WITCHCRAFT

witchcraft. The practices of a witch, esp. in black magic; sorcery. • Under the Witchcraft Act of 1541 (33 Hen. 8, ch. 8) and the Witchcraft Act of 1603 (1 Jac. ch. 12), witchcraft was a felony punishable by death without benefit of clergy. These acts were repealed in 1736, and the last execution in England for witchcraft occurred in 1716. In the United States, the most conspicuous (and nearly the last) persecution for witchcraft occurred in Salem, Mas-sachusetts, where 20 people were hanged for this offense in 1692.
[Blacks Law 8th]