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

46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1037 Application File Sight, Powers of because they we re believed to have a d a e m o n (a being (Second Sight) intermediate between the gods and humans and with a Clairvoyance, generally termed second sight, is the psy- body made from a substance such as air) in their bellies chic ability or power to see objects and visions or to that spoke through their lips and predicted the future. gain information regardless of distance. The term often Apparently, like modern mediums, they spoke in a state refers to prophetic visions and dreams, occasionally of trance. In the Middle Ages, such individuals we re even of past events; it can occur in normal states of con- m o re respectfully known as py t h o n e s . The possession sciousness but also can be induced by drugs, fasting, ill- state of both the Pythia and the pythons was, as far as ness, or scrying (crystal gazing). Telepathic descriptions we know, autosuggestively induced. But in the are universal in written and oral lore. Tribal societies Egyptian papyri, we find spells by which a magician such as the Australian Aborigines accept clairvoyance as could induce it; one gives an elaborate recipe for sum- a human faculty, while more sophisticated societies moning a god to enter into a child or adult and speak consider second sight a special ability belonging to mys- through that person. tics, soothsayers, healers, and witches, nowadays known Medieval and Early Modern as mediums or psychics. In antiquity and medieval Clairvoyants times, the term intuitive divination was preferred, and Me d i e val theologians we re especially fascinated by virgin boys or pregnant women were often used as pythonica divinatio or divinatio per pythones (divination mediums. While in a trance state, such people were by means of a spirit); Berthold of Regensburg (d. 1272) thought to have the ability to see hidden things or dis- condemned them as heretics. Three centuries later, they cover thieves. were considered impostors. In 1584, Reginald Scot Christianity has always opposed such practices. In studied the phenomenon in his Discoverie of Witchcraft; his treatise De Divinatione Da e m o n u m ( On the in chapter 16, he mentioned “pythonists,” describing Divination of Demons, 406), St. Augustine explained them as clairvoyants able to prophesy by a familiar spir- that, while evil spirits lacked truly prophetic knowledge it. Apparently, he knew them from personal experience of the future, they could make conjectures that we re because he referred to a woman practicing ventriloquy informed by keen perception, the ability to move who lived not too far from his own home. q u i c k l y, and a rich store of experience, and these con- Mother Shipton (1488–?) became one of the most j e c t u res we re then communicated to human beings famous seers of her time and was slandered as a witch t h rough divination. As early as the fifth century, syn- for supposedly prophesying scientific inventions, wars, odal legislation repeatedly condemned s p e c u l a r i i ( s c ry- and so forth. Fabulous stories surround her life and that ers), who gazed into mirrors, bowls, polished fin g e r- of her mother. Ursula Shipton was born near nails, and so on, claiming that marvelous things we re K n a re s b o rough (Yo rk s h i re), England, to a mother re vealed to them, assimilating scryers to p h i t o n e s famous for her healing powers, second sight, storm rais- (trance-diviners) who could see the future while pos- ing, and bewitching. Shipton reputedly inherited her sessed by a spirit. Later, in witchcraft trials, all forms of mother’s powers, being involved in poltergeist phenom- divination, including clairvoyance, we re considere d ena at a tender age. The book of predictions ascribed to demonic. her is a later compilation. Elsewhere in England, John Antiquity Dee obtained clairvoyance by the art of scry i n g , employing his polished “shewstones” (crystal balls). In antiquity, the belief that an alien voice spoke in the Fo rtunetellers and healers (so-called rural cunning first person through the lips of the Delphic Oracle, the folk) surv i ved until almost our own time, plying their Pythia, was almost universal for more than a millenni- trade through long-established methods. By the end of um. The onset of her trance was said to be induced by the nineteenth century, new trends in pseudoscience such ritual acts as sitting on the god’s holy seat, touch- and supernatural belief developed and circulated in ing his sacred laurel, and drinking from the holy spring. urban culture. Practitioners calling themselves phrenol- In her normal personality, the Pythia was a perfectly ogists, mediums, or clairvoyants tried to modernize o rd i n a ry woman, but when she became possessed such ancient divinatory practices. One reason for (entheos), she spoke in riddling symbols, which had to adopting new practices and identities was to elude the be interpreted by the priests—not unlike many modern laws against fortunetelling. A good symbol for the new trance mediums. d e velopment was the crystal ball, which re c ove red its The Pythia was unique in her status but not unique popularity in the mid-nineteenth century and has in kind. The girl in the Acts of the Apostles who had a remained the stereotypical tool of the fortuneteller until pythonic spirit made great profits for her masters. Apart the present. Although scientifically unproven, telepathy from the official oracles in classical Greece, there is also continues to be studied in psychic research. evidence for persons who claimed to possess the gift of automatic speech. They we re known as belly-talkers, CHRISTA TUCZAY Sight, Powers of (Second Sight) 1037

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

46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1038 Application File See also:AUGUSTINE,ST.; CUNNINGFOLK;DEE,JOHN; remained calm there a f t e r, two pursuits took place in DIVINATION;ORACLES;SCOT,REGINALD;SCRYING; 1535 and 1581 in the Protestant town of Jägerndorf, SHAMANISM. belonging to Brandenburg, with at least twelve people References and further reading: executed. Campbell, John. 1902. Witchcraft and Second-Sight in the Silesian witchcraft trials show both similarities and Highlands and Islands of Scotland.Glasgow. differences when compared with those in other territo- Davies, Owen. 1999. Witchcraft, Magic and Culture, 1736–1951. ries within the empire. As in many other territories in Manchester and NewYork: Manchester University Press. the Reich, accusations of harmful magic predominated. Feibel, J. 2000. “Highland Histories: Jacobitism and Second Sight.” Clio30, no. 1 (Fall): 51–77. With the trials of 1639, heresy, blasphemy, copulation Hunter, Michael, ed. 2001. The Occult Laboratory: Magic, Science with the Devil, and participation in the witches’ Sabbat and Second Sight in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland: A New became dominant. Some Silesian local authorities, Edition of Robert Kirk’s “The Secret Commonwealth and Other primarily the Landeshauptmannof Neisse, were respon- Texts.”Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell. sible for promoting these witchcraft trials. Because the Kieckhefer, Richard. 1997. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s majority of the judges had no juridical training, they Manual of the Fifteenth Century.Thrupp: Sutton. sought legal advice from the university jurists (S c h ö p p e n s t u h l e) of Breslau (Wro c-law) and Löwe n b e r g Silesia ( Lw ó wek S´laski). The latter we re notorious for their Silesian territories had a re l a t i vely high rate of witchcraft hard attitude; sometimes, in order to get a recommen- persecution. Pa rt of the Kingdom of Bohemia, the re g i o n dation for an execution, local judges consciously we n t was divided into several small St a n d e s h e r r s c h a f t e n ( l o rd- first to Breslau and then to Löwenberg. Oc c a s i o n a l l y, ships) under Habsburg sove re i g n t y. As elsew h e re in the they even sought advice outside Silesia, at the Holy Roman Em p i re, Silesian territories we re affected by Schöppenstuhl of Fr a n k f u rt an der Od e r, Leipzig, or the Little Ice Age; by population growth; and by famine, Wittenberg. Howe ve r, Bohemia’s appellate court, the plague, and religious uncertainty during the T h i rty Ye a r s’ Chamber of Appeals in Prague (not created until the Wa r. Most persecution here occurred between 1580 and 1680s), was consulted only in a few cases. Appeals to 1680, peaking in the Neisse area around 1651 or 1652; the emperor came primarily from husbands of prison- it mainly affected Ge r m a n-speaking areas on the left ers, not necessarily to obtain the release of their wive s s h o re of the Oder Rive r, primarily the principalities of but rather to restore their family’s honor and sometimes Neisse (Nysa), Glogau (Gl o g ow), Jägerndorf (Po l i s h their goods. K a r n i ó w, Czech Krnov), Troppau (Op a va), and In Silesia, 444 single trials for witchcraft, resulting in Op p e l n-Ratibor (Opole Racibórz ) . 593 executions, can be proved; only 111 defendants Silesia was divided into immediate and mediate princi- escaped this fate, often after heavy tort u re. The fate of palities and lordships (those directly subject to the emper- another 246 who we re arrested remains unknown; most or versus those subject to some intermediate authority). may have been executed (Lambrecht 1995, 345–346). Until 1621, the Ma r g r a ve of Br a n d e n b u r g-A n s b a c h With 40,000 square kilometers, Silesia was about as had possessions in Jägerndorf, and the house of large as the current L a n d (state) of Ba varia (38,000 Württemberg had possessions in Oels after 1648. The s q u a re kilometers), where 671 trials with 717 exe c u t i o n s Habsburg emperor was the territorial sove re i g n took place (Behringer 1988, 40–41). Over 90 percent of (L a n d e s h e r r), in most areas, but Si l e s i a’s local lord s the victims we re female. The majority of the 317 victims retained the right of high justice and could there f o re we re killed during six waves of 20 or more victims conduct witchcraft trials to prove their re l a t i ve inde- b e t ween 1606 and 1669. During the trials at Neisse in pendence. The Habsburgs governed through bailiffs 1651, almost one-fourth of the people condemned and county-captains (Landeshauptleute), who possessed whose ages are known we re children under fifteen; two- considerable autonomy. The actions of L a n d e s h a u p t m a n n t h i rds of these 21 we re under six years of age, including ( g overnor) Georg Maximilian von Hoditz in Ne i s s e n ewborns and toddlers (Lambrecht 1995, 169, 404). showed clearly that neither the Holy Roman Emperor Although many victims we re elderly poor women, nor the bishop of Breslau intervened significantly in s e veral also came from a group of rich clothing mer- these trials, let alone directed them. In fact, the bishop chants. This mainly Protestant gro u p, which kept of Breslau tried to moderate Hoditz’s activities. i m p o rtant positions within local government, stub- Si l e s i a’s first sorc e ry trials took place in 1456 at bornly opposed the Counter-Reformation their Breslau, where executions we re still carried out by Habsburg rulers enforced. These victims we re affected d rowning, not by burning. Eight of the ten know n not only by the trials but also by the confis c a t i o n s , trials in fifteenth-century Silesia took place in Breslau. despite the fact that they were forbidden in such cases The situation was similar during the first half of the by the Carolina Code. sixteenth century, with nine of thirteen known trials In seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Silesia, the shift of persecu- taking place in Si l e s i a’s largest city. Although Bre s l a u tion waves from west to east is remarkable: The trials at 1038 Silesia

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

46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1039 Application File Freiwaldau, together with those at Neisse, in 1622 pro- Almost parallel with activities in Neisse, furt h e r duced the first expanding chain of accusations witch hunts took place in Jägerndorf, now given to the (Besagungen). For these trials, the exact number of vic- Catholic house of Liechtenstein, in 1638, betwe e n tims is unknown, and traditional charges of harmful 1653 and 1654, and in 1662; they claimed at least magic remain in the fore g round. During the second t we n t y - five lives. T h e re, unlike in Neisse, the w a ve, between 1639 and 1641, which principally Landeshauptmann tried to stop the trials, part i c u l a r l y affected the city of Neisse (Silesia’s second-largest city) during the largest wave from 1653 to 1654, while the and its area, this was no longer the case. Only twenty- landlord, Karl Eusebius of Liechtenstein, was interested seven executions can be proved, but the number of vic- in the executions. He wanted to use witchcraft trials tims must have been substantially higher. Mo re ove r, both to secure his rule over this formerly Protestant ter- this wave created an almost unique phenomenon, ritory and to demonstrate his right of high jurisdiction k n own otherwise only in Franconia: use of the witch against the Landeshauptmann. furnace. Despite initial resistance from craftsmen in Individual trials also occurred in other parts of Neisse, the bishop of Breslau, Balthasar Liesch of Silesia, in German-speaking rather than Po l i s h - s p e a k- Hornau, desiring to lower costs and accelerate the exe- ing areas. Pa rticularly in Op p e l n - R a t i b o r, which was cutions, ordered the building of such a furnace. Its form pawned from 1645 to 1666 to the Crown of Poland, a p robably corresponded to a baking oven made fro m w a ve of trials began in 1663, increasing sharply after clay bricks. The witches we re placed into the furnace, the Habsburgs returned and lasting until 1668. Mo re bound to chairs, in order to be burned. than thirty-four victims came from Polish-speaking vil- The Swedish occupation of Neisse in 1642, com- lages in the east of Oppeln; others came from Gleiwitz, bined with the authorities’ re s o l ve, brought the witch w h e re the official language was Czech. We should not hunt to an almost complete end; howe ve r, a new out- forget that witchcraft trials in Poland could also lead to b reak of witch hunting followed Swe d e n’s withdrawal pursuits in Silesia, as can be proved for some places in in 1651. During the largest Silesian witch hunt, last- Lower Silesia. ing from Fe b ru a ry 1651 until Ma rch 1652, pro b a b l y The last executions occurred at Oels (governed by a m o re than 250 persons we re executed. This time, it branch of the house of W ü rttemberg) in 1701, at was primarily the environs of Neisse that we re affect- Schweidnitz in 1703, at Oppeln in 1725, and finally at ed, particularly Freiwaldau (Jeseník) and Zu c k m a n t e l Breslau in 1730, claiming eleven lives in all. (Zlaté Ho ry). The wave began with a confession by For most of Silesia, witchcraft was no longer a pun- an eight-year-old boy. Sp reading from the re g i o n ishable crime after the Prussian occupation of 1742. In a round Neisse, re l a t i ves of the witches we re arre s t e d the remaining Habsburg areas of Silesia, theTheresiana as far away as Poland, Prague, and other parts of finally replaced the Carolina Code. Witchcraft and Bohemia. Owing to further confessions, forced by superstition remained crimes, although after 1755 or t o rt u re, but above all to the unbroken will of 1756, physicians had to be consulted and tort u re was Landeshauptmann von Hoditz, which the bishop of forbidden in connection with witchcraft. Until 1780, Breslau slowed but could never stop, these trials fin a l- the government primarily attacked the still-widespread ly ended in Ma rch 1652 after having caused enor- faith in Wi e d e r g ä n g e r ( re venants, dead people with mous damage. Not just the high number of victims material bodies who return to the world of the living); but especially the burning of pregnant women as we l l a f t e rw a rd, nothing connected with witchcraft was as children under six years of age and even babies was punishable in Austrian Silesia. a singularly ghastly pro c e d u re, as Hoditz himself noted. Afterw a rd, only isolated executions mark e d LUDOLF PELIZAEUS the second half of the seventeenth century. Wi t c h See also:AUSTRIA;AUSTRIANWESTERNTERRITORIES;BAMBERG; hunting ended at Neisse in 1715 when a woman BAVARIA;BOHEMIA;CAROLINACODE;CHILDREN;EXECUTIONS; suspect was sent to the lunatic asylum. FERDINANDIII,HOLYROMANEMPEROR;HOLYROMANEMPIRE; The other major witch hunt occurred in Lowe r LITTLEICEAGE;MARIATHERESA,HOLYROMANEMPRESS; Si l e s i a’s Grünberg and the surrounding villages in the POLAND;REVENANTS;WITCHHUNTS. principality of Glogau, reaching its high point between References and further reading: 1663 and 1665 with over seventy executions. In this Behringer,Wolfgang. 1988. Hexenverfolgung in Bayern.Munich: Oldenbourg. a rea, unlike in Neisse where witchcraft trials we re led ———. 1999. “Witchcraft Studies in Austria, Germany, primarily by the Landeshauptmann, the trials were pro- Switzerland.” Pp. 64–95 in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: moted by local landlords with “blood jurisdiction” Studies in Culture and Belief.Edited by Jonathan Barry, (High Jurisdiction, the right to administer justice over Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts. Cambridge: Cambridge serious crimes) who could there f o re conduct trials on University Press. their own; they sometimes consulted the jurists of Lambrecht, Karen. 1995. Hexenverfolgung und Zaubereiprozesse in Löwenberg, well known for their harsh attitudes. den schlesischen Territorien.Cologne: Böhlau. Silesia 1039

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

46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1040 Application File Machilek, Franz. 1990. “Schlesien.” Pp. 102–138 in Die Catholicism against libertines including Je a n - Ja c q u e s Territorien des Reichs im Zeitalter der Reformation und Rousseau, Vo l t a i re, and their followers (Au g s b u r g , Konfessionalisierung: Land und Konfession, 1500–1650.Vol. 2. 1772) and against Ep i c u rean philosophy (W ü rz b u r g , Münster: Aschendorff. 1772)—clearly demonstrated the limits of toleration on his part. Simon re p o rtedly published on the 1749 Simon, Jordan W ü rzburg witchcraft trial (Strüber 1930, 144, 204), (1719–1776) but no traces of this work have survived. Simon was known for his attack on beliefs in witch- One reason for Si m o n’s quarrels with the craft and for his invo l vement in the Ba varian War of p r i n c e-a rchbishops of Mainz may have been his posi- the Witches. Although Jo rdan Simon was mentioned tion on witchcraft. Under the pseudonym Ard o i n o in most biographical dictionaries around 1800, his Ubbidiente dell’ OSA (Ard o i n o was an anagram of biography remains patchy. Born in Neustadt an der Iordano [Jordan], OSA an abbreviation of Ordo Sancti Saale, a subject of the prince-bishop of W ü rz b u r g , Au g u s t i n i [ Order of St. Augustine]), he published his Albanus Simon (his birth name) joined the first full-fledged attack on witch beliefs at Würzburg in Augustinian Hermits, re c e i ved his monastic name of 1761: Das grosse Welt-betrügende Nichts oder die heutige Jo rdan, and was sent to their monastery at Mainz in Hexerey- und Zauberkunst (The Great World Deceiving 1737 to study philosophy and theology. In 1742, after Nothing, or To d a y’s Art of Witchcraft and So rc e ry ) . being consecrated a priest, he became professor of phi- Fi ve years later, he published an updated version at losophy at Constance. Di s s a t i s fied with monastic life, Fr a n k f u rt, entitled Die Nichtigkeit der He xe rey und he left his convent that ve ry ye a r, traveling thro u g h Za u b e rkunst (The Inanity of Witchcraft and So rc e ry ) , It a l y, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and parts of developing his ideas for almost 600 pages. Russia. Ac c o rding to later accounts, Simon was par- C o i n c i d e n t a l l y, the Ba varian War of the Wi t c h e s , ticularly impressed by the works of enlightened It a l i a n one of the major debates of Catholic enlightenment in theologians such as Lu d ovico Muratori or philoso- Europe, began the same year. Pushed by her son Joseph phers such as Scipione Maffei (Strüber 1930, 28–30). II, Empress Maria Theresa published a decree on witch- In 1745, Simon returned to Ge r m a n y, where he was craft in November 1766, designed to terminate the named parish priest at Erf u rt after taking his doctoral endless series of witchcraft trials in Hu n g a ry; Jo rd a n d e g ree in theology at the local university; he subse- Simon immediately published a commented version of quently became professor of theology there. He this edict at Munich. Its first 128 pages assailed Angelus m oved to W ü rzburg after quarreling with the prince- M ä rz (1727–1784), another Augustinian fro m a rchbishop of Mainz, but after that man’s death, Munich. In December 1766, März had attacked an Simon returned to teach canon law in Erf u rt, where enlightened Theatine, Fe rdinand St e rz i n g e r, who had he published mainly between 1755 and 1759. tried to terminate any attempt at further witchcraft tri- Although supposedly forced to flee once more als in October.The second part of Simon’s version was because of quarrels and an alleged fraud, Si m o n , a reprint of the 16-page Austrian decree. In a third part, according to printed sermons, preached again at Erfurt Simon spent 154 pages refuting the arguments of those in 1763 and 1766. Between 1760 and 1771, when he who defended belief in witchcraft, abundantly para- l i ved in nearby Münnerstadt, most of his works we re phrasing his previous publications as well as those of published at Augsburg or W ü rzburg, although others such Italian luminaries as Maffei or Muratori. we re still printed at Erf u rt as well as Mu n i c h , Contemporaries considered Simon a vital contribu- Ingolstadt, Frankfurt, and Leipzig. From 1772, Simon tor to the Bavarian War of the Witches; at least, he was s e rved as professor at the Un i versity of Prague and as mentioned several times in the local new s p a p e r councillor to the king of Bohemia, the enlightened (C h u r b a y r i s c h e s In t e l l i g e n z b l a t t) in July and Au g u s t Emperor Joseph II. 1767. In his refutation of Jordan, März rightly pointed C o n t e m p o r a ry biographers listed more than fif t y out that the royal decree had not categorically denied publications by Simon, including a textbook for learn- the existence of witchcraft but merely tried to pre ve n t ing Italian (Erf u rt, 1755), numerous Latin dissert a- f u rther local trials. Howe ve r, Simon (1767, 237–238) tions, and several translations from French. A Mo ra l maintained his idea that the witches’ confessions we re Ph i l o s o p h y, taken from the enlightened Italian theolo- exclusively a product of torture and of Inquisition trials. gian Muratori (Würzburg, 1764), indicated that Simon He thus touched the core issue of the Catholic Church’s had embarked on the difficult business of Catholic guilt. Simon said, more articulately than St e rzinger or enlightenment. Howe ve r, many other publications— Joseph II, that allconvicted witches were innocent. such as booklets on the life of Augustine, his Refutation After Si m o n’s contribution, Ba varian luminaries of Ma t e r i a l i s m (separate editions at Augsburg and changed their strategy and began ridiculing their W ü rzburg, 1761), an apology for the veneration of opponents. It is unclear whether Simon authored two saints (Augsburg, 1768), and his defenses of f u rther small publications that contained stories of 1040 Simon, Jordan

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

46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1041 Application File witchcraft. In one, a pair of trousers flapping in the Simon then disappeared from the canonical Bi b l e , wind scared local people. The mayor imprisoned the but in the apocryphal Passion of the Apostles Peter and trousers, and some monks exorcised them, until a car- Paul, he undertook a magical contest with St. Peter in penter reached the town hall and demanded his trousers the presence of the Em p e ror Ne ro. The emperor was back. impressed that Simon had been credited with resurrect- ing a man who had been beheaded, but on being chal- WOLFGANG BEHRINGER lenged to read Peter’s thoughts and secret conversation See also:AUGSBURG,IMPERIALFREECITY;BAVARIANWAROFTHE with Ne ro, Simon became angry and created the WITCHES;ENLIGHTENMENT;JOSEPHII,HOLYROMANEMPEROR; illusion of several big dogs that, on his instru c t i o n s , MAFFEI,SCIPIONE;MARIATHERESA,HOLYROMANEMPRESS; bound forward with the intention of eating Peter. Peter, MURATORI,LUDOVICO;STERZINGER,FERDINAND;WÜRZBURG. h owe ve r, blessed them, and they disappeared. T h e n , References and further reading: Simon said he would fly up to heaven on a part i c u l a r Ardoino Ubbidiente dell’ OSA [Jordan Simon]. 1761.Das grosse d a y. So Ne ro had a tall tower built, and Si m o n Welt-betrügende Nichts oder die heutige Hexerey- und launched himself off the top and began to fly. But Peter Zauberkunst. Würzburg: Stahel. ———. 1766. Die Nichtigkeit der Hexerey und Zauberkunst. saw that he is being borne up by demons and ordered Frankfurt am Main. them to let him fall. This they did, and Simon crashed ———. 1767. Anpreisung der allergnädigsten Landesverordnung to his death on the Sacred Way in the center of Rome. Ihrer Kaiserlichen Königlichen apostolischen Majestät, wie es mit Other accounts of Si m o n’s magical abilities we re dem Hexenprocesse zu halten sey, nebst einer Vorrede, in welcher given in the Acts of Peter,with further details, including die kurzeVertheydigung der Hex- und Zauberey, die der P. his apparent creation of a human being by combining a Angelus März der akademischen Rede des P. Sterzingers entge- body of air with the soul of a murdered boy, appearing gengesetzet, von einem Gottesgelehrten beantwortet wird.Munich. in the Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, where we ———. 1768a. Nicht doch—Auflösung der kleinen Zweifel über also hear about Si m o n’s heretical teaching, which zwey Berichte von einer Hexen- oder Studenten-Geschichte, die seemed heavily influenced by Gnostic theology. No t sich in dem Jahre 1768, den 10., 11., 12. und 13. Junius zu s u r p r i s i n g l y, perhaps, a religious sect (the Si m o n i a n s ) Ingolstadt in Bayern zugetragen haben soll.N.p. ———. 1768b.Nun ja—Oder kleine Zweifel über zwey Berichte based on his person and his doctrines was active for a von einer Hexen- oder Studenten-Geschichte, die sich in dem Jahre while, because the Acts of Petertold us that on a certain 1768, den 10., 11., 12. und 13. Junius zu Ingolstadt in Bayern occasion, Simon flew over one of the gates of Rome in a zugetragen haben soll.N.p. shining cloud and people worshipped him as God or Behringer,Wolfgang. 1995. “Der ‘Bayerische Hexenkrieg’: Die Christ. Ac c o rding to the sixteenth-century skeptic Debatte am Ende der Hexenprozesse.” Pp. 287–313 in Das Johann We ye r, in De praestigiis daemonum ( On the Ende der Hexenverfolgung.Edited by Sönke Lorenz and Dieter Tricks of Devils, 1563, book 2, chap. 3), Simon was a Bauer. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. seedbed of all kinds of heresies, a suggestion he proba- ———. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: Popular Magic, bly picked up from the Church Father Irenaeus. Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe. But usually, Simon has been depicted as a blasphe- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. mous rival to Jesus, working his wonders with satanic Nittner, Ernst. 1956. “P. Jordan Simon: Ein Leben im geisten Spannungsfeld der Aufklärungszeit.” Pp. 3–16 in Jahresbericht help, wonders that were, in fact, merely clever illusions. des Städtischen Realgymnasiums Bad Neustadt an der Saale.Bad The details afforded by the apocryphal writings we re Neustadt. further expanded during the Middle Ages. The fifth- to Strüber, Simon. 1930. P. Jordan Simon aus dem Orden der sixth-centuryActs of Saint Nero and Saint Achilleus,the Augustiner-Eremiten: Ein Lebensbild aus der Aufklärungszeit. later Golden Legend of Jacobus da Voragine, and the Würzburg. thirteenth-century Dominican John of Mailly all elabo- rated on an incident (also illustrated in several pieces of Simon Magus medieval art) when Simon tied a huge mastiff to a gate Simon Magus, also known as Simon the magician, pos- with the intention that it would devour Pe t e r, who sibly a Samaritan by nationality, makes his first appear- released the dog without being harmed. The more spec- ance in Acts 8.9–24. There, we are told that he had tacular business of Si m o n’s magical flight was used by acquired a great popular reputation as someone who the fourteenth-century St. Vincent Ferrer to underline either possessed divine power or could mediate with it. the difference between the genuine miracles worked by When Peter and John went to Samaria and began bap- St. Peter and the illusory, demon-based magic of tizing people, Simon took this to be a special technique Simon, which led only to spiritual and physical destruc- for transmitting a power that could work miracles, and tion, as witnessed by his falling to his death. he offered to buy their secret from them (hence the later Simon thus re p resents type of arrogant magician term simony, referring to the sale of or traffic in spiritu- aspiring to be God but reliant upon demonic help to al things). The Apostles sternly rejected his offer and create extraordinary illusions in the eyes of the behold- urged him to pray for forgiveness. ers. At a stroke, therefore, he could be and was used to Simon Magus 1041

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

46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1042 Application File c r i t i c i ze and condemn both ritual magicians and, by witch hunt (Sˇi n d e l áˇr 1980). He maintained that implication, the workers of that simpler but malevolent Ort h o d ox eastern Eu rope (particularly Russia) was not at magic known as witchcraft. all less civilized and less humane than western Eu ro p e because Ort h o d ox regions had much less witchcraft per- P. G. MAXWELL-STUART secution and far fewer trials during the late medieval and See also:BIBLE;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;JESUS;MIRACLES;RITUAL early modern periods. Ac c o rding to his moralizing inter- MAGIC. p retation, the Ort h o d ox east showed “g reater modera- References and further reading: tion [in persecuting witches] than western Christianity, Butler, E. M. 1993. The Myth of the Magus.1948. Reprint, which allowed these trials to become a terrible mass hunt Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. and a cruel horro r, making an inextinguishable blemish Ferreiro, Alberto. 1998a. “Simon Magus, Dogs, and Simon Peter.” on the face of western Eu ropean culture and civilization. Pp. 45–89 in The Devil, Heresy, and Witchcraft in the Middle Ne ve rtheless, certain of its defenders are prone to boast Ages: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey B. Russell.Edited by Alberto Ferreiro. Leiden: Brill. that Western culture and civilization we re both in the ———. 1998b. “Vincent Ferrer’sBeati Petri Apostoli:Canonical past and pre s e n t . . . more humane than the East” and Apocryphal Sources in Popular Vernacular Preaching.” (Sˇindeláˇr1980, 87–88). He produced one of the last but HarvardTheological Review91: 41–57. simultaneously one of the most distinctive attempts by Flint, Valerie I. J. 1991. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval dogmatic Ma rxist historiography to use the phenome- Europe.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. non of Eu ropean witchcraft trials as a tool of Klauck, Hans Josef. 2000. Magic and Paganism in Early a n t i-Western and anticlerical pro p a g a n d a . Christianity.Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. This thesis subsequently influenced the conception of his large monograph about the history of the witch hunt, ˇSindeláˇr, Bedˇrich published in 95,000 copies (Sˇi n d e l áˇr1986). Besides its (1917–1996) n u m e rous tendentious anti-Western and anti-C a t h o l i c A Czech Marxist historian and witchcraft specialist, passages, the work neglected the results of the we s t e r n Sˇindeláˇr wrote two monographs and several studies Eu ropean and American renaissance of witchcraft studies treating the persecution of witchcraft in both Habsburg since 1970 the work done particularly by H. C. Er i k central Europe (Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia) and Mi d e l f o rt, William Mo n t e r, and Ge r h a rd Schormann, France. Sˇindeláˇr’s research spread across four other who brought the work of the SS (S c h u t z s t a f f e l[ p ro t e c t i o n fields as well: Czech labor movements from 1860 to f o rce]) H - S o n d e rk o m m a n d o (special unit H [He xe n— 1930, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century emigra- witches]) to light in 1980. Consequently, Sˇi n d e l árˇ’s tion from Czech lands, the political history of early monograph remains a widely read but scientifically obso- modern western Eu rope, and eighteenth-century lete relic of the Warsaw Pact era. Freemasonry. Born in Bosnia, he attended the University of Brno PETR KREUZ; b e f o re and after World War II, reading history and TRANSLATED BY VLADIMIR CINKE German and earning his PhD in 1946 with a thesis on the history of witchcraft trials in Czech lands. He See also:HISTORIOGRAPHY;MIDELFORT,H.C.ERIK;MONTER, WILLIAM;NAZIINTERESTINWITCHPERSECUTION;ORTHODOX taught at Brno from 1953 until his retirement in 1990, CHRISTIANITY;SLOVAKIA. becoming professor of history (in 1963) and serving as References and further reading: dean of the philosophical faculty (from 1976 to 1980). Sˇindelárˇ, Bedrˇich. 1946a. “Vznik, pru°beˇh a zánik cˇarodeˇjnicky´ch From 1952 to 1986, he was editor in chief of the procesu° u nás: Studie k deˇjinám jednoho bludu.” PhD diss., Cˇasopis Matice mora vské (Jo u rnal of the Mo ra v i a n Masaryk University, Brno. As s o c i a t i o n), the oldest and most important Mo r a v i a n ———. 1946b. “Prˇíspeˇvek kdeˇjinám slezsky´ch procesu° s periodical. Throughout his time as a university teacher, cˇarodeˇjnicemi se zvláˇstním zrˇetelem kprocesu°m fry´valdovsky´m Sˇindeláˇr never broke off his political activities as a dog- vletech 1651–1684.”Slezsk´y sborník44: 65–80. matic Communist. He took an active part in the politi- ———. 1975. “‘Hon na cˇarodeˇjnice’ vzápadní historiografii po cally motivated purges after the Communist coup d’é- druhé sveˇtové válce.” Sborník prací filozofické fakulty brnˇenské tat in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, which resulted univerzity20: 168–187. in the dismissal of many non-Communist teachers at ———. 1976. “K trˇídnímu pozadí severomoravsky´ch a slezsky´ch, honu°na cˇarodeˇjnice po trˇicetileté válce.” Cˇasopis Matice the Un i versity of Brno and the expulsion of hundre d s moravské95: 265–283. of students. He played the same role during the ———. 1976–1977. “‘Hon na cˇarodeˇjnice’ ve francouzsky´ch so-called normalization following the Soviet invasion of zˇuˆensky´ch kláˇsterech prvé poloviny 17. století.” Sborník prací Czechoslovakia in 1968. filozofické fakulty brneˇnské univerzity23–24: 81–111. As a specialist in the history of witchcraft trials, he for- ———. 1980. “Západ a Vy´chod ve vztahu kmasovému ‘honu na mulated an extremely problematic, ideologically manip- cˇarodeˇjnice’ vEvropeˇ.” Sborník prací filozofické fakulty brnˇenské u l a t i ve, and anti-Western interpretation of the Eu ro p e a n univerzity27: 77–88. 1042 Sindeláˇr, Bedˇrich

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

46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1043 Application File ———. 1986. Hon na cˇarodeˇjnice: Západní a stˇrední Evropa W h e reas demons copulated with humans in order to pro- v16.–17. století.Prague: Svoboda. c u re our damnation, incubi and succubi simply enjoye d Slawkenbergius [Jan P. Kucˇera]. 1987. “Cˇarodeˇjnické procesy: sex because of their genuine corpore a l i t y. They re q u i re d Strˇedoveˇk nebo novoveˇk? Stˇrední Evropa/Samizdat/(Central no pact or m a l e ficium (harmful magic): Thus, demoniali- Europe/Samizdat/) 7: 101–114. ty was no more serious than bestiality, which degraded Vykoupil, Libor. 1987. “Profesor Be drˇich Sˇi n d e l áˇr sedmdesátilety´ . ” human nature, whereas sex with incubi or succubi exalted Cˇasopis Matice moravské106: 168–170. human nature (humans and incubi or succubi had equal Sinistrari, Ludovico Maria spiritual dignity, but the latter had nobler bodies). (1632–1701) As heir to centuries of speculation on human–demon Sinistrari was an Italian Franciscan demonologist and copulation, Sinistrari quoted authors from Michael Ps e l l u s jurist. Students of witchcraft know his De delictis et p o e- (d. 1078) through Francesco Maria Gu a z zo, along with n i s ( On Crimes and Punishments, 1700), where i n n u m e rous biblical, patristic, and scholastic texts, with par- Sinistrari analyzed (4.13) the concept of d a e m o n i a l i t a s , ticular interest in the incubi St. Augustine mentioned in or copulation between humans and incubi. In 1876, a his City of Go d . Si n i s t r a r i’s purpose was novel: Instead of French bibliophile, Is i d o re Lisieux, published a Latin merely invoking copulation as proof of suprahuman manuscript entitled Demonialitas expensa, hoc est de car- beings, he wanted to salvage a form of copulation with nalis commixtionis hominis cum daemone possibilitate, them that was, if not laudable, only venially sinful. m o d o, ac varietate dissertatio ( De m o n i a l i t y, that is a Howe ve r, Sinistrari sabotaged his revisionist pro g r a m Di s s e rtation on the Po s s i b i l i t y, Means, and Variety of by conceding that incubi and succubi we re as difficult to Human Sexual Contact with Demons), attributing it to d i s c over as evil demons because their airy bodies we re so Sinistrari; Lisieux subsequently printed French and subtle and because, like evil demons, they normally English translations of the work. In 1927, the occultist a p p e a red only to their paramours. Thus, persons who Montague Summers rew o rked Lisieux’s English transla- copulated with incubi or succubi necessarily believed they tion as part of his program to make the major texts of we re voluntarily sinning with evil demons. Because sin witchcraft available, intellectually respectable, and, if was defined by intention as well as act, demonialists had possible, credible to a modern mass audience. (Su m m e r s to be punished exactly as witches we re. Witchcraft was claimed that incubi and succubi we re probably identical deplorable but legally provable; demoniality was neither. with fairies, leprechauns, kobolds, and other folkloric Si n i s t r a r i’s postmodern heirs are the self-styled vic- c re a t u res, and he characteristically declared his unhesitat- tims of alien abduction and the therapists who encour- ing belief in their existence [Summers, in Sinistrari 1989, age them. Like Sinistrari, alien abduction enthusiasts xxxix].) Comparing the Lisieux text with two Latin man- seek to confirm corporeal, especially sexual, encounters uscripts in Italian libraries, a recent Italian translation b e t ween human beings and higher, “m o re spiritual” ( C a rena 1986) was based on a manuscript in the beings, yet they oppose Christian criminalization of Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan (Daemonialitas Ex p e n s a , such behavior. Indeed, proponents of alien abduction Hoc est de Ca rnalis Commixtion is Hominis cum Da e m o n e n ow denounce or dismiss Christianity as an irrational Possibilitate, Mo d o, Ac Varietate Dissertatio [ De m o n a l i t y, oppressor, superseded by an allegedly more evolved out- That is a Di s s e rtation on the Po s s i b i l i t y, Means, and va r i- look offering “scientific” proof that “we are not alone” ety of Human Sexual Contact with Demons]). Si n i s t r a r i (Mack 1994, 387–422; Stephens 2002, 367–369). a p p a rently intended all 121 sections of De Da e m o n i a l i t a t eas an entry for Ded e l i c t i sb e f o re deciding WALTER STEPHENS to include only the final 6, leaving the remaining 115, See also:AQUINAS,THOMAS;AUGUSTINE,ST.; CORPOREALITY, which developed his historical and philosophical pro o f s , ANGELICANDDEMONIC;DEMONOLOGY;DEMONS;GUAZZO, in manuscript form (Carena 1986, 16–17). FRANCESCOMARIA;IMAGINATION;INCUBUSANDSUCCUBUS; Si n i s t r a r i’s lengthy title re flected his main contention: SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC;SUMMERS,MONTAGUE;TASSO, Incubi and succubi existed and copulated in various ways TORQUATO. with human beings. He posited that incubi and succubi References and further reading: d i f f e red fundamentally from the evil demons of Ju d e o - Carena, Carlo, ed. 1986. Demonialità, ossia possibilità, modo, e Christian tradition because they we re not disembodied varietà dell’unione carnale dell’uomo col demonio,by Ludovico Maria Sinistrari. Palermo: Sellerio. d a e m o n e s but a n i m a l i a (bodies intrinsically animated by Mack, John E. 1994. Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens. souls), just like people; they had natural bodies of an airy NewYork: Scribner’s. substance that we re born and died, not the art i ficial bod- Sinistrari, Ludovico Maria. 1700. De delictis et poenis.Venice: H. ies that Aquinas theorized for angels and demons. In c u b i Albriccium. and succubi could be saved or damned when they died, ———. 1876. De la démonialité et des animaux incubes et succubes. and Jesus atoned for their sins along with our ow n . Edited by Isidore Lisieux. Paris: I. Lisieux. T h e re f o re, “d e m o n i a l i t y” with an incubus or succubus ———. 1989. Demoniality.Translated by Montague Summers. d i f f e red ethically from copulation with an evil demon. NewYork: Dover. Reprint of 1927 ed., London: Fortune. Sinistrari, Ludovico Maria 1043

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1044 Application File Stephens, Walter. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the intellect and the low social status of the supposed Crisis of Belief.Chicago and London: University of Chicago witches, the Ca n o n anticipated most of the objections Press. that skeptics would subsequently raise against the affirmations of witch hunters. Skepticism The inclusion of the Canon Ep i s c o p i in Gr a t i a n’s Skepticism about witchcraft can be defined as attitudes collection of canon law, or Decretum,around 1140 gave doubting the reality of some or even all of the principal it widespread authority (Kors and Peters 2001, 72–77). crimes attributed to witches: the pact with the Devil, Si m u l t a n e o u s l y, possibly under the influence of the participation in the Sabbat, and the ability to fly and to De c re t u m , John of Sa l i s b u ry, an English philosopher injure others magically. Skepticism varied from moder- and prominent churchman, expressed an analogous ate (questioning the reality of some components of skeptical view in his Policraticus(The Statesman, 1159), witchcraft or simply the ability of the judicial system to stressing the illusions of the witches’ experiences, which detect “true” witches) to radical (denying the truth of only “poor old women and the simpleminded kinds of witches’ confessions or even any possible interaction men” could mistake for reality (Kors and Peters 2001, between humans and demons, though rarely denying 77–78). the existence of demons). Historically, a variety of dif- De velopments in philosophy between the twe l f t h ferent approaches—philosophical, theological, medical, and the thirteenth centuries, chiefly the rediscovery of or judicial—were incorporated, often in combination, Aristotle’s works and the rise of Scholasticism, brought in the skeptical opinions of leading critics of witchcraft. a heightened interest in the natural world, including Skeptical views on deeds attributed to witches we re the need to redefine, through purely “physical” investi- e x p ressed throughout the entire period in Eu ro p e , gations, the essential characteristics and influence of s t a rting with the early tenth-century (ca. 906) demons. Thomas Aquinas proved that demons could C a rolingian law, the Canon Ep i s c o p i , and continuing interfere with natural phenomena and could also create t h rough the age of the witch hunts. Howe ve r, it was a “virtual” body and have bodily contacts with humans. only under the influence of Renaissance humanism His conclusions had a decisive effect on theories of and its re v i val of classical skepticism that critics of witchcraft. Such was the case with the Fl o re n t i n e witchcraft objected openly and articulately to the theo- Dominican theologian Jacopo Pa s s a vanti, whose ries of demonologists; opinions questioning the ve ry popular handbook for confessors—Specchio della ve ra foundations of the witch hunts do not occupy center p e n i t e n z a ( Mi r ror of True Penitence, ca. 1354)— stage until the mid-seventeenth century. The exc e s s e s mentioned some women who believed they participat- of the largest witch panics, combined with the rise of ed in the t re g e n d a , a collective night ride under the C a rtesian rationalism, produced irreparable cracks in guidance of Diana or He rodias, to a place where the walls of belief. T h e re a f t e r, believers in witchcraft “dishonest things” we re carried out (Kors and Pe t e r s found themselves on the defensive, as skeptics gradual- 2001, 110–111). Although Pa s s a vanti stressed that ly but irresistibly demolished the entire edifice of most of these things we re simply delusions caused by witchcraft theory, asserting that the witch hunters’ demons, he did not completely deny the reality of the claims we re impossible physically, unsound both tregenda,because he maintained (following mainstream philosophically and theologically, and unprova b l e Scholasticism) that the Devil had the power to carry l e g a l l y. people physically from one place to another. His opin- The Canon Ep i s c o p i , p u r p o rtedly issued by the ion, which supported the Canon Episcopi’s view of the Council of Ancyra (314), was a crucial document in the Sabbat as an illusion while leaving room for exceptions, history of both belief in and criticism of witchcraft. The marked an important transition toward a less skeptical Ca n o n distinguished harmful magic and divination, stance. concrete and very real threats that had to be eradicated, During the fifteenth century, discussions about the from the deluded visions of some “wicked women” who reality of witchcraft entered a decisive phase. Belief in gave themselves over to the Devil and then, “seduced by the diabolical sect of the witches as a new form of the illusions and phantasms of the demons,” believe d h e resy found complete expression first, without themselves to be part of the goddess Diana’s retinue and altogether eliminating skepticism. In fact, even fully to ride at night “upon certain beasts” for long distances. o rt h o d ox theologians and inquisitors seldom sub- The author of the Ca n o n called the women’s claims a scribed to the witchcraft paradigm without a prior “false opinion” because the Devil could trick the imagi- examination of its foundations, and they often rejected nation of such “miserable little women” (m u l i e rc u l a e) , some of them. For example, they almost universally dis- p roducing visions and making them believe that such missed the witches’ ability to transform themselves (and actions took place truly and corporeally (Kors and others) into animals as a sensory illusion provoked by Peters 2001, 61–63). By dismissing the whole matter as the Devil, because only a divine miracle could tru l y an illusion, blamed on Satan’s powers over the human change the nature of cre a t u res. Despite a general 1044 Skepticism

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1045 Application File consensus about the diabolical origin of the witches’ the publication of Symphorien Champier’sDialogus in p ower to harm, several key authors—Johannes Ni d e r, m a g i c a rum artium destru c t i o n e m ( Dialogue in among others—admitted the possibility of f a s c i n a t i o, De s t ruction of Magic Arts, ca. 1500), in which this that is, the “n a t u r a l” malefic effect of a witch’s poiso- French humanist physician speculated that beliefs in nous glance on impressionable people (Lea 1957, 1: the reality of diabolical gatherings and the wicked deeds 265–272). The most controversial topics remained the committed there may have resulted from a disease of reality of the witches’ Sabbat and the possibility of the imagination, requiring a medical treatment for physical contact between demons and humans. A kind alleged witches (although he conceded that demons of moderate skepticism on these issues could be found might have been responsible for the disease) among several theologians (for example, Ni d e r, (Thorndike 1941, 5: 117–118). Alphonso de Spina, Ma rtin of Arles, and Gi o rdano of This debate reached its peak in the early sixteenth Bergamo), who agreed that such experiences we re century, when it became a major controversy to which largely delusions, diabolically induced visions. authors on opposing sides devoted entire works. T h e Howe ve r, the tone of the discussion changed sensibly polemical exchange between the Franciscan Samuel de over the century: A growing number of influ e n t i a l Cassini and the Dominican Vi n c e n zo Dodo in 1505 authors, while conceding the theoretical possibility of and 1506 revolved around the theological argument of illusions, stressed that Sabbats and related phenomena divine justice; Cassini denied that God would allow the normally took place in reality and corpore a l l y. After demonic transportation of witches—possible in princi- 1450, the boundaries between the two opposing ple—for such wicked purposes as injuring innocent factions in the debate became more sharply defin e d . creatures. In those years, skeptics continued to use both Those on one side, mostly Dominican inquisitors, tried logic and law to weaken the arguments of believers. For to neutralize the Canon Episcopi, either by stating that example, Giovanni Francesco Ponzinibio, a lawyer from p resent-day witches constituted a new heretical gro u p Piacenza (Lombardy), composed the Tractatus subtilis, (Jean Vinet) distinct from “sect of Diana” or by explic- et elegans, de lamijs, et excellentia utriusque iuris (Subtle itly undermining the Ca n o n’s authoritative status and Elegant Treatise on Witches and the Excellence of ( Nicolas Jacquier). The skeptics, more hetero g e n e o u s Both Civil and Canon Law, 1519–1520), the most but frequently lay jurists, upheld the Ca n o n , i n s i s t i n g a rticulate and systematic criticism of the belief in on the ability of demons to deceive human senses. witchcraft of the time. Ponzinibio advocated the superi- Pa rticularly significant for its viewpoint was a work ority of canon and civil law over theology, even on mat- from the 1460s by an Italian jurist, Ambrogio Vignati, ters pertaining to faith. Using the Canon Ep i s c o p i , h e entitled Quaestio unica de lamiis seu strigibus also ruled out any possibility of the Sabbat, questioning ( In vestigation on Witches, part of his Tra c t a t u s d e the trustworthiness of the witches’ confessions as well as haeresi [Treatise on Heresies]). The author argued that the testimony of their accomplices—all uncouth and most feats confessed by witches were simply impossible wicked people, easily falling prey to the De v i l’s delu- because the De v i l’s incorporeal nature pre vented him sions. Ponzinibio provoked a massive response fro m f rom having physical contact with humans. believers in witchcraft. He was vociferously opposed by Fu rt h e r m o re, Vignati re versed mainstream legal tradi- a Dominican inquisitor from Pisa, Ba rtolomeo della tion by arguing that in capital cases such as heresy, stan- Spina, author of a Quaestio de strigibus(An In ve s t i g a t i o n dards of proof should be higher than for other crimes: of Witches, 1523) and a Quadruplex apologia de lamiis Thus, testimonies from confessed witches could not c o n t ra Po n z i n i b i u m ( Fo u rfold Defense on Wi t c h e s p rovide sufficient ground for torturing people they against Ponzinibio, 1525), both of which demolished accused because the whole matter was delusional and the Canon Ep i s c o p i as much as they confuted t h e re f o re impossible (Lea 1957, 1: 299–301). Even a Ponzinibio (Zambelli 1991; Stephens 2002). p rominent Italian monk, the Fl o rentine Gu g l i e l m o The growth of skepticism is further illustrated by Becchi, master general of the Augustinian ord e r, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mi r a n d o l a’s dialogue, St r i x a f firmed in the 1460s that demons could delude the (The Witch, 1523), in which the influence of the senses and the intellect but could not interact corpore- witchcraft critics—re p resented by one part i c i p a n t , ally with humans (Thorndike 1934, 4: 298–299). In Apistius (“the Un b e l i e ve r” ) — d e s e rved an attack based 1489, an Austrian jurist, Ulrich Molitor (von Müller), on an impre s s i ve display of classical learning (Bu rk e d i s c redited the Sabbat and animal metamorphoses, 1977). A significant passage from the famous It a l i a n which he considered both impossible and delusional; jurist Andrea Alciati about the reality of the Sa b b a t h owe ve r, he believed that the witches’ harmful powe r s explicitly rejected the opinion of theologians, employ- were certainly real and very great, and he demanded the ing a wealth of classical authors as well as legal sources. death sentence for those delusional women who had Alciati questioned why one would believe that sup- abandoned God for the Devil (Lea 1957, 1: 348–353). posed witches had attended a demonic gathering if The issue acquired an important new dimension with their husbands swore that they were in bed with them; Skepticism 1045

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1046 Application File it made more sense to regard the Sabbat as wholly delu- 1563), employing a variety of conceptual tools. Weyer sional, a vision induced by the Devil, and to consider admitted that devils may intervene physically in the that women who believed in it needed to be cured, not world and commit horrible crimes, but he argued that punished (Pa rergon iuris [ On the Ac c e s s o ry of they needed no human accomplices. While it was true Jurisprudence], 1544, but the passage discussed dates to that demonic male magicians existed and we re to be the early 1520s; see Lea 1957, 1: 374–376). Alciati’s punished harshly, he said, it was ridiculous to suppose immense prestige added weight to his opinions, which, that poor, old, simple women could perform supernat- for the first time, combined legal considerations with ural operations. Their belief in such things could only medical explanations to question the theories of the be explained in medical terms as a disorder of the witch hunters. humors in their bodies, just as natural diseases account- In t e restingly enough, in these years, ve ry few influ- ed for most illnesses blamed on harmful magic. Besides ential Neoplatonic philosophers, who advocated a using his medical competence, Weyer was also the first learned, licit version of “natural magic,” publicly skeptic to draw on philological arguments to deny the defended the so-called witches, both because they scriptural foundation of witch hunting by showing that b e l i e ved in the reality of demons and demonic magic the supposedly re l e vant passages in the Bible did not and because they were trying hard to avoid accusations refer to the witchcraft of his days. Finally, he used legal of dealing with the diabolical side of the supernatural discourse to undermine the essence of the witches’ world. One re m a rkable exception was the famous crime—their pact with the Devil, which he showed to philosopher-magus and physician Heinrich Cornelius be juridically not binding on humans who entered it Agrippa von Nettesheim, from Cologne, who, in the (Valente 2003). draft of his De occulta philosophia ( On Oc c u l t Weyer’s work enjoyed considerable editorial success, Ph i l o s o p h y, written 1509, published in 1531 and although it was attacked by a Swiss professor of medi- 1533), blamed the beliefs of the “w i t c h e s” on senility cine at Heidelberg, Thomas Erastus, with his Repetitio and, in a now-lost manuscript Ad versus lamiaru m disputationis de lamiis seu strigibus ( Repetition of the inquisitores(Against the Inquisitors of Witches) accused Disputation on Witches, 1578), and by the famous the Inquisition of being moved by cruelty and greed in French jurist Jean Bodin, who devoted a good portion handling witchcraft cases (Na u e rt 1965). It was, how- of his De la démonomanie des sorc i e r s ( On the e ve r, an Aristotelian philosopher, Pi e t ro Po m p o n a z z i , Demon-Mania of Witches, 1580) to its confutation. It author of De naturalium effectuum causis sive de incan- is notew o rt h y, howe ve r, that certain arguments raised t a t i o n i b u s ( Of the Causes of Natural Effects, or of byWeyer—for example, the possibility that melancholy Incantations, written 1520, but not published until caused witches to confess imaginary crimes—we re 1556), who first radically denied the existence of disem- accepted even by such influential supporters of witch bodied spirits (both angels and demons) and attributed hunts as Peter Binsfeld, suffragan bishop of Trier and even the most extraordinary phenomena to the hidden author of the Tractatus de confessionibus maleficorum et p owers of nature, ruling out the possibility of magic s a g a ru m (Treatise on Confessions of So rc e rers and (Zambelli 1991). Witches, 1589) (Valente 2003). While positions as extreme as Po m p o n a z z i’s Perhaps the most coherent and implacable remained isolated, a more selective type of skepticism sixteenth-century assault on the witch hunters’ theories emerged during the second half of the sixteenth centu- came from an outsider, both geographically and profes- ry among several humanist physicians, who continued sionally: the English country gentleman Reginald Scot, to express belief in the existence of demons while dis- whose Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) called into ques- missing most of the witches’ supposed crimes as the tion the very foundations of the belief. Scot drew upon result of a disease of the imagination. In 1557, We ye r’s work in arguing for the mental illness of the Gi rolamo Cardano, a famous astrologer and mathe- self-confessed witches but surpassed him by denying matician with a medical degree from the University of the Devil any physical powe r. He there f o re concluded Padua, published De rerum varietate(On the Variety of that, since no human being could really inflict harm Things), a work that included an attempt to analyze s a ve through natural means (in which case, the crime witchcraft beliefs from a medical viewpoint. Card a n o became poisoning), witchcraft was an impossibility blamed the fantastic confessions of night rides and dia- (Thomas 1971, 572–573). Although he had some bolical orgies on the melancholic nature of poor moun- i n fluence on later English skeptics, Scot’s position tain women, who suffered from a meager diet responsi- remained marginal, especially since it was based on a ble for an excess of black bile and therefore experienced h e t e ro d ox theology that largely reduced Satan to a hallucinations. But it was another physician, Jo h a n n metaphor for human imperfection and sinfulness We ye r, working in Cleves, who first systematically (Wootton 2001). attacked the witchcraft paradigm with his massive trea- Meanwhile, additional ammunition for those tise De praestigiis daemonum ( On the Tricks of De v i l s , doubting the reality of witchcraft came from a new 1046 Skepticism

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1047 Application File philosophical trend of systematic skepticism, based on between the end of the sixteenth century and the early the recovery of the works of the ancient Greek skeptics, s e venteenth century. Se veral came from men who had best expressed in the celebrated French philosopher witnessed the horrors perpetrated by witch hunters in Michel de Mo n t a i g n e’s Es s a i s (Essays, 1580). Wi t h o u t the territories of the Holy Roman Em p i re, including a d d ressing the issue of witchcraft in great detail, he law professors (Johann Georg Goedelmann and Er n s t emphasized the limited and imperfect nature of human Cothmann), Protestant ministers (Johann Ma t t h ä u s k n owledge, stressing that in matters as obscure and Me y f a rt [Me y f a h rt] and Johann Gre ve), and Je s u i t s c o n t roversial as witchcraft, one should proceed with ( Adam Ta n n e r, Paul Laymann, Friedrich Spee). T h e s e care and moderation, explaining the witches’ actions in critics denounced the general lack of solid proof to human rather than supernatural terms, and re f r a i n convict or even to arrest or tort u re people accused of f rom inflicting seve re punishments. Montaigne pre- witchcraft, arguing that the nature of the crime— p a red the French philosophical movement of l i b e rt i n s always difficult to ascertain because it was linked to the é ru d i t s , the intellectual ava n t - g a rde of the early seve n- diabolical power to delude—re q u i red judges to we i g h teenth century. The move m e n t’s most re l e vant expre s- evidence more carefully than in other types of cases. sion for the issue of skepticism was Gabriel Na u d é ’s These authors accused the courts of bad faith, inhu- Apologie pour les grands hommes soupçonnez de magie (A manity, and abuses in torturing suspected witches; such Defense of the Great Men Suspected of Magic, 1625). e xcesses, by eliciting forced confessions, falsified the Naudé did not attack the foundations of belief in criminal pro c e d u re entirely and inevitably led to con- witchcraft and other supernatural phenomena dire c t l y demnations of innocent people. This body of critical but rather insinuated his disbelief through the use of legal literature grew during the century, reaching its irony and mockery, and he suggested that the educated fullest maturity in the books of Christian T h o m a s i u s , few had to take a critical stance toward “superstitions” professor of law at the University of Halle: De crimine blindly accepted by fanatics and the ignorant populace. magiae (On the Crime of Magic, 1701) and De origine Although confined to a very limited group of thinkers ac pro g ressu processus inquisitorii contra sagas ( On the because of its atheistic implications, this attitude had a Origin and Continuation of the Inquisitorial Tr i a l significant underground influence and resurfaced at the against Witches, 1712). Expanding on Sp e e’s Ca u t i o beginning of the Enlightenment (Popkin 1979). Cr i m i n a l i s s e u de processibus contra sagas liber ( A By the late sixteenth century, an attitude of caution Warning on Criminal Justice, or A Book on Wi t c h and doubt became the standard approach of the most Trials, 1631), Thomasius expressed his firm conviction important courts devoted to the repression of heresy in that the witches’ deeds, above all participation in the the Mediterranean: the Spanish and the Ro m a n Sabbat, we re impossible to prove legally and thus Inquisitions. While this attitude was already appare n t should no longer be prosecuted (Lea 1957, vol. 2; in Italian witchcraft prosecutions in the late sixteenth Levack 1999). century, the most important Spanish documents detail- Although limited in scope, judicial skepticism ing this intellectual change came early in the following p roved extremely effective in reducing—and often c e n t u ry. A Spanish inquisitor, Alonso de Salazar Fr í a s , stopping altogether—witch persecutions in most of w rote sharply critical re p o rts about a large-scale witch western Europe by the end of the seventeenth century. hunt in the Basque Country (1611–1614), blaming the But changes in attitude among a large portion of a u t h o r i t i e s’ imprudent support of popular cre d u l i t y European jurists and judges cannot be explained solely and condemning the pro c e d u res followed by local in terms of a shift in the pre vailing legal paradigm; it inquisitors; afterw a rd, the Inquisition practically clearly mirro red a more general transformation of the stopped prosecuting witches in Spain (He n n i n g s e n dominant mental outlook among educated Europeans. 1980). The Roman Inquisition adopted analogous The root of this shift lay in their acceptance of a secu- guidelines, the In s t ructio pro formandis processibus in larized, mechanical philosophy, which, by stressing the causis strigum, sortilegiorum et maleficiorum(Instruction separation of the realms of spirit and matter, made the for Conducting Trial Pro c e d u res Against Wi t c h e s , existence of such incorporeal “substances” as angels and So rc e rers, and Evildoers, 1620s), asserting that witch- demons highly problematic, thus undermining the cor- craft was difficult to verify, both because of the incon- nerstone of Scholastic theories on witchcraft. stant nature of the offenders—women—and the ro l e Individual positions among the followers of the “n ew p l a yed by the Devil, the master of illusions. Local p h i l o s o p h y” we re, howe ve r, varied. René De s c a rt e s inquisitors we re there f o re urged to proceed with never explicitly denied the existence of demons, but in e x t reme care in order not to exceed the limits of legal his L e v i a t h a n (1651), the materialist Thomas Ho b b e s propriety (Tedeschi 1991). reduced supernatural phenomena to products of past This type of skepticism, aimed mostly at making ignorance and superstition; his radical interpretation of judicial pro c e d u res for prosecuting witchcraft more S c r i p t u re made demons into metaphors for humans’ accurate and fair, produced a sizable cluster of work s evil thoughts and intentions (Po rter 1999). Si m i l a r Skepticism 1047

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1048 Application File ideas we re intrinsic to the rationalistic pantheism of the principles of the “n ew philosophy” we re widely Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza, a Dutch Jew banned from disseminated among educated men, the “n ew science” his Amsterdam community whose philosophy assumed made its most spectacular advances, and discussions the existence of only one substance of divine origin in about supernatural phenomena ranged most widely in the universe and who simply ruled out the existence of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In evil and therefore any possibility for supernatural events the English debate, many skeptics tended to uphold a such as witchcraft (Israel 2001). belief in spirits, while believers used some new scientif- Because the rejection of the diabolical paradigm by ic principles to prove that the Devil could operate in both Hobbes and Spinoza was the consequence of a the physical world. Most critics (for example, Ro b e rt radical philosophical outlook that implicitly denied tra- Fi l m e r, John Wagstaffe, John We b s t e r, and Fr a n c i s ditional conceptions of a personal deity, their ideas were Hutchinson) attacked the foundations of demonology generally condemned as atheistic. They neve rt h e l e s s t h rough following the traditional Protestant re j e c t i o n exerted a powerful influence on less extreme witchcraft of “popish superstitions,” arguing that Catholic witch- critics, such as the Dutch Calvinist pastor Ba l t h a s a r craft theories had no basis in the Bible. While usually Be k k e r. In his four-volume De Be t ove rde We e re l d (T h e maintaining the possibility of supernatural events (in World Bewitched, 1691–1693, which was soon trans- o rder to pre s e rve Je s u s’s miracles from doubt), they lated into French, German, and English), Be k k e r stressed that most such occurrences were best explained launched what became, in many respects, the fin a l in purely natural terms. They did not rule out the exis- onslaught on the entire belief complex related to harm- tence of the Devil but limited his sphere of action to the ful magic and satanic power. From a theological point spiritual realm. Their less and less influential opponents of view, Bekker argued that witch hunters had impious- tried to show that disbelief in witches entailed doubting ly underestimated Go d’s sense of justice and love for e ve rything supernatural, including the principles of humankind in supposing that he allowed the De v i l C h r i s t i a n i t y, and would necessarily lead to atheism. unlimited freedom to torment his creatures. Influenced Joseph Glanvill, a Fellow of the Royal Society who tried by Descartes, Bekker believed that nature worked with to prove the existence of witches on a scientific basis uniform re g u l a r i t y, with which a purely spiritual devil that would withstand the test of skepticism could not interfere. Using Spinoza’s devastating princi- (Sadducismus Tr i u m p h a t u s [ Sadducism Conquere d ] , ples of biblical exegesis, Bekker then turned to 1681), showed that adopting the new mental outlook Scripture, interpreting its passages about magic or deal- did not automatically mean rejecting traditional theo- ings with demons as referring either to natural ries. In fact, increasingly latitudinarian re l i g i o u s phenomena or to deceit and accusing believers in attitudes and rejection of fanaticism among elite witchcraft of having senselessly exceeded both re a s o n Englishmen, combined with the rise of the new science, and Revelation. Bekker exemplified the new confidence best account for the dismissal of traditional ideas about of skeptics in that age, who combined the critical usage witchcraft in the space of two generations; they we re of human intellectual faculties with a new, optimistic replaced by the vision of a benevolent and omnipotent theology to ove rturn centuries of demonology (Is r a e l deity ruling a well-ordered universe in which there was 2001). Pierre Bayle, the controversial French Calvinist no room for such absurdities. This outlook, expre s s e d intellectual heir to the l i b e rtins éru d i t s , also helped by John Locke in The Reasonableness of Christianity spread a new critical approach to the issue of magic and (1695), became the establishment view (Thomas 1971; witchcraft. His D i c t i o n n a i re historique et critique Porter 1999; Clark 1997). (Historical and Critical Dictionary, 1697) and Réponse These changes in the mentality of educated people aux questions d’un provincial (Answer to the Questions both in England and on the Continent opened the way of a Provincial, 1703), although characteristically for the final, radically skeptical opinions of the oblique and never openly denying the existence of Enlightenment p h i l o s o p h e s . In the eighteenth century, witches, stressed how frequently witchcraft (and such h owe ve r, the atmosphere was ve ry different: The gre a t allied beliefs as demonic possession) simply re s u l t e d majority of thinkers simply excluded witches and their from false accusations, excessive imagination, deceit, or deeds from serious philosophical re s e a rch. By 1750, fraud. Such ideas both re i n f o rced and mirro red the skepticism with respect to supposed supernatural events s p read of an attitude of mocking disbelief among reached new levels of daring with David Hume’s essay French elites, which had already incited King Louis “ On Mi r a c l e s” in his En q u i ry Concerning Hu m a n XIV to issue an edict in 1682 that decriminalize d Un d e r s t a n d i n g (1748), in which he argued that all witchcraft de facto, reclassifying it as “pretended magic” miracles, including those of Jesus, could never be along with sorc e ry and other such “s u p e r s t i t i o n s” demonstrated satisfactorily (Gay 1966). Hume’s analy- (Porter 1999; Levack 1999). sis of the psychological mechanism through which The impact of these intellectual changes on the humans bring themselves to believe in clearly impossi- witchcraft debate is best gauged in Great Britain, where ble phenomena shed a powerfully critical light on belief 1048 Skepticism

