Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy

Salem, Massachusetts, 1692: discussions of witch hunts generally begin and end then and there. However, as Gaskill, Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, reveals, witch hunts are not unique to this side of the Atlantic, and spectacular witch hunts unfolded in the English counties of East Anglia from 1645 to 1647, in which two rather ""minor gentlemen,"" Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne, each seeing a ""future in collaboration with the other,"" sparked a frightening and unparalleled witchfinding campaign that preyed on the fears and anxieties of ""unremarkable people, who, through their eager cooperation with Hopkins and Stearne, themselves became witchfinders."" These witch hunts enjoyed widespread support in fervent puritan circles, and by coaxing fanciful confessions out of frightened suspects, Hopkins's and Stearne's ""investigations"" led to over 100 executions. Skillfully set against the backdrop of the English Civil War of the mid-17th century-pitting puritans against Catholics, Parliament against king-Gaskill explains the enthusiasm for capturing and punishing witches ""was therefore partly a reaction against the decline of prosecutions under Charles I, and partly a sign that witchfinding and the persecution of Catholics were linked in people's minds."" Many would come to view witchfinding as part and parcel of puritan reform, with Hopkins in the vanguard, fancying himself a ""warrior of reformation."" This is a fine, convincing narrative; readers of English history will appreciate the fruits of Gaskill's labor, particularly his adroit sourcing of this fascinating story. 2 halftones; 35 line illustrations; 2 maps.