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La sorcellerie et la ville

 | 
Antoine Follain
, 
Maryse Simon

Witchcraft in the City. Patterns of Persecution in the Holy Roman Empire

La sorcellerie dans la ville : modèles de répression dans le Saint-Empire

Rita Voltmer

Résumé

Alors que la répression judiciaire contre le crime de sorcellerie fait état d’un phénomène largement partagé dans le monde rural, les condamnations en milieu urbain révèlent des situations contrastées selon les villes. Les historiens n’ont pas réussi à trouver d’explication générale à la sorcellerie urbaine mais ont pu constater que les grandes villes n’ont connu que des procès distincts alors que les petites villes étaient plus enclines à une chasse aux sorcières. Les spécificités de la politique urbaine en matière de sorcellerie dans le Saint Empire n’ont pas encore fait l’objet d’une étude suffisamment large et la proposition de typologie faite dans cet article se base sur l’hypothèse que les plus grandes villes impériales luthériennes ont montré une plus grande réticence à mener des procès pour sorcellerie. La situation est en fait différente selon les villes, la politique en matière de sorcellerie affichant aussi bien des similarités que des diversités. Par exemple, les villes impériales Esslingen, Reutlingen, Rottweil ou Offenburg semblent avoir appliqué une grande sévérité. Les villes autonomes, en conduisant leur propre politique de répression, ont pourtant beaucoup de similarités avec les villes impériales mineures, et notamment dans l’intensité de la persécution. Quant à la multitude de petites villes, les conseils municipaux, notoirement faibles, ne pouvaient y contrecarrer la demande populaire et la formation de comités spécialisés dans la traque des sorciers, qui ont agi comme des groupes de pression.

Les facteurs qui peuvent induire la conduite de procès en sorcellerie peuvent se résumer en trois points.

Le premier facteur est l’influence déterminante de la politique en matière de sorcellerie, quelle que soit la taille de la ville, pour décider de contenir les chasses aux sorcières au nom d’intérêts supérieurs à la crainte du démon. Les conseillers de la ville qui détiennent le pouvoir incontesté de conduire la haute justice pouvaient développer une politique capable de résister à la conduite des procès. Ils ont donc supprimé toutes les rumeurs, diffamations, ragots et troubles en contrôlant la communication et la transmission des idées à propos de sorcellerie et de la pertinence des procès. De ce fait, les procès ont été évités complétement ou seulement dirigés contre des marginaux tout en préservant les élites de toute dénonciation. Un éventuel scepticisme sur l’existence de la sorcellerie n’en est pas forcement la cause, même si le lien entre accusation de sorcellerie et dénonciations est parfois récusé.

Inversement, les magistrats, maires, juristes, et les élites gouvernantes ont pu développer une politique en faveur des procès de sorcellerie à cause d’une combinaison de raisons, notamment comme instrument politique pour des conflits externes (la ville contre le seigneur territorial) ou internes (tensions entre guildes et patriciens) ; comme mécanisme établissant l’autorité pour discipliner les sujets récalcitrants (Rottweil) ; ou enfin comme programme de purification pour rétablir l’ordre divin et la morale. On peut voir cette politique mise en œuvre principalement dans les cités autonomes, les villes territoriales et les villes de résidence du pouvoir en Allemagne du nord. Et ces milieux urbains peuvent devenir des foyers de persécution quand des facteurs incitatifs se combinent : adhésion au concept élaboré de sorcellerie et au crimen exceptum, usage de la torture, liens étroits entre magistrats et accusés, absence d’autorité ou changement forcé de confession dans les villes protestantes redevenues catholiques.

Dans des plus petites villes où le prince territorial et le bailli restent les seigneurs de la ville, les conseillers ne pouvaient pas mettre en œuvre leur propre politique de répression. Les influences extérieures, telles les dénonciations des villageois ou les demandes d’exorcismes spectaculaires, peuvent conduire à de vastes chasses aux sorcières dans lesquelles même les riches, les hommes, les enfants et les membres du clergé se retrouvent victimes. Dans ce cas, le modèle est actif du bas vers le haut.

Les magistrats – qui en général ont adopté une politique de répression dans un premier temps – ont réalisé que la paix, l’ordre et la bonne pratique ont été véritablement ébranlés par ces sévères chasses aux sorcières. Ils changent alors d’attitude envers la répression de la sorcellerie. Des rechutes sont possibles avec des épisodes de possession comme à Cologne, mais le contrôle reprend le dessus et la répression s’arrête.

Texte intégral

“After she had been released from torture, she confessed that during the witches’ Sabbath on Saint Martin’s hill [in sight distance to Trier], the witches’ leaders proposed to destroy the city of Trier, because in the town and in the neighboring lands people were burnt excessively [...]. On Saint Martin’s hill, the witches conspired to drown and to exterminate the city of Trier […]. Thus, the witches summoned a mighty tempest, which is still remembered in the city.“
Suntgen of Lellig, burnt as a witch in the city of Trier, 1595 October 4,
Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz Bestand 1 C Nr. 9191, p. 16, 35, 87.

Introduction and state of research

  • 1 Robert Muchembled, Culture… 293. [comme dit dans l’introduction, les éditeurs scientifiques ont com (...)
  • 2 Die Hexen der Neuzeit…ed. Claudia Honegger, 107-151 “Die theatralische Spätphase. Von der ruralen H (...)
  • 3 Christina Larner, Enemies… 193 [Larner, Christina, Enemies of God. The Witch-Hunt in Scotland, Lond (...)

1In 1978, the historian of French witchcraft Robert Muchembled stated that the suppression of witchcraft was primarily a rural phenomenon.1 He based this conclusion on his own findings as well as on those of Alan MacFarlane and Keith Thomas for England. In the same year, Claudia Honegger, a German sociologist, went further and argued that from the 16th to the 17th century, European witch-hunting shifted from a rural context to include urban cases of supposed demonic possession.2 Christina Larner, likewise, held witch-persecution in Scotland to be essentially a mainly rural occurrence.3

  • 4 Gisela Wilbertz, “Hexenprozesse…” [Wilbertz, Gisela, “Hexenprozesse und Zauberglaube im Hochstift O (...)

2However, this rural paradigm was challenged at the same time as it emerged. In 1978, for example, the German historian Gisela Wilbertz published a detailed account of the monstrous persecution in the city of Osnabrück in Westfalia, where in three major witch hunts between 1561 and 1639, 276 women and two men lost their life at the stake. During the same period, in the territory of Osnabrück, “only” 53 women and men were executed as witches; the Osnabrück persecutions were clearly an urban phenomenon.4 Wilbertz saw the witch hunts in cities like Osnabrück, Lemgo, or Bamberg in the context of political struggles for power and called for a closer look at witch prosecution in the other cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Thus, she argued against Honegger’s theory of a gradual shift from rural witchcraft trials to late urban trials in the wake of the notorious French and Flemish cases of possessed nuns.

  • 5 Bernd Roeck, Lebenswelt und Kultur…, 116; Id., Civic Culture…, 11; Id., Wahrnehmungsgeschichtliche…(...)
  • 6 Bernd Roeck, Civic Culture…, op. cit., 11.
  • 7 Ibid., 7.
  • 8 Bernd Roeck, « Urban Witch Trials », op. cit., 88-89.

3Since 1978, witchcraft research focusing on the urban milieu of prosecution has flourished. However, no broad survey of urban witchcraft trials in Europe in general or in the German speaking areas of Europe in particular has hitherto been published, and the great variety and diversity of the phenomenon remains hard to handle. In 1991, 1992, 1995, 2006, 2009, and 2011, the German urban historian Bernd Roeck published several articles and books in which he sought to explain the differences between massive witchcraft trials in rural areas and their absence in bigger cities.5 In so doing he strengthened a methodological “turn” towards a history of sensibility and perception in order to try to understand why fewer witch-trials occurred in great cities. Using the concepts of “behavioural urbanization” (Jan de Vries) and of “urban rationality” (Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl), Roeck emphasizes the very different urban milieu, which—in contrast to the rural context—constituted an “artificial environment”6, whose densely built-up area sheltered the city dwellers from the impact of natural catastrophes. His thesis is that “the more developed the relationship between communication, technology and economics, the less likely it is for ‘metaphysical’ views to occur”.7 A better religious infrastructure and a functioning poor relief system made town-dwellers less likely to look to witchcraft as an explanation for misfortune, which in turn made massive witchcraft trials less likely to begin. Qualifying his thesis, Roeck rejects a monocausal explanation, but stresses the importance of the actions of individuals or social groups on the part of both the supporters and opponents of witch-persecution, whose different positions were not determined by an urban/rural dichotomy.8

  • 9 Brian P. Levack, The witch-hunt…, p. 137-140 [Levack, Brian P., The witch-hunt in early modern Euro (...)

4Brian P. Levack published his survey of witch hunts in early modern Europe in 1987, followed by several new editions up to 2006.9 However, his treatment of rural and urban witchcraft and witch hunts remained unchanged. It was based on his conclusion that witchcraft was first and foremost a typically rural phenomenon. Together with Muchembled, Larner and MacFarlane, Levack also stated that peasants lived in small scale, face-to-face communities, where conservatism and superstition prevailed, fueling witchcraft belief and accusations. Relying like Claudia Honegger on Michel de Certeau’s research on the Loudun possession case, he took up the argument concerning a shifting from rural sorcery to urban possession cases. Yet at the same time he identified the city as a melting pot for popular and elite concepts of witchcraft. For Levack, urban witch hunts were dominated by three types of persecution: First, and mostly up to 1500, the politically inspired persecution of practitioners of ritual magic; second, the persecution of so called plague-spreaders; and third, possession cases. Unfortunately, while these categories may be applied to some Italian, Swiss or French cities, they apply to only a small extent to the witchcraft trials in the towns and cities of the Holy Roman Empire.

  • 10 The term “witchcraft cognition” is understood in the sense how the (alleged) phenomenon ‘witchcraft (...)
  • 11 Oscar Di Simplicio, “On the neuropsychological origins of witchcraft cognition…”. This article cont (...)
  • 12 See pars pro toto Owen Davies, “Urbanization…” [Davies, Owen, « Urbanization and the decline of Wit (...)
  • 13 It is still debated wether the humanities shall adapt neuropsychological and neuroscientific patter (...)

