OCR Specification focus:
‘Understanding of medicine and remedies, and persecution from above or below, influenced outcomes.’
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ideas about medicine, remedies and authority played a crucial role in shaping attitudes towards witchcraft, influencing both accusations and prosecutions.
Traditional Remedies and Popular Medicine
In rural communities, healing practices were essential to daily life. People relied heavily on herbal remedies, charms, and folk healing to treat illness. These were often passed down orally and practised by cunning-folk, individuals seen as skilled in healing and protective magic.
Cunning-folk: Practitioners of folk medicine and magic who were often consulted to cure illness, find lost objects, or provide charms for protection.
Such individuals could be respected, but their ambiguous role meant they were also vulnerable to suspicion. If treatments failed, or if they were accused of using malevolent magic, they could quickly be labelled as witches.
The Blurred Line Between Healing and Witchcraft
The same herbs and charms used for healing could also be believed to cause harm. This duality meant that the distinction between a healer and a witch often depended on reputation, local gossip, and outcomes of treatments. Failure in healing, especially in times of plague, famine or war, heightened fears and accusations.
Learned Medicine and Religious Authority
During this period, learned medicine was based on the theory of the four humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile).
Labeled diagram showing the four humours—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile—aligned with classical qualities (hot/cold/wet/dry) and elements. This encapsulates the core framework of early modern Galenic or humoral medicine referenced in the syllabus and notes. The clean layout avoids extraneous detail. Source
Imbalances were thought to cause disease, and treatments such as bloodletting and purging were common. This university-trained medical tradition was aligned with elite and religious authorities.
Four Humours: A medical theory from classical antiquity which held that human health depended on the balance of four bodily fluids — blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.
Clergy and physicians often condemned folk healers as superstitious or as practitioners of diabolic arts. The Reformation further intensified this, as Protestant reformers frequently associated traditional remedies with Catholic superstition, while Catholic authorities saw unlicensed healers as a challenge to the Church’s authority.
Persecution “From Above”
Persecution from above refers to witch-hunting initiated or driven by authorities such as clergy, judges, or rulers. Learned elites often linked witchcraft with heresy, believing witches made pacts with the devil. Manuals such as the Malleus Maleficarum encouraged officials to treat witchcraft as a crime against God and society.
Title page of the Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”), a late-15th-century guide used by clerical and judicial authorities against alleged witchcraft. It exemplifies how institutional authority shaped prosecution strategies. The page contains Latin text and printer’s marks beyond syllabus scope, included here to authenticate the source. Source
Authorities viewed the unlicensed practice of healing as both socially destabilising and spiritually dangerous. Elite suspicion of cunning-folk meant that trials often targeted them, particularly when medical failure coincided with wider crises such as plague outbreaks.
Methods of Enforcing Authority
Clerical sermons denouncing witchcraft and superstition
Medical faculties condemning “illicit” remedies as dangerous or ineffective
Judicial systems prosecuting healers accused of sorcery
These interventions reinforced elite authority over medicine, religion, and morality.
Persecution “From Below”
While authorities drove some persecutions, many accusations began within communities. Neighbours who sought healing might turn against a healer if:
Remedies failed to work
Illness or misfortune followed a visit to a healer
Envy or rivalry fuelled suspicion
A healer charged fees or acted arrogantly
Thus, popular reliance on remedies coexisted with deep-rooted fear of magic. In village society, rumours could quickly escalate into formal accusations, leading to prosecutions that were later upheld by officials.
Medicine, Remedies and Social Context
The role of medicine in witchcraft accusations must be seen against the backdrop of wider crises. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were periods of recurring plague epidemics, food shortages, and the mini Ice Age, all of which heightened anxiety about health and survival. In such times:
Healers were more frequently consulted
Failures in treatment were more noticeable and damaging
Authorities became more willing to prosecute to restore order
The Decline of Witchcraft Accusations
Over time, the rise of scientific rationalism and improvements in medical knowledge undermined beliefs in magical remedies. Physicians began to adopt more empirical approaches, while governments increasingly regulated medical practice. As the authority of science and state regulation grew, the reliance on witchcraft accusations to explain illness and misfortune declined.
Key Tensions in Medicine, Remedies and Authority
Popular vs. Learned Medicine: Folk healers provided accessible care, but were mistrusted by elites.
Religion vs. Superstition: The Reformation framed traditional healing as heretical or superstitious.
Authority vs. Community: Prosecutions often revealed conflicts between central authorities seeking control and local communities defending traditional practices.
Healing vs. Harm: Remedies could be seen as protective or dangerous, depending on outcomes and reputation.
Specification Focus
The interaction of medicine, remedies, and authority was central to witchcraft persecutions. Both persecution from above (driven by elites, clergy, and judges) and persecution from below (community accusations) shaped outcomes, revealing the fragile boundary between healing and witchcraft in early modern Europe.
FAQ
Cunning-folk offered practical solutions to everyday problems, such as treating illness, protecting livestock, or locating stolen goods. Their services were often cheaper and more accessible than university-trained physicians.
Communities valued their presence, especially in rural areas with limited medical access. As long as their remedies appeared effective and their reputation remained positive, neighbours defended them against elite suspicion.
Protestant reformers criticised charms, blessings, and folk rituals as remnants of Catholic superstition, associating them with idolatry and the devil.
Catholic authorities, meanwhile, attempted to regulate unlicensed healers, seeing them as a challenge to clerical authority. This created a climate where traditional remedies were increasingly viewed through a religious lens, heightening suspicion.
Women were more often accused because healing and childcare traditionally fell to them. Remedies involving herbs or charms were part of female domestic duties.
If misfortune struck after a woman’s remedy failed, she was especially vulnerable to being blamed for witchcraft. Older widows with fewer community defenders were at particular risk.
During plague outbreaks, demand for remedies soared, but the high mortality rate meant cures almost always failed.
Healers were blamed when treatments proved ineffective.
Fear of contagion made communities more likely to accuse them of malevolent intent.
Authorities sometimes targeted them to reinforce social order during crisis.
Universities and medical guilds sought to protect their authority by marginalising folk healers. This involved licensing physicians and condemning unregulated practices.
Such measures created an official divide: licensed medicine was legitimate, unlicensed healing could be labelled as superstition or witchcraft. This boundary made community healers easy scapegoats when treatments failed.
Practice Questions
Question 1 (2 marks)
What were the four humours in early modern medicine, and why were they believed to be important?
Mark Scheme:
1 mark for correctly naming two of the four humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile).
1 mark for explaining that they were believed to determine health through balance/imbalance.
Question 2 (6 marks)
Explain how both persecution from above and persecution from below influenced witchcraft accusations in relation to medicine and remedies.
Mark Scheme:
1–2 marks: Identifies one form of persecution (e.g. elite authorities or local communities) with basic explanation.
3–4 marks: Explains both forms of persecution with some reference to medicine (e.g. elite suspicion of cunning-folk, community distrust when remedies failed).
5–6 marks: Develops a clear, balanced explanation of both persecution from above and below, directly linking to authority and the role of remedies in witchcraft accusations.
