Heretics, Witches and Conspirators
A History of Fear 1500-1700
Leeds International Summer School (Session 2)
Module Description
Teaching Structure
8 x three-hour sessions
Each 3 hour teaching session will be broken up into two parts. The first (1.5 hours) will allow
students to work with early modern (and occasionally modern) primary sources, analysing
and interpreting the documents. The second (1.5 hours) will open up broader discussion of
the themes and historical debates, according to set questions. There will be a break between
the sessions to allow students to reflect and prepare particular points.
Session times:
All sessions (apart from trips) will run from 9.30 – 11am & 11.30am – 1pm
Reading: All primary sources and key secondary reading will be provided online or as a
course pack of materials
Module Assessment:
Essay: 60%
Individual Presentation: 20%
Class participation: 20%
Monday 17th July, Week 1: Concepts of Toleration and Persecution
The course opens with a survey of the central topics and concepts to be covered and a
historical overview of the meaning of concepts of toleration and persecution in the early
modern and modern period. We will introduce philosopher Susan Mendus’s article on the
nuances and limitations of toleration as a modern idea, and historian Alexandra Walsham’s
account of the status of toleration and persecution in Early Modern society. Students are
invited to begin researching the early modern development of these ideas, and think about
issues of toleration and persecution as we experience them today.
Tuesday 18th July, Week 1: Early Modern Anti-Semitism: Martin Luther’s Writings and
British attitudes to Jews
The session begins with a study of Martin Luther’s writing on Jewish religion and culture,
documenting the changes in his attitudes towards the Jewish faith and towards the presence
of Jews in Christian communities. This study sets up an investigation of the ideas and
practice of anti-Semitism in early modern Europe, uncovering some of the archetypical fears
and prejudices, as well as the theological differences, which set Christian against Jew during
the period. To situate the issue in a British context, we will look at primary documents that
record debates concerning the expulsion / admittance of Jews in England during the 17th
century. The discussion will then open into a debate about how such ideas were resurrected
in the anti-Semitism that blighted C20th Europe so catastrophically.
Wednesday 19th July, Week 1: Witchcraft and the Fear of the Devil in Elite Writing
The objective this session is the rigorous analysis of ‘elite’ early modern writing on
witchcraft. The discussion of witchcraft is set up through the close reading of two contesting
explanations of witchcraft and witchcraft accusation: James I, Daemonologie (1597) and
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). Students are asked to place the texts in
dialogue and examine the religious and social anxieties concerning the impact of witchcraft
and witchcraft belief in these works. One of the interesting things about James and Scott’s
works is that they debate the ‘scientific’ possibility of witchcraft, as well as enmeshing their
debates in theology and social commentary. The session will interrogate the religious, social
and political reasons why witchcraft was believed in and propagated during this period.
Thursday 20th July, Week 1: Witches, Village Society and Popular Persecution
Another way of recording the phenomenon of witchcraft is to focus on the belief and
persecution of witchcraft on a local level. This involves the careful interpretation of trial
reports, confessions and anecdotal material that emerges from specific controversies
surrounding accusations and punishments of witchcraft in village communities. The aim of
this session’s work is to challenge the historical stereotype of the wretched, marginal,
female ‘witch’ and to look at the way in which different professions (midwife, doctor,
scholar), roles and behaviour intrinsic to village society were vulnerable to accusations of
witchcraft. Towards the end of the session, we will ask whether the Witch-hunt “hysteria”
that enveloped Europe at this time was a specific historical phenomenon or whether there
are similar patterns of fear and victimisation in Modern society.
Friday 21st July: Field Trip to Pendle, Lancashire, site of the infamous Pendle Witch trials of
1612.
We will visit the Pendle Heritage centre before moving to Barley, the village closest to the
area where the Pendle witches lived. From there, we will walk a Pendle Trail, taking in views
of the Pendle Hill and Malkin Tower, alleged site of the witch-gatherings or ‘sabbaths’.
Reading for this session will include Thomas Potts’ 1612 report on the Witch Trials
“Discovery of Witches”.
Monday 24th July, Week 2: British Cultures of Suspicion: Fear of the ‘Vagabond’ and the
“Outsider”
Beyond broad religious and cultural clashes, early modern Britain also saw a heightened
anxiety towards a perceived underclass of beggars, vagabonds and itinerants. We will look at
the literature and legislation that confronted the problems that these groups seemed to
pose. It was thought by commentators that the growing numbers of poor, elusive and
malicious groups might develop into an organized “underworld” that could threaten social
order and the stability of society itself. As well as the more obvious suspects, these
‘communities’ were seen to consist of jesters, actors, fortune-tellers, scholars and students
(!). Using this as our foundation, we will take a close look at the way ideas of invasion,
corruption and infestation still permeate the rhetoric of intolerance in modern Britain,
suggesting that these concepts still shape the way politicians and the media debate issues of
immigration, terrorist threats and “the underclass” in Britain today.
Tuesday 25th July, Week 2: ‘Popish Plots’: Anti-Catholic Propaganda in Britain
Early modern England developed and maintained a strong Protestant identity, and as a
consequence, anyone who went against that was suspect. By the late decades of the
seventeenth century, anti-Catholicism had assumed at times the force of a mass hysteria.
The session will examine constructions and popular pamphlets of anti-Catholicism in early
modern England. The session will then pick up on the legacy of Anti-Catholicism in Britain, by
examining the rhetoric of Rev. Ian Paisley who, as leader of the ‘Democratic Unionist Party’
in Northern Ireland during the 1970s-90s, disseminated similar ideas and myths about the
Catholic threat to Christianity and British identity, stirring up hatreds and suspicions from
the Reformation and playing them out against the backdrop of the Irish “Troubles”.
Wednesday 26th July, Week 2: Philosophies and Practices of Toleration
As a way of examining the beginnings of Britain’s (self-styled?) reputation for “Toleration”,
we will discuss the philosopher John Locke’s late seventeenth-century writings on toleration.
His work comes after 200 years of European history during which religious persecution and
warfare had been morally and politically justified, so the logic and impact of his “Letter
Concerning Toleration” will be carefully unpacked.
Side-by-side with this, we will look at the “Swallowfield Articles”, a rare list of community
guidelines preserved from a late 16th century English parish, and ask whether, on a day to
day, local basis, Early Modern Britain was actually a tolerant place. For this session, you will
also be asked to delve into some recent debates as to the uses and abuses of “tolerance” as
an ethos for modern British Society.
Thursday 27th July, Week 2: Britain – A Nation of Toleration or Persecution?
Acting as a retrospective for the module, and a chance for a more informal, open debate, we
will examine some recent articles on the “essence” of Britishness and British values, and look
at the way in which British writers, leaders and commentators describe the society they live
in, and perceive its history. This will give class members a chance to comment on debates
around multiculturalism, ‘Christian values’, ‘the tradition of tolerance’ and the politics of
fear and internationalism that exist simultaneously in Britain.
Pendle Hill, Lancashire, the destination of our field trip.