Robin Briggs
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198225829
- eISBN:
- 9780191708947
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198225829.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses cases involving male witches in the duchy of Lorraine. Statistical breakdown shows that approximately 28% of the samples were males, who did not fare any better before the ...
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This chapter discusses cases involving male witches in the duchy of Lorraine. Statistical breakdown shows that approximately 28% of the samples were males, who did not fare any better before the courts than the women did. It is shown that male witches were involved in rather more exceptional cases than the female ones. Nevertheless, many of them came from the same category of the dependent peasantry as the great majority of female witches, while a high proportion belonged to families with existing reputations for witchcraft. The most obvious and predictable difference from female suspects where accusations were concerned was the rarity of charges about the misfortunes of babies and small children, although this was not in total absence and the problems of the latter were occasionally blamed on men.Less
This chapter discusses cases involving male witches in the duchy of Lorraine. Statistical breakdown shows that approximately 28% of the samples were males, who did not fare any better before the courts than the women did. It is shown that male witches were involved in rather more exceptional cases than the female ones. Nevertheless, many of them came from the same category of the dependent peasantry as the great majority of female witches, while a high proportion belonged to families with existing reputations for witchcraft. The most obvious and predictable difference from female suspects where accusations were concerned was the rarity of charges about the misfortunes of babies and small children, although this was not in total absence and the problems of the latter were occasionally blamed on men.
Robin Briggs
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198225829
- eISBN:
- 9780191708947
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198225829.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book analyses the beliefs, social tensions, and behaviour patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft. Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials to be found in ...
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This book analyses the beliefs, social tensions, and behaviour patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft. Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials to be found in Europe, this book reveals the extraordinary stories held within those documents. They paint a vivid picture of life amongst the ordinary people of a small duchy on the borders of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Intense persecution occurred in the period 1570-1630, but the focus of this book is more on how suspects interacted with their neighbours over the years preceding their trials. One of the mysteries is why people were so slow to use the law to eliminate these supposedly vicious and dangerous figures. Perhaps the most striking and unexpected conclusion is that witchcraft was actually perceived as having strong therapeutic possibilities; once a person was identified as the cause of a sickness, they could be induced to take it off again. Other aspects studied include the more fantastic beliefs in sabbats, shapeshifting, and werewolves, the role of the devins or cunning-folk, and the characteristics attributed to the significant proportion of male witches.Less
This book analyses the beliefs, social tensions, and behaviour patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft. Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials to be found in Europe, this book reveals the extraordinary stories held within those documents. They paint a vivid picture of life amongst the ordinary people of a small duchy on the borders of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Intense persecution occurred in the period 1570-1630, but the focus of this book is more on how suspects interacted with their neighbours over the years preceding their trials. One of the mysteries is why people were so slow to use the law to eliminate these supposedly vicious and dangerous figures. Perhaps the most striking and unexpected conclusion is that witchcraft was actually perceived as having strong therapeutic possibilities; once a person was identified as the cause of a sickness, they could be induced to take it off again. Other aspects studied include the more fantastic beliefs in sabbats, shapeshifting, and werewolves, the role of the devins or cunning-folk, and the characteristics attributed to the significant proportion of male witches.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207443
- eISBN:
- 9780191677670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207443.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
The reality of Gardner's claim to have discovered an existing religion is one of two large problems which confront a historian concerned with the origins of modern pagan witchcraft. The other, ...
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The reality of Gardner's claim to have discovered an existing religion is one of two large problems which confront a historian concerned with the origins of modern pagan witchcraft. The other, closely related, is whether any other groups of pagan witches existed at the time when he was forming his own. It was central to his portrayal of this process that he was believed to be reviving an old and secret faith that had almost died out; built into that portrayal, therefore, was the suggestion that other adherents of that faith might have survived in the manner of the New Forest coven, and could surface now that Gardner had initiated the process of emergence. This chapter explores evidence relating to non-Gardnerian pagan witchcraft before 1960.Less
The reality of Gardner's claim to have discovered an existing religion is one of two large problems which confront a historian concerned with the origins of modern pagan witchcraft. The other, closely related, is whether any other groups of pagan witches existed at the time when he was forming his own. It was central to his portrayal of this process that he was believed to be reviving an old and secret faith that had almost died out; built into that portrayal, therefore, was the suggestion that other adherents of that faith might have survived in the manner of the New Forest coven, and could surface now that Gardner had initiated the process of emergence. This chapter explores evidence relating to non-Gardnerian pagan witchcraft before 1960.
