MEDIEVAL WITCH BELIEFS IN SECULAR AND CHURCH LAW

I. Images of the Witch in early medieval sources --
      series of separate images which later are combined:           

    1)  MALEFICA: female perpetrator of maleficium
             THEODOSIAN CODE - late 4th C. (see handout #3)
                     380 Emperor Theodosius: Christianity
                          becomes official religion of Empire

     2)  STRIX or STRIGA (Latin: screech owl; witch)        
            cannibalistic, flying bird/woman: evidence from

            a) late Roman sources
                       OVID, Metamorphoses
                       APULEIUS, The Golden Ass

           b) Barbarian Law Codes : customary laws of Germanic tribes
                                                             written in Latin from 6-8th C.
                   Wergeld system: penalties = fines,   "lucrative justice"

                   Salic Law (Franks) 6th C
                   Lombard Code (Italy) 7th C, 643 AD
                   Charlemagne's capitulary for Saxons 789 AD  

                  ( for these texts: see handout # 3   &    Cohn p. 164)                

    3) DIANA, HOLDA, LADIES OF THE NIGHT

            CANON EPISCOPI 906 AD  
                        (see text in Kors & Peters, #5, pp. 60-63)
              1140 included in Gratian's Decretum: authoritative 
                         compilation of canon law (= church law)

                   popular image: protective female figure
                   clerical version: reversion to paganism

II. Attitude of Church to Witch Beliefs: early skepticism

            1) Canon Episcopi on nightflying with Diana

            2) Burchard's Corrector rusticorum on striga
                  (text in Kors & Peters, #6, pp. 63-67

      later growth of ecclesiastical support for witch beliefs:

            Causes:  l)  THEOLOGICAL: 
                                 a) SCHOLASTICISM  and  b) DEMONOLOGY
                           2)  JUDICIAL:     rise of the INQUISITION