Do you think witchcraft really existed?

@jshm2

@smiler2012 Matthew Hopkiuns was no "Witchfinder General" in any official way. There was no such post.

Hopkins titled himself thus in a sort of one-man crusade, and operated only over a relatively small area of England.

@Ynotisay That was its point, yes. Ultimately, it failed.

@ArishMell That failed. What's behind it still exists though. Just plays out in different ways.

@Ynotisay Good point.

@BohemianBabe Not quite correct.

"Witchcraft" and "heresy" were two very different "crimes"

Witchcraft was a mob-rule reaction through ignorance, fear and superstition to any unfortunate event, based usually on mere co-incidences. Burning was used in some European countries but the penalty in England at least was usually hanging, though by gibbet not gallows.

By the way, by the proper legal term, they were "hanged", not "hung".

Heresy was speaking against the Church or its dogma, and that could bring execution by burning at the stake.

(It differed from county to country but executions for other capital offences were more often by hanging or beheading. The appallingly grisly "Hanging, drawing and quartering" was used against treason, in England, and don't think "Braveheart". That film showed its own version that glossed over the reality.)

@ArishMell It was mostly hanging in America too. Burning witches was usually done in Germany, Scandinavia, Scotland, and France. But yeah, in England and America, it was almost always death by noose.

Witchcraft was generally considered a form of heresy.