Eye of God...

[Viktoria]

Thanks Lydart, I felt totally outnumbered so kept quiet--not like me at all.
 Surely the history of the  Colosseum bears witness to the fact that there were Christians and the Roman Emperors were very worried about the new sect.
However it was mainly the Jewish priests who wanted rid of Jesus,he was not what they thought of as the promised Messiah, indeed he never claimed to be that.
They had been promised a new king like David who would free them from Roman oppression.
Well Jesus was a peacemaker.He also saw the corruption in what was going on in the temple in Jerusalem. Awkward to have around.
 The  Dead Sea Scrolls also have content which upholds the gospel stories to some degree,
these have very  relatively recently  been found  many centuries after after the "additions"previously mentioned.
The gospels were written some years after Jesus was crucified and his age was about thirty at death. Several languages  and  their  many  translations will inevitably l have lost  meaning.
Greek, Coptic Aramaic Latin and English.
It is the essential message which is important and that boils down to "Love thy neighbour as thyself" and who is your neighbour? well everyone.It is as simple as that.
If you choose not to attend church it does not mean you are wicked ,as we know very many people do acts of great kindness and unselfishness who don`t attend church and don`t believe in any religion.They live good lives ,are honest and moral.
 If you do go to church but  are unkind and wicked  you can`t  consider  yourself  a Christian.
People always say " there is much evil done in the name of religion.."yes but that is because the essential message has been forgotten, it is the misinterpretation of religion that causes wars and hatred and cruelty.
I speak of Christianity because that was one of the points mentioned,of course I do not preclude other religions .Kindness and honesty are not only found in Christianity.
Enough from me .
If you walk around the Welsh borders ,namely Shropshire where many little settlements and hamlets and isolated cottages have been abandoned and are in ruins you will almost always see a Rowan tree at the gate .Superstition had it that they kept away evil spirits.You can also make a nice jelly from the berries  .
Viktoria

[Maiden Stone]

King James wrote his book "Daemonologie" when he was still in Scotland. His witch obsession began when he went to Denmark to collect his bride. Danish society was very anti witch at the time. A violent storm blew up during the homeward voyage. James feared it was caused by witches trying to kill him. Back home in Scotland 300 people, including nobles,  were arrested and accused of attempting to murder the king by witchcraft.
https://worcestercathedrallibrary.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/daemonologie-james-i-and-witchcraft/
The Witchcraft Act became law in 1604 after James became King of England.
"Thou must not suffer a poisoner to live" was changed in the King James Bible (1611) to "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". (Worcester Cathedral Library and Archive blog, as above.)

[Maiden Stone]

Two modern writers who have turned their gaze towards Pendle, using different media:
1. Novelist Jeanette Winterton "The Curse of Pendle" BBC Radio 4 Extra, broadcast 7th April 2017.
Synopsis www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nxzcj
Not currently available on BBC IPlayer.

2. Poet simon Armitage  "The Pendle Witch Child" TV programme broadcast BBC Four 15thAugust 2016.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013fj47

On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-JDUfADiw

The Arts Desk review of "The Pendle Witch Child"
www.theartsdesk.com/tv/pendle-witch-child-bbc-four

The trial of the Lancashire Witches was the best-documented witchcraft trial in English history. That's one reason why they are remembered. The impact of the chid, Jennet's testimony influenced the later Salem witch trials. Jennet Device was hoist by her own petard 20+  years later, accused of witchcraft by a 10 year-old boy who travelled around identifying witches. Contary to what I said in an earlier post she wasn't hanged but may have died in prison.

[Maggie.]

Jennet Device was reprieved as attitudes to supposed witchcraft had softened by 1633 - I think I’m correct in that being the date of her trial. Edmund Robinson was her 10 year old accuser but he later confessed to making up the story as some sort of money making exercise in collusion with his father. At the time the episode became the subject of various London street plays if I remember correctly. Although reprieved Jennet was not freed as her incarceration had put her in debt so as MS says she most likely died in prison.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14490790 (looks like this link rather repeats MS’s last link)

[Gadget]

Maggie and I have had a few chats about the Pendle Witches over the years. Thought I'd put up this pic that I took a while back (? 2015) of part of Pendle Hill with a Rowan tree.

Gadget

(It was very wet that day!)

[Maiden Stone]

Jennet Device was reprieved as attitudes to supposed witchcraft had softened by 1633...

...and hardened again in the next decade during the English Civil War, thanks to a great extent to Matthew Hopkin, self-styled Witchfinder General and his mate. Hopkin's campaign against witches in East Anglia was estimated to have been responsible for around 300 deaths, almost a third of the total number of witch suspects executed in Britain from 1500-1660. He had 68 people executed in 1 town, Bury St. Edmunds. 19 were hanged in Chelmsford in 1 day. He received a large fee for each town he cleared of witches.
See:
Witches in Britain
www.historic.uk.com/CultureUK/Witches-in-Britain

The horrors of the 17thCentury Witch Hunts  -  Cambridgeshire
https://www.news.bbc.co.uk/local/cambridgeshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8998000/89998465.stm

Some believed that Prince Rupert,  the Royalist commander, used witchcraft to win battles and that his pet dog was his "familiar".
Witch Hunters & Black Magic Cavaliers during the English Civil War 1642-1647
www.warfarehistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/english-civil-war-1642-1647-witch.html

Executions of suspected witches 1500-1660 were much fewer in Britain (c1000) than Germany (c26,000) and France (c10,000).
The Witch Trials
www.witchcraftandwitches.com/trials.html

[Maggie.]

That’s a very beautiful picture Gadget - I know exactly where that rowan is. I remember our chats too.  I hope you are well.

Maggie 

[lancsann]

"A convicted witch would not have been buried in consecrated ground"

They may have been buried in a part of the churchyard though as this one from Woodplumpton shows.

There’s a large boulder by the side of the path in the churchyard of St Anne’s in Woodplumpton. A small sign says it marks the grave of Meg Shelton - a local witch in the late seventeenth century. Meg was known as the "Fylde Hag" and apparently got up to all sorts of mischief - stealing the milk from other people’s cattle, transforming herself into animals etc.

It’s said she was killed when a barrel crushed her against a wall. The boulder’s about three feet by two feet - which doesn't seem big enough to cover a grave. But it turns out that Meg was buried in a narrow shaft… like a fence post… head down...so that if she tried to dig her way out she'd be going the wrong way. The boulder was put on top to keep her in the grave.

It is a very heavy boulder!