Law and Magic Blog

The Witchcraft Accusation and the No Win Situation

Lapham's Quarterly offers this wonderful flowchart explaining what used to happen to those accused of witchcraft, courtesy of that impeccable guide, the Malleus Malificarum (the Hammer of Witches).

Notice how difficult it is for the defendant to extricate him/herself after an accusation. The charge meant the end of his/her life as he/she knew it.

The Practice of Witchcraft and Magic in France and Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century

For the bookshelf: J. R. Veenstra, Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignons' Contre les devineurs (1411) (Leiden and NY: Brill, 1998). There's a link to parts of the book here. The book discusses the nature of various crafty sciences in what was then France and the Burgundian state, and the legal treatment of those practices; Professor Veenstra points out that it is intended to steer the reader away (for religious and moral reasons) from such practices. It also includes accounts of trials of persons who engaged in witchcraft.

But It Does Move

The Vatican is trying to close the gap between itself and Galileo Galilei, four centuries after it condemned him in a heresy trial. At a conference last month Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone called Galileo an astronomer who "lovingly cultivated his faith and his profound religious conviction." The reconciliation is said to be pushed by the present Pope. There are limits, though--no Galileo statute at the Vatican yet. Read more here.