Discussion sections: Critics and skeptics                                             

I. Judicial criticism of trials:

Friedrich Spee, Cautio Criminalis 1631  [K&P, #65, pp. 425-429]
    Jesuit confessor to witches; published anonymously

    Where does the pressure for witchcraft trials come from?
    What is the role of the magistrates, princes & judges?
   “Gaia”: Spee’s name for the basic type of accused witch:
       What is the role of her prior reputation (#10)
       How does he describe the trial process & the role of torture?
       What factors militate against a verdict of innocence?

II. French Skepticism: context of French Wars of Religion 1562-1589 as
            example of what “religious certainty” can cause

Michel Montaigne, “On Cripples” 1588 [K&P #61, pp. 402-406]

     What is Montaigne’s attitude to knowledge?
          Note comments on truth & falsehood, rumors (p. 403)

     What is meant by “a certain strong & generous ignorance”? (p. 404)
     Note his comments about “the witches of my neighborhood,” and
          dangers of applying Scriptural examples to them (pp. 404-5)

     What kind of evidence should be needed for an execution?
     What attitude does he take towards popular beliefs (such as witches flying)?  (pp. 405-6)

     Note his citation of personal experience traveling in Germanyand talking to imprisoned witches,
          for whom he would have prescribed “rather hellebore than hemlock.”  (p. 406)

Link to readings by Cyrano de Bergerac and Malebranche (both in Xerox packet)

Cyrano de Bergerac A Letter against witches 1654

What is his attitude about witches and witch beliefs? What standard of proof does he require?
What are some of his arguments about why he doesn't believe in witches?

Malebranche, Recherche de la Vérité  (Search for Truth) 1674  Link from web page, pp. 121-126
  Cartesian, French Catholic cleric; central issues: 
      empiricist epistemology:
                theory that knowledge is created in a mechanical manner by impact of sensory data
               creating “grooves” in the brain (p. 124-5)             
     imagination as a kind of “inflammation of the brain”
        * Story of the shepherd telling stories to wife and children about  travel to the Sabbath (p. 122-123)

        What does he mean by “in places where witches are burned, a great number of them are found”? (p. 124)
        Why is it better to treat witches as madmen?
        Does he believe that witches exist at all, or not?  What about Sabbat?
        Note the optimistic Christian ending to his discussion (p. 126)

Pierre Bayle, Answer to Questions of a Provincial 1703 [K&P #68, pp. 438-444]
  Popular belief in magical source of illness & magical healing (p. 438)
  Role of the imagination in witch beliefs and possession (p. 438-440)
  What point is he making by comparison with positive religious figures,
               such as the Catholic mystic, Angela da Foligno? (439-40)

  Issue of fraud (440), dreams (441)
  Ligature, or “knotting the braid” (441-443)
       hailstorms as cure, or “unknotting”; role of imagination
       note story of Doctor Venette, who threatens a peasant worker with
            “knotting his braid” before the marriage: nasty example of
             relations between educated landowners and peasantry (442-443)