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Witchcraft Past and Present
body dislocating the arms and causing terrible pain. In other places, the
accused was subject to torture by instruments of compression –
thumbscrews, leg screws and head clamps.
In Germany, suspect witches were made to sit on the ‘witches’ chair’ – a
metal seat below which a fire was lit! In Scotland, confessions were
forced out of suspects by an instrument called ‘the bootes’ which
‘
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chrushte the legges and beaten them together as small as micht be’ and
made the bones and flesh so bruised, that the blud and marrow sputed
forth in great abundance.’
Almost inevitably the accused confessed and was sentenced to death.
Some did not even get the ‘opportunity’ to stand trial and plead their
innocence in whatever mental or physical state they may have been in.
‘Swimming the witch’ was widely practised in several parts of Europe.
The suspect’s ankles were bound to the wrists and he or she was thrown
into water. If they sank, they were innocent: if they floated then
witchcraft was confirmed and sentence duly pronounced.
In Scotland, suspect witches were pricked for the ‘Devil’s mark’ – a spot
where no pain was felt. If such a spot was found it marked the place
where the Devil had consummated a pact with the accused.
The fact that most people accused of witchcraft were innocent did not
deter those who searched them out. Witchcraft was thought to be the
most heinous of all crimes because it represented those who were
working against society in general and God in particular. Those who
sought it out were acting on God’s behalf and on behalf of their monarch
who ruled by divine authority.
Witch-hunting was more intense on mainland Europe than in the
British Isles, especially in England where the Witchcraft Act was passed
in 1563, giving the State rather than the Church the responsibility of
seeking out and punishing men and women who practised the black art.
There were probably less than 5,000 trials, less than half of which
resulted in the accused being executed.
Two of those who came under the scrutiny of the court were Elizabeth
Francis and Agnes Waterhouse. Elizabeth Francis was tried for
bewitching a child and making her ill. She told her judges that her
grandmother had introduced her to witchcraft when she was twelve. The
cat, she told her accusers, had helped Elizabeth become rich and killed her
lover when he refused to marry her. She confessed to allowing the Devil
to kill three of her parish priest’s pigs, to drown a neighbour’s cow and
to slaughter three of another neighbour’s geese. More seriously to
modern eyes, she confessed to killing her husband: but it was for
witchcraft as well as murder that she was hanged.
Agnes Waterhouse was lucky. She was accused of keeping a toad as her
familiar – the supernatural spirit who takes the shape of an animal and
assists a witch in her magic – and using it to bewitch a child who refused
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