16TH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT DEBATE 1560-1580's

Learned debate among pastor, doctor, lawyer:
Is witchcraft possible or an illusion?

I. JOHANN BRENZ, Lutheran pastor  Sermon on Hailstorms 1539
         preaches against popular view of hailstorms as caused by witches
         Lutheran theological position: God's Providence as ultimate cause
         attitude to state punishment of witches

II. JOHANN WEYER (German)

   Biography: Protestant physician to Duke of Cleves,
             studied with Cornelius Agrippa Von Nettesheim
   Treatise: 1563 De Prestigiis Daemonum, (On the Illusions of Demons)
               7 editions from 1563 to 1580

 1) Skeptical about the reality of W/C
             stresses devil's powers of creating illusion
 2) Natural, medical explanation for witchcraft
             portrays witches as "melancholics"
3) Scriptural, protestant attack on diabolical pact
             expands power of devil,
             sees witches as deluded by devil
4) Procedural objections to use of torture
             to extract confessions

III. JEAN BODIN (French)

      1580 La Demonomanie des Sorciers
                (The Demonomania of Witches)
               refutation of Weyer's theory of melancholia
                attack on Weyer himself as a sorcerer
Career: 
        Lawyer, judge, member of parlement of Laon
                              (regional appeals court, NE France)
        Political theorist: Six Books of the Republic, 1561
             theory of state sovereignty
       Experienced judge in witch trials in Laon
             case of Jeanne Harvillier, 1578

IV. REGINALD SCOT (English)

      The Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584 - skeptical
              1st English treatise on witchcraft
              supports Weyer against Bodin
              sees witchcraft as "cousening art":
                    deception and trickery

V. JAMES STUART (Scottish)
    (JAMES VI of Scotland; JAMES I of England in 1603)

      Daemonologie, 1597 
      theological arguments against Weyer and Scot