Witchcraft

Found an interesting piece from Yale Open Courses dealing with witchcraft. It starts off with magic as such, then its maleficent uses in witchcraft and its prosecution. It focuses on the circumstances of English witchcraft trials, but it does summarise nicely those of continental counterparts for comparison. An interesting difference for me was that in England witchcraft was never considered heresy, it was considered a crime. And secondly that such trials were sporadic, there were no systematic witch hunts except for the activity of Matthew Hopkins. These cases were generally reported to courts by people and not spotted by specialised investigators. The course looks for the various reasons why it all happened when it happened, and why of all counties Essex might have been the one where most trials originated. The lecturer even finds time to recommend the film Witchfinder General; I find it respectable if an expert has the ability to find artistic value in a popular adaptation of his expertise that he knows inaccurate from a purely professional point of view.