Abstract
It is not possible to extract much information about witch trials in Denmark before the Reformation. Court records from the medieval period are generally sparse, and it has only been possible to trace a handful of trials, all of them conducted in the early 16th century. A few judicial texts have been preserved, and these at least make it possible to determine which authorities dealt with the offence.126
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Notes
In an article from 2007 Per Ingesman discusses the documentation of two pre-Reformation trials of witchcraft on the island of Bornholm found in two registers (Bernt Knob’s and Truid Ulfstand’s). Ingesman, Per, ‘Kirkelig disciplin og social kontrol i senmiddelalderens danske bondesamfund. En casestudy af det ærkebiskoppelige gods under Lundegård 1519–22 og Hammershus 1525–40’ in Konge, kirke og samfund, Arnórsdóttir, Agnes, Per Ingesman og Bjørn Poulsen (eds.) (Aarhus University Press: Aarhus 2007), pp. 329–380. Furthermore, early information on witch trials are found in chancellor Claus Gjordsen’s records from 1523 in a register from Holbækgård, Wittendorff (1984), pp. 106f.
See, for example, Andersen, Per, Lærd ret og verdslig lovgivning Retlig kommunikation og udvikling i Middelalderens Danmark, (DJØF Forlag: Copenhagen 2006), pp. 216–221; Gelting, Michael. ‘Skånske Lov og Jyske Lov: Danmarks første kommissionsbetænkning og Danmarks første retsplejelov’ in Dam, Henrik, Lise Dybdahl, Lise and Finn Taksøe-Jensen (eds.), Jura og historie. Festskrift til Inger Dübeck som forsker, (DJØF Forlag: Copenhagen 20030), pp. 61–67.
The ruling on witchcraft in Jyske Lov has been reproduced in Iuul, Stig and Erik Kroman, Danmarks gamle Love paa Nutidsdansk, vol. II (G.E.C. Gad: Copenhagen 1945–1948), p. 224.
Jensen, Karsten Sejr, Trolddom i Danmark 1500–1588 (Arken Tryk: Copenhagen 1982), pp. 13f.
Translated from the Danish by Jacobsen, J.C., Danske Domme i Trolddomssager i øverste Instans (GEC Gads: Copenhagen 1966), p. 139.
Quote from the law that declared the kingdom Lutheran, original ‘En bedre ordning og Reformation’ in Wittendorff, Alex, På Guds og herskabs nåde. Politiken and Gyldendals Danmarkshistorie, vol. 7. Olsen, Olaf (ed.) (Gyldendalske Boghandel and Nordisk Forlag: Copenhagen 1989), p. 207.
For works on the Reformation in English, see Grell, Ole Peter, The Scandinavian Reformation: From Evangelical Movement to Institutionalisation of Reform (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 1995);
Lausten, Martin Schwarz. A Church History of Denmark (Ashgate: Farnham 2002).
The first Tamperret was created in Ribe in 1542; see Riising, Anne, ‘Tamperrettens funktion og domspraksis’ in Festskrift til Johan Hvidtfeldt, Iversen, Peter Kr., Knud Prange and Sigurd Rambusch (eds.) (Arkivvæsener, Dansk Historisk Fællesforening, Historisk Samfund for Sønderjylland, Landbohistorisk Selskab: Åbenrå, 1978), pp. 393–412.
The entire Ordinance has been published as Kirkeordinansen 1539, introduced and commented by Lausten, Martin Schwarz (Akademisk Forlag: Copenhagen 1989).
See also Kallestrup, Louise Nyholm, ‘De besmittede og de skyldige’, Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift, vol. 59, 2012, pp. 55–72, English revised version ‘The infected and the guilty. On heresy and witchcraft in post-Reformation Denmark’, forthcoming in Contesting Orthodoxy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Kallestrup, Louise Nyholm (ed.) (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke and New York 2015).
Clark, Stuart, Thinking with Demons. The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Oxford University Press: Oxford 1997), pp. 489ff.
Tausen’s pastoral letter via Jensen (1982), p. 18. In contrast to Palladius, Hans Tausen did not perceive the benevolent magic as effective, Brink, Torben, ‘Niels Hemmingsens forståelse af trolddom — en nyvurdering’ in Fortid og Nutid, hæfte 2. s (1993), p. 123.
Johansen (1991), p. 22; Birkelund, Merete, Troldkvinden og hendes anklagere. Danske hekseprocesser i det 16. og 17. århundrede (Arusia Historiske Skrifter: Århus 1983), p. 28.
