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