In the febrile religious and political climate of late
sixteenth-century England, when the grip of the Reformation was as yet
fragile and insecure, and underground papism still perceived to be
rife, Lancashire was felt by the Protestant authorities to be a
sinister corner of superstition, lawlessness and popery. And it was
around Pendle Hill, a sombre ridge that looms over the intersecting
pastures, meadows and moorland of the Ribble Valley, that their
suspicions took infamous shape. The arraignment of the Lancashire
witches in the assizes of Lancaster during 1612 is England's most
notorious witch-trial. The women who lived in the vicinity of Pendle,
who were accused, convicted and hanged alongside the so-called
'Salmesbury Witches', were more than just wicked sorcerers whose
malign incantations caused others harm. They were reputed to be part
of a dense network of devilry and mischief that revealed itself as
much in hidden celebration of the Mass as in malevolent magic. They
had to be eliminated to set an example to others. In this remarkable
and authoritative treatment, published to coincide with the 400th
anniversary of the case of the Lancashire witches, Philip C Almond
evokes all the fear, drama and paranoia of those volatile times: the
bleak story of the storm over Pendle.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781786739704
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter