Ronald Seth (1911–1985)

This book was originally published in 1967. It is a summary of witchcraft trials and beliefs mainly in Great Britain through the centuries and is organised into three sections: a historical summary, a section of topics, and summaries of major cases. Although the writer respectfully refers to the scholarship of Montague Summers, one of whose books I read recently and did not enjoy at all, he does at least deplore the torture (in Europe and Scotland) and cruel executions to which those accused of witchcraft were subjected and, unlike Summers, does not believe that people really flew on broomsticks etc, shape-changed into animal form or worshipped actual devils (the author takes the stance that the ‘devil’ supposedly present at gatherings was just a man in a costume).

However, the author also believes that many of those accused were probably ‘real’ witches who practiced maleficia (malevolent magic) against their fellow citizens. He does acknowledge that in the sixteenth century onwards the church and secular authorities tortured those accused, using as their guide the Malleus Maleficium and other textbooks on witchcraft, until they ‘confessed’ to identikit offences described in those textbooks, which were not usually featured in witchcraft trials before that period. (In fact, the earlier church had taken the view that those who believed they flew through the air to meetings with the goddess Diana were actually deluded.) He therefore espouses the idea, deplored by Summers, that the church thus ‘invented’ the concept of witchcraft as a heresy with standardised features that included attendance at sabbats, flying to such gatherings, signing a pact with the devil, participation in orgies, the murder of babies to make ointments etc). But he argues that the witches adopted these practices from the church accusations and therefore actually did follow them during the main period of persecution, so that witchcraft actually became the heresy which the church persecuted.

This argument seems counter intuitive, given that the accused were executed and had no opportunity to return home and do so. So-called witches were largely ordinary folk, for the most part illiterate and unable to read about the heretical crimes they were supposed to be committing. (It was the privileged classes who wrote and read about witchcraft as a heresy; a view originally confined to Scotland and the continent, but which over time made its way to England. From time to time, these classes practiced witchcraft but it was always political, with undertones of treason.) As far as the public at large were concerned, witchcraft was maleficia – harm done to them, their families, their animals and crops, including interference in essential work such as churning butter, and this formed the basis of accusations when they came from the grass roots of society rather than the literal witch hunts pursued by the authorities.

Maleficia was treated as a felony in England until the end of Elizabeth I’s reign (and therefore carried a death penalty by hanging if someone was judged guilty of murder by witchcraft, rather than the burning prescribed for heresy or petty treason (when a woman killed her husband)). It was only with the advent of James I/VI who had a particular interest in witchcraft that it became a hanging offence in itself due to its perceived intrinsic harm.

In such a climate, eventually anti-witches (wise women/men or cunning folk) to whom people resorted when they believed themselves bewitched were in danger of being executed given the attitude expressed in various textbooks that ‘good’ or ‘white’ witches were even worse as they corrupted those who accepted their help.

None of the English cases described in the book, some of them famous such as the Pendle witch trials, truly feature the continental description of witchcraft – the Pendle witches did get together at Malkin Tower, but this was clearly a business meeting to decide how they could jail break some of their number who had already been arrested and didn’t involve devil worship or orgies. In England, where torture was only permitted in cases of treason against the monarch, other practices such as sleep deprivation and ‘pricking’ to find the insensitive devil’s mark were resorted to, especially by self-styled witch hunters such as Matthew Hopkins, to obtain confessions. Such confessions followed standard lines, including animal familiars and the like, but again how much was really practiced or was just old widows keeping pets for company, and then distorted to support a conviction?

The final section of the book gives summaries of some of the trials alluded to earlier. The author treats with scepticism the various possessions of nuns in France, Loudon being the most famous, being convinced that the outbreaks were all frauds for monetary gain. He also deplores the lower level of proof required for witchcraft accusations in general, including the testimony of young children which was not permitted in trials for other crimes. The book however lacks a conclusion and finishes abruptly after describing the Salem trials but without acknowledgement of the political and economic tensions in the village that led to the accusations.

