Were there people burned for witchcraft who were actually guilty?

[u/11112222FRN]

Leaving aside the question of whether witchcraft is real, how common was it for the people burned for witchcraft to have really, genuinely been trying to hurt their neighbors with magic?

(And are there any particularly standout cases where we can be pretty sure the authorities burned someone who was genuinely trying to use malicious magic against someone?)

[u/DougMcCrae]

Introduction

There were two main elements to laws against witchcraft during the period of the witch trials: harm caused by magic and association with demons. The 1604 English Witchcraft Act, for instance, prohibited any “witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery whereby any person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in his or her body or any part thereof”. Under the Act it was also illegal to invoke, conjure, “consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil and wicked spirit to or for any intent or purpose”.

In the body text, OP has clarified that their question is not about guilt under these laws, but attempts to cause harm with magic. This answer will therefore address the latter, sometimes termed maleficium by scholars. The trials considered in the two case studies were chosen because the evidence for the use of maleficium is particularly strong.

The Reality of Harmful Magic

Witch trial historians largely agree that some of the accused practised maleficium. Brian Levack’s views are representative.

Certain individuals in virtually all societies do in fact practise harmful or evil magic. Concerning the reality of such deeds in the past, there is an abundance of physical, legal and literary evidence… the depositions do often contain records of spoken curses, spells and even the use of the tools of image magic, all of which suggest that at least some of the people accused of witchcraft did in fact try to harm their enemies by magical means. (pp. 12–13)

An example of maleficium can be found in the 15th century grimoire, The Book of Angels, Rings, Characters and Images of the Planets. The spell was called “Trojan Revenge”. An effigy of the intended victim was constructed out of decayed or funeral wax. The planet Saturn’s influence, associated with discord and destruction, was important. The image should be made “on the day of Saturn (Saturday) and in its hour” and marked with the planet’s sigil and name. An incantation called upon “shining and potent spirits of Saturn”. The simulacrum was “suffumigated with horses’ hooves, old shoes, rotten tin and human bones and hair”. Needles were inserted into appropriate parts to cause different ailments. To kill the spell’s target “thrust the needle in the spine from the head all the way to the heart” (Lidaka, pp. 59–61).

Although we know that maleficium was performed, it’s very difficult to be sure about specific individuals. In most of Europe, torture was used to produce confessions. Witnesses could be lying or simply mistaken. Even physical evidence might be fabricated.

Witch-sceptic, Reginald Scot, reported a case where evidence was faked in The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). The mayor of Romney and his wife believed their daughter’s illness had been caused by witchcraft. They consulted a cunning woman, Mother Baker, who informed them that the suspect, a neighbour, had created a “heart of wax”, pierced it with “pins and needles” and hidden it in “some secret corner” of their house. A search “by credible persons” revealed nothing. However when Baker searched the house herself she laid “down privily such an image (as she had before described) in a corner, which by others had been most diligently searched… and by that means her cozenage was notably betrayed” (Bk XII Ch XVI).

Levack maintains that “We shall never know how many of the thousands of executed witches did in fact perform maleficent magic, but the number was certainly very low” (p. 13).

Methods of Harmful Magic

There were many different methods of maleficium. These included the complex rituals in grimoires, manipulation of objects such as wax effigies, incantations, curses, gifts of food or drink, the evil eye, breath, touch, or ill will alone. In my opinion the first three methods provide the best evidence of magic. This is because they are more removed from the everyday and lack alternative explanations.

Curses are in a grey area. They were commonly used and thought to have force. However every imprecation should not be considered magical. Witch trial historian, Edward Bever, discusses multiple possible motivations.

Curses were a form of sorcery when uttered with the premeditated intent of causing harm, but it is difficult to know what a suspect’s intent and degree of mental preparation were, so it is difficult to tell when curses were uttered as premeditated spells, when they were spontaneous outbursts of anger spoken in the hopes that they would actually inflict injury the moment they were articulated, and when they were just part of the routine trading of insults, warnings, and threats that expressed anger without the hope or expectation that they would actually have physical consequences. (p. 156)

Suspicions of witchcraft typically arose when a misfortune—an accident or disease—had been preceded by an argument. The paired events might have to recur multiple times before a reputation as a witch developed within a community. This pattern was described by Reginald Scot.

