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American Perspectives on the European Witch HuntsAuthor(s): Richard M. GoldenSource: The History Teacher, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Aug., 1997), pp. 409-426Published by: Society for History EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/494137 .Accessed: 19/09/2011 14:21

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American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts'

Richard M. Golden University of North Texas

AFTER THE BURST OF RESEARCH on the European witch hunts in the last twenty years, it is impossible to deny their significance as phenomena that affected European social, political, and religious cul- tures. Historians have enriched our understanding of the relationship between core and periphery in terms of European legal systems, state centralization, social tensions in urban and rural settings, women's status and vulnerabilities, the similarities between Protestant denominations and a new Catholicism, the shifting boundaries between popular and elite cultures, the undercurrents of beliefs that stretched into the distant past, the anxieties that pervaded early modem society, and the hegemonic and geographical diffusion of patterns of thought and behavior. Indeed, one could argue that research on the witch hunts has done more than work on any other topic to propel early modem historiography because such research necessarily takes into account many different topical as well as geographical areas. Even the most local of studies has had to be con- cerned with political, religious, legal, and intellectual structures and has demanded comparisons with witchcraft and witch hunting in other re- gions. Early modem Europe was unique in persecuting for diabolical witchcraft, which involved the belief in a pact with Satan whereby the witch agreed to perform evil magic with the intent of overturning Chris- tian society. There also existed malevolent magic/sorcery (death, illness, The History Teacher Volume 30 Number 4 August 1997 ? Richard M. Golden

410 Richard M. Golden

crop failure, etc.) performed without the aid of the devil and beneficent magic (or sorcery). The lines were sometimes blurred (for example, a malevolent witch could remove a spell), but in the main Europeans' fear was not of the omnipresent cunning men or wise women, sorcerers who provided herbal remedies, predicted the future, ensured love, etc., but of witches who caused evil, especially with the devil's help.

Alas, the knowledge that professional historians have gained about European witch hunting has not always been transmitted well to the general public. I concern myself with the United States, for that is where I live and have greatest familiarity. Impressionistic evidence gleaned from newspapers, magazines, teaching, and conversations indicates that Americans are woefully ignorant about the history of witchcraft, al- though they are fascinated with it. Bookstores devote shelves to the supernatural, such as astrology, ghost stories, tarot-card reading, prophe- cies, and modem witchcraft,2 but rarely carry any of the first-rate histori- cal works written by historians in the United States and Europe on the witch hunts. Universities provide the only source of information about the European witch hunts, primarily through survey courses in Western civilization and, to a much lesser extent, in world civilization. Hundreds of thousands of students aged eighteen and higher enroll in these courses in the more than 3,400 colleges and universities in the United States. A few universities teach advanced courses on the witch hunts, but these do not affect many students. Survey courses in United States history usually mention the major outbreak of witch hunting on this side of the Atlantic, that at Salem, Massachusetts. But professors refer to this witch panic with scant regard to its European background.

An appropriate measure of how Americans learn about the witch hunts is the coverage devoted to the topic in the central textbooks used in Western civilization courses. Numerous colleges-but no one knows exactly how many-require students to take two courses on the history of Western civilization. Publishing textbooks for this enormous market is big business, with an initial expenditure of perhaps three million dollars to develop a single textbook. Often as many as six different historians write these texts, which are produced along with multiple ancillary products (laser disks, CD-ROM, slide collections, map workbooks, trans- parencies, study guides, and an instructor's manual). The market for these books is so great that writing a text is one of the few paths to wealth for a university historian in the United States. The size of the market-the number of students who read the textbooks-indicates that these texts are the primary means by which U.S. citizens learn about the European witch hunts. Moreover, these students become the best educated of Americans, statistically the political, economic, and cultural leaders of the next

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 411

generation. What these texts say about the witch hunts determines what the elite grasps about that subject. There is little chance that students, after finishing the Western civilization survey courses, will learn much more about the witch hunts in their lifetimes.

Six (numbers 5, 7, 10, 18, 21, 26, 29)3 of the thirty Western civiliza- tions textbooks that I have examined (all that were on the market at the time I am writing) do not mention the witch hunts at all. So much for the last great Continent-wide persecution of heretics in the history of Europe! Furthermore, omissions, errors, and distortions about the witch hunts in the remaining twenty-four textbooks make one despair. Nowhere are these problems more evident than in the geography of the witch hunts.4 We in the United States are well aware of our students' geographical and cultural illiteracy, but the texts' discussion of the witch hunts do nothing to remedy student inadequacies here. Eight textbooks (2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 15, 25, 27) discuss the phenomenon of the witch hunts without referring to any specific state or region of Europe, implying that the Continent is a homogeneous religious, social, legal, and political construct. Any discussion of the hunts that ignores regional differences is irrepara- bly flawed.

These textbooks also display a distinct Anglo bias. Eight refer to England (8, 9, 17, 22, 23, 24, 28, 30), seven to Scotland (8, 19, 20, 23, 24, 28, 30), and five (1, 11, 23, 24, 30) to New England (Salem, Massachu- setts).5 One (11) of the five Western civilization textbooks that discuss trials in the Western Hemisphere mentions North America (although the author later refers to Salem), while the others specify Salem, New En- gland, or Massachusetts. While Europeans killed approximately 50,000 alleged witches, only thirty-six were executed in New England, twenty of those at Salem. Beneficent and malevolent witchcraft/sorcery was as endemic in New England as on the Continent, but I suspect that the authors of textbooks mention New England and Salem only because the trials there are relatively well-known to schoolchildren, not because their importance warrants their inclusion. By neglecting to note great massa- cres of witches in Europe, these authors distort the historical record by teaching that the New England witch hunts were comparable to the witch panics that engulfed diverse areas in Europe. Stressing New England while ignoring many European states panders to an American student audience, ignorant enough already of the history of Europe.6

Germany was the so-called "heartland"7 of the witch hunts, for there fully half the executions of witches occurred.8 Ten texts (1, 6, 11, 14, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 28) mention Germany or the Holy Roman Empire, one (9, p. 212) specifies Bavaria and the Rhineland, and another (16, p. 510) mentions two German cities only. Anthony Esler (6, p. 459) affirms that

412 Richard M. Golden

"Perhaps three-quarters of the persecutions occurred in the German states, the Swiss cantons, and France." (France was actually a region where few were executed as witches.) Another (11, p. 575) notes cor- rectly that witchcraft persecutions "concentrated especially in the Ger- man lands of the Holy Roman Empire," while a third (14, p. 446) specifies "thirty thousand persecutions in Germany alone" (too low a figure, but it does signify the intensity of witch hunting there). John McKay et al. (17, p. 506) calls southwestern Germany one part of Europe where "fear of witches took a terrible toll of innocent lives....Persecutions were widespread...in the small principalities and imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire, which were virtually independent of all higher authority" (19, p. 698)-an accurate statement that underscores a reason for the intensity of German witch hunting. Jackson Spielvogel (23, p. 512) says simply that Germany was one of several regions where witch trials were prevalent, while Peter Steams (24, p. 77) lists southwest Germany as one among several regions where "beliefs about witches were widely shared."9 Encapsulating the notion of the "heartland" is the statement: "The greatest number of trials occurred in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, regions where the search for witches occasionally be- came frantic and maniacal" (28, pp. 419-20), an assessment echoed by R. R. Palmer and Joel Colton (20, p. 141), who assert that "[m]ore witches were burned in Germany than in the west...."

France receives attention in seven textbooks (6, 11, 19, 22, 23, 24, 30), but the information is largely incorrect. Perhaps because France played a leading role in European witchcraft persecutions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, before the era of massive witch hunting, or perhaps because of the notorious cases of demonic possession in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many scholars believe persecution of witches was fervent in France. Actually, just five hundred witches, approximately, were executed in the kingdom of France (although executions on its borders, as in Lorraine, were numerous indeed). Thus Esler (6, p. 459) links France to Germany and Switzerland, as another text (19, p. 698) does to the Holy Roman Empire, Scotland, Poland, and Switzerland. Lynn Hunt et al. (11, p. 574) rightly note that "[i]n France alone, 345 books and pamphlets on witchcraft appeared between 1550 and 1650," but this gives the mistaken impression that this public concern about witchcraft translated into substantial prosecutions. Marvin Perry et al. (22, p. 374) discuss the end of witchcraft trials in France without com- menting on their severity. Jackson Spielvogel (23, p. 512) and Peter Steams (24, p. 77) are the most accurate, noting that witchcraft trials were prevalent in some or in a few parts of France. An egregious error is the statement that "witchcraft may simply have been a form of rural social

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 413

revolt in which the Mass could be mocked and the church hierarchy challenged" (30, p. 333). Perhaps accurate as a description of carnival, this statement rests on no evidence with respect to witchcraft and insinu- ates that witchcraft as an organized group activity (as opposed to indi- viduals practicing malevolent or beneficent witchcraft/sorcery) actually existed. Historians have uncovered no instances whatsoever of group diabolical witchcraft. Any suggestion that groups of such witches existed could leave students with the impression that the imaginary fears of witch hunters about a European-wide network of witches in league with Satan and plotting to overthrow Christendom had a basis in reality. This in turn would imply that the persecution of diabolical witches was somehow justified. 10

A goodly number of texts (6, 17, 19, 23, 24, 28, 30) cite Switzerland, generally noting that it was a center of witch hunting. In fact, one could say that Switzerland receives better treatment on this topic than on others, for college survey courses of Western civilization tend to ignore that region, the major exception being discussions of the Swiss Reformation.11

The lands of the Inquisitions persecuted witchcraft, but, save in a few instances, did not kill many accused diabolical witches. No textbook mentions the Portuguese Inquisition, but four (8, 9, 22, 28) refer to either Spain, Italy, or the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions and state or imply a limited number of executions. It is a shame that only ten percent of the textbooks play off the southern Inquisitions against the northern secular courts, where witch hunting was more brutal. I would be churlish in ascribing this to the history of anti-Catholicism in the United States; rather the lack of any extended discussion of why witch hunting was rare in southern Europe is probably owing to a concern with regions of great persecution. On this and other topics, there is a tendency to ignore Portugal, Spain, and Italy in eras where those regions did not influence unduly other parts of Europe in contrast to eras when they did, such as the age of overseas exploration or the Renaissance.12

Such errors of commission and omission pale before the worst aspect of the textbooks' attention to geography, the virtual ignoring of Scandinavia and eastern Europe. Except for one reference (8) to Denmark, the textbooks overlook Scandinavia, perhaps because witchcraft historians have not paid close attention to Nordic countries13 or because Scandinavian witchcraft does not appear to them to have been exceptional. In any case, the lack of any textual discussion of Scandinavia only reinforces the geographical parochi- alism of students. The same observation applies to eastern Europe, but in addition to ignoring a significant region there is the failure to communicate that witch hunting east of the Elbe occurred later than in other parts of the Continent. Three texts (8, 9, 19)14 cite Poland, where the killing of witches

414 Richard M. Golden

was the greatest in eastern Europe and where witch hunting was atypical for being most acute in the early eighteenth century. Nowhere is it remarked, let alone discussed, that the chronology of witch hunting differed in Poland and eastern Europe from the west. One text (8) includes Transylvania in a list of regions, but there is no mention of Hungary in any of the thirty textbooks. This is a shame because Hungary illustrates the diffusion of German and Austrian ideas about diabolical witchcraft and because over ninety percent of those executed for witchcraft there were women, the highest percentage of any European state.5

No textbook refers to Russia, the largest European state in terms of area.16 This omission is a monumental mistake, for the Russian pattern offers the opportunity for significant comparisons with the rest of Europe. Textbook authors could discuss why the Orthodox church, unlike Catholicism and Protestantism, did not view witchcraft as a heresy and did not formulate a demonology. Also, Russia was one of the few states where the number of male witches outnumbered the female. Russia had a regime even more oppressive than most European states, and textbook authors could and should explain why that repressive apparatus did not often extend to the persecution of witches. In the same vein, no textbook recognizes that Mus- lim Europe did not persecute alleged diabolical witches.

In short, in discussing the witch hunt in Europe, textbook authors have done a poor job, for the most part, in examining the subject from a Continent-wide perspective. Is it surprising that authors devote most attention to areas geographically closest to the United States, to those that share the religions of the majority of Americans, and to those that receive the most study in other sections of the textbooks? Perhaps habit explains the omission of Scandinavia, Russia, and Muslim southeastern Europe; textbook authors may be conditioned to look to the West.

As disconcerting as the failure of nearly all of the textbooks to cover adequately the geographical variety of witch hunting is the labeling of the witch hunts as a "witch-craze." Owing to Hugh Trevor-Roper's provoca- tive and influential essay, "The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,"'17 and because "witch-craze" has name rec- ognition, historians too often continue to employ the appellation, despite the obvious reason not to. Europeans were not crazy in pursuing witches; reasonable people, including most intellectuals, believed in Satan's threat. I prefer "era (or age) of European witch hunts (witch hunting)" to apply to the pursuit, persecution, and prosecution of alleged witches. The most common label, "witch-craze," will not suffice. In all, nine texts (3, 4, 6, 8, 14, 15, 22, 23, 30) employ the term "witch-craze." Chambers et al. (3, p. 527) say that the term era of "the great witch-craze" has been used "for good reason" as "[t]here were outbursts in every part of Europe and tens

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 415

of thousands of the accused were executed." But not every part of Europe experienced outbursts or trials. Witch hunting was above all a local event and many localities escaped trials, even though they occurred from Iceland to the Urals.

Three textbooks (8, 23, 24) unfortunately apply "hysteria" to the witch trials, but such a label is appropriate solely for the mass panics, where at least dozens were executed for the manifestly impossible crime of con- sorting with the devil and working evil with his aid. Robin Winks et al. (30) use "mania," but that is likewise inappropriate. Witchcraft defined as sorcery, the use of magic to influence the natural world for good or for evil, was endemic in European society, but large scale witch hunting took place occasionally and only then were large numbers of people gripped by fear that approached hysteria, frenzy, or mania. There was no continu- ous frenzy in the pursuit of witches. The far more common trials of one or two supposed witches did not represent any madness on the part of the populace. Historians' use of the terms "craze" or "mania" reflects a modem perspective that the hunt for witches signifies the delusion (a word applied in two texts-16, 20) of Europeans and a flight from reason. In truth, it was reasonable for Europeans to believe in the devil and his consorts. History, theology, and trial confessions offered rational evi- dence that diabolism was real. Thus it was those very few Europeans- skeptics all--doubting the faculty of reason who could question the intellectual bases of witch hunting.

Implicit in the authors' use of "craze" and "mania" is a sense of our current mental arrogance. Students in the United States are being taught that they are the intellectual superiors of their ancestors in early modem Europe. This is clear also in the frequent use of the word "superstition" to refer to the witch beliefs of early modem Europeans. Here "superstition" is applied to the "Other," to people's beliefs different from those in the twentieth-century United States. Seven textbooks (4, 6, 12, 13, 15, 16, 20) call early modem beliefs about witchcraft superstitions. For instance, "Witchcraft, as we have seen, was a reality for much of the period to superstitious men and women." (16, p. 567) Or, "...while simple practi- tioners of folk religion, medicine, and superstition were condemned...." (15, p. 310) Two of the books even have superstition as a heading: "Magic and Superstition" (6, p. 499); "Continuing Superstition: Witch Hunts and Panic." (12, p. 522) Yet, beliefs about diabolical witchcraft, including sabbats, Satanic pacts, and transvection, were perfectly consis- tent with early modem cosmological and theological systems. There was nothing superstitious or unreasonable about those views of devilish ac- tivities. Especially obnoxious is the following statement, which contrasts the religions of Protestantism and Catholicism with pre-Christian beliefs

416 Richard M. Golden

consigned to the realm of superstition, and thus not worthy of respect: "The horror seems to have begun when the religious passions set off by the Protestant and Catholic Reformations got mixed up with ancient, pre-Chris- tian superstitious beliefs and practices." (4, p.466) In the hands of textbook historians, superstitions are beliefs held by others whereas our beliefs can be seen as our religion."8

Other areas where errors abound are the number of witches killed and the chronology of the witch hunts. With respect to victims, only one textbook (24, p. 78) repeats some of the wildly exaggerated claims that have sometimes been made,"9 saying that "some estimates run up to a million for Germany alone." Although the author (24, p. 77) does an- nounce elsewhere that "tens of thousands of people were tried and executed as witches," he does a disservice by failing to question the estimates of perhaps a million victims in Germany, a figure that is at best ludicrous. Sometimes authors of textbooks (3, 15, 16, 20) fail to mention numbers at all, thus downplaying the severity of the hunts. Owing to the paucity of documentation and the loss of records, we cannot and will not know the exact number of those slain. I would put the number between 40,638 and 52,738, but defensible estimates could range upwards of 100,000.20 Several books fall within possible limits (1, 12, 13, 19, 22, 25, 27), thus conveying the magnitude of the tragedy of the hunts. One (8) underestimates the number killed, while others (14, 17, 28) only specify fatalities in specific regions. A few textbooks (9, 11, 23, 30) merely reckon the number of trials, without speculating on the quantity of executions. Others are vague: "thousands of people-mostly women- were burned at the stake or hanged as witches" (4, p. 466); authorities "burned or hanged tens of thousands of alleged witches" (6, p. 458). Military historians, in comparing the magnitude of wars, normally cite the number of casualties. Historians of persecutions should do the same, lest we sin by not stressing the extent of suffering. Complacent in their relative religious, social, and financial security, American students need to be jolted with the realization of historical instances of human cruelty.

Errors in chronology nearly always display a bias toward western Europe, designating correctly the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the major era of witch hunting or noting that persecution peaked between the mid-sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries. Of course, this periodization slights eastern Europe. In Poland and in Hungary, witch hunting was most relentless in the eighteenth century. Only one textbook (28, p. 420) recognizes that the persecution of witches only ended in the eighteenth century.

One area in which these textbooks do a credible job is their discussion of women being targeted for persecution. By now, two and one-half

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 417

decades after the revival of scholarly research on the European witch hunts, historians agree and point out time and again that approximately eighty percent of those whom witch hunters and judicial courts perse- cuted were women. Even though the discussion might be brief and uneven, every textbook save one (20) that examines witchcraft notes that males singled out women for accusation and punishment. Given the concern of history editors at commercial presses to ensure that textbooks include a good deal of material on the history of women, where indeed much of the most valuable and exciting research has been done lately, it is actually surprising that even one textbook does not concern itself with the misogyny of this patriarchal society that the persecution of female witches epitomized.21

The textbooks do not fare as well in explaining the origins of witch hunting.22 Granted, in the limited amount of space that can be devoted to the witch hunts in a survey textbook, we should not expect an extended discussion of their origins and decline. Nevertheless, authors need to make clear that the hunts did not occur ex nihilo, but should offer some indication of causation. Some textbooks (3, 20, 25, 27) do not bother with origins at all, while others (1, 4, 6, 15) offer simplistic and inadequate explanations. Others (11, 13, 17, 22, 28, 30) at least cope with several causal explanations. Sadly, but a few (8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 23, 24) approach an adequate interpretation, which would, I believe, allude at least to general causes, including socio-economic conditions that led to tensions and anxiety, the development of demonological beliefs (espe- cially the notion of the Satanic pact and the existence of a secret society of diabolical witches dedicated to the destruction of Christendom), changes in criminal law (such as inquisitorial procedure and the implementation of torture), and the increase of religious fervor with the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. Thus Greaves et al. (9, p. 212) speak of "the breakdown of religious unity, social tension, changes in criminal proce- dure (especially the use of torture), and a growing belief in pacts between witches and the Devil." But this sort of quality brevity is uncommon. For instance, textbooks do not always indicate torture (just 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 22, 23, 24, 30) or other legal developments, despite the fact that there would have been no massive witch hunting without torture.

The textbooks' explanations for the end of witch hunting are of better quality. Few (1, 14, 15, 17, 25, 27, 28) of the textbooks that address the witch hunts ignore the decline of witch hunting.23 Many others (3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 22, 23) eschew a fleeting (19, 20, 24, 30) or monocausal (6, 11) explanation for good analysis, which might include growing skepti- cism among the elite, effects of the new science, the calming of religious zealotry, disillusionment with the persecution of witches on the part of

418 Richard M. Golden

central governments or local magistrates, and the cooling of socio-eco- nomic tensions. But only three texts (20, 22, 24) point out that beliefs in witchcraft continued after the trials had ended. Although skepticism about demonology increased among the educated, the survival of witch- craft beliefs and of sorcery is an important phenomenon of the modem world.

I have up to now dealt with problems regarding broad categories, but I have equal concern about distinctive factual and other errors that many textbook authors inadvertently include. Blackburn (1, p. 257) is wrong to write that "in Savoy (Italy) eight hundred [witches] were executed in one batch," as is Bouchard (2, p. 292) when she says that "witch-burning and witch-hysteria did not come until the seventeenth century." Chambers et al. maintain (3, p. 529) that "by 1700 there was only a trickle of new incidents," thus excluding the severe witch hunting in eighteenth-century Hungary and Poland. Esler (6, p. 499) refers to the coming of "monothe- istic Christianity," but a historian should be impartial and not accept the doctrine of the Trinity that the Council of Nicaea pronounced. To the historian of religion, Christianity is polytheistic because of the Trinity and because of the figures of Satan and of Mary. Several textbooks (6, p. 458; 11, p. 575; 12, p. 573; 13, p. 337; 17, p. 506) repeat another common error, that midwives figured prominently among the victims of witch hunting.24 It is very important for students to realize that, although all societies practice witchcraft, only early modern Europe conducted sub- stantial hunting of supposed diabolical witches. Consequently, the refer- ence (8, p. 373; 9, p. 212) to "the most extensive period of witchcraft persecutions in Western history," implies that other societies may have engaged in considerable persecution of diabolical witches, but there was not any outside of European Christendom.