Heinrich Institoris
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719064401
- eISBN:
- 9781781700419
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719064401.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure ...
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The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure to prosecute a number of women for witchcraft, it is in many ways a highly personal document, full of frustration at official complacency in the face of a spiritual threat, as well as being a practical guide for law-officers who have to deal with a cunning, dangerous enemy. Combining theological discussion, illustrative anecdotes and useful advice for those involved in suppressing witchcraft, the treatise's influence on witchcraft studies has been extensive. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers in 1928, is full of inaccuracies. It is written in a style almost unreadable nowadays, and is unfortunately coloured by Institoris's personal agenda. This new edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris and the Malleus into clear English, corrects Summers' mistakes and offers an unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this controversial late medieval text.Less
The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure to prosecute a number of women for witchcraft, it is in many ways a highly personal document, full of frustration at official complacency in the face of a spiritual threat, as well as being a practical guide for law-officers who have to deal with a cunning, dangerous enemy. Combining theological discussion, illustrative anecdotes and useful advice for those involved in suppressing witchcraft, the treatise's influence on witchcraft studies has been extensive. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers in 1928, is full of inaccuracies. It is written in a style almost unreadable nowadays, and is unfortunately coloured by Institoris's personal agenda. This new edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris and the Malleus into clear English, corrects Summers' mistakes and offers an unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this controversial late medieval text.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207443
- eISBN:
- 9780191677670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207443.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter considers the complex relationship between witchcraft and the British mass media. It discusses coverage of the three high priestesses who represented the public face of the Gardnerian ...
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This chapter considers the complex relationship between witchcraft and the British mass media. It discusses coverage of the three high priestesses who represented the public face of the Gardnerian tradition in the 1960s: Patricia Crowther, Ray Bone, and Monique Wilson.Less
This chapter considers the complex relationship between witchcraft and the British mass media. It discusses coverage of the three high priestesses who represented the public face of the Gardnerian tradition in the 1960s: Patricia Crowther, Ray Bone, and Monique Wilson.
Robin Briggs
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198225829
- eISBN:
- 9780191708947
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198225829.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter focuses on witchcraft beliefs. Topics covered include methods used to identify witches, strange creatures in witchcraft cases, cases of individuals terrified by a strange hostile ...
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This chapter focuses on witchcraft beliefs. Topics covered include methods used to identify witches, strange creatures in witchcraft cases, cases of individuals terrified by a strange hostile presence, seductions by the devil and in the sabbat, and dreams and fantasies.Less
This chapter focuses on witchcraft beliefs. Topics covered include methods used to identify witches, strange creatures in witchcraft cases, cases of individuals terrified by a strange hostile presence, seductions by the devil and in the sabbat, and dreams and fantasies.
Robin Briggs
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198225829
- eISBN:
- 9780191708947
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198225829.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses the importance of reputations in the construction of the witch, or in the minds of those who appeared as witnesses. Topics covered include times and places for rumour and ...
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This chapter discusses the importance of reputations in the construction of the witch, or in the minds of those who appeared as witnesses. Topics covered include times and places for rumour and gossip, families at risk, social memory and testimony, healing witches, and restraints on persecution.Less
This chapter discusses the importance of reputations in the construction of the witch, or in the minds of those who appeared as witnesses. Topics covered include times and places for rumour and gossip, families at risk, social memory and testimony, healing witches, and restraints on persecution.
Adam Davidson-Harden
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496826466
- eISBN:
- 9781496826510
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496826466.003.0016
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This essay takes readers from the 15th to the 21st century, and shows how midwives, “these educated and trusted, yet non-conforming women were uniquely imperiled by their learnedness and vocation, ...
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This essay takes readers from the 15th to the 21st century, and shows how midwives, “these educated and trusted, yet non-conforming women were uniquely imperiled by their learnedness and vocation, one critical to the survival, health, and well-being of their communities,” and how this conflation of knowledge, gender, and persecution continues (and is sometimes contested) in contemporary pop culture representations. Midwifes were often the targets of hysterical claims of witchcraft, which some argue has been blown out of proportion. Widows and unmarried women were also targeted. Midwives were often highly trained and skillful medical practitioners.Less
This essay takes readers from the 15th to the 21st century, and shows how midwives, “these educated and trusted, yet non-conforming women were uniquely imperiled by their learnedness and vocation, one critical to the survival, health, and well-being of their communities,” and how this conflation of knowledge, gender, and persecution continues (and is sometimes contested) in contemporary pop culture representations. Midwifes were often the targets of hysterical claims of witchcraft, which some argue has been blown out of proportion. Widows and unmarried women were also targeted. Midwives were often highly trained and skillful medical practitioners.
Grove Harris
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195167962
- eISBN:
- 9780199850150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167962.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The contemporary religion of witchcraft features a lively and dynamic ritual repertoire centered on nature. Participants in witchcraft rituals acknowledge the turning wheel of the seasons of the year ...
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The contemporary religion of witchcraft features a lively and dynamic ritual repertoire centered on nature. Participants in witchcraft rituals acknowledge the turning wheel of the seasons of the year and the seasons of their own lives. Contemporary witchcraft encompasses numerous formal and informal groups. One of the best known, the Reclaiming Tradition, is a US-based international tradition focusing on the Goddess in Her multiple forms. This tradition includes both women and men, connects spirituality and politics, and focuses on healing the culture and the earth. Reclaiming holds annual camps across the country where witches come together for training and for collective ritual. Healing is often a focus of the witch camp's large rituals, as well as being the focus of much ritual activity outside of the camp setting. Many witches see healing as creating connections and connections as healing.Less
The contemporary religion of witchcraft features a lively and dynamic ritual repertoire centered on nature. Participants in witchcraft rituals acknowledge the turning wheel of the seasons of the year and the seasons of their own lives. Contemporary witchcraft encompasses numerous formal and informal groups. One of the best known, the Reclaiming Tradition, is a US-based international tradition focusing on the Goddess in Her multiple forms. This tradition includes both women and men, connects spirituality and politics, and focuses on healing the culture and the earth. Reclaiming holds annual camps across the country where witches come together for training and for collective ritual. Healing is often a focus of the witch camp's large rituals, as well as being the focus of much ritual activity outside of the camp setting. Many witches see healing as creating connections and connections as healing.
Alison Rowlands
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719052590
- eISBN:
- 9781781700167
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719052590.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
Given the widespread belief in witchcraft and the existence of laws against such practices, why did witch-trials fail to gain momentum and escalate into ‘witch-crazes’ in certain parts of early ...
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Given the widespread belief in witchcraft and the existence of laws against such practices, why did witch-trials fail to gain momentum and escalate into ‘witch-crazes’ in certain parts of early modern Europe? This book answers this question by examining the rich legal records of the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a city that experienced a very restrained pattern of witch-trials and just one execution for witchcraft between 1561 and 1652. The book explores the factors that explain the absence of a ‘witch-craze’ in Rothenburg, placing particular emphasis on the interaction of elite and popular priorities in the pursuit (and non-pursuit) of alleged witches at law. By making the witchcraft narratives told by the peasants and townspeople of Rothenburg central to its analysis, the book also explores the social and psychological conflicts that lay behind the making of accusations and confessions of witchcraft. Furthermore, it challenges the existing explanations for the gender-bias of witch-trials, and also offers insights into other areas of early modern life, such as experiences of and beliefs about communal conflict, magic, motherhood, childhood and illness. Written in a narrative style, the study invites a wide readership to share in the drama of early modern witch trials.Less
Given the widespread belief in witchcraft and the existence of laws against such practices, why did witch-trials fail to gain momentum and escalate into ‘witch-crazes’ in certain parts of early modern Europe? This book answers this question by examining the rich legal records of the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a city that experienced a very restrained pattern of witch-trials and just one execution for witchcraft between 1561 and 1652. The book explores the factors that explain the absence of a ‘witch-craze’ in Rothenburg, placing particular emphasis on the interaction of elite and popular priorities in the pursuit (and non-pursuit) of alleged witches at law. By making the witchcraft narratives told by the peasants and townspeople of Rothenburg central to its analysis, the book also explores the social and psychological conflicts that lay behind the making of accusations and confessions of witchcraft. Furthermore, it challenges the existing explanations for the gender-bias of witch-trials, and also offers insights into other areas of early modern life, such as experiences of and beliefs about communal conflict, magic, motherhood, childhood and illness. Written in a narrative style, the study invites a wide readership to share in the drama of early modern witch trials.
Serinity Young
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780195307887
- eISBN:
- 9780190659714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195307887.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Witches, women believed to have supernatural powers, have been with us since ancient times. Often they were beautiful, highly sexual women whom men bedded at their own risk. They had magical powers ...
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Witches, women believed to have supernatural powers, have been with us since ancient times. Often they were beautiful, highly sexual women whom men bedded at their own risk. They had magical powers (including that of flight), communed with the dead, and did not conform to patriarchal ideas of womanhood. Their sexuality led them to be classified as succubi, or female spirits who visited men at night and had sexual intercourse with them while they slept. In medieval Christian Europe, witches were refigured as ugly over time, and they became the face of evil. They were believed to fly to their unholy Sabbaths, where they participated in orgies with Satan and sacrificed babies. In truth, most people who were accused of being witches were women caught up in the changing mores and beliefs of the medieval Church, which began to view women as more susceptible to the demonic than men, a Church that needed evidence of their unholy activities, even if extracted by torture.Less
Witches, women believed to have supernatural powers, have been with us since ancient times. Often they were beautiful, highly sexual women whom men bedded at their own risk. They had magical powers (including that of flight), communed with the dead, and did not conform to patriarchal ideas of womanhood. Their sexuality led them to be classified as succubi, or female spirits who visited men at night and had sexual intercourse with them while they slept. In medieval Christian Europe, witches were refigured as ugly over time, and they became the face of evil. They were believed to fly to their unholy Sabbaths, where they participated in orgies with Satan and sacrificed babies. In truth, most people who were accused of being witches were women caught up in the changing mores and beliefs of the medieval Church, which began to view women as more susceptible to the demonic than men, a Church that needed evidence of their unholy activities, even if extracted by torture.
James Sharpe
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719062032
- eISBN:
- 9781781700150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719062032.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter provides an introduction to the Lancashire witches in the context of history, giving an outline of what happened in 1612 and 1633–34. Lancashire was a county where witchcraft was ...
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This chapter provides an introduction to the Lancashire witches in the context of history, giving an outline of what happened in 1612 and 1633–34. Lancashire was a county where witchcraft was considered a recurring problem. It was not only the location of important witch trials in 1612 and of an incipiently major witch-scare in 1633–34, but also an area where a variety of witch beliefs flourished. The Lancashire prosecutions of 1612 and 1633 are important in demonstrating how witch-beliefs developed. This chapter discusses two initial sets of issues related to the Lancashire witches. The first is the notion that there was a distinctive English witchcraft, which is contrasted with a more exotic and demonically driven continental witchcraft. This idea has been severely challenged because it is intrinsically implausible to posit the existence of a unified continental witchcraft. Secondly, close reading of accounts of witch trials between the mid sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries suggest the anxiety of the time that a theologically correct view of witchcraft be spread among the populace. Furthermore, the chapter attempts to explain why the witch trials occurred, particularly those of 1612.Less
This chapter provides an introduction to the Lancashire witches in the context of history, giving an outline of what happened in 1612 and 1633–34. Lancashire was a county where witchcraft was considered a recurring problem. It was not only the location of important witch trials in 1612 and of an incipiently major witch-scare in 1633–34, but also an area where a variety of witch beliefs flourished. The Lancashire prosecutions of 1612 and 1633 are important in demonstrating how witch-beliefs developed. This chapter discusses two initial sets of issues related to the Lancashire witches. The first is the notion that there was a distinctive English witchcraft, which is contrasted with a more exotic and demonically driven continental witchcraft. This idea has been severely challenged because it is intrinsically implausible to posit the existence of a unified continental witchcraft. Secondly, close reading of accounts of witch trials between the mid sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries suggest the anxiety of the time that a theologically correct view of witchcraft be spread among the populace. Furthermore, the chapter attempts to explain why the witch trials occurred, particularly those of 1612.