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1049 Application File in magic and witchcraft, although this last issue had METAMORPHOSIS;MEYFART(MEYFAHRT), JOHANNMATTHÄUS; a l ready become peripheral among most adva n c e d MIRACLES;MOLITOR,ULRICH;MONTAIGNE,MICHELDE;NIDER, discussions. The Enlightenment’s renewed approach to JOHANNES;PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,GIANFRANCESCO;POMPON- the knowledge of nature entailed the rejection of the AZZI,PIETRO;PONZINIBIO,GIOVANNIFRANCESCO;POSSESSION, entire occultist tradition (that is, natural magic, astrolo- DEMONIC;PROOF,PROBLEMOF;SABBAT;SALAZARFRÍAS,ALONSO DE;SCOT,REGINALD;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;SPINA,ALPHONSODE; gy, alchemy, and so forth) and reduced witchcraft to an SPINA,BARTOLOMEODELLA;SUPERSTITION;TANNER,ADAM;TAR- antiquated belief typical of bygone ages of dark n e s s , TAROTTI,GIROLAMO;THOMASIUS,CHRISTIAN;VINET,JEAN; p rejudice, and fanaticism. Vo l t a i re tirelessly accused VOLTAIRE;WAGSTAFFE,JOHN;WEBSTER,JOHN;WEYER,JOHANN; Christianity of fostering superstition, including its doc- WITNESSES. trines about the Devil and his human accomplices. References and further reading: With matchless iro n y, he ridiculed popular cre d u l i t y, Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: s t ressing that witchcraft should be beneath contempt Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early for the state or educated people. Modern Europe.Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. Witchcraft had not yet become the laughingstock of Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. all educated elites, however; as late as 1749, a moderate Burke, Peter. 1977. “Witchcraft and Magic in Renaissance Italy: Gianfrancesco Pico and His Strix.” Pp. 32–52 in The Damned Italian Enlightenment intellectual, Girolamo Tartarotti, Art: Essays on the Literature of Witchcraft.Edited by Sidney devoted a meticulous work, Del congresso notturno delle Anglo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. l a m m i e ( On Nocturnal Gathering of Witches), to the Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft n ow-outdated issue of the reality of the crime in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. ( Parinetto 1974). Ta rt a ro t t i’s selective skepticism, Gay, Peter. 1966. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation—The Rise which denied witchcraft but conceded the efficacy of of Modern Paganism.NewYork: Knopf. magic, was opposed by the most reactionary tendencies Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque within Roman Catholicism. His book did not aro u s e Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609–1614).Reno: the last significant controversy of the century, though: University of Nevada Press. A round the same time, several death sentences for Israel, Jonathan. 2001. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the witchcraft we re carried out in Ba varia, sparking what Making of Modernity, 1650–1750.Oxford and NewYork: Oxford University Press. became known as the Ba varian War of the Wi t c h e s Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. 2001. Witchcraft in Europe, (Behringer 1997). In this heated debate, which reached 400–1700: A Documentary History.2nd ed. Revised by Edward its climax between 1766 and 1767, Catholic clergy Peters. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. were on both sides, as enlightened authors and as tradi- Lea, He n ry Charles. 1957. Materials Tow a rd a Hi s t o ry of Wi t c h c ra f t . tionalists. The victory of the former, due to the climate Vols. 1 and 2. NewYork and London: Thomas Yoseloff. of modernization that the reform-minded Em p re s s Levack, Brian. 1999. “The Decline and End of Witchcraft Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II had created, her- Prosecutions.” Pp. 1–93 in The Eighteenth and Nineteenth alded the end of witchcraft trials in the Holy Ro m a n Centuries.Vol. 5 of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic Em p i re. It also signaled the transformation of witch- in Europe. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London craft from a source of universal concern and a hotly and Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania debated topic among leading thinkers into an object of Press. Nauert, Charles G., Jr. 1965. Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance scholarly historical analysis, disappearing from the Thought.Urbana: University of Illinois Press. mental horizons of both intellectual elites and political Parinetto, Luciano. 1974. Magia e ragione: Una polemica sulle establishments. streghe in Italia intorno al 1750.Florence: La Nuova Italia. Popkin, Richard. 1979. The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to MATTEO DUNI Spinoza.Berkeley and London: University of California Press. See also: ACQUITTALS;AGRIPPAVONNETTESHEIM,HEINRICHCOR- Porter, Roy. 1999. “Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment, NELIUS;ALCIATI,ANDREA;AQUINAS,THOMAS;BAVARIANWAROF Romantic and Liberal Thought.” Pp. 191–274 in The THEWITCHES;BEKKER,BALTHASAR;BINSFELD,PETER;BODIN, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.Vol. 5 of The Athlone JEAN;CANONEPISCOPI;CARDANO,GIROLAMO;CASSINI,SAMUEL History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Edited by Bengt DE;CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC;DECEPTIONAND Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and Philadelphia: Athlone MAGIC;DECLINEOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;DEMONOLOGY; and University of Pennsylvania Press. DESCARTES,RENÉ;DIANA(ARTEMIS); DISEASE;DODO,VINCENZO; Stephens, Walter. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the ENLIGHTENMENT;ERASTUS,THOMAS;EVIDENCE;FAMILYOF Crisis of Belief. Chicago and London: University of Chicago LOVE;FILMER,SIRROBERT;GLANVILL,JOSEPH;GOEDELMANN, Press. JOHANNGEORG;GRATIAN;GREVE,JOHANN;HOBBES,THOMAS; Tedeschi, John A. 1991. The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies HUTCHINSON,FRANCIS;IMAGINATION;INQUISITION,ROMAN; on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy.Binghamton, NY: INQUISITION,SPANISH;JACQUIER,NICOLAS;JOHNOFSALISBURY; MRTSTexts and Studies. LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); LAWSONWITCHCRAFT Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in (MEDIEVAL); LAYMANN,PAUL;MECHANICALPHILOSOPHY;MEDI- Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England. CINEANDMEDICALTHEORY;MELANCHOLY;MENTALILLNESS; NewYork: Scribner’s. Skepticism 1049

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1050 Application File Thorndike, Lynn. 1934–1941. A Hi s t o ry of Magic and Ex p e r i m e n t a l b e l i e ved that upbraiding the offender was a legitimate S c i e n c e .Vols. 4–6. New Yo rk: Columbia Un i versity Pre s s . form of resistance. Even contemporary jurists discussed Valente, Michaela. 2003. Johann Weyer:Agli albori della critica whether re t o rts (re t o r s i o n e s) should be exempt fro m razionale dell’occulto e del demoniaco nell’Europa del ‘500. punishment. But sometimes, duels involving mutual Florence: Olschki. e xchanges of witchcraft slanders resulted in witchcraft Wootton, David. 2001. “Reginald Scot/Abraham Fleming/The trials against both parties, thus emphasizing the dangers Family of Love.” Pp. 119–138 in Languages of Witchcraft: of slander even for persons who had originally made the Narrative, Ideology and Meaning in Early Modern Culture. allegations. Knowledge of possible negative conse- Edited by Stuart Clark. London: Macmillan. Zambelli, Paola. 1991. L'ambigua natura della magia: Filosofi, quences led many people to control their own impulses streghe, riti nel Rinascimento.Milan: Il Saggiatore. or to pre vent others from making public accusations. Of course, another reason that led people to be careful Slander was fear of magical re venge if their enemy truly was a Throughout much of Europe—particularly in regions witch. where accusatory procedure endured, as in Scandinavia In conclusion, people handled witchcraft suspicions or the British Isles—witchcraft slander often led to in very different ways. There were forms of spontaneous witchcraft trials. Research has therefore been interested and more aggressive behavior and forms of restraining in the motives for slandering someone as a witch and behavior. It is beyond doubt that people usually learned also, with regard to the libeled persons suing for to be cautious, realizing that witchcraft slander could damages, in the chances of avoiding a witchcraft trial by escalate out of control. filing a defamation suit. Even though further re s e a rch is necessary, especially Behavior after Witchcraft Slander in Eu ropean regions using accusatory pro c e d u re, we For a person who had been insulted and called a witch can outline some conditions as well as some patterns in public, there was no foolproof way of averting a of behavior in this re g a rd. Robin Briggs (2002) exam- witchcraft trial. We can trace a wide range of behavior ined the reactions of people defamed as witches in patterns in responses made to slanderous accusations. l a t e-s i x t e e n t h - and early-seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Lorraine. Passive toleration of witchcraft slander constituted an Rainer Walz (1993) undertook case studies of witchcraft attempt to downplay it. Aggressive forms of behavior persecutions in the German county of Lippe and also included threats, verbal retorts, or even physical vio- c o m p a red several behavior patterns. Both showed how lence. Paradoxically, either manner of response could be witchcraft slanders we re often used to manage confli c t s interpreted as affirming the original accusation: A lack in eve ryday life in early modern villages and tow n s. of resoluteness to defend oneself implied guilt and a fear of investigation, whereas aggressive behavior gave Types of Witchcraft Slander proof of an evil character. Even opening a legal com- Many day-to-day conflicts provided occasions for plaint of defamation was dangerous because it spread witchcraft slander. Walz considered those practices as one’s bad fame and provoked one’s enemies to prove basic elements of behavior in economically stagnant their allegations. societies with limited goods. An analysis of German Howe ve r, this does not mean that witchcraft trials witchcraft slander cases shows that enraged people we re inevitable consequences of witchcraft slander. often cried out words such as zaubersche (witch), hure Neighbors of the warring parties assessed conflicts and (whore), or dieb(thief) one right after another. It seems the characters of the protagonists based on the rank and such words were sometimes spoken without any inten- honor they had within their village or town. Law courts tion of expressing a concrete suspicion. The defamers c o n s i d e red aspects of honor in defamation suits by tried to hurt their enemies with words and to state pub- obliging neighbors to testify as witnesses (Fuchs 1999). licly that they were evil people. In several territories of Judicial fights against witchcraft slander were undertak- the Holy Roman Empire, struggles of honor through en in many German territories and towns and in other mutual slander can also be observed as conditional regions as well; for example, cases before the Churc h insults (Tschaikner 1997). The enemies challenged each courts in England can be found as early as 1435 and as other to continue the defamation until one of them late as 1675 (Sharpe 1980, 12–14; Rushton 1982). In revoked his or her offending words. the Holy Roman Em p i re, legal acts against witchcraft In other cases, a witchcraft slander was expre s s e d slander were brought before several judicial authorities. verbally only after an evil reputation had long existed. Witchcraft slander was often handled within summary Sometimes, several years of suspicion preceded concrete p roceedings and punished with fines. Mo re seve re accusations of m a l e ficium (harmful magic), art i c u l a t e d forms of witchcraft allegations could be brought before in face-to-face-situations. higher courts, including the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t Many times, witchcraft slander was re c i p ro c a l l y (imperial chamber court), as defamation suits (a c t i o e xchanged between two persons, and people often i n i u r i a ru m). Most legal proceedings of this type 1050 Slander

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1051 Application File i n vo l ved lawyers. The re c o rds of these lawsuits show Sl ovakia. Until the mid-seventeenth century, only that there was a chance for the plaintiffs to prove they individual witchcraft trials can be found in Sl ova k i a n we re innocent. But further studies will have to show territory, among which only a handful ended with the which legal and social requirements were necessary for e xecution of the accused: at Banská Sˇtiavnica (Ge r m . filing a defamation suit and, ultimately, for succeeding S c h e m n i t z , Hung. Se l m e c b á n y a) in 1581, at Ko m á r n o in witchcraft cases. It seems significant that most ( Germ. Ko m m o rn , Hung. Ko m á ro m) in 1589, at defamation suits in the Saarland occurred outside—and Br a t i s l a va (Germ. Pre s s b u r g , Hung. Po z s o n y) in 1602, often shortly after—periods of extensive witchcraft and at Bardejov (Hung. Bártfa) in 1629. persecutions (Labouvie 1991, 74–78). The greatest number of witchcraft trials in Sl ova k i a In the American colony of Virginia, a widow, Grace took place in the town of Krupina (Germ. K a r p f e n , Sh e rwood, who had lost two defamation suits was Hung. Korpona) in central Slovakia, between 1662 and formally tried for witchcraft in 1706. We know that she 1744. At least 49 people we re judged for witchcraft l i ved until 1740. Many of her predecessors we re less (maleficent sorcery), and at least 42 of them (almost all fortunate. women) we re executed, sometimes in large clusters: s p e c i fic a l l y, 6 persons in 1662 and 14 more in 1675. RALF-PETER FUCHS Another mass witch process was held in 1691 in the See also:ACCUSATIONS;COUNTERMAGIC;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL; royal town of Sˇamorín (Germ. S o m m e re i n , Hu n g . COURTS,SECULAR;HOLYROMANEMPIRE;HONOR;LAWYERS; Somorja) in southern Slovakia. According to the record, MALEFICIUM;REICHSKAMMERGERICHT;RURALWITCHCRAFT;SAAR 21 women we re judged for sorc e ry; most of the sen- REGION;SHERWOOD,GRACE;WORDS,POWEROF. tences passed are no longer extant, but the majority of References and further reading: these women probably were not sentenced to death. Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and Slovakia’s last witchcraft executions took place in the Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. 2nd ed. Oxford: 1 7 4 0 s — i n volving 3 women at Krupina in 1741 and Blackwell. Fuchs, Ralf-Peter. 1999. Um die Ehre: Westfälische individual women at Trencˇín (Hung. Trenˇcsén) in 1742 Beleidigungsprozesse vor dem Reichskammergericht (1525–1805). and 1745. The last known witchcraft trial in Sl ova k i a Paderborn: Schöningh. was held in 1747 against Countess Susanna Esterházy, Kamensky, Jane. 1997. Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech who was finally freed by the district court. in Early New England.NewYork: Oxford University Press. With the exception of the witch hunt at Kru p i n a Labouvie, Eva. 1991. Zauberei und Hexenwerk: Ländlicher ( Ma t j á n ová and Majtán 1970), the history of witchcraft Hexenglaube in der frühen Neuzeit.Frankfurt am Main: Fischer. persecution in Sl ovakia has not been systematically Rushton, Peter. 1982. “Women, Witchcraft and Slander in Early re s e a rched. One cause, among others, is that the sourc e s Modern England: Cases from the Church Courts of Durham, describing witchcraft trials we re written, depending on 1560–1675.” Northern History18: 116–132. the place and time, in four languages (Latin, Ge r m a n , Sharpe, James A. 1980.Defamation and Sexual Slander in Early Hungarian, and the local Sl a vonic dialect overlaid by Modern England: The Church Courts at York.York: Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York. Czech). The number of victims currently known fro m Tschaikner, Manfred. 1997. Magie und Hexerei im südlichen s o u rces in the territory of present-day Sl ovakia is approx- Vorarlberg zu Beginn der Neuzeit.Constance: Universitätsverlag imately 150–250, most of whom we re executed. Gi ve n Konstanz. the substantial losses of source material (part i c u l a r l y Walz, Rainer. 1993. Hexenglaube und magische Kommunikation im f rom the sixteenth century), the actual number of vic- Dorf der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Verfolgungen in der Grafschaft tims of the witch hunt in Sl ovakia between the sixteenth Lippe.Paderborn: Schöningh. and eighteenth centuries could have been twice as high. Slovakia PETR KREUZ For nine centuries (from 1018 to 1918), what is today’s See also:FEMALEWITCHES;HUNGARY;SˇINDELÁRˇ, BEDRˇICH; Sl ovak Republic formed part of the Kingdom of SOURCESFORWITCHCRAFTTRIALS;URBANWITCHCRAFT. Hungary. Most sorcery cases were heard in Slovakia by References and further reading: town courts between the sixteenth and eighteenth Apfel, Viliam. 2001. Cˇas pekeln´ych ohnˇov: Procesy sbosorkami na centuries; other cases can be found in the records of Slovensku (1506–1766). Budmerice: Vydavatelstvo Rak. ecclesiastical courts and district courts (ˇzupní soud). Holák, Ján. 1974. Beda odsúden´ym: Ako sa za feudalizmu súdilo na Slovensku. Martin: Osveta. The first reliably proven case of burning a witch on Horna, Richard. 1933. Zwei Hexenprozesse in Pressburg zu Beginn the territory of modern Sl ovakia occurrred in 1506 at des XVII. Jahrhundert.Bratislava: Slovenská Grafia.. the small town of Sˇtítnik (Hung. C s e t n e k) in south- ———. 1935. Ein Monster-Hexenprozess in Sommoreín gegen Ende central Sl ovakia. The first witchcraft trials know n des XVII. Jahrhunderts.Bratislava: R. Horna. directly from sources, in which no death sentences were ———. 1936. “Marie Terezie a procesy sˇcarodˇejnicemi.” Pp. passed, took place in 1517 in the royal town of Koˇsice 157–167 in Poctakˇsesdesiatym narodeninám Dr. Karla Laˇst’ovku. ( Germ. K a s c h a u , Hung. K a s s a) in southeastern Bratislava: Faculty of Law of Komensky University. Slovakia 1051

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1052 Application File Horváthová-C˘ˇajánková, Emília. 1959. “Lieˇcebné praktiky ˇcarode- 1550 Lutheran catechism, also described Catholic jníc na severozápadnom Slovensku vprvej polovici 18. stor.” rituals as witchcraft. Slovensk´ynárodopis7: 433–445. After four women we re tried at Celje in 1579, a Majtánová, Marie, and Milan Majtán. 1970. “Materiály o ˇcarode- major witch hunt broke out at Maribor (Hrastovec and jnick´ych procesoch vKrupine zkonca 17. storoˇcia.” Vurberg courts), with at least twenty trials from 1580 Slovensk´ynárodopis 18: 137–145. until 1586. But from then until the mid-seve n t e e n t h ———, eds. 1979. Krupinské prísne právo.Bratislava: Tatran. Sˇindelárˇ, Bedˇrich. 1986. Hon na ˇcarodˇejnice: Západní a strˇední century, as witchcraft trials peaked in western Europe, Sl ovenia had none. They re v i ved between 1648 and Evropa v16.–17 století. Prague: Svoboda. Sˇujansk´y, Frantiˇssek. 1898–1899. “Súdy nad strigami r. 1675 a 1650, when several people we re tried at Go r n j a vnasl (Zo zápisnej knihy meˇsta Krupiny).” Slovenské pohlady Radgona for practicing sorc e ry; soon afterw a rd, in 18: 689–692, 750–752; 19: 173–177, 243–247. 1651 and 1652, a series of trials were held in the area between the Mura and Drava Rivers, beginning at the Slovenia Vurberg domain but also conducted at the court in Like its Habsburg-ruled neighbors in modern Austria Ptuj. Witchcraft trials became even more frequent: In or Croatia, present-day Sl ovenia first experienced 1652, two women were burned at the stake for witch- witchcraft trials in the mid-sixteenth century.The trials craft in Sˇkofja Loka and two others in Ribnica; stakes reached their peak between 1660 and 1700 and lasted we re also lit at three places (Lj u t o m e r, Or m ozˇ, and deep into the eighteenth century. According to the doc- Ptuj) in 1660. A year later, one judge (Lov re n c umentary evidence, a total of 495 people were tried for Lamperticˇ) ordered more than twenty witches burned, witchcraft in Slovenia. The records shows that 265 of over half of them at Hrastovec, six more at Go r n j a them were beheaded and burned for witchcraft (a few Radgona, and three (a mother and her two daughters) were burned alive), while only 54 received milder at Maribor; many others suspected of sorcery were also penalties; 41 others died in prison, and 6 succeeded in imprisoned. Other courts also burned women for breaking out of jail. For over a fourth of these cases witchcraft at Ljublana (in 1662), Zavrcˇ (in 1665), and (131 people), the outcome of the trials re m a i n s Kranj (in 1669). In the 1670s, Ljutomer came first in unknown (Kosˇir 2001, 165). Slovenian witches were the number of trials. In 1671, more than forty people overwhelmingly female. Omitting 94 cases in which a we re imprisoned on the suspicion of sorc e ry. In 1675 prisoner’s gender is unknown, women accounted for alone, the court judge JanezWendtseisen sentenced six- 341 defendants, or 85 percent (Tratnik and Kosˇir teen people to death for witchcraft i nLj u t o m e r. In 1995, 188). 1676, a witch was again brought to trial in Sˇkofja Loka. The Slovene language has two different concepts for In the 1670s, witchcraft trials were held before local witchcraft/witch. The first encompasses c o p rn i c a ( s o r- c o u rts Or m oˇz, Hrastovec, Gornja Radgona, Ma r i b o r, cerer) and coprniˇstvo(sorcery), more general terms indi- Celje, Sˇosˇtanj, Podgrad (Sˇentjur pri Celju), and Poljane cating magic and harmful witchcraft. The second con- ( Predgrad pri Kolpi). In the 1680s, further trials took cept for witch and witchcraft includes veˇsˇca a n d place in Celje, Lasˇko, Lj u t o m e r, Hrastovec, Go r n j a veˇsˇcarija, terms that are connected to diabolical witch- Radgona, Ha l o ze, Ma r i b o r, Borl, Sl ovenska Bi s t r i c a , craft and can be found in the trial re c o rds. The word Bi zeljsko, Lozˇ, and Sn ezˇnik. In the 1690s, trials veˇsˇca (pyramid moth) conjures the images of night o c c u r red in Laˇsko, Lj u t o m e r, Celje, Ptuj, Lj u b l j a n a , flights and covens. Its semantic nuances are interesting, Po b rezˇje ob Kolpi, Poljane (Predgrad ob Ko l p i ) , as the word also is used for the night butterfly. Ru p e rcˇ v r h — Me h ovo, and Krsˇko; several of these places had previously been unaffected by witchcraft tri- Chronology of Slovenian Trials als. The first major witchcraft trial in Carniola’s capital, Diabolism did not appear in Slovenia’s earliest sorcery Ljubljana, started in 1691 and lasted through 1692, trials—in 1427 at Celje against Veronika of Desenice then resumed in 1694; overall, some thirty people were and in 1513 at Ljubljana, in which a middle-class e xecuted. Mu rd e rous hunts also began in 1691 at woman accused of sorcery with a wax doll was execut- Poljane pri Kolpi, lasting until 1699 and pro d u c i n g ed. But once the region’s lay judges (Bannrichter) began dozens of victims. applying the Carolina Code, the imperial criminal code At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a major of 1532 (its pro c e d u res having been adapted for trial was held in Krsˇko. Stakes were still burning there Carniolan courts by a decree of Archduke Ferdinand I in 1714 or even longer. According to some estimates, as in 1535), witchcraft trials involving diabolism reached many as forty people we re burned on that occasion. Slovenia at Maribor in 1546, where several people, per- This, however, was Slovenia’s last major witch hunt; the haps ten, we re burned for witchcraft. They we re Inner Austrian government became increasingly skepti- accused of raising storms and committing other evil cal tow a rd witch hunting after 1700. But in 1700, deeds, flying in the air, and consorting with the Devil. c o u rts in four places (Borl, Hrastovec, Or m ozˇ, and Shortly afterward, the first Slovene printed book, a Ribnica) sentenced people for practicing witchcraft; 1052 Slovenia

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1053 Application File Ribinca’s last witch was allegedly burned at the stake in These apparitions are similar to those known as kresni- 1701, accompanied by five at Borl and one at Haloze. k i . Chiming of the church bells was believed to ward As late as 1711, at Kostanjevica, two women and a man away storms, and if the parish priest or the parish clerk we re burned for witchcraft, another woman was failed to do this, he was exposed to the wrath of the imprisoned, and a man succeeded in fleeing. peasants. Va l vasor narrated the case of a parish priest The hunts died down slowly in the eighteenth who had to leave his parish in order to escape from the c e n t u ry. After 1711, the outcomes of the trials we re a n g ry peasants. He also re p o rted that the entire In n e r i n c reasingly milder, and the penalties we re usually Carniolan village of Bocˇ k ovo had been burned in the p e c u n i a ry, for example, at Sl ovenjske Konjice (in 1670s because of witchcraft. 1728), at Legen pri Sl ovenj Gradcu (in 1731), at Accusations of witchcraft we re frequent in rural are a s , Ortnek (in 1733), and at Ptuj (in 1740). In 1744, three but they did not always end with a trial. Secular court s people we re jailed on the charges of witchcraft in that we re also competent for other criminal offenses Gornja Radgona. The court released them in conducted witchcraft trials. Most witches we re not con- September 1744, but the local authorities in Ve rzˇ e j victed individually. If and when a witchcraft trial began, jailed them again and, with the help of the judge in the judge, on the basis of forced confessions, might Celje, reopened the procedure against them. One per- expand the indictment to include numerous other peo- son died in jail, and two were freed. The last witchcraft ple, especially if he believed in a witch conspiracy. Su c h trial in Slovenia occurred one year later when the witch a trial could result in dozens of victims. The single trials Margareta Kukerca was arrested at Metlika. When the we re frequently instigated by the peasants’ accusations, peasants held her responsible for a hailstorm and while the major trials we re invariably driven by the demanded that the court burn her immediately, j u d g e s’ zeal. Such zealous witch hunters included Vo l k Habsburg authorities sent troops to Metlika to suppress L ov renc Lampert icˇ and Ja n ez Wendtseisen, part i c u l a r l y the peasant revolt and end the trial. p rominent in Styria, and Dr. Ja n ez Jurij Hocˇe va r, who m a rked a decade of trials (from 1695 to 1705) with his Slovenian Magic and Witchcraft c ruel judgments in Carniola. Hocˇe var was a talented Judges accused the witches primarily of consorting with jurist and a knowledgeable man, a composer, an the Devil, while the majority of the peasants believe d a s t ro n o m e r, and a member of both Ljubljana academies. that they raised hailstorms. In their decisions, the judges Sl ovenian witchcraft trials included many typical relied on the 1532 imperial criminal code and the 1535 features, including torture. Usually, they also looked for p rovincial laws for Carniola, both of which listed witch- the Devil’s mark on the bodies of the accused, although craft among capital crimes. The municipal statutes of the t h e re is no evidence that the swimming test (the cold coastal towns associated witchcraft with poisoning (as, water ordeal) was used in Slovenia. The questions that for example, in the Statute of Piran of 1307 and 1384). the accused had to answer under torture were formulat- For their part, the peasants believed that witches ed in such a way that the expected answers were clearly we re mostly women who cast evil spells to cause bad suggested. The confessions thus extracted were so uni- we a t h e r. Already in 1515, at a mass meeting near form that the trials conducted by the same judges were Konjice, rebellious peasants drafted a complaint often almost identical. The prime accusation was addressed to the emperor; its fourth point accused the always the same—consorting with the Devil at a secret authorities of freeing witches and thieves for money. gathering, which was allegedly held at a crossroads or at Subsequently, a number of seventeenth-century records witch mountains (Slivnica, Klek, Do n acˇka Gora, or narrated the reactions of angry peasants who, after hail Rogasˇka Gora, Grintavec). had destroyed their harvest, lynched or burned people W h e n e ver the trials multiplied, their costs soare d with reputations for practicing witchcraft, holding a c c o rd i n g l y. For this reason, feudal lords we re rare l y them responsible for the hail. enthusiastic about such trials. Catherine El i s a b e t h , Printed in 1689, Va l k a rd Va l va s o r’s E h re des Countess of Auersperg (Turjak) and the owner of the He rt zogthums Cra i n ( Gl o ry of the Duchy of Carniola) manor court of Krˇsko, ran into serious financial trouble offers an important source for Sl ovenian witchcraft in the early eighteenth century because of the high trials. This work probably played a role in shaping the number of witchcraft trials held before that court. The images of witchcraft in Carniola. Under the circ u m- owners of the Ljutomer court encountered similar stances, Va l vasor was courageously skeptical about problems. In several trials during the eighteenth-centu- several points that were crucial for the conduct of mass ry and occasionally even earlier, certain skeptical judges witchcraft trials. Besides providing the usual witchcraft p ronounced milder penalties and even acquittals, i m a g e ry, Va l vasor also described related visions, for primarily in cases that concerned fortunetelling and example, the struggles of phantoms between the so- minor sorcery rather than diabolical witchcraft. called ve d o m c i and ˇs e n t j a nˇze vc i ; the former sucked the blood of children, while the latter protected them. MATEVˇZ KOˇSIR Slovenia 1053

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1054 Application File See also:ACCUSATIONS;AUSTRIA;CAROLINACODE;CONFESSIONS; attempt is hampered by three factors. First, sources on COURTS,SECULAR;CROATIA;CROSSROADS;DEVIL’SMARK; the matter are extremely vague. It is rare for the occu- EXECUTIONS;FEMALEWITCHES;LYNCHING;RURALWITCHCRAFT; pation of a defendant to be recorded. Second, in many SABBAT;SWIMMINGTEST;TORTURE;TRIALS;VERONIKAOF countries, women amounted to some 80 or 90 percent DESENICE;WEATHERMAGIC;WITCHANDWITCHCRAFT, of the accused people, and identifying their specific DEFINITIONSOF. roles in past agrarian societies becomes anachronistic. References and further reading: Koˇsir, Matevzˇ. 1992. “Cˇarovniˇski proces proti Jakobu Kraˇsevcu.” And third, any typological reconstruction is doomed to collapse in regard to large witch panics, when hundreds Kronika29, no. 3: 28–32. ———. 1995a. “Kranjsko dezˇelsko sodisˇcˇe in cˇarovniˇski procesi.” of suspects became involved. When we look at the Pp. 65–68 in Kranjski zbornik. Edited by Milan Sagadin et al. almost random pieces of information available on this Kranj: Mestna Obcˇina Kranj. issue, we are reminded of the dodge of early modern ———. 1995b. “Magija in goljufija ter tovornisˇtvo med Trstom cartographers, who filled in the blank spaces on their in Gradcem, 1732–1734.” Kronika43, no. 1–2: 11–18. maps with hic sunt leones (here there be lions). Our ———. 1997. “Sabat v cˇarovnisˇkih procesih—Evropski fenomen European map is indeed full of lions, and it is likely to na Slovenskem od 16. do 18. stoletja.” Pp. 123–142 in remain so. Only a few very tentative conclusions seem Historiˇcni seminar II.Edited by Oto Luthar and Vojislav Likar. possible. Ljubljana: Zalozˇba ZRC. ———. 1998. Na grmado z veˇsˇcami!Kranj: Gorenjski Muzej. Old Age and Marital Status ———. 2001. “Boj krvavi zoper cˇarovniˇsko zalego od Heinricha In many individual witchcraft trials that went on Institorisa do dr. Janeza Jurija Hocˇevarja.” Pp. 137–270 in Zadnja na grmadi.Edited by Fran Jaklicˇ. Celje: Mohorjeva throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Druzˇba. accusations were first aimed at stereotypical “witches”: Radovanovicˇ, Sasˇo. 1996. “Dvacˇarovniˇska procesa na posesti ptu- old women, often isolated widows. All statistics about jskih dominikancev pri Sv.Trojici konec 17. in v zacˇetku 18. ages should be reconciled with the fact that people tried stoletja.” Ptujski Zbornik6, no. 2: 1027–1045. as witches had often been suspected for many years, ———. 1997. Bog se usmili uboge greˇsne duˇse. Amen: Cˇarovniˇski even decades, and advanced age certainly helps account procesi na Slovenskem Sˇtajerskem v letih 1546–1746.Murska for the overrepresentation of widows among accused Sobota: Pomurska Zalozˇba. witches. Large samples from western Europe show Rajˇsp,Vinko. 1988. “Cˇarovniˇski procesi na Slovenskem.” almost one-third of suspected witches were widows: Zgodovinski Cˇasopis42, no. 3: 389–397. Tratnik Volasko, Marjeta, and Matevzˇ Koˇsir. 1995. Cˇarovnice: some 37 percent of 582 cases from Switzerland, France, and Essex (Monter 1976); 30 percent from a larger predstave, procesi, pregoni v evropskih in slovenskih dezˇelah. Ljubljana: Znanstveno in publicisticˇno srediˇscˇe. sample of 1,019 women from Basel, Geneva, Scotland, Travner,Vladimir. 1929. “Cˇarovniˇski procesi na Slovenskem.” Salem, and Sweden (Levack 1995), versus 56.8 percent Zˇivljenje in Svet 3, no. 4–24: 104–664 (intermittently). married and 13 percent single. H. C. Erik Midelfort Valentinitsch, Helfried. 1987. “Hexenwahn und Hexenprozesse im (1972) suggested that the very factor explaining the untersteirischen Markt Tüffer/Lasˇko im ausgehenden 17. vulnerability of widows to accusations was probably the Jahrhundert.” Pp. 367–378 in Geschichte und ihre Quellen: fact that they had lost the protection of their husbands. Festschrift für Friedrich Hausmann zum 70. Geburtstag.Edited But most women accused as witches were married, and by R. Härtel. Graz: ADEVA. the role of their husbands in the trials was ambiguous. ———. 1990. “Hexenprozesse in und um Pettau (Ptuj) Robin Briggs (2002) pointed out that when men active- 1651/1652.” Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Steirmark ly defended their wives, it reduced the chance that their 81: 61–79. cases would go to court. InTuscany, as well as Lorraine, ———. 1999. “Die Verfolgung von Hexen und Zauberern in der Untersteiermark und in Radkersburg (1546–1746).” Pp. some husbands obviously tried to obstruct the trials— 305–322 in Vilfanov zbornik: Pravo-zgodovina-narod.Edited by but a few apparently encouraged their prosecution. Vincenc Rajˇsp and Ernst Bruckmüller. Ljubljana: Zalozˇba ZRC. Old Women, Maternal Care, and Healers Vilfan, Sergij. 1987. “Die Hexenprozesse in Krain—Zur Frage Were these postmenopausal women a risky category? A ihrer Häufigkeit.” Pp. 291–296 in Hexen und Zauberer: Die few late-seventeenth-century Augsburg witchcraft trials Grosse Verfolgung—Ein europäischen Phänomen in der resulted from accusations made by newly delivered Steiermark.Edited by Helfried Valentinitsch. Graz and Vienna: mothers against older, poorer, often widowed post- Leykam. menopausal women who had helped them as lying-in maids, charging them with harming the mothers, their Social and Economic Status babies, or both. In such cases, envy explains the of Witches maleficium (harmful magic): Relying on Melanie Klein’s We re witches characterized by specific social and psychoanalytic assumptions, Lyndal Roper (1994, 214) economic traits? Be f o re sketching any sociological maintained that “circumstances conspired to make the classification, it seems necessary to state that any such lying-in maid appear a likely sufferer from envy and 1054 Social and Economic Status of Witches

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1055 Application File p e rcent of women tried for witchcraft in episcopal court s appear to have been midwives (Tausiet 1996, 259). But in another Mediterranean region, the Sienese state, just 4 of the 229 women accused of infanticide in the same period we re midwives of well-established local re p u t a t i o n . T h roughout Eu rope, healers and cunning folk f e a t u red generally among the most persecuted people, but their numbers are difficult to determine, and their gender distribution would probably show considerable regional variations. Being a cunning man or woman was never a full-time profession, and our ava i l a b l e information is too uneven to detect many meaningf u l patterns for this widely practiced second occupation— with the possible exception of Catholic clerics, who seem ve ry well re p resented until the mid-seve n t e e n t h century, at least in France, Spain, and Italy. Material Conditions and Professions Contemporary observers often touched directly on the theme of the economic conditions of accused people. In Massachusetts, Rev. Josiah Cotton summarized a cen- tury-old common wisdom by observing that witchcraft charges seemed to fall disproportionately “on the poor.” As a matter of statistical probability, members of the underclass (persons at the bottom of the social scale) were many times more likely to be accused and perse- cuted than their counterparts at the top (Demos 1982, 285–292). It is tempting to generalize these New England findings and to project them back to Europe. However, the bulk of available evidence suggests that witches we re not usually the “p o o rest of the poor” — A female witch tempts two noblemen, as the sword and caparisoned destitute, marginal members of their local village com- horse indicate. While most accused witches were poor, but not the worst munities; most of them resembled their neighbors and off, some were from upper social groups, especially in Germany. we re generally well integrated into communal life. In (Anonymous, Eine Zauberein versucht zwei Männer, 1531.From Scotland, where over 1,000 witches were executed from Hexen: Analysen, Quellen, Dokumente.Directmedia Publishing 1560 to 1700, we know that only 3 witches in 20 were GmbH: Berlin, 2003) male. Many of the Scottish male witches had close links (usually by marriage) to recognized female witches; oth- hatred.” Should the role of these helping women and, ers were folk healers; still others were notorious crimi- to a greater extent, the position of midwives be consid- nals (Goodare 1998, 290). This was a peasant society; ered closely associated with the crime of witchcraft f ew Scots lived in towns. He re, the average witch was because of the social organization of birthing practices? ove rwhelmingly a middle-aged or elderly woman, the C o n t e m p o r a ry demonologists, beginning with He i n r i c h wife or widow of a tenant farmer, toward the bottom of Kramer (Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m [The Hammer of the social and economic ladder but neve rtheless fro m Wi t c h e s ] ,1486), created the myth of the midwife-w i t c h . the settled rather than the vagabond or outcast poor. Premature claims that a majority of women accused of witchcraft were “lay healers serving the peasant popula- England tions and their repression marks one of the opening The impression given by Scotland differs slightly from s t ruggles in the suppression of women as healer” the English scene, where it is clear that witches were (Ehrenreich and English 1974, 4) have been demol- even more exclusively women (93 percent versus 85 ished by more careful research showing that no statisti- percent in Scotland) and even further down the social cal evidence supports them (Harley 1990). ladder, being wives or widows of wage laborers, or on But there we re some geographic variations. In the poor law, or beggars. But not all of the 102 women England, only 1 percent of people accused of witch- executed for witchcraft at the Home Circuit assizes craft we re midwives; howe ve r, in late-sixteenth- and between 1563 and 1682 were older or poorer than e a r l y-s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Aragon, an amazing 23 those who accused them. There were some marked Social and Economic Status of Witches 1055

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1056 Application File regional variations. In the southeastern county of Kent, p e rcent of accused witches (9 of 24) in the village of the social background to witchcraft accusations fre- Winnigen between 1640 and 1660 came from the top quently differed from that of Alan Macfarlane’s county social spectrum. of Essex. In Kent, many accused women were well inte- In Protestant northern Germany, a social analysis of grated in local society; denial of alms is entirely absent, the pattern of accusations made by village committees and Macfarlane’s paradigm (whereby charity denied a in the county of Lippe has demonstrated that most of neighbor, followed by misfortune occurring in the the charges were against community members with rel- household of the person who refused to offer charity, a t i vely high local status, brought by members of mid- resulted in the neighbor being blamed for the misfor- dling status to re s o l ve internal village conflicts (Wa l z tune and possibly accused formally of witchcraft) is 1993). As in parts of England, witchcraft accusations even reversed in some disputes between neighbors could arise between households of relatively equal social (Gaskill 1996). In Sussex, accuser and accused were and economic status out of competition for re s o u rc e s similar in terms of power: “The rare accusations of and influence within their communities. W h e n e ve r witchcraft seem to express ongoing competition rather local elites got deeply invo l ved in witchcraft accusa- than guilt or anger” (Herrup 1987, 33). The same tions, their actions seem motivated by vested interests. dynamic of local, internecine competition emerged T h e re f o re, they could be seen as witches endangering clearly in early seventeenth-century Rye, a small coastal traditional communal norms. town in economic decline and disrupted by internal T h roughout the francophone Jura region, we l l - o f f factions. Cases from northern England suggest that people seem far less frequently re p resented among witchcraft accusations could polarize communities accused witches than we re their peers in southwe s t e r n along preexisting fault lines, as happened in Yorkshire Germany or in Alsace. Even its most extensive panics (Sharpe 1997). did not resemble German panics: During Ge n e va’s 1571–1572 plague-spreading and witchcraft panic, half Germany of the hundred suspects were unskilled laborers or their In Germany, where most witchcraft trials occurred, w i ves, while the rest came from artisan families—but recent research largely confirmed Midelfort’s findings: local elites were conspicuously absent (Monter 1976). During major panics, the traditional stereotype of the old woman witch tended to dissolve, and people France accused of witchcraft even tended to be somewhat We know little about the social and economic status of wealthier than the average citizen. Bavaria in 1590 female witches in France, partly because no large clus- could serve as an early model (Behringer 1997). The ters of them have been uncovered in French archives. social expansion of the persecution occurred in the However, in northern France, men were unusually third cycle of arrests, following two collective execu- prominent in witchcraft trials (as in eastern peripheral tions. As denunciations increased, the social standing of areas such as Finland or Russia). According to William those arrested improved: Persecutions were no longer Monter (2002), two unusually prominent occupational confined to outsiders and those near the bottom of the groups emerge from the sources: clerics and shepherds. social scale but now affected the urban and rural middle From Aix (in 1610) to Louviers (in 1647), a series of class. Denunciations struck especially hard at those in well-publicized scandals across France involving the trades and occupations that had some associations with demonic possessions of groups of nuns ended with tri- magical practices (midwives, cowherds, apothecaries) or als and executions of priests. Louis Gaufridy and were in contact with foodstuffs (tavern keepers, butch- Urbain Grandier, the priestly magiciansexecuted at Aix ers, bakers). As the persecution progressed, the witch and Loudun, were only the best known among a good hunters targeted their enemies among members of local number of French priests condemned for witchcraft elites, persons of wealth from patrician families. These and black magic. At least fourteen French clerics were social dynamics were repeated whenever persecutions executed for sorcery before Grandier was burned; after- were held, often up to the final batches of suspects in ward, two more priests were executed for illicit magic in the 1630s. Brittany and another in Normandy in the 1640s. In a general way, German statistics suggest that Shepherds formed by far the largest group of France’s richer peasants provided a larger share of accused witch- male witches. They were accused of various acts of poi- es by the mid-seventeenth century. In the Sa a r l a n d , soning and sacrilege (many stole Hosts from churc h e s accused female witches we re predominantly poor: to use in protecting their flocks). The largest cluster Some 43 percent of them owned no pro p e rty or we re came from No r m a n d y, a cheese-producing re g i o n : beggars; the rest we re evenly divided between villagers of More than sixty shepherds were tried for witchcraft by very slender means and members of lower-middle-class the Pa rl e m e n t ( s ove reign judicial court) of Ro u e n households possessing modest incomes (Labouvie between 1590 and 1635; over twenty of them and two 1991). But not far away—and slightly later—almost 40 of their wives we re executed. Unlike the women 1056 Social and Economic Status of Witches

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1057 Application File accused of witchcraft, shepherds we re almost neve r Italy charged with putting spells on people; instead, they A cluster of trials carried out between 1611 and 1615 we re said to employ magical paraphernalia ranging by an itinerant court in the sub-Alpine valley of Non from stolen Eucharists to toad venom in order to pro- involved 140 suspected witches (120 women and 20 tect (or harm) livestock. This tradition had a long life: men). Unfortunately, the socioeconomic evidence for The Parlement of Normandy sentenced six more shep- drawing a profile of these witches is limited to 1 woman h e rds to death between 1684 and 1700, and the sup- who was surely a healer and to 6 men who were sooth- posedly enlightened Pa rl e m e n t of Paris kept pace with sayers (crivellatori). In the Sienese state, few among the five convictions between 1687 and 1691. As late as 229 Sienese malefic witches (all females) were very old, 1713, three shepherds were executed at Rouen for steal- unmarried, widows, or beggars. Out of 36 cases with ing Hosts, a practice that had begun in 1540 (Monter adequate information, spinning turns out—unsurpris- 2002, 40–43). ingly—to have been the most common occupation (6 cases), apart from the prostitutes residing in Siena or Netherlands, Northern larger villages (10 cases). In Malta, mainly male Muslim Be f o re the early-seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry moderation in slaves residing in the harbor area practiced witchcraft. p rosecuting witches, the Netherlands was affected by small hunts, and scattered sociological data suggest pat- Peripheries terns similar to those in southeastern England. Fo r In Denmark, for lack of sources, the socioeconomic instance, three villages in Peelland (northern Br a b a n t ) position of witches in rural areas is hard to evaluate. In we re hit by a series of witchcraft trials, where we have the towns of Elsinore in Seeland and Ribe in southern reliable sociological information about the twe n t y - t h re e Jutland in the first half of the seventeenth century, a persons arrested (Caspers 1991). All we re stable re s i- clear pattern emerges: It was the moderately poor who dents, belonging to all social classes; the fifteen women accused the absolute poor. Some trials can be seen as an (all sentenced to death) included some well-off villagers. expression of a struggle to avert the slide from poverty A feud that took place in the little rural community of into destitution. In Sweden, the status of witches Ni j k e rk in 1550 and invo l ved people of substance between 1668 and 1676 shows that none lived on the s h owed accusations of witchcraft being manipulated to margin or outside the community. Dalarna’s witches settle conflicts over pro p e rty rights or social status stood squarely in the middle rank of parish taxpayers. (Wa a rdt 1991). In Finland, peasants and burghers were prominent in the available statistics. In Hungary in a polarized com- Spain munity, it was always the more prosperous witch that A large occupational spectrum of an agrarian, semi- accused the weaker one. There is little available evi- mountainous society emerges from the scarce sociologi- dence about the socioeconomic status of witches in cal information related to the wild Basque craze in Poland. which some 2,000 witches we re examined. Fro mu p p e r Aragon, some scattered but interesting data are ava i l- Russia able. Out of 140 people accused (83 males, 57 females), In seventeenth-century Moscow and a few provincial 59 men charged with sorc e ry had a second pro f e s s i o n centers, there were some 100 cases concerning magic. and 41 we re unmarried (including 23 clerics) (Ga r i According to W. F. Ryan (1998, 69), a “clear pattern of L a c ruz 1991, 220–223). In t e re s t i n g l y, a dispro p o rt i o n the status of the person accused cannot be discerned, has been noticed between the main occupational gro u p s apart from the fact that about half were peasants; of the of the area (shepherds and peasants) and the fragmenta- non-peasant component there is a noticeable presence tion of the thirty-two occupations re p o rted. In most of of persons connected with church or state, and a promi- Spain, not social class but ethnicity and re l i g i o n nent number of foreigners.” i n fluenced the choice of suspected witches. Being a for- eigner (especially a French Protestant) was an additional Mobile Groups a g g r a vating circumstance in Catalonia. El s ew h e re in Were witches socially oppressed rebels fighting against a Spain, being a Morisco (before the 1609–1614 expul- feudal society? In a way, Jules Michelet’s great historical sion) or a Gypsy was a worsening factor. No sociological imagination opened the way for future sociological data exist for the dozens of women killed in Sp a i n’s interpretation, either because some connections might worst witch hunt in Catalonia between 1618 and 1620. exist between peasant uprisings and witch hunts or In the Canary Islands, male and female slaves comprised because diabolic witch belief served as the mythical the most numerous category of people accused of sor- counterpart of popular revolts. c e ry, followed by artisans and sellers. Po rtugal seems to One of the re c u r rent themes of witchcraft persecu- h a ve been the country where the least is known about tions was that these conflicts rarely opposed people at the occupations of cunning folk and healers. opposite extremes of the social spectrum. So c i a l Social and Economic Status of Witches 1057

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1058 Application File mobility, more often than not, appeared as a threat to Di Simplicio, Oscar. 2000. Inquisizione, stregoneria, medicina: traditional values. Would not defining mobile people as Siena e il suo stato (1580–1721).Monteriggioni (Siena): Il witches be a way to defend society itself? In his reflec- Leccio. tions on New England witchcraft, the Reverend Cotton Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Deirdre English. 1974. Witches, Mather blamed the refusal of men to accept their own Midwives and Healers: A History of Women Healers.London: Feminist Press. social condition: “It is not irrational to ascribe the late Gari Lacruz, Ángel. 1991. Brujeria e Inquisicion en el Alto Aragon stupendous growth of witches among us, partly to the en la primera mitad del siglo XVII.Zaragoza: Diputacion bitter discontents which affliction and poverty has filled General de Argon. us with” (Mather, quoted in Demos 1982, 177); he also Gaskill, Malcolm. 1996. “Witchcraft in Early Modern Kent.” Pp. re f e r red to social conflict and human envy in his 257–287 in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Me m o rable Providences Relating to Wi t c h c raft and Culture and Belief.Edited by Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, Po s s e s s i o n s : “when persons, through discontent at their and Gareth Roberts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p ove rt y or at their m i s e ry, shall be always murmuring Goodare, Julian. 1998. “Women and the Witch-Hunt in and repining at the providence of God, the Devils do Scotland.” Social History23, no. 3: 288–308. then invited them to an agreement ... [and d]ownright Harley, David. 1990. “Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of witchcraftis the upshot of it” (Mather, quoted in Boyer the Midwife-Witch.” Journal for the Social History of Medicine 3: 1–26. and Nissenbaum 1974, 208). Herrup, Cynthia. 1987. The Common Peace: Participation and the Re s e a rch based on social conflicts within Sa l e m Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England.Cambridge: village has shown that families in decline re s o rted to Cambridge University Press. witchcraft accusations: a class war caused by social and Kamen, Henry. 1993. The Phoenix and the Flame: Catalonia and economic mobility. Can this interpretation be project- the Counter Reformation.New Haven and London: Yale ed backward on the European stage? In fact, the hard- University Press. ening of the social and economic situation during the Labouvie, Eva. 1991. Zauberei und Hexenwerk: Ländlicher “iron century” has eventually led researchers to focus on Hexenglaube in der frühen Neuzeit.Frankfurt am Main: Fischer mobile groups within villages. On close analysis, an Taschenbuch. i n t e r p retation of continental and British or Larner, Christina. 2000. Enemies of God: The Witch-Hunt in Scandinavian witch hunts as expressions of social Scotland.2nd ed. Edinburgh: John Donald. Levack, Brian. 1995. The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe.2nd strains arising in peasant societies undergoing a crucial ed. London and NewYork: Longman. transformation from a self-sufficient peasantry to an Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A agrarian and pro t o c o m m e rcial capitalism founders Regional and Comparative Analysis.Reissued with introduction against insurmountable difficulties. by James Sharpe. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1999. Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern OSCAR DI SIMPLICIO Germany, 1562–1684.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. See also:ACCULTURATIONTHESIS;ACCUSATIONS;AGEOFACCUSED Monter,William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The WITCHES;AGRARIANCRISES;CAPITALISM;CUNNINGFOLK; Borderlands During the Reformation.Ithaca, NY, and London: ENGLAND;FEMALEWITCHES;FRANCE;GENDER;GERMANY; Cornell University Press. HISTORIOGRAPHY;ITALY;MACFARLANE,ALAN;MALEWITCHES; ———. 2002. “Witchcraft Trials in Continental Europe, MATHER,COTTON;MICHELET,JULES;MIDWIVES;MOTHERHOOD; 1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 in The Period of the Witch Trials.Vol. 4 NETHERLANDS,NORTHERN;PERSONALITYOFWITCHES;REBELS; of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. RURALWITCHCRAFT;SALEM;SPAIN;URBANWITCHCRAFT. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and References and further reading: Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: Roper, Lyndal. 1994. Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early and Religion in Early Modern Europe.London and NewYork: Modern Europe.Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. Routledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ryan, W. F. 1998. “The Witchcraft Hysteria in Early Modern Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum. 1974. Salem Possessed: The Europe: Was Russia an Exception?” Slavonic and East European Social Origins of Witchcraft.Cambridge, MA: Harvard Review76, no. 1: 49–84. University Press. Sharpe, James. 1997. Instrument of Darkness: Witchcraft in Briggs, Robin. 2002. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and England, 1550–1750.Harmondsworth: Penguin. Cultural Context of European Witchcraft.2nd ed. Oxford: Tausiet, María. 1996. “Comandronas-brujas en Aragón en la Etad Blackwell. moderna: Mito y realidad.” Temas de Antropología Aragonesa6: Caspers, Charles M. A. 1991. “Witchcraft Trials in Peelland, 237–260. 1595.” Pp. 91–102 in Witchcraft in the Netherlands from the Waardt, Hans de. 1991. “Prosecution or Defence: Procedural Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century.Edited by Marijke Possibilities Following a Witchcraft Accusation in the Province Gijswijt-Hofstra and Willem Frijhoff. Rotterdam: Universitaire of Holland before 1800.” Pp. 91–102 in Witchcraft in the Pers. Netherlands from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century.Edited Demos, John. 1982.Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture by Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra and Willem Frijhoff. Rotterdam: of Early New England.Oxford: Oxford University Press. Universitaire Pers Rotterdam. 1058 Social and Economic Status of Witches

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1059 Application File Walz, Rainer. 1993. Hexenglaube und Magische Kommunikation im generation of Ba varian princes was looming, vividly Dorf der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Verfolgungen in der Grafschaft e xe m p l i fied by the “blood pact” made by Du k e s Lippe.Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. Maximilian I (ruled 1597–1651) and Fe rdinand Ma r i a ( ruled 1651–1679) with the Virgin of Altötting—a sort Social Control of antitype to the witches’ pacts with the Devil. Su c h In Old Régime Europe, religion and politics, state and princes blamed their unworthy subjects for most kinds of church were structurally linked, thus affecting the m i s f o rtunes such as harvest failures and diseases, which entire social system and jointly forming the central axis we re interpreted by contemporaries as Go d’s punish- of both state and society. In the foreword to the 1563 ments, and they bombarded them with laws and decre e s Heidelberg Catechism, Elector-Palatine Frederick III on their morals (Behringer 1997, 107–108). stated: “Due to Our natural duty and inclination, we In the Sienese New State, a 1575 apostolic visitation have recognized and undertaken to fulfil Our divinely i n t roduced the Medicean version of “Catholic confes- ordained office, vocation, and governance, not only to sionalization” (Di Simplicio 1997). Archbishops’ vicars keep peace and order, but also to maintain a disci- fought vigorously to domesticate their clergy and ro o t plined, upright, and virtuous life and behaviour among out concubinage. A systematic policy of moral cleans- our subjects, furthermore, and especially, to instruct ing was enforced with the confinement of prostitutes to them and bring them step by step to the righteous ghettos. The steady deepening of a parochial structure knowledge and fear of the Almighty and His sanctify- had a similar moral impact on villages. Sy s t e m a t i c ing Word as the only basis of all virtues and obedience” introduction of parish registers and the enforcement of (Frederick, quoted in Hsia 1996, 367). This system, Tridentine marriage procedures, with vigorous opposi- which historians now call “confessionalization,” was tion to prenuptial copulations, clandestine marriages, pioneered in Germany (the epicenter of witch hunting) and bigamy, affected the categories of thought of early and reached its peak during the age of the great witch modern villagers. Social disciplining of ecclesiastics was hunts. However, most historians are reluctant to view paralleled by the imposition of stricter norms to the these methods of social control as sufficient or even l a i t y. Parishioners listened as fears of witchcraft and necessary explanations for the rapid acceleration of s o rc e ry we re increasingly condemned from the pulpit. witch prosecution in the late sixteenth and early seven- Here, the process of confessionalization implied strong teenth centuries. support of Medicean rule, through an effective cooper- Both the Protestant and Catholic Re f o r m a t i o n s ation of local officials (captains of justice). The occa- attempted to implement their re s p e c t i ve programs to sional cases of seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft trials e n f o rce doctrinal purity, moral control, and social dealt with by secular officials eventually re c ove red by discipline. Good subjects we re godly Christians. the Inquisition must be seen as signs that Si e n e s e Confessionalism proceeded unevenly thro u g h o u t agencies of social control we re marching in the same Eu rope and had strong regional variations, but eve ry- direction, despite potential conflicts of jurisdiction. where, its campaigns for moral purity and for law and OSCAR DI SIMPLICIO o rder ostracized deviants, including “masterless men,” vagrants, rabble, and other marginal populations. See also:ACCULTURATIONTHESIS;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;GENDER; Witches occasionally fell into such categories. In regard LARNER,CHRISTINA;MAXIMILIANI,DUKEOFBAVARIA; to the Catholic southern Netherlands, Ro b e rt MUCHEMBLED,ROBERT;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;REBELS. References and further reading: Muchembled (1984) emphasized the social disciplinary Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: effect of witchcraft trials as tools to acculturate a rural Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early population. And in re g a rd to Protestant Scotland, Modern Europe.Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. Christina Larner (2000) highlighted the witch as a Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. t h reat to specific individuals, apart from the political Di Simplicio, Oscar. 1997. “Confessionalizzazione e identità col- implications of some famous cases. lettiva: Il caso italiano, Siena 1575–1800.” Archiv für T h roughout Eu rope, from Calvinist Scotland or Reformationsgeschichte88: 380–411. Lutheran Finland to the major Roman, Spanish, and Hsia, Ronnie Po-Chia. 1996. “The Structure of Belief: Po rtuguese Inquisitions, confessional states prov i d e d Confessionalism and Society, 1500–1600.” Pp. 355–378 in institutional mechanisms for the widespread pro s e c u t i o n Germany: A New Social and Economic History.Vol. 1, 1420–1630.Edited by Robert Scribner. London: Arnold. of unofficial (and thus forbidden) magic. A complex re l a- Larner, Christina. 2000. Enemies of God: The Witch-Hunt in tionship among state, religion, gender, and magic Scotland.1981. Reprint. Edinburgh: John Donald. emerged almost eve ry w h e re. In the Catholic duchy of Muchembled, Robert. 1984. “Lay Judges and the Acculturation of Ba varia, a prominent feature of social legislation was a the Masses (France and the Southern Low Countries, Sixteenth fear of pro p e rtyless people; between 1550 and 1599, to Eighteenth Centuries).” Pp. 56–65 in Religion and Society in Ba varia proclaimed no fewer than thirty-four decre e s Early Modern Europe, 1500–1800.Edited by Kaspar von against beggars and rabble. A new and extremely pious Greyerz. London: Allen and Unwin. Social Control 1059

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1060 Application File Soldan, Wilhelm Gottlieb incorporate the more sophisticated approaches of (1803–1869) Joseph Hansen or Sigmund Riezler. The son of a Lutheran pastor in Alsfeld (Hesse), WOLFGANG BEHRINGER Wilhelm Soldan was a well-educated historian and language scholar (having earned a PhD in 1831). A See also:GRIMM,JACOB;HANSEN,JOSEPH;HISTORIOGRAPHY; professor after 1853, he married the daughter of a LAMOTHE-LANGON,ETIENNE-LÉONDE;MICHELET,JULES;RIE- capitalist in Darmstadt, who owned both a newspaper ZLER,SIGMUND;SCOTT,SIRWALTER. References and further reading: and a chocolate factory, and belonged to the liberal Be h r i n g e r, Wolfgang. 1994. “Zur Geschichte der He xe n f o r s c h u n g . ” faction of the Parliament of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1861, Pp. 93–146 in Hexen und Hexenverfolgung im deutschen Soldan was elected to the Parliament as a member of Südwesten. Edited by Sönke Lorenz. Ostfildern: Cranz. the Progressive Party (Fortschrittspartei), serving for a ———. 2004. “Geschichte der Hexenforschung.” Pp. 485–668 in time as president of the House of Commons. He Wider alle Hexerei und Teufelswerk: Die europäische remained a Hessian Member of Parliament (MP) until Hexenverfolgung und ihre Auswirkungen auf Südwestdeutschland. his death. Edited by Sönke Lorenz and Jürgen Michael Schmidt. The publication of So l d a n’s Geschichte der Ostfildern. Jan Thorbecke. Hexenprozesse(History of Witch Trials, Stuttgart, 1843) re vo l u t i o n i zed witchcraft re s e a rch. In striking contrast Somerset Witches to contemporary scholars such as Etienne-Léon de The ample documentation for the study of witchcraft in Lamothe-Langon, Jules Michelet, Jacobus Scheltema, the county of Somerset, England, for the period fro m Sir Walter Scott, or Jacob Grimm, Soldan did not 1500 to about 1900, has led it to be re l a t i vely well stud- investigate (or invent) fantasies but confined his presen- ied. Howe ve r, most interest in the county’s witches focus- tation to straightforw a rd historical facts, firmly based es on the cases investigated by Ro b e rt Hunt betwe e n upon written sources. So l d a n’s was the first serious 1657 and 1665. Republished in Joseph Gl a n v i l l’s scholarly publication on the history of European witch- Saducismus Triumphatus ( Sadducism Conquered, 1700), craft, or “witch craze” (Hexenwahn), as he preferred to this material offered the most elaborate descriptions of say. With its liberal bias and the related attitude blam- English Sabbats and dealings with the Devil apart fro m ing both church and state for the atrocities of the witch- those stemming from the Ma t t h ew Hopkins witch hunt craft trials, Soldan embodied the rationalist approach in in East Anglia (from 1645 to 1647). witchcraft research. His interpretation, which basically Somerset witchcraft is documented in rich collec- combined the spirit of Enlightenment with Leopold tions of both church and secular court re c o rds during von Ranke’s historical method, dominated entries in the early modern period; local folklore and newspaper international dictionaries up to World War I and was re p o rts have also been studied for the late eighteenth certainly more reliable than subsequent entries written and nineteenth centuries (Davies 1999). The sourc e s for the Encyclopedia Britannicaby Margaret Murray. re veal a typical English mixture of supernatural dam- So l d a n’s Geschichte der He xe n p ro zesse p rovoked two ages to crops, animals, and people (especially children) influential updates. The first, written by his son-in-law done largely by women, together with several other Heinrich Heppe (1820–1879), a professor of supernatural offenses, including a substantial number Protestant theology at the Un i versity of Ma r b u r g , of cunning men and women offering their services and amplified the original book with more recent findings. some possession-type cases. As in other parts of south- This edition, known as S o l d a n - He p p e ( Berlin, 1880), western England, the frequency of witchcraft trials published posthumously by So l d a n’s daughter i n c reased after the Civil War; they continued into the Henriette Heppe, injected a strong Protestant bias, early eighteenth century, although all known ve rd i c t s implicitly siding with the Prussian party in the German after 1664 we re acquittals. None of So m e r s e t’s trials Ku l t u rkampf ( c u l t u re war) and supporting Chancellor attracted pamphlet attention, but some chapbooks and Otto von Bismarck in his struggle against the Catholics. ballads report cases of possession, attacks by the Devil, The journalist Max Bauer provided a third enlarged or apparitions. However, Somerset gained notoriety in edition at the beginning of the twentieth century. He the late-seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry debate on witchcraft tried to reduce Heppe’s bias and included scores of new through publications by three writers from the county: examples, as well as referred to contemporary persecu- Joseph Glanvill, Richard Bovet, and John Be a u m o n t . tions in Mexico and Russia, and he added a good Beaumont was a natural and civil historian from the number of illustrations. This final edition, known as Mendips, and in his Historical, Physiological and Soldan-Heppe-Bauer(Hanau, 1912), has been reprinted Theological Treatise of Sp i r i t s (1705), he followe d up to the present day, usually without editorial Gl a n v i l l’s predominant interest in spirits and appari- comment. Although still a valuable resource, it already tions rather than witchcraft. Howe ve r, his Pl a t o n i s m had fallen short of contemporary research when it was led him to question whether diabolical pacts provided a first published, because Bauer did not manage to n e c e s s a ry explanation for preternatural phenomena. 1060 Soldan, Wilhelm Gottlieb

