1604年,英格蘭伯克郡北莫頓一位20歲的少女安妮·岡特病倒,她的父親布賴恩認為疾病由著魔引起,并指控當地三名婦女為女巫。敗訴后,布賴恩向國王詹姆士一世申訴。最終,安妮承認她的癥狀是偽裝的。這一案件背后所反映的近代早期英格蘭的社會和政治狀況,包括以下幾個層面:在鄉村社會層面,此案反映了近代早期英格蘭鄉村貧富沖突和上層家族之間的沖突;在上層政治層面,社會精英和國王對于巫術案件的態度不僅基于其自身對于巫術的態度,同時也基于政治的考量;在宗教和政治層面,可以將此案視為近代早期英格蘭國教與清教之間一系列沖突的反映。

In 1604,a twenty year old woman named Anne Gunter from North Moreton in Berkshire fell ill.Her father,Brian Gunter,believed her illness to be bewitched by demonic possession and accused three local women of being witches.When he lost the court case,he appealed to King James I.Eventually,however,Anne confessed that her symptoms were false.The case reflects the social and political situation in early modern England.At the level of rural society,it reveals conflicts between rich and poor and within upper class families;in the upper class of politics,it shows that elite and royal attitudes toward witchcraft cases were based not only on their own attitudes to withcraft but also on political considerations;and at the level of religion and politics,it can be regarded as reflecting a series of conflicts between Anglicanism and Puritanism.