witchcraft

• in 1542 Edward VI introduced englands first witchcraft act , which meant it was a crime against king and state , had to be dealt with by kings judges rather than court and made it possible for people to be exucuted for witchcraft
• in 1547 the act was repealed
• in 1563 Elizabeth introduced a new withcraft act except execution could only be used if witchcraft had caused someone elses death
• in 1567 James I produced a book called " demonology" , where he talked about his beliefs on witchcraft
• in 1604 James I introduced a new stricter witchcraft act , he stated death penalty for anyone who was accused with witchcraft
• witch trials became common in 17th century of england , they were tested to see if they were guilty by swimming test and searching their body for devils mark
• matthew hopkins was a witchhunter of 2 years , he got almost 100 people exucuted and had trials with 250 people accused , he capitalised off it and gained lots of profit
• mathew hopkins created a pamphet as a response to people not believing him , as they recognised he was gaining profit by methods that didnt make sense
• the matthew hopkins was a witchfinder it was in a time of religious conflict between puritans and catholics so they accused each other of witchcraft
• matthew hopkins was also a witch finder during civil war , there was chaos so it was easier for hopkins to take advantage of fear about witches and cause panic