Exam (elaborations)
EXAM PLAN RISE OF WITCHCRAFT
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Reasons for the rise in witchcraft persecutions was….o Belief in witchcraft
o Socio-economic
o Renaissance scholars
o Religion
o Authorities
o Legal jurisdiction/the law/ framework
o Political instability
Q.F: Political weaknesses of the empire was the most important reason for the high concentration
of witchcraft trials in in Western and West Central Europe.
SUPPORT: CHALLENGE:
o Prevailing pattern of jurisdictional o It is an exaggeration to claim that it
particularism in Germany, meant witch gave everyone power and freedom to
hunting easily went unchecked. hunt witches.
o However, German judges certainly had a o There were laws in place that
latitude in handling witchcraft cases. should’ve been followed, such as the
o However, things such as the 1532 Carolina 1532 Carolina Code in HRE.
Code had been supplied to the entire
Empire, but there were no effective
mechanisms for enforcing it.
Synthesis:
o Ellwangen: Independent of all outside political & ecclesiastical control & was never
permitted to appeal to higher courts. It was severe hunting with 400 individuals between
1611-1618.
o Switzerland: The cantons were jurisdictionally autonomous (allowed uncontrollable
hunting). Here, 10,000 were executed.
o Frenche-Comte, Lorraine: Witch hunting encouraged by ‘de facto jurisdictional
independence’. In Lorraine, more than 2,000 were executed in the entire career of Nicolas
Remy.
MJ: Overall, it is clear to examine that political weaknesses of the empire had a clear correlation
with high concentration of witch hunts and executions due to jurisdictional independence.
Q.F: Renaissance scholars played a prominent role in the rise for witch-hunting. Although they
cannot be a direct cause for the rise of the hunts, there are some clear correlations that affected the
rise of witch-hunting in the 15th century.
SUPPORT: CHALLENGE:
, o Timeline Renaissance scholars writing o However, some scholars being anti-
correlates with the ideas & beliefs about witchcraft had somewhat lead to a
th th
witch craft throughout the 15 and 16 spike. E.g. 1584 Scot, trier 1580s,
century. North Berwick, Scotland in 1580s.
o The change from an empirical approach to o Unlikely to have reached members of
an authoritative. Using religion to explain illiterate who couldn’t read or write
how the devil cannot be real. Heavily ect…
religious society, likely to be impacted. o Even when there was decline of
EXAMPLES OF AUTHORITATIVE AND beliefs, many stayed sceptical,
EMPIRCAL, DEVIL ECT.... including the authorities. Even the
o The Renaissance helped spread a chain lower classes would’ve clung onto the
reaction of beliefs and scepticism. The idea of witchcraft for years after it
Renaissance and printing press (1440s) trials had officiaslly died out.
helped spread information, which
formulated new questions, this added new
twists for beliefs, then new charges
amended to the severity, then, more was
updated in manuals, this was then exposed
to judges and helped propel trials.
Synthesis:
o During the period from 1375-1420, the first witchcraft treatises – most notably Johannes
Nider’s Formicarius (written 1436/1437; published 1475), Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus
Maleficarum (1486) and Ulrich Molitor’s De Lamiis et Phitonicis Mulieribus (Concerning
Witches and Fortune-tellers, 1489) – appeared. The publication of these works, which
emphasised the diabolical as well as the magical dimensions of the witch’s crime,
corresponded to the increase in the number of prosecutions.
o This period of intense witch-hunting between 1580 and 1630 was related, as both cause and
effect, to the proliferation of witchcraft treatises. The well-known works by Peter Binsfeld
(1591), Nicolas Rémy (1595),King James VI of Scotland (1597), Martín Del Rio (1599), Henri
Boguet(1602), Francesco Maria Guazzo (1608) and Pierre de Lancre (1612) were all written
during these years, and the power of the rapidly developing printing industry made their
works available to an increasingly large literate European population.12 These witchcraft
treatises all used the evidence of late sixteenth-century trials to confirm the reality of
witchcraft, deepen elite fears of the crime and provide guidance for its effective prosecution.
MJ: There are some clear correlations where the Renaissance needs to be accredited to. Although
other factors may be more important it is hard to ignore the profound effect the Renaissance
scholars had on witchcraft.
Q.F: Religious attitudes played an important role in helping to intensify the witch hunts of the 15 th
and 16th century.
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