9
7th century, and despite becoming a 'state'
religion most village church foundations
only date from about the 12th century. It
is the lonely elderly lady at the village
edge that would have held more firmly to old
beliefs and customs, as the watered-down
forms of 'old wives tales' of today evidence.
As the new austere orders had formed in
rejection of the worldly Benedictines, so the
new protestants drove for simpler ways once
again. The church divided rounded on itself
and weeded out adherents of such heresies as
old spirit worship - and women could be damned
by a lack of understanding of these then still
strange animals - cats. Evidence like eyes
that shone as hot coals at night and the
ability to jump straight up onto window
ledges were unfortunately taken as strong
contact with the devil for the poor cat! As
the protestant church pulled together it too
pursued the same 'outsiders'. The first
celebrated Essex witchcraft case against the
Hatfield Peverel witches in 1566, after which
Agnes Waterhouse was hanged, revolved around
the ownership of "a whyte spotted catte".
With transfer of ownership of the cat went
initiation of the rites of witchcraft accord-
ing to the records of this case. Such witch
familiars were not always cats but so often
that people became afraid of talking in front
of a cat. In 1582 another noted case, of a
St Osyth 'coven' had a wide range of familiars,
but prominant were 'Tittie' a small grey cat
and 'Iacke' a black cat.
Consequently even until Victorian times
a hostility to cats lingered on, and although
earlier kindly people, leaders of thought