Witchcraft Litigation In Early Modern England

The large-scale witch-hunting in early modern Western Europe caused the result that many innocent people to be executed.These acts of persecution are basically legally tried by the judiciary and convicted and punished according to the law.That is to say that these persecutions are carried out through witchcraft litigation.In early modern England,there were three statutes specially counter witchcraft.Henry IV,in 1542,issued a very severe statute,punishing the all witchcraft behaviors included in the law to death.Elizabeth's statute issued in 1563 was more lenient and treated distinctively according to the severity of crime.The last statute of 1604 was more severe than the statute of the Elizabethan period,not only by increasing the type of offense,but also by expanding the scope of the death penalty.Therefore,these witchcraft statutes were a prerequisite for the eruption of witchcraft persecution in early modern England.Unlike the large-scale witchcraft persecution in European continent,England's witchcraft litigation is characterized by its small size,scattered distribution,low rate of conviction and execution.Scholars held different opinions about what reason caused such a unique model.Some scholars believe that this is due to the control of the ruling class,but by analyzing the early modern religious policy and the king's attitude,the rulers of England,whose attitude were very vague and sometimes wavering,did not show a more obvious tendency to oppose witchcraft persecution than the European rulers.In short,this path to explain suppressing the witchcraft persecution from top to bottom cannot draw a definite answer.Thus,the attention should be transferred to other factors that are less constrained by the central government,as well as institutional factors that are not subjective to the human subject.First of all,in early modern England,local forces were effective in imposing balances on the central authorities,and the monarchy was not enough to suppress local forces at that time.Second,compared to the European continent,in early modern England,the degree of professionalism of judicial officials is low and the judicial power was given to the amateurs such as squires and the general public.Moreover,the judicial system in England did not have a strict hierarchical order,but constituted a parallel power distribution.Therefore,even if the rulers possessed the desire to wage witch-hunting,it is difficult for them to achieve by their sole will.Finally,the low rate of conviction of the witchcraft in England is largely due to the jury.The jury was not really willing to verdict someone guilt,especially in cases which the defendants were likely to be executed,like witchcraft cases,because of the pressure from influence of the idea of guilt of blood and witchcraft,as well as family of the accused.In addition,using juries makes the responsibility of conviction transferred to the unspecific jurors,so England's criminal trial is less dependent on the defendant's guilty confession.Therefore,unlike European continent,there was not torture that was universally used to compel suspect to confess.Not only that,because the jury's decision is uncertain,it is difficult for the official to control it,which also makes the witchcraft litigation did not spread organized on a large scale.Thus,the unique model of witchcraft litigation is more due to institutional reasons.It is the unique judicial system of England,not the will of the ruler,nor the climate,population,religion,and concept that researchers often refer to,made its witchcraft persecution lighter than the persecution in vast majority of the European continental countries.