Witchcraft
It was not always the case that witches were demonised by society. Up until around 700A.D. they were considered to be local sages within the community. The origin of the word ‘witch’ is ‘wicca’, a word with Germanic roots, meaning ‘wise one’, and witchcraft was perceived to be ‘the craft of the wise’. Their perceived wisdom made these women, and sometimes men, central, and highly respected members of the community. They were highly valued for their skills with easing pain, healing people, curing sick animals and ensuring a successful harvest.
It was not until the spread of Christianity through Europe in the second half of the 1st century that the maligning of witchcraft became the norm. Christianity brought with it the belief that God and the devil were responsible for all the good and bad that happened in the world. If the community prayed hard enough, then a good harvest was ensured. However, if people were able to communicate with God through prayer, it followed that witches were able to communicate with the devil through sorcery. The devil, however, was responsible only for the ills of the world. He, and therefore his minions on earth, namely witches, caused all the destruction and bad fortune that befell towns and villages.
Suspicion and mistrust rumbled on until the first trials for witchcraft in England were held during the reign of King John around the end of the 12th century. Three hundred years later, and witch-hunting hysteria had firmly taken root and lasted throughout the 15th, 16th, and 17th century. King James I of England was so fearful of witches that he actually produced a manual detailing how to detect if someone was a witch. It included gruesome tests such as pricking them all over with a needle – it was said that witches had a ‘devil’s mark’ (usually a wart or birthmark) which was insensitive to pain. Another method of detection was to throw the accused into a pool of water with their hands and feet bound. Water is considered a holy fluid, and so if the witch was rejected by the water and floated, she was considered guilty and consequently hanged or burned, and if she drowned, she was found innocent.
Witch-hunting around this time was good business, and such entrepreneurial spirit was to be found in Matthew Hopkins, an expert in the detection and purging of witches from towns and villages. He travelled around the southern counties of England offering his services for a handsome sum. He became so well known that he gained the name ‘witchfinder general’. One of his favourite techniques was to prick the accused with a long sharp needle, in an attempt to find the ‘devil’s mark’, the area that felt no pain. His trick was to use a retractable needle so that when it hit the skin, the ‘witch’ felt no pain and was duly found guilty. He charged between £5 and £25 per purging, a very reasonable rate until you consider that the average wage was 3p per day. Having been responsible for over 300 executions, we can see that Mr Hopkins was a very rich man indeed.
Witchcraft hysteria was not, however, confined to Europe. The most famous American purging began in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It began when a group of girls started to act strangely, screaming and shouting. This led to three women being charged with causing this odd behaviour through witchcraft. The mass-hysteria spread like wildfire and one year later around 150 men and women were languishing in jail having been found guilty of witchcraft, and 19 men and women had been hanged. It seems strange that this period of panic and madness should appear and disappear so suddenly. One explanation put forward is that the rye bread that the puritans used to make bread could have been infected with ergot, a fungi which grows particularly vigorously on rye. It is now known that this is able to not only to cause involuntary twitches and spasms in humans, but also paranoia and hallucinations. It seems that many of the symptoms associated with ergotism have parallels with the signs associated with witchcraft around this time. This may well explain the initial strange behaviour in the girls and the subsequent suspicion and accusations.
The last women were hanged for witchcraft in England in 1682. All three pleaded not guilty, but a series of testimonials by well-respected members of the community claimed that the accused had made an acquaintance of the devil, who had appeared in the form of a magpie and a cat. The evidence was enough to see the lives of these three young innocent women ended.
Today, it is difficult for us to imagine how people came to believe in such apparently illogical thinking. But we have to remember that this was before the dawn of the age of reasoning and enlightenment that followed. With the advent of this new age and ways of thinking, belief in witchcraft as an evil force slowly died away.