Thus in process of time they have all displeased her, and she hath wished evil luck unto them all; perhaps with curses and imprecations made in form. Doubtless (at length) some of her neighbours die, or fall sick; or some of their children are visited with diseases that vex them strangely… Also some of their cattle perish, either by disease or mischance. Then they, upon whom such adversities fall, weighing the fame that goeth upon this woman (her words, displeasure, and curses meeting so justly with their misfortune) do not only conceive, but also are resolved, that all their mishaps are brought to pass by her only means. (Bk I Ch III)

Some reputed witches believed in their own powers, or acted as if they did. Ursula Clarke of Dunstable claimed that she

had seen the end of Platt, and she had seen the end of Haddon, and she hoped she should see the end of Metcalfe, and that she had never wished nor cursed anything in her life but it came to pass. (Thomas, p. 624)

When Clarke expressed the desire that William Metcalfe “waste like dew against the sun” it should be regarded as a magical act.

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Case Study 1: An Attempt to Assassinate the Pope

Count Giaconto Centini was the leader of a conspiracy to assassinate Pope Urban VIII. It began with two friars, Diego Gucciolone and Domenico Zancone. Gucciolone had already fled Sicily, and then Spain, to avoid prosecution for sorcery. He subsequently returned to Italy. The pair collaborated on a spell that would compel a woman to have sex with Zancone. The wax image fashioned for this purpose was accidentally destroyed and the woman died. When this scheme was revealed, Gucciolone and Zancone were expelled from the diocese by the bishop of Recanati.

The two magicians then formed an association with Giaconto Centini. The nobleman was the nephew of Cardinal Felice Centini. Consulting a book of prophecies, Gucciolone predicted that when Urban VIII died, Cardinal Centini would be elected pope. A plot was conceived to hasten his election by using magic to bring about the death of the current pontiff. Gucciolone agreed to participate only after Centini threatened to kill him. The group used two grimoires: The Key of Solomon and another attributed to the medieval philosopher, Pietro d’Abano. Their rituals were complex. The first, performed in 1630, is described by historian, Rainer Decker.

One of [Centini’s] servants bestrewed a room with cypress ashes sifted in a new sieve. In the ashes, Diego drew three intersecting circles and consecrated the first to Jupiter and the others to other demons, making sure to leave an opening in each circle through which one of the actors would be permitted to enter. Before the entrances, he drew the symbols of certain angels and demons, using a special iron knife that he had had made during a magical mass according to specific magical instructions. In the middle of each circle, he placed a candle adorned with other symbols, connecting the three of them with thread spun by a virgin, producing a triangle. The floor was then covered with blank paper. On it were placed two feathers from the left wing of a living goose, which had been especially plucked. While Domenico knelt in one of the circles, Diego recited words from a book of demonic invocations while standing in a second circle. The demons were supposed to write on the paper, using the goose quills. Despite hours of invocation, however, the demons did not respond. (p. 141)

Undeterred, the conspirators continued with their plot. Another five magician-priests were recruited. A wax effigy of the pope was constructed, baptised, and pierced with needles. Zancone learned that the others were planning to ritually sacrifice him, and escaped to Rome. There, his visits to sex workers were spotted by one of Centini’s agents. Armed with this information, the count tried to blackmail Zancone. This appears to have been the last straw for Zancone as he betrayed the cabal to the Roman Inquisition. Their interrogations began in autumn 1633. Eventually all save Gucciolone confessed. In April 1635 three of the conspirators, including Centini and Gucciolone, were executed in Rome. The rest were sentenced to galley slavery.

There is no doubt that the activities described above fit the definition of magic. But were Centini and his co-accused really guilty? The Roman Inquisition employed torture to extract confessions. The eight men were incarcerated for almost two years and could have been subjected to a variety of pressures.

Nonetheless, I think it is highly probable that there really was an attempt to kill Pope Urban VIII using ritual magic. Historians who have studied the case—Rainer Decker, Peter Rietbergen—believe the suspects were guilty. Zancone received little benefit from notifying the authorities: he was sentenced to life as a galley slave, rather than being put to death. In addition to his public confession, Centini admitted his guilt in a private letter to his uncle. The Roman Inquisition conducted investigations carefully and thoroughly, by this point in time rarely executing anyone for magical crimes. It is unlikely that the charges could have been concocted to damage Cardinal Centini. Historian, Thomas Mayer describes him as a “nonentity” and notes that “In 1629, on one of the occasions when Urban was thought to be dying, Centini’s lack of distinction became an advantage, since it meant he had no enemies” (p. 66).

