source: Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Roper's enlightened witch-trials
Tomorrow's reading in Roper is about the influence of the Enlightenment and how it changed the ideas and proceedings of witch interrogations and trials.The trial of Catharina Schmid is a focus of Roper and used to display her argument from the beginning to the middle of the chapter. As Roper explains, Catherina's trial which took place in southern Germany, used torture that violated rules, was targeted towards an elderly woman (74 years old), and displayed a separation between the lower class (Schmid) and the upper (Roper, 227 and 231). However there is a new significance to this case. As Roper explains, this case took place in 1745 which was over 100 years after the attributed end to the witch crazes that caused mass panic and executions and with the Enlightenment came an increase in record keeping (Roper, 228). Her major point through all of this is the detail of the emotion that scribes recorded through the entire process. Although the trials followed a similar format, instead of focusing on the confessions the scribes during the Enlightenment focused on the testimonies of others throughout the case. Why would there be such a drastic change in focus for proof? Roper briefly explains that due to the long break between 1650 and the reemergence of witch-trials in the 18th century the court systems had to redesign their tactics because they didn't have access to many of the original doctrine (Roper, 231). As a student of history I would like to believe that people learn from previous history. Thereofore, and I think this is what Roper is trying to argue as well, because of the lack of records concerning the search for proof there was an increase in displaying this process and what people said through the trial for future generations to come. Within her chapter she also discusses the Enlightenment and some other characteristics that influenced the witch-trials, briefly what are these new ideas? Also, if at the end of these witch hunts, just like those earlier in the 16th and 17th centuries, there were still executions of people were these changes truly significant?
source: Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
source: Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
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Thank you for your post Ben! I think you are right in that people learn form history and try to improve from it. However, the opposite is also prevalent in that history tends to repeat itself. While there are significant changes in the process and court system seems to have changed, Roper does mention some smaller-scale court systems, like those in small, secular villages, that could still be stuck in the panic of the witch crazes. I think it's a matter of how quickly certain towns and villages excel, while others might stay behind.
ReplyDeleteIts really amazing to read some of these accounts and testimonies. They are often very detailed and vivid. Its great that Europe was such a detailed, record keeping society. Thanks to that there are plenty of sources to work with.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the point that people learn from the past. The shift in focus may have had something to do with the fact that many understood that confessions from torture weren't true. By relying on testimony from various outside sources, in theory, one would be able to build the biggest picture. By trying to interconnect the testimonies, they are able to build a full story of narratives that would ideally overlap. It's the same thing we do today in court, though when available, we use forensics, surveillance and other digital footprints as evidence to back up the stories.
ReplyDeleteVery good summary of Roper's writing Ben. I agree that she is arguing that history offers valuable lessons if we only listen to them. Reading your post and the comments, I think about more recent instances where similar events like the European witch-hunts occurred. African-American lynching in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, McCarthyism and the Red Scare all were fairly recent events where fear and concern led to calculated large-scale torment of "different types" of people. It makes me wonder if there has been much learned from history, in some aspects. Thanks again, Benjamin!
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