The rise of witch-hunting and legal foundations Flashcards
What were the two types of magic?
Black magic- causing harmful deeds.
White magic- doing good deeds.
What were white witches known as?
Cunning folk
What was the Christian attitude to witchcraft prior to the thirteenth century?
Denied the belief in witchcraft until witchcraft was identified as heresy and the notion of the ‘devil’s pact’.
What three groups were seen as a threat to Catholicism?
Waldenians, Cathards, Lollards.
What was the Inquisition?
A tribunal that aimed to preserve the supremacy of Catholicism.
Who described the Christian society to shift from ‘open and tolerant’ to a ‘persecuting society’?
Robert Thurston.
What happened in the year 1326?
Pope John XXII authorised the Catholic Inquisition to treat witchcraft as heresy.
What was maleficarum?
Evil magic that caused harm.
What years were the witchcraft accusations in Switzerland, Italy and France and what were they accused of?
1420s and 1430s.
Holding meetings worshipping the Devil.
Where were the main witchcraft accusations in 1420s and 1430s?
Italy, Switzerland and France.
When did the educated believe that witches paid for material gain?
By 1500s.
What was the Sabbat?
A witches midnight meeting where they would worship the devil and provide sacrifices whilst having sex with the Devil.
Who were Inquisitors appointed by and what did they investigate?
Appointed by the Pope and would investigate witchcraft.
What was a common punishment for heretics?
Burned at the stake.
What happened in Dec 1485?
Pope Innocent VIII issued Papal Bull
Witchcraft is crimen exceptum (exceptional crime, so no limits to torture).
When was Malleus Maleficarum published?
1486
Who wrote Malleus Maleficarum?
Kramer and Sprenger
What were the main messages in Malleus Maleficarum?
It was mostly women that were witches
Witchcraft was the worst of all crimes
How to prosecute witches
What was the impact of Malleus Maleficarum?
Limited, Italy actually saw a reduction in prosecutions.
What was the Judicial process of Witchcraft?
Confessions extracted through torture.
Inquisitors suspicions confirmed.
Judges were informed.
More treatises introduced and so more people believed in witchcraft.
What was Diabolism?
Devil worship
What were the ruling class most concerned with regarding Witchcraft?
Diabolism- needed to believe that Witchcraft was a diabolical and wide scale crime with groups meeting to support the devil.
What were the peasantry most concerned with regarding witchcraft?
Maleficarum due to the destruction of crops.
What group of people mainly opposed witchcraft accusations?
Humanists.
Give examples of humanists and what they stated.
Agrippa attacked ‘fantasies’.
Erasmus ridiculed Inquisitors.
Andrea Alciati said witch-hunts are inhumane.
Johann Weyer said ‘massacre of the innocents’ and the Devil is too powerful to need witches.
What countries tried witches in 1480s-1520s?
Spain, Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany.
Name a prevalent Inquisition and how many people were tried and executed.
Inquisition of Como
1000 tried a year and 100 executed.
When was there a significant drop in prosecutions?
1520-1560.
When was the ‘Great Witch-hunt’?
1560-1660
How many people were executed in Wiesensteig?
1562- 5000 people and 63 executions.
How many people were executed in one day in Quendlinburg?
133
Where in particular had many witchcraft accusations?
The Holy Roman Empire
How many executions were in Bamberg and when?
600 between 1622-1633.
When did witch-hunts take off in Sweden?
1660.
When did witch trials begin to decline?
1660
When can it be mark that the Witch craze officially ended?
Late 18th century
How many died overall?
Once believed to be 9 million but present research shows 90,000-100,000.
What three countries had 3000 executions?
Poland, France, Britain.
How many executions did France, Poland and Britain have?
3000