A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 (Acls History E-book Project Reprint Series)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ...the establishment of the Protectorate, a time that shaded off from the dark shadows of internecine struggle towards the high light of steady peace and security. By 1653 the equilibrium of England had been restored. Cromwell's government was beginning to run smoothly. The courts were in full swing. None of those conditions to which we have attributed the spread of the witch alarms of the Civil Wars were any longer in operation. It is not surprising, then, that the Protectorate was one of the most quiet periods in the annals of witchcraft. While the years 1648-1653 had wit Yet in 1650 there had been a scare at Gatesbead which cost the rate pa yen £2, of which a significant item was 6 d. for a "grave for a witch." Denham Tracts (Folk Lore Soc), II, 338. At Durham, in 1652, two persons were executed. Richardson, Table Book (London, 1841), I, 286. "J. C. Cox, Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals (London, 1890), II, 88. Cox, however, thinks it probable that she was punished. nessed thirty executions in England, the period of the Protectorate saw but half a dozen, and three of these fell within the somewhat disturbed rule of Richard Cromwell." In other words, there was a very marked falling off of convictions for witchcraft, a falling off that had indeed begun before the year 1653. Yet this diminution of capital sentences does not by any means signify that the realm was rid of superstition. In Middlesex, in Somerset and Devon, in York, Northumberland, and Cumberland, the attack upon witches on the part of the people was going on with undiminished vigor. If no great discoveries were made, if no nests of the pestilent creatures were unearthed, the justices of the peace were kept quite as busy with examinations as ever...