It begins with Harry doing his homework, an essay entitled "Witch burning in the fourteenth century was completely pointless: discuss".
Okay: in England, witchcraft did not become an offense separate from heresy until 1605, because James I had a bug up his butt about it, and in general the whole witch panic thing belongs to the Renaissance rather than the Middle Ages (during which people were far more worried about heretics). And even heresy wasn't something you could get burned at the stake for in England until 1401, which is when Henry IV enacted De haeretico comburendo, so that his hardcore commitment to ecclesiastical orthodoxy might make people less bothered about his dubious title to the crown. (It didn't work, but be that as it may.)
Which has nothing to do with literary coincidences, because I have no interesting ones to report that I can think of, but that has always annoyed the hell out of me. You fail at the Middle Ages, J.K. Rowling!
*pedant hat ON*
Date: Monday, 24 March 2008 08:51 pm (UTC)From:Okay: in England, witchcraft did not become an offense separate from heresy until 1605, because James I had a bug up his butt about it, and in general the whole witch panic thing belongs to the Renaissance rather than the Middle Ages (during which people were far more worried about heretics). And even heresy wasn't something you could get burned at the stake for in England until 1401, which is when Henry IV enacted De haeretico comburendo, so that his hardcore commitment to ecclesiastical orthodoxy might make people less bothered about his dubious title to the crown. (It didn't work, but be that as it may.)
Which has nothing to do with literary coincidences, because I have no interesting ones to report that I can think of, but that has always annoyed the hell out of me. You fail at the Middle Ages, J.K. Rowling!