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Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition

46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.937 Application File the first commandment to include re ve rence paid to offenders. On the one hand, this element of Reformed saints and idolizing elements of creation, as well as to doctrine encouraged witchcraft trials and was adopted a s t rology and eve rything that distracted people fro m later by the Catholics; on the other hand, the real faith in God. Every Christian was exposed as a rad- Reformation stressed the individual believe r’s dire c t ically superstitious being. relationship to God, an aspect that discouraged mass The background for this was the idea, shared by all persecution. Thus with re g a rd to sorc e ry, the central streams of the Reformation, of human beings’ inherent message of the Reformation was that people should not sinfulness and consequent inability to obtain righteous- blame misfortune or affliction on witches and sorcerers ness before God with their own strength, necessitating but accept that even unnatural sickness was due to the complete dependence on Go d’s forgiveness and grace. direct will of God. In following decades, this argument In the early stages of the movement, all Re f o r m e r s of the re q u i rement of Go d’s permission for witchcraft f a vo red spreading the Gospel without force, and combined with widespread rejection of the concept of Lu t h e r’s rejection of civic punishment for heresy was witches flying and holding Sabbats—both of which are one reason for his criminal conviction in 1520. Finally, specific to the Reformation—reduced the prospects for the strongly eschatological aspect of the early large-scale witch hunts in Protestant Europe. Reformation assumed that the end of the world was By the end of the Reformation movement aro u n d imminent and led to a strong conviction that the refor- 1555, a theological system had developed that mation of the Church was the last great event in world conformed to its original ideas but left the issue of history, one that would transform the whole Church in witchcraft unre s o l ved. T h e re f o re, during the subse- accordance with God’s will. In Luther’s later works, we quent confessional period, a re l a t i vely open discussion find the assertion that sorc e ry and superstition had of the doctrine of witchcraft was possible within d e c reased when the Gospel began to “run its course,” Protestantism, in sharp contrast to the doctrinal but that evil was again increasing, since the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church after the con- Reformation had not prevailed everywhere. demnation of Cornelius Loos in the 1590s. Protestant The concept of witchcraft survived the Reformation opponents of the witchcraft trials such as Jo h a n n not because, as liberal nineteenth-century Pro t e s t a n t i s m We ye r, Anton Prätorius, Johann Matthäus Me y f a rt , a s s e rted, some medieval “re l i c s” we re unintentionally and numerous others were not considered outsiders by retained. Rather the Reformation was subject to a s u p p o rters of seve re witch persecution. Howe ve r, by premodern interpretation of the world to a significantly 1600 the concept of witchcraft had changed within g reater degree than “e n l i g h t e n e d” or “d i s e n c h a n t e d” Protestantism, because Protestant (and in part i c u l a r, Protestant theology was willing to admit. When Er n s t Lutheran) theology had reverted to the Scholastic inter- Troeltsch distinguished “old” and “new” Protestantism pretation of Aristotle and now accepted the cumulative a round 1900, his principal criterion was the stro n g concept of witchcraft, including the notion of witches supernaturalism of old Protestantism. This, in fact, flying and holding Sabbats. explained why concepts of sorc e ry and witchcraft, Nevertheless, even orthodox books on doctrine, such varied though they we re, could be retained in as those of Johann Gerhard, contain no statements that Protestantism until the eighteenth century. e xceed Go d’s permission for practicing witchcraft. Fu rther developments in the Reformation move m e n t Much Protestant exegetical literature of the confession- strengthened this phenomenon. In 1530, the failure of al period interpreted the biblical statements on witch- an attempted consensus between different re f o r m craft with a re s e rvation not unlike that of the Early m ovements within the church became apparent, and Middle Ages; in addition, the great increase in the separate church stru c t u res soon evo l ved in Ge r m a n philological knowledge of Protestant exegetes encour- Protestant territories, England, and the Scandinavian aged doubts about the validity of the contemporary countries. Their disciplinary regulations generally concept of witches. Thus the theological spectrum of included clauses prohibiting sorcery but did not define the Reformation was considerably broad; by the late this concept. In eve ry Protestant region (as in places sixteenth century, a cautious graduation separated the retaining allegiance to Rome), regulations tre a t e d s t rong Lutheran theology as expressed in the Fo rm u l a witchcraft, divination, and similar violations of the first C o n c o rd i a e ( Formula Concord) of 1577, commandment as serious religious offenses. Melanchthonian Lutheran theology, and Re f o r m e d At the same time, there was growing pre s s u re to Calvinism, which already partly rejected elements of apply religious discipline in order to display the success supernaturalism and thus started a theological develop- of the respective confession and to enforce its require- ment that led to a radical rejection of the fundamentals ments. The particular Protestant emphasis on the pro- of the witch hunts. However, witchcraft trials occurred hibition of even harmless sorc e ry and the misuse of in nearly all territories and states of the va r i o u s Christian symbols and subject matter (often called Protestant denominations, with the Calvinist electoral white magic) enormously widened the circle of possible Palatinate being the most important exception. Within Protestant Reformation 937

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Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition

46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.938 Application File Ge r m a n y, the focal point of witchcraft persecution, destruction of the Prussian archives in the twentieth Reformed territories usually conducted fewer trials than century prevents an accurate estimate of the number of Lutheran states. trials and executions. However, sources do exist in the C h u rch historians have evaluated the Re f o r m a t i o n’s Polish state archives in Gdan´sk and in Bydgoszczy and role in the history of witchcraft trials from various per- in the library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in s p e c t i ves. In the early nineteenth century, Pro t e s t a n t Gdansk (Danzig). historians firmly rejected any notion of confessional The political and ethnic history of this region, like so “g u i l t” for mass prosecutions; in the late nineteenth much else in eastern Europe, is complex. The Teutonic c e n t u ry, Catholics claimed exactly the opposite, that Ord e r, which forcibly Christianized this territory, the Reformation laid the foundation for the hysteria favored German colonization in the area. In effect, the about witches. The consensus from these debates is that population that developed mixed native Prussians with the Reformation undoubtedly permitted a continua- Germans, Poles, and Pomeranians. After Poland’s King tion of witchcraft trials and that this was not uninten- Casmir IV defeated the Teutonic knights in 1466, their tional and was theologically motivated. However, rela- lands were divided into Royal Prussia, which was incor- t i vely recent empirical studies (Mi d e l f o rt 1972) porated directly into Poland, and a vassal-state ruled by suggested that, at least in Germany, Catholic territories the order. The latter part became the duchy of Prussia pursued these prosecutions with somewhat gre a t e r in 1525, when the grand master of the Teutonic Order intensity than most Protestant territories. One re a s o n c o n ve rted to Protestantism. This entry examines the for this lay in the theological emphasis on an territory of ducal and Royal Prussia proper and excludes i n s c rutable divine Providence that characterized the the Brandenburg section of the Prussian state. Du c a l Reformation; in addition, Protestantism had seve r a l and Royal Prussia’s population in the sixteenth century leading fig u res, not all of whom we re interested in was between 500,000 and 800,000; by the late eigh- witchcraft trials. Howe ve r, a compre h e n s i ve study of teenth century, Prussia’s population was between 2 and the influence of the Reformation on the history of 2.5 million. witchcraft trials, based on the insights gained over the last fifty years, is still a desideratum for historians of The Law - Christianity and of the witch hunts. Although the Chelmno Law was commonly re c o g n i ze d , it had no uniform codification and hence was locally JÖRG HAUSTEIN; applied in the three most popular revisions, its Lidzbark , TRANSLATED BY HELEN SIEGBURG Nowe Miasto, and To run´ versions. All Prussian laws p e n a l i zed witchcraft with death by burning. T h e See also: ANABAPTISTS;APOCALYPSE;BRENZ,JOHANN; CALVIN,JOHN;HOLYROMANEMPIRE;KRAMER,HEINRICH; Teutonic knights, who we re technically friars, ran eccle- LOOS,CORNELIUS;LUTHER,MARTIN;MEYFART,JOHANN siastical courts, which commonly heard cases of mis- MATTHÄUS;PALATINATE,ELECTORATEOF;PRÄTORIUS,ANTON; deeds against God and religion, witchcraft included, SUPERSTITION;WEYER,JOHANN. b e f o re and after accepting Polish suzerainty in 1466. References and further reading: Because witchcraft was treated re l a t i vely mildly under Behringer,Wolfgang. 1987. “‘Vom Unkraut unter dem Weizen’: canon law (fines or penance usually involving public dis- Die Stellung der Kirchen zum Hexenproblem.” Pp. 60–95 in play of the sentenced clad in humiliating attire, com- Hexenwelten: Magie und Imagination vom 16.–20. Jahrhundert. monly in front of the church at the time when the locals Edited by Richard van Dülmen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer. g a t h e red for Mass), sorc e ry cases increasingly re a c h e d Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft municipal and other secular courts; many autonomous in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. Prussian towns passed so-called Willkür (discre t i o n ; Diefenbach, Johann. 1886. Der Hexenwahn vor und nach der Glaubensspaltung in Deutschland. Mainz: Kirchheim. a r b i t r a ry action), city and village statutes against witch- Haustein, Jörg. 1990. Martin Luthers Stellung zum Zauberer- und craft. Some of these statutes stipulated that witches be Hexenwesen.Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. burned alive, some sent the witch to the block before Midelfort, Erik H. C. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern burning, and some decreed banishment for life. After Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. 1532, ducal Prussia followed the Carolina (the Stanford: Stanford University Press. Constitutio Criminalis Ca ro l i n a), the imperial law code Paulus, Nikolaus. 1910. Hexenwahn und Hexenprozess, vornehmlich p romulgated in that ye a r, and Royal Prussia re c o g n i ze d im 16. Jahrhundert.Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. it on an auxiliary basis. Prussian laws we re not re f o r m e d Waite, Gary K. 2003. Heresy, Magic, and Witchcraft in Early until the mid-eighteenth century. In 1746, King Modern Europe.Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Frederick IV granted Samuel von Coccei the authority to reform the Prussian legal system, and a royal decree in Prussia 1750 made all death sentences, corporal punishments, Witchcraft trials we re common in early modern and tort u re subject to royal approval, although tort u re Prussia, being held in at least fifty places, but the was not abolished until 1754, well after the end of 938 Prussia

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Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition

46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.939 Application File witchcraft trials. The motivation for this judicial re f o r m a r rests could have been caused by a massive hunt for was state centralization, not humanitarian considera- Prussian folk healers who might have bewitched the tions. Royal Prussia abolished witchcraft as a crime only young mentally ill Prince Albrecht. A record of criminal in 1776, due to the constitution adopted by the Po l i s h cases for the year 1595 lists 655 trials in Pru s s i a , p a r l i a m e n t . including 50 for witchcraft (this fig u re of 8 percent is re l a t i vely high in comparison with other Ge r m a n Trials in Prussia evidence, but not remarkable) (Wunder 1983). Because of the ruination the Prussian arc h i ves suffere d A few localities produced numerous trials. Fo r in World Wars I and II, the history, intensity, and example, Fo rdon (now a district of Byd g o s zcz), a place extent of witchcraft trials in Prussia can be re c o n- with only 271 inhabitants in 1674, held 73 witchcraft s t ructed only fragmentarily; occasionally an older work trials between 1675 and 1747, mostly coming from thre e ˙ - (Lilienthal 1861) provides information that has since neighboring villages (Zole˛ d owo, Ja s t rze˛bie, and Ni e m c z ) . been destroyed. Our earliest surviving Prussian evi- Another town of equal size, Nowe, re c o rded 28 persons dence comes from the bishopric of Chelmno, where accused of witchcraft. In one quite small Prussian city, s o rc e rers we re given ecclesiastical penances and occa- Braunsberg, over 120 witchcraft trials are known before sionally banished. Exile was a means to maintain peace 1772. Its Old Town banished several sorc e rers betwe e n and order within a village; as late as 1724, the need to 1534 and 1604 before burning its first witch in 1605 and do this was stated explicitly as the grounds for a sen- its last in 1670; its New Town (whose re c o rds began only tence of banishment given by a local court in in 1600) burned its first witch in 1610 and its last one in St a ro g a rd . 1686. Overall, trials came in small clusters (a maximum Of course, witches were frequently put to death: for of 6) and under half of those tried (58 of 122) we re example, the Cistercians had two women beheaded and e xecuted. In Braunsberg, witches agreed that the De v i l burned at Oliwa in 1662 (Rozenkranz 1993) and three had no nostrils (Lilienthal 1861, 99). Pru s s i a’s last witch- more in 1664 (Bogucka 1997). On rural estates owned craft trial took place in 1767, with the last execution for by self-governing towns, witchcraft convictions seem witchcraft in 1767 (in Ol i w a ) . much more frequent and severe. In the towns, such tri- Despite the formal abolition of witchcraft pro s e c u- als appear even more numerous. The accusations were tion imposed in the second half of the eighteenth absolutely stereotypical: casting spells on humans or century, attempts to put witches on trial in Prussia were animals, acting in alliance and fornicating with the made as late as in the nineteenth and even twe n t i e t h Devil, and producing poisons. Despite massive destruc- centuries. When unsuccessful, such attempts some- tion, surviving sources indicate that witchcraft trials times ended in lynchings. In 1811 a woman accused of - were held in some fifty Prussian localities (B˛agart, Bialy witchcraft (in connection with the great fire of the B ó r, Br a n i ewo, Byd g o s zcz, Chojnice, Cze r n i e j ew o , t own) was executed by burning in Re s zel. The court , - Fo rdon, Gdansk, Gl˛ebock, Gn i ew, Gru d z i˛adz, Ja n t a r, h owe ve r, did not consider the case in terms of - Ke˛ t rzyn, Królewiec, Kw i d z yn´, Ml y n a ry, Mra˛ g ow o , witchcraft, but arson. In 1836, a woman suspected of - Nowe, Nowy Dwór Gdan´ski, Olecko, Oliwa, Or n e t a , witchcraft in the village of Chalupy was dunked, and - - Ostróda, Pa sle˛k, Pi e n i˛ez˙no, Pr a b u t y, Ps zc z ólki, Pu c k , she drowned. The justice administration judged the R˛ebielicz, Romankowo, Rudno, Skarszewy, Staniszewo, lynching seve rely and sentenced the ringleader to St a ro g a rd, St a ry Targ, Straszyn, Su b k ow y, Sze s t n o , prison for life. Se veral claims of witchcraft we re fil e d S zc zo d rowo, Szczytno, Szpengawsk, T c zew, To run´ , with the court of Puck as late as in the pre–World War Tra˛bki, Tro p y, Tuchola, Ujes´cisko, We j h e row o , II period. The court, howe ve r, dismissed the suits; - - Wloclawek, and Zalewo). witchcraft trials then disappear from the re c o rds. All Any figures for Prussian witchcraft trials can only be that remains of the trials are local topographical names, estimates. Furthermore, the number of people convict- such as L-yse Góry (Sabbat Hills), Góry Cz a row n i c ed for witchcraft cannot be determined because the (Witch Hills), and Stawy Czarownic (Witch Ponds). materials in our possession frequently mention the ini- KRZYSZTOF SZKUR-LATOWSKI tiation of a trial or re p resent only fragments of court files, without final sentences. However, some fragmen- See also:COURTSECCLESIASTICAL;DANZIG(GDANSK); DECLINEOF tary information suggests that witchcraft trials were rel- THEWITCHHUNTS;ECCLESIASTICALTERRITORIES;GERMANY, a t i vely frequent in Prussia, the only largely NORTHEASTERN;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); Germanophone Baltic region, just as they were in other POLAND;ROMANCATHOLICCHURCH;TRIALS. References and further reading: Germanic enclaves in eastern Europe. In 1571, accord- Bogucka, Maria. 1997. Z˙y´c w dawnym Gdan´sku.Warsaw: ing to Hans Sp a t t e’s reliable chronicle from Gdansk, Wydawnictwo Trio. Prussian prisons held 134 women convicted of witch- Janicka, Danuta. 1992.Prawo karne w trzech rewizjach prawa craft, and 60 of them were burned (Simson 1902). This chel- min´skiego z XVI wieku.Torun: Towarzystwo Naukowe w fairly early and possibly greatly exaggerated number of Toruniu. Prussia 939

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Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition

46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.940 Application File Koranyi, Karol. 1927. “Czary i gus-la przed sa˛dami kos´cielnemi w To his fellow “enlightened” physicians, Pinel explained Polsce.” Lud26: 1–25. the therapeutic value of exo rcism: it offered an emo- Langbein, John. 1976. Torture and the Law of Proof.Chicago: tional shock treatment to cure deluded sufferers of University of Chicago Press. demonic possession through cathartic cere m o n i e s L-aszewski, Ryszard. 1974.Wymiar sprawiedliwo´sci we wsiach imbued with strong emotional connotations. The fir s t województwa chel-min´skiego w 16 i 17 wieku.Torun: man to hold an academic chair of psychiatry in France, Uniwersytet Miko-laja Kopernika. - Je a n - Ma rtin Charcot, coedited Demoniacs in Art ———. 1988. “Prawo karne w dobrach biskupstwa chelmin´skiego w pierwszej po-lowie XVIII wieku.” Pp. 365–435 in Ksi˛ega (1887), which contained artistic representations of the pamia˛tkowa 750- lecia prawa chel-min´skiego.Torun´: Uniwersytet possessed from the fifth to the eighteenth century.With Miko-laja Kopernika. a romanticized perception of Weyer, Charcot developed Lilienthal, Johann A. 1861. Die Hexenprozesse der beiden Städte an analytic method known as “retrospective medicine,” Braunsberg, nach den Criminalacten des Braunsberger Archivs. using his own theories about hysteria to analyze histori- Königsberg. cal cases of possession. Maisel, Witold, and Z. Zdrójkowski, eds. 1985. Prawo Sigmund Freud, the foremost pioneer of psyc h o- Starochel-min´skie.Torun: Uniwersytet Miko-laja Kopernika. analysis, learned about re t ro s p e c t i ve medicine while Reich, Felix. 1940. Hexenprozesse in Danzig und in den west- studying with Charcot in Paris in 1885. Freud also re a d preussischen Grenzgebieten. Munich: Universität München. widely in early modern medicine, theology, interpre t a- Rozenkranz, Erwin. 1993. Gdan´ska archeologia prawna.Gdan´sk: tions of dreams, and demonological literature. He deve l- Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdanskiego. Salmonowicz, Stanis-law. 1987. Prusy: Dzieje pan´stwa i oped a lifelong admiration for We yer and incorporated spol-eczen´stwa,Poznan´: Wydawnictwo Poznan´skie. the tenets of re t ro s p e c t i ve medicine into his own analy- Simson, Paul. 1902. “Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des ses of hysteria. Later, Freud made a detailed study of the Zauberwahnes in Danzig.” Mitteilungen des Westpereussichen demonic possession of Johann Christoph Haizmann, a Geschichtvereins1:76. s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry painter—arguably the first work of - Szkurlatowski, Krzysztof. 1997. “Proces inkwizycyjny przeciwko p s yc h o h i s t o ry. Since that time, numerous scholars, with czarownictwu w praktyce sa˛dów so-ltysich województwa va rying degrees of success, have applied psyc h o a n a l y t i c malborskiego na prze-lomie XVII i XVIII wieku na tle rozwoju methods and categories to explain subconscious motiva- europejskiego prawa karnego.” Rocznik Elbla˛ski15: 45–53. tions among witch hunters, accused witches, and Wunder, Heide. 1983. “Hexenprozesse im Herzogtum Preussen demoniacs. Two notew o rthy examples studied witch während des 16. Jahrhunderts.” Pp 179–203 in Hexenprozesse: persecutions in early modern New England (De m o s Deutsche und skandinavische Beiträge.Edited by Christian 1982) and offered a gender analysis of witchcraft trials Degn, Hartmut Lehmann, and Dagmar Unverhau. Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz Verlag. in Augsburg (Roper 1994). Zygner, Leszek. 1998. “Kobieta-czarownica w s´wietle ksia˛g konsys- A second reason why a psychoanalytic perspective torskich z XV i pocz˛atku XVI w.” Pp. 91–102 in Kobieta i has enriched historical analysis of the witch hunts lies in rodzina w´sredniowieczu i na progu czasów nowoz˙ytnych.Torun: the precocious sixteenth-century evolution of psyc h i a- Uniwersytet Miko-laja Kopernika. t ry and psychology as subjects of systematic inve s t i g a- tion. Casuists and demonologists of all confessions Psychoanalysis (We ye r, for example, was Protestant) undertook such Because psychiatry is traditionally associated with pas- i n vestigation; howe ve r, the Catholic Society of Je s u s toral care and demonic possession with hysteria and p roduced many early prominent leaders in this fie l d . insanity, psychoanalysis has proven a particularly fruit- Indeed, Ma rtín Del Rio, a prominent Spanish Je s u i t ful interdisciplinary method for investigating the witch and demonologist, coined the term p s yc h i a t ry. In his hunts in late medieval and early modern Europe. Florida Ma r i a n a (The Fl owers of Ma ry) of 1598, De l Psychoanalysis is the psychiatric method of studying Rio specifically described Jesus as a psychiatrist (psyche+ the individual subconscious as a case history in order to iatrus = “healer of souls”) who authorized his represen- diagnose disorders of the mind. The reasons for its t a t i ves on earth to heal troubled or afflicted souls usefulness as a historical tool are essentially twofold. t h rough various cathartic religious rituals and First, since the nineteenth century, seminal figures in sacraments (e.g., baptism, auricular confession, pil- p s yc h i a t ry repeatedly and consciously re f e r red back to grimage, exorcism, etc.); Del Rio and other theologians the witch hunts and demonology as historical examples literally touted such methods as “spiritual medicine.” to justify their own contemporary theories. They eulo- Widely re c o g n i zed by contemporaries thro u g h o u t gized the sixteenth-century skeptical witchcraft theorist Eu rope as “spiritual physic,” its practitioners (re f e r re d Johann We yer as the father of modern psyc h i a t ry, to by the Italian exorcist, Giralomo Menghi, as medici struggling against ignorance and superstition. In 1801, s p i r i t u a l e) supplemented ord i n a ry “physicians of the Phillipe Pinel praised We yer in his Traité médico- b o d y” (medici copora l e). In Catholic Eu rope, “s p i r i t u a l philosophique sur l’alienation mentale ou la manie p h y s i c i a n s” we re no mere allegory to “re a l” doctors; (Medical-Philosophical Treatise on Mental Alienation). their domain was officially re c o g n i zed by jurists and 940 Psychoanalysis

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Richard M.Golden - Encyclopedia of Witchcraft - The Western Tradition

46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.941 Application File even by physicians. Their perceived efficacy in treating Puritans were divided on the issue of church govern- both psychic and somatic illnesses agreed with ort h o- ment. Moderate Puritans we re willing to work within d ox perceptions of natural philosophy, Ga l e n i c the established episcopalian system of church gove r n- humoral pathology, Aristotelian physics, and the ment (i.e., a hierarchy of archbishops, bishops, and Catholic casuistry of moral theology. As a re l a t i ve l y a rchdeacons), but more radical groups advocated the c o h e rent psychiatric system, “spiritual physic” had introduction of either a presbyterian system, in which a strong social and moral components. hierarchy of clerical synods and assemblies governed the The twisted path from “spiritual physic” to modern church, or a congregational system, in which individual p s ychoanalysis is complex, but there is a continuous c o n g regations possessed considerable autonomy and emphasis in both on sexuality, sin, morality, and we re only loosely associated in a national churc h . emotions. The earlier form provides some import a n t Pre s byterians attempted without success to intro d u c e keys to supplement the potential of psychoanalysis for their system of church government during the reign of studying the historical mentality behind witchcraft Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Only during the trials, especially how the closely related rituals of Puritan Re volution of the 1640s did the We s t m i n s t e r judicial confessions and torture aided in construction of Assembly authorize the introduction of pre s by t e r i a n- the self. Fi n a l l y, “spiritual physic” offers a fre q u e n t l y ism. That system, howe ve r, was soon replaced by a i g n o red historical argument that psychoanalysis, as a congregational structure of church government during s c i e n t i fic method, has been linked for many centuries the 1650s. Members of Protestant sects that wished to with medicine and pastoral care. separate from the Church of England are generally not c l a s s i fied as Puritan, and after 1660 it is customary to DAVID LEDERER refer to the heirs of Puritans, such as Pre s by t e r i a n s , See also:DELRIO,MARTÍN;DEMONOLOGY;EXORCISM; Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers, as dissenters FREUD,SIGMUND;MEDICINEANDMEDICALTHEORY; rather than Puritans. MENTALILLNESS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;WEYER,JOHANN. Puritans we re often identified by their re l i g i o u s References and further reading: f e rvor and the intensity of their commitment to Demos, John P. 1982. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the religious reform. They we re the “g o d l y” ministers and Culture of Early Modern New England.Oxford: Oxford laymen, the more zealous or “hotter” sort of Pro t e s t a n t s , University Press. “saints” who were confident that they were members of Lederer, David. 2005. Madness, Religion and the State in Early Modern Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. the elect. As members of a godly community, Puritans Roper, Lyndal. 1994. Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality, practiced a rigorous moral discipline and sought to and Religion in Early Modern Europe.London and NewYork: impose that same discipline on others. Because Puritans Routledge. remained within the Church and only occasionally Vitz, Paul C. 1988. Sigmund Freud’s Christian Unconscious. were prosecuted for nonconformity, it is often difficult NewYork: William B. Eerdmans to distinguish between them and the more ort h o d ox English Protestants who are later re f e r red to as Puritanism Anglicans. Ne ve rtheless, many prominent En g l i s h A movement that shaped many of the ideas English demonologists between 1587 and 1646 (e.g., He n ry demonologists held in the late sixteenth and seven- Holland, George Gi f f o rd, William Pe rkins, Alexander teenth centuries, Puritanism also lent support to the Ro b e rts, Richard Be r n a rd, and John Gaule) acquire d prosecution of witches in England during the 1640s reputations as godly ministers and we re sometimes and in New England in 1692. Conversely, under some referred to as Puritans. Theologically these men were all circumstances, Puritanism made it more difficult for staunch Calvinists who resisted the efforts of Arminians courts to convict witches. (named for the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius) to The term Pu r i t a n is applied to English Pro t e s t a n t s weaken or modify the central Calvinist doctrine of of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries predestination. Perkins, whose status as one of the most who sought to make the English Church more fully respected English theologians surv i ved long after his Protestant and thus bring it into greater conformity death in 1602, provided inspiration for an entire with the Reformed or Calvinist churches on the generation of Puritan divines, including the most Eu ropean continent. Puritans we re dissatisfied with famous New England demonologist, Cotton Mather. the Elizabethan Settlement of Religion of 1559, These “Pu r i t a n” demonologists agreed on most claiming that it left the Church only part i a l l y major questions re g a rding witchcraft and diabolism. reformed. They sought there f o re to re m ove the ve s- First, like all good Calvinists, they proclaimed the tiges of popery from English religious services, such as sovereignty of God and the dependence of all demonic the wearing of vestments by the clergy, genufle c t i o n , activity on divine Providence. The Devil worked only the use of the sign of the cross, and bowing at the with the permission of God, and witches exe rcised no mention of the name of Je s u s . p ower of their own. Second, they emphasized the Puritanism 941

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.942 Application File demonic or spiritual nature of the witch’s crime, zeal. The religious orientation of Hopkins cannot be focusing on the pact with the Devil rather than on a s c e rtained, although his re f e rence to the marriage of m a l e ficium (harmful magic), which was the exc l u s i ve the Devil to witches according to the order prescribed concern of the English witchcraft statute of 1563 and in Book of Common Pr a yer (the service book of the the primary concern of the statute of 1604. T h e i r English Church) suggests Puritan sympathies. Jo h n concern with the diabolical nature of witchcraft, which Stearne, howe ve r, who served as Ho p k i n s’s assistant, usually did not include re f e rences to the witches’ was clearly a zealous Puritan layman, and in his treatise, Sabbat, also led them to argue that the white magic A Confirmation and Discove ry of Wi t c h c ra f t ( 1 6 4 8 ) , p e rformed by healers and cunning folk, which they Stearne described the prosecution of witches as a spiri- classified as superstition, was just as dangerous as mal- tual duty. Puritanism was pervasive in Essex at that time e fic i u m . T h i rd, these ministers, like many Pro t e s t a n t that Hopkins and Stearne we re actively trying to dis- demonologists on the Continent, identified witchcraft cover witches. Many of the parishes in that county had with Roman Catholicism. This tendency was replaced “s c a n d a l o u s” ministers with godly Pu r i t a n s re i n f o rced by the Protestant classification of Catholic during the early years of the Civil Wa r. A widespre a d religious ceremonies as magical and the Pro t e s t a n t iconoclastic campaign in Essex and Suffolk to destroy claim that many witches we re papists. In his Tre a t i s e statues and paintings that Puritans considered idolatro u s against Wi t c h c ra f t (1590), Holland compared saint p rovides further evidence of the strength of Pu r i t a n i s m worship to devil worship and the sign of the cross to in the area where Hopkins and Stearne we re most active . witchcraft. Finally and most distinctively, these Puritan Millenarian sentiment was also strong in all Pu r i t a n demonologists placed a strong emphasis on the counties during these years, especially in Essex. T h e Apocalypse and the identification of witchcraft as the s t rength of Puritanism in these areas helps to explain w o rk of the Antichrist and the Devil during the fin a l why local communities invited Hopkins and Stearne to days. Ro b e rts, for example, in A Treatise of Wi t c h c ra f t d i s c over the local witches they feared we re in their midst (1616), declared that witchcraft was one of the dreadful and why those same communities encouraged or facili- evils prophesied for “these last days and perilous times” tated their pro s e c u t i o n . ( C l a rk 1997, 325). The most powe rful expression of In New England, where Puritanism was dominant this apocalyptic witchcraft literature was Cotton f rom the settlement of Massachusetts Bay Colony by Ma t h e r’s Me m o rable Providences Relating to Wi t c h c ra f t s nonseparating Congregationalists in 1628 until the end and Po s s e s s i o n s (1689), in which he claimed that of the seventeenth century, the connections betwe e n demonic possession and witchcraft we re signs of the Puritanism and witchcraft we re different from what Devil’s activity during the final days. they were in England. Owing to Puritan influence, the The most obvious disagreements among these crime of witchcraft in Massachusetts was defined in English “Pu r i t a n” demonologists concerned their re c- demonic terms, and consequently witches could not be ommendations for proceeding against witches. Gifford, convicted without evidence of having made a pact with Bernard, and Gaule all urged considerable caution after the Devil. This definition of the crime led to the o b s e rving miscarriages of justice in their native coun- acquittal of a great majority of witches accused by their ties. The others took a harder line, including Pe rk i n s , neighbors of m a l e fic i u m b e f o re 1692. In that ye a r, who in A Discourse of the Damned Art of Wi t c h c ra f t however, the fits experienced by a group of young girls (1608) listed numerous proofs of diabolical activity that in Salem Village led the Salem community to attribute could result in a witch’s conviction. He urged the exe- their afflictions to witchcraft, thus initiating a large cution of witches without exception because they witch hunt in which more than 150 individuals depended on Satan as their God. Roberts defended the were arrested and 19 executed. Puritanism contributed p rosecution of Ma ry Smith in King’s Lynn, No rf o l k . to the Salem witch hunt in three related ways. First, the The main concern of most of these godly ministers, Puritan belief that God spoke to his chosen people of h owe ve r, including Pe rkins, was to pre vent their Massachusetts through signs and events in their daily parishioners from falling into theological erro r, not l i ves—the re m a rkable providences that Ma t h e r bringing accused witches to justice. discussed in his treatise of 1689—led them to interpret Puritanism did, nevertheless, inspire some ministers the afflictions of the girls and also the Indian war that and lay magistrates to prosecute witches as part of a had recently devastated the colony as signs of Go d’s campaign to purge society of its diabolical contami- disfavor.The sermons of Samuel Parris, the minister in nants. These efforts became most evident in En g l a n d Salem Village, and his predecessor Deodat Lawson when Puritans gained control of the church and local prior to the trials also encouraged their parishioners to g overnment during the English Civil Wa r. The largest believe that the misfortunes lay within the community witch hunt in England’s history, the campaign Matthew itself and we re the result of Go d’s punishment. T h e Hopkins and John Stearne conducted in East Anglia in accusation and prosecution of witches at Salem can 1645–1647, can be attributed at least in part to Puritan thus be seen as a Puritan response to these supernatural 942 Puritanism

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.943 Application File signs of divine anger. Second, the girls whose fit s De v i l’s confederates may have led many Puritans to triggered the episode were brought up in pious Puritan s u p p o rt the prosecution of witches, but the Pu r i t a n families (some were members of the Parris household), belief in the limitations of demonic power by a suggesting a link among Puritan re l i g i o s i t y, demonic s ove reign God ultimately helped to bring them to an possession, and witchcraft accusations. Third, residents end. of Salem Village made many of the accusations against people who had apparently assimilated the commercial BRIAN P. LEVACK values of nearby Salem Town and who therefore posed a See also:APOCALYPSE;DEMONOLOGY;DIABOLISM;ENGLAND; threat to the traditional Puritan values that the farmers ESSEX;GAUTE,JOHN;GIFFORD,GEORGE;HOPKINS,MATTHEW; of Salem Village were struggling to maintain. MALEFICIUM;MATHER,COTTON;MATHER,INCREASE; The trials originally won the support of the Puritan NEWENGLAND;PERKINS,WILLIAM;PROTESTANTREFORMATION; ministers of the Boston area, under the leadership of SALEM;SPECTRALEVIDENCE;STEARNE,JOHN. Cotton Mather, who in a letter to the governor of the References and further reading: Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum. 1974. Salem Possessed. colony on June 15 urged the vigorous prosecution of Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. the witches. In the end, however, it was a sermon by the Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Puritan minister In c rease Ma t h e r, Cotton’s father, in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: October that helped to stop the trials. The sermon, Clarendon. which was soon published as Cases of Conscience Godbeer, Richard. 1992. The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and C o n c e rning Evil Spirits Personating Me n with endorse- Religion in Early New England.Cambridge: Cambridge ments by fourteen Massachusetts ministers, called for University Press. procedural caution in the trials on the grounds that the Hunt, William. 1983. The Puritan Moment: The Coming of Devil might have made the girls see the specters of Revolution in an English County.Cambridge, MA: Harvard innocent people afflicting them. This skepticism University Press. re g a rding the validity of spectral evidence, itself a Norton, Mary Beth. 2002. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692.NewYork: Knopf. re flection of Puritan beliefs re g a rding the nature of Perkins, William. 1608. A Discourse on the Damned Art of demonic power, led to the termination of the trials and Witchcraft.Cambridge: Cantrel Legge. the release of the witches still in prison. The contrasting Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in positions taken by Increase and Cotton Mather during England, 1550–1750. London: Hamish Hamilton. the Salem witchcraft trials demonstrate that the Teall, J.L. 1962. “Witchcraft and Calvinism in Elizabethan relationship between Puritanism and witchcraft in England.” Journal of the History of Ideas23: 22–36. New England, just as in England, cannot be expressed Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London: in simple terms. A determination to rid the world of the Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Puritanism 943

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.945 Application File Q Quakers Magus. The Quaker conception of witchcraft, however, From its beginnings in the late 1640s and early 1650s, like that of other contemporary radical sects, differe d the Quaker movement was regularly associated with from the established one by defining it as an act of spir- demonism and witchcraft. Opponents fre q u e n t l y itual apostasy. The Quakers rare l y, if eve r, suggested accused Quakers of using bewitched objects in order to that their enemies employed physical spells against make new conve rts; tales of enchanted ribbons, bottles, them, but rather stressed the extent to which the spirit and strings fig u red prominently in early anti-Quaker lit- of witchcraft motivated their actions. e r a t u re. The leadership of the new sect was part i c u l a r l y The widespread association of the Quakers with witch- susceptible to such accusations. George Fox, for example, craft was long-lasting and frequently re v i ved during times whose charismatic and forceful personality was crucial to of acute religious and political crisis. Their treatment as the formation and surv i val of the early movement, was s u r rogate witches owed much to the fact that they we re routinely re p resented as a sorc e rer or witch, employing a widely feared and reviled, especially by those in authority, wide range of diabolical devices in his search for pro s e- who accused them of attempting to inve rt the social and lytes. Women and the impressionable young we re con- political ord e r. Sy m b o l i c a l l y, in the eyes of the establish- s i d e red particularly vulnerable to such appro a c h e s . ment, Quakers shared many characteristics with witches The strange actions and habits of the Quakers pro- and we re often perc e i ved in conspiratorial terms as part of voked yet further comparisons with the behavior usual- a wider Catholic or Je s u i t - i n s p i red plot to subve rt the ly attributed to witches and the possessed. The act of Protestant nation (association with Catholicism prov i d e d quaking bore obvious similarities with the fits suffered f u rther evidence of their diabolical nature and intent). by those who were thought to be possessed by demons; Their prosecution in large numbers after the Re s t o r a t i o n indeed, numerous ex-Quakers either claimed to have might well, then, have re p resented an important shift in been bewitched or, like James Na y l e r, reputedly suf- o f ficial attitudes: the threat posed by them and others f e red this fate. The unconventional behavior of others who refused to conform to the re s t o red Anglican churc h was equally suspicious. Some we re accused of necro- n ow replaced that previously attributed to witches. T h e mancy by seeking to raise the dead. Their habit of decline of trials for witchcraft in this period and the con- meeting frequently in dark, secluded places in the dead comitant legal assault on religious dissent are cert a i n l y of night (usually to avoid detection and molestation) highly suggestive, though still unprove n . fueled popular suspicion that such nocturnal gatherings PETER ELMER were in fact diabolical Sabbats. Occasionally, such suspicions mushroomed into full See also:ENGLAND. legal proceedings against Quakers for witchcraft. In References and further reading: 1659—a year characterized by intense social, religious, Braithwaite, William C. 1923. The Beginnings of Quakerism. and political anxiety in England—trials of Qu a k e r s London: Macmillan. took place at Cambridge, Sherborne (in Dorset), and Elmer, Peter. 1996. “‘Saints or Sorcerers’: Quakerism. Da rtmouth (in De von) in which members of the sect Demonology, and the Decline of Witchcraft in Seventeenth- we re variously accused of meeting with the Devil and Century England.” Pp. 145–179 in Witchcraft in Early Modern e m p l oying witchcraft. In addition to such offic i a l Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief.Edited by Jonathan Barry, actions, Quakers were also frequently subjected to pop- Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts.Cambridge: Cambridge ular shaming rituals such as ducking and pricking, pro- University Press. Gummere, A.M. 1908. Witchcraft and Quakerism. Philadelphia: cedures normally applied to suspected witches. Biddle. Quakers responded to such treatment by accusing Jones, R.M. 1923. The Quakers in the American Colonies. London: their opponents—particularly the clergy, whom they Macmillan. saw as orchestrating these events—in kind. Fox and his Reay, Barry. 1985. The Quakers and the English Revolution. deputies repeatedly accused their persecutors of acting London: Temple Smith. like the Old Testament magicians Jannes and Ja m b re s Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.New and the New Testament witches Elymas and Si m o n York: Scribner’s. Quakers 945

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.947 Application File R Rabanus Maurus (ca. 780–856) future and of things pertaining to hell or the under- An early medieval commentator on magic, Rabanus world, various methods of divination, and necromancy. ( p roperly Hrabanus) Ma u rus was a Ge r m a n But all this was mere magical trickery. Benedictine monk who, after twenty years as abbot of “ Magicians,” said Rabanus, “a re people who, in the the important and influential monastery of Fulda, vernacular, are called ‘workers of harmful magic’ [mal- became archbishop of Mainz. Regarded by his contem- e fic i] because of the gravity of their misdeeds. T h e s e poraries and his immediate posterity as a great teacher, people, with Go d’s permission, stir up the elements, he lived at a time when the Carolingian Empire was and throw people’s minds into confusion, (although less under threat from dissident and hostile forces both at so in those who have faith in God), and kill without home and abroad. He played an important role in any blast of poison, but merely by physical violence” church reorganization and monastic reform, convinced [Patrologia Latina 110.1097]. that active and well-educated clergy represented the Rabanus went on to describe various kinds of best hope for the future of the Church. He wrote volu- d i v i n a t i o n — n e c ro m a n c y, hyd ro m a n c y, geomancy, and m i n o u s l y, principally exegetical treatises, pastoral so fort h — s u p p o rting all his re m a rks by copious re f e r- essays, and encyclopedic compilations. In De institu- ences to classical literature and the Bible. A Christian tione clericorum (The Education of the Clergy), he should avoid all these arts, he said. He discussed the described the grades and appropriate clothing of eccle- contest between Moses and Ph a r a o h’s magicians and siastics, described and discussed the liturgy, and out- the appearance of Samuel, conjured by the witch of lined the education of a preacher. De universo (The Endor at King Sa u l’s request, concluding that (apart Whole of Creation) was a major compilation in f rom Moses) the pagans we re dependent on illusions twenty-two books that uses a very large number of c reated by Satan. Evil spirits could move much faster excerpts from other authors, whose work Rabanus than human beings because they we re made of air interprets and expands according to his own system and rather than earth, and they could there f o re be aware understanding. Rabanus also wrote poetry, although that much more quickly of things that they were then none of it can be called exceptional. The ascription of able to announce as though they had known them in the well-known hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus” to him a d vance of their happening. This was also how they is very dubious. were able to perform apparent wonders; for their subtle aerial bodies enabled them to penetrate human bodies and therein create fantasies, whether the person was De magicis artibus(About Magical Arts) awake or asleep. Sometimes the spirits’ ability to predict Magic appeared in several of Rabanus’s writings, but his the future rested simply upon their knowledge of signs principal thoughts on the subject were gathered into in nature, much as a physician could predict disease in a this short essay. It exists in a single manuscript copy, way that seemed amazing to anyone not trained in and although it was highly derivative, it offers us an medicine. But evil spirits generally deceived (and were invaluable insight into the alarm felt by a conservative d e c e i ved) in their predictions either because of their ninth-century priest surrounded by constant evidences malicious dispositions or because nature foiled their of magical practices in a scarcely converted society. Not expectations by producing unexpected weather or tem- s u r p r i s i n g l y, there f o re, Rabanus opened with the peratures. remark that the condemnable arts of magic, incanta- “We must therefore be alert,” he wrote, tions, and various other superstitions were to be found among “pagans and false Christians” who practiced div- and with all earnestness be on our guard lest in our ination and other wrongheaded observances. These arts time, (in which we see the Christian religion spread had proved powerful because they had been passed over the whole world), the slackness of teachers and down to humankind by evil angels all over the world idleness of the educated—those few who still for many centuries, and they included knowledge of the survive—destroy the proper worship of the true Rabanus Maurus 947

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.948 Application File God; and lest those who have been corrupted by judges to conduct all the trials and that the prisons we re the demons’ illusions bring false divinations among full of accused witches. He died before his bro t h e r - i n - the people of God, and lead astray those who live law Pi e r re de Lancre would fulfill this pro p h e c y. in the country, and those who have neither learning R a e m o n d’s Catholicism resulted from a deep person- nor experience. (Patrologia Latina 110.1107) al conversion; he adopted positions ve ry unlike the moderate Gallicanism held by most of his judicial col- leagues, even arguing that France needed a real inquisi- P. G. MAXWELL-STUART tion, like Sp a i n’s, to deal with heretics and witches. See also: AUGUSTINE,ST.; DEMONS;DIVINATION;ISIDOREOF Raemond blamed all the troubles of his day on the SEVILLE,ST.; MOSES;NECROMANCY;WITCHOFENDOR. Reformers, followers of a false diabolical sect. T h e References and further reading: Protestants who died for their faith we re not martyrs, he Flint, Valerie I. J. 1991.The Rise of Magic in Early Mediaeval claimed, but people who we re “possessed by the De v i l . ” Europe.Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Raemond 1957, 792). Another of Raemond’s works, published posthu- Raemond, Florimond m o u s l y, repeated these arguments, calling Ma rt i n de (1540–1601) Luther “if not the Antichrist, at least his advance rider” Best known for his history of the rise and decline of (Raemond 1605, 234) and tying Protestantism closely Protestantism, Florimond de Raemond offers a partic- to the work of the Devil, the coming of Antichrist, and ularly interesting example of the complexity of attitudes thus to the Apocalypse. In both works, Raemond dis- toward witchcraft in late sixteenth-century France. cusses the exorcism of Nicole Obry, which he witnessed Born into the Bordeaux judicial elite in 1540, and which turned him back to Catholicism. He called Raemond was educated at the Pro t e s t a n t - o r i e n t e d the exorcism “A famous miracle and one of the greatest College of Presles in the University of Paris. Apparently that the human eye had ever seen, and that De v i l s drawn to Protestantism in the 1560s, he renewed his t h e m s e l ves could not explore (Raemond 1605, 140).” commitment to Catholicism after witnessing the exor- The special ability of the Catholic Church to produce cism of Nicole Obry in 1567. Raemond was closely this sort of modern miracle validated the Churc h’s associated with the most famous witchcraft skeptic claims and became an important weapon in the fig h t among the judges of the Parlement (sovereign judicial against heresy as well as witchcraft. court) of Bordeaux, Michel de Montaigne, whose seat JONATHAN L. PEARL he purchased in 1570 and for whom he maintained a high regard his whole life. But Raemond was also mar- See also: ANTICHRIST;FRANCE;LANCRE,PIERREDE;MONTAIGNE, ried to a sister of the most bloodthirsty and credulous MICHELDE;OBRY,NICOLE;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;WARSOF judge at Bordeaux, the demonologist Pierre de Lancre. RELIGION(FRANCE). References and further reading: Unlike most of his Bordeaux colleagues, Raemond Pearl, Jonathan L. 1999. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and adopted his brother-in-law’s views about witches rather Politics in France, 1560–1620.Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred than those of Montaigne. Laurier University Press. Raemond was an active writer, publishing seve r a l Raemond, Florimond de. 1597. L’ Anti-Christ.Lyons. w o rks on contemporary issues. His 1597 work L’ An t i - ———. 1605. Histoire de la naissance progrez et décadence.Paris. C h r i s t s h ows his thought well. In t e re s t i n g l y, he began Tinsley, Barbara Sher. 1992. History and Polemics in the French f rom a skeptical viewpoint about human ability to Reformation: Florimond de Raemond, Defender of the Church. understand the mysteries of God, directly acknow l e d g- Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press. ing his debt to Montaigne. But, unlike Montaigne, this position led him to embrace the authority of Catholic Rais, Gilles de (1404–1440) dogma. Raemond stated that belief in the Antichrist was Better known as “Bluebeard,” Gilles de Rais was a an article of faith and that all loyal Catholics had to fig h t nobleman from southwestern France whose dramatic against the Devil and his allies, the Protestant here t i c s . career combined chivalric ideals with the harsh realities In the current violent and corrupt age, he said, here s y of war and set dramatic displays of personal piety had come to flourish not just in secret places but also in against the most disturbing allegations of child abuse b road daylight. One signal proof of the arrival of the and devil worship. Orphaned while still young, he Antichrist, the ally of the heretics, was the expansion of greatly increased his lands through a combination of witchcraft. Although the Pa rl e m e n t of Bordeaux seems inheritance, dynastic marriage, banditry, and simple to have been the ve ry last French appellate court to extortion to become one of the foremost nobles in a p p rove an execution for witchcraft (the first document- France, controlling chains of fortresses dominating the ed instance came in 1594), Raemond insisted that the LoireValley from Angers to the Atlantic seaboard. c o u rt had been active and seve re, claiming that so many In 1427, he led his troops against the English forc e s witches had been turned up that there we re not enough a round the Ma yenne and Sa rthe Rivers. In 1429, he was 948 Raemond, Florimond de

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.949 Application File named one of the chief commanders of the army that the target of an investigation by the bishop of Nantes, would be led by Joan of Arc. Their brief but dazzlingly which centered on allegations, dating back seve r a l successful partnership appears to have been based upon years, of witchcraft and child abduction. mutual trust, utterly untarnished by any form of jeal- Arrested on September 14, 1440, and accused of per- o u s y. Rais quickly proved himself an extremely brave forming necromantic invocations of demons with and loyal knight and a thoroughly competent general. Prelati in hope of obtaining wealth, power, and knowl- He distinguished himself in raising the siege of Or l é a n s edge from devils, Rais was also charged with the ritual on May 8, 1429, and at the battle of Patay on June 18, m u rder of countless children. He was brought before 1429. Rais was chosen to carry the ampoule of holy oil the tribunal to hear depositions gathered from his for- to Reims for the anointing of Charles VII at his subse- mer servants. Although his opening defense was quent coronation on July 17, 1429. The king cre a t e d haughty, challenging both the competence of his judges him marshal of France that same day as a rew a rd for his and their impart i a l i t y, his attitude tow a rd the court s e rvices. He fought beside Joan during her unsuccessful soon underwent a profound change. Having been attack on Paris on September 8, 1429, and it was to him e xcommunicated from the Church and having almost that she called when she fell wounded. c e rtainly been tort u red within an inch of his life, he During the following year, Rais became embroiled in publicly begged forgiveness at his next appearance internecine struggles for power at court. He was sta- before the tribunal, just two days later, for his previous tioned in the French garrison at Louviers, only a few insulting behavior and confessed to having practiced miles from Rouen, during the critical weeks when Joan a l c h e m y, devil worship, sodomy, and infanticide. T h e faced her interrogators on a charge of here s y. It is not first part of this public confession inspired feelings of clear whether he contemplated making a re s c u e clear revulsion, but its conclusion, emphasizing his attempt. Like the king, however, he offered no ransom piety and offering himself as an object of pity, persuad- for her. In 1432, he distinguished himself by breaking ed his judges to lift the sentence of excommunication. the English blockade and relieving a beleaguere d Now a humble penitent rather than a proud noble- French garrison at Lagny.This would be his last signifi- man, Rais sought to provide the clergy and people of cant action during the Hu n d red Ye a r s’ War; in 1433, Nantes with a parable of redemption, showing how an his patron, Georges de Tremoille, fell from power at evil life could still demonstrate the miraculous and court, effectively ending Rais’s military career. Deprived p rovidential intervention of God, who had saved his of royal favo r, he now waged a private war on the soul through the act of sentencing him to death. Burgundians, amassed an enormous private library, and Ac c o rd i n g l y, Rais was hanged beside the bridge at founded a religious college dedicated to the Ho l y Nantes on October 26, 1440, impressing the assembled Innocents. On May 8, 1435, the sixth annive r s a ry of crowd with his contrition and bravery. His abject con- the city’s liberation, he staged The Mystery of the Siege of fession enabled him to save his body from the fla m e s Orl e a n s . Not only did Rais write the play, but he also and to obtain Christian burial at a nearby Carmelite p e rformed a leading part on stage, together with 500 Church and allowed his heirs to enjoy his estates. other actors, and paid for food and drink for everyone Set against the backdrop of Joan of Arc’s canonization, from his own purse. As a result of such extravagances, radical reassessments of Rais’s life and career began in the and of the enormous sums he bestowed upon churches 1930s. Aleister Crowley saw him as a man of science under his patronage, he became deeply indebted. d e s t royed by an intolerant Roman Catholic Churc h Possibly as a result, he made the acquaintance of a ( Crowley 1930, viii, xviii). Ma r g a ret Murray saw both Fl o rentine magician, Francesco Prelati, and they Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais as members of an under- e m b a rked upon many experiments to discover the g round pagan religious tradition who had willingly sacri- secrets of the philosophers’ stone. ficed themselves, going to their deaths as victims re q u i re d In November 1439, Charles VII issued a grand ordi- by the “Old Re l i g i o n” that their royal master might live nance proclaiming the establishment of a royal army and reign for a further span of years (Murray 1961, 193, and an end to the depredations of the free companies 197). French writers have produced less bizarre theories and brigands, who were ravaging France. Gilles de Rais, than those of Crowley and Mu r r a y, but remain only with his private armies and castles, was a prime target of slightly less titillated by his trial than by that of St. Jo a n the legislation. Desiring to re venge himself upon his ( Bataille 1972a and 1972b). political rivals, particularly the duke of Br i t t a n y, Rais JOHN CALLOW effectively invited exemplary punishment in May 1440 by seizing a castle belonging to one of the duke’s agents See also:INFANTICIDE;JOANOFARC;MURRAY,MARGARETALICE; and dragging the man’s brother—a priest—fro m NECROMANCY. c h u rch during mass and chaining and imprisoning References and further reading: him. This last act outraged the ecclesiastical court s . Bataille, Georges. 1972a. Gilles de Rais.Mesnil-sur-l’Estrée: Ignoring a fine for his misconduct, Gilles now became Mercure de France. Rais, Gilles de 949

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.950 Application File ———. 1972b.Le procès de Gilles de Rais.Paris: Pauvert. A widow with three daughters living in secular soci- Crowley, Aleister. 1930. The Banned Lecture: Gilles de Rais. e t y, Ranfaing was not the most obvious candidate to London: Stephensen. become a living saint, yet she found friends among the Dix, Tennille. 1930. The Black Baron: The Strange Life of Gilles de ducal household of Lorraine. This support existed Rais.Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. regardless of—or perhaps because of—her controversial Gray, Cecil. 1941. Gilles de Rais: A Play.London: Simpkin witchcraft accusations against Po i rot and a Mi n i m Marshall. Provincial; her only local contemporary who actually Hyatte, Reginald, introduction and translation. 1984. Laughter for became a saint (Pi e r re Fourier) expressed skepticism the Devil: The Trials of Gilles de Rais, Companion-in-Arms of Joan of Arc.London and Toronto: Associated University Presses. about Ranfaing’s possession. Outside Lorraine, the Murray, Margaret. 1961. The God of the Witches.1931. Reprint, authenticity of her possession was challenged in print London: Sampson Low. by a young Minim ([Pithoys] 1972). In an era of moral Sackville-West, Vita. 1936. Saint Joan of Arc.London: enthusiasm, her mission to pre s e rve herself, and later Cobden-Sanderson. other young women, from sin gained widespre a d Warner, Marina. 1991. Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism. a p p roval. The conve n t’s benefactors included Du k e London: Vintage. Charles IV of Lorraine; Jean de Po rcelet de Ma i l l a n e , Winwar, Frances. 1948. The Saint and the Devil: Joan of Arc and count-bishop of Toul; Eric of Lorraine, count-bishop of Gilles de Rais.NewYork and London: Harper and Brothers. Ve rdun; Pi e r re Coton, the Jesuit confessor of Louis XIII; and Cardinal Pi e r re de Bérulle. Ranfaing was a Ranfaing, Elisabeth de (1592–1649) friend of the mystic Mother Alix le Clerc, who herself The Venerable Mother Marie-Elisabeth de La Croix de suffered from persistent demonic torments. Jésus, founder of the religious order Notre-Dame- Ranfaing fascinated a group of male and female du-Refuge, began her religious career as a demoniac. a d m i rers, religious and lay, who believed she enjoye d As a pious widow in her twenties, the Lorraine d i rect communication with God and saw her as the n o b l ewoman Elisabeth de Ranfaing experienced inner means to their salvation. The enemies of this group called torment when a suitor, Charles Poirot, asked to marry them the Médaillistes, from the little religious medals, her. She saw Poirot’s interest in her as a diabolical plot blessed by Ranfaing herself, that they wore and sold. In to pre vent her from fulfilling a vow of chastity. some ways, the Médaillistesresembled other secret sodal- Exorcists diagnosed her torment as possession and exor- ities that emerged around the post-Tridentine Je s u i t cised her in public. On the basis of Ranfaing’s claims o rd e r, becoming a common feature of early modern during her exorcisms, Poirot and a woman accomplice Catholicism. Their members practiced mort i fic a t i o n s we re convicted of witchcraft and executed in 1622. and intensive praye r, as well as frequent communion. R a n f a i n g’s behavior impressed elite patrons seeking to The fact that Ranfaing had become known initially p romote the current Catholic spiritual re v i val. Wi t h t h rough her possession by demons left her vulnerable to their support, she founded in 1624 an order for the those who felt threatened by her cult. In 1628, two ye a r s reclamation of prostitutes, No t re - Da m e - d u - Re f u g e , after she had been delive red of her demons and six ye a r s which was formally instituted by a bull of Urban VIII after Po i ro t’s execution, a provincial of the Capuchin in 1634. A secret circle of followers, called Médaillistes, o rder still re f e r red to her disparagingly as “this possessed worshiped her as a living saint. Some Jesuits who w o m a n” and accused her followers of using their medals resented the involvement of other Jesuits in her group and other paraphernalia for magical purposes. In the attacked this cult, which disbanded in 1648. Her order mid-1640s, an internal Jesuit conflict finally disbanded opened sixteen houses across Lorraine, France, and her cult by claiming that those Jesuits who followed her Sicily but did not survive the French Revolution. had become a sect of magician-priests, serving a woman R a n f a i n g’s story is one of several from this era in whose possession by demons had left her in a state of which demons played a vital role in the cultivation of moral and spiritual ambiguity. Her four main Jesuit fol- p e rc e i ved sanctity. Not only was Ranfaing said to be l owers we re expelled, and other Jesuits we re warned to possessed by demons who tort u red her—a “s t a n d a rd” a void her. Nonetheless, one Jesuit followe r, Je a n feature of possession—but she also alleged that her tor- d’Argombat, began a hagiographic account of Ranfaing’s ment was caused by a witch. Thus, her state of posses- life, which remained incomplete at his death in 1654. sion did not result from her own sin, and her ow n SARAH FERBER intense struggles against her unacknowledged feelings of attraction to her physician Poirot were interpreted as See also: BÉRULLE,PIERREDE;COTON,PIERRE;DEMONS;EXORCISM; JESUITS(SOCIETYOFJESUS); LIVINGSAINTS;LOUDUNNUNS; signs of possible sanctity. In a term indicative of the sev- POSSESSION,DEMONIC;VALLÉES,MARIEDES. e n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Catholic preoccupation with virt u e References and further reading: t h rough suffering, He n r i - Marie Boudon described Bois de Cendrecourt, Louis du. 1993. “Elisabeth de Ranfaing, Ranfaing as “the great sufferer of her age” (Boudon Fondatrice de l’ordre de Notre-Dame-du-Refuge.” Le Pays 1686, 17). lorrainMarch: 1–12. 950 Ranfaing, Elisabeth de

