The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as
well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of
witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation
of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between
1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the
witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting
have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The
hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the
identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret
activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task, but judicial
authorities performed most. The cause of most of these hunts is the multi-causal
approach, which sees the emergence of new ideas about the witches and changes in
the criminal law statutes. Both point to major religious changes and a lot of
social tension among society. The intellectual foundations of the hunts were
attributed to the witch’s face-to-face pact with the devil and the periodic
meetings of witches to engage in practices considered to be barbaric and
heinous. The cumulative concept of witchcraft pointed immediately to the devil,
the source of the magic and the one most witches adored. There was strong belief
then that witches made pacts with the devil. Some would barter their soul to the
devil in exchange for a gift or a taste of well being. Many believed that these
witches observed a nocturnal Sabbath where they worshipped the devil and paid
their homage to him. They were also accused of being an organization known for
its cannibalistic practices of infanticide incest. Another component of this
cumulative concept was the belief of the flight of witches. The belief for this
was contributed to by the assumption that witches took flight from their homes
to goto nocturnal meetings without their absence from home being detected. The
belief in “flying night witches” was shared by many cultures in the modern
world. These women were referred to as strigae, which was one of the many Latin
terms for witches. As the reader first opens the legal foundations of
witch-hunting, one finds that historically it was a judicial process from
discovery to elimination. Levack states that before the thirteenth century
European courts used a system of criminal procedure that made all crimes
difficult to prosecute. This system was known as the accusatorial system and
existed predominantly in northwestern Europe. When the thirteenth century came
into being, a new technique, which gave more human judgement in the criminal
process, was adopted in Western Europe secular courts. This new court was known
as inquisitorial courts. The only difference between the new system and the old
when suits were begun by accusation was that the accuser was no longer
responsible for the actual prosecution of the case (pg. 72). The new procedures
were not in reality an improvement due to the fact that the standards of proof
according to inquisitorial procedure were very demanding. Since the adoption of
inquisitorial procedure represented a shift from reliance upon man’s rational
judgement, jurists agreed that it was absolutely necessary for judges to have
conclusive proof of guilt before passing sentence (pg. 79). They relied on Roman
law and based their conclusions on two eyewitnesses and the confession of the
accused. The development of full judicial power given to the state in the
prosecution of a crime was a major event. From the early times, the secular
courts in Europe had taken part in the witch-hunts, and now as the hunt
developed further along, the secular courts grew an even greater role in the
process. This caused a decline in ecclesiastical court participation due to the
fact that governments defined witchcraft as a secular crime, and the temporal
courts of some countries had a monopoly on the prosecution. The prosecution of
magic was a “mixed jurisdiction” taken on by both courts but when convicted
the guilty were executed under secular law. Since secular courts had
jurisdiction over magic and maleficium they primarily assumed the significant
role in prosecuting witches. As the hunt gathered steam in the sixteenth
century, the developments resulted in a reduction of clerical jurisdiction and
an increase in the amount of secular concern with it. The main reason was the
defining of witchcraft as a secular crime. All of these factors led to a
large-scale witch-hunts in Scotland but in some countries the retention of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the crime led to a decline in the number of
prosecutions. Local court decisions during this time also played a role in the
conviction of witches. They had the ability to perform with a certain amount of
independence from higher political and judicial control. There are two main
reasons why local courts proved to be less lenient than central courts in the
prosecutions of witchcraft (pg. 93). The first is that local authorities that
presided over witch trials were far more likely than their central superiors to
develop an intense and immediate fear of witchcraft (pg. 93). The second is that
central judges were generally more committed to the proper operation of the
judicial system and more willing therefore to afford accused witches whatever
procedural safeguards the law might allow them (pg. 94). The decentralization of
judicial life had lasting effects in countries like Germany, where no effective
control by central authority led to increased hunts and more torturous
executions. The formation of the cumulative concept of witchcraft and all the
legal precedents introduced made the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth
century witch-hunts possible. To look at the understanding of the hunt one must
examine the religious, social, and economic conditions that began in modern
Europe. During the time of the Reformation, the Europeans increased their
awareness of satin and started to wage a larger war against him. A second effect
of the Reformation on witchcraft arose from the emphasis that both Protestant
and Catholic reformers placed on personal piety and sanctity (pg. 106). The
Christianization of Europe also added to this war against the devil by
eradication superstitious beliefs, eliminating paganism and suppressing magic.
Witch-hunting was the most frequent in countries where large minorities adhered
to different religions. Witch-hunting was the most intense in Germany,
Switzerland, France, Poland, and Scotland (pg. 114). The effects of the
Protestant and Catholic Reformation did have an effect on witch-hunts; they laid
the foundation for their decline. There were various types of hunts that took
place during European witch-hunt times. The main feature of the small hunt is
that the search for malefactors is limited to the individuals who were
originally accused (172). The main characteristic of a medium style hunt was
that it included five to ten victims. The final type of hunt was the large hunt
where tens to hundreds of witches were hunted and panic and hysteria were
rampant everywhere. The end of the witch-hunts was usually an abrupt procedure.
The small hunts for example were isolated prosecutions that ended when the
accused were either executed or given an acquittal. Most of the time the end of
a hunt lasted for many years, and up to generations. The explanations for the
geographical unevenness in the hunts cannot be simply put. According to Levack,
there were four separate but related factors. The first was the nature of witch
beliefs in a particular region and the strength in which they were held (231).
The disparity can be seen for example in countries like England, the
Scandinavian countries, and Spain where the prosecutions included a number of
individual trials for maleficium and some for Devil-worship. The second factor
is determining the relative intensity of hunts was the criminal procedure used.
Not all countries used the inquisitorial procedure and torture method. The third
determinant was the extent to which the central judicial authority had control
on the trials. Central control did not always prevail, since some rulers wanted
to completely exterminate witchcraft. The final factor is the degree of
religious zeal manifested by the people of a region (232). This was most evident
in large hunts and countries known for their large numerous executions and not
known for their Christianity. The decline in witchcraft can be attributed to a
multitude of factors. There were three main judicial and legal developments that
contributed to the decline of witchcraft: the demand for conclusive evidence
regarding maleficium and the pact, the adoption of stricter rules regarding the
use of torture, the promulgation of decrees either restricting or eliminating
prosecutions for witchcraft (236). The mental outlook was also changing at the
time as judges and princes set out to create new rules for torture and
restricting witchcraft. The most important religious factor in this decline was
the change of the religious climate that occurred in the late seventeenth
century. The socioeconomic changes could be felt in a general improvement of
living conditions that reduced some of the local village tensions that lay at
the basis of witchcraft prosecutions. Witches no longer posed the threat that
they once did. The economic and social chaos of this century and the political
and religious instability caused anxiety that led to witches becoming a
scapegoat for the general ills of society during their rapid time of change.
Witchcraft had become somewhat of a hobby! In conclusion, Levack gives the
reader a full understanding of witchcraft during this time and the historical
insight and vivid description adds to the livelihood of the period. Levack’s
insight gives the consistency that witch-hunts were sparked by diverse and
complex causes, which he supports in his book. According to a book review by
Elizabeth Furdell, “Levack uses many sources to provide national examinations
of the witchcraze.” An example of this Levack’s conclusion that while German
communities exhibited frenzied paranoia directed at “witches,” England did
only a little witch-hunting. He uses reliable and multiple reasons to prove his
thesis. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusations,
prosecutions, and execution of thousands of witches in Europe, and Levack leaves
the reader wondering if he the individual if he/she had lived during this period
would have been hunting witches or hunting fox?