In sixteenth and seventeenth century Scotland, to be accused of being a ‘witch’ was extremely dangerous. An estimated 4000 witches were arrested, with 2000 put to their deaths in the period from the first Scottish Witchcraft Act in 1563 under Mary Queen of Scots, that made being a witch a capital offence, to its repeal in 1736. Today there is action to clear the names of those in Scotland who were accused and lost their lives. To date, unlike the witches of Salem, Massachusetts, USA, for example, and ‘witches’ elsewhere, Scotland’s witches prosecuted under the law against them, have never been ‘pardoned’.
This edition contains a new introduction that looks at the prejudice against magicians, fortune tellers, ‘sorcerers’, and love spell and potion makers labelled ‘witches’ that began as a ripple in ancient Rome and Babylonia and grew into waves that rolled for 500 years across Europe the world through the Inquisition and the Reformation. The book specifically looks at Scotland. |
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