Witchcraft
<h4 >Witchcraft</h4>
<p >The category "superstitions" includes trials related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft" title="Witchcraft" >witchcraft</a>. </p>
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The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt" title="Witch-hunt" >witch-hunt</a> in Spain had much less intensity than in other European countries (particularly France, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland" title="Scotland" >Scotland</a>, and Germany). One remarkable case was that of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logro%C3%B1o_witch_trials" title="Logroño witch trials" class="mw-redirect" >Logroño</a>, in which the witches of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugarramurdi" title="Zugarramurdi" >Zugarramurdi</a> in<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navarre" title="Navarre" >Navarre</a> were persecuted. During the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-da-f%C3%A9" title="Auto-da-fé" >auto-da-fé</a></i> that took place in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logro%C3%B1o" title="Logroño" >Logroño</a> on November 7 and November 8, 1610, 6 people were burned and another 5 burned in effigy.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanish_Inquisition#cite_note-42" >[43]</a></sup> In general, nevertheless, the Inquisition maintained a sceptical attitude towards cases of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft" title="Witchcraft" >witchcraft</a>, considering it as a mere superstition without any basis. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonso_Salazar_Frias" title="Alonso Salazar Frias" class="mw-redirect" >Alonso de Salazar Frías</a>, who, after the trials of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logro%C3%B1o" title="Logroño" >Logroño</a> took the Edict of Faith to various parts of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navarre" title="Navarre" >Navarre</a>, noted in his report to the Suprema that, "There were neither <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches" title="Witches" class="mw-redirect" >witches</a> nor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bewitched" title="Bewitched" >bewitched</a> in a village until they were talked and written about".<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanish_Inquisition#cite_note-43" >[44]</a></sup>
<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference" > </sup>
A <b>witch-hunt</b> is a search for witches or evidence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft" title="Witchcraft" >witchcraft</a>, often involving <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic" title="Moral panic" >moral panic</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria" title="Mass hysteria" >mass hysteria</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching" title="Lynching" >lynching</a>, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official<b>witchcraft trials</b>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_Early_Modern_period" title="Witch trials in the Early Modern period" >classical period of witchhunts</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_Europe" title="Early Modern Europe" class="mw-redirect" >Europe</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_North_America" title="Colonial North America" class="mw-redirect" >North America</a> falls into the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_period" title="Early Modern period" class="mw-redirect" >Early Modern period</a> or about 1480 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation" title="Protestant Reformation" >Reformation</a> and the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War" title="Thirty Years' War" >Thirty Years' War</a>, resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 executions.<sup id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_0-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt#cite_note-ReferenceA-0" >[1]</a></sup>
The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Great_Britain" title="Kingdom of Great Britain" >Kingdom of Great Britain</a>, witchcraft ceased to be an act punishable by law with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_Act_of_1735" title="Witchcraft Act of 1735" class="mw-redirect" >Witchcraft Act of 1735</a>. In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century_history_of_Germany" title="18th century history of Germany" >Germany</a>, sorcery remained punishable by law into the late 18th century. Contemporary witch-hunts are reported from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa" title="Sub-Saharan Africa" >Sub-Saharan Africa</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" title="India" >India</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_New_Guinea" title="Papua New Guinea" >Papua New Guinea</a>. Official legislation against witchcraft is still found in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia" title="Saudi Arabia" >Saudi Arabia</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameroon" title="Cameroon" >Cameroon</a>. The term "<a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/witch-hunt" class="extiw" title="wikt:witch-hunt" >witch-hunt</a>" since the 1930s has also been in use as a metaphor to refer to moral panics in general (frantic persecution of perceived enemies). This usage is especially associated with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Red_Scare" title="Second Red Scare" class="mw-redirect" >Second Red Scare</a> of the 1950s (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyist" title="McCarthyist" class="mw-redirect" >McCarthyist</a> persecution of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist" title="Communist" class="mw-redirect" >communists</a> in the United States).</p>
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<b>Witchcraft,</b> in historical, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology" title="Anthropology" >anthropological</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious" title="Religious" class="mw-redirect" >religious</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythological" title="Mythological" class="mw-redirect" >mythological</a> contexts, is the alleged use of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural" title="Supernatural" >supernatural</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical" title="Magical" class="mw-redirect" >magical</a> powers. A <b>witch</b> (from Old English <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_(etymology)" title="Witch (etymology)" ><i>wicca</i> masculine, <i>wicce</i>feminine</a>) is a practitioner of witchcraft. Historically, it was widely believed in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_modern_period" title="Early modern period" >early modern</a>Christian Europe that witches were in league with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil" title="Devil" >Devil</a> and used their powers to harm people and property. Particularly, since the mid-20th century, "bad" and "good" witchcraft are sometimes distinguished, the latter often involving healing. The concept of witchcraft as harmful is normally treated as a cultural ideology, a means of explaining human misfortune by blaming it either on a supernatural entity or a known person in the community.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft#cite_note-0" >[1]</a></sup>
Beliefs in witchcraft, and resulting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt" title="Witch-hunt" >witch-hunts</a>, existed in many cultures worldwide and still exist in some today, mostly in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa" title="Sub-Saharan Africa" >Sub-Saharan Africa</a> (e.g. in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_smeller" title="Witch smeller" >witch smellers</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_peoples" title="Bantu peoples" >Bantu</a> culture). Historically these beliefs were notable in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_modern_period" title="Early modern period" >Early Modern Europe</a> of the 14th to 18th century, where witchcraft came to be seen as a vast diabolical conspiracy against Christianity, and accusations of witchcraft led to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_Early_Modern_Europe" title="Witch trials in Early Modern Europe" class="mw-redirect" >large-scale witch-hunts</a>, especially in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages" title="Germanic languages" >Germanic</a> Europe.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft#cite_note-1" >[2]</a></sup>
The "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-cult_hypothesis" title="Witch-cult hypothesis" >witch-cult hypothesis</a>", a controversial theory that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_witchcraft" title="European witchcraft" >European witchcraft</a> was a suppressed pagan religion, was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the mid-20th century,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_Witchcraft" title="Contemporary Witchcraft" class="mw-redirect" >Witchcraft</a> has become the self-designation of a branch of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopaganism" title="Neopaganism" class="mw-redirect" >neopaganism</a>, especially in the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca" title="Wicca" >Wicca</a> tradition following <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gardner" title="Gerald Gardner" >Gerald Gardner</a>, who claimed a religious tradition of <i>Witchcraft</i> with pre-Christian roots.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft#cite_note-2" >[3]</a></sup></p>