Foyster E., Whatley C.A. A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600-1800

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242 Joyce Miller

been declared illegal prior to the Reformation parliament of 1560.

Other

forms of festivity and ceremony associated with marriage and burials were

restricted. Helen Bull was questioned by the presbytery of Haddington in

1647 about putting pieces of bread on children’s chests when they were bap-

tised,

and in 1651 the kirk session in Pencaitland questioned Agnes Bennet

about why she put a nail on top of a corpse before the winding sheet was

put in place. Her reply was that the nail ‘was to keep her [the dead woman’s]

spirit from coming again . . .’.

These women were typical of those who were

interrogated as part of the clampdown on a range of customs that the new

church condemned as ‘ignorant superstition’ and profane past times.

The rituals the reformers offered in their place took the form of sacrament

and repentance, particularly the latter. The main sacrament was communion

(baptism was the only other sacrament allowed by the Protestant Church)

and participating in, and the taking of, communion was an extremely serious

matter and not one to be undertaken or accepted lightly. In many places com-

munion was offered only once a year (as had been the case prior to 1560);

although one of the main objectives of the new church was to offer commun-

ion quarterly, this was not achieved in most areas of the country. To reﬂ ect

the serious nature of the ceremony, communicants were expected to undergo

mental and physical preparation. As well as attending a number of prepara-

tory sermons, examinations and tests were conducted – often taking many

hours – to assess the communicants’ suitability to be allowed to participate.

If they passed, they would be issued with a token which would allow them

admission to the communion ceremony.

The communion service was also

preceded by a fast, sometimes of several days, often accompanied by fasting

sermons when ministers would preach sermons encouraging congregations

to examine their souls and repent their sinful behaviours.

Fasting was carried out in order to cleanse society of its sins and request

God’s forgiveness. Liturgical fasting was ordained and regulated by the

church as a means of obviating the punishments inﬂ icted by God because

of society’s sins. Although the Protestant Church in Scotland introduced

liturgical fasting in the sixteenth century, its counterpoint, thanksgiving

celebrations to mark God’s blessing, featured less frequently.

The message

was: less self-congratulation and more self-mortiﬁ cation. According to the

church, Godly reproofs manifested themselves in a variety of disasters and

crises, including famines and plagues, which society feared greatly. According

to the new church, these disasters were beyond human control but with

repentance and God’s forgiveness, their effect could be reduced. Protestant

fasts were not calendar events associated with regular, annual festivals, as

formerly, but were ordered in reaction to individual local or national events:

outbreaks of disease or harvest failure; threats to the security of the realm

or the king; threats to the security of the authority of the church – all were

interpreted as demonstrations of God’s anger and signs that Scottish society

was not as ‘Good and Godly’ as it could be.

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Beliefs, Religions, Fears and Neuroses 243

It was the responsibility of the church to root out unacceptable behav-

iours and punish them in order to eradicate them. Repentance for one’s sins

and a request for God’s forgiveness was an important liturgical ritual permit-

ted by the new church as it was associated with being given permission to

take communion, as well as the manner in which it was taken. In many ways

repentance became the means through which the church made most impact

on society. Instead of being ordered to carry out a penance, often done pri-

vately, on the instructions of a priest, after the Reformation individuals were

encouraged to make a public personal repentance.

For the Protestant Church, although sexual misdemeanours were by far

the most common, blasphemy and carrying out superstitious rituals – such

as visiting a well – were far more serious, as these practices indicated a con-

tinuance of pre-Reformation observance. In cases of blasphemy or the carry-

ing out of unacceptable rituals, the sin could be deﬁ ned as that of apostasy,

either through a misguided lapse or a deliberate continuation of practice.

