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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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