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The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays
Paperback 1969 printing of The European Witch Craze of the 16th & 17th Centuries and Other Esays by H.R. Trevor-Roper
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Hugh Trevor-Roper
122 books60 followersHugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Philipps Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable ... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them ... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most commercially successful book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents, he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Philipps Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable ... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them ... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most commercially successful book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents, he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 12, 2020
Far too opinionated, and far too academic in narration.
All notes are solely from Chapter 3... the only section unfraught with endless citations and run-on sentences.
----
"...There can be no doubt that the witch-craze grew, and grew terribly, after the Renaissance."
"For in the Dark Age, there was at least no witch-craze. There were witch beliefs, of course - a scattered folklore of peasant superstitions : the casting of spells, the making of storms, converse with spirits, sympathetic magic. Such beliefs are universal..."
"...In the 8th century... St. Boniface, the English Apostle of Germany, declared loudly, that to believe in witches and werewolves is unchristian. In the same century Charlemagne decreed the death penalty for anyone who, in newly converted Saxony, burnt supposed witches. Such burning, he said, was a 'pagan custom'. "
"John Nider wrote what has been called the 'the first popular essay on witches'.... Formicarius, the 'Ant-Heap', and was based principally on confessions of Swiss witches collected by a Swiss magistrate, Peter of Berne."
"In the next hundred years some famous inquisitors were busy in the Alpine valleys... in 1485, according to the Malleus, the inquisitor of Cuomo burnt 41 witches, all of whom confessed to sexual intercourse with incubi..."
"... The witch craze would always be associated particularly with the highlands."
"Either the Jew or the witch will do, but society will settle for the nearest. The Dominicans, an international order, hate both; but whereas in the Alps and the Pyrenees they pursue witches, in Spain they concentrate on Jews."
"With Jews and Moors on their hands, the [Spanish] inquisitors had very little time for witches, and so they have won glowing tributes for their 'firmness' and 'temperate wisdom' in this respect."
"In medieval Hungary.... witches were sentenced, for a first offense, to stand all day in a public place, wearing a Jew's hat. Witchcraft was one of the charges often made against the Jews."
"Judicial torture had been allowed in limited cases by Roman law; but Roman law, and with it its judicial torture, had been forgotten in the Dark Ages."
".... Witches' confessions do not, at first, appear before secular tribunals, but only before the tribunals of the Inquisition. In other words, they were only obtained by the courts who used torture."
"Switzerland had to wipe out whole villages to keep them down... Travellers in Lorraine may see thousands and thousands of stakes - stakes to which Nicholas Remy was sending them... Remy was a cultivated scholar, an eleganr Latin poet... having sent (we are told) two to three thousand victims to the stake..."
"The most ferocious of witch-burning princes, we find, are also the most cultured patrons of contemporary learning.... Heinrich Julius, Duke of Brunswick... was skilled in mathematics, chemistry, natural science, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew... In his lifetime, says a chronicler, Lechelnholze Square in Wolfenbuttel looked like a little forest, so crowded were the stakes..."
"Philip Adolf von Ehrenberg of Wurzurg was partcularly active; in his reign of 8 years (1623-31) he burnt 900 persons, including his own nephew, 19 Catholic priests, and children of 7 who were said to have had intercourse with demons."
"In Cromwellian England the 1650's saw an outbreak of books repudiating witch-trials."
"If the last witch-burning in Europe was in Catholic Poland in 1793, that was an illegal act; witch-trials had been abolished in Poland in 1787."
.
All notes are solely from Chapter 3... the only section unfraught with endless citations and run-on sentences.
----
"...There can be no doubt that the witch-craze grew, and grew terribly, after the Renaissance."
"For in the Dark Age, there was at least no witch-craze. There were witch beliefs, of course - a scattered folklore of peasant superstitions : the casting of spells, the making of storms, converse with spirits, sympathetic magic. Such beliefs are universal..."
"...In the 8th century... St. Boniface, the English Apostle of Germany, declared loudly, that to believe in witches and werewolves is unchristian. In the same century Charlemagne decreed the death penalty for anyone who, in newly converted Saxony, burnt supposed witches. Such burning, he said, was a 'pagan custom'. "
"John Nider wrote what has been called the 'the first popular essay on witches'.... Formicarius, the 'Ant-Heap', and was based principally on confessions of Swiss witches collected by a Swiss magistrate, Peter of Berne."
"In the next hundred years some famous inquisitors were busy in the Alpine valleys... in 1485, according to the Malleus, the inquisitor of Cuomo burnt 41 witches, all of whom confessed to sexual intercourse with incubi..."
