Of demons and witches

James I had more impact on religion than commissioning the Bible that bears his name. Turns out, a few years earlier he wrote a book on demons, and one of England's longest lasting acts prohibiting witchcraft was passed early in his rule.

I ran across this information while researching Sharon's side of the tree, and although I don't believe any of them had anything to with the legislation beyond voting on it, I thought I'd post about it before moving on to one of her relatives who's already been mentioned in connection with Guy Fawkes. Coincidentally he served on a couple of the same committees Sir John Hungerford served on, so they would have known each other.

James' book on demons, aptly titled Demonology, appeared in 1597 in Scotland and was republished in England in 1603, when he assumed the throne there. Some scholars believe the book influenced Shakespeare's MacBeth, which dates to 1623. Others theorize Will might have been making some sort of subtle political comment on the king's interest in the subject.  You can find copies on the Internet if you're interested.

He divided the book into three parts -- magic and necromancy (predicting the future by communication with the spirits of the dead), witchcraft and sorcery, and spirits and specters (ghosts). What sparked his interest? I'm sure several factors contributed, but possibly one of them was a series of trials of the North Berwick witches in Scotland, North Berwick being a church near Edinburgh where the witches allegedly congregated in the dead of night to meet with the Devil and plot, among other things, James' downfall through the use of magic. 

James often took part in the trials, and heard testimony derived through the use of torture. One of the accused, Agnes Sampson, testified that Satan considered him his chief opponent. I'm sure the king felt no flush of ego on hearing this. 

England had passed laws about witchcraft before. Under Henry VIII, witchcraft intended to cause harm to or disrupt the realm was criminalized and considered a felony. Punishment was death and forfeiture of the owner's possessions. Some magic was allowed -- helping people find lost items, healing common sickness, even to benefit a troubled marriage, that sort of thing. This act was repealed six years later by Henry's son, Edward. 

When Elizabeth ascended the throne, Parliament passed a new act against witchcraft. This act added more complexity to the issue. Minor offenses were distinguished from those intended to cause serious harm or death. A first offense of a minor offense brought a punishment of a year's imprisonment that included public shaming every three month by being placed in a pillory -- that device you've seen in movies where your head and hands are placed between two boards and you're forced to stand for the duration of the punishment, in this case six hours.

A second minor offense or a major offense, such as murder, made the offender a felon subject to death. Not surprisingly, the number of accusations of murder by witchcraft rose substantially after this act was passed. 

In 1603, Parliament repealed this last act and replaced it. This act went into more detail about what constituted witchcraft. One section calls out the "‘use, practise, or exercise any invocation or conjuration of any evil and wicked spirit: or shall consult, covenant with, entertaine, imploy, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit, to or for any intent or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his, her, or their grave,… to be imployed, or used in any manner of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Charme, or Inchantment," 

The act also made the matter of witchcraft a matter solely for the civil courts to decide.

Some 500 people were charged and tried for witchcraft under the Elizabethan and Jamesian era acts with 112 being executed, with the majority dying by hanging. The accused -- victims really -- were overwhelmingly poor and elderly women. The last known execution in England took place in 1685, though trials continued until 1717 and a Scottish woman was executed under Scottish law in 1727. All told, throughout all these acts and others passed in Scotland and Ireland, some 500 people were executed. 

The 1603 act was repealed and replaced in 1735. Now witchcraft became associated  practices that undertook "to tell Fortunes, or pretend, from his or her Skill or Knowledge in any occult or crafty Science ..." and the emphasis lay on the use of these practices to delude and defraud the gullible. Punishment was a year in jail.

A few more laws were passed to deal with the issue of people using fortune-telling, astrology and spiritualism to defraud other. In 1951 an act was passed that made an exception for mediums and other forms of spiritualism that were performed solely for entertainment purposes, regardless of whether the practitioners benefitted financially. Now all of this is covered under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations of 2008. 

Image: Stereotypical depiction of fortune teller. Retrieved from www.abcactionnews.com, Tampa Bay television.