WITCHCRAFT IN SWITZERLAND AND FRANCE

I. SWITZERLAND       
     Link to 15th C. heresy (Waldensians)
              Vauderie = Sabbath (from vaudois, Waldensian)

     Geneva  near province of Savoy;
        Calvin arrives 1536; start of Reformation
        1530--first episode of plague spreaders
               "engraisseurs de peste"
        1540-1650's: total 500 trials (1-4 per year)

        Types: 1) panic trials against plague spreaders
                      79 executions in 179 trials = 44% executed

                   2) "ordinary" trials =  20% execution rate
                       1573-1662 in 205 cases: 29 executed,
                               39 set free, 131 banished from Geneva

        penalties reflect:  local concerns of Reformation Geneva
               Calvinist theological focus on apostasy,
               (not maleficium or Sabbath)

II. FRANCE 
    Witchcraft trials occur on the peripheries:
        (Rhineland, Lorraine, Belgium, Luxembourg, Basque border)

    Judicial Structure
          Parlement of Paris: appeals court for central 2/3 of country
         local parlements: peripheral areas recently joined to crown

    Secular judges as theorists in French witch hunts
              (note that all are from peripheral, border areas)

        1. Jean Bodin, 1580 On the Demonomania of Sorcerers
              Magistrate on local parlement of Laon
              1578 presides in witch trial of Jeanne Havillier

       2. Nicolas Remy, 1595 Demonolatry -- (K&P #49)
               Chief prosecutor for Duchy of Lorraine
               on trials in Lorraine, see Robin Briggs, Witches & Neighbors

       3. Henri Boguet, 1602 Discourse on Sorcerers
              1598-1609 judge in Franche Comte:
                              35 cases, 28 executions

       4. Pierre di Lancre, 1612 Tableau of Inconstancy of Fallen Angels
              Witch hunter in Labourd, Basque region, near Spanish border

II. Judicial struggle: periphery vs. center

    Parlement of Paris (appeals court): Statistics in w/c cases:
        1565-1640: 1200 cases on appeal, 30 cases originated
        1565-1600: 30% death sentences upheld, 30% released outright
        1611-1640: 13% upheld (=5% of total), 47% released

   Extension of Paris' jurisdiction over witch trial
        1588--reply to Bodin: all w/c cases must be reviewed by Paris
        1624--ARRET: mandatory appeals of all w/c by parlement of Paris
        1640--last w/c case heard by parlement of Paris
        1682--royal decree abolishing crime of w/c