Witchcraft in the Middle Ages [Paperback]

Jeffrey Burton Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1984

Professor Russell fills a real gap in the literature. He does so with the scholarly probity and sound good sense that are the absolute prerequisites for any serious work on the subject, and he has composed his book for the general reader as well as the specialist ... In the course of his narrative, Russell successfully lays to rest any number of erroneous "well-known facts," [and] demonstrates that classical witchcraft was largely a creature of Christianity and that heresy was the strongest influence on its development as an idea. [Quoted from "History"]

Product Details

• Paperback: 414 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press; 1st edition (August 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801492890
• ISBN-13: 978-0801492891
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but Dry, June 1, 2005

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J. W. Kennedy "in statu uiae et meriti" (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Paperback)

It's a historical overview on the evolution of witchcraft through the middle ages, from the perspective of a historian who doesn't seem to believe in magic, yet nevertheless admits there was _something_ going on. The style is dry and academic, with lots of big words from sociological and psychological jargon. At times it reads like a doctorial thesis.
The first two chapters are a sort of preperatory overview of the subject, with brief mentions of the ancient middle-Eastern and Egyptian origins of magic and the belief in good-vs-evil Dualism. The next 7 chapters present a chronological evolution of witchcraft and how it was perceived (and dealt with) by the Church and secular authorities. The time span is from 300 to 1480 a.d. meaning this book stops short just before the classic "witch craze" of the Renaissance began. The final chapter is a summation of the significance of witchcraft in medeival thought.
Keeping in mind that the only records regarding witchcraft were written by it opponents, Russell carefully presents the information and offers a fairly objective assessment of it. His overall thesis is that witchcraft was largely an invention of the Church, and that from ancient pagan roots, withcraft evolved alongside heresy. He clearly demonstrates that the crime of witchcraft was regarded as distinct from simple heresy, and also distinct from sorcery and natural magic or herbalism. He has pinpointed almost the exact moment when the notion of the "Devil's pact" was introduced. He presents information about a number of medeival heresies, and shows how ideas crossed over into witchcraft - and even how some heresies later began to be prosecuted AS witchcraft. He argues strongly against Margaret Murray's "witch cult" theory, suggesting instead that the apparent consistency of witch practices across Europe may be attributable to the consistency of Inquisitors' questioning. (Again keep in mind _who_ was writing the records. No sources of information from the witches themselves are known to exist.) It was interesting to see that the early Church was quite skeptical about witchcraft, and had even declared it was wrong to believe that witches flew around at night and so forth. That attitude was to change...
This book takes you up to a point just before the insanity and slaughter of the 14th and 15th centuries, and leaves you with a good background to continue research into the subject.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, But Outdated, March 2, 2011

By 

History Nut (Virginia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Paperback)

This book isn't exactly graduate level, but it helps if you are. And even if you're not, you'll figure it out. Simply, you should own this book. Will you refer to it every day? Not likely, but it's one of the best 'general' studies of witchcraft out there, even if it is becoming somewhat outdated. But still a fantastic "MUST OWN" reference material! And despite the fact that it is getting a little outdated, Russell is an important scholar whose ideas you should be familiar with if you're considering any major research in this field. His work is still frequently sited and offers a solid basis to which you can refer to as your own understanding of the subject progresses. Buy it, read the sections that interest you, and keep it as a resource book. I bought it out of curiosity and ended up using it for an extensive paper on witchcraft. It served me well and will continue to do.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Defined by their enemies, December 14, 2009

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Paperback)

An eminent historian of demonology and heresy relates these to this misunderstood and elusive phenomenon. Russell argues for the reality of witches. He shows how they "usually acted as they were supposed to act." That is, the fluidity of definitions applied by medieval clerics and then inquisitors pressured dissenters to adapt the terms by which they were marginalized, persecuted, and often executed.

He interprets historical, verifiable witchcraft along a continuum. Rejecting the extremes that nobody in the Middle Ages believed in witchcraft and that "weird phenomena are not only real, but supernatural, and proof that the Devil and his minions live," Russell plots the truth along three points. 1) "At least some people were deluded into believing themselves witches." 2) Old pagan cults, folklore, sorcery, and heresy entered into their beliefs and practices. 3) These "as described by the sources (mainly trial records) did exist to a substantial degree." (21)

Russell moves chronologically, if for me too rapidly over the biblical Hebrew references (these barely gain a mention). He establishes proof from primary sources. He estimates that 31% of the Inquisitorial charges were for sorcery, 23% for folklore traditions, 27% for heresy, and 19% for those added by theologians (such as the pact, the Devil's mark, worship of the Devil, the obscene kiss, the sabbat). (I wish he had charted this with geographical and topical data, as graphically this might have enhanced what can be a challenging amassing of material within a densely written text. It's a demanding, depressing, if valuable account.)

Any continuity between ancient and medieval traditions here, Russell insists, was not consciously controlled. Vague, fluctuating, and loosely defined at best, witchcraft drifted as popular and learned opinions shifted. Pagan remnants floated around what was considered witchcraft; Christian opposition shaped how those who resisted its power themselves regarded what they thought of and carried out as witches.

Contrary to common supposition, the Inquisitions (which began ca. 1225-50) did not constitute the only jurisdiction by which witches were summoned and condemned. In his subsequent "A History of Witchcraft" (also reviewed by me), Russell notes how the clerisy in some countries treated witches better than the secular forces. "The Inquisitors were taught what to look for, and they always found it, whether it existed or not." (159) Each confession under torture added to the supposed knowledge of what witchcraft was, and the people then were convinced all the more that the next person arrested should live up, or die down, to the "standard" of stereotypical behavior.

Understandably, immense difficulties remain for a medievalist culling the testimony to extract what witches "truly" then believed, as the Latin formulae were mis-translated into the vernacular to be told to the accused and then the admissions were twisted back at variance with the Latin, so a warped nature of the evidence permeates the entire account. This process I admit remained rather unclear to me, and I wish Russell had provided transcripts to explain this more slowly; the book is packed with argument and while not inaccessible, it can be dense and challenging-- he expects you to know what "endura" and "antinomianism" are beforehand, for instance. Throughout, adding to this terrible inversion in the cause of "truth," the torturers elicited from their doomed victims what both sides expected as "proof."

I wondered when starting this if I'd find out an insider's account of witchcraft that survived from the Middle Ages apart from the "testimony" coerced or concocted by tormentors. There seems none survived that we can find. Russell concludes that for both witches and those who hated them, their practice "was the result of fear, expressed in supernatural terms in a society that thought in supernatural terms, and repressed by a society that was intolerant of spiritual dissent." (289) He stresses how its magical and superstitious elements receded as the High Middle Ages determined to define witchcraft as the worst of all heresies. Alienation expressed itself among those marginalized, and as the Jews and heretics and rebels found, so did the witches. Feared by medieval Catholicism-- and its Reformed opponents who increased the body count on their own 16th-17th century "witch hunts"-- witches found themselves forced to define themselves by the shapeshifting terms of those who sought their annihilation.

Written in (original hardcover ed.) 1972, the analogies with anti-Communist or anti-imperialist crusades may have faded, but replace those with other terms and you can appreciate the relevance. King Philip IV of France demonstrates how deep cynicism curdled the whole apparatus of "justice." This scourge of the Templars, in 1303, forbade the Inquisition to deal with "sorcerers, usurers, and Jews." (171) Why? He wanted to profit from the confiscated wealth of these despised groups. Separation of church and state, indeed.