Episode 43 – Salem, Massachusetts
If anyone has heard of a particular witch trial, they will have heard of Salem. It’s an infamous part of early American history, and everywhere in popular culture. Today’s episode will be explaining the main theories as to why the small village of Salem, Massachusetts began the greatest witch panic in American history.
Episode 42 – Witchcraft in Russia
An interview with Valerie Kivelson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan, on witch beliefs in Muscovy and Russia
Episode 41 – Halloween
A reupload of last year’s detailed history of the spooky festival. How does ritualistic human sacrifice relate to the party night we have today?
Episode 40 – The Pilgrims
In this episode we cover the early history of English colonisation in the Americas, and the growth and expansion of New England in particular.
Episode 39 – A War of Words
Witchcraft and early Christianity in the the Latin West, as Christendom takes increases its dominance
Episode 38 – The Wrath of Woden
The transformation of Roman Britain with the arrival of the Germanic pagans led to its own odd synthesis of superstitions and rituals. The Christianisation of these pagan kingdoms further added to the mix, as did the subsequent arrival and conversion of the Danes and Norwegians. Today’s episode is all about the treatment of magic-wielders in Anglo-Saxon society, how they were seen by the Church, and how individual rulers tried to clamp down on their subjects use of their services.
Episode 37 – Suffer Not a Witch to Live
Early Roman Christians struggled to accommodate their Pagan ancestors, and the first Christian condemnations of witchcraft and sorcery are made.
Episode 36 – Burn to Ashes
The Witchfinder General faces humiliation on multiple fronts. His critics are uniting, his prosecutions are falling, and the ruinous cost of hiring him suddenly seems less worthwhile.
Episode 35 – A Magazine of Scandal
This week’s episode continues the trials of East Anglia, as we see the result of the Witchfinder General’s efforts in the summer assizes of Chelmsford and Bury St. Edmunds. One was headed by the Earl of Warwick, a noble with little in the way of legal training, and the other by a triumvirate of two priests and a lawyer. One goes exceptionally well for the witchfinders, and the other… not so much.
This episode primarily makes use of the following texts:
Episode 34 – The Witchfinder General
Old grudges and fears come to the fore in Essex, as word spreads that witch-finders roam. The sudden opportunity to voice their suspicions, or at least accuse old enemies of heresy, take the communities of East Anglia by storm.
Episode 33 – Satan’s Kingdom Divided
In today’s episode, the infamous Witch-Finder General begins his campaign through south-eastern England, as we discuss the opening accusations of the greatest and deadliest witch hunt in English history.
Episode 17 – Poisoners, Soul-Drinkers, and Mathematicians
The founders of Western Civilisation, the Classical Greeks were strong believers in the existence and capabilities of the supernatural. Their epic poems and plays featured Gods, Goddesses, and spirits aplenty, and mythical heroes were often attributed fantastic knowledge and power. As time went on, Greek writers began to distinguish between different types of magic, and their acceptability.
Episode 16 – The Legacy of the Magi
The Persian Empires of antiquity were vast and powerful, and many of their subjects were devout Zoroastrians – a monotheistic religion that worshiped Ahura Mazda and abhorred his opposite, the evil Ahriman. Ahriman was the creator of all the impurity of the world, including the powers of witchcraft. Yet despite this zealous hatred of magic, the priesthood of Zoroaster, the Magi, gave the west an ironic legacy…
Episode 15 – The Sorcerers of the Pharaohs
Magic and religion was inseparable in the first human civilisations of the Fertile Crescent and the Nile. The Gods were active in the world, and could be bargained with and sometimes commanded by humans. But what was one mans legitimate prayer was his enemy’s witchcraft, and all manner of natural events were blamed on the supernatural shenanigans of evil men.
Episode 14 – The Scattering of the Knights Templar
Today’s episode is on how the news of the ruthless prosecution of the Templars in France was received by three distinct rulers – Edward II of England, Denis I of Portugal, and regent Amaury of the Kingdom of Cyprus. We see how, by and large, the main deciding factor for how the Templars are treated are the domestic situations in each of these countries.
Episode 13 – The Crushing of the Knights Templar
The Iron King, Philip the Fourth, is well deserving of the title. As we see this episode, he let nothing get in the way of his ambitions. Italian merchants, Jewish moneylenders, even the Pope, all would be crippled by the French king for the crime of standing in his way.
This fate also awaited the Knights Templar; for political and financial gain, Philip seized on unsubstantiated rumours and strong-armed every authority in his grasp the ensure the complete and utter destruction of the military order.
