Extensive witchcraft trials took place in Sweden between the years 1668 and 1676. Approximately three hundred individuals were executed during a period of very few years. However, far more common were trials of a more modest nature, concerning minor magic and malevolent witchcraft without aspects of diabolism. The present dissertation deals with these minor cases, which have previously attracted very little academic interest. The source material for this study comprises 353 cases (involving 880 individuals), submitted to the Göta Royal Superior Court by informants during the period 1635-1754. The area of jurisdiction covered by the Göta Royal Superior Court embraced the southernmost areas of Sweden. This study discusses witchcraft and magic trials from three perspectives: 1. The elite perspective (the acculturation model); 2. The functionalistic conflict perspective; and 3. The systems-oriented perspective of popular magic. Ideologically and religiously coloured perceptions of magic became more pervasive at the same time as the number of trials increased. This was caused by central administrative measures, which broadened the opportunities for pursuing cases on the local level. However, the increased influence of the dite cannot be characterized as a conquest of folk culture by the elite. It is more adequate to speak of a movement of repression, originating in a state become all the more civilized. Death sentences were few and far between and most of the cases concerned minor magic. There existed no independent popular level such as emerges in the reports from the proceedings of the trials. People clearly differentiated between different types of malevolent witchcraft when standing before the courts. They were more likely to go directly to trial when the signs preceding their misfortunes hinted at magical activity (viewed as sorcery), than they were when suspicions against witches were based on threats made in conflict situations. Witchcraft which had its basis in conflict situations appears to have been more dependent upon first receiving encouragement in the form of obliging courts, before people would take their cases to trial. This has created a pattern which ostensibly makes it seem that the level of social tensions was low, so that people therefore appeared indifferent toward malevolent witchcraft. Just as illusory is the competing image of an uninfluenced popular perception of witchcraft which actually emerges in the Göta Royal Superior Court. However, this does not mean that the actions of individuals was characterized by an assimilation of the values of the dominant culture. Receptivity to the signals of the elite was certainly clear, but at the same time the responses indicate a great deal of independence. Popular participation in witchcraft trials took place without any prerequisite profound cultural transformations. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis discusses early modern European perceptions of body and soul in association with the increasing stringency of civilized behaviour and state formation in an effort to provide motivation for the increased severity of the witch hunts of that time. Both secondary and primary sources have been used, in particular the contemporary demonologies by such authors as Bodin, and Kramer and Sprenger. The thesis is divided into five chapters, including an Introduction and Conclusion. The body of the thesis focuses on religious, scientific, and secular beliefs (Ch. 2), appearance and characteristics of witches (Ch. 3), and the activities and behaviours/actions of witches, (Ch. 4). This study concentrates on the similarities found across Europe, and, as the majority of witches persecuted were female, my thesis emphasizes women as victims of the witch hunts.

Between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the 17th century, western Europe is the stage for one of history's demonological crisis. Many critics associated this witch hunt with an episode of collective delirium and perhaps also irrationality on the rise. Nevertheless, witchcraft is first and foremost an object of knowledge---demonology---, which many writers, jurists and theologians attempted to construct, define and constantly re-evaluate. Demonology was progressively elaborated in the midst of a culture where multiples beliefs and ideologies were interpreted to be the language, or the Christian testimony of a universe troubled by the signs of devil. / As we progress towards the 17th century, the demonological discourse tends to distance itself from the traditional knowledge, searching for its truth in facts and experience. Shifting towards empiricism, the witch's body becomes the privileged stage for a confrontation between the devil and the judge. However, in order for this body to reveal its monstrosity, the demonologist must become both exegete and producer of words, which in turn, he finds in the witch as tangible signs of her otherness. Moreover, in his desire to interrogate the witch, the scholar wishes mostly to question the feminine nature, cloaking her with an otherness of problematic and dangerous attributes. Through scholarly language, Renaissance demonology wishes to significantly organize the divided world of witchcraft and in the process, a certain feminine identity, diabolically other. / Through the works of two demonologists having had a direct experience with trials, the Discours execrable des sorciers by Henri Boguet (1602) and the Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons (1612) by Pierre de Lancre, we explore the link between malefic femininity and witchcraft: the images they convey, the fascination they trigger and their mirroring through and in writing.

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