These serious misdemeanours involved careful investigation by the kirk ses-

sions, and even the presbytery, in order to ascertain whether or not there had

been any deliberate rejection of the authority of the church. In most cases,

despite the concerns of the general assembly, kirk sessions tended to regard

these transgressions as the result of ignorance, rather than the much more

serious sin of deliberate apostasy. Nevertheless, as will be discussed later, the

church would not always be so lenient but would view such practices as the

most unacceptable kind of apostasy, that of demonic worship.

For those who were sick, however, there was little in the way of comfort-

ing ritual offered by the new church. For the Protestant Church the cause

of illness or misfortune was the result of an individual’s own behaviour: in

other words ﬁ tting punishment for sins. The only recourses were prayer and

asking God’s forgiveness. In 1670 the presbytery of Haddington recorded

that the minister should:

visit the sick . . . [and] endeavours to awaken in them a sense of their sins that they

may confess, repent and be humbled for them, and that recourse to god through

Jesus Christ, for pardons, and stirr them up to resolv if god shall lengthen their

days. To live more Christianlie; exhorting them to pactions under the hand of god

and cheerful submission to his will.

Possibly because of such hard-line policies and despite fear of punishment,

people were generally reluctant to abandon their traditional practices, even if

they were condemned by the new church, its ministers and elders.

UNGODLY BEHAVIOUR AND FEAR

Ungodly behaviour included anything that did not conform to the Protestant

ideal, from deliberate Roman Catholic recusancy to accidental transgressions

of non-observance of Protestant practice. As the many socio-economic and

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244 Joyce Miller

political crises of the seventeenth century contributed to a general climate

of fear, this fear and anxiety was used by the church to stimulate further

disquiet by attributing the causes of harvest failures, illness and plague, civil

and military disruption, poverty and hunger to society itself. These crises

or disasters were God’s punishments for sinful behaviour. Fear was used

to generate conformity in order to shape Scottish society into an idealised

Godly population. However, by trying to create a perfectly obedient society,

the church only added to the general atmosphere of fear and contributed to

the disruption of the seventeenth century.

Nevertheless, in spite of legislation and the theoretical authority of the

church, people continued to carry out what they regarded as traditional

rituals because they provided them with comfort and reassurance – even if

they did not always work. During the 1600s the church continued to be con-

cerned about incidents of non-conformity – a century later non-conformity

and disagreement over polity culminated in further schism and the formation

of the original secession church in 1740. One of the ‘superstitious’ rituals or

non-conforming practices that survived among the ordinary population,

despite numerous pieces of legislation against, was pilgrimage. Typically, the

synod of Dunblane recorded in 1649 that:

ane general ordinance was passed that the several Presbyteries within the bounds

be careful that all superstitious wells and chapels whereunto people resort may be

carefullie abandoned, and diligence used for craving the assistance of the heritors

and others within their bounds for restraining the said superstitions resorting,

apprehending and punishing of such persons as do resort to such superstitious

places.

The church clearly had a continuing problem convincing its congrega-

tions that these popular religious rituals were unacceptable, and this was a

serious threat to the church’s authority. While a lack of correct observance

of Protestant practice was troublesome, for the church a serious and danger-

ous reason for transgression was the evil inﬂ uence of the devil. Ignorance

of the Scripture, non-observance of Protestant regulations and continued

use of pre-Reformation ritual were all interpreted as not simply a reluctance

to conform, but as evidence of the threat from the devil to the security of

the Protestant Church. As if there were not enough problems for people to

face, the church started to preach messages of imminent disaster: repent or

suffer. The message was quite straightforward: the church’s ﬁ ght to maintain

its position as the dominant religious organisation and social and cultural

force in the country, was a metaphor for a much larger contest as the devil

and God struggled for control over society itself. The devil, Scottish con-

gregations were told, was a real and present danger. Praying for, or believing

in, any supernatural power other than God in order to relieve suffering was

absolutely unacceptable. Invocations of, or petitions to, other spiritual agents

– angels, saints, fairies or elves, ghosts, nature spirits, whether pre-Christian

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Beliefs, Religions, Fears and Neuroses 245

or pre-Reformation Christian – were not permitted. The only acceptable

supernatural power was God; anything else was ultimately demonic. During

the 1600s, many spirit ﬁ gures of popular culture, particularly fairies and

ghosts, were removed from popular culture by the church and replaced by

the much more ominous ﬁ gure of the devil.

