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The 19th @-@ century writer Samuel Lewis said that the rebuilt church " forms a very good specimen of the early English style of architecture " , adding that it was " effective from its simplicity and the absence of pretension . " He added that the interior had been " fitted up in a neat and appropriate manner , and the details throughout appear to have been carefully studied " . A 2006 guide to the churches of Anglesey says that the " impressive " tower and steeple " form " a landmark visible for many miles . " It also comments that rendering on part of the tower and the south wall makes them less attractive than the north wall .
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A 2009 guide to the buildings of the region notes the " exceptional number of inscribed fragments " , showing it to be a place of early Christian worship , but considers that the church is " unlovely " . Similarly , a 2005 guide to Wales describes St Caffo 's as " an uninspiring nineteenth @-@ century church from the outside " but says that it has " a remarkable collection " of memorial stones .
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= George N. Briggs =
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George Nixon Briggs ( April 12 , 1796 – September 12 , 1861 ) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts . A Whig , Briggs served for twelve years in the United States House of Representatives , and served seven one @-@ year terms as the 19th Governor of Massachusetts , from 1844 to 1851 .
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Raised in rural Upstate New York , Briggs studied law in western Massachusetts , where his civic involvement and successful legal practice preceded statewide political activity . He was elected to Congress in 1830 , where he supported the conservative Whig agenda , serving on the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads . He was also a regular advocate of temperance , abstaining from all alcohol consumption .
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He was nominated by the Whigs in 1843 to run against Democratic Governor Marcus Morton as part of a Whig bid for more rural votes , and easily won election until 1849 . Although he sought to avoid the contentious issue of slavery , he protested South Carolina policy allowing the imprisonment of free African Americans . He supported capital punishment , notably refusing to commute the death sentence of John White Webster for the murder of George Parkman . Briggs died of an accidental gunshot wound at his home in Pittsfield , Massachusetts .
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= = Early life and education = =
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George Nixon Briggs was born in Adams , Massachusetts on April 12 , 1796 . He was the eleventh of twelve children of Allen Briggs , a blacksmith originally from Cranston , Rhode Island , and Nancy ( Brown ) Briggs , of Huguenot descent . His parents moved the family to Manchester , Vermont when he was seven , and , two years later , to White Creek , New York . The household was religious : his father was a Baptist and his mother was a Quaker , and they gave their children religious instruction from the Bible .
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At the age of 14 , during the Second Great Awakening , which was especially strong in Upstate New York , Briggs experienced a conversion experience and joined the Baptist faith . He spoke at revival meetings of his experience , drawing appreciative applause from the crowds , according to Hiland Hall , who came to know Briggs at that time and who became a lifelong friend and political associate . His faith informed his personal behavior : he remained committed to religious ideals , for instance objecting to Congressional sessions that stretched into Sunday and abstaining from alcohol consumption .
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Briggs sporadically attended the public schools in White Creek , and was apprenticed for three years to a Quaker hatter . With support from his older brothers he embarked on the study of law in Pittsfield and Lanesboro in 1813 , and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1818 . He first opened a practice in Adams , moved it to Lanesboro in 1823 , and Pittsfield in 1842 . His trial work was characterized by a contemporary as clear , brief , and methodical , even though he was fond of telling stories in less formal settings .
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In 1817 Briggs helped to establish a Baptist church in Lanesboro ; in this congregation he met Harriet Hall , whom he married in 1818 ; their children were Harriet , George , and Henry . Briggs was also called upon to raise the four orphaned children of his brother Rufus , one of the brothers who supported him in his law studies . Rufus died in 1816 , followed by his wife not long afterward .
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Briggs ' involvement in civic life began at the local level . From 1824 to 1831 Briggs was the register of deeds for the Northern district of Berkshire County , Massachusetts . He was elected town clerk in 1824 , was appointed chairman of the board of commissioners of highways in 1826 . His interest in politics was sparked by his acquaintance with Henry Shaw , who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1817 to 1821 .
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A criminal case tried in 1826 brought Briggs wider notice . An Oneida Indian living in Stockbridge was accused of murder . Briggs was appointed by the court to defend him ; convinced by the evidence that the man was innocent , Briggs made what was described by a contemporary as a plea that was " a model of jury eloquence " . The jury , unfortunately , disagreed with Briggs , and convicted the man , who was hanged . In 1830 the true murderer confessed to commission of the crime .