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.951 Application File Boudon, Henri-Marie. 1686. Le triomphe de la Croix en la posses- also described in other witchcraft tracts by Gi ro l a m o sion de la vénérable Mère Marie-Elisabeth de la Croix de Jésus Visconti and Bartolomeo della Spina and found in the fondatrice de l’institut de N.D. du Refuge des vierges et filles péni- records of a witchcraft trial at Modena in 1519. tentes.Liège: Streel. In Tractatus de strigibus, Rategno defined the term Chatellier, Louis. 1989. The Europe of the Devout: The Catholic w i t c h and included a description of witches’ crimes. Reformation and the Formation of a New Society.Cambridge: R a t e g n o’s “m o d e r n” witches, mostly women, Cambridge University Press. renounced the Christian faith and surre n d e red them- Delcambre, Etienne, and Jean Lhermitte. 1956. Un cas énigma- selves body and soul to the Devil. They were physically tique de possession diabolique en Lorraine au XVIIe siècle: Elisabeth de Ranfaing, l’énergumène de Nancy.Nancy: Société t r a n s p o rted to their diabolical meetings, where they d’Archéologie Lorraine. engaged in blasphemous, heretical rites and copulated Ferber, Sarah. 2004. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early with demons. The witches inflicted harm on livestock, Modern France.London and NewYork: Routledge. crops, and other persons’ health by magical means. The Mandrou, Robert. 1968. Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe Devil also helped them bring about impotence and oth- siècle: Une analyse de psychologie historique.Paris: Plon. er impediments to the consummation of legitimate sex- Pfister, Christian. 1901. L’énergumène de Nancy, Elisabeth de ual relations. Ac c o rding to Rategno, their dre a d f u l Ranfaing et le couvent du Refuge.Nancy: Berger-Levrault. t r a n s g ressions, and especially their apostasy and devil [Pithoys, Claude]. 1972.A Seventeenth-Century Exposure of w o r s h i p, justified seve re punishment from inquisitors. Superstition: Select Texts of Claude Pithoys (1587–1676).Edited He ended the Tractatus de strigibus with a brief discus- by P. J. S. Whitmore. The Hague: Nijhoff. sion of appropriate judicial pro c e d u res for witchcraft cases, a matter he developed more fully in the Lucerna. Rategno, Bernardo T h roughout Tractatus de strigibus, Rategno denied of Como (d. 1510) that the misdoings confessed by witches were illusions, Rategno was a Dominican inquisitor, author of the though he conceded that they may be at times. inquisitorial manual Lu c e rna inquisitorum haere t i c a e Drawing on witnesses’ testimonies from trials he had p ravitatis (A Lantern for Inquisitors of He re t i c a l conducted in the region of the Valtelline (Va l t e l l i n a ; De p r a v i t y ) and the witchcraft tract Tractatus de strigibus Vetlin), he concluded that the witches’ transgre s s i o n s (Treatise on Witches, ca. 1510).Ac t i ve in northern It a l y were real. Rategno avoided contradicting the authorita- in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, tive Canon Episcopi (ca. 906), which stated that at the Rategno earned the reputation of being a ruthless perse- time of the Council of Ancyra (Ankara) in 314, women cutor of witches. His treatises, essentially re f e rence guides d e c e i ved themselves by believing they rode at night for inquisitors, justify the prosecution of witches with the goddess Diana. Rategno argued, however, that (Tractatus de strigibus) and outline the proper pro c e d u re s in more recent times, witches might be physically trans- for such prosecution (Lu c e rn a). Both works offer modern p o rted to diabolical meetings where they would per- scholars important sources for Italian witch beliefs and form terrible crimes. early witchcraft trials. Using records of witchcraft trials he found in Como’s We know little about Rategno. A member of the inquisitorial archives, Rategno argued that the diaboli- Dominican Congregation of Lombard y, he pre a c h e d cal sect of witches had only come into existence some frequently in the diocese of Como in the late fifteenth 150 years earlier. Although our earliest surv i v i n g c e n t u ry and served as inquisitor there, engaging in a records of witchcraft trials in the region of Como date zealous prosecution of witches from 1505 until 1510, from the 1450s, modern scholars have used Rategno to when he probably died. While serving as inquisitor, he p rove that witches had been prosecuted in this re g i o n composed both of his treatises, which we re first pub- since the mid-1300s. Rategno’s assertion was reinforced lished—together—at Milan in 1566 and reissued at by a certain legal opinion (consilium) attributed to the least three times before 1700. The renowned Spaniard re n owned fourt e e n t h - c e n t u ry Italian jurist Ba rtolo of jurist Francisco Peña published a 1584 Roman edition Sassoferrato, which discussed the trial of a witch found with commentaries. at Orta, a village nort h west of Novara. But in 1975, Although Rategno never explicitly cites the Ma l l e u s Norman Cohn identified this c o n s i l i u m as a late-six- Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches,1486), scholars teenth-century forgery, perhaps based on the Tractatus have noted similarities between the main arguments of de strigibus, by the Nova rese jurist Gi ovanni Ba t t i s t a Tractatus de strigibus and those in the notorious Piotto (or de’ Ploti). German tract. Rategno’s descriptions of the witches and TAMAR HERZIG their diabolical assembly, the so-called game (l u d u s) , agreed with those of other northern Italian demonolo- See also: CANONEPISCOPI;HISTORIOGRAPHY;ITALY;MALLEUS gists and, like them, re flected local witch beliefs. Fo r MALEFICARUM;NIDER,JOHANNES;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCH instance, Rategno refers to the witches’ rite of feasting HUNTS;PEÑA,FRANCISCO;PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,GIAN- on the meat of an ox that the Devil later resuscitated— FRANCESCO;POPULARBELIEFSINWITCHES;SABBAT;SPINA, Rategno, Bernardo of Como 951

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.952 Application File BARTOLOMEODELLA;VISCONTI,GIROLAMO;WITCHANDWITCH- were conditioned by the fact that this area was a center CRAFT,DEFINITIONSOF. of Basque resistance against the French monarchy. References and further reading: The identification of witchcraft with rebellion was Bertolotti, Maurizio. 1991. “The Ox’s Bones and the Ox’s Hide: A p a rticularly strong in Scotland. In 1590, a group of Popular Myth, Part Hagiography and PartWitchcraft.” Pp. Scottish witches we re accused of having tried to kill 42–70 in Microhistory and the Lost Peoples of Europe: Selections their king, James VI, and his new bride, Anne of from “Quaderni Storici.”Edited by Edward Muir and Guido Denmark, as they sailed for Scotland across the North Ruggiero. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Sea. In this case, charges of witchcraft became closely Press. Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired associated with charges of treason. Sh o rtly after the by the Great Witch-Hunt.NewYork: Basic Books. restoration of Charles II in 1660, Scottish royalists tried Lea, Henry Charles. 1957. Materials Toward a History of to link the Covenanters, who had rebelled against King Witchcraft.3 vols. Edited by Arthur C. Howland. NewYork Charles I, with witchcraft. At a drunken ceremony in and London: Yoseloff. the town of Linlithgow in 1661, magistrates attached Pastore, Federico. 1997. La fabbrica delle streghe: Saggio sui fonda- an inscription reading, “Rebellion is the mother of menti teorici e ideologici della repressione della stregoneria nei sec- w i t c h c r a f t” to a chest re p resenting the Ark of the oli XIII–XVII.Pasian di Prato: Campanotto. Covenant (Kirkton 1817, 126). Rategno, Bernardo. 1984. “De Strigiis.” Pp. 200–217 in La The connection between witchcraft and re b e l l i o n Stregoneria: Diavoli, streghe, inquisitori dal Trecento al Settecento. was not as strong in England as in Scotland, but during Edited by Sergio Abbiati, Attilio Agnoletto, and Maria Rosario the English Civil War (1642–1646), a radical clergy- Lazzati. Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori. Romeo, Giovanni. 1990. Inquisitori, esorcisti e streghe nell’Italia man, Thomas Larkham, was accused of witchcraft, della Controriforma.Florence: Sansoni. rebellion, and treason. The philosopher T h o m a s Hobbes, who denied that witches had any real powe r Rebels but thought they should be prosecuted for claiming to Witches were often depicted as rebels, although very be witches, considered witchcraft a crime of disobedi- few of them actually assumed that role. Demonologists ence and rebellion. During the Jacobite uprising of and witch hunters considered witches to be heretics and 1715, the clergyman White Kennett preached a sermon apostates and therefore guilty of treason against God. In entitled “The Witchcraft of the Present Re b e l l i o n . ” this regard, witches were compared with their alleged This indictment of both Scots and English who had master, the Devil, who began his malevolent career with tried to ove rt h row King George I re veals that the an act of rebellion against God. “The most notorious rhetorical association between the two crimes remained traitor and rebel that can be is the witch,” wrote the strong even at a time when the crime of witchcraft was English demonologist William Pe rkins, “for she no longer being prosecuted. renounceth God himself, the king of kings, she leaves Although witches we re often accused of re b e l l i o n the society of his Church and people, she binds herself and treason, few can be shown to have actually partici- in league with the Devil” (Perkins1613, 651). pated in any kind of political conspiracy, protest, or Witches we re also accused of rebellion against rebellion. The recognition that most witches we re human political authority. Demonologists linked the scapegoats for the misfortunes experienced by their crime of witchcraft and political rebellion by citing the neighbors makes it unlikely that many witches were in He b rew Bible, which declared that “rebellion is as the fact rebels. Only occasionally did accused witches actu- sin of witchcraft” (1 Sam. 15:23). In the fifteenth cen- ally engage in activities that could be viewed as re b e l- tury, secular and ecclesiastical authorities often claimed lious. Practitioners of ritual magic, who were occasion- that peasant rebellions we re manifestations of witch- ally tried for witchcraft, sometimes directed their craft. At the Council of Basel (1431–1449), the bishops maleficent magic at political leaders whom they wished b e l i e ved that rebels in the countryside belonged to a to depose or replace. In colonial Peru, witches served as satanic conspiracy and consequently took steps to erad- defenders of native Andean culture during the period of icate witchcraft. The re f e rence in the Ma l l e u s Spanish rule, encouraging disobedience to the parish Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Witches, 1486) to sor- priests and local political authorities. If one we re to cerers who were archers reflected fears in German lands extend the definition of rebellion to include defiance of of Swiss archers who had defeated the army of the Holy c o n ventional social norms and standards of feminine Roman Em p i re in 1477. It also re vealed the fear that b e h a v i o r, a large number of witches might qualify as peasants from southern Germany might obtain Sw i s s actual rebels. m i l i t a ry assistance in an uprising against the empire . BRIAN P. LEVACK T h roughout the period of witch hunting, Bohemian rebels against Habsburg rule were often accused of wor- See also: BASEL,COUNCILOF;BASQUECOUNTRY;HOBBES,THOMAS; shiping the Devil. Accounts of a massive diabolical con- MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;PERKINS,WILLIAM;PERU;RITUALMAGIC; spiracy in the Pays de Labourd in southwestern France SCAPEGOATS;SCOTLAND. 952 Rebels

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.953 Application File References and further reading: trials, as was the Reichskammergericht. A re m a rk by Bostridge, Ian. 1997. Witchcraft and Its transformations c. 1650–c. Melchior Goldast in his posthumously published work 1750.Oxford: Clarendon. on the confiscation of witches’ estates further illustrated Clark, Stuart. 1977. “King James’sDaemonologie:Witchcraft and this perception: Goldast demanded that the Re i c h s h o f ra t Kingship.” Pp. 156–181 in The Damned Art.Edited by Sydney encourage lax estates to conduct witch hunts. Anglo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Unlike those of the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t in Sp e ye r, Kirkton, James. 1817. The Secret and True History of the Church of the Reichshofrat’s decisions regarding witchcraft are not Scotland.Edinburgh. well known. First, the famously antagonistic re l a t i o n- Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. London: Longman. ship between these two courts shows up even in the Perkins,William. 1613. A Discourse of the Damned Art of matter of witches. Offenburg’s guilds complained to an Witchcraft.InWorks,Vol. 3.Cambridge. imperial commissioner in 1599 about their city coun- Silverblatt, Irene. 1987. Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies cil’s restrained persecution practices. In the name of the and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru.Princeton, NJ: Princeton Reichshofrat, the commissioner demanded that the city University Press. start conducting witchcraft trials, but only in adherence with the Carolina Code, the imperial law code. When Reichshofrat (Imperial the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t repeatedly intervened on Aulic Court) behalf of the accused at the high point of persecution in The Re i c h s h o f rat (imperial aulic court) (est. 1608, Of f e n b u r g’s council complained to the 1497–1498), was the Holy Roman Empire’s second Re i c h s h o f ra t . The Re i c h s h o f ra t’s position re g a rd i n g highest appellate court, after the Reichskammergericht witches seemed rather ambivalent. Other trials, in (imperial chamber court). In addition to its legal duties, which plaintiffs unsuccessfully tried to take action this court also had an advisory and administrative role. against unlawful prosecution first in the Re i c h s h o f ra t In contrast to the Reichskammergericht, the Reichshofrat and then in the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t , g i ve the same did not have a permanent seat. Instead, it traveled with impression of ambivalence. the emperor, sitting wherever he resided. During the The Re i c h s h o f ra t’s successful intervention in witch- age of witch hunts, this was usually Prague or Vienna. craft trials in Bamberg and the electorate of Cologne As Vi e n n a’s huge House, Court, and State Arc h i ve has stands in clear contrast to the above examples. In the only recently begun editing a modern index of files, the prince-bishopric of Bamberg, the Re i c h s h o f ra t i n t e r- Re i c h s h o f ra t has not yet been re s e a rched as extensively as vened often in 1630 and 1631—once on behalf of the Reichskammergericht in Sp e ye r. Because of its close ties Do rothea Flöck, who had been imprisoned for witch- to the empero r’s court and its mostly Catholic officers, the craft and was executed during the ongoing aulic Re i c h s h o f ra t was seen as an imperial tool in religious and processes. Nevertheless, the numerous Reichshofratcases constitutional disputes by the late sixteenth century. Wi t h f rom Bamberg seem to have hastened the end of that its greater political powe r, the Re i c h s h o f ra t was mainly city’s witchcraft trials, helped by several personal inter- occupied with settling political disputes, rather than pri- ventions by Em p e ror Fe rdinand II and Pope Ur b a n vate conflicts, as the Reichskammergericht d i d . Howe ve r, VIII and the sudden end of Würzburg’s hunts. its exact role remains unclear, despite theories that a In the electorate of Cologne, the Re i c h s h o f ra t a l s o n o rth–south conflict and religious differences we re intervened on behalf of those persecuted for witchcraft. responsible for the antagonistic relationship between the Its May 1639 inhibition de non ulterius pro c e d e n d o two courts. The assertion that the Re i c h s h o f ra t s e e m e d ( o rder to stop proceeding) on behalf of Ge r h a rd d ownright medieval in the sixteenth century cert a i n l y Urbach, who had been arrested for sorc e ry, led to a d e s e rves closer examination. The court’s organization, noticeable reduction in the number of witchcraft trials; h owe ve r, is known. In the Aulic Court Order of 1539, a until then, an exc e s s i ve number had been conducted p resident was appointed to re p resent the empero r. T h e (Schormann 1991, 165). To prevent further complaints c o u rt’s pro c e d u res we re probably less elaborate than those to the Reichshofratfrom victims of persecution, the elec- of the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t , t h e re f o re making the torate of Cologne’s court ord e red that eve rything hav- Re i c h s h o f rat considerably quicker at resolving disputes. ing to do with witchcraft be conducted hencefort h Friedrich Spee mentioned the Re i c h s h o f ra t’s role in “according to legal order.” Because it was so closely tied German witchcraft trials. In the preface to his second to the imperial court, the Reichshofrathad greater polit- edition of Cautio Criminalis (A Warning on Cr i m i n a l ical authority than the Reichskammergericht. Justice) in 1632, Spee (writing as his former student, Perhaps the Re i c h s h o f ra t’s biggest case concerning Johannes Gronaeus) claimed that numerous members of witchcraft invo l ved the protest by families of victims both the Re i c h s h o f ra t and the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t h a d e xecuted for witchcraft in the county of Vaduz that requested a new edition of his book to “ready the way to went to Em p e ror Leopold I and eventually to the f u rther prove and re s e a rch the truth.” The Re i c h s h o f ra t Re i c h s h o f rat. The court accepted the accusations of was apparently considered an opponent of witchcraft e xc e s s i ve tort u re and extortion against the count of Reichshofrat(Imperial Aulic Court) 953

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.954 Application File Vaduz, Franz Carl von Hohenems, and ord e red him included litigation over jurisdiction, appeals in cases of removed from office (Monter 2002, 33). verbal injury to reputation (a c t i o i n i u r i a rum ve r b a l i s) Whether or not its interventions on behalf of persons or of bodily injury (actio iniuriarum re a l i s), grieva n c e s persecuted for witchcraft we re always as successful as for annulment, and pleas for mandates. The suits con- those in Bamberg and the electorate of Cologne, and cerning annulments and mandates we re especially exactly what the antagonistic relationship with the i m p o rt a n t . Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t re g a rding witches entailed, will The judges, or assessors, of the imperial chamber become clear once the files in Vienna have been thor- c o u rt intervened in several witchcraft cases, because oughly examined. they claimed the highest jurisdiction in the Ho l y Roman Empire and tried to enforce a correct proceed- PETER OESTMANN; ing for every subject. However, with regard to criminal TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY law, its jurisdiction remained limited: Charles V’s crim- inal code of 1532 (the Carolina Code: [C o n s t i t i o See also: BAMBERG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;CAROLINACODE(CON- STITIOCRIMINALISCAROLINA); COLOGNE;GOLDAST,MELCHIOR; Criminalis Carolina]) included a clause leaving the pos- HOHENENS,FERDINANDKARLFRANZVON,COUNTOFVADUZ; session of criminal jurisdiction to the princes and other HOLYROMANEMPIRE;OFFENBURG,IMPERIALFREECITY;REICH- imperial estates. Nonetheless, an imperial chamber SKAMMERGERICHT;SPEE,FRIEDRICHVON;VADUZ,COUNTYOF. c o u rt law of 1555 permitted anyone to apply to the References and further reading: Reichskammergerichtin cases involving severe violations Gehm, Britta. 2002. Die Hexenverfolgung im Hochstift Bamberg of general rules of criminal procedure. und das Eingreifen des Reichshofrats zu ihrer Beendigung. Hildesheim: Olms. Decisions Monter,William. 2002. “Witch Trials in Continental Europe, About half of the 131 legal proceedings instituted by 1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 in The Period of the Witch Trials.Vol. 4 victims of witchcraft trials against local and territorial of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. authorities were mandate lawsuits (mandata). The next Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. most frequent forms were legal proceedings for annul- Oestmann, Peter. 1995. “Die Offenburger Hexenprozesse im ment (querelae nullitatis) and suits where the assessors Spannungsfeld zwischen Reichshofrat und issued a citatio super injuriis in cases of bodily injuries. Reichskammergericht.” Die Ortenau75: 179–220. In general, the immediate result of a mandate lawsuit ———. 1997. Hexenprozesse am Reichskammergericht.Cologne, was a notification by the imperial chamber court that Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau. the plaintiff was now under the emperor’s protection. Schormann, Gerhard. 1991. Der Krieg gegen die Hexen.Göttingen: In most cases, these mandates were subsequently con- Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. firmed by final sentences. In suits for annulment, we Sellert, Wolfgang. 1973. Prozessgrundsätze und Stilus Curiae am have only the texts of four final sentences, all nullifying Reichshofrat.Aalen: Scientia. the original sentences. It was the imperial chamber court’s chief interest to Reichskammergericht use its influence in criminal jurisdiction only when (Imperial Chamber Court) principles of legal pro c e d u re had been exceeded. A Founded by the Diet of the Holy Roman Em p i re at c o n t e m p o r a ry scholar (using the pseudonym Ad r i a n Worms in 1495, the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t ( i m p e r i a l Gylman) wrote that not all pleas for mandates in chamber court) was—together with the Re i c h s h o f ra t witchcraft cases we re successful (Fuchs 1994, 58). It is (imperial aulic court)—one of the two highest courts of evident that the court made a strict separation the Holy Roman Em p i re. In the mid-nineteenth centu- b e t ween ord i n a ry witchcraft trials and those it consid- ry, Paul Wigand used a few cases to argue that the impe- e red irre g u l a r. rial chamber court had assisted people against witchcraft Within the texts of their rulings, the imperial cham- persecution, reprimanding lower courts that had per- ber court’s assessors seldom indicated the reasons for mitted unbearable conditions of incarceration, used their decisions. But with regard to mandates, it is never- magical drinks to get confessions, or performed water theless possible to see that the Carolina Code provided o rdeals (the swimming test) (Wigand 1851, 73–82). their principal guidelines: Only qualified persons Recent re s e a rch has largely upheld this assessment while should participate in examining and judging crimes. g reatly deepening our knowledge of the amount and the Eve ry judge should have sufficient evidence before contents of the imperial chamber court’s judgments in ordering the torture of a suspected witch. In examining matters of witchcraft (Oestmann 1997). crimes, magical procedures were strictly forbidden. And prison conditions should not harm people’s health. Competence Many of the imperial chamber court’s assessors The imperial chamber court dealt with witchcraft o bviously had no doubts that witchcraft was a seve re t h rough several indirect means. Its types of pro c e e d i n g crime. In 1588, an assessor’s vote that led the court to 954 Reichskammergericht(Imperial Chamber Court)

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.955 Application File pass sentence even called witchcraft an extraord i n a ry born at Charmes in the duchy of Lorraine. He crime (crimenexceptum) (Fuchs 1994, 50–58). But it is studied law at Toulouse and worked in France fro m clear that even this was no reason for the court to toler- 1563 to 1570 before returning to his native duchy. In ate transgressions of the p rocessus ord i n a r i u s ( o rd i n a ry Lorraine, he became privy councilor to Duke Charles procedure). III in 1575, served as an é c h e v i n ( s u p e rv i s o ry judge) at the ducal court of Nancy from 1576 to 1591, and Effects was ennobled in 1583. Rémy ended his career serv i n g It remains unclear how far the imperial chamber court’s as Lorraine’s chief pro s e c u t o r, or attorney general s e l e c t i ve interventions affected the prosecution of of Lorraine, from 1591 until resigning in favor of witchcraft in the Holy Roman Empire. Some of the his son Claude-Ma rcel in 1606 (Cu l l i è re 1999, mandates in favor of the victims may have induced 7 3 – 7 8 ) . local and territorial authorities to abandon witchcraft The author of other works, including histories, trials completely; in the county of Eastern Frisia, for Rémy composed the Da e m o n o l a t r i a at his country example, such trials seem to have been abolished per- estate after fleeing Nancy during an outbreak of plague manently after local authorities received writs of man- in 1592; it was published at Lyons in 1595 (Rémy date to stop torturing some women. But even here it is 1998). He dedicated the book to Duke Charles III’s not possible to establish a clear causal link from the p a r a l y zed son Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, bishop of mandates to the cessation of witchcraft trials. And in Metz and Strasbourg, and regional apostolic legate for other territories, witchcraft trials did not end after man- Metz, Toul, and Ve rdun, who later suffered fro m dates had been issued against their legal malpractices. bewitchment. Daemonolatriawas reprinted eight times, In general, we can say that the imperial chamber with two German translations. Together with other c o u rt tried to stop legal abuses in criminal pro c e d u re Catholic works on demonology and witchcraft written within the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. The a round the same time, including those by He n r i c o u rt helped some victims of witchcraft trials. Boguet, Pierre de Lancre, and Martín Del Rio, most of However, it is evident that their number was very small, them the products of specific regional pro s e c u t i o n s , m e a s u red against the bulk of witchcraft trials in the confessions, and executions, Rémy’s book helped dis- e m p i re. This must be attributed to the fact that the place the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of imperial chamber court had only limited competence Witches, 1486) as a guide to judges in witchcraft trials in criminal affairs—and by no means we re all of its at the height of the prosecutions around the turn of the assessors opposed to witchcraft persecutions. seventeenth century. Rémy based the De m o n o l a t ry both on his immense RALF-PETER FUCHS reading in both ancient and recent literature and on See also: CAROLINACODE;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;HOLYROMAN local court re c o rds. On the title page, he claimed he EMPIRE;REICHSHOFRAT;SWIMMINGTEST;TRIALS. had judged 900 witches in fifteen years (later re d u c e d References and further reading: to 800 in the text), and he mentioned over 125 of Fuchs, Ralf-Peter. 1994. Hexerei und Zauberei vor dem them (some of whom we re not tried in Lorraine) by Reichskammergericht: Nichtigkeiten und Injurien; Erweiterte name. Rémy seems to have been an unusually metic- Fassung des Vortrags vom 22. Oktober 1993 im Stadthaus am ulous author, citing individual confessions, mention- Dom zu Wetzlar.Wetzlar: Gesellschaft für ing convicted witches by name, and noting the date Reichskammergerichtsforschung. ———. 2002. “The Supreme Court of the Holy Roman Empire: and place of each execution (not always consistently) The State of Research and the Outlook.” Sixteenth Century in the margins. Historians (Briggs 2002) now believe Journal34: 9–27. that Rémy’s numbers we re considerably exaggerat- Lorenz, Sönke. 2001. Erich Mauritius († 1651 in Wetzlar)—ein ed—a piece of late-humanist bombast—and that Jurist im Zeitalter der Hexenverfolgung: Erweiterte und veränderte “900” should be translated as “m a n y.” Howe ve r, Fassung des Vortrags vom 28. Mai 1998 im Stadthaus am Dom abundant fiscal sources in the arc h i ves confirm only a zu Wetzlar.Wetzlar: Gesellschaft für handful of Rémy’s names and dates, but the va s t Reichskammergerichtsforschung. majority of the more than 125 names the De m o n o l a t ry Oestmann, Peter. 1997. Hexenprozesse am Reichskammergericht. mentions remain impossible to ve r i f y. In book 1, Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau. Rémy observed that many of the details of witchcraft Wigand, Paul. 1851. “Das Reichskammergericht und die confessions should be kept out of the public re c o rd Hexenprozesse,” Pp. 73–82 in Wetzlar’sche Beiträge für Geschichte und Rechtsalterthümer.Edited by Paul Wigand. Vol. lest the curious public discover the secrets that would 3. Giessen: Heinemann. lead to their own damnation. He did not follow his own advice. Rémy, Nicolas (ca. 1530–1612) Rémy relied heavily on the work of earlier demo- Best known for a work of juridical demonology in nologists, particularly Jean Bodin (whom he may have Latin, the Da e m o n o l a t r i a ( De m o n o l a t ry), Rémy was met in Toulouse). Like Bodin, Rémy considered the Rémy, Nicolas 955

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.956 Application File R é m y’s insistence upon the virtually priestly character of civil magistrates was consistent with contemporary ideas of the divine justification of civil rule. Rémy divided the work into three sections: the first dealing elaborately and in great detail with demonic p owers and the means by which demons tempted humans to become witches, the second with the activi- ties of witches (chiefly with their use of poisons), and the third with further examples and conclusions, e x p ressly condemning those who denied the reality of witchcraft. Rémy asserted that demons not only tempted humans into their service by promises of rew a rds and power but also coerced them into their service by striking fear into their hearts, citing a confession made in 1586 to the effect that a demon had compelled one Claude Mo r è l e into its service as a witch by threatening to kill Mo r è l e’s wife and children. Although the book was directed at a learned public and written in learned Latin, Rémy did not organize it systematically. Rémy’s vast learning, his citation of hundreds of cases, and his elaborate descrip- tions of demons’ influence over witches made for a disor- g a n i zed work, in which one anecdote leads to another and re f e rences to classical authors and literary fig u res are made to seem contemporary. In spite of its difficult lan- guage and fla wed construction, the work remained one of the most used and respected sources for demonologi- cal and legal ideas for nearly a century. Leaving his book aside, it is possible to measure R é m y’s influence on witchcraft persecutions in the duchy of Lorraine during his time as attorney general, thanks to re m a rkably complete fiscal re c o rds (eve ry witch had to be publicly executed, creating budgetary Nicolas Rémy’s witchraft treatise Daemonolatria (Demonolatry), expenses that were invariably recorded). Witchcraft tri- often served as a guide to judges in witchcraft trials and went through als had begun to multiply in Lorraine in the 1570s, eleven editions. This illustration (from the 1693 German edition) starting before Rémy became one of three judges at the depicts a Sabbat at the Blocksberg (a mountain in Germany where ducal court of Nancy. One can measure a rapid increase witches gathered). Witches administer the kiss of shame to the Devil in witch burnings in the 1580s, before Rémy took (the goat), while others dance with demons around the mountain. office as chief prosecutor. His advent spelled neither an (Cornell University Library) i n c rease nor a decrease in Lorraine’s witchcraft trials; they remained at a remarkably stable level for the forty years after 1590 (more than twenty recorded executions p rosecution of witches a religious as well as a secular each ye a r, with re c o rds about 90 percent complete). obligation, and his book appeared to be irrefutable both These forty years exactly coincided with the period as sound Catholic doctrine and as scientific legal evi- when the two Rémys, father and son, directed offic i a l dence. A trained jurist, he also cited Scripture, Roman persecutions in Lorraine. So far as possible, they prac- law, and recent legislation, justifying the prosecution of ticed what the De m o n o l a t ry p reached and made their suspected or accused witches and placing great reliance duchy into the single worst witch-hunting state of on the confessions of convicted witches. T h e French-speaking Eu rope. They did not begin this De m o n o l a t ry is also especially important for Rémy’s process, but they maintained it in Lorraine at brutally a rticulate insistence on the immunity of civil magis- high levels. trates not only from acts of witchcraft and diabolical WILLIAM MONTER AND EDWARD PETERS sorcery but also from demonic temptation by virtue of their legitimate office and because of the divine sanc- See also:BODIN,JEAN;BOGUET,HENRI;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;DEL tion of princely rule. Even witches in legitimate custody RIO,MARTÍN;DEMONOLOGY;LANCRE,PIERREDE;LORRAINE, we re immune to the temptations of their demons. DUCHYOF;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM. 956 Rémy, Nicolas

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.957 Application File References and further reading: c e ress is a literary descendent of Medea in book 7 of Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and O v i d’s Me t a m o r p h o s e s (1–8 C.E.), with power to con- Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. 2nd ed.Oxford and t rol the operations of nature and re s t o re youth to old Malden, MA: Blackwell. age. Dipsas’s magic is contained and transformed by the Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons.Oxford: Clarendon. t rue sove reignty and divinely appointed power of Cullière, Alain. 1999. Les écrivains et le pouvoir en Lorraine au Cynthia, and in the end, Dipsas submits to Cynthia. XVIe siècle.Paris: Champion. Ma g i c’s challenge to established authority was Golden, Richard M. 1994. “Notions of Social and Religious i n variably defeated in plays of the period, in plots that Pollution in Nicolas Rémy’s Demonolatry.” Pp. 21–33 in Politics, Ideology, and the Law in Early Modern Europe: Essays in finally contained, dispelled, transformed, or destroye d Honor of J.H.M. Salmon.Edited by Adrianna E. Bakos. its threat. The combining of learned and popular Rochester, NY: University of Rochester. witchcraft lore in Lyly can also be found in Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Witchcraft in Christopher Ma r l owe’s Dr Fa u s t u s (ca. 1589). In this Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History.2nd ed. Revised by p l a y, Ma r l owe probed the early modern period’s con- Edward Peters. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. cern with the re a l i t y, extent, and seriousness of magic’s Rémy, Nicolas. 1930. Demonolatry.Edited by Montague Summers p owers. He deployed three perspectives on and translated by E.A. Ashwin. London: J. Rodker. Renaissance magic: ort h o d ox demonology, condemn- ———. 1998. La démonolâtrie: Texte établi et traduit à partir de ing it; “high,” intellectual magic, celebrating its occult l’édition de 1595.Edited and translated by Jean Boës. Nancy: t ruths and mysteries; and popular magic, assuming Presses Universitaires Nancy. the closeness of devils and their powers to transform or cause mischief (Ro b e rts 2000, 62). The mixture of Renaissance Drama, England magical materials found in Dr Fa u s t u s was typical of English dramatists from the late 1580s to the 1640s many witchcraft plays of the period, though few we re keen to exploit the fuzzy categories of witchcraft d e p l oyed those materials as cogently as Ma r l owe did and magic as a familiar source of character types, to produce not only popular spectacle and learned plots (many of them comic), and theatrical spectacle disputation but also a sense of the pro t a g o n i s t’s interi- and as a way of affirming conventional gender re l a- ority as he fantasizes the power that will flow fro m tions and the political status quo. Reginald Scot’s magic, then struggles with its failure. A compact with D i s c overie of Wi t c h c raft (1584) was an import a n t the Devil was also a motif in George Chapman’s s o u rce for details of witchcraft, though dramatists Ca e s a r and Po m p e y (ca. 1605), the anonymous T h e generally used sources indiscriminately. Magical and Me r ry Devil of Ed m o n t o n (ca. 1602), and Ba r b a b e witchcraft materials appeared in plays throughout the Ba r n e s’s The De v i l’s Chart e r (1606). Ro b e rt Gre e n e period, though some periods, such as the mid-1590s, was quick to imitate Ma r l owe’s play in his Friar Ba c o n saw a surge in the fashion for witchcraft plays. and Friar Bu n g a y (ca. 1590), in which a male magi- Witchcraft motifs persisted because they lent them- cian performs amazing feats, though, unlike Dr. s e l ves to a variety of dramatic treatments, from the Faustus, he finally renounces his magic and turns to burlesque and comic to the intellectual and tragic. God. The male magician was to reappear in plays Both female witchcraft and male magic (the latter t h roughout the period, including William Sh a k e s p e a re’s t reated more sympathetically) provided opport u n i t i e s The Te m p e s t(ca. 1611). for theatrical spectacles. They we re often associated The 1590s also saw the appearance in plays of the with comedy, because both comedy and witchcraft in w i s ewoman, a fig u re from popular culture. Both Jo h n d i f f e rent ways pursued social disord e r. The fre q u e n c y Ly l y’s Mother Bombie (ca. 1590) and T h o m a s of witchcraft motifs in plays bore little relation to the Heywood’sThe Wise Woman of Hogsdon(ca. 1604) sur- periods of greatest witchcraft prosecution in En g l a n d , v i ve, though only the titles remain of Mother Re d c a p and in general, playwrights, if they took witchcraft (ca. 1597), TheWitch of Islington(ca. 1597), and Black seriously at all, we re interested less in the actualities Joan(ca. 1598), also possibly a wisewoman play. Female of witchcraft prosecutions than in witchcraft as a practitioners of magic were usually depicted as wicked symbolic social system re p resenting women’s illicit and male ones as good, and they were sometimes con- challenge to patriarc h y. trasted in the same play: Prospero and Sycorax in The Endymion by John Ly l y, performed at Elizabeth I’s Tempest,Edward the Confessor and the Weird Sisters in court in 1588 by boy actors, was the first of many plays Sh a k e s p e a re’s Ma c b e t h (ca. 1605), and Reuben the re p resenting female magic as a threat to patriarc h a l Reconciler and Mother Maudlin the witch in Be n marriage and the established political ord e r, here Jo n s o n’s The Sad Sh e p h e rd(ca. 1636). Women with embodied in Cynthia, who re p resented Elizabeth. It s ambitions to employ magic were denigrated as witches sophisticated, learned mode presented female fig u re s and interpreted as sources of disorder aiming to destroy associated in benevolent and malign ways with the the reasonable order of male rule. Shakespeare’s Henry powers of the earth, flowers, and herbs. Dipsas the sor- VI, Pa rt I (ca. 1590) contains the strong, eloquent Renaissance Drama, England 957

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.958 Application File i n s u b o rdination and the destruction of the patriarc h a l o rd e r. Sh a k e s p e a re regularly went beyond the stere o- type of the witch to fashion the more threatening, gen- der-transgressing figure of the dominating woman with a masculine spirit, including Margaret in the HenryVI plays (ca. 1590) and in R i c h a rd III (ca. 1591), Lady Macbeth, and Paulina in The Wi n t e r’s Ta l e (ca. 1609); witchcraft was merely a suggestion to account for their woman-exceeding powers (Willis 1995, 167). The Wonder of Women, or The Tragedy of Sophonisba (1604–1606) by John Marston resembled Ma c b e t h i n its scheme of gender oppositions, with Sophonisba, the epitome of beauty and sexual propriety, opposed to the witch Erichtho, with supernatural powers and n e c rophiliac desires. Ma r s t o n’s portrayal of Er i c h t h o was lifted directly from book 6 of Lu c a n’s Ph a r s a l i a : Like in the original, Erichtho can control the environ- ment and deploy charms that compel even the gods of the underworld. Her sexual skills, though, were drawn f rom seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft beliefs. T h e sharply contrasted female figures served to demonstrate the dangerous instability of men’s feelings tow a rd women, whether good or bad. At the same time, Marston made the most of the sexual turns of the plot, including having the hero have sex with Erichtho as a succubus. Plays that dramatized a coherent gender ideology we re in the minority, though they have been given a The English Renaissance drama The Witch of Edmonton,1621, p rominence in recent studies. Ben Jo n s o n’s Masque of featuring the witch Mother Sawyer. (TopFoto.co.uk) Qu e e n e s (1609), written for private performance at c o u rt, with Queen Anne and her female court i e r s warrior woman, Joan la Pucelle, champion and inspirer appearing as the queens, drew on both classical and of the French against the English. Sh a k e s p e a re start e d c o n t e m p o r a ry witch lore for the witches in its anti- by making visible the social and ideological processes by masque (a grotesque parady of a masque). Its logical which opposed identities of witch and saint are assigned s t ru c t u re, opposing the subve r s i ve disorder of the to Joan by the English and the French, respectively, but witches against the heroic virtues of the queens, seemed by the end of the play, he has placed Joan in the former to depend on conventional gender politics, though the c a t e g o ry by showing her invoking demons to support queens’ being women warriors in a court with James I her failing powers. Even so, in Joan he suggested the as sovereign made its gender argument more complex. possibility of women exceeding the limits that gender More typical of witchcraft plays of the period was the conventionally placed on them. hugely popular and anonymous T h e Me r ry Devil of Sh a k e s p e a re made more use of the discourses of Ed m o n t o n . It was written sometime before 1604, was witchcraft and magic than any other dramatist of the printed six times in the seventeenth century, and was period, drawing on them as a source of metaphor, anal- regularly performed, including once before James I in ogy, and ideas, and his notions of magic were strongly 1618. A Dr. Faustus fig u re is the “m e r ry devil” of the g e n d e red. The witches of Ma c b e t h b o re little re s e m- title; his pact with the Devil has reached its end, but he blance to contemporary village witches; instead, they goes on to renounce the Devil and turn instead to a love s y m b o l i zed the disturbing idea of female powe r. T h e intrigue in which his tricks are purely natural. Also question of the reality of their power and agency was o p p o rtunistic in its use of magic and witchcraft for insoluble: Witches might be either supernatural agents entertainment purposes was The Witch(1609–1616) of (as the added Hecuba scenes would suggest) or merely Thomas Middleton. Its lurid, comical witches include representatives of female powers of intuition and fore- Hecate and three others who are dedicated to causing sight that a male warrior society marginalize d . mischief around the sexually hypocritical court. T h e y Howe ve r, Sh a k e s p e a re extended the idea of female indulge in every evil activity that Middleton could cram dominance to Lady Macbeth, whose deliberate in from his sources, including Scot’s D i s c overie of rejection of her femininity went along with political Wi t c h c ra f t : boiling unbaptized babies for their fat, 958 Renaissance Drama, England

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.959 Application File t r a n s vection (the flight of witches), and comic sexual Edited by J.A. Downie and J.T. Parnell. Cambridge: license. Hecate complains about sons who would rather Cambridge University Press. “hunt after strange women still / Than lie with [their] Von Rosador, KurtTetzeli. 1991. “The Power of Magic: From Endimionto The Tempest.”Shakespeare Survey43: 1–13. own mothers” (Corbin and Sedge 1986, 94). The play’s Willis, Deborah. 1995. Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and disappearance from the repertoire may have owed more Maternal Power in Early Modern England.Ithaca, NY, and to its possible allusions to the Essex affair of London: Cornell University Press. 1610–1617 (a sordid scandal involving love magic and poison that centered on Frances How a rd and Ro b e rt Devereux, the third earl of Essex) than to any failure to Revenants entertain. According to usual folklorist terminology, revenants, The more serious the threat a witch presented, the that is, dead people returning to the world of the living m o re firmly she was re m oved from the play’s conclu- (from Latin revenire), are different from ghosts because sion. Mother Sa w yer in The Witch of Ed m o n t o n the former posses a material body, albeit of some alien (1621), by Thomas De k k e r, John Fo rd, and Wi l l i a m substance, whereas the latter are incorporeal. In Row l e y, is executed, like her historical original, German, a revenant is called Wiedergänger, Lebender because her community blames her for its disord e r s . Leichnam (living corpse), or Untoter (undead); in Old This play was unique in dramatizing the social pro c e s s Norse, a revenant was called draug. Several texts from by which a witch was created, and it presented a Iceland showed these material specters as malignant potentially skeptical view of witchcraft alongside the and dangerous beings, against whom apotropaism, familiar credulous one. The witch got a chance to con- fighting, or destroying was necessary. The men and demn the social evils around her. In Ben Jo n s o n’s T h e women who become revenants may have failed to find Sad Sh e p h e rd , the fore s t - d welling witch Mo t h e r their way into the otherworld because they had died Maudlin may also have re p resented a critique of prematurely, because their corpses were unburied, or Robin Ho o d’s quasi-aristocratic society, though as the because they had an evil character. A special case of the play was not finished, it is hard to tell. One of the last revenant is the vampire, a reanimated corpse fond of witchcraft plays of the period, The Late Lancashire drinking blood. Some other mythological figures, espe- Wi t c h e s (1634) by Thomas Heywood and Richard cially mountain-dwelling dwarfs, may also be a form of Brome, was conventional in conception though strik- revenant. However, continental sources do not always ingly action-packed and carnivalesque. It ignored the make a sharp division between a corporeal revenant and real Lancashire witchcraft trials and presented the a nonmaterial specter. We learn from the autobio- witches as ove rturning society’s sexual ord e r. Be c a u s e graphical Arndt Buschmann’s Miracle that when the their appetite for mischief produced comic re s u l t s , peasant Arndt Buschmann’s deceased great-grandfather they we re left unpunished at the end. appeared to Arndt in November 1437, he did so at first in the form of a seemingly real dog, only after conjura- LAWRENCE NORMAND tion taking the form of a human-shaped ghost. See also:DEVIL;DRAMA,DUTCH;DRAMA,ITALIAN;DRAMA,SPAN- Christian writers of the Middle Ages and later ISH;ENGLAND;FAUST,JOHANNGEORG;FEMALEWITCHES;GEN- explained such phenomena as the appearance of the DER;JAMESVIANDI,KINGOFSCOTLANDANDENGLAND;JOAN souls of impious or sinful persons who craved help by OFARC;LANCASHIREWITCHES;MEDEA;REBELS;SCOT,REGINALD; the living through prayers, alms, and masses. They were SHAKESPEARE,WILLIAM. allowed to leave their after-death dwelling place, purga- References and further reading: t o ry, through Go d’s special grace, in order to get a Comensoli, Viviana. 1996. “Household Business”: Domestic Plays of chance to shorten their penance. Such records began to Early Modern England.Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Corbin, Peter, and Douglas Sedge. 1986.Three Jacobean Witchcraft be written down frequently from the twelfth century Plays. Manchester: Manchester University Press. o n w a rd, peaked in the late Middle Ages, and became Dolan, Frances E. 1994. Dangerous Familiars: Representations of discredited after the Reformations. Domestic Crime in England, 1550–1700. Ithaca, NY, and Whereas pagan revenants were frequently dangerous, London: Cornell University Press. the Christian cult of the dead created a legend of the Greenblatt, Stephen. 1993. “Shakespeare Bewitched.” Pp. “helpful dead.” These we re people who became 108–135 in New Historical Literary Study: Essays on revenants only for some special purpose, as in a popular Reproducing Texts, Representing History.Edited by Jeffrey N. legend from the later Middle Ages in which a knight Cox and Larry J. Reynolds. Princeton, NJ: Princeton who often prayed for the dead is attacked by his ene- University Press. mies in a churc h y a rd; the skeletons open their grave s Purkiss, Diane. 1996. The Witch in History: Early Modern and and drive away his aggressors. In another example, in Twentieth-Century Representations. London and NewYork: Routledge. the legend of St. Fridolin of Säckingen, a cooperative Roberts, Gareth. 2000. “Marlowe and the Metaphysics of corpse accompanies the saint to court so that his testi- Magicians.” Pp. 55–73 in Constructing Christopher Marlowe. mony can help the saint win his case. But medieva l Revenants 959

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.960 Application File Christians also told stories about aggre s s i ve corpses: started his career as an archivist and librarian, and The original form of the “dance of death” was a dance despite his massive book on witchcraft and considerable in which the dead took the living with them. resistance from the Catholic Bayerische Volkspartei in C o l l e c t i ve apparitions of the dead formed a wide- parliament, he was appointed to the first chair of s p read element within Eu ropean folk traditions. On Bavarian history at the University of Munich. In 1901, stormy nights, at certain times of the year (mostly dur- he was even raised to the nobility as Sigmund von ing winter), an army of the dead rode through the skies, Riezler, and he became a privy councilor of Bavaria’s variously called e xe rcitus ferialis, familia Ha rl e c h i n i , o r Prince Regent Luitpold three years later. Although spe- Mesnie Hellequin. The army was ruled by the Wi l d cializing in his native Kingdom of Bavaria, Riezler was Hunter (Wütender Jäger), also identified with King not considered a provincial historian, and he was made Herla, Theodoric of Bern, Frau Perchta, or some similar coeditor of the Historische Zeitschrift. fig u re. It is obvious that this leader of the dead was a R i ez l e r’s Geschichte der He xe n p ro zesse in Ba i e rn: Im replacement for some pre-Christian psychopomp (a Lichte der allgemeinen Entwickelung dargestellt ( 1 8 9 6 ) deity who accompanies the departed into the other was innovative in a number of ways. It was a compara- world). Po rtentous battles between dead men have tive regional study, focusing on the former duchy/elec- often been seen in the air, from classical antiquity until torate of Bavaria, about two generations before this type modern times. The Christian interpretation declare d of study became fashionable. Riezler put witchcraft these soldiers to be souls who had to endure this form into the wider context of the culture of the of terrestrial purgatory.This motif entered medieval lit- Counter-Reformation (as the subtitle of the book indi- erature in partly secularized variants, for example, e.g., cates) and related it to the spirit of particular decades Andreas Capellanus’s De Amore (On Love 1184–1186, and the character of particular actors: princes, lawyers, I, 15), Boccaccio’sDecameron(1349–1353, V, 8), or, in or theologians. By rearranging the subject on a regional the sixteenth century, Pi e r re Ro n s a rd’s Hymne des l e vel, a completely new and more coherent picture of Daemons (Hymn of the Demons 1555, verses 347ff). the age of witchcraft trials emerged. The Middle Ages Connections between witchcraft and revenants were evaporated, and the decades around 1600 moved to the limited to cases of necromancy.That sorcerers and sor- center of the story. Instead of denouncing the actors ceresses could also become revenants is not remarkable and authors, Riezler really scru t i n i zed their texts and within the Christian worldview, but it was a possible deeds, and—despite his strong liberal and rationalist fate of all kinds of sinners, though according to the Old bias—he employed the hermeneutical approach of Norse sources, sorc e rers we re especially likely to “understanding,” always illustrating his interpre t a t i o n s become phantoms. with exact quotes from the sources and even editing a number of them, for example, a new document on the PETER DINZELBACHER trials against the Waldensian witches in the fif t e e n t h See also: FOLKLORE;GHOSTS;NECROMANCY;NIGHTWITCH,OR c e n t u ry or on an interrogation scheme of 1622. It NIGHTHAG;VAMPIRE. seems that Riezler was one of the first researchers who References and further reading: systematically worked with trial records. Finucane, R. C. 1984. Appearances of the Dead.Buffalo: Some of Riezler’s suggestions for study have yet to be Prometheus. fully explored, for instance, the differences betwe e n Lecouteux, Claude. 1986. Fantômes et revenants au Moyen Age. Latin and Orthodox Christianity. He provided a thor- Paris: Imago. ough discussion of previous publications on his subject ———. 1999. Chasses fantastiques et cohortes de la nuit au Moyen Age.Paris: Imago. and a clear outline of his methodology. He considered Schmitt, Jean-Claude. 1998. Ghosts in the Middle Ages.Chicago: himself a pathfinder and acknowledged only the University of Chicago Press. American re s e a rcher George Lincoln Burr as a peer in Walter, Philippe, ed. 1997.Le mythe de la chasse sauvage dans historiographic expertise. (Joseph Hansen’s massive vol- l’Europe médiévale.Paris: Champion. umes were still to come.) Even after more than a centu- ry, his work is an admirable achievement, and—last but Riezler, Sigmund (1843–1927) not least—a good read. The son of a Munich merchant, Sigmund Riezler WOLFGANG BEHRINGER received his academic training from Heinrich von Sybel (1817–1895) and Wilhelm von Giesebrecht (1814– See also: BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;BURR,GEORGELINCOLN;HAUSEN, 1889), both students of Leopold von Ranke. However, JOSEPH;HISTORIOGRAPHY;WITCHHUNTS. References and further reading: the liberal Riezler criticized historicism because of its Behringer,Wolfgang. 2004. “Zur Geschichte der lack of attention to the darker sides of history, and he Hexenforschung.” Pp. 93–146 in Wider alle Hexerey und remained interested in culture, as well as politics and Teufelswerk: Die europäische Hexenverfolgung und ihre e c o n o m y, as he demonstrated masterfully in his Auswirkungen auf Süddeutschland. Edited by Sönke Lorenz and Geschichte Bayerns (History of Bavaria, 8 vols.). Riezler Jürgen-Michael Schmidt. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke. 960 Riezler, Sigmund

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.961 Application File Weigand, Katharina. 1998. “Der Lehrstuhl für baye r i s c h e John of Mo r i g n y, in his fourt e e n t h - c e n t u ry Li b e r Landesgeschichte und sein erster Inhaber Sigmund von Riez l e r. ” visionum (Book of Visions), gave instructions for mak- P p. 307–350 in Im Dienst der Ba yerischen Ge s c h i c h t e .Edited by ing and consecrating a “ring of power.” Such a ring had Wilhelm Vo l k e rt and Walter Zi e g l e r. Munich: Be c k’sche. various uses: Wearing it enabled one to experience prophetic dreams from the Virgin Mary, win disputa- Rings, Magical tions, or disperse evil spirits. In the medieval series of Since ancient times, rings have been both symbols and texts known as the Liber de angelis (Book of Angels), genuine tokens of magic, considered as amulets possess- magic rings corresponded to the planets. For example, ing powe r, even divinity. Uncountable are the mentions the texts include instructions to make a ring on which of magical rings in ancient and medieval literature. Rings is written the character or magical sign and the name of w a rded off hunger and thirst; made one beautiful or ugly, the angel of the Sun. At every sacrifice, this ring was to young or old; foretold the future; protected against be worn on the little finger of the left hand. i n j u ry; or brought their we a rer love. Rings could make In late medieval medicine, a whole range of objects— the we a rer invisible or give the strength of twe l ve or more j ewels, rings, pilgrim badges, and bro o c h e s — we re car- men even to dwarves. Me d i e val literature even offere d ried on the person by individuals of both sexes and all d i rections for manufacturing rings that would ensure vic- social groups to guard against sudden death, disease, and t o ry in fencing contests, although only in To l k i e n’s twe n- the attacks of human enemies or diabolical agents. A fif- t i e t h - c e n t u ry pseudo-medieval world does a ring prov i d e t e e n t h - c e n t u ry duke of Burgundy wore a ring with a enough power to rule the universe (Middle Eart h ) . stone that could detect poison. Many of these surv i v i n g Legends affirmed that such magical rings had been objects carry inscriptions testifying to their effective n e s s made by supernatural beings. Their effects were as vari- in warding off particular diseases, for instance, epilepsy ous as the materials from which they were formed and and plague. Written medical sources offered plentiful the ways either mortals or supernatural beings came to c o r ro b o r a t i ve evidence for the success of such amulets in possess them. A ring could be a gift from a supernatur- w a rding off and occasionally healing diseases. al being; dwarves were famous for their artful forging. But elves, nature spirits, helpful animals, or even the CHRISTA TUCZAY Devil could provide a magical ring. Such gifts, with See also: AMULETANDTALISMAN;CHARMS;DEMONS;GRIMOIRES; their magical pro p e rties, might, howe ve r, bind the RITUALMAGIC;ROYALHEALING. recipient to the provider even beyond death, like References and further reading: Charlemagne to Fastrada in the legend. Fanger, Claire, ed. 1998. Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of The notion of a magic ring and its various effects Medieval Ritual Magic.University Park: University of d e r i ved from several concepts. St rongly connected to Pennsylvania Press. Flint, Valerie I.J. 1991. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval such rings, which in most cases contained some pre- Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. cious jewel, was the medieval belief in the power of Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge: magical stones. Su rviving examples of magical rings, Cambridge University Press. mostly set with precious stones, come from va r i o u s parts of late medieval Europe: A British example, with Ritual Magic five diamonds and a ru by, promises luck to whoeve r wears it; another example, from fourt e e n t h - c e n t u ry The most unorthodox form of the occult sciences, ritu- It a l y, contains a “t o a d s t o n e” (actually a fossilized fis h ) al magic was performed primarily by monks, priests, set in gold and inscribed with two Gospel verses. and other learned men and was tolerated for most of the Middle Ages. Many secular and ecclesiastical Rings as Habitat of Demons princes had astrologers, diviners, and magicians in their courts, although by the fifteenth century there were The powers of such magical rings supposedly came fro m calls for the suppression of these crafts. Ritual magic’s demons and spirits dwelling inside them. To put a opponents associated it with demonic activity, whether spirit into a bottle, or more often into a ring, was a or not its practitioners explicitly invoked demons. m u c h - a d m i red art in medieval times. Solomon re p u t e d l y Because the powerful continued to patronize learned tamed legions of spirits with his magic ring; many medieva l sorcerers, critics began to project their discourse about magicians and other powe rful men, including some popes, demonic sorcery onto unlearned women practitioners. supposedly possessed demonic helpers enclosed in rings. The efforts to demonize high magic therefore helped Early modern times ascribed these rings to witches, who lay the groundwork for the witch hunts. we re able to seduce honest people with their help. Rings in Ceremonial Magic Origins and Medieval Development In ritual and ceremonial magic, rings represented the Ritual magic’s origins lay in classical antiquity as a angel or spirit that the magician intended to evoke. means of harnessing the power and knowledge of spirits, Ritual Magic 961

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.962 Application File or d a e m o n e s , thought to reside in and operate the heav- p recise performance of prayers and rituals. It was ens. Early Christians soon reshaped it to fit a Christian b e l i e ved that angels and demons possessed superior c o s m o l o g y, turning Roman daemones into angels and k n owledge to humans and had the ability to trans- demons. Christian ceremonies, prayers, and holy objects p o rt themselves, invisibly and speedily, anywhere in replaced or we re added to ancient conjurations to pro- the cosmos. T h rough proper ceremonies, ritual duce a highly elaborate set of rituals that aimed to com- magicians hoped to compel these beings to prov i d e municate with and manipulate the supernatural re a l m . s e c ret knowledge, the location of hidden tre a s u re , T h roughout the High Middle Ages, Muslim and t r a n s p o rtation to exotic places, marvels to impre s s He b rew texts we re added to the mix. Because ritual friend and foe, the means to compel love, and eve n magic was a highly learned art, its practitioners needed the ability to reanimate the dead. A few pro m i s e d to possess Latin and a fairly extensive knowledge of techniques to achieve the beatific vision. Of t e n , Christian liturgy. They had to be precise in the re c i t a- special equipment was re q u i red: waxen images, tion of dense texts and extremely careful in the pre p a r a- amulets, consecrated pens, untouched parc h m e n t , tion of the necessary equipment. Se c recy was critical, magic circles, swords, candles, crystals, mirrors, or and translation of ritual magic texts from Latin into the fingernails, although the central operation was the vernacular was thought to divest them of their powe r. recitation of texts. Prior to recitation, the practition- The goal of all ritual magic was to summon super- er usually had to perform long, complex rites of natural beings for a variety of purposes through the p u r i fic a t i o n . Ritual magic, practiced in a magic circle with the help of a text and various other aids. Manuscript initial, 1481. (Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis) 962 Ritual Magic

