Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences General History Division

The ‘Other’ Witches

The Male Witch of Early Modern Europe

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

Arnon Ram Under the Supervision of Dr. Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos

September 2006

Abstract

Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries about 110,000 people, mainly in Europe, were accused of causing harm to property, livestock, and people through supernatural means such as sorcery and witchcraft, and for turning away from their faith in Jesus Christ and paying worship to the devil. In the vast scholarly work that has been done during the past century about the witch hunts a large majority of the works have overlooked, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, a part of the population that has been accused and executed for the crime of witchcraft as well: men.

These papers usually focused on the large amount of female witches that were accused and killed, asking why, who they were, and if misogyny has had anything to do with these events.

Twenty-five to thirty percent of the people accuse of witchcraft were male. This paper will investigate who where these people? What were they accused of, and was it different from the accusation leveled against the female witches? Did the intellectuals and demonologists of the era acknowledge the existence of the male witches? And how did the courts deal with these men?

The research will show that the intellectuals did indeed know of the male witches, giving plenty of examples of them in their texts, though never for a moment forgetting to remind us that while there were male witches, they were only a minority. To these people, women were the majority in this sin due to the fact that they were “weaker” in mind, body, and spirit; but they never claimed that men were innocent of this crime.

Both men and women were accused of rather similar crimes in the context of witchcraft. Both men and women were lengthily interrogated and sometimes tortured in order to confess themselves as witches and reveal their accomplices. Both men and women were either declared witches and executed or released. The black-letter of the law did not differentiate between the sexes, and the men who ran the courts of law saw with equal severity any case that dealt with witchcraft and/or diabolical witchcraft.

Table of Contents

1. Introductions iv

1.1. Terminology vi

2. Formation of a Concept 1

2.1. From the Priest to the Inquisitor 2

2.2. The Ingredient of a Witch 11

2.3. A Common Picture 14

2.4. The Typical and Atypical Witch 16

3. The Male witch and the Intellectuals of their Age 18

3.1. Formicarius by Johannes Nider 19

3.2. Summis desiderentes affectibus by Pope Innocent VIII 20

3.3. Malleus Maleficarum by Kramer and Sprenger 21

3.4. On the Demon-Mania of Witches by Jean Bodin 24

3.5. The Discoveries of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot 25

3.6. Demonology by King James VI of Scotland 27

3.7. Compendium Maleficarum by Francesco Maria Guazzo 29

3.8. Conclusions 31

4. Cases of Male witches 34

4.1. The Witches from Normandy 34

4.2. The Examination of John Walsh 35

4.3. The Witches from Trier 38

4.4. News from Scotland 41 4.5. The Witches of Northamptonshire 42

4.6. Johannes Junius, Burgomaster of Bamberg 44

4.7. The Witch-Trial at Lukh 46

4.8. A True Relation of the Arraignment of Eighteen Witches 48

4.9. Witches of Finland 49

4.10. Cases from Iceland 49

5. The Male witch 51

5.1. Male witches over Europe 51

5.1.1. Germany 52

5.1.2. France 54

5.1.3. England 55

5.1.4. Russia 56

5.1.5. Finland 56

5.1.6. Iceland 57

5.2. Demonic Lover and Sodomy 58

5.3. Accusations 59

5.4. The Male witch in Court 60

6. Conclusions 62

7. Appendixes 64

7.1. Appendix A 64

7.2. Appendix B 65

8. Bibliography 66

Figures

1. “Witch giving ritual kiss to devil.” Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium

maleficarum (Milan, 1608), taken from Montague Summers edition (London

1929; New York, 1988), p. 35

2. “Witches offering newborn to devil,” Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium

maleficarum (Milan, 1608), taken from Montague Summers edition (London

1929; New York, 1988), p. 16 (bottom)

Introduction

From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, witches occupied the thoughts and courts of Europe. Treatises were written during those centuries about the reason for witches, how they were tempted, why they committed maleficium, how to identify them, how they acted, what they did, and also of course, why most of them were women.

The question of gender was never really a relevant one, as the vast majority of those accused of witchcraft during the early modern period in Europe and New England, were indeed women. Many early studies,1 and some recent ones,2 treated the era of the witch hunt as a time of a great misogynistic crusade: the witches were women who were hunted down and murdered for not accepting their role in society, for knowing too much, for practicing “medicine” in one way or another, for being poor and alone, and generally for being female. Later studies suggested that women were not accused of witchcraft for the sole reason of being women or for falling into a certain category, but also for a myriad of reasons such as intra-village politics and personal relations3; and also that not all witches were women.

1 A couple of the most noted of these early feminist studies are: Dworkin, A. Woman-Hating (New York: Dutton, 1974). B. Ehrenreich, and D. English, Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers (Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1973; London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, 1973). 2 Most notable of these is Anne L. Barstow, Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts. (Harper Collins: San Francisco, 1994). This book has been highly criticized for being biased towards women, and for the author ignoring whatever evidence that does not suit her theory (i.e. ignoring the Icelandic witch-hunt where 92% were male witches). 3 R. Briggs, Witches & Neighbors (New York, 1996); Sharpe, J. A. ‘Witchcraft and women in seventeenth- century England: some Northern evidence, in Continuity and Change 6 [2] (1991) p. 189 give us some examples of this. It is generally accepted today that around 110,000 people were tried for the crime of witchcraft during those centuries and about twenty-five percent were men.4 While certainly a minority, these men were not a separate phenomenon or a clerical mistake.

They flew under the radar, drowning in the vastness of data and evidence which placed the women at the center of this phenomenon, taking a dubious and unhealthy center stage, pushing the men, unintentionally, to the side.

The witches of Europe were a diverse group of people from all walks of life.

Countless studies tried to understand who was persecuted, who was prosecuted, and why.

Most of these studies discard the male witch after calculating the male-female ratio, and then go on to investigate how many of the witches were single, married, divorced, or widowed; how many had children, what their jobs were, what their social status in the community was, etc. These investigations are usually approached from the female witch perspective. No general study of witchcraft and its victims, even those who admitted to being witches, can be complete without giving the same treatment to the male witches.

This kind of a study is beyond the scope of this paper.

In this research I intend to take a closer look at the male witches of Europe. Who were they and how were they depicted in comparison to the female witch? How were they seen, if at all, by the demonologists and intellectuals of the era? And how did the courts deal with them in terms of charges, treatment, and penalties?

I will tackle these questions first by delving into the rise of the witchcraft belief and how some of these beliefs evolved from the early and middle Middle Ages to the early modern period; what the main accusations leveled against those accused of

4 P. B. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (London and New York: Longman, 1987), pp. 19- 22. witchcraft, what Levack calls the “Cumulative Concept of Witchcraft”5; and what the most common characteristics were of people who were accused of witchcraft.

Secondly, there will be a short analysis of the scholarship on the witchcraft problem, written by intellectuals between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how they deal with the appearance, if at all, of male witches.

But while viewing the male witches from the perspective of the intellectuals is important in learning who was perceived as a witch and what was expected from them, it does not tell us who they were. In most cases, these accused witches did not leave any written record in which they state their feeling and thoughts. For that, we are left with court records6 and pamphlets. The court records will also help us to piece together a general picture of the typical male witch, if he existed.

The last chapter will begin with a description of the geographical spread of the male witches over Europe, and the characterization of the male witches in several regions. It will examine the accusations that were leveled against the male witches and whether they were any different from those brought against their female counterparts.

Finally, the chapter will discuss the severity or leniency of the courts in their treatment of the male witch.

Terminology

At first I was considered using different words when referring to male and female witches. Wicca (for male witch), and Wicce (for female witch) were considered and then

5 Ibid. p. 27. 6 As I am limited in my possibility of reviewing court records and pamphlets I will be relying on anthologies and secondary studies of these records. dropped due to the current meaning of the word Wicca as a follower of the Wiccan religion.

Other terms such as “sorcerer,” “warlock,” and “wizard” do not fit the idea of the witch, and also have different linguistic and, more important, literary connotations.

For these reasons I have decided to stay with the word “witch,” as it is the preferred word used by scholars. The term will be used to describe both men and women throughout this paper, and the gender of the witch will be specified when needed.

1. Formation of a Concept

The idea of a man or a woman wielding supernatural powers is as old as human existence: the Shaman painting in the Trois Freres (Three Brothers) cave in France from about 18,000 B.C.E; the Codes of Hammurabi, from 1750 B.C.E., are the oldest known laws in history, described witchcraft as a harmful force and considered its use as a crime.

Homer’s Odysseus comes upon the enchantress Circe on her island and she bewitches his crew, before turning them into swine; the Old Testament mentions witches and magicians, and the New Testament has characters such as Simon Magus. The second century Greek rhetorician and satirist Lucian of Samosata describes several witches, enchanters, conjurers, and necromancers in his writings, and although Lucian dismisses them as frauds, he nevertheless acknowledges with dismay, that there are people who believe in such “foolish lies.”1 These are only a small examples of texts that mention magic and its practitioners.

In medieval and early modern Europe the cunning man and wise woman were the people to whom the locals would turn to for help. These “popular magicians”2 offered healing, detecting thieves, and locating lost objects or animals, and divining and fortune- telling of all kinds. These services were especially needed by the large village populations who were almost devoid of policing or medical services.3 While the magical healing provided by the wise man and woman usually consisted of an folk wisdom, common sense remedies, and the knowledge of the healing properties of plants, it would

1 A.M. Harmon, Lucian in Eight Volumes (London, 1925), vol. III, Philopseudes, p. 381. 2 K. Thomas, (1971), p. 178. 3 While trained physicians could certainly be found and hired in the larger towns, they would be too far away and too expensive for the poor villagers.

1 also usually involve some prayer that would have to be recited or a charm that would have to be carried or worn for the healing to take effect. None of this was secret, and while the clergy certainly discouraged its flock from consulting with these wise and cunning people, it was a tough battle. Even as late as 1552 Bishop Latimer said in one of his sermons: “A great many of us, when we be in trouble, or sickness, or lose anything, we run hither and thither to witches, or sorcerers, whom we call wise men… seeking aid and comfort at their hands.”4

Throughout the Middle Ages, church intellectuals and theologians tried to guide local priests on how to counter such practices, classifying them as sins and exacting penance from the sinners.5 These guidebooks had no small part in the creation of the witchcraft as described by the demonologists of the early modern period.

From the Priest to the Inquisitor

The descriptions of the myriad sins of witchcraft in the Malleus Maleficarum did not just spring from the fertile minds of its authors James Sprenger and Heinrich Krämer.

They were rather a compilation of beliefs and stories that were already widespread in

Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, beliefs in the harm that witches could cause and their inherent and immediate danger that they posed. While many of these beliefs where rooted in folklore and the oral tradition, the fifteenth and sixteenth century demonologists were familiar with the works of theologians such as

Regino of Prüm and Burchard of Worms.

4 Sermons by Hugh Latimer, ed. G.E. Corrie, (Cambridge, P.S. 1844) p. 534, taken from K. Thomas, (1971) pp. 177-178 5 Sinner being both the wise men and women who actively practiced this “pagan magic” and those who would approach said practitioners.

2 Both Regino of Prüm and Burchard of Worms compiled penitentials (Books of

Penance). These Libri poenitentiales, in the most direct and narrow sense, were an aid to the clergy: a list of sins that may be committed by any person (sometimes in the form of a questionnaire) and below them the appropriate penance. The first examples of this kind of book appeared during the sixth century in Wales and Ireland, but spread to the rest of the

British Isles and the continent from the seventh century.6

Many penitentials warn against the belief in enchanters and diviners, of dancing in disguise, and conjuring up storms or love potions,7 but it is in the collection made by

Burchard Bishop of Worms that we see the most extensive list of folk-paganism and magical beliefs. The twenty books known as the Decretum (c. 1002-1025) were written at the suggestion of the provost of Worms and with the aid of Walter, Bishop of Speyer and the monk Albert. The nineteenth books, known as Medicus or Corrector, deal with penance and spiritual ailments. And so it is Book XIX that should interest us, as it is the one listing all the practices and sins Burchard collected. The Corrector goes over, in an interrogatory fashion, the litany of sins, urging the priest to say: “I will question thee: take care least at the persuasion of the devil we conceal anything,”8 and most sections start with the words “Hast thou…”

Of the 194 sections describing the sins that make up Chapter V of Book XIX, about sixty touch upon pagan rituals and witchcraft.9 While certainly not the first to write about pagan practices and the various forms of witchcraft, mentions of enchanters,

6 T.P., Oakley, ‘The Penitentials as Sources for Mediaeval history’ in Speculum vol. 15, no. 2 (Apr., 1940). p. 211. 7 Many examples can be found throughout the various penitentials. For reference I am using McNeill, and Gamer (1938). For only a small part of the many examples see pages: 198, 292, 293, 305, 329-331, 332- 336, 337-342. 8 McNeill and Gamer (1938) p. 325. 9 McNeill and Gamer (1938) p. 42. Going over the translation they provide I have found only thirty-eight paragraphs dealing in pagan practices, but the text found in their book is not the complete text.