5In 2013, the Florentine historian Oscar Di Simplicio tried to figure out the impact of geography on witchcraft cognition10 in emphasizing the neuro-psychological factor.11 With emphasis and good reason, Di Simplicio challenges the worn-out socio-economic paradigm, created by Keith Thomas and Alan MacFarlane, which if at all had shown relevance only in some Essex witchcraft trials. Di Simplicio likewise sees little relevance in the “little ice age” paradigm, which connected agrarian crisis with witchcraft accusations and prosecutions. Di Simplicio generally discredits mono-causal explanatory models, based only on socio-economic factors, primarily because he could not find outstanding differences in the agrarian production systems either in regions with, without or with only minor witch-hunting activities. However, the fact exists that great cities like Paris, London or Madrid experienced few or no witchcraft trials, despite the fact that magical belief systems (including witchcraft), magical subcultures and “markets” for magical services persisted even in the bigger urban milieus.12 Like Bernd Roeck (but without referring to the latter), Di Simplicio argues for the very different urban environment and the impact of “behavioural urbanization” on the changing cognition of witchcraft. However, the concrete process of urban modernization and its effect on witchcraft belief has never been explored in detail in micro historical research. Di Simplicio’s main thesis is that the geographical and ecological environment shaped the human brain and its inherent, neuronal creation of belief (in magic, religion, witchcraft). Thus, the evolution of humans from hunters/gatherers to peasants and finally, into town-dwellers, must have affected both witchcraft cognition and the witch hunts. Whereas witch hunts have declined, witchcraft cognition has not. In advocating the highly debatable “neuronal turn / neurocentric turn”13 and discussing the ambivalent dynamics of nature/nurture, Di Simplicio questions long-standing paradigms in witchcraft research. For example, he rejects the anyway highly debatable concept of superstitious, witchcraft-believing peasants as opposed to the supposedly sceptical, rational or humanistic town-dwellers.

  • 14 See Johannes Dillinger, “Hexenverfolgungen…” especially 131 [Dillinger, Johannes, « Hexenverfolgung (...)

6Di Simplicio’s explanatory model probably offers some answers to the question why witchcraft trials were rare in large cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Nevertheless, the question remains why in cities of the same size some were affected with witch hunts whilst others were not. Moreover, one would expect that a different perception of witchcraft in rural and urban contexts should manifest itself in different kinds of accusations against alleged witches. But the regionally based research on witchcraft trials has not found any significant difference in the types of witchcraft accusations made in urban and rural contexts.14

  • 15 No reference is given in Heinz Schilling, Die Stadt… [Schilling, Heinz, Die Stadt in der Frühen Neu (...)
  • 16 Ulrich Rosseaux, Städte in der Frühen Neuzeit…, 61 [Rosseaux, Ulrich, Städte in der Frühen Neuzeit, (...)
  • 17 Christopher R. Friedrichs, The Early Modern City…, 285-289 [Friedrichs, Christopher R., The Early M (...)

7Neither Roeck, Levack nor Di Simplicio can offer a catch-all model of urban witchcraft trials, although this is hardly surprising, given the lack of comparative research. This problem is compounded by one fact: Historians, who specialize in early modern urbanization, either do not mention witchcraft at all15 or do so in referring to alleged witches as marginal groups. For example, in his survey of early modern cities (mainly in the Holy Roman Empire), Ulrich Rosseaux labels religious minorities (Jews), foreigners and so called witches as fringe groups, the latter serving as scape-goats. But Rosseaux does this with reference to the massive witch hunts in the city of Lemgo; this, of all urban witch hunts, manifestly does not fit as a model of urban witches as members of marginal groups.16 The Canadian urban historian Christopher R. Friedrichs embedded the fear of witchcraft into a discussion of various crisis (e.g. war, famine, earthquake, flood) which threatened the fragile stability of urban communities. Strikingly, he took his example for urban witchcraft trials from Rhens, a small German town, where a pressure group of dwellers had initiated witchcraft trials that targeted even members of the elite.17

  • 18 A bibliography on the literature about the witch hunts in Lemgo see under http://www.hexenbuergerme (...)
  • 19 Ingo Koppenburg, Hexen in Detmold…; Ingrid Ahrendt-Schulte, Zauberinnen der Stadt Horn (1554-1603)(...)
  • 20 Katrin Moeller, Dass Willkür über Recht ginge... 354-406 [Moeller, Katrin, Dass Willkür über Recht (...)
  • 21 See pars pro toto the articles concerning the Imperial cities of Esslingen, Reutlingen, Schwäbisch (...)
  • 22 Wolfgang Behringer, Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria… [Behringer, Wolfgang, Witchcraft Persecutio (...)
  • 23 See all references in the respective entries in the Encyclopedia of witchcraft…, op. cit.
  • 24 Werner Tschacher, Die Zauberei und Hexereiprozesse in der Reichsstadt Aachen im Kontext…; Gerd Schw (...)

8In relation to the Holy Roman Empire, since 1978 regional studies have dealt with urban witch hunts in northwestern territorial towns like Detmold, Horn, Lemgo18, Minden, or Münster.19 The witchcraft trials in the cities of the Mecklenburg duchies were carefully researched by Katrin Moeller.20 Likewise, for the southwestern and southeastern area of the Holy Roman Empire, where the greatest density of imperial free cities can be found, studies of witchcraft trials in various early modern communities have been undertaken, including Augsburg, Offenburg, Esslingen, Reutlingen, Nördlingen, Schwäbisch Hall, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Rottweil, Ulm and Rothenburg ob der Tauber.21 Wolfgang Behringer has looked at the Bavarian imperial free cities and territorial towns.22 Studies of the witch hunts in the Franconian ecclesiastical territories include discussion of persecution in the episcopal “capital” cities like Bamberg, Würzburg, Eichstätt and Ellwangen.23 Thus, urban witchcraft research for the Empire has dealt with the largest imperial free cities like Aachen and Cologne,24 and with the witch hunts in small German towns.

  • 25 Gerhard Schormann, “Städtische Gesellschaft und Hexenprozess” [Schormann, Gerhard,« Städtische Gese (...)
  • 26 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 129-165. According to Dillinger, a weather crisis (...)
  • 27 See in general Rita Voltmer, “Konspiration gegen Herrschaft und Staat?” [Voltmer, Rita, « Konspirat (...)
  • 28 See Rita Voltmer, “Zwischen Herrschaftskrise…” [Voltmer, Rita, « Zwischen Herrschaftskrise, Wirtsch (...)

9Some surveys have also been published. In 1985 Gerhard Schormann dealt with urban societies and witchcraft in north-western Germany.25 Basing on a preliminary state of research, Schormann gathered some examples from a German region which in general had experienced only minor witch hunts. Nevertheless, even Schormann guessed at a political background to the witchcraft trials in Verden, Osnabrück and Lemgo. In 1998, Johannes Dillinger tried a broader overview with one focus on the city of Trier. He laid emphasis on the idea of persecutions “from below”, triggered by the populace and accepted by the authorities, both deeply entangled in the snare of witchcraft hysteria.26 Certainly, the bottom-up model of persecution can be traced not only in western Germany, but also in other parts of the Old Reich.27 What was unknown to Dillinger in 1998, but has since been established by further research, was the fact that witch hunts in the city of Trier were triggered by an urban witch-hunting committee and fuelled by the efforts of Jesuits resident in the city.28 Dillinger did, however, underline the importance of communication in urban witch-trials. The larger a city was, the more different individuals and groups participated in the process of disseminating rumors, articulating accusations, and finally, in reaching a verdict. Thus, multi-layered levels of discourse slowed down and hindered the development of the straightforward and rapid trial dynamic which usually led to massive witch hunts.

  • 29 Alison Rowlands, “Imperial Free Cities”, in: Encyclopedia of Witchcraft…, op. cit., 540-544.
  • 30 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgung…, op. cit., 135.

10In 2006, Alison Rowlands divided the imperial free cities into three categories: first, those that experienced severe endemic persecution; secondly those which experienced at least one severe persecution, but afterwards avoided witch-hunting; and thirdly, those that experienced very few trials.29 Schormann, Dillinger, and Rowlands agreed that no general explanation for urban witchcraft trials was evident. Both Dillinger and Rowlands conceded that in some cases ambitious magistrates, political factions or greedy notaries could fuel the dynamics of chain-reaction style witch trials; neither saw much variation in witch-trial patterns that was linked to the confessional context of the urban settings. Surprisingly, neither Roeck nor Di Simplicio were acquainted with the work of Dillinger or Rowlands. However, even in the absence of a general explanation for urban witch hunts, one statement can be made with confidence and common consent: Large cities saw relatively few scattered trials and executions, whereas small towns showed a greater disposition for witch hunts. This holds true despite the fact that some large cities like Nuremberg, Augsburg or Munich were the arena of very late witchcraft trials at the end of the 17th and during the 18th century.30

The urban landscape in the Holy Roman Empire and the thesis

  • 31 See Ulrich Rosseaux, Städte…, op. cit., 5-13, 60-68.

11In the Holy Roman Empire, diversity characterized the urban landscape on different levels31: about 4,000 cities and towns showed a broad variance in constitution, politics, religion, social stratification, economics, settlement and territory, from the large imperial free cities to the small rural towns. Including even minor urban settlements, roughly 10–25 percent of the whole German population lived in civic communities. Only 26 cities contained more than 10,000 inhabitants. Most small towns had only 2000 people, or fewer. Economically, the majority of these minor urban communities were supported by agrarian production, regional or even local trade, and craftsmanship.

12In early modern times, there was only slight political difference between imperial free cities (mostly in the south-western parts of the Old Reich) and so-called autonomy cities (Autonomiestädte), which were territorial cities with significant political autonomy, especially concerning their juridical competence. Whereas great and small imperial cities struggled for their autonomy against an intensifying imperial control, great and small territorial cities had to lead the same kind of battle against the attempts of their territorial sovereigns eager to extend their own power. Religious conflicts fuelled and complicated political conflicts. After 1555, only free imperial cities could choose their religion. Theoretically, territorial towns had to follow the one of their territorial overlords. Moreover, magistrates had to share the urban jurisdiction with competing ecclesiastical institutions or with princely privileges. A few imperial cities possessed full autonomy, high justice, an appeal court and a well-structured administration. Some towns ruled their own rural territory; others had only a small hinterland. Moreover, a city could be the seat of imperial or territorial courts of high justice or appeal, or could house a university with faculties that gave legal advice. Within the urban walls and frontiers lived people possessing full citizenship rights (usually craftsmen and the privileged urban aristocracy or patriciate) as well as those without, such as resident noble families, and the catholic clergy. Besides, vagrants, servants and the poor very often lacked the rights (and duties) of full citizenship. Sometimes minor citizenship rights could be bought by the lower classes. However, during the early modern period, cities tried to press all groups of inhabitants to become full citizens and thus, being included in the community of urban subjects and subdued to the city’s regiment. No clear distinction between the rural and the urban milieu can be drawn: Cities depended essentially on the in-migration of peasants since their mortality rates could not be made good by their birth rates. Urban households needed servants from the countryside, whilst the peasants visited the markets, festivals, churches, and—most importantly—the courts of the city. Especially the suburbs and riverine quarters kept their rural character with gardens and fish-ponds. Cities pooled the central functions of religion, administration, jurisdiction, economy, media and communication, and thus, rural and urban mentalities were mixed.

13The more autonomy a city possessed or the more it attempted to acquire, the more the magistrates sought to force all groups and inhabitants under their exclusive jurisdiction, administration, and authority. The villages and inhabitants of the rural hinterland were an especial focus of the ever-increasing control of the city authorities. In the Holy Roman Empire, the process of state-building dominated not only the territories, but found its parallel development on the political level of free civic communities. Sometimes, the attempts at territorial and urban state-building collided with each other, especially when territorial lords tried to exceed their power.

  • 32 Ulrich Rosseaux, Städte…, op. cit., 73-93; Heinz Schilling, Stadt…, op. cit., 94-112.

14It is apparent that the south of the Holy Roman Empire was dominated by imperial cities of different size, many of which converted to Lutheranism, some of which were surrounded by ardent Catholic territories; this was especially the case in Franconia. In the north, free hanseatic cities and territorial towns dominated, most of them likewise converted to Lutheranism. In the center and in the southwest of Germany, in the electorates of Trier, Mainz, and Cologne as well as in the duchy of Bavaria, there survived territorial towns of Catholic confession, whereas in the ducal towns of Saxonia, Thuringia or Württemberg, Lutheranism was established.32

  • 33 For the difference between an urban magistrate as primary authority (e.g. in Imperial cities) or as (...)

15Members of city councils stemmed of an oligarchic elite, although the conditions on which city councilors were elected and installed showed great diversity, depended on the ruling system of the urban regime, where either members of the patrician families or from craftsmen and/or merchants (guild system) or even a mixed system prevailed. During the 16th and 17th century, more and more learned jurists joined the urban magistrates and replaced the unlearned deputies from the guilds or the patrician elites. Corresponding with the process of urban “state-building”, members of the city council saw themselves not only as heads of the administration, but also as responsible for the urban body politic, its godliness and welfare, peace and order.33 In imperial cities, hanseatic cities, autonomy and territorial cities as well as in some residence cities, the ruling city council also served as the court of high justice and thus, dealt with legal cases of alleged witchcraft. Obviously, their respective conception of witchcraft had a vital impact on the conduct or non-conduct of trials. Many factors could influence or change this specific valuation, including education and the networks and influence of family, guild, trade or profession. Moreover, the personal composition of the council changed regularly, because of elections or the death of individuals. As Schwerhoff has stated for Cologne, this might bring about a generational change and a change in attitude towards witchcraft. Other city councils appointed special committees or commissioners to deal specifically with the witch hunts. For example in Esslingen, the councilors stripped themselves of their judicial privileges in favour of a special witch-hunting institution.

16This roughly painted diversity of urban landscape in the Holy Roman Empire supports the findings of H. C. Erik Midelfort, Robin Briggs and Oscar Di Simplicio, that witchcraft and the conception of the witches’ crime was a phenomenon of the greatest diversity in terms of both geography and chronology. This explains why a uniform witch hysteria, which controlled the geographically, socially, economically, religiously and politically diverse regions, territories and cities of early modern Europe, never existed. On the contrary, it is clear that witch hunts remained a phenomenon specific to certain times and places. With regard to the urban milieu, certain key questions remain: Why did so many city authorities decide not to facilitate witchcraft trials? Why did some urban communities face only very few execution at all, whereas others saw intense witch-hunting within their walls?

  • 34 See Rita Voltmer, Die politischen Funktionen der frühneuzeitlichen Hexenverfolgungen… [Voltmer, Rit (...)

17To reach a better understanding of the mechanisms of witch persecution, we must look at the point where witch belief materialized into an actual charge of witchcraft. Outside of an occasional mob lynching and even under the pressure of the populace, legal witchcraft trials had to be accepted by the city authorities and had to be conducted by regular courts. As was the case in territories and lordships, the persecution of so-called witches in an urban settlement depended on its political framework—on the setting of power, constitution and court in the relevant city, and how these were shaped by the governing councilors, their political parties and pressure groups. Amongst these elites and their factions, a certain conception of law and order, of peace, good policy, welfare and commonwealth developed. The witchcraft trials had to find their place in these discourses and practices of power. If and how witchcraft trials were conducted became the outcome of constant negotiation between the interests of competing factions and of individuals, between the ruling elite and the demands of the populace. Witchcraft trials could be fuelled by certain stimulating effects or could be cooled down by others. Cities with different political frameworks and different conceptions of good policy developed different kinds of regulative, legal and political methods in dealing with the matter of witchcraft. In German witchcraft research, these politics about witchcraft and its suppression are termed Hexenpolitik,34 meaning a specific policy in relation to witchcraft, which could either stimulate or discourage witch hunts.

  • 35 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 147-148.

18Neither Roeck nor Di Simplicio considered the political framework in which witch hunts occurred or were absent. On the one hand, Dillinger denied vehemently that urban elites might have staged witchcraft trials to discipline fringe groups. On the other hand, he suggests that some urban witch hunts (like in Reutlingen and elsewhere) were a vital factor in urban politics.35 In consensus with Gisela Wilbertz, Alison Rowlands, Katrin Moeller and Barbara Groß, I would argue that the political meaning of urban (and territorial) witch hunts are of vital importance. Yet, the specifics of urban politics concerning witch hunts in the Holy Roman Empire have not been scrutinized in a broad survey. What follows is an attempt to fill this historiographical gap, bearing in mind the hypothesis that the larger imperial, mostly Lutheran cities showed a greater reluctance to pursue witchcraft trials.

Diversities and similarities in urban Hexenpolitik

Imperial and Hanseatic cities

  • 36 Wolfgang Behringer, “Nuremberg, Imperial Free City”; Birke Griesshammer, “Hexen in Franken”, 2012 h (...)

19Like Frankfurt, Lutheran Nuremberg36 is an outstanding example of a free imperial city which experienced only very few, scattered witchcraft trials between 1500 and 1648. With roughly 40,000 inhabitants, between six or eight alleged witches were executed, most of them after the Thirty Years War. The ruling elite remained very sceptical about the crime and took legal action against it with reluctance. Obviously, the councilors were influenced by those humanists who ridiculed the belief in witches. In the name of urban peace, order and commonwealth, witchcraft policy in Nuremberg prevented the spread of rumors, gossip, slander and turmoil, sometimes using harsh methods. For example, in 1590 an executioner’s assistant was sentenced to death because he had tried to launch a witch hunt in the city. In 1627, the already circulating Druten Zeitung (Witches News-Sheet) was confiscated and forbidden, the printing blocks destroyed. This newspaper had propagated news of large witch hunts using the neighboring bishoprics of Eichstätt and Würzburg as examples. Fearing of an outbreak of popular demands for witch-hunting, the ruling elite secured urban peace and its monopoly in controlling the media.

  • 37 Gerd Schwerhoff, “Hexenverfolgungen…”, op. cit.; Thomas P. Becker, “Henot”, op. cit.
  • 38 William Monter, A Bewitched Duchy…, 97-100. Ranfaing’s dubious career begun in 1618, when she displ (...)

20At the same time in the Catholic free imperial city of Cologne,37 which was similar to Nuremberg in size and wealth, a witch hunt occurred which started in the same way as an infamous case from the Duchy of Lorraine. As in the celebrated Lorraine case of a so-called living saint Elisabeth Ranfaing,38 Clarisse Sophia showed symptoms of demonic possession. She and other possessed nuns accused a prominent and wealthy citizen of Cologne, Katharina Henot, of being the witch who had forced demons on them. Thus, in the years between 1627 and 1630 Cologne saw the executions of 24 people for witchcraft. Between 1647 and 1655 a further five alleged witches were executed, amongst them two children aged 15 and 13. One could argue that in a city of more than 40,000 inhabitants only 34 provable executions seems few, but we have to take into account the fact that in an average of five years Cologne faced roughly 19 executions for other capital crimes than witchcraft. In this context, the death toll in Cologne witchcraft trials is significant.

  • 39 See Gerd Schwerhoff, Köln im Kreuzverhör..., 424-441; Julia Eulenstein, Ditte Guräck, Rechtliche As (...)

21In Cologne a certain climate of persecution was triggered by ambitious Jesuits who exorcised the possessed nuns. It seems obvious that via the efficient Jesuit network they had become familiar with the concurrently happening celebrated case in Lorraine. Constantly competing with Jesuits elsewhere, with Sophia they tried to propagate their own living saint. But once the witch persecution had started, its dynamics could not be stopped easily. It was also crucial that the Imperial City of Cologne did not possess the monopoly of high criminal jurisdiction. On the contrary, the supreme legal court, manned by Cologne burgers, made its oath to the prince-elector of Cologne. Although the magistrate of Cologne had the right of first arrest, it then had to transfer the prisoners to the supreme court installed by the prince-elector. The constant conflict about judicial privileges between the magistrate in Cologne and the prince-elector might also have fuelled the witch hunt in 1627–1630. Not only did the Cologne Jesuits act as a dutiful instrument of the prince-elector’s reform policy; there had also been a generational change in the legal court, which by the late 1620s was dominated by zealous judges, educated by Jesuits, who strongly believed that the holy city of Cologne was threatened by demonic assaults. Nevertheless, at the start of the Cologne witchcraft trials, populace, councilors, the Supreme Court and the Jesuits were working hand in hand.39 In contrast to the councilors in Nuremberg, those in Cologne followed another concept of peace and order, which led them to battle against witches, even at the cost of delivering suspects to the competing princely jurisdiction.

