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The period of witch trials in Early Modern Europe〔mostly in the Holy Roman Empire, the British Isles and France, and to some extent in the European colonies in North America; largely excluding the Iberian Peninsula and Italy; "Inquisition Spain and Portugal, obsessed with heresy, ignored the witch craze. In Italy, witch trials were comparatively rare and did not involve torture and executions." Anne L. Barstow, ''Witchcraze : a New History of the European Witch Hunts'', HarperCollins, 1995.〕 were a widespread moral panic suggesting that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organized threat to Christendom during the 15th to 18th centuries.〔Thurston 2001. p. 01.〕 Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being worshippers of the Devil, who engaged in such acts as malevolent sorcery at meetings known as Witches' Sabbaths. Many people were subsequently accused of being witches, and were put on trial for the crime, with varying punishments being applicable in different regions and at different times. While early trials fall still within the Late Medieval period, the peak of the witch hunt was during the period of the European wars of religion, peaking between about 1580 and 1630. The witch hunts declined in the early 18th century. In Great Britain, their end is marked by the Witchcraft Act of 1735. But sporadic witch-trials continued to be held during the second half of the 18th century, the last known dating to 1782,〔Thurston 2001. p. 79.〕 though a prosecution was commenced in Tennessee as recently as 1833.〔Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, Volume LX, August 10, 1834, Number 17,057 (From the Nashville (Tenn.) Herald, of 22d July) (transcribed at http://www.topix.com/forum/city/jamestown-tn/TPAPB6U4LVF0JDQC8/p2〕〔History of Fentress County, Tennessee, Albert R. Hogue, compiled by the Fentress County Historical Society, p. 67 (http://books.google.com/books?id=b1wvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA67; transcribed at http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.tennessee.counties.fentress/260.258/mb.ashx)〕〔Touring the East Tennessee Back-roads By Carolyn Sakowski, p. 212(http://books.google.com/books?id=rLBrUbj02IcC&pg=PA212)〕 Over the entire duration of the phenomenon of some three centuries, an estimated total of between 40,000 and 60,000 people were executed. Among the best known of these trials were the Scottish North Berwick witch trials, Swedish Torsåker witch trials and the American Salem witch trials. Among the largest and most notable were the Trier witch trials (1581–1593), the Fulda witch trials (1603–1606), the Würzburg witch trial (1626–1631) and the Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631). The sociological causes of the witch-hunts have long been debated in scholarship. Mainstream historiography sees the reason for the witch craze in a complex interplay of various factors that mark the early modern period, including the religious sectarianism in the wake of the Reformation, besides other religious, societal, economic and climatic factors. == Background == The witch-trials emerge in the 15th century out of the practices surrounding the persecution of heresy in the medieval period, although they reach their peak only during the Wars of Religion following the Protestant Reformation. While belief in witches and praeternatural evil were widespread in pre-Christian Europe,〔The belief in and persecution of witches especially in Germanic pagan Europe is reflected in Germanic law, and in an episode in Jordanes' ''Getica'' (6th century). See e.g. Hutton 1991. p. 257.〕 the influence of the Church in the early medieval era resulted in the revocation of these laws in many places,〔〔"Likewise, the Lombard King Rothari (c. 606–52) decreed in 643 that Christians must not believe that women devour a human being from inside (''ut mulier hominem vivum instrinsecus possit comedere''), and therefore supposed witches (''strigae'') must not be killed, particularly not convicted in court." Behringer, ''Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History'', p. 30 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.〕 bringing an end to traditional pagan witch hunts.〔 Throughout the medieval era mainstream Christian teaching had denied the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as pagan superstition.〔"Clearly, there was an increase in skeptical voices during the Carolingian period, even if we take into account an increase in surviving sources.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 31 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.〕 However, Christian influence on popular beliefs in witches and ''maleficium'' (harm committed by magic), failed to entirely eradicate folk belief in witches.〔"Study after study has shown how, all over Europe, ordinary people regularly appealed not to their own consciences, or to the conscience of the Church, but to local practitioners skilled in healing, divination, and astrology for help with their everyday problems. They did this frequently in cases of suspected ''maleficium'', but any kind of misfortune, anticipated or experienced, could justify a visit to the 'cunning' man or woman.", Clark, "Thinking With Demons: the Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe", p. 457 (1999). Oxford University Press.