Robin Briggs
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206033
- eISBN:
- 9780191676932
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206033.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
One of the most extensive collections of early criminal trials to survive for the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is that of the ancient duchy of Lorraine, now housed in the Archives ...
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One of the most extensive collections of early criminal trials to survive for the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is that of the ancient duchy of Lorraine, now housed in the Archives Départementales of the Meurthe-et-Moselle at Nancy. Among these documents are some three hundred complete dossiers for those tried on charges of witchcraft, nearly all of them for the half-century from 1580 to 1630. This material includes full witness depositions, typically from fifteen to twenty-five witnesses; the interrogation of the accused on the basis of these testimonies; the confrontation of the witnesses and the accused; and normally one or more sessions of interrogation under torture. It is the earlier stages of the trials, rather than the confessions under torture, which enable one to build up a picture of the popular attitudes that had prompted the accusations. The records generally allow one to distinguish between those admissions made spontaneously and those that resulted from promptings by the judges.Less
One of the most extensive collections of early criminal trials to survive for the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is that of the ancient duchy of Lorraine, now housed in the Archives Départementales of the Meurthe-et-Moselle at Nancy. Among these documents are some three hundred complete dossiers for those tried on charges of witchcraft, nearly all of them for the half-century from 1580 to 1630. This material includes full witness depositions, typically from fifteen to twenty-five witnesses; the interrogation of the accused on the basis of these testimonies; the confrontation of the witnesses and the accused; and normally one or more sessions of interrogation under torture. It is the earlier stages of the trials, rather than the confessions under torture, which enable one to build up a picture of the popular attitudes that had prompted the accusations. The records generally allow one to distinguish between those admissions made spontaneously and those that resulted from promptings by the judges.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207443
- eISBN:
- 9780191677670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207443.003.0020
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter discusses five additional features of modern pagan witchcraft, based upon observation of it, which are not usually identified by its practitioners but seem to me to be important. First, ...
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This chapter discusses five additional features of modern pagan witchcraft, based upon observation of it, which are not usually identified by its practitioners but seem to me to be important. First, it draws out and enhances the divinity within human beings. Second, it abolishes the traditional Western distinction between religion and magic. Third, it states that modern pagan witchcraft is a mystery religion, or set of mystery religions. Fourth, it says that its essence lies in the creative performance of ritual. Fifth, it postulates that it is eclectic and protean.Less
This chapter discusses five additional features of modern pagan witchcraft, based upon observation of it, which are not usually identified by its practitioners but seem to me to be important. First, it draws out and enhances the divinity within human beings. Second, it abolishes the traditional Western distinction between religion and magic. Third, it states that modern pagan witchcraft is a mystery religion, or set of mystery religions. Fourth, it says that its essence lies in the creative performance of ritual. Fifth, it postulates that it is eclectic and protean.
Robin Briggs
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206033
- eISBN:
- 9780191676932
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206033.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
More than three centuries have passed since Colbert and Louis XIV put an end to the legal persecution of witches in France in the 1670s, and by the same period trials had largely died out in the ...
