Jean Bodin (c. 1529-1596)
1580
Jean Bodin was one of the major political theorists of the 16th century, and his writings about witchcraft take a legalistic view. His major work on witchcraft, the Démonomanie, was first published in 1580 and went through 10 editions by 1604. Since Bodin’s book was translated from the French into German, Italian and Latin shortly after its publication, some historians believe it was responsible for an increase in witch trials during this period.
The text discusses, in 4 books, the power of witches, lycanthropy, and methods for investigating and prosecuting witches. Bodin identified three indisputable proofs necessary for a sentence of witchcraft: truth of the fact, testimony of witnesses, and voluntary confession. The presence of all three warranted a painful sentence of death. Bodin believed that angels and demons were intermediaries between God and human beings, therefore sorcery (or any attempt to manipulate demonic forces through witchcraft or magic) was treason against God, and consequently punishing witches would appease God.
While Bodin uses the masculine (le sorcier) in his definition of a witch early in the book, later in the text he refers to witches almost exclusively in the feminine (la sorciére). And near the end of the book, he observes that there were fifty times more female than male witches.
Bodin was also a critic of the theories of Johann Weyer. He believed Weyer’s theories of mental illness made him a protector of witches; in Bodin’s view, evil spirits would use strategies to impose doubts on judges and cause them to view witches as madmen and hypochondriacs deserving of treatment and compassion rather than punishment.