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[from http://www.oakgrove.org/GreenPages/bos/1627.txt ]
1627
Subject: PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
This is the text of a talk entitled PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND M
ODERN.
Written by Julia Phillips, it was presented by Julia and M
atthew
Sandow at the Wiccan Conference, Canberra, September 1992, a
nd was
illustrated with slides of medieval woodcuts, paintings and docu
ments.
To begin, an example of religious persecution:
I am told that, moved by some foolish urge, they consecrat
e and
worship the head of a donkey, that most abject of all animals.
This
is a cult worthy of the customs from which it sprang! Others say
that
they reverence the genitals of the presiding priest himself, and
adore
them as though they were their father's... As for the initiat
ion of
new members, the details are as disgusting as they are well-kn
own. A
child, covered in dough to deceive the unwary, is set befor
e the
would-be novice. The novice stabs the child to death with inv
isible
blows; indeed, he himself, deceived by the coating of dough,
thinks
his stabs harmless. Then - it's horrible! - they hungrily dri
nk the
child's blood, and compete with one another as they divide his
limbs.
Through this victim they are bound together; and the fact tha
t they
all share the knowledge of the crime pledges them all to silence
. Such
holy rites are more disgraceful than sacrilege. It is well-kno
wn too
what happens at their feasts.... On the feast day they forgather
with
all their children, sisters, mothers, people of either sex an
d all
ages. When the company is all aglow from feasting, and impure lu
st has
been set afire by drunkenness, pieces of meat are thrown to
a dog
fastened to a lamp. The lamp, which would have been a bet
raying
witness, is overturned and goes out. Now, in the dark so favoura
ble to
shameless behaviour, they twine the bonds of unnameable passi
on, as
chance decides. And so all alike are incestuous, if not alw
ays in
deed, at least by complicity; for everything that is performed
by one
of them corresponds to the wishes of them all... Precisely the s
ecrecy
of this evil religion proves that all these things, or pract
ically
all, are true. (Minucius Felix: Octavius)
Although the language is not modern, the description of the pra
ctices
could have come straight from last week's "Picture" magazine! An
d this
is the point that I wish to make; the facts of persecution ha
ve not
changed in almost 2,000 years, for that piece was written in t
he 2nd
century AD. Moreover, the religion it condemns is Christianity
, not
Paganism, for Paganism at that time was the dominant state rel
igion.
In fact the author is a Christian apologist, and is attempt
ing to
rebuke what he sees as unfair criticism, by parodying the of
fences
which Pagans accuse Christians of perpetrating.
Persecution of religious minorities is quite simply that;
it is
persecution by a large body of people - generally those who rep
resent
"society" - against a smaller one; generally comprised of tho
se who
have either rejected, or for one reason or another, fall outs
ide of
the social "norm".
1628
Let us look at the medieval picture of the witch; society's sca
pegoat
par excellence: here we see her - for it is most often "her" - a
n old,
ugly woman, most likely poor, and most likely on the fringe
of the
society in which she lives. This is the stereotype of the wit
ch. We
know it is false; we know it has no basis in fact; however, it
became
an integral part of the mindset of medieval Europe, and through
fairy
tales, drama and literature, and more latterly, cinema, the med
ia and
television, it has remained an integral image in modern societ
y. One
has only to look to Roald Dahl's "Witches", or Frank Baum's "Wiz
ard of
Oz", for proof of this. It came as a surprise to me to lear
n that
"The Wizard of Oz" was in fact a deliberate propaganda exe
rcise,
released just at the beginning of World War II. If you remembe
r, the
magic words are: "There's no place like home"; and where was "ho
me"?
Kansas! that epitome of the WASP culture.
When looking at medieval persecution of heresy, the waters are m
uddied
by the many different causes and effects which permeate the
whole
matter. There was no single cause, and no single victim. It is
a fact
that far more women than men were persecuted; there are a num
ber of
reasons for this, not least that throughout this period, Euro
pe was
engaged in one war after another - most notably The Crusades - a
nd men
were in rather short supply. There were also several epidemics
of the
plague, not to mention other diseases such as dysentery and ch
olera,
which in the Middle Ages were sure killers. Another reason i
s the
rampant misogyny which, begun with the earliest Christians
, has
permeated their theology ever since:
"What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an
inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a nat-
ural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic
danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature,
painted in fair colours... The word woman is used
to mean the lust of the flesh, as it is said: I
have found a woman more bitter than death, and a
good woman more subject to carnal lust... [Women]
are more credulous; and since the chief aim of the
devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rather
attacks them [than men]... Women are naturally
more impressionable... They have slippery tongues,
and are unable to conceal from their fellow-women
those things which by evil arts they know....
Women are intellectually like children... She is
more carnal than a man, as is clear from her many
carnal abominations... She is an imperfect animal,
she always deceives.... Therefore a wicked woman
is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith,
and consequently quicker to abjure the faith,
which is the root of witchcraft.... Just as th-
rough the first defect in their intelligence they
are more prone to abjure the faith; so through
their second defect of inordinate affections and
passions they search for, brood over, and inflict
various vengeances, either by witchcraft or by
some other means.... Women also have weak mem-
ories; and it is a natural vice in them not to be
disciplined, but to follow their own impulses
without any sense of what is due... She is a liar
by nature... (Malleus Maleficarum, edited by
Jeffrey Russell).
1629
It is easy to comprehend the persecution of women when one i
s con-
fronted with such obvious hatred and fear of the sex. But perha
ps the
most powerful impetus of the witch trials era is one which is su
btly -
and sometimes not so subtly! - present in all the trials; tha
t of a
pursuit of power or wealth. For an example we can look to Gil
les de
Rais, who as the wealthiest man in Europe (as well as Joan of
Arc's
military Captain), was a prime victim for a charge of heresy.
Found
guilty, his lands, properties and wealth were confiscated
by his
accusers. Curiously though he was buried on consecrated ground
in the
Churchyard; normally forbidden to heretics. In "The Encyclopae
dia of
Witchcraft and Demonology", Russell Hope Robbins says:
"At first, Gilles dismissed their accusations as
"frivolous and lacking credit", but so certain
were the principals of finding him guilty that on
September 3, fifteen days before the trial began,
the Duke disposed of his anticipated share of the
Rais lands. Under these circumstances, it is
difficult to place any credence in the evidence
against him, among the most fantastic and obscene
presented in this Encyclopaedia."
Charges included the now obligatory conjurations of devils and
demons
- Satan, Beelzebub, Orion and Belial are mentioned by name - a
nd the
practice of that dreadful art: geomancy! And of course the c
harges
included human sacrifice and paedophilia; no self-respecting Chr
istian
could exclude these crimes from charges against a confirmed here
tic!
There were not many who had the wealth of Gilles de Rais, but in
a small parish, even the meanest property was eagerly seized, an
d
the witch hunts became a profitable business. The victims wer
e even
required to pay for the fuel upon which they were burnt. But th
e laws
were not consistent throughout Europe, and in some areas,
if the
victim confessed, then his or her property could not be confis
cated,
but was inherited by the next of kin. However, many of these v
ictims
were in fact devout Christians, who would be loath to conf
ess to
heresy just so that their family could inherit their land! Of
course
many were tortured to the point were they would admit to bein
g any-
thing demanded of them, although technically, they were only a
llowed
to be tortured once. This is why you will read in trials record
s that
the torture was "continued", which, of course, gets round the p
roblem
of the poor torturer missing out on his lunch and dinner.
Although most heretics were women, a great many men were also
taken,
tortured, and put to death. This is a letter from one such vic
tim at
the notorious Bamberg in Germany; a poignant epitaph to one of
Eur-
ope's most hideous crimes:
Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved
daughter Veronica. Innocent have I come into pris-
on, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I
die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must
become a witch or be tortured until he invents
something out of his head - and God pity him -
bethinks him of something.
I said: "I have never renounced God, and will
never do it - God graciously keep me from it. I'll
rather bear whatever I must."
1630
And then came also - God in highest heaven have
mercy - the executioner, and put the thumbscrews
on me, both hands bound together, so that the
blood spurted from the nails and everywhere,
so that for four weeks I could not use my hands,
as you can see from my writing. Thereafter they
stripped me, bound my hands behind me, and drew me
up on the ladder. Then I thought heaven and earth
were at an end. Eight times did they draw me up
and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible
agony.
All this happened on Friday June 30th and with
God's help I had to bear the torture. When at last
the executioner led me back into the cell, he said
to me: "Sir, I beg you, for God's sake, confess
something, whether it be true or not. Invent some-
thing, for you cannot bear the torture which you
will be put to; and, even if you bear it all, yet
you will not escape, not even if you were an earl,
but one torture will follow another until you say
you are a witch."
