Manchester University Press
1 Introduction
Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to the Lancashire witches in the context of history, giving an outline of what happened in 1612 and 1633–34. Lancashire was a county where witchcraft was considered a recurring problem. It was not only the location of important witch trials in 1612 and of an incipiently major witch-scare in 1633–34, but also an area where a variety of witch beliefs flourished. The Lancashire prosecutions of 1612 and 1633 are important in demonstrating how witch-beliefs developed. This chapter discusses two initial sets of issues related to the Lancashire witches. The first is the notion that there was a distinctive English witchcraft, which is contrasted with a more exotic and demonically driven continental witchcraft. This idea has been severely challenged because it is intrinsically implausible to posit the existence of a unified continental witchcraft. Secondly, close reading of accounts of witch trials between the mid sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries suggest the anxiety of the time that a theologically correct view of witchcraft be spread among the populace. Furthermore, the chapter attempts to explain why the witch trials occurred, particularly those of 1612.
Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to the Lancashire witches in the context of history, giving an outline of what happened in 1612 and 1633–34. Lancashire was a county where witchcraft was considered a recurring problem. It was not only the location of important witch trials in 1612 and of an incipiently major witch-scare in 1633–34, but also an area where a variety of witch beliefs flourished. The Lancashire prosecutions of 1612 and 1633 are important in demonstrating how witch-beliefs developed. This chapter discusses two initial sets of issues related to the Lancashire witches. The first is the notion that there was a distinctive English witchcraft, which is contrasted with a more exotic and demonically driven continental witchcraft. This idea has been severely challenged because it is intrinsically implausible to posit the existence of a unified continental witchcraft. Secondly, close reading of accounts of witch trials between the mid sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries suggest the anxiety of the time that a theologically correct view of witchcraft be spread among the populace. Furthermore, the chapter attempts to explain why the witch trials occurred, particularly those of 1612.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Preface x
- Acknowledgements xiii
- 1 Introduction 1
- Part I: The Trials of 1612 19
- 2 Potts, plots and politics 22
- 3 Thomas Potts’s ‘dusty memory’ 42
- 4 ‘Those to whom evil is done’ 58
- Part II: Contexts 71
- 5 Witchcraft, economy and society in the forest of Pendle 73
- 6 The Reformation in the parish of Whalley 88
- 7 Beyond Pendle 105
- Part III: Rewriting the Lancashire Witches 123
- 8 The pilot’s thumb 126
- 9 Sexual and spiritual politics in the events of 1633–34 and The Late Lancashire Witches 146
- 10 The ‘Lancashire novelist’ and the Lancashire witches 166
- 11 Wicca, Paganism and history 188
- Bibliography 204
- Index 219
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Preface x
- Acknowledgements xiii
- 1 Introduction 1
- Part I: The Trials of 1612 19
- 2 Potts, plots and politics 22
- 3 Thomas Potts’s ‘dusty memory’ 42
- 4 ‘Those to whom evil is done’ 58
- Part II: Contexts 71
- 5 Witchcraft, economy and society in the forest of Pendle 73
- 6 The Reformation in the parish of Whalley 88
- 7 Beyond Pendle 105
- Part III: Rewriting the Lancashire Witches 123
- 8 The pilot’s thumb 126
- 9 Sexual and spiritual politics in the events of 1633–34 and The Late Lancashire Witches 146
- 10 The ‘Lancashire novelist’ and the Lancashire witches 166
- 11 Wicca, Paganism and history 188
- Bibliography 204
- Index 219
