I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
Matthew Hopkins, d. 1647, was an English witchhunter whose career flourished in the time of the English Civil War. He held, or claimed to hold, the office of "Witch-finder Generall" as bestowed by the Puritan Parliament, and practised his witch-finding in the counties of Suffolk and Essex, in East Anglia.
Hopkins was a lawyer and the son of James Hopkins; a Puritan clergyman. According to his book The Discovery of Witches (not to be confused with Reginald Scot's book The Discovery of Witchcraft) he began his career as a witch-finder when he overheard various women discussing their meetings with the Devil in March of 1644, in a village near Colchester. As a result of Hopkins's accusations, nineteen alleged witches were hanged and four more died in prison.
Hopkins was soon travelling over eastern England, claiming truthfully or not to be an official specially commissioned by Parliament to uncover and prosecute witches. His witch-finding career spanned from 1644 to 1646. While torture was technically unlawful in England, he used various methods of browbeating to extract confessions from some of his victims. He used sleep deprivation as a sort of bloodless torture. He also used a "swimming" test to see if the accused would float or sink in water, the theory being that witches had renounced their baptism, so that all water would supernaturally reject them. He also employed "witch prickers" who pricked the accused with knives and special needles, looking for the Devil's mark that was supposed to be dead to all feeling and would not bleed. It was believed that the witch's familiar would drink their blood from the mark as milk from a teat.
On the strength of his commission, Hopkins then demanded that the communities he visited pay him for his work. He also sold fetishes he called "witch boxes" that were supposed to protect the households of their owners from sorcery.
Samuel Butler's satire Hudibras commented on Hopkins's activity, saying:
A Lieger to the Devil sent,
Fully impowr'd to treat about
Finding revolted witches out
And has not he, within a year,
Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire?
Some only for not being drown'd,
And some for sitting above ground,
Whole days and nights, upon their breeches,
And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.
And some for putting knavish tricks
Upon green geese and turky-chicks,
And pigs, that suddenly deceast
Of griefs unnat'ral, as he guest;
Who after prov'd himself a witch
And made a rod for his own breech.
The last line refers to a tradition that disgruntled villagers caught Hopkins and subjected him to his own "swimming" test: he floated, and therefore was hanged for witchcraft himself. However, it is believed by most historians that Hopkins actually died of illness (possibly tuberculosis) in his home. The parish records of Manningtree in Essex record his burial in August of 1647.
Doom Metal,Heavy Metal,70's Prog Rock,Black/Death,Soundtracks,Epic/Power
GREAT ADMIRER OF ITALIAN DOOM/DARK/OCCULT/PROG.SECENE!
Some Favorite Artist are:
Pentagram (us), Paul Chain, Judas Priest, Queensryche, Septic Flesh,Devil Doll, Black Widow(U.K), L'Impero Della Ombre, Death SS, The Black, Virgin Steele/Jack Starr, Omen,Genesis (P Gabriel Era), Marillion (Fish Era), Van Der Graaf Generator, Fates Warning, Jethro Tull, Witchcraft, Witchfynde, Witchfinder General, Burning Saviours, Doomshine, Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Forsaken (MLT), Thunderstorm, Electric Wizard, Mercyful Fate / King Diamond, Messiah (Che), Reverend Bizarre, Cathedral, Eloy, Scorpions (U.jon Roth era), Y.j.Malmsteen, Rainbow, Queen, Goblin, C. Simonneti, Daemonia, James Bernard, Count Raven, M.Oldfield, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath (all eras), Pestilence, Cynic, Atheist, Nocturnus,Memento Mori, Hawkwind, Caravan, Europe, (John Norum Era), Deep Purple (Glen Hughes era), Annihilator, Anthrax, Alice Cooper (70's Band), Northwinds (Fr), GOAD, Victor Giffin's Bands, Joe Hasselvander's works and... many many more...
Mostly Italian Giallos / Gothic & British Horor Gothic Cinema
Every Single Work Of:
Corman / Price / Poe
Mario Bava
Dario Argento
Jess Franco
I.Bergman
And Of Course Hammer Horror Studios' Films
Plus Movies Like:
Alucarda,la hija de las tinieblas (1978)
Danza Macabra (1964)
White Zomblie (1932)
La Casa Sfuggita (2003)
Nosferatu / Nosferatu The Vampyr
The Pit And The Pendulum (1991)
Jack The Ripper (BBC Mini Series - 1988 - Michael Kaine)
I Lunghi capelli della morte (1964)
The Elephant Man (D. Lynch)
Nekromantik (1 / 2)
The Omen / The Omen : Final Conflition
The Exorsict/ Exorcist 2/ Exorcist 3
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Universal's Monsters
The Dark half
Witchfinder General
The Name Of The Rose
Cry Of The Banshee (1970)
Dracula 1979 (Frank Langella)
Drakula Instabulda (1953)
Blacula 1/2
Dune (Lynch)
Johnny Got His Gun
Jacob's Ladder
Godfather(s)
Monty Python's Stuff
Holy Mountain....
BUT REALLY DONT LIKE, NEARLY HATE the hugely overrated shit Called "Crow"... (A Bucket Of Shit!!!)
This Is A 14'' "phillips"
Mostly "Nickelodeon" Cartoon
Saber Rider
Transformers
The Black Adder
Fawlty Towers
Sherlock Holmes Grenada Series (Jeremy Brett)
Dario Argento's RAI collaborations
Hellsing (anime)
Also Late Night 30's horror Flicks
Umberto Eco's "The Name Of The Rose"
Edgar Allan Poe's Novels / Poems
H. P. Lovecraft 's Novels
Arthur Munchen's "The Terror"
Roald Dahl 's "Charlie And..."
Sir A.C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Novels... (MY Hero)
Tomas Harris' "Red Dragon"
Le Fanou's "Carmilla"
Tim Burton's "The Melancholic Death..."
J.R.R. Tolkien's Books about Middle Earth
And More
Paolo Catena,
Yngwie Johan Malmsteen,
Ulrich Jon Roth,
Gary Moore,
Claudio Simonneti,
Peter Hammill,
Tomas G. Warrior,
Bobby Liebling,
Victor Griffin,
Joe Haselvander,
Sherlock Holmes,
Vincent Price,
and many more...