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Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (European Culture and Society)

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In Heresy, Magic, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, Gary K. Waite attempts to tie together the various persecutions that took place in Early Modern Europe. Whether persecution was aimed against Christian heretics, witches, or Jews, its purpose was always the same: reinforcing current orthodoxy against growing doubt. Thus, Waite claims that the more pluralistic the society, the less fringe groups were persecuted.

This book is flawed. Waite argues his thesis tendentiously, citing portions of scholarship on Early Modern Europe that support his claims and ignoring scholarship that would question them. The book is a brief synthesis of other scholars' works, and Waite's contribution consists of mere assertions that lack supporting evidence. Waite does not engage the sources of Early Modern Europe; instead he trusts others to do the work of research for him. When he quotes a primary source, his citation is always from some secondary literature. This form of "researching" may be fine for a survey of the historiography, but Waite is attempting to argue a thesis.

Not only is his methodology wanting, but also his thesis is much too simplistic. Waite argues as societies become more pluralistic, persecution of the "Other" lessens. He cites example after example of how the reigning orthodoxy persecuted the "Other" in order to strengthen its position in society. Places like the Netherlands and Maria Theresa's Austria, however, did not persecute irrationally because of tolerance for a multiplicity of ideas. This formulation is inadequate. Waite fails to grapple with the religious situation in Spain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Spain was the most ethnically and religiously diverse region in Europe, and its variegated population managed a high level of cooperation for centuries. Instead of peaceful toleration, however, this region led to some of the most intense persecution of the "Other."

Waite's explanation of the Jewish situation in Early Modern Europe also has many problems. He asserts, "Jews ... were officially tolerated in the Christian west because they proved an extremely useful, if unwitting, ally in the campaign to expel religious doubt from the hearts of Christian believers" (19). As a causal claim, this statement is ludicrous. Waite implies a conspiracy by the Church to use Jews to quench Christian doubt. The evidence does not support this assertion. (His reasons for the persecution of women during the witch-hunts similarly lack evidentiary substantiation.)

Not only are Waite's methods and assertions suspect, but he lacks a fundamental understanding of the subject that he is trying to address. In the book's introduction, Waite writes, "Religion is always nonrational, for its tenets cannot be proven by empirical testing" (3). This statement belies a misunderstanding of rationalism, religion, or both. As a system of knowledge, rationalism is not dependent on evidence or empirical testing. Rationalism relies on human reason. Just as religion cannot be empirically tested, neither can mathematics. Rationalism and empiricism are competing systems of knowledge. Waite's conflation of the two demonstrates a positivist bent, and positivism is self-referentially absurd. Thus, Waite founds his philosophical approach to this subject upon a defective meta-narrative, and readers should be skeptical of his claims.

The goal of this book is an ambitious one. Gary Waite seeks to explain the connections between the wrenching spiritual changes experienced by Christians during the Reformation and the growing intensity of witch-hunting at the same time. To do so, he tells us, is to enter into a contentious historical debate. Various scholars emphasize different factors in generating the "witch-craze" of the 16th and 17th centuries; what Waite does in this book is to strike a balance, recognizing the importance of social conflict and gender roles, but at the same time foregrounding the religious anxieties of the period.

Waite begins by exploring attitudes towards religious non-conformity and magic in the late Middle Ages. By the 13th century he notes that there was already deep concern among religious and secular authorities about the development of unorthodox sects; the Inquisition was formed and empowered to torture suspected heretics. But over the following centuries such practices failed to eradicate dissent or erase self-doubt among some orthodox Christians. For instance, the persistence of Judaism vexed some believers profoundly. Magic - the exercise of "preternatural" control over nature - remained popular not only among common folk, but among some members of the clergy as well. Heretics and Jews had long been attacked as the allies of Satan, but by the 15th century there was growing concern that magical practices also had diabolical implications. To make matters worse, many clergy detected a simultaneous rise in religious scepticism. Waite also notes that by this time witchcraft was increasingly associated with women. Even though it had often been male clerics who dabbled in such practices, women were believed to be mentally and physically more inclined to succumb to the devil's temptations.

In a climate of religious doubt and change, it was useful to deflect criticism of the established church by calling for greater vigilance against heretics, Jews, and witches. Waite contends, however, that witch-trials did not reach their peak until after the Protestant Reformation got fully underway, some time after this array of beliefs had taken shape. Why? Because the challenge of Reformers such as Luther and Calvin meant that more than ever, established beliefs were disputed. The religious fidelities of Europeans were up for grabs; Protestant leaders sought to win support, and the Catholic Church responded with a counter-offensive. In an atmosphere of intense religious conflict, many believed the final judgement must be at hand, which meant that religious communities had to be purified.

Carefully dissecting the complex religious mentalities of the Reformation, Waite notes that both Protestants and Catholics persecuted those who would not conform, be they skeptics, Jews, or sects such as the Anabaptists, linking all of them to diabolical conspiracy. But even after persecution of these groups had begun to run its course, the drive to extirpate Satan's minions endured. Projecting fears about heretics onto beliefs about the widespread practice of diabolical magic, witch-hunting intensified. Individual panics were often fuelled by social conflicts rooted in local communities, but within a framework of regimenting belief systems. Where the contest of beliefs and the desire to stamp out heretics was strong, such as in the south-western Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland, and France, so too was the proclivity for witch-hunting. By the same token, where religious conformity was more firmly established, or where confessional conflict was declining, there tended to be fewer witchcraft trials.