"... The witch craze would always be associated particularly with the highlands."
"Either the Jew or the witch will do, but society will settle for the nearest. The Dominicans, an international order, hate both; but whereas in the Alps and the Pyrenees they pursue witches, in Spain they concentrate on Jews."
"With Jews and Moors on their hands, the [Spanish] inquisitors had very little time for witches, and so they have won glowing tributes for their 'firmness' and 'temperate wisdom' in this respect."
"In medieval Hungary.... witches were sentenced, for a first offense, to stand all day in a public place, wearing a Jew's hat. Witchcraft was one of the charges often made against the Jews."
"Judicial torture had been allowed in limited cases by Roman law; but Roman law, and with it its judicial torture, had been forgotten in the Dark Ages."
".... Witches' confessions do not, at first, appear before secular tribunals, but only before the tribunals of the Inquisition. In other words, they were only obtained by the courts who used torture."
"Switzerland had to wipe out whole villages to keep them down... Travellers in Lorraine may see thousands and thousands of stakes - stakes to which Nicholas Remy was sending them... Remy was a cultivated scholar, an eleganr Latin poet... having sent (we are told) two to three thousand victims to the stake..."
"The most ferocious of witch-burning princes, we find, are also the most cultured patrons of contemporary learning.... Heinrich Julius, Duke of Brunswick... was skilled in mathematics, chemistry, natural science, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew... In his lifetime, says a chronicler, Lechelnholze Square in Wolfenbuttel looked like a little forest, so crowded were the stakes..."
"Philip Adolf von Ehrenberg of Wurzurg was partcularly active; in his reign of 8 years (1623-31) he burnt 900 persons, including his own nephew, 19 Catholic priests, and children of 7 who were said to have had intercourse with demons."
"In Cromwellian England the 1650's saw an outbreak of books repudiating witch-trials."
"If the last witch-burning in Europe was in Catholic Poland in 1793, that was an illegal act; witch-trials had been abolished in Poland in 1787."
.
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September 28, 2008Last night I was reading H.R. Trevor-Roper's classic work The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, which I was quite enjoying. In the first chapter, Trevor-Roper was discussing various clerical theories of how the Devil managed to beget offspring after having sex with witches at night in the form of an incubus, that visited female witches or a succubus, that visited male witches. But this was a problem; wasn't the devil neuter? A great deal of theological thinking was expended in the attempt to resolve this matter. Some thought the Devil swiped the testicles off the dead and impregnated the witches with borrowed vital essences, but the church eventually followed the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, the second founder of demonology after St. Augustine. He said the Devil could only discharge as incubus what he had previously absorbed as succubus. Trevor Roper then remarks:
There are times when the intellectual fantasies of the clergy seem more bizarre than the psychopathic delusions of the madhouse out of which they have, too often, been excogitated.
Excellent for other reasons not adumbrated here.
There are times when the intellectual fantasies of the clergy seem more bizarre than the psychopathic delusions of the madhouse out of which they have, too often, been excogitated.
Excellent for other reasons not adumbrated here.
November 11, 2021
What a brilliant thing when a book about the persecution of witches hits you at just the right time in your life. Is it coincidence or is the supernatural soliciting of Hecate? The book discussed what about society made it so anti witch. Turns out, just the usual suspicion of other that go against the norm and targeting women as a scapegoat for male insecurity over their power and status on this earth. That said the hype for persecution seems to be caught up in the catholicism/protestantism struggle.
I like this guy that wrote it because he doesn't jump to extreme ends of things, which is easy to do, but questions narrow ways of thinking and doesn't come to obvious conclusions. It felt quite reassuring in a world where everything is becoming increasingly hyperbolic.
He does this by emphasizing how reason and logic are not self contained, independent systems of permanent validity but totally context related. At the time, the supernatural was part of the belief system and is it wrong to use our belief system today to vilify and dramatize the past?
A good read i picked up from my favorite book shop. Will return soon!
I like this guy that wrote it because he doesn't jump to extreme ends of things, which is easy to do, but questions narrow ways of thinking and doesn't come to obvious conclusions. It felt quite reassuring in a world where everything is becoming increasingly hyperbolic.
He does this by emphasizing how reason and logic are not self contained, independent systems of permanent validity but totally context related. At the time, the supernatural was part of the belief system and is it wrong to use our belief system today to vilify and dramatize the past?
A good read i picked up from my favorite book shop. Will return soon!
June 13, 2010
This a short volume, a kind of long essay with chapters, which details very clearly the origins of the witch-hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries.
