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/9780198225829.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter focuses on witch trials Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. Trials from Saint-Nicolas began with the trial of Claudon Charniere, also known as la Picquatte on account of her first marriage to Martin ...
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This chapter focuses on witch trials Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. Trials from Saint-Nicolas began with the trial of Claudon Charniere, also known as la Picquatte on account of her first marriage to Martin Picquot, in the autumn of 1572. Another trial began with a public accusation in July 1582 by a young married woman named Mongeatte Recouvreur, who was said to be going about the streets as if demented. Trials Saint-Nicolas appears then passed through the hard times of the late 1580s and early 1590s without any formal accusations, until a new group of trials began in 1598. Altogether the town saw nineteen known witchcraft trials over a period of fifty-six years, fifteen of which have left full records, with all but one of the accused being women.Less
This chapter focuses on witch trials Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. Trials from Saint-Nicolas began with the trial of Claudon Charniere, also known as la Picquatte on account of her first marriage to Martin Picquot, in the autumn of 1572. Another trial began with a public accusation in July 1582 by a young married woman named Mongeatte Recouvreur, who was said to be going about the streets as if demented. Trials Saint-Nicolas appears then passed through the hard times of the late 1580s and early 1590s without any formal accusations, until a new group of trials began in 1598. Altogether the town saw nineteen known witchcraft trials over a period of fifty-six years, fifteen of which have left full records, with all but one of the accused being women.
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.
Michael Ostling
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199587902
- eISBN:
- 9780191731228
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587902.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Social History
Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story ...
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Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story of the imagined Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant women got caught in webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture to the most heinous crimes. Through a close reading of accusations and confessions, the book also shows how witches imagined themselves and their own religious lives. Paradoxically, the tales they tell of infanticide and host desecration reveal to us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of diabolical sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Caught between the devil and the host, the self‐imagined Polish witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through the dark glass of witchcraft the book attempts to explore the religious lives of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.Less
Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story of the imagined Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant women got caught in webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture to the most heinous crimes. Through a close reading of accusations and confessions, the book also shows how witches imagined themselves and their own religious lives. Paradoxically, the tales they tell of infanticide and host desecration reveal to us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of diabolical sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Caught between the devil and the host, the self‐imagined Polish witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through the dark glass of witchcraft the book attempts to explore the religious lives of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.
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/9780198225829.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It argues that in relative terms, the Lorraine persecution was very intense, placing the duchy near the head of any European ...
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This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It argues that in relative terms, the Lorraine persecution was very intense, placing the duchy near the head of any European league table in terms of both absolute numbers and the proportion of the population involved. The high rate of persecution between 1570 and 1630 was essentially generated by a dispersed and intermittent process at the level of individual jurisdictions.Less
This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It argues that in relative terms, the Lorraine persecution was very intense, placing the duchy near the head of any European league table in terms of both absolute numbers and the proportion of the population involved. The high rate of persecution between 1570 and 1630 was essentially generated by a dispersed and intermittent process at the level of individual jurisdictions.
Michael Ostling
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199587902
- eISBN:
- 9780191731228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587902.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Social History
In Poland, the imagined witch was constructed in legal texts and in demonological literature. Witchcraft was illegal under the Saxon Law used by Polish town courts from medieval times, but no state ...
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In Poland, the imagined witch was constructed in legal texts and in demonological literature. Witchcraft was illegal under the Saxon Law used by Polish town courts from medieval times, but no state edict ever defined witchcraft or clarified the law. In the late sixteenth century the influence of the Carolina, and of western legal theory made witchcraft a more serious crime than it had been before. The Malleus Maleficarum was translated into Polish in the early seventeenth century. Ribald drama, satires, and a body of Catholic polemical literature fleshed out the image of the witch and opposed secular-court trials. In the late eighteenth century, members of the Polish Enlightenment opposed witch-trials and finally brought about their abolition, in 1776.Less
In Poland, the imagined witch was constructed in legal texts and in demonological literature. Witchcraft was illegal under the Saxon Law used by Polish town courts from medieval times, but no state edict ever defined witchcraft or clarified the law. In the late sixteenth century the influence of the Carolina, and of western legal theory made witchcraft a more serious crime than it had been before. The Malleus Maleficarum was translated into Polish in the early seventeenth century. Ribald drama, satires, and a body of Catholic polemical literature fleshed out the image of the witch and opposed secular-court trials. In the late eighteenth century, members of the Polish Enlightenment opposed witch-trials and finally brought about their abolition, in 1776.
