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dougmccrae.bsky.social
Doug McCrae
@dougmccrae.bsky.social
640 followers 660 following 1.9K posts
C15–C18 European witch trials; superhero comics (old); ttrpgs; horror movies
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dougmccrae.bsky.social
Archbishop Hincmar justified the judicial ordeal of cold water in the C9. After ordeals were banned at the 1215 Fourth Lateran Council, it returned as a test for witches. Almost every demonologist rejected the swimming test but King James I did not, referencing, like Hincmar, the baptismal waters.
And in this ordeal of cold water whoever, after the invocation of God, who is the Truth, seeks to hide the truth by a lie, cannot be submerged in the waters above which the voice of the Lord God has thundered; for the pure nature of the water recognizes as impure and therefore rejects as inconsistent with itself such human nature as has once been regenerated by the waters of baptism and is again infected by falsehood. So it appears that God hath appointed, for a supernatural sign of the monstrous impiety of the witches, that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom that have shaken off them the sacred water of baptism, and wilfully refused the benefit thereof.
November 5, 2025 at 1:42 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Ron Swanson’s permit from Parks and Recreation. It says “I can do what I want” and is signed “Ron”.
October 31, 2025 at 7:28 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Halloween, the night when witches drink and make merry.

#halloween #witches #witch
Item, the said Agnes Sampson was after brought again before the king's Majesty and his council, and being examined of the meetings and detestable dealings of those witches, she confessed that upon the night of Allhollon Even last, she was accompanied as well with the persons aforesaid as also with a great many other witches to the number of two hundred; and that all they together went to sea each one in a riddle or sieve, and went in the same very substantially with flagons of wine, making merry and drinking by the way in the same riddles or sieves, to the kirk of North Berwick in Lothian; and that after they had landed, took hands on the land and danced this reel or short dance, singing all with one voice: Commer go ye before, commer go ye; If ye will not go before, commer let me. At which time she confessed that this Geillis Duncan did go before them playing this reel or dance upon a small trump, called a Jew's trump, until they entered into the kirk of North Berwick.
October 31, 2025 at 2:29 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
This is the first time I've seen a reference to demons having anal sex with witches in a witch-hunting manual. It's from the French city of Arras in 1460, and seems a bit hornier than usual.

#witches #witchtrials

Excerpt from Gow, Desjardins and Pageau (eds.), "The Arras Witch Treatises" (2016).
After he has said these things, the presiding demon rises from his seat, which is elevated somewhat above the earth before the others and situated at the head of the congregation. He then withdraws and takes the novice to some part of the forest, in order to embrace her in his way and know her carnally. He says cruelly that he will throw her on the ground on her face, on her two hands and feet, as he cannot copulate with her otherwise. And no matter which form the presiding demon has adopted, when the novice first touches his member, she finds it cold and soft, as his whole body often is. He first enters the natural opening and leaves corrupt and yellow sperm, harvested from nocturnal emissions or in other [he enters] the place of discharge [the rectum], and thus he abuses her unnaturally, by which deed such a novice commits a sin against nature with the Devil. Then, the second time the novice attends, she is known carnally by her familiar demon and guide, as she was previously known by the presiding demon. [But] the demon does not have sex with her at subsequent congregations, except on those occasions when there are not enough men to make up couples (since there are generally more women than men). At such times, the demons take the place of men in the couples, just as on those rare occasions when women are scarcer, demonesses make up the lack.
October 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
I answered the question "What was a witch?" on #askhistorians.

