ABSTRACT

Two aspects of pre-witch-craze Europe may be considered a particularly important basis for the witch-hunts: peasant beliefs regarding the existence of witches; and the establishment by the ruling class of an inquisitorial apparatus. Norman Cohn argues that it was the alteration of traditional peasant beliefs and incorporation of these into the beliefs of the ruling class (and especially the clergy), combined with change in the legal system via the inquisitorial process, which provided the necessary elements for the European witch-hunts to take off.1 In other words, actual witchhunting relied on peasant beliefs, but could not have occurred without the intervention of the upper echelons of society. I will examine these issues before going on to look at the main period of witch persecution.