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1061 Application File B ovet, a radical Whig, published a series of cases, both locally and nationally. Howe ve r, Hunt and Cary mostly from his neighborhood at Wellington, in we re obviously challenged by higher officials who Pandaemonium(1684), which was consciously modeled blocked the major trial developing between 1664 and on Glanvill’s example. But Bovet was interested primar- 1665, involving twe n t y - five witches named in two ily in the work of the Devil, which he linked to idolatry, covens. In the end, only Elizabeth Styles, who had been attacking popery ove rtly and the re s t o red monarc h y acquitted in 1636 by the assizes and allowed to bring covertly. Intellectually and socially, both Beaumont and suit against her prosecutors, was tried and found guilty. Bovet were peripheral figures compared to Glanvill. She died in jail, probably the last Somerset resident to As rector of Frome Selwood from 1662 and of Ba t h’s die as a convicted witch. abbey church from 1666, Glanvill met Ro b e rt Hu n t . JONATHAN BARRY Hu n t’s notes on witchcraft cases he had encountered as a justice of the peace (JP) in Somerset between 1657 and See also:BOVET,RICHARD;CUNNINGFOLK;ENGLAND;GLANVILL, 1665 became critical evidence for Glanvill. He dedicat- JOSEPH;HOPKINS,MATTHEW. ed his first book on the subject to Hunt, and Gl a n v i l l References and further reading: cited Hu n t’s evidence at length in his revision of Davies, Owen. 1999. A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Saducismus Tr i u m p h a t u s , which was published posthu- Nineteenth-Century Somerset.Bruton: Owen Davies. Glanvill, Joseph. 1700. Saducismus Triumphatus; or, Full and Plain mously in 1681. Both men died in 1680, but they Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions.Edited by Henry a p p a rently had lost contact after 1665. We know that More. 3rd ed. London: A. L. Glanvill ignored a 1667 case of possession invo l v i n g Green, Emanuel. 1878. “On Some Somerset Chapbooks.” Hu n t’s own daughter, re c o rded in a letter of De c e m b e r Proceedings of Somerset Archaeological and Natural History 1667 to a relation named William Bull, according to Society 24, part 2: 50–66. which one Alice Knight was forced to visit and pray for Quaife, G. R. 1979. Wanton Wenches and WaywardWives.London: the afflicted (Bristol Un i versity Library, Sp e c i a l Croom Helm. Collections, Bull Papers, DM 155, no. 103). The fate of Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London: Hu n t’s book of examinations is unclear. Extracts we re Weidenfeld and Nicolson; NewYork: Scribner’s. published in 1837 (Ge n t l e m a n’s Magazine, p p. Thompson, Janet A. 1993. Wives, Widows, Witches and Bitches: 256–257), and two other versions surv i ve: one, pre v i- Women in Seventeenth-Century Devon.NewYork: Lang. ously owned by the Dorset writer William Barnes, in a c o n t e m p o r a ry hand (sold by So t h e by in Nove m b e r Sorcery 2003, catalog L03412, “Witchcraft and the Occult,” lot Sorcery and witchcraft must be conceived as distinct 343), and the other in a transcript of October 1906 phenomena. While sorcery exists in every culture and at ( Somerset Re c o rd Of fice, DD/DT 28). All three ve r- all times, the concept of European witchcraft was fully sions had close similarities to Gl a n v i l l’s text, but minor developed only in the fifteenth century, emerging from variations and extra details in each suggest that none was trials for both heresy and sorcery. Sorcery can be his original source, which re f e r red to a “fairly written” defined as an attempt to control nature to produce version of Hu n t’s book of examination of witches. good or evil results. The Latin word for harmful sorc e ry, We do not know why Hu n t’s interrogations of maleficium, originally meant an evil or harmful deed Somerset witches produced such sensational confes- performed through magic. Practitioners of harmful sor- sions compared to most English cases: He neve r cery have presented a problem socially and legally to all commented directly on demonology, though Gl a n v i l l societies that believe in the real efficacy of magical acts. described Hunt as thinking critically about the mean- Throughout the Middle Ages, sorcery was generally ing of the events he witnessed. Born around 1608 and regarded as suspicious and often criminal. The develop- educated at Cambridge and the Middle Temple, Hunt ment of the “complete” or cumulative concept of was a substantial figure in Somerset. A member of the witchcraft in the late Middle Ages incorporated sorcery, Long Parliament, he became a royalist and only and aided by widespread anxieties, this enormously returned to public life in 1654, serving two years as increased prosecutions and executions for frequently s h e r i f f. Su b s e q u e n t l y, he was an active JP from 1657 d i a b o l i zed forms of m a l e ficium t h roughout early until his death, also re p resenting Somerset in modern Europe. Parliament in 1659 and Ilchester thereafter. A moderate Protestant who was hostile to Quakers, Hunt protected Antiquity royalists before 1660 and parliamentarians after the In the ancient Mediterranean world, magic was Restoration. In examining for witchcraft, he work e d considered a morally neutral act that a person could closely with his fellow JP John Cary of Castle Cary. undertake toward either beneficial or harmful ends. C l e a r l y, Glanvill re g a rded Hunt as the kind of unim- The Greco-Roman world condemned only harmful peachable and respectable witness whose evidence for sorcery as illegal. Literary and nonliterary sources cast the reality of demonic witchcraft would carry conviction some light on the figure of the classical sorcerer. Sorcery 1061

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1062 Application File In both Greek and Latin, a wide array of terms were Icelandic sagas being the most important Norse literary used to denote sorc e rers. In Greek, they we re called sources. It is not always possible to ascribe precise e p o d o i or e p a o i d o i , as well as goetes, magoi, and p h a r- magical intent to runic inscriptions, but sometimes, the makis; their craft was called goêteia, mageia, and phar- intent is indubitable. The sagas preserved many ancient makeia(magical knowledge). Each term and craft had a beliefs and often referred to ancient magical practices. distinct meaning. It has been argued that g o e t e s we re In both, the role of sorcery was evident. originally shamans, who, in an ecstatic state, conveyed The magicians of the sagas were almost always sinis- the spirits of the dead on their perilous journey to the ter characters who had learned their magic from teach- other world. Another meaning for g o ê t i a , as used and ers. T h e re is no hint that magical rituals or practices understood in medieval and early modern times, was formed part of pagan Norse religion, although the summoning up of corpses, that is, necromancy.The Christian missionaries had battled against these as the term magos, a loan word from Persian, usually referred De v i l’s work. While the sorc e re r s’ magic sometimes to a type of priest. In the ancient world, sorcerers were made re f e rence to the gods, it rarely invo l ved appeals present in cities of any size, but they were not part of a to them. So rc e ry and heathen worship we re conceive d community.They represented a type of person difficult as essentially different things, although Christian to describe in ord i n a ry terms because they we re often w r i t e r s c o n flated them. T h e re is also evidence for traveling practitioners of magic, wandering from com- non-Germanic beliefs, and some Lapp and Arctic influ- munity to community. ences can be traced. Icelandic magicians were depicted The He b rew Bible is replete with sacred magic. as trance diviners and trance mediums much like Legend has it that sorc e ry stopped with the birth of shamans. Jesus, but in the first few centuries after his death, an Celtic literature from the twelfth and subsequent e x t e n s i ve literature developed about Simon Magus, a centuries, handed down to us in later medieval versions, magician and contemporary rival to the Apostle Peter. also contained magical themes, and its pagan elements As Rome became Christian, howe ve r, an import a n t we re remnants of an earlier culture. Fairies are pro m i- change took place. Classical daemons (d a i m o n e s) , nent protagonists with magical abilities in the Irish tra- supernatural spirits upon whom magicians often called dition. Celtic literature was full of battles or duels to perform acts of sorcery, were gradually transformed b e t ween druids, looked upon as practitioners of into Christian demons. While daemons we re ambiva- demonic sorcery, and their Christian adversaries, often lent spirits, demons were considered evil, the legions of well-known saints. Satan battling against the Church and all Christian s o c i e t y. Thus, early Church Fathers, especially St . Sorcery in the Middle Ages Augustine and, later on, Thomas Aquinas, condemned Throughout the Early Middle Ages, sorcerers were gen- any magic that invo l ved dealing with demons, erally depicted not as powerful agents of evil but as re g a rdless of its apparent effects. This new Christian unfortunate victims of the deceits and temptation of conception of magic as operating often via demonic the Devil. Therefore, the Church treated them with agency produced an interesting effect on official views correction and penance, rather than calling for severe of practitioners of magic after Rome became Christian. persecution. By the thirteenth century, however, clerical In the late antique world, the sorc e rer invo l ved in the authorities began to take magic and its practitioners far p e rformance of m a l e ficium was no longer deemed more seriously. One main factor behind this shift was important because Satan was the real author of the evil the rise of various types of learned magic, including i n vo l ved. This de-emphasis on the human agency in astronomy, alchemy, and spiritual and demonic magic, s o rc e ry helps explain the Churc h’s centuries-long among the educated elites of western Europe. Taken hesitation, verging at times on outright disinterest, in from Arab, Greek, and Jewish texts, learned magic persecuting practitioners of magic. aroused much interest among scholars and intellectuals. Especially in Spain—at Toledo, Salamanca, or Seville— Norse and Celtic Sorcery there were rumors about universities teaching the mag- Apart from occasional references to very early customs ical arts. by such Roman historians as Tacitus and condemna- The Church remained convinced that demonic pow- tions by early medieval monks, we have few written er lay hidden behind even apparently innocuous magi- s o u rces about No rdic or Germanic sorc e ry. Mo s t cal practices. The darkest aspects of magic, invo l v i n g i m p o rtant are the Norse runic inscriptions found explicit demonic invocations, were actually practiced by throughout Scandinavia, Iceland, England, and even a “clerical underworld of necro m a n c y” (Kieckhefer parts of Europe where Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons 1997). Me d i e valists have long noted how the rise of traded. We have narrative sources from the postconver- demonic sorc e ry contributed to the idea of witchcraft sion period that still reflect the customs and mentality in the early fifteenth century (see, for example, Pe t e r s of the pre-Christian era, the thirt e e n t h - c e n t u ry 1978). Although the concept of witchcraft was part l y 1062 Sorcery

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1063 Application File rooted in learned sorcery, witches were not just sorcer- any sorc e rers who engaged in demonic invocations or ers with a few diabolical features added. The nature of bound themselves to demons in order to perpetrate their power and their interaction with demonic forc e s harmful sorcery. were different. Six years later, in 1326, Pope John XXII issued the Clerical minds conflated two quite different magical bull Super illius specula ( Upon His Wa t c h t ower), con- systems. By the end of the thirteenth century, clerical demning all sorcerers who made a pact with devils; they authorities we re generally familiar with the essential were said to sacrifice to demons, adore them, summon system of learned magic. But there also existed in them, and even enclose them in a ring, a mirror, or oth- Western Christendom a widespread and diffuse system er object in order to bind them magically to answe r of common spells, charms, blessings, potion making, their requests and help them achieve their desire s . talismans, and amulets employed by many people at all Anyone engaging in such activity would be excommu- l e vels of medieval society, including many clerics. nicated and punished appropriately.The type of sorcery Learned demonic sorcery was a highly structured vari- to which these documents refer is clearly learned necro- ety of magic limited to a small clerical elite; necroman- mancy.This is most obvious in the bull, where the pope cy operated though very complex and detailed invoca- mentioned rings, mirrors, and phials made for magical tion of demons, sometimes lasting for days and purposes while ignoring the herbs, stones, and simple focusing on the right time, season, and requisites. These charms of illiterate sorcerers. By that time, major courts summoning formulas, often derived from Arabic or often had resident magicians, mainly astro l o g e r s , He b rew magical concepts and usually grounded to alchemists, and physicians who practiced ritual magic some extent on Church rituals, were laid out and trans- for the amusement, health, and political advantage of mitted in books of spells written in Latin. Thus, only their employers. those with the prerequisite ritual training and Latin lit- The Dominican Be r n a rd Gui (made famous in eracy could perform this magic. Though clerical Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose) was actual- authorities seemed to ignore that they we re dealing ly an inquisitor in Toulouse for almost twenty ye a r s with two different systems, a desire to fit common, b e f o re writing a handbook, the Practica inquisitionis e ve ryday magical practices into the “d i a b o l i ze d” intel- h e retice pra v i t a t i s (The Practice of the Inquisition of lectual framew o rk established by learned necro m a n c y, He retical De p r a v i t y, ca. 1324), which was widely laid the foundations for constructing the concept of copied and influenced future inquisitorial practice. In witchcraft. Gui’s handbook, one can see the beginnings of the con- fusion on the part of Church authorities between elite From Sorcery to Witchcraft n e c romancy and more common forms of sorc e ry that Although witchcraft and sorcery have similar character- would later feed into the idea of witchcraft. His hand- istics, they are not identical. Sorcery involves the book did not deal with necromancy, but it did devote practice of magic through some sort of mechanical or some space to popular forms of sorc e ry. Gui empha- manipulative process; it is a skill that one can acquire. s i zed the inquisitor’s responsibility to ask sorc e re r s It can be distinguished from witchcraft on two possible whether they cured diseases by conjurations or incanta- grounds. First, it can sometimes be considered benefi- tions, inquiring about using hair and nails, organic cial; second, maleficent acts of witchcraft require no materials such as fruit and herbs, or girdles and similar special techniques or tools. Maleficent acts can be objects; the rings and polished mirrors of ritual demon- committed through the innate powers of a witch, for ic magic were never mentioned (medical magic almost example, by using the evil eye. n e ver fig u red in necromantic practice, while common In the early years, while witchcraft theory was s o rc e ry was primarily concerned with healing or, con- gradually being formulated, some inquisitors and judges versely, inflicting disease). Gui did briefly mention bap- we re unsure of this distinction. By the mid-t h i rt e e n t h t i zed images of wax or lead and various other devices century, papal inquisitors were already probing facets of that were also tools of learned necromancers. Elsewhere sorcery and divination. The confusion between the two in his Pra c t i c a , he included several sections dire c t e d magical traditions became evident in the early four- against clerical sorc e rers and the charges that invo l ve d teenth century, during the Avignon “Ba by l o n i a n n e c romancy and diabolism. And elsew h e re, Gui also captivity” pontificate of John XXII. The reign of John advised inquisitors to ask sorcerers about women called XXII (1316–1334) was marked by deep and grow i n g “the good ones” who flew at night. concern over sorcery at the uppermost ecclesiastical lev- In 1376, the Dominican Nicolas Eymeric, formerly els. T h roughout this period, the papal court and the inquisitor of Aragon, completed his D i re c t o r i u m pope we re obsessed by fears of demonic sorc e ry. T h e i n q u i s i t o ru m ( Di re c t o ry of Inquisitors), a vast manual c a rdinal of Santa Sabina wrote to the inquisitors of that became even more influential than Gu i’s. Among southern France at Toulouse and Carcassonne, ordering its many topics, it dealt with the question of whether then, in the name of the pope, to take action against sorcerers and diviners were heretics, and it subsequently Sorcery 1063

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1064 Application File condemned all forms of demonic sorcery. Although still body and soul to the Devil. They we re able to perf o r m focusing on learned necromantic practice, its argu- m a l e volent sorc e ry with the aid of powe rful demons ments formed an important foundation for later with just a few words or gestures—but only because they notions of witchcraft. Familiar with the learned black had already become servants of Sa t a n . a rts, Eymeric mentioned g r i m o i re s ( m a g i c i a n s’ books T h ree generations after the cumulative notion of for invoking demons) such as the Key of Solomon a n d witchcraft had been created, the influential jurist Paulo the Sworn Book of Honoriusthat he had obviously seized Grillando devoted many pages of his 1525 Tractatus de f rom magicians whom he had tried. He excluded cer- h a e reticis et sort i l e g i i s (Treatise on He retics and tain forms of magical practice (for example, chiroman- Sorcerers) to determining exactly when sorcery became cy and astrology) as not demonic and there f o re not h e re s y. God allowed the Devil certain powers, said h e retical. So rc e ry that invo l ved demonic invo c a t i o n , Grillando, such as tempting people to sin, knowing the h owe ve r, was always heretical. Eymeric distinguished nature of things, predicting the future, and even curing three levels of demonic sorcery: The first and most hor- diseases. Asking help of the Devil to do these permitted rible invo l ved summoning demons and showing them acts constituted sorc e ry. Asking the Devil to do other adoration; in the second method, the sorc e rer showe d acts, which God re s e rved for Hi m s e l f, constituted demons certain signs of veneration that were due only heresy. For example, asking the Devil to help in seduc- to saints; and the third method involved tracing a circle ing a woman was not heretical because this ability came in the earth and placing a boy in it, with the necro- within the De v i l’s province. Yet the manner of asking mancer holding a book and reading it to invoke a was very important: If a person orderedthe Devil to do demon. the evil permitted by God, he was not a heretic, but if But there we re no further developments, either in he imploredthe Devil with the same request, he became t h e o ry or in court room confessions, until much later. If a heretic. If a person who had made a contract with the complex forms of ritual magic—necromancers perf o r m- Devil asked in any way even for a permitted act, he or ing complex rites and invocations designed to compel an she became both a witch and a heretic. essentially unwilling and dangerous demonic agent to CHRISTA TUCZAY come and serve them—concerned Pope John in 1326, over a century later Pope Eugenius IV feared uneducat- See also:AQUINAS,THOMAS;AUGUSTINE,ST.; BIBLE;CLERICAL ed men and women who could allegedly perform terri- MAGIC;DEMONS;EUGENIUSIV,POPE;EVILEYE;EYMERIC,NICO- ble demonic sorc e ry by a mere word, touch, or sign. T h e LAS;GRILLANDO,PAULO;GRIMOIRES;GUI,BERNARD;IMAGE MAGIC;INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;INVOCATIONS;JOHNXXII,POPE; c u m u l a t i ve concept of witchcraft, involving, among MAGIC,LEARNED;MAGIC,POPULAR;MAGICANDRELIGION; other things, the complete absorption of commonplace MAGICCIRCLE;MALEFICIUM;NECROMANCY;NIDER,JOHANNES; s o rc e ry and performance of m a l e fic i u m as essential ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;RINGS, i n g redients, emerged clearly in the 1430s in several tre a- MAGICAL;RITUALMAGIC;SHAMANISM;SIMONMAGUS;SPELLS; tises, connected in various ways with Alpine sorc e ry and THEOPHILUS;WITCHANDWITCHCRAFT,DEFINITIONSOF. h e resy and fil t e red through clerical preconceptions. On e References and further reading: of the most important of these witchcraft treatises was Bailey, Michael D. 2001. “From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical the section devoted to witches and their deceptions in Conceptions of Magic in the Later Middle Ages.” Speculum76: the Fo rmicarius (The Anthill), written aro u n d 960–990. Cohn, Norman. 1993. Europe’s Inner Demons: The Demonization 1437/1438 by the Dominican theologian Jo h a n n e s of Christians in Medieval Christendom.London: Pimlico. Ni d e r. Em p l oying the distinct notions of here t i c a l Davies, Owen. 1999. Witchcraft, Magic and Culture, 1736–1951. witchcraft and the earlier conception of demonic sor- Manchester and NewYork: Manchester University Press. c e ry, the Fo rmicarius p resented witches as members of Kieckhefer, Richard. 1989. Magic in the Middle Ages.Cambridge: an organized sect, performing the most evil kinds of Cambridge University Press. magic, although the author did not believe in the corpo- ———. 1994. “The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic.” real flight of the witches. Well-educated minds (the fir s t American Historical Review 99: 813–836. t reatises on cumulative witchcraft we re composed by ———. 1997. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the both laymen and clerics) convinced themselves that cer- Fifteenth Century.Gloucestershire: Sutton. tain simple people seemed to hold such complete and Levack, Brian P., ed. 2001. Demonology, Religion, and Witchcraft. easy mastery over powe rful demons, while even the Vol. 1, New Perspectives on Witchcraft.NewYork and London: Routledge. C h u rc h’s own exo rcists engaged in complex rites that Luck, Georg. 1999. “Witches and Sorcerers in Classical still often failed to command demons. The difference lay Literature.” Pp. 91–158 in Ancient Greece and Rome.Vol. 2 of in the now-ancient notion of a pact between the sorc e r- The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Edited er or witch and the demon, going back at least to by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and Philadelphia: Theophilus. But witches went far beyond offering Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. demons limited acts of adoration: They apostatized, for- Peters, Edward. 1978. The Magician, the Witch, and the Law. mally denying Christianity and surrendering themselve s Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1064 Sorcery

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1065 Application File Sources for Witchcraft Trials as large as the selection of more recent titles. More than Historians acquire information about witchcraft and 775 different authors wrote these pre-1800 works; witchcraft trials from a variety of published and unpub- about 7.5 percent of the works were anonymous or lished sources, ranging from judicial records of the pseudonymous. courts where witches were tried to scholarly accounts This category contains some interesting subgro u p s . written by contemporaries and modern scholars. For example, a few regions published pamphlets describing witchcraft trials. The earliest ones came from Published Works Germany, the home of both printing and witch hunt- 1. The most accessible published works that provide ing, starting with a sensational pamphlet describing the information regarding witchcraft trials have been writ- remarkable witch panic of 1562 that caused sixty-three ten since the eighteenth century, that is, during the era deaths in the small territory of Wiesensteig. Howe ve r, when witchcraft had been decriminalized in Europe the richest and most reliable group of such pamphlets and its former colonies. The works in this category came from England. Beginning in 1566, England pro- comprised a large majority of the references used in this duced about twenty pamphlets describing individual e n c yclopedia, including such subgenres as folklore English witchcraft trials before the Civil War erupted in collections. The absence of any direct need either to 1640; only three of the authors are known. After the combat or to justify the persecution of witches gave m o n a rchy was re s t o red in 1660, England held few them a degree of relative detachment, although depriv- witchcraft trials but instead produced multiple pam- ing them of the sense of immediate relevance that phlets about them; for instance, three differe n t informed most earlier publications. Obviously, their accounts appeared about a Be d f o rd s h i re case of 1682, numbers have mushroomed since Rossell Ho p e and the last known British conviction of a witch Robbins painstakingly combed British and American spawned five printed pamphlets in 1712—all of them libraries to amass the 1,140 printed works he used to still anonymous. compile his Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology A general rule for readers of such early pamphlets is in 1959. Currently, the number of available works may that the greater the distance separating the printers well be ten times as large. The most helpful biblio- f rom the events they described, the less reliable the graphic guides can now be found online; probably the printed evidence becomes; for example, the News from best starting point is the compilation begun by Jeffrey Scotland,printed at London in 1591, provided an inac- Merrick, continued since 1996 by Richard Golden, and curate and misleading account. German pamphlets maintained by Jonathan Durrant beginning in 2005, abound with such distant, excited, and generally exag- which concentrates on re l a t i vely recent items, gerated misinformation. In France, with most printing p redominantly in English (available at done at Paris or Lyons, one finds no such pamphlets http://www.witchcraftbib.co.uk). To get an idea of how until the seventeenth century; howe ve r, the trial of large modern witchcraft bibliographies can be, consid- Urbain Grandier generated more than three doze n er that merely for the Belgian province of Flanders pamphlets between 1634 and 1636, dwarfing other (which has no separate entry in this Encyclopedia of individual Eu ropean cases. Spain offers an intere s t i n g Witchcraft: The Western Tradition), the Web site bibli- example: Before 1800, only one pamphlet described its ography’s list contains over 125 entries—none of them witchcraft trials, but it helped fan the largest witch pan- originally published in English. ic in Spanish history, and specific details from it have Us u a l l y, the great advantage of modern publications is been traced in witchcraft confessions from Sp a n i s h their re l a t i ve accessibility, and they occasionally pre s e rve America a decade after its appearance. valuable re f e rences to original documents that we re com- At the opposite end of the publications spectru m pletely destroyed during Eu ro p e’s twe n t i e t h-c e n t u ry f rom pamphlets, Eu ro p e’s first multivolume publica- wars. For example, a nineteenth-century Ge r m a n tion about witchcraft came from Eb e r h a rd Da v i d monograph (Lilienthal 1861) about a small coastal city Hauber, who also published the first history of cartog- in what was then Prussia provided information about raphy (in 1724). An Enlightened Calvinist pastor in the m o re than 120 witchcraft trials held there betwe e n n o rth German county of Schaumburg-Lippe, where 1534 and 1772; nearly half of those tried (fif t y - e i g h t hundreds of witches had been burned only two genera- people) were executed between 1605 and 1686. tions earlier, Hauber edited the Bibliotheca sive acta et 2. The number of published works from the age of scripta magica(Library of Magical Stories and Writings) “c u m u l a t i ve” witchcraft (1420–1750), harder to fin d b e t ween 1738 and 1745; although published as a on electronic lists, can also be dauntingly large. Fo r t h re e-volume series, it began as a magazine with example, the unusually broad bibliography offered in between four and six issues per year. a major synthesis on the intellectual history of witch- Apart from some works published by critics such as craft (Clark 1997) contained nearly a thousand Ha u b e r, mostly during the eighteenth century, the pre-nineteenth-century titles, making it approximately enormous majority of pre-1700 publications upheld Sources for Witchcraft Trials 1065

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1066 Application File the reality of witchcraft and, by extension, the necessi- information. Si m i l a r l y, the financial re c o rds fro m ty to prosecute it. A reasonable estimate is that bare l y Swabian Austria remained in Tyrol, although scattered 10 percent of all published works that discussed witch- documentation about confiscations and trial costs was craft during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included with the original trial records. Apart from a could be classified as skeptical in their approach. Bu t few documents in the four district seats and one other then, too, historians of science have pointed out that town (Horb), local municipal archives had little to b a rely 10 percent of all astronomical publications pub- offer. A rhyming pamphlet, printed at Innsbruck in lished before 1650 supported Copernicus’s theory. 1596 and preserved at Stuttgart, claimed to offer a Legal codes mentioning witchcraft we re seldom pub- Wahrhafftig geschicht und eigentliche Beschreibung von lished, and statutory law was not an important guide den Hexen Weybern, so man zu Rottenburg am Nacker to legal practice in most of Old Régime Eu rope. It und in Westfahlen, Prissgre und anderstwo verbrand hat, seems symbolic that the most elaborate and fie rc e dises 1596 Jar in Reimen weiss verfast (Truthful . . . criminal code condemning witchcraft and magic, a Description of the Women Burned as Witches at Ba varian edict of 1611, had no visible effect on local Rottenburg on the Neckar, Westphalia, Breisgau, and legal practice. El s ew h e re in This Year 1596, Put into Rhyme). Unexpectedly, the most valuable guide to the overall Archival Sources dimensions of witch hunting in Swabian Austria came Most witchcraft trials occurred in the German heart- from remarks scattered through a nine-volume manu- lands of the Holy Roman Empire, which was divided script chronicle kept between 1573 and 1604 by a into literally hundreds of autonomous states. Tübingen antiquarian, Martin Crusius, published in an (Curiously, the most valuable general inventory of its abridged version between 1927 and 1961. a rc h i val sources, which eventually located nearly Of course, re c o n s t ructing the history of witchcraft 30,000 individual witchcraft trials, was made under the trials within a particular region is generally less difficult Nazi regime, the only government of twentieth-century than in Swabian Austria, but most of the pro b l e m s Europe to pose as an official champion of witches.) In encountered here apply to European witchcraft general- order to get an idea of the problems faced by researchers l y. The first documents historians usually look for are wishing to acquire original archival information about any available judicial sources of various kinds: German witchcraft trials, consider the situation of four small ter- Hexenakte (witch trial document), French Procès crim- ritorial clusters (today in the German provinces of inels(criminal trials), and so on. They come from every Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria) that formerly com- level of court, beginning with seigneurial tribunals. For prised Swabian Austria: the districts of Hohenberg, example, the richest family of sixteenth-century Nellenburg, the Landvogtei (provincial government) of Germany, the Fuggers of Augsburg, acquired a block of Schwaben, and Burgau. Between 1493 and 1711, they estates stretching north as far as the Danube; aro u n d experienced more than 520 witchcraft trials; about 90 1590, during the first wave of persecution in this percent of accused witches were women, and about region, witches from throughout their estates we re three-fourths of those tried as witches were executed— burned at their two small capitals, but these persecu- reasonably typical of southwestern Germany. The first tions have yet to be adequately explored. Many such general investigation of the documentary sources for seigneurial re c o rds have never been donated to public Swabian Austria (Dillinger 1999, 28–32) noted that archives and remain in private hands. serious lacunae had been mentioned as early as the Many trial re c o rds surv i ve from municipal court s mid-seventeenth century, with subsequent losses after- (and are often extremely well pre s e rved), part i c u l a r l y ward through fire and theft. When Austria lost these f rom the imperial free cities of the Holy Ro m a n territories during the Napoleonic era, in 1806, Em p i re. Larger towns generally have better re c o rd s . Habsburg officials at Innsbruck (the Tyrolean capital, Se l f - g overning towns such as Ro t t weil that ruled ove r from which the territories had been governed) sent the several rural villages seem to have been especially prone original documents from these exclaves to the new to endemic witchcraft persecutions; there, as in the German authorities in W ü rttemburg and Ba va r i a . Republic of Ge n e va, most of the witches accused and Records for Nellenburg were soon transferred again, to e xecuted came from rural districts. Outside Ge r m a n y, Baden. Every transfer entailed further losses. By the late other re c o rds slumber in a few municipal arc h i ves of twentieth century, the remaining original trial records eastern France (Toul, Besançon) or Swiss cantons. Even from Swabian Austria were thus located primarily in in England, some borough courts could impose death regional archives at Augsburg, Stuttgart, and Karlsruhe. sentences for witchcraft; for example, at least seve n However, the original administrative correspondence women witches we re sentenced to death in the small that had accompanied them remained with the archives Essex town of Ha rwich between 1601 and 1619 of the Tyrolean government at Innsbruck, together with ( Macfarlane 1970, 75–76), while Newcastle exe c u t e d archives from hospitals that occasionally yielded useful fifteen witches in 1650 (Sharpe 1997, 218). 1066 Sources for Witchcraft Trials

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1067 Application File Trial records from higher-level courts are usually bet- sources suggested that witchcraft trials were occurring. ter pre s e rved than those from lower courts; Fr a n c e , In this Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The WesternTradition, Europe’s largest kingdom, is an extreme case because its the entry on Ba varia concludes that “as far as serial local court re c o rds are nonexistent. Two major pro b- analysis is concerned, . . . Historians possess an ocean lems confront re s e a rchers. First, officials often pre- of sources, which they have so far only explored in served such documents randomly, primarily in order to part,” mentioning court council records since the early establish precedents or prove their right to pro n o u n c e 1600s, trial re c o rds, official re p o rts, special files for and execute capital punishments. Second, even when witchcraft trials, legal opinions, and official correspon- apparently preserved in relatively good order, the docu- dence. Such official sources have proved part i c u l a r l y ments are difficult to use because they lack topical helpful when exploring the hotly debated topic of i n d e xes; investigators have no alternative to exploring whether witchcraft trials originated primarily “f ro m them serially in order to locate witchcraft trials among beneath,” through popular pre s s u re on local authori- vast piles of other criminal cases. Of ficial sentences ties, or “f rom above,” by governments intent on pun- from French appellate courts (which always specify the ishing deviants. punishment but often do not specify the crime) can Information about witchcraft trials lurks in some sometimes be supplemented by their p l u m i t i f s , s h o rt- other administrative records rarely explored by histori- hand records of prisoner interrogations. It required sev- ans. A thousand witchcraft trials from the pre s e n t - d a y eral years of re s e a rch for an expatriate American to Swiss canton of Vaud between 1580 and 1620 have locate over a thousand witchcraft cases in the records of been located through the council minutes of the the Parlement of Paris (Soman 1992). Similar situations Republic of Bern, which governed Vaud until 1798 and exist with national appellate courts in Scandinavia. The had to approve all death sentences there. One local Holy Roman Em p i re, where most of Eu ro p e’s witch- scholar carefully collected almost 1,700 re f e rences to craft trials occurred, offers an unusual problem: T h e witchcraft during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- re c o rds of its principal appellate court, the turies in the provincial council minutes for the duchy of Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t (imperial chamber court), we re Luxemburg; most of them were petitions complaining split up after German unification and sent to thre e of irregular procedures in witchcraft trials, thus offering d o zen different locations (a few of them outside pre- an upside-down view of “s a n i t i ze d” official ve r s i o n s . sent-day Germany), while those from the empero r’s Another kind of administrative source, the abundant appellate court, the Re i c h s h o f ra t (imperial aulic court ) , and we l l - p re s e rved correspondence between the remain together at Vienna but have been little used. Spanish In q u i s i t i o n’s governing council, the Su p re m a , Another little-used judicial source, the sale of par- and its local tribunals, has proved especially useful for dons (a practice largely confined to Fre n c h - s p e a k i n g understanding the dynamics of the single most impor- Eu rope), also offers occasional information about tant episode in Spanish witchcraft, the 1609–1614 witchcraft. Witchcraft belonged to a small category of Basque panic. “unpardonable” heinous crimes; only one partial excep- The opinions about witchcraft cases issued by va r i- tion is known—a woman who had endured tort u re ous German universities (whose arc h i ves are usually without confessing and whose banishment was revoked well preserved) constitute a different kind of specialized years later (Muchembled 1989, 378). The homicide of s o u rce. T h rough so-called document dispatching a suspected witch was a pardonable offense, and scat- (A k t e n ve r s e n d u n g), courts sent the files of a pending t e red examples (most of them apparently lynchings) procedure to a legal faculty to seek advice. Beginning in can be found among the thousands of pardons pre- the sixteenth century, Aktenversendung applied to both s e rved from the Kingdom of France, the Low civil and criminal trials in the Holy Roman Em p i re Countries, or the duchy of Lorraine. In 1603, in the because local lay assessor courts usually needed the tiny southern enclave of Châtillon-sur-Saone in the advice of professionally trained authorities. Howe ve r, duchy of Bar, subject to the appellate jurisdiction of the unlike the practice in French appellate courts, German distant Parlementof Paris, local financial records suggest law professors examined only the written trial re c o rd s a reluctance to torture and convict arrested witches, and and had no opportunity to question defendants under a ducal pardon suggests a readiness to lynch them oath afterward. In northern and northeastern Germany, instead. One general rule is that all such sources must their legal opinions sometimes provide our most be explored serially, concentrating on periods when important source of information about witchcraft trials: witchcraft trials are known to have occurred. About a thousand of them surv i ve from the duchy of Other administrative re c o rds discussing witchcraft Mecklenburg alone, while the situation is somew h a t trials are abundant. A great recent exploration of witch similar for electoral Saxony, where such legal consulta- hunting (Behringer 1997) made excellent use of the tions we re re q u i red by central governments. Legal rich series of deliberations by Ba va r i a’s central gove r n- opinions have been studied from several of Ge r m a n y’s ment, sampling them during periods when other two dozen universities, with mixed results. Some law Sources for Witchcraft Trials 1067

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1068 Application File p rofessors clearly saw witchcraft as a crimen exc e p t u m This impression of incompleteness is reinforced and (the excepted crime) and we re extremely seve re: At deepened when we consider arc h i val sources. None of Rinteln, 347 decisions in witchcraft trials include only them from the early modern period is ever complete. 19 judgments favoring the accused. Perhaps more important, none provides a direct record Financial records mentioning witchcraft trials are rel- of the words of accused witches (the vast majority of atively abundant, since Old Régime governments gen- whom we re women with no knowledge of writing). erally took great care to pre s e rve them. Ba varia, for The early-fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry trial re c o rds, even those example, has expense re c o rds from virtually eve ry dis- from secular courts, were often kept in Latin; afterward trict court from the fifteenth century onward, as well as (for instance, in the Spanish case between 1609 and from some of its central prisons. However, they, too, are 1614 or the Bernese in Vaud), the people who compiled generally difficult to search because they contain no the records could not even speak the same language as index of any kind—and they may even be preserved in the accused witches. Mo re ove r, with extremely few a different country from the area being studied, as, for e xceptions, pre s e rved documents do not re c o rd the exact example, with both with Swabian Austria and the words of the witnesses who testified against the witches duchy of Luxembourg. Financial sources are frequently but instead provide a version rearranged by the record- older than judicial re c o rds and seem to be especially ing scribe. helpful for identifying early witchcraft trials—especially When it comes to discourse about witchcraft, post- those ending with executions, for central governments modernism is actually very old. Ever since the sixteenth were less willing to pay costs of trials that did not result c e n t u ry, the sources of witchcraft have been decon- in convictions. For instance, in the Belgian province of s t ructed or “u n p a c k a g e d” by intellectuals who could Flanders, all but three of the three dozen cases known “think outside the box.” Few areas of historical research b e f o re 1560 are documented exc l u s i vely by fin a n c i a l demonstrate more convincingly that so-called authentic re c o rds, while only three of the last fifty (all of them documents are not truthful documents: Like the also found in judicial re c o rds) can be traced this way historians who study them, witches cannot fly. ( Monballyu 2002, 302–313). Some countries— WILLIAM MONTER Norway is a good example—have relatively few surviv- ing court records but preserve an almost complete series See also:APPEALS;BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;CONFISCATIONSOFWITCH- of their financial records for the late sixteenth and sev- ES’PROPERTY;FUGGERFAMILY;HAUBER,EBERHARDDAVID;HIS- enteenth centuries, providing a solid basis for estimat- TORIOGRAPHY;IMPERIALFREECITIES;LORRAINE,DUCHYOF; LUXEMBOURG,DUCHYOF;NAZIINTERESTINWITCHPERSECU- ing their witchcraft executions. Another very important TION;PAMPHLETSANDNEWSPAPERS;PARLEMENTOFPARIS;PRUS- example comes from the duchy of Lorraine, where vir- SIA;ROBINS,ROSSELLHOPE;UNIVERSITIES. tually all records that mention its numerous witchcraft References and further reading: trials (more than 1,700 can be traced, over 300 of Behringer,Wolfgang. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: which include partial trial records) have been preserved Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early among its unusually rich series of annual local financial Modern Europe.Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. re p o rts. At the same time, financial re c o rds from the Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. duchy of Ba r, permanently united with Lorraine after Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft 1506 but administered separately, are so incomplete as in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. Dillinger, Johannes. 1999. “Bose Leute”: Hexenverfolgungen in to be practically useless for this purpose. Schwäbisch-Osterreich und Kurtier im Vergleich. Trier: Spee. A few general rules may be extracted from this rapid Lilienthal, J. A. 1861. Die Hexenprozesse der beiden Städte and obviously incomplete survey of archival and print- Braunsberg, nach den Criminalacten des Braunsberger Archivs. ed sources available for studying witchcraft in early Königsberg. modern Europe. Concerning published materials, there Macfarlane, Alan. 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England. a re a few major specialized library collections about London: Routledge. witchcraft; the one at Cornell University, formed in the Monballyu, Jos. 2002. “Die Hexenprozesse in der Grafschaft late nineteenth century, is probably the richest (ava i l- Flandern (1495–1692).” Pp. 279–313 inHexenprozesse und able at http://historical.library. c o r n e l l . e d u / w i t c h c r a f t / Gerichtpraxis. Edited by Herbert Eiden and Rita Voltmer.Trier: index.html). Howe ve r, just as no major specialize d Paulinus. scholarly journal is devoted to this subject, no library Muchembled, Robert. 1989. La violence au village (Xve–XVIIe siècle).Turnhout: Brepols. holds anything like a complete series of works about Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1959. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and witchcraft, although many libraries have the re a d i l y Demonology.NewYork: Crown. a vailable primary source collection, “Witchcraft in Sharpe, James. 1997. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Eu rope and America,” containing 1,196 items on 95 Modern England.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania m i c ro film reels (available at http://micro f o r m g u i d e s . Press. gale.com /Brow s e Guide.asp?colldocid= 3058000&It e m Soman, Alfred. 1992. Sorcellerie et justice criminelle: Le Parlement = &Page=1). de Paris (16e–18e siècles). Hampshire: Ashgate. 1068 Sources for Witchcraft Trials

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1069 Application File Spain Late medieval Spain produced several treatises about Spain’s experience of witchcraft was substantially differ- witches, mostly by theologians who helped give cre- ent from that in many other areas of Europe. No real dence to the notions of a Sabbat and a compact with “witch crazes” happened there, although sporadic per- the Devil. A special meeting of the council of the secution of witches occurred throughout the peninsula. Inquisition held in the city of Granada in 1526 ruled by The total number of executions was comparatively a narrow majority that the notion of the witches’ flight small but larger than in other Mediterranean countries was impossible, claiming that “the majority of jurists in with effective Inquisitions, such as Portugal or Italy this realm agree that witches do not exist” (Kamen after 1542. 1997, 271). The effective origin of prosecutions must In the traditional legal systems of the Ib e r i a n be sought principally in social tensions and conflicts. In Peninsula, where the dictates of Roman law had pene- small communities across northern Spain, denuncia- trated imperfectly, witchcraft was not formally consid- tions for witchcraft often arose simply from family and e red an offense. At various times in the medieva l communal tensions. There were occasional state-spon- period, people were tried and condemned for practicing sored witch hunts, particularly in Navarre, from a very maleficia(evil acts, harmful magic).When alien diabol- severe one in 1525 until the 1580s. The most intensive ical help was involved, the crime was also called sorcery outbreaks of persecution occurred in times of agrarian ( s o rt i l e g i u m ) . In 1370 and 1387, the laws of Castile disaster, when local communities blamed the evil influ- d e c l a red that sorc e ry was a crime involving here s y, for ences at work among them. When Spain’s worst witch which laypeople would be punished by the state and panic was affecting rural Catalonia in 1621, a bishop clergy by the Church. The medieval Inquisition, both re p o rted that “the barons and lords of the villages, on in France and in the Crown of Aragon, left such ques- seeing the loss of crops and the clamoring of the people, tions largely in secular hands. Around 1500, when the h a ve supplied a cure for the ills by punishing these Spanish Inquisition began investigating the heresy of women” (quoted in Kamen 2000, 68). witchcraft, re p ression of the offense was still normally People accused of witchcraft were generally from the in the hands of the state courts; a Castilian decree of lower levels of rural society. Denunciations of witches, 1500, for example, ord e red an investigation into like denunciations for here s y, arose out of antipathies sorcery by the civil courts. and grievances within the local community. Petty suspi- C h u rch authorities in medieval Spain seldom took cions, jealousies, and gossip led to the victimization of v i g o rous action against superstition. As elsew h e re in individuals and eventually to their prosecution. In a Eu rope, Spanish popular culture, especially in ru r a l changing society, the disappearance of traditional a reas, sought unort h o d ox cures for daily affli c t i o n s . neighborly charity and mutual help might give rise to Spanish villages had their wise men or women (curan- resentments. The fear of retaliation by witchcraft forced d e ro s) who offered medicinal ointments, found lost villagers to keep dispensing favors to those who we re objects, healed wounded animals, or, like L a Ce l e s t i n a suspected of being witches or who, to exploit the situa- (a pro c u ress and enchantress, protagonist of a famous tion, claimed to be witches. In times of crisis, such per- Spanish novel), helped lovers win the affections of the sons were persecuted and denounced to the courts. But ones they loved. Cures might take the form of potions, documented cases range far beyond examples of “chari- charms, spells, or simply advice. This subculture coex- ty re f u s e d . ” Malice between neighbors was a unive r s a l isted with and did not try to subve rt offic i a l phenomenon in witchcraft cases. Catholicism, though in certain “New Christian” are a s Me d i e val practice had been that witches should be (that is, areas with Christians of Jewish and Mu s l i m burned, and the Spanish tribunals followed suit. T h e origin), the Christian content of the spells was doubt- Spanish Inquisition, however, played no significant part ful. In rural areas, the world of magic even entered the in these prosecutions; it was guided by the policies laid C h u rch, with many clergy incorporating folk out at the special meeting in 1526, when it decided to practices—rites, prayers, offerings, dances—into the act with caution in cases concerning witchcraft. Wi t h normal liturgy. f ew and brief exceptions, prosecution of the offense The mountainous provinces of northern Spain, from reverted to civil courts. At Barcelona in 1549, local jus- Galicia on the Atlantic coast to Catalonia on the tices and inquisitors collaborated in the punishment Mediterranean, were the regions most identified with a and execution of a handful of women accused of sor- p re valence of superstition. All this was stamped on c e ry. The Su p re m a (the supreme council of the firmly in the sixteenth century by reforming bishops, Inquisition) re a f firmed its attitude by punishing the p o s t - Tridentine clergy, and the Inquisition. In the inquisitor responsible; there a f t e r, the Inquisition in p rocess of contrasting the dark world of primitive Catalonia punished few witches and burned none. superstition with the illuminated world of the Gospel, A similar case happened in the Py renees in 1610. preachers and learned men unduly simplified the forces Basque refugees from a frenzied witch hunt conducted at work and helped to create fears of “witchcraft.” just across the French border entered Spanish Navarre, Spain 1069

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1070 Application File soon leading to a number of witches being executed at adequate information on this, but 300 is a re a s o n a b l e anauto de fe. The inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías was guess. We also cannot be sure of the dates of the last sent to inquire into the circumstances and came to the e xecution for witchcraft and the last witchcraft trial, conclusion that “t h e re we re neither witches nor because various jurisdictions continued informal execu- b ewitched until they we re talked and written about” tions and trials well into the seventeenth century. ( Henningsen 1980, ix). Another result of the 1610 Consciousness of witchcraft as a historical phenome- episode was that the Inquisitor General commissioned non remained in folk memory for generations after a report (in 1611) from the scholar Pedro de Valencia, a c t i ve persecution had ceased. In the early nineteenth who suggested that there was a strong element of men- century, the great Aragonese painter Francisco de Goya tal sickness in the Navarre events and that exceptional p roduced the best-known artistic re p resentations of c a re had to be taken to prove offenses. “The accused witches in the Spanish countryside. must be examined first to see if they are in their right As in nearly all of Europe, the overwhelming majori- mind or possessed or melancholic,” he stated, fin a l l y ty of those accused in Spain we re female. Most cases advising that “one must look for evidence, according to were tried before the secular courts as a consequence of law, of an offence having been committed” (quoted in popular pre s s u re, and even the interventions of the Kamen 1997, 275). A curious feature of this episode Inquisition in Barcelona in 1549 and Navarre in 1610 was the role of children. When inquisitor Salazar Frías we re a consequence of secular prosecutions. Sp a n i s h visited Navarre in 1611, 1,802 people came forward as authorities, while tolerant of so-called diabolic witch- self-confessed witches; 1,384 of them we re childre n craft, initiated a firm campaign against popular under fourteen. In 1614, the council issued instru c- superstitions in the later sixteenth century, but that tions reaffirming the policy of 1526. They remained the campaign faded away a generation later. One must also principal guide to the future policy of the Inquisition, bear in mind that if Sp a n i a rds needed scapegoats in advising caution and leniency in all investigations. As a times of crisis, they did not have to pick witches but result, the Inquisition never again executed witches. could frequently find them in their resident cultural Had all Spanish tribunals behaved in this way, the minorities, the New Christians of Jewish origin p rosecution of superstition in Spain would have (conversos) or Muslim origin (Moriscos); this alternative become what the Inquisition intended it to be: a means was not available in other European countries. of disciplining people into ort h o d ox Christianity. HENRY KAMEN However, the control of much jurisdiction over witch- craft by secular authorities meant that witches contin- See also:AGRARIANCRISES;BASQUECOUNTRY;CAROBAROJA,JULIO; ued to be executed in many parts of Spain. In the CELESTINA,LA;CHILDREN;COURTS,INQUISITORIAL;COURTS, Kingdom of Aragon, for example, the civil authorities SECULAR;FEMALEWITCHES;GOYAYLUCIENTES,FRANCISCOJOSÉ continued in full possession of their jurisdiction ove r DE;INQUISITION,SPANISH;MAGIC,POPULAR;SALAZARFRÍAS, ALONSODE;SCAPEGOATS;SUPERSTITION;VALENCIA,PEDRODE. witchcraft, and the Inquisition seems to have made References and further reading: only sporadic efforts to assert jurisdiction. Many witch- Caro Baroja, Julio. 1964. The World of the Witches.London: es were tried before local courts in upper Aragon in the Weidenfeld and Nicholson. early and mid-seventeenth century. Witches in Aragon Gari, Angel. 1991. Brujería e Inquisición en el Alto Aragón en la we re hanged and burned; the total number of those primera mitad del siglo XVII.Saragossa: Diputación de Aragón. executed is not known. Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque In Catalonia, likewise, executions continued. In the Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609–1614).Reno: jurisdiction of Vic alone, the civil authorities sentenced University of Nevada Press. f o rt y - five witches to death between 1618 and 1622. Kamen, Henry. 1997. The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision.New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Do zens of witches we re hanged in other tow n s ———. 2000. Early Modern European Society.NewYork: throughout Catalonia, including some in the Pyrenees. Routledge. The rector of the Jesuits in Barcelona, Pere Gil, begged Lea, Henry Charles. 1906–1907. A History of the Inquisition of the viceroy to intervene but with little result. Roy a l Spain.4 vols. London: Macmillan. courts could not control the local and baronial jurisdic- Monter,William. 1990. Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition tions in which the executions took place. from the Basque Lands to Sicily.Cambridge: Cambridge Such incidents, provoked in some measure by bad University Press. h a rvest conditions, declined in number after 1627. Tausiet, María. 2000. Ponzoña en los ojos: Brujería y superstión en Further research may reveal many cases of persecution Aragón en el siglo XVI.Saragossa: Institucíon “Fernando el of witches throughout Spain, for popular superstitions Católico.” on the matter remained deeply ingrained for centuries, and local authorities we re usually re s p o n s i ve to Spanish America complaints. There is no way to know how many witch- Witchcraft and sorcery developed special characteristics es we re executed in Spain because we do not have in colonial Spanish America, merging European and 1070 Spanish America

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1071 Application File indigenous American concepts into new, hybrid policy usually excluded Eu ropeans from Amerindian notions. In addition, Spanish notions underwent cul- settlements. T h e re f o re, the vast majority of Sp a n i a rd s tural changes in the New World. Jurisdiction over and Creoles lived in colonial towns, explaining the witchcraft cases in Spanish America was supervised by s t rong concentration of Eu ropean witchcraft/sorc e ry the Suprema(the supreme council of the Inquisition) in notions in urban centers. Trial records reflect an image Spain, which generally took a cautious position on of witches that was almost identical with contemporary witchcraft, urging its American inquisitors to punish Spanish notions. At the same time, regions with a witches and sorc e rers less seve rely than here t i c s . h i g h-density Amerindian population re veal a stro n g Consequently, the Suprema never allowed death penal- i n fluence of Na t i ve American ideas and practices. ties for cases of witchcraft or sorcery to be executed in Generally, the Iberian model of witchcraft and sorcery Spanish America. dominated urban colonial centers, while Amerindian While most Spanish American trials dealt with concepts prevailed in rural areas. sorcery, witch hunts seldom occurred during the more In some regions, the Amerindian population than three centuries of colonial domination; they were declined dramatically during the sixteenth century after c o n fined to short periods of time and to small geo- the Spanish Conquest. As Na t i ve American ideas on graphic regions in the viceroyalties of New Sp a i n witchcraft faded, the popular Eu ropean model of the ( Mexico) and New Granada. The majority of those witch became dominant. African influence was p rosecuted we re women, ove rwhelmingly in sorc e ry s t rongest in regions with economies based on slave trials involving magical healing, divination, or love l a b o r, for example, in the mining centers of New magic. Sorcery techniques came primarily from Spanish Granada or the haciendas(estates) of the Peruvian coast. models, with small variations in witchcraft and sorcery On the whole, the concept of the witch recorded in his- occurring principally through the use of native torical sources, even in regions with a strong African American plants and materials or occasionally through p resence, was basically a hybrid Eu ropean model with adopting indigenous practices. In Spanish America, some African influence. witchcraft remained an individual phenomenon, with If we could draw a map of indigenous witchcraft one person harming another; evidence of collective beliefs in Spanish America, at least two different region- assemblies of witches is extremely rare and unre l i a b l e , al models would emerge: one centered in Mexico, in with the exception of the Cartagena tribunal, where the core of the former Aztec state, ananother centered some cases were reported. in highland Pe ru, the core of the pre-Conquest In c a Em p i re. In both regions, where the great majority of Distribution of Witchcraft Models in the population was Amerindian, indigenous elements Spanish America penetrated the witchcraft and sorc e ry beliefs of the Three different notions of witchcraft converged in colonial population. Spanish America, incorporating Spanish, Amerindian, and African concepts of witches and sorcerers. The con- Spanish and Creole Concepts of quistadores carried contemporary Spanish ideas on Witchcraft witchcraft and sorcery to the NewWorld. Missionaries Early modern Spanish distinctions between witchcraft and educated men were familiar with the demonologi- (brujería) and sorcery (hechicería) were maintained in cal witch concept, while most colonists understood Spain’s colonial possessions. In the learned tradition, popular traditions about sorcery (hechicería) and harm- witchcraft required an explicit pact with the Devil, but ful magic. Because frequent communication of sorcery usually involved only an implicit pact. A further Spaniards with Native Americans and Africans usually distinction involved the faculties attributed to witches occurred among lower social strata, mostly concepts and sorcerers. Adherents of both the learned and the from popular Iberian tradition were transmitted. In the popular traditions believed that witches could fly African population, several concepts of witchcraft were through the air, transform themselves into animals, and present. The Africans serving Spanish colonists were command the weather. Sorcerers, by contrast, were Christianized and generally familiar with Spanish ideas; thought usually to lack such supernatural capacities but African witch concepts seldom surfaced among them. use spells, magic potions, and certain stones, plants, or However, slaves who came from Africa preserved their other elements in their magical procedures. A third native concepts on witchcraft in America. Finally, d i s t i n c t i ve feature invo l ved m a l e ficium ( h a r m f u l Na t i ve American societies had their own specific magic). Inquisitorial trials typically related it to witch- notions of witches, different from those of Europeans craft. Although sorcery occasionally inflicted harm on a and Africans but with some similarities to the European victim, it was rarely associated with maleficium. Thus, model. the Inquisition characterized a magician as a sorcerer, if The European concept of witches and sorcerers was he or she had not employed maleficium, even though generally confined to urban spaces. Spanish colonial accused of metamorphosis, magical flight, and similar Spanish America 1071

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1072 Application File deeds typical of witches. Some minor variations in these felines. It is difficult to describe pre-Columbian indige- two categories can be observed in the historical materi- nous witch concepts, as we lack written sources for al from the colonial era, principally due to changes over most of the American continent. Only in Mexico and time or to the idiosyncratic views of some inquisitors parts of Central America are written texts available about witchcraft and sorcery. from the pre-Conquest period. Even there, European In urban centers where Sp a n i s h - Creole inhabitants concepts were superimposed on indigenous beliefs and we re dominant, witchcraft and sorc e ry beliefs showe d gradually obscured them. Besides, Europeans frequent- g reat similarity to the Iberian model characterized by a ly misunderstood the religious concepts of the famous literary fig u re, La Ce l e s t i n a (a pro c u ress or Amerindians. As a consequence, different cultural e n c h a n t ress). So rc e ry was practiced far more fre q u e n t l y elements were jumbled together and only gradually than witchcraft. The predominant type of magician in formed a new belief system. colonial Spanish America was a sorc e ress engaged in love This transformation is evident in the Me x i c a n magic, divination, pro p i t i a t o ry rites, and magical h- nahual.In pre-Columbian times, nahualdescribed per- ealing. In general, h e c h i c e ra s we re women of low social sons, usually religious or political leaders, with special status, unmarried or widowed, and without the pro t e c- capacities to transform themselves into animals— tion and support of a husband or male re l a t i ve . jaguars, birds, and the like. Their capacity for shape C o n s e q u e n t l y, they we re poor and lived in difficult cir- shifting was considered evidence of their great inherent cumstances. So rc e ry provided them with income and a p owers. When Spanish missionaries confronted the means of gaining respect, at least locally. A few of these nahual belief, they identified the nahual’s supernatural women we re courtesans of somewhat higher social p ower with characteristics ascribed to witches. T h e standing. Their clients came from different social strata. European concept of the witch thus gradually obscured Techniques employed in colonial sorc e ry corre s p o n d- the original notion of the nahual,which never inflicted ed closely to Iberian models, with some native American harm by magical means. Si x t e e n t h - c e n t u ry historical plants and materials added. Love magic included invo- sources show that the nahualprobably also merged with cations, especially of St. Ma rtha, who, as in Spain, was other indigenous notions that were more like European b e l i e ved to be most helpful in love affairs. Conjuring witches. The resulting colonial Mexican witch could demons, especially the “limping devil” (diablo cojuelo) , become an animal, fly through the air at night in this tracing magical circles, and using special items such as shape, and enter houses to harm their victims, often by e a rth from a grave y a rd or pieces from a rope used to sucking their blood. Injuries could be noticed on the hang someone completed the pro c e d u re. Colonial body of a witch who was hurt while transformed into Spanish magicians also used indigenous materials, for an animal; if the animal-witch was killed, the witch example, feathers and skins of certain birds, plants, would die instantly.The evil, blood-sucking nahualwas seeds, and (especially in the Andes) coca leaves; the Lima a colonial creation that eventually also became a syn- Inquisition accused several Spanish and Creole women onym for w i t c h among the indigenous population, at of chewing coca and using it for divination. least in some areas of colonial Mexico. Although the Spanish American sorceress more fre- Belief in individuals with supernatural capacities quently acted as a magical healer and diviner, she could who used their magical power to inflict harm on other also inflict harm. Love magic could requiremaleficium, humans existed in pre-Columbian and colonial Peru as for instance, to remove a rival. Male Spanish and Creole well. As in the Mexican case, the idea of the witch in sorcerers generally engaged in seeking treasure or con- ancient Pe ru was not linked to the moral category of juring luck when gambling by invoking the Devil or evil used in early modern Europe. Nevertheless, witch- specialized demons and offering to make a pact in order craft was much feared in the Inca Empire, and special to fulfill their desire. Throughout the colonial period, c a re was taken to pre vent witches from acquiring witches and sorcerers of the Spanish and Creole strata clothes, hair, fingernails, or personal belongings of the acted almost exclusively as individuals; extremely few Inca ruler, lest these things be used for bewitching the assemblies of witches were reported in trials, and even Inca and eventually killing him. Witchcraft was severe- these were probably invented by defendants hoping to ly punished in the Inca state by executing the witch and inspire respect or else were misinterpretations of testi- her entire family. Witches harmed other persons by mony by the judges. i n flicting illnesses that eventually killed their victims. Witchcraft was essentially performed by individuals; Amerindian Concepts of Witchcraft only one assembly of witches was reported, a case from The Amerindian witch may be characterized as a person the north coast of Peru in the early seventeenth century. who inflicts harm magically on others. Indigenous Spanish ecclesiastical judges discove red what they witches were often thought to be capable of flying, with c o n s i d e red a congregation of witches similar to their or without the help of a supernatural entity, and of gatherings in the Spanish Basque Country. T h e transforming themselves into such animals as birds or Peruvian witches supposedly gathered at a special place 1072 Spanish America

