Response of the Authorities - New Set

Year of the Parliamentary Act that allowed for the prosecution and execution of witches in England.

1563

Year of Act passed by James I - More draconian, capital offence for first cases.

1604

Criminalisation made it a X crime - compare to the Inquisition, in which it was not - meant that witchcraft became a crime against the state, meaning that punishments such as the death penalty could be implicated

Secular

Legislation which encouraged local Presbyterians in Scotland to seek out witches, leading to an intensive phase of hunts

Witchcraft Act 1649

Last execution for witchcraft in Parlement of Paris date

1625

Decriminalisation of witchcraft in France

1682

Last execution for witchcraft in England date

1685

Decriminalisation of witchcraft in England

1736

Last execution for witchcraft in Scotland date

1706

Decriminalisation of witchcraft in Scotland

1736

Last execution for witchcraft in Sweden date

1710

Decriminalisation of witchcraft in Ireland

1821

Decriminalisation of witchcraft in Sweden

1779

How many executions in Ireland total (population of 1 million)

4

Last execution in Poland date

1775

Decriminalisation of witchcraft in Poland date

1776

Last execution in Prussia date

1714

Decriminalisation of witchcraft in Prussia

1714

Law requiring either the testimony of 6 witches or a confession for a capital conviction

Sweden 1593

Law that all death sentences were appealed to a royal court in Stockholm

Sweden 1614

Defined - An X is a legal system in which the court, or a part of the court, is actively involved in investigating the facts of the case. This is distinct from an adversarial system, in which the role of the court is primarily that of an impartial referee between the prosecution and the defence.

Inquisitorial system

When were the Lancashire assizes - Pendle

18th to the 19th August

Prosecutor at the Lancashire assizes

Roger Nowell

Chief judge of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, also the lieutenant governor of the colony. Harvard educated, went to England to extend religious studies, coming back in 1682. Served in virtually every government, acted as governor in absence of governor for much of the period.

William Stoughton

Alongside Stoughton, they were partisans, adopting a semi-prosecutorial stance, questioning witnesses and also pressuring jurors. Crown were allowed prosecution lawyers whilst victims had to speak for themselves.

Samuel and Hathorne Seawall

Who accused Jane Wenham?

Anne Thorne

Who was the judge of the Jane Wenham trial?

Sir John Powell

Reviews Suffolk cases as Special Commissioner in the presence of a grand jury at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. 150 accused at initial Bury St Edmunds hearings. Godbolt asserts confessions must always be 'purely voluntary and unconstrained' 16 women and 2 men still sentenced to death by X (including Lowes). Hopkins and Stearne act as witnesses. X convicts Lowes despite Lowes' own retraction of his confession in court which seems to contradict X's own pronouncement about free confessions (Lowes having been watched, walked and swum).

John Godbolt

John Godbolt quotation about acceptance of confession at Suffolk assizes

Purely voluntary and unconstrained

Acceptance of Spectral evidence as permissible. Cotton Mather seemed to have instructed the court to follow the approach of William Perkins. In order for conviction, spectral evidence seems to not have been enough, as either a confession or non-spectral evidence was needed. Testimony concerning maleficium had to be from two people of good characte

Court of Oyer and Terminer

X people were charged only with spectral evidence but not one of them was called to court to answer charges. All X people that were put to death had been charged with maleficium.

79, 19

Who presided over the JPs at the Chelmsford Trials?

Earl of Warwick

How many women were tried at Chelmsford, condemned to death?

29, 19

Scottish Local Commissions - X% execution rate of all the trials related to witchcraft it experienced.

91%

Nicolas Remy publication and date

Demonolatreiae, 1580

Where was Nicolas Remy from?

Lorraine

How many witches did Nicolas Remy claim to have executed, in what timeframe?

800, 16 years

John Holt: - As Lord Chief Justice he oversaw X trials on witchcraft and acquitted all.

11-12

Case of Sarah Murdock 1701, accused by X

Richard Hathaway

Action of Holt off the back of the Case of Sarah Murdock 1701,

Hathaway on trial for malicious accusation

At the Ely court of Assize X Godbolt was the judge. Our records aren't great but we think he directed jury to acquit all X of the women accused as witches.

September 1646, 3

Back in Ely a year later X Godbolt directed jury to acquit many of the accused (again our records are not complete) but we know he did sentence to death X

September 1647, Margaret Moore.

When were the Kings Lynn trials

24th September 1646

How many acquitted from the Kings Lynn trials

7

Judge at the Kings Lynn trials on the 24th September 1646, in which Hopkins gave evidence personally agaisnt 8 women and 1 man. The mayor and aldermen were present, as well as the JPs. 7 witches were acquitted.

Miles Corbett

Resigned from the bench after the court adjourned when considering the cases of Rebecca Nurse and John Willard (after execution of Bishop). He resigned out of protest to how the trial was being conducted (Salem, Court of Oyer and Terminer)

Major Saltonstall

Years George Mackenzie was Lord Advocate, Scotland

1677-1686

George Mackenzie Publication and Date

- Blamed careless judges
- Witches were deceived and not inherently evil themselves
- The devil could not offer riches as most witches were poor
- Argued that witchcraft trials should be conducted in the normal manner rather than as an exceptional crime

Law and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal, 1678

Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery was convened in Salem, headed by Stoughton. Phips physically prevented Stoughton from accepting spectral evidence. First five victims, all had been previously indicted, were found not guilty (Sarah Buckley, Margaret Jacobs, Rebecca Jacobs, Mary Whittredge (or Witheridge) and Job Tookey)

Superior Court of Judicature

Who was found guilty by the Superior Court of Judicature

Elizabeth Johnson Jr, Sarah Wardwell and Mary Post

Scottish Circuit Courts - Of all cases relating to witchcraft, only X% of them resulted in execution.

