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Spirits, Witches & Science 65

Spirits, Witches & Science

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Puritans thus warned the readers of Anglican
tracts that demonology and witchcraft were
proof against atheistic materialism.

Demonic Power becomes a Natural
Phenomenon

In order to protect themselves from the claim
that their attacks on possession and witchcraft
were simultaneously denials of the fallen angel
and of God, early 17th century Anglican
apologists insisted that the devil might indeed
involve himself in human affairs, but that if he
did, it must be through the use of natural rather
than supernatural powers (Shapiro, pp. 200
204). In John Cotta's words:
Though the divel indeed, as a spirit, may
do, and doth many things above and beyond the
course of some particular natures: yet doth he
not, nor is able to rule or command over general
Nature, or infringe or alter her inviolable intensified, and established authorities became the clergy its power, according to Hobbes, the
decrees in the perpetual and never interrupted ever more fearful of the religious enthusiasm most effective way to fight the power of the
order of all generations; neither is he generally which underlay them. clergy was first, to demonstrate that spirits, or
master of universal Nature, but Nature [is] "incorporeal substances" do not exist; and
master and commander of him. For Nature is Atheism Reverses Attitudes About second, to demonstrate that all phenomena can
nothing else but the ordinary power of God in all Spirit Phenomena and indeed, must be explicable solely in terms of
things created, among which, the divel being a matter in motion.
creature, is contained, and therefore subject to The problem faced by Anglican religious figures To undermine belief in immaterial
that universal power (Clark, 1984, p. 360). changed dramatically with the publication of a spirits, Hobbes developed a logical argument
One critical consequence of the series of frightening works by Thomas Hobbes. that depended very heavily on ideas which owe
"naturalization" of presumed demonic powers Philosophical materialism and atheism had been their existence to Aristotelian philosophy. The
was that it brought the study of demonic a minor, though growing, problem in early 17th meaning of the term substance, he argues, is
derived from our experiences of physical bodies
activities clearly within the realm of natural century England. But the publication of
knowledge. Thus, Francis Bacon argued in De Hobbes's Leviathan in 1651, De Corpore in or "corps." The term "incorporeal substance," or
Argumentis Scientarium that well established 1655, and A Physical Dialog, or a Conjecture "immaterial substance" is thus self-
"narratives of sorceries, witchcrafts, charms, about the Nature of the Air in 1661, deflected contradictory. To accomplish the second part of
dreams, divinations, and the like" should be attention from Catholicism and Sectarianism his goal, Hobbes purported to be able to give a
completely materialist account of all natural
included as legitimate data in natural histories in alike, and made Hobbesian Atheism the new
order to establish "in which cases and how far chief target of moderate Anglican apologetic philosophy. But in doing so he departed from
ancient atomism in a way that turns out to play a
effects attributed to superstition participate in literature.
natural causes" (cited in Clark, p. 355). Whether Hobbes was really an atheist is major role in linking witchcraft and the
Even though he remained formally open- a topic on which scholars might differ--though experimental philosophy of the royal society.
minded regarding the existence of witches and just for the record, I believe he was--but no one The ancient atomists had posited the
demons, when Bacon chose to discuss particular can doubt that he was a bitter enemy of what he existence of atoms and void space, claiming that
issues, he, like other Anglicans, explained called priestcraft--or the authority of religious atoms move freely through the void. Descartes,
beliefs in witchcraft as arising out of the persons. Hobbes believed that priests had however, defined Matter as that which has
misinterpretation of natural phenomena. Thus, usurped power that rightly belonged to the dimensions; and from this definition--which
for example, in the Sylva sylvarum, he argued secular sovereign. In order to justify his attacks Hobbes accepted--it followed that there can be
that the hallucinogenic effects of some on priestcraft he turned to a set of arguments that no void; because any space, no matter how
ointments produced a mistaken belief in real had been used by materialist philosophers, such small, has dimensions and therefore must
transvection (human flight) and metamorphoses; as the atomist, Epicuros, in antiquity. According contain matter.
so that when women charged as witches to the ancient materialists and Hobbes, priests Note here for future reference, Hobbes
confessed to being transformed into animals and exploit a natural human fear of the unknown to uses precisely the same kind of argument to
transported to witches sabbaths, they were convince people that invisible powers and deny the possibility of spirits and to deny the
mistakenly reporting their hallucinations as agents are at work in the world and that they (the possibility of empty space. The question of
reality. priests) alone have the power to intercede on whether empty space exists, like the question of
For most of the first half of the 17th people's behalf to control these "spirits." "Who," whether immaterial spirits exist is not to be
century, while the twin threats of Puritanism and wrote Hobbes, "that is in fear of ghosts, will not answered empirically. Both questions are to be
Catholicism seemed more immediate and bear great respect to those who can make the answered by a purely rational analysis of
critical to the Anglican cause than holy water that drives them from him" (cited in definitions.
philosophically-based atheism, Anglican Shapin and Schaffer, 1985, p. 96). Hobbes's claim regarding spirits was,
intellectuals continued to express strong Similarly, he wrote: "By their quite rightly, seen as an attack on almost all
skepticism regarding specific claims of spirit demonology, and the use of exorcism, and other fundamental Christian beliefs, for it denied not
phenomena and to insist that what had things appertaining thereto, the priests keep, or only the existence of demons and witches, but
traditionally been attributed to supernatural think they keep, the people in awe of their power also the immateriality and hence the immortality
influences was actually accomplished through and lessen the dependence of subjects on the of the human soul.
natural ones. This was particularly true because sovereign power of their country." Since it was
as Puritanism and dissent became ever stronger, the false belief in spirits, made possible by
popular attempts at witch persecution ignorance about the causes of events, that gave (Continued on Page 66)