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= = U.S. House of Representatives = =
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Despite his rise in prominence , Briggs was at first ineligible for state offices because he did not own property . In 1830 he decided to run for Congress , for which there was no such requirement . He was elected to the twenty @-@ second through the twenty @-@ fourth Congresses as an Anti @-@ Jacksonian , and as a Whig to the twenty @-@ fifth through twenty @-@ seventh Congresses , serving from March 4 , 1831 to March 3 , 1843 . He decided not to run for reelection in 1842 .
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Briggs was what became known in later years as a " Cotton Whig " . He was in favor of protectionist tariffs , and opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories , but did not seek to threaten the unity of the nation with a strong stance against slavery . He served on the Committee on Public Expenditures and the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads , serving for a time as the chairman of each . The Post Office committee was a regular recipient of complaints from southern states concerning the transmission of abolitionist mailings , which were seen there as incendiary ; the matter was of some controversy because southern legislators sought to have these types of mailings banned . Briggs ' friend Hiland Hall , who also sat on the committee , drafted a report in 1836 rebutting the rationales used in such legislative proposals , but the committee as a whole , and then the House , refused to accept the report . Although the authorship of the report appears to be entirely Hall 's , Briggs may have contributed to it , and was a signatory to Hall 's publication of the report in the National Intelligencer , a major political journal . The document was influential in driving later Congressional debate on legislative proposals concerning abolitionist mailings , none of which were ever adopted . Briggs and Hall were both instrumental in drafting and gaining passage of the Post Office Act of 1836 , which included substantive accounting reforms in the wake of financial mismanagement by Postmaster General William Taylor Barry .
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During his time in Congress , Briggs was a vocal advocate for temperance . He formed the Congressional Temperance Society in 1833 , sitting on its executive committee ; at an 1836 temperance convention at Saratoga Springs , New York he advocated the taking of total abstinence pledges as a way to bring more people away from the evils of alcohol , and notably prepared such a pledge for Kentucky Representative Thomas F. Marshall on the floor of the House of Representatives . His moves to organize the temperance movement in Congress died out when he left the body , but it was a cause he would continue to espouse for the rest of his life . In 1860 he was chosen president of the American Temperance Union .
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= = Governor of Massachusetts = =
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Briggs was nominated to run for the governorship on the Whig ticket against the incumbent Democrat Marcus Morton in 1843 . Former Governor John Davis had been nominated first , but refused the nomination , possibly because Daniel Webster promised him party support for a future vice presidential bid . Briggs was apparently recommended as a compromise candidate acceptable to different factions within the party ( one controlled by Webster , the other by Abbott Lawrence ) . He was also probably chosen to appeal more directly to the state 's rural voters , a constituency that normally supported Morton . The abolitionist Liberty Party also fielded a candidate , with the result that none of the candidates won the needed majority . The legislature decided the election in those cases ; with a Whig majority there , Briggs ' election was assured . Briggs was reelected annually until 1850 against a succession of Democratic opponents . He won popular majorities until the 1849 election , even though third parties ( including the Liberty Party and its successor , the Free Soil Party ) were often involved . Although Whigs had a reputation for aristocratic bearing , Briggs was much more a man of the people than the preceding Whig governors , John Davis and Edward Everett .
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In 1844 Briggs , alarmed at a recently enacted policy by South Carolina authorizing the imprisonment of free blacks arriving there from Massachusetts and other northern states , sent representatives to protest the policy . Samuel Hoar and his daughter Elizabeth were unsuccessful in changing South Carolina policy , and after protests against what was perceived as Yankee interference in Southern affairs , were advised to leave the state for their own safety .
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Capital punishment was a major issue that was debated in the state during Brigg 's tenure , with social reformers calling for its abolition . Briggs personally favored capital punishment , but for political reasons called for moderation in its use , seeking , for example , to limit its application in murder cases to those involving first degree murder . After an acquittal in an 1846 murder case where anti @-@ death penalty sentiment was thought to have a role , Briggs , seeking to undercut the anti @-@ death penalty lobby , proposed eliminating the penalty for all crimes except murder , but expressed concern that more such acquittals by sympathetic juries would undermine the connection between crime and punishment .
