The British legal system in the way that it was organised in itself helped to curb the development of witch-hunts. The system was organised so that the victims would have to bring proceedings against the witches as opposed to the ‘faceless’ state. This would mean the ‘victims’ of the witchcraft might not initiate a trial for fear of counter accusation. The way that the secular courts were organised was also important as the judges presiding over cases would not be local magistrates, but would be from another area. This meant that judges would not order executions for fear of the locals ostracising them and would strive to uphold a fair trial.
Methods of discerning witches from other people such as the ‘devil’s mark’, the familiars and the water test were all born from popular superstition. The employment of vampirish familiars for magical purposes had been encountered in medieval legend. Therefore, familiars gained a recognised place in witch-accusations at an early stage. They made their earliest appearance in a Somerset trial in 1530 with the presence of a familiar in the shape of a toad. The mark on the body of a witch was connected to the notion of a familiar, as it was supposedly a ‘teat’ that the familiar used for feeding. The concept behind the water test was that the witches were unnatural so in a reversal of baptism, the water would reject the witch meaning that they float. These beliefs become significant when they are recognised in the legislation of 1604 so they can be cited as part of the proof of witchcraft. Notably, these signs of witchcraft, although they do identify someone as a witch, would not secure a death sentence for the accused, at least in England. With the law as it stood, proof of harm through either confessions or victim’s testament had to be found.
There are many explanations for the witch-hunts of Early Modern Britain. Religious conflict is often cited as an important factor in the commencing of witch-hunts. However, this would not have had the same effect in Britain as it had on the continent, as the reformation was gradual in Britain and the changeover from one denomination to another was relatively smooth. Therefore, in Britain, the reformation would not have had such a great effect on the scale of the witch-hunts unlike Europe. There would have been no Protestant initiated hunts on Catholics or vice-versa. Britain was not Catholic so the papal bull of 1468 declaring witchcraft a crimen exceptum would not have been as effective in building up fear of witches among ordinary people.
The period in which most of the witch-hunts took place has been called the ‘age of anxiety’ due to the prevalence of disease, war, famine, and poverty. This would undoubtedly have had a bearing on the English witch-hunts as much of the important evidence for maleficia come from an unfortunate event such as the death of an animal which would be blamed on the witch suspect. At the time of the civil war, the number of executions dramatically rose. This was caused by a combination of the anxiety caused by the civil war and the effect of puritanical professional witch-hunters such as Matthew Hopkins. During the civil war, when Matthew Hopkins was hunting at his murderous climax, the British law system was in disarray and the system of judges from central areas presiding over local trials was disrupted. This meant that local judges who would be under pressure from their neighbours to convict and keep order in the locality presided over the trials, making them unjust. As accusations of witchcraft generally increased preceding, during, and after wars, the stability of Britain and lack of war must have had an effect on the numbers of those tried and executed for witchcraft. Therefore there was less cause for anxiety in Britain when compared to Europe; this means there must have been other causes of the witch-hunts.
The attitude of a ruler proved to be instrumental in how a witch-hunt progressed. Generally, if the ruler was favourable to the conspiracy theory that witches were trying to destroy the whole of society with their activities, the hunt would be more extensive. This was demonstrated in England when the zealous Scot, James VI inherited the English crown. A year after his accession, the law was changed to a more continental style of legislation with execution more common as a punishment. However, even with the periods of trials with Hopkins and James I, the number of witchcraft trials did not exceed 5,000. This shows a widespread apathy among the public, who, under the British legal system needed to initiate the trials. Therefore, the superstitious beliefs of the public must have had a bearing on this low number of trials. The belief in both good and evil magic was instrumental as local people would have been reluctant to bring charges against people they believed to have a positive effect on the community.
The effect that torture could have on the scale of a witch-hunt was substantial. Therefore the distinct lack of judicial torture in Britain was a contributing factor to the relatively small number of people prosecuted for witchcraft. Many witch treatise writers advocated the use of torture and defended it by saying that the witches could not feel it, as they were possessed by the devil. Neither the judiciary nor the British people accepted this view. On the other hand, ‘scratching’ the witch by making them bleed was believed to relieve the pain of their victims and this was generally accepted practice.
In Europe, the publication of treatises on witch-hunting such as the Malleus Malificarum was influential in turning public opinion against the ‘witches’ of their communities. However, in Britain, they did not have such a profound effect. There were sixteen German editions of the Malleus before it was translated into English. However, the witch treatises that slowly trickled into England did have an effect on the elite of Britain who then began to pursue the idea of witch-hunting more vigorously. Yet their views never fully penetrated the largely illiterate peasant population and so even though legislation was drafted to enable witch-hunting at their bidding, it was not utilized by the masses. The geography of England may have had a bearing on this. The Channel separating Britain from the continent would have bred an ‘insular’ attitude and an unwillingness to accept the ‘foreign’ ideas originating from Europe.
Superstition was an integral element of the consciousness of the British people. This had some positive effects in curbing the witch-hunts, as it was not believed that witches formed a pact with the devil but had some negative effects in techniques like ‘scratching’ a witch. Superstitious belief in the power of witches let their position in society become a threat that needed to be eliminated. Therefore, underlying all of the social conditions necessary for a successful witch-hunt and the triggers in the community, this belief was a crucial driving force behind the persecution of ‘witches’ in their communities.