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1073 Application File at night where they adored the Devil and held a we re adversaries of the witches, trying to unravel and banquet, consuming blood previously extracted fro m counteract their spells. If the healer revealed the identi- their victims. These witches not only flew to their ty of the witch through divination and clairvoy a n c e , gathering through the air but also used a powder that countermagic was usually performed to kill the witch a l l owed them to enter the houses of their victims and with his or her own weapons. make them fall asleep or else unable to move. Once the —IRIS GAREIS witches had sucked some blood from their victims, they See also:BASQUECOUNTRY;CELESTINA,LA;COUNTERMAGIC; went to their assembly and cooked the blood in enor- DRUGSANDHALLUCINOGENS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES; mous pots. Although Spanish accounts of the Peruvian INQUISITION,SPANISH;LOVEMAGIC;MALEFICIUM;MEDICINE w i t c h e s’ Sabbat clearly owe much to demonological ANDMEDICALTHEORY;METAMORPHOSIS;NATIVEAMERICANS; p e r s p e c t i ves and to re p o rts on Basque witchcraft, we NEWGRANADA;NEWSPAIN;PERU;SABBAT;SORCERY;SPAIN; know from indigenous testimonies that the local popu- URBANWITCHCRAFT. lation greatly feared these witches. Spanish colonial References and further reading: re p o rts on Pe ruvian witchcraft distinguished its few Aguirre Beltrán, Gonzalo. 1963. Medicina y magia: El proceso de adepts from the many sorc e rers actively engaged in aculturación en la estructura colonial.Mexico: Instituto Nacional divination, propitiatory rites, and similar activities. Indigenista. Alberro, Solange. 1988. Inquisición y sociedad en México, 1571–1700.Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica. Witchcraft and Magical Healing Castañeda Delgado, Paulino, and Pilar Hernández Aparicio. 1995. Amerindian notions of witchcraft as a principal reason “Los delitos de superstición en la Inquisición de Lima durante for illness matched almost perfectly with Sp a n i s h el siglo XVII.” Revista de la Inquisición4: 9–35. colonial concepts of disease; both Spanish and Creole Escandell Bonet, Bartolomé. 1980. “Una lectura psico-social de los populations often attributed illness to witchcraft. Both papeles del Santo Oficio: Inquisición y sociedad peruanas en el believed that harm inflicted by magical means could siglo XVI.” Pp. 437–467 in La Inquisición española: Nueva only be removed by magical procedures. Therefore, visión, nuevos horizontes.Edited by Joaquín PérezVillanueva. t h roughout the colonial population (Sp a n i s h , Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno. Amerindian, and African), magical healing practices Escobedo, Ronald. 1993. “América y la Inquisición.” Pp. 319–350 were considered necessary to counteract the effects of in Los Inquisidores.Vitoria-Gasteiz: Fundación Sancho el Sabio. Gareis, Iris. 1994. “Una bucólica andina: Curanderos y brujos en witchcraft. Especially at popular levels in colonial soci- la costa norte del Perú (siglo XVIII).” Pp. 211–230 in En el ety, healers from different sectors of the population nombre del Señor: Shamanes, demonios y curanderos del norte del were consulted interchangeably: African healers would Perú.Edited by Luis Millones and Moises Lemlij. Lima: be consulted by indigenous or Creole patients and vice Biblioteca Peruana de Psicoanálisis. versa. This situation led to a fusion of their different ———. 2002. “Liebesmagie und Schadenzauber: Zur Rezeption notions of witchcraft as well. In consequence, we find a des europäischen Hexenbildes in Hispano-Amerika (16.–18. Spanish friar invoking an entity he thought was a Jahrhundert).” Pp. 209–225 in Geschlecht, Magie und Native American demon in order to conjure its help or Hexenverfolgung.Edited by Ingrid Ahrendt-Schulte, Dieter R. an African dressed up with a Mexican feather costume Bauer, Sönke Lorenz, and Jürgen Michael Schmidt. Bielefeld: performing an Amerindian shamanic ritual. Similar Verlag für Regionalgeschichte. cultural exchanges can be noted in the incorporation of Henningsen, Gustav. 1992. “The Diffusion of Magic in Colonial America.” Pp. 160–178 in Clashes of Culture: Essays in Honour Christian prayers or paraphernalia (especially the cruci- of Niels Steensgaard.Edited by J. C. V. Johansen, E. Ladevig fix) into African or Amerindian magical rites. Petersen, and Henrik Stevnsborg. Odense: Odense University Amerindian magic, by contrast, introduced the use Press. of hallucinogenic substances into magical healing. ———. 1994. “La evangelización negra: Difusión de la magia So rc e ry trials against healers re veal the importance of europea por la América colonial.” Revista de la Inquisición3: hallucinogenic drugs in inducing ecstasy or becoming 9–27. “possessed” in order to communicate with supernatural Lea, Henry Charles. 1922. The Inquisition in the Spanish p owers that would eventually cure their patients. Dependencies: Sicily–Naples–Sardinia–Milan–The Hallucinogenic drugs also conferred particular clairvoy- Canaries–Mexico–Peru–New Granada.NewYork: Macmillan. ance on healers to diagnose the cause of an illness. Medina, José Toribio. 1914. La primitiva Inquisición americana In Spanish America, witchcraft could induce illness (1493–1569): Estudio histórico.2 vols. Santiago de Chile: Elziviriana. basically in two ways: by introducing an object (hair, a PérezVillanueva, Joaquín, and Bartolomé Escandell Bonet, eds. stone, and so on) into the victim’s body or by abducting 2000. Historia de la Inquisición en España y América.Vol. 3, his or her soul (or part of it). In either case, the victim Temas y problemas.Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, would slowly fade away unless the healer could discover Centro de Estudios Inquisitoriales. the cause and either extract the pathogenic object or Quezada, Noemí. 1989. Enfermedad y maleficio: El curandero en el return the soul to the patient. Thus, in colonial Spanish México colonial.Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de America, magical healers—persecuted as sorc e re r s — México. Spanish America 1073

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1074 Application File ———. 1991. “The Inquisition’s Repression of Curanderos.” Pp. narratives of ancient quarrels and disputes purportedly 37–57 in Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in resulting in various maleficia, or acts of harmful witch- Spain and the New World.Edited by Mary Elizabeth Perry and craft. Anne J. Cruz. Berkeley: University of California Press. Translating fits and convulsions into lawful evidence Sánchez Ortega, María Helena. 1991. “Sorcery and Eroticism in was highly controversial; in France, such “d e m o n i c” Love Magic.” Pp. 58–92 in Cultural Encounters: The Impact of testimony was attacked sharply by 1600, and after a few the Inquisition in Spain and the New World.Edited by Mary s h ow trials, it had become completely discredited by Elizabeth Perry and Anne J. Cruz. Berkeley: University of 1650. England was not far behind. Such guides as John California Press. Cotta’sTryall of Witchcraft (1616) urged caution in the Spectral Evidence diagnosis of bewitchment after some recent scandals in This hotly disputed type of evidence was used in a few which children who had acted as “demoniacs” had later s e ve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry French witchcraft pro s e c u t i o n s confessed that their symptoms we re counterfeit. Like but more often (and more successfully) in seventeenth- most early French skeptics, with their famous diagnosis century England and New England. It derived from a of “something to illness, much faked, and nothing belief that the witch, through a voluntary covenant, diabolical,” Cotta was a physician. For him, the proper would permit the Devil to use his or her apparition, or evaluation of early signs of fits and fevers required the “specter,” to afflict others. Crucial to this form of expert judgment of a skilled physician to separate what evidence was the complementary belief that those who was caused by illness or other natural causes from what were afflicted in this manner had a special ability to see was caused by witchcraft. Likewise, Thomas Ady’s later and identify the spectral representation of the person treatise, A Candle in the Dark(1656), expanded the list attacking them. In the best-known trials that made of natural causes that would have to be ruled out before extensive use of spectral evidence—the Salem witch- arriving at a judgment of bewitchment. Whether or not craft prosecutions of 1692 and the trial at Bu ry such works we re in part inspired by a need to assert St. Edmonds in England in 1662—victims came for- medical over lay authority in such matters, they repre- ward in court to identify as witches the people whose sented a growing skepticism about the validity of otherworldly likeness or specter was tormenting them. accounts of possession and bewitchment. What made spectral evidence so forceful as testimo- Pa r a d ox i c a l l y, the more serious challenge to the ny against witches was the youth and perc e i ve d c redibility of the afflicted came from within theology. vulnerability of the afflicted victims, combined with the Even if one accepted that their symptoms originated highly graphic manner in which they exhibited their with the Devil or his re p re s e n t a t i ves, there still suffering. The victims we re ove rwhelmingly female remained the vexing question of whether the victim was but considerably younger and far more often unmar- truly gifted with the ability to see the specters that were ried than female accusers in other witchcraft trials. In hidden from the sight of ordinary people or merely an New England, some victims of spectral assault we re i n s t rument of Sa t a n’s subtle and evil design. We re the only 7 years old, with most aged between 13 and 20, a f flicted somehow enabled to identify the malefic c o m p a red to the other accusers who we re clustere d witches who tormented them? Or we re their senses b e t ween the ages of 20 and 49. Ty p i c a l l y, the initial fooled by a devil who, with Go d’s permission, could signs of an “a f fli c t i o n” we re manifested by what con- impersonate virtuous and innocent persons? temporaries called fits or convulsions, often consisting In c reasingly throughout the seventeenth century, of screams and complaints of choking, burning, and Protestant theologians cast doubt on the availability of pinching sensations. These cries in turn we re often divine will to human understanding, there by under- accompanied by vivid displays of pain and suffering, mining the confidence that could be placed in the p a rticularly unusual physical contortions in which perception of those who claimed access to the invisible heads we re twisted at what appeared to be impossible world. As applied to spectral evidence, the result of angles or tongues were distended beyond what seemed these misgivings was that it was impossible to be sure physically tolerable. Be f o re spectral evidence could be on theological grounds whether the accusations of the i n t roduced in the court room during a trial for witch- afflicted were true identifications of witches and witch- craft, the victim’s afflictions had to be attributed to craft or a product of Satan’s deceptions. supernatural causes and then to the malevolent action By the end of the seventeenth century in En g l a n d of a witch, rather than to the Devil acting alone. Once and on the Continent, the combined effect of theologi- these hurdles we re cleared (or overlooked), spectators cal doubt and medical skepticism was apparent in the witnessed live demonstrations of these horrifying effects weight accorded spectral evidence by the more influen- of witchcraft as supposedly afflicted young women tial published legal guides that we re intended to assist writhed in pain while crying out the names of the in the trial of witchcraft. Lawyers, of course, were more suspects whose specters we re attacking them. Su c h cautious than theologians and physicians. Continental evidence was vastly more dramatic than the more usual jurists, trained in Roman law, ignored this problem of 1074 Spectral Evidence

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1075 Application File spectral evidence. In England, Richard Bernard’sGuide weight to spectral evidence, juries did not even bring to grand-jury men (2nd edition, 1630), followed by later indictments against a majority of the accused; the vast texts, re g a rded spectral evidence or “an apparition of majority of those who we re indicted (eighteen out of the party suspected whom the afflicted in their fit s t wenty-one) we re acquitted. T h ree we re found guilty seems to see” (p. 206) as pre s u m p t i ve rather than on the basis of their confessions, but even they were lat- convictive, that is, it sufficed to bring an indictment for er released. The difference in outcomes between the witchcraft but was not sufficient to convict. c o u rt of 1692, which convicted virtually all persons who had been indicted, and the court of 1693, which Spectral Evidence in the Salem acquitted or discharged virtually all persons who had Witchcraft Trials been indicted, re flected the different weights attached Among their other notew o rthy features, the Sa l e m to spectral evidence in each time period. Acceptance of witchcraft trials of 1692 re p resent a dramatic finale to use the validity of spectral evidence was a necessary condi- of spectral evidence. In less than a year after the initial tion for conviction during the Salem trials. p roceedings, the special court that decided these cases What happened to change the opinion of the court a l t e red its position from an almost-unqualified accep- and the political leadership between October 1692 and tance to an unqualified rejection of this evidence. It is Ja n u a ry 1693? For one thing, by autumn of 1692, the h a rd to say which aspect is more re m a rkable: the lateness a f flicted began to accuse persons of eve r - g reater pro m i- of the acceptance or the rapidity of its abandonment. nence within Massachusetts Ba y. When they cried out At the outset of the trials in February 1692, spectral against one of the most respected ministers in the evidence formed the basis for virtually all of the approx- p rovince, Samuel Wi l l a rd, the magistrates rejected the imately 140 complaints that preceded the arrests of sus- accusation, and they did not issue warrants against others pects on charges of witchcraft. The accusers consisted of similarly high repute who we re accused. For the fir s t mostly of girls and young women between the ages of time in the proceedings, the allegations of the affli c t e d nine and twe n t y, who cried out against the suspects we re treated as fallible. Another important event was the whose specters they claimed we re attacking them. publication of In c rease Ma t h e r’s Cases of Conscience Eve ryone tried for witchcraft during the Salem trials C o n c e rning Evil Sp i r i t s in 1693. The work of one of the was indicted on charges that mentioned spectral most esteemed ministers in the province, endorsed and evidence alone: The standard form of an indictment signed by fourteen other ministers, it forcefully discre d i t- specified the name of the afflicted person and charged ed spectral evidence on theological grounds and demon- the accused with practicing “witchcrafts and sorceries” strated clear pastoral opposition to any continuation of on the victim, who was alleged to have been “tortured, the earlier policy. Fi n a l l y, it is apparent that as arrests and afflicted, pined, consumed, wasted, and tormented” by accusations increased, public criticism escalated from dis- these acts, although there is no standard i zed order in satisfaction with individual cases to collective mobiliza- which the harms of affliction are listed in the indict- tion through petitions and resolutions questioning the ments. Contemporary accounts and surviving re c o rd s e n t i re proceedings. Whether prompted by one or more make it clear that live demonstrations of spectral of these developments, the court that convened in 1693 evidence in the courtroom, testimony of witnesses con- re versed the policy of its predecessor of 1692. firming spectral assaults on the victims, and testimony For all its promise as a spectacular demonstration of of victims about torments at other times and other the workings of the invisible world and for all the sym- places formed the major part of the pro s e c u t i o n’s pathy that might be won through the appearance of a evidence. It was primarily on this basis that the juries struggle between a young innocent and the specter of a returned verdicts of guilty against twenty-six persons, of m a l e fic witch, spectral evidence over the long ru n whom nineteen were executed by hanging. helped to undermine the credibility of witchcraft prose- To be sure, the Puritan ministers who were consulted cutions where ver it was introduced, whether in for advice on the use of spectral evidence we re unani- Catholic France, Protestant England, or Puritan New mous in recommending that the court exercise extreme England. After the Salem trials, there we re no furt h e r caution in interpreting this evidence and (like Bernard) legal executions for witchcraft in any of these places. insisted that no one should be convicted on the basis of RICHARD WEISMAN such evidence alone. In fact, the special court endeav- ored to collect other evidence of witchcraft that might See also:ADY,THOMAS;BEWITCHMENT;CHILDREN;COTTA,JOHN; s u p p o rt the “s p e c t r a l” accusations; with a few exc e p- ENGLAND;EVIDENCE;FRANCE;MATHER,INCREASE; NEWENGLAND;POSSESSION,DEMONIC;SALEM; tions, it is equally apparent that only persons against SKEPTICISM;TRIALS. whom there were other types of evidence, in addition to References and further reading: spectral evidence, were brought to trial. Craker,Wendel D. 1997. “Spectral Evidence, Non-spectral Acts of Ne ve rtheless, when a new court was convened in Witchcraft, and Confession at Salem in 1692.” Historical Ja n u a ry 1693, with explicit directions to give less Journal40, no. 2: 331–358. Spectral Evidence 1075

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1076 Application File Hoffer, Philip Charles. 1997. The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal Spee wrote much more than his powe rful Latin History.Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. polemic against torture, creating a new genre of litera- Karlsen, Carol. 1987. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: ture (Battafarano 1995). He was a prolific lyricist, writ- Witchcraft in Colonial New England. NewYork: Norton. ing around a hundred hymns that appeared anony- Kittredge, George Lyman. 1958. Witchcraft in Old and New mously between 1621 and 1637 (the exact total England. NewYork: Russell and Russell. remains unknown, but Spee probably has more hymns Reis, Elizabeth. 1997. Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in than any other author in modern Catholic hymnals). Puritan New England. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell He also composed two other works in German, both University Press. Rosenthal, Bernard. 1993. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of published posthumously in 1649; a pioneering effort in 1692.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. another literary genre, his Tru t z - Na c h t i g a l l ( De f y i n g Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. London: the Nightingale) offered a collection of devo t i o n a l Weidenfeld and Nicolson. poems that provide Christianized versions of classical Walker, D. P. 1981. Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in pastoral poems, while his Güldenes Tu g e n d - Bu c h France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth (Golden Book of Virtues) was a catechism for women Centuries. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. written in dialogue form between confessor and peni- Weisman, Richard. 1984. Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th tent. At the very end of the Cautio,Spee lamented that Ce n t u ry Massachusetts. Amherst: Un i versity of Massachusetts Pre s s . he was too ove rwhelmed to translate his treatise into German, “which would not be without its uses” (Spee Spee, Friedrich (1591–1635) 2003, 221). However, others soon did so, in 1647 and Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld (usually, although not 1649, with a Dutch translation following in 1657 and a quite corre c t l y, called Friedrich von Spee) was French version in 1660 (no English translation Germany’s most important critic of witchcraft trials in appeared until 2003). the seventeenth century due to his treatise Cautio In contrast to previous opinions, we now may Cr i m i n a l i s seu de processibus contra sagas liber ( A assume that the Cautio Criminalis must have been writ- Warning on Criminal Justice, or A Book on Witch ten during the author’s sojourn at Paderborn betwe e n Trials, 1631). In fifty-two short chapters, Spee asked the end of 1629 and spring of 1631, after he had been rhetorically why Germany was tot sagarum mater (the seriously wounded by a murderous assault. At the time, mother of so many witches) while more superstitious Spee held a professorship of moral theology, but he was peoples such as Italians and Spaniards found and soon dismissed for his offensive re m a rks. He was cer- burned very few of them. He soon found his answer: tainly provocative; for example, he began with an iron- excessive torture. His target was not the existence of ic observation that “I wrote this book for the rulers of witchcraft but excesses in legal procedure, especially the Ge r m a n y, at least for those who will not read it, not gruesome tortures that German judges employed to those who actually will read it” (Spee 2003, 7). Several convict innocent people; as Spee re m a rked, “No times, Friedrich Spee was fortunate to have backing, by German nobleman could bear to see his hunting dog turns, from the Jesuit order’s general in Rome and from mangled like this” (Spee 2003, 87). There is evidence the provincial superior, so that his unorthodox opinions that he did not believe in witchcraft but conceded its did not have disadvantageous consequences. existence merely for tactical reasons. For Spee, the core of the witchcraft trial was tort u re . Descended from an old noble family of the lowe r He once argued that if one invented any horrible crime Rhineland, as of 1601 the young nobleman “Ju n k e r w h a t s o e ver by which the people believed they we re being Fr i e d r i c h” attended the famous Jesuit grammar school harmed and then used the same techniques as we re being t r i c o ro n a t u m (with three crowns) at Cologne, before used to convict suspects in witchcraft trials, the number going to Trier in 1608 to become a novice in the Jesuit of culprits who would be convicted of this imaginary establishment there. This decision was opposed by his crime would equal or exceed those being burned in the p a rents and motivated by his desire to become a witchcraft trials of his day; he claimed he would throw m i s s i o n a ry in India. His superior turned down his himself into the fire if this should prove untrue. In other application in this re g a rd, telling him that Ge r m a n y w o rds, the legal process was unable to distinguish would be his India. Completing education in his order b e t ween guilty and innocent and was there f o re senseless. to become a professor of moral theology, Friedrich Spee He discredited the most common mode of diagnosing was transferred fre q u e n t l y, often because of attacks of witchcraft by observing events before, during, and after plague. Eugen Drewermann (1991) pointed out that some damage or magic ritual by objecting that s o m e t h i n g Sp e e’s incessant encounters with death during epi- always had to happen before, during, and after a cert a i n demics of plague became a basic experience marking his e vent. His principles of argumentation followed the further life and work. He died of the plague at the early Jesuit mainstream: ratio re c t a(right reason) and ius natu- age of forty-four at Trier, having infected himself while ra e (natural right), both in a sense pre figuring the caring for the souls of the dying. En l i g h t e n m e n t’s objections to tort u re . 1076 Spee, Friedrich

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1077 Application File In summarizing his treatise (Question 51), Sp e e Midelfort, H. C. Erik 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern blamed almost everyone in Germany for the scandals of Germany, 1582–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. the witchcraft trials. In at least two ways, he foreshad- Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Spee von Langenfeld, Friedrich. 2003. Cautio Criminalis, or a owed contemporary re s e a rch into German witchcraft. Book on Witch Trials.Translated by Marcus Hellyer. First, Spee began by stressing the malice and supersti- Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. tion of ord i n a ry people, Catholics in part i c u l a r, who van Oorschot, Theo G. M., ed. 1992. Cautio Criminalis. “shout with great passion that the authorities should Tübingen and Basel: Francke. investigate the witches, of which they themselves have created so many with their own tongues,” thereby pres- Spells suring their rulers into conducting trials (Spee 2003, Both in common speech and in scientific literature, the 214). Second, he anticipated H. C. Erik Mi d e l f o rt’s word spell is used synonymously with charm, incanta- argument that once begun and employing the system of tion, and enchantment. Etymologically, all these terms denunciations wrung out under tort u re, Ge r m a n y’s mean the powerful magic word, whether spoken or major witch hunts would continue indefinitely until a sung. Nonetheless, the words nearly always we re belated “crisis of confid e n c e” undermined the pro c e s s accompanied by gestures and the manipulation of mag- f o l l owed in witchcraft trials. “No one of any sex, for- ical objects. We will keep to this definition and deal tune, condition or rank whatsoever who has earned with spells as a type of oral and written tradition, himself even one enemy or slanderer can be sufficiently though spellcan also signify the action of casting a spell safe in these times” (Spee 2003, 221). by other means (for example, invoking the malocchio Besides its elaborate and eloquent denunciations of [evil eye]) and the bewitching effect of such actions (as the multiform abuses of tort u re, Sp e e’s Ca u t i o with the long-standing suspension of all movement in Criminalis pours withering scorn upon the testimony the fairy tale SleepingBeauty). used to arrest suspected witches, but we should note Long ago, the tradition of these formulas was entirely that a few horrors were largely unknown. For example, oral, and thus, all spells must have existed in countless he hinted darkly that “judges have even been found variations. We know only what has, by chance, been who want to arrest and torture on the testimony of the c o n s e rved by writing. Nonetheless, an inexhaustible possessed” (Spee 2003, 211). He ridiculed the “testimo- richness of spells has already been transmitted in ny of beggar boys . . . who, when they are asked about antique sources, both literary and in the form of practi- wonders, they narrate wonders” (Spee 2003, 212) and cally used lead tablets, epigraphic inscriptions, papyri, so uncannily presaged Germany’s Zauber-Jäckl-Prozesse and the like. (Sorcerer-Jack-Trials) in Salzburg two generations later. Many medieval Latin and vernacular manuscripts It is remarkable that Spee insisted rhetorically on his contained incantations, the literature of the Anglo-Sa xo n s personal experiences—for example, to have been father being especially rich. The most famous (because most confessor to countless witches, although there is no evi- studied) early examples are, howe ve r, the two dence that he ever accompanied even a single witch to Merseburger Zaubersprüche (Merseburg Charms) in the her place of execution (Jerouschek 1995). Here, as else- Old High German tongue. T h e re are also many w h e re, Spee made use of the pious lie (another Je s u i t Scandinavian inscriptions in runic characters on wood, specialty) in order to save innocent people from death. stone, and metal. From the late fifteenth century From a Catholic point of view, his canonization by the onward, many grimoires, small printed books of magic Holy See is overdue. containing spells and the pertinent rites, have been preserved or at least recorded, culminating in the seven- GÜNTER JEROUSCHEK teenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. No b o d y See also:SALZBURG;SKEPTICISM;SOCIETYOFJESUS;TORTURE; will be surprised to learn that nowadays, rather simplis- TRIER,ELECTORATEOF. tic spells may be obtained from mail-order bookshops References and further reading: (for instance, Lexa Ro s é a n’s book, Easy En c h a n t m e n t s) Battafarano, Italo Michele. 1995. “Die rhetorisch-literarische and the Internet (“By the powers of earth, fire, and Konstruktion von Spees Cautio Criminalis.” Pp. 137–148 in water, May love come to me. / By the powers of 1, 2, Friedrich Spee zum 400: Geburtstag.Edited by Günther Franz. and 3, / Let no harm be. / So let it be!”). Obv i o u s l y, Paderborn: Bonifatius. some people still believe in their practical value, which Drewermann, Eugen. 1991. “Friedrich von Spee—Ein Kämpfer could be real insofar as their recitation may have a um die Menschlichkeit.” Pp. 14–48 in Die politische Theologie positive autosuggestive effect. Friedrich von Spees. Edited by Doris Brockmann and Peter Spells consist of a single word, a group of words, or Eicher. Munch: Fink. formulas of several pages; they may be in prose or ve r s e Jerouschek, Günter. 1991. Friedrich Spee als Justizkritiker. Pp. 115–136 in Friedrich Spee zum 400: Geburtstag.Edited by or a mixture of the two. Often, the narration of a Günther Franz. Paderborn: Bonifatius. Reprinted in Zeitschrift situation or an action in illo tempore (at that time) is für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft108 (1996): 243–265. added, functioning as a pattern, the stru c t u re of which Spells 1077

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1078 Application File should be repeated by virtue of the magic words. So, an in the Early Middle Ages. Christianization bro u g h t Old English spell spoken to find lost cattle ru n s : adaptations and substituted saints for the old gods but “ Bethlehem high the borough / in which Christ was often did not change the basic structures. Indeed, there begotten, it is far-famed throughout all the earth: So is no sharp distinction between a Christianized spell may this deed before men be known through the holy and a Christian blessing. It was probably only after the rood of Christ. Amen” (Cockayne 1865, 3: 60–61). Reformation and Counter-Reformation and even more He re, the “e p i c” element is a simile and offers an exam- because of the Enlightenment that these forms of trying ple for something widely known—as it should become to solve eve ryday problems became part of what k n own to the speaker also—in this instance, the place to educated elites now call folklore superstitions. find the animals. Many spells included allusions to what Of course, there we re specialists in that business, Jesus, Ma ry, or a saint did according to the Gospels or t o o. Me d i e val Spanish sources declared, as one would a p o c ryphal sources. Consider, for example, this four- expect, that los moro s( Muslims) had a habitual affin i t y t e e n t h - c e n t u ry German blessing to stop bleeding, which for this form of magic; elsew h e re, it was Gy p s i e s , contained a re f e rence both to a holy prophet and the h e retics, or witches and always the “simple country - founder of Christianity: “Saint Elias sat in the desert and folk.” T h e re is, howe ve r, no reason to think that pro- the blood ran out of both his nostrils. Then he began to fessional sorc e rers usually sang their spells much differ- c ry to god and said: ‘Lord god, now help me master this ently from those used by other people, at least if they blood, as you have mastered the river Jo rdan before did not form part of a satanic circle. In the 1428 trial Saint John baptised you therew i t h .’ Say three Pa t e r of Matteuccia di Francesco, the witch of Todi, we fin d No s t e rand three Ave Ma r i a” (Holzmann 2001, 206). a great many spells asking help from Jesus, the Virgin, The simplest spell contained only a single word . and the saints, and also some diabolic spells sung to When Gre g o ry Fl o rentius (538–594), who later summon a “phantasm,” or Lu c i f e r, the greater demon became a saint and bishop of Tours, wanted to help his ( Mammoli 1972, 32–33). But it seems there is no sick father, he put a sliver of wood with one word, the a n s wer to the question of whether accused sorc e re r s name Joshua,under his pillow, and his father recovered used only the “e ve ryday spells” eve rybody knew, (so he told us in his De gloria confessorum[The Glory of applied demonic spells modified in the curre n t the Confessors], chap. 39). Sometimes, a single word is C h r i s t i a n i zed formulas of folk medicine, or inve n t e d repeated; it may be written as an “ephesian sequence,” these demonic spells under tort u re. The case of that is, with the word losing one letter at each re p e t i- Gostanza, the witch of San Miniato in 1594, suffices as tion, until only one letter is left, such as: a warning: Questioned without tort u re, she admitted INA many acts of healing through the invocation of Go d NA and the Virgin only; as soon as she was put on the rack, A she confessed to doing eve rything with the De v i l’s help; when again interrogated without tort u re, she said (Lecouteux 1996, 71). In c o m p rehensible words we re she had invented eve rything out of fear, basically by sometimes inserted to enhance the spell’s mysterious combining folk belief with ecclesiastical teaching. fascination; this was also helpful in communicating Howe ve r, it seems extremely unlikely that the inter- spells under the seal of secrecy. rogators invented all the spells for making hail or Spells could be used to help or protect the user. In fact, killing a victim that we re re p o rted in trial re c o rd s . the majority of the material falls into this category Such evil spells even found their way into the polite (including love charms and spells against maladies, for l i t e r a t u re of Eu rope. Just as stirring as the all too stopping bleeding, against slow birth, to disable an ene- famous song of the witches in Shakespeare’sMacbeth is m y’s weapon, to keep away thieves, to free a prisoner, to a much less well-known example from an Old Nordic s e c u re a safe voyage, to drive away a dwarf, and to win a text of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the end of legal case). But spells we re also applied to bring harm and the “p r a ye r” of the sorc e ress Busla in the imaginative i n j u ry (for instance, killing spells and spells causing impo- B o s e s saga: “He re will come seven churls, tell me their tence). One group of spells concerns not human beings names! But first solve the riddle—if you cannot do that but animals (spells to heal wounds and diseases, to keep correctly, then the dogs shall gnaw at you in the under- away beasts or vermin, to bring back a lost swarm of bees, world and your soul shall sink into that hellish home.” and to catch fish) or even inanimate objects (spells to stop Then follows an unexplained magic formula, which has fire, to pre vent rain or hail, and to make good butter). also been found on older runic stones: “Ristil, aistil, T h e re literally seems to have been a spell for eve ry t h i n g . pistil, kistil, mistil, vistil” (Grambo 1984, 93–94). Spells have been used by people of all social layers for a long time; the huge number of pagan Anglo-Sa xo n items transmitted in manuscripts with Christian con- PETER DINZELBACHER tents demonstrates how interested in them even mem- See also:CHARMS;FOLKLORE;GREEKMAGICALPAPYRI;GRIMOIRES; bers of the clergy and especially monks must have been SORCERY;SUPERSTITION;TODI,WITCHOF;WORDS,POWEROF. 1078 Spells

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1079 Application File References and further reading: tarantism goes back to the ancient Middle East; with Cockayne, Thomas Oswald. 1864–1866. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, intense popular participation and under various mythi- and Starcraft ofEarly England.3 vols. London: Longman, cal ritual guises, it lasted until the end of the eighteenth Roberts, and Green. century, gradually declining thereafter until the begin- Flowers, Stephen E. 1986. Runes and Magic.NewYork: Lang. ning of the twentieth century. This complex ritual— Grambo, Ronald, ed. 1984. Norske trollformler og magiske ritualer. although associated principally with Apulia, where its 2nd ed. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. symbolic range underwent its fullest deve l o p m e n t — Haver, J. van. 1964. Nederlandes Incantatieliteratuur:Een gecom- could also be found in other areas of the mentarieerd compendium van Nederlandse bezweringsformules. Ghent: Secretariaat van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Mediterranean, from the rest of southern Italy to Sicily, Taal- en Letterkunde. Sardinia, southern France, Spain, Albania, and Greece. Heim, Ricardus. 1892. Incantamenta magica Graeca Latina. After the earliest attempts at symbolic interpretation Leipzig: Teubner. by Leonardo da Vinci and Gi ovanni Pontano, natural Holzmann, Ve rena. 2001. “ Ich beswer dich wurm vnd wyrm i n... ” scientists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Formen und Typen altdeutscher Zaubersprüche und Segen.Bern: tried to reduce tarantism to an illness, a poisoning Lang. caused by the sting of the tarantula of Apulia, as well as Lecouteux, Claude. 1996. Charmes, conjurations et bénédictions. a form of melancholy. More recently, following Ernesto Paris: Honoré Champion. de Ma rt i n o’s excellent study of the anthropology and Mammoli, Domenico, ed. 1972.The Record of the Trial and h i s t o ry of religion (1961), scientific interpretations of Condemnation of a Witch, Matteuccia di Francesco, at Todi, 20 tarantism have been replaced by investigations empha- March 1428.Rome: Res Tudertinae. Schulz, Monika. 2002. Beschwörungen im Mittelalter.Heidelberg: sizing its eminently cultural character, as a manifesta- Winter. tion of ancient conflicts between paganism and Storms, Godfrid. 1948. Anglo-Saxon Magic.The Hague: Nijhoff. Christianity in southern Mediterranean societies. De Martino understood the tarantula as a “mythical Spiders monster,” an imaginary construct that incorporated not For its venom as well as for its manner of hunting by lay- only one concrete species of corpulent and shaggy spi- ing traps, the spider has long been seen in Christian cul- der (which modern zoology designates as Lycosa taren- t u re as an image or symbol of Satan. Both have the same tula) but also another species, one more terrifying and n a t u re; just as the spider awaits its victims poised in the without doubt more harmful, the L a t rodectus tre d e c- middle of its web or in a dark corner, so the De v i l i m g u t t a t u s (the Mediterranean Black Wi d ow spider). s p reads all of the nets and snares he can to capture the However, despite the greater frequency of these species souls of humans and seek their perdition. Wi t h i n in the symbolic elements of this myth, other venomous C h r i s t i a n i t y, the spider’s web re p resents not only the species such as scorpions and snakes and even harmless ingenious ruses that the Devil uses to ensnare sinners spiders have also been called tarantulas. but also “vain works,” which have no worth before Go d . The spider’s venom is less important than the sym- Its extreme fragility also re p resents the scant security of bolism of venom and its effects: the sting or bite of the impious and even hetero d ox doctrines in which some spider as a representation of unresolved regrets, frustra- souls become entangled, dangerous doctrines fro m tions, and conflicts. Tarantism, a therapeutic rite capa- which it can be ve ry difficult to extricate oneself. Su c h ble of alleviating certain unutterable sufferings by symbolism was spread in the Catholic world principally means of a long ro s a ry of ceremonial lamentations, is during the period of the Protestant Re f o r m a t i o n , n ow considered a form of musical, chore o g r a p h e d although it would remain for centuries—for example, in exorcism, whose cultural rather than biological charac- Georgette de Mo n t e n a y’s book of religious emblems, ter seems confirmed by annual repetition and the w h e re the spider’s demonic associations appear con- predominance of women among its victims. For many densed in four illustrative verses: “The spider, an odious women, enveloped in oppre s s i ve southern insect / surprises flies with its fragile web / thus eve ry Mediterranean surroundings, the supposed sting of the doctrine that is frivolous and gauzy / spreads deceitful spider presents a unique occasion for putting aside webs for weak spirits” (Montenay 1571, 32). inhibitions and permitting liberties usually pro h i b i t e d From ancient times, the Christian imaginary tended to them, as with those (primarily women) thought to to exaggerate the gravity of the spider’s venom. T h e be victims of demonic possession. most notable case is that of the tarantula spider, associ- MARÍA TAUSIET; ated with the southern Italian locality of Ta r a n t o , TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SIZGORICH whence its name derives. It was supposed that anyo n e See also:MONSTERS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC. stung by a tarantula would experience acute sufferings, References and further reading: which could only be relieved through dance and music, Charbonneau-Lassay, L. 1997. El bestiario de Cristo: El simbolismo p a rticularly by playing musical pieces called “t a r a n t e l- animal en la Antigüedad y la Edad Media.Barcelona: Sophia las.” The phenomenon known in Apulia, It a l y, as Perennis. Spiders 1079

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1080 Application File De Martino, Ernesto. 1961. La terra del rimorso:Contributo a una against the Enemies of the Christian Faith), which storia religiosa del Sud.Milan: Il Saggiatore Economici. thereafter ran into several editions. It was divided into Gallini, Clara. 1988. La Ballerina variopinta.Rome: Liguori. five books, the fifth of which dealt with the warf a re Horden, Peregrine, ed. 2000. Music as Medicine: The History of b e t ween demons and human beings, the Church, and Music T h e ra py Since An t i q u i t y.Aldershot, Bro o k field, Si n g a p o re , God. St rongly reminiscent of St. Au g u s t i n e’s City of and Sydney: Ashgate. Go d , the book envisaged human history as a state of Miquel, Pierre. 1991. Dictionnaire symbolique des animaux: open hostility between the world of God and the world Zoologie mystique.Paris: Le Léopard d’Or. of the Devil. There is a hierarchy of demons, said Spina, Montenay, Georgette de. 1571. Emblèmes ou devises chrestiennes. Lyons: Marcorelle. m i r roring the hierarchy of heaven and of the Churc h , and each demon has been allotted a particular sin over Spina, Alphonso which he exe rcises special charge. Mo re ove r, eve ry (Alphonsus, Alfonso) human being is attended by at least one evil spirit who de (d. ca. 1491) is responsible for his or her spiritual downfall. Demons A mid-fifteenth-century Spanish Franciscan, confessor are thus, at base, a source of sin rather than simply of to Juan II of Castile, and bishop of Orense, Alphonso m i s f o rtune; they not only raise storms in the physical de Spina spent a good part of his life preaching in the world, but far more seriously, they excite Jews and towns and villages of Castile. Hence, he had a personal h e retics to attack the Church and there by bring and intimate understanding of popular beliefs and Christian souls into grave danger. But why do demons folklore. exist at all? Because, said Spina, they act as dark In 1459, he produced a polemical work, Fortalitium contrasts to the goodness and beauty of creation and fidei contra fidei Christianae hostes(The Fortress of Faith thereby throw these into greater relief, after the manner of antitheses in a beautiful poem. When Spina discussed demons in detail, his knowl- edge of poplar beliefs became apparent immediately. He wrote of incubi and succubi; of spirits who pre s s upon folk while they are asleep and make them think they are being suffocated; of demons attendant upon witches as their familiars; and of b ru x a e , spirits who cause old women to imagine they can fly through the air as attendants upon Diana or He rodias. This latter notion, he said, is a delusion, and yet one should not dismiss as merely foolish or superstitious those women who claim such things. They may be deluded, but their delusions are criminal and there f o re deserve punish- ment. Certain spirits are harmless. Spina told the story of how he and three companions were asleep in a room one stormy night. When the storm subsided, they h e a rd noises from the other side of their locked door and then sensed a small spark of light beside them. One of Sp i n a’s companions, more experienced in these matters than the others, recognized the phenomenon. It was a demon, Dueño de casa ( owner of a house), who played silly tricks but did no one any real mischief. Spina thus illustrated ve ry well a dichotomy in contemporary attitudes toward magic. As a cleric famil- iar with the Canon Ep i s c o p i , he dismissed the whole business as futile and censured anyone who used it. But as an individual in touch with popular beliefs, he seemed to accept that magic could actually work and that its practitioners therefore represented a real rather than a deluded threat to the safety of the Church and the whole body of orthodox Christians. P. G. MAXWELL-STUART Woodcut of Alphonso Spina persecuting Jews, blindfolded because they do not see the truth. On the right are demons, linked in the Christian See also:AUGUSTINE,ST.; CANONEPISCOPI;DEMONS;DIANA mind to Jews. (Topham/The Image Works) (ARTEMIS); INCUBUSANDSUCCUBUS. 1080 Spina, Alphonso (Alphonsus, Alfonso) de

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1081 Application File References and further reading: jurists, Gi ovanni Francesco (Gianfrancesco) Po n z i n i b i o : Ginio, A. M. 1990. “The Conversos and the Magic Arts in Alonso Tractatus de praeminentia sacre Teologie super alias omnes de Espina’s ‘Fortalitium Fidei.’” Mediterranean Review5: scientias et precipue humanarum legum (Treatise on the 169–182. Su p remacy of Sa c red Theology over All Other Sciences) ———. 1995. “Rêves de croisade contre les Sarrasins dans la and In Ponzibinibium de Lamjis Apologiae ( Defense fro m Castille du XVe siècle (Alonso de Espina, Fortalitium Fidei).” Po n z i n i b i o’s On Witches), both with a first publication Revue de l’Histoire des Religions 212: 145–174. date of 1525. These three essays fill only thirt y - n i n e pages: three unnumbered pages, then the Qu a e s t i o Spina, Bartolomeo della (1–18), De praeminentia (19–26), and In Po n z i n i b i u m (1475/1479–1546) (27–36). T h e re we re numerous reprints of these work s , Author of three short works on witchcraft, sometimes in Germany and France. The best-know n Ba rtolomeo della Spina was born in Pisa to the edition is that of Sp i n a’s collected works, published in ancient and noble Spina family of Sa rz a n o. He joined 1576 as Quaestio de strigibus una cum tractatu de the Dominican order in 1493 at the local convent of Praeminentia Sa c rae Theologiae et quadruplici Apologia de St. Catherine and studied theology at the Un i ve r s i t y Lamiis contra Po n z i n i b i u m(An In vestigation on Wi t c h e s of Bologna under Si l ve s t ro Prierias. From 1518 to with a Treatise on the Su p remacy of Sa c red T h e o l o g y 1520, Spina served as deputy to Inquisitor Antonio da and a Fo u rfold Defense from Po n z i n i b i o’s on Wi t c h e s ) . Ferrara at Modena, where a witch, Chiara Si g n o r i n i , The importance of Sp i n a’s essays about witchcraft was tried in 1519. T h ree years later, he wrote a tre a t i s e lies in his attempt to abolish the distinction betwe e n against witches. ancient and contemporary witchcraft and to deny the At the University of Bologna, where Spina obtained c redibility of the Canon Ep i s c o p i . Spina observed that his baccalaureate in 1525 and became a master in 1530, the Ca n o n’s origin is obscure: We do not know who he taught in the College of T h e o l o g y, serving thre e c o n vened the Council of Ancyra in 314 (almost cer- years as rector of the Dominican St u d i u m Ge n e ra l e t a i n l y, it was heretics), nor do we know if it was a (house of studies). He also held numerous positions in general or a provincial council. The insertion of the his order: assistant to the general master, with the hon- Canon Episcopi in the De c retum Gratiani ( Gr a t i a n’s orific title of “governor of the Holy Land,” from 1530 C o n c o rd of Di s c o rdant Canons, known as the to 1532; vicar-general of the order in 1531; and provin- De c retum, 1130; revised in 1140) does not give it cial and inspector of convents in Calabria for two years validity because the Church never officially approve d beginning in 1534. In 1536, Spina became a professor Gr a t i a n’s work. Sp i n a’s essay, written in the detailed at the Un i versity of Padua, a position he kept until Scholastic style of Quaestio and Re s p o n i o, d e m o n s t r a t- 1545. In 1542, Pope Paul III nominated him as papal ed that the flight of witches to the Sabbat was re a l theologian (m a e s t ro del sacro palozzo); he and other and not fantasy or diabolical illusion. His most cited members of the theological commission contributed to s o u rce is the Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of opening the Council of Trent. He died in Rome. Witches, 1486, by another Dominican, He i n r i c h Beyond serving his order, Spina also did considerable Kramer), supplemented by examples from Sp i n a’s academic writing, including commentaries on Aristotle, personal experience as an inquisitor. The other two a defense of the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, and w o rks are polemics, refuting principally Po n z i n i b i o’s arguments against the nominalism of Duns Scotus, plus re c e n t Tractatus de lamiis et excellentia utriusque iuris original theological works. Between 1519 and 1535, his (Treatise on Witches and on the Excellence of Civil writings we re published at Venice in three vo l u m e s . and Canon Law) of 1520. Ponzinibio maintained Spina dedicated some polemical tracts to the problems that civil law overrides canon law even on theological of witchcraft and magic. He also published two short questions and manifested skepticism about the re a l i t y vernacular essays to guide the laity: Regola del felice of the flight of the witches. In De Praeminentia, Sp i n a v i ve re de li christiani del stato secolare secondo dive r s i re a s s e rted the traditional superiority of theology ove r g radi di persone, e massime delli maritati ( Rules for other sciences and reduced law to an ancillary Living a Happy and Christian Secular Life, Adapted to position; In Ponzinibium a f firmed that it is pre s u m p- People of Di f f e rent Conditions and Principally for tuous to refute a theological question, such as the Married Pe o p l e ) and Bre ve regola della vita spirituale flight of witches, with merely judicial arguments. delle persone religiose (Concise Rules for the Sp i r i t u a l GABRIELLA ZARRI; Life of Nuns),both published in 1533. Sp i n a’s three short works about witchcraft we re TRANSLATED BY JESSICA BOTHWELL almost always published together. The first rare editions, See also:CANONEPISCOPI;DEMONOLOGY;DOMINICANORDER; p robably printed at Venice, comprised De strigibus ( On FLIGHTOFWITCHES;GRATIAN;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM; Wi t c h e s ) or Quaestio de strigibus (An In vestigation of PONZINIBIO,GIOVANNIFRANCESCO(GIANFRANCESCO); Witches, 1523) and two tracts against the skeptical PRIERIAS,SILVESTRO. Spina, Bartolomeo della 1081

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1082 Application File References and further reading: Be f o re the actual trials began, the identification of Abbiati, Sergio. 1979. “A proposito di taluni processi inquisitori witches lay mainly in the hands of He xe n a u s s c h ü s s e , modenesi del primo Cinquecento.”Bollettino della Societá di which we re so highly organized and influential that Studi Valdesi99: 101–118. they attained quasi-official status in St. Maximin terri- ———. 1984. “Bartolomeo Spina.”Pp. 254–269 in La stregoner- t o ry. These village witch hunters worked ve ry closely ia: Diavoli, streghe inquisitori dal Trecento al Settecento.Edited with St. Ma x i m i n’s Am t l e u t e n (local magistrates), by Sergio Abbiati, Attilio Agnolotto, and Maria Rosario S c h u l t h e i s s e n (bailiffs), and S c h ö f f e n and there by exe r- Lazzati. Milan: Mondadori. cised a kind of tyranny over their own communities. In Ginzburg, Carlo. 1961. “Stregoneria e pietá popolare: Note a proposito di un processo modenese del 1519.”Annali della the name of the village officials and inhabitants, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,ser. 2, 30: 270–287. He xenausschüsse usually gave the re l e vant authorities a Klaus-Bernward Sprinter. 1998: “Spina, Bartolomeo (della).” Cols. list of accusations made against suspected witches in 1506–1509 in vol. 14 of Biographisch-Bibliographisches their community, copies of damaging statements made Kirchenlexicon. Edited by Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz. Hamm: against suspects in confessions of already exe c u t e d Traugott Bautz. witches, and a list of witnesses for each case. A local Lauchert, Friedrich. 1912. Die italienischen und literarischen magistrate or court assessor of St. Maximin then ques- Gegner Luthers. Freiburg im Bresigau: Herder tioned the witnesses in the presence of a clerk, who kept Spina, Bartolomeo. 1576. Quaestio de strigibus una cum tractatu de a record of the proceedings. Praeminentia Sacrae Theologiae et quadruplici Apologia de Lamiis All pre l i m i n a ry paperw o rk was, in accordance with contra Ponzinibium.Rome: In Aedibus Populi Romani. the Carolina Code, submitted to St. Maximin’sOberhof Walz, Angelo. 1961. I domenicani al Concilio Trento.Rome: Herder. (central court), which drew up legal summaries of the arrest, interrogation, and torture of suspects. Decisions St. Maximin, Prince-Abbey of to investigate accusations of witchcraft ex officio and to From 1586 to 1596, in 1637, and in 1641 and 1642, arrest suspects were made by the abbey’s officials inves- approximately 500 alleged witches were executed in the tigating the case, as were subsequent decisions on trial territory of the imperial abbey of St. Maximin, situated p ro c e d u re. Trials we re ve ry rapid; some re q u i red only just outside the city walls of Trier and containing about one or two days from arrest to execution. No recorded 2,200 persons according to a 1563 census. This extend- evidence suggests that any suspected witch enjoyed the ed outbreak of witchcraft persecution ranked among l u x u ry of a defense lawye r. A few suspects submitted the very worst anywhere in the Holy Roman Empire. pleas for mercy to the abbot, but there is no evidence of Mentioned in a 1590 pamphlet, Erwe y t t e rt e n appeals to the Re i c h s k a m m e r g e r i c h t (imperial chamber Un h o l d e n Ze y t t u n g ( Fu rther News of Witches), these court). Individuals tried as witches were almost always witchcraft trials we re triggered by agrarian and eco- e xecuted: Ve ry few cases ended with the release of the nomic crises and by the already ongoing witch hunts in suspect. Authorities recouped the trial costs fro m the duchy of Luxembourg and electoral Trier, showing s u rviving re l a t i ves of those executed, rather than by the St. Maximin authorities how to handle the pro b- confiscating their goods. lem. In the relatively small and compact territory of an The mass burnings between 1586 and 1596 we re imperial abbey, the organization of witchcraft persecu- encouraged by fear of the threat from a sect of witches tion attained a deadly level of perfection. Severe perse- whose persecution was perc e i ved as immensely urgent. cution had begun in 1586, by which time As the “Wi t c h - Register of Claudius Mu s i e l” shows, the Hexenausschüsse (local witch-hunting committees) were denunciation of alleged accomplices by suspected witch- active. At least 400 people were executed for witchcraft es acquired paramount importance in St. Ma x i m i n between 1586 and 1596. The severe effects of the trials trials; from 1586 until 1594, this register collected ove r on the affected villages, combined with high trial costs, 6,300 denunciations against approximately 1,380 peo- b rought persecution to a standstill by 1596. Another ple from ninety-seven places. Like the He xe n a u s s c h ü s s e , sizable witch hunt, involving at least thirty-two trials, St. Maximin authorities demonstrated great energy in occurred between 1637 and 1642, until a partial occu- p romoting witchcraft trials. The abbot and his offic i a l s pation of St. Maximin’s territory by French troops hin- intended that these carefully documented and arc h i ve d dered persecution. trial re c o rds would serve as proof of their independent A round a third of all witches tried by St. Ma x i m i n e xe rcise of criminal justice and territorial sove re i g n t y, an authorities we re men, often from the wealthier part of issue of considerable importance because of St . their re s p e c t i ve villages. Inadequate evidence makes it Ma x i m i n’s ongoing dispute with electoral Trier over its h a rder to identify the social status of the exe c u t e d political and judicial autonomy. One can thus conclude women, although poor widows we re in a minority: that the St. Maximin authorities re c o rded their witch- Many women came from households whose heads held craft trials carefully for essentially political purposes. such positions in village government as Me i e r( s t ew a rd s ) , The cooperation between He xe n a u s s c h ü s s e , l o c a l Ze n d e r(village officials), or S c h ö f f e n( c o u rt assessors). o f ficials, and the abbot of St. Maximin had a 1082 St. Maximin, Prince-Abbey of

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1083 Application File d e vastating impact on his subjects between 1586 and Ursula Kemp was a midwife, nurse, and healer at the 1596. After the death of Am t m a n n (chief magistrate) parish of St. Osyth in the county of Essex, but she did Claudius Musiel in 1609 and the re m oval of the not have a good reputation among her neighbors. In witch-hunting abbot Reiner Biewer in 1613, accusatory 1582, she was refused work caring for the child of Gr a c e zeal waned mark e d l y. Subsequent abbots and offic i a l s T h u r l ow, a servant of a local magistrate, Brian Da rc y. continued to uphold the abbey’s political and legal Soon afterw a rd, the child fell from its cradle and bro k e a u t o n o m y, but they no longer saw pro m o t i n g its neck, and Ur s u l a’s witchcraft was suspected. witchcraft trials as the best method for defending it, Nonetheless, Ur s u l a’s help was accepted when Gr a c e especially as St. Ma x i m i n’s financial problems and herself began to sicken, but a quarrel erupted when she wartime circumstances rendered it virtually impossible refused to pay the healer. Her sickness returned, and to prosecute witches. Popular thirst for persecution Ursula was carried before the justices of the peace. a p p e a red unquenched, howe ve r, and He xe n a u s s c h ü s s e Magistrate Da rcy examined Ur s u l a’s eight-year-old son, continued to submit accusations against witches to the who re p o rted that his mother fed diabolical imps called authorities. The new, cautious attitude of local officials “Ty f fin,” “Ti t t e y,” “Piggen,” and ”Jacket.” Pro m i s e d meant that very few of these charges resulted in formal “f a vo r” by Da rc y, Ursula broke down and confessed that p rosecution, a fact about which the He xe n a u s c h ü s s e what her son had said was true and that she used these complained bitterly. Fi n a l l y, it is notew o rthy that St . familiars to cause illness and even to kill. She took her Maximin’s witch persecutions were carried out without examiners through her crimes step by step, and she any formal intervention by the electors of Trier. named other witches who had committed similar crimes. At least ten women from St. Osyth and neigh- RITA VOLTMER; boring villages we re apprehended and tried at TRANSLATED BY ALISON ROWLANDS C h e l m s f o rd in Fe b ru a ry 1582, although it seems fro m the trial re c o rds that only two we re actually hanged. See also: AGRARIANCRISES;BINSFELD,PETER;CAROLINACODE; COMMUNALPERSECUTION;FLADE,DIETRICH;HOLYROMAN At that time, Essex was undergoing rapid economic EMPIRE;LOOS,CORNELIUS;LUXEMBOURG,DUCHYOF;POPULAR transformation, which inevitably created signific a n t PERSECUTION;REICHSKAMMERGERICHT;SOCIALANDECONOMIC d i f f e rentials of wealth within communities that STATUSOFWITCHES;SOURCESFORWITCHCRAFTTRIALS;TRIALS; i n c reased competition, suspicion, and re s e n t m e n t . TRIER,ELECTORATEOF;WITNESSES. These conditions, together with a witchcraft statute References and further reading: and an endemic belief in the supernatural, comprised Burr, George L. 1891. “The Fate of Dietrich Flade.” Papers of the essential preconditions for accusations of witchcraft. American Historical Association5: 189–243. Essex was the English witch-hunting county par excel- Voltmer, Rita. 1998. “Claudius Musiel oder die Karriere eines lence. Three years before the St. Osyth outbreak, there Hexenrichters: Auch ein Beitrag zur Trierer Sozialgeschichte des had been numerous executions at Chelmsford follow- späten 16. Jahrhunderts.” Pp. 211–254 in Methoden und ing confessions similar to those of Ursula Kemp.What Konzepte der historischen Hexenforschung.Edited by Günther Franz and Franz Irsigler.Trier: Spee. the suspects at Chelmsford and St. Osyth had in ———. 2000. “‘Gott ist tot und der Teufel ist jetzt Meister!’ common was poverty and poor local reputations. They Hexenverfolgungen und dörfliche Krisen im Trierer Land des lacked the moral and political authority with which to 16. und 17. Jahrhundert.” KurtrierischesJahrbuch39: 175–223. resist the accusations made against them, and beyo n d ———. 2002a. “Hochgerichte und Hexenprozesse: Zur that, their accusers and examiners saw in their wretched herrschaftlich-politischen Instrumentalisierung von condition a compelling motive to use diabolical means Hexenverfolgungen.” Pp. 475–525 in Hexenprozesse und to improve their fortunes and undermine those of more Gerichtspraxis.Edited by Herbert Eiden and Rita Voltmer. privileged neighbors. Ursula Kemp was a “p o o re and Trier: Paulinus. needie woman”; her son was illegitimate; and she had ———. 2002b. “Monopole, Ausschüsse, Formalparteien: little credit among her neighbors, being held in deep Vorbereitung, Finanzierung und Manipulation von suspicion because of the methods she used to heal Hexenprozessen durch private Klagekonsortien.” Pp. 5–67 in Hexenprozesse und Gerichtspraxis.Edited by Herbert Eiden and people—always a danger if relations between practi- Rita Voltmer.Trier: Paulinus. tioner and healer happened to deteriorate. Voltmer, Rita, and Karl Weisenstein, eds. 1996.Das Hexenregister Gr a c e’s employe r, the magistrate Brian Da rc y, had des Claudius Musiel: Ein Verzeichnis von hingerichteten und read continental authors on the subject of witchcraft, besagten Personen aus dem Tr i e rer Land (1586–1594). Trier: Sp e e . and he published a substantial account of the St . Osyth incident shortly after the executions in 1582. St. Osyth Witches He may have had more than an academic interest as (1582) well: It was ru m o red that his father had died as a re s u l t An extraord i n a ry outbreak of witchcraft prosecution in of being bewitched, and he sought re venge when Elizabethan England was notew o rthy for illustrating the rumors of witchcraft started to circulate among his d e velopment of theological ideas and legal methods. tenants. Not only did Da rcy pick up ideas about St. Osyth Witches 1083

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1084 Application File diabolic pacts from his books, he also appare n t l y outset, giving evidence against the Manningtree witch- learned about subtle but persistent techniques of es before accompanying Hopkins on his witch-finding i n t e r rogation. Ursula Kemp was not alone in her con- journeys through the eastern counties. Although over- fession. Elizabeth Bennett, a poor wool-spinner, ini- shadowed by Hopkins in older accounts, Stearne also tially denied all knowledge of witchcraft, just as had a considerable impact as a witch finder. Ursula had originally confessed only to cunning magic, W h a t e ver his input into the actual trials, St e a r n e but coaxed and cajoled by Da rc y, she eventually began contributed to our knowledge of them by publishing re vealing all the terrible crimes she had committed his C o n firmation and Discove ry of Wi t c h c raft ( L o n d o n , using diabolical familiars. 1648). The printer, William Wilson, also published Unlike Matthew Hopkins sixty years later, Darcy did John Davenport’s account of the Huntingdon trials of not use tort u re to extract these confessions; rather, he 1646, as well as John Gaule’s Select Cases of Conscience o f f e red a means of escape to women who feared for Touching Witches and Witchcrafts,also in 1646. Stearne’s their lives—and with good cause. Ma r g e ry Sa m m o n C o n firmation and Discove ry, the main text of which did not persist with her denial of the charges after her c ove red sixty-one pages, was among the rare books sister took her to one side and whispered in her ear, written by a self-confessed witch hunter. Much of its p robably to advise that confession was her only hope. text was devoted to discussing some major themes of Of course, confession was actually the most damning English demonology; in fact, these passages were heavi- evidence, and Da rc y’s promises of favor we re empty ly plagiarized from Richard Be r n a rd’s Guide to Gra n d ones. Reginald Scot, the skeptical writer from neigh- Iu ry Me n , first published in London in 1627. St e a r n e boring Kent, took the St. Osyth trials as the main inspi- offerred his reader a fairly standard list of biblical refer- ration for his D i s c overie of Wi t c h c ra f t (1584), which ences to witchcraft and such standard justifications of contained some withering criticism of Da rc y’s pre t r i a l witch hunting as the fact that the laws of all nations methods. Hearsay, false charges, and the unreliable tes- encouraged it, that there were so many reports of cases timony of children and people of poor reputation were i n volving the trial of witches, and that both En g l a n d all amassed for the purposes of the prosecution, bearing and other nations had experienced the effects of witch- out the belief, which held for at least a generation, that craft in the recent past (citing the case of the Warboys the Devil was cunning and that extraordinary types of witches and other we l l - k n own English episodes). proof should be admissible against witches as a conse- Witches, Stearne argued, addressing another theme quence. A century after the St. Osyth trials, it was common in demonological works of the period, still exactly this argument—the vagueness of evidence— existed despite the spread of the Gospel because their that contributed more than anything else to the decline works were linked to the Devil. Stearne also developed of witchcraft prosecutions in English courts. the theme, ve ry common among English demonolo- gists, that “g o o d” witches, the cunning folk to whom MALCOLM J. GASKILL the population at large so readily resorted, were as wor- See also:ACCUSATIONS;CONFESSIONS;CRIMENEXCEPTUM; thy of censure and extirpation as the malefic witches CUNNINGFOLK;ENGLAND;ESSEX;EVIDENCE;FAMILIARS; whom the populace feared. Stearne also discussed HOPKINS,MATTHEW;MACFARLANE,ALAN;SCOT,REGINALD; familiars and the witch’s mark in what we re, by then, SKEPTICISM. very conventional terms. References and further reading: Besides discussing such fairly familiar themes, Macfarlane, Alan. 1999. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England. St e a r n e’s tract provides us with a substantial body of 2nd ed. London: Routledge. information about the mass trials in which he was so Notestein, Wallace. 1911. A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718.Washington, DC, and London: American heavily involved. There were details of his and Matthew Historical Association and Oxford University Press. Hopkins’s investigative techniques, names of a number Rosen, Barbara, ed. 1991. Witchcraft in England, 1558–1618. of witches, and details about the accusations against Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. them that cannot be found elsew h e re or that Scot, Reginald. 1972. The Discoverie of Witchcraft.Introduction by complemented other sources. Intriguingly, Stearne also Montague Summers. Reprint of 1584 London ed., NewYork: attempted to justify his actions, and at least some of his Dover. statements cannot simply be dismissed as special plead- ing. His answer to criticisms of the inve s t i g a t i ve tech- Stearne, John (d. 1671) niques he and Hopkins used, notably “w a t c h i n g” (a Stearne is best known in witchcraft history as the asso- process involving sleep deprivation), will not convince ciate of Matthew Hopkins during the mass witch hunts the modern re a d e r, despite his interesting justific a t i o n between 1645 and 1647 in eastern England. Like of the practice on the grounds that the inve s t i g a t o r s Hopkins, Stearne was an obscure figure, a member of were waiting for the witch to be visited by her familiar. the petty gentry living in Manningtree in northeastern Stearne denied taking any bribe or gift in the course of Essex. Stearne was involved in this witch hunt from the his witch-hunting activities, except whatever was given 1084 Stearne, John

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1085 Application File him openly in public; he also insisted that he and Priester wohlanständig leben solle (Lessons on the Hopkins were often responding to a demand for witch Appropriate Way of Life for Clerics). hunting within eastern En g l a n d’s townships, a useful With the publication of his Akademische Rede von correction to the traditional view that the witch hunts dem gemeinen Vorurtheile der wirkenden und tätigen were simply stirred up by the two witch finders. Hexerei (Academic Speech Against the Prejudice of Stearne was living at Lawshall in Suffolk when he Effective and Active Witchcraft) in 1766, Sterzinger w rote A Confirmation and Discove ry. Malcolm Ga s k i l l opened a controversy about witch hunting known as (2005) has suggested that by the 1650s, Stearne was the Ba yerische He xe n k r i e g ( Ba varian War of the apparently experiencing financial problems, and at the Witches), which lasted until 1770. In his Academic time of his death, he was earning his living as a scribe or Speech, written under the influence of Jordan Simon s c r i ve n e r, suggesting a decline in fortune for one who ( A rdoino Ubbidiente De l l’ Osa, an Au g u s t i n i a n ) , had once described himself as a gentleman. Scipione Maffei, and Girolamo Tartarotti, Sterzinger defined witchcraft as a pact between man and the JAMES SHARPE Devil. Using Simon’s arguments and proofs of the See also:BIBLE;DEMONOLOGY;ENGLAND;ESSEX;FAMILIARS; destruction of the Devil’s power by Jesus’s self-sacrifice, GAULE,JOHN;HOPKINS,MATTHEW;POSSESSION,DEMONIC; Sterzinger pronounced an alliance between man and WARBOYS,WITCHESOF;WATCHINGANDWALKING; the Devil to be impossible (although he never denied the WITCHFINDERS;WITCH’SMARK. existence of the Devil). He pointed out that the belief References and further reading: in the witches’ Sabbat contradicted canon law (as in the Gaskill, Malcolm. 2003. “Introduction.” Pp. xi–xxix in English Canon Episcopi). He ridiculed witchcraft as an evident Witchcraft, 1560–1736. Vol. 3,The Matthew Hopkins Trials. illusion, because there was no reference to sorcerers or Edited by Malcolm Gaskill. London: Pickering and Chatto. ———. 2005. Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-CenturyTragedy. witches in the Gospels or the prayers of the Rituale Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ro m a n u m . St e rzinger claimed that “u n p re j u d i c e d” Sharpe, James. 1996. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early investigations and examinations by physicians would Modern England, 1550–1750.London: Hamish Hamilton. soon end the belief in witches and demonic possessions. Sterzinger’s speech provoked harsh criticism from all Sterzinger, Ferdinand (1721–1786) strata of Bavarian society, led by two other monks, the St e rzinger was a theatine monk who initiated the dissi- Augustinian Agnellus Me rz and the Be n e d i c t i n e pation of witchcraft trials and superstition in Ba varia and Angelus März. In 1767, Sterzinger answered them in p romoted enlightenment in southeastern Ge r m a n y. his Betrügerische Zauberkunst und träumende Hexerey Born at Lichtenwörth in Ty rol, he took his vows at (Deceitful Sorcery and Dreaming Witchcraft). Within Munich in 1742. Beginning in 1747, he studied theolo- four years, various authors published some forty pam- gy and canon law at Rome and Bologna. Be t ween 1750 phlets for and against Sterzinger. and 1759, he taught moral philosophy and Canon law at To understand the Bavarian War of the Witches, we Prague and Munich. He remained in Munich for the re s t must consider its wider political background. In the of his life, holding several high offices as professor of the- 1760s, Bavaria experienced Enlightenment politics and o l o g y, canon law, and Church history and head of his social reforms. The Hexenkrieg was part and parcel of a m o n a s t e ry (from 1762 to 1765). A member of the new controversial process, in which a new place for the Ba varian Academy of Sciences (founded in 1759), he Catholic Church in Ba varian society was defin e d . headed its historical section from 1769 to 1779 and was Polemics against witchcraft belief became a weapon in e n t rusted with Ba varian censorship. He fought against this battle against the Church in order to legitimize the superstition and the belief in witchcraft until his death. secularization of Church property and the nationaliza- Sterzinger published several books and papers with the tion of education. intention of disproving the existence of witchcraft. He St e rzinger further elaborated his arguments in four was also a leading spokesman in the controversy sur- m o re books. Under the name Francone dell’ A m a ve ro, he rounding the exorcist Johann Joseph Gassner. In four published Katechismus von der Ge i s t e rl e h re(Catechism on books (from 1774 to 1783), St e rzinger attacked the Doctrine of Spirits, Munich, 1775) and followed it Gassner, exorcism, and superstition in general very with two other harsh attacks on the belief in demonic strongly. He unmasked Gassner’s exorcism and wonder possession and witchery: the enlarged edition of cures as frauds and transgressions against Catholic Ge i s t e r-und Za u b e rk a t e c h i s m u s(Catechism of Spirits and orthodoxy of the official Rituale Romanum (Roman Magic, Munich, 1783) and Don Fe rdinand St e rz i n g e r’s Ritual, 1614). As a historian, he wrote about early Bemühung den Aberglauben zu stürze n ( Don Fe rd i n a n d Christianity and initiated a discussion on the origins of St e rz i n g e r’s Ef f o rt to Defeat Superstition, Mu n i c h , the early medieval Lex Baiuvariorum (Law of the 1785). In his final book, Die Ge s p e n s t e re r s c h e i n u n g e n , Ba varians). In 1774, he published Jo h a n n e s eine Phantasie oder Be t ru g . . .( Apparitions of Ghosts, an Trithemius’s Renaissance treatise Unterricht wie ein Imagination or De c e p t i o n . . ., Munich, 1786), he Sterzinger, Ferdinand 1085

