'fat belly fed Moonkes, flattering Friers, and idle lusty Priestes’: Anti-Catholicism in Elizabethan and Jacobean Witchcraft Pamplets

'fat belly fed Moonkes, flattering Friers, and idle lusty Priestes’: Anti-Catholicism in Elizabethan and Jacobean Witchcraft Pamplets

Witchcraft pamphlets

2024

Dr. Martha McGill

This article builds on existing analyses of Elizabethan and Jacobean witchcraft pamphlets by situating them within broader anti-Catholic literature. Beginning by outlining the basis for witchcraft trials in England and ongoing debates among scholars regarding the definition of witchcraft, the motivation of trials and the link between anti-Catholicism and the supernatural, the article argues that witchcraft pamphlets were, at times, used to express anti-Catholic sentiment. It focuses mainly on 6 pamphlets published between 1566 and 1621. Through references to Catholic priests, Latin prayers, the Papacy and the protection against the Devil offered by ‘true’ faith, the pamphlets warn of the threat of Catholicism and assert its heretical and treasonous nature in contrast to the righteousness of Protestant faith.