The exploits of Matthew Hopkins in England, are well known. Between 1644 and 1646 he had more then 300 people put to death. What is less well known is that this 300 was of only about 1,000 killed in total in England between 1542 and 1736. In other words, witch-hunting in England was not widespread, not compared to other parts of Europe. Witch-hunting generally seems to have sprung up at times of religious uncertainty or economic depression, so it is unlikely to be coincidence that Matthew Hopkins committed his evil deeds during the English Civil War,at a time when parliament were particular sensitive to Charles I suspected catholicism, and when many people suffered as a consequence of war.
Widespread persecution of witches originated in mainland Europe, in the 12th century, as the Catholic church sought to overcome the heretical Albigensians of Languedoc and the Vaudois of the Alps. The Dominican order was founded to combat these heretics, and was successful in evangelizing both Alpine and Pyrenean valleys. Yet pagal customs lingered. The new heresy of witchcraft was a means by which the Catholic church sought to stamp out the casting of spells and the making of magic. In 1326 Pope John XXII authorized the full use of inquisitorial procedure of witches, and so began the wholesale persecution that would last more than three centuries
Trevor-Roper explains in detail the religious origins of witchcraft, and the way in which witchery became a front for the murderous exploits of religious conformists. As the back of the book says:
"The European Witch-Craze is a stunning picture of intellectual and social life in the grip of a collective psychosis."
The exploits of Matthew Hopkins in England, are well known. Between 1644 and 1646 he had more then 300 people put to death. What is less well known is that this 300 was of only about 1,000 killed in total in England between 1542 and 1736. In other words, witch-hunting in England was not widespread, not compared to other parts of Europe. Witch-hunting generally seems to have sprung up at times of religious uncertainty or economic depression, so it is unlikely to be coincidence that Matthew Hopkins committed his evil deeds during the English Civil War,at a time when parliament were particular sensitive to Charles I suspected catholicism, and when many people suffered as a consequence of war.
Widespread persecution of witches originated in mainland Europe, in the 12th century, as the Catholic church sought to overcome the heretical Albigensians of Languedoc and the Vaudois of the Alps. The Dominican order was founded to combat these heretics, and was successful in evangelizing both Alpine and Pyrenean valleys. Yet pagal customs lingered. The new heresy of witchcraft was a means by which the Catholic church sought to stamp out the casting of spells and the making of magic. In 1326 Pope John XXII authorized the full use of inquisitorial procedure of witches, and so began the wholesale persecution that would last more than three centuries
Trevor-Roper explains in detail the religious origins of witchcraft, and the way in which witchery became a front for the murderous exploits of religious conformists. As the back of the book says:
"The European Witch-Craze is a stunning picture of intellectual and social life in the grip of a collective psychosis."
March 8, 2016
After reading the Stacy Schiff's book on the Salem witch trials I wanted to read something about the European witch executions. 2-3 dozen "witches" were executed in Salem. But it is estimated that as many as 600,000 were executed in Europe.
A couple of significant quotes: "What then is the explanation of those confessions, and of their general identity? When we read the confessions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century witches, we are often revolted by the cruelty and stupidity which have elicited them and sometimes, undoubtedly, supplied their form. But equally we are obliged to admit their fundamental “subjective reality.” For every victim whose story is evidently created or improved by torture, there are two or three who genuinely believe in its truth. This duality forbids us to accept single, comprehensive, rational explanations." (123)
"Thus, if we look at the revival of the witch-craze in the 1560s in its context, we see that it is not the product either of Protestantism or of Catholicism, but of both ..."
A couple of significant quotes: "What then is the explanation of those confessions, and of their general identity? When we read the confessions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century witches, we are often revolted by the cruelty and stupidity which have elicited them and sometimes, undoubtedly, supplied their form. But equally we are obliged to admit their fundamental “subjective reality.” For every victim whose story is evidently created or improved by torture, there are two or three who genuinely believe in its truth. This duality forbids us to accept single, comprehensive, rational explanations." (123)
"Thus, if we look at the revival of the witch-craze in the 1560s in its context, we see that it is not the product either of Protestantism or of Catholicism, but of both ..."
April 6, 2026
Borderline unintelligible writing style. The question is intriguing- how can entire populations subscribe to a belief like this ? The author has done one hell of a deep dive and possibly got some insightful 'I reckons'. I'm just not entirely sure what they are....