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.963 Application File Ritual magic frequently fused with natural magic, rift on princely dabbling in the occult. Thus, learned especially astro l o g y, and the conjuring of angels and opposition to courtly ritual magic helped influence the spirits re q u i red awareness of the system of corre s p o n- d e velopment of the witch stereotype and of judicial dences that purportedly governed the operations of the action against it. The trial in 1440 of Ba ron Gilles de cosmos. Ritual magic remained popular through the Rais helped re i n f o rce suspicion that ritual magic m e d i e val and early modern periods, and many i n vo l ved diabolical agency and led to the sacrifice of unscrupulous practitioners made a good living pretend- c h i l d re n . ing to call up spirits for naive clients. Ritual magic that explicitly called upon demons was Renaissance Neoplatonism and Ritual called necromancy and was routinely condemned by Magic Church leaders. By the fourteenth century, necromancy Like the other occult sciences, ritual magic enjoyed a had become a major underground activity for under- re v i val in the later fifteenth century thanks to employed clergy or university students. Convinced that Renaissance humanists’ interest in Neoplatonism, as Holy Orders imbued them with the spiritual power to well as to the needs of princes to gain some predictive e xo rc i ze or expel demons from the possessed, clerical ability over their rivals. A major dispute arose, however, necromancers further assumed that they could control among ritual magic practitioners as to whether the these malevolent spirits. Many ritual magicians, howev- printing of such texts vulgarized them. The physician e r, pre f e r red to identify their supernatural assistants as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim raised the angels, spirit beings, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, or God the ire of many contemporaries in 1531/1533 for publish- Father himself. The fourt e e n t h - c e n t u ry Honorius of ing many conjurations and recipes in his De occulta Thebes contended that because only godly men could philosophie (On Occult Philosophy). This work praised command the spirits, the Church’s persecution of magi- the occult sciences and ritual magic, and through it cians was misguided. Agrippa’s reputation as a magus was elevated, although Many medieval ritual magic manuscripts have sur- many opponents blamed him for making magic easier v i ved, such as the Key of Solomon, the Sw o rn Book of to perform. Honorius,the Book of Angels,and the Ars notoria,which For Agrippa, the three worlds—elemental, celestial, called upon God or angels to provide the wisdom of the intellectual—each re c e i ved influences from the one cosmos. Later seventeenth- and eighteenth-centurygri- a b ove it through rays of divine virtues that trave l e d m o i re s ( m a g i c i a n s’ books for invoking demons) have downward. Because ritual or ceremonial magic involved much in common with their medieval pre d e c e s s o r s , the angelic beings of the highest realm, it was the pin- because occultists assumed that ancient sorc e rers such nacle of the natural order. For Agrippa, ritual magic was as Solomon had possessed access to the secret names of the highest form of philosophy and relied entirely on God and angelic beings. Manuscripts that appeared to b e n e volent angelic beings and natural cosmic forc e s , be ancient were highly treasured; to be effective as mag- without diabolical agency. It re q u i red complete inner ical objects, more ove r, they had to be meticulously purity on the part of the practitioner combined with copied by the magician’s hand with consecrated pen profound training in natural philosophy, mathematics, and paper. astrology, and theology. It is hardly surprising that the Reformation quickly Attempted Demonization of Ritual d e m o n i zed such views. After his death in 1535, Magic Agrippa became the subject of diabolical rumors as a In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many p ro t o - Faustus. His public disavowal of the invo c a t i o n polemicists and some authorities began serious effort s of demons as a horrible perversion of true magic proved to suppress the practice of ritual magic, which had to little avail, as did his condemnation of inquisitors become thoroughly intertwined with courtly culture . who persecuted women for black magic. Like most rit- In 1390, the Pa rl e m e n t of Paris (sove reign judicial ual magicians, Agrippa did not believe women could c o u rt, with jurisdiction over approximately one-half of perform any kind of serious magic effectively. France) condemned sorc e ry as a civil offense, and it We re the experiments of ritual magicians “s u c c e s s- began trying some local magicians, adding diabolical f u l”? In the 1580s, the English alchemist John De e elements to the charges of illicit magic. Eight ye a r s conducted with Ed w a rd Kelley (ca. 1554–1595) a series l a t e r, the Un i versity of Paris decided that demon-assist- of crystal-gazing experiments (scrying) during which ed sorc e ry was heretical, since it re q u i red a pact with Kelley purported to see spirits; Dee, the actual the Devil. Laurens Pignon, a Dominican confessor to c ry s t a l - g a ze r, saw nothing but believed the re p o rts of his the dukes of Bu r g u n d y, composed a treatise in 1411 p a rt n e r. The firsthand account of a “s u c c e s s f u l” necro- warning the Burgundian court against its fascination mantic experiment performed in the Roman Coliseum with ritual magic. In the process, he demonized all by a Neapolitan priest for the artist Be n venuto Cellini magical practices and blamed the Or l é a n s – Bu r g u n d y was only one of many contemporary tales suggesting Ritual Magic 963

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.964 Application File that ritual magicians could produce some effects that Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge: astonished their clients. On the other hand, Gilles de Cambridge University Press. R a i s’s confession that he always arrived too late to see the ———. 1997. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century.University Park: Pennsylvania State spirit beings summoned by his professional necro- University Press. mancers suggests that many practitioners relied heavily Maxwell-Stuart, P. G., ed. 1999. The Occult in Early Modern on the gullibility and suggestibility of their clientele. Europe: A Documentary History.Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan. Shumaker,Wayne. 1972. The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance: A The Reformation and Study in Intellectual Patterns.Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Ritual Magic London: University of California Press. Despite the protests of ritual magicians, their art was Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.New demonized by both Catholic and Protestant polemi- York: Scribner’s. cists, primarily because of its close associations with Veenstra, Jan R. 1998. Magic and Divination at the Courts of both learned necromancy and popular conjurations. Burgundy and France:Text and Context of Laurens Pignon’s After about 1580, the various Me d i t e r r a n e a n “Contre les devineurs” (1411).Leiden: Brill. Inquisitions began to prosecute cases of illicit magic with great vigor, while many secular states passed laws Ritual Murder against the invocation of spirits, divination, or magical To kill a member of an ethnic or religious gro u p healing. England’s Parliament passed such a statute in d i f f e rent from one’s own and collect his or her blood in 1563, although enforcement was generally lax. Even the o rder to be able to benefit from his or her virtues is to 1604 English statute condemned only the invocation of commit a ritual murd e r. Because blood is a constitutive evil spirits, not the invocation of supernatural beings in element of groups, the accusation of ritual murder as general. Despite the antimagic polemics and the “blood libel” is extremely old. One might add that log- dangers to magicians posed by the witch hunts, learned ically the charge is absurd, because it implies that the magic survived, enjoying something of a revival after perpetrators of such crimes consider their victim’s the decline of witch persecution; in the eighteenth blood to have qualities superior to their own. Howe ve r, century, Giacomo Casanova found no lack of clients. t h e re are examples of ritual murder accusations dating When performed seriously, ritual magic, like its back to Mesopotamia in the Bro n ze Age and also cousin alchemy, was no shortcut to riches or an easy ancient Rome, where pagans cast aspersions on game for charlatans. Fo l l owing its intricate and demand- Christians because of their celebration of the Eu c h a r i s t ing prescriptions and its elaborate, daylong invo c a t i o n s as the body and blood of Christ (Cohn 2000, 1–15). and prayers could produce unusual or visionary experi- L a t e r, other Christian dissident gro u p s — Ma n i c h a e a n s , ences in a practitioner. Ritual magic’s centuries-long Cathars, or Wa l d e n s i a n s — b o re the brunt of these endurance testifies to the compelling power of the mag- c h a r g e s . i c a l - religious act and of the deep desire to change the Despite the magical character of ritual murd e r, the hand that fortune has dealt. It also illustrates the perme- accusation of ritual murder belongs more to re l i g i o n ability of the boundaries between perc e i ved reality and than to sorc e ry. The charge, frequently made in the fantasy and helped condition people to believe the Christian-Latin West beginning in the tenth century, strange stories of magical flight, Sabbat banquets, and was largely a matter of Christians asserting their sepa- magical acts arising out of the witchcraft trials. rateness from Jews, who we re presented as dangero u s . Howe ve r, beginning with the Fo u rth Lateran Council GARY K. WAITE (1215) and the elaboration of the concept of transub- stantiation, Jews we re accused of sinning against the See also: AGRIPPAVONNETTESHEIM,HEINRICH;ALCHEMY;ANGELS; Eucharist with the help of “bad Christians.” Jews were ASTROLOGY;CLERICALMAGIC;DEE,JOHN;DEMONS;DIVINA- TION;FAUST,JOHANNGEORG;GERSON,JEAN;GRIMOIRES;INVO- accused of making pacts with the Devil, collaborating CATIONS;LOVEMAGIC;MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGIC,NATURAL; with sorcerers, and using the blood of Christian infants NECROMANCY;OCCULT;PARIS,UNIVERSITYOF;RAIS,GILLESDE. for magical purposes (Trachtenberg 1943). Thus, the References and further reading: charge of ritual murder linked Jews and witches. Burnett, Charles. 1996. Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Christians believed both were magicians who needed to Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds. murder children. Aldershot, UK: Variorum. From the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries, Butler, Elizabeth M. 1998. Ritual Magic. 1949. University Park: commencing with the English case involving Wi l l i a m Pennsylvania State University Press. of Norwich, there are sixteen documented cases of per- Fanger, Claire, ed. 1998. Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of secution for ritual murd e r. Ritual murder charges Medieval Ritual Magic.University Park: Pennsylvania State spread eastward from England and France and peaked University Press. Flint, Valerie I. J. 1991. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Accusations in Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. eastern Europe began at the end of the fifteenth century 964 Ritual Murder

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.965 Application File of ritual murder was unfounded. Belief that Jews prac- tice ritual murder and use human blood has been wide- ly accepted in the late-twe n t i e t h - c e n t u ry and the twenty-first-century Muslim world. DANIEL TOLLET; TRANSLATED BY KARNA HUGHES See also: BLOOD;INFANTICIDE;JEWS,WITCHCRAFT,ANDMAGIC. References and further reading: Cohn, Norman. 2000. Europe’s Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom.Rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hillel, Marc. 1985. Le massacre des survivants: en Pologne après l’holocauste, 1945–1947.Paris: Plon. Hsia, Ronnie Po-Chia. 1988. The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany.New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ———. 1992. Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial.New Haven: Yale University Press. Slutsky,Yehuda. 1972. “Blood Libel.” Vol. 4, cols. 1120–1132 in Encyclopedia Judaica.Edited by Cecil Roth. Jerusalem: Keter. Tollet, Daniel. 2000. Accuser pour convertir: Du bon usage de l’ac- cusation de crime rituel dans la confédération polono-lituanienne à Depiction of Jews, identified by their purses and circular patches, l’Epoque moderne.Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. taking blood from the child, Simon of Trent, in 1475. Fifteen ———. 2002. Dalla condamna del giudaismo all’odio per l’ebreo: innocent Jews were burned for ritual murder, an anti-Semitic libel. Storia del passagio dall’intoleranzia religiosite alla persecutrice Both Jews and witches were thought to murder children. (Fortean politica e sociale.Milan: Christian Marinotti. Picture Library) ———. 2003. “Der bericht von Lorenzo Ganganellli über den Ritualmord.” Pp. 233–248 in Ritualmord: Legenden in der europaïschen geschischte.Edited by Sasanna Buttaroni and Stanislaw Musial. Vienna, Cologne, and Weimar: Böhlau. and increased in the seventeenth and eighteenth Trachtenberg, Joshua. 1943. The Devil and the Jews.New Haven: centuries, especially in Poland. The blood libel died out Yale University Press. in England and France after the fourteenth century Vernet, F. 1925. “Juifs—controverses avec les.” Vol. 8, Part II, cols. with the expulsion of the Jews (Hsia 1988, 2–4). Two 1870–1914 in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique.Edited by A. types of charges appeared in the late Middle Ages, one Vacant, E. Mangenot, and E. Amann. Paris: Letouzey et Ané. against Jewish communities, as in the case of Little Simon of Trent in 1475, and the other against converts, Robbins, Rossell Hope (1912–1990) as in the case of Santa Nina de la Gu a rdia in To l e d o , The compiler of the first English-language encyc l o p e d i a 1490–1491. of witchcraft was born in Wa l l a s e y, Cheshire, En g l a n d , Ap p roximately 100 cases of accusations of ritual and educated at the Un i versity of Liverpool and m u rder can be enumerated in Poland between the Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Robbins came to the end of the sixteenth century and the T h i rd Pa rt i t i o n United States in 1937 on a fellow s h i p. He became a of Poland in 1795. The motivations for these U.S. citizen and served in the U.S. Army in World Wa r charges, as for those that would appear again in the II, working with the War De p a rtment on issues con- nineteenth century, we re not related to witchcraft cerning the treatment and repatriation of prisoners of but employed anti-Semitism for political objective s w a r. After the war, Robbins taught at Po l y t e c h n i c (Tollet 2002). Institute of Brooklyn (now the New Yo rk Po l y t e c h n i c Despite the refutation in petto ( p r i vately) of ritual Institute). From 1954 until 1969, he held visiting m u rder accusations by Cardinal Laurent Ga n g a n e l l i p rofessorships at several colleges and universities in (the future Pope Clement XIV) in 1759, this calumny No rth America. Robbins was International Professor at had an extremely long life in east-central Europe (Tollet the State Un i versity of New Yo rk at Albany from 1969 2003). The last known serious affair dates from 1946 until his re t i rement in 1982. Also trained in music, he and caused a pogrom at Kielce, in Poland, in which the s p e c i a l i zed in medieval poetry, devoting particular atten- victims were survivors of the Nazi camps or of exile in tion to the edition and analysis of Middle English ve r s e . the Soviet Union (Hillel 1985). Not until the Se c o n d Howe ve r, Ro b b i n s’s best-known work was in the Vatican Council (1962–1965) did the Roman Catholic field of witchcraft. Much of his time as an independent Church declare in conciliar records that the accusation scholar was spent surveying the extensive witchcraft Robbins, Rossell Hope 965

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.966 Application File collection at Cornell University, one of the world’s fore- Roman Catholic Church most collections of primary sources on the subject. In In the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, the 1959, he published the En c yclopedia of Wi t c h c raft and Catholic Church and the papacy re a f firmed themselves as Demonology.The work enjoyed considerable popularity the sole authentic interpreters and heirs to the We s t e r n and was reprinted numerous times, most recently in Christian tradition. Since late antiquity, this tradition had 1984. It was translated into Spanish in 1988 and into always considered witchcraft a heresy and apostasy, tre a t- Russian in 1996. Robbins also published Witchcraft: An ing it primarily as a ritual of devil worship and a form of In t roduction to the Li t e ra t u re of Wi t c h c ra f t in 1978, a faith in demonic powers rather than as a magic art or a reprint of the introduction he wrote for the catalog of manner of casting evil spells against others. Such tradi- the Cornell Witchcraft Collection, which had been tional doctrines about the Devil and his followers sur- published the previous year. v i ved largely unaltered throughout the sixteenth century, Robbins’sEncyclopediais still a useful reference work. as the Catholic Church introduced few doctrinal changes It contains entries on most of the authors, works, and concerning witchcraft and the power of witches. On e topics familiar to scholars of the primary sources, par- must re m e m b e r, howe ve r, that the belief in witchcraft ticularly treatises. Its paraphrases and assessments of the could hardly have affirmed itself in early modern times t re a t i s e s’ argumentation and its biographical informa- without the support of the papacy and its most illustrious tion on the authors, where known, are generally accu- theologians, without the legal pro c e d u res employed by rate. Its coverage of witchcraft trials is much less exten- the papal Inquisition as it extended canonical jurisdiction, s i ve and, given the advances in arc h i val re s e a rch since or without the normative decisions of Church councils. 1959, obviously inadequate. To what extent we re the Roman Catholic Church and the Ro b b i n s’s own explanations of witch hunting we re papacy responsible for the witch hunts that took place simplistic and we re probably refracted through the con- t h roughout the Western world? t e m p o r a ry experience of Nazi persecutions: He empha- In fluenced by doctrinal controversies, past historians s i zed alleged ideological and financial incentives for “t h e f requently accused the Catholic Church of having legiti- In q u i s i t i o n” to invent a new heresy of witchcraft after mated these massacres and of having supplied doctrinal exterminating the Waldensians and the Cathars and juridical weapons to witch hunters. Cu r re n t l y, schol- ( Robbins 1959, 8–9, 15–17, 271; 1978: 20–21, 32). ars usually advocate more moderate positions: In the ear- But these theories do not obtrude exc e s s i vely into the ly modern period, all Christian churches and secular entries of his En c yc l o p e d i a . One can still agree with Si r p owers continued to persecute witches, with no substan- Keith T h o m a s’s assessment that it “contain[s] many triv- tial differences among them. Besides, the modern ial errors of fact. Its central thesis is disputable . . . but it Inquisitions we re ve ry skeptical about m a l e fic i a( h a r m f u l rests upon a basis of genuine scholarship, contains a magic) and reluctant to impose capital punishment on valuable bibliography and is a serious contribution to those accused of devil worship, sorc e ry, or the creation of the subject” (Thomas 1971, 436n; cf. 456–457). evil spells. After the Reformation, the Catholic Churc h Robbins bequeathed his personal library to the relied just as much as other Christian movements in the University of Rochester, where it now forms part of the West on the practice of catechism to free the masses fro m medieval collections of the Rush Rhees Library. superstitious beliefs. While the Church never offic i a l l y p ronounced itself against the belief in witchcraft, it cer- WALTER STEPHENS tainly felt compelled to defend its own rites and sacra- mental practices against the “c o m p e t i t i o n” of sorc e re r s , See also: HISTORIOGRAPHY. pseudosaints, and popular healers. The Catholic Churc h References and further reading: p re s e rved the rites of exo rcism and blessing, which had Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1959. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and been abolished by the Reformation and which, some Demonology.NewYork: Crown. ———. 1977. “Introduction.” Pp. ix–cxxviiinWitchcraft: scholars have argued, provided efficient means of re a s s u r- Catalogue of the Witchcraft Collection in Cornell University ing the masses, while pre s e rving many superstitious ele- Library.Millwood, NY: KTO. ments, as Protestants polemically stressed. Ge n e r a l l y ———. 1978. Witchcraft: An Introduction to the Literature of speaking, the Devil continued to exist for the Catholic Witchcraft.Millwood, NY: KTO. C h u rch; he kept subjugating people’s souls and taking Rossell Hope Robbins LibraryWeb Site, possession of their bodies (a phenomenon described in http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=224 (accessed the Gospels), but he was deprived of a part of his powe r October 28, 2003). to influence nature and to plot against the faithful. Rossell Hope Robbins LibraryWeb Site, Biography and Bibliography, From Late Antiquity http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=303 to the Middle Ages (accessed October 28, 2003). Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.New The oldest books of the He b rew Bible have re m a rk a b l y York: Scribner’s. little to say about Satan, devils, or their curses. Ac c o rd i n g 966 Roman Catholic Church

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.967 Application File to the norms indicated in some sections of the Theophilus contributed to the spread of a new belief, Pentateuch, God called for a thorough repression of according to which it was possible to sign pacts with the witchcraft (Exod. 22:18 [22:17]; Lev. 19:31; Deut. Devil and to renounce eternal salvation in exchange for 18:9–11). The situation is different in the New supernatural powers. By the High Middle Ages, popes Testament: Jesus was tempted by Satan, expelled evil and bishops oscillated between the idea that witchcraft spirits from the bodies of the possessed, and explained was merely an illusion and the opposite hypothesis that evil by describing it in its diabolical form. The Acts of devil worshippers could obtain real and terrible power the Apostles also refer to exorcisms and abound with to harm others (causing, for instance, male impotence descriptions of demons and black magic. Si m o n and natural disasters). The latter ideas, which could be Magus, for instance, who appears in the Acts, became found throughout most of Europe, were indispensable to the Christian tradition (also thanks to the in forming the myth of the witches’ Sabbat. Apocrypha) an emblem of the heretic who relies on spells and black magic. The Book of Revelation also Papacy, Inquisition, and Theology: attributes to demons or fallen angels a far-from-mar- Pacts and Witches’ Sabbat ginal role in the realization of divine providence, which The Roman Catholic Church is a religious institution would bring about the end of the world. Since its ori- that has always maintained its own juridical apparatus gins, the Church therefore lived in fear of the Devil— and its own tribunals. The foundation of Church legis- the source of all evil and sin, its absolute enemy—and lation lies in canon law, which was first systematically relied on exorcism (including the rite of baptism) to defined in the latter half of the twelfth century by the counter Satan’s power over the faithful. lawyer Gratian in his Concord of Discordant Canons, During late antiquity, the Christian mission consist- known as the Decretum, a collection of citations from ed largely of expelling demons, promoting sanctity, and saints and Church Fathers, laws, pastoral decisions, and recalling the reliability of effective divine pro t e c t i o n conciliar decrees. Subsequent normative decisions coa- ( Brown 1972). In this context, sorc e rers became dis- lesced around the Decretum, which the papacy then turbers of public ord e r, and the Christian empero r s imposed as official laws and terms of reference for the soon imposed laws punishing their crimes seve re l y. Church. The Decretum included a tenth-century text Howe ve r, accusations of working evil spells, persisted known as the Canon Episcopi (ca. 906), which urged and took new forms over time. W h e reas in earlier priests to oppose the widespread superstition and false times, pagan writers had frequently accused Christians belief that some women flew at night on the backs of (and Jews) of practicing incomprehensible rites and animals, following a goddess to reach Satan. For sever- committing horrible infanticides, now it was the al centuries, this text prevented the Church from Christians who treated the religious cults of the gods of accepting as true the tales that ultimately created the antiquity as demonic rites and who attributed to the bloodthirsty myth of the witches’ Sabbat. earliest heretics precisely the same awful crimes of Ne ve rtheless, the Christian model of witchcraft which the first Christian communities had been sus- imposed itself as a consequence of the belief in pacts pected. This led to the idea that there could be pacts b e t ween apostates and demons and the belief that with the Devil and that practicing magical rites was sexual intercourse was possible between humans and tantamount to renouncing the true faith (apostasy) in devils. Among the advocates of this idea was St . f a vor of devil worship. St. Je rome (ca. 340–420) Thomas Aquinas, the premier theologian of the recalled that devils could take physical shape; St . m e d i e val Latin Church, who argued that demons Augustine specified that evil deeds committed by devils could either assume a passive role as s u c c u b i or an we re authorized by God but could neve rtheless come a c t i ve part as i n c u b i and unite themselves sexually about through human evocation. Satan did not have with humans, ordinarily women, thus exc h a n g i n g unlimited powers, and frequently his exploits were illu- semen with the scope of pro c reation. Although sions. Yet evil spells existed, according to St. Augustine, Aq u i n a s’s works made no mention of the witches’ and devil worship was a frequent practice among Sabbat, his doctrines on witchcraft marked an impor- h e retics and others who had abandoned the consola- tant turning point. So rc e ry, clairvoyance, evil spells, tions of the true faith. Besides, the Council of El v i r a black magic, and ultimately all kinds of effective (306) had already officially recognized the belief in the magic rites we re based, according to Aquinas, at least power of evil spells. i m p l i c i t l y on a pact with the De v i l . Three centuries later began the spread of the legend This assumption led to the idea that all forms of of Theophilus, a man who, during the fourth century, magic and witchcraft we re heretical and thus supplied had made an agreement with the Devil, to whom he the newly founded tribunals of the Inquisition with a had promised his soul at the moment of his death in legitimating principle that allowed them to pro c e e d e xchange for a bishopric, worldly pleasures, and the against witchcraft, black magic, and superstition as well p ower to take re venge on his enemies. The tale of as against actual and overt crimes of heresy.The Fourth Roman Catholic Church 967

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.968 Application File Lateran Council (1215), which preceded the cre a t i o n one theory (Bossy 1988), a source of the myth of the of the tribunal, had been dedicated to here s y, not Sabbat (as a formal counterreligion based on the cult of witchcraft; it had sought to crush the Catharist heresy, Satan) was the nominalist obsession with sins commit- which upheld a body of Manichaean doctrines by ted against God, the father and ruler of the unive r s e . believing in the absolute opposition between the forces Thus, nominalist theologians such as Jean Gerson shift- of good and evil (according to which the Devil was ed the concerns of the faithful and the judges from the deemed capable of opposing God). The papal damages caused by evil spells toward the sin of heresy, Inquisition, founded on the basis of the popes’ right to which included superstitious devil worship. delegate judges who could act outside of traditional Although there is some validity to this explanation, it episcopal jurisdictions, fought Catharism and other n e ve rtheless needs to be stressed that in the long ru n , recent forms of here s y. With the appointment of the lack of concern with the physical harm bro u g h t Conrad of Marburg as a judge (1231), howe ve r, the about by malefices did not provoke an increase in prosecution of heretics became closely intertwined with witchcraft accusations but, on the contrary, led to their the struggle against witchcraft—with fatal re s u l t s . d e c rease. At the same time, the practice of tre a t i n g Conrad acted according to the principles of the witchcraft primarily as a crime of heresy led to the Inquisition, which did not re q u i re private charges application of the canon law, which meant that if the against the accused and which could employ torture in trials we re conducted corre c t l y, repentant criminals order to obtain a confession, the supreme proof of guilt. could obtain forgiveness after a first conviction. The bloodthirsty Conrad started trials all ove r Undoubtedly, the preaching of the mendicant orders Germany and, more important, inspired a papal bull (the Dominicans and the Franciscans) did much to giving additional legitimacy to the belief in devil nourish general fears of demons and witches. Heinrich worship: Gregory IX’s Vox in Rama (A Voice in Rama, K r a m e r, author of the infamous Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m 1234). (The Hammer of Witches, 1486), was a Do m i n i c a n . The originality of this text, which discussed devil His order dictated the contents of the papal bull in cults, witches’ banquets, and animal metamorphoses, which Innocent VIII, in 1484, approved the idea that a lay not in its contents but in the fact that it quoted new sect of heretical witches (unknown at the time of juridical proofs obtained by the Inquisition and theCanon Episcopi) had infected Europe, constituting a d e c l a red them true. Later, in 1258, Alexander IV threat to Christianity and deserving to be burned at the reduced the In q u i s i t i o n’s powers in its fight against stake. Consequently, the number of trials concerning witchcraft and superstition, limiting prosecution to cas- witchcraft and witches’ Sabbats increased dramatically es in which the criminal’s heretical intent (the so-called in both ecclesiastical and secular courts. T h e re was an fla vor of heresy) was undisputed. His declarations, ongoing dispute within the Church between those who however, were succeeded by a new wave of trials against accepted the positions of the Malleus (which claimed s o rc e rers and witches during the first decades of the that witches could fly and that they met during fourteenth century and, hence, against a very different Sabbats) and their more cautious opponents, who dis- political, social, religious, and juridical background. An tanced themselves from the trials (the latter included increasing fear of conspiracies against Christianity and the eminent theologian Thomas de Vio, Card i n a l the papacy culminated in acts of intolerance dire c t e d Cajetan, who expressed his ideas in a commentary on against minorities: lepers, Jews, Waldensians, Cathars, St. Thomas in 1520). The number of trials decre a s e d and Knights Templar were accused of diabolical deeds, after the first two decades of the sixteenth century, m u rder by poison, and attacks against the bastions of when the Reformation created an enormous increase in the true faith and the papacy. From Avignon, Jo h n h e resy trials, often by secular courts. The Sp a n i s h XXII’s bull Super illius specula (Upon His Watchtower, Inquisition, which deemed the Jews its prime enemies, 1326) authorized the Inquisition to proceed against s h owed little concern for witchcraft; its Roman coun- agents of evil, whose diabolical crimes had already been t e r p a rt, founded in 1542 to fight Protestant here s y, defined and distinguished in a papal consultaof 1320. soon had to struggle once more with popular supersti- T h roughout the following century, the number of tions and the belief in evil spells. witchcraft trials imposed by the Inquisition was ve ry small compared to the number directed against The Early Modern Age: Exorcism, heretics. Nevertheless, the Church’s intolerance toward Witchcraft, and Superstition n e c romancy and erudite magic grew (a trend we l l In their religious controversies, Catholics and e x p ressed in Nicolau Ey m e r i c’s manual D i re c t o r i u m Protestants hardly ever accused each other of witch- i n q u i s i t o rum [ Di re c t o ry of Inquisitors, 1376]). T h e craft. Protestants accused the pope of pro m o t i n g model of the witches’ Sabbat spread during the second superstition; Catholics replied by comparing the leaders half of the fifteenth century and eventually led to the of the new churches to demonic figures. But the rup- g reatest witch hunts in Western history. Ac c o rding to ture of the religious unity of Western Europe had no 968 Roman Catholic Church

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.969 Application File immediate impact on witch hunts. Violence against could be absolved if found guilty for the first time; and witches reached its peak between the late sixteenth and tales of participation in witches’ Sabbats we re not cre d i- m i d - s e venteenth centuries, long after the division ble. Fu rt h e r m o re, the Catholic Inquisitions claimed between Catholicism and Protestant confessions had competence over witchcraft and usually pre vented secu- been established. How can we explain this? And what lar courts from interfering in such cases. In a papal bull was the Catholic Churc h’s role in promoting the f rom 1586, Sixtus V declared that all magical practices, immense spread of witchcraft trials during the begin- including sorc e ry, divination, and working of spell, we re ning of the early modern period? According to many h e retical and, there by, gave the Holy Of fice the exc l u s i ve scholars, there was little substantial difference between right to judge all such cases. By the seventeenth century, the numbers of witch hunts in areas that remained the Roman Inquisition, inspired by Desiderio Scaglia, faithful to Rome and in those that had converted to had established precise guidelines for the treatment of Lutheranism or Calvinism. Religious quarrels nour- witchcraft, extremely similar to Spanish pre c e d e n t s . ished a sense of instability and a feeling of imminent This trend tow a rd moderation, howe ve r, was not threat to Christianity that went beyond doctrinal dif- steady or unbroken. For instance, in 1623 Po p e ferences, which perhaps best explains the origin of Gre g o ry XV ord e red that witches ought to be sent to witch hunts within the context of modern religious the stake at their first conviction, thus contradicting controversies. canon law. His bull had almost no direct consequences, Catholics and Protestants persecuted witches in but it showed clearly that not all Catholic policy-mak- often similar manners but on the basis of different legal ers shared the Holy Of fic e’s skepticism concerning conventions. Each group included ardent advocates of witchcraft. In 1631, when the Jesuit Friedrich Sp e e witchcraft trials as well as skeptics promoting judicial w rote a book condemning the practice of burning moderation and seeking to convince ordinary people to witches at the stake, equally common in Catholic and see the origins of evil in the mysterious ways of divine Protestant parts of Ge r m a n y, it was published anony- p rovidence rather than in the evil spells of witches. mously, in a Protestant city, and was utterly ignored by After the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Ro m a n the Roman Church—although its positions basically Catholic Church aimed to eradicate superstition and to reiterated, in more radical form, ideas already expressed educate the faithful in ways similar to those of the in previous treatises of moral casuistry. The Catholic Reformed churches, which we re equally active in Church was ready to disregard tales of witches’ Sabbats promoting unprecedented standards of Christian disci- and m a l e fic i a and even, in many cases, instances of pline. Once again, these efforts constitute a joint back- demonic possession, treating them as the effects of illu- ground against which one needs to explain the presence sions, illnesses, or female weakness. of witch hunts. Yet Catholicism also had its ow n , However, Catholicism never abjured the belief in the d i s t i n c t i ve characteristics. It maintained its tribunals, p ower of witches and maintained a complex set of which we re partly concerned with witchcraft (incre a s- doctrines concerning the Devil, doctrines that have sur- ingly so, after Protestantism ceased to be perceived as a vived until the present. During the sixteenth and seven- serious threat), and it preserved a large number of sacra- teenth centuries, some cases of demonic possession ments, rites of blessing, and forms of exo rcism, which we re used (above all in France) for purposes of Protestant churches, with a few partial exceptions, had anti-Protestant propaganda by demonstrating the supe- abolished. The pre s e rvation of sacramental rites and riority of Catholicism, the sole faith capable of e xo rcisms allowed the Catholic Church to re a s s u re its expelling demons. Pope Paul V’s official R i t u a l e followers and to calm their fear of the Devil more suc- romanum(Roman Ritual) of 1614, prescribing how the cessfully than did the Protestant churches (T h o m a s clergy should practice the rite of exo rcism, re f e r red to 1971). This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by the evil spells (as did its revisions in subsequent centuries, fact that in the Mediterranean countries, where the including the twentieth). Exo rcists could interro g a t e Holy Of fice and the Roman Church dominated the spirits that had taken possession of the human bod- jurisdiction over witchcraft, there were fewer witchcraft ies about the origins of these evil spells; sometimes this trials than in many Catholic parts of northern Europe, inquiry led to shocking accusations of witchcraft, occa- which were in close contact with Protestantism. sionally involving entire Catholic monasteries. Se ve r a l Re c e n t l y, historians have stressed that the Ro m a n w o rks on exo rcism, which contained a wide range of Inquisition and its Spanish and Po rtuguese counterpart s unlikely tales and of superstitious medical recipes, were we re ove rtly skeptical as far as accusations of witchcraft c e n s u red only in the eighteenth century. Control ove r we re concerned (Henningsen 1980; Romeo 1990; female sexuality was especially intertwined with cases of Tedeschi 1991). They pre f e r red not to send accused demonic possession. It was difficult to distinguish witches to the stake and adopted some ve ry intelligent between different kinds of spirits, to separate instances m e a s u res: Accusations of complicity we re rejected; the of saintly exaltation from demonic manifestations, and existence of m a l e fic i a had to be proved; the criminal to draw a line between magical rites and exo rc i s m s . Roman Catholic Church 969

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.970 Application File Catholicism, the least formally “r a t i o n a l” of all Walker, Daniel P. 1981. Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in Christian churches, has always fought superstition and France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth practices of erudite sorcery as if they were competitors Centuries.London: Scolar. to the Churc h’s own, exc l u s i ve efforts to re a s s u re the masses through correct rituals. Roman Law Roman law constitutes the written and promulgated VINCENZO LAVENIA laws of the Roman Republic and Empire, from the Twelve Tables of the mid-fifth century B.C.E. to the See also: ACCULTURATIONTHESIS;AQUINAS,THOMAS;AUGUSTINE, codification by the emperor Theodosius II in 438 C.E. ST.; BIBLE;CANONEPISCOPI;CONRADOFMARBURG;COURTS, ECCLESIASTICAL;COURTS,SECULAR;DEMONS;DEVIL;DOMINI- and that of Justinian (ruled 527–565) between 530 and CANORDER;EXORCISM;GERSON,JEAN;GRATIAN;GREGORYIX, 534. Although the Theodosian Code served as the POPE;HERESY;INCUBUSANDSUCCUBUS;INNOCENTVIII,POPE; model for many of the Germanic law collections INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;INQUISITION,PORTUGUESE;INQUISI- between the fifth and the ninth centuries, the systemat- TION,ROMAN;INQUISITION,SPANISH;JOHNXXII,POPE; ic study, teaching, and application of Roman law in MANICHAEISM;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;PACTWITHTHE western Europe began with the study of Justinian’s DEVIL;PAPACYANDPAPALBULLS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC; Institutes, Code, and Digest in the late eleventh century PROTESTANTREFORMATION;SABBAT;SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC; and continued until the end of the eighteenth century. SIMONMAGUS;SKEPTICISM;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;SPELLS;SUPERSTI- The Twelve Tables has had to be reconstructed from TION;TEMPLARS;THEOPHILUS. other sources, because no original text has survived. References and further reading: The collections of Theodosius and Justinian excised Bossy, John. 1988. “Moral Arithmetic: Seven Sins into Ten Commandments.” Pp. 214–234 in Conscience and Casuistry in many older laws. The interest in law on the part of Early Modern Europe.Edited by Edmund Leites. Cambridge: Roman biographers, historians, encyclopedists, and Cambridge University Press. others, however, makes it possible to gain an extensive Brown, Peter. 1972. Religion and Society in the Age of Saint understanding of the operation of the law.The texts of Augustine.London: Faber and Faber. Roman law regarding magic and sorcery informed Caro Baroja, Julio. 1990. “Witchcraft and Catholic Theology.” learned legal discussions of magic and witchcraft in Pp. 19–43 in Early ModernWitchcraft: Centres and Peripheries. Europe until the early eighteenth century Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Table VIII of the Twe l ve Ta b l e s says nothing about Clarendon. noninjurious magic, but it condemns to death a person Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft who utters a wicked charm that injures another or that in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. re m oves the grain harvest from someone else’s fie l d . Cohn, Norman. 2000. Europe’s Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom.Chicago: University of This re flects a limited idea of injurious magic and Chicago Press. acknowledges the harm caused by magical means. Later Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque republican law prohibited the secret, nocturnal Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition.Reno: University of Bacchanalian rites in 186 B.C.E., once again emphasiz- Nevada Press. ing the evil intention of the activity. In 81 B.C.E., the Kelly, Henry Ansgar. 1968. Towards the Death of Satan: The dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla enacted the L e x Growth and Decline of Christian Demonology.London, Dublin, C o rnelia de sicariis et ve n e ficiis (Law of Cornelius on and Melbourne: Chapman. Assassins and Po i s o n e r s / So rc e rers), whose interpre t a- Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their tion was later expanded to various forms of harmful or Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500. forbidden magic and was included in Justinian’s codifi- Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. cation (Institutes 4.18.5,Code9.16, and Digest 48.8). Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. London: Longman. Examples of a new and broader concept of magic, Midelfort, H.C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern one that connected it to learning and magical books Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. and reflected the magical ideas of the wider Hellenistic Stanford: Stanford University Press. world, we re widespread in the Latin literature of the Prosperi, Adriano. 1996. Tribunali della coscienza: Inquisitori, con- early empire, particularly book 30 of the Na t u ra l fessori, missionari.Turin: Einaudi. Historyof Pliny the Elder (24–79 C.E.) and in the writ- Romeo, Giovanni. 1990. Inquisitori, esorcisti e streghe nell’Italia ings of Roman jurists, many of which are collected in della Controriforma.Florence: Sansoni. Ju s t i n i a n’s Digest. Re f e rences to the law in nonlegal Russell, Jeffrey. 1984. Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages.Ithaca, sources indicated that many individuals were tried and NY, and London: Cornell University Press. convicted under the Lex Corn e l i a and other statutes, Tedeschi, John. 1991. The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies including one that condemned both the teaching of on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy.Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies. magic and the possession of magical books. Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London: The best-know n single case in imperial Roman law Weidenfeld and Nicolson. was that of the North African philosopher Apuleius of 970 Roman Law

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.971 Application File Madaura, who was tried and exonerated under the Lex his scenes of witches, to other members of the Tuscan C o rn e l i a for divination and sorc e ry in 156–158 C . E . and Roman elite. Later, in Rome, Rosa revisited the The case is known from Apuleius’s reworking of his ora- witchcraft theme in a drawing from the 1660s and in a tion in his own defense, which offers a broad portrait of painting of the biblical witch of Endor, now at the competing views of magic in the second century. Louvre in Paris (Mahoney 1977, 28.1–5, 82.2 recto; In imperial Roman law, the sorc e re r, illegal diviner, Salerno 1975, 72–82, 210). and general magician are termed m a l e fic i i (evildoers), a designation that surv i ved and was eventually applied Artistic and Intellectual Environment e xc l u s i vely to diabolical sorc e rers and witches from the During his training in Naples, his first years in Ro m e fifteenth century on. In the Theodosian Code of 438, (1635–1640), and while living in Fl o rence, Rosa must book 9, title 16, under which imperial laws concerning h a ve been exposed to nocturnal cabinet pieces (small magic we re organized, is De maleficiis et mathematicis et paintings intended to adorn the walls of a small, inti- ceteris similibus (Concerning Magicians, Astrologers, and mate room) depicting hell, witchcraft, and sorc e ry dis- Others Like Them). So o t h s a yers and those who consult- p l a yed in the studios, shops, and collections in these ed or harbored them we re subject to seve re punishment. cities. Though artists who specialized in this genre came Those who injured others by magic (including ero t i c c h i e fly from France, Ge r m a n y, or the Netherlands, local magic) we re designated as enemies of the human race. colleagues also sometimes produced such work s . Magicians we re regularly included among those convict- Although they certainly inspired Rosa, his sudden pre- ed criminals who could never be pardoned and we re con- occupation with re p resenting witches while in Fl o re n c e s i d e red guilty of the excepted crimes (crimina exc e p t a) . is best explained by the stimulating intellectual enviro n- As the Roman Empire was Christianized during the ment of the Accademia dei Pe rc o s s i ( Academy of the fourth century, a number of specifically Christian ideas A f flicted), a typical Italian circle of men of letters, art i s t s , concerning demonic magic also found their way into and scientists, of which he was a founding member. imperial legislation and practice, particularly in the In q u i ry into witchcraft and related phenomena in sci- In t e r p re t a t i o n s that are appended to the laws of the e n t i fic re s e a rch, theological expositions, and literary Theodosian Code. Later Christian legal authorities writings was highly respected among educated elites in found learned Roman law perfectly compatible in this early modern Eu rope. Even though the question of their instance with Christian theology and canon law. reality was fie rcely debated, this did not pre vent skeptics EDWARD PETERS and believers alike from appreciating their entert a i n i n g qualities. Artists re p resenting different demonological See also: APULEIUSOFMADAURA;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;DEFIXIONES; subjects we re also valued members of these learned cir- LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(ANCIENT); LAWSONWITCHCRAFT (MEDIEVAL); MALEFICIUM. cles, and Ro s a’s Fl o rentine virtuosi colleagues we re no References and further reading: e xception. The physician Francesco Redi, the painter Brown, Pe t e r. 1972. “So rc e ry, Demons and the Rise of Christianity: L o re n zo Lippi, and the philosopher Gi ovanni Ba t t i s t a From Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages.” Pp. 119–146 in R i c c i a rdi all dedicated plays and poems to witchcraft Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Au g u s t i n e .Edited by Pe t e r themes. Rosa not only painted witches but also wrote an Brown. New Yo rk and Evanston, IL: Harper and Row. ode, “La St re g a” ( “The Wi t c h”), set to music by Graf, Fritz. 1997. Magic in the Ancient World.Cambridge, MA: Ma rcantonio Cesti. In contemporary documents, Ro s a’s Harvard University Press. images of witches, like demonological items in tre a t i s e s , MacMullen, Ramsay. 1966.Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason, a re called c a p r i c c iand we re described as precious objects Unrest, and Alienation in the Empire.Cambridge, MA: Harvard to satisfy curious minds. University Press. Pharr, Clyde. 1932. “The Interdiction of Magic in Roman Law.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Written Sources Association 53: 269–295. The sources of Rosa’s academy’s witchcraft lore have yet to be investigated carefully.They include many classical Rosa, Salvator (1615–1673) authors (for example, Virgil, Horace, Lucan, Apuleius, An Italian painter and poet, born near Naples, Salvator Petronius) as well as the sixteenth-century “moderns” Rosa is best known for his “protoromantic” landscapes, Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso. Demonological battle scenes, and genre pieces. He dedicated a smaller tracts were also consulted; a letter by Ricciardi explicit- share of his work to witchcraft themes. During the ly recommends the work of Martín Del Rio. 1640s, when living in Florence, Rosa created a closely Cultivation of ethnological knowledge may also have related group of five preparatory drawings and eight p l a yed a role. For example, the art i s t’s biographer paintings addressing the subject of witchcraft. Initially Filippo Baldinucci related that Rosa lent Lippi his copy working for Cardinal Giancarlo de’ Medici but seeking of a collection of fairytales published in Ne a p o l i t a n independence, Rosa soon sold his paintings, including dialect. Rosa, Salvator 971

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.972 Application File The Iconographic Tradition Salerno, Luigi. 1975. L’opera completa di Salvator Rosa.Milan: Ro s a’s witchcraft scenes are typically set in his trademark Rizzoli. dramatic landscapes. He is often credited with intro d u c- ———. 1978. “Four Witchcraft Scenes by Salvator Rosa.” The ing the northern Eu ropean type of old-hag witch, cre a t- Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art65, no. 7: 224–231. ed by such artists as Hans Baldung [Grien] and Ja c q u e s Scott, Jonathan. 1995. Salvator Rosa: His Life and Times.New Haven and London: Yale University Press. de Gheyn II, into Italian art, citing his much-copied painting of a nocturnal scene with witches perf o r m i n g Royal Healing incantations (Galleria Corsini, Fl o rence) as an example. Royal healing was a custom, dating from the Middle Howe ve r, his witches’ scenes show that Rosa was essen- Ages, whereby the monarchs of France and of England tially a virtuoso, digesting a vast array of visual examples touched the swellings of sufferers from the disease f rom both the northern and Italian traditions. Ap a rt known as “the King’s Evil,” or scrofula, in the popular f rom Ba l d u n g’s old hag, Rosa also included a beautiful belief that the royal touch could effect a cure. e n c h a n t ress à la Dosso Dossi, Lo stre g o z zo(The Wi t c h e s’ The term morbus re g i u s , or “the king’s disease,” was Procession) from an early-sixteenth-century Italian print k n own in the Middle Ages from classical and biblical usually ascribed to Agostino Ve n eziano, The Wi t c h e s’ sources, usually referring to jaundice or leprosy. By the K i t c h e n by Pieter Brueghel the El d e r, and the matro n s mid-thirteenth century, the term had become associat- f rom the indoor incantation scenes by Si g i s m o n d o ed with the disease of s c ro f u l a e ( s welling of the lymph Coccapanni and Frans Francken II. Rosa may have nodes, or similar swellings on the face or neck), k n own some works in the original, but copies and va r i- although this was sometimes also confused with the ations in drawing, prints, and painting we re common symptoms of leprosy. Gilbert the Englishman, a profes- and circulated fre e l y. In s p i red by manifold visual as we l l sor of medicine at Mo n t p e l l i e r, noted that s c ro f u l a e as literary sources, Rosa seems to have re flected on the we re so called because the swellings (s c ro f u l a e) multi- variation within witchcraft iconography by exploring plied like a sow’s piglets (from the Latin scrofa, a breed- and enhancing many different types. In a series of four ing sow) and that these we re popularly known as “t h e t o n d i ( c i rcular paintings) (Cleveland Museum of Art ) , k i n g’s disease” because kings could cure them (Ba r l ow Rosa gave a sample book of witchcraft iconography. T h e 1980, 12–13). first of two nocturnal scenes is similar to the Corsini The ability of rulers to cure disease was closely relat- painting, the second depicts a gathering of male ed to contemporary political ideology, in which a high witches. In the two day scenes, we see, re s p e c t i ve l y, a l e vel of sanctity was believed to reside in the roy a l young, beautiful maga enchanting birds, fishes, and office, especially after a monarch had been consecrated f rogs, and a procession of female witches attacking cro c- and anointed with special oil of divine origin. Fr a n c e odiles, their mistress riding an owl. The picture in the and later England both had legends concerning the National Ga l l e ry of Art, London, is truly a painted holy oil with which their kings were anointed as part of anthology of acts of witchcraft, sorc e ry, and magic. the coronation service; kingship in both countries MACHTELD LÖWENSTEYN became closely linked to the royal healing power. See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BALDUNG[GRIEN], HANS; BRUEGHEL,PIETERTHEELDER;DELRIO,MARTÍN;FRANCKENII, Royal Healing in France FRANS;GHEYNII,JACQUESDE. The beginnings of royal healing in France are sur- References and further reading: rounded by mystery and controversy. Most evidence Baldinucci, Filippo. 1974–1975. Notizie de’ Professori del Disegno suggests it began during the reign of Robert II “the da Cimabue in qua, riproduzione integrale dell’ediz. 1845–1847. Pious” (996–1031) and was continued by Louis VI Florence: Ranalli. Vols. 1–5. Appendice con nota critica e docu- menti inediti di Paola Barocchi, indice analitico a cura di (ruled 1108–1137). The belief that the French king Antonio Boschetto.Vols. 6–7. Florence: S.P.E.S. could heal was discussed at universities, but it is Hults, Linda C. 2005. The Witch as Muse: Art, Gender and Power unknown whether healings were organized or regular, in Early Modern Europe.Philadelphia: University of or whether the monarchs in question “touched” or Pennsylvania Press. healed scrofulae in particular (Bloch 1973; Barlow Langdon, Helen. 1974. “Salvator Rosa in Florence.” Apollo100: 1980; Buc 1993). Gilbert the Englishman made his 190–197. statement about kings healing s c ro f u l a e s o m e t i m e Löwensteyn, Machteld. The Witch in the Mirror. Images of Faith around 1250; evidence from 1261 shows Louis IX and Temptation in Netherlandish Art (1500–1650). (ruled 1226–1270) touching the swellings of the scro- Unpublished manuscript. fulous and signing them with a cross in order to effect Mahoney, Michael. 1977. The Drawings of Salvator Rosa.New a possible if not automatic cure (Barlow 1980, 11–12). York and London: Garland. Roworth, Wendy Wassyng. 1978. Pictor Succensor: A Study of Although Louis IX had a reputation for personal holi- Salvator Rosa as Satirist, Cynic and Painter.NewYork and ness, the ability to cure resided in the royal office London: Garland. through consecration with the holy oil given by an 972 Royal Healing

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.973 Application File angel to St. Rémy for the baptism of Clovis. Louis IX skepticism of intellectuals. The execution of Louis XVI first organized the ritual of royal touching of scrofulae, in 1793 effectively extinguished royal healing in France. often on such special occasions as the king’s departure A tentative attempt to re v i ve it for Charles X in 1825 on crusade or major religious festivals, but also when- failed to gain sufficient support to continue it. ever people came in search of a cure. The royal ability to heal the scrofulous was used as propaganda by Philip Royal Healing in England IV (ruled 1285–1314) and his advisers as part of a col- The beginnings of royal healing in England, although lection of royal attributes that became useful weapons later than in France, are equally mysterious and contro- in Philip’s struggles with the papacy (Bloch 1973, versial. Claims for royal touching for scrofulae, or at 63–64). Royal healing was later used by Philip’s grand- least of leprous sores, have been made for Henry I son Charles V (ruled 1364–1380) to restore the prestige (ruled 1100–1135), but the most plausible claim for of the monarchy after the disastrous fate of his father, establishing a royal healing rite came in the reign of John II, who had been captured by King Edward III of Henry III (ruled 1216–1272) (Barlow 1980), who was England in 1356 and died a prisoner in England. not only an admirer of Louis IX of France but also a From the 1490s onward, royal healing rites became champion of a form of national identity centered on the better organized. Touchings were far less frequent, usu- ruler as representative of both people and nation. ally occurring only at coronations and on major re l i- Henry III was extremely devout, an ordained deacon gious festivals: Palm Su n d a y, Easter, Pe n t e c o s t , who sometimes assisted personally at the Mass, and was Ascension Day, Corpus Christi, Christmas, Candlemas, therefore extremely receptive to ideas of royal sacrality, and festivals of the Virgin Mary. Supplicants were first including healing (Coote 2000, 65–69). For the reign examined by the royal physician, who chose those of his son, Edward I (ruled 1272–1307), and his two a l l owed to pass before the king (either to avoid infec- successors, records exist for royal touching and for the tion or to render the royal miracle more likely). T h e alms given to supplicants on these occasions (Bloch king always attended Mass and partook of the Eucharist 1973, 56–57; Ba r l ow 1980, 24–25; Coote 2000, b e f o re carrying out this duty and washed his hands 83–119). The sufferers passed twice before the king, a f t e rw a rds in special basins of water (this water itself who touched their swellings on the first occasion and came to be regarded as having curative powers). While on the second signed them with the cross. After this, touching the swellings, the king repeated a formulaic each received alms, which were later replaced by a gold p r a ye r, “the king touches thee, and God heals thee.” coin (an “angel,” so-called from the image of St. After the ceremony, alms were distributed to the suppli- Michael on one face) that the monarch held in his hand cants, some of whom came from the Iberian peninsula, as he made the sign of the cross. “Angels” became heal- Italy, and the German states (the English preferred their ing talismans in their own right; the supplicants wore own rulers). In 1515, Francis I of France exercised the them, often permanently, on ribbons around their royal healing power before the papal court in Bologna. neck. The belief grew that if the coin were removed, the After 1559, royal healing became closely associated disease might return. The association of royal healing with national and religious identity. Elizabeth I of with “cramp” rings (see below) probably accounts for England was an excommunicate, and both French and the ease with which these coins developed their talis- English Catholics denied the efficacy of her touch. By manic quality. Nothing comparable happened in this time, the French rite had also become associated France. with a local saint in the archdiocese of Reims, St . Ed w a rd III (ruled 1327–1377) may have touched Ma rcoul, another reputed healer of s c ro f u l a e . Roy a l the sick on both sides of the Channel. The claim of healing became closely associated with his relics, which English kings to be the rightful rulers of France, assert- we re visited by the royal coronation procession fro m ed officially in 1340, would have rendered this a test of the late fifteenth century until 1654, when they we re allegiance. Obviously, Edward III employed every pro- b rought to Reims for the consecration of Louis XIV. paganda weapon at his disposal to support his claim, This was repeated for Louis’s successors. Both branches although his claim to healing power served to reinforce of miraculous healing, along with the efforts of local the primacy of the healing abilities of rightful kings of healers licensed by the monks of Corbeny, appear to France. The English denied only that Philip VI of h a ve coexisted happily in France (Bloch 1973, Valois (ruled 1328–1350) was the rightful holder of 151–176; Poly 1990). this title. Royal healing powers were also used as propa- Henry IV, a former Calvinist who had converted in ganda in fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry England during the period order to retain the French crown, needed to prove that of instability and political unrest (known as the Wars of God had accepted him as king, and royal healing the Roses) that characterized the reigns of He n ry V I formed an important part of his propaganda effort. The (ruled 1422–1461) and Edward IV (ruled 1461–1483). rite continued throughout Old Régime France, attract- Sir John Fo rtescue, He n ry V I ’s Lord Chief Ju s t i c e , ing large crowds of sufferers despite the incre a s i n g denied that Edward IV, who had usurped the throne in Royal Healing 973

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.974 Application File 1461, could exe rcise the royal power of healing the Friday; the coins would then be redeemed and made s c rofulous, even after Ed w a rd had been crowned and into rings to be distributed by the ruler when necessary consecrated with the holy oil of St. Thomas (Bl o c h or desired. These rings were believed to cure epilepsy 1973, 65; Coote 2000, 195–234). Unlike the Fre n c h , and similar diseases involving muscle spasms, English monarchs never willingly shared the healing of “seizures,” or fits. Because of their efficacy in dealing s c ro f u l a e with local saints, particularly after the with this type of symptom, they became known popu- Reformation took hold in Tudor England. larly as “cramp rings.” They first appear in the records As a new dynasty facing a continuing threat of civil in 1323 at York, where Edward II was staying. All w a r, the Tudors needed to use the full range of royal pro- English monarchs through Mary I (ruled 1553–1558) paganda. He n ry VIII (ruled 1509–1547) touched suf- distributed such rings, which were eagerly sought by f e rers from s c ro f u l a e e ven after his break with Rome in sufferers at all social levels. By the end of the fifteenth 1532. Su b s e q u e n t l y, English rulers allied royal healing century, the rings were offered on the altar as ready- e ver more closely to a national identity incre a s i n g l y made, and the metal now gained its efficacy not d i vo rced from the international Church. Un d e r through the Church’s sanctification but from power Elizabeth I, eve ry mention of the Virgin Ma ry was transferred by the royal touch (Bloch 1973, 103–105). expunged from the healing liturgy. In 1600, Sir Ro b e rt The practice was ended by Elizabeth I, who never per- Cotton explained the royal healing capabilities as a func- formed it, perceiving it as “Catholic superstition.” tion of the queen’s anointing, but this was no longer per- LESLEY A. COOTE formed with the holy oil given to St. Thomas by the Blessed Virgin; the nature of the oil no longer mattere d See also:AMULETANDTALISMAN;CUNNINGFOLK;DISEASE;DIVINA- (Linehan 1997, 189–196). James I (ruled 1603–1625), TION;HERBALMEDICINE;MAGIC,POPULAR;MARY,THEVIRGIN; b rought up as a Calvinist in Scotland, would not per- MEDICINEANDMEDICALTHEORY;RINGS,MAGICAL;SUPERSTI- form a rite that he re g a rded as superstitious without fir s t TION;WATER,HOLY. References and further reading: explaining that it was simply interc e s s o ry. He refused to Barlow, F. 1980. “The King’s Evil.” English Historical Review95: make the sign of the cross. His son Charles I (ru l e d 3–27. 1625–1649) made more use of the royal healing powe r, Bloch, Marc. 1973. The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula p a rticularly after the outbreak of the English Civil Wa r s in England and France.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. in 1638, both because of his belief in the sacredness of Buc, P. 1993. “David’s Adultery with Bathsheba and the Healing royalty and because it provided valuable propaganda at a Power of the Capetian Kings.” Viator24: 101–120. time when loyalty to himself was challenged. Coote, Lesley. 2000. Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval C h a r l e s’s execution in 1649 did not end royal heal- England.Woodbridge, UK: York Medieval Texts. ing; his son Charles II continued to touch the scro f u- Koziol, G. 1995. “England, France and the Problem of Sacrality in Twelfth-Century Ritual.” Pp. 124–148 in Cultures of Power: lous while in exile in France until his restoration in Lordship, Status and Process in Twelfth-Century Europe. Edited 1660. Afterward, the exercise of royal healing became a byThomas N. Bisson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania means to reestablish not simply the Stuart dynasty but Press. the monarchy itself. James II (ruled 1683–1688) was Le Goff, Jacques. 1988. “Le mal royal au Moyen Age: Du roi openly Catholic and had no problem in exe rcising his malade au roi guérisseur.” Mediaevistik1: 101–109. healing powe r, but his successor William III, a Du t c h Linehan, P. 1997. “The King’sTouch and the Dean’s Calvinist, refused to administer the royal touch because Ministrations: Aspects of Sacral Monarchy.” Pp. 189–206 in it was a Catholic superstition (although we have no evi- The Work of Jacques Le Goff and the Challenges of Medieval dence that Wi l l i a m’s devoutly Anglican wife, Ma ry II, History.Edited by Miri Rubin. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, and daughter of James II, shared his scruples; she might Rochester, NY: Boydell. h a ve administered the rite as her husband allowe d ) . Poly, J. P. 1990. “La gloire des rois et la parole cachée où l’avenir d’une illusion.” Pp. 167–188 in La France de l’an mil.Edited Ma ry’s sister Queen Anne (ruled 1702–1714) was the by Robert Delort and Dominique Ioygna-Prat. Paris: Sevil. last English monarch known to have touched the scro- fulous, although “James III” (the Old Pretender) and his son Charles James (the Young Pretender) continued Rudolf II, Holy Roman to perform royal healing in France. This link to the Emperor (1552–1612) Catholic Stuarts, together with growing intellectual dis- Rudolf II was famous for his intense interest in va r i o u s dain for beliefs that the Protestant English associated aspects of the occult, for his tolerant and diverse court in with Catholicism, made royal healing officially unac- Prague, and for his humanistic patronage of intellectuals. ceptable to eighteenth-century English governments. The son of Em p e ror Maximilian II, Rudolf II inherited only the eastern here d i t a ry lands of the “Cramp” Rings Austrian patrimony (archduke of Upper and Lowe r In England, a custom also arose whereby the monarch Austria, king of Bohemia and Hu n g a ry), while the would offer gold and silver coins on the altar on Good west and south remained in the hands of his uncles. 974 Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.975 Application File Crowned Hungarian king in 1572 and Bohemian occult philosophers John Dee and Edward Kelley, and king in 1575, he became Holy Roman Em p e ror of two notable court astrologers, Tycho Brahe and Germany upon his father’s death late in 1576. He Johannes Kepler (both Protestants), whose astro n o m i- made the Bohemian capital of Prague his chief re s i- cal data would be published in honor of their patron as dence after the mid-1580s. One of the Ha b s b u r g The Ru d o l fine Ta b l e s . He was also a great collector of m o n a rc h y’s more controversial rulers, Rudolf II has works of art, scientific instruments, and natural objects been depicted in a number of ways: as a largely and oddities; his Ku n s t k a m m e r (chamber for art ) unsuccessful and mentally unstable ru l e r, distru s t e d became one of the most important collections in by his nobility, and plagued by the intrigues of his European history.Though it was kept private and used b rother Matthias, ultimately becoming a prisoner in by the emperor for his own contemplative purposes, his own castle; as a grand protector of the arts and sci- contemporaries hailed it as a miraculous wonder. ences, presiding over the last great humanist capital Rudolf continuously displayed a keen personal interest of Eu rope; or as a notorious dabbler in seve r a l in both his collections and the works his patro n a g e branches of occult philosophy: alchemy, astro l o g y, helped sustain, but they served larger dynastic and astral magic, Kabbalah, and He r m e t i c i s m . imperial purposes as well, reflecting Habsburg political Mixed views of Rudolf existed during his lifetime. By tendencies toward symbolizing inherent unity through the last decade of his reign, his brothers viewed him harmonious diversity. Rudolf thus turned his own pas- with suspicion, re c o rding their thoughts in a family sions—artistic, astrological, or alchemical—into politi- Propositionfrom 1606: cal statements. Recent scholarship has suggested an even deeper uni- His Majesty is interested only in wizards, ty among Ru d o l f’s thoughts and actions, not least alchemists, kabbalists and the like, sparing no through his universalist striving: his overt, if also magi- expense to find all kinds of treasures, learn secrets cal, interest in harmonizing religious and political fac- and use scandalous ways of harming his enemies. tions, in artistic expression and scientific discove r i e s , . . . He also has a whole library of magic books. He and in the deepest mysteries of occult inve s t i g a t i o n s strives all the time to eliminate God completely so and creations. Thus, Emperor Rudolf’s court at Prague that he may in future serve a different master. was particularly characteristic of a late-sixteenth- (Evans 1973, 196) century intellectual atmosphere that was an outgrowth of Renaissance humanist thought and, indeed, its last They also questioned his political acumen, for in g reat flowering—albeit in an extreme Hermetic form. subsequent years, political confrontation with Matthias Viewed in hindsight, his reign may surely be judged a would lead Rudolf to relinquish his claims to the failure in political terms and as problematic in terms of Austrian, Hungarian, and Bohemian crowns, and in his later developments in the natural sciences last years he descended into depression and seclusion or Enlightenment philosophy. But judged by (some called it madness). Within a decade of his death, t we n t y - fir s t - c e n t u ry standards, his reign was tolerant, Habsburg lands rose in revolt and Germany entered the moderate, cosmopolitan, and extraordinarily vibrant. T h i rty Ye a r s’ Wa r. Although Rudolf II’s political Nonetheless, the ethos of its court culture (and of the accomplishments were indeed limited, not all contem- emperor himself) depended upon an essentially magical p o r a ry views of the emperor we re negative. Vi s i t i n g cosmology: The world contained hidden sources of Prague shortly after his death, the imperial jurist k n owledge, whose re velation would explain the invisi- Melchior Goldast wrote: ble forces and universal harmonies binding humanity and nature together. The Emperor Rudolf was, they say, a most intelli- EDMUND M. KERN gent and sagacious Prince who long maintained a wise peace in the Empire; he was cast in the heroic See also: ALCHEMY;ASTROLOGY;DEE,JOHN;DELLAPORTA, mould and contemned all vulgar things, loving GIAMBATTISTA;GOLDAST,MELCHIOR;HERMETICISM;HOLY only the rare and the miraculous. His rule was ROMANEMPIRE;KABBALAH;KEPLER,JOHANNES;OCCULT. happy, peaceful and secure until the four years References and further reading: before his death. (Evans 1973, 5) Evans, R.J.W. 1973. Rudolf II and His World: A Study in Intellectual History.Oxford: Clarendon. ———. 1979. The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, For close to two decades beginning in the 1580s, 1550–1700. Oxford: Clarendon. Rudolf resided in Prague and patro n i zed an interna- Smith, Pamela. 1994a. The Business of Alchemy: Science and tional assortment of re n owned scholars, artists, arc h i- Culture in the Holy Roman Empire.Princeton, NJ: Princeton tects, alchemists, and astrologers, including such artists University Press. as Bartholomaeus Spranger and Giuseppe Arcimboldo, ———. 1994b. “Alchemy as a Language of Mediation at the the scientist and playwright Giambattista della Po rt a , Habsburg Court.” Isis85, no. 1: 1–25. Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor 975

