"Not so minor. Ginzburg, who knows more about this than anyone, would argue that witch scares were part of the beginnings of modernism."
I remember reading somewhere that the persecution of witches had a lot to do with discrediting herbal-based remedies to make room for "modern" medicine.
Joanna
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There is a lot of interesting social and cultural history here to sort out. You can get some idea of it by following up alchemy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
There are several layers here that involve philosophy, theology, and several crafts, including making drugs and cures. Reading the above you also get some idea of what a polygot civilization the `Islamic' world was (and still is).
``Traditional medicines involve transmutation by alchemy, using pharmacological or a combination of pharmacological and spiritual techniques. In Chinese medicine the alchemical traditions of pao zhi will transform the nature of the temperature, taste, body part accessed or toxicity. In Ayurveda the samskaras are used to transform heavy metals and toxic herbs in a way that removes their toxicity. These processes are actively used to the present day...''
Now the connection to witchcraft should be pretty obvious---as well as links to `modern' psychology and theories of human nature. The theological component was clearly incompatible with Christianity. So that the political forms of this conflict could easily have been waves of purges led by various clerical orders and other political elements for power and enforcement of various social and ideological oppressions.
I got a very limited view of some of this mindset by reading background on Maimonides and Averroes. Maimonides is best known as a 12thC Jewish scholar, but he also wrote on medicine. And there is a deeper sort of connection with `modernity' in the sense of using an Aristotelian rationalism to connect the mind or spirit with the body. Averroes, as a Muslim was more secular and `scientificaly' oriented in his rationalism and he was also a court physician.
In any event setting up shop in Christian Europe was not a good option. Maimondies left Spain for North Africa settling in Egypt. Averroes moved back and forth between a court in Seville and Morocco and was finally exiled to Morocco after a change of power at Seville.
In my imaginary history, these sorts of scholastics would have been prime targets as early heretics, even if they moved to Christian Europe and formally converted. I can thank Strauss for making me study some of this history in order to understand his crank on Spinoza.
Mass dementia has been with us for a long time.
CG