Katie Brockway
Sarah Gingras
James Nixon
Kyendamina Mukeba
Elliot Lutton

Witchcraft and Science
The general concept of witchcraft was created by the early 15th century, and by the end of the 16th century most educated Europeans believed witches not only practiced harmful magic, but made a pact with the devil. Throughout Europe, the details of the Sabbath varied from place to place and time to time. The learned thoughts about witchcraft were transferred from one area to another and from one generation to the next.
Many Europeans were convinced that at certain times hundreds and thousands witches gathered together. The devil would appear and the witches would sacrifice infants to the devil for him to eat. The witches would dance naked and have sexual relations with the devil and other witches. The upper class stated Satan worked not miracles but wonders, he was different from god because of his morals. Among the “crimes” purportedly committed by witches were: participation in sabbats; metamorphosis into animals; pacts and sexual intercourse with the Devil; inflicting illness or death on their enemies, or damaging their property; eating human flesh; murdering children; raising storms; and preparing diabolical potions and philters.
Relations between witches and devil were the beliefs of the literate, ruling classes, and not the common people. Peasants gained a limited amount of information, but once they were informed they didn’t struggle to believe it. Their primary concern was that their magic could harm members of their community, not necessarily the pact with the devil. Witches’ neighbors were relied upon to identify suspects and testify against them. Peasants had to believe in witchcraft so they could help the ruling class with the hunt, but because many of them were illiterate they did not know enough about witchcraft.
There are six people in this time period who were accused of witchcraft practices and superstitious practices were Paracelsus, John Dee, Giordano Bruno, Anna Maria Zieglerin, Laura Malipiero, and lastly, Marrietta Battaglia. The first born was Paracelsus, a scientist who found new discoveries in medicine.
The “father of toxicology” was born in 1493, in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. He was a mine analyst as a child, for his father was a chemist and physician. At the age of sixteen, Paracelsus began studying medicine at the University of Basel. He pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, and knew sickness and health in the body (microcosm) and harmony in nature (macrocosm.)
He stood by the phrase “the dose makes the poison,” that evil could heal evil, and that poison could have beneficial effects on the body. The scientist knew that for every evil there was a good that would eliminate it, and that there was a cure for every disease. His reason for studying alchemy was to prolong his life and restore his youth, and said alchemy shouldn’t be limited to chemistry because it existed in all of nature. It was a very spiritual science, and the person who practiced it must have moral virtue.
Although it made seem arrogant, he preferred to lecture in German rather than Latin, and openly challenged traditional books on medicine, and teaching of medicine by textual analysis. Therefore, he refused to prescribe the medicines of the local apothecaries. Paracelsus was sympathetic with some of the ideas of the Reformation, but he was a Roman Catholic. Because of this, he had to flee Basel to avoid imprisonment.
He is accused of being the true identity of the mythical alchemist Christian Rosenkreutz who was the major figure in the Fama Fraternitatis, which was published in 1614, in Germany. It is said that he died September 24th 1541, from mysterious causes originating from a leg wound.
John Dee was known as a math legend, and was born July 13th, 1527. He is said to have grasped the concept of mathematics and magic just as both were becoming distinguishable. He studied Greek, Latin, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic and astronomy at Cambridge University, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1546.

Dee understood mathematics mystically, and thought it was central to the progress of human learning. Additionally, that everything revolved around numbers, and that the divine power of man could be exercised through mathematics. In 1553 he became an astrologer to the queen, Mary Tudor. But two years later John was imprisoned for heresy and being a magician accused of ‘calculating’ as a form of magic. His work was said to be “ Work of mathematical legerdemain mistaken for the work of the devil.”
He was released two years later and became a consultant for the Muscovy Company. It was formed by the navigator and explorer Sebastian Cabot. With a number of London merchants who were granted a monopoly of Anglo-Russian trade, they aimed to search for the Northeast Passage. He prepared nautical information, including navigation charts, and instructed the crews on geometry and cosmography before they left for voyages to North America. One of Dee’s greatest accomplishments was publishing “Propaedeumata Aphoristica”, and presenting his work about mathematics, astrology and magic to Queen Elizabeth.
Dee married his third wife Jane Fromond, who he had eight children with, and met his friend Edward Kelley, to start on their “mystical experiments.” Edward was highly skilled and claimed to be able to contact angels and spirits by gazing into a crystal ball. Dee became deeply involved in conversing with angels and spirits through Kelley, and it dominated the latter part of his life. In 1583 John Dee and Edward Kelley were foretold by the Angel Uriel of the death of the Queen of Scots, which occurred in 1587, and the coming of the Spanish Armada, which occurred in 1588.
After this accomplishment, Dee and Kelley broadened their perspective by moving to Cracow and then Prague before returning to England. John Dee became warden of Manchester College in 1595, and that same year, his dear friend Kelley died. In 1605 Jane Dee and several of their eight children died of plague in Manchester. Following this tragic event, John Dee returned to live in London ,and died three years later in 1608.
Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher born in 1548. He believed the universe was infinite, that God was everywhere, and God was so broadminded that in the end he would even pardon the demons. Bruno is also one the earliest thinkers to imagine that living creatures might be found elsewhere in the universe. Therefore, Bruno concluded, God must be within the universe and not outside of it. His philosophy was “flaming bodies are the ambassadors who proclaim the glory and majesty of God. Thus we are moved to discover the infinite effect of the infinite cause, the true and living footprint of the infinite vigor, and we have a teaching that tells us not to seek divinity outside ourselves, but within, more deeply in us than we are ourselves.”