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.976 Application File Rural Witchcraft ing a distinction between witchcraft and sorcery and to Witchcraft belief was essentially grounded in the coun- point to harmful antisocial actions. In recent decades, tryside. Therefore it seems necessary to make a few pre- research has shown that the underlying theme stan- liminary observations about agrarian realities on the dardizing witchcraft from the Urals to Salem is malefi- Continent and in the British Isles. An insightful cium, that is, the physical damage done to a person’s approach to early modern rural Europe comes from family or his goods by someone of either sex, but usu- observing a masterpiece of seventeenth-century paint- ally a woman. Notwithstanding this focus on the evil ing, Peter Paul Rubens’sAutumn Landscape with a View side, it is worth emphasizing how often Europe’s rural of Heet von Steen in the Early Morning (1636?). Three- magicians, as in early modern Scandinavia, “dealt with fourths of this wide “oil on oak” shows a motionless [an] ability to have an influence on fellow humans and world apart: the countryside and the work in the fields. on nature—for better or for worse” (Raudvere 2002, But the countryside is never apart, and peasants are by 87). In sixteenth-century England, this capability to definition never left to themselves. Thus, on the left of perform both evil and good is reflected in the lack of the painting is an overwhelming castle, and Antwerp any special word to indicate an exclusively maleficent looms in the middle distance. The proportion of the magician: “‘At this day’ wrote Reginald Scot in 1584, ‘it items in the painting well represents the social and eco- is indifferent to say in the English tongue, she is a witch nomic reality of Europe. When Rubens painted Heet or she is a wise woman’” (Thomas 1971, 518). And in von Steen,some 80 percent of Europe’s people still lived the Sienese countryside in 1588, a villager under inter- in the countryside, and their toil on the land had to rogation told the inquisitor about Lisa, a renowned feed some 70 million inhabitants. A century later, a healer: “I met her when I was a little girl; she used to demographic and economic spurt in the mid-1700s come to our village. I did not know her as a [malefic] began a period of sustained growth that almost doubled witch, but I have heard that she is a witch and heals Europe’s population by 1850. Agriculture in the late spells. . . . She throws witches off” (Di Simplicio 2000, Renaissance could never have fed some 150 million 134). These people’s lexical ambiguity can be viewed as people, but three centuries later it could. an epiphenomenon of a mental universe where any A topic like rural witchcraft must be understood kind of magical activity was folded into the umbrella within the context of related events that turned the term “witchcraft.” Overly strict distinctions between agrarian history of Eu rope upside down. In order to negative and positive magic prevent us from compre- activate the spiral of economic growth, a self-sufficient hending what was occurring in a specific social context, peasantry had to be transformed into a world of poten- where black and white witchcraft were intimately inter- tial consumers attracted by material comfort, status, related. and urban influences. The age of witchcraft persecu- Looking for definitions, historians also emphasize tions took place in this historical context in which the the notion of powe r. A common element in all witch tapping of agricultural resources was crucial. Under dif- belief is that witchcraft is a generally evil powe r. ferent patterns of landownership, the interplay of polit- Individual witches are wicked persons who perf o r m ical and economic factors ended up with diverging, and s p e c i fic evil acts through often-inherited supernatural even contrasting, European agrarian economies. Yet on p owers. “The beliefs which relate to magic, re l i g i o n , the whole, we can distinguish a fairly common evo l u- and witchcraft are beliefs about powe r. The sources of tion: a growing differentiation within the rural popula- p ower and the extent to which the individual is prey to tion, eventually causing the crumbling of the peasant them or can manipulate them are the form of any community. Historical research has not yet made clear belief system” (Larner 2000, 138). In 1621, Ed w a rd how, or if, the separated patterns of Europe’s peasantry Fa i rfax, a Yo rk s h i re gentleman scared by the power of a were related to a witchcraft belief supposed to be sub- witch afflicting his daughter, at first re s o rted to the stantially homogeneous. In the end, some questions supposedly stronger power of some countermagic such remain unanswe red. Did the endurance of cert a i n as “charms, tongs and schratchings” before relying “o n forms of magical belief depend on the permanence of the goodness of God, and invoked his help” (Sh a r p e the basic characteristics of village communities? And to 1996, 157). what degree did slowly improving agricultural produc- tivity eventually engender changes or possible decline Causation in witchcraft beliefs? Villagers who considered witchcraft real cannot be dis- missed as simply ignorant. They inhabited a mental Static Approach world where religious rituals coexisted with other such important areas of beliefs as the presence of witches, Definition ghosts, and fairies. In a world without effective tech- Is there a Europe-wide common definition for rural niques to deal with everyday crises, belief in witchcraft witchcraft? Historians tend to use explanations involv- offered eminently reasonable explanations to people 976 Rural Witchcraft

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.977 Application File confronted by specific problems: Witchcraft must be peasants, have an old pernicious custom. When one of viewed as closely related to a specific notion of causa- them falls ill of some strange and unknown sickness, he tion. In the early-seventeenth-century Basque region, as at once sets about getting something to eat or drink elsewhere in Europe, “it was not a meaningless coinci- from the house of the witch whom he suspects to have dence when a small child who had previously been caused the sickness; and this he eats or drinks in the healthy fell ill and died, nor an inexplicable misfortune g reatest confidence that it will re s t o re him to perf e c t when a pig began to sicken. All this was thought to be health” (quoted in Monter 1976, 179). Basically, sepa- the work of ‘evil folk’” (Henningsen 1980). Witchcraft rating black from white witchcraft was alien to villagers. served as an explanatory model for specific misfortunes. Healing was intrinsically a dubious activity, and some- When peasants considered the possible origins of mis- times only the moral pro file of the practitioner could fortune, it was more consoling to attribute it to the qualify the intention of a performance. Did this system agency of an evil person than to an angry God. It is function strongly and deeply within the web that con- hardly surprising that villagers willing to explain some- nected malefactors, victims, witch finders, and healers? thing inexplicable did not often ask: “How did that Historical re s e a rch has shown that entire Eu ro p e a n happen?” Rather, they asked “Who did it?” regions furnish no evidence of a generalized social con- cern with combating witchcraft. A real problem in The System c o m p rehending this system is explaining why so few The world of witchcraft cannot be written off as some- accusations ever reached the judges. Us u a l l y, a witch thing irrational. Villagers’ behavior shows that experi- was only brought to court after having been suspected ence, reason, and critical analysis played an essential for many years. Both facts suggest that the usual meth- part in witchcraft beliefs. The assumption that a neigh- ods for controlling village witchcraft worked successful- bor’s ill will could do some physical harm was founded l y, pre venting the traumatic and costly outcome of a on experience in a subsistence-level village, where peo- formal accusation and trial. ple are closely connected in everyday life and coopera- tion is necessary. Witchcraft trials allow us to integrate Performing Witchcraft these facts into their social setting and reveal the gener- How was an evil act performed? Is there a recognizable al meaning of witchcraft as a system in all its contrast- pattern in the attitude to maleficium?The mobilization ing nature. Formal accusations and trials represented of ill will could be activated by cursing, touching, even only the terminal, traumatic step for controlling wicked staring at a person. In the decades since 1970, witch- neighbors. Centuries-old “natural” or informal devices craft research has reached some consensus about the for controlling witchcraft predated the heyday of way evil magical acts were performed. Seldom was a European witchcraft persecution and survived after- person hurt, wrote Thomas Ady, without crying that he wards. “The popular understanding was that the disease is bewitched, “for, saith he, such an old man or woman was the result of a broken relationship with the witch came lately to my door, and desired some relief, and I and that the removal of a disease could only be effected denied it, and God forgive me, my heart did rise against in the context of at least some formal acknowledgment her at that time, my mind gave me she looked like a of a restored relationship” (Larner 2000, 141). The Witch, and presently my Child, my Wife, my Self, my usual control mechanism, after the identification of the Horse . . . or somewhat was thus and thus handled” witch, involved either reconciliation, physical intimida- (quoted in Macfarlane 1999, 111). And “the over- tion (in extreme cases, lynching), or the undoing of her whelming majority of fully documented witch cases fall or his power through stronger countermagic. into this simple pattern. The witch is sent away empty- All these checks and balances implied the presence in handed, perhaps mumbling a malediction; and in due the village of a variety of magical practitioners (cunning course something goes wrong with the household for folk, soothsayers, witch finders) whose divinatory and which she is immediately held responsible” (Thomas c u r a t i ve powers must be considered a logical coro l l a ry 1971, 661). Macfarlane placed this charity-refused of “witchcraft as an ideology that explains misfortunes, paradigm within a framework of social and economic and an institution that regulates communal confli c t s” change that in prosperous Essex brought about the end (Pócs 1999, 9). We re magical healers and malefic e n t of an ordered society, in which no richer man was witches believed to be separate groups, or did they supposed to take advantage of his neighbors or ignore sometimes overlap? This thorny problem is made more the needs of a poor neighbor knocking at his door. difficult for historians by the ambiguity of sources and More recent works suggests that this paradigm is not by the very fact that the witch was held to be the repos- universally applicable even in England, where counties i t o ry of a dual function: both malefactor and healer no less dynamic than Essex (Kent, He rt f o rd s h i re , (“qui scit destruere scit sanare”). In Lorraine, the demo- Middlesex, Su r rey) witnessed only minor levels of nologist Nicolas Rémy described this basic Eu ro p e a n witchcraft persecution. On the Continent, the validity dynamic: “The people of our country, especially the of this model, tested in local and regional studies, has Rural Witchcraft 977

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.978 Application File been downgraded. Ac c o rding to William Mo n t e r, the sought in the re l a t i ve social position of women. It has social dynamics of Jura witchcraft looks signific a n t l y been ve n t u red that the more independent-minded different from the charity-refused model. Though there English or Dutch women “had less reason to practice are some cases where that model was precisely repeated, love magic than women from the Mediterranean areas, there were a few other instances, especially in Fribourg, who had much more difficulty in keeping their heads where it was precisely reversed, with the spurned beggar a b ove water without a man, and who we re in gre a t e r later accusing his uncharitable neighbor of witchcraft. risk of social marginalization” (Gi j s w i j t - Hofstra 1991, In fact, the economic success of some individuals might 134). For whatever reasons, France must certainly be h a ve been resented by less lucky covillagers. In the included among the countries where accusations German county of Lippe, widespread village economic regarding impotence were rife. A similar contraposition rivalries, gossip, and tough private conflicts gave rise to might re g a rd the killing of children, which seems to witchcraft accusations. At the center of these village have been much less widespread in northern countries dramas stood the role of defamation and re venge in than in Spain or Tu s c a n y. In the Jutland trials order to settle enmities (Walz 1993). Behind the accu- (1609–1687), “271 testimonies relating to death can be sation of infanticide in the seventeenth-century Sienese enumerated . . ., but only 6 percent applied to children” state, a retaliation-oriented culture for resolving old (Johansen 1990, 356). In England, a slaughter of chil- semifactional grudges is occasionally clearly re c o g n i z- d ren took place only during the Ma t t h ew Ho p k i n s able. The close-knit village life of “the world we have craze of 1645–1647. In the end, geographic divergence l o s t” (as the English historian Peter Laslett termed it) in matters concerning the charges of witchcraft seems never lacked opportunities to whip up envy and hatred to be problematic. Ap a rt from some obvious corre l a- because of a dispute over limited local economic tions between the type of indictments leveled and the re s o u rces or because of more personal disputes ove r main occupational stru c t u res of an area, many more such matters as love affairs. local studies are necessary if we are to go beyond a mere charting of witchcraft beliefs in terms of the nature of Regional Variations the m a l e fic i u m p e rformed. The causes of the some- In 1972, Erik Midelfort warned that witchcraft was not times-erratic geographic distribution of differences have a rigid monolith but was flexible and varied. If asked yet to be found. It is evident that witchcraft beliefs how the divergent developments of European peasantry resembled local dialects: Each region had its own. It has conditioned such homogeneous witchcraft beliefs, his- been suggested that from further research a “system of torians could not go much beyond mapping their find- differences” could emerge (Burke 1990, 439). ings and distinguishing between beliefs that were fun- damental, those that were extremely common, and Dynamic Approach occasionally, those that were peculiar to one society. For During the “iron century” (ca. 1560–1660, a period instance, nautical maleficia appear to be a Norwegian of warf a re, economic hard s h i p, and social instability), and to a lesser extent a Danish or English specialty, but, rural witchcraft could not remain unchanged. In surprisingly enough, there is no evidence of shipwreck 1588 a young Sienese nobleman, Aspremio Borghesi, maleficiain the early modern Portuguese witchcraft tri- had a nightmare in his country house. His bro t h e r, als, and there are extremely few recorded cases in awakened by loud noises, rushed into the bedro o m Holland. In central Europe, during major persecutions, and saw him standing on the bed waving an collective misfortune such as crop failures or livestock unsheathed sword. Aspremio re p o rted the episode to and human epidemics were attributed to witches, and the inquisitor: storm raising played at least a catalytic role in triggering accusations (Behringer 1999), but in Scotland, witch- We were eleven or twelve people and were having a craft was “rarely held to be responsible for large-scale vigil. We were talking about this Lisa. . . . I said, disasters in which the suffering might be random” how do you know she is a witch? I was answered (Larner 2000, 82). In England as well as in the Sienese . . . “Can’t you see all her bewitchments? she keeps state, witch belief explained misfortune only in partic- healing with prayers all day long.” . . . And this rea- ular; the evil done by witches was interpreted in inter- soning happened because an Edict had come, for- personal terms. But whereas in central Italy, witches bidding healing through the use of prayers. . . . were held to interfere with sex by causing impotence in That very night I went to bed with this fantasy and men, in England no sorceresses made secret ligatures Lisa appeared to me. (Di Simplicio 2000, 132) with string to steal virility. As far as love magic is concerned, a global pattern As the sixteenth century ended, a wave of religious seems to be distinguishable. The hypothesis that it was intolerance spilled over peasant villages to discipline the m o re widespread in the Mediterranean region than in morals of country folk. Lisa’s case exemplified the n o rthern areas suggests an explanation should be increasing religious zeal engendered by Reformation 978 Rural Witchcraft

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.979 Application File and Counter-Reformation Eu rope. From Scottish to a professionalism within recognized medical science, villages to Mediterranean ones, the sermons of divines widening the gap between re c o g n i zed and unoffic i a l condemned any person associated with “witchcraft,” medicine, both in terms of content and organisation. regardless of whether their secret personal power was . . . The more that advanced medical knowledge and used for good or ill: Demonologists and canon law healing techniques came to be accepted in local com- decreed that all supernatural powers not emanating munities, the more the latitude and rationale for think- from the Church were demonic. To be sure, an associa- ing and acting in terms of witchcraft decre a s e d” tion between maleficent magic and the Devil, witnessed (Gijswijt-Hofstra 1991, 110). physically by the notion that the witch bore on her OSCAR DI SIMPLICIO body the mark of her profession or, in England, the belief that witches might possess a familiar imp, had See also: ACCUSATIONS;CHILDREN;COUNTERMAGIC;CUNNING never disappeared from the villagers’ minds. FOLK;IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL;LOVEMAGIC;MALEFICIUM;MEDICINE But in the course of time, witchcraft became less a ANDMEDICALTHEORY;MOUNTAINSANDTHEORIGINSOF m i r ror of popular belief and more a re flection of WITCHCRAFT;POPULARBELIEFSINWITCHES;SOCIALANDECO- demonology. In French and Italian rural areas, there is NOMICSTATUSOFWITCHES;SORCERY;URBANWITCHCRAFT; plenty of evidence that through parish priests and exor- WITCHANDWITCHCRAFT,DEFINITIONSOF;WITCHFINDERS. References and further reading: cists, the Roman Catholic faith contributed to reinforc- Behringer,Wolfgang. 1999. “Climatic Change and Witch- ing the new brand of witchcraft beliefs. Ne ve rt h e l e s s , Hunting: The Impact of the Little Ice Age on Mentalities.” Pp. on the whole, on the Continent as well as in the British 335–351 inClimatic Variability in Sixteenth Century Europe Isles, the ve ry idea of a deliberate pact with the De v i l and Its Social Dimension.Edited by Christian Pfister, Rudolf and of witchcraft as devil worship was slow to develop Brazdil, and Rüdiger Glaser, first published as a special issue of among peasants. A reference taken from the heart of the Climatic Change: An Interdisciplinary, International Journal Eu ropean craze might be considered illuminating: Devoted to the Description, Causes and Implications of Climatic During the witch hunts in the Saar re g i o n Change43, no. 1 (September, 1999). Dordrecht, Boston, and (1580–1635), the demonological notion of witchcraft London: Kluwer Academic. remained marginal among the village community Burke, Peter. 1990. “The Comparative Approach to European (Labouvie 1991). Witchcraft.” Pp. 435–443 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo Can historians relate social and economic changes in and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon. rural Eu rope to a transformation in witchcraft belief? In Di Simplicio, Oscar. 2000. Inquisizione, stregoneria, medicina: s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Holland, for instance, there we re Siena e il suo stato (1580–1721).Monteriggioni, Siena: Leccio. only occasional cases of bewitched goods. The means of Gijswijt-Hofstra, Marijke. 1991. “Six Centuries of Witchcraft in l i velihood we re no longer threatened by witchcraft, a the Netherlands: Themes, Outlines, and Interpretations.” Pp. change that has been partly ascribed to the favorable eco- 1–36 in Witchcraft in the Netherlands from the Fourteenth to the nomic developments in these provinces (Wa a rdt 1991). Twentieth Century.Edited by Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra and Such a line of re s e a rch points to the question of whether Willem Frijhoff. Rotterdam: Universitaire Pers. a “loss of function” might have affected the endurance of ———. 1999. Pp. 95–190 in The Eighteenth and Ni n e t e e n t h rural belief. Labouvie maintained that starting with 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 Ma g i c m i d - s e venteenth century, as soon as poor relief took ro o t in Eu rope. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and St u a rt Clark. London and Philadelphia: Athlone and Un i versity of Pe n n s y l vania Pre s s . in the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic areas, accusa- Henningsen, Gu s t a v. 1980. The Wi t c h e s’ Ad vocate: Basque Wi t c h c ra f t tions of witchcraft against the typical suspects—older and the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n .Reno: Un i versity of Ne vada Pre s s . women dependent on the personal support of their fel- Johansen, Jens C. 1990. “The Sociology of Accusations.” Pp. l ow villagers—receded. Mo re generally, could the combi- 339–366 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and nation of a less collective religion, a more mark e t - o r i e n t- Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. ed economy, greater social mobility, and a grow i n g Oxford: Clarendon. separation of people through the formation of institu- Labouvie, Eva. 1991. Zauberei und Hexenwerk: Ländlicher tional rather than personal ties have undermined witch- Hexenglaube in der frühen Neuzeit.Frankfurt am Main: Fischer craft belief in the “translated Christianity” of the Taschenbuch. p o s t - Reformation and Counter-Reformation? Because of Larner, Christina. 2000. Enemies of God: The Witch-Hunt in these changes, did villagers interpret illness, death, and Scotland.2nd ed. Edinburgh: Donald. Macfarlane, Alan. 1999. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A other misfortunes in new ways? Regional and Comparative Study.2nd ed. London: Routledge. A decisive step tow a rd a new way of thinking and Midelfort, H.C. Erik. 1972. Witch-Hunting in Southwestern acting was made when ideas of causation—based on the Germany, 1582–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. question “How do things happen?”—replaced the old Stanford: Stanford University Press. personalistic causality. With re f e rence to the field of Monter,William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The health, it has been argued most recently that “t h e Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY, and London: increase in medical knowledge and capabilities gave rise Cornell University Press. Rural Witchcraft 979

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.980 Application File Pócs, Éva. 1999. Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on was assumed to be witchcraft. No more fortunate the Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age.Budapest: Central second time, Ivan suspected his fractious second wife, European University Press. So fia Paleologue, of engaging witches to bring about Raudvere, Catharina. 2002. “Trolldómr in Early Medieval his death. Witchcraft accusations continued to haunt Scandinavia.” Pp. 73–172 in The Middle Ages.Vol. 3 of The the world of the powe rful and highly placed: Gr a n d Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe.Edited by Prince Vasilii III, son of Ivan III and So fia, raised Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and Philadelphia: witchcraft charges when he divo rced his childless wife, Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. Solomonia Sa b u rova, in 1525 and dispatched her to a Sharpe, James. 1996. Instrument of Darkness: Witchcraft in England, 1550–1750.Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. c o n vent. Ivan IV, the Terrible, reputedly suspected Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in witchcraft in the death of his first wife, and the Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England. Ro m a n ov tsars of the seventeenth century attributed Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. the deaths of several brides and potential brides to Waardt, Hans de. 1991. “Prosecution or Defence: Procedural magical causes. During the Time of Troubles, a period Possibilities Following a Witchcraft Accusation in the Province of chaos at the start of the seventeenth century, a pre- of Holland before 1800.” Pp. 91–102 in Witchcraft in the tender to the throne, known to history as the Fi r s t Netherlands from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century.Edited False Dmitrii, allegedly employed magic to delude his by Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra and Willem Frijhoff. Rotterdam: f o l l owers. In the late seventeenth century, seve r a l Universitaire Pers. i m p o rtant men at court suffered popular and offic i a l Walz, Rainer. 1993. Hexenglaube und Magische Kommunikation im wrath when they we re suspected of dealing in magic, Dorf der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Verfolgungen in der Grafschaft Lippe.Paderborn: Schöningh. and angry mobs tore apart a few of these suspects dur- ing the many uprisings of this tumultuous century. Russia Political sorc e ry remained a punishable crime in Ru s s i a Witches were prosecuted in Russian courts in the early into the nineteenth century. modern era, following a timeline somewhat later than In the seventeenth century, Russian prosecution of for western European witchcraft trials. From the late witches expanded beyond court circles, increasing in sixteenth through the end of the eighteenth centuries, f requency and scale. Although not all of the sourc e s Muscovite and Imperial Russian courts tried more than have yet been identified, the hundreds of surviving trial 500 cases. Witchcraft beliefs were prevalent throughout re c o rds demonstrate that witchcraft was feared and this period among elites and common people alike. The p rosecuted throughout the vast Russian lands. Ne a r l y kinds of witchcraft described in accusations and court 300 court cases have been identified for the seventeenth testimony reflected largely unadorned folk practices. c e n t u ry, and Russian historian E. B. Smilianskaia has Testimony suggests that a simple, kitchen or garden- d i s c ove red 240 cases from the eighteenth century variety magic, involving spells uttered over such ordi- (Smilianskaia 2003, 188). We cannot yet assess how fre- nary ingredients as salt or roots, was widely practiced quent trials for witchcraft were, but it seems safe to say throughout society. Unlike Latin Christianity, Russian that the numbers of such trials we re signific a n t , Orthodoxy rarely labeled magic satanic and developed although never indicative of any full-blown campaign no elaborate demonological theory. Instead, church- against witches or widespread panic. men tended to condemn magic as “pagan” or “devilish.” The Orthodox Church tried for centuries to involve The actual content of folk practice relied on natural, secular authorities in a campaign against witchcraft, but “sympathetic magic,” poetic incantation, and occasion- until the beginning of the seventeenth century, Russian al invocations of biblical figures or saints to gain results. grand princes and tsars usually contented themselve s Aside from the limited role of demonology, one of the with simply stating their disapproval of witchcraft. In most notable features of the Russian case was that, as in the early seventeenth century, the tsar’s courts began to some of the Baltic areas, the overwhelming majority of hear occasional witchcraft cases. In mid-century, Ts a r those accused of witchcraft were male. Aleksei Mi k h a i l ovich took more forceful steps, declar- ing that practicing witches should be beaten and exiled Chronology and Development and that the tools of their trade should be burned. His As in the West, scattered evidence of witch belief and g overnment also sent forth town criers to announce a fear surfaced early. Me d i e val chronicles occasionally strong prohibition of witchcraft (and other vices, such re c o rded a killing of a witch or group of witches, but it as singing on Sundays, drinking in church, or swinging was not until the late fifteenth century that witches on swings). The town criers invited the public to sub- became a more serious concern of the Mu s c ovite grand mit denunciations. In response, flurries of accusations princes. Prominent fig u res came under suspicion of p o u red in to local authorities throughout the re a l m . witchcraft sporadically from the late fifteenth to the Trials peaked in the mid-seventeenth century and again late sixteenth centuries. In 1467, Grand Prince Ivan III in the 1670s, but prosecution continued at low leve l s of Mo s c ow lost his first wife, Maria of T ve r, to what for the remainder of the century. 980 Russia

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.981 Application File The legal situation changed in the early eighteenth Nonetheless, there was no sustained discussion of the c e n t u ry, when Peter the Great, in his 1721 Sp i r i t u a l role of the Devil in inspiring, empowering, or corru p t- Regulation, declared witchcraft in some contexts to be ing the practitioners. a crime of fraud against credulous clients. Howe ve r, He resy remained marginal to Russian definitions of other legislation continued to enforce the older witch- witchcraft. Sometimes the term h e re s y was confla t e d craft statutes, and even to strengthen them. Pe t e r’s with witchcraft charges, but this accusation rarely had 1715 Mi l i t a ry Articles for the first time articulated an identifiable religious or doctrinal content. Few accused association between witchcraft and dealings with the witches appear to have raised suspicion because of het- Devil and stipulated harsh punishment and exe c u t i o n erodox inclinations. Few if any accused witches had ties by fire for diabolical magic. Imperial Russian court s to the schismatic Old Be l i e f, which broke from main- continued to prosecute witchcraft cases until the end stream Orthodoxy in the late seventeenth century. Nor of the eighteenth century. In fact, despite its re p u t a t i o n did many accused witches have suspicious ties acro s s as an era of secularization, reform, and enlightenment, confessional boundaries. the eighteenth century witnessed re n ewed intensity in Because spokesmen for the Church described magi- p rosecution. The years 1700 to 1706 we re years of re l- cal practices as pagan more often than as satanic or a t i vely active prosecution, and then, after a brief lull, a h e retical, historians have often described Russian re l i- p rolonged wave of trials stretched from 1721 to 1760, gious culture as a dual-belief system, that is, a mixture gaining steam as the century moved along. The re i g n of paganism and Christianity. Although sorc e re r s of the purportedly enlightened Catherine the Gre a t , i d e n t i fied in early medieval chronicles we re still prac- while showing a less active re c o rd, nonetheless contin- ticing pagans and although a variety of paganisms ued the prosecution of witches until the end of the intersected with Russian magical practice thro u g h o u t c e n t u ry. the early modern era as Mu s c ovy expanded and incor- These numbers and patterns suggest that Russia nev- porated non-Christian peoples of Siberia and the er experienced the kind of devastating panics that took n o rth, most Russians appear to have become pro f e s s- so many lives in western Europe; however, the numbers ing Ort h o d ox Christians by the sixteenth century. of trials are large enough to imply that witchcraft Because of the variety of cultural and religious tradi- remained a serious concern for early modern Ru s s i a n tions in this vast empire, which by the seve n t e e n t h rulers and their subjects. There was no Russian Salem, c e n t u ry already spread from Ukraine to the Pa c i fic just as there was no Russian witch-hunting zealot (like Ocean, magical practices differed greatly in differe n t Matthew Hopkins in England, for example) to foment regions, but the Russian population appears to have such a panic. The absence of beliefs in night fly i n g , s h a red a homogeneous belief system re g a rdless of shape shifting, and Satanism may also have limited the region. Early modern Russians apparently pre f e r re d scale of accusations. The largest Russian trials involved spells that relied on the magical resonance of natural seven or eight accused witches, as in a particularly dra- f o rces, not on pagan deities. For example, a colorf u l matic case in the provincial town of Lukh in the late spell for curing alcoholism recommends invoking the 1650s, but such instances we re rare. De n u n c i a t i o n s same indifference to alcohol as that displayed by a dis- tended to finger lone figures, or sometimes pairs. i n t e r red corpse. The problem of translation complicates any exami- The Nature of Russian Witchcraft and nation of magical practices in Russia. Are w i t c h a n d Magical Practice w i t c h c ra f t really the appropriate terms to use? Do u b t Until the late eighteenth century, Russian magic may arise because of the anomalous male majorities remained largely uncontaminated by the kind of among those accused in Russian courts, the limited role Satanism or demonology that colored early modern of the pact with the Devil, the general absence of western witchcraft belief. Although Ru s s i a n “antibehaviors,” or inversions of accepted behaviors, Ort h o d oxy drew on the same body of early Christian and the ambiguous evidence about the acquired rather writings as the Western church, and although pre c e- than inborn nature of malevolent magic. The most dents we re available in saints’ lives and apocry p h a l common terms found in court records areporcha,liter- tales, there is no evidence of an actual case invo l v i n g ally “spoiling,” but more appropriately translated as accusations of pacts with the Devil until the fir s t maleficium or hexing, and vedovstvo, the modern word decades of the eighteenth century during the “we s t e r n- for witchcraft, derived from a root meaning “know l- i z i n g” age of Peter the Great. Some clerical statements edge.” Ot h e r, less common terms include c h a rova n i e , and occasional elements of inve rted Christian symbol- c h a ro d e i a n i e (enchantment), vo ro z h e n i e , g a d a n i e ism suggest that Russian practitioners re c o g n i zed the ( f o rtunetelling), and s h e p t a n i e (muttering, saying p ower of religious magic. For instance, a few suspects spells).Volkhovanie, “sorcery,” is a distinct term reserved re p o rtedly wore crosses in the heels of their shoes, and for shamans and pagan priests. Because Ru s s i a n others we re said to have stolen Hosts for magical use. magicians we re thought to have practiced healing and Russia 981

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.982 Application File b ewitching using spells and potions and because their i n t e r p reted shrieking sympathetically as a sign of the own vo c a b u l a ry uses the term, w i t c h c ra f t does indeed simple faith of the Russian folk and as an indication of seem the most appropriate translation. the hard lot of peasant women. Russian witches dealt with a limited array of issues. They could heal or curse, bewitch, and ruin. T h e y Trials of Witches and the Profile of could cast love spells for women, and they could guar- the Accused antee sexual success or failure for men. Witches played Although the Ort h o d ox Church consistently con- important roles at weddings, where they might “bind” demned witchcraft, secular courts tried accused witches. the new husband to prevent sexual union, or, if proper- Denunciations originated among those who perc e i ve d ly paid, they might protect the new l y weds from the t h e m s e l ves to be victims of witchcraft, or sometimes m a l e volence of uninvited witches. Witchcraft might f rom the entire community that felt afflicted by magic. h a ve been suspected in cases of business competition, Once a denunciation reached the tsar’s officials, the for instance, if one tavern keeper seemed to attract all regional governor or a special investigator fro m the business or another suddenly found his beer Mo s c ow would undertake a general inve s t i g a t i o n , spoiled. Se rvants or slaves confessed to consulting questioning members of the community about the witches to ensure that their masters and mistre s s e s particulars of the case and about the characters of the would be “kind” to them, stop beating them, or let people involved. Both accusers and accused would them marry. Others confessed to plotting to kill their be questioned “firmly,” first individually and then in masters through magical means. Some witches could direct confrontation. The courts were authorized to use locate missing people and lost treasures. Just like west- torture extensively and repeatedly. Court transcripts ern Eu ropeans, Mu s c ovites might have seen p o rc h a , reported testimony taken from the accused without tor- maleficium,at work in any of a number of medical con- ture and then in the torture chamber before, during, ditions, most commonly swelling or wasting diseases, and after torture. The transcripts make painful reading. hernias and ulcers (particularly in children), infertility, Accused witches were forced to provide answers to a set impotence, and infant death. The same individuals who list of questions: whom they had bewitched, for what s e rved as local healers might find themselves facing reasons and by what means; from whom they had witchcraft charges if their cures went awry. Russians did learned magic and to whom they had taught it. If not look to witchcraft to explain natural catastro p h e s , convicted, male witches could be executed—usually by such as hailstorms or droughts, nor did they accuse beheading, rarely by fire—and female witches could be witches of drying up their cows or otherwise afflicting burned or buried alive, the standard Muscovite punish- their livestock. ment for female felons. Most commonly, however, Occasional cases invo l ved outbreaks of k l i k u s h e s t vo, convicted male witches were exiled to the military fron- “shrieking,” a form of bewitchment or spirit possession tiers, where they were registered in military units, issued in which the possessed, usually women, lost conscious- weapons and plots of land, and set to work to defend ness, trembled, shrieked, “hiccupped in animal voices,” Russia’s borders. The sources cannot support any firm and “said things not pleasing to God or man” (Kivelson numbers, but only a few dozen people appear to have 1991, 76). Su f f e rers explained that with the onset of been executed for witchcraft, although hundreds were this affliction, eve rything would go dark, the world tried and many of them exiled. The date of the last exe- about them would begin to spin, and they would later cution for witchcraft remains difficult to establish remember nothing of what they had said or done. because of scattered and incomplete sources, but Common belief assumed that witches provoked this changes in the justice system would point to the second a f fliction, and sometimes in their fits, the possessed half of the eighteenth century. would name names. Possession fig u red only rarely in As the charges leveled against witches tended to be trials from the Muscovite period, but in the eighteenth m o re prosaic than the charges of night flying, shape c e n t u ry, cases cropped up more fre q u e n t l y. Peter the shifting, or orgiastic cannibalism encountered in west- Great and his eighteenth century successors viewe d ern European sources, it is easier to envision the reality shriekers with suspicion, charging them with fraud and behind Russian accusations. Many accused witches punishing their excesses harshly. This behavior persist- appear to have worked as healers, using a hodgepodge ed, nonetheless, throughout the nineteenth century and of spells, potions, roots, and ointments with va r i a b l e into the early twentieth century, when possessed success. Some of the accused confessed to learning their peasant women took on new emblematic force as a craft from a master or healer; others accumulated a symbol and characteristic feature of Russia tradition. In stock of remedies by trial and error. Healers as a group the nineteenth century, possession assumed a positive were particularly at risk, as were vagrants and wander- association among the Russian intelligentsia, who ers, who often earned the odd kopek here and there by 982 Russia

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.983 Application File p u rveying charms and medicaments. No n - Ru s s i a n s into the early twentieth century. Elements of western such as Tatars or Chuvash people who wandered into European folklore gradually crept into Russian belief, Russian villages could be vulnerable to witchcraft probably mainly through Catholic-influenced Ukraine charges as well. and through the Baltic and Scandinavian countries. By Among the accused Russians who we re not healers, the nineteenth century, when Russian intellectuals two sets of characteristics appear fre q u e n t l y. First, a described with horror episodes of peasant lynchings of number of the accused were seen as criminals and ruffi- witches, the victims were uniformly female, and peas- ans of a more general type, with witchcraft thrown in as ants attributed to them some characteristic features an additional charge along with brigandage, theft, or from western demonological lore: tails, Devil’s marks, assault; indeed, Muscovite legislation often categorized teats, and so on. Although educated Russians generally witchcraft as just another form of criminal behavior, lost their belief in magic in the late eighteenth and and the term ve d ovskoe vo rovs t vo(magical criminality) nineteenth centuries, a revival of mysticism in the early appeared frequently in court records. Second, many of nineteenth century returned some intellectual and cul- the accused acted in ways considered disrespectful, dis- tural cachet to the world of witches, which retained its obedient, or defiant of established hierarchies. He n c e , appeal in Russian arts and letters until the Revolution. serfs or slaves who disobeyed their masters or mistress- Condemned as primitive superstition by the Soviets, es, wives who challenged their husbands or their in- witchcraft disappeared both as documented practice laws, nephews who defied their uncles, all might fin d and as a topic for scholarly research for almost seventy themselves in court facing witchcraft charges. years. The fall of the Soviet Union has witnessed a The ove rwhelming preponderance of the accused remarkable upsurge of mysticism, and witches have we re male, and almost all we re of rather low or mid- again gained a certain degree of popularity as a source dling rank. Although the court and ecclesiastical elite of alternative wisdom and healing. clearly believed in and relied on witchcraft to sort out VALERIE A. KIVELSON some of their problems, high-ranking people, as in Louis XIV’s Paris, we re far more commonly charged See also:CONTEMPORARYWITCHCRAFT(POST-1800); DEMONOLO- with consulting witches than with practicing magic GY;ENLIGHTENMENT;GENDER;HERBALMEDICINE;HERESY; t h e m s e l ves. That most of the accused we re male is IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL;MALEWITCHES;MALEFICIUM;ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;SPELLS;TRIALS;UKRAINE, puzzling, but the numbers are clear. T h roughout the WITCHCRAFT;UKRAINE,WITCHCRAFTTRIALS;WITCHAND s e venteenth and eighteenth centuries, approx i m a t e l y WITCHCRAFT,DEFINITIONSOF. 80 percent of the accused we re men (Kivelson 1991, References and further reading: 75; Lavrov 2000, 116; Smilianskaia 2003). Men may Ankarloo, Bengt, and Gustav Henningsen, eds. 1990. Early h a ve been more at risk to accusations because they fit Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Oxford: better into Ru s s i a’s suspicious categories: Mo re men Clarendon. than women appear to have wandered around the Ivanits, Linda J. 1989. Russian Folk Belief.Armonk, c o u n t ryside; more men we re invo l ved in common NY: Sharpe. violence and criminality; men generally had more Kivelson, Valerie A. 1991. “Through the Prism of Witchcraft: Gender and Social Change in Seventeenth-Century Muscovy.” o p p o rtunities to rub shoulders with unfamiliar Pp. 74–94 in Russia’sWomen: Accommodation, Resistance, people and to provoke suspicion or anger. Mi l i t a ry Transformation.Edited by Barbara Evans Clements, Barbara s e rvice may have added to the risk for men. Nu m e ro u s Alpern Engel, and Christine D. Worobec. Berkeley and Los cases arose in the barracks, where women would not Angeles: University of California Press. h a ve been present. The same patterns continued in the ———. 1995. “Patrolling the Boundaries: Witchcraft Accusations eighteenth century, when the preponderance of men and Household Strife in Seventeenth-Century Muscovy.” may have been re i n f o rced by a quirk in the law: T h e Harvard Ukrainian Studies29: 302–323. m i l i t a ry law codes of Peter the Great perpetuated and ———. 1997. “Political Sorcery in Sixteenth-Century Muscovy.” e ven intensified the penalties for witchcraft, while at Pp. 267–283 inCultural Identity in Muscovy, 1359–1584. the same time his church codes took a more typical Edited by A.M. Kleimola and G.D. Lenhoff. Moscow: Enlightenment line and demoted most magic practiced Its-Garant; English edition distributed by Slavica (Bloomington, IN). by women from felony to fraud. Lavrov, A.S. 2000. Koldovstvo i religiia v Rossii, 1700–1740 gg. Moscow: Drevlekhranilishche. Witchcraft in Modern Russia Levin, Eve. 1997. “Supplicatory Prayers as a Source for Popular After the end of formal prosecution, in Russia as in Religious Culture in Muscovite Russia.” Pp. 96–114 in Religion western Europe, witch belief continued to exercise a and Culture in Early Modern Russia and Ukraine.Edited by strong hold on the popular imagination. Russian peas- Samuel H. Baron and Nancy Shields Kollmann. DeKalb: ants commonly consulted witches and magical healers Northern Illinois University Press. Russia 983

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46049 Golden Chap.P av First Pages 08/25/2005 p.984 Application File Ryan, W.F. 1998. “The Witchcraft Hysteria in Early Modern Zguta, Russell. 1977a. “The Ordeal byWater (Swimming of Europe: Was Russia an Exception?” Slavonic and East European Witches) in the East Slavic World.” Slavic Review36: 220–230. Review76, no. 1: 49–84. ———. 1977b. “Was There a Witch Craze in Muscovite Russia?” ———. 1999. The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Southern Folklore Quarterly41: 119–128. Magic and Divination in Russia.University Park: Pennsylvania ———. 1977c. “Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century State University Press. Russia.” American Historical Review82: 1187–1207. Smilianskaia, E.B. 2003. Volshebniki. Bogokhul’niki. Eretiki. ———. 1978. “Witchcraft and Medicine in Pre-Petrine Russia.” Narodnaia religioznost’ i “dukhovniye prestupleniia” v Rossii Russian Review37: 438–448. XVIII v.Moscow: Indrik. Worobec, Christine D. 2001. Possessed: Women, Witches, and Demons in Imperial Russia.DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 984 Russia

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.985 Application File S Saar Region simultaneously t h roughout the region. The zeal for Between 1500 and 1700, there were at least 591 trials persecution seems to have been stronger in Catholic of alleged witches in Germany’s Saar region (Labouvie parts of the Saar region: Some 222 trials were held in six 1991). In terms of the percentage of the population district court s (Siersberg, Schaumburg, Wallerfangen, affected, the witchcraft trials in this region, which had Cr i e c h i n g e n-Püttlingen, Cr i e c h i n g e n - Sa a rwe l l i n g e n , around 100,000 inhabitants, can be categorized as and Beckingen) subject to the dukes of Lorraine, and severe, although far less so than in some nearby territo- 165 trials were held in eight district courts (St. Wendel, ries;in the imperial abbey of St. Maximin, for example, Blieskastel, Da g s t u h l / Wadern, Schwarzenburg, Pe r l , approximately a fifth of all inhabitants were executed Mandern, Liebenburg, and Thalfang) under the for witchcraft between 1586 and 1641. authority of electoral Trier; by contrast, only 54 trials The Saar region was a patchwork of territories o c c u r red in the Saar territories belonging to belonging to different territorial rulers. Two Catholic Pfalz-Zweibrücken and 52 in those of the counts of areas belonged to the electors of Trier and the dukes of Nassau-Saarbrücken (Labouvie 1991). Lorraine; other parts belonged to the Calvinist dukes of The gender balance among the accused witches in P f a l z - Zweibrücken and, in the heart of the region, to the different territories is also noteworthy. In Protestant the Lutheran counts of Na s s a u - Saarbrücken, who territories, almost exc l u s i vely women we re slandere d , (unlike the others) lived in the Saarland territories they accused, and executed as witches, while in Catholic ruled. Because much of the Saar region was distant areas, up to one-third of all accused witches were men. f rom its ove r l o rds, local conditions we re occasionally This difference was apparently connected with different c o n d u c i ve to persecuting witches. Fu rt h e r m o re — a n d translations of Exod. 22:18 (22:17): “Thou shalt not this was also the case in the Rhine-Meuse (Rhein-Maas) suffer a witch to live.” The Catholic Vulgate Bible used region—the Saar region was characterized by an the male form of the word w i t c h , but Ma rtin Lu t h e r e x t reme fragmentation of lordship rights over land, used the grammatically correct female form of the people, and pro p e rt y. Di f f e rent territorial lords ru l e d original Hebrew text, thus giving Protestants reason to many areas jointly, and minor lords and even ru r a l perceive witchcraft as essentially female (Schulte 2001). communities we re often beyond the control of the Most witchcraft trials in the Saar region, as in the territorial rulers concerning the exercise of criminal law. Rhineland, originated with initiatives taken by the Witchcraft trials we re particularly common in these lower orders. This desire to hunt witches “from below” a reas and must thus be set in the political context of could take the form of petitions to local criminal courts attempts by rival or minor lords to assert their rights of for pursuing action against witches. Wi t c h - h u n t i n g lordship (Voltmer 2002). committees (Hexenausschüsse) were also often formed to bring suspected witches to court on behalf of the whole Phases of Persecution, Areas Most c o m m u n i t y. Howe ve r, such committees we re offic i a l l y Affected by Witch Hunts, and p rohibited by the dukes of Lorraine and (as in the Trial Procedures duchy of Lu xembourg) had to operate secre t l y. In Witch hunts in the Saar region occurred in six phases: Merzig-Saargau, an area the dukes of Lorraine and the f rom 1500 to 1569, 1569 to 1586, 1587 to 1605, electors of Trier ruled jointly, there is clearer evidence of 1609 to 1623, 1626 to 1634, and 1646 to 1700 such witch-hunting initiatives. In Lorraine, trials (Labouvie 1991, 69). Some re l a t i vely early trials of the usually began with accusations by private individuals 1520s and 1530s we re triggered by trials in neighbor- (Formalkläger) or else ex officio by court officials. ing Lorraine, Lu xembourg, and electoral Tr i e r. In the In three Saar territories (Tr i e r, Pfalz-Zwe i b r ü c k e n , early stages of persecution, one can discern a gradual and Na s s a u - Saarbrücken), witchcraft trial pro c e d u re s s p read of trials from west and north to east and south we re based on both local customary law and on the in the Saar region, whereas during the main phase of C a rolina Code (the code of criminal pro c e d u re for the persecution between 1587 and 1634, trials occurre d Holy Roman Em p i re), while territories belonging to Saar Region 985

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.986 Application File Lorraine followed the duchy’s re l e vant criminal ord i- of Lorraine was the Schirmherr,the lord responsible for nances. These legal differences created different methods protecting it against external attack. And the electors of for settling the costs of witchcraft trials. Ac c o rding to Trier and the Palatinate shared the Vogtei (administra- the Carolina Code, the heirs of an executed witch paid tive authority) and Landesherrschaft(ultimate territorial the trial costs, whereas in Lorraine, the pro p e rty of a authority). Consequently, each lord possessed certain convicted witch (dozens fled and we re “banished” in legal rights: St. Simeon controlled the manorial courts, absentia) was confiscated to meet the costs. Eve ry terri- high criminal justice was shared between the electors of t o ry followed set pro c e d u res for making appeals, for Trier and the Palatinate, and the duke of Lorraine was sending trial re c o rds to higher courts for approval, and responsible for repressing crimes threatening the securi- for seeking legal advice from external experts. For advice ty of the Nalbacher Tal. To complicate matters further, in such matters, Lorraine used its central legal tribunal, the electors of the Palatinate had given their share of the the Change de Na n c y ; the electors of Trier used their administrative authority (Vogteirechte) and thus part of main court, the Ob e rh o f , in Trier; Pfalz-Zwe i b r ü c k e n the right to exercise high criminal jurisdiction to the used its ducal chancellery; and Na s s a u - Saarbrücken used lords of Braubach as a fief. As a result, criminal trials its Ob e rh o f in Saarbrücken or sought advice from the (including witchcraft trials) were held in Dillingen n e a rest Protestant university at St r a s b o u r g . under the alternating chairmanship of bailiffs repre- senting electoral Trier and the lords of Braubach. Merzig-Saargau Understandably, the complexity of legal rights in the A condominum, or territory ruled jointly by two sover- Nalbacher Tal led to frequent disputes between Trier eigns (in this case, the elector of Trier and the duke of and Braubach. The dukes of Lorraine also sought to Lorraine), Me rz i g - Saargau had 1,200 inhabitants extend their power by imposing taxes on Nalbach’s scattered over twenty villages. The elector of Trier inhabitants. shared rights of criminal jurisdiction over those parts of A total of twenty-nine witchcraft trials took place in Me rz i g - Saargau situated on the left-hand side of the Sa a r the Nalbacher Tal, which contained only 110 house- River with the duke of Lorraine and those on the right holds; in other words, someone from one in every four side of the river with the lords of Montclair. The first of its households (26 percent) was executed for witch- recorded witchcraft trial in the entire Saar region craft. Nalbach’s inhabitants submitted a petition to the o c c u r red at Me rz i g - Saargau in 1500; a total of fort y-f o u r l o rds of the criminal courts in 1591 requesting action were held there during the early modern period. Local against witches and specifying suspects to be arre s t e d . witch-hunting committees were active in bringing sus- We have evidence of witch-hunting committees acting pected witches before the local courts by 1588. t h e re to stimulate witchcraft trials by 1602. As else- Accused witches from villages on the left-hand side of where, disputes and complaints arose in the Nalbacher the River Saar we re first kept in custody at Si e r s b u r g Tal over the high costs of the trials, because the goods of (belonging to Lorraine) and then in Saarburg (belong- e xecuted witches we re often insufficient to meet the ing to Trier). Suspects from the right-hand side of the costs. Local customary law decreed that such shortfalls r i ver we re held first in the castle of the Montclairs, then should be covered by the ecclesiastical foundation of St. in Saarburg. Howe ve r, the main trial always took place Simeon (for the costs of imprisonment) and by the elec- in Me rzig in the presence of the magistrates re p re s e n t i n g tors of Trier and the lords of Braubach (for the costs of the territorial rulers of Lorraine and Tr i e r, as well as the executions). Lengthy witchcraft trials could thus result criminal court’s bailiff and lay assessors. Executions took in significant expenses for the relevant lords. As a conse- place near Me rzig in the presence of all thirt y - five lay quence, in 1602, the electors of Trier instructed their assessors. The goods of those executed for witchcraft bailiff to avoid incurring exc e s s i ve costs in witchcraft we re confiscated and auctioned off, with the pro c e e d s trials. The St. Simeon St i f t was particularly critical of divided between the Lorraine and Trier magistrates. T h i s this bailiff’s behavior, accusing him of various improper practice provoked disputes between the magistrates, as practices in the accounting of trial costs (for example, happened in 1588 when a Lorraine magistrate had the e m b ezzlement, waste, and illegal seizure of goods). goods of an executed woman assessed without the Tr i e r Demands for lowering trial costs and for the bailiff’s m a g i s t r a t e’s knowledge and to his detriment. Oc c a s i o n a l dismissal we re linked to an announcement that the attempts we re made to moderate the costs of witchcraft inhabitants of the Nalbacher Tal were too oppressed by trials but never as part of a deliberate policy. the costs of witchcraft trials to pay their rents. Disputes over trial costs contributed to ending witchcraft trials in Nalbacher Tal the Nalbacher Tal after 1612. Nalbacher Tal was a Gemeinherrschaft, or a territory over which different rulers held various rights. In this Witchcraft Belief and Witch Suspects valley, the ecclesiastical foundation (Stift) of St. Simeon Witchcraft beliefs in the Saar region were predomi- in Trier was the Grundherr, or manorial lord. The duke nantly shaped by the fears and concerns of everyday 986 Saar Region

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.987 Application File rural life (Labouvie 1991, 1992). “Mature” witchcraft References and further reading: theory (involving, for instance, sexual intercourse with Colesie, Georg. 1969–1970. “Hexenprozesse am Hochgericht the Devil or a large-scale sect meeting at a witches’ Nalbach.” Zeitschrift für dieGeschichte der Saargegend17–18: 229–237. Sabbat) played a minor role in confessions by alleged Hoppstädter, Kurt. 1959. “Hexenverfolgungen im saarländischen witches at the early Saar trials, while harmful magic was Raum: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Hexenprozesse.” at the center of witchcraft allegations. Witches’ Sabbats Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Saargegend9: 210–267. resembled village festivals, although with negative Jacob, A. 1930. “Die Hexenprozesse in Merzig und Umgebung: aspects. However, the rural image of the witch became Ein Beitrag zur Kultur- und Sittengeschichte des Saarlandes.” increasingly demonized through continuing trials and Jahrbuch des Vereins für Heimatkunde im Kreis Merzig 2: 29–72. the indoctrination of the lower orders by clerics and Labouvie, Eva. 1991. Zauberei und Hexenwerk: Ländlicher judges. After 1611, sex with the Devil and orgiastic Hexenglaube in der frühen Neuzeit.Frankfurt am Main: Fischer. witches’ Sabbats became more marked in confessions. ———. 1992.Verbotene Künste: Volksmagie und ländlicher The victims of Saar region witchcraft trials did not Aberglaube in den Dorfgemeinden des Saarraumes (16.–19. belong to any particular social or occupational gro u p. Jahrhundert).St. Ingbert: Röhrig. ———. 1995. “Absage an den Teufel: Zum Ende dörflicher People most likely to fall under suspicion as witches Hexeninquisition im Saarraum.” Pp. 55–76 inDas Ende der were those who had disturbed their community’s peace Hexenverfolgung.Edited by Dieter R. Bauer and Sönke Lorenz. ( by being particularly quarrelsome, for example), who Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. had connections with another suspected witch, or who ———. 1996.“‘Gott zu Ehr, den Unschuldigen zu Trost und had long been reputed as being witches within their Rettung... ’: Hexenverfolgungen im Saarraum und in den community: It was believed that the power to work angrenzenden Gebieten.” Pp. 389–403 in Hexenglaube und witchcraft could be inherited or passed on betwe e n Hexenprozesse im Raum Rhein-Mosel-Saar.Edited by Günther acquaintances. Anyone who failed to take legal action Franz and Franz Irsigler. 2nd ed. Trier: Spee. after being publicly slandered as a witch also fell under ———. 1997. “Rekonstruktion einer Verfolgung: Hexenprozesse suspicion of witchcraft. und ihr Verlauf im Saar-Pfalz-Raum und der Bailliage The T h i rty Ye a r s’ War devastated the Saar re g i o n , d'Allemagne (1520–1690).” Pp. 43–58 in Hexenprozesse und derenGegner im trierisch-lothringischen Raum.Edited by causing population losses of up to 90 percent in some Gunther Franz, Günter Gehl, and Franz Irsigler.Weimar: Rita parts, and it temporarily halted witchcraft trials; howev- Dadder. er, the last such trials took place only in 1679 (with an Schulte, Rolf. 2001. Hexenmeister: Die Verfolgung von Männern im u n k n own result) and 1700 (the accused woman was Rahmen der Hexenverfolgung von 1530–1730 im Alten Reich. m e rely excommunicated). We have no clear, single 2nd ed. Frankfurt am Main: Lang. explanation for the end of the Saarland trials, although Übel, Rolf. 1992. “Ein Hexenprozess im Herzogtum the unofficial prohibition of witchcraft trials in 1652 by Pfalz-Zweibrücken.” Pfälzer Heimat43: 71–78. the archbishop-elector of Tr i e r, Carl Kaspar von der Voltmer, Rita. 2002. “Hochgerichte und Hexenprozesse: Zur Leyen, may have affected his portion of the region. As herrschaftlich-politischen Instrumentalisierung von indicated, endless disputes among witch-hunting Hexenverfolgungen.” Pp. 475–525 in Hexenprozesse und committees, lords of criminal courts, and their officials Gerichtspraxis.Edited by Herbert Eiden and Rita Voltmer. Trier: Paulinus. over the high costs of witchcraft trials plagued the Saar region, and the compulsory moderation of costs by some territorial lords slowed the persecution of witches. Sabbat After 1650, a more cautious treatment of witchcraft The Sabbat (witches’ Sabbat) was a central component allegations was apparent in Saar re g i o n’s courts: T h e y of the elaborate scenario developed in the late Middle we re now much more likely to be treated as slanders Ages to describe the workings of the Devil in the world and become civil rather than criminal cases. Improved and the role of humans in that work. A great many texts poor relief and medical care may have also helped lessen described the Sabbat as a gathering of witches led by the social tensions and thus the likelihood of one neighbor Devil. Those who attended were transported to a accusing another of witchcraft. meeting place, sometimes far from their homes. The meetings we re almost always at night, and the RITA VOLTMER; Sabbat-goers usually appeared to be asleep. They trav- TRANSLATED BY ALISON ROWLANDS eled to the meeting either by flying or by walking, though flight seemed to be the preferred option. Often, See also:COMMUNALPERSECUTION;EXODUS22:18 (22:17); the witches rode on an object such as a stick or a broom FEMALEWITCHES;GERMANY,WESTANDNORTHWEST;HOLY or on an animal, often a goat. ROMANEMPIRE;LORRAINE;LUXEMBOURG;NASSAU- The Sabbat was depicted as a parody of corre c t SAARBRÜCKEN,COUNTYOF;PFALZ-ZWEIBRÜCKEN,DUCHY religious observance. It could be a fairly small affair of a OF;POPULARBELIEFSINWITCHES;POPULARPERSECUTION; ST.MAXIMIN,PRINCE-ABBEYOF;TRIALS;TRIER,ELECTORATE f ew dozen or a huge gathering of thousands. It was OF;WITCHHUNTS. generally presided over by a devil, often in the form of a Sabbat 987