Fear of the power of the devil was a crucial aspect of Christian theology.

The devil was antithetical to God and Christ, for both Roman Catholic and

Protestant Churches and, as such, was an opponent against whom society

had to be defended. Any rival to the authority of the church was demon-

ised and recast as an enemy of God or the antichrist.

For the Protestant

Church in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Scotland, this enemy was the

pre- Reformation Church and, principally, the ﬁ gure of the pope, who was

identiﬁ ed as the antichrist in early Scottish Protestant propaganda, such as

the bond of the lords of congregation of 1557. Thus, the continuation of pre-

Reformation religious rituals was regarded as not only being in direct opposi-

tion to the orders of the Protestant Church, but was an indication of support

for papal authority, in other words, the antichrist. However, although the

pope and the pre-Reformation Church may have been rejected, at least in

theory, in 1560, the struggle to win over the hearts and minds of congrega-

tions took much longer. Many ordinary people were clearly reluctant to

abandon a, possibly innocent, belief in the power of special places, things or

people, based on local or personal tradition and which had been permitted

by the old church before 1560. Unfortunately, people could be, and often

were, regarded as having indulged in demonic practices, the most common of

which was witchcraft and, as a result, would suffer serious consequences.

Most people denied that they had anything to do with the devil when they

carried out popular religious customs. The image and power of the devil was

something with which all levels of society in the seventeenth century, from

the elite to the ordinary people, were familiar. James VI identiﬁ ed himself

as God’s Protestant magistrate after the demonic threat to the security and

safety of the king, and by extension that of the country as a whole, had been

identiﬁ ed and defeated with the North Berwick witchcraft trials of 1590.

Non-literate sections of the population were just as aware of the concept

of the devil. Although Protestant Church buildings no longer contained

painted or carved images of the devil – most having been destroyed during

the early years of the Reformation – sermons using biblical chapter and

verse, particularly from the Book of Revelation, instructed non-literate con-

gregations about the very real threat from the devil. The devil, people were

told, could take any form or appearance and would tempt people with offers

of reward in the way of food, wealth, promises of good health or power. In a

country which was relatively impoverished and where survival for many was

often very difﬁ cult, the prospect of obtaining food, drink or clothing must

have been quite tempting.

While the church struggled to mould a Godly population, many ordinary

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246 Joyce Miller

people were implicated and accused of demonic worship and witchcraft

because of their reluctance to give up traditional beliefs and practices. For a

church that was endeavouring to create a perfect Godly state, popular belief

and practice appeared to have more in common with the devil than God.

Clearly many of those who practised what were regarded as non-conforming

rituals had no desire to invoke the devil or to participate in demonic worship,

but the church needed to suppress all forms of unorthodox practice in order

to demonstrate its authority. Popular rituals were dangerous, profane and

heretical and amounted to apostasy which needed to be stamped out.

FEAR OF THE DEVIL AND CRIMINALISATION OF BELIEFS

AND PRACTICES

As all aspects of unorthodox observance were deemed demonic, so beliefs

and practices long regarded as traditional were questioned, criminalised and

eventually denounced as being demonic witchcraft. The Protestant Church’s

fear of the devil, coupled with people’s fear of witches, resulted in around

4,000 people being accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and

1736.

This apparent increased incidence of demonic witchcraft was not

the result of unusually large numbers of women and men renouncing their

baptisms and becoming servants of the devil. Instead, it was a result of the

demonising of popular culture and belief by the state and the church and

recasting it as something dangerous and frightening.

