Serpent & Dove

Though Belterra is fictional, its culture closely resembles that of medieval and early modern France, a place where the Catholic Church wielded immense power. The quote engraved over the archway of the Chasseur Tower states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (114). This is an allusion to Exodus 22:18, part of the Old Testament. Scholars tend to agree that this passage was originally a warning to adhere to one’s own religious practices rather than those of surrounding tribes. In this reading, the witch is the tempting whisper of another’s faith.

In the absence of scientific understanding, humans have often turned to supernatural explanations for various phenomena. Such explanations do not necessarily involve blame or fear: Women who use medicinal herbs have variously been feared and revered for their “powers.” However, in the 1200s, theologian Thomas Aquinas argued that witchcraft was in part spread by the devil impregnating women. His argument influentially tied sex, women, Satan, and witchcraft together—an idea reflected in some of the Archbishop’s attitudes in Serpent & Dove. In 1484, two friars published a book on witches that suggested that Christians had a moral obligation to hunt them down and kill them. This book, Malleus Maleficarum, was integral in defining witches as criminals who deserved punishment. By the early 1500s, these ideas and others helped fuel mass executions all over Europe.

Witch hysteria swept France from approximately 1500 to 1660, and a suspected 10,000 witches were killed—primarily women. The largest surge occurred between 1643 and 1645, but Mahurin borrows slightly later historical figures for Serpent & Dove. Coco’s aunt, La Voison, bears the same title as Catherine Monvoisin, a French fortune teller and poisoner who was burned at the stake in 1680. La Voison was the head of a secret network of Parisian fortune tellers who provided poison, aphrodisiacs, abortions, and purported magical services. Her nemesis, Marie Bosse (also known as La Bosse), was also a poisoner who was tried as a witch and burned at the stake in 1679.

By the end of the century, witch hunts had subsided throughout Europe as philosophers, theologians, and artists embraced the reason, skepticism, and humanitarianism of Enlightenment thought. Consensus grew that the use of torture to force confessions was inhumane and that witchcraft was not a threat. In consequence, the most virulent witch-hunting died out.