www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

Also, I requested, and was very pleased to be given, the flair "European Witch Trials" so my username now looks like this:
User DougMcCrae on r/askhistorians with flair "European Witch Trials"
October 28, 2025 at 12:27 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
The last paragraph of the chapter gives a good summary of its argument:
The idea that the problem of superstition and belief in witchcraft was intimately connected with the shift to republicanism and democracy kept witchcraft in the public mind. The “witch” had become a conniver. The threat to citizen and state was not that supernatural powers were real but that they were false: they took advantage of the ignorant, they poisoned morals, and they doused the fires of natural government. So too with those who saw signs in nature beyond a mild, natural providence: they filled the public mind with falsehoods and thus set the republican ship adrift. That those threats to the nation were also defined as Indians and blacks, and the countervailing forces as masculine country farmers, was no accident in an expanding slaveholder Republic. Politics and religion were connected not only through policy but also through epistemology. Witchcraft was a problem for white republicans even though—in fact precisely because—it was not true.
October 27, 2025 at 3:32 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Apparently there was once a time when certain beliefs were considered disqualifying for an American politician.
In 1809, Maryland’s Jeffersonian governor saw his career terminated in part owing to his participation in a court case that had accepted the testimony of a ghost.
October 27, 2025 at 1:54 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
In a DC comic from 1962 Bizarro Superman and his friends wear JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Lewis and Mickey Mantle masks for Halloween to terrify the other Bizarros.
Comic panels depicting Bizarro Superman and his three friends wearing JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Lewis and Mickey Mantle masks. The other Bizarros are terrified by these "ugly Earth people".
October 25, 2025 at 8:15 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Based on the poster I think this film is probably about 80s UK chart sensation Shakin' Stevens opening a coffee shop. #ItsShaky #80s
Poster for music film "Shakey Grounds" which is not about Shakin' Stevens opening a coffee shop.
October 25, 2025 at 7:39 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
The Chad Templar vs the Virgin Knight, as described by Bernard of Clairvaux in the early twelfth century.

#medieval #crusades #tousledanddusty
There is little distinction of persons among them, and deference is shown to ability, not to nobility. They rival one another in mutual consideration, and they carry one another’s burdens, thus fulfilling the law of Christ. No arrogant word, no idle deed, no unrestrained laugh, not even the slightest whisper or murmur, is left uncorrected once it has been detected. They forswear dice and chess, they abhor the hunt; they take no delight, as is customary, in the ridiculous cruelty of falconry. Jesters, wizards, bards, bawdy minstrels, and jousters, they despise and reject as so many vanities and deceitful follies. They cut their hair short, cognizant that, according to the apostle, it is shameful for a man to cultivate flowing locks. They never dress, and seldom wash their hair – content to let it appear tousled and dusty, darkened by chain mail and heat. When a battle is at hand, they arm themselves [on the inside] with faith and [on the outside] with steel rather than with gold. Thus armed and not embellished, they strike fear rather than incite greed in the enemy. They seek out strong, swift horses, rather than those which are dappled and well-plumed. They set their minds on fighting to win rather than on parading for show. They take no thought for glory but seek to be formidable rather than flamboyant. Then too, they are not quarrelsome, reckless, or impulsively foolhardy, but they draw up their ranks deliberately, prudently, and providently, arraying themselves in the line of battle as we read about in the fathers [of the church]. Indeed, the true Israelites march into battle as men of peace.
October 23, 2025 at 12:38 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
A little more Two-Face than Joker.
Batman villain, Two-Face. He wears a suit, one half of which is white and the other red.
October 20, 2025 at 3:20 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
David Niven and Robert Wagner playing the roles of Sir Charles Lytton and his nephew, George Lytton, in the film The Pink Panther (1963).
October 19, 2025 at 11:49 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

Lol, what a question on #askhistorians! Let's consult the Magic History Eightball to find out the answer...
Magic eightball saying "signs point to yes".
October 15, 2025 at 10:25 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
An important contribution toward answering the question 'Were witches healers?' Excerpt from @magicnotwitches.bsky.social's "Cunning Folk" (2024).

#witch #witches #witchtrials
In my research I have found reference to more than 380 service magicians practising in England between 1542 and 1670, many of whom were healers and midwives, diviners and goods-finders. Of these, fewer than five were accused of malevolent witchcraft, and only one was eventually found guilty and executed. I’m sure there are other cases, but even so, the proportions are striking, belying the modern assumption that the witch trials of early modern England targeted healers and other women who professed cunning skills. For most people at the time, there was a difference between the useful magic generally being practised and sold by cunning folk and the harmful, vindictive curses dealt out by witches.
October 15, 2025 at 9:51 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
You'll know a lot more about this than me I'm sure, but I recently learned that Frankfurt's city council imposed an elaborate dress code on its inhabitants in the EM period. This could be used to identify suspected criminals.

