History Notes Optional 8: Witch-craft and Witch-hunting in early modern Europe Notes
These notes provide comprehensive cover of the Optional Subject 8 paper on Witch-craft and Witch-hunting in Early Modern Europe. They were the sole resource that I used for my preliminary examination revision, in which I was predicted a high 2:1 or 1st. Sadly (particularly as this was the paper I most enjoyed and expected to do well in) I was absent for 40 minutes of the prelim because of illness, but still achieved a mark of 58%. They include a wealth of examples spanning across Europe, informat...
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REVISION NOTES:
WITCHCRAFT:
SCEPTICISM:
1. What intellectual resources were available to sceptics?
Legal.
Lalement (said to Rouen Parle, 1671):
Stressed need for “evident proofs which must not be equivocal”.
Cannot be punished if you did not give full consent – lunatics, hypochondriacs, children, those who were unaware, those who were extremely frightened or ignorant.
Warns against ‘post hoc, ergo propter hoc’ fallacy.
Cross-over between legal ideas and others – says cannot convict of something that is impossible.
George Gifford:
Daniel concludes that convicting on basis of sufficient suspicion = v bad form of judicial misconduct.
Testimony by Devil/cunning folk = misleading.
Hobbes:
In ‘Leviathan’ (1651), he argued that the Church could not act as a separate legal structure to that of the state.
Adam Tanner (1627):
“Essentially a study of the injustices committed during witch trials. But it takes for granted the reality and heinousness of witchcraft” (Clark).
Medical/philosophical.
Weyer:
“Perhaps the most famous early sceptic of diabolic WC” (G K Waite).
Wrote ‘On the Effects of Devils, Enchantments and Poisoners’ in 1563.
Used humanist learning and med training to argue that WC = a psychosis.
WC is age- and gender-specific, so can be explained on basis of female senility and devil’s tricks.
Still believed in the Devil.
Believed that men can get power from the Devil, but women generally accused = old, feeble, insane.
Attributed maleficium to devils directly, natural causes, or fraud.
More natural. Neoplatonist – universe functions in orderly fashion (platonic solids idea etc).
Thomas Brown (1605-82):
Wrote ‘The Physician’s Religion’.
Was “convinced that nature was rationally and providentially governed” (Cameron).
Believed that spirits and ghosts = demons, and thus has received some criticism for being conservative: HIGHLIGHTS COMPLEXITY.
Most influential work = ‘widely-believed falsehoods’ (pub’d 1646). Based on idea that commonly received ideas can be disproven.
Used ideas about Devil: last deception = to convince that he did not exist.
Rationalism (like above).
Balthasar Bekker.
1634-98.
Cartesian – follower of Descartes: world = under control of God’s initial thoughts (then left) – comes from idea about mind moving body. Without body, Devil could not manipulate.
Gifford:
Essex minister, Puritan activist, 1548-1600 (arrived town 1581).
“Made the common person the central figure in the discussion, since it was the hearts and minds of the laity that he was most interested in winning” (Scot McGinnis).
Was a parish preacher.
Was Calvinist. McGinnis talks of his “practical divinity”.
Believe X cunning folk – undermined God, was Devil’s work (“the Devil’s chief tool… is misdirection”).
Religious:
Scriptural:
Bekker has one approach – bible = metaphorical.
Gets around things e.g. Moses’ instruction to kill witches = just applied to magicians that no longer exist.
Words used can be interpreted in different ways.
Scot attempted to disprove common WC belief by using scripture and reason.
E.g. X witches’ ability to control weather – is God’s domain.
Lalement uses religious texts:
E.g. Scriptures: Hailstorms, tempests etc = punishments for our sins sent by God, e.g. Illnesses of Job.
E.g. Canon Episcopi 9 tells us that harm witches believe they inflict = imaginary.
E.g. St Augustine apparently reminds us that sabbat etc. are false.
Theological:
How can Devil have so much power?
See David Joris – idea of Devil as fallen nature of man, nothingness.
Thomas Brown – different in that he attempted to disprove in reference to theology or classical lit (e.g. used Pliny the Elder to X idea of breaking an eggshell to guard v witchcraft).
Demonological:
Int pt: same framework used by sceptics as by demonologists.
“It was… difficult for critics to distance themselves intellectually from orthodox demonology” (Clark).
E.g. George MacKenzie quotes Delrio.
Weyer:
Uses women being fragile (so can’t make pacts) idea.
Stuart Clark: “differed from normal demonological theory only in degree, not in kind”
Gifford structured his work similarly.
E.g. ‘A Dialogue Concerning Witches’.
First section of work concerned witches and their operation: what did they do, who is in control etc. Second, what should the response be?
Reginald Scot:
‘Discoverie of WC’ printed 1584.
James I rumoured to have ordered the burning of every copy.
“Drew from… the most recent continental demonologists” (McGinnis).
2. Did sceptics advance any new arguments after the initial statements of Weyer (1563) and Scot (1584)?
Hugh Trevor-Roper: NO.
Stressed social factors e.g. religious conflict, as well as eventually the Royal Society, in controlling witch-hunt.
Weyer: “conventionally regarded as a landmark in the emergence of full-scale doubt” (Stuart Clark).
Do the beliefs form coherent arguments?
Individuals can.
Robin Attfield argues that the new proponents of natural philosophy (e.g. Bekker) did.
Not overall.
Brian Easlea has highlighted how Scot was more radical than Weyer (e.g. pretty much said X witches).
Does this undermine the study of them?
Many systems are shared.
E.g. Richard Hathaway could fake it – shared principles/ideas.
Varied geographically:
Marcel Gielis has shown that there was signif diff between Dutch intellectuals and the views put forward in the Malleus – e.g. Sabbath, sex with the Devil.
Reformation had radicalising impact in some places:
G K Waite talks of “a less learned sceptical tradition” that came out of the Spiritualist/Anabaptist strains.
Anabaptists rejected infant baptism in N’lands (and therefore exorcism) and thus faced persecution 1530-1566 (esp under Charles V).
Spiritualists stressed inner significance of rites and...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Optional 8: Witch-craft and Witch-hunting in early modern Europe Notes.
These notes provide comprehensive cover of the Optional Subject 8 paper on Witch-craft and Witch-hunting in Early Modern Europe. They were the sole resource that I used for my preliminary examination revision, in which I was predicted a high 2:1 or 1st. Sadly (particularly as this was the paper I most enjoyed and expected to do well in) I was absent for 40 minutes of the prelim because of illness, but still achieved a mark of 58%. They include a wealth of examples spanning across Europe, informat...
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