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>Let me mention on this occasion the very impressiv story told by Baroja in 'The world of >witches' of an Spanisch Inquisitor who around 1600 already suggested to his >colleagues to stop preaching about the dangers of witchcraft. He had noticed that >there didn't seem to be any witches as long as nobody spoke of them. >But ONE sermon was enough to have the next a row of people before his office who >wanted to denounce their neighbours... (loc.cit. S. 188) >A very wise man indeed. good story about the nature of social reality. i wd make the same point about apocalyptic beliefs: they are a direct function of discourse; and silence about them serves as a performative utterance. >(And quite an old argument against those who still want to blame only the Church for > early-modern witch-persecution who was in fact mainly the work of secular courts and never- >ending denounciation amongst the population itself.) this is old and very tired polemic: the middle ages are a long meandering thru periods where the church and the "seculars" exchanged these techniques of scapegoating and persecution -- to try and pin the blame on the seculars here really gets us nowhere in understanding the phenomenon, partly by turning off all those who feel the church does bear significant late medieval responsiblity for the paranoid and voilent discourse about witchcraft. rlandes Richard Landes Boston University History Department 617-353-2558 History office 617-353-2556 History fax [log in to unmask] Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University PO Box 239 Allston MA 02134 http://www.mille.org/ 617-975-0299 CMS office 617-975-0231 CMS fax %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%