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What do we know about witches?
关于女巫，我们了解多少？
The woman with magical powers and spells, in a pointy hat, with a broomstick and a black cat.
那个头戴尖顶帽、手持扫帚、身边跟着黑猫、拥有魔法与咒语的女人。
But behind this stereotype is a long, dark history of torture and persecution.
但在这种刻板印象的背后，是一段漫长而黑暗的折磨和迫害历史。
Much of what we think we know comes from the 16th and 17th centuries, and especially the work of the witchfinder Matthew Hopkins.
我们对女巫的大部分认知源于16至17世纪，尤其是猎巫人马修·霍普金斯的作品。
It led to the deaths of around 100 people, and still has echoes in our lives today.
它直接导致了约百人的死亡，其影响至今仍在当代社会回响。
In the 16th and 17th Century, people in Europe were living in what historians call a magical universe -- a realm where it was implicitly accepted that God and the Devil were real.
在16至17世纪的欧洲，人们生活在历史学家所称的“魔法宇宙”中--一个默认上帝与魔鬼真实存在的世界。
Life was hard in England at the time. People were often hungry, angry, and fearful.
当时英国的生活很艰苦。人们常常感到饥饿、愤怒和恐惧。
Most people lived in small rural communities, and between 1530 and 1630, the population doubled.
大多数人居住在小型农村社区，在1530年至1630年间，人口翻了一番。
There were plague outbreaks, and a "Little Ice Age", causing harvests to fail.
瘟疫肆虐加上“小冰河期”，导致粮食歉收。
Everyday misfortunes could be interpreted as either a punishment from God, bad luck, or the act of a witch.
日常的不幸可以解释为上帝的惩罚，运气不好，或者是女巫的行为。
It was widely believed witches could raise storms, destroy livestock, drive people mad, or even kill them.
人们普遍认为女巫能呼风唤雨，杀害牲畜，使人发疯，甚至杀死他们。
Witch trials followed legal process, and acquittal rates were actually relatively high. Only 22% of those tried in South East England were executed.
女巫审判遵循法律程序，无罪释放率其实相对较高。在英格兰东南部，仅有22%的受审者被处决。
While burning at the stake was common across Europe, in England, witches were usually hanged.
虽然欧洲大陆盛行火刑，但在英格兰女巫通常被绞死。
In the 1640s, during the chaos of the English Civil War, the witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins appeared on the scene, along with his associate, John Stearne.
17世纪40年代，在英国内战的混乱中，猎巫人马修·霍普金斯和他的同伙约翰·斯蒂尔恩登上历史舞台。
Known as the Witchfinder General, Hopkins would ride into villages in East Anglia, often invited by concerned citizens, and listen to their suspicions.
霍普金斯被称为“猎巫将军”，他经常应有关村民的邀请，策马进入东盎格利亚的村庄，倾听他们的怀疑。
With his assistants, he would search for the "witch's mark" or "teat" where familiars were thought to suck blood.
他会和助手们一起寻找“女巫印记”或“乳头”（据信是使魔吸血之处）。
Familiars were thought to be a witch's companion, half-animal, half-demon. They included toads, ferrets and cats.
使魔被认为是半兽半魔的女巫伙伴，包括蟾蜍、雪貂和黑猫。
He had suspect witches watched for days, to see if their animal familiar would come to them.
嫌疑人会被连续数日监视，观察是否有动物使魔前来。
In reality, this was sleep deprivation, designed to break suspects into confessing.
实际上，这是剥夺睡眠，旨在迫使嫌疑人认罪。
Hopkins also used the swimming test. A suspected witch's toes and thumbs were tied together and they were submerged in water.
霍普金斯也使用了沉水测试。将一名女巫嫌疑人的脚趾和拇指绑在一起，投入水中。
It was thought a witch would float, rejected by the pure water, but the innocent would sink.
按当时观念，女巫会被纯净之水排斥而漂浮，无辜者则会下沉。
Women were considered at the time to be more vulnerable to temptation from the Devil.
女性在当时被认为更容易受到魔鬼的诱惑。
Some women were particularly vulnerable to accusations, due a lack of protection in a patriarchal society.
由于在男权社会中缺乏保护，一些妇女特别容易受到指责。
And although most of the witches accused during the Hopkins witch-hunt were women, in other parts of Europe, greater numbers of men were persecuted as witches, and men were caught up in the Hopkins witch-hunt too.
尽管在霍普金斯迫害女巫的过程中，被指控的大多数女巫都是女性，但在欧洲其他地区，被当作女巫迫害的男性更多，霍普金斯案中也有男性受害者。
The elderly clergyman, John Lowes, was accused of witchcraft in his town of Brandeston in Suffolk.
年迈的牧师约翰·洛斯被指控在萨福克郡的布兰德斯顿镇施行巫术。
He was examined by Hopkins who "found" two teats on his head and one beneath his tongue.
霍普金斯检查了他，“发现”他头上有两个乳头，舌下还有一个。
Under torture, he confessed to having six familiars which he had allegedly ordered to sink a ship, killing 14 men.
严刑逼供下，洛斯承认有六个使魔，并命令它们击沉船只致14人溺亡。
Although he later retracted this confession, on August 27, 1645, he was hanged in Bury St Edmunds.
尽管后来翻供，他还是在1645年8月27日在贝里圣埃德蒙兹被处以绞刑。
Yet opposition to Hopkins' witch-hunt was growing. People began to condemn his methods.
但是反对霍普金斯的声音日渐高涨。人们开始谴责他的手段。
His influence waned and, after an illness, he died at home in August 1647.
他的影响力逐渐减弱，在一场疾病之后，他于1647年8月在家中去世。
Overall, around 250 people were investigated for witchcraft during the Hopkins witch-hunt, and about 100 of these were ultimately condemned.
据统计，在霍普金斯的猎巫行动中，共有约250人受审，其中百人最终被处决。
The Hopkins witch-hunt was a brief and tragic period in the history of England.
霍普金斯的猎巫行动是英国历史上短暂而惨痛的一页。
Many people in the 16th and 17th centuries believed in the necessity of witch-hunts to protect their communities.
在16和17世纪，许多人相信猎巫行动是保护他们社区的必要之举。
But these persecutions can also be seen as a case of blaming vulnerable people for the difficulties of the time.
但这些迫害也可以被视为将当时的困境归咎于弱势群体的一种情况。
We live in a very different world today, but has the witch-hunt mentality gone away?
我们今天生活在一个非常不同的世界，但是猎巫行动的心态消失了吗？
We still have a tendency to accept easy answers to complex problems.
我们仍倾向于用简单答案应对复杂问题。
Social media fuels both conspiracy theories and the public shaming of others.
社交媒体既助长阴谋论，也催化了对他人的公开羞辱。
Fear and uncertainty is still being used to scapegoat vulnerable sections of society.
恐惧与不确定性仍在被用作社会弱势群体的替罪羊。
So while the context may be different, witch-hunts, it seems, are alive and well.
因此，尽管时代背景可能有所不同，但猎巫行动似乎仍然存在。