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Briggs ' argument was used in the 1849 trial of Washington Goode , a black mariner accused of killing a rival for the affections of a lady . The case against Goode was essentially circumstantial , but the jury heeded the district attorney 's call for assertive punishment of " crimes of violence " and convicted him . There were calls for Briggs to commute Goode 's capital sentence , but he refused , writing " A pardon here would tend toward the utter subversion of the law . "
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Not long after the Goode case came the sensational trial of Professor John White Webster in the murder of George Parkman , a crime that took place at the Harvard Medical School in November 1849 . The trial received nationwide coverage , and the prosecution case was based on evidence that was either circumstantial ( complicated by the fact that a complete corpse was not found ) , or founded on new types of evidence ( forensic dentistry was used for the first time in this trial ) . Furthermore , Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw was widely criticized for bias in the instructions he gave to the jury . Briggs was petitioned to commute Webster 's sentence by death penalty opponents , and even threatened with physical harm if he did not . He refused however , stating that the evidence in the case was clear ( especially after Webster gave a confession ) , and that there was no reason to doubt that the court had acted with due and proper diligence .
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During Briggs ' time as governor , abolitionist activists continued to make inroads against both the Whigs and Democrats , primarily making common cause with the Democrats against the dominant Whigs . Briggs ' stance as a Cotton Whig put him in opposition to these forces . He opposed the Mexican @-@ American War , but acceded to federal demands that the states assist in raising troops for the war , earning the wrath of activist Wendell Phillips . He did promote other types of reform , supporting Horace Mann in his activities to improve education in the state .
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In 1849 , Briggs failed to secure a majority in the popular vote because of the rise in power of the Free Soil Party , but the Whig legislature returned him to office . In the 1850 election , anger over the Compromise of 1850 ( a series of federal acts designed to preserve the unity of the nation which included the Fugitive Slave Act ) prompted the Democrats and Free Soilers to form a coalition to gain control over the Massachusetts legislature , and divided the Whigs along pro- and antiabolition lines . With the gubernatorial election again sent to the legislature , Democrat George S. Boutwell was chosen over Briggs .
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= = Later years = =
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Briggs resumed the practice of law in Pittsfield . He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1853 , and sat as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1853 to 1858 . In 1859 he was nominated for governor by the fading Know @-@ Nothing movement , but trailed far behind other candidates .
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In 1861 Briggs was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to a diplomatic mission to the South American Republic of New Granada ( roughly present @-@ day Colombia and Panama ) . However , he died before he could take up the position . On September 4 , 1861 Briggs was getting an overcoat out of his closet at his home in Pittsfield , when a gun fell . As Briggs was picking it up , the gun discharged and Briggs was shot . Briggs died early in the morning of September 12 , 1861 , and was buried in the Pittsfield Cemetery .
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= Simon Bradstreet =
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Simon Bradstreet ( baptized March 18 , 1603 / 4 – March 27 , 1697 ) was a colonial magistrate , businessman , diplomat , and the last governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony . Arriving in Massachusetts on the Winthrop Fleet in 1630 , Bradstreet was almost constantly involved in the politics of the colony but became its governor only in 1679 . He served on diplomatic missions and as agent to the crown in London , and also served as a commissioner to the New England Confederation . He was politically comparatively moderate , arguing minority positions in favor of freedom of speech and for accommodation of the demands of King Charles II following his restoration to the throne .
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Bradstreet was married to Anne , the daughter of Massachusetts co @-@ founder Thomas Dudley and New England 's first published poet . He was a businessman , investing in land and shipping interests . Due to his advanced age ( he died at 93 ) Cotton Mather referred to him as the " Nestor of New England " . His descendants include the famous jurists Oliver Wendell Holmes , Jr. and David Souter .
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= = Early life = =
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Simon Bradstreet was baptized on March 18 , 1603 / 4 in Horbling , Lincolnshire , the second of three sons of Simon and Margaret Bradstreet . His father was the rector of the parish church , and was descended from minor Irish nobility . With his father a vocal Nonconformist , the young Simon acquired his Puritan religious views early in life . At the age of 16 , Bradstreet entered Emmanuel College , Cambridge . He studied there for two years , before entering the service of the Earl of Lincoln as an assistant to Thomas Dudley in 1622 . There is some uncertainty about whether Bradstreet returned to Emmanuel College in 1623 – 1624 . According to Venn , a Simon Bradstreet attended Emmanuel during this time , receiving an M.A. degree , but genealogist Robert Anderson is of the opinion that this was not the same individual . During one of Bradstreet 's stints at Emmanuel he was recommended by John Preston as a tutor or governor to Lord Rich , son of the Earl of Warwick . Rich would have been 12 in 1623 , and Preston was named Emmanuel 's master in 1622 .
