Demons, Devilry and Domestic Magic: Hunting Witches in Scotland

Abstract

There are never any easy answers in history, but on the topic of folk belief and the persecution of witches, there are hardly any at all; “indeed it is difficult to think of any historical problem over which there is more disagreement and confusion.”2 Theories as to why the European witch-hunts took place are plentiful, but satisfactory explanations are in short supply. It is no longer convincing to blame men, or the patriarchal system, or the religious upheavals of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, nor to suggest that witch-hunts were a consequence of warfare, famine and disease, or the social and political impact of state-building, or the rise of capitalism. While all of these developments, and many more besides, contributed to the overall story of the witch-hunts in Europe, no single event or episode was, or could be, fully responsible. There was, essentially, not one cause but many, and so it is necessary to adopt, as Brian Levack has aptly suggested, a “multi-causal approach” to this particular subject.3 Why did witch-hunting occur in some places and not in others, or why did some individuals face prosecution while others did not, are just a couple of the potential questions that defy explanation. It is not even fully understood why witch prosecutions began to rise in the fifteenth century, proliferated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and then petered out in the eighteenth century. There are, therefore, no “answers,” as such, only questions.