Witch trials in Early Modern Europe

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The period of witch trials in Early Modern Europe came in waves and then subsided. There were early trials in the 15th and early 16th centuries, but then the witch scare went into decline, before becoming a big issue again and peaking in the 17th century. Some scholars argue that a fear of witchcraft started among intellectuals who believed in maleficium; that is, bad deeds. What had previously been a belief that some people possessed supernatural abilities (which sometimes resulted in protecting the people), now became a sign of a pact between these people with supernatural abilities and the devil. Witchcraft became associated with wild Satanic ritual parties in which there was much naked dancing,orgy sex, and cannibalistic infanticide.

Witch-hunts were seen across early modern Europe, but the most significant area of witch-hunting in modern Europe is often considered to be southwestern Germany ^[1]. In Germany the number of trials compared to other regions of Europe shows it to have been a late starter. Witch-hunts first appeared in large numbers in southern France and Switzerland during the 14th and 15th centuries. The peak years of witch-hunts in southwest Germany were from 1561 to 1670.^[2] The first major persecution in Europe, that caught, tried, convicted, and burned witches in the imperial lordship of Wiesensteig in southwestern Germany, is recorded in 1563 in a pamphlet called “True and Horrifying Deeds of 63 Witches” ^[3]

Estimates of the numbers of women, men and children executed for participating in witchcraft vary wildly depending on the method used to generate the estimate. Brian Levack, author of The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe, took the number of known European witch trials and multiplied it by the average rate of conviction and execution. This provided him with a figure of around 60,000 deaths.

Contents 1 Beginnings 2 Trials 3 Reasons for witch craft accusations in England and Scotland in the 1500’s to 1600’s 4 Witch trial of 1640s Essex 5 Reginald Scot 6 The Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661-1662 7 Germany: Weather and Panic 8 Haddington Petition 9 Additional events of witch hunt and accusations in Scotland during the 1500’s and 1600’s 10 Gender 11 Executions 11.1 Number of executions 12 Protests 13 End of the witch-trials in the 18th century 14 In Neopaganism and feminism 15 References 16 Further reading 17 See also 18 External links

[edit] Beginnings

At the time, Basel was a center of theologians who preached the dangers of witchcraft, and with the Council of Basel (1431-1449), their ideas came to the attention of a wider audience. The European witch-hunts only began on a large scale in the wake of the Council, from the 1450s, and was sustained throughout the Early Modern period.

Rather than a theologically sanctioned campaign of the church, the phenomenon had all traits of mass hysteria. The classical attributes of a witch—flying on brooms, intercourse with the Devil, and meeting of demons and other witches at sabbats—became canonical from around 1400, although similar accusations had been issued against heretics since the 11th century. The idea of witch sabbats fostered a classical conspiracy theory, with fantasies of an underground witch sect plotting to overthrow Christianity^{[citation needed]}. The areas mainly affected by this were the Holy Roman Empire and adjacent parts, as well as Scotland. Reprints of the Malleus Maleficarum in 29 editions between 1487 and 1669 mark the peak of the European craze. This book had been condemned by the Catholic Church in 1490 but continued to be widely used by secular witch-hunting courts. The clergy and the intellectuals began to speak out against the trials from the late 16th century. Johannes Kepler in 1615 could only by the weight of his prestige keep his mother from being burnt as a witch. The 1692 Salem witch trials were a brief outburst of witch hysteria in the New World at a time when the practice was already waning in Europe. Winifred King was the last person tried for witchcraft in New England.^{[citation needed]}

Although the reasons for the witch scares are debated, there is a correlation between centralized government and acquittals in witch trials. Most witch trials that resulted in convictions took place in rural areas. In these areas there was about a 90% conviction (and execution) rate. Although most citizens of the time did believe that witchcraft was real, equally they were not ignorant of how personal interests could be involved in accusations. Another interesting aspect of witchcraft in the early modern period is how the highest concentration of trials took place in border areas lacking strong central authority and in social turmoil, especially in northern Italy, Switzerland, Germany, eastern France and the French-Spanish border.^[4][5] Witch trials were significantly less common in both Catholic and Protestant countries that were less affected by Reformation upheavals than were the torn regions of central and north-western Europe. The Spanish Inquisition was generally skeptical on the reality of witchcraft, while in Italy (except Lombardy under French laws) the trials were rare and with relatively mild consequences. In England this was largely due to the 1563 Witchcraft Act and the Anglican doctrine of lack of miracles.^[5]

[edit] Trials

There were extensive efforts to root out the supposed influence of Satan by various measures aimed at the people who were accused of being servants of Satan. To a lesser degree, animals were also targeted for prosecution, as described in the article animal trial. People suspected of being "possessed" by Satan were put on trial. These trials were biased against the alleged witch. On the other hand, the church also attempted to extirpate the superstitious belief in witchcraft and sorcery, considering it as fraud in most cases.

