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Another "Witch Hunt" Resource

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Host: Joan Neuberger, Editor, Not Even Past and Professor, Department of History
Guest: Brian Levack, John E. Green Regents Professor in History, University of Texas at Austin

Stories of witches and witch-hunting in early modern Europe have captivated us for centuries. During the early modern period of European history, stretching from roughly 1450 to about 1750, about 100,000 people-most of them women-were tried for the crime of witchcraft. About half of these people were executed, in most cases by burning at the stake. But witchcraft is more than just a Halloween story-for the men and women involved it was a very real, very frightening aspect of daily life.

Guest Brian Levack explains that, at its heart, accusations of witchcraft and sorcery are based in the all too human need to explain the ordinary cycles of birth, death, sickness, wellness, and the constant struggle between rich and poor.

http://dase.laits.utexas.edu/media/not_even_past/mp3/100514135.mp3
Download audio (right click to save) Let's start with an overview of the crime of witch craft in early modern Europe. What period are we talking about and how many people were involved?
During the early modern period of European history, stretching from roughly 1450 to about 1750, about 100,000 people-most of them women-were tried for the crime of witchcraft. About half of these people were executed, in most cases by burning at the stake.
So when we talk about witchcraft in history, we really talking about societies that decided to prosecute people for practicing witchcraft, is that right? And how was that crime defined?
The crime of witchcraft, as it was defined during these years, consisted of two main components. The first was the alleged practice of harmful magic, which was the use of some kind of supernatural, preternatural, or mysterious power to bring misfortune upon one's neighbors. These misfortunes often involved the infliction of disease, injury, or death on human beings or their livestock. Witches were also accused of making men sexually impotent. Misfortunes inflicted on the entire community, such as the destruction of crops by hailstorms or the burning of towns, were also occasionally attributed to witchcraft. Christian theologians claimed that the power to perform these maleficent magical deeds came from the Devil.

The second component of the witches' crime was the worship of the Devil. Witches were accused of having made an explicit, face-to-face pact with the Devil, by which they allegedly promised to serve him as their god in return for the power to inflict magical harm. In many countries it was also believed that witches would gather in remote locations to worship the Devil collectively. At these assemblies, often referred to as sabbaths, witches would allegedly kiss the Devil's buttocks, trample on the cross, and have themselves rebaptized in the religion of their new demonic master.

In Roman Catholic countries the witches were often accused of making a mockery of the Mass, which the priest saying the Mass backwards while standing on his head and consecrating a black host. At the sabbath, witches allegedly reversed all the moral norms of society. In particular, they were accused of dancing naked and engaging in promiscuous sexual relations with the other witches and the numerous demons in attendance. They allegedly sacrificed young, unbaptized children to the Devil and then ate them. In some countries it was believed that witches flew to these assemblies, sometimes on broomsticks or on the backs of animals.

There is no reliable evidence that any of these charges of collective Devil worship had any basis in reality. Most of the confessions of witches were coerced and therefore provide a better indication of what judges wanted defendants to say than what the accused witches had actually done. Confessions given voluntarily reflected either the dreams or fantasies of witches, the suggestions of confessors, or the confused statements of those who were senile or mentally ill.
How then did they prosecute the crime of witchcraft?
During the 15th century European judicial authorities became alarmed that they were faced with a vast conspiracy of witches who had rejected their Christian religion and were assisting the Devil in his work of physical destruction. For this reason judges in both the ecclesiastical and temporal courts took steps to identify witches and prosecute them. In order to secure the conviction of these witches, it was usually necessary to obtain their confessions. In so doing judicial authorities often subjected the accused to physical torture. Accused witches would have their thumbs screwed tight in iron vises, their legs crushed until the bones were reduced to pulp, and their bodies hung by their wrists from the ceiling in order to make them confess to harmful magic and the worship of the Devil. In most circumstances, especially when the torture was extreme, the accused witches confessed to the crimes that their inquisitors were convinced they had perpetuated. Then, in order to extract the names of their alleged confederates, they were asked, once again under torture, to identify other witches who had joined them at the sabbath. It was this last procedure, the naming of accomplices, that explains why a single witch hunt could take such a high toll in human life.
Witch hunting became very widespread in some parts of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries-where was it concentrated?
Most of the large witch hunts occurred in the late 16th and 17th centuries, which was the most intense period of executions throughout Europe. Some hunts, such as those in the diocese of Trier between 1587 and 1593 and the city of Würzburg between 1627 and 1629, claimed hundreds of victims.
And Trier and Würzburg were in German terroritories?
Yes. Within the lands of the Prince Bishop of Eichstätt 274 persons were executed for witchcraft in 1629. On the lands of the convent of Quedlinberg in Germany in 1589, 133 witches were executed in one day. A witch-hunt in 1585 left two German villages with only one female inhabitant each.

