Persecution
Ancient & Modern 1
This
is the text of a talk entitled PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Written by Julia Phillips, it was presented by Julia and Matthew Sandow at
the Wiccan Conference, Canberra, September 1992, and was illustrated with
slides of medieval woodcuts, paintings and documents. To begin, an example of
religious persecution: I am told that, moved by some foolish urge, they
consecrate 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 initiation of new
members, the details are as disgusting as they are well-known. A child,
covered in dough to deceive the unwary, is set before the would-be novice. The
novice stabs the child to death with invisible blows; indeed, he himself,
deceived by the coating of dough, thinks his stabs harmless. Then -it's
horrible! - they hungrily drink the child's blood, and compete with one
another as they divide his limbs. Through this victim they are bound together;
and the fact that they all share the knowledge of the crime pledges them all
to silence. Such holy rites are more disgraceful than sacrilege. It is
well-known too what happens at their feasts.... On the feast day they
forgather with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of either sex and
all ages. When the company is all aglow from feasting, and impure lust 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 betraying witness, is overturned and
goes out. Now, in the dark so favourable to shameless behaviour, they twine
the bonds of unnameable passion, as chance decides. And so all alike are
incestuous , if not always indeed, at least by complicity; for everything that
is performed by one of them corresponds to the wishes of them all... Precisely
the secrecy of this evil religion proves that all these things, or practically
all, are true. (Minucius Felix: Octavius)
Although the language is not modern, the
description of the practices could have come straight from last week's
"Picture" magazine! And this is the point that I wish to make; the
facts of persecution have not changed in almost 2,000 years, for that piece
was written in the 2nd century AD. Moreover, the religion it condemns is
Christianity, not Paganism, for Paganism at that time was the dominant state
religion. In fact the author is a Christian apologist, and is attempting to
rebuke what he sees as unfair criticism, by parodying the offences 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 represent "society" – against a smaller one; generally
comprised of those who have either rejected, or for one reason or another,
fall outside of the social "norm". Let us look at the medieval
picture of the witch; society's scapegoat par excellence: here we see her -
for it is most often "her" - an 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 witch. 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
media and television, it has remained an integral image in modern society. One
has only to look to Roald Dahl's "Witches", or Frank Baum's
"Wizard of Oz", for proof of this. It came as a surprise to me to learn that "The Wizard of Oz"
was in fact a deliberate propaganda exercise, released just at the beginning
of World War II. If you remember, the magic words are: "There's no place
like home"; and where was "home"?
Kansas! that epitome of the WASP culture. When
looking at medieval persecution of heresy, the waters are muddied 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 number of
reasons for this, not least that throughout this period, Europe was engaged in
one war after another - most notably The Crusades - and men were in rather
short supply. There were also
several epidemics of the plague, not to mention other diseases such as
dysentery and cholera, which in the Middle Ages were sure killers. Another
reason is 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 natural 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 through 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 vengeance’s, either by witchcraft or by
some other means....
Women also have weak memories; 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).
It is easy to comprehend the persecution of
women when one is confronted with such
obvious hatred and fear of the sex. But perhaps the most powerful
impetus of the witch trials era is one which is subtly -and sometimes
not so subtly! - present in all
the trials; that of a pursuit of power or wealth.
For an example we can look to Gilles 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 Encyclopaedia 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 - and the practice of
that dreadful art: geomancy! And
of course the charges included human sacrifice and paedophilia; no
self-respecting Christian could exclude these crimes from charges against a
confirmed heretic! There were not many who had the wealth of Gilles de Rais,
but in a small parish, even the meanest property was eagerly seized, and the
witch hunts became a profitable business. The victims were even required to
pay for the fuel upon which they were burnt. But the laws were not consistent throughout Europe, and in some areas,
if the victim confessed, then his or her property could not be confiscated,
but was inherited by the next of kin. However,
many of these victims were in fact devout Christians, who would be loath to
confess to heresy just so that their family could inherit their land! Of
course many were tortured to the point were they would admit to being anything
demanded of them, although technically, they were only allowed to be tortured
once. This is why you will read in trials records that the torture was
"continued", which, of course, gets round the problem 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 victim at the notorious Bamberg in Germany; a poignant
epitaph to one of Europe's most hideous crimes:
Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent have I come into prison, 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." 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 confess to being a witch, and in August of 1628, was burned at the
stake. He managed to send his
final letter to his daughter, which ended by saying: Dear child, keep this
letter secret, so that people 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 athaler... 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 Junius will
never see you more. This letter describes more accurately than any historical
treatise just how uncompromising the ecclesiastical courts were in their hunt
for heretics.
