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Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 874 | 46049 Golden Chap.N av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.837 Application File
These cases therefore might not be considered as ordi- p i c t u re of the various concepts of witchcraft. The accusa-
nary witchcraft trials, but they nevertheless are of great tion of diabolism(pacts with the Devil and part i c i p a t i o n
interest in completing our knowledge of the ways witch in the Sabbat) was invariably put forw a rd during the
beliefs we re dealt with by the parties invo l ved in i n t e r rogations by bailiffs and pastors urging the accused
Norwegian communities. to confess. Details in No rwegian confessions obtained
We know that approximately 310 persons suffere d t h rough the use of tort u re described meetings with the
the death penalty for witchcraft in Norway; almost 90 Devil and other witches on various widely scattere d
percent of these executions took place during the years mountains like Domen (in far northern Fi n n m a rk ) ,
1601–1670 (Næss 1990, 371). Allowing for lacunae in Dov re (in southern No rway), Lyderhorn (near Be r g e n ) ,
the documents, the total number was about 330. This and even Blåkulla in Sweden. Because witches flew to the
number can be assessed relatively precisely because pub- mountain closest to their own community, Blåkulla was
lic accounts providing detailed information about all mentioned solely in trials from southeastern parts of
expenses paid for imprisonment, and executions have No rway close to the Swedish bord e r.
been pre s e rved almost completely from most parts of T h e re we re a total of 789 specific accusations,
No rw a y. Many witches we re burned at the stake; but including 263 for white magic, 398 for maleficium,and
many others, having been “p a rd o n e d” by the re g i o n a l 128 for diabolism (Næss 1990, 373). The first gro u p
g overnor or the king from being burned alive, we re comprised various kinds of white magic and healing
simply beheaded by the exe c u t i o n e r’s axe or sword . practices involving formulas and rituals; the use of
Typically, the vast majority of people, both among the herbs and strange substances like teeth, toes, and ani-
accused and those suffering the death penalty, we re mal tails; and the use of “superstitious” prayers vaguely
women; only about one in five were men. re m e m b e red from Catholic times, naming Jesus and
Despite all the attention it has re c e i ved in re c e n t Ma ry or other holy persons and distorted elements
re s e a rch, witchcraft was far from the most common f rom biblical texts. The step from practicing white
kind of offense involving capital punishment in magic to suspicion of maleficiumwas often a short one.
p o s t-Reformation No rw a y. One consequence of the If the treatment of a patient by a wise woman brought
i n t roduction of Mosaic laws was that capital punish- about sickness or even death, she was quickly suspected
ment became customary after convictions for murd e r by the public to be a witch. Over half of these accusa-
or manslaughter, theft, adultery, incest, infanticide, tions found in the cases tried involved maleficium.The
b e s t i a l i t y, treason, or blasphemy. Minor sexual and evils allegedly done by the accused included the usual
moral offenses also re c e i ved seve re punishment. In charges: manslaughter, killing or injuring of people or
Rogaland County, where most seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry cattle, destruction of crops, impotency, and loss of we a l t h .
re c o rds have been pre s e rved, during the ye a r s Because fishing was an essential part of No rw a y’s
1610–1660 no fewer than 223 people we re sentenced e c o n o m y, its witches we re also accused of causing
to die. Most had been convicted of incest (59), theft storms and tidal waves that made ships sink and crews
(54), manslaughter or murder (51), and infanticide drown.
(12); only 14 (or less than 7 percent) had been charged
with witchcraft. However, 63 of them escaped, and 45 The Legal System
others we re pardoned, receiving milder forms of As elsewhere in Scandinavia, Norwegian criminal cases
punishment, often banishment from the county or the followed accusatorial procedures. The offended party
kingdom. Only 115 people we re effectively put to indicted the aggressor. In cases involving the public
death; but because witches we re never pardoned and, interest, such as witchcraft, the bailiff acted as prosecu-
being women, rarely escaped, 13 of them (over 11 per- tor. He could even begin a prosecution when only
cent) had been convicted of witchcraft. Be c a u s e rumors of witchcraft were at hand. A case was proved
Rogaland contained about 6 percent of Norway’s total when at least two independent witnesses had sworn on
population of about 440,000 inhabitants in the 1660s, the Bible that the accusation was true. Such testimony
it would seem that about 2,000 people we re publicly was often difficult to obtain in witchcraft trials, so the
e xecuted, 216 of them for witchcraft, in this small court, often after a request from the bailiff, accepted it
c o u n t ry on the outskirts of Eu rope in the seve n t e e n t h as sufficient proof if many people testified that they sus-
c e n t u ry (Næss 1990, 369–370, 377). And it is wort h pected the accused person of being a witch, even
remembering that the frequent use of capital punishment though they did not dare to swear to its truth. Accused
for many other crimes continued in eighteenth-century witches found it difficult to employ the traditional
Norway, when no more witches were executed. means of defense, the compurgation, or oath of denial,
by which a person in cases the court considered dubi-
The Typology of Witchcraft ous could be acquitted if a certain number of people
The stories told by the victims to No rw a y’s bailiffs, swore that they believed the accused to be innocent.
sheriffs, priests, and judges provide a fairly compre h e n s i ve Although the court gave several accused witches this
Norway 837 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 875 | 46049 Golden Chap.N av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.838 Application File
opportunity, they found it impossible to persuade witches were tried in these counties sooner than in the
enough neighbors to swear to their innocence because rest of Norway.
they feared becoming charged with witchcraft them- Finnmark, in the far north, had a very small popula-
selves if they did so. tion, no more than about 3,000 persons by 1600, both
A bailiff had an enormous influence on the way Norwegian and Sami. The latter ethnic group, however,
criminal cases we re handled. He acted as public pro s e- was barely visible in Fi n n m a rk’s witchcraft trials; its
cutor on behalf of the king and administered the total of approximately 138 convicted witches includes
c o u rt. The bailiff imprisoned accused persons; he was only 27 Sami men and women (Hagen 1999, 44).
responsible for their examination; and he often Fi n n m a rk’s contemporary authorities considere d
b rought in priests, or sometimes an exe c u t i o n e r, in No rwegian women much more likely than the
o rder to help secure a confession. The court justices l e s s-C h r i s t i a n i zed and nomadic Sami to practice m a l-
we re twe l ve local farmers, assisted by a secre t a ry eficium and enter into pacts with the Devil. The gover-
(s o re n s k r i ve r) who gradually during the 1600s ended nor, bailiffs, and pastors allowed frequent use of torture
up as the real judge. and the water ordeal in these cases. The consequences
we re horrifying: per thousand population, No rwe g i a n
Threats, Torture, and women in Fi n n m a rk ranked among Eu ro p e’s most
Confessions intensely persecuted groups. Chains of accusations
The large number of men and women being accused of caused most of these arrests.
m a l e fic i u m and pacts with the Devil can only be In No rw a y, no one willingly confessed to have
accounted for by taking the practices employed by the made a pact with the Devil to perform evil. Pe r s o n s
authorities into account. Facing harsh interro g a t i o n s , convicted we re strongly exhorted to denounce accom-
being threatened with going to hell by the pastors, being plices, who we re then promptly indicted. Many local
told what to confess under tort u re, many of the accused c o u rts accepted such denunciations as independent
told the stories they knew in advance that they we re accusations; two or more sufficed to pass a death
expected to tell. Even though it was illegal to re s o rt to sentence, even though this practice contradicted
t o rt u re before a sentence had been passed, courts neve r- s i x t e e n t h - c e n t u ry laws. One case led to new trials due
theless employed tort u re in several cases known to us so to denunciations from the first woman accused. T h e
as to extract confessions from accused witches. case against Gu n vor Omundsdatter in Va rdø in
In order to further strengthen the evidence, suspects Fi n n m a rk in 1651 lasted for two years before she was
we re submitted to the water ordeal. First documented burned at the stake, convicted of attending the Sa b b a t
in No rway in 1606, the water ordeal was re c o rd e d and causing storms that made ships and crews sink. A
about forty times, although it was probably used much total of 21 other women we re invo l ved in this case,
m o re fre q u e n t l y. Only a few instances are known in either because they denounced Gunhild or because
Norway in which courts searched for the Devil’s mark she denounced them. The great majority of the
on the accused’s body. Defendants knew what suffering a p p roximately 92 people (almost all women) who
they might expect. Ac c o rding to the minutes of the s u f f e red capital punishment in Fi n n m a rk we re the
judge, one imprisoned woman said to another: “Should victims of such chain processes (Hagen 1999, 44–45).
you choose not to confess at once, they will try you on In addition, three women died before sentencing, and
the water and next you will be put on the rack. After one sami man was killed (by another man) during the
having extended your limbs they will increase yo u r trial. In total, we know the names of 353 persons
pains by pinching you with red-hot iron tongs.” denounced by other No rwegian witches. A majority of
Another woman told the judge that she had willingly the death sentences in No rway resulted solely or part l y
confessed at first because she pre f e r red to shorten her f rom denunciations.
life quickly instead of being exposed to the gru e s o m e
torture that awaited her. The Social Context
Although high-ranking persons we re occasionally accused
Regional Differences: The Case and even convicted, as with Anna Pedersdotter at Be r g e n
of Finnmark and Chain Process in 1590, the great majority of people indicted for witch-
In most of Norway’s eighteen counties, one finds that craft in No rway we re old and on the same economic leve l
the number of persons burned or beheaded for witch- as others in the community. Most of the accused, men or
craft varied between six and fourteen. There were three women, seem to have been from forty to sixty years of
exceptions: Hordaland killed twenty-two witches and age, older than the average life span of people at that time.
Rogaland twe n t y - five; but Fi n n m a rk stands in a The typical process leading to accusations for witchcraft
category by itself, executing about ninety-two witches, included quarreling with neighbors for many years ove r
30 percent of Norway’s total. The relatively high figures matters relating to accidents and deaths. Ru m o r s o f
from Rogaland and Hordaland reflect the fact that witchcraft led to suspicion and to accusations.
838 Norway |
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The End of Norway’s and Forensic Evidence: The Potential of Judicial Sources for
Witchcraft Trials Historical Research in the Early Modern Period. Edited by Sølvi
The period of witch hunts in Norway largely coincided Sogner. Oslo: Historisk Institutt, Universitetet i Oslo.
———. 1998. Trolldomsprosessene på Østlandet: En kulturhistorisk
with Denmark’s seventeenth-century wars. After the
undersøkelse.Oslo: Tingbokprosjektet.
peace between Sweden and Denmark in 1660, relative-
———. 2003. “Norwegian Witchcraft Trials: A Reassessment.”
ly few persons were burned; Norway’s last execution
Continuity andChange18: 185–200.
took place in 1695. After absolutism was introduced in
Lilienskiold, Hans Hanssen, Rune Hagen, and Per Einar Sparboe.
Denmark in 1665, the largely Danish judges and other
1998. Trolldom og ugudelighet i 1600-tallets Finnmark.Vol. 18,
civil servants began to govern Norway by the 1670s, at Ravnetrykk.Tromsø: Universitetsbiblioteket i Tromsø.
both the central and local levels, in a far more modern Mitchell, Stephen A. 1997. “Nordic Witchcraft in Transition:
and professional way than they had in previous decades. Impotence, Heresy, and Diabolism in 14th-Century Bergen.”
New rules imposed on local bailiffs and judges includ- Scandia63: 17–33.
ed stricter demands for documentation at all levels ———. 1998. “Anaphrodisiac Charms in the Nordic Middle
about each kind of case handled by a civil servant. The Ages: Impotence, Infertility, and Magic.” Norveg41, no. 1:
18–42.
new generation of civil servants brought new and more
———. 2000. “Gender and Nordic Witchcraft in the Later
critical attitudes about proof and evidence in all public
Middle Ages.” Arv56: 7–24.
matters. This attitude soon spread among judges and
Næss, Hans Eyvind. 1982. Trolldomsprosessene i Norge på
governors.
1500–1600-tallet: En retts- og sosialhistorisk undersøkelse.Oslo:
Meanwhile, No rw a y’s old accusatorial legal system
Universitetsforlaget.
was replaced by an inquisitorial system, in which cases ———. 1984. Med bål og brann: Trolldomsprsoesser i Norge.
were decided by a judge’s personal assessment of all evi- Stavinger: Universitetsforlaget.
dence brought before him and after personal examina- ———. 1990. “Norway: The Criminological Context.” Pp.
tion of both the accused and the witnesses. When this 367–382 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and
way of handling court cases was introduced in Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen.
No rwegian witchcraft trials, it soon turned out that Oxford: Clarendon.
Willumsen, Liv Helene. 1997. “Witches of the High North: The
judges almost always found the evidence insufficient to
FinnmarkWitchcraft Trials in the Seventeenth Century.”
sustain the accusations and consequently acquitted the
Scandinavian Journal of History22, no. 3: 199–221.
persons accused. Although relatives of accused witches
http://www.hf.uio.no/hi/prosjekter/tingbok/Bibliografi.htm
had formerly hesitated to defend them in public, from
the 1660s onward several men appeared as defense
Number of Witches
council for the accused, further reducing the possibili-
ties for starting a successful witchcraft trial. So, in a very Wildly exaggerated figures are often cited for the
s h o rt period of time, the whole mental climate about number of witches executed in Eu rope, with a
witchcraft changed dramatically in Norway. preposterous total of 9 million women still enjoying
particular favor. This claim ultimately derives from an
HANS EYVIND NÆSS
absurd calculation by an eighteenth-century anticlerical
See also:ACCUSATORIALPROCEDURE;BLÅKULLA;DECLINEOFTHE lawyer, Gottfried Christian Voigt, who multiplied up a
WITCHHUNTS;DENMARK;EXECUTIONS;EXODUS22:18 (22:17); mere twenty trials in one German city on the assump-
LAPLAND;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); PEDERSDOT-
tion that persecution levels had been constant across
TER,ANNA;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;SWEDEN;SWIMMING
Europe for many centuries. It was given wider circula-
TEST;TORTURE;TRIALS;WEATHERMAGIC.
tion by Gustav Roskoff’s 1869 History of the Devil,
References and further reading:
much cited by Protestant and anti-Catholic writers, and
Alm, Ellen Janette. 2000. “Statens rolle i trolldomsprosessene i
was subsequently picked up by the German neopagan
Danmark og Norge på 1500- og 1600-tallet: En komparativ
undersøkelse.” Hovedoppgave: Universitetet i Tromsø. movement and by elements in the Nazi party.
Alver, Bente Gullveig. 1972. Heksetro og trolldom.Oslo: American feminists seem to have relied on its appear-
Universitetsforlaget. ance in a book by Matilda Joslyn Gage, Wo m a n ,
Botheim, Ragnhild. 1999. “Trolldomsprosessane i Bergenhus len Church, and State (1893), where she at least stated that
1566–1700.” Hovedoppgave: Universitetet i Bergen. only “the greater number” of this imaginary multitude
Gilje, Nils. 2001. “‘Djevelen står alltid bak’: Demonisering av we re women. A connection is also made between “t h e
folkelig magi på slutten av 1500-tallet.” Tradisjon31: 107–116.
burning times” and Margaret Murray’s thesis of witch-
Hagen, Rune. 1999. “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern
craft as an ancient pagan religion under sustained attack
Finnmark.” Acta Borealia1: 43–62.
from the western Christian Church, for which the idea
———. 2002. “Harmløs dissenter eller djevelsk trollmann?
of massive casualties over a long time span is a
Trolldomsprosessen mot samen Andres Poulson i 1692.”
p a rticularly convenient fiction. The myth of this early
Historisk Tidskrift81: 319–346.
Knutsen, Gunnar W. 1997. “A Central Periphery? Witchcraft holocaust is probably indestructible, but historians are
Trials in South-Eastern Norway.” Pp. 63–74 in Fact, Fiction, h a m p e red in their responses by their inability to give
Number of Witches 839 |
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any truly authoritative statistics based on the sourc e s . of numbers can be given: the victims, unlike later
Re c o rds of witchcraft trials across most of Eu rope are witches, would not have been accused of belonging to a
simply too patchy, so that reliable counting is only diabolical sect, although the local names for witches
possible in a few exceptional jurisdictions, not on a were already applied to some of them. Systematic perse-
national or Eu ropean scale. Many of the suspiciously cution began with small numbers of trials in Savoy and
round figures given in contemporary sources also turn the Dauphiné from around 1400, followed by bigger
out to be far too high or lack any basis in fact at all. Few waves in the 1420s and 1430s. At the least, these Alpine
historians now subscribe to the idea of a massive perse- regions must have seen several hundred trials in the
cution that traumatized either urban or rural society decade after 1428, with a high ratio of capital
a c ross the Continent, preferring instead to stress the sentences. These persecutions coincided with the emer-
localized, highly variable nature of the phenomenon. gence of the full-blown theory of a diabolical conspira-
The current estimates suggest a figure of, at the most, c y, apparently propagated by the Dominicans. T h e y
50,000 legal executions in Eu rope (including Ru s s i a ) were, however, followed by something of a lull over the
b e t ween approximately 1400 and 1780, with perhaps next fifty years, when most trials seem to have been
100,000 persons having been tried for witchcraft before scattered local affairs, with the odd case involving twen-
properly constituted courts. The great majority of trials ty or more, as at Metz in 1456–1457 and Arras in
occurred in a much shorter period, around 1570–1630; 1459–1460. A second wave of larger-scale persecutions
in most of western Europe between 75 percent and 90 began in the 1480s and 1490s, again primarily around
percent of trials took place over these years. In Poland the Alps, continuing until about 1520 in the valleys on
and Hungary, by contrast, the trials peaked in the first the Italian side. Although it is impossible to verify the
half of the eighteenth century. Eastern Europe presents figures from legal records, groups of trials involving up
special difficulties because record destruction (above all to sixty executions are said to have occurred in several
in Poland) has been so serious, but the high figures once places; the total cannot have been much short of 1,000
cited for Poland were generated by the same fallacious and could easily have reached 2,000. This second peak
method that Voigt used in eighteenth-century was again followed by a relative decline that lasted until
Ge r m a n y, that is, multiplying from a few local cases. the 1560s, despite scattered outbreaks like the one in
Although a margin of error must always remain, it is Denmark in the 1540s.
hard to see how the figures could be plausibly increased In the 1560s, persecution began to increase again
by more than 20–30 percent on the most genero u s and soon reached unprecedented levels as it spre a d
assumptions about missing evidence. away from its Alpine heartland to cover virtually the
Unauthorized lynchings and the use of forms of pop- whole of Eu rope. The vast majority of the trials in
ular justice such as the swimming test represent a sepa- western and central Eu rope occurred in the half-cen-
rate problem, one that defies any statistical appro a c h , t u ry from 1580 to 1630, with a total of aro u n d
despite the surv i val of occasional prosecutions of the 40,000 executions dwarfing anything seen before or
perpetrators. On current evidence, there must at least since. The next fifty years we re far milder, with most
h a ve been hundreds of killings and ve ry extensive of the trials occurring in a few spectacular outbre a k s
witch-finding activities; total figures for lynchings may (notably the Ma t t h ew Hopkins crusade in En g l a n d ,
well have been in the thousands, although they are the 1661–1662 hunt in Scotland, the Za u b e re r - Ja c k l
unlikely to have been so high as to alter the overall pic- [ So rc e re r - Jack] trials of Salzburg, the county of Va d u z
t u re radically. Some of the most striking outbreaks of b e t ween 1648 and 1680, and the Swedish hunt of
this kind we re in countries like France, Spain, and 1668–1676). Each of these episodes invo l ved hun-
England, which had low rates of legal executions, thus d reds of trials, but conviction rates we re usually lowe r,
making unofficial local action an attractive and effective so that the total of executions in these five instances
alternative. Rulers and governments always disapproved may have been around 1,000. El s ew h e re, grow i n g
of such irregular procedures, and over the course of the judicial caution resulted in a massive reduction in the
s e venteenth century they reacted with growing effec- numbers of individual and small-scale trials, so that
tiveness to punish those involved where they could be after 1630 the average rate of persecution probably fell
i d e n t i fied. Ne ve rtheless, a small number of physical to less than one-tenth of its peak levels in the
attacks and killings persisted in parts of rural Eu ro p e p receding period. After 1680, there was no more than
until the late twentieth century. a trickle of isolated cases apart from the belated
The apparent lack of witchcraft persecution before persecutions in eastern Eu ro p e .
1400 may be deceptive because there could easily have For the period from the 1560s to the 1630s it
been many trials in local courts and lynchings for which becomes possible to analyze the statistics in more
little evidence has survived. A scattering of references to complex ways, notably to establish comparative rates of
individuals punished for witchcraft may well imply that intensity across different regions. T h e re are major
such action was quite common. No reasonable estimate problems of definition here because so much of Europe,
840 Number of Witches |
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notably in the Holy Roman Em p i re, was divided into such as Bamberg (900) and W ü rzburg (1200), both
ve ry small political units unlike modern nation-states. with two surges within little more than a decade, one
The attribution of more than 20,000 executions to the must place the Scottish and Danish witch hunts, the
German lands conceals an exceptionally varied picture. panic around Bouchain in the Spanish Netherlands, the
In a region with hundreds of separate territories, about Hopkins campaign in England, the various post-1650
10,000 of these executions occurred in a dozen loca- cases mentioned above, and many others. Across much
tions, some of them quite small, whereas other ru l e r s of Eu rope a mixed pattern is evident, with a series of
displayed extreme caution or refused to convict witches isolated trials but also sudden bursts of more intense
at all. A simple comparative measure sets estimates of a c t i v i t y. In areas like the Franche-Comté or the
e xecutions against total population for the end of the Labourd, the victims were counted in scores rather than
sixteenth century. On this reckoning there are striking h u n d reds, but the dynamics we re those of true witch
d i f f e rences between larger regions: modern hunts. The great persecution was thus a composite
Luxembourg had about 5 executions per 1,000 people; affair, which combined endemic suspicions within local
followed by Switzerland, with 4 executions; the Spanish communities with terrifying bursts of witch hunting,
(southern) Netherlands, with 2; De n m a rk, 1.75; and the elites were heavily involved in the latter as both
Germany, 1.5; Scotland, 1.4; Hungary, 0.27; Italy, 0.2; instigators and victims.
and England and the northern Netherlands both about
0.13. France and Spain hardly register on the scale, at ROBIN BRIGGS
around 0.04 per 1,000 people. The differences become
See also:CHRONOLOGYOFWITCHCRAFTTRIALS;HISTORIOGRAPHY;
far greater when very small areas are included; modern
LYNCHING;MURRAY,MARGARETALICE.
Liechtenstein (the county of Vaduz) is way out in front, References and further reading:
although per capita totals in a few smaller autonomous Ankarloo, Bengt, and Gustav Henningsen. 1990. Early Modern
German territories were even higher, with the extraordi- European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Oxford:
n a ry fig u re of 100 per 1,000 inhabitants, 300 exe c u- Clarendon.
tions for a population of only 3,000. The electorate of Behringer,Wolfgang. 2004. Witches and Witch Hunts.Cambridge:
Cologne led the middle-sized category at 10 (2,000 per Polity Press.
Levack, Brian. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.2nd
200,000 people), with the duchies of Lorraine and
ed. London: Longman.
Lu xembourg both over 5 (each around 1,600 per
Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A
300,000 inhabitants), and the electorate of Mainz not
Regional and Comparative Study.London: Routledge and Kegan
far behind. Although all these fig u res rest on calcula-
Paul.
tions for both trials and total populations that are very
Monter,William. 2002. “Witch Trials in Continental Europe,
a p p roximate, the orders of magnitude seem fairly we l l 1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 and 122–146 in The Period of the Witch
established. Some of the lower figures, including those Trials. Vol. 4 of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in
for the large monarchies of France, Spain, and England, Europe.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London
a re rather deceptive, because these regions had abnor- and Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
mally low rates of convictions and capital sentences. If Soman, Alfred. 1992. Sorcellerie et Justice Criminelle: Le Parlement
the measure we re in terms of trials rather than exe c u- de Paris (16e–18e siècles).Basingstoke: Ashgate Publishing.
(Includes some articles in English.)
tions, their coefficient would move up quite sharply.
Less than 10 percent of some 1,300 witches whose cases
went to the Parlementof Paris (sovereign judicial court, Nuremberg, Imperial Free City
with jurisdiction over approximately one-half of Nuremberg, one of the more important imperial cities
France) on appeal we re executed, but hundreds we re of the Holy Roman Empire, unusual because of the
flogged or banished. In England the county of Essex skepticism of its leading citizens toward diabolical
was unusually active, with executions running at 0.82 witchcraft and for the city’s avoidance of witch hunts.
per 1,000 people; if trials are considered, however, the The inhabitants of Nu remberg (Nürnberg)
figure was 4. embraced Lutheranism early on, despite the city’s tem-
What the numbers also show are very different pat- porary role as the residence of the imperial government
terns. At one extreme we re regions like Lorraine, (Reichsregiment) in 1522–1524. By then, this rich town
Lu xembourg, and the pays de Vaud, where there we re of about 30,000 inhabitants had reached maximal
no large crises, and trials were spread fairly evenly across i m p o rtance. Its merchants controlled mining activities
s e veral decades and quite wide areas. At the other in surrounding areas, and its craftspeople prospered in
extreme, there were the series of intense short-term per- the metal industry and other handicrafts. Hu m a n i s t
secutions, such as at the imperial abbey of St. Maximin, Johannes Cochläus portrayed Nuremberg as the center
just outside Tr i e r, where at least 400 people (out of a of Europe, due to its geographic position as well as to
population of only 2,200) we re executed as witches the ingeniousness of its artisans: Er h a rd Etzlaub had
f rom 1586 to 1596. Alongside famous German cases recently invented maps indicating Eu ropean trave l
Nuremberg, Imperial Free City 841 |
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roads; Peter Hele had invented the portable clock, Pi rckheimer ridiculed recent ideas of witchcraft in his
useful for travelers and merchants; and there we re of s a t i re on Lu t h e r’s opponent, Johannes Eck, Ec k i u s
course Albrecht Dürer and his school, the most daring dedolatus ( Eck Cut Down). In 1536, the Nu re m b e r g
a rtists of their time, not to mention Hans Sachs, the council issued a decree against “So rc e ry, Witchcraft, and
shoemaker-poet, and the Meistersingers. Di v i n i n g” that explicitly designated these crimes as
Nuremberg was presumably founded around 1000 as frauds. In 1590, a man was executed who had pre v i o u s l y
a royal castle, but when a royal mint was intro d u c e d s e rved the executioner of Eichstätt and had tried to
soon afterw a rd, a suburb developed. By 1200 launch a witch hunt in Nu remberg. Nu re m b e r g’s
Nuremberg had its own law and soon after became one magistrates took this occasion to demonstrate the tow n’s
of the first German towns with a self-governing council. attitude tow a rd witchcraft.
It was already almost “f re e” when the council re c e i ve d Like other upper German imperial cities,
high jurisdiction in 1320. During the reign of Emperor Nu re m b e r g’s situation re versed after the T h i rty Ye a r s’
Charles IV of the Lu xembourg dynasty, the “Go l d e n War, when economic decline prevented any recovery of
Bull” of 1356 granted Nuremberg the right to host the its former importance. New anxieties entered cities w i t h
first imperial diet of each empero r. After 1424, populations that had shrunk to half their former size.
Nu re m b e r g’s prestige soared when emperor Si g m u n d In 1659, two women were executed for witchcraft, and
d e c reed that this city would harbor the imperial sym- a man was executed in 1660. But although it saw some
bols (Re i c h s i n s i g n i e n), which indeed remained the case serious cases until the end of the seventeenth century,
until 1796. As one of the few imperial cities, Nu remberg had no more executions. All in all, this
Nuremberg managed to get rid of all feudal remnants, imperial free city represents the case of an urban envi-
simply by buying the Ho h e n zollern castle, and con- ronment where the rule of law prevailed and a skeptical
s t ructed its own territory, like an Italian city-state. attitude tow a rd fantastical crimes was common.
Nuremberg’s governing families indeed acquired noble Nuremberg became a safe haven for refugees from the
status, and it was one of the few German towns where Franconian prince-bishoprics, and the town was suffi-
humanism was an urban phenomenon, with Willibald ciently rich and self-confident to withstand all attempts
Pi rckheimer as a fig u re of almost “n a t i o n a l” impor- by neighboring princes to force it into cooperation.
tance. Nuremberg even founded a university at Altdorf, Among urban elites, it was usually lawyers and art i s t s
within its territory. Howe ve r, the city suffered terribly rather than theologians who distanced themselves from
during the Thirty Years’ War and never again regained popular beliefs about witchcraft and who maintained
its former importance. Occupied by Ba varian and Nuremberg’s position as a beacon of independence and
Prussian troops in the 1790s, it was swallowed by the f reedom. And because Nu remberg dominated the
Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806. imperial cities of the Franconian circle, its influ e n c e
Nu re m b e r g’s attitude tow a rd witchcraft was explore d p re vented atrocities among them, either through legal
t h o roughly by Harmut Kunstmann in 1970. The re s u l t s opinions (as in the case of the small imperial city of
of this legal dissertation we re then surprising, because Weissenburg) or just by serving as an example generally.
c o n t r a ry to common expectations, Nu remberg experi-
enced no witch hunts. Nu re m b e r g’s legal sources are WOLFGANG BEHRINGER
exhaustingly rich, and it is unlikely that any trial escaped See also:DÜRER,ALBRECHT;GERMANY;GERMANY,SOUTHEASTERN;
Ku n s t m a n n’s attention. It held several doze n HEPSTEIN,JOHANN;HOLYROMANEMPIRE;IMPERIALFREECITIES;
s i x t e e n t h-c e n t u ry sorc e ry trials (the death penalty was SKEPTICISM.
imposed for poisoning and sorc e ry in 1520), and there References and further reading:
we re frequent allegations of witchcraft among the popu- Kunstmann, Hartmut Heinrich. 1970. Zauberwahn und
lace, but Nu re m b e r g’s spirit of humanism and capital- Hexenprozess in der Reichsstadt Nürnberg. Nuremberg:
Schriftenreihe des Stadtarchivs Nürnberg Bd. 1.
ism pre vented any witch hunts. Howe ve r, it had a few
s c a t t e red witchcraft trials in a narrow sense, in which the
city councilors proved to be extremely reluctant; one of Nuss, Balthasar (1545–1618)
them, Dr. Johann Hepstein, even ridiculed the existence Count and judge at witchcraft trials, born in Br ü c k e n a u ,
of witches. Their attitude was re flected in contemporary Nuss ranks among the most notorious German witch
a rt and literature: poet Hans Sachs also claimed that hunters. In Fulda, the largest prince-abbey in the Holy
witchcraft was nothing but a devilish illusion, and the Roman Empire, at least 203 people died during the
famous sketches of witches by Albrecht Dürer and his trials he led from 1603 to 1606. In contrast to most
school should be interpreted likewise. Dürer was a coun- witch hunters, Nuss was eventually imprisoned for his
cilor and part of Nu re m b e r g’s governing elite, in touch crimes and finally beheaded in Fulda after spending
with leading humanists and Venetian and Dutch art i s t s , twelve years in jail. In literature, he has commonly been
and it is extremely unlikely that he believed in witchcraft referred to as “Ross,” although court records invariably
in such an environment. Humanist Wi l l i b a l d called him “Nuss.”
842 Nuss, Balthasar |
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Nuss (who had murd e red a priest in his yo u t h ) sentenced Nuss to death. He was beheaded in Fulda at
owed much of his career to his mentor, Pr i n c e - Ab b o t the age of seventy-three.
Balthasar von Dernbach (1548–1606). When vo n Nuss was the second German witch hunter to be
Dernbach returned to Fulda after twenty-six years in e xecuted. Fi ve years earlier, Gottfried Sa t t l e r, a
exile, he appointed his old protégé, Nuss, to judge Ba varian witch judge in Wemding, had already been
cases involving witchcraft. Nuss immediately began e xecuted at Munich. A similar case also occurred later
conducting trials in 1603. W ü rz b u r g’s law faculty in Osnabrück. In 1650, Dr. Wilhelm Pe l t zer was
i n s t ructed the judge of the trial pro c e d u res to be jailed for his misconduct as that tow n’s chief witch
f o l l owed, but Nuss violated these persecution-friendly h u n t e r. As with Nuss, the imperial chamber court
rules. Especially spectacular was the trial of Ma r g a became invo l ved, but again without resolving the
Bien, whose husband complained about Nuss to the case; Pe l t zer died in prison, insane. Beheading a
Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t(imperial chamber court) but was witch-hunting judge also proved to people that some
ultimately unable to pre vent her from being burned at witchcraft trials had been illegitimate and suggested
the stake. that the traditional argument that God would not
Nuss did make one grave mistake. In Ma rch 1604, a l l ow innocent people to be executed was appare n t l y
he summoned six women belonging to Fu l d a’s upper w rong. To Adam Ta n n e r, the first major Jesuit oppo-
class, who had already fled with their families. T h e i r nent of witch hunting, Nu s s’s execution demonstrat-
summons was publicized in the particularly embarrass- ed the danger posed to innocent people by unjust
ing form of an edict. However, none of them returned judges. Friedrich Spee was also familiar with Nu s s’s
to Fulda, and several of their re l a t i ves filed suit for case, citing In g o l s t a d t’s death sentence (copied fro m
unlawful trial conduct against Nuss and von Dernbach Tanner) in his Cautio Criminalis (A Warning on
in the Reichskammergericht. Before the court reached a Criminal Justice) of 1631. Spee could have learned
decision, the prince-abbot died in spring 1606. His suc- about Nu s s’s witchcraft trials as early as 1612, during
cessor, Friedrich von Schwalbach, ended the witchcraft his Jesuit novitiate in Fulda. During the nineteenth-
trials and fired Nuss. Three months later, after discover- c e n t u ry Ku l t u rkampf ( c u l t u re war), Catholic scholars
ing that Nuss had embezzled 2,358 guilders, almost of witchcraft used the example of Balthasar Nuss to
half the proceeds from the trial costs paid by the demonstrate that Catholic territories could end
v i c t i m s’ families, Schwalbach had him arrested. T h e unjust witchcraft trials on their own and even punish
families of the six upper-class women accused in 1604 those re s p o n s i b l e .
n ow returned to Fulda and filed suits against Nu s s .
PETER OESTMANN;
After one year of imprisonment, Nuss’s formal trial had
not yet begun; the former judge appealed to the Reich- TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY
s k a m m e r g e r i c h t , which denied his request for re l e a s e .
See also:FULDA,PRINCE-ABBEYOF;GERMANY,WESTANDNORTH-
After Nuss’s second appeal in 1609, the court in Speyer
WEST;OSNABRÜCK,BISHOPRICOF;REICHSKAMMERGERICHT;
reduced his sentence.
SATTLER,GOTTFRIED;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;TANNER,ADAM.
Prison conditions we re such that Nuss and his wife
References and further reading:
p roduced four of their seven children while he was in Behringer,Wolfgang. 2000. Hexen und Hexenprozesse in
jail. He suffered a series of strokes in jail and became Deutschland.4th ed. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch.
increasingly handicapped, to the point at which he was Jäger, Berthold. 1997. “Zur Geschichte der Hexenprozesse
eventually unable to walk and could barely speak. His im Stift Fulda.” Fuldaer Geschichtsblätter73: 7–64.
wife lobbied Fu l d a’s government on his behalf, but in Oestmann, Peter. 1997. Hexenprozesse am Reichskammergericht.
vain. Nuss also re c e i ved support from a nephew who Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau, pp. 438–446.
Schormann, Gerhard. 1991. Der Krieg gegen die Hexen.
was a lawyer in Frankfurt. In 1615, Würzburg’s law fac-
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, pp. 115–120.
ulty sentenced Nuss to indefinite state custody and
———. 1994. “Die Fuldaer Hexenprozesse und die
o rd e red him to repay the money he had embez z l e d .
Würzburger Juristenfakultät.” Pp. 311–323 in
This decision was not seve re enough for the court in
Hexenverfolgung und Regionalgeschichte.Edited by
Fulda: instead, his files were sent to Ingolstadt as part of
Gisela Wilbertz et al. Bielefeld: Verlag für
a second file sharing. In November 1618, In g o l s t a d t Regionalgeschichte.
Nuss, Balthasar 843 |
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O
Obry, Nicole (ca. 1550–?) consecrated Hosts to dogs; at the same time, supersti-
Nicole Obry (Aubry/Aubray) was the main actor in an tious (but Catholic) shepherds in northern France re a l l y
extraordinary drama of demonic possession and exor- did sometimes feed consecrated Hosts to animals
cism in 1566. She was then fifteen or sixteen years old, p recisely because of their supposed miraculous pro p e rt i e s .
the daughter of a baker in Vervins, a small town in On February 8, 1566, Beelzebuth and the rest of the
northeastern France. In the fall of 1565, after seeing the demons dramatically left Ni c o l e’s body in front of
ghost of her grandfather, she began to show symptoms thousands of observers. A plume of smoke was observed
that were diagnosed as demonic possession. She was rising from her body.This sensational spectacle was one
exorcised in Vervins, but because all her thirty demons of the most widely publicized acts of the early stages of
could not be made to leave her, she was brought to the the religious wars. It was re g a rded as a great Catholic
diocesan capital at Laon in January 1566. Laon was a victory, known across France as the “Miracle of Laon.”
religiously mixed city, with an active Protestant minor- Catholicism’s ability to exorcise demons proved that the
ity. This was a very tense point in the religious wars. Catholic Church was the only true Christian churc h .
After the temporary end of organized religious warfare Catholic polemicists seized on this incident because the
in 1563, propaganda and random violence continued. supernatural power of the Host confirmed the correct-
Organized warfare resumed in 1567, not long after this ness of the Catholic view of the sacraments. Pamphlets
case was concluded. and books by Guillaume Postel, Jean Boulaese, Charles
In Laon, Nicole was exorcised in public (unlike any Blendec, and Florimond de Raemond described this
previous case of this sort in France), on a specially built miracle in order to attack Protestantism and defend the
scaffold in front of the cathedral. She was brought to Catholic Church. Raemond, who had fli rted with
the ceremonies in great processions, carried by eight or Protestantism, conve rted back to Catholicism as the
ten men who struggled to control her convulsions and result of witnessing the exo rcism. For Postel, this
deathlike trances. The exo rcisms drew huge crowd s . miracle confirmed the role of consecrated priests and
Her main demon was forced to identify himself as the traditional Catholic hierarchy.
Be e l zebuth, one of Sa t a n’s chief lieutenants. Sp e a k i n g This colorful event introduced the Devil as a key playe r
t h rough Nicole, Be e l zebuth also re vealed that he was in Catholic propaganda. For the next two generations,
the prince of the Protestant heretics, referring to them demonology in France was highly political, tied to
as “my Huguenots” and delivering sermons against the Catholic attempts to demonize their adversaries. In 1599,
h e retics. The intimate connection between Pro t e s t a n t s s u p p o rters of the Catholic cause attempted to block the
and the Devil became a re c u r rent theme in Fre n c h Edict of Nantes, the religious compromise that was to end
Catholic polemic throughout and even beyond the age violence, by re c reating the “Miracle of Laon” in Pa r i s .
of the religious wars. This attempt, howe ve r, proved a fia s c o. Although Ma rt h e
L a o n’s Protestants we re skeptical from the outset. T h e Brossier was re g a rded as a fraud, people still continued to
prince of Condé, their military commander in the b e l i e ve in demonic possession, and such spectacular
recent war and the most prominent Protestant noble- public exo rcisms as the Loudun nuns endured as popular
man in France, attempted to halt the exo rcisms; he eve n theater in France far into the seventeenth century. Ni c o l e
tried to conve rt Nicole, but the king ord e red her Ob ry’s miracle was quoted, if not re p e a t e d .
released. The exo rcisms, now conducted personally by
the bishop, continued. In t e restingly enough, unlike JONATHAN L. PEARL
many later French cases, no witch was accused of send-
See also:BROSSIER,MARTHE;DEMONOLOGY;DEMONS;EXORCISM;
ing the demons into the possessed. The stro n g e s t
FRANCE;GHOSTS;LOUDUNNUNS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;WARS
weapon in the bishop’s armory was the communion
OFRELIGION(FRANCE).
w a f e r, the Host. It is almost impossible to ove re m p h a s i ze
References and further reading:
the role of transubstantiation in France at this time. T h e Ferber, Sarah. 2004. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early
ultimate charge against Protestants was that they fed Modern France.London and NewYork: Routledge.
Obry, Nicole 845 |
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Postel, Guillaume. 1995. Summopere.Edited by Irena Backus. Modern occultists tend to be associated with Satanism
Geneva: Droz. or with pseudoscience, although the nineteenth-
Sluhovsky, Moshe. 1996. “A Divine Apparition or Demonic century followers of the Order of the Golden Dawn
Possession? Female Agency and Church Authority in Demonic
were drawn to its mystical religiosity.
Possession in Sixteenth-Century France.” Sixteenth Century
It is also important to note the relationship between
Journal17, no. 4: 1039–1055.
the occult and science, for the two categories often
Walker, D. P. 1981. Unclean Spirits:Possession and Exorcism in
seem historically indistinguishable. For example, math-
France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth
ematical knowledge was the basis for some medieva l
Centuries. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
technology that appeared to imitate and master nature
and shaded imperceptibly into natural magic. Sir Isaac
Occult
New t o n’s (1642–1727) alchemical investigations com-
The term occult covers the qualities in nature hidden
plemented his search for the hidden quality that came
from ordinary human observation and understanding
to be known as gravity.The difference between the two
and the forbidden practices or rituals used to discover
is that all natural phenomena can be studied and under-
and manipulate these qualities. Occult practices include
stood, whereas the occult can never be fully understood
astrology (understanding the influence of the stars and
or systematically investigated because the full source of
planets on human lives), magic (the use of intrinsic and
its power is by definition hidden from the human
extrinsic, natural or supernatural powers to produce
mind. Moreover, occultists have usually formed private
effects), alchemy (the study of the means to transform
and closed social networks, and they sometimes with-
baser metals into gold), and divination (the means for
hold their arcane knowledge from the world.
understanding or divining a foreordained destiny).
Until secular authorities sanctioned them in the
Typically, practitioners of the occult are in awe of the
modern era (that is, since ca. 1750), occult texts circu-
power of nature and are fascinated with the possibility
lated secretly, and many occult practitioners, including
of mastering it—usually for their personal gain. The
witches, were persecuted in the belief that all magic and
occultist may also feel some sense of psychological,
most astrology we re demonically inspired. Howe ve r,
intellectual, or social superiority over others, or he or
t h e re is a correlation between social status and the
she may gain greater acceptance in societies that value
degree of tolerance of occultists. From the Middle Ages
occult knowledge (especially with regard to healing and
o n w a rd, magicians and astrologers could hold privi-
protection against disease).
leged positions at court. Indulgent princes and popes
permitted learned men (as opposed to ignorant
The Occult, Religion, and Science women) such as Michael Scot (ca. 1175–ca. 1235) and
Some historians have argued that magic, which involves Michel de No s t redame (known as No s t r a d a m u s )
the coercion of God, should be contrasted with reli- (1503–1566) to practice their craft in relative freedom.
gion, which involves the supplication of God by prayer. For most people in the modern secular era, the occult
In practice, it is not always possible to distinguish the has lost its potency and has become a matter of personal
occult from religion. Both phenomena are based on a curiosity or an object of antiquarian or historical
belief in the unity of nature, which includes God and interest.
the angels at one extreme and human beings and the
terrestrial world at the other. In this sense, human The Ancient World
beings are a special link in the great chain of being, and The Greek philosopher Plato made a distinction
they can participate in some of the divine mysteries. between what was apparent and what was real in the
Therefore, partial revelation of the occult was a key ele- universe, and he suggested how essential parts of nature
ment in the Hellenistic cults of the ancient world. In were transmitted from the higher being by celestial
contrast, Christians, who emphasized the fallen state of intelligences known as daemones.In the Timaeushe dis-
humanity and its tendency to sin, tended to regard the cussed some of the numerological codes that formed
followers of these pagan religions as heretics and devil the basis for an understanding of the world. His pupil
worshippers, and they attacked all attempts to delve Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.), whose works heavily influ-
into what they regarded as divine mysteries, such as the enced the Western scientific and philosophical tradition
miracles of nature. As a result, the limits of natural up until the seventeenth century, thought that the
knowledge were circumscribed and policed, and many natural world was ordered in a unified and fairly regular
occult practitioners were forced into silence or outward way.Therefore, nature’s secrets were open to investiga-
conformity. However, Christian occultists have claimed tion and reasonable enquiry by humans in terms of the
that they are serving God or that they derive their four essences (earth, air, fire, and water). However, both
power from the divine. In many cases, the “spells” and men provided occultists with some justification for
symbols they employ in their rituals, as well as their secret or mystical forms of enquiry. For example,
aims, are similar to religious imagery and ritual. Aristotle allowed for the existence of a fifth essence
846 Occult |
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inherent in the stars and planets that influenced earth- angels who had turned against God. Augustine discour-
ly matters and provided the basis for astrology. Plato aged speculation about the deeper mysteries of nature ,
half-seriously suggested that initiation into pure philo- such as monstrous births and other such omens, por-
sophical truth could be compared with initiation into a tents, and prodigies, and he deplored the way in which
mystery religion. Neoplatonists took up this suggestion the practice of magic led people to ally themselves with
more seriously and blended it with the religion of the Satan. As well as the often-quoted scriptural text of
first Iranian (Persian) empire, named after the prophet Exodus 22:18 (22:17; “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to
Zarathustra (better known by the Greek form of his l i ve”), a locus classicus of such medieval hostility tow a rd
name, Zoroaster), who saw all existence as the gradual magicians was the story of Simon Magus of Sa m a r i a
realization of a divine plan. The Zoroastrian magi ( Acts 8:9–24), whose iniquity stemmed from his
(priests) were adept in astrology and the arts of divina- attempts to rival the power of God in his miracle mak-
tion, and one branch of the occult was named after ing. Subsequent Christian polemicists, follow i n g
them: magic. Neoplatonists such as Plotinus (ca. Au g u s t i n e’s views, fostered a distrust of intellectual
205–270), Porphyry (ca. 232–303), and Iamblichus c u r i o s i t y, which was viewed as a dangerous and vain pur-
(ca. 250–ca. 330) and the members of Hellenistic cults suit, leading as it did to pride, sin, and, ultimately, here s y
cultivated a form of gnosis (the special knowledge of (indeed, the occult was often associated with Ju d a i s m ,
spiritual mysteries). They read the revelations attrib- and nocturnal assemblies of witches in the presence of
uted to the Egyptian god Thoth, called He r m e s the Devil we re called “s y n a g o g u e s” for part of this
Trismegistus (Thrice-Great Hermes), that concerned period). Many members of the Latin Church, especially
philosophy and the understanding or manipulation of the scholars of the new universities known as the
a s t ro l o g y, alchemy, natural history, medicine, and Scholastics, there f o re attempted to set a limit on human
magic. In this way, they argued that only a pious and k n owledge. They left many of the deeper mysteries of the
s e q u e s t e red magus assisted by the daemones c o u l d u n i verse to Go d’s will and understanding, and they con-
unlock natural and supernatural mysteries. Curses, demned occult dabbling as a form of “s u p e r s t i t i o n” — i n
spells, and enchantments that incorporate divine the original sense provided by Saint Thomas Aquinas: a
figures such as Isis have been discovered on stones, p e rversion of correct religious devo t i o n .
amulets, and scrolls from ancient Egypt and Greece also Howe ve r, stories of Je s u s’s miracles on earth, the
indicate the way in which occult power was associated wonder-working capabilities of prayer and adjurations,
with the divine will. and the intensification of eucharistic devotion from the
The Romans were heavily influenced by Greek writ- t h i rteenth century muddied the boundaries betwe e n
ings on the occult, and they were no less fascinated by m i ra (wonders) and m i ra c u l a (miracles) and appeare d
magic, astro l o g y, and divination as transmitted by the to sanction some occult techniques based on mechani-
books attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (known as the cal and scientific knowledge and directed toward “holy”
Corpus He rm e t i c u m) or Pythagoras—a mathematician ends. This relationship was exacerbated from the
who was also considered to be the first practitioner of t welfth century onward by the Eu rope-wide diffusion
learned magic. Au g u ry (divination) was widely used of Latin and vernacular translations of Arabic texts on
and was based on natural occurrences such as thunder the occult and science such as the Pi c a t r i x (the Latin
and lightning, the flight of birds, and the movement of translation of “The Aim of the Sage”). These collections
the planets. However, Pliny the Elder (ca. 23–79), like of “secrets,” which were supposedly imparted by a sage
C i c e ro (106–43 B.C.E.), Seneca (ca. 4 B.C.E.–C.E. and often written in code or obscure language, may
65) and Galen (ca. 130–200), was skeptical about just h a ve encouraged readers to distinguish more sharply
h ow many marvelous things in nature, which seemed b e t ween natural magic and demonic magic and to
out of the ord i n a ry course of nature described by increase interest in the former. However, such texts also
Aristotle, could be ascribed to magic and other occult opened the way for the study of necromancy (the con-
phenomena. Nevertheless, he recorded many examples juring of spirits), which was an explicitly demonic
of what would be called “natural magic” in his Natural technique for controlling nature through Latinate
History, thereby confirming a trend toward cataloguing incantations and quasireligious ritual, usually undert a k e n
the bizarre in nature and providing a basis for later by educated clerics.
occult investigations. During the Middle Ages, horoscopes, medical self-
help manuals, books of charms, manuals for divina-
The Middle Ages tion, and alchemical manuscripts we re read with
Early Christian writers such as St. Augustine of Hi p p o i n c reasing frequency by laypeople as well as clerics.
re g a rded Hellenistic cults as little more than centers of These works comprised discussions of the influence of
demonic magic. In Judeo-Christian thought, the benign planets and stars on terrestrial affairs; recipes for
Neoplatonic d a e m o n e s who we re neutral spirits interme- p rocuring a lover; lists of enchantments for causing
diate between gods and human beings we re recast as harm or ensuring personal protection; lists of
Occult 847 |
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p ro t e c t i ve amulets and gemstones; necromantic for-
mulas and rituals; and instructions for the practice of
oneirancy (the interpretation of dreams), chiro m a n c y
(the reading of palms), and onomancy (calculation
t h rough names). The effectiveness of such phenomena
relied upon a variety of assumptions and claims. Fo r
instance, occult techniques and recipes we re attrib-
uted to a classical authority or venerated fig u re such as
Hermes Trismegistus, Virgil, or Albertus Ma g n u s
( A l b e rt the Great, ca. 1200–1280), or to demons, as
in the case of necro m a n c y. It was often claimed that
such spells had been employed successfully on many
p revious occasions, and there was an assumption that
t h e re was clearly some “o c c u l t” or hidden quality in
the form of words, markings, or material used. In
s h o rt, many people attributed a large number of
occult phenomena to natural but obscure causes, prac-
ticed their art in secret or under royal protection at
c o u rt, and ran an intermittent risk of secular or eccle-
siastical prosecution, particularly if such arts caused
harm to others.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, De Occulta Philosophie
(On Occult Philosophy),1531—delineation of a horoscope chart
The Occult Renaissance
founded on bodily characteristics. Divination was an important occult
From the beginning of the fifteenth century there was practice. (Bettmann/Corbis)
an increase in the production of these occult manu-
scripts. Mo re ove r, after the establishment of printing
p resses in the cities and monastic or university centers d e s i re for greater understanding of the Wo rd of Go d .
of Eu rope, books of marvels and “s e c re t s” as well as They also provided a basis for re n ewed interest in the
learned treatises on natural magic ranked among the Kabbalah (Hebrew mysticism), the Corpus Hermeticum,
most popular texts of the literate or listening public. Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, or the science of the
Magic, astro l o g y, and alchemy we re openly studied ancients. A typical Renaissance magus such as the
and practiced at many late medieval and Re n a i s s a n c e Fl o rentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499)
c o u rts, such as those of the emperors Frederick III used his knowledge of Greek to translate work s
( ruled 1440–1493) and Rudolf II (ru l e d ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus. On the basis of this
1576–1612); Pope Urban VIII (ruled 1623–1644); w o rk and his Platonic studies, he outlined a form of
Cosimo de’ Medici in Fl o rence (1389–1464); and astral magic that channeled the power of the stars and
Elizabeth I of England (ruled 1558–1603). It has planets imprinted on the earth by celestial spirits. T h e
been argued that the occult sciences found favor in German humanist and occult philosopher He i n r i c h
c o u rt because they provided a useful weapon in the Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim explored many of
a r m o ry of courtiers who sought to eliminate enemies the texts and traditions employed by Fi c i n o. In his De
and gain the ear of a ru l e r. Howe ve r, astrologers such occulta philosophia ( On Occult Philosophy; first com-
as William Lilly in seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry London cast plete edition, 1533), he defended the invocation of
h o roscopes for maidservants as well as the nobility, demons so long as they we re good and the agents of
and the vast literature about wonders and witches in divine miracles. The Neapolitan philosopher
n o rthern Eu rope also suggests that there was a popu- Giambattista Della Po rta made a distinction betwe e n
lar interest in the occult. natural and demonic magic, and he aimed to uncove r
In contrast to the Middle Ages, this was an “age of the natural pro p e rties in supposedly demonic magic.
w o n d e r s” when learned men and women sought to He explained that his popular Magia natura l i s ( On
u n c over the hidden powers of the universe by turning Natural Magic, 1558 and 1589; translated into
sharper eyes on nature (the macrocosm) and human English as Na t u ral Ma g i c k in 1658) was intended to
experience (the microcosm). It is clear that this change be a “s u rvey of the whole course of nature” (De b u s
was partly due to the re v i val of classical learning that 1978, 13).
lay at the heart of the Renaissance and was also a func- Renaissance occultists sought to understand the har-
tion of the longing for a more primitive, purified, and mony in the universe and to use its powers to bring
intensely mystical Christianity. The philological or c o n c o rd and unity to the political and re l i g i o u s
historical investigations of this period we re fueled by a divisions of Eu rope. Such philosophical and political
848 Occult |
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arcana, although clearly attractive to rulers such as the benefit of the growing nation-state. Scientific pioneers
Holy Roman Em p e ror Rudolf II, whose territories were far from uniformly antioccultist; Galileo cast
teemed with religious sects and whose court was filled h o roscopes for rich German students, and Is a a c
with magi, were often condemned by the Church, and Newton expended enormous effort on alchemical
many magi were keen to distance themselves from accu- experiments. One of Galileo’s late-seventeenth-century
sations of sorc e ry. T h e re f o re, Agrippa published a successors as mathematician at the University of Padua
retraction of his ideas beforehe published the De occul- continued to practice magic while maintaining an out-
t a , and the Englishman Dr. John Dee, who practiced ward appearance of scientific “respectability.” Other
necromancy and studied mathematical or natural mag- occultists contributed to modern technological devel-
ic, defended himself against accusations that he was a opments. For instance, a mathematician and alchemist
“conjurer” by protesting that all of his studies had been at the ducal court in Dresden made the discovery of
directed toward God and emphasizing that many won- porcelain manufacture in 1707.
d rous feats we re naturally, mathematically, and The notion of occult powers continues to hold an
mechanically contrived. attraction for many people. No doubt, there are some
Howe ve r, in seeking to reduce the scope of demonic who still seek to understand and control the hidden forc e s
magic and to lend authority to their own natural magic, in nature, and if the contents of the Internet and the lists
the occultists undermined some of the theological bases of published books are reliable guides, there are pro b a b l y
for demonic magic and there f o re the keystone in the many more who seek some form of occult “re e n c h a n t-
Catholic and Protestant churc h e s’ campaigns against m e n t” in a predominantly secular Western world.
witchcraft. For example, Giambattista Della Po rta sup-
plied a naturalistic explanation for the demonic “w i t c h- STEPHEN BOWD
e s’ salve” (which was supposed to allow its users to fly to See also:AGRIPPAVONNETTESHEIM,HEINRICHCORNELIUS;ALCHE-
Sabbats or meetings). Consequently, he was inve s t i g a t e d MY;AMULETANDTALISMAN;ASTROLOGY;AUGUSTINE,ST.;
by the Inquisition and attacked by Jean Bodin in his BODIN,JEAN;DEE,JOHN;DELLAPORTA,GIAMBATTISTA;DEVIL;
book De la Démonomanie des sorciers ( On the De m o n - DIVINATION;HERMETICISM;KABBALAH;MAGIC,LEARNED;
mania of witches, 1580). These attempts to reduce the MAGIC,NATURAL;MIRACLES;NECROMANCY;SCIENCEAND
scope of the De v i l’s actions in the world we re helpful to MAGIC;SCOT,REGINALD;SIMONMAGUS;SPELLS;SUPERSTITION;
such early skeptics of witchcraft as Reginald Scot and
WEYER,JOHANN.
References and further reading:
Johann We yer—a former student of Agrippa. Howe ve r,
Copenhaver, Brian P. 1988. “Astrology and Magic.” Chapter 10 in
the skeptics and occult connoisseurs had an unshakeable
The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy.General editor,
faith in Scripture and the learned texts of the occult her-
Charles B. Scmitt, editors Quentin Skinner and Eckhard
itage, and they betrayed an enormous condescension
Kessler, associate editor Jill Kraye. Cambridge: Cambridge
t ow a rd illiterate men and women whose healing tech- University Press.
niques and claims to supernatural power they character- Daston, Lorraine, and Katharine Park. 1998. Wonders and the
i zed as mere “superstition.” Thus, their highly selective Order of Nature, 1150–1750.NewYork: Zone Books.
attacks on peasant beliefs strengthened the Churc h’s Debus, Allen G. 1978. Man and Nature in the Renaissance.
authority to pursue witches and may have stre n g t h e n e d Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
the social position and professional exclusivity of learned Eamon, William. 1994. Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of
Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture.Princeton, NJ:
magicians, alchemists, and court astro l o g e r s .
Princeton University Press.
Evans, R. J. W. 1973. Rudolf II and His World: A Study in
The Modern Secular Era
Intellectual History, 1576–1612.Oxford: Oxford University
Technological and scientific discoveries in the sixteenth
Press.
and seventeenth centuries, as well as the development
Flint, Valerie. 1991. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe.
of competing models of the cosmos, gradually under- Oxford: Clarendon.
mined traditional beliefs about the world and discredit- Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge:
ed the authenticity of some of the ancient texts that Cambridge University Press.
formed the basis for occult activity. The growth of Maxwell-Stuart, P. G., ed. and trans. 1999. The Occult in Early
scientific academies in the seventeenth century further Modern Europe: A Documentary History.Basingstoke:
widened the scope for natural philosophical investiga- Macmillan.
Ogden, Daniel. 2001. Greek and Roman Necromancy.Princeton,
tion, gradually stripping natural magic, astrology, and
NJ: Princeton University Press.
alchemy of their scientific credibility. The English
Shumaker,Wayne. 1972. The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance: A
politician and philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
Study in Intellectual Patterns.Los Angeles and Berkeley:
discussed occult qualities in nature, but he argued that
University of California Press.
true science should take the “mystery” out of things,
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in
and he thought it possible to reveal the causes of occult Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England.
phenomena and to harness this knowledge for the London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Occult 849 |
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Thorndike, Lynn. 1923–1958. A History of Magic and and unbearable prison conditions. In fact, more witch-
Experimental Science.8 vols. NewYork: Columbia University craft trials reached the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t f ro m
Press. Offenburg than from any other imperial free city. After
Walker, D. P. 1958. Spiritual and Demonic Magic, from Ficino to
the court again intervened on behalf of the accused, the
Campanella.London: Warburg Institute.
council terminated its trials at the end of 1608.
Yates, Frances A. 1964. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic
However, Offenburg did not complain to the imperial
Tradition.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
aulic court about “o b s t ru c t i o n” from the chamber court .
Almost twenty years later, Offenburg’s witchcraft tri-
Offenburg, Imperial Free City als resumed in November 1627. Some women arrested
Eighty-nine accused witches lost their lives in this in Ortenau denounced women in Offenburg for
Catholic imperial free city in southwestern Germany, allegedly participating in the witches’ Sabbat. Many of
which belonged to the Circle of Swabia and shared a the accused were daughters of women burned as witch-
curial vote with the cities of Gegenbach and Zell am es in 1608. Within three years, sixty people were put to
Harmerbach. Offenburg had approximately 2,400 death. There were three distinct phases within this trial
inhabitants in 1803. Its early modern history was wave: twelve people were executed between November
strongly influenced between 1550 and 1635 by its 1627 and Ja n u a ry 1628; seven further executions fol-
proximity to neighboring Ortenau and the consequent l owed in mid-1628; and then, after a four-month
Austrian influence. Research on Offenburg’s witchcraft break, forty more executions took place from late 1628
trials goes back to Franz Volk’s “excellent study” in until early 1630, thirty-two of them in 1629.
1882 (Midelfort 1972, 128). Chronologically, there The end of Of f e n b u r g’s witchcraft trials has been
were three distinct phases: before 1608, the wave of mistakenly attributed in older literature to Swedish mil-
trials in 1608, and the great witch hunt from 1627 i t a ry occupation. Howe ve r, the Swedish army re a c h e d
to 1630. Offenburg only in September 1632, but the decisive
The first witchcraft trials we re mainly isolated inci- turning point had occurred in late 1629. After social
dents; the city council remained re l a t i vely re s e rve d . boundaries had fallen at the witch hunt’s apex when an
Although fifteen people were executed for witchcraft in influential alderman, Hans Georg Bauer, was executed,
neighboring Ortenau between 1595 and 1599, only the trials lost momentum in December 1629, when a
four witches died in Offenburg during the same time. woman, Agnes Gotter (known in Offenburg as “Gotter
C o n s e q u e n t l y, Of f e n b u r g’s guilds complained about Ne s s”), twice surv i ved tort u re in a searing metal hot
the council’s lax stance to the imperial commissioner, seat. Previously, no prisoner had ever survived this tor-
the governor of Lower Alsace. In 1599, he ordered the ture twice. Offenburg’s uneasy magistrates released her
city to pursue witches, but neve rtheless follow the and suspended further trials until after Christmas. In
Carolina(the imperial law code, 1532). After the Holy early 1630, two alleged witches already sentenced to
Roman Emperor Rudolf II and the Reichshofrat(imper- death withdrew their confessions and we re then
ial aulic court) confirmed this decision in 1602, released, bringing Offenburg’s witch hunt to an abrupt
Of f e n b u r g’s next witchcraft trials began in 1603. T h e end. Further trials took place in 1631, 1639, 1641, and
family of Barbara Pfäffinger, one of the accused, imme- 1642, but all we re isolated incidents; there we re no
diately got the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t (imperial chamber further large waves of persecution.
c o u rt) in Sp e yer to intervene on her behalf. While a
PETER OESTMANN;
messenger awaited permission to give the council the
c o u rt’s decision, Barbara Pfäffinger was already being TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY
s e c retly arrested and tort u red. The council then justi-
See also:AUSTRIA;CAROLINACODE(CONSTITIOCRIMINALIS
fied its actions to the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t by saying
CAROLINA); CONFISCATIONSOFWITCHES’PROPERTY;GERMANY,
that it had merely carried out the Re i c h s h o f ra t’s deci- SOUTHWESTERN;IMPERIALFREECITIES;REICHSHOFRAT;
sion. No large-scale witch hunt ensued. REICHSKAMMERGERICHT;RUDOLFII,HOLYROMANEMPEROR.