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1086 Application File attempted to disprove the existence of apparitions of the Sabbat. One protagonist in Ma rtin le Fr a n c’s long dead people. allegorical poem, Le Champion des Dames (T h e Sterzinger’s arguments were often self-contradictory. Defender of Ladies, 1440–1442), attacked the deeds of He tried to avoid open clashes with Catholic traditions shameless women called sorc e rers who traveled thro u g h and with secular law. He did not admit that the victims the air on sticks to their “synagogues.” And in a 1451 of witch hunts had been innocent; they had deserve d manuscript copy of this work, an unknown illuminator death because of their blasphemy, devil worship, and c reated the first images of such riding women (if we infanticide. e xclude two wall frescos in the cathedral of Schleswig in n o rthern Germany that we re probably misdated): On e NICOLE SCHILBERG rides a simple stick, another a bro o m . See also:BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;BAVARIANWAROFTHEWITCHES; For the next century and a half, pictures of witches CANONEPISCOPI;ENLIGHTENMENT;EXORCISM;GASSNER,JOHANN riding broomsticks we re largely limited to France and JOSEPH;MAFFEI,SCIPIONE;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL;SIMON,JOR- the Low Countries. Broomsticks appeared in a series of DAN;SKEPTICISM;SUPERSTITION;TARTAROTTI,GIROLAMO; illuminations to a work by the Walloon theologian TRITHEMIUSJOHANNES. Johann Tinctor in the 1470s, in a number of female References and further readings: Dances of Deathprinted at Paris in the 1490s, in a 1526 Behringer,Wolfgang. 1995. “Der ‘Bayerische Hexenkrieg’: Die painting of the witch of Endor by the Dutch art i s t Debatte am Ende der Hexenprozesse in Deutschland.” Pp. 287–313 in Das Ende der Hexenverfolgung.Edited by Sönke Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, in Pieter Bru e g h e l’s Lorenz and Dieter R. Bauer. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. drawings of the magician Hermogenes from 1565, and ———. 1997. Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: Popular Magic, in an illustration to a 1579 Ge n e van edition of a Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe. dialogue on witchcraft byThomas Erastus. The last two Translated by J. C. Grayson and David Lederer. Cambridge: examples depicted witches riding brooms out thro u g h Cambridge University Press. Fieger, Hans. 1907. Don Ferdinand Sterzinger: Bekämpfer des Aberglaubens und Hexenwahns und der Pfarrer Gassnerischen Wunderkuren—Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Aufklärung in Bayern unter Kurfürst Maximilian III. Joseph.Munich and Berlin: Oldenbourg. Lea, Henry Charles. 1939. Materials Towards a History of Witchcraft.3 vols. NewYork: AMS. Midelfort, A. C. Erik. 2005. Exorcism and Enlightenment: Johann Joseph Gassner and the Demons of Eighteenth-Century Germany. New Haven, CT:Yale University Press. Rapp, Ludwig. 1891. Die Hexenprozesse und ihre Gegner in Tirol. 2nd ed. Brixen: Weger. Sticks Various kinds of sticks, especially cooking sticks and broomsticks, played a prominent role in the practices of witchcraft. Witches frequently we re said to trave l through the sky on sticks, often smeared with an oint- ment made from the fat of cooked children. Sticks were also related to the wands magicians used in sorcery rit- uals to create storms, bring injury and death, or effect metamorphosis. In their night rides and processions through the sky, witches allegedly rode a wide range of eve ryday imple- ments, as well as goats and other animals. The imple- ments included broomsticks, cooking sticks, distaffs, p i t c h f o rks, threshing flails, reeds, wicker nets, baskets, s i e ves, stools, and shovels. In early-fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry witchcraft treatises, witches we re usually described as riding sticks to their assemblies (Sabbats or synagogues). In a witchcraft treatise of around 1436, the Da u p h i n é judge Claude Tholosan first described them riding on Earliest illustration of witches flying on broomsticks, marginalia on a b rooms; two years later, a trial confession from the same manuscript copy of Martin Le Franc’s Le Champion des Dames region first re f e r red to an accused witch riding a stick to (The Defender of Ladies), 1440–1442. (Snark/Art Resource) 1086 Sticks

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1087 Application File domestic chimneys, a motif that subsequently became Angels and Demons, 1612), rods and switches we re ve ry common in the iconography of witchcraft. T h e g i ven to child-witches to look after toads, a detail clear- motif also appeared in a 1593 engraving depicting the ly depicted in Jan Zi a r n k o’s accompanying etching. curious practices of witchcraft in the region of Tr i e r, But as described by Henri Boguet in his Discours des and it featured in many early-seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry s o rciers ( Discourse on Witches, chap. 29), a wand images by Frans Francken the Younger and Da v i d could also become an extension of the hand with Teniers the Younger. which witches touched their victims to cause injury or In German-speaking Eu rope, howe ve r, the most d e a t h . commonly depicted instrument on which witches rode Another frequently described form of malefice that t h rough the air was a cooking stick (or cooking fork ) . included a wand or rod in its ritual was a type of weath- The first such cooking stick appeared in Ul r i c h er sorc e ry. As outlined by Boguet or Bodin and Mo l i t o r’s De Laniis et Phitonicis Mu l i e r i b u s described at greater length by Nicolas Rémy (1974, (Concerning Witches and Fo rtunetellers), originally 514), witches would beat water with black wands pro- published around 1489. Although Mo l i t o r’s text only vided by a demon while chanting spells in order to re f e r red to witches riding on “sticks,” illustrations make heavy rain or hail. Witches could also use the featuring cooking sticks appeared in more than twenty same ritual to fly through the air, soon making it thick editions of the work during the next two decades, enough with dense vapor and smoke to carry them up. establishing the cooking stick as the ord i n a ry instru- However, Martín Del Rio, in his Disquisitiones Magicae ment for witches to ride. Hans Baldung [Gr i e n ] ’s famous libri sex ( Six Books on In vestigations into Ma g i c , 1510 woodcut of a group of witches seated in a triangle 1599–1600), referred to creating hailstorms by striking of cooking forks consolidated the role of the cooking a stone with a stick. f o rk in witchcraft iconography throughout Ge r m a n - CHARLES ZIKA speaking Eu rope over the next two centuries. Ap a rt f rom a broomstick and a cooking stick appearing See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BALDUNG[GRIEN], HANS; together in Jacob Cornelisz’s 1526 painting, Ge r m a n BODIN,JEAN;BOGUET,HENRI;BRUEGHEL,PIETERTHEELDER; artists would not accept the broomstick of French and CANNIBALISM;CAULDRON;CIRCE;CRANACH,LUCAS;DEVIL; ENDOR,WITCHOF;ERASTUS,THOMAS;FERTILITYCULTS;FLIGHT Flemish tradition until the 1590s, while French or OFWITCHES;GENDER;HERMOGENES;LANCRE,PIERREDE;LE Flemish artists ignored German-style cooking sticks. FRANC,MARTIN;MALEFICIUM;MOLITOR,ULRICH;PEOPLEOFTHE Cooking sticks were commonly depicted in contem- NIGHT;RÉMY,NICOLAS;RITUALMAGIC;SABBAT;SORCERY; p o r a ry iconography as instruments used near a fire to TENIERS,DAVIDTHEYOUNGER;THOLOSAN,CLAUDE;TINCTOR, hang food or vessels from, turn food, transport pots, or JOHANN;TOADS;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS); WEATHERMAGIC; simply stoke the fire. In this way, cooking sticks helped ZIARNKO,JAN. identify witchcraft as a female activity, linking it to a References and further reading: w o m a n’s task of food preparation around a cauldro n . Bodin, Jean. 1995.On the Demon-Mania of Witches(1580). The use of the besom, or broom, by contrast, seems less Introduction by Jonathan Pearl. Translated by Randy A. Scott. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, clear.Though commonly linked to female domesticity p. 120. and house cleaning, the besom seldom appeared in rep- Hoffmann-Krayer, Eduard. 1930–1931. Pp. 1129–1150 in resentations of domestic scenes before the seve n t e e n t h Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens.Berlin and Leipzig: c e n t u ry. But given the association of besoms with de Gruyter. domestic interiors and the gradual sixteenth-century Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. 2001.Witchcraft in Europe, i d e n t i fication of interiors as female space, riding a 400–1700: A Documentary History.2nd ed. Revised by Edward broom could have signified escaping from the domestic Peters. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. s p h e re with its attendant social and moral ro l e s . Ostorero, Martine, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, and Kathrin Utz Howe ve r, riding brooms might be linked to ancient Tremp. 1999. L’imaginaire du sabbat: Edition critique des textes agricultural fertility rites, as in Jean Bodin’s claim les plus anciens (1430 c.–1440 c.).Lausanne: University of (1995, 120) that witches danced with brooms in their Lausanne. Rémy, Nicolas. 1974. Demonolatry.Edited by Montague hands at the Sabbat, raising them to worship the Devil Summers. Secaucus, NJ: University Books, p. 514. in imitation of the worship of God. Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1959. The Encyclopedia ofWitchcraft and In witchcraft accounts, sticks also took on functions Demonology.London: Nevill. similar to those of the wands of ritual magicians, Zika, Charles. 2003. Exorcising Our Demons: Magic, Witchcraft especially in various images of the classical witch Circ e , and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe.Leiden and Boston: who used a wand to transform humans into animals Brill. and maintain control over them. Sticks we re often giv- en to witches by the Devil at Sabbats. In Pi e r re de Stoeckhlin, Chonrad (1549–1587) L a n c re’s Tableau de l’ i n c o n s t a n c e des mauvais anges e t In 1578, Chonrad Stoeckhlin, a horse wrangler in a d e m o n s ( Description of the Inconstancy of the Ev i l mountain village of the Allgäu Alps, made a revenant Stoeckhlin, Chonrad 1087

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1088 Application File contract with another herdsman: Whoever died first A round 1830, J. Theiler wrote a short notice about was to return from the otherworld in order to answer witchcraft in the bishopric of Strasbourg, in which he questions. The other man died soon after but indeed affirmed that different sixteenth-century demonologists returned from the otherworld, foretelling the advent of believed that the diabolical sect observed strictly delim- an angel. Around the Ember Days (four groups of three ited and distinct boundaries. In T h e i l e r’s opinion, the days of abstinence and fasting in the Western Church), a rc h i ves proved that there we re exactly four specific the angel appeared and initiated Stoeckhlin to the places where Sabbats took place in the bishopric of “phantoms of the night” (Nachtschar), who had to leave Strasbourg: The witches from the b a i l l i a g e s east of the their bodies on certain nights and fly to certain places. Rhine went to Knibis hill; those from the bailliages of Stoeckhlin’s stories open a window to some fantasy Obermundat gathered at the Schauenberg; those from worlds of popular beliefs in the central Alps. By joining the b a i l l i a g e s of Benfeld, Ma rckolsheim, Wa n t ze n a u , the phantoms of the night, Stoeckhlin participated in Dachstein, and Schirmeck met at a hill near supernatural abilities such as healing and divination. Bischoffsheim, called the Bischenberg; and those from Furthermore, he served as a witch doctor. In this capac- the b a i l l i a g e s of Kochersberg and Sa verne held their ity, he involuntarily triggered a major witch hunt in the meetings on the Büchelberg. But many other places in southernmost parts of the prince-bishopric of Augsburg addition to these four were mentioned in trial records, in 1586 because the authorities were fascinated by his and such precise geographic and political distinctions stories and exploited them for their own purposes. seem pointless. During the course of the witch hunt, he was the only T h e re was no uniformity in the witchcraft cases in man burned at the stake. the diocese of Strasbourg. All spatial divisions appear to be art i ficial when witchcraft is concerned, and pre c i s e WOLFGANG BEHRINGER limits become important only when we consider ques- See also:AUGSBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;FLIGHTOFWITCHES; tions of legal jurisdiction. Alsatian witches we re fre- PEOPLEOFTHENIGHT;POPULARBELIEFSINWITCHES; quently in contact with other witches who lived under REVENANTS. d i f f e rent jurisdictions, which was no obstacle to their References and further reading: coming together. For instance, witches from the valley Behringer,Wolfgang. 1998. Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad of Lièpvre claimed to attend Sabbats in the Alsatian Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night.Translated by H. C. plain, well outside the area of jurisdiction in which they Erik Midelfort. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. l i ved. Only the real-life experience of each witch Strasbourg, Diocese of determined her living area and sphere of influence. Alsace was divided into three dioceses at the time of The population of the diocese at that time was quite witch hunting: Speyer, Basel, and Strasbourg. The dio- mobile, and contacts between different communities cese of Strasbourg included two parts, mostly located in were numerous. It was not rare that a witch claimed to present-day France (Alsace), with a smaller part located h a ve witnessed a Sabbat as a young girl in one re g i o n east of the Rhine in present-day Germany (Lahr, before she subsequently moved to another. Offenburg, and Ot t e r s weier). The diocese of MARYSE SIMON Strasbourg covered a large part of modern Alsace, where about a thousand witches were executed between 1570 See also:ALSACE;AUSTRIANWESTERNTERRITORIES;BALDUNG and 1650. Several of them died in places where the [GRIEN], HANS;FRANCHE-COMTÉ;GERMANY,SOUTHWESTERN; bishop of Strasbourg was also the territorial prince; LORRAINE,DUCHYOF;SABBAT. References and further reading: expelled from Strasbourg after the Pro t e s t a n t Archives Départementales, Bas-Rhin, Strasbourg (France) Reformation, he established his capital at Saverne, Officialité, sous-série 2 B. dividing his political possessions into eight bailliages Levrault, Louis. 1835. “Procès de sorcellerie en Alsace (bailiwicks), all but one of them west of the Rhine. (1615–1635).” Revue d’Alsace2: 5–16. However, most Alsatian witches died in places outside Reuss, Rodolphe. 1987.La sorcellerie au XVIe et au XVIIe siècles, the bishop’s political control. From an ecclesiastical particulièrement en Alsace d’après des documents en partie inédits. standpoint, this bishopric included many lands under Steinbrunn: Editions du Rhin. controlled by various landholders, making its borders Theiler, J. [1829]. Notice sur les procédures criminelles instruites somewhat difficult to establish. For instance, the valley contre plusieurs milliers de sorciers dans l'Evêché de Strasbourg. of Lièpvre on the eastern side of the Vosges, located in Strasbourg. the center of Alsace near Sélestat, belonged partly to the dukes of Lorraine, but for religious purposes, it Strix, Striga, Stria belonged to the diocese of Strasbourg rather than the Strix (of which striga and stria are variants) is the Latin diocese of Toul, which included most of Lorraine. word meaning “screech-owl,” but it quickly developed Historians have raised the question about geographic a number of associations linking it to malevolent and political divisions in this diocese for a long time. women who practiced magic—hence its use in 1088 Strasbourg, Diocese of

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1089 Application File m e d i e val and early modern demonologies as one that tradition in part i c u l a r. Gianfrancesco Pico della synonym for witch. Mirandola, for example, began his dialogue St r i x In Classical Latin usage, strigeswere birds of ill omen (1523) with an exchange between two interlocutors, that ate people’s entrails and drank their blood. Several which played upon the two meanings of the word — authors, including Silius Italicus, Plautus, and screech-owl and witch—and drew attention to the tra- Propertius, mentioned them. They were associated with dition that strigeswere women transformed into owls by practitioners of maleficent magic by Horace (Ep o d e s evil spirits. The Jesuit Ma rtín Del Rio claimed that 5.20) and Albius Tibullus (Corpus Tibulliquum1.5.52). strigesderived their name “from an accursed night-bird In a lengthy passage of Ovid’s Fasti (6.131–168), they which is believed to bring death to infants” we re described as birds of prey that flew during the (Disquisitiones Magicae libri sex [ Six Books on night, attacked children in the cradle, ripped open their Investigations into Magic], book 1, chap. 2). In 1553, flesh, and drank their blood. Petronius used a derivative Pe d ro de Cieza carried the Eu ropean concept to the of this word, striga,in his Satyricon(63.4–8). There, he NewWorld when he observed that Peru used to contain told us that while certain people we re sounding the many strigeswho sucked out blood from small children death lament for a young boy, strigae began to shriek; (La crónica de Pe r ú [The Chronicle of Pe ru], part 2, not long afterw a rd, the mourners discove red that the chap. 196). Through the use of Latin by scholars, there- strigae had managed to carry off the child’s dead body, fore, ancient ideas continued to imprint themselves on leaving a bundle of straw in its place. The second- later concepts of the witch. And, of course, the modern c e n t u ry C.E. grammarian Festus defined s t r i g a e a s Italian term for witch, strega,derives from striga. evil-doing women (maleficae mulieres) who were able to P. G. MAXWELL-STUART fly (volaticae). Thus, many elements of the later image of the witch were already in place in classical literature: See also:CANNIBALISM;DELRIO,MARTÍN;DEMONOLOGY;FLIGHT night flying, shape changing (metamorphosis), child OFWITCHES;INFANTICIDE;LAMIA;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT murdering, child substitution, and sinister magic. (MEDIEVAL); LILITH;METAMORPHOSIS;NIGHTWITCH,ORNIGHT The Middle Ages betrayed a certain unease about HAG;PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,GIANFRANCESCO;WITCHAND WITCHCRAFT,DEFINITIONSOF. Christians’ continuing belief or trust in people who still References and further reading: claimed to work pagan magic and foretell the future. In Flint,Valerie I. J. 1993. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval A Letter to Charlemagne,Cathalpus listed various kinds Europe.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. of magical operators—those who used poisons, those Wagner, Robert Léon. 1939. “Sorcier” et “magicien”: Contribution à who raised storms, those who used incantations, and so l’histoire du vocabulaire de la magie.Paris: Droz. on—including s t r i g a e , adding that all such evil work s came from the Devil. The Synodius Patricii et Auxentii Suicide ( Synod of Patrick and Au xentius) declared that any Suicide has a twofold relationship with witchcraft in Christian who believed in the type of divinatory witch early modern Eu rope, both through the deed itself, known as a strigashould be excommunicated. The asso- often committed by suspected witches to escape the cru- ciation of strigae with anthropophagy was unnervingly elties of inquisitorial pro c e d u re, and more fundamental- b rought out in chapter 5 of Charlemagne’s c a p i t u l a ry ly through the association of self-murder with tempta- for the conquered Saxons, which announced that any- tions of the Devil. T h roughout Eu rope, accused witches one who had been deceived by the Devil into believing killed themselves in jail during their trials, usually by that a man or a woman was a strix and ate people and hanging. Pre s u m a b l y, their actions we re motivated by a had therefore been led into cannibalism should be put genuine fear of the extremes of judicial tort u re applied to death. The Pactus Legis Sa l i c a e ( Pact for the Sa l i c in cases of witchcraft as ac r i m e ne xc e p t u m(the exc e p t e d L a w s ) , h owe ve r, was milder and merely said that if a crime; a crime so serious and frequently hard to prove stria had eaten someone and the fact had been proved that it was excepted from the usual legal pro c e d u re s ) . against her, she was simply to be fined. The Lex Salica Howe ve r, contemporaries (for example, He i n r i c h (Salic Law) hinted at a belief in witches’ Sabbats, since Kramer and Nicolas Rémy) ordinarily assumed that it declared that anyone who called someone else a “car- s e l f-m u rder in prison while on trial for witchcraft was rier of poisons,” that is, a transporter of witches (strio- tantamount to a confession of guilt and re i n f o rced sus- porcium), and either could not or did not wish to prove picions that the accused had been in league with the it had to pay a fine; meanwhile, the Lombard Laws also Devil. Ecclesiastical prohibitions against suicide had p rovided protection against slander by saying that a been in place since the Middle Ages, and it was com- free, married woman who had been unjustly accused of monly presumed that, like Judas, desperate suicides being a witch (striga) could either return to her relatives acted at the prompting of the Devil. Having died in a or seek refuge with the king. state of apostasy, they we re regularly forbidden an hon- Early modern demonologists, by contrast, well re a d orable burial in hallowed ground throughout Eu ro p e in the classics, tended to exhibit their familiarity with until the end of the eighteenth century. Suicide 1089

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1090 Application File L e g a l l y, committing suicide, like practicing witch- The last region of Europe to decriminalize suicide fully craft, was a heinous crime. The leniency of the 1532 was Britain, where attempted suicide was punishable Carolina Code (article 135), which permitted the pun- until the passage of the Suicide Act in 1961. ishment of suicides only in cases where they had killed DAVID LEDERER themselves in order to escape prosecution (as in the case of accused witches), was never uniformly applied. See also:AGRARIANCRISES;CAROLINACODE;EXECUTIONERS; Howe ve r, it does seem that prosecution in France and GHOSTS;INQUISITORIALPROCEDURE;JOSEPHII,HOLYROMAN especially in Flanders was harsher than in the Ho l y EMPEROR;KRAMER,HEINRICH(INSTITORIS); PACTWITHTHE Roman Empire. The physical dishonor associated with DEVIL;RÉMY,NICOLAS;REVENANTS;TORTURE;WEATHERMAGIC. References and further reading: the crime meant that only the executioner could handle Lederer, David. 1994. “Aufruhr auf dem Friedhof: Pfarrer, a suicide’s corpse. The body was removed by digging a Gemeinde und Selbstmord im frühneuzeitlichen Bayern.” Pp. hole under the threshold to drag it from a house, there- 189–209 in Trauer,Verzweiflung und Anfechtung: Selbstmord by protecting the portal from re e n t ry by the ghost of und Selbstmordversuche in mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen the self-killer, which was popularly feared to haunt the Gesellschaften.Edited by Gabriela Signori. Tübingen: Diskord. place of death as a revenant spirit. The body might then ———. 1998. “The Dishonorable Dead: Elite and Popular be publicly dragged to the place of execution, hung Perceptions of Suicide in Early Modern Germany.” Pp. f rom the gallows or upside-down from a fork (f u rc a) , 349–365 in Ehrekonzepte in der Frühen Neuzeit: Identität und and either left to rot as carrion or disposed of in a Abgrenzungen.Edited by Sibylle Backmann, Hans-Jörg Künast, B. Ann Tlusty, and Sabine Ullmann. Augsburg: Akademie. cesspit or other disgraceful grave in a so-called ass- MacDonald, Michael, and Terence Murphy. 1990. Sleepless Souls: burial. In some parts of Eu rope, a suicide’s home was Suicide in Early Modern England.Oxford: Oxford University then ritually pillaged (“ravaged”), and the estate might Press. be officially liable to confiscation. Minois, Georges. 1999. A History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Most interesting for historians of witchcraft were the Western Culture.Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane. Baltimore: similarities between popular beliefs concerning witches Johns Hopkins University Press. and suicides. Because suicide was ostensibly committed Mu r r a y, Alexander. 1998–. Suicide in the Middle Ag e s .2 vols. T h i rd at the behest of the Devil, there were presumptions of volume forthcoming. Oxford: Oxford University Press. some tacit understanding or even a pact with the Devil. Vanderkerckhove, Lieven. 2000. On Punishment: The Furthermore, given the demonic nature of the deed, a Confrontation of Suicide in Old-Europe.Louvain: Universitaire number of popular beliefs arose regarding the corpse of Pers Leuven. a suicide, beliefs that were closely related to problems of agricultural fert i l i t y. It was known that witches com- Summers, Montague (1880–1948) monly practiced weather magic to destroy crops, and An eccentric Catholic man of letters with a keen, not to witch persecutions often coincided with natural cata- say obsessive, interest in the occult, Montague Su m m e r s s t rophes that had caused crop failures. Si m i l a r l y, the made two distinctive contributions to the history of populace generally assumed that burying a suicide in witchcraft. He translated key Latin texts, most famous- hallowed ground profaned the communal cemetery and ly the Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Wi t c h e s , would result in inclement we a t h e r, especially hail- 1486), into English. He also wrote extensively on the storms, that damaged crops and killed livestock. T h i s subject, developing his own version of the idea that a belief was so deeply embedded in the early modern con- h e retical sect of witches had really existed. sciousness that communities sometimes rose up in In his youth, Summers embraced the decadence of armed revolt against attempts by authorities to exercise the 1890s, with Oscar Wilde and Algernon Swinburne leniency in their decisions about such burials. as early heroes. He made a hesitant start as an Anglican Howe ve r, this belief was no mere superstition. curate in his native Bristol, but in 1908, he was charged Evidence shows that the rates of suicide tended to with pederasty; although he was acquitted, his churc h i n c rease during times of crises, as desperate persons career was finished. The following year, he converted to faced with starvation, plague, or terminal illness took Catholicism—a religion in which he felt fully at home, their lives to escape their suffering. The popular percep- having a deep love of ritual and tradition and a com- tion was therefore not altogether mistaken, although it mitment to the power of the sacraments. He attended a i n ve rted cause and effect: Crop failures and famine Catholic seminary and sought the priesthood but was i n c reased the incidence of suicide, not vice ve r s a . b a r red because of his homosexuality. Howe ve r, he Apparently, oral village culture lost sight of this nuance claimed to have obtained irregular ordination (one of over many generations, leading communities to fig h t the numerous aspects of his life on which he was eva- against honorable burials right up to the end of the Old sive) and acted as a priest after 1913, though he never Régime, when suicide was finally decriminalized and obtained a benefice. From 1911 to 1926, he was a s e c u l a r i zed during the judicial reforms of Em p e ro r schoolmaster; later, his literary earnings supplemented Joseph II of Austria and later in the French Revolution. his private income from his wealthy banking family. 1090 Summers, Montague

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1091 Application File Be t ween 1919 and 1925, he promoted the re v i val of t ru s t w o rt h y. As a result, he swallowed even the most early English drama, producing some genuinely schol- b i z a r re legends, some from chroniclers writing over a arly editions of Restoration comedies. Later, he wro t e thousand years after the events they described. He on the Gothic novel, on vampires, and on werewolves. condemned some of the excesses of witch hunting—the His publications on witchcraft began in 1926 and Protestant Matthew Hopkins, for instance, was depict- 1927 with The Hi s t o ry of Wi t c h c raft and De m o n o l o gy ed as an impudent charlatan. But the witch hunt as and The Geography of Witchcraft.The latter was a com- such he wholly and explicitly approved. He also gave pilation of witchcraft cases from printed sourc e s , the persecutions a contemporary spin, attacking including extensive quotations. The former expounded Bolshevism as a modern equivalent of witchcraft. Summers’s view of witchcraft as a genuine movement of In later life, he lived in Oxford, where the students devil worshippers. He traced its origin to the Gnostics, re p o rted that one might see Summers with his dog, early Christian heretics who he claimed were influenced Summers with his secre t a ry, or the secre t a ry with the by pagans. He also made energetic criticisms of dog—but never all three together. It was an appropriate Margaret Murray’s recent “anthropological” theory that s t o ry for someone who had written on shape shifting, the witches had practiced a benign pagan fertility cult. but it reminds us that folktales are not always taken “A n t h ropology alone offers no explanation of literally or even seriously, even by the tellers. Witchcraft,” he announced: “Only the trained theolo- What was Su m m e r s’s motivation for writing on gian can adequately treat the subject” (Summers 1926, witchcraft? His fascination with the occult was mixe d 45). Yet he accepted aspects of Murray’s theory, such as with horror. In his early years, he had sometimes partic- the coven of thirteen—which, he shrewdly pointed out, ipated in diabolic rituals, notably a Black Mass in 1913; had to be a borrowing from Christianity rather than a he knew their powerful attraction from personal experi- survival from paganism. ence. In studying witchcraft, Summers may have been Like Murray, Summers believed in a real witch cult. staring into the dark side of his own nature. He too endeavo red to interpret witches’ activities in JULIAN GOODARE naturalistic terms and to explain away reports of flight and animal metamorphosis (but he ultimately accepted See also:FERTILITYCULTS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;HISTORIOGRAPHY; their possibility). Both the Devil and the pact had cer- HOPKINS,MATTHEW;METAMORPHOSIS;MURRAY,MARGARET tainly existed and indeed continued to exist: ALICE;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL. “Commerce between human beings and evil spirits . . . References and further reading: d’Arch Smith, Timothy. 1983. Montague Summers: A Bibliography. is the ve ry core and kernel of Wi t c h c r a f t” (Su m m e r s 2nd ed. Wellingborough: Aquarian. 1926, 51), he said, arguing that the contemporary spir- Jerome, Joseph. 1965. Montague Summers: A Memoir.London: itualist movement proved the possibility of such com- Cecil and Amelia Woolf. merce. Summers cited demonological writers of the fif- [Kramer, Heinrich]. 1928. Malleus Maleficarum. Translated by teenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries as Montague Summers. London: John Rodker. authoritative. Sinistrari, Ludovico Maria. 1989. Demoniality.Translated by Howe ve r, he made his most enduring contribution Montague Summers. 1927. London: Fortune. Reprint, New to witchcraft scholarship with his translations of York: Dover. demonologies. He translated two himself—Lu d ov i c o Summers, Montague. 1926. The History of Witchcraft and Maria Sinistrari’sDeDaemonialitate(Demoniality) and Demonology.London: Kegan Paul. the Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m—and edited several other ———. 1927. The Geography of Witchcraft.London: Kegan Paul. translations. He felt that if such texts were made acces- sible, their self-evident truth would be perceived. As a Superstition t r a n s l a t o r, his florid literary style was unsuited to the The Latin term superstitio, whose exact translation is language of Latin Scholasticism, and some of his re n d e r- disputed, was adopted by the Romance languages and i n g s have been questioned, including his much-quoted English; in German, it became Afterglaube (backward “All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women or obsolete faith) or Aberglaube (contrary of the right i n s a t i a b l e” (Kramer 1928, book 1, vi). Ne ve rt h e l e s s , faith); in Dutch, it became bijgeloof (beneath the right Su m m e r s’s labors have proved vastly beneficial to faith); and in the Scandinavian languages, it became scholars who have ignored his interpretations. overtro (overly strong belief). All these terms refer to Although Summers perpetrated romantic and untrue religious beliefs, and all share negative connotations. stories about his personal life, his weakness as a scholar From antiquity to the present, various beliefs and was not the systematic distortion practiced by Murray; behavior patterns have been characterized as supersti- rather, it was an excessive reverence for ancient authori- tious. The specific content of this invariably pejorative ty. He proclaimed the Malleusone of the great books of term depends on the religion of the definers, their social Western civilization. Summers repeatedly asserted that standing and education, and their own cultural his sources, especially Catholic sources, we re wholly practices. So the ancient Greek desidaimonia and the Superstition 1091

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1092 Application File Latin s u p e r s t i t i o both implied an exc e s s i ve fear of witches did not exist and that, there f o re, nobody numinous powers or the mentality of an alien religion: should prosecute them. Howe ve r, such imaginings of Thus, right-thinking Romans qualified Christianity as witchcraft practices formed part of the standard accusa- superstitious (Tacitus, An n a l s 15.44), while the tions against sorc e resses during the late Middle Ages Christians expressed the same opinion about Ju d a i s m and the early modern epoch. Theologians now affirmed ( Acts 25.19). Early modern Reformed theologians that denying their reality could lead to an accusation of denounced many elements of Catholic faith and piety h e resy; in 1453, Prior William Adeline (Edeline) of as superstitious; a French Catholic priest, J.-B. Thiers, Saint-Germain-en-Laye was tortured because he denied compiled four volumes of superstitions in 1679, that witches could ride. Heinrich Kramer, the author of grouped according to sacraments. the Ma l l e u s Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Wi t c h e s , From the time of the Church Fathers onward, types 1486), also interpreted such skepticism as a sign of of Christian religious belief and ritual not approved by h e re s y. After the Enlightenment, the situation again the official theological hierarchy we re condemned as returned to the position of a thousand years before: The superstitions. Superstition was irrational and untru e . superstitious person was one who believed in the exis- Often—but not always—we find among the “standard” tence of witches. This notion remains the pre va l e n t objects and practices of superstition such things as opinion in the Western world today, although a small reliance on amulets, dreams and visions, charms, for- minority are still convinced that witches exist. There is tunetelling, magic, necro m a n c y, prodigies, port e n t s , also the semiearnest effort of some radical feminist soothsaying, and spells. Many of these were survivals of groups to reinstall this belief by declaring that hexing is pagan beliefs and rites, and the clergy condemned them not a superstition but rather an ancient and effective as such. Superstition, therefore, is that set of beliefs and k n owledge. These modern-day Western witches have practices that functionaries of the official or established not been prosecuted; in parts of postcolonial Africa, religion (re l i g i o) single out as unacceptable within the however, some of their counterparts have been. entire cosmos of factually practiced religion. A supersti- PETER DINZELBACHER tious mind was generally ascribed to uneducated laypeople, especially the country folk or “rustics,” but See also:AGOBARDOFLYONS;AQUINAS,THOMAS;CANONEPISCOPI; often, these same so-called superstitions existed among ENLIGHTENMENT;MAGICANDRELIGION;MALLEUSMALEFI- the literate upper classes as well. Until the second half CARUM;ORDEAL;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;SKEPTICISM. References and further reading: of the twentieth century, folklorists and historians Baumann, Karin. 1989. Aberglaube für Laien: Zur Programmatik unhesitatingly used this term to designate the same und Überlieferung mittelalterlicher Superstitionenkritik. canon of popular imaginations and customs that the- Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann. ologians had dubbed superstitious for centuries. Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft Currently, however, a growing sensitivity to the clearly in Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Clarendon. n e g a t i ve connotations and implicit cultural arro g a n c e Dinzelbacher, Peter. 2003. “‘Volksreligion,’ ‘gelebte Religion,’ connected with the term pre vents many scholars fro m ‘verordnete Religion’: Zu begrifflichem Instrumentarium und discussing superstition. Gi ven also that cognate terms historischer Perspektive.” Pp. 7–51 in Mentalität und such as popular religion or popular Christianity a re not Religiosität des Mittelalters.Edited by Peter Dinzelbacher. I. without problems, perhaps the best alternative is Klagenfurt: Kitab. Harmening, Dieter. 1979. Superstitio.Berlin: Erich Schmidt. parallel religion(a set of beliefs and rites coexisting with Monter,William. 1983. Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern but disapproved of by the official religion). Europe.Athens: Ohio University Press. O ver the course of two millennia of Christian Moser, Diez-Rüdiger. 1992. Glaube im Abseits.Darmstadt: dogmatics, many teachings of an earlier age have Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. become obsolete and are thus considered superstitions. Peters, Edward. 2001. “The Medieval Church and State on For example, in the Early Middle Ages, several Church Superstition, Magic, and Witchcraft: From Augustine to the councils endorsed the practice of ordeals, but after their Sixteenth Century.” Pp. 173–245 in The Middle Ages.Vol. 3 of abolition by the Fo u rth Lateran Council in 1215, The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Edited major theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas classi- by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and Philadelphia: fied ordeals as superstitions. Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. C a rolingian theologians including Arc h b i s h o p Séjourné, Dom Paul. 1941. “Superstition.” InDictionnaire de Théologie Catholique. Edited by Alfred Vacant, E. Mangenot, Agobard of Lyons regarded several aspects of witchcraft and Emile Amann. Paris: Letouzey, vol. 14, part 2, cols. as superstitious. Agobard condemned the belief that 2763–2824. certain people, in collaboration with cloud-riders, were guilty of making hail and thunder. The better-know n Canon Ep i s c o p i s e ve rely criticized beliefs about the Sweden nightly ride of women to a certain kind of Sa b b a t . Sweden experienced a wave of large-scale witchcraft About 1100, King Coloman of Hu n g a ry decreed that trials between 1668 and 1676 that resulted in approxi- 1092 Sweden

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1093 Application File mately 300 people being executed. Two major sets of (harmful magic), still dominated the legal agenda. trials ran simultaneously. In the Blåkulla trials in north- Generally, however, the courts tended to be lenient, ern Sweden (from 1668 to 1676), the main charge condemning to death only one in ten of the defendants brought against the defendants was the supernatural on average, while acquitting over 60 percent (Ankarloo abduction of children to the witches’ Sa b b a t . 1984, 340–342). A particular form of oath taking Meanwhile, a series of witchcraft trials were also held in known as värjemålsed formed an important part of the county of Bohuslän between 1669 and 1672. Swedish litigation; it was used in court to repudiate Though these events are deservedly famous, the usual accusations, often when people wished to defend them- prosecution of forms of witchcraft in early modern selves against gossip and slander. Sweden was very different. Most cases were concerned During the first half of the seventeenth century, with minor offenses involving nonharmful magic. The High Courts we re established in various parts of the prosecution of witches was characterized by leniency, Swedish kingdom. In principle, they had to approve all rarely resulting in death sentences. Apart from the death sentences, including those for witchcraft. major witchcraft trials in Bohuslän and the Blåkulla Gradually, an extensive praxis of submitting all types of trials, no more than 100 people were executed for cases of witchcraft to the High Court emerged. witchcraft in Sweden from 1550 to 1750. Moreover, a Sweden’s judicial system was based, at least formally, on great number of these trials, perhaps a majority, took accusatorial pro c e d u re; it re q u i red a plaintiff for each place during the eighteenth century. case. After 1600, royal officials increasingly assumed the role of public prosecutor in local courts in order to Medieval Prologue p rosecute crimes that lacked a plaintiff. At the same In medieval Sweden, the provincial law statutes time, the secular courts gradually acquired the sole right concerned with harmful witchcraft were occasionally to punish witchcraft of all sorts. The Church had, by supplemented by rulings regarding nonharmful magic. then, gained support for its far-reaching demands that The national law codes from the fourteenth century measures be taken against relatively innocuous forms of (Magnus Erikssons Landslag [the National Law of magic. Sweden’s medieval laws, now obviously outdat- Magnus Eriksson]) and the fifteenth century (Kristoffers ed, attracted the attention of reformers. In 1665, a roy- Landslag [the National Law of Kristoffer]—a slightly al statute was published (re n ewed in 1687) dealing modified version) provided no clear guidelines for explicitly with nonharmful magic. The statute signaled dealing with nonharmful magic. Few medieval sources a concern by the authorities with witchcraft and magic, preserve the activities of Swedish courts. The oldest just a few years before the outbreak of the great witch re c o rded witchcraft trial occurred in the town of hunt. Other disciplinary regulations applicable to Arboga in 1471. unacceptable religious practices were also introduced. In the sixteenth century and the first half of the The reformed legal system of the seve n t e e n t h seventeenth century, a broader legal definition of witch- c e n t u ry had both constraining and stimulating effects craft caused the more lenient punishments for malefi- on witchcraft trials. The use of torture exemplifies this cent witchcraft to be applied in cases of nonharmful fact. After the High Courts were established, only they magic. In addition, biblical law was consulted when could grant permission for a lower court to use forcible passing sentences for serious cases of witchcraft. Various methods. But in exercising this power, the High Courts forms of consorting with the Devil we re gradually appear to have been passive. On the one hand, they placed on par with maleficent sorc e ry. As late as the were prepared to reject applications for the use of tor- eighteenth century, punishments following biblical law t u re, which no doubt constrained some local offic i a l s . were still meted out in Swedish law courts. On the other hand, they accepted the method when c o n f ronted with its use. The explosive situation that Old and New Witchcraft resulted in the large-scale witchcraft trials of the 1660s Not until the sixteenth century did Swedish court and 1670s can partially be attributed to the Hi g h records become sufficiently extensive to allow for realis- C o u rt s’ behavior. These courts did not sanction the tic assessments of the extent of witchcraft cases. The c o e rc i ve measures applied in the initial stages of these number of trials increased markedly at the end of the proceedings, but neither did they disallow them. sixteenth century, and interrogation techniques foreign to Swedish legal traditions, such as torture and ordeal The Witch Hunts by water (the swimming test), began to be employed. Although trials mentioning the witches’ Sabbat first At the same time, a more elaborate conception of appeared in Sweden toward the end of the sixteenth witchcraft appeared, with witches making pacts with century, no major outbreaks of witch hunting occurred the Devil and participating in Sabbats. Acts of non- until the second half of the seventeenth century. The harmful magic were also prosecuted, although more Blåkulla proceedings and the Bohuslän trials displayed traditional forms of witchcraft, that is, maleficium s i g n i ficant differences, the latter being re l a t i ve l y Sweden 1093

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1094 Application File straightforward. The province of Bohuslän had been craft, thereby enabling the authorities to legitimize their transferred from Danish to Swedish rule ten years earli- actions in the eyes of the populace. Thus, as the er, but trials were still supposed to follow Danish law. Blåkulla trials began to increase in number and cause Accusations of traditional, that is, maleficent, witch- concern, the authorities made use of we l l - t r i e d craft appeared alongside charges of consorting with the methods. Howe ve r, temporarily delegating power in Devil and participating in the witches’ Sabbat, with lit- connection with the witchcraft commissions turned out tle or no mention of the abduction of children. to be a serious mistake. Members of lower courts with The northern Blåkulla trials departed from estab- no juridical training we re sometimes given decisive lished practice on a number of points. Courts tre a t e d roles in the administration of justice. A stru c t u re rather skeptically the stories of Blåkulla journeys that s t rongly centralized in theory came temporarily under first appeared around 1600. This attitude changed dras- local influences. Year after year, the appointed commis- tically when children began to accuse alleged witches of sioners failed to control the rising hysteria of witchcraft. abduction. Concern for the we l f a re of these childre n In fact, the attention the commissions drew to the was felt to justify departures from the normal legal pro- situation increased rather than allayed the general sense cedures and rules regarding evidence, creating a poten- of unrest. tially volatile situation. Frightened adults encouraged The witchcraft trials finally came to an end in their children to tell the authorities how they had been Stockholm in 1676. The influential role in putting a spirited away to Blåkulla, thereby providing the courts stop to the trials that has been attributed to Ur b a n with the names of numerous suspects. The children could Hjärne, a doctor, has been overestimated (for example, make these accusations without fear of self-i n c r i m i n a t i o n , see Robbins 1959, 350). Mo re ove r, Hjärne pro f e s s e d as they were perceived largely as victims. belief in the existence of trolls. In Sweden, childre n’s testimonies we re formally inadmissible. Ne ve rtheless, they we re used and give n From Witchcraft to Superstition c re d i b i l i t y. Fu rt h e r, quantity outweighed any qualita- While the large-scale hearings undoubtedly represent tive shortcomings. The accumulated mass of children’s the culmination of Swedish witchcraft, they can also be evidence was judged sufficient grounds for conviction. seen as the start of a process that dominated the suc- Statements from convicted witches we re also accepted ceeding period. The relation between the seventeenth as evidence in court. To rt u re was occasionally and the eighteenth centuries is of great interest in the employed, although confessions could be elicited with- history of Swedish witchcraft. Of the more than 500 out it. All means of persuasion we re permitted. A sig- known witchcraft trials heard in the Göta High Court nificant factor favoring confessions was that a refusal to in southern Sweden from 1635 to 1779, aro u n d admit guilt could lead to the death sentence, while a three-quarters took place in the eighteenth century contrite confession might well result in a pardon. Those (Sörlin 1999, 20). Gaps in the records of the Svea High who refused to admit their guilt we re clearly under Court, covering central and northern Sweden, and the Sa t a n’s powe r, while penitent women demonstrated unique features of the Blåkulla trials complicate com- that they had the courage to reject evil. Several hundred parisons with the Göta High Court. We do not know adults were accused of witchcraft, and several thousand how often cases of witchcraft and magic failed to reach children were involved. the higher courts or how legal customs varied geo- The great witch hunt that started in Dalarna in 1668 graphically or chronologically.There is no doubt, how- was possibly preceded by a popular religious re v i va l . ever, that witchcraft trials were numerous throughout The stories told about the witches’ Sabbat were clearly Sweden during the eighteenth century. interwoven with religious visionary tales of heaven and Most of these eighteenth-century cases invo l ved non- hell. A number of local circumstances in the diocese of harmful magic, while the importance of other cases Västerås, to which the province of Dalarna belonged, steadily diminished. Few accusations now concerned appear to have forced the clergy there to take an active m a l e fic i u m , or maleficent witchcraft, in contrast to the role in curbing activities considered indicative of an situation in the sixteenth-century trials. Howe ve r, fro m undisciplined lifestyle, particularly among children and the end of the seventeenth century onward, Bl å k u l l a adolescents (Lagerlöf-Génetay 1990). St a rting in cases re c u r red at regular intervals. Se veral rather extensive Dalarna in 1668, the witchcraft trials then spread to witchcraft trials we re held until quite late in the eigh- most of the northern provinces, and by 1675, they had teenth century. Nonharmful witchcraft was probably still even reached central Sweden, including Stockholm. In b rought before the Swedish courts in the nineteenth cen- addition to the regular courts, special witchcraft t u ry, while Blåkulla stories continued to appear well after commissions were appointed to lead the hearings. The 1850. In 1858, children in Gagnef in Dalarna once more state regularly appointed commissioners to inve s t i g a t e began to tell tales of journeys to Blåkulla (Tegler Je r s e l i u s u n s a t i s f a c t o ry conditions and discontent in the 2003). This time, howe ve r, ecclesiastical and medical p rovinces, not just in connection with cases of witch- o f ficers, not the law courts, conducted the inquiries. 1094 Sweden

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1095 Application File The reform of the judicial system with the establish- of secular authorities, many cases of witchcraft came to ment of the High Courts clearly defined levels of light in connection with other criminal acts. Most of instance. The influence of the High Courts is apparent in the accusations and denunciations of maleficent witch- cases in which the legal situation was ve ry unclear, which craft originated among the populace. The time, place, applied in particular to crimes of witchcraft. The re c o rd s and character of the witchcraft were often determining of the Göta High Court show considerable discre p a n c i e s factors in its discovery; in many cases, magic had been b e t ween the sentences passed by courts of first instance p e rformed in public, thus enabling its disclosure . and subsequent High Court decisions. The Göta Hi g h Clergymen played a key role in the events preceding the C o u rt ove r ruled a large number of the decisions by lowe r trials, often as informers, and they were far more active c o u rts, usually reducing or amending their sentences concerning nonharmful magic than malefic e n t (Sörlin 1999, 68). Though the lower courts pro c l a i m e d witchcraft. If individual acts, such as informing on the death penalty almost as frequently in the eighteenth people or making denunciations and accusations, are c e n t u ry as in the seventeenth century, the High Court taken into account, the level of private initiative stopped upholding this penalty almost entirely after the remained approximately constant despite the growing turn of the eighteenth century. With the exception of the influence of the state. major witchcraft trials in Bohuslän and the Blåkulla tri- als, no more than 100 individuals we re executed for the The Accused crime of witchcraft from 1550 to 1750. In Sweden, while both men and women were accused The growing importance of court cases invo l v i n g of the different types of witchcraft, there were distinct nonharmful witchcraft reflected changes in legislation. sex-linked differences among these crimes. Accusations Prior to 1734, more innocuous forms of witchcraft of diabolism, generally in the form of alleged journeys were not explicitly forbidden in Swedish law. However, to Blåkulla, we re almost exc l u s i vely restricted to the National Code of that year dealt compre h e n s i ve l y women, whereas men dominated in cases of written with acts of nonharmful witchcraft for the first time. demonic pacts. Perpetrators of nonharmful witchcraft Though changes in legislation in the latter half of the exhibited the greatest degree of sexual parity. Over the s e venteenth century had prompted the desired effect, years, the sex ratios shifted considerably, with the pro- the code of 1734 eliminated any remaining doubts portion of men accused rising constantly. During the about whether non-harmful witchcraft should be pun- eighteenth century in the Göta High Court, equal ished. In other respects, this code was quite conserva- numbers of men and women were charged, a conse- tive, as it retained the death penalty for witchcraft. The quence of the broadened definition of witchcraft d i f ficulties of proving such a crime, howe ve r, meant (Sörlin 1999, 120). The increase in the number of tri- that the courts did not enforce the strict letter of the als was mainly accounted for by trials pertaining to law.The paragraph on witchcraft was mainly applied in nonharmful witchcraft, the category with the highest certain cases of demonic pacts in lower courts. Gustav degree of symmetry between the sexes. Records from III abolished the death penalty for witchcraft in 1779, the Svea High Court show that, in fact, more men than and in the same year, pacts with the Devil were placed women were accused of offering magical expertise (Oja on par with ordinary nonharmful witchcraft. However, 1999, 139). witchcraft did not completely disappear from Swe d i s h During the great witch hunt, middle-aged or some- re c o rds. Although the concept of witchcraft was in a what older farmers’ wives or widows tended to be the process of dissolution, individual elements of a criminal most re p resented among the accused (Ankarloo 1990, nature continued to be prosecuted under other suitable 310–312). Among the innumerable minor cases, the legislation. One such example was blasphemy; poison- most marginalized group of the accused we re “w i s e” ing might also be included here. Nonharmful witch- men and women (cunning folk). More surprisingly, in craft followed the same process of dissolution when the cases of denunciations and accusations submitted Sweden’s Penal Code of 1864 allowed such crimes to be by private individuals, the defendants often seemed to prosecuted as fraud, even though the legislation about lack negative attributes; many did not seem to be at all acts of superstition had been repealed. “witchlike” (Sörlin 1999, 121–126). How Cases Reached Court Nonconflict Witchcraft Cases involving witchcraft became increasingly com- Trials initiated by private individuals concerning non- mon in Sweden at a time when secular and ecclesiasti- harmful witchcraft did not constitute an appro p r i a- cal authorities were strengthening their hold over both tion of the negative view of such activities pro p a g a t e d the judicial system and village life: Historians often by officials. On the contrary, what occurred was not a consider Sweden to be the most thoroughly “confes- p a s s i ve acceptance of new values but rather a selective s i o n a l i ze d” Protestant state in Eu rope. Although use of new opportunities provided by the offic i a l relatively few trials took place on the direct instigation assault on magic of all sorts. In this way, the non- Sweden 1095

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1096 Application File harmful magic used by others could be exploited as a ———. 1999. “Wicked Arts”: Witchcraft and Magic Trials in weapon in local conflicts. Howe ve r, in the case of Southern Sweden, 1635–1754.Leiden: Brill. m a l e ficent witchcraft, people often made accusations Tegler Jerselius, Kristina. 2003. Den stora häxdansen: Vidskepelse, väckelse och vetande i Gagnef 1858.Uppsala: Acta Universitatis based solely on the fact that the defendant had per- Upsaliensis. Summary in English. formed actions that could be interpreted as acts of Wall, Jan. 1987. “Resorna till Josefsdal.” Svenska Landsmål och harmful magic. The suspicion of being afflicted by Svenskt Folkliv110: 99–120. Summary in English. witchcraft was, there f o re, to some extent divo rc e d ———. 1989. Hon var en gång tagen under jorden . . . : Vi s i o n s d i k t f rom a social context; it did not need to be dire c t l y och sjukdomsbot igotländska trolldomsprocesser.Uppsala: Institute connected to any concrete conflict between the par- of Dialect and Folklore Research. Summary in English. ties. This fact explains why the accused had so few Wallenberg Bondesson, Maria. 2003. Religiösa konflikter i norra n e g a t i ve social attributes: They we re not taken to Hälsingland, 1630–1800.Stockholm. Almqvist and Wiksell c o u rt because of negative behavior, such as making International. Summary in English. t h reats, but because they had practiced acts of magic Swieten, Gerard van (1700–1772) that we re often wrongly assumed to be of evil intent. The Dutch-born dean of the Faculty of Medicine in PER SÖRLIN Vienna and personal physician to Maria Theresa since 1745, Gerard van Swieten made a study of so-called See also:AC C U S ATO R I A LP RO C E D U R E; AG EO FAC C U S E DW I TC H E S; posthumous magic on behalf of the empress in 1755. A N G E L S; B L Å K U L LA; B O H U S L Ä N; C H I L D R E N; C O N F E S S I O N S; Her here d i t a ry lands of Moravia, Bohemia, and C O N T E M P O R A RYW I TC H C R A F T(P O S T1800); C O U RTS, S E C U LA R; Hungary were experiencing several prosecutions during C U N N I N GF O L K; G E N D E R; LAW SO NW I TC H C R A F T(E A R LYM O D E R N) ; the 1750s in which corpses of presumed vampires were M O R AW I TC H E S; S LA N D E R; S W I M M I N GT E S T; W I TC HF I N D E R S. References and further reading: exhumed, after which their hearts were pierced, their Ankarloo, Bengt. 1984. Trolldomsprocesserna i Sverige.2nd ed. heads shattered, their bodies burned, and their ashes Stockholm: Institutet för Rättshistorisk Forskning. Summary in dispersed to prevent their eventual return. Moreover, English. Hungary was experiencing heavy witch hunts at the ———. 1990. “Sweden: The Mass Burnings (1668–1676).” same time. Pp. 285–317 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Van Swieten recoiled at the Gothic belief in va m- Peripheries.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. pirism. His memorandum, written in French and enti- Oxford: Clarendon. tled “Remarques sur les vampyrismes de Silesie de l’an ———. 2002. ”Witch Trials in Northern Europe, 1450–1700.” 1755” (Remarks on the Vampirisms of Silesia) was nev- Pp. 53–95 in The Period of the Witch Trials.Vol. 4 of The er published in the original French version but Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. London and a p p e a red in German and Italian translations in 1756. Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. Lagerlöf-Génetay, Birgitta. 1990. De svenska häxprocessernas He outlined beliefs about vampires that affected a large utbrottsskede 1668–1671: Bakgrund i Övre Dalarna—Social och part of Moravia at the time, proving they had no scien- ecklesiastik kontext.Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell tific foundation. Innocent people, victims of ignorance International. Summary in English. and superstition, we re being terro r i zed by impostors. Monter, E. William. 1990. “Scandinavian Witchcraft in He thought that such ideas might have been imported Anglo-American Perspective.” Pp. 424–434 in Early Modern f rom the East by “Greek schismatics,” quoting an European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt extract from the Relation d’un Voyage du Leva n t ( A n Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon. Account of a Journey in the Levant, 1717) written by Oja, Linda. 1999. Varken Gud eller natur: Synen på magi i the French botanist Joseph Pitton de To u r n e f o rt 1600-och 1700-talens Sverige. Stockholm and Stehag: (1656–1708), who had observed vampirism in Symposium. Summary in English. Hungary earlier in the century. In any case, van Swietan Östling, Per-Anders. 1999. “Witchcraft Trials in Uppland Before the Great Northern Swedish Witch Trials of 1668–1676.” Arv: denounced forcefully the episcopal authorities in Nordic Yearbook of Folklore55: 127–141. Olmütz for encouraging such nonsense: Su p e r s t i t i o n ———. 2002. Blåkulla, magi och trolldomsprocesser: En folkloristisk was the enemy not only of the p h i l o s o p h e s but of all studie av folkliga trosföreställningar och av trolldomsprocesserna intelligent men! (Brechka 1970, 131–132). Ac c o rd i n g inom Svea Hovrätts jurisdiktion, 1597–1720.Uppsala: Section to van Swieten, customary laws we re also sources of of Ethnology and Folklore, Uppsala University. Summary in u n n e c e s s a ry distress; a general reform of criminal jus- English. tice was needed. Robbins, Rossell Hope. 1959. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and To sum up, van Swieten took three positions re g a rd- Demonology.NewYork: Crown. ing witchcraft. First, he stated that many accusations of Sjöberg, Rickard L. 1995. “Child Testimonies During an Ou t b re a k witchcraft we re products of fantasy, imagination, or of Witch Hysteria: Sweden, 1670–1671.” Journal of Child some form of mental illness. Second, he asserted that Psychlogy and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines6: 1039–1051. Sörlin, Per. 1997. “The Blåkulla Story: Absurdity and Rationality.” the pact with the Devil had no basis in re a l i t y. And Arv: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore53: 131–152. t h i rd, he argued that many phenomena attributed to 1096 Swieten, Gerard van

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1097 Application File s o rc e ry had natural causes. He did not say that all Levack, Brian P. 1999. “The Decline and End of Witchcraft aspects of witchcraft, especially maleficent magic, we re Prosecutions.” Pp. 1–93 in The Eighteenth and Nineteenth impossible. A devout Catholic like the empress, va n Centuries.Vol. 5 of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe.Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London Swieten believed in the existence of the Devil and stat- and Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania ed that the Protestants we re correct when they did not Press. deny that heathen people could be possessed by Venturi, Franco. 1969. Settecento riformatore.Vol. 1, Da Muratori demons from which they could be delive red only by a Beccaria, 1730–1764.Turin: Giulio Einaudi, pp. 379–382. baptism. Ne ve rtheless, van Swieten was much more skeptical tow a rd witchcraft than his fellow country- Swimming Test man and successor as a personal physician to Ma r i a One of the most frequently used ordeals of the Early T h e resa, Anton de Haen (1704–1776). In 1744, the and central Middle Ages was the cold-water ordeal. latter had stated in his tract De Ma g i a ( On Ma g i c ) , This legal test consisted of putting the accused in fetters published in Lutheran Leipzig, that witchcraft and and throwing him or her into a pool or very large con- diabolical magic really existed and that witches we re tainer filled with cold water. If guilty, it was believed the able to fly pure element would not accept the witch but would The impact that van Swieten’s memorandum had on keep the individual floating at the surface; if innocent, Maria Theresa was immediate. When she heard that a he or she would be able to stay submerged for some Bohemian peasant had been sentenced to death for time without drowning. Many churches in medieval s o rc e ry, she pardoned him, saying: “It is certain that Europe possessed such pools and had an episcopal priv- witches can only be found where there is ignorance. ilege to use the technique; the priest had to be present This man is no more capable of witchcraft than I!” in order to fulfill the religious ceremonies (blessing the (quoted in Venturi 1969, 380). Already in 1753, she water, singing the paraliturgical formulas), for which he had issued a decree on sorcery, followed in March 1755 received a fee. by a decree about so-called posthumous magic. Finally, Swimming of witches was attested from the late on August 6, 1756, the empress promulgated a general e l e venth century onward, but the practice re m a i n e d edict on witchcraft, superstition, and magic that uncommon before the sixteenth century. When the m a rked a decisive moment in the decline of witch Fo u rth Lateran Council forbade all ecclesiastics to hunting throughout the entire Habsburg Empire. After p a rticipate further in ordeals in 1215, this method of 1756, all such cases we re re q u i red to be submitted to finding the truth came into disuse and was re p l a c e d her conciliar appellate court for confirmation before by tort u re. Ne ve rtheless, the water ordeal either sur- sentences could be carried out. This edict gre a t l y v i ved better than other forms or was re v i ved in the reduced the possibility of prosecutions, and it virt u a l l y second half of the sixteenth century, when it became ended all executions: It forbade the use of tort u re , quite common in many parts of early modern Eu ro p e warned against searching for the De v i l’s mark, and (especially western and northern Ge r m a n y, Fr a n c e , forbade the use of the water ordeal (swimming test). England, the Netherlands, and Hu n g a ry) and was The number of witchcraft prosecutions and exe c u- extended to the New World (Virginia, Connecticut) tions immediately sank to minimal levels and defi- and even some Asian colonies (East India); because nitely stopped in 1777, the year after tort u re was the crime of witchcraft was re g a rded as extraord i n a ry, abolished. A decade earlier, in 1768, the empress had it re q u i red extraord i n a ry means of detection. In issued the o f ficial prohibition of witch hunting in English, the practice was called ducking or fleeting; in Austria-Hungary (Ankarloo and Clark 1999, 68–70). German, He xe n b a d , He xe n s c h we m m e n , or Wa s s e r p ro b e . Not infre q u e n t l y, as, for example, in the 1595–1596 DRIES VANYSACKER Geldern witchcraft trials, the test in question was See also:AUSTRIA;DECLINEOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;DEVIL’SMARK; f o l l owed by tort u re if the accused failed to sink. It ENLIGHTENMENT;HUNGARY;MARIATHERESA,HOLYROMAN seems to have been customary to strip the suspect EMPRESS;MORAVIA;REVENANTS;SILESIA;SKEPTICISM; naked and bind each thumb to the opposite-side toe SUPERSTITION;TRANSYLVANIA;VAMPIRE. and vice ve r s a . References and further reading: Despite being widely practiced, this ordeal was Brechka, Frank T. 1970. Gerard van Swieten and His World, usually illegal. Ac c o rding to mainstream learned 1700–1772.The Hague: Nijhoff. discussions of that period, especially by almost anyone Klaniczay, Gábor. 1988. “Gerard van Swieten und die Anfänge des trained in Roman or canon law, the swimming test was Kampfes gegen Abuerglauben in der Habsburg-Monarchie.” to be prohibited as fallacious evidence—although one Acta Historica Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae34: 225–247. celebrated authority, King James VI of Scotland, ———. 1990. The Uses of Supernatural Power: The Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early-Modern Europe. recommended it in his Daemonologie ( De m o n o l o g y, Edited by Karen Margolis. Translated by Susan Singerman. 1597, Book 3, chap. 6). An ove rwhelming consensus Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. among jurists and theologians of all major confessions Swimming Test 1097

