Elite And Popular Conceptions Of Witchcraft

Elite and Popular Perspectives of Witchcraft

The elite perspective is the perspective of those in power. It may be the perspective of the monarchy but it may also be administrative/judicial or that of the church. Popular conceptions are those held by the common people. These two perspectives were not very distinctive because the elite and common people did not live completely separate lives from one another Ð'- there was some mixing of culture, and thus there were many similarities in the conceptions held. The main differences between the popular and elite beliefs were regarding the type of accusation of witchcraft: the common people tended to make accusations of maleficium whereas the elites made accusations based on diabolism. Maleficium is magic that is controlled by the person themselves; "It is the performance of harmful deeds by means of some sort of extraordinary, mysterious, occult, preternatural or supernatural power" (p. 4 Levack). Diabolism is worshipping the devil: when a witch acquires his or her powers from making a pact with the devil and often then pays some sort of homage (p. 8 Levack).

The church wanted to recruit people to the Christian religion and so they used features of the gods of other religions in their depiction of the devil (p. 30 Levack). When a witch said that they worshipped a horned beast, they may not have specifically meant the devil, referring to Satan, but a Pagan fertility god instead (p. 34 Levack).

The elites believed that all witchcraft was because of the devil. Witches worship the devil and do all acts of magic in the name of the devil. The bible prohibits witchcraft; therefore all acts of witchcraft are acts of heresy and must be severely punished (p. 134 course reader). The elites were concerned with persecuting witches as a way to reduce heresy and rebellion among the common people (p. 160 Levack).

One of the preconditions to a successful witch-hunt is that both the elites and common people had to have some knowledge of witchcraft and the activities in which witches engaged (p. 161 Levack). If the common people did not believe in witchcraft, they would be less likely to make accusations and testify at the trials. Thus it was imperative that both the elite and common population had some sort of knowledge about witches and witchcraft although it was okay that the common people believed in maleficium while the elites believed in diabolism as long as there was fear instilled in the public (p. 161 Levack).

The year 1560 denotes the religious settlement that made Scotland a primarily Protestant nation. 1707 marks the implementation of the Act of Union which united the kingdoms of England, Wales and Scotland to form "Great Britain" (p.12 course manual). During this time traditional structures of authority seemed to breakdown. There was disruption across all facets of society including politics, science, religion, economics and demographics as well as social structures correlating with the beginning of the witch-hunt. Levack states that "which hunting most commonly occurred during religiously volatile areas" while war seemed to have a negative impact on the hunt (p. 166 Levack).

Levack states that many of the common confessions were related to maleficium and it was not until torture was applied that confessions of diabolism were stated. Issobell Gowdie was a common person who confessed Ð''voluntarily' to diabolism. The acts in Gowdie's confessions throughout the proceedings seem to be maleficent even though she consistently made the claim that she did each one of the acts in the name of the devil (diabolic). This is very contradicting. It also states that no torture was applied at the time of