Sections will discuss
evidence of early medieval witch beliefs including
Handout #3, K&P. Note the different genres, or types of writing,
represented.
Our goal here is to sort out different strands in early medieval witch beliefs.
Read Documents below from K&P #5 & 6, plus Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons,
Ch. 9 on “Night Witch in Popular Imagination,” especially pp. 166-175.
#1 St. Augustine On
Christian Teaching pp. 44-46
What image emerges of late Roman magical beliefs?
What is Augustine’s attitude to astrology? Is human curiosity a good
thing?
#2 Caesarius of Arles,
Sermon (6th C) pp. 47-50
What attitude should Christians have to magical remedies that seem to
work?
#5 Canon Episcopi,
circa 906 AD: most important early document
1) earliest version is in Regino of Prum's collection of church canons
(decrees) issued
by local synods or councils. Title
is first word of Latin text (Episcopi or “Bishops”).
2) included in 12th C Gratian’s Decretum 1140 important
collection of medieval canon law
What is involved in “nightflying
with Diana,” the popular belief described in this text?
Who believes this?
What is the official attitude towards this belief expressed in the text?
Do the "ladies of the night" really fly, in the view of the author?
How skeptical is this document? What does it believe versus what does it reject?
What are the people who believe this guilty of,and what should be done with
them?
#6 Burchard of Worms,
Corrector sive Medicus Rusticorum 11th C.
(The Corrector, or Doctor of Rustics)
Genre of penitential
canons: church decrees specifying penances to be imposed by a confessor
for specific sins; confessor should ask the person seeking forgiveness about
these sins.
What kinds of magical practices
are reflected in these texts?
#70 & 90 Compare these sections with Canon Episcopi (above): note
their similarities & differences.
#170 This is an important text for beliefs about the striga:
how does the striga differ from the
beliefs described in the Canon Episcopi?
#175 Lifting footprints:
what is going on here?
#181 What is done to body of unbaptized dead infants? Why?