Sixteen witchcraft trials, leading to between eleve n References and further reading:
and fourteen executions, took place in summer and fall Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern
1608. Imperial Commissioner Earl Sulz approved the Germany 1562–1684:The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
c o u n c i l’s trial pro c e d u re. The council also addressed Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Oestmann, Peter. 1995a. “Das Reichskammergericht und die
the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t in Sp e yer to protect itself
Hexenprozesse—das Beispiel der Reichsstadt Offenburg.”
before victims of the coming persecution could file suits
Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechtsgeschichte 17: 30–49.
and additionally sought advice from legal scholars in
———. 1995b. “Die Offenburger Hexenprozesse im
Freiburg and Hagenau. Nevertheless, Offenburg’s 1608
Spannungsfeld zwischen Reichshofrat und
witchcraft trials produced five suits against the city in
Reichskammergericht.” Die Ortenau75: 179–220.
the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t . In each case, the families of ———. 1997. Hexenprozesse am Reichskammergericht.Cologne,
persecuted women complained about trial pro c e d u re Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau.
850 Offenburg, Imperial Free City |
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Volk, Franz. 1882. Hexen in der Landvogtei Ortenau und der the recipes contained other ingredients beside hallucino-
Reichsstadt Offenburg.Lahr: Verlag Moritz Schauenburg. gens and fats, and specific purposes for them have also
been suggested: wild celery to induce a deep sleep after
Ointments the hallucinogenic firew o rks and cinquefoil, parsley, or
Early modern witch beliefs held that witches flew to the smallage to purify the blood and avoid a buildup of the
De v i l’s Sabbat by use of ointments that they smeared on t ox i n s .
t h e m s e l ves or on a broom or pitchfork. De m o n o l o g i s t s Hallucinogenic ointments also appear to have been
like Ma rtín Del Rio held that these ointments we re effi- used as weapons. Because the alkaloids in the
cacious only because of the action of demons, but skep- S o l a n a c e a e block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in
tics like Giambattista Della Po rta argued that they had the peripheral nervous system, smearing an ointment
natural pro p e rties that caused witches to dream that on the skin could well create a loss of feeling there, and
they could fly and participate in fantastic rites. Mo d e r n the effects on the central nervous system would have
re s e a rchers have found that recipes for ointments c reated terrifying delusions and hallucinations in a
contained in late medieval and early modern literature victim who either had no idea what had happened or
did include potent hallucinogens that we re both thought he or she had been attacked by a witch. T h e
e x t remely toxic and fat soluble, so utilization in the form incidence of this tactic should not be ove re s t i m a t e d ,
of a fat-based salve was both possible and pru d e n t . but because some early modern sorcerers are known to
Although use of these unguents was not as widespread as h a ve practiced harmful magic and used poisons, the
the demonologists insisted or as some historians have possibility in any particular case cannot be dismissed
argued, some late medieval and early modern Eu ro p e a n s out of hand.
used them to induce a profound trance state in which Not all recipes and pots of ointments brought for-
they vividly imaged fantastic experiences that seemed ward as evidence of witchcraft appear to have contained
real and that demonologists interpreted as part i c i p a t i o n powerful hallucinogens, and it is not clear whether they
in diabolical rites. Fu rt h e r m o re, there is evidence that were simple frauds; they were produced simply to satis-
some people smeared these salves or closely related ones fy inquisitorial demands, to end the torments of tor-
on an unsuspecting victim as a form of sorc e ry that ture; or they worked purely through the power of sug-
would induce numbness, disorientation, delusions, and gestion. These possibilities have led some historians to
h a l l u c i n a t i o n s. deny that they we re used at all. Howe ve r, we possess
Among the hallucinogenic plants native to the enough credible eyewitness accounts and instances in
European continent, members of the Solanaceaefamily which physical ointments we re found, to argue that
almost always became the active ingredients in re c i p e s some people did use such salves to induce pro f o u n d
for witches’ flying potions given by both demonologists trances in which they vividly imagined fantastic
and skeptics. The psychoactive alkaloids the plants con- experiences (Sidkey 1997, 190–194). Although these
tained are extremely toxic, and an overdose could easily instances did not constitute the diabolic conspiracy
lead to death. However, they were also fat soluble, and posited by demonology, they we re probably one of its
in that form readily absorbed through the skin, which more important sources.
was far safer than ingestion while still delivering a pow-
erful dose. Probably any fat would have worked; but at EDWARD BEVER
least some of these recipes employed fat from babies or
corpses, so they were one source of the idea that witch-
See also:DELRIO,MARTÍN;DELLAPORTA,GIAMBATTISTA;
DEMONOLOGY;DRUGSANDHALLUCINOGENS;
es killed infants and dug up fresh graves.
FLIGHTOFWITCHES;INFANTICIDE;MALEFICIUM;
Some users reportedly smeared the ointments all over
POISON;SABBAT;STICKS.
their bodies, but they would have been absorbed partic-
References and further reading:
ularly well through mucous membranes. A more effi- Del Rio, Martín Antoine. 1599. Disquisitionum Magicarum.
cient method invo l ved smearing and then “r i d i n g” a Louvain: G. Rivius.
broomstick or pitchfork, which would have concentrat- Della Porta, Giambattista. 1561. Magiae Naturalis.Antverpiae: Ex
ed the application in the anal and female genital areas. officina Christophori Plantini.
Because the ointments often induced a sensation of Duerr, Hans Peter. 1985. Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary
flight, this probably originated the notion that witches Between Wilderness and Civilization.Translated by Felicitas D.
Goodman. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
flew on broomsticks.
Harner, Michael J., ed. 1973. Hallucinogens and Shamanism.
Many recipes called for a mixture of differe n t
London: Oxford University Press.
S o l a n a c e a e plants, which themselves contained differe n t
Quaife, G. R. 1987. Godly Zeal and Furious Rage: The Witch in
combinations of psyc h o a c t i ve alkaloids. Because the
Early Modern Europe. NewYork: St. Martin’s.
d i f f e rent alkaloids probably induced somewhat differe n t
Schultes, Richard Evans, and Albert Hoffmann. 1980.
p s ychological effects, the recipes appear to have been The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens.Springfield, IL:
t a i l o red to promote specific experiences. Fu rt h e r m o re , Charles C. Thomas.
Ointments 851 |
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Sidkey, H. 1997. Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs, and Disease: An dominated, but neither wrote music specifically for
Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Hunts.NewYork: witches. Of Haydn’s approximately twenty operas, only
Peter Lang. one (Arm i d a) port r a yed a sorc e ress with any depth of
feeling, and Mozart’s Colas in Bastien und Bastiennewas
Opera more a cunning man than a wizard. However, his justly
Since the birth of opera in its current form in famous The Magic Fl u t e p rovided important parts for
Renaissance Italy, notably Florence, it has often been both the sorceress Queen of the Night and the sorcerer
used as a medium to reflect human situations and emo- Sa r a s t ro. At the end of the century, Luigi Cheru b i n i
tions in exotic or unusual circumstances. It is therefore wrote the three-act opera Médée, preparing the way for
not surprising to find numerous references to witchcraft the dramatic characterizations that would be demanded
and related subjects—sorcery, magic, pagan rituals, and in the following centuries. Its use of minor chord s ,
so on—in operatic works from the seventeenth century harsh chromaticisms, and the use of bass instru m e n t s
to the present. The repertoire contains a large number enhanced the atmosphere, rising to a hellish fortissimo
of different portrayals of witches that indicate a simi- as Medea summoned the dark forces.
larly wide range of emotions and characteristics. There By arousing strong emotions and emphasizing the
were changes in these trends throughout the centuries, i m p o rtance of the cre a t i ve imagination, the Ro m a n t i c
but at the time of the earliest operas the witches were m ovement had a direct influence on cultural taste in the
portrayed as evil hags, often with grotesque qualities. nineteenth century. The world of legend and folklore
These stereotypes were often accompanied by discor- became increasingly popular, with direct and indire c t
dant music and harsh, exaggerated rhythms that re f e rences to the supernatural and witchcraft.
highlighted their place outside society and concord. T h roughout this century, most Eu ropean countries pro-
However, sorceresses often displayed more complicated duced composers who wrote operas on these themes. In
traits, for example, grief at their rejection, usually by It a l y, the great tradition of bel canto reached new
men, and finally anger and revenge. As we approach the heights in terms of its portrayals of witches through the
p resent, operatic witches we re treated incre a s i n g l y w o rks of Arrigo Boito (Me fis t o f e l e); Giacomo Pu c c i n i
sympathetically, expressing a broader view of feminini- (Le Vi l l i); and above all Giuseppe Ve rdi, whose Ma c b e t h ,
ty and regret at past abuses. Male sorcerers and wizards Il Trova t o re , and Un Ballo in Ma s c h e ra each contained
were uncommon, and with a few exceptions (above all, many scenes providing his characters with import a n t
Faust), tend to be given less depth of character. roles that the music enhanced. In Il Trova t o re ,Az u c e n a ,
He n ry Pu rc e l l’s Dido and Ae n e a s was the earliest the daughter of a witch burned at the stake, sang a fie ry
opera to provide specific parts for witches and to offer a i n vocation for the destruction of her enemies; in Un
leading role for a powe rful sorc e ress. His witches had Ballo in Ma s c h e ra, Ul r i c a’s dark and austere role bal-
“ h o r r i d” music to accompany their dances and songs, anced the other personalities’ lightness. Ve rdi specifie d
employing unconventional harmonic and rhythmic fea- himself how important he believed the witches’ roles to
t u res. His Dido was a majestic character whose music be in Ma c b e t h .
highlighted her importance in the plot. Although Ap a rt from an orgy of evil spirits in Gi a c o m o
“f u r i e s” and “aerial spirits” appeared in other seve n- Me ye r b e e r’s Ro b e rt le Diable that was reminiscent of a
t e e n t h - c e n t u ry operas (including Pu rc e l l’s The In d i a n witches’ Sabbat and its obligatory inclusion in Charles
Qu e e n), it was another classical sorc e ress, Medea, who Go u n o d’s Fa u s t , t h e re was little witchcraft activity in
i n s p i red Eu ropean composers at the time, notably n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u ry French opera. This was similarly
Francesco Cavalli (Ja s o n) and Ma rc - A n t o i n e t rue of Russian opera, because the title of Pyo t r
Charpentier (M é d é e). The emphasis on stage spectacle T c h a i k ov s k y’s little-performed The Sorc e re s s is totally
did not provide composers with much encouragement misleading. A folklore theme can be found in Mikhail
to explore detailed personalities. In the first half of the Gl i n k a’s Russlan and Lu d m i l l a , w h e re an evil sorc e re s s
eighteenth century, this was still the case to some (or fairy) Naina was feared for her evil powers, and
extent, but the famous German composer Ge o r g e there was an allusion to witchcraft in Nicolai Rimsky-
Frideric Handel wrote approximately fifty operas, five Ko r s a k ov’s A May Ni g h t . English opera provided ve ry
of which might be termed “magical,” containing f ew examples apart from the comic works of W. S.
characteristics normally associated with sorc e rers and Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, including The Sorcerer and
s o rc e resses, witches and wizards: R i n a l d o, Te s e o, Ru d d i g o re or The Wi t c h’s Cu r s e . Howe ve r, Ge r m a n y
Am a d i g i , Orl a n d o, and Al c i n a . The latter’s music dis- produced a preponderance of such works.
played for the first time in opera a sorceress who was a The German operatic tradition of this period cen-
fully formed character displaying majesty and passion, t e red on three composers: Carl Maria von We b e r,
evil and vengeance. En g l e b e rt Hu m p e rdinck, and Richard Wa g n e r.
In the latter part of the century, the towering figures Although We b e r’s Der Freischütz did not contain
of Joseph Ha ydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mo z a rt witches per se, its overriding theme was so steeped in
852 Opera |
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supernatural elements, including spell casting in the See also:CIRCE;CONTEMPORARYWITCHCRAFT(POST-1800);
Wolf’s Glen and the appearance of the Devil (Samiel), FAUST,JOHANNGEORG;MEDEA;MUSIC.
that its omission would be unthinkable. Humperdinck’s References and further reading:
Kobbé, G. 1987. Kobbé’s Complete Opera Book.London: Bodley
Hänsel und Gre t e l (based on the Grimm bro t h e r s’
Head.
Kinde—und Ha u s m ä rc h e n)and his K ö n i g s k i n d e r b o t h
Price, C. 1986. Dido and Aeneas: An Opera.Norton Critical
f e a t u red witches in prominent roles. They we re both
Scores. London: W.W. Norton.
somewhat stereotypical old hags, portrayed by the com-
Rosenthal, H., and J. Warrack. 1979. The Concise Oxford
poser with awkward, leaping music that took on a par-
Dictionary of Opera.2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ticularly humorous quality in the former work because Sadie, Stanley, ed. 1992. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.
of its caricatural qualities. In the latter, the witch used London: Macmillan.
Sp re c h g e s a n g (speech-song), combining pitched notes ———, ed. 2001. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
with spoken dialogue. Wagner’s works provided a very Musicians.London: Macmillan.
d i f f e rent picture, because intense characters who we re
g i ven, in some cases, ve ry deep and varied emotions, Oracles
replaced the nameless hags. The three “No r n s” in De r i ved from the Latin noun o ra c u l u m , meaning a
G ö t t e rd ä m m e rung spun the web of destiny and had divine announcement or a prophetic declaration; and
powers of divination similar to the witches in Macbeth the Latin verb o ra re ,meaning to entreat, pray and ask
or the Fates in Greek mythology. There was a connec- assistance, oracles, as this etymology indicates, are
tion to witchcraft in Ta n n h ä u s e r, because the orgiastic intrinsically linked with the spoken word—a pro c l a-
aspects of the “Ve n u s b e r g” re vels could be associated mation understood to come from a divine or
with witches’ Sabbats; Venus had an allure similar to supernatural force and to be delive red to a chosen
Circe’s, as both tried to prevent their men (Tannhäuser re p re s e n t a t i ve .
and Odysseus) from leaving them. In L o h e n g r i n , t h e Oracles have played a long and highly significant role
character Ortrud practiced sorcery for reasons of power, in both religion and magic, as illustrated by the Delphic
and in Pa r s i f a l one was introduced to a magician oracle of ancient Greece, the preeminent seat of oracu-
(Klingsor) and the impressive and complicated charac- lar power in the ancient Mediterranean. Situated in a
ter of Ku n d ry, who combined sexual and evil passion deep cleft on the southwest spur of Mount Pa r n a s s u s ,
with pathos and regret. the Delphic oracle was the principal seat of Apollo, the
The late twentieth century witnessed a decline in Greek god of pro p h e c y. He re resided the Pythia, the
the number of operas being composed, partly because priestess of Apollo, whose role was to commune with
of the huge costs invo l ved in staging such pro d u c t i o n s the god in order to answer questions put to her by
and also because of a reaction against the large-scale inquirers. In typical oracular fashion and tradition, the
w o rks of the nineteenth century. Howe ve r, at the start utterances of the Pythia were ambiguous, partly because
of the century, this was not the case: such works as of the belief that the gods do not converse in the
Antonin Dvo r a k’s Ru s a l k a , including a part for the manner of mortals. Thus, oracles re q u i red specialize d
witch Jezibaba, and Arm i d a we re composed. Se r g e y i n t e r p reters in the form of priests, who unraveled the
Pro k o fiev wrote two operas containing witchcraft ecstatic utterances of the divinely inspired priestess.
issues, the comic L ove for T h ree Oranges and the bru t a l Despite the influence of the Delphic oracle in the lives
and intense Fi e ry An g e l . The latter contained an orgy of both private individuals and state officials, its power
scene in a convent, an interrogation by the began to be questioned by the fif t h - c e n t u ry B.C.E.,
Inquisition, and the final execution of the possessed p rovoking a gradual decline in this once-great seat of
woman (or witch). T h e re are connections to be made oracular wisdom (although re c o rds from the site indi-
h e re with Krzysztof Pe n d e re c k i’s The Devils of Loudun cate that petitions we re still made to it as late as the
(1969), where similar atrocities took place. In fourth-century C.E.).
Ge r m a n y, Wa g n e r’s son Si e gfried composed the The early Church Fathers railed against so-called
deeply moving S c h w a rz s c h w a n e n re i c hon the theme of pagan oracles, believing that they re p resented Sa t a n’s
a woman abused and executed as a witch, and Richard trickery. Although it was a tenet of Christian belief that
Strauss included the sorc e ress Aithra in D i e only God possessed the omnipotence for oracular
Ae gyptische He l e n a . In the United States, Charles vision, this belief did not prevent the Devil from some-
Cadman wrote A Witch of Sa l e m in re g ret concerning times dispatching predictive information to give credi-
the Salem witchcraft trials, and in Britain Sir Mi c h a e l bility to wicked practitioners of the magical art s .
Tippett composed The Midsummer Marriage in praise Because of this general repulsion toward non-Christian
of paganism, nature, and male–female polarity oracles, The Roman Em p e ror Constantine (274–337)
integral to modern witchcraft, Wi c c a . ordered the ransacking of various shrines, such as those
at Delphi and Dodona, and Em p e ror T h e o d o s i u s
MELVYN J. WILLIN (ca. 346–395) continued his policy.
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In early modern Europe, the association among ora- the border of her robe in the water, or receives the god
cles, divination, devil worship, and witchcraft in gener- by breathing in vapour from the water, she becomes by
al was cemented. Scholars cited such early Churc h all these ways ready for the reception, and partakes of
Fathers as St. Augustine to argue that evil spirits could him from without” (Ficino 1972, 127). Ma r s i l i o
d e c e i ve humans into believing they could pre d i c t Fi c i n o’s Latin translation of Iamblichus, printed at
e vents. The Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Venice in 1497 and reprinted at Lyons in 1547, gave
Witches, 1486), for example, described the evils of such Nostradamus his information, illustrating the
pagan customs: “Another species of divination is prac- Renaissance revival of ancient oracular traditions.
tised by Pythons, so called from Pythian Apollo, who is By the seventeenth century, the belief in oracles
said to have been the originator of this kind of divina- among intellectuals began to be seriously re j e c t e d ,
tion, according to St. Is i d o re. This is not effected by although it remained a topic of discussion (primarily
d reams or by communication with the dead [necro- treated as a remnant of the paganism of classical antiq-
mancy], but by means of living men, as in the case of uity). Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), in the Pensées diverses
those who are lashed into a frenzy by the devil, either écrites à un Docteur de Sorbonne, à l’occasion de la comète
willingly or unwillingly, only with the aim of foretelling qui parut au mois de décembre 1680 ( Mi s c e l l a n e o u s
the future, and not for the perpetration of any other Thoughts Written to a Doctor of the Sorbonne on the
monstrosities” (Part 1, Question 16). Comet That Ap p e a red in the Month of De c e m b e r,
Despite such protests, the art of divination, expressly 1680, 1683) and in the D i c t i o n n a i reh i s t o r i q u e et cri-
that of externally inspired utterances, flourished. T h e tique ( Historical and Critical Di c t i o n a ry, 1697), and
most famous prophet operating in a fashion similar to Be r n a rd le Bovier Fontenelle (1657–1757), in the
the oracular priestesses was the French physician Hi s t o i re des Ora c l e s ( Hi s t o ry of Oracles, 1687), both
Nostradamus (1503–1566). His method for attaining contributed significantly to philosophical skepticism
oracular insight was the technique of scrying, a method and thereby to the disbelief in such ancient systems of
he believed to have been practiced by ancient Gre e k supernatural prophecy.
oracles:
MARGUERITE JOHNSON
Gathered at night in study deep I sate,
See also:DIVINATION;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;NECROMANCY;
Alone, upon the tripod stool of brass,
SIGHT,POWERSOF(SECONDSIGHT); SKEPTICISM.
Exiguous flame came out of isolation,
References and further reading:
Promise of magic that may be believed.
Aune, David E. 1983. Prophecy in Early Christianity and the
(Century1.1) Ancient Mediterranean World. Michigan: Eerdmans.
The wand in hand taken at the midst from Ficino, Marsilio. 1972. Iamblichus: De Mysteriis Ægyptiorum.
BRANCHUS/the branches, 1503. Reprint, Frankfurt: Minerva.
The holm-oak damp from the water and the hem Fontenrose, Joseph. 1978. The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and
and the foot, Operations.Berkeley: University of California Press.
A certain apprehension and voice, quivering Luck, Georg. 1985. Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the
Greek and Roman Worlds.Baltimore and London: Johns
through the wand’s handles,
Hopkins University Press.
Radiance divine. The augur settles close by.
Roberts, Henry C., trans. and ed. 1984. The Complete Prophecies
(Century1.2)
of Nostradamus.Revised ed. London: Granada.
Each of these quatrains was an invaluable source for Ronan, Stephen, ed. 1989. Iamblichus of Chalcis: On the Mysteries.
Renaissance preparations to access oracular sight, pro- Translated byThomas Taylor and Alexander Wilder. Sussex:
Chthonios.
vided by one of its most significant sixteenth-century
practitioners. Nostradamus used a magical implement
(a wand), similar to the forked rod employed for divin- Ordeal
ing water, and a brass scrying bowl filled with water. Like many non-European peoples, the Indo-Europeans
The ceremony always took place at night; the seer believed that numinous powers would intervene in
s t a red into the bowl, then divided the water’s surf a c e juridical contentions and decide them, if certain rituals
with his wand and awaited the emanation of messages. were followed. Only faint hints of such a belief existed
His method corresponded quite closely to descriptions in ancient Greece and Rome, where ordeals never
of ancient oracular practices re c o rded by the fourt h - became part of the official legal systems; it is remarkable
c e n t u ry Neoplatonic mystic, Iamblichus (ca. 250–ca. that neither the Bible nor Roman law knew of any of
330) in De Mysteriis Ae gy p t i o rum ( On the Eg y p t i a n the various types of ordeals used in the Middle Ages
Mysteries): “The woman also who conveys the oracles and beyond. It is strange that the most prominent legal
in verse at Branchidai, whether she is holding the wand ordeal mentioned in the Bible was never applied in
that was first given by a divinity and becomes fil l e d Western Christian civilization. It was directed against a
with the divine light . . . or whether she dips her feet or woman whose husband suspected her of infidelity, and
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required her to drink spoiled water; if she vomited it, his innocence. In the ordeal of consecrated bread or
she was stoned to death (Numbers 5: 11–31). cheese, a large portion of one of them had to be swal-
However, the Teutonic tribes must have used various lowed, big enough to cause suffocation or to prove guilt
kinds of ordeals before their conversion to Christianity, if the accused hesitated because of a bad conscience. As
because their early medieval law codes (leges barbaro- a variant of this ordeal, reserved mostly to the clergy, a
rum) contained many provisions about ordaliaor judi- priest administered the Eucharist, which might cause
cia Dei (the judgment of God). Ordeals were part of the similar problems to pious people (because they believed
o f ficial legal systems of early medieval kingdoms; in a in the Eucharist). In some instances, lots were also used
capitulary of 809, Charlemagne even ordered everyone in ordeals; a special case was the Psalmbook, whose
“to believe in the ordeals without any doubt.” Though movement, when hanging from a thread, was expected
some popes showed a rather skeptical position on this to indicate the delinquent. Fi n a l l y, the bier-right was
question, several synods explicitly approved of ord e a l s based on the assumption that the corpse of a murdered
(e.g., Mainz 847, Seligenstadt 1023, Reims 1119). person would begin to bleed afresh when the killer
The usual way of proving something in an early approached.
medieval court was through collective oaths; only if this The practice of ordeals, which we re sometimes
we re not possible would the judgment of God be sought by the accused themselves as a method of legal
appealed to.Therefore, all ordeals except the duel were compurgation, seems to have had its heyday during the
done in the presence and with the help of priests who twelfth century. But this was also a period of a growing
sang paraliturgical formulas and blessed the necessary resistance within a new generation of academically
i n s t ruments, which we re ecclesiastical pro p e rty and trained intellectuals, among whom Peter the Chanter
whose use was permitted by episcopal privileges. (d. 1197), master at Paris, played a leading role. T h e y
Laypeople had to pay an additional fee for this ecclesi- criticized the uncertainty and irrationality of such pro-
astical assistance, beyond the cost of a secular trial. c e d u res, and the growing importance of the auricular
Depending on region, social standing, and the mat- confession led to the conviction that an avowal should
ter being disputed, a divine decision was sought also be indispensable in court. When the Fo u rt h
t h rough different kinds of tests. Among the ord e a l s Lateran Council (1215) forbade priests to participate in
affecting both parties, probably the oldest and most o rdeals, its action led to the increased application of
w i d e s p read one was the judicial duel (which, like the torture as a means of finding the truth. Both the aboli-
outcome of a battle, was interpreted as a manifestation tion of ordeals and the introduction of tort u re we re
of Go d’s will). With ve ry rare exceptions, it was based on papal decisions by Innocent III and Gregory
re s e rved to male fighters—either the persons dire c t l y IX. However, it took several decades until the council’s
interested or paid champions. In the ordeal of the cross, canons we re implemented into local law, and eve n
plaintiff and defendant both stood with uplifted arms a f t e rw a rd there are numerous re c o rds showing that
b e f o re a cross; whoever dropped his arms first lost his ordeals—particularly the swimming test—continued to
case. All other ordeals were one-sided and affected only be practiced in a semiofficial way in several parts of
the accused; most we re based on the employment of Europe until the nineteenth century.
“pure” elements of nature. The defendant had to walk Like other people suspected of a major crime,
through fire or over red-hot iron ploughshares or carry presumptive heretics, sorcerers, and witches underwent
a piece of fiery metal a certain distance within a church. ordeals, but infrequently. During the Middle Ages, the
Or he had to plunge an arm into boiling water in order ordeal of fire seems to have been chosen most frequent-
to find a small stone or ring thrown into the cauldron. ly in that case, perhaps in a form of anticipation, as
It was not expected that even the innocent could do burning was the conventional punishment for that
such things without being injured, but if he was indeed crime. The Longobard Edictum Rothari (Lombard Law
not guilty, his wounds should heal within three days. If of Rothari, 198) prescribed a judicial duel when the
they worsened, God had proved him guilty, and the accusation of sorc e ry was raised; the Thuringian Law
court punished him. (par. 55) allowed a woman suspected of poisoning her
Though generally the secular courts ord e red these husband to clear herself by the ordeal of the re d - h o t
kinds of ordeals, it is clear that the assisting priest had ploughshares or through a champion fighting a duel for
much, if not decisive, power, because it was his task to h e r. Ac c o rding to Addition 16 to the Laws of the
judge whether a wound was healing or had become Bavarians, the water ordeal was to be applied in cases of
i n flamed. When the ordeal by cold water (swimming hexing (m a l e fic i u m). During the High Middle Ages,
test) was applied, the accused was bound and throw n o rdeals we re sometimes used in order to discove r
into a pool: if the pure element of water refused to h e retics, as we learn from St. Be r n a rd of Clairva u x
accept his body, that is, if he remained afloat, he was (1090–1153), who recorded the detection of a group of
considered guilty. If he could manage to stay for some Cathars at Cologne by the judicium aquae ( w a t e r
time under the surface, this was reckoned as a sign of ordeal) in a sermon (Super Cantica 66.5.12).
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In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII still had to forbid Duke Müller-Bergström. 1927. “Gottesurteil.” Pp. 994–1064 in
Sigismund of Ty rol to allow ordeals in cases of witch- Handwörterbuch des deutschenAberglaubens.Vol. 3. Berlin: de
craft. The Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Gruyter.
Nottarp, Hermann. 1956. Gottesurteilstudien.Munich: Kösel.
Witches, 1486) mentioned that the ordeal of the re d -
“Ordeal.” 1917. Pp. 507–533 in Encyclopaedia of Religion and
hot iron was used in Fürstenberg in the Black Forest in
Ethics.Edited by James Hastings. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.
1485, when a woman suspected of sorcery offered her-
self for compurgation with a red-hot iron and thereby
won her case. But Heinrich Kramer, the author of this Origins of the Witch Hunts
famous manual, opposed this method of proof and The first true witch hunts began in western Europe in
explicitly preferred torture. The judge, however, should the early fifteenth century. The earliest series of trials
propose the possibility of an ordeal, because the witch took place in Italy and in French- and German-speak-
usually would agree, certain to be protected against ing regions around the western Alps. Of course, con-
harm by her demon. Her willingness to undergo an cern about harmful sorcery had deep roots in medieval
ordeal would betray her all the more (Malleus 3.17f.). Europe, and both officially sanctioned prosecution and
In order to eliminate any help from the Devil, another popular persecution had been brought to bear on its
popular juridical manual, the L a ye n s p i e g e l (1509) by supposed practitioners long before. But only in the fif-
Ulrich Te n g l e r, similarly did not accept the ordeal for teenth century did the full stereotype of diabolical
witches, and the same position could be found in many witchcraft develop, which would endure throughout
later juridical texts. the period of the major witch hunts in the sixteenth
Nonetheless, from the second half of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
c e n t u ry onward, the swimming test seems to have Of particular importance for the ensuing hunts was
been used quite frequently in several parts of Eu ro p e the clear development, in the stereotype, of cultic and
to discover witches. Ou d ewater in Holland was conspiratorial aspects of witchcraft. That is, witches
famous for its witch ordeal scales, seemingly a were held to be members of organized groups engaging
p o s t m e d i e val invention: if an accused person was in a diabolically directed plot to undermine and destroy
lighter than expected, he or she was declared guilty. Christian communities and ultimately Christian civi-
Howe ve r, other types of ordeal fell into disuse after lization. Although individual trials for witchcraft might
the sixteenth-century Re f o r m a t i o n s . resemble earlier trials for harmful sorc e ry, full-fle d g e d
Be yond Eu rope, in parts of Africa and Ma d a g a s c a r, witch hunts we re possible only after the notion that
the poison ordeal was and is applied often at the witches operated as part of an organized, conspiratorial
suspicion of sorc e ry. If the substance (made from the cult began to become established. A hunt would devel-
fruit of the tanghin-tree) given by the witch doctor to op out of a single trial or a relatively contained group of
the suspected person causes vomiting, he is innocent, if trials, either when authorities became convinced of the
it produces ve rtigo or trance, his guilt is considere d existence of large numbers of witches operating in a giv-
proved. en area or when convicted witches would accuse, or be
f o rced to accuse, others of membership in their sect.
Ultimately, witch hunts arose due to the confluence of
PETER DINZELBACHER
particular aspects of western European legal procedure,
See also:COURTS,SECULAR;INNOCENTVIII,POPE;KRAMER,
c e rtain notions of demonic power and activity drawn
HEINRICH;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(MEDIEVAL); LAYENSPIEGEL;
f rom standard Christian demonology, and the wide-
MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;SWIMMINGTEST;TORTURE.
s p read belief in the real efficacy of harmful magic or
References and further reading:
maleficium.
Baldwin, John. 1994. “The Crisis of the Ordeal.” Journal of
Concern over harmful sorcery and official sanctions
Medieval and Renaissance Studies24: 327–353.
Barthélemy, Domenique. 1988. “Diversité des ordalies médié- against such magic we re longstanding in medieva l
vales.” Revue historique280: 3–25. Europe, and legislation against what were perceived to
Bartlett, Robert. 1986. Trial by Fire and Water.Oxford: be malevolent forms of magic existed in classical antiq-
Clarendon. uity as well. In Christian Eu rope, condemnation and
Browe, Peter. 1932–1933. De ordalibus.2 vols. Rome: Apud aedes attempts to repress such magic arose from two distinct
Pont. Universitatis Gregorianae. traditions, the religious and the secular. From the
Gaudemet, Jean. 1965. “Les ordalies au moyen âge.” Recueil de la
earliest days of Christianity, clerical authorities we re
Société Jean Bodin17, no. 2: 99–145.
convinced that much, if not most, supposed magical
Glitsch, Heinrich. 1913. Gottesurteile.Leipzig: Voigtländer.
activity in the world was actually the result of demonic
Grimm, Jacob. 1983. Deutsche Rechtsaltertümer.Vol. 2. Reprint,
forces. Magicians who claimed to manipulate natural, if
Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 563–604.
occult, forces we re suspected instead of invoking and
Lea, Henry Charles. 1971. Superstition and Force:Essays on the
Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, Torture.4th ed., supplicating demons. Early Church Fathers such as
rev. NewYork: B. Blom. St . Augustine condemned the practice of supposedly
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demonic magic as a serious crime against the Christian sorcery and would have made difficult the sort of panic
faith, and early Church legal codes condemned magic and chain-reaction accusations that typified later witch
for this same reason. T h roughout the Early Mi d d l e hunts. Beginning around the twelfth century, however,
Ages, Christian penitentials, handbooks of penance and continuing through the fourteenth and fif t e e n t h
used by priests in confession, contained condemnations centuries, Eu ropean courts, both ecclesiastical and
of magic. The penalties prescribed for such practices, secular, increasingly moved away from accusatorial pro-
h owe ve r, we re by later standards re l a t i vely light. c e d u re and instead adopted inquisitorial pro c e d u re as
Christians who performed magic we re to be made to their basic method of operation.
recognize and confess their sins and do penance. In cas- In contrast to accusatorial procedure, under inquisi-
es of extreme recalcitrance, excommunication might be torial procedure, the onus of proving guilt or innocence
re q u i red. Such penalties generally held force thro u g h for a suspected crime fell on officials of the court rather
the twelfth century. T h e re a f t e r, the Churc h’s gre a t e r than on the person who brought the initial accusation.
concern over heresy and the perceived need to combat In addition, the court could initiate an investigation or
heretics more actively began to feed into an increasing- trial, even if no accusation of a crime had been made. In
ly severe response to magic. many ways, courts operating under inquisitorial proce-
In addition to clerical concerns and ecclesiastical leg- dure functioned in a more sophisticated way than those
islation against magic, there was also a substantial body under accusatorial procedure in terms of the collection
of secular legislation in the early medieval period. By no and evaluation of evidence. Yet in cases of suspected
means were secular concerns distinct from ecclesiastical sorcery, still a highly secretive crime, visible evidence or
ones. Lay rulers generally accepted the clerical associa- eyewitnesses were almost always rare. In such cases, the
tion of magic with demonic invocation and attempted best means of obtaining a conviction was through the
to enforce Christian morality in their legal codes. confession of the suspected party. Because it was recog-
Ne ve rtheless, in the most general sense, it can be said nized that people would seldom willingly convict them-
that, although clerical concerns focused on the suppos- s e l ves of a serious crime, the use of tort u re was pre-
edly demonic nature of much magic, secular legislation scribed in order to extract the truth from suspects.
was more concerned with the harmful effects to which Limitations and controls on the application of tort u re
magic could supposedly be put. Secular law codes were we re established, but they could easily be ignored by
t h e re f o re more narrowly concerned with the crime of overzealous magistrates eager for convictions. Especially
maleficium,or harmful sorcery. Many of these law codes in situations in which the nature of the crime aroused
prescribed execution as a potential punishment in cases widespread anxiety or panic, as was the case with witch
i n volving malevolent magic. Such condemnation hunts, judicial controls on the use of torture were fre-
stemmed both from traditional Germanic laws against quently set aside. Un restricted tort u re allowed magis-
harmful sorc e ry and from the re l a t i vely stringent late- trates to extract confessions and to secure convictions
imperial legal codes against magic and magicians. for virtually any crime that they might suggest to the
Despite the existence of such legislation, howe ve r, accused. The widespread use of inquisitorial procedure
p rosecutions for harmful magic remained limited and of torture in the courts of western Europe therefore
throughout the early medieval period. A key factor was p rovided a necessary basis for the later functioning of
the use of accusatorial pro c e d u re in most Eu ro p e a n witch hunts.
courts prior to the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. The existence of a legal and procedural basis alone,
Under accusatorial pro c e d u re, an aggrieved part y h owe ve r, did not give rise directly to witch hunting.
would initiate a case by making an accusation of a Rather, the basic level of concern over supposed magical
crime. This person then also assumed the responsibility activities had to increase among both religious and sec-
of proving the guilt of the person or persons accused. If ular authorities, as did the conviction that practitioners
the accused was judged innocent, howe ve r, then the of harmful sorcery were members of heretical and con-
accuser was subject to punishment. This pro c e d u re spiratorial demonic cults. Initial signs of a new level of
served to limit the number of entirely specious accusa- concern in these areas become evident in the early four-
tions. With crimes that supposedly involved the use of teenth century. The trial of Lady Alice Kyteler of
magic, which was secre t i ve by its ve ry nature, clear Kilkenny, Ireland, is often seen as a sort of proto–witch
p roof of guilt was often impossible to attain. In these hunt from this period. Lady Alice had married a succes-
cases, the accused might be forced to undergo a judicial sion of wealthy men. Her first three husbands died
ordeal. In theory, this practice placed the determination under mysterious circumstances, and when her fourt h
of guilt or innocence in the hands of God. In fact, the husband began to sicken, she was accused of bewitch-
practice was highly subjective, and certainly no accuser ing these men and then murdering them thro u g h
could be sure of ultimate vindication by these means. In sorcery. In 1324, Bishop Richard Ledrede took up the
sum, aspects of accusatorial pro c e d u re tended to stifle case, and ultimately Alice and a group of suspected
the potential for widespread accusations of harmful accomplices we re convicted not just of using harmful
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magic but also of renouncing the Christian faith and demons, and in 1326 he formally excommunicated any
gathering together as a cult to worship and offer sacri- Christian found guilty of practicing sorc e ry that
fices to demons. Although one member of this gro u p involved invoking demons.
was burned at the stake, Alice escaped punishment by Concerns about the demonic, heretical, and ultimately
fleeing to England, and her trial did not trigger any cultic nature of much magical activity we re rising among
similar accusations in Ireland at the time. Nevertheless, clerical authorities throughout the fourteenth century. In
the case re vealed a connection being made betwe e n the early part of the century, the inquisitor Be r n a rd Gu i
harmful sorcery and demonic invocation as well as the evinced a clear but still re l a t i vely slight concern over sor-
cultic worship of a demon. c e ry. In his inquisitorial handbook Practica inquisitionis
A similar fore s h a d owing of later aspects of witch h e retice pra v i t a t i s (The Practice of the Inquisition of
hunts can be seen in the trial of the Knights Templar for He retical Depravity), written around 1324, Gui devo t e d
heresy, sodomy, and idolatry and the ultimate suppres- only a small section to a discussion of sorc e ry, and,
sion of the Templars as a military and religious order. In although he considered sorc e ry to be an aspect of here s y,
a c t u a l i t y, the case was politically motivated. In 1307, did not discuss the nature of heretical sorc e ry in detail.
officials of King Philip IV of France brought a range of Fifty years later, howe ve r, the inquisitor Nicolas Ey m e r i c ,
charges against the Templars so that the royal gove r n- in his handbook D i rectorium inquisitoru m ( Di re c t o ry of
ment could seize the tremendous wealth and pro p e rt y Inquisitors), written in 1376, presented an extended
c o n t rolled by the knights. Se veral key Templar leaders argument about the necessarily heretical nature of
we re arrested and questioned under seve re tort u re . demonic magic. The ve ry act of invoking a demon,
Ultimately, most confessed to a range of charges involv- Eymeric argued, constituted an act of worship even if no
ing heretical beliefs and renunciation of the Christian other ove rt signs of worship we re present. Hence, all acts
faith, homosexual practices, and the worship of a of demonic magic automatically entailed idolatry and
demon in the fig u re of a head known as Ba p h o m e t . t h e re f o re we re evidence of here s y. Ey m e r i c’s arguments
Succumbing to French pressure, Pope Clement V offi- p roved defin i t i ve for many clerical authorities who came
cially suppressed the order in 1312, and in 1314 the after him and provided the basis for inquisitorial action
Templar grand master, Jacques de Mo l a y, and other against suspected sorc e rers throughout the entire period
leaders we re burned at the stake. Although charges of of the witch hunts.
s o rc e ry did not fig u re significantly in the trial of the Once the practice of supposedly demonic magic was
Templars, the case nevertheless serves as an example of firmly established as entailing the worship of demons
procedures that would later characterize witch hunts— and thus as a form of heresy, it was perhaps natural that
e x t reme and unfounded accusations and false confes- suspected practitioners of sorc e ry should have become
sions secured through the use of tort u re (many suspected also of operating in organized cults just as
Templars recanted their initial confessions, but this other supposed heretical groups we re thought to do.
only exposed them to the charge of being re l a p s e d T h roughout the later fourteenth century and on into
heretics). the fifteenth, the number of trials for harmful sorc e ry
The cases of the Templars and of Alice Kyteler also rose signific a n t l y, and critically, in the course of these
revealed another important aspect of the rise of eventu- trials, elements of diabolical heresy we re grafted onto
al witch hunts in western Eu rope, namely, that in the charges of simple m a l e fic i u m . These elements of dia-
early fourteenth century, charges of harmful sorc e ry bolism included the notion that witches were members
and the cultic worship of demons we re being bro u g h t of demonically organized cults that met secretly to
against relatively high-status defendants. Charges of the feast, dance, and worship demons or the Devil. T h e y
use of sorc e ry at princely courts occurred thro u g h o u t also supposedly engaged in sexual orgies with each oth-
the Middle Ages, but the number of clearly political er, with demons, or with the Devil, and they performed
sorcery trials seems to have risen in the early fourteenth a number of other horrific acts, such as murdering and
century, thereby heightening concerns about the poten- eating babies or small children and desecrating the cross
tial threat posed by harmful sorc e ry among powe rf u l and the Eucharist.
classes across Eu rope. Not even the papal court was The reasons for the rise in the number of trials dur-
immune. In 1258, Pope Alexander IV had ord e red all ing this period are uncertain. To some extent, the
papal inquisitors to refrain from involving themselve s a p p a rent rise may be a result of better surv i val of
in cases of sorc e ry, unless the sorc e ry clearly entailed sources from this era. However, contemporary authori-
some form of here s y. In 1320, howe ve r, Pope Jo h n ties clearly believed that sorc e ry and witchcraft we re a
XXII, deeply concerned over matters of sorcery at least growing threat in the world, which seems to have been
in part because he feared his own political enemies were reflected in an actual increase in the numbers of accusa-
using magic against him, ordered inquisitors to extend tions and prosecutions. Many studies have revealed that
their investigations to include all matters of sorcery that accusations of witchcraft and witch hunts often
seemed to invo l ve the invocation and worship of originated in economic or social disruptions at the local
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l e vel: agrarian failures; persistent inclement we a t h e r ; trials of Waldensian heretics, and the mechanisms used
n ew economic or commercial patterns in a region; or by authorities to uncover and root out heretics we re
disputes between neighbors over property, social stand- taken over and applied to witches as well. In particular,
ing, or any number of issues. An overall rise in trials close cooperation between secular and ecclesiastical
might be explained by a generalized economic or social authorities seems to have typified many early witch
crisis that exacerbated such local conflicts. Attempts to hunts. At the same time, some of the first sources to
link particular rises in prosecutions for witchcraft to describe the notion of cultic, conspiratorial witchcraft
m o re generalized crises of this nature, howe ve r, have were being written in these regions. The Lucerne civic
re vealed disjunctures as often as they have uncove re d c h ronicler Hans Fründ described the supposed activi-
clear connections. ties of a cult of witches in Valais in 1428. Around 1436,
Another general factor underlying growing concern the French secular judge Claude Tholosan produced a
over witchcraft in this period was the drive for religious treatise on witchcraft based on his experience conduct-
reform originating in the Church. Many clerical ing witchcraft trials in Dauphiné. Probably also in the
authorities we re convinced that Christian faith was middle of the decade, an anonymous clerical author,
declining in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth cen- most likely an inquisitor, penned the Er ro re s
turies, and that a general moral and spiritual rejuvena- Ga z a r i o ru m ( Er rors of the Gazars or Gazarii; i.e.,
tion was needed throughout Christian society. Cathars, a common term for heretics and later witches),
Extremely popular preachers such as Vincent Ferrer and describing the errors of that heretical sect of witches,
Be r n a rdino of Siena carried this reformist message to and in 1437 and 1438, the Dominican theologian
the people through the medium of popular sermons. Johannes Nider wrote extensive accounts of witchcraft,
The threat posed by witches to Christian society was a largely based on trials conducted by the secular judge
key theme employed by such men. Not surprisingly, a Peter of Bern in the Simme valley of the Be r n e s e
number of early witchcraft trials occurred in Dauphiné Ob e rl a n d , a mountainous region south of the city.
and western Switzerland in the wake of Ferrer’s journeys Nider collected many of his accounts of witchcraft
t h rough these regions, and Be r n a rdino was associated while at the Council of Basel, a great ecumenical coun-
with several witchcraft trials in Italy. cil of the Church that met from 1431 until 1449 in the
Most witchcraft trials in this period began with accu- city of Basel, just to the north of the regions where the
sations of simple maleficium without any hint of other g reatest early witch-hunting activity took place. T h i s
heretical or diabolical elements. Accusations were usu- council, which drew clerics from across Europe, served
ally made by people against their close acquaintances or as a sort of clearinghouse for ideas and concerns about
neighbors, in other words, people with whom they witchcraft and helped to spread the initially fairly local-
would have come into social or economic conflict, and ized concern over cults of witches and the dynamics of
these sorts of tensions generally underlay initial charges witch hunting to other regions of Eu rope. Once the
of maleficium. Once a case was brought to court, how- idea of conspiratorial cults of witches became widely
ever, trained judges, ecclesiastical or secular but equally established across Eu rope, witch hunts could and did
familiar with concepts of demonic magic and here s y, occur in almost every region of the Continent.
would introduce notions of diabolism. Once these MICHAEL D. BAILEY
notions were fully overlaid onto the supposed practice
of harmful sorc e ry, the stereotype of witchcraft
See also:ACCUSATIONS;ACCUSATORIALPROCEDURE;BAPHOMET;
emerged, and actual witch hunts were possible. Thanks
BASEL,COUNCILOF;BERNARDINOOFSIENA;CHRONOLOGYOF
WITCHCRAFTTRIALS;DAUPHINÉ,WITCHCRAFTTRIALSIN;
to the notion of witches operating as members of
ERRORESGAZARIORUM;EYMERIC,NICOLAS;FRÜND,HANS;
demonically organized, conspiratorial cults, accusations
GUI,BERNARD;HERESY;IDOLATRY;INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;
and trials could now originate not from individual con-
INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;ITALY;JOHNXXII,POPE;KYTELER,
flicts, but from a general sense of threat to the commu- ALICE;LAUSANNE,DIOCESEOF;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT
n i t y. A single accusation might fuel many more, and (MEDIEVAL); MOUNTAINSANDTHEORIGINSOFWITCHCRAFT;
individual suspects could be expected, under torture or NIDER,JOHANNES;ORDEAL;PETEROFBERN;SAVOY,DUCHYOF;
threat of torture, to name fellow members of the large SWITZERLAND;TEMPLARS;THOLOSAN,CLAUDE;TORTURE;
cult of witches that authorities or the entire community TRIALS;VALAIS;VAUD,PAYSDE;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS);
might suspect was operating in a region. WITCHHUNTS.
References and further reading:
The earliest series of witchcraft trials and witch hunts
Bailey, Michael D. 1996. “The Medieval Concept of the Witches’
took place in the early fifteenth century in regions of
Sabbath.” Exemplaria8: 419–439.
Italy; in Sa voy and Dauphiné; in the territories of the
———. 2001. “From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical Conceptions
Swiss cities of Bern, Fribourg, and Lucerne; and in the
of Magic in the Later Middle Ages.” Speculum76: 960–990.
diocese of Lausanne and Sion (roughly the pre s e n t
———. 2003. Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in
Swiss cantons of Vaud and Valais). In many of these the Late Middle Ages.University Park: Pennsylvania State
regions, witchcraft trials grew directly out of earlier University Press.
Origins of the Witch Hunts 859 |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 897 | 46049 Golden Chap.O av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.860 Application File
Blauert, Andreas. 1989. Frühe Hexenverfolgungen: Ketzer-, other external cultural influences from By z a n t i u m ,
Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse des 15. Jahrhunderts.Hamburg: including the magical and divinatory beliefs and prac-
Junius. tices that we re a notable feature of Byzantine popular
———, ed. 1990. Ketzer, Zauberer, Hexen: Die Anfänge der
culture but excluding, for the most part, the intellectu-
europäischen Hexenverfolgungen.Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
al interest in magic of such Byzantine philosophers as
Borst, Arno. 1992. “The Origins of the Witch-Craze in the Alps.”
Michael Psellus (1018–ca. 1078). At the level of popu-
Pp. 101–122 in Medieval Worlds: Barbarians, Heretics, and
lar belief, Orthodox Christians had a good deal in com-
Artists.By Arno Borst. Translated by Eric Hansen. Chicago:
mon with Latin Christians, although the details of
University of Chicago Press.
Cohn, Norman. 2000. Europe’s Inner Demons: The Demonization indigenous pagan surv i val differed. Literary evidence
of Christians in Medieval Christendom.Rev. ed. Chicago: suggests that both in Byzantium and Russia, magic was
University of Chicago Press. usually regarded as demonic, and the notion of the pact
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their with the Devil was familiar. At a more official level, the
Foundations in Learned and Popular Culture, 1300–1500. teaching of the Ort h o d ox Church before the schism
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. with Rome was essentially the same in matters of witch-
———. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge: Cambridge
craft and magic as that of the Latin Church.
University Press.
Insofar as there was an official attitude, it derive d
Klaits, Joseph. 1985. Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts.
from the opinions of the early Church Fathers and acts
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
of the various early councils and synods, which tended
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
to equate witchcraft with paganism. Re flecting the
2nd ed. London and NewYork: Longman.
Peters, Edward. 1978. The Magician, the Witch, and the Law. a m b i valence of Jewish attitudes tow a rd magic, divina-
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. tion, and witchcraft expressed in Scripture, the Church
———. 2002. “The Medieval Church and State on Superstition, Fathers we re not unanimous concerning the reality of
Magic, and Witchcraft: From Augustine to the Sixteenth witchcraft. Jewish views ranged from the outright con-
Century.” Pp. 173–245 in The Middle Ages.Vol. 3 of The demnation of Exodus 22:18 (22:17; “Thou shalt not
Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Edited by suffer a witch to live”) and the “abominations” listed in
Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and Philadelphia:
De u t e ronomy 18:10–14 to the frequent re f e rences to
Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press.
magical practices and belief in their effic a c y. Pa t r i s t i c
Russell, Jeffrey Burton. 1972. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages.Ithaca,
opinion did, howe ve r, agree in condemning magical
NY: Cornell University Press.
practices and was supported in this by the tradition of
Roman law. Among the early theologians who did
Orthodox Christianity appear to believe in the reality of witchcraft, St .
Nearly all early modern witchcraft trials occurred in Augustine of Hippo, with his extensive knowledge of
Eu ropean and American regions where Ro m a n the magic as well as the philosophy of the ancient
Catholicism or Protestant denominations prevailed; world, did most to elaborate a theological view; but as a
state- or church-sanctioned witchcraft trials were less Latin, his writings had less influence in the East (where
frequent in Orthodox Christian areas. he was sometimes regarded with suspicion) than in the
Ort h o d ox churches are those Christian churches of West. Augustine’s works were unknown in Russia until
the East and of eastern and southeastern Eu rope that relatively modern times.
accepted the primacy of Constantinople rather than The teaching of the early Church relating to magic
Rome after the schism of the eleventh century. Sl a v i c and witchcraft, often found as condemnations in patris-
Orthodox churches, plus Moldavia and Wallachia, were tic sources (e.g., St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom) or
founded by the missionary activity of the Gre e k e x p ressed as prohibitions (especially to the clergy) in
C h u rch from the ninth century onward. The Ru s s i a n early collections of ecclesiastical law, was summarized at
C h u rch in Mu s c ovy became the largest, and, after the Constantinople in the acts of the Trullan Synod (692),
fall of Constantinople in 1453, also the only substantial which formalized the work of the fifth and sixth ecu-
national Orthodox Church in an independent country. menical councils (Constantinople II and III) but was
It was effectively autocephalous after its rejection of the later rejected by the Latin Church. This synod regulat-
reunion of the Orthodox churches with the Latin west- ed marriage and sexual behavior. It also forbade associa-
ern Church that had been agreed in a Decree of Union tion with Jews; mixed bathing; attending horse races,
at the Council of Florence in 1439, but was thereafter mimes, or animal shows; theatrical dancing; consulting
largely repudiated in most Orthodox areas. The Russian diviners, sorc e rers, cloud-chasers, or purve yors of
C h u rch elected a metropolitan of Mo s c ow in 1448 amulets; celebrating the Calends, Vota, and Bru m a l i a
without re f e rence to Constantinople and established (Greek festivals in honor of Pan and Dionysius); wear-
the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1589. ing comic, satiric, or tragic masks; or jumping over fires
The establishment of the Russian and southeastern at the beginning of the month. One cannot be sure how
Eu ropean Ort h o d ox churches was accompanied by far this list re p resented genuine current concerns, but
860 Orthodox Christianity |
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superstitions, astrology, amulets, and magical practices “true and false books” that had their origin in the Greek
certainly occupied a large part of Byzantine life. Church but had been updated in Russia.
Ap a rt from a re vealing twe l f t h - c e n t u ry Greek com- Information about punishments for witchcraft and
m e n t a ry on the Trullan Synod by the Greek canonist magical practices is sparse and often contradictory.
and patriarch of Antioch, T h e o d o re Balsamon (Fögen Russian chronicles described many occasions when
1995), there was re l a t i vely little theological or canon- pagan magicians were put to death by civil authorities
legal discussion of magic and witchcraft thereafter in or local communities, but perhaps as much for political
the Ort h o d ox churches; the acts of the Trullan Sy n o d as religious reasons. Ecclesiastical punishments for mag-
remained the basis of Russian ecclesiastical opinion on ical practices we re often re l a t i vely mild, and early
the subject until at least the eighteenth century. T h e princely law in Kievan Rus’ regarded magic and divina-
reasons are not entirely clear. Certainly the belief in and tion as matters mostly involving women and preferably
practice of magic and witchcraft at all levels of society corrected by husbands. The extensive manual of family
in the East was no less widespread than in the West and and household management, the Do m o s t ro i , s u g g e s t e d
the official attitude of the Church no less hostile; in the that this view still prevailed in sixteenth-century Russia.
later Byzantine era, legal jurisdiction in this field was Muscovite Russia’s first important attempt at a writ-
firmly in the hands of the patriarchal court, and cases ten legal code, Ivan the Te r r i b l e’s Su d e b n i k of 1550,
came up regularly. n e ver mentioned witches, magic, or superstitious
By contrast, witchcraft became a matter of anxiety in practices. A later version of it from 1589 mentioned
the medieval Latin Church, where a considerable witches when specifying levels of compensation for
debate developed on the relation of witchcraft to heresy offenses against the honor (b e s c h e s t i e) of various social
and demonology.This debate, which continued beyond categories: witches came at the very bottom, with har-
the Reformation in both Catholic and Pro t e s t a n t lots. Male sorcerers were not mentioned, although they
c h u rches, never occurred in the Eastern Ort h o d ox we re certainly common in Russian society, implying
churches. Although Byzantium certainly had numerous that illicit magic still remained within Church jurisdic-
trials for practicing magic, Ort h o d ox Christendom tion. Codified Russian law changed in 1649 with the
generally avoided the witch hunts and witchcraft trials Ul o z h e n i e , the code introduced by Tsar Aleksei
of early modern western Europe. Indeed, the Orthodox Mikhailovich (which incorporated many provisions for
c h u rches under Tu rkish domination after 1453 could offenses previously under canon law), and in 1715 with
not promote witch hunts even had they so wished. the military code (Voinskii art i k u l) of Peter the Gre a t .
Outside Muscovy, the other two Orthodox eastern Slav These codes, either implicitly (in the Ul o z h e n i e) or
territories, the Ukraine and Be l o russia, we re under s p e c i fically (in the Voinskii art i k u l) made witchcraft a
Polish rule until 1650, and the treatment of witches crime against the sovereign or state and punishable by
there was largely dependent on Polish practices and pre- death. Russia’s criminalization of witchcraft and the evi-
vailing local laws. dent fear of witchcraft among seventeenth-century tsars
In Kievan Russia from the tenth century onward and considerably diminished the Churc h’s traditional ro l e .
later in Muscovy, magicians were usually identified with Most accusations of malefic magic or witchcraft in
practitioners of pagan rites; witchcraft, or any manifes- Muscovite and early imperial Russia were now brought
tations of magic or divination, we re condemned in under the slovo i delo gosudarevo (word and deed of the
princely law codes and canon law collections as pagan, sovereign) procedure, a kind of “hue and cry” designed
demonic, and “He l l e n i c” (i.e., Greek pagan). Ru s s i a n to identify crimes against the sovereign.
penitentials, episcopal denunciations, and lists of The overlap between ecclesiastical and state jurisdic-
banned books, often derived from the fourt h - c e n t u ry tion and the close association of witchcraft, heresy, and
Constitutiones Ap o s t o l o ru m ( Apostolic Constitutions), treason can be seen in the accusations brought by senior
we re as varied as their Western counterparts; most bishops against Maxim the Greek (the ex-humanist
Russian catalogs of sins, again like their Western coun- Michael Trivolis) in his trials in 1525 and 1531. They
terparts, condemned sexual behavior, magic, poisoning, charged him with having “evil intentions” tow a rd the
and employing demonic assistance. Mo re than a mil- grand prince, communicating with the Tu rks in ord e r
lennium after the fourt h - c e n t u ry Canons of Laodicea to help them wage war against Russia, indulging in
had condemned the practice of magic by the clergy, the h e resy and in Hellenic and Jewish black magic and
acts of the St o g l a v ( Hu n d red Chapters) council, con- witchcraft, and practicing sorc e ry against the grand
vened in Moscow by Ivan the Terrible in 1551 to deal prince. Half a century later, Prince Andrei Ku r b s k i i ,
with ecclesiastical abuses, specifically forbade the parish who had fled Muscovy, protested in a public epistle to
c l e r g y, under pain of ecclesiastical ban, from invo l ve- Ivan IV that the tsar had “falsely accused the Orthodox
ment in magical practices. The Stoglav specifically clas- of treason and magic and other abuses.” Ivan re p l i e d :
sified magical practices and texts as heresy. Its decisions “As for your mentioning ‘t re a c h e ry and magic’ — we l l ,
mostly cited the Trullan Synod and the various lists of such dogs are executed in all countries.” Iva n’s court
Orthodox Christianity 861 |
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physician and astrologer Elisaeus Bomelius was tor- the Devil. W h o e ver had not harmed anyone or had
t u red to death for treason; under interrogation, he dealings with the Devil should be punished by one of
implicated several highly placed persons, including the other punishments and made to do public churc h
Archbishop Leonid of Novgorod, whom he accused of penance. Its second article states that anyone who
running a coven of fifteen witches; Leonid was found h i red a magician or encouraged anyone else to do so in
guilty and disgraced, and the witches were burned. o rder to harm someone should be punished in the
The identification of witchcraft with here s y, evi- same way as the magician. Many cases we re in fact
dent in the common use in some parts of Russia of punished with such lesser ecclesiastical penalties as
the word h e re t i c for the more usual k o l d u n (the male public penance. Pe t e r’s military code was based largely
witch in most villages), meant that non-Ort h o d ox, by on the Swedish military code introduced by Gustav II
d e finition “heretics,” could often be accused of witch- Adolf in 1621–1622, written when fear of witchcraft
craft. A striking example is the case of the Fa l s e in Sweden was strong, and partly on the Caro l i n a
Dmitrii, the early seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry pretender to (Constitutio Criminalis Ca ro l i n a), the 1532 law code
the Russian throne, who married a Polish noble- of the Holy Roman Em p e ror Charles V. Pe t e r’s
woman, adopted Polish manners, and briefly seize d Voinskii artikul i n d i rectly copied the old Roman law
p ower in Mo s c ow with Polish help. Contemporary distinction between magic that harmed and magic
accounts described him practicing “gypsy sorc e ry and that did not, and the punishment of the former by
e ve ry kind of devilish magic . . . like Julian the burning from article 109 of the Carolina (which omits
Apostate who did sorc e ry with devils” and “cast spells the demonic/nondemonic distinction). The Ca ro l i n a’s
with devils”; indeed, he was re p o rtedly buried as if he re q u i rement that confessions could be extracted by
we re a magician, and his Polish wife Marina, called an t o rt u re was already normal practice in Ru s s i a .
“evil heretic atheist,” was popularly supposed to have The confusion of civil and ecclesiastical law was
escaped from a mob by turning herself into a magpie compounded by Peter the Gre a t’s Church reforms. In
and flying away. his Ecclesiastical Regulationof 1721, Peter abolished the
Ne ve rtheless, these examples of witchcraft fears in p a t r i a rchate of the Russian Ort h o d ox Church and
sixteenth- and seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Mu s c ovy cannot established a synod to govern it instead. Insofar as it
compare to the scale of the witch hunts in many parts served as a court, the synod was essentially a branch of
of western Europe. Despite infrequent clerical involve- the state apparatus and blurred the distinction between
ment and concern and the occasionally religious color- civil and ecclesiastical authority even further while
ing of accusations, Muscovy and Orthodox Europe saw depriving the Church of jurisdiction in many areas. In
f ew religious polemics and had no ecclesiastical this period, the only specific Russian laws against
tribunals resembling western Inquisitions. Howe ve r, witchcraft were found in Peter’s military code, although
they did prosecute “religious crimes,” and their punish- in 1722 the synod obtained Peter’s confirmation of its
ments could be seve re; in the 1660s, Gr i g o r i i jurisdiction in cases relating to marriage, blasphemy,
Kotoshikhin, a senior Russian official who fled to h e re s y, and vo l s h e b n ye dela (magical matters). T h i s
Sweden and wrote a hostile account of the internal pol- c reated a curious situation, in which cases of harmful
itics and manners of the contemporary Russian court , magic could be tried in the highest ecclesiastical court,
stated that the Ra z b o i n y i p r i k a z (the ministry for sup- the Synodal Court, under military law. Peter’s Church
p ressing crime and sedition) dealt with k o l d ovs t vo a n d reforms also re q u i red the clergy to re p o rt anything
c h e rn o k n i z h s t vo ( s o rc e ry and black magic), which it learned from penitents in confession, and bishops were
lumped together with blasphemy, theft of church prop- obliged to send annual re p o rts on superstitious
e rt y, sodomy, and false interpretation of Scripture . practices in their dioceses.
Kotoshikhin claimed that the penalty for all these The severe treatment prescribed by the state for those
crimes was to be burned alive (for men) or beheaded suspected of practicing magic and witchcraft continued
(for women). after Peter’s death. Ukazy(edicts) of March 20 and May
The first article of the first chapter of Peter the 25, 1731, in the reign of the Empress Anna, prescribed
Gre a t’s 1715 code of military law (Voinskii art i k u l) death by burning for “deceivers” who practiced magic,
was entitled “On the Fear of Go d” and states that, and the knout, or in extreme cases death, as the punish-
depending on the nature of the offense, any soldier ment for consulting magicians (the phrasing indicated
found to be an idol worshipper, black magician (c h e r- that male magicians we re envisaged). The use of the
n o k n i z h e t s), gun charmer, or superstitious and blas- w o rd d e c e i ve r s (o b m a n s h c h i k i) suggested that the law
phemous enchanter (c h a ro d e i) would be placed under n ow re g a rded witchcraft as a species of fraud, as elsew h e re
close arrest, put in irons, made to run the gauntlet, or in Eu rope under the influence of the En l i g h t e n m e n t ,
be burned to death. It specifies that death by burning e ven if the punishment was still associated with older
was the normal punishment for black magicians who v i ews of magic and here s y.
had harmed anyone by sorc e ry or had dealings with W. F. RYAN
862 Orthodox Christianity |
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See also:AUGUSTINE,ST.; BALKANS;CAROLINACODE ed the violence against the Osbornes; Colley claimed at
(CONSTITIOCRIMINALISCAROLINA); ENLIGHTENMENT; his trial that it was the drink Bu t t e rfield supplied that
EXODUS22:18, (22:17); HUNGARYANDSOUTHEASTERN caused him to take a leading part in the violence against
EUROPE,MAGIC;HUNGARYANDSOUTHEASTERNEUROPE,
the couple. This violence was well organized: the inten-
WITCHCRAFT;JEWS,WITCHCRAFT,ANDMAGIC;MAGIC,
tion to “d u c k” the Osbornes (i.e., subject them to the
POPULAR;POLAND;RUSSIA;UKRAINE,WITCHCRAFT.
swimming test) was announced publicly in a number of
References and further reading:
t owns in the area, and some 5,000 people turned up to
Fögen, Marie Theres. 1995. “Balsamon on Magic: From Roman
p a rticipate or watch. The Osbornes had taken refuge in
Secular Law to Byzantine Canon Law.” Pp. 99–115 in
Byzantine Magic.Edited by Henry Maguire. Washington, DC: the ve s t ry of the parish church but we re dragged out.
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, distributed Ruth was thrown into a pond, and Colley re p e a t e d l y
by Harvard University Press. pushed her further in with a stick. A local doctor subse-
Kieckhefer, Richard. 2000. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: quently called to the scene confirmed that she had died
Cambridge University Press. f rom drow n i n g .
Kivelson, Valerie. 1997. “Political Sorcery in Sixteenth-Century The pamphlet accounts of Colley’s trial and of his
Muscovy.” Pp. 267–283 inCultural Identity in Muscovy,
subsequent execution very much followed the norms of
1359–1584.Edited by A. M. Kleimola and G. D. Lenhoff.
polite Enlightenment society, stressing the dreadfulness
Moscow: Its-Garant. English edition distributed by Slavica
of the events and the ill-advisedness of belief in witch-
Publishers.
craft. It was particularly important to present Colley as
Maguire, Henry, ed. 1995. Byzantine Magic.Washington, DC:
coming round to a repentant and enlightened state of
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, distributed
by Harvard University Press. mind, in which he was able both to realize the enormi-
Ryan, W. F. 1999. The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey ty of his crime and accept that there was no such thing
of Magic and Divination in Russia.University Park: as witchcraft. In particular, an unnamed gentleman vis-
Pennsylvania State University Press. ited Colley in prison, hoping to convince him that his
Vogel, K. 1967. “Byzantine Science. XII. Superstition and Pseudo- v i ews on witchcraft we re totally erro n e o u s .
Science.” in The Cambridge Medieval History.Vol. 4, The In t e re s t i n g l y, Colley told this gentleman that he had
Byzantine Empire;Pt. 2, Government, Church, and Civilisation,
witnessed a similar swimming of a witch, which also
Chap. 28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
resulted in her death, in a neighboring county only a
Zguta, Russell. 1977. “Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century
few years previously; because no legal action had been
Russia.” American Historical Review82, no. 5: 1187–1207.
taken against any participants in that event, he thought
such practices were legal. Throughout, one senses a ten-
Osborne, John and Ruth (1751) sion between the rejection of witch beliefs among the
This elderly English couple was subjected to mob vio- educated, polite world of the gentry and their continu-
lence at Tring (Hertfordshire) in the summer of 1751. ation among the population at large.
Ruth Osborne, aged about seventy, died as a result of The authorities, obviously fearing that Colley might
the treatment meted out to her. One of the ringleaders, be rescued by mob action, had him accompanied to his
Thomas Colley, was subsequently convicted for murder place of execution by over 100 troopers from the Horse
at the Hertford assizes and executed at Tring on August Gu a rds. The soldiers we re jumpy, and thinking they
24, 1751, his body left to rot on a gibbet. were being fired on, were thrown into confusion when
The incident has yet to be re s e a rched in detail, but it one of their number accidentally discharged a pistol. In
o bviously opens up some important issues about witch- the event, there was no riot in support of Colley.Yet the
craft and witch beliefs in mid-eighteenth century pamphlet describing his execution recounted how the
England. T h e re we re several incidents of mob action e vent attracted a large crowd of spectators, many of
against witches in Ha n overian England, but the whom commented on the injustice of hanging a man
Osborne case was unusually well documented because it for killing a witch.
p rompted two printed pamphlets. The English witch-
JAMES SHARPE
craft statutes had been repealed not long before (1736),
but there was obviously widespread fear of and belief in See also:ENGLAND;PAMPHLETSANDNEWSPAPERS;POPULARBELIEFS
witches among the population at large. Ruth Os b o r n e INWITCHES;SWIMMINGTEST.
had supposedly committed a number of acts of m a l e fic i- References and further reading:
Anon. 1751. The Tryal of Thomas Colley at the Assizes at Hertford
u m (harmful magic), and her husband, some fourt e e n
on Tuesday the 30th of July 1751, before the Right Hon. Sir
years younger than she, had a reputation for being a wiz-
William Lee, Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King’s
a rd, so that none of the local farmers would employ
Bench.London.
him. In part i c u l a r, a farmer turned innkeeper named
Anon. 1751. The remarkable Confession and last dying Words of
John Bu t t e rfield was convinced that the Osbornes had
Thomas Colley, executed on Saturday, August the 24th, at
killed his cattle by witchcraft, a tragedy that had led him Gibblecot Cross, near Marlston (vulgarly called Wilston) Green.
to give up farming. Bu t t e rfield seems to have orc h e s t r a t- London.
Osborne, John and Ruth 863 |
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Carnochan, W. B. 1970–1971. “Witch-Hunting and Belief in d e p r i ve his rival Dr. Modemann (a follower of
1751: The Case of Thomas Colley and Ruth Osborne.” Gustavson) of his power: Dr. Modemann’s eighty-two-
Journal of Social History4: 389–404. year-old mother, Anna Modemann, was accused of
witchcraft along with other patrician women.
Osnabrück, Bishopric of T h e re was resistance within the city to Dr. Pe l ze r’s
An ecclesiastical territory situated in the northwest of a r b i t r a ry policies. Pastor Ge r h a rd Gr a ve, a re l a t i ve of
the old Reich, the prince-bishopric of Osnabrück had the executed Anna Modemann and preacher at the
approximately 120,000 inhabitants at the end of the Church of the Virgin in Osnabrück, condemned from
eighteenth century. Because of the questionable situa- his pulpit, among other things, the use of the swim-
tion of Osnabrück’s sources, it is unclear when its witch ming test (cold-water ordeal) in witchcraft trials,
hunt started. Its first provable witchcraft execution re g a rding this ordeal as illegal. Pe l zer took draconian
dates from 1501. Because many early records were lost m e a s u res to silence Gr a ve, closing his church c u m
in a fire that completely destroyed the city of maximo scandalo (with ve ry great scandal) in order to
Osnabrück in March 1613, we will never know how continue and intensify the use of the swimming test.
many witchcraft prosecutions were pursued here in the For his part, Gr a ve retaliated by making the eve n t s
sixteenth century. s u r rounding the water ordeal at Osnabrück into a
With re g a rd to witch hunts, the bishopric of pamphlet printed at Rinteln in the 1640s by Pe t ru s
Osnabrück shows a distinct separation between part s Lucius. Today almost unknown, it was then considered
of its territories that had high and low pro s e c u t i o n a major attack against the water ordeal.
rates. Available sources suggested that ve ry few witch- Another Osnabrück critic of the swimming test was
craft trials took place in the seven rural offices of the Conrad von Anten, a lawyer at the Reichskammergericht
prince-bishopric, although a certain number of unde- (imperial chamber court), the highest appellate court in
tected cases must be added because of lost materials. the Holy Roman Em p i re. His work about the
Gisela Wi l b e rtz, who produced the best work on this Mulierum Lavatio (The Bathing of Wives), published in
subject, mentioned ninety trials between 1538 and 1590, was based on personal experiences witnessing
1669. Over half of them (fif t y - t h ree) ended with the such persecutions; his own wife, Anna Schre i b e r, also
e xecution of the defendant; only four men we re exe- f rom Osnabrück, had been accused and tort u red as a
cuted alongside forty-nine women. We can safely witch. Based on his own experiences, von Anten’s eru-
assume that only individuals we re accused: the prince- dite treatise scathingly criticized the water ordeal for its
bishopric of Osnabrück had no known mass trials. degrading character. Besides publishing this book, von
Howe ve r, the self-governing city of Os n a b r ü c k Anten also sued both the mayor and city council of
became a regional center of witchcraft prosecution: at Osnabrück in the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t for the annul-
least 276 people we re put to death in several major ment of his wife’sUrfehde, her oath to the judge not to
witch-hunting waves between 1561 and 1639. By the exact revenge against her accusers, and also for damages
mid-1580s, more than 130 people had already fallen she suffered from personal injuries. Os n a b r ü c k’s last
victim to Osnabrück’s witch hunts; soon afterwards, 22 witchcraft trial apparently occurred in 1639.
women were sentenced and executed as witches in 1590
GUDRUN GERSMANN
and 17 more women in 1592. Because of the fragmen-
t a ry state of our sources, we cannot re c o n s t ruct the See also: GERMANY,WESTANDNORTHWEST;HOLYROMANEMPIRE;
dynamics of any of Osnabrück’s witch hunts. MÜNSTER,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;ORDEAL;REICHSKAMMERG-
The witch hunt in the city of Osnabrück reached a
ERICHT;SWIMMINGTEST;URBANWITCHCRAFT.
References and further reading:
n ew peak between 1636 and 1639. The spiritus re c t o r
Stebel, Heinz-Jürgen. 1969. Die Osnabrücker Hexenprozesse.
(driving force) behind this wave of prosecutions was the
Osnabrück: Wenner.
m a yo r, Dr. Wilhelm Pe l ze r, who was eve n t u a l l y
Wilbertz, Gisela. 1983. “Die Hexenprozesse in Stadt und
re m oved from his position because of his judicial
Hochstift Osnabrück.” Pp. 218–221 in Hexenprozesse: Deutsche
excesses and was imprisoned after 1651. The multipli- und skandinavische Beiträge.Edited by Christian Degn et al.
cation of witchcraft prosecutions in Osnabrück during Neumünster: Wachholtz.
these years must be seen against a background of two ———. 1978. “Hexenprozesse und Zauberglaube im Hochstift
c o n flicts. One was the city’s tenacious struggle with Osnabrück.” Osnabrücker Mitteilungen84: 33–50.
Gustavus Gustavson, an illegitimate son of the famous
Swedish king Gustav II Adolph, attempting to protect Overbury, Sir Thomas (1581–1613)
its municipal autonomy against a foreign Pro t e s t a n t Trials for the supposed murder of Thomas Overbury
s ove reign; the other invo l ved internal city riva l r i e s . exposed the recourse to magic among the social and
Mayor Pelzer wanted to defend the city’s independence political elite of early seventeenth-century London.
against Gustavson at any price and used the witchcraft Born into a pro s p e rous Gl o u c e s t e r s h i re gentry family,
trials as a political measure. In the same way, he tried to the son of a successful judge, Overbury earned his BA
864 Osnabrück, Bishopric of |
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at Oxford and then entered the Middle Temple in t h e re f o re an excellent contact for Frances How a rd .
London to begin his legal training. In 1601, howe ve r, Turner became Frances How a rd’s confidante in 1610
while visiting Edinburgh, he met and befriended and introduced her to Forman. The two women visited
another young gentleman, Ro b e rt Carr, at that time him on several occasions, turning for help after his
page to the earl of Dunbar. Carr came south with James death in 1611 to another magical practitioner named
VI and I in 1603 and became a leading royal favorite, Sa ve ry. When at Tu r n e r’s trial the judge pro d u c e d
becoming Viscount Rochester in 1610. Ove r b u ry, the damning evidence of magical dabblings, the packed
more polished of the two, acted as a sort of mentor for audience was most scandalized by obscene copulating
Carr, hoping that Carr’s rising fortunes would enhance fig u res (supposedly aids to love magic) made of lead,
his own. brass, and wax, and various parchment charms, one of
By 1610, Carr was invo l ved with Frances How a rd , them with human skin attached to it. A crack in the
countess of Essex. The countess, whose life has formed scaffolding holding spectators while these exhibits were
the basis for several books (most recently Lindley being shown fueled fears that the Devil was in the
1993), planned to divorce her husband and marry Carr. c o u rt room. T h e re we re re p o rts of a list in Fo r m a n’s
Her granduncle, the earl of Northampton and leader of handwriting naming those court ladies who had sought
the powe rful How a rd faction, approved of this plan, love potions from him.
but Overbury opposed it, fearing that his own influence The Ove r b u ry murder trials there f o re made two
over Carr would be replaced by that of the countess. i m p o rtant points. The first was that, even in the early
Overbury had to be removed. His imprisonment in the s e venteenth century, upper-class people we re still will-
Tower of London was engineered; both the new gover- ing to use magic to settle their problems and to consult
nor of the Tower and Ove r b u ry’s jailer, Richard magical practitioners, up-market cunning folk in effect,
Weston, we re How a rd clients. While imprisoned, and to help them. The second was that although witchcraft
p robably without Carr’s knowledge, Ove r b u ry was and associated beliefs are often thought of as essentially
gradually poisoned. A woman named Anne Tu r n e r the products of a rural society, there was clearly a large,
helped supply the poisons, Weston and an apothecary and still largely unresearched, network of cunning folk,
named James Franklin administered them, and a gen- astrologers, and other forms of magical practitioners in
tleman named Ge rvase Hewlys was also invo l ve d . London. In both respects, Ove r b u ry’s murder pre fig-
Overbury died on September 14, 1613, his death being ured the Affair of the Poisons at Louis XIV’s court over
attributed by a consequent coroner’s inquest to natural fifty years later.
causes. Frances How a rd divo rced the earl of Essex on
JAMES SHARPE
g rounds of nonconsummation due to his impotence
(the proceedings scandalized Jacobean high society) and See also: AFFAIROFTHEPOISONS;CUNNINGFOLK;ENGLAND;
married Carr, by this time the earl of Somerset, in IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL;JAMESVIANDI,KINGOFSCOTLANDAND
December 1613.
ENGLAND;LOVEMAGIC;POISON;URBANWITCHCRAFT.
References and further reading:
By 1615, re p o rts reached court that Ove r b u ry had, in
Lindley, David. 1993. The Trials of Frances Howard: Fact and
fact, been murd e red, and proceedings we re opened
Fiction at the Court of James I.London: Routledge.
against Tu r n e r, Hewlys, Franklin, and Weston that
McElwee, William. 1952. The Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.
Nove m b e r, with the earl and countess of Somerset being
London: Faber and Faber.
tried in May 1616. All four commoners we re convicted
and executed; the earl and countess we re found guilty Oxford and Cambridge
but pardoned, being eventually freed in 1621. Universities
The significance of the Overbury case in the history In contrast to the situation in other European states,
of witchcraft lies in some of the evidence that emerged where theology faculties were occasionally called upon
during the trials of his murderers. It was revealed that in to pronounce on witchcraft cases or on the concept of
the period preceding her divorce, Frances Howard had witchcraft more generally, English universities never
consulted various cunning men and other magical prac- offered professional opinions on witchcraft in specific
titioners, both to procure magical substances to render instances. Moreover, the English common law, under
her husband impotent (apparently he had appro p r i a t e which English witches accused on capital charges
ointments rubbed onto his linen) and to win the love of would be tried, was not studied at Oxford and
Robert Carr. In particular, she had been an active client Cambridge but rather at the Inns of Court in London
of the astrologer and quack doctor Simon Fo r m a n (“civil,” that is, Roman law, was offered at both univer-
(1552–1611), who had built up a large practice, sities, and it was there that ecclesiastical court judges
especially among well-connected ladies, knew many gained their qualifications). Therefore, there was no law
court scandals, and also had a reputation for dabbling faculty to comment on witchcraft cases at English
in poisons. Like Anne Turner, he lived on the margins universities, and the Inns of Court do not seem to have
of court society and pro fited from its vices and was been consulted institutionally about witchcraft.
Oxford and Cambridge Universities 865 |
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Both English universities enjoyed parallel deve l o p- in the 1640s and 1650s, what soon became a ve ry
ments in the early modern period. After a post- i n fluential body of Platonic and Neoplatonic thinkers.
Reformation slump, they enjoyed a boom for ninety The most important of them was He n ry Mo re, a pow-
years after 1550. Matriculations at the two institutions e rful and respected thinker, who was responsible for
rose to over 900 annually by the 1580s. After a dow n t u r n the emergence of Joseph Gl a n v i l l’s Sa d u c i s m u s
in the 1590s, matriculations rose again to over 1,000 by Triumphatus ( Sadducism Conquered), an extre m e l y
the 1630s. They fell with the civil wars, and despite a i m p o rtant defense of the belief in witches and spirits,
re c ove ry in the 1650s never regained their prewar leve l s in its full form in 1681. Mo re’s own Antidote against
in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. T h e Atheisme of 1653 pioneered the approach Glanvill and
post-1550 boom was driven by a perc e i ved need for a other later defenders of witch beliefs used by assem-
u n i versity-trained clergy, a goal virtually attained by the bling apparently authenticated accounts of witchcraft,
o u t b reak of war in 1642, and by a new fashionableness of possession, and other supernatural happenings to
a university education among the gentry. p rove the reality of the spirit world.
O x f o rd and Cambridge Un i versities we re, of O x f o rd, howe ve r, had the distinction of dire c t
course, responsible for spreading educated views of involvement by a large body of its academics in a witch-
witchcraft both through theology and through the craft case, the episode involving Anne Gu n t e r, the
teaching of classical languages, because Greek and daughter of a Berkshire gentleman who began showing
Roman literature furnished many examples of witch- signs of being bewitched in late 1604. Her case subse-
craft and related phenomena. But Cambridge made quently came to the attention of King James I, and she,
two specific and important contributions to En g l i s h together with her father, was subsequently tried for false
witchcraft. The first was its role as a hotbed of accusations of witchcraft by the Star Chamber. Anne’s
a d vanced Protestant views during the Elizabethan and sister Susan was married to Thomas Holland, then
early St u a rt periods. A by - p roduct of this focus was Regius Professor of Theology and Rector of Exe t e r
the emergence of a number of clerical intellectuals College. Anne was lodged in the college for a while, and
who published works on demonology, usually along a number of academics, including some major universi-
with other writings. The most influential of these ty figures, gave evidence to Star Chamber, most of them
intellectuals was William Pe rkins, whose import a n t arguing for the reality of her sufferings.
Discourse of the Damned Art of Wi t c h c raft was pub-
JAMES SHARPE
lished posthumously in 1608. Other Cambridge-
based or Cambridge-educated demonologists includ- See also:COTTA,JOHN;DEMONOLOGY;ENGLAND;GIFFORD,
ed George Gi f f o rd, author of two tracts on witchcraft; GEORGE;GLANVILL,JOSEPH;GUNTER,ANNE;MORE,HENRY;
He n ry Holland, whose Treatise against Wi t c h c raft w a s
PERKINS,WILLIAM;UNIVERSITIES.
References and further reading:
published in 1590; James Mason, author of T h e
Lake, Peter. 1982. Moderate Puritans and the Elizabethan Church.
Anatomie of sorcerie of 1612; the physician Jo h n
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cotta, whose Tryall of Wi t c h - Craft a p p e a red in 1616;
Patrides, C. A., ed. 1969. The Cambridge Platonists.London:
and Richard Be r n a rd, author of A Guide to Grand Iu ry
Edward Arnold.
Men with respect to Witches ( 1 6 2 7) , a book exe m p l i f y- Sharpe, James. 1999. The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: A Horrible
ing a distinctive English demonological style. and True Story of Deception, Witchcraft, Murder, and the King of
C a m b r i d g e’s second great contribution was to foster, England.London: Profile.
866 Oxford and Cambridge Universities |
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P
Pact with the Devil giance to the Devil in a written agreement in return for
A p u r p o rted contract, either implicit or explicit, magical powers—an early indication of the anti-Se m i t i s m
between accused witches (and sometimes magicians) inherent in diabolical belief structures.
and the Devil, according to which a person pledged her During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
or his soul to Satan in return for worldly gain, healing scholastic theologians accentuated a view of all magic as
and magical powers, or arcane knowledge, was consid- demonic and implied the necessity of a De v i l’s pact as a
ered a pact with the Devil. p recondition to gaining magical abilities. Pre v i o u s l y,
As an essential element of the cumulative or elaborat- m e d i e val necromancers operated under the assumption
ed concept of witchcraft, the pact with the De v i l that they could command the spirits of the dead and the
gradually became one of four essential legal pro o f s demons they summoned. Howe ve r, Thomas Aq u i n a s
(alongside m a l e fic i u m [harmful magic], transve c t i o n f o rcefully argued for a contractual re c i p rocity inhere n t
and metamorphosis, and attendance at the Sabbat) in in any concourse with the Devil, emphasizing the exis-
accusations of witchcraft. An explicit or express pact tence of tacit agreements or express pacts, either the
was not limited to a legal document, often supposedly implicit pactum tacitumor a pactum expre s s u m ,the latter
composed in a person’s blood, but also included an literally a verbal or written contract. Re c i p rocity implied
array of ritual acts of homage (e.g., kissing the Devil on that the magician was guilty of apostasy, because mort a l s
the buttocks—the kiss of shame), with a material (e.g., had little to offer Satan other than their service or their
monies that later turned out to be potsherds or clumps soul, there by logically condemning all parties to pacts as
of dung) or sexual consideration literally reifying the demon-worshipers and justifying their persecution by
c ovenant. Fi g u r a t i ve l y, the rituals we re a perversion of inquisitorial officials as heretics. Gr a d u a l l y, as demo-
feudal ceremonies associated with fealty (e.g., chart e r, nologists came to view the contract as essentially one-
kiss, exchange of a clump of earth) and marriage (e.g., sided rather than one conducted between equals, the
d ow ry, consummation) concluded between legally (if relationship between necromancer and spirit shifted,
not socially) equal partners; hence, the Devil was often and “as the master-magician was transformed into the
iconographically depicted as a nobleman who proposi- s e rvile witch, the sex of the malefactor changed fro m
tioned the pro s p e c t i ve witch. The ready familiarity of male to female” (Levack 1995, 35). Heiko Ob e r m a n’s
these legal and ritual concepts, their congruence with t h e o ry of an alternate and skeptical Augustinian tradi-
existing gender roles, and a strong literary tradition and tion notwithstanding (a demonological via modern a
the reintroduction of Roman law all help to explain the [modern way], exe m p l i fied by the Canon Ep i s c o p i [ c a .
easy reception and centrality of the idea of the pact in 906] and the Tübingen scholar Ma rtin Plantsch), the
late medieval and early modern Eu rope, especially on Thomist via antiqua (old way) became the dominant
the Continent. ideology by the fifteenth century, echoed in the Ma l l e u s
Ma l e fic a ru m(The Hammer of Witches, 1486) as well as
Early History in later works by Ma rtín Del Rio and others during the
The Western tradition of contract law emerged in second (or bastard) scholasticism of the late-sixteenth
Roman jurisprudence in classical antiquity. One of the and early-seventeenth centuries.
earliest inferences to the possibility of entering into a The especial significance of this tradition was to ren-
private commercial contract with the Devil is found der all forms of magic suspicious and encourage their
among St. Augustine’s works in the fourth century. persecution. In i t i a l l y, secular law codes (such as the
However, not until a number of legendary incidents C a rolina, 1532) had condemned m a l e fic i u m o n l y, but
were translated into Latin in the ninth century did the by 1582, the pact with the Devil was re c o g n i zed as a
idea become widespread. Foremost among these was material element of accusations for witchcraft in the
the story of the monk Theophilus, known both on the law codes of W ü rttemberg, the electorate of Sa xo n y,
Continent and among the late Anglo-Saxons. A Jewish and the County Palatine of the Rhine. Me d i e va l
magician persuaded Theophilus to transfer his alle- England, where reception of the Malleus was generally
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isolated individuals who contracted actual written
pacts with the Devil. Obv i o u s l y, the vast majority of
those accused of contracting a pact probably did not
do so, and in most cases, the implication is of a tacit or
oral contract in any case. Howe ve r, indications of writ-
ten pacts should not be dismissed lightly for want of
evidence, since their destruction as blasphemies was
re q u i red, as re p o rted by Ma rtín Del Rio and others.
Most contemporary demonologists—including the
skeptical Johann We yer—despondently confir m e d
their existence.
Ad d i t i o n a l l y, although the evidence is extre m e l y
r a re, archivists and historians have identified seve r a l
s u rviving written pacts in the arc h i ves. The most
famous of these are the pacts of Johann Ha i z m a n n
with the Devil, discove red by the Viennese arc h i v i s t
Rudolf Pa yer-Thurn in 1920 and subsequently
described in an article by Sigmund Freud. Convincing
c i rcumstantial evidence witnessed by contemporary
legal investigations into four De v i l’s pacts have been
located in the arc h i ves of the Un i versity of T ü b i n g e n
alone, along with the actual written pact of the stu-
dent David Leipziger, composed in 1596. Two pacts
written in lemon juice by the demoniac Katharina
Rieder in 1668 we re discove red in Munich using
q u a rtz-lamp technology. A gender distinction re a d i l y
emerges from an examination of these pacts. The pacts
contracted by males for money or career adva n c e m e n t
tend tow a rd a Faustian model and we re pro b a b l y
i n fluenced by the first vernacular printed edition of
Pact between Urbain Grandier and various devils, introduced as
the tale in 1587, which was immensely popular.
evidence in his trial in Loudun in 1634. The pact is in mirror writing
Howe ve r, the female Rieder-pact and its surro u n d i n g
because devils do everything opposite to Christians. (Reprinted from
c i rcumstances more closely resemble the witch model,
Mephistopheles: the Devil in the Modern World,by Jeffrey Burton
to include copulation with the Devil, apostasy, and
Russell, Cornell University Press, 1986)
demonic possession, though here once again, give n
their timing, one should not preclude the possible
i n fluence of the Faust legend. A third influence can be
slow, was exceptional in this regard. Explicit mention of traced to the common contemporary practice of con-
a diabolical compact remained completely absent from tracting obligations with the saints, usually in re t u r n
English law until 1604; the first English trial reference for individual healing or communal assurance for
to an oral pact with the Devil dates from 1612; the first agrarian fertility—hence, legal condemnations of the
sworn evidence indicating a written pact dates from the practice of throwing saints’ statues into rivers when
i n vestigations of Ma t t h ew Hopkins, witch-fin d e r communes felt they had failed to deliver on their pre-
general, in the 1640s. sumed contractual obligations. In a literal inversion of
the pact with the Devil, Elector Maximilian I of
Elite and Popular Beliefs Ba varia contracted himself, his son, and his daughter-
Some historians have suggested that there never we re in-law to the Virgin Ma ry in their own blood in the
pacts with the Devil, but rather that they we re imagi- m i d - s e venteenth century, and the contracts are still
n a t i ve inventions, part of the cumulative or elaborated p re s e rved at the dynastic cult shrine at Altötting.
concept of witchcraft developed by demonologists,
jurists, and theologians and, hence, completely alien to Signs of Skepticism
the popular consciousness. In fact, there we re actual As the publication of the Faust legend increased the like-
persons who believed themselves possessed of extraor- lihood of persons contracting actual written pacts, and
d i n a ry powers to heal, perform love magic, fly in out- just as persecutions for witchcraft approached their
of-body ecstasies, or engage in night battles against climax in western Eu rope, a number of skeptics entere d
phantoms to defend agrarian fert i l i t y. T h e re we re also into the debate on the cumulative concept of witchcraft,
868 Pact with the Devil |
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challenging its fundamental precepts. Fo remost among Zwierlein, Cornel Anton. 1999. “Das semantische Potential des
these we re Johann We ye r, who thoroughly debunked Fauststoffes um die Wende vom 16. zum 17. Jahrhundert.”
the efficacy of such contracts according to the pre c e p t s Unpublished MA thesis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
München, Institut für Deutsche Philologie.
of Roman law and current medical theory in his De
p raestigiis daemonum ( On the Tricks of Devils, 1563),
and Reginald Scot, who refuted the possibility of pacts Paderborn, Prince-Bishopric of
outright in his D i s c overie of Wi t c h c ra f t (1584). We ye r, A prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire with a
sometimes considered to be the father of the modern population between 60,000 and 80,000, Paderborn was
insanity defense in Freudian psychoanalysis, deve l o p e d located in southeastern Westphalia in between two
the hypothesis of pacts as “leonine” contracts—that is, regions of intensive witchcraft persecution: the county
unfair contracts benefiting the Devil only, who failed to of Lippe to the north and the electoral duchy
l i ve up to his promises to the witch—there by re n d e r i n g (Kurkölnisches Herzogtum) of Westphalia to the south-
them null and void, because they rested upon coerc i o n . west. Paderborn’s power structure was split among three
We ye r’s arguments did suffer from certain inconsisten- estates with extensive rights of self-determination: the
cies because he too ultimately had to admit certain pow- cathedral chapter; the nobility; and representatives of
ers to the Devil, as well as to re c o g n i ze the existence of its numerous, but largely agrarian, towns. The prince-
attempted pacts, despite their legal inva l i d i t y. b i s h o p’s sove reign criminal justice system did not
Ne ve rtheless, We ye r’s influence was great, as was that of control the entire territory; sizable areas remained
Scot in England, so that by the mid-seve n t e e n t h under the autonomous judicial authority of the cathe-
c e n t u ry, numerous jurists, scholars, and theologians dral chapter and of various noble families, the highest
could successfully assert the illusory nature of pacts with being the lords von und zu Büren and von Westphalen
the Devil, resulting in increased employment of the zu Fürstenberg.
insanity defense in cases of witchcraft and especially Be t ween 1510 and 1702, witchcraft trials against
demonic possession and suicide. 260 persons are known to have taken place in
Paderborn. In 204 cases, these trials ended in execution
DAVID LEDERER
or death in prison; eighteen prisoners we re re l e a s e d ;
See also:AQUINAS,THOMAS;AUGUSTINE,ST.; CANONEPISCOPI; and the outcome of the rest is unknown. Se ve n t y
DELRIO,MARTÍN;DEMONOLOGY;DEVIL;FAUST,JOHANNGEORG;
percent of those prosecuted were women; children were
FREUD,SIGMUND;HOPKINS,MATTHEW;KISSOFSHAME;LAWS
occasionally prosecuted. These numbers are only a
ONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); MAXIMILIANI,DUKEOF
minimum: although both major noble rulers, vo n
BAVARIA;NECROMANCY;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;ROMANLAW;
B ü ren and von Westphalen, left excellent sources, the
SCOT,REGINALD;SKEPTICISM;THEOPHILUS;WEYER,JOHANN.
area’s other legal systems did not.
References and further reading:
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft As early as 1500, the Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (T h e
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. Hammer of Witches, 1486) was known among
Dülmen, Richard van. 1987. “Imaginationen des Teuflischen. Pa d e r b o r n’s clergy. Isolated trials took place around 1510
Nächtliche Zusammenkünfte, Hexentänze, Teufelssabbate.” and after 1555, before becoming endemic after 1572.
Pp. 94–130 in Hexenwelten: Magie und Imagination.Edited by T h ree main waves of persecution, similar to those in the
Richard van Dülmen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer duchy of Westphalia and other Catholic areas, occurre d
Taschenbuch.
first in the 1590s and then between 1628 and 1631 and
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge:
b e t ween 1656 and 1659. The first two immediately
Cambridge University Press.
f o l l owed crises caused by extreme inflation or plague.
Lederer, David. 2005. Madness, Religion and the State in Early
In 1598, the Reichskammergericht (imperial chamber
Modern Europe: A Bavarian Beacon.Cambridge: Cambridge
court) intervened against Paderborn’s cathedral chapter,
University Press.
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. thus pre venting further executions, although the
2nd ed. London and NewYork: Longman. canons made reprisals against the re l a t i ves of the
Mahal, Günther. 1981. “Fünf Faust-Splitter aus drei accused. In 1603 and 1604, Bishop Dietrich vo n
Jahrhunderten.” InBausteine zur Tübinger Universitätsgeschichte Fürstenberg (ruled 1585–1618) caused a great stir by
1: 98–121. conducting trials against the prior, subprior, and two
Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. 2001. Witchcraft in Europe and the New monks from the Augustinian convent in Dalheim, fol-
World, 1400–1800.NewYork: Palgrave.
l owing allegations by confessed witches that all four
Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1999. A History of Madness in Sixteenth-
clerics had participated in a witches’ Sabbat. After one
Century Germany.Stanford: Stanford University Press.
monk died during a year in prison, Würzburg’s law fac-
Oberman, Heiko A. 1981.Masters of the Reformation: The
ulty issued an opinion that saved the others’ lives. This
Emergence of a New Intellectual Climate in Europe.Cambridge:
case, reminiscent of discussions going on at the same
Cambridge University Press.
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. time in Bavaria, was still remembered at Paderborn and
NewYork: Scribner’s. the abbey of Corvey as late as 1630; in a rather
Paderborn, Prince-Bishopric of 869 |
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disguised manner, Friedrich Spee alluded to it in his 1675 he authorized the execution of a man who used a
Cautio Criminalis (A Warning on Criminal Ju s t i c e , consecrated Host to perform magic—a form of sacri-
1631). lege punishable by death at Rome far into the eigh-
The high point of persecution, around 1630, pro- teenth century. Howe ve r, the situation in vo n
duced approximately ninety-five victims, fifty of whom Westphalen zu Fürstenberg’s private jurisdiction was
we re executed in Büren between Ma rch 17 and Ap r i l quite different. After a twelve-year-old boy was execut-
15, 1631, shortly before the Cautio Criminalisappeared ed by cutting his arteries in 1694, one of the last witch
in print in May 1631. Its author, Friedrich Spee, had hunts in Westphalia took place between 1700 and
taught moral theology at the Jesuit university of 1702, with twe l ve people accused and at least thre e
Paderborn since 1629. Spee had his share of enemies in women and two men receiving the death penalty.
Paderborn (including Suffragan Bishop Jo h a n n
RAINER DECKER;
Pelcking), but he also had influential friends, who
helped get his book published or recommended it. TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY
From 1619 to 1650, Paderborn’s bishop was the arch-
See also:COLOGNE;ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORIES
bishop of Cologne, Ferdinand of Bavaria, who had not (HOLYROMANEMPIRE); EXORCISM;FERDINANDOFCOLOGNE;
visited Paderborn since the early 1620s. Because source GERMANY;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;
materials are so scarce, it is unclear to what extent the REICHSKAMMERGERICHT;SPEE,FRIEDRICH.
a rc h b i s h o p’s re p re s e n t a t i ves and the estates used their References and further reading:
administrative freedom either to promote or to prevent Decker, Rainer. 1978. “Die Hexenverfolgungen im Hochstift
witch hunts in the prince-bishop’s jurisdiction. Paderborn.” Westfälische Zeitschrift128: 315–356.
———. 1994. Die Hexen und ihre Henker: Ein Fallbericht.
Between 1656 and 1660, a wave of demonic posses-
Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.
sion among young women in the town of Br a k e l
———. 2000. “Hexen, Mönche und ein Bischof: Das Kloster
a roused widespread attention after a Jesuit exo rc i s t ,
Dalheim und das Problem des Hexensabbats um 1600.”
Paderborn theology professor Be r n h a rd Löper, turned
Westfälische Zeitschrift150: 235–245.
the possessions into an uncontrollable epidemic. Löper
Schormann, Gerhard. 1977.Hexenprozesse in Nordwestdeutschland.
used the exo rcisms to demonstrate the superiority of Hildesheim: Lax, pp. 92–95.
Catholicism but could not expel the ghosts he had sum-
moned, while the possessed and their families demand- Palatinate, Electorate of
ed a witch hunt against their enemies. Un s u re how to The widely dispersed territory of the electoral
judge the alleged demonic possession, Bishop Dietrich Palatinate, ruled by the older line of the Wittelsbach
Adolf von der Recke (ruled 1650–1661) asked the Holy dynasty at Heidelberg, was situated in Ge r m a n y
Of fice (the Congregation of the Inquisition) in Ro m e b e t ween the upper and mid-Rhineland. Until the
for guidance: one of his canons, Fe rdinand vo n Thirty Years’ War, the electorate also included the
Fürstenberg, was close to the current pope, Alexander Upper Palatinate in northeastern Bavaria. Although the
VII. A Roman exorcism expert advised Paderborn’s cler- electoral Palatinate played a key role in supporting
gy to reduce fear of the Devil and his powers through witchcraft trials in the late Middle Ages, it took the lead
better pastoral care instead of heeding calls for witch in opposing them during early modern times.
hunts. After reading Löper’s re p o rts, Alexander V I I Soon after the new belief in diabolical witches had
doubted that the girls were possessed. But Roman skep- developed in the Swiss Alps during the first half of the
ticism about the credibility of the possessed and of fifteenth century, the electoral Palatinate became, as far
w i t c h e s’ Sabbats found few supporters in Pa d e r b o r n , as we know today, the first German territory to adapt
especially when Löper denounced the bishop as a this new belief and start its own witch hunts in
witches’ lawyer.Von der Recke and his councilors then 1446–1447. The Palatinate had both territorial and
permitted witchcraft trials that eventually led to at least dynastic links with some core areas of the new witch
fifty executions from 1657 to 1659. beliefs. However, conditions for a favorable reception of
The trials began so slowly that a group of enraged a modern approach to witchcraft we re exc e p t i o n a l l y
men actually beat nine alleged witches to death on a good at Heidelberg, especially with the unive r s i t y,
public street. Pa d e r b o r n’s rulers caught the murd e re r s , which had demonologists such as John of Fr a n k f u rt
put them on trial, gave them death sentences, and fol- and Nicholas of Ja u e r. Mo re ove r, the Palatinate had
l owing Ro m e’s suggestion, put the more rabid of the been extremely active in purging heresy; the elector
possessed in solitary confinement in order to care for Palatine, its secular ru l e r, had played an active ro l e ,
their spiritual needs. making considerable personal efforts. Even though
These events ended Pa d e r b o r n’s last major wave of theologians prepared the witchcraft cases, the electoral
persecutions. Von der Re c k e’s successor, the same Palatinate adopted not the ecclesiastical pro c e d u re of
Fe rdinand von Fürstenberg (ruled 1661–1683), witchcraft inquisition, but the secular witchcraft trial
brought his Roman attitudes to Paderborn with him. In d e veloped by Swiss cities. Final decisions and
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responsibility in the witch hunt belonged to the elector. implementing this approach toward witchcraft was the
Mo re persecutions we re documented in the Pa l a t i n a t e Palatinate gove r n m e n t’s re l a t i vely good administrative
until the beginning of the sixteenth century. c o n t rol over punishing capital crimes. The Ho f ra t a t
However, when the first big wave of witch hunting in Heidelberg, which oversaw all procedures of the lower
the early modern period began around 1560, the courts, ultimately decided all important cases of crimi-
by-then-Calvinist Palatinate distanced itself from the nal justice; usurpations of high justice by the populace,
common German trend by refusing to carry out witch- as in the electorate of Trier, were unimaginable.
craft trials. This refusal remained characteristic The Reformed Church, established in the Palatinate
a f t e rw a rd. It was due solely to the steadfastness of its in the 1560s, could not have been responsible for offi-
administration that persecution of witchcraft neve r cial disapproval of the persecution of witchcraft. Several
reached the electoral Palatinate from neighboring areas. Reformed territories in Eu rope (e.g., Scotland) had
Because this territory was in the middle of the main severe witchcraft persecutions. Opponents of the perse-
regions where witch hunts abounded, such external cutions in the electoral Palatinate cannot be squeeze d
facts as the climate, geography, or economic position of into one single intellectual tradition. Instead, one could
the Palatinate cannot explain its opposition to the d e velop a model for the electoral Palatinate show i n g
persecutions. And the Upper Palatinate, belonging to a s e veral lines of tradition converging to build up an
d i f f e rent geographical region, also had no witchcraft autonomous regional tradition, which is perhaps best
persecutions while under the reign of the electors at described in Hermann Witekind’s Christlich bedencken
Heidelberg. The absence of witchcraft trials was not a und erinnerung von Za u b e re y (Christian Thoughts and
p a s s i ve attitude, there f o re, but an active policy of the Memories about Sorcery, 1585). One finds traces of the
electoral government to defend itself against internal so-called Ca n o n - Ep i s c o p i tradition of southwe s t e r n
and external opposition. From the outside, electoral Germany (Mi d e l f o rt 1972), here in its Reformed ve r-
policy was confronted with denunciations of Palatinate sion, as well as traces of the humanistic tradition led by
subjects by foreign witches and demands for persecu- Johann We yer (who was highly re g a rded in the
tions by neighboring rulers. Se rfs from the Pa l a t i n a t e Palatinate), whose sons Dietrich and Johann re a c h e d
became involved in foreign witchcraft trials and had to ve ry high positions in the electoral government. Bu t
be defended, and many foreign subjects who fled to the one must also re c o g n i ze that the attitude of the
Palatinate from persecutions in their home territories Palatinate opponents of witchcraft persecution was
were allowed to settle. The intellectual elite of the elec- mainly rooted in commonly accepted theological and
toral Palatinate included a strong group of supporters of legal norms; many traditional lines of the discourse on
the witchcraft trials, who demanded punishment espe- witchcraft that were opposed to the persecutions fit into
cially for the apostasy and blasphemy of the witches. this framework.
This group comprised most of the electorate’s leading Strict observance of formal legal procedures in witch-
Reformed theologians and prevailed only at the end of craft trials saved the electoral Palatinate from rash
the sixteenth century. The debates on the matter of e xecutions by holding steadfast to ord i n a ry methods
witchcraft created a re m a rkable scientific discourse, (p rocessus ord i n a r i u s). This demanded a considerable
including significant tracts by Thomas Er a s t u s , accumulation of proof before proceeding to tort u re ,
Hermann Witekind, and Antonius Prätorius. Another one nearly impossible to obtain in witchcraft trials. In
d a n g e rous demand for persecution came, as elsew h e re the Palatinate, commonly used evidence like denuncia-
in this region, from the populace. They made seve r a l tions and the mala fama (bad reputation) we re
accusations of witchcraft that could have started perse- i n s u f ficient; the De v i l’s mark, the absence of tears, or
cutions, but the Pa l a t i n a t e’s administration refused all the so-called water test (water ordeal; swimming test)
these demands. we re all inadmissible as evidence. Legal objections
Despite all the influence the prince-electors had on usually we re in the fore g round in official Pa l a t i n a t e
politics, the actual governing board was the Pa l a t i n a t e arguments because they were unanswerable in imperial
council (Ho f rat, Ob e r ra t) led by the chancellor. l a w. The electoral Palatinate was not completely alone
Ex t remely well-trained civil lawyers dominated this in this policy. In most other large secular territories of
council. It acted as a unified organization that for the the Holy Roman Em p i re, like the nearby duchy of
most part perpetuated itself, thereby ensuring a remark- Württemberg, an increasingly professional and central-
able degree of continuity, despite several changes of i zed administration of law in the early modern state
confession (religion). So the refusal to persecute witch- usually restricted the number of witchcraft trials and
es, once established in the 1560s, was maintained and stopped any mass persecutions “to safeguard the dignity
e ven deepened over time. This policy drew import a n t of the entire judicial apparatus” (Soman 1989, 14). But
s u p p o rt from the faculty of law at He i d e l b e r g the existence of a powerful group strongly disapproving
Un i ve r s i t y, where most councilors and gove r n m e n t of the persecutions, like that found in the electoral
o f ficials we re trained. But of central importance for Palatinate, was extremely unusual.
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The specific difference here lay in a stronger criticism installed in the Rhine Palatinate we re mostly Catholic
of the belief in witchcraft. Their fundamental opposi- f o reigners from the vicinity of the electoral Pa l a t i n a t e ,
tion to the belief in witchcraft was based on the theo- distant from Ba varian traditions and there f o re
centric assumption of an almighty God, stro n g l y u n a w a re of the moderate approach now dominant in
emphasized by Reformed confessionalism, leaving little Munich. So in the electoral Palatinate on the Rhine,
room for supernatural interference by diabolical agents. the tradition against persecutions ended when its old
God alone ruled the world: sorcery was no more than g overnment fled, while the Ba varians never extended
an illusion of the Devil. The opponents of the persecu- their cautious approach to the Palatinate. Quite differ-
tions therefore rejected any trials concerning supernat- ent howe ve r, was the situation in the Up p e r
ural elements like witches flying or fornicating with Palatinate, where no new persecutions occurred under
devils, because they we re impossible. If the damaging the Ba varian government. He re the personnel fro m
effects of maleficium (harmful magic) were nonetheless the electoral Palatinate remained largely intact, being
legally punishable, this meant murder through poison replaced only slowly by Ba varians bringing Ba va r i a n
or other offenses rationally possible. In the end, only traditions with them. The radical rejection of persecu-
separation from God and the pact with the De v i l tions by Calvinist authorities was thus gradually
remained. But, as with all other forms of here s y, transformed into the cautious approach of the
Palatinate authorities rejected the death penalty for Ba varian Catholics, with minimal consequences.
spiritual crimes. In so doing they went beyond a After their return to Heidelberg in 1649, the
Calvinist standpoint, as the opposition of Palatine the- Palatinate Pr i n c e - Elector Charles Ludwig and his
ologians in the second half of the sixteenth century government resumed the traditional rejection of perse-
s h owed. Howe ve r, using a missionary approach of cutions, whose foundations were now strengthened and
“convert them, don’t burn them,” curiously like that of broadened by increasing religious tolerance and further
the Spanish Inquisition, Palatinate opponents of the humanization of penitential procedures.
persecutions demanded to lead those gone astray back
JÜRGEN MICHAEL SCHMIDT
to the true belief through pastoral care. In cases in
which conversion was ineffective, as a last re s o rt, ban- See also:ANABAPTISTS;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;CANONEPISCOPI;
ishment from the territory was the correct solution. DEVIL’SMARK;ERASTUS,THOMAS;GERMANY,SOUTHEASTERN;
The opponents of persecution supported disciplinary
GERMANY,SOUTHWESTERN;MALEFICIUM;MAXIMILIANI,DUKE
enforcements against people who practiced magic, but
OFBAVARIA;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;POPULARPERSECU-
TION;PRÄTORIUS,ANTON;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;
not with fire and sword, any more than for Anabaptists
SWIMMINGTEST;UNIVERSITIES;WEYER,JOHANN;WITEKIND,
or refractory Catholics.
HERMANN.
Because the approach toward witchcraft in the elec-
References and further reading:
toral Palatinate depended largely on its government, it Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria:
became unsure when this region was occupied by Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry, and Reason of State in Early
Catholic troops in the course of the Thirty Years’War. Modern Europe. Translated by J. C. Grayson and David
From 1622–1623 until 1649, Spain and the empero r Lederer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
g overned the part of the electorate west of the Rhine Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern
River, while Bavaria held those parts to the east. We can Germany 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
make no certain claims about witchcraft trials under
Schmidt, Jürgen M. 2000. Glaube und Skepsis: Die Kurpfalz und
Spanish occupation; but we have ample indications that
die abendländische Hexenverfolgung 1446–1685
f rom 1629 onward, a wave of witchcraft persecutions
(Hexenforschung 5). Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte.
affected the Bavarian-ruled palatinate, apparently influ-
Soman, Alfred. 1989. “Decriminalizing Witchcraft: Does the
enced by large persecutions in neighboring territories.
French Experience Furnish a European Model?” Criminal
Burnings occurred, although their exact numbers are Justice History10: 1–22.
u n k n own. The Ba varian government in He i d e l b e r g , Thieser, Bernd. 1992. Die Oberpfalz im Zusammenhang des
n ow controlling criminal justice, took up the Hexenprozessgeschehens im Süddeutschen Raum während des 16.
persecutions with the support of Pr i n c e - El e c t o r und 17. Jahrhunderts (Bayreuther Arbeiten zur
Maximilian. At that time, examples of witchcraft trials Landesgeschichte und Heimatkunde, Bd. 2). 2nd ed. Bayreuth:
using procedures contrary to established laws occurred Rabenstein.
in the electoral Palatinate.
In t e re s t i n g l y, those forces in Munich opposed to Palingh, Abraham (1588/1589–1682)
witchcraft trials (who controlled Ba varian central Palingh was the author of the most prominent Me n n o n i t e
administration) had no means to exe rt signific a n t book about witchcraft, ‘t Afgerukt mom-aansight der
i n fluence over these persecutions in far-off t o ove rye(The Mask of Witchcraft Pulled Of f), published
Heidelberg, for personnel and administrative re a s o n s . in 1659. Palingh was probably born in Be ve ren, a small
The councilors and government officials that Ba va r i a t own near Antwe r p, and died at Ha a r l e m .
872 Palingh, Abraham |
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The Spanish army’s re c a p t u re of the provinces of who, according to Bodin, had to pass through a river in
Flanders and Brabant in the 1580s led to a Pro t e s t a n t January without wearing clothes in order to transform
exodus to places with more religious freedom. Palingh’s themselves into marauding animals. Palingh considered
family moved to Haarlem, a center of textile industry in the idea of people preparing to dive naked into a river,
Holland. His father, Andries Palinck, first appeare d in midwinter, in a northern country like Livonia, sim-
t h e re in a document from 1602. Most Me n n o n i t e s ply preposterous.
were craftspeople, and many of them were textile work- Fellow Mennonites apparently found Palingh’s nega-
ers. Andries was a weaver and also one of the ministers tion of the powers of the Devil quite acceptable. Unlike
of a Mennonite congregation in Haarlem. Except for a the Reformed minister Balthasar Bekker some thirt y
document from 1618 mentioning Abraham Palingh as years later, Palingh was never attacked by coreligionists
consoler of the sick in this congregation, we know little for denying that spirits could interf e re with cre a t e d
about his early years. As an adult, he understood m a t t e r. In c i d e n t a l l y, Bekker mentioned Pa l i n g h’s work
Dutch, French, and German but not Latin, which very favorably in his De Betooverde Wereld (The World
implies that he received only a primary education. He Bewitched, 1691–1693). In the 1660s, Palingh also
became a small trader in textiles; he married twice and published two pamphlets defending the position of his
had two sons, Andries and Jan. His profession brought c o n g regation on problems then under discussion
him into contact with another textile trader, He r m a n among Mennonites, matters having no connection
L ö h e r, whose Hochnötige unterthanige wemütige Klage with witchcraft or demonic powers. His part i c i p a t i o n
der Frommen Un s c h ü l t i g e n ( Much Needed, Hu m b l e , in this debate suggested that the members of his con-
and Woeful Complaint of the Pious Innocent) was g regation considered him a valuable defender of their
published in 1676 and whose life history Palingh had views. His book was reprinted in 1725.
summarized in his earlier book.
HANS DE WAARDT
As a religious dissenter who could not read or speak
Latin and did not belong to the most prosperous layer See also:AMSTERDAM;ANABAPTISTS;BEKKER,BALTHASAR;
of craftspeople and shopkeepers, Palingh stood outside BODIN,JEAN;DEMONOLOGY;DEVIL;ERASMUS,DESIDERIUS;
the cultural, economic, and political elites. But his
LAYMANN,PAUL;LÖHER,HERMAN;MENNONITES;NETHERLANDS,
book was nevertheless well received. After 1594 it was
NORTHERN;PERKINS,WILLIAM.
References and further reading:
virtually impossible to prosecute anybody for witchcraft
Palingh, Abraham. 1659. ‘t Afgerukt mom-aansight der tooverye.
in the Dutch Republic. But in the 1650s, some local
Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz.
judicial authorities again showed some willingness to
Waardt, Hans de. 1992. “Abraham Palingh: Ein holländischer
receive accusations of maleficent magic, leading Palingh Baptist und die Macht des Teufels.” Pp. 247–268 in Vom
to write his treatise in order to convince the courts and Unfug des Hexen-Processes: Gegner der Hexenverfolgung von
other authorities not to permit any re n ewal of witch- Johann Weyer bis Friedrich Spee.Edited by Hartmut Lehmann
craft prosecutions. In Fe b ru a ry 1659, his book was and Otto Ulbricht. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz.
indeed used by the defendant in a trial against a woman
accused of having concluded a pact with the Devil. Pamphlets and Newspapers
In his book, Palingh mentioned several authors who Witchcraft pamphlets—in effect, occasional newspa-
supported the persecution of witches, but he countered pers—were based on accounts by witnesses of witch-
their arguments using only biblical texts, mentioning craft-related events or sometimes on court documents.
no other authority except Erasmus, whose name They were important because they spread stories of
appeared only once. He specifically refuted the views of witchcraft. Such pamphlets were a Europe-wide phe-
Agricola of Si t t a rd, Jean Bodin, William Pe rkins, and nomenon that badly needs a comparative study. In
the Jesuit Paul Laymann. (Palingh was unaware that Germany they reported trials such as that of the
Laymann had not written the treatise he was attacking.) Pappenheimer family (1600), later translated for Dutch
His line of reasoning was first and foremost practical. and English readers. The Swedish Mora trials
As a true Mennonite, Palingh argued that magic had no (1668–1670) were publicized through a Dutch transla-
effect and that the Devil could not change the course of tion of a Swedish pamphlet, subsequently retranslated
n a t u re and there f o re could not cause any disaster. He and anthologized by such English demonologists as
found the whole image of an anthropomorphic De v i l Joseph Glanvill and read as far away as America; it was
who conversed with human beings ridiculous. As a also translated into German and French. English pam-
merchant, he expressed amazement at the Devil’s busi- phlets, currently the best-studied vernacular genre, cost
ness policies as described by demonologists, finding it from a penny to a few shillings in English money:
e x t remely stupid to invest time and energy training although for many a substantial purchase, they were
e m p l oyees who would be executed shortly afterw a rd . accessible to all but the poorest. Price depended on the
He also mocked the professional tactics of the De v i l’s number of pages and special features like illustrations.
f o l l owers, citing the habits of Livonian we rew o l ve s It seems likely that they were circulated among groups
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of people or read out to reach a wider, often illiterate, she said she had punished those who refused her. From
audience. this short pamphlet, the reader gains a wealth of infor-
English witchcraft pamphlets offered a considerable mation and conjecture about accusers, witches, and
range of form and diversity of content. The first to their communities, as well as—in this case—two poems
report a witchcraft trial was produced in three parts in and an epistle on witchcraft giving a pious commentary
London in 1566, although it is not clear whether the on the subject. It is also possible, by comparison with
p a rts we re sold separately. Based on pretrial examina- other records, to offer an assessment of the reliability of
tions of suspects, an account of the courtroom testimo- stories told in pamphlets.
ny of their supposed victim, and the confession on the Pamphleteers can be accused of sometimes sacrificing
scaffold of the only person to be convicted and hanged, t ruthful re p o rting for a good story, but they also pro-
it tells the story of three women from Hatfield Peverell, vided details that, where they can be checked, are often
a small Essex village, who were accused of a variety of c o n firmed. They wanted to entertain purchasers but
m a l e fic i a (evil acts). Assize court re c o rds told us that also to inform. They were usually anonymous, probably
one, Elizabeth Fraunces, pleaded guilty in court to par- hack writers working for publishing houses in London,
alyzing an infant (and was imprisoned accordingly), but sometimes writing whole booklets, sometimes only
the pamphlet re c o rds her pretrial confession. Sh e p refaces for existing documents. Another pamphlet of
admitted a far greater number of offenses than remain 1566, The Examination of John Walsh(London), was an
on re c o rd, some of them linked with her unwanted almost verbatim transcript of a still-surviving churc h
p regnancies and unwanted marriage. Ap p a rently she court interrogation of a “cunning man,” but the preface
was not prosecuted for these offenses, and so no trace of (probably by the publisher John Awdeley) added a vio-
them remained outside the pamphlet, The Examination lently anti-Catholic address to the reader that drew out
and Confession of certaine Wytches(London, 1566). The suggestions in the main text that Walsh was a Catholic
pamphlet gave us information we would otherwise lack and had learned his craft from a priest. This may well
and dramatized for us the gendered psychological issues illuminate the motives of his accusers and questioners,
behind a specific confession of witchcraft. By giving by associating him with worldwide popish superstitions
details of the suspect’s life and of the dynamics of accu- scorned by proper Elizabethan Protestants.
sation and confession, it helped explain her willingness A Scottish pamphlet of the early 1590s, Newes from
to confess in a way that other surviving records did not. Scotland(London, 1591), had a similar political under-
The pamphlet also deals with Agnes Wa t e r h o u s e , tone but illustrated more graphically the dangers of
who was named in a later pamphlet as El i z a b e t h’s sister, t rusting journalistic sources. It was a narrative (rather
and Agnes’s daughter Joan. In the pamphlet, both are than a document-based) account that re p o rted the
accused of afflicting a young girl, Agnes Browne, whose activities of a large number of witches who intended to
dramatically re c reated court performance suggested to harm the Scottish King James VI. These supposedly
the reader that both women had pre yed on this inno- centered around a satanic ritual in North Berwick kirk.
cent. Agnes Browne had, she said, been tormented by a The pamphlet’s detailed but highly selective account
talking black dog with a monkey’s face, which tempted n a i vely re flected the assumptions of the questioners,
her to suicide. Although assize re c o rds showed (and the including the king. In short, it is invaluable as an offi-
pamphlet confirmed) that Agnes Waterhouse confessed cial version of events: that the king of Scotland’s
to and was convicted of another offense and hanged, the authority and godliness were confirmed by the attack of
c o u rt re c o rds and pamphlet differed in their account of Satan’s agents upon him. It is, however, almost impossi-
Joan. Assize re c o rds showed that Joan was acquitted of ble for a modern reader to assess what really occurred: a
b ewitching Browne, but the pamphlet ended its re p o rt ve ry complex background of political feuding that
with the jury deliberating the case and implied that she undoubtedly influenced events went completely
would be found guilty. He re the pamphlet gives vividly unreported, buried by propaganda.
re p resented detail of the case but fails to re c o rd fairly the Most pamphlets we re fairly brief—eight or twe l ve
outcome of the trial; it suggests, as pamphlets often do, pages—but they we re sometimes lengthened by demono-
that all the accused we re guilty. logical or sociopolitical commentary. A true and just
Agnes Wa t e r h o u s e’s scaffold confession also offere d Re c o rd e(London, 1582) was just over 100 pages long, and
information, unavailable elsew h e re, about those likely Thomas Po t t s’s vast The Wo n d e rfull Discoverie of Wi t c h e s
to be convicted of witchcraft. The pamphlet adds to (London, 1612) was nearly 200. Both contained pre t r i a l
a s s i ze re c o rds by telling us that Agnes was ve ry poor, re c o rds relating to large groups of witches. The first was
was sixty-four years old, and, before her death confessed p robably produced by and for Brian Da rc y, a magistrate
that she prayed in Latin, suggesting an old, marginal- i n vo l ved in questioning all the accusers and suspects; an
ized woman who had not accepted Protestantism. Like a s s i ze court clerk, on the instruction of the judges, com-
Elizabeth Fraunces, Agnes Waterhouse had gone begging piled the second. In both cases, an attempt was made to
in her community, and where charity had been denied, p rove that there we re a great number of witches at large:
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the preface of A true and just Re c o rd ef a vo red legal re f o r m hunter and the inventor of a type of shepherds’ pipe.
to burn rather than hang witches, whereas Potts attempt- He was born with horns, a goat’s beard, feet, and a tail,
ed to portray the judicial process as it stood as both mer- and his body was covered with hair. His appearance was
ciful and just. Both pamphlets thus had an agenda and thus so frightening that even his own mother ran away
used large numbers of witchcraft cases as “d a t a”: illustra- at the sight of him, and when humans encountered him
tions of demonological and political arguments that unexpectedly, they often fled in terror. Hence the Greek
might or might not be supported by a mass of re l a t i ve l y and then English word panic.The supposed derivation
unmediated documents. Editorial tampering did, of his name from the Greek for “everything” is a false
h owe ve r, occur, and readers must be alert . etymology.
Witchcraft pamphlets we re extremely important in Pan was not the only horned divinity in Eu ro p e .
circulating stories of witchcraft, upon which other cases The Greek god Zeus was sometimes depicted with
or arguments about them might then be based. In horns, for example, and the Gallic Cernunnos had
1619, a pamphleteer writing up The Wo n d e rf u l s t a g’s horns. During the Middle Ages, it became com-
D i s c overie of the Wi t c h c rafts of Ma r g a ret and Ph i l l i p mon for Jews to be depicted as having horns and a
Flower, an account of the murder by witchcraft of two tail, and in a fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry manuscript,
children of the earl of Rutland, cited several pamphlets, Waldensian heretics are shown worshipping Satan in
including Potts’s, among his sources to show that witch- the form of a goat. So the distinctive animal traits
es gave their souls to the Devil. As early as 1584, often associated with Satan, especially the pre s i d i n g
Reginald Scot in his Discoverie of Witchcraftdiscussed A Satan of the witches’ Sabbat, had precedents in both
t rue and just Re c o rd e , among other accounts, both pagan mythology and popular hostile depiction of
English and European, from which he drew the conclu- o u t s i d e r s .
sion that there we re no witches as conve n t i o n a l l y A rtists of all kinds rapidly adopted the visual iden-
defined. By 1718, Francis Hutchinson, the noted skep- t i fication of Pan with Satan, and it became a cliché of
tic, had amassed a collection of instances of witchcraft his re p resentation, even though written accounts of
in pamphlets and quoted at length in his Hi s t o r i c a l the Sabbat described the Devil as taking other ani-
Essay Concerning Wi t c h c ra f t f rom those re p o rting the mal forms as well, such as a dog, cat, or bull. T h u s ,
hotly contested case of Jane Wenham (1712). With a the woodcuts in Fr a n c e s c o - Maria Gu a z zo’s
much wider range of sources for the study of witchcraft, Compendium Ma l e fic a ru m (A Su m m a ry of Wi t c h e s ,
we are less inclined to regard pamphlets as straightfor- 1608) showed Satan in Pan-form receiving the wor-
w a rd re p o rts, but they remain a uniquely va l u a b l e ship of male and female witches, and Jan Zi a ru k o’s
repository of stories about witchcraft. engraving for Pi e r re de Lancre’s Tableau de l’ i n c o n-
stance des mauvais anges et demons ( Description of the
MARION GIBSON
Inconstancy of Evil Angels and Demons, 1612), one
See also:CONFESSIONS;DEVILBOOKS;ENGLAND;ESSEX;GLANVILL, of the best known of the French demonological tre a-
JOSEPH;HUTCHINSON,FRANCIS;LANCASHIREWITCHES;MORA tises, depicted Satan as an enthroned goat ove r s e e i n g
WITCHES;NORTHBERWICKWITCHES;PAPPENHEIMERFAMILY;
the detailed wildness of witches’ behavior during a
SCOT,REGINALD;ST.OSYTHWITCHES;WENHAM,JANE.
Sabbat. Once established, of course, the image was
References and further reading:
re p roduced over and over again. The eighteenth-
Gibson, Marion. 1999. Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English
c e n t u ry occultist Eliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis
Witches.London and NewYork: Routledge.