My best attempt;
- witch beliefs initially used as a tool for forcing bordering populations to assimilate (colonisation)
- churches of different flavours legitimized and built on the theory
- huge role as a tool in the religious wars- protestant v Catholic v Lutheran all accused the other as witches etc
- stifled dissidents, sometimes within the church itself (men & children were not safe from accusations)
- trials were usually worse when economics was bad
- dichotomy of God v the devil became central to the understanding of the world and witches within that, big thinkers of the time subscribed to it also
- clergy being outside of the judiciary process was helpful for the beliefs holding less power
- academics who questioned the entire dichotomy weren't taken seriously but those who chipped away at it slowly may have had greater impact
- the 'red scare 'as a similar structure in modern times (the 1960s).
Fairly miserable findings & more questions than answers. But it definitely left me with thoughts to chew on.
Also the 'demonology' bible theory read like pornographic fan fiction... those guys were nuts.
My best attempt;
- witch beliefs initially used as a tool for forcing bordering populations to assimilate (colonisation)
- churches of different flavours legitimized and built on the theory
- huge role as a tool in the religious wars- protestant v Catholic v Lutheran all accused the other as witches etc
- stifled dissidents, sometimes within the church itself (men & children were not safe from accusations)
- trials were usually worse when economics was bad
- dichotomy of God v the devil became central to the understanding of the world and witches within that, big thinkers of the time subscribed to it also
- clergy being outside of the judiciary process was helpful for the beliefs holding less power
- academics who questioned the entire dichotomy weren't taken seriously but those who chipped away at it slowly may have had greater impact
- the 'red scare 'as a similar structure in modern times (the 1960s).
Fairly miserable findings & more questions than answers. But it definitely left me with thoughts to chew on.
Also the 'demonology' bible theory read like pornographic fan fiction... those guys were nuts.
May 26, 2026
Interesting, albeit flawed, though for reasons that I think concern the trend in interpreting the witch craze at the time more than for any fault in Trevor-Roper's argument. While the research is well done and the focus on the philosophy and organised root of the persecution is insightful, the over-emphasis on religious motives hinders the strength of the overarching argument. There is a persistent referencing of the Holocaust that, while relevant when examining the role of anti-Semitism in cases such as Augsburg's (blood libel) or in the actions of witch-hunters like Pierre de l'Ancre, begins to feel increasingly unhelpful. The publication date (1956) certainly illuminates why the comparison may have felt tempting, but I have my—strong—reservations.
August 19, 2017
I read this book to clue me up on the Witch Craze so I could teach it at A-level, and clue me up it did. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that it's contextually vague. By that I mean it takes for granted that you are aware of everything to do with the context surrounding the craze, and I wasn't. However, if you read it in conjunction with a textbook and are prepared to hit Google up to find out who the hell the Albigensians are (and cetera) then it's worth a read.
February 29, 2024
This is a set of thoughtful essays dealing with a variety of subjects. The title essay concerns the witch-craze and the emergence of what, at the time, seemed a perfectly rational “demonology.” More generally, this essay explores xenophobia and its role in prompting persecutions. Other essays explore the “Crisis of the Seventeenth Century,” that is, the tidal wave of internal difficulties and wars in western Europe in that century; the role of the Reformation in social change (challenging the Weber thesis that Protestantism was the driving force behind the birth of capitalism); and “The Religious Origins of the Enlightenment.”
June 26, 2021
Sober, direct account of the title period and event, providing good insight as to some primary cause and consequence, historical theory, and practical details of the activity.
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September 22, 2010Renaissance, Reformation, Counter reformation, Enlightenment....quite a time in European history. The standout essay in this book of essays is the titular namesake; "The European witchcraze of the sixteenth and seventeenth century'...quite amazing how bad information can become legitimized through continuous referencing of subsequent works similar to an echo chamber effect. How the evolution of terms created a new heresy and resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people. After all, no one was a witch, there were no witch's sabbat, no succubi/succubus, no communing with the devil which is why these people were tortured and burned. It was all a religious madness that swept these innocent people intothe pyres. Well, it made Dominic and Francis saints, so it is all good.
Other essays spoke to the religious origins of the enlightenment...or rather how a strong secular/lay government that kept the orthodox in check allowed the enlightenment to take seed.
A brilliant book.
Other essays spoke to the religious origins of the enlightenment...or rather how a strong secular/lay government that kept the orthodox in check allowed the enlightenment to take seed.
A brilliant book.
May 5, 2014
A rich account of the phenomenon, placing it in its social, political and religious context and roots. Excellent book. I mentally thank the author for not employing a marxist lens in his analysis - on the contrary. I strongly recommend this book.
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December 27, 2012Source: Unknown
November 1, 2022
hugh trever-roper’s methods of historical analysis are pretty smelly
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews