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The introduction of the idea of demonic forces empowering the acts of maleficium gave the term witch new connotations of idolatry and apostasy that were adopted by Malleus Maleficarum (1486), but these remained disputed despite papal injunctions to take action against witches. [21] In 17th-century Russia, societal concern about the practice of ...
John Webster (1610–1682), also known as Johannes Hyphastes, was an English cleric, physician and chemist with occult interests, a proponent of astrology and a sceptic about witchcraft. He is known for controversial works.
During the 20th century, interest in witchcraft rose in English-speaking and European countries. From the 1920s, Margaret Murray popularized the 'witch-cult hypothesis': the idea that those persecuted as 'witches' in early modern Europe were followers of a benevolent pagan religion that had survived the Christianization of Europe. This has been ...
Titled "The Book of Magical Charms," "Cases of Conscience Concerning Witchcraft" and "The Commonplace Book," each of these three texts is handwritten in archaic Latin and English and currently are ...
According to the Smithsonian, the Newberry Library in Chicago is crowdsourcing translations for three 1 century manuscripts dealing with charms, spirits and other manners of magical practice.
By the 15th century belief in witches was widely accepted in European society. Previously, those convicted of witchcraft typically suffered penalties no more harsh than public penances such as a day in the stocks , [ 18 ] but their prosecution became more brutal following the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum , as witchcraft became widely ...
Gaule himself followed the position of William Perkins on witchcraft. [8] He objected to the "swimming test" for witches, used by Hopkins and Stearne in the first half of 1645. [9] Unusually for the time, Gaule engaged with the question of the imp or familiar spirit thought to accompany a witch.
After the early 17th century, popular sentiment began to turn against the practice. In 1682, King Louis XIV prohibited further witch-trials in France. In 1687, Louis XIV issued an edict against witchcraft that was rather moderate compared to former ones; it ignored black cats and other lurid fantasies of the witch mania.