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Bradstreet took over Dudley 's position when the latter moved temporarily to Boston in 1624 . On Dudley 's return several years later , Bradstreet then briefly served as a steward to the Dowager Countess of Warwick . In 1628 he married Dudley 's daughter Anne , when she was 16 .
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In 1628 , Dudley and others from the Earl of Lincoln 's circle formed the Massachusetts Bay Company , with a view toward establishing a Puritan colony in North America . Bradstreet became involved with the company in 1629 , and in April 1630 , the Bradstreets joined the Dudleys and colonial Governor John Winthrop on the fleet of ships that carried them to Massachusetts Bay . There they founded Boston , the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony .
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= = Massachusetts Bay Colony = =
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After a brief stay in Boston , Bradstreet made his first residence in Newtowne ( later renamed Cambridge ) , near the Dudleys in what is now Harvard Square . In 1637 , during the Antinomian Controversy , he was one of the magistrates that sat at the trial of Anne Hutchinson , and voted for her banishment from the colony . In 1639 he was granted land in Salem , near that of John Endecott . He lived there for a time , moving in 1634 to Ipswich before becoming one of the founding settlers of Andover in 1648 . In 1666 his Andover home was destroyed by fire , supposedly because of " the carelessness of the maid " . He had varied business interests , speculating in land , and investing with other colonists in a ship involved in the coasting trade . In 1660 he purchased shares in the Atherton Company , a land development company with interests in the " Narragansett Country " ( present @-@ day southern Rhode Island ) . He became one of its leading figures , serving on the management committee , and publishing handbills advertising its lands . When he died he owned more than 1 @,@ 500 acres ( 610 ha ) of land in five communities spread across the colony . He was known to own two slaves , a woman named Hannah and her daughter Billah .
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Bradstreet was heavily involved in colonial politics . When the council met for the first time in Boston , Bradstreet was selected to serve as colonial secretary , a post he would hold until 1644 . He was politically moderate , arguing against legislation and judicial decisions punishing people for speaking out against the governing magistrates . Bradstreet was also outspoken in opposition to the witch hysteria that infested his home town of Salem , culminating in numerous trials in 1692 .
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He served for many years as a commissioner representing Massachusetts to the New England Confederation , an organization that coordinated matters of common interest ( principally defense ) among most of the New England colonies . He was regularly chosen as an assistant , serving on the council that dominated the public affairs of the colony , but did not reach higher office until 1678 , when he was first elected deputy governor under John Leverett . He was against military actions against some of the colony 's foreign neighbors , opposing official intervention in a French Acadian dispute in the 1640s , and also spoke against attacking the New Netherland during the First Anglo @-@ Dutch War ( 1652 – 1654 ) .
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Bradstreet was sent on a number of diplomatic missions , dealing with settlers , other English colonies , and the Dutch in New Amsterdam . In 1650 he was sent to Hartford , Connecticut , where the Treaty of Hartford was negotiated to determine the boundary between the English colonies and New Amsterdam . In the following years he negotiated an agreement with settlers in York and Kittery to bring them under Massachusetts jurisdiction .
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Following the 1660 restoration of Charles II to the throne of England , colonial authorities again became concerned about preserving their charter rights . Bradstreet in 1661 headed a legislative committee to " consider and debate such matters touching their patent rights , and privileges , and duty to his Majesty , as should to them seem proper . " The letter the committee drafted reiterated the colony 's charter rights , and also included declarations of allegiance and loyalty to the crown . Bradstreet and John Norton were chosen as agents to deliver the letter to London . Charles renewed the charter , but sent the agents back to Massachusetts with a letter attaching conditions to his assent . The colony was expected , among other things , to expand religious tolerance to include the Church of England and religious minorities like the Quakers . The agents were harshly criticized by hardline factions of the legislature , but Bradstreet defended the need to accommodate the king 's wishes as the safest course to take . How to respond to the king 's demands divided the colony ; Bradstreet was part of the moderate " accommodationist " faction arguing that the colony should obey the king 's wishes . This faction lost the debate to the hardline " commonwealth " faction , who were in favor of aggressively maintaining the colony 's charter rights , led through the 1660s by governors John Endecott and Richard Bellingham . With Charles distracted by war with the Dutch and domestic politics in the late 1660s , the issue lay dormant until the mid @-@ 1670s . Relations between colony and crown deteriorated when the king then renewed demands for legislative and religious reforms , which hardline magistrates again resisted .
