Witch Hunt In Modern Europe Essay, Research Paper

The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as

well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of

witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation

of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between

1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the

witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting

have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The

hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the

identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret

activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task, but judicial

authorities performed most. The cause of most of these hunts is the multi-causal

approach, which sees the emergence of new ideas about the witches and changes in

the criminal law statutes. Both point to major religious changes and a lot of

social tension among society. The intellectual foundations of the hunts were

attributed to the witch?s face-to-face pact with the devil and the periodic

meetings of witches to engage in practices considered to be barbaric and

heinous. The cumulative concept of witchcraft pointed immediately to the devil,

the source of the magic and the one most witches adored. There was strong belief

then that witches made pacts with the devil. Some would barter their soul to the

devil in exchange for a gift or a taste of well being. Many believed that these

witches observed a nocturnal Sabbath where they worshipped the devil and paid

their homage to him. They were also accused of being an organization known for

its cannibalistic practices of infanticide incest. Another component of this

cumulative concept was the belief of the flight of witches. The belief for this

was contributed to by the assumption that witches took flight from their homes

to goto nocturnal meetings without their absence from home being detected. The

belief in ?flying night witches? was shared by many cultures in the modern

world. These women were referred to as strigae, which was one of the many Latin

terms for witches. As the reader first opens the legal foundations of

witch-hunting, one finds that historically it was a judicial process from

discovery to elimination. Levack states that before the thirteenth century

European courts used a system of criminal procedure that made all crimes

difficult to prosecute. This system was known as the accusatorial system and

existed predominantly in northwestern Europe. When the thirteenth century came

into being, a new technique, which gave more human judgement in the criminal

process, was adopted in Western Europe secular courts. This new court was known

as inquisitorial courts. The only difference between the new system and the old

when suits were begun by accusation was that the accuser was no longer

responsible for the actual prosecution of the case (pg. 72). The new procedures

were not in reality an improvement due to the fact that the standards of proof

according to inquisitorial procedure were very demanding. Since the adoption of

inquisitorial procedure represented a shift from reliance upon man?s rational

judgement, jurists agreed that it was absolutely necessary for judges to have

conclusive proof of guilt before passing sentence (pg. 79). They relied on Roman

law and based their conclusions on two eyewitnesses and the confession of the

accused. The development of full judicial power given to the state in the

prosecution of a crime was a major event. From the early times, the secular

courts in Europe had taken part in the witch-hunts, and now as the hunt

developed further along, the secular courts grew an even greater role in the

process. This caused a decline in ecclesiastical court participation due to the

fact that governments defined witchcraft as a secular crime, and the temporal

courts of some countries had a monopoly on the prosecution. The prosecution of

magic was a ?mixed jurisdiction? taken on by both courts but when convicted

the guilty were executed under secular law. Since secular courts had

jurisdiction over magic and maleficium they primarily assumed the significant

role in prosecuting witches. As the hunt gathered steam in the sixteenth

century, the developments resulted in a reduction of clerical jurisdiction and

an increase in the amount of secular concern with it. The main reason was the

defining of witchcraft as a secular crime. All of these factors led to a

large-scale witch-hunts in Scotland but in some countries the retention of

ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the crime led to a decline in the number of

prosecutions. Local court decisions during this time also played a role in the

conviction of witches. They had the ability to perform with a certain amount of

independence from higher political and judicial control. There are two main

reasons why local courts proved to be less lenient than central courts in the

prosecutions of witchcraft (pg. 93). The first is that local authorities that

presided over witch trials were far more likely than their central superiors to

develop an intense and immediate fear of witchcraft (pg. 93). The second is that

central judges were generally more committed to the proper operation of the

judicial system and more willing therefore to afford accused witches whatever

procedural safeguards the law might allow them (pg. 94). The decentralization of

judicial life had lasting effects in countries like Germany, where no effective

control by central authority led to increased hunts and more torturous

executions. The formation of the cumulative concept of witchcraft and all the

legal precedents introduced made the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth

century witch-hunts possible. To look at the understanding of the hunt one must

examine the religious, social, and economic conditions that began in modern

Europe. During the time of the Reformation, the Europeans increased their

awareness of satin and started to wage a larger war against him. A second effect

of the Reformation on witchcraft arose from the emphasis that both Protestant

and Catholic reformers placed on personal piety and sanctity (pg. 106). The

Christianization of Europe also added to this war against the devil by

eradication superstitious beliefs, eliminating paganism and suppressing magic.

Witch-hunting was the most frequent in countries where large minorities adhered

to different religions. Witch-hunting was the most intense in Germany,

Switzerland, France, Poland, and Scotland (pg. 114). The effects of the

Protestant and Catholic Reformation did have an effect on witch-hunts; they laid

the foundation for their decline. There were various types of hunts that took

place during European witch-hunt times. The main feature of the small hunt is

that the search for malefactors is limited to the individuals who were

originally accused (172). The main characteristic of a medium style hunt was

that it included five to ten victims. The final type of hunt was the large hunt

where tens to hundreds of witches were hunted and panic and hysteria were

rampant everywhere. The end of the witch-hunts was usually an abrupt procedure.

The small hunts for example were isolated prosecutions that ended when the

accused were either executed or given an acquittal. Most of the time the end of

a hunt lasted for many years, and up to generations. The explanations for the

geographical unevenness in the hunts cannot be simply put. According to Levack,

there were four separate but related factors. The first was the nature of witch

beliefs in a particular region and the strength in which they were held (231).

The disparity can be seen for example in countries like England, the

Scandinavian countries, and Spain where the prosecutions included a number of

individual trials for maleficium and some for Devil-worship. The second factor

is determining the relative intensity of hunts was the criminal procedure used.

Not all countries used the inquisitorial procedure and torture method. The third

determinant was the extent to which the central judicial authority had control

on the trials. Central control did not always prevail, since some rulers wanted

to completely exterminate witchcraft. The final factor is the degree of

religious zeal manifested by the people of a region (232). This was most evident

in large hunts and countries known for their large numerous executions and not

known for their Christianity. The decline in witchcraft can be attributed to a

multitude of factors. There were three main judicial and legal developments that

contributed to the decline of witchcraft: the demand for conclusive evidence

regarding maleficium and the pact, the adoption of stricter rules regarding the

use of torture, the promulgation of decrees either restricting or eliminating

prosecutions for witchcraft (236). The mental outlook was also changing at the

time as judges and princes set out to create new rules for torture and

restricting witchcraft. The most important religious factor in this decline was

the change of the religious climate that occurred in the late seventeenth

century. The socioeconomic changes could be felt in a general improvement of

living conditions that reduced some of the local village tensions that lay at

the basis of witchcraft prosecutions. Witches no longer posed the threat that

they once did. The economic and social chaos of this century and the political

and religious instability caused anxiety that led to witches becoming a

scapegoat for the general ills of society during their rapid time of change.

Witchcraft had become somewhat of a hobby! In conclusion, Levack gives the

reader a full understanding of witchcraft during this time and the historical

insight and vivid description adds to the livelihood of the period. Levack?s

insight gives the consistency that witch-hunts were sparked by diverse and

complex causes, which he supports in his book. According to a book review by

Elizabeth Furdell, ?Levack uses many sources to provide national examinations

of the witchcraze.? An example of this Levack?s conclusion that while German

communities exhibited frenzied paranoia directed at ?witches,? England did

only a little witch-hunting. He uses reliable and multiple reasons to prove his

thesis. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusations,

prosecutions, and execution of thousands of witches in Europe, and Levack leaves

the reader wondering if he the individual if he/she had lived during this period

would have been hunting witches or hunting fox?