Witchcraft

Witchcraft in a Nutshell
Witchcraft persecutions began during Elizabeth I's reign -
around 1563, which was actually much later than other areas
of Europe. Witch hunts in southern France and Switzerland
began as early as the 14th century.
In early modern tradition, witches were stereotypically
women. The common belief was that these women would
make a diabolical pact with evil spirits and appeal to their
intervention. They would reject Jesus and the holy
sacraments, and take part in "the Witch's Sabbath" - a parody of the mass and sacraments. By
paying honour to the 'Prince of Darkness,' they would in turn receive preternatural powers -
thereby becoming evil. Folklore said that the 'Devil's Mark' would appear on the new witch's
skin like a brand, to signify that the evil pact had been made. It was said during Elizabeth I's
reign that the devil's mark had been spotted on Anne Boleyn - though this has been popularly
seen as a cruel and unwarranted slam against her.
Interestingly, the reasons for a woman to make a pact with the devil were varied - people
believed that women, in their frustrations and struggles, would appeal to the devil in order to
gain powers to deal with infertility, fear for her children's well-being, or revenge against a
lover. Although witch persecutions were not really in effect until 1563, the use of witchcraft
had been deemed as heresy by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484. From then until about 1750, roughly
200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, and hung across Western Europe.

Witch Persecutions
Witch persecutions were not a pretty thing. Similar to your average
16th century execution methods, the witches were handled cruelly
and harshly, and were typically put under some kind of awful
torture to gain a confession of their craft and other witches in the
village. 'Thumb screws' and 'leg irons' seem to be the most
common forms of torture used on the witches, and they usually
resulted in a confession. This, of course, would have been taken as
proof that witchcraft really did exist in England, because a woman
being tortured would confess it. Whether it was said out of pain
and agony or not, it certainly gave witch-hunters cause to continue
looking and persecuting and it only increased the fear of evil and
the devil.
1645-1646 marks a short period of time when 'witch fever' gripped England hard. A man
named Matthew Hopkins, a renowned witch finder, had 68 people put to death in Bury St.
Edmunds and 19 people hung in Chelmsford in a single day. He was given excessive amounts of
money for touring England and ridding towns and villages of evil witches. The grateful
townsfolk would do anything and pay any price to rid their homes of the devil's influence.
Because of this, many people lost their lives.
Hopkins' main 'tool' to discover witches during this period was by using a needle and
poking/prodding a wart, mole, or insect bite to see if the woman felt any pain. If she didn't, it
was 'solid proof' that the mark was indeed the devil's mark. There could be no question that
she was a witch and would have to be executed. However, his 'needle' was no needle at all. It
was a 3 inch spike that retracted into the spring-loaded handle so the women would not feel a
thing.
Witch Testing
Other witch tests included the swimming test. Mary Sutton of Bedford was tossed into a river
with her thumbs tied to her opposite big toes. If she floated, she was guilty; if she sank, she
was innocent. Either way she would die. Poor Mary Sutton floated, and was therefore burnt.
In August 1612, King James I (who was famously terrified of witchcraft), ordered that the
Pendle Witches (three generations of a family), should be marched through the streets of
Lancaster all together and hanged.
In fact, King James I was so fearful of witchcraft and the threat of evil, that he advocated a
book called Daemonologia - published in Edinburgh in 1567. This was a guide telling his
subjects how to detect witchcraft and how to protect themselves from it. His writings included
descriptions of the devil's mark, the swimming test, and the fact that a witch cannot shed
tears.

Witchcraft continued...
During James I's reign, the 'new world' of America
was discovered - and unsurprisingly, witch
hunting continued there. The Salem Witch Trials
in Massachusetts in 1692 stemmed from King
James' fear of witches - and that fear continued
through his son Charles I, and all the way
throughout the Stuart dynasty. Witches were no
longer the subject of folklore and medieval myths
- they were a real, tangible representation of the
devil. They could inflict diseases on people, spoil
crops, bring about bad weather, and perform
other unspeakable and detestable acts of devil's
work. Witches and witchcraft were a scary reality
of the 16th and 17th centuries in England. Even
to this day the history of witches remains
something of a mystery. Was there really some
kind of mythical power that certain women held?
Did people truly (successfully) practice the dark
arts? Or were the thousands of executions and
horrible tortures for nothing? Although certainly
a sad and somewhat creepy history - it is an interesting history of a type of people and a major
fear of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties.