Criminal justice in Western Territories of the Old Reich (15th–17th c.). Resilience Processes and the persecution of witchcraft and fornication

该项目利用研究小组建立并进一步阐述的复原力概念，开发了一种新的范式，用于逮捕对巫术和所谓的通奸（15 - 17世纪）的刑事迫害。通过这种方式，该项目挑战了基于模糊的“危机”概念的当前范式。该项目将弹性视为一组非线性过程，包括连续性和非连续性；它解决了越轨行为和犯罪的社会建构性质，并考虑到与他们的迫害捆绑在一起的多层次动态怀疑和接受。弹性的概念可以作为一种启发式工具，对1400年至1700年之间的几个世纪产生新的跨时代的理解，这几个世纪的特征是破坏性变化现象。我们的论点是，刑事司法在三个操作层面（统治当局；个人/民众群体；专家）上作为一种恢复力战略，部分是隐性的，部分是显性的或有意的。巫术的当代概念推动了一种政治上的恶魔学，这可能被贴上一种社会建设性反思的标签。政治鬼神学有助于与破坏性现象达成协议，并为刑事诉讼提供指导和合法化。该项目的主要工作假设是，在“刑事司法”的恢复策略中，对巫术和通奸的迫害是恢复力的资源。这些资源可以被开发、利用和利用，就规范性而言应被认为是中性的。对巫术和通奸的起诉在三个层面上相互关联：对淫乱的指控与对巫术的指控交织在一起；2. 对通奸的指控可能会以巫术审判告终；3. 当局，大多由个人或民众团体支持，同时或交替地迫害巫术和通奸。在不同的操作层面上，当局（自上而下）和民众（自下而上）利用针对巫术和通奸的刑事审判作为恢复力的资源。当局（贵族、城市治安官）的自我概念、身份和习惯在恢复力的配置中起着至关重要的作用。在地理上，该项目集中在旧帝国西部的领土上，与法国和西班牙荷兰相邻。不同的语言和司法传统是这一地区的特点，政治上高度分散，分为几个教区。这些地区发生了严重的政治迫害，特别是在艾菲尔-阿登地区。源材料的优秀传统允许多视角的方法。

The project develops a new paradigm for apprehending the criminal persecution of witchcraft and so called fornication (15th – 17th c.), using the concept of resilience established and further elaborated by the research group. In this way, the project challenges current paradigms based on the indistinct notion of "crisis". The project scrutinizes resilience as a set of non-linear processes including both continuity and discontinuity; it addresses the socially constructed nature of deviance and crime, and takes into account the multi-leveled dynamics skepticism and acceptance bound up with their persecution. The concept of resilience serves as a heuristic tool to develop new trans-epochal understandings about the centuries between 1400 and 1700, which were characterized by phenomena of disruptive change. Our thesis is that criminal justice served as a strategy of resilience on three operational levels (ruling authorities; individuals / groups of the populace; experts), partly implicitly, partly explicitly or on purpose. Contemporary concepts of witchcraft fueled a political demonology, which may be labeled as a social constructive introspection. Political demonology helped in coming to terms with disruptive phenomena and provided instructions and legitimization for criminal proceedings. The project’s main working hypothesis is that the persecution of witchcraft and fornication served as resources of resilience in the resilience strategy of "criminal justice". These resources could be tapped, employed and expleted and should be conceived of as neutral in terms of normativity. Prosecutions of witchcraft and fornication were interlinked on three levels: 1. charges of debauchery were embedded in the charges of witchcraft; 2. accusations of fornication could end up in witchcraft trials; 3. authorities, mostly supported by individuals or groups of the populace, persecuted both witchcraft and fornication, either simultaneously or alternately. On different operational levels, authorities (top down) and the populace (bottom up) utilized criminal trials against witchcraft and fornication as resources of resilience. The self-conception, identity, and habitus of the authorities (nobles, city magistrates) played vital roles as dispositions of resilience. Geographically, the project concentrates on territories in the western parts of the Old Reich, neighbored by France and the Spanish Netherlands. Different languages and juridical traditions characterized this area, highly fragmented politically and divided in several dioceses. These territories saw severe witch hunts, especially in the Eifel-Ardennes region. The outstanding tradition of source material allows a multi-perspectival approach.