England- Matthew Hopkins Flashcards
(111 cards)
1
Q
How many witches were killed in England, 1500-1700?
A
Around 500.
2
Q
What sources were used to show the witchcraft activity?
A
Trial records
Pamphlets- published after witchcraft executions. Around 140 survived.
Most trial records lost, have to rely on pamphlets, which were mainly moralising tales.
3
Q
Where were most witchcraft cases dealt with prior to 1542?
A
Ecclesiastical courts- focused on atonement and penance rather than harsh punishment.
Guilty often ordered to attend parish church, wearing a white sheet and carrying a wand, promising to lead a reformed life.
Few witchcraft cases.
4
Q
Where were witchcraft cases involving secular crimes, such as fraud and treason dealt with?
A
Secular courts, most English monarchs faced treason and sorcery plots.
5
Q
Prior 1542, give an example of a treason involved witchcraft case.
A
Henry VI’s reign, Margery Jourdemayne burned for conspiring against King using sorcery.
6
Q
What was the 1542 Act?
A
Witchcraft became a capital crime, yet no evidence that it was ever enforced.
Repealed in 1547.
7
Q
What was the 1563 Act?
A
Passed under reign of Elizabeth I
- Killing people by witchcraft punishable by death.
- Injuring people or animals, damaging goods by witchcraft punishable by years imprisonment first offence, death second.
8
Q
What inspired the 1563 Act?
A
A group of Catholic plotters were discovered using sorcery against Elizabeth’s Protestant regime. Gov realised there was no law to try them.
From 1563- secular law dominated.
9
Q
What did the 1604 Act do?
A
Made injuring people through witchcraft a capital offence on the first.
Using dead bodies for sorcery is a capital offence.
10
Q
What book did Reginald Scot write? What did it say?
A
‘The Discoverie of Witchcraft’ 1584.
Calvinist, sceptical of notion of witchcraft because:
- Believed in sovereignty of God, so wrong to attribute supernatural power to witches.
- Could find no biblical foundation for witch-hunting.
11
Q
Name three pro-witchcraft texts.
A
A Treatise Against Witchcraft (1590), Henry Holland, clergyman.
Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (1608), William Perkins, Puritan theologian.
A Guide to Grand Jury Men with Respect to Witches (1627), Richard Bernard, Puritan.
All key religious figures.
12
Q
What is meant by a godly commonwealth?
A
A godly nation, extirpating witchcraft was a part of this process as well as getting rid of ‘superstitious’ beliefs and practices.
Most wanted the rituals of the Catholic church gone.
13
Q
What does Sharpe say about the paradoxical beliefs in Witchcraft?
A
It was a ‘plurality of possible positions’.
Some believed, some sceptical.
14
Q
Describe the role of cunning folk in Essex.
A
Elizabethan period, no village in Essex more than 10 miles from a ‘cunning’ person, large proportion male.
Services:
- Providing medicine for the sick.
- Help identify who is bewitching people.
Considered a good thing, but many preachers disagreed.
Richard Bernard- ‘all witches, in truth, are bad witches’.
15
Q
What was the role of alchemy and astrology?
A
Widespread acceptance of reality of magic made many believe in the existence of witchcraft.
John Dee became Elizabeth’s court astrologer, identifying best date for coronation.
Doctors used horoscopes to identify best medicine and treatment.
16
Q
What was the impact of classical culture and intellectuals?
A
Education for training clergymen restricted to Latin and Greek, which has overt references to Witchcraft.
Dramatists would also use this education, best example is Shakespeare’s witch scene in Macbeth, 1606.
These beliefs evident on Justices of the Peace.
17
Q
What was the impact of the Reformation in England?
A
Superstition against Catholicism grew, adopted belief in power of rituals, not far removed from methods of cunning folk.
They would bless people, use the relic of the cross.
Protestants saw Catholics as witches.
18
Q
When was the English Civil War?
A
1642-6.
19
Q
What was the impact of the Puritanism on England?
A
By seventeenth century, Puritans at odds with Anglican church, seeing it as too papist.
In Civil War, Puritans defeated Charles I and Oliver Cromwell rules until death in 1658, strict Puritan.
Historians think that Puritans were more likely to prosecute witches than Anglican church.
Most serious witch hunt in England, 1645-7 was in an area dominated by Protestantism.
20
Q
Why do some historians dispute the connection between witch-hunting and Puritanism?
A
Some Puritans, like William Perkins, ordered for the extirpation of witches, yet others were more cautious.
Some accepted views of Reginald Scot, many misfortunes ascribed to devil were actually from God’s providence.
Macfarlane, assessing prosecutions in Essex, could fine no link to Puritanism.
Oliver Cromwell made no mention of witchcraft in his speeches.
21
Q
What were the socio-economic influences of witchcraft in England?
A
Key population growth. 1530-1630, 2.5 million to 5 million. Employment crisis, flooded labour market, people became dependent on wage labour. Increased poverty.
Yet, rising bread prices meant enhanced profits for those selling. Macfarlane (1970) points out that there was therefore a social divide, causing mass tension in Essex.
1560-1660, more prosperous were concerned as to how to deal with poor, saw them as a growing nuisance.
22
Q
Why can MacFarlane’s Essex model be disputed?
A
Fits Essex, but not other areas such as Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey, that saw little persecution but were going through the same changes.
23
Q
Why was the English legal process different to most of Europe?
A
The determination of guilt or innocence was left to a trial jury.
24
Q
Where and why were most of the witchcraft accusations in Essex?
A
Rural communities, less desirable person could be seen more easily than in a town.
410 out of 460 witchcraft cases in Essex had accused and victim from same village.
25
What was the process of bringing a suspected witch to trial?
In rural communities, a complaint made to a JP, who would question accused and accuser and draw out information useful to court of assize, written in pre-trial document.
Commit them to trial or send them home.
Sent to gaol, could be up to six months depending on court cycle.
26
What were the assize courts?
Judges (appointed by Crown) from three courts in Westminster would hear criminal cases at assizes, a way of bringing central justice to localities, twice a year in Jan. and mid-summer.
So, in face of war, disrupted.
27
What was the assize process?
Evidence presented to grand jury to determine if they should go to trial.
Suspected given no defence lawyer.
Assizes only happened twice a year, so a lot to get through, yet trials only lasted 15-20 minutes, most complex cases 30 minutes.
Defendant presumed guilty unless proven otherwise.
28
What magical evidence was accepted in the assize courts?
- Suspects association with animal can be interpreted as entertaining a familiar.
- If contact with suspected followed by mishap.
- Witches marks.
- On occasion, spectral evidence.
29
What evidence suggests that the assize courts dealt with witchcraft cases well?
South-eastern counties, only 22% of those accused were sentenced to death.
30
What were most people scared of as opposed to the Devil's pact?
Maleficium.
31
How many people were witches accused of killing in Essex?
1560-1680, 233, 108 illness, 80 harming or killing animals.
Six charged with harming property.
32
What does the 'tyranny of local opinion' mean?
Neighbours accused witches if they disliked them. Magic was used as evidence, so down to opinion of local majority.
33
Why was witchcraft a rural phenomenon?
Most people lived in the countryside.
London, 150,000 people 1500-500,000 people 1700 was England's largest town.
Few towns had more than 10,000 people.
Norwich, England's second largest town, population of 30,000 by 1700.
34
Why did gossip contribute heavily to witchcraft accusations?
In village communities, everyone knew one another. Those who stood out as offenders swiftly punished.
More frequent offenders labelled as 'scolds', 'a troublesome angry woman' who caused 'increase public discord'.
Reginald Scott says the 'chief fault' of witches 'is that they are scolds'.
Gossip frequent, so when misfortunes happen, acts associated with witchcraft brought up.
A local reputation, says Thomas is 'the making of a witch'.
35
Who did MacFarlane think were most likely to be accused and were most likely to accuse?
Wives of labourers accused by yeomen families. Taking a witch to court was expensive.
So Sharpe says a plaintiff had to be 'unusually confident'.
36
What was the female stereotype of witchcraft accusations?
Macfarlane's witchcraft- 90% women. Generally elderly.
John Gaule- 'every old woman...is not only suspected, but pronounced a witch'.
Single women vulnerable, without guidance of a husband, didn't have willpower to resist Devil's wishes.
Most suspected witches poor, far more women at bottom of social scale.
Elderly women prone to eccentric behaviour, senility. Easier to get confessions.
Accused witches had usually asked a neighbour for food, money and been denied, left cursing, followed by a misfortune.
37
Why were male witches accused?
Husbands or children, guilt by association.
William Perkins- 'witches are wont to communicate their skill to others by tradition'.
38
What was the female involvement in witchcraft accusations?
- Inter-female rivalries common in rural life.
