,
ing in their crime and that person would then be arrest-
PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;GERMANY,SOUTHWESTERN;TORTURE;
ed. An experienced exe c u t i o n e r, Hans Vollmair fro m
WESTERSTETTEN,JOHANNCHRISTOPHVON;WÜRZBURG,
PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF.
Biberach, who was also active in other witch hunts in
References and further reading:
southern Ge r m a n y, conducted El l w a n g e n’s juridical
Mährle, Wolfgang. 1998. “‘O wehe der armen seelen’,
p roceedings. Forms of tort u re we re ve ry seve re in
Hexenverfolgungen in der Fürstpropstei Ellwangen
Ellwangen, severe enough to ensure that everyone who (1588–1694).” Pp. 325–500 in Zum Feuer verdammt, die
was tort u red either confessed or died. The victims of Hexenverfolgungen in der Grafschaft Hohenberg, der Reichsstadt
the 1588 Ellwangen trials we re almost all poor, older Reutlingen und der Fürstpropstei Ellwangen.Edited by Johannes
women who lived in the town. Later in the same year Dillinger,Thomas Fritz, and Wolfgang Mährle. Stuttgart: Franz
when younger people and members of the social elite Steiner.
began to be accused of witchcraft, the provost stopped Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972.Witch Hunting in Southwestern
Germany 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
the trials.
Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
In the early seventeenth century, witch hunts became
i n c reasingly common in Catholic territories and cities
in southern Ge r m a n y, while in the same period Endor, Witch of
Protestant authorities frequently rejected them. The biblical story of the so-called witch of Endor is
El l w a n g e n’s major witch hunt of 1611–1618 was found in 1 Samuel 28:3–20, with two brief references
strongly supported by two provosts, Johann Christoph in 1 Chronicles 10:13, and Ecclesiasticus 46:20. By the
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fifteenth century the story began to acquire an ove rt l y
diabolical interpretation, with the “w i t c h” re p re s e n t-
ing the one scriptural example that could be used
to sanction campaigns against witchcraft. Yet uncer-
tainty remained about how to interpret this story of
n e c ro m a n c y.
The Bible describes King Saul, facing a large
Philistine army without assurances from God about the
outcome of the imminent battle, visiting a female
n e c romancer at the settlement at En d o r. Because Sa u l
himself had earlier been responsible for expelling all
n e c romancers and wizards, he decided to visit the
woman at night in disguise. When he asked the woman
to reveal his future by conjuration, she demurred, fear-
ing a trap to catch her for transgressing the king’s prohi-
bition. But when Saul swore she would suffer no harm,
she finally agreed.
The woman realized her visitor had to be Saul when
she saw that she had conjured the ghost of Samuel. The
king immediately bowed down in homage before the
vision, described by the woman as an old man, rising
from the earth wrapped in a cloak. But Samuel’s words
were far from comforting. After rebuking Saul for dis-
turbing his rest, he announced that because of his dis-
obedience, God had abandoned Saul and given his sov-
e reignty to David. Mo re ove r, on the next day the
Israelites would be defeated, and Saul and his sons
would die. Saul was terrified by the prophecy, and, as he
The seventeenth-century Italian artist Salvator Rosa’s Witch of Endor,
had eaten nothing the whole day, fell to the ground in depicting the biblical witch conjuring up the ghost of Samuel on
shock. The woman finally comforted him by feeding behalf of Saul. (Erich Lessing/Art Resource)
him; she slaughtered her fattened calf and pre p a re d
some cakes. As the spirit prophesied, on the next day
the Israelites were defeated at the battle of Gilboa, Saul’s p rominence, while a flying devil assures viewers that
sons were killed, and Saul committed suicide by falling this is diabolical.
on his sword. A 1526 painting by Jacob Cornelisz van Oo s t s a n e n
From the time of St. Augustine, biblical commenta- e x p resses this new biblical exegesis and provides a
tors and theologians have provided very different expla- spectacular example of the integration of the biblical
nations of the fig u re that appeared to Saul. Au g u s t i n e s t o ry with the new visual language of witchcraft. T h i s
himself oscillated between several views: it was the w o rk of turbulent movement and energy combines
Devil, an apparition created by the Devil, a conjure d the image of a powe rful female necro m a n c e r, seated in
human soul, a ghostly body, or Samuel himself. Pe t e r a magic circle, with a group of four witches modeled
Comestor discussed the question at length in the on compositions by Hans Baldung [Grien]. The latter
twelfth century. By the fifteenth century, works such as a re depicted seated around a grill, two of them on
the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Wi t c h e s , goats, cooking sausages, drinking, and possibly also
1486) cited Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to support making an offering. Wild naked females riding
their view that the figure represented a phantasm pro- b rooms and belching goats through the sky with
duced by diabolical illusion. a range of strange beasts complete the scene. T h e
The process was re flected in visual re p re s e n t a t i o n witch of Endor remains a necro m a n c e r, but has now
f rom the twelfth century. Late medieval images come to be identified with the new group image of
focused on the interaction between Saul and Sa m u e l s i x t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft.
rather than on the witch and her act of conjuration. A This identification is also re flected in a woodcut by
m a rked shift o c c u r red with a miniature illustration in Johann Teufel, first found in the 1572 Wittenberg edi-
an early fif t e e n t h-c e n t u ry Parisian Bible historiale. T h e tion of the so-called Luther Bi b l eand re p roduced in at
witch is now positioned in the center, on her knees least six subsequent editions. Teufel also includes para-
b e f o re Saul, while the apparition of Samuel stands phernalia of necromantic magic (burning candles, an
behind her.The compact between the two is given great a l t a r, a magical circle, and crosses) not found in his
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biblical source. The witch holds a long staff like a Augsburg in 1748. Even without her paraphernalia, the
m a g i c i a n’s ritual wand and prayer beads hang from her witch frequently remains the dominant figure, as in the
left arm, thus linking her necromantic practices to w o n d e rfully eerie scene set among the graves of the
what pious Lutherans considered the abominable dead in a Gabriel Ehinger etching of about 1670.
magic of Catholic devotion. In agreement with In parts of Europe where the witch hunt was limited
Lu t h e r’s commentary, which identified the ghost as or in decline, alternative interpretations focusing on the
the Devil in Sa m u e l’s form, both the witch and figure of Samuel remained strong. An important exam-
Samuel we re placed inside the magic circle to empha- ple is Joseph Gl a n v i l l’s Saducismus Tr i u m p h a t u s
s i ze their close liaison. ( Sadducism Conquered), published posthumously in
Controversy concerning the nature of the witch and 1681 by his Cambridge Platonist support e r, He n ry
her conjuration continued. In 1563, Johann We ye r More. Glanvill’s attack on what he called Sadducism, a
included a long discussion of the episode in De denial of the spirit world, involved detailed considera-
Praestigiis daemonumet Incantationibus ac Veneficiis (On tion of this biblical story (Glanvill 1996, 296–317).
the Tricks of Devils, Incantations, and Po i s o n e r s ) Against Reginald Scot and John We b s t e r, Gl a n v i l l
(We yer 1991, 127–133). Ac c o rding to We ye r, the fig- denied that the events at Endor involved trickery or the
u re that appeared was an apparition or specter in appearance of the Devil. Rather, it was the blessed soul
Sa m u e l’s image, an illusion created by the Devil, who of Samuel himself that appeared, clothed in his “more
simply made the specter obey this pythoness, as the pure Aerial or Aetherial Body.” The focus of the accom-
He b rew text called her, “an evil-doer or woman fil l e d panying engraving byWilliam Faithorne is on Samuel,
with the prophetic spirit.” Refuting We yer in 1580, who is surrounded by a brilliant aureole, while the
Jean Bodin’s De la démonomanie des sorciers ( On the witch of Endor remains an observer on the perimeter.
Demon-Mania of Witches) (Bodin 1995, 105) consid- An Italian tradition, principally re p resented by a
ered the woman a necromancer and therefore a witch; famous painting of 1668 by Sa l vator Rosa, similarly
and on the basis of Ecclesiasticus 46:20, the figure she emphasizes the radiant presence of Samuel, as does the
c o n j u red was Samuel rather than the Devil. In 1583, w o rk of some Dutch followers of Rembrandt, such as
Reginald Scot rejected both positions in his Discoverie Ferdinand Bol.
of Wi t c h c ra f t (book 6, chaps. 8–14), seeing the whole
CHARLES ZIKA
episode as an act of “c o u s e n a g e” and “c o u n t e rfeit,” a
series of tricks, disguises, and ventriloquy devised by See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;AUGUSTINE,ST.; BALDUNG
the woman of Endor. [GRIEN], HANS;BIBLE;BODIN,JEAN;CAULDRON;DEVIL;FAMIL-
By the seventeenth century, the De v i l’s active and
IARS;GLANVILL,JOSEPH;IMAGINATION;LUTHER,MARTIN;MAGIC
effective involvement in the events at Endor was widely
CIRCLE;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;MORE,HENRY;NECROMANCY;
RITUALMAGIC;ROSA,SALVATOR;SCOT,REGINALD;WEBSTER,
b e l i e ved. The King James and Ge n e va Bibles both
JOHN;WEYER,JOHANN.
described the woman as one “that hath a familiar spirit.”
References and further reading:
This was understood to refer to animal familiars, the
Bodin, Jean. 1995. On the Demon-Mania of Witches. Edited by
personal demons accompanying and serving contempo- Jonathan Pearl. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and
rary witches. A graphic example occurs in a woodcut by Renaissance Studies.
the Swiss artist, Christoph Mu re r, in a Luther Bi b l e Glanvill, Joseph. 1966.Saducismus Triumphatus: Or, Full and
published at Basel in 1625. The central focus of the Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions.Gainesville,
image is a flask with a familiar spirit, held up by a witch FL: Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints.
in front of the figure of Saul, while the figure of Samuel Schmidt, Philip. 1962. Die Illustrationder Lutherbibel 1522–1700.
Basel: Friedrich Reinhardt. Pp. 360–362, 429–438.
remains in the background. The witch’s necro m a n t i c
Schmitt, Jean-Claude. 1987. “Le Spectre de Samuel et la sorcière
techniques and paraphernalia (books, candles, vials,
d’Endor.” Etudes Rurales105/6: 37–64.
skulls, and bones) are emphasized in many seventeenth-
Scot, Reginald. 1972. The Discoverie of Witchcraft.Edited by Rev.
c e n t u ry illustrations of the biblical text. Ex a m p l e s
Montague Summers. NewYork: Dover.
include a woodcut by Johann Jacob von Sandrart, orig-
Weyer, Johann. 1991. Witches, Devils and Doctors in the
inally published in a Nuremberg Luther Bible of 1641 Renaissance. Johann Weyer,De praestigiis daemonum.Edited by
and often re p roduced; a woodcut of the George Mora. Binghamton, NY: Centre for Medieval and Early
Monogrammist VW from a Luther Bible of 1670; and Renaissance Studies.
a title-page etching by Andreas Frölich for Be r n h a rd Zika, Charles. 2003. Exorcising Our Demons. Magic, Witchcraft
Wa l d s c h m i d t’s collection of twenty-eight sermons on and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe.Leiden and Boston:
the subject, published at Frankfurt in 1660. By the late Brill: 379–382.
seventeenth century, Endor scenes even included caul-
d rons, as in a Melchior Küsel 1679 adaptation of an England
earlier etching by Jan van der Velde, or a splendid car- Although insufficient records survive for certainty, there
touche by Joseph and Johannes Klauber, published at is every indication that over most of the period of the
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European witch persecutions, England enjoyed a low came in 1604 (1 Jas. I, cap. 12). The exact circ u m-
intensity of witchcraft trials, along with a low convic- stances behind its passage remain obscure, although it is
tion rate among those who were brought to trial. n ow accepted that the tradition attributing it to the
Current estimates indicate that no more than 500 peo- d i rect influence of the newly arrived demonologist
ple were executed as witches in England, and the num- m o n a rch is unfounded. The Jacobean statute ero d e d
ber may have actually been much lower. English witch- the possibility of lesser punishments on first offenses,
craft trials are very interesting, however, in that they included a clause intended to make keeping familiar
demonstrate how witchcraft was treated by a unique spirits a capital offense, and, curiously, also made
criminal justice system. The numerous contemporary exhuming corpses for purposes of witchcraft a capital
pamphlets describing witchcraft trials frequently pro- offense. This statute remained in force until 1736,
vide the modern student with rich insights into what when the Parliament of Great Britain repealed
happened when accused witches and legal authorities all English and Scottish witchcraft statutes (9 Ge o. II,
met in the courtroom. cap. 5).
Although witchcraft was not a felony under common As in many other Eu ropean states, accusations of
law until 1542, England in the late Middle Ages experi- witchcraft in England could lead to trials in a number
enced its share of “treason-cum-sorcery” trials involving of courts. Ecclesiastical courts continued to exe rc i s e
members of its political elite. Perhaps the most famous jurisdiction over sorc e ry and the activities of cunning
case of this type came in 1441, with the trial of Eleanor folk, while a steady trickle of cases in which alleged
Cobham, second wife and former mistress of Du k e witches sued their accusers for defamation also reached
Humphrey of Gloucester, the brother of King HenryV. the church courts. Many church courts re c o rds have
Cobham escaped the death penalty, but one of her not yet been researched, but it is obvious that the level
female associates was burned as a witch, while a reputed of prosecutions varied enormously from area to are a .
a s t rologer was hanged, and then drawn and quart e re d Hence, numerous presentments reached the Essex
for treason. English monarchs thought themselves vul- church courts between the early years of both Elizabeth
nerable to treasonous sorcery up to the reign of James I I’s and James I’s reigns, but there were practically none
(ruled 1603–1625). in Wiltshire, and only a moderate number in Yorkshire.
Mo re pro s a i c a l l y, local court re c o rds contain scat- C h u rch courts still inflicted only light penalties, and
t e red re f e rences to trials for witchcraft and sorc e ry. those whom they convicted of sorc e ry or witchcraft
These re f e rences are too dispersed and insuffic i e n t l y were, at worst, sentenced to perform a public penance.
detailed to permit any detailed analysis of early witch- Under secular law, witchcraft could be tried at coun-
craft trials in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. ty quarter sessions. Although a number of cases (includ-
Most of the references survive in the records of ecclesi- ing many that involved cunning folk) were tried before
astical courts, which could only inflict light penalties. these courts, the growing reluctance of the pre s i d i n g
Our current state of knowledge suggests that many of justices of the peace to try offenses that might result in
the accused we re “g o o d” witches, local sorc e rers, and the death penalty meant that few cases of malefic witch-
cunning folk, rather than persons suspected of malefic craft were tried there. Witchcraft could also be tried as a
witchcraft. Ne ve rtheless, many aspects of witchcraft criminal offense in borough courts that had rights of
recorded in trial records from the late sixteenth and sev- jail delive ry. Se veral witches are known to have been
enteenth centuries were familiar by 1500. tried and convicted before them, an extreme case being
The legal position of witchcraft changed in 1542 the thirty witches tried and fifteen executed in a local
with an act defining witchcraft as a felony (33 He n . panic at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1650.
VIII, cap. 8). This was the most draconian of En g l i s h The most important tribunals trying witches in
witchcraft statutes, probably prompted by several witch England we re the assizes. English counties we re
scares in the preceding years, and also part of a general g rouped into a number of circuits; twice each ye a r, in
tendency to re m ove offenses from ecclesiastical juris- January and around Midsummer, two judges were sent
d i ctions. The act was repealed, along with other out by the government at Westminster to ride each cir-
Henrician legislation, after Ed w a rd VI came to the cuit. Along with other business, they would try crimi-
t h rone in 1547. England had no secular laws against nals held in the county jails, most of whom had been
witchcraft until a further statute was passed in 1563 committed to prison by local justices. Two things
early in Elizabeth I’s reign (5 Eliz. I, cap. 16). This law, should be noted about these judges. First, they we re
among other provisions, imposed the death penalty for usually ve ry senior men with extensive legal training
killing humans by witchcraft, but allowed those who and considerable experience, and thus ve ry unlike the
we re convicted of harming humans or killing animals sometimes untrained judges who presided over witch-
the lesser punishment of a ye a r’s imprisonment and craft trials in many English boroughs. Second, there
four sessions on the pillory for a first offense; a second was a convention, usually observed, that an assize judge
offense of this type punishable by death. A further act could not ride a circuit where he had his main residence
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to keep judges away from local power struggles. T h u s or remanded a further forty after conviction.
the judges who tried most English witchcraft trials were Ad d i t i o n a l l y, seven women escaped execution because
highly qualified, metropolitan-based outsiders. they we re pregnant. The legal re q u i rement that they
Unlike most other Eu ropean criminal justice sys- should be executed after giving birth was rare l y
tems, which generally followed Roman-law precedents, e n f o rced at this time. Nearly two-thirds of the exe c u-
the English system invo l ved trial by jury and did not tions occurred in the period 1570–1609, and trials in
use torture as a means of proving guilt in criminal trials. Essex and Kent in the 1640s and 1650s were responsi-
It should be noted, however, that jurors were frequently ble for most of the remainder. It should be noted that
drawn from that same rural middling sort who were so English law executed witches, like other felons, by
often invo l ved in prosecuting alleged witches, a situa- hanging rather than burning. Exceptions occurre d
tion that, on many occasions, worked to the accused’s when women killed their husbands by witchcraft,
d i s a d vantage. Despite the eulogies heaped on the jury because murder of a husband was classed as “petty trea-
system in the period, trial judges regularly gave juries a son.”A “mother Lakeland” for example, was burned at
s t rong lead on what ve rdict to find. Cert a i n l y, by the Ipswich in 1645 after being convicted for using witch-
m i d - s e venteenth century, assize judges we re willing to craft to kill her spouse.
