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The first thing to be made clear is that, in this work, Dr. Hutton is dealing only with belief in witches who are practitioners of maleficium: magic that harms humans and their property. He admits in a introductory note that there are currently at least four different usages of the word "witch" in English: 1) the worker of magical harm, as above, 2) any worker of magic, although beneficial magicians are sometimes distinguished as "good" or "white", 3) practitioners of a particular nature-based Pagan religion and 4) as a symbol of independent female authority. In reference to those people labeled "white witches" or "cunning folk" he choses to use the term "service magician." This term also encompasses the medicine men and witch-doctors of non-Western societies.

Hutton demonstrates through references to history and ethnographies that many societies believe in and fear witches. These range from hunting and gathering cultures to the sophisticated nation states of Early Modern Europe. Nor was the Witch Hunt era of European history unique in the number of victims. Witch-hunts in Republican Rome and surrounding cities may have claimed more than 5000 victims. However some other cultures have no concept of witchcraft and do not fear it. Hutton notes that such cultures usually believe in others sources of unexpected and unexplained misfortune: demons, fairies or angry ghosts.

This work is too detailed to easily summarize, and any serious student of the subject will want to read the work itself. Hutton surveys the work of earlier historians and examines the work of historians in Continental Europe, much of which is unknown to British or American readers. Of particular interest to some will be Hutton's refutation of earlier theories on the origins of witch beliefs. For example, he examines the recorded practices of shamanism and concludes that the public performances typical of shamanistic rites are quite different from the secret practices attributed to witches. He does note some overlap in beliefs in the far North of Europe, where the different cultures are in contact.

Another item of interest is his conclusion that the use of the quartered (four directions) circle as a locale for magical workings seems to have originated in Christian Europe around the 12th Century. The pentagram (five-pointed star) became an important symbol, both for Christians and for magicians at about the same time, although it had been known and used in decoration in many times and places.

Hutton devotes a chapter each to the subjects of witches and fairies, witches and animals and witches in Celtic nations. Each of these chapters contains matter of interest. Animal familiars, by Hutton's account, are peculiar to English areas. Magicians in other cultures may have spirit helpers that take on animal forms, but the concept of a small animal with a magical function seems to appear in only a minority of witch trials, confined to Early Modern England. Fairies may be claimed as the teachers of magic or may be feared as magical entities to be feared in their own right. The latter seems to be the case in the Celtic areas known for their low incidence of witch trials. Misfortunes that were blamed on witches in neighboring areas, such as dry cows, crop failures, failures at butter making, sour beer and so forth, are blamed on fairies by the Irish and some Welsh and Scots.

_The Witch_ includes extensive end notes, a bibliography of material not directly cited, an index and a section of illustrations. The later includes the first known portrayal of a witch riding a broom, from a French manuscript of the 1440s. Although academic books are frequently overpriced, $30 for a quality hardcover of over 350 pages is actually quite reasonable. I recommend this work for libraries and for individuals with a serious interest in the subject.

The Witch: a History of Fear, From Ancient Times to the Present
Ronald Hutton
New Haven, NJ: Yale UP, 2017
978-0-300-22904-2
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Probably the first thing that should be said about this book, for those unfamiliar with the history of the Inquisition, is that the Roman Inquisition should not be confused with various national inquisitions, including the notorious Spanish Inquisition. The Roman Inquisition, as one might expect, was under the almost direct control of the Pope and tended to reflect the most advanced theories and doctrinal concerns of the Church at any given time. Additionally, one must realize that the inquisitions did not deal exclusively with matters of witchcraft or magic. In Spain, for example, there was greater concern over former Jews and Muslims who were suspected of having lapsed from their newly adopted Christianity to their former beliefs and practices.

Rainer Decker is among the first generation of scholars granted access to the Archive of the Holy Office. The archive contains actual trial transcripts and related documents as well as the detailed minutes of administrative meeting. This material clarifies the role of the Catholic Church in the prosecution of witches and magicians.

_Witchcraft and the Papacy_ is a scholarly book, likely to be available mainly in university libraries and of interest largely to the serious student of the history of witchcraft. Decker cites many individual trials, as well as papal decrees on the subject. He uses this material to trace changes in the attitude of the Church, of individual popes and of the surrounding society.

Since the book deals mainly with Italy and other areas under direct papal control there is little material that applies to the history of witchcraft in England. Nevertheless modern Wiccans may be interested in descriptions of the types of magic being practiced at the time, and the history of changes in attitudes toward the prosecution of magical crimes.

