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Witchcraft: Eight Myths and Misconceptions

Witchcraft is an area of history that most people feel familiar with.
From the Salem Witch Trials to the witches of Macbeth, the figure of
the witch is embedded in our culture. The problem is that most of what
we think we know is wrong.

Professor Diane Purkiss debunks eight of the most common myths about witchcraft.

1. Witches were burned at the stake

Not in English-speaking countries. Witchcraft was a felony in both
England and its American colonies, and therefore witches were hanged,
not burned. However, witches’ bodies were burned in Scotland, though
they were strangled to death first.

2. Nine million witches died in the years of the witch persecutions

About 30,000–60,000 people were executed in the whole of the main era
of witchcraft persecutions, from the 1427–36 witch-hunts in Savoy (in
the western Alps) to the execution of Anna Goldi in the Swiss canton
of Glarus in 1782. These figures include estimates for cases where no
records exist.

3. Once accused, a witch had no chance of proving her innocence

Only 25 per cent of those tried across the period in England were
found guilty and executed.

4. Millions of innocent people were rounded up on suspicion of
witchcraft

The total number of people tried for witchcraft in England throughout
the period of persecution was no more than 2,000. Most judges and many
jurymen were highly sceptical about the existence of magical powers,
seeing the whole thing as a huge con trick by fraudsters. Many others
knew that old women could be persecuted by their neighbours for no
reason other than that they weren’t very attractive.

5. The Spanish Inquisition and the Catholic Church instigated the
witch trials

All four of the major western Christian denominations (the Roman
Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican churches) persecuted
witches to some degree. Eastern Christian, or Orthodox, churches
carried out almost no witch-hunting. In England, Scotland, Scandinavia
and Geneva, witch trials were carried out by Protestant states. The
Spanish Inquisition executed only two witches in total.
Woodcut illustration from a 1591 pamphlet showing the witches of
Berwick meeting the Devil

6. King James I was terrified of witches and was responsible for their
hunting and execution

More accused witches were executed in the last decade of Elizabeth I’s
reign (1558–1603) than under her successor, James I (1603–25).

The first Witchcraft Act was passed under Henry VIII, in 1542, and
made all pact witchcraft (in which a deal is made with the Devil) or
summoning of spirits a capital crime. The 1604 Witchcraft Act under
James could be described as a reversion to that status quo rather than
an innovation.

In Scotland, where he had ruled as James VI since 1587, James had
personally intervened in the 1590 trial of the North Berwick witches,
who were accused of attempting to kill him. He wrote the treatise
Daemonologie, published in 1597. However, when King of England, James
spent some time exposing fraudulent cases of demonic possession,
rather than finding and prosecuting witches.

7. Witch-hunting was really women-hunting, since most witches were
women

In England the majority of those accused were women. In other
countries, including some of the Scandinavian countries, men were in a
slight majority. Even in England, the idea of a male witch was
perfectly feasible. Across Europe, in the years of witch persecution
around 6,000 men – 10 to 15 per cent of the total – were executed for witchcraft.

In England, most of the accusers and those making written complaints
against witches were women.

8. Witches were really goddess-worshipping herbalist midwives

Nobody was goddess-worshipping during the period of the witch-hunts,
or if they were, they have left no trace in the historical records.
Despite the beliefs of lawyers, historians and politicians (such as
Karl Ernst Jarcke, Franz-Josef Mone, Jules Michelet, Margaret Murray
and Heinrich Himmler among others), there was no ‘real’ pagan
witchcraft. There was some residual paganism in a very few trials.

The idea that those accused of witchcraft were midwives or herbalists,
and especially that they were midwives possessed of feminine expertise
that threatened male authority, is a myth. Midwives were rarely
accused. Instead, they were more likely to work side by side with the
accusers to help them to identify witch marks. These were marks on the
body believed to indicate that an individual was a witch (not to be
confused with the marks scratched or carved on buildings to ward off
witches).


Diane Purkiss is Professor of English Literature at Keble College,
University of Oxford

Source: <https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/eight-witchcraft-myths/>

or, for short:

https://t.co/o7waenJO36


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

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