Episode 12 – The Rise of the Knights Templar
The Knights Templar, or the Poor-Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, are a fascinating example of how too much success can be a bad thing. Rapidly abandoning the ‘Poor-Fellow’ aspect of their name, the Templars grew into a vast land-owning organisation with enormous wealth, ignoring the growing anger and discontent against their privileges. Once they lost the ‘Temple of Solomon’ aspect of their name, their days were numbered…
Episode 11 – Mountaintop Madness
John Calvin’s role in the history of Geneva is hotly debated to this day, and the city gained a reputation for cruel and excessive witchtrials. We discover exactly how terrible these trials were, and whether or not Calvin deserves the blame for Geneva’s attitude towards witchcraft. We also consider the events to the east of the republic, where the greedy motivations of a tyrannical lord resulted in a catastrophic witch hunt which eventually led to the creation of a modern European state.
Episode 10 – The Wisest Fool in Christendom
The last great Scottish trial under the reign of James Stuart
Episode 9 – The Devil’s Greatest Enemy
The North Berwick Witch Hunt | The Exile of Earl Bothwell | Newes from Scotland
Episode 8 – The Cradle King
The bloodsoaked early years of James VI’s reign
Episode 7 – To Kill a King
James VI of Scotland had one hell of a tough time getting married…
Episode 6 – The Synagogue of Satan
Many of the witch hunters at the head of the worst trials were convinced of the existence of the Witches’ Sabbat, a blasphemous gathering of sorcerers that met with the Devil, took part in demonic orgies, and planned their terrible crimes. Suspected witches were tortured into admitting they attended these sabbats, and then were tortured into naming the people they had seen there. The idea of the sabbat gave inquisitors a reason to expect that their witches knew each other, and their torture confirmed it.
But the fact is the Witches’ Sabbat did not exist. The events described at the sabbat were identical to claims levelled at Muslims, heretics, and the Jews, and in many cases the term ‘Synagogue of Satan’ was used to link the crimes of the Jews to the crimes of the witches.
We also take a look at two methods, other than torture, of discovering whether someone was truly guilty of witchcraft; the trial by water, and the pricking.
Episode 5 – ‘I Have Forgiven the Devil’
The deadliest trials of the Early Modern Period were also the ones with the greatest number of young victims. Children as young as seven are recorded as being tortured and executed for the crime of witchcraft. Fleeing the city was not enough; extradition was actively sought for those suspected of the crime, and it was often granted. Prince-Bishop Phillip Adolf von Ehrenberg, the ‘Iron Bishop’, led the charge, not even sparing his young nephew from the stake.
Truly, Würzburg epitomises the worst with the witch panics of this period.
Episode 4 – Reigns of Terror
In this episode, we examine two of the more brutal and violent witch panics in all of European history; Fulda between 1602 and 1606, and Bamberg, between 1626 and 1632. Both ruled by Catholic clergy-lords, one a Prince-Abbot and the other a Prince-Bishop, they reigned over substantial territories, and their word was law. So when they began trials against suspected witches, they rapidly escalated to every part of society. No one was safe.
Episode 3 – Heartland of the Witch Craze
Here we begin with the events themselves. Today we look at a case of slander in Rothenburg ob de Tauber, which ended relatively peacefully and no one was burnt as a witch, and then contrast it with the Trier Witch Trials, which were not at all peaceful and involved hundreds of people being burnt as witches. I do love a good contrast!
Episode 2 – A Century of Fire
The witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries are, by far, the reason for many of the stereotypes of witchcraft. The belief in witch cults was rife throughout the educated classes of Christendom, and when combined with the desperate anger of starving peasants and townsfolk these beliefs spread fire and destruction on an unprecedented scale. This is the Century of Fire, when innumerable men, women, and children were burnt at the stake, bishops celebrated their newly-enforced orthodoxy, and executioners profited.
This episode will explain the background of these events, and covers what I have found to be the most convincing explanations for why these trials happened.
Episode 1 – The Hammer of the Witches
The Malleus Maleficarum, the ‘Hammer of the Witches’, was the lifes work of Papal Inquisitor Henricus Institoris, who held a particular hatred of witchcraft and those who practiced it. For him, witchcraft was the fruit of female sexuality and the corrupting influence of the Devil, only occasionally finding men guilty of the crime. His work was either a seminal work on witchcraft theory, or a fabricated mess worth barely any mention, depending on who you ask.