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.988 Application File giant male goat with large horns. T h e re was usually a The presence of these ancient folkloric beliefs came banquet, featuring food that looked appetizing but was to the attention of religious officials in the Early Middle described as tasteless or unpleasant. Almost always, it Ages, when the Church was working to guarantee its was stated that there was no salt and often no bread. monopoly on access to the supernatural. At the begin- At the Sabbat, the revelers would dance, usually back ning of the tenth century C.E., Regino of Prüm includ- to back or in circles with their backs to the center. ed the following warning to bishops in his collection of T h e re would be a sexual orgy, with the Devil, his canons: demons, and the attendees indiscriminately coupling with each other. The orgy was often described as Some wicked women, who have given themselves including incestuous sex. back to Satan and been seduced by the illusions The attendees had to re p o rt the evil things they had and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that, done since the last meeting, and demons would mete out in the hours of the night, they ride upon certain punishments if the evil deeds we re not sufficient. All had beasts with Diana, the goddess of Pagans, and an to pay homage to the Devil, usually by kissing his anus innumerable multitude of women, and in the (the Kiss of Shame). The witches would often be give n silence of the night traverse great spaces of earth, p owders or ointments to assist them in poisoning other and obey her commands. . . . An innumerable mul- people, animals, or crops. These substances we re suppos- titude, deceived by this false opinion, believe this to edly manufactured from the corpses of infants who we re be true, and so believing, wander from the right killed for the purpose. At the end of the gathering, eve ry- faith and return to the error of the pagans when one would return home in the same way they had come. they think that there is anything of divinity or Their absence would not have been noticed, and they power except the one God. (quoted in Kors and would go about their business as usual. Peters 2001, 62) In many confessions, the Sabbat was described as being like a perve rted village fair. Some even testifie d This document, known as the Canon Episcopi, argued that the social hierarchy of the real world was main- that these beliefs were fantasies or dreams, inspired by tained in the Sabbat, with wealthier people arriving in Satan. It was the belief that these dreams were real that carriages, sitting in front, eating elegant delicacies, and the Canoncondemned. being served by their social inferiors. What was know n In succeeding centuries, Church writers and officials about the Sabbat came entirely from testimony given to placed increased emphasis on evil and the role of the legal and religious officials, ove rwhelmingly thro u g h Devil as an enemy of god and of humankind. confessions that we re usually made under tort u re. T h e re Nu m e rous popular heresies we re described as inspire d is no corro b o r a t i ve evidence that witches’ Sabbats eve r by the Devil in his efforts to undermine Go d’s work . actually took place, but the belief that they did seems to This perception became sharper in the fourteenth cen- h a ve been ve ry widespread in all levels of society. tury, as economic crisis, warfare, and the demographic disaster of the Black Death buffeted Eu rope. In this Origins a t m o s p h e re of fear, lepers, Jews, heretics, and witches The sources for the notion of the Sabbat are obscure were targeted as the Devil’s agents and were threatened and quite complex. There is, furthermore, a degree of to be eradicated. Notions of a secret Jewish conspiracy scholarly controversy over these issues. Nevertheless, it p robably fed ideas of the Sabbat: The use of the term seems clear that the concept of the Sabbat was based, at s y n a g o g u e , often employed to describe the witches’ least in part, on some very ancient popular beliefs that gatherings, derives from this connection. had been widely diffused across Europe at the time of In the early fifteenth century, several documents that Celtic migrations, if not earlier. In many parts of were written at approximately the same time illustrated Europe, people told of flying through the night skies, the ways in which varied beliefs had merged to form the often in the company of female goddesses. The night p i c t u re of the Sabbat. Originating mainly from the flights often took place while these people were uncon- western Alps between 1435 and 1440, they treat the scious, in dreamlike or trancelike states. Often, the Sabbat as a re a l i t y, no longer as a fantasy of misled night flyers would travel to or be visited by the souls of women. Johannes Ni d e r, in the Fo rm i c a r i u s (T h e the departed or by fairy people, who would play music, Anthill), related stories of devil-worshipping gro u p s dance, and feast. In these early accounts, which were who murdered infants and made ointments from their frequently very detailed and were not always obtained bodies to be used in witchcraft. The unknown author under torture, the point of the voyage was considered of the Er ro res Ga z a r i o rum ( Er rors of the Gazars or beneficial. The ecstatic travelers described themselves as Gazarii [Cathars—a common term for heretics and fighters against evil and defenders of fertility. Often, the later witches]) told of gatherings, presided over by the accounts included battles against devils or evildoers and Devil in the shape of a black cat, at which the witches humans assuming animal shapes. had to pay homage to their master by kissing his 988 Sabbat

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.989 Application File backside. They participated in a banquet and obscene, we re basically identical to most others, though with p e rve rted sexual activities and then we re given oint- many minor variations. For example, he re p o rted that ments and powders made from dead children to be in traveling to the Sabbat, people used a variety of used in killing people and destroying crops. An account means, such as broomsticks, forked sticks, or even just by a lay judge, Claude Tholosan, included similar ordinary sticks. Some rode on animals, including bulls stories, learned through testimony he heard in over 100 or pigs. He insisted, based on the testimony he had trials. Tholosan wrote of a sect of witches who, through h e a rd, that eve ry aspect of the Sabbat—the food, the c e remonies that inve rted Christian observa n c e , dancing, and the drink—was disgusting, tiring, and renounced God, adored the Devil, and sacrificed their very painful for the participants. This assessment con- children. He also stated, “They imagine in dreams that trasts with that of Pierre de Lancre, who insisted that he they travel bodily at night . . . in the company of the was told how much the attendees enjoyed themselve s . Devil.” A French poem from the court of Bu r g u n d y, Rémy was not writing a legal manual for handling written around 1440, gave a full picture of the Sabbat. witchcraft trials, and he did not explicitly examine the It told of gatherings of thousands of witches at the issue of whether attendance at a Sabbat was suffic i e n t “awful synagogue” of the Devil. T h e re, the witches by itself to convict a suspect. He did, howe ve r, imply worshiped a devil in animal form, kissing his backside that that was the case, pointing out that in re g a rd to and then drinking, banqueting, and dancing. After serious crimes, i n t e n t to commit a crime was tanta- g roup sex, the witches returned to their homes, fly i n g mount to actually committing it: If someone, through upon broomsticks, to do their evil deeds (quoted in attending a Sabbat, indicated an intent to do evil deeds, Kors and Peters 2001, 165, 169). that should suffice for a death penalty decision. This and other legal issues we re examined in detail Demonologists Diffuse the Sabbat by someone who had never judged a case himself—the By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Jesuit scholar Ma rtín Del Rio, the most re s p e c t e d the Sabbat became a central part of demonologists’ Catholic demonologist of the early seventeenth century. accounts of the crime of witchcraft. Testimony by thou- Del Rio stated that for those who attended a Sa b b a t , sands of people, in all corners of Europe, seemed to even if they had committed no evil deeds, “the very fact confirm the reality of secret nocturnal gatherings. Jean that they allied themselves with an evil spirit by means Bodin, author of the De la démonomanie des sorciers of a pact, that they we re accustomed to take part in a (On the Demon-Mania of Witches, 1580), described sabbat, and are responsible for what they do there, is the Sabbat in detail as an aspect of witches’ crimes. He sufficient reason” to impose the death penalty (Del Rio based his discussion of this theme largely on accounts 1611, 833). Like many previous Catholic clerics in of recent trials, whose essential similarities he empha- It a l y, he also argued that the Canon Ep i s c o p i did not sized. He told several stories of the transportation of apply to “m o d e r n” witches, who we re not innocent witches to their assemblies, with or without the use of women but rather apostates, heretics, idolaters, blas- ointments, and the flight on brooms or chimney mops. phemers, and sodomites. At the Sabbats, the witches danced in a frenzied way, Pi e r re de Lancre was an appellate judge fro m adored the Devil, and had to report their evil deeds or Bordeaux who had investigated a widespread witchcraft be punished. Bodin held that the transportation to the panic in 1609 and wrote an extensive study based on Sabbat was real, not just an illusion or ecstasy. He this episode. T h rough hearing testimony from hun- insisted that the agreement of so many accounts consti- dreds of witnesses, Lancre was convinced that the cen- tuted solid proof of the reality of this phenomenon. tral problem he confronted in the Basque Pays de Nicolas Rémy read hundreds of witchcraft trials as a L a b o u rd was the existence of a diabolical sect that judge and public prosecutor in Lorraine. He devoted a assembled at countless Sabbats. He stated that, of section of his Da e m o n o l a t r i a ( De m o n o l a t ry, 1595) to 30,000 inhabitants of the region, at least 3,000 we re the Sabbat, which he examined in great detail. It is clear witches who had been marked by Satan. Fu rt h e r, that most, if not all, of the evidence he used from these Sabbats took place almost every night, and four times a cases had been obtained under torture. His sources were year, there were huge Sabbats, attended by up to 12,000 an interesting blend of classical and contemporary witches. Much of Lancre’s testimony came from young accounts. In a single section, he might name ancient women (below the age at which they could be prosecut- authorities such as Py t h a g o rus, Cicero, or Plato and ed), who testified in great detail, without torture, about then cite the testimony of local peasants who had been what happened at Sabbats. As with Bodin, the general sent to the stake. Rémy emphasized that travel to the agreement of these accounts was deemed a crucial proof Sabbat had to be a fact, not a dream. To any suggestion of their reality.The Labourd Sabbats contained all the that witches would go to a Sabbat in spirit only or in elements that we re by then well known. Lancre was a ecstasies, he argued that the soul and body were insepa- skillful writer who used emotive and colorful prose to rable until death. The accounts of the Sabbat he related paint pictures of these horrifying events. Sabbat 989

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.990 Application File The most famous illustration of the Sabbat, by Polish engraver and painter Jan Ziarnko for Pierre de Lancre’s Tableau de l’inconstance des Mauvais Anges et Demons (Description of the Inconstancy of the Evil Angels and Demons),1612. Note the Devil seated on his throne flanked by his favorite witches, the child presented to him as a sacrifice, witches and devils dancing and feasting on the right, witches brewing a storm, witches and demons flying, and other noxious activities that constituted a reversal of Christian society and religion. (TopFoto.co.uk) What particularly shocked Lancre was the witnesses’ carried out with diabolical spells or poisons was very attitude to the Sabbats. Although most writers insisted d i f ficult to obtain, accusations of participation in on the unpleasantness and pain of the Sabbats, Lancre’s Sabbats offered an alternative way for a judge to prose- juvenile witches testified about how much they enjoyed cute witches. the meetings (something similar happened later with The attitude of a court to this kind of testimony was Swedish children at Blåkulla). He stated, “Instead of c rucial in determining how many witches would be being quiet about this damnable coupling (with accused at any time. If court officials took this testimo- demons), or of blushing or crying about it, they tell the ny seriously and used torture to obtain confessions and d i rtiest and most immodest circumstances with such fresh accusations, the net could be cast very widely, as freedom and gaiety that they glory in it and take great happened in many places, mainly in Germany. Rémy’s pleasure in telling about it.” He reported that one wit- Lorraine preserved hundreds of confessions by witches ness said, “The Sabbat was the real Paradise where there who had attended Sabbats. In their questioning, often was more pleasure that could be expre s s e d” (Lancre accompanied by torture, the Lorraine judges were more 1612, 142, 344). i n t e rested in learning names of “a c c o m p l i c e s” than in details of what happened at the Sabbats. The Sabbat in Witchcraft Trials The Basque region, which lies across the bord e r The Sabbat figured in trials for witchcraft all across b e t ween France and Spain, produced vo l u m i n o u s continental Europe. Because solid evidence for crimes quantities of information about Sabbats. On the French 990 Sabbat

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.991 Application File side, Lancre and his senior colleague Jean d’ E s p a i g n e t which the Sabbat operated as the crucial multiplier. h e a rd hundreds of young witches describe them; they Each of these small cities witnessed hundreds of execu- concentrated on arresting several dozen suspects, tions of witches, all generated through torture to obtain including a number of priests, who seemed to be the m o re names. In such massive trials, even wealthy and head witches. The French judges tried these suspects on influential citizens were accused and tried. These people the spot, and the Spaniards reported that they executed tended to have a more sophisticated understanding of as many as eighty of them. The remainder we re theological issues, so their confessions were much more dispatched to Bordeaux for judgment by the whole detailed than those of the ordinary folk. In 1628, two p a rlement ( s ove reign judicial court). The court eve n t u a l l y people accused Burgomaster (Ma yor) Johannes Ju n i u s released most of them because of insufficient evidence, of Bamberg of attending Sabbats. After denying all p rovoking an enraged Lancre to write his treatise in charges, he was tortured; he eventually provided a full hopes of ove rcoming the skepticism of his colleagues and colorful account of his participation in Sabbats. He about the value of Sabbats as evidence. also named several other prominent citizens as having Across the frontier, witchcraft fell under the purview been there as well. In W ü rzburg, at the same time, of the Spanish Inquisition. Refugees from Lancre’s reign f o rt y - t h ree priests and monks we re executed. T h e i r of terror spilled into Spain, where the Holy Office soon confessions were the most elaborate in all of Germany, a r rested several of them. Though these systems we re full of references to fairy food and parodies of the Mass. very different, the handling of this complex case of the In one very late trial at Bamberg, a witch denounced Basque witches was similar. The Spanish In q u i s i t i o n at least 126 accomplices—who we re not arrested. By also separated out two dozen or so ringleaders, sending that time, trials for witchcraft we re becoming rare in them to Logroño to be examined by the In q u i s i t i o n most of Eu rope. Attacks on abuses of the judicial tribunal there. At first, these inquisitors took witchcraft system and on the use of cruel torture to extract confes- seriously, including the Sabbat. They sentenced eleven sions seemed to have had an effect on theologians and witches to death at a famous auto de fe (act of faith) in judges. Though stories of fairies and the souls of the 1610. As in France, garrulous, underaged witnesses had dead flying through the night continued to be told, the deluged them with vo l u n t a ry confessions about what authorities stopped re g a rding them as evidence of a went on at Sabbats. Howe ve r, a degree of skepticism demonic sect. emerged shortly after these proceedings. The Sp a n i s h The Sabbat offers an instru c t i ve example of the Inquisition had not executed anyone for witchcraft for complex relationship between popular and elite culture m o re than sixty years, and the local bishop had neve r in early modern Eu rope. Ideas that emerged fro m been convinced of anyo n e’s guilt. One inquisitor, widely diffused ancient folkloric roots had been at least Alonso de Salazar Frías, became an open critic of the p a rtially integrated into elite culture by the 1430s. role of the Sabbat, the original confessions, and the During the Reformation, these views were seen as proof entire proceedings. A year after the auto de fe, he trav- for the existence of a diabolical, heretical sect of witches eled through the region, persuading hundreds to retract by all confessions. Through publication, preaching, and their confessions. He sent confessed witches to the loca- trials, such concepts permeated the consciousness of tions of their Sabbats in order to show how inconsistent people at all levels of society in different ways. W h e n their testimonies were. He even conducted experiments adolescents and even children confessed to attending with witches’ ointments and powders, which showe d Sabbats and gave full accounts of their experiences, them to be harmless. No more witches we re ever exe c u t e d such views were confirmed, and the efforts to extermi- by the Spanish Inquisition. nate witches were justified. In France, Eu ro p e’s most prestigious court, the Parlementof Paris, tried around 1,250 people for witch- JONATHAN L. PEARL craft in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and See also:BAMBERG;BASQUECOUNTRY;BENEVENTO,WALNUTTREE executed just over 100 of them. While three-quarters of OF;BLÅKULLA;BODIN,JEAN;CANONEPISCOPI;CONFESSIONS; them we re charged with attending Sabbats, they we re DELRIO,MARTÍN;DEMONOLOGY;DEVIL;ERRORESGAZARIORUM; also found guilty of other crimes of witchcraft. Only 7 FERTILITYCULTS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;FOLKLORE;GERMANY; we re convicted and executed solely for attendance at GOAT;INQUISITION,SPANISH;JUNIUS,JOHANNES;LANCRE, Sabbats. PIERREDE;NIDER,JOHANNES;OINTMENTS;POPULARBELIEFSIN Many large-scale trials took place in Germany, based WITCHES;RÉMY,NICOLAS;SALAZARFRÍAS,ALONZODE;STICKS; on denunciations of so-called accomplices seen at THOLOSAN,CLAUDE;TRIALS;WÜRZBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF. References and further reading: Sabbats. Lists of such accomplices have been preserved Del Rio, Ma rtín. 1611. Les controverses et re c h e rches magiques de from several major German witch hunts, dating back to Ma rtin De l r i o.Paris. This volume is a French translation of De l Trier in the 1580s. In Bamberg and W ü rzburg, both R i o’s Disquisitiones Magicae. T h e re is also an abridged En g l i s h prince-bishoprics, intense witchcraft persecutions took translation: Ma x we l l - St u a rt, P. G., ed. 2000. Ma rtín Del Rio, place in several episodes between 1590 and 1630 in In vestigations into Ma g i c .Manchester: Manchester Un i versity Pre s s . Sabbat 991

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.992 Application File Ginzburg, Carlo. 1991. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. met the Devil in person, bound oneself body and soul Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. NewYork: Random House. to him, and demonstrated contempt for Christianity by Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque desecrating crucifixes and other sacramental objects. Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition. Reno: University of Like earlier heretics (and like Jews), desecrating witches Nevada Press. unleashed normally imperceptible sacramental effects, Jacques-Chaquin, Nicole, and Maxime Préaud, eds.1993.Le thus unwittingly demonstrating sacramental reality. Sabbat des sorciers en Europe, XVe–XVIIe siècle: Colloque interna- Most significantly, witches were forced to confess tor- tional E.N.S. Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, 4–7 novembre 1992. turing the Eucharist until it bled or otherwise con- Grenoble: Millon. Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Witchcraft in Europe, firmed transubstantiation, the sacramental doctrine 400–1700: A Documentary History.2nd ed.Revised by Edward whose lack of universal acceptance caused some of the Peters. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. most persistent controversies and around which the Lancre, Pierre de. 1612. Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges largest cluster of superstitions developed. et demons.Paris. The detrimental effects of m a l e fic i u m (harmful mag- Roper, Lyndal. 2004. Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque ic) we re theorized as equal and opposite to the benefic i a l Germany.New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press. e f f e c t — l i t e r a l l y, b e n e fic i u m—of sacraments and sacra- mentals. Indeed, m a l e ficium depended on the inve r s i o n Sacraments and Sacramentals and perversion of literal sacramental energies. Wi t c h e s Writers on witchcraft inherited long-standing debates we re forced to confess that, by desecrating a holy object over the nature and efficacy of Catholic sacraments and (a cross, a consecrated Host, and so forth), they re g u l a r- sacramentals. Me d i e val Catholic theology defin e d ly caused a devil to appear corpore a l l y. Confessions also sacraments as signs that perform the same acts of divine c o n firmed that witches desecrated sacramental materi- grace they signify.There are seven sacraments: baptism, als, especially the Eucharist and chrism oil, in order to c o n firmation, Eucharist, penance (sacramental p re p a re charms and other malefic paraphernalia. confession), extreme unction, orders (ordination), and C o n ve r s e l y, making the sign of the cross, intentionally matrimony. Baptism, confirmation, and orders stamp or not, made devils vanish; demons transporting witches the soul with a “character,” an indelible signum spiri- t h rough the air instantly dropped and injured anyo n e tuale (spiritual sign), and therefore must be received who inadve rtently crossed themselves. Pronouncing the only one time. Sacramentals are less momentous rituals name of God, Christ, or Ma ry had the same effect. that have an aura of the sacred: such as the sign of the Thus, to demonstrate the reality of witchcraft was to cross; use of holy water; and various blessed objects defend sacramental efficacy and re a l i t y. such as salt, palm leaves, wax, and bread. Sacramentals In the Fo rm i c a r i u s (The Anthill, 1437–1438), and emergency baptisms can be performed by any Johannes Nider reshaped vivid stories reputedly told by layperson; the remaining sacraments are to be perf o r m e d a secular judge, Peter of Bern, and others about the only by priests. opposition between witchcraft and sacraments. Ni d e r The Council of Fl o rence declared polemically (in was particularly concerned to demonstrate the reality of 1439) that sacraments “cause grace”; they “c o n t a i n” it transubstantiation, baptism, and making the sign of the and “c o n f e r” it on those who re c e i ve them “w o rt h i l y. ” c ross. He generalized from these anecdotes, declaring The Council of Trent (1547) reiterated these doctrines, that witches confessed being unable to ove rcome pro p- anathematizing definitions of sacraments as metaphors erly observed sacramental protections. He pre s e n t e d or mere ceremonies (Denzinger 1976, 333, 382). Fo rm i c a r i u sas a demonstration that, contrary to appear- Conciliar decrees re flected centuries-long clashes ove r ances, God had not ceased to look after modern sacramental reality between Church authorities and Christians. Ni d e r’s opposition of m a l e fic i u m to sacre d h e retical movements. The debates we re part i c u l a r l y rituals inspired further re finements: Ma l l e u s fierce in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, from the Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486) claimed Hussite movements in Bohemia to the Re f o r m a t i o n that devils always re q u i red witches to make their witch- and Counter-Reformation. craft materials from profaned sacraments and explicitly p roposed sacraments as “re m e d i e s” for witchcraft. Later Witchcraft, Sacraments, and Heresy Catholic writers, for example, Ba rtolomeo della Spina or The earliest witchcraft texts re flected anxiety ove r Francesco Maria Gu a z zo, perpetuated the opposition. challenges to sacramental efficacy in several ways. Be f o re and after the Reformation, Catholic docu- Witchcraft was defined as heresy; the behavior of ments showed witches inadve rtently demonstrating fifteenth-century witches, more often imagined rather sacramental efficacy. Ironically, Protestant writers, who than real, reflected accusations against earlier heretics. opposed various Catholic sacraments, helped perpetu- Initiation into witchcraft was imagined according to ate the connection between witchcraft and sacraments. heresiological stereotypes, some predating the twelfth Ma rtin Luther and his followers reduced the seve n century: One joined a “sect,” renounced Christianity, sacraments to only two, both based on clear New 992 Sacraments and Sacramentals

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.993 Application File Testament texts; the two they kept, baptism and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. The last Eucharist, we re precisely those that witches most showed birds singing under the direction of an ape and commonly defiled. This change re d e fined Pro t e s t a n t s’ a group of rats warming their forepaws in front of a belief in the overall sacramental system but did nothing hearth. That vignette of enchanted animals (or perhaps to reduce their horror of witches, who desecrated both devils in disguise) warming their paws was lifted dire c t l y of the “re a l” sacraments. Meanwhile, Pro t e s t a n t by Saftleven from a print by Brueghel, St. James and the polemics argued that the other “p a p i s t” sacraments, Magician Hermogenes.Another concert of hellish cats is lacking foundations in Scripture, we re themselve s included in a painting, the Temptations of St. An t h o n y heinous forms of witchcraft, “e xc re m e n t s” overseen by by Saftleven (its present whereabouts are unknown). Satan rather than God. The efficacy of most Catholic In some of Sa f t l e ve n’s works, the theme was unam- sacraments could thus be dismissed as either illusory or biguously witchcraft. These works closely imitated demonic. paintings by Teniers and his follower David Ryc k a e rt III. For example, a Sa f t l e ven painting entitled Wi t c h e s WALTER STEPHENS Sabbat, or, alternatively, AWitch Entering Hell (owned See also:HERESY;LUTHER,MARTIN;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM; by the Chicago Art Institute), showed a witch riding NIDER,JOHANNES;PETEROFBERN;PROTESTANTREFORMATION; into the mouth of hell on the back of a demon-goat. ROMANCATHOLICCHURCH;SUPERSTITION;WATER,HOLY. She was certainly a witch because she carried that most References and further reading: obvious item of witchcraft iconography, her broom. As Denzinger, Heinrich. 1976. Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum she rode into hell, the witch caused a large number of et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum.Revised by Adolfus anthropomorphic and zoomorphic devils to flee before Schönmetzer. 37th ed. Barcelona, Freiburg, and Rome: Herder. her.These devils were clearly derived from similar dev- Stephens, Walter. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief.Chicago and London: University of Chicago ils byTeniers; in fact, the scene is almost identical to a Press. Teniers drawing entitled Witch Entering He l l . A n o t h e r Sa f t l e ven witchcraft painting, Binding the Devil to a Saftleven, Cornelis (1607–1681) Cu s h i o n ( p resent whereabouts unknown), showe d This Dutch painter was one of the few witches tying down a zoomorphic devil. This painting seventeenth-century artists to depict occult themes. was probably based on The Witch, a work by Te n i e r s Sa f t l e ven was born in Gorinchem (Go rkum) into a fam- that is in the Munich Alte Pinakothek, and without i l yof artists; in fact, his brother Herman, a well-known question, it was ultimately derived from the scene of landscapist, is better remembered today than Cornelis. witches tying down devils in Brueghel’s Dulle Griet or Cornelis Saftleven is generally considered a painter of from a vignette in his famous painting Flemish Proverbs. peasant genres in the tradition of such artists as Pieter Not coincidentally,Teniers also painted a work with the Brueghel the Elder and two of his contemporaries, same title. David Ryckaert III and David Teniers the Younger. Comparing Cornelis Saftleven’s paintings and draw- Saftleven’s work was closely tied to that of Teniers, ings of witchcraft and other occult scenes with those of although he may also have collaborated with Peter Paul other seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Dutch and Flemish art i s t s , Rubens. we find that Sa f t l e ve n’s treatment of witchcraft was Ap p roximately seventy of Sa f t l e ve n’s paintings and quite typical, with no distinctive iconography or drawings contained subjects such as scenes of hell and unusual specific themes. Witches and devils went about devils, the temptations of St. Anthony, enchanted ani- their activities in a generally matter-of-fact manner. mals, and witches. These themes also re flected the Apart from utilizing the folkloric saying of a woman so influences of the Brueghel family and Teniers. Many of mean that “she could tie a devil to a pillow,” Saftleven Cornelis Sa f t l e ve n’s occult works depicted animals adhered to the standard artistic practice of his day and d ressed in clothing and engaged in human activities. showed his witches and devils as the demonologists said Some of these paintings and drawings may be interpret- they existed and behaved. What made Saftleven unusu- ed as showing witchcraft. His concerts of cats and birds al was the large number of themes of the demonic and we re quite similar to works by Teniers and his art i s t i c of witchcraft that appeared in his output. His animal entourage. In most cases, they were probably singeries, a l l e g o ry paintings we re doubtless taken as humor allegories in which animals mimic or make fun of during the seventeenth century, but they may also be h u m a n i t y. But such motifs may also show transmuted i n t e r p reted as far more sinister views of witches trans- witches, devils disguised as animals, or even enchanted muted or animals enchanted. Such double meanings domestic animals. Examples of such works by Saftleven were certainly understood by Saftleven’s audience, and included two drawings from the Rijksprentenkabinet in again, Brueghel, Teniers, and others also made use of A m s t e rdam, entitled Bi rd’s Concert and Ca t’s Concert , the double meaning of animal allegory that did, at and a beautiful chalk, wash, and watercolor drawing, times, represent witches and devils. entitled An Enchanted Cellar with Animals, now in the JANE P. DAVIDSON Saftleven, Cornelis 993

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.994 Application File See also:ANIMALS;ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BRUEGHEL,PIETERTHE A Spanish historian characterized Salazar as a good ELDER;CATS;METAMORPHOSIS;TENIERS,DAVIDTHEYOUNGER. negotiator with the tact and flexibility to get matters on References and further reading: the proper course; a man with great diplomatic talents; Davidson, Jane P. 1987. The Witch in Northern European Art, and an experienced lawyer who never gave up, even if 1470–1750.Freren, Germany: Luca. he encountered opposition from the highest authori- Schulz, Wolfgang. 1978. Cornelis Saftleven Leben und Werk.Berlin ties, but who also only undertook causes he considered and NewYork: de Gruyter. just. He attached great importance to written evidence, Smith, P. G. 1979. Catalog of an Exhibition of Dutch Drawings which sometimes prompted him to hunt through the from a Collection.Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Art Gallery. a rc h i ves; his love of these sources often resulted in a superabundance of documentation where less would Salazar Frías, Alonso de have sufficed. In addition, he had perspicuity, concen- (1564–1636) tration, and a formidable capacity for work: “W h e n Salazar was a Spanish inquisitor who ave rted a mass Alonso de Salazar took on a case . . . he spared no effort killing of Basque witches and who was also dire c t l y and left no loose ends. From that moment on he lived responsible for the new instructions of August 29, 1614, in a state of permanent preparedness to obtain the best that led to the defin i t i ve cessation of witch burnings possible result” (Coronas 1981, 19). under the Spanish Inquisition. He was born at Bu r g o s , Se veral times, the Holy See, under both Po p e w h e re his father was a lawye r, and belonged to an influ- Clement II and Pope Paul V, recommended him for a ential family of civil servants and pro s p e rous merc h a n t s . post as inquisitor. But he did not assume that position At age fifteen, Salazar matriculated at the Un i versity of until his patron, Sa n d oval y Rojas, became In q u i s i t o r Salamanca, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in General in 1608. Salazar was the first inquisitor he canon law after five years. In 1588, he took holy ord e r s , appointed, being assigned to the vacant post at Logroño becoming a stipendiary (ra c i o n e ro) at the cathedral of on March 23, 1609. When Salazar took up his position Jaén in Andalusia. Its bishop, Francisco Sarmiento de t h ree months later, the trial of the witches of Mendoza, had been a professor of canon law at the Zu g a r r a m u rdi was in full swing, and as the junior Un i versity of Salamanca and a judge of the High Court inquisitor, he at first relied completely on his two older of Valladolid; for Sa l a z a r, he was an excellent mentor. By colleagues. He spoke up only in June 1610, when they late summer of 1588, Salazar took his licentiate degre e we re voting on the cases of two clerical “w i t c h e s” and in canon law at the Un i versity of Si g ü e n z a . six other negativos,or “deniers” (those who pleaded not A meteoric career began for the twenty-four-year-old guilty). His colleagues and their assessors agreed to licentiate. The bishop made him his re p re s e n t a t i ve on sentence them all to the stake because of the ove r- visitations; in that capacity, Salazar traveled thro u g h- whelming evidence against them. But after criticizing out the diocese of Jaén, so that, as his autobiography the evidence, Salazar alone voted that they should all be says, there was no “c h u rch or font” he had not visited. interrogated under torture, which was their only chance At the age of twenty-six, he obtained a position as of surv i val. Already on this occasion, Salazar came up canon with a lifelong benefice of 1,500 d u c a d o sa ye a r, with the important observation that all of the confess- a high income considering that an inquisitor earned ing witches had been unable to tell whether they had b a rely half as much. Ap p a re n t l y, Salazar also served as gone to the Sabbat in dreams or in reality (c o p o ra l- a judge (p rov i s o r) at the bishop’s court. When Bi s h o p m e n t e). If they could be mistaken on such a material Sarmiento died in 1594, it emerged that he had also point, Salazar continued, they could also be in erro r made the young canon his exe c u t o r. In the same ye a r, re g a rding those they named as their accomplices the cathedral chapter sent Salazar to defend the inter- (Henningsen 1980, 178–180). ests of the diocese in a lawsuit with the archbishop of The next ye a r, on an eight-month journey thro u g h Granada involving tithes. Salazar won the case in two the Basque Country with the Edict of Grace for the and a half years, during which time he also re p re s e n t- witches’ sect, Salazar fully confirmed his misgivings: “I ed Jaén at a synod in Madrid. After 1597, he spent h a ve not found a single pro o f, not even the slightest most of his time in Madrid, re p resenting the new indication, from which to infer that an act of witchcraft bishop of Jaén, Be r n a rdo de Sa n d oval y Rojas, in a has actually taken place” (quoted in Henningsen 2004, succession of suits concerning the re venues of the dio- 340), he wrote afterward in his report to the Inquisitor cese, all of which he won. In 1599, when Do n General. In his explanation of the genesis of the witch Be r n a rdo was promoted to archbishop of Toledo, one panic, Salazar can almost be said to have anticipated of the most powe rful offices in the country, he made modern communication theory: “The only basis for Salazar his private lawye r, and by 1600, he had him this rumor-mongering appears to be the punishment of elected attorney general for the Castilian church. In witches at the auto de fe celebrated in Logroño, the this new post, Salazar met Crown ministers and the Edict of Grace and the fact that an Inquisitor has set papal nuncio. out to visit so many places. All of which appare n t l y 994 Salazar Frías, Alonso de

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.995 Application File p rovides a reason for eve rything to be immediately insidethe Sabbat. But the man told him that “although thought of as witchcraft. This grows at every telling and both partners saw each other in the crowd, they never today in fact there is no fainting-fit, illness, death or spoke to one another, nor exchanged a single word accident that is not attributed to witches” (quoted in about their illicit relationship” (quoted in Henningsen Henningsen 2004, 336). 2004, 282). During the questioning, Salazar operated Alongside the almost 2,000 cases he dealt with in with four pairs of oppositions, each including an connection with the witch amnesty, Salazar also found empirically verifiable element: time for some empirical investigations enjoined on him Inside (allá dentro) Outside (acá fuera) by the Su p re m a (the supreme council of the Invisible (invisible) Visible (visible) Inquisition). Everywhere he went, he tried to check the Fictive (fingido) Real (real) w i t c h e s’ confessions against statements from people Sleeping (durmiendo) Awake (despierto) who were not themselves witches. In Fuenterrabía, for example, he questioned the family of Catalina de Using his almost wholly modern anthro p o l o g i c a l Echeverría, an elderly woman who had said, during her method, Salazar could deal with the confessions of the confession at Logroño, that when she became a witch, witches in purely phenomenological terms, unaffected by the Devil re m oved three toes from her left foot. Ye t p re c o n c e i ved opinions about what the Devil and the people from her house declared that she had lacked witches we re capable or incapable of. During his subse- those toes since infancy (Henningsen 2004, 300). In quent debate with his colleagues, Salazar formulated a the process, Salazar also carried out two series of scien- number of basic rules for evaluating testimony in witch- tific experiments. The first series concerned the witches’ craft and criminal cases as a whole: “It is not ve ry helpful meeting places and was conducted in nine differe n t to keep asserting that the Devil is capable of doing this or villages; in each, four subjects were selected from those t h a t . . . . The real question is: are we to believe that who had made confessions of witchcraft in connection witchcraft occurred in a given situation simply because of with the witch amnesty.These individuals were secretly what the witches claim? It is clear that the witches are not taken out to the place where they said the witch meet- to be believed and that judges should not pass sentence ings had been held. There, they were asked to point out on anyone, unless the case can be proven by external and the place more specifically and to show where the o b j e c t i ve evidence sufficient to convince eve ryone who De v i l’s throne had stood; where the witches’ cauldro n hears it” (quoted in Henningsen 1980, 350). had been placed; and where they had eaten, danced, That Salazar sometimes offered re flections on the and done other activities. Afterw a rd, the re p o rts with De v i l’s capabilities does not necessarily mean that he the replies were compared. The information matched in believed in demonology. His demonological arguments two of the nine experiments, but Salazar claimed that in must be viewed as superfluous rhetoric, for they can both cases, information had leaked, so the subjects ve ry easily be re m oved from the account without the could have agreed in advance what to say. In the rest of arguments falling apart. This factor is exactly what the experiments, the subjects contradicted one another. distinguished Salazar from Johann We ye r, Fr i e d r i c h A second series of experiments concerned the witch Spee, and other famous “witches’ advocates,” in whose p owders and flying ointments that had been re ve a l e d . discourse demonology is integrated in a quite different The contents of twenty-two jars of these substances way. On the whole, demonology seems to have interest- we re examined by physicians and apothecaries, tested ed Salazar ve ry little. He did not quote a single on animals, and, indeed, ingested by an elderly woman. authority, and in the catalog of his library of over 800 The contents turned out to be quite harmless, and titles, the genre is represented by only 10 works. when Salazar pressed the owners of the substances, the Salazar proposed one of his most original ideas in the witch ointments proved in every case to be something discussion of the judges’ evaluation of the evidence, that the supposed witch had concocted to satisfy the w h e re he argued for a kind of value-nihilism. He persecutors (Henningsen 1980, 295–298). claimed that we have no objective method of assessing However, most of the witches’ activities were said to the credibility of people who confess (confitentes,as the h a ve taken place in a dream world to which only the Inquisition called them): “In order to re s o l ve the witches themselves had access and about which one contradictions which emerge from the confessions, my could only get information through them. To solve this colleagues divide the defendants into three categories: problem, Salazar concentrated on the witch stories that good, bad, and indifferent c o n fit e n t e s . Howe ve r, we had a double aspect, referring to things in both this and h a ve no method or rule which allows us to eva l u a t e the other world. For example, a seve n t y - year-old man each confession other than the arbitrary one that they confessed that o u t s i d e the Sabbat world, he lived “in have used and refer to in their paper.Thus the name of sin” with a woman who was also a witch and that they bad c o n fit e n t e is given to someone whom another both went to the same Sabbat. After listening to him, [judge] might call good, and vice ve r s a” (quoted in Salazar asked whether they also met and spoke together Henningsen 1980, 436). Salazar Frías, Alonso de 995

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.996 Application File In 1618, Salazar was transferred to the Inquisition of plead; over 100 people were awaiting trial in prison. Murcia and the next year to the Valencia tribunal, but (For a list of those formally accused, where they lived, in 1622, he was back as senior inquisitor in Logro ñ o. and the court’s verdicts, see Godbeer 1992, 238–242.) His service as a “t ro u b l e s h o o t e r” at various tribunals The core group of accusers consisted of girls and ended in 1628, when he became fis c a l ( p rosecutor) in young women from godly households in Salem village the Inquisition’s supreme council, of which he became a who had begun to suffer strange fits in the opening full member in 1631. His reports, with their philosoph- weeks of that ye a r. Se veral of the girls had appare n t l y ically interesting analysis of the whole foundation of the been experimenting in secret with divination. One of belief in witchcraft, we re buried in the arc h i ves of the them, for instance, suspended the white of an egg in a Holy Office until they were retrieved by the American glass of water “to find her future husband’s historian Henry Charles Lea (4: 225–237). calling”(Godbeer 1992, 34); when she looked into the glass, she saw the image of a coffin. We will never know GUSTAV HENNINGSEN; exactly what prompted the girls’ subsequent fits, but it TRANSLATED BY JAMES MANLEY is likely that fear and guilt relating to their illicit experiments we re contributing factors. One of them See also:BASQUECOUNTRY;DEMONOLOGY;INQUISITION,SPANISH; LEE,HENRYCHARLES;OINTMENTS;SABBAT;SPAIN;WEYER, was the daughter of the minister Samuel Parris; another JOHANN;ZUGARRAMURDI,WITCHESOF. was his niece. When Parris called in a local physician to References and further reading: examine them, the doctor concluded that they we re Barrio Moya, José Luis. 1987. “El inquisidor Alonso de Salazar y b ewitched. At first, Parris responded by imposing a Frías: El inventario de sus bienes.” Boletín de la Real Academia regimen of prayer and fasting. But in late February, he de la Historia184: 139–172. changed his strategy and pre s s u red the two girls to Caro Baroja, Julio. 1969. “De nuevo sobre la historia de la brujería name their tormentors, encouraging the parents of oth- (1609–1619).” Príncipe de Viana30: 265–328. er afflicted children to do likewise. They named thre e Coronas, Luis. 1981. Unos años en la vida y reflejos de la personali- women, including the pastor’s Indian slave Tituba. dad del “Inquisidor de las Brujas.”Jaén: Instituto de Estudios Tituba has fig u red prominently in the evo l v i n g Giennenses. mythology that surrounds the Salem witch hunt, Henningsen, Gustav. 1969. “The Papers of Alonzo de Salazar Frías: A Spanish Witchcraft Polemic, 1610–14.” Temenos5: though reliable information about her is sparse. Pa r r i s 85–106. had purchased Tituba in the West Indies and taken her ———.1978. “Alonso de Salazar Frías: Ese famoso inquisidor with him to Massachusetts. The minister’s slave had a desconosido.” Pp. 581–586 in Homenaje a Julio Caro Baroja. reputation for occult skill and was commissioned by the Edited by Antonio Carreira, Jesús Antonio Cid, Manuel aunt of one of the afflicted girls to identify the witch Gutiérrez, and Rogelio Rubio. Madrid: Centro de responsible for causing the affliction through the use of Investigaciones Sociológicas. countermagic. Tituba baked a cake that contained the ———.1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the girl’s urine and then fed it to a dog. Parris was furious Spanish Inquisition.Reno: University of Nevada Press. when he found out about the episode, and it is hardly ———, ed. 2004. The Salazar Documents: Alonso de Salazar Frías surprising that Tituba fig u red among the first thre e and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution.Leiden and Boston: witches named by his daughter and niece. So m e Brill. Lee, Henry Charles. 1906–1907. A History of the Inquisition of accounts hold Tituba responsible for teaching divina- Spain.4 vols. NewYork and London: Macmillan. tion techniques to the girls, though no shred of Lisón Tolosana, Carmelo. 1992. Las brujas en la historia de España. evidence supports that contention. She and her Madrid: Ediciones Temas de Hoy. husband, John, we re described by contemporaries as Indian, yet later accounts made Tituba into an African Salem woman and a convenient scapegoat for the ensuing In 1692, a witch panic, the largest and by far the most disasters. famous in U.S. history, gripped Essex County, Once local magistrates issued arrest warrants for the Massachusetts. It began in Salem Village, a farming t h ree named women, other villagers began to come community of just over 200 adults, but then spread f o rw a rd with additional accusations, and before long, rapidly throughout the region. During that year, formal allegations spread to nearby communities. By the time charges of witchcraft were brought against more than the new governor of Massachusetts, William Ph i p s , 150 people, while many others were named informally. appointed a special court to deal with the crisis in Over half of those indicted lived in Salem village or in m i d-Ma y, almost fifty people had been charged. Mo s t nearby Andover, but overall, there were women and previous witchcraft trials in New England had targeted men from twenty-four towns and villages. By early one or, at most, a few individuals, so the scale of the October 1692, when court proceedings were halted 1692 witch hunt was utterly anomalous. Many histori- amid acrimonious controversy, 19 people had been ans have pondered and recounted the events of that hanged and one man had been killed for refusing to ye a r, offering explanations that range from cynical 996 Salem

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.997 Application File manipulation and conspiracy to collective food poison- was Scottish and had married a Welshman, and Martha ing. The colony’s unusual political situation in early Corey had an illegitimate son of mixed race. 1692 doubtless abetted the spread of the panic. During the decades prior to the witch hunt, the Massachusetts had lacked a legally established gove r n- village of Salem had become bitterly divided around a ment since the fall of the authoritarian regime headed series of issues that paralleled crises in the region at by Edmund Andros in 1689; until Phips arrived in May large. The rural settlement that became known as Salem 1692, the authorities could only imprison suspects Village had no civil government of its own; it was without trial, so allegations proliferated without any legally joined with and subordinate to Salem Tow n . possibility of swift resolution. But recent scholarship Salem Town needed the food that Salem villagers pro- has suggested that the origins of the witch hunt lay duced, and it benefited from the taxes that they paid. embedded in the preceding decades. Salem Village itself But some villagers wanted independence from the and the region as a whole had been afflicted by a series town, in part because the latter had proven remarkably of crises that fostered witch hysteria. From a modern insensitive to their concerns. The town government was p e r s p e c t i ve, these events seem unconnected to witchcraft, slow to relieve villagers from having to provide men for but that was not so in the minds of seve n t e e n t h-c e n t u ry the Salem Town night watch, even though some of the New Englanders. villagers lived up to 10 miles away from the town cen- Recent threats to the New England colonies had cre- ter; it was also reluctant to let the villagers form a ated an intense sense of danger among settlers in the church congregation of their own, despite the inconve- region. Colonists felt imperiled by Na t i ve American nience of having to travel so far to the town meeting- attacks between 1675 and 1676 and from 1689 to house. Those who lived closest to the town tended to 1691; by political reforms, imposed during the 1680s feel less aggrieved by these issues and became incre a s- by the government in London, that threatened to ingly alienated from villagers further west, who in turn undermine the colonists’ independence; by the increas- resented their lack of support. ing visibility of religious dissenters; by recent Qu a k e r Some villagers also wanted to separate themselve s evangelism; and finally, by news of the imposition of a f rom the commercial spirit that increasingly character- new charter in 1691 giving freedom of worship and the i zed the town, which was a flourishing seaport. Vi l l a g e r s vote to previously disfranchised groups such as Quakers who saw that way of life as spiritually suspect tended to and Anglicans. New Englanders described these threats d i s t rust neighbors who lived nearer to or associated with in much the same language used to characterize witch- the tow n’s interests. Factional division was shaped by craft: as alien, inva s i ve, and malevolent forces. Ho s t i l e disparate economic opportunity as well as by cultural residents characterized British imperial officials as “tools values. Those farmers who lived closest to the town had of the Ad ve r s a ry,” and one of them was eve n land of a higher quality, enjoyed easier access to its mar- denounced as a “De v i l” (Godbeer 1992, 187). Ma n y kets, and tended to see the tow n’s development as an colonists believed, furthermore, that Indians were devil o p p o rtunity; those living farther west had poorer land, worshippers and that Quakers who claimed to access we re less able to take advantage of the tow n’s grow t h , divine truth through inner re velation we re actually and tended to resent those who could do so. possessed by Satan. To be attacked by Indians or Salem Village had become increasingly divided, as evangelized by Quakers was thus practically equivalent those who associated with the town aligned against to being assaulted by Satan. those who we re eager to separate and form an The afflictions in Salem Village unleashed the fears autonomous community. Because the village had no of alien, inva s i ve, and diabolical forces that had accu- formal institutions of its own, it proved extremely dif- mulated during the preceding years. The crisis of 1692 ficult to re s o l ve the disputes that arose between these struck some contemporaries as the climax of a devilish two groups, so animosities and mutual suspicions assault upon the region. Those who could be linked in deepened with each passing ye a r. Proponents of some way to these recent experiences of invasion proved separation from the town eventually secured the estab- vulnerable to allegations of witchcraft. A signific a n t lishment of an independent church in 1689 and the number of the accused had close Quaker associations; o rdination of Samuel Parris as their pastor. He was, Samuel Wa rd well, for example, had Quaker re l a t i ve s . h owe ve r, an unfortunate choice: A failed and bitter Se veral suspects we re linked to Indians: One of Jo h n m e rchant who resented those who succeeded in the Alden’s accusers claimed that he had sold gunpowder to world of commerce, he fueled local hostilities. Pa r r i s Native Americans and had been sexually involved with g a ve a series of infla m m a t o ry sermons that translated Indian women. Tituba was marked by her race as well factional division into a cosmic struggle between the as her reputation for occult skill. Many of the accused f o rces of good and evil. In the minds of his support e r s , we re clearly perc e i ved as outsiders, either literally or Salem Town became the symbol of an alien, corru p t , figuratively. Eight of the Andover suspects were margin- and even diabolical world that threatened the we l f a re alized by ethnic affiliation: Martha Carrier, for instance, of Salem Vi l l a g e . Salem 997

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.998 Application File The Trial of George Jacobs, August 5, 1692,by T. H. Matteson, 1855. (Bettmann/Corbis) Divisions within the village we re re p roduced in the To deal with the emergency, the newly arrived gover- pattern of accusations in 1692: Most accused witches nor, Sir William Phips, formed the Court of Oyer and and their defenders lived on the side of the village near- Terminer (to hear and determine). The court proceeded est to Salem Town, whereas most of the accusers lived immediately with its work, holding its first session in on the western side. Many of the accused had personal Salem Town on June 2. Its chief justice was the lieu- histories or interests that either associated them with tenant governor,William Stoughton, who soon showed Salem Town or otherwise marked them as threatening himself to be a fanatical witch hunter; on the first occa- outsiders. Su p p o rters of Samuel Parris perc e i ved their sion that a Salem jury proposed to acquit an accused enemies as evil, so it was but a short step for them to witch, Stoughton sent the jurors back for furt h e r become convinced that those aligned with the tow n deliberation. Meanwhile, the most scrupulous member and its interests we re servants of Satan. Though the of the special court, Nathaniel Saltonstall, resigned after afflicted girls were more than likely influenced by adults its first death sentence was carried out on June 10. to name particular individuals, this was not a cynical Magistrates presiding over previous witchcraft trials attempt to dispose of enemies by labeling them as had been faced with testimony against defendants that witches: Villagers pointed the finger of accusation at was often impre s s i ve in quantity and yet legally pro b- particular individuals because they truly believed them lematic. New En g l a n d’s witchcraft laws demanded to be morally deficient and thus likely members of a p roof of the De v i l’s invo l vement. Because most diabolical conspiracy. In Salem Village and in the coun- depositions focused on m a l e fic i a , the practical harm ty as a whole, those people who had become identified allegedly inflicted by witches, but rarely mentioned the with forces that seemed disorderly and immoral fell Devil, an ove rwhelming majority of accused witches victim to accusations of witchcraft as the initial were acquitted, much to the dismay of those who had afflictions in the village ignited a witch panic. g i ven incriminating evidence. At first, it seemed that 998 Salem

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.999 Application File such problems would not thwart the proceedings at or looked at them might also be a trick brought about Salem. Over fifty of the accused in 1692 confessed, by the Devil rather than a genuine sign of guilt. Because describing in graphic detail their initiation into the the Devil was a liar, critics warned, evidence that origi- Devil’s service and often naming other individuals who nated with him could not be trusted. These critics cast had allegedly joined the satanic confederacy. T h e s e doubt upon the spectral testimony presented to the confessions lent a horrifying credence to the accusations c o u rt, not because they questioned the existence of that were pouring in from communities throughout the witchcraft but because they held that the Devil was suf- c o u n t y. The evidence given by witnesses against the ficiently malignant to use the court in order to attack accused contained, more ove r, countless re f e rences to innocent parties. In other words, their very belief in the the Devil and his involvement with the alleged witches; De v i l’s hatred of New Englanders made them doubt these also facilitated conviction. The first condemned such evidence. witch, Bridget Bishop (whose basement contained Once spectral testimony and the confessions came “poppets,” or Voodoo dolls), was executed on June 10. under attack, the court found itself in an extremely diffi- Fi ve more followed in July (Sarah Good, El i z a b e t h cult position. T h e re we re many depositions against the How, Susannah Ma rtin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sa r a h accused from witnesses other than the afflicted girls, but Wilds); another five we re sent to the hanging tree in h a rdly any of that testimony included re f e rences to dia- August (George Bu r roughs, Ma rtha Carrier, Ge o r g e bolical invo l vement such as the law demanded. In early Jacobs, John Proctor, and John Willard); and eight were Oc t o b e r, Governor Phips halted the trials. That accusers e xecuted that September (Ma rtha Core y, Ma ry Easty, we re now naming individuals from prominent families, Alice Pa rk e r, Ma ry Pa rk e r, Ann Pu d e a t o r, Wi l m o t including the gove r n o r’s own wife, doubtless fig u red in Reed, Margaret Scott, and Samuel Wardwell). his decision. But the collapse of the trials was due pri- By the end of summer, however, a growing number marily to controversy over the evidence being used to of critics were casting doubt upon the court’s proceed- justify conviction. The struggle to clear the names of ings. Many of the confessing witches had re c a n t e d , those already convicted would last many ye a r s . claiming that their confessions had been forced fro m By no means did all residents of Essex County support them by overly zealous officials through the use of the gove r n o r’s decision to halt the trials, and his lieutenant physical tort u re and psychological pre s s u re. Some of g ove r n o r, Stoughton, was furious. His allies, like those those recanting re vealed they had confessed because infuriated by the acquittal of witches in earlier years, did they had been promised that those who admitted their not agree that the evidence presented in the special court guilt, renounced their allegiance to Satan, and then was inadequate. Even those opposed to the court’s cooperated with the authorities would be spared fro m p roceedings we re motivated not by skepticism about the execution. In a ghastly irony (which exactly parallels the existence of witchcraft but by their commitment to legal judgments in 1610 at the most infamous witchcraft r i g o r. Critics of the court came close to questioning panic ever investigated by the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n ) , whether an invisible crime was amenable to legal pro s e c u- only those who refused to perjure themselves by tion. But they carefully avoided engaging directly with confessing to crimes that they had not committed went that issue, which was, after all, deeply disturbing to people to their deaths. convinced of the threats posed by witchcraft. Other than confessions, almost all of the testimony that described the De v i l’s invo l vement in the alleged RICHARD GODBEER witch conspiracy came from the afflicted girls whose See also:CONFESSIONS;DEVIL;DIVINATION;EVIDENCE;MATHER, torments had sparked the witch hunt. Most of the INCREASE;MILLER,ARTHUR;NEWENGLAND;PANICS;QUAKERS; information they provided in their numerous deposi- SPECTRALEVIDENCE. tions supposedly came from the specters of witches that References and further reading: had appeared to them. Puritan theologians taught that Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum. 1972. Salem-Village human beings could not themselves turn into or Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial p roduce specters; instead, devils assumed their form New England.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. and acted on their behalf. St o u g h t o n’s court assumed ———. 1974. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. that devils could appear in the image of a part i c u l a r Cambridge: Harvard University Press. individual only with that person’s permission, so the ———. 1977. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692.3 appearance of a specter could be treated as proof that vols. NewYork: Da Capo. the individual represented was, in fact, a witch. Breslaw, Elaine G. 1996. Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Yet a growing chorus of ministers and magistrates, Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies.NewYork: NewYork headed by In c rease Ma t h e r, warned that Satan might University Press. re p resent innocent persons in spectral form so as to Godbeer, Richard.1992. The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and incriminate them. That the girls suffered terrible ago- Religion in Early New England.NewYork: Cambridge nies in the courtroom whenever accused witches moved University Press. Salem 999

