Talk:Witchcraft Act

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to say {Edward's successor Bloody Mary was too busy killing Protestant heretics to have much to do with witches.} is not appropriate. This page is about witchcraft. Just say that witches were not persecuted buring the reign of Queen Mary Tudor --ClemMcGann 15:05, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] huh?

If King George II made it so that the act doesn't accknowledge the existence of the supernatural and punished people that pretended to have the power to conjur spirits why was Helen Dunker charged because they thought she might use her powers to reveal D-Day? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.36.241.144 (talk • contribs)

Because they were stupid. 4.89.246.23 12:28, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

That wasn't the reason. The authorities didn't believe she had powers at all.

"The penalty of burning at the stake was prescribed for ecclesiastical offences only because the Church daintily shied away from the shedding of blood." Daintily? Yikes. Serious weasel words alert. Fixing it now.--Smilingman 19:40, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Increased penalties?

"It was not until the start of the sixteenth century, however, that religious tensions resulted in increased penalties for witchcraft in England" - From the second paragraph after the penalty was described as being one of burning to death prior to this in the first paragraph.

How can you increase the penalties if the offence is already punishable by burning at the stake? Some kind of "fate worse than death"? 87.194.20.172 12:51, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I may be wrong, but reading both the paragraph you have quoted there and the one immediately after it, the "increased penalties" seems to relate to more offences being punishable by death. For example, it is only with the 1561 act that provoking "any Person to unlawful Love" gains a death sentence. However, that is only my insight from reading this article and a few other sources that would not pass Wikipedia's tests of reliability. It would be useful if someone more familiar with the subject could provide a comment. Road Wizard 01:31, 22 May 2007 (UTC)