1. Mike Arseneau
Dr. Rubin
Final Paper
12/11/13
A Look at Witchcraft During the Middle Ages
There has been a lot of research involving witchcraft and the trials during the
Middle Ages. Witchcraft has many different forms in many cultures and in most it is
viewed as satanic and seen as going against God during a very religious time period.
Witchcraft can be defined as the practice of magic, especially black magic; the use of
spells and the invocation of spirits most common for religious, divinatory or
medicinal purposes1. The individuals that took part in these practices were seen as
undermining Christianity, which led to the most famous “large scale” witch-hunts in
Europe during the Middle Ages, The Salem Witch Trials. The court systems of the
witchcraft trials were taking matters into their own hands to extract false
accusations from people in their community while forcing false confessions from
those innocent individuals being prosecuted. The main question is what was this big
craze of the superstition involving witchcraft and the scare throughout European
societies, while also digging even deeper into the question as to why the court
systems were brainwashing and torturing these accused individuals for their false
accusations to scare their communities. The courts main purpose was to set an
example for their communities to show them that witchcraft would not be tolerated
and was ruining their culture. Some evidence that shows these forced prosecutions
and the brainwashing of communities can be seen through The Trial of Johannes
1 “Witchcraft,” Oxford English Dictionary: The Definitive Record of the English
Language, Oxford University Press, last modified Sept. 2013, accessed Nov. 3, 2013,
http://www.oed.com.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/view/Entry/229580?redirectedFr
om=witchcraft#eid.

2. Junius of 1628 in Bamberg, Germany, the novels Bread of Dreams and The Secret Life
of Lucifer, the view of women and how they were easily prosecuted, and the treatise
(thesis) Malleus Maleficarum. In the Trial of Johannes Junius, there is evidence that
there is a forced confession through brutal torture and eventual death to Johannes
Junius. Looking at the two novels, both deal with the element of the supernatural
and its role on society. In Bread of Dreams, the author Piero Camporesi describes the
superstation craze over food and how this craze takes over a society. And from Lynn
Picknett’s The Secret Life of Lucifer, she writes about how the Devil is seen in many
different forms and how the “women” form of the Devil was viewed which then
leads into the thesis by Heinrich Kramer, Malleus Maleficarum, and how women
were viewed the weaker sex and therefore easier to be prosecuted and put a scare
in communities. With all this evidence, it is clear that the court systems of the
Middle Ages involving witchcraft were corrupt and truly in control of innocent
peoples lives.
First looking at the Trial of Johannes Junius, it is evident that the court
system was in a conspiracy to obtain Junius on false accusations, seeing that the
courts make their decision within minutes of obtaining Junius. This unfortunate
occurrence took place in Bamberg, Germany and involves Johannes Junius, a 55-
year-old who is being prosecuted for supposedly attending a “witch-Sabbath,” or
gathering. Clearly an innocent man, this trial shows that the corrupted court
systems were taking matters into their own hands to control the outcome of the
Witchcraft Trials. Digging even deeper into the story and the evidence that
surrounds Junius of being a witch, it is clear that he was set up and the courts took

3. Junius’ life into their own hands. When captured Junius was tortured brutally, “Since
he would confess nothing, he was put to the torture, and first the thumb-screws were
applied. Says he has never denied God his Savior nor suffered himself to be
otherwise baptized; will again stake his life on it; feels no pain in the thumb-
screws.2” Looking at this specific evidence from the trial, it shows that Junius was
telling the truth about not worshiping the Devil and that these false accusations
were acquired by any means possible (even thumb-screws). The reoccurring theme
that Junius keeps reflecting on is why this is happening to him and why God will not
forsake him and unfortunately, during the Middle Ages, societies did not have the
technologies to help distinguish and solve these trials. Junius, now brutally beaten
and on the brink of throwing the truth away, he finally realizes the only way out of
this is to confess anyway. “Sir, I beg you, for God’s sake confess something, whether
it be true or not.3” Along with Junius’ false accusation, he goes into talking about the
fear that had overcome him that eventually broke him into giving a false confession
through a letter he secretly wrote to his daughter4. In this letter, he goes into talking
about how there were six who confessed against him and that he saw in them that
they were forced to accuse an innocent man. He talks about how they actually told
him that the courts forced them to accuse him and how they were manipulated to do
2 George L Burr, “The Witch Persecution at Bamberg,” In the Original Sources of
European History, Vol. 3, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania History
Department, 2001) p. 24.
3 Ibid, p. 27.
4 Ibid; A Letter he wrote to his daughter while imprisoned, expressing how scared
and confused he was. Also talks about the six men who falsely accused him.

