Witchcraft And Its Punishment

We seem to have had problems with witchcraft and witches for a very long time. Today with all the knowledge we have it's easy to see how someone could be accused of being a witch and be found guilty using the procedures of the times in which they were judged. We know that religion held most of the populace in it's grip and it was the news channel of it's day. It instructed the vast majority of people how they should think and live. There was also the general lack of education and rampant superstition of the peoples of the time so when confronted with something they didn't understand such as illness, crop failure and the like they would easily jump to the easiest conclusion, it was someone else's fault.

Laws reach back into the dark ages and indeed the last person to be prosecuted in the UK for witchcraft was in 1944 and the unfortunate lady was tried under the 1735 Witchcraft Act. She wasn't burnt at the stake but did receive 9 months in prison. 

So lets have a look at the Laws made in this country.

'Anyone found guilty of Witchcraft shall be punished by a period of fasting'

Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury 668

' Anyone found guilty of Witchcraft or being a whore shall be exiled from the Kingdom'

Alfred The Great, King of Wessex 865

' Anyone found guilty of murder by Witchcraft shall be put to death'

Athelstan, King of England 925

' Anyone found guilty of murder by Witchcraft shall be banished from the Kingdom or opt for trial by ordeal'

William the Conqueror 1066

' It is illegal to use invocations and conjurations to find money or treasure that might be found or had in the earth or other secret places'

Witchcraft Statute 1542

' It is illegal to use Witchcraft, enchantments and sorceries on your neighbours goods or to waste any person in his body, members or goods'

Witchcraft Statutes 1542

' It is illegal to make images or pictures of men, women, children, angels or devils, beasts or fowls to provoke into unlawful love or any other unlawful intent'

Witchcraft Statute 1542

'It is illegal to dig up or pull down any cross or crosses'

Witchcraft Statute 1542

'It is illegal to practice invocations or the conjurations of evil spirits'

Witchcraft Statute 1542

'If any person by erecting or setting any figure, or by casting of nativities or by calculation or prophesying, witchcraft, conjuration, seek to know how long her Majesty shall live, then every offence shall be a felony'

Witchcraft Statute 1581

'It is an offence to resurrect a corpse for witchcraft, sorcery, charme or enchantment' 

Witchcraft Act 1604

'It is an offence to cause murder or bodily harm by sorcery, punishment shall be death by hanging'

Witchcraft Act 1604

'It is an offence for any person to pretend to exercise or use any kind of Witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration, or undertake to tell fortunes, or pretend from his or her skill or knowledge in any occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner any goods or chattels, supposed to be stolen or lost may be found. They shall suffer a years imprisonment with an hour in the pillory every quarter'

Witchcraft Act 1736

Phew, there were a few there but none specifically mentioned burning at the stake which was more of a continental thing although it did occasionally happen here too. The one passed by Queen Elizabeth I to stop people prophesying her death is interesting because of the political and religious concerns of the time and the ones for fortune tellers in general shows how concerned people were about these imagined powers others might have had.