Constant) helped perpetuate it in a form that
———. 2000. Early ModernWitches: Witchcraft Cases in
ContemporaryWriting.London and NewYork: Routledge. became famous: an androgynous winged Ba p h o m e t
Glanvill, Joseph. 1681. Saducismus Triumphatus.London. e n t h roned, with rearing horns, a goat face, and a
Hutchinson, Francis. 1718. An Historical Essay Concerning pentagram in the middle of his forehead. Goy a
Witchcraft.London. ( Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes) too subscribed
Normand, Lawrence, and Gareth Roberts. 2000. Witchcraft in to the image. En s a yo s , one of his Ca p r i c h o s e r i e s ,
Early Modern Scotland.Exeter: Exeter University Press. s h owed witches practicing flying, watched over by an
Rosen, Barbara. 1991. Witchcraft in England, 1558–1618.
enormous black he-goat, and his most fre q u e n t l y
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
re p roduced picture had female witches worshipping
Scot, Reginald. 1584. The Discoverie of Witchcraft.London.
a goat-shaped Sa t a n .
Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in
Pan as Pan (rather than a type of Satan) was largely
England, 1550–1750.London: Hamish Hamilton.
forgotten by literature, howe ve r, until the nineteenth
Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London:
Penguin. c e n t u ry remade him into a divinity associated with
the wilder and more exciting (that is, sexual) aspects
Pan of nature. From then on, English poets in part i c u l a r
In Greek mythology, Pan was a rural god specifically in used him as a shorthand image for their collective and
charge of forests, flocks, and shepherds. He was also a individual thoughts about nature in the raw. Pro s e
Pan 875 |
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Pan, a horned god who, because of his horns, gnat’s beard, hairy body, and terrifying appearance, is associated with the Devil. (TopFoto.co.uk)
writers also took up the theme but transmuted the References and further reading:
god into a symbol of aggre s s i ve rebellion against con- Hutton, Ronald. 1999a. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of
ventional morality, most notably perhaps in the early Modern Pagan Witchcraft.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
t wentieth century when Aleister Crow l e y, identifying ———. 1999b. “Modern Pagan Witchcraft.” Pp. 1–79 in The
himself at one point with both Pan and the Eg y p t i a n Twentieth Century.Vol. 6 of The Athlone History of Witchcraft
and Magic in Europe. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart
god Seth, envisaged him as the god of homosexual
Clark. London and Philadelphia: Athlone and University of
p a s s i o n .
Pennsylvania Press.
But Margaret Murray finally returned Pan to his old-
Merivale, Patricia. 1969. Pan, the Goat-God: His Myth in Modern
er self. In 1931, Murray published a book, The God of
Times.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
the Wi t c h e s , a sequel to her The Wi t c h - Cult in We s t e rn
Russell, Jeffrey Burton. 1977. The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from
Europe (1921), which argued that the horned god was Antiquity to Primitive Christianity.Ithaca, NY, and London:
the oldest male deity in Europe and that his worship by Cornell University Press.
men and women had been misinterpreted as the adora- Trachtenberg, Joshua. 1983. The Devil and the Je w s .1943. Re p r i n t .
tion of Satan by witches and therefore persecuted by the Philadelphia and Je rusalem: Jewish Publication So c i e t y.
C h u rch. Se veral scholars have demolished her theory,
but the Pan image lingers on in the worship of the
Panics
horned god by some modern Wiccans.
There is much confusion about what constituted a
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART witch panic. The most obvious examples occurred
when very large numbers of accused witches were
See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BAPHOMET;CONTEMPORARY
arrested and burned in one place within a short time.
WITCHCRAFT(POST-1800); GOYAYLUCIENTES,FRANCISCOJOSÉ
DE;GUAZZO,FRANCESCO-MARIA;LANCRE,PIERREDE;MURRAY, But when did a witch scare develop into something we
MARGARETALICE;SABBAT. could legitimately call a panic? One standard (Monter
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1976, 89–92) suggested that ten deaths for witchcraft p e rcent of the more than 20,000 witches executed in
at one place in one year constituted at least a small Germany. Because Germany executed more than half of
panic, but there is no consensus among scholars. all witches throughout Eu rope, this handful of major
However, trying to measure witch panics seems like panics probably accounted for at least one-fifth of all
measuring exactly how many people are needed to witches executed anywhere in Eu rope between 1560
make up a crowd. The larger witch panics were, the and 1680.
vaguer the estimates become about their actual size— At the same time, tiny villages occasionally suffere d
almost exactly like newspaper or police estimates about e ven more from witch panics than the ve ry worst
the size of mass demonstrations. Nevertheless, we can German cases. Consider the case of little Gollion, a
offer a few plausible generalizations about when and completely unre m a rkable Protestant Fre n c h - Sw i s s
where Europe’s major witch panics occurred. village of fewer than fifty households in the Pays de
In Eu ro p e’s worst witch panics, more than 100 Vaud (Taric Zumsteg 2000). Within sixteen ye a r s
witches we re burned in re l a t i vely small regions within (1615–1631), Gollion experienced six separate out-
two or three years. Such episodes we re extremely rare ; b reaks of witch hunting, during which a total of
so far as we know, they we re confined to a handful of twenty-five people were executed; nine of them died in
places in present-day Ge r m a n y. The panic that lasted one two-month span. Thus, within a generation,
f rom October 1628 until Ma rch 1630 in the small roughly one-fourth of Go l l i o n’s adults we re burned as
t own of Mergentheim provides a particularly we l l - witches (almost 40 percent of them men). This ratio
documented and ghastly example (Mi d e l f o rt 1972, clearly surpasses even such disasters as Me r g e n t h e i m ,
143–155). In all, exactly 117 witches we re burned on w h e re, in a population of about 1,250 adults, about
32 separate occasions (no more than 6 witches we re e ve ry tenth adult (and perhaps eve ry sixth adult
e ver burned together, probably because of limited jail woman) was burned. Howe ve r, Gollion is the worst
facilities and the danger of controlling such conflagra- case yet studied on such a microscopic level.
tions). Four more died in prison, probably from exces-
sive torture. Although many accused witches were never Large Witch Panics
imprisoned at Mergentheim, no imprisoned witch was with Fewer Burnings
ever acquitted until February 1630. Major witch panics involving hundreds of burnings per
Some German witch panics we re even larger and year never occurred outside Germany. Sloppy scholar-
lasted considerably longer. Ellwangen, capital of a larg- ship has exaggerated their frequency elsew h e re in
er territory than Mergentheim, held seventeen exe c u- Europe (and inside Germany as well) by accepting
tion days for witches in 1611 and seventeen more in uncritically the numbers of witches burned found in
1612; the exact number who were burned in these two sensationalist contemporary pamphlets, which deliber-
years is uncertain, but it probably exceeded 250. T h i s ately exaggerated the extent of witches and witchcraft.
panic continued into 1613, with six more exe c u t i o n These vast numbers of witches burned invariably shrink
days, and did not cease entirely until 1618 (Mi d e l f o rt drastically upon closer inspection. For example, the
1972, 98–115). Few cases surpassed Ellwangen in sheer well-known demonologist and judge Pierre de Lancre
ferocity. Perhaps Germany’s worst witch panic afflicted boasted of making several hundred Basque-speaking
the electorate of Cologne for nearly a decade after witches confess their crimes in 1609; well-known schol-
1627, because the government orchestrated it through a ars (e.g., Trevor-Roper 1969, 112) deduced that this
network of special commissioners resembling a separate judge burned almost a hundred witches in only four
b u reaucracy (Schormann 1991), but we have no months—but a careful reading of de Lancre’s text iden-
reliable estimate of its exact dimensions. tifies barely a dozen witches burned, including three
Such large panics, with twenty or more burned in a priests (Monter 2002, 41–42). They were, however,
single year, accounted for about 40 percent of the more enough to trigger a witch panic that soon involved two
than 3,200 witches known to have been exe c u t e d countries.
b e t ween 1562 and 1666 throughout Ba d e n - As the example of de Lancre suggests, simply count-
Württemburg, which included both Mergentheim and ing the number of witches burned is not the only or
Ellwangen; years with ten or more executions account- always the best guide to using the phrase witch panic
ed for 70 percent (Midelfort 1972, 72). It is likely that appropriately. It can be legitimately applied in parts of
such ratios might be replicated on a macroscale. A Eu rope outside Germany where fears of witchcraft
rough estimate of Ge r m a n y’s eight or nine largest obsessed entire regions for several years, even if large
k n own witch panics, or “super-hunts,” nearly all of numbers of witches we re not burned. The hysteria in
them conducted (as at Mergentheim or Ellwangen) by Basque lands on both sides of the Fre n c h – Sp a n i s h
ecclesiastical princes, suggests comparable results: in a b o rder between 1609 and 1614 provides the best
c o u n t ry with over 300 separate governments, this example. Although probably only a dozen witches died
handful of states apparently accounted for almost 40 on each side of the border, it has been called, with some
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j u s t i fication, Eu ro p e’s largest witch panic, simply (sovereign judicial court) of Bordeaux, or Sweden’s high
because of its unprecedented scale: in addition to the c o u rt of appeals eventually stopped Eu ro p e’s most
h u n d reds of Basque confessions mentioned by de widespread witch panics. However, relatively little work
Lancre, the Spanish Inquisition eventually heard almost has been done so far on why Ge r m a n y’s major witch
2,000 spontaneous confessions of witchcraft, ove r- panics stopped. One explanation uses a list of the 160
whelmingly from children. At least, that is what local people burned as witches on 29 occasions at Würzburg
i n t e r p reters told their employers, because neither the b e t ween 1627 and 1629 to argue that they stopped
French judges nor the Spanish inquisitors understood when they became dysfunctional after the traditional
Basque. It re q u i red sustained efforts by re s p o n s i b l e s t e reotype of a witch broke down (Mi d e l f o rt 1972,
authorities in both France and Spain to pre vent their 179, 182). In this instance, adult women formed 85
out-of-control officials from doing further damage and percent of the total in the first five burnings and almost
finally to calm things down. 70 percent of the first fifteen groups. But in the next
The child-driven Swedish witchcraft hysteria lasting f o u rteen clusters, the stereotype collapsed completely:
f rom 1668 to 1675 provides another equally we l l - adult women now comprised less than one-fourth of
k n own and instru c t i ve example of a truly large-scale the witches being burned, far outnumbered both by
witch panic. This panic spread extremely widely, even- young children (mainly boys) and adult men. However,
tually reaching most of northern Sweden and extending such clear examples seem unusual.
as far south as Stockholm. Exactly like the Ba s q u e
WILLIAM MONTER
episode, it invo l ved thousands of children describing
their experiences at the witches’ Sabbat; unfortunately, See also:ARRAS;BASQUECOUNTRY;COLOGNE;ECCLESIASTICAL
in this instance, well over 100 witches we re exe c u t e d TERRITORIES(HOLYROMANEMPIRE); ELLWANGEN,PRINCE-ABBEY;
before it too could be brought to an end—by executing
GERMANY;INQUISITION,SPANISH;KRAMER,HEINRICH;LANCRE,
an adolescent accuser for perjury.
PIERREDE;MERGENTHEIM,ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORYOF;
MORAWITCHES;SALZBURG,PRINCE-ARCHBISHOPRICOF;VAUD,
PAYSDE;WITCHHUNTS;WÜRTTEMBURG,DUCHYOF;
When Did They Begin and End?
WÜRZBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF.
Nothing resembling the Mergentheim panic occurred
References and further reading:
in fifteenth-century Europe. As early as the 1420s, large Midelfort, H.C. Erik. 1972. Witch-Hunting in Southwestern
numbers of people were being arrested for witchcraft in Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.
Valais or Dauphiné; but local political circumstances Stanford: Stanford University Press.
and the repression of heresy often help explain such Monter,William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The
outbreaks, as they do in the first urban instance, the Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY: Cornell
mid-fifteenth century Vauderie (Waldensianism, but University Press.
———. 2002. “Witch-Trials in Continental Europe,
used to label witches) of Arras. In general, it seems
1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 inThe Period of the Witch Trials.Vol. 4
problematic to talk about witch panics in the age of the
of The Athlone History ofWitchcraft and Magic in Europe.
Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486);
Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and
when Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer arrested fifty women
Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press.
in the Tyrol in 1485, he certainly provoked an extreme
Schormann, Gerhard. 1991.Der Krieg gegen die Hexen.Göttingen:
reaction—but it was directed more against him than Vandenhoeck and Rupprecht.
the accused witches (much later, something analogous Taric Zumsteg, Fabienne. 2000.Les sorciers à l’assaut du village
apparently happened to de Lancre also). Gollion (1615–1631). Lausanne: Zèbre.
Probably the last major witch panic in Eu rope was the Trevor-Roper, H.R. 1969. The European Witch-Craze of the
Za u b e r - j a c k l( So rc e rer Jack) affair that affected the inde- Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuriesand Other Essays.NewYork:
pendent prince-archbishopric of Salzburg from 1677 to Harper and Row.
Wohlschlegel, Karin. 1995. “Die letzten Hexen von Mergentheim:
1680; although slightly later than the Swedish case and
Auswertung der Verhörprotokolle aus den Jahren 1628 bis
located in Catholic rather than Protestant Eu rope, it was
1631.” Würtembergisch Franken80: 41–115.
similarly child-driven. He re, howe ve r, adolescent boy s
we re targeted as witches by the authorities rather than
used by them to accuse others. Americans re g a rd Sa l e m Papacy and Papal Bulls
Village in 1692 as a major witch panic; it does meet the In the development of witch persecution, the Roman
criterion of twenty deaths in one place within a ye a r, and papacy and its decisions on official doctrine played a
it occurred even later than Salzburg. Although numer- central role. The nineteenth-century denominational
ous witchcraft trials we re held after 1700 in eastern approach to Church history presented the attitudes of
Eu rope, no later episodes that deserve to be called major the popes in a one-sided fashion, either polemically or
“witch panics” have yet been uncove re d . apologetically. Overinterpretations resulted, rectified by
We know that firm actions by such high-leve l subsequent research and the study of original texts
authorities as the Spanish Inquisition, the Pa rl e m e n t during recent decades. On the whole, our evaluation of
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the papacy’s role in creating and upholding the doctrine concerning witchcraft, mainly compiled from early
of witchcraft has become more nuanced, but no m e d i e val texts; it laid the foundation for legal considera-
generally accepted academic consensus on the subject tions that subsequently influenced the cumulative con-
has yet been reached. cept of witchcraft. Because the De c retum gra t i a n i n e ve r
The papacy, which gradually developed from the mentioned such things as witches’ Sabbats or a witch-
increasing prominence of the bishop of Rome after the craft sect and rejected the belief in witches flying, in
fifth century, reached its full stature in the tenth and a c c o rdance with the Frankish capitularies (Ca n o n
eleventh centuries, becoming the ultimate authority of Ep i s c o p i ,ca. 906), it rather restricted the evolution of the
the Latin Church in all matters of doctrine, including concept of witchcraft. Howe ve r, canon law also con-
the issues of demonology and witchcraft. In the Middle tained sufficient clauses about heresy in general and its
Ages, the legal decisions of the Holy See theore t i c a l l y subsequent prosecution to provide substantial support
demanded absolute obedience, but papal infallibility in for advocates of seve re witch persecution.
doctrinal issues was not entirely indisputable. On l y An initial turning point toward more severe persecu-
after the end of the conciliar movement and the tion of witchcraft occurred under Pope Alexander V I
s i x t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Protestant Reformation was the ( ruled 1492–1503), who issued an ordinance to the
pope’s absolute doctrinal authority uncontested within Dominicans and Franciscans, to whom the new papal
the post-Tridentine Roman Catholic Church. Pa p a l inquisition had been assigned, that sorcery and divina-
statements on the doctrine of witchcraft must also be tion should be prosecuted only when accompanied by a
understood in the light of the dogmatizing of the pope’s strong suspicion of heresy.This ordinance, incorporat-
p ower of jurisdiction and infallibility in 1870—a ed into the Corpus iuris canonici (Body of Canon Law,
declaration that re t ro a c t i vely cove red doctrinal state- Bk. 6, c. 5, 2), implied certain parallels between sorcery
ments made by previous Roman bishops and implied or divination and here s y, which was the Churc h’s pri-
their universal validity. mary enemy. Until the beginning of the fourteenth cen-
In the Early Middle Ages, the entire western Churc h , tury, further instructions remained sporadic and specif-
including its popes, was preoccupied with ove rc o m i n g ic, for example, in 1303, Boniface VIII (ru l e d
the relics of paganism. Gre g o ry I (ruled 590–604) 1295–1303) intervened against a bishop of Cove n t ry
attempted a synthesis of popular pagan desiderata with accused of paying homage to the Devil, and in 1318,
the claims of the Christian faith, particularly by nurt u r- John XXII (ruled 1316–1334) took action against indi-
ing re ve rence for relics of saints and the whole area of vidual sorc e rers. Howe ve r, after the prohibition of the
the miraculous; Christian churches we re now built ove r Templar order for political reasons, which was justified
the foundations of antique temples, thus creating a con- with the claim that the Templars formed a diabolical
tinuity of religious cults on sites that we re not initially sect that must be eliminated, John XXII suddenly
Christian. During Charlemagne’s reign (768–814), the adopted a more radical attitude, thus multiplying anti-
Frankish kingdom attempted to stamp out the re m n a n t s sorcery precedents.
of paganism by issuing capitularies, which we re accepted John XXII resided at Avignon, in an enviro n m e n t
by the popes at imperial synods. Nu m e rous re g u l a t i o n s rife with suspicion of witchcraft at the French and oth-
combated the practice of sorc e ry and opposed such judi- er courts, where the pope was seen as a possible victim
cial problems as vigilante justice against alleged sorc e re r s of the black arts. Thus, he took a personal interest in
and witches. This attitude characterized Church and the prosecution of alleged sorc e rers. In 1320, the
civil authorities until the High Middle Ages; papal bul- inquisitors of southwestern France (which harbore d
letins on witchcraft we re essentially restricted to specific large concentrations of Cathars and Albigensians),
issues, for example, a letter from Pope Gre g o ry VII to re c e i ved orders to deal seve rely with people who prac-
King Ha rold of De n m a rk strictly prohibiting the ticed divination, the black arts, and demonic sacrifices.
lynching of alleged witches. He re, heresy became more closely associated with
By the thirteenth century, several developments pro- s o rc e ry. His bull Super illius specula ( Upon Hi s
voked a tighter organization of the Roman Church: the Wa t c h t ower) in 1326 proved more fundamental and
g reat Church law compilation, the De c retum gra t i a n i effective. For the first time, it considered a pact with the
( Gr a t i a n’s C o n c o rd of Discordant Ca n o ns, known as the Devil as the worst crime of alleged sorc e re r s .
De c re t u m , 1130–1140 revision), and the first compre- Subsequently, demonological ideas predominated when
h e n s i ve textbooks and s u m m a e (summaries or compila- describing practices previously classified as superstition.
tions of theology or canon law) appeared, systematically It has justifiably been claimed that this papal bull
re c o rding theology in its entirety; in the thirt e e n t h contained no echoes of the cumulative concept of
c e n t u ry, the Church was drawing up its own pro file eve n witchcraft, and this constitution never led to witchcraft
as it began contending with heretical movements fro m trials like those of the fifteenth and subsequent
within. The De c retum gra t i a n i ,a c c redited and adva n c e d centuries. Its significance lay in the unambiguous
by the papacy, incorporated many stipulations c l a s s i fication of all occult practices as here s y, because
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they invo l ved homage to the Devil. An ominous step papal promotion of inquisitorial trials against sorcerers
was taken from individual sorc e rers tow a rd the gre a t and witches.
diabolical conspiracy of sorc e rers and witches, the In the sixteenth century, inquisitorial witchcraft tri-
existence of which was alleged by later inquisitors. At als decreased drastically throughout northern Eu ro p e .
the same time, linking ecclesiastical trials for here s y The popes, however, were not silent on the problem of
with secular implementations of death sentences made witchcraft. Julius II (ruled 1503–1513) encouraged
sorcerers more vulnerable to the death penalty than pre- s t ronger persecution of sorc e rers in the diocese of
v i o u s l y. This policy was continued by Jo h n’s successor Cremona, against the wishes of local clerics. Leo X
Benedict XII (ruled 1335–1342), the former inquisitor (ruled 1513–1521) confronted the Republic of Venice,
Jacques Fournier. Although his instructions were gener- which sought to hinder papal inquisitors acting against
ally restricted to resolving individual cases of sorcery, its witches and sorc e rers. Adrian VI (ruled 1522–1523)
associations with heresy became more firmly estab- confirmed a bull of Julius II regarding the inquisition of
lished. Subsequent popes showed re l a t i vely little Lombardy. Some decrees of the Council of Trent dealt
i n t e rest in sorc e ry or witchcraft while the cumulative with witchcraft: the guidelines set out in the Dominici
concept of witchcraft was being created, although some, g regis custodiae ( Gu a rdians of the Lord’s Flock, 1564)
including Ma rtin V (ruled 1417–1431) and Eu g e n i u s put all books on divination, sorc e ry, potions, pro p h e-
IV (ruled 1431–1447), issued statements on the subject sies, spells, and other magic practices on the Index (list
that prefigured aspects of subsequent bulls condemning of prohibited books).
witchcraft. Another decree directed at southern France During the great wave of frenzied witch hunting of
and defining sorc e ry as here s y, employed the phrase the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, conduct-
summis desiderantes affectibus ( d e s i rous with supre m e ed mainly by Catholic prince-bishops in Germany, the
a rdor), later made notorious by Innocent VIII (ru l e d papacy adopted moderate policies. Without ever direct-
1484–1492). A bull of 1437 ord e red seve re measure s ly questioning its demonological and judicial aspects,
against persons who made pacts with demons, wor- Rome displayed considerable skepticism about the
shipped them, and practiced harmful occult arts with c u m u l a t i ve, constantly intensifying concept of witch-
their aid, even raising tempests. Howe ve r, it was ve ry craft. In s t ructio pro formandis processibus in causis
general in character, being addressed to all inquisitors. strigum, sort i l e g i o rum et malefic i o ru m ( In s t ruction for
The most famous papal bull encouraging witchcraft Conducting Trial Pro c e d u res Against Wi t c h e s ,
persecution directly was the Summis desidera n t e s Sorcerers, and Evildoers) by Pope Urban VIII in 1635
affectibusissued by Innocent VIII in 1484. It was com- p rescribed the traditionally more cautious attitude of
posed at the specific request of Heinrich Kramer the Roman Inquisition for the German empire .
( Institoris), papal inquisitor for southern Ge r m a n y, to Apparently written in reaction to the horrifying reports
help him overcome both ecclesiastical and secular resis- of massive witchcraft trials in Germany that had gradu-
tance by supporting his enterprises with papal prestige. ally reached Rome, it tried to prevent them by requiring
In one way, this bull was less significant than the stan- proof of black magic before decreeing a death sentence
d a rds of Eugenius IV on demonic witchcraft, because and prescribed less seve re punishments for harmless
its instructions were merely regional rather than univer- magic. Howe ve r, Ur b a n’s distinctly moderate
sal. Its use by Kramer in the introduction to his Malleus In s t ru c t i o n could not be enforced in many Catholic
Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486), giving regions of Germany, where serious witch hunts contin-
his book a false appearance of papal approval, was at ued for a long time with support from the local clergy.
least as significant as the bull itself. At first glance, In regions to which Rome had direct access, re l a t i ve l y
Summis desiderantes affectibus appears to be committed few prosecutions occurred.
to a traditional, noncumulative concept of witchcraft. Because of the legal and theological traditions of the
It never mentioned the notion of witches flying and Roman Catholic Church, certain elements of witch-
placed no emphasis on women as the embodiment of craft theory endured into the nineteenth and twentieth
witchcraft, which was so characteristic of the Ma l l e u s centuries, although they had no practical signific a n c e .
Ma l e fic a ru m . Ne ve rtheless, it contributed to the The Corpus iuris canoniciremained valid until 1917, so
i n c rease in witchcraft trials. Not only did it re m i n d that judicially speaking, the impotentia ex malefic i o
readers of the peculiar heinousness of the crime of (weakness from harmful magic) delusion about witches
witchcraft, justifying the Churc h’s mission to hunt flying was still an offense; sorc e ry, divination, and the
down and punish such offenders, but it also threatened like could still be considered heresies for which the
to penalize anyone who resisted the Inquisition in this C h u rch could execute appropriate punishments. T h e
m a t t e r. For these reasons, the bull of Innocent V I I I scholastic concept of demonology was indirectly con-
encouraged witch persecutions in the future . firmed when Leo XIII declared Thomas Aquinas to be
Opponents of the trials had to contend not only with the normative theologian of Roman Catholicism, and
the theological position of the Ma l l e u s but also with the validity of earlier papal bulls became pro b l e m a t i c
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after the promulgation of the dogma of infallibility of the Pappenheimers—father Paulus, mother Anna, two
1870. Such theoretical statements have had no practical g rown sons, and a ten-year-old boy — we re taken to
consequences for many centuries, although occasional Munich by express order of Duke Maximilian and sub-
re p o rts of seve re exo rcisms by Roman Catholic priests jected to repeated bouts of relentless torture.
remain a phenomenon distantly related to the complex In an “indissoluble amalgam of falsehood and truth,
of the witch hunts. which assembled rumors and reports from two decades”
from various parts of Bavaria (Kunze 1987, 149, 154),
JÖRG HAUSTEIN;
the Pappenheimers ultimately became scapegoats for a
TRANSLATED BY HELEN SIEGBURG variety of other crimes besides witchcraft. They admit-
ted close to 100 murders, almost ten per year, although
See also:CANONEPISCOPI;GRATIAN;HERESY;INNOCENTVIII,POPE;
INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;INQUISITION,ROMAN;JOHNXXII,POPE; not a single corpse was ever found (they explained that
KRAMER,HEINRICH;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(MEDIEVAL); they always burned them); they further confessed set-
LYNCHINGS;MALLEUSMALIFICARUM;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCH ting dozens of fires and committing several hundre d
HUNTS;ROMANCATHOLICCHURCH;TEMPLARS;URBANVIII, thefts, many of them from churches. (They claimed
POPE. they sold such sacrilegious goods to Jews, who we re
References and further reading: p rohibited from living in Ba varia, howe ve r.) And of
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1987. “‘Vom Unkraut unter dem Weizen’:
course, the Pappenheimers confessed to witchcraft.
Die Stellung der Kirchen zum Hexenproblem.” Pp. 60–95 in
Before they were through, they had denounced almost
Hexenwelten: Magie, und Imagination vom 16.–20. Jahrhundert.
400 “accomplices,” once naming 99 of them at a single
Edited by Richard van Dülmen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.
torture session; following customary stereotype, 80 per-
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
cent were women, and 10 percent of the women were
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon.
Decker, Rainer. 2003. Die Päpste und die Hexen: Aus den geheimen midwives (Kunze 1987, 342f, 345).
Akten der Inquisition. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche The chief engineer of the Pappenheimer family’s
Buchgesellschaft. destruction was the ambitious leader of Bavaria’s witch-
Diefenbach, Johann. 1886. Der Hexenwahn vor und nach der craft “zealots,” the chancellor of the court council,
Glaubensspaltung in Deutschland. Mainz: Kirchheim. Dr. Johann Sigismund Wa g n e reckh (ca. 1570–1617),
Hansen, Joseph. 1900. Zauberwahn, Inquisition und Hexenprozess whose ideological commitment compensated for his
im Mittelalter und die Entstehung der grossen Hexenverfolgung.
modest standing within Ba varian society. Like Du k e
Munich: Oldenbourg.
Maximilian, Wagnereckh had studied at Ingolstadt dur-
———. 1901. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des
ing the 1590 witch hunt. He not only directed the
Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im Mittelalter.Bonn:
Pappenheimers’s questioning under torture, but when a
Georgi.
tailor arrived at court with a petition to free some of
Kaufmann, Josef. 1903. “Die Stellung der Kirche zu den
Hexenprozessen des 17. Jahrhunderts.” Pp 59–69 in their imprisoned “accomplices,” Wa g n e reckh immedi-
Mitteilungen des Westpreussischen Geschichtsvereins2, no. 4. ately had him arrested and tortured, and he soon con-
Maier, Anneliese. 1952. “Eine Verfügung Johanns XXII. Über die fessed to witchcraft also.
Zuständigkeit der Inquisition für Zaubereiprozesse.” Pp. Because Duke Maximilian desired to show his gov-
226–246 in Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum22. e r n m e n t’s teeth to Ba va r i a’s “d a n g e rous classes” by
e n f o rcing his drastic laws against them to the fullest,
Pappenheimer Family (1600) the executions in June 1600 of Paulus Pa p p e n h e i m e r,
Certainly the most famous clan of cesspool cleaners in his wife and their two adult sons, together with two of
early modern Europe, this wandering Swabian family their Ba varian “a c c o m p l i c e s” (including the unfort u-
became the principal target of a Bavarian crackdown on nate tailor-petitioner), makes truly gruesome re a d i n g .
witches and other dangerous vagrants in 1600. They At the place of execution, the body of each was torn six
suffered punishments that were remarkably cruel even times with red-hot pincers, the mother had her breasts
by contemporary standards. cut off, the five men had their arms and legs broken on
There were several reasons for the exemplary sadism the wheel, and finally Paulus became one of ve ry few
s h own to this family of licensed beggars who also western Eu ropean criminals to be impaled on a stake,
earned money as itinerant glaziers, tinkers, and cesspool like Vlad the Im p a l e r’s Moldavian victims. After these
cleaners. They and their chief “a c c o m p l i c e s” we re p reliminaries, all six we re burned alive. For sheer sav-
unusual witches: to begin with, most of them, includ- agery, no other single episode of early modern Europe’s
ing the ringleader, were men. The Pappenheimers were theater of judicial terror ever quite matched it.
not Bavarians but foreigners; worse still, they were not These brutalities were widely publicized. Woodcuts,
members of a settled village community. After being printed broadsheets, and chronicles re p o rted them.
a r rested on charges that they had helped a convicted Bavarian Jesuits passed the news to their demonological
thief murder seven pregnant women in order to make colleague Martín Del Rio, who mentioned it in his next
“thieves’ candles” from the fingers of unbaptized babies, edition of his Disquisitiones Magicae libri sex ( Six
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Books on In vestigations into Magic). “A chronicler of Life and Works
Freising included them in his world chronicle a few Theophrastus von Hohenheim, also known by his
years later among the most important events of the cen- g r a n d f a t h e r’s name as Bombast, but only later as
tury,” while “as late as 1744 they were referred to in a Paracelsus (which perhaps meant “beyond Celsus,”
book published at Leipzig” (Behringer 1997, 232). one of the most re n owned naturalists of antiquity),
Although six more “conspirators,” including the was born about 1493 in Einsiedeln in central
Pa p p e n h e i m e r s’s ten-year-old son, we re burned at Sw i t zerland. His father, Wilhelm Bombast de Riett,
another spectacle at Munich in December 1600, the was a physician and the illegitimate son of a Sw a b i a n
Pappenheimers’s fate did not begin any Bavarian witch aristocrat. When the family moved to Villach in
hunt: as soon as some of the arrested “a c c o m p l i c e s” Carinthia, Theophrastus first came into contact with
came from respectable Bavarian families, their relatives the world of the mines. He also started taking lessons
p rotested and the whole investigation was quietly with religious teachers, one of whom may have been
dropped. Johannes Trithemius, who was suspected of having
practiced black magic. From 1507 to 1511, Pa r a c e l s u s
WILLIAM MONTER
attended lectures at several Eu ropean universities but
See also:BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;DELRIO,MARTÍN;EXECUTIONS; soon became bored listening to the commentaries of
GERMANY,SOUTHEASTERN;MAXIMILIANI,DUKEOFBAVARIA; distinguished professors. He there f o re chose to trave l
TORTURE. Eu rope, perhaps as an army surgeon following mili-
References and further reading:
t a ry troops. Around 1520, he wrote his first work, the
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria:
El e ven Treatises on the origins, causes, symptoms, and
Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early
t reatment of the diseases, and in 1524 he moved to
Modern Europe.Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer.
Salzburg. He was sympathetic tow a rd the peasant
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
re volts and soon obtained some fame for his pro p h e-
Kunze, Michael. 1981. Der Prozess Pappenheimer.Ebelsburg: n.p.
(law dissertation, Univ. of Munich). cies. Despite his interest in theology, ethics, and poli-
———. 1987. Highroad to the Stake: A Tale of Witchcraft. tics, he never joined any organized religious gro u p. In
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1526, the city of Strasbourg offered him citize n s h i p,
and he began practicing medicine, meanwhile dedi-
Paracelsus, Theophrastus cating himself to writing a vast work on medicine,
Bombastus von Hohenheim which he never completed, and several tre a t i s e s ,
(ca. 1493–1541) including the Libri Arc h i d oxis ( A rc h i d oxes of Ma g i c :
Paracelsus was a prophet, philosopher, alchemist, and Of the Su p reme Mysteries of Na t u re, of the Spirits of
Renaissance magician. Planets, Se c rets of Alchemy, Occult Ph i l o s o p h y,
The fascination of the Swiss Paracelsus stems both Zodiac Si g n s ) .
from what is known and from what remains unknown During the following ye a r, Paracelsus moved to
about his bizarre and nomadic life as an eccentric and Basel, where he cured the publisher Johann Fro b e n
rebellious physician. At times he was considered an and the humanist scholar Erasmus. Yet this brief peri-
impostor, at other times a prodigious healer of fatal dis- od of fortune did not last. Paracelsus started a care e r
eases who was accused of practicing diabolical arts. His as a public teacher but soon made enemies at the local
w o rks combined high culture and popular traditions, u n i versity because of his incessant attacks against
wide-ranging scientific interests, and an unusual m a i n s t ream medicine. Consequently, he was re d u c e d
reliance on eve ryday experiences and myths. once again to living almost as a traveling pauper,
T h roughout his life, he refused to pursue a normal, which did not, howe ve r, pre vent him from acting as a
p rofessional care e r, attacked the university teaching of p rophet and from writing numerous texts, which
his day, and attempted to revolutionize both the med- mostly remained in manuscript form until after his
ical and natural sciences by promoting the virtues of death. They include a work on syphilis, the
alchemy within the context of an original philosophical Pa ra g ra n u m (an outline of his theories garnished with
interpretation of the universe and of illness. Paracelsus some seve re attacks on mainstream medicine) and the
challenged the Aristotelian and classical paradigm by De divinis operibus et secretis naturae ( On Di v i n e
i n t roducing new principles of knowledge, which he Wo rks and the Se c rets of Na t u re), a collection of tre a-
adopted from the Hermetic tradition and from popular tises written after 1529 and printed between 1589
health care. He believed in witchcraft, demons, and evil and 1590, which probably was to become the fir s t
spells; in the witches’ Sabbat; and in their ability to take volume of his unfinished Philosophia Magna ( Gre a t
animal shape. Nevertheless, the originality of his ideas Ph i l o s o p h y ) . Paracelsus completed his Pa ra m i ru m
led him to reject the practice of burning witches at the during a stay in the Swiss City of St. Gallen, in
stake, which he deemed an inadequate response to a 1531–1532, where he was a guest of the humanist
phenomenon that was, after all, “natural.” and mayor Joachim Vadian. Su b s e q u e n t l y, Pa r a c e l s u s
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grouping him with other philosophers and naturalists
such as Pietro Pomponazzi and Marsilio Ficino.
The final years of the sixteenth century saw the
beginnings of Pa r a c e l s u s’s fame, largely thanks to the
writings of Pe t rus Se verinus (Idea Me d i c i n a e
Ph i l i s o p h i c a e , 1571) and Oswald Croll (Ba s i l i c a
C h y m i c a , 1609) and to the publication of his work s .
T h e re was a fashion for s p a gyric medicine, a form
opposed to official Galenic practices that followe d
Pa r a c e l s u s’s example in allowing the treatment of
syphilitic patients with chemical compounds (the term
is derived from two Greek words referring to the extrac-
tion and elaboration of metals). Paracelsus was particu-
larly respected in England (Francis Bacon was among
his admirers), as well as elsewhere in Europe, where his
fame grew, despite disapproval and censorship, thanks
to the Ro s i c rucian sect. Daniel Se n n e rt, a professor at
Wittenberg, wrote a work in 1619 in which he hoped
to reconcile the Galenic tradition and Pa r a c e l s u s’s
c h e m i s t ry. Joan (Jan, Jean) Baptista van He l m o n t
(1579–1644), known for his re vo l u t i o n a ry discove r i e s
in the field of illnesses, adopted some important con-
cepts from Paracelsus. Johann Wolfgang von Go e t h e
g a ve Paracelsus and his assistant Oporinus immort a l
fame when he chose them as models for his Faust and
for Wa g n e r. Pa r a c e l s u s’s twe n t i e t h - c e n t u ry admire r s
Eminent Renaissance magician, physician, alchemist, Hermeticist, and included the psychoanalyst Carl Jung and Ma r g u e r i t e
philosopher Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim) Yourcenar, who chose some of his features for the pro-
believed in witchcraft but disapproved of executing witches.
tagonist Zénon of her L’ Oe u v re au noir (The Aby s s ,
(Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis)
1968). The poets Ro b e rt Browning and Ezra Po u n d
also dedicated works to Paracelsus.
dedicated himself mostly to social questions and to The Interpretation of Nature and
caring for the poor. Moving between Au s t r i a , of Witchcraft
Sw i t zerland, Ty rol, and Ge r m a n y, he wrote va r i o u s Classical Western medicine, inspired by Hi p p o c r a t e s ,
w o rks on politics, theology, surgery, astro n o m y, pro- Galen, and the Arabs and operating within the frame-
fessional diseases, and thermal cures. In 1537, he was w o rk of Aristotelian natural philosophy, assumed that ill-
re c e i ved at the imperial court, where, despite his nesses resulted from an imbalance of the bodily flu i d s
fame, he failed to obtain favo r. Returning to Vi l l a c h , (blood, ye l l ow bile, black bile, phlegm) and of the funda-
he wrote the Tr i l o gy of Carinthia, his first violent dia- mental physical qualities (hot, cold, dry, and humid).
tribe against Ga l e n’s disciples. Po o r, ill, and unable to Paracelsus, on the contrary, stated that the universe was a
publish his writings, Paracelsus died in Salzburg in web of relations linking human beings, nature, and the
1 5 4 1 . stars (which did not influence behavior on earth). In
o rder to cure the sick, he argued, it was necessary to
Fortune o b s e rve the sky, live virt u o u s l y, know alchemy, and under-
The first person to write about Paracelsus was his disci- stand the secrets of plants and minerals, which we re
ple and assistant Johannes Oporinus (1507–1568), re vealed in their s i g n a t u ra (signs). The appearance of a
who became a publisher in Basel and printed several of p a rticular herb, for instance, indicated its use for medical
his master’s manuscripts. Oporinus described t reatment. All of life, according to Paracelsus, stemmed
Paracelsus as both sophisticated and vulgar, ingenious f rom the union of three essential metals (sulfur, salt, and
and coarse, attracted by the pleasures of wine but not m e rc u ry), which, through their combustion and corru p-
by those of the flesh. The first to condemn him was tion or by being in disharmony with one another,
Thomas Erastus (in 1572), a theologian and physician, determined the course of an illness. Medical tre a t m e n t
who was profoundly convinced of the existence and re q u i red wisdom, close observation, and the application
power of witches. In a severe attack on Paracelsus’s of similar substances (a principle rejected by traditional
works, Erastus defined him as a follower of Satan, medicine, like his use of chemical compounds). Ot h e r
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factors also influenced diseases: the power of imagination, Pagel, Walter. 1982. Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical
God, demons, and human intentions, which could take Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance.2nd ed. Basel: Karger.
the form of evil spells or witchcraft. Sudhoff, Karl, and Wilhelm Matthiesen, eds. 1996. Theophrast
von Hohenheim Paracelsus:Medizinische, naturwissenschaftliche
Paracelsus did not reject popular medicine, nor did
und philosophische Schriften.Bd. 1–14, facs. ed. 1922–1933.
he attribute madness, physical deformity, mental ill-
NewYork and Zurich: Hildesheim.
ness, and fatal diseases to such remote causes. In a
Webster, Charles. 1982. From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the
world he believed to be populated by spirits, half-
Making of Modern Science.Cambridge: Cambridge University
human fig u res, dwarfs, and nymphs (some of them
Press.
benign and even friendly toward human beings), there
was also space for witchcraft, which he treated in the
s h o rt treatise De sagis et eorum operibus ( On Wi t c h e s Paris, University of
and Their Works, a text that formed part of De divinis The Un i versity of Paris, a main center of scholastic the-
operibus). Without referring to the pact with the Devil, ology and philosophy during the Middle Ages, took a
he argued that witches were born as such because of a leading role in condemning the practice of magic. In
certain predisposition and because of their astral “ascen- September 1398, the theology faculty of the unive r s i t y,
dant.” Just like devils, they performed their harmful meeting in the Church of St. Mathurin, approved a set
deeds with the help of the secret forces of nature. Only of twenty-eight articles declaring the practice of ritual
the virtuous could resist the Devil, whereas witches magic to be heretical. In 1402, Jean Gerson the theolo-
(whom he described stereotypically) usually followe d gian, political theorist, and devotional writer who was
their instructions, thus causing storms, illnesses, and chancellor of the university at the time, included the doc-
sexual mishaps. Devils and witches (who could fly and ument in a somewhat altered form in his treatise against
also take different shapes with the help of ointments) magic, De erroribus circa artem magicam ( C o n c e r n i n g
held their meetings on top of the remote Heuberg (in Misconceptions about Magical Arts). The articles we re
the Swabian Alps), where they fornicated, reproduced, later used to condemn the practice of witchcraft.
held their rites, and prepared evil deeds. The faculty took this action in response to what the
They could, howe ve r, be fought by physicians document re f e r red to as “n ewly arisen superstitions.”
t h rough the use of opposite magical practices, which The practice of ritual magic—the summoning up of
Paracelsus considered legitimate. He disapproved of demons in order to put them at the service of human
witchcraft, devils, and their spells and considered them beings—had flourished during the thirteenth and
w o rthy of punishment, but he was also opposed to fourteenth centuries, especially at the universities and at
burning witches on the stake, arguing that they should the courts of European rulers. In the thirteenth century,
be educated and taken care of instead. Later in the six- William of Auvergne claimed that he had seen magical
teenth century, Johann We yer argued this position far books when he was a student at the University of Paris,
m o re convincingly. Ever since Erastus, many scholars and in 1277 the archbishop of Paris had condemned
h a ve asserted that, by combining popular traditions “books, rolls, or booklets containing necromancy or
with a strong opposition to the dominant culture , experiments of sorcery, invocation of demons, or conju-
Paracelsus helped to naturalize black magic. Although rations hazardous for souls” (Kieckhefer 1990, 157).
this statement is not untrue, it must also be said that, Magicians defended their rituals on the grounds that
by abandoning official explanations of illness, he helped they were commanding demons, and they insisted that
to shape an attitude common among physicians at the they we re not violating Catholic doctrine. In making
end of the sixteenth century (precisely when this pronouncement, the faculty intended to “a s s u re
Pa r a c e l s u s’s works began to reach a wider audience): that this monstrosity of horrid impiety and dangerous
they rejected Galenism, feared the Devil, and explained contagion will not be able to infect the Christian realm,
certain fatal diseases through their belief in witchcraft. which formerly has been free from such monstrosities”
(Weyer 1991, 577).
VINCENZO LAVENIA
Citing St. Augustine’s condemnation of superstitious
See also:ALCHEMY;COUNTERMAGIC;ERASTUS,THOMAS; observances, the faculty attacked “this wicked, pestilen-
FAUST,JOHANNGEORG;HERMETICISM;MAGIC,LEARNED; tial, death-dealing abomination of mad errors, along
MAGIC,NATURAL;MEDICINEANDMEDICALTHEORY; with all the attendant heresies” (Weyer 1991, 577). The
SCIENCEANDMAGIC;TRITHEMIUS,JOHANNES;
theologians declared that the claims made by ritual
WEYER,JOHANN.
magicians to justify their practices were erroneous and
References and further reading:
in some cases blasphemous. The second article, for
Debus, Allen G. 1977. The Chemical Philosophy: Paracelsian
example, declared it to be idolatrous to give or offer
Science and Medicine in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
demons anything in their honor. The third art i c l e
2 vols. NewYork: Science History Publications.
Grell, Ole P., ed. 1998. Paracelsus: The Man and His Reputation, d e c l a red it to be idolatry and apostasy to make an
His Ideas and Their Transformation.Leiden: Brill. implicit or explicit pact with demons. By “implicit
884 Paris, University of |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 922 | 46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.885 Application File
pact” the theologians meant every “superstitious ritual, Weyer, Johann. 1991.Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the
the effects of which cannot be reasonably traced to Renaissance: Johann Weyer,De Praestigiis daemonum.Edited by
either God or nature” (Levack 2004, 48). Other articles George Mora. Binghamton, NY: Medieval and Renaissance
Text and Studies.
condemned offering incense and smoke and making
s a c r i fices and immolations to demons. Yet another
denied that images made of bro n ze, lead, or gold, of Parlementof Paris
white or red wax, or of other material, when baptized, The Parlement(sovereign court) of Paris, the most pres-
exorcized, and consecrated, had tremendous powers on tigious court in France, had an enormous influence on
those days of the year identified in magical books. The witchcraft trials in the kingdom. Its authority in crimi-
t we n t y - t h i rd article condemned the claim that some nal cases stretched over nearly half the country.
demons are good, that others are omniscient, and that Although the records of the appeal hearings before it are
still others are neither saved nor damned. rather brief, they do extend over virtually the entire
The Paris faculty made its pronouncement just period of serious witchcraft persecution, enabling his-
b e f o re the first trials for witchcraft took place at the torians to draw important conclusions about both the
Pa rl e m e n tof Paris (sove reign judicial court, with juris- court’s own practices and events across a wide region.
diction over approximately one-half of France). T h e The statistics re veal a sharp increase in trials from the
a rticles did not say anything about witchcraft as it 1570s to a plateau that lasted until the 1620s; they also
came to be defined during those trials. The faculty was indicate that the p a rl e m e n t released many suspects and
concerned about theological justifications of ritual commuted the majority of death sentences, even though
magic, not the practices of the women and men who the lesser courts we re re l a t i vely lenient. The Pa r i s i a n
allegedly used magic to bring widespread harm to their judges we re ve ry concerned about procedural irre g u l a r i-
neighbors and who also worshipped the Devil in noc- ties, eventually moving to enforce an automatic appeal in
turnal orgies. Ne ve rtheless, the Paris faculty’s condem- all witchcraft cases. From around the time this right was
nation of magic as heretical and idolatrous prov i d e d fully effective (1624), the court had virtually abandoned
a u t h o r i t a t i ve support for later condemnations of death sentences for witchcraft, setting a pattern that
witchcraft, especially since it included re f e rences to s e veral other p a rl e m e n t s f o l l owed, before the royal gov-
m a l e fic i a (harmful magic) as well as pacts with the ernment ultimately put a stop to all trials across Fr a n c e .
Devil. The Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of The Paris p a rl e m e n t was an elaborate organization,
Witches, 1486) made numerous re f e rences to it. In the with overlapping political, judicial, and financial ro l e s
sixteenth century the condemnation was reprinted in and a complex internal hierarc h y. By the early
the preface to Jean Bodin’s De la démonomanie des sor- s e venteenth century, it held over 200 judges who had
c i e r s ( On the De m o n - Mania of Witches, 1580), and inherited or purchased their positions; they formed a
quotations from it appeared in Lambert Da n e a u’s L e s Grand’ Chambre,five chambers of Enquêtes,and two of
s o rciers, dialogue tres-utile et necessaire pour ce temps Re q u ê t e s . The p remier pre s i d e n t ( p residing magistrate)
(Witches, a Ve ry Useful Dialogue and One Ne c e s s a ry was an enormously influential fig u re in national poli-
for the Present Ti m e , 1574) and Ma rtín Del Rio’s tics, so this appointment was closely guarded by the
Disquisitiones Magicae libri sex ( Six Books on crown, and a procureur-général (public prosecutor) and
In vestigations into Magic, 1599/1600). Johann We ye r, two a vo c a t s - g é n é ra u x (deputy prosecutors) we re also
the sixteenth-century skeptic re g a rding witchcraft, also charged with re p resenting the royal interest and we re
d e voted the final chapter of his massive De Pra e s t i g i i s k n own as les gens du roi (the king’s men). The major
d a e m o n u m ( On the Tricks of Devils, 1563) to this business of the parlementwas that of supervising legisla-
document. It provided support for We ye r’s ow n tion and managing the application of pro p e rty law,
condemnation of ritual magic. with criminal jurisdiction as a re l a t i vely secondary
function. The hearing of criminal appeals was delegated
to a special chamber called the To u rn e l l e , staffed on a
BRIAN P. LEVACK
rotating basis by councilors from the other chambers.
See also:DEMONS;GERSON,JEAN;IDOLATRY;IMAGEMAGIC; The re s s o rt (jurisdiction) of the p a rl e m e n t c ove red a
RITUALMAGIC;SUPERSTITION. huge area, stretching from Poitou and the Auvergne to
References and further reading:
Champagne and Picardy, or close to half of France, and
Bodin, Jean. 1580. De la démonomanie des sorciers.Paris.
all those convicted of serious crimes in lesser court s
Gerson, Jean. 1973. Oeuvres complètes.Vol. 10. Paris.
within this area were entitled to appeal for a final hear-
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1990. Magic in the Middle Age. Cambridge:
ing in Paris. Be f o re Je a n - Baptiste Colbert sponsored a
Cambridge University Press.
n ew criminal code in 1670, the rules we re essentially
Levack, Brian P., ed. 2004. The Witchcraft Sourcebook.London and
NewYork: Routledge. those specified in the 1539 Ordinance of Vi l l e r s -
Peters, Edward. 1978. The Magician, the Witch, and the Law. C o t t e rets, which defined the use of the so-called
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. inquisitorial procedure. Under this system, preliminary
Parlementof Paris 885 |
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hearings gathered evidence from witnesses and through The painstaking re s e a rch by Alfred Soman re ve a l e d
an interrogation of the suspect; if specified standards of that the parlement heard a minimum of 1,288 appeals
p roof for an immediate conviction we re not met, a from convicted witches between 1540 and 1670; if cas-
court might still decide there were sufficient grounds to es of magicians are included, the number rises to 1,481
subject the accused to tort u re. When the To u rn e l l e ( Soman 1992, XIII, 42). Just over 40 percent of the
h e a rd cases on appeal, the defendant appeared in witchcraft suspects had been condemned to death in
person, accompanied by papers from his original trial, the lower courts, but the parlementconfirmed only one-
which we re passed to a councilor who acted as q u a rter of these sentences, so that just above 100
ra p p o rt e u r, summarizing the case and making a individuals went to the stake, barely 10 percent of
recommendation to his colleagues, who often also appellants. Tw o - t h i rds ended up either banished or
interrogated the accused. released, in roughly equal pro p o rtions. These pro p o r-
This system meant that appeals we re often a costly tions did not change dramatically over the period; the
business, requiring the accused to be brought to the two statistical features that stand out are an increase to
Conciergerie in the Parisian palais de justice (the seat of 20 percent executed in the 1590s and then a downward
the p a rl e m e n t) under guard and then held there until t rend after 1610. Just over half the appellants we re
the case was decided. Ne ve rtheless, the p a rl e m e n t w a s men, in proportions varying from roughly two-thirds in
eager to assert its authority in this fashion, especially the western part of the re s s o rt to one-third tow a rd the
when it suspected that the lesser courts had committed eastern border, and there is little evidence of gender bias
procedural abuses. The Parisian judges had a very keen in the sentences handed out. Most remarkably, of 185
sense of their own status and the prestige of their insti- suspects sent to the torture chamber, only one actually
tution; furthermore, they saw themselves as embodying confessed, a woman who was merely shown the instru-
the higher rationality of the educated elite. They also ments of torture in 1587. Although statistical precision
had a distinctive position where religious values and is impossible because the surviving documents are so
secular ones overlapped. The court remained stro n g l y laconic about details of cases, the local cunning folk
Catholic during the Wars of Religion and then split in (devinsand devineresses) appear to have been prominent
two between 1589 and 1594, with some councilors among the accused. The p a rl e m e n t clearly took a cau-
remaining in Paris under the Holy (Catholic) League, tious view of witchcraft charges from the ve ry start ,
while the majority formed a royalist parlementat Tours. which quite rapidly developed into more extensive
Despite such differences of opinion, the great majority skepticism. T h e re was some continuity with attitudes
of councilors seem to have favored a moderate Gallican toward other crimes, because the court was inclined to
position, hostile to encroachments by either the papacy moderate sentences generally, but one should note that
or the institutional French Church. in another great persecution that began in the late six-
The councilors’ suspicions of ecclesiastical interf e r- teenth century, some 70 percent of death sentences for
ence on all fronts almost certainly predisposed them infanticide we re confirmed (Soman 1992, passim).
t ow a rd a pragmatic rationalist position on issues such Witchcraft charges seem to have caused special disquiet
as witchcraft. It is unclear whether this was already tru e for two key reasons: the high level of local abuses appar-
in 1491, when the p a rl e m e n t s t ruck an early blow ent from the ve ry start, and the legal difficulties of
against local abuses by posthumously rehabilitating the proof when direct evidence from eyewitnesses was vir-
accused from the sensational affair of the Va u d e r i e o f tually ruled out by the very nature of the alleged crime.
Arras thirty years before. This invo l ved a curious juris- The Tournelle evidently feared that such charges could
dictional anomaly, because Arras—which belonged to become a convenient method for settling score s
the duke of Bu r g u n d y, not the king of Fr a n c e — w a s between peasants whom they saw as both superstitious
subject to the Parisian appellate system (Cohn 1975, and mendacious.
230–232). Ve ry early in the major period of persecu- The repeated evidence that local judges broke the
tion, in 1587–1588, the re velation of numerous abuses rules, denied the accused their rights, and even resorted
in trials from the Ardennes led the gens du ro i t o to the wholly illegal swimming test could only increase
p ropose that all witchcraft cases should automatically misgivings in the parlement.A series of reprimands were
be appealed before the p a rl e m e n t .The political crisis of handed down whenever such misbehavior was detected;
the following years pre vented an immediate decision in judges might be called to Paris to explain themselves, or
this sense, but between 1600 and 1604, a new series of special restrictions were placed on the rights of individ-
abuses led to the formal adoption of this position. ual courts to hear certain types of cases. A marked drop
Fi n a l l y, in 1624, the court took effective steps to in the number of witchcraft appeals after the late 1620s
implement its decision by circulating a printed text to suggests that awareness of this watchfulness from the
all lower courts, on the eve of its less public move parlementhad a major effect on the subordinate courts.
to abandon death sentences for witchcraft (So m a n This must have been re i n f o rced in 1641, when the
1992, VII and XII). lieutenant de justice and two other officials of the court
886 Parlementof Paris |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 924 | 46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.887 Application File
at Bragelonne were convicted of murdering a suspected Munich libraries and arc h i ves studying sixteenth-
witch and we re hanged in the place de Gr è ve in Pa r i s ; century confessional theology. Driven by the Catholic
n ews of this drastic punishment was publicize d minority position in the German Kulturkampf, or
t h roughout the whole re s s o rt . In a further case fro m culture wars, under the Prussian-dominated German
eastern France, the s e i g n e u r ( l o rd; rural estate ow n e r ) , Second Empire, all of Paulus’s essays were utterly
p ro c u reur fis c a l ( fiscal re p re s e n t a t i ve or attorney), and biased.
another individual from Vi v i e r s - s u r - A rtaut we re Paulus’s other writings treat such topics as witchcraft
hanged in effigy in 1647, having fled after a suspect was trials in Rome or the participation of Lu t h e r a n
lynched (Mandrou 1969, 354–356; Soman 1992, XII, authorities in witch hunts. Most of his pieces we re
197). By this time, few observers could doubt either the republished at Munich in 1910 in a collection entitled
skepticism of the p a rl e m e n t or its determination to He xenwahn und He xe n p ro ze s s vo rnehmlich im 16.
enforce its authority. In a fascinating conversation from Jahrhundert (Witch Craze and Witch Trials, Especially
1643, the curé(chief parish priest) of Nanterre recorded in the Sixteenth Century).
asking his friend, the councilor Laisné, why the court
WOLFGANG BEHRINGER
no longer convicted witches; he was told that it was
very difficult to secure adequate proof, so they convict- See also:GENDER;HISTORIOGRAPHY.
ed them solely for any proven harm they had done or References and further reading:
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1994. “Zur Geschichte der
for open sacrilege (Ma n d rou 1969, 360–361). T h i s
Hexenforschung.” Pp. 93–146 in Hexen und Hexenverfolgung
policy was still applied in the last major series of cases
im deutschen Südwesten.Edited by Sönke Lorenz. Ostfildern:
h e a rd by the p a rl e m e n t in 1687–1691, involving nine
Cantz.
s h e p h e rds from the Brie region accused of poisoning
animals and of sacrilege; four we re sent to the galleys,
three banished, and two sentenced to death (Mandrou Pedersdotter, Anna (1590)
1969, 500–507). Such relative severity, in an exception- The trial of Anna Pedersdotter, widow of the Lutheran
al set of circumstances, should not be allowed to theologian Absalon Pedersen Beyer, is the most famous
obscure the notable success of the parlementin securing prosecution in the history of Norwegian witchcraft.
the rule of law and damping down any threat of mass The charges against Anna arose out of the opposition
persecution under its jurisdiction. that had developed in the town of Bergen to the efforts
by her husband and other clergymen to destroy Roman
ROBIN BRIGGS Catholic images. Instead of charging the clergy, who
often had influential patrons, their opponents accused
See also:APPEALS;ARDENNES;ARRAS;CUNNINGFOLK;
their wives. In 1575, a year after Absalon’s death,
DECLINEOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;FRANCE;INFANTICIDE;
charges of witchcraft were brought against Anna in a
INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;LYNCHING;MANDROU,ROBERT;
PROOF,PROBLEMOF;SKEPTICISM;SWIMMINGTEST; secular court at Bergen, but she was acquitted.
WARSOFRELIGION(FRANCE). In 1590, however, Anna was charged once again with
References and further reading: witchcraft. The family of the woman engaged to Anna’s
Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons.London: Chatto son objected that, although Anna had been acquitted,
Heinemann. her neighbors still suspected her.The case against Anna
Mandrou, Robert. 1969. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe was there f o re reopened. The main charges bro u g h t
siècle: Une analyse de psychologie historique.Paris: Plon.
against her were for practicing maleficent magic. Anna
Pearl, Jonathan L. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and
was accused of inflicting illnesses on various persons
Politics in France, 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred
who had crossed her, including the wife of a cabinet-
Laurier University Press.
maker whom she had falsely accused of witchcraft. The
Shennan, John H. 1969. The Parlement of Paris.London: Eyre and
husband of a woman who had contracted a fatal illness
Spottiswoode.
Soman, Alfred. 1992. Sorcellerie et Justice Criminelle: Le Parlement claimed that Anna had bewitched her when she picked
de Paris (16e–18e siècles).Basingstoke, UK: Ashgate Publishing. up a coin that Anna had dropped at her feet. Anna was
(Includes some articles in English.) also charged with causing the death of a young boy by
giving him a bewitched cookie. As the trial developed,
Paulus, Nikolaus (1853–1930)
h owe ve r, Anna was also charged with devil worship.
A Catholic priest from the Alsatian village of Her servant, Elena, testified that Anna had turned her
Krautergersheim, Paulus managed to produce innova- into a horse and had ridden her to the Sabbat at a
tive pieces about the role of women in witchcraft mountain called Lyderhorn. At this location, a famous
persecutions despite a lack of formal academic training, meeting place of witches in No rwegian folklore, a
publishing one of the first essays to explore the gender g roup of witches allegedly plotted to raise a storm to
issue seriously. In s p i red by the Catholic historian d e s t roy all ships arriving at Bergen. At subsequent
Johannes Janssen (1829–1891), Paulus spent years in meetings, it was charged, they plotted to burn the town
Pedersdotter, Anna 887 |
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or cause it to be flooded. A man in white, who claimed Wiers-Jenssen, Hans. 1917. Anne Pedersdotter: A Drama in Four
that God would not allow it, dispersed this assembly of Acts.Translated by John Masefield. Boston: Little, Brown.
witches.
The charges of diabolism introduced at Anna’s sec- Peña, Francisco
ond trial seem relatively bland compared to those that (ca. 1540–1612)
emerged in many German, French, and Swiss trials. Peña is known for editing in 1578 a revised and updated
The Sabbat Anna allegedly attended invo l ved no edition of Nicolas Ey m e r i c’s authoritative D i re c t o r i u m
p romiscuous sexual activity, infanticide, cannibalism, i n q u i s i t o rum ( Di re c t o ry of Inquisitors, 1376), which
or blasphemous misuse of the Eucharist. Nor was Anna became the first in a series of annotated transcriptions of
t o rt u red to make a confession, as happened in a few t reatises on inquisitorial pro c e d u re .
other No rwegian witchcraft trials. Anna’s conviction Born in Vi l l a roya de los Pi n a res, in the Aragonese
was based mainly on charges of maleficent magic, not p rovince of Te ruel, Spain, Peña studied at the
devil worship. Even the confessions of two pre v i o u s l y University of Valencia, earning a master of arts degree.
executed witches, who had claimed that they had seen Peña probably left Valencia for Rome during the pontif-
Anna at the Lyderhorn, said more about her magical icate of Pius V, armed with an official recommendation
powers than her activities at the Sabbat. The court was from King Philip II to the papal court. He pursued his
also persuaded that a storm that had arisen when Anna studies at the University of Bologna, earning his doctor-
was supposedly at the Lyderhorn was caused by her al degree in 1573. Afterward, Peña continued his theo-
magical powers. logical and juridical studies. In 1581 he edited
The case of Anna Pedersdotter owes its modern-day A m b rogio Vi g n a t e’s Tractatus de haere s i (Treatise on
fame to a play by the No rwegian author Hans Wi e r s - He resies), along with Allegatio in materia di haere s i
Jenssen, an English translation of that play, An n e (Allegations in Matters Concerning He resies) by Ju a n
Pe d e r s d o t t e r, by John Ma s e field (1917), and a Da n i s h Lopez de Vivero. In 1584 followed, among other publi-
film, Day of Wra t h , d i rected by Carl T h e o d o re Dre ye r cations, an edition of Be r n a rdo of Como’s Lu c e rn a
(1943). The play and the film took numerous art i s t i c i n q u i s i t o rum haereticae pravitatis (A Lantern for
l i b e rties with the historical re c o rd but nonetheless Inquisitors of Heretical Depravity). Peña’s own treatise,
a d d ressed two important themes in the history of Introdutio seu praxis inquisitorum(Introduction, Or the
witchcraft. First, they explored the ways in which ten- Practice of the Inquisitors), was not printed until 1655,
sions within families, in part i c u l a r, relations betwe e n when it first appeared in Cesare Care n a’s Tractatus de
mothers and daughters-in-law, could result in witch- o f ficio sanctissimae inquisitionis (Treatise of the Ho l y
craft accusations. In the play and the film, Ab s a l o n’s Inquisition).
m o t h e r, Me rete Be ye r, had never approved of her son’s From the time Sixtus V appointed him auditor of the
second marriage to the young and beautiful Anna. papal Rota in 1588 (he became its dean in 1604) until
When Anna fell in love with Ma rtin, Ab s a l o n’s son by his death, Peña worked in Rome as a judge, also becom-
his first marriage, the relationship between Anna and ing a patron for young men commencing their careers
Me rete deteriorated. When Absalon died suddenly at the papal court. During this period, Peña served both
upon discovering that his wife and son we re having an as a consultant to the Spanish embassy in Rome and as
a f f a i r, Me rete charged Anna with having caused a papal adviser on Spanish affairs.
