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Witchcraft (Medieval Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The classic era of the great witch hunts was not the medieval, but the Early Modern period of the 16th and 17th centuries. However, the Middle Ages saw the formation of the image of the witch over the course of the centuries between 1000 and 1500. By the end of the 15th century, there existed an extensive literature that described witches as dedicated enemies of humankind who paid homage to the devil. Witches were said to gather regularly with others of their kind in debauched meetings, or “sabbats,” flying to these events with the help of magical ointments, enchanted brooms or logs, or simply “in spirit” on their own. There they feasted, enjoyed sexual trysts (sometimes with the devil himself), murdered any infants who resulted from these unions, and planned harmful acts against their neighbors. The latter nefarious deeds often involved impeding human, animal, or crop fertility. The notion of the sabbat, which emerged in the 1430s, permitted witchcraft to be imagined as a vast conspiracy; and the close association between women and witches likewise was cemented in the European imagination by the end of the medieval period. All these ideas found their most forceful expression in the late medieval witch-hunting manual known as the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches. The gradual coalescence of the above stereotype represents the confluence of many different areas of culture. Scholars of witchcraft not only examine witchcraft trials, but also theological treatises and grimoires (books of magic spells); elite medical theory and the traditional folklore of illiterates; and demonologies, inquisitorial handbooks, and antiheretical tracts. In consequence, the student who wishes to gain a clear understanding of the medieval history of witchcraft must consult several different bodies of scholarly literature. Scholars have long debated the relative importance of each of these areas to the history of witchcraft. While some have argued that witches really did exist as marginalized women and men who worshipped the devil, others suggest that witchcraft was an illusion, a dark fantasy of the intelligentsia that fed off deep-seated cultural fears of the devil and of women. Some historians trace the genesis of witchcraft accusations to village tensions and beliefs about magic and maleficium (occult magical harming practices); others note that the presence of an inquisitor in a region often corresponded with an outbreak of trials, suggesting that witchcraft trials chiefly were instigated by elites. A few researchers have pointed to medieval ideas about demonic possession as forming an important prelude to the formation of the witch stereotype, while others foreground the medieval battle against heresy as a leading factor in fostering anxieties about a conspiracy of human beings dedicated to evil. Lastly, a vigorous strand of contemporary scholarship has excavated elements of pre-Christian folklore in the witchcraft trials, and most scholars now agree that witchcraft beliefs in many areas referenced traditional shamanic folklore. In sum, few areas of historical study are as rich in scholarly debate and interpretation as witchcraft studies. This trend has only accelerated in the early 21st century.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. The works in this section represent broad introductions to the topic of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Golden 2006 is a handy encyclopedia. Klaniczay 2010 provides a useful historiographical essay on the development of witchcraft studies as a field: though many of the references concern the Early Modern rather than the medieval period, the general trends identified there may guide the reader through the subject. General studies of medieval witchcraft include Kieckhefer 2011, Cohn 2000, and Russell 1984. Jolly, et al. 2001 presents in-depth, yet introductory, essays that are useful in the classroom. Two excellent studies with a regional focus are Duni 2007, for Italy, and Mitchell 2011, for Scandinavia. Though based in restricted locales, both the foregoing works have broader implications.
  8.  
  9. Cohn, Norman. Europe’s Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
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  11. First published in 1975 in a slightly different form and without the subtitle, this provocative book traces connections between the prosecution of heresy in the Middle Ages and the formation of the witch stereotype as the ultimate enemy of Christendom.
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  13.  
  14. Duni, Matteo. Under the Devil’s Spell: Witches, Sorcerers and the Inquisition in Renaissance Italy. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007.
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  16. The interpretive sections of this book present a good guide to Renaissance Italian witchcraft, supplemented by translations of several witchcraft and sorcery trials dating from the 15th to the 17th centuries.
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  18.  
  19. Golden, Richard. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition. 4 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
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  21. A compilation of brief articles on a wide variety of people, texts, and themes related to the history of European witchcraft.
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  23.  
  24. Jolly, Karen, Catharina Raudvere, and Edward Peters. The Middle Ages. Volume 3 of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
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  26. This is part of a set of six volumes spanning the history of European witchcraft from the ancient world to the end of the 20th century. This overview is suitable for classroom use.
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  28.  
  29. Kieckhefer, Richard. European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500. New York: Routledge, 2011.
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  31. First published in 1975, this book was the first carefully to categorize, and to disentangle, learned and popular elements in the witch trials.
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  33.  
  34. Klaniczay, Gábor. “A Cultural History of Witchcraft.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 5.2 (2010): 188–212.
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  36. An overview of the historiography of witchcraft, identifying trends in the development of the study of witch beliefs as a scholarly subspecialty.
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  38.  
  39. Mitchell, Stephen A. Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
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  41. A case study of witchcraft and sorcery beliefs in a society that converted relatively late to Christianity. Mitchell analyzes what can be known of pre-Christian divinatory and magical practices, and assesses the impact of conversion upon these cultural traditions.
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  43.  
  44. Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.
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  46. This study of medieval witchcraft argues that socially marginalized people likely did worship the devil as an expression of dissent. Though older, it still has some useful elements.
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  48.  
  49. Anthologies
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  51. Many excellent collections of articles about the history of witchcraft appear throughout this article under the appropriate thematic subheadings. Listed in this section are collections of essays that are broad in scope, pertaining to many of the different themes throughout the article. Levack 1992 and Levack 2001–2013, two multivolume anthologies, reprint articles that originally appeared in journals, arranged around particular themes. Ferreiro 1998 includes essays on many interrelated themes of importance, including the devil and heresy as well as witchcraft. Edwards 2002, Fanger 1998, and Fanger 2012 deal broadly with various kinds of spirits, while the large collection Raiswell and Dendle 2012 focuses more closely on evil spirits. Of particular interest is Klaniczay and Pócs 2005–2008, a three-volume set of essays, which collects the work of many important European scholars in English. This latter set of volumes gives a good overview of the modern direction of the field.
  52.  
  53. Bremmer, Jan N., and Jan R. Veenstra, eds. The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2002.
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  55. A collection of essays by top scholars examining the transformations of magic in the medieval period, with particular focus on the shifting conceptions of spirits in the realm of natural philosophy.
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  57.  
  58. Edwards, Kathryn A., ed. Werewolves, Witches, and Wandering Spirits: Traditional Belief and Folklore in Early Modern Europe. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2002.
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  60. Though most of the essays in this volume draw their evidence base from the Early Modern period, the themes they discuss have medieval roots. A useful set of essays about the recovery of popular folklore.
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  62.  
  63. Fanger, Claire. Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
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  65. Chiefly a collection of essays by top scholars of magic, this volume also includes an edition of “The Book of Angels, Rings, Characters and Images of the Planets.”
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  67.  
  68. Fanger, Claire. Invoking Angels: Theurgic Ideas and Practices, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Century. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012.
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  70. This collection of essays examines medieval Christian angel magic, with consideration of the influence of Jewish and Islamic angelology.
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  72.  
  73. Ferreiro, Albert, ed. The Devil, Heresy, and Witchcraft: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey B. Russell. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1998.
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  75. This wide-ranging collection of essays addresses a variety of topics of interest, with particular attention to medieval representations of the spirit world.
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  77.  
  78. Klaniczay, Gábor, and Éva Pócs, eds. Communicating with the Spirits. 3 vols. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2005–2008.
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  80. A three-volume set of essays with many important medievalist contributions. Volume 1: Communicating with the Spirits; Volume 2: Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology; Volume 3: Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions.
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  82.  
  83. Levack, Brian P., ed. Articles on Witchcraft, Magic, and Demonology. 12 vols. New York: Garland, 1992.
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  85. A vast array of scholarship, reprinting both classic older studies and important contemporary essays. Of particular interest for medievalists are Volume 1: Anthropological Studies of Witchcraft; Volume 2: Witchcraft in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages; Volume 4: The Literature of Witchcraft; Volume 9: Possession and Exorcism; Volume 10: Witchcraft, Women, and Society.
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  87.  