3 wizards, and non-religious magic appear in the Canons of St. Patrick,10 and the

Penitentials of Theodore,11 Bede,12 Columban,13 Silos,14 and others.15 Burchard goes into much more details in describing these ceremonies and beliefs, revealing his keen interest in the subject.

Burchard’s list of pagan practices and magic is long and varied, and includes such things as hiring of diviners,16 collecting medicinal herbs without singing the “credo in

Deum” and the paternoster,17 praying at places other than a church or another religious place approved by the local bishop or priest, such as “springs, or to stones or to tress or to crossroads.”18 Some of the practices and beliefs noted by Burchard would later be integrated into the image of the witch as described by the demonologists.

The ‘Wild Ride’ appears in Regino of Prüms’s De synodalibus causis et disciplines ecclesiasticis libri duo (c. 906), a collection of instructions for the clergy.19

The section on beliefs and superstitious practices can be connected to later demonological beliefs in the ability of witches to fly:

“One mustn’t be silent about certain wicked women who become

followers of Satan, seduced by the fantastic illusion of the demons,

and insist that they ride at night on certain beasts together with

10 Ibid. Canons Attributed to St. Patrick: 16, p. 78. 11 Ibid. The Penitential of Theodore: Book I, chap. XV, p. 198. 12 Ibid. Penitential Ascribed by Albers to Bede: X, pp. 229-9. 13 Ibid. The Penitential of Columban: 6, pp. 252-3. 14 Ibid. The Penitential of Silos: VII, p.288. 15 See Appendix A for a complete list of all mentions of pagan practices, magic, etc. from the Medieval Handbook of Penance. 16 McNeill and Gamer (1938) Corrector Book XIX, Chapter V, 60, pp. 329-330. 17 Ibid. Corrector Book XIX, Chapter V, 65, p. 330. 18 Ibid. Corrector Book XIX, Chapter V, 66, p. 331. 19 Both Regino, and later by influence Burchard, attribute this passage erroneously to the Council of Ancyra (314). But the passage described is very similar to a passage in Pseude-Augustine, De spiritu et aima (799). From McNiell and Gamer (1938) p. 333 n. 34.

4 Diana, goddess of the pagans, and a great multitude of women; that

they cover great distances in the silence of the deepest night; that

they obey the orders of the goddess as though she were their

mistress; that on particular nights they are called to wait on her.”20

Approximately one hundred years later, in his own instruction book for the clergy,

Burchard of Worms takes the above passage almost verbatim and places it in his

Decretum (I, 94, and X, 29).21 The passage appears again in Burchard’s Corrector in two variations: a short one (XIX, 70) and a longer one (XIX, 90). Here follows the longer version:

“Hast thou believed or participated in this infidelity, that some

wicked women, turned back after Satan, seduced by illusions and

phantoms of demons, believe and affirm: that with Diana, a

goddess of the pagans, and an unnumbered multitude of women,

they ride on certain beasts and traverse many areas of the earth in

the stillness of the quite night, obey her command as if she were

their mistress, and are called on special nights to her service? But

would that these only should perish in their perfidy and not drag

many with them into the ruin of the aberration. For an unnumbered

multitude, deceived by this false opinion, believe these things to be

true, and in believing this they turn aside from sound faith and are

20 Regino II, 45. Translation taken from Ginzburg, C., Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath (Chicago, 1991) pp. 89-90. In the shorter version, the leader of the band of riding women is identified as “the witch Holda..” 21 J.B. Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca and London, 1972, 1984), p. 291.

5 involved in the error of the pagans when they think there is any

divinity of heavenly authority except the one God. … For who is

not in night visions led out of himself, and who while sleeping

does not see many things which he never saw while awake? Who

then is so foolish and stupid that he supposes that those things

which take place in the spirit only, happen also in the body? …

Therefore it is to be openly announced to all that he who believes

such things loses the faith; and he who has not sound faith in God

is not His, but [belongs to him] in whom he believes, that is, the

devil … If thou hast believed these vanities, thou shalt do penance

for two years on the appointed fast days.”22

Both sections describe the approach to and perception of witchcraft and sorcery of that era: (1) witchcraft and sorcery are the invention of the devil, and therefore bishops and priests should deal the men and women whom they find practicing these acts either by making them do penance or by excommunicating them; and (2) it is a deception by the devil imposed upon the minds of ‘wicked women.’ It happens in their imagination but the devil convinces them that it happens in reality. The devil deluded the people into believing such things; the power of the devil is over the mind with its illusions, not in reality over the body.

Burchard is more skeptical about the belief in the ‘wild ride’ than Reigno. His main goal was to discourage the belief in the practices, not to condemn the practices themselves. If nobody believes in the practices then they would die out.

22 McNiell and Gamer (1938), Corrector Book XIX, Chapter V, 90, pp. 332-333.

6 But the practices, apparently, did not die out. One of Burchard’s greatest successes is in preserving this great knowledge of practices and ‘superstitions.’ This is how the ‘wild ride’ appears in the Malleus malleficarum, almost four and a half centuries later:

“It must not be omitted that certain wicked women, perverted by

Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of devils,

believe and profess that they ride in the night hours on certain

beasts with Diana, the heathen goddess, or with Herodias, and with

a countless number of women, and that in the untimely silence of

night they travel over great distances of land.”23

The night flight with Diana appears in three different places in the Malleus.24

Krämer has copied Burchard’s text almost word for word. But while for Regino and

Burchard these were fantasies and illusions created by the devil, Krämer rejected the idea that it was all in the mind of the person, and insisted that the devil could indeed transport people from one place to another25 just as he had Jesus Christ.26

Another good example is of sex and love magic. The Malleus maleficarum is full of descriptions of sex crimes committed by male and female witches, from copulation with devils (Incubi or Succubi) to causing impotence,27 and to inciting love and hate in

23 Heinrich (Institoris) Krämer, and Jakob (James) Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum (1487), ed. and trans. M. Summers (London, 1928; repr. 1948), Part I, Question X, p. 62. 24 Ibid. Malleus Maleficarum Part I, Question I; Part I, Question X; Part II, Question I, Chapter III. 25 Ibid. Malleus Maleficarum Part II, Question I, Chapter III deals in its entirety on this subject. 26 Ibid. p. 106 and Mathew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-15. 27 Malleus Maleficarum Part I, Questions: II, VI, VIII, IX; Part II, Question I, Chapters: IV, V, VI, VII, Question II, Chapters: II, IV. These are only the chapters that deal directly with sexual related magic; there are references to sexual acts and “crimes” throughout the whole of the book.

7 the minds of men. Krämer returns again and again to these crimes, which he sees as of utmost importance.

The following are two ‘crimes’ related to love and sex from the Corrector:

“Hast thou ever believed or participated in this perfidy, that

enchanters and those who say that they can let loose tempests

should be able through incantation of demons to arouse tempests or

to change the minds of men?”28

“Hast thou done what some adulteresses are wont to do? When

first they learn that their lovers wish to take legitimate wives, they

thereupon by some trick of magic extinguish the male desire, so

that they are impotent and cannot consummate their union with

their legitimate wives.”29

Stories of ‘curses’ of impotence being placed on people appear in several eleventh- and twelfth-century writings. One such tale is told by the monk Guibert of

Nogent, who recounts how his father was “cured” of impotence by an old woman.30 The fact that the curse had been removed by an old woman did not appear to bother the monk very much.

Master Gratian, the compiler of the Concordia Discordantium Canonum

(Concordance of Discordant Canons) (c.1140), refers to magic in Causa 2631 and in

28 McNiell and Gamer (1938), Corrector Book XIX, Chapter V, 68, p. 331. 29 McNiell and Gamer (1938), Corrector Book XIX, Chapter V, 186, p. 340. 30 E. Peters, ‘The Medieval Church and State on Superstition, Magic and Witchcraft: from Augustine to the Sixteenth Century’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 2002), p. 205. 31 This Causa gives the story of a priest who was also a magician and refused to repent when confronted by his bishop, and so was excommunicated.

8 Causa 33 which discuss sexual impotence and the dissolution of marriage. This Causa is divided into four questions, the last one dealing with magic that induces impotence:

“If sexual intercourse cannot be performed, whether because of

concealed sortilaria or maleficia, but never by an unjust

permission of God, and with the devil aiding… By exorcisms and

other ecclesiastical practices the ministers of the church may

help…”32

What was once considered a “trick of magic” was, in the middle of the twelfth century, considered as done with the devil’s aid, and had to be treated much the same way a possessed person should be treated.

By the fifteenth century, the witch’s power, or the power of the devil used by the witches, influenced not only the procreation process of men and women, but also that of animals. One of the chapters on this maleficia in the Malleus starts: “Concerning the method by which they obstruct the procreant function both in men and animals, and in both sexes …”33 For Krämer and Sprenger there is no doubt about the true power of the devil and his minions the witches; the punishment for the unrepentant is no longer excommunication but death.

Skepticism about the activities and supposed power of witches was apparent in the writing of the scholars and theologians of the church up to the twelfth century. Of course those activities were strongly condemned; the further certain activities and

32 A.C. Kros, and E. Peters, (eds.) Witchcraft in Europe 400-1700 a Documented History (Philadelphia, 20012), Decretum Gratiani… Una cum glossi, Causa 33, question I, canon 4, Si per sortiarias (casus), pp. 76-77 (italics added). 33 Summers (trans) (1928), Malleus Maleficarum, Part II, Question I, Chapter VI. p. 117.

9 practices deviated from the normative religious path, the harsher the penance and punishment.34 The spread of Christianity over Europe was complete, and the gods of the pagans, those who had been turned into demons, were slowly losing their powers. They could not do much harm to believers of the true faith.

But as we have seen, the beliefs in those practices did not disappear as the church wished them to. They cropped up among the laity from time to time, in confessions or something overheard by the local priest. Clarifications on how to undermine these beliefs had to be given.

The churchmen did not sit idly. Satan and his horde of demons had a role to play, and Satan’s power and influence was worrisome to say the least. Synthesis of beliefs in sorcery and magic merged with demonological tracts, giving birth to diabolical sorcery and witchcraft.

By the fifteenth century, there were still a few skeptics about the nature and truth of sorcery and witchcraft.35 Though it was already accepted by his time, the first thing that Krämer did in the Malleus malleficarum was to insist that witches were indeed real, that the devil could exert power over the minds of men and women – with the permission of God36 – and that to deny it is heresy.37

34 Kross and Peters (20012) pp. 2-5; (2002) pp. 205-206. 35 Most of those skeptics about witchcraft, such as Reginald Scot, Thomas Hobbes, and Friedrich Spee wrote during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. 36 This is explained in Part I, Question XII of the Malleus maleficarum: “Whether the Permission of Almighty God is an Accompaniment of Witchcraft.” 37 The title for Part I, Question I in the Malleus maleficarum is: “Whether the Belief that there are such Beings as Witches is so Essential a Part of the Catholic Faith that Obstinacy to maintain the Opposite Opinion manifestly savours of Heresy.”

10 The Ingredient of a Witch

By the time the Malleus was published, the intellectuals writing about witches already had a set of beliefs that they applied to all witches. The most important of these beliefs was that of the witch’s pact with the Devil. It was this pact, performed face-to- face, that gave the witch the power to perform maleficium, harmful magic, and also brought the witch into the Devil’s service. For in fact, as the educated of Europe believed, the witch was the servant, or rather the slave of the Devil, in contrast to the educated court ‘magicians’ of old.

King James I of England wrote:

“Surelie, the difference vulagar put betweixt them, is verrie merrie,

and in a maner true; for they say, that the Witches ar servants

onelie, as slaues to the Devil; but the Necromanciers are his

maisters and commanders.”38

These necromancers, also known as magi, were men who would conjure spirits and summon demons to gain forbidden knowledge. The practitioners of such magic were usually literate and well educated men, very different from the common witch who would later be prosecuted and hunted.39 It was thought that the necromancer retained some form of control over the Devil, but for the scholastics it was not enough. They reasoned that the demons would never do anything without some form of compensation or remuneration. Their conclusion was that these magi, just like the illiterate witch who helped find a stolen item, had made a pact with the Devil. The renowned thirteenth and

38 James VI and I, Daemonologie; Includes News from Scotland, on the Death of a Notable Sorcerer (Edinburgh, 1597; repr. New York, 1966), p. 9. 39 Levack (1987), p. 33.

11 fourteenth century Italian canonist Giovanni d’Andrea (Johannes Andreae) wrote: “Those are to be called heretics who forsake God and seek the aid of the Devil.”40

And so, all magic was derived from the Devil, even the simple peasant magic.

