SCOTTISH WITCHCRAFT ACTS IN 1563-1736

Abstract

The article traces the evolution of legislative norms which had been ordering Scottish witchcraft in 1563-1736. The study of Scottish witchcraft acts raises the question of how great was the need for criminal prosecution of witchcraft in the middle of the 16th century. The statistics of witch-hunt shows that witchcraft wasn’t the urgent social problem that required legislative regulation. However, legislation makes a dual impact on the dynamics of prosecutions. On the one hand, it fixes an actual practice, on the other, it initiates and intensifies certain components of justice. An analysis of Scottish witchcraft acts points its ideological genesis, the crucial influence of debate between Catholics and Protestants, and between church and secular institutions. The witchcraft acts of the period under investigation not only defined the boundaries and values of the pious majority, but identified and crowed out the enemies of society as enemies of God. In Scotland, the adoption of the Witchcraft acts took place during the periods of the rise of the Protestant church. Its leaders, having gained power and influence, sought to regulate the whole public life on the basis of the strictest Calvinistic morality. The laws of the witch-hunting period reflect the specifics of the Scottish statehood, the central and the local judicial courts and the balance of secular and ecclesiastical institutions. The article explores the dualism of Early Modern Scottish society, where national law was formulated on the basis of morality proclaiming and providing by church institutions.