Paganism an overview introduction - South African Pagan Council

during earlier phases of the Inquisition. “Loathe they are to confess without torture,”
wrote King James I in his Daemonologie.
A physician serving in witch prisons spoke of women driven half mad: “...by frequent
torture... kept in prolonged squalor and darkness of their dungeons... and constantly
dragged out to undergo atrocious torment until they would gladly exchange at any
moment this most bitter existence for death, are willing to confess whatever crimes
are suggested to them rather than to be thrust back into their hideous dungeon amid
ever recurring torture.”
Unless the “witch” died during torture, she was taken to the stake. Since many of the
burnings took place in public squares, inquisitors prevented the victims from talking
to the crowds by using wooden gags or cutting their tongue out. Unlike a heretic or a
Jew who would usually be burnt alive only after they had relapsed into their heresy or
Judaism, a Witch would be burnt upon the first conviction.
Physicians often attributed their own incompetence to witchcraft. When an illness
could not be understood, even the highest body of England, the Royal College of
Physicians of London, was known to accept the explanation of witchcraft.
Elizabethan Witchcraft and Witches
The Elizabethan Period and the intellectual era of the Renaissance introduced English
persecution of Elizabethan Witches and Witchcraft. Ironically, this period of great
learning brought with it a renewed belief in the supernatural including a belief in the
powers of witchcraft, witches and witch hunts! Ironically the introduction of the
printing press, one of the greatest tools in increasing knowledge and learning was
responsible! Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press 1456. The first printed
books were bibles or contained religious themes. Unfortunately many of these books
promoted ideas about witches and witchcraft which in turn led to the intensified witch
hunts of the 15th and 16th centuries! Additional new renaissance thinking and books
about Astrology, Alchemy and Magick increased the interest in witchcraft, witches
and witch hunts even further. The 1562 Elizabethan Witchcraft Act was passed during
the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was an act “agaynst Conjuracions Inchauntmentes
and Witchecraftes”.
During the Elizabethan era people blamed unexplainable events as the work of
witches. There were frequent outbreaks of the deadly Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
for which there was no cure. The fear and anger about this terrible disease had to be
directed at someone - witches were the obvious target. When people died from terrible
diseases, when animals died, when there was a bad harvest, when houses were burnt
down in fires even when foods curdled - witches were the obvious targets. During the
Elizabethan era there was limited medical knowledge or facilities and there was no
form of insurance. Such events as those described above were devastating and there
was no means of minimising their terrible effects on the lives of Elizabethans -
someone had to be blamed - witches were the obvious targets.
There were 270 Elizabethan witch trials of 247 were women.
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