The concept of witchcraft and fiends in various cultures and belief systems has sparked fascination and curiosity throughout history. Both witchcraft and fiends are often associated with supernatural abilities and dark forces, but they differ in many aspects. Witchcraft, commonly thought of as the practice of magic, typically refers to the use of spells, rituals, and charms to manipulate or influence events or people. Historically, witches were often believed to make pacts with evil spirits or deities to gain their powers. In contrast, fiends are typically seen as evil, malevolent creatures that originate from the underworld or other realms. They are often associated with demonic entities or supernatural beings that seek to harm or corrupt humans.
The early Church was severe in its judgments against magic, astrology, augury, charms, and all kinds of divination. The civil law condemned the Mathematici, or men that formed calculations for the prediction of fortunes. Veneficium, or Maleficium, poisoning and mischief-making, was the name given to sorcery. The Church would not, by a law of Constantine, baptize astrologers, nor a special class of them called Genethliaci, or those who calculated what stars had been in. the ascendant at a man's nativity. The twenty-fourth canon of Ancyra says: "Let those who use soothsaying after the manner of the heathen, or entertain men to; teach them pharmacy or lustration, fall under the canon, of five years' (penance), viz. three years of prostration, two years of communion in prayer without the oblation." Those who consulted or followed such soothsayers as were supposed to be in compact with Satan were to be cast out of communion. Constantine, however, made such divination a capital crime, as well on the part of those who practiced it as of those who sought information from it. Amulets, or spells to cure disease, were reckoned a species of idolatry, and the makers of such phylacteries shared in the same condemnation. Theabraxis or abracadabra (q.v.) of the Basilidians came, under similar censure. But the prosecutions against: witchcraft as such were of minor importance comparatively until as late as the 11th century, when the prosecutions against heresy were systematically organized. Hitherto magic had been distinguished as white or black; now no distinction was made, and all magic was reckoned black. Almost all heretics were accused of magical practices, and their secret meetings were looked upon as a kind of devil- worship. Fostered by the proceedings against heresy, the popular dread of witchcraft had been on the increase for centuries, and numerous executions had taken place in various parts of Europe. At last Innocent VIII, by his celebrated bull, Summis Desiderantes, issued in 1484, gave the full sanction of the Church to these notions concerning sorcery, and charged. the inquisitors and others to discover and put to death all guilty of these arts. He appointed two special inquisitors for Germany, Heinrich Institor and Jacob. Sprenger, who, with the aid of a clergyman of Constance, Johannes Gremper, drew up the famous Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer for Witches, in which the whole doctrine of witchcraft was elaborated, a form of trial laid down, and a course of examination appointed by which the inquisitors could discover the guilty parties. This was the beginning of the witch-mania proper. Theedict of Innocent was reinforced by a bull of Alexander VI in 1494, of Leo X in 1521, and of Adrian VI in 1522, each adding strength to its predecessor, and calculated to increase the popular agitation. The results were deplorable. Armed with the Malleus Maleficarum, the judge had no difficulty in convicting the most innocent. persons. If the accused did not confess at once, they were ordered to be shaved and examined for "witchmarks." If any strange mark was discovered on the person, no further evidence was required. But failing in this, the accused was put to the torture, which in almost all instances elicited confession. Many, in order to avoid this ordeal, confessed at once, and were forthwith led to execution. Others seem to have become insane because of the prevalent excitement, and fancied themselves witches. The extent of the prosecutions in Germany is appalling to consider. In the bishopric of Bamberg 600 victims, fell within four years, and in Wirzburg 900. In the district of Lindheim a twentieth part of the population perished in the same time. And during this inquisition 7000 lives were sacrificed at Trier. Such atrocities were rivalled by 1000 executions in the Italian province of Como within a single year, 400 at Toulouse in one day, and 500 at Geneva in three months. It is said that in France, about the year 1520, fires for the execution of witches blazed in every town. The madness seized upon all nations and all estates of men, alike on Catholics and Protestants, and often on the accused as firmly as on their accusers, so that the trials represented pure and unmingled delusions. Even Luther looked on his earache as "peculiarly diabolical," and exclaimed of witches, "I could burn them all." England, by its insular position and intense political life, was kept longest from the witch mania; but when it came, it was no less violent than it had been on. the Continent. The statute of Elizabeth, in 1562, first made witchcraft in itself a crime of the first magnitude, whether directed to the injury of others or not. The act of James I (VI of Scotland), in the first year of his reign in England, defines the crime still more minutely. It is as