Louise Nyholm Kallestrup

Knowing Satan from God: Demonic Possession, Witchcraft, and the Lutheran Orthodox Church in Early Modern Denmark

A 1617 royal ordinance against witches and intensified witch-hunting in early 17th-century Denmark, have been seen as manifesting rigor against witches in Danish Lutheranism. But Lutheran theologians were more concerned with popular practice and lay discipline than with trials for diabolical witchcraft. Witch trials were held in secular courts. Parish priests testified as to the reputation of suspects, prayed for them, and may at times have served as their consultants. Churchmen played a more active role in cases of possession. Children of Niels Munk were said to be possessed, leading to witch trials in which Bishop Hans Wandal was an important force for moderation. The diary of Bishop Hans Mikkelsen shows similar moderation. Bishop Morten Madsen resorted to admotions and injunctions rather than judicial action in response to “false prophecies.” Only in the case of Maren Splids, executed at Ribe in 1641, did a bishop encourage prosecution for witchcraft.

Lay and Inquisitorial Witchcraft Prosecutions in Early Modern Italy and Denmark

This article explores the differences between Danish lay and Roman inquisitorial witchcraft prosecution, by investigating the understanding of witchcraft and how it inflicted on the course of the trials. For the first half of the 17th century, the understanding of witchcraft among Danish lay judges corresponded to popular beliefs. Focus remained on malevolent magic, and the diabolical pact was rarely introduced until after the verdict, when torture was initiated. To the Roman Inquisition, the pact with the devil, namely the implicit pact, was crucial when sentencing the illiterate villagers, since it made it possible to incorporate the offender into a learned theological system of ideas.

The Infected and the Guilty: On Heresy and Witchcraft in Post-Reformation Denmark

This essay investigates the correlation between heresy and witchcraft in a Danish context. In sixteenth-century Denmark theologians, most prominently Niels Hemmingsen, condemned witchcraft by referring to it as heresy and false beliefs. Still, as a consequence of the Lutheran Reformation the Church had no legal influence in the prosecution of witchcraft and related offences. This essay investigates the link between heresy and witchcraft in theological writings, legal regulations and in trials for witchcraft. It argues that although Danish trials for witchcraft were an issue for lay authorities, an analysis of the link between heresy and witchcraft provides new insights in what can be characterized as a ‘trichotomy’ of theologians, legislation and judicial regulations put into practice.

Approaches to Magic, Heresy and Witchcraft

This chapter explores the definitions and intertwinedness of the concepts of magic, heresy and witchcraft, and how they can help to form approaches across boundaries in geography, traditional chronology and divisions of religious denomination in Europe. Throughout the medieval and early modern period, the Christian church represented an orthodoxy that was continuously contested. The challenge of heterodoxy, especially as expressed in various kinds of heresy, magic and witchcraft, was constantly present during the period 1200–1650. With this volume we aim to break down three common scholarly barriers – of periodization, discipline and geography – in the exploration of the related themes of heresy, magic and witchcraft. By setting aside constructed chronological boundaries, inherent in periodizations such as medieval, early modern, Reformation and Counter Reformation, we hope to achieve a clearer and more continuous picture of what ‘went before’ and what ‘went after’, thus demonstrating continuity as well as change in the concepts and understandings of magic, heresy and witchcraft.

“Kind in Words and Deeds, but False in Their Hearts”: Fear of Evil Conspiracy in Late-Sixteenth-Century Denmark

In Denmark, the passing of the law against witches in 1617 caused a witch-hunt to break out, especially in Jutland, from 1617 to 1622. However, some crucial events had occurred in the 1590s that spurred on the fear of witchcraft and evil conspiracy. The chapter considers a series of trials involving several nobles in 1596–1597 in Southern Funen, which revolved around the loss of fifteen infant children. In witch trials the concept of the extended household is crucial, as are the virtues and expectations of female individuals. Here, witchcraft posed no threat to one’s livelihood, but instead the fear of witches became an explanation as to why one could not live up to the crucial task of a noble woman’s life: to produce an heir.

Constructing an accusation of witchcraft for the court

The two trials presented in chapter 5 each represent significant differences in the construction and content of allegations of witchcraft in the two courts. In chapter 7 various kinds of allegation of witchcraft will be examined more closely. To pave the way, this chapter introduces the main categories that the allegations fell into.

Conclusion: the confessor and the judge

The aim of this book was to compare how the authorities proscribed and proceeded against witchcraft, and how the prosecutions were applied locally. How did official positions on witchcraft come to have influence on the offences brought to trial, and what agency were accusers, witnesses and suspects left with? In my introduction, I presented two trials to illustrate the main differences between Roman Inquisitorial and Danish lay prosecutions of witchcraft. Stefano Tommei from Orbetello was sentenced to imprisonment and a large fine; Johanne Pedersdatter from Sejlflod was sentenced to death by burning. Both were convicted of witchcraft (sortilegio/trolddom), and the difference in punishments can be traced back to the two essentially different courts prosecuting the same offence.480

The local studies

The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway did not go through the same religious conflicts as the German states south of the border. Kings of the 16th century sought internal stability and consensus, a line followed by Christian IV in the 17th century. The possessions and estates of the Church had been assigned to the Crown, making the king by far the wealthiest and greatest landowner in the kingdom. The new Protestant or, in the term used by reformers, Evangelical Church, was no longer a legislative authority except in religious matters against its own. Many of the leading reformers had studied in Wittenberg, and for most of the 16th century Philipist Protestantism was the dominant form among theologians. This changed from the end of the century with the suspension of Niels Hemmingsen, professor at the university and a famous theologian.240 The removal of Hemmingsen in 1579 made way for the more strict Lutheran Orthodoxy that came to dominate the 17th century, theologically as well as in legislation.

From allegation to formal accusation

The Danish and the Italian trials alike usually began by someone feeling offended by the suspected person. It is the aim of this chapter to explore more thoroughly the content of the allegations of witchcraft that were submitted to the courts, then to identify the kind of behaviour associated with them. Focus in this chapter will, therefore, be especially on the initial phase of an inquisitorial trial, the denunciation, and on the allegations found in testimonies in the Danish trials. The intention is a close reading of the narratives surrounding the suspect, in order to establish what eventually led to a formal accusation. The narratives in denunciations and accusations tell us about the limits of socially acceptable behaviour and what kinds of behaviour contributed to raising suspicions. Common to both Italian and Danish cases is that perceptions of witchcraft were closely linked to norms and transgressions of social and moral behaviour.

Marking the limits of transgression

One could argue that theologians in the 16th century attributed all things either to God or to the Devil. What was good was entirely God’s work. Good people were good only as a result of their trust in God, their devotion to him and the strength of their faith. Their goodness would entitle them to eternal life in Heaven. The Devil by whatever name — Satan, the fallen angel, Beelzebub, Lucifer — represented all evil. His followers would be condemned to an afterlife in eternal agony. According to the book of Revelation, God had cast out Satan, the great dragon, and in his fall Satan had taken the host of fallen angels with him. The Devil had declared war against God and against all Christians, with the intention of toppling the entire Christian world. Everything that was morally wrong originated in the Devil. He would constantly try to tempt man in his efforts to recruit new allies for his final confrontation with God.