ABSTRACT
Witchcraft and witch-hunting in early modern Europe are among the most written about, yet most elusive, of historical topics. Even before the last witches were burnt (as far as we know, the last legal execution came at Glarus in Switzerland in 1782), educated Europeans were trying to explain why the witch-hunts had happened. This intellectual quest has continued, for the era of the witch persecutions has never ceased to exercise a fascination for later generations. To the general reader, the witch-hunts retain two main characteristics. There is much about them which is bizarre, even laughable: one thinks of the belief in night-flying to the sabbat, of tales of sexual liaisons between witches and incubi and succubi, of stories about the talking demonic animals which were the witches' familiars. The knowledge that people in the past believed in such phenomena reassures us moderns as we attempt to maintain the notion that we live in a more rational age than did many of our forebears. Conversely, the fate of some of those accused of witchcraft was harrowing. Here, perhaps, one thinks of the letter which Johannes Junius wrote to his daughter as he faced execution for witchcraft at Bamberg in 1628, explaining that he had confessed to witchcraft only after being tortured so severely that even his gaoler begged him to admit to his nonexistent offence to end his suffering [63 p. 129]. Or one could bring to mind the elderly and confused Janet Horne, the last witch to be executed in Scotland, warming herself beside the fire she was to be burnt on, thinking it had been lit for her comfort [64 p. 78]. Whether regarded as
trivial and odd, or horrifying and inhuman, witch-hunting and the beliefs which underpinned it can all too easily be employed to create a possibly spurious cultural distancing between the past and the present. Indeed, the way in which witchcraft has so frequently been regarded as a metaphor for backwardness creates a massive barrier to the proper understanding of the phenomenon.
