La grande tyrannie et le terrible pouvoir du diable sur certaines femmes de Thisted: Le dernier cas de possession démoniaque au Danemark (1696-1699)

This article investigates the last attempt of a great witchcraft case in Denmark which ended up being more concerned with the supposedly possessed women and the instigator behind it all, the priest Ole Bjørn, than with the alleged witches. The article follows the case form its beginning in the borough Thisted 1696 and the circumstances surrounding it, to the appeal court in Viborg, where the case was dismissed, yet not given up on by Ole Bjørn, and further on to the Danish Supreme Court, where not the witches but the possessed and the priest suffered sentencing in 1698. In 1699 an anonymously booklet was published which narrated the entire case and ridiculed the belief in devil possessions. It will serve as a tool toward further investigate and understand the case, as it travelled from its local sphere to the larger urban areas, and how the discourse around the matters changed, correspondingly affected by both current events concerning witchcraft persecution in the rest of Europe and recent witch trials in Denmark – and their publicity. As such, this article provides an insight into the complexity of the late Danish witch trials and the many intertwining reasons behind the end of the witchcraft persecution in Denmark, which is also relevant in a broader, European context, as it may help explain some of the general changes leading up to a general halt in the witch hunts.