Rev'd Dr Helen Hall, Associate Professor, NLS https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/law/helen-hall
Witch-hunting looms large within Western popular culture; politicians on the receiving end of criticism or sanction are quick to use this as a rallying cry for support and sympathy. The term is associated with irrational hysteria and malicious persecution, and it must be acknowledged that there are very good reasons for this. Academic estimates of the number of witch trials vary, but there is a consensus that tens of thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft in the Early Modern era (the period spanning the 14th to the 18th century). The religious turmoil of European Reformations had a lot to do with this, contemporaries had lost the existential and spiritual certainties of previous generations and saw themselves locked into a literal battle between Heaven and Hell. Nevertheless, it must be understood that the causes of this phenomenon were complicated, and its manifestations varied between contexts and cultures. Yet one recurring theme was that of the diabolic pact.
People at all levels of society had long believed in what we might loosely term “magic”, and throughout the Middle Ages and Antiquity, it had been assumed that individuals could practice it for either good or nefarious purposes. What academics now term “service magicians”, often referred to as “cunning-folk” in England, were a very real phenomenon. Playing a central role in both rural and urban communities, they were the go-to experts for a multitude of problems. Illness in humans or animals, lost or stolen property, difficulties with the dairy or brewing process, blighted crops and romantic frustrations were just some of the woes that clients sought help with. Furthermore, cunning-folk could assist if you were the victim of malicious magic and were often also happy to hex your annoying neighbour or sister-in-law, all for a suitable fee. Importantly, neither the cunning folk nor those consulting them thought that their powers came from the Devil. In fact, they would often use Christian language, and (if they could get their hands on them due to the carelessness or collusion of priests) Christian sacred materials in their practice.
Meanwhile, as the Middle Ages progressed, the rediscovery of Classical learning and transmission of ideas from Islamic and Jewish paradigms led to scholars experimenting with learned magic. Not to put too fine a point on it, universities and monasteries were home to clerics busy with books and arcane symbols, trying to summon demons to do their bidding. Obviously, this was not allowed or encouraged, but it was an acknowledged problem. What seems to have happened, is that familiarity with deals with the devil in an elite setting, influenced the thinking of witch-hunters. Those investigating witchcraft in wider society assumed that people were making bargains with demons, because that jived with their expectations (and possibly experience. It is not a stretch to imagine that some of those investigating had done their own experiments in the past). To complicate matters still further, this dynamic set up a feedback loop, because interrogators would ask leading questions to suspects, and in an effort to ingratiate themselves, save their lives or simply please authority, accused witches would agree and provide graphic descriptions of their interaction with Satan and his minions.
For present purposes, the key point is that the notion of a pact with the devil was central to the understanding of witchcraft. Witches were thought to derive their evil powers from this contractual qui pro quo. However, having set out the clerical culpability in all of this, it is worth considering whether lawyers were also partially to blame? Contracts, after all, were familiar to Early Modern people, but also often regarded by non-lawyers at the time with an air of suspicion and befuddlement. Then, as now, legally binding agreements founded the basis of economic and family dealings. Questions about whether a buyer had to honour a purchase agreement, or whether two people were legally married, had potentially life-changing consequences in the 17th century, and exactly the same is true today.
Furthermore, the basis for deciding legal questions one way or the other can seem perplexing or even arbitrary. Usually, as law students soon discover, both courts and legal rules address situations holistically, and the answers to questions do not generally depend upon obscure formulas or mystical words. Nevertheless, there are times when very fine distinctions have to be drawn, and a lot can turn on what was stated explicitly and what was assumed, or whether a particular agreement was put into writing. To non-lawyers, it can all seem slippery and frustrating, or even downright frightening, especially to somebody who has a lot at stake.
In short, the practical operation of law can seem almost magical to those on the outside. It can be confusing realm, mediated by experts who use a strange language and frequently wear outlandish robes. Contracts can change the status and destiny of individuals, a person’s future can turn on something as intangible as spoken words, or as tiny as the inclusion or omission of a particular word, or even a comma, from a single sentence on page.
Against this backdrop, it might be argued that the notion of contracts with the devil, fitted with the idea of contracts as dangerous, quasi-magical realities from everyday life. Perhaps the precedent for diabolic pacts was inspired not just by the necromantic dabbling of dubious clergy, but also by the experience of citizens in general before the courts.
This blog is based on elements of a presentation given at the Centre for Reformation and Early Modern Studies, University of York, at the summer 2023 conference “Magic and Witchcraft: Evolving Beliefs, Practices and Attitudes”. Special thanks to Tabitha Stanmore and Deborah Moretti as organisers, and Javier Garcia Oliva, Luke Graham and Jane Jarman with whom I had the pleasure to share a panel. All infelicities are entirely my own.
Related Articles
Justin Sledge, “Witchcraft-Malleus Maleficarum-The Hammer of the Witches-History and Analysis of the Inquisition” Esoterica
Comments