Waite's carefully constructed interpretation of the rise and fall of witch-hunting is characterized by vigor and clarity. The author provides rich quotations to allow readers to immerse themselves in a mental world which he views as "both comfortably familiar and fantastically strange." He also reminds us of the human cost of religious fanaticism, noting the desperation and bewilderment of those accused of witchcraft and forced to confess under torture. This book deserves to be widely read.

In the context of the apocalyptic fervour that marked the sixteenth century, both witches and religious heretics such as Anabaptists were seen as members of diabolical conspiracies. Growing incertitude of such complicated doctrines as transubstantiation made it necessary for religious authorities to demonstrate the validity of their cosmological interpretation. What better proof than the pursuit of campaigns against these agents of the Devil? Gary Waite, known to scholars of Anabaptist history for his valuable work on David Joris, offers in this book an interesting explanation of religious persecution in early modern Europe.

Readers may ask if it is reasonable to posit a connection between heresy and witchcraft persecutions when the numbers for each are so radically different in scale. Waite cites William Monter, who has counted some 3000 executions for heresy. This number is a far cry from the 30-60 000 executions for witchcraft recently found by Brian Levack. Waite explains that Monter does not include figures for the Council of Blood or St. Bartholomew's Day massacres in his tally. The inclusion of these events, and Waite's rejection of higher numbers for witch executions as polemical inflation, brings the two persecutions more into line in terms of scale.

Waite traces understandings of the Devil, magic, heresy and witchcraft from the late middle ages through the Reformation to the early seventeenth century development of religious pluralism. Tremendous doubts about Catholic tenets existed among the populace well before the Protestant Reformation. Occasional miracles of bleeding Hosts were useful in bolstering religious belief. Persecution of Jews (and later, witches) for desecration of the Host and ritual murder of Christian children served to establish the reality of a diabolical realm operating within the human world. Authorities' use of language about the Devil was literal rather than metaphorical. Declining belief in the Devil's physical presence, together with the existence of Nicodemism and spiritualism, motivated persecutory efforts by both Catholics and Protestants to "counteract the expression of skepticism toward the approved understanding of the supernatural realm" (150).

Waite demonstrates that the "widespread preoccupation among members of all confessions and social levels with the nearness of apocalyptical judgment" strongly influenced secular and religious authorities' efforts to "persecute dissenters as agents of the Devil's final, apocalyptical assault on Christendom" (86). The increasing diversity of religious beliefs led to conflict just as dangerous as the more obvious violence of the Peasants' War and the Anabaptist kingdom of Münster. The emergence of Nicodemism further contributed to notions of diabolical conspiracy. Orthodoxy could only be preserved by rooting out these conspirators and consigning them to the flames.

With the successful suppression of heresy, this "demonizing rhetoric" was applied to other ostensible dissenters such as unruly women--witches. Anabaptism inadvertently was partially responsible for this persecutional shift. By acting as visionaries, prophets and informal house-church leaders, by divorcing non-Anabaptist husbands, abandoning families, participating in the polygamy and armed defense of Münster and running naked through the streets proclaiming apocalyptical judgment, Anabaptist women gained considerable notoriety as breakers of traditional gender roles and as examples of the effects of loosening the strictures limiting female behavior (117). The independence of Anabaptist women thus fed into later witch hunts.

Not all regions pursued witches with the same fervour. Waite gives careful attention to geographic differences. Witch hunts were most extensive in those regions experiencing the greatest religious conflict and which had held the most heresy trials. No serious witch hunts occurred in Mediterranean regions where Inquisitions were most active, however, because there was no longer major competition for the state church. Similarly, in regions like the Dutch Republic where there was no state church, there was also no perceived need for witch hunts. Waite provides some interesting comments on Anabaptist beliefs about witches. A number of Dutch Mennonites wrote against the witch hunts, arguing that the Devil had "an extremely limited role" in the world, a belief shared by the Dutch Collegiants. Both Anabaptists and Quakers "identified the Devil with their persecutors or spiritualized him altogether, in the process suppressing fear of witchcraft among their members" (193).

Why the ultimate acceptance of religious pluralism? Waite explains that witch persecutions ironically increased skepticism, and were largely abandoned at the same time as attempts to maintain confessional conformity. People came to realize that their sectarian neighbours presented no challenge to local order. Merchants began to appreciate that religious tolerance was necessary for trade. Authorities eventually acknowledged that doubt and dissidence were not necessarily threats to the existence of the state. Spiritualism and humanism spread from the Dutch Republic, promoting religious tolerance and resisting confessional conformity.

Waite has produced a highly readable book. The use of subtitles within chapters is often a sign of an inability to develop a coherent argument, but not in this case. The copy editing is remarkably clean; it is rare to find a book with virtually no typographical errors such as this one. A useful introductory chapter outlines the historiography of witchcraft for the neophyte, particularly of its intersection with the Reformation, and an extensive annotated bibliography provides greater detail. Throughout the work, Waite gives equal attention to elite convictions and popular beliefs. The remarkable cover artwork leaves the reviewer wishing that illustrations could have been included inside. Students wanting to understand Anabaptism within a wider historical context are recommended to read Waite's book.