The evidence required to convict an alleged witch varied from country to country - but prosecutions everywhere were most frequently sparked off by denunciations, while convictions invariably required a confession. The latter was often obtained by extremely violent methods. Although Europe's witch-frenzy did not begin until the late 1400s - long after the formal abolition of "ordeal" in 1215 - brutal techniques were routinely used to extract the required admission of guilt. They included hot pincers, the thumbscrew, and the 'swimming' of suspects (an old superstition whereby innocence was established by immersing the accused in water for a sufficiently long period of time). Investigators were consequently able to establish many fantastic crimes that could never have occurred, even in theory. That said, many judicial procedures of the time required proof of a causative link between the alleged act of witchcraft and an identifiable injury, such as a death or property damage.

The flexibility of the crime and the methods of proving it resulted in easy convictions. Any reckoning of the death toll should take account of the facts that rules of evidence varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and that a significant number of witch trials always ended in acquittal. :"In York, England, at the height of the Great Hunt (1567–1640) one half of all witchcraft cases brought before church courts were dismissed for lack of evidence. No torture was used, and the accused could clear himself by providing four to eight "compurgators", people who were willing to swear that he wasn't a witch. Only 21% of the cases ended with convictions, and the Church did not impose any kind of corporal or capital punishment."^[4] In the Pays de Vaud, nine of every ten people tried were put to death, but in Finland, the corresponding figure was about one in six (16%). A breakdown of conviction rates (along with statistics on death tolls, gender bias, and much else) can be found in Brian Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (2nd ed, 1995).

There are particularly important differences between the English and continental witch-hunting traditions. The checks and balances inherent in the jury system, which required a 23-strong body (the grand jury) to indict and a 12-strong one (the petit jury) to convict, always had a restraining effect on prosecutions. Another restraining influence was its relatively rare use of torture: the country formally permitted it only when authorised by the monarch, and no more than 81 torture warrants were issued (for all offences) throughout English history.^[6] Continental European courts, while varying from region to region, tended to concentrate power in individual judges and place far more reliance on torture. The significance of the institutional difference is most clearly established by a comparison of the witch-hunts of England and Scotland, for the death toll inflicted by the courts north of the border always dwarfed that of England.^[7] It is also apparent from an episode of English history during the early 1640s, when the Civil War resulted in the suspension of jury courts for three years. Several freelance witch-hunters emerged during this period, the most notorious of whom was Matthew Hopkins, who emerged out of East Anglia and proclaimed himself "Witchfinder General".^[8] Such men were inquisitors in all but name, proceeding pursuant to denunciations and torture and claiming a mastery of the supposed science of demonology that allowed for identification of the guilty by, for example, the discovery of witches' marks. Research into the laws and records of the time show that the witchfinders often used peine forte et dure and other torture to extract confessions and condemnations of friends, relatives and neighbors.

Besides torture, at trial certain "proofs" were taken as valid to establish that a person practiced witchcraft. Peter Binsfeld contributed to the establishment of many of these proofs, described in his book Commentarius de Maleficius (Comments on Witchcraft).

• The diabolical mark. Usually, this was a mole or a birthmark. If no such mark was visible, the examiner would claim to have found an invisible mark.
• Diabolical pact. This was an alleged pact with Satan to perform evil acts in return for rewards.
• Denouncement by another witch. This was common, since the accused could often avoid execution by naming accomplices.
• Relationship with other convicted witch/witches
• Blasphemy
• Participation in Sabbaths
• To cause harm that could only be done by means of sorcery
• Possession of elements necessary for the practice of black magic
• To have one or more witches in the family
• To be afraid during the interrogatories
• Not to cry under torment (supposedly by means of the Devil's aid)
• To have had sexual relationships with a demon

Legal treatises on witchcraft that were widely referred to in continental European trials include the popular Malleus Maleficarum (1487) by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, the Tractatus de sortilegiis (1536) by Paolo Grillandi and the Praxis rerum criminalium (1554) by Joos de Damhouder.