There is no doubt that ordinary people understood the concept of witch-

craft before it was ofﬁ cially criminalised in Scotland in 1563. As a method of

manipulating supernatural powers, witchcraft was an aspect of the spectrum

of popular beliefs that included religion and magic. For the most part, witch-

craft was regarded as a harmful power which was used to spoil ale, ruin crops,

stop milk from churning and cause illness, injury and even death. However,

if people believed their bad luck was the result of witchcraft, they were

able to redress the negative effects of maleﬁ ce, or harm, by using counter-

witchcraft. A range of popular rituals were carried out to provide protection

or good luck against what was perceived by many as being malicious witch-

craft. In other words, ironically, the popular religio-magical rituals, which

the Reformed Church had categorised as being witchcraft, were usually used

to protect against perceived acts of witchcraft. In 1636, Andrew Aitken was

called before the presbytery of Stirling to answer charges about his skill of

taking-off witchcraft and curing people and animals. Aitken used a variety

of rituals including a spoken verse, ﬁ re and south-running water and, when

asked why he had been at Bothkennar at Beltane the previous year, stated

that he had collected some south-running water which he had sprinkled

on the ground over which he had passed his ‘guids’ (livestock) in order to

protect them during the following year.

He did not give any indication that

he invoked demonic powers but showed a typical belief in the apotropaic

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Beliefs, Religions, Fears and Neuroses 247

power of ritual. Yet his actions, and those of many others, caused the church

much concern.

By the mid-seventeenth century, the Reformed Church regarded almost

every use of witchcraft, whether malicious or beneﬁ cial, as demonic. The

explanation was quite straightforward: in order to acquire particular skills

either to heal or to cause harm (the understanding was that the ability to do

one, gave the ability to do the other), an individual must have entered into

a relationship with the devil and participated in a demonic pact. In theory

the demonic pact featured a number of key elements, the most crucial being

the renunciation of Christian baptism. Other features included: being given

a new name; receiving the devil’s mark; acknowledging the devil as their

master; and participating in worshipping the devil in a sacrilegious manner.

The question about whether or not the power of witchcraft was real or not

was not in doubt for early modern society: since the devil was regarded as

a real threat to the security of the church and state, the reality of witchcraft

was unquestionable.

The problem for someone like Andrew Aitken was that, although he did

not mention anything about demonic pact or demonic involvement, accord-

ing to the authorities the devil’s involvement was implicit in his actions and

explanations. Some of those who participated in rituals were deemed to have

committed simple superstition, like the group of eleven people who were

called to explain why they had gone to Christ’s Well in 1607 and who were

ordered to ‘mak public repentance at thair next sabbath . . .’.

Others, often

those who did not appear before kirk session or presbyterial committees to

answer for their superstitious practices, were excommunicated. But those

whose practices were regarded as clearly demonic were treated far more

harshly: the penalty for practising demonic witchcraft and participating in

demonic pact was strangulation followed by burning.

People’s genuine fear of malicious witchcraft was manipulated by the

church into a widespread fear of witches, which culminated in thousands of

people being accused of practising demonic witchcraft. Although this fear

had existed prior to the Protestant Reformation, society had its own way of

countering it. Harmful witchcraft could be neutralised either by using healing

rituals or requesting the person suspected of having caused the problem to

remove the spell. Like others, Andrew Aitken advised sick people to go to

the person they suspected had laid the illness on them and ask for the return

of their health ‘for god’s sake’.

Once healing rituals or personal requests

had been forbidden by the church and state, society had no personal means

by which to control the threat from, or their fear of, witchcraft. Ofﬁ cial

means of sanction – the church and secular authorities – took over the dis-

pensing of justice. The ﬁ ght for the souls of Scottish society was played out

not only in the theatre of religious instruction and reprimand, but in the

prosecution and execution of men and women whose deaths were used to

persuade society to change their practices and beliefs.

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248 Joyce Miller

CHANGING FEARS: FROM THE DEMONIC TO THE JACOBITE

By the end of the seventeenth century, attitudes began to change and fears

about the threat from witches and the devil appear to have declined, or at

least not to have dominated so much, partly as a result of changing attitudes

and increased scepticism. The church was not necessarily in a more conﬁ dent

or successful position; indeed, it continued to attack heresy and atheism, but

ultimately discontented elements within the church ended up attacking the

church organisation itself and fragmenting into a number of sects in the

eighteenth century. By this time, the fears of the state had been replaced by

others, notably Roman Catholicism and Jacobitism. James, Duke of York’s

(later James VII and II) open support for Catholics, the attacking of conven-

ticles and the passing of the 1681 Test Act all contributed to yet another

period of religious tension. Although the number of Catholics in Scotland at

this time was small, James VII’s policies did little to ease perceived distrust

or fear. By the mid-eighteenth century, there was an increase in antagonism

by the state toward the Gailhealtachd, who were regarded as supporters

of both Roman Catholicism and Jacobitism; the anti-Highland policies of

earlier Stewart kings were rekindled as the government in London tried to

assess the strength of the threat to national security and royal authority.

The areas where Jacobitism was rooted out and punished during the late

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were located in the Gailhealtachd – the

area where Gaelic was the main language during the early modern period

– which was mostly north of the Highland line.

A more mountainous

landscape made many Highland areas unsuitable for arable farming and

contributed to the longer survival of small, isolated, joint tenancy farm

touns. Catholicism continued to be practised for longer in some areas of

the Gailhealtachd, despite the presence of powerful Protestant clans such

as the Campbells of Argyll; and ﬁ nding Gaelic-speaking Protestant minis-

ters was not an easy task in the early years of the seventeenth century. The

customs and traditions associated with Gaelic-speaking areas are often cited

as being quite different from those of Lowland Scotland, and yet on closer

examination it can be seen that there were also similarities. The customs

recorded in these areas were the same customs recorded in most agricultural

communities in the Lowlands or Highlands, and revolved around rituals and

observances that were intended to provide protection and good fortune.

Yet, for all there were similarities and differences, the Highlanders were

persecuted and demonised in the eighteenth century. Just like the ordinary

people who were classiﬁ ed as witches in the seventeenth century, Highlanders

were regarded as a threat to the security and authority of the Protestant

Church and state, and so fear and distrust of another section of society was

manipulated and increased. Ironically, in areas where the population was

demonised because of certain social and cultural differences, there had been

relatively little prosecution of witchcraft, and in these areas popular religious

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Beliefs, Religions, Fears and Neuroses 249

beliefs and rituals would continue to be practised the longest; in some com-

munities well into the twentieth century and up to the present day.

CONCLUSION

Popular religious rituals survived and continued to be observed, even in

Lowland areas, despite the decades-long attack by the Protestant Church and

long after the church had moved on to other internal organisational crises.

By the end of the eighteenth century the Protestant Church was no longer

as anxious about the problem of superstitious observance: for them the

battle had been fought and won, ignorant superstition had been defeated.

In fact, ordinary people persisted with their traditional practices; they were

just more subtle about what they did. Despite the anxieties of theologians

like Sir George Sinclair, Christianity had also survived, but a single, united

Protestant Church had not.

The fear of the devil in the seventeenth century

had been replaced by a genteel rationalism and a feeling of regret and guilt

about the policies of demonisation and punishment that had been meted

out against certain sections of society. By the end of the eighteenth century,

antiquarians and historians began to recast popular religious rituals, and

Highland society, as quaint, relics of a primitive past; they were no longer a

threat but a memento of a bygone age.

