Background Info• Even though witchcraft as such was

practiced mainly by experienced old women, men also practiced it.

• Witches were the mediators between the human beings and the mysterious super powers such as spirits and angels

• The witches prayed to the higher powers or the spirits for help and guidance in resolving the problem by performing certain rituals and the whole process was called witchcraft.

More Background Info• Witchcraft, an earth based religion, was

practiced in almost all the societies and cultures across the world according to local beliefs and traditions.

• It dates 40,000 years back to Paleolithic period, proved by the discovery of cave paintings which are estimated to be 30,000 years old.

• The word ‘Witchcraft’ has been derived from the word ‘Wicca’ which means ‘the wise one’.

Video!http://www.spellandritual.com/witchcraft-in-england-in-the-1600s/

•  Witchcraft has been seen as a magical phenomenon, a pagan worship or religion, sorcery, and others, at different periods in Witchcraft History.

• People suspected as witches were usually burned at stakes, and those pleading their innocence were either stoned to death or even sometimes thrown in water to prove their innocence. 

• Witches usually faced severe and painful deaths or punishments.

Decline of Prosecutions

• Legal treatment of witchcraft, both the laws and court procedure, became extremely harsh and most of the time fatal.• Amount of physical suffering in

a society and the methods prescribed by that society to deal with it = too many deaths.

Decline of Prosecutions

• Changes in medical knowledge (how unfortunate things happen. Ex. Diseases and such)

• To blame a witch was to explain misfortune in personal terms. As such it competed with other explanations.

AJohann Albrecht Adelgrief Agnes Olmans Marigje ArriensBAngéle de la Barthe Mary Bateman Agnes Bernauer Bessie Dunlop Merga Bien Lasses Birgitta Bridget Bishop Giovanna Bonanno Sidonia von Borcke George BurroughsCAnne de Chantraine Michée Chauderon Nyzette Cheveron Elizabeth Clarke Giles Corey Martha Corey Helena CurtensDJean Delvaux (monk) Elizabeth of Doberschütz Dorothee Elisabeth Tretschlaff Thomas Doughty (explorer) Janet Douglas, Lady GlamisEMary Eastey Anna EriksdotterFPappenheimer Family Matteuccia de FrancescoGJeane Gardiner Gilles Garnier Gertrud Skomagers Ann Glover Peronne Goguillon

G cont.Anna Göldi Sarah Good Urbain Grandier Bertrand GuilladotHWalpurga Hausmannin Katharina Henot Henry Gardinn Adrienne d'Heur Ann Hibbins Janet Horne Elin i Horsnäs Elizabeth HoweJGeorge Jacobs, Sr. Johanne Jensens Johanne Thomes John Fian Margaret Jones (Puritan midwife) Märet Jonsdotter Johannes JuniusKUrsula Kemp Kirsti Sörensdotter Anna Koldings Kolgrim Christenze KruckowLLeatherlips Leonora DoriMMargery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye" Margherita di San Rocco Maria Renata Saenger von Mossau Susannah Martin Malin Matsdotter Petronilla de Meath La VoisinNNorthamptonshire witch trials Rebecca Nurse

N cont.Lisbeth NypanOOle NypanPAnne Palles Alice Parker (Salem) Mary Parker Maria Pauer Anne Pedersdotter Pendle witches Elisabeth Plainacher Polissena of San Macario John Proctor Ann Pudeator Marketta PunasuomalainenRWilmot Redd Catherine Repond Roger Bolingbroke Jón RögnvaldssonSAgnes Sampson Anna Schnidenwind Soulmother of Küssnacht Gyde Spandemager Maren Spliid StedelenTMechteld ten HamWAgnes Waterhouse Thomas Weir Sarah Wildes John Willard Witches of Belvoir Witches of WarboysYAlse YoungZBarbara Zdunk Zhang Liang (Tang Dynasty) Anna Zippel Brita Zippel

Demonstration of Accusations