aid witches convicted by juries toward reprieves or par- The ove rwhelming majority of those indicted for
dons. witchcraft on the Home Circuit we re tried for acts of
Un f o rt u n a t e l y, few assize re c o rds between the pass- m a l e ficium (harmful magic). The 785 indictments
ing of the 1563 act and the mid-seventeenth century detailed 794 specific instances of witchcraft, of which
s u rv i ve. Those that do are effectively limited to the 36 involved trying to raise or deal with spirits (includ-
Home or southeastern circuit of the assizes, encompass- ing familiars), while 10 others invo l ved coze n i n g
ing the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, t h rough sorc e ry or related offenses. Conve r s e l y, there
and Sussex. Using the surviving documentation, analy- we re 415 cases in which adults we re killed or injure d
sis of witchcraft indictments tried on this circuit reveal through witchcraft, plus another 161 where the victims
that between the first indictments (which in fact slight- we re children, 164 where livestock or poultry had
ly predated the 1563 statute) and the last, which came allegedly been harmed by witchcraft, and a further 8
in 1701 and resulted in the acquittal of a woman w h e re other types of goods or pro p e rty had allegedly
named Sarah Moredike, some 785 indictments involv- been damaged. Of the 474 alleged witches, 425, or
ing 474 alleged witches we re tried on the Ho m e nearly 90 percent, were women. The 10 percent of male
Circuit. witches we re accused of a wider variety of types of
These indictments followed a marked chronological witchcraft than were women; for example, many cases
and geographical pattern: they rose in the 1570s, of cozening through sorc e ry invo l ved accused males.
peaked in the 1580s, remained high in the 1590s, and On the evidence of the Home Circuit indictments, by
then fell rapidly, with fewer than twenty indictments far the most significant body of archival evidence relat-
s u rviving from the 1630s. This evidence suggests that ing to English witchcraft trials, malefic witchcraft was
witchcraft trials we re declining rapidly in England by seen as an overwhelmingly female activity.
this point, although after the Civil Wars began in 1642 Other relevant bodies of court records, notably those
t h e re was a tremendous upsurge. Ge o g r a p h i c a l l y, for for Middlesex and Cheshire, which enjoyed an inde-
reasons that remain unexplained, over half of these pendent jurisdiction over serious crime, show a ve ry
indictments, 464 (or 59 percent) invo l ved inhabitants d i f f e rent pattern. Cheshire, whose Court of Gre a t
of the county of Essex. At the other extreme, the rural Sessions enjoys an excellent record survival rate, record-
and somewhat isolated county of Sussex experienced ed only sixty-nine indictments for witchcraft, the last
only thirty-six indictments against sixteen alleged coming in 1675, with a small peak in the 1650s.
witches, of whom only one was hanged. Certainly, the Forty-seven individuals were accused of witchcraft; sev-
chronological pattern of indictments owes much to the en, all women, we re sentenced to death. Si x t y - t h ree cases
situation in Essex. In Kent, for example, the peak of tri- we re tried at the Middlesex Sessions, all of them
als appears to have come in the 1640s and 1650s. b e t ween 1574 and 1659, with minor peaks in the
The 474 accused witches tried on the Home Circuit 1610s and 1650s. These cases invo l ved forty alleged
e n j oyed a ve ry low conviction rate. Two hundred and witches, thirt y - five of them women, of whom seve n
nine of them we re convicted; but of these, only half, women were hanged, the last in 1653. By that date, it is
104 (or 22 percent of those indicted) we re hanged. A possible to reconstruct patterns of prosecution in other
further forty-seven (10 percent of those indicted) were a s s i ze circuits, and these generally confirm the pattern
sentenced to the lesser punishment of a year’s imprison- found on the southeastern circuit. There was a general
ment and four sessions on the pillory.The documenta- falling away of cases after a mid-century peak, with pro-
tion does not give the fate of a few of those remaining, g re s s i vely fewer indictments each decade as the seve n-
but we know that the judge either reprieved, pardoned, teenth century progressed, and very few convictions. As
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far as we know, the last executions came in the south- by judges running witchcraft trials, which were evident-
west. Three women were hanged at Exeter in 1682, and ly regarded as an unusually problematic type of judicial
another, Alice Molland, was sentenced to death there in proceeding.
1685. If her sentence was carried out, she has the dis- The last trial known to have resulted in a conviction
tinction of being the last person known to have been came in 1712, and provoked a pamphlet debate that,
executed for witchcraft in England. once again, included a full description of the trial. The
By the later seventeenth century, it was becoming case invo l ved a woman called Jane Wenham fro m
o bvious that assize judges we re becoming incre a s i n g l y Walkerne in Hertfordshire, who had long been suspect-
reluctant to render convictions. It is doubtful that ed as a witch. She was finally brought to court after she
many judges entirely discounted the reality of witch- was accused of bewitching a servant girl named Anne
craft, but they had long since been aware of the prob- Thorne. The case unleashed considerable local odium
lems of proof in individual cases. At some point before against Wenham, and the charges against her involved a
1700, this awareness had become so deep as to inhibit number of locally influential people. The trial judge, Sir
guilty verdicts. Moreover, the broadening gap between John Powell, was apparently extremely skeptical. He
polite and plebeian cultures in the later seve n t e e n t h e x p ressed dismay when Thorne went into allegedly
century reinforced what was probably a preexisting atti- witchcraft-induced fits in court, and he also bullied
tude by judges. While they we re unable to discount prosecution witnesses. One, a woman who claimed that
witchcraft as an abstract possibility, they re g a rded the she had been too poor to initiate court pro c e e d i n g s
folklore of witchcraft, which so often formed the basis against Wenham for bewitching her child nine ye a r s
of the accusations they tried and the evidence they p re v i o u s l y, was asked sarcastically “if she had grow n
h e a rd in court, as the nonsensical superstition of the rich since.” There is also a tradition, probably invented
l ower orders. Fa m o u s l y, that great hero of the En g l i s h after the incident, that Powell, after hearing a witness
Common Law tradition, Sir Matthew Hale, convicted depose that Wenham was able to fly, had cheerf u l l y
two witches at Bu ry St. Edmunds in Suffolk in 1662. informed the court that there was no law in En g l a n d
Yet within a generation, another leading lawye r, Si r against flying. The jury, possibly swayed by the weight
John Holt, was routinely directing juries to acquit at of evidence provided in court by eminently respectable
witchcraft trials. Indeed, in 1701 Holt presided over an men, found Wenham guilty. Judge Powell gained a
i m p o rtant trial in which a young man called Richard reprieve, however, and Wenham ended her days living
Hathaway was tried and convicted for falsely accusing on a local magnate’s estate. The case, which among oth-
Sarah Moordike. A full record of this trial survives and er things showed how witchcraft was now a matter of
shows Holt working very hard in his conduct of the tri- contention between Whigs and Tories (Wenham’s even-
al, in part i c u l a r, in his cross-examination of witnesses, tual benefactor was a Whig), also demonstrated how
to secure Hathaway’s conviction. deeply held the belief in witchcraft in England still was.
English judges, like their continental equiva l e n t s , Mo re ove r, in light of Powe l l’s performance, the case
had always been aware of the difficulty of prov i n g illustrates how completely judicial attitudes had hard-
witchcraft, and many trials demonstrate how normal ened against accusations of witchcraft.
s t a n d a rds of proof we re dropped in witchcraft trials. English witchcraft trials thus signify a number of
T h e re was heavy dependence on hearsay evidence and characteristics: the low conviction rate, the high pro-
the accused's reputation, and children were allowed to portion of accusations against females, the prominence
testify (perhaps most famously in the Lancaster of incidents of maleficiumin indictments, and the deci-
[Lancashire] trials of 1612). Persons who were allegedly sive input of increasingly skeptical judges. The absence
bewitched frequently went into witchcraft-induced fits of torture helped create this situation, although English
when the accused came into court. The courts also juries we re capable of convicting witches on evidence
admitted spectral evidence. The presence of the witch’s that would not have gotten the accused into the torture
mark, which according to English beliefs typically took chambers of the better-regulated continental states.
the form of a teat from which the witch’s familiar Perhaps more decisive was the fact that assize judges
sucked the witch’s blood, was also seen as conclusive were experienced and well-trained men who were also,
p ro o f. Courts regularly re c e i ved evidence from gro u p s as the seventeenth century advanced, increasingly cul-
of women searchers appointed by parish constables, turally distant from the context of village tensions and
justices of the peace responsible for the initial interroga- neighborly disputes that so often underlay witchcraft
tion of suspects, or assize judges. Ge n e r a l l y, judicial prosecutions. All this helped create an impression that
authorities were very nervous about popular “proofs” of in England, witch persecution was re l a t i vely low key and
witchcraft. They we re especially hostile to the weak. It should be noted that the great exception to this
swimming of witches. As the seventeenth century pro- conclusion, the mass East Anglian trials of 1645–1647
g ressed, some of the fuller accounts of trials given in associated with Ma t t h ew Hopkins, flourished in large
pamphlets demonstrate an increasing circ u m s p e c t i o n measure because of a temporary and partial weakening
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of En g l a n d’s normal legal and local administrative antithesis of reason. David Hume’s essay Of Superstition
structures. and Enthusiasm (1741) repeated the assertion that
weakness, fear, melancholy, together with ignorance,
JAMES SHARPE
were the true sources of superstition.
See also: COBHAM,ELEANOR;CUNNINGFOLK;FAMILIARS;FEMALE Recent studies, however, have shown that theories of
WITCHES;HALE,SIRMATTHEW;HOLT,SIRJOHN;HOPKINS, witchcraft were far more robust–and not as mere signs
MATTHEW;LANCASHIREWITCHES;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLY
of popular superstitious credulity—than this historiog-
MODERN); PAMPHLETSANDNEWSPAPERS;SWIMMINGTEST;
raphy acknowledges. Parallel to different degrees of
WENHAM,JANE;WITCH’SMARK.
Enlightenment, moderate (and surely not irre l i g i o u s )
References and further reading:
and radical, there existed different degrees of Devil and
Durston, Gregory. 2000. Witchcraft and Witch Trials: A History of
witchcraft beliefs. For example, Ian Bostridge divided
English Witchcraft and Its Legal Perspectives, 1542 to 1736.
London: Barry Rose Law. his analysis of the strength of witchcraft beliefs, a pat-
Ewen, C. L’Estrange. 1929. Witch Hunting and Witch Trials: The tern he found all over Europe, into three groups: a small
Indictments for Witchcraft from the Records of 1373 Assizes Held number of the credulous, pre p a red to believe almost
for the Home Circuit A.D. 1559–1736.London: Kegan Paul, any tale of witchcraft; a few skeptics who believed noth-
Trench, Trubner & Co. ing; and a vast majority who repudiated some vulgar
———. 1933. Witchcraft and Demonianism: A Concise Account beliefs, but believed in the possibility of witchcraft and
Derived from Sworn Depositions and Confessions Obtained in the
the veracity of some accounts of it.
Courts of England and Wales.London: Heath Cranton.
The ideological importance of witchcraft was far too
Kelly, H. A.1997. “English Kings and the Fear of Sorcery.”
great among the elites of the Old Régime to be played
Medieval Studies39: 206–238.
down; in France, England, Spain, and the New World
Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A
it was politically contested ground. If Father Be n i t o
Regional and Comparative Study.London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul. Ge ronymo Feijoo became the critical mind in Sp a i n
Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in (Teatro Critical [Critical Theatre, 1720–1759]), he still
England 1550–1750.London: Hamish Hamilton. d a red not deny the existence of witches. Hence Goy a ,
Tyler, P. 1970. “The Church Courts in York and Witchcraft as an enlightened artist, produced his Ca p r i c h o s a n d
Prosecutions 1567–1640.” Northern History4: 84–109. Pinturas negras to satirize and condemn the dangerous
inheritance of Sp a i n’s old regime (Bostridge 1997,
Enlightenment 203–243).
Historiography is generally very clear and certain on
attitudes toward witchcraft in the Enlightenment—a Decline of Witchcraft
term designating a period (ca. 1650–1800) of great Prosecutions
intellectual activity in the cause of general education By the mid-eighteenth century, the great European
and culture, including emancipation from mere preju- witch hunt was a thing of the past. Louis XIV promul-
dices, conventions, and traditions. Whereas Satan had gated official prohibitions of witch hunting in France in
triumphed during the late sixteenth and first half of the 1682, King Frederick William I in Prussia in 1714 and
seventeenth centuries in western Europe, and until the 1721, Maria Theresa in Austria-Hungary in 1768, and
mid-eighteenth century in eastern Europe, convention- Stanislaw II Poniatovski in Poland in 1776. England
al wisdom holds that his reign ended in the Age of and Sweden repealed their witchcraft legislation in
Enlightenment. In the slipstream of a triumphant 1736 and 1779, respectively. Nevertheless, the restric-
mechanical philosophy, intellectuals used their typical tion on witch hunting did not necessarily imply the
critical methods of reasoning to question the earthly extinction of witchcraft as a legitimate belief, or even as
power or even the existence of the Devil, and thus the a criminal offense. In France, for example, "it is cer-
p owers of his pre f e r red companions, the witches. tainly not the case that the 1682 ordinance represented
Witchcraft was merely a vulgar notion, bred of igno- a precocious triumph of French rationality, a first blast
rance and credulity. What had previously been attrib- on the enlightenment trumpet" (Bostridge 1997, 231).
uted to devils and witches was now explained in terms The crime of witchcraft was redefined, but not abol-
of medical and psychological pathology, legal injustices, ished in statutory law until 1791. Even the
and superstition (Clark 1994, 788). The entry on sor- Encyclopédie, in its entry on “sorciers” and “sorcières,”
c e l l e r i e (m a g i e) in Di d e rot and d’ A l e m b e rt’s took witchcraft theory relatively seriously; “to give cre-
Encyclopédie,published in the 1760s and generally con- dence too lightly to all accounts of this sort, or to reject
sidered the bible of the Enlightenment, indeed sounds them absolutely,” it said, “are two equally dangerous
very skeptical: "a magical operation, shameful or ridicu- extremes” (Bostridge 1997, 224).
lous, stupidly attributed by superstition, to the invoca- Moreover, the decline of the prosecutions was grad-
tion and power of demons." It defined “superstition” as ual. In most states, after a period of severe prosecution
“any religious excess,” a product of fear, that is, the came a period of sporadic trials and small hunts, and
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then the end of executions and trials (Levack 1995, humankind generated an extremely violent polemic in
250). In eastern Europe, large-scale witchcraft prosecu- France, England, and Germany, spawning dozens of
tions began much later than in western Eu rope and pamphlets and books. Bekker was considered an extrav-
lasted until the middle of the eighteenth century. In agant freethinker or even an atheist.
Poland, for example, diabolic theories, local (clerical) A half-century later, a lively discussion about witch-
autonomy, and the unrestricted use of torture, were the craft and magic divided Italy after the publication of
i n g redients of a large-scale witch hunt between 1675 Gi rolamo Ta rt a ro t t i’s Del congresso notturno delle
and 1725. Even afterw a rd, isolated pro s e c u t i o n s L a m m i e ( On Nocturnal Gatherings of Witches) in
occurred in several places, for example, Sweden (1763), 1749. Ta rt a ro t t i’s search for the genuineness of witch-
Kempten in southern Germany (1775), and, fin a l l y, craft from a historical viewpoint disputed a remark by
the last legal one in Eu rope, at Gl a rus in Sw i t ze r l a n d Ludovico Antonio Muratori in his Della forza della fan-
(1782). tasia umana ( On the St rength of Human Fa n t a s y,
The countries where witchcraft trials endured long 1745) that witches had never existed. Contrary to
after 1650 we re those where belief in diabolism, Mu r a t o r i’s optimism about the absence of any witch
inquisitorial procedure, and the use of torture persisted. beliefs at present, Ta rt a rotti pointed to the ongoing
The complete abolition of torture, for example, usually beliefs and prosecutions in Ge r m a n y. Mo re ove r,
occurred only when authorities no longer believed that Ta rt a rotti believed in the historical authenticity of
witchcraft merited the death penalty. As early as 1712 magicians who had all belonged to the intellectual
the German academic Christian Thomasius wrote pow- world, men who intended to violate God’s law by using
erful condemnations of inquisitorial methods, especial- demonic powers. No Catholic, Ta rt a rotti claimed,
ly the use of torture, in witchcraft trials. Already several could assert that the existence of the Devil was impossi-
Eu ropean jurisdictions had adopted stricter rules for ble. The reaction of Gianrinaldo Carli (1720–1795) on
both the application of torture and the admissibility of that scrupulous point of view of Ta rt a ro t t i’s was clear:
evidence obtained by it. Such was the case in Spain in he did not believe in the historical reality of magicians
1614, in Italy in the 1620s, in some German principal- either: there was no difference between them and
ities after 1630, and in Scotland in the 1660s. Torture witches—they were both swindlers and had to be pun-
was not abolished in Prussia until 1740 and only much ished. When Scipione Maffei stated in 1749 that there
later in such places as Sa xony (1770), Austria (1776), was no consensus about the historical reality of magic,
the Habsburg Netherlands (1787), Switzerland (1803), and that the magic of his days was “un bel nulla”
or Bavaria (1806) (Levack 1995, 237–238). (absolutely nothing), events in Germany contradicted
him. On June 21, 1749, a nun, Maria Renata, accused
Learned discussions of witchcraft, was decapitated and burned in the city of
Skepticism regarding witchcraft and diabolism did not W ü rzburg. During her public execution, the Je s u i t
begin in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Georg Gaar preached against all intellectuals who pro-
Many of the arguments offered were the same as those tected witches and magicians by denying their existence
made by Johann Weyer, Reginald Scot, or Michel de and power. Such ideas, Gaar said, would ultimately lead
Montaigne in the sixteenth century.What was new was to the denial of the Devil, the angels, and God.
that the skeptics’ views were now widely accepted. The Be t ween 1750 and 1754, discussions of witchcraft
assertion that skeptics no longer posed a threat to reli- involved many representatives of the Italian Republic of
gion, philosophy, or the social order (Levack 1995, Letters: no fewer than fourteen intellectuals participat-
240) is very doubtful. All over Europe, a key argument ed, including a theologian, Daniele Concina; a Church
in learned discussions on witchcraft during the historian, Tommaso Maria Mamachi; a Fr a n c i s c a n ,
Enlightenment claimed that denying the power and the Benedetto Bonelli; a philosopher, Clemente Ba roni; a
existence of the Devil could easily lead to denying the C a rtesian, Costantino Grimaldi; and an enlightened
operations of Divine Providence and even the existence scientist, Paolo Frisi. Maffei finally ended it by demon-
of God. The English Methodist preacher John Wesley strating, in Arte Magica annichilata (The Magical Art
stated that “giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giving up Annihilated, 1754), that Tartarotti’s theory of a differ-
the Bible,” while the English jurist William Blackstone ence between magic and witchcraft had no theological,
affirmed that “to deny the possibility, nay the actual philosophical, or moral grounds.
existence of witchcraft and sorcery is at once to contra- This Italian debate had re p e rcussions in other
dict the revealed word of God” (cited in Ankarloo and Catholic lands, especially France. In 1751 Ma f f e i’s fir s t
Clark 1999, 44). Hence, De betoverde Weereld (The book appeared in a French translation in Paris, alongside
World Bewitched, 1691–1693) by the Dutch pastor a re-issue of the critical dissertation of the Be n e d i c t i n e
Balthasar Bekker provoked severe reactions. His rela- Father Augustin Calmet on the phenomenon of ghosts,
tively moderate Cartesian skepticism about the power re venants, and va m p i res in Hu n g a ry and Moravia. T h e
of the Devil and his active engagement with l i b e rtine Lenglet du Fre s n oy (1674–1755) published two
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books on these subjects in 1751–1752. Vo l t a i re re a c t e d See also: BAVARIANWAROFTHEWITCHES;BEKKER,BALTHASAR;
with typical sarcasm to such discussions in his Prix de la BLACKSTONE,WILLIAM;BORDELON,LAURENT;DECLINEOFTHE
justice et de l’ h u m a n i t é (The Pr i ze of Justice and WITCHHUNTS;GHOSTS;GIRARD,JEAN-BAPTISTE;GOYAY
Hu m a n i t y, 1777), wondering if he was really living in
LUCIENTES,FRANCISCOJOSÉDE;HISTORIOGRAPHY;HOBBES
the century of Montesquieu and Beccaria, since witch-
THOMAS;MAFFEI,SCIPIONE;MARIATHERESA,HOLYROMAN
EMPRESS;MIRACLES;MURATORI,LUDOVICOANTONIO;
craft was still defended; he condemned what had hap-
REVENANTS;SIMON,JORDAN;SKEPTICISM;STERZINGER,
pened in W ü rzburg and in Provence (with the Je s u i t
FERDINAND;SUPERSTITION;SWIETEN,GERARDVAN;TARTAROTTI,
Je a n - Baptiste Gi r a rd and Catherine Cadière affair) as idi-
GIROLAMO;THOMASIUS,CHRISTIAN;TORTURE;VAMPIRE;
otic pieces of barbarism. In his popular novel, L’ h i s t o i re VOLTAIRE;WESLEY,JOHN.
des imaginations extra vagantes de Monsieur Ou fle (T h e References and further reading:
St o ry of the Ex t r a vagant Imaginations of Mo n s i e u r Ankarloo, Bengt, and Stuart Clark, eds. 1999. Witchcraft and
Ou fle, 1710), the theologian Laurent Bordelon poked Magic in Europe: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
fun at witchcraft beliefs and demonology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Catholic Austria, especially Vienna, also held learned Bonomo, Giuseppe. 1959. Caccia alle streghe. La credenza nelle
streghe dal secoloXIII al XIX con particolare riferimento all’Italia.
discussions, but they we re mostly about “p o s t h u m o u s
Palermo: G. B. Palumbo.
magicians and witches,” that is, vampires. In the 1750s,
Bostridge, Ian. 1997. Witchcraft and Its Transformations c.
Moravia, Bohemia, and Hungry each experienced sev-
1650–c.1750.Oxford: Clarendon.
eral cases of postmortem prosecutions: corpses of pre-
Clark, Stuart. 1994. “Witch Hunting.” P. 788 in A Dictionary of
sumed va m p i res we re exhumed, their hearts pierc e d ,
Eighteenth-CenturyWorld History.Edited by Jeremy Black and
their heads shattered and burned, and the ashes dis- Roy Porter. Oxford: Blackwell.
persed to prevent their eventual return. The reaction of Davies, Owen. 1999. Witchcraft, Magic and Culture 1736–1951.
the enlightened Holy Roman Em p ress Maria T h e re s a Manchester and NewYork: Manchester University Press.
was prompt: relying on the expertise of her personal Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
physician, Gerard van Swieten, she decided to combat 2d ed. London and NewYork: Longman.
such superstitious acts and issued several decrees con- Lorenz, Sönke, and Dieter R. Bauer, eds. 1995. Das Ende der
Hexenverfolgung.Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
cerning witchcraft, magic, and vampirism betwe e n
van Bunge, Wiep. 1998. “‘Quelle extravagance’: Balthasar Bekker
1753 and 1756. Not long before, van Swieten’s prede-
(1634–1698) in Germany and France.” De Achttiende Eeuw30,
cessor, Anton de Haen, had stated in his De Magia(On
no. 2: 113–124.
Magic, 1744) that witchcraft and magic with the help
Venturi, Franco. 1969. Settecento riformatore.Vol. 1, Da Muratori
of the Devil existed and that witches really could fly,
a Beccaria 1730-1764,pp. 355–389. Turin: Einaudi.
although innocent people we re accused and exe c u t e d
during the witchcraft prosecutions because of the
d e c e p t i ve methods of justice. “The time has come to “Enormous” Crimes
change jurisprudence,” as Konstantin Franz de Cauz Strongly influenced by Roman law, the criminal law of
concluded his elaborate dissertation, De cultibus magicis late medieval and early modern Europe distinguished
(On the Cult of Magicians, 1767). crimes by degrees of seriousness and accord i n g l y
In 1761, the year Tartarotti died, Italian enlightened assigned different legal procedures and levels of punish-
ideas and tracts on the existence of witchcraft and mag- ment. In ancient Rome, the major distinction was
ic we re adopted by the Augustinian monk Jo rd a n between private offenses and public crimes. Many cen-
Simon. Using the works of Ta rt a rotti and especially turies later the categories multiplied. It became possible
Maffei, he demonstrated the absurdity and impossibili- to differentiate between slight and serious crimes, or
ty of both witchcraft and magic (Das We l t b e t r ü g e n d e b e t ween atrocious and extremely atrocious crimes,
Nichts[The World-Deceiving Nothing]). Five years lat- according to the various punishments established by
e r, the Theatine Fe rdinand St e rzinger declared in law.The ultimate category was punishable by death by
Mu n i c h’s Ba varian Academy of Sciences that in these cruel means, subsequent confiscation of the culprit’s
enlightened times one could not believe any more in goods, and legal disabilities charged against his descen-
witchcraft and that the so-called pact with the De v i l dants. At the same time, exceptions to normal legal pro-
was a mere fantasy. Like Italian Catholic intellectuals, cedures created a distinction between ordinary crimes
he wanted reason to triumph over the Devil’s partisans. and crimes of difficult proof, classified as crimina excep-
It was the start of a real witch war in Bavaria; Sterzinger ta (excepted crimes).
had to cope with attacks from an Augustinian, Agnellus In cases of crimina excepta, torture was allowed even
März, and a Benedictine, Scheyern Angelus März, both in the absence of strong evidence. Fu rt h e r m o re, wit-
convinced of the existence of witches and magicians. nesses could include convicted criminals, women,
The Age of Enlightenment was far from witchcraft-free. children, relatives, and accomplices—all persons whose
statements we re not normally acceptable as va l i d
DRIES VANYSACKER evidence. (It is worth recalling that inquisitorial
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procedures recognized two forms of “perfect” proof: the an extremely serious crime, not only because it denied
confession of the culprit, which could be obtained divine authority, but also because it rejected political
t h rough tort u re, and full agreement between two eye- authorities, who derived their legitimacy from Go d .
witnesses publicly deemed “respectable people” who Witchcraft thus implied rebellion and conspiracy
were not related to each other.) against the divinely established order: it was lèse-majesté
During the medieval and early modern periods, divine et humaine,said Bodin, treason against both God
witchcraft was considered an extremely atrocious crime and the state. In his Daemonologie (1597), a Protestant
and there f o re a crimen exc e p t u m , like laesa majestas o r king, James VI of Scotland, agreed with the gre a t
rebellion against human authority (conspiracy and trea- French jurist that witchcraft also constituted a crime
son) or against divine supremacy (e.g., heresy). T h e s e against public order.
t h ree legal categories, applied to many scandalous
VINCENZO LAVENIA
crimes that could cause harm to the wider public, soon
produced the concept of the “enormous” crime, which See also: BODIN,JEAN;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;INQUISITORIALPROCE-
re q u i red both extremely seve re forms of punishment DURE;JAMESVIANDI,KINGOFSCOTLANDANDENGLAND;LAWS
and extraordinary procedures. ONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); LAWSONWITCHCRAFT
“Enormous” crimes, as cataloged by jurists, generally
(MEDIEVAL); MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;TORTURE.
References and further reading:
included here s y, treason, counterfeiting, poisoning,
Anglo, Sidney, ed. 1977. The Damned Art. Essays in the Literature
incest, sodomy, bestiality, sacrilege, rape, infanticide,
of Witchcraft.London: Henley and Boston: Routledge & Kegan
and, last but not least, witchcraft. In 1486, the Malleus
Paul.
Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Witches), a manual Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons. The Idea of Witchcraft
written by the German inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
a d vocated the inclusion of witchcraft among these Larner, Christina. 1984. Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of
so-called “enormous” crimes (Part I, questions XIV and Popular Belief.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
XVII). According to Kramer, witches, by making a pact Soman, Alfred. 1992. Sorcellerie et Justice Criminelle: Le Parlement
with the Devil, became guilty of several major crimes de Paris (16e–18e siècles).Ashgate: Variorum.
(worship of absolute evil, contempt of God, apostasy,
b l a s p h e m y, evil spells, sacrilege, infanticide, orgiastic Episcopal Justice
i n t e rcourse), each of which deserved the cruelest pun- One of the characteristic features of We s t e r n
ishment. Witchcraft was not only an enormous crime; Christianity—the dualism of secular and ecclesiastical
it was the most horrible crime that any human being law—originated during the final centuries of the
could commit. Witches deserved more extreme punish- Roman Empire. In several sections of his Epistles,Saint
ment than even heretics or infidels, because their will- Paul recommended that Christians solve their conflicts
ing submission to the Devil represented the most com- within their communities without asking the secular
plete form of apostasy possible, prone to culminate in authorities for assistance. This re c o m m e n d a t i o n
evil deeds against God and God’s creatures. encouraged bishops, from the first centuries of
The witch’s alliance with demons thus stood out as a Christianity, to administer justice on a voluntary basis
crime worse than any other that could be committed in and without relying on secular laws. As an arbitrator to
the public sphere. If counterfeiters we re immediately the disputes, accusations, and trials among parish-
punished for forging false money, Kramer insisted, this ioners, the bishop, whose legal functions were recog-
should be all the more necessary for those who attempted nized by the Roman Empire only in 318 under the rule
to forge a perverted faith. Therefore, the rules of canon of Constantine, could assign punishments and settle
l a w, which allowed ecclesiastical courts to forgive or controversies. With the passage of time, the episcopal
lightly punish a repentant heretic at his or her first trial, courts’ responsibilities widened and came to include the
we re not applicable to witches, who on the contrary ratification of pacts and the right to relieve people from
deserved immediate capital punishment. sacraments. The use of excommunication became
Although the great Mediterranean state inquisitions increasingly sophisticated as the Church enforced its
always refused to consider witchcraft an “e xc e p t i o n a l” policies and doctrines. Following the collapse of the
or “enormous” crime, and despite similar refusals from Roman Empire, many areas remained exclusively under
great appellate courts like the Parlementof Paris, many the jurisdiction of episcopal courts, which became the
secular courts followed Kramer’s suggestions and relied main point of reference for people seeking protection,
on torture to obtain confessions and inflicted extremely hoping to settle a conflict, or wishing to collect the
cruel forms of capital punishment, both of which were money owed to them. Clerical crimes fell exclusively
justified by the “enormity” of this “exceptional” crime. under the jurisdiction of the episcopal courts. Together
In 1580, in the final pages of his De ladémonomaniedes with his assistants, the bishop was also concerned with
sorciers (On the Demon-Mania of Witches), Jean Bodin parishioners’ spiritual health. It was his duty to watch
stressed that a witch’s allegiance to the Devil constituted over the community and to remove and punish sinners
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who provoked public scandal. According to the laws of witchcraft and did not provoke conflicts with episcopal
the late imperial period, ecclesiastical courts were also c o u rts, which it assisted (where its assistance was
partly responsible for dealing with religious offenses, requested) in the struggle against heretics. Soon, how-
while the punishments clerics imposed were carried out ever, conflicts between them—which were also conflicts
by secular courts. At the height of their greatest influ- between the regular and secular clergy—became overt,
ence (from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries), especially in southern France. Innocent IV (1252),
episcopal courts watched over the clergy, dealt with Gregory X (1273), and Clement V (during the Council
beneficial matters, registered testaments, and ruled over of Vienne, 1311–1313) insisted that inquisitors and
property and matrimonial arrangements. They also bishops had the duty to assist each other, especially in
punished usury, immoral crimes, scandals, and disobe- the administration of torture, severe punishments, and
dience against religious ceremonial regulations, as well burnings at the stake.
as sacrileges, offenses against the Church’s jurisdiction, Su b s e q u e n t l y, the competition between episcopal
heresy, and superstition. When a bishop was informed and inquisitional courts grew as they quarreled about
that a person was publicly deemed a criminal (this their re s p e c t i ve competence over crimes of witchcraft
could be indicated to him during his visits to parishes and evil spells. Meanwhile, secular courts also sought to
or reported as an accusation or complaint) and when affirm their influence as a consequence of the growth of
this allegation was confirmed by sworn witnesses, he modern states. During the fifteenth century, as witch
had the right to excommunicate this person and to hunts became more and more widespread, juridical
impose public penitence. Until the end of the first mil- doctrine came to define witchcraft (as well as other
lennium, public penitence was specified by special “rate crimes against public order, religion, and morality) as a
books.” The bishop’s duty to fight superstition was vig- matter of “mixed legislation.” This meant that the secu-
orously endorsed by Church councils, leading to the lar authorities could prosecute witches for the physical
composition of the famous Canon Episcopiin the tenth harm and public scandal they provoked, whereas eccle-
century, which cast doubt on the belief that witches siastical tribunals prosecuted them on the basis of suspi-
could fly. cions of apostasy and here s y. Neither system could
claim exclusive competence over the matter. According
Two Competitors: Secular to some jurists, trials were to be concluded by whichev-
Courts and the Inquisition er court had initiated them. Others suggested that the
Episcopal jurisdiction, exercised by judges called offi- accused should be moved from court to court and
cials,was formally recognized in civil statutes and, more re c e i ve a double punishment: for malefice (from the
important, in canon law, codified in the twelfth centu- secular court), and for apostasy and abuse of sacre d
ry, which defined the purview of episcopal courts and objects (from the bishops or the inquisitors).
the people falling under their jurisdiction (clergy, During the fifteenth century, the papal In q u i s i t i o n
Church employees, pilgrims, orphans, and widows). had firmly established its authority over matters of
Subsequently, European universities increasingly taught witchcraft, understood as here s y, and had limited the
Roman law, which led to profound changes in the power of episcopal courts. Yet it chose to remain largely
administration of justice, specifically in the treatment i n a c t i ve, leaving the field to the competition betwe e n
of “enormous” crimes against divine or human author- episcopal and secular courts. In some cases, the latter
ity. Such crimes were investigated through the newly acted undisturbed. This tendency is particularly evident
created inquisitorial procedure, which authorized inves- in France, where—thanks to an order of the Parlement
tigations even in the absence of accusations and the use ( s ove reign court) of Paris (1391), the Pr a g m a t i c
of torture to obtain confessions. The crimes were pun- Sanction (1438), and some decrees by Francis I—eccle-
ishable by burning convicted individuals at the stake siastical courts had been stripped of many of their
and confiscating their property. Inquisitors also had a juridical powers by the first half of the sixteenth centu-
duty to punish crimes whose repression had previously ry. This included the right to investigate witchcraft,
been a task for episcopal courts: simony, heresy, aposta- considered a crime of lèse-majesté in France and there-
sy, superstition, and sorcery. f o re falling within the competence of secular court s .
Two competing systems—secular courts (city, feudal, Howe ve r, the situation in southern France (Prove n c e ,
and princely) and the papal In q u i s i t i o n — i n c re a s i n g l y Languedoc) was different. He re episcopal jurisdiction
contested episcopal control over these crimes (and oth- long maintained its strength, while the competition
er crimes against public morality, such as blasphemy, b e t ween episcopal and inquisitorial courts emerged
u s u ry, polygamy, sodomy, and sacrilege). The papal strongly during a case of magical spells in 1523. By this
Inquisition began its activity (not eve ry w h e re, and date, witches we re being burned at the stake all ove r
without a centralized organization) during the third Eu rope. Although responsibility for these crimes lay
decade of the thirteenth century. Initially the also with the papal Inquisition, which was once again
Inquisition was not concerned with superstition and a c t i ve, especially in the territory of the Holy Ro m a n
318 Episcopal Justice |
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Em p i re and in northern It a l y, secular courts mainly public attention. Generally speaking, the early modern
burned witches. age—and the areas where there was a strong papal hege-
mony—witnessed the transformation of episcopal juris-
The Early Modern Period: The diction into a part of a disciplinary system that integrat-
Struggle against Witches and ed the Inquisition, confession, and pastoral care.