[edit] Reasons for witch craft accusations in England and Scotland in the 1500’s to 1600’s

Some argue that Queen Elizabeth I of England and King James VI of Scotland saw the act of rebellion as a blasphemy. Opposing either monarch was tantamount to opposing God himself.^[9] In the 16th and 17th century the act of rebellion was linked directly with the devil, who led a revolt against the authority of God. Rebellion was not only unlawful, but wicked. As a result, some argue that subjects of England and Scotland of the time had good reason to be afraid of rising up against their ruling class.^[10] King James VI of Scotland (James I of England) wrote:

“Witches are servant only, and slaves to the Devil; but the Necromancers are his masters and commanders” ^[11]

James' book Daemonologie stated that women are more likely to use magic. It states:

“Witches could be transported…by natural means, or they could be carried through the air, “by the force of the spirit which is their conducter,”^[12]

Queen Elizabeth I was suspicious and fearful of witchcraft. During her reign, lasting from 1558 to 1603, she clashed with Spain and the Catholic Church. Events in England, Scotland, and Ireland heightened public fear of witchcraft. The Bubonic Plague that struck the city of London in 1603 was commonly believed to be an act of witches^[13]. Scholar Brian Levack argues that religious persecution was a prime cause for the prevalence of witch hunts in England and in Scotland, as was separation of the Catholic Church from the Protestant Church of England^[14].

[edit] Witch trial of 1640s Essex

During 1600’s the English courts did not use torture as a method in hunting witches^[15]. The only case in which alleged torture was used was in the 1645 trial in Essex. One example of this treatment is that the judges would wake up the accused at the middle of the night and would wet him/her with cold water and start questioning him/her. The judges would order the guards to not let the accused fall asleep^[16].

Alan Macfarlane, author of the book Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England - A regional and Comparative Study, found that the diaries of English people in the 1500’s to 1600’s did not mention any of the witch trials that occurred in their county, with the exception of 3 diaries which were found in Essex, from:

1. Richard Rogers, “a preacher at Wethersfield from about 1575 to 1618.” Rogers discussed the witch trials from 1587-90.
2. Arthur Wilson, who was a steward and was present at the witch trials of 1645.
3. Ralph Josselin, vicar of Earls Colne from 1641 to 1683. He does not mention any witch trial in his diary; he only mentions that he suspects two women of being witches.

In other words, it is hard to find any evidences on the witch trials of Essex. Alan Macfarlane says that the majority of the accusers of the witch hunts here were women.^[17]

[edit] Reginald Scot

In 1584 Reginald Scot published The Discovery of Witchcraft in which he argued that witchcraft existed only in fantasy, and that the witch trials were unchristian and full of injustices. The book mocks the lurid witch-hunter's manual, the Malleus Maleficarum. In 1603 James I ordered all copies of the book burnt (though James would later alter his own views on witchcraft after he became more skeptical of the belief).^[18] According to K. Briggs, Scot was inspired by an "…impulse of chivalry and a desire to protect those old, weak and ignorant people for whom no one spoke."^[19]

Scott's work was neither the first nor the last of its kind, but was a significant and highly influential work in a continuum of protests against beliefs in witches, and against the treatment of those suspected of witchcraft (see section below, 'Protests').

[edit] The Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661-1662

During 1661 to 1662 Scotland held one of the largest witch hunts in European history, in which an estimated 600 people were accused of witchcraft or ritually summoning the devil. How many were executed in the 16 month period is unknown. With the exception of the witch-hunt of 1597, there had never previously been so many people convicted of witchcraft.^[clarify]

The hunt began in Lothian, Scotland, for unknown reasons. It is also unknown what types of people were accused of witchcraft, and why the accusations suddenly stopped.