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1098 Application File The swimming test (cold-water ordeal), called “ducking” in England, involved placing an accused witch, tied and bound, in water. If the water rejected the accused, the witch was guilty; if the person could remain submerged for a while, the accused was deemed innocent. (Fortean Picture Library) led to a series of official condemnations of this pro o f : Much later, the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa For the Spanish Netherlands, King Philip II declare d had to forbid the continuation of this ordeal twice, in this test illegal in 1595; in France, the Parlementof Paris 1740 and in 1766. In 1751, it was still used in England (sovereign judicial court, with jurisdiction over approx- (which had abolished the crime of witchcraft in 1736) imately one-half of France) forbade it in 1601; and in b e f o re lynching a witch. Two ve ry late instances of its 1603, the bishop of Bremen abolished it for his extralegal use by Eu ropean lynch mobs, suspecting a dioceses. Nonetheless, it was re p o rted to have been man to be a sorc e rer or a woman to be a witch, are practiced locally into the eighteenth and even the nine- re c o rded at De l d e n e r b ruck in Holland (in 1823) and teenth centuries; as late as 1636, the magistrates of Hela near Danzig (in 1836). A reminiscence of this Osnabrück declared it to be a valid juridical custom practice is the name Witch Pool, given to a portion of and as helpful a device for unmasking witches as the Bay of St. Andrews in Scotland. t o rt u re, and their English counterparts at Fa ve r s h a m Some extra-Eu ropean peoples employed identical o f ficially sanctioned it a few years later. In 1644, the methods to discover sorcerers: The famous Babylonian Ba varian commander in chief, Hans von Sp o rck, had Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1700 B.C.E.) describes the many of the women accompanying his troops throw n ordeal of plunging the suspected person into a river. For into the Kocher River at Schwäbisch-Hall in order to ancient Greece, there are some vague re f e rences to discover the witches among them. magicians who floated when thrown into water, but it is 1098 Swimming Test

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1099 Application File not clear whether an ordeal or a punishment was Sw i t zerland also has other unenviable distinctions in implied. this respect. It executed witches over a longer period ( f rom 1427 to 1782) than any other Eu ropean country. PETER DINZELBACHER In addition, re l a t i ve to its size, the present-day Sw i s s See also:EVIDENCE;FAVERSHAMWITCHES;LYNCHING;ORDEAL; Canton of Vaud was the worst witch-hunting re g i o n OSBORNE,JOHNANDRUTH;SHERWOOD,GRACE. a n y w h e re in Protestant Eu rope (Scotland was pro b a b l y References and further reading: its closest rival) and in French-speaking Eu rope (where Gersmann, Gudrun. 1998. “Wasserproben und Hexenprozesse: Catholic Lorraine was likely its closest rival). For that Ansichten der Hexenverfolgung im Fürstbistum Münster.” m a t t e r, the modern Swiss Canton of Ticino may we l l Westfälische Forschungen48: 449–481. h a ve been the worst witch-hunting region of It a l i a n - Pihlajamäki, Heikki. 2000. “‘Swimming the Witch, Pricking for speaking Eu rope. T h e re are few aspects of Eu ro p e a n the Devil’s Mark’: Ordeals in the Early Modern Witchcraft cultural history in which this small yet multicultural Trials.” Journal of Legal History21, no. 2: 35–59. Schormann, Gerhard. 1977. Hexenprozesse in Nordwestdeutschland. c o u n t ry seems so important as in the history of Hildesheim: August Lax, pp. 118–123. w i t c h c r a f t . Struve, Georg Adam, and Johann Christoph Nehring. 1687. Most of the places where the early forms of the Disputatio Iuridica De Indiciis & Proba Per Aquam Frigidam w i t c h e s’ Sabbat we re brought together and the fir s t Sagarum, Wasser-Jena. witch hunts were held soon after 1425 can be found in Wartena, R. 1954. “Een waterproef.” Bijdragen en mededelingen p resent-day Sw i t zerland—and the others usually lie in van Gelre54: 280. the neighboring French Alps (Savoy and Dauphiné) or Zguta, Russell. 1977. “The Ordeal byWater (Swimming of Italian Alps (the Val d’ Aosta). The single most impor- Witches) in the East Slavic World.” Slavic Review36: 220–230. tant event for diffusing the new blend of sorc e ry and h e resy symbolized by the diabolical witches’ Sa b b a t Switzerland occurred in 1439, when the schismatic Council of Basel In the territory of present-day Ge r m a n y, more witch- elected the former Duke Amadeus VIII of Sa voy to es we re executed than in the rest of Eu rope combined, become pope under the name of Felix V. yet the history of Eu ro p e’s witchcraft trials both began Geographically, this event connected the southwestern and ended in the region we now know as Sw i t ze r l a n d . corner of Sw i t zerland around Lake Ge n e va with its The Swiss Confederation, which was already indepen- northwestern border at Basel. It is deservedly unimpor- dent of the Holy Roman Em p i re of the Ge r m a n tant in the history of the Roman Church, since Felix V nation long before these trials started, has the unenvi- quickly joined the ranks of antipopes from the Gre a t able re c o rd of executing many more witches per Schism that began in 1378 and the ensuing conciliar thousand population than any other contemporary age; the Council of Basel finally disbanded a decade later, Eu ropean nation. Of course, exact fig u res will neve r in 1449. be known, but we can be reasonably certain that at But what made this forgotten footnote of ecclesiasti- least 5,000 witches we re put on trial between 1420 cal history so central to the history of European witch- and 1800 in what is now Sw i t zerland (a region that craft was that many events and writings related to the p robably contained under 1 million people aro u n d creation of the Sabbat occurred in Amadeus VIII’s large 1600), and that over 3,500 of them we re convicted Alpine duchy or right along its borders—including its and executed. For a land that presents itself as a peace- b o rders with the Swiss Confederation—and the new ful working democracy in the heart of Eu rope, fil l e d doctrines of the Sabbat received considerable attention with cheese, chocolate, ski re s o rts, and private banks, a c ross large parts of Christendom because the former this is indeed a dubious distinction. Sa voy a rd duke had been elected pope. Various Sw i s s In absolute numbers, of course, the area that is towns played important roles in shaping and spreading c u r rently Germany burned far more witches, perhaps the new doctrine: Lausanne (where the duke-pope’s s e ven times as many as Sw i t zerland. But Ge r m a n y’s personal secre t a ry settled in a rich benefice and com- population today is almost fourteen times gre a t e r posed a long epic poem containing a vivid description than Sw i t ze r l a n d’s, and this disparity was equally of witches); Sion (an Alpine prince-bishopric that g reat or even greater four centuries ago. Au t h o r i t i e s apparently lay at the center of Europe’s first major witch in this venerable, multilingual democracy (70 perc e n t hunt around 1428); Fribourg (where the Do m i n i c a n Ge r m a n-speaking, 20 percent French-speaking, 10 inquisitor Ulric de Torrenté investigated heretics in the p e rcent Italian-speaking) probably burned witches 1420s and witches a decade later); and, of course, Basel twice as often, on a per capita basis, as their modern ( w h e re a prominent Dominican reformer composed a German neighbors to the north, ten times as often as popular treatise containing an extensive and detailed their present-day French neighbors to the west, and account of witches’ activities during the council). Many almost a hundred times as often as the Italians to the of these places lie in French Sw i t zerland, and re c e n t s o u t h . scholarship clarifying this topic has come primarily Switzerland 1099

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1100 Application File from Lausanne, including a useful critical edition of the e xecuted six of them; Bern compiled a comparable re c o rd . major early texts on Sabbats (Os t o re ro, Bagliani, and This process seems to have been unaffected by the out- Utz Tremp 1999). However, the important Swiss land- b reak of the Protestant Reformation, which deeply divid- marks in developing a full-blown doctrine of witchcraft ed the Confederation after the 1520s; at most, it meant we re not confined to French-speaking regions. Fo r the end of witchcraft trials by inquisitors in some parts of example, the French word for “witch,” sorcière, cannot modern French Sw i t zerland, where they we re be traced to fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Sw i t zerland, but the immediately replaced by secular officials, often modern German noun for “witch,” He xe , was fir s t Protestants. Ulrich Zw i n g l i’s Zurich had tried witches for recorded at Lucerne in German Switzerland in 1419. generations and resumed executing them after his death Sw i t zerland continued to be dispro p o rt i o n a t e l y in 1531. At the other end of Sw i t zerland, Ge n e va exe c u t- i m p o rtant in the history of Eu ropean witchcraft after ed witches both before and after the Reformation; Jo h n the mid-fifteenth century, as the Sabbat and re l a t e d Calvin encouraged Ge n e va’s magistrates to “extirpate the concepts spread across much of western Eu rope. It s race [of witches]” from a rural parish in 1545. Some of rhythms of persecution we re obviously quite irre g u l a r, Sw i t ze r l a n d’s Catholic regions also continued to pro s e c u t e though the difficulties we face in documenting this are witches during this period. compounded by the erratic conservation of fif t e e n t h - St a rting in the final third of the sixteenth century, and early-sixteenth-century re c o rds. Ne ve rtheless, we re c o rded witchcraft trials multiplied dramatically in most know that no fewer than thirty-seven people were tried p a rts of Sw i t zerland. Although the necessary local studies for witchcraft by secular officials in Switzerland’s north- do not exist for a few of Sw i t ze r l a n d’s two dozen cantons, ernmost Italophone Alpine valley, Val Leventina, from enough is known to provide a reasonably clear ove r a l l 1457 to 1459, and twenty of them, including five men, p i c t u re of witchcraft trials in the old Confederation dur- we re burned (Schatzmann 2002, 139–142). A ing their peak phase, which lasted for approximately a Ge r m a n - Swiss woman tried for witchcraft in 1459 at c e n t u ry after 1570. After a long hiatus, witchcraft trials Andermatt, deep in the Alps, reportedly not only could began to be re c o rded in such central Swiss cantons as transform herself into a wolf but also had the ability to Obwalden or Schwyz in 1571. In that same year in the p rovoke avalanches. Mo re important, we know that a west, they also began in what is now the recently cre a t e d c ycle of witchcraft persecutions affected the Sw i s s canton of Jura; immediately to the south, in the canton Confederation during the decade between 1477 and of Neuchâtel, re c o rded witchcraft trials resumed in 1568 1486, with twenty witchcraft trials by secular authori- after an interval of almost eighty years. In eastern ties re c o rded at Bern, Fribourg, and Lucerne and Sw i t zerland, trials apparently began slightly later: Fo r another dozen by inquisitors in the diocese of example, Ap p e n zell executed ve ry few witches until the Lausanne. This cluster, which exactly coincided with 1580s, while St. Ga l l e n’s re c o rded witchcraft trials began the trials in Austria and south Germany that produced only after 1600. The large separate confederation that the Malleus Ma l e fic a rum (The Hammer of Wi t c h e s , occupied Sw i t ze r l a n d’s southeastern corner, the Gr i s o n s , 1486), also saw intensified “feminization” of witchcraft similarly began its re c o rded witch hunts in the seve n- in French Sw i t zerland, where, in 1481, a male witch teenth century. Howe ve r, the Grisons—a region of who had named only men as “a c c o m p l i c e s” was asked m i xed Protestant and Catholic, German-speaking and specifically if he had seen any women at the Sabbat. Italian-speaking populations—compensated for the late In Sw i t zerland, it took almost a century for the number s t a rt with considerable activity, re c o rding over 500 of witchcraft trials to surpass the totals re c o rded betwe e n witchcraft trials and over 250 executions for witchcraft in 1477 and 1486, the decade following the Confederation’s the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. defeat of the Burgundians. During the ensuing age of When one divides Sw i t zerland into Pro t e s t a n t , Swiss military prominence, when the Confederation Catholic, and mixed-religion cantons, no clear patterns expanded its borders to the modern limits in the west and of witch hunting emerge (see Table S-1). south, witchcraft trials continued to be held in va r i o u s The numbers in this table (taken mainly from Ba d e r p a rts of modern Sw i t zerland, especially in places such as 1945) suggest that throughout most of the Sw i s s Lausanne or Lucerne, which had prosecuted witches since Confederation, anywhere from half to two-thirds of the the mid-fifteenth century. For example, we know that six- people tried as witches we re executed, although they we re ty witches, almost all of them women, we re tried at seldom executed in large groups. Cantons without an Lucerne in thirty different years between 1490 and 1550; urban capital, such as Schwyz or Ap p e n zell, seem to have t wenty-six of them we re burned (Jäggi 2002, 145–146). been re l a t i vely seve re, but re c o rded trials we re not espe- T h e re is evidence that no fewer than thirty-six female and cially numerous in such places. By contrast, Sw i t ze r l a n d’s eighteen male “heretics,” most if not all of whom we re f ew urban cantons apparently we re re l a t i vely skeptical in witches, we re taken to Ge n e va and burned there betwe e n this respect: At Ge n e va, witchcraft executions ended 1463 and 1500 (Binz 1997, 577–578). Be t ween 1500 c o m p a r a t i vely early (with only one death after 1626), and 1550, the city-state of Basel tried eight witches and while Basel abolished tort u re in witchcraft trials in 1643. 1100 Switzerland

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1101 Application File Table S-1 e xecutions in Vaud remains unknown, a re m a rkable sur- vey (Kamber 1982) counted 970 of them during the fort y Catholic cantons Trials Executions (%) years after 1580. Extrapolating from this base, we must Lucerne (1550–1675) 505 254 (51%) also recall that witchcraft executions had persisted in this Solothurn (1550–1660) 122 55 (45%) region from the period before the Bernese conquest until Schwyz (1571–1682) 50 35 (70%) 1580; we know that over 100 witches we re burned in Jura (1571–1670) 191 100 (52%) Vaud during the 1629–1630 plague and famine and that St. Gallen (1600–1723) 38 24 (63%) s i g n i ficant numbers of witches we re being burned in this Protestant cantons Trials Executions (%) canton, as in neighboring Neuchâtel or Fribourg, until at least the 1670s (for example, there we re forty witchcraft Zurich (1533–1714) 220 74 (33%) trials dated between 1647 and 1671 in one bailliage [ b a i l i- Bern (undated) 124 40 (32%) Geneva (1527–1681) 337 68 (21%) wick], Moudun). The likeliest total of witches for the Neuchatel (1568–1677) 360 243 (68%) canton of Vaud would there f o re approach 1,700, the majority of them being burned under Bernese rule. Ma n y Mixed cantons Trials Executions (%) m o re witches died there than in the eleven cantons tabu- Appenzell (1579–1691) 91 62 (69%) lated earlier combined; Vaud probably accounted for ove r Grisons (1600–1750) 545 246 (43%) 40 percent, perhaps almost half, of the entire Swiss total. An unusually high number of Va u d’s witches we re male: Men, who had outnumbered women among These samples, drawn from most of the fif t e e n t h-c e n t u ry witches in this region, still accounted for b e s t-documented cantonal examples, offer few clues over one-third of Kamber’s sample. about why Sw i t zerland was Eu ro p e’s most intensive How did Vaud compile such an unenviable re c o rd? We w i t c h-hunting region. Explanations should be sought k n ow that two factors usually reduced witch hunting by less within Sw i t ze r l a n d’s thirteen original self-gove r n i n g the seventeenth century: careful religious indoctrination cantons (seven of them included in these samples) and at the local level and scrupulous supervision of local m o re within their “c o l o n i a l” possessions, the mostly judges by an appellate court. In Vaud, the Bernese failed French- or Italian-speaking territories the Swiss had con- miserably on both counts. As early as 1543, its Ge r m a n q u e red during their period of expansion after 1475. rulers expressed official worries about the extent of witch- C e rtain situations that maximized local autonomy craft in their recently conquered, French-speaking we l s c h- seemed to have provoked intensive but extremely local l a n d ,but they produced no effective educational re m e d y witch hunts in a few corners of present-day Sw i t ze r l a n d . until they issued a special catechism against witchcraft in One was de facto independence from a remote ove r l o rd 1665; furt h e r m o re, they never established an appellate outside the Swiss Confederation. For example, the c o u rt for criminal cases. Kamber’s survey showed that m i c ro region inhabited by fewer than 2,000 Fre n c h - Bern routinely approved all but a tiny handful of death speaking Protestant subjects of the former prince-bishop sentences handed down for witchcraft, re g a rdless of who of Basel (who still refused to join Sw i t ze r l a n d’s new p ronounced them. About half of the 1,000 exe c u t i o n s French Catholic canton) lived under Bernese pro t e c t i o n s u rve yed occurred in the ten b a i l l i a g e s g overned dire c t l y in two fully autonomous legal districts, which together by Bern, while the other half we re scattered across 91 of re c o rded about 120 executions for witchcraft betwe e n the re g i o n’s 142 autonomous seigneurial jurisdictions. 1607 and 1667 (Monter 1976, 107). At the opposite, All Va u d’s witches we re Protestants, and they prov i d e d eastern end of Sw i t zerland, the Ge r m a n - s p e a k i n g a total at least equal to that of the entire Kingdom of Catholic peasants of the Prättigau Valley liberated them- Scotland, a proverbially witch-ridden but vastly larger and s e l ves from Austrian authority in 1648 and joined the m o re populous place. By itself, Vaud guaranteed that Grisons; becoming fully autonomous, they immediately Sw i t ze r l a n d’s Protestants executed more witches than its began a witch hunt, the g roos Häxatöödi ( g reat witch Catholics did. Howe ve r, certain other aspects of witch killing), that claimed over 100 victims by 1660. hunting in Sw i t zerland suggest that some “s u p e r s t i t i o u s” Even worse was a Swiss “c o l o n i a l” possession with lax behaviors lasted longer in Catholic regions. An examina- s u p e rvision from its cantonal ove r l o rds. The It a l o p h o n e tion of two particular problems associated with witchcraft Val Leventina (Ticino), a high Alpine valley governed by and witchcraft trials in Sw i t zerland—hailstorms and the canton Uri and the scene of serious witch hunting in the De v i l’s mark—will help illuminate these contrasts. m i d - fifteenth century, held over 250 witchcraft trials In this Alpine region, grain and wine harvests we re b e t ween 1610 and 1687 (Scanni 1997). The pre s e n t - d a y e x t remely vulnerable to sudden and seve re hailstorms dur- French-speaking canton of Vaud, governed since 1536 i n gthe growing season. Consequently, fif t e e n t h-c e n t u ry by the Protestant Germanophone canton of Bern, pro- Swiss witches were almost invariably accused of causing vides a much larger and even more gruesome illustration them. This belief seems to have been intact when of thissituation. Although the exact number of witchcraft witchcraft trials resumed on a greater scale in seve r a l Switzerland 1101

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1102 Application File parts of Switzerland after 1560. One finds accusations and we re buried in unconsecrated ground. The fin a l of making hail at Ge n e va in 1567 and occasionally at legal execution of a witch anywhere in Eu rope occurre d Zurich even after 1600 (7 instances in 86 pre s e rve d in the Protestant part of the canton of Glaris, after a witchcraft trials), but such charges had almost disap- m a i d s e rvant named Anna Göldi was arrested for causing p e a red from witchcraft trials in Protestant Sw i t ze r l a n d her employe r’s daughter to become demonically pos- by the seventeenth century. Meanwhile, this dangerous sessed. Because her accuser was a doctor, the indictment form of maleficium (harmful magic) endured through- a voided terms such as w i t c h c ra f t or m a g i c in favor of a out Catholic Switzerland’s witchcraft trials until the end n ew crime called Ku n s t k ra f t( a rt i ficial power). But Anna of the seventeenth century. Sw i t zerland appears to Göldi was nonetheless beheaded for this offense in Ju n e c o n firm the schema for southwestern Ge r m a n y 1782, and her fiancé, who was arrested with her, hanged ( Mi d e l f o rt 1972, 36–56), wherein Protestant theolo- himself in prison. In t e r rupting the age of Mo z a rt and gians promoted a “p rov i d e n t i a l i s t” interpretation of Goethe, the Glaris affair—replete with the futile gesture hailstorms that reduced the role of demons—and thus of a cantonal executioner burning some pamphlets ridi- of witches—in provoking them. culing the local authorities—scandalized enlightened Se a rching a suspected witch for the De v i l’s mark, how- opinion in central Eu ro p e . e ve r, soon became a local Protestant specialty. This prac- WILLIAM MONTER tice was unknown in fif t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Sw i t zerland, but it had become standard practice by the mid-sixteenth cen- See also:ANHORN,BARTHOLOMÄUS;BASEL,COUNCILOF;CALVIN, t u ry at both Ge n e va and Vaud, where Protestants placed JOHN;DEVIL’SMARK;FEUGEYRON,PONCE;GAPPIT,PERRISSONA; g reater emphasis on the witch’s pact with the De v i l . G E N EVA; G Ö L D I, A N N A; H E R E S Y; H O LYRO M A NE M PI R E; LAU S A N N E, Se a rching for the mark spread to other parts of Pro t e s t a n t DIOCESEOF;MALEWITCHES;MOUNTAINSANDTHEORIGINSOF WITCHCRAFT;NIDER,JOHANNES;NUMBEROFWITCHES;ORIGINS Sw i t zerland only around 1600 but took far longer to be OFTHEWITCHHUNTS;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;TORRENTÉ, adopted and taken seriously in Catholic Sw i t zerland. Fo r ULRICDE;VALAIS;VAUD,PAYSDE;WEATHERMAGIC. example, De v i l’s marks we re described in all thirty witch- References and further reading: craft confessions in Protestant Moudun (Vaud) fro m Bader, Guido. 1945. Die Hexenprozesse in der Schweiz.Affolteren. 1647 to 1670, but they we re found on only about half of Binz, Louis. 1997. “Les débuts de la chasse aux sorcières dans le a comparable sample of accused witches examined in diocèse de Genève.” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance neighboring Catholic Fribourg from 1644 to 1683. 59: 561–581. In the area of present-day Switzerland, witchcraft tri- Jäggi, Stefan. 2002. “Luzerner Verfahren wegen Zauberei und als began extremely early and ended comparatively late. Hexerei bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts.” Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte52: 143–150. Although witches we re rarely hunted in most other Kamber, Peter. 1982. “La chasse aux sorciers et aux sorcières dans parts of western Europe (England, France, Spain, Italy) le Pays de Vaud: Aspects quantitatifs (1581–1620).” Revue after about 1670, some regions of the Sw i s s Historique Vaudoise90: 21–33. Confederation we re still holding numerous witchcraft Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch-Hunting in Southwestern trials, and a few continued to do so far into the Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. “e n l i g h t e n e d” eighteenth century. Most parts of we s t- Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ern and northern Switzerland, like Louis XIV’s France, Monter,William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: had abandoned witch hunting well before 1700. Ye t The Borderlands During theReformation.Ithaca, NY, and one finds a witchcraft trial in a mountainous Protestant London: Cornell University Press. corner of the Jura in 1706, while the patriciate of Ostorero, Martine, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, and Kathrin Utz Catholic Fribourg used witchcraft as a legal conve- Tremp, eds. 1999. L’imaginaire du Sabbat: Edition critique des textes les plus anciens.Lausanne: Université de Lausanne. nience to execute a female troublemaker as late as 1731. Scanni, Matteo. 1997. “Fonti e parametri per lo studio dei In the present-day canton of Valais, the scene of processi per stregoneria in valle Levantina, 1610–1687.” Eu ro p e’s first large-scale witch hunt in 1428, two Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte91: 55–94. witches were burned more than three centuries later, in Schatzmann, Niklaus. 2002. “Hexenprozesse in der Levantina und 1730, and still others were put on trial even afterward. die Anfänge der Hexenverfolgung auf der Alpensüdseite Witchcraft trials lasted even longer in the central and (1431–1459).” Schweizerische Zeitschrift fürGeschichte52: eastern Alps, particularly in Sw i t ze r l a n d’s original “f o re s t 138–142. cantons.” In Zug, spontaneous denunciations by a teenage girl who claimed to transform herself into an Sympathy animal, make hail, and fly to the Sabbat triggered a Poorly understood in its early modern context, this small panic in 1737 that ended with five burnings; a fundamental concept of natural philosophy originated in sixth prisoner surv i ved after being tort u red twe l ve times. Greek cosmology and science, but it is usually pre s e n t e d In 1753, witchcraft trials occurred in both the as a superstitious form of sorc e ry, known today as sym- Italophone Grisons at Po s c h i a vo and in the canton of pathetic magic. W h i c h e ver definition one focuses on— Schwyz, where two suspects died under interro g a t i o n the former deeply rooted in Aristotelian physics, the 1102 Sympathy

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1103 Application File latter in the Hermetic tradition of Re n a i s s a n c e between two bodies and the tendency of the one toward Neoplatonism—sympathy was essential to early modern the other,juxtaposed with antipathy.” Briefly, the doc- Eu ropean cosmology, as it explained the functioning of trine of sympathy proposed the existence of unseen the universe in terms of a dynamic relational force. Ou r f o rces of attraction in the universe that affected modern psychological understanding of sympathy (con- relationships among planets, plants, animals, metals, noting compassion and a motivation to philanthro p y ) stones, and so forth. In this sense, sympathy performed emerged only gradually during the eighteenth century, in the same epistemological function as gravitation or bourgeois sentimental literature, philanthropic philoso- René De s c a rt e s’ theory of vo rtices. In essence, sympa- p h y, and even in the works of political economists. thetic attraction can be simplified either in Aristotelian terms of microcosm and macrocosm or in atomist The Doctrine of Sympathy terms as the attraction of the four basic and universally Et y m o l o g i c a l l y, s y m p a t h y(sym and pa´d o )ß meant “to be p resent elements—earth, water, air, and fire. Be c a u s e affected together” in Greek and was first employed in a the human body was composed of all four, it was sub- consistent manner by the ancient Stoics (Kranz and ject more than most to the exigencies of Probst 1998). Ac c o rding to the pre valent theory of the s y m p a t h y / a n t i p a t h y. The endogenous balance of ele- affects, it embraced the commonality of emotions among ments not only defined the individual temperament people but in a material and biological fashion that also ( m e l a n c h o l y, phlegmatic, sanguine, and choleric, encompassed physical attractions between planetary respectively) but also left humans emotionally affected bodies and their influence on society, culture, political by exogenous factors, such as the position of the stars or e vents, and individual health. By the sixteenth and sev- c e rtain types of magic. Based as they we re on natural enteenth centuries, the doctrine was hegemonic, re p re- p h i l o s o p h y, these holistic perceptions we re highly senting the generally accepted basis for a cosmological i n fluential in contemporary understandings of disease i n t e rconnectedness of all things physical and metaphysi- and witchcraft, and they help explain the popularity of cal (hylomorphism), there by offering grounds for causa- common forms of healing, for example, the astrological tion in an otherwise unchanging universe. Howe ve r, as medicine practiced by Richard Napier in early-s e ve n- sympathy (juxtaposed to antipathy, its exactly opposite teenth-century England or the more famous theories of f o rce) lacked any materially observable basis, its unive r s a l Robert Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy(1621). p ower was ascribed to occult forces, generally prove d i n d u c t i vely on the basis of experience or simply thro u g h Sympathetic Magic i n t rospection. As an Aristotelian worldview became sys- The high level of active interplay between learned opin- t e m a t i zed during the Renaissance, the doctrine of sym- ions on the doctrine of sympathy and popular belief pathy achieved its greatest influence. With symphathy structures becomes apparent through an examination of c o n s i d e red the occult force behind the He r m e t i c sympathetic magic. One of the most comprehensive mechanics of the universe, the doctrine was easily adapt- descriptions of this particular form of magic (as related ed to clarify incongruities in an otherwise logically con- to but distinct from other forms, such as apotropaic sistent system based on philosophy rather than empirical and somatic magic) derived from the first significant deduction. The doctrine of sympathy permeated nearly chapter of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough (1922). all fields of knowledge, including Neostoicist political Frazer differentiated between two forms of sympathetic t h e o ry (in which it was re n d e red in social terms of magic—homeopathic, or imitative, magic and conta- c o n c o rd i a / d i s c o rd i a , c o n c o rdor sympathy and discord or gious magic. The former (based upon the Law of antipathy); astro l o g y / a s t ronomy; alchemy/chemistry ; Similarity) presumes that “like produces like, or that an and perhaps most of all medicine. T h e re, it was effect resembles its cause”; the latter (based on the Law e m p l oyed within the framew o rk of Galenic humoral of Contact or Contagion) supposes that “things which pathology by Gi rolamo Fr a c a s t o ro to explain infectious have once been in contact with each other continue to diseases. During the sixteenth-century renaissance of De act on each other at a distance after the physical contact An i m a ( On the Soul, Aristotle’s work that served as the has been severed” (Frazer 1993, 11). Zedler offered an basic Western psychology text well into the eighteenth exhaustive list of substances that exerted sympathetic c e n t u ry), the doctrine of sympathy was much discussed attractions upon each other. Common examples of in relation to the mind–body problematic. Another sympathetic magic include the use of a victim’s hair in i m p o rtant proponent of the doctrine of sympathy at that image magic (for example, the voodoo doll), urine in time was Rudolf Goclenius the Younger (who, inciden- love potions, dead-body parts obtained from the execu- t a l l y, introduced the term p s yc h o l o gyin the first published tioner, or magical diagnoses made through the exami- w o rk on the subject). nation of a victim’s clothing (see, for instance, Thomas The eighteenth-century German encyc l o p e d i s t 1971, 183–185). One of the most famous examples of Johann Heinrich Zedler defined sympathy as “a teach- a sympathetic cure was the so-called Pulvis sympatheti- ing in natural philosophy of a hidden agre e m e n t cus (Powder of Sympathy), also known as the weapon Sympathy 1103

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46049 Golden Chap.S av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1104 Application File s a l ve. In the early seventeenth century, numero u s e r a t u re and early writings on psyc h i a t ry, which was authors debated the substance’s occult power to cure then beginning to assume its modern contours. Other battle wounds even at great distances, an ability s u rv i vals can still be found in medicine (especially the attributed to certain powders or ointments dipped on a homeopathic variant) and psyc h o l o g y. Sympathy also sword. Although not properly regarded as “magic” by formed a significant aspect of the philanthro p i c contemporaries, this cure nevertheless illustrates the philosophy of David Hume and of theories of political close practical relationship between popular sympathet- economy propounded by Adam Smith and others (Van ic magic and the learned doctrine of sympathy. der Lühe 1998). Ne ve rtheless, in historical terms, an understanding of the older, early modern usage of sym- Decline, Transformation, and pathy is crucial to any understanding of Enlightenment Historical Significance l u m i n a r i e s’ contemporary epistemology. In d e e d , Although Kenelm Digby’s 1630 treatise on the weapon sympathy can be viewed as a critical component for the salve went into twenty-nine editions and Zedler still felt explanation of universal interconnectedness and unity obliged to enter it uncritically into his Un i ve r s a l in the era prior to the emergence of what Mi c h e l Encyclopedia in 1744, the scientific doctrine of sympa- Foucault called a new “order of things” in the discourse thy was long on the wane. Apart from a fierce polemic of human knowledge. conducted between Goclenius and his opponents, the Flemish Jesuit Johannes Ro b e rti and the Du t c h DAVID LEDERER Paracelsian, chemist, and physiologist Jan Baptist van See also:ASTROLOGY;HERMETICISM;IMAGEMAGIC;MAGIC, Helmont, the doctrine was fundamentally undermined NATURAL;MEDICINEANDMEDICALTHEORY;OCCULT; by the greatest empiricist of Digby’s day, Francis Bacon. PARACELSUS,THEOPHRASTUSBOMBASTUSVONHOHENHEIM. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Bacon References and further reading: condemned the doctrine as “idle and ignorant con- Clark, Stuart. 1997. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft ceits,” noting that “what are called occult and specific in Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. properties, or sympathies and antipathies, are in great Frazer, James. 1993. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and part corruptions of philosophy” (quoted in Kranz and Religion.Wordsworth: Wordsworth Editions. Kranz, M., and P. Probst. 1998: “SympathieI.” Pp. 751–756 in Probst 1998). The epistemological dilemma posed by Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie. Vol. 10. Edited by the doctrine of sympathy in the Baconian age is Joachim Ritter and Karlfried Grüner. Darmstadt: compellingly explored in Umberto Eco’s novel The Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. Island of the Day Before (1994). By the eighteenth Lederer, David. 2005. Madness, Religion and the State in Early century, the debate over the doctrine of sympathy in Modern Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. the natural sciences had been largely supplanted by an Lindemann, Mary. 1999. Medicine and Society in Early Modern analogous one over the properties of magnetism. A Europe.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. cornerstone of the wonder cures employed by Franz Thomas, Keith. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London: Anton Mesmer, the occult power of his fluid doctrine Weidenfeld and Nicolson. of magnetism was discredited in 1784 by a French com- Van der Lühe, A. 1998. “SympathieII.” Pp. 756–762 in mission composed of the chemist Antoine Lavoisier, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie. Vol. 10. Edited by Joachim Ritter and Karlfried Gründer. Darmstadt: Paris mayor Jean Bailly, Dr. Joseph Guillotin, and the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. American Benjamin Franklin (ironically, Lavoisier and Wispé, Lauren. 1991. The Psychology of Sympathy.NewYork: Bailly were both later beheaded by the device named Plenum. after Guillotin). Zedler, Johann Heinrich. 1733. “Blutstillendes Pulver.” Pp. However, the doctrine of sympathy was transformed 272–273 in Universal Lexikon. Vol. 4. Leipzig. and surv i ved, first in the English moral sense-philoso- ———. 1744. “Sympathie.” Pp. 744–750 in Universal Lexikon. phy of Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Vol 41. Leipzig. and subsequently in eighteenth-century sentimental lit- 1104 Sympathy

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1105 Application File T Táltos their “soul animals” (dragon, eagle, snake, dog, horse, and The t á l t o s was a shamanistic magician active in so on), as well as through the otherworldly spheres they Hungarian village communities until the nineteenth visited and their mythological enemies. Despite these dif- century.Through his ability to attain a state of trance, f e rences, almost all types (including the t á l t o s found in a shaman enabled his soul to leave his body and thus witchcraft trials) communicated with the dead, in their fulfilled the role of mediating between this and the oth- role as guarding spirits. The dragon and the dead re l a t i ve s erworld. Researchers (Diószegi 1958; Róheim 1961) a p p e a red among their guardian and calling spirits, and considered the mythology and rituals of the táltos as horses, bulls, and snakes appeared as helping or soul legacies from a pre-Christian Hungarian shamanism animals. In eve ry case with detailed documentation, the and found his closest counterparts in the shamans of t á l t o salso claimed a Christian dimension: Their guard i a n Altaic peoples, thus placing the táltos in the context of and calling spirit was God, Jesus, or the Virgin Ma ry. classic Eurasian shamanism, originally connected to a “ He a ve n l y” shamans also had some we rewolf traits that hunting culture. This eastern connection is substantiat- a p p e a red at birth (being born with a caul, with a wing or ed by the Fi n n o - Ugric and Tu rkic origin of the bristles, or with two lines of teeth), and their capacity for Hungarian word táltos as well as the verbs révül and, trance was closely connected with their we rewolf nature . rejtezik,both of which refer to a state of trance. The underworld type displayed many characteristics of T h e re is no medieval information about the t á l t o s .It s m o ra(a pressing night demon or someone with a capacity mythology and rites can be re c o n s t ructed fro m for communicating with the dead in trances). s e venteenth- and eighteenth-century witchcraft cases and The activities of the seventeenth- and eighteenth- f rom nineteenth- and twe n t i e t h - c e n t u ry folklore c e n t u ry Hungarian t á l t o s , like those of other central collections. Such data connect the t á l t o s to other Eu ropean shamanistic magicians, we re closely inter- traditions and practices of so-called Eu ropean shaman- twined with those of the village witch. Identifying the ism related to agricultural fert i l i t y. The closest parallels to witch and remedying her damage ranked among the the t á l t o s a re the b e n a n d a n t i (dogooders) of Fr i u l i táltos’ most important communal functions. The clear- ( Ginzburg 1983) or the magicians still active in the Ba l t i c est example of a double táltos in Hungarian witchcraft in the early modern times and much later in the Ba l k a n s , trials appeared in the 1728 case of Erzsébet Tóth, a who, at the start of the agricultural season, conducted woman from Jászberény, who displayed both “heaven- soul fights on storm clouds against demons and dead ly” and “underworld” traits. She was born with a double people who would try to destroy the harvest with line of teeth characteristic of Balkan we rew o l f - hailstorms. They existed alongside other, usually female, magicians and was then initiated by Jesus, exc h a n g i n g seers whose community functions included healing, one of her teeth for the medicine she used for healing. questioning the dead, and locating tre a s u re thro u g h In court, she claimed she was the “daughter of Christ,” various occult “s e e i n g” techniques or divination who helped her during battles fought in storm clouds p ro c e d u res (chiefly mirror divination). These two types and who gave her the keys to heaven. She protected the o f f e red alternatives of the same system, a sort of “d o u b l e c rops from hail raised by spells of the evil ones (evil s h a m a n i s m” (Ginzburg 1991). The seventeenth- and dead, witches) and also had a dragon as a helping spirit. e i g h t e e n t h - c e n t u ry Hungarian t á l t o sre p resent both types Once she had even saved all of Hungary from an earth- of double shamanism; the twe n t y - s e ven mentions quake. Erzsébet Tóth was also a seer who knew “all in contained in the documents of Hungarian witchcraft the world that is in the gro u n d” and who identifie d persecution between 1626 and 1750 refer on rare thieves, predicted fire and death, and, helped by mora occasions to a t á l t o s whose magic was aimed at the soul animals, communicated with an earthly other- we a t h e r, but more frequently they refer to tre a s u re - world. She cured spells and identified witches, but she seeking t á l t o s . could also lay spells herself. The various types of central Eu ropean magicians can Another detailed example comes from the 1741 trial be distinguished through their unique guardian spirits, of three t á l t o s ( Suska Kõmives, György Tapodi, and Táltos 1105

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1106 Application File Judit Szõcs) held at Miskolc (Borsod County, witch hunts. Born at Innsbruck (Tyrol), he became a Hu n g a ry). It focused on various forms of fig h t i n g . Jesuit in 1590. After studying rhetoric and theology at During their “journeys” at Whitsun and St. John’s Day, Dillingen and Ingolstadt (Bavaria), Tanner became a these t á l t o s went in groups stru c t u red by gender and professor of scholastic theology at Ingolstadt in 1603. age, to fight in a state of trance, taking the shape of a Apart from short periods at the universities of Vienna dove, fish, or fox. and Prague and at the Jesuit convent of Hall in Tyrol, The communal activity of the táltos had vanished by he taught at Ingolstadt for the rest of his life. When the the twentieth century, but its memory haunts eve n Thirty Years’War reached Bavaria in 1632, Tanner tried t o d a y’s folklore. Stories still mention their birth traits to flee to Tyrol but died en route. (being born with teeth or occasionally with bird s’ Tanner published twenty books, most of them wings), their weather magic, and their battles in the harsh attacks on Protestantism and on all adve r s a r i e s shape of a bull or a horse to ensure good weather for of the Jesuit ord e r. One of his major achievements was their village. Occasionally, a t á l t o sborn with the traits of the reception of Spanish Molinist theology north of a snake, dragon, or eagle or using such helping spirits the Alps. In one of his two treatises on astro n o m y, also appears in late modern legends, as does the notion Tanner applauded Galileo as a mathematician, eve n of t á l t o s fighting in groups. Such traits relate the táltos though he apparently rejected the idea of a heliocen- to south Slavic and Italian magicians, but being born tric universe. A crater on the moon, Ta n n e ru s with teeth (but not with a double line of teeth) remains (latitude 56.4 south, longitude 22.0 east), was named a uniquely Hungarian characteristic. in honor of the Ingolstadt pro f e s s o r. Witchcraft played a minor role in Ta n n e r’s writings. ÉVA PÓCS; He often avoided the subject deliberately, never men- TRANSLATED BY ORSOLYA FRANK tioning witches when discussing such things as false miracles, idolatry, or the magical power of churc h See also:ANIMALS;BENANDANTI;CAUL;HUNGARY;HUNGARYAND SOUTHEASTERNEUROPE,MAGIC;LYCANTHROPY;NIGHTMARES; bells. Howe ve r, Tanner broke this silence on seve r a l SHAMANISM;WEATHERMAGIC. occasions. Even though he was a pupil of Gre g o ry of References and further reading: Valencia and knew the Ba varian Jesuit Jacob Gre t s e r, Diószegi, Vilmos. 1958. “Die Überreste des Schamanismus in der both outspoken advocates of witch hunts, he dis- ungarischen Volkskultur.” Acta Ethnographica Academiae tanced himself from their ideas ve ry early in his care e r. Hungariae7: 97–135. During a public disputation with Protestant theolo- Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian gians in 1601, Tanner attacked the Protestant Ja k o b Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.Baltimore: He i l b ro n n e r, who had denounced the cabbalist Johns Hopkins University Press. First published as I benandan- Johann Pistorius (Niddanus) as a witch. In his ti: Stregoneria e culti agrari tra Cinquecento e Seicento.Turin: As t rologia sacra ( Sa c red Astrology; Ingolstadt, 1615), Einaudi, 1966. he rejected astrology as blasphemous nonsense while ———. 1991. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. NewYork: Pantheon. defending Johannes Trithemius against allegations of Hoppál, Mihály. 1984. “Traces of Shamanism in Hungarian Folk magic. In doing so, he openly contradicted two other Beliefs.” Pp. 430–449 in Shamanism in Eurasia. Edited by p rominent Jesuit scholars, St. Ro b e rt Bellarmine and Mihály Hoppál. Göttingen: Herodot. Ma rtín Del Rio. Klaniczay, Gábor. 1984. “Shamanistic Elements in Central At the height of his care e r, Tanner included a European Witchcraft.” Pp. 404–422 in Shamanism in Eurasia. critical discussion of witchcraft trials in his most Edited by Mihály Hoppál. Göttingen: Herodot. i m p o rtant work, Un i versa theologia scholastica, specu- Pócs, Éva. 1989. “Hungarian Táltos and His European Parallels.” l a t i va, pra c t i c a (Complete Scholastic T h e o l o g y, Pp. 251–276 in Uralic Mythology and Folklore. Ethnologia Sp e c u l a t i ve and Practical; Ingolstadt, 1626/1627), a Uralica 1. Edited by Mihály Hoppál and Juha Pentikäinen. monumental commentary on Thomas Aquinas. T h i s Budapest and Helsinki: Ethnographic Institute of the text was based on a now-lost consultation on witch Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Finnish Literature Society. ———. 1999. Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on hunts that he had written in 1602 for the Ba va r i a n Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age.Translated by Szilvia g overnment. Tanner presumably returned to the top- Rédey and Michael Webb. Budapest: Central European ic because witch hunts of unprecedented vigor had University Press. s t a rted north of Ba varia in 1626. Friedrich Spee quot- Róheim, Géza. 1961. “Hungarian Shamanism.” Pp. 3:131–169 in ed Ta n n e r’s text on witchcraft trials extensive l y. Psychoanalysis and the Social Sciences.Edited by Géza Róheim. W h e reas Sp e e’s brilliant polemics we re bitter and full NewYork: International Universities Press. of personal sentiment, Ta n n e r’s criticism was dis- tanced and meticulously erudite. Both we re skeptical Tanner, Adam (1572–1632) about the discre t i o n a ry powers of judges, and both One of Germany’s most highly esteemed Catholic rejected the idea that God would not allow innocents theologians, Tanner was also an important critic of to be condemned as witches. 1106 Tanner, Adam

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1107 Application File Tanner admitted that witches’ Sabbats did happen, p rosecution, which was still continuing in several part s but he was skeptical about “spectral evidence” because of Eu rope after several centuries, Ta rt a rotti tried to demons could assume anyo n e’s outer appearance (that p rove that the superstitious belief in witchcraft was com- is, he believed that judges could never be sure that a pletely groundless. In his first volume of Del congre s s o,a person allegedly seen at a witches’ Sabbat had re a l l y long journey through the world of horro r, he rew ro t e been there). Ne ve rtheless, Tanner basically accepted the history of witchcraft belief from its origin until his denunciations of accomplices by condemned witches as d a y, concluding by identifying modern witches with the c i rcumstantial evidence. Howe ve r, suspects should be adepts of Diana, whom the Canon Ep i s c o p i(ca. 906) had i n vestigated only if three witches, who had been c o n s i d e red victims of diabolic illusions. Thus, Ta rt a ro t t i condemned and who honestly repented of their crimes, was glad to confirm the opinion expressed by Lu d ov i c o denounced the same person freely and independently Antonio Muratori in Della forza della fantasia umana and if there was corroborating evidence against that ( On the St rength of Human Ph a n t a s y, 1745) that person. Denunciations against persons with a good witches had never existed. But, contrary to Mu r a t o r i’s reputation should be ignored. Tanner was extre m e l y optimism about the absence of any contemporary witch careful, but he did not arrive at Spee’s total rejection of b e l i e f, Ta rt a rotti provided evidence of ongoing beliefs denunciations as evidence. and prosecutions in Ge r m a n y. Tanner urged princes not to punish any witches who In the second volume, Ta rt a rotti included a t ruly repented and re voked their pact with the De v i l d e finition of the social and psychological character of b e f o re criminal proceedings against them had start e d . the witch, who was according to him a poor and under- His ideas about the re p ression of witchcraft obv i o u s l y nourished person in an impoverished country s i d e , contradicted those of the demonologists and witch geographically isolated, and susceptible to fantasies and hunters. Tanner believed that spiritual means we re hallucinations due to her melancholia and hypochon- much more effective than criminal procedures: prayers, dria. In volume 3, he seve rely criticized the Je s u i t p rocessions, and the use of relics and blessed amulets demonologist Ma rtín Del Rio, whose D i s q u i s i t i o n u m we re sufficient to ward off demons. The best way to magicae libri sex ( Six Books on In vestigations into extirpate witchcraft was to strengthen public order and Magic), first published in 1599/1600, remained popu- m o r a l i t y. Tanner tried to re s p i r i t u a l i ze the crime of lar in Tartarotti’s days, having been reprinted at Venice witchcraft: Witches should be won back to the Church, as recently as 1746. Besides Ta rt a ro t t i’s denial of the not killed. His fellow Jesuit Spee still paid lip service to existence of witches and witchcraft, a second statement d e m o n o l o g y, but it is ve ry likely that Spee no longer about the historical genuineness of magicians also made believed in witches. This is probably the reason why he Tartarotti’s Del congresso notturno delle lammie famous. ignored Tanner’s “spiritualization” of witchcraft. According to Tartarotti, magicians had all belonged to the world of Renaissance humanism and were men who JOHANNES DILLINGER intended to violate God’s law by using demonic powers. See also:BAVARIA,DUCHYOF;DELRIO,MARTÍN;GREGORYOF It started a discussion among the Italian intelligentsia VALENCIA;GRETSER,JACOB;INGOLSTADT,UNIVERSITYOF; about magic and witchcraft. JESUITS(SOCIETYOFJESUS); SKEPTICISM;SPECTRALEVIDENCE; Among fourteen others, Gianrinaldo Carli SPEE,FRIEDRICH;TRITHEMIUS,JOHANNES. (1720–1795) and Scipione Maffei reacted to References and further reading: Tartarotti’s statements: Neither of them believed in the Behringer,Wolfgang. 1992. “Zur Haltung Adam Tanners in der historical reality of magic. Carli saw no differe n c e Hexenfrage.” Pp. 161–183 in Vom Unfug des Hexen-Processes. between magicians and witches: Both, in his view, were Edited by Hartmut Lehmann and Otto Ulbricht. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. swindlers and had to be punished. In 1751, the Dillinger, Johannes. 2000. “Adam Tanner und Friedrich Spee: Franciscan Benedetto Bonelli seve rely attacked Zwei Gegner der Hexenverfolgung aus dem Jesuitenorden.” Tartarotti: He saw both magic and witchcraft as diabol- Spee Jahrbuch6: 31–58. ically inspired arts that really existed. In his re s p o n s e , Lurz, Wilhelm. 1932.Adam Tanner und die Gnadenstreitigkeiten Apologia del congresso notturno delle lammie(Apologia of des 17. Jahrhunderts.Breslau: Müller und Seiffert. the Nocturnal Gatherings of the Witches; Ve n i c e , 1751), Tartarotti admitted that his distinction between Tartarotti, Girolamo (1706–1761) the genuineness of magic and witchcraft was strategic: After a long pre p a r a t o ry period of re s e a rch and diffic u l- He feared that denying both would compromise his ties with censorship, the Italian historian and writer fight to liberate the so-called witches, because prosecu- Gi rolamo Ta rt a rotti published Del congresso notturn o tions and executions still continued. Ta rt a rotti re a l l y delle lammie ( On Nocturnal Gatherings of Witches) in was concerned for the victims of witchcraft trials. In t h ree volumes at Venice in 1749. As a supplement, he 1749, he had tried—in vain—to influence the judges w rote two epistolary dissertations on the magical art s . who wanted to burn a sixteen-year-old girl at the stake Touched by a human piety for all the victims of the in Salzburg. Tartarotti, Girolamo 1107

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1108 Application File One year before his death in 1755, Maffei wrote his intermediate between humans and the divine and with final response to Ta rt a rotti. In his L’ Arte magica annichi- a body composed from a substance like air). This “mes- l a t a (The Magical Arts Annihilated; Ve rona, 1754), he senger” provided theological, cosmological, ontological, was really annihilating Ta rt a ro t t i’s distinction betwe e n and epistemological evidence that angels and d a e m o n s witchcraft and magic. Maffei claimed that on theologi- (including “d e m o n s”) are not imaginary but real. T h e cal, philosophical, or even ethical grounds, Ta rt a ro t t i’s first argument is inductive: Daemons “save the appear- position was untenable: How could judges distinguish a ances,” or provide causal explanations of observed phe- poor witch from a diabolical magician? And how did nomena. If sorc e rers, witches, and possessed persons Ta rt a rotti know that the harm caused by a witch was less exist, then d a e m o n s exist; because eve ry age re c o rd s serious than the harm caused by magic? Ta rt a rotti was examples of them, then daemonsexist. i m p ressed by Maffei. In his anonymous response to ye t Ta s s o’s second argument was deductive: Na t u re is by another attack by the tireless Bonelli in 1755, Ta rt a ro t t i d e finition both complete and hierarchically graduated. often based his answers on Ma f f e i’s statements. Contrary Souls ascended stepwise from sponges and shellfish to to fanatically blind polemicists like Bonelli, Ta rt a ro t t i man. Howe ve r, Renaissance Neoplatonists (such as w rote, he and Maffei we re enlightened Catholics who Marsilio Ficino and Gi ovanni Pico della Mi r a n d o l a ) wanted their society to benefit from their eru d i t i o n . e r roneously called man the perfect microcosm, or knot Indeed, Maffei and Ta rt a rotti each tried in his own way of the universe. True, man’s soul mediated betwe e n to liberate eighteenth-century people from superstitious b rute beasts’ and angels’ souls, but man’s body was mor- belief in witches and magicians. tal and corruptible, like beasts’ bodies. Angels, including A r i s t o t l e’s “intelligences,” we re incorporeal, immort a l , DRIES VANYSACKER and exempt from suffering. If the universe we re tru l y See also:DELRIO,MARTÍN;ENLIGHTENMENT;MAFFEI,SCIPIONE; complete, there logically existed a daemonic body that MELANCHOLY;MURATORI,LUDOVICOANTONIO. was immortal but subject to suffering and passion, thus References and further reading: separating human from angelic being. Tasso opposed the Abbiati, Sergio. 1984. “Girolamo Tartarotti (1706–1761).” Pp. demonological consensus by defining daemonic bodies 298–331 in La stregoneria: Diavoli, streghe, inquisitori dal as real rather than fic t i ve . Trecento al Settecento.Edited by S. Abbiati, Attilio Agnoletto, C e rtain d a e m o n s , Tasso held, could copulate with and M. R. Lazzati. Milan: Mondadori. women, impregnating them with semen stolen fro m Bonomo, Giuseppe. 1984. “Il ‘Congresso notturno delle Lammie.’” Pp. 417–445 in Caccia alle streghe: La credenza nelle men. (He seemed unaware that this idea implicitly streghe dal secolo XIII al XIX con particolare referimento all’Italia. contradicted his contention that daemons had real bod- Palermo: Palumbo. ies.) Copulation was a third, empirical proof of Venturi, Franco. 1969. “Valore e calcolo dalla ragione.” Pp. suprahuman re a l i t y. Da e m o n s’ paramours we re called 355–389 in Da Muratori a Beccaria, 1730–1764.Vol. 1 of witches (streghe) and gave birth to magi. Women with Settecento riformatore.Turin: Einaudi. magical powers were maghe, but not necessarily streghe (Stephens 1994). Tasso, Torquato (1544–1595) Ta s s o’s idiosyncratic demonology re flected a seve re Italian poet and author of a dialogue on demonology. crisis in his religious faith between 1575 and 1580. In By 1575, Tasso had completed an epic on the Fi r s t 1577, he begged the Inquisition to examine him for Crusade, in defense of Counter-Reformation sacra- h e re s y, then reacted angrily when he was absolved as ments and theology. A committee of literati and a suffering from melancholia. In 1579, a month after theologian helped him revise the poem, but the being incarcerated, Tasso confided to a friend his failure s t ruggle to satisfy his critics damaged his mental to believe in a personal God, divine providence, the health, provoking violent and erratic behavior. T h e Incarnation, hell, purgatory, papal authority, the sacra- duke of Ferrara imprisoned Tasso for madness in 1577 ments, or the immortality of the human soul. In a letter and again from 1579 until 1586. While imprisoned, to Scipione Gozaga on April 15, 1579, Tasso made a Tasso allowed his epic, already circulating in pirated painfully unconvincing claim that he had overcome his printings, to be published as Ge rusalemme libera t a doubts. Iro n i c a l l y, he had carefully organize d (Je rusalem De l i ve red) in 1581, and he composed Ge rusalemme liberata as an implicit, polemical defense philosophical and literary dialogues. of exactly the doctrines he confessed himself unable to Tasso’s epic contained scenes of witchcraft (especially b e l i e ve (Stephens 1991, 2000). His Il messaggiero t h u s cantos 13, 16, and 18); his prison dialogues demon- appears to be Ta s s o’s attempt to re c o n s t ruct Catholic strated his familiarity with theories of Gi a n f r a n c e s c o belief through philosophical persuasion, just as Pico della Mirandola and Jean Bodin. In his dialogue Il Ge rusalemme liberata e m p l oyed poetic persuasion for messaggiero(The Messenger), begun in 1580, Tasso pre- the same end. sented a conversation between himself and a supernat- ural being, apparently a Neoplatonic d a e m o n (a being WALTER STEPHENS 1108 Tasso, Torquato

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1109 Application File See also:CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC;DEMONOLOGY; To understand this evaluation of a physiological DEMONS;PICODELLAMIRANDOLA,GIANFRANCESCO;SEXUAL p rocess, one must remember that according to the ACTIVITY,DIABOLIC. Gospels, Jesus never laughed, but he did cry several times. References and further reading: The most important scriptural basis is Luke 6:21: Brand, C[harles] P[eter]. 1965. Torquato Tasso: A Study of the Poet “ Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.” T h i s and of His Contribution to English Literature.Cambridge: was, of course, interpreted within an eschatological frame: Cambridge University Press. Weeping in this world, the “vale of tears,” would be Clark, Stuart. 1984. “Tasso and the Literature of Witchcraft.” Pp. rew a rded in the otherworld. T h e re f o re, the Mi s s a l e 3–21 in The Renaissance in Ferrara and Its European Horizons/Il Rinascimento a Ferrara e i suoi orizzonti europei.Edited by Ro m a n u mcontained a formula for praying for tears, and Walter Moretti and J. Salmons. Cardiff and Ravenna: all spiritual enthusiasts craved the “grace of tears” (d o n u m University of Wales Press and Lapucci. l a c r i m a ru m). Indeed, this faculty is a commonplace in Stephens, Walter. 1991. “Metaphor, Sacrament, and the Problem Catholic hagiography, dating back to the desert fathers. In of Allegory in Tasso’sGerusalemme liberata.”ITatti Studies the later Middle Ages, the gift of tears was re c o rded more (Florence, Italy) 4: 217–247. often about women than about men, because for women ———. 1994. “Tasso and the Witches.” Annali d’Italianistica tears we re not only a form of imitation of Jesus but also an 12: 181–202. Imitatio Ma r i a eand an Imitatio Ma r i a eMa g d a l e n a e ,w h o ———. 2000. “Tasso as Ulysses.” Pp. 209–239 in Sparks and both had wept under the Cro s s . Seeds: Medieval Literature and Its Afterlife; Essays in Honor of The person most famous for her tears was the John Freccero.Edited by Dana E. Stewart and Alison Cornish. English mystic Ma r g e ry Kempe, whose fits, combined Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. ———. 2001. “Incredible Sex: Witches, Demons, and Giants in with her “well of treys,” made her both famous and the Early Modern Imagination.” Pp. 153–176 in Monsters in notorious in the early fifteenth century. Some consid- the Italian Literary Imagination.Edited by Keala Jewell. ered her a living saint; others considered her a hypocrite Detroit: Wayne State University Press. or even worse. Her tearful devotion made her suspect of Tasso, Torquato. 1958. Il messaggiero.(Draft versions.) L o l l a rd y, and more than once she was in danger of Pp. 3: 297–468 in Dialoghi.Edizione critica.Edited by Ezio being burned. Elizabeth of Hu n g a ry is another exam- Raimondi. 3 vols. in 4 tomes. Florence: Sansoni. ple. Of course, men could also have the gift of tears. ———. 1991. Il messaggiero.(Definitive version.) Pp. 33–104 in John of Bridlington (d. 1379), one of Kempe’s confes- Dialoghi.Edited by Bruno Basile. Milan: Mursia. sors, was also well known for having this grace, which was particularly praised in his canonization process. But Tears few men could match Ignatius Loyola. His fragmentary Today we know that the shedding of tears can be Spiritual Diary meticulously re c o rded approx i m a t e l y blocked, especially under stressful physiological and 2,000 fits of weeping over a span of thirteen months in psychological conditions. From the fifteenth century 1544–1545, and his closest associates feared he would onward, however, most witch hunters were convinced cry himself blind. that a woman who could not weep when interrogated Thus, although the faculty of shedding tears was and tortured was very probably a worshipper of the reckoned a sign of sanctity and was indispensable in Devil, who was hindering this natural manifestation. penitence, it could be used negatively as a test to dis- The Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches, cover a witch. 1486) explicitly instructed inquisitors to observe PETER DINZELBACHER whether or not a suspected person would shed tears in this situation, because a witch would be unable to do so See also:BODIN,JEAN;LIVINGSAINTS;MALLEUSMALEFICARUM; even if constrained and most heavily pressed. The PRIERIAS,SILVESTRO. References and further reading: judge, it noted, should earnestly entreat her by Jesus’s Adnés, Pierre. 1975. “Larmes.” Pp. 9:287–303 inDictionnaire de tears of love and Mary’s tears of fire and all the tears la spiritualité ascétique et mystique.Paris: Beauchesne. shed by the saints to cry if she was innocent. Whether Görlich. J. U. 1986. “Zum Indiz der Tränenlosigkeit im or not she could do so under other circumstances was Hexenprozess.” Jahrbuchfür den Landkreis Holzminden3: of no importance (Malleus Ma l e fic a ru m , book 3, 18–28. chap. 15, 11). Henting, Hartmut von. 1934. “Über das Indiz der Tränenlosigkeit The influence of this manual and the fact that its im Hexenprozess.” Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Strafrecht teachings we re incorporated into later tracts, such as 48: 368–381. that of Si l ve s t ro Prierias, guaranteed the widespre a d Schleusener-Eichholz, Gudrun. 1985. Das Auge im Mittelalter. observation of tears or lack thereof during later witch- Munich: Fink. craft trials, though the Roman Inquisition neve r acknowledged tears as an indication. There were some Templars variants of this belief: Jean Bodin, for example, wro t e A military-religious order established by Hugh of Payns that only three tears may fall from a witch’s right eye. in 1119 and dissolved two centuries later amid rumors Templars 1109

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1110 Application File The burning of the Templars, from a late fourteenth-century manuscript. (Erich Lessing/Art Resource) of sacrilegious and blasphemous orgies. The order’s Although the novel combination of monastic disci- modern fame derives largely from mythologizing by pline and military activity generated considerable criti- eighteenth-century Freemasons. Its original purpose cism in the twelfth century, the Templars soon became a was the protection of pilgrims traveling in the Holy p rominent and often independent military force in the Land after the conquest of Jerusalem by the first Latin Kingdom of Je rusalem, receiving extensive papal crusaders in 1099. Members of the order took the privileges in three bulls issued between 1139 and 1145. monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but The order also re c e i ved the patronage of Eu ro p e a n unlike monks or canons regular, they served a military nobles and rulers, established Templar communities in purpose. The king of Jerusalem allotted them space in much of western Eu rope, and constructed a series of what was then thought to be the Temple of Solomon, s t rong, virtually autonomous castles in the Holy Land. whence the name of the order, the Knights of the The order became so powe rful that it could act indepen- Temple of Solomon, or Knights Templar. Under the dently of the monarchy of the Latin Kingdom. At its guidance and personal patronage of St. Bernard of g reatest extent in the thirteenth century, the va s t Clairvaux, who recognized that they formed “a new Templar network of 870 castles and preceptories housed type of order in the holy places” and described them in 7,000 members of the various grades of knights, his work In Praise of the New Knighthood in 1136, the sergeants, and chaplains, 2,500 of whom served in the order received papal recognition at the Council of east, with the remainder organized into territorial Troyes in 1129, established a Rule for its members, and p rovinces in western Eu rope. In his romance Pa rz i va l , placed them under the master of the order. Pious gifts written early in the thirteenth century, the great Ge r m a n of land and incomes in both the Holy Land and poet Wolfram von Eschenbach (d. 1225) idealized the western Europe provided the order’s support, and it Templars in his description of the order of custodians recruited members in both places. and protectors of the Holy Grail, the Te m p l e i s e n . 1110 Templars

