(Summers was enormously erudite and is responsible for many of the existent translations of these works with which Hopkins was not acquainted.) The fact that he claimed to be an authority without having first poring over the literature really seemed to grate on Monty. Summers deems Hopkins a humbug, a quack and a mountebank largely on the basis that Hopkins was not familiar with the classic literary works on witchcraft. Those few that were burned were usually being burned for other, additional offences. Although many witches were burned alive in Scotland and on the continent, most English witches were actually hung. Summers gets upset over the fact that people presume that burning at the stake was the standard method by which witches were executed in England. There was a movie made about him in 1968 that featured Vincent Price in the title role, and many heavy metal bands have written songs about him. (This works out at as more than half of the total number of witches killed in England from 1400-1700.) The story goes that he stole the Devil’s list of names from Lucifer himself, and that’s how he knew where to look and who to interrogate.

It is believed that he was responsible for the deaths of 300 people. England was going through a civil war, and the state of political turmoil made it possible for Hopkins to assume authority and roam about as he pleased, burning bitches and getting money.

From 1644 until 1647, he traveled from village to village, trying and torturing those unfortunates accused of witchcraft. This pamphlet contains Matthew Hopkin’s treatise on witchcraft from 1647 and an essay about Hopkins by my hero, Montague Summers. Hopkins, for those of you who don’t know, was England’s self proclaimed Witchfinder General.

The discovery of witches 1647