The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe

The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe (4th Ed.) by Brian P. Levack

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R4HCIL3ZPKNE2?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

This is a “must-read” for anyone who wants to be informed on the issue of historical witches, historical witchcraft or the historical “witch-craze.” Author Brian P. Levack exhaustively marshals the data and sources and provides a coherent explanation for the phenomenon that gripped Europe between approximately 1500 and 1700.

Not surprisingly, Levack punctures a few myths. For example, it is not the case that “millions” of witches were burned during the “Burning Times.” On a European-wide basis for the approximate two hundred years of the witch-hunt, perhaps 45,000 were executed, either by hanging or burning. Further, while the majority of witches were women, a substantial minority- approximately 25% - were men. In some regions, the majority of executed witches men. Another myth that goes down the tube is the notion that the witch-hunt was a Protestant phenomenon, or, alternatively, that it was a product of the religious institutions of Europe. In fact, witch-hunts affected both Protestant and Catholic territories and were almost exclusively under the control of the rising European states. For all that, witch-hunts could be impressively destructive; Levack offers the example of communities where all but one or two women were left alive after their witch-craze had burned out.

Levack's view is that the European witch-hunt would not have occurred with the intellectual development of a “diabolical” model of witchcraft. Europeans had long known about “maleficia,” witchcraft involving curses to cause injury. However, in Early Modern Europe, European intellectuals began to incorporate ideas that these witches were involved with Satan, that they were making pacts with Satan, and that they were congregating en masse with Satan at “witches' Sabbaths.” This was a potent combination that could lead to paranoia about infiltration by the forces of Satan. Add to this mix, the religious foment of the period and the secular ambition to create “Godly Societies,” both Catholic and Protestant, and the urge to ferret out Satanic collaborators could overflow into a witch hunt under circumstances of stress.

Stress might come from the guilt of not being able to avoid sin or in not providing charity to those in need as social mores changed. Levack observes: “Support for witchcraft trials provided a means by which the members of European communities could acquire confidence in their own moral sanctity and ultimate salvation.” (p. 150.) (This looks a lot like the function of “twitter mobbing” in the modern era.) Stress could also arise from famines or the death of children, but not generally from wars, which tended to preoccupy people from engaging in witch-hunts.

Levack proves his argument with examinations of the areas where witch-hunts occurred. Where the full panoply of diabolical ideas was not present – Ireland, Spain, Russia – witch-hunts were smaller or infrequent.

Torture was another factor in spreading the witch-hunt. In theory, torture was limited, but in practice, in secular courts, the limitations were ignored. The result was that there would be “chain reactions” of accusations, which often resulted in accusations against the hunters themselves.

Interestingly, the limits on torture were respected in ecclesiastical courts, such as the Inquisition. Levack writes:

“Another reason for the relative tameness of witchcraft prosecutions in Italy, Spain and Portugal was the adherence of the Inquisition in each country to fairly strict procedural rules. In the Middle Ages papa inquisitors had become notorious for their unrestrained use of torture and the many other ways in which they had prejudiced the case against the accused. By the time the European witch-hunt began, however, inquisitors had produced a large body of cautionary literature, and two of the early modern institutions that succeeded the medieval inquisition – the Spanish and the Roman inquisitions – demonstrated exceptional concern for procedural propriety. Indeed, the Roman Inquisition has been referred to as a ‘pioneer in judicial reform.' Unlike many secular courts, it made provision for legal counsel; it furnished the defendant with a copy of the charges and evidence against him; and it assigned very little weight to the testimony of a suspected witch against her confederates. One of the most noteworthy features of both Spanish and Roman inquisitorial procedure is that torture was rarely employed. In Spain it was used only when there was strong circumstantial evidence but no proof, and it was applied towards the end of the trial, just before judgment was pronounced. Even in the great Basque witch-hunt of 1609-1611, which involved thousands of suspects, the Inquisition tortured only two of the accused, and since the torture allowed their sentences to be commuted from death to banishment, it can be legitimately considered an act of mercy. The only pressure to use torture as a deliberate means to extract confessions came from local secular authorities and local mobs, groups whose extra-legal tactics the Inquisition sought to restrain. Even the benandanti, the members of an ancient fertility cult in Friuli whom the Inquisition gradually convinced they were witches, were never put to torture.” (p. 219.)

So, add that to the list of busted myths.

Levack also explains why women were largely the victims of witch-hunts were women. It had nothing to do with male power dynamics or ancient mother goddess religions, but, rather, it had to do with the fact that women worked in “dangerous” professions where they were involved in child-care. Children often died in this era and mothers had understandable anxieties about the care of their children. The death of children was often a trigger that fed on years of gossip and suspicion. Levack points out that the “Satanic child-abuse” panic of the 1980s was likewise focused on child care workers.

Levack argues that the era of the witch-hunt ended in part because of its success. So many were swept up, including elites, that the elites could no longer believe that all the accused were guilty. Central state control over prosecutions and executions took over, limiting or eliminating executions and eliminating the use of torture. Skepticism about confessions and the kinds of evidence, including spectral evidence and the testimony of children, also added to the decline. Finally, Europe developed a more skeptical attitude about whether any particular misfortune was actually supernatural and whether these marginal members of society really were the kind of people that the Prince of Hell would enroll in his grand plan for subversion.

This book is not a casual read. It is a textbook. Nonetheless for students of history, it should make a captivating read.