Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe - University of Reading

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and the majority of those who were tried and executed for witchcraft were women.
The prevalence of women among the victims of the witch-trials has been the cause of
much debate in recent decades, leading some writers to see the accusation of women
as part of the ‗ongoing mechanisms for the social control of women‘ (Hester). From
our earlier discussions on the historiography of early modern witchcraft, it is clear that
this is only one of a number of possible explanations for the persecutions of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Having looked at literature on witchcraft in this
period, and at the views of historians in recent research, in this session we will make
more use of the records of the trials of witches, and test out the various hypotheses at
a local and individual level.
Seminar Preparation
It may be useful to refer back to the extracts from the Malleus and other tracts from
first week. In this session, we will look in detail at a number of specific witch-trials in
the seminar. Examples are provided in the gobbet handbook, but your preparation for
this week is to find a witch (!) or an account of an early modern witch trial, and bring
the relevant primary sources to class.
There are some accounts of trials in the Malleus, a few in the Kors & Peters volume
Witchcraft in Europe 1100-1700, and of course plenty to be found on the web.
Look at the course homepage
(http://www.rdg.ac.uk/~lhs99hlp/ritual.html)
or at witchcraft links on my other course pages (particularly the Part One Approaches
to History course)
If you would like any information copied for the rest of the group, drop it off by
Tuesday afternoon.
Questions for Class Discussion
Why were women so prominent among the accusers in witch-trials?
What light does the case of ‗your‘ witch shed on the interpretations of the trials that
we discussed in week 2?
How closely does ‗your‘ witch conform to the models set out in the literature?
What are the most important / common features of witchcraft allegations?
How reliable is the evidence for ‗your‘ trial? Compared to other types?
How much popular support / interest is there in the witch-hunt?
How can we explain the rise and fall of levels of persecution, and the geography and
chronology of persecution?
Is the witchcraze an event of cultural and historical importance?
Primary Sources
The Examination and Confession of Certain Witches (1566)
The Apprehension and Confession of Three Notorious Witches (1589)
A Tryal of Witches (1662)
Secondary Reading
Ankarloo, B., Henningsen, G., Early Modern Witchcraft, Centres and Peripheries
(Oxford, 1989).