Ab s a l o n’s death by witchcraft. Second, the play and Despite his notew o rthy diplomatic service for the
film also explored the way in which Anna gradually Spanish crown in Rome, Pe ñ a’s modern fame re s t s
came to the realization that she was a witch. Ha v i n g largely on his edition of the D i rectorium inquisitoru m.
learned from her husband that her own mother had The exact circumstances surrounding the decision
been accused of witchcraft and spared by Ab s a l o n’s o rdering Peña to revise this fourt e e n t h - c e n t u ry inquisi-
i n t e rvention, she began to believe that she had torial guide are unclear. Papal sponsorship was
a c q u i red her mother’s powers. Her success in winning p robably part of a general need to revise and update
Ma rt i n’s affection and in wishing her husband’s death antiquated ecclesiastical texts and decrees for use by
re i n f o rced this realization, leading her to confess at the the Congregation of the Holy Of fice. Gre g o ry XIII
end of the play. a p p roved the revised edition, and other papally
BRIAN P. LEVACK s p o n s o red texts of this period also confirm this
assumption. Peña worked on Ey m e r i c’s D i re c t o r i u mf o r
See also:BEWITCHMENT;CONFESSIONS;FAMILY;FILM(CINEMA);
s e veral years, and his commentaries constantly pointed
NORWAY;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;SABBAT;WEATHERMAGIC.
out textual variations among the different manuscripts.
References and further reading:
Pe ñ a’s edition of the D i rectorium was a one-vo l u m e
Bainton, Roland. 1977. Women of the Reformation: From Spain to
text divided into three parts. The first short part
Scandinavia.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Day of Wrath.1943. Directed by Carl Theodore Dreyer. Hen’s included 26 lengthy commentaries by Peña, and its
Tooth Video. larger second part contained 83 commentaries. Its fin a l
888 Peña, Francisco |
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section, the actual handbook of inquisitorial pro c e- journey to Ve n u s’s mountain, the game of the good
d u re, contained 131 questions from Eymeric and 180 society (ludus bonae societatis), strange goddesses, and con-
commentaries from Peña. The work was completed by tact with the deceased, together with gaining prophetic or
a selection of papal decrees collected by Peña, a sum- healing powers, are present in early modern sources as
m a ry, and an index of topics. Peña took a part i c u l a r well as non-Eu ropean cultures (Ginzburg 1991).
i n t e rest in the subject of witchcraft and re f e r red to The traditional theological device for interpre t i n g
much of the ort h o d ox literature from pre v i o u s such phantoms was the famous Canon Ep i s c o p i ( c a .
centuries, especially the Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (T h e 906). This key text influenced later notions, although it
Hammer of Witches, 1486). remains unclear whether learned references or personal
experiences were added to texts such as the instruction
by the Dominican Bernard Gui, in the chapter on sor-
LOUISE NYHOLM KALLESTRUP
c e ry of his handbook for inquisitors, to ask women
See also:EYMERIC,NICOLAS;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE; whether they believed they flew with the fairies on cer-
MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;RATEGNO,BERNARDOOFCOMO.
tain nights (Hansen 1901, 48). Many traces of popular
References and further reading:
beliefs exist in trial re c o rds of inquisitors or secular
Borromeo, Agostino. 1983–1984. “A proposito del Directorium
c o u rts, including two Inquisition trials from Milan in
inquisitorumdi Nicolàs Eymeric.” CriticaStorica4: 499–548.
1384 and 1390 in which women confessed nocturnal
Buchberger, Michael, and Walter Kasper, eds. 1995–. Lexikon für
flights with a “Good Lady” as their own real experiences
Theologie und Kirche8: 17. Freiburg.
Del Col, Andrea, and Giovanna Paolin, eds. 2000. L’Inquisizione ( Mu r a ro 1976). Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464),
romana: Metologia delle fonti estoria istitutionale.Trieste: philosopher and bishop of Brixen, discovered beliefs in
Università di Trieste. a domina Richella in remote Alpine valleys, noting in
Martin, Ruth. 1989. Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice, sermons of 1457 that she was called Holda in German
1550–1650.Oxford: Blackwell. (Nicolai Cusae Ca rdinalis Op e ra , 2 [Paris 1514], fol.
Pastor, Ludwig von. 1925. Geschichte der Päpste seit dem Ausgang 170v–172r). A Danish folklorist found traces of a fairy
des Mittelalters. Vol. 9. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder-Druck.
cult re c o rded in sixteenth- and seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry
Peters, Edward. 1975. “Editing Inquisitors’ Manuals in the
trial re c o rds from Sicily by the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n
Sixteenth Century: Franscisco Peña and the Directorium
( Henningsen 1990). Although there is room for
Inquisitorumof Nicholas Eymeric.” The Library Chronicle 40:
argument, such images open the gates to Eu ro p e’s
95–107.
D re a m t i m e ,a sphere, according to Australian Ab o r i g i n e s ,
Van Der Vekene, Emil. 1973. “Die gedruckten Ausgaben des
‘Directorium inquisitorum’ des Nicolaus Eymerich.” where the boundaries between myths and reality or past
Gutenberg-Jarhbuch 1973 12: 286–298. and present become fluid (Duerr 1985). Nu m e ro u s
motifs of fairy tales, as classified in Antti Aarne and
People of the Night Stith T h o m p s o n’s “Mo t i f - Index of Folk Literature , ”
(Nachtvolk) a p p e a red in trial re c o rds as experienced “f a c t s . ”
When Carlo Ginzburg first presented his famous Vladimir Propp (1968) concluded that the roots of
Benandanti (do-gooders) in 1966, many scholars ini- f a i ry tales we re connected with layers of human con-
tially suspected that it somehow proved the existence of sciousness, where linear perceptions of time and
a sect of witches. These charismatic individuals from Euclidean space became meaningless.
early modern Friuli experienced ecstasies and worked as Chonrad Stoeckhlin, a shaman-type diviner in the
healers and witch finders. They supposedly fought n o rthern Alpine valley of Ob e r s t d o rf, who invo l u n t a r-
imaginary air battles against witches to defend the crop ily triggered a large-scale witch hunt in the prince-
h a rvest and decide the fate of their communities bishopric of Augsburg in 1586, claimed to fly with the
(Ginzburg 1983). Shamanistically gifted individuals Na c h t s c h a r (phantoms of the night) to certain places
have also been discovered in many corners of Europe. during the Ember nights (Ember Days we re those of
In field studies on Dalmatian islands in the early 1950s, special prayer and fasting at the beginning of the four
Krsniki were still considered opponents of witches and seasons), and during these ecstasies he gained know l-
were feared and sought for their divinatory powers edge about the identity of the witches (Be h r i n g e r
(Boskovic-Stulli 1960). 1998). Hi t h e rto unknown to historians of witchcraft,
St a rting from the Hungarian Táltos (shaman), Gábor the Na c h t s c h a r is inextricably intertwined with the
Klaniczay collected similar ideas throughout eastern notion of the Na c h t vo l k , or night people, in folklore
Eu rope, from the Friuli over the Balkans down to the re s e a rch. When Austrian and Swiss folklorists began
Black Sea, demonstrating that Gi n z b u r g’s seemingly collecting folk narratives and fairy tales, they found an
b i z a r re findings formed part of a much wider puzzle astonishing variety of stories about “people of the
(Klaniczay 1990), there by making possible a new access n i g h t” in an area reaching from the Ob e r s t d o rf va l l e y
to the world of Eu ropean fairy tales, where archaic folk- w h e re Stoeckhlin lived into western Austria and all
l o re meets literature. The nocturnal ride with Diana, the a c ross Sw i t zerland into Valais, the ve ry region where
People of the Night 889 |
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the witches’ Sabbat was discove red in the fif t e e n t h in Fourth International Congress of Folk Narrative Research in
c e n t u ry, then partly ruled by the duchy of Sa voy. Athens: Lectures and ReportsEdited by Georgios A. Megas.
Re s e a rch into such forms of folk belief could there f o re Athens.
Boskovic-Stulli, Maja. 1960. “Kresnik-Krsnik.” Fabula3:
fill gaps in our understanding of the invention of the
275–298.
w i t c h e s’ Sa b b a t .
Büchli, Arnold. 1947. “Wilde Jagd und Nachtvolk.” Schweizer
The “people of the night” emerge almost everywhere
Volkskunde 37: 65–69.
in local narratives from Vorarlberg, the Grisons, and
Duerr, Hans Peter. 1985. Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary
Valais (Beitl 1965). However, ethnographic field studies
Between Wilderness and Civilization. Oxford: Blackwell.
had independently detected them in the late nineteenth Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian
and early twentieth centuries (maps in Liebl 1971, Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Baltimore:
258–259). Unlike terrifying stories of the “wild hunt,” Johns Hopkins University Press.
w h e re demonic cre a t u res frighten and threaten those ———. 1991. Ecstasies. Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath.New
who watch them, the “people of the night” fascinated York: Random House.
o b s e rvers with music of unearthly beauty and neve r Hansen, Joseph, ed. 1901. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgungen im
harmed anyone. They could even perform the miracle
Mittelalter.Bonn: C. Georgi. Reprint. Hildesheim: Georg
of the bones, restoring devoured cattle to life the morn-
Olms, 1963.
ing after their orgiastic nightly festivities, feasting and
Henningsen, Gustav. 1990. “‘The Ladies from Outside’: An
dancing at remote Alpine locations. They invited
Archaic Pattern of the Witches’ Sabbat.” Pp. 191–215 in Early
o b s e rvers to their nocturnal gatherings and inve s t e d
Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by
them with such supernatural abilities as fort u n e t e l l i n g Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
and healing. Klaniczay, Gábor. 1990. The Uses of Supernatural Power:The
According to folk belief, the “people of the night” are Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early
the “good society”; they harm only when they feel Modern Europe.Princeton: Princeton University Press.
attacked but otherwise bring people good luck. Liebl, Elsbeth. 1971. “‘Totenzug’ und Geisterheere und ähnliche
Sometimes they resemble a fairy society, but other nar- Erscheinungen.” Pp. 753–767 (maps 258–259) in Atlas de
Folklore Suisse:Kommentar,pt. 2, sec. 7. Basel.
r a t i ves make them seem part of the Ot h e rworld. We l l
Luck, Georg. 1935. “Totenvolk und Nachtschar.” Pp. 26–31 in
into the seventeenth century, the “people of the night”
Rätische Alpensagen.Chur: Schweizerische Gesellschaft für
we re not confined to fairy tales: a good number of
Volkskunde.
ecstatics actually claimed to have seen them, re c e i ve d
Muraro, Luisa. 1976. La Signora del Gioco,Milan: Feltrinelli.
regular visits from them, flew with them, or eve n
Propp,Vladimir. 1968. Morphology of the Folktale. Austin:
belonged to the Na c h t vo l k t h e m s e l ves. A citizen of University of Texas Press.
Lucerne, Re n w a rd Cysat (1545–1614), collected
dozens of stories from his friends in order to attack this Perkins, William (1558–1602)
w i d e s p read superstition. But Cy s a t’s polemic made it Perkins’s place in witchcraft history is assured by his
perfectly clear that those whose houses the night people large work of demonology, A Discourse of the damned
visited we re envied and considered lucky by their art of Witchcraft: so farre forth as it is revealed in the
neighbors. This case serves to show how belief systems Scriptures, and manifested by true Experience, published
were reduced to fairy tales and may also indicate that it at Cambridge six years after the author’s death, having
was more than inquisitors’ fantasies that formed the initially been written as a series of sermons presumably
idea of witchcraft. delivered during the 1590s. It was brought to press and
prefaced with an “Epistle Dedicatorie” by an obscure
WOLFGANG BEHRINGER Cambridge-educated clergyman, Thomas Pi c k e r i n g ,
then minister of Finchingfield (Essex), who was also
See also:AUGSBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;BENANDANTI;CANON
EPISCOPI;DIANA(ARTEMIS); FAIRIES;FLIGHTOFWITCHES; responsible for editing and publishing a number of
FOLKLORE;GINZBURG,CARLO;GRIMM,JACOB;GUI,BERNARD; Perkins’s other works in the years following his death.
HOLDA;SHAMANISM;STOECKHLIN,CHONRAD;TÁLTOS. The leading English Protestant theologian of his day,
References and further reading: Pe rkins was born in rural Wa rw i c k s h i re and entere d
Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson. 1987. The Types of the Folktale: Christ Church College, Cambridge, where the gre a t
A Classification and Bibliography.Helsinki: Academia Protestant scholar and pre a c h e r, Lawrence Chadert o n
Scientiarum Fennica.
(1536–1640), taught him. Pe rkins, on his ow n
Bächtold-Stäubli, Hans, ed. 1934. “Lincke, Nachtvolk, -schar.” In
account, experienced a somewhat dissolute yo u t h
Ha n d w ö rt e r b u c hdes deutschen Ab e r g l a u b e n s .vol. 6, cols. 805–809.
b e f o re reforming himself and going on to become a
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1998. Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad
f e l l ow of his college and establish himself as a gifted
Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night.Translated by H.C.
preacher and prolific writer. In the sixteenth and seven-
Erik Midelfort. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Beitl, Klaus. 1965. “Die Sage vom Nachtvolk: Untersuchung zu teenth centuries, continental Protestant authors
einem alpinen Sagentypus (Mit Verbreitungskarte).” Pp. 14–21 f requently cited his works, which had been translated
890 Perkins, William |
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into Latin and several European languages. In England, and an English Witch (London, 1653). Filmer, an advo-
they were widely read and influential well into the eigh- cate of absolute monarchy and a royalist in the Civil
teenth century. War, especially attacked Perkins’s emphasis on the pact,
The Discourse lay firmly in the mainstream of which Filmer obviously re g a rded as similar to Pu r i t a n
Protestant demonology, although it had an unusually v i ews on covenant theology, to which this roy a l i s t
heavy reliance on Scripture rather than on other forms gentleman was extremely hostile.
of authority. Pe rkins seldom re f e r red to classical
JAMES SHARPE
authors, the Church Fathers, other demonologists, or
c o n t e m p o r a ry cases. Rather than m a l e fic i u m ( h a r m f u l See also:CUNNINGFOLK;DEMONOLOGY;ENGLAND;FILMER,SIR
magic), Pe rkins stressed the centrality of the demonic ROBERT;MATHER,COTTON;PURITANISM;SUPERSTITION.
References and further reading:
pact as the central issue in witchcraft (although, like
Breward, Ian, ed. 1969. The Work of William Perkins.Appleford,
other Protestant demonologists, he was slightly embar-
Abingdon, Berks: Sutton Courtenay.
rassed by the lack of any scriptural reference to it). Like
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
many other authors, he deplored the popular tendency
in Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Clarendon.
to attribute a wide range of misfortune to witchcraft
Estes, Leland. 1988. “Good Witches, Wise Men, Astrologers, and
rather than to divine providence. Pe rkins was ve ry Scientists: William Perkins and the Limits of the European
much concerned with popular “superstitions,” which Witch Hunt.” Pp. 154–165 in Hermeticism and the
impeded correct religious understanding, and lost no Renaissance: Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern
o p p o rtunity to ridicule Catholic practices he re g a rd e d Europe.Edited by Ingrid Merkel and Allen G. Debus.
as either superstitious or just as devilish as witchcraft. Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library.
In particular, he took a very strong line against cun-
ning folk, those “good” witches to whom the ignorant Perreaud, François
population (Pe rk i n s’s term) flocked so eagerly. Pe rk i n s (1572/1577–1657)
felt that cunning folk, like other conjurors and magi- A Huguenot minister of attested probity and reliability,
cians, derived their powers from the Devil as surely as Perreaud wrote two short treatises on demonology pub-
did the malefic witch. Thus, Pe rkins could assure his lished together as Démonologie ou traité des demons et
readers that “this must alwaies be re m e m b e red, as a sorciers, ensemble l’Antidemon de Mascon (Demonology,
conclusion, that by Witches we understand not those or a Treatise on Demons and Witches, including the
o n e l y, which kill and torment: but all Di v i n e r s , Anti-Demon of Mâcon) in Geneva in 1653. The first,
Charmers, Iugglers, all Wizzards, commonly called wise Démonologie,served as a kind of lengthy, self-contained
men and wise women” (p. 256). Such magical practi- introduction to the second, L’Antidemon de Mâcon,
tioners we re, indeed, worse than malefic witches, which provided a long and mostly circ u m s t a n t i a l
because they pretended to do good and therefore delud- account of a poltergeist haunting, to which Perreaud
ed the ignorant populace and led them further fro m and his whole household had been subjected for just
godliness. Perkins, in fact, ended his Discourse by stat- over three months at the end of 1612. The latter trea-
ing that “death there f o re is the iust and deserved por- tise caught the eye of Sir Robert Boyle, a future mem-
tion of the good Witch” (p. 257). ber of the Royal Society, who heard the details from
English court re c o rds suggest that Pe rk i n s’s re c o m- Perreaud himself and as a result sponsored an English
mendation in this respect was not taken to heart by translation, which appeared in 1658.
those responsible for administering English witchcraft
trials: cunning folk usually suffered the re l a t i vely light Démonologie
penalties of penance before the ecclesiastical courts and The Démonologie began with a short preface in which
fines before secular courts. But, more generally, Perreaud explained that in 1652 he visited Bern for the
Pe rk i n s’s opinions on witchcraft remained influ e n t i a l first time for fifty years and there congratulated the city
for over a century, and English advocates of witch hunt- on passing a law against witches. Attacks at the hands
ing drew considerable comfort from the fact that so of Catholics who blamed the Reformed religion for an
eminent a man had written in support of their cause. In infestation of witches in the Pays de Vaud and personal
his justification of the Salem trials of 1692, T h e experience of an evil spirit caused him to write his
Wonders of the Invisible Wo rl d , Cotton Mather cited treatise in order “to explain by reliable grounds and
Perkins’s work extensively, and close study would prob- principles what one must believe [in relation to
ably reveal citations among continental Protestant writ- witches], the strength and weakness of evil spirits, and
ers on witchcraft. Fu rther proof of the status of the the proper remedies and safeguards one may take
Discourse comes from its place as the prime target of an against them” (Perreaud 1653, 3).
i m p o rtant skeptical work, Sir Ro b e rt Fi l m e r’s An The treatise was divided into twe l ve short chapters
Ad ve rtisement to the Ju ry-men of England, touching and read like an extended sermon. Perreaud argued that
Witches: Together with a Difference between an He b re w Scripture and human experience all over Europe prove
Perreaud, François 891 |
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that both good and bad angels exist and that evil spirits be disconcerted or frightened, because these eve n t s
were necessary in God’s scheme of things to punish sin were not beyond our courage or our endurance.
and test the faith of believers. Maintaining that witches
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
did not exist was merely one of Sa t a n’s tricks.
Nevertheless, it was as dangerous to be overcredulous as See also:DEMONOLOGY;DEMONS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;IDOLATRY;
it is to be unbelieving. Certain phenomena, such as IMAGINATION;LANCRE,PIERREDE;POLTERGEIST;VAUD,PAYSDE;
unexpected hailstorms and tempests, might have natur-
WATER,HOLY.
References and further reading:
al explanations. Deliberate fraud must not be discount-
Labrousse, Elisabeth. 1996. Conscience et Conviction: Etudes sur le
ed. Malicious accusation, too, was always possible.
xviie siècle.Paris: Universitas, and Oxford: Voltaire Foundation,
Demons, howe ve r, could act only with Go d’s permis-
pp. 16–41.
sion; so if storms do occur, they are likely to be signs of
God’s anger at our sins.
The word d e m o n meant “someone who know s , ” Personality of Witches
Pe r reaud said—actually, it came from a Greek word Unfriendly, abusive, and, to a lesser degree, antisocial or
for an intermediary spirit or deity—and demons pos- deviant people run a particular risk of being suspected
sessed two qualities: the power to know and the witches in cultures that believe in witchcraft. Witches
p ower to act. Thus, demons could predict the future , are thought to be people who have secretly turned
because they we re immensely skilled at interpre t i n g against their communities, engaging in antisocial activ-
signs and drawing correct inferences from past ities and inflicting harm on their neighbors, so people
actions. But they worked principally thro u g h who believe in them are naturally prone to suspect peo-
illusions and might persuade people to believe their ple who manifest hostility or evince alienation from the
illusions by manipulating their imaginations or community. Early modern European theories about
affecting their sight and hearing. Consequently, witchcraft were somewhat atypical because they stressed
witches merely imagined they flew to their Sa b b a t s the range of people who might become witches, but
because Satan made use of their proclivity to melan- they also emphasized hostile and antisocial behaviors.
cholia to manufacture illusions in their brains. Early modern popular suspicions targeted people, usu-
Demons could do things that we re impossible for ally women, whose behavior and attitudes made them
humans, such as making dead bodies move and speak seem most likely to be responsible for harm suffered by
b e l i e vably or creating false bodies from congealed air others in their community. However, in early modern
for the same purpose. If witches did in fact fly, it was Europe as elsewhere, because witches were thought to
because they we re carried by evil spirits who bore them practice their rites secretly and to inflict harm through
u p, much as a wind carried heavy objects through the occult means, the essential issue was not the suspect’s
a i r. Sa t a n’s aim in all this was the destruction of ove rt behavior but his or her inner orientation.
h u m a n i t y. He misled people through idolatry as mani- Although cultural images generally emphasized the
fested in the Church of Rome or those who claimed to witch’s hostility and perversity, actual witch suspects
c u re diseases by popular magic. The end of the world were not necessarily belligerent or antisocial. Most the-
was not far off, so Satan was constantly inventing new ories about why people in a broad range of societies feel
stratagems to ensnare and destroy the faithful. He so threatened by the presumed hostility of witches
could not be restrained by superstitious means such as approach the issue as one of victimization due to
c rosses or holy water. A strong faith in God, praye r, cognitive malfunctions on the part of the accuser,
vigil, and fasting we re the appropriate weapons for a manifesting the displacement of other social processes
t rue Christian. or the dictates of a culturally prescribed narrative. Con-
There was nothing in Perreaud’s treatises that was in sideration of the role of personality in witch beliefs,
the least novel or unorthodox, and little (save his con- however, raises the possibility that witchcraft beliefs
clusion) that was distinctively Protestant. Pro t e s t a n t were a way to categorize and cope with people whose
demonologists often quoted from Catholic sources as habitual use of harmful ritual magic or malevolence in
texts worthy of credence, and Perreaud cited Pierre de interpersonal disputes threatened the integrity of small-
Lancre more than once. As an example of the demono- scale communities and the well-being of their
logical genre, therefore, Perreaud’s treatise was limited. members.
As a prefatory sermon to his account of his poltergeist
experience, howe ve r, it was of immediate intere s t , Cultural Images of Witches’
because it took on the air of a personal conve r s a t i o n Personalities
between Perreaud and the reader, a warning of the dan- Twentieth-century anthropological studies found that
gers from preternatural forces whose attentions he him- the idea that particularly hostile or otherwise antisocial
self suffered, and a reassurance to anyone who might people were thought to be witches was extremely wide-
find him- or herself one day in a similar position not to spread. In Africa, for example, the Azande believed that
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witches were spiteful or dour and quarreled with, issue was not so much a suspect’s overt behavior and
threatened, and extorted favors from others. In North attitudes as his or her inner convictions. Thus, a friend-
America, the Navajo held that witches were particular- ly persons’ friendliness had to be shown to be hypocrit-
ly mean spirited, while the Tangu of New Guinea said ical in order for an allegation of witchcraft to carry
witches were surly, selfish, and unsociable, and took weight. Conversely, a moderately belligerent or antiso-
without reciprocating. This lack of respect for the social cial person’s behavior did not become evidence of
rules of reciprocity was seen to manifest not only hos- witchcraft if it was understood to be the full manifesta-
tility to the other person but also an antisocial disregard tion of that person’s character.
for the conventions that held society together. Similarly, We actually have better information about what
the Navajo suspected not only hostile people but also kinds of late medieval and early modern people we re
people whose ambition or willfulness disrupted the suspected from popular practices than from demonolo-
smooth functioning of society, and the Nupe, Gisu, and gies written by learned men, because our main sources
Mandari in Africa considered any atypical behavior to for the former are trial records. Records of mass panics
be suspect. The Azande added dirtiness and other a re not much help: suspects we re drawn in because of
disregard for socially prescribed hygiene to hostility in testimony obtained through tort u re, and the court s
their concept of witchcraft. These cultures and the conducted proceedings in an atmosphere of mass hyste-
innumerable others that included witchcraft beliefs ria. Records of small trials of one or only a few suspects
naturally varied greatly in the specific social norms they a re more useful. Although elite fears influenced small
thought witches breached and to a lesser extent in the trials, they offer a re l a t i vely straightforw a rd re c o rd of
specific ways witches expressed hostility. Nevertheless, p roceedings that we re often initiated by commoners,
the association of a hostile personality with witchcraft is almost always drew on their knowledge and ideas, and
very strong across cultures, and the association of we re generally conducted according to proper judicial
witchcraft with more diffuse socially disru p t i ve p ro c e d u res. These re c o rds suggest that popular beliefs
behaviors, while less strong, is still significant. were closer to the cross-cultural norm than the learned
Late medieval Eu ropean theologians describing discussions. Most trials began because the accusers
witches in their demonologies we re primarily con- thought they had been harmed rather than because they
cerned with their supposed clandestine activities and so we re concerned about a diabolical conspiracy; thus
discussed their personalities mainly in re g a rd to their many of the accused we re people, especially women,
motives for becoming witches. Because they wanted to who had reputations for chronic contentiousness. More
s h ow how widely the Devil cast his net, they empha- generalized antisocial behavior sometimes led to a trial
s i zed the range of reasons people succumbed to his but more often played a role as supporting evidence
temptations and, by implication, the variety of people about a suspect’s reputation. Some suspects had good
who might be witches. Even so, though, their charac- reputations and apparently amiable dispositions, but as
terizations conformed broadly to the cro s s - c u l t u r a l long as standard judicial pro c e d u res we re followed, they
norms. For example, the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (T h e we re far less likely to be tort u red, convicted, or exe c u t e d
Hammer of Witches, 1486) emphasized five personali- than suspects with long histories of belligere n c e .
ty characteristics that were supposed to lead people into These European trial records also contain significant
witchcraft: malice, vengefulness, lust, avarice, and information about people who have been less pro m i-
gloominess. The first two are forms of hostility, the last nent in anthropological re s e a rch, people who fre e l y
two have direct counterparts in witch beliefs of some confessed to being witches. Social scientists’ assessments
other cultures, and the middle one, lust, was considered of them have generally taken the fact of confession to
p a rticularly antisocial (sinful) in medieval Christian be prima facie evidence of a pathological personality
m o r a l i t y. Even when such learned discussions tried to and there f o re tended not to probe what these people
emphasize the breadth of types of people who became were like apart from their willingness to confess. Their
witches, they still conformed broadly to cro s s - c u l t u r a l most common assessments have been that confessed
conceptions. witches we re either mythomanics, hysterics, or just
senile. However, the disappearance of hysteria as a psy-
Personalities of Witch Suspects chological diagnosis, recent reconsiderations of the
Anthropological accounts of witchcraft in various cul- appropriateness of using modern Western psychological
tures have suggested that in practice, suspected witches categories to classify people in other times and places,
did not necessarily display overt hostility or perversity, and a new understanding of the influence of cultural
for some suspected people seemed friendly and con- expectations on perceptions and experience make such
formed to social strictures, whereas others who were judgments dubious; stories that sound bizarre to
combative or deviant may not have been considered modern Westerners may not indicate pathology in
witches. However, these discrepancies did not mean another cultural context. In their personalities, beyond
that personality was unimportant, just that what was at a readiness to implicate themselves, confessed witches
Personality of Witches 893 |
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actually appear on the whole to have been fairly typical Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and
witch suspects, known for their combativeness and gen- Cultural Context of European Witchcraft.2nd ed. Oxford:
eral antisociability. If anything, a higher pro p o rt i o n Blackwell.
Harner, Michael. 1972. The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfall.
were people who conformed to their culture’s image of
London: Robert Hale.
witches, because that image would have informed their
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
self-definition as witches.
2nd ed. London: Longman.
MacFarlane, A. D. J. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart
Personality and Interpersonal
England.NewYork: Harper and Row.
Relations in Small-Scale Societies
Newell, V. 1970. The Witch Figure.London: Routledge and Kegan
Social scientists have traditionally looked to witches’ Paul.
personalities to help explain why they we re victimize d , Sanders, Andrew. 1995. A Deed Without a Name: The Witch in
seeing them as objects of clerical misogyny, scapegoats Society and History.Oxford: Berg.
for social-historical turmoil, explanations for otherw i s e
Peru
inexplicable personal misfortune, exemplars of social
boundaries, obstacles to patriarc h y, or as characters in In Peru, witchcraft cases were tried by the Inquisition,
culturally constructed narratives. In all these appro a c h- first by the episcopal Inquisition and from 1570 by the
es, the crucial elements we re the accusers and their tribunal of the Holy Office sitting in Lima. This tri-
m o t i ves; the suspects’ personalities mattered only inso- bunal was abolished in 1818. All sectors of the colonial
far as they served to focus the victimization pro c e s s . population except the Amerindians were subject to the
Looking at the problem from the point of view of the Inquisition. From the beginning until the end of
s u s p e c t s’ personalities, howe ve r, suggests another line Spanish colonial rule in Peru, the native population was
of reasoning. First, in most societies, some people actu- exempt from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition but
ally did consciously employ harmful ritual magic or remained under the control of ecclesiastical courts. The
unconsciously project malevolent attitudes as tactics in Lima inquisitorial tribunal subsumed witchcraft (bru-
interpersonal disputes. Second, malefic ritual magic jería) and sorcery (hechicería) trials under the greater
often did invo l ve, and unconscious projection of a category of “superstition.” Consequently, the Peruvian
menacing persona may well have invo l ved bre a k i n g Inquisition imposed no death penalty for witchcraft
social norms or other perverse actions that toughened during the colonial period. An extremely broad geo-
the “w i t c h’s” psyche while intimidating others. T h i rd , graphic area fell under the jurisdiction of the Lima tri-
people who engaged in harmful magic or who chro n i- bunal: When the tribunal was established in 1570, all
cally projected a malevolent attitude may have caused South American Spanish possessions were subject to the
harm through physical agents or psychological manip- Peruvian inquisitorial court. In 1610, after the founda-
ulation; they definitely strained the bonds of commu- tion of a tribunal at Cartagena, the northern part of
nity that we re vital for the surv i val and prosperity of South America came under a separate jurisdiction, but
small preindustrial communities. Consequently, all regions south of the vice-royalty of New Granada
although witchcraft beliefs exaggerated, distorted, and (modern Colombia, Venezuela, and parts of Panama
e ven invented many of the activities and dangers and Ecuador) remained subject to the Lima tribunal.
ascribed to witches and we re definitely abused, there Evidently, the enormous geographical extent of this
was probably real surv i val value for the small-scale court’s jurisdiction made more effective control possible
communities on the margin of subsistence where witch only in the urban centers of the vice-royalty. To a
beliefs generally originated and flourished in identify- certain degree, this situation may have accounted for
ing and placating, isolating, disciplining, or eliminat- the fact that in Peru, witchcraft and sorcery cases were
ing people who consciously utilized harmful magic or mainly an urban phenomenon. Generally, the defen-
those who unconsciously projected a malevo l e n t dants had a low social status and—with regard to the
persona in interpersonal disputes. total number of cases—there was a clear majority of
trials instituted against women.
EDWARD BEVER
See also:ACCUSATIONS;ANTHROPOLOGY;BEWITCHMENT; Statistical Data
CONFESSIONS;DISEASE;FEMALEWITCHES;GENDER; From 1570 until 1818, that is, during the whole period
MALEFICIUM;MALLEUSMALIFICARUM;MELANCHOLY;
of its existence, the Lima tribunal instituted 1,566 cases
MENTALILLNESS;POPULARBELIEFSINWITCHES;
for matters of faith, of which 209 we re subsumed under
PSYCHOANALYSIS;RITUALMAGIC;SCAPEGOATWITNESSES.
the category of superstition. That is, 13.3 percent of the
References and further reading:
total number of trials (Millar Carvacho 1998, 230). T h e
Be ve r, Ed w a rd. 1982. “Old Age and Witchcraft in Early
majority of the superstition cases we re sorc e ry
Modern Eu rope.” Pp. 150–190 in Old Age in Pre i n d u s t r i a l
S o c i e t y.Edited by Peter Stearns. New Yo rk: Holmes and (h e c h i c e r í a) trials. No witchcraft (b ru j e r í a) trials are
Me i e r. re p o rted in the re c o rds of the Pe ruvian Inquisition. Fo r
894 Peru |
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the first period of inquisitorial activities in Pe ru, fro m m o re frequently practiced love magic and magical
the Spanish conquest in 1532 until the foundation h e a l i n g .
of the Lima tribunal in 1570, no exact data are ava i l a b l e .
In any case, there is no evidence of important witchcraft Form and Nature of
or sorc e ry trials. From 1570 until the end of the 1580s, Magic in Peru
s o rc e ry or witchcraft had lesser importance than in the Magical procedures were quite similar despite differ-
next period from 1590 to 1700. The highest incidence ences in gender or in the ethnic or social profile of the
of sorc e ry cases in this period was re c o rded for the defendants: Invocations of demons or of saints who
1590s. In that decade, twenty-six persons we re tried, specialized in different kinds of magic were often com-
t wenty men and six women (Castañeda Delgado and bined with various incantations, the fabrication of
He r n á n d ez Aparicio 1989, 374). At the end of the six- charms, and magic potions. In cases of love magic, the
teenth century, the pope urged the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n practitioners frequently addressed Saint Martha or the
to prosecute all sorc e ry accusations under suspicion of “limping devil” (diablo cojuelo), whereas St. Cyprian
h e re s y. In 1629, a special edict was published inviting was invoked in healing sessions. Spanish spells were
denunciations of those who practiced witchcraft and often used in combination with typical Peruvian mate-
s o rc e ry (Medina 1887, 2:35–40), which produced an rials, such as coca leaves. The use of coca leaves in
i n c reasing number of accusations and trials. At the same divination, magical curing, and sorcery was widespread
time, Pe ru’s economic crisis of the 1630s may also have within all levels of society, including with Spanish,
p l a yed a part in the increasing inquisitorial activities Creole, or African women. Coca leaves were also regu-
against all sorts of superstition, as more people pro b a b l y larly consumed as a stimulant. In magical procedures,
consulted sorc e rers in search of help in a desperate situ- coca leaves we re often addressed as Incas (pre -
ation. The next period, which continued through the Columbian rulers of Peru), Coyas (Inca-princesses), or
eighteenth century until the end of the Pe ru v i a n as “mother Coca” (Mama Coca); in other words, the
Inquisition in 1818, was characterized by a high per- practitioners, mostly of European descent, invoked an
centage of sorc e ry trials. Behind bigamy cases, which Andean deity. Despite the invocations of the Devil or
occupied the first place with 26.15 percent, the Lima specific demons, all these cases were defined as sorcery,
In q u i s i t i o n’s ninety superstition cases held second place not witchcraft. Some male and female defendants were
with 23.07 percent (He r n á n d ez Aparicio 1993, 391). even accused of signing contracts with the Devil in
order to secure his help in their endeavors to find trea-
Defendants and Offenses sure or love or simply to improve their situation. The
Most of the defendants we re women of a low social sta- Peruvian Inquisition classified these offenses mainly as
tus, often widowed, abandoned, or unmarried, who fraudulent superstitions, notwithstanding the fact that
t h e re f o re lived at the margin of colonial society. T h u s , the defendants were accused of an implicit or an explic-
the majority of the offenders we re accused of trying to it pact with the Devil. Peruvians accused of witchcraft
i m p rove their situation or that of their clients. Fo r were not charged with several activities attributed to
example, magical practices we re employed to bring a early modern European witches: they did not allegedly
husband back to his wife or to pro c u re a new part n e r attend nocturnal assemblies to worship the Devil,
for a client. Many cases also re vo l ved around the pre- perform harmful magic, or fly through the air.
carious financial situation of clients and defendants. In Only a few witchcraft trials are recorded in the vice-
a c c o rdance with the mixed ethnic pro file of the people royalty of Pe ru. They we re instituted not by the
i n vo l ved in sorc e ry cases, the magical practices we re Inquisition but by a parallel institution, the so-called
mainly based on contemporary Eu ropean love magic Extirpation of Id o l a t ry. Founded in 1610 in the arc h-
but at the same time included indigenous Pe ru v i a n bishopric of Lima to prosecute cases of idolatry, sorcery,
incantations and magical pro c e d u res, such as the use of and witchcraft among the Amerindian population, this
medicinal plants in magical healing. Since the early ecclesiastical court tried a few Amerindians as witches
s e venteenth century, the offenses described in the sor- (brujos). These individuals were thought to possess the
c e ry trials show that by this time, Eu ropean and ability to fly through the air, transform themselves into
Amerindian elements had merged into a new colonial animals, especially birds, and perform similar deeds.
Pe ruvian model of magic. African elements we re less Furthermore, they were accused of bloodsucking witch-
dominant, although a considerably high pro p o rtion of craft or of practicing other kinds of harmful magic. All
the defendants we re of African descent. The majority these elements formed part of the native notion of
of the defendants we re classified as Spanish or Cre o l e , witchcraft in the Andes and we re re p o rted in seve n-
f o l l owed by the so-called quadroons (c u a rt e ro n e s) , teenth-century Spanish colonial historical sources. As a
Eu ropeans with one-fourth African ancestry. Although n ew element, the Sp a n i a rds introduced the witches’
male defendants more often used magical pro c e d u re s Sabbat from the Eu ropean demonological tradition.
in search of fortune and wealth, female defendants Ei g h t e e n t h - c e n t u ry indigenous testimonies re fle c t e d
Peru 895 |
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the fusion of the early modern European and the native b e t ween 1392 and Ni d e r’s Fo rm i c a r i u s s h ow at least
Pe ruvian notions of witchcraft. Re c o rds of witchcraft three judges named Peter (Hansen 1901, 91 n. 2; Borst
and sorcery trials from the late colonial period institut- 1992, 108–120; Chène 1999, 223–231). In short, we
ed by ecclesiastical courts against Amerindians show are not certain who exactly Peter was.
that even in some rural regions, distant from the capital The tales that Nider claimed Peter told him featured
of the colony, several characteristic elements of the two varieties of evildoers: a sect of apostate infanticidal
Eu ropean demonological tradition had merged with cannibals, male and female, with most of the character-
popular ideas on witchcraft into an hybrid Pe ru v i a n istics later attributed to “w i t c h e s”; and a dynasty of
concept, almost identical to the demonological stereo- individual males, who conformed to the older stere o-
type of witches. type of the necromancer or sorc e rer (Chène 1999,
243–244). Nider conflated several confessions that
IRIS GAREIS Peter extorted from his defendants with more re c e n t
See also:FEMALEWITCHES;IDOLATRY;INQUISITION,SPANISH; information he had learned at the Council of Ba s e l ,
INVOCATIONS;LOVEMAGIC;MAGIC,POPULAR;NEWGRANADA; reinterpreting Peter’s stories in the light of current ideas
NEWSPAIN;SORCERY;SPAIN;SUPERSTITION. to help shape a more “m o d e r n” notion of witchcraft
References and further reading: beliefs (Bailey 2003, 41–45).
Castañeda Delgado, Paulino. 1993. “Características de los procesa- The most famous confession introduced the witches’
dos en el tribunal de Lima: 1570–1818.” Pp. 407–424 in Los “c a u l d ron.” Ac c o rding to Ni d e r, Peter forced a defen-
Inquisidores.Vitoria-Gasteiz: Fundación Sancho el Sabio.
dant to confess that her sect of heretics stealthily killed
Castañeda Delgado, Paulino, and Pilar Hernández Aparicio. 1989.
babies in their cradles, so that they seemed to die of nat-
La Inquisición de Lima (1570–1635).Vol. 1. Madrid: Editorial
ural causes. Later the children we re exhumed and
Deimos.
boiled in a cauldron, according to an unspecified ritual.
———. 1995. “Los delitos de superstición en la Inquisición de
When ingested, the broth provided magical knowledge
Lima durante el siglo XVII.” Revista de la Inquisición4: 9–35.
Gareis, Iris. 1993. “‘Brujos’ y ‘brujas’ en el antiguo Perú: and power, conferring leadership over the “sect.” From
Apariencia y realidad en las fuentes históricas.” Revista de Indias the sediment in the cauldron, the heretics pre p a re d
53, no. 198: 583–613. unguents useful to their arts. (Heinrich Kramer would
———. 1997. “Popular Religion and Identity in Colonial Lima.” i n t e r p ret this unguent as the “fly i n g” ointment that
Pp. 105–122 in Religion and Identity in the Americas: induced demons to transport witches aerially.) Pe t e r
Anthropological Perspectives from Colonial Times to the Present. f o rced another defendant to embellish the story,
Edited by Brigitte Huelsewiede and Ingo W. Schroeder. Bonner
describing ingestion of the broth as the central moment
Amerikanistische Studien 28. Moeckmuehl: Sauerwein.
in an initiation that included renunciation of
Henningsen, Gustav. 1994. “La evangelización negra: Difusión de
Christianity and ritual homage to the Devil. Peter’s tales
la magia europea por la América colonial.” Revista de la
of pro t owitches showed influences of late medieva l
Inquisición3: 9–27.
myths identifying Cathar and Waldensian heresies as
Hernández Aparicio, Pilar. 1993. “La actividad procesal en la
Inquisición de Lima: 1570–1818.” Pp. 387–406 in Los cannibalistic secret societies (Borst 1992, 115–118,
Inquisidores.Vitoria-Gasteiz: Fundación Sancho el Sabio. following Cohn 1975).
Medina, José Toribio. 1887. Historia del Santo Oficio de la The central moment of the initiation was counter-
Inquisición de Lima (1569–1820).2 vols. Santiago de Chile: Eucharistic: by drinking a broth made from the flesh of
Imp. Gutenberg. m u rd e red babies, the novice witch absorbed here s y
Millar Carvacho, René. 1998. Inquisición y sociedad en el virreinato t h rough powe rful mental images. The ceremony was
peruano: Estudios sobre el Tribunal de la Inquisición de Lima.
also an antibaptism, requiring formal renunciation of
Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile.
baptism; not coincidentally, the broth was normally
Osorio, Alejandra B. 1997. “El callejón de la soledad: Vectors of
made from babies lacking baptism. By asserting that
Cultural Hybridity in Seventeenth-Century Lima.” Pp.
witches mostly victimized unbaptized babies, Ni d e r
198–229 in Spiritual Encounters: Interactions Between
( t h rough Peter of Bern), like other early theorists,
Christianity and Native Religions in Colonial America.Edited by
Nicholas Griffiths and Fernando Cervantes. Birmingham: implied that baptism protected babies from harm,
University of Birmingham Press. including witchcraft.
Yet the theory was not perfect: to explain why
Peter of Bern (fl. ca. 1400) witches sometimes killed baptized babies, Peter blamed
A Swiss lay magistrate, Peter of Bern was mentioned p a rents for not re i n f o rcing baptismal protection with
several times by Johannes Nider in his Formicarius(The nightly prayers and signs of the cross. Peter was eve n
Anthill, 1437–1438) as an accomplished witch hunter. m o re obsessed by the efficacy of sacramental cro s s i n g
Formerly identified as the patrician Peter of Gruyères than by baptism. One tort u red defendant confessed
(or von Gre ye rtz), active 1392–1406 in the upper striking victims with hail and lightning yet admitted
Simme valley (Simmenthal) of Sw i t zerland; Pe t e r’s being powerless against anyone protected by the sign of
identity now appears problematic. Regional arc h i ve s the cross. Peter crossed himself constantly, and so when
896 Peter of Bern |
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he injured himself badly in a fall, he attributed the lack (as was, for example, the case at the criminal court of
of divine protection to his own negligence: losing his Neunkirchen/Nahe, where there were about thirty-six
temper and even naming the Devil, he canceled the witchcraft trials) and in areas in which rights of lord-
protection gained earlier by crossing himself.This com- ship were a matter of dispute (such as those subject to
forting scenario was corroborated by the “confession” of the criminal court of Hornbach, where there were
a man Peter burned at the stake (Stephens 2002, approximately thirteen trials). In those parts of the
190–206, 241–252). Nahe and Saar regions that were subject to the territor-
Ni d e r’s portrayal of Pe t e r’s obsessive interest in infanti- ial authority of Pfalz-Zweibrücken, witch hunts were
cide, cannibalism, ritual, and demonic encounters pursued by the combined efforts of Hexenausschüsse
re flected deep insecurities about the efficacy of the (witch-hunting committees organized at the village
C h u rc h’s sacraments and sacramentals, particularly bap- level) and minor lords with rights of criminal jurisdic-
tism, the Eucharist, and the sign of the cross. Ni d e r’s tion. In those territories bordering the duchy of
detailed anecdotes of Pe t e r’s exploits, intended to allay Lorraine, however, witchcraft trials were investigated ex
w i d e s p read clerical anxieties, probably exacerbated them, o f ficio; this happened at the criminal court of
p a rticularly after Heinrich Kramer quoted them in Hornbach. No trials are known to have occurred in the
Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486). areas bordering Alsace and the Palatinate, such as Amt
(district) Bergzabern. As was the case in other
WALTER STEPHENS Protestant territories, women were clearly the main
focus of witchcraft trials in Pfalz-Zweibrücken. Only a
See also:BASEL,COUNCILOF;CANNIBALISM;CAULDRON;
tiny proportion of the trial records have survived; refer-
INFANTICIDE;KRAMER,HEINRICH;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;
ences to trials can, however, be found in records of
NIDER,JOHANNES;OINTMENTS;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;
SACRAMENTSANDSACRAMENTALS;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS). ecclesiastical visitations and in the trial records of the
References and further reading: Reichskammergericht (imperial chamber court).
Bailey, Michael D. 2003. Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and
Reform in the Late Middle Ages.University Park: Pennsylvania The Attitudes of the Dukes of Pfalz-
State University Press. Zweibrücken Toward Witch
Blauert, Andreas. 1989. Frühe Hexenverfolgung: Ketzer-, Zauberei- Persecution
und Hexenprozesse des 15. Janhrunderts.Hamburg: Junius.
As early as 1532, Duke Wolfgang of Pfalz-Zweibrücken
Borst, Arno. 1992. Medieval Worlds: Barbarians, Heretics, and
(1532–1569) asked the Lutheran reformer Johannes
Artists in the Middle Ages.Translated by Eric Hansen. Chicago:
Schwebel for advice about how to proceed in cases of
University of Chicago Press.
accusations of witchcraft. In response, Schwebel advo-
Chène, Catherine. 1999. Commentary to “Formicarius(livre II,
cated a cautious approach, recommending only the
chapitre 4 et livreV, chapitres 3, 4, et 7),” edited by Catherine
Chène. Pp. 201–265 in Martine Ostorero, Agostino Paravicini legal prosecution of allegations of murder and harm
Bagliani, and Kathrin Utz Tremp.L’imaginaire du sabbat: caused by magical means. Schwebel’s answer was in line
Edition critique des textes les plus anciens (1430 c.–1440 c.). with the precepts of clause 44 of the Carolina (the code
Lausanne: Université de Lausanne. of criminal legal procedure issued by Charles V for the
Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired Holy Roman Empire in 1532). The Carolina’s defini-
by the Great Witch-Hunt.NewYork: Basic Books. tion of the crime of sorc e ry and its re g u l a t i o n s
Hansen, Joseph, ed. 1901. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur
regarding trial procedures and the settling of trial costs
Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im
constituted the main influences on witchcraft trials in
Mittelalter.Bonn: Carl Georgi.
Pfalz-Zweibrücken under the next two dukes, Johann I
Nider, Johannes. 1971. Formicarius (Vollständige Ausgabe der
(1569–1604) and Johann II (1604–1635), who did not
Inkunable Köln o[hne] J[ahre].Introduction by Hans
promulgate any ordinances relating specifically to the
Biedermann. Cologne: 1480. Reprint, Graz: Akademische
Druck. conduct of witchcraft trials. A clear process governed all
Stephens, Walter. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the criminal cases. The ducal chancellery authorized the
Crisis of Belief.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. arrest, interrogation, and torture of alleged witches,
sometimes including a detailed list of questions that
Pfalz-Zweibrücken, Duchy of were to be put to the suspect. On the whole, the chan-
Thorough research into the witch persecutions that c e l l e ry lawyers adopted a “w a i t - a n d - s e e” attitude
occurred in the duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrücken is not yet toward accusations of witchcraft and encouraged local
complete, but it appears that there were only a few officials to treat such accusations with moderation.
episodes of witch hunting in this initially Lutheran and Despite their efforts, witchcraft trials became endemic
then Calvinist territory from 1575 to 1590 and 1629 to during the rule of Duke Johann I between 1574 and
1633. As elsewhere in western Germany, the persecu- 1590 (in Hornbach and Neunkirchen/Nahe), although
tion was concentrated mainly in areas in which Johann consistently tried to limit the spread of the trials
jurisdictional rights were divided among different lords by ordering arrested women released on bond, by
Pfalz-Zweibrücken, Duchy of 897 |
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concerning himself especially with the issue of the cor- c a t e g o r i zed as “superstitions,” we re criminalized and
rect settlement of trial costs, and by attempting to pre- linked with the crime of witchcraft. Despite this, re l a t i ve-
vent trials that were not carried out in accordance with ly few accusations of sorc e ry ended in witchcraft trials,
the Carolina. Johann I’s moderate stance led opponents primarily because the moderating influence of the ducal
to bring lawsuits against him at the c h a n c e l l e ry pre vented the escalation of witch hunts. T h e
Reichskammergericht in 1592 and 1594, accusing him trials at the criminal court of Ne u n k i rc h e n / Nahe we re in
of being extremely skeptical with regard to witchcraft all probability triggered by the mass persecution of witch-
trials. His insistence on strict adherence to the Carolina es in the neighboring territory of the electorate of Trier in
was met with particularly vehement opposition from the late sixteenth century. Strict adherence to the Caro l i n a
minor lords who possessed rights of criminal and the close links between the dukes of Pfalz-
j u r i s d i c t i o n . Zweibrücken and the authorities in the Palatinate, who
we re opposed to witch hunts, ensured that mass witch-
Witchcraft Trials at the Criminal craft trials never occurred throughout the duchy.
Court of Neunkirchen/Nahe: A Case Members of the collateral line of Pfalz-Bi rkenfeld also
Study adopted a critical attitude tow a rd witchcraft trials. T h e
The criminal court of Neunkirchen/Nahe belonged to d e vastating effects of the T h i rty Ye a r s’ Wa r, which wiped
the count of Veldenz and was held as a fief by the dukes out almost 90 percent of the population of the Pfalz-
of Pfalz-Zweibrücken: the four villages of Neunkirchen, Zweibrücken territories in the Saar region, ensured that
Gonnesweiler, Selbach, and Eckesweiler were subject to no further witchcraft trials took place there .
its jurisdiction. The lords of Sötern in part held rights RITA VOLTMER;
of jurisdiction. As a result of the involvement of
Hexenausschüsse, seventeen witchcraft trials occurred in TRANSLATED BY ALISON ROWLAND
Gonnesweiler in 1580, in the course of which ten See also:CAROLINACODE(CONSTITIOCRIMINALISCAROLINA);
women were executed. In 1589, working in conjunc- COMMUNALPERSECUTION;FEMALEWITCHES;GERMANY,
tion with the local Hexenausschüsse, Georg Wilhelm of WESTANDNORTHWEST;HOLYROMANEMPIRE;PALATINATE,
Sötern had six women of Selbach arrested: four of them ELECTORATEOF;POPULARPERSECUTION;REICHSKAMMER-
were forced through horrific torture into making con- GERICHT;SAARREGION;SORCERY;TRIER,ELECTORATEOF.
fessions of witchcraft and were subsequently executed. References and further reading:
Baumgarten, Achim R. 1987. Hexenwahn und Hexenverfolgung im
Georg Wilhelm and the Hexenausschüsseforced the rel-
Naheraum: Ein Beitrag zur Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte.
atives of the executed women and the two remaining
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 43–90.
women (who were released) to meet the extremely high
Labouvie, Eva. 1991. Zauberei und Hexenwerk: Ländlicher
trial costs of approximately 900 florins. The six families
Hexenglaube in der frühen Neuzeit.Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.
thus affected were ruined financially and reduced to
Schmidt, Jürgen-Michael. 2000. Glaube und Skepsis: Die Kurpfalz
begging for a living. und die abendländische Hexenverfolgung, 1446–1685.Bielefeld:
Duke Johann I of Pfalz-Zweibrücken then inter- Verlag für Regionalgeschichte.
vened against this clear breach of the law and forced the Übel, Rolf. 1992. “Ein Hexenprozess im Herzogtum Pfalz-
He xe n a u s s c h ü s s e and Georg Wilhelm to reimburse the Zweibrücken.” Pfälzer Heimat43: 71–78.
families for their forfeited pro p e rt y. Georg Wi l h e l m
and his son, Conrad, promptly brought a lawsuit Pico Della Mirandola,
against Johann I at the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t . The ve r- Gianfrancesco (ca. 1469–1533)
dict is unknown, but no more witches were tried at the Author of the best-known Italian Renaissance dialogue
criminal court of Neunkirchen until 1629, again on the on witches, Gianfrancesco was the son of Galeotto I of
i n i t i a t i ve of local He xe n a u s s c h ü s s e and the lord of Mirandola and of Bianca Maria d’Este, illegitimate
Sötern, Johann Reinhard. At least nine people were exe- daughter of Niccoló III of Ferrara, and the nephew of
cuted in 1629–1630. In 1633, further trials were pur- the famous Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico
sued against six individuals featuring the imposition of della Mirandola. Only six years younger than his uncle,
excessive costs, fraud, bribery, and the manipulation of Gianfrancesco thrived on the cultured society that
legal proceedings. Local witch-hunting committees Giovanni frequented. After Giovanni died in 1494,
we re also active in the Pfalz-Zweibrücken areas of Gianfrancesco wrote a biography that introduced the
Meisenheim, Lichtenberg, and Zweibrücken. first edition of his uncle’s works (Bologna 1496).
Although they agreed in some matters, including their
Reasons for the Pfalz-Zweibrücken views concerning judicial astrology, their philosophical
Trials and Their Cessation positions were generally very different.
The first witchcraft trials in Pfalz-Zweibrücken we re We know little about Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s childhood; he
t r i g g e red by the intensification of ecclesiastical visitations, may have studied in Ferrara or Milan, where he
during which popular magical practices, pre v i o u s l y p a rticipated in a tournament at the Sforza court in
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Ja n u a ry 1491. Two months later, Gianfrancesco married personal political purpose, his treatment became imme-
a Neapolitan heiress, Gi ovanna Carafa, and used her diately popular. A vernacular translation by Fr a’
d ow ry to purchase the here d i t a ry title to the tiny princi- Leandro Alberti appeared in Bologna in 1524; Strixwas
pality of Mirandola from his uncle Gi ovanni. From 1491 translated again in Tuscany in 1555, appearing in the
to 1499, Gianfrancesco dedicated himself to studying canonical work of Turino Turini. Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s text
humanist philosophy, meeting the most important con- was also included in a collection of theoretical work s
t e m p o r a ry intellectuals and politicians, and composing published in Padana during the first half of the six-
n u m e rous literary and philosophical works that we re teenth century, alongside works by two Do m i n i c a n s ,
published at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Hi s Si l ve s t ro Prierias and Ba rtolomeo della Spina, both
letters circulated in manuscript form before being trans- inquisitors and papal theologians.
lated into French in 1498 and into English by T h o m a s One can immediately distinguish Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s
Mo re in 1510. The friendships established through his account by its originality. He wrote not as an inquisitor
u n c l e’s connections in the cultured court societies of but as a scholar who attended these trials in his capacity
Bologna, Ferrara, Fl o rence, and Mantua we re ve ry as count of this small principality and wanted to answer
i m p o rtant to Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s care e r. But the most impor- an important question: was this “cult of Diana,” con-
tant influence was his encounter with the friar Gi ro l a m o sisting of ten people in Modena and Mirandola, the
Sa vo n a rola, whom Gianfrancesco met in 1491. In 1497, same bacchanal pagan assembly of antiquity described
Gianfrancesco defended Sa vo n a rola twice in response to as a superstition by the Ca n o n Ep i s c o p i (ca. 906) and
attacks by a Franciscan monk, Samuel de Cassini included in Gratian’sDecretum (Concord of Discordant
(Cassinis); the next spring, he composed a third defense Canons, known as the Decretum,1130–1140 revision),
in the vernacular directed at Fl o rentine public opinion, or was it instead a new form of heresy? Gi a n f r a n c e s c o
but his work could not save Sa vo n a rola from being argued in dialogue form, with the participation of four
burned at the stake in May 1498. Gianfrancesco neve r people: Fronimo (the scholar, wise and sensitive, that is,
stopped defending Sa vo n a rola, nor did he stop inviting Pico himself) and Dicasto (the judge, modeled after the
disciples like Pi e t ro Be r n a rdini or Fra Luca Bettini to stay Dominican inquisitor Gi rolamo Armellini) in conve r-
with him. He worked on composing a Vita Hye ro n i m i sation with Apistio (an unidentifiable skeptic), who at
Sa vo n a rolae (Life of Gi rolamo Sa vo n a rola) until his the conclusion became Pistico (the believer), now per-
d e a t h . suaded of witchcraft’s satanic nature; a witch entered in
In 1499, Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s father, Galeotto I, died. order to testify about the “cult of Diana.” In a text rich
Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s life became enwrapped in a long twist- with the quotation and re i n vention of pagan cere-
ing struggle to claim the here d i t a ry principality as monies, the author linked modern witches’ Sa b b a t s
Ga l e o t t o’s eldest son, while his mother—aided by the with many antiquated beliefs, but differentiated them
French and the Mi l a n e s e — f a vo red Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s in some important rituals, especially the presence of
younger brothers. In 1502, after a long siege, the castle devils. Modern witchcraft differed from the beliefs
of Mirandola fell into the hands of his bro t h e r s ; described by the CanonEpiscopi,but the origins of both
Gianfrancesco was imprisoned and later exiled. Fo r h e resies we re embedded in ancient paganism. Re c e n t
eight and a half years, Gianfrancesco traveled to va r i o u s studies about the historical context in which these
Italian cities, serving the emperor and the pope while witches we re tried have illuminated the jurisdictional
remaining in contact with important German human- c o n flicts among the inhabitants of Mirandola that
ists. The re c ove ry of the castle of Mirandola became part a g g r a vated the cruelty of the re p ression; but
of a plan to conquer the city for the Papal States by Po p e Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s dialogues demonstrated that this
Julius II, who personally conducted its siege and capture persecution of witches was motivated above all by
f rom December 1510 to Ja n u a ry 1511. Gi a n f r a n c e s c o’s intellectual and ideological convictions.
satisfaction was brief; the Milanese commander Gi a n
Giacomo Trivulzio soon seized Mirandola and expelled GABRIELLA ZARRI;
the heirs. In 1514, with the mediation of the imperial
TRANSLATED BY JESSICA BOTHWELL
v i c a r, they reached an agreement, giving the land and
some rural villas to the bro t h e r s . See also:CANONEPISCOPI;CASSINI(CASSINIS), SAMUELDE;
Gianfrancesco composed a dialogue about witches, DIANA(ARTEMIS); GRATIAN;PRIERIAS,SILVESTRO;
Strix, sive de ludificatione daemonum (The Witch, or the
SPINA,BARTOLOMEODELLA.
References and further reading:
Deceptions of Demons), published in Bologna in 1523,
Biondi, Albano, ed. 1989. Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola,
with the practical purpose of justifying a violent repres-
Libro detto Strega o delle illusioni del demonio nel volgarizzamen-
sion he had recently conducted in Mirandola against
to de Leando Alberti.Venice: Marsilio.
n u m e rous witches in 1522 and 1523, earning an
Bonomo, Guiseppe. 1985. Caccia alle streghe: La redenza nelle
indignant reaction from the population of the castle streghe dal sec: XIII al XIX con particolare reiferiment all’Italia.
and the nearby villa. Although created for specific 3rd ed. Naples: Palumbo.
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Burke, Peter. 1976. “Witchcraft and Magic in Renaissance Italy: Torino, Ve rcelli, Alessandria, Novara, Savigliano, and
Gianfrancesco Pico and his Strix.”Pp. 32–53 in The Damned Iv rea. As late as 1673, Duke Carlo Emanuele II re a f-
Art. Edited by Sidney Anglo. London: Routledge and Kegan firmed the death penalty for anyone who cast spells
Paul.
and charms. Im p o rtant information has also been
Herzig, Tamar. 2003. “The Demons’ Reaction to Sodomy:
obtained by consulting both state and municipal
Witchcraft and Homosexuality in Gianfrancesco Pico della
a rc h i ves, which sometimes document expenses for
Mirandola’sStrix.”Sixteenth Century Journal34, no. 1: 53–72.
building scaffolds or stakes (Centini 1995, 31–32) or
Schmitt, Charles B. 1967. Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola
still keep important trial re c o rds (Merlo et al. 2004).
(1469–1533) and His Critique of Aristotle. The Hague:
Martinus Nijhoff. From published documents (Centini 1995, 32–52),
Vescovili, Graziella, and Graziella Federici Vescovina. 1998. we learn that the oldest case of witchcraft known in
“Gianfrancesco Pico: La vanitá dell’astrologia e la stregoneria.” Piedmont dates back to 1292: a woman fro m
Pp. 213–228 in Giovanni e Gianfrancesco Pico: L’opera e la for- Villafranca, who was forced to pay a fee for s o rtilegia in
tuna di due studenti ferraresi. Edited by Patrizia Castelli. visione stellaru m (casting spells while stargazing). A
Florence: Leo Olschki. c e rtain Lorenza di Cumiana was the first sorc e re s s
Zambelli, Paola. 1997. L’ereditá pichiana in mano agli inquisitori:
burned at the stake, in 1321; Be rtolotto, her
il caso di Gianfrancesco.Milan: Mondatori, pp. 177–210.
accomplice, was hanged.
Many fourteenth- and fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry trials we re
Piedmont held, often in Alpine regions: the valleys of Lanzo and
The early history of witchcraft in the Piedmontese state Susa, the Canavese, Ba rdonecchia, Pi n e rolo, Cu n e o ,
was dominated by developments that occurred mainly Mondovi. Overall, between 1292 and 1417, twenty-six
in its western and northern French-speaking parts, persons were put on trial (eight of them men) and sev-
including the Val d’Aosta. The central role of the dukes en re c e i ved death sentences. Be t ween 1421 and 1445,
of Savoy-Piedmont in helping create the doctrine of the many more charges and sentences are documented:
witches’ Sabbat at the time of the Council of Basel is t h i rty-one people we re investigated (eleven of them
now well-known (Ostorero et al. 1999), and consider- men), with twe n t y - five death penalties. Be t ween 1461
able evidence about fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry trials in the and 1479, we find thirty-five accused people (including
n o rt h western parts of Sa voy - Piedmont has been seven men) and nineteen executions. Because of inaccu-
preserved at Turin among the fiscal records of ducal racies in the sources, we exclude thirty-two mountain
officials. However, this entry will focus primarily on the d wellers accused of casting spells in Sa voy in 1436,
Italophone territories comprising the pre s e n t - d a y s e veral women who we re tried as witches in the
Piedmontese region, created after the unification of the C a n a vese between 1350 and 1390, and almost fort y
Kingdom of Italy in 1860, when Nice and Savoy went t ownsfolk in A n d ezeno in the late fifteenth century,
to France. w h e re Catharism overlapped with accusations of
During the time of re c o rded trials for sorc e ry and devil worship, promiscuity, etc.
witchcraft (local records date from 1292), the House of During the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries,
Sa voy subjugated many local lordships. In the thir- the phenomenon seemed to decrease in the modern
teenth century, Piedmont was composed only of Turin, Piedmontese geographical area; for example, only four
Aosta, and Savoy, but in the fifteenth century included witches we re tried at Turin during the lengthy Fre n c h
within its borders Cuneo, Vercelli, Biella, Ivrea, Tenda, occupation before 1559. Between 1530 and 1682, not
and Nice. The state added Asti, Alba, and Sa l u z zo in counting sketchy data, we note only thirt y - t h re e
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the fir s t sentences (only five concerning men) and fourt e e n
decades of the eighteenth century, when Pi e d m o n t’s executions.
rulers became kings, it annexed (through international Overall, from 1292 to 1742, we have—besides many
t reaties with France, Austria, Spain, and En g l a n d ) uncertain cases—a total of 242 people under investiga-
Alessandria, Tortona, the Lomellina and Novara (taken tion for witchcraft in Piedmont, including 120 women
from the duchy of Milan), and the Monferrato of Acqui and 30 men; capital sentences and deaths in prison
and Casale (taken from the duchy of Mantua). T h e totaled 82. Centini (2004) found for the period fro m
p resent Piedmont region took form only after the 1329 through 1740 a total of 102 people under investi-
unification of the Kingdom of Italy, when the territories gation; trials, 79; capital sentences, 49; amputations, 2;
of Nice and Sa voy went to France, and Liguria fines paid, 12.
(acquired in 1815) broke away from the Piedmont. In Piedmont, the bishops’ ancient power to judge in
In his constitutions of 1430, the Sa voy a rd Po p e - matters of faith, including heresy and witchcraft, was
Duke Amadeus (Amedeo) VIII (1383–1451, ru l e d never taken away; the records of diocesan synods from
1416–1451) established the death penalty for here t i c s the 1550s offer substantial evidence about practices of
and casters of harmful spells (s o rt i l e g e s); by that date, popular magic; the bishops assigned punishments to
Domenican Friars had not yet assigned inquisitors to witches, magicians, wizards, and fortunetellers (Corrain
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and Zampini 1970). Although dossiers of trials held References and further reading:
b e f o re episcopal courts have disappeared from many Centini, Massimo. 1995. Streghe, roghi e diavoli: i processi di stre-
diocesan archives, some information can be extrapolat- goneria in Piemonte.Cuneo: L’Arciere.
Corrain, Cleto, and Pierluigi Zampini. 1970. Documenti etnografi-
ed from annals and chronicles. One set of court records
ci e folkloristici nei sinodi diocesani italiani.Bologna:
from the bishop of Acqui (which became Piedmontese
S.I.R.A.B. S.r.l.
only in the eighteenth century) includes fifty-seven per-
Gremmo, Roberto. 1994. Streghe e magia. Episodi di opposizione
sons put on trial for illicit magic between 1585 and
religiosa popolare sulle Alpi del Seicento.Biella: Edizioni
1727. They include thirty-six men and only twenty-one
ELF.
women; most of these men were soldiers, quartered in Loriga, Sabina. 1994. “A Secret to Kill the King: Magic and
Monferrato during the time of the succession wars Possession in Piedmont in the Eighteenth Century.” Pp.
a round 1630. Their punishments never exc e e d e d 88–109 in History of Crime: Selections from “Quaderni Storici.”
canonical penances, fines, and gifts to charities (Panizza Edited by Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero. Baltimore and
1994, 178–179). London: Johns Hopkins University Press. Originally published
St. Be r n a rdino of Siena, during one of his sermon as “Un Secreto per far morire la persona del re: magie e pro-
tezione nel Piemonte del 1700.” Quaderni Storici(1983):
campaigns in Piedmont (probably in 1417 or 1418)
529–552.
alleged that Piedmontese witches had already killed five
Merlo, Grado Giovanni. 2004. “Lucea talvolta la luna.” I processi
inquisitors in previous years, so that no one wanted to
alle “masche” di Rifreddo e Gambasca del 1495. Cuneo: Società
serve in those places and “mettervi mano” (meddle with
per gli studi storici della Provincia di Cuneo.
them). Be r n a rdino explained how such male genti
Muzio, Domenico Francesco, O.P. 1730. Tabula Chronologica
(evildoers) performed the nefarious practice of the Inquisitorum Italiae, et Insularum Adiacentium ex Ordine
b a r i l o t t o —communal drinking from a keg of wine Praedicatorum Compilata, et Notis Historicis Illustrata, unpub-
polluted with the pulve r i zed corpse of a baby, which lished manuscript, in the Municipal Library of Alessandria
was passed around and shared during their Sabbat as a (MS 67).
sign of their fealty to Satan. The gray friar’s passionate Ostorero, Martine, et al., 1999. L'Imaginaire du sabbat. Edition
exaggerations, howe ve r, did capture a kind of local critique des textes les plus anciens (1430 ca.–1440 ca.). Lausanne:
Cahiers Lausannois d'Histoire Médiévale, 26.
Piedmontese color: the fact that it was, historically and
Panizza, Gian Maria. 1989. “Abominevoli esperimenti in luoghi
geographically speaking, in the front line among those
secreti: magia e sortilegi popolari ad Alessandria a metà
territories between France and Italy where Catharism
Settecento.” Rassegna Economica della Provincia di Alessandria
had existed in the Western Alps.
42/1: 33–40.
The confessions of Piedmontese sorc e rers under
———. 1994. “Da alcuni tenuta donna da bene, et da alcuni
investigation revealed their desire to master the magical tenuta una strega”: i procedimenti contro gli accusati di stre-
arts, sometimes as a way to manipulate the ruling pow- goneria negli atti del Foro ecclesiastico conservati presso
ers. Magic spells bedeviled the court of Sa voy as far l’Archivio Diocesano di Acqui (1585—1727).”Rivista di Storia
back as the time of Po p e - Duke Amadeus, and similar Arte e Archeologia per le Province di Alessandria e Asti 103:
spells continued to be cast on the lives of the Sa voy 155–192.
kings, deeply worrying the Turinese court in the fir s t
t h i rty years of the eighteenth century. Another good Piperno, Pietro
late example was the 1752 case of several residents of Seventeenth-century Italian philosopher and physician
Alessandria who were involved in various underground from Benevento, Piperno was author of De magicis
activities, including trafficking in books of magic and affectibus horum dignotione, praenotione, cura t i o n e ,
n e c ro m a n c y, stealing various body parts from hanged medica, stratagemmatica, divina, plerisque curationibus
men, and making talismans that their friends (men, electis, et De Nuce beneventana maga . . . (On Magical
mostly soldiers) used mainly to look for hidden tre a- Ailments, Their Diagnosis, Prediction, and Treatment,
s u res in the hills (Panizza 1989, 36–37). Te s t i m o n y with Select Cures Medical, Strategic, and Divine, and
about witchcraft in seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry ru r a l On the Walnut Tree of Benevento), published at Naples
Piedmont, beyond its traditional contexts of popular in 1634 in five books and reprinted in 1647 with an
magic, offered tantalizing bits of evidence about the added sixth book. The appendix was reprinted in 1640
survival of practices and rituals apparently connected to at Naples, along with a treatise in Italian on the same
ancient heresies that once flourished in the mountains subject (Della superstitiosa noce di Benevento: Trattato
(Gremmo 1994, 12–17, 22, 50). h i s t o r i c o . . . [ On the Magical Walnut Tree of
GIAN MARIA PANIZZA; Benevento: A Historical Treatise]), containing sensa-
tional anecdotes.
TRANSLATED BY DANIELLA CATELLI Reasoning from effects to causes, the work enlisted
See also: BERNARDINOOFSIENA;ITALY;MOUNTAINSANDTHE the symptomology of diseases to prove that demons
ORIGINSOFWITCHCRAFT;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS; exist. It discussed witchcraft as the means where by
RURALWITCHCRAFT;SAVOY,DUCHYOF. demons caused disease and possible remedies, both
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natural and supernatural (e.g., e xo rcism, praye r s , or lost” (Ms. re c o rd, Scottish Re c o rd Of fice, CH2/183,
blessed amulets), for curing ailments. Like other treatis- p. 143). Not that parishioners always accepted their
es that defended the reality of demons against skeptical rebukes mildly. In April 1698, Jean Du rkie was accused
detractors, Piperno’s book addressed the vexed question of consulting; when the session censured her, she cursed
of the re l a t i ve power of the human imagination. Hi s both minister and elders ro u n d l y. In May 1704 she was
“e x t remely unoriginal” (Mori 1994, 181) work re l i e d in trouble again for asking a woman (Nickolas Low s o n )
heavily on citations from sixteenth-century demonolo- to teach her how to be a witch.
gists and exorcists. An appendix discussed the infamous It was in this ye a r, 1704, that Pi t t e n weem began to
walnut tree of Benevento, the supposed meeting place suffer its most notorious (but atypical) witchcraft
of witches and demons, mentioned by St. Be r n a rd i n o episode. In Ma rch, it was alleged that sixteen-ye a r - o l d
of Siena and other fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Patrick Mo rton, the son of a local blacksmith, had
writers on witchcraft. Ac c o rding to Piperno, the tre e a n n oyed Beatrix Laing, long reputed to be a witch, by
emitted natural, intoxicating effluvia that pre d i s p o s e d refusing to make her some nails. Next day, while passing
witches to commit the horrors of the Sabbat. her house, Patrick noticed a wooden vessel with some
Piperno’s son Nicolò composed a play on the legend water and a fire coal in it, which he took to be a magical
of the tree, La noce maga di Benevento . . .(The Magical charm directed against himself. At once he became so
Walnut Tree of Benevento), which was staged in 1665 weak that he took to his bed, and there he lay for seve r a l
and 1666 at Be n e vento and Rome and published weeks, becoming more and more emaciated as time
in 1682. passed. Then at the beginning of May he started to have
fits. His body would distort itself into re m a rkable and
WALTER STEPHENS unnatural positions, and his tongue would be drawn
back right into his throat. Even so, he was able to let
See also:BENEVENTO,WALNUTTREEOF;ITALY;SABBAT.
people know the names of those he claimed we re infli c t-
References and further reading:
Mori, Giovanna. 1994. “Pietro Piperno.” Pp. 181–183 in ing these magical torments upon him: Nickolas Low s o n ,
Bibliotheca lamiarum: Documenti e immagini della stregoneria Beatrix Laing, Janet Cornfoot, Ma r g a ret Wallace, Is o b e l
dal Medioevo all’Età Moderna.Edited by Patrizia Castelli. Adamson, Ma r g a ret Jack, and Thomas Brown, all of
Ospedaletto (Pisa): Pacini. whom we re arrested and imprisoned, probably in the
Piperno, Pietro. 1634. De magicis affectibus horum dignotione, c h u rch steeple, the common place of confinement in
praenotione, curatione, medica, stratagemmatica, divina, plerisque places that did not have a town jail.
curationibus electis, et De Nuce beneventana maga....Naples:
They were examined by the kirk session on May 29,
Roncalioli. 1647. Reprint, Naples: Colligni.
1704, and four of them confessed they had made a pact
———. 1640. Della superstitiosa noce di Benevento: Trattato his-
with the Devil, renounced their baptism, and attended
torico, con il trattato in lingua latina scritto gli anni passati dal-
meetings along with several others whom they named.
l’istesso autore.... Seconda impressione... emendata.Naples:
This was serious, so the affair was referred to the pres-
Gaffaro.
Thorndike, Lynn. 1958. A History of Magic and Experimental bytery, then to the General Assembly, and finally to the
Science.NewYork: Columbia University Press, vol. 8, pp. Privy Council of Scotland, which was asked for a
547–549. commission to try the accused. The Privy Council sent
t h ree men to Pi t t e n weem to investigate, as a result of
Pittenweem Witches which they decided not to proceed with pro s e c u t i o n s
A small fishing village on the coast of Fife in Scotland, and ordered the prisoners’ release. The women were set
Pi t t e n weem, like most other Scottish villages and tow n s , f ree. Thomas Brown, howe ve r, had died in prison. It
accumulated a history of magical operators, often appears that the local minister had been reading to
dubbed witches, and dealt with either by the local kirk Patrick Morton an account of the recent Bargarran case
session (parish disciplinary committee) or by the crimi- in which a young woman had accused several people of
nal courts. Because of the nature of the re c o rd s , b ewitching her. We cannot be sure when the minister
Pi t t e n we e m’s witches emerged quite late, at the end of started his reading, but Patrick did not begin to exhibit
the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth signs of demonic possession until halfway through his
c e n t u ry. Se veral complaints invo l ved villagers consulting illness, so it looks as though Patrick may have faked his
witches rather than being witches themselves. In Ja n u a ry symptoms in imitation of “the Bargarran imposter,” as
1693, Ma r g a ret Greenhorn, a servant, was re f e r red to the young woman involved in that case was called.
the pre s by t e ry for consulting a man about things lost, The release of the prisoners did them little good.
and the minister investigated her again five years later on Emotions we re running high in Pi t t e n weem, and
a similar charge. In May 1697, Agnes Adamson was Beatrix Laing continued to be persecuted by the towns-
rebuked for consulting, and the minister took the occa- folk, who imprisoned her for five months and then,
sion to lament “how common this scandalous sin is of when she escaped, prevented her from returning to her
consulting persons reputed sorc e rers anent things secre t own house. She was thus forced to live as a beggar.
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Another of the accused, Janet Cornfoot, suffered much Christianity made the link between disease (and the
m o re. Escaping from Pi t t e n weem to a nearby village ability to pre vent or cure it) and religion even more
after being tortured, she was sent back by its minister. explicit. Jesus and the Apostles proved their divine man-
On her return, a mob lynched her, first pelting her with date by their miracles, most of which cured physical or
stones while she was hanging from a rope and fin a l l y p s ychological ailments (disease and possession).
pressing her to death beneath a heavy door heaped with Mo re ove r, introducing demons and an explicit Sa t a n
stones. This outrage reached the ears of the Pr i v y (absent in the He b rew Bible) powe rful enough to tempt
Council, which ord e red the arrest and prosecution of Jesus in the wilderness added a new and menacing
those invo l ved, particularly the local magistrates who dimension to beliefs about illness. The Christian Churc h
had signally failed to keep ord e r. Despite a flu r ry of continued these ideas through the cults of martyrs and
indignant pamphlets, nothing was done; the council saints, placing great emphasis on their power over disease
did not pursue the matter further. and even death. Also, saints’ lives often re vo l ved aro u n d
c o n flict with Satan or his demonic minions. Evil person-
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
i fied was closely connected with illness.
See also:BEWITCHMENT;LYNCHING;POSSESSION,DEMONIC; The historical record also persuaded Christians that
SCOTLAND. humans played an active part in propagating epidemic
References and further reading:
disease. Although T h u c ydides believed that the gre a t
Anonymous. 1820. ATrue and Full Relation of the Witches at
plague that struck Athens during the Pe l o p o n n e s i a n
Pittenweem. ... 1704. Reprinted in A Collection of Rare and
War (431–404 B.C.E.) was natural, he noted that
Curious Tracts on Witchcraft.Edited by D. Webster. Edinburgh.
others attributed it to evil forces, especially intervention
Goodare, Julian, ed. 2002. TheScottish Witch-Hunt in Context.
by Athenian enemies. During the great pandemic that
Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 43–44, 175,
179–181, 202–203. r a vaged the Byzantine Em p i re, Em p e ror Justinian (ca.
Ms. record. 1704. Scottish Record Office: CH2/183. 482–565) clearly believed that the plague resulted from
tolerating heresy and sexual immorality, especially
Plague h o m o s e x u a l i t y. Mo re importantly for we s t e r n
From earliest times, epidemic disease has been associat- Christians, during this pandemic, Rome was save d
ed with preternatural and supernatural forces and through a procession led by Pope Gregory I (540–604).
powers. Most Europeans, whose understanding of dis- The appearance of the Archangel Michael (still
ease, famine, and war was largely drawn from the Bible, commemorated on top of Ha d r i a n’s Tomb) halted the
were convinced that epidemics were not purely natural a d vance of the disease and confirmed the power of
phenomena. Disease was frequently seen as a tool God prayer and procession in controlling plague.
used to chastise wicked people. Certain biblical
passages (but rarely the book of Job) facilitated this Plague and Scapegoats
understanding of disease. Into this environment of disease, the demonic, and reli-
The plagues of Egypt included epidemic disasters gion, the Black Death erupted from 1347 to 1351.
God employed to force Pharaoh to free the childre n During numerous subsequent outbreaks, various reac-
of Israel. Howe ve r, these stories communicated more tions emerged that affected future responses to plague.
to medieval and early modern Christians than just From France to Switzerland and Germany, Christians
Go d’s power over his creation. The biblical account persecuted Jews as plague spreaders. This intensification
also stressed the ability of Ph a r a o h’s “m a g i c i a n s” to of earlier anti-Semitism included accusing Jews of poi-
p e rform acts that mirro red—though never defeat- soning wells to cause plague. The pope and most of the
ed—the miracles Moses performed (Exo d . ecclesiastical hierarchy categorically condemned such
7:6–11:10). Because many of these miracles we re charges as irreligious nonsense. But the methodology
connected with disease, commentators deduced that and rationale behind the accusation are fascinating:
God was directly invo l ved with large-scale epidemics. Jews were accused of conspiring with lepers (ritually
Similar conclusions could be drawn from the death of impure outcasts), the infidel rulers of Islamic Spain,
24,000 Israelites from plague for their sexual and, most important, with Satan himself—that is, with
immorality and idolatry in consorting with Mo a b i t e s internal and external enemies as well as the Great
and worshipping Baal (Num. 25:1–9)—another Enemy.These coconspirators provided the poisons used
d i rect connection between plague and Go d’s wrath. by the Jews. Thus, from the very first outbreaks of
Is r a e l’s enemies we re beset with plague and we re also plague in the late 1340s, Christians were convinced
s t ruck by famine after capturing the Ark of the that its “causes” lay within, including such “enemies” as
C ovenant (1 Sam. 5:1–6:18). The obvious conclusion Jews, Muslims, lepers, unbelievers (heretics), and such
was that epidemics we re associated with Go d’s wrath immoral people as prostitutes or homosexuals.
and that disease could be ave rted by avoiding an evil This persecution became a fixed pattern. Avoiding an
that had aroused Go d’s anger. impending outbreak or ending one required identifying
Plague 903 |
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and eradicating those responsible for provoking Go d’s were routinely accused of causing disease and ill health
wrath. Then the surv i vors relied on penance, praye r s , in both animals and people. Even when Geneva simul-
processions, and fasts to appease God. In other words, taneously experienced plague, a plague-spreading con-
c o n f ronting a basically untreatable epidemic disease, s p i r a c y, a n d a witch hunt in the 1570s, the link was
western Europeans attempted to identify those who had rarely made explicit, if at all. One possible explanation
“c a u s e d” it and there by limit or eliminate it by is that plague was seen first and foremost as a dire c t
s a c r i ficing them. Mo re ove r, plague remained enduringly expression of divine judgment and chastisement rather
connected to evil (the demonic). than an evil that God simply allowed. Protestant theol-
ogy precluded ascribing that much power to Satan, let
Plague-Spreading Conspiracies alone his earthly minions (witches). Hi s t o ry and
Two later plague outbreaks revealed the capacity of S c r i p t u re suggested that life’s greatest disasters—
Europeans to differentiate between evil people and m a s s i ve earthquakes, large-scale famines, deva s t a t i n g
demonic pacts. From about 1530 to about 1640, a floods, horrendous epidemics—we re acts of divine
region centered on Geneva, stretching from Lyons to p rovidence; Satan might be the prince of this world,
Milan and from Neuchâtel to Turin, experienced fre- but there we re limits to his powe r. Thus, even if an
quent accusations that individuals had conspired to occasional connection was made between individual
spread plague. Interestingly, the governments involved witches and a specific plague outbreak, it never created
consistently refused to consider the conspirators a witch hunt. It was simply considered an extre m e
“demonic.” Many features of these conspiracies sug- example of maleficium (harmful magic), less important
gested witchcraft. For example, the conspirators used than the judges’ emphasis on the stereotypical aspects of
greases and powders to spread the plague. They took an demonic pacts and Sabbats.
oath saying, “if I reveal any details, may my soul be
WILLIAM G. NAPHY
given to Satan.” And most of them were poor, margin-
alized women. See also:BIBLE;DEVIL;DISEASE;GENEVA;HOMOSEXUALITY;
Ne ve rtheless, other features encouraged a pure l y MIRACLES;MOSES;POISON;SCAPEGOATS.
natural understanding of these conspiracies. Ba r b e r - References and further reading:
surgeons, who mixed the greases and powders or gave Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and
Cultural Context of European Witchcraft.2nd ed. Oxford:
i n s t ructions for preparing them, led the conspirators.
Blackwell.
The conspiracies never invo l ved orgiastic rituals and
Cunningham, Andrew, and Ole P. Grell. 2000. The Four Horsemen
never met Satan. Their goal was to allow plague workers
of the Apocalypse: Religion, War, Famine and Death in
g reater opportunity to loot the homes of we a l t h y
Reformation Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
people. Thus, even though the conspirators’ behavior
Dixon, L. 1995. Perilous Chastity: Women and Illness in Pre-
s o m ewhat resembled a demonic pact, the magistrates Enlightenment Art and Medicine.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
consistently saw a purely natural conspiracy based on Press.
simple greed. Edwards, J. 1988. The Jews in Western Europe, 1400–1700.
Only twice did Catholic clerics attempt to interpret Manchester: Manchester University Press.
p l a g u e - s p reading behavior as demonic witchcraft, and El m e r, Pe t e r, ed. 2004. The Healing Arts: Health, Disease, and Society
Catholic officials took neither seriously. In Lyons, a in Eu rope 1500–1800.Manchester: Open Un i versity Pre s s .
Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. Night Battles.London: Routledge.
Catholic writer alleged that the plague spreaders we re
Kiple, Kenneth, ed. 1997. Plague, Pox, and Pestilence.London:
Protestants allied with Satan, but the royal gove r n o r
Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
and magistracy ignored his charge. In Milan, during the
Naphy,W.G. 2002. Plagues, Poisons, and Potions: Plague-Spreading
1630 outbreak made famous by Alessandro Ma n zo n i ,
Conspiracies in the Western Alps, c. 1530–1640.Manchester:
some clerical chroniclers implied a demonic connection
Manchester University Press.
behind the conspiracy. However, they merely suggested Siraisi, Nancy G. 1990. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine.
that plague spreading was “diabolical” (evil), not witch- An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice.Chicago: University
craft involving a demonic pact. Pl a g u e - s p re a d i n g of Chicago Press.
conspiracies remind us that the early modern world was Stephens, Walter. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the
not determined to find supernatural causes for eve ry Crisis of Belief.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
natural eve n t — e ven a plague outbreak. Although
e ve ryone invo l ved in plague-spreading conspiracies Plantsch, Martin
b e l i e ved that the presence and pro g ress of plague was (ca. 1460–1533/1535)
p rovidential and almost certainly a sign of Go d’s Considered one of the most prominent representatives
displeasure, no immediate or necessary links were made of a moderate understanding of witchcraft during the
to demons and witches. transition to early modern times, Plantsch studied the-
Explicit charges of spreading plague are largely ology at Tübingen under Gabriel Biel (ca. 1410–1495),
absent from witchcraft accusations, although witches who is generally considered the most significant late
904 Plantsch, Martin |
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scholastic representative of the via moderna (modern Mentzel-Reuters, Arno. 1995. “Notanda reliquit doctor Martinus
way). A strict nominalist (nominalism postulates the Plantsch: Leben und Werk eines Tübinger Theologen (ca.
freedom of the divine will as the highest principle), 1460–1533).” Bausteine zur Tübinger Universitätsgeschichte7:
1–44.
Plantsch became university principal at Tübingen in
Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witchcraft in Southwestern Germany
1490 and lectured as doctor of theology after 1494.
1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations.Stanford:
Prompted by a witchcraft trial in Tübingen in 1505,
Stanford University Press.
Plantsch undertook a thorough theological inve s t i g a t i o n
Oberman, Heiko A. 1981. Masters of the Reformation: The
of the subject of witchcraft, producing a series of ser-
Emergence of a New Intellectual Climate in Europe.NewYork:
mons that we re printed in 1507 as an Opusculum de Cambridge University Press.
Sagis Ma l e ficiis (A Brief Wo rk on Evil Witches). T h i s Plantsch, Martin. 1507. Opusculum de sagis maleficis.Pforzheim:
e x t e n s i ve piece of work, the style of which was more aca- Anshelm. Online facsimile: http://141.84.81.24/cgi-
demic-scholastic than rhetorical, considered all the bin/plantsch/plantsch.html.
p re valent contemporary aspects of the doctrine of witch-
craft. Like the lawyer Ulrich Mo l i t o r, who had some Pleier (Pleyer, Bleier),
impact shortly before, Plantsch upheld certain aspects of Cornelius (1595–16??)
the belief in witches, such as their ability to work m a l e- Pleier was a physician who published the Malleus
fic i a (harmful magic) and influence the we a t h e r, but judicum (The Hammer of Judges), an anonymous pam-
rejected the notion of witches actually flying and the phlet opposing witchcraft trials, in 1628.
resulting consequences. Thus, Plantsch must be ranked The son of a Lutheran cleric in Coburg, Pl e i e r
among the initiators of the Ca n o nEp i s c o p i(ca. 906) tra- received his doctorate at Basel in 1620; he was named
dition, which was particularly widespread in southwe s t- municipal physician of Coburg in 1622 and pro f e s s o r
ern Ge r m a n y. Fu rther aspects of his nominalist view- at the local Gymnasium Ca s i m i r i a n u m in 1623. In
point included his claim that Go d’s permission was 1624, he became municipal physician at Kitzingen am
n e c e s s a ry for any actions by witches and his admonition Main but lost his position in 1629 during the bishop of
to victims of witchcraft not to use any countermagic. W ü rz b u r g’s recatholicization. Pleier later conve rted to
Howe ve r, Pl a n t s c h’s scholastic background was evident Catholicism. His exact date of death is unknown.
in the fact that he adopted such aspects of medieva l Pleier was responsible for two medical publications.
demonology as incubi and succubi. The anonymous pamphlet, allegedly written by a
To what extent Plantsch was actually invo l ved in “Catholic Christian,” entitled Malleus judicum, Das ist:
p ropagating these ideas is difficult to evaluate, but his Gesetzhammer der unbarm h e rzigen He xe n r i c h t e r, Au s s
reputation as principal and theology professor at dem besten Ertz Göttlicher, Na t ü rlicher und We l t l i c h e r
Tübingen University and as a gifted preacher undoubt- Re c h t e n ( Hammer of Judges, in Other Wo rds, a Legal
edly gave him a certain level of influence. Furthermore, Hammer Against Pitiless Witchcraft Judges, Ta k e n
Plantsch was in contact with such we l l - k n own fig u re s f rom the Best Divine, Natural, and Human Laws)
in both theology and the arts as Johannes Re u c h l i n ; a p p e a red between 1626 and 1629. The copy in the
another humanist, Heinrich Bebel, wrote a short poem state library of Bamberg contains a handwritten remark
for the preface to Plantsch’s Opusculum. Because of his naming Pleier as the author. Pleier based his work on
close relationship with Reuchlin, Philip Me l a n c h t h o n Johann Weyer’sDe praestigiis daemonum(On the Tricks
may have acquired his comparatively moderate attitude of Devils, 1563) and frequently cited He r m a n n
t ow a rd witchcraft during his studies at Tübingen. In Wi t e k i n d’s (pseud. Augustin Lercheimer) C h r i s t l i c h
the late medieval dispute on the “n ew” understanding bedencken und erinnerung von Za u b e re y ( C h r i s t i a n
of witchcraft, Plantsch presented his views as the Thoughts and Memories about So rc e ry, 1585) and
“Catholic truth.” Like the Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (T h e Anton Pr ä t o r i u s’s Von Za u b e rey und Za u b e re rn
Hammer of Wi t c h e s , 1486), but with more formal Gründlicher Be r i c h t (A T h o rough Account of Ma g i c
authority and correctness, the Tübingen professor of and Magicians, 1598). In polemical form, Pleier criti-
theology declared his attitude toward the issue of witch- cized judges, torture, and cruel prisons and demanded
craft to be correct doctrine—a view, howe ve r, at odds “Christian re f o r m s” instead of executions from the
with the communis opinio(common opinion). authorities. The we l l - k n own witchcraft commissioner
Heinrich von Schultheis voiced his objections to the
JÖRG HAUSTEIN;
Malleus judicum in 1634, which entered the collection
TRANSLATED BY HELEN SIEGBURG of Johann Reiche in 1703.
See also:CANONEPISCOPI;DEMONOLOGY;INCUBUSANDSUCCUBUS; GUNTHER FRANZ;
MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;MOLITOR,ULRICH.
TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY
References and further reading:
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft See also:PRÄTORIUS,ANTON;SCHULTHEIS,HEINRICHVON;
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. SKEPTICISM;WEYER,JOHANN;WITEKIND,HERMANN.
Pleier (Pleyer, Bleier), Cornelius 905 |
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References and further reading: High Middle Ages, magicians flourished at courts, with
Franz, Gunther. 1992. “Der Malleus Judicum,Das ist: their intense rivalries and intrigues, and some practi-
Gesetzhammer der unbarmhertzigen Hexenrichter von Cornelius tioners provided poisons along with more esoteric
Pleier im Vergleich mit Friedrich Spees Cautio Criminalis.” Pp.
s e rvices. Similar practitioners operated at the popular
199–222 in VomUnfug des Hexen-Processes: Gegner der
l e vel as well, and there is considerable evidence that
Hexenverfolgung von Johann Weyer bis Friedrich Spee.Edited by
both specialized sorc e rers and ord i n a ry people
Hartmut Lehmann and Otto Ulbricht. Wiesbaden:
continued to employ poisons in the early modern
Harrossowitz.
period. Allegations of poisoning were among the most
———. 1994. “Der Malleus Judicum, Das ist: Gesetzeshammer der
unbarmherzigen Hexenrichter von Cornelius Pleier und andere common accusations precipitating witchcraft trials, and
Gegner der Hexenprozesse von Johann Weyer bis Friedrich in German courts the term veneficium came to be used
Spee.” Pp. 27–47 in The Salem Witchcraft Persecutions.Edited routinely as a term for witchcraft.
byWinfried Herget. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher. The types of poisons used included both re fin e d
p roducts like arsenic, rat poison, and lye, and locally
Poison occurring fauna such as ergot-infested wheat, tox i c
Poisons have been strongly associated with witchcraft m u s h rooms, and parts of various flowering plants.
and sorcery throughout the world since antiquity, The efficacy of the former was basically a function of
because they manifest a desire to cause harm; involve dosage, so anyone who could purchase them could use
secret, often ritual, preparations; and work through a them. Em p l oying the latter was more difficult because
hidden, or occult, process. Even though the defining the plants had to be located and in some cases picked
feature of magic and witchcraft is spiritual or supernat- at a particular stage of growth, the potent parts had to
ural agency, they actually make extensive use of physi- be known, and they had to be pre p a red in a way that
cal substances. They may be incorporated into secret made them effective while not alerting the person
rituals performed at a distance, but they may also be consuming them. Poisons we re most commonly intro-
used to “carry” a spell by being brought to or concealed duced in food or drink served, lent, or bestowed as a
near the target or by being introduced directly into the gift, but they could also be secretly introduced into
victim’s body. Such substances may contain intrinsical- the victim’s food stocks or, in Ge r m a n y, beer cask,
ly toxic chemicals or psychoactive agents that are not which was often kept open near the door. Another
inherently toxic but open the victim to suggestion; they form of delive ry of psyc h o a c t i ve agents was as a salve
may even be chemically inert, deriving their power s m e a red on the victim’s skin, which caused local
purely from the sorcerer’s confidence in and the victim’s numbness and general disorientation that could easily
fear of their magical properties. The inherent uncer- be interpreted into a variety of somatic complaints.
tainty of allegations of poisoning along with the impor- The generally surreptitious nature of poison con-
tant role of psychological factors in many cases have led tributed to a strong element of suspicion in neighbor-
some social scientists to treat fear of poisoning as more ly relations in early modern Eu rope, and it was not
significant than the use of poisons. There is no question uncommon for people to routinely feed pieces of food
that such fear is an important phenomenon in its own re c e i ved from neighbors to household animals before
right, but strong evidence from both anthropology and consuming the rest themselve s .
history suggests that this fear is rooted in the fact that The gradual substitution of ve n e fic i u m f o r
poisons have been used as a real and potent form of “w i t c h c r a f t” in legal terminology not only re flected the
interpersonal attack in a wide variety of social settings. i m p o rtant role of poisons in witchcraft beliefs but also
Anthropologists have found varying degrees of asso- contributed to the gradual decline of witchcraft pro s e c u-
ciation between sorc e ry and poison in Au s t r a l i a , tions. First, it led to the separation of the physical crime,
Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. In some cases, sor- which even leading skeptics like Johann We yer and
c e rers use chemically active agents in connection with Reginald Scot considered a felony, from the re l i g i o u s
magic rituals while attributing the poison’s power at and spiritual offenses. Second, the continued pro s e c u-
least as much to the magic as to the substance’s intrinsic tion of poisonings and the increased regulation of
p ro p e rties. In other cases, poisons are understood to poisons reduced one of the most common fears that had
work without magic, and sorcerers may use them sepa- contributed to witchcraft suspicions.
rately, or even as a backup if their regular spells do not
EDWARD BEVER
seem to be working. In the West, the connection
See also:AFFAIROFTHEPOISONS;HEMLOCK;MALEFICIUM;
b e t ween magic and poisoning goes back to antiquity.
NIGHTSHADE;OINTMENTS;PLAGUE;POTIONS.
There is a linguistic link between poison and magic in
References and further reading:
both the Greek wordpharmakonand the Latin venefici-
Arendt-Schulte, Ingrid. 1994. Weise Frauen—böse Weiber: Die
u m (poisoning), and the association was made by the
Geschichte der Hexen der Frühen Neuzeit. Freiburg: Herder.
s e c o n d - c e n t u ry Epistle of Ba rn a b a s , St. Au g u s t i n e , Beckmann, Dieter, and Barbara Beckmann. 1990. Alraun, Beifuss,
Isidore of Seville, and the Venerable Bede. During the und andere Hexenkräuter.Frankfurt and NewYork: Campus.
906 Poison |
Wicca | Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition | 944 | 46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.907 Application File
Bever, Edward. 2002. “Women, Witchcraft, and Power in the t h roughout the period (Ba r a n owski 1952, 178). His cal-
Early Modern Community.” Journal of Social History36, no. 4: culations included only the territory known as the
955–988. Crown lands of Poland, excluding both Silesia and the
Fiume, Giovanna. 1997. “The Old Vinegar Lady, or the Judicial
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Howe ve r, in an epilogue to
Modernization of the Crime of Witchcraft.” Pp. 65–87 in
the first Polish translation of Ku rt Ba s c h w i t z’s work
History from Crime.Edited by Edward Muir and Guido
Cz a rownice: Dzieje procesów o czary (Witches: A Hi s t o ry
Ruggiero.Translated by Corrada Curry et al. Baltimore: Johns
of Witchcraft Trials), published in 1963, Ba r a n ow s k i
Hopkins University Press.
revised his statistics down to a few thousand. Trials for
Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their
Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500. s o rc e ry or magical practices we re also heard prior to the
Berkeley: University of California Press. sixteenth century, but according to extant re c o rds, the
Robischeaux, Thomas. 2001. “Witchcraft and Forensic Medicine peak of the persecution was between 1650 and 1750
in Seventeenth Century Germany.” Pp. 197–216 in Languages ( f rom work carried out on Wi e l k o p o l s k a). T h e re appear
of Witchcraft.Edited by Stuart Clark. NewYork: St. Martin’s. to have been more trials in the western areas of Po l a n d
and fewer in areas to the east, where Ort h o d oxy re p l a c e d
Poland
Catholicism as the predominant religion. This geo-
Witchcraft prosecutions peaked in the Polish Crown graphical and chronological diffusion may be merely a
lands between 1650 and 1750, about a century later re flection of the extant re c o rds rather than an accurate
than most of Europe, with the exception of Hungary or account of the pro s e c u t i o n s .
Russia. Estimates of the number of deaths attributable The percentage of cases in which the death sentence
to the prosecutions have ranged from a few thousand to (burning at the stake) was passed varied substantially
30,000. The subject has received relatively little schol- g e o g r a p h i c a l l y, from close to 100 percent in some
arly analysis, and serious research has been hampered by t owns of Greater Poland to under 50 percent in those
the loss of many court records during World War II. privileged towns (e.g., Cr a c ow and Lublin) where
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the early appellate systems we re in place. Howe ve r, in priva t e
modern period included territory that now comprises t owns (that is, owned by a noble, a king, or the
much of Ukraine and Belarus, plus Lithuania and parts Church), final jurisdiction was often in the hands of the
of Latvia. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, manorial lord. T h e re f o re, because charges we re often
witchcraft trials were held before clerical courts, where instigated by him or at his instruction against his peas-
death sentences were not usually passed. From the six- ants, the sentences we re frequently carried out on the
teenth century, however, jurisdiction passed increasing- morning following the trial. Those tried we re almost
ly to secular courts, where the death sentence (burning exclusively peasants, because only their peers could try
at the stake) was common. Legal persecution ended in the nobility. Occasionally minor noblewomen appeared
Poland only in 1776, with the repeal of the witchcraft in trials, but that was rare.
statutes. However, illegal reprisals persisted into the In the nineteenth century, an attempt was made to
nineteenth and even twentieth centuries. One of the c e n t r a l i ze the arc h i val collections, and many re c o rd s
most obvious explanations for the late peak in the were moved to Warsaw to the Archiwum Gl-ówne Akt
number of trials is the crises and invasions that Poland Da w n ych (AGAD; Central Arc h i ve of Old Re c o rd s ) .
experienced in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth Due to extensive bombing during World War II, up to
centuries. The best extant records come from the area 90 percent of these records were destroyed. Thus, where
a round Po z n an´, known as Wi e l k o p o l s k a ( Gre a t e r records have not survived, our information is necessari-
Poland), and from Gdansk (Danzig), Cracow, Lublin, ly based on the work of authors writing before 1939
and Bydgoszcz. who were familiar with the lost sources. Another collec-
tion of primary material comes from an unexpected
Geography and Statistics s o u rce, which has barely begun to be used in Po l a n d :
The statistics quoted by the majority of historians of the during World War II, the H - S o n n d e rk o m m a n d o
Eu ropean witchcraft prosecutions have been derive d (Special Unit H [Hexen = witches]), under instructions
f rom Bogdan Ba r a n ow s k i’s estimate of a total of 15,000 f rom Heinrich Hi m m l e r, extended their collection of
deaths, found in the French summary of his work witchcraft trial re c o rds into the occupied territories.
Procesy czarownic w Polsce w XVII i XVIII w. (Wi t c h c r a f t This collection, known as the Hi m m l e rk a rt o t e k a
Trials in Poland in the Se venteenth and Ei g h t e e n t h ( Himmler card index), is held in Po z n a´n, with a copy
Centuries). Ba r a n owski, using a fig u re of 1,250 Po l i s h in Berlin.
t owns, supposed that each town court tried an ave r a g e
of four cases of witchcraft during the period and sen- Chronology of the Trials
tenced two people to death from each trial. He added The earliest literary mentions of individuals employing
5,000 deaths to re flect the illegal murders of people sus- witchcraft in Poland appeared in the chronicles of
pected of witchcraft, making a total of 15,000 deaths Ma rcin Bielski and Jan Dl-ugosz. They tended to
Poland 907 |
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describe individuals whose practices were more com- was also on his way there. His astro l o g e r
monly regarded as sorcery or slanders against women. Pro b o s zc zewicz advised him that he would be in dan-
In many trials before fifteenth-century clerical courts, ger from fire in that city, so he moved the witch to
the accused was charged with causing impotence, div- Dubnik, where the sentence was carried out. In turn,
ination, or illness. In other cases, men sought to dis- the king’s wife, Barbara Radziwi-l-lówna, was accused of
solve marriages because their wives had reputations as e m p l oying love magic to seduce the king. Si g i s m u n d
witches. In Poland, as in the West, clerical courts almost Augustus appears to have been particularly susceptible
never passed death sentences (although the first execu- to these practices, because his later mistresses, Su s a n n a
tion in Poland, in 1511, occurred in an ecclesiastical Orl-owska and Barbara Giz˙anka, we re also thought to
court, with the initial execution pronounced by a secu- h a ve been witches.
lar court in 1544); instead, the accused were required to This sample of 251 trials invo l ved 511 defendants,
apologize, swear not to repeat the crime, and pay a suit- 96 percent of whom were female. The largest outbreaks
able fine. Banishment became more common in the six- came at Kalisz (1650–1680), Gn i ezno (1670–1690),
teenth century, when the charges made against those and Grodzisk (1710–1720). There was a steady trickle
accused of witchcraft became more elaborate. Rituals of trials heard at Kleczew. The maximum number of
that had previously been encouraged even by the town deaths (24) occurred between 1707 and 1711. Fro m
authorities (for example, in Biecz, a well-known witch this sample, only four places, including Po z n an´, heard
called Mater Diabolica [diabolical Mo t h e r ] more than twenty trials.
Zachariaszek had been hired as late as 1600 to find After the major disruptions of Po l a n d’s mid-
stolen goods) now became unacceptable. In the secular s e venteenth century “deluge,” witch hunting gathere d
trials from the sixteenth century, especially those from momentum during the late seventeenth and early eigh-
Kalisz and Poznan´, starting in 1544, charges were teenth centuries. The reasons suggested include cultural
generally made against the so-called cunning folk. backwardness, although in light of Poland’s intellectual
Confessions included descriptions of invocations of a achievements in the Renaissance and highly developed
pseudoreligious nature to the Virgin Mary and the relations with western Europe, this is a debatable view-
saints and the use of herbs to restore ruined beer or to point. A better reason employs the social-strain gauge
make cows produce more milk. t h e o ry of witchcraft: the wars and economic disasters
At the court of the Polish king Sigismund II that ravaged Poland left behind a new level of fear and
Augustus (ruled 1548–1572), rumors of the deploy- suspicion, increased by seve re competition for
ment of witchcraft took on a political nature (as in re s o u rces. In this heightened atmosphere, accusations
Russia). They never reached any judicial court but of witchcraft were more likely to surface and be pursued
instead served to ruin the reputations of those vigorously.
i n vo l ved. The accusations we re leveled first at the
k i n g’s mother Bona Sforza, an Italian (a typical xe n o- Accusations
phobic tactic against foreigners). Fo reigners we re more By the late sixteenth century, Polish witchcraft trials
often perc e i ved to use magic in the context of warf a re . began to contain mentions of the Devil. Eve n t u a l l y,
A witch employed by Bona was arrested on the ord e r s suspicion of concrete harm or m a l e fic i u m was no
of King Sigismund, who was ready to try her and sen- longer re q u i red for a charge to be brought; that of
tence her to death. She was taken to Brest, but the king making a pact with the Devil sufficed. Ac c u s a t i o n s
d i s p l a yed many features common to we s t e r n
Eu ropean witchcraft, such as love magic, causing
harm to people or animals, and attendance at the
Table P-1 Preliminary Survey of
Twenty-Five Towns in Sabbat. Charges also included inflicting devils upon
Wielkopolska someone, which could be done through food or drink.
A particularly Polish feature was that of k o l t u n , or a
Dates Trials Accused Women/Men condition of matted hair, known as Plica Po l o n i c a ,
1500–1575 6 6/0 which was also believed to be the result of bew i t c h-
1576–1600 8 10/0 ment. Victims would not cut off their hair for fear of
1601–1625 15 18/3 death or blindness. Court charges involving k ol- t un´
1626–1650 14 25/1 persisted well beyond the repeal of the witchcraft acts
1651–1675 36 81/1 in 1776.
1676–1700 78 188/5 In a collection of trials from Grodzisk, Gre a t e r
1701–1725 47 75/5
Poland (1707–1737), and also at Kleczew, the accused
1726–1750 38 62/5
admitted to stealing the Host and then beating it until
1751–1775 6 16/0
it bled and the Christ Child appeared. The blood was
1776–1800 3 9/1
then used in various spells. This echoed the bleeding
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Host accusations, usually leveled against Jews in T h e re was a similar pattern to the case pro c e d u re .
Ge r m a n y, Poland, and elsew h e re in the medieva l Another individual usually brought charges against the
period. Coincidentally, the peak in the number of accused. The accused witch was questioned and then tor-
witchcraft trials coincided with an increase in accusa- t u red. After tort u re, her confession was confirmed, and
tions of the blood libel (the baseless charge that Jew s often the tort u re was repeated. The use of tort u re was
used Christian blood for religious purposes) in Poland. a p p a rent in virtually eve ry case from Wi e l k o p o l s k a , e ve n
Usually powders of va rying colors we re used to harm those involving children. It took such forms as burning
people, animals, or crops, but sometimes manure and the accused with straw, racking, and burning candles
other elements were said to have been buried under the under the arms or against the lips. It was supposed to be
intended victim’s threshold. e m p l oyed only three times, but there we re many exc e p-
The witches’ gathering, or Sabbat, took place on tions to this rule. Those who died in the course of tort u re
L-ysa Góra ( Bald Mountain). Howe ve r, like Swe d e n’s we re often declared to be witches, buried under the
Blåkulla, this did not refer exc l u s i vely to the moun- g a l l ows, and denied burial in consecrated gro u n d .
tain bearing that name in the G ó ry S´w i˛e t o k rz y s k i e A controversial case, said to have taken place at
( Holy Cross Mountains). In the trial re c o rds, it indi- Doruchów in 1775, has been the subject of much spec-
cated any local area that was a supposed meeting ulation (Tazbir 1966). An eyewitness account that
place. Feasts of abhorrent food we re served, we d d i n g s appeared in 1835 described the case. The author gave a
we re celebrated between witches and devils, and the full description of the trial, tort u re, and execution of
witches usually we re re p o rted to have had sex with f o u rteen women. No trial re c o rd is extant, although
their devils. In contrast to popular belief, Polish trial there is a reference to the trial of six women in the same
re c o rds rarely mentioned diabolic ceremonies, orgias- area in 1783. It was said that disgust at the Doruchów
tic behavior, or boiling babies for their fat. Mo re ove r, case hastened the end of the legal persecution. In the
the traditional concept of the De v i l’s pact was Se j m ( Parliament) of 1776, tort u re and the trying of
replaced by sexual consummation between an indi- witches were forbidden by statute, at the representation
vidual devil and a witch. These devils we re often of the castellan of Biecz, Wojciech Kluszewski.
named and described as brightly clothed. The De v i l’s Howe ve r, there was another controversial claim
m a rk is rarely found in trial accounts, but there are i n volving an even later case, from 1793, sometimes
descriptions of the Devil biting the accused in a mentioned as the last case in Eu rope. Its inclusion in
p a rticular fin g e r. Silence during tort u re was ascribed Georg Wilhelm Soldan’s work has ensured exposure. It
to the presence of the Devil, who purport e d l y was said in 1801 that when a Prussian commission
p re vented the accused from confessing. arrived at a certain town in Poland in 1793, it saw the
remains of stakes and was told by the town magistrate
The Crime of Witchcraft that two witches had been burned there. The account
Witchcraft was prohibited and punished in several has been contested by Polish historians, who have dis-
statutes, the first of which appears to come from the missed it as German propaganda because the vague ter-
Synod of Buda in 1279. A provincial law was passed minology used in describing the event provokes doubt
that forbade anyone other than a bishop to give about its authenticity. However, there were accounts of
penance to a practitioner of witchcraft. In the fifteenth slander cases and even lynchings involving witchcraft
and sixteenth centuries, episcopal courts heard most of long after that date, including the famous case of
the cases. Jurisdiction was removed ostensibly from the K rystyna Ceynowa of Chaupy, who was drowned in
secular courts and placed under the clerical authorities 1836 after several duckings (the swimming test). Other
under the Cracow Constitution of 1543; subsequent women were still occasionally ducked in ponds or rivers
royal decrees from 1672 and 1713 confirmed this. in the nineteenth century.
Nonetheless, municipal secular courts held most Polish
witchcraft trials because they involved material harm. Polish Demonology
Village courts were ordered to refer such cases up to Descriptions of demonology, witchcraft, and magical
municipal courts, and indeed the statute of 1745 for- remedies appeared in a variety of Polish printed sources,
bade village judges from trying such cases on pain of from early treatises to the calendars and encyclopedias
death. Many town courts in Poland used Magdeburg of the late eighteenth century. The most important
Law, which was often quoted in cases, along with some work was the first translation into any European ver-
-
modern legal authorities, including the Flemish jurist nacular of Malleus Maleficarum,under the title Mlot na
Joos de Damhouder and the Saxon jurist Benedict czarownice (The Hammer of Witches) by Stanislaw
Carpzov (II). Polish courts also had the custom of refer- Zambkowicz, secretary to the castellan of Cracow, in
ring to the breaking of the biblical commandments, 1614. The author translated only the second part and
especially Exod. 22:18 (22:17; in the King James provided a short introduction. He dedicated the book
Version, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”). to Prince Ostrogski and published it in Cracow. The
Poland 909 |
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printing house of Wojciech Regulus in Po z n an´ Wyporska, Wanda. 2003. “Witchcraft, Arson, and Murder—the
published several works that were influential in the Turek Trial of 1652.” Central Europe1: 41–54.
witchcraft debate. Among those was an anonymous X. A. R. 1835. “Relacja naocznego s´wiadka o straceniu 14-tu
mniemanych czarownic w drugiej po-lowie 18-go wieku.”
work, which was an adaptation of, or heavily influenced
Przyjaciel Ludu 2, no. 16.
by, the work of Friedrich Spee, titled Czarownica
Za-luski, Bishop Józe f. 1766. Ob j a´snienie bl-˛edami zabobonów
powolana (A Witch Denounced) in 1639. It was the
z a raz˙ o n ych oraz opisanie niegodziwo´sci, która pochodzi sa˛ d ze n i a
most famous among several works attacking abuses per- -
p rzez prób˛e plawienia w wodzie mniemanych czarownic jako
petrated by the judiciary in witchcraft trials. Daniel
t a k owa próba jest omylna róz˙nym dowodami stwierzo n e .
Wi s n e r, Se r a fin Gamalski, Bishop Józef Andrze j Be rd yc z ó w.
Zaluski, and Bishop Kazimierz Florian Czartoryski also
attacked the judiciary. Of particular note are the works Poltergeist
by Jan Bohomolec and Benedykt Chmielowski. A spirit or ghost that makes itself known by loud noises
or movements is known as a poltergeist.
WANDA WYPORSKA
In some witchcraft trials one could observe a polter-
See also:ACCUSATIONS;BARANOWSKI,BOGDAN;CAROLINACODE; geist pattern: inexplicable sounds are heard, inanimate
CARPZOV,BENEDICT;CHRONOLOGYOFWITCHCRAFTTRIALS; objects move of their own accord, and people are lift-
CONFESSIONS;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;COURTS,SECULAR;
ed into the air in inexplicable ways. A we l l - k n ow n
CUNNINGFOLK;DANZIG(GDANSK);DEVIL;EXECUTIONERS;
example is the case against the drummer of Te d w o rt h ,
EXECUTIONS;HUNGARY;JEWS,WITCHCRAFT,ANDMAGIC;
who was held responsible for the strange phenomena
LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); LITHUANIA,GRAND
in the home of John Mompesson, a magistrate of
DUCHYOF;LOVEMAGIC;LYNCHING;MALEFICIUM;MALLEUS
Te d w o rth, Wi l t s h i re. The phenomena continued fro m
MALEFICARUM;NAZIINTERESTINWITCHPERSECUTION;
ORTHODOXCHRISTIANITY;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;POZNAN´; Ma rch 1662 to April 1663, and began after
PRUSSIA;RITUALMAGIC;RITUALMURDER;RUSSIA;SABBAT; Mompesson, in connection with a forgery trial, had
SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC;SILESIA;SOLDAN,WILHELMGOT- c o n fiscated the drum of a vagrant confidence trickster,
TLIEB;SOURCESFORWITCHCRAFTTRIALS;SWIMMINGTEST; William Dru ry. The magistrate kept the drum in his
TORTURE;TRIALS;UKRAINE,WITCHCRAFTTRIALS;ZIARNKO,JAN. own home after releasing Dru ry. The situation became
References and further reading: e ven more annoying when the strange phenomena
Baranowski, Bogdan. 1952. Procesy czarownic w Polsce w XVII i
continued in Mo m p e s s o n’s home after the drum had
XVIII wieku.L-ódz´: Lodzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe.
been destroyed, particularly affecting his ten-ye a r - o l d
———. 1963. Epilogue to Kurt Baschwitz., Czarownice: Dzieje
d a u g h t e r. In the meantime, the confidence trickster
procesów o czary.Warsaw: PWN.
had been sentenced in Gloucester to transportation to
Brzezin´ska, Anna. 1993–1996. “Accusations of Love Magic in the
Virginia for stealing pigs, but he escaped by jumping
Renaissance Courtly Culture of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth.” East Central Europe 20–23: 117–140. ove r b o a rd from the convict ship. At the beginning of
Carpzov, Benedict. 1684. Practicae novae rerum criminalium 1663 he re a p p e a red with his trickery and a new dru m
imperialis saxonica in tres partes divisa.Viteberg. a few miles from Te d w o rth. Mompesson had him
Czartoryski, Bishop K.F. 1669a.Instructio circa judicia sagarum a r rested and charged with practicing witchcraft;
judicibus eorumque consiliariis accomodata Romae primum 1657. although several of the local gentry testified against
Swarzewice. him, Dru ry had to be acquitted for lack of evidence.
———. 1669b.Mandatum pastorale ad universum clerum et
The celebrity of the case was due first and foremost to
populum Dioecesis suae de cantelis in processu contra sagas
the Re ve rend Joseph Glanvill, chaplain to Charles II
adhibendis die XI Aprilis. n.p.
and a Fe l l ow of the Royal So c i e t y, who went to
D-lugosz, Jan. 1711–1712. Historia Polonica Libri XII.Cracow.
Te d w o rth to investigate the matter and later described
Gamalski, Serafin. 1742. Przestrogi duchowne s˛edziom, inwestyga-
it in his Sadducismus Tr i u m p h a t u s (Sa d d u c i s m
torom i instygatorom czarownic.Poznán.
Kaczmarczyk, Zdzislaw, ed.1980. Volumina legum, przedruk C o n q u e re d ,1681), which gave the author a re p u t a t i o n
zbioru praw staraniem XX: Pijarów w Warszawie od roku 1732 as a father of modern psychical re s e a rc h .
do 1793. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Artystyczne i Filmowe. An unspecified number of similar cases can be found
Koranyi, Karol. 1927. “Czary i gusl´a przed sa˛dem kos´cielnemi w among Eu ropean witchcraft trials. From De n m a rk we
Polsce w XV i w pierwszej polowie XVI wieku.” Lud26: 1–24. h a ve the famous case of the haunted house in Køge
K r a m e r, Heinrich, and Jakub [sic] Sp re n g e r. 1614. Ml-ot na czarow n- (Køge Hu s k o r s), where a rich merc h a n t’s house in this
ice. Translated by S. Za m b k owicz. Cr a c ow: Szymon Ke m p i n i .
Zealand city was haunted by what we would call polter-
Soldan,Wilhelm. 1843. Geschichte der Hexenprozesse.Stuttgart and
geist manifestations. They did not cease until 1613,
Tubingen.
after seven local witches had been burned. During their
Tazbir, Janusz. 1966. “Z dziejów falszerstw historycznych w Polsce
w pierwszej po-lowieXIX wieku.” Przeglad Historyczny57: trial they confessed that they had conjured the Devil up
from a well and sent him into the merchant’s house in
580–598.
Wisner, Daniel. 1639. Tractatus brevis de extramagi, lamii, veneti- the form of a rat. Many years later his widow wrote an
cis. Poznan´. account of the events, which was later published by the
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minister Johan Brunsmand in 1674 and translated into Pomponazzi, Pietro
both Latin (1693) and German (1696). (1462–1525)
The last Danish witchcraft trial, which took place in Born in Mantua, this Aristotelian philosopher of the
1708 at the district court of the estate of Schelenborg Renaissance studied at the University of Padua, where
on Funen island, also invo l ved poltergeists; fourt e e n - he earned his degree in 1487 and taught natural phi-
year-old Anna Lauridsdatter was finally sentenced to losophy from 1488 until 1509 before moving to Ferrara
the workhouse for life, and an adult woman, Kare n and then to Bologna in 1511, where he died in 1525.
Madsdatter, whom she had named as her mentor, was Often (although incorrectly) denounced as an “atheist”
condemned to the stake. On the farm where Anna was who denied the immortality of the soul, he was also
a servant, heavy flour bags, kneading troughs, and extremely skeptical about the supernatural phenomena
many other objects were observed flying around with- that underpinned witchcraft theory in his age.
out anyone being able to see who was moving them. At Pomponazzi owed much to Aristotle, as his numer-
the Funen County Court, though, the judges part l y ous works show. At Bologna, he wrote his most famous
ove rturned the local court’s ve rdict. The adult woman (or notorious) work, De immortalitate animae (On the
was acquitted but was sentenced to make a public Im m o rtality of the So u l , 1516). He re the original ele-
apology for the scandal she had caused with her false ments in Po m p o n a z z i’s position we re derived fro m
confession. The lower court’s conviction of the yo u n g Aristotelian philosophy. He affirmed that no philo-
girl, however, who would not retract her statement, was sophical arguments derived from reason could demon-
upheld. She insisted that she had re n o u n c e d strate the hypothesis of the soul’s immort a l i t y. Ma n y
Christianity and that the Devil, in the shape of a dog or works were written to refute Pomponazzi’s conclusions.
a cat, had carried out her sorceries at the farm after she Although he never actually denied the immortality of
had invoked him. The enlightened high court judges the soul, his analysis led some of his followers to reject
tried in vain to get Anna Lauridsdatter to admit that the dogma. Pomponazzi claimed to accept the authori-
she had performed these acts herself, but although she ty of the Church in all matters of faith but refused to
had been caught in the act several times, she denied it allow such considerations to influence his judgments in
vehemently. the realm of philosophy, whose autonomy he staunchly
The descriptions of poltergeist phenomena in these defended. He sought to reconcile his position with the
trials we re fairly constant. What changed we re the dogmas of the Church by distinguishing between faith
explanations. During the witch persecutions, they and knowledge, asserting that what is true in theology
we re explained as witchcraft and the work of the may not be true in philosophy. Some denounced him as
Devil. During the Enlightenment, authorities tried to a heretic.
expose the phenomena as fraud or lies—as something With respect to witches and demons, Po m p o n a z z i’s
that had not taken place in re a l i t y. Today they are main work is De naturalium effectuum causis sive de
sometimes explained by a parapsychological theory incantationibus(Of the Causes of Natural Effects, or of
that claims that such phenomena always happen in Incantations), written in 1520. Pomponazzi sought and
connection with young women on the threshold of found natural explanations for apparently wondro u s
their teenage years, which are apparently related to e vents. He accepted the existence of angels and
c e rtain psychical forces that are released in that demons, but he argued the existence of natural causes
c o n n e c t i o n . to explain many apparently supernatural eve n t s .
GUSTAV HENNINGSEN; Pomponazzi was enough of a Christian to say that
demons exist, but enough of an Aristotelian to deny
TRANSLATED BY JAMES MANLEY that they can act on humans. By describing a natural
world that had no need of demons, Pomponazzi influ-
See also:GHOSTS;GLANVILL,JOSEPH;SALEM;SPECTRALEVIDENCE.
References and further reading: enced witchcraft skeptics such as Johann We ye r,
Bæksted, Anders, ed. 1953. Johan Brunsmand: Køge Huskors. Reginald Scot, and others. But, although he took a
Copenhagen: Danmarks Folkeminder (with English generally skeptical stance about the possibility of
summary). witchcraft, we should not exaggerate his radicalism;
Brunsmand, Johan. 1696. Das geängstigte Köge oder eine wahrhafte Pomponazzi accepted astrological influences and
und denkwürdige Historie von einer entsetzlichen Versuchung des b e l i e ved that words used in incantations or characters
leidigen Satanas.Leipzig.
in talismans worked through some power of imagina-
Henningsen, Gustav. 1988. “Witch Persecution After the Era of
tion (vis imaginativa) flowing from operator to patient.
the Witch Trials: A Contribution to Danish Ethnohistory.” Arv
T h rough such arguments, he re vealed his desire to
44: 103–153.
investigate nature in order to discover the real causes of
Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1959. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and
odd events and to reject all ideas of occult causation.
Demonology.London: Peter Nevill.
Rogo, D. Scott. 1979. The Poltergeist Experience.NewYork and Any marvels or apparently strange events we re ,
Harmondsworth: Penguin. t h e re f o re, due to natural laws. Pomponazzi re p e a t e d l y
Pomponazzi, Pietro 911 |
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claimed that his theories relied on Aristotle in exactly Witches and the Excellence of Both Civil and Canon
the same way as he had done with the immortality of Law), written in 1519–1520, this somewhat skeptical
the soul, yet he declared his desire to subject all his l a w yer from Piacenza denied the witches’ flight to their
arguments to the Church’s approval (however,de incan- nightly reunions because, he argued, demons no longer
t a t i o n i b u s was printed at Protestant Basel in 1556 possessed powers after Je s u s’s death and so could not
t h rough the efforts of an exiled Italian scientist, c a r ry witches through the air. Although he dismissed
Guglielmo Grataroli). Sabbats as nothing more than the fantasies and illu-
L i k ewise controversial was Po m p o n a z z i’s book, De fato sions of ignorant people from the lower social classes,
l i b e ro arbitrio, praedestinatione et providentia Dei ( Of he at the same time re c o g n i zed that Sabbat-like gath-
A r b i t r a ry and Free Will, Predestination, and the erings must exist because the worship of the De v i l
Providence of God), written at the ve ry moment (1520) formed the antithesis of the Christian religion and the
when Ma rtin Luther was so dramatically challenging fre e sacraments. Ponzinibio was in no way a disbeliever in
will, but not published until 1567. It dealt with deter- s o rc e ry. He stated that men could be bewitched by
minism and predestination, another of Christianity’s incantations and m a l e fic i a (harmful magic) or by the
i m p o rtant but insoluble dilemmas. He re Po m p o n a z z i evil eye. Thus he posited that it was untrue that witch-
first affirmed determinism but later managed to combine es carried the Sacrament to the Sabbat, offered it to the
and reconcile traditional and pro g re s s i ve features. T h u s , demon, and did the other things re c o rded in inquisi-
human free will coexisted with Go d’s fore k n ow l e d g e torial trials; and that it was not true that witches
without being incompatible or contradictory. He main- e n t e red houses at night to suck childre n’s blood,
tained that divine omniscience did not preclude free will. because a just God permitted no one to be injure d
His attempts to save human freedom without re j e c t i n g unjustly and that eve ryone, even unborn children, had
St. Augustine we re unconvincing but original. Among a guardian angel.
Po m p o n a z z i’s many critics who wrote treaties against As a civil lawye r, Ponzinibio was pro f o u n d l y
Po m p o n a z z i’s theories, the outstanding ones we re a n g e red by the injustices of inquisitorial pro c e d u re ,
Ga s p a ro Contarini and Agostino Ni f o. whether applied to heretics or to sorc e rers who had
been defined by the theologians as heretical. So
MICHAELA VALENTE
Ponzinibio attacked the whole system in his tre a t i s e :
See also:AQUINAS,THOMAS;CARDANO,GIROLAMO;DELLAPORTA, a c c o rding to him, civil law had the same authority as
GIAMBATTISTA;SCOT,REGINALD;SKEPTICISM;WEYER,JOHANN. canon law to discuss theological questions. He was
References and further reading:
ve ry critical of the pro c e d u res used in witchcraft trials,
Nardi, Bruno. 1965. Studi su Pietro Pomponazzi.Florence: Le
urging judges to verify the authenticity of the accuser’s
Monnier.
testimony and the defendant’s confessions, in addition
Pine, M.L. 1986. Pietro Pomponazzi: Radical Philosopher of the
to ignoring eve rything about the Sabbat and witches
Renaissance.Padua: Antenore.
flying there .
Pomponazzi, Pietro. 1567. Opera.Basel: Henricpetrina.
———. 1957. Libri quinque de fato: De libero arbitrio et de By asserting the equality of Roman law with canon
praedistinatione. Edited by Richard Lemay. Lucani: In Aedibus law even in theological matters and the consequent
Thesauri Mundi. necessity of adding lay assessors to inquisitors,
———. 1997. Gli incantesimi.Edited by C. Innocenti. Scandicci: Ponzinibio aroused the wrath of inquisitors and the-
La nuova Italia. ologians. Within a few years, the Do m i n i c a n
———. 1999. Trattato sull’immortalità dell’anima.Edited V. Ba rtolomeo della Spina criticized him vehemently in
Perrone. Florence: Olschki.
Tractatus de pre-eminentia sacre Theologiae super alias
South, James B. 1999. Sub vocein Encyclopedia of the Renaissance.
omnes scientias (Treatise on the Su p remacy of Sa c re d
6 vols. Edited by Paul F. Greudler. NewYork: Scribner’s, 5:
Theology over All Other Sciences). For centuries,
116–118.
Spina pointed out, university faculties of theology had
Walker, D. P. 1958. Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to
always ranked theology as the supreme science, by
Campanella.London: Warburg Institute.
Wonde, J. 1994. Subjekt und Unsterblichkeit bei Pietro Pomponazzi. which such questions as witchcraft should be decided.
Stuttgart: Teubner. In 1525, in three succeeding Apologiae in Po n z i n i b i u m
Zanier, G. 1975 Ricerche sulla diffusione e fortuna del De incanta- de lamijs ( Defense from Po n z i n i b i o’s On Wi t c h e s ) ,
tionibusdi Pomponazzi.Florence: La Nuova Italia. Spina refuted the lawye r’s theories, relying on the
Bible, the Church Fathers, and the Ma l l e u s
Ponzinibio, Giovanni Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486). In his
Francesco/Gianfrancesco second Ap o l o gy, Spina accused Ponzinibio of being a
(first half of the h e retic, demanding that he renounce his theories and
sixteenth century) that inquisitors burn his treatise. Ne ve rt h e l e s s ,
In his Tractatus subtilis, et elegans, de lamijs, et exc e l l e n- Po n z i n i b i o’s tract was reprinted (by Protestant here t i c s )
tia utriusque iuris ( Subtle and Elegant Treatise on at Fr a n k f u rt in 1592, together with Paolo Gr i l l a n d o’s
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Tractatus de haereticis et sort i l e g i i s (Treatise on He re t i c s in this larger meaning, a witch could refer to any person
and So rc e re r s ) . with specific abilities for casting spells, magical healing,
fortunetelling, or finding lost objects.
DRIES VANYSACKER
See also:FLIGHTOFWITCHES;GRILLANDO,PAULO;INQUISITORIAL The Maleficent Witch
PROCEDURE;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;ROMANLAW;SABBAT;SPINA, From a deep reading of witchcraft trials, two black-and-
BARTOLOMEODELLA.
white opposed categories emerge: the just and the
References and further reading:
wicked, the forces of good who fight against the forces
Bonomo, G. 1959. Caccia alle streghe: La cedenza nelle streghe dal
of evil. Theologians ruminated on the re c i p ro c a l
secolo XIII al XIX, con particolare riferimento all’Italia.Palermo:
necessity of these binary opposites. Tuscan villagers
G.B. Palumbo, pp. 366–373.
expressed such a vision of the world with the oft-
Bosco, Giovanna. 1994. “Giovanni Francesco Ponzinibio
(XV–XVI sec.).” Pp. 120–121 in Bibliotheca Lamiarum: repeated expression, “since I can distinguish the good
Documenti e immagini della stregoneria dal Medioevo all’Età from the evil.” A witch, then, might be seen simply as
Moderna.Ospedaletto: Pacini editore. the personification of a “primary factor” intrinsic to
Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft human nature: the evil. But throughout early modern
in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. Europe, the witch usually remained only a bit player,
Lea, Henry Charles. 1957. Materials Toward a History of not a protagonist. In daily life within the village
Witchcraft.Edited by Arthur C. Howland. 3 vols. NewYork
communities of old Europe, it was generally necessary
and London: Thomas Yoseloff, 1: 377–382.
to coexist with witches, even if sometimes it became
unavoidable to destroy such evil people.
Popular Beliefs in Witches
Appearance, Sex, and Age
Some wicked women. . . believe and profess that, in The nineteenth- and twe n t i e t h - c e n t u ry arc h e t y p a l
the hours of night, they ride upon certain beasts fairy-tale witches were old, female, and ugly. This pic-
with Diana, the goddess of pagans, and an innumer- ture resembled the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
able multitude of women, and in the silence of the stereotype shared by all social classes, although it tend-
night traverse great space of earth, and obey her ed to collapse during the largest witch hunts, whose vic-
commands as of their lady, and are summoned to tims included men, young women, and even child
her service on certain nights. But if only they alone witches. Though this stereotype remained generally
perished in their faithlessness, without drawing many valid in ordinary situations, ugliness should be dis-
other people with them into the destruction of infi- counted from the identikit of a witch; behavior and
d e l i t y, for an innumerable multitude.. . believe this personality were the determining criteria orienting peo-
to be tru t h . . . . (Kors and Peters 2001, 62) ple’s judgment. No wonder that in order to distinguish
witches from harmless neighbors, contemporaries often
With frustration, the Canon Ep i s c o p i (ca. 906) resorted to other devices, like looking for the Devil’s
illustrated the existence of some deep-rooted and mark or using the water ordeal (swimming test).
centuries-old popular beliefs about witches. Time and It remains emphatically true that, so far as we can
again, we must ask some essential questions about determine, most witches we re indeed females beyo n d
witches: Who we re they? What did they look like? childbearing age. As to age, 173 women in a sample of
What we re they supposed to do? Why did people 304 witches from such diverse places as Geneva, Essex,
b e l i e ve in their powers? And, not least, did witches Württemberg, the Department of the Nord in France,
really exist? and Salem we re older than fifty (Levack 1995, 142).
But such statistics must be squared with the important
Definition fact that a good number of people tried as witches had
For most early modern people, a witch was someone been suspected for many years, even decades. As to gen-
who had performed some hostile act. But historians are der, an identikit should not ignore the fact that in many
wary of adopting restrictive definitions that could mis- countries (including Ge r m a n y, the heartland of witch
lead them in understanding the surviving sources. An hunting), men amounted to over 20 percent of accused
analysis of the language used in the trials can take us far witches or that in some places they might even have
because contemporaries often used a term like witch been a majority.
i n t e rchangeably with other dramatis personae.
Specialized practitioners, similar to a sorcerer, a healer, The Making of a Witch
or a soothsayer, acted in opposition to the witch. In this The witch was a social construction, and his or her
broader sense, witch could be extended to almost any identity was the outcome of complex relations with his
operator within a complex ideology that was basically or her social environment. Because historians, inquir-
designed to explain unexpected misfortune. Therefore, ing about the origin of a witch’s evil reputation, usually
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face severe deficiencies in their source materials about (randomly female or male) who were consulted as
the witch’s early life, general explanations can easily c o u n t e rwitches, healers, and diviners. Willem de
become overly schematic. It has been suggested that Bl é c o u rt, adapting the chessboard metaphor fro m
“once we start aggregating, the variables multiply so fast anthropologists, maintained that within the web of
that chaos theory, with its pattern of unpredictability, is relations that regulated communal conflict, if any one
the scientific model which best fits the case” (Briggs piece was separated from the others, its meaning
1996, 53). What can be said about the kinds of people became incomprehensible. Some magical specialists
who were most vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft? performing within the spectacle of witchcraft were also
Meticulous research suggests that most witches cannot called witches, through a process of lexical assimilation
be described as “outsiders,” migrants (such as shep- s h a red by the Roman Inquisition and Pro t e s t a n t
herds), forest dwellers, peddlers, or wandering beggars. authorities. Antiwitch procedures were extremely wide-
Instead, the great majority of suspects were long-term spread but basically uniform throughout Europe, and
neighbors of their accusers, inserted within the they mainly targeted divinatory and curative magic.
dynamics of a village community. The popular belief The counterwitch, as well as the witch, was believed to
that the power of a witch was handed down by blood possess special powers rather than knowledge. Their
from parents to child within certain families did not power was strengthened by a secrecy that their cus-
contradict the assertion that witchcraft was an art that tomers were careful to respect, lest something go wrong
had to be learned. with the counterspell. Because the objects and words
(most often specific prayers) considered to have special
Performances power were practically limitless, customers did not pon-
In a way, witches were performers, and witchcraft was a der much about the meaning of these magical tech-
p e rformance art. Ma l e ficent witches possessed the niques, provided they were effective—and the ubiquity
power to commit a great variety of social crimes; we of countermagic throughout Europe should convince
badly need a comparative profile of these maleficia. historians that such methods frequently worked.
Future research must sort out and analyze basic unifor- White magic certainly remains a demanding topic
mities in order to describe and, if possible, explain the for researchers. The power of the healer was two-edged
huge range of local peculiarities. It appears a thorny and therefore a source of both hope and fear. Although
task to distinguish power on an individual basis a white witch might occasionally have been accused of
(England, Tuscany, Hungary, Scotland) from power on casting spells, this “symbiotic” coexistence between the
a collective basis (mostly Germany and nort h e r n harmless witch and the malefic one hid many pitfalls.
Europe). Witches mostly performed their misdeeds Historians must be wary of being sidetracked by the
against neighbors through the intrinsic powers of their popular contention that those who know how to heal
speech, touch, or gaze. The words spoken by witches— also know how to harm, an idea consequently implying
which in most instances were religious in origin—were that a white witch who failed to perform a re m e d y
perceived as powerful but did not require any special might eventually be suspected of witchcraft.
knowledge or information. Most attacks of witchcraft Un f o rt u n a t e l y, many witchcraft trial depositions
can be summed up as a set of words (often curses) spo- cannot tell us how often accused witches had been
ken in a crisis by someone with a dubious reputation. active healers in their villages or were merely evildoers
In sixteenth-century Lorraine, Jean Regnauldin had compelled to lift spells that they themselves had cast.
earned the enmity of a suspect woman by testifying Moreover, the strong antimagic healing campaign by
against her on a previous occasion, so she uttered both secular and ecclesiastical hierarchies in the late six-
threats against him, wishing that he might have the bar teenth century may have caused an anomalous drift in
of a door across his stomach. That night “something the system. This blurring in the sources could probably
like a person climbed on his bed and grasped him by be reduced by carrying out a closer scrutiny of the rep-
the throat with such force and violence that he thought utation enjoyed by the witch doctor within the com-
he was about to be strangled” (Briggs 2002b, 14). The munity in normal times, uncorrupted by the distorting
nightmare of being attacked in one’s own bed was a m i r ror of witchcraft trials. In truth, cunning men
recurrent feature in witchcraft reports. During the might have been consulted with trepidation, but we re
Basque craze (1609–1614) or in Sweden (1668–1676), they really accused by their neighbors of using their
this phenomenon even took the dimension of a vast p ower maliciously? In the villages of late-sixteenth-
Sabbat-dream epidemic. century Siena, for instance, several female healers gen-
erally considered by their neighbors as godly persons
Coexisting with Witches (s p i r i t u a l e) we re denounced to the inquisitors for magical
Maleficent witches were pivotal constituents of an healing because their customers were refused absolution
ideology that functioned in a symbiosis with other by their confessors for not doing so. But such healers
performers, such as the white witches or “cunning folk” we re never suspected of committing the sort of deeds
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attributed to a neighborhood maleficent witch (strega). natural ability to harm others. On the whole, demonic
And no such ambiguity ever affected the behavior of elements remained marginal at the popular level. Most
Tuscany’s most powerful cunning folk and soothsayers, essential ingredients in the formation of witch beliefs,
all males, who had a regional reputation and were never for example, the English belief that witches kept “famil-
accused of harmful witchcraft. iars” in their houses who sucked their blood or the
Basque belief that such spirits were usually toads, came
Destroying Witches from pagan religion and folklore. Although the role of
In most regions of early-seventeenth-century Europe, imps in continental Europe badly needs research, the
“it was not a meaningless coincidence when a small casebooks of the Oxford physician Richard Napier
child, who had previously been healthy, fell ill and died, point to a widespread notion of imps and spirits,
nor an inexplicable misfortune when a pig began to described as being like mice, cats, dogs, bees, toads, and
sicken” (Henningsen 1980, 30). Such things were so on. Were such ideas part of pre-Christian lore, like
sometimes attributed to an evil acquaintance. But if all weather spirits or forest gods? Napier’s patients often
steps for controlling the witch through ordinary ritual- appear convinced that they embodied both a good spir-
ized procedures failed, the quality of the human village it and an evil spirit. Fairies as well could be either
relationships acquired a dramatic Mozart-like re-major wicked or mischievous people. No doubt, villagers
tonality, as people resolved to charge the witch formally inhabited a mental world where religious rituals coex-
and demand retribution for the harm they had suffered. isted with other important areas of allied beliefs,
including the presence of witches, ghosts, and fairies. It
Accusations from Below was a world lacking homogeneity, even if there were
It is now generally acknowledged that the impulse to probably interconnections of strands of beliefs (Larner
p rosecute maleficent witches usually came from ord i- 2000) that historians can reconstruct only with diffi-
n a ry people. But why we re some misfortunes, such as culty. Beliefs about fairies exemplify this ambivalence:
the sudden death of a baby, explained in personal terms they were liminal creatures, midway between good and
by blaming a neighbor as the perpetrator, and others evil, and had to be treated with caution. Occasionally,
not? The etiology of witchcraft led the victim to locate historians encounter archaic fantastic beliefs revolving
the misfortune in the web of social relations and to around particular people, basically all performing some
p e r s o n a l i ze the re s p o n s i b i l i t y. T h e re f o re, it is hardly sur- form of magical healing, like the Krsniki(Christians) in
prising that the motif of retaliation permeated so many Slovenia, the Benandanti (do-gooders) in Friuli, the
witchcraft trials so deeply, appearing as a coro l l a ry of Nachtscahr (phantoms of the night) in the Bavarian
personalistic thought. Witchcraft accusations should be Alps, the donas de fuera(women from outside) in Sicily,
seen in relation with this particular misfortune syn- or the táltos (shamen) in Hungary. The extravagant
d rome. The patients of the Oxford physician Richard popular perceptions (Behringer 1998) of these healers
Napier rarely accepted chance as a cause of their misfor- might be local variants of a Europe-wide belief in
tune. Would they have accepted the concept of divine fairies. Such archaic survivals include tales of ecstatic
p rovidence proposed by British clerics then, or even a experiences of flight in unconscious states.
c e n t u ry later? Much like in the time of the Ca n o n This enormous variety of European convictions and
Ep i s c o p i , “t h e re is little evidence that popular b e l i e f s magical practices (to which many others could be
changed in response to religious instructions, either added, including such basic notions as cannibalism or
b e f o re or after decriminalisation, and there is much to metamorphoses into animals) certainly pose serious
suggest that they continued in their earlier form. challenges to historical re c o n s t ruction. With curre n t
Indeed, the frequency with which local communities technology, future trends of research can compare thou-
took illegal counter-actions against suspected witches sands of witchcraft trials in order to facilitate a detailed
suggests strongly that popular witch beliefs persisted for morphological analysis of such archaic surv i vals, map-
many generations after the trials had stopped” (Leva c k ping their geographical and chronological variations—
1999, 46). Still, historical re s e a rch struggles discontent- and possibly provide an explanation of their meaning
edly with a lack of consensus about whether or not the for ordinary people. In the eight centuries between the
impulse to prosecute witches also stopped fro m Canon Ep i s c o p i and Vo l t a i re, we re these pre - C h r i s t i a n
b e l ow. notions altered under the pre s s u re of the conquering
medieval and post-Reformation Christianity? We know
Devil Worshipping and that the specific concept of the witches’ Sabbat was
“Allied Beliefs” formed shortly before 1450 in a large Alpine are a ,
Researchers are today in agreement that throughout where such notions were still thriving in the early mod-
Europe, on the Continent as well as in the British Isles, ern period. It remains unclear how far this new
popular classes thought in terms of maleficium(harmful demonological doctrine represented a willful “mistrans-
magic): for them, a witch was someone with the super- lation” and appropriation of popular notions by literate
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clerics and laypeople. But popular beliefs in malevolent Briggs, Robin. 1996. “‘Many Reasons W h y’: Witchcraft and
spirits fitted extremely well with the Christian image of the Problem of Multiple Explanation.” Pp. 49–63 in
demons, and such customs as folk dances played a role Wi t c h c raft in Ea rly Mo d e rn Eu rope: Studies in Cu l t u re
and Be l i e f . Edited by Jonathan Ba r ry, Marianne He s t e r,
in the construction of the Sabbat.
and Ga reth Ro b e rts. Cambridge: Cambridge Un i ve r s i t y
We know that during the heyday of witchcraft trials,
Pre s s .
some important confessions about the nocturnal rides,
———. 2002a. “Shapeshifting, Apparitions, and Fantasy in
pacts with the Devil, the repudiation of Christianity,
Lorraine Witchcraft Trials.” Pp. 1–21 inWerewolves, Witches,
secret nocturnal meetings, desecration of the Eucharist
and Wandering Spirits: Traditional Beliefs and Folklore in Early
and the cru c i fix, sexual orgies—even about sacrific i a l Modern Europe.Edited by Kathryn A. Edwards. Kirksville,
infanticide and cannibalism—we re not made under MO: Truman State University Press.
torture or extreme psychological pressure. How should ———. 2002b.Witches and Neighbours: The Social and Cultural
we interpret such unforced confessions? With hundreds Context of European Witchcraft.2nd ed. Oxford and Malden,
of vo l u n t a ry Basque confessions to explain, Gu s t a v MA: Blackwell.
Henningsen maintained that during a witchcraft trial, Demos, John Putnam. 1982. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and
the Culture of Early New England.Oxford and NewYork:
an accused person not infrequently suffered a reversal of
Oxford University Press.
i d e n t i t y, accepted the negative personality pattern,
Di Simplicio, Os c a r. 2000. Inquisizione, stregoneria, medicina: Si e n a
combined his or her imagination with what he or she
e il suo stato (1580–1721).Monteriggioni (Siena): Il Leccio.
a l ready knew about witches, and fabricated the
Henningsen, Gu s t a v. 1980. The Wi t c h e s’ Ad vocate: Ba s q u e
confession expected of him or her.
Wi t c h c raft and the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n .Reno: Un i versity of
Ne vada Pre s s .
Did Witches Really Exist? ———. 1990. “‘The Ladies from Outside’: An Archaic Pattern of
The horns of this dilemma concern the question of the the Witches’ Sabbat.” Pp. 191–218 in Early Modern European
self-awareness of being a maleficent witch, as well as the Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo
recurring theme of the existence of some sectarian orga- and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
nization practicing the complete inversion of Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Witchcraft in Europe,
400–1700. A Documentary History.Revised by E. Peters. 2nd
Christianity. In the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer
ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
of Witches, 1486), the belief that witches formed a sect
Larner, Christina. 2000. Enemies of God: The Witch Hunt in
with its own rites of initiation and abjuration was
Scotland.2nd ed. Edinburgh: John Donald.
expounded systematically. Despite the earnest insis-
Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
tence of some contemporary Wiccans, the evidence
2nd ed. London and NewYork: Longman.
does not support the widespread contention that the ———. 1999. “The Decline and End of Wi t c h c r a f t
witches of old Europe formed organized groups to per- Prosecutions.” Pp. 1–94 in The Eighteenth and Ni n e t e e n t h
form rituals or for any other purpose. Apart from the Ce n t u r i e s .Vol. 5 of The Athlone Hi s t o ry of Wi t c h c raft and
fact that “witches” did exist as living healers, and apart Magic in Eu rope. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and St u a rt Clark .
from the fact that people “knew” who they were, did London and Philadelphia: Athlone and Un i versity of
the maleficent village neighborhood witch live up to Pe n n s y l vania Pre s s .
Macdonald, Michael. 1981. Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety,
her role? Was she aware, did she internalize such an
and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England.Cambridge:
identity? Keith Thomas suggested that some of them
Cambridge University Press.
used witchcraft to improve their condition when all else
Monter,William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The
had failed; it is also possible that some Scottish suspects
Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY, and London:
of witchcraft “accepted their own reputation and even
Cornell University Press.
found ego-enhancement in the description of a ‘rank Muchembled, Robert. 1990. “Satanic Myths and Cultural
witch’ and the power that this gave them in the Reality.” Pp. 139–160 in Early Modern European Witchcraft:
community” (Larner 2000, 94). Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav
Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon.
OSCAR DI SIMPLICIO
Pócs, Éva. 1999. Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on
See also:CONFESSIONS;COUNTERMAGIC;CUNNINGFOLK; Witches and Seer in the Early Modern Age.Budapest: Central
DEVIL;DIVINATION;FAIRIES;FAMILIARS;GHOSTS;LYCANTHROPY; European University Press.
MAGIC,POPULAR;METAMORPHOSIS;MORAWITCHES; Sharpe, James. 1997. Instrument of Darkness: Witchcraft in
NIGHTMARES;OINTMENTS;PEOPLEOFTHENIGHT; England, 1550–1750.Harmondsworth: Penguin.
PERSONALITYOFWITCHES;RURALWITCHCRAFT;SABBAT; Thomas, Keith. 1973. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in
SORCERY;VAMPIRE;VISION;WITCHANDWITCHCRAFT, Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England.
DEFINITIONSOF;WORDS,POWEROF. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
References and further reading: Trevor-Roper, H.R. 1967. “The European Witch-Craze of the
Behringer,Wolfgang. 1998. Shaman of Oberstdorf: Conrad Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” Pp. 90–192 in Religion,
Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night.Charlottesville: the Reformation, and Social Change.By Hugh Trevor-Roper.
University Press of Virginia. London: Macmillan.
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Popular Persecution demand for action against suspects. It was most desir-
The term popular witch persecutionsdemands precision. able to make the authorities not only start inquiries but
Given the widespread belief in the malevolent character also transform the charges into ex officio a c c u s a t i o n s
and power of witches in Latin Christianity, it seems (magisterial approach). Pr i vate accusers could thus
almost trivial to conclude that persecutions, especially avoid the responsibility of paying for any financial and
in times of crisis and disorder, were profoundly popu- physical damage if the accused was found innocent.
lar. Similarly, it is plain that governmental judicial Howe ve r, especially in territories of medium size, the
action against witches relied on this popularity to pro- authorities, though basically willing to support
duce evidence supporting specific accusations, apart inquiries, pre f e r red to keep such accusations priva t e ,
from the rather unusual self-propelling persecutions, with all financial risks remaining fully on the original
based primarily or exclusively on evidence produced by accuser. Such considerations could deter accusers from
torture (as, for example, around 1627 at Bamberg and pursuing further action until the community assumed
Würzburg in Franconia), in which the confession of full judicial and financial responsibility.
alleged “accomplices” sufficed to nurture further trials. Partly because of such peculiar problems and partly
But German witchcraft trials usually had a social because of the scope of action the population demand-
basis and responded to popular demands. Due to their ed, witch hunts often started only after subjects and
preoccupation with judicial procedures, older historical communities had delive red formal addresses to the
p e r s p e c t i ves and especially traditional legal history authorities. Thus, in 1598, the jurors of the county of
disregarded such social contexts. But even witch hunts Vaduz (modern Lichtenstein) demanded a public
s t a rted by the authorities with so-called general audience day to present their charges against specific
inquisitions only re a c t e d to rumor and unrest among persons. While getting official approval for persecu-
their subjects, who already knew which suspects should tions, such meetings and petitions also arranged the
be accused, condemned, and burned. With the ove r- terms to fit popular interests: complete competence to
whelming evidence produced by social historical local officials without central supervision, extensive use
research since the 1970s and the corresponding shift in of torture to speed up procedures and minimize the risk
perspective, one cannot seriously maintain the simplis- of liberating prisoners, and generous confis c a t i o n
tic notion that witch hunting proceeded essentially standards to avoid having communities pay the sizable
from “above” (Horsley 1979). Regardless of their mode costs of such operations.
of introduction (whether by private accusation or In pursuing these ends, interested groups (e.g., par-
o f ficial inquisition), witchcraft trials relied upon a ents of bewitched children in Swedish Mora, prov i n c i a l
b road variety of popular incentives. Leaving aside the estates in Vaduz or Jülich-Berg, and whole village
role of propaganda (invariably from elite culture ) , communities in several parts of the Holy Ro m a n
persecutions always combined pressure from below and Em p i re) confronted magistrates and rulers with their
(re)action from above. demands. To ove rcome governmental or magisterial
The question, then, is, what qualified a witch hunt as resistance, proponents drew extensively on Christian
“popular” in terms of active participation and not only discourse (e.g., re f e rences to Exod. 22:18 [22:17]),
in terms of attitudes? What were the features of popular reminding authorities of their duties before Go d ,
p a rticipation, apart from furnishing the authorities t h reatening divine wrath, and painting terrible scenes
with accusations and evidence? How can we assess the of the consequences of the witches’ reign. Po l i t i c a l
relationship between subjects and authorities, once the p re s s u re also played a role: subjects threatened to with-
latter gave way to the demands of the former, and, fin a l l y, draw their oath of loy a l t y, and peasants thre a t e n e d
what was the impact of such cooperation on the trials? emigration (Scotland, the electorate of Trier) if the tri-
als they demanded we re not granted. Mo re subtle
Levels, Structures, Patterns strategies presented such demands on occasions of rais-
Long before formal charges were presented, popular ing taxes or addressed princes by emphasizing the
action against witches started with socially ritualized e f f o rts in neighboring territories, thus exploiting polit-
strategies of reconciliation or countermagic, which ical and confessional riva l ry. If local officials support e d
frequently involved a specialist. If such actions failed princely objections against unrestricted persecutions,
and formal appeal to the authorities was impossible, physical action re i n f o rced verbal efforts: complaints
such forms of self-help as beating or even lynching about “hard pre s s i n g” from subjects often appeared in
could be practiced. Continuous protests over years, re p o rts about such situations, although they also
p a rticularly public scolding, seem to have been s e rved to justify local officials in doing what they
frequently practiced. wanted anyway.
When seeking aid from official justice instead of mil- In several western regions of the Holy Ro m a n
itant self-help, individuals approached a local court or a Em p i re, including the southern Netherlands, popular
local official with specific charges or at least a general p romotion of witch hunts went as far as cre a t i n g
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communal committees. Formally and legally, they act- magistrates and minor lords we re important allies as
ed as a collective accuser, financially backed by the well. Political reasons sometimes induced magistrates to
c o m m u n i t y, thus relieving individual accusers fro m start witch hunts to appease the population (for exam-
the responsibility of paying the costs in case trials end- ple, in Reutlingen and Lemgo), whereas minor lord s
ed without condemnation. In practice, these commit- re a l i zed that supporting popular demands for trials
tees did much more than present formal charges to could help to defend or even extend their judicial rights
c o u rts or officials: their members collected evidence, against the territorial princes’ desire for gove r n m e n t a l
h i red notaries and lawyers, arranged for hearing wit- centralism. Not surprisingly, therefore, popular pressure
nesses, and even arrested and guarded the accused was rarely directed against feudal lords. Such alliances
t h e m s e l ves. They exploited such functions to the b e t ween parts of the population and local authorities
point of continuing formal interrogations with their c reated a type of unauthorized and technically illegal
own methods, thus ensuring a high degree of success. trials (Voltmer 2002; Kamen 1993).
Fi n a l l y, the committees organized executions and Judicial localism did not interf e re with inquisitorial
accounted for all costs. p ro c e d u re. On the contrary, the latter actually furt h e re d
These committees represented the triumph of popu- social participation by using social evidence (e.g., testi-
lar witch hunting. In certain regions of the electorate of monies about a suspect’s reputation) in witchcraft trials.
Trier and in the nearby duchy of Luxembourg, they also Howe ve r, when localities successfully avoided the
p roduced numerous “u n a u t h o r i ze d” trials, coming re q u i rements of imperial law and allowed local court s
close to legalized lynching and social tyranny. But even and village jurors to exe rcise their traditional rights and
when they were subjected to governmental control, the customs, popular input on the trials incre a s e d .
close alliance between village committees and local Judicial localism pre vailed in most Eu ropean states
authorities guaranteed that the former had the final say: (for example, Poland), where we know of intense pop-
these committees of peasants, through continuous ular influence on persecutions. It there f o re seems to
abuses of power and massive social support, determined h a ve been an essential pre requisite to fulfill what at
who was to be accused. In rare cases, some victims least part of the population wanted. Howe ve r, we
obtained re venge (their justice), either by themselve s should not overlook the dissenting minorities, which
denouncing their opponents as alleged accomplices or for obvious reasons had to disguise themselves behind
by their families demanding a similar fate for other silence. Much scandal was re q u i red, often bloodshed,
members of the community through a simple but con- b e f o re governmental interest in local affairs encour-
clusive analogy. aged those groups to express their opinions, thus
This picture would be incomplete without consider- re vealing that “p o p u l a r” persecutions we re almost
ing the contribution made by instigators fueling popu- n e ver unanimously popular.
lar fears about witches. Government ordinances trying
WALTER RUMMEL
to calm popular temper for reasons of political expedi-
ency we re quick to denounce the “restless subjects” See also:ACCUSATIONS;BUIRMANN,FRANZ;COMMUNAL
responsible for such disorder. But members of elite cul- PERSECUTION;CONFESSIONS;COUNTERMAGIC;HOLYROMAN
t u re, like local priests (for example, in Cambrésis or EMPIRE;HOPKINS,MATTHEW;LYNCHING;MÖDEN,JOHANN;
Luxembourg) or preachers, sometimes assumed the role POPULARBELIEFSINWITCHES;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;STEARNE,JOHN;
of instigators as well. In major western monarc h i e s ,
WITCHFINDERS;WITCHHUNTS.
References and further reading:
which never tolerated such village committees, trave l-
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and
ing witch finders made a temporary career of promot-
Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. 2nd ed. Oxford:
ing and organizing real campaigns in villages and
Blackwell.
regions (Essex, Languedoc, Catalonia), drawing heavily
Dillinger, Johannes, Thomas Fritz, and Wolfgang Mährle. 1998.
on popular support. The Jesuit Friedrich Spee eve n Hexenverfolgungen in der Grafschaft Hohenberg, der Reichsstadt
reported entrepreneurial witch hunters in the electorate Reutlingen und der Fürstprobstei Ellwangen.Stuttgart: Steiner.
of Cologne who sent subordinates to villages stirring up Horsley, Richard. 1979. “Who Were the Witches? The Social
peasant support for persecutions, so that their master’s Roles of the Accused in the European Witch Trials.” Journal of
“a c c i d e n t a l” arrival there sufficed to start trials. Interdisciplinary History9: 689–715.
Ne ve rtheless, the role of such fig u res should not be Kamen, Henry. 1993. The Phoenix and the Flame: Catalonia and
the Counter Reformation.New Haven: Yale University Press.
exaggerated: English villagers had less need of Matthew
Levack, Brian P. 1984. “The Great Scottish Witch Hunt of
Hopkins than he had of them.
1661–1662.” Journal of BritishStudies20: 90–108.
The range and success of popular persecutions
———. 1987. The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe.London:
demonstrated how local conditions could override gov-
Longman.
ernmental policies. Hence, the crucial importance of
Rummel, Walter. 1991. Bauern, Herren, und Hexen. Studien zur
local officials, notaries, and clerks, who protected com- Sozialgeschichte sponheimischer und kurtrierischer Hexenprozesse
mittees against critical supervision from above. Tow n 1574–1664.Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
918 Popular Persecution |
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———. 2003. “Das ‘ungestüme Umherlaufen’ der Untertanen: In Po rtugal, forms of superstition we re treated as
Zum Verhältnis von religiöser Ideologie, sozialem Interesse und crimes mixti fori (of mixed courts). In other word s ,
Staatsräson in den Hexenverfolgungen im Rheinland.” those who practiced such superstitions could be prose-
Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter67: 121–161.
cuted by the crown courts, by ecclesiastical courts, and,
Schormann, Gerhard. 1981. Hexenprozesse in Deutschland.
f rom 1536, by the Inquisition. Crimes of heresy we re
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck.
reserved for the latter.
Tschaikner, Manfred. 1990. “Hexenverfolgungen in Dornbirn.”
The earliest legislation for this type of crime was
Dornbirner Schriften Schriften:3–79.
ecclesiastical. The Braga Synod of 1281 prohibited div-
Voltmer, Rita. 2002. “Monopole, Ausschüsse, Formalparteien:
Vorbereitung, Finanzierung und Manipulation von ination or any other “deeds of magic.” In fact, episcopal
Hexenprozessen durch private Klagekonsortien.” Pp. 5–67 in surveillance was maintained throughout the fourteenth
Hexenprozesseund Gerichtspraxis.Edited by Herbert Eiden and and fifteenth centuries, as can be seen in provisions of
Rita Voltmer.Trier: Spee. the Lisbon and Braga Synods of 1393 and 1439,
Walz, Rainer. 1993. Hexenglaube und magische Kommunikation im re s p e c t i ve l y. Episcopal legislation increased after the
Dorf der frühen Neuzeit: Die Verfolgungen in der Grafschaft beginning of the sixteenth century; diocesan constitu-
Lippe.Paderborn: Schöningh.
tions introduced specific sections on how to deal with
Wilbertz, Gisela, Gerd Schwerhoff, and Jürgen Scheffler, eds.
the problem of “superstitions,” especially forbidding
1994. Hexenverfolgung und Regionalgeschichte-Die Grafschaft
divination. Convicted magicians we re exc o m m u n i c a t-
Lippe im Vergleich.Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte.
ed, as they had been in the Middle Ages. Nonetheless,
during the sixteenth century, these constitutions
Portugal referred only briefly to crimes of superstition. The use
Portugal was a country without “witch hunts.” It expe- of holy objects in witchcraft, invocation of evil spirits,
rienced thousands of recorded witchcraft accusations, divination, and magical healing practices we re forbid-
much surveillance by judicial authorities, and consider- den, but the sentences proposed we re lighter than in
able repression, but there was no “witch hunting.” p revious royal legislation. By the seventeenth century,
Although various tribunals (secular, episcopal, and, the list of forbidden practices was extended and the
after 1536, the Inquisition) prosecuted seve r a l degree of seriousness attributed to them increased. (The
thousand people, only around ten cases of capital pun- first constitutions regulating such practices came fro m
ishment are known between the mid-sixteenth century the diocese of Gu a rda, printed in 1621.) Mo n e t a ry
and the end of the eighteenth century. Most sentences fines, imprisonment, and exile were some of the means
involved exile, confinement, fines, and shaming rituals at the disposal of the ecclesiastical judges ruling on
(e.g., public exposure at church doors or wearing dis- these cases.
tinct clothing). In other words, repression was not Crown competence over illicit magical practices
harsh. Hence, in the early modern period, Portugal began with legislation in the reign of King João I; his
avoided the witch panics and fears that afflicted many royal edict of November 1385 forbade a series of prac-
other parts of Europe. Most Portuguese victims were tices, including pacts with the Devil, charms, and div-
healers and sorcerers who practiced love magic or div- ination, all punishable by exile. Afterward, all the king-
ination, not women accused of going to Sabbats or d o m’s law compilations included provisions on this
bringing death or illness to their neighbors. On the m a t t e r. The Ordenações Afonsinas (issued by Afonso V
other hand, judicial prosecution reached its peak here in 1446) suggested capital punishment for those prac-
in the first half of the eighteenth century, at a moment ticing witchcraft, with lesser sentences for divination
when persecution had practically ended in the places and other forms of superstition. The Ord e n a ç õ e s
where witch hunts had been most violent. Manuelinas (issued by Manuel I in 1512) added more
A number of factors combined to produce such an detailed descriptions of the condemned practices and
unusually mild degree of re p ression: first, the education c l a s s i fied punishable crimes into four levels. The fir s t
re c e i ved by Po rtuguese elites at Coimbra Un i ve r s i t y, included the most serious crimes, such as using holy
with its strongly neo-Scholastic Thomist basis; second, a objects for purposes of illegal magic, invoking evil spir-
united, prestigious, and powe rful Po rtuguese Churc h , its, or performing love magic, all of which deserved cap-
undisturbed by the Protestant Reformation; third, the ital punishment. The second encompassed divination,
C h u rc h’s patient Christianization of rural Po rt u g a l as well as possessing objects linked to the world of the
t h roughout the early modern era; fourth, a we l l - dead and using them to harm others; such offenses were
established anti-Jewish tradition throughout Po rt u g u e s e punishable by exile, branding on the face by hot irons,
s o c i e t y, which concentrated the In q u i s i t i o n’s attention and monetary fines. The third group cove red healing
on combating cry p t o - Jewish conve rts; and, fin a l l y, the practices, and the fourth forbade healing or blessing
s p e c i ficity of Po rtuguese judicial pro c e d u re, namely, the animals without possessing a special license from the
absence of any attempt to treat witchcraft as an king or the bishops. Such minor cases were punishable
“e xc e p t e d” crime (crimen exc e p t u m) . by monetary fines and exile, depending on the accused
Portugal 919 |
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p e r s o n’s social condition. Ma n u e l’s code completed death: a man at Évora in 1626, a woman at Coimbra in
Portugal’s secular legal framework for these crimes; the 1694, another man at Lisbon in 1735, and another
Ordenações Filipinas, issued in 1603 by Filipe II (Philip woman at Évora in 1744.
III of Spain), added nothing new. The first half of the eighteenth century marked the
The In q u i s i t i o n’s ordinances (Re g i m e n t o s) defin i n g summit of repression in Portugal, as the number of cas-
the extent of its justice did not originally cover such es prosecuted both by episcopal justice and the
matters. The first to do so were the ordinances of 1640, Inquisition increased greatly, especially the persecution
although there were some earlier letters from Portugal’s of healers. At this time, Christianization campaigns
inquisitor-general, Cardinal Henrique, which included condemned practices and beliefs that we re widely dis-
provisions about divination. The 1640 ordinances for- seminated among the Portuguese; but they were carried
bade witchcraft, divination, and superstition whenever out with much patience, seldom employing violent
diabolical machination was presumed to exist. In case measures.
of a relapse, capital punishment was foreseen, always to
JOSÉ PEDRO PAIVA
be executed by royal courts. Less serious crimes we re
punishable by exile, prison, whippings, and defama- See also: BEWITCHMENT;BRAZIL;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;
tion. In 1774 Portugal’s last Inquisition ordinance was CRIMENEXCEPTUM;CUNNINGFOLK;DIVINATION;
published, marking the end of state repression of magic
GEOGRAPHYOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;INQUISITION,PORTUGUESE;
and superstitious deeds by envisaging them as
LOVEMAGIC;SUPERSTITION;WITCHHUNTS.
References and further reading:
“idealistic and fantastical crimes” and declaring their
Bethencourt, Francisco. 1987. O Imaginário da magia: Feiticeiras,
perpetrators “impostors” who needed to be reeducated.
saludadores e nigromantes no século XVI.Lisbon: Projecto
However, this legal framework tells us nothing about
Universidade Aberta.
how royal or inquisitorial prosecutions were carried out ———. 1990. “Portugal: A Scrupulous Inquisition.”Pp. 403–422
in practical terms. Little is known about practices of in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.
royal justice, because all original documentation has Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford:
been lost. We know that several kings (Duarte, Afonso Clarendon.
V, João II, João III, and Sebastião) issued letters of ———. 1994. “Un univers saturé de magie: L’Europe mérid-
p a rdon to witches prosecuted by royal courts. Ot h e r ionale.” Pp. 159–194 inMagie et sorcellerie en Europe du Moyen
Age à nos jours.Edited by Robert Muchembled. Paris: Armand
documents reported royal investigations of the practice
Colin.
of such crimes and told us of witches in crown prisons,
Paiva, José Pedro. 1992. Práticas e crenças mágicas: O medo e a
but none bore specific information about such actions.
necessidade dos mágicos na diocese de Coimbra (1650–1740).
Howe ve r, one extremely violent episode of re p re s s i o n
Coimbra: Livraria Minerva.
against witches was carried out by a royal court: in
———. 1997. Bruxaria e superstição num país sem “caça ás
1559, a trial ord e red by the duke of Ave i ro’s judge bruxas.”Lisbon: Editorial Notícias.
sentenced six women to the stake in Lisbon. It was Ribeiro, Márcia Moisés. 2003. Exorcistas e demônios: demonologia e
f o l l owed by an official inquiry in the Lisbon are a , exorcismos no mondo luso-brasileiro.Rio di Janeiro: Campus.
o rd e red by the Qu e e n - Regent Catalina, which subse- Souza, Laura de Mello. 1993. Inferno atlântico: Demonologia e colo-
quently resulted in another execution. That was as close nização séculos XVI–XVIII.São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
as Portugal ever came to a witch hunt. ———. 1993. “Autour d’une ellipse: Le Sabbat dans le monde
luso-brésilien de l’Ancien Régime.” Pp. 331–343in Le Sabbat
The actions of Po rt u g a l’s ecclesiastical courts are
des sorciers (XV–XVIII siècles).Edited by Nicole Jacques-
better known. Both bishops in their dioceses, mainly
Chaquin and Maxime Préaud. Grenoble: Millon.
during their pastoral visits, and the Inquisition through
the prosecution of the practitioners of such deeds left
copious traces of their intervention (the In q u i s i t i o n’s Possession, Demonic
first trials against sorcerers were held in 1541). As far as The western Christian tradition shares with many other
the number of prosecutions is concerned, bishops were religions a belief that evil spirits can inhabit the body,
a p p a rently much more active: between the sixteenth causing dramatic physical and behavioral changes.
and eighteenth centuries, several thousand individuals Possession is sometimes said to be caused by witchcraft
were prosecuted. In the diocese of Coimbra, our best- or a curse; at other times, its agonies are seen as God’s
k n own example, around 2,000 cases we re denounced punishment of a person’s own sin. Devils can also pos-
during the bishop’s visits between 1640 and 1770. sess a person spontaneously, with God’s permission. In
Although it investigated many fewer cases, the Ho l y early modern Eu rope, the diagnosis of possession
Office’s treatment of these crimes was far more severe. o c c u r red on its largest scale in Christian history.
Nonetheless, of the 912 cases brought before its thre e Alleged witches were executed for causing possession,
c o u rts between 1540 and 1774 (370 at the Coimbra and some demoniacs assumed the role of oracles, as
tribunal, 288 at Lisbon, and 254 at Évora), only four their “demons” discoursed on religious controversies or
were “released to the secular arm,” that is, sentenced to foretold the future.
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Symptoms of Possession raises complex and ultimately unsolvable questions
Most theologians agree that possession is a condition of about the limits of retrospective diagnosis. Suggestions
the body manipulated by demons, not of the soul. that apparent possession might be caused by food poi-
Symptoms of demonic possession in the New soning do not stand up to critical scru t i n y. In the last
Testament have influenced understandings of the phe- analysis, possession remains for Christians a spiritual
nomenon throughout Christian history: they include affliction that can only be legitimated through clerical
loss of sight (Matt. 12:22), hearing (Mark 9:25), or diagnosis and cannot therefore be reduced to the spiri-
speech (Mark 9:17, 25–29; Matt. 12:22); superhuman tual equivalent of some biologically identifiable disease.
strength (Luke 8:29; Mark 5:3–4); mania or suicidal R a t h e r, its epidemiology in any given era is related to
tendencies (Mark 9:17–22); and falling “as if dead” the significance attached to its perc e i ved causes and
(Mark 9:26–27). Beyond biblical precedents, criteria claimed cures.
for diagnoses of possession have derived from an accu-
mulation of authorities: Francesco Gu a z zo’s Reasons and Causes
Compendium Maleficarum (A Summary of Witches, Christian belief holds that, with God’s permission, pos-
1608) listed around fifty possible signs of possession, session can occur when a demon or demons enter the
including speaking in languages unknown to the body of a person made vulnerable through her or his
s u f f e re r, grotesque bodily distortions, and strange own sin; when demons are sent by outsiders, notably
movements under the skin. For the female possessed, witches; or when demons attack human beings of their
symptoms of the Devil’s presence have been seen in the own accord to spread their malice. Whatever its precip-
light of assumptions about natural female capacities itating cause, a diagnosis of possession is usually record-
and limitations: uncanny strength, knowledge of theol- ed for some exemplary purpose, as a medium of divine
ogy or foreign languages, talking in a “manly” voice, instruction. For example, possession fulfils the purpose
blaspheming, or a fondness for drinking songs are all of exposing the sin of witchcraft; it can be a torment
recorded as typical symptoms of diabolic activity in sent to test the faithful or punish sin; or a successful
women. Revulsion in the face of Christian symbols or exorcism can show the Devil’s fear of the Christian
rituals has often been depicted as decisive evidence that deity. All these causes share the notion that God “uses
demons, not a natural ailment, are the cause of the the powers of evil to promote His own wise and myste-
p e r s o n’s condition. In the early modern period, rious purposes” (“Demonic Possession,” Ca t h o l i c
naturalist explanations maintained that all signs of Encyclopedia). In Christian history, therefore, possible
possession, however strange, could have physical causes public responses to possession, especially in the form of
such as melancholy or “the mother” (hysteria). Indeed, exorcism, have mattered almost as much as the reasons
the Catholic Church traditionally advised clerics to for its diagnosis.
consider medical explanations of apparent possession to Jesus’s exorcisms served publicly to prove his divinity,
prevent frivolous or fruitless exorcisms. Historically, and gospel accounts do not dwell on the moral condi-
almost all mysterious or spectacular conditions, espe- tion of the possessed. New Testament demoniacs were
cially those with a mental or behavioral aspect or those not generally represented as suffering for their or others’
that follow an unpredictable course, have at some time sins: they were simply victims of “unclean spirits.” Nor
been seen as signs of possession. were possessing demons yet assimilated with the image
However, we cannot assume that everyone diagnosed of the Devil as the He b rew Bi b l e’s adve r s a ry of Go d :
as possessed really did present with those symptoms or they we re still incursions from a morally ambiguous
traits that were recorded as decisive. Aside from the fact spirit world, which could only be influenced by spiritu-
that many accredited symptoms of possession seem ally gifted people. T h rough the mouths of biblical
implausible to most modern readers, historical actors demoniacs, “d e v i l s” gave reluctant testimony of Je s u s’s
have often “seen” possession for quite specific, if uncon- divinity (Matt. 8:29; Ma rk 1:24–25; Ma rk 5:7; Lu k e
scious, reasons. By the time we reach surviving accounts 4:34, 41; Luke 8:28). These examples and the story of
of diagnosed demoniacs, their condition has usually the girl possessed of a “spirit of divination” (Ac t s
progressed from an amorphous collection of physiolog- 16:16–18), have underscored the historical notion that
ical and psychological disturbances to a neatly catego- the possessed are granted special insight, including an
rized set of responses to preselected criteria, designed to understanding of holy mysteries. Because John 8:44
help clerics and physicians decide what to do with them refers to the Devil as the “Father of Lies,” howe ve r,
and who should treat them. theological commentators have generally argued that,
Many of those diagnosed as possessed were probably although devils may sometimes speak the truth, they
suffering from something, if only a kind of delirium. A will also “mix honey with poison,” adding evil
modern association of possession with different forms fabrications to lead the faithful astray.
of mental illness, such as posttraumatic conditions, In antiquity, possession and exorcism contributed to
does not seem out of order; but for historical cases, it the spread of Christian cults. Many early Christian
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p ro s e l y t i zers undertook exo rcisms to demonstrate the Possession affected individual adults and children. It
special claims of the new religion, and the behavior of o c c u r red among sexually mixed groups of all ages, as
some demoniacs was a litmus test for the authenticity of well as in female convents. Some individual demoniacs
holy relics. The primary function of these “s e i s m o- claimed attention through dramatic public exo rc i s m s ,
graphs of sanctity” (Brown 1977, 13) was not to be making scandalous witchcraft accusations or prophesy-
healed by exo rcists; rather, their “d e v i l s” might be ing. Catholics used exo rcism most extensively; but
almost permanent fix t u res at new holy sites, there to w i d e s p read anxieties about the encroachments of the
proclaim wildly the invisible potency of an apparently Devil in the world and the peerless example of Je s u s’s
mundane object, such as a saint’s bone or garment. own exorcisms meant that even those churches follow-
In the context of Christian mart y rdom, possession ing strictly biblical precedents might legitimately
offers the opportunity to display a martyr’s willingness employ exorcism as a form of proselytism. A conserva-
to endure the De v i l’s tort u re from within. Hi s t o r i c a l tive estimate, based on published sources alone, would
accounts sometimes parallel possession with the tor- suggest that several hundred cases of possession we re
ments of St. Anthony or even Job, who were not pos- diagnosed, involving hundreds of exo rcists to re m e d y
sessed but whom demons tormented to test their faith. them, with many thousands of people witnessing major
Possession in this sense overlaps with o b s e s s i o n , a term public exorcisms.
that usually meant torment by devils from the outside Although our knowledge of publicized cases tells us
but that is also used interchangeably with (or even, in about the uses of possession for those who we re not
many Latin texts, instead of) possession. possessed—exorcists and their public—the experiences
By the later Middle Ages, possession was increasingly of the possessed themselves are of primary importance.
understood as something suffered either as punishment It is hard to say why so many people in this era experi-
for one’s own sins or as the consequence of another’s enced what came to be seen as possession: even now,
sins. Early modern commentators listed as typical caus- explanations of psychosomatic afflictions are rarely sim-
es of possession such sins as infidelity, the use of magic, ple, and the geographical diversity and multiple forms
contempt for religion, and causing harm to others. of possession in this period make conclusive analysis
Pa rents cursing children was also cited as a common especially difficult. At a time of such turbulent change,
cause. The fact that possession could be punishment for any number of circumstances could have induced re a l
using magic, howe ve r, alerts us to the possibility that p s ychological discomfort, especially among socially
witches themselves might be seen as possessed, eve n marginal fig u res. In this re g a rd, the story of Fr a n ç o i s e
though they were also believed capable of causing pos- Fontaine, whose first signs of possession appeared after
session in innocent victims. The moral position of the royal soldiers raped her during the French re l i g i o u s
possessed, whether victims or sinners, is rarely clear: wars, may stand for many. Pu b l i c i zed possessions also
their standing depends on the significance God assigns appear to have fed an unconscious awareness of the pos-
to their possession; so possession in Christianity has sibility of becoming possessed oneself. Critics of posses-
more than one potential meaning or function. sions leveled charges of “c o p yc a t” displays, and
although the causes of outbreaks we re doubtless more
Early Modern Possession complex, knowledge of role models cannot be dis-
The early modern era has been called the “golden age of counted as an influence.
the demoniac” (Monter 1976, 60). Although a vast “hin-
t e r l a n d” of possession (Clark 1997, 390) apparently exist- Witchcraft
ed throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, what was From the late fourteenth century, campaigns against
d i s t i n c t i ve about this period is the simultaneous pro l i f e r- alleged superstition led to a growing “demonization” of
ation of many different forms of possession, interpre t e d popular healing methods, with several apparent impli-
and exploited for a wide range of purposes. Po s s e s s i o n cations for the history of possession. The clerical view
o c c u r red across Eu rope and in its colonies, among mem- that local healers might be guilty of witchcraft appears
bers of the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed churc h e s . to have encouraged local people to seek help from
The rise in publicized possessions intersected with seve r a l priests. Villagers also appear to have become more
social phenomena, including local campaigns against inclined to see witchcraft and demons in otherwise
so-called superstition, fear of witchcraft and the occur- inexplicable diseases, in many cases pointing to a diag-
rence of witch hunts, interconfessional conflict, height- nosis of possession. The notion that a witch had to be
ened anxiety about the end of the world, a rise in public identified before bewitchment of any kind could be
p rophesying, and the pursuit of holiness through dire c t cured fed into this impulse. Priests influenced by
divine inspiration. In this era, all these phenomena— demonology also appear to have been more interven-
none of which was entirely new — we re inflected by an tionist in diagnosing possession. For example, in 1565,
intense fear of demons: in combination, they helped gen- Nicole Ob ry’s family originally accepted her self-
erate a virtual epidemic of possession. diagnosis that the spirit of her dead grandfather
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possessed her and used such remedies as holy water and high-profile public issue. The possessed, successfully
pilgrimages to help her. Only when a Dominican exorcised, took a prominent role in trying to convince
diagnosed the presence of a demon and proceeded to audiences of the rightness of one church or another:
public exorcism did her story reach beyond her village. marginalized Jesuits and Puritans in England used the
In the late sixteenth century, the wide dissemination of possessed to show God’s favor, and Catholic zealots on
exorcism manuals among senior and junior clergy alike the Continent mobilized the possessed against
probably contributed to a wider diagnosis of possession Protestant and Catholic doubters alike. The logic of
at the local level. asking demons to defend a claim of divine favor was
Most people believed that devils could enter one’s shaky, but the very paradox of “devils” being forced to
body and that witches could make this happen. acknowledge the power of God acting through a par-
Although some critics doubted that witches could send ticular cleric or church made these performances con-
devils into other people, arguing that this attributed too vincing to many observers. (The risks to credibility
much power to witches, Jean Bodin argued that it was were obvious, however, even to broadly sympathetic
possible, with God’s permission. (Bodin 1580, fol. 76r v i ewers. When an exo rcist in the Catholic Low
and 160v). In cases of possession, witchcraft now Countries ordered a devil to admit that the Catholic
became by far the most common diagnosed cause. Church was the true church, another Catholic critic
Contemporary commentators noted the phenomenon: wrote that “if the bedevilled had said the contrary, they
Father Ge r a rd Grudius, describing the exo rcisms he would have made a marvellous parade of it” [Lottin
performed at Annonay in 1581, remarked “It is a great 1985, 129–130]). The displays of demoniacs also
pity to see today that witches have such power, which is appeared to many as clear signs of the advent of the
a bad sign” (quoted in Benedicti 1611, 70). Another Antichrist, a harbinger of the Last Days, with posses-
e xo rcist at Loudun wrote in 1634: “In these unfort u- sion offering significant evidence of Satan’s malice
nate times we see that most possessions occur through loosed on the world (Clark, 1997, part III).
malefice, God permitting that demons afflict the bodies Each exo rcist relied on the possessed to exhibit
of the most innocent through the intervention of enough demonic revulsion and torment to prove his
witches and magicians” (Tranquille 1634, 68.) charismatic power to confront the Devil. Sy m b i o t i c
Rather than simply expelling demons, clerics used relationships developed between the possessed and
e xo rcism in witchcraft show-trials to elicit information exorcists, who exhibited what psychologists call “code-
f rom the “p o s s e s s i n g” devils. The Roman Ritual of 1614, p e n d e n c y” and possibly a degree of mutual exploita-
published in part to curb such excesses, nonetheless tion. Skeptics, voicing opinions heard since antiquity,
explicitly permitted interrogation of the possessed, since c o m p a red their public displays to traveling shows or
the more one learned about the De v i l’s modus operandi, bear baiting and made accusations of sexual liaisons
the easier it became to expel him. Exo rcists stretched this b e t ween female possessed and their exo rcists. T h e
concession by continually asking “d e m o n s” for testimony demoniacs were often socially marginal figures—young
about the source of their victim’s affliction. Because this women and youths—but they rarely came from the
a p p a rent solicitation of the Devil offended some ve ry lowest social strata and usually enjoyed at least
o b s e rvers, exo rcists re i n f o rced demonic testimony with minimal support among the elite. The possessed in six-
evidence from the possessed, speaking “as themselve s” teenth-century Augsburg, for example, included maids
b e t ween bouts of demonic activity. Thus, the scriptural of elite families, whose exo rcisms demonstrated the
example of devils correctly identifying Jesus together power of Catholic ritual in a confessionally divided city
with the perva s i ve Renaissance idea of the Devil as a (Roper 1994).
natural magician who could do, see, and know beyo n d
human capacities served as counterweights to fears of Possession and Spirituality
demons telling lies. In several notorious cases, mainly in Eu ropean Catholicism underwent a major spiritual
France, the “d e v i l s” of the possessed told about the re v i val in the early modern period, with a rising cult of
location of magic charms, which they said had to be so-called living saints, charismatic fig u res who became a
found before they would leave the bodies of their focus of veneration. Such people had characteristics in
victims. Such exo rcisms sometimes lasted for months or common with the possessed: possession was seen as a
e ven years, as “d e v i l s” postponed their depart u re dates. phenomenon akin to ecstasy, characterized by trance
Thus, possession became a virtual profession for some, states and a capacity to expose otherwise inaccessible
physically draining and frequently coerc e d . k n owledge, such as news from purgatory or other
p e o p l e’s hidden sins and private thoughts. Insofar as
Possession and Propaganda such displays by the possessed we re deemed licit, these
The premium on signs of direct divine action and people functioned as a type of church-sanctioned witch,
intense rivalry between Christian churches in this in a time when traditional witches we re being persecut-
period enabled exorcists to make demonic possession a ed. Indeed, the possibility of witchcraft accusations
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against the possessed (and ecstatics) was eve r - p re s e n t . clerics was interpreted as collusion. Nor did those seen as
And although demonic possession offered some of these possessed always embrace the diagnosis: Louise Capeau at
people, mostly women, an opportunity to display Go d’s Aix protested that she was not possessed, and the duke of
f a vor through their visible capacity to suffer, a sense of J ü l i c h - C l e ves was a unique case of a major ruler who
taint surrounded possession. Ecstasy and possession u n d e rwent exo rcism for six months against his wishes in
we re considered legitimate only if the suffering was 1604. In both cases their protests we re interpreted as
e n t i rely invo l u n t a ry, so any signs of personal pride in p roof of the De v i l’s presence. It could be said that a secu-
public success could create suspicions of witchcraft. No larist search for the “re a l i t y” behind the displays of the
clear line separated possession, ecstasy, and witch status: possessed misses the point. The historical reality was what
categories we re determined in an ad hoc manner, often the documents described: situations of extreme passion,
subject to such extrinsic factors as patronage. Exo rc i s t s confusion, coercion, and suggestibility. Pre s s u re to prove
sometimes used their rite to test ecstatics, with the aim fraud arose within specific politico-confessional contexts,
of summoning any devils lurking behind apparent dis- giving diagnoses a significance beyond the immediate
plays of holiness; even St. Te resa was exo rcised to ensure question of how to treat the possessed. Literature vo i c i n g
her holiness was not demonic. Possessed women and skepticism about demonic possession, originally embed-
ecstatic mystics we re extremely ambiguous fig u res: their ded in such contexts, became part of a growing tradition
resistance and suffering made them appear holy in times that has helped shape both outright modern rejection of
that craved holiness, but they we re also highly suspect in possession and ambivalence among Christians. Iro n i c a l l y,
times that saw the Devil eve ry w h e re . though, there are modern examples of secular doctors
It is not difficult to situate demonic possession in sending people who claim to be possessed to exo rc i s t s ,
convents within the context of the increasingly rigorous who are sometimes able to cure them, as if by placebo.
religious standards imposed by the post-Tr i d e n t i n e
SARAH FERBER
Catholic Church; it is less easy to draw a line between
possession as a conscious or unconscious response to See also:AIX-EN-PROVENCENUNS;AUGSBURG,IMPERIALFREECITY;
this environment. At one extreme of the religious spec- BEWITCHMENT;BIBLE;BODIN,JEAN;CARPI,POSSESSIONINA
t rum, a desire for self-mort i fication led some re l i g i o u s POORCLAIRE’SCONVENT;CONVENTCASES;DARRELL,JOHN;
women to overdo their physical suffering in a way that DEMONS;DEVIL;EXORCISM;FÉRY,JEANNE;GUAZZO,FRANCESCO
simply turned their minds. This happened in posses-
MARIA;GUNTER,ANNE;JESUS;LIVINGSAINTS;LOUDUNNUNS;
sion cases in New Spain, at Lille in 1613, and at
LOUVIERSNUNS;MELANCHOLY;MENTALILLNESS;NEWSPAIN;
OBRY,NICOLE;ORACLES;PADERBORN,BISHOPRICOF;RANFAING,
Montdidier, under the influence of Madeleine de Flers,
ELISABETHDE;SALEM;VALLÉES,MARIEDES.
an ecstatic who was allegedly possessed herself but who
References and further reading:
was also said to have caused other nuns to fall into
Benedicti, Jean. 1611. La Triomphante victoire de la vierge Marie,
possession. Other nuns appear to have pretended to be sur sept malins esprits, finalemant chassées du corps d’une femme,
possessed or convinced themselves they were possessed dans l’Eglise des Cordeliers de Lyon.Lyons: Pierre Rigaud.
to escape religious life, and this possibility was noted by Bodin, Jean. 1580. De la demonomanie des sorciers.Paris: Jacques
c o n t e m p o r a ry authors. And one possessed woman in du Puys.
Germany “seems to have found in demon possession a Brown, Peter. 1977. Relics and Social Status in the Age of Gregory of
way of expressing the two violently contradictory ways Tours.Reading: University of Reading Press.
Caesarius von Heisterbach. 1929. The Dialogue on Miracles.
she felt about religion” (Midelfort 1989, 113–127)
Translated by H. von E. Scott and C. Swinton Bland.
Introdution by G. G. Coulton. 2 vols. London: Routledge.
Fraud and Skepticism
Certeau, Michel de. 2000. The Possession at Loudun.Translated by
In the thirteenth century, Abbot Caesarius of He i s t e r b a c h
Michael B. Smith. Foreword by Stephen Greenblatt. Chicago:
had a monk in one of his dialogues re m a rk, “I do not
University of Chicago Press.
deny that some have pretended to be possessed for world- Cervantes, Fernando. 1991. “The Devils of Querétaro: Skepticism
ly gain, but in many cases there is no pre t e n s e” (Caesarius and Credulity in Late Seventeenth-Century Mexico.” Past and
von Heisterbach 1929, 333). Yet it is impossible to know Present30: 51–69.
h ow many demoniacs have been consciously fraudulent: Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft
the question is clouded both by the problem of perc e p- in Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Clarendon.
tion in a Christian culture—one needs to believe in ord e r Ferber, Sarah. 2004. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early
Modern France.London: Routledge.
to see—and because most re c o rded confessions of fraud
Gentilcore, David. 1992. From Bishop to Witch: The System of the
tended to follow some kind of threat or coercion. T h e
Sacred in Early ModernTerra d’Otranto.Manchester and New
many proofs and signs of possession also make it open to
York: Manchester University Press.
suspicion of fraud: demoniacs in the early modern era
Guazzo, Francesco Maria. 1988. Compendium Maleficarum.1608.
quaked seemingly on cue in the presence of mundane
NewYork: Dover.
items (such as unblessed water) presented to them as holy, Lottin, Alain. 1984. Lille: Citadelle de la Contre-Réforme?
and the stop–start quality of symptoms in the presence of (1598–1668).Dunkirk: Westhoek-Edition.
924 Possession, Demonic |
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———. 1985. “Sorcellerie, possessions diaboliques et crise con- drugs or potions) can be divided into three main cate-
ventuelle.” Pp. 111–132 in L’Histoire des faits de la sorcellerie. gories: magical uses, poisoning without magic, and the
Publications de Centre de Recherches d’Histoire Religieuse et practice of medicine or healing.
d’Histoire des Idées, 8. Angers: Presses de l’Université d’Angers.
The first re c o rded use of p h a rm a k a by a witch
MacDonald, Michael, ed. 1991. Witchcraft and Hysteria in
occurs in book 10 of Ho m e r’s Od y s s e y ( s e ve n t h - c e n t u-
Elizabethan London: Edward Jorden and the Mary Glover Case.
ry B.C.E.), describing the sorc e ress Circe administer-
Introduction by Michael MacDonald. London and NewYork:
ing kaka pharmaka (evil drugs) and p h a rmaka lygra
Tavistock/Routledge.
( d a n g e rous drugs) to Od y s s e u s’s men, the results of
Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe
siècle: Une analyse de psychologie historique.Paris: Seuil. which transformed them into pigs. In addition to the
Midelfort, H.C. Erik. 1989. “The Devil and the German People: magic of transformation, Circe practices the art of
Reflections on the Popularity of Demon Possession in re j u venation, which is also achieved by using another
Sixteenth-Century Germany.” Pp. 98–119 in Religion and potion or p h a rm a k o n to return the men to their pre v i-
Culture in the Renaissance and Reformation.Edited by Steven ous form, but with a more youthful demeanor. T h e
Ozment.Ann Arbor: Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies 10. other major practitioner of potions in Greek literature
———. 1994. Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany.
was the sorc e ress Medea, whose magical poisons we re
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
the cause of several often-violent deaths thro u g h o u t
Monter, E. William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland:
her myth cycle, including death by self-combustion.
The Borderlands During the Reformation. Ithaca, NY, and
The Ar g o n a u t i c a by the poet Apollonius (second-
London: Cornell University Press.
c e n t u ry B.C.E.) depicts Me d e a’s early career as a sor-
O’ Donnell, M. J. “Demonic Possession.” Catholic Encyclopedia.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12315a.htm (accessed c e ress in the art of p h a rm a k e i a . She kept a casket full
December 3, 2003). of polla pharmaka (many drugs), some of which
O’Neil, Mary R. 1984. “‘Sacerdote ovvero strione’: Ecclesiatical healed and some of which killed; in one part i c u l a r l y
and Superstitious Remedies in Sixteenth-Century Italy.” Pp. e vo c a t i ve passage in book 3, Apollonius describes one
53–83 in Understanding Popular Culture.Edited by Steven L. of Me d e a’s potions called p h a rmakon Pro m e t h e i o n ( t h e
Kaplan. Berlin: Mouton. charm of Prometheus). This potion came from a
Pearl, Jonathan L. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and
magical plant that sprang from the fluids re l e a s e d
Politics in France 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid
f rom the Ti t a n’s veins while he was being perpetually
Laurier University Press.
torn open by an eagle, a punishment by Zeus for his
Roper, Lyndal. 1994. ‘Exorcism and the Theology of the Body.’
insolence. To pre p a re this potion, one had to bathe in
Pp. 171–198 in Oedipus and the Devil:Witchcraft, Sexuality,
s e ven streams, sing rituals to Hecate, then be clothed
and Religion in Early Modern Europe.London and NewYork:
Routledge. in black, and cut the plant in darkness. This pro c e s s
Sharpe, James. 1999. The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: A Horrible clearly illustrates the symbiotic relationship betwe e n
and True Story of Football, Witchcraft, Murder, and the King of potion making and ritual, and Ap p o l l o n i u s’s descrip-
England. London: Profile. tion emphasized the ancients’ differentiation betwe e n
Tranquille, Father. 1634. Briefve intelligence de l’opinion de trois such occult arts and the more straightforw a rd work of
Docteurs de Sorbonne and du livre du P. Birette Touchant les the herbalist.
Diables Exorcisez.InVeritable relation des ivstes procedvres
The tradition of actual potion making in antiquity
observees av faict de la possession des Vrsulines de Loudun: Et au
was best illustrated by the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM),
procez d’Vrbain Grandier.By Father Tranquille. La Flèche:
which offered a collection of spells from Greco-Roman
George Griveau.
Egypt between the second-century B.C.E. and the
Twelftree, Graham H. 1993.Jesus the Exorcist: A Contribution to
fif t h - c e n t u ry C.E. He rein we re recipes for numero u s
the Study of the Historical Jesus.Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul
Siebeck). magical outcomes, involving the use of a variety of sub-
Walker, Daniel P. 1981. Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in stances ranging from basic ingredients to such exo t i c ,
France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth hard-to-find, and expensive substances as myrrh, croco-
Centuries.London: Scolar. dile teeth, and body parts of wild animals (for example,
Weber, Alison. 1993. “Between Ecstasy and Exorcism: Religious a wolf’s head). One of the recurring spells f rom the
Negotiation in Sixteenth-Century Spain.” Journal of Medieval Pa py r i was a love potion or philter (e.g., PGM
and Renaissance Studies23, no. 2: 221–234.
4:2441–2621), a spell of attraction consisting of
various animal and insect parts, including “the fat of a
Potions speckled goat that is a virgin” and “moon beetles” as
From the Latin potare, meaning “to drink,” potions are well as frankincense and onions. The recipe told the
a fundamental element of witchcraft and magic, having spell caster how to pre p a re the ingredients, such as
an ancient history in both literary depictions of the thorough pounding in a mortar and placement in a lead
occult arts and their actual practice. In ancient Greece, c o n t a i n e r. The instructions for the potion’s use we re
the use of pharmaka (drugs or potions) was not always complex, involving the enactment of the spell at a
magical, and the term pharmakeia (the administering of p recise location (a high ro o f) and a specific time
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(moonrise) together with a series of lengthy invocations Metamorphosis, and Ecstasy of Witches). Ny n a u l d
to Hecate in her various guises. specified, however, that the potions used only gave the
The use of potions, particularly for love, was suffi- impression of flying: for such a sensation, a witch could
ciently widespread in antiquity that authors opposed to take belladonna (deadly nightshade), eat the brain of a
magic regularly advised unsuspecting men against cat, or if a more exotic potion was unavailable, get
allowing women to dabble in such things. For example, d runk. For the hallucinogenic effect of travel to a
Pl u t a rc h’s Mo ra l i a 139.5 (second century C.E.) warns Sabbat, Nynauld explained that a witch could prepare a
husbands to be wary of love potions (philtra), which he potion also composed of baby fat plus, among other
aligned with sorcery (goeteia) because they could, at the ingredients, the juice of water parsnip and, again, bel-
very least, undermine male authority in the household. ladonna (which does produce hallucinogenic effects).
The inherent danger of such magic was illustrated in Despite the doubts by authors such as de Nynauld that
the references to the adverse affects on the object of the witches could actually fly, popular belief in many coun-
spell: Suetonius (69–140 C.E.) describes how the tries maintained they could—aided, of course, by
Roman Emperor Caligula went insane after imbibing a Satan. Artwork both before and during the persecution
philter dispensed by his wife, Caesonia. era consistently combined the image of the witch with
The use of potions in early modern Eu rope, as in potion making and flying, specifying the fli g h t - i n d u c-
a n t i q u i t y, invo l ved a sometimes-vague definition in ing powers of the witches’ concoctions. In a chiaroscuro
terms of the practitioners, blurring the lines of classifi- woodcut by Hans Baldung [Grien] of 1510, four witch-
cation among healers (or doctors), herbalists, poisoners, es were depicted: three involved in the process of potion
and witches. The stereotypical view of the woman heal- making and one, in the air, riding a demonic goat. The
er or herbalist executed or ostracized on charges of s t e reotypical implication of the image was the dire c t
witchcraft testified to this skewed taxonomy; as association between the airborne witch and the potion
S c o t l a n d’s Sir George Mackenzie observed in 1678: of her “sisters,” the vapors of which curled into the air,
“Not only witches but even naturalists may give potions whirling about in a “flying” motion.
that incline men and women to lust” (Laws and The more fantastic accounts of witchcraft include
Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal). Nevertheless, many re f e rences to the De v i l’s role in providing both
evidence of making potions was a topos of witchcraft potions and powders to the witch. The powders often
literature, trials, and records. Amid numerous accounts came in different colors, each denoting the substance’s
of potion making was a reference to the use of human s p e c i fic use. Alternative l y, the witch could make her
p a rts, “especially the bodies of those who have been own potions or powders, sometimes at the Sabbat, from
punished by death or hanged,” in Francesco Ma r i a such ingredients as toad venom, body parts (particular-
Guazzo’s 1626 Compendium Maleficarum (A Summary ly from stillborn babies), and stolen Hosts. The belief
of Witches, book 2, chap. 2). Guazzo continued in the that such substances could heal as well as harm indicat-
same vein: “For not only from such horrid material do ed the contradictory societal perceptions of the witch’s
they [witches] renew their evil spells, but also from the p owers; she could be sought by a desperate client to
actual appliances used at executions, such as the ro p e , p rovide a cure beyond the abilities of more offic i a l
the chains, the stake, and the iron tools.” He also healers or medical practitioners, thereby simultaneously
described some of the ingredients used in deadly signifying the role of the witch as a potentially viable
potions, including “leaves and stalks and roots of alternative to the curing powers of God.
plants; from animals, fishes, venomous reptiles, stones Potions, along with amulets and spells, were also
and metals,” and explained that “sometimes these are b e l i e ved to pre vent or ease the pain of tort u re. This, unfor-
reduced to powder and sometimes to an ointment” tunately, often led to the torture of the accused being
(2:3). Such deadly potions and, more signific a n t l y, p rolonged, usually until a full confession was obtained.
those who used them, were often blamed for spreading
MARGUERITE JOHNSON
outbreaks of the plague, as exemplified by an incident
in Geneva in 1545, when a witch hunt was orchestrated See also:AMULETANDTALISMAN;ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;
after a man had confessed to having started a pestilence BALDUNG[GRIEN], HANS;CIRCE;DRUGSANDHALLUCINOGENS;
by anointing the foot of a hanged man as well as several FLIGHTOFWITCHES;GREEKMAGICALPAPYRI;HECATE;HEMLOCK;
door bolts with such a potion. LOVEMAGIC;MEDEA;NIGHTSHADE;OINTMENTS;PLAGUE;
One of the most common beliefs connected the use
POISON;SPELLS.
References and further reading:
of potions in witchcraft with the witches’ fli g h t .
Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. 1992. The Greek Magical Papyri in
Ointments used for flying supposedly included the fat
Translation.Vol. 1. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago
of children as well as assorted narcotics. Among the
Press.
most detailed account of flying potions was that given
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and
by Jean de Nynauld in 1615 in his De la lyc a n t h ro p i e , Cultural Context of European Witchcraft.2nd ed. Oxford:
t ra n s f o rmation, et extase des sorciers ( Lyc a n t h ro p y, Blackwell.
926 Potions |
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Faraone, Christopher A. 1999. Ancient Greek Love Magic. carried out. The majority of cases ended in recantation
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. or another form of punishment, such as an offering to
Harner, Michael J. 1973. “The Use of Hallucinogenic Plants in the Church. Ecclesiastical courts continued to hear
European Witchcraft.” Pp. 125–150 in Hallucinogens and
cases until the mid-sixteenth century. Secular courts
Shamanism.Edited by Michael J. Harner. Oxford: Oxford
(despite jurisdiction having passed officially to the
University Press.
ecclesiastical courts in 1543) heard their first cases of
Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1959. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and
witchcraft in 1544, those of Dorota Gnieczkowa (sen-
Demonology.London: Spring Books.
tenced to death at the stake) and Agnieszka of
Sullivan, Margaret A. 2000. “The Witches of Dürer and Hans
˙
Baldung Grien.” Renaissance Quarterly53: 332–401. Zabikowo. In a similar fashion to the cases heard before
Zika, Charles. 1989–1990. “Fears of Flying: Representations of ecclesiastical courts, accusations consisted largely of
Witchcraft and Sexuality in Early Sixteenth-Century Europe.” pouring wax to divine the identity of a thief, washing
Australian Journal of Art8: 19–48. cows with herbs to protect the milk yield, or other
harmless practices. In the seventeenth and eighteenth
Pozna´n
centuries, trials began to include details of diabolic
Poznan´, the capital of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), practices, and death at the stake was the usual sentence.
is famed as the location of both ecclesiastical and secu-
lar courts that heard some of Poland’s earliest witchcraft Demonology
trials (fifteenth century) and the purported last trial in Poznan´ contained printing houses of various Christian
Europe in 1793. This case remains a subject of contro- confessions, which published some of the most impor-
versy; Polish historians have dismissed it as German tant treatises, as well as many legal codices, including
propaganda in the wake of the partitions of Poland, but Speculum Saxonum (Law of the Saxons); Chelmno Law;
its inclusion in Wilhelm Soldan’s widely used history Magdeburg Law; Polish Crown Law; and a collection of
has ensured subsequent citation. It was reported in Roman, Canon, and Saxon laws. Of particular note was
1801 that when members of a Prussian commission Wojciech Regulus’s publishing house, responsible for
reached a certain town in Poland in 1793, they saw the the publication of an anonymous work in 1639,
remains of stakes, and the town magistrate told them Czarownica powolana (A Witch Denounced). It was
that two witches had been burned there. Polish histori- considered by some to be the first vernacular translation
ans are convinced that the vague terminology used to of Friedrich Sp e e’s famous Cautio Cr i m i n a l i s ( A
describe the event makes its authenticity dubious. This Warning on Criminal Justice) of 1631, but it differed
case was mentioned in the Himmlerkartoteka(Himmler from Spee’s work in many respects. It was published in
card index), a collection of trials gathered by the the same year as Daniel Wisner’s Tractatus brevis de
H-Sonnderkommando (Special Unit H [Hexen = witch- extramagi, lamii, veneticis (Brief Treatise on Magic,
es]) on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, whose more Witches, and Poisoners), which also criticized the abus-
than 30,000 cards are now housed in the state archive es committed by the judiciary during witchcraft trials.
in Poznan´. The archive also contains records from the This work, significantly, was dedicated to L- ukasz and
w o j e w ó d´z t w o ( p a l a t i n a t e ) of Wielkopolska (Gre a t e r Krzysztof Opalin´ski. The latter wrote a satirical verse
Poland). ridiculing the tendency to attribute all misfortune to
witches, who were generally harmless peasant women.
Cases Another work critical of judicial abuses was Serafin
Accusations of witchcraft were heard by Poznan´’s eccle- Gamalski’s Przestrogi duchowne (Clerical Warnings),
siastical courts as early as 1430 (Acta number 1016), published posthumously in 1742. The author claimed
and over a dozen sentences were passed down over the to have heard the confessions of those accused of witch-
next century. Cases were brought on charges of coun- craft and was convinced of their innocence. A common
termagic, preventive practices against illness, causing feature of these Poznan´ authors was their emphasis on
illness, attempted murder by female spouses, increase of the large number of witchcraft executions, which,
crop output, and causing impotence. Poison was still however, is not corroborated by the extant trial records.
largely synonymous with witchcraft, as a case from
1517 reveals (Acta number 1709). Witchcraft accusa-
WANDA WYPORSKA
tions were also used as a mechanism to dispose of
unwanted spouses, as illustrated by the case of
See also:BARANOWSKI,BOGDAN;CLERGY;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;
Malgorzata Zawarta, whose husband accused her of
DEMONOLOGY;NAZIINTERESTINWITCHPERSECUTION;
POLAND;SPEE,FRIEDRICH.
witchcraft. It was also claimed that she used the finger
References and further reading:
of a hanged man to improve beer fermentation. She was
Baranowski, Bogdan. 1952. Procesy czarownic w Polsce w XVII i
sentenced to death but was later pardoned (Ac t a XVIII wieku. -Lódz´: -Lódzkie Towarz˙ystwo Naukowe.
number 1016). An ecclesiastical court probably passed Karpin´ski, Andrzej. 1995.Kobieta w mie´scie polskim w drugiej
the first death sentence in 1511, but they were rarely pol- owie XVI i XVII wieku.Warsaw: IHPAN.
Pozna´n 927 |
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Koranyi, Karol. 1927. “Czary i gus-la przed sa˛dem kos´cielnemi w on the Bible, following common exegetical practices
Polsce w XV i w pierwszej po-lowie XVI wieku.” Lud26: 1–24. among Reformed theologians. Like other skeptics,
Soldan,Wilhelm. 1843. Geschichte der Hexenprozesse.Stuttgart and Prätorius’s viewpoint was theocentric: God is almighty;
Tubingen.
only he could override the laws of nature in his cre-
Ulanowski, Bogdan, ed. 1894–1903. Acta capitulorum nec non
ation, and neither the Devil nor wizards possessed any
iudiciorum ecclesiasticorum selecta. Cracow: Wydawnictwo
physical powers that transcend nature. Physical harm
Komisji Historycznej Akademii Umieje˛tno´sci w Krakowie.
through magic thus could not be real. Nor were any of
Wyporska, Wanda. 2004. “Motive and Motif: Representations of
the three elements (the witches’ flight, participation in
the Witch in Early Modern Poland.” PhD diss. Oxford
University. the Sabbat, and sexual intercourse with the Devil) that
constituted witchcraft in the strict sense; all of them
Prätorius, Anton (1560–1613) existed only in fantasy. He re Prätorius did not rely on
A German Reformed parson, in 1598 Prätorius pub- the Bible alone but founded his argument also on the
lished the important treatise Von Za u b e rey und empirical reasoning of Hermann Witekind, typical of
Zauberern Gründlicher Bericht(A Thorough Account of Reformed discourse in Germany.
Magic and Magicians), which clearly opposed witch- Ac c o rding to Prätorius, all witches we re guilty of
craft persecution and demanded abolishing torture the spiritual crime of apostasy and the diabolical pact.
immediately; he was one of the first authors in Their crimes we re most horrible and would be pun-
Germany to propose this radical solution. ished by God with eternal damnation if the sinner did
We know little about his early years or his education. not repent. This did not, howe ve r, justify the death
After 1581, he was re c o rded as teaching in Lippstadt, penalty by secular justice. Although unlike Wi t e k i n d ,
later becoming headmaster of the Latin school in Prätorius relied mostly on the He b rew Bible and
Kamen. He appeared in 1587 as a Lutheran deacon at a f firmed the validity of the Mosaic laws, he empha-
Worms and in 1589 as a Reformed deacon at s i zed with Johann We yer that the death penalty of
Oppenheim in the electoral Palatinate. In 1592, Exodus 22:18 (22:17) was not directed indiscrimi-
Prätorius became parson of Dittelsheim, a Palatine vil- nately against all kinds of sorc e rers, but only against
lage, moving in 1595 to Offenbach am Main in the poisoners. With any spiritual crime, the sinner could
county of Isenburg-Büdingen. From 1596 to 1598, he always repent, after which God no longer desired his
held the post of court chaplain at Birstein before physical destruction. In principle, sorc e ry must be
returning to the electoral Palatinate as parson of punished by secular justice, but in cases of conve r s i o n ,
Laudenbach, where he remained for the rest of his life. not with the death penalty. He thus adopted the
The cause that provoked Pr ä t o r i u s’s treatise against s o c i a l - d i s c i p l i n a ry position of his predecessors, not
witchcraft persecution was the abominations of the tri- deterring sorc e ry post facto through criminal justice
als he had personally witnessed because of his position but pre venting it by restoring true Christian faith and
as court chaplain in Birstein. In 1597, he was dire c t l y conduct among the people.
i n vo l ved in the trials against four women accused as Concerning procedural law, Prätorius began by
witches. Despite vigorous intervention in their favor, he rejecting the idea of witchcraft as a crimen exc e p t u m
was unable to save their lives. Shaken by this experi- ( e xcepted crime). For him, correct legal pro c e e d i n g s
ence, Prätorius wrote his book and returned to serve in began with humane conditions of incarceration. Hi s
the electoral Palatinate, which rejected persecution. critical descriptions of the often-inhumane conditions
Prätorius originally published his treatise under the of early modern imprisonment could be considere d
name of his son Johannes Scultetus. When the book s t a n d a rd. Howe ve r, his arguments against tort u re we re
sold out quickly and was republished in 1602 and 1613 quite re vo l u t i o n a ry: based on his personal experiences
in rewritten editions, he used his own name. (Another in prosecuting witchcraft, Prätorius demanded noth-
edition in 1629 simply reprinted the 1602 edition.) ing less than the immediate abolition of tort u re in
Prätorius was skeptical of the belief in witchcraft, not Eu ropean criminal proceedings. None of his pre d e c e s-
only criticizing the pro c e d u res of its persecution but sors had demanded this in such radical fashion. T h i s
also denying the reality of witchcraft. He named a c h i e vement secured Prätorius an important place in
Benedikt Pe rerius, Johann Georg Goedelmann, Ot t o the history of German criminal law, even though he
Melander, and especially Hermann Witekind from the did not argue for open assessment of evidence as a
electoral Palatinate as his most important predecessors replacement for tort u re, thus making his argument
and role models. Mo re ove r, the electoral Pa l a t i n a t e’s less forc e f u l .
rejection of witchcraft persecutions obviously influ-
enced Prätorius through his contacts and employment. JÜRGEN MICHAEL SCHMIDT
Prätorius showed an intimate knowledge of most
See also:EXODUS22:18 (22:17); GOEDELMAN,JOHANNGEORG;
c o n t e m p o r a ry treatises on witchcraft but commented PALATINATE,ELECTORATEOF;SKEPTICISM;WEYER,JOHANN;
on them only briefly. He founded his arguments mainly WITEKIND,HERMANN.
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References and further reading: anthologies. The works of Prätorius had considerable
Dresen-Coenders, Lène. 1992. “Antonius Praetorius.” Pp. i n fluence on other German writers; Hans Ja c o b
129–137 in Vom Unfug des Hexen-Processes: Gegner der Christoph von Grimmelshausen had already drawn on
Hexenverfolgung von Johann Weyer bis Friedrich Spee.Edited by
them before Pr ä t o r i u s’s death, and Goethe, Fr i e d r i c h
Hartmut Lehmann and Otto Ulbricht. Wiesbaden:
von Schiller, and Clemens Brentano also valued the
Harrassowitz.
t reatises of Prätorius as tre a s u re troves of material to be
Hegeler, Hartmut. 2002. Anton Praetorius: Kämpfer gegen
utilized in their own publications (Goethe, for example,
Hexenprozess und Folter.Unna: Eigenverlag.
d rew on the Bl o c k e s - Berges Ve r r i c h t u n g in creating his
Karneth, Rainer. 1997. “Hexen, Hexenverfolgung und ein ver-
meintlicher Alzeyer Kritiker-Antonius Praetorius.” Alzeyer i m m o rtal Walpurgis Night scene in part 1 of Fa u s t ,
Geschichtsblätter 30: 37–76. published in 1808). Pr ä t o r i u s’s collection of stories
Prätorius. Antonius. 1613. Von Zauberey und Zauberern about the Silesian mountain spirit Rübezahl re m a i n s
Gründlicher Bericht. Darinn der grawsamen Menschen we l l - k n own to this day.
thöriges/feindseliges/schändliches vornemmen: Und wie Christliche After Prätorius had announced its publication seve r a l
Oberkeit in rechter Amptspflege ihnen begegnen/ihr Werck straf- times, in 1668 finally appeared the Bl o c k e s - Be r g e s
fen/auffheben/ und hinderen solle/ und könne.... Heidelberg.
Verrichtung/oder ausführlicher geographischer Bericht vo n
Schmidt, Jürgen Michael. 2000. Glaube und Skepsis: Die Kurpfalz
den hohen tre f flich alt- und berühmten Bl o c k e s - Be r g e .
und die abendländische Hexenverfolgung, 1446–1685.
Ingleichen von der He xe n f a h rt und Za u b e r - Sabbathe, so
Hexenforschung 5. Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte.
auff solchen Berge die Unholden aus gantz Te u t s c h l a n d
———. 2001. “Praetorius, Antonius.” InLexikon der
j ä h rlich den 1. Mai in Sanct Walpurgisnacht anstellen
Europäischen Hexenverfolgung.Edited by Gudrun Gersmann,
Jürgen Michael Schmidt, and Margarete Wittke. s o l l e n ( Pe rformance at the Blocksberg, or De t a i l e d ,
http://www.sfn.uni-muenchen.de/hexenforschung (cited Geographical Re p o rt of the High, Excellent, Old, and
September 10, 2002). Famous Blocksberg. Also Treating of the Wi t c h e s’
Schwerhoff, Gerd. 1986. “Rationalität im Wahn, Zum gelehrten Journey and Magical Sabbat, That the Witches from All
Diskurs über die Hexen in der frühen Neuzeit.” Saeculum37: over Germany Supposedly Attend Eve ry Year on T h i s
45–82. Mountain During Walpurgis Night, the First of Ma y ) .
Prätorius used a travel narrative, written by another
Prätorius, Johannes (1630–1680) author in 1653, to begin the German version of his tre a-
Prätorius (whose real name was Hans Schulte and who tise: it described a journey over the Blocksberg (which
should not be confused with Anton Prätorius, who used lay in the Ha rz region) and other nearby places. The re s t
the pseudonym Johann Scultetus) was a graduate of of the work was divided into two main parts. He re
Leipzig University, a polymath, and a Baroque poet. Prätorius used the Bl o c k s b e r g of the title (also known in
Under numerous, deliberately amusing pseudonyms German as the Bro c k e n), presented as the chief meeting-
(such as Steffen Läusepeltz, or “Stephen Lice-Fur”), he place of German witches, as a thematic introduction to a
published more than fifty treatises and collections of b roader discussion of witchcraft belief. Prätorius devo t-
myths and fairy tales, dealing predominantly with ed the first part of the work to describing various sinister
occult themes and folk beliefs or superstitions. In his places, such as those where witches supposedly gathere d ,
Bl o c k e s - Berges Verrichtung ( Pe rformance at the and accursed caves, lakes, or mountaintops that we re
Blocksberg), published in 1668, Prätorius provided a supposedly haunted by ghosts and spirits.
compilation of popular and learned ideas about magic, The second part of the work was divided into eight
sorcery, and witchcraft. As a result of its use by Johann chapters. He re Prätorius presented “re p o rt s” about the
Wolfgang von Goethe and the brothers Grimm, this flights of witches and the supposed activities of witches
compilation also influenced nineteenth-century at their gatherings, or Sabbats, and told stories of vari-
German literature. ous horrible occurrences that had allegedly involved the
Prätorius was born in the Lutheran village of practice of harmful magic. He went into great detail on
Zethlingen in Sachsen-Anhalt. After attending gram- the themes of the De v i l’s sexual relationships with
mar school at Halle, he matriculated at the Un i ve r s i t y witches and of incubi, succubi, and changeling chil-
of Leipzig. He pursued various branches of study in the d ren, drawing on the Tannhäuser legend of the Mo n s
natural sciences, graduating with a master of art s Ve n e r i s (Venusberg, or Venus Mountain), written by
d e g ree in 1653. After giving several unsalaried lecture Heinrich Kornmann in 1614. Prätorius also discussed
series on astro l o g y, chiromancy (or palmistry), and the possibility that witches could change themselve s
geography at the unive r s i t y, he was named poet into animals. He concluded the work with a collection
l a u reate, a title he valued ve ry highly, in 1659. of popular stories about ghosts and spirits, including
Remaining in Leipzig until he died of the plague a few tales of the mountain-spirit Rübezahl and of the “furi-
days after his fiftieth birt h d a y, he used the re s o u rces of ous army,” a horrific-looking group of spirits of dead
the unive r s i t y’s library (housed in the so-called men who we re believed to travel at night, marauding
Pa u l i n u m) as the basis for his many treatises and and generally terrifying the living.
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The Bl o c k e s - Berges Verrichtung o f f e red a compendi- n u m e rous witnesses. The suspect would be blindfold-
um or textbook of witchcraft, aimed at an intere s t e d ed, partially or wholly stripped, and pricked with
public. In composing it, Prätorius used a vast range of pins until a spot was found where a pin could enter
ancient, medieval, and contemporary writings and trea- undetected. Sometimes their body hair would be
tises, including authors from both sides of the debate s h a ved. The pins varied in length from two fin g e r s’
about witchcraft belief. Prätorius drew uncritically on b readth to 3 inches, occasionally more. In one Fre n c h
their work, using any stories that seemed to fit best into case from 1624, a pin of four fin g e r s’ breadth sank
his own compilation. Thus, he drew both on the work into a suspect’s buttock irre c ove r a b l y. Jean Bodin, cit-
of the skeptic Johann Weyer and used material from the ing Re velation 14:9, expected the mark on the fore-
h a rd-line Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of head or hand. In practice, prickers found marks in a
Witches, whose author he mistakenly cited as Ja c o b variety of locations, with the back, shoulder, buttock,
Sp renger). He took information pell-mell fro m or thigh being common. Theologically the De v i l’s
Catholics and Pro t e s t a n t s — Johann Geiler vo n m a rk was equivalent to Christian baptism, which
Kaysersberg, Ulrich Molitor, Olaus Magnus, Girolamo could be administered only once, but two or more
C a rdano, Paulo Grillando, Jean Bodin, Nicolas Rémy, m a rks we re often found.
Lambert Daneau, David Meder, and Benedict Carpzov, C h u rch ministers or gentlemen supervising pre t r i a l
among others. Prätorius was genuinely convinced of the i n vestigations might do their own pricking of suspects.
real corporeal existence of the Devil and the demons The court might commission physicians, surgeons, or
and evil spirits who served him; he believed that witch- quasi-medical men (such as barbers). Exe c u t i o n e r s’
es really made pacts with the Devil and had intercourse anatomical expertise could be used for pricking as we l l
with him, changed themselves into animals, flew to as judicial tort u re. Judges or court officials might do
Sabbats, and performed harmful magic. their own pricking. A few courts commissioned
women prickers; one Franche-Comté case called them
RITA VOLTMER;
c h i ru r g i e n n e s . Some regions had itinerant pro f e s s i o n a l
TRANSLATED BY ALISON ROWLANDS prickers; in 1621, a hangman based at Ro c roi, near the
French border with the Netherlands, admitted he had
See also:GRIMM,JAOCB;SABBAT;WALPURGIS(WALPURIGS)NIGHT.
References and further reading: done this service for pay 231 times.
Dünnhaupt, Gerhard. 1991. “Praetorius, Johann, Zetlingensis With practice, it was probably easy to find insensi-
(1630–1689).” Pp. 3145–3193 in Personalbibliographien zu den t i ve spots. Many “m a rk s” we re probably birt h m a rks or
Drucken des Barock.2nd ed. By Gerhard Dünnhaupt. w a rts, both of which could be insensible. Most sus-
Bibliographischen Handbuches der Barockliteratur,vol. 5. pects we re older people who had spent a lifetime in
Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann. physical labor and whose nutrition was sometimes
Möhring, Wolfgang, ed. 1979. Johannes Prätorius. Hexen-, Zauber-
poor; many of them had old scars or circ u l a t o ry or
und Spukgeschichten aus dem Blocksberg: Mit Holzschnitten des
a rthritic problems associated with losses of local sensa-
15.–17. Jahrhunderts.Frankfurt am Main: Insel.
tion. It would be interesting to know what pro p o rt i o n
Waibler, Hellmut. 1979. “Johannes Prätorius (1630–1680): Ein
of witchcraft suspects might have had physical feature s
Baraockautor und seine Werke.” Archiv für Geschichte des
vulnerable to the pricker. One Scottish pricker in
Buchwesens20: 953–1151.
n o rthern England claimed to find marks on twe n t y -
Pricking of Suspected Witches s e ven out of thirty suspects brought to him, which
A common way of detecting the “Devil’s mark,” an might be some indication. This pricker, howe ve r, was a
insensitive spot that would not bleed when pricked p rofessional and, like his colleague at Ro c roi, seems to
with a pin, was called pricking. If such a mark was h a ve been a fraud.
found, it provided important evidence for prosecuting With amateur prickers, the problem was more likely
a witch. to be self-deception; if they we re convinced that the
The insensitive spot was only one kind of De v i l’s m a rk existed, they would be less rigorous in their searc h .
mark. Other marks were detected by means other than Did the pin re a l l yenter so deeply and was there re a l l yn o
pricking: a protruding teat with which English witches pain? Occasions when the suspect felt and expre s s e d
we re believed to suckle their “f a m i l i a r” (the witch’s pain we re sometimes re c o rded, but they re p resented fail-
mark); an area of discolored skin, sometimes perceived u res on the pricker’s part; probably most such occasions
as the shape of a small animal or as the imprint of the we re passed over silently. Some suspects’ claims to feel
De v i l’s claw; a mark in the eye, which a few witch pain we re rejected because they could not identify the
detectors claimed to have special powers to see; or sim- spot precisely enough or simply because no blood
ply a mark that the suspect confessed to possessing and flowed from it. Ul t i m a t e l y, pricking depended more on
that therefore required little or no physical verification. belief and perception than on physical evidence.
Physical ve r i fication by pricking was often a Te c h n i c a l l y, pricking was not “t o rt u re.” The aim of
lengthy process involving an experienced pricker and judicial tort u re was to inflict pain in order to secure a
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sixteenth century; unfort u n a t e l y, many re p o rts of the
finding of the “m a rk” leave the discove ry method
u n s p e c i fied. Pricking undoubtedly gained in impor-
tance during the early seventeenth century, above all in
Protestant regions, where the De v i l’s mark seemed
re l a t i vely more important than among Catholics. Fo r
example, the Inquisition did not use pricking.
The belief that the Devil might remove his mark in
o rder to protect witches may have been a largely
Catholic one. In 1631, the Jesuit Friedrich Sp e e
complained that if the pricker failed to find a mark, the
judge would decide that the Devil had re m oved it in
o rder to protect the witch. This could occasionally be
used against a suspect, enabling the prosecution to
claim that a suspect was still guilty even though no
mark had been found, which seems to have happened
with another Jesuit, Urbain Gr a n d i e r, in Loudun in
1634. But more often, the belief in the mark’s erasabili-
ty seems to have discouraged courts from seeking it.
Some suspects even vo l u n t e e red to be pricked in the
belief that it would prove their innocence.
Usually of lower-class origins, professional prickers
were among the few people who clearly stood to profit
financially from witch hunting. During periods of
intense witch hunting, they could make a windfall prof-
it by offering their services to worried local authorities.
They flourished particularly in seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry
Scotland, where about ten professional prickers are
known. Payment by results opened a temptation to out-
right fraud, for which five Scottish prickers were prose-
cuted or reprimanded. Two turned out to be women
dressed as men. The activities of an unnamed Scottish
pricker in the north of England in 1650 are particularly
well documented. He pricked many women brought to
him through neighborhood denunciations, charging 20
shillings apiece, and his evidence seemed to have been
Courts employed pricking with pins to detect the Devil’s mark, the
central in their trials. He had presumably begun his
insensitive spot on a witch’s body where the Devil had marked his
career in the Scottish panic of 1649. He was executed
servant. (TopFoto.co.uk)
for fraud in Scotland after re p o rtedly confessing
responsibility for the deaths of 220 witches (the Rocroi
confession: pricking, by contrast, aimed to inflict n o hangman, who may hold the Eu ropean re c o rd by dis-
pain in order to secure physical evidence. Some prick- covering a mark 231 times, was sentenced to perpetual
ing may have been connected with the popular belief service in the galleys by the Parlementof Paris).
that scratching them to draw blood could counteract In 1631, Friedrich Spee warned that prickers should
w i t c h e s’ magic, and here pain would be expected. In be watched carefully because they were prone to fraud:
practice, pricking was a coerc i ve pro c e d u re that could they would cry out that a mark had been found, or
help to break down a suspect’s resistance and make a would use a retractable bodkin. An illustration of such a
confession easier to obtain. Numerous witches began to bodkin was published by Reginald Scot in 1584,
confess after they we re told that a mark had been though he cited it as a general proof of the possibility of
found. This was particularly important for women, for fraud in witchcraft accusations and did not specifically
whom being stripped, shaved, searched intimately, and mention pricking. Most prickers seem to have preferred
pricked by men could be a form of symbolic rape. o rd i n a ry needles, rather than bodkins with handles.
Unlike the swimming test, which resembled a The exposure of frauds fueled skepticism about prickers
judicial ordeal (an appeal to God to display the truth), by the mid-seventeenth century, even among the
pricking seems to have had no medieval antecedents medical profession: for example, Ge n e van surgeons
and has not been traced back further than the mid- searched over a dozen suspected witches after 1622 but
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n e ver found an unambiguous De v i l’s mark. The prac- elaborations and responses, set in motion the pro c e s s
tice was never banned but faded away along with the that soon led to Lu t h e r’s condemnation as a here t i c .
witchcraft trials. Prierias died in Rome, most likely in 1527.
Among Pr i e r i a s’s other major works are the 1503
JULIAN GOODARE
Rosa aurea ( Golden Rose), a pre a c h e r’s handbook
See also:BODIN,JEAN;DEVIL’SMARK;EVIDENCE;FAMILIARS; reprinted nineteen times in the sixteenth century, and
LOUDUNNUNS;PROOF,PROBLEMOF;SCOT,REGINALD;SPEE, the 1514 Summa summarum de casibus conscientibus
FRIEDRICH;SWIMMINGTEST;TORTURE;WITCH’SMARK.
(Complete Compendium of Cases of Conscience), bet-
References and further reading:
ter known as the Summa silvestrina ( Si l ve s t e r’s
McDonald, StuartW. 1997. “The Devil’s Mark and the Witch-
Compendium), a theological, moral and canonical
Prickers of Scotland.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
handbook for confessors, reprinted twenty-nine times.
90: 507–511.
Most important for our subject, howe ve r, are his
Monter, E. William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland:
The Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY: Cornell early treatises on the Devil, demonic possession, and
University Press. e xo rcism, the Tractatus de diabolo (1502, re p r i n t e d
Neill, W.N. 1922. “The Professional Pricker and His Test for 1573); the De strigimagaru m , demonumque mira n d i s
Witchcraft.” Scottish Historical Review19: 205–213. (Concerning the Prodigies of the Witch-Magicians and
Pihlajamäki, Heikki. 2000. “‘Swimming the Witch, Pricking for Demons, 1521, reprinted 1575); and the various re l e-
the Devil’s Mark’: Ordeals in the Early Modern Witchcraft vant entries (e.g, Ha e re s i s , Ma l e fic i u m , Su p e r s t i t i o
Trials.” Journal of Legal History21: 35–58.
[Heresy, Sorcery, Superstition]) in the Summa silvestri-
Soman, Alfred. Sorcellerie et justice criminelle: Le Parlement of Paris
na,some of which represent the core of Lenten sermons
(16e–18e siècles).Bath: Variorum
collected in his Quadragesimale aureum(Golden Lenten
Sermon Series) of 1515.
Prierias, Silvestro Prierias’s interest in demonology and witchcraft sur-
(ca. 1456/1457–ca. 1527) faced early in his Dominican career and remained a
Theologian and inquisitor best known as the first constant preoccupation there a f t e r. Already as re g e n t
Roman respondent to Ma rtin Lu t h e r, Si l ve s t ro master in Bologna, if not sooner, he participated in
Mazzolini da Prierio or Prierias (as he is usually called, e xo rcisms and witchcraft trials and summarized the
after his birthplace in Piedmont, Italy) wrote several fruit of this experience in De diabolo.Prierias’s approach
influential works on witchcraft and demonology that was consistently hard-line; his goal, to ove rcome the
helped fuel witch hysteria in early modern Europe. leniency tow a rd witchcraft and related activities
Born in 1456 or 1457, Prierias entered the encouraged by traditional interpretations of the
Dominican order in 1471, joining the re f o r m e d C h u rc h’s central legal text on the matter, the Ca n o n
Observant branch of Lombardy. After studying philos- Ep i s c o p i (ca. 906), which consigned such phenomena
ophy and theology at the studium genera l e (house of merely to the realm of personal delusion and harmless
studies) in the convent of San Domenico in Bologna, superstition. Prierias acknowledged that in earlier cen-
he began his teaching career there in 1489 as master of turies this may have been true but warned that re c e n t
studies, later serving also as its regent master times had seen the birth of a new, internationally
(1499–1502). In 1508 came appointments as both vic- o r g a n i zed sect of heretics consisting of antinomian,
ar general of his Lombard Dominican congregation and devil-worshipping women and men who, through noc-
inquisitor for Brescia, Crema, and environs, a position turnal flight, gathered for orgiastic Sabbats, engaged in
the friar held until 1511, when he was transferred to sorcery, and wrought acts of malevolence against private
Sant’Eustorgio in Milan as inquisitor for the busier ter- citizens and the established Christian order.
ritories of Milan, Piacenza, and Lodi. The Ob s e rva n t Prierias told us that he wrote his longest work on the
Dominicans lost control of Sant’Eustorgio in 1512, and subject, the De strigimagarum, because he had encoun-
Prierias moved to Cremona as prior of the convent of t e red alarming skepticism among his peers while
San Domenico. In 1514, he was sent to teach theology serving as judge in a Roman witchcraft trial. Besides its
in Rome where, in the following ye a r, Pope Leo X intransigence, De strigimagarumwas noteworthy for the
appointed him to the chair of theology at the neologism introduced by its author, namely, the term
Un i versity of Rome, while also naming him master of s t r i g i m a g u s , c reated to enforce the view that the two
the sacred palace (i.e., official theologian of the papal h i t h e rto distinct categories of persons, the common
curia) as well as Roman inquisitor, responsible for all witches (s t r i g e s) and the more prestigious scientific -
inquisitional activities of the tribunal at Santa Ma r i a philosophical magicians (m a g i), we re in fact equally
sopra Mi n e rva. In 1518 the pope assigned to Pr i e r i a s diabolical and deserving of elimination. Howe ve r,
the task of evaluating the orthodoxy of Martin Luther’s b e yond this, the work added little to earlier works by
Ni n e t y - Fi ve T h e s e s ; the Do m i n i c a n’s resultant critique, other writers or by Prierias. Ultimately, Prierias’s efforts
the Dialogus ( Dialogue), as well as subsequent helped to heighten Christendom’s awareness and
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fear of this “new sect” of witches. However, the theolo- Matthew, Mark, and Luke also provide lists of prodigies
gian-inquisitor was only partially successful in his own and portents of future calamities. Jesus’s warning of the
homeland: although early modern Italy pro s e c u t e d impending days of vengeance (Luke 21:25), “And there
witches, their punishments we re usually lenient, and shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the
actual executions we re few, re l a t i ve to the rest of stars,” was often cited by medieval and early modern
Europe. d o o m s a yers. Mo re ove r, according to the Re velation of
St. John, the four horsemen who would appear at the
FRANCO MORMANDO
Apocalypse would rain down war, famine, and plague
See also:CANONEPISCOPI;DEMONOLOGY;DOMINICANORDER; on the earth. Indeed, a medieval prophetic legend, the
ITALY. Fifteen Signs before Doomsday, described a succession
References and further reading:
of prodigies that would appear in the fortnight before
Lehner, Francis Christopher. 1967. “Mazzolini, Sylvester.” Vol. 9,
the Last Judgment. The book of Re velation also
pp. 524–525 in The New Catholic Encyclopedia.Prepared by an
describes how the binding up of Satan at the second
editorial staff at the Catholic University of America. NewYork:
coming of Jesus would last 1,000 years. As a re s u l t ,
McGraw-Hill.
medieval and early modern Europeans believed that an
Tavuzzi, Michael. 1997. Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro da
Prierio, 1456–1527.Durham: Duke University Press. upsurge in prodigies, including false pro p h e c y, magic,
Wicks, Jared. 1996. “Prierias, Sylvester Mazzolini.” Vol. 3, pp. and witchcraft, was caused by the Devil, who was
341–342 in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. 4 vols. angered at the thought that he had little time left and
Edited by H.J. Hillerbrand. NewYork: Oxford University was hastening to do as much damage as he could. The
Press. a p p roach of the millennium was also signaled by the
appearance of the Antichrist, with whom many prodi-
Prodigies
gies were associated. St. Augustine, following Pliny the
Prodigies are phenomena—natural or supernatural, but Elder and Cicero, found the preoccupation with the
often marvelous or wonderful—that are interpreted as evils that were supposed to follow specific wonders dis-
signs of future events, usually disastrous. a g reeable, because it detracted from the more general
“ Pro d i g i e s” include monsters, deformed birt h s , wonder and beauty of Go d’s plans and led people to
comets, wars, famines, pestilence, earthquakes, ghosts, expect an imminent Apocalypse. Howe ve r, later
d reams, demons, and witches. Belief in prodigies re s t s m e d i e val and early modern writers enthusiastically
on belief in a theocentric (Go d - c e n t e red) and unifie d embraced the biblical emphasis on prodigies as divine
u n i verse. In this way, the divine plan may include messages and signs of things to come.
unusual events or creatures on earth that people inter-
p ret as punishments or as spurs to action and moral Medieval and Early Modern
reformation. Similarly, aberrations in the natural order Prodigies
a re considered to be the result of human discord and Much of the classical tradition of prodigy literature was
sin. Such wonders can also be given scientific or natural transmitted through the writings of the encyclopedist
explanations, but in the Western tradition, theological Is i d o re of Seville and Albertus Magnus (ca.
or eschatological (related to the Last Judgment and the 1200–1280), as well as by the authors of numerous
end of the world) explanations have predominated. The texts on herbs (herbals) and strange animals (bestiaries).
l i t e r a t u re of prodigies is large, reaching its peak in Although the scope for wonderful yet essentially regu-
Europe during the religious and political unrest of the lar species widened as natural causes were investigated
early modern period between 1450 and 1750. under the influence of Arabic and Greek texts, most
medieval writers accepted God’s prerogative to suspend
Prodigies in Antiquity the normal laws of nature and produce prodigies.
Such classical authors as Aristotle, Virgil, Seneca, Pliny Therefore, singular events such as the conjunction of
the Elder, and Plutarch recorded numerous prodigies. planets (e.g., Mars and Saturn in 1484), bright comets
Cicero attempted to categorize and explain prodigies in (e.g., Halley’s Comet of 1066), and snow in summer or
De divinatione (On Divination). He explained that the plagues of mice were interpreted as threatening and
meaning of “prodigy” derives from the way in which divine messages.
such wonders “predict” (praedicunt), but argued that Religious disputes and political tensions contributed
some wonders should not be given a prodigious inter- to a spate of prodigy literature during the sixteenth
pretation. c e n t u ry. T h e re was an enormous range of texts, fro m
The Judeo-Christian tradition is full of pro d i g i o u s single-sheet woodcuts of monstrous births with a brief
e vents. For example, in the He b rew Bible, plagues of i n t e r p retation—such as that of a two-headed child born
locusts, frogs, and caterpillars rain down upon such to Jewish parents in Venice in 1575—to large and
wicked kings and nations as Pharaoh and the a p p a rently disorganized encyclopedias of pro d i g i e s
Philistines. In the New Testament, the Gospels of such as Conrad Wo l f f h a rt’s (pseud. Lycosthenes) 1557
Prodigies 933 |
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Pro d i g i o rum ac ostentorum chronicon, quae praeter natu- See also:ANTICHRIST;APOCALYPSE;ISIDOREOFSEVILLE,ST.;
rae ord i n e m ( C h ronicle of Prodigies and Po rtents T h a t MILLENARIANISM;MONSTERS;OCCULT;ORACLES.
A re Outside the Order of Na t u re). It was translated into References and further reading:
Barnes, Robin Bruce. 1988. Prophecy and Gnosis: Apocalypticism in
English and updated in 1581 by Stephen Bateman as
the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation.Stanford: Stanford
The Doome warning all men to the Ju d g e m e n t e . Some of
University Press.
the prodigies that they described had precise scriptural
Céard, Jean. 1977. La Nature et les prodiges: L’Insolite au XVI siècle
foundations. For instance, a seven-headed monster was
en France.Geneva: Droz.
i n t e r p reted as a clear warning of the seve n - h e a d e d
Daston, Lorraine, and Katharine Park. 1998. Wonders and the
mount of the whore of Ba bylon described in Re ve l a t i o n Order of Nature, 1150–1750.NewYork: Zone Books.
17:3–18. Other prodigies, such as an earthquake in the Hanafi, Zakiya. 2000. The Monster in the Machine: Magic,
Italian city of Venice in 1511 in which certain statues on Medicine, and the Marvelous in the Time of the Scientific
public buildings we re damaged, we re given more Revolution.Durham and London: Duke University Press.
l o c a l i zed political interpretations by witnesses. Kappler, Claude. 1980. Monstres, démons et merveilles à la fin du
Prodigies we re often related to providences (punish- moyen âge.Paris: Payot.
Niccoli, Ottavia. 1990. Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy.
ments of the ungodly), and consequently the early
Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
modern fascination with such curiosities was sharpened
University Press.
by confessional strife. Protestants and Catholics dire c t e d
Schenda, Rudolf. 1962. “Die deutschen Prodigiensammlungen des
the accusation of being Antichrist against each other. Fo r
16. und 17. Jahrhunderts.” Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens
instance, Ma rtin Luther considered the Roman papacy
4: cols. 637–710.
to be Antichrist, whereas Catholics viewed Luther as the Walsham, Alexandra. 1999. Providence in Early Modern England.
Antichrist or at least one of the signs of his coming. T h e Oxford: Oxford University Press.
a d vent of the Antichrist was also taken as the surest of Wilson, Dudley. 1993. Signs and Wonders: Monstrous Births from
many signs that the struggles of the English Re f o r m a t i o n the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment.London: Routledge.
we re part of the last and decisive confrontation betwe e n
good and evil described in Re ve l a t i o n . Proof, Problem of
Because witches and prodigies both had eschatologi- The issue of proof is central to any analysis of the
cal significance and scriptural justification, they we re witch hunts. In vestigators who argue that the hunts
often discussed in the same breath. In addition, early we re campaigns to control certain types of people
modern men and women believed that many prodigies imply that proof of witchcraft was not part i c u l a r l y
had demonological causes and associated them with the i m p o rtant in the persecutions. In this view, if authori-
final struggle between good and evil. One demonolo- ties wished to discourage women from asserting their
gist detected signs of the Antichrist’s activities in the v i ews, for example, they would attack assert i ve women,
rise of witchcraft, explaining in 1623 that the with the accusation of witchcraft a mere cove r. But if
Antichrist had in fact been born twe l ve years before . the hunts are considered as efforts to uncover criminals
Ac c o rding to the influential Catholic theologian St . responsible for actual, perceptible damage to humans,
Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621), the Antichrist would animals, or pro p e rt y, proof must play a large role in
be a “noted magician” (magus). Conrad Wolffhart and any discussion.
Stephen Bateman both cited witchcraft trials in their Questions of evidence and proof in the courts are
books as signs of mankind’s future destruction. also related to the use of tort u re. Understanding it as a
The English politician and philosopher Fr a n c i s re p re s s i ve mechanism or as a warning to others not to
Bacon (1561–1626) dismissed such prodigies as “mon- engage in certain behavior also supports the conclu-
s t rous birt h s” as irregular but naturally occurring sion that the witch persecutions we re largely ways of
variations. Popular skepticism about prodigies is partic- m a rking acceptable social boundaries. But insofar as
ularly evident from the mid-seventeenth century, when the application of tort u re in criminal cases on the
the prodigious interpretation of comets, for instance, Eu ropean Continent and Scotland (it was rarely used
was often condemned as a facet of vulgar superstition or in Scandinavia or England) may be seen as an
of ove rzealous Christian belief. Howe ve r, “s c i e n t i fic” attempt, howe ver crude, to get at the truth, then the
explanations of the return of comets could still coexist hunts become drives to eliminate perc e i ved evildoers.
with a divine, if less frequently used, pre ro g a t i ve to The two major Continental law codes in force during
warn men and women of future doom. In the modern the witch hunts, the German Ca ro l i n a of 1532 and
“s c i e n t i fic” age, one catches a few echoes of the the 1539 French statutes of Vi l l e r s - C o t t e rets, made
eschatological understanding of natural events in clear that tort u re was to be used only in specific cir-
recurring fears about “a p o c a l y p t i c” disasters such as cumstances, when several clues (i n d i c i a) appeared to
asteroid impact and global warming. connect a suspect to a crime. For instance, Hans is
found stabbed to death, Fritz owns a knife that fits the
STEPHEN BOWD wounds, and the two men we re seen arguing short l y
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b e f o re the homicide. If Fritz does not confess sometimes supplemented by personal interrogation of
vo l u n t a r i l y, the courts might order him tort u re d . defendants. French appellate courts (p a rl e m e n t s), for
To pass a guilty sentence in a capital case, instance, began to ove rturn all death sentences for
Continental courts usually insisted on “c o m p l e t e witchcraft by local tribunals in the 1620s. Si m i l a r
proof,” which was either the testimony of two eyewit- t rends appeared later in De n m a rk, Sweden, and
nesses or a confession, sometimes dubbed the “Qu e e n Scotland.
of Proofs.” These standards appeared along with the L i k ewise, urban courts displayed more skepticism
n ew “Romano-canonical,” or inquisitorial court s , about proofs of witchcraft than their rural counterparts.
beginning in the eleventh century.The requirement of No convictions are re c o rded for Fr a n k f u rt, Ge r m a n y,
complete proof could often be satisfied only through a for example, although several cases dragged through the
confession; hence, on the Continent, pressure mounted city’s courts for years. Conviction rates in Geneva were
to obtain one when indicia existed. In all types of much lower than in close-by rural areas. The issue of
criminal cases, a suspect’s generally poor re p u t a t i o n reputation was less important in a city than in a village;
constituted an i n d i c i u m . But i n d i c i a , especially in in the former setting, high mobility meant that status
t roubled times or in a jurisdiction operating without rested largely on documents or direct testimony about
the supervision of appellate courts, might be as minor actions. Circumstantial evidence figured less strongly in
as an ugly appearance. places where hundreds of people might have been near-
Juries in England did not require “complete” proof, by when someone’s baby died unexpectedly. W h a t
so courts there had little need to use torture. However, might be called the social geography of evidence was
standards for conviction were not necessarily higher. In terribly, perhaps even decisively, important.
fact, courts in both old and New England sometimes For various reasons, standards of proof in witchcraft
found defendants guilty of witchcraft on the basis of cases declined in many parts of western Europe during
reputation and circumstantial evidence, for example, the witch hunts. Fear of witches might heighten suspi-
that a quarrelsome woman passed by a baby who fell cion of anyone, whether a social deviant or not. If a
ill and died. vehement witch hunter stirred an area into action
Whether or not torture was used in judicial proceed- against witches, news of trials close by sometimes
ings, witchcraft was re g a rded as an extremely serious p rompted both local peasants and officials to re a d
crime throughout Eu rope and No rth America fro m events in the worst possible light.
roughly 1430 far into the 1700s. It was simultaneously Some well-documented hunts show that lowe re d
like and unlike other capital crimes: no other offense s t a n d a rds of evidence evoked widespread objections; in
was ostensibly carried out with the help of a super- turn, such criticisms helped to end trials in many loca-
natural power, yet the damage that resulted was similar tions. Prompted in some instances by the ve h e m e n t
to the injuries inflicted for other reasons. Detailed case objections to the misuse of tort u re that Friedrich Sp e e
studies of witchcraft trials have shown that although the made in 1631, seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry German judges
charge of allying with the Devil usually re c e i ved close finally found that they could no longer tell who was a
attention from authorities, witnesses focused on the witch, because anyone could be accused, and given the
damage defendants had allegedly done to creatures and harsh methods of the tort u re chamber, almost anyo n e
things. Thus, suspects in witchcraft trials received much could be made to confess. Once the number of people
the same treatment as in other felony cases. Howe ve r, handled in this way reached a certain level, it became
the means of identifying suspects was often differe n t , clear that innocent residents had been convicted. At that
because people who had supposedly attended a witches’ point, the problem of what constituted reliable pro o f
Sabbat might be pressed under torture to name others was unmanageable, and hunts collapsed on the spot.
who had taken part. Yet even this chain reaction effect The witchcraft trials of 1692 in Sa l e m ,
was not peculiar to witchcraft trials; members of a gang Massachusetts, provide another vivid example of this
of thieves, for instance, might have undergone similar trend. Earlier in New England, juries had infrequently
treatment. These two kinds of charges seem interwoven returned guilty ve rdicts in witchcraft cases, and when
in at least one large case, the Za u b e re r - Ja c k l - Pro ze s s they did, judges sometimes overturned them. But in a
( So rc e re r - Ja c k - Trial) held at Salzburg from 1677 tense atmosphere of political insecurity and In d i a n
to 1680. attacks, juries in Salem Village accepted “s p e c t r a l
L ower courts might quickly turn to tort u re and e v i d e n c e” as proof of witchcraft in one fatal ye a r.
accept its results, especially if great fears of witches Witnesses testified that defendants’ specters had
affected a given area. Higher courts often had higher attacked them, even when the accused had demonstra-
s t a n d a rds of evidence. Re m oved from the emotional bly been elsew h e re. But in 1693 the members of one
ground of unexplained destruction and from the repu- jury repudiated their decisions of the previous months,
tation anyone bore in a face-to-face community, appel- saying that they had relied on “such evidence against
late justices based their decisions on written evidence, the accused, as, on further consideration and better
Proof, Problem of 935 |
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information, we justly fear was insufficient for the Thurston, RobertW. 2001. Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: The Rise
touching the lives of any” (Kors and Peters 2001, 437). and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America.
In place after place, the witch hunts subsided ove r London: Longman.
the issue of proof, despite continuing references to the
power of the Devil and his minions. When large num- Protestant Reformation
bers of people we re accused (several hundred we re The Reformation, which began in Germany by 1520
named, at least unoffic i a l l y, in the Salem affair) and and quickly spread to the whole of central, western, and
the standards of proof were quite low, anyone might be n o rthern Eu rope, had considerable impact on the histo-
convicted. Witch hunts sometimes fell, in effect, from ry of Eu ropean witchcraft trials. By the mid-fif t e e n t h
their own weight. c e n t u ry, the concept of witchcraft had already acquire d
A focus on how standards of proof in witchcraft cases clear contours, and the first substantial prosecutions of
declined and finally rose suggests that the trials we re this new “s e c t” had already begun. Meanwhile, the
not about disciplining any category of people; they In q u i s i t i o n’s longstanding preoccupation with older
resembled other contemporary criminal processes in kinds of heretics took a back seat in Ge r m a n y, where
their examination of evidence, except that panics about such trials had petered out entirely long before the
witchcraft were more likely than other crimes to afflict a Reformation began. Both ecclesiastical and secular
g i ven area. Witches could allegedly fly and gather authorities who retained their allegiance to Rome turned
anywhere in great numbers in an instant, so that their their undivided attention to fighting the Re f o r m a t i o n .
danger seemed acute to many Eu ropeans, part i c u l a r l y The Reformation did not end the witch hunts;
when assiduous witch finders, news of other trials, or instead, most of the new Protestant churches evo l ve d
general anxiety highlighted their activities. The erection d i s t i n c t i ve theological framew o rks for persecuting
of new social boundaries or definitions cannot be corre- alleged witches. After its consolidation at the Council
lated with witch hunts. Sometimes they occurred where of Trent (1545–1563), the Roman Catholic Churc h
such change never happened, but in regions of gre a t refurbished its late medieval doctrines. By the late six-
social realignment they may have been minor or com- teenth century, alleged witches and sorcerers were per-
pletely absent. Instead, the witch persecutions centered secuted with va rying intensity by eve ry confessional
on the issue of proof. denomination, except the underground Anabaptist
sects. The climax of the witch persecution occurre d
ROBERT W. THURSTON between the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Peace of
Westphalia (1648). Certain historians have extended
See also:CONFESSIONS;DECLINEOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;EVIDENCE;
the Reformation period into the seventeenth century,
GERMANY,SOUTHWESTERN;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;
which suggests that the Reformation was an essential
NEWENGLAND;SALEM;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;TORTURE.
References and further reading: element in the increased frenzy against witches.
Boguet, Henri. 1602. Discours des sorciers: Tiré de quelques procez, However, it is more helpful to distinguish between the
faicts de deux ans en ça à plusieurs de la même secte, en la terre de pre-1560 reformations and the subsequent confessional
S. Oyan de Ioux, dicté de S. Claude au comte de Bourgogne: Avec period (late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries),
une instruction pour une iuge, en faict de sorcellerie.Lyon: Iean when conditions we re entirely different in the Ho l y
Pillehotte. Roman Empire, where most witch hunts occurred.
Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and
Except in Upper Ge r m a n y, where Heinrich Kramer
Cultural Context of European Witchcraft.2nd edition. Malden,
had already conducted extensive witchcraft pro s e c u-
MA, and Oxford: Blackwell.
tions, Protestantism generated a re s e rved attitude
Karlsen, Carol F. 1987. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman:
t ow a rd witchcraft trials. The phenomenon was
Witchcraft in Colonial New England.NewYork: W.W.Norton.
a p p roached primarily through expositions of the fir s t
Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Witchcraft in Europe,
1100–1700: A Documentary History.2nd ed. Revised by commandment, as a continuation of earlier attacks on
Edward Peters. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. superstition by medieval preachers. Their aversion to
Langbein, John H. 1977. Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and Dominican Scholasticism and to the papal Inquisition
England in the Ancien Regime.Chicago: University of Chicago contributed to the fact that the early reformers, at least
Press. Martin Luther and the Swabian reformer Johann Brenz,
Midelfort, H.C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern opposed the cumulative concept of witchcraft. Wi t h
Germany, 1562–1684.Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Philipp Melanchthon and Jean Calvin, humanist
Soman, Alfred. 1985. “Criminal Jurisprudence in Ancien-Regime
i n fluences increased their skepticism tow a rd cert a i n
France: The Parlement of Paris in the Sixteenth and
elements of the concept of witches. Because the
Seventeenth Centuries.” Pp. 43–75 in Crime and Criminal
Reformation was predominantly concerned with the
Justice in Europe and Canada.Edited by Louis A. Knafla.
beliefs and practices of laypeople, forms of superstitious
Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Spee, Friedrich von. 1649. Cautio Criminalis,German edition. practices came under constant scru t i n y. Early
Frankfurt-am-Main. Protestants widened their interpretation of violations of
936 Protestant Reformation |
Subsets and Splits