  88. Levack, Brian P., ed. New Perspectives on Witchcraft, Magic, and Demonology. 6 vols. New York: Routledge, 2001–2013.
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  90. A sequel to Levack 1992, updating the project into the 21st century. See especially Volume 1: Demonology, Religion, and Witchcraft; Volume 4: Gender and Witchcraft; Volume 5: Witchcraft, Healing, and Popular Diseases.
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  92.  
  93. Raiswell, Richard, and Peter Dendle. The Devil in Society in Premodern Europe. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012.
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  95. A collection of diverse essays discussing the social history of belief in the devil as a personalized agent of ultimate evil.
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  97.  
  98. Journals and Series
  99.  
  100. Until relatively recently, scholarship on witchcraft was published mainly in journals with broader thematic foci. Since 2006, however, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft has become the leading outlet for the publication of witchcraft scholarship, with an international focus and through contributions from many leading scholars. For the most up-to-date articles, essays, and reviews, the researcher should begin there. In 2012 Preternature began publishing, and seems likely to become another important journal to watch for witchcraft- and magic-related topics. Three important book series require mention: Magic in History from Pennsylvania State University Press; Hexenforschung, a German series appearing from the press of the University of Saarland; and Cahiers Lausannois d’Histoire Médiévale, which is the major hub for new publications in continental European scholarship. Rounding out the section is a series that focuses largely on Early Modern witchcraft studies, but with a few medieval contributions: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic.
  101.  
  102. Cahiers Lausannois d’Histoire Médiévale. Lausanne, Switzerland: Éditions Université de Lausanne, 1989–.
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  104. This series is an important outlet for continental European scholarship on witchcraft, particularly (though not exclusively) in the French language.
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  106.  
  107. Hexenforschung. Saarbrücken, Germany: Universität des Saarlandes, 1995–.
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  109. An outlet for interdisciplinary witchcraft research published in German, under the auspices of the Arbeitskreis Interdisziplinare Hexenforschung (Interdisciplinary Working Group on Witchcraft).
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  111.  
  112. Magic in History. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998–.
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  114. This series includes monographs, edited original texts, and collections of essays. Several of the works that have appeared deal with the medieval period.
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  116.  
  117. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft. 2006–.
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  119. The leading English-language journal for scholarship about witchcraft and related topics. This is the place to start for the most up-to-the-moment developments in the field.
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  121.  
  122. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. 2008–.
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  124. Most works in this series focus on the Early Modern rather than the medieval period. However, new titles are constantly appearing and the standards of the series are high.
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  126.  
  127. Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural. 2012–.
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  129. A wide-ranging journal dealing with the history of magic and the occult, among other topics.
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  131.  
  132. Collections of Sources
  133.  
  134. These collections of sources are suitable for classroom use. Kors and Peters 2000 is a vast collection that transcends the medieval period. Maxwell-Stuart 2005 and Maxwell-Stuart 2011 include some creative and unusual selections, and are compact enough for a class dedicated specifically to the Middle Ages. Griffiths 1996 gives an excellent selection for the early period in Britain. Lea 2004 is a reprint of an older compilation, but worth consulting for its exhaustive character.
  135.  
  136. Griffiths, Bill. Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic. Norfolk, VA: Anglo-Saxon, 1996.
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  138. The book is notable for its compilation and translation of many early charms, blessings, healing rites, and divinatory rites. A lengthy introduction contextualizes the sources in Anglo-Saxon culture.
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  140.  
  141. Kors, Alan, and Edward Peters. Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History. 2d ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
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  143. A thick collection of primary-source documents with excellent introductions, designed for classroom use.
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  145.  
  146. Lea, Henry Charles. Materials Towards a History of Witchcraft. 3 vols. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2004.
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  148. An on-demand reprint of a set of volumes first published in 1939, containing a wealth of primary-source materials on the medieval background of the witch hunts.
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  150.  
  151. Maxwell-Stuart, Peter G. The Occult in Medieval Europe. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
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  153. A wide-ranging collection of primary sources that includes sections on magic, demons, and witchcraft.
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  155.  
  156. Maxwell-Stuart, Peter G. Witch Beliefs and Witch Trials in the Middle Ages: Documents and Readings. London: Continuum, 2011.
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  158. A collection of translated documents drawn from the medieval period, this volume contains many useful and unusual choices.
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  160.  
  161. The Formation of the Witchcraft Stereotype
  162.  
  163. At the end of the 14th century, witchcraft was still an inchoate and ill-defined concept: few people had been prosecuted for this crime and little ink had been spilt over defining it. By the end of the 15th century, several full-scale witch hunts already had occurred, particularly in Alpine regions, and the stereotype of the witch was fully formed. Much recent scholarship has been dedicated to investigating the demonological literature and juridical history of witchcraft in this century, showing how the theory of witchcraft and its practical prosecution were intertwined. A good starting point is Borst 1991, a key essay that traces the formation of the witch stereotype to a very specific time and place. The two most important works in this section are those by Ostorero: Ostorero, et al. 1999, with collaborators; and Ostorero 2011, single authored. These landmark studies of the formation of the witchcraft stereotype are highly influential and consequential. These works may be supplemented by Bailey 2003, Broedel 2003, and Klaniczay 2007, monographs that deal with individual demonological texts from the 15th century. Kieckhefer 1998 is an important contribution toward understanding the roots of one particularly disturbing element of the witchcraft stereotype, infanticide. A subheading for this section, Fifteenth-Century Witchcraft Texts in Translation, presents a few key texts available in English translation, though it is to be hoped that more such works appear soon. Researchers also will want to consult the Witchcraft Trials section for studies of the application of the new witchcraft stereotypes in 15th-century trials. Bailey 2001 (cited under Magic) is likewise of interest here, as it deals with the shift in clerical writings with concern for magic, to concern for witchcraft. Lastly, Ferzoco 2005 examines a rare surviving example of a public artwork informed by witchcraft ideology, one independently attested in the Malleus Maleficarum.
  164.  
  165. Bailey, Michael D. Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003.
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  167. An exploration of the writer Johannes Nider and his contributions to demonology and to Dominican reform movements in the late Middle Ages.
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  169.  
  170. Borst, Arno. “The Origins of the Witch-Craze in the Alps.” In Medieval Worlds: Barbarians, Heretics, and Artists in the Middle Ages. Translated by Eric Hansen and edited by Arno Borst, 101–122. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
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  172. An important essay linking together the first witch hunts with the emergence of antiwitchcraft literature in the 1430s in the Alpine region.
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  174.  
  175. Broedel, Hans Peter. The Malleus Maleficarum and the Construction of Witchcraft. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2003.
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  177. An analysis of some of the medieval sources, both folkloric and intellectual, that underlay the arguments about witchcraft advanced in the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches.
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  179.  
  180. Ferzoco, George. Il murale de Massa Marittima: The Massa Marittima Mural. Leicester and Florence: Troubadour, 2005.
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  182. Study of a 15th-century public mural in the town of Massa Maritima depicting a “penis tree,” a theme connected with witchcraft and discussed in the Hammer of Witches.
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  184.  
  185. Kieckhefer, Richard. “Avenging the Blood of Children: Anxiety over Child Victims and the Origins of the European Witch Trials.” In The Devil, Heresy and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey B. Russell. Edited by Alberto Ferreiro, 91–110. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1998.
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  187. A careful dissection of the origins of different types of accusations of cannibalism against witches in the 15th century. The article shows that such accusations spring from more than one root, with some images of cannibalistic witchcraft deriving from folklore, others from antiheretical literature.
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  189.  
  190. Klaniczay, Gábor. “The Process of Trance, Heavenly and Diabolic Visions in Johannes Nider’s Formicarius.” In Procession, Performance, Liturgy, and Ritual. Edited by Nancy van Deusen, 203–258. Ottawa, ON: Institute of Medieval Music, 2007.
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  192. A detailed study of how Nider, a key late-medieval contributor to the stereotype of witchcraft, categorized the differences between benign and malign spiritual visions.
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  194.  
  195. Ostorero, Martine. Le diable au sabbat: Littérature démonologique et sorcellerie (1440–1460). Florence: Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino, 2011.
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  197. A landmark study of the origins of the idea of the witches’ sabbat in 15th-century demonological discourses, this is one of the most important recent works in the field.
