Talk:Witchcraft

Pagan Gods

"Pagan gods, who formed no part of the Christian faith, were worshipped as devils."

There is no documentary evidence that there was a belief in devil worship in Jersey; there is no evidence at all - despite Balleine's speculation (largely based on Margaret Murray) - of any worship of pagan gods in Jersey around the time of the witch trials.

The nearest to any pagan worship would be the placing of votive offerings for good luck, such as at the Gran Mere in Guernsey. There is no evidence that this was more than folk belief and custom rather than any organised pagan cult, much as people "touch wood" or see omens in numbers of magpies seen even nowadays. --Tony theprof 10:21, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Ordeals

"In Jersey disputes were settled by The Judgement of God and trials were by cross, water and fire."

The source for this appears to be verbatim from http://www.jaynesjersey.com/witchcraft.htm

No source is given on that site. None of the legal material (the Mirror of Justice etc) gives any evidence for this kind of trial, nor do any of the cases (as reported in Balleine or Pitts). The trials involved imprisonment in Gorey Castle, and repeated interrogation before the lesser courts. Torture as such is not evidenced, Guernsey had thumbscrews but the Jersey records don't mention this, although shaving for witches marks would have been humiliating and degrading, and the time in the cold damp dungeons on bread and water would have also applied duress.

The only trial by ordeal in the earliest records for sorcery (not witchcraft as such) is by casting the victim from a high cliff, which suggests a possible basis for the Geoffrey's leap story, which is possibly a garbled account.

--Tony theprof 10:29, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Response

Tony, thank you very much for these observations. I was not aware that the material which formed the basis for the article and which was supplied to me by a third-party, was so closely based on 'jaynesjersey', which I now suspect was itself lifted from another site. I have rewritten the article to incorporate your observations, although it might still need a complete rewrite. You are clearly very knowledgeable on the subject. Would you like to undertake further revisions to the article?

Can you contribute to any other areas of Jerripedia?

Mike Bisson, site administrator