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Course
Introduction
I. Introduction: What Was Witchcraft?
Exercise: An
Eighteenth-Century Talisman
Image: An Eighteenth-Century Talisman
Text: A Translation into English
II. Making Distinctions: Magic, Sorcery, Witchcraft
A) Magic, Science, Religion
1. Magic versus Science
2. Magic versus Religion
3. Magic versus Sorcery
B) Defining Witchcraft
1. Witchcraft as Learned Stereotype (See: Sixteenth-Century
Terms for Witches)
2. Witchcraft as Cultural Reality
C) Some Hypotheses:
1. There is nothing behind the "learned stereotype"; it merely projects
the fears of cultural elites.
2. The "learned stereotype" reflected some kind of organized, self-conscious
group with shared religious beliefs and ritual behaviors.
a) The groups in question were participants in a pre-Christian fertility
cult.
b) The groups in question were heretics.
3. The "learned stereotype" became a tool of confessional conflict between
Protestants and Catholics.
4. There was nothing more to the "learned stereotype" than run-of-the-mill
folk magic.
Image: Titlepage to the 1624 edition of Christopher Marlowe's play, The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. Source: Luminarium.