Excerpts from Maria Boes' "Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany":
However, the crucial question remains: how did Frankfurt’s population know whom to accuse, explicitly or implicitly? How did local inhabitants identify offenders, given the lack of passports, identification cards, and photographs? Contemporaries resorted to oral and visual forms of identification: for example, by adding to a first name one’s birthplace or the designation of a physical feature, frequently a handicap, often in the form of a nickname. In fact, the use of sobriquets was ubiquitous. Another and more elaborate system of identification ascribed clearly discernible symbols to each person walking Frankfurt’s streets. Specific dress, badges or color schemes described every aspect of a person’s life—rank, wealth, religion, occupation, marital status, age, even bereavement. From birth to death, a person’s whole life was mirrored and even regulated by outward appearances. The concept of using visual aids for identification was introduced by Frankfurt’s city council in the mid-fourteenth century. At first it was a vague dress code, but by the end of the fifteenth century it had become more elaborate. It was primarily during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, that Kleiderordnungen, dress regulations, multiplied, stratified, and were institutionalized. From 1572 to 1672, 11 identifiable dress codes were promulgated in Frankfurt. With each citation of the codes, they became more stratified. While the 1572 dress code was rather vague with regard to birth and professional status, the 1593 code made it clear that everyone should dress according to their social standing, honor and wealth. For example, only nobles, doctors and patricians were permitted to wear jackets or coats made of velvet, damask, satin or other silk products. Even the yardage to be used for these garments was prescribed in that only well-known burghers and traders, merchants and city councilmen were permitted to use 2 yards of velvet for their clothing, while prominent retailers and notaries were entitled to use one. Dress regulations also applied to Frankfurt’s female population. Not surprisingly, the dress ordinances of “reputable” women closely followed their husbands’ and fathers’, based primarily on social status, honor, and wealth. Frequently an additional color scheme was used to indicate a woman’s marital status. Generally, the color red indicated young and single women, and blue and green, married women. Old age was accentuated with gray and black. Virgins were subjected to further labels. In 1483, for example, a young girl was arrested on suspicion of theft, partly because she falsely claimed virginity by wearing the customary “Bändchen im Haar,” ribbon in her hair.
October 14, 2025 at 12:19 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Scholars who study conspiracy beliefs have found they only became stigmatised after WWII, and have recently become partially destigmatised.

