Contemporary writers such as Reginald Scot offered scepticism to the idea of witch hunting in his Treatise ‘The Discoverie of witchcraft’ which was published in 1584, this literary text is extremely important when looking at this question. The book backs up the idea that witchcraft accusations were a reflection of socio-economic tensions in early modern Britain. There are two important points to be taken into account when considering Scot’s theories firstly the ideas he offers on economic or social prejudices in Early Modern Britain and secondly the suggestion he offers that people in this period were willing to accept these reason due in most part to their ignorance. The reasons he gave which proclaimed such a philosophy are that a majority of the accused were ‘women which be commonly old, lame, bleary-eyed, pale, foul and full of wrinkles; poor, sullen, superstitious, and papists, or such as know no religion; in whose drowsy mind the devil hath gotten a fine seat’ by this Scot is suggesting that there was a social prejudice towards the aged and also a vendetta against the impoverished as well as backing up the misogynistic opinion of accusers.
The second reason suggested by Scot is the sceptical theory that there is no biblical background to witchcraft. Scot was a devout Calvinist, meaning he believed god ruled all, and if there is no biblical reference to witchcraft the devil is not possessing the accused. Evidence of this in the book states ‘we fly from trusting god to trusting in witches’. This perception is intriguing because it looks at religion, rather than social or economic reasons, and how Scot blamed the Roman Church for the alleged un-Christian prosecution of those accused of witchcraft. Also this book offered a political reflection on witchcraft accusations because all accessible copies of the book were to be burned by decree of James I in 1603.
An alternative argument put forward by Reginald Scot is that the components of the offence that is committed by the accused is just a combination of crime already prohibited by the laws of Britain during the 16th Century. This is extremely interesting when considering the question at hand as it insinuates that the practice of witches is just a group of criminal offences put together and given a superstitious cover. This would suggest that the socio-economic tensions that appear to be the back bone to witchcraft accusations were already prosecutable offences such as vagrancy and heresy, this is shown by Reginald Scot when he proclaims ‘that in times past here in England, as in other nations, this order of discipline hath been in force and use’. In Scots final dimension he offers a dispute to the idea that witchcraft is a direct result of socio-economic tensions and he achieves this by considering how plausible the idea of witchcraft is on both a scientific and philosophical front. This is valid because most witchcraft allegations were based on the very limited scientific findings of the time, but still to some level scientific findings.
Arguably the most written about and disputed theory that witchcraft is associated with is misogyny. The reason that this is a plausible philosophy is clearly linked to the fact that ninety percent of the accused were female, this would strongly imply that social factors played a strong factor in the accusation process. Popular beliefs at the time were that women were weak and had a strong capacity for evil and also cases would often be a result of feminine disputes. This concept is backed up by the witchcraft treatise the Malleus Maleficarium which in section one suggests that women had sex with the devil, which in turn led to them assuming the powers of a witch and it states in the Malleus “all witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.” This leads to the presumption that sexist prejudice was clearly evident at this time and it is strongly emphasised throughout this treatise which suggests the roots of prosecuting witches had some levels of ignorance that influenced them. The treatise was extremely widespread in Germany due to the fact that it was fortunate enough to be duplicated via the newly invented printing press and this meant that it was read by the masses and could be considered to be propaganda. The fact that it was slower for the word to spread in England offers a significant reason to why witchcraft accusations reflect economic tensions in Early Modern Britain. The reasoning behind this is the Malleus Maleficarium was ‘slow to impinge upon England. It found its way into the libraries of the learned, for English intellectuals were used to buying and reading the publications of foreign presses; but the total absence of an English edition is striking by the side of the thirteen editions on the continent by 1520’Another aspect that must not be overlooked when considering the importance of the Malleus is that it was one of the original pieces on witchcraft, which due to a lack of literature on the subject at the time it was extremely hard to make an informed opinion. This led to strong beliefs on the subject and evidently increased the prejudices against gender. This argument and the fact that it is the most widely believed and renowned social ideology regarding witchcraft is also backed up by Brian P. Levack when he states ‘The most well-documented characteristic of those persons who were prosecuted for witchcraft is that they were predominately, if not overwhelmingly female.’ He does dispute witchcraft being solely gender related by exclaiming ‘witchcraft was a sex-related but not sex-specific crime.’
