HI266 Deviance and Non-conformity

Supernatural
deviants and
witches
Naomi Pullin
n.r.wood@warwick.ac.uk
 Aims of today

1. Pre-modern magic and popular belief

debates about witchcraft
2. The European witchcraft persecutions
3. Conclusions:
- Were the European witch-hunts a
war against women?
- Should we view this phenomenon as
a witch-craze?
 Pre-modern belief

Widespread belief in magic and the

supernatural
White witches established part of
pre-modern culture
Harnessed by the Churchs teachings
about Gods work in the world
(Providence)
 Pre-modern belief
Maleficia / Maleficium
wrongdoing/harm by occult means

Keith Thomas: Witchcraft = all-

encompassing term to describe
good and maleficent individuals
 Supernatural Deviants

Lycanthrope /
Lycanthropy
werewolf/ism

Trial of Jean Grenier

(1603) from
Gascony
 Demonology

James VI Scotland
- Demonologie
(1597)

Jean Bodin -
Demonomanie des
sorciers (1580)
 Bodins Demonomanie
To throw some light on the subject of
witches, which seems marvelously strange
to everyone and unbelievable to many.

A Warning to all those who read it, in

order to make it clearly known that there
are no crimes which are nearly so vile as
this one, or which deserve more serious
penalties.
 Witchcraft sceptics

Johann Weyer (1515-1588) Reginald Scott (1538-1599)

Witchcraft sceptics

Michel de Montaigne
(1553-1592)

It is putting a very high

price on ones
conjectures to roast a
man alive for them.
 Demonology

Malleus Maleficarum
(The Hammer of
Witches) (1486)

Attributed to
Heinrich Kramer
 Malleus Maleficarum

'Magicians, who are commonly called witches,

are thus termed on account of the magnitude
of their evil deeds. These are they who by the
permission of God disturb the elements, who
drive to distraction the minds of men, such as
have lost their trust in God, and by the terrible
power of their evil spells, without any actual
draught or poison, kill human beings.'
 Malleus Maleficarum

The reason determined by nature is that

a woman is more given to fleshy lusts
than a man [] they rouse themselves to
vigorous action with evil spirits in order
to assuage their sexual appetites.'
European Witchcraft Phenomenon

Trial of Agnes Heard, Essex 1582

Accused by John Wade of bewitching to

death a cow, 10 sheep and 10 lambs
(valued at 4)
Accused by her neighbour Bennet Lane of
bewitching objects she had borrowed
European Witchcraft Phenomenon

Trial of Ursula Hider, Germany (1589)

Accused of killing two children

Confesses under torture of having meetings
with the devil and attending Sabbaths
No evidence, yet results in guilty verdict
because of power of devil to deceive
Searching for the witches mark
Witchfinders

Matthew
Hopkins
(c.1620-1647)

gains
prominence in
Essex in 1640s
Witchfinders

Nicholas Rmy
(1520-1616)

gains prominence in
Lorraine and the
French Comte in the
1580s
 Andrea Dworkin,
Woman Hating
(1974)

The persecution of
a whole sex
 Jean Bodin

'When we read books by those who

have written about witches, it is to find
fifty female witches, or even
demoniacs, for every man'.
Anne Barstow, Witchcraze (1995)

Witchcraft persecutions of
the sixteenth- and
seventeenth- centuries
remain the most hideous
examples of misogyny in
European history.'
 Loudon Possessions
Urban Grandier sentenced 1633
Gender-related but not gender
specific

Christina Larner, Witchcraft and Religion

(Oxford, 1984)
 Robin Briggs,
Witches and
Neighbours (1996)
 Conclusions

Significant moments of tension linked

to social and localised factors.
Symbiosis of intellectual and popular
belief in magic and witchcraft.
Not gender-exclusive crime
 Conclusions

Not exceptional, but part of a wider

phenomenon of supernatural deviants.
Tells us more about the society in
which accusations emerged than the
phenomenon itself.