WITCHFINDERS - a 17th CENTURY ENGLISH TRAGEDY

I just read a very interesting review in the Sunday Times of a book by Malcolm Gaskill "Witchfinders - A 17th Century English Tragedy". A lot of it is relevant to our 20th Century child abuse witch-hunt.

"In 1645-47, the bleakest years of the English civil war a witch craze erupted in East Anglia. Around 300 suspects were interrogated of whom a third were hanged. Two minor gentlemen from Essex, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne were responsible. In the final days of the purge Hopkins proclaimed himself "Witchfinder General". ..............

Events began when .....a one legged widow living alone on charity [was denounced] as a witch. The local magistrates would normally have questioned so unsubtle an accusation but the war effort stretched them to the limit. Enter Hopkins and Stearne who volunteered as investigators.

Hopkins was probably a lawyers clerk. He was adept at presenting evidence in ways that convinced jurors. Like Stearne he was staunchly puritan. Both men had an apocalyptic vision. They held that Satan stalked the streets as well as the battlefields in a deadly struggle between good and evil.".........

Almost anything could be used as evidence that you were a witch. "Warts, haemorrhoid's, vaginal polyps, spots or pimples were all potentially [satanic] 'teats' and in view of rudimentary hygiene, most people had something to show."

"For almost a year, Hopkins and Stearne were heroes as they crisscrossed the eastern counties. They created a mood in which EXTERMINATING WITCHES APPEARED TO BE PART OF A WAR EFFORT AGAINST THE HATED ROYALISTS. Then sticklers among the magistrates began to reject indictments that appealed to crude stereotypes. Shortly afterwards the authorities decided that the costs of prosecuting witches should be met by taxpayers. WHEN IT EMERGED THAT HOPKINS WAS CHARGING IN EXCESS OF THE MODERN EQUIVALENT OF ?1,000 STERLING PER WEEK IN FEES AND EXPENSES, WITCH-HUNTING RAPIDLY WENT OUT OF FASHION."

"A strong minded clergyman John Gaule published an expose. He began a campaign against the witch-finders which culminated in a lawyers manifesto. ......... Gaskill vividly shows how the barbarity and fanaticism of civil war could spill over into the administration of justice.......He thinks our ancestors were mostly decent and intelligent people who could sink to the worst cruelty and credulity in times of crisis."

SIMILARITIES WITH OUR IRISH WITCH-HUNT.
1) Well we don't have a civil war to excuse our barbarism. However since the 1950s we have seen a vast increase in every type of violent crime including murder, terrorism and organised crime. We have a huge increase in alcoholism, VD and suicide. We have epidemics like drug abuse and AIDS that did not even exist in the 1950s. THESE PROBLEMS MAINLY AFFECT YOUNG PEOPLE and our "liberal" ruling class is obviously incapable of dealing with them. Some of these liberals reacted to their failure by inventing a child abuse witch-hunt.

2) The 17th century witch-hunters Hopkins and Stearne were NOT proper magistrates (because many of the magistrates were fighting a war). They were enthusiastic "volunteers". Well our judges are not in the army but they abdicated their authority to "volunteers" like Mary Raftery who whipped up this hysteria. The judge who sentenced Nora Wall described her as a "gang rapist" and sentenced her to life imprisonment. She was the FIRST woman in the history of the State to be convicted of rape and the FIRST person to get a life sentence for this crime. Nora Wall (formerly Sister Dominic of the Sisters of Mercy) was convicted in June 1999, one month after the broadcast of Mary Raftery's "States of Fear" series by RTE. Some sort of co-incidence perhaps?

3) The 17th century witch-hunt was conceived as part of the war against the hated Royalists (who included hated Catholics). It is perfectly clear that hatred of the Catholic Church is the main motivation of our Irish witch-hunters. Of course the hatred has now spread out to encompass the whole of society so that every teacher, doctor, nurse, football coach etc must take special precautions to avoid false allegations of child abuse.

4) The 17th century witch-hunt involved accepting ludicrous "evidence" as proof of guilt. In recent years the Irish media have published and broadcast numerous allegations of child murder against the Catholic Church. MOST OF THESE ACCUSATIONS RELATE TO TIMES WHEN NO BOY DIED OF ANY CAUSE (so it is not even "genuine" hysteria). I call these "Murder of the Undead " allegations and they are sicker than anything produced by Hopkins and Stearne. In fact they would have been laughed out of court in 17th century England.

5) Huge fees paid to lawyers and their amateur supporters obviously played a role in the 17th century and today. Also Hopkins relished his role as "Witchfinder General". Today people who have made ridiculous documentaries about the Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy etc have received awards and lavish praise. (The inclusion of "Murder of the Undead" allegations does not seem to bother the award givers).

ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE
The role played by the puritan clergyman John Gaule in the 17th century has no real parallel in Ireland today. Gaule was one of the ruling class, and NOT one of the accused. Yet he campaigned furiously against the Witch-hunters and succeeded in bringing them down. In recent years some of our judges have become reluctant to convict the falsely accused. That is fine in so far as it goes but refusing to give in to child abuse hysteria is a PASSIVE virtue. WE NEED A MEMBER OF OUR RULING CLASS TO ACTIVELY ATTACK AND BRING DOWN OUR IRISH WITCH-HUNTERS!

Any volunteers?