He writes while the wives and husbands denounced for witchcraft during these two periods have much in common, they are distinguished by issue of child bearing.Such couples in the middle-seventeenth century were suspected by their neighbors due to the fact that they were producing fewer offspring than others in the community. King James I was terrified of witches and was responsible for their hunting and execution. In other words, they had found nothing odd at all on the bodies of three of the women, and on the fourth there were a couple of growths but nothing that the examiners thought sinister. The theory best supported by the evidence is that the increasing power of the centralized courts such as the Inquisition and the Parlement acted to begin a process of decriminalization of witchcraft. The accounts of the Barber-Surgeons company from the period carefully noted the disbursement of 10s 6d for the examinations of the four women, brought to our hall by the Kings command to be searched 5. Very few accusations went beyond the village level. For further discussion of this case and others, please tune into the latest series of our On the Record podcast. You can bury them, but that doesnt mean theyre gone. Dont ever let her across your threshold. Reaching their peak in the middle of the century, the rise of puritanism across the UK The hunts were most severe from 1580 to 1630, and the last known execution for witchcraft was in Switzerland in 1782. The Privy Council undertook its own investigation, asking the Bishop of Chester to interview some of the accused women and going so far as bringing them, as well as young Edmund Robinson himself, to London for further examination. How did culture shift towards this persecution? Save 70% on the shop price when you subscribe today - Get 13 issues for just $49.99 + FREE access to HistoryExtra.com, A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb, Enjoying HistoryExtra.com? Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century The Christian church coexisted peacefully with folk magic for a time, and even incorporated some magical practices into their religious traditions. In places in England, you can almost feel it underneath the soil the weight of the past and the freight of its dead. She was always portrayed as an old hag, because she represented cold and winter. This information will help us make improvements to the website. The first Witchcraft Act was passed under Henry VIII, in 1542, and made all pact witchcraft (in which a deal is made with the Devil) or summoning of spirits a capital crime. Sign up to our newsletter to discover Historic England's work and findout about news and projects near you. The Spanish Inquisition and the Catholic Church instigated the witch trials. There were additional hunts in Spanish America, where the European pattern of accusations continued even though the differences between the folklore of the Europeans and Native Americans introduced some minor variations into the accusations. I just looked up Topcliffe in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography what a career! Belief in witchcraft was prevalent at all levels of society, even among the most highly-educated (indeed in 1597 James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, had published his own compendium of witchcraft lore). Our website works best with the latest version of the browsers below, unfortunately your browser is not supported. These were marks on the body believed to indicate that an individual was a witch (not to be confused with the marks scratched or carved on buildings to ward off witches).