The Judge’s Lore? The Politico-Religious Concept of Metamorphosis in the Peripheries of Western Europe

Voltmer, Rita

doi:10.1007/978-1-137-52634-2_7

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…On reformation, counter-reformation, and confessionalization, there is a still growing bibliography; among other titles see (Mullett 2010;Bamji et al 2013). 10 The movements of Reformation and Counter-Reformation exerted a significant influence on witch-hunts in Europe; see for example (Kallestrup 2018;Monter 1976Monter , 1990Voltmer 2015Voltmer , 2016Voltmer , 2017aVoltmer , 2018bVoltmer , 2020Waite 2003bWaite , 2007Waite , 2012)-On the scholarly debate and the call for further research see (Waite 2013, pp.485-487, 504 entourage. Most parsons had to share their life with a woman for economic reasons who was able to fulfill the daily duties of housekeeping.…”

Section: Setting the Scene-catholic Clergy And The Crisis Of Priestdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Debating the Devil’s Clergy. Demonology and the Media in Dialogue with Trials (14th to 17th Century)

Voltmer

2019

Religions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In comparison with the estimated number of about 60,000 executed so-called witches (women and men), the number of executed and punished witch-priests seems to be rather irrelevant. This statement, however, overlooks the fact that it was only during medieval and early modern times that the crime of heresy and witchcraft cost the life of friars, monks, and ordained priests at the stake. Clerics were the largest group of men accused of practicing magic, necromancy, and witchcraft. Demonology and the media (in constant dialogue with trials) reveal the omnipresence of the devil’s cleric with his figure possessing the quality of a ‘super-witch’, labelled as patronus sagarum. In Western Europe, the persecution of Catholic priests played at least two significant roles. First, in confessional debates, it proved to Catholics that Satan was assaulting post-Tridentine Catholicism, the only remaining bulwark of Christianity; for Protestants on the other hand, the news about the devil’s clergy proved that Satan ruled popedom. Second, in the Old Reich and from the start of the 17th century, the prosecution of clerics as the devil’s minions fueled the general debates about the legitimacy of witchcraft trials. In sketching these over-lapping discourses, we meet the devil’s clergy in Catholic political demonology, in the media and in confessional debates, including polemics about Jesuits being witches and sorcerers. Friedrich Spee used the narratives about executed Catholic priests as vital argument to end trials and torture. Inter alia, battling the devil’s clergy played a vital role in campaigns of internal Catholic church reform and clerical infighting. Studying the debates about the devil’s clergy thus provides a better understanding of how the dynamics of the Reformation, counter-Reformation, Catholic Reform, and confessionalization had an impact on European witchcraft trials.

show abstract

Section: Setting the Scene-catholic Clergy And The Crisis Of Priestdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Debating the Devil’s Clergy. Demonology and the Media in Dialogue with Trials (14th to 17th Century)

Voltmer

2019

Religions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…9 On reformation, counter-reformation, and confessionalization, there is a still growing bibliography; among other titles see (Mullett 2010;Bamji et al 2013). 10 The movements of Reformation and Counter-Reformation exerted a significant influence on witch-hunts in Europe; see for example (Kallestrup 2018;Monter , 1990Voltmer 2015Voltmer , 2016Voltmer , 2017aVoltmer , 2018bVoltmer , 2020Waite 2003bWaite , 2007Waite , 2012)-On the scholarly debate and the call for further research see (Waite 2013, pp.485-487, 504). 11 See for example (Po-Chia Hsia 2005;Thibodeaux 2010;Arnold 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%