Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

Between Religion and Magic: Clerics and Common People in the
Lier Witch Trials of 1589 and 1603
Vrajabhūmi Vanderheyden
Abstract
Defining concepts as ‘religion’ and ‘magic’ and their mutual relationship is – to
say the least – challenging. After years of study and debate, it is still a ‘hot topic’
in different areas of research. Attempts to clearly delineate both notions can be
traced back into a distant past. More than 400 years ago, in the Reformation period,
the Catholic Church invested a lot of energy to define the boundaries of religious
orthodoxy in order to distinguish official praxis from abuse and heresy. In this
chapter I will explore whether these official regulations found their way to
common people, and if so, how they were interpreted on the level of a local
community. I will focus on the actions of local clerics who figure in several witch
trials that took place in the small city of Lier in the Spanish Netherlands at the end
of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. These judicial
records bear witness of everyday early modern life, particularly in those aspects
that pertain to the ‘supernatural’. Against the background of a religious landslide,
the featured clergymen made their way through the field of tension between
prescribed clerical norms and the reality of daily life in a small community. In
doing so, they often crossed the boundaries of what the Church considered proper
religious behaviour, performing acts that could be labelled as ‘magical’. They did
so both on their own initiative and spurred by a significant popular demand. This
way, their actions shed light on common conceptions and perceptions of the
supernatural in the early modern period and may lead to a better understanding of
the border region between religion and magic.
Key Words: Early modern history, religion, magic, witch persecution, priests,
cultural mediators.
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1. Introduction
Defining concepts as ‘religion’ and ‘magic’ and their mutual relationship is
challenging. After years of study and debate, it is still a ‘hot topic’ in different
areas of research. More than 400 years ago, in the Reformation period, the Catholic
Church invested great energy to define the boundaries of religious orthodoxy in
order to distinguish official praxis from abuse and heresy. The opinion that magical
practices were a bigger problem than ever before as well as the reformed dismissal
of traditional clerical ritual as ‘papal magic’ resulted in the Catholic struggle
against superstition receiving a renewed fervour. Uniformisation of clerical
practices, elaborate regulations and an improved supervision of clerics and