Religious faith in the Renaissance period was an unstable and increasingly strict practice.
Following the tumultuous Tudor reign, which saw the creation of The Church of England,
and written in the centre of the Thirty Years War, The Witch of Edmonton was first
performed in a society that had witnessed the rise and fall of the main schools of
Christian belief multiple times. Authored collaboratively by John Ford, Thomas Dekker
and William Rowley, the play focuses on an elderly woman, Mother Sawyer, and her
condemnation as a witch. This essay will utilize The Witch of Edmonton and the
treatment of Mother Sawyer as a literary launchpad to explore how religious faith was a
tool for exploitation to justify the inhumane actions of man against people they perceived
to be a threat. Similarly, focusing on the Malleus Maleficarum ‘Part 1 Question I’ and
‘Part 2 Chapter VI’, and John Knox’s statement The First Blast of the Trumpet Against
the Monstrous Regiment of Women, this essay will consider how the idea of religious
justification was not solely a motif in writings of the Renaissance period but, more
significantly, an instrument in the real-life condemnation of women who were labelled as
witches.
Religious faith in The Witch of Edmonton is presented through physical
manifestations of the Devil and his influence over a human being rather than through
representations of the Christian God, as is the focus of many other religious texts.
Following the recount of the conviction and execution of the real Elizabeth Sawyer,
written by Henry Goodcole, in which he describes that the Devil appeared to her
‘Alwayes in the shape of a dogge and of two collars, sometimes of blacke and sometimes
of white’, the play includes Tom, a dog with the ability to shift between the demonic
black and the biblical white.1 The significance of this is emphasised by Pauline Ruberry-
Blanc who writes ‘The association between black dogs and devils is ancient and
widespread in Christian folklore’.2 By choosing to present the Devil in the form of a
1
Henry Goodcole, ‘A true Relation of the confession of Elizabeth Sawyer’, The wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer, a Witch, late of
Edmonton, her conviction and condemnation and Death (Authority, 1621) pp.15-25 (p.19).
2
Pauline Ruberry-Blanc, ‘The Witch of Edmonton: The Witch Next Door or Faustian Anti-Heroine?’, Female Transgression in Early
Modern Britain: Literary and Historical Explorations, ed. By Richard Hillman and Pauline Ruberry-Blanc (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2016),
pp. 51-71 (p.56).
, colour-changing dog, Ford, Dekker and Rowley created a symbolic conflict between
personal morals and biblical teachings. In the play, physical descriptions of Sawyer imply
that she is old, deformed in some way, and, most importantly, weak. She is described as
‘poor, deformed and ignorant’3 and has only one eye, ‘let her curse her t’other eye out’. 4
Similarly, the real Elizabeth Sawyer was described as ‘most pale & ghoast-like without
any bloud at all […] Her body was crooked and deformed’. 5 Diane Purkiss, drawing on
the theories of George Gifford, explains that ‘pact witchcraft involved the damnation of a
witch destined to be damned’.6 Sawyer’s downfall, both in real life and in the play, was
inevitable due to the stereotypes that were present in the hunt for witches. The most
prominent example of the female witch physicality can be seen in Shakespeare’s
Macbeth. Written fifteen years prior, the three witches are described as ‘So wither’d, and
so wild […]/That look not like th’inhabitants o’th’earth’. 7 As both of these plays were
performed under the rule of King James I and VI, it is understandable that their witches
would be described in such a way that would appeal to the King’s belief that witches
were ‘olde and craftie Serpent’ – the metaphor of a serpent being heavily reminiscent of
the snake which tempted Eve to sin in the book of Genesis. 8 Elizabeth Sawyer’s pact with
the Devil is inescapable as she states in the play that ‘Tis all one,/To be a witch as to be
counted as one’.9 Her appearance branded her a witch and the stain that left of her
reputation meant that she believed that she ‘Had need turn witch’. 10 Furthermore, her link
to the physicality of those under a pact with the Devil implies that the Devil has the
power to not only influence the psychology of a human being but also their physical
appearance. However, this is hypocritical when considered alongside the teachings of the
3
John Ford, Thomas Dekker, William Rowley, The Witch of Edmonton, ed. By Arthur F. Kinney (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008),
II. i. 3.
4
The Witch of Edmonton, II. i. 88.
5
Henry Goodcole, ‘A true declaration of the manner of proceeding against Elizabeth Sawyer’, The wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth
Sawyer, a Witch, late of Edmonton, her conviction and condemnation and Death (Authority, 1621) pp. 6-14 (p.7).
6
Diane Purkiss, ‘Testimony and truth: The Witch of Edmonton and The Witches of Lancashire’, The Witch in History: Early Modern and
Twentieth-Century Representations (Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis Group, 1996) pp. 231-250 (p. 242).
7
Shakespeare, Macbeth, I. III. 41-42.
8
King James I, ‘Chap. II’, Daemonologie, pp. 7-9 (p. 9) <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25929/25929-pdf.pdf> [accessed 3 June 2022].
9
The Witch of Edmonton, II. i. 117-118.
10
The Witch of Edmonton, IV. i. 85.
