01.35 - The Sword of the Magistrate

By the end of his reign, James is unwilling to entertain the more
ludicrous accusations of witchcraft, and Charles continues this
approach. Puritanism, the new bogeyman of the Anglican church,
appears the most vocal supporter of the trials, and so the
established clergy approach the topic warily. And the magistrates
and judiciary have seen the last twenty years of legal precedent,
of cases thrown out and judges publicly shamed, and have no
interest in risking their careers. Check out the podcast website:
https://www.paxbritannica.info Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/ Twitter:
https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax This episode primarily makes use
of the following sources: Gaskill, Malcolm, ‘Witchcraft Trials in
England’, in Levack, Brian (ed.) The Oxford Handbook Holmes, R.,
Witchcraft in British History (1974) MacFarlane, A., Witchcraft in
Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1970) Levack, B., 'State-Building
and Witch Hunting', in Darren Oldridge (ed.), The Witchcraft Reader
(London, 2002) Poole, R., (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories
and Stories (2002) A full bibliography can be found on the website.
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