Women's History Resource Site

King's College History Department

Book Review

A.D.J. Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1970.

While specific beliefs regarding their identities and activities varied, the prosecution of alleged witches occurred in ecclesiastical and secular courts throughout Early Modern Europe. Though removed geographically from the continent, England was no exception. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England by A. D. J. Macfarlane concentrates on witchcraft prosecutions in three villages of Essex County, England, between 1560 and 1680. Macfarlane explains exactly what was entailed in the concept of witchcraft for the people of Essex, and provides numerous statistics from ecclesiastical and secular trials on the gender, age and social status of the accused and the convicted, as well as the types of punishments endured by those deemed guilty. He discusses the relationships of the accused to their accusers and attempts to explain the motivations which spurred neighbors to become suspicious of and press charges against one another. He proceeds to list reasons for the decline of witch trials in Essex by the middle of the 17th century. Finally, Macfarlane compares/contrasts notions about witchcraft in Essex with those held by other Europeans, American Indians and Africans.

Early on, Macfarlane clears up some common misconceptions about the nature of Essex witches. Apparently, the alleged witchcraft in this part of England was considerably less colorful and more practical than elsewhere in continental Europe. As one reviewer noted, "The witches that Mr. Macfarlane has dug out of the Essex archives did not celebrate the Black Mass, nor were they accused by the witchfinders of intercourse with the devil, flying by night or experimental orgies" (Lewis 51). They were, in fact, accused of injuring/killing or attempting to injure/kill people and their property, invoking evil spirits, seeking out treasures and lost items with the aid of magic, and various methods of fortune telling. Macfarlane reports that there were 503 indictments for witchcraft in the Essex Assize, all but 11 being for the practice "black" magic, with the most common charge being the injuring/killing of persons or their property (Macfarlane 27). Women were accused for frequently than men (though no one objected to the idea of male witches) and the old were targeted for often than the young (160-161). The poor, but not the excessively poor, were most likely to be suspected of witchcraft; those most likely to accuse them were neighbors who were slightly better off (150). It appears that the major factors in determining the guilt or innocence of an Essex witch were the character of his parents, his drinking habits, his friendships and general reputation (17). 

Having profiled the typical Essex witch, Macfarlane attempts to determine the root causes for his/her prosecution. Before doing so, he dismisses past assertions which have proven untrue or problematic. Destitution was not an impetus for witch hunting, even though the accused seem to be poorer than their accusers, "no single economic factor can explain the distribution of Essex witchcraft prosecutions" (155). Nor did "hostility between the sexes" bring about the trials, since women in Essex witnessed against women just as often as men did (160). Macfarlane is also critical of the proposal that "a high incidence of illness and a lack of medical knowledge" can account for witch prosecutions (the idea that people accused their neighbors of making them ill because they didn't understand how one contracts diseases). He points out that illness did not decline rapidly after 1650, nor did medical knowledge significantly improve, although witch hunting basically ceased (178). Lastly, Macfarlane rejects the notion that people accused each other of witchcraft out of "religious fervor," as they regularly accused neighbors who shared their faith (188).

However, he does not deny the impact of religious upheavals on society. While hesitant to place blame on Puritans or Roman Catholics, Macfarlane does admit that religious tensions were a big factor in the Essex witch hunts (186). English people in the post-Reformation era could no longer rely on "Catholic ritual, with its dramatization of the expulsion of evil and communal propitiation of God" to explain their suffering and give them solutions (195). Puritans placed heavy blame for misfortunes on the individual and/or his neighbors, making connections between sin and disease, etc. So, citizens of Essex at this time were struggling under a new burden of guilt which may have sought outlet through the accusation of others (194-195). 

Another partial explanation Macfarlane suggests is that the Essex witch trials can be viewed "as a response to changes in the age-structure of the population, and the methods of dealing with the aging process" (164). The presence of the elderly strained economic resources and, hence, caused friction between themselves and younger families. This friction was keenly felt in Tudor and Stuart England, where ideals of charity were beginning to change (163-164).

Macfarlane suggests that tensions between neighbors played a major role in the Essex prosecutions. It was widely believed that witches didn't act without provocation, such as being refused some charity by a neighbor. Thus we find that, "quarrels over gifts and loans of food, and to a lesser extent, money and implements, precipitated the majority of the witchcraft attacks" (173, 176). Interestingly, it was always the victim, and not the witch, who made the breach in neighborly conduct. He would then feel guilty and anxious, and blame those feelings on the person who had sought his help (174). In a way, then, accusing someone of witchcraft was a way to divert guilt from one's self onto someone else. People could feel much better about themselves if they believed they had denied aid to a witch than to a poor old woman. 

Macfarlane explains the eventual decline of witch trials in Essex by pointing to changes that occurred over the course of the 17th century. He feels that "alterations in the attitudes and institutions" for dealing with old age and poverty contributed greatly to a decline in anxiety among people. The establishment of workhouses, for instance, allowed a Christian to abstain from "indiscriminate charity." Thus, he did not need to feel guilty about and spiteful of a neighbor he refused. He no had guilt to project onto an alleged witch (206).

After attempting to explain the phenomenon of the Essex witch hunts, Macfarlane proceeds to compare/contrast Essex witch beliefs with those of other European nations and several African and American Indian tribes. Not surprisingly, the people of Tudor and Stuart Essex shared certain beliefs with their European neighbors. Witches were typically older women accused by slightly more affluent neighbors throughout the continent, and here was no exception. However, as has been stated, people in Essex didn't share the belief in night flight, orgies, sabbats, etc. held by many of their European contemporaries. 

There was little consistency in witch beliefs from one African and North American tribe to the next, so it's quite difficult to provide any sort of brief comparison/contrast between their witches and those in Essex. For example, night witches are exclusively male among the Lugbara, while all evil Nupe witches are women (230). Though highly rare in Europe (and almost unheard of in Essex), the vast majority of accusations among the Cewa and Lovedu occur between close family members (235). 

There seems to be few common witch beliefs world over, but one thing nearly all the featured cultures agreed on was that witches were rarely, if ever, children, who were not believed to have the power and wisdom necessary to perform magic (diabolism is not stressed in cultures outside Europe). Across Africa and America, as in Essex, witches were typically middle aged to old (231-232). They were also generally outsiders, often living on the fringes of society. They had trouble getting on with their neighbors; they were nonconformists : "'Witches tend to be those whose behavior is least in accordance with social demands'" (227). That's as general as one can be in defining the witch around the world.

Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England was one the first books to zero in on the phenomenon of the witch hunts in a small region wherein they were well documented. Critics praised Macfarlane's scrupulous, scientific approach, "The great achievement of [this book] is to put aside all existing generalizations and concentrate on a manageable area with good records, establishing what actually happened" (Stone 17). Indeed, deciphering what actually happened is the goal of Macfarlane's book, and he approaches his subject with a scientific objectivity. 

He did take some flack from critics who felt his ultra-thorough, painstaking approach was a bit laborious at times. One called his approach "hard-nosed" and "microscopic" (Lewis 51). After all though, Macfarlane was concerned with accuracy, not art. One interested merely in reading for enjoyment will probably find the book taxing, as it's jam packed with graphs, maps, and endless charts of statistics. One looking to Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England for historically accurate information will not be disappointed. 

Annotated Reviews

Lewis, I. M. "Witchfinders." The Economist, 23 Jan. 1971, 51.
This article reviewed Macfarlane's book as well as another on religion and magic. Lewis relates the books, noting how each seeks to place acceptance of the occult in its social context and explain its eventual decline. He confesses that both books tend toward the scrupulously scientific, but gives their authors credit for digging so deeply and rejecting traditional (flawed) explanations for witchcraft. 

Stone, Lawrence. "The Disenchantment of the World" The New York Review of Books, 2 Dec. 1971, 17.
Stone reviews several books on the occult in this article, which praises Macfarlane for his concentration on one well documented area. Stone considers the book's greatest merits to be its thoroughness and its historical accuracy. He was also pleased that Macfarlane acknowledged and discarded many commonly accepted myths about the causes of the witch hunts. 

URL: http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/wrevmacfarlane.html Written by Jennifer York Last Revision: 12 November 2001 Copyright © MM Prof. Pavlac's Women's History Site