![]() ![]() They first burned a witch at the stake in 1571.Īccording to Jimmy Fyfe, around 2000 witches stood trial in Denmark. It led to witch hunts around the country. The Danish witch-hunts went back to their conversion from Catholicism to Lutheranism in 1536.Ī Lutheran bishop painted Catholics as witches to cement the country’s conversion. It’s possible that James’ first trip to Denmark started his obsession with witches. The Catholic Church also came under fire in Scot’s book for encouraging superstitious beliefs. After doing so, that neighbour could make accusations to ease their own guilty conscience. Scot pointed at neighbours turning away an old woman in need. This was an era in which people were encouraged to be charitable. And he included non-magical reasons for things happening. He offered psychological causes for ‘magical phenomena’. Yet Scot’s goal was debunking belief in witchcraft and magic. It’s hardly surprising that suspicion often fell on old women. He’d described witches as being old, pale, wrinkled, deformed and miserable. Reginald Scot had already published his witchcraft text, A Discoverie of Witchcraft, in 1584. ![]() He didn’t buy into it enough to make them the true villains of the play.īut Daemonologie wasn’t the first book about witches. ![]() Shakespeare may have just been paying lip service to witchcraft to curry favour with King James. Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches, by Théodore Chassériau via Wikimedia Commons ![]()
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