Witches, of course, were only one kind of
heretic. I mentioned earlier that there are many causes, and many effects, to
the period which is commonly referred to as "The Burning Times", or
the Great Witch Hunt. It is often assumed by many people today 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 certainly not an immediate
conversion of the world to Christianity. Parts of Scandinavia remained wholly
Pagan until as late as the 12th century. The British Isles and mainland Europe
were converted to Christianity over a lengthy period covering mainly the 4th
to 9th centuries. Some parts have never truly been converted, and with the
opening up of the Eastern bloc countries, we are now re-discovering a wealth
of Pagan tradition and folklore that has been hidden for hundreds of years:
initially from the invading Christian missionaries, and then later from
the various communist regimes.
As the new religion of Christianity began to
spread, many different sects and cults
appeared within its ranks. The Pope in Rome was the nominal head, but
rarely was the Pope a person of spiritual purity and ascetic tastes;
the political scene in Rome has always been cut-throat and devious. A truly
spiritual person would have lasted approximately two seconds amongst
the clever and calculating
politicians who infested the Papal See! The enormous
wealth and power controlled by the Pope was an incentive to the most
grasping and corrupt of men at that time to aspire to the Papacy. Pope
Alexander VI (1492) is a superb example of the type who made it to Europe's
foremost political seat of power:
otherwise known as Rodrigo Borgia; father
(yes, we all know Catholics practise celibacy!) of Cesare, Juan,
Lucrezia and Jofre, and supreme commander of a private army of which any
modern dictator would be proud.
Because of their sumptuous lifestyle, their
obvious disregard and contempt for vows of poverty and chastity, and their
abuse of the 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 and power. It has been suggested that the witch trials
were a direct result from the persecution of these sects. Rather than
incorporate 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 rise to the legal
machinery which developed into the Inquisition, and the so-called witch
hunts. It began with Pope Lucius III and the emperor, Frederick I
Barbarossa; they met at Verona in 1184, and issued the decree "Ad abolendam",
which excommunicated sects like the Cathars and Waldensians, and
laid down the procedures for ecclesiastical trial, after which the
accused would be handed over to the secular authorities for punishment. The punishment
decreed was confiscation of property, exile, or death.
By the 12th century, burning had already become the established means
of execution for heretics, and so
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 Pope to investigate and prosecute heresy. From this simple beginning grew
the awesome machinery of the Inquisition, which although never aimed
particularly at witches, became a byword for terror in parts 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 Church (and thus to the Pope), in Rome.
And the greatest threat came from other "Christian" sects, not the
Pagans. The change from an accusatory to an inquisitorial process became
established, and the legal machinery which allowed - indeed encouraged -
individual psychopaths and religious maniacs to persecute at will, was in
place.
Have you got a neighbour who annoys you? plays
loud music, or who keeps their smelly refuse next to your garden fence? Now
your recourse 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 Church deal
with them for you. Not only did it cost you nothing, if you 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 released, 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 occasion?
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 consistently throughout the three
centuries of the main persecutions. Bearing
in mind that the accused HAD to answer - no answer at all, or a denial, was
tantamount to guilt - you can see how easily the composite picture of the
witch evolved. As Rossell Hope Robbins says: "The confessions of witches
authenticated the experts, and the denunciations ensured a continuing supply
of victims. Throughout France and Germany this procedure became standardised;
repeated year after year, in time it built up a huge mass of
"evidence", all duly authorised, from the mouths of the accused. On
these confessions, later demonologists based their compendiums and so
formulated the classic conceptions of witchcraft, which never existed save in
their own minds."
Persecution
Ancient & Modern 2
As the new religion of Christianity began to
spread, many different sects and cults appeared within its ranks. The Pope in
Rome was the nominal head, but rarely was the Pope a person of spiritual
purity and ascetic tastes; the political scene in Rome has always been
cut-throat and devious. A truly spiritual person would have lasted
approximately two seconds amongst the clever and calculating politicians who
infested the Papal See! The enormous wealth and power controlled by the Pope
was an incentive to the most grasping and corrupt of men at that time to
aspire to the Papacy. Pope Alexander
VI (1492) is a superb example of the type who made it to Europe's foremost
political seat of power: otherwise
known as Rodrigo Borgia; father (yes, we all know Catholics practise
celibacy!) of Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia and Jofre, and supreme commander of a
private army of which any modern dictator would be proud.
