Murray's Witch-Cult Hypothesis

Margaret Murray and the Distinguished Professor Hutton, an article from The Cauldron which debates the authenticity of Margaret Murray's famous The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Murray's work claims authenticity for the witch-cult hypothesis, essentially that witchcraft and paganism continued canonically from pre-Christian times, throughout the modern era, and up until present day.

However, there have been numerous criticisms of Murray's work, attempting to discredit her research. Some of these dismissals have upheld, some are without substance. I'm currently reading her work, and its influence on contemporary Wicca and Neopaganism is very evident.

An interesting passage of Hutton's from the link:

"What made the persistence of pre-Christian traditions in Christianised form so important to the history of witchcraft was the discovery by scholars that witch-hunting was itself a pagan tradition. Since records first appear, Europeans of all languages and ethnicities have believed that human being have the power to injure each other by magical means, and that those who do so should be punished."

[...]

"In the 14th century some theologians developed the theory that the Christian god had empowered Satan to work real magic in order to test humans more effectively, and that he could in turn empower people who followed him to do the same. At this point the ancient and the new belefs came together, in the concept of a world-wide satanic conspiracy of witches to convert or destroy the human race. It was Norman Cohn who first understood this sequence of events, but it has been much better explored since."

Woah!