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= = Governor = =
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In early 1679 Governor John Leverett died , and Bradstreet as deputy succeeded him . Leverett had opposed accommodation of the king 's demands , and the change to an accommodationist leadership was too late . Bradstreet would turn out to be the last governor under its original charter . His deputy , Thomas Danforth was from the commonwealth faction . During his tenure , crown agent Edward Randolph was in the colony , attempting to enforce the Navigation Acts , under which certain types of trade involving the colony were illegal . Randolph 's enforcement attempts were vigorously resisted by both the merchant classes and sympathetic magistrates despite Bradstreet 's attempts to accommodate Randolph . Juries frequently refused to condemn ships accused of violating the acts ; in one instance Bradstreet tried three times to get a jury to change its verdict . Randolph 's attempts to enforce the navigation laws eventually convinced the colony 's general court that it needed to create its own mechanisms for their enforcement . A bill to establish a naval office was vigorously debated in 1681 , with the house of deputies , dominated by the commonwealth party , opposing the idea , and the moderate magistrates supporting it . The bill that finally passed was a victory for the commonwealth party , making enforcement difficult and subject to reprisal lawsuits . Bradstreet refused to actually implement the law , and Randolph published open challenges to it . Bradstreet was in some degree vindicated when he won re @-@ election in 1682 , and he then used his judicial authority to further undermine the law 's effects .
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Randolph 's threats to report the colonial legislature 's intransigence prompted it to dispatch agents to England to argue the colony 's case ; however , their powers were limited . Shortly after their arrival in late 1682 , the Lords of Trade issued an ultimatum to the colony : either grant its agents wider powers , including the ability to negotiate modifications to the charter , or risk having the charter voided . The general court responded by issuing the agents instructions to take a hard line . Following legal processes begun in 1683 , the charter was formally annulled on October 23 , 1684 .
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= = Dominion , and temporary return as governor = =
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King Charles II in 1684 established the Dominion of New England . Bradstreet 's brother @-@ in @-@ law Joseph Dudley , who had served as one of the colonial agents , was commissioned by James as President of the Council for New England in 1685 by King James II , and took control of the colony in May 1686 . Bradstreet was offered a position on Dudley 's council , but refused . Dudley was replaced in December 1686 by Sir Edmund Andros , who came to be greatly detested in Massachusetts for vacating existing land titles , and seizing Congregational church properties for Church of England religious services . Andros ' high @-@ handed rule was also unpopular in the other colonies of the dominion .
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The idea of revolt against Andros arose as early as January 1689 , before news of the December 1688 Glorious Revolution reached Boston . After William and Mary took the throne , Increase Mather and Sir William Phips , Massachusetts agents in London , petitioned them and the Lords of Trade for restoration of the Massachusetts charter . Mather furthermore convinced the Lords of Trade to delay notifying Andros of the revolution . He had already dispatched to Bradstreet a letter containing news that a report ( prepared before the revolution ) stating that the charter had been illegally annulled , and that the magistrates should " prepare the minds of the people for a change . " News of the revolution apparently reached some individuals as early as late March , and Bradstreet is one of several possible organizers of the mob that formed in Boston in April 18 , 1689 . He , along with other pre @-@ Dominion magistrates and some members of Andros ' council , addressed an open letter to Andros on that day calling for his surrender in order to quiet the mob . Andros , who had fled to the safety of Castle Island , surrendered , and was eventually returned to England after several months in confinement .
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In the wake of Andros ' arrest , a council of safety was formed , with Bradstreet as its president . The council drafted a letter to William and Mary , justifying the colony 's acts in language similar to that used by William in his proclamations when he invaded England . The council fairly quickly decided to revert to the government as it had been under the old charter . In this form Bradstreet resumed the governorship , and was annually re @-@ elected governor until 1692 . He had to defend the colony against those who were opposed to the reintroduction of the old rule , who he characterized in reports to London as malcontents and strangers stirring up trouble . The colony 's northern frontier was also engulfed in King William 's War , where there was frequent Indian raiding . Bradstreet approved the expeditions of Sir William Phips in 1690 against Acadia and Quebec .
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In 1691 William and Mary issued a charter establishing the Province of Massachusetts Bay , and appointed Phips its first governor . Bradstreet was offered a position on Phips ' council when the new governor arrived in 1692 , but declined . Bradstreet died at his home in Salem on 27 March 1697 at the age of 93 ; due to his advanced age he was called the " Nestor of New England " by Cotton Mather .
