Witchcraft as sorcery has existed since humans first banded together in groups. Prehistoric art depicts magical rites to ensure successful hunting. Western beliefs about witchcraft as sorcery grew out of the mythologies and folklore of ancient peoples, especially the Greeks and Romans. Roman law made distinctions between good magic and harmful magic, and harmful magic was punishable by law. When Christianity began to spread, the distinctions vanished. Witchcraft came to be linked with worship of the Devil.

Middle Ages to the 1700's. In Europe, beginning in about the A.D. 700's, witchcraft was increasingly associated with heresy (rejection of church teachings). The Christian church began a long campaign to stamp out heresy. Beginning in the 1000's, religious leaders sentenced heretics to death by burning.

The Inquisition, which began about 1230, was an effort by the church to seek out and punish heretics and force them to change their beliefs. Eventually, the secular (nonreligious) courts as well as all Christian churches were involved in the persecution of witches. Especially after the 1500's, most people accused of witchcraft came to trial in secular courts. They were charged with human sacrifice and with worshiping the Devil in horrible rites.

Historians doubt that worship of the Devil was ever widespread, if indeed it even took place. But stories about it created a mood of fear and anxiety.

The witch hunt reached its peak in Europe during the late 1500's and early 1600's. Many victims, who were mostly women, were falsely accused of witchcraft. Many accused witches were tortured until they confessed. Then they faced imprisonment, banishment, or execution.

In the American Colonies, a small number of accused witches were persecuted in New England from the mid-1600's to the early 1700's. Some were banished and others were executed.

The most famous American witch hunt began in 1692 in Salem, Mass. There, a group of village girls became fascinated with the occult, but their games got out of hand. They began to act strangely, uttering weird sounds and screaming. Suspicions that witches were responsible for the girls' behavior led to the arrest of three women. More arrests followed, and mass trials were held. About 150 people were imprisoned on witchcraft charges. Nineteen men and women were convicted and hanged as witches. A man who refused to plead either innocent or guilty to the witchcraft charge was pressed to death with large stones.

The witchcraft scare lasted about a year. In 1693, the people still in jail on witchcraft charges were freed. In 1711, the Massachusetts colonial legislature made payments to the families of the witch-hunt victims.

Today, most historians agree that all the victims were falsely accused. The girls probably pretended to be possessed. Their reasons are unclear, though they may have been seeking attention.

Witchcraft in modern times. In 1939, Gerald B. Gardner became initiated into a coven of people who called themselves hereditary witches. They said they were practicing the Old Religion as it had been passed down to them through their families for many generations. They believed Witchcraft had been a religion since ancient times.

Gardner's coven was probably influenced by the writings of British anthropologist Margaret A. Murray. Writing in the 1920's, Murray had put forth the theory that witchcraft was an organized pagan religion that had originated as a pre-Christian fertility cult.

In the 1950's, Gardner published books about the ancient religious rituals of Witchcraft. He feared that Witchcraft was in danger of dying out, and he wanted to publicize it. He gathered information from his coven, but he also added material from such sources as European folklore, Eastern magic, and the writings of his friend Aleister Crowley. Crowley, a British writer, was known for his interest in spiritualism and the occult and for his writings on ceremonial magic. Gardner later collaborated with Doreen Valiente, whom he had initiated as a witch in 1953, in writing and revising the rituals. Valiente added an emphasis on the Goddess that was missing in Gardner's work.

Gardner's books Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) became the basis for the modern religion of Witchcraft. The religion grew in popularity during the 1960's, in part because of its antiestablishment and feminist characteristics. It spread from the United Kingdom to the rest of Europe and to the United States, Canada, Australia, and Asia.

As the religion was developing, however, Margaret Murray's theory came under criticism. Historians found no evidence of an ancient religion of witches. It became clear that Gardner had borrowed from other sources and had made exaggerated claims about a historical religion. Nevertheless, Witchcraft continued to grow as a religion. Its followers placed a greater emphasis on developing a Goddess-worshiping religion out of the beliefs of pre-Christian and non-Christian religions.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley, "Witchcraft," World Book Online Americas Edition, http://www.worldbookonline.com/ar?/na/ar/co/ar607660.htm, November 15, 2002