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  199.  
  200. Ostorero, Martine, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Kathrin Utz Tremp, and Catherine Chéne. L’imaginaire du sabbat—edition critique des textes les plus anciens (1430 c.–1440 c.). Lausanne, Switzerland: Université de Lausanne, 1999.
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  202. This fundamental study of the emergence of antiwitchcraft literature in the 1430s in the Alpine region includes partial Latin editions and French translations of key texts.
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  204.  
  205. Fifteenth-Century Witchcraft Texts in Translation
  206.  
  207. Unfortunately, few of the key texts for the study of the witchcraft stereotype are available in translation. Kramer 2009 is perhaps the most famous of all witch-hunting manuals, and has appeared in a recent, new translation. Likewise, le Franc 2005 presents an important portrait of the image of the witch. Translations of portions of additional key texts from the 15th century may be found in Kors and Peters 2000, cited in the Collections of Sources section.
  208.  
  209. Kramer, Henry. The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum. Translated by Christopher Mackay. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  211. This famous witch-hunting manual continues to be a point of contention, with some scholars claiming it was immensely influential and others downplaying its significance. First published in 1486, it sets forth, in scholastic style, the theory of witchcraft and the norms for inquisitorial prosecution of this crime.
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  213.  
  214. le Franc, Martin. The Trial of Womankind: A Rhyming Translation of Book IV of the Fifteenth-Century Le Champion des Dames. Edited and translated by Steven Miller Taylor. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2005.
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  216. This primary-source text complements the vision of witchcraft we garner from contemporary demonologies, though the author’s attitude is sympathetic to women.
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  218.  
  219. Witchcraft Trials
  220.  
  221. Most witchcraft trials of the medieval period were held in the 15th century in the Alpine regions, and represented the juridical application of new norms and images of the witch pioneered in contemporary literature. Thus it may be useful to consult the section on the Formation of the Witchcraft Stereotype in dialogue with the works suggested in this section. Strobino 1996 and Pfau 2013 both focus on the ongoing evolution of conceptions of magical activity from sorcery to witchcraft in eastern France, and the repercussions of these shifts on legal prosecutions. Maier 1996, Schatzmann 2003, and Stokes 2011 all are close studies of trials in Swiss areas, with Maier presenting some appendices with Latin editions and French translations of original trial sources as well. Mercier 2006 ties an outbreak of witchcraft trials to a local dispute over political sovereignty. The outliers in this section are Mormando 1998, a close study of a trial in 15th-century Italy, motivated by the zeal of a charismatic preacher; Ledrede 2004, a translation of a trial from 13th-century Ireland, the first surviving prosecution for witchcraft in Europe; and Wilby 2010, a translation with extensive commentary of an Early Modern Scottish trial with many atavistic elements that likely reach back to the Middle Ages.
  222.  
  223. Ledrede, Richard de. The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler: A Contemporary Account (1324) Together with Related Documents in English Translation, with Introduction and Notes. Edited and translated by L. S. Davidson and John O. Ward. Ashville, NC: Pegasus, 2004.
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  225. A translation of the earliest witchcraft trial in the West, that of the wealthy Irish widow Alice Kyteler.
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  227.  
  228. Maier, Eva. Trente ans avec le diable: Une nouvelle chasse aux sorciers sur la Riviera lémanique (1477–1484). Cahiers Lausannois d’Histoire Médiévale 17. Lausanne, Switzerland: Université de Lausanne, 1996.
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  230. A close study of a group of a dozen witchcraft trials in the area of Lausanne in western Switzerland over the course of three decades. Four particularly rich trials are given individual treatment to illuminate how beliefs about witchcraft were consolidating in the late 15th century. Appendices present Latin editions and French translations of several trials.
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  232.  
  233. Mercier, Franck. La Vauderie d’Arras: Une chasse aux sorcières à l’Automne du Moyen Âge. Rennes, France: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2006.
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  235. An examination of a series of witchcraft trials held from 1459 to 1460 and their relationship to local politics and sovereignty. Communal revolts in the decade leading up to these trials formed the background to the persecutions initiated from above by secular authorities.
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  237.  
  238. Mormando, Franco. “Bernardino of Siena, Popular Preacher and Witch-Hunter: A 1426 Witch Trial in Rome.” Fifteenth-Century Studies 24 (1998): 84–115.
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  240. An illuminating case study of accusations and trials inspired by the charismatic preaching of a Franciscan friar, focusing on the unpredictable dynamics of how his sermons were received by different audiences in different Italian cities.
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  242.  
  243. Pfau, Aleksandra. “Ritualized Violence against Sorcerers in Fifteenth-Century France.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 8.1 (2013): 50–71.
  244. DOI: 10.1353/mrw.2013.0007Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  245. A study of letters of remission related to crimes of violence against village men and women accused of sorcery, the article presents an intriguing vision into the dynamics of dealing with magical practitioners in a region not yet reached by the new notion of diabolic witchcraft.
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  247.  
  248. Schatzmann, Niklaus. Verdorrende Bäume und Brote wie Kuhfladen: Hesenprozesse in der Leventina 1431–1459 und die Anfänge der Hexenverfolgung auf der Alpensüdseite. Zurich, Switzerland: Chronos Verlag, 2003.
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  250. A deft case study of the importation of new demonological ideas, including the sabbat and the pact, into a series of thirty-eight Swiss witchcraft trials in the mid-15th century.
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  252.  
  253. Stokes, Laura. Demons of Urban Reform: Early European Witch Trials and Criminal Justice, 1430–1530. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
  254. DOI: 10.1057/9780230309043Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. A study of early witch hunts and other criminal prosecutions in Basel, Lucerne, and Nuremberg. The book shows that crimes of all sorts were punished with increasing severity over time, as urban jurisdictions increasingly sought mechanisms for social control.
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  257.  
  258. Strobino, Sandrine. Françoise sauvée des flammes? Une Valaisanne accusée de sorcellerie au XVe siècle. Cahiers Lausannois d’Histoire Médiévale 18. Lausanne, Switzerland: Université de Lausanne, 1996.
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  260. Study of a single trial from 1467, this case illuminates the encounter between popular fear of magic and maleficium, and the emerging learned notion of the witches’ sabbat.
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  262.  
  263. Wilby, Emma. The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft, and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2010.
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  265. This work includes an edition and analysis of a witch trial in which fairy beliefs figured prominently. Though the trial is postmedieval, it deals with much traditional folklore.
  266. Find this resource:
  267.  
  268. Witchcraft and Gender
  269.  
  270. The link between witchcraft and women is an important part of the history of the phenomenon. It is clear that, in aggregate, more women than men were prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft; that isolated older women were more likely to be regarded with suspicion by their neighbors on the village level; and that women likewise occupy a central place in demonologists’ images of the typical witch. Opitz-Belakhal 2009 is a historiographical essay that presents a recent “state of the question,” while the excellent Chène and Ostorero 2000 trenchantly analyzes the prominence of misogynistic themes in 15th-century discussions of the sabbat. Burghartz 1995 and Hester 1996 both present analyses of the long-standing cultural roots of this situation, whereas Bailey 2002 focuses on the 15th-century thinker Johannes Nider as the first author clearly to associate women and witches in writing. Yet it is possible to complicate the close association between witches and women with counterexamples and exceptions. For example, Herzig 2010 shows that even the most notorious demonologist of the Middle Ages—Henry Kramer, author of the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches—praised women in some of his other works even as he condemned them harshly in his best-known text. Schulte 2009 shows that in certain areas of Europe, men were prosecuted in great numbers. This section presents a selective introduction to the vast question of gender and witchcraft, highlighting the diversity of questions and approaches in current scholarship. See also Agrimi and Crisciani 1992, Lemay 1992, and Caciola 2000 (cited under Demons, Medicine, and Bodies) for further works of interest to this theme.
  271.  
  272. Bailey, Michael. “The Feminization of Magic and the Emerging Idea of the Female Witch in the Late Middle Ages.” Essays in Medieval Studies 19 (2002): 120–134.
