The 'Other' Witches - The Male Witch of Early Modern Europe - a thesis by Arnon Ram (2006).pdf

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Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
General History Division
The ‘ Other ’ Witches
The Male Witch of Early Modern Europe
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Master of Arts
Under the Supervision of Dr. Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos
Arnon Ram
September 2006
Abstract
Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries about 110,000 people, mainly
in Europe, were accused of causing harm to property, livestock, and people through
supernatural means such as sorcery and witchcraft, and for turning away from their faith
in Jesus Christ and paying worship to the devil. In the vast scholarly work that has been
done during the past century about the witch hunts a large majority of the works have
overlooked, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, a part of the
population that has been accused and executed for the crime of witchcraft as well: men.
These papers usually focused on the large amount of female witches that were accused
and killed, asking why, who they were, and if misogyny has had anything to do with
these events.
Twenty-five to thirty percent of the people accuse of witchcraft were male. This
paper will investigate who where these people? What were they accused of, and was it
different from the accusation leveled against the female witches? Did the intellectuals and
demonologists of the era acknowledge the existence of the male witches? And how did
the courts deal with these men?
The research will show that the intellectuals did indeed know of the male witches,
giving plenty of examples of them in their texts, though never for a moment forgetting to
remind us that while there were male witches, they were only a minority. To these
people, women were the majority in this sin due to the fact that they were “weaker” in
mind, body, and spirit; but they never claimed that men were innocent of this crime.
Both men and women were accused of rather similar crimes in the context of
witchcraft. Both men and women were lengthily interrogated and sometimes tortured in
order to confess themselves as witches and reveal their accomplices. Both men and
women were either declared witches and executed or released. The black-letter of the law
did not differentiate between the sexes, and the men who ran the courts of law saw with
equal severity any case that dealt with witchcraft and/or diabolical witchcraft.
Table of Contents
1. Introductions
iv
1.1. Terminology
vi
2. Formation of a Concept
1
2.1. From the Priest to the Inquisitor
2
2.2. The Ingredient of a Witch
11
2.3. A Common Picture
14
2.4. The Typical and Atypical Witch
16
3. The Male witch and the Intellectuals of their Age
18
3.1. Formicarius by Johannes Nider
19
3.2. Summis desiderentes affectibus by Pope Innocent VIII
20
3.3. Malleus Maleficarum by Kramer and Sprenger
21
3.4. On the Demon-Mania of Witches by Jean Bodin
24
3.5. The Discoveries of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot
25
3.6. Demonology by King James VI of Scotland
27
3.7. Compendium Maleficarum by Francesco Maria Guazzo
29
3.8. Conclusions
31
4. Cases of ale
itches
34
4.1. The Witches from Normandy
34
4.2. The Examination of John Walsh
35
4.3. The
itches from Trier
38
4.4.
e
s from Scotland
41
4.5. The Witches of Northamptonshire
42
4.6. Johannes Junius, Burgomaster of Bamberg
44
4.7. The Witch-Trial at Lukh
46
4.8. A True Relation of the Arraignment of Eighteen Witches
48
4.9. Witches of Finland
49
4.10.
Cases from Iceland
49
5. The ale itch
51
5.1. Male witches over Europe
51
5.1.1.
er
any
52
5.1.2. France
54
5.1.3. England
55
5.1.4. Russia
56
5.1.5. Finland
56
5.1.6. Iceland
57
5.2. Demonic Lover and Sodomy
58
5.3.
ccusations
59
5.4. The Male witch in Court
60
6. Conclusions
62
7. Appendixes
64
7.1. Appendix A
64
7.2. Appendix B
65
8. Bibliography
66

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