BS: Pardon granted to executed witches

Subject: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: freda underhill
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 05:31 PM

Pardon granted to executed witches
October 31, 2004, sydney morning herald
A coven of "witches" executed centuries ago were officially pardoned in one of the last acts of ancient baronial powers held by a small community in Scotland. The 81 were killed in the 16th and 17th century - when people were condemned to death as witches on as flimsy evidence as owning a black cat or brewing home-made remedies. But this Halloween a gathering at Prestonpans in East Lothian has used ancient feudal powers, due to be abolished within weeks, to pardon the witches - and their cats. In a muted ceremony at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg pub, around 32 descendants, namesakes and supporters came together to mark the occasion, which they hope will become an annual Witches' Remembrance Day to be held in the town each Halloween.
The Barons Courts of Prestoungrange & Dolphinstoun granted the pardons in the last session of the courts, which is due to be abolished on November 28. The court declared pardon to all those convicted "as well as to the cats concerned". Local historian Roy Pugh, who helped secure the pardons by presenting evidence to the court, led the "gentle and dignified" ceremony. He said: "It is too late to apologise for what happened 400 years ago - it was a symbolic gesture. "It was not celebrating witches or witchcraft - as some people think - but making some amends for the unjustness, prejudice, hysteria and paranoia that led to those deaths." Mr Pugh, whose book The Deil's Ain caused controversy in 2001 for its strong criticism of the Church of Scotland in persecuting many supposed witches, expressed hope other communities would use Halloween to commemorate the "persecution".
He went on: "Halloween today is a day of fun and games for children but there is a dark side to it and I do not mean witchcraft and the black arts, but a dreadful period of Scottish history when between 3,500 and 4,000 people were executed for nothing." More than 3,500 Scots, mainly women and children, and their cats were killed in witch hunts at a time of political intrigue and religious excess, with Prestonpans recording one of the largest numbers of witch executions in all of Scotland. Fifteen local descendants of executed witches were invited to attend the ceremony and among those who attended were Rena Thomson, who had six ancestors killed, and Helen Cowan. The last execution for witchcraft in Scotland was in 1727. Such cases were outlawed by the Witchcraft Act of 1735, which made it a crime only to pretend to be a witch.
© 2004 AAP

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: frogprince
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 05:35 PM

Hmmm, not sure if anyone ever legally exonerated or pardoned those executed in Salem or not.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Peace
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 05:42 PM

I'm sure they will rest easier just knowing that.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Sorcha
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 05:53 PM

It's about time.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Nemesis
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 06:48 PM

PS: off topic but sort of in the same field.

Brian Bates "Way of Wyrd", cult classic based on ancient anglo-saxon spiritual teachings (1000 year old wizard's spell book preserved in British Library "The Lagnunga") is reisssued today by Hay House!!

Hear him interviewed on www.bbc.co.uk/england/southerncounties
on Sunday 7 November at 8am GMT (audio streamed)

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Salem Gypsy
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 07:14 PM

The sentiments are great, but that press release needs to say "Pardon asked of those innocents wrongfully executed as witches...and their cats." How can we moderns pardon THEM for something they didn't do?

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: JennyO
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 09:09 PM

Too little too late, of course, but a nice gesture. I was wondering about Salem too.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: frogprince
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 10:44 PM

Another angle on this; I think, under U.S. Law, that a pardon is an act of mercy, and doesn't imply an acknowledgement of innocence. Am I off on that? If that's the case, is it even that much of a gesture?

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: dianavan
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 12:30 AM

I like the idea of Halloween as a rembrance day for those who have suffered religious intolerance, especially those who were executed as witches. I hope it spreads across the world and becomes the first, world holiday!

d

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Peg
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 12:42 AM

The people executed as witches were not victims of religious intolerance, though...they were usually practitioners of the dominant religious tradition (like the Puritans in Salem Village) who were victimized because other community members wanted to ostracize them, often for the purpose of acquiring their property, or for petty revenge over some previous slight...


I have always wondered why modern witches claim some sort of spiritual connection to the Salem witches--because they weren't witches at all, but Puritans!

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 12:47 AM

A reasonable start for an attempt at an apology for intolerance. Will the victims of the church and government at the time of Matthew Hopkins the Witchfinder General be given a pardon. I doubt it though, the Church in most of its established forms has always practiced intolerance.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: GUEST,Barry Finn
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 03:10 AM

The Death Penality, then & now.
Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 03:58 AM

I agree with you, dianavan, it would be a good day of remembrance for all who have suffered from religious intolerance.

freda, thanks for posting the article.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 05:12 AM

The things that are done in the name of God. Somehow seems to me as good a proof as any that there is no such being or otherwise He/She would not allow them to occur, unless, of course, He/She has a very sick sense of humour.

