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The Serpent in the Garden: How Early-Modern Writers and Artists Depicted Devils and Witches

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The Serpent in the Garden: How Early-Modern Writers and Artists Depicted Devils and Witches The Serpent in the Garden: How early-modern writers and artists depicted devils and witches A thesis submitted to the Graduate School Of the University of Cincinnati In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In the Department of German Studies Of College of Arts and Sciences By Jennifer A. Goff B.A. Agnes Scott College May, 1996 Committee Chair: Dr. R.E. Schade, PhD. Abstract The early-modern period was a time of political, social, religious, and philosophical transitions. This thesis seeks to explore early-modern witchcraft within the framework of these transitions, using ecclesiastical treatises, contemporary art, witch trial transcripts, and literary depictions of witchcraft to ascertain the changing role of the devil in the early-modern conceptualization of witchcraft. At the beginning of this period, the devil was a ubiquitous and concrete presence in virtually all early-modern witchcraft discourse, whether textual or visual. As the period evolves, textual and visual representations develop nuances that reflect the changing philosophical and religious discourses. By the end of this period, texts and art indicate a spectrum of beliefs about the devil’s role in witchcraft, from the concrete and dominant presence he had at the beginning of this period, through a middle-ground of equality with the witch in her/his apostasy, through to a growing disbelief in his corporeal existence or influence on human behavior. The images of the devil and witch during this period remain the dominant images of the devil and witch into and throughout the modern period. 1 © Jennifer A. Goff, 2014 2 Acknowldgements I must first thank Dr. Sigrun Haude and Dr. Richard Schade, my thesis advisors, without whose assistance, expertise, critique, and guidance this paper would never have succeeded. If any errors of fact or writing remain, they are my own. Thank you also to Dr. Tanja Nusser, the German Studies graduate student advisor, who always wanted the German answer when she asked me how I was doing. I appreciate your constant concern and genuine interest. And to Dr. Todd Herzog, who did not look at me cross- eyed when I expressed my determined interest in early-modern witchcraft. You gave me the confidence to pursue my curiosity. I am grateful to those teachers from my younger days, whose influence in my academic life has not waned over the years. If I have neglected to give proper thanks, this acknowledgement is my expression of gratitude to Dr. Kim Mallett, Dr. Ingrid Wieshofer, Dr. Katharine Kennedy, Dr. Michael Brown, and Dr. Robin Huff. Thank you for helping me love German and History. I can never express enough love and thanks to my parents, Kristy Miller and Jim Langston, from whom I have felt nothing but unconditional love and support my entire life. Thank you both for showing me that there is never a wrong time to work toward your goals, and that a person is never too old to learn. I hope I have the capacity to teach my children the same. To my wonderful children, Meredith and Sam, whom I love more than is imaginable, who are my light and my inspiration, thank you for putting up with endless nights and weekends of watching Mommy study, read, and write. Please know that I did this just as much for you as for myself, and I hope you learned how gratifying it can be to work hard to achieve your dreams. Just as you were with me every day for this journey, so will I be with you every day on whatever journeys you both choose in your lives. Last, but certainly not least, there are not words to express my thanks to my husband, Jim Goff, who patiently put up with my divided attention for two years. Thank you for agreeing that this was a sacrifice we could manage, and for having faith that pursuing my dreams could be the right choice for our family. Thank you for all the energy you put into cleaning house, making dinner, getting kids to ball practice, and stepping over the piles of books and papers that were the tools of my trade, all while attending to your own vocation. I love you with all my heart. 3 Table of Contents List of Illustrations 5 Introduction 6 Historiography of witchcraft 8 Witchcraft in early-modern period 10 Late 1400s to early 1500s Overview 11 Documents and treatises 14 Art and visual depictions 16 Trial documents 27 Late 1500s to early 1600s Overview 30 Dr. Faustus 32 Witch trials 38 Art and visual depictions 41 Late 1600s to early 1700s Overview 46 Texts and documents 47 Art and visual depictions 51 Grimmelshausen’s Simplicissimus 55 Witch trials 60 Conclusion 61 Works cited/Bibliography 63 4 List of Illustrations 1. Albrecht Dürer, Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat, 1500 17 2. Hans Baldung Grien, Witches’ Scene, 1510 19 3. Ulrich Molitor, Female Witches Eating Together, 1489 22 4. Ulrich Molitor, Witch’s Demon Lover, 1489 23 5. Ulrich Molitor, Demonic Temptation, 1489 23 6. Hartmann Schedel, The Devil Abducts the Witch of Berkeley, 1493 25 7. Woodcut from Part II, Dr. Faustus, c. 1580 35 8. Woodcut from Christmas scene, Dr. Faustus, c. 1580 36 9. Woodcut from Disputation of Hell, Dr. Faustus, c. 1580 36 10. Jacques de Gheyn, Witches’ Sabbath, late 16th-early 17th century 42 11. Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, Old Witch, early 16th century 45 12. Elias Welhöfer, Hexenprozeß in Augsburg, 1669 52 13. Johannes Praetorius, Blockes-Berges Verrichtung, Frontispiece, 1669 54 5 Introduction to the early-modern period The early-modern period of European history was a time in which medieval conceptualizations about the world were in tension with increasingly diverse influences on the status quo of religion, politics, and philosophy. The years of roughly 1500-1750 were marked by the synthesis of these competing pressures, exacerbated by the significant challenges faced all across Europe as a result of the Protestant Reformation, as well as the incredible hardships visited on populations in the path of the Thirty Years War. Added to this state of affairs were years of atypical and disruptive weather patterns, which led to crop failures, which led to famines, coupled with the occasional outbreak of plague or other illness, and the early-modern period could certainly not be considered one of the easier times to be an inhabitant of Europe. The beginning of the period was barely discernable from the Middle Ages, though the recent advent of the printing press would prove a catalyst for steady, if slow increases in literacy rates, and Gutenberg’s invention would become the vehicle for exponential increases in the dissemination of information. The modern propaganda machine can be said to have begun during this period, as evidenced by the tightly controlled cult of personality around Martin Luther. As during the Middle Ages, Catholicism was the dominant European confession at the onset of the early-modern era, but the Church faced an enormous challenge in the Protestant Reformation, and never truly recovered. The early-modern period marked the decline of the Catholic Church as the sole mechanism of religious thought and worship opportunities. It is the goal of this thesis to consider some of the significant ideologies and beliefs about witchcraft within the framework of the early-modern period, and show how writers and 6 artists manifested these ideas in their work. By the beginning of this period, most scholars agree that European beliefs about witchcraft were already in place. Sorcery and magic were by no means new concepts during the early-modern period in Europe. There had been a long tradition already of supernatural beliefs, many of which developed from a mixture of pre- Christian pagan nature cults and influences from Greco-Roman mythology, all influenced by the nuances of Catholic Christianity as it gained converts throughout the earliest years of the Middle Ages. It was not until the later Middle Ages that the ideas about witchcraft that would come to dominate the early-modern period really found their roots. The Church had been working to root out heresies and a number of zealous ecclesiastics wrote treatises codifying canon law vis-à-vis these heresies. One heresy against which the church grew in concern was witchcraft. Until this time in central Europe, as elsewhere on the continent, folk magic had been an accepted part of medieval life. Folk remedies, potions, and spells were commonly accepted as methods for treating illness, ensuring a good crop, bringing luck to a household, and so forth. However, in considering the concept of heresy in a new way, and as a result of pressures on the Church from within and without to reform, elements of folk magic came to be regarded as evidence of a manifestation of demonic influence and, therefore, related to black magic. Witchcraft was not a new concept; rather, the church refined its way of defining and dealing with witchcraft, and among practitioners of black magic could be found a new group of marginalized individuals within European society. 7 In this paper, I focus on text and visual representations of witchcraft and witches, and how these representations reflected contemporary ideas about the role of Satan in witchcraft. The late medieval trend of associating some common magical behaviors with witchcraft, combined with the association of witchcraft with heresy resulted in a strong association of witchcraft with the devil. I want to explore these text and visual representations to determine how early-modern people specifically viewed the role of the devil in witchcraft. What type of relationship did they believe the devil had with the witch, and how deeply did they consider his influence and power to extend in that relationship? My geographic area of interest, roughly speaking, is southern Germany, and my sources will be those that either originate from this area or were available to readers and viewers in this area.
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