Title Demons of urban reform : early European witch trials and criminal justice, 1430-1530 / Laura Stokes

Published Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

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Description 1 online resource Series Palgrave historical studies in witchcraft and magic Palgrave historical studies in witchcraft and magic. Contents List of Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Evil by any Other Name: Defining Witchcraft -- PART I: WITCH TRIALS IN THE CITIES -- Basel: Territorialization and Rural Autonomy -- Nuremberg: The Malleus that Never Struck -- Lucerne: Urban Witch Hunters -- A Revolution in Criminal Justice -- Between Two Worlds: Fifteenth-century Justice at the Threshold of the Early Modern -- The Advancing Death Penalty and the Re-imagining of Magical Crimes -- PART III: REFORMING ZEAL AND PERSECUTION IN LUCERNE -- Urban Reform and Social Control -- Witchcraft, Sodomy, and the Demonization of Crime -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Selected trial documents -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction -- The Advancing Death Penalty -- Procedures of Criminal Justice -- Social Control Before the Reformation -- The Witch Trials in Context -- Three Cases and a Model -- Conclusion Summary Demons of Urban Reform essays an answer to the question of why the diabolic witchcraft concept was adopted into ordinary criminal justice and what effects it had thereafter. Lucerne and Basel, two Swiss-German city states that received and accommodated the diabolic witch concept in the mid-fifteenth century, are examined alongside Franconian Nuremberg, where the diabolic witch concept was soundly rejected. Basel, like Nuremberg, ultimately rejected the diabolic witch concept and the mass trials that it inspired elsewhere. In Lucerne, however, witch trials had a transformative effect on criminal justice, and early witch hunts in the late fifteenth century presaged even greater conflagrations a century later. Laura Stokes roots the analysis of witch trials in the quotidian proceedings of the secular courts she examines, offering evidence for the importance of social control in pre-Reformation cities and the reciprocal relationship between developments in criminal justice and judicial concerns over witchcraft "This book illuminates the origins of the great European witch hunts by placing early witch trials in the comparative light of other criminal proceedings in Basel, Lucerne and Nuremberg. The study reveals that the increasingly harsh treatment was paralleled by mounting judicial severity in general, as well as by a keen interest in social control"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 210-224) and index Notes Print version record Subject Witchcraft -- Europe, Central -- History -- 16th century Witchcraft -- Europe, Central -- History -- To 1500 Social & cultural history -- c 1000 CE to c 1500 -- Europe. Witchcraft -- c 1000 CE to c 1500 -- Europe. European history -- c 1000 CE to c 1500 -- Europe. Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 -- c 1000 CE to c 1500 -- Europe. HISTORY -- Europe -- General. HISTORY -- Medieval. HISTORY -- Modern -- 16th Century. HISTORY -- Social History. History. Witchcraft Hexenverfolgung Social & cultural history -- Europe -- c 1000 CE to c 1500. Witchcraft -- Europe -- c 1000 CE to c 1500. European history: medieval period, middle ages -- Europe -- c 1000 CE to c 1500. European history -- Europe -- c 1000 CE to c 1500. History. Central Europe Basel Luzern Nürnberg Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2011002014 ISBN 9780230309043 0230309046

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