Thomas Aquinas was an important figure in theology and much attention was paid to his views. He is said to have fostered the change and influenced the Churchs attitude and those involved in the prosecution of witchcraft.His beliefs were that witches could fly through the air, change shape, raise storms, have implicit pacts witht he devil and have sexual intercourse with demons.
Pope Innocent VIII
In 1484 the pope issued a papal bull emphasising the importance of the Inquisition and its zeal against heretics.
Henry VIII
In 1542 Henry VIII passed a Witchcraft Act that allowed an accused withc to be tried and punished by State. The aim of this Witchcraft Act was to prevent supposed witches from inflicting hard on others, not to that them tried for heresy. This law brought the trial of only one person which resulted in a pardon.
The Act was repealed by Edward VI in 1547.
Queen Elizabeth
In 1563 she passed a Witchcraft Act which marked the beginning of the Witchcraft hysteria in England. The Act in England was not as severe as the legislation in Europe but allowed for the death penalty for those found guilty of murder by Witchcraft or sorcery.It is thought that the Queen was influenced by her bishops into passing the Act who had witnessed the European trials. There were also rumoured plots of witchcraft against her.
James I of England (and VI of Scotland)
In 1604 James I passed the Witchcraft Act allowing for execution by hanging of anyone found guilty of trying to cause harm to someone else by means of Witchcraft, whethere the person died or not. Many important English trials were conducted under the terms of this Act.
Matthew Hopkins
Matthew Hopkins was a notorious witchfinder and gave himself the title of Witchfinder General and operated during the middle of the 17th century.
He is credited with instigating the conviction or execution of at least 230 accused witches although he knew little about witchcraft besides reading Daemonologie, written by James I.He charged extremely high feeds and argued that witch finding was a skilled tast and that he was very successful. His success was in part to his cruel methods for which he was greatly feared. He was adept at local gossip and listened to local tales of feuds, phrasing questions and interpreting answers so that it was almost impossible to not incriminate someone or themselves. Hopkins ceased witch finding activities after he came into criticism for his excessive zeal in obtaining confessions and excessive fees but published a pamphlet "The Discovery of Witches" in 1647 in defence of himself and his methods.
Pierre de Lancre
Pierre de Lancre was a notorious witchcraft trial judge operating in the Basque of France. Originally a French lawyer, Pierre was ordered by King Henri IV to go to Labourd which was claimed to be plagued by witches. He took his task of eradicating possible witches very seriously and was convinced that Basques strange language, customs and remote location would be suspect for witches. Pierre saw witchcraft everywhere and secured a conviction on the slightest bit of evidence, sometimes this supposed evidence were from accusations from children as young as 5. He was particularly interested in gathering information of nocturnal orgiastic sabbats where the devil was supposedly worshipped amid merriness, nudity and lewd behaviours. It was suggested that he was fascinated by the descriptions of these and the women involved. He was said to have executed as many as 600 people by the time he was recalled in 1610.