The hunt began two years after the death of Oliver Cromwell and a year after Charles II had recovered the crown, making him the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Brian Levack argues that the reason for such a large number of accusations may have been a display of power by the regime of Charles II.^[20] According to Levack:

“Unless the English commissioners had been succeeded by a Scottish justice general, unless the Privy Council and parliament of Scotland had been restored, and unless the regular judicial institutions had been returned to smooth working order, the Great Hunt probably would never have occurred.”^[21]

Many of those which were convicted of witchcraft during the rule of Oliver Cromwell were found innocent after his death in 1659, but of these many were re-accused by the administration of Charles II.^[22]

[edit] Germany: Weather and Panic

Erik Midelfort describes the early modern witch trials in Germany as a chain of events leading to panic among the populace. It is true that between the years of 1560 and 1630 the execution of witches steadily rises and reaches its climax in the years between 1626 and 1630.^[23] It is also true that during these same years the climate changed drastically into what is known as ‘the little ice age’. As early as 1631 weather is mentioned in Spee’s Cautio Criminalis as phenomena conducive for the instigation of witch persecution. The Cautio is the antithesis to the Malleaus; to be sure, the Cautio uses weather as evidence to indicate that “ignorance or superstition of the common folk” plays a role in the origin of German witch panics.^[24] Spee offers the view that the lack of understanding of changing events, like crop yield affected by weather, the uneducated peasant class, through lack of reason and faith in superstition, generates the presence of witchcraft. Additionally, Spee submits that jealousy of those who are able to provide food for their family stirs up the suspicion of magical intervention. The result is a system determined to convict witches in order to calm the poor population. Wolfgang Behringer’s study Weather, Hunger and Fear studies not only the correlation of the little ice age and the rise in witch hunts but offers perspective on the climate change’s repercussions.^[25] In this study Behringer indicates that the change in temperature choked food supply and vastly increased the price of grain, in areas dependent on agrarian tradition this means certain devastation. It is believed that the little ice age began to show symptomes around 1560 and began to decline around 1629, a range that corresponds with the peak in witch hunts. In 1628 the weather change reached its peak to the point the year hardly had a summer season^[26]; moreover, it is in the years 1626 and 1630 that the witch trials in Wurzenberg claimed the lives of 900 accused witches, a clear indication that trends in weather affect trends in witch trials. With the climate changing so suddenly and the wealthier remaining able to purchase the high priced grain, the conclusion is the poor populace accusing witches of tampering with the weather. The assertions that early modern European witch hunts, at least where Germany is concerned, is the product of a number of events falling in line with each other is one clear a well developed view of the nature of these witch hunts.

For a contrasting argument of Midelfort's assertions see E. William Monter's Witchraft in France and Switzerland (Cornell University press 1976), an in depth exploration of regional qualities of withcraft pertaining to the Jura mountain Region of Switzerland and Western France.

[edit] Haddington Petition

It is believed that the Scottish witch-hunt started in April 1661, because of the Haddington petition. Earl Haddington influenced parliament to create a commission on witch-hunts in Scotland. It is argued by some that the ruling elite were in favor of this petition because they had a fear of witchcraft^[27] The typical accusation of witchcraft was because of the following:

“…harmful deeds, such as injuring or causing the death of their neighbors, making them tremble or sweat, preventing them from arriving at their destinations, riding horses to death, turning over stones to prevent corn from growing and burning barns”^[28]

It is thought that sections of the Haddington petitions have some similarities with the Malleus Maleficarum. For example, the physical characteristics which characterise witches and the harm that witches can do to their victims. The other reason why it is believed to have such similarities is that the Malleus Maleficarum states that women are pure evil.^[29] During the witch hunt in Scotland 84 percent of the accused were women^[30].

The Haddington petition mentions the characteristics of the mark of the devil, which is a way to identify a witch and the recommendations by King James I on how to identify a witch and know the devils mark. Haddington also mentions that the majority of the elite of Scotland intended to abolish sinful acts like witchcraft from Scotland.^[31]

[edit] Additional events of witch hunt and accusations in Scotland during the 1500’s and 1600’s

During the 1500’s and the 1600’s, there were women in Scotland that were accused and tortured. Unlike England, it is believed that the majority of women confessed to being witches because they were tortured. The historian Diane Purkiss said that due to the torture that women received, the majority said the first thing that came to their mind in order to stop the torture.