- Witchcraft accusations most effective means that women could express power in male-dominated society.
- At centre of accusations were children, childcare regarded as female activity.
- Evidence of south-eastern counties assize circuit suggests that women fifteen times more likely to present evidence in witchcraft cases, rather than any other felony.
39
When was the first English witch trial resulting in a hanging?
1566, Chelmsford Essex.
Rush of similar trials followed, witch panic accentuated by discovery of 1578 of plot to kill Queen Elizabeth by magic.
Full scale investigation launched by Privy council.
Panic, Essex became known s 'home of English witch-hunting', says Sharpe.
40
Why did witchcraft accusations decline by the end of the Elizabethan reign?
Whitgift (archbishop of Canterbury) provided a religious settlement including popery and radical Protestantism, known as Arminianism.
Continued by Richard Bancroft, by 1590s, Anglican hierarchy sceptical about demonic possession.
41
When and who was involved in 'The Boy of Burton'?
1596, Robert Toone of Burton in Staffordshire went hunting with nephew, Thomas Darling.
42
What happened to Thomas Darling?
He got ill, said green cats had been tracking him and he saw green angels. Darlings family thought he was bewitched.
Confirmed when he said Thomas claimed an old woman cursed him.
43
Who was thought to have bewitched Thomas Darling?
Elizabeth Wright, known by neighbours as Witch of Stapenhill.
But others claimed she was too old to be wandering the woods, most likely 60 year old daughter, Alice Gooderidge.
Searched for Devil's mark, visited Thomas and had a seizure in her presence. Imprisoned and eventually confessed.
Died in prison.
44
Who did Thomas' family appoint to heal him?
Puritan preacher, John Darrell who had a reputation for healing 'possessed'. Said he was possessed by two evil spirits, Thomas recovered.
Case made Darrel famous, was called on to perform other practices, one in Nottingham. Apparently cured William Somers, who named thirteen women as witches.
45
What did William Somers eventually admit?
Somers admitted to feigning being possessed.
Darrel arrested for fraud, yet released but career never recovered.
46
Who was Samuel Harsnett?
Chaplain to Bishop Bancroft of London, sat on the commission which investigated Darrel's activities. Had previously spearheaded a campaign to discredit a rash of exorcisms performed by Jesuit priests in 1585-6. Purpose had been to promote Catholicism by demonstrating that they, not the Anglican clergy were the Devils' true opponents. This was of concern to Anglican church, who were trying to discredit Puritanism, Catholicism and exorcism.
47
What books did Harsnett write?
1599, Harsnett published 'A Survey of Certain Dialogical Discourses', condemning Darrel's exorcist practices. Questioning reality of witchcraft.
By order of the Privy Council, Harsnett wrote another attack on exorcism, 'A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures', 1603. Scoffed openly at witchcraft superstition.
48
When were the ministers prohibited from exorcisms?
1603, by Anglican church.
49
What position did Harsnett ascend to?
Archbishop of York, 1628
50
When did James I become King?
1603
51
What book did James write?
Daemonologie
52
What was James I's take on witchcraft?
Scotland, had supported major witch hunts in 1590s.
Initially seemed he intended to take stronger action against witches, Witchcraft Act of 1604 was a harsher version of 1563 Act, making hanging mandatory on first offence.
Yet attitudes and actions not consistent, may not have been as harsh as thought.
53
When and who was involved in the Gunter case?
1604, Anne Gunter, fourteen year old daughter of Brian Gunter, a gentleman from North Moreton, Berkshire, displayed symptoms of possession. Seizures, temporarily deaf and blind.
54
Who did Anne Gunter accuse?
Elizabeth Gregory, Mary Pepwell and Agnes Pepwell.
55
What was the outcome for the accused of Anne Gunter?
People not convinced, the two families had been at odds.
Elizabeth Gregory and Agnes Pepwell (Mary fled) tried in March 1605.
Jury decided not guilty. Assize judge David Williams sympathetic to the two women, appointed Hinton as JP, who exposed the seizures as counterfeit.
56
What was James' involvement in the case?
Attention of case brought to James, interviewed Anne between August and October 1605.
Referred to case to Archbishop of Canterbury, Bancroft, who put Anne in custody of Harsnett.
Harsnett got a confession out of her, saying father had put her up to it.
Prosecution in 1606, at court pf star chamber. Fined.
First attempt by English government to bring accusers to trial.
57
When were the Lancashire/Pendle witches?
