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30 - History

University of Essex

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Article title

"Ein verschlagener Geist": Vorstellungen des Teufels in den Hexenprozessen der Reichsstadt Rothenburg ob der Tauber ["A Cunning Spirit": Ways of Imagining the Devil in the Witch-Trials of the Imperial City of Rothenburg ob der Tauber]

Type

D - Journal article

DOI

Title of journal

Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte

Article number

Volume number

103

Issue number

First page of article

266

ISSN of journal

0003-9381

Year of publication

2012

URL

Number of additional authors

Additional information

Interdisciplinary

Cross-referral requested

Research group

None

Proposed double-weighted

Double-weighted statement

Reserve for a double-weighted output

Non-English

Yes

English abstract

This article uses records of trials for witchcraft, treasure-seeking and fraud from Rothenburg (1549-1709) to explore how the devil was imagined by lawyers and theologians who wrote opinions on the cases and by those who were accused of, or confessed to, being witches. The elites imagined the devil as a ‘cunning spirit’ who could even delude them; for ordinary people, the devil was imagined as anything from a snail to a handsome man. This complex web of ideas drew on religion, theatrical traditions, and new emphases on demonic pacts from witch-persecutions elsewhere and the Faust stories of the late-sixteenth century.