It is also rather disturbing to discover just
how important individual religious maniacs appear to have been in the
persecutions. Rather like today, where a crusading tele-journalist, or
evangelical vicar, can cause untold harm to innocent people. Without
exception, these accusations are by those with an unhealthy mania against
anyone whose theology or practices differ from their own. In the words of one
modern evangelist: "if you're not fighting and winning, you're
losing.". Conrad of Marburg, described by Norman Cohn as, "a blind
fanatic", was a severe and formidable persecutor. As confessor to the
young 21 year-old Countess of Thuringia, he would trick her into "some
trivial and unwitting disobedience, and then have her and her maids flogged so
severely that the scars were visible weeks later". (Cohn). Conrad became
Germany's first official Inquisitor, and his zeal in denouncing heretics was
unsurpassed.
Another Conrad, a lay-Dominican Friar, and his
sidekick Johannes, were also vigorous in denouncing heretics. As they moved
from village to village, they claimed to be able to identify a heretic by his
or her appearance, based on nothing but their own intuition. They were
responsible for the burnings of many people, 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 earlier, 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
imagination of the persecutors, and yet how powerful and enduring this
stereotype has proven to If we think about this stereotype, what images do we
conjure up? An old woman - occasionally an old man; or perhaps a young
and alluring temptress? Flying through the air on a broomstick; worshipping a
devil, often in the form of a goat; trampling upon the sacred symbols of
Christianity; and of course our old friend the Sabbat, with its practices of
sexual license, debauchery, drunkenness and ritual murder; the latter often of
children.
But persecution does not restrict itself to
witches; the similarities between this stereotype and that of the Jew are
obvious: Jews have 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 first
time to describe the meeting place of heretics. Professor Russell 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 persecution that:
"To reinforce racial and religious
prejudice, the preposterous ritual murder accusation became common from the
12th century." The third and fourth Lateran Councils had already
prohibited gentiles from entering Jewish service, or being employed by Jews,
and further ordered that Jews should wear a distinctive badge, and live only
in Jewish settlement areas. This of course was the beginning of the ghetto.
As we have seen though, the ritual murder
accusation was already over a thousand years old, before it was used against
either the Jews or the heretics and witches. Most people know of the expulsion
of Jews from Spain in the 15th century, but perhaps not so commonly known is
that for about 200 years prior to the expulsion, the Jews had been massacred
and persecuted. Indeed, it was against the Jews that the infamous Spanish
Inquisition of the 15th century was directed. The persecution of Jews in 20th
century Europe is too well-known to require further comment here, but perhaps
a few comments about its encouragement would be useful.
We are discussing persecution in this talk,
and how persecution is manifested.
Throughout history, the written word has been invaluable as a means of
spreading propaganda. Even in the Middle Ages the "crimes" of the
heretic were publicised by records of trials, where the
"confessions" were made known to the general public. The infamous
"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 translation was available until 1928. This fact alone demonstrates the
power of the written word. In medieval Europe, a pamphlet describing the
crimes of a convicted heretic would be pinned to a post in the town square,
and those who could not read had it read to them. In 20th century Europe,
pamphlets were still used by one group to spread lies about another. As we
approach the 21st century, this technique is still used with 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 broadcast) 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
children by occultists and witches. Matthew responded immediately, and
provided the station with copy documents and news clippings from Britain,
proving the story to be without foundation, and a scheme by the Christian
fundamentalists to discredit Pagans. The news editor and chief journalist were
impressed by the material, and agreed that they had been used by the fundies .
However, they refused to broadcast a retraction 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, "The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion". This purported to be, "an account 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 Howard).
German nationalists made very great use of the
Protocols, which it was claimed were "smuggled out of Switzerland by a
Russian journalist who had placed the documents in the safe keeping of the
Rising Sun Masonic Lodge in Frankfurt." (ibid) They were widely
disseminated, and writing in "Mein Kampf", Hitler "denounced
the Jews as agents of an international conspiracy devoted to world
domination...". (ibid) We all know what happened next. The point is that
although the Protocols were confirmed as a fraud in 1921, they continued to
have an effect, and once published, could not effectively be retracted. This
is the aim of today's fundamentalist Christian, who believes that if he or she
throws enough dirt at their opponents (basically anyone who does not agree
with their uncompromising version of Christianity), then some will stick, and
the battle will be won. This is the strategy which has been used for thousands
of years to persecute minorities, and has always been successful.