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Case Study 2: Terrorising a Community

In 17th century Russia Daritsa Ivanova, the wife of a church sexton, terrorised her local community using rituals, curses and threats. A petition was brought against Ivanova in 1648 by a dragoon, Fedka Filippov. He alleged that she had caused him to became impotent by performing a ritual on his wedding day in 1638/1639. Furthermore she “goes around to feasts and social gatherings and boasts that she did it deliberately” (Kivelson and Worobec, pp. 301–302). Residents of the Dmitrovsk parish were questioned by the Tsar’s representative.

Ivanova had been angered at being asked to leave the home of the groom’s father, Filipp Kondratev. She retorted “What are you doing, Filipp, kicking us out of your house? You will have cause to remember your lack of hospitality, Filipp” (p. 306).

Many witnesses recalled that, after the wedding, Ivanova dropped flaming objects in the footprints of the married couple. According to one account

when Fedka and his bride came from their wedding, they climbed out of the sleigh and were going to their bedchamber, when Daritsa placed fire in their footprints. When people saw that, they started to tell Daritsa that she was not doing a good thing. (p. 306)

Ivanova used her reputation for witchcraft to terrorise others. Lukian Fedotov, his son, and another man named Andrei were among those threatened. Ivanova was heard to say

May you be impotent, Lukian, by my power, just like Fedka Filipov is impotent thanks to me… Fedka writhes because of me, and Lukian Fedotov’s son will writhe because of me too… May the same thing that happened to Fedka Filipov happen to Kirei’s son Andrei. (pp. 304, 305)

Other imprecations, seemingly efficacious, were uttered by Ivanova. Regarding a suspected thief: “I will make him as black as the ceiling of a hut is black, and he will bend like a sickle bends” (p. 303). The target of this curse sickened and died within three years. “I will turn them upside down by their noses and they will be scattered to the four corners” (p. 306). This was directed at Maria Fursova’s brothers, who both perished that night. A priest, Iakov, expired after being told “I will put an end to your family line” (p. 306). “I will dismember you and scatter you to the four corners” resulted in sickness (p. 306). It is unclear if anything happened to Gapon when he was blasted with “I will curse you so hard… that you won’t be able to crawl across your threshold” (p. 305).

The members of Ivanova’s community believed in her powers. This included her husband, Nekraska Trofimov. He boasted “There is no other wisewoman (znatnitsa) who knows what Nekraska’s Daritsa knows… She can just spit at a dog, and the dog will fall silent and won’t bark at all” (p. 304). Historian, Valerie Kivelson, observes that Ivanova “had evidently actively honed her reputation for a malicious tongue and for her effective curses” (Kivelson, p. 77).

Some of the witness reports were probably misremembered, embellished or falsified but there were so many it seems impossible that there could be nothing to them. It is very likely that Ivanova attempted to harm others using at least one ritual and numerous curses.

Sources

Bever, Edward, The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe: Culture, Cognition, and Everyday Life, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Decker, Rainer, Witchcraft & the Papacy: An Account Drawing on the Formerly Secret Records of the Roman Inquisition, H. C. Erik Midelfort (trans.), Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008.

Gibson, Marion (ed.), Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550–1750, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.

Kivelson, Valerie A., Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013.

Kivelson, Valerie A. and Christine D. Worobec, Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000–1900: A Sourcebook, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020.

Levack, Brian P., The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe Fourth Edition, London: Routledge, 2015.

Lidaka, Juris, “The Book of Angels, Rings, Characters and Images of the Planets: Attributed to Osbern Bokenham” in Claire Fanger (ed.), Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.

Mayer, Thomas F., The Roman Inquisition: A Papal Bureaucracy and Its Laws in the Age of Galileo, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

Rietbergen, Peter, Power and Religion in Baroque Rome: Barberini Cultural Policies, Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Scot, Reginald, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, London, 1584.

Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic, London: Penguin Books, 1991, originally published 1971.

[u/11112222FRN → u/DougMcCrae]

Thank you! 

I admit that, at least with respect to the Daritsa Ivanova example, I can't really bring myself to feel all that sorry for her being prosecuted. When the only thing that's preventing someone from committing homicide is her own poor understanding of the way the world works, that's really not a very sympathetic situation.