4. what the court system wanted, just like him. “Dear child, six have confessed against
me at once… They know nothing but good of me. They were forced to say it, just as I
myself was.5” This evidence adds to theory of the court systems deciding to take
matters into their own hands and falsely accuse innocent individuals, which led to
the accused death.
Another example of how the court systems of the Middle Ages were
brainwashing and taking control of their societies is through a thesis called, Malleus
Maleficarum, depicting the prosecution of witches. This thesis was written in 1486
by Heinrich Kramer and published a year later. Malleus Maleficarum’s main purpose
was to disprove any arguments that witchcraft did not exist. While the Trial of
Johannes Junius was about the falsifications of records and corruption within the
courts systems, Malleus Maleficarum takes a different side and talks about how
women were more susceptible to witchcraft than men. Firstly, Kramer states that
there are three elements necessary for witchcraft to exist: the evil intentions of the
witch, the help of the Devil, and the Permission of God.6 When looking at Malleus
Maleficarum, it helps to know the time period and what was happening in the world
of women.
The Late Middle Ages (1300-1500) was an interesting time for women.
Newer possibilities such as commerce, learning and religion were some of the
changes that were going on for women. While having this uprising with new
5 Ibid, p.28.
6 Heinrich Kramer. “Malleus Maleficarum.” (Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger,
Speyer, Germany, 1486).

5. possibilities, women however were being prosecuted and incriminated more and
more all because the “suspicions” towards them were on the rise. “Yet for over half a
century the majority of those accused of maleficium, harmful sorcery, had in fact
been female, with the decisive shift coming around the middle of the fourteenth
century.7” During this time ¾ of the people prosecuted were women, though few
countries like Iceland actually had men as the majority. In Bailey’s Heresy
Dissertation, “Witch trials were therefore seen as a method by which an increasingly
powerful patriarchy sought to condemn and constrict women’s traditional
occupations,8” he explains that witch trials were meant to put a halt on women’s
progression. Also during the Late Middle Ages, people start to get a grasp on works
of ancient studies such as Astronomy, Philosophy, and medicine so some can see
were these peoples suspicions would be coming from because some probably
couldn’t fathom how these things were actually working and they took these
misunderstandings the wrong way.
With concluding evidence from Malleus Maleficarum and the new
possibilities for women, it is clear that the misunderstandings of witchcraft are seen
through women and the new role they play in the Middle Ages. In Malleus
Maleficarum, Kramer says, “Women were weaker (than men) in their faith9” and in
Bailey’s, Heresy, he sates that women were “More prone to the seduction of the
7 Michael David Bailey. “Heresy, Witchcraft, and Reform: Johannes Nider and the
Religious World of Late Middle Ages.” (PhD Dissertation: Northwestern
University, 1998) p.280.
8 Ibid, p.279-280.
9 Kramer, “Malleus Maleficarum.”

6. Devil.10” This can be seen as the reason why women are more easily deceived by the
temptations of witchcraft. While some women were not as intelligent and strong as
others, the ones with strong personalities that stood out were seen as easily
prosecuted witches because of their outspokenness, which society and the courts
saw as worshiping the Devil and sending an Anti-Christian message. It can be
concluded that Malleus Maleficarum is set on proving that there were witch trials
occurring and that the real threat was women and their promiscuity towards the
Devil.
While keeping the theme of women in mind, taking a look at two novels that
deal with superstition and the role of women have with the Devil can add to why the
courts were so willing to falsely accuse. Looking at Picknett’s novel, The Secret
History of Lucifer, it is clear that she relates the Devil to women and actually talks
about the Devil being a women11. While this book does not go into witchcraft and its
relation to the Devil, she does tell of the origins and how she came about. In the
chapter “The Devil and all Her Works,12” Picknett looks at all the stories that have
circulated about the Devil and actually depicts, that in all cases, there is evidence of
a women as the Devil. While looking at other works in literature that back up
Picknett’s evidence, in Marlow’s Tragical History of Dr. Faustus and in Gothic works
like, Matthew Lewis’s The Monk and William Beckford’s Vathek, there is a
10 Bailey, “Heresy,” 279.
11 Lynn Picknett. The Secret History of Lucifer. (New York, NY: Carroll & Graf
Publishers, 2005) p.63-65.
12 Ibid, p.35-46.