The formula is simple: discover what most people fear most, and then
accuse your enemies of practising it. It is an interesting comment on humanity
that those things which occur time and time again are consistent: conspiracy,
buggery, paedophilia, sacrifice (human and animal) sexual license, drunkenness
and feasting. More specific
charges relating to a pact with a devil or desecrating sacred objects are
additions to these core accusations.
Persecution Ancient & Modern
3
A further interesting aspect is that many of the accusations were made by
children; interesting parallels can be drawn to modern accusations by children
"encouraged" to reveal information about occultism and witches. It
has been widely recorded that Hitler's "Youth Army" required
children to spy upon their parents, and report any indiscretions; modern
social workers use an identical process for identifying Pagan parents -
children are asked about what their parents do, and leading questions are
commonly used. And of course
there have always been children who, for one reason or another, tell the most
fantastic tales. It is unlikely today that the victims of these child
fantasies will be burned at the stake, but there have been families torn
apart, children placed in detention centres, and untold misery for parents and
children alike, based upon no more than the verbal report of a child.
Commentators on this aspect of persecution have suggested that the children
wish to be the centre of attention; or to direct punishment for their own
misdeeds elsewhere; or are simply reacting in a hyperactive manner to the
onset of puberty. Whatever the cause, the effects 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 "evidence" (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 least ten
women died as a result of the accusations of The Leicester Boy, and the Burton
Boy caused the death of at least one of the women whom 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 that the delusions of delinquent or disturbed children
were often used by judges to confirm their own prejudices; how little things
have changed!
Salem (1692) is probably the best known of all
the cases where children were the chief accusers. Although in fact, the
"children" were more like young adults, with only one under the age
of ten, and most in their late teens or early twenties. However, as the panic
grew, a great many more were sucked into the web of lies, and Martha Carrier
was hanged on the "evidence" (sic) of her 7 year-old daughter. At
the height of the hysteria almost 150 people were arrested; thirty-one were
convicted, and nineteen hung. Some
died in jail, and others were reprieved. As was common in Europe, the accused
were required to pay their expenses whilst in jail, even if they were
subsequently found innocent. Sarah Osborne and Ann Foster both died in jail,
and costs of 1 3s 5d and 2 16s 0d respectively were demanded before the bodies
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 publicly confessed they had made an error of judgement, and ten years
after the executions, Judge Samuel Sewall "confessed the guilt of the
court, desiring to take the blame and shame of it...". By then of course
it was too late for those who were dead, or whose lives had been destroyed by
the accusations.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves here,
for Salem is the last 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 trials appeared to arise from the persecution of the Christian sects of
the Bogomils, Cathars, Albigensians, and others such as the Jews, Waldensians,
and even the Knights Templars. The stereotype of the witch was compounded from
many different sources, and gradually became the composite figure of the
shape- shifting hag, who flew through the 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 8th century, and as we have seen, sexual license, buggery and
ritual sacrifice have long been seen as activities supposed to be practised 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 10th century, the idea of nocturnal flight
was established. Published in
906, the Canon Episcopi described how some women were deluded in the belief
that at night they could fly behind their Goddess, Diana (Holda 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..."
Echoes here to Maddalena's story recounted by
Leland in Aradia: Gospel of the Witches:
"Once in the month, and when the moon is full, ye shall assemble
in some desert place, or in a forest 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 Witches' 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 academic circles in which Ginzburg moves.
In 1012, Burchard's Collectarium was
published: the first attempt to assemble a book of Canonical Law. Book number
19 of this vast collection was called the Corrector, and chapter five deals
with various sins, and their respective penances. As we might suppose,
Maleficia 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 Corrector are specific in
attributing the powers of flight to Witches, it is 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 were accused of, "holding sex orgies at night in a secret place,
either 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 extinguished, 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 parody
of holy communion."
Strange how these charges appear to have changed so little in so many years! Compared with our first example, and indeed with the accusations of modern day fundamentalists, one would be forgiven for believing that time is a figment of our imagination , and that nothing ever really changes; certainly not human nature.
Persecution
Ancient & Modern 4
The 14th century saw a steady growth in the
number of accusations and trials, and by the 15th century, the idea of the
Devil's (or Witch's) mark had become established. So too was the idea of a
flying ointment, and a consistent image of The Devil became common in trials
literature. The Papal Bull of 1484, Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, and then
two years later, publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, further established
the "crime" of witchcraft as a heresy, and confirmed Papal support
for its eradication. This infamous work -The Hammer of the Witches -was
incredibly influential in
establishing a code of practice by which witches were to be denounced, tried,
convicted and executed. There was no escape from this dreadful fate. The third
part of the book describes 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 to maintain
his denials, and the legitimate witnesses 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 secular
Court.
