Like the Inquisition, the Parlement of Paris (the supreme court of northern France) severely restrained the witch hunts. Classical authors such as Aeschylus, Horace, and Virgil described sorceresses, ghosts, furies, and harpies with hideous pale faces and crazed hair; clothed in rotting garments, they met at night and sacrificed both animals and humans. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The people continued to practice magic to heal and protect themselves, and some even used it to harm others. The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between early 1692 and mid-1693. Although witchcraft trials happened in every county in the country, the best evidence survives from three major witch crazes in the British Isles in 1590s Edinburgh; 1612 Lancashire; and 1640s Essex and East Anglia, and we focus on those. You, as the accused, will also take the stand and your confession will be read aloud. The assizes were by no means swamped with witchcraft cases, but there was a steady stream of trials of accused witches which passed off with no intervention from central government. Use witch marks to stop her from crossing into your house or from allowing her familiars to cross into your house. In my two-part series, Witch Hunt: A Century of Murder (which aired in October 2015 on Channel 5), we seek to investigate witchcraft prosecution in the British Isles. Witches or sorcerers were usually feared as well as respected, and they used a variety of means to attempt to achieve their goals, including incantations (formulas or chants invoking evil spirits), divination and oracles (to predict the future), amulets and charms (to ward off hostile spirits and harmful events), potions or salves, and dolls or other figures (to represent their enemies). Its not clear exactly why the judge was concerned, or why the Privy Council agreed with his concerns. Parrys book is The History of Torture in England The large-scale persecution, prosecution and execution of witches in these centuries was an extraordinary phenomenon. The actual numbers are far lower, but still striking: between 1482 and 1782, around 100,000 people across Europe were accused of witchcraft, and some 4050,000 The terms witchcraft and witch derive from Old English wiccecraeft: from wicca (masculine) or wicce (feminine), pronounced witchah and witchuh, respectively, denoting someone who practices sorcery; and from craeft meaning craft or skill. Roughly equivalent words in other European languagessuch as sorcellerie (French), Hexerei (German), stregoneria (Italian), and brujera (Spanish)have different connotations, and none precisely translates another. The Pendle witches were kept in Lancaster Castle's damp cells in 1612. These norms varied with prevailing class, gender, and racial assumptions, which construed behavior appropriate for some social groups as inappropriate for others. Consequently, witchcraft became almost synonymous with social deviance. Soon, other neighbours started making similar accusations, and within a few months a large group of women, and a few men, were on trial for their lives at Lancaster Assizes. In her book Handmaidens of the Devil, Carol Karlsen discusses the stereotypical witch middle-aged or old women who stood to receive large inheritances and the ways in which witchcraft accusations became a way to use them as a scapegoat for the misfortunes of their neighbors. Separation of self and body, or soul and body, may take months or years, and may never happen at all to those who are destined to damnation. The origins of witchcraft may have begun as a continuation of using magic as a normal and essential part of life, but its evolution shows the practice of magic turned into a disrespect towards God and Puritan values. Although some people undoubtedly practiced sorcery with the intent to harm, and some may actually have worshiped the Devil, in reality no one ever fit the concept of the witch. Nonetheless, the witchs crimes were defined in law. Indeed, a letter from the Bishop of Chester to the Privy Council recording his conversation with Margaret Johnson, one of the accused women, states that Johnson herself claimed to have familiars. Lets suppose that an eager JP has put together a significant number of depositions complaints in writing from your fellow villagers and has also interrogated you, and got a confession from you. Is there any record of what happened in later life to the poor women who were examined ? Some commentators and scholars, even in the 20th century, have claimed millions were executed, but the current best guess is that, between the famous papal bull of 1484, which implored authorities across Europe to eliminate witchcraft, and 1782, some 50,000-60,000 people were accused of Subscribe:iTunes|Spotify|RadioPublic|Google Podcasts. But for many educated people of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these characterisations of white and black witchcraft would unquestionably seem to have Moreover, not all persons accused of witchcraft were women, let alone old women; indeed, there were witches of all ages and sexes. They concluded it must be the Devil who had all the power, and so the witchs familiar became demon. You can unsubscribe at any time. You have to keep to the rules. Whats in the earth below the humps of stone? It mainly took place in Germany, but also took place in England. Its unlucky to see them, but if you catch the eye of one of the riders, you might be able to win supernatural powers of healing and prophecy that will make your fortune. Later in the century, when populations were larger and there was no need to have as many children, the couples that were targeted were suspected of witchcraft on the basis of raising their children in ways that were perceived by others in the community as ungodly and would lead them towards the Devil. A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. The inscribed tablets were left in graves, wells or fountains, where