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The Effects of the Witch Superstition are to be traced in the Laws of a Kingdom--Usually punished in England as…

Date of account: Published 1830
Source: Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
Reference: Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft · selected passage 151
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

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Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

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The Effects of the Witch Superstition are to be traced in the Laws of a Kingdom--Usually punished in England as a Crime connected with Politics--Attempt at Murder for Witchcraft not in itself Capital--Trials of Persons of Rank for Witchcraft, connected with State Crimes--Statutes of Henry VIII--How Witchcraft was regarded by the three Leading Sects of Religion in the Sixteenth Century; first, by the Catholics; second, by the Calvinists; third, by the Church of England and Lutherans--Impostures unwarily countenanced by individual Catholic Priests, and also by some Puritanic Clergymen--Statute of 1562, and some cases upon it--Case of Dugdale--Case of the Witches of Warbois, and the execution of the Family of Samuel--That of Jane Wenham, in which some Church of England Clergymen insisted on the Prosecution--Hutchison's Rebuke to them--James the First's Opinion of Witchcraft--His celebrated Statute, 1 Jac. I.--Canon passed by the Convocation against Possession--Case of Mr. Fairfax's Children--Lancashire Witches in 1613--Another Discovery in 1634--Webster's Account of the manner in which the Imposture was managed--Superiority of the Calvinists is followed by a severe Prosecution of Witches--Executions in Suffolk, &c.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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