  273. DOI: 10.1353/ems.2003.0002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  274. Discussion of why and how witchcraft came to be associated with the female sex, when earlier medieval discussions of sorcery usually associated this powerful crime with men. Bailey focuses on the works of the Dominican Johannes Nider, who was the first authority to gender witchcraft as feminine in the 15th century.
  275. Find this resource:
  276.  
  277. Burghartz, Susanna. “Hexenverfolgung als Frauenverfolgung? Zur Gleichsetzung von Hexen und Frauen am Beispiel der Luzerner und Lausanner Hexenprozesse des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts.” In Der Hexenstreit: Frauen in der frűhneuzeitlivhen Hexenverfolgung. Edited by Claudia Opitz and Ingrid Ahrend-Schulte, 147–173. Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany: Herder, 1995.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. An important inquiry into gender and witchcraft based on regions where nearly all the accused were women. Burghartz analyzes traditional, cultural factors associating women with magic and danger, and suggests that most of the accused were independent widows who challenged patriarchal conventions.
  280. Find this resource:
  281.  
  282. Chène, Catherine, and Martine Ostorero. “Démonologie et misogynie: L’émergence d’un discours spécifique sur la femme dans l’élaboration doctrinale du sabbat au XVe siècle.” In Les femmes dans la société européenne: Die Frauen in der europäischen Gesellschaft; 8e Congrès des Historiennes suisses; 8 Schweizerische Historikerinnentagung, Geneva, 1986. Edited by Anne-Lise Head-König and Liliane Mottu-Weber, 171–196. Geneva, Switzerland: Librarie Droz, 2000.
  283. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  284. A particularly lucid analysis of the increasing convergence of misogyny and demonology over the course of the 15th century, as expressed in theological imaginings of the witches’ sabbat as a debauched international meeting of witches.
  285. Find this resource:
  286.  
  287. Herzig, Tamar. “Flies, Heretics, and the Gendering of Witchcraft.” Magic Ritual and Witchcraft 5.1 (2010): 51–80.
  288. DOI: 10.1353/mrw.0.0162Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  289. Investigation of the link between gender, heresy, and witchcraft in the writings of Henry Kramer, author of the Malleus Maleficarum and other treatises. Herzig finds that Kramer was supportive of certain Dominican women visionaries, even as he excoriated witches.
  290. Find this resource:
  291.  
  292. Hester, Marianne. “Patriarchal Reconstruction and Witch Hunting.” In Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief. Edited by Janathan Barry, Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts, 288–306. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  293. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511599538Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  294. The relationship between witchcraft and patriarchal gender relations on both the village level and in demonological discourses.
  295. Find this resource:
  296.  
  297. Opitz-Belakhal, Claudia. “Witchcraft Studies from the Perspective of Women’s and Gender History: A Report on Recent Research.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 4.1 (2009): 90–99.
  298. DOI: 10.1353/mrw.0.0127Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. A historiographical examination of the state of the “gender question” in recent witchcraft research.
  300. Find this resource:
  301.  
  302. Paravy, Pierrette. “Streghe e stregoni nella società del Delfinato nel XV secolo.” In Poteri carismatici e informali: Chiesa e società medioevali. Edited by Agostino Paravicini Bagliani and André Vauchez, 78–95. Turin: Sellerio editore, 1992.
  303. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  304. A close study of a series of regional witch hunts in the 15th century, with a statistical breakdown of the demographics of the accused. Among other things, the article shows that women strongly predominated among the accused, forming 69 percent of the total.
  305. Find this resource:
  306.  
  307. Schulte, Rolf. Man as Witch: Male Witches in Central Europe. Translated by Linda Froome-Döring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
  308. DOI: 10.1057/9780230240742Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  309. Though this study is postmedieval in focus, it deals with traditional cultural ideals such as werewolves and shamanistic experiences that have medieval roots. The focus on men prosecuted for witchcraft is a corrective to the assumption that witchcraft was exclusively a female crime.
  310. Find this resource:
  311.  
  312. Demons, Medicine, and Bodies
  313.  
  314. The study of witchcraft has much to do with spirits (demons, for example) and bodies (since sex, gender, and fertility were central issues in the image of the witch). It is not surprising, then, that a significant strand of scholarship investigates connections between witchcraft and medieval medical norms. Agrimi and Crisciani 1992 and Lemay 1992 both represent inquiries into how the body of the witch was understood in terms of medieval medical norms about humors and pollution. Caciola 2000 asks how precisely demons were able to influence women physically, by entering their bodies and seizing them in possession, while Schmitt 2001 and Craig 2013 both discuss the ways in which possession and illness were intertwined. Elliott 1998 and Rider 2006 both examine the effects of demonic interference on human sexuality. Stephens 2003 gets to the heart of the spirit-matter dichotomy. The work suggests that witchcraft was a top-down phenomenon conceived by intellectuals as a way to reassure themselves about the reality of the spirit world, both benign and malign. By proving the real existence of demons via reports of their intercourse with witches, demonologists quelled anxieties about other invisible supernatural processes—such as the transformation of the bread at mass into the Eucharist. Van der Lugt 2004 may usefully be paired with Stephens. This work, too, focuses upon the ways in which tenets of demonology could be utilized to sustain core dogmas of the church, in this study most notably the Virgin Birth.
  315.  
  316. Agrimi, Jole, and Chiara Crisciani. “Immagini e ruoli della vertula tra sapere medico e antropologia religiosa (secoli XIII–XV).” In Poteri carismatici e informali: Chiesa e società medioevali. Edited by Agostino Paravicini Bagliani and André Vauchez, 224–261. Turin, Italy: Sellerio Editore, 1992.
  317. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  318. Detailed investigation into medieval medical and popular understandings of the bodies of old women as inherently dangerous and polluting.
  319. Find this resource:
  320.  
  321. Caciola, Nancy. “Mystics, Demoniacs, and the Physiology of Spirit Possession in Medieval Europe.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 42.2 (2000): 268–306.
  322. DOI: 10.1017/S0010417500002474Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. An analysis of the intersection of medicine and religion in the understanding of spirit possession in medieval culture, tracing where different spirits were believed to reside within the human body.
  324. Find this resource:
  325.  
  326. Craig, Leigh Ann. “The Spirit of Madness: Doubt and the Miraculous Restoration of Sanity in the Miracles of Henry VI.” Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 39.1 (2013): 60–93.
  327. DOI: 10.5325/jmedirelicult.39.1.0060Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  328. Close study of a 15th-century dossier of saints’ miracles, disentangling medieval taxonomies concerning spirits, melancholy, and madness.
  329. Find this resource:
  330.  
  331. Elliott, Dyan. Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.
  332. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  333. A collection of essays on sex and sexuality, demonology, and theories of evil.
  334. Find this resource:
  335.  
  336. Lemay, Helen Rodnite, trans. Women’s Secrets: A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus’ De Secretis Mulierum with Commentaries. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.
  337. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  338. This pseudonymous text exemplifies much of the misogyny associated with medieval medical and obstetrical views of women. Don’t miss the translator’s introductory essay that traces influence of medieval medicine on the image of the witch.
  339. Find this resource:
  340.  
  341. Rider, Catherine. Magic and Impotence in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  342. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282227.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. Examination of the belief in binding sex magic from the ancient world through the Middle Ages and the rise of witchcraft literature.
  344. Find this resource:
  345.  
  346. Schmitt, Jean-Claude. “Corps malade, corps possédé.” In Le corps, les rites, les rêves, le temps: Essais d’anthropologie medieval. Edited by Jean-Claude Schmitt, 319–343. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.
  347. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  348. Inquiry into the ways in which mental disturbances were characterized either in religious terms, as possession, or in medical terms, as pathology.
  349. Find this resource:
  350.  
  351. Stephens, Walter. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
  352. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  353. An innovative analysis of how witchcraft beliefs relate to Catholic fears over the Real Presence. Stephens argues that imagining the devil as a physical entity was an indirect means of quelling covert skepticism about the real spiritual presence of God in the Eucharistic Host.
  354. Find this resource:
  355.  
  356. van der Lugt, Maaike. Le ver, le démon et la vierge: Les théories médiévales de la génération extraordinaire; Une étude sur les rapports entre théologie, philosophie naturelle, et medicine. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2004.
