Reli 30: Lecture 13

Reli 30: Spring 2005, Lance Lazar
The Poor, The Whore, The Devil, and The Witch.

READING ASSIGNMENTS:

Tues, Apr 26 Skepticism, Doubt, and the End of Witches

Waite, Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, Ch 6, Conclusion

Briggs, "Conclusion,"

Week 14 Tues, Apr 19 Witches, the Reformation, and the Seventeenth Century

Malleus Maleficarum: The Hammer of Witches

Big Question: How do you discover, prosecute, and convict a witch?

Cumulative Concept of Witchcraft: characteristics of witch belief

The Devil, Demons

Lactantius (c. 245-325) Divine Institutes

Pact with the Devil

Latria and dulia

Control of Nature

Flight

Metamorphoses

The Sabbath

Jacob Sprenger, Heinrich Krämer, Dominican Inquisitors from near Cologne

The Form of the Malleus, "Hammer"

Women and Evil Nature

Biblical Catch 22

Women and the Pact with the Devil

Inversions

Incubus, succubus, lamiae, strigae

Maleficia

Castration, Cannibalism, Contraception, Abortion,

Witches as Heretics
Trial regulations

witness limitations

class distinctions

advocate

conspiracy theory

torture (interrogatory)

imprisonment

Witches, the Reformation, and the Seventeenth Century

Big Question: How did the Reformation impact the prosecution of witches? What was the peak of the Witch Hunt like?

Jean Calvin, 1509-1564: Institutes of Christian Religion
Jean Bodin, 1530-1596: Démonomanie des Sorciers (1580), lèse majesté divine High Treason against God
Impact of the Reformations of the Sixteenth Century

New religious outlook

Personal sanctity, guilt, and witchcraft

Attack on superstition, paganism, and magic

Witchcraft and the Godly state

The Bible and witchcraft

Exodus 22:18: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"

Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, 1532

Religious conflict

Reformation and the decline of witchcraft

Social Context

Geographical and social setting

Who were the witches?

sex, age, marital status, social and economic status,

personality of the witch, witches as rebels, the Devil as rebel

Case Studies

Small hunt: only originally accused are found guilty

Medium hunt: second round of accusations

Largest hunts: Trier: 306 witches name 1500 accomplices,

Chain reaction hunts: Ellwangen (1611), Würzburg (1627-29), Bamberg (1630), Rouen (1670)

Accusations spread to the ruling class itself

Johannes Junius, Burgermeister of Bamberg

Accusations spread to the clergy

Urbain Grandier, Priest of Loudun

Classic case: Salem Documents

Demonologists

1486, Heinrich Krämer, Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum Hammer of Witches

1489, Ulrich Molitor, De lamiis On Lamias

1524, Paulus Grillandus, Tractatus de hereticis et sortilegiis Treatise on Heretics and Sorcerers

1595, Nicolas Rémy, Demonolatriae Demonolatry

Thomas Erastus, Jean Bodin,

1590's Martin del Rio, Disquisitionum Magicarum Discourse on Witches

1597, King James I, Daemonologie Demonology

1602, Henri Boquet, Discours des sorciers Discourse on Sorcerers

1608, Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum Compendium of Witches

1612, Pierre de Lancre, Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et démons Vision of the Inconstancy of Evil Angels and Demons

1635, Benedict Carpzow, Practica rerum criminalium Practice of Criminal Law

Supporters

Cotton Mather

Arguments for witch belief

syncretism

Internet
Church of Satan
Satannet
Maledicta/Moonchild
Witchcraft and Wicca

Images

Aristotle and Phyllis

Van Meckenem,

“Angry Wife” 1498, engraving

Manuscript of Valerius Maximus, image of a bathhouse or brothel

Burgkmair, Hans,

"Lovers surprised by Death" 1510, Chiaroscuro woodcut

Augsburg “Ars Moriendi” c. 1470, woodcut

Warsaw, Museum Narodowe, Depiction of the 6th Commandment (against adultery), painting,

Ritter von Turn,

“Vanity of women with demon” 1498, Augsburg woodcut