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Witchcraft
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/witc
hhistory.html
 Exodus 22:18 “Thou shalt
not suffer a witch to live”
(KJV)
 Leviticus 20:27 “A man
also or woman that hath
a familiar spirit, or that is
a wizard shall surely be
put to death …” (KJV)
 Written in sixth century
B.C.
 Argued in the early 400’s
that God alone could
suspend the normal laws
of the universe.
 Believed that neither
Satan nor witches had
supernatural powers.
 The medieval church
accepted this view and
felt little need to track
down witches or
investigating allegations.
Heretics believed that God
and Satan both had
supernatural powers and
that they were at war.
Propagandists for the church
depicted these heretics
demonstrating loyalties to
Satan.
The public’s understanding
of Satan moved from that
of a mischievous spoiler to
a deeply sinister force.
 Argued that the world was
full of evil and dangerous
demons.
 Sex and witchcraft become
intertwined – women
being the primary focus of
temptation.
 Demons not only seek their
own pleasure, but are
intent on leading men into
temptation.
 Torture inflicted on
heretics suspected of
magical pacts or demondriven sexual
misconduct led to
alarming confessions.
 Confessions included
flying, meeting in Satan’s
assemblies, casting spells
on neighbors, having sex
with animals, and
causing storms.
 Pope Innocent asked two
friars to publish a report
on suspected witchcraft.
 The result was Malleus
Maleficarum – or
Hammer of Witches.
 This dictated that
Christians had an
obligation to hunt down
and kill witches.
 Outbreaks of witchcraft
hysteria led to mass
executions in the early
1500s
 Reformation divided
Protestants and Catholics.
 1580 the book On the
Demon Mania of Sorcerers
opened the door to use of
testimony by children
against parents,
entrapment, and
instruments of torture.
 King James experienced
a terrible storm before
and after his wedding.
 6 women admitted to
having caused the storm.
 Being paranoid, he
authorized the torture of
suspected witches which
were burned at the stake.
 The was the largest witch
hunt in British history.
 A reflection of the time
is that Shakespeare wrote
the play Macbeth in
which strange, bearded,
hag-like witches play
prominent roles.
 1643-1645 was the largest
witch-hunt in French
history.
 There were at least 650
arrests in one city alone.
 The number of trials began
to drop sharply in the late
1640s.
 Holland, by 1648, was a
tolerant society that had
done away with
punishments for
witchcraft.
 1682 – Temperance Lloyd, a
senile woman became the
last witch ever executed in
England.
 Lord Chief Justice Sir
Francis North investigated
the Lloyd case denounced
the investigation as deeply
flawed.
 His criticism helped
discourage further witch
trials.
 This is when the witchhunting shifted from one
side of the Atlantic to the
other - in Salem
Massachusetts.