16%

Where was the hunt, when, that led to the intervention of the Parliament on cases - all sentences of death in witchcraft cases within its jurisdiction to be reviewed.
Refused to sentence witches to death on the basis of confessions extracted under torture

Champagne-Ardennes region, 1587-88

Over X cases reviewed by the Paris Parlement led to complete dismissal

1/3

Only X of all cases were confirmed by the Paris Parlement

1/4

Cases heard under the Parlement of Paris 1500-1700

3000

X death sentences confirmed by the Parlement of Paris 1568-1625

100

Last execution for witchcraft by the Parlement of Paris

1625

How many common law courts at Westminster

3

In January and mid-Summer, X judges were allocated to each of the assize courts and sent out from Westminster to try cases. So, witch trials were presided over by experienced judges who were culturally distanced from the world of village squabbles

2

suspected of treason against the king as a king, who was tortured with the boots - legs crushed and beaten together, blood and marrow spilled out of his legs, 1590 Scotland.

Dr Fian

Arrest of Gilly Duncan in 1589. X took it upon himself to investigate and, with the help of others, illegally tortured her. This involved the use of pilliwinks on her fingers to gradually crush them and binding a rope and around her head and gradually crushing it by wrenching

David Seton

Refused to execute accused witches on the evidence of confessions gained under torture

Parlement of Paris

The central court in the province of Holland forbade the use of torture in X.

1594

Last execution was X in the Dutch Republic - very early.
Main explanation for liberal treatments seems to be more rational than legal however, as Dutch judges simply did not believe that witches were engaged in a diabolical conspiracy.

1609

In X, the Danish government declared that torture couldn't be used until after a death sentence had been pronounced

1547

How many trials, executions, were there in Denmark 1540-1680

2000, 1000

Torture was not legal, leading to a relatively low intensity of witchcraft persecutions. When torture was used (illegally) during the hunt of Matthew Hopkins, persecutions rose

England

Officially, torture was only legal in X if authorised by the Privy Council or Parliament

Scotland

In cases of witchcraft, only 2 warrants for torture were issued - X,X.
Abundant evidence of torture being used illegally - demonstrates a lack of centralisation and control in Scotland.

1591, 1610

Which Pope issued Summis Desiderantes Affectibus

Pope Innocent VIII

When was Summis Desiderantes Affectibus published

5th December 1484

When was Malleus Maleficarum published?

1486

How many times was Malleus Maleficarum republished before 1520

13

When was Kramer appointed chief inquisitor for South Germany

1478

Malleus - Claimed witchcraft was the worst of all crimes, as it combined heresy with secular crimes like murder and sodomy.
X of the book was dedicated to informing judges how to prosecute witches.

1/3

Author of Malleus Maleficarum

Henrich Kramer

Puritan Minister, born in London, migrated to Boston, attended Harvard University, career as a plantation owner, and moved to Salem to enter the ministry.
Attempted to increase salary and benefits, such as free firewood and exclusive ownership of minister's house - Town refused to pay wages, after purchasing unnecessary items for the Puritan meeting house, like gold candlesticks.

Samuel Parris

He was influential in the use of spectral evidence in the court, as he advised the judges to follow the directions of the English Puritan William Perkins. He did caution the judges not to rely on spectral evidence alone to convict, but could be used by itself for indictment. Did not condemn the trial of Bishop and encourages the judges to continue.

Cotton Mather

The X most fervent witch-hunters were all Catholic Counter-Reformationist Prince Bishops. Accounted for X of the total accusations in the HRE

9, 25%

Ruling Bishop of Cologne 1624-34

Ferdinand von Bayern

Ruling Bishop of Wurzburg 1626-30

Philipp von Ehrenberg

Ruling Bishop of Mainz 1626-29

Georg von Greiffenklau

Ruling Bishop of Mainz 1602-04

Johann von Bicken

Ruling Bishop of Bamberg 1626-30

Johann von Dornheim

Ruling Bishop of Ellwangen/Eichstatt 1611-30

Johann von Westerstetten

Ruling Bishop of Mainz 1616-18

Johann von Cronberg

Ruling Bishop of Trier 1581-99

Johann von Schonenberg

Ruling Bishop of Wurzburg 1616-18

Julius von Mespelbrunn

Ferdinand von Bayern victims

2000

Philipp von Ehrenberg victims

900

Georg von Greiffenklau victims

768

Johann von Bicken victims

650

Johann von Dornheim victims

600

Johann von Westerstetten victims

550

Johann von Cronberg victims

361

Johann von Schonenberg victims

350

Julius von Mespelbrunn victims

300

Peter Binsfield Publication and Date

Of the Confessions of Warlocks and Witches, 1589

Trier - From X onwards, the newly established Jesuit college kept in custody young boys who claimed that they had attended sabbats and that they could also identify witches

1585

Wurzburg - At X - Mespelbrunn accused protestants of witchcraft to consolidate the return to Catholicism he had engineered. Desire to create religious conformity.

Freudenberg