마녀 개념의 형성 연구: 『캐논 에피스코피』에서 『말레우스 말레피카룸』까지 (A Study on the Development of the Concept of Witchcraft: From ‘Canon Episcopi’ to ‘Malleus Maleficarum’)

서지정보

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· 저자명 : 주경철

초록

This paper aims to examine the development of the concept of witchcraft from the early Middle Ages to the sixteenth century. It is widely accepted that in a span of about two hundred years, beginning in the fifteenth century, tens of thousands of people, most of them women, were prosecuted for witchcraft. Those victims were accused of being involved in a diabolic pact with the devil, which tried to destroy this world. Such an “elaborate concept of witchcraft” was quite different from the archaic image of sorcery of the popular belief of the previous period. The concept of witchcraft underwent continuous evolution until it reached the final form in the famous work concerning the witch hunt,‘Malleus Maleficarum.’ This surely provided the conceptual basis for witch trials. Europe entered on the critical phase in the process of this development when chase for the Waldensian heretics took place, especially around the Alps regions during the first half of the fifteenth century. The connection between stereotypes about witchcraft and those about heresy were reinforced, and the witches were blamed more and more as the devil’s pawn. Numerous treatises emerged during the first several decades of the fifteenth century stressing the true danger of witches as assistants of the devil. Those currents led to the final formation of the definite idea of witchcraft in ‘Malleus Maleficarum’. It is to be stressed, however, that he ‘elaborate concept of witchcraft’was not immediately and automatically accepted by the ecclesiastical and secular authorities all over Europe just after the publication of the book. The biographical episodes of the author, Institoris, revealed the fact that the new concept of witchcraft was considered as really weird, and they refused to accept and employ it at the witch trials. To overcome the obstacle to spreading this new concept, and to make it a powerful instrument of the witch trials, it must acquire supreme authority. That was prepared by the Papal Bull and the Approbation of the treatise by the Doctors of the University of Cologne. The established concept of witchcraft in ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ would bring about the explosion of tragic witch trials in a near future.

영어초록

This paper aims to examine the development of the concept of witchcraft from the early Middle Ages to the sixteenth century. It is widely accepted that in a span of about two hundred years, beginning in the fifteenth century, tens of thousands of people, most of them women, were prosecuted for witchcraft. Those victims were accused of being involved in a diabolic pact with the devil, which tried to destroy this world. Such an “elaborate concept of witchcraft” was quite different from the archaic image of sorcery of the popular belief of the previous period. The concept of witchcraft underwent continuous evolution until it reached the final form in the famous work concerning the witch hunt,‘Malleus Maleficarum.’ This surely provided the conceptual basis for witch trials. Europe entered on the critical phase in the process of this development when chase for the Waldensian heretics took place, especially around the Alps regions during the first half of the fifteenth century. The connection between stereotypes about witchcraft and those about heresy were reinforced, and the witches were blamed more and more as the devil’s pawn. Numerous treatises emerged during the first several decades of the fifteenth century stressing the true danger of witches as assistants of the devil. Those currents led to the final formation of the definite idea of witchcraft in ‘Malleus Maleficarum’. It is to be stressed, however, that he ‘elaborate concept of witchcraft’was not immediately and automatically accepted by the ecclesiastical and secular authorities all over Europe just after the publication of the book. The biographical episodes of the author, Institoris, revealed the fact that the new concept of witchcraft was considered as really weird, and they refused to accept and employ it at the witch trials. To overcome the obstacle to spreading this new concept, and to make it a powerful instrument of the witch trials, it must acquire supreme authority. That was prepared by the Papal Bull and the Approbation of the treatise by the Doctors of the University of Cologne. The established concept of witchcraft in ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ would bring about the explosion of tragic witch trials in a near future.

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