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WITCHCRAFT

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 758 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WITCHCRAFT , a See also:

term often used of magical practices of all sorts, but here confined to the malevolent (" See also:black ") magic of See also:women. It should, however, be noted that the male See also:witch occasionally appears in See also:folklore, while " See also:white witchcraft " is See also:common; the practices of the witch of See also:Endor are akin rather to See also:spiritualism than witchcraft. The See also:German term hexe was not originally applied to human beings at all, but to See also:child-devouring demons, corresponding to the See also:Roman See also:lamia; and it is used in this sense till the 14th See also:century, it does not appear in literature in its See also:present sense till some See also:time in the 13th century. The See also:modern See also:European conception of the witch is perhaps the result of the See also:fusion of several originally discrete ideas. In some countries we find the distinction made between conjurers, witches and sorcerers; the former were supposed to raise the See also:devil by means of spells and force him to do their will; the witch proceeded by way of friendly pact with an evil spirit; a third class produced See also:strange effects, without the aid of See also:spirits (see M.AGIC), by means of images or forms of words. We also find a distinction See also:drawn between diviners, mathematici (=astrologers), crystal-gazers, necromancers and others; but it must be remembered that our knowledge for the earlier See also:period is rather of learned ideas than of the actual popular beliefs, and for the later period of the popular belief sophisticated by ecclesiastical subtleties. In present-See also:day belief the witch is, like the See also:savage magician, initiated by another or herself performs ceremonies believed to give her magical See also:powers. She possesses a See also:familiar (see See also:LYCANTHROPY; MAGIC), whose See also:form she can assume; she can ride through the See also:air in some cases and is 'equally See also:adept at all kinds of magic. See also:Sir A. C. See also:Lyall maintains that the witch is a See also:person who See also:works magic by her own powers, not by the aid and counsel of supernatural beings; but this view, though it may be true of poisoning and similar features formerly reckoned a See also:part of witchcraft, does not apply to the European witch. Witchcraft and See also:possession arc found in See also:close relation in the psychical epidemics of the See also:middle ages, but are otherwise unrelated.

Witchcraft among See also:

Primitive Peoples.—Although magical powers are everywhere attributed to women, witchcraft as here defined is by no means universal; in See also:Europe alone is the woman the almost exclusive repository of magical powers; in the See also:Congo the muntu ndongo may be either a See also:man or a woman, and in fact the sexes are said to be engaged in magical pursuits in approximately equal See also:numbers; in See also:Australia men are much more concerned with magic than women, but the latter have certain forms See also:peculiar to themselves in the central See also:area, and, as in See also:medieval Europe, it is largely concerned with sexual matters. At the present day the European witch is almost invariably old, but this is not characteristic of the See also:female magician of primitive peoples, or not to the same extent; it must be remembered that the modern See also:idea of witchcraft is largely a learned product—the result of scholastic and inquisitorial ingenuity, mingled to a greater or less extent with genuine folk beliefs. In See also:India, among the Agariyas of See also:Bengal, the instruction in witchcraft is given by the old women; but the pupils are See also:young girls. The See also:Indian witch is believed to have a See also:cat familiar; there, as in Europe, many tests are applied to witches; they may be thrown into See also:water, or their identity discovered by various forms of See also:divination; or they may be known by the fact that beating them with thecastor oil plant makes them cry out. As a See also:punishment the witch may be shaved, made to drink dirty water, or otherwise See also:ill-used. Witchcraft in Classical Times.—Our knowledge of witchcraft in See also:pagan antiquity is slight, but See also:Horace has See also:left us an elaborate description of the proceedings of two witches in the Esquiline See also:cemetery. At the new See also:moon they steal into it to gather bones and noxious herbs, their feet See also:bare, their See also:hair loose and their See also:robes tucked up. So far from aiming at secrecy, however, they alarm their neighbours with their cries. Making a hollow in the ground they rend a black See also:lamb over it to summon the dead. Then taking two images, one of See also:wool representing a witch, one of See also:wax representing the man whose infidelity she wishes to punish, a witch performs magical ceremonies; the moon turns red, See also:hell hounds and See also:snakes glide over the spot. Then they See also:bury the muzzle of a See also:wolf and See also:burn the waxen See also:image; as it melts, so fades the See also:life of its prototype. In See also:Greece Thessalian women had the reputation of being specially powerful witches; their poisons were famous and they were said to be able to make the moon descend from the See also:sky.

