‘The Devil’s Sacraments’: Magical Practice During the Time of the Danish Witch Trials (1589–1660)

This chapter examines the nature of magical practices during the Danish witch trials between 1589 and 1660, with a focus on how these practices were criminalized and interpreted by authorities. Drawing on both historical and archaeological evidence, the study explores the distinction between norm and praxis in the performance and perception of magic in early modern Denmark. This is done through the lens of the Danish demonologist Niels Hemmingsen’s list of “the Devil’s sacraments”, originating from his work which inspired the epoch-making 1617 Witchcraft Act, which criminalized both malevolent and benevolent magic. The chapter investigates both written records from witch trials and surviving physical artifacts to understand how Hemmingsen’s concept of “the Devil’s sacraments” manifests in actual practices and accusations. While many of the magical practices recorded in trial documents described uses of benevolent and harmful magic, malevolent witchcraft was rarely substantiated through physical evidence. The physical remains, often focused on domestic protective magic, highlights practices that were widespread and yet is rarely the basis for formal accusations of witchcraft. These findings point to a more nuanced reality, where everyday magical practices were often overlooked by authorities, possibly because they were so embedded in local culture that prosecuting them would have meant targeting much of the population, including the officials themselves. This interdisciplinary approach—blending research traditions from both history and archaeology—provides a richer understanding of early modern Danish magical practices and calls for further collaboration across fields to fully explore the complexity of magic during this era of witchcraft prosecutions.