Nonetheless, there were also some women in Scotland accused of witchcraft because they told stories about fairies and believed in them. The judges saw that the confession of believing in fairies as the same as being allied with the devil.

“When these women talked about fairies, interrogators thought they were hearing about a pact with the devil.”^[32]

There are a few cases were Scottish women willingly admitted being witches and practicing magic. That was enough evidence to be convicted of witchcraft. Any type of magical or cult practice was seen to be a direct relation with the devil. Women like Bassie Dunlop (who was tried in 1576) and Elspeth Reoch (who was tried in 1616) were accused of witches craft because both of them were practicing magic. Although witchcraft was outlawed in England during the 1500s and 1600s, some women were practicing witchcraft. The only difference is that they did not make witchcraft to harm a person, but to cure and to help people. They would be fortune tellers and would recommend certain herbs as medicine.^[33]

[edit] Gender

Gender plays an important role in the witch hunts of early modern Europe. Almost everywhere women were accused and executed more than men, with 80% of those accused and 85% of those executed in Europe being women.^[34][35] In a few countries however, men accounted for the majority of the accused. In Iceland, for instance, over 90% of the accused were men,^[35] and in Estonia 60% of the accused victims were male, mainly middle-aged or elderly married peasants, and known healers or sorcerers.^[36]

Anne Llewellyn Barstow claims that a combination of factors, including the greater value placed on men as workers in the increasingly wage oriented economy and a greater fear of women as inherently evil, loaded the scales against women, even when the charges against them were identical to those against men.^[37]

[edit] Executions

The sentence generally was death (as Exodus 22:18 states, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"). There were other sentences, the most common to be chained for years to the oars of a ship, or excommunicated then imprisoned.

The most common death sentence was to be burnt at the stake while still alive. In England it was common to hang the person first and then burn the corpse, a practice adopted sometimes in other countries (in many cases the hanging was replaced by strangling). Drowning was sometimes used as a means of execution. England was also the only country in which the accused had the right to appeal the sentence.

The most common methods used to execute alleged witches were burning and hanging. The frequent use of 'swimming' to test innocence/guilt means that an unknown number also drowned more or less accidentally prior to conviction. Burning at the stake was common on the Continent as a penalty for heresy, but the common-law jurisdictions of England and colonial America invariably sent people convicted of witchcraft to the gallows. (In a handful of exceptional cases, such as that of Giles Corey at Salem, alleged witches who refused to plead were pressed to death without trial.) More generally, the majority of trials have always occurred within "Christian/European/American cultures; they were most often justified there with reference to the Bible's prescriptions: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18) and "A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones" (Leviticus 20:27).

The measures employed against alleged witches were some of the worst ever to be legally sanctioned in the Western world. In A History of Torture, George Ryley Scott says:

"The peculiar beliefs and superstitions attached to or associated with witchcraft caused those who were suspected of practising the craft to be extremely likely to be subjected to tortures of greater degree than any ordinary heretic or criminal. More, certain specific torments were invented for use against them."

It has been suggested that the execution of persons associated with witchcraft resulted in the loss of much traditional knowledge and folklore, which was often regarded with suspicion and tainted by association.^[38]

[edit] Number of executions

Estimates of the numbers of women, men and children executed for participating in witchcraft vary wildly depending on the method used to generate the estimate. The total number of witch trials in Europe which are known for certain to have ended in executions is around 12,000.

Brian Levack, author of The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe, took the number of known European witch trials and multiplied it by the average rate of conviction and execution. This provided him with a figure of around 60,000 deaths.

Anne Lewellyn Barstow, author of Witchcraze, arrived at a number of approximately 100,000 deaths by attempting to adjust Levack's estimate to account for what she believed were unaccounted lost records, although historians have pointed out that Levack's estimate had already been adjusted for these.

