Ronald Seth (1911–1985)

This book was originally published in 1967. It is a summary of witchcraft trials and beliefs mainly in Great Britain through the centuries and is organised into three sections: a historical summary, a section of topics, and summaries of major cases. Although the writer respectfully refers to the scholarship of Montague Summers, one of whose books I read recently and did not enjoy at all, he does at least deplore the torture (in Europe and Scotland) and cruel executions to which those accused of witchcraft were subjected and, unlike Summers, does not believe that people really flew on broomsticks etc, shape-changed into animal form or worshipped actual devils (the author takes the stance that the ‘devil’ supposedly present at gatherings was just a man in a costume).

However, the author also believes that many of those accused were probably ‘real’ witches who practiced maleficia (malevolent magic) against their fellow citizens. He does acknowledge that in the sixteenth century onwards the church and secular authorities tortured those accused, using as their guide the Malleus Maleficium and other textbooks on witchcraft, until they ‘confessed’ to identikit offences described in those textbooks, which were not usually featured in witchcraft trials before that period. (In fact, the earlier church had taken the view that those who believed they flew through the air to meetings with the goddess Diana were actually deluded.) He therefore espouses the idea, deplored by Summers, that the church thus ‘invented’ the concept of witchcraft as a heresy with standardised features that included attendance at sabbats, flying to such gatherings, signing a pact with the devil, participation in orgies, the murder of babies to make ointments etc). But he argues that the witches adopted these practices from the church accusations and therefore actually did follow them during the main period of persecution, so that witchcraft actually became the heresy which the church persecuted.

This argument seems counter intuitive, given that the accused were executed and had no opportunity to return home and do so. So-called witches were largely ordinary folk, for the most part illiterate and unable to read about the heretical crimes they were supposed to be committing. (It was the privileged classes who wrote and read about witchcraft as a heresy; a view originally confined to Scotland and the continent, but which over time made its way to England. From time to time, these classes practiced witchcraft but it was always political, with undertones of treason.) As far as the public at large were concerned, witchcraft was maleficia – harm done to them, their families, their animals and crops, including interference in essential work such as churning butter, and this formed the basis of accusations when they came from the grass roots of society rather than the literal witch hunts pursued by the authorities.

Maleficia was treated as a felony in England until the end of Elizabeth I’s reign (and therefore carried a death penalty by hanging if someone was judged guilty of murder by witchcraft, rather than the burning prescribed for heresy or petty treason (when a woman killed her husband)). It was only with the advent of James I/VI who had a particular interest in witchcraft that it became a hanging offence in itself due to its perceived intrinsic harm.

In such a climate, eventually anti-witches (wise women/men or cunning folk) to whom people resorted when they believed themselves bewitched were in danger of being executed given the attitude expressed in various textbooks that ‘good’ or ‘white’ witches were even worse as they corrupted those who accepted their help.

None of the English cases described in the book, some of them famous such as the Pendle witch trials, truly feature the continental description of witchcraft – the Pendle witches did get together at Malkin Tower, but this was clearly a business meeting to decide how they could jail break some of their number who had already been arrested and didn’t involve devil worship or orgies. In England, where torture was only permitted in cases of treason against the monarch, other practices such as sleep deprivation and ‘pricking’ to find the insensitive devil’s mark were resorted to, especially by self-styled witch hunters such as Matthew Hopkins, to obtain confessions. Such confessions followed standard lines, including animal familiars and the like, but again how much was really practiced or was just old widows keeping pets for company, and then distorted to support a conviction?

The final section of the book gives summaries of some of the trials alluded to earlier. The author treats with scepticism the various possessions of nuns in France, Loudon being the most famous, being convinced that the outbreaks were all frauds for monetary gain. He also deplores the lower level of proof required for witchcraft accusations in general, including the testimony of young children which was not permitted in trials for other crimes. The book however lacks a conclusion and finishes abruptly after describing the Salem trials but without acknowledgement of the political and economic tensions in the village that led to the accusations.

The book, therefore, is an odd mixture of scepticism in the case of e.g. the possessed nuns and the Salem trials, and credulity when it puts forward the view that so-called witches really did follow a heretical religion which they had copied from the church’s accusations. The latter becomes rather irritating. Some people may genuinely have believed that they had powers and even used the threat of those for advantage, especially those who were destitute and had to beg for a living. But the whole edifice of heretical witchcraft as some alternative Satanic religion is a house of cards, especially since the same accusations had been levelled many times against various groups in society, ironically commencing with the early Christians. So overall I would rate it as 3 stars. I also note that the cover is quite exploitative with its image of a half-nude young woman, but make allowances given that the paperback was published in 1970.… (more)

Incredible true story of a man's courage and fortitude in withstanding 900 days of capture, interrogation, deprivation and torture at the hands of the Nazis during World War 2. His physical, mental and emotional capacity to live in solitary confinement for the majority of his internment is astounding. Not only did he manage to endure all this but was able to convince senior officers including Himmler of his far-reaching contacts in the UK (Churchill, Duke of Windsor), and his influence in making a case for the continuance of the new German Reich. He was given access to their state of the art radios, codes, and secret inks, which he attempted to relay to the Allies to outsmart and defeat the Nazis.

His writing style is factual, not melodramatic and one can only feel admiration, amazement and compassion for endurance and loyalty to the Allies. His poem, 'Levavi Oculos' about meeting Death at the end of the biography is particularly poignant but also very well written.… (more)