Superstition
VINCENZO LAVENIA
In Protestant regions, secular courts exclusively handled
prosecutions for harmful magic. Ecclesiastical courts See also:BORROMEO,ST.CARLO;CANONEPISCOPI;COURTS,
limped on in England, where Protestants retained an ECCLESIASTICAL;COURTS,SECULAR;ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORIES
episcopal system, but their importance was greatly
(HOLYROMANEMPIRE); “ENORMOUSCRIMES”; INQUISITION,
reduced. On the Continent, Calvinist consistories dealt
MEDIEVAL;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;ROMANLAW;
WITCH-BISHOPS(HOLYROMANEMPIRE).
with minor cases of magical superstition and continued
References and further reading:
to excommunicate sorc e rers. Meanwhile, episcopal
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1996. “Witchcraft Studies in Austria,
jurisdictions survived in Catholic areas but took very
Germany and Switzerland.” Pp. 64–95 in Witchcraft in Early
different forms. In Germany, bishops were also rulers of Modern Europe.Edited by Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester,
territorial states. Several were driven by extreme disci- and Gareth Roberts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
plinary zeal, and persecuted witchcraft in particularly ———. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria. Popular Magic,
bloodthirsty ways, albeit exclusively in secular courts Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe.
that they controlled in their capacity as rulers rather Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
than as bishops. Gentilcore, David. 1992. From Bishop to Witch. The System of the
Sacred in Early ModernTerra d’Otranto.Manchester and New
The situation was different in Mediterranean are a s ,
York: Manchester University Press.
w h e re jurisdiction over witchcraft lay primarily with
Larner, Christina. 1984. Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of
the Portuguese, Spanish, and Roman Inquisitions, espe-
Popular Belief.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
cially after Pope Sixtus V’s bull in 1586. Italy, too, had
Lea, Henry Charles. 1955. A History of the Inquisition of the
bishops obsessed with fear of the Devil (such as Carlo
Middle Ages.3 vols. NewYork: Harbor.
Borromeo, who approved two witch hunts in his arch- Mentzer, Raymond A. Jr. 1984. Heresy Proceedings in Languedoc,
diocese of Milan in 1569 and 1583); but, overall, the 1500–1560.Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society.
Roman Holy Office succeeded in claiming all formerly Paiva, José Pedro. 1996. Bruxaria e Superstição num País sem “caça
episcopal responsibilities for re p ressing illicit magic, às bruxas.” Portugal 1600–1774.Coimbra: Facultade de Letras.
and enforced a moderate line in witchcraft trials (the Prosperi, Adriano. 1996. Tribunali della coscienza. Inquisitori,
sole exception perhaps being Lucca). In the Papal States confessori, missionari.Turin: Einaudi.
Romeo, Giovanni. 1990. Inquisitori, esorcisti e streghe nell’Italia
and in the Kingdom of Naples, the bishops acted as
della Controriforma.Florence: Sansoni.
inquisitors, concerned exc l u s i vely with upro o t i n g
Soman, Alfred. 1992. Sorcellerie et Justice Criminelle: Le Parlement
superstitions and combating healers, necro m a n c e r s ,
de Paris (16e–18e siècles).Ashgate: Variorum.
and phony exo rcists, who competed directly with the
C h u rc h’s sacral system. Even where the In q u i s i t i o n’s
officials were distinct from the bishop’s, they collaborat- Erasmus, Desiderius (ca. 1467–1536)
ed closely. Erasmus, the greatest of Christian humanists, a
Episcopal trials continued to deal with cases of sor- reformer, moralist, and satirist, believed that the prac-
c e ry and superstition without implications of here s y tice of witchcraft was a danger. At the beginning of
(such as in the important battle against folk medicine). 1501, Erasmus desperately needed a new patron. The
After the Council of Trent, synodal legislation also plague forced him to flee from both Paris and Orléans.
came to play a prominent role. In Po rtugal, bishops He sought refuge in the Low Countries with his friend
relied mostly on the system of visitations to discipline Jacob Batt, who suggested that Erasmus might win the
the faithful, sometimes applying pro c e d u res that dif- favor of Antoon van Bergen, abbot of St. Bertin, by
f e red from the In q u i s i t i o n’s and sometimes absolving recounting a witchcraft trial he had heard about while
repentant sinners privately (a practice used throughout staying in Orléans the previous year. Erasmus complied
Eu rope for over two centuries). The latter pro c e d u re with Batt’s idea, telling the following tale (Erasmus
was known as a pardon by “f o rum of conscience” and 1975, II, 5).
was accompanied by forms of salutary penance: prayers, Having inherited a set of magical books and instru-
charitable donations, and enforced catechism instru c- ments from an elderly rural “s o rc e re r,” an unnamed
tion. Somewhat distinct from common judicial proce- c i t i zen of Orléans (who has never been identified) man-
dures, this practice was based on a doctrine, according aged to purchase a consecrated wafer from “a starve l i n g
to which there existed specific categories of sins i r religious priest” and proceeded to invo l ve his whole
( re s e rved cases), that only bishops, priests, or judges family in an act of Host desecration, of a type ord i n a r i l y
specially instructed by the pope could absolve without l e veled against Jewish rather than Christian communities.
Erasmus, Desiderius 319 |
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While his young daughter pretended to stab at the wafer See also: PROTESTANTREFORMATION;RITUALMAGIC;ROMAN
with a sword, her father performed a ritual mocking the CATHOLICCHURCH;TRITHEMIUS,JOHANNES;WEYER,JOHANN.
Tr i n i t y, invoking the names of angels and demons in an References and further reading:
Allen, Percy Stafford, ed. 1906. Opus Epistolarum des. Erasmi
attempt to summon the Devil. After three years of try i n g ,
Roterodami.Vol. I: 1484–1514. Oxford: University Press,
he finally succeeded in his task; but despite promises of
Oxford. rpt. 1992.
vast riches, he soon began to feel that he was being cheat-
Erasmus, Desiderius. 1975. Correspondence.Edited by Roger
ed. At last, the Devil supposedly told him that it was his
Audrey Baskerville Mynors, Douglas F. S. Thomson, and
own lack of education and failure to perform the corre c t
Wallace K. Ferguson. Vol. II. Toronto: University of Toronto
rites that we re pre venting him from producing the moun- Press.
tains of gold that he desired. If he could persuade the Huizinga, Johann. 1952. Erasmus of Rotterdam.London: Phaidon.
prior of a nearby (also unnamed) monastery to help him, Philips, M. Margaret Mann. 1981. Erasmus and the Northern
and embroil him in the De v i l’s scheme, then all would at Renaissance.Totowa, NJ: Boydell.
last go as pro m i s e d . Schoeck, Richard J. 1993. Erasmus of Europe. The Prince of
Ac c o rd i n g l y, the man sounded out the prior and Humanists.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Tracy, James D. 1996. Erasmus of the Low Countries.Berkeley:
gradually took him into his confidence. Un f o rt u n a t e l y
University of California Press.
for him, the priest was determined to win fame for him-
Weyer, Johann. 1991. Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the
self by exposing this case of witchcraft. After the would-
Renaissance. Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum. Edited by
be magus had confessed eve rything he knew, pro d u c e d
George Mora et al. Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance
the consecrated Host, and handed over all of his books
Texts & Studies.
to view, the prior alerted the royal constables and offi-
cials of the ecclesiastical court. Though the man was Erastus, Thomas (1524–1583)
sentenced to life imprisonment eating only bread and Erastus is significant for the history of witchcraft because
w a t e r, his wife jailed for three months, and the yo u n g of his ve ry early challenge to the medical theories
girl sent away to a convent, Erasmus felt uneasy ove r expounded in Johann We ye r’s De praestigiis daemonoru m
some details of the case. The girl appeared to be perf e c t- ( On the Tricks of Devils). Best known as the putative
ly calm and unafraid of the risks that she had run, but father of Erastianism, the political theory of state contro l
her mother appeared to have been tormented each night over the church, Erastus was primarily a physician who
by visions of a demon, and arose eve ry morning bloody n e ver advocated the “ism” attached to his name.
and bruised. To both Erasmus and his judges, the testi- Gi ven this man’s unwavering lifelong devotion to
mony of the father seemed confused and inconsistent. Zwinglian theology and ecclesiology and the pro f e s-
Monks seldom emerge as heroes in tales by the author sional punishments he suffered precisely because of
of the En c h i r i d i o n , e ven when writing to an abbot. And these opinions, it seems extremely ironic that some
despite the attempts of later writers to portray Er a s m u s mid-seventeenth century English advocates of uncondi-
as a thoroughly modern fig u re, free from superstition or tional clerical subjection to state authority pasted the
p rejudice, Erasmus could still conclude, in his only label Erastian on their doctrines; few historical fig u re s
lengthy re flection on subjects related to witchcraft, that have undergone such a thorough posthumous travesty.
“d e e p - e yed wickedness” such as that exhibited in this The historical Erastus, born Thomas Lüber in Aargau
case made him “shudder cold” and merited the harshest ( Sw i t zerland), who gre c i zed his name as a student at
punishments warranted by both Judaic and Roman law. Basel, studied medicine in Italy for nine years before
Set against the contemporary career of Ab b o t being named professor of medicine at the University of
Trithemius, Erasmus seemed to oppose necro m a n c y Heidelberg and personal physician to the elector-
e ve ry bit as resolutely as the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n . Palatine in 1558. His numerous and controversial writ-
Given that he devoted all of his energies to trying to ings invo l ved theology as often as medicine. Er a s t u s
reform the worst abuses of the Church from within, made his professional reputation as a vehement oppo-
upheld a traditional view of the efficacy of witchcraft nent of Paracelsian medicine, but also involved himself
that made him “shudder cold,” and renounced the in ecclesiastical politics soon after arriving in the
e x t remes of the Reformation, it seems ironic that Palatinate; by 1560 he had a seat on the recently cre a t e d
Erasmus suffered the indignity of a posthumous excom- Reformed Consistory and began publishing theological
munication and had all his works placed on the Index treatises by 1562. He opposed the Calvinistic version of
of Prohibited Books. It seems equally ironic that c h u rch discipline promulgated by the elector. Be c a u s e
Johann We ye r, his great admirer and fellow enemy of of his correspondence with medical colleagues know n
necromancers, never mentioned this episode, although for their religious radicalism, he was apparently excom-
he used another example from Er a s m u s’ corre s p o n- municated, but reinstated by 1576. In 1580, the new,
dence to mock exorcisms (Weyer 1991, 444–445). Lutheran elector-Palatine dismissed him from his
Heidelberg posts for refusing to sign the Lu t h e r a n
—JOHN CALLOW Formula of Concord. Erastus spent his final three years
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on the faculty of the University of Basel. His reputation Pp. 257–285 in Cultures of Communication from Reformation to
as an Erastian began with a posthumous refutation of Enlightenment: Constructing Publics in the Early Modern
his views on church discipline by Calvin’s successor, German Lands.Edited by James Van Horn Melton. Aldershot,
Hampshire: Ashgate.
Theodore Beza.
Looss, Sigrid. 1996. “Lüber,Thomas.” Oxford Encyclopedia of the
Like Johann We ye r, Erastus was a Protestant and a
Reformation.Edited by Hans J. Hillerbrand. NewYork: Oxford
c o u rt physician for a major German prince—and neither
University Press. II:456–457.
m a n’s employer approved of witch hunting. Although
Schmidt, Jürgen Michael. 2000. Glaube und Skepsis: Die Kurpfalz
Erastus realized that Weyer disliked many things about
und die abendländische Hexenverfolgung 1446–1685. Bielefeld:
Paracelsus, his major medical enemy, Erastus was Verlag für Regionalgeschichte.
unhappy with what he saw as We ye r’s unjustifia b l y
lenient stance tow a rd female witches. Erastus doubted Ergotism
the medical validity of his colleague’s use of melancho- Ergotism is a disease caused by eating grain contami-
lia to explain their phantasms and exculpate them from nated with the ergot fungus; the symptoms of ergotism
criminal guilt. Consequently, Er a s t u s’s D i a l o g u e o f include convulsions, paralysis, and delirium. These
1571 constituted the earliest indirect attack on We ye r symptoms could have been regarded in early modern
by a fellow physician and Protestant. It was nonetheless times as due to demonic possession, which in turn
a re l a t i vely moderate criticism. Erastus claimed that sometimes led the possessed person to accuse someone
Weyer was “moved by good intentions, although incor- else of causing the “bewitchment.” Ergotism, therefore,
re c t l y” and that his real enemy here was (as usual) could conceivably have prompted some accusations of
Paracelsus, who had praised witches for their skills. witchcraft. However, this theory must be treated with
Erastus ended his D i a l o g u e with the admission that extreme caution. In most, and perhaps all, cases there
“much wrong has been done to many women” in witch- are more convincing psychological and cultural expla-
craft trials by overly credulous use of their confessions. nations for outbreaks of demonic possession.
A thorough preternaturalist in his approach to magic, The fungus Claviceps purpureainfests mainly rye and
Erastus neve rtheless accepted the existence of the dia- flourishes in cool, wet summers. It can cause two forms
bolical pact and wanted witches punished for their of ergotism: convulsive and gangrenous. The symptoms
a p o s t a s y, not for their purported m a l e fic i a h a r m f u l of convulsive ergotism (the relevant form here) include
magic. contortions of the body, vomiting and diarrhea, raven-
Erastus accepted many of Weyer’s opinions and sum- ous hunger, crawling sensations in the skin, part i a l
m a r i zed We ye r’s six principal arguments in a pro f e s- paralysis, and delirium. A psychologist (Caporael 1976)
sional opinion for the magistrates of Basel (Er a s t u s first claimed that the Salem prosecutions of 1692 were
1885, II:434–453). However, Erastus argued in his sec- the result of ergotism among the “a f flicted girls” who
ond Dialogue that Weyer had refuted none of his objec- accused the witches, and suggested that ergotism could
tions in his enlarged and revised version published at also explain many witchcraft accusations in Eu ro p e .
Basel in 1577, adding that law students “judged it the Most historians have dismissed this theory, and few if
same way; much less do the theologians doubt [my any have endorsed it—though it has proved attractive
position]” (Erastus 1885, II: 457). Erastus defended the among members of the public.
mainstream medical position that melancholy was nor- At best, the evidence for ergotism is weak. We have
mally a male disease—an argument picked up short l y no medical case-re c o rds to give a rounded view of the
a f t e rw a rd with far more vehemence by the jurist Je a n afflicted persons’ symptoms; usually only a few relevant
Bodin. Both We ye r’s and Er a s t u s’s works we re pub- symptoms are recorded, or even only one. Nor is there
lished together in 1579 in a combined French transla- d i rect information on their diet. Proponents of the
tion by Jacques Chouet in Calvinist Geneva (where sev- ergotism theory extrapolate from fragmentary data and
eral of Erastus’s theological treatises had previously been make unsupported leaps of logic. Ergotism would
published, including a defense of Gi ro l a m o normally be expected in late summer, but at Salem the
Savonarola’s diatribe against astrology). o u t b reak began in December; so we are told that the
people first ate the better grain and only got around to
WILLIAM MONTER
the infected rye in December.This seems plausible only
See also:MEDICINEANDMEDICALTHEORY;MELANCHOLY;PARACEL- until we consider that an outbreak in late summer
SUS,THEOPHRASTUSBOMBASTUSVONHOHENHEIM;PROTESTANT
would immediately have been used as proof of the
REFORMATION;WEYER,JOHANN.
theory.
References and further reading:
Because most witchcraft cases did not invo l ve
Erastus, Thomas. 1885. Deux dialogues touchant le pouvoir des
demonic possession, arguments to prove ergotism by
sorcières et de la punitionqu’elles méritent.2 vols. Edited by
c o r relating rye consumption with the incidence of
D.M. Bounonville. Paris: A. Delehaye and Lecrosnier.
Gunnoe, Charles D., Jr. 2002. “The Debate Between Johann witch hunting are irre l e vant; one would have to
Weyer and Thomas Erastus on the Punishment of Witches.” establish a correlation between demonic possession and
Ergotism 321 |
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consumption of rye. Such a correlation can in fact be preponderance of females, and this must be among its
readily disproved: Russia, the heartland of rye cultiva- most serious weaknesses.
tion, saw ve ry little witch hunting, and hardly any For the well-documented case of Salem, a diagnosis
demonic possession. of ergotism must now be considered to have been dis-
The theory cannot account for all outbreaks of p roved. Convulsive ergotism probably did affect some
apparent demonic possession, so psychological alterna- young women in early modern Eu rope, though fir m
tives have to be examined. (Fraud too must be kept in diagnoses are impossible (other diseases could also
mind, since there are some well-documented cases of cause convulsions or fits). Some diseased women may
possession and others probably went undetected.) Fo r have been perceived as being possessed; but it is impos-
example, there was a mass outbreak of possession-asso- sible to say which, if any, possession cases invo l ve d
ciated behavior among adolescents in the Du t c h which disease. Us u a l l y, psychological and cultural
orphanage of Horn in 1666. One after another they explanations carry more weight. In the last analysis, the
writhed, bellowed, and gnashed their teeth. Me d i c a l strength of the ergotism theory is also its weakness: it is
t reatment failed, and so did praye r. Then the authori- difficult to disprove but impossible to prove.
ties re m oved the afflicted persons from the orphanage
JULIAN GOODARE
and distributed them among separate foster homes.
De p r i ved of the stimulus of their gro u p, all instantly See also:DRUGSANDHALLUCINOGENS;LOUDUNNUNS;MISCON-
re c ove red. The we l l - k n own possessed nuns of Loudun CEPTIONSABOUTTHEWITCHHUNTS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;
in 1634 we re manifestly not cases of ergotism.
SALEM.
References and further reading:
Proponents of the ergotism theory have failed to show
Barger, George. 1931. Ergot and Ergotism.London: Gurney &
that there was anything distinctive about the cases
Jackson.
where they allege ergotism. If some form of psychologi-
Caporael, Linda R. 1976. “Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?”
cal explanation can and must account for many cases of
Science192, no. 4234: 21–26.
demonic possession, can it not account for allof them? Karlsen, Carol F. 1987. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman:
The behavior of the possessed followed cultural Witchcraft in Colonial New England.NewYork: Norton.
norms in ways that do not necessarily lead us to regard Matossian, Mary Kilbourne. 1989. Poisons of the Past: Molds,
the affected individuals as mentally ill. Possessed people Epidemics, and History.New Haven: Yale University Press.
were expected to contort their bodies, so they did. They Sebald, Hans. 1995. Witch-Children.Amherst, NY: Prometheus
we re also expected to vomit pins—so several of them Books.
