#6479 - Demonology - Optional 8: Witch-craft and Witch-hunting in

REVISION NOTES:

WITCHCRAFT:

DEMONOLOGY:

1. Why were demonologists writing?

All motivated by similar worries.
Political:
“Witchcraft was inextricably mixed with politics” (Montague Summers).
E.g. 1419 – HV prosecuted stepmother Joan of Navarre for trying to kill him by WC.
E.g. James I.
E.g. Bodin claimed that there was a network of powerful, wealthy and organised witches in France, at war with the state.
Was a key feature of worldview at time:
“An ever-present, fearfully ominous menace” (Summers).
Period saw “explosion in the idea of evil, and especially of the devil” (Jonathan Pearl).
Mirrored by a “folkloric peasant outlook” (Pearl).
James VI talks of “the feareful abounding at this time in the countrie”.
Worries about health abounded.
E.g. Venice stat.
Heightened by Black Death, 1347-49 (>1/3 Eu dead).
Reformation:
“The splintering of Christendom into many rival camps could only increase the feelings of chaos” (Pearl).
“The enormous extension of interest in the demonic… marked the theology… of the 2 Refs” (Stuart Clark).

2. Background to the ‘Malleus’:

MM (‘The Witch Hammer’) = highly significant.
“A kind of classic in the genre” (Hans Peter Broedel).
“The most prominent, the most important, the most authoritative volume” (Montague Summers).
“Founded modern demonology and outsold every other book except the Bible” (Armando Maggi).
Written by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, 1486, following Pope Innocent VIII’s papal Bull, ‘Summis desiderantes affectibus’, 9 Dec 1484.
14 eds 1487-1520, 16 1547-1669.
“Created a certain uniformity of discourse” (Broedel).
Pre-C15th: no one term ‘witch’.

3. How did the views of later writers differ from those in the ‘Malleus’?

E.g.s of later writers:

Bodin’s ‘Demonomanie’ (pub’d 1580, 23 eds, trans German, Italian, Latin).
De Lancre’s ‘Tableau’ (by Pierre de Rostéguy, Sieur de Lancre, after being appointed head of investigation c’ttee in Labourd region, 1609).
James VI/I’s ‘Daemonologie” (pub’d after target of witchcraft ploy 1590-1).
“Later writers… have done little more than draw from the seemingly inexhaustible well of wisdom” (Summers).

On punishment:

MM was used in trials:
“Constantly quoted and appealed to in the witch-trials of Germany, France, Italy and England” (Summers).
How serious a crime is WC?
MM:
Even to deny existence of witchcraft = “plainly heretical”.
Bodin:
Key idea = “witchcraft is treason against God”.
However, it is not against the law to communicate with spirits – likely believed himself to have a guardian angel (dedicated 6 pages to ‘friend’, v vivid, whose angel first appeared 1567 and warned him of things e.g. tainted food).
De Lancre:
“Sinners take themselves from God through disobedience alone”.
Cites Exodus 22:18 – ‘you shall not permit a female sorcerer to live’.
James:
This is “the highest poynt of idolatrie”.
How should witches be punished?
MM:
Talks of many diff courses of action to take according to level of guilt – e.g. “when the Accused is no more than defamed” [i.e. accused] – must produce “some seven, ten, twenty or thirty men” to act as “sponsors”. If can’t, excommunicated. If same year later, heretic.
Bodin:
Death compl necessary.
Cites Leviticus 24:16 – ‘he who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death’.
Agrees outright w/ MM.
Cites their e.g. of plague in region of Constance not stopping until witch’s body exhumed and burnt.
Emphasises importance of evidence – c’tted to rule of law.
E.g. confession under torture had to be freely repeated 1 day after uttered. If not, regarded as a presumption.
Important diff w/ many others.
De Lancre:
Shared MM’s view.
James:
“They ought to be put to death according to the Law of God, the civill and imperial law, and municipall law of all Christian nations”.
Stresses need for judges to guard against condemning the innocent.
Note similarity of works’ structures – discussion of punishments left to end in all 4, plus Molitor, Grillando, Weyer, Godelmann, Rémy, Milichius, Albrecht.
Highlighted by Stuart Clark.

