The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe

by Levack, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780582080690
• ISBN10: 058208069X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-04-04
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This famous book focuses on the great age of witch-hunting in Europe (and colonial America) between 1450 and 1750. It examines why the witch-trials took place; how many trials and victims there were, and where; why their incidence was so uneven in Europe; who accused whom; and why witch-hunting eventually petered out. In the process it illuminates the social, economic and political history of early modern Europe, and in particular the position of women within it. For this Second Edition, Brian Levack has revised his text to take account of scholarship since 1987. The notes and references have been greatly expanded, and the entire text reset.

Author Biography

Brian Levack grew up in a family of teachers in the New York metropolitan area. From his father, a professor of French history, he acquired a love for studying the past, and he knew from an early age that he too would become a historian. He received his B.A. from Fordham University in 1965 and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1970. In graduate school he became fascinated by the history of the law and the interaction between law and politics, interests that he has maintained throughout his career. In 1969 he joined the History Department of the University of Texas at Austin, where he is now the John Green Regents Professor in History. The winner of several teaching awards, Levack teaches a wide variety of courses on British and European history, legal history, and the history of witchcraft. For eight years he served as the chair of his department, a rewarding but challenging assignment that made it difficult for him to devote as much time as he wished to his teaching and scholarship. His books include The Civil Lawyers in England, 1603-1641: A Political Study (1973), The Formation of the British State: England, Scotland and the Union, 1603-1707 (1987), and The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (1987 and 1995), which has been translated into eight languages.

His study of the development of beliefs about witchcraft in Europe over the course of many centuries gave him the idea of writing a textbook on Western civilization that would illustrate a broader set of encounters between different cultures, societies, and ideologies. While writing the book, Levack and his two sons built a house on property that he and his wife, Nancy, own in the Texas hill country. He found that the two projects presented similar challenges: it was easy to draw up the design, but far more difficult to execute it. When not teaching, writing, or doing carpentry work, Levack runs along the jogging trails of Austin, and he has recently discovered the pleasures of scuba diving.

Table of Contents

List of Tables, Maps and Plates	vii
Preface	viii
Preface to the Second Edition	x
Introduction	1	(26)
The meaning of witchcraft	4	(7)
The reality of witchcraft	11	(10)
The size of the hunt	21	(6)
The Intellectual Foundations	27	(41)
The cumulative concept of witchcraft	29	(21)
The Devil	29	(6)
The pact with the Devil	35	(3)
The sabbath	38	(6)
Flight	44	(5)
Metamorphosis	49	(1)
The dissemination of belief	50	(10)
The challenge of the Renaissance	60	(4)
Witchcraft and the fear of rebellion	64	(4)
The Legal Foundations	68	(32)
Changes in criminal procedure	69	(7)
Torture	76	(8)
Witchcraft and the secular courts	84	(9)
Witchcraft and the local courts	93	(7)
The Impact of the Reformation	100	(25)
The new religious outlook	103	(11)
The fear of the Devil	103	(3)
Personal sanctity, guilt and witchcraft	106	(3)
The attack upon superstition, paganism and magic	109	(3)
Witchcraft and the godly state	112	(1)
The Bible and witchcraft	113	(1)
Religious conflict	114	(6)
The Reformation and the decline of witchcraft	120	(5)
The Social Context	125	(35)
The geographical and social setting	128	(5)
Who were the witches?	133	(23)
Sex	133	(8)
Age	141	(4)
Marital status	145	(4)
Social and economic status	149	(3)
The personality of the witch	152	(2)
Witches as rebels	154	(2)
Social change and the great witch-hunt	156	(4)
The Dynamics of Witch-Hunting	160	(25)
The preconditions	161	(6)
The triggers	167	(5)
The development of hunts	172	(5)
Individual prosecutions and small hunts	172	(1)
Medium-sized hunts	173	(1)
Large hunts	174	(3)
The end of witch-hunts	177	(8)
The Chronology and Geography of Witch-Hunting	185	(48)
Chronological patterns	185	(6)
Geographical patterns	191	(39)
West and west-central Europe	192	(8)
The British Isles	200	(6)
Scandinavia	206	(8)
East-central and eastern Europe	214	(8)
Southern Europe	222	(8)
Conclusion	230	(3)
Decline and Survival	233	(28)
Judicial changes	236	(3)
The new mental outlook	239	(7)
The new religious climate	246	(2)
Social and economic change	248	(2)
The survival and revival of witchcraft	250	(11)
Bibliographical Note	261	(9)
Bibliography	270	(15)
Map	285	(3)
Index	288