Sidky, H. 1997. Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs and Disease: An
did, in much the same way. Contortions conform to
Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Hunts.NewYork:
(though they do not prove) a diagnosis of ergotism, but
Peter Lang.
vomiting pins does not. At Salem and elsewhere, a cor-
Spanos, Nicholas P., and Jack Gottlieb. 1976. “Ergotism and the
relation of seizures in the courtroom with the presence
Salem Village Witch Trials.” Science194, no. 4272:
of the accused was re p o rted; ergotism largely fails to
1390–1394.
explain this, though there is some suggestion of sug-
gestibility in connection with ergot-induced hallucina- Errores Gazariorum
tions. The afflicted girls at Salem we re sometimes Errors of the Gazars was an anonymous treatise written
re p o rted to be perfectly healthy outside the court- around 1437 in the region of Val d’Aosta in northwest-
room—something hard to reconcile with ergotism. ern Italy, probably by Ponce Feugeyron. Although its
Psychological theories can also account for the afflicted title was consistent with traditional descriptions of sectar-
g i r l s’ claims to have seen the specters of the alleged i a nheretical beliefs, in this case those of the Cathars or
witches; ergotism usually causes distorted vision rather Gazarii (by then a generic term for heretics, in Latin
than the sight of distinct, but imaginary, objects. and Italian), the subtitle indicated the specific subject of
Documented outbreaks of ergotism (especially con- the treatise: “those who have been convinced that they
v u l s i ve ergotism, its more seve re form) have usually ride a broomstick or a rod”—that is, those who believed
affected entire communities. Demonic possession, by that they flew on these objects and attended the witches’
contrast, arose in individuals or among specific social Sabbat in the service of the Devil. Although its author
groups: it particularly affected girls and young women only used the term h e re t i c s(who may have been equally
between the ages of sixteen to twenty-five. Adolescents m a l e or female) and employed no contemporary Latin
and young adults we re not especially susceptible to or vernacular cognates for sorcerer or witch, its date and
ergotism; in fact, documented ergotism is heaviest contents make this treatise an important piece of docu-
among children younger than age fifteen. In Salem, a high mentary evidence for the early, formative stages of some
p ro p o rtion of the possessed we re orphans—an occur- of the components of the classical image of the witch.
rence susceptible to psychological, but not ergot-based, It was one of the two earliest texts that provided an
explanations. Proponents of the ergotism theory have extended description of what became the witches’
o f f e red no credible explanation for the ove rw h e l m i n g transvection and Sabbat.
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The treatise, with arguments that we re based on earlier confessions before tribunals around the middle of the
c o n ventional descriptions of heretical rituals, confes- fifteenth century in western Switzerland and southeast-
sions in recent trials for heresy and witchcraft, and indi- ern France.
rect testimony, exists in two versions (recent editors
EDWARD PETERS
suggested a third manuscript has been lost). One man-
uscript is at the Vatican (V, probably written in 1437) See also: ARRAS;BASEL,COUNCILOF;CANONEPISCOPI;FEUGEYRON,
and the other at Basel (B, probably written in 1438 or PONCE;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;HERESY;JACQUIER,NICOLAS;LE
shortly thereafter); the latter is a slightly expanded revi-
FRANC,MARTIN;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;STICKS.
References and further reading:
sion of the material in the former. Both manuscripts
Bailey, Michael D. 1996. “The Medieval Concept of the Witches
also contained materials from the Council of Basel, an
Sabbath.” Exemplaria8: 419–439.
i m p o rtant diplomatic and cultural event that bro u g h t
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1998. “Avenging the Blood of Children:
together many of the personnel, ideas, and themes that
Anxiety over Child Victims and the Origin of the European
shaped later concepts of witchcraft. The treatise also Witch Trials.” Pp. 91–110 in The Devil, Heresy and Witchcraft
suggested an inquisitorial origin and some association in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey B. Russell.Edited
with the Franciscan Order. by Alberto Ferreiro. Leiden, Boston, and Cologne: Brill:
This short text—the combined Latin versions of 91–110.
both B and V filled only six printed pages in the most Kors, Alan Charles, and Peters, Edward, eds. 2000. Witchcraft in
recent edition (Ostorero et al. 1999)—circulated wide- Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History.2d ed. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
l y, because of its brevity and its concise, systematic
Lea, Henry Charles. 1939, rpt. 1957. Materials Toward a History
organization. The first nine of its eighteen sections fol-
of Witchcraft.NewYork: Thomas Yoseloff, III: 273–275.
l owed the temptation, initiation, and ritual experiences of
Ostorero, Martine, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Kathrin Utz
a single individual in the process of becoming a servant
Tre m p, and Catherine Chène, eds. and trans. 1999. L’ i m a g i n a i re
of Satan. The treatise addressesed the flight to the Sa b b a t
du sabbat: Edition critique des textes les plus anciens (1430 c.
(which the author called the s y n a g o g a of Satan), the –1440 c.).Lausanne: Cahiers lausannois d’histoire médiévale
nature of the oath and demonstration of homage to the 26:276–353.
demon, the ritual banquet and attendant cannibalism,
the sexual orgy, and the formal profanation of the Essex
Eucharist by the initiate. Its next three sections described The English county of Essex, immediately northeast of
the motivations of those who, once tempted, decided to London, enjoys a central importance in the history of
enter the sect: vengeance against enemies, avarice, and English witchcraft. There are three reasons for this.
lust. The remainder of the treatise discussed the motives First, for reasons that remain unclear, Essex, on the
for such a decision, made additional illustrative points, strength of surviving documentation, experienced more
and concluded with a list of evils committed, including witchcraft trials than any other English county. Second,
murder and cannibalism, supported by brief quotations witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart Essex was the subject of
from recent confessions by convicted witches. an important study completed by Alan Macfarlane.
Aside from condemning these activities as diabolical Originating as an Oxford University D Phil thesis, it
and heretical, the author of the treatise emphasized his was published in 1970, providing a generally accepted
opinion that such heretics must form a sect—that witch- model for English witchcraft until the mid-1990s.
c r a f t cannot be regarded as a series of individual cases, Third, possibly because of the county’s proximity to
but must be re g a rded as a conspiracy, an anti-churc h , London, Essex witchcraft trials became the subject of a
whose danger lay precisely in its nature and its collec- number of pamphlets. Covering a chronological span
t i ve c h a r a c t e r. The fig u re of the demon in the treatise was from 1566 to 1645, they provide numerous insights
virtually autonomous, if not quite an equally powered into how witchcraft trials were conducted, the develop-
opponent of God. Other earlier and contemporary ing nature of witchcraft beliefs, and the ways in which
texts emphasized the importance of Go d’s permission witchcraft was portrayed in this genre.
for the demon to act in this way, but the Er ro re s The importance of Essex in the history of En g l i s h
Gazariorumsaid little about divine permission. witchcraft trials was first noticed in 1929, in C. L.
Fully one-fourth of the text meticulously described Ewe n’s pioneering survey of witchcraft trials in the
the contents and manufacture of the unguents and poi- re c o rds of the Home Circuit assizes. (The assizes we re
sonous powders used by the heretics. One line of pro- the courts before which cases of felonious witchcraft,
g ression of the text was the moral descent from mere as d e fined in the English witchcraft statutes of 1542,
indulgence in vices toward more and more abominable, 1563, and 1604, we re usually tried.) Be t ween 1558
inhuman transgressions, culminating in infanticide and and 1650, these indictments surv i ve from only one
cannibalism. Skillfully and concisely made, the treatise of En g l a n d’s six assize circuits, the Home or
appears to have influenced the expanded detail of So u t h-Eastern Circuit, covering the counties of Essex,
night flight and the ceremonies of the Sabbat found in He rt f o rd s h i re, Kent, Su r re y, and Sussex (and even for
Essex 323 |
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this archive, about a third of the relevant records have legal activity concerned with “w i t c h c r a f t” looked like in
been lost). Ewen counted some 790 indictments for the court re c o rds of one county.
witchcraft surviving in the Home Circuit re c o rd s , Ma c f a r l a n e’s unusually rich Essex sources have also
involving 513 persons accused of witchcraft, of whom helped extend our knowledge of early modern witch
112 we re hanged. Among these, 473 of the indict- beliefs. They contain much evidence about counter-
ments, 299 of those accused, and 82 of those hanged as magic, about informal methods of dealing with witches
witches came from Essex. In other words, nearly 60 and witchcraft, and above all about cunning folk, those
percent of all known indictments for witchcraft on the “good” witches whose presence was so important in ear-
Home Circuit, and an even higher share of those per- ly modern England. An indication of the importance of
sons subsequently hanged by that circ u i t’s sessions, such matters had, in fact, already been provided in the
came from Essex. late sixteenth century in a work by George Gifford (d.
Ma c f a r l a n e’s re s e a rch deepened our understanding 1620), who was from 1582 minister at Maldon, a small
of witchcraft trials in the county. Fo l l owing Ewen, he port town in southern Essex.
emphasized that the heaviest period of prosecutions in Ma c f a r l a n e’s distinctive interpretation of the back-
Essex was the 1580s, followed by the 1590s. Typically, g round to English witchcraft accusations drew on his
Essex witches we re not accused in mass pro s e c u t i o n s analysis of Essex re c o rds. Br i e fly, he argued that such
but we re isolated individuals, occasionally drawn in accusations we re usually initiated by people living within
twos or threes from individual villages. Indictments at the witch’s community, the actual victims of the sup-
the assizes dropped steeply in the 1620s and 1630s, posed witchcraft, rather than by a persecuting authority.
although the great Matthew Hopkins witch hunts that He demonstrated that, characteristically, accusations
began in Essex in 1645 created a new peak of indict- we re launched by richer villagers against poorer ones, and
ments in the 1640s. T h e re a f t e r, indictment leve l s a c c o rdingly linked them to the socioeconomic changes
declined again, with the last Essex trial coming, a little affecting rural England in the period. He claimed the
precociously compared with the rest of the southeast, in changes had altered relations between rich and poor and,
1675. The last known Essex executions for witchcraft m o re generally, perceptions of the notion of community.
had occurred thirty years previously in the Hopkins era. He argued that quarrels following refusals of charity by a
O ve rw h e l m i n g l y, the Essex witchcraft assize trials f u t u re accuser to the supposed witch provided the essen-
revolved around maleficium, doing harm by witchcraft, tial context for witchcraft accusations whenever some
usually to humans or animals. As Ma c f a r l a n e’s fig u re s m i s f o rtune fell on the refuser after these quarrels. Pe r h a p s
e m p h a s i zed, malefic witchcraft was ove rwhelmingly a uneasy in his or her conscience about refusing charity,
female activity: over 90 percent of those accused as the victim of misfortune could now transfer his guilt: it
witches at the Essex assizes were women. was now the requester of charity who was breaking com-
Despite the undoubted originality of his appro a c h , munity norms by inflicting witchcraft, rather than the
Macfarlane built on Ewe n’s earlier re s e a rches in his person who had refused to help his neighbor.
analysis of assize trials. But he took a totally new For over two decades, the “Essex model” as con-
a p p roach by surveying re c o rds from other courts in the structed by Macfarlane, dominated perceptions of early
c o u n t y. In part i c u l a r, Macfarlane carried out a systemat- modern English witchcraft. More recently, albeit usual-
ic analysis of ecclesiastical courts in Essex, notably those ly on the strength of inferior documentation, the uni-
of the archdeaconries of Essex and Colchester. In Tu d o r versal applicability of this model to English witchcraft
and St u a rt England, the ecclesiastical courts still had has been questioned. At the same time, Essex’s remark-
jurisdiction over various minor forms of witchcraft and able predominance in witchcraft accusations in the
s o rc e ry; many cunning folk we re presented before them, southeast has never been adequately explained. T h e
and several defamation suits involving allegations of counties of Kent, Su r re y, and Middlesex (the last of
witchcraft surv i ve in ecclesiastical court re c o rds. Again, these outside of the assize system, but enjoying its own
Ma c f a r l a n e’s analysis of these re c o rds demonstrates the sessions that tried felonies) had populations comparable
peculiarities of Essex. He found over 200 re l e vant cases to that of Essex, underwent the same sorts of socioeco-
in the arc h i ves of its ecclesiastical courts, over half of nomic change as those that Macfarlane saw as central to
them called simply “witchcraft and sorc e ry.” Although Essex witchcraft accusations, and their court re c o rd s
t h e re we re minor peaks in these ecclesiastical cases in survive in levels similar to those for Essex. Yet their lev-
1566 and 1608, the period of their busiest activity, as els of witchcraft prosecutions we re vastly lowe r.
with the assize courts, lay in the 1580s and 1590s. Obv i o u s l y, the history of witch prosecutions in
Macfarlane further extended his re s e a rch to a systematic Elizabethan Essex needs to be reopened, preferably by
analysis of Essex’s quarter sessions and of court re c o rd s focusing initially on whether or not there was any
f rom Essex boroughs with criminal jurisdiction. propensity to prosecute among the county’s elite.
Although he found re l a t i vely few witchcraft cases, they
helped him present a more complete picture of what JAMES SHARPE
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See also: CUNNINGFOLK;ENGLAND;GIFFORD,GEORGE;HOPKINS, Germans to be seriously Pro t e s t a n t i zed. The Swe d e s
MATTHEW;MACFARLANE,ALAN. founded the first (and for a long time, the only) univer-
References and further reading: sity in the eastern Baltic at Tartu in 1632, primarily in
Anon. 1566. The Examination and Confession of certaine Wytches
o rder to train Estonia’s clergy in their struggle against
at Chensforde in the Countie of Essex, before her Quenes Maiesties
“repellent idolatry.”
Judges, the xxvi day of July Anno 1566. London.
The Swedes we re not ve ry successful. The elaborate
———. 1579. A detection of damnable Driftes, practized by three
visitation carried out by Swedish authorities in
Witches arraigned at Chelmisforde in Essex, at the Late Assizes
1667–1668 provides by far our clearest image any-
holden, which were executed in April 1579. London.
———. 1582. A true and just Recorde, of the Information, w h e re in the Baltic of the extent that pagan practices
Examination, and Confession of all the Witches taken at S. Oses persisted among the local peasantry: in parish after
in the Countie of Essex; whereof some were executed, and some parish, they still made regular sacrifices at sacred grove s
entreated according to the Determination of the Lawe. London. and hills. Even during a visit in the late 1690s, which
———. 1589. The Apprehension and Confession of three notorious coincided with the last wave of witchcraft trials in
Witches. Arraigned and by Justice condemnede and executed at Estonia, ove rt pagan “idolatry” was still identifiable in
Chelmesforde in the County of Essex, the 5 Day of July last past
over a third of Estonia’s parishes, with elaborate cere-
1589. London.
monies on Midsummer Eve (Kahk 1990, 280–282). If
Ewen, C. L’Estrange. 1929. Witch Hunting and Witch Trials. The
the sermons of their Swedish-trained clergy gave
Indictments for Witchcraft from the Records of 1373 Assizes Held
Estonian peasants a few notions about diabolism–it
for the Home Circuit A.D. 1559–1736. London: Kegan Paul,
appears in about two dozen of Estonia’s two hundre d
Trench, Trubner & Co.
F., H. 1645. A true and exact Relation of the severall Informations, witchcraft trials—local witches could not fly and neve r
Examinations and Confessions of the late Witches arraigned and attended Sabbats. Defendants sometimes began with
executed at the late Sessions holden before the Right Honorable the Devil and then switched to pre-Christian fairies
Robert, Earle of Warwicke, and severall of his Majesties Justices of and wizards, whom they described much more vividly.
Peace, the 29 of July 1645. London. It is also interesting to note that the Devil sometimes
Gifford, George. 1593. A Dialogue Concerning Witches and w o re blue, a “Ge r m a n” (or Swedish?) color (Kahk
Witchcrafts, in which it is layed open how craftily the Divell
1990, 282).
deceiveth not onely the Witches but many other, and so leadeth
them awrie into manie great Errours.London.
Statistics
Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A
Laws against witchcraft appeared in various codes used
Regional and Comparative Study.London: Routledge.
in Estonia as well as other eastern Baltic regions. Here,
Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early
Modern England.London: Hamish Hamilton. as in neighboring lands, a few rather innocuous sorcery
trials have been recorded from 1493 and 1526, with
Estonia indirect evidence about sorcerers being burned around
This small country, containing about a hundred parish- 1530. Evidence about witchcraft trials in Estonia
es in the early modern era, participated in a regional remains sketchy in the sixteenth century, and nonexis-
pattern, an “eastern-Baltic paradigm,” of witchcraft and tent during the lengthy Livonian War (1558–1583).
its persecution. Trials resumed in 1588 when Estonia’s first recorded
This meant that witchcraft in Estonia included many witch ducking occurred at Tartu (the defendant was a
remarkably tenacious surviving pagan practices. It also man). Trials increased considerably in the early seven-
means that witchcraft trials included ve ry little dia- teenth century. In Estland (northern Estonia), fort y - o n e
bolism (most of it was induced by leading questions trials we re re c o rded between 1615 and 1652;
under tort u re, which was legal here either before or twenty-seven witches had been executed by 1636,
after interrogation until the end of the seventeenth cen- although only five more followed before 1700. In
t u ry); that its sorc e rers we re more often men than North Livland (southern Estonia), divided into two
women; and that its local authorities relied unblushing- court districts by Sweden after 1621, only four witches
ly on ordeals by ducking (the swimming test) to detect were executed at Tartu by 1699, but fourteen at Pärnu
witches. (Madar 1990, 260–263).
Ap a rt from the fact that Estonian sorc e rers we re Estonian trials re q u i red accusatorial pro c e d u res and
much more likely to bewitch beer than milk (Ma d a r r a rely invo l ved more than one defendant: overall, we
1990, 268–269), the major difference separating know of 140 trials held between 1520 and 1725 involv-
E s t o n i a’s history of witchcraft trials from those in its ing 205 defendants. Over 60 percent of them we re
southern neighbor Latvia was the fact that Lu t h e r a n men, and fewer than one-third of them were executed.
Sweden ruled Estonia: its northern half since 1561, and Until 1630, only six men and twe n t y - t h ree women
its southern half after 1621. Most of modern Latvia fell we re executed; afterw a rd, only six women and twe n t y
within the sphere of Catholic Po l a n d - L i t h u a n i a . men (Madar 1990, 261, 267). Two cases still re a c h e d
Estonia became the only Baltic area not inhabited by Estonian courts in the early nineteenth century.
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MALEFICIUM cohesion of society. In such societies, nothing happens
With their sturdy pagan background, Estonian peasant by chance (in theory); whatever happens is caused by
sorcerers cast many kinds of spells, using everything c e rtain powers. Good or bad luck are not due to
from fish (1669), strawberries (1633), crayfish (1651), chance, but to ancestors, spirits, or witches.
or salt (1542 and 1642), although their preferred The main function of witchcraft beliefs is there f o re
method was to cast spells on beer to infest their victim’s to reduce contingency.This may lead to the notion that
body with worms or frogs. Estonia’s sorcerers could every death, even of old people, is caused by evil pow-
become wolves or occasionally bears; interestingly, eigh- ers. Mary Douglas’s theory of how evil is interpreted is a
teen of its thirty-one werewolves, and even two of its good example of the methods of the functionalist
three bears were women (Madar 1990, 270–271), school. In societies where people live in close contact
although Estonia's sorcerers apparently had no “good and are heavily interdependent, evil is attributed to
werewolf” like the Livonian case of 1692 (Ginzburg envious neighbors as sorcerers or witches; societies with
1983, 28–31). loose settlement stru c t u res and fluid groups tend to
explain evil by natural spirits. Belief in witchcraft makes
WILLIAM MONTER
it possible to identify the cause of evil with a concrete
See also: LATVIA;LITHUANIA,GRANDDUCHYOF;LYCANTHROPY; person and to fight it. If a person shows envy, anger,
MALEFICIUM;SPELLS;SWEDEN;SWIMMINGTEST. or hatred in a transaction, an evil is attributed to her
References and further reading:
or him.
Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian
A further important function of witchcraft is to con-
Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.Translated by
trol deviant behavior, because people must refrain from
John and Anne Tedeschi. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
deviant behavior to avoid being identified as a witch.
Press.
Among the Nyakyusa, witchcraft beliefs function as
Kahk, Juhan. 1990. “Estonia II: The Crusade Against Idolatry.”
Pp. 273–284 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and “the main sanction for moral behaviour within the
Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. village” (Wilson 1951, 108). A further function is con-
Oxford: Clarendon. nected with this. Segmentary societies develop numer-
Madar, Maia. 1990. “Estonia I: Werewolves and Poisoners.” Pp. ous mechanisms to pre vent the development of social
257–272 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and and economic inequality. Because the number of goods
Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. is regarded as constant and economic growth is consid-
Oxford: Clarendon.
ered impossible, the advantage of one individual is nec-
essarily the disadvantage of someone else. That is why
Ethnology wealth is often concealed and leveling mechanisms
Ethnology has usually studied “primitive” societies that w o rk in many ways, for instance, by partitions of the
are rather different from the society of the European kill after hunt or by gambling. Witch belief prov i d e s
witch hunt. They are segmentary societies with little or another such leveling mechanism by sanctioning good
no social stratification, often based on kinship as their luck, that is, economic advantages.
main structural principle. In such societies, magical A further function of witchcraft is to resolve conflicts
rites play a much greater part than in complex stratified b e t ween related persons or neighbors. Qu a r re l l i n g
societies, which also use comparable rites, but at the about inheritance between brothers or about bound-
same time begin to criticize them. Primitive societies aries between neighbors may result in accusations of
explain evil (including evils caused by nature) as the witchcraft, which lead to the end of the conflict. Here
action of ancestors who punish deviant behavior with witchcraft accusations can win community support for
illness and so on, through gods or sorcerers and witch- o n e’s case by making one’s particular enemy into an
es. Such societies offer rich fields of witch beliefs. enemy of the whole society. This leads to a furt h e r
The functionalist Anglo-Sa xon school of ethnology, i m p o rtant function: the symbolization of evil. So m e
to which we owe most of the epoch-making works on societies imagine the witch as a terrible monster practic-
witchcraft in primitive societies, is based on the work of ing anthro p o p h a g y, “eating up” the person who the
Emile Du rkheim. He saw religion as an expression of witch wants to harm by stealing inner organs. He re
society as a whole, so that belief systems can be correlat- witchcraft often symbolizes the special dangers of a
ed with social structure. The cosmology/religion there- society, for example of seafaring among the Trobriands
f o re expresses the fundamental stru c t u res of a society ( Ma l i n owski 1922). Other societies, like the Az a n d e ,
through various communication codes (Leach 1976). see witches as rather normal people, with whom one
Magic has an instrumental function, based on the may subsequently be reconciled after some evil deed
belief that the surrounding natural and social world can ( Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd 1937). This difference is import a n t
be controlled by ritual practices, for example, by for the investigation of Eu ropean witchcraft, because
p roducing needed rain. Magic also has an expre s s i ve diabolical witchcraft with its doctrine of the Sabbat cor-
function, because its rites produce and symbolize the responds to the first type, and simple m a l e fic i u m o r
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harmful magic to the second kind. This could also be See also: AFRICA(SUB-SAHARAN); ANTHROPOLOGY;DOUGLAS,MARY;
compared to Evans-Pritchard’s distinction between sor- EVANS-PRITCHARD,EDWARDE.; GENDER;NATIVEAMERICANS;
cerers and witches: The witch works by innate demonic POPULARBELIEFSINWITCHES.
References and further reading:
power, while sorcerers use certain techniques.
Barth, Fredrik. 1975. Ritual and Knowledge Among the Baktaman
Ethnographic contributions to the analysis of the
of New Guinea.New Haven: Yale University Press.
role of women might also be helpful for understanding
Douglas, Mary. 1973. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology.
the Eu ropean witch belief system. Even in such ve ry
2d ed. London: Barrie and Jenkins.
primitive societies as the Baktaman, who have no elab-
Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1937.Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic
orate kinship system (Barth 1975), the witch belief has Among the Azande.Oxford: Clarendon.
a gendered structure—a man practices sorcery with the Foster, George M. 1965. “Peasant Society and the Image of
help of hair or textiles, a woman appears as a bird , Limited Good.” AmericanAnthropologist67:293–315.
attacking her victim with a stone axe and eating his or Geschiere, Peter. 1997. The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and
her flesh—the difference inverts actual gender roles in the Occult in Postcolonial Africa.Charlottesville: University Press
this society. In other societies, women sometimes of Virginia.
Guenther, Mathias G. 1992. “‘Not a Bushman Thing’: Witchcraft
attract attention to their underprivileged status by
Among the Bushmen and Hunter-Gatherers.” Anthropos87:
being obsessed or confessing to their witchcraft: this has
83–107.
been called “peripheral obsession” (Lewis 1989). But we
Harnischfeger, Johannes. 2000. “Witchcraft and the State in South
also find societies like the Nupe in Africa, in which
Africa.” Anthropos95:99–112.
women are thought to be witches because they have a
Leach, Edmund. 1976. Culture and Communication: The Logic by
better economic status than men (Nadel 1954). T h e Which Symbols Are Connected. An Introduction to the Use of
ethnological results remain unclear, and we cannot yet Structural Analysis in Social Anthropology.Cambridge:
state that attributing witchcraft to women is universally Cambridge University Press.
dominant, or that they are more demonic figures than Lewis, I. M. 1989. Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and
men. Witch beliefs may also be useful in achieving or Spirit Possession. London: Routledge.
securing political power. If rivals attack a chief’s power, Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An
Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes
his positive magic power may be interpreted as
of Melanesian New Guinea. London: George Routledge.
witchcraft.
Nadel, Siegfried F. 1954. Nupe Religion. London: Routledge &
In the last decade, ethnologists have concentrated on
Kegan Paul.
the processes of decolonization and modernization.
Rowlands, Michael, and Jean-PierreWarnier. 1988. “Sorcery,
They argue more historically, interpreting increases and
Power and the Modern State in Cameroon.” Man(N.S.) 23:
changes in witch beliefs as expressions of social crisis. 118–133.
The use of such belief systems for purposes of political Wilson, Monica. 1951. Good Company. A Study of Nyakyusa
p ower can be observed after World War II. In Age-Villages.
C a m e roon, they could be used both ways (Row l a n d s Winter, Edward H. 1963. “The Enemy Within: Amba Witchcraft
and Warnier 1988). Political elites we re suspected of and Sociological Theory.” Pp. 277–299 in Witchcraft and
witchcraft because they persecuted popular witch find- Sorcery in East Africa.Edited by John Middleton and
E. H. Winter. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
ers, while the elites feared that envious kin in their
home villages were using witchcraft against them. This
shows that the archaic leveling mechanism of witchcraft Eugenius IV (1383–1447;
is still working. The strong belief in witches has pope, 1431–1447)
changed the law. W h e reas in the colonial system only Eugenius IV took a leading role in classifying magic
accusers of witches were punished, now it is sometimes and witchcraft as heresy. Born to a prosperous Venetian
possible to accuse witches in the regular courts. In family, Gabriele Condulmaro became a canon of the
South Africa, this constitutes an attempt to end lynch- church of St. George in Alga in Venice. His uncle, Pope
ings, which has cost the lives of many people re c e n t l y Gregory XII, appointed him bishop of Siena in 1407
(Harnischfeger 2000). and cardinal in 1408. He attended the Council of
Though the Anglo-Sa xon school analyzes the func- Constance (1414–1418), became papal governor in the
tions of witch beliefs, it does not neglect the possibility March of Ancona and in Bologna, and was elected pope
that these beliefs can become dysfunctional. This can in 1431. His pontificate was marked by his struggles with
happen if they cause more conflicts than they re s o l ve , the Council of Basel (1431–1440) and with the antipope
i.e., if they poison the social atmosphere through attri- Felix V, the outbreak of the Hussite wars in Bohemia,
butions followed by aggression. This warning against his attempts to reunite the Greek and other separated
methodological blindness had already been given long Christian churches with the Latin Church, and his
ago (Winter 1963): Every function must be ascertained diplomatic sponsorship of the failed crusade of Varna in
empirically. 1444. Eugenius IV, who once said that he regretted ever
RAINER WALZ having left the cloister, was also a cleric of intense piety
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with a demanding ideal of clerical and lay reform. This Eugenius IV’s concerns about heretical witchcraft
ideal underlay his concern with contemporary forms of between 1434 and 1440 were thus virtually identical to
dissent and heterodoxy, and conspicuously with various those of such other exactly contemporary texts as the
forms and practices of magic, divination, conjuring, Er ro res Ga z a r i o rum ( Er rors of the Gazars or Ga z a r i i
and other forbidden arts. These concerns regarding [Cathars—a common term for heretics and later witch-
magical practices appeared in his letters to inquisitors. es]), the Fo rm i c a r i u s (The Anthill) of Johannes Ni d e r,
They also appeared in his denunciation of Felix V, for- the treatise of Claude Tholosan, and The Defender of
merly Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy, for having pro- Ladies, all of which dealt with the crucial early stage of
tected diabolical sorcerers in his duchy and used their the formation of the concept of a sect of diabolical sor-
wicked and diabolical arts to further his own aims. cerers and witches.
Earlier popes had also expressed concern with, and
EDWARD PETERS
sometimes fear of, diabolical sorcery from the late thir-
teenth to the mid-fifteenth century. John XXII See also: BASEL,COUNCILOF;ERRORESGAZARIORUM;FEUGEYRON,
(1316–1334) issued several letters on the subject; in PONCE;HERESY;JACQUIER,NICOLAS;JOHNXXII,POPE;LEFRANC,
1409, Alexander V (1409–1410) had written to the
MARTIN;NIDER,JOHANNES;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;
widely traveled Franciscan inquisitor Ponce Feugeyron,
THOLOSAN,CLAUDE;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS).
References and further reading:
concerning “new sects” formed by both Christians and
Christianson, Gerald. 1979. Cesarini, the Conciliar Cardinal: The
Jews, some of which practiced sorcery, divination, invo-
Basel Years, 1431–1438. St. Ottilien: Eos.
cation of demons, and other forbidden arts, urging the
Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters, eds. 2000. Pp. 116–120,
inquisitor to cooperate with local diocesan officials and 152–155, 166–169 in Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1100: A
the secular authorities to root out such re p u g n a n t Documentary History.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
superstitions. In 1434, Eugenius IV also wrote to Press.
Fe u g e y ron, repeating Alexander V’s charges against Lea, Henry Charles. 1939. rpt. 1957. Materials Toward a History
Christian and Jewish magicians, diviners, and other of Witchcraft. Edited by Arthur C. Howland. 3 vols. NewYork
practitioners of superstitious and forbidden arts. and London: Thomas Yoseloff, I: 220–225.
Stieber, Joachim. 1978. Pope Eugenius IV,The Council of Basel and
In 1437, Eugenius wrote at greater length to all
the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authorities in the Empire: The
inquisitors of heretical depravity, noting that Satan had
Conflict over Supreme Authority and Power in the Church.
used such arts to deceive many Christians into joining
Leiden: Brill.
his sect. Such people sacrifice to demons, adore them,
Veenstra, Jan. 1998. Magic and Divination at the Courts of
and make a written or other kind of contract with
Burgundy and France.Leiden, NewYork, and Cologne: Brill.
them, gaining by this the power to commit evil deeds
and be transported wherever they wish. They also cure Evans-Pritchard,
diseases, perform weather magic, and sacrilegiously Edward E. (1902–1973)
misuse sacred materials such as baptismal water, the Few scholars have exe rted such deep and enduring influ-
Eucharist, and other sacramentals. They also shamefully ence on the study of witchcraft as Ed w a rd Eva n s -
desecrate the cross. Pr i t c h a rd. He began his work on the Azande tribe of the
In March 1440, locked in dispute with his rival, the Sudan in 1926 as a postgraduate student, dedicating him-
antipope Felix V, Eugenius denounced Felix to the self to producing a compre h e n s i ve anthropological study
Council of Basel for having tolerated and used the dia- of that people’s system of social organization and its re l a-
bolical services of many men and women who are com- tion to their beliefs and practices about magic, witchcraft,
monly called s t re g u l e , or s t re g o n o s , or Wa u d e n s e s . T h e divination, and sorc e ry. Be t ween 1926 and 1930, he
first two terms are cognates with the Italian term strega, made three field trips to the tribe, sponsored and sup-
or witch, and the third was an early instance of using p o rted by the British colonial government, spending a
the old name for Waldensian heretics to designate the total of twenty months re c o rding, photographing, and
heretical character of diabolical sorcery, whether magic i n t e rv i ewing the Azande about their views on witchcraft.
or witchcraft. There is no evidence that Felix, when he The initial result was his doctoral thesis, “The So c i a l
had been Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy, had done any Organization of the Azande of the Ba h r - e l - Gh a ze l
such thing, although his secre t a ry, Ma rtin Le Fr a n c , Province of the Anglo-Egyptian Su d a n” (London School
w rote a long poem, also in 1440, Le Champion des of Economics, 1927). Subsequently revised and expand-
dames (The Defender of Ladies), in which the most ed, it was published in 1937 as Wi t c h c raft, Oracles and
recent arguments for and against contemporary beliefs Magic Among the Az a n d e .His book advanced an extre m e-
about heretical sorcery and witchcraft were debated by ly compelling theory of the sociology of knowledge and
a character who insulted women and one who defended belief and drew an important distinction between the
them. The poem was an important example of literary practices of witchcraft and sorc e ry.
misogyny and philogyny, a popular genre in the four- Ac c o rding to Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd, witchcraft was an
teenth and fifteenth centuries. innate, internal power that some people inherited, in
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exactly the same manner as genetic features were passed See also: AFRICA(SUB-SAHARAN); ANTHROPOLOGY;ETHNOLOGY;
d own from parents to children. Howe ve r, witchcraft MACFARLANE,ALAN;THOMAS,KEITH.
was only considered to be here d i t a ry among ord i n a ry References and further reading:
Beattie, John H. M., and Ronald Godfrey, Lienhardt eds. 1975.
Azande: princes and nobles had no such taint and could
Studies in Social Anthropology in Memory of E. E.
n e ver be accused of the crime. Because of witchcraft’s
Evans-Pritchard.Oxford: Clarendon.
h e re d i t a ry nature, a son could not accuse his father
Beidelman, Thomas O. 1974. A Bibliography of E. E. Evans-
without admitting his own guilt. Witches we re per-
Pritchard.London: Tavistock.
c e i ved as mean, rude, and grasping; they could cause
Douglas, Mary, ed. 1970. Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations.
harm, consciously or unconsciously, by a mere glance or London and NewYork: Tavistock.
malicious thought. Azande witches could harm other Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1937. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic
human beings, their animals, or their crops, without Among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon.
performing special rituals; their witchcraft required no ———. 1971. The Azande. History and Political Institutions.
interventions from supernatural beings to flourish. Oxford: Clarendon.
By way of contrast, sorcerers had no innate ability to ———, ed. 1974. Man and Woman Among the Azande. London:
Faber & Faber.
cause occult harm. They employed magical rites, such
Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque
as chanting spells, or damaged something belonging to
Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition, 1609–1614. Reno:
their intended victim, such as clothing, hair, or nail
University of Nevada Press.
clippings, to transfer misfortune to the victim.