Decker explains that Church law had consistently ruled that first time offenders should be treated gently: allowed to abjure their heresies and given penance and instruction rather than punishment. Only those who relapsed were to be turned over to the secular arm for execution. Decker emphasizes that the greatest number of executions for witchcraft took place after secular governments took over the prosecutions, since these courts were not bound by the more strict procedural rules of the Inquisition. Further, secular authorities were more likely to be swayed by popular opinion and to see witches as members of a conspiracy against society. For example, the legal code of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, promulgated in 1532, specified death by fire for magic intended to harm. Early trials allowed for evidence to be challenged by the defendant, as in other criminal trials, but by the late 1500s witchcraft had come to be considered such a threat, a crimen exceptum, that ordinary rules of evidence should be ignored.

The major point that Decker seeks to establish is that areas under the direct control of Rome did not succumb to the hysteria that lead to tens of thousands of deaths in parts of France, Germany and Alpine areas. The major reason was that the Roman Inquisition was skeptical of testimony by witches that they had traveled in the body to sabbats. If the memory of the event was a delusion created by Satan, as the Canon Episcopi had stated, there was no reason to believe a prisoner who claimed to have seen other known individuals at the sabbat. In the absence of other evidence, such as a previous reputation as a witch, the named parties would not be arrested and tortured. Therefore the cascade of arrest, accusations and further arrests and accusations could not occur. Judges were also admonished to verify physical evidence of malificium. For example, if a woman was accused of having caused a death the judge was to ascertain that the person named had actually died and that the cause of death appeared to be magic. They were also told to separate the accused in jail; to avoid leading questions; to record questions and answers exactly; and to ask whether past enmity existed between accused and accuser. In addition, defendants were allowed an advocate and advocates were provided for poor suspects.

Decker is concerned that past historians have misunderstood the role of the Church and the motives of its leaders in the prosecution of witches. He asserts that the popes of the 17th century could have been ignorant of much that happened in Germany, given the disturbance and war caused by the Reformation, and if aware would have been unable to control secular trials, even in territories that remained Catholic. The Catholic areas of Switzerland were relatively close to Rome, yet the Church had difficulties controlling local courts. Decker documents a case in the mid 1600s in which the Inquisition seized control of fifteen Swiss children aged from eight to twelve who had been convicted of witchcraft. The Church acted to save the children from execution by resettling them in Milan, with good Catholic families who would assure their livelihoods and education.

In later chapters Decker examines the type of magical offenses most frequently tried and the punishments given. One woman who was brought before the Inquisition in Venice was variously accused of love magic, healing by magic, and possession of copies of the Key of Solomon (possibly for sale). She was arrested and tried three separate times over the course of thirty years, given prison sentences that were gradually reduced to home arrest, and only died when she fell while fleeing a fourth arrest. The most severely punished magic was that involving the sacraments: stealing consecrated hosts or using holy water or consecrated oil in spells could result in severe sentences of imprisonment or galley service. Necromancy and summoning demons was also a serious offence; but these forms of magic were more likely to be performed by men, sometime, in fact, by clergymen. The last execution carried out by the Roman Inquisition was in 1761, for the crime of impersonating a priest. The prisoner was strangled in prison, the body burned privately and the ashes buried in a churchyard, thus disappointing the public of the spectacle of a public burning.

Despite his defense of the Church from inaccurate and prejudiced charges by past historians, Decker does not claim that no injustices were done in its name. He cautions against substituting a rosy legend for the so-called “black legend” of the past. He also explains that while the Enlightenment caused the cessation of prosecutions for magical crimes when the rulers no longer believed such crimes were possible, the Church still officially believes that demons exist and that magic is possible.

The material in this book is detailed and complex, ranging across six centuries and a multitude of official pronouncements and arguments on the subject. This review has touched only on the highlights, and while I hope to have done justice to the author’s core argument, a full reading of the evidence he produces will yield a clearer picture of the issues. I did find the chronology confusing at times as the thread of exposition on the official papal policy toward witchcraft became mingled with treatment of other related crimes and problems, such as demonic possession.

I recommend this book for serious students of the history of magic in Europe. It contains extensive notes and a bibliography of both manuscript and printed sources. Of course many of the sources are in Latin, German or Italian, as are Decker’s other published works. We can hope that more such research in the archives will result in greater understanding of this area of history and that the resulting scholarship will be made available in English.

Witchcraft and the Papacy: An Account Drawing on the Formerly Secret Records of the Roman Inquisition
Rainer Decker, translated by H. C. Erick Midelfort

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