1612
58
What was the socio-economic situation in Lancashire?
Wild and lawless region, Pendle area experiencing extreme poverty.
Yet, in 1612, many were experiencing similar problems without witch trials.
There was a much greater economic crisis in 1620s, did not produce a major witch hunt.
59
What does historian John Swain (2002) think about the socio-economic situation in Pendle?
People in Pendle used witchcraft as a means to make money, 'witchcraft was a business, albeit a risky one'.
60
What was the case of Alizon Device?
21 March, 1612, John Law encountered Alizon Device, who asked him for some pins. He refused, then later fell (modern historians believe it was a stroke).
Law initially made no accusation against her, but she was convinced of her guilt and confessed to bewitching him.
61
What was the result of Alizon Device's confession?
Alizon, her mother Elizabeth and brother James summoned to appear before Roger Nowell, a JP on the 30 March.
Alizon admitted she sold her soul to the Devil, James said his sister had also admitted to bewitching a local child.
Elizabeth more reticent, saying only her mother (Elizabeth Southerns, known as Demdike) had a suspicious mark on her body.
62
Who else did Alizon accuse and why?
Anne Whittle (Chattox), reputable for being involved in witchcraft in Pendle area. Said she killed four men and killing her father in 1601 by witchcraft.
Bad blood between two families, in competition both making a living through healing.
63
When were Demdike and Chattox brought before Nowell and who else?
What was the result?
2 April 1612 and Chattox's daughter, Anne Redferne.
Demdike and Chattox both blind and in eighties.
Both confessed, Chattox said she had given her soul to 'a Thing like a Christian man' on promise that she would 'not lack anything and would get any revenge she desired'.
Anne Redferne did not confess, but Demdike said she had seen her making clay figures.
Witness Margaret Crooke said her brother had died after having a disagreement with Redferne.
Nowell committed Demdike, Chattox, Redferne and Alizon Device to prison in lancaster castle to await trial.
64
When and what was the meeting at Malkin tower?
10 April, Elizabeth Device organised meeting at Malkin tower (home of Demdikes).
Friends and others sympathetic attended.
65
What effect did the meeting at Malkin tower have?
27 April, inquiry held before Nowell and other magistrate, Nicholas Bannister about meetings purpose. Decided to investigate it further.
66
What was the result of the investigation at Malkin tower?
Evidence emerged that further acts of witchcraft were planned, as was the blowing up of Lancaster Castle to release family members.
Nowell and JPs now convinced they were facing outbreak of witchcraft.
Eight more arrested and sent to trial.
67
Who were the eight women accused following the meeting at Malkin Tower?
Elizabeth and James Device, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock, Jane Bulcock, Alice Gray sent to Lancaster assizes.
Yet Jennet Preston sent to York.
68
When was Jennet Preston tried?
York assizes, 27 July.
Judges, Altham and Bromley.
Charged with murder of local landowner, Thomas Lister four years earlier.
Had previously been accused of murdering a child, found not guilty.
Found guilty and executed 29 July.
69
What other witches were sent to the Lancaster assizes?
Bromley and Altham sent to Lancaster. Demdike had already died in prison.
Samlesbury witches, murder of a child and cannibalism.
Margaret Pearson, facing third trial for witchcraft, killing a horse.
Isobel Robey, using witchcraft to cause sickness.
70
Why did Thomas Potts highlight that the Lancaster trials were not too reliable?
Nearly everything known about Lancaster trials is in Thomas Potts, 'The Wonderful Discovery of Witches', as a clerk to the Lancaster assizes.
Completed mid November 1612, corrected and published 1613, declaring itself to be 'truly reported'.
Relied heavily on witnesses and dramatized, aim was to show that justice had been served.
71
What was the importance of Jennet Device?
Nine year old, key witness for Lancaster prosecutions.
Wouldn't have typically been allowed, yet King James made a case for suspending normal rules of evidence for witchcraft, Daemonologie.
Gave evidence against her mother, brother and sister.
72
What happened 18 August, 1612?
Anne Whittle (Chattox) accused of murder of Robert Nutter. Pleaded not guilty, but confession she made to Nowell read out in court, and evidence presented against her from witness who lived with Chattox family. Chattox broke down, admitted guilt.
Elizabeth Device charged with three murders. Jennet stood up to give evidence against her. James Device also said he thought she was a witch.
James Device pleaded not guilty to two murders, but confession to Nowell read out and Jennet gave evidence against him.
