Witches

Question 1

What were the two main types of Witchcraft

Answer 1

Maleficium and Malleus Maleficarum

Question 2

What’s Maleficium?

Answer 2

Witches committed evil deeds such as killing livestock and crops or interfering with nature. People were cursed by witches.

Question 3

What’s Malleus Maleficarum?

Answer 3

A book published in 1486 that stated that witches held a covenant with the devil. Acted as a guidebook for witch hunters

Question 4

When and where was Martin Luther born?

Answer 4

Born in 1483 in Germany

Question 5

What did Martin Luther do and what’s its impact?

Answer 5

He openly criticised the Catholic Church’s focus on salvation through good works and rituals rather than faith alone. This lead to Henry VIII breaking free from the Catholic church in the 16th Century. Many witch hunters were puritans

Question 6

What are familiars?

Answer 6

Supernatural creators associated with witches as representatives of the Devil. Take form of dogs, cats, toads, mice and sometimes men. Believed to have used the Devils mark on the witch to feed and suckle blood

Question 7

Who were cunning-folk?

Answer 7

They are folk-heelers that generally carried out good deeds

Question 8

How did Cunning-folk link with familiars?

Answer 8

Familiars had long been associated with them as harmless fairies

Question 9

What did witches gain from having a familiar?

Answer 9

Witches were protected by their familiar after initiation and sometime the familiars had shape shifting powers and were often given affectionate names

Question 10

What did familiars do?

Answer 10

Caused harm to other and damaged property. Believed to be fed from the witch but did not belong to just one witch

Question 11

When was the first witchcraft act?

Answer 11

1542 during reign of Henry VIII

Question 12

What was the first witchcraft act passed?

Answer 12

Made conjuring of spirting, witchcraft and sorcery in order to find treasure, cause harm to a person or their goods, or to discover what happen to stolen goods a capital offence

Question 13

What did the first witchcraft act focus on?

Answer 13

On the crime of witchcraft consisting of act of hostility against the community rather than pacts with the devil

Question 14

When was the second witchcraft act passed?

Answer 14

In 1563 under the reign of Elizabeth I

Question 15

What was the second witchcraft act?

Answer 15

It made it a crime to invoke evil spirits for any purpose, weather maleficium was involved or not. The death penalty only applied if the witch had killed a person with witchcraft. If an animal was killed they were sent to prison for a year

Question 16

When was the third witchcraft act passed?

Answer 16

1604 by James I

Question 17

What was the third witchcraft act?

Answer 17

Death penalty for killing a person and lesser offences (such as destroying livestock). It was also made an offence to consult or feed evil spirts

Question 18

What was the assize circuit?

Answer 18

Assize courts were courts that travelled in six ‘circuits’ around the country, hearing the most serious cases

Question 19

What impact did the witchcraft laws have?

Answer 19

Hundreds of trials carried out under the laws. Used most often in relation to accusations of damage caused to neighbours and their goods

Question 20

What were ‘typical’ features of a witch?

Answer 20

• People who were physically deformed
• Those who were withdrawn or socially awkward
• Women (especially older ones) were most often accused

Question 21

What tests did suspects undergo to discover if they were witches?

Answer 21

The swimming test, asked to recite the lords prayers, devil marks, watched for many days and nights

Question 22

What was the swimming test for witches?

Answer 22

Their right thumb was tied to their left big toe and vise versa. Thrown into lake and watched to see if they would sink or float.
If they floated they guilty and if they sank they were innocent

Question 23

When was the Papal Bull published?

Answer 23

1484

Question 24

When was Malleus Maleficarum published?

Answer 24

1486