Witchcraft

Question 1

What does Wolfgang Behringer argue?

Answer 1

Witch-hunting patterns were not a coincidence because the worst witch perseuctions coincided with extreme climate conditions

Question 2

What does Johannes DIllinger argue?

Answer 2

The reason for mass witch-hunting was due to administational weaknesses within the government, which allowed for communalism to rise and take over persecutions.

Question 3

What does Bronislaw Malinowski argue?

Answer 3

Witchcraft persecutions are symptomatic of anxieties arising in times of intense socio-economic transformations

Question 4

When were the worst witch-hunts?

Answer 4

• 1560-74
• 1583-89
• 1623-28

Question 5

What did the Little Ice Age cause in Continental Europe?

Answer 5

• Extreme weathers like severe hailstones and flooding.
• Annual falling tempuratures
• Poor harvests and famine (leading to disease and high mortality rates)

Question 6

What is an example of communalism?

Answer 6

• In the country courtof Schongau, 63 women were executed legally as witches between 1589-91.

Question 7

What emphasised the fear of ‘weather magic’?

Answer 7

• Books, e.g. Malleus Maleficarum

Question 8

Why were books important in emphasising fear about weather magic?

Answer 8

• Malleus Maleficaerum was the basis of what witchcraft was, and how to identify it.
• Religious groups believed books like Malleus and based their punishments on it
• Several trials used the book as a basis to punish people, e.g. Trier Witch Trials.

Question 9

When did the Little Age Age decline and what did this decline provide?

Answer 9

• Mid 17th century
• Cool and dry conditions in contrast to freezing and rainy conditions.
• Lands were fertile, popiulation growth, fewer deaths, more resources.

Question 10

What did the decline of the Ice Age correspond with?

Answer 10

Last prominent witchtrial was Bamberg where 900+ were burned at the stqake and more were beheaded

Question 11

Why was climate linked with the witch persecutions in central Europe?

Answer 11

When the Little Ice Age was at its peak, the worst witchcraft perseuctions hapened because the population needed a face to blame for this doing bc they didn’t understand modern science.

Question 12

Where was the weakest administration in the Germanic states?

Answer 12

Peripheral/dwarf states that did not have enough money or power to exert control over its population

Question 13

DId Wutrttemberg have a good political system?

Answer 13

• Yes, because it had trained legal professionals within the criminal justice system and a powerful military and nobles to squash witch trials.
• This was formed under the Duke of Ulrich and the Lutheran Church.

Question 14

Did Wurttemberg have many witch persecutions?

Answer 14

• It only had 450 trials and only one person was executed betwen 1490 and 1750.

Question 15

What was ‘down below’?

Answer 15

• This was a form of ‘dark’ communalism where peasants would bound together and create witch-hunting committees out of their own pockets.
• These were more powerful than the authority of some dwarf states

Question 16

Why did these committees prosper?

Answer 16

• It was seen as ‘political suicide’ to even try to fight against them because they did not have the money or resources to silence these committees.

Question 17

What is a second example of communalism?

Answer 17

• Hohenberg witch-trials were fuelled by communalism

Question 18

Why did the witch-trials eventually stop in the German states?

Answer 18

• Dwarf states were able to gain political stability within their administrative systems like Wuttenberg did, which challenged these self-funded committees and halted the witch-trials.