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Anglican Witch Craze - Coggle Diagram
Anglican Witch Craze
The role of Mathew Hopkins and John stearne
methods
Hopkins and Stearne typically listened into gossip or suspicions floating around the village/area they were in to build on pre-existing superstitions to get their way
This made their evidence seem all the more believable
this was aggravated by the lack of proper law systems in place - allowed people to abuse their power to get a result in their favour
influence on the witch hunt as a whole
influence on the end of the witch hunt
Context
took place during the English Civil War
Suffolk was one of the parliament's main recruiting grounds
East Anglia was subject to 3 years of civil war
The harsh psychological effects of war caused an increased in superstition and suspicions against others
This was also further aggravated by the rise of the New Model Army and the divides between Royalists and Puritans
The lack of men forced there to be a shift in gender relationships
This would have increased the amount of women who were viewed as deviating away from the gender norms of the time
The high mortality rates were raised even higher by the war
The lack of men often left women more vulnerable and exposed to accusations - example is the case of Margery Sparham who had been left alone and vulnerable when her husband went to fight
There was little actual fighting so most felt detached from the war despite as many as 20% of men being away in war.
Led to the breakdown of usual power structures
There was a decline in two of the main power structures in the region
The traditional authority of the Church of England was undermined in the context of the war. Ministers were ejected from areas under parliamentary control and were replaced by Puritans
Many of the local gentry had left their estates to go fight and many royalist sympathisers faced confiscation of lands and estates
Without these authorities, fears began to grow and manifest as the witch craze
it was linked into the fear of the enemy at the battlefield which sparked a fear of enemies amongst them
This was elevated by ministers preaching about spies in their camps
Breakdown of legal structures in East Anglia
Assize courts were unable to function normally (judges felt it was too dangerous to travel)
Justice was often left to local magistrates or those with limited knowledge
The already fragile legal system was only aggravated further in the later stages of the war.
The end of the Witch Trials
The trials