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Europe's Inner Demons

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Witch-hunts have erupted again and again throughout the history of Western civilization. The accusations are remarkably similar and stable over time. A group of "witches" or "devil worshippers" are accused of sacrificing and eating children, engaging in incestuous orgies, and worshipping a "god" in animal form who presides over the obscene rituals. The first such accusations were leveled against the early Christians, culminating in a bloody persecution in the (then) Roman city of Lyons. The most recent example occurred in the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, when similar accusations were made against teachers and child-care workers across the United States in the "daycare ritual abuse panic" that included the McMartin, Country Walk, and Kelly Michaels cases. In "Europe's Inner Demons", Norman Cohn shows how the "fantasy" of witch-cults grew and took shape during the early Christian era, leading to persecutions of heretics such as the Waldensians, orthodox Catholic Crusaders such as the Order of the Knights Templar, and finally the Great European Witch Hunt, which eventually spilled over into North America in the famous Salem Witch Trials. This is one of the most informative books on witchcraft available, elegantly written, and relatively short. It will appeal to anyone who is seriously interested in witch-craft, organized persecutions, or the history of religious thought. More importantly, it will provide a deeper understanding of the "fantasy" of witch sects and bloody satanic cults that still lives in our own country and our own time.

Norman Cohn's Europe's Inner Demons (The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom) originally came out in 1975 and is a nice companion piece to his Pursuit of the Millennium book. It has remained in print because it is a sober analysis of the fantasies behind the persecutions of such dissenting Christians as the Waldensians which led horribly to the great witch-hunts of the early modern period. The author helps remove much of the scholary nonsense that had accumulated onto the historical concept of witches in the past two centuries and puts them into their proper historical context. The book begins with a wonderfully enlightening glimpse of antiquity that is both illuminating and horrifying as the later fantasies against witches are first seen being used by Romans against early Christians. This is a well-argued and presented book that deserves to remain in circulation as long as people continue to believe there was truth behind the accusations direct at these persecuted and demonized Christians of the Middle Ages. A superb book.

Europe's Inner Demons is a fascinating account of how some generally harmless traditions and superstitions combined to make the massive witch hunts of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries possible. There are no conclusive figures, but it is generally agreed that several thousands of men, women and children were executed during this period across Western Europe. With the only exception of England, where this phenomenon never really caught on, this was a widespread practice in countries as different as Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and particularly in France and Germany. But how did it all begin? Why was Eastern Europe and the rest of the world virtually untouched by this phenomenon? And how did the educated classes came to believe the ancient peasant superstitions that allowed the Great Witch Hunt to take place?

You'll find all the answers in Norman Cohn's stunning piece of historical detective work; an exhaustively researched and brilliantly written book that doesn't deal with the Great Witch Hunt itself but with the societies and traditions were it originated, in some cases stretching as far back as classical Greece and Rome. Also prominent are the persecutions of members of several heretical sects throughout Middle Ages and even religious orders like the Templars. Norman Cohn also analyses the works of modern "specialist" like Margaret Murray and Montague Summers and concludes that the reality was more complex and definitely less glamorous than they thought.

It's hard to really be thankful for Cohn's work until one realizes the commonly believed myths that were proposed by various other authors. By doing an exhaustive primary source investigation, Cohn found out that many of the quotations used to support the belief that the witchhunt craze was caused by men persecuting a group of witches who believed in Diana to be false.

In reality, Cohn finds that many times, the women were persecuted by other women. The crime? Having crops that were good while a neighbor's were bad, welching on a debt, (the person that forfeited the debt accused the other of witchcraft), and a whole host of other petty reasons. There is no reason to believe that it had anything to do with female "mid-wives and healers". The majority were either very young girls who had been neglected, or very old women who were known for being cranky.

Cohn also helps illuminate the monastic changes that were ongoing in society that helped to promote the belief in witches. In particular, members of monastic orders increasingly felt powerless against demons and felt that they could not be stopped even using sacraments and prayers. The schism between Catholicism and Protestantism further caused reactionary tendencies in the people, witnessed by the fact that the place's with the greatest witchhunting craze were hit hardest by the schism.

In short, this is a sober and scholarly analysis of a subject that can cause great inflammation amongst certain groups. (Wiccans). The book tells more about social pressures and the delusion of crowds than it does about the demonization of christians, but it should nonetheless be required reading on the subject of witchcraft persecution.

I found Cohn's book fascinating and informative but ultimately too deep for this general reader. Cohn did not write the book that I was expecting to read-this is certainly nothing negative about him or his book, I just found that he seemed to be aiming his book at an audience that were scholars in this particular field.

Throughout most of the book Cohn presented a historiography of the late medieval and early modern period of Europea history regarding the various interpretations of the epistological ramifications of the witch burning period in 16th century Europe. On the first page of his Preface, the author writes, "The essence of the fantasy [this being something that Europeans were warring against] was that there existed, somewhere in the midst of the great society, another society, small and clandestine, which not only threatened the existence of the great society but was also addicted to practices which were felt to be wholly abominable, in the litteral sense of anti-human.

For most of the book the author argues the certitude of this thesis while arguing against the various alternative interpretations being floated about this terrible period in human history. I found his thesis and the defense of that thesis compelling and in the process acquired many salient bits of information about this fascinating but horrible period.

Cohn deals with this confusing time well-he writes in a style that even a non-expert such as myself can follow, which is no small accomplisahment. I would recommend this book to any person who knows something of the period and wishes to delve more deeply into the mystery of what convulsed a continent after passing through the Middle Ages.

Well, I bought this book for my European Witch Trials class at UW. It was very informative to say the least and is basically an accurate historical analyisis by Cohn and this was one of the primary texts for the class. If you are interested in the witch trials, Cohn is a great place to start.

An impressive work, elegantly written. Along with The Pursuit of the Millenium and Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come, this book is a very fine analysis. Not pedantic, no academic jargon, which is surprising these days.

I can't say how much I love this book. It really broke it down, so we can see how legends, archtypess, and all of other kinds of things got started. I learned a lot about the Cathers, Knights Templar, Alchemists, and ritual magic. If you have even a passing interest in witchcraft, you should read this. It's not like reading a novel, or textbook. Maybe a really enjoyable tetbook, it leaves me just wanting to learn more

_Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom_ by Norman Cohn gives an account of the various persecutions which took place of Christians, heretics, and witches in medieval and ancient Europe. This book develops along the same lines as Cohn's previous book _The Pursuit of the Millenium_ which also deals with the dark underside of European history. This book attempts to trace the roots of demonization from the early period when the Romans demonized first Jews and then Christians, followed by the subsequent rise of Christianity and the theological development of the concept of Satan and his demons, followed by the demonization of various medieval heretics, followed by the crushing of the Knights Templar, followed by the rise of ritual magic and various demon-worshipping magicians, and eventually culminating in the great witch-hunt.

Cohn begins by noting the prelude to the subsequent persecutions of Christians in antiquity. As the inheritors of the Jewish tradition, ancient Christians were often accused by the Romans of some of the same crimes as the Jews had been. These included allegations of worshipping an ass-headed god in the form of the crucified (just as the Jews had also been accused of worshipping an ass), cannibalism (particularly the eating of babies) which may have resulted from a distorted representation of the eucharist, and participation in wild orgies, sexual promiscuity including incest. In addition, the early Christians were believed to be plotting against Roman society and this led to their persecution by the Romans. Later when the Christians were to come to take control of the Roman empire these same fears and beliefs were to continue to arise again and again.

Cohn next turns his attention to the theological development of the concept of Satan and his demons. In particular, Satan came to play a very prominent role in the development of Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic literature. Later demons were seen to represent various vices and tempted monks, priests, nuns, as well as the common people.

Following this, Cohn explains the process by which medieval heretics were demonized. Heretical groups such as the Waldensians and the Fraticelli were believed to engage in promiscuous orgies as well as cannibalism by many in the church. Cohn explains this process of demonization by which heretical groups were believed to be in contact with demons or Satan himself.

The Knights Templar represent a particularly interesting and disturbing aspect of medieval European history. This group became powerful after their involvement in the crusades and developed into wealthy bankers. It may have been their influence in the political realm and as bankers which led to their subsequent demise. They were put on trial in which they were accused of engaging in various blasphemies including spitting on the cross, sodomy with their brothers, denying Christ, and worshipping a head known as the Baphomet (perhaps reminiscent of Mohammed, in one theory).

Cohn next turns his attention to the rise of ritual magic and the worship of demons by various magicians to achieve material gain and worldly power. Among others, Pope Boniface VIII was tried posthumously for allegedly making contact with demons and wearing a mysterious ring (which may have been a ring dedicated to Jupiter). Magicians were believed to invoke demons to achieve various diabolical ends, including personal revenge and gaining wordly power.

Finally, Cohn provides his theory of the development of the great witch-hunt. Cohn argues against such theories as those presented by Margaret Murray in her _The Witch-Cult of Western Europe_, in which she argued that witches practiced a surviving pagan cult with possible links to ancient Egypt, and those of the Roman Catholic priest Montague Summers, who had argued that witchcraft consisted of worshipping the devil. In my opinion, Cohn gives these rather interesting theories short shrift and refuses to recognize the reality of witchcraft. Cohn argues that there was no society of witches, but his arguments seem just as unlikely as those which suggest that there indeed was. While it is true that most of those burnt as witches were likely innocents, it nevertheless seems entirely probable that there did exist a medieval secret society which worshipped the Christian devil and which sought to destroy the underpinnings of the medieval world.

Nevertheless, this book provides a fascinating account of some of the darker aspects of European history including many senseless persecutions.

"Europe's Inner Demons" is both an intellectual history of witch-mania and an extended critique of earlier scholarship.

It is also the clearest statement I know of why the claims of Wicca to be inheritors of an ancient tradition are bogus.

It is a book of many excellencies, not least the compact and clear style that only Oxbridge seems to produce, and then only among a few.

Cohn sets out to correct a variety of errors and misconceptions in the vexed history of witchcraft history. It might be simpler to list them:

1. The falsity and confusions of the Margaret Murray/Montague Summers version, which conceived witchcraft as something real.

2. The second delusion, that there were confraternities of witches. Only crazy people ever thought it possible to summon demons or call up thunderstorms, but there have been a lot of them. Nevertheless, Cohn is definite that there never was a religion or craft of witchery in Europe, at least not as conceived by the witch-finders. He admits to ritual magic.

3. That the great witch-hunt had its origin in persecution of the Cathars. For readers unfamiliar with medieval religion, Cohn does not sufficiently make clear that Cathars were apostates, not heretics. He emphasizes that the origins of the witch-mania were heresy. He traces this mindset back before Christianity, to a murderous purge of Bacchanals in the 180s.

The key insight is that the perception (whether real or not) of a "ruthless, power hungry conspiracy" lies behind witch-hunts, not just the great witch-mania of the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the lesser excellencies of "Europe's Inner Demons" is Cohn's equation of the Great Witch Mania with the Stalinist show trials. While this is hardly the main point, it is worth making it, because among fanatical anticommunists there is a delusion that Stalin's purges were a hateful innovation of atheism. As we see here, the entire apparatus of witch-mania was invented by the godly.

4. That from its origins the witch-hunt was aimed at women or the poor. That came later. The first victims were mostly clergy and therefore all men. "The demonological obsessions of the intelligentsia" first swallowed the intelligentsia. (Another precursor of what one of its victims, Eugenia Ginzburg, called "Stalin's meat grinder.")

5. That the toll was insignificant. Cohn rightly says that there is no way to calculate the dead and imprisoned, but he knocks down the idea, common among defenders of religion, that it was a minor episode. Not so.

6. That the witch-craze was a political movement that exploited religion. Cohn essentially ends his critique in the mid-15th century, before the Spanish Inquisition got its hooks in the peninsular Jews. There were other inquisitions before. Great outbreaks occurred only when local civil power acquiesced, but the intellectual and moral underpinnings were purely theological.

The sensation of the first edition (1973) was Cohn's demonstration of a bizarre series of forgeries that had informed (and still to an extent do inform) serious scholarship.

The witch-craze was a such a great crime that even though it ended (for the most part) by 1680, apologists for Christianity (Catholic and Reformed) still feel obliged to defend, excuse or diminish it. Not that many political arguments of the late 17th century are still so lively.