Witchcraft was a pre-christian religion passed down through secret covens and families of witches. In the beginning there were mainly heredity witches that were taught about the craft through their families. Most of the witches work was as healers, using natural cures, they were specialists of herbal remedies.
Preperation of potions involved rituals to draw out the healing properties of the herbs and plants and witches would often use simple ingredients such as garden weeds that people used to throw away. In Witchcraft nature was the firm basis for magic.
During this time Christianity had all ready taken over the old religion as people believed that the Christian church could offer them more protection from illnesses and evil than Paganism. The Christian church seen the witch as a threatning figure in society and branded them as a folk devil. They tried to stamp out the belief in Paganism by torturing those that still practiced and followed the old ways insted of christianity. Alot of people were persecuted as witches (women in particular as they had no legal or social rights in society), many of which were not witches.
There were several classes of witches:
1. The Diviner, Gypsy/Fortune-telling witch.
2. The Astrologian, planetary witch.
3. The chanting witch who worked with signs and numbers.
4. The veneficial witch.
5. The exorcist/conjuring witch.
6. The gastronomic witch.
7. The magical, sciental witch.
There were also many definitions of a witch but the main idea was that to practice the craft was evil and you were in league with the devil.
Different Definitions of a witch throughout history.
1587 - George Gifford
' The witch is one that worketh by the Devil, or by some devilsh curious art, either by hurting or healing, revealing things secret or foretelling things to come, which the Devil hath devised to entangle and snare men's souls withal unto damnation.'
1653 - Francesco- Maria Guazzo
' Witchcraft is a form of magic whereby with the help of the Devil one man does harm to another.'
1730 - William Forbes
' Witchcraft is the black art whereby strange and wonderful things are wrought by a power derived from the Devil.'
Women of all ages were persecuted and even those that were healers of the community, as it was believed that these women could use their knowledge of herbs and plants for ill purposes as well as good.
People could be accused of being a witch by simply falling out with their friends or because of the death of a baby in the village which they were believed to be responsible for.
