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Nullus Deus, Sine Diabolo: The Ecclesiastical Witch

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Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland, 1500–1800

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Abstract

While the legal system adapted to the practicalities of prosecuting witchcraft, intellectual debate was greatly fuelled by the clergy, evident in the enduring portrait of the witch as apostate, blasphemer and handmaiden of the Devil. This image largely emerged in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and created a largely stereotypical set of attributes for the witch and ascribed to witchcraft. Descriptions of witchcraft were mainly to be found in demonology, ‘that branch of knowledge which treats of demons, or of beliefs about demons’,1 and although a demon in the ancient Greek sense of δάíμωv was a spirit rather than a devil, the terms demon and devil became almost coterminous. In this study, I shall interpret demonology in its widest possible sense, including drama, agricultural manuals and other works, so my interpretation is closer to what Stephens terms ‘witchcraft theory’.2 This approach reveals the wide range of sources in which the rhetoric of witchcraft constructed differing paradigms of the witch, which can be compared to the details we have seen in the trials. By analysing a broader range of ‘demonography’ we can further dispel the notion that Poland’s witch-hunt was merely an extension of the German phenomenon. Interestingly, in contrast to Hungary, Poland boasted a relatively rich range of demonography.3 I have divided the printed sources into three distinct areas; ecclesiastical, secular and anti-witchcraft discourse.

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Notes

  1. J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner (eds), Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1991), ‘demonology’.

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  1. Wanda Wyporska
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© 2013 Wanda Wyporska

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Wyporska, W. (2013). Nullus Deus, Sine Diabolo: The Ecclesiastical Witch. In: Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland, 1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384218_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384218_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-28193-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38421-8

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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