"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
Practicing that witchcraft, were they?

Historical interruption to Kerry debate:

Everybody put to death in Topsfield and Essex County was innocent. Without
exception. Many went to their deaths defiantly proclaiming their devout
Christian faith. Others were terrorized into false confessions.

(There are some serious differences between observing old rituals,
practicing
natural healing, revering natural order, and being in league with Satan).

My ggggg....grandfather, Zaccheus, was one of the original stakeholders of
Topsfield. Mary Estey, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Cloyce (the Towne sisters)
are
all great aunts.

If you wanted to see the devil at work in 1692, you didn't have to look
any
farther than Inquisitor Hawthorne and his gang of religious zealot thugs.
Maleus Malificarum indeed. What a crock. Hell of a tragic way to settle
some
festering community disputes as well as squabbles over church doctrine and
real
estate boundaries.



My relatives were smarter. They immigrated to New Haven, Conn. In the mid
1600's. Avoided that burning stench.
Bill