THE DECLINE OF WITCH BELIEFS AND TRIALS

I. Judicial, procedural changes
            as most immediate cause of decline of trials

  Spanish Inquisition, 1610: FRA ALONSO SALAZAR
                  report to Suprema on Logrono

  Roman Inquisition, 1620: Instructions on Witch Trials

  France: 1620 University of Paris bans demonic testimony        
                  (demon speaking through possessed person)
            1624  Parlement of Paris
                    requires appeal in w/c cases

  Germany, 1631: 
          Frederick  Spee, Cautio Criminalis  (K&P)
              controversial, published anonymously

  New England, 1703:
        Massachusetts bans spectral evidence

II. Intellectual changes:
             occur AFTER the decline of trials has begun

      Scientific Universe: materialist view of physical world
      Cartesian "dualism": split between matter and spirit

      Critique of witch beliefs
          Pierre Bayle, skeptical, undermining approach
                 Historical & Critical Dictionary, 1703 

          Balthasar Bekker, The Enchanted World, 1691
                   first systematic refutation of witch theory

      Growing gap between learned and popular beliefs
            due to Enlightenment 18th C.