Ronald Hutton, author of Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles and Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, in his unpublished essay "Counting the Witch Hunt", counted local estimates, and in areas where estimates were unavailable attempted to extrapolate from nearby regions with similar demographics and attitudes towards witch hunting. He reached an estimate of 40,000 total executions. Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons, p. 253 denounces as "fantastic exaggerations" numbers of several hundred thousands.^[39]

Table of recorded and estimated executions according to Hutton's estimates^[40]

Country	Recorded	Estimated
America	36	35 - 37
Austria	??	1,500 - 3,000
Belgium	??	250
Bohemia	??	1,000 - 2,000
Channel Islands	66	66 - 80
Denmark	??	1,000
England	228	300 - 1,000
Estonia	65	100
Finland	115	115
France	775	5,000 - 6,000
Germany	8,188	17,324 - 26,000
Hungary	449	800
Iceland	22	22
Ireland	4	4 - 10
Italy	95	800
Latvia	??	100
Luxembourg	358	355 - 358
Netherlands	203	203 - 238
Norway	280	350
Poland	???	1,000 - 5,000
Portugal	7	7
Russia	10	10
Scotland	599	1,100 - 2,000
Spain	6	40 - 50
Sweden	??	200 - 250
Switzerland	1,039	4,000 - 5,000
Grand Total:	12,545	35,184 - 63,850

Assuming 40,000 executions over 250 years in Europe, which had a population of approximately 150 million at the time with a life expectancy of ca. 40 years, we get roughly one execution for witchcraft per 25,000 deaths, ranking about 3.5 times higher as cause of death than death by capital punishment (for any offense) in the U.S. in the late 20th century,^[41] or roughly 5 times lower than death by capital punishment in the People's Republic of China.^[42]

[edit] Protests

There have been contemporary protesters against witch trials and against use of torture in the examination of those suspected or accused of witchcraft.^{[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]}

Middle Ages

• 643: The Edictum Rothari, the law code for Lombardy in Italy (‘Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female slave as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds')
• 672-754: Boniface of Mainz consistently denied the existence of witches, saying that to believe in them was unChristian
• 775-790: The First Synod of Saint Patrick declared that those who believed in witches are to be anathematized
• 785: Canon 6 of the Christian Council of Paderborn in Germany outlawed the belief in witches
• 9th century: French abbot Agobard of Lyons denied that any person could obtain or wield the power to fly, change shape, or cause bad weather, and argued that such claims were imagination and myth
• 906: In his work ‘A Warning To Bishops’, Abbot Regino of Prüm dismisses the popular beliefs in witches and witchcraft as complete fiction
• 936: Pope Leo VII wrote to Archbishop Gerhard of Lorch requiring him to instruct local authorities not to execute those accused of witchcraft
• The Canon Episcopi (10th century), denied the existence of witches, and considered the belief in witches to be heresy (it did not require any punishment of witches)
• 1020: Burchard, Bishop of Worms argued that witches had no power to fly, change people’s dispositions, control the weather, or transform themselves or anyone else, and denied the existence of incubi and succubi. He ruled that a belief in such things was a sin, and required priests to impose a strict penance on those who confessed to believing them
• 1080: Gregory VII wrote to King Harold of Denmark advising that those accused of supernaturally causing bad weather or epidemics should not be sentenced to death.
• Coloman, the Christian king of Hungary (11th century), passed a law declaring ‘Concerning witches, no such things exist, therefore no more investigations are to be held’ (’De strigis vero quae non sunt, nulla amplius quaestio fiat’)