73
What happened 19 August, 1612?
Anne Redferne found guilty, Bulcock's found guilty (son and daughter).
Alice Nutter, unusual amongst, wealthy, widow of Yeoman farmer, but still found guilty (class may have played no part).
Hewitt found guilty, Gray not guilty.
Alizon Device guilty.
74
When were the Pendle witches executed?
20 August, 1612.
75
What happened to the other witches at Lancaster?
Margaret Pearson accused of non-capital witchcraft, sentenced to the pillory, had to openly confess crimes, followed by a year of imprisonment.
Accusations against Samlesbury witches dropped.
Isobel Robey acquitted.
76
How and when does Stephen Pumfrey show that James agreed with the judges?
2002, Bromley and Altham believed they were acting in accordance to James' wishes, as they were briefed on royal policy before riding out on circuit assizes.
Pumfrey argues that judges commissioned Potts to write, 'The Wonderful Discovery of Witchcraft' to show they were following James' guidelines.
Book dedicated to Sir Thomas Knyvet, a courtier aware of James' thinking, so seems that James approved of their actions.
77
What was James more focused on towards the end of his reign? What highlights this?
Preferred to display his knowledge of witchcraft through exposing fraudulent accusations rather than discovering witches.
1616, castigated two judges for finding a large number of witches guilty in Leicestershire city. Five pardoned.
78
What does Malcolm Gaskill say about James towards the end of his reign?
2010- 'more passionate about deer hunting than ever he had been about witch-hunting'.
79
When did Charles I become King?
1625
80
When did English authorities start to become sceptical of witchcraft?
1620s
81
What incident in 1633 indicated a level of hostility from the government towards witchcraft accusations?
Edmund Robinson accused multiple local women of taking him to a sabbat.
Judge alarmed seeing the number of accused rising, so asked for help from central gov.
The bishop of chester convinced it was a fraud, the royal physician William Harvey found no devils marks, Robinson immediately confessed.
Said his father put him up to it for 'revenge and hope of gain'.
82
How did the Civil War impact England?
Collapse of Central authority.
Traditional authority of the Church undermined.
Parliament passed legislation without royal assent, bishops were excluded from the house of lords and the church courts were disbanded (had been around since the Normans). Church courts punishments typically less harsh, would rarely use the death penalty.
Government was becoming a Puritan affair.
Systems that had protected people from witchcraft accusations were disbanded.
Puritans wanted to 'purify' England, make a godly state, so wanted to route out witchcraft.
83
How did the Civil War impact women?
With many men going to war, shift in traditional power. Many women left to be self-sufficient.
Women found ways to support themselves, such as prostitution or healing.
84
How were the assize circuits disrupted?
Considered too dangerous for the assize judges to travel. A lot of cases were taken on at a local level.
85
What control was East Anglia under?
Parliamentary controlled area, Puritan.
86
What was the religious background to East Anglia?
Puritan faction believed Charles I was Satan's agent, due to his commitment to the Puritan cause.
Heightened religious morality, those who fell even slightly out of the norm more noticeable.
87
What was the economic impact of the Civil War?
Economic stagnation, thus rising in poverty levels.
Puritans hated begging, so those that begged easier to spot.
East Anglia experienced crop failure 1640s, which Puritans saw as a punishment from God.
Inflation, some forced out of their homes--> more begging.
88
What did Malcolm Gaskill say about the Civil War?
2016- 'the sense that victory on the battlefield depended on godliness at home made hunting witches feel like part of the war effort'.
89
Describe John Rivet's impact.
21 March, 1645, came before two magistrates saying his wife had been bewitched.
Accused Elizabeth Clarke.
Would have been ignored, as he was a lower class man. Stearne (wealthy landowner) came forward saying there was eye witness testimonies against clarke.
Grimston and Bowes (two magistrates) gave Stearne a warrant to interrogate Clarke.
Matthew Hopkins volunteered to help Stearne.
90
Describe Elizabeth Clarke's reputation.
Elderly, one leg, reputation for being anti-social, widowed.
91
How did the investigation of Clarke take place?
21st March (same say she was implicated), women went to Elizabeth Clarke's house, stripped and searched her for Devil's mark. Brutal, cut her hair, mark found on genitals.
Hopkins and Stearne conducted sleep deprivation (legal, but modernists argue it was torture).
Eventually confessed and implicated other women.
92
What other women were accused by Clarke?