follows: "Any one that shall use, practice, or exercise invocation of any evil or wicked spirit, to or for any purpose, or take up any dead man, etc., such offenders, duly and lawfully convicted and attainted, shall suffer death." Soon the delusion spread throughout all England, and increased to a frenzy. Witch-finders passed through the country from town to town, professing to rid the community of all witches, and receiving therefor a stipulated sum. Their methods were most inhuman. They stripped the accused, shaved them, and thrust pins into their bodies to discover witches' marks; they wrapped them in sheets with the great toes and thumbs tied together, and dragged them through ponds or rivers, and if they sank they were accounted innocent; but if they floated, which they were sure to do for a time, they were set down as guilty, and executed. Many times the poor creatures were kept fasting and awake, and sometimes walking incessantly, for twenty-four or forty-eight hours. Indeed, such cruelties were practiced as an inducement to confession, that the unhappy victims were glad to confess and end their miseries at once. During the sittings of the Long Parliament, three thousand persons are said to have been executed on legal convictions, besides the vast number that perished at the hands of the mob. Even so wise and learned a judge as Sir Matthew Hale condemned two women for witchcraft in 1664. Chief justices North wand Holt were the first to set their faces steadily against the continuance of this delusion. This was in 1694, but summary executions continued as far down as 1716, when the last victim was hanged at Huntington. The English laws against witchcraft were repealed in 1736.
The principal scenes of witchcraft were in the lowlands, the fairies of the highlands being harmless and ingenious sprites, rather than dark, ugly, and impious fiends. The only change was in the theory, that is, that instead of any power inherent in the sorcerer or derived from any other source, the results were all wrought by the devil through the witch as his servant.
They are often associated with demonic entities or supernatural beings that seek to harm or corrupt humans. While witches are thought to possess innate magical abilities and actively practice their craft, fiends are seen as external forces or beings that can possess or manipulate individuals. Both witchcraft and fiends are prevalent in folklore, mythology, and popular culture, but the way they are portrayed and understood varies across different cultures and belief systems.
Witchcraft versus fiends
First Edition, First Impression:
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, Addressed to J.G. Lockhart, Esq. By Sir Walter Scott, bart. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. MDCCCXXX.
Composition
Lockhart's suggestion was partly sparked by the interest raised by Robert Pitcairn's serial publication of Criminal Trials of Scotland, covering proceedings between 1487 and 1624, and featuring many cases of witchcraft. Pitcairn himself sent Scott transcripts of as yet unpublished trials, and many other students of the occult sent Scott source material on witchcraft while he was working on the Letters. In addition, he drew on earlier demonologies such as Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, Robert Kirk's Essay on the Subterranean Commonwealth, and Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi. Scott's arguments against a supernatural explanation of such phenomena were influenced by John Ferriars's 'Of Popular Illusions and More Particularly of Modern Demonology' and Thomas Jackson's Treatise Containing the Originall of Un-beliefe. Composition was rapid, with the volume complete by mid-July 1830, but Scott's interest waned long before the last page. It was published on September 14, 1830, with ten illustrations by George Cruickshank.
Synopsis
The book takes the form of ten letters addressed to Lockhart, the epistolary mode permitting Scott to be both conversational in tone and discursive in method. In these, Scott surveys opinions respecting demonology and witchcraft from the Old Testament period to his own day. As a child of the Enlightenment, he adopts a rigorously rational approach to his subject. Supernatural visions are attributed to 'excited passion', to credulity, or to physical illness. The medieval belief in demons is based on Christian ignorance of other religions, leading to the conviction that the gods of the Muslim or Pagan nations were fiends and their priests conjurers or wizards. In the post-Reformation period, the primitive state of science and predominance of mystical explanations of natural phenomena fed fear of witchcraft. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, witches were hunted with near-hysterical zeal. Examining Scottish criminal trials for witchcraft, Scott notes that the nature of evidence admissible gave free reign to accusers and left the accused no chance of escape. Prisoners were driven to confess through despair and the desire to avoid future persecution. Scott also observes that trials for witchcraft were increasingly connected with political crimes, just as in Catholic countries accusations of witchcraft and heresy went together. Advances in science and the spread of rational philosophy during the eighteenth century eventually undermined the belief in supernatural phenomena, although pockets of superstition remain. Scott's account is amply illustrated with anecdotes and traditional tales and may be read as an anthology of uncanny stories as much as a philosophical treatise.
