Sections will discuss evidence
of early medieval witch beliefs including Handout #3,
as well as readings from K&P. Note the different genres, or types of
writing, represented.
Our goal here is to sort out the different strands present in early medieval
witch beliefs.
Read Documents below from K&P #5 & 6, plus Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons,
Ch. 9 on
“Night Witch in Popular Imagination,” especially pp. 166-175.
#5 Canon Episcopi,
circa 906 AD: most important early document
1) earliest version is in Regino of Prum's collection of church canons
(decrees) issued
by local synods or councils. Title is first word of Latin text (Episcopi
or “Bishops”).
2) included in 12th C Gratian’s Decretum 1140 important
collection of medieval canon
law
What is involved in “nightflying
with Diana,” the popular belief described in this text?
Who believes this?
What is the official attitude
towards this belief expressed in the text?
Do the "ladies of the night" really fly, in the view of the author?
How skeptical is this document?
What does it believe versus what does it reject?
What are the people who believe this guilty of,and what
should be done with them?
#6 Burchard of Worms, Corrector
sive Medicus Rusticorum 11th C.
(The Corrector, or Doctor of Rustics)
Genre of penitential canons:
church decrees specifying penances to be imposed by a confessor
for specific sins; confessor should ask the person seeking forgiveness about
these sins.
What kinds of magical practices are
reflected in these texts?
#70 & 90 Compare these
sections with Canon Episcopi (above): note their similarities &
differences.
#170 This is an important
text for beliefs about the striga:
how does the striga differ from the
beliefs described in the Canon Episcopi?
#175 Lifting footprints: what is
going on here?
#181 What is done to body
of unbaptized dead infants? Why?