Author: A Solitary Pagan
Exorcism
The expulsion of evil spirits by commanding them to depart. The expulsion is often done in the name of a deity, saints, angels or other intercessory figures. Exorcism comes from the Greek horkos, meaning “oath,” and translates as adjuro, or adjure, in Latin and English. To “exorcize,” then, does not really mean to cast out so much as it means “putting the Devil on oath,” or invoking a higher autho...
Lucius Apuleius
Lucius Apuleius is best known to us as the author of The Golden Ass, one of the most famous romances in the world, containing as it does the story of Cupid and Psyche. His importance to the study of witchcraft rests on the fact that The Golden Ass is a romance of witchcraft, and illustrates the beliefs which were held about witches in the pre-Christian world. This work of Apuleius proves that witc...
Blasting in Witchcraft
The ability of witches to interfere with or destroy the fertility of man, beast, and crop. This malicious destruction was considered a common activity among witches, and remedies and preventive actions circulated in folklore and magic. Blasting is the antithesis of rituals to enhance fertility, and accusations of it date to the second century c.e. Witches also were credited with the power to produ...
Mathew Hopkins
Hopkins, Matthew (?–1647?) England’s most notorious professional witch-hunter, who brought about the condemnations and executions of at least 230 allegedwitches, more than all other witch-hunters combined during the 160-year peak of the country’s witch hysteria. Hopkins was born in Wenham, Suffolk, the son of a minister. Little is known about him before 1645, when he took up his witch-hunting acti...
Fairy Witch of Clonmel (1894)
Fairy Witch of Clonmel (1894) A young woman named Bridget Cleary, of Clonmel, County Tipperary, who was tortured and burned to death because her husband believed the fairies had spirited her away and substituted in her place a witch changeling. Changelings are sickly fairy infants that fairies leave in the place of the human babies they are said to kidnap. However, many stories exist of fairies ki...
Hibbins, Ann (d. 1656)
Hibbins, Ann (d. 1656) Prominent Boston woman convicted of witchcraft and executed. Her chief crime as a witch seemed to have been a bad temper, which was disliked by her neighbors. Ann Hibbins was married to William Hibbins, a well-to-do merchant in Boston. She also was the sister of Richard Bellingham, deputy governor of Massachusetts, highly regarded as one of the leading politicians in thecolo...
Graves, William (17th century)
Graves, William (17th century) Connecticut man accused of witchcraft over a dispute with his daughter and son-in-law. Though no legal action was taken against William Graves, his case indicates how easily personal squabbles could be turned into serious witchcraft charges. Graves’ daughter, Abigail, married a man named Samuel Dibble. Graves may not have approved of the match, for he refused to turn...
Bamberg Witches
At the center of the worst witch tortures and trials in Germany was Bamberg, a small state ruled by Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim. The Hexenbischof (Witch Bishop) von Dornheim, as he was known, ruled the state from 1623 to 1633 and established an efficient witch-burning machine aided by the Inquisition. By the time von Dornheim reached power, witchhunting had already been establishe...
Hawkins, Jane (17th century)
Hawkins, Jane (17th century) Massachusetts midwife and healer expelled on suspicions of witchcraft in the delivery of a deformed, stillborn fetus. The witchcraft accusations were mixed with a religious controversy affecting Jane Hawkins as well. Hawkins, married to Richard Hawkins, was well known for her midwifery skills and medical remedies. She also was associated with the Antinomians, a Quaker ...
The burning alive of Father Louis Gaufridi
The burning alive of Father Louis Gaufridi for bewitchment of the nuns at Aix in 1611 formed the legal precedent for the conviction and execution of Urbain Grandier at Loudun more than 20 years later. This case was one of the first in France to produce a conviction based on the testimony of a possessed demoniac. Prior to the 17th century in France, accusations from a demoniac were considered unrel...
Gruber, Bernardo (17th century)
German trader accused of sorcery by Pueblo Indians in northern New Mexico. Bernardo Gruber was imprisoned. He escaped but died a strange death. In 1668, Gruber arrived in New Mexico with a pack train of mules bearing fine goods. It was said that he was fearless and traveled through the lands of the fierce Apache without harm. Perhaps it was his ability to avoid Apache attacks that led to his downf...
Arras witches (1459–1460)
A mass witch hunt in Arras, northern France. The accused were brutally tortured and promised their lives, then burned at the stake. The incident roused the ire of the duke of Burgundy, and eventually those executed were posthumously exonerated. The witch hunt was one of the earliest in the region. Inquisitors used charges of witchcraft against heretics such as the Waldenses, or Vaudois, a religiou...