Beginning in the 14th century, witchcraft-persecution in Europe reached its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries and gradually ended in the 18th century. Apart from this broad local and temporal framework, in the Historic sciences several elements of uncertainty still exist. For instance, the number of accused people varies from over 100,000 to a million, and their geographical and chronological distribution was extremely uneven. Moreover, the phenomenon of witchcraft can hardly ever be linked with a specific group of society, as “it involved both the educated classes and the common people”.
In this essay, however, we will firstly consider the appreciation of witchcraft by the elite as well as by the populace (section II). Thereupon, section III describes the preconditions for and the functions of witchcraft-beliefs. Then, section IV shows the interaction of traditional popular sentiments and contemporary authoritarian views and its results. Finally, section V. examines the causes for the transformation from a “private” handling of witchcraft to formal accusations, the affected people and the expansion of their number.
Contents
I. Introduction
II. Definitions of the term “witchcraft”
III. Assumptions for and advantages of the belief in witchcraft
IV. The authorities’ deal with the traditional idea of witchcraft and the consequences
V. Reasons for official accusations of certain people and their spreading number
VI. Summary
VII. Bibliography
I. Introduction
Beginning in the 14th century, witchcraft-persecution in Europe reached its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries and gradually ended in the 18th century. Apart from this broad local and temporal framework, in the Historic sciences several elements of uncertainty still exist. For instance, the number of accused people varies from over 100,000 to a million, and their geographical and chronological distribution was extremely uneven.[1] Moreover, the phenomenon of witchcraft can hardly ever be linked with a specific group of society, as “it involved both the educated classes and the common people”[2].
In this essay, however, we will firstly consider the appreciation of witchcraft by the elite as well as by the populace (section II). Thereupon, section III describes the preconditions for and the functions of witchcraft-beliefs. Then, section IV shows the interaction of traditional popular sentiments and contemporary authoritarian views and its results. Finally, section V. examines the causes for the transformation from a “private” handling of witchcraft to formal accusations, the affected people and the expansion of their number.
II. Definitions of the term “witchcraft”
The belief in witchcraft was expressed by the various social strata in divergent ways; therefore, the attempt to define this term should reflect the different attitudes as well as the dissimilar approaches that have been developed by historians.
Theoretical considerations about witch-beliefs, based on a view “from above”, range from concepts, denying even the physical existence of “witches”, to the hypotheses of a “witch-cult”. Two contradicted theories of scholars mark the framework of this controversy: Ignaz Döllinger, a Catholic theologian, “looks upon the witch as a monstrous product of the imagination dreamed up by small-minded lawyers and theologians in the service of a temporal authority”, while J. Michelet, a romantic historian, “considers the witch to be a real person, a product of despair: the priestess of a cult formed by outcasts and unprotected members of society”[3].
Unlike these extreme and undifferentiated notions, Keith Thomas examines the context of witchcraft with regard to interaction of popular magical beliefs and religion.[4] In accordance with the level of knowledge proclaimed by Thomas (and others), “witches” can be defined as persons, who possess magical abilities – either beneficent or malevolent.[5] Distinguishing elements between these two variations might be their functions as well as their intentions: whereas the “wise women”, “cunning folk”, wizards, “white witches” and diviners tended to practice benevolent activities like healing or love- and protective magic, their counterparts used to employ their powers in order to intentionally cause harm.[6] The way in which this so-called maleficium was carried out remained inexplicable or rather supernatural; “witches” were thought to induce misfortune through their evil purposes by “overlooking” (bad influence by the eyes), “forspeaking” (e.g. curses), etc.[7]
The effects of the “witch’s” occult agency varied depending on local and temporal circumstances; in England the accusations referred chiefly to mysterious injuries or killings of animals and people as well as to interference of nature – on the Continent, however, suspects might influence the weather and relationships among people as well.[8]
In correspondence with this changeable extent of power, images and attributes of “witches” cannot claim uniformity at all. As a comparison of different areas of Europe demonstrates, for instance, the ascriptions to witches, such as the sabbath, sexual consorts with the devil, the ability to fly and the broomstick, appeared far more often in Continental trials than in English ones.[9] Finally, Carlo Ginzburg has proven in his survey about benandanti (ritual opponents of “witches”) in Friuli[10] that “witchcraft beliefs can differ significantly even within fairly small regions, and they can change rapidly over a fairly short span of time”[11].
As a result of this plurality, authorities had difficulties in identifying “witches”. Thus, not only were certain patterns of behaviour prevailing indicators, but appearance might also have made a contribution to accusations. Particular emphasis was placed on the existence of the “diabolic mark”, for this stigmata became a symbol of the devil’s pact and therefore an evidence of guilt. Moreover, two Dominican friars Henry Institor (Kraemer) and Jacob Sprenger published the Malleus Maleficarum (1486), and this summary of many seemingly proofs of witchcraft offered detailed guidance for Inquisitors.[12]
III. Assumptions for and advantages of the belief in witchcraft
Although almost all trials of „witches’“ took place in the Early Modern Period, the belief in supernatural powers had been established since ancient times.[13] The conviction of what we call “superstitious” today based on a view of life that ascribes potencies to the elements of nature. On the one hand, wo/men associated the (male) sun with life and goodness, on the other hand, the (female) moon and night were closely linked with evil, death and fear, and certain persons were supposed to harness the forces of nature and to manipulate them. The boundaries between physical reality and imaginations blurred, and invisible forces seemed to be true.[14] “An excessive belief in the power of imagination”[15] facilitated the conviction of the reality of magic and its practice. The acceptance of the reality of magic and “witches” even led to its occurrence in one of the most renowned European laws – the Salic law:[16]
If one man shall call another hereburgium or herburgium, runs the wording of the law […], and accuses him of having carried a cauldron (aeneum or inium) to the place where witches (stiriae or striae) meet, and shall be unable to prove it, let him be arraigned himself and condemned to pay a fine of two thousand five hundred denarii, that is sixty-two solidi and a half.[17]
[...]
[1] See N. Cohn: ‘The Myth of Satan and his Human Servants’, in M. Douglas (ed.) Witchcraft confessions & accusations, (London/New York/Sydney, 1970), p. 12f.; B. P. Levack: The Witch-hunt in early modern Europe, (London9, 1994), p. ix, 1; E. W. Monter: The Historiography of European Witchcraft: Progress and Prospects, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2 (1971-72), p. 435.
[2] Levack Witch-hunt p. ix
[3] J. C. Baroja: The world of the witches, (London, 1964), p. 81.
[4] See K. Thomas: Religion and the decline of magic. Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, (London/ New York/ Victoria, 1971)
[5] See Thomas Religion p. 517; For a distinction between „witchcraft“ and „sorcery“ see ibid. p. 551-554
[6] In the forthcoming, I will use the term „witch“ merely in connection with the „malevolent“ part.
[7] See Thomas Religion p. 517, 519, 554; R. A. Horsley: ‘Who Were the Witches? The Social Roles of the Accused in the European Witch Trials’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 9 (1979), pp. 690, 695, 697.
[8] See Thomas Religion p. 519
[9] See Thomas Religion p. 529; Monter Historiography p. 449
[10] See Carlo Ginzburg: The Night Battles. Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, (London/ Melbourne / Henley, 1983)
[11] Monter Historiography p. 450
[12] See C. Holmes: ‘Popular Culture? Witches, Magistrates, and Divines in Early Modern England’, in S. L. Kaplan (ed.) Understanding Popular Culture. Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, (Berlin/ New York/ Amsterdam, 1984), pp. 95f., 98; Baroja Witches p. 92; Thomas Religion p. 521
[13] See Baroja Witches
[14] See Baroja Witches p. 8-13; Holmes Culture p. 97; Thomas Religion p. 520
[15] Thomas Religion p. 520
[16] See Baroja Witches p. 59; Thomas Religion p. 540, 611
[17] Cf. Du Cange, Glossarium (Paris, 1733), II, cols. 567-8, in Baroja Witches p. 59
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