Background to Witchcraft

Witchcraft accusations occurred in the early modern period from 1450–1750, peaking in Germany from about 1560–1670 and in England during the Puritan rule in the 1650s. Between 1560 and 1700, 513 people were tried in England, Scotland, or Wales by the Courts for witchcraft, and 112 were executed.

Europeans in this period defined a witch as someone who used the practice of magic and/or worshipped the Devil. Witchcraft was viewed as a type of heresy, a spiritual crime but also one that violated secular laws. This understanding of witchcraft was passed through handbooks such as the , published in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, although the viewpoints it presents were never officially endorsed by the Catholic Church. remained influential, republished 26 times in the early modern period.

Witchcraft Accusations of Women and Men

For early modern English culture, witchcraft was also largely thought of as a feminine weakness and result of feminine deviancy. Women were more likely to be accused of witchcraft because the Church of England, as did the Church of Rome, viewed women as the weaker sex and therefore, more vulnerable to seduction by the Devil, as Eve had been in Genesis. In this sense, witchcraft accusations in early modern society demonstrate the persistent oppression of women, particularly any woman who did not conform to societal norms in appearance, speech, and behavior.

On the other hand, men were also accused of witchcraft, but not as often as women. In fact, Reginald Scot’s book describes how a practice in magic was both irrational and un-Christian. Practicing magic was a deviance from social order which led to many male witchcraft accusations.

Reginald Scot’s was published in 1584. Popular in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, it was a crucial source in witchcraft debates of the time because it explored current beliefs and set parameters that courts could use to prosecute witches. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. Image depicts the title page of Reginald Scot’s pamphlet .

Witchcraft Accusations and Neighborly Feuds

Many forms of interpersonal conflict could lead to an accusation of witchcraft. For instance, neighborly tensions were a likely cause of witchcraft accusations, and ordinary people were sometimes accused of witchcraft by their neighbors over disputes regarding property lines, noise, and other common issues. This increased general fear in local communities as some people who were disliked by their neighbors may have been more prone to being accused.

The 1621 play by William Rowley, John Ford, and Thomas Dekker is based on a true story which directly addresses witchcraft accusations. The play describes how a woman named Elizabeth Sawyer is falsely accused of witchcraft by her neighbors who are suspicious of her. After hearing these false claims, Sawyer takes revenge by actually making a pact with the Devil. The play and Sawyer’s story is an example of how witchcraft accusations were made as result of village feuds and basic human conflict.

Witchcraft Accusations and the Poor

The historian Alan McFarlane hypothesizes that witchcraft accusations resulted from charity refused (Sharpe 35–37) within villages. They were a kind of economically inflected result of scarcity. When individuals with money and status denied poor people financial assistance, they might name them as witches as a result of their guilt for not fulfilling their Christian duties.

Since witches were characterized as poor, weak, and vulnerable, people of lower social status and wealth were often accused of witchcraft. Additionally, the belief was that the poor were more likely to sell magical cures and to make pacts with the Devil in order to survive. At the same time, witchcraft accusations also existed in larger, more prosperous communities. One reason for this is that the practice of politically inspired sorcery occurred in big, urbanized environments (Levack 139). Like revenge for disputes over petty interactions, witchcraft accusations may also have resulted from political or ideological disagreements.

The End of Witchcraft?

In Scotland, the last of the panics about witchcraft occurred in 1662. By 1736, the United Kingdom’s Parliament repealed the 1563 law that allowed for the trial and execution of witches, although the law did allow for fining or imprisoning those who claimed to practice magic. That law was not repealed until 1951.

Key Print Sources Eaton, Scott. . Routledge, 2020. Goodare, Matthew. . , 19 Oct. 2019. Levack, Brian P. . 3rd ed., Pearson Longman, 2006. Sharpe, J. A. . 2nd ed., Routledge, 2019.

Key Online Sources Best, Michael. . . University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/the%20supernatural/witches.html. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026. Scot, Reginald. 1665, . University of Michigan. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A62397.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext. . , https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/religion/overview/witchcraft/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024. . , 2022, https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/the-robbins-collection/exhibitions/witch-trials-in-early-modern-europe-and-new-england/. Worthen, Hannah. . , https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/early-modern-witch-trials/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.

Image Source Scot, Reginald. . , 1651, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Discoverie_of_Witchcraft_(1651).jpg.