Toads and Eucharists: The Male Witches of Normandy, 1564-1660

Taxes, Lawyers, and the Decline of Witch Trials in France

“…We add 202 trials reported for Franch-Comté by Monter (1976). We add 202 trials for Normandy which are reported in Monter (1997). Finally, we include 167 trials in the 'Champagne' region reported by Soman (1992) that we allocate to our region Chalons.…”

Male witches in early modern Europe

“…This interesting interpretation is, unfortunately, marred by Classen's conclusion that 'the witch-hunts were, at least in part, designed to put the fear of God and of the executioner into women, and to clamp down on attempts by women either to aspire to male forms of power, or to empower themselves through traditional women's work ',82. Ibid.,[63][64][65] [180][181]. One of Weyer's arguments against witch-hunting was that using women as his servants would be counter-productive to the Devil's evil purposes: 'because of their age and sex and as a result of the cold, moist, dense, sluggish constitution which renders their bodies unsuitable, they hinder the work of the demon's fine and subtle substance, so that if he seeks the cooperation of these women, he is disturbed and hindered in the performance of his task.…”

“Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils”: Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials

“…In the descriptions of the Sabbath that featured prominently in early modern European denunciations of witchcraft, the baptism of toads was presented as evidence of the depravity and sacrilege that attended such gathering (Allen 1979, pp. 265-66;Monter 1997). The trial of John Walsh for witchcraft in 1566, recorded evidence of the use of toads as familiars, and the use of the toad for demonic purposes was assured a cultural longevity by the reference to Paddock, a toad familiar, in the opening scene of Macbeth.…”