The author of this letter, Johannes Junius, did indeed conf
ess to
being a witch, and in August of 1628, was burned at the stak
e. He
managed to send his final letter to his daughter, which en
ded by
saying:
Dear child, keep this letter secret, so that peo-
ple do not find it, else I shall be tortured most
piteously and the jailers will be beheaded. So
strictly is it forbidden... Dear child, pay this
man a thaler... I have taken several days to write
this - my hands are both crippled. I am in a sad
plight. Good night, for your father Johannes Jun-
ius will never see you more.
This letter describes more accurately than any historical tr
eatise
just how uncompromising the ecclesiastical courts were in their
hunt for heretics. Witches, of course, were only one kind of her
etic.
I mentioned earlier that there are many causes, and many effec
ts, to
the period which is commonly referred to as "The Burning Time
s", or
the Great Witch Hunt. It is often assumed by many people toda
y that
Christianity has been the dominant western religion for 2,000
years.
This is not so. The death of Christ, which probably occurred
in the
year AD 30, may have heralded the new religion, but there was
cert-
ainly not an immediate conversion of the world to Christianity.
Parts
of Scandinavia remained wholly Pagan until as late as the 12th
cen-
tury. The British Isles and mainland Europe were converted to
Chris-
tianity over a lengthy period covering mainly the 4th to 9t
h cen-
turies. Some parts have never truly been converted, and wi
th the
opening up of the Eastern bloc countries, we are now re-discove
ring a
wealth of Pagan tradition and folklore that has been hidde
n for
hundreds of years: initially from the invading Christian mi
ssion-
aries, and then later from the various communist regimes.
1631
As the new religion of Christianity began to spread, many differ
ent
sects and cults appeared within its ranks. The Pope in Rome w
as the
nominal head, but rarely was the Pope a person of spiritual puri
ty and
ascetic tastes; the political scene in Rome has always been cut-
throat
and devious. A truly spiritual person would have lasted approxi
mately
two seconds amongst the clever and calculating politicians wh
o in-
fested the Papal See! The enormous wealth and power controlled
by the
Pope was an incentive to the most grasping and corrupt of men a
t that
time to aspire to the Papacy. Pope Alexander VI (1492) is a supe
rb ex-
ample of the type who made it to Europe's foremost political s
eat of
power: otherwise known as Rodrigo Borgia; father (yes, we all k
now
Catholics practise celibacy!) of Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia and Jofr
e,
and supreme commander of a private army of which any modern di
ctator
would be proud.
Because of their sumptuous lifestyle, their obvious disregard an
d
contempt for vows of poverty and chastity, and their abuse of th
e
spiritual authority invested in them, many spiritually inclined
Christians rejected the Catholic Church, and instead followed
leaders who lived simple, ascetic lives in accordance with the
teachings of Christ. Some of these sects became very popular,
and were soon perceived by the Pope as a threat to his status an
d
power. It has been suggested that the witch trials were a direct
result from the persecution of these sects. Rather than incorpor
ate a
discussion of the different sects within this talk, handouts are
available which very briefly describe the main ones.
The main thrust was against the Cathars or Albigensians, and the
Waldensians (Vaudois), and it was their persecution which gave r
ise to
the legal machinery which developed into the Inquisition, an
d the
so-called witch hunts. It began with Pope Lucius III and the em
peror,
Frederick I Barbarossa; they met at Verona in 1184, and issu
ed the
decree "Ad abolendam", which excommunicated sects like the Catha
rs and
Waldensians, and laid down the procedures for ecclesiastical
trial,
after which the accused would be handed over to the secular a
uthor-
ities for punishment. The punishment decreed was confiscati
on of
property, exile, or death. By the 12th century, burning had a
lready
become the established means of execution for heretics, and s
o this
became enshrined in law.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Dominican Order of
Friars
was established, and its members were instructed by the Po
pe to
investigate and prosecute heresy. From this simple beginning gr
ew the
awesome machinery of the Inquisition, which although never
aimed
particularly at witches, became a byword for terror in par
ts of
Europe.
As you can see, the motives for the heresy persecutions were
not to
stamp out Paganism - although that was certainly a by-product -
but
to remove the threat of any competition to the power of the Chur
ch
(and thus to the Pope), in Rome. And the greatest threat came fr
om
other "Christian" sects, not the Pagans. The change from an accu
satory
to an inquisitorial process became established, and the legal
mach-
inery which allowed - indeed encouraged - individual psychopat
hs and
religious maniacs to persecute at will, was in place.
1632
Have you got a neighbour who annoys you? plays loud music, o
r who
keeps their smelly refuse next to your garden fence? Now your re
course
is to the local council or the police; in the Middle Ages, you
simply
denounced the offender as a witch or heretic, and let the Churc
h deal
with them for you. Not only did it cost you nothing, if yo
u were
lucky, you might also inherit their property!
For once you were taken as a witch or a heretic, there was
little
chance of escape. Certainly some victims were pardoned and rel
eased,
but the vast majority were not so lucky. When you consider the
style
of questioning, this is not surprising:
1 How long have you been a witch?
2 Why did you become a witch?
3 How did you become a witch and what happened on that occas
ion?
4 Who is the one you chose to be your incubus? What was his
name?
5 What was the name of your master among the evil demons?
6 What was the oath you were forced to render to him?
21 What animals have you bewitched to sickness and death, and
why did you commit such acts?
22 Who are your accomplices in evil...?
24 What is the ointment with which you rub your broomstick
made of...?
This set of questions came from Lorraine, and was used consis
tently
throughout the three centuries of the main persecutions. Bear
ing in
mind that the accused HAD to answer - no answer at all, or a d
enial,
was tantamount to guilt - you can see how easily the composite p
icture
of the witch evolved. As Rossell Hope Robbins says: "The confe
ssions
of witches authenticated the experts, and the denunciations ensu
red a
continuing supply of victims. Throughout France and Germany
this
procedure became standardised; repeated year after year, in t
ime it
built up a huge mass of "evidence", all duly authorised, fr
om the
mouths of the accused. On these confessions, later demonologists
based
their compendiums and so formulated the classic conceptions of w
itchc-
raft, which never existed save in their own minds."
As the new religion of Christianity began to spread, many differ
ent
sects and cults appeared within its ranks. The Pope in Rome w
as the
nominal head, but rarely was the Pope a person of spiritual puri
ty and
ascetic tastes; the political scene in Rome has always been cut-
throat
and devious. A truly spiritual person would have lasted approxi
mately
two seconds amongst the clever and calculating politicians wh
o in-
fested the Papal See! The enormous wealth and power controlled
by the
Pope was an incentive to the most grasping and corrupt of men a
t that
time to aspire to the Papacy. Pope Alexander VI (1492) is a supe
rb ex-
ample of the type who made it to Europe's foremost political s
eat of
power: otherwise known as Rodrigo Borgia; father (yes, we all k
now
Catholics practise celibacy!) of Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia and Jofr
e,
and supreme commander of a private army of which any modern di
ctator
would be proud.
1633
It is also rather disturbing to discover just how important indi
vidual
religious maniacs appear to have been in the persecutions. Rathe
r like
today, where a crusading tele-journalist, or evangelical vica
r, can
cause untold harm to innocent people. Without exception, these
accus-
ations are by those with an unhealthy mania against anyone
whose
theology or practices differ from their own. In the words o
f one
modern evangelist: "if you're not fighting and winning, you'r
e los-
ing.".
Conrad of Marburg, described by Norman Cohn as, "a blind fanatic
", was
a severe and formidable persecutor. As confessor to the yo
ung 21
year-old Countess of Thuringia, he would trick her into "some t
rivial
and unwitting disobedience, and then have her and her maids flog
ged so
severely that the scars were visible weeks later". (Cohn).
Conrad
became Germany's first official Inquisitor, and his zeal in deno
uncing
heretics was unsurpassed. Another Conrad, a lay-Dominican Fria
r, and
his sidekick Johannes, were also vigorous in denouncing hereti
cs. As
they moved from village to village, they claimed to be able to
iden-
tify a heretic by his or her appearance, based on nothing but
their
own intuition. They were responsible for the burnings of many p
eople,
and said, "we would gladly burn a hundred if just one among them
were
guilty". (Annales Wormantiensis).
Their comment about appearance is an important one; as we saw ea
rlier,
the stereotype of the witch hasn't changed much in hundreds of
years.
We know it is false; we know that it exists only in the imaginat
ion of
the persecutors, and yet how powerful and enduring this stereoty
pe has
proven to be.
If we think about this stereotype, what images do we conjure up
? An
old woman - occasionally an old man; or perhaps a young and al
luring
temptress? Flying through the air on a broomstick; worshipp
ing a
devil, often in the form of a goat; trampling upon the sacred s
ymbols
of Christianity; and of course our old friend the Sabbat, wit
h its
practices of sexual license, debauchery, drunkenness and
ritual
murder; the latter often of children.
