[Book review] Origins of the witches’ sabbath, Michael D. Bailey

Abstract

This book presents a handful of texts, all written in the 1430s around the arc of the western Alps, that helped to strengthen the negative efficacy of maleficium, or harmful magic. The texts uphold the generally held belief that these wicked people could meet as members of organized heretical sects or as agents of a sinister conspiracy to undermine Christian society. In this book, the translator gives a version in English of five primary texts from the mid-fifteenth century. Each work is preceded by an introduction that serves as an examination of the relative text within the framework of the evolving perceptions on witchcraft in Europe. The introductory discussion of the texts evaluates key features of witchcraft trials in the fifteenth century. First, Bailey highlights the fact that the Christian authorities associated most magic forms with demonic power. So, witches were perceived as agents of an evil conspiracy. This concept had been developing since the thirteenth century and may be found in the inquisitorial legal structures, which emerged to root out heresies. Second, by the early fifteenth century, many theologians used testimony obtained mainly from threatened or tortured witches to prove the physical reality of demonic actions. The sources collected in this book and published in chronological order reveal this concept in its nascent stages. [Excerpt]