While it might seem natural to conclude (11, p. 574) that plague and warfare (16, p. 509) led to witch trials, such was not the case. War and plague gave populations more immediate problems to deal with, deplet- ing the concentrated energy that witch hunting, a product of periods of peace, demanded. The most that could be said is that war and plague raised the level of anxiety and might in the long run have contributed to witch hunting.25

Palmer and Colton (20, p. 51) assert that people in the fourteenth century "furtively celebrated the Black Mass," but there is absolutely no evidence for this. The only known instance of a Black Mass is when Madame de Montespan, Louis XIV's long-time mistress, resorted to such religious high jinks in a desperate attempt to retain the monarch's lust. Palmer and Colton date (20, p. 288) the last execution for witchcraft to 1722; this simply is not true.

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 419

Perry et al. record (22, p. 373) that guilty witches were burned at the stake on the Continent. To be exact, they could be sentenced to be burned, but they were usually strangled before flames engulfed them. The same authors affirm (22, p. 373) that the property of witches was confiscated; this was not often the case and the contention that it was gives support to an older, now discredited interpretation that judges and jurisdictions conducted witch trials for economic motives (true for parts of Germany, but rare elsewhere). Wallbank et al. (27, p. 340) contend that "Accused witches were usually tried in religious courts, both Catholic and Protes- tant," while Willis (28, p. 419) asserts that "Although the persecution was begun by the Inquisition, it was taken up by the Protestant churches in the sixteenth century." In fact, except in southern Europe, where Inquisitions continued to hear accusations of witchcraft, secular courts by the six- teenth century had removed jurisdiction over witch hunting from ecclesi- astical courts.26

Winks et al. (30, p. 333) make a serious mistake in claiming "the greatest number of executions took place in Calvinist areas." In Ger- many, for example, the size of the territorial state had more to do with persecution than did religion and Catholic areas certainly took a lead in executing witches. Lorraine, which probably had the highest number of executions (3,000) relative to population (400,000) than any region of Europe, was Catholic, as were numerous other areas where witch hunting was intense, such as Austria and Poland. On the other hand, the Calvinist church did not participate in witchcraft prosecutions in the Northern Netherlands, the extent of persecution there was mild, and it ended earlier there than in any other state.27 Even Calvin's Geneva experienced rela- tively mild persecution of witches.28

Many textbooks do an admirable job selecting illustrations of witch- craft and including primary source documents to accompany the narra- tive descriptions of the witch hunts. The artistic depictions must affect a generation of American students weaned on visual images, while short documents help to immerse the students in the cruel reality of early modern persecutions. To cite a few examples, some textbooks (6, 12, 16, 19) depict the burning of witches, three (14, 15, 27) a woodcut of the devil carrying off a witch to Hell, two (16, 17) the worshipping of the devil, and two (11, 12) a sabbat. There is also a portrayal (22) of the "swimming of a witch" and of witches' activities (23). Two textbooks include illustrations by the two most important artists of witches and witchcraft, Hans Baldung Grien (3) and Albrecht Diirer (9). The source documents are equally evocative. Some (8, 12) offer a selection from the relentlessly misogynistic demonology of Heinrich Krimer and Jacob Sprenger, The Hammer of Witches, another (6) from Francesco Maria

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Guazzo's demonology, Compendium Malificarum. Two (19, 23) incor- porate part of the famous and moving letter from the burgomeister of Bamburg, Johannes Junius, to his daughter recounting the horrible tor- tures that had compelled him to confess falsely to diabolism. Finally, there is a graphic report (3) on a local witch hunt in Germany. While we might wish that more textbooks contain illustrations and documents, those that do have fine selections.

What should American textbook authors include in their descriptions of the witch hunts? First, they need to survey the complete geography and chronology of the witch hunts, from western Europe to Russia, and to the eighteenth century for parts of eastern Europe. The partiality toward the West must be eliminated. Briefly, authors should consider why the prosecution of witchcraft varied so much throughout Europe. Here men- tion could be made of the varying degrees of state power, differences in legal procedure and court jurisdiction, the levels of social tension, and the religious climate.29 Second, they should explain concisely both the ori- gins and decline of the hunts, noting that witchcraft both preceded the hunts and survived the period of persecution. Although beliefs about witchcraft permeated the Middle Ages, witch hunting was almost exclu- sively an early modem phenomenon. Why did the Middle Ages, the so- called "Age of Faith" (a debatable term, of course), escape both numer- ous small trials and massive witch hunting? The authors should explain exactly why diabolical witchcraft was unique to Christian Europe, and, in doing this, they need to define carefully the varieties of witchcraft (diabo- lism, benevolent and malevolent sorcery). The belief in witchcraft as magic, that the supernatural can be made to influence the natural world, continued past the period of witch hunting to the present. Third, errors of fact, such as with regard to the number of victims, need to be avoided. Fourth, the witch hunts should always be put in the context of a "perse- cuting society."30 It is crucial for students to grapple with the question of why late medieval and early modem Europe (and not the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century Europe) chose to persecute certain groups- women as witches, Jews, Gypsies, vagabonds, different Christians. (Thus one text [25, p. 392] links the witch hunts to persecution for infanticide, a crime even more sex-linked than witchcraft.) How did early modem Europeans draw sharp boundaries between themselves and those who came to be defined as socially heterodox and why did they then persecute the "other" so vigorously?

Too often, texts tend to offer monocausal or simplistic explanations, while recent scholarship stresses the complexity of witch hunting in its origins, manifestations, varying intensity, and decline. Scholars under- stand the witch hunts in the contexts of social, political, legal, and gender

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 421

changes that marked the early modem era. True, it will be a daunting task for authors of Western civilization textbooks to capture the many-faceted phenomena of the witch hunts. Authors might perceive a section on the witch hunts to be essential, owing to their Continent-wide impact, and to be as well an opportunity to explore the many issues involved in the persecution of witches and to take advantage of students' great interest in the topic. The textbooks (8, 9, 23, 24) that come closest to discussing the witch hunts successfully have a social history approach, but none does more than a serviceable job. The lack of a first-rate textbook discussion of the witch hunts is surprising, given the good scholarly books and articles that appear regularly.

What can we conclude from this micro-examination of Western civili- zation textbooks' description of the witch hunts? It is clear that students are often ill-served, not only because some texts ignore the witch hunts, but also because so many others render sloppy and incomplete accounts. If other sections of textbooks are equally as weak, we have great cause for concern, for our students are not obtaining the information they need in order to be historically and geographically literate. Americans already seem to suffer from historical amnesia, and this has led, in my opinion, to their vulnerability to political demagoguery and to a suspension of disbe- lief with reference to widely incorrect historical statements made by politicians. If the best-educated of Americans-those in universities- cannot receive accuracy in their history textbooks, then the United States might face serious problems as future political, economic, and social leaders will, out of ignorance, operate in a historical vacuum, devoid of the comparative insights that temporal perspectives offer.

Notes

1. I thank Denis Paz for his careful reading of a draft of this article. I am indebted as well to James Axtell, whose study of United States history textbooks inspired me to consider the comparative treatment of European history topics in university textbooks ("Europeans, Indians, and the Age of Discovery in American History Textbooks," in James Axtell, Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America [New York and Oxford, 1992], pp. 197-216).

2. For the interconnections of witchcraft and other types of magic, especially as such beliefs function to explain the inexplicable, see Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971).

3. Numbers in parentheses refer to the Western civilization textbooks listed at the end of the article.

422 Richard M. Golden

4. Richard M. Golden, "Satan in Europe: The Geography of Witch Hunts," in Changing Identities in Early Modern Europe, ed. Michael Wolfe (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,1997), pp. 216-47; Brian Levack, The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe, 2nd ed. (London and New York, 1995), pp. 191-229.

5. Good studies of witchcraft in England and Scotland include Christina Lamer, Enemies of God: The Witch Hunt in Scotland (Baltimore, 1981); Brian Levack, "State- Building and Witch Hunting in Early Modem Europe," in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief, ed. Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 99-115; Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (New York, 1970); Deborah Willis, Malevolent Nurture: Witch-hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England (Ithaca, 1995).

6. On witchcraft in New England, see Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge, MA, 1974); John Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England (Oxford, 1982); Richard Godbeer, The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England (Cambridge, 1992); David Hall, ed., Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New Eng- land: A Documentary History, 1638-1692 (Boston, 1991); Peter Charles Hoffer, The Devil's Disciples: Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (Baltimore, 1996); Carol Karlson, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (New York, 1987); Marc Mappen, Witches and Historians: Interpretations of Salem, 2nd ed. (Malabar, FL, 1996); Richard Weisman, Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in Seventeenth- Century Massachusetts (Amherst, MA, 1984).

7. H. C. Erik Midelfort, "Heartland of the Witchcraze: Central and Northern Europe," History Today 31 (1981), 27-31.

8. Modern works on witchcraft in Germany include: Wolfgang Behringer, "Witch- craft Studies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland," in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, ed. Barry, Hester, and Roberts, pp. 64-95; Behringer, Witchcraft in Bavaria (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming); Sigrid Brauner, Fearless Wives and Fright- ened Shrews: The Construction of the Witch in Early Modern Germany (Amherst, MA, 1995); Gunter Franz and Franz Irsigler, eds., Hexenglaube und Hexenprozesse in Raum Rhein-Mosel-Saar (Trier, 1995); Michael Kunze, Highroad to the Stake:: A Tale of Witchcraft (Chicago, 1987); Gerhard Schormann, Hexenprozesse in Deutschland, 2nd ed. (Gottingen, 1986); Schormann, Hexenprozesse in Nordwestdeutschland (Hildesheim, 1977).

9. Historians commonly cite southwest Germany owing to the influence of H. C. Erik Midelfort's superb book, Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany, 1562-1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations (Stanford, 1972).

10. For France, see Robin Briggs, Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tensions in Early Modern France (Oxford, 1989); Robert Mandrou, Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVII siecle. Une analyse de psychologie historique (Paris, 1968); Robert Muchembled, Popular Culture and Elite Culture in France, 1450-1750 (Baton Rouge, 1985); Muchembled, Le Temps des supplices. De l'obe'issance sous les rois absolus, XVe-XVIIIe siecle (Paris, 1992); Alfred Soman, ed., Sorcellerie et justice criminelle. Le Parlement de Paris (16e-18e sihcles) (Hampshire, 1992).

11. On Switzerland, see E. William Monter, Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The Borderlands during the Reformation (Ithaca, 1976); Christian Broye, Sorcellerie et superstitions a Genkve: XVI-XVIIIe siecles (Geneva, 1990).

12. On Spain, Portugal, and Italy, David Gentilcore, From Bishop to Witch: The System of the Sacred in Early Modern Terra d'Otranto (Manchester, 1992); E. William Monter, "Witchcraft in France and Italy," History Today 30 (1980), 31-35; Francisco

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 423

Bethencourt, "Portugal: A Scrupulous Inquisition," Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, ed. Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen (Oxford, 1990), pp. 403-424; Gustav Henningsen, The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Span- ish Inquisition (Reno, 1980); E. William Monter, Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily (Cambridge, 1990); Ruth Martin, Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice, 1550-1600 (London, 1989); John Tedeschi, "Preliminary Observations on Writing a History of the Roman Inquisition," in Continuity and Discon- tinuity in Church History, ed. F. Church and T. George (Leiden, 1972), 232-49; Tedeschi, "Inquisitorial Law and the Witch," in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, ed. Ankarloo and Henningsen, pp. 83-118.