  • 40 Werner Tschacher, Die Zauberei und Hexereiprozesse…, op. cit., 172-173.

22During the 16th century, the Imperial city of Aachen showed itself rather reluctant to conduct witchcraft trials. In 1598, a Catholic council was re-installed and in 1601, the Jesuit order found a new place of activity in Aachen. Recently, Werner Tschacher’s careful research has shown that between 1598 and 1649 only eleven witchcraft trials were conducted (with six executions). Thus, Aachen belonged to the sample of Imperial cities which pursued a moderate anti-witchcraft-policy. As was the case in Cologne, in Aachen the peak of (five) executions happened in 1630. Tschacher suggests that—like in Cologne—the impact of the Jesuit’s Counter-Reformation work was partly responsible. However, it also seems clear that witchcraft policy in Aachen altered with personnel changes amongst the ruling elite.40

  • 41 Günter Jerousckek, “Der Hexenprozess als politisches Machtinstrument…”; Id., Die Hexen und ihr Proz (...)

23A short look at some minor free imperial cities shows further diversity: In 1562/1563, the council in Lutheran Esslingen, which was inhabited by roughly 6,000 people, allowed three witchcraft trials (with one execution) to soothe the demands of the populace for persecution; these had been triggered by sermons from an urban minister. Jerouschek has called this anti-witchcraft-strategy a “political trial”. Between 1662 and 1665, Esslingen experienced a severe witch hunt, after the city councilors appointed a new jurist to undertake the investigations. Daniel Hauff, who was backed by the Secret Council (geheimer Rat) and provided with wide-ranging privileges, implemented a harsh anti-witchcraft-policy in Esslingen, which led to 32 executions between 1662 and 1666. Daniel Hauff used his special privileges to strengthen his political position; he effectively combined the anti-witchcraft-policy with the anti-witchcraft-business of his own. The trials terrorized the city’s hinterland, but as soon as denunciations and charges began to reach the inner city, the councilors lost their confidence in Hauff. The witch-hunting ended after he had died or was murdered in 1665.41

  • 42 Thomas Fritz, “Hexenverfolgungen in der Reichsstadt Reutlingen” [Fritz, Thomas, « Hexenverfolgungen (...)

24In Lutheran Reutlingen between 1565 and 1667 outbreaks of witch hunts alternated with periods without any trials at intervals of six to eight years. Recent research has found a ready explanation. In Reutlingen, the city council was elected from the craftsmen guilds and was identical with the court of high justice. Mostly every second generation of council members gained political profit in conducting witchcraft trials. As soon as these council members settled and felt secure in their roles, they stopped the trials. This alternating wheel of fortune went around for a hundred years. Thus, the anti-witchcraft-policy in Reutlingen was characterized by the influence of personal interests to gain a successful political career.42

  • 43 Ralf Peter Fuchs, “Von diesen unbesonnenen ärgerlichen und gottlosen Hexenprozessen” [Fuchs, Ralf-P (...)

25In Westphalia, Lutheran Herford was granted the privilege of an Imperial City in 1631 and lost it again in 1647, when it was seized by Brandenburg. About 55 women and men had fallen prey to witchcraft trials, which peaked in 1627 and up to 1647. It seems clear that the witchcraft trials in Herford were a demonstration of sovereignty and thus a vital part in the political struggle for imperial freedom against outsiders.43

  • 44 Alison Rowlands, Witchcraft Narratives in Germany: Rothenburg… [Rowlands, Alison, Witchcraft Narrat (...)

26On the contrary, in Lutheran Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the city councilors pursued the same policy as Nuremberg in suppressing witchcraft slander, rumors and gossip. A peaceful, undisturbed commonwealth resulted, in which only three executions of alleged witches occurred.44

  • 45 Mario Zeck, “Im Rauch gehn Himmel geschüggt“ [Zeck, Mario, “Im Rauch gehn Himmel geschüggt”. Hexenv (...)

27In Catholic Rottweil, which counted about 5,000 inhabitants and which ruled 27 villages, between 1546 and 1659, 266 people were executed as alleged witches. Every year after 1578 saw executions. Most victims came from the city’s rural hinterland or were vagrants from other regions. The so-called witches, stemming from the inner city, almost all belonged to the very low farming or marginal stratum of beggars. As the seat of the Imperial Aulic Court, Rottweil contained many well-known jurists and legal consultants within its walls. Some of these legal consultants together with members of the guilds and the town’s syndic made up the city council, which owned the full monopoly of high jurisdiction in Rottweil and its large rural hinterland. As the councilors were appointed for life, Rottweil saw little change in the court’s anti-witchcraft-policy. Obviously, this policy followed the general aims of early modern city government: to purify the city from vagrants, to discipline the poor, to demonstrate power both in the territory and in the inner city and thus, to create an omnipresent authoritative urban regimen.45

  • 46 Peter Oestmann, “Die Offenburger Hexenprozesse…”; Franz Volk, Hexen in der Landvogtei Ortenau und R (...)
  • 47 Rowlands, “Imperial Free cities”, op. cit., 541.

28The council of the Imperial city of Offenburg46, re-catholicized in 1530, firstly showed reluctance in pursuing witches, which provoked protest on the part of the guilds, since the neighboring Ortenau already had experienced 15 executions between 1595 and 1599. Facing the slack witchcraft policy of the city council, the guilds called for the Habsburg governor of Lower Alsace to take charge of the witchcraft trials. They appealed to the Imperial Aulic court, which send a commission to Offenburg. The city council was forced to conduct a witchcraft trial in 1603. In the following witchcraft trials many families called for help against the witchcraft charges in Offenburg at the Imperial Chamber court. Nevertheless, in 1608, up to 14 people were executed in Offenburg. Obviously, the ruling patrician councilors presented themselves as eager witch hunters to prevent any criticism of their politics, which aimed to preserve the common good against the threat of witchcraft. As Alison Rowlands has pointed out, political tension between the old patrician council and the guilds found an expression through the medium of witchcraft trials.47 The Imperial Chamber Court put an end to the witchcraft trials in 1608, but between 1627 and 1629, a witch hunt in Offenburg caused 60 executions without any further appeal to the Imperial Chamber Court. Since modern research is missing, little is known about why in 1627 the Offenburg authorities re-started the witch hunt so vigorously.

  • 48 Maryse Simon, Frontières de la sorcellerie… ; Jacques Roehrig, L’holocauste des sorcières d’Alsace…(...)

29Most of the Imperial cities in Alsace saw devastating witchcraft trials, like Colmar (44), Hagenau (111), Münster (39), Obernai (28), or Sélestat (126). It is interesting that the non-imperial cities shared this persecutory tendency, like Saverne (79), Ensisheim (105), and Molsheim (260). Obviously, Alsace, being dominated by small and middle-sized towns, was the heartland of urban witchcraft, which was highly interwoven in rural structures. At least in Sélestat and in Molsheim, the Jesuit order and their Counter-Reformation activities are linked to the witch hunts. Unfortunately no survey of the Alsatian witch hunts has yet been written.48

  • 49 See Rolf Schulte, “Hamburg und Bremen”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 471-473.
  • 50 Katrin Moeller, Das Willkür…, op. cit., 354-372.

30A comparative glance at a hanseatic city completes the picture. In Lutheran Rostock, about 110 witchcraft trials were conducted in the wake of urban tensions without any links to weather catastrophes or plagues. Thus, Rostock tried many more so-called witches than Hamburg, Lübeck or Bremen.49 Mostly vagrant and resident poor, old women, who belonged to an urban sub-culture of magical healers, soothsayers and sorcerers, were charged with witchcraft, deception and theft. The conduct of witchcraft trials in Rostock stayed completely and without any disturbance in the hands of the city council. Thus, the anti-witchcraft-policy fitted neatly into the general attempts, made by the city authorities to banish vagrants, fringe groups and deviant behavior, to abolish aggressive begging and fraud, and to eradicate any remnants of popish rituals. By these means of discipline, the councilors tried to promote urban welfare and peace. Members of the ruling elite and their families were never in danger of being denounced as witches, as happened in smaller towns. By averting all dangers that would cause witchcraft slander to sweep from the lower classes upwards, the Rostock regimen kept its stability.50

Autonomy and territorial cities

  • 51 See Gisela Wilbertz, “Osnabrück…”, op. cit., Elvira Topalović, Sprachwahl – Textsorte – Dialogstruk (...)
  • 52 Wolfgang Behringer, “Augsburg, Imperial City of”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 65-66.

31In conducting their specific witchcraft-policy, autonomous cities shared many similarities with the minor Imperial cities with severe persecution. The self-governing city of Osnabrück had adopted Lutheranism, but the Catholic Bishop of Münster still occupied the Cathedral and another church. By the mid-1580s, more than 130 victims had already fallen prey to the urban witch hunts. More executions followed in 1590 and 1592. A new “burning time” reached its peak between 1636 and 1639. Altogether, not less than 260 people were executed. Two mayors, Rudolf Hammacher and Wilhelm Peltzer, were the masterminds behind the scheme. Recent research, also dealing with the fabrication and manipulation of the Osnabrück trial records, has shown how the struggle for political autonomy, the suppression of political adversaries and the hunting down of witches, came together to explain the witch hunts. Especially in the 17th century, mayor Peltzer first used the witchcraft trials as a political instrument to protect municipal autonomy against Swedish attempts. Furthermore, he blackened his enemies’ reputation by accusing their female relatives as witches.51 Thus, bi-confessional Osnabrück followed very different witchcraft-policy from bi-confessional Augsburg, where between 1654 and 1699 only 16 alleged witches were executed.52

  • 53 Michael Ströhmer, Lemgo…, op. cit., 114f., 130, 209.

32The witch hunts in the notorious city of Lemgo (Lutheran) can be interpreted in a similar way. At least 250 people were executed as alleged witches, most of them after 1653. Like in Osnabrück, the city council, directed by zealous mayors, struggled with its territorial lord for autonomy and to protect Lutheranism. Like in Osnabrück, conflicts between groups of the ruling elite were fought out with witchcraft charges. Like in Osnabrück, the anti-witchcraft-policy was an inherent part of power struggles. And like in Osnabrück, the legal court was personally identified with the city council. The factions in the witchcraft trials mirrored disputes between political adversaries.53

  • 54 Barbara Groß, Hexerei in Minden…, op. cit.

33This pattern of anti-witchcraft-policy found its counterpart in the city of Minden (Lutheran), where external and internal crises of political conflict were accompanied by outbreaks of witchcraft trials. Thus, between 1584 and 1684, 134 trials with 95 executions occurred.54 It is noteworthy that the witch hunts in Osnabrück, Lemgo, and Minden did not result from organized popular demands for action against witches, but mostly followed a top-down model, in which the urban authorities used the option of “witchcraft trials” as an instrument in their political struggles as well as against personal enemies and their families. Particularly in Minden, witchcraft rumors and gossip very seldom reached the court room. People were quite reluctant to act as witnesses of crime. As in other examples from the urban milieu, the anti-witchcraft-policy was mainly carried out by political means, and not by the “hysteria” of the lower orders.

  • 55 See Rita Voltmer, Trier…, op. cit., and Rita Voltmer, “Germany’s first ‘superhunt’?” [Voltmer, Rita (...)

34Certainly, middle-sized and small territorial towns could easily become a hot-house of persecuting climate. Most paradigmatic were the ongoing prosecutions in Catholic Trier, where most of the triggering factors bundled together at the end of the 16th century. The city council had just lost its struggle for the city’s autonomy against the elector of Trier, and there were years of harvest failure and speculative trading, which had pushed up prices. The Jesuits, with their schools, sermons, teachings and exorcisms of seemingly possessed child witches, fuelled a climate against alleged witches. The mass hunts in the neighboring ecclesiastical territories produced many denunciations against rich citizens, whilst zealous notaries brought the elaborate concept of the crime of witchcraft into the courtrooms. Peter Binsfeld in 1589 wrote his famous tract in support of the trials, reporting the denunciations of child witches. For a time, juvenile gangs of students and pupils from the Jesuits’ school ruled the street in defaming adults as witches. The town guilds constituted witch-hunting committees, pressing the authorities to conduct more trials. As in other cities of the same size and stratification, the cry for justice grew loud with the demand to bring the rich to the stake. The weak council, who had lost any competence in cases of high justice, showed itself incapable of establishing an anti-witchcraft-policy of its own. Some of its members were hunted down as witches by the zealous alliance between the princely vice-regent, the Jesuits, Binsfeld and the local witch-hunting committees. Thus, Trier gained a notorious reputation for its witch hunt that brought wealthy mayors, men of the ruling elite, high clerics, children and (of course) women to the stake.55

  • 56 Rita Voltmer, Jesuiten und Kinderhexen…[Voltmer, Rita, « Jesuiten und Kinderhexen. Thesen zur Entst (...)
  • 57 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 144-145.
  • 58 See Ingo Koppenborg, Hexen in Detmold…, op. cit.
  • 59 Rainer Decker, “Paderborn, Prince-Bishopric of”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 869-870.

35In some Catholic towns or in cities that were re-catholicized, the work of the Jesuits as well as their exorcisms entrenched an anti-witchcraft-mission, which provided the respective participants in trials with clues as to which sinful behavior could be judged as a sign of witchcraft. There is strong evidence that the practice of exorcising child witches, conducted by Jesuits in Trier at the end of the 16th century, was adapted in many other towns (e.g. in Paderborn), and even transferred to Protestant milieus.56 Sometimes these practices led to witchcraft trials. Significantly, these cases occurred in contexts where children, juveniles and adults were confined together, such as in hospitals, schools, seminaries and prisons.57 The witchcraft trials in the Lutheran city of Detmold58 are examples of these later cases of urban witchcraft, as are those in the Catholic Alsatian towns of Molsheim, Sélestat or Hagenau. Likewise, spreading from Paderborn to smaller cities in Westphalia (Büren, Brakel), between 1656 and 1660 a witch hunt was triggered by a Jesuit exorcist and juvenile denouncers.59

  • 60 Jonathan B. Durrant, Witchcraft, Gender and Society…; Wolfgang Mährle, “O wehe der armen seelen” [D (...)
  • 61 See Birke Griesshammer, Angeklagt – gemartert – verbrannt…; Hexenwahn in Franken… [Grießhammer, Bir (...)
  • 62 Hans-Wolfgang Bergerhausen, “Die Hexenverfolgungen in Würzburg 1590-1630”, especially 90-91; Manfre (...)

36Notorious witchcraft trials happened in the Franconian towns of episcopal residence, like Würzburg, Bamberg or Eichstätt, where so-called witch bishops orchestrated severe persecution.60 These bishops pursued a specific anti-witchcraft-policy. Educated by Jesuits and filled with the zeal of the Counter-Reformation, they tried to purify their communities of all kinds of deadly sin. Yet, their anti-witchcraft-policy served many purposes, including the disciplining of the villages of their rural hinterlands as well as the urban elite, who showed resistance to the witch-hunting campaign.61 Notably, the Franconian prince bishops claimed the prerogative of high justice and regarded the conduct of witchcraft trials as part of their respective sovereignty. This, perhaps, is the political reason why Franconian prince-bishops showed reluctance in reacting to popular demands and turmoil. In 1626 and 1627, pressure groups in Grünsfeld, Lauda and even in Ochsenfurt usurped the criminal justice system by seizing and lynching alleged witches. Open turmoil happened in Ochsenfurt where, according to a chronicle, more than 150 people assembled to demand witchcraft trials by force.62 These uprising were forbidden by the prince-bishops, not because of a sudden sceptical attitude, but simply because the turmoils had violated their prerogative.

  • 63 Katrin Moeller, Das Willkür…, op. cit., 362-377; Katrin Moeller, “Hexenverfolgung als Kulturtransfe (...)

37Catholic electors and bishops were not the only princes filled with eager plans of purifying society. Likewise, the Lutheran dukes of Mecklenburg tried to get rid of so-called popish superstition, pagan rituals and witchcraft, for example in their residence cities of Güstrow and Schwerin.63 Whether in the territorial (residential) cities of Catholic or those of Protestant lords and bishops, in general a specific confessional moral discipline was established. Thus, some urban witchcraft trials served an elite disciplinary program all too effectively.

Small rural towns

  • 64 Due to lack of space, it is impossible to list the multitude of articles, concerning minor German t (...)

38A multitude of small rural towns, which counted fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, were affected by witchcraft trials in the early modern Holy Roman Empire.64 Although their daily life was highly interwoven with the life of the surrounding villages, very often the law court of the territorial lord was situated there. People from the villages were charged with witchcraft at these courts, which were manned by learned notaries, who were well versed in the elaborate concept of the crime of witchcraft. Here, the popular demand for witch-hunting and the formation of witch-hunting committees as local pressure groups could not be prevented by the notoriously weak city councils. Additionally, the dense social and close geographical proximity between court and council, parties and people, accused and accusers, had a dynamic impact. A milieu of persecution easily established itself, leading to turmoil, occasional lynching and indeed witchcraft hysteria. In these contexts a town’s administrative elite could hardly ever develop and enforce a specific witchcraft-policy. More than once, the members of the elite and their families became the first target of the witch-hunting mob, as happened in small rural towns in the valleys of the Mosel and Rhine (like Cochem and Rhens), in the Eifel (Neuerburg, Bitburg), in the Hunsrück (Kastellaun), or in Westphalia (Brakel).

Structures

39Some observations concerning the factors which hindered or which stimulated witchcraft trials in the city can be summarized as follows:

401. No matter what size a city was—the bias of the witchcraft-policy had a crucial impact. City councilors, who held the uncontested power to conduct high justice, could develop a policy which remained resistant to the pursuit of witchcraft trials. Thus, they suppressed all kinds of popular demands for persecution, gossip, slander, rumour and turmoil. In short, they gained control of communication, the media and the transmission of ideas both about witchcraft and relevant trials. A proper administration of justice tightened the control of bailiffs, judges, jurors, and notaries. As examples from the large Imperial cities (Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Aachen, Augsburg), the duchies of Mecklenburg or notably from Rothenburg ob der Tauber show, by these and other means of control, trials could be avoided totally, or were directed only against members of fringe groups while sheltering the elite from denunciations. Witchcraft-policy which showed reluctance in conducting trials did not necessarily rely on scepticism about the existence of witchcraft. However, a sceptical attitude towards the reliability of witchcraft accusations and denunciations in particular, and against judicial procedure in witchcraft trials in general prevailed.

  • 65 See Alison Rowlands, Rothenburg gegen Würzburg…; Jürgen Michael Schmidt, “Ein politisches Ausrottun (...)
  • 66 See Wolfgang Behringer, Hexenverfolgung in Bayern… [Behringer, Wolfgang, Hexenverfolgung in Bayern. (...)

41Lutheran cities in the southwest with their eager Catholic witch-hunting neighbours had to deal with a set of problems: Firstly, the councilors had to avoid the interference of Imperial Catholic officials in cases of unrest resulting from popular demands for witch-hunting. Secondly, witch hunts could easily cross territorial borders, and open the door for political conflicts with a competing neighbour. Therefore, any interference had to be avoided and urban subjects had to be sheltered from being seized for trial by witch-hunting neighbours.65 Moreover, in the context of confessional competition, Lutheran cities presented themselves as model-societies, where pure anti-popish religion, law, order and peace prevailed.66 Furthermore, a good organization of urban supplies, together with the control of speculative trade and the price market, could more easily avoid economic crises caused by harsh weather and the resultant harvest failures and inflation.

  • 67 See Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 156-157.
  • 68 Wolfgang Behringer, Bayern…, op. cit., 213.
  • 69 Katrin Moeller, Kulturtransfer…, op. cit., 325.

42Yet, in some cases witchcraft trials were forced upon the cities by their overlords. In such cases, cities still had different options for action. In Offenburg, the reluctant council, being forced by the Imperial Aulic Chamber to take up prosecutions, shifted its attitude, probably because the patrician council wanted to maintain its political position in struggles with the guilds. The Swabian city of Günzburg, forced by its territorial overlord to conduct a witchcraft trial, remained obstructive. The council deployed every measure which helped to prolong the trial and finally, lead to the release of the suspect.67 Bavarian cities like Ingolstadt, Donauwörth and Munich could not help but follow the orders of the Duke of Bavaria, even with protest.68 Likewise, in cities of residence and in small towns in Mecklenburg, the dukes dominated urban witchcraft trials and subdued them to their jurisdiction.69

  • 70 Alison Rowlands, Imperial cities…, op. cit., 541.

