Historical Views of the Witches' Sabbat

In the study of the witches Sabbath there are several differing opinions of its origins, there is the view of Carlo Ginzburg that the Sabbath (or Sabbat) was a hybrid of folk and learned culture. But there are other theories of the origin of the Sabbath, for example the theories of Norman Cohn and Robert Muchembled that stress the importance of the role of the elites in the formation of the stereotype (either in it's fabrication [1] or it's creation in the distortion of folk culture [2]). Then there are the views of Wolfgang Behringer who emphasises the importance of social, psychological and climatic factors (in the formation of the witch hunts), and Stuart Clark who sees the Sabbat (and witchcraft) as being an inversion of orthodox practice that was used to re-affirm the orthodox. During the course of this article I will attempt to discuss the theories of the formation of the stereotype of the Sabbat.

I will begin by outlining the theory of Carlo Ginzburg as forwarded in his Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches Sabbath. The theory follows that the stereotype of the Sabbat (and in fact of witches) was a hybrid of the learned culture of the Inquisitors, demonologists and judges and the folk culture of the men and women accused of witchcraft, born of the conflict between the two in the trials. Ginzburg's theory is drawn from his study of the trials of an agrarian sect called the benandanti, branded as witches, which took place in the Friuli region of Italy between 1575 and 1676 [3]. The benandanti according to the traditional folk culture (drawn from the testimonies of the defendants and witnesses in the early trials) were a group of men and women who had been chosen by god to battle witches for the harvest (which the witches and the Devil were attempting to destroy), and in some stories to heal the ills caused by witches [4]. The influence of the learned culture of the time on the people of the Friuli (including the benandanti themselves) as Ginzburg argues slowly distorted the positive picture of the benandanti as soldiers of god as the trials went on [5]. By the time of the last trial of a benandante in 1676 the traditional picture of the benandanti had been transformed into a picture of stereotypical witches. Ginzburg argues that the image of the Sabbat and the role of the benandanti in it was crucial in this transformation.

In the first trial of a benandante Paulo Gasparutto in 1575, he does describe the meetings of witches that he claimed were held every Thursday. But there is no mention of homage being paid to the devil or any of the other stereotypical features of a Sabbat for example abjuration of the faith or defilement of the sacraments, only dancing and feasting. And the role of the benandanti was to fight the witches for the harvest at certain times of the year (specifically the Ember Days) in Ginzburg's words:

'The essence of these gatherings was an obscure rite: witches and warlocks armed with sorghum stalks jousting and battling with benandanti armed with fennel stalks.' [6]

This leads Ginzburg to believe that the origins of this practice are in some traditional possibly pre-Christian fertility rite based on the agricultural year.

But as the trials went on under the influence of the Inquisition a different picture of the benandanti began to take shape. For example during the trial of Maria Panzona in 1618 she claimed that as a benandanti she was present at and witnessed Sabbats, which she goes on to describe. Her descriptions of the gatherings are much closer to the stereotype and include homage to the Devil and renunciations of the faith. Yet she still insisted that the benandanti fought the witches, and that she healed those that the witches harmed. It was the trial of Giovanni Sion in 1623 that marked the turning point according to Ginzburg. The statement given by Sion contains a full-blown account of a stereotypical Sabbat, even though in keeping to the tradition he insisted that the benandanti did not take part in the sinful acts. After this trial the view that the benandanti were witches had firmly taken hold in the Friuli, and they became as hated as witches. The trial in 1642 of Michele Soppe demonstrates how the image of the benandanti had changed since the initial trials in 1575. In his statements he says that the benandanti attended the Sabbat with the witches and warlocks and describes an almost perfect example of a stereotypical Sabbat, and the witness testimonies and the reaction of the public to the trial demonstrates the hatred of the people for their former protectors. Though the witnesses' dislike of Soppe could stem from his habit of demanding money for his services as a healer, and refusing to heal those who could not or would not pay his fee. In Ginzburg's words:

'At this point the transformation of benandanti into witches was practically accomplished. The former were no longer concerned with the protection of children and harvests. Now they were preoccupied exclusively with reaping the fruits of their twofold power, to make and unmake spells.' [7]

Ginzburg argues that the belief in diabolical witchcraft that developed in the Friuli was the result of the mixing of the newer ideas of the Inquisitors and the other members of the elite mixing with the older traditional beliefs of the peasants, because the beliefs that come out in these trials seem to be extraneous to the folk culture of the Friuli, so therefore it must have come from some other source, namely the elites. As Ginzburg puts it this type of belief in witchcraft was:

'...disseminated by the inquisitors, preachers and exorcists' [8]

and over a number of decades these beliefs were incorporated into the folk culture.

The historian of Hungarian witchcraft Eva Pocs supports the above analysis of the origins of the witches' Sabbat, yet she believes that more import should be given to the visions of the dead that were associated with witches in some regions. She also places more emphasis on the theory that the Sabbat was a trance or dream to the people that experienced it, but to the judges it was either a real world gathering of heretics or an illusion caused by the Devil.

But there are other views of the origins of the witches Sabbat other than the ones discussed above. There is the theory forwarded by Norman Cohn that holds that the Sabbat was a fabrication created by the elites that diffused down to the peasants. His argument follows thus: Firstly that the picture of the Sabbat only appeared in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and was a modern elaboration of the stereotype that had previously been applied to Jews, the early Christians and Medieval Heretics, and that there was no ritual reality corresponding to this image [9]. Ginzburg finds the first point to be unacceptable as it assumes continuity of the stereotype; a stereotype that underwent radical changes over time. And on the matter of there being no ritual reality I believe that this is undermined by the folkloric belief in supernatural beings and night phantoms that appears all over Europe.

Robert Muchembled similarly to Cohn emphasises the importance of the elites in causing the witch-hunts. Yet when it comes to the Sabbat he seems to contradict himself, early in his article [10] he states that he believes that:

'....the Sabbat - a nocturnal, demoniac meeting of witches and warlocks - is simply and solely a figment created by theologians...' [11]

but later in the article he states that:

'The demonological construction is an intimate blend of certain obsessions of the elite classes of Europe, with which Norman Cohn has dealt with as they deserve, and elements of the social reality and popular culture of the time.' [12]

He argues that the Sabbat stereotype was an attempt to 'diabolise the hours of night' [13] and the nocturnal practices of the peasants ranging from drunken brawls over women to the continuation of feasting and celebration of religious holidays after dark in many villages, with the intention to bring the peasants under tighter control. Muchembled argues that this was part of the elites attempt to penetrate and open up the countryside and that it was a part of the political process of state building and judicial expansion that was taking place during the early modern period.

But for the slight contradiction this theory is very similar to the theory forwarded by Ginzburg because it holds that the origins of the stereotype of the Sabbat are to be found in the diabolisation of peasant beliefs and nocturnal practices, which implies that they are a hybrid of learned culture and folk culture. But he believes that the witch-hunts were a political rather than a religious phenomenon.

The theories of Wolfgang Behringer are different to those of the historians I have previously mentioned. He believes that the origins of the witch-hunts lie in the climate, society and mentality of Europe (simply put weather, hunger and fear). He discusses the climate of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (the so-called 'Little Ice Age') and how the drop in temperatures greatly affected the people of the time. It caused bad harvests (which leads on to the second point) and a desire to find out who was responsible. At this time there was in some regions a dramatic rise in the number of accusations of and trials for weather magic and as Behringer points out some of the largest witch-hunts coincided with the years in which the weather was at its worst for example 1628 known as the 'year without a summer' [14]. The second point of his argument stipulates that the food shortages due to bad harvests catalysed the breakdown of social relationships that had already begun, which led to the persecution of those members of society that didn't fit in or who were unpopular, for example religious deviants. The third point of Behringer's argument follows that the fear of the inside enemies who it was believed were responsible for societies problems led to an alliance between the elites and the peasants to systematically root them out.

Stuart Clark on the other hand believes that the witches' Sabbat was a part of the common tradition in Europe of inversion, whereas the 'carnivals of misrule' that were common across Europe were a mockery of the secular and religious institutions, that had the purpose of showing the people the chaos and disorder of a world without the said institutions and therefore to re-affirm their faith in them, examples of this practice are relatively common for example the case in 1645 of the lay brothers of Antibes marking Innocent's Day by wearing their vestments inside out, holding books upside down and using spectacles with orange peel instead of glass [15]. Clark believes that the Sabbat was a part of this tradition designed by the demonologists to demonstrate the chaos, depravity and sinful nature of a world without the Christian faith, this is shown by the presence of features of the Sabbat that mirror orthodox Christianity for example the defilement of the sacraments, praying with hands pointed down and obviously worshipping the Devil rather than god. By this they may have hoped to re-affirm the people's faith in Christianity.

To conclude I believe that the argument forwarded by Carlo Ginzburg, that the stereotype of the witches' Sabbat was a hybrid of the learned and popular cultures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is the most stable and convincing theory of the origins of the witches Sabbat. I am convinced of this due to the obvious evidence for the influence of the Inquisitors on the statements made by the defendants in trials of the benandanti from the trial records that Ginzburg gives, and by the clear transformation in the common perception of the benandanti that can be traced in the trial records and in public reaction to them.

Bibliography

C. Ginzburg, Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1983)

C. Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches Sabbath (1989)

R. Muchembled, 'Satanic myths and cultural reality', in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, eds B. Ankarloo and G. Henningsen (1990), p. 139-160. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p. 136-48.

C. Ginzburg, 'Deciphering the witches' sabbath', in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, eds B. Ankarloo and G. Henningsen (1990), p. 121-137. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.120-28.

E. Pocs, 'The alternative world of the witches' Sabbat' in E. Pocs Between the Living and the Dead (1999). Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.129-35.

S. Clark, 'Inversion, misrule and the meaning of witchcraft', Past and Present 87 (1980). Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.149-60

S. Clark, Thinking with Demons: the Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (1997).

W. Behringer, 'Weather, hunger and fear: origins of the European witch-hunts in climate, society and mentality', German History 13:1 (1995), p1-27. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.69-86.

Footnotes

[1] The theory forwarded by Cohn in his Europe's Inner Demons (London: 1975).

[2] As Muchembled and Gentilcore do.

[3] The subject of his Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1983).

[4] As discussed in Chapter 1 of Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1983).

[5] As discussed in Chapter 4 of Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1983).

[6] Carlo Ginzburg, Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, p. 4.

[7] Carlo Ginzburg, Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1983), p.120.

[8] Carlo Ginzburg, Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1983), p. 135.

[9] C. Ginzburg, 'Deciphering the witches' sabbath', in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, eds B. Ankarloo and G. Henningsen (1990), p. 121-137. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.120.

[10] R. Muchembled, 'Satanic myths and cultural reality', in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, eds B. Ankarloo and G. Henningsen (1990), p. 139-160. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader.

[11] R. Muchembled, 'Satanic myths and cultural reality', in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, eds B. Ankarloo and G. Henningsen (1990), p. 139-160. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.136.

[12] R. Muchembled, 'Satanic myths and cultural reality', in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, eds B. Ankarloo and G. Henningsen (1990), p. 139-160. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p. 141.

[13] R. Muchembled, 'Satanic myths and cultural reality', in Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, eds B. Ankarloo and G. Henningsen (1990), p. 139-160. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p. 142.

[14] W. Behringer, 'Weather, hunger and fear: origins of the European witch-hunts in climate, society and mentality', German History 13:1 (1995), p1-27. Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.74

[15] S. Clark, 'Inversion, misrule and the meaning of witchcraft', Past and Present 87 (1980). Reprinted in D. Olderidge (eds) The Witchcraft Reader, p.151.