DUNI
2016 (7SDB2018)
Matteo Duni
Studies in
Church History, nr. 52, 2016, pp. 203–231. (pdf.)
Abstract
The theory of diabolical
witchcraft attracted serious doubts from its first formulation early in the
fifteenth century. This essay focuses on the writings of a few lay jurists and
lawyers who rejected the witch-hunters’ claim that witchcraft was made possible
by the Devil’s ability to operate physically in the world, and argued instead
that such acts as consorting sexually with demons, or being carried through the
air to the Sabbat, were visions and dreams produced by the Devil. In this
heated debate, both doubters and believers frequently crossed their respective disciplinary
boundaries as they sought to prove their point. The essay analyses the works of
lawyers who confuted the witch-hunters’ interpretation of key biblical passages,
using them to demonstrate that witchcraft was physically impossible, and that
believing otherwise was unsound from both a legal and a religious point of view.
It argues that their specific contribution was notable both for its content, as
a particularly radical attack on demonological theories, and in itself, as an
explicit challenge to ecclesiastical hegemony in the discourse on metaphysics.
It concludes that their doubts had a significant, if belated, impact on the
Roman Inquisition’s policy vis-à-vis witchcraft.
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