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More than three centuries have passed since Colbert and Louis XIV put an end to the legal persecution of witches in France in the 1670s, and by the same period trials had largely died out in the French-speaking regions beyond the eastern border of the kingdom proper. Over the past twenty years, the historiography of witchcraft has been transformed by a series of careful scholarly studies, many of them drawing on the techniques of social history and social anthropology. This essay examines witchcraft in French-speaking Europe to understand how judicial atrocities could occur in an age which did have aspirations towards rationality and humanity. This must lead us to consider witchcraft as a nexus of beliefs and practices rooted in local society, so that the persecution of witches is seen to derive from social tensions at local level at least as much as from judicial activity inspired by the ruling classes.Less
More than three centuries have passed since Colbert and Louis XIV put an end to the legal persecution of witches in France in the 1670s, and by the same period trials had largely died out in the French-speaking regions beyond the eastern border of the kingdom proper. Over the past twenty years, the historiography of witchcraft has been transformed by a series of careful scholarly studies, many of them drawing on the techniques of social history and social anthropology. This essay examines witchcraft in French-speaking Europe to understand how judicial atrocities could occur in an age which did have aspirations towards rationality and humanity. This must lead us to consider witchcraft as a nexus of beliefs and practices rooted in local society, so that the persecution of witches is seen to derive from social tensions at local level at least as much as from judicial activity inspired by the ruling classes.
Kevin J. Wetmore
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859265
- eISBN:
- 9781800852341
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859265.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
James Wan’s 2013 film The Conjuring appears on many critics’ best horror films of the decade lists and was rated R by the MPAA solely “for terror.” Allegedly based on the true story of the Perron ...
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James Wan’s 2013 film The Conjuring appears on many critics’ best horror films of the decade lists and was rated R by the MPAA solely “for terror.” Allegedly based on the true story of the Perron family’s experiences in a haunted farmhouse in rural Rhode Island, the film comes from the files of pioneer paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and tells the story of how the Perron family came under supernatural assault from Bathsheba Sherman, a demonic eighteenth century witch, and how the Warrens investigated and eventually exorcised her. The book examines how Wan created the paragon of virtuosic, effective, terrifying haunted house movies, and then goes on to consider how the film plays with the idea of “a true story,” the role of religion in the film, how children’s games and toys are made the source of adult terror, how The Conjuring is a female-centered but not feminist film, and how the film spawned the “Conjuring Universe,” a growing series of half a dozen sequels, prequels, and related films. The Conjuring is an effective, good, old-fashioned horror film. It is genuinely scary and anxiety-inducing, greater than the sum of its parts and it is greater than its marketing campaign of “based on a true story” would seem to suggest. The book analyses the film on multiple levels and contextualizes it as a twenty-first century horror classic.Less
James Wan’s 2013 film The Conjuring appears on many critics’ best horror films of the decade lists and was rated R by the MPAA solely “for terror.” Allegedly based on the true story of the Perron family’s experiences in a haunted farmhouse in rural Rhode Island, the film comes from the files of pioneer paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and tells the story of how the Perron family came under supernatural assault from Bathsheba Sherman, a demonic eighteenth century witch, and how the Warrens investigated and eventually exorcised her. The book examines how Wan created the paragon of virtuosic, effective, terrifying haunted house movies, and then goes on to consider how the film plays with the idea of “a true story,” the role of religion in the film, how children’s games and toys are made the source of adult terror, how The Conjuring is a female-centered but not feminist film, and how the film spawned the “Conjuring Universe,” a growing series of half a dozen sequels, prequels, and related films. The Conjuring is an effective, good, old-fashioned horror film. It is genuinely scary and anxiety-inducing, greater than the sum of its parts and it is greater than its marketing campaign of “based on a true story” would seem to suggest. The book analyses the film on multiple levels and contextualizes it as a twenty-first century horror classic.
Grace Nono
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781501760082
- eISBN:
- 9781501760112
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501760082.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This book depicts the embodied voices of Native Philippine ritual specialists popularly known as babaylan. These ritual specialists are widely believed to have perished during colonial times, or to ...
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This book depicts the embodied voices of Native Philippine ritual specialists popularly known as babaylan. These ritual specialists are widely believed to have perished during colonial times, or to survive on the margins in the present-day. They are either persecuted as witches and purveyors of superstition or valorized as symbols of gender equality and anticolonial resistance. Drawing on fieldwork in the Philippines and in the Philippine diaspora, the book's deep engagement with the song and speech of a number of living ritual specialists demonstrates Native historical agency in the 500th year anniversary of the contact between the people of the Philippine Islands and the European colonizers.Less
This book depicts the embodied voices of Native Philippine ritual specialists popularly known as babaylan. These ritual specialists are widely believed to have perished during colonial times, or to survive on the margins in the present-day. They are either persecuted as witches and purveyors of superstition or valorized as symbols of gender equality and anticolonial resistance. Drawing on fieldwork in the Philippines and in the Philippine diaspora, the book's deep engagement with the song and speech of a number of living ritual specialists demonstrates Native historical agency in the 500th year anniversary of the contact between the people of the Philippine Islands and the European colonizers.
Kevin J. Wetmore
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859265
- eISBN:
- 9781800852341
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859265.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The volume concludes with “What Exactly is Conjured in The Conjuring?” After all, if the film is called The Conjuring, something must have been summoned or some kind of magic has been wrought, and ...
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The volume concludes with “What Exactly is Conjured in The Conjuring?” After all, if the film is called The Conjuring, something must have been summoned or some kind of magic has been wrought, and yet there is no literal conjuring in the film. The generic title instead gives way to the idea that what is conjured is, thus, “the underlying anxieties of the vulnerable everyman,” not to mention a spate of imitators in its wake. What is conjured is the audience’s fear, in a virtuoso horror film.Less
The volume concludes with “What Exactly is Conjured in The Conjuring?” After all, if the film is called The Conjuring, something must have been summoned or some kind of magic has been wrought, and yet there is no literal conjuring in the film. The generic title instead gives way to the idea that what is conjured is, thus, “the underlying anxieties of the vulnerable everyman,” not to mention a spate of imitators in its wake. What is conjured is the audience’s fear, in a virtuoso horror film.
Robert Poole
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719062032
- eISBN:
- 9781781700150
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719062032.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This book is a major study of England's biggest and best-known witch trial, which took place in 1612, when ten witches were arraigned and hanged in the village of Pendle in Lancashire. In it, 11 ...
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This book is a major study of England's biggest and best-known witch trial, which took place in 1612, when ten witches were arraigned and hanged in the village of Pendle in Lancashire. In it, 11 experts from a variety of fields offer surveys of these events and their meanings for contemporaries, for later generations, and for the present day. Chapters look at the politics and ideology of witch-hunting, the conduct of the trial, the social and economic contexts, the religious background, and the local and family details of the episode.Less
This book is a major study of England's biggest and best-known witch trial, which took place in 1612, when ten witches were arraigned and hanged in the village of Pendle in Lancashire. In it, 11 experts from a variety of fields offer surveys of these events and their meanings for contemporaries, for later generations, and for the present day. Chapters look at the politics and ideology of witch-hunting, the conduct of the trial, the social and economic contexts, the religious background, and the local and family details of the episode.
Paul B. Moyer
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501751059
- eISBN:
- 9781501751066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501751059.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter delves into the dynamics of accusation and investigates what motivated people to denounce others as witches. It recounts how William Meaker of New Haven initiated a slander suit against ...
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This chapter delves into the dynamics of accusation and investigates what motivated people to denounce others as witches. It recounts how William Meaker of New Haven initiated a slander suit against his neighbor, Thomas Mullenner, for claiming that the defendant had called him a witch in 1657. It also explains how Meaker's case illustrates the important link between witchcraft and interpersonal conflict in early New England. The chapter explains the social context of witchcraft and examines the social situations that gave birth to fears of malefic attack as well as the motives that drove one person to accuse another of black magic. It examines how Puritan colonies closely match dynamics of witch-hunting across the early modern English Atlantic.Less
This chapter delves into the dynamics of accusation and investigates what motivated people to denounce others as witches. It recounts how William Meaker of New Haven initiated a slander suit against his neighbor, Thomas Mullenner, for claiming that the defendant had called him a witch in 1657. It also explains how Meaker's case illustrates the important link between witchcraft and interpersonal conflict in early New England. The chapter explains the social context of witchcraft and examines the social situations that gave birth to fears of malefic attack as well as the motives that drove one person to accuse another of black magic. It examines how Puritan colonies closely match dynamics of witch-hunting across the early modern English Atlantic.