But persecution does not restrict itself to witches; the similar
ities
between this stereotype and that of the Jew are obvious: Jews ha
ve
been persecuted throughout their history, but it is interesting
to
compare some aspects of their persecution with that of witches.
In the 12th century, the word "Synagogue" was used for the firs
t time
to describe the meeting place of heretics. Professor Russel
l says
that: "This usage, obviously designed to spite the Jews, was
common
throughout the Middle Ages, being replaced only towards the end
of the
15th century by the equally anti-Jewish term 'sabbat'.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica says on the subject of Jewish perse
cution
that: "To reinforce racial and religious prejudice, the prepos
terous
ritual murder accusation became common from the 12th century.
" The
third and fourth Lateran Councils had already prohibited gentile
s from
entering Jewish service, or being employed by Jews, and f
urther
ordered that Jews should wear a distinctive badge, and live o
nly in
Jewish settlement areas. This of course was the beginning
of the
ghetto.
1634
As we have seen though, the ritual murder accusation was alread
y over
a thousand years old, before it was used against either the J
ews or
the heretics and witches. Most people know of the expulsion o
f Jews
from Spain in the 15th century, but perhaps not so commonly kn
own is
that for about 200 years prior to the expulsion, the Jews had
been
massacred and persecuted. Indeed, it was against the Jews tha
t the
infamous Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century was directed
. The
persecution of Jews in 20th century Europe is too well-kno
wn to
require further comment here, but perhaps a few comments abou
t its
encouragement would be useful.
We are discussing persecution in this talk, and how persecuti
on is
manifested. Throughout history, the written word has been inva
luable
as a means of spreading propaganda. Even in the Middle Age
s the
"crimes" of the heretic were publicised by records of trials,
where
the "confessions" were made known to the general public. The in
famous
"Malleus Maleficarum" became highly influential in Europe
mainly
because its publication coincided with the introduction of
mass
printing. It had little effect in England because no English tr
ansla-
tion was available until 1928. This fact alone demonstrates the
power
of the written word.
In medieval Europe, a pamphlet describing the crimes of a con
victed
heretic would be pinned to a post in the town square, and tho
se who
could not read had it read to them. In 20th century Europe, pam
phlets
were still used by one group to spread lies about another.
As we
approach the 21st century, this technique is still used wit
h very
great success; for the persecutor needs to make only a glancing
nod to
the truth, and the lies which are published (or more frequently
broad-
cast) are far more scandalous than the reality!
An example: soon after the launch of the Pagan Alliance, Sydney
radio
2MMM broadcasted a news story about the sexual abuse of childr
en by
occultists and witches. Matthew responded immediately, and pr
ovided
the station with copy documents and news clippings from Br
itain,
proving the story to be without foundation, and a scheme by the
Chris-
tian fundamentalists to discredit Pagans. The news editor and
chief
journalist were impressed by the material, and agreed that th
ey had
been used by the fundies. However, they refused to broadcast a r
etrac-
tion because it would be "old news". So, the damage had been
done,
and the fundamentalists achieved their objective.
This technique was used with very great effect in the early part
of
the 20th century, with the circulation of a pamphlet called, "Th
e
Protocols of the Elders of Zion". This purported to be, "an acco
unt
of the World Congress of Jewry held in Basel, Switzerland in
1897,
during which a conspiracy was planned by the international
Jewish
movement and the Freemasons to achieve world domination." (M How
ard).
German nationalists made very great use of the Protocols, which
it
was claimed were "smuggled out of Switzerland by a Russian jour
nalist
who had placed the documents in the safe keeping of the Risi
ng Sun
Masonic Lodge in Frankfurt." (ibid) They were widely disseminate
d, and
writing in "Mein Kampf", Hitler "denounced the Jews as agents
of an
international conspiracy devoted to world domination...". (ibi
d) We
all know what happened next.
1635
The point is that although the Protocols were confirmed as a fr
aud in
1921, they continued to have an effect, and once published, coul
d not
effectively be retracted. This is the aim of today's fundamen
talist
Christian, who believes that if he or she throws enough dirt at
their
opponents (basically anyone who does not agree with their unco
mprom-
ising version of Christianity), then some will stick, and the
battle
will be won. This is the strategy which has been used for thousa
nds of
years to persecute minorities, and has always been successful
. The
formula is simple: discover what most people fear most, an
d then
accuse your enemies of practising it. It is an interesting comm
ent on
humanity that those things which occur time and time again are c
onsis-
tent: conspiracy, buggery, paedophilia, sacrifice (human and a
nimal)
sexual license, drunkenness and feasting. More specific c
harges
relating to a pact with a devil or desecrating sacred object
s are
additions to these core accusations.
A further interesting aspect is that many of the accusations wer
e
made by children; interesting parallels can be drawn to modern a
ccusa-
tions by children "encouraged" to reveal information about occ
ultism
and witches. It has been widely recorded that Hitler's "Youth
Army"
required children to spy upon their parents, and report any ind
iscre-
tions; modern social workers use an identical process for ident
ifying
Pagan parents - children are asked about what their parents d
o, and
leading questions are commonly used. And of course there have
always
been children who, for one reason or another, tell the most fan
tastic
tales. It is unlikely today that the victims of these child fan
tasies
will be burned at the stake, but there have been families torn
apart,
children placed in detention centres, and untold misery for p
arents
and children alike, based upon no more than the verbal report
of a
child.
Commentators on this aspect of persecution have suggested tha
t the
children wish to be the centre of attention; or to direct punish
ment
for their own misdeeds elsewhere; or are simply reacting in a hy
perac-
tive manner to the onset of puberty. Whatever the cause, the e
ffects
are dramatic, and have caused severe suffering, and in the
middle
ages, loss of life, on many occasions.
In medieval England, there were many occasions where children's
"evid-
ence" (sic) was used to convict witches. "The Leicester Boy",
"The
Burton Boy" and "The Bilson Boy" were a few of many who claimed
to be
bewitched by witches. Eventually proven to be a fraud, at lea
st ten
women died as a result of the accusations of The Leicester Bo
y, and
the Burton Boy caused the death of at least one of the women w
hom he
accused. In the 17th century a number of women were executed
on the
allegations of hysterical children, even though fraud was
often
discovered during the course of the trial. It is a fact th
at the
delusions of delinquent or disturbed children were often us
ed by
judges to confirm their own prejudices; how little things have
chang-
ed!
1636
Salem (1692) is probably the best known of all the cases where
child-
ren were the chief accusers. Although in fact, the "children"
were
more like young adults, with only one under the age of ten, an
d most
in their late teens or early twenties. However, as the panic g
rew, a
great many more were sucked into the web of lies, and Martha C
arrier
was hanged on the "evidence" (sic) of her 7 year-old daughter.
At the
height of the hysteria almost 150 people were arrested; thir
ty-one
were convicted, and nineteen hung. Some died in jail, and other
s were
reprieved. As was common in Europe, the accused were required t
o pay
their expenses whilst in jail, even if they were subsequently
found
innocent. Sarah Osborne and Ann Foster both died in jail, and co
sts of
1 3s 5d and 2 16s 0d respectively were demanded before the bo
dies
would be released for burial.
The chief of the accusers, Ann Putnam, confessed fourteen years
later
that the whole thing was a fraud. In 1697 the jurors publicl
y con-
fessed they had made an error of judgement, and ten years aft
er the
executions, Judge Samuel Sewall "confessed the guilt of the
court,
desiring to take the blame and shame of it...". By then of cou
rse it
was too late for those who were dead, or whose lives had been
dest-
royed by the accusations.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves here, for Salem is the l
ast of
the great witch trials, coming as it does towards the end of the
17th
century.
We mentioned earlier that in Continental Europe, the heresy tria
ls
appeared to arise from the persecution of the Christian sects of
the
Bogomils, Cathars, Albigensians, and others such as the Jews, W
alden-
sians, and even the Knights Templars. The stereotype of the wit
ch was
compounded from many different sources, and gradually becam
e the
composite figure of the shape-shifting hag, who flew through t
he air
on a broom, and flung her curses at all and sundry.
The concept of the pact with the devil existed as early as the 8
th
century, and as we have seen, sexual license, buggery and ritual
sacrifice have long been seen as activities supposed to be pract
ised
by those outside of society's norm, whether they be Christian or
Pagan. During the 9th century, shape-shifting, maleficia and the
incubus/succubus became more commonly reported, and by the 10t
h cen-
tury, the idea of nocturnal flight was established. Published i
n 906,
the Canon Episcopi described how some women were deluded in the
belief
that at night they could fly behind their Goddess, Diana (Ho
lda or
Herodias):
"Some wicked women are perverted by the Devil and
led astray by illusions and fantasies induced by
demons, so that they believe they ride out at
night on beasts with Diana, the pagan goddess, and
a horde of women. They believe that in the night
they cross huge distances. They say that they obey
Diana's commands and on certain nights are called
out in her service..."