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/9780198207443.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter explores a major shift of opinion in world history which occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the majority of Europe's social, political, and intellectual elites moved from ...
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This chapter explores a major shift of opinion in world history which occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the majority of Europe's social, political, and intellectual elites moved from believing that humans could do damage by uncanny, non-physical means to believing that they could not. This led to the repeal of the laws against witchcraft which, between 1428 and 1782, resulted in 40—50,000 executions. Statutes against the practice of magic were still enacted, but treated that practice as fraud or superstition rather than as effective action. This conceptual alteration represents one of the most remarkable processes in the transition of European culture into modernity.Less
This chapter explores a major shift of opinion in world history which occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the majority of Europe's social, political, and intellectual elites moved from believing that humans could do damage by uncanny, non-physical means to believing that they could not. This led to the repeal of the laws against witchcraft which, between 1428 and 1782, resulted in 40—50,000 executions. Statutes against the practice of magic were still enacted, but treated that practice as fraud or superstition rather than as effective action. This conceptual alteration represents one of the most remarkable processes in the transition of European culture into modernity.
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.
Michael Ostling
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199587902
- eISBN:
- 9780191731228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587902.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Social History
This Introduction situates the imagination of witchcraft in early modern Poland using the image of the crossroads: the witch combines elements taken from elite culture and from local folklore, from ...
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This Introduction situates the imagination of witchcraft in early modern Poland using the image of the crossroads: the witch combines elements taken from elite culture and from local folklore, from the center and periphery of European culture. The chapter also locates this study in time and space: it is a study of witchcraft and witch-trials in the Korona, the Polish part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.Less
This Introduction situates the imagination of witchcraft in early modern Poland using the image of the crossroads: the witch combines elements taken from elite culture and from local folklore, from the center and periphery of European culture. The chapter also locates this study in time and space: it is a study of witchcraft and witch-trials in the Korona, the Polish part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Alison Rowlands
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719052590
- eISBN:
- 9781781700167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719052590.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter focuses on the trials involving allegations and confessions of maleficent or demonic witchcraft that took place in the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber between c.1561 and c.1652. ...
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This chapter focuses on the trials involving allegations and confessions of maleficent or demonic witchcraft that took place in the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber between c.1561 and c.1652. Rothenburg had a restrained pattern of witch-hunting during this period, with relatively few trials (even fewer of which ended in guilty verdicts against alleged witches); no mass-panics involving large numbers of accused witches; and the execution of only one alleged witch. The reasons for this phenomenon are analyzed. Detailed readings of the exceptionally rich records from the Rothenburg witch trials are provided to explore the social and psychic tensions that lay behind the making of witchcraft accusations and confessions, the popular and elite reactions to these accusations and confessions, and the ways in which participants in witch-trials pursued strategies, expressed emotions and negotiated conflicts through what they said about witchcraft. The witch-trials are contextualized, using a range of other sources in order to establish the life histories of trial-participants, the immediate circumstances of particular trials, and the broader social and cultural context of the beliefs and conflicts expressed and negotiated within them. The different ways—desperate, measured, artful, enthusiastic, unwilling—in which accusers and witnesses shaped their stories of witchcraft and participated in trial-processes to the advantage or disadvantage of the accused witch tell a great deal about their reasons for so doing and about their pre-trial relationship with the accused witch, as well as about the narrative-telling strategies available to them and their awareness of the risks that they ran in speaking openly about witchcraft.Less
This chapter focuses on the trials involving allegations and confessions of maleficent or demonic witchcraft that took place in the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber between c.1561 and c.1652. Rothenburg had a restrained pattern of witch-hunting during this period, with relatively few trials (even fewer of which ended in guilty verdicts against alleged witches); no mass-panics involving large numbers of accused witches; and the execution of only one alleged witch. The reasons for this phenomenon are analyzed. Detailed readings of the exceptionally rich records from the Rothenburg witch trials are provided to explore the social and psychic tensions that lay behind the making of witchcraft accusations and confessions, the popular and elite reactions to these accusations and confessions, and the ways in which participants in witch-trials pursued strategies, expressed emotions and negotiated conflicts through what they said about witchcraft. The witch-trials are contextualized, using a range of other sources in order to establish the life histories of trial-participants, the immediate circumstances of particular trials, and the broader social and cultural context of the beliefs and conflicts expressed and negotiated within them. The different ways—desperate, measured, artful, enthusiastic, unwilling—in which accusers and witnesses shaped their stories of witchcraft and participated in trial-processes to the advantage or disadvantage of the accused witch tell a great deal about their reasons for so doing and about their pre-trial relationship with the accused witch, as well as about the narrative-telling strategies available to them and their awareness of the risks that they ran in speaking openly about witchcraft.
Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859896801
- eISBN:
- 9781781380871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859896801.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter presents the dittays of four people accused of witchcraft from December 1590 to June 1591, and were tried before the justiciary court in Endiburgh. The accused were John Fian, Agnes ...
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This chapter presents the dittays of four people accused of witchcraft from December 1590 to June 1591, and were tried before the justiciary court in Endiburgh. The accused were John Fian, Agnes Sampson, Barbara Napier, and Euphame MacCalzean.Less
This chapter presents the dittays of four people accused of witchcraft from December 1590 to June 1591, and were tried before the justiciary court in Endiburgh. The accused were John Fian, Agnes Sampson, Barbara Napier, and Euphame MacCalzean.
Catherine Rider
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199282227
- eISBN:
- 9780191713026
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282227.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter discusses the way in which 15th-century writers of canon law, theology, and medicine wrote about impotence magic. In particular, it traces how these authors were influenced by rising ...
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This chapter discusses the way in which 15th-century writers of canon law, theology, and medicine wrote about impotence magic. In particular, it traces how these authors were influenced by rising concerns about witchcraft and by the earliest witch trials. It argues that many discussions of impotence magic in canon law and theology copied earlier authors without mentioning contemporary witch trials, but that some writers in these genres emphasized the role of demons in magic more than their sources had. Medical writers, by contrast, responded more directly to the witch trials, mentioning cases of impotence magic that they had heard about. Their responses varied, however. Jacques Despars and Antonio Guaineri were sceptical of the demonic powers ascribed to witches. Giovanni Michele Savonarola, on the other hand, emphasized the demonic nature of many magical cures.Less
This chapter discusses the way in which 15th-century writers of canon law, theology, and medicine wrote about impotence magic. In particular, it traces how these authors were influenced by rising concerns about witchcraft and by the earliest witch trials. It argues that many discussions of impotence magic in canon law and theology copied earlier authors without mentioning contemporary witch trials, but that some writers in these genres emphasized the role of demons in magic more than their sources had. Medical writers, by contrast, responded more directly to the witch trials, mentioning cases of impotence magic that they had heard about. Their responses varied, however. Jacques Despars and Antonio Guaineri were sceptical of the demonic powers ascribed to witches. Giovanni Michele Savonarola, on the other hand, emphasized the demonic nature of many magical cures.
Alison Rowlands
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719052590
- eISBN:
- 9781781700167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719052590.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
The Rothenburg evidence suggests that those areas most likely to be characterized by a restrained pattern of witch-trials in early modern Germany were those in which a significant majority of the ...