Early Modern period

• 1498: Although not denying the existence of witches, Ulrich Molitor an attorney in Constance wrote ‘Dialogus de lamiis et pythonibus mulieribus’, in which he deplored the methods of persecution and punishment inflicted on those accused of witchcraft
• Late 15th century: Antonino, Archbishop of Florence condemned the popular belief in witches, insisting that the powers attributed to them were impossible, and such beliefs were foolish.
• 1514: Alciatus, a civil legal official, was asked by a local prelate to assess the case of a number of women brought to trial for witchcraft. Expressing his belief that they were more in need of medicine than punishment, Alciatus advised against punishment and suggested they be treated kindly
• 1518-1520: As legal counsel to the city of Metz (Germany), French born Cornelius Agrippa successfully defended a local peasant woman from accusations of witchcraft
• 1540: Antonio Venegas de Figueroa, Bishop of Pamplona, sent a circular to the priests in his diocese, explaining that witchcraft was a false belief. He recommended medical treatment for those accused of witchcraft, and blamed the ignorance of the people for their confusion of witchcraft with medical conditions
• 1563: Johann Weyer, 'De praestigiis daemonum et incantationibus ac veneficiis'
• 1580: Frenchman Michel Eyquem de Montaigne objected to the persecution of witches, and expressed his scepticism that reports of witchcraft were ever true
• 1583: Protestant Johann Matthaus Meyfart condemns the inhuman treatment of those accused or convicted of witchcraft
• 1584: Reginald Scot, 'Discoverie of Witchcraft'
• 1592: Cornelius Loos, 'D vera et falsa magia'
• 1599: English Archbishop Samuel Harsnett condemned not only those who practiced fraudulent exorcisms, but also the very belief in witches and demons
• 1602: Anton Praetorius, Gründtlicher Bericht von Zauberey und Zauberern, 'Thorough Report on Witchcraft and Witches'
• 1610-1614: Alonso de Salazar y Frías, inquisitor reviewing the Logroño trials. His reports (1610-1614) led to the practical suppression of witch burnings in the Spanish empire one century before the rest of Europe^[53].
• 1617: Adam Tanner, 'Disputationes'
• 1622: Johann Grevius, 'Tribunal Reformatum'
• 1631: Friedrich von Spee, 'Cautio Criminalis'
• 1651: The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes published ‘Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil’, in which he rejected the belief in witches and opposing witch hunts
• 1656: Englishman Thomas Ady published the first of three devastating works attacking beliefs in witches and witchcraft. He opposed the witch hunts vigorously
• 1669: John Wagstaffe published ‘The Question of Witchcraft Debated; or, a Discourse against their Opinions that affirm Witches’, opposing the witch hunts and declaring the belief in witchcraft to be superstition.
• 1676: John Webster published ‘The Displaying Of Supposed Witchcraft’, opposing the witch hunts and dismissing the belief in witches as superstition
• 1691: The Dutch theologian Balthasar Bekker published ‘Die Betooverde Wereld’, reprinted in English as ‘The World Bewitch’d’ (1695), an attack on the witch hunts and belief in witches
• 1693-1700: Robert Calef wrote repeatedly opposing the witch hunts
• 1712: An anonymous English physician published ‘A Full Confutation of Witchcraft, More particularly of the DEPOSITIONS Against JANE WENHAM, Lately Condemned for a WITCH; at Hertford’, opposing the witch hunts and the belief in witches
• 1718: Anglican clergyman Francis Hutchinson
• Christian Thomasius, De crimine magiae
• Hermann Adolph Meinders
• Hermann Löher, Hochnötige Unterthanige Wemütige Klage Der Frommen Unschültigen

[edit] End of the witch-trials in the 18th century

During early 18th century, the practice subsided. The last execution for witchcraft in England took place in 1716, when Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth were hanged. Jane Wenham was among the last subjects of a typical witch trial in England in 1712, but was pardoned after her conviction and set free. The Witchcraft Act of 1734 saw the end of the traditional form of witchcraft as a legal offence in Britain, those accused under the new act were restricted to people who falsely pretended to be able to procure spirits, generally being the most dubious professional fortune tellers and mediums, and punishment was light.

Helena Curtens and Agnes Olmanns were the last women to be executed as witches in Germany, in 1738. In Austria, Maria Theresa outlawed witch-burning and torture in the late 18th century; the last capital trial took place in Salzburg in 1750. The last execution in Switzerland was that of Anna Göldi in 1782, whose execution was at the time widely denounced throughout Switzerland and Germany as state-sponsored murder. (Göldi's trial was not technically a "witch trial" since explicit allegations of witchcraft were avoided in the official trial.)

[edit] In Neopaganism and feminism

The term "the burning times" was a term used by Gerald Gardner in 1954^[54] as a reference to the European and North American witch trials. Gardner claimed his Wicca was based on an ancient tradition of witchcraft; the "burning times" were its period of greatest persecution, and a major reason for the secrecy maintained within the religion ever since. His account relied heavily on the theories of Margaret Murray, now regarded as highly flawed; he also repeated the figure of nine million casualties first derived by an antiquarian at Quedlinburg, Germany, through the false extrapolation of local records, and repeated by various German and English historians, notably the 19th century women's rights campaigner Matilda Joslyn Gage.^[55][56] This figure is now known to be a massive overestimate, about a hundred times the estimates of most modern researchers.^[57] While Gardner referred to the witch hunts in general as "the burning times", he noted that burning was only practiced on the Continent and in Scotland; in England accused witches were hanged.^[58]

Modern historians agree the witchhunts had little to do with persecuting a pagan cult, but were largely the result of an interplay of a series of complex historical and societal factors.

