Levack, Brian: The witch-hunt in early modern Europe

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Preface
1450-1750 – More than 100 000 witch-trials – Half of these executed, usually burning

Why?

 * Why did these trials take place?
 * Why did they suddenly proliferate at this particular time in European history?
 * Why it reached its peak in the late 16th and early 17th centuries?


 * Why were more witches prosecuted/severe in some countries than others?


 * Who were accused and who were the accusers?


 * Why, after 200 years, did the trials eventually draw to an end?

Not a single historical event/episode – mono-causal explanations false
Witch-hunting was an extremely complex enterprise
 * The witch-hunt itself composite/consisted of thousands/hundreds of individual prosecutions/hunts, each with its own dynamic
 * Shared many common characteristics, but arose in different historical circumstances and often reflected witch-beliefs peculiar to a certain locality
 * Involved both educated classes and common people, reflected both elite and popular ideas about witchcraft
 * Both religious and social dimensions
 * Conditioned by a number of political and legal factors

Not one, but many causes:

 * Growth of witch-beliefs in the late Middle Ages
 * Changes in criminal procedure
 * The Protestant and Catholic Reformations
 * A variety of social and economic tensions

Levack studies/analyses

 * The different ways in which specific local hunts developed
 * The uneven chronological and geographical distribution of cases
 * Shows the most intense prosecutions took place in areas where central judicial authorities exercised relatively little control over local justice

Chapter 1 - Introduction
1450-1750 Witch-hunt rather than witch-craze Witch-hunt has been attributed, in whole or large part, to This book adopts a multi-causal approach Necessary to go beyond these general causes and explore the specific circumstances and events that triggered individual witch-hunts
 * More than 100 000 witch-trials
 * Half of these executed, usually burning
 * Trials commonly held in secular courts, some in ecclesiastical
 * Uneven geographical and chronological distribution
 * 15th cent. – gradual increase 1400s
 * Early 16th cent. – slight reduction 1500-1550
 * Late 16th and early 17th cent. – dramatic increase 1550-1650
 * Late 17th and early 18th cent. – gradual decline 1650-1750
 * Search, usually not physical, search for who, not where
 * The Reformation
 * The Counter-Reformation
 * The Inquisition
 * The use of judicial torture
 * The wars of religion
 * The religious zeal of the clergy
 * The rise of the modern state
 * The development of capitalism
 * The widespread use of narcotics
 * Changes in medical thought
 * Social and cultural conflict
 * An attempt to wipe out paganism
 * The need for the ruling class to distract the masses
 * The hatred of women
 * Necessary preconditions of the witch-hunt
 * The emergence of new ideas about witches
 * A series of fundamental changes in the criminal law
 * More immediate causes
 * Religious change
 * Social tension
 * Reinforced each other

Each of the hunts had its own precipitants and dynamic
 * We must therefore also try to explain why they, once they had begun, followed many different patterns of development

THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIAL SETTING
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Kapitteloversikt
Chapter 1 – Introduction


 * THE MEANING OF WITCHCRAFT


 * THE REALITY OF WITCHCRAFT


 * THE SIZE OF THE HUNT

Chapter 2 – The intellectual foundations


 * THE CUMULATIVE CONCEPT OF WITCHCRAFT
 * The Devil


 * The Pact with the Devil


 * The sabbath


 * Flight


 * Metamorphosis


 * THE DISSEMINATION OF BELIEF


 * THE CHALLENGE OF THE RENAISSANCE


 * WITCHCRAFT AND THE FEAR OF REBELLION

Chapter 3 – The legal foundations


 * CHANGES IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE


 * TORTURE


 * WITCHCRAFT AND THE SECULAR COURTS


 * WITCHCRAFT AND THE LOCAL COURTS

Chapter 4 – The impact of the Reformation


 * THE NEW RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK
 * The fear of the Devil


 * Personal sanctity, guilt and witchcraft


 * The attack upon superstition, paganism and magic


 * Witchcraft and the Godly state


 * The Bible and witchcraft


 * RELIGIOUS CONFLICT


 * THE REFORMATION AND THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT

Chapter 5 – The social context


 * THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIAL SETTING


 * WHO WERE THE WITCHES?
 * Age


 * Marital status


 * Social and economic status


 * The personality of the witch


 * Witches as rebels


 * SOCIAL CHANGE AND THE GREAT WITCH-HUNT

Chapter 6 – The dynamics of witch-hunting


 * THE PRECONDITIONS


 * THE TRIGGERS


 * THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUNTS
 * Individual prosecutions and small hunts


 * Medium-sized hunts
 * Large hunts
 * THE END OF WITCH-HUNTS

Chapter 7 – The chronology and geography of witch-hunting
 * CHRONOLOGICAL PATTERNS
 * GEOGRAPHICAL PATTERNS
 * Western and west-central Europe
 * The British Isles
 * East-central and eastern Europe
 * Southern Europe
 * CONCLUSION

Chapter 8 – Decline and survival
 * JUDICIAL CHANGES
 * THE NEW MENTAL OUTLOOK
 * THE NEW RELIGIOUS CLIMATE
 * SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE
 * THE SURVIVAL AND REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT

Chapter 1 – Introduction Chapter 2 – The intellectual foundations Chapter 3 – The legal foundations Chapter 4 – The impact of the Reformation Chapter 5 – The social context Chapter 6 – The dynamics of witch-hunting Chapter 7 – The chronology and geography of witch-hunting Chapter 8 – Decline and survival
 * THE MEANING OF WITCHCRAFT
 * THE REALITY OF WITCHCRAFT
 * THE SIZE OF THE HUNT
 * THE CUMULATIVE CONCEPT OF WITCHCRAFT
 * The Devil
 * The Pact with the Devil
 * The sabbath
 * Flight
 * Metamorphosis
 * THE DISSEMINATION OF BELIEF
 * THE CHALLENGE OF THE RENAISSANCE
 * WITCHCRAFT AND THE FEAR OF REBELLION
 * CHANGES IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
 * TORTURE WITCHCRAFT AND THE SECULAR COURTS WITCHCRAFT AND THE LOCAL COURTS
 * THE NEW RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK
 * The fear of the Devil
 * Personal sanctity, guilt and witchcraft
 * The attack upon superstition, paganism and magic
 * Witchcraft and the Godly state
 * The Bible and witchcraft
 * RELIGIOUS CONFLICT
 * THE REFORMATION AND THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT
 * THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIAL SETTING
 * WHO WERE THE WITCHES?
 * Age
 * Marital status
 * Social and economic status
 * The personality of the witch
 * Witches as rebels
 * SOCIAL CHANGE AND THE GREAT WITCH-HUNT
 * THE PRECONDITIONS
 * THE TRIGGERS
 * THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUNTS
 * Individual prosecutions and small hunts
 * Medium-sized hunts
 * Large hunts
 * THE END OF WITCH-HUNTS
 * CHRONOLOGICAL PATTERNS
 * GEOGRAPHICAL PATTERNS
 * Western and west-central Europe
 * The British Isles
 * East-central and eastern Europe
 * Southern Europe
 * CONCLUSION
 * JUDICIAL CHANGES
 * THE NEW MENTAL OUTLOOK
 * THE NEW RELIGIOUS CLIMATE
 * SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE
 * THE SURVIVAL AND REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT