Just Finished Reading: Witchfinders – A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy by Malcolm Gaskill (FP: 2005) [286pp] 

After my previous read I was both intrigued and pleased to discover that Manningtree and its witch trial were both real. It’s also where the notorious ‘witchfinder’ Matthew Hopkins (and his less well-known side-kick John Stearne) started his discovery of witches. 

 As far as I’m aware England was unique at that time – around the mid-17th century – in its scepticism of all things witchcrafty, at least in the case of the judges and magistrates who more often than not threw out case after case brought before them. This deep scepticism only grew with time and, as the 17th century moved to its end, getting a witchcraft conviction became very difficult indeed. But around the time of Hopkins and his crusade things were far from normal. England was at war with itself – not only politically but also on the religious stage. The Protestant religion had begun to splinter – indeed shatter – into ever increasing denominations and off-shoots and religious practice, at least in the mainstream, was becoming more Puritan and ever more prescribed. Deviation, especially if it had even the hint of Popery, was denounced and often attacked physically. Any religious imagery or ornamentation was either removed or destroyed. Interestingly both Catholics and witches were both seen as agents of the Anti-Christ. As you might imagine that was pretty inflammatory! 

With everyone under close examination and with little or no understanding of science or disease it’s not surprising that arguments or just vague fears of ‘strange’ neighbours resulted in accusations of witchcraft when livestock or people sickened and died. Most of the time this would have been handled locally and the accused would have ended up in the stocks, but these were not normal times and both tempers and fears were running high. Enter the witchfinders to add their fuel to the fire and, well, we can all guess what happened next. Speaking of fire... It’s a very common misconception that witches were burnt at the stack for their ‘crimes’. Certainly, in England this was not the case – although it was both in Scotland and across the European continent. Generally, in England witches were hung – unless they were convicted of ‘treason’, which included killing their husbands. In that case witches were indeed burnt – although most of them were strangled first. 

With the times being so chaotic and, honestly, dangerous on multiple levels Hopkins and company managed to work their way in-between the official channels to do their work. Only when things started to recover (it took somewhat longer for things to return to normal) did the regular authorities start to clamp down on private operators doing government work. With ever rising scepticism, order returning and the clamp down Hopkins and Stearne faded into obscurity. 

Although I had studied the European witch craze in university my knowledge of the English version had only been picked up in a roundabout way through other reading and the occasional very bad movie. I knew of Hopkins of course. I think everybody of my age learnt about him in school but my ‘knowledge’ was pretty shallow. This interesting book has certainly added to that rough understanding a great deal. It was certainly interesting to see how the relative breakdown of normal society brought on by the Civil War(s) could bring witchcraft accusations and, more importantly, actual convictions on the flimsiest of ‘evidence’ to fruition. The only ‘problem’ I had with the book, and to be honest it was a very minor problem, was that the author thought it necessary to go into detail of each accusation and each process and trials progressed. The actual trajectory from accusation to hangman's rope almost invariably followed the same route so it might have been better to point out the variations rather than the norm. I did find myself skimming over a few of the later cases because of this. But on the whole, this was both an informative and interesting read (again especially as I couldn’t help comparing reality to fiction and finding myself even more impressed by the previous novel). Recommended for anyone interested in the English experience of witches. More to come in both fact and fiction.