Anne West (other suspected witch from Lawford), her daughter Rebecca West, Elizabeth Gooding, Anne Leech and Helen Clarke. Imprisoned in Colchester.
93
What was the religious status of Stearne and Hopkins?
Devout Puritans.
94
What were the conditions like in Colchester?
At least 30 women in Colchester gaol by June.
Terrible conditions, no sanitation, guards regularly beat them.
By mid-June, four women died. Most likely Typhus.
95
Name another woman sent to Colchester?
Margaret Moone, blamed for the deaths of livestock, spoiling food and the murder of a child.
Examined and three teats found on her 'secret parts'.
April 1645, confessed to having imp-disciples.
96
What was the significance of Rebecca West?
Hopkins made deal with Rebecca West.
Knew a first hand account of a sabbat needed to satisfy judges.
Rebecca West would be his informer in return for her life.
Likely that she was the youngest and most attractive.
Goes against Hopkins Puritan views, shows that perhaps he was not aiming to purify East Anglia, it was about power?
97
When and where were the East Anglian witches taken?
Chelmsford to be tried 17 July, 1645.
98
What was the nature of the Chelmsford trial?
With civil war in progress, trial not conducted by assize judges, but JPs presided over the Earl of Warwick, who had no legal expertise.
Trials short, batches of women brought forward together.
Only one acquitted.
Yet, concerned clergymen and magistrates begged reprieves for nine women, request granted.
Court said they were not satisfied with evidence against women, saying they were 'fit for mercy and pardons'.
99
Explain the executions from the Chelmsford trial?
15 condemned were executed at Chelmsford on 18 July.
100
When did Hopkins and Stearne move their witch-hunting to Suffolk?
July 1645
Hopkins operated East of country, Stearne West.
101
What happened with Hopkins and John Lowe.
He was a vicar in Suffolk, but so disliked that parishioners wrote a pamphlet accusing him of witchcraft. 'nought but a foul witch'.
Contemporaries believe that Hopkins and Stearne had been given a commission by Parliament, false. Not legally allowed to operate in Suffolk.
Hopkins thought he was doing God's work, witch-finder general. Operated outside the law.
Risky, no serving clergyman had been accused of witchcraft in England.
102
What methods did Hopkins use to gain a confession from Lowe?
Neither sleep deprivation or 'Walking a witch worked'.
Decided to 'swim a witch', which James had wrote about in Daemonologie, rejected by the 'sacred waters of baptism' but never legalised.
Eventually confessed to 'sinking ships' but said he never broke covenant with God.
Summer 1645, executed at gallows. 27 August. (Day after his trial at Bury St. Edmunds.
103
How many people from Suffolk were identified as witches?
150 men and women from 50 small towns and villages.
104
How many suffolk witches were tried, where, and how many were executed?
90 Suffolk witches tried at Bury St Edmunds, 26 August.
16 women and two men sentenced to death.
105
What was the nature of the witch hunt in Adleburgh?
January 1646, seven women tried, all found guilty and executed.
106
When did Matthew Hopkins die?
1647.
107
What does Malcolm Gaskill say about the financial benefits of the witch hunt?
Hopkins and Stearne had potential to earn more in a week than most do in a year.
108
What was the financial effect of Hopkins in Adleburgh?
Costs so high, 1645, a special tax had to be levied.
£8 for Matthew Hopkins alone, on top of paying everyone else.
109
What highlights the opposition to witch-finders?
Sept 1645, the Moderate Intelligencer (a parliamentary newspaper) expressed unease at state of affairs.
Minister John Gaule launched a preaching campaign against witch-finders, declaring them to be no better than Catholic Inquisitors.
Published sermons criticising witch-finders.
Impact, Stearne and Hopkins questioned at Norfolk assizes about their methods. People started to suggest that they were in league with the Devil.
110
What were Hopkins and Stearne's responses to opposition against them?
Hopkins published- The Discovery of Witches.
Stearne- A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft.
Spoke about the threat witches posed to society, they had only been to places they had been invited and acted on people that society had deemed as witches (much truth in this).
Gaskill- 'they were catalysts who gave accusers confidence by confirming their suspicions and beliefs'.
111
What was witch-hunting like after Hopkins death?
Newcastle, 1650, towns Puritan administration called in Scottish witch-picker to help them hunt witches. Fifteen people were executed.
1652, Maidstone assizes in Kent, eighteen people tried, third executed.
After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, witch-hunts severely declined.