This magic was acquired through a pact with the Devil, with the witch paying homage to the Devil by bowing down before him or kissing his buttocks; often by renouncing the

Christian faith and trampling on the cross for good measure. The Devil would mark the witch’s body as a sign of her allegiance to him; in addition the witch will usually be given some material good y, which will later turn out to be animal dung or some other useless material. The devil always seemed to have the upper hand, and the witches and those who wanted to or were seduced to become witches, never seemed to learn any better. The Kentish gentleman Reginald Scot wrote in his Discoverie of Witchcraft:

“ALAS! If they were so subtill, as witchmongers make them to be,

they would espie that it were mere follie for them, not onelie to

make a bargaine with the divell to throw their soules into hell fire,

but their bodies to the tortures of temporall fire and death, for the

accomplishments of nothing that may benefit themselves at all…

Yhea, if they were sesibe, they would saie to the divell; Whie

should I hearken to you, when you will deceive me? Did you not

promise my neighbout mother Dutton to save and rescue hir; and

yet lo she is hanged? Surelie this would appose the divell verie

sore. And it is a wonder, that none, from the beginning of the

40 J. Hansen, Zauberwahn, Inquisition, und Hexenprozess im Mittelalter und die Entstehung de grossen Hexenverfolgung (Munich: 1901, 1964) p. 240, taken from Russel, (1974) p. 174.

12 world, till this daie, hath made this and such like objections,

whereto the divell could never make answer.”41

Closely related to the belief in the pact with the Devil, was the belief that those who had made such pacts secretly met in remote locations to worship him. These meetings would include cannibalistic infanticide, naked dancing, ritual intercourse with the Devil, wild orgies which included heterosexual as well as homosexual42 activities, gluttony, preparations of unguents and potions, and in some cases a parody of the

Catholic Mass.43 These accounts bear a great similarity to the assemblies ascribed to heretics such as the Waldensians and the Cathars, to the early Christians by the Romans, and Bacchanalia of the ancient Greeks. But the beliefs in the witches’ Sabbath and the pact with the Devil were not interdependent, and references to the Sabbath did not appear in many witch trials. Even the Malleus Malificarum had little to say about these meetings of worship.

Flight was another element commonly associated with the witches, and one that is closely related to the Sabbath. At times, the Sabbath was held in very far away places, and the only way for witches to get there way by flying great distances on animals, pitchforks, brooms, or by transforming themselves into animals.44

To conclude, what Levack calls the ‘Cumulative Concept of Witchcraft’45 is the combination of several beliefs: the pact with the Devil, from which the witch gains the power to cause maleficium, harmful magic; the Sabbath, where witches congregate to

41 Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (London: 1584), Book III, Chapter VIII, p. 29 42 Homosexual should be understood as same-sex, and thus can be used for both women and men. 43 Accounts of the parody appear mainly in French, Spanish and Italian assemblies. Levack (1987), p. 37. 44 The belief in the flight has been discussed above. 45 Levack (1987), p. 27.

13 worship the Devil by performing obscene sexual rituals, cannibalism, and infanticide; and the ability to fly, closely related to the witches’ Sabbath. While not all of these concepts had to be mentioned in the witch trials, the main ingredient always was the individual or collective worship of the Devil.

A Common Picture

After observing several trials and reading about others, Reginal Scot describes the typical witch as “commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, and full of wrinkles,”46 and

“toothless, old, important, and unweldie woman.”47

In 1646, a clergyman by the name of John Gaule published a tract attacking witch-hunting; in one passage he describes his fear of what could happen when inquisitions and accusations go unchecked:

”… every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furr’d brow, a hairy

lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voyce, of a scolding

tongue, having a ragged coate on her back, a skullcap on her head,

a spindle in her hand, and a dog or cat by her side; is not only

suspected, but pronounced for witch.”48

Both Scot and Gaule, writing against the witch-hunts,49 described the most common witch they knew: the old woman. The fact that they were both using these

46 Scot (1584), Book I, Chapter III, p. 4. 47 Ibid, Book I, Chapter VI, p. 8. 48 J.A Sharpe, (ed.) English Witchcraft, 1560-1736 (London, 2003). vol. 3, John Gaule, Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts (1646). 49 John Gaule attacked witch-hunting and the method by which it was done, especially by Hopkins, yet contrary to Scot, he believed in the power of the devil and that witches were a real threat.

14 descriptions to ridicule the amount of power witch-mongers ascribed to such wretched beings does not make it any less true. Unknowingly, they helped set the image of the stereotypical witch that would persist well into modern times.

The typical witch of the early modern period has been discussed countless times in many scholarly works.50 I will not repeat their words here, but will go over the main points.

Sex: The typical witch of the early modern period, not only in contemporary books and tracts about witchcraft, but also in the surviving court records and pamphlets, is a woman. Female witches constitute about seventy-five percent of all defendants brought to the courts of Europe. Like any statistic, it breaks down once we take a closer look at each area.

Age: Witches were old. The majority of those prosecuted for witchcraft were over

50 years old, an old age in those times. Most researchers mentioning the age of the witch refer to them as women and will explain why more old than young women were accused.

This is consistent with the neglect of male witches in the academic literature. In general, studies divide the witches into age groups and then explain the reason for one age group being more prosecuted than another from the female witch perspective, as if all the cases used for the statistic were female cases. I have yet to see a study classifying male witches by age and explaining the reason for the division.51

Marital Status: It is hard to ascribe a specific marital status to the witches. While we can say almost for certain that there were more unmarried than married witches

50 R. Briggs, Witches & Neighbors (New York, 1996). Levack (1987), Russell (1972), and G. R Quaife, Godly Zeal and Furious Rage (Kent, 1987) just to name a few. 51 It is possible that such a study exists but if so, I have not come across it. Such a study, should be very interesting and enlightening, but is sadly out of the scope of this paper.

15 among the females, the majority is not by a great margin. Among the unmarried, there were more widows than women who had never married.

Economic Status: Most witches were poor, beggars, and vagabonds, as these were usually also the weakest and most vulnerable members of the community. This is found in many of the demonological and skeptical texts from the period. But there are always exceptions, where a wealthy merchant or other prominent members of a community would be accused of witchcraft. Reasons could be jealousy, the wish to acquire the accused witch’s property, or a political vendetta.

The Typical and Atypical Witch

If we look at the continent of Europe, the male witch was automatically an atypical witch. The demonologists usually pointed at the ‘weaker’ female sex, while the skeptics, having read the demonological tracts and seen the witch trials, usually tried to refute the theories of the demonologists by responding that female witches could not have all the powers that were attributed to them. Very rarely, if at all, did the skeptics talk about male witches.

But by breaking down the general statistic of Europe into countries, and even provinces, we see a different portrait. In Estonia, Normandy, and especially Iceland, male witches were typically accused, and the female witches took second place. By the same token, examination of the writings of some of the European witchcraft experts, it is easy to notice how many of them neglected gender.52

Women were more prone to fall into demonism and diabolical witchcraft than men, this was taken for granted by the intellectuals; but there are male witches as well,

52 S. Clark, Thinking with Demons (Oxford: 1997), pp. 116-117.

16 they tell us, as men may be weak or become greedy for power. The next chapter will discuss this issue.

17 2. The Male Witch and the Intellectuals

The past several decades has shown an increase in interest in the study of witchcraft and its roots. Many studies have focused on the extreme misogyny of the treatises written by the witch experts, and how these treatises increased hatred of women in Europe. But the ideas about women in these treatises are not new, and they were present in European society even when Aristo claimed that women were deformed males.

The Church Fathers did not do much to eliminate such thought, and the faults and weaknesses of women were written about and debated throughout the Middle Ages.53

Nor is there anything new in the Malleus Maleficarum; it simply builds on the general principle that women are weaker than men.

But when we take a closer look at these treatises, we see that their authors did not neglect the male witches, they found him just as present and as dangerous as any female witch. Unlike some modern scholars who studied the period of the witch-hunts and the demonological tracts written during that period, the demonologists did not believe that witchcraft was sex-specific.

The following chapter will review the demonological treatises written during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, and infer from this body of literature how their authors saw the phenomena of male witches.

The treatises are listed chronologically by date of publication.

53 Ibid. pp.112-11.8

18 Formicarius by Johannes Nider [1435-38]54

Johannes Nider (1380-1438) was a Dominican Brother from about 1402. He studied philosophy and theology in the universities of Vienna and Cologne, and was later prior of the convent in Nuremberg and later of the convent at Basel. From 1436 until his death two years later he was dean of the theological faculty in Vienna.

The Formicarius (The Ant-Colony) is his best known work which explores the philosophical and theological questions of the day, and discusses some ecclesiological reforms. The five-part book takes the form of a dialogue between a doubter and theologian; the fifth part describes the activities of evildoers and people who practice witchcraft.

Nider praises Peter von Greyrz, a judge from Bren “… who has burned many witches of both sexes…” Peter relates various tales to Nider including one about a man named Stadelin55 who caused the loss of fertility in a certain household. He also speaks of

Scavius, who could transform himself into a mouse; and his disciple Happo, who was

Stadelin’s teacher, and together they caused sterility and hailstorms, traveled through the air, and injured people and property, and inflicted other sorts of mischief. Nider also gives the example of a confession of a monk named Benedict who, before joining the

Benedictine Order, had been “… a Necromancer, juggler, buffoon, and strolling player…”

Even though Chapter Eight of Book Five discusses both wicked and good women, and why women are in general more susceptible to witchcraft, it is obvious that Nider

54 Kross and Peters (2001), pp. 155-159. 55 Stadelin is also mention in the Malleus Maleficarum.

19 was aware of male witches, and did not see witchcraft as a sex-specific crime or heresy.

More women yes, but not the total.

Summis desiderentes affectibus by Pope Innocent VIII [1484]

Pope Innocent VIII was born Giovani Battisata Cibo in Genoa (1432-1492) and was raised to papacy in 1484. Like other popes of that era, Innocent was worried about heresy and acted to stop it. When Kramer and Sprenger approached the pope with tales of their difficulties with the local ecclesiastical authorities in prosecuting heretical witchcraft, Innocent VIII issued this bull. While for a long time it has been considered to be the instigator of the great witch-hunts of Europe, it is very similar to other papal documents on heresy, disbelief, the duty to preach the right way of the religion, and to prosecute those who do not follow the right path.56 Its great influence, so to speak, comes from its association with the Malleus Maleficarum.

The Summis desiderantes starts by denouncing heresy and to correct those who are in error, and then goes on at length on the crimes of witchcraft, urging the prosecution of such people, and ordering that the inquisitors doing so not be hindered.

Pope Innocent VIII at no point in the text accuses a certain group of people of witchcraft, or identifies them as the majority of witches, sorcerers, or enchanters. After naming the geographical areas which he believed to be infested with witches, he writes:

“… many persons of both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and

straying from the Catholic Faith, have abandoned themselves to the

devils, incubi and succubi…”

56 Other popes who acted against sorcery and the heresy of witchcraft are John XXII, Eugenius IV, and Nicholas V.

20

Clearly male witches are not unheard of and are not an uncommon sight. And since the bull was elicited by those who would later write the Malleus Maleficarum, they too must have heard of and seen male witches, maybe even prosecuted some.

Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer (Institoris) and James Sprenger [1487]

The ‘Hammer of the Witches’ made its appearance in 1487 and was printed with the Papal Bull Summis desiderentes of Innocent VIII as a preface, to it so as to lend it more credit, and with an “Official letter of approbation” from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Cologne. This is problematic in and of itself as, it had been arranged through a series of academic negotiations.57

It was written by two Dominican inquisitors: Heinrich Krämer (Institoris) and

James (Jakob) Sprenger.58 Krämer was neither well respected nor liked. Named inquisitor in 1474 he quickly became involved in witchcraft trials. His views on witchcraft were considered extreme by most of his fellow clergymen, as well as the secular authorities, who opposed him in his trials. In 1485 Krämer officiated over a large trial in Innsbruck where fifty-seven people were investigated, Institoris was apparently so intrigued by the witches’ sexual behavior that it irritated the local bishop who halted the trials.59 Sprenger joined the Dominicans and studied later in Cologne where he became a professor of

57 Peters (2002), p. 239. 58 Sprenger’s role in the project is now generally doubted. See: Anglo (1977); Segl (1988); Bibliotheca Lamiarum (1994: 107-10), references taken from Peters (2002) p. 239. 59 Russell (1972), pp.230-231; L. Apps and A. Gow, Male Witches in Early Modern Europe (Manchester, 2003) pp. 19-20 n. 6.

21 theology; he was inquisitor in the Rhineland in 1470 and worked with Krämer, until he was “sickened” by his colleague.60

The Malleus was an Inquisitorial handbook and had a scholastic organization, starting with a question, opposing arguments and lastly conclusions.61 It is divided into three parts. The first part proves the existence of sorcery and witchcraft, why women are more vulnerable to it, and how the devil ensnares them. Part Two describes the kinds of witches, their powers and how to destroy them and cure these spells. Part three deals with the judicial proceedings, in both ecclesiastical and civil courts, how to recognize a witch, and how to destroy a witch.

The Malleus is arguably the most misogynistic of all demonological treatises.

Almost every chapter in the books explains how dangerous and weak women are, and consequently how susceptible they are to the devil’s machinations. But even in the

Malleus Maleficarum we see plenty of male witches.

According to Institoris and Sprenger, there were three kinds of male witch.62 The first and most dangerous were the Archer-Wizards.63 After shooting arrows at the crucifix on Good Friday and uttering some form of apostasy to the Devil, these men could shoot with high precision. They could kill three or four men a day, as long as they were looking at the man they wanted to kill, the Devil would guide the arrow to the victim.