Maybe there's a case for banning God on the grounds of improbability?

I await a bolt of lightning, but I am not holding my breath.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 06:49 AM

It seems to me that apologising for past wrongs is becomming something of an obsession, a quite pointless one. Most of us know what went on in previous centuries was wrong, but who are we to say sorry, we did not participate. If we can look back and see the results of intolerance, maybe we should put more effort into seeing similar wrongs being enacted today and do our best to rectify them, not wring our hands over events centuries past.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 09:06 AM

It ain't the God or Goddess who did it, but Her or His critters.

Isn't it odd how humans can take simple rules ("Don't kill unnecessarily" "Don't steal" "Don't cheat on your spouse" "Take care of each other" and so on) and bend them and complicate them and twist them until Whoever promulgated the rules wouldn't recognize them?

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: dianavan
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 01:19 PM

Peg - Wasn't it the Puritans who executed them as witches. In other words, they were accused of doing the devils work? I'd say that was religious intolerance.

The original post says - "...when people were condemned to death as witches on as flimsy evidence as owning a black cat or brewing home-made remedies." I'd also say that was religious intolerance.

In other words, these women (and cats too) were executed by Christians who thought that these women were in some way linked to the devil or practiced "heathen" or "pagan" rites.

If thats not religious intolerance, what is?

The same goes for the Cathars of Southern France. Crusades and Inquisitions are all based on religious intolerance. Witch burning, too.

I still think it would be a good idea to proclaim a day where we could remember those who have died because of religious intolerance. A day when people of all religions could join hands and celebrate their similarities and strive to overcome their differences.

d

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Peace
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 02:09 PM

We don't need a government to proclaim that day, D'van. Write a brief proclamation, set a date and go for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Dead Horse
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 02:38 PM

"Give your mother a poke, dear, I think she's gone out"

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Peg
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 06:31 PM

dianavan wrote:

Peg - Wasn't it the Puritans who executed them as witches. In other words, they were accused of doing the devils work? I'd say that was religious intolerance.

The original post says - "...when people were condemned to death as witches on as flimsy evidence as owning a black cat or brewing home-made remedies." I'd also say that was religious intolerance.

In other words, these women (and cats too) were executed by Christians who thought that these women were in some way linked to the devil or practiced "heathen" or "pagan" rites.

If thats not religious intolerance, what is?


I think you make a valid point here, d., and thanks for clarifying it, but it seems to me the women and men executed as witches were not seen to be practicing a "religion" at that time. They were seen as being involved with activities which were seen as an affront to Christianity. So the Puritans' intolerance towards their fellow Puritans wasn't to do with persecuting them for their offensive religious views. How is owning a black cat or making an herbal potion defined as "religion?" The people who owned the cats and made the brews certainly did not see it that way. Witchcraft was never defined as a "religion" in the days of antiquity, so I think it's inappropriate to refer to the witchcraft hysteria in Europe and the colonies as "religious intolerance." There is no evidence that the folk magicians and wise women and cunning men with whom we associate the image of the medieval witch believed in gods/goddesses, at least not in the sense that modern "Wiccans" do with their dyad or Earth Mother/Horned God.
It's an important distinction to make, especially given the fact that many modern pagans and witches today refer to their beliefs and practices as a "religion." And sad to say, some of these folks have been the victims of religious intolerance...

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 12:08 PM

Jesus never killed anyone, and he always showed mercy. It's a pity his so-called followers could not grasp that simple concept, isn't it? They have mostly just used Jesus as a tool for acting out their own hidden purposes and desires.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Cool Beans
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 12:28 PM

Most of Salem's so-called witches were pardoned in 1693, when the colonists discovered logic and the trials were called off. The remaining five "witches", all executed during the hysteria, were pardoned by the state of Massachusetts on Halloween of 2001.

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 12:36 PM

"to pardon the witches - and their cats"

This is priceless. The cats will be pleased.

Seriously, though. It's rather nice when at least SOMEONE apologizes, late as it is.

Thanks for the article, freda.


..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Pardon granted to executed witches
From: Cool Beans
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 01:12 PM

My cats, Isabel and Julia, tireless crusaders for the rights of Feline Americans, say better late than never.