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Witch trials and witch related accusations were at a high during the early modern period in Britain, a time that spanned from the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century. Prior to the 16th century, Witchcraft-- i.e. any magical or supernatural practices made by mankind -- was often seen as a healing art, performed by people ...
Religious tensions in England during the 16th and 17th centuries resulted in the introduction of serious penalties for witchcraft. Henry VIII's Witchcraft Act 1541 [1] (33 Hen. 8. c. 8) was the first to define witchcraft as a felony, a crime punishable by death and the forfeiture of goods and chattels. [2] It was forbidden to:
One well-known goetic grimoire is the Ars Goetia, included in the 16th-century text known as The Lesser Key of Solomon, [2] which was likely compiled from materials several centuries older. [71] [72] One of the most obvious sources for the Ars Goetia is Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum in his De praestigiis daemonum (1577).
Witch hunts began to increase first in southern France and Switzerland, during the 14th and 15th centuries. Witch hunts and witchcraft trials rose markedly during the social upheavals of the 16th century, peaking between 1560 and 1660. [72] The peak years of witch-hunts in southwest Germany were from 1561 to 1670. [73]
Throughout the medieval era, mainstream Christian doctrine had denied the belief in the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as a pagan superstition. [14] Some have argued that the work of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century helped lay the groundwork for a shift in Christian doctrine, by which certain Christian theologians eventually began to accept the possibility ...
A real initiatory brotherhood was established in late 16th-century Scotland through the transformation of Medieval stonemason guilds to include non-craftsmen: Freemasonry. Soon spreading into other parts of Europe, in England it largely rejected its esoteric character and embraced humanism and rationalism, while in France it embraced new ...
In the 16th and 17th centuries people across England, irrespective of status, believed in witches. Witchcraft was first made a capital offence in 1542 under a statute of Henry VIII but was repealed five years later. Witch fever reached new heights when witchcraft was again classed as a felony in 1562 under a statute of Elizabeth I.
In Sweden, about four hundred people were executed for witchcraft prior to the last case in 1704. [1] Most of these cases (circa 280) occurred during a short but intense period; the eight years between 1668 and 1676, when the witch hysteria called Det stora oväsendet ("The Great Noise") took place, causing a large number of witch trials in the ...