Macfarlane, Alan. 1999. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England. A
T h e re f o re, any Azande could become a sorc e re r
Regional and Comparative Study.Intro. J.A. Sharpe, preface
t h rough learning, but it was impossible to become a E. E. Evans-Pritchard. London: Routledge.
witch except by birth. Consequently, the Az a n d e Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London:
e vo l ved a complex system of beliefs in oracles, divina- Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
tion, magic, and leechcraft to detect and counteract the
effects of witchcraft. Eve
Howe ve r, Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd noted that witchcraft In some demonological treatises and other learned
accusations clustered together in areas of ambiguous writings, Eve is described as the “first witch,” and
social relationships. He found the Azande a clever and w o m e n’s tendency tow a rd witchcraft is linked to their
skeptical people who manipulated their oracles to sus- being “daughters of Eve.” This idea was built on
tain their existing social system and prevalent morality misogynist notions that we re ve ry common in
in a society that had experienced seve re strain fro m C h r i s t i a n i t y. The second-century Church Fa t h e r
Christian missionaries and the imposition of colonial Te rtullian, for example, described Eve, and thro u g h
m i l i t a ry rule between 1905 and 1914. (Their popula- her all women, as the “De v i l’s gatew a y.” Me d i e val and
tion dropped from two million in 1870 to 750,000 by early modern writers set this connection within the
1953.) Under intense pre s s u res, accusations of witch- context of demonology, and by the later sixteenth cen-
craft multiplied; the Azande might ascribe almost any t u ry the combination Eve/women/witch became a
misfortune to the occult malice of a neighbor or a for- s t a n d a rd rhetorical device in sermons and tre a t i s e s ,
mer friend. requiring little explanation.
Since the late 1940s, the guiding motifs of his In the Lectionis super ecclesiastes (1380) of Jo h a n n e s
w o rk—namely the differences between witchcraft and Dominicus and the Preceptorium divinae legis
s o rc e ry, and the function of misfortune in provo k i n g ( Preceptor of Di v i n e L a w, 1475) of Johannes Ni d e r,
accusations of the crime—have dominated most discus- Eve’s mental and physical weakness, lack of reason, talk-
sions of British witchcraft. Keith Thomas and Alan ativeness, and credulity were all seen as reasons she gave
Macfarlane accepted Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd’s findings and in to the serpent’s wiles. These qualities are still to be
adapted his idea of social bre a k d own as a stimulus for found in women, argued these authors, which is why
f resh cycles of persecution by substituting the Pro t e s t a n t they are more likely than men to be influenced by
Reformation and En g l a n d’s Poor Laws for the impact of demons. In his occasional re m a rks on witchcraft,
colonial rule and the introduction of Christianity. Martin Luther agreed, noting, in a sermon on 1 Peter,
Howe ve r, Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd’s influence on the study of “ It is commonly the nature of women to be afraid of
continental Eu ropean witchcraft has been minimal. everything. That is why they busy themselves so much
Although his stature as a canonical anthropologist and with witchcraft and superstitions.” In a sermon on the
authority on African tribal societies remains high in a Ten Commandments, Luther commented, “Who can
postcolonial world, Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd’s ideas on the count all the foolish, ridiculous, wrong, senseless, and
m a rked similarities between Azande and Eu ro p e a n superstitious things that women deal in? From their
witchcraft beliefs have largely faded from favo r. mother Eve it has been natural for them to be deceived
and made fools of.” And in a sermon on Exodus, he
JOHN CALLOW commented, “On witches, why does the law stre s s
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women more than men? . . . Because of Eve” to another, and local communities often placed cre-
(Karant-Nunn and Wiesner-Hanks 2003, 231–233). dence in evidentiary tests that were not acceptable to
In the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of legal writers and authorities. In the late seventeenth
Witches, 1486), Heinrich Kramer similarly saw Eve as century, skepticism regarding the admissibility and
the first in a long line of female witches, though he validity of certain types of evidence contributed to the
e m p h a s i zed her lust, seductive nature, and desire for decline of witch hunting.
p ower along with her weakness and foolishness. Eve Judicial rules governing the admission of evidence
bears full responsibility for the Fall, in his eyes, because (the law of evidence) and those governing the determi-
she seduced Adam, causing him to forsake God. In the nation of guilt or innocence (the law of pro o f) we re
same way, women who give in to the power of the Devil m o re clearly defined in states that we re influ e n c e d
are not to be pitied as mentally deficient, but feared as s t rongly by Roman law (jus commune) and followe d
enticing and malicious. They hint that Eve’s re l a t i o n- inquisitorial pro c e d u re than in those states that used
ship with Satan was sexual in nature, just like the rela- accusatorial procedure. In France, the German territo-
tionship between witches and demons in their own day; ries within the Holy Roman Empire, the Iberian king-
this emphasis on female sexuality pervaded the Malleus, doms, and the Italian states, all of which adhered to
so it is not surprising to see it emerging in subsequent inquisitorial procedure, rules prescribed how much evi-
discussions of Eve and witchcraft. dence was required to begin a judicial investigation of a
In the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, p a rticular suspect (inquisitio specialis), to administer
linking Eve, women’s propensity to sin, and witchcraft torture, and to convict the accused.
became a common topos in sermons and witch litera- Roman law re q u i red that judicial decisions agre e
ture in continental Europe, England, and Puritan New about what circumstances could legally provoke suspi-
England. In the trial of Anne Hutchinson, for example, cion of witchcraft and arrests. The evidentiary re q u i re-
Cotton Mather accused Hutchinson of acting like both ments in this re g a rd we re re l a t i vely low, consisting of
Eve and the serpent, seducing women and their hus- an accusation by an individual, denunciation by an
bands with her ideas “like a serpent sliding in the dark” o f ficial, or mere ru m o r. To administer tort u re, either
(Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion[1692]). the testimony of one eyewitness or certain amounts of
Eve has remained a powerful figure in the contempo- c i rcumstantial evidence (i n d i c i a), to which jurists
r a ry witch movement as well. Though modern Wi c c a assigned various weights, was necessary. Ap p l y i n g
witches frequently emphasize the distinction betwe e n t o rt u re re q u i red an interlocutory sentence, which
their beliefs and practices and those of Satanic witch- sometimes was granted by the law faculties of the
craft, they stand the MalleusMaleficarum on its head by u n i versities or councils of sove reign princes. The evi-
claiming Eve as a positive role model, an independent dence re q u i red for conviction, known as the Ro m a n -
woman who did not see herself as subservient or inferi- canonical law of pro o f, consisted of either the testimony
or to her husband. of two eyewitnesses or a confession. The necessity
of obtaining the latter in cases of concealed crimes
MERRY WIESNER-HANKS
s e rved as the main justification for torturing suspected
See also: FEMALEWITCHES;GENDER;LUTHER,MARTIN;MALLEUS w i t c h e s .
MALEFICARUM;SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC. During the most intense period of witch hunting,
References and further reading:
these rules re g a rding evidence we re often re l a xed on the
Brauner, Sigrid. 1995. Fearless Wives and Frightened Shrews: The
g rounds that witchcraft was a crimen exceptum ( a n
Construction of the Witch in Early Modern Germany.Amherst:
e xcepted crime), to which the normal procedural ru l e s
University of Massachusetts Press.
did not apply. In many witch hunts in the Holy Ro m a n
Karant-Nunn, Susan C., and Merry E Wiesner-Hanks. 2003.
Em p i re, courts accepted testimony from confessing
Luther on Women: A Sourcebook.Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. witches—convicted felons, barred from testifying under
Norris, Pamela. 1999.Eve: A Biography.NewYork: NewYork o rd i n a ry rules—who had named the accused as accom-
University Press. plices. Without such evidence from confessing witches,
Phillips, John A. 1984. Eve, the History of an Idea.San Francisco: the mass prosecution of witches in Germany would not
Harper & Row. h a ve taken place. In some of the largest witch hunts,
including those in Ge r m a n y, in the Basque Co u n t ry
Evidence a round 1610, and in Sweden after 1668, testimony
Central to all judicial proceedings against witches was f rom children, which was normally not admissible in
the presentation and evaluation of evidence. The deter- criminal cases, was permitted. On a few occasions, such
mination of what evidence was admissible in court and as at Loudun in 1634, courts even re c o g n i zed “t e s t i m o-
whether it was sufficient for conviction were subjects of n y” from demons speaking through possessed persons
controversy throughout the period of witch hunting. who we re undergoing exo rcism. The discove ry of the
Rules regarding evidence varied from one jurisdiction De v i l’s mark on the witch’s body—a spot that was
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i n s e n s i t i ve to pain and did not bleed—was usually suffi- c o n s i d e red superstitious and there f o re prohibited by
cient to permit the judicial interrogation of the witch, l a w. Many examples mentioned in Heinrich Kramer’s
although not in the Mediterranean inquisitions. Malleus Maleficarum(Hammer of Witches, 1486) were
Rules that normally governed the application of of this kind. Despite their illegality, they can neverthe-
t o rt u re we re ignored in many witchcraft trials, also on less be found in later re c o rds of witchcraft trials. On e
the grounds that witchcraft was an excepted crime. popular test for witchcraft was to grill the hide of cattle
Conviction on the basis of circumstantial evidence, that had died of a strange illness in the belief that the
including the inability of witches to shed tears and the person who had bewitched the cattle would suffer
o c c u r rence of misfortune following the witch’s pro- f rom burns and come to the house where the test was
nouncement of a threat, was commonplace thro u g h- performed.
out Eu rope, especially in local courts. Central or In the late seventeenth century, the imposition of
appellate tribunals, such as the Pa rl e m e n t of Paris or m o re demanding standards of evidence in witchcraft
the supreme tribunal of the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n , cases contributed to the decline in the number of con-
w h e re established standards of acceptable evidence victions and executions. Little by little the re a l i z a t i o n
we re more rigorously enforced, often re versed these o c c u r red that the foundation of witchcraft trials con-
s e n t e n c e s . sisted in prejudices, double-bind strategies, and self-ful-
In England, where courts followed accusatorial pro- filling prophecies. The increasingly frequent employ-
cedure, judges exercised far less control over the admis- ment of lawyers as advocates for accused witches
sion of evidence and the determination of its sufficien- encouraged adherence to these new standard s .
cy for conviction. English judges could instruct juries, Skepticism re g a rding the sufficiency of evidence in
who determined the facts of the case and thus the guilt witchcraft cases can be seen, first and foremost, in a
or innocence of the accused, re g a rding the evidence g rowing reluctance among judges and legal writers to
that had been presented in court, but juries could and accept confessions, traditionally regarded as the highest
did convict on the basis of circumstantial evidence. In standard of proof, as sufficient proof of guilt. This skep-
1608 the demonologist William Pe rkins, trying to ticism arose mainly when the confessions had a high
establish continental standards of proof in the prosecu- diabolical content, that is, when the witches had con-
tion of English witches, enumerated various “presump- fessed to either a pact with the Devil or attendance at
tions” that would justify the examination of a witch and the Sabbat. By the late seventeenth century, judges were
proofs that were sufficient for conviction. In 1652, the willing to accept confessions to witchcraft (or any other
reliability of these evidentiary standards came under crime) only if such confessions were in no way extorted,
direct attack by Sir Robert Filmer in the wake of a witch if they contained nothing that was impossible or
hunt that took place in the county of Kent in that year. i m p robable, and if the person confessing was neither
Howe ve r, English juries continued to convict witches melancholic nor suicidal.
on the basis of circumstantial evidence until the late A second and even more frequent expression of judi-
seventeenth century. cial caution in the interpretation of evidence was based
Local communities often relied on extra-judicial tests on the possibility that events attributed to supernatural
to acquire evidence of witchcraft and the identification agency may have had natural causes. This was particu-
of the malefactors. The most common of these popular larly relevant to charges of maleficium (harmful magic),
tests was “swimming” the witch, a practice that derived in which it was claimed that witches had inflicted harm
from the medieval water ordeal that had been prohibit- by diabolical (and thus supernatural) means. The skep-
ed in 1215. Swimming tests took place in many regions tical response to such allegations, frequently adopted
of northern Europe, from the British Isles and France to when lawyers defended witches against such charges,
Russia. In a few places, like Westphalia, before a suspect was that the act had natural causes, and that to convict
was permitted to undergo this test, she had to promise a person of the crime, the possibility of natural causa-
to confess if she failed. Authorities usually manipulated tion had to be ruled out. In securing the acquittal of a
the test so that suspects would float, thus proving their witch accused of murder by sorcery in 1662, Paul von
guilt. The women who we re tested in this manner Fuchs only needed to show that the alleged supernatur-
argued that they floated because of their other sins, like al cause of the disease that killed the witch’s victim
a d u l t e ry. The swimming test was unknown in could not be proved. French courts stopped try i n g
Mediterranean regions but persisted in some parts of witches in cases of demonic possession in the seve n-
n o rthern and eastern Eu rope until re l a t i vely re c e n t teenth century on the grounds that they could not dis-
times. It had no standing at law, and few demonologists tinguish possession from a natural disease.
(with the notable exception of James VI of Scotland) Skepticism re g a rding the validity of evidence against
considered it a valid form of evidence. witches arose frequently in instances where a causal
Other popular techniques of securing evidence of connection was alleged between the pronouncement of
witchcraft we re, from a judicial viewpoint, likew i s e t h reats or the casting of spells and the occurrence of
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m i s f o rtunes. The validity of the De v i l’s mark as a form kind of demon (as evidenced by some antique amulets),
of evidence also came under attack frequently after 1650 but among its more common characteristics are that
in many continental and Scottish jurisdictions (occa- such power may be exerted either inadvertently (by per-
s i o n a l l y, as at Ge n e va, surgeons systematically failed to sons otherwise of good repute), or with malevo l e n t
find it). In England and New England, the convictions intent. Its reputed possessors are anyone whose eyes are
of witches on the basis of spectral evidence (the testimo- black, deep-set, protruding, squinting, or distinctive in
ny of victims that they could see the apparitions or some way (such as “double pupils”) or who are other-
specters of the witches who we re causing them harm) wise of peculiar appearance. Its possessors include any
also led to discrediting this form of evidence, especially witch, male or female; foreigners; and even priests
in the wake of the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. ( Pope Pius IX was thought to possess the m a l’ o c c h i o,
like a number of famous rabbis). In Ort h o d ox coun-
GÜNTER JEROUSCHEK AND BRIAN LEVACK
tries, they even included a saint, the “u n b e n e vo l e n t”
See also: ACCUSATORIALPROCEDURE;CHILDREN;CONFESSIONS; St. John Cassian, whose gaze blighted everything it fell
CRIMENEXCEPTUM;DECLINEOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;DEVIL’S upon. Signs identifying a person as having the evil eye
MARK;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;LAWYERS;LOUDUNNUNS;
are often the same as the reputed signs of a witch.
PERKINS,WILLIAM;PROOF,PROBLEMOF;ROMANLAW;SKEPTI-
The evil eye can be blamed for almost any misfor-
CISM;SPECTRALEVIDENCE;SWIMMINGTEST;TORTURE.
tune. Alleged objects of attack often include crops, live-
References and further reading:
stock, weddings (with subsequent impotence or infer-
Hoffer, Peter Charles. 1996. The Devil’s Disciples: Makers of the
tility), and babies and young children (in several areas,
Salem Witchcraft Trials.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press. newborn infants are kept from the eyes of all but fami-
Jerouschek, Günter. 1992. Die Hexen und ihr Prozess.Esslingen l y, typically for forty days). Sickness or derangement
and Sigmaringen: Thorbecke. may also be attributed to the evil eye. The alleged
Langbein, John. 1974. Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance: results of an evil eye attack closely resemble the alleged
England, Germany, France.Cambridge: Harvard University results of bewitchment involving an agent (spells, mag-
Press. ic potions, etc.) or demonic attacks. Although evil eye
———. 1976. Torture and the Law of Proof.Europe and England
and witchcraft beliefs often ove r l a p, they are usually
in the Ancien Régime.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
perceived as distinct.
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
Protection from, or countermeasures against the evil
2nd ed. London and NewYork: Longman.
e ye also take a variety of forms. Often these are the
Perkins, William. 1608.Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft.
same as the pro t e c t i ve measures adopted against other
Cambridge.
Tedeschi, John. 1990. “Inquisitorial Law and the Witch.” Pp. kinds of magical or demonic attacks: specific praye r s ,
83–118 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and spells, herbs and roots (these vary widely depending on
Peripheries. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. the region, but garlic is common), crosses, sign of the
Oxford: Clarendon. c ross, relics, amulets (a vast range, depending on the
Walz, Rainer. 1993. Hexenglaube und magische Kommunikation im region: blue beads, the “hand of Fatima,” cowry shells,
Dorf der Frühen Neuzeit.Paderborn: Schöningh. horseshoes, horns, red wool, salt, garlic, depictions of
an eye), spitting (usually three times—a pro c e d u re
Evil Eye known since classical antiquity), gestures such as the fig
The belief that harm, misfortune, or bad luck can be or horns, or employment of a witch or priest.
inflicted simply by looking at people or their property In its principal sense, the evil eye is closely associated
(especially if the look is envious), also known as “over- with the belief that misfortune will result from tempt-
looking,” has been found in many parts of the world. ing fate by expressing a hope or intention, or by injudi-
The belief spans from ancient Mediterranean and Near cious praise (Mc C a rtney 1943). The safeguards and
Eastern cultures onward, and particularly in Europe, remedies, such as spitting, crossing fingers, and touch-
the Middle East, North Africa, India, and parts of Latin ing wood, are almost the same as for the evil eye. The
America and Asia, where the belief is still common. It is evil eye may also be associated with beliefs about
well attested in Latin literature, both classical and early ill-omened meetings (e.g., with priests), for obv i o u s
Christian. In Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft reasons.
(1584, 37) the belief is imputed in particular to the The most exhaustive examination of evil eye beliefs was
Irish, Muscovites, and West Indians, but these may be made in several German studies (Seligmann 1910 and
simply the most barbarous people he knew. Some 1927). Some of the most important subsequent literature
scholars accept a diffusionist explanation for the simi- on the topic has been published in two collections of
larity of the belief in different cultures, with a possible essays, one by anthropologists (Maloney 1976) and the
source in ancient Mesopotamia. other with a folkloric orientation.
The belief takes ve ry many forms in different cul-
tures, including the personification of the evil eye as a WILL RYAN
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See also: COUNTERMAGIC;FOLKLORE;MALEFICIUM;SPELLS. Although witchcraft was often re g a rded as a c r i m e n
References and further reading: e xceptum (the excepted crime), it was not necessarily
Elworthy, Frederick T. 1895. The Evil Eye. An Account of This treated exceptionally. Harsher forms of torture could be
Ancient and Widespread Superstition.London: Murray.
used against witches, but this was not inevitable.
