The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe: Culture, Cognition and Everyday Life (Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic)

648 Pages·2008·1.77 MB·English

by  Edward Bever

The Realities of Witchcraft
and Popular Magic in Early
Modern Europe
Culture, Cognition, and Everyday Life
Edward Bever
The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic
in Early Modern Europe
Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
Series Editors: Jonathan Barry, Willem de Blécourt and Owen Davies
Titles include:
Edward Bever
THE REALITIES OF WITCHCRAFT AND POPULAR MAGIC IN EARLY
MODERN EUROPE
Culture, Cognition, and Everyday Life
Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller
WITCHCRAFT AND BELIEF IN EARLY MODERN SCOTLAND
Forthcoming:
Johannes Dillinger
MAGICAL TREASURE HUNTING IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA
A History
Soili-Maria Olli
TALKING TO DEVILS AND ANGELS IN SCANDINAVIA, 1500–1800
Alison Rowlands
WITCHCRAFT AND MASCULINITIES IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Rolf Schulte
MAN AS WITCH
Male Witches in Central Europe
Laura Stokes
THE DEMONS OF URBAN REFORM
The Rise of Witchcraft Prosecution, 1430–1530
Wanda Wyporska
WITCHCRAFT IN EARLY MODERN POLAND, 1500–1800
Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
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The Realities of Witchcraft
and Popular Magic in Early
Modern Europe
Culture, Cognition, and Everyday Life
Edward Bever
© Edward Bever 2008
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ISBN-13:978–1–4039–9781–4 hardback
ISBN-10:1–4039–9781–0 hardback
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bever,Edward Watts Morton.
The realities of witchcraft and popular magic in early modern Europe:
culture,cognition,and everyday life / Edward Bever.
p.cm.— (Palgrave historical studies in witchcraft and magic)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978–1–4039–9781–4 (hardback:alk.paper)
ISBN-10:1–4039–9781–0 (hardback:alk.paper)
1. Witchcraft—Europe—History.2. Magic—Europe—History. I. Title.
BF1584.E9B48 2008
133.4’3094—dc22
2008000163
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe,Chippenham and Eastbourne
For Patricia
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Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables x
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiv
Part I The Reality of Maleficium 1
1 The Varieties of Maleficium 5
Poison and assault 8
Occult injury and psychosocial factors in disease 11
Ill will and interpersonal communications 20
Harm to animals 37
Conclusion 39
2 Maleficiumand Society 40
Maleficiumand intracommunal conflict 40
Gender, age, and interpersonal power 47
Hard times and hard hearts 60
Part II The Realities of Diabolism 65
3 The Devil in the Duchy of Württemberg 67
Origin and diffusion of the diabolic stereotype 67
The Devil made me do it 73
Dealing with the Devil 79
4 Witch Dances and Witch Salves 93
Rumors of witch dances 97
Dreams of dances 106
Dances and trances 118
Scopolamine dreams 129
5 Sorcery, Satanism, and Shamanism 151
The realities of sorcery in early modern Europe 154
Sorcery and satanism 168
Witchcraft and shamanism 185
Conclusion 212
vii
viii Contents
Part III The Realities of Beneficent Magic 215
6 Divination and Prophesy 219
The varieties of divinatory activity 219
Divination and guilt 221
Locating hidden things 230
Fortune-telling and prognostication 250
Prophesy 258
Conclusion 269
7 Beneficent Manipulative Magic 271
Magical healing 273
The varieties of healing practices 274
The efficacy of magical healing 287
Magical countermeasures 303
Magical enhancements 312
Supernatural powers and anomalous events 318
Conclusion 334
Part IV Repression and Reality 337
8 Magic and Society 339
Practitioners of beneficent magic 339
The mechanisms of repression 349
The judicial system 350
The church 356
Local communities 362
Individual psychophysiology 372
Repression and the marginalization of magic 378
The roots and rise of judicial repression 381
The prosecutions falter 389
Second surge and the decline of witchcraft 399
Enlightenment and repression 415
Conclusion 429
Conclusion 433
Appendix 441
Notes 444
Bibliography 504
Index 558
Figures
Figure 8.1 Witchcraft and magic trials 379
Figure 8.2 Witchcraft and magic trials per 100,000 inhabitants 380
Figure 8.3 Witchcraft and poison cases 395
Figure 8.4 Witchcraft, magic, and poison trials 403
Figure 8.5 Witchcraft, magic, and poison trials per 100,000
inhabitants 404
Figure 8.6 All trials for magic, healing, and treasure-hunting 421
Figure 8.7 All trials for magic, healing, and treasure-hunting
per 100,000 inhabitants 424
ix