A Prevalence of Witches

In the green and pleasant town of Westham in Sussex last week, the Rev. Harold Coulthurst performed one of the rarest of Anglican ceremonies: rehallowing an altar. Rehallowing was required because several days before, four men had been surprised while in the midst of a mysterious ritual inside Westham's 11th century church of St. Mary the Virgin. "The men were trying to communicate with evil spirits," declared Coulthurst. "They were chanting some sort of mumbo jumbo. They were definitely in league with the devil."

Church defilement has lately become an occupational hazard of village vicars; England seems to be in the midst of a mild little revival of black magic. Recently, the Rev. J. L. Head of St. Clements at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, found a sheep's heart stuck with 13 thorns on the grave of a woman believed to have been a witch. On All Souls' Eve, gravestones were overturned and hexes traced on the graveyard of the parish church in Appleton, Berkshire.

Last March, the graves of six women were opened in the abandoned churchyard of St. Mary's, Clophill, Bedfordshire. One skeleton was removed, and was later discovered inside the church. Investigators assume that the church had been the scene of an impromptu Black Mass--which, properly performed, requires a live nude woman as altar.

Parliament removed witchcraft from the list of criminal offenses in 1736. Since then, the black arts have been the property of tiny demonic cults. But 1963, for no clear reason, has been a banner year for sorcerers. In March the pro-Labor New Statesman concluded that "black magic seems to be strongest in southern England and, New Statesman readers will hear with relief, in Conservative constituencies." Last month, a Conservative M.P., Commander John Kerans, asked the government for new laws against the spread of witchcraft, arguing that "a good deal of it is a cover for sexual orgies and other malpractices." The Home Secretary solemnly noted that licentiousness could be adequately dealt with under England's Sexual Offenses Act.

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