It is also in this section that our friendly
Dominican monks refer 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 their confessions, it is thought that there is scarcely any tiny hamlet
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
accusations and trials were very different to those of the continent and
Scotland. In fact Wales and Ireland seemed to escape from the witch
persecutions almost entirely, with very few trials, and even fewer executions.
Although many laws have been enacted in England against witchcraft, there has
never been anything like the hysteria about witches common in mainland Europe.
The earliest known person accused of sorcery in England was Agnes, wife of
Odo, who in 1209 w as freed after choosing trial by ordeal of grasping a
red-hot iron. Until 1563, commoners accused of witchcraft in England met light
(if any) punishment. Those of noble birth were treated rather more severely,
as the crime could easily be one of treason, and any action which implied a
threat to the monarch was treated very seriously indeed.
This resulted in the charge of witchcraft
being used to remove political 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, decreed 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 only if their activities resulted in
murder.
Under Henry VIII's Act of 1546, the penalty
for conjuration of evil spirits was death, and the property of the accused was
confiscated by the King. However, this was in effect for only one year, being
repealed by Edward VI in 1547, and only one conviction under this Act is
recorded. In 1563, the statute of Queen Elizabeth I was established, which
also made death the penalty for invoking or conjuring an evil spirit, but
those who practised divination, or who caused harm (other than death) by their
sorceries, were sentenced to a year's imprisonment for a first offence.
Subsequent offences could be punishable by death, and in some cases, the
confiscation of property as well.
However, even though laws against the practice
of witchcraft had been established
for hundreds of years, the first major trial was 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 witches' familiars. It was an
important trial, for it set the
precedent in English law for accepting unsupported, and highly imaginative,
stories 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, this may come as a surprise to some people, but w itches were
never burned in England. Traitors and murderers were burned; witches were
hung. Of course, a traitor or a murderer could also be a witch, but this was
actually quite rare. The torture used in England - when it was used at all -
was typically swimming, pricking, enforced waking, and a diet 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, acts
of maleficia than a perceived conspiracy against the power of the Christian
Church. As one of Britain's foremost folklorists says: "Traditions of an
organised, pagan witch-cult were never very plentiful 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 disappeared altogether." (Christina Hole)
This is interesting, because it has been suggested that the witch trials
phenomena was largely inspired by the heretical Christian sects; this would
seem to be born out by the type of accusations made in England, which were
largely neighbour against neighbour rather than Church and State against an
organised conspiracy of heretics.
What is also interesting is that it was
commonly believed in England 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
1875, at Long Compton, the body of an old woman, one Ann Turner, was
discovered. She had been pinned to the ground by a pitchfork through 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
crops in the field. Her curse drove my father to an early grave!". Heywood maintained that the only way to destroy her power was
to spill her blood, and so after her murder, he was taken and tried for the
crime. He was convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Long Compton has
always been associated with the practice of witchcraft, and is located only a
short distance from the magical Rollright Stones, and near to the aptly named
Wychwood Forest. The derivation of this name is 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:
In 1945, Charles Walton, a local labourer, set
out one morning to do some hedging on nearby Meon Hill. That evening, his
mutilated body was found in a field - pinned to the ground by his pitchfork,
which 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, and who the
likely culprit might have been. But gradually locals began to talk about Mr
Walton; they said he was a solitary and vindictive old man, who was concerned
more with searching out the secrets of nature than in taking company with his
neighbours. They said that he harnessed 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
spells and seeing into the future. The police never discovered the culprit,
but it was accepted locally that Mr Walton was murdered because he was a
witch. His wounds were a result of the belief that a victim could 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 infamous gentleman,
Matthew Hopkins; self-styled Witchfinder General. For all his fame, his
activities were restricted to a relatively small area, and a relatively short
period of time. However, his
boundless energy, 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 upon 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 area of Civil War tension. With virtually no
knowledge of witchcraft, but armed with a couple of contemporary documents
(including James I's "Demonology"), Hopkins set himself up in
business as a witchfinder. And a very profitable business it was too. At a
time when the average daily wage was 6d, Hopkins received œÀ23 for a single
visit to Stowmarket, and œÀ6 for a visit to Aldeburgh.
His approach was consistent: James I mentioned
that witches had familiars, and suckled imps; therefore, anyone who kept a
familiar spirit or imp must be a witch! Bearing in mind the English partiality
to keeping pets, and you begin to see just how very successful this technique
could be. For example, Bridget Mayers was condemned for entertaining an evil
spirit in the likeness of a mouse, which she called "Prickears";
another (unnamed) woman was rescued by her neighbours from a ducking, where
she confessed to having an imp called "Nan". When she recovered she
said: "she knew not what she had confessed, and she had nothing she
called Nan but a pullet that she sometimes called by that name...".
Hopkins moved from Essex to Norfolk and
Suffolk, and by the following year, had operations in Cambridge, Northampton,
Huntingdon and Bedford, with a team of six witch finders under his control.
"In Suffolk 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 against him, and
judges began to question both his methods of locating witches, and the fees
that he charged for the service. In 1647 Hopkins published a pamphlet called
"Discovery of Witches", in which he supported his methods in
sanctimonious and pseudo legal language. However, it was to no avail, for
later that year he died, "in some disgrace" according to most
authorities. Witchcraft legend has it that he was drowned by irate villagers
in one of his own ducking ponds, but this has no recorded evidence to support
it. However, it would be a fitting end to such an evil man, and I hope it was
true.
Persecution
Ancient & Modern 5
Moving away from England; Scottish and
Continental witchcraft shared a great many similarities; Mary Queen of Scots,
and her son, James VI, were both educated in France, and this ensured that
continental attitudes towards witches were enshrined in Scottish law at the
highest level. In fact the concepts of witchcraft were introduced into
Scotland by Mary in about 1563.
Before then, trials for witchcraft 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 barbarity of its witch trials.
The Presbyterian clergy 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 witches, and it was under his authority that the Bible was
translated to include the word "witch" (Exodus 22:18) to provide
Biblical sanction for the death penalty for witches. The original Hebrew word
- kashaph - meant either a magician, diviner or sorcerer, but was definitely
not a witch. In the Latin Vulgate (4th century version of the Bible) the word
had been translated as "maleficos", which could mean any kind of
criminal, although in practice often referred to malevolent sorcerers.
Similarly, the so-called Witch of Endor, consulted by King Solomon: the
original Hebrew was "ba'alathob": "mistress of a
talisman". 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, his attitude towards witches had undergone a subtle
transformation. In fact, he was directly responsible for the release and
pardon of several accused "witches", and personally interfered in
trials where he believed that fraud or deception was being practised.
However, Lynn Linton writing in 1861 says of him: "Whatever of
blood-stained folly belonged specially 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."
But it was under Charles II that perhaps the
most famous - and enduring – of Scottish
witches was tried, and most probably executed (although records of her
punishment have not survived). Isobel Gowdie of Auldearne, on four separate
occasions during 1662 testified that she was a witch, and gave what Russell
Hope Robbins describes as: "a resum‚À of popular beliefs about
witchcraft in Scotland.". He says that Gowdie "appeared clearly
demented", but that "it is plain she believed what she confessed, no
matter how impossible...". From Gowdie are derived some of the concepts
of today's Wicca, including the idea of a coven, comprised of 13 people.
Gowdie said that a coven was ruled by a "Man in Black", often called
"Black John". He would often beat the witches severely, and it
seemed their main tasks were to raise storms, change themselves into animals,
and shoot elf arrows to injure or kill people. Coming as she does right at the
end of the witchcraft persecutions, it is difficult to establish how much of
Gowdie's confession is based upon real, traditional folk practices of
Auldearne, and how much she is simply repeating the standard accusations
against witches. The Coven of 13
is probably the single aspect of her confessions which does not appear
elsewhere in records of witchcraft trials, and my own feelings are that she
was probably 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 people. We have looked at a number of these -
King James, Kramer and Sprenger, Matthew Hopkins, Conrad of Marburg - and
their latter day successors are no less dangerous. Let us consider some of the
20th century persecutors. We have already mentioned Adolf Hitler; what about
Stalin? his great purge in the period following 1936 saw charges of treason,
espionage and terrorism brought against anyone who showed the least
inclination to oppose him. Using techniques which would not have been out of
place during the great witch hunts, Stalin's henchmen 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
accusations for any purpose". It is no accident that his activities were
referred to as a "witch hunt", nor that Arthur Miller's play about
the Salem witch trials, "The Crucible", was more a comment about
McCarthyism than a comment about 17th century American life.