The second type of male witch was just as sacrilegious and, according to the

Malleus, should be treated just as harshly as the Archer-Wizards. These male witches defile the image of Christ to become immune from harm. For example, if they wished to

60 Russell (1972), p. 231. 61 Idem. 62 Summers (trans) (1928), Malleus maleficarum Part II, Question I, Chapter XVI, pp. 150-154 63 I use the word ‘Wizard’ reluctantly. As I do not have the Latin version of the text, I assume it was thus translated so as to differentiate it from the witch, which the translator probably saw as inherently female.

22 have their arms immune, they broke the arms of the crucified figure of Christ and carried them at all times.64

The last type of the male witches described by the Malleus is the least dangerous.

Such a witch could enchant weapons to protect himself from being hurt by them, and to use certain secret words and signs to do minor tricks with charms or such things. These witches should not be dealt with as harshly as the Archer-Wizard since they do not always know that they have sinned. Some believing that they are saying prayers, and should be allowed to mend their ways if they show contrition.65

But these crimes are not the only witchcraft practiced by male witches. The

Malleus agreed that both men and women could perform almost any kind of maleficium.

Some crimes were attributed more to one sex than to the other. Crimes associated with the killing or injury of infants and babies, even still in the mothers’ womb, were associated with women. Men were not part of the birth process, and of all women, midwives had the best access to fetuses and newborns.66 There were few exceptions, such as Stedelein, a male witch, who successively killed seven children in one woman’s womb so that she miscarried for many years afterwards.67

The Malleus’ bias against women is stated clearly on almost every page.

However, the authors used both masculine and feminine forms of the word maleficus.

They used the masculine plural term to describe large groups, which might comprise witches of both sexes. They also used the masculine singular form. A word count done by

64 Summers (trans) (1928), Malleus maleficarum, Part II, Question I, Chapter XVI. p. 154. 65 Ibid. pp. 154-155. 66 Ibid. Part I, Question XI, p. 66. 67 Ibid. Part II, Question I, Chapter VI, p. 118.

23 Apps and Gow show how many times witches were referred to as masculine and how many as feminine: out of 650 references, 197, or about thirty percent, are masculine.68

On the Demon-Mania of Witches by Jean Bodin [1580]

Unlike most proponents of witchcraft, Bodin (1529-1596) was not a monk or a clergyman; he was a professor of law at Toulouse, royal adviser to the king of France, and a public prosecutor at Laon. He wrote treatises on the philosophy of history, political theories, and was a defender of religious tolerance. That is why it is interesting to note that Jean Bodin was so firm and fierce in his belief in the existence of witchcraft, and in the need to prosecute and eliminate this imminent threat. He even accused skeptics of witchcraft.69 Demonomanie des sorciers was one of the most widely-read treatises on demonology of the era.

Bodin believed that rumors of witchcraft were almost always true, and so, it was essential to pursue a suspect till he of she were accused and dealt with, using torture even if the suspect was disabled, very young, or very old. If correct procedures were taken, every witch condemned would be rightly condemned.

Bodin did not try to explain why witches were women.70 And while many of the examples he gives in his book refer to women as witches, some male witches present themselves. Court magicians, for example, are very dangerous in Bodin’s eyes, for they are close to the ruler of the land and may use their influence and power to destroy the state, “For it is stated that if there is a sorcerer who follows the court, of magician, or soothsayer, or augurer or one interpreting dreams by divining art, of whatever rank and

68 Apps and Gow (2003), p. 104. 69 Bodin accused Johann Weyer of witchcraft and called for his prosecution. 70 Clark (1997), p. 116.

24 however great a lord he might be, he shall be exposed to torment and torture without making allowances for his rank.”71 Bodin was also worried about priests who had made a pact with the devil: “How much more punishable then is the sorcerer-priest who, instead of consecrating, blasphemes execrably. This is way Plato makes foremost among his laws one which requires that the sorcerer-priest be put to death without remission. For the indecency of the sorcery is much more atrocious in one who handles sacred things.”72

The Discoveries of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot [1584]

By 1597 Scot’s book was well enough known that King James I wrote the following into the preface of his own book, explaining why he saw fit to write a book about witchcraft:

“… against the damnable opinion of two principally in our age,

wherof the one called SCOT an Englishman, is not ashamed in publike

print to denay, that there can be such a thing as Witch-craft…”73

By 1603 King James I ordered all existing copies of Scot’s book to be burned. If they had still been alive, no doubt Sprenger, Institoris, and some of the other

“witchmongers” would have used much harsher terms and would have joined in on the burning.

Reginald Scot was born to a respected Kentish family in 1538. He studied, but never completed his degree, in Harts Hall, Oxford. After that he settled in Kent in a private business and was active in public life till his death on October 9, 1599. The

71 Bodin, On the Punishment that Witches Merit, from Kros and Peters2 p. 294. 72 Ibid. p. 299. 73 Demonology, The Preface to the Reader, p. xi.

25 Discoveries is a thorough book, and in writing it, Scot tested some spells and demonic conjuration to see if they really worked, interviewed alleged witches, and kept up-to-date on the demonological literature of his time.

Throughout his book, whenever Scot writes about a witch, or about what a witch does, he refers to the witch as a ‘she.’ Witches, in Scot’s writing, are usually described thus:

“One sort of such as are said to bee witches, are women which be

commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of

wrinkles;…”74

And:

“And we see, that ignorant, and impotent women, or witches, are the

causes of incantations and charmes… For Alas! What an unapt

instrument is a toothles, old, impotent, and unweldie woman to flie in

the aier? Truelie, the devil little needs such instruments to bring his

purposes to passe.”75

His view is not exclusive, he does cite examples of male witches from the

Malleus Maleficarum and Bodin,76 but most of Scot’s references to men who deal in some sort of magic are conjurers of spirits. Some of these conjurers may be priests,77 others claim to conjure the devil. In Chapter V of Book II, under Presumptions, whereby

74 Scot (1584), p. 4. 75 Ibid. p. 8. 76 Ibid. pp. 26, 37, 51. 77 Ibid. p. 2.

26 witches are condemned, he asks: “Item, though a conjurer be not to be condemned for curing the diseased by virtue of his art: yet must a witch die for the like case.”78 Scot is skeptic of conjurers of any kind, and of witches. Only God has the power to affect the nature of things. To say otherwise is to take away His power.

Demonology by King James VI of Scotland (I of England) [1597]

King James was born in 1566 to Mary Stuart (also known as Bloody Mary), and it is unclear whether his father was Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, or David Rizzio, Mary’s

Italian secretary. James’s father was murdered before his birth, leaving Queen Mary to the throne until she was forced to abdicate by Elizabeth I of England in 1567. James ascended to the throne of Scotland at thirteen months of age and lived under regencies until taking the throne himself. In 1603, with the death of Queen Elizabeth I, James became King James I of England.

He believed in the “divine right of kings”79 and so, the evil that befell his people was punishment by God. He believed that witches had plotted to place a curse on him, and while he was king of Scotland supervised the torture of those accused of witchcraft.

King James wholeheartedly believed in witches, the “Devils ministers,” the power of

Satan, and that by opposing them he was carrying out the duties placed upon him by God.

The Demonology was written in 1597 as a dialogue between Philomathes (the questioner) and Epistemon (who answers and explains). The work is divided into three books. Book I describes magic and proves that it exists. Book II focuses on sorcery and

78 Ibid. p. 15. 79 A doctrine that sovereigns derive their right to rule by virtue of their birth alone—a right based on the law of God and of nature. Authority is transmitted to a ruler from his ancestors, whom God himself appointed to rule. And while his tutors Buchanan tried to instill in him the theory that the King is beholden to his people for his power he rejected it.

27 witchcraft. Book III describes spirits and demons that “troubles men or women” and concludes with a chapter describing the punishment that witches and magicians deserve.

The book speaks of “Sorcerers” and “Witches,” “Necromancers” and

“Enchanters,” almost always in the plural making it impossible to distinguish between male and female practitioners. Only in Book II Chapter V, when describing the powers of the witches, does he point out that there are more women than men witches:

Epi: “… As for little trifling turnes that women haue ado with, he

causeth them to ioynt dead corpses, & to make powders therof,

mixing such other thinges there amongst, as he giue vnto them.”

Phi: “But before yee goe further, permit mee I pray you to interrupt you

on worde, which yee haue put mee in memorie of, by speaking of

Women. What can be the cause that there are twentie women

giuen to that craft, where ther is one man?”

Epi: “The reason is easie, for as that sexe is frailer than man is, so is it

easier to be intrapped in these grosse snares of the Deuill, as was

ouer well proued to be true, by the Serpents deceiuing of Eua at

the beginning, which makes him the homelier with that sexe

sensine.”80

According to recent archival research, the ratio can more accurately be set at about one man for every six women.81 In his News from Scotland, at the end of the book,

King James relates a trial of witches that had occurred in 1591. The principal actor in this

80 Demonology, Book II, Chapter V. p. 43 (Bold added). 81 Apps and Gow (2003), Table 1, p. 45. Scotland 1560-1709 has a total of 2421 cases with witchcraft prosecution, of which 16% are male.

28 ‘drama’ is one “Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer.” Doctor Fian was also known as Iohn

(John) Cunningham and acted as a “Regester” to the devil, preaching to other witches and doing many vile deeds.

And so while King James certainly follows the fashion in naming women as the principal culprit in this crime due to their inherent weakness and frailty, it is not as apparent as in some of the other books discussed in this chapter.

Compendium Maleficarum by Francesco Maria Guazzo [1608]

Very little is known of the Ambrosian monk Francesco Maria Guazzo. Even the records of his birth and death have been lost, and it can only be said that he lived from around the middle of the sixteenth century to about the middle of the seventeenth century.

The book was dedicated to the protector of the Order of Saint Ambrose, Lord Orazio

Maffei, and was written in Milan so:

“… that men, considering the cunning of witches, might study and live

piously and devoutly in the Lord. And although it may provoke the

idle jests of the censorious (for what is more difficult than to satisfy

every palate?), yet I conceive that it will be of some avail to those who

would escape the mortal venom of sorcerers.”82

Guazzo’s book, like many others, is divided into three parts. Books I and II describe the powers of the witches and the devil, how they come by these powers, how they perform the pacts with the devil, and what evils the witch can cause and how. The

82Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium maleficarum (Milan, 1608), ed. M. Summers, trans. E.A. Ashwin (London 1929; New York, 1988), from the dedication of the book.

29 third book explains how to treat those who have been bewitched. All of the chapters consist of two parts: “Argument” and “Examples.” In his arguments he writes in general terms, never referring to the witch as either male or female, no single group is pointed out as more numerous, and neither does he have a special chapter, as does the Malleus, that is there solely to explain why women are more likely to be witches.83

Guazzo’s acknowledgement of male witches is apparent throughout the book in the many Examples he provides to his Arguments.84 “…a conjurer in France names Trois

Eschelles, who in the sight of all and in the presence of Charles IX, called the

Praiseworthy King, charmed from a certain nobleman standing at a distance from him the rings of his necklace, so that they flew one by one into his hand…,” the man was accused of and confessed to being in league with the devil.85 In Catania lived a man called

Liodorus, “This man, by the force of his incantations, appeared to change men into brute beasts, to effect a metamorphosis of nearly all things into new shapes, and instantly to bring to himself objects very far distant from him,” Liodorus was accused but managed to escape and was finally killed by the Bishop of Catania who “received a sudden power from God and in the midst of the city caused him to be cast in the sight of all into a furnace of fire…”86 Another case tells of a youth in love with a wealthy maiden who in desperation turned to “…a fellow servant from Germany who, as he had heard, had a demon always at his service.”87

83 Summers (trans) (1928), Malleus maleficarum, Part I, Question VI, pp. 41-48. 84 Some of these examples can be found on the following pages of the Summers edition to the Ashwin translation of the Compendium maleficarum: 7, 10, 23, 32, 41, 56, 85, 90-91. This is by no means a comprehensive list. 85 Summers (ed.) (1929), Compendium maleficarum, Book I, Chapter II, p. 5. 86 Ibid. Book I, Chapter II, p. 6. 87 Ibid. Book I, Chapter II, p. 18.

30 Of the examples of people who had consorted with the devil, transformed into animals, flown, participated in Sabbaths, and performed maleficia, among other things, there is, at least in the first book, a slight majority of women. Thirty examples depict women, and twenty-five tell the stories of male witches.

Guazzo’s Compendium provides evidence that men and women were viewed as equally capable of sealing pacts with the devil and performing maleficia with more than just words: the woodcut illustrations.88 The Compendium contains twenty-three woodcuts depicting witches stepping on the cross in front of the devil, being anointed by the devil, offering infants for sacrifice, receiving the devil’s blessing, paying homage to the devil as he sits on a throne, listening to the preaching of the devil, causing maleficium by burning a village, feasting with demons, riding the devil in the form of an animal through the air, performing the Obscene Kiss, dancing with demons, exhuming bodies and cutting up children, and cooking infants in preparation for the feast. All illustrations have both male and female witches, sometimes more women, but interestingly enough, most illustrations feature more men. About sixty percent of the figures in the illustrations, with the exception of demons or victims, are male.89

Conclusions

All witchcraft theorists of the early modern period held to the view that witchcraft was a predominantly female activity. It is almost a mantra in almost every work: women

88 These appear in the Summers (1988) edition on pages: 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23, 33, 34, 35, 36*, 37, 38*, 39, 51, 83, 84*, 89(2), 90*, 92*, 95*, 96*, 98*, 105, 129.* (Pages marked with * have illustrations that appeared in previous pages). See Appendix B for examples. 89 Some of the figures in the illustrations have only their head visible and so it is hard to distinguish at times men from women, but it is clear to see that by looking through them that there are a bit more men than women present.

31 are weak, prone to witchcraft, and more likely to practice it than men. And yet, all these authors give us abundant examples and descriptions, sometimes almost in the same breath, of male witches.

Of all the texts presented here, only the Malleus maleficarum attributed certain crimes to men alone: “Of Three Ways in which Men and not Women may be Discovered to be Addicted to Witchcraft.”90 The Malleus also tries to blame some women, due to their role as midwives, for the killing of unborn babies and offering newborns to the devil. While the authors claim that “this form of homicide is associated rather with women than with men,”91 they later in the book cite the example of male witches causing miscarriages and abortions.92 In no other text is one group blamed solely for a certain kind of witchcraft. Guazzo’s Compendium is full of examples of every kind of maleficium and diabolical witchcraft describing both male and female witches.

If we look at the use of the grammatical form used to describe a witch throughout the works of the early modern demonologists, we find that these demonologists had no qualms about using the masculine form. Book V of Nider’s Formicarius uses the male form seventy-eight percent of the time; the Malleus maleficarum does so about thirty percent; Bodin’s De la demonomanie des sorciers uses the masculine form 820 times and the feminine form 399.93 A quick calculation using the numbers given by Apps and Gow show that about forty-nine percent of the references to witches in the demonological tracts use the masculine form. Interestingly enough, it is in the works of the skeptics that

90 Summers (trans) (1928), Malleus maleficarum Part II, Question I, Chapter XVI, pp. 150. 91 Ibid. Part I, Question XII, Chapter XI, p. 66. 92 Ibid. Part II, Question I, Chapter VII, p. 118. 93 Apps and Gow (2003), pp. 100-108 and Table 2, p. 104.

32 we see the most references to women as witches, though that could simply be the reaction to what they saw in the courts, and from their readings of the witchcraft tracts.

The significance of these two points is central to the realization that while the intellectuals of early modern Europe did indeed see women as the main culprits of the

European witch hunt, they at no time claimed that witchcraft was a sex-specific crime.

Their insistence that the great majority of witches were female is not always supported by their own words, their own examples, and their own grammatical use of male and female terms. These texts support a slight female majority, not an overwhelming one

33

3. Cases of Male witches

That women dominated the courts of law of early modern Europe as the accused in witchcraft cases is unquestionable. This has been established since the earliest scholarly works concerning the European Witch-Hunt at the beginning of the twentieth century, and from it derived the many works trying to explain why this was so and who the typical witch was.

So much work had gone into this subject, yet only a small portion has been concerned with the male witches. Cynically it may be said that many of these works were sexist, even if some of their authors were so unconsciously.

We already now that male witches constituted about twenty-five percent of the witches prosecuted in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This may be deduced from surviving court records, pamphlets, and the examples mentioned in the writings of contemporary writers, whether they be condemning or advocating the idea of witchcraft and the prosecution of so-called witches. But whenever a discussion arises as to which kind of person would most likely be prosecuted and executed, the descriptions are of women. Before we can describe the male witch, it is important to be familiar with several cases in which men play a main role.

The Witches from Normandy [France, 1564-1660]

Currently 381 cases of witchcraft prosecution are known to us from the

Parlement of Rouen, of those, 278 are the cases of male witches.94 The stream of

94 Apps and Gow (2003), Table 1, p. 45.

34 witchcraft cases and executions was steady in Normandy, with the records showing no real witch-hunting panic,95 thought the number of executions was relatively high compared to that in other French provinces.96

Shepherds were the singled out for accusations of witchcraft in Normandy, as they would use spells to keep their herd safe from predators and illness. Charges of being able to cure, or as is the case of a fifty-year-old shepherd, refusing to cure someone,97 and poisoning using toads’ venom were also part of the accusations for which the

Norman witches were prosecuted. The youngest defendant was a teenager accused of using the Eucharist to cast a spell,98 and the oldest was a man of sixty-six who was

“caught with a dangerous-looking box holding some toads and mysterious powders.”99

But it appears as if most witches were between the ages of thirty-five and fifty.

The majority of accused male witches in Normandy were shepherds, followed by clergymen who constituted about ten percent of those executed, and then blacksmiths.100

The priests may have been accused of having found lost objects and sorcery, and the blacksmiths were usually accused of bewitching horses.

The Examination of John Walsh (England, 1566)101

On August 20, 1566, John Walsh, from Netherberry parish in Dosetshere, was brought to examination in front of witnesses in the house of Sheriff Mayster Thomas

Sinkeler, to answer an accusation of witchcraft.

95 Monter, W., ‘Toads and Eucharists: The Male Witches of Normandy, 1564-1660,’ French Historical Studies, 20:4 (1997), p. 567. 96 Ibid. p. 572. 97 Ibid. p. 375. 98 Ibid. p. 586, and another case of shepherds using the Eucharist for spell on p. 591. 99 Ibid. p. 578. 100 Ibid. pp. 583-584. 101 M. Gibson, Early Modern Witches (London and New York, 2000), pp. 25-32.

35 John Walsh was a physician and a surgeon, a ‘healer’; he learned this ‘art’ from the priest Robert of Drayton, a Catholic, a “papist”. It seems as if that fact alone would have been enough for the author of the pamphlet to accuse John Walsh of witchcraft, as the first two pages of the pamphlet recounts the tale of several Popes who had colluded with the Devil, demons, and familiars, some as sorcerers and necromancers. Sorcery and witchcraft, according to the pamphleteer, were deeply rooted in the Roman Church:

“These with a great many mor of that abhominable sea of

Rome wer thus occupied, whose endes were most terrible,

as their lives were most wicked. And these faculties their

inferior sorte, as Moonkes, Friers, and Priestes also used,

and would teach the same witchcrafts and Sorceries to such

men and women as they had committed evyll with.”102

But while the questions of his interrogators had nothing to do with the warring factions of Christianity, the animosity is ever present, and crops up from time to time during the transcribing of the pamphlet by its author.

Walsh was not a scientifically-trained man. When asked how he practiced his

‘art,’ knowing what medicine to use, he responded that “hee useth hys Phisicke or

Surgerie by Arte, naturallye practiced by him” and “not by anye other yll or secret meanes.”103 When they ask him about the heat and cold of the body, as derived from the humours theory, he does not know what they are speaking of. The humours theory, an

102 Ibid. p. 28. 103 Ibid. p. 29.

36 integral aspect of medical studies since the Middle Ages, was unknown to this simple

‘healer.’ His knowledge, it was obvious to his questioners, came from magic.

Magic, of course, brings with it other concerns. Walsh had a deep belief in fairies, claiming there were three kinds, “white, greene, & black”104 and that he spoke with them in the special places where these spirits congregate. From then on, John Walsh speaks of another kind of spirit, the witch’s familiar. Like the witches’ Sabbath on the continent, an element largely absent from the English cases, the familiar had a central role in many English witch trials. Walsh tells his interrogators that he “had a booke of hys said maister, which had great circles in it, werein he would set two waxe candles a cross of virgin waxe, to raise the Familiar spirite,” and that “his Familiar would somtyme come unto hym lyke a gray blacksih Culver, and sometime lyke a brended Dog, and sometimes lyke a man in all proportions, saving that he had cloven feete.”105 But unlike some other witches accused and interrogated, Walsh used his connection with the spirit familiar “to search for things theft stolen, & for no other purpose at al.”106 Still, payment had to be made either by feeding the familiar,107 or by giving it some of ones own blood.

Walsh adamantly protested that he had never tried to hurt anyone, for he knew that “he that doth hurt, can never heal again any man, nor can at any time do good,”108 though he admitted knowing that some witches do use their powers to hurt people and cattle.

104 Idem. 105 Ibid. pp. 29-30. 106 Ibid. p. 30. 107 The accused witches who had a familiar doing their bidding would often say that they had to give it some form of food in return for the service it provided. This food could be a chicken, a cat, milk, etc., in many cases the accused also had to give a drop of his or her own blood along with the food. 108 Gibson (2000), p.30.

37 John Walsh was a cunning man. His medical knowledge was not formal, but it had been acquired from his master, the priest Robert of Drayton, and probably from common cures practiced among the peasants. It’s quite possible that he too was a

Catholic, a papist like his master, a fact that may have instigated some of those who came to him for cures and help in finding lost or stolen items to accuse him of witchcraft or sorcery. For while it may not have seemed suspicious for some cunning man or woman to say a prayer to help in the cure or recovery of an item, the formulation of the prayer in an unfamiliar way might arouse suspicion and fear, however.

The Witches from Trier [Germany, 1581-1593]

Sixteenth-century Europe had many witch scares, precipitating many accusations and trials, some of which spiraled almost out of control. The witch hunt in the German electorate of Trier, a territorial state ruled by a prince-archbishop, lasted for almost twelve years. Torture was used extensively, and the accused were forced to name accomplices, keeping hysteria high with ever more accused: “Scarcely any of those who were accused escaped punishment.”109 And as more people were named, people of high status were implicated: “the judge, with two Burgomasters, several councilors and

Associate Judges, canons of sundry collegiate churches, parish-priests, rural dean, were swept away in this ruin.”110 Two such were Dr. Dietrich Flade, tried and executed in

1589, and Niclas Fiedler, whose trial and execution happened two years later in 1591.

109 Kros and Peters, (20012) p. 314. 110 Idem.

38 Dr. Dietrich Flade was senior judge of the civil court at Trier, vice-governor of the city, and rector of the university. Dr. Flade holds the dubious honor of being the highest-ranking person to be tried for witchcraft in Europe.

One of the first to accuse him was a Matthias, a young boy who was “led by others into witchcraft, was accused thereof by other executed persons, and was alleged also to have been present at the witch-sabbath.”111 The boy apparently recognized him as one of the leading figures in the Sabbath. At first this accusation were not taken seriously, and Dr, Flade’s high social rank afforded him some protection, but:

“…afterward the scandal grew ever greater, and the

accusations of the witches, both old and young, men and

women, became so frequent that we were led to have the

trials, in so far as they related to him, excerpted, and find

out that twenty-three executed men and women have

confessed against him…”112

The accusations, it is said, came from several cities and some of the confessants were respectable people, at least before they were accused of witchcraft. Dr. Flade, as we have seen, was a well known figure in Trier, and as judge was undoubtedly a target for the spite of the accused and convicted, as this could easily be an example of a retaliation of people who were low on the social ladder attacking those in positions of authority.113

While this might have been the case in several instances, Dr. Flade’s case was different.

It was only after several years of presiding over the court and torture chamber that he

111 Ibid. p. 312. 112 Ibid. p. 313. 113 M.Gaskill, Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 55-57.

39 started to have doubts about the validity of the accusations and the confessions which were elicited under torture. His arranged fall came shortly after.114

Flade, it should be noted, did not just sit idle when he was accused. He tried to run, but was soon captured. Flade petitioned to be let into the monastic life in exchange for all of his property, but the petition was denied and in August of 1589 his trial began.

By September, Flade has confessed, under torture, to the charges and was sentenced to death.

The account of his execution was befitting a person of such his status. He went by foot to his place of execution, even though he was old and worn out by the ordeal and tortures and “the whole city, stirred by the novel sight, followed him.” Upon reaching the stake we are told that Flade turned to the throng that came to see his execution and beseeched them to learn from his mistake and shun the deceits of Satan. After all, a man of such social status could not be dragged to the stake and die screaming and cursing.

The former mayor of the city of Trier was executed on the October 1, 1591.

Niclas Fiedler, as were all who were accused of witchcraft and devil worshipping during the Trier witch-hunt, confessed only under torture. Upon returning to the court and being asked to repeat his confession from the torture chamber, as was the practice in such cases, he:

“…began to say he was an unfortunate man and that only

under pain had he confessed things that were not true. If he

admitted this, then he would damn his soul, because he

114 W. Monter, ‘Witch Trials in Continental Europe 1560-1660’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Period of the Witch Trials (Philadelphia, 2002) p. 24.

40 would thereby do wrong to himself and other men. He had

nothing to do with these things.”115

This kind of denial was common in many cases in which torture was used.

Fiedler was carried back to the torture chamber, bound and beaten. Fiedler again started confessing about having been lured by the devil and flying to Franzenknüppchen where he joined in feasting and dancing, naming accomplices and planning to destroy wine and corn. His torture was so severe that the \mayor, a Dr. Hulzbach, who was outside of the chamber ordered it to stop. Fiedler was released and was asked again to confess, but with the threat of the torturer still hanging above him, he recounted again the same confession, adding more elaboration and even named Flade and placed him in the

Sabbath.

News from Scotland [Scotland, 1591]

While four witches ‘star’ in this pamphlet, the main protagonist is John (Iohn)

Cunningham also known as Dr. Fian, a master of the School at Saltpans in Lowthian.

Even though his story is the last one recounted in the pamphlet, his name figures prominently on the title page of the pamphlet.

Dr. Fian’s name came up at the interrogation of the first witch in the pamphlet, one Geillis Duncane, who claimed that he was the only man who “suffered to come to the Diuels readinges.”116 The doctor was subsequently taken to prison and placed under

115 B.P. Levack (ed.), The Witchcraft Sourcebook (London and New York, 2004), p. 176. 116 James VI and I (1966), News from Scotland, p. 18.

41 torture to which he resisted due to some “charmed Pinnes.”117 Upon the removal of the

‘Pinnes’ he started confessing to both being a “Clarke to all those that were in subiection to the Diuels seruice,”118 as well as to bewitching a man who was enamored with a woman in whom Dr. Fian was interested to fall into lunacy and madness. Also he confessed to trying to cast a love spell on the object of his affection, he insisted that it had not worked.

After confessing, Dr. Fian “renounced the deuvill and all his wicked workes, vowed to leade the life of a Christian.”119 Several days later he escaped the prison where he was held and hunted down again. Upon being captured he recanted his confessions and was put to extreme torture. But Dr. Fian, according to the pamphlet, did not break again. At last he was executed and his body thrown into a great fire that at the end of

January 1591.

Dr. Fian was treated, according to the pamphlet, much more harshly than the other witches, and that, even though one of these witches, Agnis Tompson, had confessed to trying to use witchcraft to kill King James VI of Scotland. By the time that this pamphlet was printed they were still in prison.

The Witches of Northamptonshire [England, 1612]

This pamphlet recounts the arraignments and executions of five witches: Agnes

Brown and her daughter Joane Vaughan, Hellen Jenkenson, Mary Barber, and Arthur

Bill. All were executed on July 22.

Arthur Bill was doomed from the first paragraph:

117 Ibid. p. 19. 118 Idem. 119 Ibid. p. 25.

42 “This Arthur Bill, a wetched poore Man, both in state and

mind, remained in a towne called Raunds, in the County

aforesaid, begotten and borne of parents that were both

Witches, and he (like a gratious Child) would not

degenerate, nor suffer himself to stray from his fathers

wicked Counsels, but carefully trode the steps that hee had

divillishly taught him.”120

When he was accused of bewitching to death one Martha Aspine, Arthur Bill was already infamous for leading an “evill life,”121 and had already been accused of bewitching all sorts of livestock. His father and mother, it is noted, were also known for their ill reputation, though Martha’s murder was not leveled against them. To affirm their suspicions, the Justices ordered the Bill family to trial by water to all and “caused them all to bee bound, and their Thumbes and great Toes to bee tied acrosse, and so threw the father, mother and sonne, and none of them sunke, but all floated upon the water.”122

The trial by water was enough for the Justices and Arthur, as the main culprit, was sent to the Northampton gaol. His father testified against him, so Arthur and his mother bewitched his father, rendering him mute. But the spell would not hold, and the father became a principal witness. The mother succumbed to fear of execution and killed herself. Arthur himself would maintain him innocence to the bitter end:

“He being brought to the place of Execution, and standing

upon that fatall stage for offenders, pleaded still his

120 Gibson (2000), p. 166. 121 Idem. 122 Ibid. p. 167.

43 innocencie, that Authority was turned into Tyranny, and

Justice into extreame Injury.”123

While perhaps the most eloquent of the five witches described in the pamphlet, they all pleaded ‘not guilty’ and maintained innocence till the moment of their execution.

Even though claiming innocence, Arthur at one point confessed that he had command over three Spirits whom “would doe any mischiefe to any man, woman, or child that hee would appointe.”124 The pamphlet states that Arthur was unaware of having given the said confession, so while it may be that he truly believed he had familiar spirits, it might easily be a jest on his part or he might have been trying to scare or threaten someone.

From the outset, Arthur was a troublesome youth. The fact that both his parents were suspected witches certainly did not help. Just as is the case with female witches who were sometimes known for their sharp tongues and bad manners, at least according to the accusers, this might easily have been the case of Arthur Bill of the town of

Raunds.

Johannes Junius, Burgomaster of Bamberg [Germany, 1628]

Over 630 people were accused of witchcraft and many of them were executed between 1626 and 1630 in the city of Bamberg, Germany. Torture was routinely used, and pressured to name more and more accomplices, the accused were left with little

123 Ibid. p. 170. 124 Ibid. p. 168.

44 choice. As is also the case with most such trials involving a great number of people and torture, the stereotypical image of the witch slowly fell apart.

After several days of interrogation without torture, in which Junius confessed nothing and denied all accusations brought against him, even from other ‘witnesses,’ he was “put to the torture.”125 Moving from Thumb screws, to Leg-screws, and finally

Strappado, Junius maintained his innocence through them all. Finally, “On July 5, the above named Junius is without torture, but with urgent persuasions, exhorted to confess.”126 He confessed to having been seduced by the devil, of having a “paramour he had to call Vixen,”127 and of going to witches’ meetings.

While it is possible to see the effect of the torture in forcing Junius’s confession, it is better revealed in the letter to his daughter that he managed to write, and secretly send. Shortly after greeting her he exclaims:

“Innocent I came to jail, innocent I was tortured, innocent I

must die. For whoever comes to the house, either must

become a witch or be tortured for so long that he claims

something pulled from his imagination, and, God have

mercy, figure out something to say.”128

As the trial record says, Junius suffered and maintained his innocence throughout the first session of torture. The witnesses brought by the interrogators also would call upon him to say something, begging his forgiveness as they were forced to say the evil

125 Levack (2004), p. 199 126 Idem. 127 Idem. 128 Apps and Gow (2000), p. 159

45 things against him, just as he would be forced.129 But Junius would strive to keep his innocence, even debating with his torturer claiming that “so long as things go this way, no honest man in Bamberg will be safe, you no more than I or anyone else.”130

Junius maintained his innocence until June 30. As the executioner took him back to jail, he begged him to confess something: “Sir, I beg you, for God’s sake confess something, whether it be true or false. Invent something,” the executioner implored, concluding that “one torture will follow another until you say you are a witch.”131

Hearing these words Junius asked for some time to recollect his thought and to see a priest. He was given the time, but not the priest. “And then my statement,” he writes to his daughter, “as follows, is entirely made up.”132

It should be noted that all the witnesses brought against Johannes Junius, as well as many other city chancellors and five other Burgomasters were executed for witchcraft.133 Most of Junius’s witnesses were men; all of them, men and women, were of a high social rank.

The Witch-Trial at Lukh [Russia, 1657]134

Some of the townsmen of Lukh, a provincial town northeast of Moscow, submitted a petition to their governor complaining that their wives have been bewitched and accusing seven people, six men and one woman, the wife of one of the petitioners.

129 Ibid. p. 160. 130 Ibid. p. 161. 131 Idem. 132 Ibid. p. 162. 133 Ibid. pp. 160, 165 (note 1). 134 Levack (2004), pp. 214-219.

46 A special investigator was sent. The investigator first interviewed the townspeople and then the bewitched. The bewitched women, who went into fits and made bestial cries, did not seem to remember that in their fits they called out the names of those who had apparently bewitched them. At that point the investigator turned on the accused, writing thus:

“So I, your slave, tortured Ignashka Salautin and his

comrades without mercy, and after three round of torture

he, Ignashka, still said nothing to incriminate himself or the

others. But with torture, his comrades Tereshka Malakurov

and Ianka Salautin and the monastic peasant Arkhipko

Fadeev admitted to that criminal witchcraft.”135

Tereshka Malakurov confessed at first to knowing words that “eased hernias and quieted blood-flow,”136 and that he had learned them from a horse healer, but that he did not know how to heal the sick or bewitch. Under torture Tereshka confessed to trying to heal some people for money, and that he had been “bewitching people with criminal witchcraft”137 for more than three years. He also taught his wife how to bewitch, something she confirmed upon her torture in addition to the admission that she herself had bewitched some people.

The monastic peasant Arkhipko Fadeev also confessed, under torture, of healing

“little children of hernias and blood-flow and he fended off evil magic at weddings and

135 Ibid. p. 21.6 136 Idem. 137 Ibid. p. 217.

47 cured two townsmen of impotence.”138 More torture brought more confessions, especially those of ill magic causing “chills and racking pain and crying out.”139 His wife, after torture, incriminated him as well.

Ianka Salautin too confessed, after torture, to bewitching some of the people of

Lukh, and of learning these spells from Arkhipko Fadeev.

The investigator concluded that Tereshka and Olenka Malakurvo, Ianka Salautin, and Arkhipka Fadeev were all guilty of witchcraft. The three men were beheaded, and

Olenka, Tereshka’s wife, was “buried in the earth.”140

A True Relation of the Arraignment of Eighteen Witches [England, 1645]

This pamphlet recounts a session held at St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk. Of the eighteen witches hanged, two were men: John Lowes, the Vicar of Brandeston, and

Thomas Evard, a cooper.

The pamphlet is short and while the title pages gives the names of all the witches hanged , only three are named in the body of the pamphlet itself: John Lowes, Thomas

Evard, and his wife Mary. The rest either remain anonymous, or are not mentioned at all.

It appears that the anonymous author of this pamphlet thought it important to mention only those witches he considered important: the vicar and the cooper.

The vicar, John Lowes, had raised tempests on the sea to cast away ships and endanger their passengers, and with the help of six imps committed many heinous and wicked acts. One of the most serious allegations against the Vicar was the fact that while under the influence of the devil, he had preached sermons.

138 Idem. 139 Ibid. p. 218. 140 Ibid. p. 219.

48 The cooper Thomas Evard and his wife, having access, by way of his profession to barrels and casks: “freely confeffed that they had bewitched Beere in the

Brewhoufe,”141 as well as to having an imp as a familiar.

Witches of Finland

Martin Studius was a professor of Greek and Hebrew in the Turku Academy, when in 1644 he was accused of teaching diabolical acts to students and forced into exile. In 1661 Henricus Eolenius was suspected of being a student of Stodius and for practicing diabolical acts, mainly because of how quickly he had learned Arabic and

Syrian. For this he was expelled from the Academy. Yet another student, Isacus

Gunnerus, the son of a vicar, was suspected of committing diabolical acts and because he was Stodius’s pupil, he too was expelled. The Turku Academy had to maintain its reputation.142

The majority of the cases brought before the courts in Finland were for traditional magic dealing with cattle, foodstuff, and health. Diabolism was a rare charge, but once it appeared it was targeted mostly at women. It was professional sorcerers, or those who had that reputation, who were usually targeted.143

Cases from Iceland

The basics of Icelandic witchcraft were ‘Words’ and ‘Knowledge.’ With these prerequisites, anyone could learn to cast spells, but that knowledge was hard to acquire,.

141 Sharpe (2003), vol. 3, p. 51. 142 A. Heikkinen and T. Kervvinen, ‘Finland: The Male Domination’ in Ankarloo and Henningsen (eds.) Early Modern European Witchcraft, centers and peripheries (Oxford, 1990), pp. 326-327. 143 Ibid. pp. 322-324.

49 For that reason poets could be extremely powerful, as in the case of Jón the Learned who averted a ‘Turkish’ slave-raider ship by reciting a powerful poem. Jón was later accused of witchcraft but managed to escape the stake. Jón Rögnvaldsson, however, was not so fortunate. He was accused of raising a ghost to kill a horse and attack a boy; he also had in his house a sheet of runes. His brother defended him, saying that even though his brother did practice magic, he didn’t do it deliberately, and he was too weak willed.144

Jón was burned at the stake anyway.

Another case tells the story of síra Jón Magnússon who after experiencing some strange incidents in his house and feeling ill, decided that the cause of his afflictions were two parishioners, a father and a son, and brought charges against them. After an investigation they were found guilty of dealing with the devil, possessing books of black art, and of using magic to harm cattle and bewitch girls. Although they were both burned, síra Jón was convinced that someone else was haunting him now: Þuriður

Jónsdóttir, the daughter and sister to the executed witches. Þuriður managed to gather twelve lay men who would testify to her innocence, an Icelandic legal institution, and the charges were dropped. Þuriður’s family even successfully sued síra Jón for damages.145

144 K.Hastrup, ‘Iceland: Sorcerers and Paganism’ in Ankarloo and Henningsen (eds.) Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centers and Peripheries (Oxford, 1990), pp. 392-393. 145 Ibid., pp. 394-396

50 4. The Male Witch

The following chapter will discuss the dispersion of male witches over Europe, what men were accused of witchcraft, what charges were leveled against them, and how different they were from female witches.

Male witches in Europe

In view of the fact that the male witches did not fit the stereotype, it is impossible to describe the typical male witch. While it might be easier to do so in a regional study, in all of Europe, the stereotype breaks down. In no single place were there equal numbers of male and female witches, and throughout Europe the percentage of male witches could range from five to ninety-two percent, as shown in the following table.

