WK 2: Reading: The Medieval Concept of the Witches’ Sabbath

Intellectual & Historical Background

• Idea of witchcraft emerged in Western Switzerland, Savoy & Dauphiné during the 15^{th}-century “waning Middle Ages.”
  • Grew out of a long ecclesiastical / secular persecution of illicit magic.
  • Represented a new crime distinct from older “demonic sorcery.”
• Core novelty = concept of the Witches’ Sabbath: secret conventicles where witches worship Satan, plan war on Church.
• Authorities (judges, inquisitors, theologians) trained in scholastic logic sought a coherent explanatory system for village magic.
  • Saw magic as a learned art transmitted by grimoires (necromancy).
  • Peasant access to demons therefore required a meeting place (Sabbath) where Satan himself replaces the missing manuals.

Primary Early Sources (1435–1438)

• Johannes Nider, Formicarius (Book V “De maleficis” written 1435–1437)
  • Dominican prior of Basel; drew on alleged cases from Simme Valley judge Peter von Greyerz.
• Claude Tholosan, Ut magorum et maleficiorum errores manifesti ignorantibus fiant (≈ 1436)
  • Dauphinois secular judge; aimed to prove secular jurisdiction over witchcraft.
• Anonymous Errores Gazariorum (Savoy, 1436–1438)
  • Probably an inquisitor’s memorandum; “Gazarii” = heretics.
• Johann Fründ, Bericht über die Hexenverfolgung im Wallis (Lucerne, 1438)
  • Lay chronicler; re-interprets 1428 Valais trials through 1430s witch concept.

Core Components of the Sabbath (uniform across sources)

• Secret Sect
  • Regular clandestine assemblies; parallels to heretical conventicles.
• Presence of Satan / a demon
  • Appears as man, goat, ram, black cat, bear (“magisterulus” in Nider).
• Apostasy & Homage
  • Ritual renunciation of God: trampling/kissing cross, spitting, buttocks-kiss to devil, offering body parts after death.
  • Written blood-pacts only in Errores Gazariorum.
• Instruction in Magic
  • Devil teaches harmful arts, supplies powders/unguent, or grants instant knowledge via potion of boiled infant flesh.
  • Replaces scholarly necromantic manuals inaccessible to peasants.

Secondary / Variable Elements

• Night Flight
  • Absent in Nider; illusion according to Tholosan; real for Fründ & Errores (brooms, staffs, mountain peaks, hail-making).
• Orgy / Sexuality
  • Explicit only in Tholosan & Errores; Nider & Fründ silent.
• Infanticide & Cannibalism
  • Present in all four: infants killed (preferably unbaptised), exhumed, boiled; solids → ointment, liquids → initiation drink.
• Maleficent Acts Learned at Sabbath
  • Transform into wolves, drought, hail, pestilence, sterility of crops, impotence, abortion, milk-theft.

Learned (Scholastic) vs. Popular (Folk) Inputs

• Learned elites = Dominican & secular jurists steeped in demonology.
  • Needed to integrate broom-dipping, knife-milking etc. into demonological framework ➔ posited implicit/explicit pact.
• Popular substrate = long-standing beliefs in bonae res / night-rides (Canon Episcopi), shapeshifting, sympathetic magic.
  • Authorities appropriated, re-coded as evidence of organized Satanism.

Relationship to Heresy (Waldensians, “Luciferans”)

• 14^{th}–15^{th}-century Alpine region also rife with Waldensian trials.
  • Anti-heretical clichés (child-eating, nocturnal orgy, devil worship) transferred wholesale to magician stereotype.
• Distinction between sorcery & heresy blurred: magic courts adopt inquisitorial procedure, emphasise diabolism over mere harm.

Historiographical Debates & Scholars Cited

• Early synthesis by Lea & Hansen; modern analyses by Russell, Cohn, Peters.
• Carlo Ginzburg (Ecstasies, 1991): Sabbath = fusion of learned “conspiracy” myth + archaic shamanistic night flight.
  • Strength: centrality of Sabbath recognised.
  • Bailey’s critique: causation reversed—night-flight folklore did NOT cause Sabbath; Sabbath invented by elites, then absorbed flight stories.
• Richard Kieckhefer
  • Argues demonisation of village magic stems from judicial need to frame all magic within necromancy paradigm.
  • Bailey extends this: Sabbath is ultimate explanatory device.

Detailed Comparison (Condensed from Bailey’s Chart)

• All sources share:
  • Satanic presider, apostasy ritual, magical instruction, cannibalistic infanticide.
• Divergences:
  • Night flight: real (Fründ, Errores), illusion (Tholosan), absent (Nider).
  • Sexual orgy: explicit (Tholosan, Errores), absent (Nider, Fründ).
  • Written pact only in Errores.
  • Gender emphasis: only Nider stresses female propensity.

Author’s Central Thesis & Logical Flow

• Sabbath arose to explain how illiterate peasants could practise learned demonic magic.
  1. Clerics believed real magic = ritual invocation via grimoires.
  2. Village sorcery lacked books ➔ hypothesis: demons teach directly at gatherings.
  3. Heresy-trial template supplied organisational model (secret sect, apostasy).
• Secondary folkloric motifs (flight, animal metamorphosis) ornamented but did not originate concept.

Practical / Ethical Implications

• Rationalisation by elites produced a “coherent yet fantastic” system enabling mass persecution (great witch-hunts 15^{th}–17^{th} c.).
• Illustrates dangers of scholastic logic when coupled with demonological worldview.
• Highlights interplay of social conflict (local maleficium accusations) with authoritative grand narratives (heresy, Satanism).

Connections to Broader Medieval Themes

• Continuity with:
  • Canon Episcopi (delusion vs reality of night rides).
  • Anti-Jewish & anti-heretical blood-libel tropes.
• Foreshadows early-modern manuals: Malleus Maleficarum (draws on Nider’s Formicarius).

Real-World Relevance & Further Study

• Shows how professional expertise (legal-theological) can reframe popular practices into existential threats.
• Invites interdisciplinary research: anthropology of shamanism, legal history, gender studies (shift to female witch by 16^{th} c.).