432. On the other hand, magistrates and ruling elites could develop a policy in favour of witchcraft trials. Several reasons led to this, usually due to a combination of factors: witchcraft trials were used as a political instrument in external conflicts (city against territorial lord) and/or in internal conflicts (tensions between guilds/patricians). Thus, the witchcraft trial was used as a mechanism to establish authority, especially in disciplining disorderly subjects and the villages of the hinterland, as the Rottweil case has shown. Witchcraft trials were also often part of a purifying programme to establish godly order and moral discipline. In the territorial as well as in the urban milieu, witchcraft trials served as a vehicle to gain political influence, status and profit. In the cities, the names of some mayors (e.g. Hammacher, Peltzer) and jurists (Leonhard Friz, Wolfgang Graf, and Daniel Hauff) are linked with this model.70

44Significantly, we find this kind of anti-witchcraft-policy mostly in autonomous cities, territorial towns and cities of residence in north-western and north-eastern Germany. The cities of Minden, Lemgo, Osnabrück or Herford used the medium of the witchcraft trial eagerly against their territorial lord or in internal struggles for power. Thus, Herford gained (for a short while) the status of an Imperial city, whilst Lemgo fought off a second reformation and the conversion to Calvinism.

45When combined with multiple stimulating factors a persecuting hothouse could be created in these urban milieus. These factors were a) the acceptance of the elaborated concept of witchcraft, b) the acceptance of witchcraft being a crimen exceptum, c) the use of excessive torture, d) the close interpersonal relations between magistrate, court and accused, and e) the absence of a supervising overlord, state or authority, sometimes because the city sealed itself off from any intrusion. Furthermore, in Protestant towns, which were forced back to Catholicism, the change of confession could have a stimulating impact on the witchcraft trials, as happened in Alsace.

  • 71 Katrin Moeller, Kulturtransfer…, op. cit., 329-331.

463. In some smaller rural towns, where the territorial prince and his bailiffs remained the town lords, the councilors could not develop their own specific witchcraft-policy, but had to follow their lord’s standards. External influences, like witchcraft denunciations from villagers or the demand for justice or spectacular exorcisms could lead to an outbreak of massive witch hunts to which even rich people, men, children and clerics fell victims. Here, the bottom-up model of persecution is evident. Nevertheless, we should not over-estimate the power of pressure groups from the populace: Whereas in the small towns of the Mosel-Rhine region, witch-hunting committees usurped a lot of judicial prerogatives, such groups are unknown in the urban witch hunts in Mecklenburg’s small towns. Here, political and social tensions between groups of the elite backed the city-wide debate about witchcraft and its punishment.71

47In general, magistrates and their officials, who at first designed policies in favour of witchcraft trials, could realize the ways in which peace, order and good policy were actually violated by severe witch-hunting. Some magistrates only learned this lesson after bad experiences. They changed their politics against witch-hunting. Even in large cities the mechanisms of control could fail when extraordinary events suddenly appeared, like the possessed nuns of Cologne. But after a momentary collapse, these cities regained control and engaged in no further witchcraft trials. Altogether, in the Holy Roman Empire the urban politics towards witchcraft followed similar patterns to the politics adopted by territorial lords towards witchcraft.

Perspectives

48This paper presents only some aspects of witchcraft in the cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Many unanswered questions remain. Most of all, we have to look more closely not only at the existence or non-existence of witchcraft trials, but also at the whole issue of how high criminal jurisdiction was implemented. For example, it would be interesting to see if, in times of mass witch persecution, other crimes were dismissed, or (as was the case with sodomy, incest or adultery) were likewise punished severely, using them, too, as medium in the struggles for power. Perhaps the very late single witchcraft trials in larger cities can also be better explained in this broader perspective.

  • 72 See above ‘behavioural urbanization’ from the work of Jan de Vries.

49We have seen that witch trials in the cities of the Holy Roman Empire seldomly were targeted against practitioners of ritual magic or plague spreaders, as Levack had assumed. However, possession did play a vital role in some urban witch hunts, such as Cologne or in Catholic and Lutheran territorial towns. However, like in Trier, the possessed juveniles came from villages. It was not so much the concept of “behavioural urbanization”72, but rather the concept of political calculation which explains why some cities were at first reluctant to hunt witches and then started a panic, or why others learned not to conduct any witchcraft trials in future. When it comes to witchcraft perception, in the sense how the crime of witchcraft was recognized and validated, we can leave speculations about neuronal functionalism aside. Instead we can assume that members of the ruling elite developed a certain attitude concerning witchcraft and its potential persecution—and that this respective attitude shifted and changed, being conditional on political, social, and economic milieus, and on processes of learning, negotiating and calculation. Moreover, a generation change in council committees, like in Cologne or Reutlingen could bring about different witchcraft-policies.

  • 73 See Rita Voltmer, “The Judge’s lore?” [Voltmer, Rita, « The Judge’s lore ? The politico-religious c (...)
  • 74 See Walter Rummel, “Möden, Johann (Jan)”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 773-774; the forthcoming bio (...)

50Thus, like Behringer, Schwerhoff, Tschacher, Roeck and others demand, we have to pay much more attention to the human factor. Accusing people of witchcraft, acting as a witness or scribe, and initiating, conducting or banning witchcraft trials, were choices made by people, and only very rarely, under duress. A striking example for the impact of the human factor can be found in Münstereifel, a small territorial city in the Eifel, which was situated like a hub in the midst of one of the worst European witch hunts in the counties of Manderscheid and numerous small lordships in the first half of the 17th century.73 However, in Münstereifel, not one witchcraft trial against a citizen or inhabitant occurred, a very strange fact, since the city elite was dominated by several resident jurists like Dr Johannes Möden, who acted as notaries and commissioners in the territorial witch hunts. Möden and his colleagues were responsible for hundreds of executions in the surrounding areas, but simultaneously, they kept their resident city free of denunciations, probably to protect their families, probably to keep up peace and order in their own habitat.74

51Modern witchcraft research has to work more closely on the networks of jurists, theologians, clerics, ministers, councilors and nobles, who were involved in witchcraft trials—such networks established in (Jesuit) schools, at University faculties, in court rooms, in marriage connections, in families, in client networks or in religious confraternities. In these networks, the perception of the witches’ crime, the knowledge about witchcraft and the ways of its persecution (or non-persecution) were transmitted and thus, urban and rural milieus were interlinked. To conclude with Carlo Ginzburg, to study the matter of witchcraft is much more than to study the story of the witch hunts. In fact, it is a key science to understanding early modern rural and urban societies, their culture and their politics.

Notes

1 Robert Muchembled, Culture… 293. [comme dit dans l’introduction, les éditeurs scientifiques ont complété la bibliographie aux normes françaises du livre : Muchembled, Robert, Culture populaire et culture des élites dans la France moderne (xve-xviie siède), Paris, Flammarion, 1978, 398 p.]

2 Die Hexen der Neuzeit…ed. Claudia Honegger, 107-151 “Die theatralische Spätphase. Von der ruralen Hexerei zur städtischen Besessenheit“ [Honegger, Claudia (dir.), Die Hexen der Neuzeit. Studien zur Sozialgeschichte eines kulturellen Deutungsmusters, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, 1978, 393 p.].

3 Christina Larner, Enemies… 193 [Larner, Christina, Enemies of God. The Witch-Hunt in Scotland, London, Chatto and Windus, 1981, X-244 p.].

4 Gisela Wilbertz, “Hexenprozesse…” [Wilbertz, Gisela, “Hexenprozesse und Zauberglaube im Hochstift Osnabrück”, Osnabrücker Mitteilungen 84, 1978, p. 33-50].

5 Bernd Roeck, Lebenswelt und Kultur…, 116; Id., Civic Culture…, 11; Id., Wahrnehmungsgeschichtliche…, 72-103, especially 90-91; Id., Säkularisierung…, 168-182, especially 177-178; Id., “Urban Wirch Trials” [Roeck, Bernd, Lebenswelt und Kultur des Bürgertums in der Frühen Neuzeit, München, Oldenburg, 1991, XX-158 p. 2nd augmented edition 2011 ; Id., Civic Culture and Everyday Life in Early Modern Germany, Leiden & Boston, Brill, 2006, XII-286 p. ; Id., « Wahrnehmungsgeschichtliche Aspekte des Hexenwahns – Ein Versuch », Historisches Jahrbuch 112, 1992, p. 72-103 ; Id., « Säkularisierung als Desensibilisierung. Der Hexenwahn aus der Perspektive der Sensibilitätsgeschichte », p. 168-182 dans Sönke, Lorenz, et Bauer, Dieter R. (dir.), Das Ende der Hexenverfolgung, Stuttgart, Steiner, 1995, XXVII-338 p. ; Id., « Urban Witch Trials » 82-89, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 4/1, 2009].

6 Bernd Roeck, Civic Culture…, op. cit., 11.

7 Ibid., 7.

8 Bernd Roeck, « Urban Witch Trials », op. cit., 88-89.

9 Brian P. Levack, The witch-hunt…, p. 137-140 [Levack, Brian P., The witch-hunt in early modern Europe, third edition, London Longman, 2006, XV-344 p.].

10 The term “witchcraft cognition” is understood in the sense how the (alleged) phenomenon ‘witchcraft’ was framed in form and content, how it was believed in, recognized, remembered, and validated as crime.

11 Oscar Di Simplicio, “On the neuropsychological origins of witchcraft cognition…”. This article contains some statistics and considerations, already published in Id., “Urban witchcraft”, Encyclopedia of witchcraft..., p. 1147-1151. [Di Simplicio, Oscar, « On the neuropsychological origins of witchcraft cognition: The geographic and economic variable » p. 507-527 dans Levack, Brian P. (dir.), The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, XIV-630 p. ; Golden, Richard M. (dir.), Encyclopedia of Witchcraft…, Santa Barbara (CA), ABC-Clio, 2006, 4 volumes].

12 See pars pro toto Owen Davies, “Urbanization…” [Davies, Owen, « Urbanization and the decline of Witchcraft. An examination of London », Journal of Social History 30, 1997, p. 597-617].

13 It is still debated wether the humanities shall adapt neuropsychological and neuroscientific patterns of explanation; see Christian Geyer (dir.), Hirnforschung und Willensfreiheit…; Jo Reichertz, and Nadia Zaboura (dir.), Akteur Gehirn…; Peter Becker, “The Coming of a Neurocentric Age?” [Geyer, Christian (dir.), Hirnforschung und Willensfreiheit. Zur Deutung der neuesten Experimente, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 2004, 295 p. ; Reichertz, Jo, et Zaboura, Nadia (dir.), Akteur Gehirn – oder das vermeintliche Ende des handelnden Subjekts. Eine Kontroverse, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006, 316 p. ; Becker, Peter, « The Coming of a Neurocentric Age ? Neurosciences and the new biology of violence : a historian’s comment », Medicina & Storia 10, 2010, p. 101-128].

14 See Johannes Dillinger, “Hexenverfolgungen…” especially 131 [Dillinger, Johannes, « Hexenverfolgungen in Städten » p. 129-165 dans Gunther, Franz, et Irsigler, Franz (dir.), Methoden und Konzepte der historischen Hexenforschung, Trier, Spee, 1998, IX-429 p.].

15 No reference is given in Heinz Schilling, Die Stadt… [Schilling, Heinz, Die Stadt in der Frühen Neuzeit, München, R. Oldenbourg, 1993, X-148 p.].

16 Ulrich Rosseaux, Städte in der Frühen Neuzeit…, 61 [Rosseaux, Ulrich, Städte in der Frühen Neuzeit, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2006, VII-152 p.].

17 Christopher R. Friedrichs, The Early Modern City…, 285-289 [Friedrichs, Christopher R., The Early Modern City 1450-1750, New York, Longman, 1995, X-381 p.].

18 A bibliography on the literature about the witch hunts in Lemgo see under http://www.hexenbuergermeisterhaus.de/bibliografie.html?&L=4.

19 Ingo Koppenburg, Hexen in Detmold…; Ingrid Ahrendt-Schulte, Zauberinnen der Stadt Horn (1554-1603)…; Michael Ströhmer, Von Hexen, Ratsherren und Juristen…; Barbara Groß, Hexerei in Minden…; Sabine Alfing, Hexenjagd und Zaubereiprozesse in Münster... [Koppenburg, Ingo, Hexen in Detmold. Verfolgung in der lippischen Residenzstadt 1599-1669, Bielefeld, Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2004, 220 p. ; Ahrendt-Schulte, Ingrid, Zauberinnen der Stadt Horn (1554-1603). Magische Kultur und Hexenverfolgung in der Frühen Neuzeit, Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag, 1997, 268 p. ; Strohmer, Michael, Von Hexen, Ratsherren und Juristen. Die Rezeption der Peinlichen Halsgerichtsordnung Kaiser Karls V. in den frühen Hexenprozessen der Hansestadt Lemgo 1583-1621, Paderborn, 2002, 339 p. ; Groß, Barbara, Hexerei in Minden. Zur sozialen Logik von Hexereiverdächtigungen und Hexenprozessen (1584-1684), Münster, Aschendorf, 2009, 391 p. ; Alfing, Sabine, Hexenjagd und Zaubereiprozesse in Münster. Vom Umgang mit Sündenböcken in den Krisenzeiten des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, Münster, Waxmann, 1994, 223 p.].

20 Katrin Moeller, Dass Willkür über Recht ginge... 354-406 [Moeller, Katrin, Dass Willkür über Recht ginge. Hexenverfolgung in Mecklenburg im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, Bielefeld, Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2007, 544 p.].

21 See pars pro toto the articles concerning the Imperial cities of Esslingen, Reutlingen, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Schwäbisch Hall and Ulm, in: Wider alle Hexerei und Teufelswerk… Likewise, the “Lexikon zur Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung“ https://www.historicum.net/themen/hexenforschung/lexikon/ provides several articles on witch hunts in cities, in between some southern Imperial cities (Esslingen, Nördlingen, Reutlingen, Rottweil). Additionally, the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft…, op. cit., includes articles on the Imperial cities of Augsburg, Offenburg, Nürnberg, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Weißenburg, Windsheim, Schweinfurt and Dinkelsbühl are very briefly mentioned in: Andrea Wittkampf, “Das Hexenwesen in den kleineren Reichsstädten” [Sönke, Lorenz, et Schmidt, Jürgen M. (dir.), Wider alle Hexerei und Teufelswerk. Die europäische Hexenverfolgung und ihre Auswirkungen auf Südwestdeutschland, Ostfildern, Thorbecke Verlag der Schwabenverlag AF, 2004, 540 p. ; Wittkampf, Andrea, « Das Hexenwesen in den kleineren Reichsstädten », p. 100-106 dans Müller, Rainer Albert (dir.), Reichsstädte in Franken, vol. 2: Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft, Kultur, München, Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, 1987, 295 p.].

22 Wolfgang Behringer, Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria… [Behringer, Wolfgang, Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge & New York, Cambridge University Press, 1997, XV-476 p.].

23 See all references in the respective entries in the Encyclopedia of witchcraft…, op. cit.

24 Werner Tschacher, Die Zauberei und Hexereiprozesse in der Reichsstadt Aachen im Kontext…; Gerd Schwerhoff, Köln - Hexenverfolgungen. From: Lexikon zur Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung, ed. Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Moeller u. Jürgen-Michael Schmidt, in: historicum.net, URL: http://www.historicum.net/no_cache/persistent/artikel/1638/; Becker, Thomas P., “Henot, Katharina”. From: Lexikon zur Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung, ed. Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Moeller and Jürgen-Michael Schmidt, in: historicum.net, URL: http://www.historicum.net/no_cache/persistent/artikel/1606/. [Tschacher, Werner, « Die Zauberei- und Hexereiprozesse in der Reichsstadt Aachen im Kontext. Forschungsbilanz und Neuansätze », Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins, n°113/114, 2011/2012, p. 113-174].

25 Gerhard Schormann, “Städtische Gesellschaft und Hexenprozess” [Schormann, Gerhard,« Städtische Gesellschaft und Hexenprozess », dans Meckseper, Cord, Stadt im Wandel. Kunst und Kultur des Bürgertums in Norddeutschland, 1150-1650, Stuttgart, Cangtz, 1985, 4 volumes, pagination multiple : vol. 4, p. 175-187].

26 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 129-165. According to Dillinger, a weather crisis, new demonological ideas, and a magical belief system fuelled the hysteria.

27 See in general Rita Voltmer, “Konspiration gegen Herrschaft und Staat?” [Voltmer, Rita, « Konspiration gegen Herrschaft und Staat? Überlegungen zur Rolle gemeindlicher Klagekonsortien in den Hexenverfolgungen des Rhein-Maas-Mosel-Raumes », p. 213-244 dans Dillinger, Johannes, Schmidt, Jürgen M. (dir.), Staatsbildung und Hexenprozess, op. cit.].

28 See Rita Voltmer, “Zwischen Herrschaftskrise…” [Voltmer, Rita, « Zwischen Herrschaftskrise, Wirtschaftsdepression und Jesuitenpropaganda. Hexenverfolgungen in der Stadt Trier (15.-17. Jahrhundert)”, Jahrbuch für westdeutsche Landesgeschichte, n°27, 2001, p. 37-107.].

29 Alison Rowlands, “Imperial Free Cities”, in: Encyclopedia of Witchcraft…, op. cit., 540-544.

30 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgung…, op. cit., 135.

31 See Ulrich Rosseaux, Städte…, op. cit., 5-13, 60-68.

32 Ulrich Rosseaux, Städte…, op. cit., 73-93; Heinz Schilling, Stadt…, op. cit., 94-112.

33 For the difference between an urban magistrate as primary authority (e.g. in Imperial cities) or as secondary authority (e.g. in territorial cities), see: Heinz Schilling, Stadt…, op. cit., 78-81.

34 See Rita Voltmer, Die politischen Funktionen der frühneuzeitlichen Hexenverfolgungen… [Voltmer, Rita, « Die politischen Funktionen der frühneuzeitlichen Hexenverfolgungen. Machtdemonstration, Kontrolle und Herrschaftsverdichtung im Rhein-Maas-Raum », p. 89-115 dans Ostorero, Martine, Modestin, Georg, et Utz Tremp, Kathrin (dir.), Chasses aux sorcières et démonologie. Entre discours et pratiques (xive-xviie siècle), Florence, Sismel edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010, XXVII-447 p.].

35 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 147-148.

36 Wolfgang Behringer, “Nuremberg, Imperial Free City”; Birke Griesshammer, “Hexen in Franken”, 2012 http://www.hexen-franken.de/hinrichtungsorte/evangelische-herrschaften/nürnberg/ [Behringer, Wolfgang, « Nuremberg, Imperial Free City », p. 841-842 dans Encyclopedia…, op. cit.].

37 Gerd Schwerhoff, “Hexenverfolgungen…”, op. cit.; Thomas P. Becker, “Henot”, op. cit.

38 William Monter, A Bewitched Duchy…, 97-100. Ranfaing’s dubious career begun in 1618, when she displayed signs of demonic possession. In 1622, the physician Charles Poirot, whom she had denounced as a sorcerer and of having pestered her with demons, was executed as a witch. However, it needed several exorcisms, applied by Jesuits, and pilgrimages, made in 1625 and 1626, to get rid of the demons [Monter, William, A bewitched Duchy. Lorraine and its Dukes, 1477-1736, Genève, Droz, 2007, 176 p.].

39 See Gerd Schwerhoff, Köln im Kreuzverhör..., 424-441; Julia Eulenstein, Ditte Guräck, Rechtliche Aspekte…, especially 195-214 [Schwerhoff, Gerd, Köln im Kreuzverhör. Kriminalität, Herrschaft und Gesellschaft in einer früneuzeitlichen Stadt, Bonn, Bouvier, 1991, 508 p. ; Eulenstein, Julia, Guräck, Ditte, “Rechtliche Aspekte der frühneuzeitlichen Hexenverfolgungen am Beispiel des Hochstifts Bamberg und der freien Reichsstadt Köln”, p. 195-214 dans Gundelach, Bodo, et Molkenthin, Ralf (dir.), Blicke auf das Mittelalter. Aspekte von Lebenswelt, Herrschaft, Religion und Rezeption. Festschrift Hanna Vollrath zum 65ten Geburtstag, Herne, G. Schäffer, 2004, 237 p.].

40 Werner Tschacher, Die Zauberei und Hexereiprozesse…, op. cit., 172-173.

41 Günter Jerousckek, “Der Hexenprozess als politisches Machtinstrument…”; Id., Die Hexen und ihr Prozess... [Jerousckek, Günter, « Der Hexenprozess als politisches Machtinstrument. Der mysteriöse Tod des Hexeninquisitors Daniel Hauff und das Ende der Hexenverfolgungen in Esslingen », Esslinger Studien n°30, 1991, p. 103-114 ; Id., Die Hexen und ihr Prozess. Die Hexenverfolgung in der Reichsstadt Esslingen, Sigmaringen, Thorbecke, 1992, 314 p.].

42 Thomas Fritz, “Hexenverfolgungen in der Reichsstadt Reutlingen” [Fritz, Thomas, « Hexenverfolgungen in der Reichsstadt Reutlingen », p. 163-324 dans Dillinger, Johannes, Fritz, Thomas, et Mährle, Wolfgang, Zum Feuer verdammt. Die Hexenverfolgungen in der Grafschaft Hohenberg, der Reichsstadt Reutlingen und der Fürstpropstei Ellwangen, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998, 516 p.].

43 Ralf Peter Fuchs, “Von diesen unbesonnenen ärgerlichen und gottlosen Hexenprozessen” [Fuchs, Ralf-Peter, « Von diesen unbesonnenen, ärgerlichen und gottlosen Hexenprozessen Schlaglichter auf die Hexenverfolgungen in Herford zur Zeit des Dreissigjährigen Krieges », Historisches Jahrbuch für den Kreis Herford, 1994, p. 17-52].

44 Alison Rowlands, Witchcraft Narratives in Germany: Rothenburg… [Rowlands, Alison, Witchcraft Narratives in Germany: Rothenburg, 1561-1652, Manchester et New York, Manchester University Press, 2003, 249 p.].

45 Mario Zeck, “Im Rauch gehn Himmel geschüggt“ [Zeck, Mario, “Im Rauch gehn Himmel geschüggt”. Hexenverfolgungen in der Reichsstadt Rottweil, Stuttgart, Ibidem Verlag, 2000, 198 p.].

46 Peter Oestmann, “Die Offenburger Hexenprozesse…”; Franz Volk, Hexen in der Landvogtei Ortenau und Reichsstadt Offenburg… [Oesttmann, Peter, « Die Offenburger Hexenprozesse im Spannungsfeld zwischen Reichshofrat und Reichskammergericht », Die Ortenau, n°75, 1995, p. 179-220 ; Volk, Franz, Hexen in der Landvogtei Ortenau und Reichsstadt Offenburg, Lahr, Schauenburg, 1882, 154 p.].

47 Rowlands, “Imperial Free cities”, op. cit., 541.

48 Maryse Simon, Frontières de la sorcellerie… ; Jacques Roehrig, L’holocauste des sorcières d’Alsace… especially 183 (map, see the numbers of executions given in brackets in the text above) [Simon, Maryse, « Frontières de la sorcellerie entre Alsace et Lorraine : entrelacs juridictionnels et variations contextuelles », Revue d’Alsace n°134, 2008, p. 195-212 ; Roehrig, Jacques, L’holocauste des sorcières d’Alsace. Un effroyable massacre au cœur de l’Europe humaniste, Strasbourg, La Nuée Bleue, 2011, 208 p.].

49 See Rolf Schulte, “Hamburg und Bremen”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 471-473.

50 Katrin Moeller, Das Willkür…, op. cit., 354-372.

51 See Gisela Wilbertz, “Osnabrück…”, op. cit., Elvira Topalović, Sprachwahl – Textsorte – Dialogstruktur…; Gudrun Gersmann, “Osnabrück, Bishopric of”, in: Encyclopedia…, 864, Nicolas Rügge, Die Hexenverfolgung in der Stadt Osnabrück… [Topalović, Elvira, Sprachwahl – Textsorte – Dialogstruktur. Zu Verhörprotokollen aus Hexenprozessen des 17. Jahrhunderts, Trier, WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2003, 288 p., Rügge, Nicolas, Die Hexenverfolgung in der Stadt Osnabrück. Überblick – Deutungen – Quellen, Osnabrück, Selbstverlag, 2015, 304 p.]

52 Wolfgang Behringer, “Augsburg, Imperial City of”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 65-66.

53 Michael Ströhmer, Lemgo…, op. cit., 114f., 130, 209.

54 Barbara Groß, Hexerei in Minden…, op. cit.

55 See Rita Voltmer, Trier…, op. cit., and Rita Voltmer, “Germany’s first ‘superhunt’?” [Voltmer, Rita, « Germany’s first ‘superhunt’?” - Rezeption und Konstruktion der so genannten Trierer Verfolgungen (16.-21. Jahrhundert) », p. 225-258 dans Moeller, Katrin, et Schmidt, Burghart (dir.), Realität und Mythos. Hexenverfolgung und Rezeptionsgeschichte, Hamburg, DOBU, 2003, 330 p.].

56 Rita Voltmer, Jesuiten und Kinderhexen…[Voltmer, Rita, « Jesuiten und Kinderhexen. Thesen zur Entstehung, Rezeption und Verbreitung eines Verfolgungsmusters », p. 201-232 dans Behringer, Wolfgang, et Opitz-Belakhal, Claudia (dir.), Hexenkinder – Kinderbanden – Straßenkinder, Bielefeld, Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2016, 462 p.].

57 Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 144-145.

58 See Ingo Koppenborg, Hexen in Detmold…, op. cit.

59 Rainer Decker, “Paderborn, Prince-Bishopric of”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 869-870.

60 Jonathan B. Durrant, Witchcraft, Gender and Society…; Wolfgang Mährle, “O wehe der armen seelen” [Durrant, Jonathan B., Witchcraft, Gender and Society in Early Modern Germany, Leiden et Boston, Brill, 2007, XXVII-288 p. ; Mährle, Wolfgang, « “O wehe der armen seelen”, Hexenverfolgungen in der Fürstpropstei Ellwangen (1588-1694) », p. 325-500 dans Dillinger, Johannes, Zum Feuer verdammt…, op. cit.].

61 See Birke Griesshammer, Angeklagt – gemartert – verbrannt…; Hexenwahn in Franken… [Grießhammer, Birke, Angeklagt – gemartert – verbrannt. Die Opfer der Hexenverfolgung in Franken, Erfurt, Sutton Verlag GMBH, 2013, 128 p. ; Mergenthaler, Markus, et Klein-Pfeuffer, Margarete, (dir.), Hexenwahn in Franken, Dettelbach, J. H. Röll Verlag, 2014, 288 p. catalogue].

62 Hans-Wolfgang Bergerhausen, “Die Hexenverfolgungen in Würzburg 1590-1630”, especially 90-91; Manfred Hinkelmann, “Hexenwahn und Hexenprozesse in Ochsenfurt”, especially 136-137. See in general the works of Robert Meier on the witch-hunts in Würzburg under the reign of Julius Echter of Mespelbrunn [Bergenhausen, Hans Wolfgang, « Die Hexenverfolgungen in Würzburg 1590-1630 », p. 85-97 dans Hexenwahn…, ibid. ; Hinkelmann, Manfred, « Hexenwahn und Hexenprozesse in Ochsenfurt », p. 135-153 dans Hexenwahn…, id.].

63 Katrin Moeller, Das Willkür…, op. cit., 362-377; Katrin Moeller, “Hexenverfolgung als Kulturtransfer…” especially 318 [Moeller, Katrin, « Hexenverfolgung als Kulturtransfer. Zur Übernahme von Verfolgungsmustern auf herrschaftsrechtliche und gemeindliche Interessen am Beispiel Mecklenburg », p. 307-331 dans Voltmer, Rita (dir.), Hexenverfolgung und Herrschaftspraxis, Trier, Spee, 2005, VI-344 p.].

64 Due to lack of space, it is impossible to list the multitude of articles, concerning minor German towns.

65 See Alison Rowlands, Rothenburg gegen Würzburg…; Jürgen Michael Schmidt, “Ein politisches Ausrottungsprogramm?” [Rowlands, Alison, « Rothenburg gegen Würzburg. Durchsetzung von Herrschaftsansprüchen im Hexenprozess der Margaretha Hörber, 1627 », p. 113-127 dans Voltmer, Rita (dir.), Hexenverfolgung…, op. cit. ; Schmidt, Jürgen Michael, « Ein politisches Ausrottungsprogramm? Kurpfalz, Kurmainz, St. Alban und die große Hexenverfolgung in Bodenheim, 1612-1615 », p. 147-182 dans ibid.].

66 See Wolfgang Behringer, Hexenverfolgung in Bayern… [Behringer, Wolfgang, Hexenverfolgung in Bayern. Volksmagie, Glaubenseifer und Staatsräson in der Frühen Neuzeit, München, R. Oldenbourg, 1997, X-546 p. édition revue et augmentée].

67 See Johannes Dillinger, Hexenverfolgungen…, op. cit., 156-157.

68 Wolfgang Behringer, Bayern…, op. cit., 213.

69 Katrin Moeller, Kulturtransfer…, op. cit., 325.

70 Alison Rowlands, Imperial cities…, op. cit., 541.

71 Katrin Moeller, Kulturtransfer…, op. cit., 329-331.

72 See above ‘behavioural urbanization’ from the work of Jan de Vries.

73 See Rita Voltmer, “The Judge’s lore?” [Voltmer, Rita, « The Judge’s lore ? The politico-religious concept of metamorphosis in the peripheries of Western Europe », p. 159-184 dans De Blecourt, Willem (dir.), Werewolf Histories, Basingstoke et New York, 2015, XII-260 p.].

74 See Walter Rummel, “Möden, Johann (Jan)”, in: Encyclopedia…, op. cit., 773-774; the forthcoming biography of Möden by Karin Trieschnigg.

Auteur

Dr. Rita Voltmer, M. A., Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Universität Trier (FB III Geschichtliche Landeskunde); 2013-2015 Visiting Professor am Departement of History and Religious Studies, Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø).

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