Medieval Witchcraft.—We know less of See also:

early and medieval witchcraft than of modern savage and popular beliefs; our knowledge of it is drawn partly from See also:secular See also:sources—the See also:laws against, and in later times the trials for the offence—partly from ecclesiastical sources; but in each See also:case the popular creed is filtered through the mind of a writer who did not necessarily understand or See also:share the belief. For the earlier period we have penitentials, decisions of See also:councils, discussions as to the possibility of the various kinds of witchcraft, as to their exact relation to the See also:sin of See also:heresy or as to the mechanism by which the supposed results were achieved; at a later period the trials of witches before the See also:Inquisition are of See also:great importance; but the beliefs of this period must be sharply distinguished from those of the earlier one. Finally we have a great See also:mass of material in the secular trials of the 16th and two following centuries. There are marked See also:differences in the See also:character of the witch-See also:craft beliefs of different countries, due perhaps in part to the See also:influence of the Inquisition, which reacted on the popular conceptions, in part to real differences in the See also:original folk beliefs. In See also:northern countries the witches' See also:Sabbath never seems to assume any importance; in See also:Germany, in the form of the See also:Brocken See also:assembly on May See also:Eve, it is a prominent feature, and in See also:England we may bring it into relation with the belief that at certain periods of the See also:year demons and spirits are abroad and have See also:special powers; in See also:south Europe the idea of the Sabbath seems to owe much of its prominence to the association of witchcraft with heresy and the assemblies of the Waldenses and others. Again, the " evil See also:eye " (q.v.) is especially associated with the south of Europe; and the " ligature " (See also:production of See also:impotence by magical means, often only with reference to a specified individual) has always played a far larger part in the conception of witch-craft than it has in the less amorous northern climes, and it is doubtless due to this in great part that woman in this part of Europe is so prominent in magic; in the See also:north, on the other See also:hand, we find the See also:storm-raising woman, hardly yet See also:extinct in the north of See also:Scotland, already famous in pre-See also:Christian times; we may perhaps connect the importance of woman in Germany in part with the conception of the See also:Wild See also:Hunt and the spirits who See also:fly by See also:night, though doubtless other factors played their part. Development of Ideas.—In the See also:history of European witchcraft we may distinguish three periods: (I) down to A.D. 1230, in which the real existence of some or even all kinds of magic is doubted, and the various See also:species are clearly held asunder in secular and ecclesiastical writings; (2) from 1230 to 1430, during which, under the influence of See also:scholasticism, the doubts as to the possibility and reality of witchcraft gradually vanish, while See also:side by side with this theoretical development the practice of the Inquisition instils the new conception into the popular mind and produces the impression that a great recrudescence of witchcraft was in progress; (3) from 1430 onwards the previously disparate conceptions became fused, at any See also:rate in literature, and we reach the period of witch persecution, which did not come to an end till the 17th or even the 18th century. fn the first of these three periods we find (r) the conception of the malefica, who, in common with her male counterpart, uses See also:poison, spells and waxen images, produces tempests, works by means of the evil eye and is regarded as the cause of impotence, a feature which continually called the See also:attention of theologians and jurists to the question of magic by the problems raised by suits for See also:divorce or nullity of See also:marriage. (2) Side by side with her, we find, this time without a male counterpart, the striga, frequently embodying also the ideas of the lamia and larva; originally she is a female demon, in See also:bird form (and in many parts of the See also:world female demons are specially See also:malignant), who flies by night, kills See also:children or even handsome young men, in See also:order to eat them, assumes See also:animal form, sometimes by means of an ointment, or has an animal familiar, rides on a See also:besom, a piece of See also:wood or an animal, and is sometimes brought into connexion with the souls of the dead. This latter feature arises from the See also:gradual fusion of the belief in the striga, the Unholde, with the kindly See also:suite of Frau Holde, the souls for whom the tabulae fortunae were spread. The See also:flight through the air is so common a feature in the savage creed that the demon-idea of the striga in Europe can hardly be a genuine folk-belief; or, if it is, it must have existed side by side with a similar witch-belief, of which no traces seem to exist in the earlier literature.

The same remark applies to belief in transformation. Although the development of the sexual See also:

element is mainly of later date and contemporaneous with the See also:evolution of the Sabbath idea, the See also:con-cubit us daemonum was certainly not unknown to the period before Soo. This intrusion of the See also:incubus in the domain of witchcraft was probably due to the attitude of the See also:church towards magic. Ecclesiastical and See also:Civil See also:Law.—For the attitude of the church to witchcraft there are three factors to be considered: (r) the Biblical recognition of its reality; (2) the universal belief in demons and magic; and (3) the See also:identification of these demons with See also:heathen deities. The orthodox view fluctuates between the theory that witchcraft is See also:idolatry, a recognition of real powers, and that it is disobedience, a superstitious following of non-existent gods. The Biblical conception of a witch is a person who deals with familiar spirits (Lev. xx. 20), and the See also:express See also:provision that a witch should not be suffered to live (Ex. xxii. 18) could have left no doubt that the See also:crime was a real one in the See also:Mosaic law. Although the familiar plays but a small part in this early period, we find that the church early came to the conclusion that witchcraft depended on a compact with demons; in the See also:synod of See also:Elvira (A.D. 306) it was pronounced to be one of the three canonical sins—See also:apostasy—and punished by the refusal of communion, even on the See also:death-See also:bed. See also:Augustine See also:lays down (De doct. chr. rr. xx.) that witchcraft depends on a pact with the devil; at See also:Worms in A.D. 829 the Frankish bishops declared that the devil aided both sexes to prepare love potions, to cause storms and to abstract See also:milk, fruits of the See also:field, &c.

It must not, however, be supposed that all kinds of witchcraft were equally recognized. The inmissores tempestatum and the poisoners by magical means were commonly recognized as real; but the striga was usually regarded as a pure superstition. An Irish synod (c. A.D. Soo) pronounces a Christian to be See also:

anathema, who ventures to believe in the possibility of flight through the air and See also:blood-sucking; See also:Stephen of See also:Hungary (997-1038) like-See also:wise distinguishes the malefica from the striga; Regino of Pri.See also:im (c. 9(36) concludes that the flight by night with the devil and the goddess See also:Diana is a delusion, the See also:work of the devil. Burchard of Worms (d. 1025) prescribes two. years' See also:penance for the belief that the Unholde kill Christians, See also:cook them and eat their See also:hearts, which they replace by a piece of wood, and then See also:wake them. See also:Agobard and others even express doubts as to the reality of See also:weather-making. For those who took this view, and even for others who, like See also:John of See also:Damascus, accepted the striga, a mild attitude, in strong contrast to the later persecutions, was the accepted policy. The Synod of Reisbach (799) demands penance for witchcraft, but no punishment in this life. John of Damascus, Agobard, John of See also:Salisbury and Burchard are equally mild.

For the church witchcraft was a canonical sin, or superstition; for the civil law it was a violation of the civil rights of others, so far as real results were produced. Consequently we' find the legal distinction between the malefica and the striga is equally marked. The Frankish and Alemannish laws of A.D. 500-600 accept the former but regard the latter as See also:

mere superstition, The Lex Salica indeed punished the striga as a murderess, but only exacted wergeld. Rothar forbade See also:judges to kill the striga, and See also:Charlemagne even punished the belief in them. The Alemanni (A.D. boo) forbade private See also:torture of women suspected of witchcraft or strigism. But although witchcraft was criminal, and we find occasional laws against sortiariae (Westfranks, A.D. 873), or expulsions (from See also:Pomerania, 1124, &c.), in this period the crime is unimportant See also:save where maleficium is combined with See also:treason and the person of the See also:king is aimed at. Further Development.—In the second period (1230-1430) we have to See also:deal with two factors of fundamental importance: (1) the elaboration of See also:demonology and allied ideas by the scholastics, and (2) the institution of the Inquisition to deal with the rising See also:flood of heresy. At the beginning of this era the prevalent view of the striga seems to have been that she really existed; See also:Caesar of Heisterbach (c. 1225) recognizes the female See also:monster who kills children; See also:William of See also:Paris (c. 1230) agrees that lamiae and strigae eat children, but they are allied to the dominae nocturnae; that they are real women is a foolish belief.

Scholastic ingenuity, however, soon disposed of rationalistic objections to human flights through the air; the ride of disembodied spirits, led by the devil, Diana, Herodias (the Aradia of modern See also:

Italy), &c., became the assemblies of witches to do See also:homage to the devil. But this fusion was not the work of the scholastics alone; for the church, witchcraft had See also:long consisted in the recognition of demons. The new sects, especially the See also:Cathars, who held that the influence of the devil had perverted the teachings of See also:Christianity, were, like the early Christians, the See also:object of unfounded charges, in this case of See also:worship of the devil; this naturally led to the belief that they were given to witchcraft. From the 7th century onwards women and priests figure largely in the accusations of witchcraft, the latter because their See also:office made the canonical offence more serious, the former because love potions, and especially impotentia ex maleficio, are the weapons of the female See also:sex. With the rise and development of the belief in the heretics' Sabbath, which first appears early in the 1th century, another sexual element—the concubitus" daemonum—began to See also:play its part, and soon the predominance of woman in magic was assured. In 1250 certain bishops gave to the Dominican See also:Etienne de See also:Bourbon (Stephanus de Borbone, d. c. 1261) a description of the Sabbath; and twenty-five years later the Inquisition took cognisance of the first case of this See also:kind; from the 14th century onwards the idea was indissolubly connected with witchcraft. In the first See also:half of this second period, witchcraft was still superstition for the See also:canon law, a civil wrong for the secular law; later, although these ideas still persisted, all magic was held to be heresy; its reality and heretical nature was expressly maintained by See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas. Already in 1258 the inquisitors took cognisance of magic as heresy, and from 1320 onwards there was a great increase in the number of cases. At first the witch was handed over to the secular See also:arm for See also:execution, either as an obstinate heretic or as the worker of. evil magic; later it was found necessary to make provision for the numerous cases in which the offender abjured; it was decided that repentance due to fear did not See also:release the witch from the consequences of her heresy. Towards the end of the second period the See also:jurisdiction passed in See also:France from the spiritual to the secular courts by a decision of the See also:parlement of Paris in 1391. The inquisitors did not, however, resign their work, but extended their See also:sphere of operations; the great European persecution from 1434 to 1447 was ecclesiastical as well as secular.

In the third period (1430 onwards) the opening of which is marked by this See also:

attempt to See also:root out witchcraft, we find that the work of the scholastics and inquisitors has resulted in the See also:complete fusion of originally distinct ideas and the See also:crystallization of our modern idea of witch. To the methods of the inquisitors must be ascribed in great part the spread of these conceptions amongst the See also:people; for the Malleus Maleficarum or Inquisitor's See also:Manual (1489), following closely on the important See also:bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (See also:Innocent VIII., 1484), gave them a handbook from which they plied their tortured victims with questions and were able to See also:extract such confessions as they desired; by a strange perversion these admissions, wrung from their victims by See also:rack or thumb-See also:screw, were described as voluntary. The subsequent history of witchcraft may be treated in less detail. In England the trials were most numerous in the 17th century; but the See also:absence of judicial torture made the cases proportionately less numerous than they were on the European See also:continent. One of the most famous witch-finders was See also:Matthew See also:Hopkins, himself hanged for witchcraft after a career of some three years. Many of his methods were not far removed from actual torture; he pricked the See also:body of the witch to find anaesthetic areas; other signs were the inability to See also:shed tears, or repeat the See also:Lord's See also:Prayer, the practice of walking backwards or against the See also:sun, throwing the hair loose, intertwining the fingers, &c. Witches were also weighed against the See also:Bible, or thrown into water, the thumbs and toes tied crosswise, and those who did not sink were adjudged guilty; a very common practice was to shave the witch, perhaps to discover insensible spots, but more probably because originally the familiar spirit was supposed to cling to the hair. The last See also:English trial for witchcraft was in 1712, when Jane Wenham was convicted, but not executed. Occasional cases of lynching continue to occur, even at the present day. In Scotland trials, accompanied by torture, were very frequent in the 17th century. A famous witch-finder was Kincaid. The last trial and execution took See also:place in 1722.

In New England there was a remarkable outburst of fanaticism —the famous See also:

Salem witchcraft delusion—in 1691–1692; but many of the prisoners were not convicted and some of the convicts received the See also:governor's See also:pardon (see SALEM, MASS.). On the continent of Europe the beginning of the 16th century saw the trial of witchcraft cases taken out of the hands of the Inquisition in France and Germany, and the influence of the Malleus became predominant in these countries. Among famous See also:continental trials may be mentioned that of a woman named Voisin in 168o, who was burnt alive for poisoning, in connexion with the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Trials and executions did not finally cease till the end of the 18th century. In See also:Spain a woman was burnt in 1781 at See also:Seville by the Inquisition; the secular courts condemned a girl to decapitation in 1782; in Germany an execution took place in See also:Posen in 1793. In South See also:America and See also:Mexico witch-burning seems to have lasted till well on into the second half of the 19th century, the latest instance apparently being in 1888 in See also:Peru. The See also:total number of victims of the witch persecutions is variously estimated. at from See also:Ioo,000 to several millions. If it is true that See also:Benedict See also:Carpzov (1595–1666) passed See also:sentence on 20,000 victims, the former figure is undoubtedly too See also:low. Rise of the See also:Critical Spirit.—It is commonly assumed and has been asserted by See also:Lecky that the See also:historical See also:evidence for witch-craft is vast and varied. It is true that a vast amount of authority for the belief in witchcraft may be quoted; but the testimony for the occurrence of marvels is small in quantity, if we except the valueless See also:declaration of the victims of torture; testimony as to the pathological side of witchcraft is abundant, but affords no See also:proof of the erroneous inferences drawn from the genuine phenomena. If this uncritical attitude is found in our own day, it is not surprising that the rationalistic spirit was long in making its See also:appearance and slow in gaining the victory over superstition. From the 15th century onwards the old view that transformation and transportation were not realities but delusions, caused directly by the devil, began to gather force.

