poor, this traffic was also stimulated by a succession of crop failures during the 1670s. The destitute made their way to the towns or headed south. Parents sent their children to relatives in Stockholm or quite simply travelled there and abandoned them in the streets. From autumn 1675 Sweden was at war with Denmark. The preparations, particularly for a naval expedition, attracted many people to Stockholm where they helped to spread rumours, thus increasing the number of trials. Almost everywhere the local population participated in the trials. The authorities were influenced by specific demands from the people of the country and the parish. At a lower level there is a great deal of evidence that parents and relatives used bribes and other pressures to make children and suspects confess and tell about the journeys to Blåkulla. Private revenge and direct assaults on declared witches also occurred. The priests acted as the voice and the leaders of this frightened opinion. At the same time they enjoyed the confidence of the authorities and the courts in their capacity of experts on the diabolical. They appeared both as witnesses and as interrogators. Religious preaching was of course greatly affected by this nationwide sin. Prayers and sermons warned the innocent and condemned the lost in no uncertain terms. Their theological training, close to German Protestantism, no doubt helped the priests to spread continental ideas in the Swedish countryside. In particular, handbooks in practical moral theology (casus conscientiae), such as Dedekenn’s and Balduin’s, had a deep influence on the generation of priests which took part in the great trials. Even in spring 1677, when the disclosures in Stockholm ended the trials, they continued to preach against the sins of witchcraft as if nothing had happened. The commission was displeased and asked the Church authorities to refrain from spreading such annoying and deviating opinions. It was to take a long while, however, before priests and public seriously altered their opinions about the relations between Man and the Devil. 339
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