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1111 Application File In addition to their religious, military, and political impenitent or relapsed we re executed. Those who had p rominence, the Templars also became a powe rf u l been reconciled to the Church or found not guilty were financial institution, serving as bankers to both pensioned off or dispersed among other monastic con- c rusaders and pilgrims, who could deposit funds with g regations. The scandal led Clement V to dissolve the Templar houses in France and elsewhere and withdraw order in 1312. After retracting his confession, James of them as they needed from Templar houses along the Molay was burned at the stake on Ma rch 8, 1314. route to Je rusalem. Templar financial expertise also Upon the papal dissolution of the order, its properties, s e rved the rulers of Eu rope, particularly the kings of wealth, and arc h i ves we re turned over to the Knights France, whose treasury was located in the Paris Temple. Hospitallers after Ph i l i p’s expenses for the trials had Because the order was so closely identified with the been deducted. Latin Kingdom, the fall of Je rusalem to Saladin in The details of the confessions and the papal dissolu- 1187, the loss of Acre (the last Christian-held territory tion of the order were received throughout Europe with in the east) in 1291, and the relocation of the Templars’ both hostility and praise. Dante condemned Philip IV, headquarters to Cyprus led to renewed heavy criticism Clement V, and Boniface VIII in the Divine Comedy. of the Templars and to proposals for reform of the Howe ve r, since the order had long held its chapter Templars and for their merger with other military - meetings in great secre c y, had devised some forms of religious orders, notably that of the Knights of the secret internal communication, and had regarded itself Hospital of St. John, or Knights Hospitallers. Un d e r as an elite organization within Christendom, subord i- Grand Master James of Molay (who was master fro m nate only to the grand master and the pope, the charges 1293 to 1314), the Templars resisted this and other made against its members seemed plausible to many, reform proposals, insisting upon their distinctive p a rticularly to those who followed the publicists of responsibilities for the defense of the Holy Land and Philip IV. The royalist account of the trials influenced criticizing from long experience the tactical shortcom- the kingdom’s quasi-official history, the Gra n d e s ings of contemporary proposals for a new crusade. c h roniques de Fra n c e , w h i c h f u rther tainted the Although the order had maintained good re l a t i o n s Templars with charges of treason, collaboration with with King Philip IV of France (ruled 1285–1314), he the Muslims, and some elements of sorcery. Proroyalist turned against it in 1307; historians still debate his writers in France continued to justify Philip IV’s reasons. Se veral years of expensive warf a re with actions until the eighteenth century. England and in Flanders, the progressive debasement of At the same time as the Templar trials, a number of the royal coinage, Philip’s long and destructive struggle cases of political sorcery also were tried in France, many with Pope Boniface VIII (ruled 1294–1303), the strong i n volving fig u res around the royal court and stre s s i n g i n fluence of Ph i l i p’s ministers, and the fear that the the vulnerability of kings, popes, and members of the kingdom was polluted by the presence of Jews, heretics, royal family, especially to diabolical sorcery. Beginning and sorc e rers all appear to have combined in Ph i l i p’s in the early fifteenth century, new charges of political determination to purify the kingdom, and, in Ph i l i p’s sorcery spread in England, France, and the Burgundian mind, that purification came to include the destruction L ow Countries, and the formal conceptualization of of the Templars. diabolical witchcraft between 1430 and 1450 in the On October 13, 1307, Philip arrested all of the region of the upper Rhine Valley led to a growing fear order’s members in France, around 2,000 men, confis- of both diabolical sorc e rers and witches thro u g h o u t cated their pro p e rt y, and urged the kings of En g l a n d much of Eu rope. The linking of the Templars with and Aragon and Pope Clement V (ruled 1305–1314) to diabolical sorc e ry was begun by the chro n i c l e r do the same. His charges against the order included the Guillaume Paradin in the mid-sixteenth century, practice of sacrilegious initiation rites for new although outside France learned opinion was generally members, the denial of Christ, apostasy, idolatry (the m o re favorable than hostile to the memory of the worship of an idol named “Baphomet” or “Mahomet”), Templars. s i m o n y, and sodomy. These charges we re not only During the eighteenth century, howe ve r, Fre e m a s o n ry, b rought against individual members in trials that a secret ethical society prominent initially in France and included the use of judicial tort u re but we re also Scotland, developed for itself a fictitious history that publicized widely throughout the kingdom and beyond p ressed the Templars into historical service as by Ph i l i p’s servants. The trials resulted in graphic and antecedents to the modern movement, thereby coloring horrifying confessions, including that of Grand Master Fre e m a s o n ry’s imaginary and remote past with both James of Molay (later retracted), whose details were also nobility and a place in the long chain of imaginary widely publicized. Outside of France and the territories Freemasons whose traditions the eighteenth- it controlled, the Templars we re usually found not century Freemasons professed to continue. The growth g u i l t y. But inside France and its territories, many of Fre e m a s o n ry and the increasing prominence of the Templars were convicted, and many who were deemed Templars in its fable coincided with a general revival of Templars 1111

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1112 Application File sentimental interest in the Middle Ages. In the case of the Fre e m a s o n s’ adoption of the Templars, the move- ment included the idea that the order had left behind ancient secret wisdom, magical powers, and gre a t hidden wealth. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the vogue of secret societies like the Illuminati and the Ro s i c rucians and the concurrent fear of the political dangers they and others raised inspired several writers to compose extensive imaginary histories that attributed to the Templars all of the evils in the world. The most notable of these was Joseph von Hammer- Pu r g s t a l l’s The My s t e ry of Ba p h o m e t of 1818. Both Templar sympathizers and Templar critics accepted the fabulous history, the former tilting it toward a favorable interpretation, the latter condemning it savagely, as did Walter Scott in Iva n h o e (1819). T h rough the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries, Templar fantasies were w o rked over time and again, by novelists, esoteric groups, and individual writers of fantasies with or with- out an axe to grind, even linking the imaginary Templars to the Shroud of Turin. Umberto Eco’s 1988 n ovel Fo u c a u l t’s Pe n d u l u m offers a witty and complex send-up of the Templar mythology that began with Freemasonry in the eighteenth century. EDWARD PETERS Jacques Aliamet’s reproduction of David Teniers’s Departure for the See also:AMULETANDTALISMAN;BAPHOMET;ENLIGHTENMENT; Sabbath,depicting four witches, many demons, toads, and a goat. GRIMOIRES;IDOLATRY;SCOTT,SIRWALTER;TORTURE. Sitting next to a demon bat at a table, an old witch concocts References and further reading: something while looking at a magic circle on the floor. Barber, Malcolm. 1994. The New Knighthood: A History of the (TopFoto.co.uk/Roger-Viollet) Order of the Temple.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 2000. The Trial of the Templars.1978. Reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Forey, Alan. 1994. Military Orders and Crusades.Aldershot, UK, paintings also depict the activities attributed to witches and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate. by contemporary demonologists such as Martín Del ———. 2001. The Fall of the Templars in the Crown of Aragon. Aldershot, UK, and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate. Rio and Francesco Maria Guazzo. Partner, Peter. 1982. The Murdered Magicians: The Templars and Te n i e r s’s witches are seen reading black books of Their Myth.Oxford and NewYork: Oxford University Press. spells, preparing ointments to enable them to fly, Siberry, Elizabeth. 2000. The New Crusaders: Images of the anointing themselves for flight, riding upon bro o m- Crusades in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.Aldershot, sticks, working with poisonous plants and parapherna- UK, and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate. lia such as the Hand of Gl o ry (the hand of a corpse, supposedly with magical powers, especially that of mak- Teniers, David the Younger ing the possessor invisible), and consorting with devils (1610–1690) and familiars. In most cases, his paintings showe d The Flemish artist David Teniers the Younger is best female witches of varying ages. A painting entitledThe k n own for several thousand paintings of Fl e m i s h Evocation (ca. 1635, owned by the Musée des Be a u x - peasants, but he also depicted various demonological a rts, Bordeaux) shows the rare exception of a male and occult themes in complete agreement with con- witch calling up demons. t e m p o r a ry thinking about witchcraft in nort h e r n Teniers was among only a small number of seve n- Europe. Among these themes were the practice of t e e n t h - c e n t u ry artists who depicted the activities of alchemy, the Temptations of St. Anthony (after 1640), witches. Although his witchcraft paintings make up only and the activities of witches. Most of Teniers’s approxi- a small percentage of his massive output of about 3,500 mately two dozen paintings of witchcraft show in a very w o rks, he nonetheless produced a larger number of such straightforward manner what witches were believed to w o rks than did other seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry artists. On l y do. As such, his paintings tell us much about contem- one Dutch artist, Jacques de Gheyn II, rivaled Teniers in p o r a ry nort h e r n - Eu ropean witch beliefs. Te n i e r s’s the number of depictions of witchcraft. 1112 Teniers, David the Younger

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1113 Application File Teniers produced his witchcraft paintings thro u g h- the region asked Theophilus to be the successor, but he, out his long care e r. His works fall into a category of in his humility, refused because he did not feel factual reportage and, with two exceptions, are neither qualified. He expected to continue as administrator, h u m o rous or satirical. His small panel The Wi t c h h owe ve r. The new bishop, influenced by envious (ca. 1640, in the Alte Pinakothetk Schleissheim Gallery, persons, discharged Theophilus as a counselor. Out of Munich) is one of these exceptions. He rein a peasant offended pride, Theophilus consulted a Jewish sorcerer witch is shown raising hell from the relative safety of a and made a pact with the Devil in which, in writing, he magic circle inscribed on her flo o r. But it is evident renounced allegiance to Jesus and Christianity. from her very frightened expression that she has raised Theophilus fulfilled the first part, but he never ceased more devils than she can handle. to pray to the Virgin. After a short time, he was rein- Te n i e r s’s demons generally resemble those of stated in the diocese. Driven by remorse, he begged the Hieronymus Bosch and of Teniers’s in-laws, the famous Virgin for help. After chastising him for his impiety, the artistic family of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. In following Blessed Mother took pity on him, and eventually even Bosch and the Brueghels, Teniers used a number of Jesus forgave him. Mary retrieved Theophilus’s pact zoomorphic (animal-shaped) and anthro p o m o r p h i c from Satan and put the scroll on his chest as he slept. (human-shaped) devils as well as witches. The images of When he awoke, he loudly proclaimed his guilt and the anthropomorphic devils are disturbingly quite praised the Virgin for her loving assistance. T h ree days human. For example, he frequently included depictions l a t e r, he died peacefully. of his own wife, Anna Brueghel, the granddaughter of The central drama of the legend of Theophilus is the Pieter Brueghel the Elder, among his witches. In doing idea of a pact with the Devil, which derived fro m this, Teniers followed the contemporary belief that witches could be members of various social classes. Because he was the court painter to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, ruler of the Spanish southern Netherlands, he and his family would have been considered almost as members of the nobility. One of the most interesting of Teniers’s paintings of witchcraft is his Scene of Witchcraft(ca. 1650, owned by the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe). In this painting, witches are seen at the foot of a gallows harvesting man- drake roots, which we re believed to spring up in such places. Teniers’s paintings show a wide range of knowl- edge about witchcraft lore and are quite intere s t i n g illustrations of contemporary thought. A number of artists working both during his own lifetime and in the eighteenth century imitated Teniers’s occult paintings. JANE P. DAVIDSON See also:ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;BRUEGHEL,PIETERTHEELDER; GHEYNII,JACQUESDE;HANDOFGLORY;MANDRAKE;POPULAR BELIEFSINWITCHES. References and further reading: Davidson, Jane P. 1979. David Teniers the Younger.Boulder, CO: Westview. ———. 1987. The Witch in Northern European Art, 1470–1750. Freren, Germany: Luca. Hults, Linda C. 2005. The Witch as Muse: Art, Gender and Power in Early Modern Europe.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Klinge, Margaret. 1991. David Teniers the Younger: Paintings, Drawings.Antwerp: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Theophilus Theophilus is the most famous of all ancient forerunners of Faust. According to legend, Theophilus Theophilus enters into a pact with the Devil and then repents before administered a bishop’s diocese for him in Sicily early in the Virgin Mary. From the Psalter of Queen Ingeborg,ca. 1210. the sixth century. When the bishop died, the people of (Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource) Theophilus 1113

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

46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1114 Application File Christian demonology. St. Augustine assumed that any See also:FAUST,JOHANNGEORG;MARY,THEVIRGIN;PACTWITH kind of magic depended on a pact between a magician THEDEVIL. and a d a e m o n (a being, aerial in body, intermediate References and further reading: Bates, Paul. 1969. Faust: Sources, Works, Criticism.NewYork: b e t ween God and humans). Theophilus needed an Harcourt. i n t e r m e d i a ry—and a Jewish one at that. In almost Boerner, Peter, and Sidney Johnson, eds. 1989. Faust Through every such case, the pact with the Devil was made not Four Centuries: Retrospect and Analysis.Tübingen: Niemeyer. only or even primarily to gratify physical desire s ; Dasent, George Webbe. 1845. Theophilus in Icelandic, Low instead, persons desired access to “s e c re t” know l e d g e German and Other Tongues.London: Pickering. t h rough the Devil or some other supernatural powe r. Fryer, A.C. 1935. “Theophilus the Penitent as Represented in Su b s e q u e n t l y, the diabolical pact re a p p e a red as a key Art.” ArchaeologicalJournal92: 287–333. element in the witchcraft trials, which helped explain Müller, Johannes. 1930. Das Jesuitendrama in den Ländern the Devil’s powers. deutscher Zunge vom Anfang (1555) bis zum Hochbarock (1665). The Theophilus legend was important in another 2 vols. Augsburg: Filser. way: Its portrait of the Holy Mother as an adve r s a ry of Palmer, Philip Mason, and Robert Pattison More. 1936. The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to Lessing. the Devil and an even stronger force made this story a NewYork: Oxford University Press. p romotional pamphlet for medieval Marianism, there- Shafer, Ingrid H. “Pacts with the Devil: Faust and Precursors,” by greatly aiding its popularity. The oldest extant http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/FAUST.HTML (accessed Latin version of his story is a ninth-century transla- April 12, 2002). tion, by Paul the Deacon, of an earlier Greek ve r s i o n . Voragine, Jacobus de. 1993. The Golden Legend: Readings on the One of the most important early renderings is L a p s u s Saints.Translated byWilliam Granger Ryan. Princeton, NJ: et conversio Theophili vicedomini (The Fall and Princeton University Press. C o n version of Theophilus the Archdeacon) by the Alsatian nun Hrotswitha of Ga n d e r s h e i m Tholosan, Claude (d.–ca. 1450) (935–1000). Many similar accounts circulated subse- Originally from Dauphiné in southeastern Fr a n c e , q u e n t l y, and the story became a favorite among Claude Tholosan obtained his licentiate in civil law and p reachers after Jacobus de Voragine (ca. 1230–1298) s e rved as chief prosecutor (judex major) of the included it in his Legenda aure a ( Golden Legend, ca. Briançonnais from 1426 to 1449. After ten years of 1275). The French poet Rutebeuf (1255–1280) wro t e repressing witchcraft in remote valleys of the French the oldest miracle play version, Le Mi racle de Alps, he summed up his experience in a treatise known T h é o p h i l e (The Miracle of Theophilus, 1264). In the by its opening quotation from St. Augustine: Ut mago- late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the rum et maleficiorum errores (So That the Errors of Jesuit poets Wolfgang Schoensleder’s and Ma t t h ä u s Magicians and Sorcerers . . ., 1436). It is one of the R a d e r’s miracle plays on this theme we re performed in major texts in the early history of the witches’ Sabbat. Munich, Freiburg, Dillingen, Lucerne, and Graz. T h e At Briançon, his function was to judge cases involv- drama even served as vehicle to make members of the ing high justice and appeals from lower and seigneurial n o b i l i t y, always suspicious of sympathizing with c o u rts; as such, he was an agent of the penetration of h e re s y, rethink their positions. royal power in Dauphiné (Pa r a v y, in Tholosan 1999, After the thirteenth century, many German poets 358). Tholosan first encountered witchcraft cases in the and playwrights adapted the story. The first Mi d d l e western Alps around 1420–1430. Although in the High German version was an “oration on faith” by the duchy of Sa voy (Pays de Vaud, Val d’ Ao s t a ) , poet called Der Arme (“Poor”) Hartmann. A hundred Dominican or Franciscan inquisitors organized the years later, Brun von Schönebeck wrote Wie Theophilus re p ression of witches, in nearby places like Fre n c h w a rt irlôst ( How Theophilus Was Sa ved, ca. 1250), a Dauphiné or Swiss Valais, this responsibility fell mainly version that mentioned for the first time a blood com- on secular courts, occasionally in collaboration with pact with the Devil. By the fifteenth century, the legend local inquisitors. In Dauphiné, prosecutions for witch- had spread across Eu rope to France, Sweden, the craft came very early and on a large scale. From 1426 to Netherlands, Spain, and northern Ge r m a n y. After the 1436, Tholosan conducted more than a hundred witch- seventeenth century, the legend of Theophilus and his craft trials. Because he remained in charge until 1449, pact disappeared from central Eu ropean literature , he probably sentenced many more people. Nearly all s w a l l owed up by the Reformation and superseded by the proceedings have been lost. Yet the Quintus liber the more recent Faust legend. The legend remains alive f a c h u re r i o ru m ( Fifth Book of So rc e rers), a register of in Greece, as modern Greek folktales prove; moreover, Dauphiné’s treasury (Chambre des Comptes), lists the n u m e rous transcriptions of its original Greek ve r s i o n possessions confiscated from the convicted sorcerers, as a re stored in the famous Greek monastery on top of well as their names, the dates, and the reasons for their Mount Athos. sentences. Married women or widows formed a large CHRISTA TUCZAY majority of culprits. 1114 Tholosan, Claude

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1115 Application File Ut magorum et maleficiorum cannibalistic devil-worshippers who desecrated errores Christian rites. Similar ideas we re expressed at almost Like the Sa voy a rd inquisitor who wrote the Er ro re s the same time by the anonymous Er ro res Ga z a r i o ru m , Ga z a r i o ru m ( Er rors of the Gazars [Cathars—a com- by Ma rtin Le Fr a n c’ s L e Champion des dames (T h e mon term for heretics and later for witches], ca. 1437) Defender of Ladies, 1440–1442), and by the report of at the same period, Tholosan described a new here s y, the Swiss chronicler Hans Fründ. that of the witches. In 1436, after a decade of pro s e- cuting them, he wrote Ut magorum et malefic i o ru m MARTINE OSTORERO e r ro re s ( Paravy 1979; Pa r a v y, in Tholosan 1999). It s See also:CANONEPISCOPI;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;COURTS, purpose was to demonstrate the gravity of the new SECULAR;DAUPHINÉ;ERRORESGAZARIORUM;EYMERIC,NICOLAS; crimes of the witches and to affirm the competence of FRÜND,HANS;HERESY;LAUSANNE,DIOCESEOF;LEFRANC, secular courts to pursue such heretics. The treatise was MARTIN;ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;SABBAT;SAVOY, composed of four parts. The first described the doc- DUCHYOF;VALAIS. trine and practices attributed to sorc e rers and witches. References and further reading: Like the author of the Er ro res Ga z a r i o ru m , T h o l o s a n Marx, Jean. 1914.L’inquisition en Dauphiné.Paris: Champion. Paravy, Pierrette. 1979. “A propos de la genèse médiévale des held that sorc e rers belonged to a sect or synagogue chasses aux sorcières: Le traité de Claude Tholosan, juge g a t h e red around the Devil and that they had dauphinois (vers 1436).” Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome: renounced God and had given themselves body and Moyen Age/Temps Modernes91: 333–379. soul to demons. Tholosan mentioned that the mem- ———. 1993.De la Chrétienté romaine à la Réforme en Dauphiné. bers of the sect thought they rode through the air on 2 vols. Rome: Ecole Française de Rome. sticks and animals. Familiar with canon as well as civil Tholosan, Claude. 1999. Ut magorum et maleficiorum errores. l a w, Tholosan re f e r red to the Canon Ep i s c o p i(ca. 906), Edited by Pierrette Paravy. Pp. 356–438 inL’imaginaire du that is, to the principle that night flight was an sabbat: Edition critique des textes les plus anciens (1430 c.–1440 illusion. Howe ve r, he described the ceremonies of the c.).Edited by Martine Ostorero, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, w i t c h e s’ Sabbat in detail, as if he believed in its re a l i- Kathrin Utz Tremp, and Catherine Chène. Lausanne: t y. Ac c o rding to Tholosan, the sect came fro m Université de Lausanne. L o m b a rdy as healers and from Lyons, as ru f fians. In the second part, he defined the competences of secu- Thomas, Keith (1933–) lar and ecclesiastical jurisdictions over this new crime Keith Thomas, with his Religion and the Decline of of witchcraft. As members of a sect, witches we re Magic (1971), brought the history of early modern h e retics; they we re also apostates. T h o l o s a n’s third witchcraft into the mainstream of British social history, p a rt inserted a consultation from French jurists of the demonstrating both the possibility and the value of the House of Anjou and Provence, confirming his study of popular magical beliefs. Together with his s t a t e m e n t s . doctoral student Alan Macfarlane, Thomas introduced In his last part, Tholosan asserted the necessity of to the study of English witchcraft the insights of British close collaboration between secular and ecclesiastical social anthropology on the functions and meaning of courts, but he underlined the importance of the secular witchcraft in modern Africa. He used retrospective judge. First, he held that the secular arm was essential in ethnography to place post-Reformation English witch- order to apply the death penalty. But he went further: craft within the context of the Weberian debate on the Ac c o rding to Roman law and to the decretal Ve r g e n t i s “disenchantment of the world” and to reconstruct its in senioissued by Pope Innocent III in 1199, the crime meaning both for those accusing others of witchcraft of the witches was a crime of l è s e - m a j e s t é . In his con- and, to a lesser extent, for those accused. Through cluding paragraphs, Tholosan affirmed the primacy of emphasizing the malefic focus of English accusations the prince (whom Tholosan represented) to have both while denying both the reality of continental witch the initiative and the profits of the proceedings against cults and the view that elites imposed witchcraft witches. W h e reas Nicolas Eymeric, in his D i re c t o r i u m accusations, T h o m a s’s work re i n f o rced a sense of i n q u i s i t o rum ( Di re c t o ry of Inquisitors, 1376), stre s s e d English exceptionalism; more recently it has been seen the power of the inquisitors, Claude Tholosan under- as applicable to much of those parts of Europe where lined the importance of the secular judge. As a large-scale witch hunting was absent. representative of the state and the ruler, the judge had a Thomas is inextricably associated with the rise of mission to destroy this i n f e rnal palace ( Paravy 1993, social history in Britain, above all in his Religion and 797–800; in Tholosan 1999, 428–431). the Decline of Magic and Man and the Na t u ral Wo rl d Tholosan’s treatise remained practically unknown for (1983). His career has been a highly ort h o d ox Oxford over 500 years, but it was representative of a current of p ro g ress, culminating in the presidency of Corpus thought in the first half of the fifteenth century: the Christi College and of the British Ac a d e m y, not to “n ew here s y” of the witches as a sect of night-fly i n g , mention knighthood in 1988. Like that of his Ba l l i o l Thomas, Keith 1115

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1116 Application File tutor Christopher Hill, T h o m a s’s work draws upon a See also:ACCUSATIONS;ANTHROPOLOGY;ENGLAND;EVANS- p rodigious mastery of the printed output of early PRITCHARD,EDWARDE.; HISTORIOGRAPHY;MACFARLANE,ALAN; modern England, supplemented in T h o m a s’s case by MURRAY,MARGARETALICE;PROTESTANTREFORMATION;SOCIAL an extensive grasp of the social sciences and humani- ANDECONOMICSTATUSOFWITCHES;TREVOR-ROPER,HUGH; ties, re flecting his belief that history re q u i res a con- WITCHHUNTS. References and further reading: stant dialogue with other disciplines committed to a Barry, Jonathan. 1996. “Introduction: Keith Thomas and the holistic understanding of human society. T h o m a s’s Problem of Witchcraft.” Pp. 1–45 in Witchcraft in Early p a rticular debt to the social anthropology of Ed w a rd Modern Europe.Edited by Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, E. Eva n s - Pr i t c h a rd’s work on witchcraft drew him and Gareth Roberts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. into debates between functionalist and hermeneutic Burke, Peter, Brian Harrison, and Paul Slack, eds. 2000. Civil a n t h ropologists, pioneering the shift of social history Histories: Essays Presented to Sir Keith Thomas. Oxford: f rom economic or social-structural explanations Oxford University Press. t ow a rd cultural history (Ge e rtz and T h o m a s Geertz, Hildred, and Keith Thomas. 1975–1976. “An 1975–1976). Considering himself a historical ethno- Anthropology of Religion and Magic, Two Views.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History6: 71–109. g r a p h e r, Thomas read available sources until he could Thomas, Keith. 1970. “The Relevance of Social Anthropology to locate people of all classes speaking on eve ry aspect of the Historical Study of English Witchcraft.” Pp. 47–79 in thought and living; his studies pioneered recent social Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations.Edited by Mary historical analysis by gender, age, and culture instead Douglas. London: Tavistock. of class. Yet T h o m a s’s primary historiographic debt is ———. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.London and to R. H. Ta w n e y, who sought to introduce En g l i s h NewYork: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, and Scribner’s. historiography to the analytic insights of both ———. 1983. Man and the Natural World.London: Allen Lane. Ma rxist and Weberian social science. The title of T h o m a s’s greatest work is surely a deliberate echo of Thomasius, Christian Ta w n e y’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism ( 1 9 3 8 ) ; (1655–1728) the core theme of both of T h o m a s’s books is the The most important German representative of the early Weberian “disenchantment of the world” in the post- Enlightenment, Christian Thomasius was also the first Reformation centuries. Fu n d a m e n t a l l y, T h o m a s e i g h t e e n t h - c e n t u ry critic of the witchcraft trials. retained the Ta w n e y – Hill view of the Pro t e s t a n t Frederick II the Great of Prussia claimed that women Reformation as implicitly re vo l u t i o n a ry in its effects, could now grow old and die in peace because of him. although followed by a transitional century that Born at Leipzig, Thomasius was the first son of a pro- sought to control such forces. This historical schema fessor of philosophy and rhetoric, Jacob Thomas, who remains implicit in T h o m a s’s work, which character- Latinized his name to Thomasius. Enrolling at Leipzig istically emphasizes the complexities and paradoxes of University in 1669, Christian wavered between philos- historical development by focusing on the anxieties ophy and law; finally, his study of Samuel Pufendorf and dilemmas of human behavior and choices. tipped the scale toward law. As a student of the famous Thomas’s discussion of witchcraft in Religion and the jurist Samuel Stryk at the University of Frankfurt am Decline of Magic must be read in this wider context. Its Oder, he modified his Protestant orthodoxy and sym- key argument is often taken to be that the Reformation pathized with the new fashion of natural law. Because removed the protective magic of the Catholic Church, of his unorthodox opinions, Thomasius fell into official leaving anxious people to turn for protection against disgrace, left Leipzig, and moved to nearby Halle, maleficia(harmful magic) both to countermagic and to where he became a pioneer of its newly founded the prosecution of witches, and that accusations of Prussian university. The first dean (Ordinarius) of the witchcraft often arose out of guilt for refusing charity to law faculty was his former mentor St ryk, whom the dependent poor, who thus formed the major Thomasius succeeded after his death in 1710. c a t e g o ry of those accused in England. This model has Thomasius soon turned his attention tow a rd such been rightly questioned on many fronts, including its controversial academic topics as torture, the law of evi- applicability to wider Eu ropean witchcraft, its neglect dence in inquisitorial trials, and the connection of both of ideological and gender issues, and its tendency to cases of witchcraft and sorc e ry. He demonstrated t ow a rd a form of functionalism. Howe ve r, most of that the origin of the processus inquisitionis(inquisitori- these criticisms are anticipated elsew h e re in the book al pro c e d u re) could be traced to the Roman Churc h’s i t s e l f, and they ignore the historiographic setting of canon law, but he also realized that without the proces- 1971, when it was the models of Margaret Murray and sus inquisitionis, state administration of justice would Hugh Tre vo r - Roper that dominated discussions of not work. The same ambivalent but realistic attitude English witchcraft (Barry 1996). recurred in his remarks about the law of torture; it was his pupil Martin Bernhardi who was the more critical of JONATHAN BARRY the law of torture. 1116 Thomasius, Christian

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1117 Application File Concerning legal pro c e d u res on witchcraft and sor- Thorndike and Ashley Thorndike, a professor of En g l i s h c e ry, Thomasius at first followed the Sa xon oracle, l i t e r a t u re, who we re already members of faculty. Wi t h Benedict Carpzov, whose rules of pro c e d u re we re set p e rtinacious attachment to the original manuscript and out in his Practica novaimperialis saxonica verum crimi- printed sources, Thorndike maintained a lifelong pursuit n a l i a m ( New Rules in Criminal Cases for Im p e r i a l of the history of magic, from 1902–1903, when he Saxony) of 1635. Accordingly, as Thomasius wrote, he began work on a dissertation considering the study of requested mild tort u re from the law faculty, when he magic in medieval universities, until 1964, the ye a r had to propose a decision in a case of witchcraft pre- b e f o re his death, when he published his last monograph, sented by a lower court, and his faculty colleagues over- a biography of the magician Michael Scot. ruled him with Stryk in the chair. Only this “Damascus It has become fashionable to belittle T h o r n d i k e’s experience” and the reading of Friedrich Spee’s Cautio historical accomplishment, for his works we re written c r i m i n a l i s (A Warning on Criminal Justice, 1631) b e f o re the impact of anthropological approaches to opened his eyes to the injustice of witchcraft trials and n o n western magic in the 1970s and the postmodern made him a sworn enemy of Carpzov. sensitivity to texts and the politics of liminality in the Unlike Spee, whose approach was theore t i c a l , 1980s. Howe ve r, Thorndike understood his ow n Thomasius flatly denied the existence of witchcraft in strengths, and he demonstrated remarkable fortitude in his famous dissertation De crimine magiae ( On the ignoring his critics to pursue his own scholarly goals. Crime of Magic) of 1701. He assumed that Spee did He re c o g n i zed early in his career that the disorder of not believe in the existence of witchcraft either but had European manuscript sources posed an impediment to p re f e r red to limit himself to criticizing pro c e d u r a l m o re advanced scholarship, and he made a major e r rors for strategic reasons. In practice, T h o m a s i u s contribution to clarifying this unwieldy body of writing seemed to judge witchcraft less consistently than in the- for the benefit of an English-speaking audience ory. Moreover, during his lifetime the great witch hunts unfamiliar with T h o r n d i k e’s predecessors such as had almost become extinct in the Holy Roman Empire, August Bouché-Leclercq or Pierre Duhem. so his contribution to the abolishing of witchcraft trials In addition to the eight-volume History of Magic and should not be overestimated. Experimental Science, completed in 1958 and still in print, Thorndike pre p a red scholarly editions of GÜNTER JEROUSCHEK m e d i e val Latin scientific and magical works, wro t e See also:CARPZOV,BENEDICT(II); ENLIGHTENMENT;PRUSSIA; several well-regarded undergraduate textbooks, edited a SKEPTICISM;SPEE,FRIEDRICH. still-useful collection of documents on the history of References and further reading: medieval universities, and produced in 1963, with Pearl Jerouschek, Günter. 1995. “Christian Thomasius, Halle und die K i b re, the Catalogue of Incipits of Me d i a e val Scientific Hexenverfolgungen.” Juristische Schulung7: 576–581. Writings in Latin, an often-updated guide to manu- ———. 1998. “Thomasius und Beccaria als Folterkritiker.” script sources relating to medieval magic and science. It Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft110: 658–673. may prove his most lasting monument; Linda Voigts is Lieberwirth, Rolf, ed. 1986. Christian Thomasius,Vom Laster der c u r rently preparing an electronic version as well as an Zauberei.Munich: DTV. updated and corrected edition with Peter Murray Jones. ———. 1994. “Christian Thomasius.” Pp. 29–45 in Aufklärung T h o r n d i k e’s peers acknowledged his achieve m e n t s und Erneuerung.Edited by Günter Jerouschek and Arno Sames. Halle: Dausien. only gru d g i n g l y. The publication of his first two Rüping, Hinrich. 2000. “Carpzov und Thomasius.” Pp. 81–90 in volumes of Magic and Experimental Science p rovo k e d Benedict Carpzov.Edited by Günter Jerouschek, Wolfgang a long and withering re v i ew by George Sa rton, who Schild, and Walter Gropp.Tübingen: Kimmerle. c o n s i d e red the whole project fundamentally misguid- Schmidt, Werner. 1995. Ein vergessener Rebell: Leben und Wirken ed and dismissed it as an “elaborate parody of the des Christian Thomasius.Munich: Diederichs. h i s t o ry of medieval science” and a “d e p ressing re c i t a l of unpro g re s s i ve and hopeless activities” (Sa rt o n Thorndike, Lynn 1924, 83, 88). Thorndike replied with an article on (1882–1965) “The True Place of Astrology in the Hi s t o ry of Thorndike was an outstanding American historian of Science,” affirming the need to assess past societies magic. The son of a Methodist minister, Thorndike was and cultural practices on their own terms and not born in Lynn, Massachusetts, re c e i ved his PhD fro m simply as precursors to contemporary science. Ye t Columbia Un i versity in 1905, and held teaching posts at Thorndike did not provide a va l u e - f ree account of the No rt h western Un i versity (1907–1909), Western Re s e rve h i s t o ry of magic and its relation to science (Du r a n d Un i versity (1909–1924), and Columbia (1924–1950). 1942). He delighted in undermining the re p u t a t i o n T h o r n d i k e’s brothers we re also academics; when of some “g reat men of science,” insisting on the Thorndike accepted a professorship at Columbia, he extent of their indebtedness to medieval sources and joined the educational psychologist Ed w a rd Lee concepts. He was equally adept at locating lesser Thorndike, Lynn 1117

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1118 Application File lights from the medieval period whose contributions and a scribe’s ink palette. These two instru m e n t s to knowledge had been neglected. signified his roles as the inventor of writing, the In 1955, Thorndike was honored by being elected secretary to the rest of the gods, the reckoner of time p resident of the American Historical Association. Hi s (since he was the god who fixed a life span not only for presidential address, “Whatever Was, Was Right,” con- humans but also for the deities themselves), and the stituted a personal manifesto on the need for historians lord of wisdom, medicine, and magic. Sometimes he to consider the past on its own terms, particularly in appeared as a baboon, an ibis, or the moon, sometimes evaluating the place of magic and other occult sciences in purely human form, and sometimes in a mixture of in European history. any of these elements. Thoth was always present when Within the generous span of T h o r n d i k e’s scholarly the heart of the newly dead was weighed in the balance i n t e rests, witchcraft held only a minor place. against the feather of Maat (Truth), and he recorded Howe ve r, the number of re f e rences to witchcraft ro s e the result. He also acted as a messenger for the gods. steadily throughout the volumes of the Hi s t o ry of There does not seem to be any plausible etymology for Ma g i c , with chapters on illicit magic and the litera- his name. t u re of witchcraft appearing in the final two vo l u m e s Plato recorded a number of these traditional associa- on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Like tions. In his dialogue Ph i l e b u s , he said that “T h e u t h” much of T h o r n d i k e’s writing, these chapters prov i d e d was the first to notice that sound could be divided into summaries of his reading across the sources and categories, and so he invented letters as phonemes; and a rc h i ves that we re as lightly burdened with re f e re n c e s in the Phaedrus, he told us that this same Theuth also to the secondary literature as they we re by specula- i n vented numbers (and there f o re the disciplines of tion and synthesis. Yet his brief discussion of witch- arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy) and the games of craft affirmed his prescript that the advance of know l- draughts and dice. Greeks visiting or settling in Egypt edge did not depend on proscribing inquiry in such quickly identified Thoth with their own god He r m e s , fields as divination, astro l o g y, or witchcraft, or, it largely because in their tradition Hermes too was might be added, the history of these disciplines. associated with the moon and the dead and bro u g h t Instead, Thorndike considered that modern ways of messages from the gods. Because of this identific a t i o n thought emerged from the tradition of thoughtful with Hermes, Thoth became known as “twice greatest.” i n vestigation of contemporary problems in the course Then, in the second century B.C.E., T h o t h – He r m e s of which erroneous notions we re discarded. A radical was further assimilated to Moses and so became “thrice opponent of simpleminded and anachronistic theo- g re a t e s t” (which translates into Greek as He r m e s ries of pro g ress, Thorndike made a lasting Trismegistus) because he combined the wisdom, contribution to the serious study of the past in all its ingenuity, and attributes of all three archetypal figures. complexity and differe n c e . Thoth was believed to have written forty-two books that contained the wisdom of the world. In the Greek HILARY M. CAREY magical papyri, he was described as one who knew See also:HISTORIOGRAPHY;OCCULT;SCIENCEANDMAGIC. e ve rything hidden beneath the vault of heaven and References and further reading: underneath the earth, so it is not surprising that his Clagett, Marshall. 1966. “Lynn Thorndike (1882–1965).” Isis f o rty-two books included several tomes on magic, 57: 85–89. which was considered an occult (that is, “hidden”) sci- Durand, Dana. 1942. “Magic and Experimental Science: The ence. A corpus, called the He rm e t i c a after He r m e s Achievement of Lynn Thorndike.” Isis33: 691–712. Trismegistus, was known to Byzantine scholars and to a Kibre, Pearl. 1954. “Bibliography of Published Writings of Lynn number of the Church Fathers. It consisted of eighteen Thorndike (1905–1952).” Osiris11: 8–22. books of theosophical philosophy that treated astrolog- Sarton, George. 1924. “Review of a History of Magic and ical and alchemical themes as well as religious ones, and Experimental Science During the First Thirteen Centuries of it included a treatise known as the Asclepiusand a num- Our Era by Lynn Thorndike.” Isis6, no. 1: 74–89. Thorndike, Lynn. 1923–1958. History of Magic and Experimental ber of fragmentary excerpts taken from a By z a n t i n e Science.8 vols. NewYork: Columbia University Press. s c h o l a r, Joannes Stobaios. Un f o rt u n a t e l y, the As c l e p i u s ———. 1955. “The True Place of Astrology in the History of caught the unfavorable attention of St. Augustine, after Science.” Isis46, no. 3: 273–278. which the Latin West seems to have lost intere s t , Thorndike, Lynn, and Pearl Kibre. 1963. A Catalogue of Incipits of although Muslim scholars did much to pre s e rve and Mediaeval ScientificWritings in Latin.Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: extend the corpus. By the twelfth century, howe ve r, Mediaeval Academy of America. Hermes Trismegistus began to appear again in Western scholarly literature. Then, in 1471, Marsilio Fi c i n o Thoth published his translation of several key Hermetic texts. In the Egyptian pantheon, Thoth was usually repre- To Ficino, Hermes Trismegistus was older than Mo s e s sented as a man with the head of an ibis, holding a pen and in consequence could be counted as “the fir s t 1118 Thoth

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1119 Application File author of theology,” foreseeing among other things the own lack of proper faith. They should be given better death of paganism and the rise and triumph of spiritual guidance; those who refused to renounce the C h r i s t i a n i t y. A seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry German scholar Devil should be banished. Witches in the third catego- even tried to claim him as the founder of Germany. ry were to be executed because of the harm they had Pictures of Hermes Trismegistus tend to show him as caused, but not because of their pact: Thumm was an elderly bearded man dressed in what the Mi d d l e insistent that no one should be put to death for the Ages or early modern period conceived as oriental cos- spiritual crime of apostasy. Thumm’s tract was charac- tume. He appears thus in a famous inlaid floor panel of terized generally by compassion for those individuals the pavement in the cathedral of Siena, and the accom- who fell into his first two categories, by his strong panying inscription calls him “Hermes Tr i s m e g i s t u s , emphasis on human susceptibility to the Devil’s trick- the contemporary of Moses.” He is shown handing an ery, and by his assertion that territorial rulers should open book to two men, and the image is accompanied make the proper religious instruction of their subjects a by the words “Egyptians, receive the teachings and the higher priority than the persecution of witches. laws.” A column painting in the Vatican Library, how- The son of a pastor,Thumm was born in Hausen an e ve r, depicts him as a Greek Hermes and calls him der Zaber in the southwestern German duchy of “Mercurius Thoth who composed sacred letters [that is, Württemberg. He studied theology at the University of hieroglyphs] for the Egyptians.” Tübingen from 1604 to 1608 and held various ecclesi- astical posts at St u t t g a rt and Kirchheim unter Te c k P. G. MAXWELL-STUART b e t ween 1608 and 1618, when he became a pro f e s s o r See also:GREEKMAGICALPAPYRI;HERMETICISM; of theology at the University of Tübingen. After 1620 MOSES;OCCULT. Thumm was also dean of the collegiate church and References and further reading: superintendent of T ü b i n g e n’s Lutheran seminary. Hi s Copenhaver, Brian P., ed. 1992. Hermetica.Cambridge: demonology continued the “s p i r i t u a l i z i n g” or “p rov i- Cambridge University Press. d e n t i a l” view of witchcraft, whose theological home Faivre, Antoine. 1995. The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to was the Lutheran Un i versity of Tübingen and whose Alchemical Magus.Translated by Joscelyn Godwin. Grand most famous early proponent was the W ü rt t e m b e r g Rapids, MI: Phanes. Fowden, Garth. 1986. The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach reformer Johann Brenz (Midelfort 1972). In a sermon to the Late Pagan Mind.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University preached in 1539 after severe hailstorms had damaged Press. crops in Württemberg, Brenz argued that God inflicted Iversen, Erik. 1993. The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphs in bad weather on his flock as a test of their faith or as a European Tradition.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University punishment for their sins. Brenz preached against the Press. widespread popular idea that witches caused bad weath- Watterson, Barbara. 1984. The Gods of Ancient Egypt. London: er by magical means: They might be deluded by the Batsford. Devil into believing that they could raise storms, Brenz said, but in reality they were powerless to interfere with Thumm, Theodor God’s providential control of the world. The real crime (1586–1630) of the witch was thus not the causing of m a l e fic i u m One of the leading Lutheran theologians and polemi- (harmful magic) but the spiritual crime of consort i n g cists of early-seventeenth-century Germany, Theodor with the Devil. Thumm was also an opponent of witch hunting and Like Brenz, whom he cited in his Tractatus,Thumm published a demonology at Tübingen in 1621, written denied that witches could cause bad we a t h e r. He also from a skeptical perspective, entitled Tractatus theologi- denied that they could have sex with the Devil, meta- cus, de sagarum impietate, nocendiimbecillitate et poenae morphose into animals, enter locked houses thro u g h gravitate (Theological Treatise, of the Godlessness of tiny holes, or cause harm at a distance from their Witches, the Feebleness of Their Ability to Work victims by means of image magic—all activities beyond Harm, and the Severity of Their Punishment). In this the capabilities of humans to perform. Witches could work, Thumm distinguished between three categories harm people and livestock, but only by mixing poisons of witches: Those who suffered from melancholy and into food, drink, or salves or by blowing it into the faces had been deceived by the Devil into imagining that of their victims. For such crimes, they, like other they had done impossible things, such as metamor- poisoners, deserved the death penalty. phosing into animals; those who had been duped into Thumm differed from Brenz in one crucial re s p e c t , making a pact with the Devil against their will but had however.Whereas Brenz and his successors at Tübingen committed no harm; and those who had made a pact had asserted that witches deserved death for renouncing with the Devil and who had harmed people and live- God, even if they caused no physical harm, T h u m m stock. Thumm argued that witches in the first two cat- maintained that no one should be executed for apostasy egories were victims of the Devil’s cunning and their alone. In adopting this line of argument, T h u m m Thumm, Theodor 1119

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1120 Application File a c k n owledged the influence of such earlier skeptics as persecutions in these areas (Clark 1990). A second Johann Weyer, Hermann Witekind, and Johann Georg edition of T h u m m’s Tra c t a t u swas published in 1667. Goedelmann. In fact, Thumm essentially copied fro m ALISON ROWLANDS Goedelmann the threefold division of witches into those who made pacts and caused real harm, those who See also:BRENZ,JOHANN;DEMONOLOGY;GOEDELMANN,JOHANN made pacts without causing harm, and those who con- GEORG;IMAGEMAGIC;IMPERIALFREECITIES;MALEFICIUM; fessed to impossibilities. St u a rt Clark has argued that MELANCHOLY;METAMORPHOSIS;PACTWITHTHEDEVIL; this way of distinguishing between different categories POISON;SKEPTICISM;WEATHERMAGIC;WEYER,JOHANN; WITEKIND,HERMANN;WÜRTTEMBERG,DUCHYOF. of witches became part of a general Lutheran orthodoxy References and further reading: on witchcraft during the seventeenth century. On the Clark, Stuart. 1990. “Protestant Demonology: Sin, Superstition one hand, Clark suggested that the distinction was and Society (c. 1520–c. 1630).” Pp. 45–81 in Early Modern important because it “enabled pastors opposed to popu- European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Bengt lar intolerance to break down the assumption that Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon. witches were always responsible for actual harm done” ———. 1997. Thinking with Demons. The Idea of Witchcraft in without abandoning entirely the notion that witches Early Modern Europe.Oxford: Clarendon. might be responsible for some instances of harm done Fritz, Friedrich. 1925. “Die württembergischen Pfarrer im to their neighbors. On the other hand, however, Clark Zeitalter des dreissigjährigen Krieges.” Blätter für württember- gische Kirchengeschichte29: 163–168. suggested that this schema also illustrated the limits of ———. 1939. “Theodor Thumm, ein Vorkämpfer der the effectiveness of skeptical demonology in challeng- lutherischen Kirche in der Zeit des dreissigjährigen Krieges.” ing the intellectual basis of witchcraft belief, because it Luthertum50: 202–219. still allowed for the possibility that humans could make Midelfort, H. C. Erik. 1972. Witch Hunting in Southwestern pacts with the Devil (Clark 1997). Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. It is hard to assess the impact of T h u m m’s work on Stanford: Stanford University Press. his contemporaries. The spiritualizing Tübingen tra- Rowlands, Alison. 2003. Wi t c h c raft Na r ra t i ves in Ge rm a n y : dition of thinking about witchcraft, to which T h u m m Rothenburg, 1561–1652.Manchester: Manchester Un i versity Pre s s . made a significant contribution, probably helped shape the re l a t i vely low level of witch persecution in Thuringia the duchy of W ü rttemberg, emphasizing as it did the Together with neighboring Franconia (Ba m b e r g , p owerlessness of witches and the idea that it was more W ü rzburg), southern Thuringia formed a principal zo n e i m p o rtant for good Lutherans to repent their own sins of German witch persecutions. In early modern times, than to accuse their neighbors of witchcraft. this area was larger than today’s federal state of Mo re ove r, Tübingen Un i versity was the main center Thuringia, extending further especially in the nort h e a s t of theological ideas for southwestern and southeastern and south (Sachsen-Coburg). In this enlarged area, more German Lutheranism. For example, the spiritualizing than 1,500 cases of witch persecution are known to have tradition influenced pastors in nearby Schwäbisch o c c u r red from 1526 until 1731 (Füssel 2001, 89–94). Hall and Hohenlohe, and it helped influence the ve ry Although many sources have been lost, the overall state restrained pattern of witchcraft trials in the imperial of what we know about Thuringia seems quite good, f ree city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Mi d e l f o rt because numerous cases can still be found in almost all 1972; Rowlands 2003). T h e re is also evidence of the state arc h i ves. Many cases have also been described in the d i rect influence of T h u m m’s work on a specific trial in older literature, both before and after 1900. Rothenburg: In 1627 T h u m m’s Tra c t a t u s and his After a very slow beginning, with only scattered indi- a s s e rtion that no one should be executed for a spiritu- vidual trials in the early decades, the re c o rds show a al crime we re cited explicitly at the trial of a self-con- sharp increase in witch persecutions around 1590. fessed child-witch. This opinion, also citing such oth- Be t ween 1598 and 1631, Thuringia experienced a er Lutheran skeptics as Goedelmann, helped secure large, though repeatedly broken, wave of persecution. the acquittal of the imprisoned girl and also influ- Its peak came in 1629, shortly before the persecutions enced the moderate way in which the Rothenburg city were suddenly stopped by the Thirty Years’War, which council handled other cases involving self-confessed affected Thuringia in 1631 with the battle at child-witches. Fi n a l l y, as the theological faculties of Breitenfeld, near Leipzig. After the war had cost the universities of Tübingen and Wittenberg we re Thuringia over half of its population, the hunt for i m p o rtant sources of the ideas on which Pro t e s t a n t witches remained in abeyance for some years. But in demonology in other Lutheran parts of Germany and 1656, witchcraft trials resumed, and a second massive Scandinavia we re based, Thumm may also have wave of persecution lasted until the end of the century. contributed in some small way to this wider discourse, After 1700 only a few individual cases can be found in which Clark has tentatively suggested may have had a the records, and the accusations in those cases contain moderating impact on the scale of the witch increasing elements of superstition. 1120 Thuringia

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1121 Application File Over 60 percent of all cases came from the areas of Franconian judicial districts in southwestern Thuringia. Henneberg (about 750 trials) and Coburg (about 230) In practice, this difference was minimal, because almost in southern and southwestern Thuringia, bordering the e ve ry Thuringian witchcraft trial investigated both prince-bishoprics of Bamberg and W ü rzburg, both harmful sorc e ry and the diabolical pact, and most a reas of intensive witch persecutions. T h e re we re defendants confessed to both (Füssel 2001, 27). n u m e rous cases also in two imperial free cities: As recommended by article 219 of the Caro l i n a Mühlhausen (66 trials between 1624 and 1731) and Code, local courts throughout Thuringia did not No rdhausen (30 trials between 1599 and 1644). decide cases without receiving opinions from law facul- Especially after 1656, numerous cases also occurred on ties, which their re s p e c t i ve sove reigns re q u i red. T h e s e the other side of the Thuringian forest, in the scholarly bodies thus became the decisive level of cen- Georgenthal jurisdiction of Sachsen-Gotha. The center tral decision making in witchcraft proceedings, unlike of persecution thus covered the hilly Thuringian forest the situation in many other German territories, where and the Thuringian Rhön, whereas only a few witch- local courts often made their own decisions. So far as craft trials occurred in the flat Thuringian basin. we can trace, the Schöppenstuhlat Jena was consulted in We have the decisions of 1,200 of the more than approximately 57 percent of the Thuringian witchcraft 1,500 known Thuringian witchcraft trials. Of these cases, that of Coburg in about 20 percent, and another 1,200, about 75 percent, at least 900 persons died 15 percent consulted the electoral S c h ö p p e n s t u h l a t (800 in executions and 100 in prison). (In actuality, Leipzig. Oc c a s i o n a l l y, other bodies we re consulted, m o re than 900 persons died because the extant court mostly as additional authorities in questionable cases re c o rds do not specify the outcomes of some of the (Füssel 2001, 31–33). trials.) Half of all prisoners executed we re burned; another 11 percent we re granted the “g r a c e” of Who Were the Witches? p revious beheading. About 8 percent of all prisoners Although no pro file of a “typical Thuringian witch” did not even live to see the end of their trial but died can be re c o g n i zed (anyone could be tried), they we re f rom the effects of tort u re or from miserable prison ove rwhelmingly female: About 87 percent of all conditions. On the other hand, eve ry fourth person prisoners we re women, most of them married and tried for witchcraft got off with banishment or b e t ween twenty and fifty years of age. Children and acquittal (Füssel 2001, 62–64). old people we re rarely mentioned. Most prisoners came from rural villages, although their trials we re Legal Proceedings often held in local or provincial seats of jurisdiction Despite its multitude of autonomous governments, (Füssel 2001, 107–112). As elsew h e re, most evidence inquisitorial proceedings in witch cases throughout against the accused concerned m a l e fic i u m , h a r m f u l Thuringia were relatively uniform. Apart from the s o rc e ry originating in rural or domestic confli c t s . question of legal expenses (invariably paid by defen- Most m a l e fic i a i n vo l ved the illness or death of people dants, even if they were released) and some extraordi- or animals. In addition, people we re often attacked by nary sentences of banishment and absolutia ab instancia lice or suffered lameness in their arms or legs. W h e n (acquittal with reservation)—that is, the proceedings c ows no longer gave enough milk, suspicion fell on could be recommenced—the p rocessus ord i n a r i u s “milk thieves,” especially in the early-sixteenth-centu- (ordinary procedure) of the Carolina Code was closely ry cases. Later, the term for a (usually female) “m i l k followed everywhere by local authorities, who duly t h i e f” was extended to witches in general. consulted law faculties and princely S c h ö p p e n s t ü h l Regional differences existed with respect to accusa- (benches of jurists). Procedural irregularities we re tions of harmful sorc e ry. So rc e ry with El b e n ( “ b a d censured and were mostly remedied; in Thuringia, the things,” parasitic insects, reputedly begotten by the crime of witchcraft was not regarded as a crimen excep- Devil and witches, that infiltrated the body of a human tum(the excepted crime), that is, a crime so serious and victim and harmed it from within) was limited to frequently hard to prove that it was excepted from the northern Thuringia, mainly to the hilly area of the Harz usual legal procedures. in Sachsen-Anhalt. Central and especially southern After 1572, the Carolina Code, the imperial law Thuringia was home to the dragon, sometimes called code, with its basic focus on maleficium (harmful mag- “fiery dragon,” that played a big part in popular belief ic), was supplemented in much of Thuringia by the of the region. One saw it normally at night, on the roof n ew law code of electoral Sa xo n y, which decreed the of a house or entering and leaving its chimney; it was death penalty for diabolical pacts even without harmful said to bring its owners, the so-called dragon holders, a m a l e ficia (evil acts). Its regulations we re gradually variety of benefits, above all in the form of food. On the accepted by most Thuringian dominions, except the other hand, accusations of misdeeds such as misusing jurisdictions belonging to No rdhausen, Mainz (Erf u rt the Host could be found all over Thuringia and we re and the Eichsfeld), or Hesse (Schmalkalden), or to the typical in other German regions as well. Thuringia 1121

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1122 Application File When an investigation began with an accusation by Thyraeus was interested in various aspects of this another witch, the ensuing trial was focused first on whole subject. He distinguished between evil spirits p a rticipation at the witches’ Sabbat, where the two who simply infested places or who vexed the living and witches must have seen each other dance. Qu e s t i o n s tried to do them harm, on the one hand, and the souls about the other participants at the dance were standard of those who were suffering the pangs of purgatory and at each hearing, and sooner or later all prisoners who returned to trouble the living or offer them a warning confessed also named their supposed accomplices. about their behavior, on the other. He discussed the When broken by torture, they also confessed the other motives of invasive demons, whether they appeared fre- re l e vant elements of the crime of witchcraft. But the quently or rarely, and whether they always appeared as fully developed idea of witchcraft cannot be found in they actually we re. We re all places equally infested, or Thuringian evidence before the end of the sixteenth did some suffer more than others, and if so, why? Were century (Füssel 2001, 65–73). all human beings equally subject to vexation by spirits, and if not, why did some suffer from them more than RONALD FÜSSEL others? Precisely what kind of things did molesting spir- See also:BAMBERG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF;CAROLINACODE its do? Could they inflict blows, death, or any other (CONSTITIOCRIMINALISCAROLINA); CARPZOV,BENEDICT; physical harm on human beings? And what kind of CONFESSIONS;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;EXECUTIONS;GERMANY, things should be attributed to angelic spirits, eve n NORTHEASTERN;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); though they may have seemed to arise from human MEYFART(MEYFAHRT), JOHANNMATTHÄUS;MILK;POPULAR agency? BELIEFSINWITCHES;RURALWITCHCRAFT;SAXONY,ELECTORATE Thyraeus went on to tell his readers how to distin- OF;SOCIALANDECONOMICSTATUSOFWITCHES;TRIALS; guish between ghosts and evil spirits and to suggest that UNIVERSITIES;WITCHHUNTS;WÜRZBURG,PRINCE-BISHOPRICOF. References and further reading: d i f f e rent places—sacred or profane, waste or cultiva t e d , Friedrich, Egbert. 1995. Hexenjagd im Raum Rodach und die blighted by past death or crime or not so tainted, Hexenprozessordnung von Herzog Johann Casimir.Rodach: Catholic or here t i c a l — we re more or less likely to attract Rodacher Rückert-Kreis. c e rtain types of spirits. This was followed by much detail Füssel, Ronald. 2001. Hexen und Hexenverfolgung in Thüringen. about the appearance and behavior of the various kinds Erfurt: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen. of spirit, and fin a l l y, in the third part of the book, he ———. 2003. Die Hexenverfolgungen im Thüringer Raum. g a ve advice about how to deal with the problem of spirit Hamburg: Dobu. infestation, including admonitions about the wro n g ways to go about exo rcising spirits according to their dif- Thyraeus (Thrace), Petrus f e rent types and intentions, ending with a detailed dis- (1546–1601) cussion on “things that went bump in the night” — A Jesuit doctor of theology and for several years a pro- largely the actions of ghosts and inferior demons. fessor at the University of Würzburg, Petrus Thyraeus Thyraeus was pursuing themes that also intere s t e d published several books of theological controversy, but such near contemporaries as Pierre le Loyer and Ludwig his principal interest lay in apparitions, ghosts, and Lavater, both of whom published books on ghosts and invading demons who infested both places and people. spirits during the last years of the sixteenth century. From 1582 until his death, he produced several books One was the confessional point of purgatory: Did it on these topics, especially on demonic possession, most exist or not, and if not, whence did certain kinds of of which had more than one edition and most of which ghost come? Indeed, without purgatory, could ghosts are in effect variants of a single treatise. return at all? Another was the much-debated question A translation of the full title of the best known of of how best to deal with invasion from the spirit world these, published in Cologne in 1598, gives a very good and whether it was permissible to use countermagic to notion of the thrust of his work. It runs: Infested Places: fight, say, magically induced possession. A third point, That is, a single volume dealing with places that are infest- however, was less confessionally based and had troubled ed because of the spirits of demons or dead people causing theologians for a very long time: Because spirits were by d i s t ress and annoyance; wherein are discussed and definition noncorporeal, how could they interact physi- explained the types of infesting spirits, their chara c t e r s , cally with human beings? It was a question that touched their power, the distinctions between them, and the things upon many aspects of witches’ behavior—the possibili- they do that bring evil to the living; along with explana- ty of their sexual intercourse with Satan and with tions whereby they may to some extent be recognized and to incubi or succubi, for example—and the pro p o s e d some extent outlawed; and fin a l l y, the methods where by answers were various and ingenious. Thyraeus’s treatise the places molested by them may be delivered from them, was thus directly re l e vant to some of the fore m o s t and information of a similar kind; to which is added a intellectual speculation of his period. small volume on terrifying things that appear during the night and usually foretell the death of human beings. P. G. MAXWELL-STUART 1122 Thyraeus (Thrace), Petrus

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1123 Application File See also:CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC;DEMONS; of Waldensians) and s o rcherie ( s o rc e ry) we re indistin- GHOSTS;INCUBUSANDSUCCUBUS;POSSESSION,DEMONIC; guishable synonyms. Tinctor provided powe rf u l SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC. assistance in disseminating the new “c u m u l a t i ve” witchcraft concept in his region. Tinctor, Johann DRIES VANYSACKER (ca. 1405/1410–1469) The theologian Johann Tinctor (Johannes Tinctoris; See also:ARRAS;ARTANDVISUALIMAGES;GOAT;HERESY; Jean Taincture), who was born and died at Tournai in NETHERLANDS,SOUTHERN;VAUDOIS(WALDENSIANS). References and further reading: the southern Netherlands, ranks among the most Balmans, E. 1979. “Il ‘Traicté de Vauderie’ di Johannes Tinctor.” important early contributors to the dissemination of Protestantismo34: 1–26. major elements of the new, learned science of demono- Tinctor, Jean. 1999. Invectives contre la secte de vauderie.Edited by logical witchcraft within the boundaries of present-day Emile Van Balberghe and Frédéric Duval. Tournai: Archives du Belgium. He was a former professor, rector, and dean of Chapitre Cathédrale. the Faculty of Arts in Cologne from about 1440 to Van Balberghe, Emile, and J. F. Gilmont. 1979. “Les théologiens 1460 and a canon at the Cathedral of Notre Dame at et la “Vauderie” au XVe s.: A propos des oeuvres de J. Tinctor à Tournai after 1456. Sometime about 1460, he wrote a la bibliothèque de l’abbaye de Parc.” Pp. 2: 393–411 in short tract entitled Contra sectam Valdensium (Against Miscellanea codicologica Fr. Masai dicata.Edited by Pierre the Waldensian Sect) , in the context of the famous trial Cockshaw, M. C. Garrand, and Pierre Jodogne. Ghent: of 1459 against the Waldensians in the city of Arras. Story-Scientia S.P.R.L. Ti n c t o r’s book is also known by a variant title, Speculatio in secta Valdensium (Speculation on the Sect Toads of the Waldensians). Initial evidence of the toad’s central role in witchcraft In this treatise, Tinctor vehemently attacked the comes from language. In German dialects, for example, crime of demonic sorc e ry, which he characterized as Hexe signifies both “toad” and “witch,” and in many being even worse than adherence to paganism, here s y, Italian dialects, the toad is defined as strega, “witch,” or or Islam. He elaborated on the malevolent powers of fata, “fairy.” The Spanish bruja, “witch,” the old French the Devil and described the activities (including malefi- brusche, and the Sardinian bruscia all derive from the c i u m—harmful magic) done by the Waldensians in Vulgar Latin bruscus (Plomteux 1965). This toad–witch Satan’s name. According to Tinctor, not only could the connection points to the even closer relation between Devil work magic with snakes, rain, wind, and storms, toad and woman that can be observed in the figures of but he could also open locks, lead humans into tempta- the witch’s body, although in Normandy, because of tion, and so on. Tinctor’s evidence for such crimes came their venom, toads were connected to male witches. f rom the trials in Arras, where fifteen people we re The relationships between the toad and female bodies burned at the stake as witches after having admitted are structured in various contexts of meaning that cut taking part in obscene Sabbats and performing homage across fields of knowledge and practices of witchcraft, to a black goat. including the status of the witch’s body and the animal Tinctor’s tract became increasingly influential during components of the witch’s “person,” representations of the following decades. We know of five Latin female physicality in European Christian knowledge manuscripts of the Sp e c u l a t i o and another four of a and practices, and the bodily fig u res and animal French translation. Both Duke Philip the Good of metaphors of ecstasy, possession, and dream. Burgundy (ruled 1419–1467) and the import a n t Beyond the distinctions between “high” culture and humanistic patron of Bruges, Lodewijk van Gruuthuse “ l ow” culture, the toad is one of the most fre q u e n t (ca. 1422–1492), possessed illuminated copies of the animal metamorphoses of the witch. T h ro u g h o u t French manuscript, entitled Se rmon contre Va u d o i s Eu rope, a popular practice for discovering a witch in ( Sermon Against the Waldensians), in their rich the guise of a toad was to brand the animal with a libraries. Their manuscripts contained a miniature in red-hot nail so that later a burn on a woman’s body which one can discern some demonological themes: a could be considered an identifying mark. Si m i l a r l y, in man in a kneeling position kisses the arse of a male inquisitorial trials for witchcraft, evidence of guilt was goat, while in the background of the miniature there constituted by the privileged relationship that the are flying men and women, seated on monstrous beasts. defendant was believed to have with a batrachian, Some years later, about 1477, the famous printer of sometimes raised in the home as a “m a g i c” spirit. Bruges, Colard Mansion, printed Ti n c t o r’s tract. T h i s Mo re ove r, both in popular re p resentations and in printed re p resentation of the Waldensians as an orga- s t e reotypes of the witches’ Sabbat created by the nized sect of demonological witches was soon followed inquisitors, the identification of the witch came about by regular trials in the French-speaking parts of the t h rough the discove ry of an image of a small toad or southern Netherlands, where the labels vauderie(heresy toad’s foot in the pupil of the left eye of the defendant: Toads 1123