  357. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  358. The intersection of natural philosophy, demonological discourses, and gynecological knowledge in the Middle Ages. The work suggests that belief in incubi and in the Virgin Birth address similar problems of the intersection of material and spiritual worlds.
  359. Find this resource:
  360.  
  361. Inquisition
  362.  
  363. The history of witchcraft is fundamentally a juridical history: witches were prosecuted for their supposed crimes in courts. While some witchcraft trials occurred in secular courts, the most important forum for such prosecutions was the religious tribunal in the Middle Ages. As Kieckhefer 1995 demonstrates, the chief characteristic of such courts was their employment of a particular set of protocols known as inquisitio. This term, which may be rendered as “an inquiry” in English, permitted the judge or inquisitor actively to seek out dissidents, rather than awaiting a denunciation and reacting. Gui 2006 is a translation of an inquisitors’ manual, giving an excellent sense of how inquisitional procedures worked, and the sorts of concerns (including magic, sorcery, and demon invocation) that were typical of 13th-century inquiries. The best comprehensive overview of the history of inquisition and its development into a juridical institution is the work Peters 1989. More recent scholarship in Ames 2009 emphasizes the sincere religious dimensions of inquisitors and of inquisitorial activities, arguing that those in charge of such courts did not perceive themselves as persecuting dissidents so much as caring for their greater Christian flock. Elliott 2004 argues for the rise of a broad “inquisitional culture” in the course of the later Middle Ages. Ginzburg 1992a casts light upon the social negotiations in evidence in these courts. This influential piece argues that inquisitors’ transcripts of testimonies document the culture of illiterates in much the same way that anthropologists’ notebooks preserve dense observations of particular cultures. This section likewise includes several studies of persecution of dissidents in other contexts.
  364.  
  365. Ames, Christine Caldwell. “Does Inquisition Belong to Religious History?” American Historical Review 110.1 (2005): 11–37.
  366. DOI: 10.1086/531119Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. This essay focused on popular resistance and resentment toward inquisitorial activities; dissects the religious worldviews of inquisitors and lay crowds alike.
  368. Find this resource:
  369.  
  370. Ames, Christine Caldwell. Righteous Persecution: Inquisition, Dominicans, and Christianity in the Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
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  372. Ames argues that we must take seriously the pious motivations of inquisitors and understand their worldview as one based in an ethic of pastoral care rather than repression for its own sake.
  373. Find this resource:
  374.  
  375. Elliott, Dyan. Proving Woman: Female Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.
  376. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  377. Charts the rise of an “inquisitional culture” and its complicated relationship with women and religion in the later Middle Ages, from early beguine movements to Joan of Arc.
  378. Find this resource:
  379.  
  380. Ginzburg, Carlo. “The Inquisitor as Anthropologist.” In Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method. Translated by John Tedeschi and Anne Tedeschi, and edited by Carlo Ginzburg, 156–164. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992a.
  381. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  382. An important, classic article, or think piece, that suggests that inquisitorial trial records, since they preserve the testimony of illiterate people, may be read almost as anthropological field notes.
  383. Find this resource:
  384.  
  385. Ginzburg, Carlo. “Witchcraft and Popular Piety: Notes on a Modenese Trial of 1519.” In Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method. Translated by John Tedeschi and Anne Tedeschi, and edited by Carlo Ginzburg, 1–16. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992b.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. A close study of the interactions between learned discourses and popular testimony in a trial record.
  388. Find this resource:
  389.  
  390. Gui, Bernard. The Inquisitor’s Guide: A Medieval Manual on Heretics. Translated by Janet Shirley. Welwyn Garden City, UK: Ravenhall, 2006.
  391. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  392. An excellent choice for classroom use, this translation of an important 13th-century manual for inquisitors discusses both contemporary heresies and magical practitioners.
  393. Find this resource:
  394.  
  395. Kieckhefer, Richard. “The Office of Inquisition and Medieval Heresy: The Transaction from Personal to Institutional Jurisdiction.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 46.1 (1995): 36–61.
  396. DOI: 10.1017/S0022046900012537Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  397. An important deconstruction of the concept that “the Inquisition” existed as an institution in medieval Europe. Kieckhefer argues that “inquisition” is better understood as a procedure than as an enduring office.
  398. Find this resource:
  399.  
  400. Peters, Edward. Inquisition. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989.
  401. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  402. A history of the medieval inquisition from its founding to the 15th century.
  403. Find this resource:
  404.  
  405. The Spirit World
  406.  
  407. Belief in spiritual beings was central to the development of witchcraft mythology as it coalesced over the centuries. In particular, the relationship between embodied human beings and immaterial spirits was a topic of some concern on the part of intellectuals. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, this relationship was envisaged as a form of spiritual penetration or invasion, that is, as demonic possession. By the end of the period, however, demonologists were beginning to claim that witches were voluntarily in league with the devil and sometimes even had intercourse with him. (Consult the section on the Formation of the Witchcraft Stereotype for more works relevant to this image of the witch.) Aside from the works of intellectuals, popular beliefs about spirits also contributed significant elements to the stereotype of the sabbat. Traditional European folklore concerning groups of spirits that wandered the skies at night ultimately evolved, by the end of the medieval period, into the image of witches traveling through the air to attend conspiratorial meetings. Popular stories about fairies dancing in the fields provided fodder for descriptions of the parties at sabbats. Thus the spirit world in all its permutations is a key ingredient in the formation of the witch stereotype. This section is subdivided into Demonology, Possession and Exorcism, and Spirits in Popular Culture.
  408.  
  409. Demonology
  410.  
  411. Theologians did not only write about God, but also about evil and its supreme embodiment, the devil. This section includes several works charting the history of the devil and his representation, particularly Russell 1981, Russell 1984, Muchembled 2003, and most recently, Almond 2014. These works present overviews that demonstrate how this figure came to be increasingly central to medieval intellectual thought. Baschet 1993 complements these histories of the devil with an exhaustive presentation of the iconography of the devil and of hell in late medieval art: the plates and the written commentary are equally instructive. Brakke 2006 is an important study of the emergence of demonological consciousness in early Christian monastic circles, while Maggi 2001 probes the shifting figure of the devil in the consciousness of late medieval thinkers concerned to explore the issue of demonic temptation and communication. An excellent, very readable translation of a scholastic treatise on evil, including extensive reflections on demons and the devil, is Aquinas 1995. Furthermore, for the most up-to-date scholarship, the reader also should consider Raiswell and Dendle 2012 in the Anthologies section.
  412.  
  413. Almond, Philip C. The Devil: A New Biography. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. A readable, thematic study of the devil and his various activities as described within the Christian tradition.
  416. Find this resource:
  417.  
  418. Aquinas, Thomas. On Evil. Translated by Jean Oesterle. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.
  419. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  420. A readable translation of the famous scholastic theologian’s writings on evil, sin, and demons.
  421. Find this resource:
  422.  
  423. Baschet, Jérôme. Les justices de l’Au-delà: Les representations de l’Enfer en France et en Italie (XIIe–XVe siècle). Rome: École Française de Rome, 1993.
  424. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  425. The best study of the demonic in medieval art, including both manuscript illuminations and public frescoes. Abundant plates help the reader grasp how demons and the devil were visualized within medieval culture, while the text comprehensively traces popular demonology in the later Middle Ages.
  426. Find this resource:
  427.  
  428. Brakke, David. Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
  429. DOI: 10.4159/9780674028654Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  430. This study of Christian monasticism in the 4th and 5th centuries shows how the concept of a war between virtuous men and demons was intrinsic to the development of Christian ascetic piety. A chapter on gender symbolism shows how spiritual resistance against demons was coded as a masculine activity, which in turn characterized sin and temptation as feminine.
  431. Find this resource:
  432.  
  433. Maggi, Armando. Satan’s Rhetoric: A Study of Renaissance Demonology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
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  435. Influenced by the “linguistic turn” in historical studies, this work explores demonological treatises to assess how people in 15th- and 16th-century Italy imagined the ground of communication or connection between demons and human beings.
  436. Find this resource:
  437.  