the dead could better work their magic. One of the accused died in custody, another was found not guilty and the other ten were found guilty and hanged. SP 16/270 f.134. If you suspect one of your neighbours is a witch, do not ever let her have the last word in a conversation. There was some residual paganism in a very few trials. A statue to commemorate one of the Pendle witches can be found in Roughlee, where the alleged witch Alice Nutter is thought to have lived. The history of witchcraft is complex, and often raises more questions than it answers. He writes while the wives and husbands denounced for witchcraft during these two periods have much in common, they are distinguished by issue of child bearing.Such couples in the middle-seventeenth century were suspected by their neighbors due to the fact that they were producing fewer offspring than others in the community. The malevolent sorcery more often associated with men, such as harming crops and livestock, was rarer than that ascribed to women. WebOne was the presence of witch marks, a mark supposed to have been put on a womans body by the Devil. These thinkers rejected the idea that elderly women could do magic that flouted the will of God. The accusations were usually made by the alleged victims themselves, rather than by priests, lords, judges, or other elites. Successful prosecution of one witch sometimes led to a local hunt for others, but larger hunts and regional panics were confined (with some exceptions) to the years from the 1590s to 1640s. Nine million witches died in the years of the witch persecutions. Although the lurid trials at Salem (now in Massachusetts) continue to draw much attention from American authors, they were only a swirl in the backwater of the witch hunts. Some people say that the dead riders are wreathed in flames, and their saddles are red-hot iron. Archives, Open You have seen some members of your village community coming here often, and you have wondered why: are they searching for herbs to augment their porridge, or are they here for other, more sinister reasons? However, the elves are still dangerous, especially if crossed. Travel with us from the pre-Christian world to the burial mounds of the English landscape, where an underworld of elves, demons and familiars came alive in the popular imagination. We asked Professor Diane Purkiss to take us inside the minds of ordinary people and intellectuals in medieval and early modern England to reveal how the figure of the witch was born. Hornbeam Arts via Flickr. Trials for witchcraft took place across Europe, with some areas persecuting alleged witches much more actively than others. No wonder the term witch hunt has entered common political parlance to describe such campaigns as that of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy in his attempt to root out communists in the United States in the 1950s. Belief in witchcraft was prevalent at all levels of society, even among the most highly-educated (indeed in 1597 James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, had published his own compendium of witchcraft lore). See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places. But certificates such as this one, providing documentary evidence of exactly what was done, what was found, and by whom, are extremely rare. Although events at Salem are often described as hysteria, this wasnt madness, or insanity. Elizabeths pet torturer was Sir Richard Topcliffe, who was so immersed in his work that he developed a portable rack that he could take with him on consultations. But why were so many innocent people suspected of such a crime? Although these figures are alarming, they do not remotely approach the feverishly exaggerated claims of some 20th-century writers. From the Salem Witch Trials to the witches ofMacbeth, the figure of the witch is embedded in our culture. In England condemned witches were hanged rather than burnt in line with the status of witchcraft as a felony under the common law. Documentary evidence shows that three of the women Jennet Hargreaves, Mary Spencer and Jennet Dicconson were still in prison in Lancaster jail in August 1636 (alongside six of others convicted in the case). We have the Langbein volume in our reference library at Kew so I will have a look at it. The accounts of the Barber-Surgeons company from the period carefully noted the disbursement of 10s 6d for the examinations of the four women, brought to our hall by the Kings command to be searched 5. To understand this, well have to go on a journey. Witch trials were equally common in ecclesiastical and secular courts before 1550, and then, as the power of the state increased, they took place more often in secular ones. While most cases at the assizes concerned one or two people (usually, although not invariably, women), in this case around 19 people were put on trial. Suspected witches were occasionally subjected to ordeals such as swimming, whereby the accused was dunked into a river in an attempt to prove guilt or innocence. Local priests and judges, though seldom experts in either theology or law, were nonetheless part of a culture that believed in the reality of witches as much as modern society believes in the reality of molecules. Witchcraft was always viewed with a bit of an apprehension mixed with They were also often relatively well-educated and frequently literate (a number of the midwives in this group signed their own names on the certificate). Witchcraft was first made a capital offence in 1542 under a statute of Henry VIII but was repealed five years later. Professor Diane Purkiss debunks eight of the most common myths about witchcraft. How the Little Ice Age Changed History., https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/01/how-the-little-ice-age-changed-history, www.history.com/news/how-medieval-churches-used-witch-hunts-to-gain-more-followers, Little, B. Nobody was goddess-worshipping during the period of the witch-hunts, or