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POPULAR VERSUS LEARNED TRADITIONS IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY WITCH BELIEFS

POPULAR VERSUS LEARNED TRADITIONS IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY WITCH BELIEFS ~iiiiiiiiiiiiiIr+~iiiiiiiiiiiiiii l IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY WITCH BELIEFS Richard Kieckhefer University 0/ Texas, Austin Throughout the Middle Ages there were sporadic trials for witchcraft in some form or other, but the surviving records show a startling increase in prosecution of witches during the second half of the fourteenth century. The frequency of trials continued to mount, with some fluctuations, during the fifteenth century, and the grand crescendo came in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. During this period, women throughout Europe repeatedly confessed the most implausible crimes: not only had they inflicted curses on their neighbors, but they had attended nocturnal Sabbaths, where the devil received their veneration, had intercourse with them, and shared with them the flesh of newborn babies. Many historians have taken such confessions more or less at face value. These scholars argue that Sabbaths of this sort did in fact occur in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period-that they were vestiges of a preChristian fertility cult,z or ways of giving vent to social protest, or expressions of discontent with the orthodox Church,4 if not merely an innocuous form of entertainment. Although so me forms of this argument are seldom given serious consideration today by http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Explorations in Renaissance Culture Brill

POPULAR VERSUS LEARNED TRADITIONS IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY WITCH BELIEFS

Explorations in Renaissance Culture , Volume 2 (1): 35 – Dec 2, 1975

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Copyright 1975 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0098-2474
eISSN
2352-6963
DOI
10.1163/23526963-90000011
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

~iiiiiiiiiiiiiIr+~iiiiiiiiiiiiiii l IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY WITCH BELIEFS Richard Kieckhefer University 0/ Texas, Austin Throughout the Middle Ages there were sporadic trials for witchcraft in some form or other, but the surviving records show a startling increase in prosecution of witches during the second half of the fourteenth century. The frequency of trials continued to mount, with some fluctuations, during the fifteenth century, and the grand crescendo came in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. During this period, women throughout Europe repeatedly confessed the most implausible crimes: not only had they inflicted curses on their neighbors, but they had attended nocturnal Sabbaths, where the devil received their veneration, had intercourse with them, and shared with them the flesh of newborn babies. Many historians have taken such confessions more or less at face value. These scholars argue that Sabbaths of this sort did in fact occur in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period-that they were vestiges of a preChristian fertility cult,z or ways of giving vent to social protest, or expressions of discontent with the orthodox Church,4 if not merely an innocuous form of entertainment. Although so me forms of this argument are seldom given serious consideration today by

Journal

Explorations in Renaissance CultureBrill

Published: Dec 2, 1975

There are no references for this article.