The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and Politics in France, 1560-1620

Notes

This page intentionally left blank Conclusion Although to us he is one of the best-known French judges of the early seventeenth century, Pierre de Lancre was not a typical French high court magistrate. His work as a demonologist author and judge is unique in France. While he fits Muchembled’s picture of the Catholic Reformation man, he cannot serve as an exemplar for elite society. Accusations for witchcraft occurred fairly frequently in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In general, while the local courts could be quite severe with accused witches, relatively few of their sentences were actually carried out. The Parlements, acting as appeals courts, did not torture the accused very often, regularly overturned guilty verdicts, and rarely imposed the death penalty for this crime. The Parlements of Old Regime France were prestigious bodies, staffed by members of the social and educational elite of the age. They examined evidence and delivered their judgments as panels. They seemed to work diligently in criminal cases, taking time to examine the often puzzling testimony that came to them. This judicial approach, together with their efforts to regularize appeals of lower court verdicts Notes to the Conclusion are on p. 168. 149 meant that very few people were executed for witchcraft in France. While many parlementaires seemed to believe in witchcraft as a phenomenon , this belief did not lead them to suspend their normal caution in order to condemn many people to death for witchcraft. In their practice of criminal law, the Parlements were almost entirely independent of the royal government. They proceeded according to the well-defined principles of Roman law, as was the case almost everywhere in Europe. They seem to have been careful about the broad discretionary powers they possessed, especially their ability to commit the accused to torture in order to extract a confession.1 This moderation of the French courts occurred in spite of a substantial corpus of demonological writings, published by reputable Catholic authorities, which appeared with a fair degree of regularity between 1565 or so and the 1620s. These works all regarded witchcraft as real, as a dangerous act of treason against God, and as closely related to the diabolically inspired Protestant heresy. Their authors were unanimous in counselling judges to believe in witchcraft, to take it seriously and to work with dedication to eradicate it from the earth. Even Bodin, not an orthodox Catholic writer, argued much of this case. It seems clear that the courts, at least the Parlements, did not follow this advice and integrate demonology into their legal practice. If they had, the prosecution of witches in France would have resembled that in places like Lorraine, where 90 percent of those accused were executed,2 and many thousands would have died in France. There are several reasons for this relative moderation. For one thing, the Parlements seemed clearly to be quite conservative in their legal work. They insisted on proper procedure and close examination of the evidence. As we have discussed, even Bodin was very cautious in his procedural advice. If the judges had followed his legal advice, the persecution of witches in France would not have been very different from what it was. The role of the Parlements as appeal courts was of capital importance in the overall moderation of the French legal system in the business of witchcraft. Just as important, and much less closely examined to date, is the crucial area of the profound divisions in elite opinion. While the relationship between elites and the popular masses has been discussed by many historians, the differences of opinion among the upper classes and their influence in witchcraft trials has not been sufficiently scrutinized. Far from representing universal or even majority elite opinion, the 150 / The Crime of Crimes orthodox demonologists seem to have been on the fringe of political society. Many of them were Jesuits, or students and supporters of the Jesuits or at least of the Holy League in the religious wars. As such they had clear objectives that were well known and perceived by their contemporaries to be a political program. Though they claimed to be the party of God, they were regarded with deep hostility by many influential French Catholics. As propaganda, issued by one religious-political faction among several, French demonology could only have limited appeal. So the demonologists’ message was blunted. From their beginning in the 1560s they ran directly into...