On torture and conviction, see Levack, Brian P., The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (Taylor & Francis: New York 1987/1992), pp. 76f.;
on the Carolina and Denmark, see Jørgensen, Poul Johs. Dansk strafferet fra Reformationen til Danske Lov. Med indledning af Ditlev Tamm and Helle Vogt (Jurist- og Økonomforlaget: Copenhagen 2007), p. 397.
‘Frederick II’, Dansk Biografi sk Leksikon, vol. 5, C.F. Bricka (ed.) (Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag: Copenhagen 1891), p. 290; the traditional perception of the king has recently been challenged by Grinder-Hansen, Poul in Frederik 2. Danmarks renæssancekonge (Gyldendal: Copenhagen 2013).
Lausten, Martin Schwarz, Niels Hemmingsen. Storhed og fald (Forlaget Anis: Copenhagen 2013), pp. 305–325.
Rewritten from En undervisning aff Den Hellige Scrifft hvad mand døme skal om den store oc gruelige Gudsbespottelse som skeer med Troldom Sinelse Manelse oc anden saadan Guds hellige Naffns og Ords vanbrug. Item 33 Propositiones mot Troldom. Der til 33 Propositiones om Spaadom (translates as: A teaching of The Holy Text on how to punish the great and terrible blasphemy that takes place with witchcraft’s spells, doings and other abuses of God’s holy word and name). The text is undated, but is usually estimated to c. 1570, the year of Rasmus Hansøn Reravius’ priestly inauguration in Copenhagen, see among others Fink-Jensen, Morten, Fornuften under troens lydighed. Naturfi losofi , medicin og teologi i Danmark, 1536–1635 (Museum Tusculanum: Copenhagen 2004), p. 125. En Undervisning consists of an index and thereafter five central questions in relation to witchcraft. They are subsequently answered. In closing, 33 propositiones on witchcraft spells and conjurations has been added; and, after these, 33 on divination. Parts of the present analysis of Hemmingsen has been published in Kallestrup (2012).
The role of Rasmus Reravius as translator of his time is discussed by Fink-Jensen in Appel, Charlotte and Morten Fink-Jensen, Når det regner på præsten. En kulturhistorie om sognepræster og sognefolk 1550–1750 (Forlaget Hovedland: Gern 2009), p. 53.
Jensen (1982), in particular, has pointed out that Hemmingsen actually wanted the death penalty for both malevolent and healing magic, p. 21; Wittendorff, Alex, På Guds og herskabs nåde. Politiken and Gyldendals Danmarkshistorie, vol. 7. Olsen, Olaf (ed.), (Gyldendalske Boghandel and Nordisk Forlag: Copenhagen 1989) simply pointed to Hemmingsen wanting strict legislation on all kinds of witchcraft, p. 358.
Originally proposed by Bjørn Kornerup. That it is the traditional view is confirmed by Fink-Jensen (2004), p. 166; Wittendorff (1992), p. 25; Resen’s role in the clash with the crypto-Calvinists has been examined by Kornerup, Bjørn, Biskop Hans Poulsen Resen. Studier over Kirke- og Skolehistorie i det 16. og 17. Aarhundrede (G.E.C Gad: Copenhagen 1928), vol. 1, pp. 373–492.
According to historian Alex Wittendorff, Hans Poulsen Resen had been successful in convincing Christian IV of the sinfulness of benevolent magic, and he had benefitted from the general enthusiasm for the jubilee to obtain support in the fight against every kind of witchcraft, Wittendorff, Alex, Tyge Brahe (GEC Gads Forlag: Copenhagen 1994), p. 226.
On the same day two separate regulations were published: ‘On whether people of loose virtue should openly confess’ and ‘On unnecessary expenses found at weddings, funerals etc.’. All three regulations have been published in Rørdam, H.F. Danske kirkelove samt udvalg af andre bestemmelser vedrørende kirken, skolen og de fattiges forsørgelse fra reformationen indtil Christian V’s danske lov, 1536–1683 (Selskabet for Danmarks kirkehistorie, G.E.C. Gad: Copenhagen 1886), vol. 3, pp. 59–63. The directions of the regulation were repeated in the Great Recess of 1643, Johansen (1991), p. 24. It should be noted that for the Norwegian part of the Monarchy, a law against benevolent magic had been issued as early as in 1593, Knutsen (1998), pp. 40f.
See Kallestrup, Louise Nyholm, ‘Knowing Satan from God: Demonic Possession, Witchcraft, and the Lutheran Orthodox Church in Early Modern Denmark’ in Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft, vol. 6, no. 2 (2011), p. 163–182.
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Kallestrup, L.N. (2015). The condemnation of witchcraft in Denmark. In: Agents of Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy and Denmark. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316974_3
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