Witchcraft Trials’ Processes and Extralegal Prosecution of Witchcraft

Abstract

This chapter investigates witchcraft trials' processes and extralegal prosecution of witchcraft in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Hetmanate, as well as in Muscovy and imperial Russia. Accusations of witchcraft in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth came from private citizens, not from state representatives; in other words, they flowed into courts from society, rather than being part of a top-down witch hunt. Suspected witches in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth could be prosecuted and sent to the torture chamber in order to elicit a confession. While municipal courts in the autonomous Hetmanate continued to apply Magdeburg Law and other Polish-Lithuanian statutes, they also sometimes referred to Russian decrees. In the witchcraft trials, Muscovite judges asked a prescribed set of questions that dwelled on the issues of physical harm and betrayed concern for preventing the spread of magical criminality. Under Catherine II, the court system underwent a major overhaul, as did the approach to the prosecution of witchcraft.