It is probable that the majority of the accused identified as Christian.^[59] Generally accepted casualty figures amongst historians are also dramatically lower, ranging from Levack at around 60,000 to Hutton at around 40,000; the entire adult female population in Europe at the time was no more than 20-22 million.^[60] Victims of the witchhunt were not always female, though women were the majority. In some countries, especially in Scandinavia, the majority of the accused were male; in Finland some 70% and in Iceland almost 80% of the accused were men.^{[citation needed]} However taking Europe as a whole between 1450 and 1700, only 20-25% of those accused were males.^{[citation needed]} Misogyny is usually considered an important factor in the witch-hunts, along with social unrest and religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics.

Most contemporary practitioners of Wicca and related Neo-Pagan religions no longer subscribe to Gardner's or Margaret Murray's theories, and see Wicca as a modern development based on a variety of sources, rather than an unbroken tradition dating from ancient times. They believe that their religion is no less valid because of its recent inception.

The term The Burning Times was further popularised by Mary Daly in her 1978 book, Gyn/Ecology: The Meta-Ethics of Radical Feminism, who maintained that the trials were fundamentally a persecution of women by patriarchy; she expanded the term's meaning to include not only the witch-hunts but the "entire patriarchal rule". Neo-Pagan author Starhawk subsequently introduced the term into her book The Spiral Dance in 1979. The term was adopted by various American feminist historians and popularised in the 1970s for all historical persecution of witches and pagans, again often quoting nine million casualties. They also referred to it as the "Women's Holocaust".^[61]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Briggs, Robin. 'Many reasons why': witchcraft and the problem of multiple explanation, in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Culture and Belief, ed. Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Levack, Brian P. The Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661-1662, The Journal of British Studies, Vol.20, No, 1. (Autumn, 1980), pp. 90-108.
• Levack, Brian P. The witch hunt in early modern Europe, Second Edition. London and New York: Longman, 1995.
• Macfarlane, Alan. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A regional and Comparative Study. New York and Evanston: Harper & Row Publishers, 1970.
• Midlefort, Erick H.C. Witch Hunting in Southeastern Germany 1562-1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundation. California: Stanford University Press, 1972. ISBN 0804708053
• Oberman, H. A., J. D. Tracy, Thomas A. Brady (eds.), Handbook of European History, 1400-1600: Visions, Programs, Outcomes (1995) ISBN 9004097619
• Poole, Robert. The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories (2002) ISBN 0719062047
• Purkiss, Diane. "A Holocaust of One's Own: The Myth of the Burning Times." Chapter in The Witch and History: Early Modern and Twentieth Century Representatives New York, NY: Routledge, 1996, pp. 7-29.
• Thurston, Robert. The Witch Hunts: A History of the Witch Persecutions in Europe and North America. Pearson/Longman, 2007.
• Purkiss, Diane. The Bottom of the Garden, Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, and Other Troublesome Things. Chapter 3 Brith and Death: Fairies in Scottish Witch-trials New York, NY: New York University Press, 2000, pp. 85-115.
• West, Robert H. Reginald Scot and Renaissance Writings. Boston: Twayne Publishers,1984.
• Briggs, K.M. Pale Hecate’s Team, an Examination of the Beliefs on Witchcraft and Magic among Shakespeare’s Contemporaries and His Immediate Successors. New York: The Humanities Press, 1962.

[edit] See also

• Basque witch trials
• Bideford witch trial
• Blood libel
• Christian views on witchcraft
• European witchcraft
• Parma witch hunt
• Pierre de Lancre (conductor of a bloody witch-hunt in Labourd)
• Poison affair
• North Berwick witch trials
• Ramsele witch trial
• Salem witch trials
• Torsåker witch trials
• Trial by ordeal
• Witch-hunt
• Würzburg witch trial

[edit] External links

• The Stages of a Witch Trial — a series of articles by Jenny Gibbons.
• 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia entry on "Witchcraft"
• The Decline and End of Witch Trials in Europe by James Hannam
• Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
• Witch Trials
• Elizabethan Superstitions in the Elizabethan Period by Linda Alchin