My thought about the Salem trials were that they possibly provided impetus for magicals to go into hiding.
Only on the left side of the big pond.
People lose focus on the fact that the Puritans were a right-wing, ultraconservative, religious cult who originally left England for Holland because they didn't like the restoration of the monarchy in England (the Church of England, of which the King is head, was too "papist" for their tastes).
The Puritans then left Holland after a few years because even though they had gone there due to the Netherlands' religious freedom, the Puritans then objected to the Dutch being TOO permissive -- there were just too many Jews and Catholics around who were openly practicing their religion, don'tcha know? :-P
And so they came to America with the sole idea of establishing their own vision of God's Perfect Community. And to do so they enacted a lot of restrictive laws (such as a man not allowed to kiss his wife on the Sabbath), which included anti-witchcraft laws.
They really didn't want anything to do with with the folks back home, who in turn didn't give those weird religious cultists in New England a second thought.
The Salem Witch Trials would have made for an interesting "odd news" article in the back pages of the London newspapers, little more. The trials, and subsequent hangings (and one pressing-to-death) would have had absolutely NO influence on political and/or religious policy back in England.
Whatever was the impetus for the Secrecy Statue being passed in 1692, the Salem Witch Trials would NOT have been it.
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Date: 2011-06-04 03:53 pm (UTC)Only on the left side of the big pond.
People lose focus on the fact that the Puritans were a right-wing, ultraconservative, religious cult who originally left England for Holland because they didn't like the restoration of the monarchy in England (the Church of England, of which the King is head, was too "papist" for their tastes).
The Puritans then left Holland after a few years because even though they had gone there due to the Netherlands' religious freedom, the Puritans then objected to the Dutch being TOO permissive -- there were just too many Jews and Catholics around who were openly practicing their religion, don'tcha know? :-P
And so they came to America with the sole idea of establishing their own vision of God's Perfect Community. And to do so they enacted a lot of restrictive laws (such as a man not allowed to kiss his wife on the Sabbath), which included anti-witchcraft laws.
They really didn't want anything to do with with the folks back home, who in turn didn't give those weird religious cultists in New England a second thought.
The Salem Witch Trials would have made for an interesting "odd news" article in the back pages of the London newspapers, little more. The trials, and subsequent hangings (and one pressing-to-death) would have had absolutely NO influence on political and/or religious policy back in England.
Whatever was the impetus for the Secrecy Statue being passed in 1692, the Salem Witch Trials would NOT have been it.