ABSTRACT
‘Witchcraft’ may be defined as supernatural activity, believed to be the result of power given by the Devil, and causing physical damage, for instance death. The first English witchcraft statute was passed in 1542. It was repealed in 1547 along with all the new Henrician statutes, and replaced in March 1563 by new Act. This Act laid down the death penalty for invoking evil spirits and for using ‘witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed’. Convicted ‘witches’ were hanged unless the victim was a master or a husband, in which case ‘petty treason’ had been committed and the guilty person was burned. Witchcraft, because of its secret and almost unprovable nature, was considered a crime apart. For this reason the normal rules of evidence and trial were modified. One theory for the existence of witchcraft beliefs is that they are, in certain repects, the most satisfactory explanation of misfortune or strange events.