Link to sexuality:

This is the primary area of work for the Devil:
MM: “Through the wantonness of the flesh they have much power over men”.
Bodin: Huge focus on this area.
Created a “far darker and more dramatic world” (Briggs).
“For De Lancre witchcraft offered an exploration of female sexuality” (Machielsen).
Can children be gained through incubi and succubi?
MM:
Can definitely have sex – cites Book 5, Chapter 23 of S Augustine’s ‘De Ciutate Dei’ – Satyrs and Fauns (incubi) have slept with certain women.
Bodin:
Succubi cannot transport semen of men.
However, the devil can have sex with humans and produce children.
Examples alone = enough proof.
E.g. uses MM Sprenger’s account of women consorting naked w/ the Devil in broad daylight.
E.g. 1545 Magdalena de la Cruz, Cordoba – abbess – from age 12, evil spirit in form of black Moor slept with her for 30 years.
De Lancre:
Yes, Devil does this by making himself a body out of air.
Agrees w/ Bodin about Devil taking girls’ virginity at age of 12.
Uses e.g. of Jeanne Harvillier, promised to Satan at birth, first had sex at 12.
Believes that devils can transform into women (succubi) and sleep with men to collect semen, then transfer that to women s incubi.
Uses e.g. of Merlin – born of incubus and nun.
James:
Spirit form of devil can take man’s dead body and sleep with women.
However, devil cannot produce children – using dead bodies.
Why are women more involved than men?
MM:
Primarily, “since they are feebler both in mind and body, it is not surprising”.
Also, “the natural reason is that she is more carnal than a man” – formed from bent rib.
Are naturally jealous/more evil creatures.
E.g. Rachel of Leah (Genesis XXX).
Bodin:
“Accepted and propagated these views” (Pearl).
De Lancre:
Talks of “bestial cupidity that pushes… woman to these extremes, into which she throws herself willingly to delight in her carnal appetites”.
Also due to “women’s flighty minds”.
James:
“The reason is easie, for as that sexe is frailer then man is”.
Uses e.g. of Eve.
Descriptions often sexualised:
S Williams talks of “the fantastic, intrinsically erotic realm of the demonological imagination”.
MM:
Witches, “for the sake of quenching their lusts, excite themselves with devils”.
Broomstick involved as a “phallic symbol… appropriate in a scene that was suffused with sexuality” (Levack).
“Institoris and Sprenger’s interpretation… depended closely upon their intense fear of the disordering power of female sexuality” (Broedel).
De Lancre:
Comments on Labourdian women:
E.g. hair “flowing down over their shoulders… gives them their bewitching eyes, which are as dangerous in love as in witchcraft”.
James:
“Most part of them altogether given over to the pleasures of the flesh”.

On demonic possession:

Could people be possessed?
MM:
Can possess body but not soul: “God alone can enter that”.
Bodin:
Uses e.g.s to prove.
E.g. Act of Apostles, C16 – young girl who devil talked through.
Talks of people knowing langs w/out learning.
E.g. Melanchthon wrote of demoniac woman, Saxony – spoke Greek and Latin, predicted war.
James:
Also uses e.g.s to prove – existence of witches “clearlie proved… by dailie experiences and confessions”.
Some symptoms “may be discerned from a natural sicknesse”. E.g. fleeing from holy water.
Also speaks of “the speaking of sundrie languages”.

Transformation animals, movement:

Can witches change people into animals?
MM:
These are illusions, products of the imagination.
Devil has power over body, and “since the faculty of fancy or imagination is corporeal, that is, attached to a physical organ, it also is naturally subject to devils”.
Uses e.g. from S Augustine of sorceress, ‘Circe’, changing companions of Ulysses into beasts.
Bodin:
“The trials conducted… and the divine and human histories of all peoples, are undeniable proof”.
E.g. Trial, Parle of Dôle, 1573: Giles Garnier of Lyons werewolf to seize young girl, killed, ate.
Can, at times, do it in the mind alone.
James:
“There are mere illusions… the Devill coulde by his woorkemanshippe upon the aire make them appeare to be in such forms”
Does God give his permission for these transformations?
MM: YES.
De...

#6479 - Demonology - Optional 8: Witch-craft and Witch-hunting in early modern Europe

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