Notes

1. There are many titles which cover the history of the political struggles of the

church in the seventeenth century including: M. Lee, The Road to Revolution:

Scotland under Charles I, 1625–37 (Urbana, IL, 1985); D. Mullan, Scottish

Puritanism, 1590–1638 (Oxford, 1998); D. Stevenson, The Scottish Revolution,

1637–44 (Edinburgh, 2003); D. Stevenson, Revolution and Counter-Revolution,

1644–51 (Edinburgh, 2003). For an examination of the wider social and cultural

impact of the church, see M. Graham, The Uses of Reform: ‘Godly Discipline’ and

Popular Behavior in Scotland and Beyond, 1560–1610 (Leiden, 1996); L. Leneman

and R. Mitchison, Sin in the City: Sexuality and Social Control in Urban Scotland,

1660–1780 (Edinburgh, 1998); R. Mitchison and L. Leneman, Girls in Trouble:

Sexuality and Social Control in Rural Scotland, 1660–1780 (Edinburgh, 1998); M.

Todd, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (New Haven, CT,

2002).

2. For a selection of chapters on the broad theme of fear see W. Naphy and

P. Roberts (eds), Fear in Early Modern Society (Manchester, 1997).

3. I. D. Whyte, Scotland Before the Industrial Revolution: An Economic and Social

History, c. 1050–c. 1750 (Harlow, 1995) is a very good examination of social and

economic aspects of both urban and rural society. There are also a number of

publications by E. P. Dennison and R. Coleman looking at individual burghs,

for example, Historic Linlithgow, The Archaeological Implications of Development

(Edinburgh, 2000). H. Dingwall, Late Seventeenth Century Edinburgh: a Demographic

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250 Joyce Miller

Study (Aldershot, 1994) is a useful examination of Edinburgh and there are a

number of useful chapters in M. Lynch (ed.), The Early Modern Town in Scotland

(London, 1987). For the rural experience see T. M. Devine, The Transformation of

Rural Scotland: Social Change and Agrarian Economy (Edinburgh, 1994).

4. For a discussion of everyday attitudes to illness and disease in Scotland, see

Helen Dingwall, Chapter 4, above, and her Physicians, Surgeons and Apothecaries:

Medical Practice in Seventeenth-Century Edinburgh (East Linton, 1995).

5. G. McKenzie, Pleadings in Some Remarkable Cases (Edinburgh, 1672), p. 186.

6. Stirling Council Archives, Stirling Presbytery records, CH2/722/7.

7. For a discussion of this case and others see J. Miller, ‘“Towing the loon”: diag-

nosis and use of shock treatment for mental illness in early-modern Scotland’,

in H. de Waardt, J. M. Schmidt, H. C. E. Midelfort, S. Lorenz and D. R. Bauer

(eds), Dämonische Besessenheit: Zur Interpretation eines kulturhistorischen Phänomens

(Demonic Possession: Interpretations of a Historico-Cultural Phenomenon) (Bielefeld,

2005), especially pp. 131–2.

8. S. Clark, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe

(Oxford, 1997), p. 472; K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London,

1971), p. 5; S. Wilson, The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-

Modern Europe (London, 2000), pp. xviii, 467.

9. Acts of Parliament of Scotland (APS), vol. III, p. 212.

10. Clark, Thinking with Demons, pp. 300–4 points out that those who supported the

new theories of mechanism were accused of supporting an atheistic philosophy.

M. Wasser, ‘“What dangerous principles they are”: the mechanical world-view

and the decline of witch beliefs in Scotland’, in J. Goodare, L. Martin and J.

Miller (eds), Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland (Basingstoke, 2008).

11. J. Miller, ‘Devices and directions: folk healing aspects of witchcraft practice in

seventeenth-century Scotland’, in J. Goodare (ed.), The Scottish Witch-Hunt in

Context (Manchester, 2002), especially pp. 97–104.

12. E. Lyle, Archaic Chaos (Edinburgh, 1990), pp. 142–55; J. Miller, ‘Cantrips and

carlins: magic, medicine and society in the presbyteries of Haddington and

Stirling, 1603–1688’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (University of Stirling, 1999), pp.

284–6; Wilson, Magical Universe, pp. 446–9.

