Was England known for witchcraft

Answer 1

The people of England practiced folk traditions that were developed over thousands of years, often employing natural things like rocks, seasons, moon cycles, herbs, candle ceremonies, and other ways of producing or influencing what they needed. When the Romans invaded, they percieved these practices as evil and wrong (based on the Holy Roman Catholic Church), and tried to forbid and wipe out the ancient pagan way of life and harmony with nature. There is now a renewed interest (several decades old) in those ancient ways, which is a style of spirituality much more tuned into the earth and universe than the modern Western religions. The Christian movement declared "witchcraft" as "black magic" out of fear and ignorance and efforts to control the people they wanted to conquer. "Witches" were what we also would call folk healers or medicine men/women, and "witchcraft" was the label for their methods of practicing. There seems to be some confusion here over druidism, witchcraft and the Roman Catholic Church. When Rome invaded Britain in AD43 the Roman Catholic Church did not exist. The Druids who occpuied much of Britain and Gaul were well organised, well educated and had their own schools. Like any religious group they held considerable power in their communities and are believed to have inspired and organised reistance to the invaders. However, what Rome really took exception to was the Druids liking for human sacrifice - and not small scale either, huge wicker figures were packed with victims and set on fire. At about the time of Boudicca's rebellion Roman troops had forced the Druids back to their stronghold on the isle of Anglesea and slaughterd them all. To get back to the original question - Yes, England was known for witchcraft. Between 1645-47 the appearnce of plague and the effects of the civil war and famine led to a spate of witchcraft accusations. These accusation then spiraled out of control. At this point, a man called Matthew Hopkins (the Witchfinder General) appeared and toured country identifying and prosecuting suspected witches. In excess of 500 victims are thought to have been hanged or died during their trials. Eventually, it seems that Hopkins was kidnapped by some village folk and subjected to his own favourite witch-test and thrown into a pond. The theory was that water rejected witches because they had rejected Baptism. Hopkins drowned! Unfortunately, witchcraft in England has never completely died out and many country areas (and some town parks) frequently show the remains of some ungodly nocturnal gathering!