1637
Echoes here to Maddalena's story recounted by Leland in Aradia:
Gospel
of the Witches:
"Oncein the month, and when the moon is full, ye
shall assemble in some desert place, or in a for-
est all together join to adore the potent spirit
of your Queen, my mother, great Diana".
Carlo Ginzburg has also published a remarkable book about the Wi
tches'
Sabbath, and the night flight, where he suggests that these
are in
fact based on genuinely ancient shamanic practices; nothing
new in
this concept to modern Witches, but a novel observation in the
acad-
emic circles in which Ginzburg moves.
In 1012, Burchard's Collectarium was published: the first atte
mpt to
assemble a book of Canonical Law. Book number 19 of this vast c
ollec-
tion was called the Corrector, and chapter five deals with v
arious
sins, and their respective penances. As we might suppose, Malefi
cia is
prominent in this chapter! It enshrines in law the notion of
night
flight, together with murder, and the cooking and eating of
human
flesh. Although both the Canon Episcopi and Burchard's Correcto
r are
specific in attributing the powers of flight to Witches, it i
s not
until 1280 that the first picture of a witch riding upon a
broom
appears. This is found in Schleswig Cathedral.
In 1022, the first burning occurred: at Orleans, the victims wer
e
accused of, "holding sex orgies at night in a secret place, eith
er
underground or in an abandoned building. The members of the
group
appeared bearing torches. Holding the torches, they chanted the
names
of demons until an evil spirit appeared. Now the lights were
extin-
guished, and everyone seized the person closest to him in a
sexual
embrace, whether mother, sister or nun. The children conceived
at the
orgies were burned eight days after birth, and their ashes
were
confected in a substance that was then used in a blasphemous par
ody of
holy communion."
Strange how these charges appear to have changed so little in s
o many
years! Compared with our first example, and indeed with the a
ccusa-
tions of modern day fundamentalists, one would be forgiven for b
eliev-
ing that time is a figment of our imagination, and that nothin
g ever
really changes; certainly not human nature.
The 14th century saw a steady growth in the number of accusatio
ns and
trials, and by the 15th century, the idea of the Devil's (or Wi
tch's)
mark had become established. So too was the idea of a flying oin
tment,
and a consistent image of The Devil became common in trials
liter-
ature.
The Papal Bull of 1484, Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, and th
en two
years later, publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, further est
ablis-
hed the "crime" of witchcraft as a heresy, and confirmed Papal s
upport
for its eradication. This infamous work - The Hammer of the Wit
ches -
was incredibly influential in establishing a code of practice by
which
witches were to be denounced, tried, convicted and executed. The
re was
no escape from this dreadful fate. The third part of the book
desc-
ribes how to deal with one who will not confess to the charges:
"But if the accused, after a year or other longer
period which has been deemed sufficient, continues
1638
to maintain his denials, and the legitimate wit-
nesses abide by their evidence, the Bishop and
Judges shall prepare to abandon him to the secular
Court; sending to him certain honest men zealous
for the faith, especially religious, to tell him
that he cannot escape temporal death while he thus
persists in his denial, but will be delivered up
as an impenitent heretic to the power of the sec-
ular Court.
It is also in this section that our friendly Dominican monks ref
er to,
"witch midwives, who surpass all other witches in their crimes.
.. And
the number of them is so great that, as has been found from thei
r con-
fessions, it is thought that there is scarcely any tiny haml
et in
which at least one is not to be found."
Despite its incredible influence in Europe, the Malleus had
little
effect in England, Wales or Ireland, where witchcraft accusation
s
and trials were very different to those of the continent and Sco
tland.
In fact Wales and Ireland seemed to escape from the witch persec
utions
almost entirely, with very few trials, and even fewer executions
.
Although many laws have been enacted in England against witch
craft,
there has never been anything like the hysteria about witches
common
in mainland Europe. The earliest known person accused of sorc
ery in
England was Agnes, wife of Odo, who in 1209 was freed after ch
oosing
trial by ordeal of grasping a red-hot iron.
Until 1563, commoners accused of witchcraft in England met lig
ht (if
any) punishment. Those of noble birth were treated rather more s
evere-
ly, as the crime could easily be one of treason, and any action
which
implied a threat to the monarch was treated very seriously i
ndeed.
This resulted in the charge of witchcraft being used to remove
polit-
ical opponents with great expediency. There were certainly
laws
against the practice of witchcraft or sorcery: Alfred the
Great
(849-899 AD), King of Wessex and overlord of England, decre
ed the
death penalty for Wiccans (that was the word he actually used
), and
Aethelstan - perhaps one of the most compassionate of Saxon
Kings,
ordered those who practised Wiccecraeft to be executed, but o
nly if
their activities resulted in murder.
Under Henry VIII's Act of 1546, the penalty for conjuration of e
vil
spirits was death, and the property of the accused was confiscat
ed
by the King. However, this was in effect for only one year, bein
g
repealed by Edward VI in 1547, and only one conviction under thi
s
Act is recorded. In 1563, the statute of Queen Elizabeth I w
as es-
tablished, which also made death the penalty for invoking or con
juring
an evil spirit, but those who practised divination, or who cause
d harm
(other than death) by their sorceries, were sentenced to a
year's
imprisonment for a first offence. Subsequent offences could be p
unish-
able by death, and in some cases, the confiscation of prope
rty as
well.
1639
However, even though laws against the practice of witchcraft had
been established for hundreds of years, the first major trial wa
s not
until 1566, at Chelmsford, and was typical of the English style
of
witchcraft: no pact with the devil, no gathering at Sabbats, but
simple and direct acts of maleficia, and the introduction of wit
ches'
familiars. It was an important trial, for it set the precedent i
n
English law for accepting unsupported, and highly imaginative, s
tories
from children as evidence. It also accepted spectral evidence
(sic),
witch's marks, and the confession of the accused.
There are some very distinctive aspects to English witchcraft,
which
set it apart from its Continental and Scottish counterparts, and
which
are worth noting. There was a relative lack of torture, and, th
is may
come as a surprise to some people, but witches were never bur
ned in
England. Traitors and murderers were burned; witches were hun
g. Of
course, a traitor or a murderer could also be a witch, but thi
s was
actually quite rare. The torture used in England - when it was u
sed at
all - was typically swimming, pricking, enforced waking, and a d
iet of
bread and water. Unpleasant, but when compared to squassation,
being
skinned alive, the strappado, the rack, and such delights
as the
thumbscrews and the iron maiden, hardly in the same class. The
focus
of English witchcraft was more towards simple, personal, ac
ts of
maleficia than a perceived conspiracy against the power of the
Chris-
tian Church. As one of Britain's foremost folklorists says:
"Trad-
itions of an organised, pagan witch-cult were never very plenti
ful in
England, although they did exist occasionally, especially in the
later
years of the witch belief. They were never really strong, and
after
the end of the persecution in the early 18th century, they disap
peared
altogether." (Christina Hole) This is interesting, because
it has
been suggested that the witch trials phenomena was largely inspi
red by
the heretical Christian sects; this would seem to be born out
by the
type of accusations made in England, which were largely nei
ghbour
against neighbour rather than Church and State against an org
anised
conspiracy of heretics.
What is also interesting is that it was commonly believed in E
ngland
that if the bewitched victim could draw blood from the witch,
then
they would be cured, and the witch's power made ineffective
. This
belief has persisted in folk traditions to modern times. In 187
5, at
Long Compton, the body of an old woman, one Ann Turner, was d
iscov-
ered. She had been pinned to the ground by a pitchfork throug
h her
throat, and across her face and chest had been carved the sign
of a
crucifix. James Heywood, a local farmer, had once claimed: "It
's she
who brings the floods and drought. Her spells withered the cr
ops in
the field. Her curse drove my father to an early grave!". H
eywood
maintained that the only way to destroy her power was to spi
ll her
blood, and so after her murder, he was taken and tried for the
crime.
