Witches in the Family Tree?

[christanel]

As for the warts... one of my daughters had warts on her hands from early childhood. At 14 she had to see a heart specialist and he was concerned about her warts and said he would arrange for her to see his colleague a skin specialist.
The appointment day came and to her astonishment the warts had completely gone.
The skin specialist nodded."Yes! just as I expected" he said"I've been working on them from a distance"
They never came back.

Now surely that would have been considered witchcraft in the old days?
Marie

Many years ago a friend of my son had persistent crops of warts on his knee.
Jokingly (and I must have read it somewhere) I told him I would buy them. I gave him 5 cents and the warts disappeared, never to return.
Gosh that must have been 35 years ago.
Christina

[davyr]

Witches were just wise women with special gifts and a knowledge of the healing properties of plants.
Anything that seemed "other" or was a threat to authority was regarded as evil and thus witches were persecuted.

It's certainly true that poor people who couldn't afford the medical care of the day (which in itself was mostly of dubious value) would have made use of the local herbalist, who was often known as a "wise woman" or a "cunning man".

It's interesting to note, though, that in many of the witchcraft trials, the whole local community (rather than just its authority figures) has turned against one or more individuals (often people who had nothing to do with healing) and accused them of being in league with dark forces. The Biblical injunction "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" was often invoked.

Fear, ignorance, and the desire for a scapegoat (plus a bit of local score-settling) seems to have been behind much of what went on. It's a fascinating subject that throws a lot of light on the unpleasant side of human nature.

[Stephen Evans]

It should be noted that the Knights of St John were well known herbalists, but being devoted to the Catholic faith, they were hardly called Witches, especially with the power of the Spanish Inquisition behind them! Many of their discoveries and potions are still available for viewing at the National Library of Malta, Valletta.

[davyr]

It should be noted that the Knights of St John were well known herbalists, but being devoted to the Catholic faith, they were hardly called Witches

Just as well they didn't accept the suggestion of Pope Clement V that they and the Knights Templars should merge - they might have all ended up in the same bonfire!