Originally a form of excommunication from the Catholic Church instituted in the late ninth century c.e. It included the ringing of a bell, the closing of the Bible, and the snuffing of a candle. In 1950, a romantic comedy play by this name was produced. It was made into a movie in 1958. Part of the plot is that if a Witch falls in love she loses her supernatural powers. Curiously, some modern Witches have used the phrase to indicate the closing of a ritual.
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Alice Markham-Cantor, author of the new Once & Future Witch Hunt.
My 9x-great-grandmother, Martha Carrier, was hanged in the Salem witch trials. She wasn't a witch. She wasn't an herbalist or a...