He was convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Long Compt
on has
always been associated with the practice of witchcraft, and is l
ocated
only a short distance from the magical Rollright Stones, and ne
ar to
the aptly named Wychwood Forest. The derivation of this name i
s from
the curiously named tribe of THE HWICCE, who lived in the area
at the
time of King Penda of Mercia, and who seemed always to be ruled
by two
brothers. But back to Long Compton:
1640
In 1945, Charles Walton, a local labourer, set out one morning
to do
some hedging on nearby Meon Hill. That evening, his mutilated bo
dy was
found in a field - pinned to the ground by his pitchfork, whic
h had
been stuck through his throat. There were cuts to his arms and
legs,
and local police were baffled as to the motive for the crime, a
nd who
the likely culprit might have been. But gradually locals began t
o talk
about Mr Walton; they said he was a solitary and vindictive ol
d man,
who was concerned more with searching out the secrets of natur
e than
in taking company with his neighbours. They said that he har
nessed
toads, using reeds and pieces of ram's horn, and then sent them
across
fields to blight the crops. They also remembered that he
kept a
witch's mirror - a piece of black stone polished in a mountain
stream
- concealed in his pocket-watch, which he used for weaving spell
s and
seeing into the future. The police never discovered the culpri
t, but
it was accepted locally that Mr Walton was murdered because he w
as a
witch. His wounds were a result of the belief that a victim coul
d be
freed from enchantment if he or she were able to draw the blood
of
the witch.
We could not leave English witchcraft without mention of that in
famous
gentleman, Matthew Hopkins; self-styled Witchfinder General. Fo
r all
his fame, his activities were restricted to a relatively small
area,
and a relatively short period of time. However, his boundless e
nergy,
and boundless enthusiasm for the collection of large amounts of
money,
ensured that his name has not been forgotten.
Matthew Hopkins used the unrest of the Civil War to prey up
on the
fears of the common people. Little is known of his early life,
except
that he became a lawyer "of little note", and failing to make a
living
at Ipswich in Suffolk, moved to Manningtree in Essex - an a
rea of
Civil War tension.
With virtually no knowledge of witchcraft, but armed with a cou
ple of
contemporary documents (including James I's "Demonology"), Hopki
ns set
himself up in business as a witchfinder. And a very profitable
bus-
iness it was too. At a time when the average daily wage w
as 6d,
Hopkins received 23 for a single visit to Stowmarket, and 6 f
or a
visit to Aldeburgh.
His approach was consistent: James I mentioned that witche
s had
familiars, and suckled imps; therefore, anyone who kept a famili
ar
spirit or imp must be a witch! Bearing in mind the English part
iality
to keeping pets, and you begin to see just how very successfu
l this
technique could be. For example, Bridget Mayers was condemn
ed for
entertaining an evil spirit in the likeness of a mouse, whic
h she
called "Prickears"; another (unnamed) woman was rescued by her
neigh-
bours from a ducking, where she confessed to having an imp
called
"Nan". When she recovered she said: "she knew not what she ha
d con-
fessed, and she had nothing she called Nan but a pullet th
at she
sometimes called by that name...".
Hopkins moved from Essex to Norfolk and Suffolk, and by the fol
lowing
year, had operations in Cambridge, Northampton, Huntingdon an
d Bed-
ford, with a team of six witch finders under his control. "In S
uffolk
alone it is estimated that he was responsible for arresting at
least
124 persons for witchcraft, of whom at least 68 were hanged."
(RHR)
However, Hopkins moved too far too quickly, and public opinion
began
to go against him. In 1646, a clergyman in Huntingdon preached a
gainst
him, and judges began to question both his methods of locating
wit-
1641
ches, and the fees that he charged for the service. In 1647 H
opkins
published a pamphlet called "Discovery of Witches", in which h
e sup-
ported his methods in sanctimonious and pseudo legal language.
Howev-
er, it was to no avail, for later that year he died, "in som
e dis-
grace" according to most authorities. Witchcraft legend has it t
hat he
was drowned by irate villagers in one of his own ducking pond
s, but
this has no recorded evidence to support it. However, it would b
e a
fitting end to such an evil man, and I hope it was true.
Moving away from England; Scottish and Continental witchcraft sh
ared a
great many similarities; Mary Queen of Scots, and her son, Jam
es VI,
were both educated in France, and this ensured that conti
nental
attitudes towards witches were enshrined in Scottish law
at the
highest level. In fact the concepts of witchcraft were introduce
d into
Scotland by Mary in about 1563. Before then, trials for witchcra
ft had
been few, and there were no recorded burnings of witches. In
"The
Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft and Demonology" Rossell Hope Robbins
says:
"Scotland is second only to Germany in the bar-
barity of its witch trials. The Presbyterian cler-
gy acted like inquisitors, and the Church sessions
often shared the prosecution with the secular law
courts. The Scottish laws were, if anything, more
heavily loaded against the accused. Finally, the
devilishness of the torture was limited only by
Scotland's backward technology in the construction
of mechanical devices."
It is well known that James VI was an ardent prosecutor of wi
tches,
and it was under his authority that the Bible was transla
ted to
include the word "witch" (Exodus 22:18) to provide Biblical sa
nction
for the death penalty for witches. The original Hebrew word - k
ashaph
- meant either a magician, diviner or sorcerer, but was definite
ly not
a witch. In the Latin Vulgate (4th century version of the Bibl
e) the
word had been translated as "maleficos", which could mean any k
ind of
criminal, although in practice often referred to malevolent sorc
erers.
Similarly, the so-called Witch of Endor, consulted by King So
lomon:
the original Hebrew was "ba'alath ob": "mistress of a talisma
n". In
the Latin Vulgate she became a "mulierem habentem pythonem": a
women
possessing an oracular spirit. It was only in the version of the
Bible
authorised by King James that she became a witch.
By the time that James acceded to the English throne in 1603, hi
s
attitude towards witches had undergone a subtle transformation.
In
fact, he was directly responsible for the release and pard
on of
several accused "witches", and personally interfered in trials w
here
he believed that fraud or deception was being practised. Howeve
r,
Lynn Linton writing in 1861 says of him:
"Whatever of blood-stained folly belonged special-
ly to the Scottish trials of this time - and here-
after - owed its original impulse to him; every
groan of the tortured wretches driven to their
fearful doom, and every tear of the survivors left
blighted and desolate to drag out their weary days
in mingled grief and terror, lie on his memory
with shame and condemnation ineffaceable for all
time."
1642
But it was under Charles II that perhaps the most famous - and
endur-
ing - of Scottish witches was tried, and most probably ex
ecuted
(although records of her punishment have not survived). Isobel
Gowdie
of Auldearne, on four separate occasions during 1662 testifie
d that
she was a witch, and gave what Russell Hope Robbins describes
as: "a
resum of popular beliefs about witchcraft in Scotland.". He says
that
Gowdie "appeared clearly demented", but that "it is plain she be
lieved
what she confessed, no matter how impossible...".
From Gowdie are derived some of the concepts of today's Wicca,
incl-
uding the idea of a coven, comprised of 13 people. Gowdie said
that a
coven was ruled by a "Man in Black", often called "Black Joh
n". He
would often beat the witches severely, and it seemed their main
tasks
were to raise storms, change themselves into animals, and sho
ot elf
arrows to injure or kill people. Coming as she does right at t
he end
of the witchcraft persecutions, it is difficult to establish ho
w much
of Gowdie's confession is based upon real, traditional folk pra
ctices
of Auldearne, and how much she is simply repeating the st
andard
accusations against witches. The Coven of 13 is probably the
single
aspect of her confessions which does not appear elsewhere in r
ecords
of witchcraft trials, and my own feelings are that she was proba
bly as
genuine a witch as was ever taken and tried.
We have already commented how terrifying it is to consider the
impact
that a single person can have upon the lives of so many peopl
e. We
have looked at a number of these - King James, Kramer and Spr
enger,
Matthew Hopkins, Conrad of Marburg - and their latter day succ
essors
are no less dangerous. Let us consider some of the 20th c
entury
persecutors. We have already mentioned Adolf Hitler; what
about
Stalin? his great purge in the period following 1936 saw char
ges of
treason, espionage and terrorism brought against anyone who show
ed the
least inclination to oppose him. Using techniques which would no
t have
been out of place during the great witch hunts, Stalin's he
nchmen
enforced "confessions", and effectively exterminated any threat
to his
political power.
We could look too at McCarthy, whose fame for persecution was
such
that his name is now used to describe "the use of unsupported a
ccusa-
tions for any purpose". It is no accident that his activitie
s were
referred to as a "witch hunt", nor that Arthur Miller's play abo
ut the
Salem witch trials, "The Crucible", was more a comment about
McCar-
thyism than a comment about 17th century American life.
In 20th century Australia we are heirs to a European history, wh
ich
maintains that witches are servants of the devil, and shou
ld be
prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. In some States the
se
laws actually remain upon the Statute Books; in others, the lega
l
machinery has been removed, but often public opinion hovers arou
nd the
middle ages, believing that the only good witch is a dead witch.
