In their original sense the words 'witch' and 'wizard' denoted the possessors of knowledge, or wise people. Much of the witchcraft of Europe was derived from the science of the Magi, or the magicians of ancient Chaldaea and Persia. Original witchcraft was both a science and a religion, hence leading to its persecution. In early Hebrew enactments against witchcraft it is evident that a struggle existed between conflicting sets of ideas, and this struggle continued in Christian times resulting in the persecution of the science as well as the religion and to the perversions that exist today, for example much herbalism is the scientific aspect of ' witchcraft', but much has been forgotten. It is likely that the struggle was predominantly one for power over the people - an ignorant or unwise people are easier to exploit by priests than a people well educated in the ways of science and nature.
In the USA, the early New Englanders believed that human beings could, by compact with evil spirits, obtain power to suspend the laws of nature and thus injure their fellows. In 1671 Samuel Willard, a minister of Massachusetts, proclaimed that a woman of his congregation, Knapp by name, was bewitched, though her insanity was clearly proven. Between 1684 and 1693 more than 100 persons were tried and convicted of witchcraft in the United States, and many of them were hanged. Special courts were appointed by Governor Phipps for the trial of witches. Witnesses were frequently guilty of open perjury, for the charge of witchcraft soon came to be used as a means of striking a private enemy. The witchcraft epidemic was especially prevalent at Salem, where a number of persons professed themselves bewitched and singled out those who had bewitched them. Educated men like Increase Mather firmly believed in it. In 1693 the superstition in the USA began to weaken chiefly through the writings and protests of Thomas Brattle and Robert Calef, of Boston. The same belief prevailed elsewhere at that time. Research Witchcraft
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