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1124 Application File The mark that the Devil painlessly impressed on the when his analysis of the Sabbat addressed the question body of the witch (Henningsen 1980, 80; De Gr a a f f of dream re p resentation, the toad took on a differe n t 1991, 111–128; Charuty 1997, 82–94). These diaboli- symbolic meaning in relation to the physiology of the cal “marks” highlighted the animal components of the female body, the dual and plural character of the witch’s witch’s person, which were also evident in the ecstasy of person, and figures of spirit possession. the dream experience: In the phenomenology of witch- A study of re p resentations of the “alter ego” in craft, the emergence of animals from the mouth or sex animal form (or images of the “d o u b l e” that in the organ of sleeping women provided further proof that d ream experience emerged from the body in the form the woman was indeed a witch. Stories of this kind were of an animal) indicated a thread of variants in which widespread throughout Europe, and toads (along with the alter ego was represented as a toad (or as a spider) spiders) figured prominently in them as animal compo- that exited the body through the sex organ (Lixfeld nents of the person that revealed her bewitched nature 1972). The toad’s exit through the sex organ was (Lixfeld 1972). described as an “e x t r a o rd i n a ry” but real event in the Toads appeared in many early modern witch narra- first book of the well-known treatise, published in 1599 tives and in art, as in Jan Ziarnko’s famous depiction of and 1600, by the Spanish Jesuit, Ma rtín Del Rio, the Sabbat and in the work of the elder Pieter Breughel, Disquisitionum magicae libri sex ( Six Books on where they appear as familiars. In the Basque country, In vestigations into Magic), which recounted the toads provided poison, flying ointment, and familiars. apparition of a toad jumping out of the belly of a young The Devil sometimes appeared in the form of a toad, woman in labor, who is thus finally able to give birth to and toad venom was a common ingredient in witches’ her baby. potions. People cooked toads (substituting for witches) The symbolic relationship between the toad and the as a form of countermagic. female body is also central to another series of practices Carlo Ginzburg analyzed the toad’s presence in the and re p resentations. In a vast area of western Eu ro p e context of witchcraft through ethno-pharmacological from Alsace to the Tyrolean Alps, phenomena of spirit studies suggesting that the skin of this batrachian has possession resulted from a toad’s bite or its penetration psychotropic effects that explain its importance both in into the body of the possessed (Charuty 1997, 82–94). w i t c h e s’ “re c i p e s” and in the experience of ecstatic Such phenomena appear to have been the source of mediation. The pharmacological qualities of toad skin practices of intercession based on vo t i ve offerings in led Ginzburg to locate the genesis of the witches’ i ron or wax re p resenting the woman’s uterus in the Sabbat in shamanic ecstasy (Ginzburg 1991, 306). But form of a toad. In such cases, the toad was both the u t e rus and the instrument of possession, which, using an expression re p o rted by ethnographers, “bit” the woman’s sex organ (Andree 1904). Museums in Alsace c o n s e rve numerous examples of these toad–uteru s votive offerings. In the Middle Ages, wax or iron toad votive offerings were made in the cave of St. Vitus as a cure for St. Vitus’s dance (Andree 1904). The identifica- tion of the “bite” with the uterus was based on an age-old re p resentation of the female sex organ, which, a c c o rding to a tradition running through Gre c o - Roman, Renaissance, and baroque medicine, was e n d owed with a mobility that made it similar to an animal, and in this form it “possessed” the female body. In Christianity, this “hysterical” quality of the female body continued to be identified with the toad, whose “bite,” in medieval allegories, re p resented the sin of lust. In Christian iconography, the toad served the function of demonizing sexual desire (Pizza 2003). The relationship between the toad and the female body suggests, there f o re, a connection between the i n t e r p retations of stories recounting the entrance and exit of animals into and out of the body of a sleeping woman and symbolic physiologies of the female body. These elements appear to be integrated, for example, in Toad-demons, according to Hieronymus Bosch’s depiction of Hell. A panel of his painting, The Seven Deadly Sins.(Art Archive/Museo Sicilian versions of the m a t razza, the female malady del Prado Madrid/Dagli Orti) that presented all the traits of possession and witchlike 1124 Toads

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1125 Application File a g g ression, whose agents we re the donni di fuora course of judicial interrogation” (Kieckhefer 1976, 73). (women from outside), witch fig u res who, by trans- A round 1430, when the doctrine of the witches’ forming themselves into toads, invaded women’s bodies Sabbat was being developed through trials and treatises (Henningsen 1990; Charuty 1997, 82–94; Pizza 1998, in the southwestern Alps in present-day France and 69–74; Guggino 2004). Switzerland, that doctrine was also present in essential- ly similar form in early Renaissance Italy. Although we GIOVANNI PIZZA possess many fragments of trials from places like See also:ANIMALS;ANIMALISTICANDMAGICALTHINKING;ARTAND Dauphiné or Valais in these Alpine districts, our single VISUALIMAGES;BASQUECOUNTRY;BODYOFTHEWITCH; richest re c o rd of an early witchcraft trial involving a BREUGHEL,PIETERTHEELDER;DELRIO,MARTÍN;DEMONS; Sabbat comes instead from Todi, a small town in central DEVIL’SMARK;FAMILIARS;NORMANDY;POTIONS;SPIDERS; It a l y. This re c o rd provides extremely suggestive infor- ZIARNKO,JAN;ZUGARRAMURDI,WITCHESOF. mation about the ways through which popular magical References and further reading: practices came to provide evidence of witchcraft. It Andree,Richard. 1904. “Die Opferkröten und Stagelkugeln.” Pp. offers tragic proof of the effects of revivalist sermons in 29–156 inVotive und Weihegaben des katolischen Volks in Süddeutschland: Ein Beitrag zur Volkskunde.Braunschweig: spurring witchcraft prosecutions. But unlike the Vieweg und Sohn. accused in Alpine cases from this period, the witch of Charuty, Giordana. 1997.Folie, mariage et mort: Pratiques chréti- Todi was never questioned about any “a c c o m p l i c e s” ennes de la folie en Europe occidentale.Paris: Seuil. seen at Sabbats: She died alone. De Graaff, Robert M. 1991. The Book of the Toad: A Natural and Todi, lying far north of Rome on the Tiber Rive r, Magical History of Toad–Human Relations.Cambridge: belonged to the Papal States, but the judge of the Lutterworth. special court that tried Matteuccia di Francesco was a Ginzburg, Carlo. 1991. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. layman, not an inquisitor. The re c o rd of Ma t t e u c c i a’s Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. NewYork: Pantheon. trial is divided into two radically different parts. Almost Guggino, Elsa. 2004. “Del mutevole essere delle ‘donne.’” Pp. t h re e - f o u rths of it consists of a lengthy recital of her 354–367 in I canti e la magia.Turin: Sellerio. n u m e rous illicit magical practices, related (as the trial Henningsen, Gustav. 1980. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition.Reno: University of re c o rd repeatedly insists) “not by malignant and Nevada Press. suspicious people” but instead by “honest and truthful ———. 1990. “The ‘Ladies from Outside’: An Archaic Pattern of c i t i zens.” Most witnesses appear to have been former the Witches’ Sabbat.” Pp. 191–215 in Early Modern European clients who had paid for her services. Most of Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries.Edited by Gustav Ma t t e u c c i a’s magical cures invo l ved herbal healing; Henningsen and Bengt Ankarloo. Oxford: Clarendon. many we re done in response to requests from abused Lixfeld, Hannjost. 1972. “Die Guntramsage (AT 1645 A). w i ves. The final instance in this part came from a Volkserzählungen vom Alter Ego in Tiergestalt und ihre priest’s concubine, for whom Matteuccia had provided schamanistische Herkunft.” Fabula13: 60–107. a method to prevent pregnancy: burning the hoof of a Monter,William. 1997. “Toads and Eucharists: The Male Witches she-mule, and drinking the ashes dissolved in wine. of Normandy, 1564–1660.” French Historical Studies Immediately after describing Matteuccia’s contracep- 20: 563–595. Pizza, Giovanni. 1998. “The Virgin and the Spider: Revisiting tive remedy, the trial record shifts abruptly and without Spirit Possession in Southern Europe.” Pp. 49–81 in Incontri di warning. “Furthermore, not content with these things, etnologia europea/European Ethnology Meeting.Edited by adding evil to evil and aided by an infernal spirit, she Cristina Papa, Giovanni Pizza, and Filippo M. Zerilli. Naples: attempted to ruin [stregatum] the health of children, at Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane. many times and in many places, by sucking their ———. 2003. “Il motivo del rospo-utero: Stregoneria, possessione blood.” The next sentence described how, “in the e metafore del corpo femminile nelle opere dei folkoristi company of other witches, she often went to the walnut dall’Alsazia alle Alpi orientali.” Pp. 75–84 in Saperi terapeutici tree of Benevento and to other walnut trees, anointing tradizionali dell’arco alpino.Edited by Giovanni Kezich and herself with an oil made from the fat of vultures, the Tullio Seppilli. San Michele all’Adige: Museo degli usi e costu- blood of bats, the blood of babies, and other ingre d i- mi della gente trentina. e n t s” (Mammoli 1972, 36). We are even told, in the Plomteux, Hugo. 1965.“Le crapaud, magie et malefice: A propos de quelques zoonymes italiens.” Revue de linguistique romane vernacular, the “prayer” she repeated on such occasions, 29: 133–140. and we soon learn the exact schedule of these 200-mile flights to Benevento. Five specific cases were document- Todi, Witch of (1428) ed (including re l e vant names, dates, and places), in The trial and confession of Matteuccia di Francesco, which Matteuccia, disguised as a large fly, murd e re d the witch of Todi, reveal far more clearly than other sur- babies by sucking their blood. The record states that she viving documents of the early fifteenth century (when confessed, “saying that she has no defence” (Mammoli European witch hunting began) how “notions of dia- 1972, 38). An official notary ve r i fied that she was bolism were superimposed on earlier charges in the indeed burned for such crimes on March 20, 1428. Todi, the Witch of 1125

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1126 Application File Ma t t e u c c i a’s trial re c o rd clearly demonstrates the the bishop of Lausanne or Duke Amadeus VIII of i m p o rtance of infla m m a t o ry antiwitchcraft sermons Savoy (the future Pope Felix V). preached at Todi between January and March 1426 by The Inquisition had existed on paper in these dioce- the Franciscan friar and future saint, Be r n a rdino of ses as early as 1269. The first re c o rded trials in the Siena, re i n f o rced by his suggested reforms of To d i’s diocese of Lausanne took place against a Beguine house penal code, which we re adopted before he left. T h e s e in 1375, followed by trials against approximately fif t y n ew laws included provisions that anyone re s p o n s i b l e Waldensians in 1399; both ended by releasing the for carrying out “spells or acts of witchcraft” should be defendants. To r renté held his first witchcraft trials in burned, and they permitted the use of torture “accord- 1428 and 1429 in Lower Valais and in Fr i b o u r g , ing to the nature of the crime.” Although the records of although he was not admitted into episcopal Va l a i s , Matteuccia’s trial emphasized that she confessed “spon- w h e re a large-scale witch hunt was then beginning taneously,” there is good reason to suspect that she had (Andenmatten and Utz Tremp 1992, 71, 74–77, in fact been tortured (Mormando 1999, 72–74). 78–82; Os t o re ro, Paravicini Bagliani, and Utz Tre m p Un f o rt u n a t e l y, this was not the only witch burning 1999, 63–98). In 1430 To r renté also led a mixe d connected with Bernardino’s sermons. Two years earlier, tribunal carrying out Fribourg’s great Waldensian trial, in 1426, another instance had occurred while he was which contained some early traces of charges of witch- p reaching in Rome (Mormando 1999, 54–66). Tw o craft (Utz Tremp 2000, 106–119). His Do m i n i c a n details stand out: Unlike Matteuccia, the Roman witch brothers in Geneva summoned him from Freibourg in was re c o rded in no fewer than six different sourc e s , the summer of 1430 to conduct a trial against another three Italian and three transalpine, but no trial summa- h e t e ro d ox traveling pre a c h e r, the Italian Be n e d i c t i n e ry exists. The sources agreed about her name, and they Baptista de Mantua, whose sermons had impre s s e d all suggested that she was a folk healer like Matteuccia. Duke Amadeus VIII. Interestingly, all three northern European sources (but From 1432 to 1438, Torrenté may have studied at a no Roman source) insisted that this Roman witch u n i ve r s i t y, but we do not know whether he studied at turned herself into a cat when attacking babies, instead all and at which university. He did become a master of of a horsefly as Matteuccia did. None of the six sources theologybefore being made professor in 1440. In 1438 mentioned anything like a Sabbat. and 1439 he conducted witchcraft trials at Dommartin ( n o rth of Lausanne) and Neuchatel. The defendants WILLIAM MONTER we re men, such as Pi e r re de la Prelaz, of Do m m a rt i n , See also:BENEVENTO,WALNUTTREEOF;BERNARDINOOFSIENA; and Jaquet dou Plain and Enchimandus le Masseler, of CATS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;HERBALMEDICINE;ITALY; Neuchatel; Masseler was characterized as “here t i c a l . ” ORIGINSOFTHEWITCHHUNTS;SABBAT. Within twenty years, To r renté was thus able to make References and further reading: the inquisition in western Switzerland into a permanent Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their and adaptable institution (Andenmatten and Ut z Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500. Tremp 1992, 77–78, 93–102) that conducted some of London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. the first witchcraft trials and lasted until the late Mammoli, Domenico. 1972. The Record of the Trial and Condemnation of a Witch, Matteuccia di Francesco, at Todi, 20 fifteenth century (Paravicini et al. 1997, 247–258). March 1428. Rome: E. Cassidente. However,Torrenté’s activities were limited to the dioce- Mormando, Franco. 1999. The Preacher’s Demons: Bernardino of ses of Lausanne, Geneva, and Sion; apparently he never Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy. visited Besançon, Toul, Metz, or Verdun. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. In May 1440 To r renté finally re c e i ved from Po p e Felix V (the earlier Duke Amadeus VIII of Sa voy) the Torrenté, Ulric de succession to a benefice, which he never occupied. In (d. –1444/1445) 1442 To r renté simultaneously held the titles of vicar- Inquisitor for the western Swiss dioceses of Lausanne, general to Pope Felix V, inquisitor, and prior of Ge n e va, and Sitten around 1420–1440, Ulric de L a u s a n n e’s Dominican monastery. He died betwe e n Torrenté belonged to the Dominican monastery of December 1444 and November 1445 (Andenmatten Lausanne, serving as its prior in 1419 and from 1439 to and Utz Tremp 1992, 104–105; Zimmer 1999, 1444. He began his career as an inquisitor by prosecut- 447–448). He probably did not compose the Er ro re s ing a hetero d ox pre a c h e r, Nicolas Se r ru r i e r, an Gazariorum (Errors of the Gazars or Gazarii [Cathars— Augustine monk from the Low Countries, who had a common term for heretics and later witches]), one of been condemned at the Council of Constance in 1418 the earliest descriptions of the witches’ sect, eve n before arriving in Lausanne in 1423. Pope Martin V though one of the two known manuscripts of the (reigned 1417–1431) made Torrenté inquisitor for the Er ro res Ga z a r i o ru m ( Basel Un i versity Library, A II 34, dioceses of Besançon, Geneva, Lausanne, Sion, Toul, folios 319r/307r)–320v/308v) contains a text that bears Metz, and Verdun, but without approval from either a striking similarity to some proceedings against a 1126 Torrenté, Ulric de

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1127 Application File young man from Epesses (east of Lausanne), whom crimes. When inquisitorial pro c e d u re was adopted, Torrenté reconciled to the faith in 1438. However, this judges assumed responsibility for determining guilt on t reatise probably came from the Aosta valley and was the basis of a rational evaluation of the evidence. In most probably brought to Lausanne by Georges de o rder to pre vent the conviction of innocent people, Saluces, bishop of Aosta from 1433 to 1440 and of the courts adopted a ve ry demanding standard of Lausanne from 1440 to 1461 (Os t o re ro, Pa r a v i c i n i p roof: A person could not be convicted of a capital Bagliani, and Utz Tremp 1999, 330–343). crime without the testimony of two eyewitnesses or a confession. In concealed crimes, such as conspiracy or KATHRIN UTZ TREMP; m u rd e r, it was usually difficult to obtain evidence TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN STICKNEY f rom eyewitnesses. The same was true for heresy and witchcraft. The virtual impossibility of obtaining See also:DOMINICANORDER;ERRORESGAZARIORUM;HERESY; INQUISITION,MEDIEVAL;LAUSANNE,DIOCESEOF;ORIGINSOF testimony from eyewitnesses in those situations there- THEWITCHHUNTS;SWITZERLAND. f o re placed a legal premium upon confessions, and References and further reading: when confessions we re not forthcoming, tort u re was Anachet, Urs, Brigitte Degler-Spengler, and Petra Zimmer, eds. used to elicit them. 1999. Di Dominikaner und Dominikanerinnen in der Schweiz. When tort u re was adopted, jurists re c o g n i zed that the Basel: Schwabe. p ro c e d u re might easily lead innocent persons to make Andenmatten, Bernard, and Kathrin Utz Tremp. 1992. “De false confessions in order to stop the pain. To pre ve n t l’hérésie à la sorcellerie: L’inquisiteur Ulrich de Torrenté OP this from happening and to make the evidence obtained (vers 1420–1445) et l’affermissement de l’inquisition en Suisse f rom confessions more reliable, jurists formulated a set romande.” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique suisse 86: 69–119. of rules re g a rding the proper administration of tort u re . Errores gazariorum.Copy in the Basel University Library. A II 34. These rules re q u i red, first of all, that a certain amount of Ostorero, Martine, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, and Kathrin Utz Tremp, eds. 1999. L’imaginaire du sabbat: Edition critique des evidence of guilt be produced before tort u re could be textes les plus anciens (1430 c.–1440 c.). Lausanne: Université de a d m i n i s t e red. Either the testimony of one eyewitness or Lausanne. a specified amount of circumstantial evidence became Paravicini Bagliani, Agostino, Jean-Pierre Felber, Jean-Daniel the official pre requisites for tort u re to proceed. In ord e r Morerod, and Véronique Pasche, eds. 1997. Les pays romands to pre vent prosecution on trumped-up charges, there au Moyen Age. Lausanne: Payot. also had to be evidence, known as the corpus delicti,t h a t Utz Tremp, Kathrin, ed. 2000. Quellen zur Geschichte der a crime had actually been committed. Other rules gov- Waldenser von Freiburg im Uchtland (1399–1430). Hannover: erned the duration and intensity of tort u re, and another Hahnsche. s p e c i fied that all confessions obtained under tort u re had Torture to be repeated outside the tort u re chamber. Yet other In many European jurisdictions, judicial torture was sets of rules we re intended to restrict or deny the pro s e- used to extract confessions from accused witches. cution of a criminal’s alleged accomplices on the basis of Torture was also used in many cases to obtain the confessions obtained under tort u re . names of witches’ alleged accomplices. The administra- These rules did not serve as a rationale for the system tion of tort u re served the additional function of of tort u re, but they did attempt to limit its arbitrary c o n firming the beliefs of judges and theologians potential and made judges more confident that it regarding the alleged activities of witches. would serve its intended purpose. The problem aro s e Judicial tort u re, the infliction of pain in order to when those rules we re either re l a xed or completely obtain evidence in the prosecution of crime, should be i g n o red in the interests of obtaining convictions fro m distinguished from penal or punitive tort u re, which is persons who we re assumed to be guilty but for whose administered as punishment for crime after conviction. guilt there was little tangible evidence. Relaxation of Judicial tort u re had been applied to slaves in ancient this sort was very frequent in trials for witchcraft, since Greece and Rome, and during the Roman Empire even witchcraft was widely regarded as a crimen exceptum an f ree men we re tort u red in the prosecution of tre a s o n "excepted crime," in which the usual standards of proof and other heinous crimes. The practice, howe ve r, fell did not apply. In these cases torture was often adminis- into general disuse during the Early Middle Ages. In tered barbarously, and it could be repeated indefinitely the thirteenth century, after the adoption of inquisitor- until the accused confessed. While relaxation of the ial pro c e d u re, tort u re was re i n t roduced into Eu ro p e a n rules governing the use of torture became the norm in c o u rt rooms. It was first used in the secular courts of c o u rts administered by trained judges, the complete Italian city-states and the Holy Roman Em p i re in the ignorance or suspension of the rules occurred frequent- late 1220s, and by 1252 it had come into use in the ly in trials conducted by legally untrained laymen or ecclesiastical courts, mainly in the trials of heretics. clerics in small jurisdictions. The main purpose of judicial tort u re was to obtain The instruments of torture were designed to extract the confessions of individuals suspected of concealed information from prisoners without killing them. T h e Torture 1127

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1128 Application File devices there f o re compressed or extended the extre m i- ties; it was forbidden to apply tort u re directly to the t o r s o. The thumbscrews, which we re often the fir s t devices used during an interrogation, we re vises that squeezed and crushed the fingers. Wooden instruments known generally as the boots (the brodequin in France) used wedges to crush the legs against boards that encased them. A metal box fitted with a screw mecha- nism, known as the Spanish boot, served a similar purpose and could be heated to cause additional pain. The strappado, a pulley that raised prisoners to the ceiling by their arms while their wrists were tied behind their backs, served the opposite function of extending the arms. The cruelest use of the strappado took the form of squassation, in which the prisoner was dropped from the ceiling, only to be yanked up again just before hitting the ground. Weights as heavy as 660 pounds could be attached to the ankles of the prisoner in order to increase the pain. Yet another form of extension was the rack, which gradually stretched the arms and legs by means of ropes on ratchets. A less brutal but no less e f f e c t i ve means of tort u re was that of forced sleepless- ness, thetormentum insomniae. All Eu ropean countries allowed the use of tort u re under certain circumstances, but only in some juris- dictions, especially those that had adopted inquisito- rial pro c e d u re, did it become an ord i n a ry instru m e n t of judicial interrogation. In Ge r m a n y, Fr a n c e , Sw i t zerland, the Dutch Republic, the Italian states, The strappado, a torture instrument whereby a victim, wrists tied behind the back, was lifted by a pulley and then dropped without and the Spanish kingdoms, tort u re was accepted as a allowing the feet to reach the ground. Often iron weights were legitimate pro c e d u re. Even in these areas, howe ve r, it attached, thus increasing pain and dislocating joints. (John H. was administered in va rying degrees. Wi t h i n Langbein, Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in Ge r m a n y, for example, the territories of W ü rz b u r g , the Ancient Regime, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977, Bamberg, and Eichstätt exhibited little moderation plate XLV) in using the pro c e d u re against witches, where a s t owns like Rothenburg ob der Tauber exe rc i s e d punish judges of the lower courts who tort u red prisoners much greater restraint. Similar differences can be without permission. In Spain, Po rtugal, and It a l y, the found in Sw i t zerland. In the Pays de Vaud, where administration of tort u re was strictly regulated by the witch hunting was as intense as in any region of Inquisition, which in each country was a centrally Eu rope, it was applied with great seve r i t y, but in controlled judicial institution. neighboring Fribourg, local authorities used it in In England, where the courts of common law we re much greater moderation. Of 159 people impris- prohibited from employing torture, juries could convict oned for witchcraft in Fribourg between 1607 and on the basis of circumstantial evidence and there f o re 1683, 75 surv i ved the administration of tort u re had no need of tort u re. The Privy Council, howe ve r, without confessing, whereas only 49 confessed under could issue special warrants authorizing the application its pre s s u re and 35 we re never tort u red at all of tort u re to identify persons who had threatened the ( Monter 1976, 106–107). state. These warrants we re never issued in witchcraft In many European countries, central judicial author- cases. The only time torture was used in English witch- ities took steps to regulate the use of tort u re, and craft prosecutions was during the witch hunt dire c t e d in some cases, they were able to enforce their directives. by Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne in 1645–1647. In the Holy Roman Empire, the law code known as the Without effective central governmental contro l , C a rolina Code, promulgated in 1532, set down strict Hopkins was able to subject suspected witches to the rules for the administration of tort u re. In France the tormentum insomniae, keeping suspected witches awake p rovincial p a rl e m e n t s ( s ove reign judicial court s ),e s p e- on the grounds that their hungry imps or familiar cially the Pa rl e m e n t of Paris, took steps to gain a demons would eventually appear in order to obtain monopoly over the administration of tort u re and to nourishment. 1128 Torture

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1129 Application File In Scotland, the law of tort u re was similar to that restraint. Torture was not necessary to convict witches, which pre vailed in England: To rt u re was not allowe d because a vo l u n t a ry confession on the Continent or a unless it was authorized by a warrant from the Pr i v y guilty verdict by an English or Danish jury could send a Council. Those warrants we re issued more fre q u e n t l y witch to her death. The need to force a confession in than in England, but only in a few witchcraft cases. most witchcraft cases, however, placed a premium upon Large numbers of Scottish witches were, however, sub- torture and led to its widespread use. Third, torture was jected to tort u re by local authorities, especially during an essential tool in the conduct of large, chain-reaction the great witch hunt of 1661–1662. To rt u re in these witch hunts, in which convicted witches were forced to instances often took the form of repeatedly piercing the name their accomplices. Some large witch hunts grew skin while searching for the De v i l’s mark. The roy a l as the result of other factors, such as the testimony of g overnment made sustained efforts to control the children who imagined they were being carried away to application of torture by local authorities, but it did not the Sabbat, as in the great Basque witch hunt of succeed in this regard until the late seventeenth century. 1609–1614, but most large witch hunts, especially In Sweden, tort u re was not allowed in ord i n a ry those in German and Swiss lands, developed mainly as criminal proceedings, but it was permitted in witchcraft the result of torture. cases, sometimes by royal decree, as occurred during the In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, g reat witch hunt of 1668–1676. In De n m a rk and the administration of torture in all criminal cases, and Norway, sixteenth-century legislation forbade the use of p a rticularly in witchcraft cases, came under attack, torture prior to the sentencing of criminals. This strict resulting ultimately in the prohibition of torture in all regulation of tort u re was generally observed, although Eu ropean jurisdictions. The most famous of these in ten No rwegian trials witches we re tort u red before attacks on the use of tort u re was written by Fr i e d r i c h sentencing in order to obtain information regarding the Spee of Langenfeld, a Jesuit professor of moral theology worship of the Devil (Naess 1990, 375). at the Un i versity of Paderborn. Sp e e’s treatise Ca u t i o In Hungary, the use of torture in witchcraft cases did Criminalis seu de processibus contra sagas liber ( A not become widespread until the late seventeenth cen- Warning on Criminal Justice, or A Book on Wi t c h tury.The main foundation for its use, apart from some Trials, 1631) condemned witchcraft trials for having vague references to it in a statute book of 1517, was the brought about the death of thousands of innocent per- Practica nova imperialis Sa xonica ve ru m Cr i m i n a l i a m sons. Two other Jesuits, Adam Tanner and Pa u l ( New Rules in Criminal Cases for Imperial Sa xo n y ) Laymann, wrote large works on moral theology that compiled by the Sa xon jurist Benedict Carpzov in included sections on the use of torture in witchcraft tri- 1635. This guide, which has demonological as well as als. From the Protestant side came works by Jo h a n n procedural significance, was adopted as the law code for Matthäus Me y f a rt (Ma y f a h rt), a Lutheran pro f e s s o r Austria and Bohemia in 1656 and was subsequently f rom Erf u rt whose work betrayed a heavy reliance on incorporated into the Hungarian code of 1696. It is Spee, and Johann Greve, a Dutch Arminian theologian probably no coincidence that its adoption was followed who condemned the use of tort u re by Christians for by the intensification of witch hunting in Hungary.The any purpose whatsoever. procedures that Carpzov prescribed, however, especially This body of critical work on tort u re continued to those concerning torture, encountered opposition from g row in the late seventeenth century. In 1682 the jurists, especially Mátyás Bodó in his study of criminal Burgundian judge Augustin Nicolas wrote a closely jurisprudence published in 1751. reasoned assault on the practice. Christian Thomasius, The use of tort u re in witchcraft cases served thre e a jurist from the University of Halle in Saxony who is main functions in the development of European witch k n own mainly for his earlier work, De crimine magiae hunting. First, it facilitated the fusion of different witch (On the Crime of Magic, 1701), also published a devas- beliefs into a composite notion of witchcraft by forcing tating critique of tort u re in 1705. Thomasius drew persons accused of magic to confess to worshipping the heavily on the earlier works of Spee, Ta n n e r, and Devil. Torture enabled theologians and jurists to secure Me y f a rt, but he also gave his treatise a distinctly the confessions they needed to prove that those whom Protestant fla vo r. A Pietist known for his anticlerical- their neighbors had accused of m a l e fic i u m ( h a r m f u l ism, Thomasius argued in the manner of Gre ve that magic) had made a pact with the Devil and worshiped torture was an unchristian means of extorting the truth, him. Second, tort u re was more responsible than any that it was never mentioned in Scripture, and that the one factor for high conviction and execution rates in papacy had used it to strike down its enemies under the witchcraft cases. Courts that did not regularly use tor- pretext of heresy and witchcraft. ture, such as the English common law courts, or used it The main criticism of torture in all these works was with moderation and caution, such as the tribunals of not so much that the procedure was inhumane but that the Roman Inquisition, almost always had lower rates the evidence obtained by means of its administration of conviction than those that applied torture with little was unreliable, because innocent persons would make Torture 1129

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1130 Application File false admissions in order to stop the pain. The criticism questions. The first was whether witches whose torture possessed more than mere academic significance. In had led to their conviction could be tortured a second jurisdictions where tort u re was routinely administere d time to extract the names of accomplices. The second in witchcraft cases, these treatises contributed dire c t l y was whether those persons whom the convicted witch to a reduction in the number of convictions and execu- named as accomplices could themselves be tort u re d tions and ultimately to a decline in the number of trials without any other supporting evidence. On both legal as well. questions, learned opinion was divided, although it is The critics of tort u re, writing in the context of important to note that the most widely read demonolo- witchcraft trials, made four specific points. The first was gist of the seventeenth century, the Jesuit Ma rtín De l that torture should not be allowed on the basis of mere Rio, had defended the practice in unequivocal terms, ill fame or insufficient circumstantial evidence. T h e and had even claimed that the judge’s suggestion of rationale for torturing witches on the basis of such names during the administration of tort u re was legal. limited or unsubstantiated evidence was the claim that The tort u re of the persons named had been deemed witchcraft was a crimen exc e p t u m . Beginning in the n e c e s s a ry in order to confirm the testimony of the 1620s, which was a particularly intense period of witch witches. The first scholar to engage Del Rio on this hunting in Germany, a number of jurists, most notably issue was his fellow Jesuit Adam Tanner, who objected Ernst Cothmann, argued that witchcraft was not a that mere denunciation, even by more than one crimen exceptum. If that were the case, trials for witch- confessing witch, did not justify either tort u re or craft would have to conform to the more exacting legal condemnation of those who had been of good reputa- re q u i rements spelled out in the Carolina Code. So o n tion prior to their denunciation. The danger was that, after the appearance of Cothmann’s decision, Pa u l under tort u re, innocent persons would confess to Laymann argued that in cases of witchcraft and heresy, crimes they did not commit, the same danger that Spee the circumstantial evidence upon which the decision to identified in his Cautio Criminalis. apply torture was based must be stronger than in other The final criticism of tort u re was a rebuttal of the criminal cases. This meant that judges for all intents claim that God would intervene in the process in order and purposes had to be persuaded of the guilt of the to protect the innocent. This same argument had served accused before resorting to torture and that the confes- as a defense of the medieval ordeals before their sion was needed simply to establish the technical abolition in 1215. Tanner, Greve, and even the French requirements of full proof. jurists who drafted the Grande ordonnance criminelle of A second criticism, closely related to the first, was 1670, which identified tort u re as an archaic practice d i rected against the exc e s s i ve use of tort u re, a practice similar to the old ordeals (but did not abolish it), had that once again had been justified by the exc e p t i o n a l exposed the weakness of this defense. Tanner was n a t u re of the crime. Ex t reme cruelty was by far the p a rticularly eloquent in destroying this argument, most widespread abuse of the system, and the criticism claiming that if God had permitted martyrdoms, wars, of such excesses, on both moral and legal gro u n d s , and massacres, there was no assurance that he would became the most powe rful and enduring argument not permit the execution of innocent persons named as against the practice. Those who accepted the procedure witches by allowing them to incriminate themselve s under certain circumstances, such as the Spanish and under torture. Italian inquisitors who drafted instructions for its use in Although restrictions on the use of judicial tort u re 1614 and 1623, respectively, often voiced the same crit- helped reduce the intensity of witchcraft prosecutions, icism of tort u re. The Roman instructions pro h i b i t e d the abolition of torture in most European jurisdictions the administration of torture by jerking the ropes in the came only after the effective end of witchcraft prosecu- administration of strappado, by attaching weights to tions and sometimes even after formal decriminaliza- the feet, and by applying it for longer than one hour. tion. Only in two countries, Scotland and Hungary, did Repetition was to be forbidden except in the most seri- abolition take place before the last witchcraft trial. Most ous cases, in which the court was re q u i red to consult p rohibitions of tort u re should be seen as part of a with their superiors before proceeding. broader reform of criminal procedure that many conti- The third criticism of torture, which may have done nental European states undertook in the last quarter of m o re to reduce the number of prosecutions than any the eighteenth century and first quarter of the nine- other single factor, was directed at the practice of tor- teenth century.The first country in continental Europe turing those who were named by confessing witches as to abolish torture was Prussia in 1754, forty years after their accomplices. The use of tort u re in this way had King Frederick William I had issued an edict against become routine in areas where belief in collective devil witch hunting. The last Eu ropean territory to follow worship was strong, and in some German bishoprics, suit was the Swiss canton of Glarus, which took the step such as Trier, Bamberg, and Würzburg, it had resulted in 1851, long after the last legal execution for witch- in hundreds of executions. The practice raised two legal craft in that territory (and in all of Eu rope) in 1782. 1130 Torture

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1131 Application File Mo re ove r, the abolition of tort u re in Eu rope was in In his commentary on Genesis, Tostado discussed the large part inspired by humanitarian concerns that had w i t c h e s’ ointment and questions re g a rding incubi and not been prominent in earlier critiques. The decline of succubi; while commenting on the Gospel of Ma t t h ew, witch prosecutions therefore had much more to do with he returned to both topics. Although at first re a d i n g , the regulation and limitation of tort u re than with its To s t a d o’s two sets of opinions may appear inconsistent formal elimination. or contradictory, they are coherent and complementary. T h roughout his commentary, To s t a d o’s uppermost con- BRIAN P. LEVACK cern was not the social and moral dimensions of human See also:CAROLINACODE;CONFESSIONS;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL; behavior but, rather, the demonstration that human COURTS,SECULAR;CRIMENEXCEPTUM;DECLINEOFTHEWITCH experience and the facts of nature we re consonant with HUNTS;EVIDENCE;HOPKINS,MATTHEW;INQUISITORIALPROCE- e vents mentioned in the Bible. Tostado was an impor- DURE;LAYMANN,PAUL;MEYFART(MEYFAHRT), JOHANN tant influence in the trend that began in the fourt e e n t h MATTHÄUS;ORDEAL;SPEE,FRIEDRICH;TANNER,ADAM;THOMA- c e n t u ry tow a rd maintaining the literal truthfulness of SIUS,CHRISTIAN;TRIALS;WITCHHUNTS. the Bible (Allen 1963, 75–77). References and further reading: While discussing the creation of Eve, Tostado won- Ankarloo, Bengt. 1990. “Sweden: The Mass Burnings (1668–1676).” Pp. 283–317 in Early Modern European d e red how God could have kept Adam from feeling Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo pain from his amputated rib. He answe red that Go d and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon. would have had no problem, because anesthesia was Damaska, Mirjan. 1978. “The Death of Legal Torture.” Yale Law possible even by natural means. This was clear from the Journal 86: 860–884. ointments used by certain women called m a l e fic a e Langbein, John. 1976. Torture and the Law of Proof. Chicago: (female witches). The ointments induced anesthesia, a University of Chicago Press. profound stupor, and vivid illusions of flying. To illus- Lea, Henry Charles. 1973. Torture. Edited by Edward Peters. trate this contention, Tostado re c o rded one of the Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. earliest examples of experiments performed to ascertain Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. whether women who used such ointments traveled “in 2nd ed. London: Longman. the body” or merely underwent dreams or hallucina- ———. 1999. “The Decline and End of Witchcraft Prosecutions.” Pp.1–93 in The Eighteenth and Nineteenth tions. The anecdote Tostado cited as evidence appeared Centuries.Vol. 5 of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic to portray witches’ flying as an illusion, yet To s t a d o in Europe. London and Philadelphia: Athlone and University of supported the reality of their flying when he discussed Pennsylvania Press. the Gospel story (Matt. 4:1–11) of Sa t a n’s carry i n g Melville, R. D. 1905. “The Use and Forms of Judicial Torture in Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and onto a high England and Scotland.” Scottish Historical Review2: 225–249. mountain. In both cases, Tostado invoked witches as Monter, E. William. 1976. Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: evidence that phenomena mentioned in the Bi b l e The Borderlands During the Reformation. Ithaca, NY, and should be interpreted as literally true, rather than fabu- London: Cornell University Press. lous, fictional, or symbolic (Stephens 2002, 146–153). Naess, Hans Eyvind. 1990. “Norway: The Criminological Tostado was also reluctant to abandon the idea that Context.” Pp. 367–382 in Early Modern European Witchcraft: the “sons of Go d” who sired the giants of Genesis (Ge n . Centres and Peripheries. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen. Oxford: Clarendon. 6:4) we re fallen angels, as a literal reading of the Vu l g a t e Peters, Edward. 1985. Torture. NewYork: Blackwell. Bible suggested, rather than mere men as St. Au g u s t i n e Silverman, Lisa. 2001. Tortured Subjects: Pain, Truth, and the Body claimed (Stephens 1989, 75–92). Using Aq u i n a s’s in Early Modern France. Chicago and London: University of incubus theories, Tostado proposed that demons could Chicago Press. h a ve sired the giants art i fic i a l l y, using semen stolen fro m men. He returned to the topic in his commentary on the Tostado, Alonso Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5), propounding a bizarre (d. –1455) t h e o ry that incubi and succubi could cause a man to Tostado was a Spanish theologian and Bible commen- commit adultery and sire bastards by prox y, by collect- tator, an early theorist of witches’ “flying,” or transvec- ing semen ejected during masturbation. Thus masturba- tion. Author of a massive commentary on the Hebrew tion was a sin against nature, because a man could sire Bible and the Gospels that was reprinted several times c h i l d ren without intending to (Stephens 2002, 69–70). in the sixteenth century,Tostado discussed several activ- ities that became commonplaces of witchcraft mythol- WALTER STEPHENS ogy. He attended the Council of Basel (1431–1440) See also:ANGELS;AQUINAS,THOMAS;AUGUSTINE,ST.; BASEL, and could have exchanged information there with such COUNCILOF;BIBLE;CORPOREALITY,ANGELICANDDEMONIC; contemporaries as Johannes Nider, Nicolas Jacquier, DEMONS;FLIGHTOFWITCHES;INCUBUSANDSUCCUBUS; and Martin Le Franc about the exciting new alleged JACQUIER,NICOLAS;LEFRANC,MARTIN;NIDER,JOHANNES; heresy that soon became known as witchcraft. OINTMENTS;SEXUALACTIVITY,DIABOLIC. Tostado, Alonso 1131

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1132 Application File References and further reading: This picture of Eu rope and witchcraft persecution Allen, Don Cameron. 1963. The Legend of Noah: Renaissance was a serious misapprehension with which more Rationalism in Art, Science, and Religion. 1949. Reprint, sober accounts of the persecution still struggle to Urbana: University of Illinois Press. compete: A story becomes much more exciting when Stephens, Walter. 1989. Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient told with ve rve and disre g a rd for inconvenient facts. History, and Nationalism. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Tre vo r - Ro p e r’s presentation of zealous witch hunters ———. 2002. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of such as Jean Bodin, Peter Binsfeld, or Henri Boguet Belief. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. as enjoying some kind of intellectual hegemony in Trevor-Roper, Hugh their own times was significantly at variance with the (Lord Dacre of Glanton, messages found in their own writings and gre a t l y 1914–2003) u n d e restimated the strength of their opponents. At a A pioneer in bringing the study of European witch- m o re general level, the whole explanatory mechanism craft persecution into the mainstream of historical p roposed seems defective, because he showed the per- i n t e rest, Hugh Tre vo r - Roper was Regius Professor of secution as being essentially top-driven, the work of Modern Hi s t o ry at Oxford Un i versity (1957–1980), misguided clerics and judges terrorizing rural popula- then Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, until his tions. He did not wholly ignore the sharp divisions retirement in 1987. His major contribution was a stim- within these groups, but he allowed such countere x- ulating if re l a t i vely brief essay of around 100 pages, amples far too little weight. Ab ove all, he included published first in his collection Religion, the only a few sketchy comments on the crucial interf a c e Re f o rmation and Social Change (1967), then as a b e t ween local societies and various official agencies. separate book in 1969 under the title The Eu ro p e a n The essay remains ve ry interesting in historiograph- Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries. ic terms, because it illustrates so well what an experi- At this time, the documentary basis for such a study enced and talented scholar could make of the subject was distinctly limited; there we re some collections of in the 1960s, working from what by today’s standard s texts (such as those gathered by Wilhelm Go t t l i e b was an almost derisory bibliography. If one reads with Soldan, Joseph Hansen, He n ry Charles Lea, and C. c a re and tries to avoid being seduced by the rhetoric, L’Estrange Ewen), alongside the contemporary works of one finds many impre s s i ve points, both in detailed the demonologists and some re l a t i vely obscure local comments and in the broad recognition that the intel- monographs. Tre vo r - Roper had the acuity to pre s e n t lectuals of the day we re virtually compelled to the persecutions as an important aspect of Eu ro p e a n c o n f ront the issues of diabolical power and witchcraft. religious, intellectual, and cultural history, an aspect Although his anticlerical tone grates at times, Tre vo r - that needed to be related to more general trends in the Roper correctly identified the link between witchcraft early modern period. His own view was decidedly and the religious concerns of the Reformation as a Whiggish, not just in refusing to concern himself with c rucial area for study, alongside the question of how “elementary village credulities” (Trevor-Roper 1969, 9), the decline in trials related to changes in worldview. It but also in depicting the persecution as a prime exam- was unfortunate that Tre vo r - Roper wrote before ple of misplaced clerical zeal fed by confessional strife. Norman Cohn and Richard Kieckhefer detected the The essay remains a brilliant piece of writing, studded major forgeries involving early trials in Languedoc with intelligent and provocative remarks, raising a host and northern It a l y, because these discoveries demol- of important issues. Many of its claims, however, now ished his claim that the inquisitors had simply move d appear outdated or erroneous in the light of massive on from the pursuit of heretics to that of witches. T h e later re s e a rch on the subject, which this striking early idea that the mountain communities we re inhere n t l y synthesis did much to encourage. m o re superstitious than those of the plains now seems Although the author insisted that his own chief con- m e rely quaint. Despite its grave failings, Tre vo r - cern was with the ideas and motives of the persecutors, Ro p e r’s pioneering essay remains a landmark in the his study sketched the whole history of persecution serious study of the subject and a lesson in how to between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries. communicate with a wide public. Although he offered no overall figures for the number of trials, his wide range of examples created an impres- ROBIN BRIGGS sive literary effect, a vision of much of Europe between See also: H A N S E N, J O S E PH; H I S TO R I O G R A PH Y; LA M OT H E-LA N G O N, 1560 and 1630 cove red by pyres for burning witches. E T I E N N EL É O ND E; L E A, H E N RYC H A R L E S; M O U N TA I N SA N DT H E Although Tre vo r - Roper included numerous cave a t s , O R I G I N SO FW I TC H C R A F T; S O L D A N, W I L H E L MG OTT L I E B; W I TC H these were largely submerged beneath the sheer exuber- H U N TS. ance of his style as he built up a picture of the witch References and further reading: c r a ze sweeping all before it, citing numerous terrible Cohn, Norman. 1975. Europe’s Inner Demons. London: Chatto examples with obvious glee. Heinemann. 1132 Trevor-Roper, Hugh

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1133 Application File Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their Each of the courts that claimed jurisdiction over Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500. witchcraft had its own pro c e d u res and traditions. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Ecclesiastical courts had much greater uniformity than Trevor-Roper, Hugh R. 1967. Religion, the Reformation and Social secular courts, although Protestant church courts usual- Change.London: Macmillan. ly followed somewhat different procedures from those ———. 1969.The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th of Catholic tribunals. The most salient procedural Centuries.Harmondsworth: Penguin. d i f f e rences separated those courts that followe d accusatorial procedure from those that adhered to Trials inquisitorial pro c e d u re. Ac c o rding to accusatorial Witches were tried in many different types of courts p ro c e d u re, which was followed in England, the during the late medieval and early modern periods, and Scandinavian countries, and to a lesser extent in the procedures employed in their trials varied extensive- Scotland, parts of the German empire, and Hungary, ly from one jurisdiction to another. prosecution was undertaken at least theoretically by It is a persistent misconception that ecclesiastical accusers acting either in a private capacity or as c o u rts, especially the papal Inquisition, tried most representatives of the community. According to inquisi- witches. It is true that during the early years of witch torial procedure, which became the norm in most hunting (from about 1425 to about 1550), inquisitors continental European countries after 1500 and in all appointed by the papacy played a leading role in the ecclesiastical courts, court officials controlled the entire p rosecution of witches. Mo re ove r, several authors of prosecution, from initiation to sentencing. Even among witchcraft treatises composed during those ye a r s , those courts that followed either system of criminal including the most famous one, the Ma l l e u s p ro c e d u re, there we re significant variations in the Ma l e fic a ru m (The Hammer of Witches, 1486) of methods used to begin prosecutions, the deposition of Heinrich Kramer, we re themselves papal inquisitors. witnesses, the methods of interrogating the accused Even during these early years, howe ve r, witches we re (the prerequisites for applying torture varied enor- sometimes tried by other ecclesiastical courts (those of mously within Germany’s 400 courts), the determina- bishops), and were very often tried by secular courts of tion of guilt, and the process of appealing verdicts or princes or cities. After 1550, secular courts clearly dom- reviewing sentences. The claim that all witchcraft trials inated the prosecution of witches. were identical has no foundation in reality. A bewildering variety of tribunals judged witches during the early modern period. They included village Initiation c o u rts in France; courts in more than 400 Ge r m a n The legal process began with the arrest and formal territories, including both local and appellate courts of charging of the witch. The community’s suspicion of a various duchies and principalities; circuit courts such as person for witchcraft could be made known to the the English assize courts, in which royally appointed court in a number of ways. In England and other judges tried witches in the localities; and ad hoc tri- countries that followed accusatorial procedure, it was bunals commissioned by central governments, such as necessary for someone to enter a formal complaint S c o t l a n d’s commissioners of justiciary, appointed by against a suspected witch. That charge was submitted to the Privy Council. In France, the sentences of lowe r a grand jury of laymen, which would then draft an c o u rts could be re v i ewed by provincial p a rl e m e n t s indictment of the accused. In countries follow i n g (sovereign judicial courts),and in Germany cases could inquisitorial procedure, which included secular as well be appealed to the Reichskammergericht (imperial cham- as ecclesiastical courts in most continental European ber court). During the period from 1580 to 1630, countries, the process of initiation was more open- which was the most intense period of witch hunting, ended, since witches could be accused by their neigh- ecclesiastical courts continued to claim jurisdiction over bors (including other witches), denounced by local witchcraft, although they generally adjudicated only officials or clergy, or arrested by the authority of the noncapital cases of magic and superstition. The gre a t judge (ex officio) on the basis of ill fame or rumor. e xception to this pattern of increased secular jurisdic- In many jurisdictions, an official of the court, known tion after 1550 occurred in the Iberian kingdoms and variously as a fiscal, pro c u r a t o r, public pro s e c u t o r, or the Italian territories, where the Spanish In q u i s i t i o n the attorney or advocate of the ru l e r, was entru s t e d (established 1479), the Po rtuguese Inquisition (defin i- specifically with the process of identifying and charging tively established in 1536), and the Roman Inquisition suspected criminals, including witches. In Scotland, (established in 1542) tried most though not all cases of which did not have a grand jury, the Lord Ad vo c a t e witchcraft. Moreover, the regional tribunals of all three could issue an indictment on the basis of accusations Inquisitions re p o rted to a central authority. Even in brought to his attention. Alternatively, local communi- Spain and It a l y, secular courts executed more witches ties, after arresting a suspected witch and searching for than did inquisitorial courts. the De v i l’s mark, could request a warrant from the Trials 1133

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1134 Application File Privy Council to try the witch in their community. In not become part of the judicial record. Technically, any many jurisdictions, a person could be arrested for confession made under torture was juridically invalid witchcraft on the basis of claims by one or more con- and had to be ratified afterw a rd before it could fessing witches that the person was their accomplice. constitute legal proof of guilt. This identification of a witch’s confederates was often demanded under tort u re. The practice of inducing Determination of Guilt witches to name accomplices, which could happen at and Sentencing any stage of the judicial process, was in large part The core of any witchcraft prosecution—the trial in the responsible for the massive chain-reaction witch hunts technical sense of the word—was the determination of that occurred during the period 1580–1630. guilt. In the early and high Middle Ages, this process usually involved the submission of the accused to an Depositions of Witnesses ordeal or one of the “nonrational” proofs, such as trial Almost all witchcraft trials involved the examination of by battle. After 1215, responsibility devo l ved on witnesses and the recording of their testimony. These human beings to make such a determination of the depositions were usually taken after the witch had been basis of evidence. In countries following inquisitorial arrested and occasionally after she had been interrogat- procedure, where recorded depositions became part of ed. They usually focused on the maleficia (harmful the trial’s dossier, the weighing of this written evidence magic) that the accused witch had allegedly perpetrat- was undertaken either by a judge or a panel of judges. ed. In courts that followed inquisitorial procedure, In these jurisdictions the accused was entitled to legal these depositions were taken by an official of the court counsel, who was usually referred to as an advocate. In and became part of the dossier upon which the trial practice, however, most witches were too poor to afford (and any subsequent appeal) was based. In England, such legal assistance, and lawyers were often reluctant justices of the peace took such depositions after 1554, to defend witches. In many German jurisdictions, local but the witnesses delivered their testimony orally in courts were required to seek legal advice regarding the court, and therefore, written depositions did not usual- handling of witchcraft cases from the law faculties of ly become part of the official court record. universities, which would issue nonbinding opinions regarding the case before its final determination. In Interrogation of England, a jury consisting of laymen determined the the Accused facts of the case on the basis of evidence presented oral- Central to all witchcraft trials was the interrogation of ly in court. The accused was not entitled to legal coun- the accused, often under torture. The goal of all inter- sel during the presentation of evidence, but the prison- rogation was to secure a confession, which was regard- er could obtain the assistance of lawyers on matters of ed as the “queen of proofs.” The desire for a confession law, such as the nature of the charges in the indictment. was just as strong in England and Scotland, where a In Scotland, where criminal procedure included ele- conviction could be obtained without a confession, as ments of both inquisitorial and accusatorial justice, in countries that insisted upon either a confession or witches were entitled to counsel, and much of the trial the testimony of two eyewitnesses (the Romano-canon- was taken up with the consideration of the relevance of ical law of proof) for conviction. The interrogation of the written evidence to the libel, which was the propo- the accused might occur right after arrest, or it might be sition stating the guilt of the accused. In all European undertaken after the deposition of witnesses. In many courts, the trial ended with the sentencing of the cases, interrogations took place on a number of differ- accused, unless of course the accused had been acquit- ent occasions—first by the authorities who arrested the ted or the trial had been suspended. witch and later by officials of the court. In jurisdictions that allowed torture, courts were required first to pro- Reviews of Sentences vide sufficient evidence that the procedure was war- and Appeals ranted. The traditional requirement was the testimony Sentences given in witchcraft trials were not always car- of one eyewitness or the accumulation of circumstantial ried out immediately after conviction. A number of evidence that, on the basis of contemporary jurispru- jurisdictions required that a death sentence in a witch- dence, was considered the equivalent of one eyewitness. craft trial be submitted to a higher court for review. Great disparities prevailed among European jurisdic- This obligatory reconsideration of witchcraft convic- tions regarding the frequency, duration, and intensity tions was most common in seve n t e e n t h - c e n t u ry of torture. English and Scottish courts could adminis- France, where death sentences for witchcraft were - ter torture only with the explicit approval of the Privy routinely re f e r red to one of the nine prov i n c i a l Council, although Scottish communities often tortured parlements. After 1614 the supreme council of the suspects shortly after arrest. Torture administered in Spanish Inquisition also reviewed the sentences of lower this manner was illegal, and hence its application did tribunals and mitigated the severity of a number of 1134 Trials

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1135 Application File witchcraft sentences. Similar reviews of capital convic- state, the electorate (Kurfürstentum) of Trier, ruling over tions for witchcraft we re undertaken in the territories scattered from the Saar River to the Scandinavian kingdoms in the seventeenth century and We s t e rwald Mountains. His jurisdiction was riddled in eighteenth-century Hu n g a ry. Within the Ho l y with disputed borders, numerous enclaves, and condo- Roman Empire there was no obligatory appeal of sen- miniums. The persecutions began here in the 1480s, tences, but cases could be appealed to the peaking around 1590 and again around 1630. On e Reichskammergericht, which sat at Speyer. In cases that archbishop-elector, Johann VII von Schönenberg (ruled were reviewed by higher courts or heard on appeal, the 1581–1599), had the dubious distinction of having the appellate process became in effect a second trial rather political responsibility for the first massive witch hunt than a continuation of the original proceeding. The in the Holy Roman Empire, one in which hundreds of legal dossier was sent to the higher court; advocates witches were executed in the 1580s. were often appointed to defend the accused, and In Tr i e r, mass persecutions that even disre g a rd e d witnesses could be examined again. There was no appel- rank began relatively early, and Trier Catholic territories late process in England or Scotland, although English moved to the forefront of witch hunting in Germany; judges could grant pardons or reprieves to mitigate the these two facts turned Trier into an often-cited para- severity of harsh jury sentences. digm of witch persecution in the Holy Roman Empire. Accusations of witchcraft were leveled not only at crim- See also:ACCUSATIONS;ACCUSATORIALPROCEDURE;ACQUITTALS; inals, foreigners, and vindictive persons who violated APPEALS;CONFESSIONS;COURTS,ECCLESIASTICAL;COURTS, social norms but even at ruthless careerists and corrupt INQUISITORIAL;COURTS,SECULAR;EVIDENCE;INQUISITORIAL PROCEDURE;LAWSONWITCHCRAFT(EARLYMODERN); LAWSON officials. Several members of Trier’s upper class, includ- WITCHCRAFT(MEDIEVAL); LAWYERS;ORDEAL;PARLEMENTOF ing some priests, we re executed as witches. The trial PARIS;PROOF,PROBLEMOF;TORTURE;UNIVERSITIES;WITNESSES. against Dietrich Flade, a magistrate and onetime vice- References and further reading: chancellor of the Un i versity of Tr i e r, became a cause Ewen, C. L’Estrange, ed. 1929. Witch Hunting and Witch Trials. célèbre in demonology. And the demonological treatise London: Kegan Paul. published in 1589 by Tr i e r’s suffragan bishop Pe t e r Hansen, Joseph, ed. 1901. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Binsfeld attracted further attention, although it had no Geschichte des hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im direct influence on the witchcraft trials of the territory Mittelalter. Bonn: Georgi. and was ignored by the elector’s legislation. Kieckhefer, Richard. 1976. European Witch Trials: Their After early indoctrination by Heinrich Kramer and Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500. local clerics, the popular witchcraft imagination London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Levack, Brian P. 1995. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. conformed to the demonological stereotypes. A massive 2nd ed. London: Longman. number of trial records have been lost, but according to ———, ed. 2004. The Witchcraft Sourcebook. London: Routledge. the surviving sources, only 11 percent of the defendants Monter,William. 2002. “Witch Trials in Continental Europe, were male; about 70 percent of the male and 87 percent 1560–1660.” Pp. 1–52 in The Period of the Witch Trials.Vol. 4 of the female accused we re executed (Dillinger 1999, of The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. 97–100). Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. London and The driving force behind the Trier persecutions Philadelphia: Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press. included ord i n a ry townsmen and villagers. In the elec- Robisheaux, Thomas. 2004. “‘The Queen of Evidence’: The torate and its surrounding territories, town meetings tra- Witchcraft Confession in the Age of Confessionalism.” ditionally elected committees charged with undert a k i n g Pp. 175–205 in Confessionalization in Europe, 1555–1700: s p e c i fic local tasks. In the form of communal witch- Essays in Honor and Memory of Bodo Nischan.Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate. hunting committees, self-government turned into the motor of a persecution “f rom below.” These committees Trier, Electorate of usurped various state functions: They organized the Evidence survives for about 800 witchcraft trials in the i n vestigations, collected evidence and denunciations, electorate of Trier, mostly from the late sixteenth accused suspects collective l y, and sometimes eve n century.The total number of executions for witchcraft e m p l oyed their own lawyers. The courts and the elector’s may have been more than 1,000, but this is highly spec- local officials cooperated with the committees in ord e r ulative and reaches beyond available documentation. to avoid difficulties with them. The committees But even the known figure of 800 executions speaks to financed themselves by confiscating a part of the defen- the intensity of witchcraft trials, because the population d a n t s’ possessions. Witch hunting provided committee of the electorate prior to the Thirty Years’ War might members, their lawyers, and court personnel with signif- have been 75,000 (including 6,000 in the city of Trier icant additional income. These local networks of witch and about 5,000 in Koblenz). hunters defied eve ry attempt of the badly organize d As one of the German prince-electors (Ku rf ü r s t e n) , electoral government to control them. The arc h b i s h o p - the archbishop of Trier was the sovereign of a territorial electors Johann VII and Philipp Christoph pro m u l g a t e d Trier, Electorate of 1135

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46049 Golden Chap.T av First Pages 10/10/2005 p.1136 Application File witchcraft acts in 1591 and 1630 designed to re i n f o rc e his passion for books, generous hospitality, and rumors the regulations of the Carolina Code and to subject the of his occult inclinations, ultimately led Trithemius to committees to the control of the High Courts of Tr i e r e xchange Sponheim for the rather unimport a n t and Koblenz. Howe ve r, neither of the witchcraft acts monastery of St. Jacob. had any perc e i vable effect. His most inve n t i ve and influential studies, Tr i e r’s witch hunts we re triggered by epidemics in Po l y g ra p h i a ( Many Forms of Writing [Cry p t o g r a p h y ] , connection with an agrarian crisis caused by poor wine 1518) and St e g a n o g ra p h i a ( Se c ret Writing, written ca. harvests in the Moselle region. The persecution gained 1499, published 1606), are encrypted treatises on a momentum of its own. Communities learned about ciphers. About 250 of his letters to many contemporary “successful” investigations and soon imitated the activi- humanists are known, often through the publication of ties of other villages’ committees. The committees and De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis ( About Clerical Writers) in officials of the electorate exchanged information about 1494 and the Catalogus illustrium viro rum Ge rm a n i a e suspects with their counterparts in neighboring states, (Catalogue of Famous German Writers) in 1495. especially the enclave belonging to the imperial Besides having an excellent command of Latin, he m o n a s t e ry of St. Maximin, near Tr i e r. He re, close learned Greek and He b rew with the help of famous cooperation between the abbot, his officials, and the teachers, Conrad Celtis and Johann Reuchlin. A life- village committees led to about 400 trials. long interest in history produced his C h ro n i c o n Not only did the Thirty Years’War end the persecu- Sponheimense ( Sponheim Chronicle, 1508). Bu t tions of the early 1630s in the electorate, but it also Trithemius was clearly capable of falsification, prove d destroyed the traditional structure of its rural commu- by his invention of two chroniclers, Hunibald and nities. When Elector Karl Kaspar initiated a re f o r m Wastald, in a work for the Holy Roman Em p e ro r p rogram in 1652, he successfully outlawed witchcraft Maximilian I. trials, re g a rding them as a serious menace to public Trithemius called himself a p h i l o m a g u s , a friend of order. magic. He identified magic with philosophy, with wisdom dealing with the divine, humanity, and nature . JOHANNES DILLINGER He considered legitimate natural magic to be utterly See also:AGRARIANCRISES;BINSFELD,PETER;CAROLINACODE; distinct from the superstitions of demonic sorc e ry and COMMUNALPERSECUTION;FLADE,DIETRICH;HOLYROMAN witchcraft. His autobiographical Ne p i a c h u s(1507) listed EMPIRE;KRAMER(INSTITORIS), HEINRICH;LOOS,CORNELIUS; his teachers in the art of natural magic, including POPULARPERSECUTION;ST.MAXIMIN,PRINCE-ABBEYOF;WITCH A l b e rtus Magnus (Albert the Great) and Gi a n f r a n c e s c o HUNTS. Pico della Mirandola. Trithemius, howe ve r, also References and further reading: p rofessed to have secret knowledge through re ve l a t i o n : Behringer,Wolfgang. 1995. “Das ‘reichskhündig Exempel’ von While he was resting, an unknown visitor instru c t e d Trier: Zur paradigmatischen Rolle einer Hexenverfolgung in Deutschland.” Pp. 436–447 in Hexenglaube und Hexenprozesse h i m . im Raum Rhein-Mosel-Saar. Edited by Gunther Franz and In 1502 Em p e ror Maximilian requested a list of Franz Irsigler.Trier: Spee. Trithemius’s magical skills from his close fried Conrad Dillinger, Johannes. 1999. “Böse Leute”: Hexenverfolgungen in Celtis, a list that unfortunately has not survived. Three Schwäbisch-Österreich und Kurtrier im Vergleich.Trier: Spee. years later,Trithemius met Emperor Maximilian for the Rummel, Walter. 1991. Bauern, Herren und Hexen. Göttingen: first time at the diet at Cologne. Afterwards, the abbot Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. was allowed to call himself a chaplain of the imperial Voltmer, Rita. 1999. “‘Gott ist tot und der Teufel ist jetzt Meister’: court. At their meeting, the emperor asked Trithemius Hexenverfolgungen und dörfliche Krisen im Trierer Land des eight questions, which he first answered orally and then 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts.” Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch39: in writing as Liber octo q u a e s t i o n u m (Book of Ei g h t 175–223. Questions, 1515); version appeared in 1515. One ques- Trithemius, Johannes tion asked why unholy people like witches could com- (1463–1516) mand demons, whereas good people could not. Trithemius was one of the best-known magicians of Another asked why miracles we re possible outside the Renaissance Germany. Born into a wine-growing fami- Church. In reply,Trithemius emphasized the powers of ly named Heidenberger from Tritenheim (whence his the Devil and demons who aided the magicians and the L a t i n i zed name), Trithemius studied at Trier and witches. W h e reas magicians had informal but implicit Heidelberg, became a Benedictine monk at Sponheim pacts with the Devil, witches signed a formal pact and near Bad Kreuznach, and was elected abbot eighteen were consequently entirely subject to him. months later. Trithemius dedicated himself to reform- In the second book of his An t i p a l u s m a l e fic o ru m ing his monastery, whose library soon became a center (Testimony of Witches, 1508) Trithemius denounced of early German humanism and whose history he witchcraft and surveyed the methods permitted by the wrote. However, his frequent absences, together with C h u rch to treat bewitchment, especially the healing 1136 Trithemius, Johannes