13. The collection of articles edited by Ankarloo and Henningsen (Early Modem European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries), including excellent essays by Jens Chris- tian V. Johansen on Denmark, Antero Heikkinen and Timo Kervinen on Finland, Kirsten Hastrup on Iceland, Hans Eyvind Naess on Norway, Bengt Ankarloo on Sweden, and E. William Monter on "Scandinavian Witchcraft in Anglo-American Perspective," has made it difficult for witchcraft historians to ignore Scandinavia now. See also Inga Dahlsgard, "Witch Hunts and Absolutism in Ancient Denmark," Cultures 8 (1982), 32-40.

14. Two of these texts (8, 9), written by the same authors, repeat identical state- ments about Poland, for one of the texts is merely a brief version of the other.

15. For eastern Europe, see Gabor Klaniczay, "Hungary: The Accusations and the Universe of Popular Magic," Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripher- ies, ed. Ankarloo and Henningsen, pp. 219-55; Klancizay, The Uses of Supernatural Power: The Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Princeton, 1990); Janusz Tazbir, "Hexenprozesse in Polen," Archiv fiir Reformationgeschichte 71 (1980), 280-307.

16. For witchcraft in Russia, see Valerie A. Kivelson, "Through the Prism of Witchcraft: Gender and Social Change in Seventeenth-Century Muscovy," in Russia's Women: Accommodation, Resistance, Transformation, ed. Barbara Evans Clements, Barbara Alpern Engel, and Christine C. Worobec (Berkeley, 1991), pp. 74-94; Zoltain Kovacs, "Die Hexen in Russland," Acta Enthographica Scientarium Hungaricae 22 (1973), 51-87; Russell Zguta, "Was There a Witch Craze in Muscovite Russia?" Southern Folklore Quarterly 41 (1977), 119-28; Zaguta, "Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Cen- tury Russia," American Historical Review 82 (1977), 1187-1207.

17. In Trevor-Roper, The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays (New York, 1969), pp. 90-192.

18. John Edwards, drawing on the work of James Obelkevich and William Monter, argues for the unsuitability of the term "superstition" (The Jews in Christian Europe, 1400-1700 [London, 1988], pp. 152-53). See also John Edwards, "The Priest, the Lay- man, and the Historian: Religion in Early Modern Europe," European History Quarterly 17 (1987), 90.

19. The following put the number killed at one million: Wolfgang Kramer, Kurtrierische Hexenprozesse im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert vornehmlich an der unteren Mosel. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte (Munich, 1959), p. 105; Rosemary Ruether, "The Persecution of Witches: A Case of Sexism and Ageism?" Christianity and Crisis 34 (December 23, 1974), 294; Lyle Steadman, "The Killing of Witches," Oceania 56: 2 (1985), 107. But these claims pale before Andrea Dworkin, who suggests nine million killed ("What Were those Witches Really Brewing?" MS 2 [April 1974], 52); Silvia Bovenschen mentions "the deaths of millions of women" ("The Contemporary Witch, the Historical Witch and the Witch Myth: The Witch, Subject of the Appropriation of Nature and Object of the Domination of Nature," New German Critique 15 [Fall 1978], 106).

424 Richard M. Golden

20. I have compared and tabulated the number of alleged witches killed across Europe in "Satan in Europe: The Geography of Witch Hunts," p. 234. Cf. n. 4.

21. The literature on women and witch hunting is extensive. See, for example, Anne Llewellyn Barstow, Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts (San Francisco, 1995); Barbara Becker-Cantarino, "'Feminist Consciousness' and 'Wicked Witches': Recent Studies on Women in Early Modern Europe," Signs 20 (1994), 152-75; Brauner, Fearless Wives and Frightened Shrews: The Construction of the Witch in Early Modern Germany; Allison Coudert, "The Myth of the Improved Status of Protestant Women: The Case of the Witchcraze," in The Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe, ed. Jean Brink et al. (Kirksville, MO, 1989), pp. 61-89; Marianne Hester, Lewd Women and Wicked Witches: A Study in the Dynamics ofMale Domination (London, 1992); Clive Holmes, "Women: Witnesses and Witches," Past and Present 140 (1993), 45-78; Louise Jackson, "Witches, Wives, and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecution and Women's Confes- sions in Seventeenth-Century England," Women's History Review 4 (1995), 63-83; Robert Muchembled, "Les Femmes du diable?" in his Sorcieres, justice et socidtd aux 16e et 17e siecles (Paris, 1987), pp. 7-29; Carlos Nogueria, "Sexuality and Desire: The Witches of Castille," Revista Brasileira de Historia 15 (1987-88), 169-84; Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Religion, and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe (London, 1994); Jean-Michel Sallmann, "Witches," in Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes, vol. 3 of A History of Women, ed. Natalie Zemon Davis and Arlette Farge (Cambridge, MA, 1993), pp. 444-57; Sally Scully, "Marriage or a Career: Witchcraft as an Alternative in Seventeenth-Century Venice," Journal of Social History 28 (1995), 857-76; Elspeth Whitney, "The Witch 'She'/The Historian 'He': Gender and the Histori- ography of the European Witch Hunts," Journal of Women's History 7 (1995), 77-101; Willis, Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern Eng- land.

