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Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Responses of the authorities to witchcraft: English methods, the Inquisitions and the end of prosecution

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on burning in England, swimming and pricking, the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions, the Reformation and protective ritual, appellate courts, confessions, the Act of 1736 and the legacy for legal procedure.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Evaluation

Why did the existence of a strong appellate court matter more than the ruler's religion?

Key term

If English witches were hanged, why were some women burned in England?

Key term

State what searchers and prickers were looking for.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why then were some women burned in England?

    Model answer

    Burning was the penalty for petty treason and coining, not for witchcraft, so an English witch was hanged unless she had also killed her husband or counterfeited the coin.

  2. 2

    What was swimming the witch?

    Model answer

    It was an ordeal in which a suspect was bound and put into water, floating being taken as proof of guilt because the pure element was thought to reject a servant of the Devil.

  3. 3

    State what searchers and prickers were looking for.

    Model answer

    A devil's mark on the body, tested by pricking with a needle for a spot that did not bleed or feel pain, a technique used by professional prickers in Scotland.

  4. 4

    How did the Spanish Inquisition respond to the Basque panic?

    Model answer

    It sent Salazar to investigate, accepted his conclusion that the evidence was worthless, and in 1614 issued instructions requiring corroboration and forbidding reliance on confessions and denunciations alone.

  5. 5

    What line did the Roman Inquisition take on witchcraft?

    Model answer

    Its instruction for judges required careful procedure, rejected confessions obtained by improper pressure and directed that most cases be treated as superstition needing pastoral correction rather than as capital heresy.

  6. 6

    How did the Reformation's abolition of protective ritual affect people's exposure to witchcraft?

    Model answer

    Protestants removed holy water, blessings, exorcism and appeals to the saints, so the traditional defences against maleficium were gone while belief in the danger remained, leaving prosecution as the remaining remedy.

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