Our latter-day inquisitors play upon these fears, in much the sa
me
way as Matthew Hopkins played upon the fears of the people duri
ng the
Civil War. Christian Fundamentalists have no hesitation in using
every
dirty trick in the book to ensure that public opinion remains o
pposed
to witchcraft. If this means that some of them have to stand u
p and
say: "Yes, I was a witch: I sacrificed my babies to the devi
l, and
copulated with a goat; I took part in drunken orgies, and dra
nk the
blood of the sacrifice"; but then I found Jesus, and was born
again,
1643
and now I'm a really nice person; well so be it. Some of them
are so
psychiatrically unbalanced they may even believe it themselves.
Listen to a sample of the claims made by Audrey Harper, who ac
hieved
notoriety in Britain as an ex-HPS of a Witches' Coven. This e
xtract
is from an article by Aries, which appeared in Web of Wyrd #5:
Sent to a Dr Barnado's home by her mother, she
grew up with deprivation and social stigma. In
time she becomes a WRAF, falls in love, gets preg-
nant, boyfriend dies, she turns to booze, gives up
her baby and becomes homeless. Wandering to Pic-
cadilly Circus she meets some Flower Children with
the killer weed, and her descent into Hell is
assured. By day she gets stoned and eats junk
food; by night she sleeps in squats and doorways.
Along comes Molly; the whore with a heart of gold
who teaches Audrey the art of streetwalking. She
flirts with shoplifting, gets into pills, and then
gets talent spotted and invited to a Chelsea par-
ty, where wealth, power and tasteful decor are
dangled as bait. At the next party she is hooked
by the "group", which meets "every month in Vir-
ginia Water". She agrees to go to the next meeting
which is to be held at Hallowe'en.
Inside the dark Temple lit
full of "A heady, sickly sweet smell from burning
incense", she is "initiated" by the "warlock",
whose "face was deathly pale and skeletal... his
eyes ... were dark and sunken" and whose "breath
and body seemed to exude a strange smell, a little
like stale alcohol." She signs herself over to
Satan with her own blood on a parchment scroll,
whereupon a baby is produced, its throat cut, and
the blood drank. Following this she gets dumped
on the "altar" and screwed as the "sacrifice of
the White Virgin". The meeting finishes with a
little ritual cursing and she's left to wander
"home" in the dark.
Her life falls into a steady routine of meetings
in Virginia Water, getting screwed by the "war-
lock", drug abuse, petty crime, and recruiting
runaways for parties, where the drinks are spiked
-"probably with LSD" - and candles injected with
heroin release "stupefying fumes into the air";
the object being sex kicks and pornography. She
falls pregnant again, gets committed to a psychia-
tric hospital, has the baby, and gives it away
convinced that the "warlock" would sacrifice it.
Things then become a confusion of Church desecra-
tion, drug addiction, ritual abuse, psychiatric
hospital, and falling in with Christian folk who
try vainly to save her soul. For rather vague
reasons the "coven" decide to drop her from the
team, and she dedicates herself to a true junkie's
lifestyle with a steady round of overdosing, jaun-
dice, and detoxification units. The "warlock"
1644
drops by to threaten her, and she makes her way
north via some psychiatric hospitals to a Chris-
tian Rehabilitation farm. She gets married, has a
child which she keeps, and becomes a regular chur-
chgoer. But beneath the surface are recurring
nightmares, insane anger and murderous feelings
towards her brethren. At the Emmanual Pentecostal
Church in Stourport she asks the Minister, Roy
Davies, for help. He prays, and God tells him that
she was involved with witchcraft. An exorcism has
her born again, cleansed of her sin. She gets bap-
tised and has no more nightmares, becoming a gen-
erally nicer person. She becomes the "occult ex-
pert" of the Reachout Trust and Evangelical Al-
liance, and makes a career out of telling an edi-
ted version of her tale.
Geoffrey Dickens MP persuades her to tell all on
live TV; "Audrey, to your knowledge is child sacr-
ifice still going on?" To this she replies, "To my
knowledge, yes." After this the whole thing ram-
bles into an untidy conclusion of self-congratula-
tion, self-promotion, and self-justification; and
for a grand finale pulls out a list of horrendous
child abuse, which is shamelessly exploited in
typically journalistic fashion, and by the usual
fallacious arguments which links it to anything
"occult"; help-lines, astro predictions in news-
papers, and even New Age festivals.
And so we are left with a horrifying vision of hordes of Satanis
ts
swarming the country, buggering kids, sacrificing babies, and f
eeding
their own faeces to the flock."
Whilst all this seems incredible to any rational person, unfor
tunat-
ely, in the age old tradition, it confirms the worst fears of th
e man
and woman in the street, and so they swallow it whole. After a
ll, it
was on telly, so it MUST be true!
As a direct result of people like Audrey Harper publicising thei
r lies
and fantasy, children in England and Scotland were forcibly r
emoved
from their homes, and subjected to the type of questioning that
we had
previously believed had died out at the end of the Middle Ages.
A consultant clinical psychologist scrutinised the interview
trans-
cripts and audio records of the recent Orkney child abuse case,
and in her summing up said: "[the Social Workers] told the ch
ildren
they knew things had happened to them and were generally leadi
ng all
the way. When the children denied things, the questions wer
e con-
tinually put until the children got hungry and gave them the a
nswers
they wanted."
Who says that torture is no longer legal in the British Isles?
The father of four of the children who were taken into care said
:
"At first I thought the allegations were laughable, but I found
out
how serious the police were...". Just to remind you of the words
of
Gilles de Rais some 500 years ago: [the accusations] are frivolo
us
and lack credit...".
1645
One 11 year-old described being asked to draw a circle of ritua
listic
dancers. He said: "They got me to draw by saying, 'I am not a d
rawer.
Can you draw that?' It was meant to be a ring with children arou
nd and
a minister in the middle wearing a black robe and a crook t
o pull
children in."
The boy said he had been promised treats such as a lesson on
how a
helicopter worked if he co-operated, and was told that he could
go if he gave one name. How remarkably similar to medieval witch
trials, where the victims were always pressed to name their a
ccomp-
lices - for is it not said, "thou canst not be a witch alone?"!
In 1990, journalist Rosie Waterhouse commenting upon the Manc
hester
child abuse case said: "After three months of questioning
by the
NSPCC, strange stories began to come out and other childre
n were
named. The way the children began telling "Satanic" tales in thi
s case
is remarkably similar to the way such stories first surfac
ed in
Nottingham. As "The Independent on Sunday" revealed last week (
23/9/-
90), the Nottingham children began talking about witches, mon
sters,
babies and blood only after they had been encouraged, by an
NSPCC
social worker, to play with toys which included witches' cos
tumes,
monsters, toy babies, and a syringe for extracting blood."
Believe it or not, the parents of these children had no access t
o
them whatsoever. Why? Because our modern, scientifically trained
,
20th century social workers believed that, "[the parents] would
try
to silence the children, using secret Satanic symbols or t
rigger
words".
By March 1991, senior Police spokesmen were publicly claimin
g that
"police have no evidence of ritual or satanic abuse inflicted on
children anywhere in England or Wales". Scotland has a different
legal system, which is why it was not included in the statement
-
not because the police have evidence there, for they do not.
When the Rochdale case finally came to court, after the children
had been in care (sic!) for about 16 months, the judge delivered
a
damning indictment upon those who were responsible for it, and
said:
"the way the children had been removed from their parents wa
s par-
ticularly upsetting." He saw a video of the removal of one gir
l from
her home during a dawn raid, and commented that, "It is obviou
s from
the video tape that the girl is not merely frightened but g
reatly
distressed at being removed from home. The sobbing and distraugh
t girl
can be seen. It is one of my most abiding memories of this case.
"
Let us return briefly to Salem, where, in 1710, William Good
petit-
ioned for damages in respect of the trial and execution of hi
s wife
Sarah, and the imprisonment of his daughter, Dorothy, "a child o
f four
or five years old, [who] being chained in the dungeon was so
hardly
used and terrified that she hath ever since been very charg
eable,
having little or no reason to govern herself.".
1646
Today's Christian Fundamentalist, like his vicious and self-rig
hteous
predecessors, will use anything in his or her power-including in
nocent
children - to destroy the evils of Paganism and the occult. Som
etimes
I wonder if we are becoming paranoid, or the subjects of a perse
cution
complex, but in writing this lecture it was brought home to m
e more
strongly than ever before: the witch trials of the Middle Ages a
re not
a bloody stain on the history of Christianity; they are the
source
from where today's fundamentalists draw their power, and are j
ust as
terrifying today as they were hundreds of years ago. Bigot
ry and
persecution have changed in only one respect: 20th century manki
nd has
far more efficient and effective means of spreading lies and
propa-
ganda than was available to our ancestors.
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix A
The subject of the European Witch Trials has been written ab
out ad
infinitum (and nauseam!), and there are a great many useful
books
which the student will find of interest. There follows a shor
t bib-
liography of those to which I referred when writing this lecture
.
Select Bibliography
Bradford, Sarah Cesare Borgia (1981)
Cohn, Norman Europe's Inner Demons (1975)
Ginzburg, Carlo Ecstasies: Deciphering The
Witches' Sabbath (1990)
Hole, Christina Witchcraft in England (1977)
Howard, Michael The Occult Conspiracy (1989)
Kieckheffer, Richard European Witch Trials (1976)
Larner, Christina Enemies of God: The Witch Hunt i
n
Scotland (1981)
Larner, Christina Witchcraft and Religion (1985)
Maple, Eric The Complete Book of Witchcraft
and
Demonology
(1966)
Radford, Kenneth Fire Burn (1989)
Ravensdale & Morgan The Psychology of Witchcraft
(1974)
Robbins, Rossell Hope The Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft
and
Demonology (1984)
Russell, Jeffrey A History of Witchcraft (1980)
Scarre, Geoffrey Witchcraft and Magic in 16th and
17th
century Europe (1987)
Stenton, Sir Frank Anglo-Saxon England (1971)
Summers, Montague (Trans) Malleus Maleficarum (1986)
Thomas, Keith Religion and the Decline of Magi
c
(1971)
Trevor-Roper, H R The European Witch-Craze of the
16th
and 17th Centuries (1988)
Walsh, Michael Roots of Christianity (1986)
Worden, Blair (Ed) Stuart England (1986)
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1969 edition)
Collins Dictionary of the English Language (1980)
Newspapers: The Times, The Guardian, The Independent (Britain)
1647
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix B - Historical Periods
Anglo-Saxon: broadly 550 AD to 1066 AD (the Norman invasio
n).
Middle Ages: broadly the period from the end of classical
antiquity (476 AD)to the Italian Renaissanc
e (or
fall of Constantinople in 1453). More spec
ifically
the period from 1000 AD to the 15th century
.
Medieval: of, or relating to, the Middle Ages.
Tudor: the Royal House, descended from Welsh Squire
Owen
Tudor (d.1461), which ruled in England betw
een
1485 AD - 1603 AD
Stuart: the Royal House which ruled in Scotland betwe
en
1371 ADand 1714,and in England between 160
3AD-
1714 AD.
Jacobean: relating to the period of James I's rule of E
ngland
(1603-1625).
Reformation: a 16th century religious and political moveme
nt
which beganas anattempt toreform the Cathol
ic
Church, but actually resulted in the establ
ishment
of the Protestant Church.
Renaissance: usually considered as beginning in Italy in t
he
14th century, this is the period which mark
ed the
transition from the Middle Ages to the mod
ern
world. It is characterised by classical sc
holarship,
scientific and geographical discovery, and
the exploration of individual human potenti
al.
Civil War: 1640-1649, between the Royalists under Charle
s I,
and the Parliamentarians led by Oliver Crom
well.
Charles I was executed in 1649.
Crusades: a series of wars undertaken by the Christians
of
western Europe with the authorisation of th
e Papacy
from 1095 until the mid-15th century for th
e
purpose of recovering the Holy Sepulchre at
Jerusalem
from the Muslims and defending possession o
f
it. (Enc. Britannica)
Thirty Years' War: a major conflict involving Austria, Denmar
k,
France, Holland,Germany, Spain and Sweden
that
devastated central Europe, but especially
Germany.
It began as a war between Protestants and
Catholics
but developed into a general power struggl
e (1618 - 1648).
Lateran Councils: Five ecumenical councils held at the Later
an Palace
(the official residence of the Pope) betwe
en 1123
AD and 1512 AD.
1648
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix C - Gnostic and Christian sects
Manichaeism: a dualistic Gnostic religion first preached by Mani
(q.v.)in the 3rd century AD. Its early centre was
Babylonia, then part of the Persian empire and a
meeting place of faiths. (EB)
The basic theology of Manichaeism is that good and evil are
separate and opposed principles, which have become mixed in the world
through the action of the evil principle. There is a complicated
mythology which describes the creation of the world and the elements,
and a set of complex correspondences by which the seeker can return to
a state of salvation. Manichaeism spread across a huge area, including
the Roman Empire. However, by the 6th century it had virtually been
eradicated from Spain, France and Italy, although was strong in the
eastern Mediterranean until the 9th century, when it was absorbed into
the neo-Manichean sects of the Bogomils, Cathars, etc.
Bogomils: a religious sect which flourished in the Balkans
between the 10th and 15th centuries.
Their central teaching was strictly dualistic; that the visible,
material world was created by the Devil, and that everything within it
was therefore evil. They rejected many of the trappings of Chris-
tianity, and their condemnation of anything to do with the flesh -
including eating and drinking! - has rightly earned them the nickname,
"the greatest puritans of the middle ages".
Cathars: a heretical Christian sect that flourished in
western Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.
They believed that goodness existed only in the spiritual world
created by God, and that the material world, created by Satan, was
evil. Their theology bore a great resemblance to that of Manichaeism
and the Bogomils, and they were closely connected with the latter.
Waldensians: also known as Valdenses or Vaudois. The sect was
founded in southern France in the 12th century, and
emphasised poverty, abstinence from physical labour,
and a life devoted to prayer.
They were influenced by other "heretical" sects, and rejected a
number of the basic tenets of the Catholic faith. They were stern
opponents to the acquisition of wealth and power within the Church,
and thus came into direct opposition to the Papacy,which thrived on
both. They were fiercely persecuted, and by the end of the 15th
century, confined mainly to the French and Italian
valleys of the Cottian Alps. During the 16th century, the Waldensians
were transformed into a Protestant church, but suffered heavy persecu-
tion throughout the 17th century from the Dukes of Savoy. This ceased
only after Oliver Cromwell intervened personally on their behalf with
the duke, Charles Emmanuel II. In the latter part of the 17th century
the Waldensians returned to their original homeland, and in 1848 the
Waldensians were given civil rights, and are today members of the
World Presbyterian Alliance.
1649
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix D - A calendar of events connected with the persecution of
heretics
640 AD Eorcenberht succeeds Eadbald as King of Kent, and
becomes the first English king to order the
destruction of pagan idols throughout his kingdom;
663 AD Council of Whitby determines the date of Easter to
be in accordance with Roman practice, and so ends
Celtic Christianity in Northumberland;
668-690 AD Liber Poenitentialis by Theodore, Archbishop of
Canterbury. Probably the first legislation against
witches. It advised penances (eg, fasting)for
those who "sacrificed to devils, foretold the
future with their aid, ate food that had been
offered in sacrifice, or burned grain after a man
was dead for the well-being of the living and of
the house."
735-766 AD the Confessional of Ecgberht, Archbishop of
York, which prescribed a 7-year fast for a woman
convicted of "slaying by incantation";
871-899 AD reign of King Aelfred (brother of Aethelred), who
declared the death penalty for those who practise
Wicca;
925-939 AD reign of King Aethelstan, where murder - including
murder by witchcraft -was punishable with the
death penalty;
936 AD Otto elected King of the Germans, whereupon he
declaredit hisintention to drive the pagans out
of his land;
951 Otto crowned King of Lombardy;
955 Otto defeated the Magyars and proclaimed himself
"Protector of Europe";
962 Otto crowned Holy Roman Emperor;
1022 the first burning (at Orleans) for heresy;
1066-1087 AD reign of William the Conqueror in England; he
reduced Aethelstan's sentence of death for
convicted murderers to banishment;
1118 King Baldwin II of Jerusalem suggested to Sir Hugh
dePayens that he organise a chivalric order of
knights to defend travellers to the Holy Land, and
granted part of his palace, which stood on the site
of Solomon's original temple, for their headquarters.
As a result of this gesture, Hugh dePayens
called his Order the Templi Militia, and then later
1650
changed this to Knights of the Temple of Solomon in
Jerusalem;
1162 Pope Alexander III issued a special papal bull
releasing Templars from spiritual obedience to any
but the Pope himself, gave them exemption from
paying tithes, and allowed them their own chaplains
and burial grounds;
12/13th cent the Cathar heresies: introduction of the obscene
kiss and ritual adoration of the devil;
1243-44 Siege of Montsegur;
1244 225 Cathars burned at the stake at Montsegur;
1259 relationships between the Knights Templars and the
Hospitallers of Knights of StJohn deteriorated
into open warfare;
1291 the Saracens took Jerusalem, and the Knights
Templars were expelled, and lost their headquarters
on the site of Solomon's Temple;
1301 Walter Langton, bishop of Coventry, tried by
ecclesiastical court for diabolism and acquitted;
1302 trial in Exeter for defamation of a man who called
a woman a "wicked witch and thief";
1307 King Philip of France ordered the arrest of every
member of the Knights Templar in France: this was
followed by a papal bull to all rulers in Christian
Europe that all Templars were to be arrested;
1311 investigation in London by episcopal authority into
sorcery, enchantment, magic, divination and
invocation;
1312 the Pope officially disbanded the Knights Templars;
1314 Jaques de Molay (last Grand Master of the Knights
Templars) burned as a relapsed heretic;
1321 last Cathar burned at the stake;
1324 Alice Kyteler tried in Kilkenny by secular and
ecclesiastical authorities for diabolism, invocation
and sorcery;
1347 the Plague spreads over the whole of Italy, and
arrives in France by the end of the year;
1348 the Plague reaches Paris, then the Low Countries,
and then via the Channel to southern England;
1349 Britain ravaged by the Plague, which passes into
Germany, Austria and Scandinavia;
1651
1360 the Plague, complicated by influenza reappears in
Europe, continuing in waves until 1441, and finally
ending around 1510;
1390 woman tried in Milan for attending an assembly led
by "Diana", "Erodiade" or "Oriente";
1408 the Plague, still rampant in Europe is complicated
by an epidemic of Typhus and Whooping Cough;
1409 trial of Pope Benedict XIII at Pisa for divination,
invocation, sorcery and other offences;
1428-47 Dauphine: 110 women and 57 men executed by secular
court for witchcraft, especially diabolism;
1431 Joan of Arc tried for heresy and burnt at the
stake: the trial decision was annulled in 1456, and
in 1920 she was canonised by Pope Benedict XV with
the date of her execution (May 30) becoming a
national holiday in France;
1440 Gilles de Rais tried on 47 charges including con
juration of demons and sexual perversions against
children: nearly all evidence was hear say, none of
his servants was called to testify,and the proceedings
were highly irregular: he was strangled and
then sent to the pyre, but his family were given
permission to remove his body before the flames
reached it for burial at a nearby Carmelite Church;
1441 Margery Jourdain ("the Witch of Eye") convicted of
plotting to kill King Henry VI,and burned as a
traitor;
1458 first recorded use of the word "sabbat" (Nicholas
Jacquier). "Synagogue" was the word commonly used
to describe the meeting places of heretics and
witches;
1470 trial before Royal Court in England for defamation
man had accused the Duchess of Bedford of image
magic;
1479 Earl of Mar executed for employing witches
to kill James III of Scotland;
1484 Papal Bull of Pope Innocent VIII officially
declaring witchcraft a heresy;
1486 first publication of the Malleus Maleficarum;
1488 Metz: 31 women and 4 men tried by secular court for
weather magic: 29 burned;
1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain;
1521 Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X, and so
begins the Reformation;
1652
1532 the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina: the criminal
code for the Holy Roman Empire which specified how
witches, fortune tellers, etc were to be tried,and
punished;
1542 first statute against witchcraft in England passed
by Parliament (revoked 1547);
1557 first list of prohibited books issued by the Roman
church;
1562 statute enacted in Scotland under Mary Queen of
Scots declaring the death penalty for witchcraft,
sorcery and necromancy: the Act was confirmed in
1649 and repealed in 1736;
1563 statute against witchcraft by Elizabeth I in
England ordering the death penalty for witches,
enchanters and sorcerers(under civil, notecc
lesiastical law);
1566 first major trial under statute of 1563: Elizabeth
Francis, Agnes Waterhouse and Joan Waterhouse at
Chelmsford: Agnes hanged, Elizabeth received a
light sentence and Joan was found not guilty;
1584 "Discoverie of Witchcraft" by Reginald Scot
published - a Protestant argument against belief in
witchcraft;
1590-92 North Berwick trials by James VI;
1595 Nicholas Remy publishes "Demonolatreiae" where he
boasted on the title page that he had condemned 900
witches in 15 years;
1596 John Dee as Warden of a Manchester College acts as
an advisor for cases of witchcraft and demonology;
1597 "Daemonologie" by King James VI published;
1600 Giordano Bruno burnt at the stake in Rome
as an "impenitent heretic";
1603 ascension of James VI to the English throne as
James I;
1604 new statute against witchcraft by James I
which established pact, devil-worship and other
continental ideas in English law;
1611 King James authorises a new translation of
the Bible to include the word "witch";
1612 twenty witches tried together at Lancashire
(the Pendle witches);
1628 in Massachusetts, an English lawyer, Thomas
Morton ordered a may pole to be erected in the
colony which he founded (Merrymount), and celebrated
1653
May with local Indians and refugees from the
Puritans, with stag antlers, bells and brightly
coloured clothes, under an elected "Lord and Lady"
to rule over the celebrations; He was arrested
under charges of practising witchcraft, but was
released;
1633 the public exorcisms of the nuns of Loudun as part
of a plot by Cardinal Richelieu to revenge himself
upon Urban Grandier: Grandier arrested and tried by
investigating committee;
1634 Grandier tortured then burned alive;
1644 maypoles made illegal in England;
1644-5 Matthew Hopkins active in Chelmsford;
1646 Matthew Hopkins retired - he died the following
year;
1647 first witch hung in the USA, in Connecticut;
1649 first newspaper astrology column by Lilly;
1662 at Bury St Edmunds women were accused and convicted
of witchcraft on the testimony of hysterical
children;
1662 the trial of Isobel Gowdie in Auldearne, Scotland:
Gowdie introduces the idea of a coven of thirteen;
1663 the Licensing Act determined that books could not
be published without prior consultation with the
Church or State;
1679-82 the Chambre Ardente affair: a star chamber court
admitting of no appeal arraigned to try Madame by
black candles and full of "A heady, sickly sweet
smell from Bosse, her daughter and sons; Madame
Montvoisin (LaVoisin)and La DameVigoreux. During
the course of the trial, several hundreds of the
highest courtiers of King LouisXIV were implicated
in the poisoning scandal. The affair degenerated in
to a search for heresy and witchcraft, and eventually
Catholic Priests Davot, Gerard, Deshayes, Cotton,
Tournet, Guibourg and Mariette were also drawn in,
accused of performing the Black Mass. Evidence was
collected to show that Madame de Montespan (Louis'
former mistress)attempted to poison Louis and his
new mistress, and was the leader of the Satanic
cult. In all, 319 people were arrested and 104
sentenced: 36 to death, 4 to slavery in the gal
leys, 34 to banishmentand 30 acquitted. In 1709
Louis attempted to destroy the records of the
affair, but failed;
1684 Alice Molland was the last person executed as a
witch in England (at Exeter);
1654
1689 Cotton Mather (New England) publishes "Memorable
Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions"
supporting belief in witchcraft;
1692 Salem witch trials: 19 hung and more than 100
jailed; the last person executed in the USA for
witchcraft;
1727 last execution in Scotland for witchcraft;
1731 last trial for witchcraft in England: Jane Wenham,
who was convicted, then pardoned and released;
1736 the repeal of the statutes against witchcraft of
Mary Queen of Scots(1562), Elizabeth I (1563) and
JamesI &VI(1604): replaced with a statute which
stated that,"no prosecution, suit or proceeding
shall be commenced or carried out against any
person or persons for witch craft, sorcery,inchant-
ment (sic),or conjuration. "It provided for the
prosecution of those pretending to possess magical
powers, but it denied reality to those powers;
1745 last execution in France for witchcraft;
1775 last execution in Germany for witchcraft;
1829 Lamothe-Langan fabricated and published documents
represented to be records of trials of witches in
Toulouse and Carcassonne, probably in an attempt to
prove the continuing existence of the worship of
the old religion;
1830 in "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" Sir
Walter Scott argues that alleged witches had been
misunderstood and mistreated;
1862 Jules Michelet argues in his book "La Sorcerie"
that witchcraft was a protest by medieval serfs
against a crushing social order;
1865 Pope Pius X again attacked secret societies,claim
ing that Freemasonry was anti-Christian, satanic,
and derived from paganism;
1899 publication of Aradia: Gospel of the Witches by
Leland;
1928 first English translation of the Malleus Malefic
arum (tr Summers);
1951 repeal of the 1736 Witchcraft Act with the Fraud
ulent Mediums Act;
1963 demand made for reinstatement of the Witchcraft
Laws in England following desecration of churches
and graveyards;
1655
1966 the Index (of prohibited books) abolished;
1991 Anti-occult amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill
had its third reading in Parliament. Presented by
Geoffrey Dickens, this prescribed imprisonment for
not more than five years against one who,"permits,
entices orencourages a minor to participate in, or
be present at a ceremony or other activity of any
kind specified in sub-section3...". Subsection3
says: "The ceremonies or activities to which this
section applies are those of, or associated with,
Satanism and other devil worshipping, black magic,
witchcraft, or any activity to which Section1 of
the Fraudulent Mediums Act (1951) applies.
The Bill was rejected for a number of reasons, not
least because it made newspaper/magazine editors culpable
if
minors should read the astrology column!
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