witchcraft Flashcards
early origins witchcraft England
-origins in Theodore of tarsus and Alfred the great
- from 15thc people arriving eg w stories of witchcraft or witch persecution as her fled to eng
-seeming lack of suspicion until 1563
some loose suspicion pre 1653
treatment of treasur hunting-
witchcraft act 1541- directed at quack doctors- notestein
this act rolled back under Somerset, lack of resistance from church evidence minimal controversy witchcraft caused
treatment treasure hunting
experimnetures conjure and dig like dowsing- Henry 8th sold rights to practice in locality, low price seem indicate minimal consideration of importance gave to it
1563 act
- catalysed by Fortescue affair 1558
- criminalised murder, injury and property damage done by witchcraft
- no evidence of demonic pact but specific fixation on maleficium
Fortescue affair
1558
wealthy Catholic, he had cast a horoscope for the Queen’s life which predicted her death
1558
fortescue affair
witchcraft under elizabeth
-trails and elections lower first half e reign, ramp up second half
- opposite direction to gov interest which decreased
- sharps words- no trials and executions ‘steadily increased’ throughout the elizabethan reign
witchcraft under james
rises further
by 1633
- minimal trails
- 11 year old boy Edmund Robinson actually taken from his village and made to recant by the Privy Council. (1633)
- 1636: Elizabeth Stiles acquitted due to patchy evidence, encouraged to level a slander suit and given three of the most pre-eminent junior lawyers – John Glanvile, Henry Rolle and Nathaniel Finch – to do so.
civil war witchcraft
reignites
hopkins witchfinder general- responsible 300 trials 100 esecutions
-focus on devil for eng- due to Hopkins interrogation technique
- low level of acquittals- resembling panic- use of tortue
uses sleep deprivation on victims
1650s witchcraft
popular scepticism in eng growing
Richard franck and officer Cromwell army recounted how he and regiment laughed at a hag threatened to curse them in Scotland
1660 onwards witchcraft
sharp emphasises importance of growing rationalisty
religion as origins of withcraft
- fact many curses bastardised catholic aves, creeds, paternosters or odes often in latin create assc
- religious unorthodoxy frowned on
- Robert Wallis- Catholic Church in reformation attacked doctrine of transit as magical act
- reformation changes
reformation led to growing witchcraft
- new religion less effective-
- heightened conformity makes more noticeable and punishable
- more engaged informed and ecucated religious laity
- response to unfulfilling ‘new ‘ religion - as linked to new religion less effective
port less effective
explaining ones own misfortune
expunging ones own guilt
maintaining community cohesion
as poor relief
refuting of puritan argument
glifford
sharp
Clifford on puritan argument
no godly zeal but furious rage
sharp- puritan argument
arminianism as a source of moderation causes the decline in number of trails
arguments against puritanism
- water punishments and wider disorders with witch trial son scriptural roots- as heretical as witches
- Matthew hokins no conscious faith at all
- eng- toleration of cunning men- interesting considering lack of theological emphasis, no demonic pact
- civil war heightened- political
- timing
- theological/church
refutation puritan argument- civil war
- parliamentary hotspots- east anglia
- yet in these areas emphasis on social control
- ups in parliamentary zones encouraged trials as a source of zeal and militancy w larger parliamentary taxes- general greater pressure
refutation puritan argument- timimg
Witch trials occurred in the 1560s and 70s before Puritanism had taken hold; neither did they end in 1583 with the fall of Grindal or in 1586 with Bishop Alymer’s crushing of Puritan Classical movement
refutation of puritan argument- theological
Collinson: illustrated no correlation between presence of a Puritan minister and witchtrials.
- As written in Scott, both Calvin and Augustine were sceptics and argued the age of miracles was over.
-Church courts were more lenient and had a higher acquittal rate.
- Only 5% of charged were church recusants, no correlation.
science and witchcraft
Isaac Newton (providentialism) and Boyle (all sorts of occult!), Dee shows the line; Diderot believed in the cult, yet one of the faces of the Enlightenment
politics and statebuilding- witchcraft
- Elizabeth influence
- increasing under James inc treasure hunters
- fits into ideas of social control and rise of sumptuary laws
- Elmer
- declines post 1688