Magic, witchcraft and popular culture: Political and religious reasoning

Abstract The witch trials that mark the West European society during the 17 th century is by no means a religious affair. Run by public secular judges, and not by the ecclesiastical tribunals, those judicial inquiries unravel the tight alliance between state and church in their common effort of consolidating their authority. Weakened by the Reformation movement, the Catholic church found in the new type of absolutist monarchy the much awaited support for the revival of the faith. By working hand in hand, the two institutions made the needed effort to put both religious faith and the political legitimacy on a rational basis. By centralizing the political power, the newly born modern bureaucracy was making an effort to destroy localism, regional autonomy, as well as fighting paganism, superstition, rural mythology and oral traditions. By helping the Church in rationalizing the faith, the modern bureaucracy was paving the way for the rationalization of the overall human existence, which will culminate with the European modern anti-religious natural science.