In 20th century Australia we are heirs to a
European history, which maintains that witches are servants of the devil, and
should be prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. In some States these
laws actually remain upon the Statute Books; in others, the legal machinery
has been removed, but often public opinion hovers around the middle ages,
believing that the only good witch is a dead witch.
Our latter-day inquisitors play upon these
fears, in much the same way as Matthew Hopkins played upon the fears of the
people during the Civil War. Christian Fundamentalists have no hesitation in
using every dirty trick in the book to ensure that public opinion remains
opposed to witchcraft. If this means that some of them have to stand up and
say: "Yes, I was a witch: I sacrificed my babies to the devil, and
copulated with a goat; I took part in drunken orgies, and drank the blood of
the sacrifice"; but then I found Jesus, and was born again, 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 achieved notoriety in Britain as an ex-HPS of a Witches'
Coven. This extract 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 pregnant, boyfriend dies, she turns to
booze, gives up her baby and becomes homeless. Wandering to Piccadilly 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 party, 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 Virginia
Water". She agrees to go to the next meeting which is to be held at
Hallowe'en.
Inside the dark Temple lit by black candles
and 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 "warlock", 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 psychiatric hospital, has the baby, and
gives it away convinced that the "warlock" would sacrifice it.
Things then become a confusion of Church
desecration, 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, jaundice, and detoxification units. The "warlock" drops
by to threaten her, and she makes her way north via some psychiatric hospitals
to a Christian Rehabilitation farm. She gets married, has a child which she
keeps, and becomes a regular churchgoer. 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 baptised and has
no more nightmares, becoming a generally nicer person. She becomes the
"occult expert" of the Reachout Trust and Evangelical Alliance, and
makes a career out of telling an edited version of her tale. Geoffrey Dickens
MP persuades her to tell all on live TV; "Audrey, to your
knowledge is child sacrifice still going on?" To this she replies,
"To my knowledge, yes."
After this the whole thing rambles into an untidy
conclusion of self-congratulation, 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
newspapers, and even New Age festivals. And so we are left with a horrifying
vision of hordes of Satanists swarming the country, buggering kids,
sacrificing babies, and feeding their own faeces to the flock."
Whilst all this seems incredible to any
rational person, unfortunately, in the age old tradition, it confirms the
worst fears of the man and woman in the street, and so they swallow it whole.
After all, it was on telly, so it MUST be true!
As a direct result of people like Audrey
Harper publicising their lies and fantasy, children in England and Scotland
were forcibly removed 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
transcripts and audio records of the recent Orkney child abuse case, and in
her summing up said: "[the Social Workers] told the children they knew
things had happened to them and were generally leading all the way. When the
children denied things, the questions were continually put until the children
got hungry and gave them the answers 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
frivolous and lack credit...". One 11 year-old described being asked to
draw a circle of ritualistic dancers. He said: "They got me to draw by
saying, 'I am not a drawer. Can you draw that?' It was meant to be a ring with
children around and a minister in the middle wearing a black robe and a crook
to 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 accomplices - for
is it not said, "thou canst not be a witch alone?"!
In 1990, journalist Rosie Waterhouse
commenting upon the Manchester child abuse case said: "After three months
of questioning by the NSPCC, strange stories began to come out and other
children were named. The way the children began telling "Satanic"
tales in this case is remarkably similar to the way such stories first
surfaced in Nottingham. As "The Independent on Sunday" revealed last
week (23/9/-90), the Nottingham children began talking about witches,
monsters, babies and blood only after they had been encouraged, by an NSPCC
social worker, to play with toys which included witches' costumes, monsters,
toy babies, and a syringe for extracting blood." Believe it or not, the
parents of these children had no access to 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 trigger words".
By March 1991, senior Police spokesmen were
publicly claiming 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 was
particularly upsetting." He saw a video of the removal of one girl from
her home during a dawn raid, and commented that, "It is obvious from the
video tape that the girl is not merely frightened but greatly distressed at
being removed from home. The sobbing and distraught 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 petitioned for damages in respect of the trial and
execution of his wife Sarah, and the imprisonment of his daughter, Dorothy,
"a child of four or five years old, [who] being chained in the dungeon
was so hardly used and terrified that she hath ever since been very
chargeable, having little or no reason to govern herself.".