〕 The work of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century was instrumental in developing the new theology which would give rise to the witch hunts,〔"Christian theology underwent a major shift of attitude only during the 13th century. In his Summa contra Gentiles, Thomas Aquinas (1255–74) not only confirmed Augustine's semiotic theory, according to which spells, amulets or magical rituals indicated a secret pact with demons, but gave the impression that sorcerers, through the support of the devil, could physically commit their crimes.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", pp. 35–36 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.〕 but because sorcery was judged by secular courts it was not until ''maleficium'' was identified with heresy that theological trials for witchcraft could commence.〔"Sorcery was, however, still subject to secular law and secular courts, since the main indictment was ''maleficium''. Subsequent inquisitors like Nicolas Eymeric (c. 1320–99), inquisitor of Aragon, in his Directorium Inquisitorum of 1376 equated sorcerers with heretics because both were supposed to adore the devil. Sorcery, or witchcraft, was thus redefined as a spiritual crime, subject primarily to ecclesiastical courts, and the Inquisition in particular.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 36 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.〕 The resurgence of witch-hunts at the end of the medieval period, taking place with at least partial support or at least tolerance on the part of the Church, was accompanied with a number of developments in Christian doctrine, i.e. the recognition of the existence of witchcraft as a form of Satanic influence, and its classification as a heresy. As Renaissance occultism gained traction among the educated classes, the belief in witchcraft, which in the medieval period had been part of the folk religion of the uneducated rural population at best, was incorporated into an increasingly comprehensive theology of Satan as the ultimate source of all ''maleficium''.〔"Early Christian theologians attributed to the Devil responsibility for persecution, heresy, witchcraft, sin, natural disasters, human calamities, and whatever else went wrong. One tragic consequence of this was a tendency to demonize people accused of wrongs. At the instance of ecclesiastical leaders, the state burned heretics and witches, burning symbolizing the fate deserved by the demonic. Popular fears, stirred to fever pitch in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, sustained frenzied efforts to wipe out heretics, witches, and unbelievers, especially Jews.", Hinson, "Historical and Theological Perspectives on Satan", ''Review & Expositor'' (89.4.475), (Fall 1992).〕〔"Trevor-Roper has said that it was necessary for belief in the Kingdom of Satan to die before the witch theory could be discredited.", Larner, 'Crime of Witchcraft In Early Modern Europe', in Oldridge, 'The Witchcraft Reader', p. 211 (2002). Routledge.〕 These changes the doctrinal shift were completed in the mid 15th century, specifically in the wake of the Council of Basel and centered on the Duchy of Savoy in the western Alps,〔"We are reasonably confident today that the 'classical' doctrine of witchcraft crystallized during the middle third of the 15th century, shortly after the Council of Basel, primarily within a western Alpine zone centred around the duchy of Savoy (Ostorero et al. 1999).", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", pp. 18–19 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.〕 leading to an early series of witch trials by both secular and ecclesiastical courts in the second half of the 15th century.〔"By the end of the 15th century, scattered trials for witchcraft by both secular and ecclesiastical courts occurred in many places from the Pyrenees, where the Spanish Inquisition had become involved, to the North Sea.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", pp. 18–19 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.〕 ''Malleus Maleficarum'', the 1485 treatise by Henricus Institoris met initial resistance in some areas,〔"Germany was emphatically not the center of this activity; Institoris encountered enormous hostility in the Austrian Alps, and absolutely no evidence exists that the publication of his Malleus started any chain of trials anywhere in the Empire.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 19 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.〕 and some areas of Europe only experienced the first wave of the new witch trials in the latter half of the 16th century.〔"In Switzerland, the rustic 'forest cantons' of the original Confederation apparently remained unaffected by witch trials until after 1560.", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 19 (2004). "the first known witch-hunt in the kingdom of France began in the northern Pyrenees in the spring of 1562", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 21 (2004).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Witch trials in the early modern period」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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