Robert Filmer (1588?-1653)
1679
An Advertisement was a reaction to the 1652 executions at Maidstone in which 5 women were hanged, and whom some spectators demanded to be burned. Although a 1604 law identified death as the penalty for witchcraft, capital punishment was rarely imposed unless there was acceptable evidence of actual murder or serious property damage. The kind of zealotry evidenced at Maidstone was not common in England, where witchcraft was viewed as a crime rather than a heresy, and may have spurred reactions like the one Filmer presented in his Advertisement. Filmer argues that the definition of a witch in the 1604 law was unclear, and that lack of clarity in how to identify a witch put both judge and jury in a difficult position. The text suggests a move away from execution as the penalty for witchcraft, taking a less extreme view of both what was a witch and how to punish a witch.