The Witch Craze

[Pergamum]

I am studying the European witch-craze of the 16th and 17th centuries (I am sick.....reading a lot).

It appears that the witch-craze corresponded with the upheavals in Europe caused by the Reformation and the rise of the modern state as well as various weather and climate upheavals (the little ice age) that occurred during that time.

The main reason seemed to be the suspicion and social division that occurred during the time of the Reformation and places, like Germany, that were most divided during the Reformation were often impacted the worst by the witch-craze.

Does anyone have any info on the witch-craze or Puritan writings addressing the with-craze? There has to be something since a large number of women were killed during that time period.


Any primary sources? I remember reading of Luther calling the Anabaptists "sorcerers" and "authors of witchery" somewhere but cannot find it. Also, the Malleus Maleficarum (the Hammer of the Witches, a handbook on witches) was written by Catholic clergymen, and can be found online and is fascinating.

Some sources say that the Reformation heightened people's awareness of evil, seeming to blame the Reformation, but other sources seem to indicate that witchcraft trials were highest in places were folk religions prevailed (thus equating irreligion or animism as a contributing factor).

Cotton Mather in the American colonies later seemed to attribute much to witccraft as well.


So, I am gathering insights, quotes and sources to further my study.


http://www.amazon.com/Malleus-Maleficarum-linked-Contents-ebook/dp/B0055U9JIO/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1 p.s. here is a cheap kindle version of the Hammer of the Witches.

 

[Pergamum]

Demonology: King James I., Paul Tice: 9781585096664: Amazon.com: Books

p.s. King James I wrote a demonology book.

 

[lynnie]

I've read that anybody who turned in a witch here in America got their land if the accusation "proved" true. Quite a few grandchildren of pious immigrants were able to aquire some nice farms that way. Greed is a great motivator. No links right now but perhaps a google search would bring up something.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: Charles MacKay: 9781604594416: Amazon.com: Books

This has a section on the witch fervor. originally published in 1841. worth it for the economics and crusades sections.

 

[Christusregnat]

Perg,

In a class I took on the high middle ages some time back, the professor (a very learned Stanford medieval history and Latin professor) stated that the revival of classical studies in the Renaissance contributed to the rise of witchcraft. I don't recall her citing specific authority, although I'm certain that she had several in mind.

Cheers,

 

[TylerRay]

Usually witchcraft involves making a pact with Satan (and was routinely presented as such at the time, apparently), which the Larger catechism addresses in Q. 105.

Q. 105. What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the first commandment are, atheism, in denying or not having a God;469 idolatry, in having or worshipping more gods than one, or any with or instead of the true God;470 the not having and avouching him for God, and our God;471 the omission or neglect of anything due to him, required in this commandment;472 ignorance,473 forgetfulness,474 misapprehensions,475 false opinions,476 unworthy and wicked thoughts of him;477 bold and curious searching into his secrets;478 all profaneness,479 hatred of God;480 self-love,481 self-seeking,482 and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in whole or in part;483 vain credulity,484 unbelief,485 heresy,486 misbelief,487 distrust,488 despair,489 incorrigibleness,490 and insensibleness under judgments,491 hardness of heart,492 pride,493 presumption,494 carnal security,495 tempting of God;496 using unlawful means,497 and trusting in lawful means;498 carnal delights and joys;499 corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal;500 lukewarmness,501 and deadness in the things of God;502 estranging ourselves, and apostatizing from God;503 praying, or giving any religious worship, to saints, angels, or any other creatures;504 all compacts and consulting with the devil,505 and hearkening to his suggestions;506 making men the lords of our faith and conscience;507 slighting and despising God and his commands;508 resisting and grieving of his Spirit,509 discontent and impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on us;510 and ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have or can do, to fortune,511 idols,512 ourselves,513 or any other creature.514

 

[Contra_Mundum]

It would be unusual if the exceptional days of the 16th-18th centuries had failed to produce new appropriations of ancient sources of evil as well as ancient sources of good. This observation should not be read as justification for a rather free application of the epithet "witchcraft!" to one's enemies or to the unusual or the unfamiliar.

It is only to say that there was surely a mixture of real and merely-perceived witchcraft about. People and scholars were getting new access to distributed learning, and inevitably there could not help but be unlawful (sinful) interests mixed in with the quest for knowledge, and a desire to teach knowledge.

It is also likely that specific anti-Christian expressions of evil would arise in a Christianity-saturated Europe. People define things, and themselves, in relation to that which is around them. And in a not-quite-beyond-Medieval world, people who wished to rebel against the status quo would reasonably find in Christianity's stated enemies, allied concepts for their own use.

So, we can find in certain expressions of "witchcraft," affinities with ancient Gnostic thought, since both ideas are built on a similar substructure of mystery and manipulation, of power-seeking through esoteric knowledge not possessed by everyone, but only the initiates. The two expressions of heathen-thought are not the same, but neither is the witchcraft of late-second-millennium Europe (and later America) the same thing as animistic witchcraft from Africa or Asia or Polynesia.

But, the quest for power and the "inside track" is a common thread in all these expressions. And who can doubt that the actual Devil would use such impulses against the world at various times, and in various places?

 

[py3ak]

But, the quest for power and the "inside track" is a common thread in all these expressions. And who can doubt that the actual Devil would use such impulses against the world at various times, and in various places?

That is a two-sentence summary of That Hideous Strength.

 

[Peairtach]

There's a good article by Nick Needham in an old copy of Christianity and Society a few years back, connecting the "witch craze", not to the Reformation per se, but to the Renaissance.

Click on the PDF link here:

Christianity & Society - KUYPER FOUNDATION - Promoting the Renaissance of Christian Culture

 

[Leslie]

I've heard medical history to the effect that the witch craze started a long time before the Renaissance/Reformation. It was at the root of the Plague epidemic that seized Europe during the 14th century. Witches used black cats. Therefore black cats were bad. This extended to all cats being bad. So cats were killed wholesale. So rodents multiplied until they outstripped the food supply. Then they died and their fleas infested humans, carrying bubonic plague with them. I don't know if this is true or not, don't remember the source.

 

[Sebastian Kim]

As far as I know, the witch craze was deeply mixed with the demon possession craze. The subject is extremely deep, and includes some fascinating relationships between:
- How witchcraft was considered superstition among the early medieval leaders.
- How complex the witch trials actually were
- How the supposed torture devices were in most cases awful cases of historical falsification (the pear, the iron maiden, and so go on)
- How the cases of Mary Glover and other exorcisms are linked with Baxter, Fox and John Darrel
- And the uneasy fact that most witch hunters were intensely for the abolition of slavery.

I cannot recommend enough Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern England: Contemporary Texts and their Cultural Contexts: Philip C. Almond: 9780521813235: Amazon.com: Books

 

[SolaScriptura]

All I know is that there are two witches in my present unit.

 

[Mushroom]

"I Got better!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYO0joolR0[/VIDEO]

 

[Rufus]

We all know that witches float.

 

[py3ak]

Bavinck addresses himself to this topic in Reformed Dogmatics, v.3, pp.185-190. He considers that superstition concerning witches prevailed among Christians from the 13th to the 18th centuries. This historical analysis is supported with references to Roskoff's Geschichte des Teufels and to Adolf von Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries. In volume 2 of that work, there is a chapter called "The Conflict with Demons".