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1000 Application File ———. 1995. “Chaste and Unchaste Covenants: Witchcraft and Howe ve r, the successful 1675 prosecution of a Sex in Early Modern Culture.” Pp. 53–72 in Wonders of the vagrant knacker named Barbara Koller caused a com- Invisible World: 1600–1900(The Dublin Seminar for New motion. Two years later, her son Jakob (or Jack) Koller England Folklife Annual Proceedings 1992).Edited by Peter became the center of a massive hunt led by Sa l z b u r g’s Benes. Boston: Boston University. central authorities. Named for the hunt’s pre s u m e d Hansen, Chadwick. 1969. Wi t c h c raft at Sa l e m .New Yo rk: Br a z i l l e r. l e a d e r, Za u b e rer Ja c k l (Jack the So rc e rer), the Harley, David. 1996. “Explaining Salem: Calvinist Psychology and Za u b e re r-Ja c k l - Pro ze s s e ( So rc e re r - Ja c k - Trials) grew into the Diagnosis of Possession.” American Historical Review 101: one of the last major witch hunts in the Holy Roman 307–330. Heyrman, Christine Leigh. 1984. Commerce and Culture: The Em p i re. Among other things, Jakob Koller collected a Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690–1750. group of young male beggars around himself and reput- NewYork: Norton. edly apprenticed them to the Devil. Consequently, Hoffer, Peter Charles. 1996. The Devil's Disciples: Makers of the those persecuted at Salzburg were over two-thirds male Salem Witchcraft Trials. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University and mostly between the ages of ten and twe n t y. T h e Press. women who were executed were usually older. In many Karlsen, Carol F. 1987. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: cases, the victims had become beggars after their fami- Witchcraft in Colonial New England.NewYork: Norton. lies disintegrated or else we re directly re c ruited fro m Konig, David Thomas. 1979. Law and Society in Puritan this underclass. Massachusetts.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina The Zauberer-Jackl-Prozesseaffected court districts of Press. the archbishopric with different intensities and dynam- Mappen, Marc. 1996.Witches and Historians: Interpretations of Salem.Malabar, FL: Krieger. ics. Over half of the arrests occurred in the capital city Norton, Mary Beth. 2002. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem of Salzburg and its vicinity, whereas they occurred later Witchcraft Crisis of 1692.NewYork: Knopf. or not at all in some local courts. By fall of 1678, young Reis, Elizabeth. 1997. Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in male beggars came under such general suspicion that, Puritan New England.Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell in certain districts, zealous officers captured all the University Press. young male beggars and searched them for scars made Rosenthal, Bernard. 1993. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of by Jack the Sorcerer as a sign of demonic pacts. Despite 1692.NewYork: Cambridge University Press. a large bounty on his head, Jakob Koller was neve r Upham, Charles W. 1867. Salem Witchcraft.Boston: Wiggin and arrested, but during the ensuing witch hunt, 124 of his Lunt. alleged followers were executed or died in jail. Weisman, Richard. 1984. Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in Because Salzburg’s aulic court was the archbishopric’s Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts.Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. sole criminal court, local district courts could only make arrests and conduct first interrogations before Salzburg, transferring prisoners to the capital city for trial, some- Prince-Archbishopric of times after months in prison. The circumstances sur- After 1675, Salzburg, which was an ecclesiastical state rounding the massive witch hunt led to standardization governed by a prince-archbishop until 1803, experi- of interrogations and interrogatory procedures. In par- enced one of the largest and strangest of Europe’s rela- ticular, references to attending Sabbats, participating in tively late witch hunts. Limited and incomplete sources demonic cults, and defaming the Host—crimes elabo- suggest that, until the last quarter of the seventeenth rately recorded in aulic court interrogation records with century, death sentences for magic or witchcraft appar- rather stereotypical wording—are almost always absent ently remained an isolated phenomenon in Salzburg. in re c o rds from local courts. When the witch hunts Only eleven executions are known for Sa l z b u r g began affecting more-settled parts of the populace in b e t ween 1565 (the date of the first witchcrft trial) and the last six months of 1678, the archbishop told the 1588. After 1575, there we re several trials in Pinzgau, in c o u rts to arrest people only if there was we l l - f o u n d e d the southwest, starting when a highly gifted minister suspicion. The Za u b e re r - Ja c k l - Pro ze s s e we re not com- and his female cook we re accused of we a t h e r-m a k i n g pletely different from other, unrelated witchcraft trials magic. The local authorities carried out witchcraft conducted at the same time or from later trials. trials, all dealing with typical m a l e ficium ( h a r m f u l Once the mass witch hunts ended in 1679, Salzburg magic), because of massive popular pre s s u re . did not immediately abandon witchcraft persecution. Doctrines of witchcraft we re occasionally mentioned In the 1680s, regular witchcraft trials we re aimed at after legally trained experts had intervened. De v i l members of the lower classes, and at least thirt y - five worship and participation in the witches’ dance playe d death sentences we re carried out in 1682 and 1683. i m p o rtant roles in trials conducted at Pinzgau in 1585 The center of these hunts (but by no means their only against a widow and others she accused. T h e re a f t e r, location) was mountainous Lungau, in the southeast, only one execution is known in the first half of the w h e re almost no arrests occurred during the s e venteenth century (in 1646). Za u b e re r-Ja c k l - Pro zesse hunt. Sa l z b u r g’s witch hunts 1000 Salzburg, Prince-Archbishopric oF

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1001 Application File reached another high point at decade’s end, with arrests St y r i a’s witchcraft trials before becoming head of his in several local districts; in Lungau, the so-called o rd e r’s province in Germany and Bohemia. Se rv i n g Ramingsteiner trials took place. The nine victims were both the Catholic Church and the Habsburg dynasty, c h i l d ren of miners, who had taken to begging and Sancta Clara helped to shape Pietas Austriaca (Austrian doing odd jobs after mining declined. Trial judges piety), so central to the house’s early modern ru l i n g reinterpreted a make-believe wedding staged by village ideology based upon alliances among the Crown, the c h i l d ren as a witches’ Sabbat. The fig u re of Church, and the estates. His pastoral theology empha- Zauberer-Jacklplayed a very indirect role in these trials. s i zed the reconciliation of human potential in a fallen Be t ween 1717 and 1720, again in Lungau, thre e world with Christian ideals. vagrant beggars we re accused of transforming them- In a series of works from the late seventeenth and selves into werewolves (lycanthropy) and attacking live- early eighteenth centuries—Judas das Ertz-schelm(Judas stock. Damages from wolves and bears had indeed the Arch-villain, 1686–1695), Huy! und Pfuy! ( Ho o e y increased in recent years. and Ph o o e y, 1707), and Wohl-angefüllter We i n - Ke l l e r The final trial and execution for witchcraft in (The We l l -Stocked Wine Cellar, 1710)—Sancta Clara Salzburg took place in 1750, six years before Mo z a rt helped provide the theological and moral justific a t i o n was born: A trial in Mühldorf and Landshut (now part for hunting witches. He focused his attacks on Austrian of Bavaria) that had lasted for years ended with a death nonconformists and frequently singled out St y r i a’s sentence for a sixteen-year-old nanny. witches as particular dangers to late baroque society. He d rew from his extensive travels in the duchy and GERALD MUELLEDER; e xe rcised a considerable influence upon both Au s t r i a’s TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY elites and its common people, enjoying a considerable reputation as an eminent preacher and prose writer. See also:AUSTRIA;CHILDREN;HOLYROMANEMPIRE;LYCANTHROPY; MALEWITCHES;WITCHHUNTS. Sancta Clara abhorred what he saw as the supersti- References and further reading: tions of common people, yet he credulously accepted Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: not only the reality of sorcery but also the reality of the Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early w i t c h e s’ Sabbat. But another aspect of his works is Modern Europe.Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. i m p o rtant to an understanding of Austrian trials for Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. witchcraft, especially in the duchy of Styria. Although Klein, Herbert. 1957. “Die aelteren Hexenprozesse im Lande he emphasized the diabolical nature of the offenses he Salzburg.” Mitteilungen der Salzburger Gesellschaft für described, as did most theoretical works on magic, he Landeskunde 97: 17–50. also highlighted the role of authorities in eliminating Muelleder, Gerald. 2001. “Unterschiedliche Deliktvorstellungen the dangers sorc e ry posed. Sancta Clara re p e a t e d l y bei Ober- und Unterbehörden am Beispiel der Salzburger i n voked the importance of authorities in his affir m a- Zauberer-Jackl-Prozesse (1675–79).” Pp. 349–394 in Hexenprozesse und Gerichtspraxis.Edited by Herbert Eiden and tions of absolutist society, denounced witches and Rita Voltmer.Trier: Spee. sorcerers as the tools of the Devil, and claimed that no ———. Forthcoming 2006. Zwischen Justiz und Teufel: Die one could live safely in their presence. Salzburger Zauberer-Jackl-Prozesse und ihre Opfer.Münster: Lit. EDMUND M. KERN Scheutz, Martin. 2001. “Bettler—Werwolf—Galeerensträfling: Die Lungauer Werwölfe der Jahre 1717/18 und ihr Prozess.” See also: AUSTRIA;HOLYROMANEMPIRE. Salzburg Archiv27: 221–268. References and further reading: Byloff, Fritz. 1934. Hexenglaube und Hexenverfolgung in den öster- Sancta Clara, Abraham a reichischen Alpenländern. Berlin: de Gruyter. (1644–1709) Evans, R. J. W. 1979. The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550–1700. Oxford: Clarendon. An Augustinian prior and court preacher in Vienna Kann, Robert A. 1960. A Study in Austrian Intellectual History: under the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Sancta From Late Baroque to Romanticism.NewYork: Praeger. Clara wrote three books in which he defended witch Schillinger, Jean. 1993. Abraham a Sancta Clara: Pastorale et dis- hunting in the Habsburg lands. course politique dans l’Autriche du XVIIe siècle.Bern: Lang. Born in a Swabian peasant family but educated at the Valentinitsch, Helfried. 1987. “Die Verfolgung von Hexen und Jesuit Latin school in Ingolstadt, Johann Ul r i c h Zauberern im Herzogtum Steiermark—Eine Zwischenbilanz.” Megerle entered the Benedictine order in Salzburg and Pp. 297–316 in Hexen und Zauberer: Die grosse Verfolgung— joined the newly formed Discalced Augustinians several Ein europäisches Phänomen in der Steiermark. Graz: Leykam. years later as Abraham a Sancta Clara. He served as both preacher and priest in southern Germany and Satanism Vienna before being appointed court preacher to A contemporary dictionary defines Satanism as “the Leopold I in 1677. He later served as the prior of the worship of Satan or the powers of evil” or as “a travesty Augustinian house in Graz during the high point of of Christian rites in which Satan is worshiped” Satanism 1001

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1002 Application File (Random House Dictionary 1987, 1704). Both defini- Highly publicized, sporadic vandalism with Sa t a n i s t tions originated as slanders. Scholars distinguish content typically expresses adolescent re b e l l i o u s n e s s , between ideas about Satanism, spread by accusation, not religious conviction or musical brainwashing. It is and ideas expressed by persons claiming allegiance to “m o re often than not merely posing, adopting an Satan (La Fontaine 1999, 87). Concepts of Satanism image” (La Fontaine 1999, 108). have varied little historically and have been defined Satanism as slander assumes that Satanists are secret mainly by Christian accusers, not by freely self- subversives, not exhibitionists, vandals, or sincere pub- proclaimed Satanists. Scholarship has confirmed an lic advocates. It has a far longer history than genuine enduring symbiosis between Satanism and Christianity: Satanism. The Bible (Ps. 95:5 and elsewhere) declared Where Christianity has been demographically absent or that pagan gods we re only demons. The He b rew negligible, accusations and professions of Satanism are s a t a n a s means “a d ve r s a ry,” and Jesus saw Satan as his lacking. principal adve r s a ry (Matt. 13:37–39). Su b s e q u e n t Christianity has contrasted real and imagined adve r- History saries to itself. Christian mythology or folklore Satanism has a far shorter history as creed than as frequently has portrayed actual religious competitors— s l a n d e r. Cu r re n t l y, self-styled Satanist organizations are medieval heretics and early modern witches, as well as f ew and probably small in membership (perhaps in the modern Satanists, pagans, and Wiccans—as Satanists. h u n d reds or low thousands worldwide); membership Im a g i n a ry Satanists enact a kind of re ve r s e criteria and numbers are impossible to know (La Christianity.Their alleged behavior and ritual activities Fontaine 1999, 107–109; Medway 2001, 293–294). o b s e rve Christian categories but inve rt and perve rt Aside from slanderous myth (discussed later), no orga- Christian ritual content (for example, adoring and nizations are re c o rded before the mid-twentieth century. praying to Satan or killing and eating infants as a The promotion of evil, as fantasized by Christian p a rody of the Eucharist). Intentionally or not, opponents, is conspicuously missing from the credos of Christian distortions of competing credos and activities k n own Satanist organizations. Indeed, the founder of as satanic parodies of Christianity domesticate religious one of the two principal No rth American groups, the otherness, absorbing it into familiar categories. Po l a r Church of Satan, formally advocated obedience to the opposition re c o n firms Christian ideas of humanity’s law (La Fontaine 1999, 97). relation to the supernatural and the divine. Modern Satanist spokespersons do not describe their Norman Cohn has traced Satanist stereotypes to religion as worship of Satan, whom some Sa t a n i s t s pagan slanders about early Christians: political conspir- apparently regard as merely symbolic, but as opposition acy; worship of outlandish or shameful gods; and rituals to Christianity. Satanist objections to Christianity con- involving sexual promiscuity, cannibalism, and infanti- cern its denial of bodily pleasure, intellectual curiosity, cide. The stereotype, whether by or about Christians, and the ego in favor of asceticism, intellectual passivity, describes a secret society dedicated to ove rt h row i n g and self-abnegation. Satanist ideals typically exalt indi- established society. The imaginary conspirators are vidualism, self-determination, and self-fulfil l m e n t , inhuman or even bestial, deliberately breaking universal i n t e r p reting Satan as archetypal rebel against arbitrary taboos. Despite their antisocial aims, the conspirators authority and oppre s s i ve conformity (La Fo n t a i n e cooperate as a compact unit, an antisociety (Cohn 1999, 86–106). 1975, 1–15). Gi ven the stereotypical conspirators’ Pe rcy Sh e l l e y’s assessment of John Mi l t o n’s Pa ra d i s e inhumanity and antipathy to society, it is fitting that, in L o s t p re fig u red the Satanist critique: “Nothing can Christian versions of the myth, they be subservient to exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of the archenemy of God and humanity. Satan. Milton’s Devil as a moral being is far superior to Accusations of Satanism arose in the Greek Church his God, as one who perseveres in some purpose which during the eighth century, and they were documented he has conceived to be excellent in spite of adversity and in the Western Church by 1022. They have a longer t o rt u re.” Mi l t o n’s God tormented Satan “with the subsequent history in the Western Church and inflect- alleged design of exasperating him to deserve new tor- ed the development both of Satan as mythical fig u re ments,” not to make him repent (Shelley 1971, 508). and of stereotypes about his adepts. Satanist myths were Modern Satanist ideals are intellectually descended disseminated about Cathar and Waldensian here t i c s , from Shelley and later nineteenth-century writers such the Templars, and heterodox factions of the Franciscan as Charles Baudelaire. o rd e r, before finally coalescing with other slanders Formal religious Satanism sometimes seems calculat- around 1400, creating the specter of the witch. ed to provoke shock, outrage, and panic among With m a l e ficium (harmful magic), Satan worship Christians. This observation is truer still of informal formed the core of witchcraft mythology. T h i s Satanism or pseudosatanism in popular commerc i a l combination is distinctive. In other cultural contexts, c u l t u re, particularly in certain “hard” rock music. m a l e ficium may invo l ve secretly petitioning 1002 Satanism

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1003 Application File accusations that small children we re harmed and eve n killed by “satanic ritual abuse.” As in earlier times, epidemic accusations of Satanist crime were stimulated by anxiety over societal change. In No rth America, w h e re the panic originated, prime stressors we re the recent massive integration of women into the workforce and the resulting need to entrust small children to day- c a re centers. Anxious parents, therapists espousing a philosophy that victims cannot lie or confabulate, and fundamentalist Christians perennially alert to satanic conspiracies “d i s c ove re d” that the apparently ro u t i n e ailments and crises of small children were symptoms of physical and sexual abuse inflicted by evil care g i ve r s during satanic rites. Abuse allegedly occurred under i m p robable circumstances—either during business hours, in public spaces, or, conve r s e l y, in inaccessible hideaways and even “spaceships.” A number of “satanic” defendants were convicted by testimony that would normally be inadmissible in criminal court. Accusations were compiled by prosecu- tors and social workers interviewing small children and by therapists employing controversial “re c ove re d m e m o ry” techniques on adult sufferers of personality d i s o rders. Leading questions, ove rt suggestion, a simplistic theory of re p ressed trauma, and a dogmatic insistence on “believing the victims” produced horrific accusations that we re unproven, unve r i fiable, and objectively improbable or impossible. Some manifestly unjust convictions we re nonetheless upheld (Me d w a y 2001, 175–255). Uncritical acceptance of satanic abuse testimony Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan in San Francisco in replicated the crimen exc e p t u m ( t h e e xcepted crime) 1966. No satanic church existed in medieval or early modern Europe. (Bettmann/Corbis) j u s t i fication current during the witch hunt period: “ Obv i o u s” satanic adversaries we re so devious and superhuman personages to harm enemies, but Sa t a n sophisticated that they could never be convicted with- supposedly re q u i red a formal contract before granting out unconventional testimony. petitions, exacting the worshiper’s body and soul in One satanic rite rarely mentioned in “ritual abuse” e xchange for enabling the m a l e fic i u m . This feature mythology is the Black Mass, a modern development of re q u i red Sa t a n’s apparition to worshipers in corpore a l the idea that the Sabbat parodied Catholic rituals. In a form, predisposing an extensive mythology of personal final ironic twist to the history of Satanism, this rite, interaction: Satan held court, initiated adepts, hosted originally invented as a slander, is now sometimes banquets and sexual orgies, assigned specific m a l e fic i a p e rformed by self-identified Satanists (Medway 2001, (evil acts, or evildoings) to devotees, and physically 387–388). punished their disobedience or failure. WALTER STEPHENS Accused witches’ confessions of encountering the Devil in person, attending Sabbats, and so on we re See also:BLACKMASS;CONTEMPORARYWITCHCRAFT(POST1800); largely extracted through tort u re or psyc h o l o g i c a l CRIMENEXCEPTUM;DEVIL;HERESY;MALEFICIUM;PACTWITHTHE coercion. The concept of Satan as a supernatural person DEVIL;TEMPLARS;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS). a c t i ve in the world waned at the same rate as witch References and further reading: Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired hunting and tort u re. After about 1700, Satan often by the Great Witch-Hunt.NewYork: Basic Books. seemed a metaphor for misfortune or the mysteries of La Fontaine, Jean. 1994. The Extent and Nature of Organized and human depravity. Modern societies describe Sa t a n i s m Ritual Abuse.London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. as a possible motivation for infractions of secular law ———. 1998. Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in but not as a religious crime or a crime in itself. C o n t e m p o ra ry En g l a n d .Cambridge: Cambridge Un i versity Pre s s . Howe ve r, Satanism is still prosecuted indirectly: In ———. 1999. “Satanism and Satanic Mythology.” Pp. 81–140 in the 1980s and 1990s, sensational publicity surrounded The Twentieth Century.Vol. 6 of The Athlone History of Satanism 1003

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1004 Application File Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and cutions, the government became suspicious, inter- Stuart Clark. London and Philadelphia: Athlone and University vened, and began investigating his conduct of these tri- of Pennsylvania Press. als. The Privy Council commissioned Dr. Be r n h a rd Loftus, Elizabeth, and Katherine Ketcham. 1994. The Myth of Ba rth, an educated lawyer from Munich who had Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual clashed repeatedly over witchcraft trials with the court Abuse.NewYork: St. Martin’s. council zealots, principally Dr. Johann Si g i s m u n d Medway, Gareth J. 2001. Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural Wa g n e reckh. Within days, Ba rth collected such History of Satanism. NewYork: NewYork University Press. damaging evidence that District Judge Be m e l b u r g Ofshe, Richard, and Ethan Waters. 1994. Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria.NewYork: (then preoccupied with invading the imperial free city Scribner’s. of Do n a u w ö rth and subsequently serving as Ba va r i a n Ryder, Daniel. 1992. Breaking the Circle of Satanic Ritual Child g overnor) was officially reprimanded by the duke for Abuse: Recognizing and Recovering from the Hidden Trauma. failing to supervise his official, while Sattler was Minneapolis: CompCare. imprisoned and put on trial. The court council chan- Shelley, Percy Bysshe. 1821. A Defense of Poetry.Pp. 498–513 in c e l l o r, Wa g n e reckh, tried to sabotage all the legal steps Literary Criticism Since Plato.Edited by Hazard Adams. New against Sattler suggested by Ba rth, but eve ry time, York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. privy councillors such as Dr. Wilhelm Jocher and Showalter, Elaine. 1997. Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Count Hans von Rechberg ove rturned the chancellor’s Modern Media.NewYork: Columbia University Press. o p i n i o n . Wright, Lawrence. 1994.Remembering Satan: A Case of Recovered Between July and December 1612, the court council Memory and the Shattering of an American Family.NewYork: Knopf. discussed this case after every interrogation (ten times a month on average), and all sides apparently agreed that Sattler, Gottfried these debates we re decisive. T h e re we re even public (ca. 1569–1613) re p e rcussions, as the Jesuit Jacob Gretser openly sided A Bavarian lawyer and assistant district judge who con- with the zealots, pointing to the witch hunts at ducted an illegal witch hunt, Gottfried Sattler became Ellwangen. By September 1612, the Privy Council in famous when the Bavarian Privy Council decided to Munich, then presided over by Dr. Jo a c h i m punish him for misuse and murder, thereby clearly Donnersberger, decided to make an example of Sattler, destroying the comforting and widespread idea that ordering torture and contemplating punishing his mis- God would not permit innocent people to be burned as conduct with the death penalty. The Munich ze a l o t s , witches. Sattler’s decapitation in 1613 served notice again led byWagnereckh, fiercely opposed the sentence that the innocent could easily become victims as soon and tried to raise support from Duke Maximilian I’s as witchcraft trials transgressed the boundaries of the younger brother, Prince Albrecht, and from prominent processus ordinarius (ordinary procedure). Adam Tanner Jesuits such as Gre t s e r. In g o l s t a d t’s law faculty, then and Friedrich Spee mentioned Sa t t l e r’s exe c u t i o n , dominated by Dr. Joachim Denich, twice confir m e d although without providing exact data. Until witchcraft the death sentence suggested by Mu n i c h’s so-called trials were terminated altogether in the period of the politicians. When Duke Maximilian—who had himself Enlightenment, Sattler’s trial remained a key event and been an Ingolstadt law student in 1589, along with an almost unparalleled debacle for the persecution Wa g n e reckh and Sattler—hesitated to confirm the party in Germany. death sentence, Wa g n e reckh persuaded the court During an agrarian crisis between 1608 and 1609, council to decide for banishment. Bavarian religious zealots tried to exploit a witch panic Howe ve r, the Privy Council considered the Sa t t l e r in the small Ba varian exc l a ve of Wemding (near the case a matter of principle. Su p reme Chancellor imperial free city of Nördlingen), which was less tightly Donnersberger ord e red the court council to revise its c o n t rolled from Munich. The regular district judge, decision within hours to comply with the opinions of nobleman Konrad II von Bemelburg, employed a for- both the legal faculty and the Privy Council. In Ma y mer fellow student from Ingolstadt, Gottfried Sa t t l e r, 1613, Duke Maximilian finally decided on Sa t t l e r’s to judge these cases. Sattler was in contact with mem- e xecution. Two other officials at Wemding we re sen- bers of Mu n i c h’s zealot faction, most of whom had tenced to perpetual exile from Ba varia. At the end of studied law with him at the Un i versity of In g o l s t a d t June or in early July, Sattler was beheaded at Schwaben around 1590, when witch hunts had ravaged the small (today’s MarktSchwaben, east of Munich), presumably town and Jesuits such as Gregory of Valencia had justi- secretly, behind the walls of the district judge’s castle. At fied draconian measures against these enemies of that time, Schwaben’s district judge was Johann Georg h u m a n i t y. Pre s u m a b l y, Sattler expected a pro m o t i o n He rw a rth von Hohenburg, chancellor of the Ba va r i a n after conducting his witch hunt. estates (L a n d s c h a f t s k a n z l e r). Not coincidentally, Howe ve r, the Wemding trials had far differe n t He rw a rth was also the leading moderate “p o l i t i c i a n” results than Sattler had anticipated. After several exe- within Bavaria. 1004 Sattler, Gottfried

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1005 Application File In 1590, the imperial city of Nuremberg (Nürnberg) had put to death a former executioner who had tried to incite a witch panic, but Sattler was the first witch-h u n t i n g judge in Germany to re c e i ve such a punishment. Hi s death was an important symbolic victory for opponents of witch hunting. Tanner mentioned it alongside the 1618 death sentence against the Fulda witch judge Balthasar Nuss, another achievement of the Ingolstadt law professors (Tanner 1627, 3: col. 1005). Both death penalties proved extremely important, because they demonstrated that fatal mistakes could occur in witch- craft trials and that victims might turn out to be inno- cent. Like later opponents of witch hunting, Sp e e re f e r red to these cases, borrowing evidence fro m Tanner: “Tanner relates that in earlier years in Germany two bloody judges who had to deal with cases of witch- craft were condemned to death by a judgement of the faculty of law at Ingolstadt and executed, because they had held trials contrary to law, in which innocent per- sons had been endangere d . . . . Who will still doubt that many innocent people have been burnt by these judges?” (quoted in Behringer 1997, 295; cf. Sp e e 2003, 40). WOLFGANG BEHRINGER See also:AGRARIANCRISES;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;EICHSTÄTT, PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;FULDA,PRINCE-ABBEYOF;GREGORYOF VALENCIA;GRETSER,JACOB;INGOLSTADT,UNIVERSITYOF; MAXIMILIANI,DUKEOFBAVARIA;NUREMBERG,IMPERIALFREE CITY;NUSS,BALTHASAR;SPEE,FRIEDRICH; TANNER,ADAM;WESTERSTETTEN,JOHANNCHRISTOPHVON; WITCH-BISHOPS(HOLYROMANEMPIRE). References and further reading: Behringer,Wolfgang. 1988. Mit dem Feuer vom Leben zum Tod: Hexengesetzgebung in Bayern.Munich: Hugendubel. ———.1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe. Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Spee, Friedrich. 1631. Cautio Criminalis, or A Book on Witchcraft Trials. Translated by Marcus Hellyer. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003. Tanner, Adam, SJ. 1626–1627. Theologia Scholastica.4 vols. Ingolstadt. Saturn Saturn Devouring One of His Sons, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1636. Saturn, god of agriculture and also of time, was linked God of agriculture, Saturn was associated with the planet and tied to to the planet Saturn and identified with the Greek god violence and evil, as were his children, who included witches. To K ronos. Though his story was well known to thwart a prophecy that his children would supplant him, Saturn ate Renaissance and early modern authors, it was visual them, thus reminding us of the cannibalism of witches. (Archivo artists who linked the physical and sexual violence at Iconografico, S.A./Corbis) the heart of Saturn’s story with the nature and practices of witchcraft and included witches among those groups considered his “children.” such as Boccaccio told how Kro n o s / Saturn then Ac c o rding to Hesiod, Kronos rose to power by cas- suffered the same fate as his father. Because of a prophe- trating his father, Uranus, with a sickle. From Uranus’s cy that claimed his son would ove rt h row him, Sa t u r n genitals, which we re thrown into the sea, Ap h ro d i t e , decided to devour his children. One of them, Ze u s , the goddess of love, was born. Late medieval authors survived through a trick by Saturn’s consort Rhea. Zeus Saturn 1005

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1006 Application File later took power by castrating his father, re p o rt e d l y 1580s or 1590s by Crispin de Passe after Martin de Vos, with the same sickle Saturn had used on Uranus. which inspired other artists in turn. It depicted Saturn Arabic authors and late medieval European mythog- in his chariot, pulled through the sky by two dragons. raphers transmitted the classical story of Be l ow him we re the different groups and activities K ro n o s / Saturn. Gr a d u a l l y, it also became linked to under his sway: on the right, Amerindians mining gold images of Saturn as the coldest, driest, and slowest of and silve r, paying homage to their Spanish rulers, and the planets, and to the so-called saturnine, or melan- cooking human body parts on a grill; on the left, a cholic, temperament. The sinister characteristics of the magician performing necromancy before a cauldro n mythical Saturn—his old age, malevolence, violence, and witches engaged in an orgiastic dance, with three of and tyranny—we re also attributed to “c h i l d re n” who them flying up in the air through billowing smoke. The lived under his planet: criminals, cripples, beggars, the fig u re of Saturn links witches, necromancers, and e l d e r l y, the poor, and those invo l ved in vulgar and Amerindian cannibals as children of the same father. dishonorable trades. As the inscription in a 1531 wood- CHARLES ZIKA cut of Georg Pencz put it: “[I am] Saturn, old, cold and unclean; evil are my children.” By the fifteenth century, See also: ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;ASTROLOGY;CANNIBALISM; Saturn’s children increasingly included the dead, magi- CAULDRON;CRANACH,LUCAS;DÜRER,ALBRECHT;GEILERVON cians, and witches; popular almanacs, calendars, and KAYSERSBERG,JOHANN;IMAGINATION;IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL; a s t rological handbooks disseminated information on MELANCHOLY;WEYER,JOHANN. References and further reading: such relationships in “Children of the Planets” series. Carr, Amelia, and Richard Kremer. 1986. “Child of Saturn: The From the late fifteenth century, artists began to Renaissance Church Tower at Niederaltaich.” Sixteenth Century depict Saturn’s violence and sexual mutilation more fre- Journal 17: 401–434. quently and more ove rt l y. Often, Saturn was show n Klibansky, Raymond, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl. 1964. seated in a chariot pulled by two dragons, holding a Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural scythe or sickle and devouring one of his children. His Philosophy, Religion and Art.London: Nelson. chariot was emblazoned with Capricorn and Aquarius, Préaud, Maxime. 1977. “La Sorcière de Noël.” Pp. 47–51 in re p resenting the portion of the zodiac over which he L’Esoterisme d’Albrecht Dürer.Edited by Maxime Préaud. Paris: ruled. Sometimes, his scythe or sickle was strategically Hamsa. Tinkle, Theresa. 1987. “Saturn of the Several Faces: A Survey of positioned over the penis of one of his children or the Medieval Mythographic Tradition.” Viator18: 289–307. hooked around the penile tails of his dragons. Zafran, Eric. 1979. “Saturn and the Jews.” Journal of the Warburg A l t e r n a t i ve l y, Saturn was depicted leaning on a cru t c h and Courtauld Institutes42: 16–27. or with a peg leg, symbols of the power he both won Zika, Charles. 2003. Exorcising Our Demons: Magic, Witchcraft and lost through sexual mutilation. and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe.Leiden and Boston: This focus on Sa t u r n’s violence encouraged links Brill. with the cannibalism and castrating powers of witch- craft. It remains unclear whether the hindquarters of Savoy, Duchy of the goat in Albrecht Düre r’s engraving Witch Riding Like such other regions of the western Alps as Backwards on a Goat(ca. 1500) represented the tail of a Dauphiné, Valais, or Vaud, the duchy of Savoy is fish similar to the astrological Capricorn, an allusion presently considered one of the principal regions where emphasizing the witch’s power to emasculate. Similarly, the new heresy of witches and other devil worshippers a male fig u re with a crutch shown ministering over a appeared around 1430 and where important witch witches’ night ride in a woodcut illustrating a sermon of hunts were conducted. The emergence of this phenom- Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg in The An t s seems a enon was due in large part to the Duke of Savoy, clear re f e rence to Saturn. Was the anonymous art i s t Amadeus VIII, whose law code of 1430, the Statuta using this visual allusion to underline the message of Sabaudie (Statutes of Savoy), enacted legislation specif- Geiler’s text, that night rides were little more than fan- ically against sorcerers and heretics and who helped sen- tasy and illusion produced through melancholy? T h i s sitize the local clergy to these issues. Savoyard witch- link between melancholic fantasies and claims of witch- craft trials continued until the eighteenth century. craft was developed by artists such as Lucas Cranach, as O ver the centuries, the princes of Sa voy acquire d well as by such writers as Johann Weyer. In the last of sovereignty over a vast territory from the Mediterranean hisMelancholiapaintings, Cranach placed a head utter- (Nice) to north of Lake Geneva. Their western bound- ing the word Melancholia upon the body/cloud within aries bord e red the duchy of Bu r g u n d y, Dauphiné, and the which the imaginative fantasies of the witches’ cava l- Kingdom of France; to the east were the Savoyard-ruled cades took place: This was surely the head of Sa t u r n , Val d’ Aosta and Pi e d m o n t - b o rd e red Milan. (Sa voy who ruled over the melancholic temperament. p resently covers two French departments; this entry The most graphic relationship between Saturn and also discusses some territories ruled by the dukes of witchcraft was expressed in an engraving from the Sa voy, in particular the Val d’ Aosta, but exc l u d e s 1006 Savoy, Duchy of

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1007 Application File Piedmont, Ge n e va, and Vaud.) Witch hunts appeare d his Discours des sorc i e r s ( Discourse on Witches), the in Savoy shortly after its ruler became a duke in 1416, demonologist Henri Boguet described Sa voy as a land in a period when Duke Amadeus VIII (who would lat- where demons possessed an infinite number of people. er become Pope Felix V, elected by the Council of Basel Go d e f roy de Ba voz, president of the Senate (the in 1439) sought to develop the majesty (majestas) of the Savoyard criminal court), who displayed a predilection ducal house and affirm its sove re i g n t y. Ac c o rding to for witchcraft cases, advocated the death penalty for Jacques Chiffoleau (1992, 42), “It is highly possible magicians and sorc e rers in his Theorica criminalis ( A that the beginnings of the witch hunts in Sa voy . . . T h e o ry of Criminal Justice, 1607). Mo re than 2,000 re flected the need that eve ry secular power felt at that cases of witchcraft we re re p o rtedly brought before the time to pursue such occult and unspeakable crimes that judges of Chambéry from 1560 to 1674, with 800 esti- seemed to wrong divine and human majesty.” mated death sentences pronounced. However, only 40 From 1415 to 1417, at the beginning of Amadeus witchcraft cases have been preserved in Savoy from the V I I I ’s reign, the trials of a Jewish doctor, Michel de seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, just 8 of which— Dissipatis, and a rich bourgeois, Jean Lageret, both s c a t t e red from 1636 to 1715—described Sa b b a t s linked politically to the Savoyard court, mixed astrolo- ( Bro c a rd - Plaut 1993). gy, divination, and lèse-majesté,just as the new duke was The climate changed by the eighteenth century.The t rying to affirm his powe r. Accused of conspiracy and Constitutions Royales (1723) of Victor Amadeus VII no subjected to extraord i n a ry proceedings, Lageret con- longer mentioned witchcraft, and cases became rare r fessed to casting spells on the duke by using the faces ( Bro c a rd - Plaut 1986, 147–166). An extensive surve y e n g r a ved on coins. The duke’s preoccupation with on the folklore of the French Alps observed a stro n g demonic witchcraft was evident in his legislation; in the diffusion of the terms synagogue or gogue and c h è t e o r 1 4 3 0 Statuta Sa b a u d i e , he introduced the use of secteto designate the Sabbat in the entire Alpine arc and inquisitorial proceedings against sorc e rers, enjoining principally in Sa voy and Val d’ Aosta. Based largely on his officials to assist the inquisitors. oral testimony, this survey fits perfectly with the docu- In the duchy of Sa voy, the inquisition of crimes mentary fragments of the witchcraft trials and norma- against the faith was divided. The Dominicans super- tive texts. vised it in Sa voy a rd lands within the dioceses of The Val d’Aosta, Savoyard territory, located today in Ge n e va, Lausanne, and Sion, while the Fr a n c i s c a n s northwestern Italy, was an outpost of early witch hunts. c o n t rolled it in all other Sa voy a rd possessions in the One of the first texts describing in detail the new fanta- dioceses of Lyon, Be l l e y, Grenoble, Ma u r i e n n e , sy of the witches’ Sabbat, the brief anonymous treatise Tarentaise, Nice, and Aosta. Er ro res Ga z a r i o ru m ( Er rors of the Gazars or Ga z a r i i Do c u m e n t a ry re s e a rch on the fifteenth century [Cathars—a common term for heretics and later witch- remains scant, and no complete investigation of the es]), written around 1437, was created in the Va l period is currently available. Howe ve r, several cases can d’ Aosta region. Its author, apparently an inquisitor, be cited: At Chambéry, eight people, seven of them might have been the Franciscan Ponce Fe u g e y ro n . women, we re accused of an undefined crime and died in In s p i red by recent persecutions in the region, notably a bonfire in 1418. The Sabbat was known by the 1440s, that of Johanneta Cauda in Chambave in 1428, this with four cases in which testimony mentioned the text offered a meticulous description of the Sabbat and Sabbat re c o rded in 1446 on the borders of Lake Annecy, the various evils sorc e rers committed with the help of at Ta l l o i res. From 1459 to 1462, Chamonix experienced demons. Witchcraft trials led by Franciscan inquisitors a witch hunt led by the Dominican Inquisition. Six exe- and legal representatives (procurator fiscali) of the bish- cutions took place in Cluses from 1470 to 1471 op occurred in the Val d’Aosta region beginning at least ( Bro c a rd - Plaut 1986, 144–146; Hansen 1901, 473– in the 1420s. According to an extant important dossier 484). A Franciscan inquisitor, Bérard Tr é m e y, ove r s a w of fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry proceedings, the accused, re f e r re d n u m e rous witchcraft trials in Sa voy a rd lands under the to as sortilegus, sortiligiatrix, or charerressa (witch), were jurisdiction of the Minorite friars between 1449 and charged with belonging to a sect of modern here t i c s 1477 (Uginet 1979). A doctor of theology, Tr é m e y who gathered in synagogues (Sabbats) in order to t o u red his jurisdiction from his base at Chambéry’s commit harmful magic (feyturis). The documents reveal Franciscan convent, which seems to have acted as a con- the use of magical formulas, of magical-re l i g i o u s duit for diffusing scholarly doctrines about Sabbats and p r a yers in the ve r n a c u l a r, and of spells to cure va r i o u s d e m o n o l o g y. T h roughout his care e r, Trémey benefit e d sicknesses or to harm neighbors (Bertolin and Gerbore f rom the indispensable support of the dukes of Sa voy, 2003). Bishop Georges de Saluces (1433–1440) played who made him their confessor and adviser. an important role in the beginning witch hunts in the Few persecutions are known from the early sixteenth diocese of Aosta, as he did subsequently in the diocese c e n t u ry, when France occupied Sa voy before the of Lausanne, where he was transferred in 1440 through restoration of Duke Em m a n u e l - Ph i l i b e rt in 1559. In the influence of the duke of Savoy. Savoy, Duchy of 1007

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1008 Application File Fu rther south, in Sa voy a rd Piedmont, inquisitorial Uginet, François-Charles. 1979. “Frère BérardTremey O. F. M et p roceedings began to mix accusations of heresy with l’inquisition en Savoie au XVe siècle.” Pp. 281–289 in Vie quo- charges of witchcraft in the 1420s. A man fro m tidienne en Savoie: Actes du VIIe Congrès des Sociétés Savantes de la Savoie (Conflans 1976).Albertville: Centre Culturel de Pi n e rolo was burned at the stake in 1427 for sorc e ry Conflans. that “savored of heresy” (per sortilegio sapiente heresim). In 1429, in the valley of Suse, five people were burned Saxony, Electorate of for having solicited help from the Devil to kill men with their evil spells (Centini 1995, 35–37). T h u s , T h e re we re more than 900 accused witches, approx i- throughout the territory of the duchy of Savoy, inquisi- mately one-third of whom we re executed, in the tors, whether Franciscans, Dominican, or episcopal, electorate of Sa xo n y, which lay in the eastern part of the had used the image of the Sabbat in trials since the old German Em p i re, bordering the Kingdom ofBohemia 1420s. Such a united effort must be attributed to the with Silesia, the electorate of Brandenburg-Prussia, the figure of the duke of Savoy, Amadeus VIII, although we archbishopric of Magdeburg, the counties of Mansfeld do not know precisely the extent to which this phe- and Schwarzburg (Hessen), and the T h u r i n g i a n nomenon resulted from his bidding. duchies. Strong relations with its neighbors affected j u r i s p rudence through the exchange of know l e d g e MARTINE OSTORERO; between the legal faculties of its regional universities, TRANSLATED BY KARNA HUGHES Leipzig (founded 1409) and Wittenberg (founded 1502); both taught Roman and canon law. Foreign See also:BOGUET,HENRI;DOMINICANORDER;ERRORES jurists often entered Saxon service, and Saxon jurists GAZARIORUM;FEUGEYRON,PONCE;GENEVA;ITALY;LAUSANNE, s e rved in neighboring domains. The reception of DIOCESEOF;MILAN;MOUNTAINSANDTHEORIGINSOFWITCH- CRAFT;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;PIEDMONT;SABBAT; Roman law coexisted with traditional common law; SWITZERLAND;VALAIS;VAUD,PAYSDE. both affected legal praxis. References and further reading: Although inquisitorial trials for heresy and sorc e ry Anon. 1992. “Secte et synagogue dans les Alpes françaises: Récits a p p e a red in the electorate of Sa xony by the fif t e e n t h du Sabbat.” Le Monde alpin et rhodanien20: 183–290. c e n t u ry, traditional criminal laws and regional legal Bertolin, Silvia, and Ezio Emerico Gerbore. 2003. La stregoneria systems remained of central importance in the sixteenth nella Valle d’Aosta medievale.Quart: Musumeci. c e n t u ry. In the mid-eastern German states, the Binz, Louis. 1997. “Les débuts de la chasse aux sorcières dans le Sachsenspiegel (Saxon mirror) already stipulated death at diocèse de Genève.” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance the stake for sorc e ry and heresy in its oldest know n 59: 561–581. version, written around 1224 or 1227. Sh o rtly after Brocard-Plaut, Michèle. 1986. Diableries et sorcellerie en Savoie.Le 1500, it was enlarged by a gloss making necro m a n c y, Côteau: Horvath. ———. 1993. “Le Sabbat et sa répression en Savoie aux XVIIe et f o rtunetelling, and magical healing into criminal XVIIIe siècles.” Pp. 199–211 in Le Sabbat des sorciers en offenses. The completely new criminal offense of witch- Europe, XVe–XVIIe siècle: Colloque international E.N.S. craft arose in the fifteenth century in connection with Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, 4–7 novembre 1992. Edited byNicole the punishment of heretical Waldensians in Sa xo n y, Jacques-Chaquin and Maxime Préaud. Grenoble: Millon. p a rticularly around Sangerhausen and Dresden, where Centini, Massimo. 1995. Streghe, roghi e diavoli: I processi di stre- secular courts repeatedly mingled charges of here s y goneria in Piedmonte.Cuneo: L’Arciere. with accusations of sorc e ry and ord e red burnings. Chiffoleau, Jacques. 1992. “Amadeus VIII ou la Majesté impossi- Howe ve r, unlike in most of western Ge r m a n y, where ble?” Pp. 19–49 in Amadeus VIII—Félix V, premier duc de f u l l - b l own diabolical witchcraft developed long before Savoie et pape (1383–1451). Edited by Bernard Andenmatten 1500, belief in maleficent magic remained dominant in and Agostino Paravicini Bagliani. Lausanne: Bibliothèque his- Sa xo n y. Mo re ove r, due to the legally independent torique vaudoise. Gamba, Félicien. 1964. “La sorcière de Saint-Vincent: Un procès position of the electorate of Sa xo n y, Charles V’s 1532 d’hérésie et de sorcellerie au XVe siècle.” Bulletin de la Société criminal code, the Carolina Code, had no legal forc e Académique, Religieuse et Scientifique du Duché d’Aoste41: there. 283–311. After the 1572 Saxon Constitutionen took effect, the Hansen, Joseph, ed. 1901. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur d i f f e rences between the imperial criminal code Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgungen im (Ha l s g e r i c h t s o rd n u n g) and the Sa xon systems of laws Mittelalter.Bonn: C. Georgi. Reprint. Hildesheim: Georg i n vo l ved many questions of civil and criminal law as Olms, 1963. well as trial procedures. Redefining the crime of sorcery Monter,William E. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: caused far-reaching differences in sentencing. Se ve r a l The Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY, and jurists and specialists in criminal law found the Malleus London: Cornell University Press. Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Witches, 1486) of Ostorero, Martine. 2002. “Itinéraire d’un inquisiteur gâté: Ponce Feugeyron, les juifs et le Sabbat des sorcières.” Médiévales 43: special importance in this respect. Punishing sexual 103–117. i n t e rcourse with the Devil by death at the stake, eve n 1008 Saxony, Electorate of

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1009 Application File when no damage from sorc e ry had resulted, was new. quences, accusations from sick people, and behavior in An accusation from a private party usually started the disputes with neighbors or within the family. p roceedings in witchcraft trials. Howe ve r, individual Unsuccessful healing and other magical practices also cases could also be started by the Saxon chancellery or provoked suspicion. Sorcery, heresy, and witchcraft tri- by the lord of a manor. Before the seventeenth century, als continued for more than 350 years, starting in 1407. these proceedings allowed no defense by defendants or Two main periods of verifiable proceedings lasted from their family members; formal defenses we re ve r i fia b l e 1610 to 1630 and from 1655 to 1665, when the num- only in exceptional cases. ber of executions reached its peak. Women comprised The 1572 Sa xon legal constitutions banned appeals 73 percent of those tried for witchcraft in Saxony, most to higher authorities in criminal proceedings. Local feu- of whom were still married but no longer of childbear- dal courts we re supervised by the learned jurists ing age. However, at least twenty-two children were also (Schöffengericht) who coordinated the process; the final accused of sorcery; as a rule, they were beaten and then verdict or judgment had to be approved by legal experts g i ven into the care of clergymen for education. So c i a l on the S c h ö f f e n g e r i c h t or university law faculties status clearly mattered in the electorate of Sa xo n y. a p p roved by the electors. The Leipzig learned jurists Married women of good social standing usually escaped made the majority of judgments for Saxony in criminal punishment in witchcraft trials and could expect an proceedings, whereas the importance of the law profes- acquittal or a suspended execution. Wi d ows of low sors of Wittenberg declined. Among the over 900 indi- social status we re more frequently affected by death viduals accused of witchcraft in Saxony, officials of the sentences and in significantly higher numbers than elector sentenced the largest portion. Town and manor could otherwise be expected, given the share of Saxony’s courts saw fewer persons charged with the crime of the population without possessions. Ne ve rtheless, persons s o rc e ry; neve rtheless, they handled approximately a accused of sorc e ry came from all layers of the popula- third of the more than 900 defendants in Saxony who tion, from beggars to farmers, burghers, and eve n we re accused of sorc e ry (with the first execution in nobility, roughly in proportion to the statistical size of 1407). The number of criminal proceedings was each group within the total population. Ne i t h e r a p p roximately pro p o rtionate to the total population Saxony’s rulers nor their Lutheran Church ever mount- (about 700,000 in the electorate by 1600). No signifi- ed campaigns against sorc e ry and witchcraft after the cant differences in witch hunting existed between the Reformation, while enforcing the new confessional different courts, although in rural areas, the probability dogmas. No religious or ethnic minorities were accused of being accused of sorc e ry was statistically about 10 of witchcraft: Sa xo n y’s few Roman Catholics, its percent higher than in towns. Special responsibility for Sl a vonic Sorbian population, and its Jews re m a i n e d the execution of criminal proceedings fell to rural offi- undisturbed. cials for upholding law and order (Schösser) and to town The new Sa xon criminal regulations of 1661, sub- judges. In some special cases, such as in the county of stantially influenced by Benedict Carpzov, marked an Henneberg, criminal trials fell under the common important break, beginning a slow legal disintegration administration of different sovereigns. of the elements of the criminal offense of witchcraft. Proceedings related to the criminal offenses of witch- Sa xo n y’s last known death sentence for sorc e ry was craft and sorcery were also conducted against magicians and magical healers, fortunetellers, and those engaged in “s u p e r s t i t i o u s” practices. For crimes of magic with- out harmful consequences, the guilty we re usually exiled. Even a few persons sentenced to death we re exiled; more often, howe ve r, the death penalty was “g r a c e d” by decapitation with the sword instead of burning at the stake. After 1661, a death sentence could also be commuted to forced labor for the prince (terri- torial lord). Minor forms of sorc e ry re q u i red milder punishments, for example, being put in the pillory, whipping, house arrest, or even—at the request of the convicted individual’s partner—the nullification of PostScript Picture marriage. Some guilty people we re banished, other defendants we re fined, parish priests we re re m ove d ENWITC_Graph_Saxony.eps from office, and some proceedings were dismissed. In Saxony, most accusations of sorcery or witchcraft were socially instrumented. They were triggered by var- ious factors, including hailstorms and their conse- Saxony, Electorate of 1009

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1010 Application File carried out in 1689, when the manor court of Os t r a u or the loss of money in business, were also blamed on (AmtDelitzsch) had Anna Maria Braune burned at the witches. Sometimes, witches were accused of having stake, following a judgment by learned jurists caused sexual impotence as a means of retaliating (S c h ö f f e n s t u h l) in Ha l l e / Saale. Alongside Sa xon jurists, against men who had jilted them. The misfortunes physicians and theologians also supported the start of attributed to witchcraft could be as minor as the loss of decriminalizing judgments for sorc e ry by the second an object, such as a coin. In some cases, witches were half of the seventeenth century. The end of death blamed for killing livestock, making horses fall sick, or sentences in Sa xon witchcraft trials was also closely even preventing cows from giving milk. In all these connected with the replacement of the Scholastic instances, witchcraft served as an explanation for the tradition by the teachings of natural law. Saxony’s final illnesses and mishaps that occurred frequently in criminal proceeding against the offense of sorcery dates communities challenged by food shortages, poverty, from 1766. disease, and high rates of mortality.They also occurred in small, close-knit communities where people knew MANFRED WILDE; each other and their grievances well and therefore felt TRANSLATED BY LARS-UWE FREIBERG that others had reason to harm them. AND JONATHAN STICKNEY Witches occasionally served as scapegoats for com- munal misfortunes, as when famine struck a region or See also:CAROLINACODE;CARPZOV,BENEDICT;EXECUTIONS; GERMANY,NORTHEASTERN;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT when hailstorms destroyed agricultural crops. In such (EARLYMODERN); SOCIALANDECONOMICSTATUS cases, witches we re accused of having called down the OFWITCHES;UNIVERSITIES. hail by casting spells. In similar fashion, fires that References and further reading: r a vaged towns and villages during the early modern Blaschke, Karlheinz. 1956. “Zur Behördenkunde der kursächsis- period we re occasionally attributed to witchcraft, chen Lokalverwaltung.” Pp. 343–363 in Archivar und although arson was generally prosecuted. In maritime Historiker:Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Heinrich Otto communities, storms at sea could likewise be blamed Meisner.Edited byWolfgang Leesch et al. Berlin: Staatliche on witches, especially when there was a loss of life or Archivverwaltung. treasure. A storm in the North Sea that threatened the Boehm, Ernst. 1939–1940. “Der Schöppenstuhl zu Leipzig und ship carrying King James VI of Scotland and his bride, der sächsische Inquisitionsprozess im Barockzeitalter.” Princess Anne of Denmark, to Scotland in 1590 led to Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft59, nos. 3.–6 (1940): 371–410 and 620–639; no. 60 (1941): 155–249; no. the apprehension of both Danish and Scottish witches 61 (1941): 300–403. for having caused the storm by witchcraft. Lück, Heiner. 1997. Die kursächsische Gerichtsverfassung, The naming of witches as scapegoats for personal or 1423–1550.Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau. communal misfortunes fulfilled two psyc h o l o g i c a l ———. 1998. Die Spruchtätigkeit der Wittenberger functions. On the one hand, it provided the victim of Juristenfakultät: Organisation-Verfahren-Ausstrahlung.Cologne, the misfortune with an explanation of events that did Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau. not involve punishment by God for one’s sins. In that Wilde, Manfred. 2002. “Hexenprozesse und Landesherrschaft: Der sense, it freed the individual from personal responsibili- Schöffenstuhl, die Juristenfakultät und das Oberhofgericht in ty for the misfortune that had occurred. On the other Leipzig und ihre Bedeutung für Hexenprozesse in Kursachsen.” hand, it allowed the victim to obtain satisfaction and Pp. 149–166 in Landesgeschichte und Archivwesen.Edited by revenge by identifying and prosecuting another person Renate Wissuwa, Gabriele Viertel, and Nina Krueger. Dresden: Saechsisches. for the developments that had transpired. ———. 2003. Die Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse in Kursachsen. Not all alleged witches were innocent scapegoats. A Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau. small minority of the people accused of this crime had actually attempted to harm their neighbors by magical Scapegoats means. Even if they were not in fact responsible for the The large majority of persons accused of witchcraft m i s f o rtunes that occurred, their intention to cause were scapegoats, in the sense that they were falsely harm made them at least partially culpable for their blamed for the misfortunes of others. These misfor- crime. In the same category we re those persons who, tunes often involved bodily injury, illness, or death, and when suspected of witchcraft, assumed the role of in many cases, the victims were small children. The witches in order to frighten or protect themselves from naming of a witch as the cause of an illness was espe- hostile neighbors. The witches who confessed freely to cially common when the infirmity had no known nat- the crime, including those who were senile or mentally ural causes. Even when a natural cause of an illness unstable, also cannot be included in the category of could be identified, however, witches were blamed for scapegoats. The same is true for the witches who having inflicted the illness on one particular person thought of themselves as rebels challenging the political rather than another. Human disappointments, such as or social order. a failure to win the affection of a desired sexual partner BRIAN P. LEVACK 1010 Scapegoats

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1011 Application File See also:ACCUSATIONS;IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL;JAMESVIANDI, re vealed that Protestant authorities took the lead in KINGOFSCOTLANDANDENGLAND;MALEFICIUM;MEDICINE allowing extensive sentences from the very beginning. ANDMEDICALTHEORY;REBELS;SPELLS;WEATHERMAGIC. The geographic distribution of these persecutions References and further reading: s h ows there we re significant regional differences. T h e Larner, Christina. 1984. Witchcraft and Religion: The Politics of most trial-intensive areas were the fertile and politically Popular Belief.Oxford: Blackwell. fragmented estates where the jurisdiction was in the Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. hands of the nobility, as well as on the island of 2nd ed. London: Longman. Fehmarn in the east. In the independent Hanseatic city Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany, 1562–1684. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. of Lübeck, by contrast, almost thre e - q u a rters of the Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New defendants we re not convicted (Schulte 2001, 78) or York: Scribner’s. the problems were solved by simply exiling the “witch- es.” Individual trials predominated in the duchies Schleswig-Holstein, because the majority of the proceedings we re taken Duchies of against single persons and ended with a verdict against Although Lutheran north-central Europe has not been the defendant. Even so-called small panics were uncom- considered a major witch-hunting region, Schleswig- mon. The typical witchcraft trial was based on the Holstein can no longer be viewed as an area with few assumption that m a l e fic i u m (harmful magic) existed, witchcraft trials. With over 600 witchcraft executions which was primarily attributed to a pact with the Devil in a population of 495,000, Schleswig-Holstein ranks and sometimes even to sex with the Devil. near the middle, not the bottom, of German regions in The Danish Lutheran theologian Ni e l s this respect. Hemmingsen, as well as the pastor Samuel Meiger from At the time of witch hunts, the duchies of Schleswig Holstein, helped to shape a moderate theological assess- and Holstein (politically bound together by tre a t i e s ) , ment of witchcraft, which had a major influence on the the duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg, and the independent regional practice of witch hunting. In their writings (in city of Lübeck and other smaller political entities fell 1575 and 1587), both basically assumed that witchcraft within the current boundaries of the German L a n d was real and potent, but they maintained a skeptical (state) of Schleswig-Holstein. Beginning in 1581, most attitude tow a rd a so-called witches’ Sabbat. In their of this region was governed either by the king of opinion, the powers of witches we re horrible but—give n Denmark or by the duke of Gottorf, whose capital was the monotheist view of the world, in which only God the town of Schleswig. In Holstein and Lauenburg, reigned—limited. The image of the Sabbat was missing both part of the Holy Roman Em p i re, the Caro l i n a in many defendants’ confessions because most regional Code (1532) of Em p e ror Charles V governed legal authorities regarded their participation in alleged gath- p ro c e d u re, together with older ordinances. The Co d e erings of witches with skepticism. permitted official public prosecution of sorcery, unlike The end of witch hunting in Schleswig-Holstein can conditions in Schleswig where Danish law, the so-called be attributed to the intervention of the authorities. In the Jyske Lov (Jutish Law), permitted only private lawsuits late seventeenth century, King Christian V of De n m a rk against alleged witches for many years to come. In tried to control the jurisdiction of the nobility in connec- 1576, the Danish king Frederick II ordered high courts tion with his centralization attempts. At the same time, he to re v i ew all locally passed death sentences, furt h e r was successful in sentencing two landlords in De n m a rk limiting the possibility of arbitrary witchcraft trials. and in Holstein for perversion of justice in major witch- Some provisions in the imperial territories of this craft trials. His decision apparently had a strong deterring region, however, surpassed the Carolina Code in rigor. impact, given that only a few death sentences we re passed Yet they did not match the deadly severity of ordinances in the following years. Witch hunting subsided there a f t e r, f rom other Lutheran rulers, such as those in electoral e ven before the criticism in the course of the early Saxony or the duchy of Württemberg. German Enlightenment could have any effect. The last T h roughout modern Schleswig and Holstein, 852 e xecution of a witch in Schleswig-Holstein occurred in witchcraft trials have been ve r i fied for the period 1724, and the last trial took place in 1735. b e t ween 1530 and 1735, 90 percent of them against In spite of the absence of mass trials or organize d women. In total, 71 percent of all defendants were put witch committees in villages, Schleswig-Ho l s t e i n’s to death. In “the land between the seas,” the pre s s u re many individual trials, which common people often f rom the Eu rope-wide witch-hunting fever became requested and which we re then carried out by the evident by 1580; after that date, the number of witch- authorities, reveal the latent tensions among the region’s craft trials continually increased until reaching its peak population, vented in witch hunting. b e t ween 1610 and 1635 (Schulte 2001, 67–70, 97–104). These trials started re l a t i vely early in ROLF SCHULTE; Schleswig-Holstein, as in Denmark. They seem to have TRANSLATED BY JAN VAN DER CRABBEN Schleswig-Holstein, Duchies of 1011

