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Print Culture and the Witch Craze: The "Sex Sells" of Early Modern Europe

How print media influenced public opinion and fanned the flames of hysteria during the witch craze

Published onApr 25, 2023
Print Culture and the Witch Craze: The "Sex Sells" of Early Modern Europe
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Introduction

The idea of the European witch craze to a modern audience seems absurd, borderline fictitious, and tremendously nonsensical. Magic is not something the 21st century traditionally accepts, and current due process laws protect defendants from infamous means of interrogation utilized during these witch trials like “torture or the threat of torture.”1 However, from the late Medieval Ages through the early modern period, the majority of the population of Europe believed not only that witchcraft and other variations of the supernatural existed but that they were a danger to both the state and their way of life. Subsequently, those believed to practice witchcraft began to be ruthlessly persecuted through violent legal means. Rough estimates of the European witch trials figure between “100,000 and 200,000 people were officially tried and between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed.”2 The religious turmoil and contention over mysticism and free will created by the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing splintering of the Western Christian Church produced the perfect environment for such fears to fester. Furthermore, the revolution in the production and spread of information that occurred in the 15th century as a result of the invention of the printing press enabled the early modern perception of witches to reach an incredibly large audience.3

There is not much scholarship that specifically explores the effect print culture targeted toward a lay audience had on the witch craze, but some research exists that explores print in the academic world. This particularly took the form of studying beliefs of demonology and their growth in popularity. However, research, like that of Anna Bayman, has explored print materials like news pamphlets during the witch craze that were not strictly academic, but her conclusions ultimately found that these widely-circulated writings discredited the validity of the witch trials and lessened support for the persecution of practitioners of the supernatural.

The aim of this paper is to understand the effect, if any, print culture had on both public opinion and the witch craze in early modern Europe. Because of the authority authors of witchcraft and demonological literature claimed from both the Divine and legal precedent, print culture was hugely influential in birthing and perpetuating misogynistic ideas about witchcraft and women and in creating what was known as the witch craze in early-modern Europe. The texts published on witchcraft and demonology, especially those in the form of news pamphlets, which targeted the general public, attempted to frame their purpose as morally imperative and their work as absolutely truthful. However, these same authors often omitted important facts and even entire testimonies or acquittals, manipulated the genre, and relied on subpar standards of proof. Because the dissemination of knowledge about witchcraft and these trials was tainted by such bias, these printed stories ultimately fed the hysteria and misinformation of the craze. 

Literacy and the Beginnings of Writings on the Supernatural

Print culture manufactured many pervasive ideas about witchcraft, establishing principles of general mysticism and supernatural abilities as well as the violent anti-women attitudes traditionally associated with the European witch hunts. There was certainly an audience for it, as “[l]iteracy rose throughout the period,” with the literacy rate in 1630 England being about 70%.4 Some texts in early modern Europe included published spell-book manuscripts, which were a “mixed bag,” with both “elaborate recipes” and more that were “far simpler in conception and execution” like the “Night Spell.”5 The ‘Night Spell’ was thought to yield off thieves who worked in the cover night, and it was performed by speaking the spell above the area the enchanter wished to protect. Recipe books like this, with their references to spells and magical antidotes, perpetuated the belief in the supernatural. Likewise, in the 1529 “Treatise on Superstition and Witchcraft,” Franciscan friar Martín de Castañega elaborated on many supposed magical abilities of both the Devil and his “disciples,” who were witches, including shapeshifting, spell-casting, possession, and flight.6 This treatise was the “first independent book on witchcraft composed in vernacular language,” which means its teachings and ideas were incredibly accessible to the lay literate person. 7

“The Demon Lover” from Ulrich Molitor’s De Lemis et Phitonicis Mulieribus, Cologne, 1489

Print culture was most influential to the general public when they could understand what was written. But even more so than plain vernacular language, the most accessible forms of print culture were pictures or illustrations of demons, the Devil, or witches. For example, this image (left) titled ‘The Demon Lover’ illustrated the linking of female sexuality to evil.8

