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Urban Witches: Saint‐Nicolas‐de‐Port and Other Towns

Robin Briggs

in The Witches of Lorraine

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 ... More

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

Male Witches

Robin Briggs

in The Witches of Lorraine

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 ... More

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

Conclusion

Robin Briggs

in The Witches of Lorraine

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 ... More

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

Imagining Witchcraft in Literature and Law

Michael Ostling

in Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland

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 ... More

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

Finding a Witchcraft

Ronald Hutton

in The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft

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 ... More

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

At the Crossroads

Michael Ostling

in Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland

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 ... More

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

Impotence Magic and the Rise of Witchcraft

Catherine Rider

in Magic and Impotence in the Middle Ages

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 ... More

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

Records of the Witchcraft Trials: Dittays

Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts

in Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James' VI's Demonology and the North Berwick Witches

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 ... More

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

Potts, plots and politics: James I's Daemonologie and The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches

Stephen Pumfrey

in The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories

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 ... More

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

Blood the Witch, Swim the Wizard: 1800–30

Thomas Waters

in Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times

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 ... More

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

Witches as Rebels against Patriarchy

Per Faxneld

in Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture

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 ... More

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

Witch Hunt Propaganda: News from Scotland

Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts

in Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James' VI's Demonology and the North Berwick Witches

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 ... More

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

Mysteries, Memories, and Metaphors: From Event to Memory

in The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America

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 ... More

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

Binding Performances

Isaac Ariail Reed

in Power in Modernity: Agency Relations and the Creative Destruction of the King's Two Bodies

This chapter examines the performative dimension of power in depth, putting it in relationship to the material, relational, and discursive dimensions of power. It begins with the concept of ... More

This chapter examines the performative dimension of power in depth, putting it in relationship to the material, relational, and discursive dimensions of power. It begins with the concept of illocutionary force, developed by J.L. Austin, and moves to the work of Judith Butler. Performative power involves (1) an accrual of agency, (2) the dependence of this accrual for its efficacy on the dramatic felicity of actions as they are interpreted by a public or audience, and therefore (3) the dependence of sending-and-binding, or exclusion from sending-and-binding, on the interpretation of front stage drama. The chapter examines two cases, so as to put performative power in relationship to to the overall theory of power being proposed: The Salem Witch Trials and the fall of Oscar Wilde. It also considers where and when in chains of power and their representation tends to flourish: at the extreme top and far bottom of power pyramids, in situations of spatial separation from organized power relations, and in inchoate interactional situations. Finally, the chapter considers the importance of founding performances, and does so via an examination of Hannah Arendt's work On Revolution.Less