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The Rothenburg evidence suggests that those areas most likely to be characterized by a restrained pattern of witch-trials in early modern Germany were those in which a significant majority of the ruling elites came to realize that the social, economic and political stability of their territories was likely to be damaged rather than strengthened by severe and large-scale witch-hunts. This way of thinking was effective, however, only if it could be put into practice: it was thus crucial for the ruling elites who were of this opinion to be able to maintain or assert control over the judicial processes by means of which alleged witches were tried. They also had to help ensure—perhaps chiefly by punitive measures such as the punishment of slander—that their subjects did not bring irresistible pressure in favor of more severe action against witches to bear upon them. It was not the size, cohesion or location of a territory which made it more or less likely to fall prey to the horrors of large-scale witch-trials in early modern Germany, but rather the question of whether and for how long this set of restraining factors pertained in its particular case. In Rothenburg and its hinterland they were kept essentially intact throughout the whole early modern period, sparing the lives of many individuals who might otherwise have been executed for witchcraft.Less
The Rothenburg evidence suggests that those areas most likely to be characterized by a restrained pattern of witch-trials in early modern Germany were those in which a significant majority of the ruling elites came to realize that the social, economic and political stability of their territories was likely to be damaged rather than strengthened by severe and large-scale witch-hunts. This way of thinking was effective, however, only if it could be put into practice: it was thus crucial for the ruling elites who were of this opinion to be able to maintain or assert control over the judicial processes by means of which alleged witches were tried. They also had to help ensure—perhaps chiefly by punitive measures such as the punishment of slander—that their subjects did not bring irresistible pressure in favor of more severe action against witches to bear upon them. It was not the size, cohesion or location of a territory which made it more or less likely to fall prey to the horrors of large-scale witch-trials in early modern Germany, but rather the question of whether and for how long this set of restraining factors pertained in its particular case. In Rothenburg and its hinterland they were kept essentially intact throughout the whole early modern period, sparing the lives of many individuals who might otherwise have been executed for witchcraft.
Stephen Pumfrey
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719062032
- eISBN:
- 9781781700150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719062032.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter re-examines the events of 1612, combining a close reading of Thomas Potts's 1613 book, “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster,” with evidence from other areas ...
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This chapter re-examines the events of 1612, combining a close reading of Thomas Potts's 1613 book, “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster,” with evidence from other areas to place it in a particular context: the politics of witch-hunting and royal patronage. The chapter sheds light not only on how the trials were constructed but also on how the evidence itself came into being. Potts's allusions to King James I and his writings on witchcraft are identified. There is no evidence of James's involvement but the trial does seem to have been, in part, an attempt to seek favor with the King. The account of methods and findings of the Lancashire witch trial based on the principles set out by the King in the 1590s are documented in convincing detail. James's ideas in turn were taken from the fantasies of satanic conspiracy developed by the continental demonologists of the past, which had until then made little impact in England. Therefore, the demonic pacts and witches' sabbats, which make their first English appearance in the Lancashire trials of 1612 owe more to the desire of Potts and the judges to vindicate their actions by appealing to royal authority than to any actual activities of the Lancashire witches.Less
This chapter re-examines the events of 1612, combining a close reading of Thomas Potts's 1613 book, “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster,” with evidence from other areas to place it in a particular context: the politics of witch-hunting and royal patronage. The chapter sheds light not only on how the trials were constructed but also on how the evidence itself came into being. Potts's allusions to King James I and his writings on witchcraft are identified. There is no evidence of James's involvement but the trial does seem to have been, in part, an attempt to seek favor with the King. The account of methods and findings of the Lancashire witch trial based on the principles set out by the King in the 1590s are documented in convincing detail. James's ideas in turn were taken from the fantasies of satanic conspiracy developed by the continental demonologists of the past, which had until then made little impact in England. Therefore, the demonic pacts and witches' sabbats, which make their first English appearance in the Lancashire trials of 1612 owe more to the desire of Potts and the judges to vindicate their actions by appealing to royal authority than to any actual activities of the Lancashire witches.
