What does the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution have in common with the witch hunts in Europe? More than you might think. It’s interesting that in our current climate with its wide cultural gap, “conservatives” denounce the Terror and “progressives” excoriate witch hunts. Yet, while apart in time and place, the events are eminently comparable.
Before getting deep into this, a little history refresher is in order. By “witch hunts,” I‘ll be referring to the European witch hunts, events that occurred mostly in the 15th through 17th centuries. The European witch hunts in general, or the question of Satanism, is too large a topic to address in one article, but I’ll focus on one set of witch hunts: the North Berwick Witch Trials that took place in Scotland in 1590. These trials are a good example of the whole three centuries identified by scholars as the European “witch craze.” They are a good example because just as in almost all the other witch hunts, the roughly 70 victims were killed not by mobs but by the legal process itself.
Dehumanization
Both the Revolutionary Tribunal and the North Berwick Witch Trials required certain beliefs and language to fuel their demands for blood. It was a rhetoric that made out its targets to be a different breed of human, or even less than human. In the North Berwick Witch Trials, this rhetoric was widespread. It was used by men of state, such as James VI, king of Scotland; it was even used by the witches speaking about themselves.The Courts
We’ve already begun to consider the role of law while considering the role of beliefs and rhetoric in these persecutions, and that is fitting. One mark of any good witch hunt and witch trial is how closely they muddle together the judicial system and mere opinions. Surely no court is ever completely unbiased by whatever opinions are popular and “in the air,” but the degree to which the witch trials mix them is unique.The North Berwick Witch Trials are perfect examples of this because they were promoted by the king of Scotland (and England), James VI, and because the same James VI wrote a treatise on witchcraft, called “Daemonologie.” The private theorist of witchcraft was also a witness for the prosecution, a prosecutor, and if not officially a judge, a major influence in the sentencing.
Shared Beliefs
Finally, a shared phenomenon of self-cannibalism unites these two series of trials. Innocent or not of other crimes, the women and men brought before the courts in North Berwick or the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris were very often people who shared the same outlook as their persecutors. In the witch trials, people who believed in Christian teaching regarding the power of the devil condemned people who believed in Christian teaching regarding the power of the devil. In the Reign of Terror, people who believed in the principles of the French Revolution guillotined persons who fully believed in the principles of the French Revolution. The most extreme example is the trial and execution of the female author Olympe de Gouges, who had written a work titled “Declaration of the Rights of Women” and who repeatedly voiced her good revolutionary sentiments throughout her trial.Comparing an event in the French Revolution to a witch hunt gains us greater and deeper understanding of both events. It also broadens one’s capacity for understanding human nature, to see the common political venom in two situations: one commonly thought of as “religious,” and one associated with “enlightened” principles. It sheds light on the potential that new-fashioned moralisms have for violence, when they are dehumanizing and when they get adopted by the official legal and judicial system. Finally, it reveals one hidden danger of insisting too much on ideological purity. You may end up hurting the very people who are on your side. You may even condemn yourself.