distinct ideas and the crystallization of our modern idea of witch. To the methods of the inquisitors must be ascribed in great part the spread of these conceptions amongst the people; for the Malleus Maleficarum or Inquisitor’s Manual (1489), following closely on the important bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (Innocent VIII., 1484), gave them a handbook from which they plied their tortured victims with questions and were able to extract such confessions as they desired; by a strange perversion these admissions, wrung from their victims by rack or thumb-screw, were described as voluntary.
The subsequent history of witchcraft may be treated in less detail. In England the trials were most numerous in the 17th century; but the absence of judicial torture made the cases proportionately less numerous than they were on the European continent. One of the most famous witch-finders was Matthew Hopkins, himself hanged for witchcraft after a career of some three years. Many of his methods were not far removed from actual torture; he pricked the body of the witch to find anaesthetic areas; other signs were the inability to shed tears, or repeat the Lord’s Prayer, the practice of walking backwards or against the sun, throwing the hair loose, intertwining the fingers, &c. Witches were also weighed against the Bible, or thrown into water, the thumbs and toes tied crosswise, and those who did not sink were adjudged guilty; a very common practice was to shave the witch, perhaps to discover insensible spots, but more probably because originally the familiar spirit was supposed to cling to the hair. The last English trial for witchcraft was in 1712, when Jane Wenham was convicted, but not executed. Occasional cases of lynching continue to occur, even at the present day.
In Scotland trials, accompanied by torture, were very frequent in the 17th century. A famous witch-finder was Kincaid. The last trial and execution took place in 1722.
In New England there was a remarkable outburst of fanaticism—the famous Salem witchcraft delusion—in 1691-1692; but many of the prisoners were not convicted and some of the convicts received the governor’s pardon (see Salem, Mass.).
On the continent of Europe the beginning of the 16th century saw the trial of witchcraft cases taken out of the hands of the Inquisition in France and Germany, and the influence of the Malleus became predominant in these countries. Among famous continental trials may be mentioned that of a woman named Voisin in 1680, who was burnt alive for poisoning, in connexion with the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Trials and executions did not finally cease till the end of the 18th century. In Spain a woman was burnt in 1781 at Seville by the Inquisition; the secular courts condemned a girl to decapitation in 1782; in Germany an execution took place in Posen in 1793. In South America and Mexico witch-burning seems to have lasted till well on into the second half of the 19th century, the latest instance apparently being in 1888 in Peru.
The total number of victims of the witch persecutions is variously estimated at from 100,000 to several millions. If it is true that Benedict Carpzov (1595—1666) passed sentence on 20,000 victims, the former figure is undoubtedly too low.
Rise of the Critical Spirit.—It is commonly assumed and has been asserted by Lecky that the historical evidence for witchcraft is vast and varied. It is true that a vast amount of authority for the belief in witchcraft may be quoted; but the testimony for the occurrence of marvels is small in quantity, if we except the valueless declaration of the victims of torture; testimony as to the pathological side of witchcraft is abundant, but affords no proof of the erroneous inferences drawn from the genuine phenomena. If this uncritical attitude is found in our own day, it is not surprising that the rationalistic spirit was long in making its appearance and slow in gaining the victory over superstition. From the 15th century onwards the old view that transformation and transportation were not realities but delusions, caused directly by the devil, began to gather force. Among the important works may be mentioned Johann Weier’s De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563), Reginald Scott’s (c. 1538-1590) Discovery of Witchcraft (1584) which was ordered to be burnt by King James I., who had himself replied to it in his Daemonologie (1597), Balthasar Bekker’s Betooverde Wereld (1691), which, though it went farther in the direction of scepticism, had less influence than Friedrich v. Spee’s Cautio criminalis (1631). In France Jean Uvier defended the rationalistic view, and Jean Bodin demanded that he should be sent to the stake for his temerity.
Psychology of Witchcraft.—Although at the height of the witch persecution torture wrung from innocent victims valueless confessions which are at best evidence that long-continued agony of body may be instrumental in provoking hallucinations, there can be no doubt that witches commonly, like the magician in lower planes of culture, firmly believe in their own powers, and the causes of this seem to be not merely subjective. (1) Ignorance of the effects of suggestion leads both the witch and others to regard as supernormal effects which are really due to the victim’s belief in the possibility of witchcraft. This applies especially to cases of “ligature.” (2) Telepathy (q.v.) seems in some cases to play a part in establishing the witch’s reputation; some evidence has been produced that hypnotism at a distance is possible, and an account of her powers given by a French witch to Dr Gibotteau suggests that this element cannot be neglected in appraising the evidence for witchcraft. (3) Whatever be the real explanation of the belief in poltergeists (q.v.) and “physical phenomena” (q.v.), the belief in them rests on a very different basis from that of the belief in lycanthropy; exaggeration and credulity alone will not explain how these phenomena come to be associated with witchcraft. On the other hand, subjective causes played their part in causing the witch to believe in herself. (4) Auto-suggestion may produce hallucinations and delusions in otherwise sane subjects; and for those who do not question the reality of witchcraft this must operate powerfully. (5) The descriptions of witches show that in many cases their sanity was more than questionable; trance and hysteria also played their part. (6) It is uncertain to what extent drugs and salves have helped to cause hallucination; but that they had some share seems certain, though modern experimenters have been led to throw doubt on the alleged effects of some of the drugs; here too, however, the effects of suggestion must be reckoned with; we do not associate the use of tobacco with hallucinations, but it was employed to produce them in Haiti in the same way as hemp among the Bantu of the present day. (7) Hallucinations occurring under torture must have tended to convince bystanders and victims alike, no less than the acceptance of suggestions, positive and negative.
As regards the nature of the ideas accepted as a result of suggestion or auto-suggestion, they were on the one hand derived, as we have seen, from ecclesiastical and especially scholastic sources; but beneath these elements is a stratum of popular belief, derived in the main perhaps from pagan sources, for to this day in Italy witchcraft is known as la vecchia religione, and has been handed down in an unbroken tradition for countless generations.
Bibliography.—For a short list of general works and a topographical bibliography, see Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, s.v. “Hexen”; see also W. H. D. Adams, Witch, Warlock, Magician, pp. 378-428; G. L. Burr in Papers of American Hist. Ass. iv. 237-266. For classical times see Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités, s.v. “Magia.” For Scotland, see C. K. Sharpe, Historical Account, pp. 255-262; J. Ferguson, Witchcraft Literature, reprint from publications of Edinburgh Bibliographical Soc. iii. For New England see Justin Winsor in Proc. Am. Ant. Soc. (Oct. 1895) and G. H. Moore in do. N.S. v. 245-273. For France, see R. Yve-Plessis, Essai dune bibliographie française de la sorcellerie. For Italy, see C. G. Leland, Etruscan-Roman Remains, Legends of Florence, and Aradia; G. Cavagnari, Il Romanzo dei Settimani; Folklore, vii. 1-9; Niceforo and Sighele, La Mala Vita a Roma; E. N. Rolfe, Naples in the Nineties. For Africa, see R. E. Dennett, Seven Years among the Fjort, Folklore of the Fjort and At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind. For the American negro, see M. A. Owen, Old Rabbit the Voodoo. For India, see W. Crooke, Introduction to Popular Religion and Folklore in N. India. For a survey of European witchcraft up to the 16th century, see J. Hansen, Zauberwahn (1900) and Quellen (1901). See also Graf v. Hönbröck, Das Fapsttum, i.; O. Stoll, Suggestion und Hynotismus; Tylor, Primitive Culture. On salves and magical plants, see E. Gilbert, Les Plantes magiques;
