Departmental Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History in the Theology Faculty at the University of Oxford.

Brueghel's nightmarish vision of hell, being pillaged by the folk-hero Mad Meg, illustrates the darker past of Western Christianity:especially its confrontation with evil, and its attempts to understand and control female nature. In this session, Dr Sarah Apetrei, a lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at Oxford interested in spirituality and gender in the early modern world, explores the church's demons in the age of Reformations and witch crazes, through an examination of the literature, art and legal structures which manifested the deep anxieties and conflicts at the heart of European society.

Dr Sarah Apetrei presented our ninth object, Mad Meg, by Peter Brueghel the Elder (1562), on Thursday, 22nd March 2012 in Deddington Parish Church.