Due to factors such as scientific discovery, increased literature on feminism, a change in ideologies and social and economics concepts and a revolution in the criminal justice system; arguments on witchcraft are more varied meaning witchcraft literature is a lot more accessible today. This leads to a point raised by well-known feminist scholar Carol F Karlsen who backs up the theory that women were victims of male chauvinism, but does however stumble across a factor that completely disputes the ideology that women were the scapegoats of witchcraft. The notion in question is the fact that many of the witchcraft accusers in Early Modern Britain were in fact female. Karlsen admits this in relation to misogyny is extremely perplexing, this is shown in her text when she describes women’s role as a witch accuser as ‘one of the most baffling questions about witchcraft’. This point is made clear to modern day historians by the documentation that women as witnesses increased significantly in serious judicial proceedings in England and Wales which were presided over by itinerant judges, which were known as The Assizes and were the modern day equivalent of the Crown Court. This point is articulated most effectively in Clive Holmes article ‘Women: witnesses and witches’ when it states ‘The phenomenon is paralleled by an increase in the involvement of female deponents in all cases before the assizes …after the restoration the proportion had more than doubled’.
The idea of a religious reflection on the reasoning behind witchcraft accusations is also integral to the argument against socio-economic tensions because there was a religious crisis in some areas that was described as having ‘almost unlimited potential for creating the type of communal anxiety that led to witchcraft accusations’ . This is due to certain types of religion and is discussed by Levack who states ‘The prevalence of millenarian sentiment in east Anglia in 1645 might very well have made communities there receptive to the witch-hunting activities of Matthew Hopkins’ In researching the religious aspects of the causes of witch hunting in Early Modern Britain and trying to decide whether witchcraft accusations were simply a reflection of socio-economic tensions, one character that cannot be overlooked is the ‘professional’ witch hunter known as the witch hunter general and the most prominent in this category was the aforementioned Matthew Hopkins, who was partly responsible for the outbreak in witch hunting in Eastern England in the mid-17th Century. As well as being due to religious reasons, Hopkins had a lot more freedom than most others who accused and tried witches; this was mainly due to the civil war that had led to a slackening of local authority laws due to said authorities being weakened.
There are many contributory factors that suggest that there are social and economic reasons behind witchcraft another of which is fear. This was a factor as a lot of accusations were made due to arguments between people or the refusal to other a helping hand to a poorer less fortunate member of society. It could also be argued that witch accusations were a result of people’s marital status as most figures looked into suggests that it was mainly the unmarried or widowed who were considered to be witches. This is also given light by Levack who suggests ‘Most of these unmarried women were fairly poor, and thus they represented a serious social problem. If men already harboured fears of unattached women, their fears were aggravated by a process of social and demographic change’ this again points at the issue of Gender as well because there is no suggestion of a fear of unmarried men.
To conclude there are many interesting and opinionated views on the reasoning behind witchcraft accusations in Early Modern Britain. The label of ‘socio-economic tensions’ as name for most of these alleged reasoning’s appears to be a sufficient one. This can be said after much research because the main reasons behind witchcraft allegations appears to be the accused social status and how the higher classes feared them, the accused gender and how women were alleged to ninety per cent of the accused also issues such as the accused marital status have shown as significant in the prosecution of witches. There are however some notions that do not fall under the class of socio-economic such as the religious beliefs of the accusers and also political views such as James I belief in witchcraft that was shown by his attempt to remove Reginald Scot’s skeptical view on witchcraft from literature by having all obtainable copies burnt. There is a suggestion that ignorance is the main reflection that can be withdrawn from witchcraft allegations but this essay shows that it is mainly down to a different period in history that had a completely dissimilar set of social, economic, political and religious views from the ones that exist in today’s society.
Bibliography
Holmes, Clive, ‘Women: Witnesses and Witches’, Past and Present, no. 140 (1993)
Macfarlane, Alan, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A Regional and Comparative Study (1970)
Oldridge, Darren, The Witchcraft Reader (2001)
Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic,(1971)
Karlsen.C, The devil in the shape of the woman,(1987)
Levack, Brian P., The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (1997)
Levack, B.P: The witch hunt in early modern Europe, New York 1987, pg 134
Hester, M: Patriarchal reconstruction and witch-hunting (The Witchcraft Reader), London 2002, pg 277
Levack, B.P: The witch hunt in early modern Europe, New York 1987, pg 132-136
Scot. R, the Discoverie of witches, London, 1584 p8
Kramer.H: Malleus maleficiarum, Germany : 1487 section 1
Thomas, K: Religion and the decline of magic, Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1971, pg 523
Levack, B.P: The witch hunt in early modern Europe, New York 1987, pg 124
Karlsen.C: The devil in the shape of the woman, New York: 1987 pg 226
Holmes.C: Women; witnesses and witches, oxford university press; 1993 p 48
Levack, B.P: The witch hunt in early modern Europe, New York 1987, pg 151
Levack, B.P: The witch hunt in early modern Europe, New York 1987, pg 133