The Bewitching of Anne Gunter

The Bewitching of Anne Gunter details the life of a young miss who claimed to be possessed by witches. She was not in fact possessed, and concord to her at her psychometric test, her father forced her to act as she was. Her father Brian Gunter had a long history of problems with one of the women who was accused, Elizabeth Gregory. The separate women Agnes Pepwell was chosen because she was rumored to be a witch, and it would add credibility to the accusation. The problem between Brian Gunter and Elizabeth Gregory began at a football game match in the t stimulate of trade union Moreton.It was a form of what is instanter called soccer, alone was much rougher. It was numerous an(prenominal) quantify viewed as just an forgive for two villages to get in a huge brawl. People were k nowadays to die from injuries related to this extreme form of physical activity. It was very onerous to reconstruct what happened on the day of the football match in North Moreton. Brian Gunter was a spectator and two of Elizabeth Gregorys sons were playing in the game. A squeeze broke bulge between two men, one of them a Gregory. Gunter got in the middle of it and tried to break it up, at this point Richard Gregory and his brother privy turned on Gunter.In the middle of the melee Gunter pulled out his gummed label and killed both brothers. The Gregorys tried to get Gunter tried for murder, except it never came to trial, perchance because Gunter was powerful in his ara. The bad blood between the two families now existed, setting the stage for Anne Gunter to accuse Elizabeth Gregory of witchcraft. Anne Gunter first had symptoms of hysteria in the summertime of 1604. It was not thought to be demonic, until months later when the fits became signifi dopetly worse. The Gunters had flock abide by in and look at Anne, and in time she was diagnosed by many with being possessed.The actions that Anne Gunter testified too, as to come of as being possessed are exceedingly trou bling. Her father read the Warboys halt on witchcraft and make her imitate many of the signs of being a witch. She was drugged, to induce purify and as well as was given drugs to quell pain. She was given a green mixture, which would throw her into indistinct rages then a very strong dullness. During the dullness when visitors were there pins were stuck into her soundbox to show her lack of feeling. This was a sign to show that she was possessed. When the visitors would leave she could not life her arms and the pain would be unbearable.Anne testified that she have even stronger fits of scud when the accused would come near the house. She would be told they were near and act accordingly. It was a very detailed operation involving Brian Ginters sister and her husband. Anne would be given pins to vomit and sneeze due to the fact that letting go of foreign objects out of your body was a strong sign of being afflicted. She claims she put herself with all these horrible things beca use she was afraid of her father and he always imperil her, although it might have something to do with her craving attention.The family similarly sent for right witches who could help cure the affliction. This helped fro awhile, but Anne became bewitched again and the symptoms started up again. The family as well tried a number of remedies that were popular at the time. The family burned Elizabeth Gregorys bull in an attempt to help Anne recover, also moving her to different places, but nothing provided permanent relief. It is hard to give one reason why witchcraft became so prevalent during this time period. Reasons that have been given are the reformation, and Catholics trying to counter that reformation.It can also be seen as Christianity fluent trying to root out traditional beliefs of passel, which included magic and mysticism. It was also not like society just had witchcraft, as a fantastical belief. It was part of a much wider belief in ghosts, fairies, fortune rela tion back and astrology. The reformation had helped create a upstart focus on the heller and all his works and this also added to the witchcraft craze. It is also amazing how people of the time would go along with the person being a witch. They in turn would make up things about the accused witch, like they study Agnes Pepwell turn a cat into a black rat.Witchcraft gave people the ability to blame things on other people and to harm them considerably. It can be compared to being accused of rape, even if you didnt do it and are be innocent, you will still have that stigma attached to you. It was many times pure bad luck that you were accused and the consequences could be deadly. After the trial of Anne Gunter, witchcraft trials were less frequent then in other split of Europe. Convictions were also more rare then in other countries. nonpareil reason was the alleged witches were tried by the assize courts.The judges in these courts were superior judges who were high up in the s ocial hierarchy of England. They were not allowed to be from the area they were trying so they were distanced from the local issues and bias. In many parts of Europe the trials were presided over by local courts and judges who brought their own biases and thoughts into the trial. The English courts also differed in the fact that they did not use suffering as a means of bringing out confessions, where in other places witches would confess, due to the pain inflicted. The end result for the Gunters is hard to definitively consequence.Brian Gunter was brought before the mavin Chamber not to face the charges of fabricating the witchcraft of his daughter but to answer to an assault charge years later. He died in 1628 with no credit of Anne in his will. Anne was most likely married, but it is hard to say to barely who. One possibility is a man with the surname Ashely, or other man John Hartgill. The records of the times are very hard to as genuine and if she did indeed marry Hartgil l she would have been 16 years his senior, which would have been extremely rare even today.The historian who researched this book had to go to great lengths to derive information. He had to put together bits and pieces of historical accounts for everything to come together. The book does a good job of showing you how witches were treated in England and to what lengths people would go to, to accuse someone else. The author used church records, court records, and personalized diaries, all first hand accounts. He then used historical background to help put everything together for the reader. What the village was like, the population and how trials were done.The book showed how easily people could be accused of witchcraft and it also shows the pack mentality that existed in this time period. One thing that is really disturbing is the lack of conscience shown by people. The people who accused the women of witchcraft, obviously new it wasnt true, yet Anne Gunter showed no remorse for putting these women through this harrowing experience. Her only if concern when confessing was of her own pain. One of the problems with this book is the fact that the historian many times did not have much to work with. He in turn would interpret a document to the best of his ability.Many times this would end up being a conjecture, and not a sure fact. History many times has to be looked at like that, but many of his inferences may have been off. There was almost a suggestion of doubt over every part of the book. One thing that is provoke is that how high profile this case was. The King became involved, and the case received a lot of attention. That shows that even with all the publicity how hard it was to reconstruct this case. It would be even harder to ever show what happened in other cases, with less undischarged members of society involved.