ABSTRACT
It has already been suggested that witchcraft prosecutions in Essex were only the final stage in a far more complex series of suspicions. The methods employed to battle against the power of witches illustrates this contention. Such counter-action may be usefully divided into three stages, mutually interdependent yet distinct. Before the witch attacked, certain precautions could be taken to safeguard likely victims of witchcraft; once witchcraft was believed to have been used, cures could be sought; finally, attempts could be made to locate the witch and either force her to withdraw her power or have her punished. Thus the prosecutions were merely one possible method in the final reaction. Such counter-action has been termed ‘informal’ to distinguish it both from the court prosecutions and also from the activity of specialized people, cunning folk, and witch-finders, who were employed to deal with witchcraft. Among the more general problems illuminated by the methods employed to ward off witches are two of particular importance. The first is the process by which suspicions became focused on a certain individual in a village. The second is the degree to which belief in witchcraft, by providing a set of magical and other activities in cases of misfortune and anxiety, provided an attractive response to the problem of suffering. Unfortunately, the informal nature of the remedies has meant that no quantitative estimate can be made of the amount of such activity. In fact, much of the evidence for counter-activity comes from literary evidence, and it is only occasionally that we learn about it from prosecutions.
