Nowadays, witchcraft is a form of nature religion that emphasizes the healing arts.Witchcraft is also used to describe the practise of magic. Witchcraft was always known as a kind of harmful sorcery that was associated with Satan. The punishments for being a witch never started until the late middle ages. The death penalty became common in the 15th century. The first major witch-hunt took place in 1427. The first important book on witch hunting was The Malleus Maleficarum ( Hammer Of Sorceresses) apppeared in Germany in 1486. Punishment for being a witch reached it's height between 1560 and 1680.
Not all of the witch trials ended in death. In england where torture was prohibited, only twenty percent of witches were killed ( by hanging.) In Scotland where torture was permitted, almost half of the witches put on trial were burned at the stake and almost three times as many witches were killed as in England. In some places, almost no witches were executed. In Spain and Italy, although torture was legal, only a dozen of witches were executes out of 5,000 that were put on trila. Ireland skipped the witch trials all together. Many witch trials had nothing to do with truth or proof but were provoked by arguments amoung neighbours. About 80% of witches put on trial were women.Back then, theology assumed that women were weaker then men and more likely to succomb to the devil. It was supposed that by having less legal rights, women would resort to magic instead of the law. In the Spanich and French territories, the cases of witchcraft were under the jurisdiction of the church courts but nobody suffered death for this charge.
In the English colonies, about 40 people were executed for witchcraft between 1650 and 1710. Half of those people were involved in the Slaem Witch Trials of 1692.Wtichcraft began to decline in most parts of Europe after 1680. In England, the death pjenalty was abolished in 1736. In the late 17 and 18thcentury, witch trials flared up again, but ended by 1740. The last legal execution of a witch took pkace in Switzerland in 1782. Beginning in the 1920's, witchcraft was revived in Europe and America by groups that considered it a survival of pre-christian religious practises This was partly inspired by book such as Margaret Murray's The Witch Cult.