ABSTRACT
A characteristic example is provided by the largest witchcraft persecution in German-speaking regions during the sixteenth century in Trier which claimed some 300 victims and was previously written off to the personal persecution complex of the Prince-Elector. In an impressive dissertation on the witch trials in Trier and the County of Sponheim. Walter Rummel proves the inadequacy of this old interpretation. Actually, the persecuting impulse 'was fostered almost completely "from below", from communities and their representatives' .. III The administration of the ecclesiastical territory was nearly paralysed as communal committees wrested judicial authority from its hands as a consequence of this campaign of extermination. while the administration fought in vain to win back the initiative. A local witchcraft ordinance of 1591 mentions that 'communities ... have conspired and established a pact very nearly resembling a revolt· .. II
And this was no mere apology, as confirmed by Eva Labouvie's recent investigations into the social logic behind 'village inquisitions' conducted in the territories of today's Saarland (the counties of Nassau-Saarbrlicken and Pfalz-Zweibriicken). of the Teutonic Order. as well as Electoral Trier, the Duchy of Lorraine and their associated territories. With a dynamism shocking. for the 'age of absolutism'. subject populations imposed their will on politically wcak administrations. Their mcthods of witch-finding reflected precious little of the refined techniques attendant on Roman law or inquisitorial theory .. '~ Committees formed by free primitive elections held within their respective communities acted without legitimation from the ruling elite and naturally beyond elite interests. Instead. they represented the 'self-initiative of comradeship toward witch-hunting'. The committecs actcd on behalf of village