Thomas Waters
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780300221404
- eISBN:
- 9780300249453
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300221404.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter shows that in early 1800s Britain, witchcraft was widely believed in. Magical traditions, traceable to the period of the witch trials and before, were strong. Villagers and townsfolk ...
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This chapter shows that in early 1800s Britain, witchcraft was widely believed in. Magical traditions, traceable to the period of the witch trials and before, were strong. Villagers and townsfolk ducked, mobbed, attacked, and bullied witches. Privately, many sophisticated and wealthy people sympathised. Not with victims of superstitious violence, but with the perpetrators. Indeed, witchcraft troubled many well-to-do folk during the early 1800s. This chapter explores a remarkable area of common ground between the masses, the upper classes, and those in the middle. More often than one might expect, they agreed with each other: sorcery was real, and witches deserved to be punished.Less
This chapter shows that in early 1800s Britain, witchcraft was widely believed in. Magical traditions, traceable to the period of the witch trials and before, were strong. Villagers and townsfolk ducked, mobbed, attacked, and bullied witches. Privately, many sophisticated and wealthy people sympathised. Not with victims of superstitious violence, but with the perpetrators. Indeed, witchcraft troubled many well-to-do folk during the early 1800s. This chapter explores a remarkable area of common ground between the masses, the upper classes, and those in the middle. More often than one might expect, they agreed with each other: sorcery was real, and witches deserved to be punished.
Ian Bostridge
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206538
- eISBN:
- 9780191677205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206538.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the disavowal of witchcraft belief in England during the 18th century. The analysis reveals that in both England and France, witchcraft theory ...
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This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the disavowal of witchcraft belief in England during the 18th century. The analysis reveals that in both England and France, witchcraft theory did not have to be radically rejected in order to secure an end to the trials and that the most effective panacea was caution. This chapter also mentions witchcraft belief and witch-hunting in other European countries including Germany and Spain.Less
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the disavowal of witchcraft belief in England during the 18th century. The analysis reveals that in both England and France, witchcraft theory did not have to be radically rejected in order to secure an end to the trials and that the most effective panacea was caution. This chapter also mentions witchcraft belief and witch-hunting in other European countries including Germany and Spain.
Per Faxneld
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190664473
- eISBN:
- 9780190664503
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190664473.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Chapter 6 provides a reading of how the subversive potential of the figure of the witch was utilized to attack the oppression of women. It commences with a discussion of Jules Michelet’s La Sorcière ...
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Chapter 6 provides a reading of how the subversive potential of the figure of the witch was utilized to attack the oppression of women. It commences with a discussion of Jules Michelet’s La Sorcière (1862), then considers how medical discourse on historical witches as hysterics was conflated with slander of feminists as hysterical and caricatures of them as witches. After that follows a treatment of American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage, who presented the early modern witch cult as a Satanic rebellion against patriarchal injustice, and folklorist Charles Leland, who drew approbatory parallels between witches and the feminism of his day. The chapter demonstrates how Gage borrowed from both Michelet and Blavatsky in her texts. Finally, visual representations of the witch are discussed, focusing on how she was a symbol of female strength in both positive and negative ways in the sculptures and paintings of male as well as female artists.Less
Chapter 6 provides a reading of how the subversive potential of the figure of the witch was utilized to attack the oppression of women. It commences with a discussion of Jules Michelet’s La Sorcière (1862), then considers how medical discourse on historical witches as hysterics was conflated with slander of feminists as hysterical and caricatures of them as witches. After that follows a treatment of American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage, who presented the early modern witch cult as a Satanic rebellion against patriarchal injustice, and folklorist Charles Leland, who drew approbatory parallels between witches and the feminism of his day. The chapter demonstrates how Gage borrowed from both Michelet and Blavatsky in her texts. Finally, visual representations of the witch are discussed, focusing on how she was a symbol of female strength in both positive and negative ways in the sculptures and paintings of male as well as female artists.
Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859896801
- eISBN:
- 9781781380871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859896801.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
News from Scotland was the first publication in Scotland and England that reported exclusively on Scottish witchcraft. It was also the most propagandastic of all the texts generated by the North ...
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News from Scotland was the first publication in Scotland and England that reported exclusively on Scottish witchcraft. It was also the most propagandastic of all the texts generated by the North Berwick witch trials. This chapter discusses the authorship of News; the making of the text; News as fiction and history; the story of Geilis Duncan and David Seton; truth and falsehood in News; and the political scene in News.Less
News from Scotland was the first publication in Scotland and England that reported exclusively on Scottish witchcraft. It was also the most propagandastic of all the texts generated by the North Berwick witch trials. This chapter discusses the authorship of News; the making of the text; News as fiction and history; the story of Geilis Duncan and David Seton; truth and falsehood in News; and the political scene in News.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226005416
- eISBN:
- 9780226005423
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226005423.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter examines the role of cultural memory in the American imagination of the Salem witch trials and analyzes how it was formed. It reviews two competing narratives about the 1692 witch ...
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This chapter examines the role of cultural memory in the American imagination of the Salem witch trials and analyzes how it was formed. It reviews two competing narratives about the 1692 witch trials: Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World and Robert Calef's challenge to that version, More Wonders of the Invisible World. The chapter describes how these versions shaped the memory of Salem by the time of the American Revolution nearly one hundred years later.Less
This chapter examines the role of cultural memory in the American imagination of the Salem witch trials and analyzes how it was formed. It reviews two competing narratives about the 1692 witch trials: Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World and Robert Calef's challenge to that version, More Wonders of the Invisible World. The chapter describes how these versions shaped the memory of Salem by the time of the American Revolution nearly one hundred years later.
Gretchen A. Adams
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226005416
- eISBN:
- 9780226005423
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226005423.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This book reveals the many ways that the Salem witch trials loomed over the American collective memory from the Revolution to the Civil War and beyond. Schoolbooks in the 1790s, for example, evoked ...
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This book reveals the many ways that the Salem witch trials loomed over the American collective memory from the Revolution to the Civil War and beyond. Schoolbooks in the 1790s, for example, evoked the episode to demonstrate the new nation's progress from a disorderly and brutal past to a rational present, while critics of new religious movements in the 1830s cast them as a return to Salem-era fanaticism, and during the Civil War, southerners evoked witch burning to criticize Union tactics. Shedding light on the many, varied American invocations of Salem, the author ultimately illuminates the function of collective memories in the life of a nation.Less
This book reveals the many ways that the Salem witch trials loomed over the American collective memory from the Revolution to the Civil War and beyond. Schoolbooks in the 1790s, for example, evoked the episode to demonstrate the new nation's progress from a disorderly and brutal past to a rational present, while critics of new religious movements in the 1830s cast them as a return to Salem-era fanaticism, and during the Civil War, southerners evoked witch burning to criticize Union tactics. Shedding light on the many, varied American invocations of Salem, the author ultimately illuminates the function of collective memories in the life of a nation.
Catherine Rider
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199282227
- eISBN:
- 9780191713026
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282227.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter introduces the main sources and issues in the study of medieval impotence magic, and summarizes the contents of the rest of the book. It surveys the place of impotence magic in modern ...
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This chapter introduces the main sources and issues in the study of medieval impotence magic, and summarizes the contents of the rest of the book. It surveys the place of impotence magic in modern historiographical debates about the relationship between learned and popular culture, and about the origins of the early modern witch trials. It also discusses medieval and modern definitions of magic.Less
This chapter introduces the main sources and issues in the study of medieval impotence magic, and summarizes the contents of the rest of the book. It surveys the place of impotence magic in modern historiographical debates about the relationship between learned and popular culture, and about the origins of the early modern witch trials. It also discusses medieval and modern definitions of magic.
