John Jewel, Witch-Hunter of Salisbury

A Protestant, John Jewel (1522-1571) fled the country after the accession of Mary Tudor. In 1555, Jewel left England for Frankfurt-on-Maine, "one of the most noted centres of witch-mania." In July 1556, he went to Strassbourg, yet another witch-craze capital. In 1559, he returned to England where he was soon made Bishop of Salisbury and "one of Elizabeth's most trusted advisers." Sometime between November 1559 and March 1560, he made a sermon before the Queen in which he urged action against the many witches which occupied England.

Jewel said:

This kind of people (I mean witches and sorcerers) within the last few years are marvellously increased within your grace's realm. These eyes have seen the most evident and manifest marks of their wickedness. Your grace's subjects pine away even unto death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. Wherefore your poor subjects' most humble petition to your highness is, that the laws touching such malefactors may be put in due execution.

On November 2, 1559, Jewel wrote a letter to his friend Peter Martyr after a visit to the West of England. In the letter he wrote, "The number of witches had everywhere become enormous."

Nonetheless, Jewel's fanaticism began to die out. Only four Windsor women were hanged for witchcraft in his diocese: Elizabeth Stile or Rockingham, Mother Dutten, Mother Deuell, and Mother Margaret. By the time Jewel died, he had abandoned his extreme Calvinist position for the less manic Anglican system (Davies 15-19).

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John Jewel, Witch-Hunter of Salisbury copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.