  438. Muchembled, Robert. A History of the Devil from the Middle Ages to the Present. Translated by Jean Birrel. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2003.
  439. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  440. A discussion of the devil in Western thought; for medievalists the relevant thesis is the argument that the first emergence of broad cultural concern with diabolism dates to the 12th century.
  441. Find this resource:
  442.  
  443. Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Satan: The Early Christian Tradition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981.
  444. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  445. The construction of the idea of the devil as a continual, primary adversary of God within early Christianity and the Church Fathers.
  446. Find this resource:
  447.  
  448. Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.
  449. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  450. An overview of the history of belief in a personalized lord of evil in medieval thought.
  451. Find this resource:
  452.  
  453. Possession and Exorcism
  454.  
  455. According to the Gospels, demonic spirits can enter the human body and gain control over it from inside, either causing mental illness or simply replacing the normal human personality of the victim. Brown 1971 is a classic study of spirit possession and of Christian holy men acting as exorcists in the early church. Medievalist scholars grouped in this section have shown that the chief form of interference that demons were believed to perpetrate in this period was the spiritual possession of human bodies—either living, in Newman 1998, or dead, in Caciola 1996. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, as Caciola 2006 shows, the paradigm of demonic relationships with humans shifted toward witchcraft: women increasingly came to be seen as collaborators with demons, rather than as their victims. The chief remedy for demonic possession was exorcism, a phenomenon whose medieval history is comprehensively analyzed in Chave-Mahir 2011. This history of intimate relationships between human beings and demons represents an important prehistory of the witchcraft paradigm. Finally, Schmitt 2001 (cited under Demons, Medicine, and Bodies) directs attention to the fact that personality disorders also might be seen as a medical pathology rather than as possession.
  456.  
  457. Brown, Peter. “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity.” Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971): 80–101.
  458. DOI: 10.2307/300008Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. An important, classic essay showing that the spread of Christianity was linked to the exorcistic reputations of early Christian holy men. This influential work demonstrates that the Christian religion always conceived of itself as engaged in warfare against God’s enemies, the demons.
  460. Find this resource:
  461.  
  462. Caciola, Nancy. “Wraiths, Revenants, and Ritual in Medieval Culture.” Past and Present 152 (1996): 3–45.
  463. DOI: 10.1093/past/152.1.3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  464. Analysis of medieval stories about dead bodies that come back to life and the differing explanations of these events, from the demonic to the natural.
  465. Find this resource:
  466.  
  467. Caciola, Nancy. Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
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  469. Investigation into the similarities between divine visionaries and the demonically possessed in medieval culture, with consideration of exorcism and witchcraft as well. The book argues that a cultural shift toward demonic possession occurred in the later Middle Ages, eclipsing the idea of divine possession and opening the way for the new paradigm of witchcraft.
  470. Find this resource:
  471.  
  472. Chave-Mahir, Florence. L’exorcisme des possédés dans l’Église d’Occident (Xe–XIVe siècle). Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2011.
  473. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  474. The most comprehensive study to date of the development of exorcisms for demoniacs, this work discusses both informal practice and structured ritual within the Western church. Several valuable appendices present editions of primary sources in Latin.
  475. Find this resource:
  476.  
  477. Newman, Barbara. “Possessed by the Spirit: Devout Women, Demoniacs, and the Apostolic Life in the Thirteenth Century.” Speculum 73 (July 1998): 733–770.
  478. DOI: 10.2307/2887496Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. A study of the powers attributed both to medieval women saints and of demoniacs, particularly in the Low Countries.
  480. Find this resource:
  481.  
  482. Spirits in Popular Culture
  483.  
  484. Popular beliefs in spirits were quite varied: different regions of Europe were home to divergent imaginings of the invisible world of spirits. Moreover, because our knowledge of these beliefs often come to us from hostile sources or from verbal testimony recorded at trials, it can be difficult to reconstruct the original conceptual integrity of such beliefs. At the same time, it is clear that spirit-beliefs of all kinds influenced both elite demonologies and the course of witchcraft beliefs and prosecutions. The most prolific scholar in this area is Lecoutoux, whose works on popular concepts of fairies, witches, and werewolves in Lecoutoux 1992; demons in Lecoutoux 1995; and the “wild hunt” in Lecoutoux 1999 cover a broad territory. More focused case studies that show the intersection between beliefs in popular spirits and witchcraft motifs include Bertolotti 1991 and Schmitt 2009. Schmitt 2001 shifts emphasis to human technologies for interaction with spirits. The older work Bernheimer 1952 still is worth consulting, though one hopes that more work upon this theme will appear soon. Those pursuing in this strand of inquiry, however, should be sure to consult the works listed in the Witchcraft and Shamanism section, many of which deal with similar themes.
  485.  
  486. Bernheimer, Richard. Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952.
  487. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674734234Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  488. An older but still-useful study of the wild man in medieval popular mythology. The wild man was an ambiguous figure reported in various medieval sources, who ultimately came to be seen as either a demonic spirit or a “noble savage.”
  489. Find this resource:
  490.  
  491. Bertolotti, Maurizio. “The Ox’s Bones and the Ox’s Hide: A Popular Myth, Part Hagiography and Part Witchcraft.” In Microhistory and the Lost Peoples of Europe. Translated by Eren Branch, and edited by Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, 42–70. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
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  493. Analysis of a folk motif found in some descriptions of the witches’ sabbat, that of the ox that is slaughtered, feasted upon, and then revivified.
  494. Find this resource:
  495.  
  496. Lecoutoux, Claude. Fées sorcières et lups-garous au Moyen Âge. Paris: Imago, 1992.
  497. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  498. A careful study of medieval beliefs about human spirit-journeys, and the supernatural realms they visited.
  499. Find this resource:
  500.  
  501. Lecoutoux, Claude. Démons et genies du terroir au Moyen Age. Paris: Imago, 1995.
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  503. A study of the folklore of landscape spirits, their origins within pagan culture, and their transformation and demonization in the Middle Ages.
  504. Find this resource:
  505.  
  506. Lecoutoux, Claude. Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead. Translated by Jon E. Graham. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1999.
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  508. The only book in English wholly dedicated to this widespread folklore concerning armies of souls on the march and the human beings who could journey, in spirit, to join them. The phantom armies ultimately came to be seen as avatars of the witches’ sabbat.
  509. Find this resource:
  510.  
  511. Schmitt, Jean-Claude. “Les masques, le diable, les morts.” In Le corps, les rites, les rêves, le temps: Essais d’anthropologie medieval. Edited by Jean-Claude Schmitt, 211–237. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.
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  513. An inquiry into the symbolism of masks and masking rituals in medieval popular culture, as points of contact with the spirit world.
  514. Find this resource:
  515.  
  516. Schmitt, Jean-Claude. The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children since the Thirteenth Century. Translated by Martin Thom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  518. First published in French in 1979, this classic study concerns a village cult of veneration for a “martyred” greyhound. A healing ritual for children, led by a local sorceress who pacified the forest spirits, came to be united with the memory of the holy dog. Schmitt’s analysis is a sympathetic attempt to understand the mentality of the villagers as well as of the Dominican preacher who extirpated the cult as a superstitious relic.
  519. Find this resource:
  520.  
  521. Magic
  522.  
  523. Medieval magical traditions were found in every corner of medieval culture, from the elite learned necromancer conjuring demons to do his will, to cunning men and women in villages. While magic always was a somewhat marginal and shady practice, it was only in the 15th century that it began to be closely associated with diabolism and evil conspiracies—the ingredients of witchcraft. This shift was intimately related to new attitudes toward superstition as well, and so the section on Superstition ought also to be consulted. The leading scholar in this field of study is Richard Kieckhefer, whose introduction to the subject in Kieckhefer 2000 and important essay on the rationality of medieval magic in Kieckhefer 1994 are good places to begin. For a taste of a medieval grimoire, consult the edited text with commentary in Kieckhefer 1998. Bailey 2001 is a careful study of how simply sorcery came to be eclipsed by the witchcraft paradigm, while Peters 1992 is an in-depth study of the evolution of canon law surrounding areas of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft. Flint 1991 is an influential study of the early medieval magical tradition and its relationship to classical influences; this work might profitably be compared with Filotas 2005 in the section for Superstition. Two essays productively juxtapose saintly miracles and diabolic magical practices: Kieckhefer 1996 and McCleery 2005. Lastly, this section includes an archaeological study, Merrifield 1987, which addresses the material residue of magical rites.
