Section of the History of Medicine (PDF)

Section of the History of Medicine (PDF)

Historical witchcraft is to be distinguished from popular and romantic witchcraft, and professional magic. Witch hunting was anepisodeinthe history of man that for sustained brutality, cynical cruelty and dishonesty has never been surpassed. The invention and propagation of the witchcraft delusion extended for over two centuries. It involved persons in every rank of society, and did incalculable harm to the progress of science, medicine, culture and humanity. Thousands of mental patients were sacrificed, and probably every manifestation of witchcraft can be explained by psychological mechanisms, mental illness, or the action of deliriant drugs.

Sorcery is 'an attempt to control nature, and to produce good or evil results, generally by the aid of evil spirits' (Robbins 1959). Closely allied to magic, it has existed in every culture, race and religion from the dawn of society.



Sorcery was punishable by death in the secular and ecclesiastical courts in Europe from early times. It is to be distinguished from witchcraft proper (historical) in which a contract between the witch and the Devil was implied. Witchcraft therefore was a heresy and was punished as such from the middle of the fifteenth century.

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