Reception
The Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft were an immediate commercial success, with Scott's sceptical attitude towards the supernatural sharply dividing his readers. Critical reaction was somewhat mixed. The Gentleman's Magazine and Imperial Magazine warmly commended the work, and the Literary Gazette judged it a 'most interesting volume for all ages', particularly apt to correct 'idle phantasies in the young'. The Edinburgh Literary Journal concurred that it was an 'interesting book' but did not think that 'Sir Walter has gone very deep into the theory of supernatural visitations, or thrown much light upon the origin of the belief in them'. The Aberdeen Journal too questioned the depth of Scott's scholarship, arguing that commercial considerations weighed heavier with him than the spirit of philosophical inquiry. For the Monthly Review, conversely, the subject was devoid of all merit, a mere 'history of old women'. Subsequent scholars, however, have recognized the Letters as one of the earliest attempts to deal with magic and demonology in a scientific manner, pre-empting much late nineteenth-century research on folklore, ethnology, and popular religion.
For further information on the Letters, see P.G. Maxwell-Stuart's introduction to the reprint published by Wordsworth in association with the Folklore Society in 2001, details of which may be found on the Recent Publications page.
Links
- E-texts of Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
- Recent Critical Articles on Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
Last updated: 19-Dec-2011
© Edinburgh University Library
1. The creed of witchcraft, in its full development, involved almost all the notions and practices previously connected with magic and sorcery. What was new and distinctive in the witchcraft of Christendom was the theory of magical arts which it involved. The doctrine of Satan, as finally elaborated in the Middle Ages, established in the world a rival dominion to that of the Almighty. The arch-fiend and his legions of subordinate daemons exercised a sway, doubtless only permitted, but still vast and indefinite, not only over the elements of nature, but over the minds and bodies of men, except those who' had been admitted to the number of the faithful, and were guarded by the faith and rites of the Church. But even they were not altogether exempt from diabolical annoyance, for the protection does not seem to have extended to their belongings. All persons in possession of these supernatural powers (and there was no doubt of their existence in all ages) must, therefore, have derived them from the prince of darkness, and be acting under his agency — excepting, of course, those miraculous powers which had been bestowed upon the Church directly by Heaven. But Satan, bestowing these powers, was supposed to demand an equivalent; hence it came to be the established belief that, in order to acquire the powers of witchcraft, the person must formally sell his or her soul to the devil. This, however, was not the early view. Magicians had been diligent students of their art. Alchemists, astronomers, and astrologers had searched into the hidden things of nature as deeply as circumstances would permit. The higher kind of European magic in the Middle Ages was mixed up with what physical science there then was; and the most noted men of the time were addicted to the pursuit, or were at least, reputed to be so. So far from deriving their power from the kingdom of darkness, the scientific magician, by the mere force of his art, could compel the occasional services of Satan himself, and make inferior daemons the involuntary slaves of his will. A belief, however, had early existed that individuals in desperate circumstances had been tempted to purchase, at the price of their own souls, the help of the devil to extricate them from their difficulties; and hence the suspicion began to gain adherence that many magicians, instead of seeking to acquire their power by the laborious studies of the regular art, had acquired it in this illegitimate way. The chief cause of the prominent part in this matter assigned to females, particularly old, wrinkled, and deformed women, is the natural dislike of ugliness. It may also be noted that their more excitable temperament renders them peculiarly liable to those ecstasies which have been associated with the gift of divination from the priestess of the ancient heathen oracle down to the medium of modern spiritualism. And when witchcraft came to be prosecuted for heresy, the part assigned to woman in the Scripture account of the fall led to her being looked upon as specially suited to be the tool of the devil. Upon this circumstance was founded the doctrine in the creed of witchcraft which alleged carnal intercourse between witches and evil spirits.
Lockhart's suggestion was partly sparked by the interest raised by Robert Pitcairn's serial publication of Criminal Trials of Scotland, covering proceedings between 1487 and 1624, and featuring many cases of witchcraft. Pitcairn himself sent Scott transcripts of as yet unpublished trials, and many other students of the occult sent Scott source material on witchcraft while he was working on the Letters. In addition, he drew on earlier demonologies such as Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, Robert Kirk's Essay on the Subterranean Commonwealth, and Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi. Scott's arguments against a supernatural explanation of such phenomena were influenced by John Ferriars's 'Of Popular Illusions and More Particularly of Modern Demonology' and Thomas Jackson's Treatise Containing the Originall of Un-beliefe. Composition was rapid, with the volume complete by mid-July 1830, but Scott's interest waned long before the last page. It was published on September 14, 1830, with ten illustrations by George Cruickshank.
