Halloween, Witches

Samhain Celtic calendar Coligny calendar Gaulish 62 lunar months Halloween Nos Calan Gaeaf Druid October 31 Superstition Feralia Pope Boniface IV All-hallows Eve Trick or treat Pumpkin Ducking apples Candy Ghosts Witches Black cats

More than 400 people were put to death in England for alleged witchcraft, and more than 2,000 executed in Scotland, before the 1735 Witchcraft Act put an end to the trials.

Crops failed, butter failed to churn or cattle sickened and the blame was often put on witches !

Agnis Sampson was arrested and thrown in prison where, under xxxxx and xxxxx, she revealed the details of an astonishing and insidious conspriacy by the Devil and a local coven of witches to murder King James VI of Scotland (James I of England in 1603). The monarch himself, appalled at the ghastly details of the plot, took an active part in the inquisition....

There is a petition to pardon some white witches and notorious cases mentioned in the petition include that of Agnes Sampson, executed in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1591. Considered a healer, she acted as midwife to the community of Nether Keith but, following a near shipwreck involving King James VI of Scotland, became one of many Scottish women accused of witchcraft.

It was not until the 16th century that religious tensions resulted in serious penalties for witchcraft in England. Henry VIII's Act of 1542 was the first to define witchcraft as a felony, a crime punishable by death and the forfeiture of the convicted felon's goods and chattels.

Witchcraft Act 1542

Use devise practise or exercise, or cause to be devysed practised or exercised, any Invovacons or cojuracons of Sprites witchecraftes enchauntementes or sorceries to thentent to fynde money or treasure or to waste consume or destroy any persone in his bodie membres, or to pvoke any persone to unlawfull love, or for any other unlawfull intente or purpose ... or for dispite of Cryste, or for lucre of money, dygge up or pull downe any Crosse or Crosses or by such Invovacons or cojuracons of Sprites witchecraftes enchauntementes or sorceries or any of them take upon them to tell or declare where goodes stollen or lost shall become.

More followed in Witchcraft Act 1563, Witchcraft Act 1604, Witchcraft Act 1735

Witchcraft Act 1735
This statute was replaced under George II by the Witchcraft Act 1735, marking a complete reversal in attitudes. No longer were people to be hanged for consorting with evil spirits. Rather, a person who claimed to have the power to call up spirits, or foretell the future, or cast spells, or discover the whereabouts of stolen goods was to be punished as a vagrant and a con artist, subject to fines and imprisonment.

In 1944, Helen Duncan was jailed under the Witchcraft Act on the grounds that she had claimed to summon spirits. It is often contended, by her followers, that her imprisonment was in fact at the behest of superstitious military intelligence officers who feared she would reveal the secret plans for D-Day !

in the 16th and 17th centuries believed that God had an enemy called the Devil, who was very powerful. They believed that witches made a pact or agreement with the Devil and agreed to worship and serve him. Witches then used magic to harm animals or humans. In England witches were hanged...

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