The Witches of Edlingham - Apology Needed?

Witches are again in the news, admittedly after a fairly substantial absence. Many of my generation will recall the superb Hammer version of 'Witchfinder General' with Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins, winnowing the alleged ranks of the imps of Satan in East Anglia during the Civil Wars.

The obsession with witches persisted until well into the twentieth century - in 1944 a medium, Helen Duncan, was gaoled for offences under the 1735 Witchcraft Act after an allegation of treason foundered. In fact she had revealed in the course of a seance that HMS Barham had gone down with 861 souls on November 25th 1941. This was not public news as the Admiralty had chosen to try and conceal the fact of her loss and the casualties.

Even in the febrile climate of 1941, with Britain under enormous pressure, this seems rather far-fetched, an apology is now being canvassed.

We tend, historically, to associate witchcraft with Scotch Calvinism and the dour repression of the Kirk; perhaps the most celebrated case being the Witches of North Berwick in the reign of James VI (James I of England) - with the mercurial and unstable 5th Earl of Bothwell cited as ringleader.

Northumberland too did have its sensations. In 1673, Anne Armstrong, something of a local Hopkins, denounced Anne, wife of Thomas Bates of Morpeth. Mrs. Bates was accused of all the usual witching traits; consorting with the Devil, transforming herself into a cat and indulging in ungodly frolics at sabbats. I suppose the current version would be dogging, tho' a lot less fun.
Happily the local justices were unmoved by such tales and sent the witch-finder packing.

Sex and witchcraft do seem to have been frequent companions; most of those accused were said to have engaged in communal acts of depravity with diabolical partners; real 'Sun' reader material. Ignorance and mass-hysteria undoubedly played roles as would the setling of local scores. However the penalties for those convicted were draconian

In early 1683,Margaret Stothard from Edlingham was accused; amongst the alleged offences was a nocturnal and unearthly appearence at the house of a neighbour, John Mills, who later witnessed ungodly portents outside the wretched woman's house. More seriously Stothard was alleged to have caused the death of a child. Another child she had cured by drawing out the ailment andf transferring it into a cow.

Most likely the accused was a wise woman or healer who'd clearly offended some of her erstwhile clients; a dangerous business for, if convicted she faced the death penalty, happily again Henry Ogle, as magistrate, threw the case out.

A system as oppressive as Calvinism needs its demons, a class against whom people can focus their anger. In the modern world where liberal attitudes and PC impose a similar dead hand, who or what are the equivalent of witches? Has to be paedophiles I think, they're the one group we're allowed to hate, we can't be nasty to people on the basis of race, religion, sexuality et al, but we can hate paedos; they are the demonology of political correctness.

Does this mean we will, in fifty or a hundred years time, be called on to aplogise?

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