Witchcraft and Demonology in Hungary and Transylvania

419 Pages·2017·4.09 MB·English

by  Gábor Klaniczay

Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
Witchcraft and
Demonology
in Hungary and
Transylvania
Edited by
Gábor Klaniczay and
Éva Pócs
Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
Series Editors
Jonathan Barry
Department of History
University of Exeter
Exeter, UK
Willem de Blécourt
Meertens Institute
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Owen Davies
School of Humanities
University of Hertfordshire
UK
The history of European witchcraft and magic continues to fascinate and
challenge students and scholars. There is certainly no shortage of books
on the subject. Several general surveys of the witch trials and numerous
regional and micro studies have been published for an English-speaking
readership. While the quality of publications on witchcraft has been high,
some regions and topics have received less attention over the years. The
aim of this series is to help illuminate these lesser known or little studied
aspects of the history of witchcraft and magic. It will also encourage the
development of a broader corpus of work in other related areas of magic
and the supernatural, such as angels, devils, spirits, ghosts, folk healing
and divination. To help further our understanding and interest in this
wider history of beliefs and practices, the series will include research that
looks beyond the usual focus on Western Europe and that also explores
their relevance and influence from the medieval to the modern period.
‘A valuable series.’—Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14693
Gábor Klaniczay · Éva Pócs
Editors
Witchcraft and
Demonology in
Hungary and
Transylvania
Editors
Gábor Klaniczay Éva Pócs
Central European University Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Budapest, Hungary Pécs, Hungary
Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
ISBN 978-3-319-54755-8 ISBN 978-3-319-54756-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54756-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944560
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2017
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Cover image: Becker, Rudolf Zacharias: Noth- und Hülfsbüchlein für den Landmann :
welches lehret, wie man vergnügt leben und mit Ehren reich werden könne, desgleichen
wenn man Leute findet, welche erfroren, ersoffen, erstickt oder erhenkt [...]. In Leipzig:
verlegt bey G.J. Göschen [1785]. Source: Zentralbibliothek Zürich
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Translated from the Hungarian by Anna Klaniczay Style edited by
Andrew Rouse Index prepared by Judit Kis-Halas
C
ontents
Introduction 1
Gábor Klaniczay and Éva Pócs
The Social Background of Witchcraft Accusations
in Early Modern Debrecen and Bihar
County 13
Ildikó Sz. Kristóf
Witchcraft, Greed and Revenge: The Prosecutor
Activity of György Igyártó and the Witch Trials
of Kolozsvár in the 1580s 91
László Pakó
Healers in Hungarian Witch Trials 111
Gábor Klaniczay
Divinatio Diabolica and Superstitious Medicine:
Healers, Seers and Diviners in the Changing
Discourse of Witchcraft in Early Modern Nagybánya 159
Judit Kis-Halas
Shamanism or Witchcraft? The Táltos Before the Tribunals 221
Éva Pócs
vii
viii CONTENTS
The Decriminalization of Magic and the Fight Against
Superstition in Hungary and Transylvania, 1740–1848 291
Pèter Tóth G.
Demonology and Catholic Enlightenment in
Eighteenth-Century Hungary 319
Dániel Bárth
Talking Through Witchcraft—on the Bewitchment
Discourse of a Village Community 349
Ágnes Hesz
Index 395
e C
ditors and ontributors
About the Editors
Gábor Klaniczay is Professor of Medieval Studies at the Central
European University, Budapest, Hungary. His research interests are the
history of medieval and early modern sainthood and witchcraft. His
books include The Uses of Supernatural Power (1990) and Holy Rulers
and Blessed Princesses (2002). He coedited with Éva Pócs a three vol-
ume series “Demons, Spirits witches”: Communicating with the Spirits
(2005); Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology (2006); Witchcraft
Mythologies and Persecutions (2008).
Éva Pócs is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary,
and PI of the ERC project ‘Vernacular religion on the boundary of
Eastern and Western Christianity: continuity, changes and interac-
tions’. The crucial areas of her research are: modern folk religion and
folk beliefs; witchcraft and demonology in the early modern and modern
period; cult of the dead, shamanism, incantations. She is the series editor
of sourcebooks of early modern religion and witchcraft and the editor
and co-editor of several volumes on religious anthropology and folk-
lore, among them the series Demons, Spirits, Witches (with G. Klaniczay,
2005–2008); The Power of Words: Studies on Charms and Charming in
Europe (with J. Kapaló and W. Ryan, 2012). Her books include Fairies
ix
x EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
and Witches at the Boundary of South-Eastern and Central Europe (1989)
and Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers
in the Early Modern Age (1998).
Contributors
Dániel Bárth is Associate Professor at Eötvös Loránd University,
Budapest, Hungary. His main fields are the historical aspects of ver-
nacular religion and the historical sources of early modern Christianity.
Among his books are: Esküvő, keresztelő, avatás. Egyház és népi kultúra
a kora újkori Magyarországon [Marriage, Baptism and Churching of
Woman. The Church and Popular Culture in Early Modern Hungary]
(2005); Exorcizmus és erotika. Egy XVIII. századi székelyföldi ördögűzés
szokatlan körülményei [Exorcism and the Erotic. Unusual Circumstances
of an Exorcism among the Szeklers in the Eighteenth Century] (2008);
Benedikció és exorcizmus a kora újkori Magyarországon [Benediction and
Exorcism in Early Modern Hungary] (2010).
Ágnes Hesz is Assistant Professor at the University of Pécs, Pécs,
Hungary, and Researcher in the ERC project ‘Vernacular religion on
the boundary of Eastern and Western Christianity: continuity, changes
and interactions’. Her main research fields are vernacular religion, cul-
ture of death, witchcraft. Her publications include: Élők, holtak és
adósságok. A halottak szerepe egy erdélyi faluközösségben [The Dead, the
Living, and their Debts. The Role of the Dead in a Village Community]
(2012), ‘The making of a bewitchment narrative’ (in Electronic Journal
of Folklore, 2007) and ‘The story of a funeral home: ritual moderniza-
tion and its reception in a Transylvanian village community’ (in Revista
română de sociologie, 2016).
Judit Kis-Halas is Researcher in the ERC project ‘Vernacular reli-
gion on the boundary of Eastern and Western Christianity: continuity,
changes and interactions’. Her research areas are early modern witchcraft
and popular healing, contemporary beliefs of witchcraft, complementary
medicine, and alternative spiritualities in Central Europe. Her publica-
tions include ‘Trial of an Honest Citizen in Nagybánya’ (in G. Klaniczay
and É. Pócs eds, Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions, 2008) and ‘I