Many of the most severe hunts took place in German territories, especially those where torture was administered with few restraints. Prosecutions in some of the Swiss cantons were just as severe as in German lands. Other locations of intense-witch-hunting were Scotland, Hungary, Poland, the Spanish Netherlands, and the French-speaking territories on the eastern border of France. There were fewer executions in Scandinavian countries, England, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
How do you explain the concentration of witch hunting in these territories?
The intensity of prosecutions in various localities was determined by the strength of the belief in the sabbath, the degree to which judicial authorities were willing to allow the use of excessive torture, and the severity of social and economic conditions that might lead villagers to accuse their neighbors.
So really the concentration of witch hunting had more to do with prosecutors and the context than with anything the alleged witches were doing. Let's talk about how these witchcraft prosecutions played out locally-can you give us an example?
Almost all European countries experienced at least one large witch hunt. In England, where torture was forbidden, the notorious witch-finder Matthew Hopkins secured the conviction and execution of more than 150 witches during the years 1645-47. Many of these witches confessed after Hopkins had kept them awake for up to 72 hours. This tactic was justified as an effort to make the witches' imps (their personal demonic spirits) appear, but for all intents and purposes it was a form of torture. At Salem, Massachusetts, 30 witches were convicted and 19 of them executed in 1692 after a group of teen-age girls, who manifested the signs of demonic possession, accused individuals of causing their afflictions by means of witchcraft.
Most witch hunts targeted women, is that right?
Most witch hunts began when villagers accused their neighbors of harming them by magical means. About 80 percent of those accused were women, although that percentage varied considerably from country to country. Many female witches were healers, who were the main source of health care in rural areas. When their cures failed, those women became vulnerable to the charges that they had caused their patients' death by magical means. In a few instances witches were midwives, who could also be easily suspected of deliberately causing the death the infants they helped to deliver. Other women accused of witchcraft were those who came into the household after the birth of a baby and assisted the mother with child care. It was only natural that the mothers, resenting this intrusion by other women into their homes, would suspect these persons of causing any harm that might befall her child. Witches were often described as bad or cruel mothers, who instead of nurturing young children, caused their illness or death.
Were all these incidents inspired by local conflicts and problems?
The villagers who made the original accusations of witchcraft were almost exclusively concerned with the magical, as opposed to the diabolical, aspects of the witch's crime. They were aggrieved because their neighbors had harmed them, not because they had made a pact with the Devil or attended the sabbath. Charges of Devil-worship were usually introduced by judges who had studied at the universities or who had read some of the many witchcraft treatises that were published during these years. The most famous of these treatises was the Malleus Maleficarum [ The Hammer of Witches], which was written by two Dominican inquisitors in 1486. The authors of these treatises had their own explanation why most witches were women. Most of them emphasized the weakness of women and their greater vulnerability to demonic temptation. The Malleus claimed that women were also the more carnal of the species and more eager therefore to have sexual relations with the Devil.
It's not easy to tell whether witch hunters were inspired by religious zeal or whether religion helped them explain conflicts and tragedies in their lives? Which do you think it was?
Witch hunters were often inspired by religious zeal. Claiming to be doing God's work, they set out to rid their communities of the Devil's confederates and thereby create a godly state. The Biblical condemnation of witchcraft, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18) strengthened the determination of both ecclesiastical and secular judges to bring witches to justice. Protestant and Catholic reformers, inspired by a heightened fear of the Devil, were among the most zealous witch-hunters, although the persons they identified as witches were usually nominal members of their own religious faith. Individuals, suspected of various forms of moral deviance or of not attending religious services, were particularly vulnerable to charges of witchcraft.
We've been talking almost exclusively about hunting and prosecuting witches. What do we know about the practice of witchcraft? Was there a practice of witchcraft? Were there any people who believed they had magical powers?
Most of the people who were accused of witchcraft were inncoent scapegoats. But a few individuals, believing they had magical powers, did actually try to harm others by casting spells on them. For some poor, old women who were shunned by their neighbors, witchcraft was the only power they believed they could use to defend themselves against those who had subjected them to a miserable life of poverty and social isolation.
Did the people who prosecuted witchcraft believe that they were prosecuting actual witches with magical powers?
Yes, they really did. They believed that these people had not only practiced harmful magic but, much more seriously, they thought that these people were involved in this vast demonic conspiracy that was going to bring about the end of Christiandom and Christian civilization and the moral order. And that is why they needed a confession; that is why they forced these people to confess because they knew that they were guilty. Of course, what they didn't understand is that when they applied torture and the person was not guilty, they could force that person to confess just to stop the torture and that just confirmed everything they believed about these people.
We associate witchcraft hunting with the early modern period. How did it come to an end? When did it stop?
Witch-hunting gradually declined in intensity and came to an end in most European countries by the early 18th century. The men most responsible for its decline and end were lawyers who came to the realization that innocent people had been executed on the basis of insubstantial evidence or they had been forced to confess under torture. Although most of these skeptical lawyers still believed in the possibility of witchcraft, they came to the realization that the crime could not be proved at law. Thus ended one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in the history of the West.

