Witchcraft IV - notes

Witchcraft -
The facts:
a) early medieval view - belief in witch craft was illegal
b) change in 15th c - lots of reasons
c) waves over next 300 years - total 40,000 - 60,000 dead
d) mostly, but not all, women
e) different patterns in different countries but some parallels - so England versus the continent (but no, it is not that simple either). Give two different examples - Mora and one from Thomas.
f) settles down in 18th c both in practice and with new legislation

DIFFERENCES:
a) religious or secular court
b) evil or deluded
c) if evil, pact with devil (heresy) or simply ill willed
d) kinds of evidence used - and torture or not?
e) individuals or groups
f) burned (heresy) or hanged (felony)

Historical issues
a) different sources give different stories - legislation, trial records, witch hunters' manuals, confessions, forged stories (making Catholics the bad guys), limited focus (make women exclusive victims)
b) different explanations - women got too powerful, the Catholic Church was power hungry and went after heretics and dissenters, enclosures, the protestant churches were paranoid, Christians were punishing wiccans, it was really social tension, it was a result of the Black death, or wars of religion, it was about ideas, or theology, or power, or food shortages, or fear of disease ... (so depending on what you think you check different sources)
c) the end in question - did the Enlightenment and scientific revolution end fear of magic and witchcraft or did they lead parallel lives? Bowker says in her review that "The rise of science does not explain the demise of magic of whatever kind: the two co-exist, and empiricism itself did not become a basic and permanently accepted theory of natural science even in the eighteenth century"
d) used as evidence that the church is evil - but most of the death penalties were in secular courts

Things to decide:
a) what is witchcraft?
b) what is a witch (someone who is deluded or someone who is criminally using power from the devil)?
c) when did it start and when did it end? how do we count high and low points?
d) why did it happen?
e) what were the consequences?

Different stories from different historians:
a) trevor roper
b) Thomas
c) the feminists
d) religious historians
e) current ideas

check out:
http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/feminist/gibbons_witch.html

Magic - beliefs and practices regarding supernatural powers outside organized religion - helped people cope and manipulate powers to stay safe. Not a religion, not a whole, but a collection of tools and creatures and behaviors. Not initially seen as a threat to the church, because it existed WITH religion. Cunning men (and women) were thought to have special knowledge and sometimes power - medicine with rites and herbs were common, diagnosis of and protection from witchcraft, recovery of lost and stolen goods, and fortune telling. Provided REAL services. - Clashed with church ideas that misfortune was result of divine punishment, and that only God could make it good again.
Popular magic had been there for long, and remained for long [my stories]. Witchcraft was something a bit different - maleficium. Late 15th and early 17th c things got really bad - popular superstition and ecclesiastic fantasy combined to cause a perfect storm. Connected ALL witchcraft with the devil - witches were not merely dabblers in magic, but members of an organized malevolent cult, enemies of god.
Wrightson says - religious zeal basis for witch-hunts and it died down only when secular authorities, judges, stepped in. Spanish Inquisition were among the first, in 1610, and the French Parlement in 1640, abandoned prosecution of this sort of case.
The religious zeal was both protestant and Catholic .... but not in England people say. Authorities in England never fully bought into the central European notions of witchcraft and their laws reflect it. Witchcraft was never prosecuted as a heresy in England - first act in 1542 made it a felony to practice witchcraft for unlawful purposes - law only lasted five years, then disappeared with nothing else in its stead. In 1563 new Act made it a felony to invoke evil spirits and if someone died as a result, execution was the punishment. 1604 Act made it felony to bewitch someone either to death or to injure them - for lesser forms of sorcery imprisonment was the punishment. .. you can see influence of continental ideas in that it is made illegal to dig up bodies for witchcraft purposes, and it was made illegal to feed or consult with an evil spirit. The diabolical connection was still limited, and the crime was primarily seen as antisocial (Thomas). In English trials there are few references to diabolical pacts, no witches Sabbaths or flying and very little sex with the devil. They did had familiars. English trials focused on evildoing. In England trials were rarely instigated from above - no evidence that the authorities wanted a witch hunt, with one exception. Usually individual victims brought issue to trial. They were sporadic and limited. Torture was not used and so no tortured confessions and suspects did not therefor implicate others.Lots of cases in Essex ...
Big spike during last quarter of 16th century - decline after 1620, justices of the peace and assize judges had trouble with evidence (they thought it happened but how could you prove it) and people increasing wondered if it was possible, maybe it was a fantasy brought on by hysteria - and the people who thought they had powers were deluded.
But why the rise? Keith Thomas and Alan McFarland explored the evidence and said - witches were usually elderly and usually women, and they were usually accused of bewitching neighbors, not strangers, and they were usually poorer than their accusers. Scenario: quarrel that ended with witch going away cursing and muttering - victim suffers mishap - talks to friends - witch is accused as cause of mishap. It is possible that the witch used the setup to frighten neighbors.This explains the classic pattern (although there were plenty of exceptions), but it does not explain the timing?
a) loss of the protective "magic" of the medieval church
b) unusual tensions in society and economic distress - - people who had refused charity could shake the responsibility by charging the Other with witchcraft - this has been widely accepted as the sociological explanation
c) then focus on gender, most of the witches were women - Thomas says most of the needy were women ... Wrightson says that one must pause at claiming this was organized repression - certainly it was the case that the association of witchcraft with women came out of misogynist attitudes. Women were seen as morally weaker and more likely to get back at neighbors. But it was not that simple - many of the accusers were women. And conversely, many male juries acquitted suspects. So gender is there - but complicated. Or,as Christine Larner puts it,"witchcraft was not sex-specific, but it was sex-related".
Two questions arise in the English case
a) why were these statutes passed? first two at beginning of new regimes (symbolism? acts passed as part of propaganda of new regime giving legitimacy) - also perhaps political contingency, responding to plots against the monarch? First happened after a plot against Elizabeth where sorcery was supposedly involved and Cecil realized there was not legal recourse. The laws made witchcraft prosecutions possible, but there was no coordinated effort to use them.
b) why so many cases in Essex? 1566, 1582, 1589 saw three celebrity cases that made a big stink and stir - there were groups going on trial rather than individuals and there was lots of publicity.

1645 Matthew Hopkins - witchfinder general
http://histor.ws/hexen/eng/gale-prozes.htm
http://freevideolectures.com/Course/2871/Early-Modern-England/14
http://www.gendercide.org/case_witchhunts.html

On Witchcraft II

From http://history.hanover.edu/texts/mm.html 
 

Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
Malleus Maleficarum
(1486)

George L. Burr, ed., The Witch Persecutions
in Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, 6 vols.
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania History Department, 1898-1912) vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 10-13

Hanover Historical Texts Project
Scanned by Mike Anderson, May 1998.
Proofread and pages added by Jonathan Perry, March 2001.


Burr's note: [Page 10] Even when armed with the papal bull, the German Inquisitors found their preparation incomplete. Soon after their return from Rome they set themselves at the compilation of a hand-book which should leave no judge an excuse for laxity on exposition of witchcraft and a code of procedure for the detection and pun-ishment of witches. This, completed in 1486, they called Malleus Maleficarum, "The Witch~Hammer." As a specimen may serve a part of its [sic]. [Page 11] Directions for the Torture of a Witch. Malleus Maleficarum, pars iii, quaestio 14. Latin. Editions are many. :





The method of beginning an examination by torture is as follows: First, the jailers prepare the implements of torture, then they strip the prisoner (if it be a woman, she has already been stripped by other women, upright and of good report) [1]. This stripping is lest some means of witchcraft may have been sewed into the clothing--such as often, taught by the Devil, they prepare from the bodies of unbaptized infants, [murdered] that they may forfeit salvation. And when the implements of torture have been prepared, the judge, both in person and through other good men zealous in the faith, tries to persuade the prisoner to confess the truth freely ; but, if he will not confess, he bids attendants make the prisoner fast to the strappado or some other implement of torture. The attendants obey forthwith, yet with feigned agitation. Then, at the prayer of some of those present, the prisoner is loosed again and is taken aside and once more persuaded to confess, being led to believe that he will in that case not be put to death. Here it may be asked whether the judge, in the case of a prisoner much defamed, convicted both by witnesses and by proofs, nothing being lacking but his own confession, can properly lead him to hope that his life will be spared--when, even if he confess his crime, he will be punished with death.
It must be answered that opinions vary. Some hold that even a witch of very ill repute, against whom the evidence justifies violent suspicion, and who, as a ringleader of the witches, is accounted very dangerous, may be assured her life, and condemned instead to perpetual imprisonment on bread and water, in case she will give sure and convincing testimony against other witches; yet this penalty of perpetual imprisonment must not be announced to her, but only that her life will be spared, and that she will be punished in some other fashion, perhaps by exile. And doubtless such notorious witches, especially those who prepare witch-potions or who by magical methods cure those bewitched, would be peculiarly suited to be thus preserved, in order to aid the bewitched or to accuse other witches, were it not that their accusations cannot be trusted, since the Devil is a liar, unless confirmed by proofs and witnesses. [Page 12] Others hold, as to this point, that for a time the promise made to the witch sentenced to imprisonment is to be kept, but that after a time she should be burned.
A third view is, that the judge may safely promise witches to spare their lives, if only he will later excuse himself from pronouncing the sentence and will let another do this in his place. . . .
But if, neither by threats nor by promises such as these, the witch can be induced to speak the truth, then the jailers must carry out the sentence, and torture the prisoner according to the accepted methods[,] with more or less of severity as the delinquent's crime may demand. And, while he is being tortured, he must be questioned on the articles of accusation, and this frequently and persistently, beginning with the lighter charges-for he will more readily confess the lighter than the heavier. And, while this is being done, the notary must write down everything in his record of the trial--how the prisoner is tortured, on what points he is questioned, and how he answers.
And note that, if he confesses under the torture, he must afterward be conducted to another place, that he may confirm it and certify that it was not due alone to the force of the torture.
But, if the prisoner will not confess the truth satisfactorily, other sorts of tortures must be placed before him, with the statement that, unless he will confess the truth, he must endure these also. But, if not even thus he can be brought into terror and to the truth, then the next day or the next but one is to be set for a continuation of the tortures--not a repetition, [2] for they must not be repeated unless new evidences be produced.
The judge must then address to the prisoners the following sentence: We, the judge, etc., do assign to you,------, such and such a day for the continuation of the tortures, that from your own mouth the truth may be heard, and that the whole may be recorded by the notary.
And during the interval, before the day assigned, the judge, in person or through approved men, must in the manner above described try to persuade the prisoner to confess, promising her [3] (if there is aught to be gained by this promise) that her life shall be spared.
The judge shall see to it, morever, that throughout this interval [Page 13] guards are constantly with the prisoner, so that she may not be left alone; because she will be visited by the Devil and tempted into suicide.






Footnotes [1] Sometimes, in place of the prisoner's clothing, a garment furnished by the court was now supplied, to be worn during the torture.
[2] This was, of course, a legal fiction, to avoid the merciful restriction put by law upon the repitition of torture.
[3] This change in the gender of pronoun is a faithful following of the original.

On Witchcraft

From http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/witches1.html Medieval Sourcebook

Innocent VIII: BULL Summis desiderantes, Dec. 5th, 1484

Bullarium Romanum (Taurinensis editio), sub, anno 1484. The Bull is also printed in full at the head of the Malleus maleficarum. Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, Ad futuram rei memoriam
Desiring with supreme ardor, as pastoral solicitude requires, that the catholic faith in our days everywhere grow and flourish as much as possible, and that all heretical depravity be put far from the territories of the faithful, we freely declare and anew decree this by which our pious desire may be fulfilled, and, all errors being rooted out by our toil as with the hoe of a wise laborer, zeal and devotion to this faith may take deeper hold on the hearts of the faithful themselves.
It has recently come to our ears, not without great pain to us, that in some parts of upper Germany, as well as in the provinces, cities, territories, regions, and dioceses of Mainz, Ko1n, Trier, Salzburg, and Bremen, many persons of both sexes, heedless of their own salvation and forsaking the catholic faith, give themselves over to devils male and female, and by their incantations, charms, and conjurings, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges, offences, crimes, and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; that they afflict and torture with dire pains and anguish, both internal and external, these men, women, cattle, flocks, herds, and animals, and hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving, and prevent all consummation of marriage; that, moreover, they deny with sacrilegious lips the faith they . received in holy baptism; and that, at the instigation of the enemy of mankind, they do not fear to commit and perpetrate many other abominable offences and crimes, at the risk of their own souls, to the insult of the divine majesty and to the pernicious example and scandal of multitudes. And, although our beloved sons Henricus Institoris and Jacobus Sprenger, of the order of Friars Preachers, professors of theology, have been and still are deputed by our apostolic letters as inquisitors of heretical pravity, the former in the aforesaid parts of upper Germany, including the provinces, cities, territories, dioceses, and other places as above, and the latter throughout certain parts of the course of the Rhine; nevertheless certain of the clergy and of the laity of those parts, seeking to be wise above what is fitting, because in the said letter of deputation the aforesaid provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and other places, and the persons and offences in question were not individually and specifically named, do not blush obstinately to assert that these are not at all included in the said parts and that therefore it is illicit for the aforesaid inquisitors to exercise their office of inquisition in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and other places aforesaid, and that they ought not to be permitted to proceed to the punishment, imprisonment, and correction of the aforesaid persons for the offences and crimes above named. Wherefore in the provinces, cities, dioceses territories, and places aforesaid such offences and crimes, not without evident damage to their souls and risk of eternal salvation, go unpunished.
We therefore, desiring, as is our duty, to remove all impediments by which in any way the said inquisitors are hindered in the exercise of their office, and to prevent the taint of heretical pravity and of other like evils from spreading their infection to the ruin of others who are innocent, the zeal of religion especially impelling us, in order that the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and places aforesaid in the said parts of upper Germany may not be deprived of the office of inquisition which is their due, do hereby decree, by virtue of our apostolic authority, that it shall be permitted to the said inquisitors in these regions to exercise their office of inquisition and to proceed to the correction, imprisonment, and punishment of the aforesaid persons for their said offences and crimes, in all respects and altogether precisely as if the provinces, cities, territories, places, persons, and offences aforesaid were expressly named in the said letter. And, for the greater sureness, extending the said letter and deputation to the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, places, persons, and crimes aforesaid, we grant to the said inquisitors that they or either of them joining with them our beloved son Johannes Gremper, cleric of the diocese of Coonstance, master of arts, their present notary, or any other notary public who by them or by either of them shall have been temporarily delegated in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and places aforesaid, may exercise against all persons, of whatsoever condition and rank, the said office of inquisition, correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising, according to their deserts, those persons whom they shall find guilty as aforesaid.
And they shall also have full and entire liberty to propound and preach to the faithful word of God, as often as it shall seem to them fitting and proper, in each and all of the parosh churches in the said provinces, and to do all things necessary and suitable under the aforesaid circumstances, and likewise freely and fully to carry them out.