Witchcraft In 1562

Historians have long highlighted Exodus 22:18, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”, as the most influential of all biblical precepts concerning witchcraft in the early modern era. Its influence on the law and contemporary understandings of witchcraft is irrefutable, as it was used in both the 1562 and 1604 Witchcraft Acts to justify the use of the death penalty. Yet, the way this biblical passage was treated was more complicated than it might first appear. In contemporary demonological opinion, all witches should be put to death, not because of the deeds they performed (for, as previously shown, demonological writers strove to relocate responsibility of these acts from the witch to the Devil), but because of the sins they committed. For

Nonetheless, Holmes notes that the clergy were continually frustrated in their attempts to secure the death penalty, as English law never managed to fully incorporate this scriptural sanction. As Darr notes, in English law witchcraft was always considered as two degrees of criminality. Whilst the 1562 Elizabethan statute made the conjuration of evil spirits and killing by witchcraft capital offenses, harm to people, or property, and cunning-folk were to be punished only by imprisonment and the pillory. Even the 1604 Witchcraft Act, which was more severe than its predecessor and prescribed the death penalty to those who “consult[ed], covenant[ed] with, entertaine[d], employ[ed], feede or rewarde[d] any evil spirit,” still failed to condemn cunning-folk to hang, as only those who dealt with evil spirits were convicted. Nevertheless, despite their severe condemnation of those who were proved guilty of witchcraft, the actual determination of that guilt was not taken lightly by demonological writers. As seen in the earlier discussion of the Devil’s mark, clergymen urged caution when it came to convicting a person of witchcraft, due to biblical precepts such as Deuteronomy 19:10, which commanded that “no innocent blood be shed within