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1012 Application File See also:CAROLINACODE;DENMARK;GERMANY;GERMANY, 1632 and 1634, he was ennobled, a clear indication of WESTANDNORTHWEST;HEMMINGSEN,NIELS;MALEFICIUM; his rapid social rise, and he first became active as a PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;SABBAT; witch commissioner between 1616 and 1617 and again SAXONY,ELECTORATEOF;WÜRTTEMBERG,DUCHYOF. in 1621, supervising witchcraft trials in the towns of References and further reading: Hirschberg (where at least thirteen exe c u t i o n s Schulte, Rolf. 2001. Hexenverfolgung in Schleswig-Holstein vom occurred) and Arnsberg. Around 1630, he participated 16.–18. Jahrhundert.Heide: Boyens. in the major persecution of witches in the duchy of Westphalia, which claimed about 1,100 victims Schultheiss, Heinrich von b e t ween 1562 and 1728 (Decker 1981–1982, 374). (ca. 1580–ca. 1646) Schultheiss had to flee to Cologne in 1633 because of Along with Licentiate Kaspar Reinhard, Dr. Johann the effects of the T h i rty Ye a r s’ Wa r. T h e re, he printed (Jan) Möden, and Dr. Franz Buirmann, Dr. Heinrich his In s t ru c t i o n , on which he had been working since von Schultheiss ranks among the best-known witch 1631. After returning to Westphalia, he again conduct- commissioners (He xe n k o m m i s s a re)—individuals who ed witchcraft trials in the town of Werl. played a pivotal role in sentencing hundreds of people Witch commissioners such as Schultheiss we re to death during the witchcraft trials in electoral q u a l i fied in the law and active at the court of the Cologne, especially during the seve re persecutions a rchbishop-elector of Cologne. They oversaw local between 1626 and 1631 and from 1641 to 1644. A criminal law courts in order to ensure that procedures tract written by von Schultheiss as a means of vindicat- followed the 1607 Witch-Trial Ordinance promulgated ing his role in the persecutions, the Aussführliche for the electorate. They we re only supposed to advise Instruction, wie in Inquisition Sachen des grewlichen local lay judges, but in practice, the witch commission- Laster der Zauberey . . . ohn Gefahr der Unschüldigen zu ers took control of the trials and consequently often procediren (Detailed Instruction, on How to Proceed t r i g g e red horrific, exc e s s i ve persecutions. The practice against the Dreadful Crime of Witchcraft . . . Without of sending these commissioners throughout electoral Any Danger to Those Innocent of the Crime, 1634), Cologne to supervise proceedings in witchcraft trials at offers a window into the mentality of these witch com- local courts replaced the ordinary custom in other terri- missioners and of the processes they used to try alleged tories, where by local courts sent trial documents to witches. The tract can be juxtaposed to the works of “e x p e rt” jurists at central courts or to law faculties of two contemporary opponents of these witchcraft trials: u n i versities to obtain advice on such cases. Howe ve r, Michael Stappert, whose Brillen-Tractat (literally, The the Cologne witch commissioners were not deliberately “Spectacles” [Eyeglasses] Tract) was written after 1629, sent to local courts as part of some witch-eradication and Herman Löher, whose Hochnötige Unterthanige scheme pursued by the electors; rather they were sent in Wehmütige Klage der frommen Unschuldigen (Much response to petitions demanding action against witches, Needed, Humble, and Woeful Complaint of the Pious d e l i ve red to the elector by subjects from va r i o u s Innocent) was published only in 1676. localities. Oc c a s i o n a l l y, the witch commissioners Heinrich Schultheiss was born into a wealthy farm- collaborated with local witch-hunting committees ing family in the village of Scharmede near Paderborn, (Hexenausschüsse). w h e re his father held the office of bailiff, re p re s e n t i n g A significant loss of re l e vant trial re c o rds makes it the interests of the Paderborn cathedral chapter, which impossible to ascertain with any accuracy the number held manorial rights in this village. Heinrich attended of witchcraft trials in which Schultheiss was invo l ve d ; the Jesuit-run cathedral school in Paderborn and then a only a few documentary fragments detailing his person- Jesuit grammar school, probably in Cologne. At fir s t , al activity have survived. However, his persecuting zeal he followed a clerical career path, but he never became and fanaticism we re well attested in contemporary fully ordained. He then studied law, initially at the criticisms of the persecutions in electoral Cologne. For Un i versity of Cologne and then at the Un i versity of example, in his Brillen-Tractat,which was probably not Würzburg, where he became a doctor of law in 1603. originally intended for publication, the priest Mi c h a e l Subsequently leaving the priesthood, Schultheiss St a p p e rt described more than twenty-one witchcraft became a councillor to the archbishop of Mainz before trials where the witch commissioners, including becoming a commissioner at the high court (Hofgericht) Schultheiss, participated. Stappert had firsthand knowl- of the elector of Cologne around 1610. About 1614, he edge of these trials because he had been confessor to m oved to Arnsberg, the capital of the duchy of their victims. In simple and forceful prose, St a p p e rt Westphalia (one of the territories belonging to electoral told how Schultheiss, through manipulative question- Cologne). ing and tort u re, had forced suspects to make false T h e re, Schultheiss became a prominent member of confessions of witchcraft and then accuse other people the territorial administrative apparatus through his as their accomplices. Like many other clerics with rank as councillor to the Cologne electors. Be t we e n comparable experiences, St a p p e rt changed from a 1012 Schultheiss, Heinrich von

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1013 Application File s u p p o rter to a critic of witchcraft trials after re a l i z i n g when prosecuting witches. Defending his actions, that the alleged witches were innocent people who ulti- Schultheiss referred briefly to the Cautio Criminalis (A mately did not dare retract their confessions for fear of Warning on Criminal Justice, 1631) by Friedrich Spee suffering further torture. Herman Löher, a lay assessor (an important critic of witchcraft trials) and discussed f rom a court in Rheinbach in the Eifel region, con- in depth the work of another important Jesuit witch- demned the witchcraft trials pursued by the witch com- craft trial critic, Adam Tanner. In Schultheiss’s opinion, missioners in similar tones. Löher, who fled to Tanner was a patron of witches who fully deserved to be Amsterdam after being suspected of witchcraft himself, tried for witchcraft himself. incorporated St a p p e rt’s work into his own critique of RITA VOLTMER; the trials and cited Heinrich von Schultheiss (along with Buirmann, Möden, and others) as stereotypes of TRANSLATED BY ALISON ROWLAND the merciless, deluded, and insidious witch hunter. See also:BUIRMANN,FRANZ;COLOGNE;EVIDENCE;GERMANY, Although Schultheiss, like all witch commissioners, WESTANDNORTHWEST;LÖHER,HERMAN;MÖDEN,JOHANN received a fee for every witch he tried, neither Stappert (JAN); PADERBORN,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;SPEE,FRIEDRICH; nor Löher accused him explicitly of hunting witches in SWIMMINGTEST;TANNER,ADAM. o rder to enrich himself, as they did with Bu i r m a n n . References and further reading: However, it is certain that the role Schultheiss attained Becker,Thomas P. 1996.“Hexenverfolgung im Erzstift Köln.” as a witch commissioner was significant in ensuring his Pp. 89–136 in Hexenverfolgung im Rheinland: Ergebnisse neuerer Lokal- und Regionalstudien.Edited byWolfgang Isenberg and ennoblement: He made a social, if not a financial, prof- Georg Mölich. Bergisch Gladbach: Thomas-Morus-Akademie it from such activities. Bensberg. Decker, Rainer. 1981–1982. “Die Hexenverfolgungen im The Instruction Herzogtum Westfalen.” WestfälischeZeitschrift131–132: As the criticisms voiced by Stappert showed, the work 339–386. of the witch commissioners did not meet with univer- ———.1992. “Gegner der grossen Hexenverfolgung von sal approval from contemporaries. It was probably for 1628/31 im Herzogtum Westfalen und im Hochstift this reason that Schultheiss wrote his De t a i l e d Paderborn.” Pp. 187–197 in Vom Unfug der Hexen-Processes Instruction.In this tract, he justified his own role in the Gegner der Hexenverfolgung von Johann Weyer bis Friedrich Spee. witchcraft trials, called for further persecution, and also Edited by Hartmut Lehmann and Otto Ulbricht. Wiesbaden: offered a guide to how the guilt of alleged witches could Harrassowitz. ———. 1996. “Der Hexen-Richter Dr. Heinrich v. Schultheiss best be proved in court. Written in German, his tract (ca. 1580–1646) aus Scharmed.” Pp. 1045–1060 in 750 Jahre was aimed at noble lords who held rights to or partici- Salzkotten.Edited by Detlev Grothmann. Paderborn: pated in the exercise of criminal justice at the local level. Bonifatius. Schultheiss discussed at length the sorts of evidence Gibbons, Louis Oliphant. 1920. “Some Rhenish Foes of Credulity that justified the pursuit of trials against suspected and Cruelty (1620–1640): A Chapter in the History of witches. He refused to accept the legal validity of the Torture.” PhD diss., Cornell University. swimming test (water ordeal), calling it a superstitious ———. 1931. “A Seventeenth Century Humanitarian: Hermann practice. Howe ve r, he placed great value on the Löher.” Reprinted in 1968 as pp. 335–359 in Persecution and s o-called De v i l’s mark (He xe n m a l) as a sign of a sus- Liberty: Essays in Honor of George Lincoln Burr.Edited by J. p e c t’s guilt. The fact that another suspect had alre a d y Franklin Jameson. NewYork: Books for Libraries Press. named a person as a witch during interrogation was, for Schultheiss, an extremely important piece of evidence. Science and Magic He claimed that just one such accusation sufficed to Magic and witchcraft have long been associated with instigate legal proceedings against a suspect. Ev i d e n c e the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and presented in given by children could also be used against suspected opposition to modern “science.” The very title of this witches because, according to Schultheiss, childre n encyclopedia entry, “Science and Magic,” implicitly were often the victims of seduction by witches. He gen- upholds the persistent idea that the two are distinct erally allowed the accused witch no opportunities to enterprises and require different practices. Yet science defend him- or herself, denying both the accused and and magic were indistinguishable for much of the their families any access to the trial re c o rds. Us i n g Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and a discussion of examples from his own experience and displaying an the so-called occult sciences (astro l o g y, divination, ironic pride in his own “ingenious” methods of interro- g e o m a n c y, alchemy) is unhelpful and potentially gation, Schultheiss recorded how he—with the help of misleading. Magic provided a source of experimental the tort u rer—had forced even obdurate suspects to and empirical knowledge about the natural world in the make confessions. In his last chapter, he was part i c u l a r l y medieval and early modern periods, and it was gov- concerned to refute the allegation that he and his erned by a specific rationality and internal logic. colleagues had acted ove rzealously and thoughtlessly Historians have shown that magic was not a marginal Science and Magic 1013

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1014 Application File set of practices or beliefs in medieval and Renaissance own sake, as well as being interested in magic. In the Eu rope and that interest in natural magic and Middle Ages and the Renaissance, acceptance and Hermeticism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries manipulation of occult pro p e rties was often part of a provided some of the conditions for the creation of the larger interest in the workings of the natural world. “new science” in the seventeenth century. It is, howe ve r, important to draw a distinction Miracles, Marvels, and Magic b e t ween folk, or “p o p u l a r,” magic, which has left There is an important distinction to be made between extremely few records of its practices or beliefs, and the natural and supernatural phenomena, together with learned, theoretical approach to magic. Keeping in their causes. Until the seventeenth century, “natural” mind that many more people believed in or practiced was what occurred in nature most of the time and what magic than we shall ever know, we are required by the could be observed by a nonspecialist. Natural law under paucity of evidence to focus almost entirely on intellec- the Aristotelian system was not fixed or rigid but tual, learned magic, as theorized and practiced by a rel- instead was based on customary, everyday experience. a t i vely small, elite group of people throughout the By observing many particular instances and learning Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Furthermore, there is what usually happened in nature, one could begin to nothing inherently good or evil about magic. W h i l e deduce broader rules and causes for such behaviors. distinctions between “w h i t e” and “black” magic have Strange particular instances, such as conjoined twins, been long held and widely discussed for centuries, they were regarded as “unnatural” because they were abnor- become difficult to pin down at a practical leve l . mal occurrences. In Aristotelian natural philosophy, the Theoretically speaking, black magic used the powers of concepts of natural and normal were strongly correlat- the Devil or his agents, whereas white magic harnessed ed. Supernatural phenomena always resulted fro m the forces of the natural world and celestial bodies. As divine causation. The parting of the Red Sea or the sun there was no practical way to assess whether the power standing still would be examples of miracles, occur- behind a specific act was divine or diabolical, this dis- rences that run contrary to nature’s laws; God caused tinction was a matter of theory and polemic. It is worth both. By the thirteenth century, monstrous births, freak bearing in mind, however, that influential people in the meteorological events, and other abnormal phenomena Middle Ages and the Renaissance were heavily invested were classified as praeter naturalis, or outside of nature. in the theoretical differences between demonic and Preternatural phenomena did not have supernatural divine causes of magic and that many careers we re causes, yet they were not natural, as they did not follow ruined and lives lost as a result. the customary laws of nature. Rather, their causes were The conventional modern distinction between mag- celestial, demonic, or unknown. Ma rvels could be ic and science, put forth in the 1920s by anthropologist caused by the placement of the planets in the sky, as it Bronislaw Malinowski, rests on the difference between was believed that planets and their locations affected hope and reason. Magic relies on the belief that hoping natural objects and events in the sublunar realm by for a result will produce a result, while science uses intensifying the qualities of physical objects. St . reason and experience to produce valid knowledge. Yet Thomas Aquinas explained that preternatural phenom- reason and logic we re ve ry much a part of magic in ena could also be caused by demonic intervention. The premodern Europe, and desire was embedded in tradi- intellect of the magus has no power over physical tional Aristotelian natural philosophy. Concepts of objects; there f o re, the frequent use of symbols, hiero- “use” versus “understanding” offer a better way to dis- glyphs, and words in the practice of magic was to com- tinguish between magic and science. Use relates to a municate with disembodied intelligences. Aq u i n a s t e c h n o l o g y, whereas understanding yields know l e d g e , posited that these intelligences had to be demons, or scientia,the Latin term for wisdom. At its most basic, which exerted influence over physical objects and could then, magic is a technology designed to accomplish manipulate the forces of nature. Later philosophers ve ry real and desired results, rather than a gre a t e r debated this point and posited that such intelligences understanding of the natural world as an end unto could be either benign or evil, although it was difficult i t s e l f. Magic is a technology, usually employing occult to know the difference. However, after Aquinas, magic or unknown forces of nature to achieve specific ends and its practice became increasingly linked with diabol- through a series of means, often including words, sym- ical influences, especially in the eyes of the Church. bols, or specific objects invested with particular quali- ties. It is important to keep in mind, howe ve r, that Natural Properties and Qualities many of the theologians, natural philosophers, and sci- The unknown causes of preternatural phenomena pro- entists who we re interested in magic, such as St . voked much theorization, becoming responsible for Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Giordano Bruno, and what became known by the early fifteenth century as Giambattista della Porta, were searching for knowledge “natural magic.” According to Aristotelian natural phi- about and understanding of the natural world for its losophy, “qualities” were the cause of the attributes of 1014 Science and Magic

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1015 Application File natural objects. Qualities included such things as color, qualities. These elements could be combined; for exam- size, shape, or density and were divided into two broad ple, talismans or amulets could intensify or redirect the categories: manifest and occult. Manifest qualities were innate powers of celestial bodies and their influences on sensible; they could be directly perceived by the senses. the sublunar realm. Occult qualities were insensible; they were impercepti- Giambattista della Po rta is one of the best-know n ble to the senses and were not revealed by experimenta- natural philosophers of the Renaissance. He founded tion. Precisely because they were insensible, they were the Academia dei Se g reti (the Academy of Se c re t s ) , considered unintelligible or unknowable. For example, d e dicated to studying and publishing the secrets of a bezoar (foreign matter, such as hair, in the stomach or nature. His first published work was the Magiae natu- intestines) was known to be an antidote for poison, yet ralis(On Natural Magic, 1558), a collection of marvels there was no way of discovering or explaining why it and secrets of nature, as well as an attempt to apply was an effective antidote. experimental techniques to such marvels and secre t s . Oc c u l t means hidden from view, yet it also has the The central belief underlying this work was that nature connotation of beyond the range of ord i n a ry human was orderly and rational. A natural magician could, if understanding, as well as secret or known only to the well intentioned, virtuous, and moral, understand this initiated. The occult sciences are so called because they natural order after long study. Na t u ral Ma g i c a l s o involve the knowledge or use of the mysterious, hidden posited that experimentation could lead the magus to p ro p e rties of natural objects. In many cases, it was understanding the natural world and from understand- considered magic to use the generally unknown proper- ing proceed to manipulation. ties of an herb or mineral, even if its effects were, by our This spiritual and moral purity of the magus lends an criteria, “n a t u r a l” or explicable. Thus, much of the emotional and personal quality to natural magic. A m e d i e val and Renaissance understanding of magic scientist can engage in questionable or illegitimate depended on the Aristotelian distinction between man- moral or spiritual practices; so long as these practices do ifest and occult qualities: Magic dealt more with occult not infringe on the sphere of scientific inquiry, this qualities, while science, or natural philosophy, relied on makes no difference to the final result. The magician, manifest qualities. Magic was linked to the study and h owe ve r, is intimately bound up in the quality and manipulation of occult qualities, which were inexplica- results of his or her knowledge and experimentation, as ble. Whether these occult qualities or forces we re they hinge directly on the magician’s virtues, morals, u n k n owable (unintelligible to the human mind) or and intentions. The principles of natural magic as a u n k n own (not presently understood), the point was whole are also intimately related to human spirituality that the magus or alchemist or astrologer did not fully and intellect. The magical worldview is animistic, understand the processes being studied and manipulat- meaning that mind and matter are linked and can affect ed because a person was unable to apprehend fully with one another. The philosopher-magus can bring about the five senses the nature of the object being used. changes in the material world through a sympathetic understanding of the network of occult and spiritual Early Modern Natural Magic and the forces that animate the universe, just as the workings of Magical Worldview nature and the movement of celestial bodies can affect Natural magic invo l ved harnessing occult natural the magician’s physical, emotional, or psyc h o l o g i c a l forces, often in conjunction with the position and state. influence of astral bodies (while “sympathetic magic” referred to the position of the heavenly bodies on the Natural Magic, Hermeticism, sublunary realm). The magus either was acted upon or and Science was an intermediary; in either case, the result of the Much of what is called natural magic is linked with the practice of natural magic could be psychological or psy- Hermetic tradition. Part of the Neoplatonic revival in chosomatic. There were four forces that one skilled in the mid-fifteenth century, it was based on a corpus of natural magic could manipulate. The first was the vis writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, or “Thrice- imaginum (the force of images), relying on figures, Great Hermes,” who was believed to be an incarnation hieroglyphs, and talismans. The second was vis verbo- of the Egyptian god Thoth. The Hermetic corpus is a rum (the force [or power] of words), based on a belief considerable body of religious, philosophical, and sci- that words were the essences of things. This force entific literature, believed to have been written around worked through oaths, spells, and incantations. The vis 2000 B.C.E. but actually composed by a group of musices (the force [or power] of music) dealt with pro- Greek-speaking Egyptians in Alexandria in the second portion and number and encompassed celestial harmo- and third centuries C.E. While there was no direct link ny, numerology, and sympathetic magic. Lastly, the vis b e t ween the Hermetic writings and Christianity rerum (the power of things) pertained to the innate (especially early Christian mysticism), there were many f o rces of things, that is, occult versus elemental similarities, due to the fact that writers of both groups Science and Magic 1015

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1016 Application File of texts were drawing on the same sources. Very little of Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft the Hermetic writings was devoted to magic; what little in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. was mentioned dealt with astrology, alchemy, and Copenhaver, Brian. 1984. “Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De vitaof Marsilio Ficino.” Renaissance Quarterly animated, or living, statues. However, the writings 37: 523–554. e x p ressed the idea of the animistic, sympathetic ———. 1988. “Hermes Trismegistus, Proclus, and the Question universe, which became so central to the philosophy of of a Philosophy of Magic in the Renaissance.” Pp 79–110 in natural magic. Hermeticism and the Renaissance.Edited by Ingrid Merkel and The Corpus Hermeticum(the body of writings of the Allen G. Debus. Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library. Hermetic tradition) was discove red in Constantinople ———, ed. 1992. Hermetica.Cambridge: Cambridge University ( Istanbul) in 1460 by agents of Cosimo I Me d i c i . Press. Marsilio Ficino, the leading Platonist scholar and Daston, Lorraine, and Katharine Park. 1998. Wonders and the philosopher of his time, published a translation and Order of Nature.NewYork: Zone Books. c o m m e n t a ry in 1464, claiming that He r m e s Flint, Valerie. 1991. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Trismegistus was one of Plato’s major influences, and he Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Hutchinson, Keith. 1982. “What Happened to Occult Qualities g a ve a Christian gloss to the writings by positing that in the Scientific Revolution?” Isis73: 233–254. Hermes Trismegistus and Moses had been contempo- Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge: raries. After Fi c i n o’s translation and commentary, the Cambridge University Press. Hermetic writings became one of the most import a n t ———. 1994. “The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic.” intellectual traditions of the Renaissance. American Historical Review99: 813–836. Gi o rdano Bruno (1548–1600), a Dominican friar, Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London: was a strong adherent to Hermetic philosophy, and he Weidenfeld and Nicolson. managed to link Hermeticism, Copernican astronomy, Thorndike, Lynn. 1923–1958. A History of Magic and and animism. Condemned as a heretic by the Experimental Science.8 vols. NewYork: Columbia University Inquisition and burned at the stake in 1600, he repre- Press. sented the last flowering of Hermetic philosophy. In the wake of Bru n o’s execution, the Catholic Churc h Scot, Reginald (1538?–1599) condemned certain forms of magic, and partly because It is one of the peculiarities of English witchcraft histo- of Bruno’s zeal, Hermeticism and heresy became closely ry that the first major work written on witchcraft by an linked. In addition, the revival of many different strains English author, Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft of philosophy from antiquity diminished the nove l t y of 1584, was unrelentingly skeptical. Scot was a rela- and originality of Hermeticism. However, Hermeticism tively obscure Kentish gentleman, who, like most of his exercised an influence on succeeding intellectual tradi- class, was involved in local administration (he may have tions, even after it had been discredited. Dame Frances been a justice of the peace) and whose only other Yates, in Gi o rdano Bruno and the He rmetic Tra d i t i o n known publication was a 1574 tract on hop cultivation, (1964), argued that the Renaissance magician was the A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden. He was appar- immediate ancestor of the seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry scien- ently moved to write his Discoverie of Witchcraft after tist. Both Bruno and Copernicus espoused heliocen- witnessing and being horrified by trials in his native trism and Hermeticism, but in the next century, René Kent. The work demonstrated a deep level of scholar- Descartes and Pierre Gassendi advocated the mechanis- ship, citing over 200 foreign and 38 English works. For tic philosophy as a reaction against He r m e t i c i s m , example, Scot was among the few English witchcraft contending that influence was not the same as organic writers to have said much about the Ma l l e u s descent. Yet Dame Yates demonstrated the importance Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches, 1486), a work of late Renaissance magic, and she explored its relation- that he continually held up to ridicule. Jean Bodin’s ship to science. 1580 demonological treatise received much the same treatment. Scot was equally dismissive of such English E. R. TRUITT accounts of witchcraft as the tract describing the 1582 See also:ALCHEMY;AMULETANDTALISMAN;AQUINAS,THOMAS; Essex trials or Richard Galis of Windsor’s autobio- ASTROLOGY;BARANOWSKI,BOGDAN;DELLAPORTA,GIAMBAT- graphical account of his own bewitchment. TISTA;HERMETICISM;MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGIC,NATURAL; S c o t’s D i s c overie of Wi t c h c raft remained out of print MAGIC,POPULAR;MECHANICALPHILOSOPHY;MIRACLES; until it was republished in 1651, presumably in MONSTERS;OCCULT;SIGHT,POWERSOF[SECONDSIGHT]; response to the re n ewed interest in witchcraft during SYMPATHY;THOTH;YATES,FRANCESAMELIA. the Civil War and its aftermath; another reprinting fol- References and further reading: lowed in 1654. A new edition in 1665 had a rewritten Ankarloo, Bengt, and Stuart Clark, eds. 2002. The Middle Ages. title page, re flecting the growing skepticism of the Vol. 3 of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. London and Philadelphia: Athlone and University of p o s t-Restoration period: It was probably this edition that Pennsylvania Press. Samuel Pepys recorded purchasing on August 12, 1667. 1016 Scot, Reginald

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1017 Application File Scot’s work also appeared twice in Dutch, at Leiden in Scot reject all spiritual interventions, either good or 1609 and again in 1637. evil, in human affairs? If this had been the case, his The work ranged widely, dealing with many topics work would indeed have been radical, for well into the debated by contemporary demonologists. Although eighteenth century, most writers who were opposed to some writers claimed that Scot was a harbinger of witch hunting and who took a ve ry restricted view of modernity and rationality, his thinking was very firmly witchcraft were at pains to stress that they did not deny located in the English Renaissance. T h e re was, of the existence of spirits and that to do so was an impor- course, a rough common sense in his thinking: Most of tant step toward denying Christianity. what witches were alleged to do was clearly absurd and Recent scholarship confronting this issue has tended impossible, he suggested, and it should there f o re have to concentrate on the final section of the Discoverie of been dismissed. Ve ry near the beginning of his book, Wi t c h c ra f t , the seventy-two-page “Discourse upon Scot provided a clear description of that connection Di vels and Sp i r i t s”—a section unfortunately omitted between witchcraft accusations and the denial of neigh- from what is probably the most widely read edition of borly charity that Alan Macfarlane would re d i s c ove r S c o t’s work, that pre p a red by Montague Summers. In four centuries later. this section, Scot restated his rejection of dealings with Scot maintained two of the basic positions open to the Devil, of demonic magic, and of those notions of skeptics of his period. First, he argued that most witch- witchcraft that hinted at the miraculous. But in this, it craft accusations rested on an unsound theological has been argued (Anglo 1977), Scot demonstrated the basis. Most misfortunes that their supposed victims limits to his denial of the supernatural, showing that he ascribed to witches were, in fact, attributable to divine was aware of how radical his views seemed and was Providence; popular belief in witchcraft discre d i t e d anxious to deny their ultimate implications. In effect, Go d’s powe r. Second, Scot argued that those who Scot seemed to have rejected not only the reality of resorted to Scripture to defend witch hunting employed witches but also the reality of spirits, which he saw as passages that we re either mistranslated or described entities with no physical being and which could not magical practitioners quite unlike the witches of i n t e rvene in the affairs of—and much less harm— Elizabethan England. Further proof that he was a man human beings. This aspect makes defining Scot’s ow n of his time was provided by the way in which, like most religious position difficult, and it is perhaps no surprise English writers of the period, Scot was anxious to that a recent analysis of this final section of his gre a t e m p h a s i ze the absurdity of Roman Catholic thinking work attempts to connect Scot with the Family of Love and practices, an attitude that made his attack on the (Wootton 2001). Malleus Maleficarum all the easier. As might be imagined, Scot’s work re c e i ved ve ry Thus, Scot was able to make mincemeat of most of hostile treatment from later demonologists. He was the basic demonological tenets of the period. T h e a w a re that he was writing against the grain of demonic pact not only lacked a scriptural basis (a point c o n t e m p o r a ry re c e i ved wisdom, both learned and that troubled many demonological writers) but was, unlearned, Catholic and Protestant, and subsequent moreover, patently absurd: There could be no possible writers demonstrated this point vividly. James VI of bargain between a carnal and a spiritual body. Much the Scotland wrote his Daemonologie at least partly to refute same argument extended to sexual dealings, allow i n g Scot’s views. Scot was also targeted as a pernicious skep- Scot to reject completely the notion of sexual inter- tic in such key English works of demonology as those course between human beings and incubi or succubi by He n ry Holland in 1590, William Pe rkins in 1608, (another problem troubling many demonological and Richard Bernard in 1627, while the Puritan witch writers). Scot clearly enjoyed demolishing Scholastic finder John Darrell also singled him out for criticism in arguments explaining how human semen, essential to a tract of 1602, declaring that his opinions about hop p roduce offspring from intercourse between human c u l t i vation we re superior to his views on witchcraft. beings and demons, could remain hot while stored in The assertion that James VI, on his accession to the an incorporeal body. Bodin’s discussion of shape chang- English throne in 1603, ord e red the D i s c overie to be ing, another concept that Scot rejected, provoked a burned by the public hangman lacks any support from searing demonstration of Bodin’s dependence on Ovid’s c o n t e m p o r a ry evidence, but it certainly captured the Metamorphoses; Bodin’s account of the Sabbat came in attitude of most learned writers to this book. Mo re for a similarly brisk rejection. Scot described witchcraft e q u i vo c a l l y, Scot seems to have been used by some at various points as a “cousening art,” fit to be believed Jacobean dramatists who made witchcraft a theme in only by children, fools, melancholics, or Ro m a n their plays, notably by Thomas Middleton in T h e Catholics. Similarly cavalier dismissals were extended to Witch (ca. 1613–1616). p rophesying, astro l o g y, oracles, divination, and alchemy. One is left wondering how many of Scot’s contem- Scot’s indictment of magical and related beliefs was, poraries shared his views. Cu r rent rethinking about t h e re f o re, almost total. But a question remains: Di d early modern witchcraft rejects the view that there was a Scot, Reginald 1017

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1018 Application File monolithic attitude to witchcraft and stresses that there therefore tended largely to refer to witchcraft in the were a number of intellectually viable positions on the Lowlands and the Borders and to the post-Reformation subject, va rying from outright credulity to the type of period. The first recorded execution of a witch took theologically informed skepticism that lay at the core of place in October 1542 at St. Andrews, and the last Scot’s thinking. The low intensity of witch hunting in occurred in June 1727 at Dornoch. England might reflect the fact that many other gentry with formal or informal local power shared something Sixteenth Century of Scot’s skepticism, even if they we re neither willing Many expected features of witchcraft were missing from nor able to write such scholarly tracts on the subject. It sixteenth-century Scotland. Its few Sabbats were distin- seems unlikely that Scot was totally alone in his guished by dancing, not by feasting or indiscriminate v i ew s — we know that the views of Michel de sexual activity: No one got there by flying, and no evil Montaigne, the most radical French skeptic of Scot’s spirits were present. Satan rarely appeared to his witch- generation, were shared by most of his colleagues on the es, and when he did, it was only as a man. There was Parlement (sovereign judicial court) of Bordeaux—and little overt indication of a pact; few witches were tested the comparatively low levels of witch hunting in for the Devil’s mark, and those who were found to have Elizabethan and early Stuart Kent might be a sign that the mark did not carry it in their private parts. There is they were widely shared by his county’s elite. no firm evidence that James VI introduced any so- called continental theories of witchcraft to Scotland JAMES SHARPE after his visit to Norway and Denmark between 1589 See also:BODIN,JEAN;CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC; and 1590. DEMONOLOGY;ENGLAND;ESSEX;FAMILYOFLOVE;INCUBUSAND At that point, Scottish witchcraft consisted largely of SUCCUBUS;JAMESVIANDI,KINGOFSCOTLANDANDENGLAND; traditional popular magical practices: curing or inflict- MACFARLANE,ALAN;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM;METAMORPHOSIS; ing illness, providing or administering love charms or MONTAIGNE,MICHELDE;PERKINS,WILLIAM;SEXUALACTIVITY, p ro t e c t i ve amulets, divination, and acts of malefic e . DEMONIC;SKEPTICISM;SUMMERS,MONTAGUE. Quite often, magical practitioners were assisted by what References and further reading: appear to be spirit guides or by fairies (Gaelic, sìthean). Anglo, Sydney. 1977. “Reginald Scot’sDiscoverie of Witchcraft: Scepticism and Sadduceeism.” Pp. 106–139 in The Damned Thus, to be able to work her cures or find stolen goods Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft. Edited by Sydney in 1576, Elizabeth Dunlop relied on the advice of the Anglo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. ghost of Thomas Reid, who had died twenty-nine years Estes, Leland L. 1983. “Reginald Scot and His Discoverie of b e f o re she first met him. In 1588, Alison Pearson was Witchcraft:Religion and Science in Opposition to the hired by the archbishop of St. Andrews to cure him of European Witch Craze.” Church History52: 444–456. illness, and used a spirit guide called William Simpson. West, Robert H. 1984. Reginald Scot and Renaissance Writings on Two years later, Isobel Watson gave her own child to a Witchcraft.Boston: Twayne’s English Authors Series. s ì t h e a n and served their king and queen; in 1598, Wootton, David. 2001. “Reginald Scot/Abraham Fleming/The Andrew Man called himself a child of the sìtheanqueen Family of Love.” Pp. 119–138 in Languages of Witchcraft. who had inherited her fairy gifts of foreknowledge and Edited by Stuart Clark. London: Macmillan. curing. A spirit he called Christsonday, who looked like a white-clad angel, also attended Man. Scotland But anyone who practiced any occult science or In Scotland, the belief in and practice of various forms consulted such a practitioner was liable to re c e i ve the of magic, including witchcraft, were widespread and death penalty under the terms of Scotland’sWitchcraft more or less constant until the twentieth century. Act of 1563. Witchcraft thus became an offense tried Scotland contains areas of widely differing cultures and by the state rather than by the Kirk (the Na t i o n a l societies—the Highlands, the Lowlands, the Islands, [ Pre s byterian] Church of Scotland). If the Kirk subse- the Borders—and its history of witchcraft needs to be quently uncovered suspect witches, it either dealt with d i f f e rentiated according to the linguistic, cultural, them through its own procedures, if it felt their alleged religious, and political circumstances of each region. offenses had little or no substance, or passed them to Because Scotland is neither monocultural nor monolin- the civil magistrate, if the Kirk found the case gual, the magical practitioners of its past were not sufficiently serious. identical everywhere. Moreover, we know little about Once in secular hands, suspects were subject to inter- witchcraft in Scotland before the Pro t e s t a n t rogation. Witchcraft was a difficult offense to prove , Reformation. The relevant records are sparse; in the and the authorities were interested in obtaining either a Gaelic-speaking Highlands and Islands where culture confession or a set of witness accounts that would was largely oral and where no judicial records have sur- amount to serious circumstantial evidence (i n d i c i a vived, there is no indication of how witches were treat- g ra v i s s i m a) against the accused. It is difficult to know ed. Before the eighteenth century, “Scottish” witchcraft h ow much tort u re, if any, was applied in these cases; 1018 Scotland

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1019 Application File sweeping generalizations have been based on very shaky king; enchanting a waxen image of the king; and foundations. To make torture legal, warrants had to be fin a l l y, enchanting a picture of the king wrapped in a issued by the Privy Council—and we know of only two white cloth. Di s c ove red by chance, the plot had many c e rtain instances when this happened between 1590 r a m i fications. The king’s cousin, the Earl of Bothwe l l , and 1689. Other instances are there f o re likely to have was named as a principal plotter. Some of the accused been illegal. we re probably named as conspirators for personal or Once brought to court, the “p a n e l” (accused) was family reasons having nothing to do with tre a s o n o u s tried by an assize, or jury. Defendants had the right to c o n s p i r a c y. A magician with friends in ve ry high legal representation, and the evidence indicates that the places, Richard Graham, may have been suborned to a d vocates did their best to gain acquittals or to have incriminate Bothwell for political reasons; howe ve r, charges ruled inadmissible. About half the panels B o t h well was unstable enough to have been a genuine appearing before the High Court of Ju s t i c i a ry in c o n s p i r a t o r. James examined Agnes Sampson, a witch Edinburgh during the seventeenth century whose f rom Haddington, and John Fian, a schoolmaster verdicts are known were acquitted. A panel could object f rom Prestonpans. Both allegedly suffered tort u re . to witnesses. Witness statements we re heard by the Like Richard Graham, Sampson seems to have had assize, and witnesses who contradicted each other could access to some highly placed people near the king. be confronted in open court. After hearing all the Many people we re arrested; re l a t i vely few, it seems, evidence, the assize retired and elected its chancellor, or we re executed. James had not been particularly inter- spokesman. Each charge against the accused was ested in witches before. Now, howe ve r, pro p e r l y c o n s i d e red and voted upon separately: A majority of frightened, he produced a book on the subject, votes decided “innocent” or “g u i l t y” on each count. Da e m o n o l o g i e (1597), based partly on his re c e n t Then the total number of guilty or innocent votes was experiences and partly on the standard theories found counted, and this formed the final ve rdict. A death in any scholarly witchcraft treatise. T h e re was a sentence often invo l ved returning the panel to her or f u rt h e r, unrelated outbreak of prosecutions in his hometown. Executions took place in the afternoon Ab e rd e e n s h i re between 1597 and 1598 in which and consisted of garroting followed by burning of the James took some interest, but after he became the king corpse. The panel’s movable property was confiscated to of England in 1603, he soon re ve rted to his former help defray the costs of imprisonment and exe c u t i o n . general indifference to the subject. As these costs we re always high, howe ve r, confis c a t i o n (there as elsewhere) was not profitable. Seventeenth Century Clichés about witches being poor, elderly, marginal- After King James had gone, Scottish witchcraft saw one ized women do not apply to the situation in Scotland. or two changes. In 1607, for example, Isobel Grierson The total number of executions, ove restimated in the was tried on charges of attacking Adam Clark and his past, stands at about 1,000 according to current studies wife in the form of her own cat, assisted by the Devil in ( a p p roximately two-thirds of whom we re women), the form of a “black man.” The previous year, the Devil although continuing re s e a rch will obviously modify had also helped her to harass William Burnet, that time this fig u re. On a per capita basis, howe ve r, Scotland, in the shape both of an infant and of Isobel herself. with a population of approximately 400,000, had the Such shape changing was unusual in Scottish witchcraft highest ratio of witchcraft executions anywhere in cases (Tibbie Smart had changed herself into a badger n o rthern Eu rope. Prosecutions of witches in Scotland in a rare instance from 1586), and the Devil still played we re not uniform either chronologically or geographi- little, if any, part in the majority of occult operations. c a l l y. T h e re we re peaks of severity between 1590 and More typical were the activities of Isobel Haldane in 1591, from 1597 to 1598, between 1629 and 1630, in 1623, curing patients by washing them in the name of 1649, and from 1659 to 1662. The first, often called the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (a magical formula the North Berwick incident because of a huge conven- frequently charged against Scottish witches); she had tion of witches allegedly held there, was basically a trea- visited a sìthean,after which a spirit guide helped her to son episode in which the preferred methods of assassi- foretell the future. nation happened to be magical. After Fe b ru a ry 1638, when a religious manifesto King James VI spent the 1589–1590 winter in called the “National Covenant” was signed by a number Scandinavia with his new wife, Anne of De n m a rk . of people opposed to the English king Charles I’s During his absence, male and female witches in East i n n ovations in worship, the notion of a covenant or Lothian conspired on different occasions to murd e r pact seems to have imprinted itself on Scotland’s public the king by four different methods: raising a storm to consciousness, for the wording of witchcraft d i t t a y s w reck his homew a rd-bound ship; manufacturing a (indictments) thereafter stressed the overt making of a magical poison to be smeared on a lintel or thre s h o l d pact between Satan and the individual witch. In d e e d , in the royal palace, where it could touch and infect the the wording became formulaic, as in the follow i n g Scotland 1019

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1020 Application File example, which is repeated many times in the e xecutions took place. This seve re episode was manuscript records of the trials: undoubtedly exacerbated by the activities of seve r a l witch prickers, men who offered to test suspects by You, having shaken off all fear of God and regard t h rusting long pins into their flesh in search of the for the laws, have betaken yourself to the service of insensible spots labeled “Devil’s marks.” John Kincaid, Satan, the enemy of your salvation, entered in the most notorious pricker, had also been active in covenant and paction with him, promised to be his 1649. Ten prickers were finally arrested and prosecuted servant and, taking a new name from him, for fraud. renounced your baptism and suffered your body, A legal fig u re prominent in the second half of the which ought to have been a temple to the Holy seventeenth century was Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Sir Ghost, to be polluted and defiled by his having car- George Mackenzie. He published Pleadings in Some nal copulation with you: and taken his marks upon Re m a rkable Ca s e s in 1673 and followed this in 1678 you: and also has kept several trysts and meetings w i t h The Laws and Customs of Scotland in Ma t t e r s with the Devil and others. Cr i m i n a l , both of which contained observations upon the trials of witches, based partly on his personal experi- The method of the witch’s submission to Satan was ence. Mackenzie was no skeptic, but he did maintain also formulaic. She would put one hand to the crown of that nature has its secrets and that many extraordinary her head and the other to the sole of her foot, saying happenings may have natural rather than preternatural that all between was his. With these new formulas, of explanations. He was also aware that some confessions course, the Devil began to make regular appearances in were based on fantasy, not fact; further, he stood by the witchcraft accusations. In virtually eve ry case, he took legal position that a witch’s threat to work malefic e the form of a respectable gentleman clad in black, blue, should not be sufficient to condemn her. For that, a green, or gray. Satan would offer to help the potential confession or the evidence of at least two reputable wit- witch, who was usually in a melancholy state or suffer- nesses was required. ing pecuniary hard s h i p, in return for her service and Cases of demonic possession were both rare and late would then have sexual intercourse with her. His wear- among Scottish witches. The most famous invo l ved “t h e ing green may be significant, for green was a fairy color; Bargarran imposter,” Christian Sh a w, the eleve n-ye a r - o l d here, we may be seeing an example of a fairy encounter daughter of the Laird of Bargarran. In 1696, she reinterpreted by the legal system as a diabolic meeting. accused a number of local adults of bewitching her into Attendance at Sabbats also became a more common fits and making her vomit material objects such as f e a t u re of accusations, although the Scottish Sa b b a t feathers, pins, and balls of hair. Doctors examined her. seems more an uproarious party than the sinister mani- In 1697, the Privy Council issued a commission of festation of Satan replete with performing evil, unpalat- i n vestigation; by the time it was complete, Christian able food, and sexual orgies that learned commentators had accused twenty-one adults, and three other presented. Indeed, once one reads beyond the new for- children had contributed their fantasies of being trans- mula of Devil-pact-sex, Scottish accusations differe d p o rted to a Sabbat and taking part in acts of magical little, if at all, from the kind of charges laid against their murder. As a consequence, three men and four women earlier counterparts. One exception, however, involved were executed. Isobel Gowdie from Auldearn, who, in 1662, described flying to her Sabbat on a straw (other witches we re Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries picked up by a magical wind and whirled to the Sa b b a t ) . Scottish belief in and practice of witchcraft continued The number of accusations increased noticeably in long after the Bargarran case. In 1704, for example, the 1649 when the Privy Council and Parliament fre e l y Fife fishing village of Pittenweem saw a sixteen-year-old issued commissions of investigation, with the boy attempt to imitate Christian Shaw’s possession, an Committee of Estates alone issuing over 350 during the episode that ended with the murder of one of those he 1649 summer recess. The motive was likely political: accused; the Dumfries circuit court heard cases of The state could assert control over the kirk by making witchcraft in 1709; in 1750, the presbytery of Tain witchcraft a crime rather than a sin and there f o re a heard more than one case of a woman being violently secular rather than an ecclesiastical concern. Thereafter, attacked because she was thought to be a witch; and on the number of cases diminished under Ol i ve r the island of Islay in 1772, if women suspected their Cro m we l l’s rule over Scotland. But in 1657, accusa- cattle were bewitched, they employed magical reme- tions began to multiply once more, and although there dies. Curiously, the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in was a brief interim after the end of the Protectorate in 1736 provoked vocal objections from a faction within May 1659, the upw a rd momentum resumed once the the Presbyterian kirk that felt an attack upon diabolical Restoration had settled in, reaching a climax in 1661 witchcraft represented the thin wedge of an attack upon and 1662 when over 600 cases and perhaps 300 the Christian religion itself. 1020 Scotland

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1021 Application File T h e re a f t e r, we find that visitors to Scotland and Magic in Enlightenment Europe.Edited by Owen Davies. Scottish clergymen re c o rded their impressions of magic Manchester: Manchester University Press. among the Highlanders and Islanders in part i c u l a r, doc- Normand, Lawrence, and Gareth Roberts. 2000. Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James VI’s “Demonology” and the North umenting many instances of divination, attempted cure Berwick Witches.Exeter: Exeter University Press. of diseases, fear of the evil eye, and second sight. In 1737, the minister of Speymouth rebuked one of his Scott, Sir Walter parishioners for consulting a man who claimed to fin d (1771–1832) stolen goods with the help of a spirit guide; in 1734, Duncan Gregor was re f e r red to the kirk session of El g i n During his lifetime, Sir Walter Scott was Scotland’s for curing fevers; and James Boswell and Sa m u e l most influential and popular author, with a Europe- Johnson noted instances of second sight when they visit- wide reputation. He wrote novels, collected and edited ed the Western Isles in 1773. Belief in s ì t h e a n re m a i n e d popular verse, and produced essays and reviews on a s t rong. As late as 1770, dairymaids on Sk ye offere d variety of topics. His interest in many aspects of the them milk, and a man from the island was still praying occult can be gauged not only from his own writings for protection against them in the nineteenth century. but also from the works of others dedicated to him, Both Lowland Scots and English visitors re g a rd e d such as the Letters of Natural Magic Addressed to Sir Highlanders and Islanders as “ignorant,” “s u p e r s t i- Walter Scott by Sir David Brewster (1832). Scott was tious,” and “s a vage.” Their evidence, while intere s t i n g well informed about the occult in general and witch- and useful, must be treated with caution because it craft in particular. His mother used to lend a toadstone s k ews our information away from the Lowlands and amulet to mothers of newly born children, and Borders, where most Scots lived, and suggests that mag- throughout his life, he collected a sizable number of ic was to be found only among “backward” peasantry. books relating to magic and other occult subjects. The In t e restingly enough, kirk and pre s by t e ry re c o rd s witches in his novels may have been portraits tailored to notably failed to record much practice of witchcraft or the needs of the tale, but the magic they did was con- any other occult operations in this period, despite visi- sistent with what we know of real witches through trial tors’ evidence that these things were still common. This records and other factual sources. reticence may have been connected with ministers’ Ghosts, fairies, astro l o g y, various forms of magic, embarrassment that, after more than two centuries of d reams, and second sight all appeared frequently in conscientious endeavors, the Kirk had signally failed to h i s w o rk; witchcraft in particular played a role of eradicate its adherents’ willingness to believe in and use g reater or lesser prominence in such novels as Gu y preternatural remedies for their everyday problems. Ma n n e r i n g , subtitled The As t ro l o g e r (1815), which had the Gypsy witch Meg Merrilees as a diviner and P. G. MAXWELL-STUART spell maker. The He a rt of Midlothian (1818) feature d See also:ABERDEENWITCHES;CONTEMPORARYWITCHCRAFT Ailie MacClure, whose status was disputed among three (POST1800); DEVIL’SMARK;FAIRIES;JAMESVIANDI,KINGOF of the nove l’s characters: One complained that she SCOTLANDANDENGLAND;MACKENZIE,SIRGEORGE;NORTH “practises her abominations, spaeing [telling] folks’ BERWICKWITCHES;NUMBEROFWITCHES;PITTENWEEMWITCH- fortunes wi’ egg-shells, and mutton-banes, and dreams ES;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;PRICKINGOFSUSPECTEDWITCHES; and divinations, whilk [which] is a scandal to ony SABBAT;SCOTT,SIRWALTER;TRIALS. Christian land to suffer sic [such] a wretch to live”; a References and further reading: second observed that she “only spaes fortunes, and does Adam, Isabel. 1978. Witch Hunt: The Great Scottish Witchcraft not lame, or plind [blind], or predevil any persons, or Trials of 1697.London: Macmillan. coup [overturn] cadgers’ carts, or ony sort of mischief”; Goodare, Julian, ed. 2002. The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context. and a third dismissed her as “no witch, but a cheat. . . Manchester: Manchester University Press. Larner, Christina. 1981. Enemies of God: The Witch-Hunt in practising her i m p o s t u res upon ignorant persons” Scotland.London: Chatto and Windus. ( Edinburgh Un i versity Press 2004, 415, 421). T h e Levack, Brian P. 1980. “The Great Scottish Witch-Hunt of Bride of Lammerm o o r (1819) was based on a re a l 1661–2.” Journal of British Studies20: 90–108. s e ve n t e e n t h-c e n t u ry incident when a bride died sud- MacCulloch, Canon J. A. 1921. “The Mingling of Fairy and denly after her wedding day. Scott introduced a bevy of Witch Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Scotland.” witches into the story, the principal of whom was Ailsie Folklore32: 227–244. Go u r l a y, who distributed herbal cures concocted with MacDonald, Stuart. 2002. The Witches of Fife: Witch-Hunting in a the help of astrology, told fortunes, interpreted dreams, Scottish Shire.East Lothian: Tuckwell. and worked love magic, much along the lines of Ailie Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. 2001. Satan’s Conspiracy: Magic and MacClure. Witchcraft in Sixteenth-Century Scotland.East Lothian: In 1814, Scott visited the Shetland Isles and Ork n e y Tuckwell. ———. 2004. “Magic and Witchcraft in Eighteenth-Century and there bought a favorable wind from a local witch in Scotland.” Pp. 81–99 in Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and St romness before continuing his journey. During the Scott, Sir Walter 1021

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1022 Application File course of the trip, he picked up a vast amount of infor- while the innocent would sink was valid for entirely mation about contemporary magical practices and natural reasons: Through their pact with the Devil, beliefs; he later worked many of them into his novel T h e witches acquired some of the insubstantiality of spirits, Pi ra t e (1822). These novels we re set in the eighteenth thus causing a tendency to float. (Scribonius opposed c e n t u ry. In his two medieval novels, Iva n h o e(1820) and traditional religious explanations that flo t a t i o n The Ta l i s m a n (1825), the magic differed little, if at all, occurred because of the criminal’s loss of spiritual puri- f rom that in his other stories. Howe ve r, in Iva n h o e , h i s ty, water being the medium of baptism.) witches we re not Scottish but Sa xon and Jewish. T h e Between 1584 and 1597, Scribonius’s theory regard- Sa xon witch, Ulrica, was depicted as some kind of fie n d , ing the swimming test was opposed by physicians while the Jewish witch, Rebecca, was young and beauti- (Johannes Ewich, Hermann Neuwaldt), by Catholic ful, accused of working cures with the help of the theologians (Peter Binsfeld, Ma rtín Del Rio), and by Kabbalah and of making a man fall in love with her the Protestant jurist Johann Georg Goedelmann, while t h rough her use of magic. Tried as a witch and sentenced another jurist (Jacob Rick) took up Scribonius’s to death, she was found to be wearing pro t e c t i ve amulets defense. Meanwhile, in 1588, Scribonius defended his in her clothing. Re c o rds from seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry ideas in De sagarum natura et potestate, deque his re c t e witchcraft trials confirm that this detail is accurate. cognoscendis et puniendis physiologia . . .(On the Nature In 1830, Scott published Letters on De m o n o l o gy and and Power of Witches, and on the Physiology of Wi t c h c ra f t , a compilation of written and oral history, Rightly Recognizing and Punishing Them), adding no f o l k l o re, and speculation about ghosts and fairies as we l l f resh arguments but relying mainly on sarcasm and as witches. For this work, he had done a fair amount of rhetorical questions to discredit the objections of his re s e a rch, extending from the study of we l l - k n own tre a- critics. tises such as Reginald Scot’s D i s c overie of Wi t c h c raft t o Like Jean Bodin and other late-sixteenth-century still-unpublished transcripts of Scottish witchcraft trials. demonologists, Scribonius saw demons as a fundamen- Some of his information came from his own experience. tal and pivotal element in the total ecology of life and In one letter, for example, he told about the discove ry of n a t u re. Without angels and demons, the bord e r an animal’s heart beneath the threshold of a house in between humanity and divinity seemed abrupt and the Dalkeith, an object that he was later given (in Ja n u a ry “great chain of being” incomplete. The doctrine of the 1827). The L e t t e r s thus constituted a classical Incarnation, asserting that Jesus mediated humanity d e m o n o l o g y, unusual only in being composed so late and divinity by embodying both, apparently offere d and in being cast in the form of letters. Altogether, then, insufficient comfort to intellectuals seeking scientific or S c o t t’s antiquarian re s e a rch and his personal experiences at least logical arguments for the reality and accessibili- a l l owed him to pre s e rve interesting and useful informa- ty of suprahuman beings. Scribonius explained his tion about the continuing pre valence of magical beliefs ontological and cosmological views in Rerum naturali- and practices in his own day. um doctrina methodica(1577; enlarged editions in 1583 and 1585), which was translated and abridged in P. G. MAXWELL-STUART English in 1631 as Naturall Pilosophy: or A Description See also:LITERATURE;SCOTLAND. of the World . . . . References and further reading: Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. 2001. Introduction to Sir Walter Scott, WALTER STEPHENS Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft.London: Folklore Society. Parsons, C. O. 1964. Witchcraft and Demonology in Scott’s Fiction. See also:ANGELS;BINFELD,PETER;BODIN,JEAN;CORPOREALITY, Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd. ANGELICANDDEMONIC;DELRIO,MARTÍN;DEMONOLOGY; DEMONS;GOEDELMANN,JOHANNGEORG;SWIMMINGTEST; TASSO,TORQUATO;WATER,HOLY. Scribonius, Wilhelm Adolf References and further reading: (ca. 1550–1600) Bosco, Giovanna. 1994. “Wilhelm Adolf Scribonius.” Pp. Seribonius was a sixteenth-century German witchcraft 160–161 in Bibliotheca lamiarum: Documenti e immagini della theorist, philosopher, and physician from Marburg, stregoneria dal Medioevo all’Età Moderna.Edited by Patrizia who taught logic and natural philosophy at Corbach. A Castelli. Ospedaletto (Pisa): Pacini. proponent of the logic of Peter Ramus, he published Lovejoy, Arthur O. 1964. The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea.1936. Reprint. Cambridge: Harvard several works in various fields, including, in 1583, De University Press. examine et purgatione sagarum per aquam frigidam (On Scribonius, Wilhelm Adolf. 1583. De examine et purgatione the Trial and Elimination of Witches by Cold Water), sagarum per aquam frigidam.Lemgow. which upheld the validity of the “swimming test,” or ———. 1588. De sagarum natura et potestate deque his recte cold-water ordeal, whereby suspects were bound hand ognoscendis et puniendis physiologia... Ubi de purgatione earum to foot and thrown into bodies of water. According to per aquam frigidam: Contra Joannem Evvichium... et Her. Scribonius, the idea that guilty suspects would float Neuvvaldium... doctores medicos et professores.Marburg. 1022 Scribonius, Wilhelm Adolf

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1023 Application File ———. 1631. Naturall Philosophy, or, A Description of the World, been practiced under the aegis of religion. Although the and of the Several Creatures Therein Contained, viz. of Angels, of revelation of the future has been the purpose most often Man, of the Heavens, the Starres, the Four Elements.2nd given for scrying, the activity has also been used to find enlarged ed. Translated and abridged by Daniel Widdowes. lost objects or missing persons and to track down crim- London. inals. Scrying Famous Scryers Scrying, also known as crystal gazing or crystallomancy, The medieval anthologist of magic Johann Ha rt l i e b is a form of divination in which the practice of described the various techniques in his Puoch aller ve r- prolonged staring at a translucent or shining object poten kunst (Book of All Forbidden Arts, written enables the practitioner to see moving pictures within b e t ween 1456 and 1464). Roger Bacon (1214–1294), the object. It is one of the simplest and most widely k n own throughout his life for his magical practices, was used techniques to induce a mental state receptive to v i l i fied as a scryer and magician even after his death. T h e supernormal phenomena. Renaissance magician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa vo n Nettesheim also used magical mirrors in his occult prac- Methods tices. Michel de No s t redame (1503–1556), generally Scrying employs several different methods, including k n own as Nostradamus, used scrying to re veal the future catoptromancy, in which the speculum is a mirror.This of the French kings to Catherine de Medici of Fr a n c e . method was known in the fifth century C.E. Later ref- John Dee was one of the most peculiar figures in the erences to catoptromancy are sparse, for other methods h i s t o ry of magic and experimental science. After his of scrying came into fashion. But Iamblichos knew it as genuinely scientific years, he tuned to the occult and an alternative to hydromancy (divination by seeing was especially interested in the art of scrying. He subse- what certain things do in water), and it was allegedly quently employed scryers, including the famous used in 193 C.E. by Emperor Didius Julianus to ascer- Edward Kelly. Dee was reported to possess many crystal tain his future. The alternative and in later times more globes, one of which is on exhibit in the Br i t i s h frequently mentioned method, which ancient authors Museum. Various legends have arisen surro u n d i n g indifferently called lecanomancy (dropping precious Dee’s “shew stones,” as he called them. stones into water and listening for acoustic manifesta- T h e re we re good reasons why an early modern tions such as whistles) or hydromancy, used a simple m e rchant such as the famous Anton Fugger found vessel of water with or without the addition of a film of c rystal-ball gazing attractive. By viewing this ball, he oil as the speculum. This technique was borrowed supposedly could behold his subordinates and purport- allegedly from Persia, according to ancient Middle edly see what they wore and where they lived. With this Eastern writers. Isidore of Seville described an instance m a rvelous piece of early modern spy equipment, Fu g g e r of a holy woman he knew who would pour clean water could see without being seen. Fu g g e r’s gazer explained into a glass goblet and see phantasms of coming events that her crystals contained two banned spirits who in the water. According to Isidore, the predictions she carried out the tasks she commanded. A powe rf u l made from her visions regularly came to pass. s o rc e ress had transformed the spirits into the cry s t a l Where scrying was done by proxy both in antiquity Fugger had supplied to her. and in the Middle Ages, a boy or a team of boys below All those accused of crystal-ball gazing protested that the age of puberty almost invariably served as the inter- they had not pre p a red the balls they had used. T h e y m e d i a ry. The primary reason for this choice was the p resented themselves as mere technicians. The belief re q u i rement of sexual purity in many magical opera- that evil spirits inhabited the balls and were responsible tions. Courtesans in Renaissance Venice used little girls for bringing about the magical powers of vision in them for scrying, for identical reasons. John of Sa l i s b u ry flourished in the Middle Ages. In early modern Europe, related the famous memories of his boyhood in his the element of the altered state of consciousness, the Po l i c raticus (The Statesman, 1159), in which he trance, was obviously looked upon as the effect of dia- mentioned that a priest tried to “teach” him the art of bolical powers. That distinction clearly demonstrates s c rying. Fo rtunately for him, he did not show any the shift in the operators of supernatural powe r s : affinity for clairvoyance. Well-educated, learned magicians who used the crystal in their individual forms of ritual magic, such as the Purpose famous John Dee and his successors, escaped prosecu- The purpose of the rite was most often precognition, tion, whereas the poor women who used but did not either by direct vision, as in the case of the holy woman, study the art were vulnerable to witchcraft accusations, or by inducing a god or daemon (a being intermediate as happened to the numerous hydromancers who were betweeen the gods and humans) to appear in the specu- prosecuted by the Venetian Inquisition. lum and answer questions. For this reason, scrying has CHRISTA TUCZAY Scrying 1023