13. R. Morris and F. Morris, Scottish Healing Wells (Sandy, 1982).

14. Records of the Privy Council, 2nd series, vol. III, p. 241.

15. May plays and other folk plays had been made illegal by the parliament before

the Reformation in 1555, APS, vol. II. The general assembly also tried to forbid

‘clerk plays, comedies or tragedies’ in 1574, Todd, Culture of Protestantism,

p. 224.

16. National Archives of Scotland (NAS), Haddington Presbytery records,

CH2/185/5.

17. NAS, Pencaitland Kirk Session records, CH2/296/1.

18. Todd, Culture of Protestantism, ch, 4.

19. Todd, Culture of Protestantism, ch. 2, especially pp. 85–98.

20. Todd, Culture of Protestantism, ch. 7, especially pp. 344–52.

21. NAS, Haddington Presbytery Records, CH2/185/7. Although Reformed Church

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Beliefs, Religions, Fears and Neuroses 251

ministers were expected to care for the suffering of the spirit, at the same time

many also offered more practical advice. Many had attended some basic lectures

in medicine while they were at university and so were able to recommend treat-

ments and prescriptions for a variety of illnesses. See, for example, National

Library of Scotland (NLS), MS 548, Journal of Reverend Robert Landess, 1660–

1705. Landess was minister at Robroyston.

22. J. Wilson (ed.), Register of the Diocesan Synod of Dunblane, 1662–1688 (Edinburgh,

1877), p. 263.

23. L. Henderson, and E. J. Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief (East Linton, 2001), ch. 4,

especially pp. 116–18.

24. Clark, Thinking With Demons, ch. 6, especially p. 81.

25. Much has been written about the North Berwick witch trials and James VI’s

involvement. Some of the more useful works include: S. Clark, ‘King James’s

Daemonologie: witchcraft and kingship’, in S. Anglo (ed.), The Damned Art: Essays

in the Language of Witchcraft (London, 1977); P. Maxwell-Stuart, ‘The fear of the

king is death: James VI and the witches of East Lothian’, in W. Naphy and P.

Roberts (eds), Fear in Early Modern Society (Manchester, 1997); L. Normand and

G. Roberts, Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James VI’s Demonology and the

North Berwick Witches (Exeter, 2000); J. Wormald, ‘The witches, the devil and the

king’, in T. Brotherstone and D. Ditchburn, Freedom and Authority: Scotland c.

1050–c. 1650: Historical and Historiographical Essays Presented to Grant E. Simpson

(East Linton, 2000).

26. For a discussion of the devil and popular culture in seventeenth century, see J.

Miller, ‘Men in black: appearances of the devil in early modern Scottish witch-

craft discourse’, in J. Goodare, L. Martin and J. Miller (eds), Witchcraft and Belief

in Early Modern Scotland (Basingstoke, 2008).

27. See www.shc.ed.ac.uk/Research/witches for information about witchcraft belief

and the prosecution of those accused of witchcraft between 1563 and 1736 in

Scotland.

28. For a discussion about the attack on, and demonising of, folk culture in the

late sixteenth century, see E. J. Cowan, ‘Witch persecution and folk belief in

Lowland Scotland: the devil’s decade’, in Goodare et al., Witchcraft and Belief in

Early Modern Scotland.

29. SCA, Stirling Presbytery records, CH2/722/5. The location of the well was not

speciﬁ ed in the records.

30. SCA, Stirling Presbytery records, CH2/722/4.

31. SCA, Stirling Presbytery records, CH2/722/5.

32. For a deﬁ nition and location of the Gaidhealtachd I have used Whyte’s deﬁ nition

in his Scotland Before the Industrial Revolution, p. 252.

33. G. Sinclair, Satan’s Invisible World Discovered (Edinburgh, 1685). Sinclair was pro-

fessor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow, but was profoundly

concerned about what he saw as the atheistic threat from Cartesian theories and

wrote Satan’s Invisible World Discovered in order to prove the reality of the threat

from the devil and other supernatural powers.

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