Witchcraze

Poland

2-2.5k executions, mostly from 1675-1725. Use of torture.

Penetration of Western demonological theory. Absence of central judicial control

Malleus Maleficarum, Kramer and Sprenger, 1486

First detailed instructions on finding witches. Given a papal bull.

Dutch Republic

Torture could be used by courts.

160 executions.

First European country to end trials.

Torture forbidden in 1594 by central court.

Home to critics of witchcraft theory, such as Weyer and Bekker.

On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons, Johann Weyer, 1563

First sustained criticism of witchcraft theory. Denied the existence of the Devil's pact. Argued that should not be confused with witchcraft. Conceded that women were weak and could be deceived by the Devil.

The World Bewitched, Balthasar Bekker, 1695

Another criticism of witchcraft theory. Denied existence of the Devil. Argued that the state should punish false accusations.

1542 Act ENG

Made witchcraft being practiced for unlawful intent a capital offence. However this was vague and it was not enforced.

It was repealed in 1547.

1563 Act ENG

If witchcraft was used to harm goods or people, then this was punishable by 1 year in prison for the first offence and death on second offence.

Passed after a suspected witchcraft plot on Elizabeth I.

1604 Act ENG

Extended the 1563 Act so that harming goods or people by witchcraft was now a capital offence on first offence.

The Discoverie of Witchcraft, Reginald Scot, 1584.

Calvinist who argued that there was no biblical foundation for witch-hunting. Ridiculed Malleus Maleficarum. Proposed scientific explanations.

Agnes Waterhouse Trial

1566.

First English execution for suspected witchcraft.

Came 3 years after the 1563 Act.

Agnes was accused of having a familiar, and using the familiar to harm neighbours.

A dog gave evidence

North Moreton Trials (Gunter)

1604.

Anne Gunter, the daughter of Brian Gunter, a gentleman, was found to be possessed.

Harsnett, chaplain to Bancroft, Archbishop of London, examined the girl and found her condition to be faked.

She confessed that her father convinced her to fake her condition in order to get back at a neighbour which he had had a dispute with.

Pendle Trials

1612.

Poor economic conditions and poverty, due to the explosion of England's population: the population rose from 2.5m to 5m from 1530-1630.

The flooded labour market meant there was high unemployment.

Trials started with the accusation of Alizon Device, who asked John Law, a pedlar, for some pins. He refused, and later fell over. She reportedly confessed to bewitching him, without being prompted. Several other witches also came forward.

9 year old Jennet Device gave evidence against her mother.

10 witches were executed.

The circuit judges may have believed that they were acting on the wishes of James I, who had recently become King.

Lancaster Trial (Robinson)

1633.

Similarly poor economic conditions to the 1612 Pendle Trial.

11 year old Edmund Robinson claimed to have witnessed a Sabbat.

The Bishop of Chester was sceptical.

The witches were brought to London and examined, but no Devil's mark was found.

Robinson then confessed to lying to get out of his chores, and that his father had instructed him to identify specific witches.

East Anglia Trials (Hopkins and Stearne)

1645-7.

Preconditions: English Civil War which meant that normal circuit judges did not operate. Also caused fear and over taxation.

100/250 tried were executed.

Began with the confession of Elizabeth Clarke in Manningtree in 1645.

19/29 tried in the Chelmsford trials were executed. The inexperienced Earl of Warwick presided over trials.

45/90 tried were executed in Bury St Edmunds.

In Aldeburgh, 1/7 of the town's annual expenses were spent on the witch trials, where 7 were killed in 1646. This included the expenses of Hopkins and Stearne, who had been invited.

People wrongly believed that Hopkins and Stearne had a commission from Parliament to hunt witches.

Hopkins faced opposition in Colchester, where he was accused of being in league with the Devil, as this explained why he was such an expert on witches.

Moderate Intelligencer, Parliamentary Newspaper, 1645

Expressed unease at the state of affairs in the East Anglian witch trials.

Demon Drummer of Tedworth

1662.

Mompesson, a local JP and landowner, confiscated a drum from Drury, an ex-soldier, after Drury had been begging with a forged pass.

It was then claimed that his house had been bewitched with a poltergeist, and that the sounds of a drum could be heard.

Webster in his 1677 book claimed that it was a farce, and that Mompesson had been trying to get back at Drury, who had been a Parliamentarian but was attempting to claim alms meant for Royalists.

The house became an attraction for the locals - local belief still there?

Blow at Modern Sadducism, Joseph Glanvill, 1668.

Puritan clergyman.

An account on the Demon Drummer of Tedworth case, claiming that it was real.

He used this to claim that witchcraft was still a real issue, and that denying the existence of these evil spirits was a step towards atheism.

Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft, William Perkins, 1608

Puritan who brought European ideas such as the Devil's pact into England.

Claimed that there was no difference between good and bad magic and that both should be condemned.

The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, John Webster, 1677

Physician and Quaker-like vicar who denied demonic power. Proposed natural explanations. Suggested that magicians were deceivers without special power.

Claimed that the Demon Drummer of Tedworth case was a farce.

The Discovery of Witches, Matthew Hopkins, 1647

Defence of his witch-hunting methods. Insisted that witches were a threat to society. Claimed that he only went where he was invited.

Written after criticism by John Gaule.

Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcraft, John Gaule, 1647

Sermon collection by Gaule, an East Anglian vicar. Preached against Hopkins' inquisitorial methods.

Scotland overall

Executed 1500 witches, 3x more than England with a 5x smaller population.

Weaker government and smaller judiciary than England as well as an enthusiastic Kirk.

1592 Kirk State Commission

Set up by James VI to appoint witch commissioners to tour Scotland and empower local leaders to investigate witches. Evidence from women and other unreliable witnesses now accepted in witch trials.

1597 Privy Council Order

Aimed to limit witch trials.

Made each request for a witch trial be considered. Commissions made harder to obtain. Local judges still took trials upon themselves and weak central government could do little.

May have been influenced by the Aitken affair, whereby Margaret Aitken had been exposed as a fraud.

1649 Witch Act (Scotland)

Encouraged local presbyteries to pursue witches.

1590 North Berwick Trials - Gilly Duncan

Began with Gilly Duncan being accused of causing the storm that disrupted James VI's voyage home from Denmark. Blame was initially placed on the Danish Minister of Finance, however he quickly shifted blame to the supernatural. Use of torture and discovery of Devil's mark. Over 70 others were implicated by Duncan. Torture was used on the order of James VI. Also implicated Bothwell.

Agnes Sampson

Another witch, Sampson, was linked to the Earl of Bothwell, who had previously led a rebellion against James VI in 1589 but was now James' second in command.

Earl of Bothwell's involvement in North Berwick trials

Bothwell implicated by witches.

May have been a political move by Maitland, his rival, to get rid of him.

Bothwell escaped prison after being arrested in 1591.

He attempted to kill Maitland in Holyroodhouse in 1591, but failed.

Staged a successful coup in 1593, where he attempted to clear his name.

He was pardoned in 1593 but exiled in 1595.

Barbara Napier

1592 Trials.

Acquitted of charges of attending a Sabbat by a jury.

James VI overturned this verdict and ordered the jury members to be charged with wilful error.

He did not follow through with this but it shows his dedication to eradicate witches.

Newes from Scotland

Published in 1591 on the order of James VI in order to whip up fear about witches. James VI truly believed that there was a treasonous plot by witches to kill him.

Margaret Aitken and the 1597 Hunts

1597.

One of the most significant witches in the 1597 witch hunts.

Confessed under torture.

She helped identify other witches in exchange for her life, touring Scotland with the witch commission.

She was discredited as a fraud.

200/400 tried in the 1597 witch hunts were executed.

1649-50 Scottish Witch Trials

Followed a poor harvest in 1649.

Turmoil following the defeat of the Scottish Army in 2nd English Civil War.

Followed the rise to power of the radical Kirk Party who aimed to create a godly society.

Followed 1649 Witch Act.

300/600 people accused were executed.

Most tried in temporary courts.

Ended after Cromwell's victory.

Scottish government more closely supervised trials.

1661-2 Scottish Witch Trials

Several hundred out of 660 people tried were executed.

Privy Council or Parliament approved trials. Same judges heard most of the cases.

Ended when Privy Council limited commissions and cracked down on use of torture.

Holy Roman Empire overall

1532 Carolina Code ignored.

Made up of over 2000 independent territories, making it near impossible to exert central control. Individual rulers often had near complete control.

1/2 of witches tried in the Holy Roman Empire were executed.

Little Ice Age

Most intense period of the Little Ice Age was 1600-30, coinciding with the Bamberg and Wurzburg witch trials.

Caused frost which led to crop failures. Many sought supernatural explanations and witches were the scapegoats.

Thirty Years War

1618-48.

Began with the Defenestration of Prague, when 3 Catholic leaders were thrown out of the window by Protestant revolutionaries. The Holy Roman Emperor then got involved, and then most of Europe.

Looting from soldiers, loss of life and spread of disease could all be preconditions for witch hunts.

It also had a depressing impact on trade.

The war caused the population to decrease from 21m to 13m.

Trier Witch Trials

1581-93.

Population of 75k.

1000 executed.

Causes: poor harvests in the 1580s. A power struggle between the town council and the prince bishop was decided in favour of the prince bishop.

Largely orchestrated by suffragan bishop Peter Binsfeld, who published a treatise in 1589.

A Jesuit college was also instrumental in the trials.

Loos, a Catholic scholar, was arrested after objecting to the trials.

Flade, vice-rector of the university and ex-councillor, was arrested for obstructing witch trials, and was burned in 1587 after confessing under torture to attending a Sabbat.

Bamberg Witch Trials

1609-33.

Bamberg was ravaged by war, plague and famine.

It was 800,000 florins in debt.

1609-22 trials under prince bishop von Aschhausen.

von Aschhausen had been determined to re-Catholicise the area, inviting Jesuits.

300 were executed, including 102 in 1617, perhaps motivated by popular demand after plague and famine.

1622-33 trials under prince bishop von Dornheim and suffragan bishop Forner.

600 were executed.

Drudenhaus constructed, which was a torture chamber housing 40.

Forner wrote an influential sermon collection in 1626.

Trials peaked in 1629 with the failure of the wine crop.

Law allowed confiscation of property from an accused witch. Witches also had to pay for their trial.

500,000 florins were confiscated this way, making up a lot of their debt.

Haan, vice-chancellor of Bamberg, was a lenient judge so was suspected as a witch sympathiser. His wife and daughter were arrested in 1627. Haan appealed to the imperial court, but also got tortured and killed. Under torture he named other accomplices, including the former mayor of Bamberg.

Trials ended after Flock, a councillor, was accused in 1630. Emperor Ferdinand II appointed a strict witch commissioner in 1631. The law allowing confiscation of property from a suspected witch was overturned.

von Dornheim refused to release prisoners and this only happened after he was forced to flee with the arrival of Swedish troops in the area.

Wurzburg

1626-31.

Under prince bishop von Ehrenberg.

Between 1626 and 1631, 900 people were executed.

Assisted by Forner.

Victims came from all sections of society, including Ehrenberg's own nephew and 19 Catholic priests. Criticised by Spee von Langenfeld.

Cautio Criminalis, Spee von Langenfeld, 1631

von Langenfeld was a confessor of accused witches in Wurzburg. He was convinced that none of them were guilty.

He condemned the Wurzburg trials.

The book was published in Protestant Hamelin, so that Spee himself would not face accusations.

Prattigau Witch Hunts

1652.

Locals failed to persuade authorities to embark on witch hunts.

When they became part of a Swiss Canton in 1652, they were allowed to govern themselves and hence embarked on witch hunts.

100 were killed from 1652-55.

King William's War

1689-1697.

Between English colonists and the French, who were supported by several Native Americans.

Mostly fought in Maine.

Refugees fleeing this war reported massacres and savagery.

Governor of Massachusetts, Phips, was away fighting in this war.

New England overall

Population of 100,000 in 1690.

Puritan, theocratic state.

36/234 indictments resulted in executions from 1647-93.

Half of these were in the Salem Trials.

The witch trials were more intensive than England.

1641 Witchcraft Law in Massachusetts

Proclaimed that "if any man or woman be a witch, they shall be put to death."

Political context of Salem

From its inception up until 1684, Massachusetts (MA) was governed under a royal charter that allowed the Puritan colonists a lot of freedom.

This was replaced with the 1684 Dominion of New England, which introduced unpopular measures.

Then, following the 1689 Glorious Revolution in England, where the Catholic King was overthrown in favour of Protestant King William, the governor of MA was ousted.

A 1691 Royal Charter was then put into place. This declared that MA should conform to English law and allow religious toleration - Puritans were happy again, however the political turmoil may have had its effects.

Salem Village context

Around 600 villagers.

Parris became minister in 1689. He caused divisions in the community and preached against his opponents.

There was a rivalry between the Putnams and Porters, two influential families. The Putnams wanted to sever ties with Salem Town, and establish their own government and worship.

The Porters wanted closer ties with the Town.

The Porters had just won influence by ousting the Putnam-dominated rate-committee.

1688 Boston case (Goodwin possessions)

4 of Goodwin's children began acting strangely.

Cotton Mather, a local preacher, examined the children and concluded that they had been bewitched.

Glover, a local washerwoman, was executed.

Cotton Mather wrote a book about these trials, and this may have influenced his views.

1692 Salem Witch Trials

Parris, the village minister, finds his daughter and niece acting strangely, contorting their bodies, etc.

Griggs, the local doctor, concludes that it is the Devil's work.

Other girls also seem to be afflicted.

Tituba, a local slave, Sarah Goode, a disreputable beggar long suspected of witchcraft, and Sarah Osborne, who rarely attended Church, were all accused.

Putnams were closely linked to the trials - Ann Putnam Jr was one of the afflicted girls - and so pushed JPs for action.

Martha Corey, who had voiced scepticism over the trials, and Rebecca Nurse, whose family was in a quarrel with the Putnams, were also accused. The figures of these women came to the afflicted in some sort of hallucination - this spectral evidence was allowed.

Governor Phips came back from Maine to set up the Oyer and Terminer court, which allowed spectral evidence. 1/3 of those accused confessed.

The girls also visited nearby Andover, where 43/50 confessed.

The trials ended when Governor Phips returned from the war and replaced the Oyer and Terminer court with the Supreme Court of Judicature in 1693, which did not allow spectral evidence.

In this new court, 3/31 tried were found guilty, but Phips pardoned all 3.

Increase Mather, father of Cotton, was also influential in ending the trials, by condemning spectral evidence in his pamphlet. Increase was the head of the ministerial association, so his words had power.

Giles Corey

Elderly farmer, husband of Martha Corey who was also accused, was placed under a heavy rock in order to make him confess. He did not, and died in 2 days.

Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions, Cotton Mather, 1689

Written about the Goodwin Possessions in 1689.

Wonders of the Invisible Word, Cotton Mather, 1692

A defence of the Salem Witch Trials, and the use of spectral evidence.

More Wonders of the Invisible World, Robert Calef, 1700

Calef was a Boston Cloth merchant.

He attacked Cotton Mather in this book which detailed the Salem Trials.

French Witch Hunts

Began in 1560s.

Peaked in early 1600s.

1000 executions.

Limited by scepticism in regional Parlements.

Parlement of Paris de facto decriminalised witchcraft in 1625.

1624 Law required all sentences made by a local court have to be referred to the Parlement of Paris. Some local courts did bypass that.

Louis XIV published an edict reducing prosecutions in 1682.

Basque witch-hunt

1609-11.

7000 accused.

1800 confessed, most children.

Only 11 executed.

Inquisitor Frias was sceptical.

Focus on heresy.

Men, women and children accused and accusers.

Many had fled from witch trials in France in 1609.

Christmas procession in York cancelled by authorities despite huge crowds

1572.

Authorities worried that it would turn violent?

4 examples of revolts/violence

1517 May Day Riots (England) against foreigners.

1536 Pilgrimage of Grace (England).

1585 Lynching of officials (Naples, Italy)

1638 Festival devolved into rebel march (Normandy, France)

Day of the Boy Bishop

Young clergy organised this festival, which involved boys becoming mock bishops, and holding mock sermons, etc.

Declared blasphemous in a 1541 proclamation.

Competition between churches in Champagne, France

1573

Number of people that travelled to Venice for the 1687 Carnival

30,000

1648 Sicilian Carnival

Authorities put in extra effort to distract from the violence in European conflicts.

Council of Trent

1545-1563.

Catholics embarked on reform of festival behaviour, among other measures, in order to create a more godly state.

Part of the Counter-Reformation.

Preachers should not "gesticulate like a buffoon". Who said this?

Erasmus, the great Humanist. He believed that priests should be elevated from their flock.

Examples of the theme of violence in festivals

Killings on the street in Venice and Moscow.

Killing bulls in Spain.

Wrestling.

Examples of the theme of sex in festivals

In 1664 in Naples, a wooden phallus the size of a horse was paraded through the streets.

Bawdy songs and plays.

Unmarried women often took part in "ploughing".

Examples of the theme of food in festivals

In Koenigsberg, 1583, a 440lb sausage was carried through the streets by 90 butchers.

Carnival was often depicted as a fat, jolly man.

Law in Palermo prohibiting the carrying of arms in festivals

1648

Synod of Edam in the Dutch Republic banned bawdy songs

1586

Cromwell banned the phallic symbol of the Maypole

Anonymous Discourse criticising Carnival was widespread and well received.

1607

Phillip Stubbes' views on popular culture

Condemned the vices of dancing and football.

Sentiment echoed by Spanish de Mariana and French Bishop of Pamiers.

Publications printed 1510-1630

400 - 6000.

Fraction of Englishmen that were literate by 1630

1/3

Economic and social change across Europe

Explosion of European population from 80m to 190m.

Increased trade.

Growth in urbanisation.

Scientific Revolution

A major change in European thought, starting in the mid-1500s, in which the study of the natural world began to be characterized by careful observation and the questioning of accepted beliefs.

Key players: Newton, Descartes, Bacon, Galileo.