[Music] just a year before the arrests in Pendle the King James Bible was published and laid out in stark words thou shalt not suffer a witch to live I've come here to Oxford in search of a book not the King James Bible but a book James wrote himself James first has a reputation as an avid witch hunter and participates personally in trials up in North beric and he believes that witches are trying to kill him in fact that the the witches tried to sink the boat that he was bringing his wife Anne of Denmark back on their honeymoon he writes a slim exciting book called demonology which is unique among heads of state in being a sole author at work upon the nature of Hell and what to do about it and it's pretty popular it's readable it's concise it's learning it's actually a rather clever piece of work and it's a mandate to the British to hunt witches this is an original 1597 edition of James's demonology written says here at the beginning because of the fearful abounding at this time in this country of these detestable slaves of the devil the witches or enchanters James is very much a product of the Presbyterian Kirk in Scotland Presbyterian ministers who brought James up as Presbyterian in a bid to counteract the influence of his Catholic mother tell him stories all day about the power of the devil they deliberately scare him and it works you can scare a child very easily they talked him into feeling that he's surrounded by witches the demonology might seem a bit like the ramblings of a paranoid man but as the saying goes just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you [Music] the religious tensions in England had reached boiling point just seven years earlier when the king and his entire parliament had very nearly been blown up by Guy Fawkes and his team of Catholic terrorists in the failed Gunpowder Plot and although Forks had been captured some of the conspirators were still at large it's perfectly reasonable if you're an early modern monarch to be paranoid about people trying to kill you and James is well as monsters no shortage of potential conspiracies out there he's got a dad who's been strangled after an attempt to blow him up a mother whose head has been hacked off in English prison and there have been at least two attempts to kidnap him maybe once and murder him no wonder he's scared and shortly after he arrives in England some of his Catholic subjects tried to blow him to smithereens along with the rest of parliament he's a king who is exceptionally nervous of conspiracy the plotters who were caught were trying to flee to safety and the place where they expected to find it was Lancashire in March 16 12 local chair peas had received an order from London that they were to compile a report of all those who refused to take communion in Church in an effort to root out the Lancashire Catholics it was a crude but hopefully effective loyalty test all those that do not come to the church and their communicate must be presented and further proceeded against fail not hearing at your peril and here look one of the oddest signatories was Roger Noll there's no question about it on Good Friday 1612 every loyal subject should have been in church