The Burning Times

"Häxprocesserna" is a new book by Swedish professor and history popularizer extraordinaire Dick Harrison, in which he tries to sort out the witch-burnings that swept through Europe and North America during the Early Modern Period. It turns out to be more complicated than expected!

The reader might even become more confused by this maze of exotic folklore, dangerous superstitions, bizarre methods of torture, religious fanaticism and sheer mass psychosis. The author offers no real explanation for why the witch-craze happened, and even implies that none can be found at all. What *is* obvious throughout the narrative is human evil - not from the side of the supposed "witches", but that of the accusers (and their aiders and abetters) .

Of course, this is standard for Harrison, who frequently questions grand narratives and isn't afraid to say "we just don't know", while also having a somewhat pessimistic view of human history (I can't say I blame him).

Apart from all the brutality and madness, some other things stand out. One is that the Church and the rulers during most of the Middle Ages *didn't* believe in witches and witch-craft. People who claimed to be witches were simply deluded, perhaps deluded pagans, and the punishments were relatively mild (at least compared to being burned alive). Accusing somebody of witch-craft was seen as slander. Please note that this was the dominant attitude among educated people during most of the supposedly "dark" Middle Ages!

The officially sanctioned witch-hunts didn't began in earnest until the 15th century (in the Swiss canton of Valais), reached a peak during the 17th century, and then gradually declined, with only a few cases during the 19th. In Europe, there were in total 80,000 witch-trials and 35,000 executions. With a few exceptions (actual serial killers and such), the people killed during the witch-hunts were innocent. Most were plain folk, many were women, but the witch-hunts could also affect priests, aristocrats and...critics of the witch-hunts.

In some nations, such as Russia, most victims were male. 

An almost absurd detail is that the Inquisition killed much *fewer* purported witches than we would expect - only about 1000 - since the inquisitors were often skeptical of the accusations. Otherwise, Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox seem to have been about equally bad. No witch-burnings at all took place in the Muslim-controlled parts of Europe.

Another thing that stands out is that in most cases, higher courts were more skeptical towards witch-craft accusations than lower ones. Witch-hunts were more succesful in legal systems where the lower courts were autonomous. The exception to the rule was Scotland and England under James VI (or James I), who personally supervised several witch-trials and even wrote an entire book about the topic, "Daemonologie".

I suspected for quite some time that the "Early Modern Period" was in many ways substantially *worse* than the Middle Ages, and this book amply confirms it. While the author rejects the idea that the witch-burnings were somehow caused by the Little Ice Age (which culminated during the 17th century), I don't see why not? It was a period of intense resource competition, pestilence and famine. Why not burn your neighbors?

Harrison points out that ordinary people until relatively recently were strongly superstitious and hence believed in witches. What sometimes changed was the attitude of the educated elite. It's almost as if elite opinion (including legal opinion) was influenced by folk beliefs during the witch-hunts.

That the common people aren't much better than their repressive elites is still a problem - since outside the Western world, witch-hunts and witch-burnings continue to this day, usually extralegally. Africa seems to be particularly afflicted, but also India. The author has even found a recent example from New Guinea.

It seems nobody is really innocent in this story. Nobody...except the witches! One of the few known examples of a "real" witch-cult was unearthed by the Inquisition in northern Italy during the 16th century. The benandanti, as the witches and warlocks called themselves, were evidently a kind of shamans who fought the real (evil) witches during nightly astral travels. Since we are all still here, I suppose they may have been succesful...

Ironically, none of the benandanti were ever burned at the stake!

With that observation, I close this review.