Name: 女巫的祕密歷史 | BBC Ideas (The secret history of witches | BBC Ideas)
Uploaded: 2025-07-21T18:03:04.000Z
Duration: 4 min 42 s

The woman with magical powers and spells, in a pointy hat, with a broomstick, and a black cat?

那個戴著尖帽、拿著掃帚和黑貓、擁有魔法和咒語的女人？

But behind this stereotype is a long, dark history of torture and persecution.

但在這一刻板印象的背後，是一段漫長而黑暗的酷刑和迫害歷史。

Much of what we think we know comes from the 16th and 17th centuries, and especially the work of the witchfinder Matthew Hopkins.

我們認為我們所知道的大部分內容都來自 16 和 17 世紀，尤其是巫師馬修-霍普金斯（Matthew Hopkins）的工作。

It led to the deaths of around 100 people and still has echoes in our lives today.

它導致約 100 人死亡，至今仍在我們的生活中迴響。

In the 16th and 17th century, people in Europe were living in what historians call a magical universe, a realm where it was implicitly accepted that God and the devil were real.

16 和 17 世紀，歐洲人生活在歷史學家所說的魔幻世界裡，在這個世界裡，人們默認上帝和魔鬼是真實存在的。

People were often hungry, angry, and fearful.

人們常常感到飢餓、憤怒和恐懼。

Most people lived in small rural communities, and between 1530 and 1630, the population doubled.

大多數人居住在農村小社區，1530 年至 1630 年間，人口翻了一番。

There were plague outbreaks and a little ice age causing harvests to fail.

瘟疫爆發，小冰河時期導致歉收。

Everyday misfortunes could be interpreted as either a punishment from God, bad luck, or the act of a witch.

日常的不幸可以被解釋為上帝的懲罰、厄運或巫婆的行為。

It was widely believed witches could raise storms, destroy livestock, drive people mad, or even kill them.

人們普遍認為，女巫可以掀起風暴、毀壞牲畜、使人發瘋，甚至殺死人。

Witch trials followed legal process and acquittal rates were actually relatively high.

女巫審判遵循法律程序，無罪釋放率實際上相對較高。

Only 22% of those tried in Southeast England were executed, while burning at the stake was common across Europe.

在英格蘭東南部，只有 22% 的受審者被處死，而在整個歐洲，被綁在火刑柱上燒死的情況十分普遍。

In the 1640s, during the chaos of the English Civil War, the witch hunter Matthew Hopkins appeared on the scene, along with his associate, John Stern.

16 世紀 40 年代，在英國內戰的混亂時期，女巫獵人馬修-霍普金斯和他的同夥約翰-斯特恩出現了。

Known as the Witchfinder General, Hopkins would ride into villages in East Anglia, often invited by concerned citizens, and listen to their suspicions.

霍普金斯被稱為 "女巫調查總長"，他經常應有關市民的邀請，騎馬進入東英吉利的村莊，傾聽他們的懷疑。

With his assistance, he would search for the witch's mark, or teat, where familiars were thought to suck blood.

在他的協助下，他將尋找巫師的標記或乳頭，人們認為這是家人吸血的地方。

Familiars were thought to be a witch's companion, half animal, half demon.

眷族被認為是女巫的伴侶，半獸半妖。

He had suspected witches watched for days to see if their animal familiar would come to them.

他曾懷疑巫師們觀察了好幾天，看他們熟悉的動物會不會來找他們。

In reality, this was sleep deprivation designed to break suspects into confessing.

實際上，這是剝奪睡眠，目的是讓嫌疑人招供。

A suspected witch's toes and thumbs were tied together, and they were submerged in water.

一名疑似女巫的腳趾和拇指被綁在一起，浸泡在水中。

It was thought a witch would float, rejected by the pure water, but the innocent would sink.

人們認為，女巫會漂浮起來，被純淨的水拒絕，而無辜的人會沉下去。

Women were considered, at the time, to be more vulnerable to temptation from the devil.

當時，人們認為婦女更容易受到魔鬼的誘惑。

Some women were particularly vulnerable to accusations due to a lack of protection in a patriarchal society.

由於在父權制社會中缺乏保護，一些婦女特別容易受到指控。

And although most of the witches accused during the Hopkins witch hunt were women, in other parts of Europe, greater numbers of men were persecuted as witches, and men were caught up in the Hopkins witch hunt too.

雖然在霍普金斯獵巫行動中，大多數被指控的女巫都是女性，但在歐洲其他地區，有更多的男性被當作女巫遭到迫害，男性也被捲入了霍普金斯獵巫行動。

The elderly clergyman, John Lowes, was accused of witchcraft in his town of Brandiston in Suffolk.

年邁的牧師約翰-洛斯被指控在他所在的薩福克郡布蘭迪斯頓鎮施行巫術。

He was examined by Hopkins, who found two teats on his head and one beneath his tongue.

霍普金斯對它進行了檢查，發現它頭上有兩個乳頭，舌頭下面有一個。

Under torture, he confessed to having six familiars, which he'd allegedly ordered to sink a ship, killing 14 men.

在嚴刑拷打下，他承認擁有六隻家畜，據稱是他命令它們擊沉了一艘船，殺死了 14 人。

Although he later retracted this confession, on the 27th of August, 1645, he was hanged in Bury St.

儘管他後來收回了這一供詞，但 1645 年 8 月 27 日，他還是被絞死在 Bury St.

Yet opposition to Hopkins witch hunt was growing.

然而，反對霍普金斯 "獵巫 "的呼聲日益高漲。

His influence waned, and after an illness, he died at home in August, 1647.

他的影響力逐漸減弱，在一場疾病之後，於 1647 年 8 月在家中去世。

Overall, around 250 people were investigated for witchcraft during the Hopkins witch hunt, and about 100 of these were ultimately condemned.

總體而言，在霍普金斯獵巫期間，約有 250 人因巫術受到調查，其中約 100 人最終被定罪。

The Hopkins witch hunt was a brief and tragic period in the history of England.

霍普金斯獵巫行動是英國曆史上一段短暫而悲慘的時期。

Many people in the 16th and 17th centuries believed in the necessity of witch hunts to protect their communities, but these persecutions can also be seen as a case of blaming vulnerable people for the difficulties of the time.

16 和 17 世紀的許多人都認為有必要通過獵殺女巫來保護自己的社區，但這些迫害也可以被看作是將當時的困難歸咎於弱勢人群。

We live in a very different world today, but has the witch hunt mentality gone away?

今天，我們生活在一個截然不同的世界，但獵巫心態是否已經消失？

We still have a tendency to accept easy answers to complex problems.

我們仍然傾向於接受複雜問題的簡單答案。

Social media fuels both conspiracy theories and the public shaming of others.

社交媒體既助長了陰謀論，也助長了對他人的公開羞辱。

Fear and uncertainty is still being used to scapegoat vulnerable sections of society.

恐懼和不確定性仍被用來作為社會弱勢群體的替罪羊。

So while the context may be different, witch hunts, it seems, are alive and well.

是以，雖然背景可能不同，但獵巫似乎依然存在。