22. On the origins of the witch hunts, see Wolfgang Behringer, "Weather, Hunger, and Fear: The Origins of the European Witch Persecutions in Climate, Society, and Mentality," German History 13 (1995), 1-27; Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt, Rev. ed. (New York, 1993); Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300-1500 (Berkeley, 1976); Joseph Klaits, Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts (Bloomington, 1985), 19-47; Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe; Edward Peters, The Magician, the Witch, and the Law (Philadelphia, 1978).

23. On the decline of witch hunting, see Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, pp. 570-83, 641-68; Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, pp. 233- 50; Klaits, Servants of Satan, pp. 158-76; Brian Eslea, Witch Hunting, Magic and the New Philosophy: An Introduction to the Debates of the Scientific Revolution, 1450-1750 (Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1980), pp. 196-252; Peter Elmer, "'Saints or Sorcerers': Quaker- ism, Demonology and the Decline of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century England," in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief, ed. Barry, Hester, and Roberts, pp. 145-79; Ian Bostridge, "Witchcraft Repealed," in ibid., pp. 309-334.

24. See David Harley, "Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of the Midwife- Witch," Social History ofMedicine 3 (1990), 1-26.

25. See Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, pp. 166-68. 26. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, pp. 84-93. 27. Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, "Six Centuries of Witchcraft in the Netherlands:

Themes, Outlines, and Interpretations," in Witchcraft in the Netherlands from the Four- teenth to the Twentieth Century, ed. Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra and Willem Frijhoff (Rotterdam, 1991), pp. 23, 29-30.

American Perspectives on the European Witch Hunts 425

28. E. William Monter, "Witchcraft in Geneva, 1537-1662," Journal of Modern History 43 (1971), 179-204.

29. Textbook authors might consult Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, ed. Ankarloo and Henningsen, which discusses witchcraft in sundry European regions usually ignored. Robin Briggs reviews and revises recent scholarship in a valuable essay, "'Many Reasons Why': Witchcraft and the Problem of Multiple Explanation," in Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, ed. Barry, Hester, and Roberts, pp. 49-63.

30. R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1200 (Oxford, 1987).

Western Civilization Textbooks

1. Blackburn, Glenn. Western Civilization: A Concise History From Early Societ- ies to the Present. Combined ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

2. Bouchard, Constance Brittain. Life and Society in the West: Antiquity and the Middle Ages. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.

3. Chambers, Mortimer, Raymond Grew, David Herlihy, Theodore K. Rabb, and Isser Woloch. The Western Experience. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995.

4. Chodorow, Stanley, Macgregor Knox, Conrad Schirokauer, Joseph R. Strayer, and Hans W. Gatzke. The Mainstream of Civilization. 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.

5. Darst, Diane W. Western Civilization to 1648. New York: McGraw-Hill Pub- lishing Company, 1990.

6. Esler, Anthony. The Western World: Prehistory to the Present. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994.

7. Goff, Richard D., George H. Cassar, Anthony Esler, James P. Holoka, and James C. Waltz. A Survey of Western Civilization. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1987.

8. Greaves, Richard L., Robert Zaller, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. Civilizations of the West: The Human Adventure. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.

9. Greaves, Richard L., Robert Zaller, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. Civilizations of the West: The Human Adventure, Brief Edition. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1994.

10. Greer, Thomas H., and Gavin Lewis. A Brief History of the Western World. 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.

11. Hunt, Lynn, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, R. Po-chia Hsia, and Bonnie G. Smith. The Challenge of the West: Peoples and Cultures from the Stone Age to the Global Age. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1995.

12. Kagan, Donald, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. The Western Heritage. 5th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.

13. Kagan, Donald, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. The Western Heritage. Brief Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.

14. Kishlansky, Mark, Patrick Geary, and Patricia O'Brien. Civilization in the West. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

426 Richard M. Golden

15. Kishlansky, Mark, Patrick Geary, and Patricia O'Brien. The Unfinished Legacy: A Brief History of Western Civilization. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1993.

16. Lerner, Robert E., Standish Meacham, and Edward McNall Burns. Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture. 12th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.

17. McKay, John P., Bennett D. Hill, and John Buckler. A History of Western Society. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995.

18. McNeill, William H. History of Western Civilization: A Handbook. 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

19. Noble, Thomas F. X., Barry S. Strauss, Duane Osheim, Kristen B. Neuschel, William B. Cohen, and David D. Roberts. Western Civilization: The Continuing Experi- ment. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

20. Palmer, R.R., and Joel Colton. A History of the Modern World. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992.

21. Perry, Marvin. Western Civilization: A BriefHistory. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.

22. Perry, Marvin, Myrna Chase, James R. Jacob, Margaret C. Jacob, and Theodore H. Von Laue. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics and Society. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.

23. Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. 2nd ed. St. Paul, MN: West Pub- lishing Company, 1994.

24. Stearns, Peter N. Life and Society in the West: The Modern Centuries. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.

25. Sullivan, Richard E., Dennis Sherman, and John B. Harrison. A Short History of Western Civilization. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994.

26. Viault, Birdsall S. Western Civilization Since 1600. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1990.

27. Wallbank, T. Walter, Alastair M. Taylor, Nels M. Bailkey, George F. Jewsbury, Clyde J. Lewis, and Neil J. Hackett. Civilization: Past and Present. 7th ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.

28. Willis, F. Roy. Western Civilization. 4th ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1985.

29. Willis, F. Roy. Western Civilization: A BriefIntroduction. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987.

30. Winks, Robin W., Crane Brinton, John B. Christopher, and Robert Lee Wolff. A History of Civilization: Prehistory to the Present. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.