History Publications History 2006 Origins of the Witch Hunts Michael D. Bailey Iowa State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_pubs Part of the Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Medieval History Commons, and the Other History Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ history_pubs/57. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the History at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Origins of the Witch Hunts Abstract The first true witch hunts began in western Europe in the early fifteenth century. The ae rliest series of trials took place in Italy and in French- and German-speaking regions around the western Alps. Of course, concern about harmful sorcery had deep roots in medieval Europe, and both officially sanctioned prosecution and popular persecution had been brought to bear on its supposed practitioners long before. But only in the fifteenth century did the full stereotype of diabolical witchcraft develop, which would endure throughout the period of the major witch hunts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Disciplines Cultural History | European History | History of Religion | Medieval History | Other History Comments Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The eW stern Tradition edited by Richard M. Golden. Copyright 2006 by ABC- CLIO. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of ABC-CLIO, LLC, Santa Barbara, CA. This book chapter is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_pubs/57 In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII still had to forbid Duke Muller-Bergstrom. 1927. "Gottesurteil." Pp. 994-1064 in Sigismund of Tyrol to allow ordeals in cases of witch­ Handwiirterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens. Vol. 3. Berlin: de craft. The Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Gruyter. Witches, 1486) mentioned that the ordeal of the red­ Nottarp, Hermann. 1956. Gottesurteilstudien. Munich: Kosel. hot iron was used in Furstenberg in the Black Forest in "Ordeal." 1917. Pp. 507-533 in Encyclopaedia ofReligion and Ethics. Edited by James Hastings. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 1485, when a woman suspected of sorcery offered her­ self for compurgation with a red-hot iron and thereby won her case. But Heinrich Kramer, the author of this ORIGINS OF THE WITCH HUNTS famous manual, opposed this method of proof and The first true witch hunts began in western Europe in explicitly preferred torture. The judge, however, should the early fifteenth century. The earliest series of trials propose the possibility of an ordeal, because the witch took place in Italy and in French- and German-speak­ usually would agree, certain to be protected against ing regions around the western Alps. Of course, con­ harm by her demon. Her willingness to undergo an cern about harmful sorcery had deep roots in medieval ordeal would betray her all the more (Malleus 3.17£). Europe, and both officially sanctioned prosecution and In order to eliminate any help from the Devil, another popular persecution had been brought to bear on its popular juridical manual, the Layenspiegel (1509) by supposed practitioners long before. But only in the fif­ Ulrich Tengler, similarly did not accept the ordeal for teenth century did the full stereotype of diabolical witches, and the same position could be found in many witchcraft develop, which would endure throughout later juridical texts. the period of the major witch hunts in the sixteenth Nonetheless, from the second half of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. century onward, the swimming test seems to have Of particular importance for the ensuing hunts was been used quite frequently in several parts of Europe the clear development, in the stereotype, of cultic and to discover witches. Oudewater in Holland was conspiratorial aspects of witchcraft. That is, witches famous for its witch ordeal scales, seemingly a were held to be members of organized groups engaging postmedieval invention: if an accused person was in a diabolically directed plot to undermine and destroy lighter than expected, he or she was declared guilty. Christian communities and ultimately Christian civi­ However, other types of ordeal fell into disuse after lization. Although individual trials for witchcraft might the sixteenth-century Reformations. resemble earlier trials for harmful sorcery, full-fledged Beyond Europe, in parts of Mrica and Madagascar, witch hunts were possible only after the notion that the poison ordeal was and is applied often at the witches operated as part of an organized, conspiratorial suspicion of sorcery. If the substance (made from the cult began to become established. A hunt would devel­ fruit of the tanghin-tree) given by the witch doctor to op out of a single trial or a relatively contained group of the suspected person causes vomiting, he is innocent, if trials, either when authorities became convinced of the it produces vertigo or trance, his guilt is considered existence of large numbers of witches operating in a giv­ proved. en area or when convicted witches would accuse, or be forced to accuse, others of membership in their sect. PETER DINZELBACHER Ultimately, witch hunts arose due to the confluence of particular aspects of western European legal procedure, See also: COURTS, SECULAR; INNOCENT VIII, POPE; KRAMER, certain notions of demonic power and activity drawn HEINRICH; LAWS ON WITCHCRAFT (MEDIEVAL); LAYENSPIEGEL; from standard Christian demonology, and the wide­ MALLEUS MALEFICARUM; SWIMMING TEST; TORTURE. References and further reading: spread belief in the real efficacy of harmful magic or Baldwin, John. 1994. "The Crisis of the Ordeal." journal of maleficium. Medieval and Renaissance Studies 24: 327-353. Conce~n over harmful sorcery and official sanctions Barthelemy, Domenique. 1988. "Diversite des ordalies medie­ against such magic were longstanding in medieval vales." Revue historique 280: 3-25. Europe, and legislation against what were perceived to Bartlett, Robert. 1986. Trial by Fire and ~ter. Oxford: be malevolent forms of magic existed in classical antiq­ Clarendon. uity as well. In Christian Europe, condemnation and Browe, Peter. 1932-1933. De ordalibus. 2 vols. Rome: Apud aedes attempts to repress such magic arose from two distinct Pont. Universitatis Gregorianae. traditions, the religious and the secular. From the Gaudemet, Jean. 1965. "Les ordalies au moyen age." Recueil de la earliest days of Christianity, clerical authorities were Societe jean Bodin 17, no. 2: 99-145. convinced that much, if not most, supposed magical Glitsch, Heinrich. 1913. Gottesurteile. Leipzig: Voigtlander. Grimm, Jacob. 1983. Deutsche Rechtsaltertii.mer. Vol. 2. Reprint, activity in the world was actually the result of demonic Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 563-604. forces. Magicians who claimed to manipulate natural, if Lea, Henry Charles. 1971. Superstition and Force: Essays on the occult, forces were suspected instead of invoking and W'llger ofLaw, the W'llger ofBattle, the Ordeal, Torture. 4th ed., supplicating demons. Early Church Fathers such as rev. New York: B. BJorn. St. Augustine condemned the practice of supposedly 856 ORIGINS OF THE WITCH HUNTS demonic magic as a serious crime against the Christian sorcery and would have made difficult the sort of panic faith, and early Church legal codes condemned magic and chain-reaction accusations that typified later witch for this same reason. Throughout the Early Middle hunts. Beginning around the twelfth century, however, Ages, Christian penitentials, handbooks of penance and continuing through the fourteenth and fifteenth used by priests in confession, contained condemnations centuries, European courts, both ecclesiastical and of magic. The penalties prescribed for such practices, secular, increasingly moved away from accusatorial pro­ however, were by later standards relatively light. cedure and instead adopted inquisitorial procedure as Christians who performed magic were to be made to their basic method of operation. recognize and confess their sins and do penance. In cas­ In contrast to accusatorial procedure, under inquisi­ es of extreme recalcitrance, excommunication might be torial procedure, the onus of proving guilt or innocence required. Such penalties generally held force through for a suspected crime fell on officials of the court rather the twelfth century. Thereafter, the Church's greater than on the person who brought the initial accusation. concern over heresy and the perceived need to combat In addition, the court could initiate an investigation or heretics more actively began to feed into an increasing­ trial, even if no accusation of a crime had been made. In ly severe response to magic. many ways, courts operating under inquisitorial proce­ In addition to clerical concerns and ecclesiastical leg­ dure functioned in a more sophisticated way than those islation against magic, there was also a substantial body under accusatorial procedure in terms of the collection of secular legislation in the early medieval period. By no and evaluation of evidence. Yet in cases of suspected means were secular concerns distinct from ecclesiastical