Today's Christian Fundamentalist, like his
vicious and self-righteous predecessors, will use anything in his or her
power-including innocent children - to destroy the evils of Paganism and the
occult. Sometimes I wonder if we are becoming paranoid, or the subjects of a
persecution complex, but in writing this lecture it was brought home to me
more strongly than ever before: the witch trials of the Middle Ages are not a
bloody stain on the history of Christianity; they are the source from where
today's fundamentalists draw their power, and are just as terrifying today as
they were hundreds of years ago. Bigotry and persecution have changed in only
one respect: 20th century mankind has far more efficient and effective means
of spreading lies and propaganda than was available to our ancestors.
Persecution
Ancient & Modern 6
The subject of the European Witch Trials has
been written about adinfinitum (and nauseam!), and there are a great many
useful books which the student will find of interest. There follows a short
bibliography 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)
Larner, Christina
Enemies of God: The Witch Hunt in 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 Magic (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)
Persecution
Ancient & Modern 7
-
Historical Periods
Anglo-Saxon: broadly 550 AD to 1066 AD (the Norman invasion).
Middle Ages: broadly the period from the end of classical antiquity (476 AD) to the
Italian Renaissance (or fall of Constantinople in 1453). More specifically 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 between 1485 CE -
1603 CE
Stuart: the Royal House which ruled in Scotland between 1371 CE and 1714, and
in England between 1603 CE - 1714
CE.
Jacobean: relating to the period of James I's rule of England (1603-1625).
Reformation: a 16th century religious and political movement which began as an
attempt to reform the Catholic
Church, but actually resulted in the establishment of the Protestant Church.
Renaissance: usually considered as beginning in Italy in the 14th
century, this is the period which marked the
transition from the Middle Ages to the modern world. It is characterised by
classical scholarship, scientific and geographical discovery, and the
exploration of individual human potential.
Civil War: 1640-1649, between the Royalists under Charles I, and the
Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell.
Charles I was executed in 1649.
Crusades: a series of wars undertaken by the Christians of western Europe with
the authorisation of the Papacy
from 1095 until the mid-15th century for the purpose of recovering
the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem from the Muslims and defending possession of
it. (Enc. Britannica)
Thirty Years' War: a major conflict involving Austria, Denmark, 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 struggle (1618 - 1648).
Lateran Councils: Five ecumenical councils held at the Lateran Palace (the official
residence of the Pope) between 1123
CE and 1512 CE.
-
Gnostic and
Christian sects
Manichaeism: a dualistic Gnostic religion first preached by Mani in the 3rd century AD. Its early centre was Babylonia, then part of the Persian empire and a meeting place of faiths. 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 spreadacross 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 Christianity, 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 persecution 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.
- A calendar of events connected with the
persecution of heretics
640 CE - Eorcenberht succeeds Eadbald as King of Kent, and becomes the first
English king to order the
destruction of pagan idols throughout his kingdom;
663 CE - Council of Whitby determines the date of Easter to be in accordance
with Roman practice, and so ends
Celtic Christianity in Northumberland;
668-690 CE - 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 CE - the Confessional of Ecgberht, Archbishop of York, which prescribed a
7-year fast for a woman
convicted of "slaying by incantation";
871-899 CE - reign of King Aelfred (brother of Aethelred), who declared the death
penalty for those who practise
Wicca.
925-939 CE - reign of King Aethelstan, where murder - including
murder by witchcraft - was punishable with
the death penalty.
936 CE - Otto elected King of the Germans, whereupon he declared it his
intention 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 CE - 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 de Payens 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 de Payens called his Order the
Templi Militia, and then later 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 centuary - 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 St John
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;
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;
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 conjuration of demons and sexual perversions
against children: nearly all evidence was hearsay, 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;
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, not ecclesiastical law); 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 maypole to be erected in the colony
which he founded (Merrymount), and celebrated the
May Feastival of Beltane 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 Bosse, her
daughter and sons; Madame Montvoisin (La Voisin) and La Dame Vigoreux. During
the course of the trial, several hundreds of the highest courtiers of King
Louis XIV were implicated in the poisoning scandal. The affair degenerated
into 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 galleys, 34 to banishment and 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);
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 James
I & 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 witchcraft,
sorcery, inchantment (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, claiming 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 Maleficarum (tr Summers);
1951 - repeal of the 1736 Witchcraft Act with the Fraudulent Mediums Act;
1963 - demand made for reinstatement of the Witchcraft Laws in England
following desecration of churches and graveyards;
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 or encourages a min or to participate in, or be present at a ceremony
or other activity of any kind specified in sub-section 3...".
Subsection 3 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 Section 1 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!