Bruno was excommunicated as catholic in Naples, as Calvinist in Geneva, and as a Lutheran in Wittenberg. The Inquisitors had good reason to suspect, then, that Bruno’s idea of seeking God within, “more deeply in us than we are ourselves” might indicate an independent religion that had no need of any prophet but Giordano Bruno. The former employer who had originally denounced him to the Inquisition was a Venetian nobleman named Giovanni Mocenigo. He declared that Bruno had in fact intended to establish a sect called the “Gordanisti” with himself as its head. These intentions soon lead to superstitious and the dislike of Bruno.
When the Roman Inquisition killed the philosopher Giordano Bruno on the morning of February 17, 1600, the capital charge against the victim was obstinate and pertinacious heresy. He was charged for adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma, denial of a revealed truth by a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church, and an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma. As well as dissent or deviation from a dominant theory, opinion, or practice, and finally, an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards. That charge, as Bruno’s sentence specifies, hinged on two precise points: first denying the divinity of Jesus, and second, refusing to recant on eight propositions presented by the most of his ten Inquisitors, the Jesuit cardinal and future saint, Roberto Bellarmino. Like so many others of his time, Bruno was put to death merely for his opinions and beliefs.
As far back as historians can find, alchemy was primarily a male dominant practice. That would soon change after Anna Maria Zieglerian was born in the early 1550’s. Zieglerian had a different childhood then most people, she was born premature, and her family was of German nobility. She was later arranged to marry a man named Heinrich Schombach. In 1571 her new husband got a job at the court of Duke Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel practicing alchemy. She had no official job title at the court, but did have her own office where she began doing experiments with alchemy.
Three years later, in 1573, she presented the Duke a book on how to create the ‘Philosophers stone.’ The ‘Philosophers stone” was a combination of oils and stones that Anna believed could be used to create humans , grow plants, and essentially create any form of life.
In her book she introduced a man named Count Carl von Oettenge. Anna claimed he was the son of Paracelsus who was a well-known medical practitioner in the early 1500’s. She claimed that Paracelsus taught Count Carl von Oettengen everything he knew; therefore he was an expert himself. Confidently, Anna told the Duke she and the Count discovered a way to reproduce using alchemy rather than natural reproduction. Anna continued, making the bold claim that these children would never become ill and never die.
The Duke soon found out that she was lying and would be unable to deliver what she had promised. She and her fellow alchemists were promptly shunned and executed. Her followers were charged with fraud and treason, while Anna was charged with ‘sorcery’ and ‘adultery’. On February 7th, 1574, Anna was put to death at age twenty five. After her skin was ripped apart by scorching tongs, she was burned to death.
Women were more likely to be prosecuted as witches during the craze, but there was no exclusion on men. Men thought women were morally weaker than them, and would fall for temptation because women witches were driven by “carnal lust,” made pact with the devil, and then had sex him and other witches.
Some women saw witchcraft as an alternative to marriage or motherhood, and it gave them control of their environment. For single or widowed women, the only way to prove themselves as adults was to get a profession. Laura Malipiero and Marrietta Battaglia were two sisters in Venice, Italy, who saw witchcraft as a career option rather than their fate or destiny. They chose to be witches, unlike many others, who were thought to have the permanently assumed role of a witch.
Marrietta Battaglia used available, least specialized, magic, often times even stealing or borrowing from others, including her sister. A widow at age thirty eight, she used witchcraft as alternative to marriage but ideally she did want marriage and would have been much better off having some form of stability. Marrietta was a prostitute and sought after for "love magic." In the 18th century European prostitutes were said to make up ten percent of the population. A few years after her first witchcraft trial in 1637, she began to deny men of relations due to a "change of heart." A customer of seven years was so upset he beat her, demanded money, and then broke her nose. A document was found later that she had actually been pregnant during this time, and she lost the baby. Her second trial took place when a man she was going to marry found she was a witch, so he accused her as way of preventing their mother. Her third trial in 1649, also included her mother, Isabella, and sister Laura. Marietta was accused of performing sexual acts with the devil and worshipping him. Instead of being burned, she was supposed to be banned from the city. Unfortunately, she was so poor she had nothing to wear, and did not know how to survive outside of Venice. So, she was sentenced to jail and everlasting banishment as a single woman and witch.
Laura Malipiero, Marrietta’s sister, was significantly more accomplished than her sister. She used an array of witchcraft practices, and moved from least to most advanced, and had a number of specialties. Unlike Marrietta, her work offered a positive alternative to her three negative marriages. Laura had four husbands, two of which charged her with witchcraft, bigamy and polygamy. The other two disappeared, and all of her spouses beat her. Disrespecting and making women feel dependent on men was common; Laura’s daughter Malipiera was so abused by her own husband that her eye was permanently loose in the socket. Laura had four accusations of witchcraft.
Instead of living a spiteful life, Laura focused on her witchcraft, and considered herself a trained healer. She thought of witchcraft has labor studies and something mysterious because she believed women had choices and opportunities. Her practices differed from trial to trial so she could keep her accusers questioning her actions. By her final trial in 1654 she was considered the most famous witch. She later died of natural causes next to her monogamous lover of twenty years.
The use of these sister’s witchcraft and their success was determined by the market and how well they played it. Laura was more successful because she used her career as a post-plague survival and had economic and social sense that was unknown to her sister. Mariretta never performed medical magic because she turned to others, leaving her very vulnerable. The sisters were equal in recognizing witchcraft as a survival strategy, but unequal in their ability to use it to their advantage.