The table provides a sample of the spread of male witches, it examines a number of towns, provinces, and countries, and has a time ranges from fifty to 250 years. And yet, as partial as it is, it still gives us a good idea of where the male witches were.

England, Scotland, and Germany had of the fewest male witches. It explains why the

Kentish gentleman Scot, for example, usually describes witches as females.

Upon further examination we see that Finland has an almost equal number of male and female witches, while Estonia, Russia, and Iceland have a majority of male witches. The small number of cases in these ‘peripheral’ places may help tilt the scale ‘in favor’ of the female witches, and might cause some to think that male witches were a majority only in the peripheries. The French provinces of Burgundy and Normandy upset this view with their prevalence of male witches.

51 Witchcraft Prosecutions by Sex146 Place Dates Female Male % Male Bishopric of Basel 1571-1670 181 9 5 Hungary 1520-1777 1,482 160 10 Essex Co., England 1560-1602 158 24 13 SW Germany (executions) pre 1628 580 88 13 New England 1620-1725 89 14 14 Scotland 1560-1709 2,208 413 16 Norway 1551-1760 c. 690 c. 173 20 SW Germany (executions) post 1627 470 150 24 Geneva 1537-1662 240 74 24 Venice 1550-1650 714 224 24 S. Sweden 1635-1754 77 25 25 Castile 1540-1685 324 132 29 Fribourg 1607-1683 103 59 36 Zeeland 1450-1729 19 11 37 Pays de Vaud 1539-1670 62 45 42 Aragon 1600-1650 90 69 43 Finland 1520-1699 325 316 49 Burgundy 1580-1642 76 83 52 Estonia 1520-1729 77 116 60 Russia (appeals) 1622-1700 40 59 60 Normandy 1564-1660 103 278 73 Iceland 1625-1685 10 110 92

When trying to understand who the male witches of Europe were, we cannot ignore Iceland and Russia any more than we can ignore some of the French provinces.

We have to review as many cases as possible, as has been done in the studies of female witches, if we want to arrive at any sort of conclusion about the male witch of Europe.

Germany

Germany has the dubious honor of having executed the most witches. In a recent recalculation of the number of witches executed in the Holy Roman Empire of the

German Nations, between 1560 and 1660 an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 witches were

146 Details taken from: Apps and Gow (2003), p. 45, also see note 2, pp. 60-61; and Levack (1987), p. 124, also see note 14, p. 143.

52 executed. “Three of every four witches executed in Europe between 1560 and 1660,” writes Monter, “spoke some dialect of German.”147 The high number of executions may be attributed to the lack of a central authority and the loose control the government had in the areas of intense witch-hunting; the large and better governed states and principalities rarely experienced witch trials.148

In his extensive study of witch-hunting in southwestern Germany, Midelfort concludes that the longer a witch-hunt lasted in a certain area, and the larger it became, the greater the likelihood that the stereotype of the old-living-alone-women-witch would break down.149 It is also worth remembering what a skeptical contemporary, a professor of theology at Trier by the name of Cornelius Loos, wrote about the witchcraft prosecutions that engulfed Trier: “This movement was promoted by many in office, who hoped wealth from the persecution.”150

The collapse of the stereotype can be seen in the example of the witch-hunt in

Trier. While the trial of Dr. Flade may well have been arranged by his enemies and those who wanted to continue the witch-hunts in the area, the fact that a person of such high stature would be prosecuted151 and condemned by the courts indicates that this hunt, which had been going on for eight years began to fall apart in the way that Midelfort described. The accusation of Fiedler, the former mayor of Trier ten years into the hunt confirms this even further.

147 Monter (2002), pp. 12-16; quote from page 16. 148 Ibid. p. 17. 149 H.C.E. Midelfort, Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany 1562-1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations (Stanford, 1972), p.194. 150 Kros and Peters (20012), p. 314. 151 Judges of witches were many times seen as above the temptation of the devil.

53 Few men were prosecuted and executed in Germany for witchcraft, but with the high number of executions in the Holy Roman Empire, even these few are a large number compared to other regions in Europe.

France

France was one of the most populous states in early modern Europe. France also had an impressive centralized court system and an appellate system that only required defendants to ask for appeal from the parlement, with no extra cost or danger of fines.

And also, as we have seen in Normandy, France had many accused and executed male witches. Of the 1300 prosecuted by the Parlement of Paris after 1565, more than half were men; a sample from the Parlement of Burgundy between 1580-1642 give us eighty-three male witches out of 159.152 About half of the people executed for witchcraft in France were men.

Normandy gives us a good telling of how it was generally in France, the two groups that were most often accused of witchcraft were shepherds and clerics. While in

Normandy the shepherds made up more than half of the accused, at Rouen and Paris both groups accounted for about half of those executed.153 The priests would usually be condemned for practicing black magic, sacrilegious magic, and witchcraft; the shepherds were accused of practicing magic to protect their herd or harm someone else’s, and they would usually do that with stolen Eucharists or toads’ venom.

152 Monter (1997), p. 564; see also note 1 on same page. 153 Monter (2002), p. 42.

54 England

Two facts distinguished English witch trials from those on the Continent. The first one is the rarity of the references to the witches’ Sabbath, meaning that most cases dealt with maleficium. The second fact is the prohibition of the use of torture; only

Mathew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed ‘witch-finder general’ came close to inflicting torture with his aggressive interrogation methods between 1645 and 1647. Due to

Hopkins’ interrogations some people confessed to having made a devil’s pact and to having sexual intercourse with demons, instigating a panic that swept up about 250 people.154

That the Sabbath did not strike deeps root in England, and that torture was not used to extort confessions does not mean England was immune to continental ideas of witchcraft. In England, just like in the rest of Europe, women were the prime suspects in witchcraft and comprised about ninety percent of the accused. In his study of the Essex witchcraft cases, McFarlane notes a large number of men accused of witchcraft; eleven out of twenty-three “were either married to an accused witch or appeared in a joint indictment with a woman.”155 But as Apps and Gow have observed, this statement

“assumes that the women involved in the eleven cases were accused first and were the cause of the accusation against the men.”156 Two cases can illustrate the above statement.

William and Margery Skelton were accused of murder by witchcraft, neither of them had been previously indicted. John Samond had been accused several times of witchcraft but

154 B. Ankarloo, ‘Witch Trials in Northern Europe 1450-1700’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Period of the Witch Trials ((Philadelphia, 2002), p. 79. 155 A. McFarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, a regional and Comparative Study (London, 1970), p. 160. 156 Apps and Gow (2003), p. 48.

55 was always acquitted, until 1572 when he was accused again but this time with his wife,

Joan, who had no prior record.157

Russia

The oldest Russian reference to witch hunting describes how several elderly people were executed in Suzdal after having been blamed for the food shortage which was the result of a serious drought in 1024.158 In 1227 in Novgorod, four male witches were burned for sorcery.159 During the 16th century, the Russian political elite were preoccupied with the power of witchcraft and sorcery, whether to hurt a person or cause calamities.160 Most Russian witches were accused of porcha, a Russian term for damage and injury, devil worshiping or Sabbaths do not appear in the Russian cases.

Most of the accused in Russia were male peasants, the rest were spread out along the socioeconomic spectrum from a former military governor, to a priest, to tavern- keepers, to foreigners.161

Finland

In Finland, accusation of and executions for witchcraft were divided almost equally between men and women. Contrary to Midelfort’s account of what transpired in southwestern Germany162 as the trials in Finland reached a peak and the stereotype of the witch broke down it was women who were accused more, raising to as high as fifty-nine

157 Ibid. pp. 48-52. 158 Zguta, R., ‘Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century Russia,’ The American Historical Review, 82:5 (1977), pp. 1188-89. 159 Ibid. p. 1190. 160 Ibid. pp. 1192-1193. 161 Ibid. p. 1197. 162 Midelfort (1972).

56 percent women in the 1670s. This rise can be linked to the Swedish origin of the population in the areas of the intense witch hunting, who brought their demonlogical ideas with them.163 Once the peak passed, and life returned to ‘normal,’ men were once again the central defendants in the witch trials.164 In Finland as in Iceland, magic, whether for good or evil, was mainly in the hands of men.

Iceland

In Iceland is an anomaly in the history of European witchcraft. From 1604 to

1720, records of 120 trials survive; only ten of the defendants are women. Twenty-two people were found guilty and executed, only one of whom was a woman. It should be noted that cases in Iceland revolved around maleficium, the devil played only a secondary part, mostly instigated by questions from the judge, and the Sabbath was entirely missing.165

Knowledge is an important factor in Icelandic magic: from how to write special magical runes to the collection of the ‘Black Books’ which were used to learn and teach magic, to oral tradition passed on from father to son.166 Knowledge and wisdom were associated with men in Iceland, and all the terms describing a typical witch, magician, or sorcerer, were masculine.167 The men who were accused were neither outcasts nor strangers, and some of them were well-to-do merchants, farmers, and skalds.

163 Ankarloo (2002), p. 91. 164 Heikkinen and Kervinen (1990), p. 322. 165 Hastrup (1990), pp.386-387. 166 Ankarloo (2002), p. 83. 167 Hastrup (1990), p. 387.

57 Demonic Lover and Sodomy

Lust was considered by the Malleus Maleficarum one of the main reasons for the great majority of women witches. Confession of male witches being tempted by a succubus, a demon in female form, was occasionally mentioned, and was often missing from the account.168

Homosexuality appears only rarely in the confessions.169 Up to the seventeenth century, theologians believed that even the devil was disgusted by sodomy , even though sodomites were thought to be committing a “diabolical sin.”170 But by the seventeenth century demonologists such as Pico della Mirandola, a famous humanist and scholar, argued that sexual desire was crucial in the devil’s recruitment of witches and that the devil, was not satisfied with tempting humans to engage in sexual relations with demons, but also in enticing them into same sex relations either with demons or with other humans.171 This is consistent with the increased importance that demonologists gave to the Sabbath, a subject barely mentioned in the Malleus, and more importantly to the sexual practices that were carried out in those assemblies and were described, usually under torture, by the witches who had attended them.

Pico does not agree with the Malleus that witchcraft is a feminine crime because of women’s lust for their demonic lovers. He claims that men lust after their demon lovers and “argues that both men and women join the diabolic sect because of their attraction to good-looking demons, be they succubi or incubi.”172 To Pico della

168 Briggs (1996), p.250. 169 Apps and Gow (2003), p. 128. 170 Herzig, T., ‘The Demons’ Reaction to Sodomy: Witchcraft and Homosexuality in Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Strix,’ Sixteenth Century Journal, 34:1 (2003), pp. 53-54. 171 Ibid. pp. 60-61. 172 Ibid. p. 69.

58 Mirandola, any man or woman engaging in sexual relations with a demon has committed a great sin and should be punished accordingly, like all other witches.

Accusations

It might be said that maleficium was the main charge brought against the

European male witches. Indeed, in Finland, Iceland, and Russia most men were accused of causing harm, but these are countries where diabolical witchcraft and the Sabbath never took deep root. England, another country where cases of maleficium were prominent, had a clear female dominance of about ninety percent. In France, some provinces dealt with more cases of maleficium, and others dealt with Sabbaths and devil worship; many provinces dealing with maleficium had male witch dominance.

As has already been stated, not all witches are the same. In Germany, where the

Sabbath was a well developed idea, many men were accused participating in it as well as of maleficium, as can be seen in the cases of Dr. Flade, the former mayor Herr Fiedler, and Johannes Junius and his ‘friends’ from Bamberg. And even if the men were not accused of participating in the Sabbath, many times they did practice and were accused of diabolical witchcraft. Familiars were prominent in English witch-trials for women and men alike, as in the cases of John Walsh, Thoma Evard, and Arthur Bill, a clear indication of their dealing with the devil; both Jón Jónsson elder and younger, the father and son from Iceland, were accused of collusion with the devil.

Male witches raised tempests, killed and harmed livestock, poisoned food and drinks, flew to witches’ Sabbath and danced in it, caused impotence and sterility, killed newborns and caused abortions, inflicted sickness in young and old people and

59 sometimes even killed them. Male witches were believed to have caused these and many other harms and cruelties, just female witches had, indeed sometimes the accused believed so themselves.

The Male Witch in Court

Between 1560 and 1587, John Sammond of Essex was accused been brought before the court several times on charges of witchcraft. John was acquitted until finally, after twenty-seven years he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.173 Is this a case of the leniency towards male witches?

When charges of witchcraft were brought against John and his wife in 1572, two other witchcraft cases were deliberated in the session, but while John and his wife were released the other two witches, both female, were convicted. But in the assize session of

1587, the one that found John Samond guilty, two women who had also been indicted for witchcraft were acquitted.

If women were the norm for witchcraft accusations and, by all accounts, were treated harshly and tortured; was it not possible that men, who were supposed to be the greatest of God’s creations, a creature of reason, who should be above such temptations, as those of the flesh or material gains, should they not be treated even more severely?

From the reading of the records, this cannot be said. Johannes Junius chillingly testifies to his daughter about the torture he endured while under interrogation for witchcraft. Ivashka Romanchiukov, the Russian inquisitor who was ordered to investigate the witches from Lukh, coldly and concisely writes in his report how he went about

173 Apps and Gow (2003), pp. 49-52.

60 torturing the suspected witches, male and female. From Normandy we read of torture of many accused people, including a sixty-six year old man.174

No leniency was given for age or gender. When the courts of Europe of the early modern period were confronted with a witch that was all that the courts saw. Gender mattered not, only the crime. And the punishment was severe.

174 Monter (1997), p. 578.

61 5. Conclusions

The western world and Christianity has a long history of depicting women as weak of mind and will, and easily corrupted. From that derives the predisposition towards women as witches. Explaining this predisposition has not been the goal of this paper, but rather, that this predisposition has obscured the fact that alongside women, men witches were similarly persecuted and prosecuted.

The role of gender in the study of the witch-hunt is important, but is not of utmost significance. Its importance stems from the fact that there were more female than male witches; this was not due to some misogynistic battle, or a male-dominance agenda, but to a deeply ingrained predisposition of the western culture, influenced by the Old and

New Testaments, and by other external factors, that women are physically and mentally weak. This predisposition was not invented by the demonologists and ‘witchmongers’ of the era, it was already in place by the time they wrote in their treatises why they thought women were more susceptible to the calling and deception of the devil than were men.

The witch was not defined by his or her gender, but by the crime he or she was accused of. Black-letter law did not distinguish between the male and female witch, a witch that was brought before the court was judged for the crime he or she had committed with no regard to sex.

Chapter Two examines the texts written by some of the intellectuals of the era, and tried to discern their position on male witches. All of these authors ascribe to the notion that most witches are women; some would go into great detail as to the reason for which women are more prone to witchcraft, while others will be content to relate about

62 the different crimes associated with witches. But not one of them would claim that witchcraft was only a woman’s crime; it was a crime mainly of women, or of a majority of women, but not only of women. All these texts recognized that men could, and indeed, did fall into witchcraft; even the Malleus maleficarum, the most ardently, almost fanatically, biased book against women as witches does not claim that witches are exclusively women, giving us several examples of male witches, and has already been shown, uses the male form for witch about thirty percent of the time. All of the authors acknowledged the existence of the male witches; these authors also agreed that all witches, male and female, should be dealt with in the same merciless way.

Further deduced from the reading of the texts is that in most cases no single sex had a monopoly on any specific crime, the only exception being the Malleus maleficarum which described three forms of witchcraft attributed to exclusively to men. Men and women, it seems, were accused of roughly the same crimes, as can be seen by the pamphlets and case studies that have been presented; the courts dealt sternly with both male and female witches.

Male witches were in no way unthinkable to the people living during the witch- hunts. Throughout the years, with the passage of time and partial reading of the texts, and with the multitude of cases against women, the witch became synonymous with the female. Only recently have we began to examine these other witches and found out that even though they are physiologically different, they are in many ways much the same.

63 Appendix A

MacNeill and Gamer’s Medieval Handbooks of Penance is an invaluable source for any student of the history of penance and the penitentials who does not have access to the originals and/or to the Latin language. What follows is a list compiled of all the places in the book mentioning magic, enchanters, witches, wizards, pagan practices, etc. *

ƒ Canons attributed to St. Patrick: 16 (p. 78) ƒ Penitential of Finnian: 18, 20 (p. 90) ƒ The Penitential of Theodore: Book I, chap. XV (p. 198) ƒ Penitentiales Ascribed by Albers to Bede: X (pp. 22-229) ƒ The Confessional of Egbert: 29, 32, 33 (pp. 246-247) ƒ The Penitential of Columban: 6 (pp. 252-253) ƒ The Burgundian Penitential: 9, 10 (p. 274) 24, 25, (p. 275-6), 34, 36 (p. 276-277) ƒ The Penitential of Silos: VII (p. 288) ƒ The St. Hubert Penitential: 25 (p. 292), 54 (p. 294) ƒ The so-called Roman Penitential: 31-33, 35-44 (pp. 305-307) ƒ Regino’s Ecclesiastical Discipline: p. 318 ƒ The Corrector of Burchard of Worms: 60, 61, 63-70, 90-104, 149-181, 193, 194 (pp. 325-341) ƒ The Penitential of Bartholomew Iscanus: pp. 349-350 ƒ The Milan Penitential: p. 365 ƒ Capitualary of the Saxon territories: pp. 389-390 ƒ Appendix I – An Eight Century List of Superstitions, pp. 419-421

* In Italics is the name of the text and the sections which refer to the practices. Some are not arranged into sections and so only the page number is given.

64 Appendix B Figure 1: "Witch Giving Ritual Kiss to Devil"

Figure 2: “Witches Offering Newborn to Devil”

65 Bibliography

Primary Sources

Bodin, Jean., On the Demon-Mania of Witches, trans. Scott, R.A., abr. and intro. Pearl, J.L., (Toronto, 1995).

Guazzo, Francesco Maria., Compendium maleficarum (Milan, 1608), ed. M. Summers, trans. E.A. Ashwin (London 1929; New York, 1988).

Innocent VIII,, Summis desiderantes, (1484), trans. G.L. Burr, The Witch Persecutions (Philadelphia, 1902).

James VI and I., Daemonologie; Includes News from Scotland, on the Death of a Notable Sorcerer (Edinburgh, 1597; repr. New York, 1966).

Krämer, Heinrich (Institoris) and Sprenger, Jakob (James), Malleus Maleficarum (1487), ed. and trans. M Summers, (London, 1928; repr. 1948).

Harmon, A.M. Lucian in Eight Volumes, Loeb Classical Library (London, 1913).

Roberts, Alexander, A Treatise of Witchcraft (London, 1616).

Scot, Reginald, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (London, 1584).

Secondary Sources

Anglo, S., ‘Scpeticism and Sadduceeism’ in Anglo (ed.) The Damned Art (London, Henley and Boston, 1977).

Ankarloo, B., ‘Witch Trials in Northern Europe 1450-1700’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Period of the Witch Trials ((Philadelphia, 2002) pp. 55-95.

Apps, L. and Gow, A., Male Witches in Early Modern Europe (Manchester, 2003).

Bert, H., ‘Science and Magic’ in Science in the Middle Ages, Lindberg (ed.) (Chicago, 1978) pp.483-506.

Brauner, S., Fearless Wives and Frightened Shrews, Brown (ed. posthumous) (Amherst, 1995).

Briggs, R., Witches & Neighbors (New York, 1996).

66 Clark, S., Thinking with Demons (Oxford, 1997). ------‘Witchcraft and Magic in Early Modern Culture’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Period of the Witch Trials ((Philadelphia, 2002) pp. 99-169

Gaskill, M., Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2000) ------‘The Devil in the shape of a man: Witchcraft, conflict, and belief in Jacobean England,’ Historical Research 71:175 (1988) pp. 142-178

Gibson, M., Reading Witchcraft (London and New York, 1999) ------Early Modern Witches (London and New York, 2000)

Ginzburg, C., Ecstasies, Deciphering the Withes’ Sabbath. (Chicago, 1991).

Hastrup, K., ‘Iceland: Sorcerers and Paganism’ in Ankarloo and Henningsen (eds.) Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centers and Peripheries (Oxford, 1990) pp. 383- 401.

Heikkinen, A., and Kervvinen T. ‘Finland: The Male Domination’ in Ankarloo and Henningsen (eds.) Early Modern European Witchcraft, centers and peripheries (Oxford, 1990) pp. 319-338.

Herzig, T. ‘The Demons’ Reaction to Sodomy: Witchcraft and Homosexuality in Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Strix,’ Sixteenth Century Journal, 34:1 (2003), pp. 53-72.

Kieckhefer, R. ‘The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic,’ The American Historical Review, 99:3 (June 1994), pp. 813-836.

Klaits, J., Servants of Satan (Bloomington, 1985).

Kors, A.C., and Peters E. (eds.) Witchcraft in Europe 400-1700 (Philadelphia, 20012).

Levack, B. P., The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (London and New York, 1987). ------(ed.) The Witchcraft Sourcebook. (London and New-York, 2004).

Marwick, M., (ed.). Witchcraft & Sorcery (Suffolk, 19822).

McFarlane, A., Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, a regional and comparative study (London, 1970).

McNeill, J.T., and Gamer, H.M., (eds.). Medieval Handbooks of Penance (New York, 1938).

Midelfort, H.C.E., Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany 1562-1684: the Social and Intellectual Foundations (Stanford, 1972).

67

Monter, W., ‘Toads and Eucharists: The Male Witches of Normandy, 1564-1660.’ French Historical Studies, 20:4 (1997) pp. 563-595. ------‘Witch Trials in Continental Europe 1560-1660’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Period of the Witch Trials ((Philadelphia, 2002) pp. 3-52.

Naess, H. E., ‘Norway: The Criminological Context’ in Ankarloo and Henningsen (eds.) Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centers and Peripheries (Oxford, 1990) pp.369-382.

Oakley, T.P., ‘The Penitentials as Sources for Mediaeval History,’ Speculum 15:2 (April 1940) pp. 210-223.

Quaife, G. R., Godly Zeal and Furious Rage (Kent, 1987).

Peters, E., ‘The Medieval Church and State on Superstition, Magic and Witchcraft: from Augustine to the Sixteenth Century’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 2002) pp. 178-245.

Russell, J.B., Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca and London, 1972, 1984).

Raudvere, C., ‘Trolldómr n Early Scandinavia’ in Ankraloo and Clark (eds.) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 2002) pp. 75-171.

Sharpe, J.A., ‘Witchcraft and Women in seventeenth century England: some Northern Evidence,’ Continuity and Change 6:2 (1991) pp. 179-199. ------(ed.) English Witchcraft, 1560-1736 (London, 2003). vol. 3.

Tedeschi, J., ‘Inquisitorial Law and the Witch’ in Ankarloo and Henningsen (eds.) Early Modern European Witchcraft, centers and peripheries (Oxford, 1990) pp. 83-118.

Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (Trowbridge and London, 1971).

Trevor-Roper, H.R., The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries (Harmondsworth, 1969).

Zguta, R., ‘Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century Russia,’ The American Historical Review, 82:5 (1977) pp. 1187-1207.

68 תקציר

באירופה בין המאות ה15- ו ה17-, כ110,000- נשים וגברים כאחד הואשמו בגרימת נזק לרכוש,

בעלי חיים, ואנשים על ידי כישוף, ובהפניית עורף לאמונה בישו הנוצרי תוך כדי סגידה לסטן. במחקרים

הרבים שנעשו במהלך מאה השנים האחרונות הייתה העלמת עיין, אומנם לא תמיד מכוונת, מאחד הצדדים

שחווה גם כן האשמות והוצאות להורג: הגברים. חלק נכבד מהמחקרים התמקדו סביב השאלה למה נשים

מהוות את החלק הארי של הנאשמים, מי בדיוק היו נשים אלו, והאם זו הייתה תוצאה של שנאת נשים.

מחקר זה יתמקד ב- 25% עד 30% שמהווים הגברים, מכשפים, מתוך מכלול האנשים שהואשמו

בכישוף, ויבדוק: מי הם היו? במה האשימו אותם? איך, אם בכלל, ראו אותם האינטלקטואלים והדמונולוגים

מתקופתם שכתבו על כישוף? מה היה יחסם של בתי המשפט למכשפים אלו, והאם החמירו איתם או התייחסו

אליהם באוזלת יד?

המחקר יראה שגברים שהואשמו בכישוף היו בהחלת מוכרים לאינטלקטואלים שכתבו עליהם ושנתנו

לא מעט דוגמאות של גברים שעסקן בכישוף והוצאו להורג. עובדה זו והעובדה שהם כולם האמינו והיו

בטוחים כי נשים מהוות סכנה גדולה יותר בשל "חולשתן הפיזית", אך יותר בשל "חולשתן המוסרית

ומנטאלית", לא סוטרות אחת את השנייה. היה בהחלת רוב של נשים, אבל אף אחד מאותם אינטלקטואלים לא

העלים עין או טען שגברים חפים מפשע זה.

ההאשמות שהטיחו בגברים לא היו שונות בתכלית מהאשמות שהופנו כלפי הנשים. גברים כנשים

תוחקרו שעות ארוכות, נבדקו, ועברו עינויים בכדי לגלות אם הם מכשפים או מכשפות ומי הם שותפיהם

לפשע. גברים כנשים שוחררו או הוצאו להורג. החוק היבש לא ראה הבדל בין המינים, והגברים שניהלו את

בתי המשפט ראו באותה חומרה כול מיקרה העוסק בכישוף ו\או סגידה לסטן.

69 אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב הפקולטה למדעי הרוח והחברה המחלקה להיסטוריה כללית

המגדר הנוסף:

המכשפים בתחילת העת החדשה באירופה

חיבור זה מהווה חלק מהדרישות לקבלת התואר "מוסמך למדעי הרוח והחברה" (M.A)

מאת: ארנון רם בהנחיית: דר' אילנה קראוזמן בן-עמוס

אלול תשס"ו ספטמבר 2006

70