On April 14, 1621, Elizabeth Sawyer was charged with witchery, pertaining to the murder of cattle, children, and Agnus Ratcliffe. By April 19, she was executed. You will have to travel back to this era to even partly understand why she died, for she was only one out of thousands of men and women who were murdered in the name of "God." You see, long ago, starting around second century, people started being accused of consorting with the Devil. Eventually, innocent beings were killed, beginning with a few cases here and there, and then escalating into the thousands. How this notion of "witchcraft" became true and embedded in everyone's minds in unknown. What is known is that people did believe, and this fear escalated into mass hysteria.
Elizabeth was old, deformed, and relied on her community of Edmonton for assistance in her life. We may know women like this today, but in the 1600's this type of woman was the classic form of a witch. One day, as her neighbor Agnus Ratcliffe was chasing Elizabeth's pig off of her property, she fell quite ill. Dying in her home, Agnus informed her husband, that if she did die, she was really murdered by Elizabeth through witchcraft. Fortunetly or not, Agnus did die, and her husband took to the court.
During the trial, the jurors were most unsure of whether Elizabeth was guilty or not, until someone suggested that she had a mark on her body. The men of the court rushed to the street, and soon emerged back into the building with three women they had plucked from the street. The women looked over Elizabth's body, and indeed, there was something on her buttock. It was "a thing like a teat the bigness of the little finger and the length of half a finger, which was branched at the top like a teat, and seemed as though one had sucked it, and that the bottom thereof was blue and the top of it was red." So what does this mean? Not much to us, but to the crazed citizens the "teat" was sucked of blood from none other than Satan himself. Elizabeth was found guilty of the murder of Agnus, and all other charges were dropped.
It is now the 21st century, and the hysteria has died down a bit, at least in the view of witchcraft. Elizabeth remains with me. She was a strong figure, unlike the jurors, judge, and majority of Europe at the time. I believe she stayed true to herself through it all, even though the torture made her lie about her involvement in witchcraft. I feel close to her, even though I am not old, awaiting execution, or living in a completely different era. She isn't one too feel sorry for. Sure, her life came to a brutal and abrupt end, but she should be admired for her will. She didn't sit in the court crying and begging mercy. She wanted to be strong, and that is how I will always see her.
A play was written about her titled "The Witch of Edmonton." The writings came from a pamphlet written by Henry Goodcole narrating Elizabeth's confession, which he retrieved from her. A lot is to be learned by this pamphlet. Elizabeth talks of the Devil sucking her teat, his appearance as a dog, and how she murdered children. Many accused witches would speak of such things during confessions, and I am sure these devils marks and sexual "deviances" came from some sort of gossip that became wide spread. May Elizabeth Sawyer always be remembered.
A word to anyone interested: During Elizabeth's confession she tells of a prayer the devil taught her: "Santibicetur nomen tuur." Goodcole suggests this is Latin. I Googled this phrase and found nothing. If somebody knows what this phrase means, if it means anything at all, you are welcome to email me. |