Witches transformed into Beasts from Molitor

And this image, titled “Witches transformed into Beasts” from Molitor reflected the concept Castañega described—that women in commune with the devil can shapeshift.9 Illustrated print culture allowed even the illiterate to encounter and understand the misogyny of the witch craze. It also helped to establish the frightening aesthetic of the witch, which added to the fear of witches amongst the general population. Furthermore, at the end of the fifteenth century, many treatises, similar to Castañega’s, were published in an attempt to “establish the reality of a perverted magical conspiracy.”10 The most important of these manuals was the Malleus Maleficarum, written by “two prominent Dominican inquisitors” named Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, which featured a “comprehensive summary of arguments for persecution [of witches].”11 This treatise represented the foremost witchcraft text’s ability to establish a lone and unquestioned authority on the topics of demonology and the supernatural. Malleus Maleficarum explained that the Devil preferred to work through witches because “he gives greater offence to God.” He also claimed the majority of witches were women, reflecting the “blatant” and “monkish misogyny” typical of these treatises. Printed texts like Malleus were essential in establishing women as the primary proponents of witchcraft and evil. The origin of this misogyny, as explained by the treatise, was wholly biblical, connecting women’s susceptibility to the Devil’s influence to Eve’s original sin and the fall of man.12 

Painting of Adam and Eve and Satan in serpent-form by Raphael (1511) in Rome

Religion as a Source of Authority

Western Christianity influenced the writing of these texts, granting authority to those who cited Divine inspiration or cooperation with the will of God the Father. For example, in Malleus, the phrase “with the permission of God” occurs several times, and similar language appears in other witch-hunting manuals.13 By claiming to be working directly in correlation with God’s will, authors removed themself from critique, and they raised themselves to a pedestal of holy understanding; they alone understood God’s plan and, therefore, questioning their work was sinful. The Protestant Reformation along with the creation of Calvinism raised questions over the concept of free will, especially in the context of these witch hunts. Catholic writers, like the authors of Malleus, monopolized this question, asserting the authority of their own faith in the persecution of witches. For example, Castañega wrote in his Treatise on Superstition and Witchcraft that “[t]here are two churches on earth: the Catholic and the diabolical,” throwing suspicion on all those who were not Catholic.14 This treatise was written in a post-Protestant-Reformation world, so the tension between Catholicism and Protestantism is clear in these sorts of texts, targeting both different faiths and these so-called ‘witches’. By claiming the authority of God in their writings, authors not only shielded their writing from critique but also expanded their perceived expertise on the supernatural, as the 16th-century audience was intimately familiar with religious debate.

Covering the Trials

Outside of religious authority, authors of these witch pamphlets also used the judicial process to claim more authority, often publishing what they claimed were ‘authentic’ transcripts of the trials of those accused of witchcraft. It became somewhat of a trend to cover these witch trials, and fascination with the supernatural grew as a result of these documents and previous treatises. In a judicial context, witchcraft was seen as a “special crime,” a “crimen exceptum.”15 Because of this view of witchcraft, authors and publishers of these court records found it appropriate to “provide verbatim evidence of the crime, the words of the accusers and accused,” and their construction of this evidence emphasized the “excitement” of the trials, especially through their titles.16 They turned dull and long-winded courtroom testimony into fantastical and exhilarating tales that perpetuated established ideas of demonology, and that, more importantly, sold well. For example, Thomas Potts, who was a court clerk in the summer of 1612 at Lancaster Assizes,17 published The wonderfull discoverie of witches in 1613. The word he titles his work with, ‘discovery’, echoed the “raison d’etre” of these case-centered witch pamphlets: “the discovery of real witches by their neighbours and the courts; the revelation of those discoveries to the readers.”18 Many other pamphlets bore the same language like The wonderfull discovery of the witchcrafts of Margaret and Philip Flower and Henry Goodcole’s The wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer.19 The language of discovery again connects back to the religious context of these writings, arguing that publishing these works on witches had a beneficial purpose, “associating their discoveries with godly revelation and providence.”20  In Thomas Pott’s The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, he writes:

“Upon the Arraignment and triall of these Witches at the last Assizes and Generall Gaole-deliverie, holden at Lancaster, wee found such apparent matters against them to the World, and thereupon imposed the labour of this Worke upon this Gentleman, by reason of his place, being a Clerke at that time in Court, imploied in the Arraitnement and triall of them.”21

He emphasized his connection to the court system and to the trials, proving his authority on the subject. He described each of the accused with harsh, demonic language. For example, in the first case, he characterized the defendant, Elizabeth Sowthernes, as “the most damnable…wicked and devilish,” and he actually only refers to her as “Witch Elizabeth Sowthernes,” guaranteeing that his audience would understand her role as a witch.22 This language is sensational and blatantly biased, but it is communicated with a tone of absolute certainty. In another pamphlet, the preface writer introduced the case explored in the pamphlet, giving the impression that “[the interregator]’s witchcraft interrogations [would] show us absolutely convincingly the truth.”23 However, the writer added several individuals to those he wished to be targeted with no additional note, signaling the story was edited. While authors of these sorts of pamphlets framed their work as honest and legitimate, that was not always the case. 

Editing the Narrative: “Witchcraft Sells”

Because the authors of these pamphlets held such massive authority on the topics of demonology and witchcraft, shielding them from most forms of criticism, they had virtually free reign over their writing and portrayal of witches. This immunity of thought opened the door to the manipulation of this history and the portrayal of both witchcraft and women. Thomas Potts wrote of the trial of Alison Device, and Witchcraft historian and author Marion Gibson claimed, at “every stage of the creation and dissemination of the narrative of witchcraft, there was some form of potential pressure or propaganda which could affect the story told about [Alizon] and her supposed victim(s).”24 The pressures of the state on authors to vilify witchcraft enticed them to tell the most scandalous, horrific tale of the supernatural possible. Many times, when trials ended in acquittals, pamphlets glossed over or even omitted these conclusions. Or, other times, like in the case of Margaret Pearson in The wonderfull discoverie, Potts claimed she would have been convicted if the jury had not been on her side.25

Even the slightest connection to witchcraft condemned a person in the eyes of these authors, and they were “obliged to exercise some kind of editorial interference in controlling their stories,” meaning their “obligations to the plain truth [came] into conflict with their obligation to tell a morally beneficial story when the original version of that story was unsatisfactory.”26 Scholastic demonology and the academization of witchcraft laid the foundation for these pamphlets. By creating a problem—witches—and by giving that problem both attention and space in an intellectual environment, print culture justified the hysteria of the witch craze. However, it was these less erudite sources that reached the most people, allowing skeptically edited interpretations of trials to shape the perception of the larger public. These pamphlets were very popular with the literate of all classes, which incentivized authors to aggrandize the dramatic, mystical nature of the trials. The texts were meant to excite readers, almost like modern-day tabloids, and so, the pamphlet’s purpose became much less centered on truth and more on fantasy.

Conclusion

Print culture shaped the nature of the witch craze, morphing it into a hysterical and violent reality. Without any authority regulating the standards of proof used in the reporting on these trials, authors could manipulate stories as they pleased. And while pamphlets grew to be viewed as significantly untrustworthy sources of information, their impact in the early modern period was anything but frivolous. The writing on witchcraft and demonology during this period not only affected the witch craze in its immediacy but also the social perception of women in a much broader sense. The connection of femininity to a proclivity for evil, as established by these printed materials, followed women way past the 17th century.

Works Cited

Merry E. Weisner-Hanks, Women and Gender in Eary Modern Europe (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

 Niadi-Corina Cernica, “The Printing Revolution and the Beginning of Modern Time,” Euromentor Journal 2, no. 3 (September 2011).

Anna Bayman, “‘Large Hands, Wide Eares, and Piercing Sights’: The ‘Discoveries’ of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Witch Pamphlets,” Literature & History 16, no. 1 (May 1, 2007): https://doi.org/10.7227/LH.16.1.2

Briggs, K. M. “Some Seventeenth-Century Books of Magic.” In The Literature of Witchcraft, Vol. 4. Articles on Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992.

Cauis, Dee, and Ashmole, “The Second Booke of the Keye of Knowledge of Solomon” (1567).

Martín de Castañega. “Tratado muy sotil y bien fundado de las supersticiones y hechicerías y vanos conjuros y abusiones; y otros cosas al caso tocantes y de la posibilidad e remedio dellas.” Logroño, 1529.

David H. Darst, “Witchcraft in Spain: The Testimony of Martín de Castañega’s Treatise on Superstition and Witchcraft (1529),” Proceedings of the American Philisophical Society 123 (October 1979).

Dale Hoak, “The European Witchcraze Revisited: Witch-Hunting and Women in the Art of the Renaissance,” History Today, February 1981.

Sydney Anglo, “Evident Authority and Authoritative Evidence: The Malleus Maleficarum,” in The Literature of Witchcraft, ed. Brian P. Levack, vol. 4, Articles on Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology: (New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992).

Marion Gibson, “Becoming-Witch: Narrating Witchcraft in Early Modern English News Pamphlets,” Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft 14, no. 3 (Winter 2019).

Thomas Potts, “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster” (1612).

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