The bit about Little Red Riding Hood was news to me, but fairy tales weren’t my area of expertise. I did know that the stories had initially been written for adults and just barely hid a multitude of sinister insinuations and dark warnings. I had read quite recently that Snow White was really a reference to cocaine and that the names of the seven dwarves were all withdrawal symptoms, except for Doc, who would be needed to guide the addict to the other side of addiction. Of course, this was the modern version of Snow White, not the original story written by the Brothers Grimm, but having a young girl living in the forest with seven grown men after her stepmother demanded that her heart be cut out was sinister enough in itself.
“I never realized he was so…eh, dedicated,” I said, stopping short of calling James deranged. At this stage, I wasn’t sure if Jonah was outraged by the man’s lunacy or something of a fan.
“Oh, yes,” Jonah went on. “James had been hellbent on eradicating witchcraft in his native Scotland, where he’d participated in numerous witch trials, and had brought his ambitions to England. There were probably more witch trials during his reign than at any other time in British history. In fact, there was even a self-appointed witch hunter, Matthew Hopkins. He styled himself Witchfinder General and brought as many as three hundred witches to trial in a two-year period, many of whom were executed.” The vicar took another sip of tea and a tiny bite of cake.
“Now, you must remember that under the Witchcraft Act of 1542, introduced by Henry VIII, witchcraft was defined as a felony rather than a religious offense and was to be tried by a regular assize court, not an ecclesiastical panel. The witchfinder received a fee of twenty shillings per witch, so it was a lucrative trade, but no one questioned Hopkins’ motives, since he was able to produce confessions.”
“Did he obtain them through torture?” I asked, scribbling key phrases in my notepad. I would crosscheck all this information later to be sure it was accurate.
“To obtain a confession through torture was illegal, but Hopkins found a way to get around that. He and his assistants used several techniques. You’ve probably heard of swimming. In essence, the supposed witch was tied up, right thumb to left big toe, left thumb to the right, and lowered into the water. If she floated, she was accused of being saved by the devil, this being tangible proof of witchcraft, according to Hopkins. If she sank, she was innocent, but, alas, dead. There was also pricking and watching. In pricking, they’d keep pricking the skin of the accused, looking for a spot where they felt no pain. If they found such a spot, it was where their familiars sucked their blood.”
“Were witches always believed to have a familiar?” I asked.
“They were, and they were most often small animals, such as cats and dogs. Of course, this proved nothing, since most people kept cats to deal with the mice and rats that infested every house and dogs for protection and company. Any living creature could be said to be a familiar, even a ferret or a toad. It’s not as if the accused could prove that they weren’t.”
“And watching? What was that?” I asked, wondering all the while if Alys had had a familiar.
“Watching was basically sleep deprivation. They would force the accused to sit on a stool and wake them every time they began to nod off. This went on for days until the person was so exhausted, weakened by thirst and hunger, and confused, they’d confess to anything. So, Hopkins always got his man, or, more accurately, woman, since it was the women he went after.”
“Was Alys Bailey accused of witchcraft by Matthew Hopkins?” I asked.
“She wasn’t, but Matthew Hopkins wasn’t singlehandedly responsible for all the witch trials in England; he is simply the most well-documented example of a witch hunter. Witch mania spread through the country shortly after James I took the throne and continued for decades, long after his death. There aren’t many documented cases of witch trials in this area, but—and this is really interesting—witch marks have recently been found at Cresswell Crags. Hundreds of them.” Jonah Hargreaves’ eyes glowed with excitement, inviting me to share in his amazement.
“What exactly are witch marks?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound too ignorant.
“They were a form of protection against evil. Letters and symbols to ward off evil spirits. They are believed to be rather recent, and by that I mean several hundred years, so there was a history of witchcraft in this part of the country.”
“Are you suggesting Alys Bailey really was a witch, or what the authorities perceived to be a witch in those days?”
Jonah Hargreaves laughed. “Of course not. Accusations of witchcraft were a convenient way to get rid of someone, make a living, or divert attention from some bigger issue. People were gullible, they’d believe anything, especially when the accusation was backed by the local clergy or members of a noble family, as happened in the case of Alys Bailey.”
“What was she accused of exactly?”
“Oh, the usual things, I suppose—using witchcraft to punish those who’d trespassed against her, summoning the devil to do her bidding, causing death.”
“Were the methods you described used to obtain a confession?”
“I don’t believe they were. Alys never confessed to anything but was still found guilty and
