Syracuse University in Florence

Impotence, Witchcraft, and Politics: A Renaissance Case


The belief that sexual impotence could be provoked by sorcery was fully acknowledged by canon law, which in such cases admitted the annulment of a unconsummated marriage. As of the mid-15th century, the fear that human sexuality was under attack from witches seems to increase, reaching its apex in the Malleus maleficarum (1486). In those same years, bewitchment of the “vis coeundi” was believed to cause the failure of dynastic unions, such as the (temporary) fiasco of Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza with Isabella of Aragon (1489). But such diagnoses were not accepted unanimously, as several authoritative voices rose to explain impotence in naturalistic terms. This paper shows how the interpretation of impotence as result of witchcraft could fulfill varying functions at different social levels, focusing on the debate between traditionalists, such as witch-hunter Heinrich Kramer, and skeptics, such as the jurist Ambrogio Vignati.

What about some Good Wether? Witches and Werewolves in Sixteenth-Century Italy

This paper focuses on one hitherto unknown document from the archive of the Inquisition of Modena. In 1518 the noted demonologist Bartolomeo Spina (c. 1475-1546), then at the head of the local tribunal, received testimonies concerning one, very unusual male witch. A man from a nearby village was known for falling into a trance-like state closely resembling death, and was apparently also seen turning into a wolf and attacking a flock of wethers. Skeptical about the reliability of such reports, Spina decided not to investigate further, and thus the dossier did not develop into a full-blown trial. Even in its interrupted state, however, this case stands out as a very rare indication of the existence of local traditions on werewolves, and as an even rarer, tantalizing suggestion of the possible association between ecstasies and shapeshifting. The paper aims first to explore the meaning of such beliefs in the Modenese and northern Italian context of the time by connecting them with the characteristics of the “ride”, or “game” – two local names for the witches’ Sabbath. It then seeks to determine whether this case can really contribute valuable new evidence for the analysis of the myth of the wolf-man and of its implications, such as its supposed shamanistic core.

The theory of diabolical witchcraft attracted serious doubts from its first formulation early in the fifteenth century. This essay focuses on the writings of a few lay jurists and lawyers who rejected the witch-hunters' claim that witchcraft was made possible by the Devil's ability to operate physically in the world, and argued instead that such acts as consorting sexually with demons, or being carried through the air to the Sabbat, were visions and dreams produced by the Devil. In this heated debate, both doubters and believers frequently crossed their respective disciplinary boundaries as they sought to prove their point. The essay analyses the works of lawyers who confuted the witch-hunters' interpretation of key biblical passages, using them to demonstrate that witchcraft was physically impossible, and that believing otherwise was unsound from both a legal and a religious point of view. It argues that their specific contribution was notable both for its content, as a particularly radical attack on demonological theories, and in itself, as an explicit challenge to ecclesiastical hegemony in the discourse on metaphysics. It concludes that their doubts had a significant, if belated, impact on the Roman Inquisition's policy vis-à-vis witchcraft.

Yet another book on witches and witchcraft? Although numerous, studies on this phenomenon that had such a profound influence on the political, social and religious history of the late Middle Ages and the early modern age in Europe can never be enough. At this time the political regimes were actively involved in the witch hunts, not least the Catholic church which was intensely engaged in developing instruments of control aimed at governing and curbing dissent. The book is broken down into thematic sections – rules, treatises and trials, transmission /possession – which reflect the multiplicity of the scientific proposals that have emerged in recent years, and also represent a conscious preliminary orientation of possible readings. At centre stage of the witchcraft show are the witches and their judges, from the theologians and philosophers to the exorcists. As well as addressing actual events, the book also explores the nature of the beliefs and the way in which they were transmitted in the various social strata, and the phenomenon of diabolical possession which conveyed the message of the presence of the devil in the world.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century Lombardy was the site of some of the largest witch-hunts in the history of the Italian Peninsula, mainly at the hands of the inquisitors of Como. Two of them, the Dominican friars Bernardo Rategno and Modesto Scrofeo, also wrote tracts about witches and their prosecution, drawing on Heinrich Institoris' Malleus maleficarum, rather than on contemporary tracts by Italian inquisitors, as their scope was more practical than theoretical. The two Italian Dominicans concentrated on the legal side of their task, focusing particularly on what clues would constitute a strong presumption of witchcraft. Their books included some of the first systematic attempts at sketching an identikit of the typical witch, and in this sense they went well beyond Institoris' more vague and scattered treatment of the issue. My paper argues that their emphasis on such aspects was meant to counter widespread contemporary critiques and opposition to the witch-hunt not only by demonstrating the reality of witchcraft, but especially by setting its prosecution on a legally unassailable foundation.