The book, therefore, is an odd mixture of scepticism in the case of e.g. the possessed nuns and the Salem trials, and credulity when it puts forward the view that so-called witches really did follow a heretical religion which they had copied from the church’s accusations. The latter becomes rather irritating. Some people may genuinely have believed that they had powers and even used the threat of those for advantage, especially those who were destitute and had to beg for a living. But the whole edifice of heretical witchcraft as some alternative Satanic religion is a house of cards, especially since the same accusations had been levelled many times against various groups in society, ironically commencing with the early Christians. So overall I would rate it as 3 stars. I also note that the cover is quite exploitative with its image of a half-nude young woman, but make allowances given that the paperback was published in 1970.… (mehr)

Per molti anni il nome del piccolo villaggio sull'lsonzo, dove il 24 ottobre 1917 austriaci e tedeschi ruppero il fronte italiano, è rimasto nell'opinione pubblica straniera, e soprattutto inglese, come un mar'chio d'infamia gravante sul comportamento dei soldati italiani durante la grande guerra.
Esaminando, sia pure di scorcio, ma certamente senza pregiudizi, l'intera partecipazione italiana alla prima guerra mondiale - dalla dichiarazione di neutralità sino a Vittorio Veneto - Ronald Seth correttamente individua nell'ostilità degli alti comandi alleati uno dei fattori che contribuirono a indebolire la stràtegia italiana della guerra. Di particolare interesse sono le pagine sull'incontro interalleato a Roma del gennaio 1917 e sui profondi dissapori venutisi a creare tra Lloyd George e il generale Cadorna per avere quest'ultimo respinto il piano strategico proposto dal premier inglese •
Lo storico e scrittore inglese Ronald Seth è noto in Italia soprattutto per il suo libro Capo Matapan, un'accurata ricostruzione dello scontro avvenuto nel marzo 1941 tra la marina italiana e la flotta inglese dei ·Mediterraneo. Le fotografie inserite nel volume provengono dagli archivi dello stato maggiore italiano.… (mehr)

Ronald Seth, già noto come autore di un libro sulla battaglia di Stalingrado, ha consultato fonti di prima mano, dagli archivi del Museo della Difesa di Mosca a testimonianze di soldati di ambo le parti. Ha così potuto ricostruire, sul filo di una narrazlone appassionante, i mesi e i giorni che videro affievolirsi la forza d'urto dei tedeschl fino alla controffensiva invernale davanti a Mosca.
L'attacco tedesco all'Unione Sovietica si scatenò senza preavviso all'alba del 22 giugno 194. I russi furono presi di sorpresa: il segreto fu così ben tenuto sui giganteschi movimenti di truppe e materiali alla frontiera, che i servizi di informazione sovietici erano scettici sulla possibilità di un attacco in dispregio al patto di non aggressione del 1939, e anche l'ambasciatore tedesco a Mosca fu fino all'ultimo incredulo come Molotov. Hitler pensava che l'Unione Sovietica sarebbe crollata in dodici settlmane, e i risultati dei primi giorni di campagna parvero dargli ragione.
Il generale Halder, di solito molto cauto nell'esprimere giudizi, riteneva, dopo aver letto i primi rapporti che davano per liquidate nelle sacche di confine trecentomila unità sovietiche, che la campagna fosse già conclusa in quattordici giorni, e aggiungeva: "In poche settimane sarà tutto finito".

Indice: 1. Un'alleanza poco santa; 2. I primi scricchiolii; 3. Nell'attesa; 4. Consigli poco ascoltati; 5. Si avvicna l'ora H; 6. L'attesam è finita; 7. Sorpresa! Sorpresa!; 8. La prima esitazione; 9. Sulla strada maestra per Mosca; 10. Verso le zone agricole dell'Ucraina; 11. Il rovescio della medaglia; 12. Il sistema di comando sovietico; 13. La battaglia per Leningrado; 14. Le battaglie sulla stra per Mosca; 15. La più grande battaglia nella storia del mondo; 16. La battaglia per Mosca.… (mehr)