Witchcraft and Witch-Hunting in Bamberg, 1400–1640

In the early modern period, the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg witnessed one of the largest and most sustained persecutions of witches in history. Between 1584 and 1631, more than 1,100 people were investigated for witchcraft, and as many as 900 died. This book examines how such an extraordinary wave of persecution emerged and why it reached such devastating intensity. William Bradford Smith traces the origins and escalation of the Bamberg witch trials. He situates the persecutions within a landscape of long-standing popular beliefs about witchcraft and magic and the growing body of legal doctrine addressing superstition that culminated in the Bamberg Criminal Code. The study follows how local panics, religious tensions associated with the Counter-Reformation, economic crises, and the centralization of justice converged to produce organized persecution. Using trial records, sermons, mandates, newssheets, and other contemporary sources, Smith shows how propaganda, preaching, the press, rumor, and gossip built support for persecution in Bamberg while bringing to light the struggles of those caught up in the trials. Based on a wealth of archival evidence, much of it previously unpublished, the book illuminates the social, political, and emotional dynamics that sustained one of Europe’s most notorious witch hunts. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of witchcraft persecution and early modern European history.