  524.  
  525. Bailey, Michael D. “From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical Conceptions of Magic in the Later Middle Ages.” Speculum 76.4 (October 2001): 960–990.
  526. DOI: 10.2307/2903617Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. An inquiry into how intellectual categories of thought shifted, in the 15th century, toward the idea of diabolic witchcraft from the earlier, more neutral concept of sorcery.
  528. Find this resource:
  529.  
  530. Flint, Valerie J. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
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  532. This influential classic study examines the appropriation of pagan occult and divinatory traditions into the early medieval Church.
  533. Find this resource:
  534.  
  535. Kieckhefer, Richard. “The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic.” American Historical Review 99.3 (1994): 813–836.
  536. DOI: 10.2307/2167771Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  537. An inquiry into the coherent cultural logic of magic in the medieval West.
  538. Find this resource:
  539.  
  540. Kieckhefer, Richard. “The Holy and the Unholy: Sainthood, Witchcraft, and Magic in Late Medieval Europe.” In Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion, Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000–1500. Edited by Scott L. Waugh and Peter D. Diehl, 310–337. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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  542. An investigation into the overlaps between saints, witches, and necromancers in the later Middle Ages, since each possessed supernatural abilities.
  543. Find this resource:
  544.  
  545. Kieckhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
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  547. An edition and discussion of one of the few surviving magical grimoires from medieval Europe.
  548. Find this resource:
  549.  
  550. Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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  552. An exploration of magic in the Middle Ages by a top scholar of the subject. Kieckhefer discusses everything from informal rituals to magical grimoires used by the necromantic underworld of the learned.
  553. Find this resource:
  554.  
  555. McCleery, Iona. “Saintly Physician, Diabolical Doctor, Medieval Saint: Exploring the Reputation of Gil de Santarém in Medieval and Renaissance Portugal.” Portuguese Studies 21 (2005): 112–125.
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  557. Study of the shifting reputation of a strangely ambiguous figure, a doctor so skilled he was considered variously a disciple of the devil and endowed with magical powers, as a saint, and simply as a physician.
  558. Find this resource:
  559.  
  560. Merrifield, Ralph. The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. London: B. T. Batsford, 1987.
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  562. A study of how archaeological sites may cast light upon witchcraft, magic, and related occult practices.
  563. Find this resource:
  564.  
  565. Peters, Edward. The Magician, the Witch, and the Law. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
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  567. A presentation of the development of medieval canon law around the issues of witchcraft and sorcery.
  568. Find this resource:
  569.  
  570. Superstition
  571.  
  572. Here are grouped scholarly studies of the development of superstition as a category of thought in medieval intellectual discourses. Some fundamental methodological caveats are provided by the classic study in Harmening 1979. Filotas 2005 addresses the adoption of pagan elements into Christian traditions in the early medieval period; the author’s work pairs nicely with Flint 1991 (cited under Magic). Bartlett 2008 describes the beginnings of scholastic disentanglement of natural and supernatural worlds in the high scholastic period. The foundational study Thomas 2003 opened up a set of questions about the categories of religion, magic, and superstition that continues to attract new scholarship in the early 21st century. Into this category fall the works Cameron 2010, Rider 2012, and Bailey 2013, which all approach the formation of superstition as a category of disapproval in polar opposition to “religion.” Wilson 2000 is an exhaustive study of the kinds of everyday behavior and belief that often might be considered as “superstitious” rather than “religious” by late medieval elites.
  573.  
  574. Bailey, Michael D. Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies: The Boundaries of Superstition in Late Medieval Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013.
  575. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  576. An in-depth study of the development of superstition as a category of intellectual inquiry and device for policing the boundaries of legitimate religion. Includes a chapter on the emergence of literature on witchcraft.
  577. Find this resource:
  578.  
  579. Bartlett, Robert. The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
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  581. A set of essays, each approaching the question of how medieval natural philosophy distinguished between the natural and supernatural worlds, with different sets of evidence and angles of approach. Bartlett locates the emergence of the supernatural as a category of phenomena to the 13th century.
  582. Find this resource:
  583.  
  584. Cameron, Euan. Enchanted Europe: Superstition, Reason, and Religion, 1250–1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  585. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257829.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  586. A study of the category of “superstition” as a marker of disapproved practice or belief, and how it developed in dialogue with elite demonology.
  587. Find this resource:
  588.  
  589. Filotas, Bernadette. Pagan Survivals, Superstitions, and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2005.
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  591. A broad-ranging discussion of pagan practices attested in early medieval pastoral guides, including discussions of witches and werewolves, and beneficent and maleficent magic.
  592. Find this resource:
  593.  
  594. Harmening, Dieter. Superstitio: Überlieferungs- und theoriegeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur kirchlich-theologischen Aberglaubensliteratur des Mittelalter. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1979.
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  596. A classic and influential study of the category of superstition in classical and medieval cultures. The work’s most important contribution to later scholarship has been the methodological caveat that, due to the conservative and repetitive nature of the medieval textual tradition, it is impossible to know how current various observations of superstitious beliefs and practices really were.
  597. Find this resource:
  598.  
  599. Rider, Catherine. Magic and Religion in Medieval England. London: Reaktion, 2012.
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  601. Examines various occult rituals, both popular and elite, and the formation of religious taxonomies about them, as either acceptable or not. The study spans the 13th through 16th centuries.
  602. Find this resource:
  603.  
  604. Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York: Penguin History, 2003.
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  606. First published in 1971, this highly influential study of the decay of the magical worldview of traditional Europe in Reformation England underpins much of the subsequent scholarship in this section. Though dedicated chiefly to the Early Modern period, the analysis is at every turn informed by a contrast with the medieval past.
  607. Find this resource:
  608.  
  609. Wilson, Stephen. The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Premodern Europe. London and New York: Hambledon and London, 2000.
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  611. A broad study of popular magic and healing practices in traditional Europe from the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Enlightenment.
  612. Find this resource:
  613.  
  614. Witchcraft and Heresy
  615.  
  616. The history of heresy is essential to understanding the rise of the witchcraft persecutions. Scholars have long debated the relationship between the two, particularly since some of the earliest witchcraft trials, in Alpine regions, also were home to large numbers of dissident thinkers, most notably Waldensians. The inquisitorial apparatus that had been designed to catch heretics ultimately came to be used against the “new sect” of heretical witches starting in the 15th century. A provocative place to begin might be Moore 2007, which argues that “persecution became habitual” during the high Middle Ages, but that this was not an inevitable development. Boureau 2006 takes up the history of intellectual thought, discussing the rise of demonological discourses and their presentation of Satan as an arch-heretic recruiting an army of human followers in his quest to draw humanity away from God. This conception, he argues, ultimately laid the groundwork for the conception of witchcraft as a heresy requiring prosecution through the inquisitorial apparatus. Koopmans 1997 is a sensitive study of the politics of exclusion as expressed in public theater and spectacle, showing how the Other came to be marginalized in the context of ritual, orchestrated performances. Mormando 1999 is a stimulating case study of Italian culture, showing how a charismatic preacher stirred up persecutory impulses in urban crowds against all kinds of marginal persons, including witches. The remaining works focus on the relationship between heresy and witchcraft more closely. Paravy 1993, Behringer 2004, and Utz Tremp 2008 focus on the conflations of various heretical groups with witches in the Alpine region, particularly the Waldensians.
  617.  
  618. Behringer, Wolfgang. “Detecting the Ultimate Conspiracy, or How Waldensians Became Witches.” In Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe: From the Waldensians to the French Revolution. Edited by Barry Coward and Julian Swann, 15–34. Aldershoot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.
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  620. An important analysis of the cross-currents linking trials against those accused of Waldensian heresy and of witchcraft in the early 15th-century Swiss Alps.
  621. Find this resource:
  622.  