Maloney, Clarence, ed. 1976. The Evil Eye: Outgrowth of a
Oc c a s i o n a l l y, unusual forms of the death penalty like
Symposium on the Evil Eye Belief Held at the 1972 Meeting of the
impaling were employed. Most of those sentenced were
American Anthropological Association.NewYork: Columbia
not actually burned alive (as the Carolina—the 1532
University Press.
law code of the Holy Roman Em p i re—and other law
McCartney, Eugene S. 1943. “Praise and Dispraise in Folklore,”
Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Art, and Letters,28 codes demanded), but we re beheaded or strangled
(1943): 567–593 (reprinted in Dundes, Alan, ed. 1981. Pp. b e f o re their corpses we re burned. The execution of
9–38 in The Evil Eye. A Folklore Casebook.NewYork: Garland). witches can thus be considered one form of capital pun-
Seligmann, Siegfried. 1910. Der Böser Blick und Verwandtes. Ein ishment among others.
Beitrag zur Geschichte des Aberglaubens alter Zeiten und Völker.2 The professional situation of European executioners
vols. Berlin: Herman Bardsorf. d i f f e red greatly from one state and judicial system to
———. 1927. Die magischen Heil- und Schutzmittel aus der
a n o t h e r. So far, the problem has attracted little atten-
unbelebten Natur, mit besonderer Berüchsichtigung der Mittel
tion among modern historians. In England, late
gegen den Bösen Blick. Eine Geschichte des Amulettwesens.
m e d i e val tradition pre vailed, inasmuch as ord i n a ry
Stuttgart: Strecker and Schroeder.
hangmen belonged to the lower classes and chose their
p rofession rather than inheriting it. In contrast,
Executioners German and French executioners had established the
The executioners who we re employed in early modern h e redity of their profession by the middle of the six-
witchcraft trials we re usually local professionals, salaried teenth century. Most executioners succeeded their
public employees. T h roughout their careers, many of fathers or stepfathers, or married the widow or daugh-
them never encountered magic or superstition at all; only ter of the former exe c u t i o n e r. Their families formed
a few burned large numbers of witches. From the exe c u- geographically extensive marriage networks. Killing the
t i o n e r’s point of view, the method of capital punishment condemned on the public scaffold had become a highly
e m p l oyed in cases of witchcraft did not differ gre a t l y skilled profession. After serving a proper apprenticeship
f rom that used in punishing any other serious crime. under his father’s or a foreign master’s supervision, a
Execution of three witches in Germany, 1555. Convicted witches on the Continent were regularly burned, often after having been strangled.
(Fortean Picture Library)
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young executioner would perform his first beheading strong methods of torture, or if he could not determine
witnessed and judged by the local legal authorities. A that the accused was a witch. In the witchcraft proceed-
written confirmation of the so-called “masterpiece” tes- ings carried out by the masters from Biberach, seve r a l
tified that the candidate was qualified for the job. Apart female suspects died as a result of torture or committed
from his practical skills, the perfect executioner should suicide.
be loyal and discreet, leading an irreproachable life and The fact that the two often exerted decisive influence
behaving correctly toward everybody. He was expected on the investigations is highlighted by one detail that
to obey the authorities and function as a mere tool of o c c u r red in eve ry confession they enforced. Of those
justice, never acting according to his own estimation. convicted, all those who had been tortured by Volmar
An exe c u t i o n e r’s professional activities consisted said afterward that they had danced on the “Heuberg”
largely of piecew o rk. Eve ry job carried out was paid at the Sabbat, although the concept of a central dancing
separately according to a list of rates. Payments va r i e d place was not familiar to people in all their hometowns.
and we re not always sufficient to support the offic e - Worse, Volmar trained many other executioners and
holder and his family. For that reason, exe c u t i o n e r s their sons in how to carry out examinations for witch-
often supplemented regular fees with additional funds craft, among them the later Ba varian expert in witch-
from criminal investigations and the application of cor- craft, Johann Georg Abriel. The executioner fro m
poral punishment. Some imperial cities and other gov- Biberach pre p a red special drinks based on holy water
ernments paid a basic salary in addition to such benefits and herbs to test whether a suspect was a witch or not.
as a rent-free house, land for gardening, and firewood in Johann Volmar was also a recognized authority in find-
w i n t e r. Often executioners earned money from super- ing and examining the De v i l’s marks. In many cases,
vising local skinners, or employed their servants to col- Vo l m a r’s wife examined the women to respect their
lect and make use of dead animals or aged horses. sense of shame. This consideration is a remarkable con-
Until the mid-eighteenth century, when trast to the exaggerated brutality of the torture.
u n i ve r s i t y-educated physicians secured a superv i s o ry Re c o n s t ructing the psychological pro file of witch
function over all other groups of healers and gradually e xecutioners neve rtheless meets with some diffic u l t i e s .
drove them from the market, an executioner’s best and It is impossible to decide whether Vo l m a r, Hi e rt, and
most secure income resulted from combining a medical Abriel were fanatic believers in witchcraft, greedy pro-
practice with his regular duties. Medical skills we re so fessionals, or a dangerous mixture of both. The only
common among executioners that they became a pro- hypothesis that should probably be excluded is individ-
fessional requirement. Executioners usually looked after ual sadism and a complete lack of scruples. On the con-
those who had been tort u red, setting their dislocated trary, in some cases, Johann Volmar entertained doubts
joints and broken bones and bandaging their wounds; about what he was doing. In August 1596, it was
they also had to judge the physical condition of prison- re p o rted that he refused to tort u re Wa l b u r g a
ers to decide the degree of torture possible. Their exper- Hoppenhans in Esslingen, because “er hab ouch ein
tise made them detested competitors of other autho- seel, es sei nit kelblins sondern Christen bluott etc. er
r i zed medical practitioners. The medical skills of halt sie für khain ohnholden” (he, too, had a soul, it was
e xecutioners, who practiced publicly and tre a t e d not the blood of a calf but of a Christian, he could not
patients from various social classes, equaled those of consider her a witch) (Schmid 1994, 413).
barber-surgeons and bath-masters, who also tre a t e d Executioners had two main sources of pro fit fro m
external injuries. T h e re was nothing “s u p e r s t i t i o u s” witch hunts. The larger part came from what they
about their medical knowledge, which was passed on in claimed for their travel expenses, rather than from what
the family, rather than cert i fied through an offic i a l they received for torture or public executions. This gave
examination. an incentive to all executioners to work outside their
Only the witch hunts of the last twenty years of the home districts. In addition, legal authorities were gen-
sixteenth century produced real specialists who we re erous enough at the beginning of a witch hunt to pay
itinerants brought in to carry out investigations. Of for expensive accommodations; unsurprisingly, we
these, the executioner of Biberach became especially encounter whole parties of executioners in this context.
notorious for his widespread activities between 1586 O verall, howe ve r, there we re limits to an exe c u t i o n e r’s
and 1597. Se veral studies have provided evidence for income.
the trail of blood that Johann Volmar and his In the sixteenth century, executioners played a cert a i n
s o n - i n-law Christoph Hi e rt left throughout an are a role in popular magic culture, linked to their invo l ve-
extending over the small territories of the Ge r m a n ment in punishment. Executioners we re believed to be
s o u t h west and into parts of Ba varia. As experts in magic, e x p e rts in identifying thieves or re c overing lost and
they we re called in even when local executioners we re stolen goods; they could predict the identity of the cul-
a vailable. They we re usually called to the tort u re chamber prit after effecting a magic ritual like the so-called
if the employee responsible refused to apply sufficiently Si e b d re h e n[spinning of the sieve]. He re the exe c u t i o n e r
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i n s e rted a pair of scissors on the rim of a large sieve. He condemned witches were executed by burning or by
then drew a circle on the ground and placed pieces of hanging. Other capital punishments were also used
paper with the names of the suspects on the outer edge. occasionally. In Russia, convicted male witches might
The sieve was placed in the center of the circle; the exe- be beheaded and female witches buried alive. How a
cutioner and the victim of the crime then each gripped convicted witch was executed depended on the laws of
one handle of the scissors and set the sieve spinning. the territory in which she was arrested and the court by
W h i c h e ver piece of paper the weight of the scissors which she was tried. However a witch was executed,
finally pulled the sieve down on re vealed the name of the killing her might invo l ve considerable costs. In
guilty part y. Executioners also sold charms and re l i c s Mergentheim in the early seventeenth century, the
f rom poor sinners to individuals, although the authori- wood, chains, straw, and other costs incurred in the exe-
ties tried to stop such practices. An exe c u t i o n e r’s con- cutions of witches amounted to about 1,615 gulden or
tract of employment frequently specified that he would almost 17 percent of the total court costs for witchcraft
n e ver use spells or other magical or religious items. After cases (Midelfort 1972, 177).
the beginning of the seventeenth century, most exe c u-
tioners refrained from magical practices. Burning
The majority of witches executed on the Continent,
JUTTA NOWOSADTKO;
especially in Catholic territories, were burned at the
TRANSLATED BY BRIGITTE FLUG stake. They were punished primarily for their heresy,
and obdurate heretics were condemned to death by fire.
See also:EXECUTIONS;MEDICINEANDMEDICALTHEORY;TORTURE.
References and further reading: The purpose of burning was to eradicate any physical
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria. remnant of the heretic and to purify the community.
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Canon law permitted penitent heretics to be received
Modern Europe. Translated by J. C. Grayson and David back into the Catholic Church, and different interpre-
Lederer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. tations of how to deal with penitent witch-heretics led
Dülman, Richad van. 1990. Theatre of Horror: Crime and to different patterns of experience in northern and
Punishment in Early Modern Germany.Translated by Elisabeth
southern Europe.
Neu. Cambridge: Polity.
In northern Europe, where local courts tended to try
Kuisl, Fritz. 1988. Die Hexen von Werdenfels. Hexenwahn im
witch suspects, secular authorities followed the advice
Werdenfelser Land, rekonstruiert an Hand der Prozessunterlagen
in the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches,
von 1589–1596.Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Adam.
1486) that penitent witches we re still to be punished
Nowosadtko, Jutta. 1994. Scharfrichter und Abdecker. Der Alltag
zweier “unehrlicher Berufe” in der Frühen Neuzeit.Paderborn: for their temporal crimes against their neighbors. T h e
Ferdinand Schöningh. use of tort u re, leading questions, and unreliable testi-
———. 1998. “Berufsbild und Berufsauffassung der mony from witches and other accusers during the trials
Hexenscharfrichter.” Pp. 193–210 in Methoden und Konzepte meant that most convicted witches were forced to con-
der historischen Hexenforschung.Edited by Gunther Franz and fess to capital offenses, including murder, serious injury
Franz Irsigler.Trier: Spee. to people, and damage to property. In some territories,
Scheffknecht, Wolfgang. 1995. Scharfrichter. Eine Randgruppe im
such as Eichstätt, penitent witches we re beheaded
frühneuzeitlichen Vorarlberg. Constance: Universitätsverlag.
before they were burned.
Schmid, Martina. 1994. “Die Biberacher Scharfrichter.” Pp.
In southern Eu rope, where state inquisitions tried
411–415 in Hexen und Hexenverfolgung im deutschen Südwesten.
suspected witches, their alleged harmful magic was usu-
Eine Ausstellung des Badischen Landesmuseums Karlsruhe im
ally considered irrelevant or illusory.The lack of torture
Schloss, 16. September - 8. Dezember 1994, verlängert bis 8.
Januar 1995. Aufsatzband.Edited by Sönke Lorenz. Karlsruhe: during the trial and the limitations placed on witness
Landesmuseum. testimony meant that suspects rarely confessed to such
Übel, Rolf. 2001. “Wer war Niclas Pfraum?–Zum Leben des activities. The focus was firmly on trying to corre c t
Landauer ÑHexenscharfrichters.” Pfälzer Heimat52:90–92. wrong beliefs and suspects usually had to endure such
Wilbertz, Gisela. 1979. Scharfrichter und Abdecker im Hochstift lesser punishments as public penance, whippings, or
Osnabrück. Untersuchungen zur Sozialgeschichte zweier banishment, rather than execution.
Ñunehrlicher Berufe im nordwestdeutschen Raum vom 16. bis
zum 19. Jahrhundert.Osnabrück: Kommissionsverlag H. TH.
Hanging
Wenner.
In England, legal emphasis was far less on heresy than
———. 1999. “Scharfrichter, Medizin und Strafvollzug in der
on the felonies committed by the suspected witch.
Frühen Neuzeit.” Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 26:
Under the Witchcraft Act of 1563, a first-time offender
515–555.
could only be executed by hanging if she had committed
Executions m u rd e r. A suspect charged with injuring a person or
Only about half of those tried for witchcraft in early damaging pro p e rty a second time could be hanged.
modern Europe were sentenced to death. Most of these Unsuccessful witchcraft led to lesser punishments.
Executions 335 |
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Howe ve r, the Witchcraft Act of 1604 extended death in References and further reading:
the first instance to those who injured persons or dam- Dülmen, Richard van. 1990. Theatre of Horror: Crime and
aged crops by witchcraft and in the second instance to Punishment in Early Modern Germany.Translated by Elisabeth
Neu. Cambridge: Polity.
those who merely attempted to use witchcraft. Exc e p t
Gibson, Marion. 2000. Early ModernWitches: Witchcraft Cases in
during the witch hunt conducted by Ma t t h ew Ho p k i n s
ContemporaryWriting.London and NewYork: Routledge.
in the 1640s, the lack of tort u re meant that witch sus-
Kunze, Michael. 1987. Highroad to the Stake: A Tale of Witchcraft.
pects rarely confessed to felonies under inve s t i g a t i o n ;
Translated byWilliam E. Yuill. Chicago and London:
instead, as in Scandinavia, juries convicted them. A
University of Chicago Press.
witch suspect might come before the courts seve r a l Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch-Hunting in Southwestern
times before being executed: Elizabeth Francis, for Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
example, was tried in 1566, 1572, and 1573 before Stanford: Stanford University Press.
being hanged in 1579 for killing Alice Poole by witch- Peters, Edward. 1996. Torture.Philadelphia: University of
c r a f t . Pennsylvania Press.
Exeter Witches
The Process of Execution
In 1682, three women—two widows, Te m p e r a n c e
The process of execution varied from place to place.
Lloyd (sometimes Floyd) and Susanna Edwards, and
Most commonly, however, on the final day in court,
the unmarried Ma ry Trembles, all from Bi d e f o rd
after being tortured into confessing, the witch suspect,
(Devon)—were tried and executed at the Devonshire
like all other felons, was required to confirm it freely
assizes in Exeter. By that date, executions for witchcraft
without torture. Only through confession—the “queen
were rare in England, so the incident aroused consider-
of proofs”—could convictions be made. The convict
able interest, inspiring three pamphlets and a ballad.
was then legally sentenced to death.
Evidence about the alleged witchcraft demonstrated
T h roughout much of Eu rope, early modern law
the standard English pattern of accusations launched
codes like the Carolina of 1532 in the Holy Ro m a n
after supposed acts of m a l e fic i u m (harmful magic),
Em p i re prescribed three days between pronouncing a
while searching the witches re vealed witches’ marks in
death sentence and the actual execution. The purpose of
the form of teats in their “s e c ret parts.” All thre e
this interval was to allow the condemned person to
women confessed, and their confessions demonstrated
re flect on her sin and make a spiritual confession if she
how far diabolic elements had entered popular thinking
we re Catholic or, if Protestant, make her peace with
about witchcraft at this late time. Thus, Te m p e r a n c e
God. At the end of this period, the convict was bro u g h t
L l oyd confessed on Ma rch 14, 1682 to meeting the
b e f o re a judge who then formally handed down the
Devil in the shape of a black man, “about the length of
judgment. A public announcement of the judgment was
her arm: and that his eyes were very big” (A True and
also read to the spectators gathering to view the exe c u-
Impartial Relation, p. 5). On the first occasion she met
tion. The witch would then have a last meal, either with
him, he tempted her to harm a woman named Gr a c e
the judges or the exe c u t i o n e r. After the meal, she would
Thomas, and on the second occasion he sucked fro m
h a ve been taken to the place of execution in a public
her teats, causing her considerable pain. In a subse-
p rocession consisting of her judges, the executioner and
quent confession, taken before a clergyman named
his assistants, local dignitaries, and priests.
Michael Ogilvy in the following July, she told how the
At the place of execution, often outside the city
Devil had tempted her by promising that she would live
walls, the executioner tied the witch to the stake or gal-
well, how she could change herself into the shape of a
lows. In the case of witches condemned to death by fire,
cat, and how she sometimes performed witchcraft
the executioner and his assistants would set the fire. The
through damaging a model of a child.
witch was then killed. W h e re beheading had been
The case also showed a number of interesting feature s .
authorized, the executioner performed this before tying
Temperance Lloyd clearly had a long, we l l - e s t a b l i s h e d
the corpse to the stake. Finally the body or its remains
reputation as a witch. She had been tried and acquitted
had to be disposed of. Ashes were either scattered into a
for witchcraft in 1671, and had been interrogated for
river or buried at some appropriate site (under the gal-
another supposed act of witchcraft before the mayor of
lows or a crossroads). Hanged corpses could likewise be
Bi d e f o rd in 1679. But her trial also demonstrated that
buried or left to rot on the gallows for a period of time.
witchcraft had by this time become something of a
JONATHAN DURRANT political issue in England. The previous few years had
witnessed a sharpening political crisis between En g l a n d’s
See also: ACCUSATIONS;CAROLINACODE(CONSTITIOCRIMINALIS
nascent Whig and To ry factions, heightened by fears of a
CAROLINA); CONFESSIONS;CROSSROADS;EICHSTÄTT,
“popish plot” aimed at subve rting the English constitu-
PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;EXECUTIONERS;HOPKINS,MATTHEW;
INQUISITION,SPANISH;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); tion and the Church of England, and there we re fears
PAPPENHEIMERFAMILY;RUSSIA;TORTURE;TRIALS. that re n ewed civil warf a re might break out.
336 Exeter Witches |
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