if they were, they have left no trace in the historical records. Large monasteries over the 12th to 14th centuries became preoccupied with the moral problem of wet dreams. Widely influential, it was reprinted numerous times. Lord chief justice Anderson noted in 1602: The land is full of witches they abound in all places not as a symbol or figure of fun, but as a deadly threat to life, livelihood and divine order. In England, most of the accusers and those making written complaints against witches were women. In France in 1022 a group of heretics in Orlans was accused of orgy, infanticide, invocations of demons, and use of the dead childrens ashes in a blasphemous parody of the Eucharist. However, when King of England, James spent some time exposing fraudulent cases of demonic possession, rather than finding and prosecuting witches. She During this time 80,000 people were accused of witchcraft and, of them, 40,000 were killed as punishment. The next stage is that all this evidence is put to a jury, who decide whether to take it to trial or not. Also printed in Sidney Young ed.. Separation of self and body, or soul and body, may take months or years, and may never happen at all to those who are destined to damnation. Professor Diane Purkiss tackles the common misconceptions about witchcraft and the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Birth and Evolution of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century New England with Mirrsha Ganthan, The Top Five Movies that Featured Voodoo or Hoodoo, Diabolical Duos: Witch Spouses in New England by Paul Moyer. It is these marks that the surgeons and the midwives were looking for in the inspection certificate mentioned above. This surge in witch trials coincided with some of the most bitter phases of the, Cohen, J. Charges of maleficium were prompted by a wide array of suspicions. However, in the meantime, the law had been updated to reflect the work of continental demonologists. Dont ever let her across your threshold. Her dry, twisted and ageing body was a kind of poison, and she was believed to be able to harm people and animals simply by speaking to them or looking at them. In practice this was usually done in cases of treason, the most famous example being the Gunpowder Plot. Between 1560 and 1630, there was a surge in the number of accusations of witchcraft and witch trials called the Great Hunt . WebFor example, the end of mass executions for witchcraft ended early in the 18th century, with the last single executions several decades later, around the time of American independence. Moreover, there had been another mass witch trial at the Lancaster Assizes 20-odd years before, which had resulted in the hanging of 10 people 3. Most scholars agree that the prosecutions were not driven by political or gender concerns; they were not attacks on backward, or rural, societies; they did not function to express or relieve local tensions; they were not a result of the rise of capitalism or other macroeconomic changes; they were not the result of changes in family structure or in the role of women in society; and they were not an effort by cultural elites to impose their views on the populace. A sorcerer, magician, or witch attempts to influence the surrounding world through occult (i.e., hidden, as opposed to open and observable) means. In his book The Devils Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England, Richard Godbeer tells us that the Church taught that any person could wield supernatural power through sanctioned rituals: the performance of ecclesiastical ritual, if accompanied by sincere religious feeling, could heal sickness and protect against harm. However, due to the similarity of Christian and folk rituals, people would often confuse the two and use both. The process, however, was similar at every level. Familiars may also be related to the Norse fylgia, or fetch a persons double, which can also shapeshift to animal form. The Christian church coexisted peacefully with folk magic for a time, and even incorporated some magical practices into their religious traditions. And did they always arrive on broomsticks? : An illustration from a 1619 pamphlet showing Anne Baker of Bottesford, Joan Willimot of Goodby and Ellen Greene of Stathern, who were all tried for witchcraft (, https://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishHeritageFilm. The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation heightened the fear of witchcraft by promoting the idea of personal piety (the individual alone with his or her Bible and God), which enhanced individualism while downplaying community. Were the Salem witch trials caused by moldy bread? Top image: An illustration from a 1619 pamphlet showing Anne Baker of Bottesford, Joan Willimot of Goodby and Ellen Greene of Stathern, who were all tried for witchcraft (Hulton Archive/Getty Images). One of the most important aspects of the hunts remains unexplained. At the trial, those who submitted written complaints will take the stand and give their evidence aloud and under oath. Again, witches are typically seen as particularly active after dusk, when law-abiding mortals are asleep. Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment. Most people think that witches are a Christian invention. Children were often accusers (as they were at Salem), but they were sometimes also among the accused. It did not take long for intellectuals to note her resemblance to the witches with whom they were familiar from classical literature. False ideas about witchcraft and the witch hunts persist today. All four of the major western Christian denominations (the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican churches) persecuted witches to some degree. Local courts were more credulous and therefore more likely to be strict and even violent in their treatment of supposed witches than were regional or superior courts. Here, surely, is a topic that previous generations of writers have sufficiently worked, indeed overworked. Where central authorityi.e., bishops, kings, or the Inquisitionwas strong, convictions were fewer and sentences milder. These figures include estimates for cases where no records exist. Torture was I believe not illegal if authorised by the King. The surgeons named on the certificate were all professional men and members of the Barber-Surgeons company; several of them were in royal service. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Familiars are mentioned in the 1566 Chelmsford witchcraft trial where the familiar in question resembles a human being. This article was first published on HistoryExtra in 2015, Suzannah Lipscomb is Emeritus Professor at the University of Roehampton, and the author of several books about the 16th century, Enjoying HistoryExtra.com? Youll want to defend the thresholds of your body and your house. So they haunted monastic dormitories to steal human seed in order to impregnate women with demon children. This information will help us make improvements to the website. Accusations originated with the ill-will of the accuser, or, more often, the accusers fear of someone having ill-will toward him. Your email address will not be published. In our latest three-partpodcastseries we are exploring stories from our collection which tell the history oftrials;from witch trials and trial by combat to todays legal system. Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, An examination of witches in the 17th century. Web1. However, many of those early laws were really laws against sorcery, which unlike witchcraft can be beneficial, and which requires special skills, tools and words. The first Witchcraft Act was passed under Henry VIII, in 1542, and made all pact witchcraft (in which a deal is made with the Devil) or summoning of spirits a capital crime. The dead yearn for the lives they enjoyed, which means they may want to take back from the living. The 1604 Witchcraft Act under James could be described as a reversion to that status quo rather than an innovation. The dead hate the living and the witch hates as they do. 8. To quote L A Parry (1933): Under Henry VIII it [torture] was frequently employed; it was only used in a small number of cases in the reigns of Edward VI and Mary. Maleficium was a threat not only to individuals but also to public order, for a community wracked by suspicions about witches could split asunder. WebAbout 140 witch trials were held in Finnmark in the 17th century between 1601 and 1692 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] in what is sometimes considered as the worst persecution in times of peace in Norway according to Rune Hagen. What was the difference between the "afflicted" and the "accused"? But the idea of the witch who flies in the night and draws power from dark cosmic forces to work her ill will on others pre-dates Christianity, probably by many centuries. For example, if something bad happened to John that could not be readily explained, and if John felt that Richard disliked him, John may have suspected Richard of harming him by occult means. 1266 Words. The inquisitorial eye began to fix itself on aspects of folklore that had been smiled away or incorporated into Christian worship in earlier periods. In 17th-century Europe witchcraft was very much a fact of life; no one would have questioned the existence of witches, or the belief that they could use sorcery to cause harm. Our website works best with the latest version of the browsers below, unfortunately your browser is not supported. Men and women imprisoned as witches are believed to have died in the cells of Colchester Castle. The surgeons and midwives thus knew exactly what they were looking for yet, as we have seen, found nothing that they considered to be sinister or only explicable as a mark of witchcraft. Slowly, and in bits and pieces, the idea of the witch emerged. It all began in 1626 when people Elsewhere in Europe, suspected witches could be tortured into confession, but under English law, torture was illegal. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. We have also a history of Witchhunting in Belgium. In places in England, you can almost feel it underneath the soil the weight of the past and the freight of its dead. The number of trials and executions varied widely according Source Historic England Archive BB98/02592. Save 70% on the shop price when you subscribe today - Get 13 issues for just $49.99 + FREE access to HistoryExtra.com, A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb, Enjoying HistoryExtra.com? Where did witches come from? Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Beliefs and SuperstitionsColonial PeriodDevianceParentingWitchcraft. King James I was terrified of witches and was responsible for their hunting and execution. The legal use of torture declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, and there was a general retreat from religious intensity following the wars of religion (from the 1560s to 1640s). It may have been the scale of the witch scare in Lancashire that concerned the authorities. Read about the remarkable lives of some of the women who have left their mark on society and shaped our way of life from Anglo-Saxon times to the 20th century. The Pendle witches were kept in Lancaster Castle's damp cells in 1612. Omissions? Some of her predictions for the future were amazingly accurate as she prophesied the invention of iron ships and the destruction of London. Yet as with the Privy Council, we should not simply assume that this group was sceptical about witchcraft. On 29 June 1634 the Privy Council wrote to Alexander Baker and William Clowes, both surgeons in royal service, ordering them to gather a group of midwives and inspect and search the bodies of those women that were lately brought up by the sheriff of the County of Lancaster indicted for witchcraft 1.
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