Anne Gunter

Oops, haven't been writing blog entries.

The main point of the book seemed to be that people, even very well-educated ones, were not only perfectly willing to believe in witchcraft but tended to be rather credulous of individual cases. Most of the explanations for Anne's apparent suffering are quite simple, and in reading the descriptions I find it rather surprising that hardly anyone thought to simply test her symptoms in any sort of systematic fashion. (But of course, that's my 21st-century skeptical self talking.)

I think it's important to note how much the narrative of possession and witchcraft was a part of the culture of the time. Anne knew how a bewitched person was supposed to act (from books! the printing press causes nothing but problems), and played to people's expectations. I suppose that's part of the reason they were so credulous; it matched what they already believed.

My notes for the book wonder whether it's significant that the good witches were called "cunning men". Were women more commonly associated with dark magic?

I was surprised that the Reformation increased the number of witchcraft accusations, as I would have expected the secularization and disenchantment effects to reduce them. I had not anticipated that it would naturally inflame religious passions and make people more paranoid about purity.