Excerpt from Michael Butter's chapter in the "Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories" (2020):
However, drawing on an approach from the sociology of knowledge (Anton et al. 2014), I will argue that the opposite is the case. Conspiracy theories have not increased, but decreased, in popularity and importance over time in American culture. They have moved from the mainstream to the margins, not the other way around. They were once orthodox, that is, officially accepted and legitimate knowledge, and became heterodox, that is, stigmatised and illegitimate knowledge after the Second World War. It is true that conspiracy theories have become more important again in recent years and are now more visible and influential than 30 years ago, but they are still far less widely spread and influential than 100 or 200 years ago.
October 13, 2025 at 10:14 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
I'm not sure we've ever been sane, at least not for long. "Cursed Britain", Thomas Waters' study of witch beliefs in Britain from 1800 to the present, finds they were "fairly common" until the late 1930s. Conspiracy beliefs are a lot like witch beliefs imo, purporting to explain inexplicable harm.
this evidence suggests that witchery faded as a popular belief during a familiar period, much of which remains within living memory, an era beginning with Edwardian imperial grandeur and suffragette radicalism, and ending with the swinging sixties. Yet witchcraft remained widely believed in until about 1900, and fairly common until the late 1930s
October 13, 2025 at 10:07 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
@picturesofnixon.com in the American Film Theatre's 1974 production of Eugène Ionesco's play Rhinoceros, starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel.
Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in an apartment with a large picture of Richard Nixon on the wall.
October 13, 2025 at 2:00 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Excerpt from Laurence Rees' "The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History" (2025):
At first sight all of these different approaches to anti-Semitism among Nazi supporters in the 1920s seem confusing. Nonetheless, they offer an insight into the appeal of the party in these early days. As long as you accepted that the Jews – in one form or another – were a danger, then the kind of anti-Semitism you believed in was to a large degree up to you.
October 12, 2025 at 11:58 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Tweet by user Basil@LinkofSunshine People on twitter will really be like "you believe in voting? that pales in effectiveness to my strategy, firebombing a Walmart" and then not firebomb a Walmart
October 10, 2025 at 4:08 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
This paper finds that economic crises benefit the right.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
How do voters respond to economic crises: Do they turn against the incumbent, reward a certain political camp, polarize to the extremes, or perhaps continue to vote much like before? Analyzing extensive data on electorates, parties, and individuals in 24 countries for over half a century, we document a systematic pattern whereby economic crises tend to disproportionately favor the right. Three main forces underlie this pattern. First, voters tend to decrease support for the party heading the government when the crisis erupts. Second, after crises, voters tend to assign greater importance to issues typically owned by the right. Third, when center-right parties preside over a crisis, voters often drift further rightward to nationalist parties rather than defect to the left. The far-right thus serves as an effective vehicle for keeping the center-right in power even when facing postcrisis disaffection by its voters.
October 7, 2025 at 2:58 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Do you agree with Dennis Wheatley's argument in "The Devil and All His Works" (1971) that the survival of the Little People can only be explained by their magic powers? Wheatley's source is Margaret Murray, who he describes as a "very high authority".
That the Little People had inherited the secrets of occult power, or perhaps we should say in this case 'rudimentary magic', there can be no doubt at all. Had they not done so, the Anglo-Saxon peasantry and that of Brittany, where they had numerous settlements, could easily have wiped out their small communities. Instead, for many centuries, they paid tribute in farm produce to be spared having a murrain put on their cattle, a blight on the crops, or a spell that would cause their women to miscarry.
October 5, 2025 at 12:11 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
I've been once, about twenty years ago. The statue of Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana is what I remember the most, because it was so gauche and ridiculous.
Bronze statue of Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana. The couple, barefoot and wearing light clothing, are holding hands and releasing, for some reason, an albatross. The work is labelled "Innocent Victims".
October 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
I had a look at an issue of American Legion from Sept 1951. It was consistently and virulently anti-communist. The overblown language and sense of grievance was very reminiscent of conservatism in the US today. These excerpts from an article by Eugene Lyons give a good sense of it.
Instantly the incident was seized upon by the left-wing howling squads in the press and on the air. Their carrying power again proved awe-inspiring, drawing impassioned echoes not merely in the southpaw press but in papers like The New York Times. In record speed the affair was bellowed into a cause celebre. The Muir name became a banner, a slogan, and a club with which to beat "redbaiters." The Muir uproar, we may be sure, sounded ironical to the anti-communist Moffitts — to the throng of writers, artists, educators and just Americans who had been abused and penalized for attacking the Kremlin and its obscene works. They could not help recalling that there had been no hollering about justice and jobs, no storms of sympathy, when they were being pushed around by Stalinists entrenched in the publishing and entertainment fields, on the campuses, in government agencies.
September 26, 2025 at 2:38 AM
dougmccrae.bsky.social
Here's Pope Eugenius IV writing in 1437, and Jesuit scholar Martin Del Rio in 1600.
B. A Letter to All Inquisitors of Heretical Depravity, 1437 The news has reached us, not without great bitterness of spirit, that the prince of darkness makes many who have been bought by the blood of Christ partakers in his own fall and damnation, bewitching them by his cunning arts in such a way that these detestable persuasions and illusions make them members of his sect. They sacrifice to demons, adore them, seek out and accept responses from them, do homage to them, and make with them a written agreement or another kind of pact through which, by a single word, touch, or sign, they may perform whatever evil deeds or sorcery they wish and be transported to or away from wherever they wish. They cure diseases, provoke bad weather, and make pacts concerning other evil deeds. Question I. Is there such a thing as magic involving evil spirits? Those who follow the Sadducees, Democritus, Aristotle, Averroes and Simplicius in asserting that evil spirits do not exist also say that this form of magic does not exist. But this opinion of theirs is impious and heretical. Evil spirits do exist and so does the magic which involves them. Such a magic is not based upon the industry or inventiveness of human beings, nor does it rely upon natural causes. It rests, rather, on some kind of nonmaterial, separate power. . . .
September 25, 2025 at 5:02 AM