The book takes the form of ten letters addressed to Lockhart, the epistolary mode permitting Scott to be both conversational in tone and discursive in method. In these, Scott surveys opinions respecting demonology and witchcraft from the Old Testament period to his own day. As a child of the Enlightenment, he adopts a rigorously rational approach to his subject. Supernatural visions are attributed to 'excited passion', to credulity, or to physical illness. The medieval belief in demons is based on Christian ignorance of other religions, leading to the conviction that the gods of the Muslim or Pagan nations were fiends and their priests conjurers or wizards. In the post-Reformation period, the primitive state of science and predominance of mystical explanations of natural phenomena fed fear of witchcraft. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, witches were hunted with near-hysterical zeal. Examining Scottish criminal trials for witchcraft, Scott notes that the nature of evidence admissible gave free reign to accusers and left the accused no chance of escape. Prisoners were driven to confess through despair and the desire to avoid future persecution. Scott also observes that trials for witchcraft were increasingly connected with political crimes, just as in Catholic countries accusations of witchcraft and heresy went together. Advances in science and the spread of rational philosophy during the eighteenth century eventually undermined the belief in supernatural phenomena, although pockets of superstition remain. Scott's account is amply illustrated with anecdotes and traditional tales and may be read as an anthology of uncanny stories as much as a philosophical treatise.
The Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft were an immediate commercial success, with Scott's sceptical attitude towards the supernatural sharply dividing his readers. Critical reaction was somewhat mixed. The Gentleman's Magazine and Imperial Magazine warmly commended the work, and the Literary Gazette judged it a 'most interesting volume for all ages', particularly apt to correct 'idle phantasies in the young'. The Edinburgh Literary Journal concurred that it was an 'interesting book' but did not think that 'Sir Walter has gone very deep into the theory of supernatural visitations, or thrown much light upon the origin of the belief in them'. The Aberdeen Journal too questioned the depth of Scott's scholarship, arguing that commercial considerations weighed heavier with him than the spirit of philosophical inquiry. For the Monthly Review, conversely, the subject was devoid of all merit, a mere 'history of old women'. Subsequent scholars, however, have recognized the Letters as one of the earliest attempts to deal with magic and demonology in a scientific manner, pre-empting much late nineteenth-century research on folklore, ethnology, and popular religion.
For further information on the Letters, see P.G. Maxwell-Stuart's introduction to the reprint published by Wordsworth in association with the Folklore Society in 2001, details of which may be found on the Recent Publications page.
Whether seen as malevolent forces to be feared or as individuals with unique powers, witchcraft and fiends continue to captivate and intrigue..
Reviews for "The art of hexing: witches casting spells against fiends"
1. Jane - ★☆☆☆☆
I was really disappointed with "Witchcraft versus fiends." The characters were poorly developed, and I found it difficult to connect or empathize with any of them. The plot felt disjointed and lacking in depth, making it hard to stay engaged. The writing style was also underwhelming, with clunky dialogue and exposition that seemed forced. Overall, this book just didn't meet my expectations and I wouldn't recommend it.
2. Mike - ★★☆☆☆
While "Witchcraft versus fiends" had an interesting premise, I felt like it fell short in execution. The pacing was off, with the action scenes feeling rushed and the quieter moments dragging on. The world-building was also quite lacking, leaving me with too many unanswered questions. Additionally, the dialogue felt stilted and unnatural, making it difficult for me to fully immerse myself in the story. I appreciate the effort put into this novel, but it ultimately didn't capture my attention or leave a lasting impression.
3. Sarah - ★★☆☆☆
I had high hopes for "Witchcraft versus fiends," but unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. The writing style was overly simplistic, lacking the depth and complexity I usually enjoy in fantasy novels. The characters felt one-dimensional and lacked development, making it hard for me to care about their struggles. Moreover, the plot felt predictable and lacked the twists and turns that I look for in a captivating story. Overall, I found this book to be underwhelming and wouldn't recommend it to fans of the genre.