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= = Family and legacy = =
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Bradstreet was buried in the Charter Street Burying Ground in Salem . Poetry by his first wife Anne was published in England in 1650 , including verses containing expressions of enduring love for her husband . Anne Bradstreet died in 1672 ; the couple had eight children , of whom seven survived infancy . In 1676 Bradstreet married Ann Gardner , the widow of Captain Joseph Gardner , son of Thomas Gardner of Salem . His many descendants include jurists Oliver Wendell Holmes , Jr. and David Souter , U.S. President Herbert Hoover , and actor Humphrey Bogart .
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= Etymology of Wicca =
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In Modern English , the term Wicca ( / ˈwɪkə / ) refers to Wicca , the religion of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft . It is used within the Pagan community under competing definitions . One refers to the entirety of the Pagan Witchcraft movement , while the other refers explicitly to traditions included in what is now called British Traditional Wicca .
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Although pronounced differently , Wicca is related to the Old English word wicca , which referred to sorcerers in Anglo @-@ Saxon England . In the early 1950s , English Wiccan Gerald Gardner , founder of the Gardnerian tradition , referred to the Pagan Witchcraft community as the Wica . He claimed to have learned the term during his initiation into the New Forest coven in 1939 . By the late 1950s , Gardner 's rival Charles Cardell , founder of his own tradition , had begun referring to the religion 's followers as Wiccens , and possibly used Wicca in reference to the religion itself .
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The inclusive use of the term Wicca — referring to the entirety of Pagan Witchcraft religion — has been traced to Britain in the early 1960s , when it was used by various groups and publicised through use in adverts , magazines , and other literary sources . It was later adopted by figures like Alex Sanders and Gavin and Yvonne Frost , who took it to the United States . There , practitioners of British Traditional Wicca adopted it exclusively for themselves as a means to differentiate their practices from those of other Pagan Witches . This exclusive meaning was countered by its popularisation as a generic term by prolific authors such as Raymond Buckland , Scott Cunningham and Silver RavenWolf . As it entered popular culture , it gained an increasingly eclectic character in its usage . During the 1990s , some attempted to distance themselves from it by utilising the term Traditional Witchcraft .
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= = Definitions = =
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There are two separate definitions of the term Wicca that have been used in Paganism and Pagan studies since circa 1980 . The first developed in England during the 1960s . Broad and inclusive , it covers most , if not all , forms of modern Pagan Witchcraft , especially if they share sufficient theological beliefs and ritual practices to be considered denominations within a common religious movement . In contrast , the second developed in the United States during the late 1970s . It refers specifically to the Gardnerian tradition of Witchcraft and those descended from it with little variation , namely Alexandrian and Algard Witchcraft , which are together known as British Traditional Wicca .
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= = = Usage within Pagan studies = = =
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The development and use of the term Wicca within contemporary Paganism has been a recurring topic of discussion in the field of Pagan studies . The majority of academics and independent scholars use the first , more inclusive definition . Given its historical status and prevalent usage within Paganism , Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White thought it the logical and easier choice for academia , although there is still some disagreement and confusion among researchers as to what defines Wicca . Among those who have used the former definition are American sociologist Margot Adler , literary scholar Chas S. Clifton , and religious studies scholar Aidan A. Kelly , while others such as the Britons Graham Harvey and Ronald Hutton failed to make their usage clear . To deal with this problem in future , Doyle White urged scholars to specify which definition they used in their work .
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= = Origins = =
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= = = Old English wicca and wicce = = =
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In the Early Medieval language of Old English , the term wicca ( / ˈwɪttʃɑː / ) was a masculine noun for sorcerer ; wicce was its feminine counterpart . They are ancestral to Modern English witch . The Modern English term Wicca took the Old English wicca as its basis , although the two are fundamentally two distinct words with differing meanings , pronunciation , and grammatical usage , with nearly a millennium between their respective floruits .
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In 1932 Lewis Spence writes in The Weekly Scotsman , in response to the popularisation of Margaret Murray 's witch @-@ cult hypothesis in Scotland , that " the Saxon word ' wicca ' , a witch " was " of immemorial usage " in the Scottish Lowlands .
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Doyle White suggests that the early Wiccans adopted the term wicca as the basis for the name of their burgeoning faith because theirs was a new religious movement that took " iconography and inspiration " from the polytheistic cults of pre @-@ Christian Britain .
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