7. reoccurring portrayal of women seducing a man into a deal with the Devil for
endless power and wealth which ultimately proves that men are weak in the
presence of women. So what better/easier way for the Devil to get what he wants
than to being a woman.
The other novel that is up for discussion is Camporesi’s The Bread of Dreams.
Camporesi goes to talking how superstition in foods made a craze for witchcraft and
the Devil. He goes into talking about the starving masses in Europe during the
Middle Ages. The world was turned upside down because of the unbalanced,
incoherent and spasmodic interpretation of their reality13. In a more simple matter,
these people were living in an unbearable society. The twist that Camporesi adds to
his book is food, specifically bread. Bread has and always will be an essential part of
the human diet and is viewed as a polyvalent object of life, death, and dreams. He
goes into how bread becomes this substantial cultural object of these impovished
societies. The element of fear adds to the imprisonment and its overbearing force on
these societies. Societies were breaking the barrier of the mental and physical world
while being tyrannized by everyday abuse. Camporesi eventually leads into how
bread has its impact on society, being an interesting one to say the least. The bread
that was being distributed was actually contaminated and spoiled through its
inferior grains. When these grains are spoiled, they are toxic and narcotic14.
Eventually these societies consumed this bread and started hallucinating and even
13 Paul Camporesi. Bread of Dreams. (Chicago, Il: The University of Chicago Press 1980)
p.19.
14 Ibid, p.86-90.

8. seeing deviant models. Relating to the topic of witchcraft, this can be seen as a factor
because societies could be seen as taking acid and this leading to the speculations of
society being paranoid and scared. With this confusion, the court systems could
jump on the opportunity to obtain those who were weaker and prosecute them as
witches while no one knowing because of the chaos and confusion in societies.
With all these factors looking at the corruption of the court systems of the
Middle Ages during the witchcraft trials, there has to be some background on the
origins of witchcraft. Through the study of witchcraft’s historiography - the different
ways of researching and writing history – it clears up some questions as to why
things happened the way they did. This can be seen through the different schools of
thought in historiography. For witchcraft, the four that best fit could be seen
through culture and society, gender roles during the time, and the effects of
witchcraft in everyday life. Looking at the social effect witchcraft had on society; it is
evident that these witches put a scare into the people that lead to the superstition of
witchcraft during the Middle Ages. Superstition can be seen as a cultural effect as
well. Superstitions have been passed down from generation to generation for a long
time and still occur today (examples: walking under a ladder, seeing a black cat, or
breaking a mirror). With these cultural trends and traditions happening around the
world, it can be seen that society was shaping their own history and building upon
superstition, and eventually becoming so engulfed with the witchcraft monarch and
how the court systems were prying false accusations. Another school of thought that
witchcraft can fall under is gender and its role in society. Gender was a reoccurring
theme throughout Europe during the witch trials because of the fact that women

9. were seen as the weaker sex which eventually led to the high prosecution rate
towards women instead of men. With these rising prosecutions towards women, it
eventually leads to a change of outlook towards women. Looking at witchcraft
through these different historiographical schools shows how witchcraft was viewed
through different lenses in society, and how lives were affected by these views.
While just briefly touching into witchcraft because there has been so much
research involving it, this concludes that the court systems through the Middle Ages
were taking matters into their own hands while, realistically, playing God. The
courts were prosecuting innocent people and forcing false accusations on these
people that lead to their death. However, the courts were not the only factors that
put a scare in society because there was a Devil figure that haunted many people
and with the whole craze of bread and the confusion and craze that went along with
it. Through Malleus Maleficarum, Bread of Dreams, The Secret Life of Lucifer, and the
Trials of Johannes Junius, it can be concluded that witchcraft has had a major impact
on societies during the Middle Ages.