  623. Boureau, Alain. Satan the Heretic: The Birth of Demonology in the Medieval West. Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
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  625. A history of ideas, focused on the beginning of the obsession with the devil and with demonology. Boureau traces the emergence of this trend in medieval intellectual culture between 1280–1330.
  626. Find this resource:
  627.  
  628. Koopmans, Jelle. Le Théâtre des exclus au Moyen Age: Hérétiques, sorcières et marginaux. Paris: Editions Imago, 1997.
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  630. This work ties ritual theater and popular spectacle to the question of marginalized groups, asking how “rituals of exclusion” such as charivaris or exorcisms contributed to the representation of the demonized Other, including Jews, heretics, and witches.
  631. Find this resource:
  632.  
  633. Moore, Robert Ian. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950–1250. 2d ed. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2007.
  634. DOI: 10.1002/9780470773987Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  635. A provocative dissection of the origins of the persecuting impulse in medieval culture, Moore argues that intolerance toward minorities is not perennial, but has a specific history.
  636. Find this resource:
  637.  
  638. Mormando, Franco. The Preacher’s Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
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  640. A study of the charismatic Franciscan preacher who traveled Italy leaving “bonfires of the vanities”—and of witches and other deviants—in his wake.
  641. Find this resource:
  642.  
  643. Paravy, Pierrette. De la chretiente romaine a la Reforme en Dauphine: Eveques, fideles et deviants, vers 1340–vers 1530. 2 vols. Rome: École Française de Rome, 1993.
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  645. This two-volume monograph traces the social history of religious life in the French region of the Dauphine. The second volume is dedicated to dissent, with an in-depth discussion of how the heresy of the Waldensians came to be conflated with witches in this region, to the extent that the French word for the group, vaudois, soon came to mean “witch.”
  646. Find this resource:
  647.  
  648. Utz Tremp, Kathrin. Von der Häresie zur Hexerei: “Wirkliche” und imaginäre Sekten im Spätmittelalter. Monumenta Germaniae Historica Schriften 59. Hanover, Germany: Hahnsche Buchhandluing, 2008.
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  650. Utz Tremp sorts through complex questions of the assimilation of certain “real” heretical groups, such as Waldensians and Cathars, to the witchcraft stereotype, while showing that “real” witches—like certain other heretical groups such as the “Luciferans”—likely never existed outside of inquisitorial literature at all.
  651. Find this resource:
  652.  
  653. The Murray Thesis
  654.  
  655. No witchcraft bibliography would be complete without consideration of Margaret Murray’s famous, though now discredited, argument in Murray 1921 and Murray 1970, concerning witchcraft and paganism. Murray was an Egyptologist by training who turned her eye to the history of European witchcraft; her immensely influential works dominated witchcraft scholarship for decades. Murray suggested that witchcraft was an ancient pagan cult driven underground by the conversion of Europe to Christianity. This “Old Religion” nevertheless survived secretly for centuries as an organized cult, largely unchanged, until finally being suppressed by the persecutions of the Early Modern period. Though no serious scholar sustains this interpretation any longer, the thesis has played a significant role in the formation of modern Wiccan and pagan religious mythologies. The most sustained debunkings of Murray have been presented in Rose 2003 and Hutton 2001, as well as in Cohn 2000 (listed in General Overviews). Some background on Murray’s life and considerable achievements are available in Simpson 1994.
  656.  
  657. Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  659. A meticulous examination of modern witchcraft, questioning whether it is indeed an ancient tradition with pagan roots. The author concludes that contemporary witchcraft religions are in fact products of the 20th century.
  660. Find this resource:
  661.  
  662. Murray, Margaret Alice. The Witch Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon, 1921.
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  664. Murray’s influential thesis was that witchcraft was an organized pagan religion surviving from Antiquity until it was suppressed by the Catholic Church. Though this argument has long been discredited among scholars, it continues to exert influence among modern Wiccan and pagan practitioners.
  665. Find this resource:
  666.  
  667. Murray, Margaret Alice. The God of the Witches. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
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  669. Murray’s second statement of her thesis is an extension of the original, arguing that several notable figures in European history, including Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, were covert practitioners of the “Old Religion.”
  670. Find this resource:
  671.  
  672. Rose, Elliot. A Razor for a Goat: A Discussion of Certain Problems in the History of Witchcraft and Diabolism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.
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  674. First published in 1962, this work was among the very earliest to reject Murray’s thesis, based upon a sound examination of evidence.
  675. Find this resource:
  676.  
  677. Simpson, Jacqueline. “Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why?” Folklore 105 (1994): 89–96.
  678. DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1994.9715877Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  679. An overview of Margaret Murray’s biography and the appeal of her works.
  680. Find this resource:
  681.  
  682. Witchcraft and Shamanism
  683.  
  684. Though many of the works listed in this section are situated more in the Early Modern period than the medieval, the very foundations of their arguments in all cases are rooted in medieval folklore and popular belief. The starting place for grasping this strand of scholarship is Ginzburg 2013 and Ginzburg 2004. Ginzburg, an Italian scholar, discovered a rich vein of folklore while studying some witch trials in an isolated Alpine area of Italy. Certain elements of witchcraft belief in this region clearly were pagan in origin. Ginzburg thus claimed that Murray had uncovered a small kernel of truth in her paganism thesis, though he rejected her broad claim that paganism had survived, essentially unchanged, as an organized, underground religion throughout the Middle Ages. Other scholars have since taken up the type of inquiry opened up by Ginzburg’s foundational studies, with Henningsen 1990, Pócs 1998, Behringer 1998, Wilby 2005, and Wilby 2013 contributing important further studies. A multilateral forum on this topic was published in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft in 2006. Lastly, interested researchers should consult the edited collections in Klaniczay and Pócs 2005–2008 (listed under Anthologies) as well as the studies listed under Spirits in Popular Culture.
  685.  
  686. Behringer, Wolfgang. Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night. Translated by H. C. Erik Midelfort. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998.
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  688. A microhistorical examination of a peasant who believed he had contact with ghosts and other spirits, whose reputation for occult matters eventually spurred an inquisition in his village.
  689. Find this resource:
  690.  
  691. Ginzburg, Carlo. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
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  693. After an interval of several decades, Ginzburg returned to some of the questions that animated The Night Battles (Ginzburg 2013) in order to search for the origins of the witches’ sabbat in shamanistic traditions.
  694. Find this resource:
  695.  
  696. Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Translated by John Tedeschi. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
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  698. This microhistory based on archival research suggests that Murray was correct to find vestiges of paganism in witchcraft, but that witchcraft was not an organized alternative religion. Ginzburg documents elements of shamanism and fertility rites within trials held in northern Italy; his thesis has far-reaching implications beyond this region.
  699. Find this resource:
  700.  
  701. Henningsen, Gustav. “‘The Ladies from Outside’: An Archaic Pattern of the Witches’ Sabbath.” In Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen, 191–215. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990.
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  703. A careful study of how fairy beliefs in Sicily were assimilated to the witchcraft paradigm.
  704. Find this resource:
  705.  
  706. Pócs, Éva. Between the Living and the Dead. Budapest: Central European University Press, 1998.
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  708. An important contribution to the study of witchcraft and shamanistic beliefs, analyzing Hungarian evidence about witches and the disembodied dead.
  709. Find this resource:
  710.  
  711. Shamanism Forum. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 1.2 (2006): 207–241.
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  713. A forum on the current state of the shamanism thesis, with contributions from Ronald Hutton, Gábor Klaniczay, William Monter, Rune Blix Hagen, and Fumiaki Nakanishi.
  714. Find this resource:
  715.  
  716. Wilby, Emma. Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2005.
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  718. A study of the contributions of traditional folklore, popular culture, and cunning folk (traditional healers) to the history of British witchcraft.
  719. Find this resource:
  720.  
  721. Wilby, Emma. “Burchard’s strigae, the Witches’ Sabbath, and Shamanistic Cannibalism in Early Modern Europe.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 8.1 (2013): 18–49.
  722. DOI: 10.1353/mrw.2013.0010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  723. An illuminating inquiry into the darker aspects of popular spirit folklore in the Middle Ages and into the era of the witch hunts. Wilby discusses the traditional popular belief in women who fly and perform cannibalistic magic.
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