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1024 Application File See also:AGRIPPAVONNETTESHEIM,HEINRICHCORNELIUS;DEE, sized the importance of sensory information for the JOHN;DIVINATION;HARTLIEB,JOHANN;ISIDOREOFSEVILLE; accumulation of knowledge. His theory of demonic JOHNOFSALISBURY;MAGIC,LEARNED;RITUALMAGIC;SIGHT, copulation resulted from applying Aristotle’s empirical POWERSOF(SECONDSIGHT). outlook to biblical and patristic representations of References and further reading: demons. The theory nourished the clerical fascination Achad, Frater. 1923. Crystal Vision Through Crystal Gazing. with demonic corporeality, which had been increasing Chicago: Yogi Publication Society. since the twelfth century. Aquinas only tried to explain Andrews, Ted. 1998. Crystal Balls & Crystal Bowls:Tools for the existence of “children of the devil,” but by describ- Ancient Scrying & Modern Seership.St. Paul, MN: Llewelyn. Besterman, Theodore. 1924. Crystal Gazing.A Study in the History, ing the mechanism so precisely, he opened the possibil- Distribution, Theory and Practice of Scrying.London: Rider. ity that demons might be observed contriving bodies Martin, Ruth. 1989. Witchcraft and theInquisition in Venice. and interacting physically with humans. This hope Oxford: Blackwell. inspired fifteenth-century clerics and magistrates to Melville, John. 1979. Crystal-Gazing.Wellingborough: Aquarian. intensify their search for demons’ human accomplices. Roper, Lyndal. 1994. Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality Many Christian intellectuals we re curious to know and Religion in Early Modern Europe.London: Routledge. more about demons; some even desired verification that demons existed. Because sexual intercourse was clearly Sexual Activity, the most intense and complete form of human sensory Diabolic experience, copulation achieved privileged status The witchcraft stereotype of fifteenth-, sixteenth-, and among seekers of demons: Sexual contact with demons seventeenth-centuryWestern Christianity assumed that provided credible proof of their reality.What was need- demons had frequent face-to-face encounters with ed was irrefutable proof of the sexual contact. T h i s witches, often involving sexual intercourse. empirical, pro t o s c i e n t i fic motivation was rare l y Such encounters required that demons, despite being a c k n owledged, but theorists of heresy occasionally generally defined as immaterial spirits, have a bodily enunciated it explicitly while censoriously describing p resence. Thomas Aquinas theorized that demons the copulation of heretics with demons. Ni c o l a s could create virtual bodies from compressed air and Jacquier (ca. 1458) declared that sexual interc o u r s e vapors. Demonic bodies we re airy statues, “a n i m a t e d” could occur only when persons were awake and aware by an extraneous agent, somewhat like a modern ve n- of their surroundings; thus, confessions to demonic triloquist’s dummy.The imposture was extremely con- copulation could not be dismissed as dreams. Girolamo vincing, howe ver: Demonic bodies could perform any Visconti (ca. 1460) shared this opinion and wished to human activity, including sexual intercourse. Be i n g eliminate the possibility that copulation with demons artificial, demonic bodies had no reproductive capabili- was a delusion or hallucination caused by disease. ty, or “seed,” but according to Aquinas, a demon could About 1460, an anonymous writer claimed that p robably perform art i ficial insemination. First, the h e retics could infallibly distinguish embodied demons demon would form a lifelike female body, or succubus, f rom humans because during copulation, all their five and copulate with a man, stealing his semen. Then, the senses we re optimally engaged, leaving no chance that demon would transgender the virtual body into a male heretics were mistaking humans for demons (Stephens incubus. Carefully maintaining the viability of the 2002, 20–21). stolen semen by keeping it warm, the demon would A Swiss case from 1465 gives firsthand evidence that, copulate with a woman and impregnate her by releasing like the writers of theoretical treatises, inquisitors could the stolen semen. This, said Aquinas, would plausibly also envision heresy or witchcraft trials as an occasion explain how children commonly known as offspring of for re s e a rch into the qualities and ve r i fiability of the Devil could be begotten on women, although he demons. An elderly accused witch, Perrissona Ga p p i t , stipulated that such children were actually sired by the was forced to testify that, whereas a man’s semen was men whose semen was stolen. Fifteenth-century demo- warm and pleasant, semen re c e i ved from a devil was nologists accepted Aquinas’s theory, often citing Merlin cold and “abominable.” Her trial record states explicitly as a “historical” example, using Ge o f f rey of that she was interrogated for the purpose of discovering Monmouth’s story that Merlin was sired on a nun by an d i f f e rences between copulating men and copulating incubus. devils. Transcription of her interrogation ended as soon as she provided this information. Although she was exe- Carnal Knowledge cuted, she was never forced to confess any maleficia(evil Though it now looks bizarre and irrational, Aquinas’s acts), only demonic copulation and some other physical theory was highly logical in terms of thirteenth-centu- interactions with devils (Modestin 1999, 308–309). ry categories. Since the twelfth century, Aristotelian Thus, although the new kind of heretics known as philosophy had attracted the curiosity and admiration witches were apostates, cannibals, and murderers, they of Western Christian intellectuals. Aristotle had empha- we re also hunted down for their presumed fir s t h a n d 1024 Sexual Activity, Diabolic

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1025 Application File Sex and the New Heresy of Witchcraft Before 1400, certain Christian theologians had claimed that heretics met the Devil embodied as a man or ani- mal and interacted corporeally with him, often kissing his anus and performing other acts of self-abasement to signify their renunciation of Christianity. Ex p l i c i t sexual transgression was also part of the pre-1400 stereotype, but heretics had illicit sexual relations with one another (particularly incest and sodomy), rather than with the Devil or demons (Wakefield and Evans 1969; Cohn 1975, 1–59). Once demonologists, trial judges, and other literate Christians had assimilated Aquinas’s theories of demonic corporeality and copula- tion, their speculations fed their paranoid fantasies of h e retical behavior. This process of confabulation created a new sexual abomination for heretics. By significantly changing ideas about the sexuality of heretics, Aquinas’s theory of demonic copulation thus had a vast social impact. It demonstrably predeter- mined many confessions extorted from persons accused of heresy, as the prior examples show and as many later trials and treatises confirm. Literate confabulation produced a further innova- tion. Before 1400, stories about human–demon copu- lation concerned either the siring of antediluvian giants by “sons of Go d” mentioned in Genesis 6:4 or incubi and succubi, demonic sexual predators who molested unwilling humans. St. Augustine firmly refuted the notion that fallen angels sired giants, but his discussion of incubi and succubi ensured their place in learned Christian demonology throughout the Middle Ages ( Stephens 1989, 75–92). Vi rtuous women we re thought particularly susceptible to demonic sexual The Devil (indicated by his clawed feet, tail, and face) seducing a harassment: St. Bernard (d. 1153), among others, sup- witch. From Ulrich Molitor, De Laniis et Phitonicis Mulieribus posedly liberated a woman from an incubus. Beginning (Concerning Witches and Fortunetellers), 1489. (TopFoto.co.uk) a round 1400, theologians, inquisitors, and secular judges re d e fined incubi, identifying them with corporeal (sexual) experience of demonic reality. In the Aq u i n a s’s art i ficially embodied demons and imagining Malleus Maleficarum(The Hammer of Witches, 1486), that female heretics voluntarily copulated with incubi. Heinrich Kramer defined female witches jurispru d e n- These developments transformed the mythology of tially as defendants but philosophically as “e x p e rt s u bve r s i ve demon-worshipping secret societies; here t i- witnesses” to the reality of human–demon interaction, cal stereotypes with some basis in historical fact evolved especially through interspecies copulation; witches’ into the purely mythical figure of the witch. Voluntary confessions provided experta testimonia(expert testimo- copulation with demons joined other transgre s s i o n s ny), he said, making such intercourse “c re d i b l e” long attributed to heretics, Jews, and various presumed (Stephens 2002, 35). enemies of Christian ort h o d ox y, notably infanticide, Later writers imagined increasingly sadistic and cannibalism, and the desecration of sacramental objects pornographic encounters between women and demons, such as crucifixes and Eucharistic hosts. As the keepers although they described sex between succubi and men, of orthodoxy searched for the Devil’s accomplices, they including clerics, less fre q u e n t l y. Gianfrancesco Pi c o sought clues among their illiterate informants’ folkloric della Mirandola (1523) gave egregious examples of ideas about magical destruction of crops and livestock, both (Stephens 2002, 94–99). The idea that such re a l the willful infliction of suffering and death by occult and unmistakable contact was possible betwe e n means, and magical transformations of people into ani- humans and demons fascinated even writers not other- mals. The new stereotypical heretics that emerged from wise attracted by witchcraft mythology or pornographic the process we re defined as consummate enemies of fantasy. both God and humanity.They were so demonically evil Sexual Activity, Diabolic 1025

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1026 Application File that in Latin discourse, the generic term for “evildoer” Of course, the weak point in this whole project was (m a l e fic u s / m a l e fic a) became the pre f e r red term for its claim to be empirical. Inquisitorial re s e a rc h e r s witches of either sex. The crime of witchcraft was (i n q u i s i t i o means “inve s t i g a t i o n”) had to rely on simply maleficium(evildoing); like maleficus/malefica, it confessions gathered from accused criminals thro u g h carried primarily demonic implications of and hatred of suggestion or, more often, tort u re. Thus, the desire to anything good. Meanwhile, courts employing vernacu- experience demonic reality firsthand, especially through lar languages rather than Latin long avoided these sexual contact, could never be satisfied. T h e re was no demonic implications (Kieckhefer 1976). To them, a l t e r n a t i ve to repeating the same scripted interv i ew s terms translatable as “m a g i c i a n” seemed more logical, e n d l e s s l y. To be convincing, the confessions had to and they mostly retained such connotations: for seem sincere; this made extracting them an even longer example, the French g e n o c h e or s o rc i è re ; the Ge r m a n and crueler process, without ever bringing an interroga- t oversche, zauberin, or h e xe ; the Spanish xo r g u i n a , tor closer to an actual experience. Because women were hechicera,or bruja;the Italian strega;and, of course, the defined as more corporeal than men and as inherently English witch. sexually exc e s s i ve, they we re ideally suited as subjects for investigations of human sexual contact with demons Gender (Stephens 2002, 102–105). Be f o re 1400, clerics’ sexual curiosity was concentrated on incubi and virtuous women, as the Ma l l e u sMa l e fic a ru m Protestant Variants itself admitted (Stephens 2002, 44–46). Afterw a rd, the Most Protestant theologians readily accepted demonic s t e reotype of the heretic as witch included both men’s corporeality but avoided detailed discussions about and women’s fornication with demons. Howe ve r, women demonic copulation through incubi or succubi. The and incubi understandably outnumbered men and suc- fact that Protestant clergymen were almost invariably cubi in witchcraft literature. First, statistically, about 80 married to real women probably contributed to their p e rcent of witchcraft defendants we re women. reluctance to expound on such prurient fantasies. Witchcraft accusations typically concerned women’s Moreover, many Protestant countries used legal systems s p h e re of domestic and social influence (childbirth and that minimized or avoided torture. For such reasons, rearing, care of the sick, food preparation, some forms of discourse on demonic copulation with witches was animal care and agriculture). Such “w o m e n’s work” largely confined to Catholics, whose clergy were forbid- attracted and provoked traditional misogyny and social den to marry. In Lutheran Denmark, for example, the p rejudice, particularly when unexpected misfort u n e s most detailed description of a witches’ Sabbat (held in o c c u r red and scapegoats we re needed. a church) seems almost chaste: The Devil had inter- Second, the educated men who wrote about witch- course with one of the women in the church a few craft and human–demon copulation had philosophical times—but always with the same woman. In today’s (although re p rehensible) reasons for concentrating on Swiss canton of Vaud, where almost 2,000 witchcraft women and incubi. Si l ve s t ro Prierias considered demon- trials were held and where torture was used relentlessly, ic copulation inseparable from witchcraft, claiming that the “sober and almost sanitized” descriptions of post- demonic copulation was “so re a l” (adeo re a l i t e r) as to Reformation Sabbats contrast strikingly with lurid p roduce actual children (Stephens 2002, 73). Wi t h o u t accounts from pre - Reformation trials in the same real women, howe ve r, the birth of children fro m region (this was Perrissona Gappit’s home). demonic copulation was impossible. This fact was so In England, treatises on witchcraft often discussed o bvious that no writer apparently belabored it before demonic copulation, attendance at the Sabbat, and oth- 1650, when the meticulous Gi ovanni To m m a s o er corporeal interactions attributed to witches, but Gastaldo (1650–1652, 1: 372; 2: 113) declared that English witchcraft trials ignored such activities. Instead, succubi, lacking real bodies, we re incapable of gestation. English witches (almost always women) normally Moreover, men presumed that women’s sexuality was confessed to having “familiars,” demons embodied as both insatiable and passive, with females eagerly receiv- cats, dogs, and other small animals that they cared for ing or undergoing sexual actions performed by men. and fed, sometimes allowing them to suckle blood from Thus, the more “virile,” lusty, or even violent or abusive the witch’s mark (“witch’s teat”)—an anomalous excres- a demon was when copulating with a woman, the cence somew h e re on the witch’s body. That such s t ronger was the proof of his re a l i t y. The violent beat- “maternal,” caregiving physical contact could serve the ings that demons supposedly administered to both men same criminalizing ends as frenetic sexual transgression and women indicated their reality; violent sex with a p rovides a peculiarly British variant to the misogyny “passive” partner proved the same point more emphati- that characterized educated men’s shaping of witchcraft c a l l y, particularly if a birth resulted. So m e t i m e s , stereotypes. demonic virility was demonstrated by simultaneously penetrating multiple orifices with a pronged penis. WALTER STEPHENS 1026 Sexual Activity, Diabolic

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1027 Application File See also:ANGELS;AQUINAS,THOMAS;AUGUSTINE,ST.; Stephens, Walter. 1989. Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient CONFESSIONS;CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC; History, and Nationalism.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. DEMONS;DENMARK;ENGLAND;FAMILIARS;GAPPIT,PERRISSONA; ———. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of GASTALDO,GIOVANNITOMMASO;GENDER;HERESY;INCUBUS Belief.Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. ANDSUCCUBUS;JACQUIER,NICOLAS;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM; Wakefield, Walter L., and Austin P. Evans, eds. 1969. Heresies of MERLIN;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;PICODELLAMIRAN- the High Middle Ages: Selected Sources Translated and Annotated. DOLA,GIANFRANCESCO;PRIERIAS,SILVESTRO;PROTESTANT NewYork: Columbia University Press. REFORMATION;SINISTRARI,LUDOVICOMARIA;TASSO,TORQUATO; Willis, Deborah. 1995. Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and VAUD,PAYSDE;VISCONTI,GIROLAMO. Maternal Power in Early Modern England.Ithaca, NY, and References and further reading: London: Cornell University Press. Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired Shakespeare, William by the Great Witch Hunt.NewYork: Basic Books. (1564–1616) Elliot, Dyan. 1999. Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages.Philadelphia: University of En g l a n d’s most famous playwright, actor, and theater pro- Pennsylvania Press. fessional, William Sh a k e s p e a re wrote or collaborated on Gastaldo, Giovanni Tommaso. 1650–1652. De potestate angelica, at least thirty-eight plays; he also wrote sonnets and nar- sive de potentia motrice ac mirandis operibus angelorum atque r a t i ve poems. Sh a k e s p e a re’s witches remain the best daemonum.3 vols. Rome: Cavallo. k n own of the many who appeared on the stage in Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their Renaissance England or, indeed, who we re actually pro s- Foundations in Learned and Popular Culture, 1300–1500. ecuted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. T h e Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. chant of the “we ï rd sisters” in Ma c b e t h (1606) as they Modestin, Georg. 1999. Le diable chez l’évêque: Chasse aux sorciers dans le diocèse de Lausanne (vers 1460). Cahiers lausannois s t i r red their brew, “Double, double, toil and trouble, / d’histoire médiévale 25. Lausanne: Université de Lausanne, Fi re burn, and cauldron bubble” (4.1.10–11), has become Section d’Histoire, Faculté des Lettres. the standard refrain for witches in Anglo-American Macbeth and the Three Witches.While witches appeared in several of William Shakespeare’s plays, the “weird sisters” in Macbethare the most famous. (Stapleton Collection/Corbis) Shakespeare, William 1027

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1028 Application File popular culture. Yet there are some textual questions edition of most of Shakespeare’s plays, printed in 1623 about the witches in Ma c b e t h .Fu rt h e r m o re, they are not by two actors from Sh a k e s p e a re’s company, Jo h n Sh a k e s p e a re’s only witches; others appeared or we re men- Heminges and He n ry Condell. The Folio contained tioned in many of his plays. They we re usually women eighteen plays (including Ma c b e t h) for which there who inve rted gender and class hierarchies and embodied we re no earlier, single-play or quarto editions; thus, d i s o rder in either festive or threatening ways. without the Folio, these plays would not have survived. The witches in Macbethwere called “weïrd sisters” in Many editors have argued that Macbeth as it appeared the play; they were only once called witches, although in the First Folio had been revised for performance and speech prefixes and stage directions in modern editions may be based on a promptbook, or a script re c o rd i n g consistently refer to them that way. They we re also changes made for performance. T h e re was part i c u l a r called “instruments of dark n e s s” (1.3.123), “n i g h t’s i n t e rest in such scenes as Act 3, scene 5, when the black agents” (3.2.54), and “secret, black, and midnight witches met Hecate, or parts of Act 4, scene 1, which h a g s” (4.1.63). As with other female roles on the seem to have catered to audience interest in witches Renaissance stage, men played these parts until the rather than advancing the plot. Such moments raise the eighteenth century. The text referred to the ambiguity question of whether the witches we re integral to the of these figures’ gender: “You should be women, / And plot or merely spectacles added for sensational effect. yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” They may, of course, have been a bit of both. Typical of (1.3.43–45). The we i rd sisters established the atmos- s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry re p resentations of witches and phere of the play and set the plot in motion by proph- witchcraft, all of the scenes in which the we i rd sisters esying what would happen to Macbeth; he then com- appeared drew together elite and popular, London and mitted murder to make their prophecies come true. A village, theatrical and legal beliefs and practices. T h e y central question in interpreting the play is whether straddled a thin line between belief and skepticism, fear their predictions determined or simply foresaw what and amusement. happened. Would Macbeth have become a murderer if In the play’s performance history, the witches have he had never encountered them? Even in their relation been comic fig u res, then frightening ones, then re p re- to other characters, the we i rd sisters we re curiously sentatives of inner states. Diane Purkiss (1996) argued detached from the play’s language, stru c t u re, and set- that they we re a comic spectacle from the start, A. R. tings. While they addressed Macbeth and Banquo, they Braunmuller that presenting the witches as comic refused to respond to questions; their speech was oracu- d i versions was an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century lar rather than interactive. Unlike anyone else in the tradition. By 1794, John Philip Kemble introduced a play, they spoke in rhyming couplets. They appeared in c h o rus of at least fifty witches who sang, danced, and a vaguely evoked space outside and apart from the play’s offered comic relief. As such accretions were removed, castles and other than its battlefields. They disappeared the sisters emerged as more menacing, supernatural, entirely from the play’s last movement and were never and powe rful fig u res, closely associated with Lady held accountable for their role in the tragedy.When, in Macbeth, who allied herself with them when she the play’s last lines, Malcolm summarized what had i n voked spirits to “u n s e x” her that she might more happened, he revealed that he never knew the role the e f f e c t i vely urge her husband to make their pro p h e c i e s weird sisters played. come true (1.5). If the witches never entered the play’s The sisters bore some resemblance to the witches living spaces, Lady Macbeth was at home, sleeping and described in English demonology and accounts of pro s- eating with her husband, convincing him to commit ecutions. They had familiars, or animal companions m u rd e r, and conspiring to kill her houseguest. Fo r t h rough whom they worked, as was often claimed of many critics, this proximity and intimacy made her a English but not continental witches. By one account, p a rticularly disturbing fig u re. It also suggests that, in their rage began with a “g i f t” of food sought from a English culture, witches’ relationship to the body and s a i l o r’s wife, refused, and answe red with a vengeful curse to domestic life was central to the threat they posed. (1.3). Yet these witches had as much in common with Some have called them “a n t i m o t h e r s” because of their stage traditions as they did with popular belief or local displaced, demonic enactments of nurt u re, suckling trials. Indeed, the stage was not clearly separable fro m animal familiars at supernumerary teats and injuring the court room. For the witch to compel belief, she had rather than caring for infants. to be a convincing literary type recognizable to neigh- In Sh a k e s p e a re’s plays, almost any woman can be bors, accusers, legal personnel, and theater audiences. called or become a witch. While James I and others Sh a k e s p e a re may have borrowed material about argued that women we re more vulnerable to the De v i l’s witches from other plays, such as songs that also seductions because they we re weaker than men, women appeared in Thomas Middleton’sThe Witch(ca. 1613), we re most often called witches in Sh a k e s p e a re’s plays or others may have added this material during produc- when they usurped men’s powers and privileges, when tion or in preparation of the First Folio, a posthumous they fought and spoke out, had beards or wore armor, or 1028 Shakespeare, William

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1029 Application File wielded power of any kind. The cro s s - d ressed warrior Greenblatt, Stephen, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, and Joan La Pucelle (Joan of Arc) in He n ry V IPa rt 1( 1 5 9 1 ) Katharine Eisaman Maus, eds. 1997. The Norton Shakespeare. was burned as a witch, her va l o r, prowess, and armor NewYork: Norton. Howard, Jean, and Phyllis Rackin. 1997. Engendering a Nation: A linked to witchcraft. In Antony and Cleopatra Feminist Account of Shakespeare’s English Histories.London and (1606–1607), Antony called Cleopatra a witch when he NewYork: Routledge. thought she had betrayed him (4.13); in The Wi n t e r’s Paster, Gail Kern. 1993. The Body Embarrassed: Drama and the Ta l e (1609–1611), Leontes called Paulina a “m a n k i n d Disciplines of Shame in Early Modern England.Ithaca, NY, and w i t c h” (2.3.68) in a string of insults intended to depict London: Cornell University Press. her as troublesome and insubordinate. In The Te m p e s t Purkiss, Diane. 1996. The Witch in History: Early Modern and (1611), Caliban’s mother, Sycorax, a “f o u l” and Twentieth-Century Representations.London: Routledge. “damned witch” (1.2.259, 265), was dead long before Shakespeare, William. 1997. Macbeth.Edited by A. R. the play began, yet nonetheless haunted it as the pre d e- Braunmuller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. cessor and counter to Pro s p e ro and his “rough magic.” Willis, Deborah. 1995. Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and As this incomplete catalog suggests, women’s speech, Maternal Power in Early Modern England.Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press. s e l f - a s s e rtion, and sexuality could all be associated with witchcraft; any woman who spoke out, disobeyed, or Shamanism schemed could be called a witch. In the seventeenth cen- t u ry, witch was increasingly part of an arsenal of terms Shamanism is a distinctive and vital religious phenome- used to distinguish bad women from good and to depict non in the cultural history of many peoples thro u g h o u t the latter as quiet and submissive, while bad women the world. Both scholars and practicing shamans con- we re disord e r l y, lower status, racially and ethnically sider it a spiritual world heritage that is shared by most d i f f e rent—simultaneously threatening and laughable. religions. In ve ry general terms, shamanism is a re l i g i o u s Witchcraft also provided a language for transforma- practice that attempts to mediate between a pro f a n e tion, seduction, and desire in Sh a k e s p e a re’s plays. In reality and a sacred spiritual world. The shaman’s con- The Comedy of Er ro r s (1592–1594), Antipholus of tact with presumed guardian spirits has the purpose of Syracuse described Ephesus as a world of “Dark-work- alleviating a range of problems and crises in the re a l ing sorc e rers that change the mind / So u l - k i l l i n g world. Healing, clairvoyance, and divination are central witches that deform the body” (1.2.99–100). Dro m i o p owers of a shaman. To bridge the gap between the two of Syracuse described his surrender to the topsy-turv y worlds, a shaman employs various rituals, symbols, and possibilities of the place as “turning witch” (4.4.157). In techniques. Drumming combined with cries, song, and Othello (1603–1604), Brabantio accused Othello of dance is the usual method for inducing an altered state using witchcraft to seduce Desdemona, because he of consciousness. It is often claimed that the shamanic could not believe that she would have been attracted to a l t e red state of consciousness is achieved through ecsta- a “moor”: “For nature so preposterously to err, / Being tic techniques. Mi rcea Eliade, who wrote the pioneering not deficient, blind, or lame of sense / Sans witchcraft book on shamanism in 1951, saw trance as an impor- could not” (1.3.62–64). Othello presented the story of tant part of all varieties of this phenomenon and eve n his adventures as the “only . . . witchcraft I have used” i d e n t i fied shamanism with techniques of ecstasy. (1.3.168). Yet his later description of the provenance of Su b s e q u e n t l y, most scholars have considered the state of his handkerc h i e f — w oven by a Sybil from hallowe d trance, in which the soul temporarily leaves the body, to worms and dyed in the fluid drained from maidens’ be the single most important feature of a shaman. hearts, which was given to his mother by an Egyptian “charmer” as a talisman that would bind her husband to Aspects of Ritual her—reintroduced an association between himself and The word s h a m a n—s a m a n— a p p a rently originated witchcraft (3.4.53–73). Thus, witchcraft re e n t e red the with Tungus-speaking peoples of Siberia and denotes play to heighten Othello’s exoticism—and the threat he someone who is moved or excited. An English explorer, offered. Richard Johnson, became the first European to describe FRANCES E. DOLAN a shamanistic ritual. On New Year’s Day of 1557, he was staying among the Nenets, an indigenous people in See also:ENGLAND;FAMILIARS;GENDER;HECATE;LITERATURE; northwestern Russia. There, he observed a peculiar MOTHERHOOD;REBELS;RENAISSANCEDRAMA,ENGLAND. experience that he re f e r red to as “devilish rites.” References and further reading: Johnson’s description contains most of the elements Adelman, Janet. 1992. Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal later scholars have attributed to shamanism understood Origin in Shakespeare’s Plays, “Hamlet” to “The Tempest.” New as religious practice: York: Routledge. Dolan, Frances E. 1994. Dangerous Familiars: Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550–1700.Ithaca, NY, and The Priest does begin to play upon a thing like to a London: Cornell University Press. Great Si e ve, with a skin on the one end like a Shamanism 1029

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1030 Application File d ru m ... . Then he sings as we use here in En g l a n d 7. He could predict the weather, and he could produce to hallow, whoop or shout at hounds, and the rest of fair weather by playing on his shamanic drum. the company answer him with this chorus, Ig h a , Pressured by the prosecuting counsel, he divulged Igha, Igha, and then the Priest replies again with his how drum playing could also wreak havoc upon voices. And they answer him with the selfsame word s ships and seamen. so many times, that in the end he becomes as it we re 8. He could use his skills in healing and to give absolu- mad, and falling down as he we re dead. I asked them tion for sins. (Hagen 2002, 338–339) why he lay so, and they answe red me. “Now does our God tell him what we shall do, and whither we shall g o.” And when he had lain still a little while they Shamans and Witchcraft Trials cried three times together, Oghas, Oghas, Oghas, and Experts customarily distinguish two main types of as they use these three calls, he rises with his head and shamanism. The first is the type that cultural anthro- lies down again, and then he rose up and sang with pologists have observed in Siberia, for instance, where like voices as he did before. (Hutton 2001, 30) shamanism is played out as a process of public performance. The other is more focused on spirit flights During the following 200 years, missionaries, explor- experienced during sleep.This second type sometimes ers, and traders encountered various peoples in Si b e r i a appeared in historical studies of court records from and other circumpolar regions. Their accounts and witchcraft trials. ethnographic re p o rts spurred considerable curiosity and In a famous book about the folkloric roots of the discussion in Eu rope. Around the middle of the Sabbat, the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg (1991) eighteenth century, the interest among intellectuals and e m p h a s i zed its shamanistic elements. He argued that a rtists and in various courts had reached such dimensions w i t c h e s’ confessions provided insights into rites and that “shamans became a key exhibit in the Eu ro p e a n myths connected with the ecstatic journey to the land inquest on the supernatural” (Po rter 1999, 217). of the dead. His earlier research in Inquisition records from northeastern Italy between 1575 and 1675 inves- A Shaman at Work tigated the confessions of people calling themselve s During an interrogation about sorcery in northern b e n a n d a n t i (do-gooders), who made spirit journeys at Norway in 1692, an old Sami shaman named Anders night in certain periods of the year and fought the Poulsen described his calling and how he used his forces of evil as spirits in order to secure good harvests. drum. The information he provided about his skills Ginzburg interpreted the b e n a n d a n t i and their spirit illustrates the principal functions of any shaman. As journeys as an archaic fertility cult with strong shaman- Poulson testified: istic features, which the inquisitors gradually simplified into “o rt h o d ox” diabolical witchcraft. Meanwhile, on 1. He could, with the aid of his gods, remove a spell the opposite side of the Alps, a villager named Chonrad and reverse its power. If someone had cast a spell Stoeckhlin told a south German court in the 1580s upon another, the shaman could send the spell back h ow he fell into a trance and met with an angel who to whoever had first cast it. Further, by praying to carried him away to distant places, where he joined other his gods and playing on his drum, he could punish people. The judges interpreted the angel as the De v i l evil people by persuading his spirits to condemn the and St o e c k h l i n’s nocturnal travels as the flight to the sinner to hell. w i t c h e s’ Sabbat, and they ord e red him burned 2. He could track down thieves and retrieve stolen (Behringer 1998). property by consulting his drum. During the age of witchcraft trials, Eu ro p e a n 3. He could protect his people’s reindeer from being shamans risked being taken to court for their religious killed by wolves through the power of prayer and practice. However, shamans were usually perceived as a music. secondary group in relation to witches. A good example 4. He could play upon his drum to help relieve the is the Hungarian t á l t o s o k— s h a m a n-like sorc e rers who pains of childbirth for women in labor. appeared in connection with witches in the eighteenth 5. He could discover how his family was doing at c e n t u ry. They we re professional healers with special home while he was far away. He could also learn powers given by the deity, especially the abilities to see what was happening to other people, even those hidden tre a s u re, find lost objects, heal, foretell the several thousand miles off, and especially gain f u t u re, and discover the fate of people who we re far knowledge about ship arrivals and the physical a w a y. The t á l t o s o k we re invo l ved in a few Hu n g a r i a n appearances of the ships’ captains. witchcraft trials but constituted a clear minority. 6. He could hear the voices of others when he lifted Northern Norway experienced an intense and brutal the drum above his head. Poulsen said it was as witch hunt in the seventeenth century. Most of those though two people were talking to each other. burned we re No rwegian women, and only one-fif t h 1030 Shamanism

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1031 Application File belonged to the Sami indigenous group. However, men terminology with reference to the study of shamanism, constituted a majority among Sami convicted of he argued that the trance theory should be abandoned. s o rc e ry, which indicates that Sami shamanism was Having studied the use of the terms tranceand ecstasyin primarily a male activity. All over Eu rope, most her fie l d w o rk in Siberia, the French anthro p o l o g i s t shamans convicted of sorcery were men. Roberte Hamayon (1993, 7) questioned whether these terms were useful in studying shamanism and conclud- The Soul Journey ed that “the shaman’s behavior, called ‘t r a n c e’ by In most witchcraft trials against people who could be o b s e rvers, is qualified by shamanistic societies with labeled shamans, ecstasy and trancelike states were reference not to a specific physical or psychic state, but seldom featured prominently. According to Wolfgang to the shamans being in direct contact with the spirits.” Behringer (1998, 143), “The separation of the soul The comparative debate among scholars on the exact from its body and its trip to certain places is the consti- nature of shamanism continues. tutive element for any great shaman,” and most schol- RUNE HAGEN; ars of shamanism would agree. However, we must also ask if the conception of the shaman as a kind of link TRANSLATED BY ANNIKEN TELNES IVERSEN between two worlds is largely a fabrication of some See also:ANIMISTICANDMAGICALTHINKING;ANTHROPOLOGY; e i g h t e e n t h - c e n t u ry missionaries. Nearly all earlier BENANDANTI;CUNNINGFOLK;DIVINATION;FERTILITYCULTS; reports of shamanism-related trances were written by FLIGHTOFWITCHES;GINZBURG,CARLO;HENNINGSEN,GUSTAV; foreign travelers, traders, or priests—observers who HUNGARYANDSOUTHEASTERNEUROPE,MAGIC;LAPLAND; described this evil art with great pathos, providing NORWAY;PEOPLEOFTHENIGHT;POSSESSION,DEMONIC; numerous stories about evil drum beating at the foot of STOECKHLIN,CHONRAD;TÁLTOS. References and further reading: naked mountain cliffs and devils who penetrated the Behringer,Wolfgang. 1998. Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad minds of shamans (ecstasis diabolica). All too often, Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night.Translated by H. C. modern historians have accepted such tales uncritically Erik Midelfort. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. and incorporated them into their work. Scholars Eliade, Mircea. 2004. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. attempting to view this topic in a religious-historical Translated byWillard R. Trask. Princeton, NJ: Princeton light have generally followed in the footprints of mis- University Press. sionaries who, with considerable bias, focused on the Ginzburg, Carlo. 1991. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbat. state of ecstasy as a fundamental characteristic of Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. NewYork: Pantheon shamanism. Yet ecstasy was probably nothing more Books. than the most eccentric part of a shaman’s repertoire. Hagen, Rune Blix. 2002. “Harmløs dissenter eller djevelsk troll- The concepts of trance and ecstasy carry a long tradi- mann? Trolldomsprosessen mot samen Anders Poulsen i 1692.” Historisk Tidsskrift81, no. 2–3: 319–346. tion of negative associations. Early modern Eu ro p e a n ———. 2003. Hekser—Fra forfølgelse til fortryllelse. Oslo: Christians used the concept of the trance to condemn Humanist. shamanistic practice as heathen, devilish, and blasphe- Hamayon, Roberte N. 1993. “Are ‘Trance,’ ‘Ecstasy’ and Similar mous. During the eighteenth-century En l i g h t e n m e n t , Concepts Appropriate in the Study of Shamanism?” Shaman: “e c s t a s y” was used to stigmatize shamans as primitive , An International Journal for Shamanistic Research1, no. 2 u n c i v i l i zed savages. During the colonial period, these (Autumn 1993): 3–25. concepts we re used to brand shamanistic societies as Henningsen, Gustav. 1991–1992. “The White Sabbat and Other u n d e rd e veloped and their religious practices as wholly Archaic Patterns of Witchcraft.” Acta Ethnographica Hungarica irrational. By the late nineteenth century, theories refer- 37, no. 1–4: 293–304. enced a kind of correspondence in temperament among Hutton, Ronald. 2001. Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the many native peoples. Shamanism alternated hysterical Western Imagination.London. Hambledon. Pócs, Éva. 1999. Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on fits (ecstasy) with periods of complete exhaustion Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age.Translated by Szilvia (trance). For instance, indigenous peoples in Arc t i c Rédey and Michael Webb. Budapest: Central European a reas we re described as easily moved, nervous, and University Press. s h o rt - t e m p e red—their temperament marking their Porter, Roy. 1999. “Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment, religious conceptual worlds. Their form of shamanism Romantic and Liberal Thought.” Pp. 191–282 in Witchcraft was diagnosed as Arctic hysteria and winter depression. and Magic in Europe: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. There is certainly a need for a deconstruction of the Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London: Athlone. c a t e g o ry of shamanism. Based on his extensive studies in both Scandinavian and Mediterranean Eu rope, the Sherwood, Grace Danish folklore re s e a rcher Gustav He n n i n g s e n (ca. 1651–1740) (1991–1992, 302) claimed that in most parts of The most notorious witch of the Chesapeake Bay area, Eu rope, professional magicians did not travel into the Grace Sherwood faced a string of witchcraft accusations spirit world. Calling for a redefinition of concepts and starting in 1697, culminating in a formal witchcraft Sherwood, Grace 1031

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1032 Application File trial in 1706. Her experience vividly demonstrates the c o u rthouse, during the Civil Wa r. What is know n , transfer of witchcraft beliefs from England to colonial h owe ve r, is that Grace was not executed as a witch, Virginia. Sherwood lived in Princess Anne County, in which is likely because she was never accused of harm- an area that is now Virginia Beach; she was forty-six ing or causing the death of another human being and years old, a wife and mother of three, when the because belief in malicious witchcraft was on the wane witchcraft accusations began to appear in the court by the end of the seventeenth century. She may have record. Grace was described as a strikingly attractive, been jailed, but if so, she was free by 1714, when she strong-willed, nonconformist woman who had a habit again appears in court re c o rds. She lived until 1740. of wearing men’s clothing. She was also knowledgeable Accusations against Grace abated, although legends about the use of herbs and was an experienced healer. surrounding her survive to this day.The spot where she Accusations against Grace first surfaced in 1697, was ducked is still known as Witch Duck Point, and when she and her husband, James, sued Richard Capps local folklore hints that Grace conjured a storm that for publicly accusing Grace of being a witch and of cast- d renched those who witnessed her ordeal. Other tales ing a spell that had caused the death of his bull. T h e tell of her leaving her jail cell and flying with the Devil case was dismissed, but it was only the beginning of and taking an overnight trip to England and back in an Grace’s legal battles to defend her name. In September eggshell to pro c u re some ro s e m a ry. Thus, in both fact 1698, James and Grace returned to court, suing neigh- and fiction, Grace Sherwood stands as the Chesapeake’s boring John and Jane Gisbourne and Anthony and most notable accused witch. Elizabeth Barnes for slander. The Gisbournes had DIANA LAULAINEN-SCHEIN accused Grace of ruining their cotton crop and casting a spell on their hogs, and Elizabeth Barnes had accused See also:CHESAPEAKE;CUNNINGFOLK;DEVIL’SMARK;SLANDER; Grace of “r i d i n g” her—a common charge against SWIMMINGTEST;WEATHERMAGIC;WITCH’SMARK. References and further reading: witches in America, England, and Scandinavia. Davis, Richard Beale. 1957. “The Devil in Virginia in the 17th Elizabeth claimed to have been forced out of bed by century.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography65: Grace and a devil-like fig u re. She said Grace rode her 131–134. about the room until she collapsed from exhaustion, at James, EdwardW. 1893. “Witchcraft in Virginia.” William and which point Grace transformed herself into a cat and Mary Quarterly Historical Papers1: 127–129; 2: 58–60. left through the keyhole in the door. In court, the ———. 1894–1895. “Grace Sherwood, the Virginia Witch.” Sherwoods failed to clear Grace’s name; in both slander William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine3: suits, the juries found in favor of the defendants. Thus, 96–101, 190–192, and 242–245; 4: 18–22. Grace, although not yet formally convicted of witch- craft by the courts, was unable to defend her reputation Sicily successfully against charges of being a witch. In Sicily, both ecclesiastical and civil authorities con- James Sh e rwood died in 1701, leaving his widow to ducted trials for witchcraft and superstition, but as the fight her legal battles alone. In December 1705, Gr a c e archives of most courts await closer investigation, the was again in court, accusing Luke and Elizabeth Hill of present survey is based exclusively on inquisitorial cases assault and battery. Grace claimed Elizabeth had assault- judged by the Spanish Inquisition. A Spanish posses- ed her, and she sued for damages of 50 pounds sterling. sion from 1282 to 1713, the island had a tribunal of the On that occasion, the jury awarded Grace 20 shillings. Spanish Inquisition in Palermo from 1487. Even after But less than a month later, in Ja n u a ry 1706, the Hi l l s Spain relinquished Sicily in 1713, the Inquisition con- filed formal accusations of witchcraft against Gr a c e . tinued to function with a Spanish staff; in 1782, under Grace did not appear to answer these charges. As a the government of Naples, it was abolished and its result, the Hills we re re q u i red to pay court costs, but the archives were burned. However, summaries of its cases county court ord e red that a jury of women should have been preserved in the so-called relaciones de causas s e a rch Grace for the witch’s mark and the De v i l’s mark . (reports of cases) sent to the Suprema (supreme coun- The jury, with Elizabeth Barnes as its forewoman, found cil), whose archives remain today in Madrid’s Archivo s e veral questionable marks. A second panel of women Histórico Nacional. Among 3,188 cases known from was called but refused to serve, causing the court to the relaciones (between 1547 and 1701), 456 were con- o rder that Grace be ducked in water to ascertain her cerned with “superstition,” involving sorcerers, divin- guilt or innocence. Grace was accordingly thrown into ers, astrologers, necromancers, and witches, none of Ly n n h a ven Bay with her hands and feet bound in the whom were burned. These cases resemble those from usual manner; she floated. Se a rched again at that point, other Mediterranean regions, with one exception: They it was confirmed that she had two black marks in her featured Sicilian magicians whom the inquisitors mis- p r i vate parts, and her guilt was there f o re confir m e d . leadingly called witches (brujas). To understand this The documents that would have re c o rded what p roblem, we must place Sicily within the happened next were burned, along with the Richmond Mediterranean geography of witchcraft. 1032 Sicily

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1033 Application File Like the Iberian Peninsula, Italy can be divided into her and give her wealth, beauty and young men to a northern region with both witchcraft and sorcery and make love with. And they told her that she must a southern one with sorcery only. In southern Italy, “evil not worship God or Our Lady.The ensign made p e o p l e” did not fly to nightly gatherings, turn them- her swear on a book with big letters that she would s e l ves into animals, or visit the houses of their neigh- instead worship . . . the king as God and the queen bors to suck their childre n’s blood. Witchcraft was as Our Lady, and promise them her body and soul. totally absent, and misfortune was explained there in . . . After she had worshipped them like this, they terms of sorc e ry. But unlike Spain, southern Italy and set out tables, ate and drank and danced, and then Sicily had special kinds of magical agents—“the women the men lay with the women and with her and from outside” (le donni di fuora, translated by Spanish made love to them often in a short time. (quoted in inquisitors as donas de fuera). These women had the Henningsen 1990, 196–197) p ower to transform themselves into animals, to fly, to heal, and to predict. Howe ve r, they differed gre a t l y The fisherman’s wife told the inquisitors that all this f rom evil witches in other regions. They we re, in fact, seemed to her to be taking place in a dream, for when highly appreciated by the local population because they she awoke, she always found herself in bed. She we n t served as mediators between humans and fairies. Since on to say that she did not know in the beginning that Sicilian fairies were also called donni di fuora, the term the activity was diabolical, until her confessor explained actually signified both fairies and fairy doctors. to her that it was the De v i l’s work and forbade her to This Sicilian fairy belief was documented by the g o. Howe ve r, she continued doing so until her arre s t . m i d - fifteenth century in a vernacular manual for con- She added that she went out joyfully because it gave her fessors, in which the priests we re advised to ask their carnal pleasure (el gozo) and because the king and queen penitents “whether they believe in the women fro m gave her remedies to cure sick people so that she could outside [donni di fori] and that they walk by night [e ki earn a little money, for she had always been poor vayanu la nocti]” (Bonomo 1959, 65). Howe ve r, the (Henningsen 1990, 196–197). Holy Of fice only became aware of the phenomenon a Because it was unusual for Sicilian fairy healers to c e n t u ry later. In November 1587, the inquisitors of attend the Sabbat at Be n e vento, the confessions sug- Palermo wrote to the council of the Sp a n i s h gested influence from inquisitorial questioning. In Inquisition, describing the confessions of an old Sicily, a typical Sabbat was said to involve a company of woman, a poor fis h e r m a n’s wife in Palermo named fairies and human beings going around town at night L a u rea de Pavia, who had been arrested because she and entering houses invisibly, “like a breath of air.” If boasted of having permission from the Holy Office to t h e re was a part y, they would eat and drink without cure sick people. But this was not the reason why mem- being seen. In houses of rich people, they would open bers of the tribunal wrote to their superiors in Madrid. chests and dress up in the clothes they found. If there The inquisitors, who included the famous Lu d ovico a we re small children, they would take them from the Páramo, we re perplexed by her confessions. “If what cradle to play with them and put them back again with this woman says is true,” they wrote, “a new sect of their blessing (unlike witches, fairies and their human witches [b ru j a s] has come into being” (He n n i n g s e n associates were fond of children). 1997, 174). Sometimes, the company included a fairy doctor who Their conclusion is understandable from their took them to the house of a sick person, where a special s u m m a ry of her confessions: She described a kind of table had been pre p a red with delicacies to induce the witches’ Sabbat—but without devils or any of the usual fairies to cure the patient by taking away the fairies’ curse. nasty details; everything that Laurea de Pavia described When they came into a house with their songs and music was beautiful and delightful. She and her company, and fine clothes, their greeting would be “With Go d’s with their “e n s i g n” at their head, rode on billy goats blessing, let the dance grow.” And when they left to go through the air, about half a meter above the ground, to s o m ew h e re else, their departing re m a rk was “Stop the dance and may prosperity grow.” Clients we re advised in a place called Benevento that belongs to the Pope a d vance to make their houses tidy when the fairies we re and lies in the kingdom of Naples. There was a coming at night, for otherwise, they might not bestow great plain there on which stood a large platform their blessings on the households. When going to some with two chairs. On one of them sat a red young other place or town, the fairies rode through the air on man and on the other a beautiful woman; they said goats. Like witches, they had regular days for their noc- she was the queen and the man was the king. The turnal activities, but they usually went on a Tu e s d a y, first time she went there . . . the ensign and the T h u r s d a y, or Sa t u rd a y, avoiding Friday (the day the Lord other women of her company said that she must died) and Sunday (Go d’s day). Instead of the Devil, they kneel and worship this king and queen and do met a fairy, who was given different names in their narra- everything they told her, because they could help t i ves: Queen of the Fairies (Reina de las Ha d a s), L a Sicily 1033

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1034 Application File Ma t ro n a , La Ma e s t ra , The Greek Lady (La Se ñ o ra ———. 1997. “Der Hexenflug und die spanischen Inquisitoren- Gr i e g a), Se ñ o ra Gra c i a , Doña In g u a n t a ,Ma n d a t t a ,Do ñ a oder: Wie man das Unerklärliche (weg-)erklärt.” Pp. 168–181 Za b e l l a [ Isabella], or The Wise Sybil (La Sabia Si b i l a) . in Fliegen und Schweben: Annäherung an eine menschliche Sensation. Edited by Dieter R. Bauer and Wolfgang Behringer. She was described as a beautiful woman dressed in black Munich: Deutsche Taschenbücher. or white, but her supernatural origin was re vealed by her feet, variously said to be cat’s paws, horse’s hooves, and so Sienese New State f o rth. Fairies and human beings we re organized in com- panies with different names according to their districts, The activity of the Sienese tribunal of the Roman such as Compañía de los Ro m a n o s , Compañía de la Inquisition, among the very few of this Inquisition’s Ma t ro n a , Compañía de Pa l e rm o, and Compañía de forty-five branches with virtually intact records between Ra g u s a .The archaic traits and the rich variation in the 1580 and 1721, is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. Figure n a r r a t i ves indicate that a so-called white Sabbat must 1 charts the frequency of all cases involving any kind of h a ve existed in Sicilian popular imagination—a beautiful magic except maleficium (harmful magic)—therapeutic image that was soon distorted by demonologists into the magic, love magic, treasure hunting, divination, super- horrible witches’ Sabbat (Henningsen 1990, 208; stition, and necromancy. Figure 2 registers only malefi- 1 9 9 1 – 1 9 9 2 ) . cium cases. It seems evident from our sources that this Under inquisitorial interrogation, some of the period saw no decline in magic, although prosecutions accused we re forced to admit that their fairy cult was for maleficiumdisappeared. The information in the first really demonolatry, and a few of them were encouraged figure offers little that is new to historians, who are now to produce “a u t h e n t i c” descriptions of black Sa b b a t s . fully aware of how vigorously magical practices persist- But whenever the Holy Of fice seized one of these ed even well beyond the early eighteenth century. But alleged witches, the inquisitors had to begin all ove r the second figure, showing maleficium cases vanishing again. Se veral of the accused individuals declared that while magic continued to flourish, poses intriguing they never knew there was anything wrong in their problems that still await explanation. activities, until their confessors or the inquisitors The Roman Inquisition tribunal in Siena had juris- explained this to them. Some of the accused even tried diction over the old Sienese Republic, which was to exculpate their fairies from the serious accusations by absorbed after 1559 into the Medicean regional state, pointing out that they were not, like demons, afraid of the duchy (later, Grand Duchy) of Tuscany.The popu- the cross or holy water.The position of these women as lation of the so-called New State (Stato Novo) remained mediators with the fairies was deeply rooted in Sicilian almost stationary between 1580 and 1720 at slightly tradition, and the inquisitors were outraged to see that over 100,000; the population of its capital, Siena, fluc- the fame of the fairy doctors was so great that people tuated between 15,000 and 17,000. Its inhabitants continued to frequent the women after they had been c l u s t e red in 132 nucleated villages divided in two condemned and were serving their sentences of impris- contrasting zones: There were 46 in the Maremma—a onment in the Grand Hospital of Palermo; even there, marshy area, plagued by malaria, where mostly migrant their clients looked them up and consulted them. laborers practiced pastoral farming and extensive cereal c u l t i vation—and 86 outside it. Howe ve r, witchcraft GUSTAV HENNINGSEN; accusations show no clear division between the are a’s TRANSLATED BY JAMES MANLEY d e veloped and underd e veloped zones. The re l i g i o u s organization of the New State included six small bish- See also:BENEVENTO,WALNUTTREEOF;FAIRIES;FLIGHTOF oprics governed by the archbishop of Siena. WITCHES;INQUISITION,SPANISH;ITALY;PEOPLEOFTHENIGHT; A Franciscan inquisitor, a doctor of theology, careful- SABBAT;SORCERY;SPAIN. ly supervised inhabitants’ consciences throughout the References and further reading: Bonomo, Giuseppe.1959.Cacciaalle streghe.3rd ed. 1985. region. Defending Catholic ort h o d oxy through a Palermo: Palumbo. f a m i l i a (household or family) of forty-eight persons Henningsen, Gustav. 1984. “Die ‘Frauen von ausserhalb’: Der living in Siena and through a net of vicars, mostly Zusammenhang von Feenkult, Hexenwahn und Armut im 16. parish priests, the father inquisitor wielded considerable und 17. Jahrhundert auf Sizilien.” Pp. 164–182 in Die Mitte p ower over the faithful through a web of co-opted der Welt: Aufsätze zu Mircea Eliade. Edited by Hans Peter confessors. The Holy Of fice attempted to use confes- Duerr. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. sionals as bugging devices for detecting all local ———. 1990. “‘The Ladies from Outside’: An Archaic Pattern of u n o rt h o d ox beliefs; parish priests could not absolve the Witches’ Sabbat.” Pp. 191–215 in Early Modern European parishioners from sins concerning “m a g i c” until they Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo had channeled such penitents to the Inquisition. As and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon. soon as a crime was confessed or re p o rted, a pre l i m i- ———. 1991–1992. “The White Sabbat and Other Archaic Patterns of Witchcraft.” Acta Ethnographica Academiae n a ry inquiry was carried out locally, and the case was Scientiarum Hungaricae37: 293–304. e ventually sent to Siena, where the inquisitor there 1034 Sienese New State

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1035 Application File Magic cases (maleficiumexcluded). began a fresh examination of witnesses and culprits. It must be underlined that demonic witchcraft is Sentences were decided at a congregation, with a repre- utterly marginal in this Sienese evidence. Although 198 s e n t a t i ve of the archbishop and nine high-ranking women were investigated for maleficium between 1588 ecclesiastics assisting the inquisitor.Though all forms of and 1657 and 31 of them we re tort u red as suspected so-called magic fell within the competence of the witches, only 6 women confessed to participating in a Inquisition, secular justice also claimed theore t i c a l Sabbat—5 of them under harsh tort u re and the other jurisdiction over harmful sorcery. Two witchcraft trials s p o n t a n e o u s l y. One woman was probably burned in begun in secular courts we re in fact re c ove red by the 1588. Sienese sources confirm a widespread Eu ro p e a n inquisitors after some negotiations, and both defen- feature: Witchcraft was a neighborhood crime, fostered dants underwent fairer, new proceedings. by an atmosphere of malevolence and suspicion that In the Sienese countryside, trials of individual witch- was all too rife in early modern villages. Vi c t i m s es we re endemic but rare betwe e n 1580 and 1660. As s e a rched their memories to recall episodes that might elsewhere in Catholic or Protestant Europe, “the popu- h a ve sparked off an evil eye, and they quickly discov- lar fear of maleficium . . . provided the normal driving ered the culprit. However, it is difficult to ascertain why force behind witch prosecution” (Thomas 1971, 548). suspicions converged upon one particular person No particular set of internal or external factors triggered among several local candidates. In 1605, a woman formal indictments. Although a parish priest reading an complained that “fifteen or more people like me go inquisitorial edict against magical healers and witches a round here and there healing. But now whenever an tried to persuade parisioners to denounce them, most infant dies, everybody says that they all have been wast- trials for m a l e fic i u m lacked this connection; other ed [guasti]. And they blame me as well as the others. I evidence shows that villagers ignored edicts and avoided d o n’t know why they are hunting me [instead of] the making denunciations. others” (Di Simplicio 2005, 179). Maleficiumcases only Sienese New State 1035

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1036 Application File Two coincidental Sienese realities complicate our his- clinical picture of putti guasti ( rotten children) thro u g h torical understanding. First, by a process of lexical the language of m a l e fic i u m . In the second phase of the assimilation, the word s t rega became a synonym for Siena trials, from the mid-seventeenth century onward , h e a l e ras well as for h a rmful witch.Second, in the Si e n e s e despite the virtual disappearance of m a l e fic i u mcases, the state, a l l 198 witches we re women. This regional pecu- s o u rces still enable us to hear ord i n a ry Sienese people liarity is still to be explained. The Sienese witches we re discussing malevolent magic. But now, we find ve ry not universally ve ry old, unmarried, widowed, or s h o rt trials, with examinations limited mostly to the poor—but all we re women. Like their counterparts else- v i c t i m’s parents, and we note a change to an agnostic w h e re in Eu rope, these m a l e fic h e ( m a l e ficent witches) stance tow a rd “u n n a t u r a l” diseases. On closer analysis, supposedly had the power to heal people they had “w a s t- we discover that in these trials, identical clinical descrip- ed.” The topmost hierarchy of Sienese healers (male and tions of sick or dead children elicited a ve ry differe n t female), in terms of personal power and know l e d g e , verbal discourse—or even none at all. Although infant we re men: the s t re g o n e (male witch) or i n d ovino ( s o o t h- m o rtality remained extremely high, it seems that the s a yer; cunning man). Howe ve r, no maleficent action by nexus between infant deaths and charges of m a l e fic i u m , a s t regone was ever re p o rted to the inquisitors. p reviously common among all social classes, faded away Sienese m a l e fic i u m cases concerned only humans, in the late 1600s. How should we decode this new p a rticularly infants; no weather-making witches we re language of depositions? Was it a sign of cultural change, ever reported, and cattle bewitching seems to have been a barometer that the explanation of misfortune in rare in this agrarian society. “Binding” (ligature, tying a personal terms had become unsatisfactory ? knot) to cause impotence was a common type of spell The early modern Sienese New State became a more practiced especially by urban prostitutes. Although complex society as its local communities were integrat- infant mortality remained very high in this region, the ed into two higher systems, the Grand Duchy of nexus between infant deaths and charges of maleficium, Tuscany and the post-Tridentine Church. This integra- so common among all social classes, dissolved there tion affected the quality of interpersonal relationships, long before 1700. diminished recourse to vendettas, and eve n t u a l l y Ap p a re n t l y, different social relationships accelerated helped to modify the idea of causation among unedu- changes in ideas of causation in late-seventeenth-centu- cated people, thus reducing “the area where personal- ry villages, eventually leading to the disappearance of ized explanations in terms of human will were thought” infant maleficiumcases. Throughout Europe, the quali- (Macfarlane 1999, 205). ty of interpersonal relations among villagers prov i d e d OSCAR DI SIMPLICIO the crucial context behind witchcraft accusations. Bewitched people sought other solutions—some ortho- See also:CHILDREN;CUNNINGFOLK;DISEASE;EVILEYE;EXORCISM; d ox (exo rcism), some illegal (s t re g h e and s t re g o n i— FEMALEWITCHES;IMPOTENCE,SEXUAL;INQUISITION,ROMAN; female and male witches), or sometimes even con- ITALY;MAGIC,POPULAR;MALEFICIUM;MILAN;MODENA;RURAL f ronting the witch dire c t l y — b e f o re using a court to WITCHCRAFT;SOCIALANDECONOMICSTATUSOFWITCHES;SOR- denounce their enemies. A close examination of Sienese CERY;TRIALS;URBANWITCHCRAFT. witness depositions confirms the now - venerable con- References and further readings: clusion that blaming a witch simply reduced personal Ceppari Ridolfi, Maria Assunta. 1999. Maghi, streghe e alchimisti a Siena e nel suo territorio (1458–1571).Siena: Il Leccio. m i s f o rtune to interpersonal terms. Un s u r p r i s i n g l y, the Di Simplicio, Oscar. 1994. Peccato, penitenza, perdono: La for- concept of the vendetta was deeply embedded in mazione della coscienza nell’Italia moderna (Siena 1575–1800). Sienese witchcraft trials, as proven by the eagerness of Milan: Angeli. the parents of bewitched children to take re ve n g e . ———. 2000. Inquisizione, stregoneria, medicina: Siena e il suo Judges, witnesses, victims, and defendants continued to stato (1580–1721).Siena: Il Leccio. interpret the world according to the categories of friend ———. 2003. “Witchcraft and Infanticide.” Acta Istriae11: and enemy. 48–88. Sienese trials for magic fall into two different phases. ———. 2005. Autonno della stregoneria. Maleficio e magia In the first (from 1580 to 1660), collective experience nell’Italia moderna.Bologna: Il Molino. d e fined some diseases as unnatural. This period was Macfarlane, Alan. 1999. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A c h a r a c t e r i zed by long trials, during which villagers’ opin- Regional and Comparative Study.2nd ed. London: Routledge. Monter,William. 2002. “Witchcraft Trials in Continental Europe, ions we re marshaled on each case. Elements establishing 1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 in The Period of the Witch Trials.Vol. 4 m a l e fic i u mwe re always re p o rted with the expression t o c- of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. c o(touched) or m a n e g g i a t o(handled) by witches. A dark Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and purple color on the victims’ bodies as well as tooth Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. m a rks, finger marks, scratches, and bruises scattered all Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in over the little corpses offered proof of a witch’s attack. Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England. Witnesses of all social classes emphasized this obsessive Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1036 Sienese New State