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Episode 55: Witch-hunting in Early Modern Europe

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Host: Joan Neuberger, Editor, Not Even Past and Professor, Department of History Guest: Brian Levack, John E. Green Regents Professor in History, University of Texas at Austin Stories of witches and witch-hunting in early modern Europe have captivated us for centuries.

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Describe why it is important

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Table of Contents

1. What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?: Context & Origins

2. Salem Witch Trial Victims: How the Hysteria Spread

3. Salem Witch Trials: Conclusion and Legacy

The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem's Gallows Hill, while some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next several months.

By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public opinion turned against the trials. Though the Massachusetts General Court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families, bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries.

What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?: Context & Origins

Belief in the supernatural-and specifically in the devil's practice of giving certain humans (witches) the power to harm others in return for their loyalty-had emerged in Europe as early as the 14th century, and was widespread in colonial New England. In addition, the harsh realities of life in the rural Puritan community of Salem Village (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts) at the time included the after-effects of a British war with France in the American colonies in 1689, a recent smallpox epidemic, fears of attacks from neighboring Native American tribes and a longstanding rivalry with the more affluent community of Salem Town (present-day Salem).

Amid these simmering tensions, the Salem witch trials would be fueled by residents' suspicions of and resentment toward their neighbors, as well as their fear of outsiders.

Did you know? In an effort to explain by scientific means the strange afflictions suffered by those "bewitched" Salem residents in 1692, a study published in Science magazine in 1976 cited the fungus ergot (found in rye, wheat and other cereals), which toxicologists say can cause symptoms such as delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms.

In January 1692, 9-year-old Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams (the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, minister of Salem Village) began having fits, including violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming. After a local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment, other young girls in the community began to exhibit similar symptoms, including Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren.

In late February, arrest warrants were issued for the Parris' Caribbean slave, Tituba, along with two other women-the homeless beggar Sarah Good and the poor, elderly Sarah Osborn-whom the girls accused of bewitching them.

Salem Witch Trial Victims: How the Hysteria Spread

The three accused witches were brought before the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, screaming and writhing. Though Good and Osborn denied their guilt, Tituba confessed. Likely seeking to save herself from certain conviction by acting as an informer, she claimed there were other witches acting alongside her in service of the devil against the Puritans.

As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse-both regarded as upstanding members of church and community-and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good.

Like Tituba, several accused "witches" confessed and named still others, and the trials soon began to overwhelm the local justice system. In May 1692, the newly appointed governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, ordered the establishment of a special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) on witchcraft cases for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties.

Presided over by judges including Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton, the court handed down its first conviction, against Bridget Bishop, on June 2; she was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town. Five more people were hanged that July; five in August and eight more in September. In addition, seven other accused witches died in jail, while the elderly Giles Corey (Martha's husband) was pressed to death by stones after he refused to enter a plea at his arraignment.

Salem Witch Trials: Conclusion and Legacy

Though the respected minister Cotton Mather had warned of the dubious value of spectral evidence (or testimony about dreams and visions), his concerns went largely unheeded during the Salem witch trials. Increase Mather, president of Harvard College (and Cotton's father) later joined his son in urging that the standards of evidence for witchcraft must be equal to those for any other crime, concluding that "It would better that ten suspected witches may escape than one innocent person be condemned."

Amid waning public support for the trials, Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer in October and mandated that its successor disregard spectral evidence. Trials continued with dwindling intensity until early 1693, and by that May Phips had pardoned and released all those in prison on witchcraft charges.

In January 1697, the Massachusetts General Court declared a day of fasting for the tragedy of the Salem witch trials; the court later deemed the trials unlawful, and the leading justice Samuel Sewall publicly apologized for his role in the process. The damage to the community lingered, however, even after Massachusetts Colony passed legislation restoring the good names of the condemned and providing financial restitution to their heirs in 1711.

Indeed, the vivid and painful legacy of the Salem witch trials endured well into the 20th century, when Arthur Miller dramatized the events of 1692 in his play "The Crucible" (1953), using them as an allegory for the anti-Communist "witch hunts" led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. A memorial to the victims of the Salem witch trials was dedicated on August 5, 1992 by author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

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Salem Witch Trials - Events, Facts & Victims

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The infamous Salem witch trials were a series of prosecutions for witchcraft starting in 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Learn about what led to the allegations and the hundreds of people who were were accused.

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Why it needs to change.

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Article Resource

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A FEW centuries ago in Europe, the fear of witchcraft led to witch hunts and executions. These occurred largely in France, Germany, northern Italy, Switzerland, and the Low Countries-Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. "Tens of thousands of people in Europe and European colonies died," and "millions of others suffered torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear," says the book Witch Hunts in the Western World.* How did this paranoia begin? What fed it?

The Inquisition and The Hammer of Witches

Looming large in this story is the Inquisition. It was created by the Roman Catholic Church in the 13th century "to convert apostates and prevent others from falling away," explains the book Der Hexenwahn (The Witch Mania). The Inquisition functioned as a police force for the church.

On December 5, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull, or document, that condemned witchcraft. He also authorized two inquisitors-Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer (also known by his Latin name, Henricus Institoris)-to combat the problem. The two men produced a book entitled Malleus Maleficarum, that is, The Hammer of Witches. Both Catholics and Protestants accepted it as the authority on witchcraft. The work contained imaginative stories about witches based on folklore, presented theological and legal arguments against witchcraft, and provided guidelines on how to identify and eliminate witches. The Hammer of Witches has been described as "the most vicious and . . . the most damaging book in all of world literature."

The Hammer of Witches has been described as "the most vicious and . . . the most damaging book in all of world literature"

Accusations of witchcraft required no evidence of guilt. The book Hexen und Hexenprozesse (Witches and Witch Trials) states that trials were "intended only to produce a confession by the accused, by means of persuasion, pressure, or force." Torture was common.

In response to The Hammer of Witches and the papal bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII, major witch hunts broke out in Europe. Moreover, these were aided by a new technology, the printing press, which helped to spread the mania, even across the Atlantic to America.

Who Were the Accused?

Well over 70 percent of the accused were women, especially widows, who often had no one to defend them. Victims included the poor, the elderly, and women who dispensed herbal remedies, especially if these failed. No one was truly safe-rich or poor, male or female, lowly or prominent.

People thought to be witches were blamed for all manner of evils. They allegedly "caused frost and brought forth plagues of snails and caterpillars to destroy the seed and fruits of the earth," says the German magazine Damals. If hail struck a crop, if a cow failed to give milk, if a man was impotent or a woman barren, witches were surely to blame!

How were witches identified? Some suspects were bound and put into a "blessed" body of cold water. If they sank, they were deemed innocent and pulled out. If they floated, they were considered witches and executed on the spot or handed over to be tried. Other suspects were weighed because it was thought that witches had little or no weight.

Another test involved searching for "the Devil's mark," which was "a tangible sign left by the Devil of his compact with the witch," says Witch Hunts in the Western World. Officials would search for the mark "by shaving all hair off the accused and examining every nook and cranny of the body"-in public! They would then stick a needle into any spots they found, such as birthmarks, warts, and scars. If the prick did not hurt or bleed, the spot was considered a mark of Satan.

Both Catholic and Protestant governments promoted witch hunts, and in some regions Protestant rulers were more severe than their Catholic counterparts. In time, however, reason began to prevail. In 1631, for example, Friedrich Spee, a Jesuit priest who had accompanied many people judged to be witches to the stake to be burned alive, wrote that in his view none were guilty. And if witch hunting continued unabated, he warned, the land would become empty! Meanwhile, physicians began to recognize that such things as seizures could be linked to health and not demon possession. During the 17th century, the number of trials sharply decreased, and by the end of that century, they had all but ended.

What does that ugly era teach us? One key lesson is this: When professed Christians began to substitute religious lies and superstition for the pure teachings of Jesus Christ, they opened the door to enormous evil. Foretelling the reproach that would be brought on true Christianity by such unfaithful men, the Bible warned: "The way of the truth will be spoken of abusively."- 2 Peter 2:1, 2.

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A FEW centuries ago in Europe, the fear of witchcraft led to witch hunts and executions. These occurred largely in France, Germany, northern Italy, Switzerland, and the Low Countries-Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. "Tens of thousands of people in Europe and European colonies died," and "millions of others suffered torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear," says the book Witch Hunts in the Western World.