Among the import-See also:

ant works may be mentioned Johann Weier's De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563), Reginald See also:Scott's (c. 1538–1590) See also:Discovery of Witchcraft (1584) which was ordered to be burnt by King See also:James I., who had himself replied to it in his Daemonologie (1597), Balthasar See also:Bekker's Betooverde Wereld (1691), which, though it went farther in the direction of See also:scepticism, had less influence than See also:Friedrich v. Spee's Cautio criminalis (1631). In France See also:Jean Uvier defended the rationalistic view, and Jean See also:Bodin demanded that he should be sent to the stake for his temerity. See also:Psychology of Witchcraft.—Although at the height of the witch persecution torture wrung from innocent victims valueless confessions which are at best evidence that long-continued agony of body may be instrumental in provoking hallucinations, there can be no doubt that witches commonly, like the magician in See also:lower planes of culture, firmly believe in their own powers, and the causes of this seem to be not merely subjective. (I) See also:Ignorance of the effects of See also:suggestion leads both the witch and others to regard as supernormal effects which are really due to the victim's belief in the possibility of witchcraft. This applies especially to cases of " ligature. " (2) See also:Telepathy (q.v.) seems in some cases to play a part in establishing the witch's reputation; some evidence has been produced that See also:hypnotism at a distance is possible, and an See also:account of her powers given by a See also:French witch to Dr Gibotteau suggests that this element cannot be neglected in appraising the evidence for witchcraft. (3) Whatever be the real explanation of the belief in poltergeists (q.v.) and " See also:physical phenomena " (q.v.), the belief in them rests on a very different basis from that of the belief in lycanthropy; exaggeration and credulity alone will not explain how these phenomena come to be associated with witchcraft. On the other hand, subjective causes played their part in causing the witch to believe in herself. (4) Auto-suggestion may produce hallucinations and delusions in otherwise sane subjects; and for those who do not question the reality of witchcraft this must operate See also:power-fully. (5) The descriptions of witches show. that in many cases their sanity was more than questionable; See also:trance and See also:hysteria also played their part.

(6) It is uncertain to what extent drugs and salves have helped to cause See also:

hallucination; but that they had some share seems certain, though modern experimenters have been led to throw doubt on the alleged effects of some of the drugs; here too, however, the effects of suggestion must be reckoned with; we do not See also:associate the use of See also:tobacco• with hallucinations, but it was employed to produce them in See also:Haiti in the same way as See also:hemp among the See also:Bantu of the present day. (7) Hallucinations occurring under torture must have tended to convince bystanders and victims alike, no less than the See also:acceptance of suggestions, See also:positive and negative. As regards the nature of the ideas accepted as a result of suggestion or auto-suggestion, they were on the one hand derived, as we have seen, from ecclesiastical and especially scholastic sources; but beneath these elements is a stratum of popular belief, derived in the See also:main perhaps from pagan sources, for to this day in Italy witchcraft is known as la vecchia teligione, and has been handed down in an unbroken tradition for countless generations. See also:Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte. On witchcraft and See also:insanity, see Hack-See also:Tuke, History of Insanity; O. See also:Snell, Hexenprocesse and Geistesstdrung. For a discussion of the evidence for the real existence of witchcraft, see E. See also:Gurney, Phantasms of the Living, vol. i.; F. Podmore, Modern Spiritualism, i. 13. (N. W.

T.) WITCH-See also:

HAZEL, in See also:botany, the common name for a North See also:American See also:shrub, Hamamelis virginica, known in gardens. The clusters of See also:rich yellow See also:flowers begin to expand in the autumn before the leaves fall and continue throughout the See also:winter. The bark and leaves are astringent, and the seeds contain a quantity of oil and are edible. The name is derived from the use of the twigs as See also:divining rods, just as hazel twigs were used in England. Britten and See also:Holland (See also:Dictionary of English Plant Names, p. 247) quote three See also:British See also:plants under this name: (1) Wych See also:elm (Ulmus See also:montana), which, according to See also:Parkinson (Theatr. 1403), was called " Witch hasell,"- because the leaves are " like unto the leaves of the Hasell See also:nut "; (2) See also:Hornbeam (Carpinus Betulus) , which, according to See also:Gerard, was so called in some places from its likeness to the elm or " wich Hazell See also:tree "; and (3) See also:Mountain ash (Pyras Aucuparia).

End of Article: WITCHCRAFT

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