Wolfram von Eschenbach 753the consumption of hop beer except in Germanic regions.
Christianization and the spread of monasticism promoted
the growing of grapes and the drinking and appreciation
of the consumption of wine, since it was necessary for the
MASSand highly symbolic in the Eucharist.
The consumption of wine was determined by eco-
nomic class and availability. Wine was preferred and
appreciated as an alternative to unhealthy water. Its alco-
holic content was often lower than that of modern wine,
and it was drunk in fairly large amounts on a daily basis.
It was also used in cooking as vinegar and as a medicinal
remedy. It was an important trading commodity but bulky
and fragile to ship and move about. Some regions such as
TUSCANY,PORTUGAL, Gascony, and the upper Rhineland
specialized in its production in the later Middle Ages. The
quality and variety of medieval wines were diversified and
depended on local usages and production. There can be
little doubt, however, that wine was drunk regularly by
those able to afford it and was seen as a major aspect of
social conviviality. In Judaism wine was treated much as
in Christianity, but drunkenness was strongly condemned.
In ISLAMthe QURANforbade the drinking of wine as part
of its strict prohibition of alcohol.
See alsoFOOD, DRINK, AND NUTRITION;EUCHARISTIC
CONTROVERSIES; UTRAQUISTS ANDUTRAQUISM; VINES AND
VINEYARDS.
Further reading:Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo
Montanari, eds., Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity
to the Present,trans. Clarissa Botsford, Arthur Goldham-
mer, et al. (1996; reprint, New York: Columbia Univer-
sity Press, 1999), especially 165–346; I. W. Raymond,
The Teaching of the Early Church on the Use of Wine and
Strong Drink (New York: Columbia University Press,
1927); Desmond Stewart, Monks and Wine(New York:
Crown, 1979).
witchcraft During the Middle Ages witchcraft was
considered an inappropriate form of MAGIC and con-
demned as a pagan practice and a superstitious SIN
prompted by the DEVIL. It was seen to be used for evil
ends and was condemned and prosecuted as a sin
throughout the period 300 to 1500. The concern that
authorities showed for its repression varied over time but
had reached a fevered pitch by 1500, leading to the great
and deadly witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries.
By then it was deemed an alternative system of practice
and belief to Christianity. There is little evidence that it
was a continuation and survival of an ancient system of
belief, however.
The sources for any belief in it and its actual prac-
tice are not very clear, since they were compiled by
those in charge of its suppression, who believed they
knew what they were looking for among its alleged
practitioners. Over the course of centuries, all kinds of
magical practices gradually became associated with it.
Most of the time witchcraft was not of much concern,
and witches were considered a marginal group of
heretics. If it was perceived as bargaining with the devil
to benefit one’s life or do evil in the real world, however,
it was taken seriously. There were many executions for
witchcraft before the 15th century but rare systematic
hunts or persecutions.
By the 1480s a complete system had been worked
out for what had been perceived about its beliefs and
practices and methods to detect them during legal exami-
nations. The Hammer of Witches,written by two Domini-
can inquisitors, became the authoritative source. This
book laid the groundwork for the stereotypes deployed in
the great persecutions, especially of women, of the fol-
lowing centuries.
See alsoINQUISITION; MAGIC AND FOLKLORE; SABBATH
AND WITCHES’ SABBATH.
Further reading:Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch
Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture,
1300–1500 (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1976); Charles Kors and Edward Peters, eds., Witchcraft
in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History, 2d ed.
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001);
Edward Peters, The Magician, the Witch, and the Law
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978);
Jeffrey Burton Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1972).Wittelsbach family The Wittelsbach family was the
Bavarian noble dynasty who produced the dukes of
BAVARIAfrom 1180 and of the Rhenish palatine from
1214 until 1918. They were probably a branch of the
family of the Liutpoldings and split into two branches
during the reign of the emperor Louis IV the Bavarian
(r. 1314–47). They had been made dukes by FREDERICKI
BARBAROSSA. They skillfully held the duchy by building
CASTLES, refusing to restore defeated rival families to
their estates, and establishing new towns. They also took
advantage of the problems of the HOHENSTAUFENfamily
to protect and extend their authority. Although they
tried to become more than a regional power, they were
always overshined by the HABSBURGS.
Further reading:Peter Oluf Krückmann, The Wittels-
bach Palaces: From Landshut and Höchstadt to Munich
(Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2001).Wolfram von Eschenbach (ca. 1170–ca. 1220)Ger-
man courtly poet
A native of BAVARIAor FRANCONIA, Wolfram was born
about 1170 to a family of the minor nobility. He was a
member of the court of Herman I the landgrave of
Thuringia (d. 1217), in which he knew WALTHER VON
DERVOGELWEIDE. He wrote eight lyric poems, parts of
two religious epics, and Parzival.Wolfram adapted CHRÉ-
TIEN DETROYES’s Conte du Graalto the German language
and achieved a unity of the romance of PERCEVALand
that of GAWAIN. It was a powerful allegory about a quest